Listen to Chopin's Nocturne Op 9 No 2 while reading this for the best results. ;)


Undertones

"Ya know, when I asked if you guys wanted to study with us I kinda figured you'd be studying."

"We're studying," Marinette defended quickly, snapping her eyes back to her history textbook. She hadn't been, actually. She'd been sneakily glancing at Adrien, who was reading from his own history textbook next to Nino, across the picnic table where they'd settled in the park. The late afternoon sun was hitting him just right, so that his hair glowed and his eyes shone like sunrays through summer leaves. Ah, the golden hour of photography...

Right! Studying! She reburied her nose in the end-chapter notes as Nino began to snicker.

"And what about you?" Nino turned a page without looking as he refocused his accusative gaze on Alya, who (when Marinette turned to look) was dicking around on her blog instead of studying.

"I'm getting around to it," Alya sassed. "I was gonna put on some studying music, so you're welcome. Um, excuse you!"

Nino had reached across the table to pull her screen down flat in order to lean over and see what was on display there. "Lies!" he laughed, while Alya donned a very offended expression and yanked her computer screen back up to its rightful position. "You're doing Ladyblog stuff!"

"Can you believe this fool?" Alya said to Marinette, jabbing her thumb in his direction.

"Don't mess with Alya's computer," Marinette responded instantly. "I tried it once…" She shuddered at the mere memory of her best friend's wrath. "Never again."

"I'll have you know I am putting on music," Alya went on seamlessly, ignoring Nino's suddenly uneasy expression. "One of the blog followers put together a LadyNoir playlist for the blog's homepage, so I thought I'd go ahead and implement it. It'll give us something to listen to while we go over the last chapter. Aaaand there we go. Done!" She pecked one last key and then the sound of tender piano music drifted through her speakers.

Marinette peered up from her history book, too caught up on something Alya had said to continue reading. "LadyNoir?"

"Bleh, this is a love song," Nino complained, standing up in order to read her computer screen upside down without touching it. "I thought it'd be like… action music. Y'know, superhero music."

"I said it was a LadyNoir playlist," Alya reminded him. "Besides, gentler music is better for studying."

"I'm sorry, LadyNoir?" Marinette parroted, still not understanding the word. She was so stuck on it that she didn't notice Adrien had finally torn himself from the chapter to look up at them. "What is that?"

Alya giggled. "Oh, Marinette, you sweet summer child… It's like, their couple name. The songs are supposed to be representative of that. You know," she giggled manically. "Their love!"

Nino gagged at that, his eyes narrowing as he continued to read the blog's playlist upside down. "Ugh, these are all love songs! This is one of those shipping things you were talking about, isn't it? How am I supposed to study when the sappiest love song ever is drowning my eardrums?"

Marinette bit her lip as she too leaned over to catch the title of the incredibly romantic piano tune that was currently spilling out of her speakers into the golden afternoon.

( I) Now playing: Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

"It is a bit sappy, isn't it?" she protested weakly. This was the heaviest, most passionate piano song she'd ever heard in her life, laced with minor keys that rolled into the major. She was certain her cheeks were the same color as the red brick under their feet. So embarrassing. It was times like these that she was most grateful that no one knew she was Ladybug. She'd die.

Nino rolled his eyes. "Yeah, definitely the sappiest thing I've ever-oh my god, Adrien, bro, are you crying?"

Marinette and Alya both whipped their heads toward Adrien in surprise, who had so far been absolutely silent through the conversation. He had a distant, faraway look in his eyes and, to their shock, he had in fact teared up. Quite a bit. Even as their mouths fell open wordlessly a tear spilt from his right eye and he turned away from them to swiftly wiping at his face.

"Um, no," he lied. "Allergies?" he lied again.

"Dude," Nino deadpanned. "You hopeless sap!"

"It's not my fault," he grumbled bashfully. "My, um…" He drummed his fingers on the table, still facing away from all his friends. "My mother used to play that song when I was a kid. Before she..."

"...Oh. Oh man, I'm sorry…"

"Wait, don't stop it," he blurted, spying Alya's hand moving deftly to the space bar. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get all emotional on you guys." A genuine grin lit up his face and he laid one hand on the back of his neck. "I just really love that song. Besides, I uh… I think it fits the playlist perfectly."

At that Nino groaned. "Ugh, no, not you too."

"I'm with Nino," Marinette admitted, eager to steer the subject away from anything that got Adrien that upset. The sight twisted her heart painfully. "I don't know if I'd pick love songs if I was the one curating that blog of yours. Chat and Lady aren't a thing." Marinette gave Alya the stinkeye.

"Why not?" Adrien wondered, leaning forward onto his forgotten textbook, accidentally dog-earing a couple pages in the process. "I mean, maybe they're not a thing yet, but it's obvious that he's madly in love with her."

Butterflies swooped through Marinette's stomach so suddenly that she almost forgot how gravity worked and was sure for a second that she was falling into the sky. The look in his vivid green eyes was so raw. Adrien was staring at her so earnestly that she had to look down, lest she experience immediate heart failure.

"I don't kn-know about, um, about all that," Marinette stammered, slipping back into her old stammering ways under that intense stare of his. "Love? I always sort of figured he was just a flirt. Nothing more."

"I don't think so," he reacted instantly, and he sounded so certain that Marinette could do nothing but believe him. "Chat's in love with her. Anyone could see that, the way he looks at her." He looked down at his book, realizing belatedly that he had crinkled up a bunch of pages when he put his whole weight on them. Sighing to himself, he vainly attempted to smooth them out. "Maybe Ladybug should give him an honest chance."

Struck by his sincerity, Marinette found herself feeling suddenly ashamed of the way she'd spurned Chat so readily in the past, the way she'd never given his interest any real weight when she considered him. Maybe Adrien was right. Maybe Chat deserved a chance. She couldn't believe she was saying this to the boy she was madly in love with, but… "You never know," she muttered. "Maybe she will give him a chance."

When she looked back up she wasn't expecting to see Adrien still staring at her, straight at her, like he was seeing through her to her very soul. "You really think so?" he asked, his voice laced with an emotion she couldn't place.

"Sure," she whispered. "He deserves it, don't you think?"

Adrien's face lit up at her words, and he had to train his eyes back on his book in order to evade Marinette's curious gaze. Why did he care so much, she wondered?

The other two friends at the table watched this interaction with fascinated detachment, almost like field researchers in the wild, jotting down observations on the animals. Nino whispered to Alya behind his hand. "Is it just me, or are there… undertones to this conversation."

Alya just shrugged. She pulled her own textbook out of her bag as Maman Agreste's favorite nocturne ended and the next song took its place in their ears, leading the atmosphere away from the serious one it had become back into one that was more lighthearted.

"Nino," she whispered back, "with these two there are always undertones."


.

.

Wrote this thing as pre-reveal. But when I went back and edited it, it really seemed like maybe Adrien knew more than he was letting on about Marinette...

So you can interpret this as half-reveal...

If you want...

I certainly wouldn't deny it.