MiraculElse #24: Down to the Last Detail
by DFC
(Timeline: Season 4, or whenever.)
"This time, I've gotcha."
"Keep telling yourself that."
Adrien grinned, knowing just how much false bravado was in his challenge to Marinette... and how clearly she knew that, as the two of them traded blows in their console fighting game. He was keeping each round competitive enough for them to at least remain interesting, though how much of that was his own talent and how much was Marinette's generous nature was up for debate.
Still, this isn't about winning or losing, smiled Adrien, as he stole a glance at his companion. I'm winning just being here today, I think.
Free time wasn't proving any easier for him to obtain... but he was becoming more convinced with each visit of whom he most wanted to spend it with. And while there were so many aspects of Marinette that he still hadn't quite figured out, she always seemed happy to see him, even sounding a bit surprised each time he called to see if she was available and would like some company.
So, a quiet afternoon like this, just the two of them, enjoying themselves in peace and harmony... this was nice. This was easy. This was how Adrien felt like things should be.
Even if she was splattering his online avatar into a million fragments, over and over.
Of course, like most good things in life, it couldn't last indefinitely.
The two of them looked away from the television screen as they heard footsteps approach, then saw her mother's head pop through the door to Marinette's room.
"Marinette... can I steal you away for a couple of minutes?" Sabine asked.
"Seriously?" Marinette asked. Her silent head-tilt towards Adrien, shouting out LOOK WHO I'M WITH, went unnoticed by him but not by her mother.
"You know that I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't very important," she apologized. "We are swamped downstairs, and your father needs an extra pair of hands in the kitchen for something delicate he's working on, and I can't step away from the storefront to help him. It'll be ten minutes, perhaps... please?"
"Of course," sighed Marinette, grudgingly. "You know that there's no way I'd say 'no,' if it's that important." She sat her controller down on her chair and stood up.
"Is it anything that I could help with, too?" Adrien wondered.
"Not really, Adrien... but it's very nice of you to ask," answered Sabine. "This'll take a little bit of baking knowledge, and, well..."
"...I have that, and you don't," Marinette finished. "Can you hang out here by yourself for a few minutes? I'll be back as soon as I'm able."
"Absolutely," he smiled. "Do what you need to do."
As can happen with minor emergencies... five minutes turned into ten rather easily, and then some.
Adrien stood up, stretched his arms... and then decided to stretch his legs as well, taking a lap around Marinette's room to admire her sense of decor.
Stop snooping around, one part of his brain started insisting.
I'm not snooping. I'm just... admiring, the rest of it yelled. If I was snooping, I'd be climbing the ladder to her bed to see if my picture was still on her wall, for instance.
You've stood on tiptoes twice so far, trying to see that from down here, the first part snickered. Yes, there's at least one hanging up there!
Ah, shut it, already. You want to know more about her as much as I do.
A tiny pair of eyes hovered out of Adrien's line-of-sight, keeping an eye on his wandering. Their owner noted, with approval, that Adrien was behaving himself; the sanctity of Marinette's bed remained intact, for example. Dresser drawers and closet doors that were closed remained closed. Hands stayed away from computer keyboards and mice that might reveal a potentially embarrassing side of a young woman's browser history.
As Adrien approached a small desk, he noticed a spiral notebook sitting on it... and as he picked it up, Tikki barely suppressed a horrified squeak.
Oh, no, no, no, worried Tikki. HOW could she have left THAT out in the open, today of all days?
As it happens, it wasn't the diary that Marinette had briefly kept of her doings as Ladybug... but Tikki knew that Marinette would rather that Adrien had found that one.
Huh, mused Adrien. I wonder what this is?
The notebook was unassuming at first glance; it was red, spiral-bound, and had a large heart drawn onto the front of it. Inside the heart was the word "Someday" in cursive script. The edges of the pages were slightly uneven, suggesting that it had been well-used and thumbed-through.
I've never seen her with that notebook at school. So it's probably not for History class, I'd wager...
It might be some of her clothing designs! he realized. She doesn't show those to anyone very often... at least not to me... though I've been very complimentary of all the fashion designs of hers that I HAVE seen. Maybe 'Someday' means what she hopes to create once she's a famous designer...
...But that doesn't feel right to me. Why the big heart on the front, then?
Ohhhh...
Maybe it's something to do...
...with the guy that she keeps telling Chat Noir about, the one she has a big crush on? Or did, anyway? I'm pretty sure that she still does and she's kind of in denial about it, from the way she talks about him.
A part of him frowned at the thought. I should leave this alone, he thought, retracting his hand. If I snoop on this, and it is what I'm thinking it is... I'm being a bad friend. If she wanted me to know, she'd just tell me. She's very direct about things like that, matters of the heart, when she wants to be.
Though I AM super-curious! another part of him admitted. If I'm interested in Marinette... and I have to say that I am... wouldn't it at least help to know whom I'm competing with?
Besides... I bet it's about Luka, he reasoned. That would make the most sense. Especially if she's been writing in it for a while... and I know that Luka's had a thing for her for months now.
Oh, I don't know what to do. I might never get another chance to see this... and if I ask Marinette directly, she might get anxious and throw it in the Seine or her safety-deposit box or something, he argued with himself. What's that saying that Plagg always says? 'Ask forgiveness, not permission?'
Do I dare?
MARINETTE...! Tikki fretted, from her vantage point on the ceiling. Whatever it is that they have you doing, hurry up! Or your life is about to change, in a very big way!
She watched as Adrien reached out... then pulled his hand back... then slowly inched it forward once more.
He's thinking about it. Thinking so hard that I can almost smell the smoke from his ears, smiled Tikki. And this would create some potential problems... but solve some, too.
Adrien's hand touched the cover...
...flipped it open, very gently...
...and then lurched backwards, as did the rest of him, as if Adrien had been electrocuted by its touch.
Well, here we go, thought Tikki. Not much chance of turning back now.
She watched Adrien return to the book, his eyes wide and his hand shaking a bit... and she flew downwards.
Marinette, I'm sorry, and I'll explain this to you later... but you will THANK me later for what I'm about to do for you!
I'm hallucinating.
I've gone completely mad.
Did I just see... what I thought..!
Slowly... as if the skies had just parted in front of him and the heavens themselves were beckoning... Adrien stepped forward to reexamine the first page.
It was still there.
It... was an intricately-drawn heart, one that substantial work had gone into detailing with gold trim, an arrow of Cupid piercing it delicately, and many other delicate features. It was obvious that its creator had spent substantial time on it, returning to it on many occasions to enhance one portion of it or another.
And the ornate script in the middle, the most intricate part of the entire work... spelling out MARINETTE & ADRIEN before his astonished eyes?
That was the lightning bolt to the center of Adrien Agreste's young soul.
With a trembling hand, wondering what could possibly follow that... Adrien turned the page.
The next drawing was a simpler one, a black-and-white pencil sketch. The subject was a certain blond schoolboy, sitting at his desk in a familiar classroom; he was half-turned in his seat, looking up and back at the artist with a gentle smile on his face.
I don't remember posing for that, Adrien smiled... but there's no mistaking whose point-of-view that's from.
Page three was Marinette's rendition of her slow-dance with Adrien at Chloe's party... after Alya's less-than-subtle readjustments of their closeness. He remembered Marinette's hesitation... his encouragement of her with his smile... and what it felt like when she melted into his embrace, her head on his shoulder, gentle trembling that he'd sworn that he'd felt from her hands.
Did Alya know? he wondered. She had to have... and she was helping Marinette express... what she couldn't say?
But why couldn't Marinette have told me?
He started turning pages more rapidly, conscious of Marinette's imminent return... and stared in awe at memory after memory from his time knowing Marinette. Some of them he remembered well. Some were embellishments that he wished could be real... like the drawing of Marinette's cheek kiss at the picnic, with a follow-up of him kissing her back in a more romantic way. Some were pure fantasy; he saw himself hand-in-hand with Marinette in travels around the world, strolls through secluded places, snapping a love-lock onto a familiar bridge, moonlit embraces on a rooftop.
They kept going and going. He saw himself kneeling before her... then Marinette leaping into his outstretched arms, overwhelmed with joy. Wedding scenes. Marinette being carried over the threshold of a rather nice house. Children... Emma, Hugo, Louis? Nice names, the remaining rational part of his mind smiled. And a HAMSTER! So cute! It's as if she could read my mind.
If only I could have read hers, all this time...
A small voice spoke up, unexpectedly.
"Freeze. Don't make a move, Adrien. Don't make a sound."
Caught in the act, unable to process much of anything in the moment, Adrien did as he was told.
"Listen to me, Adrien. I need to speak with you, quickly," the voice said, emanating from somewhere close behind his head, pitched high enough to evade familiarity. "But I can't let you see me."
"Okay..." he murmured, cautiously.
"First off... take a breath. You're not in trouble. I'm not going to do anything to stop you, okay?" it continued. "I just... this is a very delicate situation. I need to talk with you before Marinette gets back. It will go much better for both of you if you're calm about what you've found, and not freaking out when she returns. Once you're on your own, freaking out remains an option."
"You're... not Marinette," Adrien gasped, stating the obvious.
"No. I'm..."
Tikki paused.
"I'm her Kwami."
Adrien nodded. "I know what that is. Are you... yeah, you'd have to be. You're the Mouse Kwami?"
"Yes," Tikki giggled, relieved that Adrien had made that particular connection on his own. "My name is Mullo. It's nice to meet you. But don't turn around!"
"I knew it," declared Adrien. "I just knew it! Ladybug had to let Marinette have a Miraculous again! She was so great as Multimouse the first time-"
"Adrien... close your mouth, please," Tikki interrupted. "We might only have seconds before Marinette comes back. We have to do this quickly!"
"O-okay."
"All right. Adrien... I need you to understand something. Two things. One is that... well, obviously... the imagination of a teenage girl is a powerful thing," Tikki declared. "I don't want you to get scared off by what you've just seen, okay? She's not... stalking you, and she's not going to throw a sack over your head and drag you off. She's still rather innocent. Many young women fantasize about things like this. The ones that are just daydreams for now... are just daydreams."
"I understand that," Adrien replied. "I do, honest. If you could look into my imagination... well... it wouldn't be too much different."
"About Ladybug?" asked Tikki. "And don't hide it. Kwamis know things, and we talk to each other. Ladybug doesn't know about that crush of yours... but her Kwami does."
"For a long time... about Ladybug, yes," acknowledged Adrien. "And if you've talked to one Kwami in particular... you'll understand why."
"I do know why," Tikki confirmed. "Keep going, please."
"Marinette's been someone special to me since the day that we met," Adrien continued. "Someone that I could never quite figure out, entirely... but the most wonderful mystery to me in most ways. And she's been on my mind more and more lately... I promise you that. If I'm shaking right now, it's not because I don't want those feelings that I just saw to end up being real."
He hesitated, then admitted, "She... does have a very vivid imagination, I have to say. Like... wow! But I see where you're going with this... and I'm not running for the hills."
"Then I have one more thing to tell you, Adrien... and I hope that you take this seriously. Like I said, daydreams are daydreams. But the feelings behind them... the way that she thinks about you... she is very sincere. She adores you in so many ways. Your friendship is just one of them, though that is very important to her, too."
"What you choose to do with that information... that's up to you now, and you shouldn't feel pressured by what you know. You're not obligated to feel any particular way about her," Tikki continued. "Just know that you have her heart in your hands... and hearts can be very fragile sometimes. So, no matter what you end up deciding... treat that with care."
Tikki fluttered up and away as she added, "But I do suggest that you close the book, at least, before she comes back."
"I will. I just need to do one thing first." As he picked up a pencil, he smiled, "Thank you, Mullo. I hope that we'll meet again soon."
"Oh, I have a feeling that we might," Tikki laughed, before ducking out of range.
The sound of rapid footsteps jarred Adrien back into awareness. He closed the notebook, replaced it where he'd found it, and took his seat once more.
"I am... so sorry, Adrien!" Marinette panted as she reached the doorway. "I... uh..."
"It's fine! It really is," Adrien comforted her. "Come, sit down, catch your breath!"
"Thank you," she gasped, fanning herself gently. "That was... quite a thing. Papa was working on something really big and intricate, and one part of it started falling apart just a little. So he needed to do some repair work on it while keeping the rest of it steady, and he couldn't mix ingredients and do detail work at the same time, and if it had collapsed that would have been so much time and effort lost..."
"Marinette... I swear, it's fine, I understand," he beamed. "I'm very happy that you could spare the time to help him. Maybe... even happier than you know."
"Um... what?" wondered Marinette, then shrugged it off. "All right. Anyway, I'm back. We can... Adrien, is everything all right? You're kind of giving me a funny look."
"Ah! I am? I didn't... um... I wasn't trying to... I mean..." he stammered, before his enchanted expression turned back into his everyday smile. "I'm sorry. I'm just... distracted."
"Well, don't get too distracted," she smiled, picking up her controller once more. "Or you really won't stand a chance against me."
I don't plan to, Adrien thought. Though I think that she means 'in the game.'
"Are you sure that you're all right, Adrien?" Marinette wondered, after a while. "We were pretty evenly matched earlier... well, kind of. But I just tried to throw that last round to you, and you still lost!"
"Y-you did?" blinked Adrien. "I didn't notice."
"Adrien," Marinette lectured him. "I whiffed on my super combo three times in a row, right in front of you. I was wide open. My mother could've knocked me out of that."
"I'm sorry," he apologized, setting his controller down. "I don't know what's gotten into me. Something unexpected, I guess."
"I'm serious," she replied, setting her own down as well. "We don't have to keep playing this, if you're not into it. Is there something else that you'd rather be doing?"
A vision flashed before Adrien's eyes from the notebook's pages. Marinette and I, up on her balcony, lounge chairs pushed next to each other. Turned to face each other, leaning in, about to kiss...
"Wait... are you..." Marinette trailed off.
He is TOTALLY blushing! she realized.
"I'm... I totally wasn't thinking about..." stammered Adrien.
"I didn't... that's not what... I was... uh..." Marinette replied, looking just as embarrassed.
"Obviously," Adrien blurted out. "I knew that you didn't mean..."
"I couldn't have... or..."
The word "...unless?" floated through the air, with neither of them reaching out to claim it.
"No, what I meant was," Marinette recovered, "is there something that you'd want to talk about, maybe?" Studying him, she noted, "You don't seem like something's bothering you, exactly. More like... it's something good distracting you! But I can't place what it is."
"Maybe... we could take a short walk together, or something?" suggested Adrien. "Or we could-"
His phone binged at him, abruptly, interrupting his train of thought.
"Arrrgh," he groaned. "Father needs me home for something. My driver's on his way, and with the way he drives, he should be here any minute."
"Then I will take a short walk with you," Marinette smiled. "Down to the front curb, at least."
As predicted, the Gorilla's arrival was prompt and came with expectations of rapid movement.
"I'll see you at school tomorrow, right?" said Marinette.
"Of-of course you will," Adrien breathed. "And I'm sure that I'll be up for a while tonight, so if there's something that... jumps out at you, or for us to talk about... I'll be available."
"...Okay?" she answered with a slight hesitation, weighing what (if anything) she should be reading into that invitation. "Thank you for coming over. And I'm sorry about that interruption, again."
"Don't be."
Adrien debated whether or not a hug was appropriate... or if he dared consider leaning in for a kiss to her cheek... or if both of those would be overreaching... and ended up looking more as if he was either jogging in place or failing to remember the steps to this month's latest teen dance craze. For her part, Marinette went with her customary wave and a vague, but slowly growing sense of unease at Adrien's odd reactions.
On her way back through the bakery, Sabine called out to her. "Thank you so much," she repeated. "You saved your father a gigantic headache today. I hope that it didn't mess up your day with Adrien."
Marinette paused. "I'm very glad that I could help," she also repeated. "And it didn't mess things up. In fact... I'm a little bit confused. It almost seemed to... help?"
She described Adrien's curious behavior after she returned to her room. "I... wasn't complaining, I don't think," she mused. "But it was as if he hadn't seen me in a month, or something. He kept staring at me, like..."
"...Like you've been known to stare at him?" smiled Sabine, knowingly.
"No, not like that," Marinette parried. "I mean, really. I couldn't even imagine Adrien's sweet face all goony, with his eyes glazed and his mouth kind of... hanging open... and... um..."
"Of course not," her mother agreed, leaving it at that. "Maybe he found your picture of him by your bedside?"
"He knows that's there. We, er, talked about that once," said Marinette. "I don't think that there's anything else up there that would be... too incriminating..."
"I like to think so! I raised my daughter right," Sabine grinned.
Her daughter abruptly took off running. "I'll be down again in a little bit!" she called as she ran.
"Uh-oh," Sabine noted to herself. "Maybe she did leave her diary out, or something?"
Marinette's brain screamed at her as she dashed up the stairs.
Please let him not have found Tikki.
Please let him not have found the Miracle Box.
Please let none of the other Kwamis have come out to say 'Hi!'
Please let him not have found Tikki.
Please let him not have found the Miracle Box.
Please let none of the other Kwamis have come out to say 'Hi!'...
Once again, Marinette skidded into the center of her bedroom.
"Okay..." she gasped. "I'm alone. Tikki... did anything strange happen while I was down-"
She turned to see Tikki floating over her desk, looking... startled.
"-stairs?"
Panic filled Marinette in an instant. "This can't have happened. You're not about to tell me that Adrien figured out that I'm Ladybug, are you?"
"No, no... nothing quite like that," said Tikki, quietly. "He was actually very well-behaved. He looked around your room, but he was polite about it. Your dresser, your closet, your computer desk drawer all stayed closed; he didn't go rooting into anything."
"Whew," breathed Marinette, visibly relieved.
"The only thing that he did look over that you should be aware of... was something that you left out in the open. And I have to assume that you didn't do it on purpose."
Marinette followed Tikki's pointing finger down to a certain notebook... then clapped both hands over her own mouth to suppress the EAR-PIERCING SHRIEK!
"Are you all right up there?" she heard Sabine call from the bakery.
"Y-yes, Mama!" Marinette made herself yell back. "I just... stubbed my toe really bad."
"Ouch," Sabine sympathized. "Be careful!"
"Tikki," gasped Marinette. "I didn't."
"You did," Tikki confirmed. "He didn't dig it out of your closet, or anything like that. It was just lying there."
"I was drawing in it this morning, adding a little bit to the picnic scene... but I put it back at the bottom of my closet when I was done, didn't I? I'm just sure that I did!"
"I don't remember seeing you do that. I assumed that you had!" said Tikki. "I was just as shocked as you to see it there today."
"And you're going to tell me that Adrien... peeked at it?" asked Marinette, her eyes closing tightly.
"If... well... 'peeked' means 'went cover-to-cover.' He was fighting with himself whether to sneak a look at it, whatever it was... but once he saw the first page, the pages kept turning."
Three... two... one... Tikki counted down.
Marinette's spiral of despair went about as well as Tikki had predicted. It's amazing how many different ways that girl can work the word 'disaster' into a sentence, she mused.
Approaching the wailing ball of girl in the corner that was her friend and host, Tikki prodded at her forehead, quite gently. "Can you hear me?" Tikki asked her.
"Uh-huh," Marinette whispered.
"Are you able to talk?"
"Does it matter?"
Tikki frowned. "Why wouldn't it matter?"
"Because I'm never going to leave this room again," Marinette whimpered. "This has to be the biggest humilation of my life. No wonder Adrien was acting so strangely..."
"Marinette..."
"He'd just found out that his gaming buddy had a secret psycho crush on him. Like nothing he could've ever dreamed of," cried Marinette. "That she's a freak."
"Marinette, I want to ask you a question... but I need your honest answer," said Tikki, patiently. "So tell me when you're ready to hear it."
"O-okay..."
"When you came back to this room... yes, Adrien seemed very distracted. And, yes, now you know why. But at any point, did he seem at all... unhappy?"
"N-no," Marinette replied. "But he hides his emotions very well. He always has. He'd rather suffer than seem impolite-"
"Did Adrien look to you like he was suppressing emotions this afternoon?"
That made the Mariball uncurl, just a bit.
"No... you're right. He didn't," she admitted. "He seemed almost..."
Tikki waited for her to finish.
"...Happy?"
"Maybe more like giddy. Like he'd just found out that it was Christmas morning and Santa Claus was real."
"Well, I know he's real. I met him once as Ladybug," noted Marinette, semiconsciously. "He... did seem very happy. He wasn't running for his life, or hiding in the corner waving a pointy letter opener at me..."
"Listen to me, Marinette. This is important. Once I saw Adrien's reaction... I flew down and had a talk with him."
Marinette's stare was intense.
"From behind his head. You and I and Mullo need to have a long talk tonight... because he thought that I was Mullo, and I did nothing to make him think otherwise. So, congratulations... Multimouse is back into your regular rotation."
"Okay..." mumbled Marinette, who then sat up as her rational mind began to reemerge. "Wait. How would Adrien know about Mullo or Multimouse?"
Tikki paused while Marinette's mind worked that out for herself. "...He knows Chat Noir... I know he does," she mumbled to herself. "Chat would have known... but if he gave up my secret...!"
"Not the train of thought that I need you in right now, Marinette," Tikki chided her, gently. "Don't you have some other things that you'd like to ask me?"
"Yesss... I do," Marinette agreed, perking up. "Like, what the heck did you SAY to him? What did he do when he saw those pictures? How is it that he even still wants to be near me?"
"The last one... I think you can guess yourself," smiled Tikki. "We'll talk about the first one in a minute. But what he did after he saw the pictures, and after our talk... was that he picked up that pencil. And I'll leave the rest for you to find out."
Slowly, Marinette sat down at her desk, her notebook in front of her. Tikki flew a short distance upwards to give her some privacy, but returned when Marinette waved her back with one hand.
"Do you know what's in here?" she asked. "What he did?"
"I do not. But I'm almost as curious as you are."
With that, Marinette turned over the cover and scanned the first page for any alterations...
And then the second page...
And then the third page...
"I'm not seeing anything that I didn't put there, so far," Marinette noted.
"Me, neither. Of course, you know every pencil-stroke by heart," Tikki pointed out. "I just know that I'm sure that I saw him write or draw something, quickly."
Her pace quickened slightly as she scanned the middle section... possibly because she didn't want Tikki lingering on those images for too long, either.
"I cannot believe that he saw these and kept any kind of straight face," muttered Marinette, as the wedding-and-house-and-children fantasy pages came up.
"And yet he stayed. He didn't exactly play your video game very well after that, but he never stopped grinning. Does that tell you anything?"
"That he thought it was hilarious, and I'll never hear the end of teasing about this, maybe?"
"I won't say that it won't ever happen," Tikki chuckled. "But that's not where I was going with that."
Soon, there were just three pages of drawings left to inspect... then two... then one. Trembling fingers prepared to turn to that last page.
"This is it, Tikki. You're sure that he wrote in this book..."
"I'm sure of it," Tikki maintained.
"Then my destiny... or my own personal hell... is one page-flip away." Marinette looked at Tikki with fear in her eyes. "I don't know if I can do this."
"Think for me, one more time," sighed Tikki. "You know Adrien. You know how much that your friendship has meant to him, at the very least. You know what a gentle soul he is. Do you really expect that he would ever do anything that would hurt you?"
"N-no..."
"If you want, I can turn that page for you-"
"Tikki," Marinette stopped her, her eyes closing, her breathing heavy but steady. "It's okay. I... I'm terrified... but if I don't find this out, I may never sleep again."
The page turned.
Tikki gasped...
...and Marinette opened her eyes.
"Well, my goodness!" Sabine marveled, as her daughter came down the stairs for breakfast with her parents. "You look absolutely wonderful today, Marinette!"
"Thank you," she beamed. "I wanted everything to be just right this morning."
"You certainly succeeded," said Tom, approvingly. "What's the occasion?"
"I... found a little note last night, after Adrien's visit," Marinette declared, a little shyly. "I think that today is going to be a very important day for me."
"Ah," Tom mused. "Sabine... should I be worried about this? If what she means is what I think she means."
Sabine raised an eyebrow at him. "Honey, please," she lectured. "You've met the boy. He's sweet and adorable and charming. He's perfect for Marinette."
"So... yes, then," he chuckled.
"Papa," blushed Marinette. "Let me talk to him today, first. Then you can worry."
Alya and Nino walked up the steps of College Francoise Dupont together, as they did almost every morning. At the top, they saw a familiar young man waiting by the front door, hands tucked behind his back.
"Hey, Adrien," Nino greeted him, waving with his free hand.
"Hi, Nino, Alya," Adrien called back, warmly. One hand emerged to wave, then returned to its starting position.
"Are you coming in?" asked Nino. "Or are you waiting for someone?"
"Oh... I'm waiting for someone," grinned Adrien. "Most definitely."
As the pair approached him, Alya stepped forward and snuck a peek behind Adrien's back... then let out a loud gasp. "It's... happening?" she exclaimed.
"It's happening," Adrien confirmed, with an even wider grin.
"What's happ-" began Nino, only to feel a hand grab his shirt and gently yank him to the side of the building, a few meters away.
"Get over here with me, you!" Alya hissed.
"Am I missing something?" Nino grumbled.
"Look behind his BACK!"
When Nino did... he saw a small bouquet of flowers in Adrien's hands.
"We need to give them a little bit of space, just for the sake of politeness," insisted Alya, "but you and I are not going to MISS THIS!"
The front door to the bakery opened, then closed.
"Do you think that she knows?" Nino wondered.
"Are you kidding me? Look at her," Alya pointed out. "She's all dolled up like she never is for a school day. And you can tell that she's blushing from way over here! She's like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but cuter," she cackled. "That's my girl!"
"About time," grinned Nino.
"I can still hear both of you, you know," Adrien laughed, without turning his head from whom was approaching.
As Marinette reached the bottom of the steps, her smile was obvious... as was Alya, peeking down at her and cheering for her with some silent hand gestures. That got Alya a grin, before Marinette refocused on her goal.
Finally, she reached the top... and she and Adrien were face-to-face.
"H-hi," Marinette breathed.
"Good m-morning, Marinette," Adrien stammered. "You look absolutely lovely."
"Thank you! I did it all for you," she smiled.
Shyly, her eyes looked downward for a moment. Being gazed at like this by Adrien wasn't as new of an experience as she'd originally thought... but knowing about it while it was happening was.
"So..." she ventured, "somebody found a certain notebook."
"I did," said Adrien. "Someone left it out for me to find, perhaps?"
"No!" protested Marinette. "I totally didn't! I had been drawing in it that morning, and I have no idea how I didn't hide it before you came over..."
Alya did some mental math, then mouthed THAT NOTEBOOK?! at Marinette, who gave her an embarrassed nod in return.
"Hmmm?" wondered Nino.
"Later," Alya hissed. "There's quite a story here."
"I'm glad that you did," Adrien added. "Very, very glad. Because I had no idea... and if I hadn't found it, I couldn't have written something that I believe you found last night."
"I... did," Marinette grinned. "I only read your note about a thousand times."
"I was hoping you would," said Adrien. "I did have a... little helper to point you towards it, and make sure you found it."
"That part, um... we can talk about later," Marinette declared, rather quickly. "But you meant what you wrote?"
"Did you mean what you drew?" Adrien countered.
"...Every single line of it," she confirmed, her heart pounding. "Even the ones that I can't believe haven't scared you off."
"Then I did, too. I meant every word... including that one condition."
"Really?" giggled Marinette, a touch of humor breaking through her nervousness. "You're going to hold me to that?"
In her mind's eye, she pictured the note that she'd found on the last page of her notebook...
As far as every single thing goes that I've seen here... please count me in. I want to be right there, by your side, always. But there is one change that I must insist upon..., it had begun.
"Oh, I'm sure about that," grinned Adrien. "Some of the little details along the way... we'll negotiate as we get to them, someday. That one detail, though? An absolute must."
"Fine," Marinette sighed, playfully. "If that's what it'll take for this to happen..."
Alya held her breath... and so did Nino.
"Adrien Agreste..." declared Marinette, her eyes shining, "I love you, with all my heart. AND... yes, when the time comes, we can have two hamsters."
They sank into their first kiss, at last... to the sound of a slow-clap and a loud whistle of joy from Alya, as well as applause from other classmates who'd slowly filtered in to observe the scene.
Nino wiped his eyes. "I am so happy for you guys," he declared, quietly. "Maybe a little bit confused, yet... but so happy."