Chapter Eleven – PJ Girl
Adrien immediately jumps out of his chair and moves to stand at the edge of the tent, eyes scanning the surrounding crowd for Marinette. All he can see are his father's and Vincent's crews, and some fans who have shown up to watch. Finally, he spots a familiar head of hair behind the initial crowd, heading in the direction of the street. He sees Adam join him at the edge of the tent out of the corner of his eye, but then his focus is back on Marinette, as she's moved past the crowd and he can now see her unobstructed.
"She's kinda hot." Adam says, before punching Adrien's arm in a gesture that's meant to get his attention. "Oh, I forgot a sex act. Have had a BJ?"
Not bothering to even spare him a look – let alone an answer, because Adrien does know what that one means – he steps out of the tent and makes a beeline for her. He hears Nathalie call out to him, but he ignores her and edges past the crowd quickly, almost running to Marinette's side. She must hear him approaching, because she doesn't look overly startled when he comes to a stop next to her, but he notices she still looks a little surprised, as if she either didn't know he was at the park or thought he wouldn't say 'hello' to her.
"Hey Marinette." He greets her warmly, beaming.
Forcing a smile, Marinette nods in acknowledgment before shifting her gaze to the scene behind him. "I think you're wanted." Frowning, Adrien follows her gaze over his shoulder. Nathalie waves at him, gesturing for him to come back because they're not done. "You should probably go."
Turning back to her in surprise at her abrupt exit, he grabs her arm lightly to prevent her from leaving. "We're on a break. I have a few minutes."
She chews on her lip, hesitating, before relaxing somewhat and gently puling her arm from his grasp. "Okay." She clasps her hands in front of her awkwardly, waiting for him to talk.
"Um . . ." He scratches the back of his neck, looking down at her outfit.
Today the jumper is actually her size so he can clearly see her frame (and, unfortunately, confirm that she has lost weight) and it's a white knit jumper with small, evenly distributed red and pink roses that have been embroidered on. The pattern immediately reminds him of the last time he saw her in something of that pattern – her underwear – and the words he was trying to say tumble out of his mouth in a manner of gibberish.
She frowns slightly and tilts her head. "Are you okay?"
"Y–Yep! Fine! Totally fine!" He grins at her manically.
"Okay," She says slowly, in a tone that reveals how little she believes him.
She tucks her hair behind her ear and his eyes widen when it registers in his mind that her hair is down. At the same time, he realises that what she's wearing and her hairstyle can only point to two conclusions; either the old Marinette is back (just with a new hairstyle that definitely does not make any part of Adrien want to thread his fingers through her soft, dark locks and kiss her senseless. Nope. No way.), or she's meeting someone.
"You look nice." He blurts out, immediately wanting to smack himself. He can almost hear Plagg's sarcastic 'smooth' where he draws out the vowel for as long as he can simply to make Adrien feel worse about himself.
"Oh, um, thank you." She smiles awkwardly and fiddles with her handbag strap.
"Are . . . are you going somewhere?" He utters eventually.
A quick glance over his shoulder lets him know that he has approximately two minutes to get back to the tent so he can get ready for the next outfit or he will be skinned alive by Nathalie, scolded by Vincent, and get a (verbal) beating from his father for his 'lack of responsibility' before being locked in his room for the rest of eternity until his father needs him for something else. But talking to Marinette is worth all of that.
"I am. Well, not right now." She bites her lip briefly, before her eyes widen and she waves her hands about her in an attempt to erase her last sentence from existence. "I mean, I am going somewhere right now, that's why I'm here, but it's not why I'm dressed up. Not that this is really dressed up or anything, because you obviously know what that looks like and I'm obviously not dressed up, but compared to what I've been wearing it is, but . . ." She forces herself to stop and takes three calming deep breaths. "I'm going to the store to get some things, and later I'm going to Nino's house for dinner and to have a Harry Potter marathon."
Adrien immediately relaxes and releases a breath he didn't realise he was holding. It's only upon doing so he realises that he'd been dreading the possibility of Marinette going on a date. He mentally scolds himself for thinking he has any right to be jealous of anyone Marinette chooses to spend her time with when he has a girlfriend.
"That's nice. I didn't know you and Nino were that close."
As she opens her mouth to reply, running feet approach, then an arm is thrown around Adrien's shoulders. He buckles slightly under the unexpected weight. Adam grins at him before his eyes shift to Marinette.
"Hello." He smiles at her, although in Adrien's opinion it's more of a leer. He feels anger and protectiveness flicker in his chest as he fights the urge to grab Marinette and scream 'MINE'. "I couldn't help but notice your . . . jumper. It's very nice, where did you get it?"
"Oh, uh . . . I made it." She says awkwardly, glancing between the two boys.
"Wow. It's gorgeous. Are you a designer?" She feels herself relax slightly. She was worried he was interested in her rather than her clothes.
"You could say that." She twirls a strand of hair around her finger awkwardly, avoiding both boy's gazes.
"She's the best designer." Adrien says, ducking out of Adam's hold. He moves to put a hand on Marinette's shoulder or perhaps around her waist, but thinks better of it and just gestures to her as if he's presenting a product to a potential buyer. "She makes most of her clothes and designed a bowler hat that won one of Father's competitions and I wore it in a fashion show and–"
"You're clearly very talented." Adam cuts him off. Marinette fails to notice the way his eyes roam over her like she's a piece of meat, too busy frowning at Adrien and wondering what on earth's gotten into him. "What's your name?"
"Marinette." She says absentmindedly, turning to smile at him kindy. "And you are?"
He blinks at her, smile dropping. "You don't know who I am?" She shrugs apologetically. "Adam Pelletier . . . famous model?"
"Oh, I'm sorry." She smiles sheepishly. "I only look at the clothes, not so much the people wearing them." Unless it's Adrien, she grumbles to herself, still annoyed her feelings for the blond are refusing to disappear.
"Well, you're missing out." He winks at her and she pauses in apprehension, shifting her foot backwards in advance for if she needs to make an escape. Thankfully, before anything else can be said, Nathalie appears behind them and puts a hand on Adrien's shoulder to prevent him from leaving again.
"The break is over; you have to return to change and get hair and makeup touched up." She tells them stoically. She moves to pull Adrien along with her, but he stands his ground.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Marinette." Adam says, grabbing her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it.
She pulls it quickly from his grasp and wipes the feeling of his lips against her skin on her jeans as subtly as she can so as to not appear rude. "You as well." She smiles politely.
"I'll see you at school, Mari?" Adrien asks her.
She nods automatically, already backing away to continue on her way to the store. At this point, the trip to the store to get ham, some carrots, toothpaste, pads and Band–Aids that should've only taken her fifteen minutes is taking her closer to half an hour. No wonder her parents always accuse her of being late. "Uh–huh. Yep. Bye." She waves awkwardly and spins around, marching stiffly out of the park.
"Bye!" He calls after her. Nathalie taps his shoulder and he reluctantly turns to walk back to the shoot. After a few steps, her hand slips from his shoulder and she returns to her tablet.
Adam punches his arm to get his attention again. "So, you and PJ girl–"
"Marinette."
"Yeah, Marinette, you guys go to school together?" He nods. "What's she like?"
Adrien hesitates, the usual Marinette is Amazing speech on the tip of his tongue, but while it would usually take just mentioning her name for him to start talking about her – Kagami has certainly pointed that fact out on multiple occasions, as has Nino – he is reluctant to do so now.
"She's . . . kind." He finally settles on, shoving his hands in his pockets and biting his lip to stop the amazing, incredible, intelligent, beautiful from coming out. At Adam's raised eyebrow telling him that isn't enough to satisfy his sudden curiosity with their everyday Ladybug, Adrien forces a smile. "And she's very talented."
"I saw that." Adam nods to himself and Adrien bites his lip again to stop himself from saying anything else because the entire portfolio of her designs is on the tip of his tongue and he shouldn't even know about them since she told Cat not him. "So are her parents like ours?"
Adrien frowns. "Ours? What do you mean by that?"
Adam gives him a 'you know' look. "Like . . . for lack of a better word: important?" Adrien gapes at him and he scoffs, crossing his arms. "You can't have not gone your entire life knowing that people like us are better than people like them." He nods at the fans as they pass them. A few spot Adrien looking and start shouting his name. He smiles politely before ducking his head, knowing if he gives them any more or less it'll be a disaster.
"I don't think I'm better than anyone else."
Adam snorts. "Sure." Adrien opens his mouth to protest, but Nathalie cuts him off.
"Hurry up and change. Vincent is waiting and your father won't be happy if he hears you've been delayed by . . . fraternising." She gives him a look pointed enough to make him blush.
He clears his throat and nods robotically. "Yes Nathalie. Of course, Nathalie. I'll go change right now." He misses her amused expression as he rushes into the tent, almost stumbling over his feet in his haste to get away from the people who seem to keep trying to make him spill all of his dirty little secrets.