He tastes the cupcake, and smiles at her. "Thanks, Marinette."
"Of course, Adrien," she laughs. "I got them for the whole class."
"You still gave one to me first," he raises an eyebrow, and she blushes. "Am I right?"
"You're in the front of the room, so yes."
He grins. "Alright, birthday girl."
It hurts, but she doesn't look at him as they pass in the hall. She tells herself that she barely noticed him that time. It's her birthday again, but he's not getting a cupcake this year.
Hell, she'd give him one if he'd talk to her. But he won't not after the last year. Things were so new a year ago. She was in love, and he...
He might have loved her. He said he did. But when it came down to it, when the time came to see if he was lying, or joking, or telling the truth...
Still, once upon a time...
He's laughing as the class continues, and a pink smear of frosting is decorating his upper lip. "You can really bake, Princess!"
She laughs, and leans on one hand. "Yes, Adrien. I live in a bakery."
"Still!"
She blushed, and added a few lines in her sketchbook. A drawing of him, and he definitely knew it, judging from the smirk on that dumb cat's face.
"You aren't subtle, Marinette."
"What? I need practice drawing. You happen to be there."
"I'm happy to pose for you, you should just ask."
She sits outside, at lunch hour. She doesn't want to go home.
He walks by the bench where she sits, with Nino. Nino glances at her, almost sympathetically, but Adr- Ch- but he doesn't bother. She looks at him, eyes burning, and adds a few lines in her sketchbook.
'Don't remember.' Harshly written, wrinkling the paper, the skyline she's drawn. She cringes, closing the book and getting up. Maybe if she goes to the library she'll be less distracted.
She slides in and... he's not there. Of course he isn't. That's why she came in here in the first place, he wasn't going to be here, so she shouldn't feel so disappointed.
He's a living disappointment, for her. A person she thought was definitely going to be around. He'd be there for her. They'd be friends, and eventually more.
Yeah, right.
They hang out on a rooftop. "You got any more of those cupcakes, my Lady?"
"But of course," she laughs, lifting the basket. "I know how hungry you can get."
He grabs one out of the basket, licking off the icing. "Mmm, Marinette, you are so amazing. These taste like sunshine and strawberries."
"I didn't know sunshine had a flavor," she smirks, amused.
"Yeah. Same as your cupcakes."
She rolls her eyes. "Thanks, Chaton."
She looks into his eyes, and thinks, 'Yeah. I'm going to kiss him. Not tonight. But some day.'
She looks at the torn page of her sketchbook, and her eyes close. The page she wrote her feelings on, so awkwardly, so stupidly, after the last fight against Hawkmoth, and shoved at him, with the words "Take it. Just take it."
"I love you!" he called after her. She swears he said that. He did, right?
She didn't look back. She should have, maybe then she wouldn't be stuck knowing that that was the last time they actually had a conversation before it went silent.
He read the letter. He realized she loved him.
She guesses that the dead silence means the only thing he actually loved was her baking.