Chapter Text
♗: One falling asleep with their head in the other's lap / ♣: Back scratches
In all the time she spent pining over him, it had never occurred to Marinette that Adrien would be so openly affectionate with her. She’d mistakenly imagined him unflappable, a veneer of professionalism painting every gesture.
It seems a silly impression now, comparing the boy in her lap to that washed out watercolor replica. The Adrien of her fantasies had been like an image caught through fogged glass, something immaterial to better protect her heart.
The real thing, it turns out, is far more difficult to deal with at times, easier to hurt and be hurt by in turn. But it’s also all the more rewarding, all that much sweeter, knowing that this was someone who understood her, who longed for her as much as she did him. Someone flesh and blood who, like right now for instance, would arch into the gentle grazing of her fingernails and sigh headily into the skin of her thigh.
Adrien’s eyes flutter open the minute she stops scratching his back, yawning languidly against her leg. His eyelashes tickle her at the bend in her knee.
“Sorry,” he murmurs, shifting to lie on his back and better see her face, “I fell asleep.” Almost unconsciously, he extends his hand, the knuckles of his finger trailing along her cheek, before settling warmly on the back of her neck. His other hand twines with hers, a needy grip placed over the steady pulse of his heart.
Marinette prefers this Adrien, warm and touch hungry and achingly human. From her place above him she can see the way his throat works as he swallows, nervous suddenly. His fingers tapping a tattoo on the back of her hand in the same meter as his heartbeat.
“Are you uncomfortable? Do you want me to move?” She can tell already what his preferred response is, so desperate he is to keep this contact.
“That’s ok,” she whispers with a smile, running her thumb along his jaw, “Stay as long as you like.”