Adrien knew that Marinette was mad at him. He also knew that he couldn't afford to lose another friend.
Sure, there were probably dozens of people who would jump at the chance to be friends with Adrien Agreste, fashion model and heir to the Agreste fortune, but not many had an interest in Adrien Agreste, the person. Meaning that very few people actually wanted to be friends with him for his personality, because all they saw when they looked at him was what his father wanted them to see: a good-looking, dignified boy with money and power. Not a good friend, who told stupid puns and would gladly sit and play video games with his friends for an hour.
So far, Adrien had lost Kim's friendship over Chloe, Marinette's friendship over the dance, and Alya's friendship over Marinette. Three less people who liked him as a person.
So Adrien was going to try and win them back. Starting with Marinette, because if he made up with Marinette, he made up with Alya, too. The only problem was that Marinette was barely speaking with him. It was up to Adrien to make that change.
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Nino scratched his head and stared at Adrien. "You sure, bro?"
Adrien nodded. "Of course I'm sure."
"You know that she pretty much hates you, right?"
"Yeah. Nino, this is gonna work. Trust me."
Nino shrugged. "Not my problem if she kills you, my dude. Good luck." He slapped Adrien's back, then went back to fiddling with one of his mixes.
Adrien took a deep breath, and tried to prepare himself so that he wouldn't end up getting tongue-tied. Marinette was sitting on the staircase by herself, flicking through a magazine and nibbling at some sliced apple. Her head was down, and she seemed to be in another world completely. Adrien was slightly nervous about disturbing her, but if he wanted to get his friends back, this was what he had to do.
"Marinette?"
She squawked, dropped her magazine, and accidentally ripped out her earbuds, which Adrien hadn't even noticed. As she fumbled to collect herself, Adrien caught the familiar sound of a popular song coming out of her earbuds.
Marinette whipped her head up to glare at him, clutching her magazine to her chest. Adrien caught a glimpse of himself on the cover, before her arm slipped over it. She stood up, looking furious. "What do you want?" she demanded. He'd obviously startled her.
Adrien opened his mouth to reply, but felt his words tangle in his throat. Swallowing, he tried again. "I, uh, wanted to talk?" His voice went up at the end of his sentence, making it sound like a question.
Marinette's icy stare didn't soften. "About?"
"Uhhhhh…" Adrien wasn't used to having the normally sweet and kind girl glowering at him like this. "About what I've done," he finally managed to say.
Marinette looked him up and down, and Adrien could practically feel her judging him. "And what exactly have you done?" she asked coldly.
Adrien shuffled his feet and put his hand on the back of his neck- a habit that he just couldn't shake. "I rejected you when you asked me to the dance."
"Yes, you did."
"And I'm really sorry." Adrien looked down at his feet, hoping that he wouldn't be met by a fist if he looked up. When nothing happened for a few seconds, he found the courage to lift his head.
Marinette put her hands on her hips, accentuating the curve of her waist. Adrien had to tear his eyes away from her middle and look her in the face, feeling slightly guilty for staring at her in that way. Fortunately, Marinette didn't seem to notice. Unfortunately, the expression on her face told Adrien that whatever she was going to say next would not be in his favour.
"So you waltz over here," she began, "after several days, and decide to apologize. What were you thinking when you came over here, huh? That I'd kneel at your feet and hero-worship you, just because you said sorry?"
Adrien wasn't sure how to reply, but turns out, he didn't have to. Before he could open his mouth to respond, Marinette stepped closer to him, right in his face, except for the fact that she was almost a head shorter than him.
"Well, I've got news for you, Mr Front-Cover-Model," she snarled, poking his chest with her rolled-up magazine, "I'm not going to forgive you so easily. It doesn't take much effort to walk up to some run-of-the-mill girl, who's nothing compared to your famous model friends, and say I'm really sorry." Her voice rose into a falsetto as she mimicked him, and she glared up at Adrien, eyes cold and angry.
Adrien felt strangely hollow. "Marinette, you're not run-of-the-mill," he said. "And you're just as good as my model friends. You're ten times kinder and more talented than the-"
"Oh, save it!" Marinette's voice was loud and shrill, earning a few stares from other students. "You can lay on all the compliments you want, Adrien Agreste! What do you take me for, some lame fangirl who has-has pictures of you on their wall and cries over your latest advertisements? I'm not about to swoon and forgive you. You can take your worthless compliments and give them to Chloe, even though you don't want to go to the dance with her, even though she forced you into kissing her!"
Adrien was speechless. He'd never seen Marinette so outraged before, and hadn't even known that she even had it in her. He had nothing to say or do that could possibly fix the situation. But he could still try. "Marinette, you don't understand. I was sincere in my compliments. I don't like fighting with you. You're one of my best friends."
The baker's daughter looked positively insane. Her eyes were wild and her face was red, and Adrien could sense that she was about to explode.
Crap.
Before Marinette could scream at him, her phone began to trill and vibrate. Shooting him a look of hatred, she snatched up her phone and glanced down to check it. Her mouth fell open. "Akuma," she muttered under her breath. Stowing her phone in her pocket, she gave Adrien one last look of loathing. "This isn't over, Agreste," she snapped, spinning on her heel and storming away, leaving a dumbstruck Adrien standing by the staircase, gaping.
It took him a few moments to completely process what Marinette had said. The word he'd been longing to here, because it could mean that all of his dreams would come true.
Akuma.
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Ladybug had fought many, many akumas in her time as a superhero. More than she could count, really, though she was sure that Alya would be keeping tabs on the amount. Most of the battles followed the same routine, like a video playing on loop. Get to the akuma. Go through the customary talk, we can sort this out, blah, blah, blah. Fight, then use the Lucky Charm/ Cataclysm. Free the akuma, purify it. Miraculous Ladybug with her charm, then run off into the sunset with Chat Noir. Repeat.
Today, though, the video was fast-forwarded and skipped a few important parts.
Ladybug showed up at the scene, a kilometre or two from the school. Rather than hang around to make small talk with the akuma, she got right into it.
When Chat Noir arrived, several minutes later, he expected to be alone, and was preparing to rattle off the pitch he'd stolen from his therapist. The therapist was hired shortly after his mother's disappearance, and fired shortly before Adrien started school. He'd never been much help anyway.
Chat was more than a little surprised to see Ladybug positively crushing the akuma. It stood no chance against her and her fists. Chat almost felt sorry for it. If he'd been the subject of her heated glare, he'd be running away with his tail in between his legs.
Ladybug kicked the akuma solidly in the stomach, causing it to double over, winded. She mercilessly knocked its legs out from beneath it, snatched of it belt and tore it in two, like it had somehow wronged her. Chat watched, fascinated, as she purified the dark butterfly and tossed what seemed to be a still-sealed water bottle into the air.
As glowing pink magic swirled around the area, Chat approached his partner, twirling his stick and grinning. The superheroine was breathing heavily, checking something on her yo-yo and glaring at the screen. Chat put his clawed hand on her shoulder. "That was quite something, m'lady."
She spun, raising an eyebrow. "Bit late, Chat Noir. I was wondering when you were going to show up."
Chat swept into a bow. "Well, look no further, my lady," he purred, wiggling his eyebrows. "Your knight has arrived."
She snorted. "Some knight you are. Couldn't even show up in time to save me from the horrible akuma." She put the back of her hand to her forehead and sighed dramatically.
Chat elbowed her. "Well, I suppose you can look after yourself now, Ladybug. Even if you are tiny," he teased.
Ladybug shot him a look. "That's getting old, Chat. You're going to have to find another flaw to tease me with."
Chat gave her a flirty wink. "That's not possible, Ladybug. Apart from your height, you are the definition of perfection."
Ladybug just rolled her eyes, and strode off to comfort the akuma victim. Chat hung back, as the presence of both superheroes was sometimes overwhelming for the victims. Unfortunately, as soon as Ladybug left, the paparazzi and journalists pounced. Although Ladybug was usually more than happy to give them a statement, she got touchy when the questions got personal, and refused to answer. So the media decided to target Chat.
"Chat Noir, you were very late to arrive today. Can you tell us why?" Someone shoved a microphone into the superhero's face.
"Uh, well, it can be hard to get to the akuma immediately. We do have other lives, you know," answered Chat, then wished that he'd kept his mouth shut.
"You also have a love life. What are your feelings towards Ladybug? Do you see a future with her? Do you know each other's identities? Or is there another gir-"
Suddenly, Ladybug was between Chat and the paparazzi, right up in their faces. "Hey!" she yelled, furious. "What did we say about personal questions? We have no reason to tell you anything about what goes on behind the scenes. Now, shoo!" With one last threatening glare, Ladybug turned to Chat, gave him a meaningful look, and marched away. The media wasn't stupid enough to follow her. They'd just seen exactly what Ladybug could do with her fists, and weren't keen to experience it themselves.
Ladybug turned to Chat. "Look, Chat, I know we were going to pay Fu a visit, but now's really not the best time. I can meet you after sch- I mean, I'll meet you outside Fu's at three-thirty. Okay?"
Chat blinked, then gathered his wits. "Um...yeah, sure. Ladybug?"
"What?"
"You can say 'after school', you know." He smiled at her. "It's not like we don't know that we're students."
Ladybug looked a little pink beneath her mask. "Yeah, I know. But the whole identities thing, I sometimes forget what I can and can't say." She sighed, then took her yo-yo from her waist. "See you later, kitty."
"Bye, bugaboo." He grinned.
Ladybug tossed an exasperated look over her shoulder as she zipped through the air.
MLBMLBMLB
Adrien and Marinette bumped into each other at school- literally. They were both rushing to class, very aware that they were late, when they collided. Both students fell to the ground.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Marinette immediately looked over to Adrien, her face full of concern. Her expression quickly changed once she realised who it was. "Oh. It's you."
"Yeah, I'm fine. You?" Adrien ignored her sullen tone and got to his feet, brushing himself off and offering the girl his hand.
Marinette considered him for a second, before sniffing and helping herself up, pointedly ignoring his outstretched hand. WIth a sigh, Adrien shoved his hand back into his pocket, and bent to pick up her bag, which he handed to her. She took it gingerly, annoyed that he'd still managed to assist her.
"Do you want to walk to class together?"
Marinette glared at him, but fell into step beside the model, her silence as heavy as the book-stuffed bag on Adrien's shoulder. He pushed open the classroom door for her. "Ladies first."
She walked through, muttering something about chivalry, and took her seat beside Alya, who proceeded to give him a venomous look.
Adrien sighed. If looks could kill, he was sure that between Marinette, Alya and Ladybug, he would have been killed many times over today.
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Ladybug waited nervously, pacing the rooftop across from Fu's. She'd said three-thirty, so technically there was still five minutes to go, but she'd wanted to transform as quickly as possible. She couldn't say why, but she did want that silly cat to show up soon.
Although Ladybug had no proof, she did have a sneaking suspicion about the steps Fu would ask them to take in order to fix whatever mess Chat had got them into. And she didn't like it. Contrary to taking weight off her shoulders, it would probably just burden her further, if Fu's solution was the one she had in mind.
The spotted heroine checked her yo-yo again. 3:28pm.
Please hurry, Chat Noir.
Wow. Yet again I find myself apologising for taking so long. I really am a slacker. Especially on weekends, it turns out. Thank you all so much for bearing with me and my takes-four-days-to-update ways. Thank you for all your incredible reviews, too! I absolutely love them, and I'm really sorry that I can't reply to them, but these days, I'm absolutely bushed on a daily basis. Anyway, see you in the next chapter!