Marinette spun around at the little gasp that came from her friend. "What?" She asked, a smile in her voice. He was standing there absolutely quivering in excitement, wringing his hands together. As she spoke, he put his hands out together in front of him in that little prayer-shape he did when he wanted something, pursing his lips. "Ohmygoshyouhaveapianocanipleaseplayyousomething–"

"Oh– sure!" Marinette laughed, relishing in the warmth that spread through her at his childlike excitement. "MOM, DAD, COME HERE, ADRIEN'S GONNA PLAY US SOMETHING!"

Adrien let out a little triumphant 'yes!', rushing over to the glossed black bench and pulling it out. Marinette watched as he gently, almost reverently lifted the lid. "Why do you guys have a piano?" Adrien asked, running agile hands down the cream keys. "Do you play?"

"No," Marinette replied. "My dad used to, but he doesn't play much anymore."

Adrien played an arpeggio. Marinette had seen him do this before, at Luka's place. Testing the weight of the keys? Is that what he'd told her? She'd been kinda distracted by his floofy hair. Which isn't weird at all.

"Do you play any instruments?"

Marinette blinked at the unexpected question. This wasn't something she liked to think about. "Well… I used to play the violin."

But I gave up.

"What do you mean?"

"I gave up." The words tasted bitter on her tongue, and Adrien folded his hands in his lap to listen. "There were a lot of girls in my class who were better than me, and they used to bully me about it, so I just… pretended I'd never started in the first place."

A brief flash of anger crossed Adrien's face. Marinette felt herself shrink back. She'd never seen him actually angry before. What was that about? But just as fast as it had come, it disappeared. He shrugged. "That's nonsense."

"What?"

"You can't just stop playing an instrument. If you learn it, it becomes a part of you." He grinned and pointed with his chin to the stairs. "Go tune up your violin."

"What?" Marinette was starting to feel really dumb saying that over and over again.

She caught a hint of hesitation in his tone, asking am I doing the right thing? Am I being too pushy? as he said, "Go get your violin. I'm sure we know a few of the same songs."

"Adrien, I haven't played in years–"

"Please?" He asked, longing in his eyes. He'd mentioned it to her, while they were working, how music carried a deep significance to him. Sharing it with someone… that was special. It was the rare moments when he got to share it with his father that they could see eye to eye, and his best memories were of his mother carefully teaching him song after song. He wanted to share that special something with her; how could she say no?

"Come on." He gave her an almost Chat-ish reassuring smile. "It'll be fun. And I'm not like my father, I won't nitpick every little mistake you make."

Marinette darted upstairs, coming back a few minutes later with a rather dusty black case. It took her a few minutes to tighten the strings, asking Adrien to play the proper notes on the piano. He helped her fine-tune it when her less delicate ears couldn't tell the difference, giving her a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down depending on which way the note needed to dip. Then she gave it a quick polish, making sure her bow had no broken or frayed strings. Turns out they'd both learned several of the same classical songs. "I knew the orchestral version of Arioso." Adrien said, idly going over a scale on the piano. "Do you know that one?"

Marinette searched her memory. "I… think so?"

"Let's try it."

"Okay." Her parents had come up to watch by then, her mother squealing in excitement as Marinette played the first few rusty notes. "It… it goes like this, right?"

"Yup!" Adrien counted out the tempo, and they began. The first page or so was easy enough, but the problem was that it gave Marinette time to overthink what she was doing. Her muscles remembered the piece, but her mind didn't. Adrien encouraged her on, and as they got to the part where the piece swelled, Marinette let herself just enjoy the sound they were producing in her living room. The acoustics were better than she'd expected, and the somber chords swelled around her, joined by the sweet (if a bit rough) sound of her violin pulling out the melody. She realized she could feel it as the chords Adrien played began to die down in pitch, tempo, and speed, and she followed accordingly, closing her eyes as they both hit the final notes in sync. The sound drug out for as long as she could hold her bow, and when it finally petered out, she opened her eyes to see Adrien smiling at her, blushing like a dork. She returned the expression.

"That was amazing." Adrien whispered. "I've never gotten to play with a live violinist before. I mean, I've played along with YouTube videos, but–"

Her parents clapped, breaking the tension. "Oh, sweetie, that was so good!" Her mother exclaimed. "Both of you are so talented! I've been hoping you'd pick the violin back up someday!"

"Another one?" Adrien asked, eyes sparkling. Marinette wondered if he ever got that much praise for anything.

She couldn't say no to that face, now, could she?

"Let's try a harder one." She said, filled with new confidence. That had been fun! Maybe the key to enjoying the music wasn't perfection, but like she'd just told him, enjoying it. Or maybe I only enjoy it when there's someone to share it with.

"What about Csardas?" She asked, hoisting her violin back into position against her shoulder. "You have to tell me when to come in, though."

"Classic." Her father smiled. "I played that song for your mother once."

"Only I never bothered to learn any instruments to play along!" Sabine laughed. Marinette chose not to focus on the connection they were drawing between themselves and her and Adrien. He is a friend. My best friend. The guy I get in trouble with. The guy best friend I've always wanted.

Shut up, feelings. Just be happy your life isn't falling apart at the moment.

She half expected an akuma to crash through the roof right then, but it didn't. Instead, Adrien began to play. This piece was a little more upbeat, light staccatos piercing the air. "You know," Adrien said, "Luka told me once that if color is how we decorate space, then music is how we decorate time."

Marinette pondered that, lifting her bow. "You know, I think he's right. Doesn't Nino have a playlist for, like, every occasion?"

Adrien laughed, hands moving swiftly across the keys. "He has one planned out for his wedding, dude! But I don't think Alya approves of most of the songs."

Marinette was so distracted trying not to be jealous of their security that she almost missed Adrien counting her in.

One more song. She told herself. Then Adrien will leave, and I'll get ready for patrol.

That didn't quite work out. She was very much late for patrol.

But then again, so was Chat Noir.

A/N: Okay, look, I know Marinette canonically plays the oboe and not the violin but I wrote this before the movie came out and I was high off imagining that one blind!Marinette AU someone came up with on Tumblr where she plays duets with Adrien for his dad, okay? Okay.

God bless!

-Grace