DISCONTINUED | Black Cat In A Box ☂ ML

14 ☂ All's Fair

14 ☂ All's Fair

UNREVISED

Adrien sat in the freezer for some time after that. On an upturned, empty milk crate until his fingers went red and the cold seeped into his bones.

You might love her, but you haven't even known her for a week.

After the initial anger at Théo's words had died down, a kind of silence had overcome Adrien. Because Théo was right. He'd left home to distance himself from his parents, only to throw his heritage around at the first chance he'd gotten – completely unprompted, too. Like he had something to prove, and only the Agreste name was going to achieve that. And he didn't know everything about Marinette – not like Théo; not the difficulties she'd face or the challenges she'd overcome.

But I do know her, his heart reasoned. I know about the little things she whispers in her sleep, and the way she worries her lip when working on a stubborn stitch. I know how she forgets the biscuits in the oven when she's laughing on the phone with Alya. I know her kindness, her vast heart, the warmth in her eyes.

I know her.

A soul-deep sigh rose from Adrien's chest. He'd jumped the gun. But where to go from here?

"Adrien?"

He looked up from his clasped hands to see Marinette in the doorway, concern on her features.

"Why are you in the freezer?"

He forced his cold lips to smile, his frozen joints to work as he pushed himself to his feet. "It's where all the other cool stuff goes, right?"

Marinette's nose scrunched up, and she jabbed him in the shoulder as he moved to take the door from her. "I should've known."

"Indeed." He grinned but his heart was troubled. "Hey, Marinette..."

"Yes?"

"Do you think we could," he paused, searching for the right way to proceed. "Do you think we could just take it slow?"

  ☂  

"O-oh, of course!" Marinette immediately went beet-red. God, here she was, jumping the bones of an acquaintance (if you could even call him that) in the back of a family friend's café. Wow, way to go, Mari... how about making it to the first date next time?

"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that!" Adrien's hand shot up to rub the back of his head, the other encircling her wrist to stop her in the kitchen. "Not at all, mon amour. I just... I'd just like to get to know you a little better. Take you out for dinner, not rush what's happening between us."

"Yeah," she agreed quickly. Too quickly. "Yeah, I completely get you. I mean not that the kiss wasn't nice. But like, I one-hundred percent see where you're coming from, taking it slow, of course. We don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with. But also not that we're really doing 'anything' at the moment, right, it's only been like – "

Adrien placed a warm palm over her mouth, stilling the words spilling from her lips as he pressed her back against the kitchen bench. "Marinette." They were so close she could feel the word rumble up through his chest, the heat coming off his body.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, and he bent down to rest his forehead against hers again.

"Thank-you. But I'm going to take it slow for you," he vowed, lips moving against the palm covering her own. "No, if it was left up to me, well..." Adrien trailed off, green eyes sliding away with a glint to them. "Let's just set a date, yeah?"

Mari nodded against his hand.

  ☂  

The next morning, she was sighing on the way to class. Waiting at the lights, she clutched her bag with Adrien's suit in it to her chest absentmindedly, a furrow between her brows as she replayed Adrien's words. Taking it slow for her? After all, he had come onto her first, but it wasn't like she was deluding herself with the innocence she'd had in middle school. She couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened after Adrien took Théo out, but for the life of her she couldn't imagine what. Marinette sighed again. Was she a bad kisser? Did he want to take time to practice with me? Was it because she knocked the cup? But he'd laughed at that so –

The walking signal turned green, and she stepped onto the crossing right as a low voice sounded in her ear.

"Lovesick?"

Mari whipped around, nearly tying her ankles in knots as she gaped at the man behind her. Théo's grin was as wide as a Cheshire's, and smug to boot.

"Théo? What are you doing here? And what do you mean, lovesick?" Spluttering, she whipped around and adjusted her bag as he fell in step beside her. With his long legs, he easily kept up with her flustered pace towards the university.

"Hey, hey, I just haven't heard someone sigh that much since the release of Amélie." He chuckled, tongue fiddling with his lollipop. "It was a classic, don't you think? So romantiqué, so – "

"I'm not lovesick. I'm just – "

"Aw, couldn't you pretend just a little? For me? After one meeting – wouldn't that be the dream..." He sighed in fake wistfulness.

Marinette tried to temper the sharp look she wanted to give him. Théo hadn't done anything wrong. No, that was just the thing. He'd been sweet, dreamy even in his obvious interest. And she'd turned around and necked Adrien. It was she who was in the wrong, and now taking the emotions his surprise had stirred up out on him.

"I'm sorry, Théo," she eventually managed, closing her eyes for a beat. "I just, I don't know, I'm not used to – "

"It's alright." He held his palms up, shrugging with an air of nonchalance. "I'm not blind. Or deaf, for that matter."

He simply gave her questioning glance a tight-lipped smile, snagging his lollipop with a finger.

"Adrien. The waiter."

"Ah." Heat rose in her cheeks as she remembered Adrien kissing the back of her hand, the 'fall in love with me'.

The date they had planned.

"And you know what? I completely understand. Who wouldn't be passionate about a beautiful girl, and one so talented as you?"

Marinette's gaze was burning a line in the sidewalk, and even though she wouldn't meet his gaze, she knew he could see the tips of her blazing ears.

"Come now, Marinette..." Jostling her with his elbow, they approached the university gates and the entry to the Arts wing. "All's fair in love and war, right?"

"I beg your pardon?" She openly gaped at his roguish grin, not failing to catch the shadow that crossed his brown eyes.

"I'm not going to be overshadowed by that waiter." He declared like it was the most natural thing in the world. "And haven't you heard?" Théo's voice took on an airy tone. "I study here. Used to be an online student, but since it's coming to crunch time... though I'd pop in for a few days. I'm right next door to the Fashion 1101 lecture, actually. Say hello to the top student in History of Sculpting and Other Artforms 2030."

At her stunned silence he continued on, leaping up the stairs and backing down the inner hallway, arms spread, lollipop crunching between his molars. "How about lunch at one? That's when your lecture finishes, right? Same with mine. So," he saluted her with a tousle of his brown curls, and a whip of his black blazer, "see you then... Mari."

  ☂  

sup sluts bet you thought you'd seen the last of me huh