Chapter Text
“Netty, are you going to get up? Aunt Sabine sent me up—your alarm’s been going off for twenty minutes.”
Marinette let out a groan and grabbed her phone to turn off the alarm. “I’m coming, just give me a minute…”
Marc rolled his eyes but smiled a bit at the answer. “Alright--we don’t want to be late, though.” He waited until he saw Marinette’s form move to a sitting position on her bed before he turned to go back downstairs to the kitchen where he sat at the counter. “Marinette’s getting up, though it may be a moment or two.”
“Thank you, Marc,” Sabine said as she set a couple of boxes of cereal on the counter. “How are you feeling?”
Before answering, Marc grabbed one of the cereal boxes and poured it into a bowl. Stalling, perhaps, but he also needed a moment to gather his thoughts.
“I’m okay,” he managed to say semi-convincingly before Sabine could express concern over his lack of an answer. “And I am going today.”
Sabine nodded. It’d been a frequent discussion for the past month after Marc had moved in, but he’d been firm on trying to keep things as normal as possible. Fortunately, Marinette came down before any more discussion could be had.
“Morning,” she greeted through a yawn.
“Glad you could join us,” Marc teased with a grin as Marinette sat down next to him and kissed his temple.
Marinette rolled her eyes and reached across him to grab her cereal of choice. “Not all of use can function after creativity-induced all-nighters, Marc.”
Marc couldn’t help but chuckle. “Okay, I’ll concede on that, but I’m surprised you aren’t at least excited to see your friends.”
“Yeah, well I’m sure Chloé will be in my class again…”
“Alright, I can see how that could ruin any enthusiasm.” Even if Marc had never personally met the mayor’s daughter, he had heard more than enough about her.
“Four years in a row?” Sabine asked. “Is that even possible?”
Marinette sighed and shook some cocoa powder into her cereal. “With my luck, it is.” As if to prove her point, she accidentally knocked the powder over as she set it down, which then knocked an orange out of the fruit bowl, and before either teen could stop it, the orange rolled across the counter and knocked over the milk. “Oh…”
“Oops…” Marc said as he picked up the cocoa powder and Sabine picked up the milk. “I’m sure that didn’t mean anything?”
“Why don’t you two finish getting ready for school?” Sabine suggested as she cleaned up the mess. “It won’t do any good to be late for the first day.”
“Alright, Mom”
“Okay, Auntie.”
Soon enough, Marc and Marinette were leaving the bakery with macarons for their classmates in hand, though Marc had to grab Marinette’s bag to keep her from falling into the crosswalk when the light turned red before a car whizzed by. “Oh! Thanks…”
Marc smiled at his cousin, but then gasped at the older man entering the crosswalk with shaky steps. Marinette turned and gasped at the sight, and without thinking, she ran forward to help the man out of the street before another car could come by and hit him. Unfortunately, Marinette tripped on the curb in her haste, dropping her box of macarons and causing Marc to drop his as he grabbed her arms to keep her from falling completely.
Perfect start to the day.
~§¤§~
“This should be your homeroom. You have Ms. Mendeleiev, right?"
Marc nodded while rubbing his thumbs against the straps of his bag. “Yeah… And we’re meeting up for lunch?”
Marinette smiled and kissed Marc’s cheek. “Of course. And no matter what, your first day can’t be all that bad.”
“You’re right…” Marc managed a small smile before pulling Marinette into a quick hug before the warning bell rang. “You should go--I don’t want you to be late. Might as well start with a good impression.”
“Alright, I’m going…” Marinette muttered with a good-natured eye roll as she left for her own class, and once she was gone, Marc let out a sigh and frowned to himself before going into the science lab. He kept his head down as he slipped into the classroom and made a beeline for the back of the room. First day--unless the teacher had a seating chart, it was the day to claim seats for the school year, and there was no way Marc was going to sit in the front.
Fortunately, there was an open seat in the back row, and he quickly slid into it before taking a deep breath, ignoring the twinge in his side. He'd even managed to get to class early enough to get some pre-class writing ideas down (even if he knew he'd probably write during class as well).
Though he'd scarcely gotten a sentence written before someone came to the desk. "Is this seat taken?"
Marc jumped slightly and looked up at his classmate. Someone else with a punk aesthetic--complete with dyed hair--but gentle eyes and a soft smile.
Definitely were worse options for a desk mate.
“You can sit there…” Marc murmured, turning back to his journal. Great, he’d successfully been able to talk to a person that wasn’t Marinette--his family was going to be proud of him.
He watched out of the corner of his eye as his new desk mate sat down next to him and pulled out his tablet, though he couldn’t see what he was doing on it.
Eventually, the teacher--Ms. Mendeleiev--started class with attendance (apparently his desk mate’s name was Luka Couffaine) and started going on about rules and expectations for the year.
Even only half-listening, Marc could tell it was fairly standard stuff, not too different from how his previous school had been. If that was going to be the case, maybe this wouldn’t be too bad--especially now that he had Marinette at school and his aunt and uncle at home.
Of course, he wasn’t quite prepared for the giant rock monster when on his way to study hall.
~§¤§~
“Hey, Marc,” Marinette greeted as Marc approached the table she was sitting at with a girl he didn’t know. “How’s it going so far?”
Marc shrugged and sat down in the seat across from the girls. “It’s not awful.”
The girl Marinette was sitting next to let out a laugh at the answer. “Can’t argue there!”
Marinette laughed slightly before saying, “This is Alya--a new friend in my class. Alya, this is my cousin, Marc.”
“Nice to meet you, Marc,” Alya greeted, extending her hand across the table for Marc to shake, which he accepted with only minimal hesitance.
“Likewise,” he answered before pulling his hand back. Great, he’d managed to double the number of new people he’d talked to. “How’s dealing with Chloé so far?”
Marinette sighed and dropped her head onto the table. “It’s as expected… Pushed me out of my usual seat…” She lifted her head again and rested it against her hand. “What about you? Making friends with your classmates yet?”
He was saved from answering by the ground shaking and knocking the three of them out of their chairs. “What was that?”
“Let’s go look!” Alya said as she helped Marinette up before leading her to the librarian counter, behind which was a large TV showing the feed of several of the school’s security cameras--including one showing a large, stone monster outside the front of the school, which yelled “Kim!” before running off.
“That sounded like Ivan…” Marinette said to herself, grabbing onto Marc’s forearm.
“He’s like a supervillain!” Alya exclaimed before pulling out her phone. “GPS, battery… Perfect! I gotta get going!”
Alya managed to get to the doors to the library before Marinette could process what she was saying and turned towards her. “What? Where are you going?”
“A superhero’s got to be turning up to stop him, and I’m not missing it!” Alya answered before running out.
Marc couldn’t help but have his doubts, especially as the rock being (Ivan?) threw a car at the camera, knocking it out.
~§¤§~