Author's note – and this this chapter, we're almost through all of the updates! In the meantime, hope you enjoy the chapter!
Marinette opened the door to the bakery and was greeted by her mother standing behind the counter.
"Hi sweetie, how did the essay go?" she said, her eyes then darting to Adrian who stood behind Marinette, "Oh, hello Adrian. I didn't realize it was you Mari was working on the essay with." She immediately perked up, knowing the tension Marinette had with this young man – he had been over once before after all.
"Hi mum, it was good, we're done, we're going to go play video games now okay bye," Marinette spit out quickly, dragging Adrian behind her and up towards her bedroom.
"Uh, hi Madame Dupain-Cheng, nice seeing you again!" Adrian said as he was dragged away. Sabine smiled to herself and started humming as she returned to counting the day's earnings, very aware what was going on between those two.
Marinette dragged Adrian into her room and shut the trap door quickly, turned, and smiled at this boy, alone in her room. "So… Mecha Strike?"
"Sounds like a plan. You are so going down," Adrian teased.
"In your dreams," Marinette quipped back, turning on her computer so that they could sit down and play. They got into the swing of things once they got playing, all of the awkwardness from earlier melting away as they laughed and joked around. Finally, Sabine knocked on the trapdoor and poked her head through to her daughter's room.
"Sorry to interrupt, I'm just wondering if Adrian will be joining us for dinner?"
Marinette looked at her mother, then at Adrian sitting beside her. "Uh… well… Would you like to stay for dinner Adrian? I totally understand if you have somewhere-"
"I'd love to," Adrian said back, causing smiles to spread across both of their faces, "I mean, that is, if it's not too much trouble," Adrian said in Sabine's direction.
"Of course Adrian, you're always welcome here. Is chicken alright?"
"Chicken sounds amazing, thank you Madame Dupain-Cheng."
"Please," Sabine replied, "call me Sabine."
"Uh, okay then… Sabine."
With that, Sabine smiled and closed the door, leaving the two to go back to their game.
"Your mother is really nice," said Adrian while they continued their match.
"Uh, thanks, yea, she really is," Marinette replied back, sneaking a glance in his direction, leaving her character defenseless long enough for Adrian to sneak in a fatal blow. "Hey no fair, I wasn't looking!"
"And whose fault is that?" Adrian replied, turning to face Marinette. The air between them was filled with electricity.
"Well I mean I guess…" Marinette trailed off as the two teenagers stared at each other, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"MARI, DINNER!" Marinette's father bellowed, breaking them out of the moment. Marinette blushed and Adrian cleared his throat, and the two of them made their way downstairs for dinner.
The family sat down and started their meal, and Adrian was blown away. "So you mean to tell me," he started towards Marinette, "that you eat together every single night?"
"Yep," Marinette replied, a bit confused by his question. Of course they did, why wouldn't they?
"Wow, I can't even imagine eating with others for every single meal."
"You mean you and your dad don't eat together?" Marinette queried.
"Uh, no, not ever. He's… busy."
"Oh, I'm sorry… He doesn't know what he's missing." She then reached down, and with all of the confidence she had, she squeezed his hand that sat bellow the table on his arm rest.
Adrian looked down, and then up at Marinette and gave her a smile. "Thanks, really." Marinette smiled back.
"So Adrian," Tom started, as Sabine smiled encouragingly and Marinette groaned a little, fearing what her father was going to say next, "how goes the whole, what is it you do again? Model? How goes the whole modeling gig. Still going strong?"
"Yes sir, I still model for my father every now and again."
"And are you really attached to that as a career? What I mean is that say, if, in the future, you needed to help run a family business like, oh, I don't know, a bakery -" Marinette kicked her father under the table, causing him to yelp out loudly.
"Sorry father, is there a problem?" Marinette started back with a warning tone as Tom laughed to himself at the mischief he was causing and Sabine clicked her tongue at him, but smiled nonetheless.
"No no, no issues here," Tom replied, grinning madly.
"Um well no sir, to uh, answer your question, I'm not really attached to the modeling career. I mostly do it to help my father," replied Adrian, confused by the events that had just occurred.
"So what do you enjoy then?" prodded Sabine, hoping to learn a little something about this young suitor.
"Uh, well, I don't really actually have a lot of time to do what I like. I enjoy acting? I did a bit of that for a classmate's movie and that was fun. But other than that, I generally am too busy with things my father has signed me up for, like modeling work and fencing lessons, to be able to do anything else." "That," he thought, "and saving the world day in and day out."
"Acting you say! Marinette is quite interested in fashion design; wouldn't it be something if she could design you a costume for a school show!" Sabine replied back with vigor.
"Um I'm sure that would be-"
"Mum," Marinette interrupted Adrian, sending a look in her mother's direction, "he hasn't even signed up for a show, maybe we could keep the planning to a minimum?"
"Oh alright alright, fine," Sabine replied with a knowing smile, and started to clear the table. Tom got up to help, wash the dishes, leaving Adrian and Marinette momentarily alone.
"I am so so sorry about all that," Marinette said, thoroughly embarrassed, "my parents can be a whole lot sometimes."
"It's okay, really. I actually find it really nice. They care about you, I can tell. Plus, nobody has ever bothered to ask me what I enjoy doing. It was… thoughtful." Adrian smiled at Marinette, growing more and more enraptured. No wonder she was so amazing. "Look at her family; they really love her." Marinette smiled, grateful that he didn't totally hate her family and her by proxy. "I should probably get going. My dad might have a fit if I don't come home soon."
"Ah, right, of course," Mari replied, a bit disappointed he had to leave so soon. "I'll walk you to the door."
The two walked down to the front of the bakery so Adrian could leave, leaving the two of them alone in the dim front entryway.
"Thank for having me over Marinette. This was really nice," Adrian said with a smile.
"Yea," Marinette agreed, "it really was." Marinette mustered up every bit of courage she could get, and finally managed to say, "We should… do it again sometime?"
Adrian's grinned widened even further. "Yea, I would like that." The two of them, subconsciously, had been moving closer and closer together, until they realized that they were only inches apart. Marinette looked up at Adrian and into his emerald green eyes. He stared back at her, his pulse racing a thousand miles a minute. He started to close the gap between them, his face moving closer to hers. Marinette's eyelids started to flutter to a close, anticipating what was about to happen. His lips were an inch from hers when they heard a scream-
"Help me! Somebody, anybody!"
Their heads bolted away from each other and towards the commotion outside.
"I have to go-", "You should go-" they both spoke at the same time, only partially due to the commotion outside, their faces reddening.
"Yea, right, okay, bye Marinette" Adrian said in a hurry, flustered and in a hurry to transform. He ran around the corner and Marinette leaned against the window and let out the largest groan of her life. Tikki butted out from Marinette's purse and flew out in front of Marinette's face.
"Oh Tikki, when they say crime never rests, they really aren't kidding, are they?"
"Come on Marinette, we can talk about this later!" Tikki replied, obviously anxious about the screams they heard outside.
"Oh you're right, like always. Tikki, Transforme-moi!" In a flash, Marinette was now Ladybug, and flying out the door to look for the cause of the commotion. Just as she showed up to the scene, so did Chat Noir. She hadn't forgotten their encounter from earlier, and the tension still ran high.
"Ladybug," he said courtly, obviously still quite hurt over their earlier encounter, but less so.
"Chat," she replied, just as courtly. "I'm sure he wouldn't be this court with his dumb girlfriend," she thought to herself, the guilt blooming as soon as she did. After what almost happened with Adrian just now, she shouldn't care who Chat hangs out with. Nor should she have ever. What does it matter? They're just friends.
"Shall we get to it?" Chat asked, leaping away from Ladybug and toward the action. "The only good thing about this stupid Akuma attack is that it interrupted her time with her lousy boyfriend," Chat thought to himself as her ran. He saw Ladybug catch up to him, and scowled, moving faster, trying to outrun her. He really shouldn't care about who she spent time with, but he couldn't help it. Even with his newfound interest in Marinette, it bothered him not knowing who this guy is. "He better be good enough for her, that's all I'm saying," he thought, trying to convince himself that that's all he wanted.
The two of them found the source of the scream, a young lady that they both recognized right away: Chloé Bourgeois.
"Ladybug! Chat Noir! Oh I knew you two would come to rescue me!"
"Uh, hi miss," Chat said, "what seems to be the problem here?"
"Oh Chat, you don't have to play coy in front of Ladybug here. We both know we know each other very well, no need to hide it." Chat's face morphed into one of confusion, while Ladybug took a minute to clue into Chloe's accusation. Immediately, she shut down, her face becoming void of emotion. So she had been right in thinking that Chat would fall for a girl like Chloe. Turn out, it had been Chloe.
"Uhh what on earth- Ladybug, look out!" Chat interrupted himself and jumped on Ladybug, bringing her down to the ground just before a large Akumitized villain, in the persona of a Bat, swooped down above her, trying to grab hold of her. Ladybug snarled at Chat, who now was on top of her pinning her down, and pushed him off of her.
"I could have handled that myself," she said and she brushed the dirt off of herself and raced off after the villain.
Chat, expecting at least a thank you, glowered at her back as he yelled "Yea, okay, you're welcome!" He turned to Chloe and said, "run for cover, we'll handle this," before he leaped off after Ladybug. Despite their anger at each other, they worked just as well together as usual, anticipating the other's moves before they even started a blow, and defeated the villain in no time.
"Better go let your girlfriend know she's safe and sound," Ladybug said after the battle was won, and turned to run off. Before she could leave, Chat grabbed her arm.
"Is that what you're mad about now? I'm not dating… that girl," Adrian said, knowing not to use Chloe's name. "I barely even recognize her. I have no idea why she said that. Probably just a little star struck." He flashed Ladybug a cheesy smile in an attempt to make her open back up to him, and Ladybug melted a little in response.
"I'm not mad, you can do whatever you like with whomever your like," Ladybug replied, knowing full well he still had that girl from his date earlier. If it wasn't Chloe, it was someone else. Not that she cared.
"Well, thank you for your permission M'Lady, but you don't have anything to worry about. You're still my one and only." He wiggled his eyebrows at her, knowing he was breaking through. Ladybug let out a small smile and elbowed him in the ribs, causing Chat to let out a loud "OW!" and double over, holding his side in mock pain. She laughed at his overdramatic flair, just as Chat had hoped she would, and he looked back at her, sincerity in his eyes. Chat could analyze his guilty feelings about hanging out with Marinette later.
"In all seriousness, are we good?" Chat asked, not wanting to hurt his Ladybug, but being kind of happy she cared enough about him to possibly be jealous.
"Of course, why wouldn't we be? I'm sorry, I was in a rotten mood, it had nothing to do with you," Marinette lied. She lied her pants off. It had everything to do with him, but like hell she was going to let him know that. Chat didn't know whether or not to believe her, but decided it wasn't worth it to find out. He didn't want Ladybug mad at him ever again. Chat looked down at his ring and realized he needed to jet before he transformed.
"Hey, no big deal. We all have rough days. But you better leave now if you don't want the whoooole city of Paris to know who ladybug really is." Chat replied. Ladybug heard her own earrings beep at her and flashed Chat a grateful smile.
"You get home safe now." She was about to dash off when her conscience got the better of her. "Hey Chat?" She said, grabbing his arm before he ran off.
"Yea?" he replied, nervously looking down at his ring.
"I hope your date went well today. Honestly. Any girl would be lucky to have you." She genuinely meant all of it. She wanted Chat to be happy, and she had Adrian to think about. There was no time to let a bit of jealousy get in the way.
Chat looked at her and smiled. Yea, Ladybug would always hold a place in his heart, and he didn't know if he was quite ready to give up on her yet, but when he replied, he replied genuinely. "Thanks, Ladybug, that really means a lot. Truly. But to be honest, I don't know if it was really a date… I do think you two would get along though. She reminds me of you." With that, Chat dashed off into the night, leaving Ladybug to try to figure out what the hell that meant.
Author's note – and that wraps the second last 2016 chapter. Hope you enjoyed!