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Camp was great. Who would have thought that tie-dye, s’mores, and canoeing could make this summer the best of Marinette’s life?
Her parents were in China for four weeks to attend some funeral of a relative she’d never met, so they had signed her up for Camp Miraculous.
At first Marinette had groaned, and whined. “Summer camp!” She had said. “I’m sixteen, I think I can stay home alone.”
But her parents had chided her, and forced her into the car when the time came around. They dropped her at the gates with a teary hug and kiss session, and drove off with lots of backwards waving.
Marinette had grumbled at the time, standing there with her huge duffel bags and already covered in mosquito bites from the .02 seconds she’d been out of the car, but sitting at the campfire now, she was admitting camp wasn’t that bad.
Alya nudges her, and Marinette snaps out of her thoughts. “Mari- they’re coming.”
‘They’ was the boys cabin that contained two of her new found friends. Nino, Alya’s dark skinned boyfriend, who wore glasses and was constantly tapping beats on his legs. And Adrien.
Marinette sighs, thinking of the boy who had so quickly taken up her whole heart. That first day of camp, everything had happened so fast. She’d just barely met her bunk mate Alya and the rest of the girls when the dinner bell had rung, all the cabins releasing streams of chattering teens. There were six cabins of campers, each with three bunk beds and six campers, gathered in a circle located a short walk from the other buildings. Walking over, Marinette was talking energetically to Alya, who she had immediately bonded with, when she tripped over a tree root.
Feeling her feet go out from under her, she had let out a short scream that cut off a second later when her eyes opened to see kind green eyes and a mess of blond hair.
The boy who caught her had helped her up and then introduced himself. It turned out he was Nino’s best friend, Nino being the boyfriend Alya had told her about while they were chatting in the bunkhouse.
The four of them sat together at dinner that night, and every night after that. While Alya and Marinette had also become fast friends with the other members of their cabin, including Juleka (a shy purple haired girl), Rose (who reminded Marinette of one of her father’s pastries come to life), Alix (a tiny girl who had initiated many games of truth or dare), there was Chloe. She was bratty and annoying, so all of the girls tried to leave the cabin as much as they could. Chloe was always hanging out with Sabrina and complaining that they had been put in different cabins anyway, it wasn’t like she wanted to be friends with them either, so they didn’t feel bad.
Chloe’s obnoxiousness had led Marinette to seek out other places to go to avoid her other than the cabin. She was always dragging Alya off to corners of the campgrounds to relax, and Alya in turn dragged Nino, who dragged Adrien. And so the four of them became great friends.
“Marinette!” Alya hisses, dragging her once again out of her daydreams. “Adrien’s here!” She waves emphatically to Nino and Adrien and their group of guys.
Their two cabins had decided to celebrate the halfway point of camp with an illicit bonfire party. It wasn’t much of a bonfire, Marinette thinks as she looks at the small flames. But then again, it couldn’t be. Getting out of the cabins after lights out was strictly forbidden, and the Camp director Damocles, wasn’t called The Owl for nothing. No, his nocturnal prowling around the camp looking for misbehaving campers, aided by assistant directors Mendeleiev, Bustier and the counselors, was notorious.
But the two cabins had decided to risk it. After all, as Alix had said earlier, she didn’t sneak marshmallows into camp for nothing! S’mores bonfires were ritualistic. It was sacrilege to not have one, and there was a perfectly good campfire a bit away from the cabins, burning down slowly from the nightly camp singalong earlier.
“Guys!” Alya waves again.
Nino spots them by the flickering flames and, followed by Adrien, winds his way between relaxing teens to make it to their log.
“Hey dudes!” He says, and Adrien smiles warmly at them.
Marinette feels her face blush even hotter than it already was from the fire.
“Did you bring the stuff?” She asks, trying to distract herself.
“Got it all.” Adrien responds, pulling a bag of contraband junk food from behind his back.
Kim, one of the guy campers spots it and bounds over.
“Adrien man, you’ve been holding out on me! Are those Doritos?”
Adrien sets the bag down. “They’re not mine, they’re Nino’s, I’m just the guy holding them. Ask him,” he says laughingly.
Nino rubs his eyes. “Kim, you literally ate all of my other stash. Let the ladies have some.”
Kim pouts, but perks up again when he sees Rose’s candy supplies. He walks off to go bother her.
“Nino,” Alya says singsongingly, patting the log next to her. “C’mere, I’m cold.”
He smirks, knowing full well she is not. It is July, after all, but he goes and cuddles up next to her.
Leaving Adrien standing awkwardly over Marinette.
“Can I sit?” He gestures at the log.
“Oh! Oh sure,” Marinette responds. “So… how was your day?”
“Good,” Adrien says, smiling a little. “I’m still riding the high of our Chicken Fight championship win.”
Marinette mentally smacks herself. They had spent the day together, stupid question.
“I know! I didn’t think we could ever knock Mylene off of Ivan, I’m pretty impressed with us. It was all because of your expert base skills.”
He nudges her with his shoulder. “I think your pushing talents were the winning factor. We make a good team.”
He reaches out for a fist bump, and she meets it, knocking knuckles lightly.
“It’s the magic of friendship, giving us the power to win!”
“Was that a My Little Ponies reference?”
She winks, and hums the theme song.
Adrien doesn’t hold back, singing the song along with her. They’re almost to the end when someone bursts into the clearing.
Everyone freezes for a second.
Then Alix’s high pitched voice screams “Scatter!” and all hell breaks loose.
S’mores sticks are kicked aside and valuable snacks abandoned as the teens run in all different directions, hoping to make it back to the cabins without being snatched up and punished.
Marinette reacts without thinking, leaping over the logs and racing off towards the cabin.
Oh god! A stray flashlight beam falls in her path, and she curves away, changing directions and heading towards the lake.
Making it to the shore, she breathes heavily. Where to go, where to go?
The canoes! The abandoned canoes are in stacks on the side, near the woods, and she veers towards them.
Crouching low, she gets under the overturned canoe, her head up in the cavern where she’d normally sit. Her body is hidden by the other canoes on one side, and the brush on the other.
She sits there for a minute just catching her breath, when she hears something.
It’s breathing, but not her own. And it’s getting closer. Marinette shifts anxiously, feeling trapped.
She remembers the stories of the bear attacks Alya was scaring her with the other day, and her heart rate increases dramatically. Maybe she should just go get caught. The worst that can happen is mess hall duty. Honestly, she doesn’t even know why everyone was so freaked out and running. Well, she does. It’s exciting, and fun to be out at night sneaking around. Even more fun when there’s actually something at risk, even if it’s only helping the cook for a meal or two.
But Marinette is not having fun anymore.
The animal is getting closer, and she hears a branch snap right next to her canoe.
Oh my god, she thinks, and screams as the thing crawls into the canoe. She feels something grab her, and then her mouth is covered and her scream muffled.
“Shh!” Someone whispers.
Adrien?
“We’re gonna get caught if you don’t shush. Who is this?”
“Marinette,” she whispers, and it’s only then that she realizes that when he had covered her mouth, he had grabbed her, and her face is currently an inch away from his lovely chest. (She hadn’t been able to resist ogling him every time they went in the lake. Which was a lot.)
There’s not a lot of light, just some moonlight illumination, but Marinette can see the outline of his face. She can also hear the beating of his heart, accelerated from nerves, and wonders if he can hear her heart beat for him.
Just as she’s about to say something, they hear footsteps and voices.
“Did we get them all?” A counselor says.
“I don’t know,” another responds. “Most made it back. Should we go do a headcount?”
“Probably, Mendeleiev is going to kill us if we don’t get them all.”
The footsteps recede into the distance. Marinette and Adrien crouch under the canoe for a few more minutes, until eventually Marinette whispers “I think we can get out now.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Adrien says. “God, thank goodness. I’m so hot.”
The two of them crawl out and are faced with the sight of the answer to their prayers.
“Speaking of…” Adrien says. Marinette can see clearly now that they’re not crouched in the dark underside of a canoe, and he looks very tempted.
Oh what the heck, Marinette thinks. It’s summer, she’s with her crush, and there aren’t any real consequences to being caught.
“Wanna go in?” she says, gesturing at the water.
His eyes widen. “Really?”
She loses some of her confidence. “I mean, only if you want to.”
“No, no I want to!” He nods emphatically. “Um, should we change?”
“To what?” She laughs. “Wear your shorts, I’ll wear my shirt and underwear. It’s like a bathing suit. And we’re gonna have to change into pajamas when we get back anyway.”
“Yeah, okay.”
They strip down, making a neat pile of their clothes and shoes under the canoe they just escaped from.
“On three?” Marinette suggests, and they grab hands, running and leaping from the end of the dock that extends out from shore.
The water is colder than Marinette thought it would be, but it feels amazing. Where they are in the water, close to the end of the dock, isn’t very deep. They can both stand, and the water comes up to just under her breasts.
Adrien emerges from under the water, shaking his head like a dog.
“Agh!” Marinette shrieks as he splatters her with droplets.
She splashes him gently, with one hand.
He smirks, not ashamed, and splashes her playfully back.
No he did not, Marinette thinks.
She grins evilly and splashes him with a gigantic wave of water.
He splutters for a second, hair plastered to his forehead, looking exactly like a wet cat.
He growls, and grabs her wrists to stop her splashing, pulling her to his chest. He looks down at her, his eyes heavy and half opened, tiny crystals of water barely hanging onto those long dark lashes
It’s then that she realizes how close their faces are. She can see every inch of him, but she’s drawn to his eyes, which are staring at her lips.
Almost instinctively, they meld together, the chill of the water disappearing as their lips meet.
Marinette’s brain short circuits. Their kiss is electric, making her tingle head to toe. She reaches up and tangles her fingers in his hair, wet strands parting at her touch.
They have just barely broken apart for air when they hear Mendeleiev’s voice.
“We’re missing two!”
Adrien reacts quickly, and pulls her under the dock. They stand there, shivering for a few seconds, watching the flashlight beams and dark shadowy outlines visible on the shore.
Mendeleiv’s nasal voice carried over the water. “Footprints! They lead to the dock. They must have gone in the lake.”
Marinette shivers as pounding footsteps walk above their heads, and Adrien silently pulls her to him. She curls her head against his broad shoulders as the steps stop right over them. If the person only looked under the dock, they’d be caught.
“They must have crossed the lake. Quick!” Mendeleiv declares. “To the other side! Cut through the woods.”
The feet reverse and run off the dock, and a few seconds later, flashlight beams and running figures disappear into the woods.
Marinette and Adrien stay silent for a second, disbelieving of the fact that they stayed hidden.
Then relief sweeps over them like a wave. Adrien throws his head back and laughs with the sort of joy you can only feel when you have just avoided being caught half-naked with a girl in a lake in the middle of the night.
Marinette joins in, and they laugh until they can’t breath without wheezing.
Adrien tips his head against hers.
“So? You ready to pull some Mission Impossible style evasions to get back?”
She pauses, and then presses her lips to his, stealing a quick kiss before he can react.
“Now I am,” she giggles as she wades out from under the dock and starts towards the shore.
Adrien’s mouth falls open. “Hey! You can’t just kiss me and run like that!”
He chases after her, and dunks her in the water.
She comes up spluttering, and pushing the hair out of her eyes, sees that he beat her to shore.
“Rude!?” she says, and runs over to him.
They pull on the flip flops they had abandoned under the canoe, and grab up their discarded clothes in their arms before slinking into the woods and starting back towards camp.
Things are going perfectly until they make it to the edge of the circle of cabins.
Up behind them comes some counselor.
“Hey guys,” the counselor says. “Did you find them? I wish the Owl’d just let us go back to sleep, they can find their own way back.”
Marinette and Adrien freeze.
“Wait, who are you? Why are you dripping?”
Adrien turns to Marinette and smiles roguishly. “We had a good go at it.”
“Yup,” Marinette says as the two of them are frogmarched into the middle of camp.
Mendeleiv crosses to them.
“Mess hall duty for the REST OF CAMP!” she shrieks at them as they grin sheepishly.
Then they hear giggling, and everyone looks over at the cabins. Both sets of campers from Marinette and Adrien’s cabins are hanging out of their respective windows laughing at their two drenched friends.
Alya wolf whistles. “Get it, Marinette!”
Marinette blushes bright red.
“BED!” Mendeleiv screams. “Or you’ll be joining them! I hear the bathrooms may need cleaning.”
The campers reluctantly recede back into their cabins, although not without a few more stray giggles.
“You two,” she continues. “You two are going to go change and go directly to bed. And you will be waking up at six tomorrow to help the cook make breakfast. See what happens when you don’t listen to the rules?”
Marinette is herded off to the girl’s showers by a counselor as Adrien is led in the opposite direction.
She can’t help sighing dreamily and fading into daydreams for the rest of her bedtime routine, and she falls asleep to the memories of moonlight swimming escapades.
The next morning is a rude awakening as she shuffles off to join Adrien and the cook in the mess hall to make the food.
But both she and Adrien agree it was worth it. And, Marinette thinks, she gets to spend more time with Adrien, even if it’s over sweaty ovens. Not bad, not bad at all, especially when they get to sneak kisses in between stirring oatmeal.
When they bring out the trays of food to the waiting campers, Alya can’t help teasing the two of them, but Marinette and Adrien just shrug unrepentantly and smile at each other, enjoying the memory of their night of summer debauchery.