AN: Long chapter next everyone! I tried to add in more improvements from the reviews, there's more coming up for Chapter 9. Hope you like it!
Chapter 8
-Marinette
The Gorilla opened the door for both of them and she and Adrien both slipped inside the car. As Gorilla returned to the driver's side, both she and Adrien were quiet. "So. . you ready to work on our project?" Adrien asked. "Yeah, yeah. It's gonna be great." She said, an awkward pause building between them. Marinette's head was full of what had just happened with Luka. He'd been really excited. He said the inspiration had struck him for the rest of the lyrics for his song, so he'd wanted her to come over after school the next day so he could show her the song. She was excited for him and his success, but she still felt mixed because suddenly she was spending so much time with Adrien. And Chat Noir kept popping up more and more. How was she supposed to choose?
She sat there, her head spinning that she didn't notice Adrien trying to talk to her. "Marinette?" she finally heard him say. She snapped back to reality where Adrien was turned toward her, a worried look across his face. "Are you okay Marinette?" She tried to shake away her distraction, "No-you're fine-I mean I'm fine. Just lost in thought!" She sputtered nervously. He still looked like he knew she was hiding something, but he didn't ask more about it. They pulled up in front of the Agreste mansion and Adrien talked to Natalie over the camera. "It's me Natalie, and the friend I told you I was bringing, just for today." "Okay, Adrien" Natalie answered but as the camera started to pull away, Adrien tried to ask one more question, "Will Father be joining us today?" "I wouldn't bet on it, Adrien. Your father is a busy man." Adrien tried to hide his disappointment, but Marinette saw right through it. "C'mon Marinette," He sighed, "Let's go in."
Lunch was a gourmet soup with fresh bread and a fancy salad. Marinette enjoyed it, but it was still weird eating lunch with Adrien. Alone. In the fancy Agreste dining room. "So what are some of the themes we want to focus on in our report?" Marinette asked brightly. Adrien really seemed to lighten up. "I think we should really contrast Elizabeth's judgement of Mr. Darcy to all of the nice things he does for her and her family- contrasting her contempt with his hidden affection."
"My thoughts exactly," Marinette laughed, "Oh, wait. Lemme write that down." She reached for her backpack at her feet and pulled out a piece of paper, not realizing she'd pulled out her notes from her tests that she'd been scribbling on all day during class. "Oop!" she squeaked, "Already written on!" She bent over to her backpack again and pulled out a blank paper and pencil. She set them down on the table next to her plate and started writing down her and Adrien's first idea. She looked up at Adrien to hear his next thoughts but he was studying her notes. . .some of them about him!
"Adrien!" she said, a little more fiercely than she'd wanted, and his head snapped up to face her. "Yeah, Marinette?" He said, looking innocent. "What are you looking at?" She asked, trying not to sound panicky. "Just reading through some of your notes," he said, handing it back. Marinette tried not to look startled as she quickly shoved the paper back into her backpack. "How much of them did you read?" She worried aloud. "Just the first section," Adrien smiled, "It sounds like you had a pretty neat encounter with someone." Marinette felt her face grow hot and red instantaneously. "What do you mean?" She asked, trying not to sound suspicious. Adrien flashed her a mischievous grin, "Does this have anything to do with this morning?" he teased. "Hahahaha! No! Of course not!" Marinette laughed nervously, "It's an idea. . .for a story I'm writing." She sputtered, "I just haven't made up my mind on how I want it to go yet!" She tried to cover it all up. Adrien didn't seem to entirely believe her, but he accepted her excuse with a shrug. They went back to finishing writing down ideas for the project until the Gorilla strode into the room and grunted that it was time to head back to school.
-Adrien-
She was definitely hiding something, from everyone. Her notes, at least the first part were her writing about her time with Chat Noir for sure. To keep from revealing his identity, Adrien couldn't outright say it sounded like Chat Noir, even if it totally did. As they went back to class, Adrien tried not to stare at her, as though the more he looked at her, he would finally be able to discover what was bothering her. They sat down at their seats in Miss Mendeleev's class and he saw her pull out the paper again, but she didn't write anything down on it at all during class. She only looked at it, as though she wasn't sure what to do with it. Adrien wished he'd finished reading it so he'd have a better idea of what purpose it served. When the final bell rang, he wanted to go up and talk to her again, but Lila attached herself to his arm and tried to coo something in his ear. "Maybe later, Lila." he said shaking her off, and starting for the door. She didn't follow. When Adrien looked back, she was standing next to Marinette's desk where Marinette was trying to pack up her books to leave, not realize that she had dropped the paper with her notes on it, and Lila had happened to notice.
Adrien walked over immediately. He was tired of Lila's bullying and he was sure Marinette was too. Lila had begun studying the paper, until Adrien reached over and snatched it out of her hands. "Adrien!" She whined, "Give it back! It's mine!" "No it's not!" Adrien said, holding it out of her reach, before starting after Marinette. "Marinette!" He called and he saw the blue eyed girl turn. "What is it, Adrien?" "You dropped this!" he said, holding it out toward her. "No she didn't!" Lila insisted, "It's mine!" She started to cry as Adrien handed the paper to Marinette, but unfortunately Ms. Mendeleev had noticed. "What in the world is going on over here?" Lila stepped forward, pushing Marinette to the side, "I dropped a paper that's very important to me, but Adrien keeps insisting its Marinette's but it's mine!" She cried. Ms. Mendeleev hadn't ever been much of a sucker for Lila's crap, she just pushed her glasses up on her nose and raised an eyebrow. "It's not true, Ms Mendeleev." Marinette spoke up, "It's my paper. I dropped it and Adrien picked it up for me. I don't see why Lila would want it." Ms Mendeleev still seemed pensive until Adrien stepped forward, "It's Marinette's, she was writing on it earlier. I saw her. Lila just picked it up and probably thought it was interesting." Ms Mendeleev gestured for them to go, because Marinette had her paper back. Lila gave Adrien and Marinette looks of pure contempt but they just walked back out after the rest of their class.
"Why'd you stick up for me?" Marinette asked as they walked down the stairs to the courtyard. "Because it was your paper, and honestly, I'm tired of Lila pushing everyone around." Adrien answered honestly. Marinette smiled back as they stepped into the courtyard, but her attention snapped away from him as Luka waved hi to her. To be polite, Marinette and Adrien walked over to meet him, and Luka seemed really excited, he immediately started talking to Marinette. "Can you come over now? I just finished the chorus for it, and I really want you to hear it!" Marinette was grinning, and Adrien tried to smile too. "Probably. I'll just have to text my mom and I'll go on over to your place with you. We can take the subway." She laughed Adrien blinked, feeling stupid. Was this song they talked about the same thing Luka had been playing for her just yesterday? What was it about? Adrien had a creeping suspicion that made some sort of anger spark in him, but he tried to push the feelings away. Luka turned to him after hearing Marinette's consent. "Would you like to come too? I kinda just wanted Marinette to come, but if you want to. . . .. " "No, it's okay." Adrien tried to smile normally, "I've got fencing anyway." he turned back to Marinette, "Do you want to work on our project tomorrow afternoon instead then?" She nodded as Luka started guiding her out of school, and suddenly Adrien felt very alone. He heard Plagg snickering under his jacket, "Oh the poor kitty's getting jelly!" He laughed and Adrien just gave the side of his jacket the slightest little whack to quiet the teasing kwami.
-Marinette-
Luka had finished the song. And she really wanted to hear it. Just the acoustics she'd heard earlier were beautiful and she could only imagine what the real deal would sound like with lyrics. She and Luka walked down to the subway, showing their passes and stepping onto the train. "So what helped you finish the lyrics?" Marinette asked Luka as they waited for their stop. Luka seemed to startle a little, but recovered quickly and turned to Marinette with his striking blue eyes, "I was just thinking as I listened to the acoustics for it, and I was just able to sum up my emotions with it. It was truly inspiration hitting me." He smiled one of his classy crooked smiles and Marinette couldn't help but grin back. She had something else to add to the list for Luka: inspired.
As they stepped off the subway and walked up the stairs, Luka was telling her about the new Jagged Stone album he'd heard rumors about and asked her if she knew anything about it. Just as Marinette opened her mouth to answer, they heard a scream sound from above them and they both ran up the stairs as fast as they could. As they looked around the busy streets, a freshly akumatized villain was rampaging the streets in a black carriage. It looked as though one of the rentable flower cart operators had been akumatized. "Oh no." She heard Luka say next to her as he surveyed the scene; people tethered in black flowery cords tied to the back of the wagon as the villain cackled, "Sure! I'll give you a ride!" "We've got to get out of here so Ladybug and Chat Noir can do their job!" Luka said, tugging Marinette's hand. He pulled her back towards the subway, but as they started off down the steps, the villain turned their direction and fired black bombs at them from his dark carriage. "Come back here and join my train!" He cackled but Luka stepped in front of Marinette. "Don't touch her!" he snarled, taking her hand and pushing her down into the subway.
The villain growled and his carriage swerved down in front of Luka. He moved to step out of his carriage, but Hawkmoth's symbol appeared in front of his face. They had a short conversation that ended with the villains saying, "Don't worry Hawkmoth. I'll give you a special delivery soon. Dark Rider always keeps his promises!" Dark Rider stepped back into the carriage and tossed a final bomb at Marinette. Luka lunged forward to protect her, but a leather-clad superhero beat him to the punch, taking the hit for Marinette and landing with a thud on the ground. Marinette bent down next to him. "Are you okay, Chat Noir?" "Never better, Princess?" He answered with a grimace, accepting Luka's hand that pulled him to his feet. He turned to Luka, "Take her to safety, I don't want my Princess getting hurt." Luka nodded in reply, and Marinette once again found herself getting pushed into the subway by Luka. Her mind raced with ideas of how to escape Luka's protection so she could transform. Her only problem was how.