Chat Noir/Adrien x Oc

Bubbler

Neve stands in the middle of her bedroom all ready to go to school, but today is different from any other school day. It's Adrien's birthday. She has a present all wrapped and signed on her desk but yet she still stands there staring at it and not touching it while millions of thoughts buzz in her head.

"Neve," says Salem, her kwami, floating in front of her eyes, "What are you waiting for? Let's grab the present and go."

Salem is small and represents the spider miraculous. He is blue-black in colour and has two sets of red eyes. He has eight legs and miniature fangs. He has a calm presence (like people say Neve does) so he's pretty easy to be around.

Neve scrunches up her face, "But...what if he doesn't like it. What if he hates it?"

"You made it for him from scratch and even if he doesn't like it," Neve looks at him, blue eyes wide, "Which he will," Salem recovers quickly, "It's the thought that counts." Neve holds her breath and goes forward to grab the present off the desk and marches straight out the door, kissing her grandparents goodbye.

On the way to school, Salem pops his head out of Neve's bag.

"Gosh Neve, why do you care so much about Adrien's opinion anyway, hm?" he says with raised eyebrows and a smirk, apparently hearing her loud breathing. Neve looks down at him and glares.

"I don't know..." she pauses, "I just want him to enjoy his present because let's be honest, he has a shitty ass father so he might not get presents or parties and I guess I just really want him to have a good birthday." Salem looks at her suspiciously and says, "Ok," and looks ahead towards the street. "What?" Neve asks, not knowing what Salem means by his bland 'ok'. Salem shakes his head, "Nothing. You just seem to really care about Adrien."

"He's my friend." Salem raises his eyebrows quite high. "Salem, stop," Neve scowls, turning away and maybe blushing, just a little. She hears Salem giggle.

Adrien is her friend. And she cares about him. Plus it would be totally bitchy of her to think of Adrien as more than a friend because Marinette likes him, and friends don't do that to each other.

When Neve arrives at school, Alya and Marinette are not out the front, indicating they probably aren't at school yet, considering that's where they usually wait for each other. So Neve walks into the school and to the locker rooms using her time to get organised before her first class starts. She says hi and waves to a few people on the way in (maybe glaring at Chloe too), before opening the door to the giant locker room. Her locker is a few down from Adrien's and she doesn't look around the door of her locker to see if he is there.

Once she has organised her things for her classes (rather slowly to stall), she takes the present out of her bag and stares at it. What the hell, why am I nervous? She laughs quietly to herself because of her foolishness then walks to where Adrien's locker is, and thank god he is there, otherwise she probably would have aborted her mission and forgotten to give it to him. Neve holds the present behind her back and walks to where Adrien stands in front of his locker. He doesn't see her so she lightly taps his shoulder to get his attention. He immediately turns to her, and smiles when he sees that it's Neve.

"Hey," he says, waving and Neve smiles. "Hi," she says back. They stare at each other for a few moments before Neve picks up the courage to take the present out from behind her back and says nervously, "Happy Birthday Adrien." She hands him the present and he smiles wider than before. "Thank you Neve."

"I'm sorry if you don't like it," Neve says before she can stop herself, "I wasn't sure-" she is interrupted by Adrien using his hand to cover her mouth, making her go quiet. "You being my friend is enough," he explains, removing his hand from over her mouth. Neve smiles softly. Adrien is about to open the present when Neve's phone buzzes. She takes it out of her bag, apologizing to Adrien and reads the text message on the screen: