Chapter Text
Noisy.
The only word Marinette could muster up to describe her new neighbor was noisy. Extremely noisy at that.
It's been three days since her new neighbor arrived, and each of those days have been nothing short of pure hell. And while they were moving around boxes, setting up furniture and whatever other things a newly moved in person would do, she couldn't help but be bothered by the amount of noise this person was causing. And it certainly did not help that the walls were practically paper thin, making everything ten times louder than they should be.
Curse her cheap apartment.
She had considered walking over to her neighbor's flat and informing them about how loud they were being, but she knew she would not be able to stay calm, and she did not entertain the idea of giving a bad first impression. She was not going to risk getting on the bad side of someone she didn't know.
She'd settled on handling the noise, trying as hard as she could to ignore it and focus on the dress she was currently working on. And it worked— until she couldn't take it anymore.
It was around eight in the evening, and the clattering of dishes was all she was hearing for the past thirty minutes. She tried to be more understanding, she really did, seeing as they had just moved in and a lot of unpacking had to be done, but couldn't they call it a night? It was late, and any logical person would know not to cause any ruckus at this hour.
She was faced with two options. Either knock on their door and politely ask them to stop making noise, or go batshit crazy and scare them off so badly they'll want to move out. Yeah... maybe not that second option.
Gathering up the courage to go and confront them, she stepped out of her apartment and headed over to knock on her neighbor's door. She couldn't help but notice how the ruckus coming from the opposite side quickly died down, allowing her some blissful moments of quiet.
After a few seconds, the door unlocked, revealing behind it a young man that looked around her age. She openly checked him out as he gave her an inquisitive look.
Blonde, handsome, green eyes, tall, handsome, muscular but not too muscular, oh and did I mention he was handsome? Now I definitely can't go with plan number two. He is too beautiful to scare off.
Marinette's thoughts were cut short by the gorgeous man clearing his throat. She immediately snapped her attention back to him, noticing that he had a rather annoyed look plastered on his face. "Is there anything you needed?"
Right. She needed to talk to him. "Right... Let me just introduce myself first. I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, your next door neighbor." She gave him a sweet smile, too sweet for it to be considered friendly.
The man seemed to have registered what she'd just revealed to him, his features relaxing as he let out a sigh. It took him a few seconds to regain his composure before he responded, "It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Adrien Agreste. If you couldn't tell already, I just moved in here."
"Trust me, I could tell", she muttered under her breath. "Anyway, that's kind of what brought me here."
Adrien raised his eyebrows, "How come?"
She started playing with the hem of her shirt, growing slightly anxious. "Well, I understand that you need to move in all your new furniture, but you've been making a lot of noise, and it's a little disturbing."
At first, he didn't say anything, which lead Marinette into thinking that maybe he was a some murderer out to get her after all, and that he was just plotting ten different ways he could kill her right now. It did not calm her worries when he'd burst into laughter, making her seriously consider bolting out of there.
Deciding to go against her intrusive thoughts, she stayed rooted to her place, staring at him incredulously. "Have you lost it?"
He took a few breaths to calm himself. "I'm sorry. It's just hilarious to me how you're asking me to tone it down when you're just as loud. It's a little hypocritical, don't you think?"
Marinette gasped. This absolute dickhead.
"How dare you! I've never caused a racket!"
He chuckled. "Are you sure about that? Because I haven't been getting any sleep in because of you. I think that's what drove your previous neighbor away." That earned him a glare. "And what are you even doing up so late using a drill?"
She gasped once more, taking full offense to that. She was rethinking her plan to get him out of this building with how annoying he's being.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "I cannot believe you right now. A drill? I'll have you know, I am a fashion designer. That supposed drill of yours is actually a sewing machine. If you want to complain about my noise, at least get it right."
This was absolutely not how she envisioned this conversation going. With how handsome she thought he looked, Marinette had assumed that he'd be a gentleman. In her head, she'd even created a ridiculous fantasy where he'd asked her out on a date and they would end up living happily ever aft-
Well, now she can scratch that idea out of her mind, because Adrien was a total jerk.
He smirked, clearly enjoying the confrontation. "Well, forgive me for mistaking your 'designs' for a construction site. It's not every day one hears a sewing machine echoing through the walls like a jackhammer."
Marinette gritted her teeth. He was infuriating. "Yeah? Well your late-night dish symphonies make listening to a crying baby more tolerable."
His smirk only widened, seemingly unbothered by her response. "Oh? Well, I'm so sorry that my dishes are interrupting your beauty sleep, princess. How about this, you could invest in some earplugs. That could help you plug out both the noise coming from me and your sewing machine."
"Or, hear me out, you could just not be an asshole and tone it down. Common courtesy, have you ever heard of it?"
He leaned against the doorway, shoving his hands into his pocket. "Common courtesy? Boring. Honestly, I think the noise would be good for you. It could help loosen you up, princess."
Marinette's frustration transformed into disbelief. Loosen up? Did he truly believe she needed an extra dose of chaos to enliven her life?
She glared at him, her thoughts a whirlwind of irritation and disbelief. "I'll remind you that I have a right to enjoy some peace and quiet in my apartment. Plus, didn't you just talk about how my sewing machine stopped you from getting any sleep?"
Her reminder seemed to amuse him further. "I couldn't sleep only on the first night. Plus, my comment about your sewing machine was nothing short of an observation."
She couldn't believe she got stuck with the world's most insufferable neighbor to ever exist. Her efforts to assert her right to a peaceful home were being dismissed by Adrien's nonchalant behavior, which only fueled her anger.
"You are unbearable, do you know that?"
Adrien placed a hand over his heart, pretending to be hurt. "Ouch, princess. I really thought we had something going on, and then you say this to me?"
Marinette scoffed and turned on her heels, marching back to her apartment. She felt his eyes on her back the whole time as his laughter rang through the hallways, doing nothing to calm her down.
As soon as she was in the comfort of her home, she let out a frustrated groan, flopping onto her couch. Her initial impression of Adrien couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of some supermodel with a charming personality, he ended being a supermodel with a charm deficit. Not only were her dreams of getting asked out by a stunning man crushed, but now, she had to live with the loss of her peaceful haven.
Adrien Agreste, you are a neighbor from hell.