Once upon a friendship

The accudental bump

"Almost done, Tikki," Marinette said as she opened her locker to remove her books.

"Take your time, Marinette," Tikki said hovering inside the locker. "Nothing's happened all day, and nothing happened last night, maybe nothing will happen this afternoon."

Marinette sighed and thought about the amount of homework she'd been assigned. "I hope you're right," she whispered, grabbing the last of her books. "As much as I want to be Ladybug tonight, I don't know if I have time."

The vague memory of her parents asking her to run the shop after school wafted into her mind and she slapped her hand to her head. "Oh no, time! I have to get home in twenty minutes! My parents will kill me if I don't watch the shop today."

Tikki nodded and quickly soared into Marinette's purse. Marinette slammed her locker and rushed out of the room, holding her phone in one hand and her books in the other. However, because she was using one hand to text her mother to tell her she was on the way home, she did not look before she turned into the hallway and ran straight into someone.

A crashing pair of teens tumbled to the ground, books sprawled openly over the floor, and phones skidding across the tile.

"I'm so sorry!" Marinette said apologetically, rubbing her head to check for bumps. "I wasn't looking where I was going and I-".

"It's fine, totally fine!"

Marinette looked up to face what was, in her mind, the most unlucky circumstance she'd ever encountered. Adrien sat in front of her, gathering his books and looking a bit sheepish.

"If anything it was my fault," he said, picking up his papers "I was really distracted by a text my manager sent me, I should've been looking at the floor and not my screen."

"Me too," Marinette said, surprising herself. "I wasn't paying attention either, s-sorry."

Adrien chuckled, "It looks like we both ran into a bit of bad luck, eh?"

Marinette blushed, "T-that's just what I-I was thinking. Honestly though, I'm so clumsy sometimes it doesn't surprise me when I end up doing things like this. It happens all the time. I really should be more careful. Alya always is telling me to look before I step and...".

Marinette's babbling petered out as she stared above her. Adrien had emerged from the ground and was offering her his hand.

Hesitantly, Marinette reached out her own and grasped his firmly. He lifted her up gently, this time, she did not stumble.

"I...uh..." she mumbled, blushing more at the fact that their hands had not let go of each other. "Thank you."

Adrien smiled, "No problem, Marinette."

As he said her name, her chest felt a pang and her heart began to race. This was the longest she'd ever maintained a conversation with him. And he was holding her hand.

" Hey, I just realized something," he said, separating her hand from his at last (much to her disappointment). "We've been schoolmates all year, and I don't even have your cellphone number."

If Marinette had not been so shocked after he said this, she probably would have fainted. But something inside of her, the same something that had caused Tikki to notice her out of all the candidates in the world, made her open her mouth and respond to him.

"Oh yeah, here, let me right it down".

Adrien might have, in that moment, been more shocked than Marinette. He had not expected this at all. Maybe she isn't as nervous as I thought, he wondered as she wrote the number down on a scrap of paper, maybe we have the chance to be friends when I'm not wearing the mask.

Marinette handed him her number, and quickly picked up her books from the floor. Finally, feeling as if her heart could take it no more, she rushed off past him.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" she said, not looking back, worried that her blush would betray her.