Miss Dial

Yes/No Hands & Grévin Museum

Adrien

They both looked out onto the New York City skyline and Adrien knew exactly what he needed to do. Whatever this animosity was that Marinette held against him, he needed to sort it; he just had to figure out what it was first.

"Let's start from the beginning."

He turned his head, catching her reflection in the moonlight and almost dropping to his knees to rub his cheek against her leg. The sudden thought almost had him falling over the ledge. What did he think he was? A cat? Maybe too many years with Plagg, wrapping himself up in magic, had caused him some sort of underlying Miraculous-based issues.

"Adrien we don't need to —"

"Marinette. Let me speak, please."

Doing some sort of Queen's wave, Marinette mimed for him to carry on. Adrien twisted to lean his hip into the wall and face her. Marvelling in the effect of the twinkling lights on her eyes.

"As I was saying... the beginning. On that first day at collége –"

"Where you and Chloe played a practical joke on me?"

Adrien wanted to place his fist into his mouth and scream. If she kept interrupting him, they weren't going to get anywhere.

"For the love of God, Marinette, stop interrupting me."

"I'm not interrupting!" she exclaimed.

"Then let me speak, woman."

She huffed and turned to face away from him. A low growl emitted from his throat as he attempted to keep his patience and start the story once again. How could one tiny, little person be so annoying?

"As I was saying –" He studied her face, eyebrow raised, and waited for her to interrupt him again. She rolled her eyes and swung her hand around. Good, she was listening. "On that first day when you walked into the classroom, I wasn't putting the gum on your chair, I was trying to take it —"

Sighing, Marinette shook her head. "I was there and I saw Chloé —"

"Okay, that's it! From now on you can only use your hands to communicate. Right hand for yes, left for no. Do you understand?"

"Ye—"

Adrien glared at her and she pretended to zip up her mouth, lock it and throw away the key before sarcastically raising her right hand.

"Good." He praised her like a small child before taking a deep breath and started again. "I didn't put the gum on your seat. Chloé did. I was just trying to get it off. She made it out like you were some kind of big bang meany, not a little pocket rocket. I did realise what type of person Chloé was when she was around other people, and to be honest, I was embarrassed by her actions. Do you believe me?"

"Why would –"

Glaring at her, she stopped talking and held up her left hand. He sighed and rubbed his own over his eyes. Turning around, Adrien positioned his back against the ledge, arms crossed and face looking out across the rooftop.

"I just don't know what to do to make you believe me, Marinette. That afternoon, when I gave you my umbrella, I thought we'd made amends, that you saw my olive branch and accepted it."

"It closed on me, Adrien."

"And you laughed, I thought we were sharing a moment."

The memory played in his head. He had always seen it as a moment of their joint understanding. A moment where they agreed to move on from the morning's events and the acceptance of the umbrella being an acceptance of his apology. It seemed every moment with her was not what he'd originally thought, and he couldn't help feeling the brick fall in his stomach at the thought.