Marinette, with Tikki's help, had come up with a plan. She had been able to talk to Adrien when he'd come over to game with her for the tournament. She'd also been able to talk to him when her great uncle had been in town. Both of those times she had something more important to worry about than just her crush on Adrien, and so for the next two weeks she'd just have to find something to distract her from the fact that she and Adrien would be sleeping under the same roof. So far, the plan was going, well, nowhere. She'd been painfully aware of his presence beside her in class. Every time he looked toward her and smiled, she'd felt it. When he'd whispered questions to her about the class material she'd sworn she could feel his breath on her skin.
The worst one though, came because he'd stored his bag at his feet between them. When he'd moved to retrieve a text book, his hand had slid along the seat, no more than a few centimeters, but that was enough for his fingers to brush along her thigh. He'd apologized, of course, with that easy smile he always had, but Marinette knew her heartbeat had been permanently set to high after that.
No, this wasn't right. She needed to focus on something BESIDES her crush on him, not on it exclusively. In just a few minutes she'd be taking him home for lunch, and she'd need to be able to talk to him then. Right, so, maybe if she could make a plan, she was good at those the she-
The bell chimed releasing them from school for lunch.
"You live just across the street, right Marinette?" Adrien asked, already sliding from his seat.
"Yeah, do you want me to carry you? Carry your bags, I mean!" Marinette quickly corrected. "Help you carry your bags is what I mean…"
"No, I'm okay," He replied hesitantly. He probably thought she was a complete spaz. "I just need to get the one from my locker before we go."
"Oh, okay, so I'll just lead on then, okay?"
"Sure." He gestured toward the door.
There was a few minutes of awkward silence between them before he asked, "So why don't you like the idea of Ladybug and Cat Noir together?"
"Um, I guess it's because I- I think of them as being people first?" She stammered, falling back on an excuse that she'd heard applied to celebrities, "I mean, we don't know anything about them other than that they're superheroes. What if- what if Cat Noir is actually married with children already? Wouldn't that be awkward for his family? Hearing about how he belongs with someone else?"
"Or if Ladybug is dating a different guy?" Adrien asked quietly. "Someone she's trusted her secret with."
"Her secret?"
"Her secret identity."
"Oh no," Marinette protested, "She hasn't, I mean, I really doubt she'd do that, because it would put yo-em in danger, wouldn't it?"
He looked at her in surprise, "I- Huh, what is going on with Max, Alix, and Ivan?"
Marinette followed his gaze, and saw what he was asking. It did look like a fight was about to break out. She hurried into the locker room to head it off. "Hey guys, what's going on?"
"Kim isn't going to be akumatized." Max fumed, ignoring her entirely.
"Look, no one is trying to say anything against him, Max." Alix explained.
"Not even me," Ivan confirmed.
"Both of you just said,"
"That, he's, you know, paired with Chloe." Juleka's mumbled, interrupting him.
"Chloe is not all bad," Adrien told them.
"Yeah. To you." Alix rolled her eyes, "We're just wondering what'll happen to the project when someone gets akumatized. Does it just end there and we all go home?"
"If someone gets a akumatized, we'll talk it over." Marinette jumped in. She took a deep breath, "Look, if anyone is worried about it, I'm happy to go with them to Ms. Bustier to discuss their fears, but I think she's right. I think this a good project for stepping out of our comfort zones. And if someone gets akumatized, I think that it will be a great opportunity to figure out why it happened, and what we can do to make it better next time."
"It also says a lot about who we are, and what we value." Adrien added, stepping up close behind her. He put one hand on her back, and gestured to their friends with the other. "Which is sorta what half of this project is about."
"Right." Marinette agreed, grateful for his support. "We're supposed to be learning about each other, but we're also supposed to be learning about ourselves, and what we take for granted, and that might even lead to less akuma attacks in the future."
The others traded glances before looking back to them and nodding. Alix turned and grinned at Max, "Well, get your helmet on Max. We've got to get going if we're not going to skip lunch. Later."
Max pulled a helmet out of his bag, and jammed it onto his head. He followed Alix out on a pair of skates she'd loaned him, albeit at much slower pace, which in turn caused her to do occasional loops waiting for him to catch up. Juleka smiled and, with a small wave, left as well, Ivan following behind her.
"That was really well done, Marinette." Adrien told her, pulling his suitcase from his locker. "You're really a great class rep."
"Thanks, but they're right, we better hurry if we want any lunch." She gestured to his bag, "Are you sure you don't want me to carry something? That duffle bag looks heavy."
"I'll be fine. I've been working out." He smiled.
Outside, Marinette noticed the bakery was swarmed with patrons for an uncommon lunch rush, and sprinted home forgetting completely about Adrien following behind her. Her mother was on the register, and her father was trying to excuse himself from behind the counter to check on whatever he had in his oven. Marinette darted behind the counter, dropping her backpack in a corner, and assured her father she could handle it.
The irritate man she had taken off her father's hands asked for nearly twenty croissants, telling her it was for an office affair that he had to hurry back to. She turned away to box them, and heard someone behind her say, "You said four cupcakes? Okay, just a moment, ma'am."
She felt a pressure on the small of her back, and a low voice whispered, "Marinette, is there something special I should put cupcakes in?"
She turned to Adrien a little surprised to find him there, and gestured "Um, over there, under the glass display."
"Thanks." He grinned. Then he pulled several flat boxes out from under shelves and started folding them in their proper shape.
Looking around, she saw his bags thrown into the same corner she'd left hers in, and felt a moment's gratitude at his kindness, that willingness to help that she'd first fallen in love with him over. Then she got back to work.
She packed up a small cake for someone, and the couple behind him wanted a baguette. She had to stand on her tip toes to reach the top shelf and tried to gently pull one of the baguettes loose from the pyramid, but the whole stack started to roll toward her. She had just enough time to squeak out a warning before an arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her tight and Adrien, also on his toes, blocked off the incoming baguettes, losing only one to the floor.
Marinette used the roll in her hand to push the others back. They were in longer in their original neat stack, but at least they weren't going to fall. She turned to Adrien, still half in his arms and unable to contain her blush, "Thanks."
He nodded, a cheeky smile playing across his face, but said nothing. Several guests clapped at his display, and one even laughed when Adrien freed a baguette wrapper and handed it to the astonished Marinette before returning to his task.
Marinette stared after him, unable to think of anything but how amazing he was.
"If you don't mind, dear," called the one of the women.
Her partner swatted her arm playfully, "Give her a moment, that was quite a feat from her young man."
Marinette blushed harder and wrapped the baguette unable to speak to either of them as she handed over the requested bread. The man in line behind them grinned at her before requesting a baguette himself. He laughed at the look on Marinette's face before telling her that he actually only needed three croissants.
When the short rush was over, Marinette joined her parents by the register, and Sabine handed her two small pies, "You two better hurry and eat them, or you'll be late. Adrien you can leave whatever you don't need for class over there, and Tom and I will carry it upstairs later, okay?"
"Thank you, ma'am." Adrien accepted one of the pies from Marinette.
"You're welcome, son, and we're really grateful for the way you pitched in and helped us out like that." Tom told him, "Why don't you tell me what would you like for dinner, and I'll see if I can get started on it a little later."
"Uh, I'm not sure." Adrien looked over at Marinette, and she shrugged.
Tom smiled warmly at him, "Pick whatever you'd like, it'll be no trouble."
"How about one of the salmon and spinach pies? They were really good last time."
"You got it, and Marinette, I'll see about having your favorite desert."
"Thanks, dad." She hugged him tightly, and turned back to Adrien, blushing again, "Ready to head back to class?"
"I'm ready."
I'll try not to leave too many personal notes on my story, but I wanted to say thanks for all the early support on this piece.
I also wanted to make a small note, that I'm not the world's best editor and sometimes I find myself needing to fix things in something I've already posted.
If you notices any errors please feel free to point them out to me in a private message so I can get them fixed. Thanks all. -SG