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Marinette wasn’t a big fan of parties. With the right people in the right setting? Sure, but with tons of people and special occasions, no.
And before you know it, it becomes exponentially worse when you factor in everything else. Meeting people you haven’t met since…well since you were all a team who saved a city and spent years in school together.
She started walking upstairs to the rooftop that Alya had invited her too for New Year’s Eve. Admittedly, she was late, but showing up had been a task all in itself.
There was just one little detail that she was nervous about, meeting him.
Adrien Agreste was the last person she could’ve thought was her crime fighting partner.
She stood at the top of the stairs, on edge about greeting her past. It’s now or never, she thought, her mind racing with memories she forced herself to forget.
Marinette opened the door with a smile plastered on her face, glad that nobody noticed her entering among the handful of people.
She spotted Alya and Nino talking to someone she couldn’t make out in the fairy lights that were hanging. She walked over to her brunette friend, who was wearing a gorgeous orange sweater.
“Hey girl!” Alya head over with her arms open towards Marinette.
“Hey, Alya,” She hugged her high school best friend. She spots her boyfriend a second later just behind her, “Nino!” She enthusiastically greeted him.
“Dudette,” He shot back, shaking her hand when Alya let her go.
“So, how’ve you been,” Alya looked at her, almost teary eyed.
“Alya, it’s only been a few weeks after holidays started, we’re still only 16.” Marinette laughed along with her.
“Yeah, but,” She inspected me, “you look so…different.”
“Good different.” Alya finished her sentence, leaving Marinette smiling.
“Yeah, it’s been a while since, you know.” She almost whispered.
“I’m here if you want to talk about anything, Marinette, really,” she said, concerned.
“Thanks for asking, Alya. But I’m fine, for now.” They both just smiled at each other, leaning in to hug each other again, taking away when Nino came to join their conversation.
“I’m going to go get a hot chocolate.” Marinette smiled, watching their hands interlock.
“Yeah, of course.” Nino encouraged her. As she was walking away, she heard Alya interject, “Don’t forget that they’re all our friends and you can talk to anyone.”, which was replied to by a short grin.
She looked around during her short walk to get some hot chocolate, was it a party drink? No. But it was annoyingly cold and she could really use something nice.
She saw Rose and Juleka and mentally giggled to herself watching them laughing and making jokes while lying in each other’s arms.
Ivan and Mylene were sitting not far from them, making Marinette smile extra hard, knowing she was the reason they were together today.
“Hot chocolate, please.” She said, trying to look for Marc and Nathaniel, when her eyes landed on the person she dread to see.
She turned her face away from the blond who had just entered the door. She turned her gaze hurriedly, suddenly very interested in the hot chocolate that was being poured.
It’s not like she didn’t want to see him, they had been partners and best friends for almost a year, but she was afraid, afraid that he would find a reason to hate her.
However, she had missed most of it and now was counting on sheer luck to not have to engage in certain conversations. Unluckily, she had already missed her chance.
She turned around to go find Alya to tell her she was going to try to find a more secluded spot, to try to spend her New Year’s Day alone, but instead she was met with the very thing she was trying to avoid.
“Hey, um oh sorry,” His voice muttered, still the same as the voice she had grown close to after all this time.
“It’s good, I was, just leaving.” I mumbled back, trying to find my way past the few people that were there. Not bothering to listen what he had to say because of the bittersweet memories flooding her mind.
Marinette head towards a small walkway at the edge of the rooftop they were just on, finding a short flight of stairs up to a higher area. Perfect, she thought.
She slowly climbed the steps, supporting herself with the rails. As soon as she reached up, she felt a cold breeze through her hair. She was wearing warm clothes, but the chilly wind still felt sort of comforting.
Marinette rest her arms on the rails and looked out to Paris, the city she swore to protect. It was beautiful, and the Eiffel Tower was stunning.
She drank from her cup shyly, cold from the blowing wind.
“Hey.” She panicked and looked behind her to find Adrien, who she once thought was the love of her life.
“H…hi.” She looked back and reinstated herself, her crush on him hadn’t been the same since she found out he was Chat Noir and that his father was…it was a difficult time.
“I’m sorry I didn’t know you were going to be here,” He stood alongside her, where she could feel the warmth radiate from him. “You don’t have to say anything, I think I can handle being in the same proximity.” She stated.
“That’s…good. Yeah, that’s great.” He shuffled.
“Adrien I, I don’t know how to tell you how sorry I am.” She spoke. She felt his gaze on her and continued anyway, “I left right after…and I didn’t even try to ask if you were okay and how I handled it I just…” She pulled a closed fist to her head and scrunched her face.
“It’s good, it’s all in the past, really.” Adrien sighed. “So, you’re not upset with how I acted all these weeks?”
“We’re still 16, Marinette, I get if you made some mistakes, I…had my fair share of trauma.” They both chuckled lightly.
“How,” She finally dared to look at him, “How’ve you been holding up?” She smiled.
“Well,” He smiled right back, “I found out my dad was a criminal who wanted to revive my dead mom and I fought him with a partner who I later found out was one of my best friends, and that I was so blindly in love with her alter ego, I didn’t even notice that she liked me. How are you doing?” He laughed.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
“No no, don’t apologize, I spent a lot of time in therapy. A lot.” He simply laughed it off, while she tried to laugh along with him.
“It’s bizarre, to hear our situation in its entirety.” She reminisced. “It sure really is something, huh?”
“Yeah, it is.” He smiled at her, looking down at her shorter frame, with a gleam in them, even after all the painful days.
“I’d say that it being complicated and confusing was part of why I dug myself into a hole for that time.” He said, sort of frowning, according to Marinette. “Making it simpler sure helped, but I still have a considerable amount to go with therapy.” He said, “Sorry if that’s not what you meant, when you asked if I was okay.” He darted his eyes away, thinking he accidentally overwhelmed Marinette.
“No, that’s nothing to apologize for, that’s really what I meant, I can go into detail about my life if you want to?” She half asked, half laughed.
“I forgot how much we used to just, laugh with each other.” She followed up with a bittersweet grin.
He stood there for a second, and then replied back, “We did.”
Adrien and Marinette found it oddly comforting to be in each other’s presence, even after all that had happened.
“It’s funny.” Adrien sighed, catching her attention, “How it’s like 5 minutes to the New Year, and here we are, doing close to nothing.”
“It really isn’t funny.” They said at the time, while Marinette giggled anyway.
“I see you’re still wearing the earrings.” He noticed, “I see you’re still wearing the ring.” She countered.
“I did kind of, get attached to my kwami just a bit.” He admitted truthfully.
“Right, so did I.” He breathed a sigh of relief when she agreed. “It sucked, really, being thrown all these responsibilities and having to juggle them and nobody must know our identities and stuff.” She sighed, looking down at her cup of hot chocolate.
“I couldn’t imagine what you must’ve been going through, and still showing up to school everyday like nothing was wrong,” He sympathized.
“At least now we know who we are, and there’s no danger lurking through Paris,” she said.
“True.” He straightened his back.
“So…” Adrien began, as they were finally standing face to face with each other. “Do right people with wrong timing ever get a second try?”
It caught Marinette off guard, she felt her breathing and heart fasten, and her mouth was left hanging for a few seconds before she could collect herself. She didn’t want to admit it, but she felt comfortable with his side as Chat Noir; Before she couldn’t imagine them being the same person, but over time, she saw how they were 2 sides of the same coin.
A part of her did feel that guilt, though, of knowing that Adrien had been going through such a tough time and every time he tried to talk to her about it, she simply refused, too busy with Adrien and her duties as Guardian than to think about Chat Noir.
“I…I don’t know, I never thought about it.” She frowned.
“Oh…” He said, looking a bit disappointed.
“It’s not like that I just, it just caught me off guard.” She stuttered.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to startle you, I was just wondering and I-” Marinette panicked and cut him off, “Well you didn’t, I just wasn’t expecting it but that isn’t-” They stuttered nervously for a few seconds, before ending up in a burst of laughter from both of them.
Marinette wiped a tear she almost shed laughing, “Well this is awkward.” She tried to lighten the mood. “I really didn’t mean for it to be-” Adrien started laughing before he could finish.
“Marinette! Adrien!” They head to the other side of the balcony they stood on, as Alya called their names. She saw them elevated on a roof and chuckled gently, mumbling something about a trip to New York.
Nevertheless, she checked her watch and shouted back, “30 seconds to the New year!”
Adrien and Marinette looked back to each other, excited and somewhat nervous at the same time.
Adrien’s eyes wandered up, and he pointed at something above them, as her eyes followed.
“Mistletoe.”
“I’ve always wondered what it looked like in real life.” She shrugged.
“I thought people were supposed to kiss under it or something.” Adrien mumbled as the countdown went to 15 around them.
“Yeah, some people do, I guess. Even when the countdown ends…” She mumbled back.
“I mean we don’t really have to its fine if you don’t want to,”
“No, I mean yeah I mean it’s not like I don’t want to,”
“It’s not that big of a deal it’s just a silly thing, who would notice,”
“Yeah, I mean no like it’s not that big of a deal and I mean we could,” Marinette panicked.
“10!” Their classmates’ voices faded to them.
“I, don’t want to freak you out or anything,” Adrien said promptly.
“9!”
“But I really like you, every part of you,” He hastened.
“8!”
“And I wouldn’t mind if we, you know, kissed,” He smiled, “But only if you want to, I don’t want to force anything on you.” He grinned, breathing faster.
Marinette felt the ground shift from her feet, she felt like she was in a dream and this had been a great fantasy all along, but it felt real, something about it felt real to her.
She felt the cold wind against her lips, longing.
“5!” She was brought back to reality, “I, wouldn’t mind if we did either I just,” She scrunched her nose.
“4!”
“What is it?” he frowned.
“3!”
“Just promise me this isn’t the end of our, story or whatever,” she said, panicking while speaking her mind.
“2!”
He smiled, as if it wasn’t going to be a problem at all, “I promise, it’s us against the world m’lady.”
“1!”
“Then what’s the wait, kitty?” She stood up on her toes, while he grabbed both her hands at her sides, taking a step towards her.
“Happy New Year!”
With the announcement of the new year, Marinette stood on her toes with her hands in Adrien’s, and their lips met.
With the moonlight glowing on them, their lips backed away after a short second, but Adrien saw Marinette smile and lean up, and they touched their lips again.
Marinette felt the warmth of Adrien’s hands and gently squeezed them in hers. To her, for those few seconds, everything felt perfect.
They backed away, unconcerned about the eyes on them.
“So, I guess right people can find a right time.” She bit her lip.
“I guess they can.” Adrien brought his hand up to her cheek.
“I’m glad we did.” She whispered.