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It shouldn’t be this hard, Adrien could do it at the drop of a hat, so why did it hurt her cheeks, why did it feel so awkward and wrong. This whole day felt awkward and wrong, she was doing everything that the app suggested. She tried the shoulder touch and her best smile, one she was now realizing, staring into the camera, was probably a bit unnatural and forced. But she’d tried so many things this afternoon, she checked the app again and again; she tried some of the compatibility surveys, everything from blood types to astrology, none of it seeming to catch this girl’s interests. She even tried throwing in compliments wherever she could find an opening but she didn’t feel like she was getting any closer to befriending Marinette. Marinette was the optimal target for a new friend based on everything Adrien had told her about how great of a friend she was, but still Kagami was facing an uphill climb with a girl who honestly had seemed distracted and disinterested from the start. Taking a bunch of spare moments to pull away and check her phone or something, not that she was doing much better, always trying to check the friendship app. As she continued to try and force a happy face for her picture, doubts began to creep in about how she’d probably already ruined any chance of befriending this girl for real, she probably resented her from all the times they’d interacted before, maybe she was too harsh at the ice rink, or dismissive of her at the train station? Maybe she wasn’t meant to have friends outside of fencing? She shook her head at that idea pushing the doubt away. She just had to focus and get this done. She tried to ready herself one more time, she just needed a selfie right? The quality didn’t matter, they just had to finish the challenge and then she’d be on her way to spend the rest of her day with Adrien and his quirky friend. She looked into the phone screen to see her forced face and shook her head again, that one hurt her cheeks like earlier on the bridge. She just decided to snap the picture and meet back up with Marinette so they could be done here and get past this whole awkward mess of trying to befriend her for the Friend’s Day competition.
She was about to try once more and accept whatever mess of a picture she was left with so they could get on with their day, before being startled by Marinette’s phone buzzing, she’d gotten a text with a video message from someone labeled as her “BFF” in the contacts accompanied by a name she was only partially familiar with from Adrien’s friends but before she could process any of that she apparently missed when trying to close the notification and the video in her message started playing, “I can't believe you're stuck with Kagami. Hang in there, girl, and don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure out a way to lose. Catch you later!” Kagami stared blankly feeling a wave of betrayal and disappointment, Marinette obviously already had a best friend she’d rather be spending this day with than with her and her pitiful attempts at starting a friendship from nothing, no wonder she wanted to lose and get it all over with. Silently and stoically she snapped her selfie and headed back mulling over how blind she’d been today.
Kagami rushed back to reconvene with Marinette and confront her over what she’d learned, which she bluntly began to do before her own phone rang in Marinette’s hand, cutting her off. She seemed to answer on instinct before thinking to give it back, but Kagami was speechless with panic because she knew who would be calling her. Marinette answered in a cheery tone and to her dread she tried to ease the situation with the truth. In Kagami’s mind it was all over, Marinette held all the cards to get her in trouble and cut off even her friendship with Adrien. She could feel a familiar hopelessness sink in as she heard the faded yells of her mother through the phone. But then something unexpected happened, Marinette changed course immediately, this wasn’t the sabotage she’d been dreading. Marinette seemed to be doing everything she could to help, she began to defend her from the outcome she felt was inescapable. She felt a calm come over her, her heart stopped racing, she could feel the tension in her shoulders pass, and a light sensation on her cheekbones as she sighed in relief. As an unnoticed black butterfly changed its course Kagami found herself doing the things that’d been so hard a few moments ago, she was opening herself up to trust and beyond that she was smiling, a real smile with no effort at all. Her mom was still mad but here she finally saw the girl Adrien had described as the friend always trying to help everyone. This honest attempt to fix everything had to be what he saw in her that had to be the ‘very good friend’ she’d heard about.
She was relieved, so much so that she hadn’t considered that her mother was still mad until she was captured by the akumatized form her mother had taken. She didn’t have much time to consider her standings with Marinette after being whisked away inside the robotic head of this Akuma, she hoped she’d found safety but she had bigger problems. Even after that her mind was elsewhere, when Ladybug had sent a magical little dragon inside for her to escape and be a superhero. It was honestly another mind boggling even entirely but Ladybug did give her a pep talk that gave her the confidence to continue even if she’d already messed up. It helped in the heat of the battle and then at the end when she apologized to Ladybug for being too rash and messing up Ladybug told her that she’d done a great job and that her keeping a miraculous from her going forward would be to help her protect her friends. She protested that briefly telling her she didn’t have that many friends but Ladybug told her that the amount wasn’t as important as having good ones. She carried those pep talks with her and mustered that superhero confidence once again when she was back with Marinette on the street, she knew her mother’s mind was already made up but she told her that she’d disobeyed to make a friend, and even pressed further when her mother countered that she already had Adrien. And to her surprise, it worked, her mother relented, she was free to have this afternoon with Marinette.
The Friendship day events were more or less over after the akuma but Marinette’s excuse about orange juice fit right into the free time the two now had. So in the end that’s how she got her smiling selfie, no competition, no sneaking, no interference of any kind, just a shared drink with a new friend and a picture to commemorate it. And this time it wasn’t hard to smile for the camera.