This was not how Adrien had expected to wake up.
Well, okay, that wasn't completely true. Generally speaking, he woke up in the same predicament every morning, but usually he was alone. Or, at least, the few other times he'd slept over at Mari's house, he'd been the first one awake and so hadn't been faced with the consequences otherwise.
Waking up in her bed, with her not sleeping beside him, and with no covers to hide his situation, left his eyes wide with panic as he stared at the bulge protruding up from his pants. Swallowing hard, he sat up, staring between his legs in horror as his blood ran cold. Which, of course, quickly started the deflation process. But that wasn't the point!
The point was that Mari wasn't beside him, which meant she was awake! And that she had, most likely, noticed the situation. Not like there'd been anything discreet about it. And right after she'd made it clear she didn't want to be considering things like that. Granted, this wasn't exactly due to sexual initiations—it just kind of happened no matter what—but that didn't mean it wasn't inherently suggestive.
What if she was disgusted by him? What if she never let him cuddle close to her again?
Treacherous body! Why?!
Whining quietly, he covered his flushed face with his hands, eyes still heavy with sleep as he willed away whatever was left of the activity in his jogger shorts. He usually liked to think that, for a teenage boy who made a habit of wearing tighter pants, he had pretty good self-control. But now any kind of reputation for such that he could have claimed with Mari was ruined.
He'd always tried so hard not to be the stereotypical, out of control boy that he'd always been taught was unacceptable. Yet, his own physiology had betrayed him anyway! Mari was never going to come close to him again!
What would he even say to her?
Not that he had time to try and figure it out. It was in the middle of his panic that Mari stepped out of her small bathroom, heading across the room below. She was still dressed in her own pajamas—shorts and a tank top—and nearly stumbled over the bottom step on her way back up.
It was still one hour before they had to be up, which meant she was coming back to bed.
That was a good sign, right? She wasn't avoiding him.
He didn't have the time to come to a solid conclusion. Instead, he was caught staring at her from between his fingers as she crouched down on the end of the bed. She'd looked like she was going to crawl back up beside him, but upon seeing him sitting there—no doubt a rich shade of red from his shoulders upward—she paused.
Blinking, they stared silently at one another for a few seconds. Before, despite her sleepy disposition, Mari giggled, clearly trying to hide her grin and failing.
Adrien groaned and pulled his legs up so he could hide his face between his knees. "I'm sorry," he muttered, folding his arms around his head in the same moment. It was the shifting of the mattress that told him she was crawling closer. Until she was sitting beside him.
"You don't have to be sorry," she replied, poking him in the side as she did. "You can't help it, right?"
An excuse that only pulled another groan from his throat.
"And, hey, it's not like this is the first time," she continued. Her claim only mortified him further. He'd thought he'd been so careful! "I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes. And, well, you're a boy, so... Don't worry, I researched it."
"Oh my god..." he moaned, turning away from her to flop face down in the cat pillow nearby. "I'm so sorry."
More giggling. "Poor kitten," she consoled, rubbing his arm as he tried to sink into the mattress and disappear. "You can't help it, I know that. Though I was a little startled the first time I saw it, I'll admit."
