Time for chapter two! And seriously, guys, more comments and kudos, the better. The token one or two comments isn't enough for me. Now, let's roll the next part of the show.
Begrudgingly, Marinette is stuck working with Adrien during the escape room initiation. But things don't go the way either of them expect.
When they got to the library, they found the first clue at the door, which was a crossword puzzle. Marinette was able to solve most of the clues, but with major reluctance, she had to let Adrien help her solve the ones she had doubts about.
"All these words are about stuff you'd find in a Sci-Fi story," Marinette spoke as she looked over the completed crossword, meanwhile Adrien took a picture and sent it to the group. "Next clue's probably in a Sci-Fi book in the library that has all of these words in it."
"Good thinking!" Adrien praised with awe, though it sounded a touch forced.
He got an alert to his phone and he picked it up to see he got a thumb's up tapback, indicating they were right. He showed the screen to Marinette.
"Okay, let's go." Marinette spoke as she put her hand on the library door. She opened it and they their way inside to the Sci-Fi section.
She took out a few books that matched the hints that were in the earlier clue and she opened them up. She flipped through the pages, but every time she hit a dead end, she would put the book back. Adrien was on the opposite side of the aisle, his back towards Marinette. Just as well, since Marinette didn't want to deal with him more than she had to.
'This sucks!' Marinette thought as she kept taking books out and putting them back. 'Being paired with Adrien for this escape room! Why couldn't I have asked Alya to go with me instead?'
He was the last person she wanted to be alone with right now. After she reamed him that morning? There's no way he was actually willing to do this with her! Maybe he was only playing by the rules because he wanted to look good? Or maybe he had a nasty trick up his sleeve, like Chloé? Marinette felt her stomach twist at the thought.
"Any luck?" Adrien asked, looking through more of the books.
"Nothing," Marinette said, making sure her back was still to him. "What about you?"
"Same here." Adrien said as he put his book back.
A long, awkward pause of silence. But since they were on a time limit...
"Maybe we should revisit the clue?" Marinette suggested, trying to keep a professional tone of voice.
"...Yeah." Adrien agreed as he walked over to her with his phone in hand to look over the picture of the crossword.
A few more seconds of silence. The tension was so thick, it could be cut with a knife.
'Of all people to do this with me, Chloé's male doppelgänger.' Marinette thought, trying to ignore him while also making sure to focus on finding the next clue.
She didn't see Adrien take a deep breath before looking at her with an adamant look on his face, and opening his mouth.
"L-Listen, Marinette, about before in homeroom..." Adrien said, trying to be tactful.
Marinette's skin got goosebumps and she got on her guard. She looked at him out of her peripheral vision.
"What about it?" Marinette questioned, her tone sounding testy.
"I... I didn't like how you called me a male Chloé," Adrien confessed, looking at her with a sad, pained expression. "It was hurtful, how you made a snap judgement before getting to know me."
Marinette turned to face him with a disgusted look. She snorted, retorting, "Adrien, you're throwing stones while living in a glass house. You railed at me for the macarons and acted like I was a huge fan of yours - do you have any idea how pompous you sounded?"
Adrien grimaced in discomfort. He took a deep breath and sighed in defeat. He looked at Marinette and admitted, "Okay, you're right. But that doesn't explain why you compared me to Chloé."
"Like I said before, Chloé was my bully back at Françios-Dupont," Marinette explained. "My misery at her hands went on for years, and the school didn't do anything to get her to stop. That's why I transferred here."
Hearing this, Adrien's breath caught.
Marinette moved her head away from him, trying to hold back cries and tears. It seemed to be working.
After a minute of quiet, Adrien looked askance for a second before saying, "If she was that cruel to you for that long, then your defensiveness makes sense."
"Yeah." Marinette affirmed, crossing her arms.
"And..." Adrien began, and Marinette looked back at him with caution. She saw the guilt and humiliation in his body language.
"Once you pointed out that you gave macarons to everyone, I felt imbecilic for acting that way. I'm so used to girls trying to hunt me down and give me presents that I jumped to conclusions, too." Adrien sighed.
Marinette saw he was shuffling his feet and his hands were in his pockets. Marinette felt her temper subside, and her eyes softened.
"But... That doesn't make what I said to you okay." Adrien added.
"Same applies to me. Looks like we were both in the wrong." Marinette admitted.
"Yeah," Adrien agreed, still not looking at Marinette. "I'm sorry."
Hearing the sincerity in his tone, Marinette stepped closer to him and looked at his face. The mix of rue and disgrace was palpable. Unlike Chloé - an unrepentant, remorseless brat who didn't care about anything other than power and herself - this guy seemed to have more compassion and kindness in him.
'Maybe I should extend the olive branch. After all, if I hadn't kept an open mind about Zoé and let her explain herself, she and I wouldn't be friends.' Marinette thought.
"I am, too." Marinette responded to him.
He forced himself to meet her eyes and smile. She returned it before putting her hand out.
Adrien returned it, and they shook hands. Marinette's smile grew a bit as she pulled her hand back, and refocused on putting the books away. She didn't notice Adrien come up beside her. He reached over to one in the stack, but he accidentally knocked it over.
They both stooped down to pick up the book. Their hands brushed, and they ended up bumping their heads together.
"Ow!" Marinette said, wincing.
They looked at each other and collectively said, "Oh, I'm sorry."
Realizing what they did, their mouths turned into smiles, and they laughed. Once they came down from that high, they sighed to catch their breath.
"So..." Marinette began, only to hear Adrien's phone beep.
He took it out and he said, "It's Nino. He's giving us a range of books to look in based on organization numbers."
"Guess we took too long talking," Marinette said. "Let's get back to it."
Once they found the section of books Nino hinted them to, they found the clue in one of the longer Science-Fiction books. This time it was a hidden objects game in a large, graphic novel picture.
"So, we have a dragon, a horse, an ox..." Marinette began, listing off the animals and objects they found in the picture - they circled each one they found with a red pen to avoid losing their place. "They're all animals, but what do they all have in common?"
After a few moments of deep thinking, Marinette realized she'd seen all of the animals in one place a few times before: when she went to visit her great uncle Wang Cheng Shifu in Shanghai, including meeting a new friend in a girl named Fei.
"That's it! These are all the animals in the Chinese Zodiac!" Marinette said, snapping her fingers.
Adrien looked over the animals they found and he smiled in agreement. He turned to Marinette and said, "So, the next clue is either in the astrology or the world cultures sections of the library."
"Let's look at astrology first." Marinette directed.
"Great idea!" Adrien agreed as the two of them shared a friendly fist-bump before running to the astrology books.
Marinette got herself a step ladder and started climbing to the top step. She looked around the shelf, and caught sight of a Chinese astrology encyclopedia. Thinking she hit the jackpot, Marinette went to reach for it.
"Man, it's so hard to reach..." She said, straining as she kept stretching her arm to get to the book.
"Hey, be careful!" Adrien shouted from below.
This only startled Marinette. She shrieked and misstepped, causing her to fall forward, accidentally knocking the book she wanted (and a few others) off the shelf. She flailed her arms to regain her balance, but she kept falling.
"I got you!" Adrien called as he ran forward to catch Marinette.
She landed face-first into him, and once again their heads bumped into each other. They landed flat on the floor before tumbling, ending with Adrien on top of Marinette.
Marinette kept breathing to regulate herself and regain her sense of balance, but with great difficulty. She groaned in pain before trying to get up, only for Adrien's weight to pin her down. Her heart was pounding from the adrenaline rush. Her nose was treated to a fresh, airy scent, but she couldn't enjoy it.
"A-Adrien, I'm having trouble breathing." Marinette spoke, her face going red from lack of air.
"Sorry!" Adrien said as he got off of Marinette and scrambled away, as if he were scared.
Marinette sat up and managed to take in a huge gulp of air before saying, "Merci beaucoup for catching me, Adrien."
"Y-You're welcome, Marinette." Adrien responded, but it sounded like he was trying to catch his own breath, and his face was red.
Marinette saw his chest was heaving. He'd grabbed one of the fallen books and used it like a makeshift fan to cool down.
"I-Is it hot in here or what?" He asked aloud, sounding a bit panicked.
Marinette titled her head in confusion, and she said, "No, why?"
Adrien didn't respond, still trying to steady his breathing and cool himself off.
"Adrien, are you okay?" Marinette asked, crawling over to him and reaching up to check his forehead. "Hm... No fever. Then what...?"
*POOF!*
A huge cloud of black-green smoke exploded where Adrien sat, to Marinette's surprise. She backed away, coughing, and she fanning the smoke away.
"Adrien?!" She asked aloud, "What's going on?!"
All she heard was a frustrated groan, followed by what sounded like a yowl. When the smoke cleared, she didn't see Adrien where he was sitting at earlier. But in that spot in front of her, Adrien's clothes were in a pile. Sitting there was a small black cat with green eyes, its ears flat against its head. Marinette's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped.
"A... A cat? Did I turn Adrien into a cat?!" Marinette asked aloud, putting her balled hands against her head and quivering, beginning to hyperventilate.
"Marinette, don't panic. Please, please don't panic!" The cat - speaking in Adrien's voice - spoke, pleading.
Marinette squeaked a bit, all but shrieking, "A talking cat! Oh man, I really HAVE been studying too hard!"
"Marinette, I need you to calm down! Breathe!" Adrien begged.
Marinette shook her head and began taking deep, slow, calming breaths to relax. She pinched her cheek and pulled at the skin before letting it go.
"Okay... Okay..." Marinette said, continuing to breathe. "I'm not dreaming..."
After she kept her deep breathing up for a few more minutes, she looked at Adrien.
"A... Are you alright?" Marinette asked, while mentally chiding herself for asking such as stupid question.
"I will be." Adrien confirmed before looking up at Marinette.
"What happened? Was this my fault?" Marinette questioned, a guilty look on her face.
"Yes and no," Adrien explained with a sigh as his ears perked up. "...I'm trusting you to keep what I'm about to tell you under wraps."
Marinette gave a light nod before sitting with her legs crossed.
"When I was five years old, my parents brought me to a town fair. One of the attractions I got to see was a fortune teller using tarot cards," Adrien began. "I was expecting a prediction about a bright, happy future..."
He pawed at the floor in dismay before looking back up at Marinette.
"But that's not what she told me," Adrien added. "She told me that the cards said that I would, quote-unquote, "experience a disaster of monstrous proportions, and consequently be trapped in a cycle of transformation brought about by mad desire." I was so scared that I got nightmares about it for weeks."
The fortune-teller's words reverberated in Adrien's mind and he shuddered. He took another deep breath.
"Then about three years ago, my mother passed away," Adrien continued. "At the time, I thought that was the disaster the fortune-teller warned me about. I tried my best to make peace with the reality of my mother no longer being here."
Marinette looked at him with a sad expression before letting him continue his story.
"My father, on the other hand... He wasn't dealing with it well, to put it gently," Adrien spoke. "He'd been acting shady for months, dabbling in his atelier. I wasn't sure if he was just burying himself in work to cope or not, but something was wrong."
He used his hind leg to scratch his ear. For whatever reason, Marinette found it endearing. Adrien shook like he'd gotten wet before stepping closer to Marinette.
"And then..." Adrien began, his ears flattening once more.
~Flashback~
Adrien was charging to his father's atelier with a determined face and focused stride - a boy on a mission. He approached the door, his shoulders square. He took a deep breath, raised his hand to the door.
Adrien pushed it open, only to catch sight of his father, Gabriel, messing with the painting of his mother as Adele Bloch-Bauer I. He put his hands on it, sticking his fingers into two inconspicuous spaces on the painting, and a loud clicking/beeping noise was heard.
Adrien saw his father go down through the floor. His eyes widened, shocked. Curious, Adrien made his way to the painting, felt around it, and found the buttons. He pressed them, and like his father, Adrien found himself going down through the floor.
It didn't take him long to realize that he was in a glass elevator that was going down. His eyes went even wider when he saw the huge space beneath the house. There was a long bridge going from the door of the elevator to one larger space at the end, and there was a huge water reservoir underneath. Butterflies were fluttering everywhere, too.
Once the elevator stopped, Adrien came out started walking along the bridge, being quiet and looking around in confusion. He saw his father, wearing a lab coat and lab goggles, standing a table. He had several jewels, a book on a stand, and multiple other obscure items that Adrien couldn't identify. There were other science/welding tools on hand, too.
"What on earth?" Adrien said aloud, confused.
This startled Gabriel. He whirled around before glaring at his son and asking, "What are you doing in here, Adrien?!"
Adrien shook his head before telling Gabriel, "I could ask you the same thing! What IS this place?! More importantly..."
Adrien was about to speak up, but then the floor behind his father opened up. Up came a coffin of some sort, and the window covers slid open. Adrien's heart stopped and his skin went cold as his eyes zoomed in on something alarming: his mother, Emilie, lying comatose. Adrien covered his mouth, in shock.
"Maman?!" Adrien choked aloud before dry-heaving loudly. Adrien kept choking on his tears as he kept staring at his mother.
"I'm doing it for her, Adrien! For us!" Gabriel spoke as he showed Adrien his materials. "With these magic gemstones and all of these ingredients, combined with the translated spell, we can bring your mother back to us!"
"Bring her back?!" Adrien spoke.
"Nothing or no one else matters, Adrien!" Gabriel said as he turned to his son. "I don't care who we have to sacrifice to wake Emilie up! We have nothing to lose!"
"Why...? Why?!" Adrien spoke, his voice hoarse as he tried to process everything. His face went from shocked to outraged. "WHY?!"
He charged at his father, grabbed him by the lapels of his lab coat, and with tears streaming down his face, he once again whispered to his father in a desperate plea, "Why...?!"
Instead of answering, Gabriel grabbed his son's arm and threw him over his shoulder, causing Adrien to land on his back and hit his head. The young blonde groaned as he sat up and glared at his father. Tears were rolling down his face.
"You've lost your mind, father!" Adrien shouted, standing up. "I won't let you hurt anyone just to get Maman back! She wouldn't want this!"
"If you wanted to save the one you love, you'd do the same thing!" Gabriel retorted.
Adrien leaped on his father, and the two of them got into a scuffle. They were grabbing and pulling at each other's clothes, hitting, smacking one another. Adrien used some of his martial arts training to stay one step ahead of his father's movements. But at one point, Gabriel got the upper hand and slammed Adrien on the table, causing the in-progress science experiment to go flying.
The two Agrestes shouted in shock as the contents of the beakers combined in mid-air. It started sparkling and sparking. Adrien's eyes widened and he ran for cover, while his father braced himself...
*KA-BOOM!*
~End of Flashback~
"When I woke up, I saw the entire room had been wrecked - debris everywhere, some of the structure had been compromised - it was like a bomb went off. My mother was still in her coffin. I looked over her video will once again and decided it was best to let her go, as per her wishes." Adrien continued.
"But what about your father?" Marinette asked.
Adrien's eyes went askance and he remained silent for a few, long seconds. Almost two whole minutes, actually.
"Ashes." Adrien stated, his voice devoid of emotion. Marinette covered her mouth in shock, eyes wide and a bead of sweat coming down her temple. After taking a few deep breaths, she looked at him once more.
"And the transforming?" Marinette questioned. "Was that a byproduct of the accident?"
Adrien nodded and elaborated, "I got out of it fine at first, minus some scratches and bruises, and it all seemed like a bad dream. Everything was normal until I got too hot playing basketball in my room. Then I turned into this black kitten. After some panic, I changed back, but then I discovered that it wasn't a one-time deal. The transformations happen whenever I get overheated. I do change back once I cool down, but..."
*POOF!*
Smoke appeared again and Marinette went back to coughing, her eyes closed and still waving the smoke away. She asked, "Adrien?"
"Please keep your eyes closed, Marinette," Adrien requested. "I don't want you seeing me like this."
Marinette went red in the face at the implication. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned around, only listening to the sound of rustling clothes.
'Seriously? Adrien Agreste, former model and jack-of-all trades is dealing with this?' She thought.
She resisted the urge to turn and look at him, all while replaying the entire story in her mind. Maybe the reason he was running late to class that morning was because he transformed?
'I can't imagine how hard it's been for him to cope, especially for nearly three years...' Marinette thought, her heartstrings getting pulled.
"Okay, I'm done." Adrien said. Marinette craned her neck behind her to see Adrien was now fully clothed, but he was still sitting cross-legged, his back to her. Marinette took a deep breath and spoke up.
"Adrien, I'll keep my mouth shut about this, I promise, but does anyone else know?" Marinette asked, turning her body to face him.
Adrien didn't answer, only stiffening and sitting up straight.
"Just in case there's an emergency." Marinette insisted.
"...Nino and Félix," Adrien eventually said. "I told Félix because he's family; Nino found out by accident."
Marinette gave a nod and said, "Okay. So..."
"...Back to the task at hand?" Adrien asked as he looked at his phone and saw another hint from Nino.
"Yes, let's. We're running out of time." Marinette agreed as they both stood up and started to get back to deciphering the clue.
Back out in the dormitory common area, Alya was tapping her foot while looking at the timer on her phone. The pair only had two minutes left and they were on the last clue.
"Come on, those two are taking way too long!" Alya griped.
Nino looked anxious, too. The young DJ was fidgeting with his hands.
Alix spoke up, "Maybe they're having too much trouble with the last clue? It is pretty obscure."
Juleka mumbled, "Yeah, it wasn't exactly a clue they could figure out quickly."
"Once the clock runs out, we can call them and ch-" Alya began, only to hear Marinette and Adrien in the distance.
Everyone turned to the stairs and saw Marinette and Adrien walking up to the common area.
"Congratulations, you two!" Rose squealed as she jumped up to give the pair her praise. "You won the escape room! And just in the nick of time!"
"Yeah, you were cutting it close," Myléne spoke. "What happened?"
Marinette and Adrien gave each other brief, tense glances before Marinette said, "We decided to clean up the library before coming back."
"Yeah, we knocked over too many books trying to find those clues," Adrien spoke. "The library became a big mess, and I guess we were ashamed of our-shelves."
He gave a cheeky smile, and everyone looked at him with annoyed, unamused, or groaning expressions.
"Seriously?" Marinette asked, a deadpan expression on her face. "Library puns?"
"Come on, that was funny!" Adrien said.
"No," Kagami spoke. "Your humor leaves much to be desired."
"That's too bad. I had so many more library jokes, but I had to return them." Adrien said.
Marinette looked at Adrien with a slack jaw before face-palming. She could hear him give a chuckle.
"Oh-kay, horrible jokes aside..." Marinette said before looking up at Adrien. "That was a fun escape room."
"Sure was," Adrien responded, smiling. "Marinette, I'm seriously impressed on how you were able to figure out that clue about the Chinese Zodiac animals."
"Merci. You're no slouch, either," Marinette spoke. "That picture puzzle in the historical non-fiction section wasn't easy."
"Thanks," He responded. "But you should get most of the credit. I hadn't realized that one manipulation puzzle was going to take both of us until you suggested it."
The two of them exchanged compliments, laughs, and smiles. The earlier coldness between them had thawed, and they were talking like old friends. Everyone else was watching in amused delight at the scene.
"Well, looks like you two patched things up," Alya said as she came over to Marinette and slung her arm around her new bestie's shoulder. "That's great."
"Yeah," Marinette sighed before looking at Adrien again. "Thanks for proving me wrong. It was... unexpected."
Adrien returned the sentiment with a big, warm smile and responded, "You're welcome."
There was a moment of the two of them keeping their smiles on each other. After some silence, Marinette caught herself, and she turned to her friends.
"And great job designing the escape room, you guys. You really gave us a run for our money." Marinette said.
"Glad to do it," Alix said. "Designing these escape rooms isn't just fun, it's another part of the learning experience."
"That's one of the main reasons the school came up with this tradition, so we can put what we learn in classes to use." Nathaniel spoke.
"It shows!" Marinette laughed.
"Now, it's getting late," Zoé said as she looked at her phone to check the time. "Let's call it a night?"
"Good idea." Kagami agreed.
In Marinette and Alya's room, they'd changed into their pajamas and were talking about what happened. Alya was sitting on Marinette's bed, too.
"Glad you and Adrien aren't enemies anymore," Alya said. "I was worried that you two wouldn't be able to get along, like, ever. The idea of my BFF being on bad terms with my boyfriend's best friend? Hell no."
"Well, we talked about what happened this morning and..." Marinette began, remembering how Adrien ended up on top of her, rendering her breathless for a bit.
She also hadn't expected him to make the first move to make amends. In fact, she was sure that she was going to have to do all that heavy lifting. But he'd taken the initiative to start the process, and she had to give him credit for owning up to his mistakes.
And then there was his black cat curse...
"And?" Alya asked, leaning in closer, a curious expression on her face. "What happened?"
This broke Marinette out of her thoughts.
"We... Came to an understanding," Marinette said as she smiled weakly at Alya. "I'm just glad we worked things out without it turning into a shouting match. And once that was over, the escape room was smooth sailing, aside from the mess we made in the library."
"Really?" Alya asked, sounding a bit skeptical. "Is that all that happened?"
"Yep," Marinette said, insistent, remembering her promise. "You and the girls were right: I had him all wrong. I think he and I might become good friends."
"Well, that's good," Alya said, sounding like she was expecting something else, but deciding to be patient. "Maybe now you'll ask him to help you with your physics?"
"Oh, I will." Marinette said, yawning and thinking, 'And I'll help him with his black cat troubles, too.'
"You sound tired," Alya said. "I am, too. Let's get some sleep."
Marinette gave an agreeing nod. Alya stood up to go back to her bed.
Feeling a wave of fatigue, Marinette loosed a yawn before snuggling deeper into her bed and falling asleep, once again looking forward to a new school day. But in the back of her mind, black cats kept popping up, making for an unsettled night.
The following morning, Marinette was in the cafeteria for breakfast, sitting between Alya and Zoé. The rest of the girls in the group were there, too. They were laughing at a story Alya had finished telling.
"You two got stuck in the tortoise enclosure at the zoo when the animals escaped and started stampeding?!" Marinette asked, covering her mouth while laughing. "How long were you in there?"
"All afternoon," Alya laughed back. "And better the tortoises than the new panther exhibit."
"No kidding," Alix said. "You two would've been its food if that were the case."
The girls shared a laugh at this story.
"That's how you and Nino got together?" Marinette questioned, still laughing.
"Yeah, it was!" Alya chortled. "It took me hours to get in touch with dad to get him to let us out!"
The girls kept laughing at the story of events, all while eating.
"So we have gym class later today," Zoé said. "I wonder what we'll be playing?"
"I hope it's soccer!" Sabrina said, her green eyes bright with hope.
"Maybe badminton?" Rose asked. "I love a good team sport!"
"Sounds like whatever we do will be a lot of fun," Marinette laughed. "I can't wait!"
"Neither can I! It's going to be a heated gym class, I can tell you that much!" Alix agreed.
"Yeah!" Marinette squealed, only for her to pause. 'Heated...'
She stole a quick glance at Adrien, who was eating with the rest of the boys. He was sitting between Nino and Félix, and Adrien looked to be at ease.
'It's weird,' Marinette thought. 'With his curse, I'd think he'd be much more cagey...'
"Something up?" Myléne asked. Marinette looked back at her group. The girls were looking at her with worried expressions.
"Oh, it's nothing," Marinette said before turning back to the girls. "So, Rose, you correspond with Prince Ali of Achu?"
"Yep! We met when he was doing a charity for children's hospitals, and we hit it off! We've been writing letters, texting, and calling each other ever since!" Rose spoke, as she took out her phone to show her friends pictures of the letters she and Ali had exchanged. "I can't explain how grateful I am for his work!"
"It's important work, that's for sure," Marinette spoke. "But it's so awesome that you're actually friends with a prince!"
Juleka mumbled something, and Rose responded, "I don't talk about it too much. I just like it when people act normal around me."
The girls laughed, but Alya looked at Marinette with a smug smile.
During gym class, the activity in question was basketball, and the teams were decided at random. Since there were seventeen students total, that meant three teams of five. Two of the three teams would do an actual basketball game, the last team would sit the first round out and replace the team that lost the first match. The remaining two students would be doing drills.
Félix and Kim were the two students doing the drills, meanwhile Marinette and her team (Alya, Marc, Alix, Myléne) were sitting and watching.
The rest of their homeroom class was on the court and playing the game. Marinette couldn't keep her eyes on one person, examining each one's movements.
'I wonder if I can ask the school if I can design new gear for the basketball team?' Marinette thought, her creative juices going.
A flash of blonde caught her eyes and she saw Adrien was moving like a seasoned player on the court. Dribbling, passing the ball, running around. But he wasn't hogging the ball, he made sure other members of the team got a chance to either make a basket or steal the ball from the other team.
But she could see he was sweating and his breathing was heavy, like the night before. While keeping her face stone, she thought, 'Uh-oh...'
The gym teacher blew the whistle, declaring the other team (Max, Kagami, Zoé, Juleka, Ivan) had won the match. Marinette watched as Adrien made his way over to the bleachers and sat down. Marinette could tell his breathing still labored and his face flush from the workout.
While her team made their way to the court, Marinette walked over to Adrien with a large, reusable flask with ice water, and an ice pack in hand.
"Here you go." Marinette said as she handed the items to Adrien.
"Merci beaucoup." He said. He took the water and ice pack, and started chugging the water down like he'd been in the desert for months. He put the ice pack at the back of his neck.
"Slow down, nobody's gonna take that water from you." Marinette laughed.
Adrien stopped drinking his water long enough to breathe. He turned to Marinette and smiled in thanks.
Marinette gave a nod in understanding before walking back to her team to start their round.
'So glad that worked.' Marinette thought as she made it back to the others. But they were all giving Marinette knowing looks.
She scanned them with her eyes and asked, "What?"
"Girl, yesterday you couldn't stand looking at Adrien. But now you're actively looking for him and going out of your way to help him cool down during gym class? Are you sure nothing else happened during the initiation?" Alya teased.
"Yes, I'm sure," Marinette insisted, remembering her promise to Adrien. "Besides, going out of my way to help someone is just who I am."
"Back to the game, please?" Alix asked. "I can't wait to shoot some hoops!"
Marinette laughed in agreement. The teacher blew the whistle, and Alya made a grab for the basketball. She started dribbling before passing the ball over to Marc, who went full-throttle on the game.
With some great teamwork and footwork, Marinette's team all but slayed Zoé's team, necessitating the switch. While Zoé and her group went back to the bleachers, Adrien's team stood up and got back on the court. Again, Marinette didn't see Adrien looking at her with a smile on his face.
Once gym was over, everyone hit the showers (which were in the changing rooms that were connected to the gym) before going to their next classes.
In case you guys missed it, there was a line from the 90's English Dub of Sailor Moon's first episode!
Coming up, Marinette tries to combat the teasing she's getting from the girls, while helping Adrien avoid another cat-tastrophe.