Space
He asked Marinette how would she feel about that flirty sentence. She was obviously nervous about it and yet she told him it was okay. The girls were complicated indeed.
There was a definition of the personal space in the papers they got as initial instructions. Adrien knew he needed his space when Lila was around. The same was valid for Chloe. But he did not need it around Nino, Alya or Marinette. He learned it was only natural to tolerate some people in his personal space and not the other. He was not supposed to act as if everything was perfectly fine when anyone throws themselves on him, or touched him, or … whatever.
Marinette was mostly proud of herself for not squeaking and running away half the time. Adrien was shadowing her during the breaks. And he had a few more questions to ask.
"So we make a good team, don't we?" Adrien nudged her on their way to the next class. Marinette nodded and smiled quickly before she tried to hide her pink face.
Alya was winking and giving suggestive comments when the boy did not look. Alix snickered, Rose cooed, Mylenne smiled encouragingly, Juleka … kept whatever she wanted to express to herself.
Adrien remembered the akuma fight from last night. He schooled himself not to tease Ladybug with a nickname she did not like and he cut down on the flirting as much as he could. Sometimes she flirted back, sometimes she told him to shut up. He could not tell the difference. Perhaps it was about other circumstances, just like Marinette proposed yesterday but he could not tell what was different. He really wanted an advice on that, it was too complicated, because they were supposed to cover the behaviour in school.
It was time for a lunch break. The students dispersed towards the canteen or were going out from school. Marinette opened her bag with lunch. They took the food, walked and ate while they discussed where to sit and eat. Then he noticed her eyes widened and he looked in that direction. He saw just a glimpse, but he was sure it was "Lila?" he asked quietly.
Marinette nodded.
"Let's just go together." He smiled and they continued walking. When they reached the corner, there was nobody there, but this time it was him who noticed how the girl spied on them from where she was hiding below a flight of stairs. They had to pass those stairs on their way to the library.
After he tried with flirting, Adrien wanted to raise the issue of nicknames. He was taking one more piece of pastry when and idea occurred to him.
"About those nicknames. Has anyone ever called you a muffin?" The boy asked as he held one muffin in his hand. The girl looked at him with wide eyes. "Or a cutie pie?" He remembered one more. "Or sweet cake? Macaron?"
The shade of pink just changed into one shade darker with each question.
"Papa" she whispered. "And maman. And grandpa." She admitted quietly.
"And did you like it?" He grinned. "Would you like someone else to call you that?" The boy forgot about his usual behaviour, he was all Chat Noir at that moment.
She was the picture perfect definition of flustered. She might like if he called her that, but not just anyone. And then he would ask why and then she would have to explain why and ….
Then she waved her head. Adrien sank. He would love to invent nicknames for her.
"Can you tell me how you make these?" The boy asked to change the subject.
They talked about pastries on their way because they both knew Lila was listening. Adrien asked questions and Marinette was happy to tell stories from her papa and her grandpa about each of the pastries they ate.
In the library, Marinette realized a flaw in their plan. She explained to the librarian that they were supposed to speak, to act the scenes to prepare for the meeting in the afternoon. Apparently they were not the first who arrived with that problem.
"I have let the three students from the other class in the study room, you two could use my office, I still have the teachers lounge, but they might need it or there could be a bigger group." The librarian swiftly lead them to a small room on the side, it was separated from the library and had a small window.
It was also cramped with books, the desk and both chairs was cluttered with papers. They removed their bags and sat down on the carpet.
"Okay, for today we have to explain why we chose these particular scenes, what is wrong there and then they will tell us how to make them right." Marinette stated simply from her notes.
"I think there is lack of respect for my personal space." Adrien concluded and marked it down. Then he listed other items that he thought were covered with his examples.
Marinette knew exactly which items on the bullying list were covered by her examples.
They scribbled simple explanations and were satisfied with what the other wrote, when suddenly Adrien jumped on his feet.
"That is great, we can practice now." He said and offered his hand to Marinette. The girl stared at his hand as the pink bubbles blurred her vision, but she shook her head and took the hand and stood to her feet.
"Um so." She offered him her notebook.
"No, I think I did my part better than you did your part." Adrien waved his head. "I think you should practice." And he pushed his paper into her hands. He smiled encouragingly (he knew exactly which smile to use from his modelling repertoire).
Adrien did not forget how scared she looked when he threatened her using Lila's words. He did not want to repeat that unless it was necessary. But he did want her to become more comfortable in the role of Chloe and Lila against him. The room was small and cluttered, they were standing close but he leaned in even closer.
"So, are you ready?" The boy smiled and raised his eyebrows.
"Um, we do not get to act today, I think, we do not have to." Marinette stammered out. She was still mortified by the prospect of throwing herself on the boy and being pushed away and hurting him in the process. She did not want to do that to him. Actually she wanted it, she wanted it very very much, she would have jumped to the opportunity. But the boy listed that as an example of sexual harassment he suffered. And there was no way that she wanted to hurt him, like ever. She had to think of some other way to do this without actually doing it.
"Oh, I am sorry, I am making you uncomfortable by suggesting you should behave like this." He motioned towards the paper. Great job he was doing, by making her harass him, he was in fact harassing her. He was not forcing himself upon her, he was forcing her upon him. Did that actually make any sense? In his head it started to make sense. She was uncomfortable with the prospect of acting like Chloe (with him?) just like he was uncomfortable when Chloe did it to him.
"Um I don't like making you uncomfortable. I don't want to push you through this. You don't like that being done to you. It is wrong. That is why we are doing this whole thing." Marinette pushed each sentence out slowly and painfully, but she did it. There, she said it, it was such a relief.
He understood her concern and at the same time he was sorry. Because the thought of her doing that to him was not making him uncomfortable. The sudden realisation made him blush.
"It is okay, I asked you to do it, besides we have to act believable, and you have to show just how pushy they can be." He smiled gently. His mind was playing games with him, for sure, because he was even looking forward to Marinette impersonating Chloe and Lila. It was because he expected that act would set him free from enduring the same procedure in the future. Yes, that was the reason why he wanted Marinette to do it.
At the same time, Marinette collected all the courage she could. She had to do it. For him. He asked her to. Then it was okay. It said so in the instructions. So it was okay to throw herself on him. But, he did not know that she wanted to do it, for real, not just for acting. Was that wrong? There were no instructions for that. Well she could always act that she was just acting, right?
"Okay, there is not much space in here, so." Marinette took half a step back, Adrien too. The girl steeled herself the usual way, deep breaths, clenched fists, close her eyes and dive in.
"Oh, Adriekins." She screeched and threw herself on him. "Why are you ignoring me? Why does your daddy keep you so busy. Oh!" She whined and hanged on him, but she did not attempt to kiss his face. And she beamed at him, there was pure happiness in her eyes and inside her soul. Her face glowed with real joy. So after he ignored her initial screech and the tone of her voice (because that was believable) he beamed back. His hands were on her hips ready to push her away but he wrapped them around her instead.
"This isn't working." He smiled. He was probably stealing a hug right then.
Marinette suddenly jumped away as she became aware of their proximity, but he was still holding her so she did not go too far (nor hit the bookshelf behind her).
"Want to try again?" He asked. He let go of her once she stood steadily on her own feet. The girl was pink in the face and breathed heavily. The boy was certain it was awkward for her, but just like with the chemistry, he was not sure what her reaction meant.
She sighed. She wanted to. She really wanted to. She nodded.
In this attempt he pushed her away instantly and held her away from him, but he held that warm reassuring smile on his face.
"You know it can't work when you look at me like that." She complained and looked away. But there was smile on her lips too. A smile she tried and failed to push away. She was scolding him and smiling.
"Like what?" Adrien teased and leaned into her space. He knew she complained about his facial expression, he did not want her to think she was hurting him so he did not act hurt.
She was breathing heavily. She could not tell him the truth.
"You look … you look … " She stuttered but stopped every attempt. Because to her the boy looked as if he was enjoying this, and that must have been her imagination, and nothing else, because it was impossible that Adrien Agreste looked at her that way and enjoyed what she just did.
"I know how I am supposed to look, but I want you to know that you are not hurting me right now." The boy finally admitted. Well he admitted that. What he did not admit was that somehow what they were doing was not making him uncomfortable. It was him who leaned into her space, willingly and not because some script said he had to.
"Okay." She answered timidly. So it was all an act, everything was okay, he did not like her doing that to him, he just wanted to reassure her, the perfect angel he was. He looked at her with those warm green eyes and genuine smile that she could not imagine that anyone would interpret their act as something he found uncomfortable. But it was just an act to reassure her.
"I think we can go back to the library and type these if we are supposed to give them the scripts to read. These are quite messy." Adrien proposed.
Marinette jumped to the proposal.
They sat at the library and typed the scripts and the explanations. It took them a while. Adrien stared at the words where 'that boy you like' was written and wondered who was that. He assumed it was Luka. And then he did not feel so good about it being Luka.
"The script is not enough, we have to describe how they move, the expressions on their faces, everything." Marinette whispered to her screen.
"Well I did, mine are mostly about the movements anyway." The boy whispered and leaned over to Marinette. The girl was typing 'sly smile', wicked grin, snarl, pushed with her index finger, and so on. Only then Adrien became aware that he did not depict Lila well, she was much worse than he ever saw her. He pointed to a few words and asked questions quietly. Marinette wrote the explanations in the document.