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Falling in love wasn't on Marinette's plans, really.
She just wanted to go around doing her thing, studying for her degree and keeping her secret safe.
Until Tim Drake happened.
He was a little menace, a personality so cryptid it got Marinette confused for a long time.
Wasn't he the only child of the Drake's? One of the richest medical families in the world? Heir of the Drake empire of medical equipment and pharmaceutical research worth billions of dollars?
Why was he being so nice to her? Why was he always in the right place at the wrong time?
Marinette had seen him get back at idiots faster than she could blink, and more than once she saw him render a guy helpless on the hallways after seeing him harass a younger student. Rumors said the assailant got beaten so hard he was sent to the hospital to reset his arm back in place, while Tim left unscathed.
Tim was an enigma, and Marinette wondered what his hobbies were and what kind of music he liked.
He was majoring in business, but she had heard someone say that this was his third degree already, that he was some kind of genius who had a Master's at 22.
What was his favorite color? Did he eat spicy food? Would he accept if she gifted him one of her personalized jade bracelets?
"Marinette? Are you listening?" Adrien asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
"Sorry, what?" she asked him back, finally moving her eyes from the figure across the room to her best friend.
"Wow, your down bad," Adrien joked. She elbowed his side as a small warning to shut up. He didn't comply. "I mean, he's totally my type, if you ask me. Tall, handsome, cryptid. Just like you when we were teenagers. Except for being tall," he teased. Marinette turned red, fighting her urge to strangle Adrien then and there.
"Shut up!" she hissed, getting the attention of half the class on them. Adrien had an arm around her shoulders, and she had instinctively leaned against his side.
"Make me," he joked again. Marinette's face was burning hot, and she wanted to disappear. The moment she noticed that Tim was looking in their direction, she did the only thing her brain thought of.
She hid her face on Adrien's chest.
She could feel his laugh shaking them as he tightened his hold on her.
"Come on, princess. Look at me!" he shook her gently. Marinette didn't budge, too embarrassed to show her face. It took Adrien a couple of minutes of coaxing to get her to let go of his shirt.
"I hate you," she mumbled. Adrien fixed her bangs with a gentle smile, the one dared to direct only at her and to his boyfriend.
"You love me, and you know it," he teased, poking her nose.
Their short banter was interrupted by the loud sound of something heavy falling on the floor, making Marinette jump on her seat.
When they looked around, Tim seemed to be fetching one of his books from the ground. The one thick enough to knock someone out if used as a weapon.
He looked as he had just been hurt by a thorn from a rose. Frustrated by the wound, but unwilling to let go.
"Sorry," he apologized, eyes hard in Marinette and Adrien's direction, as if sending a message. Marinette felt Adrien slide his arm over her shoulders again. She noticed Tim's grip on his book harden as he left the classroom.
Weird.