a/n

AHEM! So, I sort of forgot about this story for an entire week :D but I'm back, and that's what matters! (in my defence, I have like 5 other stories I'm working on..) Without further ado, part 4:

It's been a literal minute since Tikki woke me up and no matter what I do, it seems like I've done it before. Even racing down the stairs to the living room and grabbing macaroons for lunch is all a deja vu. It shouldn't be weird, I reason, I do all these things every day before school. The weird part, however, is the fact that I'm doing these things the exact same way I had done them in my dream. Was it really a dream though? I doubt I'd have such a sick and twisted dream where I watch Chat Noir die. I must be a psychopath to even think that!

Cautiously, I walk into the streets of Paris once again, like every other school day. The same group of kids are walking in front of me, holding hands, waiting for the pedestrian traffic light to go green. I cross the road anyway when I see no cars in sight.

Again, like in my dream, Alya and Nino are talking by the school steps hand in hand. They both turn when they hear me approach and I see that Nino's clearly, again, not wearing his cap.

"You—" I point at Nino's capless head. "—have I ever seen you without that cap?"

"I know right! I keep having nightmares about his head shrinking in on of those things." Alya laughs.

"Wow! I didn't notice I was dating someone so evil—"

"Oh my gosh, I'm going crazy!" I blurt out and, of course, Nino and Alya are bewildered at my sudden interruption. I mean, to them, my reaction might look way too dramatic. They both look at me, genuinely worried that I've lost my marbles. This would be hilarious in any other situation, but now, as I stand here remembering what happens to Chat, it's the complete opposite.

I grab Alya's arm and viciously throw it at my face. I do it again when I find myself still standing here before them instead of waking up.

"Girl, what are you doing?" she asks in a bored sort of tone. Like, the way a professional wrestler would look at a weak toddler punching at their ankles.

"Hit me!" I demand. "I have to wake up—" Alya snatches back her arm and laughs louder than I ever heard her laugh. Nino's reluctant, but he too starts to laugh at some point. I, on the other hand, keep my face relaxed. I'm dead serious.

"Okay, I'm convinced you had a little something for breakfast. You're acting even crazier than fourteen-year-old you whenever she saw—"

"Adrien!" Nino exclaims. My head turns robotically towards the direction he's looking at. Let me reiterate, at Adrien. Oh, shoot, I forgot Adrien's supposed to be in the dream too. "Dude!"

I turn back to Alya and grab her by the collar, not too aggressively but aggressively enough to at least be intimidating. It works seeing that she's frozen and her hands are up. "Alya, I'm serious, I had a dream that went down exactly as everything is going down today. I knew Adrien was coming. There'll be an akuma! Shit, Chat noir is going to die right in front of me!"

"Okay, first of all, you can put your hands away, second, tell me what you had for breakfast—"

"I'm not joking!—"

"Hey guys."

I flinch when I realize Adrien's just a foot away from me and Alya.

"Hey Adrien!" Alya replies but I remain stagnant. "Oh, would you look at the time! Nino and I have something to do—"

"Alya!" I beg quietly. "Help me."

"Girl, if you're reliving your life, then take advantage of it, you idiot." She smiles at Adrien and points to her eyes then at mine. From our many interactions, that would mean, 'keep your shit together!' so I try to.

"Adrien!—" I quickly place my hands over my mouth when I notice how loud I'd said that.

"Did I interrupt something?"

"What? No!" Keep it together Mari! "Alya was just about to leave anyway."

"Oh. Okay." It's quiet. Here's the part where I'm supposed to tell him I like him, like in my dream. If you're reliving your life, take advantage of it. Gee, Alya's right. Maybe the gods or whoever's responsible for this weirdness in my life is giving me a second chance, maybe they're guiding me, telling me that whatever I told Adrien in my dream would be the perfect thing to say to him right now, if this isn't a dream. Better yet, I have a second chance to save Chat Noir later today! Thank the gods!

I'm about to start airing out my feelings but—

"Adrien! Adrikins!"

I groan and feel like strangling myself for forgetting that Chloe and Sabrina were in my dream too.

They proceed to talk about whatever they were talking about in my dream. I only remember the skydiving lie and scoff at it. Eventually, Adrien tells Chloe he wants to talk to me since he was talking to me first. I ignore the look of evil in Chloe's eyes as she tells Adrien to call her later.

"Where were we?—"

"Adrien Agreste, I like you!" I blurt out and bring my hands to my mouth again. "Sorry, this shouldn't be this hard, it's the second time I'm saying this after all!" I shut my mouth again. Of course, oh, of course, even with a second chance, I'm messing this up. It's not like I wrote down everything I said in the dream and memorized it so that I can recite it word-for-word! Okay, I should calm down and I do that by breathing in. "Let me start over, Adrien, I've liked you ever since you gave me your umbrella." Shit, that's all I can remember... Adrien stands speechless and I'm afraid I messed up everything. I should have told Alya to punch me into a coma when I had the chance.

"You don't have to say anything! I'm okay just being friends—"

"Mari, relax." He smiles. Only Adrien Agreste would smile casually when he's politely telling you he likes someone else. "Thanks for telling me this but—"

"You like Kagami. Or some other girl we know nothing of. Yeah, I know."

"How did you—"

"You told me in a dream, long story."

I sigh. For some reason being rejected even when I knew it would happen, makes me feel awful. I was perfectly fine the first time but now, it's just like ripping the band-aid off twice on an open wound.

Adrien seems confused at what I'd said but he nods to confirm it. He smiles again. "Of course, we're still going to be friends Marinette. You're one of my best friends."

And right then, I remember the sole purpose of telling him why I liked him: he's not a love interest anymore, just a friend. I'll have to repeat that over and over again.

Adrien places an arm over my shoulder and looks down on me with a huge smile, like the tall dumbass he is. Even though we walked to class together before, I can't seem to remember this part of my dream where his arm is on my shoulder and he's grinning but it does remind me of someone else...

Now that I'm thinking of it, Adrien and Chat would almost be the same height if they stood together.

hey! sorry the chap is short btw :') but I feel this is a good stopping point. I promise I won't be gone for weeks again lol. bye, and thanks for reading! :D