"O-oh…Marinette, hi."

Marinette couldn't shake the feeling that Adrien sounded disappointed to see her.

That was just great. After that lecture she'd just given herself 5 minutes ago about facing her fears and putting herself out there, no matter how scared she was, she already regretted ever stepping foot into this place. Everything in her screamed to abort mission, but it was too late for that. She was already in his room and he was looking right at her, awaiting her response.

"Uh, hey," she returned, waving uncomfortably with one hand. The door closed slowly behind her.

Marinette could see his features more clearly as he approached her. He looked even worse up close than she thought he would, though his voice seemed to sound better off than it had yesterday. She supposed the visit from Nino and the others must have been good for him. He still spoke to her with such kindness and respect despite the pain he was feeling…something Marinette was apparently incapable of doing.

"It's nice to see you," Adrien said, smiling weakly. "I was disappointed when Nino told me you couldn't make it."

"Y-yeah." Marinette was aware of how excessively she was twiddling her fingers, but couldn't bring herself to stop. Did Adrien mean that, or was he just saying that to make her feel better? "I…" She trailed off, all words vanishing from her brain.

She saw Adrien's head tilt a bit to the side from the corner of her eye.

"I wasn't sure if…you would want to see me," she finally forced out, her shoulders stiff.

Adrien's eyes wandered for a moment. "Why do you say that?"

"It's just…you know, with everything that happened last Friday," Marinette explained awkwardly. Why would Adrien act like he didn't remember? "With Lila?"

"Oh," Adrien realized after a while. His eyebrows twitched together a bit. "Wait, that's what all of this is about?"

Marinette was caught off-guard by his response. "Well, yeah," she sputtered. "I mean, I said all of those terrible things to you…"

Adrien closed his eyes for a moment, looking down a bit and…snickering?

He placed one hand on his hip and the other on the top of his head. "If I'm being completely honest, I forgot any of that even happened."

Wait, what?

"You…did?" Marinette stared in disbelief. "But, I thought you'd be mad!"

"No, of course not, I knew you didn't mean anything by it, Marinette," he reassured, his voice sweet and genuine. "And you'd already apologized, didn't you? You've got nothing to worry about, really."

"O-oh." Marinette clutched at the strap of her purse in speechlessness. "Well, there goes all that energy I used up overthinking for the past three days straight…," she mumbled to herself, not realizing she'd spoken it aloud until Adrien reacted to it with a sympathizing smile. The top of her cheeks flushed a bit in embarrassment.

"That must be why there's no message with your picture?" Adrien inquired, pointing behind him to the open book on his coffee table with his thumb. Marinette followed his gesture, surprised when she could just vaguely make out a familiar photo of the two of them in the book's pages. Still grasping nervously at her bag, she passed Adrien and made her way over to the scrapbook to get a better look at it. There were the two of them in the outfits she'd designed, linked in arms and laughing together as the Eiffel Tower loomed over them. Alya's eye for journaling and artistic arrangement proved to be just as keen as ever when Marinette examined the rest of the upturned pages, where Juleka, Rose and Max had written their messages of their fond memories of him, each with handwriting that accurately represented their personalities.

"I wasn't even aware she put me in here," Marinette admitted, straightening from her bent-over position, but continuing to study the book. Adrien had joined her on the other side of the table when she started reading.

"Well, it's not too late to write something," he reminded her. "Only if you want to, of course. No pressure."

Marinette thought for a moment. She couldn't very well say no to him and shut him down at a time like this. But she was so unprepared. Why didn't Alya tell her she was planning on putting her picture in the book? She made a mental note to scold her over text later.

"Well, I'd love to. But I'm not sure what I would say," Marinette admitted, scratching her arm. "I haven't really had time to think of anything."

"I'm sure whatever you write will be perfect." The way Adrien's words came so naturally to him, and had no idea of the impact it made on Marinette astounded her. Ugh. How could one person be so perfect and yet so painfully oblivious?

Marinette caught herself midway through flusteredly pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. She quickly moved that lock back in front of her ear, feeling odd having her miraculous too exposed.

"Well, let me think, then." She took a baby step backwards and sat down on the sofa, pressing her palms together bashfully as she struggled to brainstorm through her wildly swimming thoughts. "My favorite memory of the two of us…" There were so many. Too many. How was she supposed to decide on just one?

"Let me find you a pen." Adrien started to step away from the table.

"Oh," Marinette realized, stopping her classmate in his tracks. "That's okay, I've got one here."

She pushed on the clasp of her bag, opening it to reveal Tikki's curled up form, her overjoyed expression gleaming at her from inside. Marinette made quick eye contact with her, trying to return her smile without making it obvious. She grabbed her pen, careful not to hit Tikki with it as she pulled it out and secured her purse closed. It was the glittery, teal colored gel pen that Alya had given her last year when she'd accidentally overstocked on journaling supplies. It had proven to be more trustworthy that she'd expected, and she couldn't think of a test she'd done without it since. This way her message, whatever it would be, would be more personal.

"It's a good thing you decided to come by after all," Adrien remarked, taking a seat on the floor at the opposite side of the coffee table. "Then you probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to add your part to the book."

That's not why she came, though, she remembered. She lowered her pen suddenly, her face falling.

"What is it?"

"Sorry, I…" Marinette shrugged one shoulder. "I just realized that since coming here, all I've done is made everything about myself. I haven't even asked how you've been doing."

"Oh, it's no big deal," Adrien dismissed politely. "Honestly, I've actually been kind of preferring that people talk about themselves lately. It's been a surprisingly pleasant distraction."

Marinette's mind drifted back to Adrien and Chloe yesterday, remembering how content Adrien was just simply listening as the mayor's daughter carried on about her own life. Marinette didn't think she had the ability to do that. She wasn't as hyper-fixated on her own self as Chloe was, and she didn't have the energy in her to even try.

"Well," she began, when a thought struck her. "What about you?"

Adrien said nothing. He only looked at her, inquiring for clarification.

"I mean, have you really gotten to talk about yourself at all?" Marinette wondered, her attention taken off the book.

Adrien thought for a minute, drawing light circles on the smooth tabletop with his finger. "Not necessarily, I suppose," he answered, unsurely.

Marinette leaned her elbows against her knees, clasping her hands together and pursing her lips nervously. "Would…you like to?" She asked quietly. "I'm sure there's a lot you'd like to get off your mind. I'm happy to listen, if there is."

"I don't know," Adrien murmured, looking down suddenly. "I wouldn't want to burden another person with all the depressing details..."

Marinette shook her head, smiling softly. "It's not a burden, silly. Especially when it's your friend who wants to help you." She found herself returning back to her finger twiddling, setting her pen down next to the book. "I've never really lost anyone, so...I don't know exactly what you're going through. But I know this is the kind of thing you can't keep bottled up inside."

Adrien looked conflicted. He seemed to take her words to heart, but remained hesitant. But after a while, he gave in with a sigh. "Well…" he began.

Adrien proceeded to tell her about the events that unfolded since his father passed. He sounded somewhat uncomfortable at first, but gradually got lost in his mind as he explained what he'd gone through. He began with how he'd caught the ambulance rushing from the mansion as soon as he'd gotten home from school, how he'd sat in the waiting room, horrified, for several hours.

It wasn't until he brought up the hospital staff coming out to break the news to him that his father didn't make it, and the way his mind was incapable of believing it until he saw him in the hospital bed, hooked up to a dozen different strange machines, that he began to break. His voice gave out like it had with Chloe yesterday and he instantly stopped. He leaned his face into his hand and took a few deep breaths to keep himself contained.

"Sorry-" he choked out.

Marinette stood up before he could finish.

Her feet seemed to to move without her control as they took her around the table that seperated them and kneeled onto the floor beside Adrien. Without hesitation, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

She suddenly became aware of how motionless Adrien was in her arms, which brought her senses back for a moment. Fearing that she'd made a mistake, she almost pulled away, ready to apologize in a frantic mess. But immediately after, she felt his hands on her back, followed by his hair against her neck. He sniffled, muffled by her shirt, and she held him tighter, resting her chin against the back of his shoulders. She wasn't sure what to say. Should she even say anything at all?

The very sight of him crying was evidentally all it took for Marinette for follow suit. A few thick tears fell down her cheek as she hugged him, her sympathy for him overwhelming. Seeing him grieve up close was far more painful than from up on a rooftop.

The two of them stayed in that embrace for much longer than Marinette was expecting. She'd decided to say nothing, and it seemed to work out. It was a comfortable silence, considering the circumstances.

Until finally, she felt him shift a bit in her arms. She pulled back to look at him, her wrists still resting against his shoulders.

"Feel better?" she asked, a slightly chipper edge to her voice.

He nodded, wiping at his eyes with his arm. "I, uh, I haven't really talked with anyone about what happened before now..."

Realizing her arms were still on his shoulders, she finally took them off, backing up a bit and taking a seat on the floor in front of him, resting her elbow comfortably on the top of the table. "Well, I'm glad you felt like you could tell me," she said.

"And I'm glad you're such a good listener," Adrien returned, the corner of his mouth twitching just a bit.

The sight of his pained smile, paired with his freshly dried eyes was something Marinette never wanted to see again. Gosh, how many times could her heart break for him in one night?

"I'm really sorry, Adrien," she said, her expression falling a bit. "I couldn't even imagine."

Adrien exhaled, releasing his exhaustion, his eyes on the small space of floor between them. "Thank you, Marinette," he half-whispered, sincerely. "I'm...glad I have friends like you."

Marinette couldn't help the tiny smile as she nervously shifted her weight onto her arm, looking down shyly.

It wasn't until they both looked up at once that they realized they were closer to each other than they thought. Their eyes met instantly and neither of them could seem to look away. Marinette could pick up the little specs of light green in his eyes that she'd never noticed before.

Everything inside her seemed to be screaming, but she couldn't make a single move. Were they this close to begin with? They were getting even closer, like a force was pushing them.

The sides of their noses touched now.

Marinette found her eyelids falling slowly, like they were being pulled by gravity.

KNOCK KNOCK.

They both jumped at the noise, and pulled away in shock.

"Mr. Agreste, your dinner is ready," a man Marinette didn't recognize said from the other side of Adrien's door. His voice was followed by the loudest silence, hanging in between them as they both froze.

Marinette put a hand over her mouth, staring blankly in disbelief.

Once they'd looked away from the door and at each other, she could see that Adrien looked stunned as well. Stunned in a good way or a bad way? She didn't know. All she knew was that they were this close to kissing just now.

She had really almost kissed Adrien Agreste. This couldn't be happening.

She snapped back to reality, her mixed panic hitting her like a truck and pushing her to break the silence.

"Oh, well, uh, I don't wanna keep you." Marinette stood up, her eyes instantly gluing to her feet to avoid eye contact. She was fuming hot.

"Sorry for the poor timing," Adrien said, standing as well with a hand on the side of his neck. Was he blushing as much as she was? She couldn't bring herself to look at him. "It...would have been nice if you could stay longer."

"Yeah, well, maybe next time." Marinette shrugged awkwardly. She began backing up towards the exit. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle being there much longer before she died of embarrasment. "It's my own fault for not coming with Nino and Alya like I was supposed to."

When he didn't respond right away, Marinette could finally force herself to glance up at his face briefly. He was looking down and smiling a bit, a bit of redness in his cheeks just barely visible. "Actually, I...I'm glad it worked out like it did. This was really nice."

"Y-yeah," she agreed, her eyes not hesitating to dart back down to her feet. She opened her mouth to continue speaking, but no words came out.

"Oh," Adrien said suddenly. His eyes were on the scrapbook, still lying open on the coffee table. "You never got to write your part in the book."

"Oh!" Marinette echoed, realizing he was right. She hesitated, but made her way back over to the table. She sat down to look back at the wordless space by their photograph, picking up her pen, fiddling it in her hand for a moment.

This time, she only had to think of what to say for a second before writing it down as quickly as she could without making it look like the work of a second-grader. She didn't want to take up more of his time, and at that point she was in a rush to get out of there so she could get home and release that scream that's been building up inside of her into her pillow.

She finished and closed the book abruptly. Her confidence and doubt in her message were at war in her head, and she didn't want him to read it until she was out of that room. "There," she said, setting the pen down.

"Great, now it's really done," Adrien said as Marinette stood back up.

Marinette nodded once, a small grin on her face. "Well, I should get going now."

"Thanks again for deciding to stop by, Marinette," Adrien said, reaching forward to lightly grasp her arm, just above her elbow. "Really, it means a lot. I...I needed this."

It was just a hand on her arm, but that simple touch felt like heaven. Marinette felt compelled to push that lock of hair behind her ear again. Stopping herself last minute, she trailed her fingertips down her jaw as she responded. "Any time," she said, her voice quiet.

Those were the last words they exchaned that night. They held each other's shy eyes as Marinette made her way towards the door. She threw him another awkward wave as she finally turned out of Adrien's door way, closing the door quietly behind her.

Her eyes shot open as soon as the door was shut, overwhelmed with relief, shock and joy all at once. She leaned backwards against the door, her hand pressed gently to her mouth. She froze in the new silence, her heartbeat in her ears.

"I told you it would go well!" came a hushed voice from her purse. Marinette stayed frozen as Tikki ascended, twirling in the air a couple times before flying to face level with her holder to beam at her.

"Did that really just happen, Tikki?" Marinette uttered into her hand. "Please tell me i didn't say something stupid and humiliate myself."

"What do you mean?" Tikki squeaked. "I think that went great!" She floated forward, giving Marinette a poke on the tip of her nose. Marinette's eyes finally fixed on her kwami, lowering her hand off her face. "We could have done without the rushed exit, but that's something we can work on."

Marinette was able to break from her trance and giggle at Tikki's teasing for a brief moment.

"Well, I'm glad I had you as witness so I know I'm not dreaming," she told her, rubbing her hand across her forehead. "Come on, you," she said, holding out her palm for the kwami to fly into, and setting her back into her purse, closing it partially. "We can talk about this when we get home."

She looked around the huge, spacey interior, struggling to regualte her mind and focus on anything other than the almost-kiss. She hadn't even noticed that the lights had been turned off until that moment. She must have overstayed her welcome. Something told her Nathalie hadn't been thrilled to see Marinette when she'd sounded the doorbell.

Speaking of, Nathalie was nowhere to be found, so she took it upon herself to make her way out of the abyss that was the Agreste Mansion. She'd been here before, she was sure she could figure it out.

That moment played in her head on repeat as she blindly ascended down one of the many flights of stairs in that house. Just wait until she told Alya about all of this.

Marinette suddenly realized that she'd never texted her best friend back last night. She'd been so exhausted that day that she immediately passed out on her bed as soon as she got home from last night's last-minute patrol with Chat Noir. That would have left almost two whole days of her messages being unanswered. Marinette was gonna have to think of a pretty good excuse for being so inactive.

Wait. Where was she?

She looked around in sudden realization of how unfamiliar her surroundings were. How many doors and flights of stairs had Nathalie taken her through when she escorted her to Adrien's room? She'd thought she was on the right track, but apparently she was wrong. It didn't help that it was so dark, for some reason.

Maybe...through here? Marinette tried for a white door with a fancy, gold door handle, pushing it open hesitantly and walking through. She observed this new area as she entered slowly.

It was a large room with sleek, black walls and perfectly arranged windows that resembled the ones in Adrien's room. There were a few lounge seats, accompanied by their own little tables. The floor had black and white checkered tiles and in the corner she noticed a large bed towered by a huge portrait of a blonde woman on the wall.

Horrified realization set in. She slapped her hand over her mouth.

She was in Gabriel Agreste's room.

Marinette, someone who didn't even know any of the Agreste family besides Adrien, was in the very room of the man who had just passed away. She mentally cursed herself and how disrespectful this was as she spun around to get out of there as soon as possible and then probably act like nothing ever happened. But as she turned, an obsticale blocked her exit.

The hairs on her neck stood on end. It was Gabriel's assistant. Nathalie stared forward at Marinette with the most serious and intimidating look she had seen in a while. She had for sure gotten the wrong idea. She must have thought Marinette was snooping! Could this get any worse?

"I-I'm so sorry!" she cried, after the shock of seeing the assistant set in. "I just got lost, a-and somehow ended up here."

Nathalie didnt reply. Her demeanor didn't shift one bit. She must have not believed her. Marinette, growing more frantic, continued.

"I really didn't mean to come here, I swear. I didn't know where I was going. I-it was dark, and I could hardly see, and...I'm really sorry!"

She stayed frozen in her cold stare, and Marinette felt feelings of unsettlement creep up her back, bringing her stiff arms close to her body. She wasn't sure what else she could say to convince her that she wasn't trying to steal, or snoop around Mr. Agreste's room, or whatever she thought Marinette was trying to do. She also stood right in the doorway, so it's not like Marinette could leave. She would have flown out of the door by now if she could.

"I'll...I'll just, get out of here now, if you'll excuse me..." She started to edge closer to the door, hoping Nathalie would finally move out of the way. But even after her que, the woman stayed put.

She finally opened her mouth to speak, and her words were the last thing Marinette expected to hear.

"You should be careful. The mansion's rooftop is very high," she said, her voice somehow even more monotone than usual. "Though...I guess someone like you isn't too afraid of heights."

It only took her a second for the words to set in, and Marinette felt the air leave her lungs like a crushing weight on her chest, unable to inhale. "Wh-what?" she managed, her mouth hanging open.

Nathalie stepped out of the doorway towards Marinette, reaching for the doorknob behind her.

She slammed the door shut, sending a booming echo through the room's walls.