Christmas Confession (Marinette's P.O.V)

By: Alex Martin

Chapter one- Whipped Cream War

Marinette was in class doodling, instead of what she should have been doing, taking notes. Her hand was moving, but she wasn't paying any attention to what she was drawing. Instead, she was staring at the blond head in front of her, daydreaming. Oh, how she would love to run her fingers through those golden locks and say, Adrien, I lo-

"Marinette?" Miss Bustier interrupted.

Marinette smiled at her teacher. "Yes, ma'am?" It had been a year since she started having feelings for Adrien, and he had always been a distraction in class. She would have the most elaborate daydreams and not even hear her name being called until Miss Bustier shouted it. That hasn't happened in months, though. She did still daydream about Adrien, but she learned to do that and keep her ears tuned in to Miss Bustier's voice at the same time.

. "How did you interpret the poem?" Miss Bustier asked.

Marinette was packing up her things with Alya patiently waiting and realized the classroom was mostly empty. "You can go ahead, Alya."

"Are you sure, girl?" Alya asked.

"Yeah. I'll meet you outside."

Alya looked unsure, so Marinette pointed at Nino sitting at the desk in front of them, talking to Adrien, and winked.

A smile spread across Alya's face before she turned toward Nino. "Nino, will you walk me out?"

Nino smiled at his girlfriend. "You know it!" He turned to his desk mate. "Coming, bro?"

"You two have fun," Adrien started. "I'm going to wait for Marinette. We'll catch up." Adrien turned to Marinette, who had been watching the exchange, and winked with a smile.

With a face as red as a tomato, Marinette smiled back shyly, looked down and continued getting her things together. Did he just wink at her? He did! And he smiled at her too! She had to mentally remind herself to breathe. Still red-faced and backpack on, but no coat due to the rare not so cold December day, she began walking down the stairs, not looking at the boy patiently waiting. She wasn't paying attention to where she was walking, and, in true Marinette fashion, she tripped. Oh no. As if tripping wasn't embarrassing enough, she was also going to fall on her face in front of Adrien. She squeezed her eyes shut, covered her face with her hands and waited for impact, but it never came.

Marinette removed her hands from her face, opened her eyes and was greeted by Adrien's concerned face. She glanced to her right side, then to her left and realized that Adrien had a hold of her arms. She looked back up at Adrien, horrified. She hadn't fallen like this in a couple of weeks. She was doing better not being so clumsy. It still happened but less frequently.

Scrambling out of his arms, she said, "Sorry I'm, you thank!" She face palmed. What did she just say? She had made progress talking to her crush, but at this moment, It didn't sound like it.

Adrien chuckled. "Don't apologize. It hasn't happened in a couple of weeks, so it was time." He rubbed the back of his neck as he said, "You know, I don't mind catching you."

Marinette stared at him, shocked. What did he just say? And was she imagining things or were his cheeks slightly pink? They had gotten closer as friends, and that was hard to believe, in a good way. She valued their friendship and was proud of herself for making things way less awkward between them, but they were just close friends… right? She had strong feelings for him, but he didn't reciprocate them… right? Of course not. He was just a nice guy. She took a deep breath to regain her composure.

Marinette smiled. "I know you don't mind. I just wish it didn't happen so much. Sometimes, I feel like a newborn horse." She did an impression of a baby horse learning how to walk, moving her legs wildly.

The two of them shared a laugh and walked out of the classroom, heading to the front of the school. By the time Marinette and Adrien made it outside, they were laughing and talking about the time they snuck out of the hotel with Kagami. Kagami was still a good friend to the both of them but had moved on from Adrien months ago. Adrien told Nino, Alya and Marinette that he and Kagami had a long talk after the class trip to New York about how Adrien no longer had feelings for her but valued their friendship. Kagami was upset, of course but stayed his friend, and eventually, she saw him as a friend and nothing more.

"It's about time, dudes," Nino said as his two best friends approached.

"Finally," Alya stated from beside her boyfriend in mock annoyance.

"Sorry, guys," Adrien and Marinette responded in unison, causing all four of them to laugh.

"So," Alya began as the group walked down the stairs. "Marinette, can we all come over and hang out tomorrow? Say two 'o' clock?"

Marinette's face lit up. "Of course! We can play video games and drink hot chocolate!"

"Dude, you'll come, right?" Nino asked Adrien.

A Cheshire Cat grin spread across Adrien's face. "I can't wait!"

An hour later, Marinette sat at her desk, in her room, doing her homework.

"Doing your homework on a Friday night? I'm proud of you, Marinette." Tikki smiled at the pigtailed girl from where she sat on the desk.

"Have to get it all done so that I have plenty of time to hang out with Adr- I mean my friends tomorrow," Marinette said, dodging the red kwami's eyes.

"I know, and no matter the reason, it's still good to get your work done first. Do you think you're going to tell him?"

Marinette froze. A full minute passed before she could speak. "I've thought about it, but I don't know, Tikki."

"It's time, Marinette. You can do this."

Marinette smiled. "Thanks, Tikki."

Marinette ended up finishing all of her homework and spent the rest of the night slightly freaking out. She took all of the Adrien pictures off of her bedroom walls and computer, hung out with her parents and played video games but kept losing. She couldn't focus on anything other than Adrien coming over to her house the next day. She was really nervous. It's not like Adrien had never been to her house before, because he had, a few times, but she was really considering confessing her feelings this time.

There was a knock on the door on Saturday at two o' clock p.m, and Marinette opened the door to see Nino, Alya and Adrien in winter gear.

"Hey, guys," Marinette greeted with a big smile. "Go on up to my room, and make yourselves at home. I'll be up with the hot chocolate in a few minutes."

Marinette invited her friends inside before going to the kitchen. She put on an apron and retrieved four mugs from the cabinet, listening to her friends shed their winter gear and shuffle upstairs.

"Need any help?" Marinette jumped and threw the can of whipped cream she was holding, startled at the voice coming from behind her. She quickly turned around and saw Adrien catch the whipped cream.

"Sorry," Adrien said, cradling the whipped cream to his chest. "I didn't mean to scare you. Can I help?"

"Th- that's okay. You don't have to do that."

Adrien frowned, looked at the can of whipped cream in his hands, then back at Marinette with a smirk. Before Marinette knew what was happening, whipped cream hit her cheek. She stared at Adrien, mouth agape and eyes wide. Adrien held Marinette's gaze, finger on the whipped cream nozzle, with a smile, and then winked.

Marinette blushed, but a mischievous grin formed on her face. If it was a whipped cream war he wanted, she would gladly oblige. She quickly picked up the other can of whipped cream that she had set on the counter and retaliated, spraying whipped cream in Adrien's face as well. In no time, they were running around the kitchen firing shot after shot of whipped cream at each other, using everything they could to shield themselves and giggling the whole time.

"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat, stopping the two laughing teenagers in their tracks.

Marinette and Adrian turned their heads and saw Alya and Nino standing at the bottom of the stairs. Nino had a smile on his face, but Alya was smirking, one eyebrow raised, holding up her phone. How long had they been standing there? How much of the whipped cream fight did they witness? And now, there was a picture, or even worse, a video. Marinette was so embarrassed. She looked over at Adrien who looked just as mortified as she felt. She looked at all of her friends, and suddenly, it dawned on her. Why was she so embarrassed? They had a blast. There was nothing to be embarrassed about.

For the next couple of hours, the four friends drank hot chocolate and played video games in Marinette's room. When it was time for everyone to go home, Marinette walked all of them to the door.

"Bye, girl," Alya said and hugged her best friend.

"Later, Marinette." Nino and Marinette fist bumped.

Lastly, Adrien hugged Marinette, surprising everyone. Marinette didn't know what to do at first. He hadn't hugged her since the plane ride to New York. She was shocked, but quickly got over it and put her arms around him, squeezing tight. "Thank you for today," Adrien said. "It was fun." She felt like he held her a bit too long for a friendly hug before finally letting go, but she wasn't complaining.

She went to bed that night and slept peacefully all night long, dreaming of Adrien. She may not have been ready to confess today, but she would be ready soon.