Living With Agreste

Chapter 14- Settle In

"Yeah, so this is it." Adrien walked into his room and allowed Marinette to follow him. Immediately she let out a gasp as the view of his room made wheels turn. All the memories came flooding back and for a second, Marinette forgot about how nervous she was in his room alone. Right now, she was just a friend. A friend who was freaking out in the inside, but that's totally okay.

"Holy shit. I remember this." She ran up to the foosball table and laughed, putting her hands on the little figures and smiling.

"Remember when Nathalie let us sneak in? You and Nino played foosball over the last piece of pizza. And then when Nino lost he blamed it on Alya and tried to challenge you to a dance-off-" She pointed to the video games "In which... he lost after tripping on his untied shoelaces."

Adrien chuckled and looked up at the bluenette as she explored the rest of his huge room. She headed up the spiral staircase and looked at the hundreds of books laid out before her.

"Woah, you have the whole Harry Potter series?" She giggled and pulled out one of them. "I didn't take you for such a... wizard."

Adrien put his hands in defense. "Hey!" He called up, "Harry Potter's for everyone! Not just nerds."

Marinette was happy that he shared a common interest her and noted to bring it up later. Cautiously, she opened the book and flipped through the pages.

"I know I'm just teasing." As she turned the pages throughout the book, she stopped when some black ink on one of the pages happened to catch her eye.

"Wait, what's this?"

The blonde boy leaned forward to see what she was talking about and nodded. "That's her signat-"

"JK ROWLING SIGNED YOUR BOOK?!" She squealed. Adrien practically fell backward from the sudden noise and his bodyguard immediately stepped inside. Both teenagers looked at him with wide eyes from opposite sides of the room.

"Uh... Hehe... Sorry!" Marinette called.

The strange man, with the usual stern look on his face, shot Adrien a glare before exiting the room. For a second, Marinette had forgotten there was someone listening right there. Of course, they both knew that his bodyguard wouldn't tell anyone.

Marinette put the book back on the bookshelf and began walking down the staircase. That is until her shirt caught on one of the screws and she stopped with a gasp. Being the helpful boy he is, Adrien helped her out by trying to pull the fabric loose from the screw, but to no avail.

"Damn it. I got it-"

She pulled at her shirt but it was stuck pretty good.

"Here- Let me..." He headed up the stairs and tugged on the fabric again. When it finally came loose, he smiled at his blue-haired friend but quickly stopped when he noticed exactly how close he was to her. Their bodies were inches apart and they were practically standing on the same step. Marinette pursed her lips as Adrien took a step backward and laughed it off.

When he finally made his way back down the stairs, Marinette sensed the lack of warmth that she'd felt when he was standing by her. They both cleared their throats.

"Anyway-"

"So-"

They chuckled and looked away from each other awkwardly.