Ladybug didn't seem to be showing up to tonight's patrol.
After another lonely dinner, Adrien had left his clothes in the same pile on his bed and, making sure to turn off his light this time, transformed and made his way to the Louvre where the two heroes had apparently made their meeting spot.
Chat Noir flipped open the screen in his baton, where the time read 11:09PM.
Maybe she'd decided it wasn't necessary since they had already met last night, Chat Noir realized with a disappointed sigh. Sure, it made sense. They didn't really need to patrol two nights in a row. But after his new guardian proved to be just as neglectful as his last was, waiting in the dark a second time for a face that wouldn't show really wasn't what he needed.
Well, he hadn't been alone all day, though.
That moment he'd had with Marinette had brought feelings of confusion that haven't gone away since. It's not like he could deny those feelings, or just brush them off, because he had already felt those same exact feelings with Ladybug. Something in him suddenly felt dirty somehow. It seemed wrong, like he was cheating on Ladybug.
Well, it's not like you can really cheat on someone who's in love with somebody else.
Chat Noir paced with slow, nearly silent steps as his train of deep thought took off.
Maybe he had to reprioritize a bit. Was Ladybug amazing, smart, talented and the girl of his dreams? ...Yes. But they had been saving Paris together for a year now. Chat had no problems making his feelings clear in all that time, and Ladybug didn't seem to be straying from that boy she liked anytime soon - whoever he was.
Was he just naive to think she would just randomly come around and fall for him out of the blue one day? Maybe he had to accept that it just wasn't going to happen. He couldn't keep getting his hopes up, just for them to be rejected over and over again. That same blindness could have been what was keeping him from seeing the beauty in other people.
And, unlike with Ladybug, that moment in his room actually felt like something the two of them shared, and not just a one-sided feeling of painful bliss that was in his own head. The visit from Nino and the others had been an amazing distraction, but Marinette's time was...healing. It brought a warm feeling of relief that he'd never felt before. If only all the overwhelming confusion didn't come with the deal.
He knew he wouldn't be over his feelings for Ladybug overnight. And Ladybug would always be one of his best friends, no matter what. It was going to be a process and he didn't even know where this would be going to take him. All he really knew is that Marinette made him happy, and if there was a chance that this would work out for the better, then it was worth a try.
Many friendly faces were there to welcome Adrien at school the next morning. The first being Principal Damocles who caught him walking into school before any of the students did. With a hand on Adrien's shoulder, he kindly told him to speak up if he got overwhelmed and needed a moment to himself, and that the school staff was aware of his situation. Adrien didn't exactly have to be there today, after all. He had the option of accepting the pardon the school offered him to cope with his loss, but he'd insisted on going back as soon as possible, surprising just about everyone. He didn't want to spend any more time at home than he had to. He could hardly stand being there anymore. It just felt wrong and unfamiliar now that he was the only Agreste in the Agreste Mansion. Any opportunity he saw to get out of that place, he would be eagerly be taking.
He'd received many sweet smiles and greetings from his classmates when he walked into class, all of which he returned with the same wave and smile of gratitude. He'd also thanked them for their contributions to the scrapbook when they had gathered around him and Nino's desk before class started that morning. That was until Chloe entered, shooing them all away with her sharp attitude, telling them to stop "suffocating" him before storming to her usual spot next to Sabrina. Looks like her overprotectiveness over him wouldn't faltering any time soon.
He really was flattered. Seeing how much his friends cared for him was another reminder that he was much less alone than he felt. However, he did allow them to scatter at Chloe's command. He still had so much to wrap his mind around and he couldn't deny that the numerous pairs of eyes watching was an overwhelming way to start his first day at school since his life changed. He felt comforted at Nino's side. He was good at being there for Adrien without, well, "suffocating" him as some would put it.
Ms. Bustier appeared to be hesitant to start class that morning, for reasons Adrien wasn't positive of. He looked to his best friend to find him already turned in his seat and chattering to Alya in the desk directly behind him. That's when he noticed that the seat next to her was empty. It was a sight the whole class was used to at this point. Everyone knew how scatterbrained Marinette was, and her being late to class was a common occurance. Though, their teacher never had to delay starting class quite this long. Marinette was typically here by now.
Finally, Ms. Bustier looked to Alya, breaking her conversation with her boyfriend. "Have you heard from Marinette today, Alya?" She asked, sparking curiousity out of the class that began quieting at the mention of their fellow classmate.
"No, ma'am," Alya answered.
Ms. Bustier look visibly inconvenienced. "Well, I didn't want to start without all students present, with the test being later, but it looks like I have no choice." She tapped the bottom of her papers against the top of her desk, looking to the whole class and clearing her voice. Nino forced his attention away from his girlfriend as class finally began.
"Hey," a hiss came from behind. Adrien looked back to find Ayla leaning over her desk with one hand cupped around her mouth. "Marinette stopped by your house last night, right?"
Adrien's face flushed suddenly, and he hoped it wasn't obvious. "Yeah, she did." Adrien turned his back towards her to ease the strain on his neck.
"And she seemed alright?"
Adrien thought for a moment, wondering if Marinette had been acting differently and he just hadn't noticed. Other than the quickly resolved misunderstanding from last Friday, he couldn't remember anything off-putting in her behavior. "Yeah, I think so," Adrien answered warily, still thrown off a bit by Alya's question and not entirely confident in his answer.
"'Kay. Just wondering," Alya seemed satisfied enough. He'd mentioned to Nino that Marinette did end up stopping by after they'd left, but hadn't yet gone into any detail of the visit. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd passed that onto Alya already. She started to bring herself back into her seat until Adrien added to their hushed conversation. .
"Why? Everything okay?"
"Yeah, she just hasn't been answering my texts lately, that's all." Alya waved off the statement calmly as she sat back down. Adrien nodded in reply before both of them finally focused their attention to their teacher.
There was still no sign of Marinette by the time their first class of the day ended.
Alya had whipped out her phone as soon as the students were dismissed. Adrien stood with Nino as he waited for Alya to finish on her phone before heading to their next class. Adrien had made it a point to stick around Nino as much as possible today. Already, facing his life back at school was proving to be more difficult than he'd thought, and surrounding himself with easy company was sure to keep him at least somewhat grounded. If that meant being a third-wheel for the rest of the day, then so be it.
Alya held her phone to her ear for nearly a full minute, before he heard a voicemail tone. "Hey, girl. Just wondering where you're at. It's getting lonely without my desk buddy! Call me back." She finished, bringing her device away with a scowl. "What's her deal?" She wondered aloud, slinging her bag over her shoulder and joining the two boys as they exited the classroom as a trio.
"Maybe her phone's dead?" Nino offered his input.
"No," she dismissed immediately, impatience edging at her voice. "It rang. And that wouldn't explain why she's not showing up at school."
"Hmm, she…" Nino looked around in thought, pressing the side of his finger to his chin. "She dropped her phone in a manhole. And she's been trying to get it out and it's taking all day."
Alya glared at him.
"Uh, sorry. Just…trying to lighten the mood."
"I'm sure she's fine," Adrien chimed in, offering reassurance for Alya. He had fallen behind the couple a few steps when they got carried away in their light bickering. "She could just not be feeling well."
"What about you?" Nino asked, falling back a bit to walk closer to him. "How are you holding up?"
"It's…a lot," Adrien admitted, shrugging one shoulder. "It's much better than being at home, but it's harder to focus than I was expecting."
"It probably doesn't help that people are staring you like some kind of ticking time bomb."
He turned to his friend, suddenly insecure. "What?" Sure enough, several curious gazes had darted to avoid his eyes once he'd warily scanned his surroundings. He groaned quietly, willing their trip to science class to be over with already. "I really didn't need to be made aware of that, Nino."
"Am I just disappointing everyone today?" Nino cried, throwing his arms in the air.
Both Adrien and Nino had tried to shoot warning glances at Alya numerous times since science had started. She'd picked a poor time to sneak phone time into class and Ms. Mendeleiev was by far the least forgiving of teachers. The fact that Alya hadn't been caught yet was a miracle. She was practically spending that entire class awkwardly bent over sideways, eyes darting back and forth between the cold, stern teacher and her phone that she was holding underneath her desk.
At one point, Ms. Mendeleiev realized she was missing some supplies she needed for the expiriment she was demonstrating, and excused herself from the classroom momentarily, grumbling on her way out.
As soon as she'd gone, Nino quickly spun around in his chair, eyeing his girlfriend wildly and grasping the back of his seat. "What are you doing?"
Alya looked up from her phone, just now noticing the teacher had left. She looked back at Nino, puzzled. "What?"
"What do you mean 'what?'" Nino retorted. "If Ms. Mendeleiev of all people finds you on your phone, you're gonna get in a world of trouble. Heck, you might even be better off if she just killed you herself!"
"Oh, you know she doesn't scare me, Nino," Alya scoffed, waving him off.
"She scares me!" Nino said, gripping his chair tighter. "And I want you alive."
"What's so important anyways?" Adrien wondered, glancing at her phone. "You look very focused."
"Just seeing when Marinette was last online. Sent her another text too." She sighed in defeat, carelessly letting her phone drop onto her open bag. "Though it doesn't seem like…" She trailed off, suddenly blinking her eyes a bit as something past Adrien caught her eye.
The sight of Marinette standing silently in the doorway surprised the three of them. She had visibly poor posture and one hand lazily held onto her backpack strap as she made her way into the room with slow feet.
"There you are!" Alya rejoiced, relieved. "Gosh, girl, way to have me worried sick."
"Nice of you to finally show up, Dupain-Cheng," sneered Chloe, eyeing her up and down.
Marinette responded to neither of them as she shuffled past Adrien and Nino's table. Seeing her pay the mayor's daughter no mind was a rare occurance. She normally would never let Chloe get away with her snide remarks without at least throwing her a bitter glare. She didn't seem to acknowlege anyone in that classroom. It surprised Adrien. After their encounter yesterday and how skittish Marinette was generally, he'd been expecting her to act at least a little bit awkward around him. For all he could tell, she didn't even notice him sitting there.
He found his eyes unable to take themselves off her as she passed him and joined her best friend, who seemed just as put-off as he felt.
"What time did you get to sleep last night?" Alya asked, with equal parts concern and amusement as Marinette collapsed into the seat next to her, instantly hunching over onto their shared desk in exhaustion and nearly knocking over a glass bottle. It wasn't until several moments had passed that Marinette had even realized her best friend had said anything. She brought her hands away from her face, blinking and squinting at Alya.
"Wh…what?"
Alya's eyebrows shot up in shock. "Jeez, it's worse than I thought." She scooted closer, abandoning her supplies and putting her arm around Marinette shoulders. "Are you gonna be able to pay attention today, girl?" She gave her a playful little shake.
Marinette let out an inaudible moan in response, her friend's warm embrace making her want to fall asleep into her arms like a baby and never wake up. "Prob'ly not," she murmured.
"Don't tell me you were up all night studying for the test last minute," Alya pleaded.
Right, the test, Marinette realized. At least there was one thing she had confidence in.
She remembered the feeling of satisfaction when she'd finished studying the other day, sure she was going to ace the upcoming quiz. Everything she studied was still so fresh in her mind, too. Maybe it would serve as a distraction from whatever was going on with her.
"Oh, hey, Marinette," Adrien called, stopping the girl in her tracks as she followed Alya out of her classroom. He leaned over to rummage through his bag, giving her a moment to fuss over her appearance. There was nothing she would do about her puffy eyes and visibly exhausted appearance, but she could at least smooth her hair down a bit.
He sat back up with a light blue pen Marinette instantly recognized. "Here," he said, holding it out to her. "You left this at my place."
"I…did?" She asked in disbelief, slowly reaching out to take the pen. She examined it.
"Yeah, I found it in my room this morning," he said, looping his bag onto his shoulder as he stood from his seat. "I just wanted to give it to you now, before I forget."
"Uh, right!" Marinette smiled, sliding the pen into her backpack. "Thanks, Adrien." She caught up with Alya quickly, unsure of how she felt at that moment.
"Adrien?"
Adrien stopped when he heard his name on the way to the cafeteria, letting Nino continue ahead of him.
He turned to see Lila standing there, waiting to talk to him by the bottom of the stairs. Her hands were neatly folded in front of her and her shoulders looked a bit stiff. Her gaze was pointed down and she seemed nervous. Whether it was genuine, or leading up to another attempt at manipulation, he was just gonna have to find out.
"Hey, Lila," he said, unsurely stepping forward.
She looked up at him, and back down again. "I just wanted to say," she began, sighing. "I know I've caused you a lot of trouble over these past few months. And...there's no excuse for it. I hurt you and others, and I'm really sorry."
Wow. Lila seemed…genuine. He'd never seen her act this way before.
"I don't know what it's like to lose a parent," she continued, finally able to look up and maintain eye contact with him. "But I know how it feels not having them around, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody."
"I really appreciate that," he told her, letting his hand rest on her shoulder for a quick moment. He'd always stood by his belief that anyone can change, no matter what bad things they've done. Looks like death really brought that change out, even from people that weren't effected by it directly. As far as he knew, Lila had only met his father briefly and it wasn't under the ideal circumstances. If he already wasn't positive that people were treating him differently, he was now.
"If you need someone to talk to, I'm here," she promised, smiling a bit. "Maybe we understand each other more than we initially thought. I want to be friends, Adrien. Really friends."
"I'd like that too," Adrien returned. "Thanks, Lila. That means a lot."
With a final nod, he turned to catch up with Nino, who had stopped to wait for him by the doorway.
At lunch, Marinette zoned out, barely touching the meal on her tray. Her and Alya were sharing a table with Juleka and Rose that day, and everytime she tried involving herself in the group's conversation, she found her mind slipping out of it almost immediately. She gave up trying after a while, until realized she was recieving an odd look from Juleka.
"Something wrong with your ears?" She asked, her voice barely understandable.
Marinette looked to her hand, which she hadn't realized was clasped over her left ear, tugging at her earlobe for nearly that whole time. "Oh, no," Marinette denied immediately, dropping her arm.
The conversation carried on. Marinette mentally kicked herself. She had to stop acting so weird, or the whole school would be on her case.
"Anyways, it's nice seeing Adrien have fun with his friends," Rose remarked, leaning her cheek against the back of her hand.
This drove Marinette to glance behind her shoulder, finding Adrien a few tables away with Nino and several other classmates. He was smiling and looking between his friends as they took turns speaking.
"Yeah," Juleka agreed. "It looks like he's having no problems just being his usual self."
"You think so?" Marinette chimed in, though she hadn't been listening to their conversation prior to this moment and wasn't sure what the context was.
"Do you not?" Alya asked.
"Well, I don't know. So…" she began, scooting closer to them. "He gave me my pen, the blue gel pen you gave me, Alya, and told me that I'd left it at his house…?"
"Okay?"
"My pen. My blue gel pen. Like the one I use for every test?" Marinette held her palms up. "That's been, like, my go-to pen ever since you gave it to me. Don't you think I would have noticed if it were missing that long?"
"Maybe he was using it as an excuse to talk to you!" Rose piped up, beaming with excitement.
"True," Alya concurred. "And if you're the one he's reaching out to, especially at this time, that's not something you should take lightly."
The bell rang.
"Oh, how romantic!" Rose squealed, picking up her tray.
"Wait," Marinette said, still in her seat and looking wildly between the two of them as they stood up. "What does that mean?"
"Oh come on, Marinette." Alya said as Rose trotted away with Juleka. "There's no way you can be that oblivious…" She took her tray after swinging her schoolbag over her shoulder and began heading for the tray return.
"W-wait!" Marinette called after her, grabbing her tray and frantically scrambling out of her seat to follow after her.
"Hey, you never told me how yesterday went," Alya changed the subject as Marinette caught up, giving her an excited, intrigued flick of her eyebrows.
"Uh, good," Marinette said after a while, unsure of how to respond. "Yeah, really good. Everything went well."
"Is that it?" Alya inquired, clearly unsatisfied as she set her used tray down on the counter for the cafeteria staff to take. "Come on, spill! Give me the deets."
"Well. Um…" Marinette looked down her own tray, placing it next to Alya's.
"Ope. Never mind! Deets can wait. Gotta run!" With that, the ends of Alya's bright red hair flashed like a flame as she high-tailed away from Marinette. She stared after her in puzzlement. That was…weird, she almost said out loud.
That's when she noticed a blonde figure at her side, and nearly startled to see Adrien standing there, looking like he'd been waiting patiently to talk to her.
"Hey," he said, giving her a little wave. He was smiling, but something in his expression was somehow off-putting and she couldn't place why. He walked with her as they headed towards the cafeteria exit.
"H-hi!" Marinette stammered, still recovering from the surprise of him magically appearing after just being the subject of conversation a few minutes prior. If this were last year's Marinette, she probably would have jumped out of her skin at this kind of situation, blubbering nonfunctional sentences at the mere sight of him. Looks like that side of her wasn't completely gone. The two of them have had many encounters since that point and were considered close friends without a doubt. But, close enough for Marinette to actually suck it up and just tell him how she felt without trying to sneak it in a letter or a video message where she wouldn't have to be facing him directly? Or to remain calm and collected in his general presence? Apparently not.
"I just wanted to say, it was really nice seeing you yesterday," Adrien began as they reached the outside courtyard. "Nino and everyone else too. It really helped lift my spirits, so thank you again. It really meant a lot."
Marinette caught herself from staring too long as she struggled to process this.
"But I couldn't help but notice, you seem kind of out of sorts today," Adrien said, tilting his head slightly. "I wasn't sure if I'd, you know, made you uncomfortable in some way. If I did, I hope you know you can tell me. We're friends, and if there's something I'm doing wrong, I'd like to be made aware of it."
Because Marinette wasn't caught off-guard already.
What was he talking about? What could Adrien Agreste possibly do to upset her? The boy probably hasn't said an unkind word in his life. Did something happen that Marinette had just let fly over her head? What could it have been? Her mind wandered to yesterday to try to figure it out.
Then she felt a quick, sharp pain in her head and winced slightly, pressing her palm to her brow. "Ow," she accidentally said out loud, halting.
"What's wrong?" Adrien asked instantly, turning towards her and leaning forward a bit to level their eyes. She blinked at him, taking in his troubled expression.
"Oh, nothing," she lied quickly. "Just had a bit of a headache all of a sudden."
"Oh. Did you need to stop by the nurse so she can give you something for it? I can take you," he offered, straightening himself to his original posture and pointing to the direction of the nurse's office. "That way if we're both late to class, you probably won't get in trouble again."
Marinette felt the tops of her cheeks warm without hesitation, touched by his offer and effortless kindness. But she couldn't have anybody worrying for her, not now. She had to play it off like it was nothing. "Nah, it's okay, really," she waved it off, resuming their route to class. "I just didn't get much sleep last night, which, y'know, also explains the whole 'out of sorts' deal. You saw me earlier. Besides, I already feel it going away." She couldn't help the feeling that her disguised voice was coming off a bit too strong.
Adrien looked her up and down for a moment, not seeming convinced. "Okay," he said anyway, with his usual politeness, "if you're sure."
"Sure I'm sure!" She added with a smile, immediately regretting it. Who says that? Just shut up already, Marinette.
"Marinette! Marinette, wake up!"
"Psst, wake up, Marinette." Something nudged against her arm, startling her out of her trance.
She blinked up at Ms. Bustier who was standing by their desk and holding out a handful of papers that she was waiting for Marinette to take. With her iconic nervous chuckle, she reached forward and took them, sliding one of them to Alya as their teacher moved onto the next table.
Finally. It was time for the test. The one thing she knew she had confidence in.
Feeling a surge of optimism, she reached into her backpack and fished out the pen Adrien had returned to her that afternoon. She clicked the end, taking a moment to observe her pen and admire the shimmery metallic flakes that beautifully reflected the light from the windows. She typically did this to ground herself while preparing to start the test. Somewhere deep down, she believed it gave her good luck.
Correcting her grip on the pen, she leaned forward onto the desk and comfortably positioned herself for an easy test.
Wait. Something was wrong.
What were these questions? Nothing about any of these problems seemed even remotely familiar. It didn't even appear to be in the same subject as the one she studied for. She straightened back up, flipping over the single piece paper and finding only a couple more questions on the back. Wasn't this supposed to be a much longer test?
"Um, Ms. Bustier?" Marinette caught the attention of the teacher just as she handed out the last test.
She returned to Marinette's desk, peering at the sheet of paper in her student's hand. "What is it?"
"I-I think you've given me the wrong test," Marinette told her, handing the paper back for her to examine.
"Hmm." Ms. Bustier's eyes quickly roamed over the test questions. "Nope. Looks like I gave you the right one," she corrected, glancing at the back of the page before setting it back down in front of Marinette. "Alya should have the same thing."
Alya, hearing her que, moved her test over for them to look at. Sure enough, it was the same.
"Oh…" Was all Marinette could utter as their teacher returned to her spot at her own desk.
All previous confidence thrown out of the window, her mind went back into a hurricane. What even were any these words? What happened to the test she'd spent so much time preparing for? Was it not until later this week and she'd miscalculated the time?
"Just do your best," Alya encouraged in a hushed tone. "It's mostly just a warm-up anyways. It's not like it will have a huge effect on your grade."
"This is supposed to be a warm-up?" She hissed back in disbelief. For all she knew it could've been in an entirely different language. How was she supposed to fake her way through this one? She looked back down at her work, clawing her hands through her hair in silent panic.
That's when she noticed Adrien looking back at her from the corner of her eye. Great. Now her crush was looking at her weird. Wasn't that just the cherry on top of a horrible day.
But when she met his eyes instinctively, cheeks burning with embarrassment, she realized he wasn't judging her like she feared. His eyebrows were furrowed, but his expression seemed to be directly asking her "are you okay?" without using words.
Marinette quickly smiled and flipped him a thumbs-up, not wanting come off any more suspicious than she already had that whole day.
"Eyes on your tests, please," Ms. Bustier called, halting their wordless interaction. Adrien hesitated, but obeyed.
Okay, Marinette thought to herself, refocusing her attention. You just need to get through this test, and then you're home free, and have nothing more to worry about until tomorrow. The sooner you get this done, the sooner this nightmare will be over.
