Partners by Chance

Chapter 2 - Sharing feelings

Adrien

Adrien's room could fit up to ten or eleven people sleeping in there in daily basis. It was just too big for a single person. It was so quiet due to the lack of people that Adrien could sleep as much as he wanted, if he didn't have any classes or photoshoots to attend. However, the desire to talk to someone, anyone, made him barely sleep that night.

When his alarm started ringing, he got up and turned it off at the first beep. He was waiting it, not to wake up, but to know when others would wake up. He quickly dressed up and went down to the dinning hall. Like always, he had his breakfast already there.

Adrien sat down in the table and started eating. With the precision of an atomic clock, Natalie showed up five minutes after he started to tell him his today's agenda. He had a period to make homeworks from nine to eleven, then piano class from eleven to one in the afternoon, a lunch break until two, Chinese class starting at two and ending at three, and a photo shoot starting at four and ending at six, just in time for his fencing class that would keep him busy until seven.

What a day.

He decided to visit Marinette during his piano class. The old trick of putting his phone to play Mozart worked for almost two years now. And, if he hurried up, he could even use some of the time of his homeworks too.

He finished his meal as quickly as possible and then took off to his bedroom, closing the door on his way in.

Plagg was laying on his bed eating his precious Camembert when Adrien entered.

"You look like you're in a hurry." commented Plagg "Tell me, is this Marinette girl that important?"

"She's a true friend, Plagg." answered Adrien "The only one who can help me get out of this..."

"Looks like you are falling for this girl too." grinned Plagg.

No. He wasn't falling for Marinette. Was he? Well, she was beautiful, smart, funny when not stuttering. She was really kind too, and extremely forgiving. Could he be falling for her too?

"No, of course not, Plagg!" said Adrien "She is just..."

"...a good friend?" completed Plagg, laughing uncontrollably now.

Adrien simply didn't get why it was so funny. He wasn't falling for Marinette. He wasn't falling for anyone. He loved Ladybug, period. All he needed was advice from a friend to simply explain that to Kagami.

He rushed his homeworks like never before, setted his phone to play his one hour classical music playlist and then took off to Marinette's.

The bakery was already open. People in and out buying bread, cakes, cookies and other types of candy were all over the place. The trapdoor in the top of the roof, that was converted into a balcony, was wide open, meaning Marinette was home.

He used his staff to jump from the neighbor's roof to Marinette's.

Marinette

PUM

A loud noise could be heard above Marinette's head. She was already used to that noise. It meant Chat Noir was paying her a visit.

She told Tikki to hide, order that the kwami accepted without discussion, and then said sarcastically:

"Who's there?"

A blond head with green eyes, a black mask and black cat ears showed up upside down from the ceiling. It was Chat, indeed, coming to visit her.

"Well, good morning, Princess." said the super-hero.

Marinette grinned at him. His attempts to flirt with every girl he found were obvious, and extremely funny.

"Hey kitty, what have you been up to?" flirted Marinette back.

Knowing that Chat wasn't in love with Marinette made her feel a lot more comfortable when saying such things to him then when she was talking as Ladybug.

"I was just walking by and remembered to check on my Princess and maybe get a croissant or two" he smirked.

She looked at him with suspicious eyes.

"No puns today, kitty?" mocked Marinette.

"Oh, I'm sorry purr-ncess, missed my pawsome puns?" said Chat

Marinette rolled her eyes and then returned to her designs. Her sketch book was full of drawings of fashion she developed on her own.

"Wow, you are really tail-ented, purr-incess." said Chat looking at her designs.

"Well, thanks. I really put a lot of effort in my sketches." replied Marinette.

And then there was silence for a while. Silence which was perturbed by Marinette.

"Something tells me you haven't come here just to eat croissants, make puns and compliment my drawing skills, Chat."

She was right, as usual. Chat was obviously trying to get the courage to talk to her about the true reason he was coming.

"Yeah, I kinda have a... love problem..." said the cat.

Suddenly, Marinette was interested. She though he was going to talk about Ladybug, so she hasn't seen what was coming.

"You know I love Ladybug, but... some time ago I met this girl that shares a lot of things with me and we really get along." started Chat.

"And now you don't know if you love Ladybug or this mysterious girl?" asked Marinette.

"No, I mean, ye - no. It's just that...this girl likes me and I'm not sure if I like her back." stuttered the him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you decide which one you should love. My opinion wouldn't be impartial..." said Marinette, sadly.

Chat Noir lifted a eyebrow. That was clearly unexpected.

"Why wouldn't your opinion be impartial?" questioned Chat.

"WAAH - I said impartial?" screamed Marinette "I-I I meant... not that I would be impartial like I would have interest, cause I don't! No no no no, i-it's be-because... because I-I ship Ladybug and Chat Noir, you see? I mean, I don't ship you like some crazy fan - NOT THAT I'M NOT A FAN! I-it's because I would like to see you together you see?"

Chat felt depressed.

"I see... But, it happens that it gets more complicated." said him while sitting down next to Marinette.

He was clearly not in his best shape.

"A while ago, I though that a friend of mine had feelings for me, but she told me that she only saw me as a friend..." he restarted.  It looked like his energy was being drained from him. "And... now I think that I'm starting to fall in love for her too..."

Well, the plot thickens. Who could that girl could possibly be?

"But aren't you in love with Ladybug?" asked Marinette, somewhat worried "I mean, you just said..." 

"I know what I said..." declared Chat.

The silence returned once more, now heavier than before making our two heroes uncomfortable.

Chat looked at a watch in the wall and saw, for his incredulity, that it was one and a half in the afternoon.

"WAAAAA- I HAVE TO GO, NOW!" screamed Chat Noir when he figured out what time it was.

He jumped off the trapdoor without saying anything else, leaving Marinette thinking about what he just said,

Adrien

In all history of all Chats Noirs, none of them ever moved as fast as Adrien from Marinette's place to his own. When he reached the outer wall, he saw something terrifying.

In his room, he could see his father screaming at Gorilla, his bodyguard, in a very angry way. He could not enter by his room as they would see Chat Noir and walking by the front door would be asking to be crucified. Yet, it was the best solution he could think off.

"Plagg, claws in!" he said, and Plagg was thrown out of his ring.

He ran through the front door just to find Natalie, one step from the edge of the cliff. When she saw him, he knew he was in troubles.