The dawn was a tad more humid than usual as result from the dew on the grass. There was almost no wind, but the early morning crispness in the air was great to breathe in. Breathe it in she did. She gave an appreciative hum as she slowed to a stop at the end of the block and the do-not-walk light.
Bare legs lightly kicked in the air a few times as she jogged in place while waiting for the light to change. Summer was definitely here in full force and there was no way she could just run in her colder outfit. A random pair of pink shorts, loose black top, and pink under tank made up her summer jogging 'suit' (1).
She ended up in the park, as usual, and took a lazy run around to finish off her routine. It had been a necessary exercise time, more so than normal. She needed the mindless run to erase everything in her mind concerning Chat Noir...concerning Adrien. She couldn't stop thinking of him ever since his exit from her home and it was driving her nuts.
She was annoyed at herself for the thoughts that flowed in and out of her head like a turbulent ocean and almost desperately wished they would stop. His life was his own and she didn't have to care about him anymore! They had already gone their separate ways after junior high and he didn't even remember her it seemed. That thought had initially stung a little after she met him again, but she ignored it and now it was barely noticeable.
So she thought...
She couldn't help but wonder if Chat Noir was still unharmed after his late exit. It was all but dawn when he left and he had never parted so late from the Underground before. She knew because he usually danced with her and whenever he left her side, she danced many songs after his exit. Only when it was a handful of songs and his absence was still there did she figure he went home.
It had only been one day since their 'late run' through Paris and she couldn't help the thread of worry that hit her whenever she wondered if Adrien had been found out. So much was riding on his ability to keep quiet about where he had been over the past few months! Her worry was more for her beloved Underground and not to his home life though. She should have felt worse for him personally, but he had stuck his neck out unnecessarily and if he created problems after returning home, that was on him.
"I don't ever want you to run away from me like you did ever again."
Her face flamed as she quickened her pace, harshly shaking her head as much as possible without off-balancing herself.
Stupid, stupid Adrien! Stupid, heartfelt words! Why did she still hear his soft voice saying them a day later?
"Thank you for letting me see you...really see you..."
Her teeth grit, hands covering her ears as if he were whispering those words directly into her ears. Stop! No more! She didn't want this heart fluttering to happen ever again! It happened as she harshly berated it to stop, as if mocking her, daring her, to stop it herself.
"Thank you for all those months we got to share. They...they mean a lot to me."
She skidded to a stop as she neared the fountain and stomped a foot with an irritated cry, figuring no one to be around as usual. Her teeth ground a little as she glared at the splashing water, as if it were the cause of her distress. She was never going to get on with her life, was she?! The things she did, the place she had created...they could only help if she was entrenched in them. They were of no help to at such an hour in the morning.
If she didn't know any better, it almost sounded like he was saying goodbye. She didn't think that was true because he never acted like he was done with the Underground, but those she invited often decided to stop coming after a while and she would notice their absence within a few days. If that was the case, then there was nothing she could do about it. She invited him to help him with his life, to let loose and feel free through music and it was his choice to keep attending; she shouldn't feel horrible if he decided enough was enough.
So did those words have to make heart heart beat faster?
"Focus!" She rebuked, slapping her forehead with the bottom of her palm. "Think of anything else!" Arms crossed sullenly as she idly shifted into Third Position before immediately standing on tiptoe in Revelé almost on instinct. "God, this is so annoying... Why can't I stop thinking about him? Stupid Adrien... Stupid, stupid boy!" Her tennis shoes helped as much as possible as she remained in Revelé before going back to Third Position again. Without thinking, she performed a Sauté and stood En Pointe after landing.
There really were more dire things to consider. Summer was winding down which meant fall auditions were coming up fast. This was her last chance before she gave up on her dream of being a ballerina and decided on fashion school instead. She told her parents she would make a decision and they had been more than patient enough with her over the last few years.
She had gone through ballet dance upon ballet dance, trying to find out what she hadn't attempted yet that was a high level and amazing in order to win Gabriel over. She had to find something truly awesome in every sense of the word and impress him! All those previous attempts had done her nothing, but the Underground did only hurt her more as time went on. Her constant attendance there and the 'choppiness' to her step, as Gabriel had so claimed, was mixing in with her ballet when she didn't need it to. Her ability to get lost in the music and go with the flow wasn't something she could quite do with ballet. The representation was totally different, even if she still felt a story was being told through the movement anyway.
'What is it?' She wondered, holding a First Arabesque as if it were normal. 'What am I doing wrong? What am I LACKING? My form is perfect; I know it is! I've been taking and teaching ballet for years and I know all the basic moves. They're more ingrained in me than most of high school was!' Her lips tilted.
Her leg swung down from its hovering stance and she landed in Fourth Position before going into a Brisé and landing on the bottom edge of the fountain. She landed with ease and remained in the ending, crouched stance as she stared at the top of the concrete design in thought.
Her mind burned with any kind of possibility that she could use to her advantage. She was getting desperate and she knew this. She didn't want to feel the finality of it all when she wasn't done chasing this dream of hers. Sure, it had dimmed over the years, but it was still there. She had gone after it for so long that she didn't know what else to do at this point.
She liked dance and after being introduced to ballet first, she was entranced. The movements in time with the music and how they told a story of the various ballet dances... It was fascinating and she took to it. She found out she was good at what she did, probably because the heart of ballet was a sense of creation that she was naturally gifted with, and she eagerly took it all in. The Underground really wasn't that different; the music and moves were perhaps the only main points.
"Why do you keep coming back if father keeps telling you no? It's pretty admirable, I admit."
She gave the other side of the park an utterly annoyed look in the middle of an Attitude Derrière. The hand near her side lightly slapped a cheek a few times when his voice floated through her head. "Stop. Thinking. About. Him!" She ordered, slowly righting herself.
What was up with her the last day?! She was done with him! She had been done with him for at least a year now! She had bid those feelings goodbye and got past him. Even when she saw him the few times a year at auditions, she didn't feel like this...
He didn't mean the same to her as he used to and seeing him again, dancing with him so much as she had, didn't make her heart go all pitter-patter the way his smile used to when they attended junior high together. She felt stronger to be next to him, to converse with him, as opposed when she much more childish and couldn't string two words together. Those days now were just horrible, embarrassing memories that she never wanted to relive ever again. They only showed her how much of a kid she had been and that she had grown up a lot in the five years she hadn't seen him...minus the previous auditions. But those twice a year happenings didn't even give her the ability to talk to Adrien, much less see him that well in the stage seating. They barely even counted.
She was in the middle of a Balançoire when something shifted in her vision a little ways away. It was huddled up in between a bench and one of the trees nearby, but it scared her witless. There wasn't supposed to be anyone here this early in the morning! That's why she brazenly did ballet on the fountain like she did!
With a shriek, she finally, at long last, lost her footing and landed heavily into the bottom of the fountain water. There was an impressive splash and a sharp pain to her rear. The water only helped soften the blow, but it was maybe a few feet deep; it wasn't going to cushion all of her.
"Are you okay?! I didn't mean to scare you!"
That voice had her frozen more than the cold water on her legs. She stilled despite the water running out of her hair, not wanting to look behind her to the hurried footsteps she could hear on the grass. No...what?! That...that was impossible...how...?
How was he here at this hour?!
Gentle, strong hands grasped under her shoulders and she sluggishly helped them get her to her feet in her shock. Red-faced and refusing to look up, she took in the water dripping on the grass that was getting on both their tennis shoes.
Green shoes. Black pants. Black hoodie with cat ears. Blond hair.
Chat...Noir?
She couldn't help the utterly dumbfounded expression on her face as she stared agape at his sheepish expression. Her mouth fumbled for noises, brain frying itself in any attempt to make itself useful.
What was he doing here?! Why was he dressed like that?
Oh god...how long had he been here?! Was he watching her?!
"Y...you...you...you're..." A hand rose and stupidly pointed at him. "Here... Why?! What's going on? What happened?!"
He jerked at the petite hands roughly grabbing his arms around the short-sleeves. The shock evaporated to sheer worry on her face as she stared at him in his nighttime outfit, looking him up and down as if he were injured. His mouth floundered much like hers a second ago at her nearness and sudden contact with his skin. He gave a self-conscious laugh and took an arm away to scratch the back of his covered head. "Ah...haha...I...well...it's been a...long day?"
She didn't like those words. She pointedly looked into his eyes, seeing things there that she didn't like. Being as he was almost a head taller than her, she grabbed either side of the bottom of his hoodie and yanked, forcing his face to her level so she could see closer. She understandably shocked him, but she bypassed it for the hollowness she saw slowly enter his eyes when the shock ebbed. Her eyes narrowed in thought as he fidgeted a little under her scrutinizing gaze and light attempt to pull away from her. "You...you were sleeping in the park, weren't you?"
His eyes immediately darted away and gave himself up. The accompanying frown gave her details that he didn't want to give so soon after meeting her. What was the point in hiding from her though? He went to this place in wait in hopes of seeing her today. He managed a slight nod around the grip keeping his neck at a painfully low angle. "Y – yea...I was."
"Why?! What happened to you? Didn't you go home yesterday? I told you to!"
He reached up and gently pried the fingers from his hoodie so he could stand. He looked to his bag, figuring she'd follow his gaze. He dared spy a peek and found wide blue on the duffel hidden under the bench he had taken slight refuge next to all night. "I k – kinda...ran away...from home..."
Had she not been standing so close, she would have missed how rapidly his voice dipped to practically nothing. Her mouth dropped open, brow furrowing upward, serious concern flowing through her. He...he WHAT?!
Her vision whipped to him, taking in his attire and the bag a few times as if she hadn't heard a word he said. "Wh – what happened Adrien?!" A hand gripped his arm again, shaking it a little through her emotions. "Are you okay?!"
He ate up her concern, thankful this was the avenue she took when they met up again. It felt good to have someone so worried for his general welfare. He managed a small smile for her before it fell.
It had been a long, somewhat scary night and he didn't get a lot of sleep due to it. The chill was nonexistent due to the season, but the worry of police or pickpockets kept him up quite a bit till he fell unconscious from sheer exhaustion. The dark clothes he had only helped until the dusk settled and then he had to try and hunch to keep from being seen as some suspicious figure. He worried the bags under his eyes were still there, but there wasn't anything he could do about them now.
His brain snapped to her still-dripping attire and he quickly shrugged off his hoodie. "You're soaked. Take this before you get too cold."
"Don't avoid my question." A hand lashed out and gripped his chin, getting startled eyes her way again. "Explain. Now. You made me part of this, so out with it!"
"I...ran away because father forbid me from ever going to the Underground again." His jaw momentarily clenched. "He called the Underground 'trash dancing'. I couldn't just never visit the Underground ever again after all the fun I've had there. I love that place! It's freed me and it made me like dancing again. I didn't want to live under his roof if that was the life I had to live to go back to. I've already been doing it for years; I'm sick of it!"
His words had her mouth falling open and her emotions run cold. She slipped her arms through the sleeves on instinct when he finished moving to cover her. She didn't watch his hands slowly zip the hoodie up for her, sad eyes on his face all the while. He was pointedly staring at his work, either to avoid her eyes or too caught up in his own brazenness.
She couldn't believe this! That was not what she wanted for him! She wanted to give him the feel that the Underground represented, but he had been found out from last night and his father had punished him to some level that he had run away from.
This was at least partially her fault!
He watched her pigtails drip into the fabric, keeping his fingers on the zipper once it paused at her chin. The hoodie was a little too big on her and it looked adorable.
When he finally dared to sneak a real peek at her face, it snapped her to action. Her arms went around his, squeezing him as she buried her face in his shirt. "Oh...oh Adrien! I'm so sorry! I – I didn't such a thing would ever happen! This is all my fault! I should never have told you about that place!"
His face was warmer than he wanted it to be and he couldn't hide it when she stepped away and looked to him again. He fumbled for words, trying not to feel cold when her arms were suddenly removed from him. He wanted, needed, that hug again, but he didn't have the guts to embrace her back.
In a second, she had his hoodie off and was giving it a few harsh shakes to get some of the water out. She turned it inside out before slipping it back over his shoulders. She ignored his protests at her actions and claims that she needed it more than he did. "Nonsense!" She retorted, feeling horribly guilty. "This is...this is most of what you brought with you. I'm not taking it after knowing what happened to you."
Her words warmed his heart and he gave in with a soft smile. He put his arms back through the sleeves and let her finagle the zipper. She quickly zipped his hoodie closed and smoothed it out as much as possible with the fabric being the wrong way. He gave soft, somewhat sad eyes her way when she looked at him again.
His hand floated up on its own and landed on a petite, wet shoulder. "Thank you...f – for listening..." His cheeks flushed, but he couldn't look away. "Thank you...for worrying about me."
Her heart clenched a little at the despondent tone he carried with those words. Her hand came up and gripped the fingers over her shoulder with a squeeze. "I'm going to do more than that. I'm taking you home! I bet you haven't eaten for hours; you must be starved." She clapped a hand over his mouth, seeing the look of dejection on his features. Hers sharpened like a mother who would hear no argument from her child. "No buts! I'll not hear anything to the contrary! You look like you don't have much on you and I won't have you waste whatever money you have when you don't have to. My parents won't mind. I'll just...figure something out..."
She grabbed a sleeve and started off for the bench containing his bag. He followed her because he really had nothing else to do and he did come to her in need of her aide anyway.
They stopped at the bench only briefly for him to grab his things, her hand still attached as if the sleeve were his ear. There was a resolute, thoughtful look on her face from what he could get before she smartly marched across the park toward the bakery. He easily kept up with her shorter stride, lips tilting despite the situation. She was walking like she was on a mission of utmost importance and it was really adorable. The way her legs took as wide a stride as possible, free arm harshly swaying with her walk...totally dripping wet across the pavement...
The pair stopped at the back entrance and he looked to the building as she went to open the door. What a day it had been! When he thought to the hand of fate directing his life, cruel or not, he was astounded at all that'd happened in one single day. Yesterday morning, she hadn't wanted to share herself or her home with him and now she was practically yanking him inside like the stray cat that he was.
There was a somewhat narrow hallway and set of stairs they climbed before she let go of him and fully straightened. In a second, her hand whipped out and snatched the bag off his shoulder with a look. "I know what I'm going to say, but I don't need any questions about your bag from my parents. We'll just make it seem like I took one out with me this morning."
He didn't have time to ask questions or check her improvising skills before she swung the door open and he got a good look at her house. Heavenly smells hit his nose and his stomach rumbled as loudly as it could, getting a blush from him. He ignored her raised brow and waved her in so he could also enter.
She snapped to, mind already in acting mode. "Morning mama. Is papa already downstairs?"
"Good morning Marinette. He is." There was a pause and he caught a curious, interested motherly look. "Who's this?"
She strode into the kitchen and gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. "Adrien Agreste. His father owns the ballet school that I've been applying to for a while. I saw him outside at the park when I was exercising and we got to talking and I offered him to eat breakfast with me. I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Sorry I didn't notify you beforehand. It...it just kind of came up."
Sabine smiled and nodded to him. "It's no trouble." Her hand waved him over to the table. "Please. Sit and make yourself comfortable."
He did as directed, making his way as if trespassing on forbidden grounds. He awkwardly plopped down on the stool she pulled out for him and gave him a warm pat on the shoulder before heading to get another plate out of the cupboard. A thread of guilt hit him, even though he had run away with the intent on seeking out Marinette. Such things might include food somehow, but now that these times had come, he found himself more chagrined at coming here than he thought.
"I'm going to head upstairs and get changed. I'll be back in a bit."
He nodded and watched her walk up a set of nearby, narrow stairs, pushing a trap door open and then quietly closing it behind her. A brow went up as he looked around the quaint, snug place with nothing else to do. It was a pittance of a place compared to his home, but everything was well-organized and it all looked very nice. The feel was homey and he liked it much better than the stoic stillness of that mansion.
"How have you been doing these few years, Adrien? It's been a while. I must admit, I barely recognized you with how you've grown."
His head whipped to the question, blinking as the only thing he could do. His head tilted to the side in confusion. "Have...have we met before...?"
Sabine smiled and nodded. "It's Sabine. You may have forgotten; it has been years after all. You and Marinette attended the same junior high together for a bit...maybe a school year. You two hung out at school I heard and you even stopped by a few times. I forget what they were for though. You don't remember?"
He looked around at the kitchen and the living room, bewildered beyond imagination. He had no recollection of these memories she was claiming, but why would Marinette's mom lie to him about such a thing? She acted more familiar than was normal for a stranger, though he could tell she was generally a nice person. He liked her smile and she had a quiet, contented air about her. The air of a mother. He watched her set a plate before him with that friendly smile and suddenly realized he missed the face of a mother quite intently.
"You can just go ahead and get started if you want. Marinette can sometimes be a little slow. No need to stand on ceremony in this house."
He dumbly nodded and slowly picked up the utensils. He watched a glass of milk and chocolate powder container be set before him. It was different than he was used to, but he didn't mind at all. He suddenly liked this way better because a mother was serving him breakfast, apparently handmade by how great it looked. His heart squeezed and he attempted to take as quiet of a shuddery breath as he could. He didn't need to bring such things into this pleasant place.
"I'm glad that you and Marinette are getting to know each other again. I didn't think that poor girl was ever going to get over you when you suddenly stopped attending school."
His eyes whipped up to her mother at that statement. A brow shot into his hairline and he hurriedly swallowed his food. "What? I – I don't...understand..."
"It's been a while, but she was quite infatuated with you, dear boy. I felt so sorry for her when she told us that you were pulled from school after your mother's accident. I didn't think the clouds would ever go away for her."
The board above suddenly opened, a pair of thin ankles and tiny feet creaking on the steps as the rest of the body appeared. "Sorry that took so long Adrien. I had to double check and make sure I didn't drop anything from my duffel."
Which meant she must have been getting his stuff put away so that it didn't look like he was suddenly barging in and staying in her room...just in case her mom went up there for whatever reason.
He watched the petite form appear, those thin, slightly muscular legs clad in a pair of jean shorts followed by a regular, boring, baggy t-shirt. Her hair was unbound and brushing against her shoulders, still somewhat damp. Totally opposite the scantily clad personae she portrayed at night with those suddenly enticing legs of hers always covered. He found the difference a good thing and couldn't take his eyes off her. Add to the fact the details he just learned from her mother and his face wanted to burn itself to cinders.
His mind whirled and he ate in order to keep the questions from escaping his mouth before he could think of what they may actually mean. He avidly watched her grab a plate and glass off the counter. She accepted a quick kiss from her mother before sitting down and getting situated. She paid him no mind, as if this breakfast at her place was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Now that you two have been set up, I need to head downstairs and help your father open up shop. I'll be there in case you need anything. Are you going out this morning Marinette?"
She nodded and quickly finished the bite in her mouth. "Yes mama. I have two classes and then I'll be back later to help if you need me." She cast Adrien a subtle, thoughtful glance, not knowing what to do with him once this afternoon rolled around, but she couldn't go changing her usual plans and making her mother suspicious.
Sabine laid a hand on her shoulder. "We'll see you in the afternoon then. Good to see you again Adrien. Hope you can visit more often."
He returned the wave and friendly smile before Sabine slipped into her flats and was closing the door behind her.
Effectively leaving the two of them alone.
The quiet felt deafening and uncomfortable. He wanted to squirm in his seat, but he didn't move a muscle. All he could do was discretely fiddle with his food before forcefully eating it, nerves quickly evaporating his appetite with her closeness making his ears burn.
How was he supposed to act now after finding out that the girl he felt something for had felt something for him in the past?!
(1): Marinette summer running outfit inspiration: pinterest com/pin/343540277806637988/
ballet poses: supercoloring com/sites/default/files/styles/coloring_full/public/cif/2015/01/ballet-positions-coloring-pages png
ballet poses: en wikipedia org/wiki/Glossary_of_ballet
