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Adrien lounged behind the front desk of his tattoo parlor, wasting time until his next appointment and amusing himself by blowing the long strands of his bangs out of his eyes. In late highschool he’d begun rebelling against his father, culminating when he turned 18 and immediately left home, moving into an apartment and trying to figure out what he wanted to do with himself. Adrien had done everything his father never let him do, he’d smoked cigarettes(Chloe’s nasty habit, but he hadn’t taken to them like she had), cut his hair into a stylish undercut with long bangs-dip dyed lime green-, and gotten a tongue stud, which he’d purposely stuck out at his father the next time he saw him.
Childish? Maybe.
Worth it? Absolutely.
Soon after that, Adrien had wandered into a tattoo shop on a whim, and walked back out with a tattoo of a black cat running across a broken mirror. That tattoo spurred an abrupt tumble into art, and he spent the next few years studying art, then apprenticing with the very same artist who did his first tattoo. He worked at that parlor until he had gathered the skills he needed to open his own shop, Cataclysm.
The lower floor served as his workplace, and Adrien lived in a small flat upstairs with his problematic cat, Plagg. It was small, but personally, he thought it was perfect. It was a home. And he hadn’t ever had one before.
So now he spent the majority of his days stabbing people with needles for a living, and taking naps with Plagg in between. Plagg had the run of the lobby and flat upstairs, and spent most of his time curled on a pile of cushion on the bay window at the front of the parlor. Except of course, when their next door neighbor stopped by to flirt with him through the glass.
Adrien wondered if it was pathetic to be jealous of a cat.
A month or two after Cataclysm had opened, a boutique moved in next door called the Lucky Charm. It wasn’t exactly his style, so Adrien had yet to be brave enough to go in without some kind of excuse. He’d certainly been tempted though. His neighbor also lived above her shop, just like him, and she had come by to introduce herself the first week she moved in.
The bell on his door had chimed and then the petite woman stood in his velvet and leather lobby wrapped in flowers and lace, looking so distinct but not at all out of place in his life. He’d barely been able to string a word together as she’d introduced herself.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Whose boutique was small and mostly custom jobs while she attempted to break into the fashion world.
He’d carefully neglected to mention his own last name, and if Marinette thought he bore a resemblance to the former teen model and disgraced heir to Gabriel Fashion, Adrien Agreste, then she had been kind of enough not to say anything. Although not many people would be looking close enough to see the model of a perfect son he had been beneath piercings and tattoos he wore almost like a mask.
Nearly every day, Marinette left her shop for what he assumed was her lunch break just after Adrien opened, the first few times he saw her were coincidence, but every time she passed she never failed to aim a cheerful wave and smile in his direction-and stop to flirt with Plagg. Without even really noticing it, Adrien stopped taking clients right when he opened, and started getting ready earlier, just so he could make sure he was casually lounging in his lobby when Marinette passed every day.
Pathetic? Maybe. Chloe certainly thought so.
This had continued for months now, and Adrien still couldn’t pull himself together enough to actually go talk to her, but honestly, the glowing smile she gave him every day through the window was the highlight of his day. Of course, the following minutes where she talked with his cat and showered the goblin with attention was the most irritating part of his day.
The ornery little beast was as enamored with Marinette as Adrien was, but he was much better at showing it. He would jump to rub himself along the glass and mew back at her attention, which frequently enticed the woman to pad into the shop, apologies on her lips, just to shower his cat with compliments and attention.
The lucky bastard.
She was always kind and open. Of course, Adrien could barely manage to put together a single sentence in front of her, so he was sure she thought he was awkward and aloof from how short he kept his answers in trying not to embarrass himself.
And that’s where he was today, waiting for Marinette to walk by. He saw her shop door open through the window and ducked his head over a sketchbook, doing his best to look Very Busy At Work, and Totally Not Waiting For Her. Adrien waited until he could see her talking to Plagg out the corner of his eye before he looked up and made eye contact with her, waving as nonchalantly as he could.
Marinette waved back, once again giving him that smile that melted his insides into goo and made his knees embarrassingly weak. She checked her phone and scurried through the door, immediately scooping Plagg into her arms and peppering his furry face with kisses. “Hello Adrien! Busy day ahead?”
He shook his head, “Oh, I-i’ve got few appointments, at least, and you never know about walk-ins, right?” The way his voice pitched up as he spoke made him want to jump headfirst off the nearest roof. Adrien quickly forced a laugh and model-smile, “You?”
“About the same,” Marinette hummed, thoroughly occupied with Plagg rubbing headbutting her cheek, “Though I thought that yesterday too and-”
The door swung open forcefully, bell jingling the bold and brassy arrival of a customer, cutting off Marinette’s reply. In stalked Adrien’s best friend, Chloe Bourgeois, dressed in designer clothes and already poised to comment on how distasteful she found his outfit, when she and Marinette made eye contact and both their jaws dropped.
“Dupain-Cheng?”
“Chloe Bourgeois?”
Adrien ducked his head, the palpable tension between the two women had the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. “Uh, have you two...met?”
“Only if by met you mean were just unlucky enough to be in the same class every year until university,” Marinette spat, a fire in her eyes as she and Chloe stared each other down.
Adrien was almost ashamed that he found the magnificent contrast to her regular softness incredibly attractive. Almost. Of course, Chloe had to pull his attention away by opening her mouth to unload what he was sure would be a particularly pointed and cutting insult, so he jumped in before she could get the chance. “Chloe, why are you here?” The look she fixed on him clearly conveyed that she thought he was an utter moron, but he already knew that.
“We have a lunch date, you disgraced asshole!” Chloe shrieked at him.
“Oh shit!” Adrien dropped his head to thud against the counter, groaning, “I mislabeled my calendar. I put in Queen Bee and thought it was an appointment note.”
Chloe sniffed, “I’ll be outside, don’t make me wait.” She exchanged another glare with Marinette and stalked out.
Adrien sighed heavily, looking up at Marinette with his best pathetic kitten eyes, “I’m sorry, Marinette. It seems I have lunch plans today.”
Marinette jumped when he spoke, “O-oh, uh, of course, sorry!” She was flushed and at a loss for words for the first time since they’d met. “Um, if it’s not invasive to ask, are you and Chloe...dating?”
Adrien snorted, “Not even. We’ve been friends since we were kids. I think I’m the only person she actually likes, but she definitely doesn’t want to date me.”
“Who wouldn’t want to date you?” Marinette blurted, blushing bright red as soon as the words left her mouth, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to-uh, I’d better go. I’ll...see you tomorrow?” She paused with her hand on the door, and he wondered if it was wishful thinking to feel like her smile was hopeful.
His cheeks were rapidly heating, but Adrien managed a crooked smile, “Definitely.”
----
6 hours later and Chloe had yet to leave him alone; she’d spent an hour berating him over lunch (“Dupain-Cheng is the girl you’ve been making yourself sick over this whole time? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.”)-and then lounged about his apartment and shop for the rest of the afternoon. At one point Chloe disappeared, and Adrien had allowed himself to hope she might have gotten bored and moved on to something more interesting-but then she returned with dinner for both of them and posted herself up on his sofa.
His last scheduled appointment had just left and as soon as the door shut behind them, Chloe stomped down the stairs from his flat. “Adrikins, be a dear and come outside with me for a smoke break.”
Adrine fixed her with a sour look, his patience was usually much more forgiving but his friend was really tap dancing on his nerves today. “Do I actually have a choice?”
“Not at all, darling,” Chloe drawled, unperturbed by his demeanor.
He followed her out to stand between his storefront and Lucky Charm’s, stooping to sniff one of the flowers in Marinette’s window box. She’d closed a half hour or so earlier, so the shop was dark and empty. Chloe snorted, no doubt biting back a jab about what a hopeless sap he was, but stayed silent as she lit a cigarette. After taking a long draw, she tilted her head and studied him, long enough that Adrien felt himself blush and hunch his shoulders under her probing eyes.
“Y’know, I had a crush on her too. When we were kids anyway. It’s actually painful to admit that she’s prettier now than she was then.” Chloe spoke haltingly, her voice hushed in a way that it only became when she was letting herself be vulnerable. Which had happened exactly six times in their lives.
Adrien gaped at her, struggling for a moment to put together what she was saying, “Her? Wh-Marinette?”
Chloe rolled her eyes, her haughty mask slipping back into place, “Yes, Marinette . So I’m going to do you a favor and help you get in with her.” She flicked open her light and held it to the flowers, lighting them on fire.
“Shit, Chlo, what are you doing?” Adrien jumped to put it out, but she continuously elbowed him away, until she could thoroughly scorch the plant, letting him through only once there wasn’t much left to save.
“I’ve just wronged your lady love so that you can act as her dashing knight and bring her new flowers to apologize for the heinous crimes of a witch.” Chloe flicked her hair over her shoulder and turned to watch a car pull up to the curb, “You can thank me later.” She slid into the car and rolled down the window, smirking up at him, “Better get a move on, the shops close soon.”
Adrien watched in shock as the car pulled away, Chloe’s hand waving from the open window. His eyes slid back to the scorched flowers and he groaned, asking himself for what must have been the hundredth time that day, why he was friends with Chloe when she was so Chloe.
----
He had...perhaps gone a little overboard.
After sprinting to the nearest shop, he’d realized he had no idea what kind of flower Chloe had burned. Adrien had gone to multiple greenhouses hoping to lay eyes on a plant that looked right, but each time struck out, and asked the clerk for suggestions. So, 3 hours, 7 different shops, and 12 new plants later, Adrien found himself back outside the Lucky Charm, doing his best to arrange the flowers he had acquired in an artful manner.
He’d returned with Orchids, African Violets, Amaryllis, and even a Succulent Terrarium, and it took another hour before he was satisfied with how they were arranged. Adrien ducked back inside Cataclysm to pen a quick apology for Chloe murdering her plant and wrangle Plagg into signing it with a pawprint. He tucked the note into the branches of a small scarlet rose bush sitting directly on her doorstep, so Marinette would notice it as soon as she opened.
Once Adrien had retreated to his apartment and collapsed on his couch, the reality of what he’d done crashed over him. “Oh god, Plagg,” He groaned, rolling over to bury his face in the couch cushions. “She’s going to think I’m either a moron or a lunatic.”
Plagg eyed him warily from across the room, distaste for Adrien’s whining apparent on his furry face.
Adrien sighed, once again wishing he could just pull it together and ask his neighbor out instead of do buckwild things like buy an entire flower shop for her cause he panicked after his absolute goblin of a best friend torched her plant. Hopefully Marinette would find him at least awkwardly endearing and he could try to repair his image from there. His stomach twisted just thinking about it and another groan left his mouth.
He used to be cool and collected, the perfect model who grew up into the unshakeable rebel. Thanks to life as a lowkey celebrity, his social skills were an odd combination of incredibly refined in the public sphere, but horribly lacking in close relationships. Adrien could be polite, suave, and charming to any stranger, but he had no idea how to act with friends, must less once he found himself actually interested in someone.
He’d been on dates, of course. People had given him their numbers, and Adrien had even been set up by Chloe once or twice, but none of them had ever made him feel like they were there because they wanted to know him, and he’d never really found himself wanting to know any of them either.
But Marinette...He wanted to know everything about Marinette. Adrien would give his left kidney to know how she takes her coffee, and which side of the bed she sleeps on, and what scent her perfume that always lingers and drives him out of his mind for hours after she leaves, and anything and everything there could possibly be to learn about Marinette.
He turned to meet Plagg’s disdainful gaze, “Chloe is right, I am a hopeless sap.”
-----
When Adrien unlocked his shop the next day, he peeked through the window, embarrassed by his own eagerness, but not enough not to preen when he saw that Marinette had moved the plants, some of them now on the inside of the window, and perhaps more scattered around her shop or apartment. His eyes caught on the closed for lunch sign hanging in the Lucky Charm’s window, and anxiety pierced his heart.
Marinette hadn’t broken from their routine in months, he knew because neither had he. Had he managed to make her feel uncomfortable by going overboard and now she was avoiding him? What if she never spoke to him again? Chloe would not listen to him cry if Marinette broke his heart before he could even ask her out.
Just as that, rather humiliating, thought crossed his mind, Marinette strolled up to his window from the opposite direction, her cheerful smile igniting a soft flame in his chest. She didn’t pause, pushing into the shop carrying a pastry box that she deposited gently on his counter and turned to scoop Plagg into her arms. While she cuddled his cat, her eyes studied him closely, a soft smile playing at her lips that filled him with a yearning to cradle her cheeks in his hands and tell her the worst pickup line he could think of, just so he could kiss away her giggles and drown in her joy. Adrien’s cheeks burned in time with his heart and he tore his eyes away from the endless chasms of blue that seemed to draw him in like a whirlpool.
Marinette hummed, “Hello Adrien. Busy day ahead?” A twinkle in her eyes teased him.
He stifled a chuckle, “Can’t complain. My day is getting better by the second. You?”
“About the same.” A sly grin winked at him for just a moment, replaced by the soft smile he was used to, “Thank you for the plants, they’re lovely.”
Chuckling awkwardly, Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding her eyes, “Don’t thank me, you wouldn’t have needed new plants if Chloe wasn’t such a shithead.”
Marinette’s laugh rang in his ears like fairy bells; he wondered if you could fall in love with someone’s laugh. “Well I can’t disagree with that assessment, but I stopped by home today, my parents have a bakery, and brought you a few of my favourite treats, as thank you. I think I have enough plants to start a small nursery if I wanted to,” she teased gently.
“Oh, you didn’t have to, Marinette, I-”
“No, I insist.” Marinette cut in, “It’s the best bakery in Paris, in my incredibly biased opinion, and my parents were very excited to hear that they were for my handsome neighbor.” Her face was turned back to Plagg, but it was possible her cheeks were rosier than normal.
Adrien made a high pitched squeak and sputtered, unable to actually form a sentence but somehow managing to convey his thanks. Marinette giggled, and for a moment his embarrassment was worth it.
“See you tomorrow?” She asked, gently returning Plagg to his cushions, and pausing by the door.
He nodded quickly, too eagerly probably, and smiled at her, chest cracked wide open and leaking his feelings for just a few seconds as she disappeared out of their little bubble and into the rest of the world. Adrien dropped his gaze to the pastry box, unable to drop the smile pasted on his face as he lifted the lid.
Inside, atop a variety of fresh, mouth watering pastries, was a tiny note, signed with a ladybug
Maybe we could have a lunch date, sometime?
(XXX)XXX-XXXX
And if he screamed and fell off his stool, well, no one but Plagg could expose him, and really, who could blame him?