Marinette felt as if her feet we're getting filled with lead with every step she took. She felt a tad too awkward to be alone with Adrien at the moment, and even the knowledge that the driver would still be present didn't deter the heavy feel on her chest. Would things have been easier if she had just said no to this date? Right now, she barely remembered the reasoning she had had when she accepted. Why had she? Right, it was nothing more than to lead the pretense that everything was okay, perhaps to convince herself more than anything.
It had been foolish she had to admit, but deep down part of her believed deep down that it had to happen. How else was she supposed to get over her love for Adrien? So, what if she was foolish and accepted a bit of pain to help with the process. All she wanted now was to erase every lingering feeling in her and just be friends with him. Was that too much to ask of her foolish heart?
She opened the car door, only to be surprised by the sight of Adrien on the back seat. "When did you change seats?" Adrien looked at his driver, before shrugging and looking at her. "Though it'd be nicer like this."
"Is that your new explanation for everything? Seems kind of vague." He smiled as he slid over, letting room for her to seat. "There's not much of a thought process in it, honestly."
"So, you're doing all these things out of sudden desire?" He gulped before chuckling as he shook his head. "I guess you could say that."
"Who would've thought, Adrien Agreste not thinking before doing something."
"You'd be surprised." His eyes gazed at her with a certain mischief she found familiar but couldn't quite figure it out. "Really? Guess I'll have to take your word for it." She turned her head to stare out the window, feeling awkward again once the silence had fallen between them.
"Marinette, I wanted to tell you," she turned to look at him once again, body leaning away from him as she tried to keep herself from making contact with him, "I…you and Luka make a really great couple. I'm glad you're happy."
"You think so? I guess so." She felt her throat constrict as she tried to hold the incoming tears. "You too."
"Me too?" She wanted to turn away and stare at the window, perhaps then she'd be able to silently let her tears fall. "You and Kagami make an amazing couple. I'm really you've found a person that can understand what you go through, and can make you happy."
Why did this all sound like a goodbye? Were goodbyes always this bittersweet? May each of us find the one we should be with.
"I-uh, thanks Marinette. I appreciate it." She smiled before biting her lip to stop a sob from coming out. She was sure that if there were daylight he'd been able to see her expression, bridled with pain and sorrow. What was it that Chat had told her about grief? Right, that it's important for one to be able to move on. Where had she been applying his advice, it felt like she had been going in circles.
"That's what friends are for." She decided to throw caution and the responsibility for her heart out the door as she reached out and took his hand, squeezing it in what she hoped would be understood as comfort and support as a friend.
This journey I'm about to embark on will be painful, but I'll gain an amazing friend in the end, how can it not be worth it?
Realizing that he isn't going to say anything else, she turned her head to stare out the window, watching the lights blur by as the car speed down the street. "Marinette, can I ask you one question?"
"You already did."
"Oh come on, you know what I mean." She gulped down, unsure of whether she should or not. "Yeah, shoot."
"Have I done anything wrong? Are you mad at me somehow? I've thought about it and I can't seem to put my finger on why you had been ignoring me recently. I thought you were ignoring me because I was with Kagami, which makes no sense unless I've been an awful friend without noticing." She turned around to face him so quickly she was sure she'd feel that in the morning tomorrow.
"Adrien, no you're a great friend, don't doubt that." He frowned as he played around with his fingers, seemingly lost in thought. "Did anything I did ever hurt you? Even when I didn't mean to." Should she tell the truth or continue to play the fool? What price would she have to pay if she came clean now? Of course, she had been hurt, but it wasn't his fault, he didn't know any better regarding her feelings. And maybe that was what hurt the most. How could he ever think she hated him when every beat of her heart called out to him?
"I- uh no, of course not, nothing important." Everything that once mattered to her.
"That's a great relief, I was so scared, I don't want to lose you. You're an amazing friend and I can't imagine not being able to be friends with you." And suddenly, she understood and felt it deep in her heart that she felt the same.
"You too. I can't imagine life without you as my friend." Suddenly he took his seat belt off, and slid closer to her, eyes gleaming with unbound happiness. "Adrien, you shouldn't take your seatbelt off." He shrugged before turning around and taking the middle seatbelt and putting it on. "I know, you just seemed too far away, and I wanted to be close when I told you this."
"Told me what?" He smiled as he took her hand. "We'll always be friends, and I'll always be here for you, no matter what. I want to be someone you can come to when you're troubled and can't speak with anyone else." A part of her wanted to cry from happiness and the other part wanted to hug him for being such a good person.
The car stopped in front of her house, the building tall in front of them. She opened the door, Adrien following closely behind her. "I just want you to know that your friendship is really important to me, and I don't want to lose you." With a kiss on her cheek, he turned around and entered the car, leaving a stunned Marinette in place. It eerily reminded her of a certain black cat hero, but her mind was far too shaken to make any connection.
She saw the car pull away from her house, and with a melancholic smile whispered, "Goodbye, Adrien." And goodbye, first love.
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"Kid, what the hell was all that?" Adrien turned around on his seat, the Ladyblog clearly opened behind him on one of the monitors.
"What was?" he quirked an eyebrow as he stared at his kwami that was laying on his bed, belly so full it showed a bulge. "Don't play dumb. I don't want to lose your friendship, Marinette. You're too important to me." He mocked as he did an, in Adrien's humble opinion, absolutely terrible imitation of his voice.
"I doesn't mean anything besides what I said. I truly mean every single word. As Chat she doesn't doubt my friendship. I just want her to know she has my friendship. I guess I'm just jealous of the friendship she has with Chat." The tiny god shot him a glare as he moved a bit, "That makes no sense, Kid. You are Chat Noir."
"I know it doesn't make sense," Adrien could've sworn he saw Plagg lift his eyebrow, well what he thought could be called that, "don't stare at me like that! You know that I'm right. She doesn't see me the same way she sees Chat." The kwami floated up while crossing his arms as he looked at his holder. "And who's fault do you think that is?"
"Are you trying to imply that it's my fault?" With a shrug, the tiny being landed on top of Adrien's desk, making him turn around to stare at the ancient being.
"Kind of? I mean, you visited Marinette first to learn if you had done something wrong when you could've just done it like today, and ask her upfront. Instead, you chose to reach her as Chat, and then you deviated from your plan, and boy deviate from it."
"I cared about her Plagg, you know that. Now, I care about her even more, I don't ever want to see her get hurt." Adrien could feel the silence from his kwami get uncomfortable as the tiny god just stared at him. Bright green eyes suddenly looking so wise that it made him feel awkward.
"Do you love her?" Adrien thought hard about it. Did he love Marinette? She was precious to him, the same way Nino was, the same way Chloe had been when they were younger.
"I do. I love her as my friend. Kind of the same way I love you, Plagg." Adrien grinned widely as the kwami just sighed and floated up to his cheek nuzzling just a tiny bit against Adrien's cheeks, before landing on his shoulder. "Sure, Kid." They stayed like that for a bit, before it was Plagg that broke the silence.
"So you won't stop visiting her as Chat?" he shook his head, "No, I won't. I can tell her things as Chat that I'd never be able to tell anyone else. I can't lose that."
"Whatever, Kid. It's your choice, just don't make things complicated." Adrien scoffed at the kwami's words. "How could I ever make things complicated? It's not going to happen, Plagg. Seriously."
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"Tikki, tonight was definitely not as much of a disaster as I thought it would be."
Marinette had awoken as the sunlight that filtered through the windows started hitting her eyes. Groaning as she tried to escape from the glaring sunrays to no avail. "Marinette, perhaps you should just wake up, it's past 11 and your phone has been ringing for a while now."
"That's probably just Alya, I just want to sleep." Pulling the bed sheets up her head, she turned around and laid with her back turned to Tikki. "Actually, the contact's name shows that it's Adrien calling."
"Wha?" she groaned as she turned around to face the kwami. "Adrien? No, he wouldn't call me like that." With a sigh, Tikki flew closer to her holder, "Usually, perhaps, but you guys have a project together maybe it's about that."
"Oh no, the project! Did we ever agree on when we'd meet?" the tiny god shook her head, watching her holder get up from the bed, almost fall when her legs got tangled with the sheets.
"Where's my phone?" Marinette turned around, seeing Tikki carrying it to give it to her. "Thanks Tikki."
The notification of two missed calls and five texts from Adrien glared back at her. She opened their chat, and read his texts. "What is it?"
"He just wants to meet today for the project, apparently he'll be free after his photoshoot, which ends at, wait let me see, around 12." She looked up at the hour on her phone, eyes shooting open when she saw that it was a quarter to 12:00. "Fuck! Tikki! He'll get here soon, I need to take off everything." She walked down the loft, stopping when she remembered that she didn't have to do anything. Her room was bare of any photos of Adrien, and the schedule she had had no longer resides on her ceiling.
"You don't have anything incriminating anymore."
"Right, I forgot. Guess I was used to taking those posters down a lot." She turned around and headed for the bathroom, Tikki following close by with a worried look. "Marinette, are you okay? You didn't talk about what happened yesterday, I think you should." Looking at her worried kwami, Marinette felt bad for not speaking about things with her. "Sorry, I had just wanted to talk about it with Chat, and I guess I've been bottling it up for now."
"You know I'll be here for you whenever you need and even when you think you don't." Marinette felt her chest constrict in gratefulness and love for her kwami, as she walked up to the floating being who landed on her opened palms with ease. "Tikki, thank you. I will, but after Adrien is gone."
"No, you know it'll be better if you talk about it before Adrien comes." Pointing at the phone that now laid on her counter, "Tell him to come around 12:30."
"But-" With crossed arms the kwami shook her head, "No buts, now go clean yourself." Marinette followed her kwami's commands as though it were her mother giving them. Sending a quick text letting the blond know before hopping in the shower."
Once all washed and dressed up, Marinette took a seat at her chaise with Tikki by her side. "I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but I didn't because I assume nothing I would say could change your mind."
"Okay, what is it?" The kwami floated up to stare at her holder in the face. "Why did you accept to go on that double date? You knew it wasn't going to be as nice as Adrien thought it would be. Even Kagami gave you the choice of saying no, you had full control of it, so why say yes?"
"I- I just wanted to give myself a push to finally get over my feelings for Adrien."
"Well that was foolish, you can't force that kind of thing, you'll end up hurting yourself."
"Perhaps, but now I know he truly sees me just as a friend, and I realized that that's fine, it hurts now a bit but it won't in the future, I can tell." Tikki looked her, a frown making its presence known.
"Marinette…"
"It'll be alright, every time I remind myself or he says that we're just friends, it hurts a little less. In fact, yesterday I would like to call a success in some level, I think." She cringed as she reminded that moment she had been about to cry, not her best moment by far. "You think?"
"Yeah, I was able to be around Kagami and Adrien without wallowing completely in my self-pity." Nodding along with her words, Tikki landed on her shoulder with a cheeky smile. "I guess that is an improvement."
"Marinette honey, Adrien is here." What? Was it 12:30 already? "Go, Tikki, hide." She took a final look at her room, before going down the stairs to greet her friend. She found him on the couch, staring at the television that was showing some news. "Adrien." He turned around at the call, a smile on his face as he stood up to greet her. "Marinette, sorry. I got here at 12, and then I read your message so I told your mom not to call you until now."
"It's okay, I haven't had breakfast yet, so can you wait a bit more?" Her maman approached the two teens, a plate in hand. "Don't worry honey, I just heated up your breakfast, you can just have it upstairs." Taking the plate in hand, she gave her thanks.
"Let's go then." She walked up to her room, putting all her focus so as to not drop her plate, the blond following closely. Shet set her plate on her desk, before sitting down, turning around, only to be surprised by the sight of a very comfortable blond on her chaise body slouched comfortably, as if this we're a normal Saturday afternoon for him.
"Already getting comfortable?" She teased as she saw him suddenly sit straight up. "Sorry, it's just uhh-"
"It's okay, I'm glad you're feeling comfortable, but we need to talk about that project."
"Just eat for now, I can wait a few minutes." Nodding, she turned around and munched down on her croissant with berry jelly and scrambled eggs. "Your room hasn't changed much since th last time I came over here."
"Actually I got a new seat for my computer." She pointed towards the chair she sat on, "Oh, that wasn't there the last time I came here?" she found odd the way he had worded out the sentence, perhaps he hadn't noticed how her old chair looked.
"Yeah, this one more comfortable, I keep the old one around just in case someone else comes by." She took another bite, as he quirked up his brow, "Someone? Who?" Oh, just Chat Noir.
"Alya, Luka too if he ever fells like it. When it's the girls we usually just sit down on the floor and the chaise." He smirked as he looked around her room. "That's cool, anyone else?" She glared at him playfully, "No." With that, she turned around to finish eating in silence.
Once she had finished eating, they started talking about the project, dividing responsibilities and deciding what angle they would take. "Okay, now that that's done, do you think we need to meet any more, we could revise the day before and make sure everything's okay." Adrien looked up at her from his notes, "I actually think it's best we meet at least two times more. Make sure we're searching for what we really need."
"Are you sure? You must be busy." He shrugged before leaning back on his arms putting his palms against the floor. "Doesn't mean I'm going to let my partner carry all the work for me, I can do it. Trust me."
"If you say so." She took her phone, looking at the hour. "It's a quarter past five, have you eaten?"
"Not since breakfast." She could practically hear his stomach rumble as he admitted his carelessness. "Adrien! You should've eaten before coming here, you can't be doing that!" She stood up swiftly, offering her hand to the stunned blond after she had practically scolded him. "Come on, I'm making us something now. Is pasta okay?"
"Pasta's perfect." He took her hand as she helped him up, before taking her hand away. She opened the trapdoor that lead to the living area of the house, before turning towards the kitchen taking out all the pans and ingredients she would need.
"You can sit to watch television, or you could help me if you want to." He walked till he reached her side, "I'll help you, just guide me through it." Taking the biggest pot, she handed it to him. "Fill this up to three quarters of the way, and put it on the stove. Be careful, it's going to be heavy." With a nod, he turned around and started to fill the pan.
She took out the parmesan, cream, butter and a garlic head to make the alfredo sauce. "Do you like your fettuccini alfredo with or without chicken?" She heard a grunt as Adrien moved the pan on top of the stove.
"With." She nodded before taking out some chicken to cook. After seasoning it, she took out a pan and let it cook. Moving towards pot, she turned on the stove, adding a good measure of salt and letting it reach a boil, before adding the pasta. "Set a timer on your phone for 8 mins, then I'll check if it's molto al dente, then we can transfer it to the sauce."
"Woah, you know quite a bit." She shrugged, "It's not much honestly."
She took a wide pan, adding the butter with the cream, letting it simmer while she minced the garlic.
"Oh, honey. What are you doing cooking? I was coming upstairs to do just that." With a look at her maman, she gestured towards Adrien. "This rascal hasn't since breakfast, I couldn't leave him starving, I'm making for all of us. Hope you're okay with fettuccini alfredo, maman."
"That's perfect, thank you honey. Need any help?" Without taking her eyes off as she cut she shook her head lightly, "No, mama. We're doing good, thank you."
"Okay dear, just let me know. I'll be down helping your father with that new recipe he's been trying to master." She left, leaving the two alone once again, concentrated on making a delicious dinner.
Tossing in the garlic to the pan with the sauce in progress. She turned towards the blond that stood in a corner awkwardly, the alarm from his phone sounding off. "Adrien, can you grate the parmesan for me, while I check the pasta." She took a bite, the pasta just about a tad undercooked. "Okay, Adrien, help me move this pot to the sink to drain it, carefully, okay?" She passed him some mitts so that he wouldn't get burnt while carrying the heavy pot.
She stared at him as he moved towards the corner, where the sink laid prepped with a strainer. "Carefully tip it over. Just like that." Suddenly she saw his grip on the pot falter, making her react suddenly, grabbing the pot with her bare hands as the hot water dripped down to the floor, most of it missing Adrien. She screamed the moment her hands made contact, having forgotten to put on gloves herself, dropping the pot carelessly on the sink. "Marinette!" She held her hands closely to her chest, the skin bright red and sensitive.
"Run it under water, quick! Should I call your mom?" She hissed in pain as the cool water hit her skin, effectively calming down the burning sensation. "No, it's fine. Can you go up to my garden and bring me some aloe? That'll help calm down the burn." He ran so quickly up her stairs that she felt whiplash just from following his action.
Now, where were those bandages her mom had bought a year ago? She walked to the small closet in the living room, wondering whether she should try opening it and rummaging through with her hands like they were now, or wait till Adrien came by.
"What are you doing?" The voice startled her as she tried to open it, "Trying to search for some bandages." Leaving the aloe leaf on top of the table, he rushed to her side. "I'll do it."
"They should be on the second shelf, just below the alcohol." He turned around, a roll of adhesive bandages in hand. "What's next?"
"I'll add a bit of aloe to my hands, perhaps some cream also, then bandage it. Could you help me with that? I don't think I'd be able to wrap it well"
"Yeah, I'll help you." After applying the gel from the aloe leaf, she gave her hand up to Adrien who had the bandage roll ready to wrap around her burns. "They're not too bad, I think." He stared at her, frown in place. "We'll see how bad it is later on, one can't tell when it's fresh." He looked down at her hand that still wasn't bandaged, lost in thought.
"I'm sorry." He looked away from her hand, while avoiding her gaze that now stay trained on him.
"What?"
"It's my fault, you got burned because I wasn't careful, even though you reminded me multiple times." Shaking her head, she tried lifting her hand, but deciding against it when the slight movement stung. "It's not your fault. It was dumb of me to grab it; I was the one without gloves."
"no, if I hadn't been careless you'd still be fine, gloves or not." She sighed as she nudged him to make him look at her, grin in place as he finally looked up at her. "Then, let's to agree to disagree. We're both at fault." He shook his head stubbornly, sighing she gestured towards the bandages, "Come one, blondie. You still got some bandaging to do."
Once she had been done bandaging, she supervised Adrien as he finished the rest of their meal, albeit a tad clumsily. "How will you eat with those on?" She stared at her bandages and tried moving her hands, finding that it didn't hurt as much as it did initially. "Doesn't hurt as bad, I think it'll be fine."
Her parents walked into the house, surprise clear in their faces as they looked at the complete dinner cooked by the pair of teens. A loud gasp was heard when they saw Marinette's bandaged hands. "Marinette, what happened?"
"Got burned for grabbing the pot when it was about to fall, it was really hot, so…" She lifted her hands to make a point. "Honey, you must be careful when in the kitchen."
"I know, I'll be careful next time." Sitting down at the table, they proceeded to eat, giving small compliments for the food here and there. After dinner, they all talked back and forth about everything and anything until Adrien's driver came around to pick him up.
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Adrien had just about reached his house when he ran to his room, mind set on visiting Marinette tonight despite just leaving her house. It had been an amazing evening with Marinette treating him like a friend. "Planning to go to visit Pigtails so quickly?" He turned to stare at the grinning kwami that was downing another slice of cheese.
"You don't have a problem with that, right? I know you've been hiding most of today, and then to make you transform," sitting down on his bed he sighed, "it'd be pretty inconsiderate of me, right?" Plagg stared at him as he ate, "I should probably start doing my part in the project."
He walked up to his computer, swiftly taking out his notes from his bag, decided on dutifully doing his part. After five minutes of searching on the internet, he turned to Plagg. "Do you think Marinette will be able to do her work for the project properly? I mean, her hands are all bandaged up. I should go there and offer her my help, as Chat Noir obviously. Don't think she'd let me do more work than what we agreed on."
"Kid, she was totally fine, she was even able to eat." Turning his chair around to stare at his kwami he sighed as he remembered the bright red of her skin. "Okay, but she'll have to type to be able to research and write on her computer, that requires much more movement. I won't let her do it."
"Gosh, what are you? Her father?" Adrien sputtered as he tried to reply to his kwami's outrageous comment. "No! I just feel guilty. I'm the reason why she'll be in pain."
"Yeah, I bet you'd feel even more guilty if you knew," Plagg coughed as he realized mid-sentence what he was about to say. "If I knew what?"
"That she can't draw her designs for a few days now! if typing is so difficult then holding a pen must hurt quite a bit." Adrien groaned before turning around and bumping his head on his desk, one time, two times. "I'm such an idiot, she's super nice to me, offers to make me food and how do I repay her? I make her unable to do the thing she's most passionate about."
"Don't beat yourself up for it, you know what? How about Chat Noir goes and visits her? Think that'll help uhh, calm you down." Adrien turned to look at the kwami with big eyes and a grin, "Really?" Plagg begrudgingly nodded, as Adrien threw his hand into the air, before calling out his transformation.
It felt freeing as his hair whipped around as the air bit into his skin, but he was too happy to be out running after a few days of not going out like this, he didn't mind it at all. Although his end goal was to go to the Dupain-Cheng home, he took the long route, stopping at the Eiffel Tower first to enjoy the feelings of the night breeze. Part of him hoped he'd run into Ladybug, he hadn't seen her in a while, and he missed fighting alongside her.
After twenty minutes, he decided the chilly air was getting a bit too much, especially when his partner was nowhere to be seen. With a huff, he started his path towards is original destination. He stopped at the building adjacent the bakery, realizing that the light was turned off. "Guess she's asleep, huh. It's only eight though." Suddenly, the light from her room turned on, "Must have been downstairs." He chuckled lowly before smiling as he vaulted himself to her balcony, making sure he made enough noise to let her know of his presence.
He knocked on the trapdoor, slightly opening it so she wouldn't have to go up to let him in. "Can I go in?"
"Chat? Yeah, it's fine. Come on in." He dropped himself on top of her bed, careful to not let his boots touch the bed itself. "It's a perfect time for you to come, I have this movie I really want to watch but I can't brave myself to watch it alone." She walked up to him, head down reading something on her phone. "It's said to be pretty scary." She finally looked up at him, a gleam of mischief in her eyes. "What do you think?" He tried to avoid staring at her bandages, considering Chat wasn't supposed to know.
"No games tonight?" He tried to fake a pout as he kept his gaze fixed on her face. "Can't, Kitty." She lifted up her hands up to his eye level, he stared at her hands, still feeling his gut clench uncomfortably at the thought of hurting one of his friends. "What happened?" He took her hands in his, turning it so that the palm faced him.
"Oh, just a little accident in the kitchen." He looked up at her, waiting for her to tell him the whole story. Instead, she took her hand away and turned to her computer. "It's nothing important. Do you prefer to watch the movie on the computer and the desk chairs or on my bed with my phone?"
"We could lay on the floor with some pillows." Her face lighted up at the idea, quickly running up the loft to grab her pillows and the blanket, alongside her cat plush.
They both got uncomfortable as the movie started playing, but Adrien couldn't stop thinking about how she had dismissed the accident. He thought he told everything, or almost everything to Chat, guess not.
Once the movie had been finished they both stretched out their limbs tiredly. "Well, that was terrible." He looked at her as she laid back down on the little pillow bed. "What do you mean? The action was cool, and the CGI was decent." She stared at him incredulously. "You're kidding, right?" Propping herself on her elbow as she turned on her belly, the position leaving a clearer view of each other.
"The story sucked, what was up with that love square anyways? Totally uncalled for." He shrugged, "It was actually a love hexagon."
"Chat, that's like the least important thing. It was supposed to be a zombie film, right? And it ended up being a weird romance. Like who the hell has a kiss while your boyfriend is being eaten alive? And it wasn't even with her boyfriend. Scary, my ass."
"Yeah, you are scary." She glared at him, thick lashes fluttering as her eyes dug holes at him. "Are you sure we watched the right film?"
"Yeah, the reviews said 'Fight with the Living Dead'"
"But we watched 'Light with the Living Dead'" She scrambled up to look at the movie title at the ending credits. "No, you got to be kidding me. I just wasted our time with this thing. Terrible, honestly. Also, that movie title still doesn't make any sense."
She sat down next to him, laying back as her head hit the cat plushy. "Still, it's kind of sad, don't you think? When they couldn't be together, because they we're too blind to see what was in front of them."
"Well, it was truly ironic the way it all happened." Marinette suddenly stood up, a smile graced her lips. "Do you want to go outside and drink hot chocolate?" His gaze followed her as she moved to leave the room. "Sure, that'd be lovely."
When she came back, she had a a thermos tucked under her arm, with a cup held under the other. "Only one cup?" she nodded as she gestured at the blanket on the floor, "Yeah, my mom's still awake, couldn't bring two cups without raising suspicion. Bring the blanket with you."
She climbed up the loft, as he grabbed the blanket following after her. Once they we're settled at the balcony, blanket wrapped warmly around them, she turned to him. "You're probably wondering why I suddenly wanted to go up here." He was, in fact, curious on the sudden change. "I just wanted to see the stars, and I had a question for you." She grabbed the thermos, serving the small mug with a bit of hot chocolate.
"What is it?" Marinette laid down, as she looked up at the stars, bringing him down as the blanket pulled down on him. He felt her hand reached towards him in a loose hold.
"Chat, do you still love Ladybug even though you have a girlfriend?" He moved to look at her, a ruffling sound following his movements, he gazed at her, wishing in that moment that he could read her thoughts.
"Why do you ask?" She sighed deeply, almost shakily. "I feel like I can't fully stop loving him even though I'm with Luka."
"There's some loves that we sometimes can't forget." He knew about impossible loves more than he'd like to admit. He often wondered if this was the type of love his parents used to have. Perhaps that was why his father was so cold, he supposed losing the love of your life can do that.
"Have you?"
"Forgotten her? No, it's just technically, to get over someone the most ideal is to be able to get some space away from them, but I can't for obvious reasons. I don't want to push myself to just push back these feelings and then years down the road still be having the same problems just because I put a stopper inside a pressure cooker and then if I try to deal with it later, it'll blow up in my face, you know?"
"You mean, ignoring the problems and just carrying that baggage until it becomes impossible to manage, right?" Oh, that was a much more eloquent way to express what he said.
"Yeah, and it's not my girlfriends fault, no matter how much she tries to hide it, I know she feels a bit guilty. But it's no ones' fault. Not mine, much less Ladybug's." He didn't dare bringing up the matter with Kagami, but he could tell she felt guilty for something, every time she kissed him on the cheek or every time she tried to get closer to his lips, he could feel it. There was no hesitation in her actions, but instead a slight remorse after the action was done.
"I feel guilty sometimes too, I feel like I'm using Luka even though I genuinely like him. But it's different, you know? I like him, perhaps even love him, but I'm not in love with him. Do you feel that way too?"
"Yeah, like it feels okay with my girlfriend. I feel at ease with her, and I'm able to kiss her so that's something, but that's about it." More like let her kiss me, or should he call it almost kissing?
"How is being able to kiss her something important?"
"Well, I never thought I'd ever be able to do that with anyone else." The only person he'd ever wanted to kiss was Ladybug, and although he apparently had, he didn't remember it.
"That's a ridiculous thought."
He laughed loudly, "Thanks, you should have told that to old me." She tsked at this. "It's not like I could have told that to civilian you."
"But it's a nice thought, don't you think?" He smiled widely as she turned her head to look at him, "my best friend telling me to stop being such an idiot, would have been nice" she shifted and got closer to him, and tried to steal a little bit of his warmth. Wouldn't have pegged her as a warmth thief.
"I definitely would've knocked some sense into you." A grin graced both of their lips before she stood up and continued drinking from the not-so-hot hot chocolate. "You want some?"
"Hell yeah." He took the offered mug from her hand, drinking from the opposite side to where she had drank from.
I genuinely believe Adrien would be the kind of person that doesn't know how to distinguish platonic love from romantic love. And in my opinion (and in this story) he does love Marinette, just not romantically… yet. Anyways, did anyone say Adrienette? Lol
Disclaimer: I have no idea how to cook pasta, I just googled searched and that's it, sorry haha
This chapter originally stopped at the Adrienette dinner, but I couldn't post (no electricity, no wifi T-T), so I just kept writing to fill up the time, but the Marichat scene was planned out to be in the next chapter anyways.
P.S. these two are idiots, and I love them for it.