Chapter Text
Adrien slowly woke up to not only his alarm, but to Plagg making a fuss.
“Turn that noisy thing off! Why must you use it?” Plagg flew around his head, complaining.
Adrien shut his phone alarm off and pulled his head up from his pillow. He searched his room and spotted Plagg sitting on his desk eating some cheese Adrien kept on hand.
“I need it so I can wake up on time Plagg,” he yawned, sitting up and stretching.
“I could wake you up instead,” Plagg suggested shoving another wedge into his mouth. When he didn’t receive an answer he looked up to Adrien, meeting his doubtful gaze. “You’re right, keep your annoying noise machine.”
Adrien laughed as he got out of bed. He looked out his window and gasped, a smile upon his face. Paris was graced with a layering of snow. He began to dress for school with a new pep in his step.
“Let’s go Plagg,” he said, opening his bag for his kwami to easily fly in. he smiled when he grabbed the scarf his father gave him for his birthday. As he threw it on he noticed some gold threading he hadn’t before. However, before he could take a closer look, he heard Natalie calling his name. He dropped the end of his scarf, heading down the stairs, and made a mental note to take a closer look at the stitching when he got to school.
***
Marinette burrowed her nose deeper into the scarf she finished the night before. Thank goodness too. She squinted at the sky and the snowflakes falling form it.
“Stupid snow,” she muttered under her breath.
“Mari, do you not like snow?” Tikki asked, sticking her head out from Marinette’s purse.
Marinette shook her head. “I really dislike being cold, I dislike how dark the days are, and I dislike how slippery everything is, making me less graceful than normal,” she explained as she walked up the steps to the school.
As if on cue, Marinette’s foot slipped on the top step, falling forward and banging the front of her shin and knee on two of the steps. She let out a gasp of pain followed by a groan of defeat. As she tried to push herself up, she felt a hand on her back.
“Marinette,” she looked up at the voice, seeing it was Adrien. “Are you okay? That didn’t sound good.”
“Adrien!” she blurted out, glad her cheeks were already tinged pink form the cold.
“Can you walk?”
Marinette blinked for a moment before replying, “I-I t-think so. Maybe.”
“Here,” Adrien held his hand out to help her up. She gingerly took it and he easily hoisted her up onto her uninjured leg. Marinette let out a startled noise, and Adrien’s eyebrows turned up in concern. “Did I hurt you?”
“N-No, you’re just stronger than I expected. Not that you didn’t look strong, I just mean-“ Marinette sighed. “No, I’m fine.” She tore her eyes away from his confused expression to glance down as she tried to put weight on her injured leg.
Adrien watched as Marinette tested her leg. He had never studied her up close and he was pleasantly surprised by how cute he found her. Her eyes, a stunning shade of blue, were oddly familiar to him. As though he had known them inside and out, yet he couldn’t place it. While she didn’t make a sound, Adrien saw her face scrunch up in pain. He set his jaw in determination and without thinking, draped her arm over his shoulders and wrapped his other arm around her waist.
“Uh…” Marinette felt her face burning and was hyperaware of his hand on her hip and the strength in his shoulders.
“I’ll help you to the nurse. She can give you some ice at least,” Adrien said in a matter of fact way.
“Oh,” Marinette said shyly. “Thank you.”
Adrien looked at her from the corner of his eye, surprised at the sincerity of her voice and the soft smile on her lips. “Of course, Mari.”
***
Adrien sat outside the nurse’s office as he waited to see if Marinette would need help back to their class. He was embarrassed that he called her by her nickname, as they weren’t that close. But we are classmates. Have been for a while. That shouldn’t be such a problem. Right? He thought. He then shook his head, confused as to why he was so concerned about this. He tried to think about something else, so his mind drifted to Ladybug, as it usually did. He smiled at their last patrol and how his jokes were starting to be met with more smiles than eye rolls. Adrien thought about her eyes and how strikingly blue they were. He paused as he thought about Ladybugs eyes. He knows he’s seen them before on someone else.
Before that thought went too far, the door to the office opened up and Marinette slightly limped out holding a bag of ice and waving goodbye to the nurse. She turned around and spotted Adrien.
“I-I thought you went t-to class?”
“I wanted to make sure you could get there just fine. Nino told our teacher, so she’s expecting us to be late,” He smiled and looked over at the bag of ice. “So just a bruise?”
Marinette smiled and scratched the back of her head. “Yea. She gave me some pain medication, and told me to take it easy, and to ice it a bit.”
“That’s good,” he responded as they set off towards their class. “Correct me if I’m wrong but do you know her well.”
Marinette snorted with laughter at that. “I injure myself so many times I’ve gotten on first name basis with her. Alya has as well, since she usually brings me here so often.”
“How do you deal with all of this? Don’t you help out in your parents bakery?” Adrien laughed with her.
“You remembered?”
Adrien shrugged. “Well, yea. Your dad makes excellent croissants.”
Marinette blush deepened. “Well, I somehow don’t injure myself in the bakery. Not really sure how. I have knocked into and taken down an entire display at a shop once. It was mortifying.”
At that Adrien stopped walking because he was laughing so hard.
“Adrien!”
“I’m-I’m sorry,” he got out between laughs. “I just imagined you doing that and-“ he started laughing again.
Marinette gave a half-hearted laugh. She was too stunned to do much else. She couldn’t believe that she had been the one to make Adrien laugh that much. As she thought about it she pressed her lips together, her uneasiness suddenly returning.
Adrien had calmed down enough to straighten up. “Okay, let’s get to class before we miss the whole day,” he stated, walking past her.
When they got to the class they apologized to their teacher. They took their seats and got caught up by Alya and Nino on what they had missed.
“What happened?” Alya insisted the moment Marinette sat down.
“I’ll tell you later. It’s a long story.”
Alya gave an exacerbated sigh, before noticing a hint of blue around Adrien’s neck. “Girl, he’s wearing the scarf!”
“It’s the same one he thinks his father gave him, so hush,” Marinette shot back.
Alya gave her a dead-like look. “I don’t understand why you don’t tell him.”
Marinette sighed as she aimlessly sketched on her tablet. “It made him so happy to believe his father got it for him. I couldn’t take that away from him. That would be cruel.”
Alya sighed, and went back to her work. She had a sudden realization and leaned back in. “Wait, don’t you always put your signature on all articles of clothing you make?”
“Yes. And?”
“Didn’t you put your signature on the scarf?”
Marinette suddenly froze, her eyes popping open at the thought. She slowly turned towards Alya. “I did.” Marinette started slightly hyperventilating.
“Hun, breathe. There’s nothing you can do about it now,” Alya gave a small laugh. “The one thing you remembered to sign and you don’t want him to know. Amazing.”
Marinette thought about where she put her signature and promptly calmed down. “It’s in the corner of the scarf, it’s extremely small and you would only know it’s there if you went over it with a fine toothed comb.” Marinette heaved a huge sigh of relief; sure that Adrien would not find her signature.
Adrien looked down at his scarf, suddenly remembering the piece of gold he found on it. He picked up the end and unfurled it to stretch it out enough to see what was stitched in. His whole body went still as he read what was in the stitching. A memory sprang forth to his mind from a few months ago.
“Well, if you look at this hat it has a distinguished pattern of embroidery that I personally designed. Also, I put a little something that would help differentiate mine from copycats. My signature.”
The memory flew through his brain as he stared at the gold stitching that held a simple name:
Marinette