Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Second Moonlark (a KOTLC/MLB crossover)

Chapter Twenty-Six: Adrien

One thing Adrien knew he had troubles with was understanding social cues. So it wasn't a surprise that he was completely lost the next morning and found that he was the only one who wasn't mingling with others or knew why kids were busy talking about a "splotching match."

"Hey."

Adrien turned to find Marinette.

"Hey," he shyly replied. "Heard you got to freeze a bunch of stuff yesterday."

"Yeah," she blushed a little, her pigtails slowly rising into the air (Adrien had noticed that they often did that when Marinette was flustered or blushing or extremely giddy). "Keefe's dad's room. He seemed to like it a lot. I take it he and his dad don't have a great relationship."

"I know, he vented when we were in Atlantis," Adrien giggled a little as Sophie approached them.

Aaaaaaand... BAM!

He was getting lost in those big brown eyes again.

"Alright, let's break up the Adriphie for a second," Keefe teased as he joined the trio. "Heard we're doing the annual splotching match today."

"Splotching?" Marinette wrinkled her nose in confusion.

"You throw a ball into someone's face using telekinesis," Sophie shrugged.

"So basically everything I suck at," Marinette sighed.

"Hey, I'll be with the losers as well," Adrien reassured. "I'm not good at any of that either."

Marinette cracked a shy smile.

Adrien felt his cheeks heat up a little. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. One of the nicest girls back in Paris, not to mention having also been Ladybug the whole time. Willingly agreed to come to the Lost Cities and gain all the fancy elvin powers to protect the fact that she was just human. Those large bluebell eyes and silky dark hair always pulled up in pigtails, the little freckles that dotted the bridge of her nose... it seemed impossible that she wasn't born royalty or anything.

Why was it always that he found himself feeling weird around Marinette? Cheeks warm, butterflies in his stomach, palms sweating...

"Looks like someone's in love," Biana teased.

"Oh, hush," Adrien rolled his eyes.

"You get funny every time you stare at Marinette," Biana pointed out. "Sophie gets weird every time she stares at you."

Adrien nervously rubbed the back of his neck. These were exactly the topics where he wished he hadn't been locked up in a house for fourteen years.

"And Keefe and Marinette get weird around each other," Biana continued. "And then Marinette gets weird around you. Wow, that's a lot to wrap your head around. Not to mention my brother's been crushing on Sophie since Aullveterre, Keefe has been crushing on Sophie since they pretty much met, Sophie's pretty much Keefe's soulmate in my opinion but she's still got a crush on Fitz, Dex used to crush on Sophie, Linh always seems to get Fitz and Dex's attention with her water tricks, and I used to have a crush on Keefe..."

Adrien had to tune out everything Biana was saying. How complicated was the romantic part of the group?

All too soon, the PE Mentors arrived, somehow explaining what a "splotching tournament" was better than Sophie did. Every prodigy would be paired up with someone else, usually in the same level. They would catch a splotcher–a brightly colored ball–with mental telekinesis. You had to throw it using telekinesis at the other prodigy to win. The last prodigy standing would get a pardon from a punishment. Sophie said she was the first person to win since Fitz arrived at Foxfire...