MiraculElse #23: Picture Perfect
by DFC
(Timeline: Season 4. Post-Truth, Lies. Otherwise indeterminate.)
"Well... this is quite a change, isn't it?"
Sitting at her computer desk, idly browsing through some music videos, Marinette turned to answer Tikki's remark. "What is?" she wondered.
"I'm trying to imagine what this room would be like, say, three months ago," Tikki grinned. "Adrien Agreste calls you out of the blue on a Saturday afternoon, says that he has some unexpected free time, and he thought of you... and would you be interested in joining him at his house, just to hang out together for a while?"
"Uh-huh..." Marinette said, trying not to swallow the bait whole.
"I would be up on the ceiling right now, trying not to get flattened by a Marinette Tornado. Dashing from the shower, straight to the closet to pick out the ideal outfit, agonizing over which fragrance to use, which shoes to wear, is your hair just right, everything having to be just perfect..."
"Yeah, yeah. Keep it up."
"I'm not picking on you, Marinette. I'm just... surprised. You barely even put on makeup just now," noted Tikki. "Nothing more than your usual routine."
"If you really want me to get all worked up, I guess that I can fake it for you," Marinette sighed, rising from her chair.
"That's not what I meant..."
Tikki followed Marinette as she climbed the ladder up to her bed and flopped down onto her pillow.
"Tikki," said Marinette, "I know what I used to be like around Adrien, when I was chasing after him. All nerves and nonsense and falling all over everything... I know how much that I embarrassed myself."
"I really don't think that he saw it that way," Tikki argued.
"He didn't see me. He saw a giggling idiot who couldn't think straight around him," Marinette countered. "I kept running hot and cold. It must've confused the heck out of him."
"Has there ever been a time that he's complained about any of that?"
"Adrien's too polite to complain," grumbled Marinette. "But I know that he's looked at me so many times like he just can't figure me out. I made a complete ass of myself with his 'wax statue.' I roped all of my friends into elaborate schemes just to get me into a position to talk to him! And I still couldn't say a sentence that made sense. I embarrassed him on national television with my little photo shrine to him," she added, pointing up to her bedside that still had one headshot of Adrien front-and-center. "Even Chat Noir saw that and was like, 'Boy, that's a lot of pictures.'"
"Okay..." mumbled Tikki. "He, uh, might have had a small reason to be surprised by that one-"
"I got in between him and Kagami. I'm not the reason that they broke up... good lord, I pray I'm not the reason that they broke up, I don't think I am..." Marinette shuddered, "but my being underfoot with all my words that I couldn't say to him can't have helped."
Tikki shook her head helplessly, searching for words.
"That day in the museum... I tried to confess my love to 'Adrien,' the wax version. It backfired so horribly... and then Adrien told me to my face that he wasn't sure how to be a good friend to me." Marinette held her emotions in, but not by much. "The one thing that he's ever asked of me... to be his friend... and I messed that up, too."
"You are overanalyzing it. Again," stressed Tikki. "I have seen Adrien with you a hundred times now. He is so fond of you! You can't tell me that you don't see that."
"Here's what I do see, Tikki," she replied. "Adrien... doesn't think of me that way. He never has. I doubt he ever could. So I can't afford to think of him that way... and as overwhelmed as I am right now, that's even more important! I can't... like... memorize Adrien's schedule and craft elaborate schemes to win his heart and be the Guardian and be Ladybug and be his good friend... and stay sane."
"So... I've pulled myself back," continued Marinette. "I have kept myself under control around Adrien in school. I have been nothing more than a good friend to him. And what happens? He invites me over to his house for the very first time... just wanting to spend time together. Doesn't that tell you something, Tikki? That I'm on the right track now, if I want to be close to him?"
Tikki sighed. "Marinette... you do what you feel that you need to do," she advised. "But remember that you're allowed to want what it is that you want."
"Not when he doesn't want that."
On the way out through the house's main floor, Sabine stopped her at the door. "Have a good time, dear," she told her daughter. "And good luck!"
Marinette smiled and leaned in for a hug, but felt the need to correct her. "There's no need for luck," she said. "We're just... good friends."
Sabine nodded, as if reluctant to voice Keep telling yourself that out loud.
As Marinette opened the door... she jumped slightly. A young man on the other side jumped as well, having been just about to knock gently on the door when it moved away from him.
"H-hi," Adrien recovered. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Cheng."
"And to you, Adrien," smiled Sabine. "It's nice to see you again."
"Yes, it is," Marinette added, wincing a bit as her mouth made the words. "I mean... I'm very happy that you invited me today. I saw the car pull up, and I was just on my way out to it... I didn't mean to startle you."
"I, uh, wanted to come up and meet you here, and walk you over?" offered Adrien. "And then, there you were."
"I wasn't sure if you were coming with," said Marinette, "or if it'd just be your driver..."
"No! I would never just... send someone over to collect you, Marinette," he replied, looking a little nervous. "That would be so rude of me."
"You could never be rude," Marinette smiled.
"Certainly not to you."
Both of them glanced over at Sabine, who was silent but whose face clearly said Don't mind me, I'm just enjoying the show.
"Ah! Okay," Marinette blurted out, noting the sudden silence. "Mama, I'll be back for supper, okay? I'll call you when I'm leaving."
"That sounds good. Have fun, you two!"
"We will," Marinette called as she and Adrien headed down the walk.
As the pair left, Sabine heard fragments of their conversation - "...unless... eat with us?" "...very kind, but..." "...no trouble at all..." "...think about it..." - and allowed herself a knowing grin.
At the car, the Gorilla stood waiting by the door. Marinette gave him a small wave and a nervous "Hello"; he sized her up with a glance, then nodded and smiled in return.
Adrien looked up at him, expecting him to open the car door... only for the Gorilla to subtly nod towards the door, then nudge his head in Marinette's direction.
"Oh! Of course," Adrien stammered. He stepped forward and opened the car door, gesturing to Marinette to enter. "Your ride, Ma'am," he proclaimed.
"Thank you, Sir," she grinned. "So gentlemanly of you!"
Adrien hurried around to the other side - that door, the Gorilla opened for him - and in a moment after that, the three of them were on their way.
The teens smiled at each other in the back seat as the ride progressed.
"I, um, also figured that the ride over might be more fun with a little company," Adrien suggested. "Someone here is a really great guy... but he's not much of a conversationalist."
That got a grunt-like chuckle out of the big man, before he returned his eyes to the road.
"I will admit... I was a little surprised when you called," Marinette said, a little shyly.
"Oh?"
"Well... happy to accept, too. You know that!" she clarified. "But we've never really done this before."
"We should have. Honestly... I'd have most of our class over quite a bit, if I could," Adrien agreed. "Sometimes it feels like Father and Nathalie have all my time rationed out until I'm 53."
"That's why I was surprised," said Marinette. "Not that, uh... no other reason."
She paused, then gave him a questioning look. "So... since you did finally get some time to yourself today... why me?" she asked. "Not that I'm complaining. At all! I just would've expected you to be, like, 'Hey, Nino, let's hang out.'"
"Yeah, I, um... thought about that," admitted Adrien. "But Nino and I hang out a fair amount already, when we can. Father doesn't like him very much... probably because he's one of the few people who doesn't seem afraid of him. I'll catch up with him on Monday after school."
"Which is fine... but it doesn't answer my question."
"Well..."
Marinette watched as Adrien closed his eyes and took a short breath, as if gathering his willpower. Is he NERVOUS? she wondered to herself.
"I haven't felt like myself very much, since everything with Kagami happened like it did. Even Nathalie asked me if I'd left my sense of humor in my school locker, because she couldn't find it," Adrien recited. "So I looked in the mirror today and I asked myself... who do I know who never fails to make me smile?"
She suppressed a small gasp at that.
"And..." he continued, with gentle eyes, "she's someone who hasn't seemed like herself lately, either. The last week or two, she's looked to me like she's been having kind of a rough time, too. For different reasons, of course... or at least because of different people."
"I... has it been that obvious?" Marinette worried. "I'm... I'm dealing with some things, yeah."
"So, I thought... if you've usually got my smile tucked away, and I can help find yours... we could spend a little time together today, and exchange them," said Adrien, hopefully. "Put both of them back where they belong."
He watched, anxiously, as Marinette took all of that in, hoping that he hadn't overstepped his bounds or made her uncomfortable...
...until, slowly, her hand crept over and rested atop his, clasping it with very faint pressure.
"It's starting to come back already," she said, in a soft voice.
On the way through the front lobby, they paused when Nathalie called out to Adrien.
"You have... two hours, forty-seven minutes until your father will be expecting you in his room," she instructed him.
"Nathalie... I have company," Adrien countered, unhappily.
"I can see that," said Nathalie. "And you have two hours, forty... six minutes to be a gracious host to her. Minus whatever time you need to prepare for your meeting."
Marinette hesitated. "If I'm getting in the way of something today, I don't have to stay..." she ventured.
"No," he declared, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I absolutely didn't invite you over just to send you away, Marinette."
"Fair enough," Nathalie declared. "Tick, tock."
Adrien grumbled something under his breath before turning back to Marinette. "Let's go," he said, leading the two of them out of Nathalie's hearing range.
"I'm serious," Marinette said, in a low tone. "If this is a problem..."
"And I'm serious, too. I'm very glad to have you here, Marinette. This is long overdue."
"I like the sound of that," she smiled. "What's the big meeting?"
"Oh..." he replied, "the usual. Photos tomorrow. Father wants to make sure that I know exactly what's expected of me there. As if I haven't done this a hundred times before."
"But you're great at it. I mean... from what little I've seen," Marinette assured him.
"Everybody makes mistakes sometimes, right? But not under his watch. Nobody's allowed to," said Adrien. "Least of all me."
He sighed. "There's no real prepwork for this. And, to be honest, I wouldn't really care if there was."
Brightening a bit, he added, "Okay. So... what do you want to do, since I do have you here with me?"
Marinette shrugged. "Well, it's your house. What do you usually like to do when you have friends over?"
"Honestly?" he replied... as if the question hadn't occurred to him before then. "I'm not really sure what to suggest. I don't do this very often... What do you and your girlfriends do on a lazy afternoon?"
"Hang out, tell bad jokes, talk about our boyfriends... or lack of," she suggested. "Throw on a movie."
"Let's do that," Adrien suggested.
"Which part?"
"All of it."
I am sitting on Adrien Agreste's couch. In his room. And he's sitting right next to me...
Marinette ran through her vital signs. Pulse... not racing... check. Stomach... maybe a butterfly or two, but it's not all knotted up. Feet... tucked underneath me, not itchy, not running away, not tripping over each other.
So far, so good, she smiled. And it does feel good. Kind of... natural, even.
"What kind of movie would you be up for?" he asked. "Comedy, horror, drama..."
"I'm not into horror," she replied. "Not unless it's, like... funny horror."
"So... that gives me like ten movies I could suggest right there, but I wouldn't do that to you. No need for a bucket of blood on our first..."
"...Our first what?" she asked, when she noticed that he'd trailed off.
"...Visit?" he smiled, disarmingly. "There are some comedy series that I could recommend... there's a show I've been watching about a misfit superhero and his half-crazy partner..."
"Hmmph," she parried. "These days, that might hit too close to home for Paris."
"Yeah, but then we might get into an argument," Adrien suggested, "...over whether Ladybug or Chat Noir is the half-crazy one or the misfit."
She reached down into the bowl of popcorn between them and flicked a piece at him, playfully. "Watch it," she teased. "I'm a big Ladybug fan."
"Oh, I know," he grinned. "Though rumor has it that you're a Chat Noir fan, too."
Marinette sized him up. "Oh, it does, does it?" she challenged him, keeping it light. "What's he been telling you?"
"Nothing incriminating. I swear," Adrien declared, holding his hands up defensively lest another popcorn assault occur. "He's mentioned that he visits you once in a while. That you're one of the best friends he has."
"Which... all right, I won't deny it," she sighed. "Yes, he's a friend of mine. He's a sweetheart."
"I think it's more like he's a fan of yours, Marinette. To be completely honest... He has nothing but good things to say about you."
"Wow," breathed Marinette. "I mean... it's good to hear, you know? And the feeling is mutual... it's just... wild to hear someone talk about me like that."
"He's not the only one," Adrien smiled. "...I'm sure."
"Maybe we should pick a movie," she suggested, fighting off a blush.
A light comedy seemed appropriate in the moment, and they soon settled into enjoying it.
About a third of the way into it, Marinette glanced Adrien's way. "Have you talked to Kagami since... that?" she asked.
"No. Have you?" he wondered. "I wasn't going to bring her up unless you did."
"I spoke with her once... not for very long, though," said Marinette. "She was pretty busy with something, but wanted to at least check in with me."
"Hmmph," Adrien grumbled. "I'm glad she did."
"For what it's worth... we didn't talk much about you. But we did a little," conceded Marinette. "And I'm doing my best not to take any sides. You're both good friends of mine."
"And I want that to continue, no matter what," agreed Adrien. "She needs a good friend. I'm sorry that she doesn't think that I'm one any more."
"She told me about what made her do what she did," Marinette replied. "At least her side of it. I'm not going to press you for yours."
"Not today, at least, thank you. I didn't ask you here to pick your brain about her," Adrien insisted.
"Good," she smiled. "Even from her perspective... I don't know that I'd call what happened grave offenses, you know? Maybe a lack of communication on both sides." She chewed on a piece of popcorn before adding, "They might be forgivable... though that's for her to decide."
"Oh... I don't know that they are. Things seemed to run a little deeper than what she might've told you."
"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Marinette. "We don't have to, if you're not comfortable."
"It's okay," Adrien noted. "It was like... her accusing me of lying, of skipping out on her, some of that I'll agree to, some I would... argue about. She said herself, she was lying, too. But it was more... how do I say this?"
"Only if you want to, is how."
"She fell for who she thought I was," he continued. "A part of me. I showed her more of me... and she kind of only wanted the first part. She felt like I was trying to be someone that I wasn't... but I wasn't."
Marinette gave him a sympathetic look. "She might come around, in time," she suggested.
"She might. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it. If I can get some friendship back with her... that's what I need most."
"You've kind of got the opposite problem of what I have," Marinette noted. "Luka really liked all of me... but I couldn't be all those things for him right now."
"I heard about that," Adrien noted. "I'm sorry."
"It's... okay. It's not what I wanted to happen, but... I'm not sure what I wanted to happen."
Marinette sighed. "It just... I don't quite know how to react yet. No one's ever been interested in me that way... that much before..."
"They haven't?" asked Adrien, his focus intently upon her. "You're sure?"
"I think I would know, wouldn't I?" she smiled, though it faded quickly. "Anyway... there's been someone else I've had a crush on... for a long time now. I needed to be over him. I wasn't. That wasn't all of what got in my way with Luka, not by a long shot... but it sure didn't help."
"The other guy,' Adrien pressed. "Have you ever told him how you feel?"
"N-no. I mean, yes... I mean, no!" stammered Marinette. All of a sudden, she couldn't look him in the eye. "I... tried, okay? I tried. He knows that I like him, very much. He doesn't know how much."
Huh, thought Adrien. So it's not... me, then. She told me straight to my mask that night, "I'm in love with you, Chat Noir," and she didn't hesitate.
"...Can we talk about something else for now?" she asked, quietly.
"Of course! Of course we can," Adrien blurted, kicking himself a bit mentally for pressing the issue.
A funny scene in the movie proved to be well-timed, as it distracted both of them and got them laughing again.
As the end credits rolled, Marinette gave Adrien a warm smile.
"That was a good choice," she said. "I really liked that one."
"Yeah, that was a fun movie," Adrien agreed. "Just what I needed."
"That bit where the guy came in... and he was all, like, wauuuugh," giggled Marinette, imitating one of the bad guy's henchmen's antics.
"Hah! Yeah," he laughed. "Kind of reminded me of Kim."
Marinette considered that... then let out a loud hoot of laughter. "Yes!" she managed. "I could so see him walking into class like that."
Their eyes met, their smiles widened, and for a long moment, words were neither necessary nor possible.
"So..." Adrien offered, "we still have another hour before I need to get you home. What would you like to do next?"
"A good question."
"We could walk around the house, if you want. I'll give you the grand tour..." he suggested. "Maybe not enough time for us to use the fencing room... by the time we got suited up and warmed up, it probably wouldn't be worth it."
Marinette stretched her arms and legs for a moment. "I'm comfortable right here," she smiled, "if there's something that you'd want to do in here."
That got a reaction out of Adrien, momentarily, that Marinette couldn't quite place.
"I did just get Mecha Strike 7 for my XSwitch..." he noted to distract himself from that impulse.
"Oh? I haven't tried that yet," Marinette declared, perking up. "I've been saving my money until I see more of the reviews out for it. How is it?"
"It's... interesting," Adrien smiled. "They revamped the whole combo-move system, added a new tier of supers called Psycho Charges, six new characters... they totally redid Triphammer, changed all his specials to be charge-based instead of quarter-circles, you won't even recognize how he plays now. With all the changes, I might even stand a chance against you now, until you learn the new style."
"That sounds like a challenge," grinned Marinette.
"It just might be."
"All right," she replied. "May I use your bathroom? Let me freshen up for a minute, and you're on."
"Certainly!" Adrien smiled. "Straight back there."
As Marinette walked, she felt a warm feeling flowing all through her.
"I'm comfortable right now," I said to him, she thought. And I really, really am.
I can talk to him, even about personal things... at least MOST personal things. I can TOUCH him! Our hands met in the popcorn bowl three, four times and I didn't yank mine back once. Look at me right now, padding barefoot across Adrien's bedroom floor as if I own the place!
Like I could flop right down in that bed and take a nap if I wanted to, and nobody would even blink, she giggled. At least as long as I was dressed!
This is almost EASY. The pressure's finally off.
"It's, um... just to your right. By the arcade machines," Adrien called to her, seeing her pause.
"Oh, yeah! I see it," Marinette answered. "I'm just admiring for a moment. All these trophies, the fencing banners..."
"I could still show you my fencing room, if you like," said Adrien. "It's downstairs... I know you had some interest in trying out for the club..."
"Maybe next time," she replied.
You're smiling again, Adrien, Marinette grinned to herself. The last thing that I'd want you to do today is to cover that up with a mask.
She barely suppressed a small squeal when she saw a Ladybug action figure lying on his nightstand.
Oh my gosh! I'M in Adrien's room already! she beamed. I almost want to tease him a little about that. Who would have ever thought that...
...I would be...
Turning her head, now viewing to the left of Adrien's bed, something caught her eye immediately...
...and Marinette Dupain-Cheng's world changed in an instant.
"Eeeeeeeep!"
Adrien heard Marinette cry out... then light footsteps, hurriedly dashing for cover... then a bathroom door closing, just a little bit too hard and fast. "Sorry!" he heard her yelp from behind it..
"Are you all right?" he called to her, as he rose from the sofa and headed her way. "Did something happen?"
"Sure, I'm all right," her muffled, obviously strained voice proclaimed. "How could anything possibly not be right in any way?"
"...Marinette?"
Standing by his bed, Adrien stared at the bathroom door with a knot in his stomach.
No, no, NO, he whimpered, internally. Everything was going so WELL today! Marinette looked so relaxed, so happy to be spending time with me. We were even playful!
And I didn't say a WORD. I didn't touch her. I didn't do anything! But Flusternette just came back out of nowhere, and I don't know why!
"Did I do something, or say something... off?" he asked her, timidly. "I don't think that I did, but if I did... I'm so sorry."
"I just... need a minute. Okay?" her voice begged him.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I need. a minute. to think. I'm sorry, Adrien," she replied. "Please."
"...Okay."
Under his breath, Adrien muttered, "...What in the world could have set her off this time?"
Behind him, a tiny voice whistled, just loud enough to get his attention.
"Just sayin'," Plagg muttered, pointing to the wall by Adrien's bed, "...could be this?"
Oh, hell, thought Adrien. Why didn't I think of that?
Marinette sat on the edge of Adrien's sink, her head in her hands, trying to process the moment.
Adrien Agreste... has a picture of me on his wall. Right next to his bed.
A picture. Of ME. Not Kagami. Not some rock star, or movie star, or celebrity. Not even Ladybug. But ME.
Not even a group picture of all his friends. It's just ME. A profiled headshot. I didn't even pose for it, someone must've just... taken it one day!
Why would Adrien have a picture of ME by his bedside?
A little voice in her brain played devil's advocate. Why do YOU have a picture of Adrien by YOUR bedside, Marinette? it asked her.
Marinette considered the obvious inference, rejected what she considered impossible and moved on to the improbable, instead.
He couldn't POSSIBLY be playing a prank on me, could he?
I lied to his face back then, about why Jagged Stone showed off my collection of Adrien Agreste pictures on my wall. He was kind enough then to accept an obvious lie as the truth.
Is he picking on me about that now? "See how you like it? Look, I can do that, too?" Or just trying to make a funny reference to that day?
She looked around the room, weighing her options.
There is a little window up there, to vent hot and steamy air, I guess. But even if I could get it open, I don't think that I could fit through it... and this IS the second floor... and if I transform and squeeze through it and swing away, Adrien JUST MIGHT notice that I've vanished into thin air. Hard to explain that.
But what else can I DO? I can't... just walk out and face him like this...
A year's worth of pent-up feelings, hopeless longings, doubts and fears, periodic embarrassments, the pickaxe-to-the-soul that was the day that Jagged exposed her crush to the world, all of her attempts to force herself to just get over Adrien already because he clearly didn't think of her that way...
...all came crashing down on her again at once.
I can't stay here forever, though. At the very least... I might want to run back to the couch and grab my shoes!
And then what? Make a break for it?
If I wait it out for, like, forty-five more minutes... he'll have to go to the meeting with his father, right? And I could sneak out then...
Uh-huh. And how will I ever face him at school on Monday?
She felt her eyes welling up at the thought.
Adrien... WHY did you do this?
The panic in Adrien Agreste grew by the minute, as the bathroom door provided him with no meaningful input.
"I don't... um... Marinette, I'm sorry for whatever I did! Honest! Can we, uh... talk about this?" he pleaded.
After a pause...
"If... that... is a reference to that television show at my house that day," Marinette's voice sniffed, "it is in very poor taste."
"Television show?" Adrien wondered aloud.
"You know exactly what I mean, Adrien," she accused him.
"Are you talking about the picture over here?" he asked.
"Of course I'm talking about my picture. Where did you even GET IT?" she nearly shouted. "I know that you've never asked me for one... why would you?... and I don't remember posing for that one."
"You know Nino... he's always taking pictures of all of us," Adrien explained. "I don't even remember where he was when he took that one..."
LIAR, Adrien's brain shouted at him. It was four months ago, and we were all outside after school on a breezy day. And I turned your way, and the sun caught your hair and your face just right, and the wind blew the scent of something delicious my way from the bakery, the kind of cinnamon-sugary-spice smell I can't help but associate with you, it's heavenly, and you were looking off to the side, and when your eyes sparkled I thought I was going to die then and there.
And Nino caught me staring, saw you standing there, and took a picture... and I bought premium photo paper for my printer that same night.
"...but I got the image from him. I thought that it was absolutely beautiful," he declared.
"...You think that I'm beautiful?" boggled Marinette.
"Why wouldn't I?"
That caused a lengthy pause.
"So, no, I wasn't trying to refer to... anything... by putting it up on my OH!"
It clicked for Adrien, and he suppressed a scream of recognition.
"That day that they showed all those pictures of you on my wall... it had to be humiliating for you. I know how much it was for me," Marinette sighed. "So when I saw that there, I assumed that you were trying to... prank me back, or something..."
"NO, no, no, no!" Adrien implored her. "That was the farthest thing from my mind. I swear."
"So, then... why is it up on your wall?" she asked, curiously. "And don't use 'you're really into fashion' as an excuse. I already tried that one."
"...Tried that one?" wondered Adrien. That was the truth that day... wasn't it?
Marinette went silent, waiting for his answer.
"I could tell you that it's there because I am into fashion, because I know a future star designer when I see one, and your picture's inspiration for me that way," Adrien replied. "But that would make me a liar."
Adrien heard Marinette rise from where she was sitting in the bathroom and come to the door, but not open it yet.
"Marinette..." he sighed, his face crimson, "one of the reasons that Kagami was uncomfortable with... how I had been acting with her... was that she sensed that my heart wasn't really in our relationship. She thought that there was someone else I was falling for. And she suspected that it was you... and that you had unresolved feelings for m-me, too."
He could nearly feel the intensity on the other side of the door.
"Well, she was half right, at least," Marinette admitted, in a strained tone. "But I guess you already knew that."
"Half... yes," Adrien replied, much of the hope and excitement falling out of his voice at her response. "She was half right."
"I'm sorry that I couldn't find the words," said Marinette, quietly.
"No, you did! You told me that day in school, right after Troublemaker, that you were just into fashion. That that was why you had my pictures. At the museum, too. You made it clear to me both times that you don't look at me that way."
A thunderclap echoed in Marinette's soul.
Wh-what?
Kagami thought that Adrien was in love with me, and that I was in love with him.
He agreed, "she was half right."
But he's saying that he DOESN'T think that I have those feelings for him?
What half IS right, then?
"Marinette... I don't want to make you uncomfortable, or feel like I'm pushing myself at you," Adrien blurted. "If you just want to remain close friends... that's something that I cherish, very, very much. I don't want what I'm about to say to, you know, ruin that for us."
The door, of course, said nothing.
"But you've... you've..."
"...Adrien?" asked a soft voice, imploring him to continue.
"You've been more than just a friend to me for a long time now," he said. "Way more. I think about you every day... and that picture's there so that there's never a day that I don't think of you."
The doorknob twitched slightly, as if a hand had just rested upon it on the other side.
"There was someone else besides you... that I spent most of the year crushing on. Hard. But I have learned how to take her 'no' for an answer," Adrien admitted. "And that crush... kind of blinded me... to who was right behind me, right next to me, this whole time. But once I opened my eyes..."
"...Are you serious?" an awed voice wondered.
"I... am," gulped Adrien. "And I will take your 'no' for an answer... again... if that's your answer. But this has been hanging between us for a long time now, and I can't let it do that any longer. We've had all these awkward moments... where you had to have been thinking, Oh, God, here he goes again, I've told him how I don't feel already, can he stop hinting about it? And I just... needed to say it out loud, one time, like this. If this is as far as it can go between us... I'm fine with that. But if there can be anything more..."
"...I'm sorry," he trailed off. "I didn't want to just confront you with it like this... but that picture must've freaked you out."
Slowly, the door opened.
Adrien expected to see Marinette emerge looking hurt, or angry, or in tears... but she didn't. Instead, she had wide eyes, a startled expression and wobbly legs, to the point where Adrien felt an impulse to offer her a chair.
"I... I have to be sure that I'm hearing this right," Marinette breathed. "That I'm not losing my mind right now."
"You... do?"
"I do," she confirmed. "You are telling me... that you've been falling for me. And that you'd like me to at least let you down easy, since I don't feel the same."
"I just told you that," Adrien said, his cheeks aflame. "Yes."
"And that when I told you that I covered my wall with your face because I was just 'really into fashion...' Adrien... you BELIEVED ME?"
"Of... course I did?" he replied. "Marinette... you don't lie to people."
"The hell I don't," she gasped.
"Wh-what?
"When I babbled my butt off about how of course I didn't have feelings and I was so into fashion and I was just roleplaying and not really about to kiss the face off of your wax statue... you thought that I was being honest?" marveled Marinette, scarcely believing it. "And that I wasn't just freaking out because the boy that I was absolutely crazy about just asked me to my face if I'm in love with him?"
Adrien's slack jaw was answer enough.
"So you..." he managed.
"So you..." Marinette gasped.
"So WE..."
"We are...!"
The joy on both their faces may have been magnetic... as it was slowly pulling the two of them closer together.
As they reached each other's arms, Marinette asked him, "Adrien... what the heck has been wrong with us?"
"I don't know," he breathed. "But it must be contagious... because we've both got it bad."
A short while later...
Nathalie strode down the hallway to Adrien's room, tablet in hand, her mental clock ticking. "I'm a bit surprised at you, Adrien," she called as she approached the door. "You're not usually the type to lose track of time, and force me to come looking for... you?"
She paused as she reached the door. Upon it was a hastily-written sign, affixed to the outside of the door with tape, reading:
TODAY'S MEETING
WILL BE
UNAVOIDABLY
POSTPONED
THANK YOU
"I'm sorry, what?" Nathalie frowned. She found that the door was uncharacteristically locked, which was a futile gesture towards someone who had the master passcode to everything but Gabriel's private room.
Punching in the code, she heard a small click! and stepped inside. "Adrien, I'm not sure what you are up to in here, but you know as well as I do..." she began.
There was no visible sign of either of them.
"...Adrien?" she asked again, in a louder tone.
"I regret to inform you," came Adrien's voice from the couch, "that Adrien will not be available this afternoon. He has a previous engagement that is detaining him."
"Yes," a giggly voice added. "He has been detained."
"I... see. Or perhaps I would not want to," Nathalie mused.
"We are both fully-clothed, I assure you!" Adrien hastened to add. "Nothing going on that you couldn't see, if you had to... but very, very detained."
"Well, then," she replied. "Shall I assume that we are setting an extra place for supper tonight?"
"That depends," Adrien answered. "Would my girlfriend care to join us tonight?"
"I... believe that she would," Marinette beamed.
"And what, specifically, should I tell your father regarding this afternoon's meeting?" asked Nathalie.
Adrien's head popped up above the top of the couch for just a moment.
"Ask him if he was ever young and in love. Then tell him, 'See you at supper.'"
Nathalie couldn't help but have a wry smile on her face as she exited. "I'll pass that along," she called to them, closing Adrien's door behind her.
~fin~