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Adrien was beginning to regret his decision to spend the day walking the dorm and introducing himself to as many residents as possible. It had seemed like such a solid plan when he’d finished moving in early and found himself with nothing to do. He was the new RA and he’d felt it would be good to have as many residents know him and what he looks like as soon as possible.
Oh how wrong he had been.
2 floors, 3 hours, and 14 phone numbers later, he still had another 2 floors to go, and if Adrien heard one more too high squeal about how glad someone was that such a nice sweet guy like him was the new RA, he would dive out the nearest window. He paused outside the next door, taking a moment to just breath and enjoy a brief moment of silent reprieve from exhausting strangers.
Just as Adrien lifted his hand to knock, the door swung open and a petite figure stopped short of barreling into him, blinking up at him with impossibly wide blue eyes. The girl leapt back, flushing and stuttering an apology.
He laughed, taking in the slightly disheveled girl in bright pink sweatpants and the equally pink room she was unpacking behind her. “No harm done! I’m Adrien, I came by to introduce myself.”
The girl straightened up abruptly, something like recognition flashing across her face even as she seemed more flustered than ever, quickly attempting to straighten her clothes. “O-oh, I’m Marinette! Would you like to come in?”
A sense of trepidation crushed the soft friendliness he was feeling towards the endearingly awkward girl and he briefly wondered if this would be a repeat of room 207 (which had housed a particularly flirtatious brunette). But years of living with a stone faced manipulator had taught Adrien more about reading people than any class ever could, and everything about this girl radiated an open kindness. Plus, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel a strange sort of pull towards her.
So he followed her into the room, standing awkwardly in the center to watch Marinette flit about, arranging and rearranging her belongings in an almost anxious fashion. She turned and saw him watching, a fresh blush blooming across her cheeks. “
I’m sorry! Please make yourself comfortable, Alya will be back soon!” The words spilled out of her just a little too fast, and as soon as she finished, Marinette dropped her attention back to the items in front of her, dark hair falling to conceal her eyes.
Adrien’s brow furrowed as he parsed what she’d said, confused by her apology and by the mention of someone called Alya. He lowered himself to sit in a plush, almost offensively pink beanbag and decided to assume Alya was her roommate and she must mean she would be back soon and they could be introduced.This girl was just lacking some social skills in the communication department, no big deal.
“So what’s your major?” Adrien asked. Low key, easy question to build a rapport with someone.
Only apparently not for her.
Marinette started, dropping an armful of fabric rolls she had just pulled from a box, squeaking in distress as they rolled in all directions, with her frantically chasing after them. Adrien jumped up to help her, but by the time he’d managed to grab one, she’d already grabbed the rest. He passed her the final one, exchanging a sheepish smile, and somehow felt certain that this was far from the first time she'd scrambled after fabric rolls.
“I’m um, double majoring,” Marinette managed, avoiding eye contact again, “Fashion Merchandising and Design.” She tucked the fabric into some shelves nearby and turned back to face him. “H-how you about?” Smacking herself, she sputtered some more, “I-i mean, how about you?”
A soft, genuine laugh tore itself from Adrien’s chest, he couldn’t help but find this tiny disaster of a girl terribly endearing. “I’m a double major also, Physics and Education.” He wandered closer to a bulletin board on her wall, plastered with clothing sketches that even to his relatively untrained eye, were quite impressive. “You’re hoping to break into the fashion industry, huh?”
A tiny snort and the girl snapped back sarcastically, “What gave you that idea?” Her eyes went wide and she slapped her hands over her mouth immediately, “Sorry! I didn’t mean that!”
But by the time she apologized Adrien was doubled over, laughing so hard he could barely breathe at the sudden spark of fire in the girl’s immediate sassy response. Honestly, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed himself quite so much in such a short period of time. “No need to apologize,” he choked out between slowing chuckles, “I was just going to say that my dad is pretty well known in the design world, and I might be able to help you out.”
When she didn’t reply immediately, Adrien straightened, jumping just a little when he found Marinette directly in front of him, her hands clasped beneath her chin and her eyes truly inhumanly large, sparkling with barely concealed excitement.
“Really, are you sure?” she asked.
Adrien was nodding before he could even think, finding that he couldn’t even imagine denying this girl anything that would make her smile like this. The attention warmed him from the inside out, as if he’d swallowed a miniature sun nurtured into life by Marinette.
Staring into her bluebell eyes a grin split his face and words spilled from his mouth before he could chicken out, “Maybe I could take you for coffee and we could talk about it?”
A flash of confusion followed by a darkening of indignation twisted Marinette’s face as she stumbled back away from him. “Wh-what?”
A crushing wave of dejection and embarrassment washed over Adrien, he rubbed the back of his neck, “I-i was asking you on a date? I thought we were-I-I don’t know!”
Marinette stomped her foot, fury overtaking her face, “You’re asking to cheat on my roommate with me? You just met me! What kind of asshole-”
“Wait- what?” Adrien yelped, more and more confused with every word she said.
Marinette stomped towards him, prodding an accusing finger into his chest, “Don’t play stupid now, mister! I see what kind of person you are!”
Adrien shrank back, finding himself intimidated despite towering a solid foot over her, and held his hands up in surrender, “I-i’m not sure I understand what’s happening, Marinette, I-”
At that moment, the door swung open and a stack of boxes trooped into the room with a cheerful call of, “I’m back, girl! Didja miss me?” A taller girl with glasses and dark curls dropped the boxes and froze, staring at the scene before her. “Uh-am I interrupting something here?”
Marinette shrieked and skipped across the room to Alya, grasping her shoulders with a wide eyed look of panic. “Alya, I’m so sorry, I promise I wasn’t trying to flirt with your boyfriend!”
The girl, Alya, exchanged a perplexed glance with him and he shrugged, genuinely overwhelmed with confusion.
Adrien watched Alya return her attention to Marinette, giving her a funny look before slowly and carefully enunciating, “Yeah girl...I know that...but I’m not sure why it’s relevant right now.”
Marinette turned her head frantically between Alya and Adrien, making flailing gestures as she tried to string together a sentence. “I-He-But he just asked me on a date!” she blurted, pointing an accusing finger in Adrien’s direction.
Adrien’s jaw dropped as the puzzle piece he’d been missing finally fell into place and far far too late he realized that he had forgotten to explain he was the new RA, and somehow Marinette had made the assumption that he was at her room because he was her roommate's boyfriend. His gaze met Alya’s once more and they simultaneously collapsed into laughter, only serving to further distress Marinette.
Alya managed to calm herself enough to grasp her roommate and shake her gently, “Marinette, I don’t know what you’ve been smoking, but that is not my boyfriend.”
Marinette went completely still before she whispered, unblinking, “You’re sure?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty damn sure!” Alya shrieked, laughing once more, “I’ve never seen this guy in my life! He’s very pretty, but not my boyfriend, hun.”
"But-but you said he was coming over..." Marinette protested weakly, her voice growing more unsure with every word.
"He is, girl, but that's not him!" Alya insisted, shaking her shoulders again to convey how serious she was.
Marinette spun on her heel to gape at him, and Adrien made sure to paste on his most innocent and unassuming look. She sputtered as he swaggered across the room and stuck his hand out, “Let’s try this again, okay? My name is Adrien Agreste, I’m your RA and I’d really like to take you out for coffee.”
Alya giggled in the background as Marinette panned her gaze between his face and his outstretched hand, before slowly sliding her incredibly tiny hand into his. “H-hi Adrien, I’m Marinette.” Her blush was slowly reclaiming her cheeks as she looked up at him with a soft and slightly vacant smile.
Her eyes went wide once more, staring up at him with a terror that had Adrien nearly jumping to pull her in his arms and protect her from whatever had her so distressed. Her mouth dropped open and emitted a tiny shriek.
“Did you say Agreste? L-like Gabriel Agreste?”
Arien hunched his shoulders sheepishly, “One and the same.”
Marinette collapsed in his arms, completely unconscious.