A Safe place
That morning Nathalie was in Gabriel's office.
"Was it necessary for you let him go to visit that girl yesterday, Nathalie?" Gabriel asked without giving it much weight. But Nathalie knew not to fall into a trap.
"We promised him an hour each day to prepare for that assignment. Yesterday they mixed up their notebooks and the report is due this morning. Apparently, she had notes ready." Nathalie reported without any emotion. "It was Adrien's idea to go. She had ten different ideas how to deal with that."
"It is my impression that the girl liked Adrien. And that Lila pushed them together only to tear them apart. As much as I am agitated by her outburst yesterday, I think her idea was outstanding." Gabriel pondered. "That girl would have made an excellent akuma." Gabriel concluded. He had opened photos of Ladybug on one side and Marinette on the other and compared. He was frustrated because he did not have a single photo where her earrings were clearly visible, they were always partially covered by her hair.
"You think Lila will do it again and we will have better luck this time?" Nathalie asked, suddenly more interested in the subject.
"I know she will. But this time, we are going for her alone." Gabriel grinned wickedly.
Adrien noticed Lila followed Marinette wherever the girl went. He paid attention and he made sure to be seen next to the girl a few times. But he paid for it as Lila often caught him, if even for a moment.
"I asked you to stop this Lila." Adrien brushed her off coldly. But the girl would not give up.
The boy managed to escape her and find Marinette close by.
"It might be a good idea to go to your place for lunch break if we want anything done." Adrien whispered and Marinette agreed.
They reached the bakery, picked up some food and climbed up the stairs. They ate a few pieces of pastry and concluded they would prefer to play a round of video game in her room. They climbed up. Marinette reached below her desk to set up the game and fetch the controllers.
"Could you open the window please?" She asked while she was busy with some materials she apparently threw in the same box with the gaming equipment. It was probably when she was making arms for her mannequin. She sighed and decided to take a moment to move it to the right box.
The first association to Adrien's sleep deprived brain when an order to open a window was issued was to climb up to her loft bed and open the hatch window that lead to her rooftop terrace. He opened it and got down and noticed the cork board above her bed. There were plenty of photos. There was one of him, of his face, and it definitely had a heart shaped drawing on it.
When she crawled out from under her desk, she found Adrien who stood by her bed, below the opened hatch window, and he stared at a point on her wall, above her bed. Her brain was processing the information slowly that day. Very slowly. But it reached a conclusion fast. She knew what was on that wall. It was that photograph. It was that photograph of him that she should have removed from the wall. But she could not. Just like she could not remove the boy from her heart.
"I have a confession to make." She whispered. Maybe it was time, maybe she finally felt confident to tell him, to be honest with him. Maybe it was because Chat apologized to her last night and she somehow wanted to come clean too.
Adrien had an idea what it was. He found a few photos of Luka, smaller and with Kitty Section. If it was what he thought it was, he wanted to stop her. Because if he was right, he had no idea what he would do. He descended down the ladder that lead to the loft bed, very slowly and carefully.
He knew he loved Ladybug and he knew it would be wrong to try to be with someone else, it just did not feel right. But, suddenly, he became aware he was not able to simply say no to this girl. It was hard for him as Chat Noir, not just because her father got akumatized. It was hard even before that. And this would be even harder.
She was silent, she was collecting courage. And second thoughts, and third. Maybe there was still a way to back out of this. Perhaps this was not the right moment. What if her confession blew up their project and their whole plan to tame at least those two bullies and harassers? She was not that selfish to use this for her selfish needs and finally admit to her crush how she felt about him.
He turned around while his eyes looked desperately for a distraction.
"What's that?" He asked as he pointed to the fold out schedule.
Marinette looked up. It was her fold out schedule. She blinked. Yes, that was a possible way out.
"Um, yes, that's it." Her voice came out in much higher pitch than she intended. She reached up and unfolded it.
"I um have here my schedule." She stuttered out. Adrien noticed the usual school schedule and all his extracurricular activities.
"Well it is for the whole class." She added. And only then he noticed in smaller letters there were Kim's slots when he had his swimming, then there was something for Alix, then there were days with Kitty Section.
"But it is mostly you." She looked at the floor. She looked like she was ashamed of something. She looked exactly like that day in the wax museum before she ran away, or just after she tried to kiss him, well she did not know it was him and not the statue.
Marinette was desperate, she actually wanted to tell him how she really felt about him, and now she decided to pull out only to throw herself into another hole.
"I um, never asked you about your schedule, I just learned about it, somehow, one way or another, but I never asked you, and that is what makes this wrong and." She spoke very quietly in the end.
"It is okay." Adrien smiled. "There are probably teenage magazines that publish my schedule." There were probably girls who never met him who kissed his statue in the wax museum too, but he decided not to mention that particular idea.
"Um, yes there are, but they are wrong, you see, they made an error in this one." She dug out a magazine from one huge pile in a box below her desk and pointed to a schedule. Then she realized what she just did and blushed even more.
"I am so sorry, I am such a stalker." She whispered and lowered her hands.
"That is okay, you are my friend Marinette. You can know my schedule. I am glad you care." He smiled gently.
"You do not understand, I am awful, I followed you when Lila dragged you away because I was concerned what she would do." The girl waved her arms desperate to stop herself from rambling. But her tired brain was very slow to catch up with her mouth. She knew she had to stop herself before she reached to the part with the book.
"Thank you." He smiled. "You are my knight in shiny armour and I am the damsel in distress." He moved his arms dramatically from his chest to his forehead. A week ago this admission might have sounded as if she was a stalker, but they were preparing the show together and after he learned what Lila did to her, he wasn't even surprised.
"Adrien, I called you hot stuff!" And then she slapped her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were so wide that she was funny to look at.
There was a brief moment of silence in which Adrien was not sure if he heard her correctly.
And then he started laughing. It was the same laughter, the same sound of joy that came out from him that day when he gave her his umbrella.
She stared at him, but after a few seconds she laughed too. She knew that laughter. He was happy. For whatever reason it was.
"Thank you, Marinette." He finally caught his breath and was able to speak again. "I am sure there are worse names for me used on a daily basis." Yes he knew, there was no denying that. "But, I do not remember that you ever called me that."
Marinette was still trying to remember some usual reflexes, like breathing, blinking and stuff.
The boy in front of her was smiling his warm smile.
"I was talking with Alya." She squeaked out from behind her hands. There was no way she was admitting the phone theft, okay, she knew she had to stop herself.
"Just you and her?" He raised an eyebrow teasingly. The model Adrien left, his usual timid manners were gone, there was mask less Chat Noir standing in the middle of Marinette's room.
She nodded. Her hands were over her mouth. Technically, there was also his voicemail account present because it got recorded. She could not trust herself to speak.
"Well." He put a hand on his chin as if he contemplated the seriousness of her crime. "Then I'll let it slide this time." He teased. "But if you ever want to use a nickname for me again" He raised an index finger. "You are expected to contact me and ask my permission to use it." And then he burst out laughing.
Marinette lowered her hands, he was teasing her, the boy was teasing her, he was not angry, or sad.
"Seriously, we are friends, Marinette." These words stung little bit less than before when he called her his friend. "You can tell me anything." He was certain she would never intentionally hurt him. She never intentionally hurt Chloe, nor Lila, for that matter.
They decided for the game and she was setting it up while he lounged on her chaise.
Once she saw the game was loading, she turned around and saw Adrien fell asleep while sitting on the chaise. He held the controller in his hands. Marinette took the other controller and sat at the other end of the chaise. Before the game finished loading, she was asleep too.
Tom woke them up.
"You still have school in the afternoon, don't you." The huge man called.
Both teens opened their eyes and were rather surprised to find themselves where they were. Marinette usually fell asleep on her chaise or in her bed. Adrien, on the other hand, was not even in his room.
"What is the time, papa?" Marinette asked and yawned.
Adrien was blinking his eyes open and looked around dazed.
"School starts in quarter of an hour, give or take a few minutes." Tom grinned.
"Okay, we have time." The girl whined and laid back.
Adrien jumped to his feet.
"Come on, Marinette, we'll be late." He offered her his hand and she took it and got to her feet.
"We have another meeting with those experts." Marinette reminded all three of them.
"And Ms Mendeleev before that." Adrien reminded her.
That started the girl. They were both out from the door in less than a minute and walked swiftly towards the school. They entered the classroom seconds before the bell rang and the teacher casually pointed them to share the first bench.
"He will soon be late for school just like her." They both heard a comment from the back and ignored it.
Ms Mendeleev was thrilled with the results from the experiments Adrien and Marinette performed during the last class in the lab. Marinette could swear she heard Lila hiss and groan in the back. The teacher ignored that and continued to teach the theory as this was a class in a normal classroom.
Another well planned retreat, they both packed their belongings before the final bell rang, and a quick run down the corridor, and they were both in a safe place of the classroom where several of those experts were already sitting.
"Adrien, Marinette, nice of you to join us so promptly. We will not start for another fifteen minutes sou you have time to ..." The same lady from the last meeting wanted to tell them they do not have to wait in that classroom.
"No" They both replied in unison.
"I mean thank you." Marinette added.
"It is really nice of you but can we stay here, please?" Adrien pleaded.
Jean, the same man who reacted to Marinette's plot raised his eyes from his tablet.
"Is there anything wrong?" He asked calmly.
"Let's just say." Adrien started.
"We are trying to avoid." Marinette continued.
"More material for our presentation." The boy finished the sentence.
"We think we have enough." The girl added.
"Who am I to disagree on that one." Jean smiled. "School is supposed to be a safe place. If your teacher and your principal continue to do nothing about it, please contact me." The man gave them a note with his phone and an email address, it was not the usual business card. "You can contact me even if you need an advice that is related to problems of this nature you encounter outside of school." He added to Adrien.
The two kids opened their presentation and went through it quickly, even before the meeting started. Since the two of them were practically finished and had only to practice their presentation, they were quickly released. They were among the few deemed ready to continue on their own. Most of the other students were far less invested in the project and fell behind with the obligations.