Chapter Text
“I’m sorry, how could you forget to tell me something like that? He kissed you on the first date!” Alya squealed.
“Well I was going to, but then you hung up on me and I didn’t get the chance.”
“Right, I’m sorry. Adrien was texting me he wanted me to help him with getting everyone to write you your notes.”
“Oh, well either way, I was going to tell you I just didn’t have the chance.”
“Soo?”
“So what?”
“How was it?”
“Alya!”
“Oh come on! Tell me something! Like was it even good?”
“It was… a nice kiss.”
Actually it was more than nice, she felt like her brain stopped working and her heart was going to jump out of her chest, but she thought that saying that out loud might make her seem a little delusional.
“Just nice?”
“I don’t know! I haven’t had a whole lot of experience. It’s not like I have anything else to compare to.”
“Okay okay, walk me through it.”
“What do you mean, ‘ walk you through it?’”
“I mean, how did he kiss you?”
“I-I don’t know? He asked if he could kiss me and I said yes.”
“He asked if he could kiss you?”
“Yes?”
“...How do you feel about that?”
“I thought it was sweet.”
“Okay as long as you’re okay with it.”
Marinette made a strange face, ‘as long as I’m okay with it?’ she thought.
“Where did he kiss you?”
“On the lips?” She said, confused.
Alya put her face in her hands. “No! I mean where were you guys when he kissed you?”
“Oh! My front door.”
“Aww so it was like a kiss goodbye? That’s sweet. He didn’t make that weird face did he?”
“What weird face?”
“That face guys always make when going in for a kiss.”
“No? We were already standing pretty close and the sun was going down so I couldn’t see his face all that well. If he didn’t put his hand on my cheek I probably would have had to feel around for him first.”
Alya cupped her face with both her hands, “He put his hand on your cheek!”
“Yes? Why is that such a big deal?”
“That's so cute!”
Marinette laughed, “You know I am not nearly this invested with yours and Nino’s relationship.”
Alya clasped her hand to her chest, “Please, this is who I am. I live for this kind of thing.”
“And I would never change that about you. But I gotta go, see you tomorrow Alya.”
“Bye Girl!”
Marinette walked home from school on Tuesday holding Adrien’s hand, practically dragging him with her.
“You seem excited?” Adrien said.
“I am, I’ve got this whole thing planned out! You’ll love it!”
“What exactly am I walking into?” He asked.
“You'll see I swear.” Marinette had an entire set up waiting for him at home. She swung her front door open. “Our apartment is upstairs.”
Adrien stepped inside, “Y’know this is the first time I’ve been inside your house.”
“You’re right it is, expect my parents to pop in on us every five seconds with plates full of cookies.”
“I am completely okay with that!” Adrien said enthusiastically.
Marinette chuckled, as they began walking up the stairs, “My parents are really sweet like that.”
“Your mom seemed really nice when I talked to her last week.”
“She’s the best, I wish I could be more like her, she never lets anything get to her, she’s always so calm and gentle.”
“What are you talking about, that’s exactly what you’re like?”
“Maybe, for the most part. Because I look up to her so much. But I have a bad habit of letting other people’s words and actions get to me, you know that. I know you never saw it, cause she never let you see it, but I used to get into these huge arguments with Chloe. She would accost me, call me poor, my clothes trashy etcetera. And I used to give into her, I would yell back at her and call her a snotty brat, tell her she was spoiled and that no one liked her. Till I realized that’s exactly what she wanted. It was a game to her. Seeing how far she could push me till I snapped. So I decided I wasn’t going to give her what she wanted anymore. I might not argue and yell with her, like we did in grade school, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when she calls me poor and trashy. That’s the thing I’m working on, letting stuff roll off my shoulders more often. And it helps that I have friends who can remind me that all of these accusations in my head that tell me I’m not good enough, are just in my head .”
Adrien smiled at her like he was proud, he was proud of her. “It feels nice to hear you say that. After hearing you degrade yourself so much, I’m happy to know that you’re making progress.”
“I am. It may not always seem like it. Some days are better than others. But believe me, I’m in a much better place than I was a few months ago.”
Marinette opened the door to her apartment, “You can leave your shoes and coat by the door.” She said taking her jacket off and hanging it on her coat rack.
“Your house seems really… Cozy.”
“Oh I know it must seem pretty tiny compared to your house.”
“Not like that, I mean your house seems so… warm ? You’ve got so many things in here, so many pictures hanging on the walls and knick-knacks. It’s got… personality, that my house doesn’t have.”
“I’ve never thought of it as personality.”
Adrien sat his shoes by the door next to hers. “I always thought my house was barren, but your living room alone puts mine to shame. I mean there are no pictures in my house besides that giant portrait of me and my dad… that I’m frowning in. You can walk around your living room and see yourself grow up.” Adrien was staring at a framed picture sitting on their bookshelf, of Marinette as a little kid.
“Your dad doesn’t have any pictures of you hanging up at your house, not even in his office or his room?”
Adrien shook his head ‘No’. “My dad has always been like that. I’m not sure why. But he and I have never been close.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not a big deal. It’s normal to me. So, you gonna show me what kind of games you’ve got planned?”
“Right. My room is this way.” She led Adrien up the stairs to her room where she had board games and packs of cards stacked on her floor. With pillows and blankets strewn out along with them surrounding a small tea table.
“It’s really cool that you have a hatch door to your room.”
“Oh thanks. It’s because this is technically our attic.”
Adrien crouched down and sat on one side of the table in a pile of pillows. “Nice set up you’ve got here. Is this the lineup for tonight?” He asked, grabbing a pack of playing cards.
“Yeah I thought we could maybe play Go-Fish or Poker, but not for real money, cause I have no money and you have too much money… On second thought, how good are you at Poker?”
“I’m terrible at it, I can’t help but smile when I get a good hand.”
“I think we should play Poker.”
Adrien laughed. Marinette sat down on the other side of the table across from him.
“I’m kidding.” She said, “You aren’t supposed to bleed your boyfriend dry until you’ve been dating for at least a month.” She joked again.
And then she realized what she had just said. ‘Boyfriend’. And she hoped that Adrien hadn’t noticed.
‘Did she just call me her boyfriend?’ He thought. ‘I can’t believe she just called me her boyfriend… But that’s good right? She likes me enough to call me her boyfriend?’
‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I just did that.’ Mentally she was slapping herself in the face. ‘And all for a stupid joke? What’s wrong with me, this is our second date?! And I’m already calling him my boyfriend? I mean, do I want him to be my boyfriend? I think so. I hope that doesn’t weird him out, it shouldn’t. He is the one that asked me out.’
Suddenly they both realized that neither of them had said anything for at least five seconds.
“So Go-Fish? I’ve never played that before.”
“You’ve never played Go-Fish?”
“Uh no? Is it hard?”
“No, not at all.” Marinette picked up the deck of cards, split them, and shuffled them like a card dealer.
“Whoa how did you do that?”
“What shuffle the deck? My Dad taught me when I was a kid.” She began passing cards back and forth between the two of them until they both had seven cards. “So the object of the game is to match all of your cards to a card with the same number as it. They don’t have to be the same color or suit, just the same number. We’ll go back and forth asking each other things like ‘Got any sixes’ and if you do you have to give it to me. If not you say, ‘Go fish’ and then I would have to draw from the deck and get a new card. When you make a pair you set those aside and don't use them, I can’t steal your cards once you’ve paired them together. If you run out of cards you draw one new card. We play until there are no more cards left in the deck. Whoever has the most amount of pairs when the game ends wins.”
“Sounds easy enough.” He said and picked up his stack of cards. Immediately Marinette sat two cards face down on the table in front of her.
“You already have a pair?” He asked.
“Yeah. You can go first if you want.”
“Gosh, so I just ask if you have a certain number?”
“Yeah or kings, jacks, aces, and queens.”
“Oh okay. Got any sevens?”
“Go fish.”
“Right, so I just take one from the deck?”
“Yep. I can't believe you’ve never once played Go-Fish.”
“Well I didn’t really have many friends growing up.” He said, grabbing a new card.
“Got any fours? And what about Chloe, I thought you two were friends as kids?”
Adrien took a card from his deck and passed it to her, “Chloe wasn’t much on board games when we were little. She normally liked playing pretend that she was a princess of some kind-”
“And lemme guess, you were her knight in shining armor?”
“No, normally I was some kind of servant or jester. Got any sixes?”
“Go fish. And you actually went along with that?”
He drew another card. “Well yeah, I didn’t really have much of a choice. She was my only friend back then.”
“That must have been awful. Got any nines?”
“Go fish.”
Marinette drew another card from the deck and immediately made another pair.
“How are you so good at this, you’ve made three pairs and I haven’t made the first one?”
Marinette shrugged her shoulders and smirked.
“Are you cheating or something?”
“How could I be cheating? You saw me shuffle the deck!”
“You could be cheating if those aren’t actually pairs you’ve made.”
Marinette turned over all of mates to reveal a pair of kings, a pair of nines, and a pair of fours. It was bewildering to him how someone could put so much attitude into turning over a piece of card-stock. Adrien looked at her cards and saw that they were all, in fact, true pairs.
“Yeah okay.” He said, and made a V shape with his fingers, pointing to his eyes then to her. As to say, ‘I’m watching you!’
“What does-that mean?!” She said, mimicking him.
“That I’m keeping an eye on you.”
“I’m a foot away from you, it's hard not to. What do you think I’m gonna do, slip some extra cards into my hand?” Whatever it was he was doing, it was getting really hard not to laugh.
“Alls I’m saying is, you’re suspiciously good at this game.”
“I think you’re just suspiciously bad at it.”
Adrien burst out laughing, almost dropping his cards. Marinette clasped her hand over her mouth. “That was so mean. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” He said, “I think that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
“Riiight.” She said, rubbing her hand over her cheek.
“Got any sixes?” He asked, as he slowly stopped laughing, “And to what you were saying earlier it was awful, I just didn’t realize it ‘till I was older.”
“Go fish, and what do you mean by that?”
Adrien drew another card from the deck, still no pairs. “I mean that, at the time I thought the way Chloe treated me was normal. But once I started public school, and made real friends. I realized that that’s not how friends treat each other.”
“Got any fives? Was she always that terrible, I mean did she ever let you have a say in anything?”
Adrien took a card from his hand and passed it to her, Marinette was down to just two cards now, and four pairs. Adrien still had zero. “Maybe once or twice? I can’t remember. And she’s pretty much always had the same personality and attitude.”
“Gosh, I knew Chloe when we were kids too. Because we’ve always gone to school together, and she bullied me even back then, but I thought maybe she was different at home. You know how some kids act out at school because they have a bad home life? I kind of assumed that was the case for her.”
“Got any eights? And maybe. Her mom was never around and her dad was always working so Chloe was practically raised by nannies and butlers. So maybe that’s why she always acted out, however I have no clue why she targets you over everyone else.”
“Go fish. Besides having only Chloe to call your friend, what was it like for you growing up? Got any twos?”
“Go fish, and what do you mean by that?”
“You know growing up a billionaire, famous fashion designer parents, being a model since you were in diapers? Not something most people can relate to.”
“Got any eights? And well, I don’t know where to begin. I was always home schooled, and didn’t have many friends, as we’ve established. Most days were spent in some kind of practice . Piano practice, fencing practice, mandarin practice. I was always doing something . Even when I wasn’t modeling.”
“Geeze, I would have hated that. It sounds like you never really got to have a childhood. Go fish.”
“It is what it is.” He said, and reached for another card. He drew an eight, finally a pair. “HA! I got one!” He said, and dramatically smacked the two cards against the table.
Marinette started clapping slowly, “Congratulations, now I’m only three ahead of you instead of four.”
“Ha ha.” He said sarcastically, “The games not over yet.”
“Got any threes?” She asked.
Adrien took a card from his deck and reluctantly passed it to Marinette. She tried hard to retain her laughter.
“Got any queens? And what about you? What was your childhood like?”
“Go fish. And pretty good, y’know, minus the bullying. Being an only child was pretty nice. My parents always had time for me, we did a lot of things growing up. We used to go to London every spring to visit my aunt. And we used to do movie nights every Saturday. My dad and I would bake cookies together and we’d all pile up on the couch to watch old movies on VHS.”
“You like being an only child?”
“Yeah, I like the privacy of it.”
“I hate it. It’s so lonely.”
“How come you’re an only child?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s unusual for people to stop at one kid. My parents only had me because they said I had enough energy for four kids. And that they wouldn’t know what to do with two of me.”
Adrien laughed. “Well I know it was hard for my mom to have kids, I was a test tube baby.”
“Wait really?”
“Yep. I was one really expensive disappointment.” Adrien said and laughed.
Marinette swatted his hand, “You’re not a disappointment.”
“I’m kidding!”
Marinette smiled, “Got any tens?”
“Oh my god!” Adrien said. He took another card from his deck and tossed it on the table. “It’s like you have esp or something!”
Marinette burst out laughing. She only had one card in her deck now. “It’s called skill!” She said smugly and smiled.
“Yeah well I call it luck. Got any fours?”
“Go fish.”
She thought it was funny, Adrien should know she only has a two in her hand, since she asked him for one moments earlier and the only mates she’s made since then are the ten and three from his hand. Adrien was reaching for a card from the deck, he drew a two. Before he could even stick the card in with the rest of his, Marinette asked, “Got any twos?” Since it was the only card in her hand, it was the only thing she could ask for. Adrien dropped the card on the table.
“I give up! No really that’s it, you win.”
Marinette was leaning over on her pillow laughing till she had tears streaming down her face, “I swear I don’t know how this keeps happening! I promise I didn’t plan that, I don’t even know how you’d plan something like that!”
“It’s okay really, any other card games you had in mind? Now that you’ve defeated me seven to one in the span of a few minutes.”
Marinette considered asking him if he’d ever played ‘fifty two card pick up’, but she decided he’d had enough torment for one evening. And suggested they play checkers.
Setting up the board and stones, Marinette asked him, “Have you put much more thought into writing?”
“I have. It’s definitely something that interests me, I just don’t know where to begin.”
“You could always send your work to the local newspaper, they publish short stories all the time.”
“I don’t know if they’d like my stories or not, and plus, I’d be worried they were only picking mine over everyone else’s cause of my name. How will I know if it’s actually good or just nepotism?”
“You could always use a nom de plume .”
“What’s that?”
“A pen name? A fake name used by authors to publicize their work, sometimes anonymously.”
“Huh. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“You really do have a way with words, when you want to of course. I’m sure whatever you sent in would be great.”
“Marinette, can I ask you a favor?”
“What is it?”
“Do you think if I did send in a short story to the paper, you could be my editor? You’re a lot better at the technical side of writing than me. I always make little mistakes, like forgetting commas, mixing up words like affect and effect. Plus you could tell me if you think it’s even worth sending in.”
“Of course I could do that! Just let me know whenever you need me to look over something and I’ll do it! You know I used to edit Marc and Nathaniel's Ladybug stories before they sent them in to the Ladyblog!”
“Oh so you’re a professional?” He joked.
“I guess you could say that.” She said proudly.
“Thanks Marinette, I really appreciate it.”
“Anytime!”