Chapter Text
The day passed uneventfully. Through some miracle unbeknownst to her, Adrien had left her in peace the entire day. Marinette laid her head down on top of her hands and sighed. Resting her head felt so good, she almost didn’t want to get up when it was finally time to depart for the day.
Right as the final bell rang, Adrien gathered up his belongings and cast an apologetic smile over to Nino.
“Gotta go, photoshoot right after school today.” His smile scrunched up, bracing for Nino’s immediate objections.
“What?! Didn’t you just do one of those last week?”
“Now Nino, life never slows down for the rich and famous!” Alya placed her face into her hand as she leaned over in her seat and poked Nino in the cheek.
Completely unfazed by Alya’s teasing, he locked eyes with his friend. “Somebody needs to tell that guy that you need a break. He’s got you doing too much, bro!”
Adrien slung his bag over his shoulder gave a weak smile. “Tell me about it.” He started for the door and waved to his friends as he was leaving. “I’m sorry. Trust me, I’d much rather spend the afternoon with you guys anytime.”
He slowed for a second and cast a very momentary glance at Marinette. He only looked long enough to see that her eyes were closed and at some point, during the day while she was sitting behind him, the bags under her eyes had gotten much darker.
Adrien decided to keep his concerns to himself. He shifted his gaze to Alya and Nino who were watching him leave. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“See you, Adrien! Have a good shoot!”
“Yeah later, dude.”
Marinette kept her eyes closed as they said their goodbyes. Alya glanced at her friend before looking back at Adrien and shrugging.
One more half-smile and he was gone.
A few seconds passed and Alya started gathering her things. “So were you going to be the one who told Mr. Agreste to back off?” She gave the boy a devious smile.
Nino jerked out of his disappointment and stuttered back at her. “I-I mean… It’s not like I couldn’t, you know… I-It’s just like-“
Alya laughed at his nervous ramblings. “Ok, ok, relax.” Nino blushed and turned away from her.
Marinette slowly opened her eyes as she listened to her friends back and forth. She eyed the door and watched as the rest of her class filed out for the day.
“So now I can’t even say goodbye?” She lifted her head from the table and started rubbing her eyes in frustration.
Alya noticed Marinette’s movement and, assuming she was wiping the sleep from her eyes, made the comment. “have a nice nap?” Still chuckling over Nino’s discomfort, she sent an elbow into Marinette’s side. “You totally whiffed on saying goodbye to Adrien!”
Marinette feigned ignorance. “Whoops… my bad… I must have spaced out just then.” She stretched her hands out in front of her and gave Alya an unconvincing smile.
“More like passed out.” Alya raised an eyebrow in concern and proceeded to lecture her friend on getting more sleep.
Amidst the lecture, the three made their way out of the school building. Marinette was only half listening and when the three finally made it to the sidewalk outside, she took the chance to make a break for it.
“See you guys later, gotta go help my parents at the bakery!” She cut off her friend mid-sentence and put up her hand in apology.
Alya huffed and crossed her arms. Nino stared after her in disbelief.
“Oh, come on, you too?” Nino had now lost two potential gaming partners to hard labor.
“Sorry, Nino! Catch you guys later!” She was off, leaving the couple alone behind her.
Alya frowned as she watched her friend scamper off. She was already preparing her next lecture if Marinette was still out of it tomorrow. For the moment though, she turned to Nino and grabbed his attention by placing her hand on his shoulder.
“Come on, Nino. We’ll head over to my place and hangout. My sister will be home, so we don’t have to watch the twins.”
Nino shifted his eyes over to Alya, thankful that he still had one of his favorite people left. “Wanna play some Mecha Strike when we get there?” He gave Alya a hopeful smile.
She smiled at him and joked, “only if you’re prepared to get destroyed at your own game.”
Climbing out of the car, Adrien looked up at the building where the photoshoot was taking place. It was fairly large… and very old. Looking around he noticed that the buildings on either side were spaced far away from this one. There was even a fence separating the properties.
“Huh… must be someplace important…” He spoke softly to himself and jumped half a foot in the air when he heard a voice behind him reply.
“It was a home built for a notable prime minister in the late 1800s. Now though, it stands as a historical sight protected by the government. It’s said though that the descendants of that prime minister have a hand in maintaining and protecting the property as part of their family legacy.”
Adrien spun around as she spoke, mouth slightly agape in surprise.
“Kagami! What are you doing here?” He slapped his hand on the back of his neck to help him focus. “I mean, that’s really cool that you know so much about this place…”
A very slow awkward moment passed between the two. Adrien stared at her, hand still hanging off his neck.
The silence was broken when Kagami let a small giggle escape. It was enough to loosen the boy up and make him feel more at ease. “Sorry, Adrien. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Adrien smiled and threw up his hands to gesture that she hadn’t done anything wrong. “Oh, that’s OK, Kagami! I just wasn’t expecting to see you here today… Does your mom have business here or…?”
He trailed off realizing that she was unaccompanied by her mother or anyone else for that matter.
“I told my mother I was going to library to find resources for a school project.” She smiled back up at him and stepped just a few inches closer. “What she doesn’t know is that I actually found my way here to surprise you.”
Adrien instinctively tensed back up a little bit when she stepped towards him. Kagami had become much more outgoing since they met, most likely having to do with her friendship with Marinette. Seems as though Marinette just has an emotional healing effect on the people around her. Still, her newfound forwardness made him ever so slightly nervous.
“Oh… that’s really nice of you, Kagami. These shoots can be really boring so it’s nice to have a friend here, but how did you know where we were going to be?”
Adrien had only just then realized that it was strange that she had found him there. He racked his brain for only a moment before she spoke up.
“Wow, Adrien. You should really try to get more sleep since now you’re forgetting entire conversations.” At some point during their greeting she had taken note of his tired eyes.
Realization dawned on him in that moment. “Oh! I’m sorry, I do remember.” More awkwardness engulfed him as he apologized.
This conversation had taken place the previous week at the end of fencing practice. She approached him while he was removing his helmet and began to inquire about his upcoming availability. She had no prior engagements for the afternoon/evening today, but he had quickly remembered that he was scheduled for the shoot. He felt terrible since he knew full well how rare it was for either of them to get an afternoon off. He felt worse when he realized that she had wanted to spend her valuable free time with him.
“You’re right… I really do need more sleep.” Adrien rubbed his eyes and his thoughts returned to a very sleepy Marinette from earlier that day. He wondered if others could see the exhaustion on his face just as easily as he had seen it on hers.
Adrien had just dropped his arms to his side when Kagami closed the gap and locked her arm around his. The motion allowed her to turn him around to face the building.
Adrien’s blurry eyes looked down at her in surprise while she locked her gaze up at the building.
“This old place really is quite beautiful. Although it does appear misplaced… almost like the city was built around it.”
Adrien softened up as she spoke and took in her words. “Yeah, a thought like that occurred to me too.”
She glanced up at him and tugged at his arm. “Now how about we get going. I’m sure they’re in there waiting on you.”
Adrien’s schedule always had him arriving at his different jobs early to make sure not keep any professionals waiting. The thought of them scrambling in his absence made him chuckle. It would never happen because of how strict his schedule was but he enjoyed imagining it.
“I suppose you’re right.” He cast one more look back down at Kagami. “And thanks again for coming to hangout with me today! Although I really can’t promise you’ll have any fun.”
The pair started walking towards the front door as she reassured him. “Don’t worry about me, I’m just happy to be doing something other than studying or practicing. Plus, I’ll get to watch you model, there’s plenty of fun to be had doing that.”
Adrien blushed and gave another awkward smile. “Just try to be discreet when you laugh at me, they’ll get mad at me if my face keeps going red.”
“No promises.”
They strode up the stairs, Kagami never releasing her arm from his, and they were let into the building.
In that exact moment, somewhere on the other side of Paris, a high-pitched scream rang out, echoing off the surrounding buildings and forcing nearby pigeons to flee from their roosts.