Chapter 26

~Adrien's POV~

I was doing a last-minute read-through of my script for the next couple scenes I'd be filming, mouthing the lines to myself. I already had them memorized, so I wasn't too worried, but you can never be too prepared.

"Adrien…?"

I looked up from the line I was reading when I heard a quiet voice say my name and saw Marinette walking up to me. Instantly I remembered what we said to each other when we read over scene that we'd film in the near future, and I could feel myself blushing slightly.

"I love you."

I remember feeling my heart rate increase rapidly. I hadn't even thought about what I was reading before it came out. I had a similar reaction when I had read the line that called her beautiful, but this had more of an effect on me.

And when she said those three words back, my head turned to look at her. I knew she was only reading her lines, but there was something about the way she said them as she stared intently at the words on her paper that had made my heart skip.

"I love you…"

But she looked rather shy and sad about something, so I pushed away my thoughts and offered her a small smile.

"Hi, Marinette." I said. "Are you ready to film that scene of yours?"

"Oh, yeah I am." She said with an embarrassed smile as she stopped walking and stood in front of me. I was positive she was remembering that I had caught her practicing the scene yesterday. Then, she let out a quiet sigh, and I knew she was getting to her point.

"I was talking with Alya about the scene you filmed with the guys earlier." Marinette said, referring to the most recently filmed scene. She paused and looked down with a small frown before continuing. "I know that she wrote in Ivan's line like that on purpose, though she shouldn't have."

"Which line?" I asked, lowering the script in my hand as I looked at her curiously.

"The one that brought up your parents." She answered, looking up at me with an apologetic look. "I'm really sorry she did that, Adrien. She shouldn't have done that."

"It's okay." I said, forcing a smile although it did hurt to be reminded again, especially around this time of year. It had been a couple years ago that my parents were divorced. The details were complicated, but it was obvious marriage wasn't working for them anymore. I knew that my parents are better off this way, but I still really miss my mother.

"But are you okay?" Marinette asked me with a gentle tone, and it took me by surprise how worried she looked. I nodded in response, but she frowned a little more. "It's okay to not be okay, you know. If you want to talk about it, I'm here for you, and I'll still be here for you even if you don't want to talk about it."

It felt as if my heart skipped at her words. Suddenly the usually shy and timid Marinette was gone, and she was replaced by a girl who really cared and wanted to be sure that I knew she cared.

I couldn't help myself as I took a step to close the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her in a hug. "Thank you, Marinette." I said, and my heart warmed up more when I felt her arms around my waist, hugging me back. "Knowing that you care really means a lot."

I watched with a few other people in class as Marinette was filmed acting in that scene I caught her practicing yesterday, though this time she was really on the side walk, there was really a list in her hand of new job choices for her character, Marilee, and there were real carolers and a real Santa ringing that bell with a Mrs. Claus right next to him.

After stuffing money into the donation's container, she turned and continued walking down the street in the direction of the camera and past to finish her scene. Although the scene was short and there were no lines, it showed a lot about Marilee's character. She didn't give up and she stayed positive even when an unfair trial came her way.

A lot like Marinette…

I shook my head to myself for the last thought and pushed it away when I heard Alya and Nino say we were going to head back to Marinette's place to film my next two scenes. Since we hadn't been too far away from her house when filming, we decided just to walk to the bakery.

"Are you ready for these two scenes?"

I turned towards the voice to see Marinette walking next to me, looking at me with a curious smile. I don't know how or when I started to walk next to her, or when we had started to fall a few steps behind the others, but I returned her smile.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I said, and by the amusement in her eyes I could tell she caught the excitement in my tone.

"You'll be breaking up with Chloe—"

"Zachary; Blair." I said, cutting her off to correct her with a small grin.

"—Blair." She corrected, still smiling in amusement. "You seem really happy about it."

"I am." I answered honestly, then lowered my voice as if Chloe would hear if I spoke too loudly. "I'll be really happy when I don't have to worry about her begging for anymore kisses."

Marinette giggled and I could see her cheeks a faint pink color, though I'm sure it was just because it was cold outside. "Alya's excited too. She doesn't want to have to put up with filming and directing her. Her words, not mine."

"Really?" I asked with a teasing tone. "I believe she said all that, but you're not the least bit happy she'll be out of the film?"

"I never said that." Marinette said defensively, resulting in me chuckling quietly. "It's not like it's me who has to film her or tell her how to act. Though, yeah, I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy that she won't be around much anymore."

I nudged her playfully, resulting in a giggle and pinker cheeks from her. We fell into a silence for a few seconds before I looked at her with a teasing smile. "Good job on that scene you just filmed, by the way. You must have really practiced."

Now it was her turn to nudge me playfully, a warm smile growing across her lips. I knew she knew I was referring to when I caught her in the park, but what she didn't know was that that warm smile of hers was really warming my heart, and I wasn't able to stop myself from returning it.

"This scene is very simple." Nino said as I was handed Ambrose as I stood in the Dupain-Cheng kitchen. "A few lines, just you talking to the cat. Shouldn't take long to film."

"No," I agreed as I repositioned Ambrose in my arms, so my left hand held him against my chest and my right was able to pet the cat for the scene. "It shouldn't."

"Okay," Nino nodded, stepping away from me, holding up his camera. "Action."

I hesitated for a second, looking down at the cat before I spoke. "Okay, so here's the thing." I started. "It looks like we're going to be stuck with each other for a little while."

"You can stay here until I sell the house, but," I paused and looked away from Ambrose for a second. "Then you're on your own."

I turned my attention to a bottle of what had a cider in it, but was made to look like wine, picked it up and drank a little bit from it. Then, still holding the drink in my hand and the cat in my other, I clicked my tongue and pointed with the hand that held the bottle as if I had an idea.

"New rules." I said then glanced at Ambrose again. "We come and go as we please. You're not responsible for me, I'm not responsible for you. We're just a couple of bachelors living together."

I slowly nodded to myself as Nino brought the camera closer to me, about to end the scene. "Good talk." I said, lifting Ambrose up slightly. "Let's go watch the game."

As I turned and started to walk past Nino, he called, "Scene" and grinned at me. I returned the grin and turned to put the bottle down on a kitchen counter top then turned back to Nino and gave him a fist bump.

"Nice job, Dude." He told me. "Now for the next scene with Chloe."

We both had a look that said we expected the worst, both knowing she'd probably make this scene hard to film. When someone came up to me to get Ambrose, I think it was the girl playing Marilee's sister, I turned and handed him over then let out a long sigh. I was so ready to do this breakup scene, but I didn't want to have to put up with Chloe

As imagined, it took quite a few takes for us to finally get to the point where she gave in and say that she'd "film the stupid scene with our stupid breakup" but I think she was just telling herself that the breakup wasn't real anyway because it was just for the film. Why couldn't she have thought the same about that kiss or the relationship between our characters as a whole?

She just finished saying that she was glad that she had no more scenes after this, and that she didn't want to put up with Alya anymore either. Alya hadn't exactly been too subtle when telling her she didn't want to deal with her anymore either. To get her not to quit before this scene was filmed, Alya promised Chloe wouldn't have to worry about memorizing a single line after.

Chloe thought it was fair, though she didn't realize how much of a benefit the rest of us got from her deciding to film the scene, then want nothing to do with it anymore. Even I was surprised when she started acting right away when Nino called, "Action!" and she even had a semi-sort sweet smile on her face to show that Blair started this scene in a good mood.

There was a pan with a metal spatula and cooked meat on the stove top in the Dupain-Cheng kitchen. Chloe was picking up a bowl of salad and turned to put it down on the kitchen island on her other side, other dishes of food already in place.

I walked in, seeing this scene, though it already seemed a bit strange. I knew Chloe would never cook a meal for anyone, and that meant Blair wouldn't either. Also, wearing that fancy cheetah print shirt, those nice looking black skinny jeans, and all that jewelry, not to mention her hair and nails, there was no way she really would've actually cooked anything.

"Hey." I said as I stood in the doorway, putting a hand in my jean pocket as I leaned against the door frame, causing Chloe to look at me at the sound of my voice. "What are you doing here? I thought you had a commercial shoot?"

"It got postponed." Chloe answered with a sweet smile, then turned and held out her arms. "Surprise!" She then put her hands together and shrugged slightly. "I made dinner."

I sighed and looked down, a hand moving up to touch my chin as I thought for a second, while she turned back to look at the food on the island. I stood there for a moment in silence before a confused look crossed my face. "Where's Ambrose?" I asked, turning and looking around to the floor around and behind me.

"I don't know." Chloe answered, still trying to dish out the food when I looked at her. "I thought he was with you."

"No," I answered, sounding concerned, and started to walk towards her with slow steps. "And he always greets me when I come home.

"I'm sure he's around here somewhere." Chloe said, and though she looked concerned with her small smile, her tone made it obvious she didn't care. Then, to really try to sell that she did care, she called for him, but still had a very unconvincing tone. "Ambrose, where are you?"

"Just forget about the cat." She said almost immediately after. "Go get into the shower. I'm going to put dinner on the table."

I turned and walked back through the room I came from, calling Ambrose's name twice before I went back into the kitchen. "I wonder if he got out somehow…" I paused and thought for a second before looking up at Chloe then turned again to leave the kitchen. "I'm going to go find him."

"Why?" Chloe demanded suddenly, still with a false sweet tone. I turned and looked at her, seeing her confused and exasperated expression as she walked over to stand closer to me. "No, he'll be fine."

I looked down and let out a breath of exasperation and took a couple steps to stand in front of her. I looked up at her for a moment before speaking. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"What?" She asked innocently, a hand on her hip as if she did nothing wrong.

"Did you really have that woman who works at your father's store fired?"

"Yes." Chloe answered, making a face as if it were a traumatic experience for her. "She was horrible. She talked back to me. She was a total—"

"So you had her fired?" I asked, cutting her off and lifted my arms slightly to show that I didn't understand her logic. All she did was look at me innocently. "You can't do that, Blair. You—You can't just have somebody fired because you don't like them."

Chloe sighed softly, giving me a patient look as if I were overreacting. "Look." She said with a soft, sweet voice as she stepped closer to me. "Everything's okay."

"She doesn't matter," She paused and put her hands on my chest, and rubbed them over my chest and to my shoulders as if it were supposed to comfort me. "The cat is gone, everything's back to normal."

I stood there, letting her rub her hands on me as if it were soothing, but it wasn't. I was glad that the next part I had to do was wait for a few seconds then back away from her, making her take her hands away from me. "This isn't working."

"What?" She asked, noticing I wouldn't look at her.

"You and me." I answered, looking at her again as I said the line.

"You're kidding me." She said with a disbelieving, unamused tone. "Right?"

"No." I answered, looking at her again.

"You're breaking up with me?" She asked as if the idea was impossible.

I slowly nodded and pursed my lips. "That's the way it looks."

She instantly lost the sweet tone and smile. "I'm a professional model, and you're breaking up with me?!" I looked away, feeling uncomfortable by her furious, unbelieving gaze, and she was obviously very angry but tried to remain calm. "I wasted my entire night cooking for you. I got my hair done; these are expensive highlights!"

I was honestly having a really hard tone not to break character and laugh as I said my next words. "I know you didn't cook, Blair." I paused as she looked at me in shock. "You left the packages for the food in the trash right where I can still see them. I also know you didn't cook because I just bought that stove, and it's not connected yet."

Chloe gave me a very unhappy look and lowered her tone to a threatening one. "Trust me. I am the best thing that's ever happened to you, and you're going to regret this. You're going to call and you're going to beg for me to come back. Guess what? I won't."

She then walked past me, storming away, and I followed her slowly as she turned the corner to the door. She only stopped to take her hook off of a coat rack before she opened the door, walked out, and slammed the door shut behind her.

The moment the door closed again, I looked around the house. "Ambrose?" I called. "Ambrose! Ambrose, where are you buddy?" I sighed softly and turned so the camera could see a concerned look on my face, and called Ambrose's name again.

"And, scene." Nino called with a smile, and I returned it. I then walked over to the door where Marinette and Alya were waiting for the scene to be over and opened it to let them in.

"Chloe is gone." Marinette said with an amused smile. "She didn't even wait to see if she needed to do the scene again."

"Good riddance, is what I say." Alya muttered, though she definitely wasn't trying to stop Nino or I from hearing, and I couldn't help but nod in agreement. "Anyway, here you two go." She paused and offered Marinette and I each a packet with more scenes to prepare for. "The next five scenes after the one we film tomorrow."

"Do we finally get another scene together?" I asked curiously as I started to flip through the pages, and I knew Marinette was doing the same.

"Actually…" Alya trailed off with a smirk at the two of us, causing us to both look at her. "You two get to go on your first date."

"What?" Marinette asked quickly, and I was still looking at Alya in surprise. I could feel my cheeks heat up slightly at the thought of Marinette and I on a real date and couldn't help but smile a little bit.

"Really?" I asked, and both Alya and Marinette looked at me. I guess I sounded a little too happy about it. Marinette's cheeks were a pink color and Alya was grinning.

"Yep!" Alya said happily. "These next scenes are the first of many for the two of you, and the first that really bring Zachary and Marilee together. You will be spending a lot of time together."

I looked at Marinette who still looked dazed as she stared at me, but I wasn't exactly sure why. But, even while I didn't understand why she looked so surprised, I couldn't help but grin. "I can't wait."