Chapter Text
“Trust fall!!”
Adrien winced at the screams from behind him. He turned his gaze from the teacher at the front of the room to where Marinette and Alya now sat piled on the floor.
“Ayla” giggled Marinette. “Ayla oh my god” she snorted as her friend flapped her hand out to smack her on the head. “I am so sorry”
This semester, a new “mental wellness” curriculum has been built into their physical fitness class. They had done all sorts of strange exercises and activities; “Class, pretend this baseball is everything that upsets you as you hit it! Think of one thing you’re grateful for each time you take a step on your walk! Focus on how connected you are with your classmates as you play dodgeball!”. The latest in the list was trust falls, and it was understandable that by now everyone had lost the ability to take themselves seriously.
The girls were a collection of frills, pink bows and bright orange knit. Both had tears forming in their eyes. Despite how seriously he preferred to take his schooling, their horseplay was endearing. Adrien liked seeing his friends happy, Marinette especially. He found himself laughing along with the two, more so when Nino started making fun of them as he helped Ayla untangle herself.
Marinette was nearly as red as her tank top when she finally got herself upright, only to find the teacher, arms crossed, waiting on her.
Later, in the too crowded lunchroom over too bland food (freedom! regularity! seriously sad sodium levels! Adrien's heart sang at him) Nino brought up the PE incident once more.
“Dudette, why did you think that was going to work, anyways? Ayla was standing like 6 feet from you. We were in the middle of stretches”
“Maybe I thought she cared about me enough to stretch her little arms out and protect my fragile skull,” Marinette replied, elbowing Alya and then sticking her tongue out at Nino when he went for her pigtails in response. Their actions jostled Adrien, and he kicked someone’s foot under the table as they all readjusted, laughing.
Adrien loved this. He loved being around people, in their bubbles. He liked being in his friends' bubbles the most. There’s such a sense of familiarity and belonging and comfort-it made his chest ache to think about it too deeply. He would do a lot of things to have physical touch become regular in his life.
Stupid things.
“I still think” Marinette shrieked as Ayla poked her “that me screaming was more than enough warning!”
Stupid things like solo-invent extreme trust falls and goad his good friend into participating in his new sport.
“I don’t think it would be enough warning for anyone” Adrien said, fighting to keep his voice level.
Marinette.exe seemed to stop working for a moment as she stared at him, eyes wide. “We, uh”
“Told you!” Ayla moved to grab both of Adriens shoulders. “This guy gets it!” She shook him back and forth a bit for good measure.
The taunting was enough to restart Marinette thankfully, who began slapping the table to regain the attention of their small group.
“I bet I could catch someone no matter where they were when they said it! I would sprint and run and cradle you gently and lovingly before you hit the floor!” Marinette declared, nearly overcome with laughter.
Sounds perfect to me Adrien found himself thinking.
“Even if I was across the science lab and you had a delicate experiment in your hands?” Nino asked
“Even then!”
“Even if I was on the other end of the girls locker room and Chloe’s 8 book bags were all over the floor?”
“Anything for you, Ayla!” Marinette cried, ramping up the drama for her friend, lunging across the table to hold her hand.
“Even if I were walking back from the bathroom and cried out in front of the whole class, while Mme. Bustier was teaching?” Adrien himself challenged.
“Oh my god, Adrien, yes” Marinette giggled, cheeks dusting pink. She was still folded over the table, and the hand that had been reaching for Ayla’s found a home over his own “If you ever had the guts to interrupt a lesson of course I would catch you.”
Adrien did his best not to grin like a certain black clad somebody at that. Challenge accepted.
Now, Adrien didn’t immediately interupt class despite what his less orderly brain (aka the tiny cat-thing in his pocket) was telling him to do. He had training and grace. Instead, he bided his time until the end of the day. Marinette and Ayla were barely over the threshold of the locker room, and he was nearly to the edge of the stairs (Nino was already partially down them) when he locked his legs.
“TRUST FALL!”
It was hard to let himself actually fall straight towards the ground, but hearing Marinette’s shout and pounding footsteps made the drop slightly less concerning.
Her presence didn’t actually make it any less painful, though. Elbows bumped into ribs, hip bones found hip bones, knees connected to shins.
“TOLD YOU!” Despite her efforts, Marinette's voice was muffled (and seemed to originate from somewhere near his left shoulder). Above them, Ayla and Nino were howling with laughter. He did his best to hold his weight, not wanting to squish his friend anymore than he already was. As they struggled to untangle their limbs, Adrien became suddenly aware that Marinette had an arm wrapped around his stomach, clutching him as she giggled. The sensation was so shockingly comforting that he almost reached back for her as she let go to stand up.
“I didn’t think you would actually catch me” He did his best to speak, fighting to sound normal as his brain screamed “come back!!!”
“What did I say?” Marinette’s face was flushed, her shoulders still shaking with mirth. Adrien was enraptured by the way her hair had loosened. “Bet you can’t top that save, can you?”
***
The words came across her tongue unthinkingly, but as soon as she said them Marinette started hatching a plan. She hadn’t thought Adrien (or anyone at lunch) was at all serious when they had challenged her to an extreme trust fall exercise. However, with fresh bruises forming on her ribs and laughter still on her tongue, she couldn’t help but admit it had been a fun experiment. And Adrien of all people to do it!
She felt her face heat as she thought about the way they had landed- she had been practically spooning him before Ayla snapped her back to reality!
Neither that fact, or the pretty red blush that decorated his face for once did much to dissuade her from planning a new trust fall exercise of her own. She had to get him back- and if it resulted in them in close physical proximity again, well, that would be a necessary sacrifice.
“Sure” Tikki’s stare was flat as Marinette finished her monologue-d explanation of the plan that evening. Honestly at this point Tikki had heard, seen, or created it all. What was a weird therapy based flirting strategy to a God?
“Listen, my rules about using powers for personal gain have no jurisdiction here. No where in the Ladybug manual are trust falls even hinted at” She crossed her arms, defense solidly laid at the god’s tiny adorable feet like nub things (what even where those? paws?)
Marinette felt Tikki’s look, and snapped her head back around before she could open her mouth.
“And no! I don’t believe that you created them!”
The ladybug being face palmed, floating towards the loft and away from Marinette at her desk. Teenagers.
Marinette gave it until the end of the school week- both due to nerves and sneakiness. They were finally going to be given a break from their mental wellness exercises in PE, and a massive kickball game was scheduled in celebration (at least, that’s how the class interpreted it). Alex and Kim had been declared team captains which assured two things.
1) It would be a close game. Kim and Alex did nothing in halves and they had perfected their team picks. With them at the helm, the class was going to be excruciatingly equal in all areas of play which also meant…
2) Marinette and Adrien were going to be on opposing teams. While not anyone’s first pick, they were both athletic enough that it would take serious luck for anyone to get both of them in their group.
It was perfect. She need only to wait until the last five minutes of gym (singular minute, really, since they needed time to change before the next period) and then, she would strike.
Well, fall technically.
By the time her moment came, Marinette had never been more thankful to serve as Ladybug. Only someone wearing her earrings could wind up with the bases loaded and Adrien anxious to advance to home plate from his spot on third in the last seconds of the game. She could hardly contain herself as Ayla pitched.
Rose kicked the ball with all her might- Alya could only stand helpless and watch it sail over her head. Marinette was vaguely aware of Adrien taking off towards home as Ivan raced for the ball.
“TRUUUSSTT FALL!!!” She shouted, crossing her arms like a mummy and sinking back towards the first plate, her assigned post.
She felt warm arms encircle her. Instead of unforgiving gym floor, she landed on a firm chest. She opened her eyes to find green ones staring at her in shock. Adrien’s hands were firmly holding her waist, and she was sprawled practically on top of him. Somehow he had managed to catch her, and roll the both of them over for him to take the brunt of the fall. Now, she was laying securely in his arms. Adrien’s expression was unreadable, and Marinette felt fear flash through her. This was so stupid he’s so mad oh my god he hates me he hates-
“You’re terrible” Adrien barked out in a laugh, and the action shook the both of them. “How long had you been planning that?”
Screams, both victorious and vicious, saved Marinette from having to respond to his question. Being this close to Adrien (feeling how warm he was!!!) and being the one to make him laugh like that (deep, true, tears-in-his-eyes laughter) had absolutely short circuited her brain. In her periphery, she was aware of her classmates gathering around them. Alex and Kim were in a heated debate about whether this was game interference on Marinette’s part, or a mistake on Adrien’s.
Slowly, he sat the both of them up. His hands remained on her waist, but now they were sitting beside each other rather than laying in a heap. The space allowed a teensy amount of function to return to her brain.
“Got-” Her voice cracked. “Gotcha back”
“You sure did” Adrien said, still laughing, still staring at her. Before Marinette could get over her shock and really enjoy the moment, though, they were seperated by Marinette’s teammates.
“You are a genius girl!” Alya’s voice was a thundercrack in Marinette's ear. In a flash, she was pulled up and away from Adrien and carted towards the locker room in a mob of sweaty, overexcited teenagers.
Even after getting changed, Marinette could swear the feeling of Adrien’s touch lingered on her skin. She couldn’t help but close her eyes and really think about it all on the way to her next class. His strong chest, and slightly sharp knees, but most importantly his hands, with those warm fingers. Gosh, it was like they were on her waist right now.
“Don't think this is over” Adrien whispered in her ear.
Marinette opened her eyes with a start, but Adrien was already walking ahead of her, oblivious to the poor girl currently losing her mind in the middle of the school hallway