I'm always here for you

12

—a few days later—

"Hey Mari?" My mom asks. "Can you bring these to the kitchen? Oh, and bring out the little umbrellas while you're in there."

"Yes, Maman," I reply as I pick up the tray. I'm helping my parents at a fancy event that's being held for the Mayor and his wife's wedding anniversary, and I'm doing my best to not be clumsy.

"Marinette!" Someone calls. I turn around to see Adrien standing right next to me.

"Wahh!!" I shriek, losing my balance. Adrien catches me by the arm before I fall.

"Can me and Kagami help you?" He asks as he helps me steady myself.

"Uh..."

"Pretty Please?" He begs, holding his hands in a pleading position.

"Fine," I say, rolling my eyes.

"Yes!" He cheers. He kisses my cheek and grabs a tray.

He and Kagami follow me to the kitchen, and as soon as we're in there, we set them down, and while I look for the little umbrellas, Kagami and Adrien pretend to sword fight.

I smile sadly as I watch them fence. They look like they're having so much fun. Even though Adrien and I revealed ourselves to each other a few weeks ago, things have been awkward between us. I don't stutter around him anymore, but he doesn't flirt around me when I'm Ladybug. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss his puns.

Suddenly, the door bursts open. Adrien's bodyguard bursts in, obviously wondering where Adrien is.

"Can I help you, sir?" I ask, while Adrien and Kagami hide behind the counter. Gorilla grunts and leaves the kitchen.

"Phew," I breathe, thankful we weren't caught.

"Thanks Mari," Adrien says, coming up to me and putting a hand on my shoulder. "That was way too close—Why dont we all make a break for it?"

"What do you mean?" Kagami asks.

"Let's escape from this miserable place and take the day to ourselves!" He replies. "What do you say?"

"I'm in," Kagami states confidently.

"Come on Mari, please?"

I bite my lip, thinking that this is a bad idea.

"Don't you want to have a little fun?" He presses, then he lowers his voice to a whisper. "You don't have to be a Lady all the time."

I sigh. "Fine."

"Okay, let's go!" He cries, and grabs my hand. He also takes Kagami's and then tugs the two of us along towards the stairs.

We run up the staircase as fast as we can, and burst through the doors onto the roof. There's a ball pit in front of us, and before I can protest, Adrien jumps into it, pulling me and Kagami into it with him. We all emerge laughing, and we start throwing the balls at each other.

"Wow," Adrien mutters, looking at me. "I don't think I've ever seen your hair down before."

I glance down at my hair, and sure enough, the hair ties had fallen out. I blush slightly and duck under to go and find them.

While I'm beneath the surface, I hear someone playing piano, and once I pull myself back up—my hair ties in hand—I see that it's Adrien. I climb out of the ball pit, and start to put the hair ties back in.

"You look really pretty with your hair down, Marinette," Kagami says, her arms folded over the piano, listening intently to Adrien's music.

Yeah," Adrien agrees, smiling sweetly. "You always do."

I blush even more than I already am, and decide to leave my hair the way it is. I join Kagami in listening to the melody, closing my eyes to feel the emotion behind the music. Before Adrien can finish his song, Gorilla bursts through the doors.

The three of us gasp and dive back into the ball pit. Once the bodyguard goes away, we climb back out and cautiously head towards the stairs.

——Adrien's POV, André's ice cream stand——-

"I can't decide," I say, after André lists all the combinations we should try based off of the pairs in our group.

"Me neither," Kagami says. "Marinette, how about you choose?"

"I, um, okay," she stutters. "Can you do a combination for all three of us?" She asks André.

"I could, but then the flavours wouldn't taste as great together."

I'm silently pleading that Mari will choose the flavours Amdré picked out for her and I, but instead, she chooses the ones that we meant for Kagami and me.

"Okay, that sounds good," I say trying to hide my disappointment. I wait for André to finish scooping out the ice cream for us to share, but when I turn back around, Mari's gone.

"Where'd Marinette go?" I ask Kagami.

"She left," she says, just as confused as I am.

"Here, hold this."

I give the ice cream to Kagami and run to go find Mari. But before I get far, I hear a crash and a number of screams coming from the building we were in earlier.

"Sh*t," I swear under my breath. "Well, I guess I know where Mari's heading."