Chapter 32

~Marinette's POV~

I hadn't felt this nervous about something concerning Adrien in a long time. Granted, 'a long time' might only be a few days, but I was confused and didn't really understand what was going on with him. He's started to act strange when we're not filming, even though it seems to go away when we are. Then again, I knew he'd be a great actor.

The next scene we'd be filming together was at my house, and I knew that room that was going to be repainted for the movie had to be finished before we filmed. My parents said that they would do as much as they could to get it finished while we were at school, but with their work in the bakery, I didn't think it would be finished right after school like we'd hope.

I was telling Alya about this, and she dismissed the problem. "It's okay." She told me. "We can get that room finished as soon as we get to your house after school."

Nino and Adrien had overheard and joined in on the conversation. "I'm sure it won't take too long." Nino said. "We can have it finished in no time. Besides, the scenes to follow are short and won't take long at all."

"Yeah," Adrien agreed with a smile. "We can head over as soon as school gets out."

"Actually, I can't be there as soon as school gets out." Nino told us. "I'll be getting all the equipment ready to take over, and that will probably take about half an hour or so."

"And I'll be busy too." Alya added with a nod and a smirk that told me she was up to something. "I'll be helping Nino."

"Oh, well I'm sure Marinette and I could handle painting, just the two of us." Adrien said with a smile. "Right, Marinette?"

"Right." I answered with a confident tone, though I gave Alya a skeptical look. Something told me that she and Nino being away while Adrien and I would be alone together wasn't just some coincidence. But I couldn't be too unhappy since I was really happy to be spending more time with Adrien. Nervous, yes, but really excited.

It turned out that my parents decided to surprise me by starting the painting process for us while the bakery was closed for my parents to eat a quick late lunch. When Adrien and I got to the room, the previous red shade had been completely replaced by a white.

"So we don't have to paint after all?" Adrien asked as he looked around the freshly painted room. Furniture was still covered with white plastic sheets, and there was one bucket of paint left with two paint rollers and a few brushes nearby, as well as two trays to hold the paint.

I didn't answer as I walked over to the paint bucket still on the floor and picked it up. "Eggshell…" I muttered then turned to Adrien with an amused smile, holding up the bucket for him to see too when he walked over. "Nope. We have one more layer of paint."

"Another layer?" Adrien asked as he walked over to me, then read the shade of white to himself. Then he looked at the already painted wall with a small smile of amusement. "That must be ecru."

"A layer of eggshell over ecru." I said, nodding my head to confirm his statement, then shook my head and sighed. "Of course Alya would make us have the exact shade of white on the walls as she wrote in the scene."

Adrien chuckled as he picked up the two rollers and held one out to me. "Well, let's get painting."

I chuckled as well as I opened the bucket of paint and poured some into each of the trays. It was only after I put the paint down that I remembered something. "Our clothes." I said, looking at him. "We need to change first."

I was confused for a few seconds when Adrien turned to me with an amused grin, but didn't say anything. "Oh!" I said suddenly. "Right! Umm, maybe my dad will have something you can wear?"

"I seriously doubt his clothes would fit me." Adrien said, still smiling in amusement as he crossed his arms.

I let out a long breath of exasperation, trying to think of something that could be done to ensure he didn't get paint on his designer clothing. I was kind of annoyed that he offered no help to come up with a situation, but rather watched me try to work something out with that amused smirk of his.

He's lucky he's cute.

I let out a groan of defeat and turned away from him. "I'll be back." I said over my shoulder as I walked towards the doorway to leave him and head to my room to change.

It was only when I was pulling on my overalls that I realized how calm I seemed around Adrien just now when I was down there. Anytime the thought of him being attractive crossed my mind, my face turned ablaze, and I had a hard time thinking straight.

Maybe it was because I had just found something about him that annoyed me? I scoffed at the thought immediately, knowing full well that I'd never been able to even imagine Adrien Agreste as someone who could ever annoy me. Yet, here I was thinking about how I had in fact been annoyed with him, even if it was temporary.

I didn't think that small fact would make much of a difference to how I see him, and how I feel about him, but it really did. Thinking about how Adrien Agreste, Mr. Perfect, annoyed me made me feel… Happy.

It was a confirmation that the boy really isn't perfect, and it made me love him more. Suddenly Adrien Agreste wasn't some unobtainable dream; he was real. He's an imperfect human, just like me, and I loved him so much for that.

I felt so happy as I headed back downstairs and into the painted room to tackle the situation about protecting Adrien's clothes that it took me a moment to take in what a big dork he looked like, grinning at me.

~Adrien's POV~

Marinette is adorable when she's distressed.

I could tell that it didn't make her very happy when I didn't offer any possible solutions to keep my clothes protected from the paint, but in my defense, I couldn't think of any. I probably could have if I wasn't distracted by the way her eyes and eyebrows narrowed slightly as she thought, the way she lit up when she had an idea, and remembering her concerned expression when she stated the problem, not worried about her own clothes, but mine.

I knew she had left to change her own clothes when she didn't comeback within the next minute. I didn't have too long to think about what I was supposed to do in the meantime before Marinette's father found me standing alone near the paint ready to be used.

"Where's Marinette?" He asked me curiously.

My eyes instantly raised in the direction of her room. "She went to change her clothes before we paint."

"And what about you?" Tom asked me, raising an eyebrow curiously. I only shrugged in response, telling him that I didn't have a change of clothes.

"I see." He told me and gave me a small smile. "Give me a moment."

He came back with a large green shirt and offered it to me. "Wear this over your clothes." I didn't argue as I slipped it on over my head and let out a breath of amusement. Even though the sleeves were short compared to the rest of the shirt, they ended just past my elbows if my arms were at my sides. The shirt was very, very baggy and ended at my knees.

"Are you sure?" I asked, looking at Tom questioningly, who was also smiling in amusement.

"Absolutely." He replied with a short nod. "I better head back down to the bakery. I came up here to make sure you two knew what you needed to do to finish painting the walls. Marinette shouldn't be too much longer."

"Thank you, Sir." I said with a smile, still inspecting how his shirt fit me.

"No problem, Adrien." Tom replied, and after giving me one last smile, he left the room with me still waiting for Marinette. It only took another minute before she made an appearance in the doorway. It took me a moment to take in her new appearance, and I knew I was blushing as I did so.

She wore a simple, plain dark purple t-shirt under a set of light blue denim overalls, and her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail. A very simple look, yet it looked amazing on her. Thankfully, she didn't notice me staring as I took in her appearance since she was too busy taking in mine.

That adorable, confused expression of hers made me grin stupidly at her as I raised my arms slightly to show that the shirt was really too large a size for me. The way she started giggling in amusement at me made my heart skip, and it was only confirmed to me that I really like this girl.

"That's got to be one of my dad's shirts." Marinette told me, still smiling widely at me after she finished laughing even though her pretty blue eyes were still sparkling.

"It is." I confirmed with a nod. "He came up to check on us, and ended up giving me this to wear while you were busy changing."

"I see." She nodded, and after a few more seconds of looking at me, started to giggle again. "It looks very nice on you."

"Noting the sarcasm; Choosing to ignore it." I responded, satisfied when it resulted in more laughter from her. "Now," I continued as I picked up the paint rollers again and offered her one. "Shall we get to painting?" Marinette gave me a dazzling smile that was still full of her amusement as she nodded and took the offered paint roller.

"And…" Marinette trailed off after about an hour of painting. "I believe we are finished."

I looked over at her from where I had been cleaning off our rollers and the brush I used for touch-ups in a bucket of water that Sabine had brought in for us not long ago to use when we were done, and I saw Marinette smiling to herself, despite some paint she got on her clothes.

I smiled as I looked at her, then walked over. When I stood next to her, I looked at the wall and smiled as well, though I was thinking about how cute she was with paint on her already cute outfit. "Hmm… I think you missed a spot."

"What?" She asked, her smile vanishing as her eyes scanned the wall. "Really? Where?"

"May I?" I asked, holding out a hand for the brush she held, with a mischievous smirk on my face. Even though I made no effort to hide it, she gave me the brush without looking in my direction, still looking for the spot she missed.

"Marinette." I said her name, causing her to turn to look at me, and her curious expression had me thinking she believed I was pointing the missed spot out to her. Instead, the moment she turned towards me, I moved the brush towards her and painted a vertical line on her nose.

I watched with immediate satisfaction as her expression changed to confusion and curiosity, to surprise and amusement. "Adrien!" She scolded, causing me to laugh while quickly backing away from her to avoid retaliation.

I was right to expect payback, because the next thing I knew she was dipping her fingers into the paint and started to chase me around the room. Our laughter filled in any possible silence as we ran around covered furniture, still putting paint on each other.

It was another one of my turns to get her back for more paint added to my cheeks from her fingers, and I was trying to catch her to get more paint somewhere on her face. However, that mission was instantly forgotten when she tripped with a yelp and started to fall to the hardwood floor beneath us.

I dove towards her, catching her as she fell, and we rolled a couple times before we came to a stop. Although she was laying on the ground now, my hand had been cradling her head and saved her from the blow. She stared up at me as I hovered over her, knees on either side of her legs, then started giggling again. I joined in; both of our laughs breathless from the running around and falling.

She had smears of paint all over her face, and I knew I did as well, but that didn't stop me from staring at her with a smile once our laughter died down. Before I knew what I was doing, I started to move down closer to her, and I couldn't tell if she was leaning closer to, or if it was just the hand holding her head that was working mindlessly, but before I got too close to her, we both froze and our eyes widened when we heard someone clear their throat in the doorway.

"I hope we aren't interrupting anything." Alya said, arms crossed with a grin on her face. Nino stood just behind her, holding the first of the equipment that was to be brought it, wearing a smirk that was sent directly to me.