Once upon a friendship

The mask 3

"Your phone's been pretty buzzy all afternoon," Marinette said as she handed it back to him, "I didn't realize how busy you were. I guess the life of a model is more fast-paced than I expected."

"Oh, it's not that hard," Adrien said, mask still in place. "It's even fun! I get to meet so many people and go interesting places all the time! You should see my father whenever he hears I have a new job, he's really proud of me!"

He looked down at Marinette and felt his happy words catch in his throat. She was staring at him intensely with a confused frown on her face. His heart sped up and his face heated.

"Adrien," she said quietly looking up at him through her eyelashes. "I know that this may sound weird, but I feel like even though you sound happy when you talk about modeling you seem... really upset. Are you okay?"

He sucked in a breath of surprise. Under her scrutiny he felt his mask crumble and fall. For the first time in his life, he was completely vulnerable. He had never shown this face to anyone before, not even Nino. The face of exhaustion, fatigue. He felt tired, inexplicably tired and utterly relieved at the same time.

No one had ever asked him this before. No one had ever noticed under the smile how upset he was. Only Marinette, shy sweet Marinette who he barely knew had seen it and asked. Air caught in his lungs and he felt his smile slide from his face. Marinette's blue eyes, which seemed so strangely familiar, pierced him. He felt the blood drain from his face and tears begin to well in his eyes.

Seeing Adrien, a boy who was so constantly smiling, on the verge of tears caused Marinette to abandon the thing inside of her that made her so fearful of his rejection. Before the thought had even fully formed in her mind, she reached out and pulled him into her arms, hugging him tightly.

Sorry for the short Chappie