Take Me With You ✓

06 ; some company

Marinette's POV

It just had to be her violin.

Maybe she should've expected it because Lila knows these perfect ways to take irrelevant revenge on someone. Nonetheless, she absolutely intends not to find out whatever it is that goes on in such a psychotic head.

She remembers it clearly-the memory living in her head rent-free: she trips on thin air, bumping a random person holding their coffee, that coffee spilling on Lila's blouse, and that smile of double entendre because Lila's not one to cause a scene-says who?-or even let others think she doesn't like Marinette.

She's sobbed enough, so there's nothing much to do but leave the instrument in her room and semi-run away.

There she is, staring at the bundles of orange leaves, slowly drinking the milk she had bought some time ago. She puts the carton on the dirt before standing up on the swing and setting on momentum.

The original plan was to crash at Alya's. Unfortunately, family visitors had planned the same.

It's seldom that she goes to the park when it's empty. She doesn't like being left alone with her negative thoughts, but now, she realizes the pleasure she's been missing. That's until a figure starts moving its way towards her. They start out looking like a ghost from the distance until both of them seem to have finally caught on each other's faces and the utter confusion written on it.

It's just Adrien, still making his way through the field, the sunset making his figure so unnaturally beautiful.

"Hi," she tests.

"You're still in uniform. I mean, that's perfectly reasonable since you live far from here. I mean, why haven't you gone home yet? Classes ended like six hours ago." She says in a desperate attempt to break the weird atmosphere.

"Ah, I had other things to do. Where's everybody? I've never imagined this park going empty," he sits on the swing beside her, carelessly placing his bag on the wet soil.

"It's dinner, or in other words, 'time to go home' hour." He chuckles, and it's like a drug, and she wants more of it.

"Would you believe me if I said Lila's a total bitch?"

"Pretty much. I mean, most of the things she does, they're pretty set up." She likes this. They feel so easy with each other that it's like they didn't just meet a couple of days ago.

"Glad to know you're not one of her puppets." She says all too boldly, confusing him.

"She cut the strings on my violin, which left me pretty upset." Her tone was confident as if it wasn't at all affecting her. "I just had to trip in front of her." She jumps off, landing on the ground a little off-balance before dusting off any dirt on the swing and sitting on it.

"Should I even be upset? I mean, I could just fix them, but now I missed two days of practice, and I have a concert coming up. I-" Before she knows it, his arms are around her. She stiffens a bit before leaning back, shoulders relaxed, and head resting on his neck.

"What are you doing?"

"You're angry," he says, all too matter-of-factly.

"Yeah," she doesn't say anything further, left speechless.

She shakes him off eventually, though, bending to grab the abandoned milk carton.

"Someone asked me to become their mentor," she says, breaking the silence that has, once again, appeared.

She takes a deep breath as the thought washes away everything negative.

Yesterday, someone tried to get her attention by adding salt to her drink.

When she left to complain about her drink, the next thing she knew, her violin was already missing. Thankfully, someone was kind enough to tell her about a girl who took her seat before leaving abruptly.

"She's seen me perform, and when she discovered that I'm a senior at the same school as hers, she just had to ask me to become her mentor."

She still remembers chasing after a teasing nervous wreck, smiling when they accidentally slipped, and that pout they had when they had to explain themselves.

"I'll do my best even if I'm not ready. I'll teach her everything that I know, and hopefully, she'll be better than me someday." She stands up, enjoying the moment before looking back at him.

"You're really passionate about that," he says, and he revels over the fact that it's been a while since he last smiled so genuinely.

"If I do fail on being a mentor, I'm not afraid to shame myself. It's as simple as that."

"I doubt you would," he whispers to himself in total admiration.

"Hey, my parents have some macarons in need of testing. Want to go?"

"Why not?" He smiles, grabbing his messenger bag and racing her to the bakery.