Partners by Chance

Chapter 18 - No more secrets, at last

Author's note: Sorry for the delay. This chapter is vital and really sensitive so I wanted it to be just perfect. I don't want to get death threats after publishing this...

Marinette

For a moment, Marinette forgot what her expectations of the party were. She only knew that they were lower then they should.

As she entered, Natalie must have had an heart attack, because everyone in the room turned to see her enter. She was arm on arm with Luka and,  as she walked, the heads of the biggest designers of world turned to face the piece of art that Marinette produced. A simple teen have defeated them in their own game. Kudos.

Luka looked at Marinette as they walked front to watch the speech, which stopped too for Gabriel to contemplate his apprentice. Marinette felt like a million ladybugs were in her stomach, eating her from the very inside. How she kept a calm appearance is something that she questions herself until today.

As Gabriel finished his speech, a thunderous applause thanked him for the lecture, that inspired and showed the future of the art that was fashion. Of course Marinette wasn't expecting Alya, Nino or Luka to be actually listening to the speech, but they clapped as well.

"And now, my friends" concluded Gabriel "I won't bother you with the lessons of an old man. You are here because you are so talented that you won't need my advice! The dinner is about to be served."

And with this, the crowd moved to the dinning table, that was doubled for that occasion. The tablecloth was the most beautiful Marinette ever saw, making her though how would it be to make a dress with the same pattern.

As she turned to her seat, Marinette saw Adrien staring at her. She waved and, seeing this, he waved back. She quickly asked Luka if he could go to the seats already, because she had to talk to someone. He of course didn't even suspect that the someone was Adrien.

She approached him and he approached her. The look they exchanged... Only people in love exchange that look... Oh... only them...

"Hey you." she said to him.

"Hey." he replied.

And once again they stared at each other's hearts, trying to discover if the other was feeling in the same way, just in time to understand that they swore to not see each other like that. But it was so unspeakably hard...

"You are..." tried to say Adrien.

"Ridiculous?" proposed Marinette.

Adrien looked at her in a way he never did before. Like if he was trying to forge a word strong enough to describe Marinette.

"Divine." he said at last.

And Marinette though she would betray her own purposes. Why? Why? She fought to forget Adrien and now... Now she was about to fall in love with him again as she never did before. How cruel can that be?

"Meet me in my room after dinner." Adrien asked.

"But I..." she tried to say.

"Promise me."

And Marinette knew she couldn't say no. Adrien asked her to come to his room, the only place in the whole mansion they would be truly alone. And she knew in that moment she never stopped loving him as she never truly loved Luka. Luka was cute, funny and brave. But he was not Adrien Agreste, and that was the difference between her loving him or not.

"I promise."

Lila

The dark alley close to the Agreste Mansion in which Lila and her new ally were going to meet was cold. As she walked in, she shivered slightly to try to recover the body heat she lost. A dark figure was sited in a cardboard box, hidden in the shadows, but Lila noticed him.