Double Date

Chapter Four

The walk to the restaurant was painfully silent. This was not how it was meant to go. They were meant to slip into their normal dynamic. The cat and the bug, the greatest team the world had ever seen, not ... this. Not at any point had Adrien considered that Marinette would be, well, Marinette. Through all the planning and preparation, he'd forgotten a key point, that Marinette didn't know he was Chat Noir. She hadn't got a clue her partner was the guy currently going through the encyclopaedia in his head to find a topic of conversation. The sweat pooling in different areas of his body was proof of the pre-dated nerves, and that at the moment he was blowing it big time.

"Have you - um - have you had a nice day?" Her sweet voice pulled him from his damning thoughts. Trust Marinette to break the silence. It was his idea to go on this date yet his trusted partner was the one to keep things flowing. Honestly, he was beginning to think his life was just a series of one bad occurrence after the next. Marinette/Ladybug were the only good he had and he wanted tonight to work it lit so badly. He wanted to swing her on his horse and ride off into the sunset, or his baton. The heat of a thousand suns heated up his cheeks, now was not the time for his teenage hormones to kick into play.

"Yes, it was good. I had a photoshoot this morning and then played some Ultimate Mecha Strike IV,"

"Cool!" She responded.

.... And they were back to silence.

A dig in the ribs got him talking again, he'd remember to thank Plagg later.

"How about you?"

"Oh, me? Well I helped my parents for a while in the bakery, they had a big order which I needed to get ready for Luka to collect -"

"Luka?" Adrien asked, scrunching his eyebrows together.

"Yeah, he delivers some of the bakery goods for us. Kind of like a little side job, you know?"

"Oh, right. Cool."

He couldn't help the pang of jealousy at Luka's name. Not that he had any right to feel jealous. Everyone had a history and a past, he was no different, but he knew Luka and he knew they were good together, to the point of being well suited. A shiver ran down his spine, he needed to stop this thinking or he was going to end up in some sort of predicament, most likely a petty jealous one.

Pushing Luka to the back of his mind, they turned the corner and he thanked the holy Miraculous that they were finally at the restaurant, along with the fact he could also see Nino out of the corner of his eye with something big held in his hands. Great! Finally the plan was starting to pull together.

"I'll be right back," he said to Marinette, racing away from the entrance and towards where his bespeckled friend was waiting.

"One dozen red roses as requested," Nino announced, throwing them into his friend's arms, "they cost fifty euros but I'm keeping the additional fifty of your one hundred as compensation."

"Compensation? Compensation for what?"

"Making me leave my home. I was just getting settled to start a Star Wars Marathon." Nino replied.

"You need to get out more, man. But seriously, thanks for saving me, dude." Adrien and Nino completed their secret handshake before the latter turned to leave.

"No sweat. But don't forget, I'll get a chance to use the bro code at some point too."

"Whatever you want or need just ask, seriously you've saved me."

Nino turned back around once more and looked at Adrien. His eyebrows were scrunched together and Adrien could tell his friend was thinking whether he should say the next words or not. After a brief internal debate he decided to speak.

"Have fun tonight, and treat her well. She's waited a long time for you to come to your senses." With a quick wave, Nino was off, retreating back to his home.

Adrien couldn't help the audible gulp that left his throat, pressure for this was coming left, right and centre, but not only that, he had to get through two different objectives tonight. Woo the love of his life, and be interviewed by Alya without making a pratt of himself. He couldn't quite remember what the interview was about either, though he had an inclination that he was the reason for it. Straightening his shoulders, he mentally prepared himself. He could do this, he was a goddamn superhero after all!

Marinette was standing outside the door looking at her phone. She looked so serious, Adrien was worried he'd messed up already. Hopefully she'll understand that he went to get the flowers and then accepted them, though she'd never accepted them from him before ... Perhaps the flowers weren't that good an idea. As he got closer, her eyes shot up from her phone only to be met with Adrien thrusting the flowers into her face.

"You" he sqwalked, dazing a beet red Marinette.

"Ex-excuse me?"

Adrien pulled the flowers back a little and coughed.

"I meant to say, these are for you." Holding the flowers at a much more desirable level, Marinette took them out of his hands and hugged them into her body.

"Red roses," she whispered as she looked up at him. "You brought me red roses?" She asked, bewilderment shining in her bluebell eyes.

"A dozen of them," he winked, "a beautiful flower for a beautiful girl," Adrien replied, his heart beating wildly in his chest. He prayed she was going to accept them, he needed her to accept them. Oh God, why was he suddenly coming on so strong? The sections of his body which weren't originally sweating were now coated in dampness. Not only that, his personality was all over the place this evening, and in the matter of seconds he'd gone from a blabbering idiot to a Casanova - catsanova, he smiled to himself. He'd need to remember that one for later.

A shy smile graced her face and every feeling of doubt he'd been holding onto escaped. She was gorgeous.

"Are you sure you want to give me red roses? I mean, it's not that I don't like them because I love you - I mean I love them, but there's the girl you love and it's her that should be having red roses not me," he watched as her face turned into one resembling someone who'd sucked the juice from a ripe lemon, before her cheeks filled with air which she let out in a huff.

"What I meant was," she started again, "thank you for the roses, they're very beautiful and it's very thoughtful of you. I love roses and have a soft spot for red ones." She looked relieved, he noted. The once flustered girl had calmed back down and her face, which had turned an interesting shade of puce, was fading back to her normal colour.

Adrien smiled. She was cute when she got flustered as Marinette. It was something he could seldom do as Chat Noir to Ladybug, so it was great to finally have the effect swung in his direction.

"Shall we?" He offered his arm out and waited for his lady to take it before heading into the restaurant.

He wasn't sure how the night was going to play out. His only hope was that Alya would be quick with his interview and that Marinette would have such a nice time, that perhaps he'd get a second date.