Chapter Text
She likes him. Since about forever, she’s liked him; at least, since he appeared at the front of the class, a little late, a little shy when the teacher introduced him.
Adrian Agreste .
She knew that name; well, the Agreste part. Any aspiring fashion designer would.
‘Must be his son’, she thought.
He was homeschooled, he modeled, he fenced, was an all out amazing basketball athlete, and he played piano; he was an avid reader; math and physics came easily to him.
What wasn’t he good at?
If she hadn’t already been crushing on him, she might have been jealous.
So after class that day, so long ago, she had tried to talk to him, get to know him, and that’s where her trouble started. Every time she looked at his face, met his gaze, her words stuck in her throat and she was rendered speechless. She could never figure out why; she had crushed before, but she had never ended up stuttering .
Thus began her tortuous relationship with Adrian Agreste, the boy who sat in front of her, who she wanted with all her heart to talk to, but never could.
At first it had been all she could think about, but slowly it lost its importance to other more pressing matters like having an alter ego , and then her momentary dumbness only happened around him when she was trying to talk about something, you know , that might matter.
Like this impromptu skit they were supposed to be writing.
Ah yes, just when she needed it. Thank God Alya and Nino were also paired up with them, or the skit would have no hope, no not even with Ladybug’s luck.
“…So Ladybug can swoop down, and rescue Chat, and it can end with a kiss!”
Never mind, this skit had no hope.
“How is that comedy?”
“ I beg your pardon, but it’s hilarious because it’ll never happen .”
Marinette starts to reply, mumbling something about getting along and staying focused, but her words come out sounding more like she’s choking than talking.
Maybe she should write her comments instead…
They’ve moved on.
Good, the Ladybug sketch was a horrible idea; besides, a skit was normally funny, right?
{Another kiss would not be funny, not at all}
Of course, their newest topic isn’t any better.
“You know that one scene from the Princess Bride? Like, at the end…”
Oh… Kissing. That’s what they were doing. Her hand moves in nervous pattern as her mind grapples for ideas, anything to distract Alya from matching her up to her hopeless crush, but before she comes up with anything to show her classmates, s Bustier is back, and wants their attention.
At first the whole class is afraid they’re going to fail (because five minutes isn’t enough to come up with anything good for a skit), but she laughs and tells them they have the weekend to get it ready for Monday, and hints that they’ll see where it goes from there.
“This is cool; we have to meet up later to finish.”
Nino leans back, looking at Alya.
“I still think something with Ladybug and Chat Noir.”
Alya says adamantly.
“Wait, so who’d be Ladybug?”
Adrian joins them.
“Umm… hmm.”
Alya pauses, looking from herself to Marinette.
“Marinette would make a really hot Ladybug.”
Marinette squeaks.
“Umm, well, I really don’t think….Um, well, you know, haha, that, I-mean, Ladybug is just ya know …. And I’m so clumsy! We don’t look anything alike, after all, Haha, um….”
Her face was red; there was no pink, it was blood red.
As deep a crimson as the mask of her alter-ego.
“You’re right; she kinda does look like Ladybug.”
Nino grins at Alya.
They were ganging up on her now.
Adrian looks confused.
“You would make a good Ladybug, I think, Marinette.”
He turns, and their eyes meet.
Oh poor, naïve Adrian, he would never know how his eyes affect her.
There was no hope for Marinette.
She would be a tomato in her next life.
And what had she done to deserve that?
“Ahhheheheheheumya…like… reallyuhwon’tworkI’dtotallysuckatLadybug,likeIwassaying,hahahaee!!!!!”
She becomes a stuttering mess.
Alya decides to give her best friend a rest; she didn’t want Marinette to die from too much exposure {to Adrian} after all.
“So let’s meet up tomorrow to work on the script, ‘kay? The hotel, you know.”
“Cool, I’ll drag Adrian with me. What time?”
The other three gradually made their way out, Adrian casting a concerned glance at Marinette every now and then.
Her head falls in her hands.
Marinette waits for the rest of the class to leave while she sits at her desk, replaying what just happened. Embarrassed was an understatement; she was tired of feeling scared to death and yet excited at the same time, just because there was a cute boy who she idolized in front of her.
Was that her problem?
If she just stopped crushing on him, then could she talk to him without stuttering?
But even then, how do you stop crushing on someone who is both really, really nice and really, really gorgeous?
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xOx
“Tikki, what am I supposed to do? I’m a stuttering mess every time he looks at me!”
“But you like it, right?”
“Well, yah…That’s kind of what happens when you have a crush.”
“So what’s your problem?”
“I don’t like having a crush on him!”
“So don’t.”
“Is it really that simple?”
“It’s a simple as you make it… although you really have liked him for a long time, it probably won’t go away in a day.”
“…..”
“I idolize him too much don’t I?”
“You really do.”
xOx
Possible ways for getting over your crush: Stop staring, start thinking, Maybe avoid them … etc.
Somehow, I still think that won’t work; I’ll have to see him every day at class, and I have to work on this skit thing with him in our group.
You see, I have finally decided that me and Adrian are over; done; finished.
Except I don ’ t really know what that means; it feels like I ’ ve been crushing on him since forever, and I don ’ t really know how to stop.
I ’ m going to call Alya, maybe she can help.
Later … .
She ’ s coming over!?
And … I can ’ t really tell if she ’ s proud of me for trying to move on, or if she ’ s disappointed because she ’ ll lose … a bet?
People were betting on us?
Ummmm, she said they even had a ship name … It ’ s cute.
But, it won ’ t happen; he doesn ’ t like me that way, I ’ m sure of it, and I ’ m so over him.
Or I will be.
I hope.
Is it even possible? To be over someone after liking them for so long?
Ladybug Secrets,
Marinette
XoX
Alya arrived armed with books, notes, and a checklist; counselor duties were serious business, you know.
She barges into her friend’s room, where Marinette frantically hides her diary behind her pillow.
Marinette doesn’t even get to say hello before Alya enacts “Operation Crush-less”.
“First of all, you need to get rid of all your embarrassing posters.”
“But-”
Marinette protests from her bed.
“No exceptions!”
Alya drags her best friend to the wall to start cleaning.
“Hmm, this is a nice one. Maybe you could donate these to charity, or something.”
“What?!”
“You’ve got some pretty nice ones, and we both know you’re not the only one with an obsessive crush on the boy.”
“…so you want me to support that?”
“Well, you might make a dime.”
About an hour later, her room was Adrian free: No more posters on the wall, no more magazine with their classmate’s face, no more modeling pictures in her computer files, and finally gone was the flirty pink background on her computer—Alya had given her room a final run down, and changed it to Ladybug.
(Marinette promised herself to change it, after her friend left.)
All the posters were safely stowed away in grocery bags hidden in her closet.
The two girls collapse from exhaustion.
xOx
Later that night after Alya leaves, and Marinette has changed her background theme to cats (because…) Ladybug could be seen, faintly, jumping off the bakery roof top.
She is intent, focused; she is looking for a certain ‘cat’ of her own. She wants to talk, and not about Adrian; she’s a little tired of talking about him. Even thinking about him makes her head ache (and her heart, but she tries to ignore that)
Paris is vast, and she finds herself patrolling alone. Somehow, somewhere, for whatever reason, her kitty was not to be found.
She returns home, clouds covering the sky and maybe a tear or two in her eye.
Maybe.
She climbs into bed, and she wishes she never had to leave.
Never was there a nicer day to be ruined than the following Saturday morning.