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Marinette banged on the locker door in frustration, unable to comprehend the fact that she couldn’t get it open. Tikki had tried to phase through the door, but something was warding her off, something the little kwami described as a ‘barrier’ as if something was there to protect this particular locker. Before she could try a different method, the footsteps of approaching individuals warned the coming of the fencers, and more importantly - Adrien.
She gave the locker one more frantic pull before deciding that it was a lost cause. With a heavy heart she ran to the side of the door, chewing her lip nervously as the door swung open and the stream of sweaty fencers entered the room. After waiting a few moments after all students had filtered through, she took her opening and ran out of the locker room, as silently - but quickly - as she possibly could.
“Marinette, are you okay?” Her kwami worriedly floated next to her as she slowed to a stop.
They were outside the school, with Marinette breathing heavily out of breath and grimacing at what she had done, what she could’ve done, it was almost too much. She sank to her knees as the reality of the situation set into her vibrant imagination. Marinette curled in herself, wrapping her arms trying to warm the freezing feeling inside.
Adrien was going to hear her voicemail.
He was going to hate her.
And she would lose her chance at love with him forever.
“Marinette?” Tikki asked again, this time floating near her face, lifting one hand to pet her arm gently. “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be fine! Adrien is a nice guy, I don’t think he’ll-”
“He’s going to hate me, Tikki.” Marinette interrupted her kwami, a look of loss and devastation on her face. “At this rate, I’ll never-”
“Don’t say that!” The small kwami pushed itself into Marinette’s face, shocking the young girl. The magical being stared hard into her eyes which were shining with determination - and hope.
“I know that you’ll succeed, Marinette. This is a simple mistake, you can’t just give up.” The kwami explained, her face softening a little. “Adrien is a kind person, I’m sure if you explain, everything will be alright.”
Marinette looked away, appearing to be deep in thought. She ran her teeth over her bottom lip, as she contemplated quietly herself. It was easy to see that she was distressed.
“How do you know?” She asked after a while, in a small voice.
Tikki tilted her head, with a charming smile. “I know so.” She blinked thoughtfully.
The girl looked up at the kwami, her face portrayed her disbelief. “How?”
The kwami giggled. “Because this has happened before.”
-~*~-
Despite Tikki’s words, Marinette could not be consoled. Her first thought after reaching home was calling Alya and then confessing about how distraught she was feeling, but she didn’t have the energy to take out her phone and call her. Her heart was constricted by a sickening icy thorn, sucking out emotions. In fact, she was disgusted by phones and the mere thought of looking at it was making her sick.
Not after what just happened.
Marinette had only just sat down to re-think the recent events when her phone vibrated. Her heart jumped into her throat and she was terrified of the idea that it was Adrien calling her. He would be calling her about the voice mail. He was going to tell her that he hated her. Cold sweat broke on her brow as her jittery hands brought the phone up to her face so she could check who was calling her.
Her sigh of relief was so loud that it could've knocked down a house. It was Alya.
She was safe... for now.
Gritting her teeth and putting on her best smile, Marinette accepted the call from her best friend. She cringed when the call went through. Anything involving phone right now was making her unnecessarily jump.
“Marinette, where are you?” Alya's face popped up on the screen. She had skipped the greeting of course, she was never one for doing that. She was often straight and to the point. “Did you get the phone?” Alya blinked then squinted her eyes. “Hey, you okay? You look a bit pale.”
“Well…” The cold rush flooded into her system and she squeezed her phone tightly. “About the phone…” Her voice trailed off and an awkward silence followed.
“Do you need help unlocking it?” Alya cut in before Marinette could work up the courage to continue talking. “Most phones have locks on them. Luckily, I am an expert at unlocking them!” Alya grinned, but when she saw Marinette’s face grew darker, she frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Marinette looked off the screen and at Tikki, who was gesturing her to go on. “I...I…”
“‘I, I, ’ what, Marinette?” Alya pressed, a look of concern on her face. “I’m your best friend, you can tell me.”
“I…” Marinette clenched her jaw before erupting with a cry, nearly tossing her phone up in the air. “I couldn’t get the phone, Alya! His locker was locked!”
“What!?” Her best friend had a look of shock on her face and she immediately waved a hand to calm her distressed companion. “Calm down, Marinette, we’ll figure something out when I get over to your place…”
Loud shouting was heard behind her and Alya's eyes widened and she looked behind her to where the Louvre Pyramid was standing. Her best friend took a moment or two staring blankly at the pyramid before looking back at Marinette.
“Listen, there’s a situation going on.” Alya explained hastily. “I’ll be right there, but I gotta get to the bottom of this.”
The young dark-haired girl blinked slowly, unsure what to think. “What? What’s going on?”
“Um, apparently Chat Noir up and stole the Mona Lisa.” Alya explained, looking a bit confused, but determined. “Now the police are after him.”
“What!?” Marinette cried out, eyes wide in shock. All thoughts about voicemail faded away and was replaced for concern for her feline crime-fighting partner. “But why? Chat Noir...he would never do such a thing…”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Alya said, twisting her lip in a perplexed manner. “I hope Ladybug gets here soon and sorts it out.” Another loud shout prompted Alya to whirl around and a look of shock was on her face. Then with a reassuring smile, she looked down at her phone, and waved. “Sorry. I gotta go, Marinette. The big scoop’s waiting for me. I’ll stop by your house after this blows over. We’ll deal with your lovesickness then.”
After a beat, Alya’s face flicked away and Marinette was met with a ‘Call Ended’ on her phone. She looked at Tikki, who had an equally confused look on her face.
“Why would Chat Noir steal the Mona Lisa?” She asked her kwami. “Last time I checked, he wasn’t exactly a very artsy type of person. Not enough to steal the Mona Lisa anyway.”
Tikki shook her head, but gestured worriedly. “I don’t know, but we must hurry! There must be a an explanation!”
“Right!”
Marinette swallowed, her mouth dry as cotton balls. She was deathly worried about what Adrien thought of her voicemail, but her duty as Ladybug must come first. The dark-haired girl will just have to deal with it later. Alya will be there to help. Everything will be okay.
So after one deep breath, she pushed all frantic thoughts away and decided to focus on what was going on with Chat Noir. Marinette wasn’t sure what reason Chat Noir had for stealing a nearly priceless painting, but it was likely that he needed her.
“Tikki! Transform me!”
-~*~-
Ladybug arrived on the scene and she was shocked by how many police officers were out and about. There was an army of officers just marching in, shouting about ‘getting the cat in the bag’ or something silly like that. She spotted Sabrina’s father, a police officer who looked like he was in charge of the situation and approached him.
“Hey!” She shouted firmly. Upon seeing her, the officer turned to her and gave a wry smile. “What’s going on?”
“We no longer need your assistance, Ladybug. The cat is in the bag, just leave it up to the professionals.” There was a smug look on the officer’s face which made Ladybug cringe.
“There must be a mistake! Chat Noir would never steal anything!” Ladybug protested, a little angrily. The whole situation was just so perplexing, who wouldn’t be frustrated? Added with the whole voicemail ordeal…
Focus, Marinette! She mentally slapped herself. Focus!
“The cat’s escaped! I repeat; the cat's escaped!” A frantic voice appeared over the radio.
After exchanging brief glances with the police officer, they both ran inside to see the army of officers that had entered in earlier all crumpled on the floor, writhing in pain, although Ladybug could see that they weren’t hurt too badly. Chat Noir was holding back.
“If he’s innocent, why did he escape?” The officer said, turning to her.
“Well, if you were wrongly imprisoned, wouldn't you try to run away?” She snapped back, clenching her face. Chat what are you doing? She asked herself.
Shaking his head, the police officer picked up the radio, completely ignoring her comment. “Calling for back-up! I repeat! Calling for back-up!”
That was when her yo-yo blinked up and vibrated in the palm of her hand. She looked down, seeing the dreaded green phone symbol glaring at her. She was quickly brought back to the thought of Adrien and the voicemail. He probably already checked the voicemail and was trying to contact her phone. Marinette was not looking forward to coming home.
Shaking the thoughts vigorously out of her head, she backed up slowly and ran up the stairs, answering the call only when she thought no one could hear her. Much to her relief, Chat Noir’s face appeared on the tiny screen smiling charmingly at her. He was alright. Thank goodness.
“What’s going on, Chat?” She demanded, although she was glad that Chat Noir had managed to escape.
“You know I’m innocent, right, my lady?” He asked, glaring up a little too close to the screen.
Ladybug frowned, clicking her tongue. “Quit playing around, kitty cat.” She scolded. “This is serious.”
A serious look crossed his face. “I’m going to find who’s responsible for this and save my tail,” he told Ladybug, full of confidence. “I doubt you’ll even to have to lift a finger.” Then he smiled worriedly. “You don’t look so good.”
Immediately, Ladybug brought one hand to her face, wondering if she looked any different. Alya did say she looked pale, although since she hadn’t looked in the mirror recently she had no idea.
“Chat Noir!” A loud voice boomed, accompanied by the deafening sound of a helicopter. It was so loud she could hear it from outside. “Surrender! We have you surrounded!”
Chat Noir suddenly looked up, a frightened look on his face. The shouting continued, and Chat Noir disappeared from her view.
“Chat! Chat, what’s happening?” Ladybug called out, but there was no response.
After a moment of noisy fumbling his face reappeared, looking a bit panicked. Flattening his cattish ears, he flashed a cocky smile.
“I’ll keep you updated.”
His face disappeared and was replaced by a red phone symbol. He had closed the call on her. That was a second time today someone has ended the call on her, both by people close to her. Marinette sighed under her breath, turning around to run outside.
“Ladybug!” The Officer called out to her. “Aren’t you going to catch Chat Noir?”
Rolling her eyes, Ladybug gave a wry smile. “I’ll just leave it to the professionals.” With a smug wink, she swung away in hopes of catching up to Chat Noir.
-~*~-
Marinette returned home as soon as she parted ways with Théo Barbot, the enthusiastic sculptor. Without so much as a hello to her parents, who were busy packing up unsold pastries for the night, she headed upstairs. Even though it was only five thirty in the early evening, she did not have any strength or energy to try stand up and do something.
She glanced at the phone on the table, aware that her phone had most likely run out of battery by now. Tikki floated silently by, probably unsure what to say. At first Marinette stood in the center of her room, not bothering to turn on the lights - staring into the blank shadows, much like how she was feeling right now. The kwami flew over to the dead phone, looking up at Marinette with tender dark blue eyes - perhaps a bit hopefully.
Bringing her gaze to her kwami, Marinette gave an effort to smile, but she only parted her mouth, sighing instead. The dark-haired girl looked tiredly at the phone and locked eyes with Tikki, who was hovering silently, waiting expectantly for an answer. After a few moments of silence, Tikki finally decided she needed to speak up.
“Marinette, please cheer up,” the kwami said gently, flying up so they were at eye-level. “Adrien is not going to hate you.” She gestured with her stubby little arms. “I’m sure if you just explain everything, it’ll be alright.”
She lifted one arm, patting Marinette gently on the shoulder.
“I promise.”
For a moment, it almost looked like she was going to respond, but a hardened look crossed her eyes and she gritted her teeth. Marinette’s gaze faltered from Tikki’s and she walked over to her bed and curled on her side.
And closed her eyes.
-~*~-
The sound of a door opening echoed loudly through the empty foyer. Closing the door behind him, Adrien looked up the flight of stairs, briefly wondering if he should say something to his father before heading to his room.
As soon as he took a step in the direction of the stairs, Plagg poked his head out of the bag and glanced up at him with sharp green eyes, almost as a warning. Catching his look, Adrien’s step faltered and he swallowed sadly. Turning towards his room, he left the foyer to go to his equally lonely room.
Upon entering his room, Adrien opened his bag to allow Plagg to fly out before closing the door. Tiredly, he walked to his table and took off his bag, carefully placing it on the table before tossing himself onto his swivel chair.
“It’s been a rough day, eh?” Plagg commented, retrieving a piece of cheese from the cabinet where Adrien usually stores his stashes of cheese.
“I would appreciate it if you ate the cheese far away from me.” Adrien closed his eyes, leaning back and taking a deep breath. “I’m tired.”
Plagg ignored him and continued to munch on the cheese delightfully, looking him carefully. “You got a voicemail, you know,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Oh, right!” exclaimed the blonde boy, reaching over to his bag to retrieve his phone.
Taking the device in his hand, he scrolled through all messages and notifications he missed. Most of them were just Nino asking him where he was and what homework they had tonight. He had a couple of missed calls accompanied by voicemail, one of which was from an unknown number. He quickly messaged Nino back, telling him that they had a history test in the next few days and went to check his voicemails.
Most of them were Natalia, monotonically reminding him that he had a photoshoot the next day and should return home from school tomorrow as quickly as possible. Same old, same old - very boring and really too much of a hassle to listen to.
The unknown caller intrigued him. He had always been told to be careful around strangers, since he is the son of a fashion legend, Gabriel Agreste, and was said to be very handsome. Adrien wondered if he should delete it, in fear of what he’d hear, but Plagg’s voice cut into his thoughts.
“Well? Aren’t you going to listen to it?” The dark kwami asked mischievously, taking a bite out of his cheese.
Adrien looked at his cattish kwami, who was looking at him with an oddly knowing look. He didn’t saying and pressed the button to listen to the call.
At first, there was some noisy fumbling, as if someone was frantically tossing a phone about, when suddenly a familiar voice finally spoke up.
“Hello, Adrien’s voicemail-er!” The voice started, but broke off with a terrified squeak. It was Marinette. He glanced at Plagg, who was staring curiously at him, offhandedly chewing on his cheese.
“I’m Marinette...uh,” Her voice stuttered. “I called because I probably had something to say...and called…”
How strange… Adrien thought to himself as the voicemail went on.
“Because this is your phone...So...call me back bye!” The last words came out in such a rush that the blonde boy had trouble registering it at first.
“That was weird.” He said, not to anyone in particular. Plagg just stared at him silently.
He was about to do as Marinette had asked to call her back when he realized that the voicemail wasn’t done. There were some noises as if she had thrown the phone about again. After a moment of silence, Marinette’s voice appeared again, except this time much clearer, but farther away, as if she was at a distance.
“What? What were you expecting?” Marinette voice said, a bit annoyed. Was there someone else there? “Hey, handsome boy! I’m Marinette! Do you want to go to the movies with me? Unfortunately my mouth foams and clamps shut so that I can’t even make a proper phone call, aren’t I funny?”
As Adrien’s eyes widened, his mouth slowly parting way to reveal his shock, the voice mail ended. He stared blankly at the device in his hand, wondering if he really heard what he had just heard. The blonde boy looked over at the kwami, who just seemed amused by the situation.
“She called me…” Adrien trailed off, staring at the phone again. He looked to Plagg for an explanation. “She called me…” He started again.
“Don’t look at me, I know just as much as you.” Plagg replied, finishing off his cheese block and burping. “You heard it with your own two ears.”
Adrien continued to gape at the call, but the shock soon faded away into sympathy. He listened to the voicemail again, trying to make more sense of it. Of course, it wasn’t the first time someone had approached him and told him he was handsome. He had relatively good looking parents, especially since his mother... - argh, no time to think about that now!
He just didn’t expect this kind of message from Marinette. He knew the cheerful dark-haired girl as a very well-mannered individual, one who sat behind him in class with a bright personality. She was a bit quirky, but she was lovable in her own special way. Adrien enjoyed listening to her prattle on about her life to Alya behind him - wondering to himself what it would be like to have a regular life. It must be nice; to have a loving family, many good friends, and not to have a burden of being a superhero.
The blonde boy had no idea that Marinette has that sort of affection towards him. And for some reason, it was really familiar. Of course, he had gotten many love letters by his ‘fans’, telling how perfect he was and if they would like to hang out sometime - Adrien turned all of them down, though. They were just so...annoying. They have no clue what it was like…
However, this was different. Just something about this voicemail, it seemed so...familiar. Although the first bit was just Marinette being Marinette, that second part of the voicemail - when she was talking in what he guessed was very casual, something Adrien had never really heard before from her before. The way she talked, it almost reminded him of…
Ladybug.
It reminded him a bit of how the spotted heroine always teased him - mostly on his endless attempts at flirting. Speaking of flirting, the way Marinette spoke, it reminded him a bit of himself. He could pick up something, even through the strange recording from a petty little device. A longing for a chance at love. It was something even he was struggling with.
For those two reasons reason, Adrien suddenly felt a need - a need to talk to her. Maybe... just maybe she is…
“So?” Plagg’s voice broke through his thoughts. “What are you going to do?”
Adrien stared at the kwami blankly, having forgotten his train of thought. Well, it doesn’t matter, it probably wasn’t very important. He was floating nearby, curling and uncurling his tail, looking at him curiously, but clearly amused. For a moment, he just looked at the unknown phone number before pressing the ‘Call’ button.
“I’m going to call her.” He replied to his kwami.
The blonde boy waited a few times, but Marinette never picked up. Instead, a robotic voice answered.
“Sorry, the number you are calling is currently unavailable. Please try again later.”
“Drat, her phone must be off,” Adrien exclaimed, looking at the phone, annoyed. “She’s probably busy…”
Plagg floated closer to his face, looking at him earnestly. “You can talk to her tomorrow. You have the same class with her.” He wiped his mouth with his tiny arms, much like a cat would to wash his face. “Talking face-to-face would be better in my opinion.”
Adrien looked at his cattish kwami for a moment, almost in disbelief. There was simply so much he wanted to say to her and he was afraid he would forget it all if he were to simply wait for tomorrow. Of course, he couldn’t call her now since her phone must be off and calling her house might seem bothersome. Plagg was right, talking face-to-face might be for the best, especially since he could get a clear answer.
“I’ll do that.”
-~*~-
Adrien waited patiently for the seat behind him to be filled. However, even as the bell rang for class to get started, he did not spot any sign of Marinette. Instead, Alya was sitting behind him - by herself - texting angrily into her phone. At some moments, Alya gave him an incredulous look, almost like she was blaming him for something, although he had done nothing wrong that he was aware of.
“Hey Nino,” he whispered to his friend, who was sitting next to him, staring blankly as the teacher droned on. “Do you know where Marinette is?”
The teen shrugged. “Dunno, I haven’t seen her at all today.” Then he gestured behind him. “You should ask Alya, she probably knows.”
Suddenly, the teacher looked around and stared directly and Adrien and Nino, with piercing hawk-like eyes. Adrien actively took the pencil in his hand and pretended to be writing notes while Nino turned his eyes back to the board, where all the kooky wacky school mumbo jumbo was located.
“Maybe you should ask her later,” whispered Nino under his breath. “Ms. Hawk-eyes has eyes on the back of her head.”
Adrien nodded, making a mental note to approach Alya once the period was over.
After an exhausting forty-five minutes of lecturing, the bell finally rang, signaling the end of the period. Adrien was about to turn around to talk to Alya, when a blur of reddish brown hair walked right past him and out the door. Adrien watched, dumbfounded as Alya just stood up and left him, as if she was ignoring him. Nino watched the girl rush out of the room and gave Adrien a questioning look.
“Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Nino commented, stuffing his books into his bag.
Annoyed, Adrien grabbed his school bag and ran out the door after Alya, leaving a very confused Nino behind. He managed to track her down to the locker rooms, where she was texting yet again, looking a bit angry. He quietly approached her from behind, using his silent catwalk - something he had learned as Chat Noir.
“Hey, Alya.” He called out.
The girl whirled around, phone in hand and almost sucker punched him in the jaw if he hadn’t taken a step back. “Oh, it’s you.” She said rather bluntly, crossing her arms.
“Um, yeah…” he scratched the back of his head. “Do you know where Marinette is?”
Instantly, Alya perked up and looked even more ticked off than she originally appeared to be. “What do you want?”
“I just want to talk to her.” Adrien explained. “I got a voicemail from her and-”
“Do you hate her?” Alya cut him off before he could finish talking. He blinked, dumbfounded.
“What?”
“Do you hate her?” The teen girl repeated, this time, emphasizing each word very carefully. As if to top it off, she leaned towards him, squinting threateningly at him.
Adrien was a bit taken aback, but he stood his ground. “Hate her? Marinette? No! Why would...why would I hate her?”
Upon hearing his answer, Alya seemed satisfied and a smile crept across her face. She appeared to be deep in thought before nodding to herself, chuckling a bit. Adrien couldn’t be more perplexed by the situation.
“Sorry about that, just got worked up over a little something,” his fellow classmate told him. “Now that we’ve got that cleared out of the way...” Alya took a more serious expression. “Marinette’s sick, so she’s staying at home.”
“Sick?”
“Yeah, I visited her yesterday and she wouldn’t come out of bed…” She rolled her eyes. “...for some reason.” She sighed. “She was really worked up something fierce and caught a bug or something. Marinette’s at home right now.”
“Oh…” Adrien trailed off. He really wanted to talk to Marinette, but he shouldn’t talk to her if she wasn’t feeling well. “Thanks, Alya, I guess I’ll just-” Adrien turned to walk away.
“Wait!” She roughly grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him a few feet closer. Adrien’s shoes skidded on the floor as he tried to keep his balance. “I think it would really mean a lot to her if you visited her.”
“Me?” The blonde teen asked. “I should visit her? When she’s sick?”
Alya nodded. “If you heard that voicemail, you understand why right?” She squinted suspiciously at him.
“I do…” Adrien replied thoughtfully. Then he nodded his head in understanding. “I’ll go visit her during lunch break.”
The dark brown-haired girl chuckled, smiling to herself. She glanced at her phone before shutting it off and putting it in her bag. She went over and patted Adrien on the back, grinning cheerfully.
“You better visit her, handsome boy.” She was using Marinette’s phrase. “Your princess is waiting for you.”
“I, uh…” Adrien stammered. “I promise.”
-~*~-
Adrien knocked at the door of the bakery. In one hand, he had a basket full of flowers he had bought on the way there, thinking that Marinette could use some cheering up. He hadn’t the slightest clue that perhaps Marinette’s sickness was tied to the voicemail he had heard earlier on. Upon approaching the bakery, Adrien noticed that the lights were off. Doubt crept into his mind and he considered high-tailing it out of there, but he remembered his promise to Alya and the obligation he had to her voicemail. He had to keep going.
After taking a few steps before the door, he noticed that there was a ‘Sorry, we’re closed’ sign on it. Marinette’s parents didn’t seem to be here. Licking his dry lips, Adrien peeked inside the bakery, peering through the darkness hoping to spot some movement inside, but there was nothing. No life.
“Maybe I should try another time…” Adrien wondered out loud, although he knew that he was going to try to see if anyone was home anyway.
Plagg peeked out of his coat and looked up at him with curious eyes, before slipping back in. It was almost if the kwami was making sure that Adrien was going through with it.
Adrien rapped at the door a few times, making sure that it was loud enough for anyone to hear it. At first, there was just silence, no movement in the darkness inside. The blonde teen uncomfortably shifted from foot to foot, waiting for something to happen. Instead, he brought his attention to the basket of flowers that was hanging from his arm. He had made sure to put lots of lovely flowers - sweet scented too - to possibly speed up the healing process.
Now that he thought about it, Adrien wasn’t sure what kind of sickness Marinette had. All he had confirmed with Alya is that she was sick and nothing more. Apparently, she had gone over to Marinette’s place the previous day to check up on her, but later found out that she was ‘terribly ill’, as she put it. Strangely, Alya made it seem that he had the magical cure - that his visit would make things all better, although Adrien couldn’t fathom why he would fix Marinette’s condition. He wasn’t a doctor or anything - and he certainly didn’t have any of the rejuvenating abilities that Ladybug has, although Alya wouldn’t know about it anyway. There was clearly nothing special about-
Ring ring.
The door opened, shocking Adrien. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he wasn’t paying attention to the door. At first, he looked at the frail person who had opened the door with wide eyes, unsure what to do. It was definitely Marinette - and she definitely looked sickly. Her skin was white as a sheet and there were bags under her eyes that suggested that she didn’t get enough sleep. Her normally neat and well-brushed hair was in shambles, a loose red ribbon holding the tangled mess in place. She was wearing a thin shawl and some clothing that hung loosely against her skin.
At first, the two just stared at each other, trying to take in the sight. After a moment, Marinette seemed to realize who was in front of her and she took a few steps back in disbelief. The look of shock and pain on her face as she looked felt like an electric shock to him . Why was she so afraid of him? After her third step backwards, she tripped backwards and on instinct, Adrien snaked out his hand to grab her on the arm before she could even have a chance to take a tumble.
“Marinette!” He said, pulling her back on her feet and then grabbing on her shoulders to steady her. “Are you okay?”
“Ad-Ad...Adrien….” She whispered his name like the plague.
When Adrien saw how freakishly deathly she looked after those jumbled words he quickly helped her down so now that she was sitting on the tiles. She looked so terrified, but Adrien wasn’t quite sure why. He had only come to check on her and to talk about the voicemail she sent. He shut the door behind him as let himself in and set the flowers down on the floor. Then he turned his attention to the shivering dark-haired teen.
“Marinette, are you okay?” The blonde teen asked, sitting in front of her so he was kneeling. He put a hand firmly on her shoulder to show his support. “What’s wrong?”
“You-you actually…” she stammered incoherently. “I thought- what are...you doing…” She brought a hand to her head. Marinette almost looked like she was going to cry.
“What’s wrong?” Adrien asked again, tilting his head lower so he could look into her eyes.
“But you...but…” She gritted her teeth. “But you hate me.” Marinette finally looked up at him, terrified beyond belief.
Adrien looked back a bit shock. It took a moment or two for that to settle in. The words were familiar. Oh, that’s right...that’s the first thing Alya asked him when he came to ask where Marinette is. Suddenly, something clicked in his brain and his mouth formed an ‘o’ sign as he realized what was going on.
Marinette liked him. She sent an embarrassing voicemail. She thought he hated her. Adrien raised his own hand to his head, almost to slap himself on how stupid he was. How did he not realize this sooner? The blonde teen would’ve laughed out loud on how stupid he was, but he just gave a small strangled chuckle instead. He looked at Marinette, a bright smile on his face.
“I don’t hate you, Marinette,” he assured her, putting both hands on her shoulders and leaning closer to her when she finally looked up. “I never hated you.”
“You don’t!?” She squeaked, almost jumping back, but she she didn’t move.
“In fact, I like you.” Adrien assured, letting go of her shoulders and smiling. When she didn’t react, he took her hand in his own. “I think you’re a kind person - and I like kind people.”
Marinette continued to stare at him as if he had suddenly grown another head. Although he was at a loss of really what to do, he took her hand and stood up, gently pulling the dark-haired girl onto her feet. He leaned down and picked up the basket of flowers.
“A nice person like you shouldn’t sit on the cold floor. Let’s go to your room, you can rest there,” Adrien said.
Without another word, the blonde teen tugged on her hand, leading the awestruck girl to what he guessed was her room. Adrien had never been in her house before, but he guessed that it was probably the door leading upstairs. While they were going up, he glanced back to look at Marinette, who still looked like she had just witnessed murder. Smiling reassuringly, he lead her to her room and pushed her onto the bed.
“Are you okay now?” He asked, trying to be gentle as possible. If Marinette liked him, he should be extra careful. Like many of his other ‘fans’...but Marinete was special in a way. She reminded him a lot of himself….and of-
“Y-yeah...” she replied back, still a little wide-eyed. “I-I’m fine.”
“That’s a relief,” Adrien said, laughing lightly. “You looked so pale I thought you’d faint.” Marinette nervously chuckled along.
Adrien put the flowers on her desk. “I brought you some flowers. I thought you might’ve needed something nice to look at other than yourself.”
Marinette immediately choked on her spit and Adrien quickly rushed over to make sure she was alright. He felt a bit ashamed of himself. He normally never flirted with anyone unless he was Chat Noir - only with Ladybug, but just being around Marinette, something just slipped out. That was weird.
“I-er...sorry.” Adrien said after she stopped coughing.
She cleared her throat. “It’s alright.” Marinette answered, her voice a little hoarse from coughing.
“Maybe you should lie down and take a nap.” he suggested. “You look like you might need it.”
“Sleep? While you’re here?” The dark haired girl exclaimed.
Adrien waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about me.” Something clicked inside his mind. “In fact, I’ll wait until you’ll fall asleep.”
He pushed her gently on the shoulders until she was lying down her bed. After making sure she was comfortable, he then kneeled at the floor beside the bed so he was resting his head and arms at the bedside. Smiling, he took Marinette’s hand shifted himself so he was comfortable himself. Marinette turned her eyes to look at him. It was obvious that she thought she was hallucinating, so Adrien held her hand tighter to ensure that she was not dreaming.
“I heard your voicemail,” he told her and Adrien noticed her shy away. “I think you sound much better when you don’t stutter all the time.”
“Oh…” Marinette blinked a couple times. “I mean-uh, er, thanks!”
“And, I would love to go to the movies with you,” the blonde teen said. Then he remembered the photoshoot and inwardly scowled. “Not now though, I’m a bit busy, but a day off would sound like a lot of fun. Maybe some other time.”
Marinette nearly bolted up. “Really?!”
Adrien nodded. “Yeah.”
With a tired sigh, Marinette leaned back and for the first time in this encounter looked completely relaxed. She looked up at the ceiling, smiling to herself. Adrien watched her curiously. There was something about that smile that seemed so familiar...
-~*~-
“I’ll wait for you to fall asleep,” Adrien told her. “Just close your eyes. I’ll be right here...”
Marinette nodded, somewhat absent-mindedly, her eyes starting to droop shut, but she wanted to stay awake. Adrien was here, he was really here! And he was caring for her! If this was a dream, she never wanted to wake up - or fall asleep again? Eventually, as the seconds ticked by, she gave in and closed her eyes shut, as Adrien had told her to.
Marinette could’ve sworn she heard something, but before she could give it a second thought she slipped away.
“I’ll be right here, my Lady.”