"Adrien."

"Go away, Chase."

"Adrien."

"I'm not listening to you."

"Adrien, you look ridiculous."

"Well, now you said it. You have no concept of 'mental filter,' do you?"

They had stopped walking sometime during the brief conversation, and now their eyes met each other, glare for glare.

"We're in the middle of town. I am not having this conversation with you," Adrien hissed, "where someone can hear us."

Chase snorted in a very ungentlemanly fashion. "You mean someone like Luna?"

"Shut up, I said!" Adrien bit out, finally marching past his asshole friend who didn't understand that true love involved sacrifices.

To his annoyance, Chase followed. Well, he supposed that was to be expected; they were both headed the same place. "I just wanted to check with you," the jerk said with that lilt in his voice he got when he was being superior and smug and—"that you know it's still Summer, right? A little early to be wearing," he paused, dramatically staring at Adrien's ears, "those."

Would Adrien admit he was dying a little of heat exhaustion? "No! No, it's not. It's the end of Summer. It's starting to get cold. They're useful."

"You're head over heels for a girl you're not even dating," Chase argued as they entered the bar, not quite together. Adrien didn't hold the door for him, a gesture Chase accepted with a supercilious little sneer. "That's just pathetic. At least ask her out before you start writing sonnets."

"Ooh, ask who out?" Selena said excitedly as she sashayed their way. "Adrien, you're not confessing your love for me already, are—what is that?" A look, one a mixture of disgust and curiosity, crossed her face as she pointed at Adrien's face.

"Pointing is rude, Selena," Adrien said archly, or tried to say, because Chase cut him off with,

"They're mufflers. In the summer."

Selena sniffed. "I have no idea what mufflers are, but I do know that green is not your color, Adrien."

Irritation began to simmer, low and hot, in Adrien's stomach. "You wear mufflers when it's cold. It's almost Fall. So I'm wearing mufflers."

Selena stared at him. She looked like she had something more unkind to say than "Who gave you mufflers in the summer?" but that was what came out of her lips, and so Adrien had no choice but to accept it.

"Luna, okay? Luna gave me them. Now will everyone shut up about my stupid mufflers?"

Silence among the group reigned. Naturally, Chase was its usurper.

"He's hoping she'll come by the bar tonight so she can see him wearing it," he said with a chuckle. "Adrien's just too cute for words."

Adrien responded with a thoughtfully-worded suggestion as to where Chase could shove his comment, which was unfortunately received with raucous laughter from both his tormenters. Swearing again, he stormed out of the bar with naught but a friendly finger gesture. Maybe they were right, that it was stupid, but he'd rather have a dramatic exit, no Luna, than stay and be ridiculed with a promise of Luna.

Someone very short and very Luna crashed into him. "Watch where you're—oh!" she said once she saw it was him, the peevish expression gone from her face. "Nice to…see you…"

The trailing off was not a good sign. Adrien felt heat rise to his face.

"You're wearing…" she paused, tried again. "You're wearing my—the mufflers? In the summer?"

"Yeah," he replied with a sheepish grin, not even bothering to hide his blush. "I wanted to show you how much I liked them."

Another pause. Another frightening, cruel pause.

Then he saw it. The corners of her pink lips tilting up ever so slightly, then not-so-slightly, and then she was grinning at him full force, her eyes crinkling up and a blush of her own dusting her cheeks. "Oh! Well, erm, I'm glad you like them so much," she chirped, clasping her hands together. "But you really shouldn't wear them in this heat, yanno? You might collapse! I really meant them for when the Fall comes, sorry."

"No problem," he said, finally removing the damn things. "No problem. Yeah."

They stood there in the street, smiling stupidly at each other.

"Well, I should probably—" he finally began.

"Yeah, I gotta—" she interrupted him.

Another pause. A less intimidating one.

"Well, I'll see you around, Luna," he said with another goofy grin. "I'm heading home."

"Yeah, you do that," she said, returning the smile. "Have a nice night."

Chase and Selena could rot for all he cared, Adrien realized as he trotted on home. They may have had the pleasure of making fun of them, but neither of them would fall asleep that night with the memory of such a sweet smile still playing in their heads.

AN: Gah, sorry! I meant to lots of updates, but then I had to catch up on my AP file, ha ha. So here's something cute to make up for it. Thanks for reading, everyone!