Chapter 25: Cheek Kiss

Marinette sat on the school steps waiting for Adrien. She wasn't late today. In fact, she had made sure to wake up super early so she could talk to him! (Also, she might've thrown away his schedule, but she still remembered it by heart!).

After 10 minutes of sitting there, a familiar black car pulled out in the front. She stood up as it approached clutching the straps of her backpack nervously.

Adrien got out of the car with his bodyguard. Oh shoot, she had completely forgotten about his bodyguard following him everywhere inside school now. How would they talk?

His eyes faced her as he gasped and gave her a little wave. She smiled and awkwardly waved back, he approached to meet her on the staircase.

"Hi, Marinette." He said. His tone was slow and careful.

"Hi…" She responded eyeing his bodyguard behind him, "Shall we go to class?"

"Of course."

They were quiet throughout their walk to class. It was rather awkward actually, but they were too afraid to say anything with the gorilla around. Even if they were dying to say so much…

Besides, they wouldn't be able to talk about this in class either, it was too much of an important matter. The fate of Paris depended on it. Dramatic much? Not really…

"You'll have to produce a portfolio on WW2 in France. This is especially important for your grade and I expect a lot of effort from all of you. You should make sure it's detailed with all the impacts, significant figures during the war, and the allies that tried to help. Some vital background information is helpful too. I'll be sending in email to all of you regarding this project." Miss Bustier explained the students exchanged anxious looks, some of them groaned. "Fortunately, this isn't an individual project but it's pairwork instead. And yes, just this once, I'll be letting you choose your partners because of your excellent behaviour this term."

The class cheered as some of them started picking their partners already.

"Please let me know who your partner will be by the end of the day. Also, you'll have a week's time to submit this."

Marinette turned to Alya. They were partners for mostly every project, and this shouldn't be any different.

"So, we'll start together on this project?"

"Actually…" Alya started awkwardly, "I promised Nino to work with him on the next pair project. You don't mind, right?"

"No…it's fine." Who would she work with?

"You can work with Adrien. After all, I am taking his usual partner." Alya nudged towards him as Adrien looked and gave Marinette a shy smile.

She smiled back. They were already superhero partners. They should be able to work well for a little project as well.

"Would you like to be my partner?" Marinette asked him. Too ironic.

"I already am." He replied as she tried not to chuckle.

"Good. Are you free tomorrow? It's a holiday anyways so we can start working on the project at my house."

"I'm pretty sure I am free, but I'll ask my dad." He smiled and pulled his phone out.

She heard her own phone thing as she pretended to be naïve, taking it in her hands.

Adrien 3 : Or I'll just come to your house as a certain someone ; )

Marinette sighed and shook her head. She still had a heart on his name?

Marinette: I don't think that's safe. Also, we shouldn't be talking about this here. What if someone got hold of our phones?

Adrien 3 : Sorry, milady.

He sent her a picture of a cat with apologetic kitten eyes as she chuckled at it. Alya and Nino were giving them queer looks so they should probably stop now.

Marinette: Delete all these messages. I'll do the same.

Adrien 3: As you wish.

Marinette quickly deleted all the messages from her phone as she turned to look at the board ignoring Alya's curious stare. Balancing between their identities was going to be harder than she thought.

"Adrien."

He turned around to see Lila standing behind him. Uh…what did she want?

"Do you have a partner for the project?" She asked sweetly, "Because I really need to catch up on this topic and I was wondering if you could partner up with me to help."

"Uh. Sorry, Lila. But I already have a partner. It's Marinette." He emphasised on the last part a bit too much like he was referring to something else.

"Oh…" Her eyes darkened and he didn't like the way she was staring at him, "Well, you might have to change your mind then."

A sneer smirk plastered her face as he narrowed his eyes at her. Lila wasn't the most likeable person, but he was giving her chances because honestly, he was too idealistic and believed that everyone deserved a chance. However, he didn't like it when he tried to hurt the people he loved. That was something he wouldn't tolerate.

"What do you mean?" He asked her.

She pulled out her phone and reached out to show him a picture. It was a picture of him and Marinette kissing. Well, it wasn't really them. But it was the alternate timeline versions of them, that was the same picture Kagami had. It made sense who the anonymous number was now.

"I will post this online for everyone to see if you don't be my partner for the project. And the caption will be 'Adrien Agreste was cheating on his ex-girlfriend when they were still together behind everyone's backs this entire time' Not too good for your reputation, right?"

"That's not us. That's when the Alternate Timeline akuma happened."

"They don't know that." Lila sneered, "Do you need more convincing? Cause I bet after this, no fashion brand would ever accept Marinette in. Her dreams will be shattered as well as both of your reputations. That's a risk you're not willing to take for a project, right?"

"I- "He didn't want to be Lila's partner. But he didn't want to ruin Marinette's chances either. This snake had it clearly all planned out so sneakily, and she knew how to strike him in the areas it hurt. And it was working…

"Li- "Before he could say anything else, something crazy just happened in front of his eyes.

Marinette crashed into Lila pulling them both to the ground. The phone dropped out of Lila's hands to his feet, Marinette looked at him from the ground as she tussled to keep Lila down. She beckoned at the phone.

He quickly got the message and grabbed it. Since it was already unlocked, he did what he good and quickly deleted the photo before Lila got up to her feet.

"No!" She screamed as he gave her the phone back.

Adrien & Marinette: 1 Lila: 0

"Oops. I'm sorry for being so clumsy, Lila." Marinette said rubbing her head looking apologetic. Ahh…that's why he loved that girl!

"You…you'll pay! You may have got away this time! But the war is still on!" Lila raged at them as she sashayed away out of the locker room.

"That was amazing, Marinette!"

"Nope. Not amazing. Be glad that I was eavesdropping and happened to be a superheroine and clumsy at the same time."

"No…thank you, milady." He smiled as something burned inside him. He leaned in to gave her a quick peck on the cheek, the gasp he heard from her mouth was satisfying, and his lips tingled with the ghost of the warmth of her skin when he parted away.

"Thanks to you too, Adrien. For always looking out for me. I knew you would've said yes even if you didn't want to. You're too thoughtful." She leaned in reciprocating his cheek kiss. His skin burned where her lips brushed against his cheek.

They were both smiling, staring at each other, and blushing like idiots after the kiss. His heart fluttered as he looked at Marinette. His Lady. He felt complete.

"I better get going. I'll submit our names to Miss. Bustier on the way." Marinette said, "See you tomorrow at my place, Adrien."

She waved at him fiddling with her backpack. It was an adorable nervous habit that she had.

"See you tomorrow." He waved back, "It's a date."

Marinette froze at the door, looked back, and rolled her eyes at him.

"We'll see, kitty." She said playfully before leaving.

She was probably just joking but…he so wished he saw their 'date' the same way that he did. Hopefully, his wish would come true. Someday.

Boy, your wish has already come true!