*So remember how I said I should be able to update more frequently? Yeah... let's just say I kind of feel like I'm living inside a snow globe that someone decided to shake really well. And then do it again. Anyhow, after far too long, here's the next chapter! Just to be clear, I am absolutely continuing to work on this story. I can make no promises about how frequently I'll be able to update, but it is still very much alive. My sincere apologies for the delay and thanks for the comments, likes and follows. I hope you enjoy!*
Alya shifted her weight to one foot as she scanned through the LadyBlog on her phone, reading through the many comments that kept appearing in response to her footage of Ladybug and Chat Noir kissing. She glanced up periodically, waiting for Nino to arrive so they could walk to class together. With no sign of Nino she dropped her eyes back down to her phone before freezing and jerking her head back up again in shock. She blinked a few times to be sure she wasn't imagining things, then glanced down at her phone to check the time, wondering if she'd lost track of a half hour or so.
The popping sound of a jaw-cracking yawn in front of her brought Alya's gaze back up to focus on Marinette, who had just come to a stop, failing miserably at hiding her yawn or her drooping eyes.
"So that's how you managed to be on time today," Alya chuckled. "Did you get any sleep last night girl?" A sly grin slipped across Alya's face as she nudged Marinette with her elbow, "Or were you too busy reliving your kiss with Adrien?"
Marinette squeaked and turned bright red, somehow managing to appear embarrassed, excited, nervous and proud all at the same time. "N-no! I was just talking to– ah… er… myself…" she trailed off, not quite meeting Alya's eyes.
Alya's eyebrow rose in silent disbelief and Marinette squirmed under her gaze. "Right. We'll pretend I believe you. You know you couldn't lie your way out of a paper bag right?" She shook her head, not expecting a response.
Eyes darting away from her, Marinette shifted from foot to foot and hitched her bag a little higher on her shoulders. Just as Alya was about to speak again, Marinette let out a strangled squawk, turned pale and tripped over nothing while standing still. Alya was so startled that she couldn't even react to try and help her friend, merely blinking in astonishment as Marinette flailed her arms and her face rushed towards the ground.
Fortunately, someone else was far more responsive that Alya. Adrien swept in, catching Marinette and simultaneously scooping her up into his arms. He flashed her a bright smile with an almost mischievous edge which disappeared so quickly Alya wondered if she had imagined it. "Careful there purri-etty slippery today Marinette!"
Alya narrowed her eyes at him. Though she wasn't sure what he'd started to say, she was quite sure it wasn't a comment on the slipperiness of the sidewalk. Especially since it wasn't slippery. At all. However Adrien seemed oblivious to her scrutiny. "Nice save Agreste," she said.
Adrien stiffened and quickly but carefully placed Marinette back on her feet. While he seemed to relax again immediately, Alya couldn't help but notice that he held himself a little more formally. Or more accurately, he had been behaving a little less formally than usual until she had spoken. "My pleasure. I'm always happy to help a friend."
Seeing the rounding of Marinette's shoulders and lowering of her head to hide the disappointment in her eyes made Alya want to reach out and shake Adrien until he opened his eyes to what was in front of him. Instead, she tucked away her phone and sidled up beside Marinette to give her shoulder a friendly and comforting squeeze. Marinette offered her a small smile in return.
"Dude!" Alya breathed a sigh of relief. Nino's arrival was perfectly timed to diffuse the awkwardness. "I never did get the chance to say anything to you yesterday after the akuma and you didn't answer any of my texts last night!" Nino stopped a step away from Adrien with his fist extended, twisting just enough to wink at Marinette, "That was some kiss my man!"
Alya facepalmed. So much for diffusing the awkwardness… she mentally grumbled. When she raised her eyes again it was to see that Marinette's colour had returned to a bright red and Adrien's cheeks were now dusted with the lightest of pinks as he snuck a glance at Marinette. "Ah… well…"
Nino didn't give him a chance to finish, dropping his hand as Adrien clearly wasn't going to return his fist bump, "I mean, I thought you were never going to realize! So I guess that Akuma did us all at least one favour right dude?" Nino winked as he nudged Adrien.
Thankfully, Alya's brain had caught back up to the present, so she hurried to intervene before Nino could say anything to make the situation even worse. "Oh no! There's the bell!" She jumped forward, grabbing Nino by the wrist as she did and swinging him around to follow her, "We're going to be late for class!"
"Whoa babe! I didn't hear anything! I'm sure we've got time, chill!" Nino pulled back against her, but Alya wasn't giving in. With a firm tug, she jerked him into a trot behind her.
"No, I'm quite sure it's time for us to go babe." She cast him a look over her shoulder, eyes narrowed to make a point and Nino immediately blinked in surprise and confusion. Alya could she the gears turning in his head as he tried to figure out why she was annoyed at him. Brow creasing with worry, she glanced past her boyfriend to her best friend who looked torn between betrayal and gratitude. When their eyes met, Marinette jumped slightly, then stuttered out something to Adrien before following them, Adrien staring after her with a look Alya couldn't interpret before falling in behind her.
With a sigh, Alya faced forward again just in time to descend the stairs to the main courtyard, wondering if Marinette and Adrien's mistletoe encounter had in fact made matters worse.
Needing a moment to herself, Marinette broke away from the others with an incomprehensible mumble. Checking to make sure no one was following her, she slipped into the locker room and hurried to her locker. Marinette swung her bag to the floor and crouched down, pretending to sort through the books in her locker while in reality closing her eyes and trying to take calming breaths. After a few moments, she become aware that her breathing was in fact speeding up to the point that she was nearly hyperventilating.
"Marinette–" A soft touch brushed her cheek.
She screamed and tumbled backwards, arms flailing wildly. The room went silent and all eyes turned to her. Wishing that the floor would open up and swallow her, or an akuma would appear (scratch that, then she'd have to face Chat Noir), or she'd never gotten out of bed that morning, much less come to school, Marinette forced a nervous laugh and stood up, shifting back towards her locker. "Sorry! I thought I saw a spider."
Rose shuddered, "I would have screamed too!" She quickly closed her own locker and edged towards the door, "I think I'll head to class, just in case you were right. Bye!"
The remaining students returned to their tasks, some of them snickering at her, but Marinette barely registered it before hiding behind her locker door again. "Sorry Tikki," she whispered.
The kwami floated back up to hug her cheek, "It's okay Marinette. But you do need to find a way to calm down before you get to class."
She groaned in reply, "Why did you let me go see him as Ladybug? That was a terrible idea! Now I'm dating him and he doesn't know that I'm dating him and he talked to me about so many personal things that I shouldn't know about and I have to pretend that I don't know about and some how act normal around him but I promised Chat that I would ask Adrien out today and he's going to think I lied or chickened out because he doesn't know that I'm Ladybug but I can't possibly act normal around Adrien and it's not like my version of normal is even remotely normal anyways and–" Marinette cut herself off mid rant when she opened her eyes to look at Tikki and see her kwami's disapproving look. She wilted, "Okay okay, I know you tried to stop me. I'm sorry. But what am I going to do?!" her voice was plaintive and demanding and she just barely managed to keep it low enough to avoid attracting more attention.
"Truthfully? I have never had a Ladybug manage to get them-self into a situation like this before." Tikki's eyes were wide and sympathetic, but Marinette was sure she could detect a hint of amusement there as well. She groaned again and let her head fall forward to hit the shelf in her locker.
"I'm such an idiot…" she moaned.
"Girl! There you are!" Tikki vanished into her purse as Marinette jerked upright again and spun around to see Alya walking towards her. "You do realize that you got to school half an hour early only to waste it in the locker room so that you're now late again right?"
Marinette eeped in horror and scooped her bag off the floor, slamming her locker shut, unsure whether she'd actually managed to grab any of the textbooks she actually needed but too panicked to care at the moment.
Alya shook her head as she jogged beside Marinette, "Seriously girl, are you going to be okay?" Marinette shook her head frantically, though she wasn't entirely sure if she was answering Alya's question. Alya reached out her hand to grab and squeeze her best friend's in comfort, "I'm sorry for bringing up your kiss with Adrien." She suddenly stopped, pulling Marinette to a halt beside her and swinging her around so they were face to face. "You know what? You need a girl's night. My place tonight. You and me. No boys, no talk about boys, no pictures of boys. Just BFFs hanging out and relaxing. Got it?"
A small smile broke through Marinette's panic, "Okay." She hesitated, her smile falling away again. "Um, Alya?"
"Yeah girl?"
"Could you do me a really big favour and make sure I'm not alone with Adrien at all today?" She felt a twinge of guilt because of her promise to Chat, but Marinette just couldn't face Adrien today.
Alya's grin was bright and reassuring, "I've got you covered girl."
Adrien was disappointed. And really, disappointed didn't even begin to cover how he was feeling. All the progress that he had made with Marinette since they first met appeared to have been wiped out in a single day (well, a couple minutes really since he was sure he could pinpoint the exact moment that triggered her regression). While she had never quite managed to be her confident, sassy self around him, Marinette had managed to nearly stop stuttering, instead being able to carry on perfectly normal conversations. Most of the time. They had worked on school projects together, hung out with friends, gone to a movie wearing ridiculous disguises, run away from his rabid fans… And now… He sighed in resignation. If only he hadn't kissed her yesterday. Of course, if he hadn't then he likely wouldn't have realized how he felt about her. Not to mention that they would have both been turned to ice sculptures and then he wouldn't have been able to help Ladybug save Paris and Hawkmoth may have succeeded in capturing their miraculouses…
He glanced over his shoulder again, trying to see if Marinette had calmed down yet. She hadn't managed a single word to him since before school started when she'd rushed off after Alya and Nino. Her eyes met his and she immediately flushed bright red, dropping her tablet with a bang onto her desk and sending her stylus flying across the room where it hit Mylène, somehow managing to snag itself in her dreadlocks. Nino snickered.
"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng!" barked Mme. Mendeliev, "If you continue to disrupt this class I will send you to the principal's office and you will complete your assignment after school. Am I clear?"
Marinette nodded sheepishly, rising from her desk to take back her stylus from Mylène, who had successfully detangled it from her hair.
"Dude," whispered Nino, edging closer to Adrien for a moment, "You'd better stop checking her out or you're going to get her in trouble."
Adrien flushed as red as Marinette and hurriedly turned back to his own tablet and worksheet. He didn't even bother to correct Nino's assumption. He hadn't wanted to check her out, he just wanted her to be able to talk to him.
Any hopes he'd had of improved opportunities at lunch time were quickly dashed as Alya bundled Marinette off to her bakery and his bodyguard pulled up to the front door: with everything else going on he'd forgotten he had a photo shoot that afternoon. Suppressing another sigh, he said goodbye to Nino and headed out to climb into the waiting car.
Safely hidden behind the tinted windows, Adrien slumped down in dejection, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. That wasn't at all how he'd hoped his day would go.