CHAPTER 12: The Zoo

The time had come. Adrien watched through the bushes as Marinette said goodbye to Kim and Max, obviously waiting for him and Nino to show up. Alya wasn't with her, which Adrien found to be odd since the four of them had "planned" to meet up together. With her gone, it looked like Nino and Marinette would be alone. Adrien knew he would need to adapt his game plan without Alya there as a buffer.

Nino walked up to Marinette, and Adrien focused on what she was saying through Nino's earpiece. "Uh, hey Nino! Isn't Adrien supposed to be with you?" She glanced around his best friend, who merely shrugged in nervousness.

"Tell her you'll both be better off without me," Adrien responded.

Unfortunately, Nino copied his coaching almost word-for-word. "We'll be better off without me!" Adrien cringed and glanced at Marinette to see her reaction. She just looked confused. Okay, good- he could fix this!

Adrien felt a sudden movement on the top of his head as Plagg came out of hiding. "Ahhh, this trip is turning out to be more interesting than I thought! Turn up the volume!" Adrien merely sighed at his kwami and refocused on the situation at hand.

Nino was covering for his slip-up, telling Marinette that they didn't need him to hang out at the zoo. Adrien felt a bit of pride spike in his chest- Nino totally had this!

"Of course we do, you dum- oh, uh! I mean, wasn't he supposed to come? Don't you want to wait for him?" Nino proceeded to look more uncomfortable with each of her questions.

"Tell her you wanted to be alone with her!" Adrien cut in quickly, trying to push the conversation in a direction where Nino could ask Marinette out on a date.

"Not yet," Nino hissed at him. Adrien scowled in frustration.

"What was that?" Marinette asked, puzzled at Nino's words to Adrien.

"You're right!" Nino blurted, trying to save face. "We'll wait!"

Adrien nearly facepalmed. "No! What are you talking about? Don't wait for me! I'm NOT coming!"

But Nino ignored him, and Adrien sighed in exasperation. How was he supposed to help if Nino didn't listen to him? It was like Nino didn't even want to go on a date with her! Which was a ridiculous notion, because Marinette was amazing, and super talented, and beautiful and-

And let's just stop that thought right there. Adrien groaned and rubbed his temples as he watched Nino and Marinette awkwardly sit beside each other on the bench. I really need to stop this. She's just a friend. He ignored the tangled ball of emotions festering inside his chest, trying to focus on anything else instead. He plucked a heart-shaped leaf from the bush beside him and ripped it apart along its veins.

Adrien couldn't help but feel that it was a great metaphor for his life right now.

Ten minutes had passed, and Plagg was getting bored. At first the conversation had been interesting; hearing Adrien trying to coach Nino through his interactions with Marinette had certainly been amusing. But now nothing was happening, and the kwami was drifting off into cheese-filled daydreams. Could you blame him for wanting a little entertainment? Life tended to get boring when you were immortal…

"He's sure taking his time, huh?" Marinette voiced sadly. Plagg perked up, hoping that something new would occur. He didn't know how much more of this waiting he could stand! "He's not coming, is he?"

Analyzing her tone, the magical cat grinned. Right there! Right there was even more evidence of her obvious crush on his chosen. Adrien and Nino were oblivious idiots for not seeing it. The signs were right in front of them- her sadness at the model not coming, her stuttering whenever she was around him, the increase in clumsiness. Plagg shook his head, amused. This whole situation was in vain; Marinette would never go out with Nino because she admired his chosen instead!

"Repeat after me," Adrien instructed. The kwami narrowed his eyes, sensing a slight increase in the teen's heart rate, even from atop his head. "'Yes he is, but first I wanted to take this opportunity to…'" Nino repeated him, and Adrien continued: "'tell you that I love you Marinette.'"

Plagg knew that there were only two options from the sincerity in Adrien's words. Either he was the world's best method actor, or he still wasn't over her. Not that Adrien had ever admitted out loud that he liked Marinette in the first place… But come on! Plagg was over five thousand years old; he knew a lovesick face when he saw one. In the kwami's mind, Marinette's designation as "Lovebird #2" was well deserved. If only Adrien wasn't so blind to her affections; maybe he could've been happy with her. It really is too bad that they aren't soulmates…

A sudden thought came to Plagg as he watched Marinette from his position on Adrien's head. Huh, she kind of looks like… The kwami froze in realization. No, there's no way. Tikki's influence would prevent that… or it would be just my luck. Plagg buried his head into Adrien's hair, as if trying to bury his thoughts. If Marinette was Ladybug, it would still be possible for her and Adrien to be soulmates and would explain why they hadn't changed into their soul animals yet! UGH! There wasn't enough camembert in the world to prevent his oncoming headache. Stupid soulmates! Why can't he just like cheese, like me? The world would be so much simpler! Nothing was confirmed of course, but Plagg knew he wouldn't be able to get this theory out of his head until he was proven wrong.

"WHAT?!"

Plagg snapped his head up, a wave of annoyance passing through him. He had just missed the whole show!

"Alya? Awesome!" Marinette exclaimed. Plagg struggled to piece together what had happened, but then everything cleared up at the girl's next sentence. "I can fix up a date for you guys!" The kwami could only cackle hysterically; Nino had somehow managed to tell Marinette that he had a crush on Alya instead! This was exactly the kind of entertainment he had been hoping for!

Adrien shushed him to be quiet, and Plagg tried to stifle his laughter in order to hear what was going on next. "Uh, did you say something?" Nino asked Marinette.

"Uh, I said, it'd be so sad if you didn't tell her." She smiled brightly at Nino, and he turned away from her, awkwardly rubbing his neck.

"Yeah…" the dark-skinned boy trailed off, and Plagg snickered. Oh, the irony! Nothing would be able to wipe the grin off his face at the scene in front of him, nothing except for-

"He's coming!"

"Get outta here!"

Except for that… Plagg watched as two boys from Adrien's class sprinted past as a group of animals chased them. He gripped Adrien's hair as the teen ducked further into the bushes to stay out of sight. Ugh, Hawkmoth!

"We gotta do something," Adrien declared, and the cat god merely sighed in resignation. There went his entertainment for the day…

"Plagg, claws out!"

A/N:

Hey guys, long time no see... er, post? *Sigh* I'll be honest with you guys. I've been hanging onto this chapter for a long time. I initially went on hiatus because I was having writer's block with it, but that issue got resolved not long after I went on hiatus. I have a few more chapters done, and I'm editing/perfecting Chapters 16 and 17... but, you know how life does that thing where it gets in the way of writing? Yeah... not that I haven't had time to write, but life always comes first. I'm writing this story for fun, not because it's my job, after all, so that's why it's been slow going.

I wanted to get Chapters 16 and 17 completely done before I started posting again, but tonight I was laying in bed, thinking about how I really DO want to finish this story, and how I wish I was more motivated to work on it, because it DOES bring me joy to write and post this. And then I thought, what the heck, let's just post it AND SEE IF I CAN GET SOME MOTIVATION GOING. Can I get an AMEN?

So yeah, enjoy this short chapter. I will be posting the few chapters that are done soon enough, but in the meantime, enjoy me being back, I guess? No promises that I won't have to take another break in posting with how the writing has been going. (If you couldn't tell, I'm a little frustrated with myself, lol) But I promised I wouldn't abandon this story, nor do I want to!

As always, I enjoy your comments.

Starlin's Ghost

*Edited 11/25/19*