Heels Over Head

Chapter Twelve - "The Nightingale"

Marinette wakes up the next morning, not entirely convinced the previous night wasn't a dream. She sees her sewing kit laying on her desk; a reminder that she still needs to clean and sanitize the needle she used. Also a reminder that she did, in fact, offer to let Chat Noir kiss her. Why did she do that? Was it because of the stress she was under from becoming an overnight surgeon? She might have also been tired, she tells herself. Surely nothing else would cause her to want to kiss him. Did she want to kiss him? Even now, as she mulls over the idea, she forces herself to feel disgusted. This is Chat Noir we're talking about!

Marinette smacks her hands over her face.

Even pretending to be disgusted, she can't hide herself from the fact that a certain unavoidable gravity was pulling her towards him and still is.

  She's gone absolutely crazy, hasn't she?

Or maybe it's pity, she thinks, that made her say what she said and feel the way she felt. That's the only reasonable answer.

"Busy night last night," Tom says when Marinette finally gets ready and drags herself downstairs.

"What?" Marinette tries her best to focus on her father, but she can tell the late nights are starting to take up brain capacity.

"All of the homework you had to do past midnight. Don't stress yourself out too much, honey. Good grades are not worth your health."

"It's almost summer, papa. The teachers are just trying to fit everything in before we go on break."

"Well you look tired," Tom gently taps her cheek with his hand, "Get some rest after school today, okay?"

"I will," She gives him a meaningful smile, "I promise."

Obviously it wasn't entirely the homework's fault she was up until 2 am.

  Marinette kisses her dad on the cheek before heading down the stairs to the bakery. She does the same for her mother working the front register and grabs a croissant to eat on her way out.

  "I sure hope Chat Noir got home safe," She says quietly to her purse once she's outside.

Tikki doesn't respond, but Marinette knows she shares the same sentiment.

The girl peels apart the pastry, taking a bite of one half and giving the other to her kwami before crossing the street to the school and waving, "Alya!"

Alya ends her conversation with Nathaniel before eagerly running over to Marinette, "Hey!" Once she gets closer, though, she makes a face, "Did you not get any sleep last night?"

Marinette groans and lets her arms drop to her knees, "I might as well not have. Why? Do I look terrible?"

Her friend gives her a grimacing smile.

"That's all the answer I need. I'm putting on more concealer," Marinette goes to turn back towards her house, but Alya stops her.

"No, no! It's really not that bad, promise."

"Fine," She swoops a stray hair from out of her face, "But if people start running away from me in the halls, I'm going home."

Alya gives her a jovial laugh and pats her friend on the shoulder, "I'm telling you now, if that happens, I will start throwing hands."

~ ~ ~

Adrien can't say he had much better luck with sleep. He woke up on a rooftop, his face throbbing, and his cat phone telling him he was almost late for school. Luckily, Nathalie didn't kill him, thinking he'd overslept. (Even though he had actually jumped through his bedroom window moments before she knocked on his door.)

His black eye has started to fade, which could mean his luck is starting to turn around. Plus, he remembers, Marinette still owes him cookies!

Adrien's heart skips a beat when he sees her quietly sitting at her desk as he walks into Ms. Bustier's classroom.

That's where she always sits, stupid, why are you so surprised?

He's obviously Pavlov Dogged himself with pastries. It's just the cookies.

"Alright everyone, take your seats!" Ms. Bustier claps her hands, "Today we'll be discussing the first few pages in the Hans Christen Anderson story, The Nightingale. Who did the reading assignment for this week?"

Most students raise their hands, though Adrien notices Marinette doesn't. He admits that he himself had merely skimmed the short story, but he feels that he has enough of a grasp on it to get through the lesson.

"Okay, for those who haven't, you still have until the end of the week. We'll be doing team book reports due next Friday, so please do your part and read from start to finish."

Chloe raises her hand.

"Yes, Chloe?"

"Who are we partnering with?"

"Just your desk partner."

This time Alya raises her hand, "Ms. Bustier? Nino and I are already in a book club reading this together, could we be partners instead?"

Ms. Bustier seems delighted at the idea of some of her students being in a book club, "That's fine, Alya. So Marinette and Adrien, you can be a team on this assignment instead."

Another heart skip.

Is the universe just coming up with excuses for him to see her more?

Adrien turns to look at his new partner and finds her asleep, resting her chin in her hand.

He chuckles to himself.

Maybe the cookies can wait another day.

~ ~ ~

Hi everyone, I'm back! Some crazy stuff has happened since I last updated. (Hence why I haven't updated...)
Most notably, I got married to MY Chat Noir a couple of months ago, so I've been using all my free time to get settled into married life. Hope you're just as excited as I am to get back into this story. 🥰