Marinette looked up to her shorter friend before bursting out into tears.
"It's never going to happen, I can't do this anymore. It hurts too much."
Alix stood and watched as her friend sobbed. They'd all worked so hard for years to make this happen, yet here she was finally calling it a day. No one ever thought Marinette would give up on Adrien Agreste, to be honest, everyone thought this would only end once the two were married.
"Hey," Alix seated herself next to Marinette, watching as the designer pulled herself deeper into her body. "It'll look different tomorrow, you just need to sleep on it." She placed an arm around Marinette's shoulders embracing her into a hug. An average form of a security blanket, allowing Marinette to break down in peace.
"No! I'm done now. It's over. I can't keep doing this to myself. The fear, the anxieties, I need a break from him … from whatever this is I've got myself into. I can't blame him, he has done nothing wrong. He was right to be angry."
Sighing, Alix rubbed Marinette's shoulder and looked down at her feet. She hated seeing her friends sad, especially friends like Marinette. Friends who would do anything for each other. Rolling her skates backwards and forwards underneath the bench an idea formed in her head.
"Come with me," Alix exclaimed. Standing up so suddenly her arm didn't have time to leave Marinette's shoulders. The momentum gave Marinette quite the push, and the ravenette slipped off the bench, landing on her bottom in front of where she was just sitting.
Alix froze, a perplexed cringe on her face as she watched the distraught Marinette study where she had just ended up. Marinette placed her hands either side of her hips and looked at the floor on each side, before lifting her head to look up at Alix.
The two girls stood frozen, looking at each other, before Marinette started laughing. Not a big belly laugh or anything near to the howls she can release, but it was a laugh … a laugh that up until thirty seconds ago neither thought would leave her mouth. Alix smiled, before starting to laugh with her friend. Marinette's face brightened and Alix felt a little of the tension she didn't know she was holding release.
"Come on clumsy, stand up." Alix held out her hand just as Marinette snorted, causing the girls to go into a second round of giggles. Gathering control on herself, Marinette placed her hand in Alix's and allowed the smaller girl to pull her up and onto her feet.
Once fully standing, Marinette removed her hand from Alix's and brushed the dust from her pink capri trousers. She smiled at her friend, and nodded in response to Alix's offer. Alix began to skate slowly towards where she'd left her bag, every now and then turning her head to check how Marinette was doing. She saw how her friend had begun to look a lot happier, a lot more like herself and smiled. Marinette had such an effect on people, it was about time someone was looking out for her too.
"What are you planning on making me do?" Marinette asked, unsure of Alix's motives.
"Oh, um, I thought maybe … if you wanted to … we could skate for a while. You know, just a couple of laps around the park or something? Maybe down to the Louvre and back? Just something to get your mind off him."
Marinette nodded along as she walked, it wasn't a bad idea to be fair. If she wasn't skating, or doing something, there was a chance she would run straight to Chat Noir and beg for him to accept her. He was her last choice, her last chance of romance … but for some reason he didn't feel like her last chance of happiness.
Her friends made her happy, they were always there and having Alix offer to share something so meaningful with her made her heart slowly pull itself together.
"Do you have spare skates?" Marinette asked. She didn't own roller skates, she was quite sure there were laws against her skating, mainly for the safety of Paris' citizens. After all, if she wasn't injuring herself she'd be injuring someone else.
"I do," Alix came to a stop near her bag and pulled the zip to open it before rummaging into the bag.
"Is that Mary Poppins bag?"
Alix laughed as she bent lower and lower into the bag almost fully inserting herself into the thing. Suddenly she pulled back, a pair of perfectly pink roller skates in her hands. Marinette shrieked as she took them from her friends hands.
"These are so cool!" Quickly, she slipped off her ballet pumps and placed the skates on, tying the laces and attempting to stand up. Four attempts later she was on her feet, very much like Bambi on ice. Her feet began to roll one way, as her body jolted in the other, then quickly swapping before Alix dived forward and held her still.
"Wow there," the two girls clutched onto each other's forearms laughing and being overcome by the amusement of the situation. Marinette was not a skater, but Alix was determined to make her one.
"We're going to take it slowly, are you ready to go?" Alix asked.
Marinette nodded her head, tightening her grip on Alix's arm as they began to move.
Right, left, right, left, right …
Suddenly, Marinette lost her momentum again, and began to fumble, her skates flicking out to her sides. Friction was lost on the floor and Marinette felt herself begin to tumble. This was it, this was the moment Paris' heroine broke her leg and could no longer save the city. Closing her eyes tightly, she prepared for impact only for her skating partner to swing her around and take the brunt on the fall.
Marinette hovered over Alix, her eyes still tightly closed and her breathing heavy. With her eyes shut so tightly Marinette could hear everything; the cars passing in the street, the birds tweeting in the clouds, and her own heartbeat pulsing in her ears.
She opened her eyes and looked down at the girl who had broken her fall.
Had Alix's eyes always been so blue?