•Bad Luck•

Broken Heart

🌸🌼TWO WEEKS LATER🌸🌼

Quite some time had passed since Marinette so heroically saved Adrien in the park during an akuma attack, and when the pair began to stir the pot with one another's emotions, including their alter-ego's. Now, Adrien's heart is all over the place - does he really like Marinette, and what about Ladybug? And Marinette, well after the nearly daily visits from Chat (no thanks to his uncertain feelings) she had grown so close to him, more than Ladybug had. She knew more about the Parisian hero than she almost knew of herself after endless hours of deep conversations.

Come Friday afternoon, and Adrien and Marinette wanted nothing more than to go home, however Alya had other plans.

"Nino, you love me right?" The girl asked with a sly grin.

"Every time you start a sentence with that, I always regret it," he sighed, "but nevertheless I do still love you."

"Great, can you do some investigating for me? And I love you too babe," she gave him a peck on the cheek.

"What kind of investigation?"

"What a really meant is can you interrogate Adrien about his feelings for Marinette please?" Alya looked up at Nino with wide, pleading eyes.

"I don't know Alya - he's my best mate, it seems a little wrong to do that, don't ya think?" Nino hesitated.

"Please Nino? You see how he has been lately, something must have happened that night in the park, because he's seemed different around her ever since." Alya persuaded.

"Alright, whatever. But I put my foot down to any more of these set ups. I'd love to see Marinette and Adrien together as well, but we have to let them figure it out for themselves." Nino explained as he was shooed off by his girlfriend. With a roll of the eyes, Nino was off to find Adrien.

Thankfully, it didn't take him long. And to no surprise, Nino found him trying to have a conversation with Marinette, just the sight of it cringe inducing as both became sputtering bright pink messes.

"Hey dude! I was wondering if I could talk to you for a sec?" Nino smiled, already feeling guilt tighten his chest.

"Oh, well I was talking to Marinette, is it an emergency?" Blood flushed through Adrien's cheeks lightly just at the mention of her name.

"Yeah, it kinda is." Adrien frowned at this, however said goodbye to Marinette. Nino waited patiently until she was far enough to talk.

"So?" Adrien pushed, a little annoyed he couldn't continue his conversation with Mari.

"Did you get the notes in physics? I fell asleep and now we're on completely different content," it wasn't a complete lie Nino told himself. He had fallen asleep during the class and had fallen behind.

"Yeah, I'll send you a photo once I get home, which I better do pretty soon actually," Adrien glanced at his phone for the time, starting to step away.

"Thanks man. Hey remember that time I thought I liked Marinette?" Nino called desperately before Adrien could escape. Adrien stiffened at the mention of it. It hadn't have been a problem back them, but now? His mind ran too wild that he didn't even think of the fact that Nino and Alya were dating for reassurance.

"Yeah, what about it Nino?" Adrien turned to fully face his friend.

"Oh nothing, I was just thinking how funny it was. Speaking of which - you've been different around Marinette lately, are you sure you don't like her?" Nino tried to smile, make things more casual, but he couldn't rid the feeling of betrayal.

Adrien immediately knew what was going on. The sheen of sweat glistening on Nino's forehead, his rigid posture and unnatural smile said it all; Alya was setting something up, which meant whatever information Nino gathered would more than likely be reported to Marinette. Adrien knew he couldn't Have Mari find out like that, he wasn't even positive on his feelings.

"Yeah Marinette is nice, but she's a friend to me man," Adrien gave a small smile.

"Are you sure? You don't think she's pretty or anything?" Nino pressed.

"Of course she is, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with every single pretty girl I see. What about you, you think she's pretty?" Adrien smirked evilly. Nino was once again a fool to the mind games.

"Come on dude, you know that's not right of me to say," Nino cleared his throat.

"Just like doing some investigating for Alya?" He leaned in closer, the sly grin growing. Nino heaved a sigh of defeat.

"I'm sorry man-"

"Don't sweat it Nino. Just trust me more man. You'd be the first person to know if I started dating someone," he assured, patting his friend on the shoulder.

With that, Nino had to report back to Alya the bad news. He seemed a little deflated, just as Alya did when she found out. And of course, during Alya's confident certainty that the two had a thing for each other, she told Marinette that Nino was talking to Adrien. So now Alya had the dreaded task of breaking the news to Marinette. Surprisingly, Mari took it pretty fine, just muttering a simple 'oh', assuring she was fine and insisting she had to leave to help her parents out right away. Or that was what Alya wished to believe.

Marinette rushed home, her mind blank of anything, her body numb of emotion. She made her way to her room, sitting on her bed and staring up at the ceiling. It didn't help that there was a picture of Adrien plastered up there too, his face everywhere she looked - even when she closed her eyes.

Tiki flew up to her face, concern written all over her little body.

"Are you alright Marinette?" She questioned.

"I just want to be alone for a while, Tikki," Marinette snuffed. Tiki flew off out of sight without another word, leaving Mari be.

Mari felt empty, a shell of a person just laying there. She had heard it too many times that it hurt. Why couldn't she have been like Chat, and accepted it and in the mean time cherish whatever relationship she had with Adrien? But instead, she was left to stare at the ceiling for what only seemed a short period of time. But as her room grew increasingly dark to the point in which she could no longer see around, it became apparent that it had in fact been hours.

Mari sat up, letting out a heavy sigh as she repeated in her head the words she was certain Adrien had said: 'she's just a friend', when she felt a single warm tear escape her eyes, delicately sliding down the slope of her cheek and falling to the sheet. Before Mari could even comprehend what was happening, more tears followed soon after until they formed a solid stream, sobs and desperate gasps for air making strange chocking noises. She hardly took notice of the sound of her trap door opening, she hardly cared.