Hey guys! I'm uploading it a bit earlier because I have something to do this evening so I won't be able to upload later ;)
Also, I had a great day! Like, a really, really great day and I honestly can't wipe that grin off my face ;P
And btw, I think Adrien isn't angry at me anymore, he sits in his corner of the room and grins dreamingly, so I think I'm safe again. Oh sunshine child, you're gonna get so much worse nightmares than these I already published, I'm so sorry… Not.
He now looks at me questioningly, almost mad…
GOTTA GO BYE!
They got comfortable seats that shed them from the cooling breeze of the beginning fall and ordered themselves something to eat and soda. Adrien had made sure both Alya and he sat next to Marinette so she sat across from Nino. It was the farthest he could be away from her on a round table the blonde decided and was satisfied when he could get Nino to talk about the new videogame he had bought on the other day. The girls talked about something different and for a moment, Nino and Marinette were distracted from each other.
"Dude, you even listening?"
"Oh… Of course. Just spaced out by your last words, could you repeat them? Sorry, I'm just a bit tired.", Adrien grinned sheepishly and Nino nodded, already continuing to list the pros and cons of his epic new game.
Their lunch was served and Adrien was even more pleased to see that Alya winked at him, grinning conspicuously. He smiled to himself while eating and still listening to Nino. As long as he wasn't touching or joking with Marinette, the blonde could relax. However, one comment of the boy about the game brought Alya into the discussion and Marinette remained silent.
That was his chance.
"Hey.", he gently nudged her elbow and she almost dropped her fork.
"S-Sorry I'm so j-jumpy!", she hastily apologized but he put a calming hand on the small of her back and chuckled.
"Nah, it's alright. I am pretty intimidating, I would jump too."
She laughed and it came from her heart. Probably she liked it when he showed a bit of Chat Noir's attitude? She seemed to like his superhero form at least.
"Well, are you here more often?", he wiggled his eyebrows and she laughed even harder.
"Why yes, but if that was a pick-up line it was pretty lame.", she seemed to realize what she just said and turned red again, "Well, if it w-was one-… I-… I d-didn't say it was but it c-certainly sounded like-… No, what I say to mean is uh, no, mean t-to say-…"
He laughed and leaned back.
"It was an attempt, yes. But you're too smart for me, I have to do better."
Her eyes widened and then slowly, she giggled sweetly. He hoped she finally would relax around him when he was showing more of the dorky boy than of the reserved model.
"Well, w-what do you have?"
"Hm, how about this one…?", he cleared his throat, then put his elbow on the arm of his chair and pulled up one eyebrow, trying to look as ridiculous as possible, all the while lifting his glass, "Your name must be Coca Cola, because you're so-da-licious."
She burst out with laughter and shook her head, unable to hold back.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Oh, did you see what's on the menu? Me-n-U!"
"Adrien-…"
"If you'd be a vegetable, you'd be a cutecumber!"
She rolled her eyes at that one, still not able to contain her bubbly giggling.
"Did you look these up on the internet? They certainly sound like it."
He laughed as well, leaning back into his seat.
"Me-ouch, I made them up of course. You'll never know my internet history!"
She laughed.
"You've got any more of them?"
"Tons! I don't want any coffee because you already woke my senses."
"Oh my gooooood-…"
"Guess what I'm wearing? The smile you gave me."
She put a hand over her heart, still laughing.
"And the best one yet! But you have to play along.", he waited for her to calm down a little, then asked her, "Are you an angel?"
She brushed the tears out of her eyes and shook her head.
"Not that I know of, I'm sorry."
He suddenly fake sneezed but before she could say bless you, he reached out and pretended to grab something from behind her ear, running his fingers down her jaw. Then he winked and formed his hand like a gun pointing at her.
"I think you are, because I'm allergic to feathers."
That set her off laughing once again. This time, she slid down in her seat, and couldn't come up again because she was laughing so hard.
He felt a slap on his back and turned to see Alya and Nino lying on their chairs laughing as well.
"That really was the best one, dude! Oh my god, I can't even!"
"Dude, I have one for you as well.", Adrien leaned down to his best friend and whispered something into his ear. Immediately, Nino bolted in his seat and looked at Alya who slowly recovered. The boy grinned widely and tried to look seductive which didn't quite happen.
"Hey Alya! Are you the dub to my step? Because I wub wub wub you."
"Oh my god, Nino! I'm lactose intolerant so you both keep your cheesy pick-up lines away from me!", she laughed and punched his arm, brushing off the tears with her other hand.
"But girl, you can't be lactose intolerant because if milk does a body good than damn, how much must you have been drinking?"
"Well, at least my pick-up counters are not as moldy as yours are, then."
"I wished you would've been drinking water instead, because then I could describe my feelings faster to you."
"Why is that, Nino?", Alya giggled.
"Because my feelings are harder to explain than the taste of water."
She burst with laughter along with Nino who already held his stomach. Adrien had calmed down enough to turn and face Marinette again.
"Hey Marinette, I'd take you to your parent's bakery but there's nothing sweeter than you."
"Okay, now that's a fitting pick-up line.", she giggled.
"Oh, I have one with Ladybug! Have you been eating Lucky Charms?"
"Why?"
"Because you're looking miraculously delicious."
That was it. They couldn't go any farther, they both cracked up and laughed their heads off. Adrien wasn't even sure if he would be able to make it through the rest of the day without constantly bursting out in laughter.
They only calmed slowly because periodically, one of them would always start laughing again and set the others off.
Finally, fifteen minutes before their afternoon lessons would start, they paid and left the café. Alya and Adrien walked in the back again while Nino and Marinette tried to continue their pick-up line war. Without Adrien it was a bit difficult but they made up enough cheesy things to say to keep themselves entertained. The blonde model shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to ignore their happy laughter. He wanted to laugh with them, wanted to laugh with Marinette because he was still feeling this wonderful happiness inside and because he still had a few pick-up lines for her.
This time, he didn't want to be any farther away from her than three steps.
Alya nudged him and shot him a quick questioning look.
He sighed and nodded, then increased the distance between them again.
"Okay, so nightmares. What do you dream? Is it always the same?"
"Well, yeah… It's-…", six steps, he thought, seven. That's enough.
"Take it slow, Adrien. It's hard to talk about nightmares, I know. I have three younger sisters who I'm rocking to sleep several times a month when they're having a bad dream. I know how it is."
He nodded and took a deep breath.
"It's always the same but with different people. I'm there but I can't move, I can only talk. And then there's-… There's Marinette."
Alya looked slightly surprised, placing a hand on his arm to assure him she was listening. He swallowed and continued with a shaky voice.
"Well, and she's being held hostage by an Akuma. A random Akuma victim Ladybug and Chat Noir fought once. Y-Yesterday it had been the Mime. The night before it had been Reflecta."
"And today-…?"
"The Bubbler. Nino."
He looked over to the brunette and she bit her lip, encouraging him to continue with a nod.
"They're all-… We're in the same position everytime. The location isn't important, one time it was the Eiffel tower, the next it was some random park or my own room. I'm always standing in front of them and the Akuma, they're-… They're holding a knife against her throat."
He felt tears welling up in his eyes and Alya swallowed back her own.
"Th-That must be horrible, Adrien…"
He breathed heavily but resisted the urge to cry.
"Yeah… I can't reach Marinette and she's yelling at me she doesn't want to die. She's-… She's shouting she wants to live and I should rescue her, help her. But I-… I can't. The Akuma's mocking me, I'm trying to reassure Marinette that everything'll going to go fine if she's stopping to struggle and with a quick-…"
His voice broke and Alya's fingers dug into his sleeve.
"And then she's c-… collapsing, right in front of me. Red blood everywhere and I can't do a-anything to help her. Then, the dream ends and I wake up crying, unable to sleep for the rest of the n-night."
Ten steps. Nino and Marinette were still joking, oblivious to the distance between their friends and them.
"I-… I'm sorry, Adrien…"
He chuckled without laughing, shaking his head and calming her with putting a hand over hers.
"It's okay… It's gonna be over soon."
She sniffed and tried a smile.
"You know, if you're not ready to tell Marinette yet, you can always call me at night. We can talk and I can try to calm you, sound good? Maybe I can search something up and tell you, about what's the meaning of this. Because as I said before, your subconscious is trying to tell you something it noticed and it won't stop until you either forget it or until there's a solution."
He grinned down at her and nodded happily, grateful for her offer.
"If that's okay with you when I call you at night, I would love to. I already thought about calling Marinette but that'd just be creepy I figured."
"A little bit.", she smiled and readjusted the strap of her bag, "I'm setting my phone so that I can hear it, alright?"
They reached the school and Adrien hugged Alya, out of an impulse.
"Thank you.", he whispered. She hugged back and nodded into his shoulder, "Oh, and by the way, I know that Marinette has a crush on me."
Immediately, she pulled away, disbelief on her face.
"What?!", she whisper yelled to not startle their friends who had reached the steps of the school, still talking, "Did you find out or did Nino tell you?"
"Nino helped me finding out, he didn't say it directly… Well, he pushed me to it and I got curious and it was just earlier in math and-…"
"I'm gonna kill this guy someday! I told him not to!", slowly but surely she turned red and looked like she was ready to shoot her friend on the spot.
"No, no Alya!", he grabbed her shoulders and grinned at her, calming her a bit, "This is great! I like Marinette too, she's really cool! I just need to-… I need to sort a few things out, before I can care about that, okay?"
The image of Ladybug appeared before his eyes and he shook his head, trying to concentrate and not space out again.
"Like that with your dreams?"
"Yeah, sorta. My dreams… Uh, could you just keep it down? I'm grateful Nino helped me find out, it's not a big deal he told. Just let us take things slowly, okay…?"
She was calm again, quickly brushing his hands off her shoulders as she noticed that Nino and Marinette were watching them, a slightly hurt expression on her best friends face.
"Alright. Anyway, Loverboy, we've got class. You coming?"
He grinned at the nickname and nodded, following her to their friends.
In literature class, he wanted to explode. Too many thoughts wandered around in his mind and too many times, Nino had turned around in the midst of the lesson to tell Marinette another pick-up line he had made up instead of focusing on the lesson.
"Psst, Marinette!", Adrien groaned on the inside, "You have something on your face. Oh wait, no, it's just a smudge of cuteness."
She giggled.
"Dork.", she whispered back, "Concentrate already."
"But something's wrong with my eyes – I can't take them off you."
The blonde grabbed his best friend's shoulder and pulled for him to face the front again.
"Your eyes are just fine, Nino, you should really try not to make Mme. Bustier even more mad than she already is. She called on you twice already, man."
"You're just jealous, bro."
Adrien didn't bother to answer that. Of course he was, despite of his crush on Ladybug, but he didn't have to tell Nino.
"Whatever.", he muttered to himself, too quiet for Nino to hear.
After school, Nino and Marinette still joked around.
"Hey, Nino, how was heaven when you left it?"
"Pretty good, I mean-… Hey wait! Okay okay…", he chuckled, then looked deep into Marinette's eyes.
"Honey, your eyes are as blue as the Atlantic Ocean and damn, I'm all lost at sea."
"And I need a map, because I'm lost in yours."
Alya held her stomach while laughing.
"Oh my god, guys! You're so cheesy."
"Well, Alya, if only gold was as bright as your eyes, because then I would dig for that and not for you."
"Oh my god, that's actually cute.", she giggled as Nino pretended to kiss her hand. If he'd done that with Marinette, he would be screaming while trying to run away from his furious best friend by now.
"Hey, Marinette, I have another one with eyes!", Nino let go of Alya's hand and turned to his friend. Alya looked over at Adrien and wasn't surprised to see him boiling on the inside.
"Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are clear like the ocean? Because I can see straight into your soul."
She giggled and shook her head.
"Unbelievable, Nino, unbelievable."
Just as she wanted to say something else, Adrien was next to her, grabbed her by the waist and swooped her off her feet to bend her down like a tango dancer.
Forget Ladybug, Marinette is mine, he thought.
"Hey Mari, I wish I was one of your tears. Then I could be born in your eyes, run down your cheeks and die on your lips."
The effect was immediate. She blushed harder than ever while staring up at him through big blue eyes, unsure of what to do next. Alya gasped and let out a tiny scream. Nino had frozen halfway in his bow he had hinted to and watched them with an expression of pride and indication that he had planned to send Adrien over the edge.
Her gaze flickered to his lips as did his to hers and he closed the distance between them. But suddenly, she began giggling nervously.
"Haha, gosh, g-good one, uh so I n-need to go h-ho-home, uhm could you p-please-…", he lifted her up so she could stand on her own feet again, "Yeah, uh, th-thank you, haha, bye!"
And with that, she ran off. Her face was beet red and she stumbled with every second step but soon, she vanished in the bakery across the street.
Alya slowly turned to face the blonde model, trembling either of anger or of being forced to keep her laughter in. She pointed to the bakery where her best friend just had vanished and her gaze dug into his eyes. It was really scary that Adrien still didn't know whether she was mad at him or laughed on her inside.
"You said you know-… That she's crushing-… And-… What did you-… How-… Where did that-…?!"
He shrugged and she looked at him in disbelief.
"Well, I'm off, my driver's here to pick me up. Bye guys, see you tomorrow!"
He ran down the stairs and opened the door of the car that waited for him. Just when he was about to close it, he heard Alya's scream.
"OH MY GOSH NINO, MY OTP IS HAP-…", and the door shut close. Adrien grinned to himself when he saw that Alya tackled Nino into a hug.
