AN: Hey, guys! So this is the first author's note I've written for this story and I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for the response to this fic! I really didn't expect it to be so great, but it is! Thanks y'all! Sorry this chapter is so delayed, but I've had so much going on with school in terms of deadlines and applying to unis etc. I'm hoping to get CHapter 4 up by next week, but I can't make any promises just yet. By the way, all of Nino and Marinette's playlists mentioned in this fic are actual playlists that exist on my Spotify, danielle9deleon, so maybe check them out if you wanna? That's about it for now, thanks again! - Danielle
EDIT: To the guest reviewer who pointed out the discrepancy regarding Alya's height, thank you so much. I literally updated this last night at like 3am UK time and I completely forgot to proof read for mistakes. Sorry! I know how irritating it is to find those in fics, won't happen again! xx
Chapter 3
"Nino really needed some rest, huh?" Marinette looks over her shoulder at Nino and Adrien, who are both curled up against each other and snoring in the back seat of the car.
"Yeah, he's had some pretty crazy shifts lately. I barely get to see him awake anymore." Alya laughs somewhat sadly. "He works late and sleeps late, I leave early and end up asleep before he gets in. You know how it is."
Alya's tried not to make a big fuss over Nino's working hours because she knows that he's doing a job he loves and excels at. But she will admit that it's difficult for her to not see him as much as she used to. She misses Wednesday Spaghetti Nights on the sofa watching old horror movies with awful special effects and she misses making pancakes at midnight on Breakfast for Dinner Fridays. She misses going on dates and she misses lazy Sundays just hanging out in pyjamas with hot chocolate.
They've have talked about it a couple times and Nino hates their reduced time together as much as Alya does. The difference is that he also loves his job, and Alya is not about to try to tear him away from it just because she misses him. Besides, it's not like she never sees him, it's just that she sees him less than she's used to and –
"Alya, you know it's okay to miss him, right?" Marinette has been watching Alya chew on her lip and furrow her eyebrows for the last couple minutes. She knows exactly what Alya is thinking. "You don't need to feel bad about it. Your feelings are what they are, you can't help it."
At the back of the car Nino stirs slightly, moving so that his head lolls just above Adrien's shoulder as his hat falls off his head. Alya looks at him fondly in the rear-view mirror and a small smile creeps onto her face.
"Okay then, Miss Relationship Guru," Alya smirks at Marinette. "How about we talk about your love life instead of my petty issues? A certain someone has totally got it bad for you!" Alya cackles as she watches Marinette's face turn beet red in embarrassment.
"Nobody has anything bad for me, Al! Don't make that kind of stuff up." Marinette squeaks, sinking into her seat. She's just glad that Adrien is a heavy sleeper and will (thankfully) hear none of this.
"Come on, Mari. I thought he was meant to be the oblivious one here, not you! The boy has been dropping so many hints and you have thus far failed to see every single one!"
Marinette shakes her head vehemently. Alya's been saying this for years and trying to convince her that Adrien likes her back. Marinette knows he doesn't. If he did in fact like her, wouldn't he attempt to ask her out or at least drop some more obvious hints? God knows she's been so obvious at times that she might as well wave a massive flag saying 'hey there, just so you know I am a little bit in love with you so would you please love me back?' in his face. With sparkles. And all-caps writing. In neon colours. Actually, scratch that. Flashing neon colours.
"I'm not oblivious!"
Alya cocks an eyebrow at her. It's her 'are-you-freaking-kidding-me-right-now' look and Marinette has found herself on the receiving end of said look more and more in the last few years.
"Remember the school trip to London?"
"The one where we lost Juleka and Rose for about three hours and later found them in M&M World?"
"Yeah, that one." Alya laughs.
It had been an eventful trip, they could say that much at least. Aside from the Juleka and Rose thing, there had also been an incident in Harrods where Chloé got into a fistfight with some rich brat over a pair of Valentino pumps that resulted in her eventually being escorted out of the building, screaming that her father would hear about it. On their third day in London, Adrien was stampeded by crazed fans as the class left the Natural History Museum and then on the fourth day, Max and Kim somehow ended up stranded in Piccadilly Circus while the rest of the class was at the National Portrait Gallery. Needless to say, there had been no abroad trips for the class after that.
"It was such a great trip, right? I love London so much, even if we were stuck with all the tourist trap locations." Marinette smiles.
"Yeah, and the four-hour Eurostar journey wasn't too bad either." Alya shoots Marinette a sly glance.
"I mean, you and Nino sure had a blast. You guys were being so mushy I wanted to gag!" Marinette snorts.
"Oh, and you and Adrien weren't being equally as mushy?" Alya retorts. Marinette flushes.
"We weren't being mushy, we were never a couple! And the only reason we were sat together is because a certain couple couldn't bear to be apart for four measly hours and it was a toss-up between me and Chloé!" Marinette pulls a face at Alya and slumps down in her seat.
Alya rolls her eyes. If she remembers correctly, she and Nino had video footage of Marinette and Adrien tangled up together and snoring. Of course, neither of them has ever seen this footage because she's keeping it a secret until their wedding.
"Believe what you will, Mari, but my boyfriend knows his husband very, very well and, from what we saw, Model Boy's intentions were a little more than just platonic, if you catch my drift."
Marinette groans and leans her head against the cool glass of the window. Over the years there were a couple moments in which she'd let herself indulge in the idea that the attraction was mutual. The Eurostar trip was one of them. Adrien had all but dragged Marinette into the seat beside him and immediately began chatting away as if it were no big deal.
One hour into the journey he decides that he has to take as many pictures together as possible with as many stupid faces as possible, claiming that he rarely gets to do things like this and he needs to document it. He almost sounds like Alya. He saves every single one, even, much to Marinette's horror, the photos in which she looks like a complete and utter idiot. Of course, he looks great in Every. Single. Damn. Photo. (Marinette's theory to this day is that a life of modelling has made him permanently photogenic and there will never ever be a bad photo taken of him.)
Two hours into the trip, he gets up to go stretch his legs.
"I don't think you get it, Mari, I'm too tall for these seats. My legs need freedom. We didn't have, like, a million revolutions and behead the king just for me to endure this kind of oppression!"
"Are you calling me short?" That's all she could think to say because holy-nickname-Batman he has just called her Mari. This is the first time he has ever in the history of their friendship called her that and Marinette is having a minor breakdown.
"Seriously? That's your concern?"
"I'll have you know that I am 5'6" and I am not short."
"Mari, you're 5'5"." Crap, he did it again.
"Shut up, I'm still above average."
"Only by an inch though."
"I thought you were going to stretch your legs, you freakishly tall person?"
"Mari, I am a very average height. If you think I'm freakishly tall then you kinda just proved me right." This marks three times in one conversation. Perhaps you could call it overkill, but Marinette doesn't care.
With that, he flashes her a grin and saunters (he's such a model) down the aisle toward the onboard café.
From: Mariiiiibuggg
To: Al dente pasta
Update 1: I've changed ur contact name from Alyyyybuggg to Al dente pasta
Update 2: there's a toddler behind me who keeps kicking my seat
From: Al dente pasta
To: Mariiiiibuggg
Al dente pasta?
Really?
Is this because of the journalism competition?
Because I swear if that is a fucking pun about my year's supply of pasta prize I will kill you.
Was this Adrien's idea?
It was totally his idea.
Never mind. You are in the clear.
I know you love him but I swear to God I will bake his head into a lasagne.
From: Mariiiiibuggg
To: Al dente pasta
u didn't let me get to update 3
also leave Adrien alone and don't bake the love of my life into a lasagne
From: Al dente pasta
To: Mariiiiibuggg
Ooooh what's update three?
From: Mariiiiibuggg
To: Al dente pasta
Alya.
he cALLED ME MARI
From: Al dente pasta
To: Mariiiiibuggg
WHAAAAATTTTTT
GIIIIIRRRRLLLLLLL
From: Mariiiiibuggg
To: Al dente pasta
wait for it
THREE TIMES IN ONE cONverSATION
From: Al dente pasta
To: Mariiiiibuggg
HOLY SHITTTTTT
(babe I love you but your grammar is killing me)
From: Mariiiiibuggg
To: Al dente pasta
I DONT CARE ABOUT GRAMMAR
ADRIEN CALLED ME MARI THREE TIMES
From: Ninbro
To: Maribro
dude I'm trying to nap and all I can hear is alya squealing
wtf happened
From: Maribro
To: Ninbro
adrien called me mari
three times
in one conversation
From: Ninbro
To: Maribro
shit dude
thrice mari-d
congratz
anyway
tell alya to shut up bc she won't listen to me
goodnight
From: Al dente pasta
To: Mariiiiibuggg
Did Nino just tell you to tell me to shut up?!
I'm gonna kill him.
From: Mariiiiibuggg
To: Al dente pasta
let the boy sleeeep
From: Adrien
To: Mari
Hey, I'm in the queue at the snack bar. You want anything?
It's kind of a long queue so you have time to decide :)
From: Mari
To: Adrien
oh, um. Idk, depends on how expensive because I'm kind of broke at the moment.
From: Adrien
To: Mari
Nah, don't worry about that.
I'm paying :)
From: Mari
To: Adrien
WHAT? NO!
Marinette stares at her phone. He isn't responding. She stretches up slightly to scan the carriage and spots Alya and Nino a couple seats ahead. She hazards another glance at her phone but still nothing. Hopefully he's taken her somewhat panicked caps lock texts as a 'No thanks, I don't want anything'. Hopefully.
"Right so you didn't specify so I grabbed you a hot chocolate and this sweet and salty popcorn. Best of both worlds, right?" Adrien throws the bag of popcorn at Marinette and slides into his seat next to her. He places the hot chocolate down on the folding table in front of her and opens the lid of his coffee, adding two sugars. Marinette stares at him.
"What? I know you're trying to cut down on the caffeine so I figured hot chocolate was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, I am nowhere as motivated as you and I have no intention of kicking my caffeine intake." Adrien takes a sip of his coffee before suddenly wincing. "And there go all of my tastebuds…ouch."
Marinette opens the lid of her cup and blows some of the steam away. "Thanks," she smiles. "But seriously, how much did this total? Let me pay you back, seriously." She leans down and begins rummaging around in her bag. Adrien grabs her hands and pulls them away from her bag, completely stunning her into stillness.
"I said I'd pay, and I paid. It's no big deal, what are friends for, am I right?" He grins. She watches him intently as he eyes his drink cautiously, attempting another sip while simultaneously looking terrified.
From: Mariiiiibuggg
To: Al dente pasta
you know that stupid cliché about how you fall in love with someone more and more each day?
I don't think it's stupid anymore.
Alya I'm so totally screwed.
Alya still has the screenshot of that last message. She's saving that for the wedding too. She elbows Marinette in the ribs lightly, telling her to stop looking like a lovesick chihuahua.
Once again, they've hit traffic. Alya takes the opportunity to stretch her arms and roll her neck; driving for extended periods of time is not necessarily her favourite thing to do but she'll sacrifice comfort to let Nino sleep. She would let Marinette drive except Nino has henceforth banned Marinette from the driver's seat following the Crash of July 19th (which, in Marinette's opinion was actually not a crash because I only scratched the car slightly, Nino).
"Kinda busy today, isn't it?" Marinette yawns. She checks her phone. No new messages. No updates. No alerts. "Weren't we supposed to be halfway there already?"
"That was the original plan. From what I can tell, we are currently an hour and a half behind schedule." Alya groans. "You know, I had this entire trip planned down to the minute! And now look at us!"
Marinette nods sympathetically. "I know, Al. On the plus side, at least it's not – " Thunder cracks in the darkening skies above before Marinette can finish her sentence. " – raining." Alya shoots her an 'are you serious' look and lets her head drop against the steering wheel with a loud thud, hitting the car horn in the process.
"Shit!" Alya starts up in surprise as Marinette giggles uncontrollably.
The rain starts out as a light drizzle, the droplets scattering across the glass like constellations as it beats softly against the cool windows of the car. The sky turns from a crystal blue to a pale grey as the rainclouds stretch across, moving slowly and heavily. It remains this way for about fifteen minutes before the rain begins to fall harder. It pelts down aggressively, hitting the window panes and rolling down in streams. The gentle patterns formed earlier on the glass blur together until it becomes difficult to see properly.
Alya runs a hand through her hair and turns the window wipers up to a faster setting. As much as she loves the rain, she'd really rather not drive in it; slippery roads tend to make her nervous.
The traffic gradually begins to move again, although at an agonising pace, which both frustrates and relieves Alya. On one hand, she really wishes they could get the hell out of this nightmarish rut in their journey and just make it to Marseille already but, on the other hand, the sluggish speed means that there won't be any asshole drivers trying to force her to speed up in the freakish downpour. She supposes that, in some ways, the positive cancels out the negative so she'll just have to make do and be happy for now.
Adrien stirs slightly in the back seat. He groans slightly as he stretches his arms out (he whacks Nino in the face in the process); he's starting to believe that he is, in fact, too tall to nap comfortably in such a cramped space.
"Are we there yet?" he mumbles groggily as he rubs his eyes.
"Sorry, cupcake, we've hit some more traffic." Alya's really not sure why she feels the need to christen Adrien with these ridiculous pet names. It's just become a Thing she does, despite his being over a foot taller than her. The list has only increased over the years and now includes sunshine, buttercup, sweetie, My Son, kitty-cat, jellybean and, Alya's personal favourite, Mon Petit Cantaloup. Nino has started to use My Son and buttercup, which makes Alya prouder than it should.
"If it makes you feel better, you managed to nap for almost two hours." Marinette chirps.
"Yeah, you and your husband, who is supposed to be my boyfriend, looked pretty cosy back there." Alya snorts. "I've got to ask, what is your secret? He doesn't snuggle with me like that anymore."
"Nino likes to be the little spoon," Adrien says sagely. "It makes him feel secure."
"Too bad you're like three feet tall, Al."
"Shut up, Mari! I'm taller than you!"
"Fine. You win this round."
"Well, I have a foot on both of you so I win."
The two girls turn to face him and Adrien is certain that if looks could kill, he would be dead twice over. He grins sheepishly in response and rubs the back of his neck. Thankfully, the traffic starts moving and Alya is forced to turn her attention back to the road. Marinette narrows her eyes at him once more before she too turns to face the road.
Adrien can't be certain but he swears that there is something in the way she looks at him, even when annoyed at him, that surpasses everything. He's only really started to notice it recently, but for a fleeting moment he is sure of it. Upon reflection, he decides that he is deluding himself. There's no way. Marinette is just a really good friend. That's all.
As she turns back to the front of the car, Marinette gulps slightly. There was something strange about the way Adrien has been looking at her recently. Not strange in a bad way, but strange in a new way. His expression seems softer and there's something different reflected in his eyes. For a second she thinks – no. In her head, she laughs at herself. She's just projecting her own feelings onto him, she rationalises. He just sees her as a friend. That's it.
