Chapter Text
Sweat, the squeak of exposed skin on a varnished floor, the familiar chorus of a volleyball meeting it’s mark on the ground a hundred times over, Marinette would always hold the sensations of volleyball close to her heart. She had began her experience just about 6 years ago, and though the sensations had overwhelmed her 12 year old self once, they were old friends in her eyes. Of course, she had literal friends that she could fondly recall as well.
Of course there was Alya, her best friend who had convinced her to join a team but ironically never seemed to be as passionate about it as Marinette herself. Of course Marinette was grateful for Alya’s support and management skills, but she’d love it if she’d be a little more serious about the sport. There was no chance she would say that, but she thought it on occasion.
Other teammates of Marinette’s included the surprisingly athletic, Rose, the unsurprisingly athletic, Kim, their powerful blocker Ivan, and their libero-
“Marinette!” The mellow yet shrill sound of her mother’s voice traveled up the stairs and broke Marinette’s volleyball reverie session.
Marinette took a breath and then projected her voice in reply, “Yes, Mom?”
“All hands on deck!”
That was code for, “come here, we have a hoard to feed.”
Marinette took a final glance at the papers she had nodded off from, her university applications, and lept into action. She jogged down the stairs to the bakery, grabbed her personal pink apron from it’s hook, and adjusted her hair to man her station at the cash register. She would be handing the customers’ selected products and handling their payment while her mom and dad worked to replenish their inventory of baked goods.
When Marinette found the time to look at the approaching crowd, she was actually quite surprised. Normally the crowds that would pass through the bakery were of the tourist variety. After all, what self respecting tourist could possibly visit Paris without trying a croissant or some macaroons?
The cold hand of the winter weather had forced many citizens to give in and wear puffy coats that made them practically indistinguishable from each other and colored marshmallows, but it was clear that the approaching group was full of athletes. Maybe they were celebrating a recent win? Maybe trying to palliate the sting of a loss? At first it didn’t matter to Marinette, she only cared for their fair business, but as they filed in and she could hear their chatter, she realized that they weren’t just any team. They were a volleyball team.
Filled with excitement, Marinette tried her best to serve them and listen to their dialogue at the same time. They looked old enough to be in the same age division, but she couldn’t recognize any of their faces or voices.
Eventually, a boy sporting a baseball cap and headphones struck up a polite conversation after apologizing for the size of their group. A conversational window had never been so elucidated for Marinette. She managed to turn the conversation to their team as she handed croissants to a blond boy next to the one with the headphones that had introduced himself as Nino.
“I play volleyball for the competitive recreational league in town, but I haven’t seen you guys before.”, she said it with a fairly inquisitive tone of voice and Nino grinned in response.
He leaned on the counter and hushed his voice a small amount, “ We’re relocating. We actually got kicked out of our previous league because we were too good-”
“Nino!”, the blond teammate smacked Nino on the back of the head to quell his impropriety of a statement and then sighed, “Our league was disbanded. We’re from the other side of Paris and thought we’d come here to play.”
Marinette almost forgot to laugh when she finally got a good look at Nino’s blond teammate. She couldn’t even bring herself to look him in his gorgeous green eyes for a second time so she stared down at his jacket and learned that his name was Adrien. It took her a good three seconds to formulate a response after she realized that she hadn’t properly responded.
“O-oh! That’s sad! Not that you’re here, that y-you’re league got disbanded, and I’d love to play with you- AGAINST you! I mean!” Marinette was a blundering mess.
Lucky for her, blond boy Adrien didn’t seem to mind and simply grinned in response, pulling a folded paper out of his pocket, “We actually just got our schedule today after our first practice here. Which team are you on?”
Marinette accepted the paper and choked out, “T-Team Ladybug.”, while skimming desperately to find when they would play each other: Next week, next Saturday. Oh, Marinette was going to be a mess. How could she possibly focus with a boy like that staring at her through the net?
It was all she could do to hand him the paper and smile mildly.
“Oh! We play each other next week! I guess we’ll see you then. That is, if these croissants don’t pull me back here. They’re delicious.” Adrien grinned and took a bite out of one of the five croissants he was holding.
Nino reached over and punched him on the shoulder, “There won’t be any to come back to if you eat them all, piggy.”
Marinette stifled a giggle and accepted the currency Nino handed her, “Enjoy!”
Even after the boys had all settled to much on their respective snacks, Marinette stayed behind the counter under the guise of cleaning and listened to their chatter. She learned that Nino was a wing spiker, that their team mascot was a cat, and they talked a lot about someone called…. “Dadzilla”?
It took Marinette a few minutes to realize that she had stopped polishing the glass display case and had simply been squatting and watching the team over a row of cupcakes through the glass. She stood up quickly, slammed her head on a decorative pot and hissed in pain until she noticed Adrien standing in front of her with an amused expression.
“Are you alright?”, he questioned as he tried to stifle a good laugh.
Marinette blushed and rubbed the top of her head, “You’d be surprised how often that happens…”
Adrien smiled, “Maybe some redecorating is in order then. Anyways, I, uh, wanted to buy some croissants for the road.” With the question poised as a statement, he held out a few bills which Marinette took and set on the counter as she grabbed a bag to hold the desired pastries.
As she bagged and rang up the croissants, she was internally kicking herself for not striking up some more conversation with the handsome volleyball player. As she met his gaze for the second time that evening, she tried not to squeal or drop the bag of croissants as she handed them to him along with his change. Oh goodness, he was gorgeous. Like some kind of model-
“Marinette? Are you alright? Did you hit your head too ha-”
She jumped in and stopped his query with some good old stuttering, “Yes, I-I uh, and no, I mean-”, she sighed, “I’m fine. Enjoy your croissants.”
Adrien set the croissants on the counter, “I will, thanks, but I think you gave me too many.” He opened the bag to reveal 15 croissants, “I definitely did not give you that much money.”
Oh if Marinette’s face wasn’t red before, it certainly was now.
“Oh, um, uh, consider it a welcome gift!”, she exclaimed, “Welcome to our volleyball league!”
Adrien looked taken aback, “Thank you Marinette!”
It was Marinette’s turn to be taken aback, “H-how do you know my name?”
“You have a nametag on your apron.”, Adrien laughed and reached over the counter to shake hands, “Nice to meet you. I’m Adrien.”
Marinette smiled, “Likewise. See you next week.”
With a final grin over his shoulder, he followed his team out of the shop, Adrien called, “See you next week.”
~~
When they were out of the bakery, Nino nudged Adrien with his elbow, “Dude. I’m not sure what you should explain first, the amount of croissants in that bag or the goo-goo eyes that you were making at that girl.”
Adrien huffed indignantly and tried to fight the sprinkle of pink appearing on his cheeks, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
After several more punches from Nino and a stolen croissant, Adrien gave in.
“Okay, okay. She plays volleyball and she’s cute. I was a little interested.”, Adrien sighed.
Nino smirked, “A little? Dude, you were talking to her forever. You should’ve seen your face-OOMPH!”
Adrien blinked as Nino was suddenly on the ground and covered by brunette with glasses.
“So sorry! I wasn’t paying attention!”, the girl scrambled to get off of Nino and recover her fallen glasses, “Oh, Marinette is going to kick my ass for sure!”
Nino stared at the girl as he stood up, “Um… no worries.”
The girl took one more look at him to make sure he was alright and then dashed off, “Sorry, bye!”
After a moment of silence, Adrien burst into laughter, “Who has the goo-goo eyes now?!”
~~~
Marinette had wiped off the final table and was ready to hang her apron back on the hook when the bell on the door tinkled and she stopped herself. Turning around she greeted, “Welcome to the Dup- Alya!”
With a grin, Alya ran behind the counter to meet her friend, “Sorry I’m late! I ran into some dude on the way here. I hope he’s not concussed.”
Marinette laughed and tried her best to look stern, “Late and guilty of assault! I thought I raised you better.”
Marinette continued after Alya laughed, “I actually totally forgot that you were coming over; I had this giant group come through the bakery. And get this, they were a volleyball team that’s transferred to our league!”
Alya looked at her with wide eyes, “Were they wearing green and black?”
“Why yes, they wer-”
“HAHAH! They ain’t shit, Marinette! We’ll crush them when we play them! I totally steamrolled one of them. Hoo boy, he went down like a leaf. If he can block your spike I’ll be surprised. Team-”
“Alya!”, Marinette had to stop her before she went any further, “Did you at least say sorry?!”
When Alya didn’t respond right away Marinette slapped her on the shoulder, “Alya!”
“Hey! Hey! I was thinking. I’m pretty sure I did. And if I didn’t, I’ll say it after we crush them next week. No big deal.”, Alya stated.
Marinette smiled, “Sounds good. Hey let’s work on that that camera setup now. The system is up in my room.”
Even as the pair worked on their project, Marinette found herself glancing up at her red uniform every now and again. It would be a match to remember for sure.