Miraculous the tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir; Princess Justice

Chapter 12

When Monday rolled around, Adrien woke with a small smile as he remembered he would be going back to school with all his friends. He walked down his stairs to breakfast that morning filled with determination. He would find a way to spend more time with Marinette. Maybe being grounded was a good thing, as he'd been forced to give his new found crush the space she had requested. He was therefore very shocked when his father walked in as he was half way through his last piece of toast.

"Father." he gasped in poorly concealed surprise, "Why... are you going to have breakfast with me, if I'd have known I would have waited for you."

"No." was his father's answer, and Adrien couldn't hide his disappointment, but he wasn't surprised, "I merely wanted to ask you to invite your very gifted friend Marinette over. I have a something to discuss with her."

Adrien perked up at this. His father was giving him the perfect excuse to speak to Marinette.

"Of course, father," Adrien said not bothering to hide his happiness, "when would you like me to invite her over for?"

"Either today or tomorrow, or else it will have to wait until next week." Gabriel informed his son, before turning and leaving the room.

Adrien had proceeded to speed through his morning routine and was very early to school because of that. He wasn't sure how long he had been waiting when he finally caught his first glimpse of Marinette that he'd had in a week. He hadn't even had the excuse to sneak off as Chat to see her because Hawk Moth seemed to be going through a quiet spell at the moment, and his father had been keeping him busy with photo shoots.

Aside from a bandage above one of her eyes that he knew covered some stitches, Marinette looked almost healed. In fact he was glad to see that her black eye was completely gone. He was so happy to see Marinette that he forgot what he had practised saying for an invite. That was until he saw Juleka and Luka, the former of which Marinette ran up to and gave a huge hug to.

Without preamble, Adrien marched over to the trio how had struck up a friendly conversation, and with effort to sound normal and look friendly greeted them. He received warm hellos back, but couldn't help but notice Marinette refused to look directly at him.

"Um, Marinette," Adrien said, "I know you asked for space, and I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you by lashing out at Lila, but I have a reason for not giving you that space today either." Adrien mentally scolded himself for being so formal, thinking back to times when talking to Marinette just seemed so natural.

"What's the reason?" Marinette asked with a polite smile at his chest.

"My father wants you come over." Adrien answered wishin Marinette would look him in the eye and not at his shirt. But he was quickly distracted by that as Marinette began to freak out about it, since his father was one of her idols. This made him smile. It was like looking at the Marinette he had fallen for, not the punching bag she'd been briefly turned into.

"Why? When?" She finally stammered out.

"I don't know why, but he did say that today or tomorrow suited him best." Adrien answered, "But I was also hoping you'd maybe stick around afterward for some video games?"

At this both Julka and Luka made their excuses to leave. At this Marinette became nervous. She took a breath to steal her nerves, then looked into Adrien's eyes at last. Her heart began to pound in her ears and she just hoped she wasn't blushing.

"I will gladly meet with your dad, but I'm not sure I can stay long." Marinette said with barely the hint of a stammer. Adrien frowned.

"Why can't you stay?" Adrien asked as Alya greeted them in pacing.