Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all your kudos!
I'm really sorry for the wait but here is the second chapter!
I wish you a very good reading!
Way to the future — Katie Herzing
"What I mean is that it's still pretty new," explains Nino.
"It's been over two months," Marinette answers through the phone.
A light sigh comes to her ears, but she is too concentrated on her makeup to really notice it. Leaning over her mirror, Marinette draws her eye liner, showing all the meticulousness she's capable of.
"Two months during which you could see each other every day and do all you wanted."
Marinette moves her face back and carefully observes the symmetry of her makeup. "Hmm," she mumbles after a few seconds.
New sigh. Less discreet this time. Marinette lets herself fall against her chair. "And you think I didn't think about it?"
"Thinking about it and living it are two very different things, Mari."
Here, it's Marinette who sighs.
"Are you still sure about it?"
She sits up straight and grabs her mascara before leaning over the mirror again. "Yes."
Fragments of whispered words and a soft laugh answer her. "Spill," she says, spreading the mascara on her eyelashes.
"It's just that there are so many things that should make you stop your.. thing. The fact that if somebody finds it, it could end very badly. The fact that you'll be very frustrated—believe me—during the whole year. The fact that you expect more of a relationship."
Marinette plunges the brush back in the tube and puts her makeup away a little bit too bluntly. "And who tells you that I expect more of a relationship?"
"I know you."
After she picks up a pair of shoes, she sits on her bed, her phone next to her. But she quickly gives up the idea of putting them on. Her hands are shaking way too much to do it.
"Mari?"
"Do you think I should stop? Sincerely?"
A few seconds pass and Marinette painly swallows the lump that formed in her throat.
"No," he finally answers.
Her shoulders automatically release. It's silly, because even if Nino had told him the opposite, she wouldn't have stopped.
But knowing that one of her best friends supports her is reassuring, despite everything.
She and Nino have known each other for ten years now. They were friends before she even met Alya, before he even met Adrien. Even if, most of the time, he doesn't really take anything or anyone seriously, he's always here for her. And to feel listened to, truly listened to, even though it's not in his nature to listen this long without cracking a joke makes it way more precious.
"Yeah, it's complicated. And yeah, you're taking a big risk. And yeah, you'll probably suffer from this situation. But when you'll think back on this in a few years, I think you'll be glad to have continued what made you happy at the moment."
It's for these kinds of sentences that Marinette deeply loves Nino. His advice is always spread between a sea of jokes and sarcasm, and it's what makes it endlessly more touching. "Thanks, Nino," she answers.
"And, he's a good lay, isn't he?"
It's mostly for this that she can't get along without him. Always the right word, the right answer to ease the situation, to restore smiles, to bring back the good mood. "Nino!" she shouts, laughing.
She shakes her head and begins to put her shoes on. Her hands aren't shaking anymore.
"C'mon, spill," he says, imitating her voice.
Marinette answers him with a grumble. "I have no means to compare," she eventually answers before she stands up and walks towards her dressing table.
"Neither does he," Nino whispers.
Marinette, the fingers sliding in her hair, raises an eyebrow. "Did he tell you something?"
"Maybe…"
A chuckle escapes from her phone and Marinette throws more than she puts her stuff in her bag.
"One piece of info for another, it's how it works."
"He'll tell me, if I ask him directly, anyways," she says.
"No, he'll never tell you that," Nino laughs.
Marinette suddenly closes her bag. "Tell me!"
No answer.
"Well, all right. Even if I wanted to stop I don't think my body would let me because it's really amazing and I know I'll be frustrated during the whole year and during the rest of my life because we haven't see each other for two days and I already feel like I'm gonna explode and then I'm a Scorpio and I have to breathe."
A second.
Two.
And Nino bursts out laughing.
Marinette feels a smile chuckle her lips but her amusement turns into terror when she hears not only Nino's laugh but…
"Adrien?"
The chuckles become only louder and Marinette feels her heart throw itself against her chest and her cheeks catch fire. "Nino, you fucking…"
"Hey! Language!"
A new voice. "Alya?"
"Herself," she theatrically answers.
Marinette opens her mouth, begins a sentence but changes her mind. She keeps walking in her room, the phone in her hand. "I'm gonna hang up."
"Oh, c'mon, Mari…" Nino begins.
She doesn't let them have the time to avoid her. Marinette puts her phone in her bag, checks herself one last time in the mirror and nods.
"Not too stressed?" Tikki asks, letting her head poke out of her bag.
Marinette offers her a smile. "Yes," she honestly says.
"It's gonna be okay, Marinette."
She agrees by a nod and takes a deep breath.
"Here we go."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Oversleeping — I'm From Barcelona
Marinette quickly goes downstairs into the living room and finds her mom, who welcomes her with a glance overflowing with kindness.
"Here," she says, giving her a small packet.
A smile on her face, she discovers that there are a croissant and a few macarons in it. "Thanks, mom."
Sabine gets closer to her daughter and puts her hands on her cheeks before affectionately caressing her hair. "I can't believe you're in senior year."
"Me neither," she admits.
"Enjoy it, everything will be so different in one year."
Marinette nods and retains the worries which are already beginning to confuse her mind. She kisses the cheek of her mom and rapidly goes to the bakery. Her dad is serving a man who seems to be in a hurry—so are all the Parisians.
"Have a good day, honey," he says to her once the customer served.
"You, too, dad."
"Wait, wait!" he shouts when she pushes the bakery's door.
The eyebrows frowned, Marinette stands back and gets close to her dad again.
"Someone's waiting for you in the back, at the service door."
"Who… Oh." Her cheeks become red at the same time the lips of Tom straighten. Marinette raises herself on her tiptoes and puts her lips on the cheek of her dad to hide her confusion. "See you tonight, dad."
And she dives herself into the kitchen of the bakery. Marinette knows this place inside out: she has spent hours to help her dad, to learn everything he was happy to teach her… and to have let sneakily Adrien in during all summer. The smell of the fresh bread tickles her nostrils and this perfume calms her instantly down. It was a reassuring smell, one which makes her feel home.
She eventually opens the door which is giving on the back of the bakery, on a little street where she's never seen anyone.
Adrien's here.
"Hey," he says, smiling.
Marinette closes the door with her back and leans on it, arms crossed, eyes creased. Adrien's look slides along her body and the little smile he's wearing makes her roll her eyes. "You're not supposed to look at me like that."
His eyes meet hers again and his smile deepens. He gets closer to her and Marinette feels her breath blow away when he puts his hand on her waist. "What are you doing?" she whispers.
"I'm carrying your frustration away," he murmurs against her ear.
And Marinette feels her heart jump in her chest. She wants it, she really wants it. To Kiss him, right now. To run her hands through his golden hair, press her body against his, feel his hands on her skin, lose herself in a steamy, delicious embrace.
Adrien's lips brush hers.
"I hate you," she whispers against his mouth.
And she pushes him. Marinette may have a lot of faults, but she has pretty impressive self-control.
"No, you love me," he answers, passing his arm around her shoulders.
She grumbles something she's not really understanding herself and they begin to walk.
"No chauffeur?" she asks when they arrive in another narrow street.
"No, I managed to negotiate," he says, winking.
A smile slips in Marinette's face. "Nobody will ask questions if they see us coming together?"
Adrien shrugs his shoulders. "It's what friends do, right?"
"Hmm…"
"What?"
Marinette is nervously playing with the packet her mom has given her.
"It's just that… people will ask questions. It's not like you're close to a lot of girls."
"Then we'll tell the truth."
She looks at him, eyebrows frowned. "That we sleep together?"
Adrien bursts out laughing and tightens his hold on her shoulders. "That we're friends."
"Oh," Marinette whispers, blushing.
I Shall Believe — Sheryl Crow
She finally opens the packet and greedily crunches on the croissant. The lump in her stomach has disappeared the second she has seen Adrien, now replaced by a warm and nice feeling deep down her belly.
When she bites on her pastry again, she hears his stomach growling. Marinette automatically turns her head and sees Adrien's contracted jaw and his staring eyes.
"Did you eat this morning?" she seriously asks.
He's not laughing at all anymore and the hand around her shoulders is tense. "Adrien?"
"No," he admits.
Marinette lets escape a sigh. During these last months, she learned to know Adrien. To really know him. They've shared very intimate moments, physically and emotionally.
She talked to him about a lot of things which worry her, torture her. Things she very rarely reveals. Her future plans, her insecurities, her feelings, among other things.
For every piece of her life shared, he has revealed her a fragment of his. It's thus that she has learned that what she thought she knew about the influence of his father was only the tip of the iceberg. She believed he was authoritarian, strict and cold, but these adjectives were actually way too soft to describe the man that is Gabriel Agreste.
He's not authoritarian, he's tyrannical. He's not strict, he's intransigeant. He's not cold, he's icy. And the way he's treating his son is certainly not healthy.
Without asking more questions, Marinette hands him her croissant and the packet in which there are still a half dozen macarons.
"Mari…"
"There's only me," she says, getting her body closer to his. "It's okay."
He nods and takes a deep breath. Marinette lays her head on his shoulder for an instant and enjoys the warmth of his skin against hers.
And they don't talk about it anymore. She perfectly well knows how much he hates broaching this subject. And if he wants to talk about it, Marinette has made sure he understands she's here.
It has taken her a few weeks to realize something wasn't right. The fact that he was always hesitant to eat when they're at her home or his. The fact that he always seems starving, everytime she eats something. The twitch of his jaw at every mention of his father. Piece by piece, Marinette has eventually reconstituted the puzzle, and even though it took her a moment to find the right words, the right time and the right way to do it, she has finally talked to him about her suppositions.
Suppositions which were frightfully true.
Marinette knows—like most people—about the slimness imposed on models. It's something she finds particularly stupid, by the way. But that's not the point, and she perfectly understands that. No matter how much she can hate Gabriel and find him monstrous, it is not what is going to help Adrien here.
Only, this quest for a body that is perfectly suited to the ideals of society is always something she has seen from the outside. She never has a real problem with her body, with the way it's growing, and it's something she measures the luck a little more every day.
But discovering that it's a real torment, a torment which is directly affecting Adrien, has deeply hit her.
It's, in addition, different with him. He's not refusing to eat to reach an impossible physical goal. No, he's refusing himself to eat for his dead, because of his dad. He's indirectly a victim of this social pressure. And it's even more frustrating to Marinette.
Because he knows how serious this is. He's not trapped in a vicious spiral where he's the only actor. No, he's trapped in the toxic expectations and the dictatorship of his dad.
She turns her head, glances at his perfectly drawn jaw, his angular face, his hollowed cheeks. His features are thin enough for him to be courted by tens of model agencies and for Gabriel to keep him captive from his control. But they aren't thin enough for someone—other than Marinette—to notice it.
The slenderness of his arms is hidden by his muscles, and so is the fineness of his chest. Marinette has had the occasion to see him naked—and more than once—and he never appeared really thin to her.
His angst is only internal. But she knows perfectly well that it's just a matter of time before his dad's control is also seen on his body. Time which is slipping through her fingers, as fast as water, without worrying about what's happening around it. Without worrying about Adrien's dark rings under his eyes, about his green eyes in which something dark is beginning to obscure the glow.
Before It Breaks — Brandi Carlile
"What's going on?"
Marinette shakes her head and looks at the street again. She wants to talk, to comfort him, but the words aren't coming out. Today's problems are the same as this summer's, but they seem more real, more threatening, when other menaces are coming.
"Nothing," she succeeds in articulating.
Her voice is shaking.
Adrien stops and puts his two hands on her shoulders, making her face him. Marinette looks up at him and notices—with relief—that he has eaten all the croissant.
"I'm fine."
"I know, I—sorry," she whispers, biting nervously her lips.
He smiles at her, and the weight in her chest lightens. "Don't be, okay?"
She nods and doesn't understand why her throat tightens. The more she's telling herself how ridiculous she is, the more her eyes are stinging her. Adrien frowns his eyebrows and she looks away.
"Mari?"
The tears which want to come out of her eyes, they aren't sad ones. They're angry ones. Frustrated, fearful ones.
"Marinette?"
She finally looks up at him and feels a tear escape from her eye at the same time.
"Oh, Mari," he whispers.
And everything explodes. Sobs spring from her throat, tears run along her cheeks, and no coherent word can form on her lips anymore. Something warm and powerful closes around her and her face crushes against the familiar and comforting chest of Adrien.
"I'm fine," he murmurs, the chin against her head. "I promise. It's gonna be okay."
Marinette takes deep breaths and exhales as calmly as she can. It's a heap, an accumulation of little repeated worries, of tiny assembled problems. It's the way she works.
She never externalises her feelings in the moment—or only very rarely. It's only after a triggering factor that all her buried feelings collapse on her, like a landslide.
She just would have prefered it to not happen on the first day of school, right in the middle of a street—empty, yes, but still—and in front of Adrien. Although, after all, it's better than to burst into tears in front of the entire school.
"I'm sorry," she says after she brings her breath back. She steps slightly back, enough to look him in the eyes, but not enough to not feel his skin against hers. "You have a problem and I'm the one who…"
The end of her sentence never sees the light of day: Adrien just puts his finger on her lips. "Don't apologize," he repeats. "It's normal, you're the only one to know, and it's a lot for one person to take."
"Okay, but what about you? How do you manage to be okay?"
His lips straighten and his face gets closer to hers. "Thanks to you."
The honesty of his words makes her feel something and its contrary: her heart calms down and speeds at the same time.
"You have no idea how much you help me, Mari."
She doesn't know what to say except nonsense stammers, doesn't know what to do except blush.
But it seems that she doesn't need to say a word. Adrien looks at her for a few seconds, and Marinette catches his eyes drift towards her lips, but he eventually moves away.
His arm finds itself around her shoulders again and the packet still full of macarons becomes empty pretty quickly.
They talk no more all the way. It's not necessary. Marinette needs time to calm herself down, and she knows she doesn't need to explain herself for him to understand it.
Streets begin to fill and Adrien's arm is removed from her shoulders to remain, more wisely, along his body. Looks begin to turn towards us before they even reach their highschool street.
"It's gonna be okay," he tells her when the building starts to appear before them.
"It's gonna be okay," she repeats.
Kids — MGMT
"Hey!"
Marinette barely has the time to hear this that a pair of arms wrap around her neck and a body collapses against hers. Two seconds later, she realizes it's Alya and five seconds after, she warmly hugs her back.
Her best friend went for Martinique all summer long and only came home the day before. Of course, they called each other very often and Alya knows about everything that happened.
"Agreste!" she yells, stepping back from her friend.
Adrien takes a step back and Marinette can't help but smile. Alya hits his shoulder, making him step back even more and Marinette presses her hand against her mouth to not burst out laughing.
"Ouch! What? Happy to see you, too," he mutters.
"I leave her to you for two months," she whispers, "two little months and you…"
All of a sudden, she turns to Marinette who stops laughing right away. Adrien rubs his shoulder and looks at her, entertained.
"I leave him to you for two months," she repeats to Marinette, "and you corrupt the purest being in the city? Paris' golden child?"
"Hey!" Adrien speaks.
"I told you to take care of him," Alya continues.
"I did take care of him," Marinette mumbles.
"Yes, she did," Adrien says.
Eyes looks at him.
"What? While the cat's away, the mice…"
Marinette pinches her lips to not laugh.
"It fucks the other mice?"
"Alya!" they grumble at the same time. "Keep your voice down!"
She raises her hands, smiling.
"It's gonna be fun, this year." Nino approaches behind Alya, hands on her shoulders.
"Oh, yeah."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Marinette is walking in the hallway, Adrien on her right, Nino behind her and Alya next to him. She can feel gazes turn toward them—well, toward Adrien—and talking stops as they pass.
"Everybody knows you," she says to him.
He answers her with a sigh and Marinette has to stick her nails in her palm to not take his hand.
"It's like we're in a series or something. It's really weird," Alya says.
"Agreste!"
Marinette stops at the same as Adrien and lets Alya and Nino know to keep going. The person who called him is a boy with messy brown hair. His eyes are as grey as the Parisian sky and Marinette doesn't like the expression on his face. She really doesn't. There's something sick in the way he's looking at her. Adrien must feel it too because he slightly puts himself before her, in a protective way.
"Adam," he says with a colder voice than usual.
"So, what's up? How were your holidays?"
Marinette sees his glance drift towards hers once again but she doesn't look away. She doesn't need to see it to know that Adrien's jaw is tense.
"Pretty good. What about you?"
"Oh, you know. The South, the beach, the sea, girls…"
Adrien deepens his look and Marinette raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah."
"Introduce me?" Adam asks, getting closer to Adrien.
Marinette, half-hidden him, notices that Adam has to lift his eyes to look at him. Adrien swallows, contracts his jaw again. She knows he's not about to answer what Adam wants him to answer, so she takes action to avoid a conflict—the attention is already enough points to them like that.
"I'm Marinette," she says with the most confident voice possible.
A disgusted shiver runs along her spine when Adam looks at her, without hiding it, from top to bottom. "Adam. Pleased to meet you."
"We have to catch up with our friends, so…"
"See you later, Marinette."
"Yeah, right," Adrien whispers.
Adam suddenly looks at him, a smile on his face, but a threatening glow in his eyes. And he goes away, not without brushing against her as he passes.
"What the hell?" she says, turning towards Adrien.
"He does fencing with me," he explains while starting to walk again, "and we've already ended up on the same shoots."
Jealousy and testosterone. A perfect blend to make them spend an awful year.
"I hate men," she grumbles.
"So do I."
She likes the fact that he doesn't answer "even me?" and that he has the presence of mind to know that she's not talking about him. She likes the fact that he has tried to protect her but that he hasn't stopped her from taking control of the situation. She likes the fact that he's remaining so close to her without actually touching her and arousing suspicion.
Royals — Lorde
"Did you manage to get rid of Mr. Narcissist?" Alya asks when they meet her and Nino.
"For now."
"Has he always been here?" Marinette questions.
"Pretty much, yeah. He started Sophomore year at the same time as we did. You've never seen him before?"
"Never."
"You were too busy to see someone else," Alya whispers, loudly enough to make herself clear to her three friends.
"Alya," Marinette grumbles.
Adrien holds a chuckle back and she sinks her elbow in his side.
"Ouch! Did you all decide to hurt me today?" he moans.
"And did you all decide to humiliate me today?"
"No worries, tomorrow we switch," Nino answers, affectionately tousling her hair.
Marinette mumbles and sighs at the same time. The amusement felt by her friends quickly turns into concentration. They're standing in line to watch the class lists for this year and eventually arrive before the sheets are darkened by names.
"Why do they always put these things so high?" Marinette sighs, looking up so she can read.
"It's not that high," Adrien says.
Marinette can feel his body behind hers and his head over hers. "Easy to say when you're ten feet tall."
"I'm not that tall," he says, laughing. "You're the little one."
"I'm on my tiptoe, I'm not small."
"Yes, you are. And on your feet, you're tiny."
"Watch out, Agreste."
A chuckle answers her.
"I can carry you, if you want," he discreetly whispers.
"Don't mind us, lovebirds."
She knows he's pinching his lips to hold himself back to burst out laughing. She's doing the same thing.
"Year 12 - 1
Adrien Agreste
…
Adam Kent"
"Great," Adrien sighs.
"It looks like I'm not in your class, Goldilocks," Alya says.
"It almost looks like you're disappointed," he answers.
His hoarse voice is way too close to her ear for Marinette to focus on the list in front of her.
"Me neither, dude," Nino sighs.
"Don't tell me I'm alone with this…"
"Marinette's with you", Alya cuts him off.
"Well, well," Nino continues.
"What a coincidence…"
"You two never stop, do you?" Marinette mumbles.
Adrien's laugh sounds behind her and a shiver brushes her entire body. She looks at the list again and notices she's indeed in Adrien's class. But not only.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng
…
Lila Rossi"
"What?" she shouts. "What?"
"What, what?"
"Here!" she yells, putting her finger on Lila's name. "No, no way!"
She steps aside from the wall, letting the other students take her place. Lila had definitely left the city when they started high school. Marinette had never known where she'd gone, and had never cared about it. The further away she was, the better it was. The fact that she's now coming back to their high school, in their last year, is something she absolutely never saw coming.
The fact that Adrien's in her class, that Alya and Nino aren't and that Adam is going to be close to her during the entire year are totally pushed into the background. The only thoughts her brain is managing to produce include the first name "Lila" and other words which aren't really politically correct.
"Mari?"
Adrien, Alya and Nino are walking towards her. They're not laughing anymore and all have the same expression: surprise mixed with annoyance and concern.
"Maybe she has changed," Nino proposes.
"Of course!" Alya says ironically. "Once a lying bitch, always a lying bitch, it's my motto."
"Maybe we can ask to switch?" Adrien asks.
Marinette takes a deep breath, trying to evacuate her fury at the same time as the carbon dioxide. "No, they'll never agree. Especially without a motive."
"You do have a motive! Mental health," Alya says.
"She's right," Nino adds.
"It'll never work. You know this as well as I do. And, maybe Nino's right, maybe she did change."
"Do you really believe this?"
"No," she answers. "But I changed. Alya, please, don't say anything," she adds, seeing her best friend open her mouth.
She raises her hands, under the amused gazes of the two boys.
"I'll keep my cool, more than I did three years ago. It'll be okay. I'm just disappointed to not be with you guys…"
Alya put an arm around her shoulders. "We'll meet in some classes," she reassures her.
"Besides, it's not like the four of us are all alone," Nino adds.
"I can't believe it, I'll not even be there to keep an eye on you two!" Alya says.
"What a shame!" Adrien says with a smile.
"So," Nino whispers, getting slightly closer, "let me explain to you how it works: no fondling during classes, no foreplay in the bathroom, no…"
"Nino!" Adrien and Marinette shout, blushing.
He and Alya burst out laughing, quickly followed by their two friends.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Shove It — Santigold
Marinette and Adrien walk into their classroom, already half filled with students. She barely has time to realize what just happened that Marinette is stricken by another problem: how to keep secret what is going on between her and Adrien. Pretending to have a simple friendship while being surrounded with their friends is one thing. But pretending to not have done more than watch movies and laugh together when they're about to spend the year stuck to each other is another.
Of course, Marinette is thrilled to be in the same class as Adrien. The joy of not being apart from him compensates for the disappointment of not being with Alya and Nino. But the relief isn't hiding the anxiety which is beginning to infiltrate her veins.
Without needing to speak, Marinette and Adrien sit next to each other, in the right middle of the classroom. She lets herself fall on her seat and puts her hands on her temples, her elbows on the table.
"Adrien!"
Marinette's entire body of tenses. She turns her head slightly towards Adrien. His lips are pinched, his eyes open wide, and she would have laughed if Lila hadn't been the reason for his face.
"Great, we're in the same class!"
"Great," Adrien repeats.
Marinette knows he's trying to be polite but the wariness is clear in his voice. However, Lila doesn't let him unsettle her.
"I'm so glad to be back," she says unctuously.
A hand settled on her hip, the other on the table before Adrien, she's slightly bent towards him, lips straightened in a smile which seems to be almost as false as Adrien's is forced.
"Why are you back? Why now, I mean?" he asks.
"Oh, I wanted to come back earlier, but time goes so quickly! I stayed in England for one year and then one year in the USA. It's crazy how different it is up there!"
"It must be."
Lila seems thrown off balance for a moment, but a second passes and her voice is more cheerful than ever.
"Thankfully, I have my bearings here, in Paris," she says, brushing innocently his arm.
Marinette frowns her eyebrows, the head still in her hands.
"Thankfully," he repeats, discreetly clearing his arm from her hold.
Lila instantly loses her smile and Marinette can't help but chuckle. Her eyes meet her in an instant, like an eagle spots his next prey, and Marinette's amusement goes immediately away.
"I don't think we've been introduced," she says, getting her false kindness back.
Adrien frowns his eyebrows and Marinette creases her eyes.
"It's Marinette," he says.
A glow of pure shock drew deep down Lila's eyes and another feeling deforms her face for a second. Is it fear? Marinette doesn't have the time to answer that question that she quickly gets her façade of friendship back.
"Of course," she says. "It must be all these years abroad and all these people I've met. There are some faces I forget easier than others."
Marinette sees Adrien tenses in his seat and she gently kicks him under the table to prevent him from stepping in.
"It must be that," she assures, smiling.
"Anyways, Adrien," Lila continues, turning towards him. "You can sit next to me, you don't have to stay next to her."
He looks at her for a moment before shaking his head. "And you don't have to stay next to me."
Marinette hides her face in her hands to conceal her smile. Scandalized is a really weak word to describe Lila right now. Thankfully, the teacher arrives and urges the students to go to their places.
"You know who my dad is, Adrikins. One word and I send her back to another continent," Chloé whispers to him, sitting just behind him.
A smile straightens Adrien's lips and he looks behind his shoulder. "I'll think about it. Thanks, Chlo."
She shrugs her shoulders and entirely sits on her seat. Her golden hair is cascading past her shoulders, making the blue of her eyes even more piercing.
"Hi, Marinette', she says to her, smiling.
"Hi, Chloé."
Adrien lets out a chuckle and they look at him.
"I'm pretty sure I'll never get used to it," he whispers, a pen in his hand, eyes to the board.
Chloé rolls her eyes and Marinette completely turns over the teacher, a smile on her lips. They'd made peace a few years ago, when they started high school. Chloé had grown up, and even if she has a sharp honesty and a little bit of natural narcissism and disdain, Marinette has to admit that she's become particularly funny and weirdly sweet.
Of course, they're not great friends; Marinette wouldn't call her in the middle of the night to talk to her about her problems and Chloé is probably glad about it.
But, she needs her, Marinette knows Chloe's here. And it's always comforting to have someone to cover her if necessary. Especially with this crazy year coming.
"Good morning to everyone," the teacher begins. "As you know, this year is particularly important…"
Marinette looks around her, half attentive to the speech.
The very last year of high school.
And a scream rings out. And a thousand yells follow it. And Marinette feels her heart beat faster.
"We need Ladybug!"
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
To be clear on some points :
— I'll—of course—develop the part about the relationship of Adrien and his dad, because it's a very important subject and I really wanted to bring that up.
— I don't know when I'll be able to post the third chapter, I almost started it... I have a lot of classes these days, so it'll not be online until the end of the next week, I guess :(
— I know there's a lot of vague things, like how Adrien and Marinette ended up like this, how Marinette's dealing with everything, how's the relationship between LB and Cat Noir... I'll explain everything but I don't want to do it in one time, I think it's better when it's sprinkled along the story!
— About Adam, I was searching a name and I'm currently reading Shatter Me (omg I love it) and Adam is becoming annoying so... I took his name x) Poor Adam...
— Don't forget to leave comments! It really helps and motivates me and it takes just a few seconds!
I wish you a very very good day and I hope you're alright, don't hesitate to send me a message if you need to talk :)