I'll usually provide a one to three sentence header to each chapter explaining the situation. Marinette won the gaming competition with Max, and Adrien had so much fun playing with Marinette, he invited her over, to her shock, to play at his house.
Marinette gazed in wonder at the gates to the Agreste estate. The few times she had been here as Marinette, she had been awed by the sheer size of the building. And the even fewer times she had been here as Ladybug, and had actually been inside, she had been too distracted by akumas to have paid attention to the inside. So really, this would be her first time really seeing the inside.
She shakily reached out and rang the doorbell, and suddenly a voice came on. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" it asked.
She jumped a little at the sudden question. "Y-yes?"
"When the gate opens, please proceed to the front door." The voice commanded, followed by the gate swinging open. She nervously approached the front door, and it swung open to reveal a stern looking woman that Marinette recognized as Nathalie, who more or less acted as Adrien's agent. "This way." She said, leading Marinette through the doors and into a huge entry hall. There was a grand staircase, with halls leading off the sides of the room. A large picture of Adrien and his father hung on the wall. She frowned at the picture, Adrien looked sullen in it. So unlike that photo of him and his mother she had seen…
Her thoughts were cut short by Adrien's voice. "Mari! Glad you could make it!" She looked up at the top of the staircase to see her crush beaming at her. "My room's up here, care for a tour?"
She nodded wordlessly, entranced by the picture of him smiling at the top of the staircase as she slowly climbed the stairwell. She followed him through the silent halls, their footsteps echoing as they passed plants and paintings.
It didn't hit her that she was going into Adrien Agreste's room until she was actually in it. She squeaked as he closed the door behind them and walked over to a large TV. He glanced at her starstruck expression and mistook it for awe at the size of his room. "Yeah, it's pretty big. One good thing about living here is that I pretty much get to have whatever I want in here."
She looked at the ramp and basketball hoop, then her eyes moved to the mini arcade by his bathroom (the memory of her walking in on him as Ladybug while he was showering brought a deep scarlet color to her cheeks) and to the huge white couch by the window. There was a large library on the second… he had a second floor to his room!
She slowly walked over to where Adrien was patiently waiting. "So…" he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "What do you want to play?"
She looked at the Xbox on his TV stand. She looked in awe at the dozens of games he had. "Umm..." her eyes landed on his copy of Halo. She picked it up. "How about this?"
He grinned. "Sounds good, I'll pop it in."
.
.
.
.
.
Marinette quickly lost herself in the game, as Adrian noticed. He had been unsure if inviting Marinette over to play videogames was weird or not, he had never had much of a social life so he had been worried. But he was elated that the clumsy girl he had befriended had regained that strong composure he had caught glimpses of many times. So even at the expense of his pride as Marinette got scores much higher than he had ever gotten, he was having fun. And he caught himself glancing at the way Marinette cutely stuck her tongue out as she concentrated… did he just use the word cute to describe Marinette? Yes, yes he did he thought, smiling.
Hours went by as they went from game to game, and before either of them knew it, it was almost time for Marinette to head home for dinner. They finished up the level, and cheered together. "Pound it!" they said in unison, fist bumping. It took a second, but both their eyes widened, and they looked at their fists, then at each other.
"You…?" breathed Adrien.
"You're…" Marinette gasped.
They stared at each other for a long while before Adrien burst into a wide grin. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you later tonight, M'Lady."
Aaaand that's the first little snippet! Review!
