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“Ugh,” Marinette groans, collapsing backward onto the floor from where she had been sitting crisscrossed in front of Adrien. “Why does geometry have to exist? Why can’t I just live a peaceful existence without having to worry about converting radians to degrees or whether or not two circles are the same!”
She hears Adrien laugh from a few feet away and hears as he shuffles over to sit down beside where Marinette had been having her tantrum.
“Yeah, I get it. Geometry isn’t my favorite either,” He said, taking Marinette’s hand and pulling her back up to a sitting position, despite her groans of reluctance. “But c’mon, I’ll teach you. What exactly is confusing?”
“I don’t know! Everything!” Marinette said, slouching her back and resting her head on her hands.
Adrien chuckled, “Okay, how about I walk you through a problem on the homework? Maybe that can help clear it up for you,” Adrien offered, willing to do anything to help his girlfriend.
Immediately Marinette felt a pang of feeling. Seeing Adrien so patient and willing to help made her feel loved, and it reminded her why she had fallen in love with him in the first place.
And so Adrien began to explain everything fully and carefully, making everything that had seemed like such a strange concept take a better, more understanding shape in her mind. She could tell that all of it was extremely easy for him, but never did he make her feel dumb or slow for not getting it. On the contrary; it seemed like he enjoyed walking her through everything.
Before long, Marinette was solving problems without Adrien’s guidance, something she had never thought she would be able to accomplish.
“Wow, Adrien. You’re really good at this,” Marinette said after finishing the last problem on their homework page.
“Not really. It’s a lot easier to understand than how they teach it at school. Plus, my dad used to get me a lot of tutors, so it doesn't count.”
Something that Marinette had noticed throughout her and Adrien’s relationship is his tendency to downplay his achievements. Every time Adrien was good at something, it was always, ‘not a big deal’.
“Ugh! Adrien, stop doing that. You’re good at soo many things and I hate it when you try to convince yourself that you’re not.”
“What do you mean? I don’t do that. I’m just saying that my tutors are the reason why I’m good.” Adrien said.
“See! You just did it again! You’re great at math and you’re great at singing and you're great at playing the piano.”
When Marinette met Adrien’s eyes again he said, “Oh, uh, thanks, Marinette.”
He stayed silent for a few seconds before continuing. “I don’t know. I just feel like it's so unfair that I get so many advantages. Like, the only reason I’m good at things is because I paid for it.” Adrien looked away, “I know it’s stupid.”
“Oh, Adrien. It’s not stupid. And, I’ve seen you help other kids in school too. It takes a special kind of person to be able to teach people so well!”
Marinette put the cheerfulness back in her voice. “Wait, do you smell that? I think my parents are making croissants!" She said, knowing that they were Adrien's favorites. "Let's go!” She said, standing up and reaching a hand out towards Adrien.
Adrien laughed and let himself be pulled up by his girlfriend, “Oh, I can smell them from here.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you like my parent’s baking more than you like me?” Marinette joked.
“Dang it, you caught me.”