Chapter 34

~Marinette's POV~

"What did you say?" Adrien asked me with a hushed voice, and I knew that it was only he and I that knew this conversation existed.

"I—uh—I don't know?" I practically squeaked out my response nervously.

I heard a quiet chuckle from him, and my blush only grew when I felt something around my shoulder. I glanced to my side quickly to see that it was Adrien's arm. I looked at him questioningly, but he only gave me a small smirk.

"It's okay, Marinette." He said quietly. "I don't mind knowing that I have a contagious smile." With a quick, teasing wink he turned his attention back to the film. I did the same though my mind had gone blank.

It took a few seconds before I realized what was happening in the film, though I was still very aware of the fact Adrien still had an arm around my shoulders. I would've expected it to be a temporary thing, to add to teasing me, but apparently it wasn't. It had to be a longer teasing gesture instead.

"What are you up to there?" The Adrien on screen asked as he stood behind me, holding a red duffle bag. I had been up on a step ladder hanging up Christmas lights around the porch. There was a hammer in my hand, a couple nails sticking out on my pursed lips, and strands of lights around my neck.

I turned and smiled at him as I took the nails out of my mouth with the hand I held the hammer. "Curbside value." I answered, and saw him smiling in response before I turned back to the lights I was hanging up. "When you're trying to sell a house, Christmas spirit can go a long way."

"Thank you." He said, then started towards the stairs the led down to the blue truck, but paused and looked at me again when I continued.

"Yeah." I responded. "My sister is in real estate. She says the more homey you can make a house feel the better." Adrien smiled a little more at me in response. "Have a good day." I added with a warm smile.

"You too." He responded, then walked down the stairs.

"Yeah." I replied then put the nails back in my mouth and turned to work on the lights.

Adrien walked away from the house looking as if he were lost in thought, then stopped and slowly turned towards me again with a curious smile. "I actually have an appointment to look at some tile." He said, causing me to look at him while I held up lights with my free hand.

"You wouldn't want to go, would you?"

I hesitated for a second, taking the nails from my mouth again, then answered with a smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I could."

"Alright." Adrien said, his smile growing a little more. "Well, there's this other thing I have to do first. It's—uh—sort of important."

"What's that?" I asked as I put my hands on the railing on the ladder and leaned slightly towards him.

"I have to give a speech to a group of fascinating people." Adrien replied. "You might like it."

I looked curious as I stood up straight again. "Should I dress up?" I asked, gesturing to what I was wearing: a simple light blue and white zip-up sweater with a hood and pockets, and black jeans.

Adrien took a second to glance over what I was wearing, then smiled. "I think I can get you in dressed like that."

The scene changed to show Adrien dressed in a full fireman's suit, yellow pants, jacket, and helmet. He was looking down at his audience seated around him, his hands on his hips in fists as he tried to look at them seriously.

"Did you guys know that the leading cause of Christmas tree fires is from dry trees?"

The camera angle changed to show his audience: a group of children all wearing plastic red firemen helmets with their names written on them under a "fire chief" sticker. Manon, a little girl that I babysit, sat in the front, along with Chris, Nino's younger brother, and Ella and Etta, Alya's younger sisters.

"So remember: Get your parents to give your tree a drink every night." Adrien was shown again, giving the children a very serious look and looked around at each of them. "Alright, you guys got that?"

"Got it!" All the kids chorused, and I was shown sitting at the back in the middle of the green rug, hugging my legs crossed in front of me as I smiled at Adrien.

"Alright." Adrien repeated and gave the kids a satisfied smile, before his eyes landed on me and he returned my warm smile.

I remember how I felt as I filmed that specific scene with him because of how many takes it took to finish, despite being a very short scene. Those children hadn't found it very easy to cooperate for a while, but Adrien had shown the most patience with them that I've ever seen anyone give children.

I didn't look at him, afraid that he would catch me looking, but I smiled warmly to myself. I like the fact that Adrien is so good with kids, and I had a strong feeling that he'd made a great dad someday.

Though after a few seconds, while Adrien and I were busy on screen giving each other smiles as we were shown adding tiles to the walls of the kitchen, him holding the tiles and putting them onto the wall with me adding the plaster, the two cats nearby, I felt a sudden cold around me and I realized that Adrien had taken his arm away.

I had almost forgotten that he even put it there in the first place, and I looked up at him curiously to see why he moved away. I saw a nervous expression on his face and saw him visibly swallow, then followed his gaze. Instantly my heart stopped, and I knew I had become just as nervous as he looked.

~Adrien's POV~

Marinette's smile was so nice to look at that I couldn't take my eyes from her for a few seconds. I wasn't sure what was going through her mind, but I knew it had to be a nice thought because of how relaxed and happy she looked.

I wasn't sure why, maybe it was because I felt eyes on me, but I glanced up from looking at Marinette and I saw her father looking right at me. My smile instantly faded, and I looked at him with a nervous expression as I was suddenly and painfully aware that my arm was still around Marinette.

I wasn't even sure exactly why I hadn't stopped myself from doing it, but I didn't regret it until this point in time when her father caught me, not only with my arm around his daughter, but also looking at her with a smile that I was sure gave away that I care for her. I didn't even know how long he had been looking at me, but I could tell that he didn't seem very happy.

He seemed to be satisfied that I removed my arm from around Marinette because he raised his head as if silently approving my action. My stomach felt rather queasy as I forced my eyes away from him and back to the television screen, and it was an awful feeling.

Mr. Dupain must not be happy with me. He doesn't approve of me and doesn't want me to try to be more than friends with Marinette…

Marinette and I were shown on screen jogging down the street together on the sidewalk, her in a cyan long-sleeved shirt and me in a red one with black sleeves. Then she extended an arm towards me and playfully pushed me to the side, instantly moving in the opposite direction and running faster as if to get away from me. I smiled at her and waved it off as if dismissing her playful behavior, though she kept running ahead of me, a big smile on both of our faces.

The scene changed to show her reading a newspaper in the kitchen, me standing next to her. I leaned over to read the paper over her shoulder, and we both laughed quietly and exchanged a smile.

I wish I could have felt happy as I watched those last couple scenes, but I felt quite uncomfortable. Knowing that Marinette's father had seen me. I remember feeling so happy with Marinette, wishing that it was more than just the film and that we could do those simple things together as ourselves, not Marilee and Zachary.

But now I didn't know if it would be possible because I had a terrible feeling that Mr. Dupain wasn't happy with me, and it made me feel really nervous. I knew that I shouldn't have done anything like put an arm around her and look at her like I was, especially not with her parents in the room to see.

Now, any chance I had with her is ruined because I didn't act like a gentleman and talk to her parents first.

I knew better than that. I was raised to be nothing but polite, but I forgot about all of that when it came to her.

Why had I told Nino to switch me seats again? Right, I wanted to sit next to Marinette.

I wished I could go back right now, back to before I told Nino to switch me, and tell myself that it wasn't a good idea, but I couldn't. It was too late, and there was no way I'd be able to get onto her father's good side. Any hope I had of being with Marinette outside of the film was gone. Vanished.

"Who in their right mind barbecues a turkey in the fireplace?"

My attention went back to the television, and I knew there were still two more scenes we hadn't watched yet. I took a quiet deep breath to clear my mind of my worried, and temporarily forget about the trouble I was sure I had gotten myself into.

It had been me who spoke to Ivan after he climbed out of the fire engine. It surprised me that I tuned back into the scenes of the movie so quickly since I knew that this scene immediately followed the one with Marinette and I looking at the newspaper. I supposed all those panicked thoughts raced through my head in a matter of seconds, not minutes like what it felt like.

That explains why I feel so sick…

"The holidays make people do crazy things." Ivan responded, holding out the word 'crazy' for emphasis. I almost scoffed at that line, because what I just did was a prime example.

Don't think about that now.

"Yeah, I was saying the same thing to Marilee after my talk at the school."

"Wait," Max said immediately afterwards, following behind Ivan and I, followed by Kim. "What, you took her with you?"

"She's living with him now." Kim spoke up with a teasing tone. "He's falling in love."

"That's not true." I heard myself say.

"Sorry," Ivan said, with a smirk. "He's falling in love, but doesn't know it yet."

I chose to ignore it, but Max kept it going. "Okay, tell me that's not true, Zach." He said, clearly mocking me, though sounding serious. "You're my idol! No playing the field, no commitment, no responsibility…"

"Don't worry, nothing's changed." I said, taking off the yellow fireman coat I had been wearing. "I'm not falling in love, and I'm still never getting married."

Max laughed to himself in disbelief, and Kim came over. "Really." He said, clearly unconvinced. "Can you say no to these three things?"

I looked at him as he continued, with an almost worried look on my face as if I was afraid I was in fact falling in love. "You live with her? Yes. You spend all your free time with her? Yes. You think about her when you're not with her—"

"No—" I tried to cut in, but Kim still answered, "Yes" at the same time.

"No." I repeated stubbornly. "No, I don't live with her. She's only staying with me until she finds a new place, and I only spend time with her because she's there."

Max and Kim nodded slowly, and Kim turned to look at Max with a smirk, humming in false agreement to me, then looked back at me. "You are five minutes from marrying this girl."

"Okay, so wait—wait—wait—wait." Max said to Kim, stepping towards me when Kim turned and walked away. "What are you saying, he's human after all?"

The guys laughed, and Max looked at me again. "Come on, Zach!" He said with exasperation, clearly trying to tease me. "Say it ain't so!"

"This girl's a temporary roommate." I answered. "Nothing else."

Ivan came walking over to us from behind me, smiling with amusement. "Right." He said, also sounding very amused and unconvinced.

As the scene played out, I remembered how I felt as this scene was being filmed, and I felt the same way again. Perhaps what I felt for Marinette really was a little more than just some crush. Those three questions that Kim had asked me replayed through my mind, and although I personally could only say yes to one of them, I was pretty sure that one was the telltale sign.

I think about Marinette all the time, even when we aren't together, and when I do, I really want to be with her.

I slowly nodded to myself, leaning over to put my elbows on my knees and let out a sigh I wasn't even trying to hide. I had to admit it to myself:

I love Marinette. I am in love with Marinette. The feelings I have for her are more than just a crush.

I wouldn't have felt so nervous about this fact I just realized, or so queasy, if it wasn't for the fact I had no clue what to do about her father, and to see if I'd even stand a chance if I tried talking to him and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng about the possibility of dating Marinette.

It wouldn't have been so nerve-wracking to me if I hadn't already screwed up and let Mr. Dupain catch me with my arm around his daughter; his little girl.

Oh boy, am I going to be in trouble…