Literature
"You did great Marinette, you haven't even called him hot stuff." Tikki chirped. The tiny goddess of creation could not help herself but tease her chosen for the event when the girl went so far as to steal Adrien's phone and delete the recorded voice mail.
Marinette burst into laughter but wanted to stare at her kwami. She was proud of herself too. It was a huge leap forward for her. But she kept reminding herself it was just for the project, the assignment she got with Adrien and she had to do it right, because of him, because he needed it, because it was important for him, because he was suffering from harassment too. And then there was the fact that she called him hot stuff. Technically, she did not even need to look at the definitions, that could be considered sexual harassment too.
That made her stop and think. Adrien Agreste was harassed. He suffered. He did not find the photo shoots pleasant, at least sometimes he suffered there, yet he still did them, because his father wanted him to. He had no clue he did not have to suffer from Chloe and Lila and what they did had a really identifiable name, that used one of the words she could hardly pronounce in front of him. And she was supposed to talk with him about it during the presentation, and then she was about to repeat that with him. She was beyond mortified, this was not about her crush, this was serious, this was like an akuma she had to fight and win. She had to win, she had no choice.
"I still have to make myself do that to him." She sighed and looked at the mannequin.
"You can do it to a doll." The tiny red goddess of creation pointed. "You can always bring the mannequin to the class."
"I could say that what I am about to do is so wrong that I do not want to demonstrate it on a living person." Marinette's eyes were shining.
"Aren't you exaggerating a little?" The tiny red goddess half teased.
"But it is so wrong." Marinette groaned into her hands. She would have enjoyed doing that if only she was not hurting him. But she (believed that she) was hurting him, and that was just tragic.
"I can't bring a mannequin to the class. Besides, it has to be him." She sighed. "The effect would not be the same."
"You can do it Marinette. I believe in you." Tikki was a true cheerleader.
"The only thing left to do is to practise and practise until I can do it without thinking." Marinette sighed.
"You are not hurting him. He asked you to do it. You are doing it for him." Tikki reminded her chosen.
"I still know that it hurts him." She whined.
"What you are supposed to do is only wrong if he doesn't want it." Tikki muttered and escaped to her hiding place.
Adrien climbed all the way up to her room as was instructed by Sabine, pink notebook and another box of pastry in hand.
"Hi Marinette. Your father is testing another recipe." Adrien greeted cheerfully.
"Hi Adrien." She greeted and offered him a seat at her desk. "Muffins, again?"
"Yes, he said these were your idea." The boy said as he opened the box.
"Black chocolate with green pieces of mint? Yeah, those are Chat Noir muffins." She smiled and took one to try.
Adrien ate his first muffin so quickly that Plagg would envy him on the speed. The boy instantly reached for the next one.
"Too much mint." Marinette complained after her first bite.
"I like it." The boy was in the middle of his second muffin.
"Why don't you eat, I will fetch us something to drink and then we should begin with the literature. Or should we just exchange the notebooks?" Marinette asked quietly. She could not believe that her biggest crush, the love of her life, supermodel Adrien Agreste was stuffing himself with her father's experimental muffins (which were originally her idea) on the chaise in her bedroom. She waited for him to swallow.
"I persuaded Nathalie that I should stay here for a while." The boy smiled. He did not mention the deal to do a piano practice twice more over the weekend for that. Adrien thought how he could get used to this, muffins, homework, games and company, he liked this project a lot.
Marinette brought juice and unfolded the paper with her notes.
"I have my notes here." She pointed to rather random smudges of text all around the paper with some attempt of a design that she scratched off. She was probably reading and designing and making notes all at the same time.
"Mine should be on several post it notes stuck inside the notebook." Adrien opened his notebook again and there a few pages before the end there were about twenty post it notes of various colours.
They were finished with writing up their literature report quickly from their own and combined notes.
"It took us less than a quarter of an hour." Marinette smiled when she put down her pencil. She knew she could do it in the morning, it would not have been the first time for her that she scrambled up her homework in the minutes that Ms Bustier took attendance.
"Yes, now we could go through that presentation or play games?" Adrien grinned. There was hope in his green eyes that he could stay longer. He was probably hoping to play a game.
"Um, perhaps presentation first?" She proposed. She had to practice speaking about that in front of him, if it did not work, she can speak to the mannequin and the posters the whole night.
The presentation was going through the different kinds of bullying and harassment and they first read the slides to proofread and verify they had everything listed, then they took the cheat sheets with lines that they were supposed to say.
"These materials we got are good, I think we should just read the underlined parts." Adrien proposed.
"It might sound boring if we just read a document." Marinette was tugging on one of her pigtails.
"We can make it sound more interesting and switch between us for each sentence, just like they did yesterday." The boy smiled.
They simply alternated who was talking between the sentences and it sounded like a conversation instantly. It was just like the presentation from the experts from the day before. Both of them were rather proud.
The part about the bullying went without a hitch. Adrien spoke with confidence and perfect intonation, his experience in speaking for the public and the media was really showing. Marinette tried to impersonate Nadia in her eloquence and it was working as long as she was on the subject she was comfortable with. She had that fire in her eyes like she had when she countered Chloe about her latest deed. She was all confidence and determination as if she was facing Chloe already.
But then they switched the subject.
"And now we are changing the subject. We will be talking about hmph harassment." The girl spoke quickly and with confidence.
Adrien laughed.
"You might want to repeat that line." He smiled. It was her first mistake and he appreciated how much she was trying, and it showed, she aired confidence, what was one garbled word?
She garbled the same word again. Completely red in the face, she hid behind her sheet with text.
"Hm, Why don't I take the second sentence? There are two sentences in that line anyway?" He smiled and took his neon green marker to mark his piece of text and read it.
Marinette concluded that the fact that he actually pronounced the word right in front of her, while they were alone, in her pink room, did not actually help much to reduce the blush on her face.
She stuttered out her next line. Adrien raised an eyebrow. She repeated the line while she was hiding behind her sheet of paper. Then it was his turn. And then it was her again and it was becoming easier. Marinette stared at the paper and read the words without thinking about them. Suddenly the words meant nothing, she just had to say them, pronounce them with the right pace and accent and that was it. She did not have to think about the meaning at all. They were taking turns and marking their lines until they reached the end.
Marinette's face might have been pinker than the walls in her room, but she did it.
Adrien offered her a fist and she bumped it.
"Good, we can practice that later over the phone if you want." Adrien grinned.
"Okay." Marinette replied meekly. They were sitting in front of her computer, the presentation opened. Those words stared at her. She was blushing.
"I wanted to talk." The boy was quiet and serious. Marinette nodded as she did not trust her words at that moment. Her insides sunk down.
"It is nothing you did, it is what I want you to do." He motioned towards the mannequin. "If you do that against your will, if I am forcing you, that is also harassment."
Marinette shook her head.
"It is." The boy nodded.
"I want to do it." She screamed. "I mean I don't want to." She flailed her hands and smacked them over her mouth. Adrien was certain that hurt her. "I mean I do not want to do it because it hurts you. But I do want to do it only because it hurts you so you do not have to keep hurting. But I do not want to hurt you. I want to help you." She gesticulated with her hands and arms so quickly that Adrien grabbed her hands.
"You will not hurt me. I do not know if that act will help me, but you will not hurt me." The boy looked at her gently.
"Good." Marinette shook her head up and down.
"About my act, you know I will be acting, right, that I do not mean any of this." Adrien asked quietly.
Marinette nodded, then shook her head, then nodded again. Adrien was confused.
"I know." She finally spoke.
"Good." He said in the same tone Marinette did just moments ago. "Games?" He grinned.
"That new game from Max?" Marinette asked timidly.
"Yes." Adrien raised his fist in the air.
She swiftly closed the presentation with those words that made her blush (at least in front of Adrien) and opened the game. Adrien was finishing another piece of pastry while she was setting it up.
Marinette won the first round and danced, but Adrien won the second one and jumped in the air to celebrate. They played the game again until Tom climbed upstairs. The large man poked his head inside the room just to see them and ask Adrien to come downstairs. But then he saw the game. He waited for them to finish the round they were playing. The two kids were so consumed in having fun.
"Hey, can I try?" The large man pleaded with kitten eyes.
"Get ready to be smashed." Marinette teased.
"Actually, I wanted to play with Adrien." Tom grinned.
"Of course." Adrien was almost pouncing in his seat.
Tom was climbing up through the hatch.
Marinette handed over her controller reluctantly.
They chose their characters and played. Adrien won easily. He celebrated but then looked at Tom. The man had rather intimidating proportions. Add to that Adrien's memories of Weredad. The boy gulped. Tom insisted to play one more round with Adrien, he put up a good fight and lost again.
Then Sabine arrived back into the room.
"Tom, I sent you upstairs to tell Adrien his driver is waiting for him not to play games with him." Sabine scolded but everyone could hear the laughter in her tone.
That evening a girl was standing in front of a mannequin in her room and read the lines from a sheet of paper until her kwami told her it was time for bed, several times.
That evening a boy was sitting in his room and was trying to make a list:
"She told me to stop calling her Bugaboo." The boy sighed.
"She likes it, she smiled back." A tiny black cat teased.
"I tried to kiss her, she pushed me away." He made a sad face.
"Did she ask you when she kissed your cheek, kid?" Plagg retorted.
Adrien made a dreamy face at the memory.
"She refuses when I give her flowers." Adrien sighed. "Except that one time."
"I told you, you should give her Camembert." The tiny god of destruction floated away.