Marinette sat at the bar, glass of water in hand. She and Adrien had been texting ever since he'd left her house after making pancakes, and it had been the best couple of weeks. Who knew it was such a small world? She bounced her knee, hoping he'd show up sooner rather than later.
"Marinette!"
"Adrien!" She hopped up and hugged him, and he laughed when she had to stand on her tiptoes to get her arms around his shoulders even though he had to help her balance when she let him go.
"I guess you're excited to see me." He kissed her cheek, causing her to blush. "I'm excited, too."
"C'mon, sit down. Let me get you something." She pulled him by his hand to the seat that was beside hers and ordered herself a strawberry daiquiri now that he was here.
"Just water for me, Jules. Work tomorrow."
Jules delivered the drinks and left them to their conversation.
"Sorry. I didn't think about you having work tomorrow."
"Don't worry about it. I can always take a rain check." He smiled and drew on the side of his glass. "Anyway, how was—"
"Adrien! Glad you could make it! But it looks like you came for the company, not the music." He clapped his hand to Adrien's shoulder. "Marinette! I'll tell Alya you're here. She's busy writing an advertisement article, but she'll be happy to see you. Glad you two finally met, by the way." Nino winked at Marinette and nodded his head toward Adrien.
"No help from you, Nino. You knew us and didn't introduce me to the handsome delivery guy?" She gave a fake pout.
"Yeah, Nino. You couldn't introduce me to my sushi girl?" Adrien pouted, too, exaggerating his even more.
Nino threw his hands up in defense. "I'm only one man! Adrien hasn't even met Alya!"
The couple laughed in unison while Nino rolled his eyes at them.
"Alright, who made fun of my boyfriend first?"
"I did, Alya. I was lamenting the misfortune of having to meet Adrien all on my own. That's Adrien, by the way."
Alya sized him up. "The cute delivery guy with the sushi? Nice."
"Alya."
Adrien fought to keep the corner of his mouth down. "No need to be so ginger about it, Marinette."
She shot him a look, prompting the rest of them to laugh. Adrien kissed her cheek. "Ease up, lady. Just teasing you."
A weird look crossed her face for a brief moment. "Fine."
Nino coughed and excused himself to get set up, and Alya left to help him and get her own stuff.
"Hey, sorry if I upset you by calling you that."
"Huh? Oh, it's no big deal. I just haven't been called that in a long time."
"Ex?"
"Uh, no…just…someone I haven't seen in a while. We never dated even though he was interested. He was always nice to me, but the things that kept us together stopped happening. Gosh, it's probably been two or three years."
"Huh. I have a friend like that, too."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's alright." He shrugged, unsure of where to lead the conversation.
"Sure you don't want a sip?" Marinette offered her glass to him.
Adrien didn't say anything, only taking the glass and letting the strawberry flavor roll over his tongue. It wasn't very strong; he couldn't even taste the rum, just the carbonation that masked it. He handed the glass back to her and briefly wondered why she never got anything stronger if she drank so often. "Thanks."
"No problem. Do you wanna dance, or do you prefer to sit here and watch everybody else do their thing?"
He grabbed her hand, a smile spreading on his face. "I just like to watch you." His smile fell. "That sounded so creepy. I'm so sorry."
She laughed. "Oh, don't worry about it. Nothing's as weird as the first time we met."
Adrien started to say something when the lights flickered off. Several people screamed, most everybody started toward the door, but Marinette froze.
Something told her that only Ladybug and Chat Noir could help the situation.
She just needed to go home and find those earrings.
A/N: This is totally not going where I was meaning for it to go. You know, since it was supposed to be a ONE SHOT and this is the FOURTH chapter. And I'll need at least two more to wrap it up. I'm a mess. -wwot
