Note: Thank you to Zebralord23 for proofreading and helping me on the Magic part of this chapter. :) I also ended up using my deck for this. haha
Marinette and Adrien sat in group therapy as Dr. Fu ran it. He peered around the crowd and flipped through his notes. "How about we start with Chloe?" He looked up at her and smiled.
"There's nothing really to say about me. I was just looking for something to do. Daddy is getting a big amount of money for this publicity stunt." Chloe waved her hand as she rolled her eyes.
"Yes, but did that publicity stunt involve you stealing thousands of euros worth of accessories and clothing?" Dr. Fu looked over his notes.
"It did, yes. All part of daddy's plan." Chloe shrugged and Adrien groaned and shook his head as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Have something to say, Adrikins?"
Adrien scowled at her and opened his mouth to speak. "You're seriously back to obsessively stealing things? Your father gives you an allowance that far exceeds normal people your age. Why do you need to steal?"
"You of all people know the answer to that! You should understand!" Chloe burst into tears that seemed to spring from nowhere.
"I don't need money to try and replace or impress my mother!" Adrien burst out at her and she cried harder.
"AT LEAST MY MOTHER ISN'T DEAD!" Chloe screamed and Adrien's face became red with anger.
"Might as well be!" Adrien threw his hands up into the air and then pointed at her. "When's the last time she even fucking talked to your ass? Oh sorry. She doesn't even have time for you!"
Chloe stood up and kicked her chair behind her. "Do you really want to do this right now?" She walked over to him and Dr. Fu raised his hand.
"Stop. Sit down. Let's all take deep calming breaths." Dr. Fu tried to solve the argument, but it wasn't working.
Marinette watched with wide eyes as Chloe brought her face close to Adrien's. Marinette stood up and pushed her away from him with her head down. Adrien flashed her a look of shock.
"Stop. I won't have you keeping my boyfriend from going home with me." Marinette quietly spoke and Chloe backed up, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Excuse me, your who?" Chloe clicked her tongue as she tapped her foot.
"Chloe, stop." Adrien sighed as he leaned back in his chair.
"No, no I wanna know who this girl thinks she is." Chloe snorted and Marinette swallowed hard.
"Adrien's my boyfriend and I really would like for him to come home with me and not be stuck here. Especially, with a girl like you." Marinette spoke a little louder.
"Is this true, Adrikins? This scrawny bitch thinks she's worthy of you?" Chloe pointed at the short girl with her thumb.
"She's my girlfriend, Chlo. Can you please just sit now? I'm done fighting." Adrien ran his hand through his hair. "And you're causing a scene." He gestured to all of the other patients with their mouths open.
Chloe peered around them and blushed, sitting down with a audible humph.
Marinette sat down and intertwined her fingers with his. Adrien lifted their hands to press a kiss against the back of Marinette's hand, causing Chloe to look away from them.
Adrien tried to not notice how Chloe's eyes turned red or how they sparkled under the fluorescent lights.
"Alright, I think we've had enough for today. I'll see each of you in individual therapy." Dr. Fu rubbed his eyes and heard them all leave.
Nurse Bustier walked up to him with a clipboard in her arms. "Exhausted?"
"Why did I think this was a good idea?" Dr. Fu sighed as he peered up at Bustier.
"Well, her father does have a massive say in what happens within this city. It'd be hard to say no." Nurse Bustier sighed as she sat down beside Dr. Fu.
"Maybe you were right. I need to go back to how I wanted to run things and not how the book tells me." Dr. Fu closed the file in his hands and stood up.
"You could always try." Nurse Bustier smiled at him as she walked away.
Adrien stood on the smoking porch with Marinette. "I miss Nino. I won't lie." He blew out smoke and Marinette worried her bottom lip.
"What were you talking about with Chloe?" Marinette peered over at him with her arms resting on the banister.
"Long story." Adrien sighed and flipped his cigarette between his fingers, catching the searing end on his fingers and not caring.
"I have time." Marinette stole his cigarette and put it between her lips, shocking him. She blew out smoke with a smirk and passed it back.
Adrien warmly smiled at her. "I love you."
Her eyes went wide and she choked on the smoke. "What?"
"I love you more than anything in this universe." Adrien smiled at her and touched her chin. He leaned in closer and brushed his lips against hers.
"I- I lo- love you too." Marinette stuttered against his lips as he pulled away.
"Chloe's mother is always busy. She's never home and forgets her birthday often. Her father is also pretty busy. Since she was a kid, she would steal from shops to gain attention." Adrien waved his hand around. "This is also an attention grabber for her. She won't admit it, but…" Adrien rolled his eyes and put his cigarette between his lips. "I know it. I've seen her do it enough to know it all too well."
"Must be hard to not have a mother." Marinette wrapped her arms around his bicep and nuzzled her cheek against it.
"It's been… seven years since mother passed away." Adrien counted back from then to when she had passed. "It's mostly hard during the holidays and birthdays."
"I could imagine. Holidays and birthdays are a big deal." Marinette pressed a soft kiss to his skin. "What was it like? Growing up without her?"
"Hard. I couldn't talk to father and when I had questions? I had no one to ask." Adrien shrugged and slumped on the banister.
"What kind of questions?" Marinette peered at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, did you ask your mother about puberty or sex? I had no one to answer those questions for me. I had to turn to movies and books. Search the internet for answers." Adrien sighed and Marinette cringed.
"Well, I didn't exactly ask my mom any of those questions. School taught me a lot. Sometimes my parents would talk to me about various things." Marinette shrugged. "But I learned a lot more from romance novels."
"But could you have asked her if you wanted to?" Adrien peered at her with a curious expression.
"I guess so. Yeah. She always would say that if I ever needed anything or had any questions? I could always come to her." Marinette worried her bottom lip.
"I didn't have that." Adrien flicked his cigarette off the banister.
"Your father really couldn't answer… nevermind." Marinette took in the 'are you serious' expression that was plastered on his face. "I get it."
Adrien snorted and shook his head. "The bastard barely answers his damn phone."
Marinette nodded and pulled him back to the common area. "Let's play a board game."
"A board game?" Adrien raised an eyebrow at her.
"Card game? Magic?" Marinette searched the shelves for the game.
Adrien sat at a table with her as she grabbed a box of cards and two twenty sided dice. "I call blue."
"Whatever you want. I always pick black." Marinette winked at him and he shook his head.
"What? I love the creatures in it. My favorite cards are Sengir Vampire and Child of Night. Oh! And Black Cat. It's not a very good card, but it's cute." Marinette giggled and Adrien smiled at her.
"Of course you love the Black Cat." Adrien laughed as he watched her blush.
She opened the box and they began to go through and grab land, creatures, artifacts, instants, enchantments, and sorcery cards. They made their decks until they had sixty cards each.
"Alright, ready?" Adrien shuffled his cards and Marinette nodded as she did the same.
They each grabbed seven cards and looked them over.
"You first." Marinette gestured to Adrien.
"Ladies first." Adrien gestured back and she set a land down; before, she drew a card from her library.
"Go." Marinette pushed her cards into an organized pile in her hands and watched him place land down and draw.
He tapped his land and put a creature into the battlefield that cost one land. It didn't do much damage, but it did some none-the-less.
Marinette placed another land down and tapped both lands to put a Child of Night into the battlefield. She drew a card and Adrien waited for her to be done.
He put a land down, tapped three of them, and placed down a stronger creature.
"Do you attack?" Marinette licked her lips.
"Why not." Adrien pushed his first creature forward.
Marinette blocked with her own, causing it to die. "We both die."
Adrien and Marinette put their creatures into their graveyards.
"What was the point in sacrificing that?" Marinette raised an eyebrow at him as she took her turn.
"Well, I mean now it's one against none." Adrien laughed and Marinette smirked as she placed another land down, tapped them, and put another Child of Night out.
They continued to play when Marinette suddenly threw a Nightmare down onto the battlefield. Adrien began to mentally count her land after briefly looking over her card.
"It has flying and it's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Swamps I control. So, it's an 8/8 right now." Marinette drew cards to replace the ones she put down.
"Damn." He watched her rip a piece of paper to write the number down on. She placed the small paper on the card to keep track of its power and toughness. Adrien went back to sorting through his cards.
The game went on until Marinette won by pushing a 10/10 Nightmare, two Child of Nights, a Nighthowler, and a 6/6 Sengrid Vampire at him. He successfully blocked two of them. "I give up. You win." Adrien bowed down to her with his hands on the table. "I bow to the queen."
Marinette giggled as she gathered her hand, library, and graveyard, stacking them back together. "Wanna play again or are you done?"
"I'm done. I'd rather play with my opponent." Adrien leaned forward and whispered.
Marinette blushed as she watched him laugh. Her heart rushed and pounded against her chest. She got lost in his emerald eyes that were encircled with purple. "I-"
"Hi." Chloe slammed her palm down between them and smiled at Adrien. "Wanna come smoke with me out on the porch?"
"I already did." Adrien peered up at her with an unamused expression.
"Well, smoke again." Chloe smirked at him and he sighed.
Marinette put the cards back in the box and stood up to put it back on the shelf.
"Why don't you have Sabrina smoke with you? I'm sure she'd love to." Adrien crossed his arms and stared at her.
"She's not you." Chloe spoke with more honesty than Adrien had heard from her in a long time.
Marinette touched his shoulder. "Go with her. I can go talk to Alya."
Adrien peered at her with a shocked expression. "I can go too."
She leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Talk to her."
Adrien sighed and gave up. "Alright, let's go."
Adrien walked with Chloe to the front desk to grab cigarettes from the nurse. They took matches and walked back to the smoking porch.
Adrien sighed as he leaned his back against the railing and held his hand in the way of the wind as he struck the match and lit the end of his cancer stick.
Chloe struck her match and lit her cigarette. "What do you have against me?"
"Did my father send you here?" Adrien blew smoke into the air.
"No, what? What are you even talking about? I got in here because it was court ordered." Chloe scoffed and rolled her eyes as she poked at him with her middle finger. The cigarette smoldered between her fingers and he waved the smoke from his face. "You're not special enough for that type of treatment."
Adrien scoffed at her. "Says the girl that bad mouthed my girlfriend. Chloe, we're twenty. Not thirteen."
Chloe took a long drag on her cigarette. "And you still have daddy issues. It's good to see that you've gained some weight."
"Thanks." Adrien sighed as she looked him over. "Will you stop staring at me like I'm a piece of meat?"
"You're a gorgeous man. What do you want from me? You of all people should be used to that." Chloe rolled her eyes and stubbed out her cigarette. "Sabrina is a great friend, but she doesn't have the history that we do."
"I don't seem to care." Adrien rolled his eyes and threw his cigarette.
"You seriously are going to look past everything that we've been through?" Chloe was irritated by his ignorance.
"Just because I don't want to talk about it or think about it… Does not mean that I don't remember it." Adrien walked away from her and towards Alya and Marinette.
Alya yelled out as she won at poker. "Guess who's getting all your desserts!"
Everyone groaned as she pulled all of the papers towards herself.
Marinette giggled at her friend and peered up to see Adrien. She got up from the table and walked up to him. "Are you okay?" She smiled up at him and he took her hand and lead her back to their room.
"I just want to lay down and kiss you." Adrien shut their door and lead her to his bed.
"What's wrong?" Marinette searched his eyes as he laid down with her.
"I just want to forget about Chloe right now." Adrien sighed as Plagg circled them.
"I don't think kissing me will make you forge-" Marinette was interrupted by Adrien's lips on hers as he held his weight up with his forearms above her.
He ran his tongue along her bottom lip and as she parted her lips, he dipped his tongue between them. She closed her eyes with a sigh and wrapped her arms around his neck. Adrien broke the kiss and smirked at her. "Already forgot." He captured her lips again and she got lost in him.