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“Don’t leave,” Adrien said desperately, looking at her pleadingly. “Don’t leave me alone, please.”
“I need to go, Adrien,” she told him softly, trying to get him to understand. “You know why.”
“But I need you, I can’t do it alone!”
“It’s better like that,” she said firmly, trying to get his hand off of her arm. “For the both of us.”
“No, you don’t understand, Marinette. You need to stay with me, you can’t leave me.”
“Adrien,” she sighed, only to be interrupted by a voice from behind them.
“Hey, man, I think the lady made it clear that she doesn’t want to stay. So, why don’t you let her go,” a man around their age said, making both of them turn toward him with surprise.
Adrien blinked, looking between his hand around Marinette’s arm and the man that just interrupted them. He blinked again, once, before his eyes widened and he let go of her arm like it burned him.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! See!” He whispered loudly to Marinette. “This! This is why I need you there! I’m going to do something stupid and ridiculise myself! Oh my god! This is horrible, Marinette! How can I do that without you? I can’t, that’s how!”
“Alright, chaton, why don’t you calm down for a minute? Panicked spiraling is my thing, don’t you go steal it,” she told Adrien, patting his shoulder comfortingly, before turning toward the man. “I’m sorry, Monsieur, thank you for the assistance but there had been a little misunderstanding.”
“Little,” Adrien hissed. “I sounded like an abusive boyfriend just now, Marinette!”
“Uh,” the stranger started, looking between them with confusion. “You guys aren’t breaking up?”
“Oh my god, non! This guy is like my dumbass little brother,” she said with a smile that Adrien recognized as Marinette’s ‘this person is very attractive, how do I think again?’ smile.
“I’m older than you,” he told her, but was swiftly ignored by Marinette and the stranger. “And I’m not a dumbass.”
“He doesn’t want me to leave him because he is a coward who can’t bring himself to talk to his crush,” Marinette said, elbowing Adrien pointedly.
“Ahem, hello pot, meet kettle,” Adrien sniped at her. “Remind me how long it took you to tell me about your crush on me?”
“Don’t you bring that up,” Marinette said, pointing a finger in his face. “It was in middle school. And you were a really, really oblivious sunshine child, Adrien.”
“Anyway,” Adrien said, rolling his eyes, before turning back toward the stranger and extending his hand. “I’m Adrien, by the way, and this is Marinette.”
“I’m Duke,” he said, grabbing his hand and shaking it. “Sorry for the… You know?” He added with a vague movement of the hand.
“Nah, that’s cool man. It’s great to know there are people that would have helped, if I was an abusive boyfriend.”
“Yeah,” Duke said with a chuckle, looking back toward Marinette and rubbing the back of his neck. “So… I, uh, I have a table with my brother over there, if you wanna join until you get the courage to approach your crush?”
“Oh my god,” Adrien whimpered when he looked where Duke was pointing with his thumb. It made Marinette, who was still kinda lost in Duke’s eyes, look over.
“Oh my god!” She squealed, honest to god squealed, putting both hands on her mouth. “That’s fucking fate, Adrien! You have to talk to him today!”
“Wait, hold on,” Duke said, a disbelieving look on his face, looking between them and his brother’s table. The table where Adrien’s three months long coffee shop’s crush was sitting. “Your crush, it’s my brother?”
“Yes,” Marinette exclaimed excitedly, silently clapping her hands together, her usual nervousness with people she found attractive forgotten just to make Adrien’s life more difficult. “He spent the last three months coming here every day, just for a chance to stare at him and try to talk to him. Without success, obviously, that’s why I came with him today.”
“Marinette,” Adrien whispered to her pointedly. “Let’s not say that to his brother.”
“Hey, that’s cool,” Duke laughed, putting his hands in his jean’s pockets. “Well, since I was so rude and interrupted Marinette’s pep talk session, why don’t I make up for it by introducing you?”
“Yes, please,” Marinette said quickly, grabbing Adrien’s arm before he could evade her.
“No, no, no,” Adrien muttered under his breath with panic, but was ignored by the both of them and dragged against his will toward the table.
“Hey, Tim! Let me introduce you to a couple of friends,” Duke said with a smile when they got to the table, making his crush, Tim, look up at them.
“Hey, hi,” he said, with a cute little confused smile. “I’m Tim.”
Oh boy, Adrien was fucked.