[ WHAT!? TWO UPLOADS IN ONE DAY!? IT'S A NEW YEAR'S MIRACLE! X) ]
[[ Lots of dialogue in this one. The two have got to talk it out, yeah? Right.
Riiiiight. ]]
Marinette had never responded to Adrien's message from Friday night, and she didn't try to call him, despite her threat to do so. Adrien both liked and disliked this development. While he hated not hearing about how she was feeling – because, really, he loved her, dang it – he desperately needed the time to quell his own feelings and decide what to do from here. Because he knew he needed to make the next move. He just didn't know if he was brave enough to do it, especially without the loving support he had come to rely on so heavily from Ladybug – Marinette…Maribug?
So he ignored Nino's small-talk texts. And Alya's Ladyblog update messages. Instead, he focused on what he could do for his Lady.
So far? He had a big dollop of Nuttin' atop a sundae of Diddly-Squat.
What could he say that he hadn't already said? 'Purr-pose' instead of 'Porpoise'?
(Yeah, he didn't think so either.)
Needless to say, the main sounds he heard throughout his weekend were cheese-eating (normal), Ladyblog update blips (normal), and a lot – a lot – of (maybe melodramatic, to a degree) sighing (not as normal).
When Monday came around, Adrien seriously considered telling Nathalie he was sick. Or running away. Or joining the circus. Anything to be anywhere but there was a viable option in his arsenal of excuses at this point. The Saturday evening Akuma was still fresh on his mind, and it had been especially nasty. It wasn't hard, per se, but Ladybug, while playing up a scary version of "Nothing's wrong why would anything be wrong!?" had taken turns roughly vaulting him toward the danger (grinning wickedly while she did so) and getting ridiculously close to him in very intimate ways (trying to maintain appearances, maybe, but running her fingers through his hair while there were explosions was toying with his brain and totally on purr-pose, don't try to tell him otherwise).
And he was pretty sure the "mistake" where they went for a fist bump and she broke his nose was totally not the accident she had pretended it was. Especially because she had insisted on the fist bump before the Miraculous cure, which would, admittedly, fix it, but not completely. Which she, of course, knew.
Even thinking about it now, Adrien could feel the bruising.
The unexpected sloppy kiss she had planted on him and the desperate look in her eyes afterward did nothing – N-O-T-H-I-N-G – to help his hurting heart. Or his reeling emotions.
So when Adrien pulled up to the school, he already had expectations of what he would see, what he would find. A girl crushed under the weight of a broken heart? Maybe. A woman angry over her lover's quarrel? More likely. What Adrien expected to see when he walked into the school building was, perhaps, based on his own feelings. He felt down, and he felt confused, and he felt anxious, so maybe he assumed Marinette would feel the same way too.
He was SO. WRONG.
What he saw was Ladybug in fleshy form. A girl with a planned plan planned to planny precision. It was disgusting. And Adrien had to pick his school stuff and his jaw off the floor when he first saw her.
She looked gorgeous. Just enough make-up to keep it subtle. Just enough hairs coming loose from her up-do to keep it casual. Sneaker heels and a cute skirt instead of flats and pants. The girl was siphoning the oxygen straight out of his lungs, using it to fuel her full laughs and playful jabs at her classmates.
He first spotted her in the locker room where she was putting on red lipstick in the mirror of her locker, giggling with Alya, Rose, and Alix about something. As he gazed at the back of her head, he could have sworn she saw him reflected there. He definitely saw the flash of hard blue eyes before she leaned over, grabbing Alya's head and planting a puckering kiss onto her best friend's cheek. The girls all giggled, and she turned right to him and winked. Adrien gulped in response, reaching down to pick up the books he had dropped. He rubbed his still-sore nose self-consciously.
When he looked back up, Nino had joined Alya, and Marinette had put on his headphones to listen in on the music he were talking about.
The girls walked by a few minutes later, passing a statue-like Adrien who had frozen when Marinette had shown him how adorable she looked with red lipstick and headphones.
He was captivated by visions of dark lashes and red lips.
He was jealous of Alya's kissed cheek.
He was jealous of Nino, Alix, and Rose's close proximity.
He was terrified of Marinette.
As the girl walked up to him, Adrien tried to tighten his grip on his bag and his books, trying to not repeat the action for a third time that morning, but to no avail. They clattered everywhere, only accentuated by his efforts to keep himself upright. The familiar warmth of embarrassment manifested itself in his cheeks, neck, and ears, and Adrien concentrated heavily on picking up his stuff and not looking up. Until Marinette's shoes paused in front of him.
When he had finished with his books, a hand shot out in front of his face. Adrien still didn't raise his eyes, but he was not one to turn away a hand offered to him…especially when this was the girl of your dreams (and maybe his nightmares the night before, but he didn't want to think about that). Marinette's grip was strong, and she pulled him up with ease. Then she paused for a moment before lifting up on of his hands and kissing his palm. Adrien might have made a whimpering sound at this.
Marinette only smiled, their eyes finally meeting…and then purposefully flicking him on the nose before sauntering off.
"Do you deserve it?"
"Huh?" Adrien's reply was about an octave higher than normal. He was too busy rubbing his throbbing nose and blinking the sudden tears of pain from his eyes.
Adrien's blurry vision finally started to focus. His best friend stood there looking at him, lips pursed but eyes twinkling.
"Do you deserve it?" the DJ repeated, slower this time.
Nino's voice was usually a welcomed anchor to this sea of chaos that was his life (though it was slowly turning into a hurricane of madness, a sharknado, a flippin' Bermuda triangle centered around him). The question, however, was not welcomed.
"Uh…" Adrien easily understood the meaning of the simple question. He just didn't know where to start.
"Just answer me, bro."
"Yes…?"
"That's the first step. How you gonna fix it?"
"I – what? How do you even know – ?"
Nino closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head and placing a hand on Adrien's shoulder.
"Dude, you are just lucky that it was me you sent that message to and not her."
…Wut.
"The girl is shooting daggers at you already. Have you talked to her since Friday at all?"
Talked with? Nah, not really. Fought with? Yeah, absolutely. And in more ways than one.
"No? What message?"
"You seriously thought that that girl – that girl – would cheat on you?"
Oh. That message. How had he…? Nevermind. Whatever. WHAT. EVER.
"Nino…I…I don't know how to explain. But, yes?"
"You know that that girl has been in love with you since you started public school, right?"
"WHAT?"
"The girl has your schedule memorized." Nino chuckled for a second before sobering instantly. "Do not tell her I told you that. Cause honestly, I do not want that," – he motioned toward the direction Marinette had gone – "after me. And you better figure this out soon. Mari is seriously ticked."
"I…but…"
Nino only shook his head and walked away, a salute and a smile his only departing graces.
Adrien blinked stupidly at nothing. Then he lost control of his books again. He couldn't help but see it as an awful metaphor for what his life was: a mess.
qpqpqpqpqp
Adrien could handle the cutesy gushing over hat designs with Myléne and the discussion of the new Jagged Stone/Zombie Skullcrushers duet with Ivan. Heck, he could even deal with hearing Marinette gush about LadyNoir with Alya, the conversation so close it was almost in his flippin' ear. But this? Ah nah. He drew the line at the "gun show" she started participating in with Kim and Alix during their lunch hour. Particularly when Kim started feeling her gorgeous, glittery (how is that possible?) muscles.
Not to sound like he was a masochist, or that he owned Maribug or anything attached to her, but…those muscles were his.
Without warning, Adrien unceremoniously grabbed Marinette by the arm and dragged her away from the group of classmates, giving Kim the stink eye. They only made it a couple tables away before Marinette slipped her arm out from his grasp.
"Excuse you!" she shot out, placing a hand on her hip and popping it out in such an adorablewayshewasgoingtokillhim.
"Excuse me?" Adrien shot back, matching her quiet tone. "Excuse you! Letting him feel you up like that…"
"He was not feeling me up!"
"He might as well have been."
She snorted.
Adrien walked a step away, grabbing at his hair before going back to her and pointing a finger just passed her face. "Stop flirting with everyone! It's – It's killing me, Marinette! If you're going to touch anyone, or kiss anyone, or for goodness' sake share headphones with anyone, it should be with me!"
Marinette stared blankly at him for a moment. "Huh. You'd think I would have seen this coming or something. I mean, you do tend to get jealous over the silliest things…like yourself."
Adrien sat on the nearest table, covering his face with his hands and groaning loudly. This day didn't turn out how he imagined; it was worse. Removing one hand from his face he reached out and caught hold of an escaping Marinette, pulling her to him again, but more gently. She came willingly and he pulled her into some semblance of an embrace. Mostly so he could continue the conversation through whispers in her ear. Mostly.
"I thought you didn't know, Mari."
"And I thought you did know."
This was something he had sorta figured out, but it still left questions.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Uh, er…well, you see…" Marinette pulled away a bit and Adrien saw the crack in her confident façade for the first time that day. It almost gave him confidence. But, since he didn't know why she was hesitating to answer, courage quickly dissolved into nervousness.
"You asked me out!" she finally whisper-yelled at him.
"You said 'yes'! Why – Why would you say 'yes' to that!?"
Marinette flushed before suddenly grabbing both sides of his face. "You just…you have that – that face! You shouldn't just walk around with th-that face and expect unsuspecting females to be able to answer, uh, logically!"
Adrien couldn't help it. He knew he was in deep trouble, but…he snickered. Marinette immediately let go of him and flicked his nose again. With a cry, his hands grabbed her wrists to block off anymore attacks. She struggled against him, gritting her teeth.
"And you came to my house, and you called me MY NICKNAME!" Her voice was getting louder. "Or do you go to everyone's house and call them 'M'Lady' and say 'See you tomorrow' and KISS THEIR HAND!?"
Adrien froze. When had he…?
Oh. Oh gosh.
He…he had done that, hadn't he?
"Well, I-I-I, I mean, you're not wrong…" his voice drifted with his gaze as he thought back to that time with Marinette, poking around her room and flirting – teasing – her. Marinette stopped struggling, the lack of movement bringing Adrien's eyes back to his partner's. He was shocked to see them a little watery, and when she spoke, her voice was very small.
"You do do that to everyone?"
"WHAT? No! NO, Marinette, that's not –"
"I thought that that was just for me…"
"It IS! What I meant was that you're right, I did do that, but I don't do that to anyone else! I've never done that to anyone else!"
"Just to me? And well…me?"
There was a mixture of skepticism with hopefulness in her eyes. It was a fear for both of them: Marinette fearing Adrien's disloyalty, and Adrien facing the fear of letting her down. Again.
"Yes," Adrien said firmly, letting go of her wrists finally and placing them tentatively on either side of her face. "And I just, I didn't mean to those times with you-you either, it must have j-just slipped out, I-I mean, I didn't…" His face felt warm. Why…why had he done that? It had flowed so easily. Had he…but no, he couldn't have…?
He had had a crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
And Marinette seemed to have simultaneously reached this same conclusion.
"Oh my gosh, you filthy hypocrite!" she spat at him, pushing his hands away. "You were hitting on me!"
"WHAT! I was not – not – hitting on you!"
He was totally hitting on her.
"Oh, 'Princess'," Marinette pulled away before adorning what he assumed was supposed to be a fake Chat Noir voice and a fake Chat Noir walk, twirling around and fluttering her lashes at him (even in pretend, Chat Noir still had swag). "Oh, it's raining! Please, please let me in! EVEN THOUGH I LIVE A BLOCK AWAY."
"I wasn't hitting on you! I was flirting, and that is not the same!"
HE WAS TOTALLY HITTING ON HER.
"You had a crush on me! ADMIT IT!"
"Says the girl who has more posters on her wall of me than La Mode magazine!"
Several gasps sounded throughout the cafeteria. One of them was Marinette's. One of them was also Adrien's.
That was a low blow, and they all knew it, even those in the unwitting audience.
The next thing Adrien knew, he was sprawled across one of the long lunch tables, Marinette shoving a thick slab of pudding into his face.
All he could do for a moment was blink stupidly at the ceiling. That is, until he heard the "Oooo's" coming from the kids around them. When he sat up, he saw a smug, red, and angry Marinette. But he was done playing around.
Adrien made a show of licking off what he could before looking around and making a grab for whatever was around him – mashed potatoes, perfect – and flicking it into her own face.
Or, he would have.
But she was Ladybug. The blithe girl deftly dodged the potato slop easily. Instead, the wad of starchy goodness landed in a young girl's hair. The young lady yelped at the surprising impact.
A stillness broke over the cafeteria…until a voice that sounded suspicious like Alya's yelled, "FOOD FIGHT!"
"DETENTION!" a stronger voice rang out, bringing the lunch room into another quiet lull. Adrien and Marinette's gazes snapped to each other. Both their hands had more globs of food in them, aimed toward each other. Audible gulps sounded. They then looked to the person whose heels now clicked against the tiled floor in a heavy rhythm.
Ah. It looks like Principal Damocles decided to join them all for lunch today.
Great.
[[ Erm…so…did it get a little…crack-ish? I dunno. I laughed. Ha! See? X) I sincerely hoped y'all enjoyed this latest installment. And THANK YOU for the comments I have received ALREADY from the last chapter! (WHAT!? I KNOW, RIGHT!?) ]]
[[ There was…less editing on this chapter than the other(s). So if there are any mistakes, PLEASE tell me. n.n ]]
[[ OH. And shout out to the guest who just commented who flipperty flippin' reminded me that Adrien is probably THINKING ABOUT STUFF HOW DID I FORGET THAT DON'T ASK ME. But thank you, Guest. :D ]]