18. Crush Swap
Marinette scrolled through the latest images Alya had uploaded to the Ladyblog, sitting in her chair waiting for afternoon classes to begin. Each time Chat Noir's visage graced her screen, she had to fight down an adoring sigh. She hadn't had much opportunity to talk to him after this morning's akuma, what with their Miraculouses being dangerously close to timing out. Not that it had stopped her from trying—only to devolve into frazzled nerves and stuttered sentences until her earrings beeped their final minute warning and she'd fled the scene.
Sighing, she suppressed the urge to slam her head on the table. He must have thought Ladybug was a complete weirdo.
"M-Ma-Mari-Marinette?"
Glancing up from her phone, Marinette looked at none other than Adrien Agreste as he stood by her desk, a smattering of pink dusting his cheeks and hands clasped behind his back. He refused to meet her gaze, emerald green eyes darting at every spot of interest except her. He did this all the time she was nearby, something that confused Marinette. She smiled, hoping to put him at least a little more at ease.
"What is it, Adrien?" she asked, lowering her phone and giving him her full attention. The blond only flushed harder, face turning red as he shuffled his feet. Was he having a fever?
"Um, I was … er, tomorrow, t-t-t-t-the—I mean, um, w-will you—d-do you think—"
From the peripheral of her eye, Marinette thought she caught movement and a hiss of a voice that sounded like Nino's, but she paid them no attention.
Adrien straightened as if snapping to attention. "Tickets!" he blurted.
Before she could ask him what he meant, he'd whipped his hands from behind his back, brandishing a pair of glossy rectangular papers at her. Marinette started, eyes wide. She could have recognised Jagged Stone's font anywhere.
"Concert! Jagged Stone's! Tomorrow night!" Adrien burst out in increments, still going redder by the second. "With me? W-will you go, I mean? With me, I mean?"
Marinette blinked, twice, processing his words. Once she'd done so she broke into a beaming grin. "Of course, I'd love to go with you!"
His head snapped to her, brilliant green eyes finally meeting hers as they went as wide as saucers. "Y-you would?" he asked, incredulous.
She nodded, enthusiasm showing. "Yeah! Let's exchange phone numbers so we can arrange where to meet?"
"Y-y-yeah," he said, fumbling in his pocket for his phone. As Marinette keyed in her contact into Adrien's phone she smiled. With this new development, maybe she'd come to be his friend. If he'd only let her.