Dearly Despised, (I love you)

The Apology

A/N: *gently leaves this on the table as you all side-eye me for not updating after ruining Adrien and Marinette's lives*

Look the chapter is longer so yAy. You're also gonna need it to prepare yourselves for the next one...

-

Plagg gave him less than 24 hours to grieve.

"I don't see what the big deal is. Just get with that fencer girl. She liked you."

Adrien snapped his towel on the bathroom rack and stormed out. "Really? After Marinette kissed me in front of her and Luka?! I told Kagami she was just a classmate I don't even like. I haven't brought myself to see her at fencing since. Gah!"

He huffed and pulled a black tee over himself. "Besides, I have to keep dating Marinette. It's too convenient of an excuse for my double life – you know, that you're responsible for. Nathalie doesn't even question my whereabouts anymore since the tabloids found out about our relationship two weeks ago." Retrieving his school bag, he set it open on his bed and searched for his tablet. He had to have his things ready for school after fencing practice. What a good day for a long day. "Father's also happy I've found a hobby that stops me from pestering him."

Plagg shrugged and threw a prism of cheese into his fat mouth. "Then what's the problem? Seems like you're living the sweet life to me."

He straightened up and began a list on his fingers. "I can't have the girl I love. Everyone thinks I love the girl I hate. And I hate myself for upsetting the girl I hate, which just makes me angry, because that makes no sense!"

Within one night, he had managed to stand Marinette up, betrayed himself by hanging out with Marinette, and was rejected by Ladybug after she admitted she didn't attend the dinner because she assumed it was a date. Oh, and he successfully battled an ice cream villain.

As Adrien got older, his optimism and naivety dwindled like a sunflower in the evening. All internal systems fought for the hope that he still had a chance; that one day he could win Ladybug over, share his identity, and escape his intransigent father and billboard-posters-for-a-life to run away with her.

A young boy in him thought that if he tried enough, he could earn a family.

But if Ladybug wasn't interested, she wasn't interested. And that fact weighed in his gut like a clump of molten rocks.

Plagg floated before him as he stared at his half-empty school bag.

"Is that why you went on a date with Marinette as Chat Noir? You know she wasn't really stood up by her boyfriend right?"

"Chat Noir didn't know that. He would've done it for any civilian."

Plagg made a face. "Taken them to a candlelit dinner?"

Adrien crossed his arms. "I can't have a bias outside my mask."

"It sounds like you just care what Marinette thinks of you."

"I— don't. If she believes that Chat has a grudge against her, she'd get... suspicious."

Plagg grinned. "You mean sad."

"No, I mean she would get suspicious that I'm Chat Noir."

"Didn't you want a reasonable excuse for Chat Noir to dislike Marinette a few months ago?"

Adrien ignored him and packed three fewer rolls of cheese in his bag than usual. "He's her celebrity crush. That would just be... mean."

"Oh wow."

He lifted his head. "What?"

"You so like her."

"What?"