When the weekend came to a close and Monday descended upon our poor students like a vulture, Marinette was in a grumpy mood. Despite the fact that Sunday had been akuma-free and she hadn't had many plans, her teachers had given her a lot of homework and she hadn't slept well. Also, Lila hadn't texted back, which wouldn't have been too big of a deal since Marinette was going to see her anyway, but it was like a nice cherry on the top of it all. Even if she had managed to confess via text to Lila, too little time had passed since the beginning of their relationship and it was still a bit overwhelming.
She was careful not to let her annoyance transform into anything severe, because she knew that she ran the risk of Hawkmoth sensing her emotions and deciding it would be a fine time to send out an akuma. So it was a Marinette with only mildly ruffled feathers that made her way to school with a backpack full of an ungodly amount of homework. To be honest, part of it was her fault because it had been assigned the Monday previously and she may or may not have procrastinated it until the last day. But she wasn't going to admit that.
When Marinette entered the school, she spotted Lila from afar, who was walking to her locker. Actually looking at her again was a lot different from the safety of merely sending texts to her. There was a mix of happiness in her, and also a little hesitance because Lila hadn't texted back yesterday. But she knew that was irrational, Lila probably was just busy with her grandma. Still though.
She still wanted to talk to her. Marinette steeled herself and took a breath as she walked to the locker room. She could do it.
Just then, someone bumped into her shoulder lightly.
"Marinette!" Alya exclaimed in greeting.
"Hey, Alya." Marinette managed a smile, but Alya could tell she was somewhat less chipper than usual.
"Awe, are you already having your first fight?" She asked teasingly.
"No." Marinette said, laughing slightly. "Just tired."
"Someone procrastinated for a week, then?" Alya raised her brows as she made a knowing smile.
"Maybe." Marinette ducked her head a little.
"Is that all?" Alya pressed on, and then she got an idea. "Did someone not text back or something?" She said, moving closer to Marinette as she zeroed in on the target. Marinette looked away as she began to blush. I'm not that petty!
"Pshh, I wouldn't get upset over something like that. That's ridiculous." Marinette said in defiance. Definitely not.
"Ohoho." Alya smirked, knowing she hit the bullseye. "What, so your girlfriend left you hanging?"
"Oh, come on, Alya. She was busy. Lila was with relatives." Marinette huffed, lowering her voice as they got closer to the room.
"But you're still lonely and lovesick?" Alya laughed, elbowing Marinette in the side.
"No way." Marinette said in response, making a face.
"Well, even if you were…" Alya trailed off as they entered the room, "She's right there at 11 o'clock." She finished, and then with a wink, she shoved Marinette forward a bit. "You're dating her! Act like it."
Marinette nearly yelled in protest but the push had sent her barreling towards Lila, who had just turned around from closing her locker. Alya definitely had not pushed Marinette hard enough to travel more than a foot, but Marinette was willing to put the blame on her anyway so she didn't have to admit that she just wanted to bump into Lila.
When Lila woke up that morning and looked at her texts, she made a face when she realized that she had typed out a "good night ill tell u 2moro" to Marinette and had never hit the send button. Whoops. It would be too weird to send it now, and it would also be weird to just type out a good morning directly after her previous text.
Crap. Lila had sighed, put her phone away and resolved to just talk to Marinette when she saw her.
And now she was here, in front of her locker as she grabbed whatever notebooks she needed and thinking of Marinette. She was still adjusting to their current status. But even if it was still hard to think of Marinette as her girlfriend, it still brought joy. Lila smiled to herself, hoping she could spend more time with her. As she closed the locker with determination, she turned around just in time to see her wish granted; something dark suddenly crashed into her and she stumbled back and hit the locker door. Lila threw her hands out to stop the poor soul from tumbling down to the ground, and she found her fingers wrapped firmly around the person's waist. And when the person looked up bashfully, Lila could see that it was Marinette she was currently holding up.
"Marinette!" Lila's face turned red at an impressive speed. She saw Marinette open her mouth to say something, but it was cut off by someone whistling. Lila looked away to pinpoint the offender, but it had turned out to not be a whistle of taunt, and was instead of a whistle of congratulations. The whistler was tall and wore a red hoodie, and his black hair was dyed a blond at the front.
"Congratulations, Marinette!" He exclaimed loudly, throwing thumbs ups with a big grin. This had the effect of the entire aisle turning to look at Lila and Marinette. Thankfully, aside from the two girls and Kim, there were only a handful of other people here including Alya, a red-haired boy, and another short boy with a green shirt and suspenders.
"Kim!" Marinette spluttered as she straightened, turning as red as Lila. Lila looked back and forth between them, torn between freaking out again or putting on her cool facade. To be honest, her entire life was a battle of always freaking out. She managed to throw a cool smile on.
"See you in class," Kim said and walked past them with his bag, winking as he exited the room. He was followed by the short boy who gave Marinette and Lila a smile, and then it was just the other boy left. His red hair covered one of his bright cyan eyes and he wore an unbuttoned button-down. He took one look at Lila, frowned a little bit, and then his shoulders slumped a bit as he walked out. Ok, what.
"Um." Lila whispered, looking at Marinette and then at Alya for clarification on what just happened. Alya walked over, and patted Lila on the shoulder.
"The poor kid crushes on Marinette." Alya sighed, shaking her head. Marinette ducked her head a bit.
"Yea. I don't like Nathanaël that way, though." She said. Lila looked down at Marinette as she began to look back up. Ooh, it was time for a vaguely cool line. Lila felt her heart begin to speed up as she opened her mouth, ready to say something that was probably terribly embarrassing.
"Well, I can't blame him for that. You're just so desirable." Lila drawled, drawing Marinette closer because for some reason she still hadn't let go of her waist. Marinette's mouth fell open and it looked like her spirit just exited her body, which was satisfying to see. On the other hand, the mere fact that Lila had just said that out loud made her want to pass out as well. It was a double-edged sword.
"Lila, as great as you are, I would appreciate it if you didn't send Marinette to heaven right before class." Alya said, laughing as she saw Marinette's knees begin to wobble.
"Trust me," Lila said as she pulled her girlfriend upright, "This is a struggle for me, too." She was impressed with how much she managed to mask her heart attack. Her heart pounded as she finally let go, missing the warmth of Marinette almost immediately. Lila felt like she needed to go lie down in a cooler for a long time.
Marinette was still out of commission even after Alya went and got both of their belongings, so she had to physically drag her out of the room.
"We'll see you at lunch, then?" Alya called as she walked away.
"Yea. See you!" Lila waved, and then when she was alone in the aisle, she put her head on the locker and tried to calm down. She was glad she could have that effect on her girlfriend but having to actually have those words come out of her own throat was extremely embarrassing. She wasn't sure she could handle doing it again. It was worth it but it was hard.
Lila took a deep breath.
It's time to be cool again. Be cool for Marinette!
Marinette was destroyed. She had heard lines like Lila's in like fifty different variations from a certain superhero known as Chat Noir, and it had never done anything more than make her eyes roll. But here she was, in the process of developing some extreme gal pal feelings to Lila, and when the words came from Lila she just felt her inner self sort of collapse in on itself. She could tell she had it hard. The moment had essentially made up for all the grumpiness she'd had earlier.
And here she was with Alya, walking to their usual lunch table with Adrien and Nino in tow (they were all a gang now, let's be honest here), while Alya teased her relentlessly.
"I saw that you and Lila are dating officially now." Adrien had said earlier, referring to the social media relationship status that had sent Marinette into a brief moment of ecstasy (and some explaining to do to her parents) "Congratulations!"
"You two are so great together." Nino had said with a grin.
Every time Marinette thought about the dating thing she died a little. In the good way. But during morning classes and some serious thinking, she had prepared herself. In case Lila decided to be flirty and pretty and beautiful like she always was, Marinette prepared herself to not almost faint on the spot. She remembered the past when she could talk easily to her but now that she knew she liked Lila it was getting a bit harder.
"Here comes your girlfriend." Alya whispered as they all put their bags down. "Make sure to sit next to her after we get food."
Somehow throughout the day Alya decided to help coach Marinette through being a girlfriend. Marinette watched as Lila approached, and breathed a sigh when Lila put her bag on the chair next to hers. Lila had done the work for her.
"Hey Lila!" Marinette said, mustering up her normal cheer. Her friends greeted her, too.
"Hello." Lila replied in a reserved manner. Marinette was somewhat disheartened by this turn of events, but she also wasn't sure how she should act around Lila after the heart-racing episode from this morning.
"Hold her hand!" Alya whispered as they all got up to get food.
"What?!" Marinette nearly yelled. "That's too much for me."
"Did you not hold her hand for like six years on Saturday?" Alya said, raising an eyebrow.
"She started it." Marinette said, raising her shoulders. "I can't be the one to initiate it. That's too much for me."
Alya narrowed her eyes, and then she stealthily moved so she was with Adrien and Nino.
"Guys, I think we need to help them out." She said quietly.
"Definitely." Nino agreed.
"Yea." Adrien echoed their sentiment, and then he smiled as he looked at them. "I'm so happy for Marinette though. She's such a great friend." He probably supported them more than Alya did, honestly. Alya cackled on the inside.
"Let's set them up for a date." She suggested. "You know, that typical we-all-agree-to-hang-out-and-then-all-of-us-except-them-cancel kind of date."
"Do we get to the typical following-them-around-and-making-sure-it-goes-well thing too?" Nino asked, clearly excited by this idea. Adrien, as a total romance noob, was all about this as well. He privately thought that he needed to get a significant other sometime soon because at this point he would be fifth-wheeling off of two couples everytime he went out with his friends. He kind of wished he could ask out Ladybug, but that wouldn't work out since she would have to come as herself and not as Ladybug, and she probably wouldn't go for that. Also, she didn't like him as Chat Noir, so he wasn't sure how much she would like him as Adrien, too.
"As long as I'm not third-wheeling off of you two." He added jokingly.
Alya punched his shoulder.
Unfortunately, the rest of lunch passed in an extremely awkward talk that involved Marinette and Lila blushing and barely speaking to each other. Alya needed to fix this.
When school came to a close and Lila began her walk home (or to Silvia, she felt like she could ask her for relationship advice), cursing herself for not knowing how else to act around Marinette especially after the most awkward lunch period she'd ever had in her entire life, she was stopped by someone calling out her name softly. Lila turned around to see Nathanaël standing there, and her first thought was oh crap.