Adrien Agreste was a mess. Everyone could see it in his face the following morning; his eyes were puffed up like choux pastry, his hair was sticking up in untameable golden spikes and he had had to down almost an entire jug of water before he could speak properly again, his voice when he woke up being just a dry croak. He had felt Nathalie and the Gorilla's concerned eyes on him all morning as he had eaten breakfast and prepared for school but he had been careful not to hint at there being anything amiss-he couldn't have coped with any probing questions about his appearance. He had displayed his usual perfect behaviour right up until he was hidden safely in the back of his limousine. The distance between him and the driver had never been more welcome to him. It was only then when he let himself fall apart at the seams, Plagg looking up at him sympathetically from his school bag as he stared out of the window.
He had spent all night hating himself for what he had done. He had run home in a record speed, the enormity of his actions hitting him on the way and when he had reached the safety of his bedroom, he had been so upset he hadn't even bothered to transform before flinging himself on his bed and crying his sore heart out onto his pillows, using them to muffle his crying and avoid waking up the house. He had only realised he was still Chat Noir once his claws had torn four long scratches in one of his pillows. Plagg hadn't been too happy about that but once he had seen the state the boy was in, he didn't have the heart to scold him and hadn't even moaned for cheese until early morning. Now he was dreading having to face her in school. What could he possibly say, knowing he had made that spectacle last night and made her that angry? Even though she didn't know it was him, he still felt terrible about it, like the minute he walked in a sign would appear over his head declaring to the world that he was the guilty party. He groaned a little as he pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the window. He had made a fool of himself, letting his jealousy run wild like that. He has always had a temper, his father brought it up frequently enough, but it had never got out of hand like that before. He was really living up to the legacy of his eyes, he thought as he caught a glimpse of their emerald reflection in the window. That was the last thing he wanted to do, become a monster and drive her away.
He found himself walking through the school gates earlier than normal. The playground was only half full of straggling groups of students and he knew the classrooms would be close to empty. He headed straight for his own, hoping no one would already be there so he could gather himself up again and try to think of what he could say to her. However, when he got there, he peeked through the glass in the door and his heart sank to his knees. Marinette was already inside and she looked almost as bad as he had earlier. She was doodling something with a pencil and she had her head bowed but he could see that the rims of her eyes were pink like the inside of a seashell and the end of her nose was a raw red from where she kept sniffing and rubbing at it. Even her pigtails seemed to be hanging down limply like the corners of a frowning mouth and knowing that he was him that had made her that way felt like a sword in his gut. What should he do? Walk away and face her later? He was just about to turn away and make a break for the bathrooms before an idea hit him and made him smile just a little. Chat Noir may not be here to redeem himself, he thought as he took the door handle firmly, but Adrien can certainly clean up his mess.
Taking a breath, he opened the door and walked into the classroom. "Hey Marinette!" He offered in greeting, holding up his hand in a wave. She started at the sound of his voice and dropped her pencil, staring at him in panic as it clattered onto the floor at her feet. She didn't even seem to register when he walked over and picked it up for her, she just stared at him with eyes that looked close to tears. I really must have upset her, he thought and that made him feel like he had just been run over by his limousine.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"Yes! Yes, I'm fine!" She squeaked, taking the pencil from him almost robotically. He didn't look convinced and she tried to smile but it faltered on her face and she gave up.
"Please don't lie to me Mari," She heard him say and when she looked up she saw he had his eyebrows raised in concern. "If there's something bothering you, you can just tell me. We're friends, right?"
She almost winced. That was too close to what she had said to Nathanaël the day before about him and she didn't want to be reminded of that conversation, not when she felt all churned up inside about whether they were going on a date or not. Chat had been insistent it was but she wasn't so sure. The only thing she was sure of right now was that she wasn't sure about anything and that it really sucked.
"Of course we are." She said and she felt her shoulders slump forwards in defeat. "OK I'm not that fine. In fact, I feel terrible. I didn't have a lot of sleep last night."
"Yeah me neither." Adrien admitted. "This project sure makes you stressed, doesn't it?"
She nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess Alya's making you work hard, huh?" She smiled at him for a brief second and he felt elated until it disappeared again. "It's not just that though. A lot of…stuff's happened recently and I don't know what to do about it. I'm just feeling so confused and torn and… I don't know what to do about it. It's making me an absolute mess but I can't do anything about it, you know?"
Confused…hadn't she said something about being confused last night when she was shouting at him? Something about him making her confused? He hadn't understood it at the time and he was still in the dark now. Had he done something really wrong as Chat Noir? He didn't think so, apart from last night. He was pulled from his thoughts when she gave a loud sniff and when he looked down at her, her eyes were watery and she was looking back down at her desk.
"Sorry about this." She quickly said when she noticed him staring, quickly wiping them away with the back of her hand. "You must think I'm crazy… saying all this random vague stuff and you don't want to hear me rambling on…"
"No, don't think that." She felt his warm hand on her shoulder and when she turned her head back to face him, his other hand went to dry her cheeks. His eyes were kindly as she looked at them and his voice was soft when he next spoke. "It's good to talk about things like this, it's better than holding them all in, believe me I know. I didn't confide in people much before I came here and now I have friends to talk to about things, it makes them easier to deal with. I won't pry if you don't want me to but I'm sure everything will work out in the end. You can come to me with anything Mari, anything at all and I promise I won't consider you crazy."
She laughed at that, a small smile emerging as some colour came back to her pale cheeks. "You really mean that Adrien?"
He half-rose his hand and nearly said 'Cat's honour', only just biting his tongue in time to stop himself. Instead he nodded but that was enough for Marinette's face to break into a big smile. Suddenly, she stood up and the next thing he knew, she had pulled him into a hug and her arms were squeezing him tightly like a vice.
"Thanks Adrien, I really needed to hear that." He heard her mumble at his shoulder and he felt like jumping up and down in glee. Instead, he put his arms around her comfortingly and dipped his head a little so he was at the level of hers.
"Any time." He whispered and as she hugged him closer, he rubbed one hand on the back of her shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring way. He closed his eyes to fully immerse himself in the moment, one he thought he had destroyed the chance of ever having. He could feel soft wisps of her hair on his nose like cloud and it was taking all his strength not to nuzzle its addictive softness again. Her cheek was against his and the smell of her was making his head go fuzzy all over again. He felt so happy he was having to bite the inside of his other cheek to stop himself purring and he could have held her like this forever if they hadn't heard the creak of the door opening.
Adrien opened his eyes and saw Nathanaël was standing there, his hair swept from his face and his forehead creased as he glared crossly at the scene in front of him. His lips had moulded together to form a thin stern line and he was holding his pencil in his tightly-clutched hand like he would be perfectly happy to throw it at the model's face. Adrien raised his head to match his stare but he didn't let go. Marinette, sensing something was up, lifted her head and turned around, still in Adrien's arms, and when she saw Nathanaël standing there, she shivered at the coldness that was blatant in his features.
"Err…hi Nathanaël," She said with a smile that felt tense at the awkwardness in the room but he didn't respond, still staring at Adrien with his eyes like frost. It was only then when she noticed the tension between the two boys and she flicked her head between them like she was watching a tennis match. "Is…err…is everything alright, you guys?"
"Fine."
"Fine."
They both answered within a second of each other, both speaking in the same deadpan voice with bitter angry undercurrents. They continue their staring contest, neither wanting to admit defeat in this battle. It was only when Marinette detached herself from Adrien's arms, not seeing the sad look that passed over his face like a ghost, and stepped sheepishly into the no man's land between them did they direct their attention away. None of the three had noticed but the rest of the class had begun to filter in and were whispering madly as they watched the silent confrontation. It looked almost like the pair were going to start a fencing match and they were already making silent bets on who would win.
"OK. That's good." Marinette said slowly, still looking at them both confused. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife and she suddenly wanted to leave. It felt too suffocating, too much for her fragile mind to take in. "So are you ready to go?"
"What? Err, yes, yes I am. Ready. Let's go." Nathanaël answered when he finally realised it was him she was addressing. He turned his head to watch her gather her things, Adrien's flicker of a victory grin escaping his notice.
"Alright then." She smiled at the redhead as she headed for the door. "See you later Adrien!" She waved at him, her voice bubbly again, and he only pulled himself together long enough to wave back, taking great joy in how unhappy Nathanaël looked with the gesture.
"See you later Mari," He murmured to nobody in particular as the classroom set to work, the air filling with the hum of activity. It was also buzzing with what everybody had just witnessed but Adrien didn't even notice. "See you."
The rest of the morning passed without incident for Nathanaël and Marinette as they got on with the project. They both had to admit it was coming along nicely and she was surprised at how well it was turning out as not one mistake had been made in construction and she hadn't had to alter a thing. Everything was turning out perfectly, a little too perfectly for her liking. She didn't know if she was being superstitious or not but usually when something really good happened, something really bad would follow on its heels and that was really the last thing she wanted to happen right now.
At lunchtime she went home to get changed for her afternoon with Nathanaël. Though she wasn't sure if it was a date, she still felt like she should at least change from her regular t-shirt and pink capris, just to show she had at least put some effort in. She had spent over half an hour agonising over what to wear, dismissing most of her clothes as either 'too datey' or 'too casual.' Eventually Tikki had picked out a light yellow sundress for her, a project she had made the previous summer that had a V-neck, a nipped in waist and flared skirt and had been dyed a pretty shade of lemon. She matched it with a pair of strappy sandals and pondered changing her hairstyle but then decided against it. That would look like she'd made too much effort, she thought as she grabbed her purse with a relieved Tikki inside and hurried back to school, that really would make it a date.
When she walked back into the classroom, Nathanaël took one look at her and nearly sliced his own finger off with the rotary cutter she had reluctantly let him use. She had instantly swooped down and taken them from him, laughing at how he nearly fell forwards onto his face at the sudden movement she made.
"Careful Nat, I knew I shouldn't have let you have these!" She giggled as she shook them at him but she stopped when she saw the way he was staring at her. He had an expression of awe like a goddess had just walked into the room and he seemed to have lost all knowledge of how to speak French.
"H-h-hey Marinette," He finally said when he realised she was looking at him oddly. "Y-you look r-really n-n-nice."
"Oh, thank you." She smiled at him to show she meant it but that only seemed to make him worse. "I thought, since we were going to hang out, I should change it up a bit."
"I-I like i-it." He said before he looked back down at the ground with a face the colour of a fire engine. They carried on with their work, Marinette taking full control of any last cutting that needed to be done, and when the final bell rang she looked over their almost-completed dress with a happy grin.
"This looks great, doesn't it?" She beamed at Nathanaël as she held it up against her and twirl, the fabric rustling all around her as the skirt flew through the air.
"It does and it will look even better when it's done." He answered, staring admiringly at her as she carefully folded it up and stored it away. "So shall we go?"
Marinette nodded and the pair walked out of the classroom and down into the playground. As they reached the school's entrance and met with the crowds of moving students eager to get home, Nathanaël offered her his arm to stop them getting separated and she took it gratefully, wincing a little as they kept getting knocked together by the people around them. What she didn't see was Adrien and Alya leaving their classroom at the back of the crowd and stopping in their tracks at the sight of their linked arms. Alya nearly dropped her bag and it took all of her effort not to sprint after them and demand to know what they were doing. Damn that boy is good, she thought as she watched Nathanaël subtly pull Marinette closer to him as they manoeuvred the crowd, he's working faster than I thought. She heard a noise from beside her and turned her head to see Adrien was grinding his teeth, his throat making angry rumbling noises that reminded her of a cat trying to start a fight. As they watched, she saw Nathanaël turn his head slightly and spot them. He grinned at how cross Adrien looked and, when he saw Marinette wasn't looking, he shot him the biggest smirk he could manage, a smirk that made Alya's eyes go wide and Adrien physically hiss, earning him strange looks from some of the people walking past.
"Wow. I did not think he had that in him." Alya remarked as the two of them disappeared from sight. "It's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for, hey Adrien? Adrien?"
She whipped around in confusion as she was suddenly standing alone outside the classroom, the golden-haired boy nowhere to be seen. When she had been distracted, he had taken off for the bathrooms and was now locked in a cubicle fuming as Plagg bobbed in front of him and let him rant on, paying more attention to the cheese he was eating than his angry charge.
"Can you believe he just did that?!" Adrien went on as the kwami rolled his eyes. He had been treated to rants like this before since the pairs had been announced and this seemed no different. "He was being so smug about it and he did it right in front of her best friend as well! I told Marinette he was no good but she still went with him on a date!"
"Didn't she say she wasn't sure if it was a date or not?" Plagg put forwards and that seemed to calm the boy down a little. "I mean, aren't you jumping to conclusions? It could be just a friendly thing."
"Not likely with him." Adrien muttered darkly. "And I'm not taking any chances. Plagg, claws out!"
It didn't take Marinette and Nathanaël long to reach the park as it was barely ten minutes from the school but it felt like far longer as her nerves started to creep up on her. Nathanaël still had her arm and, although he had loosened his grip, it weighed heavily on her mind as they walked. Anyone who saw them, she knew, would think they were on a date and she was still very conflicted at whether she wanted it to be or not. Each time she came close to thinking she would like it to be, the image of Adrien beaming at her and giving her comfort or Chat calling her princess and it made her insides shrivel with guilt. It felt so wrong thinking of them whilst being with Nathanaël and it really didn't help with her nerves. Just think of it as friends hanging out, she told herself firmly as they entered the park, the sunshine and pretty greenery already calming her down. Just hanging out. Those were his exact words after all.
"There's the stall," She heard him say beside her as he pointed up the path to a little push-along cart painted in red and white pinstripes with a matching umbrella sheltering the cart from the hot sun. Marinette squealed when they reached the display they had of all the dozens of flavours they had and it took her all her will not to press her nose against the cold glass like a small child. This was her favourite place to get ice cream in the whole of Paris and she was seen there so regularly, she was known to the stallholder by name. As she peered through the frosted glass, she heard Nathanaël start ordering behind her. "I'll have a double strawberry scoop please. Marinette, what would you like?"
She didn't even hesitate when she ordered her usual. "One scoop of blueberry and one scoop of banana please, on the same cone." The man who owned the cart gave a fond smile at her strange order, the same one she always gave, before he started forming the snowballs of ice cream whilst Nathanaël gave her an odd look.
"You have blueberry and banana?" He asked her as he handed over some coins and she took both of the cones, her tongue wasting no time in licking up the dribbles that attempted to escape down the cone. "Doesn't that taste weird?"
"Not at all, these are my two favourites," She explained as she handed him his cone and they walked over to a nearby bench in the sunshine. "When I was little, I could never decide which I liked more so I always had both and I guess I just never stopped. Do you want to try?" She held out her cone but he shrunk back from it, blocking it with his own pink ice cream.
"No thanks. I don't really like the banana one." He said, taking a bite out of his own one. "I guess I'm just not adventurous when it comes to ice cream. Give me plain old strawberry any day."
"Well, who couldn't like strawberry?" She answered with a giggle and another long lick, mixing the two flavours on her tongue and making the two colours, yellow and purple, swirl together on the cone. "It's one of the most basic ones, you can't not like it."
"Yeah you can't." He smiled at her and she had to hide her blushing behind her ice cream. "You know what I really like about it? The colour. I don't know what it is but I just really like some colours and this is one of my favourites." He pointed to his cone where the ice cream, a light shade of rosy pink like a sunset, sat proudly like the orb on a sceptre. "I guess that's what drew me to art, I just love colours too much."
"I know what you mean, I love colours too, they are such an important part of making a successful design," She gushed in response. "What is your favourite?"
"I don't know if I could pick a single favourite." Nathanaël replied before he started to think, his hand going to his chin. "I do like this pink here. And I like dark purple, I'm always having to buy purple paint and orange too come to think of it. And I like bright colours like deep red… and I also really like blue." She turned her head and saw he was looking at her eyes, his head slightly to the side and a small dreamy smile on his lips. "Like a really pretty bright blue."
"Oh. Yeah." Blushing furiously, she looked away in embarrassment as she thought of her own answer. "Well, my favourite colour has always been pink, my room is full of it but recently I've started liking other colours a lot more. Yellow is nice, it's such a happy colour…" Her hand absent-mindedly trailed over her skirt as his eyes followed its movements and he nodded in agreement. "Then I also like red… but the shade I really love is green. Really deep emerald green." She smiled as she thought of the exact green she was talking about before she stiffened, her hand bunching up the yellow silky material in her fist as a pair of green eyes swam before her own. That was where she had got the colour from, that colour that felt like it saw the depths of her soul and drew her in like a moth to a sizzling flame. She just supressed a gasp, feeling it vibrate through her body and making her ice cream wobble. She took one look at the melting creamy goo and suddenly she wasn't that hungry anymore despite missing lunch.
Nathanaël, sensing that something was amiss, quickly went to change the subject. "So, your designs…what got you started with that?"
"Oh! That started when I was little, when I was a toddler I used to read all my mother's magazine's and admire what people were wearing…" The awkwardness of the colour conversation lost, they went on to talk about designing and painting and art, both of them getting more animated as they talked about their passions. They were so into their chatting that they didn't notice when the ice cream man packed up his stall and left for home, giving the youngsters another fond gaze as he did so, and they didn't notice when the rest of the people in the park started to leave, eager to be out of the evening chill. Marinette only realised how much time had passed when she felt the cold breeze on her bare arms and it made her teeth chatter.
"Oh god, I didn't think we had been out so late." Nathanaël said, looking down at his watch and cringing a little at the time. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it. I'll walk you home."
"You don't have to, really I'm fine." She tried to protest but he was already leading her in the direction of the bakery and had taken his own jacket off to drape it over her shoulders. The gesture again made her stomach twist guiltily but she gratefully wrapped it around her to ward off the chill which seemed to be getting colder with every second.
It took them no time at all to reach the bakery and she returned his jacket at the doorstep. "Thank you Nathanaël, I had a really nice time," She thanked him gladly. "It was nice to get away from the project and do something else."
"Yeah it was nice," He replied, his own smile a little nervous. "I'm glad you liked the ice cream anyway."
"Yeah, you picked a good spot for it." She grinned, her smile faltering slightly when he stepped a little closer to her.
"Ahem," He hummed as he studied her face. "I think you still have a little ice cream there. Let me get that for you." Before she could say anything, he leaned forwards and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. He lingered there for only a few seconds before he broke the contact and their eyes stared into each other, both of them feeling paralyzed.
Oh god, this was meant to be a date, she thought as she felt her panic levels rising and her cheeks go red. He just made it a date, he just kissed me goodnight, oh god what do I do…
Nathanaël seemed to have the exact same thoughts running through his head as he too went redder than a ripe cherry. He had practised the ice cream line in his head for almost the past day but he hadn't thought his far ahead. After a few seconds, he seemed to realise he was still there and he took a big step back, already turning to leave.
"Bye Marinette, I'll see you in school tomorrow!" He blurted out as he left, giving her an awkward wave. She waved back, her arm feeling like it didn't quite belong to her as she quickly turned around to let herself in. She headed straight for her room, her mind topsy-turvy with all that had happened. Why does this keep happening? She felt like her emotions had just become stable and then Nathanaël had swept out the carpet from under her feet with that kiss, making her more confused than before.
She let herself in through her trapdoor and as she pulled herself up, she heard a small cough from behind her. She looked around at the centre of her room to see the window was slightly ajar and standing there, his arms crossed and a furious expression on his face, was Chat Noir.