I Knew It Was You [COMPLETE]

2. Macaroons

Five months later...

"Oh my God Kagami. Stop!" Adrien said, unable to breathe from laughing so hard.

"Not until you give me my phone back," Kagami said, continuing to poke him.

"Okay okay," he said, pulling the phone out of his pocket and handing it to her.

It's been a couple of dates in the past month and Adrien was growing more comfortable around Kagami. Of course he still loved Ladybug but he was getting more and more disheartened and decided to put than on hold for a while. His stomach flipped at the sudden thought of her

Ladybug...how could he ever stop loving her? Her bluebell eyes, her midnight hair, that amazing confidence...he would do anything to see her right now.

Kagami laughed and his senses returned. Focus Agreste, he thought, today is for Kagami. She held her stomach and she showed him the photo she was looking at.

She had been clicking pictures throughout the day and landed on the one she took right after they bought macaroons. Adrien quietly chuckled at the picture...

A little while earlier...

"Hello Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng," Adrien greeted, as they entered the bakery.

"Hello Adrien, what can I get you?" Mr. Dupain greeted back.

"A box of passion fruit maca-"

"MOM!" a voice shrieked. Marinette was running down the stairs, completely unaware of the customers' eyes on her.

"I've lost the aquamarine silk for the new dress that I've been making. You know, the one for the event for that girl who has the same measurements as Juleka but with a difference in height and oh my gosh, I can't find it anywhere and I have to cut the fabric and I only have two weeks left and I CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE," she said rapidly, all while trying to pull her hair up and scurrying through her backpack. Adrien wondered how anyone could comprehend that ramble after the first two words.

"Marinette," Mrs. Cheng said, putting her hands on Marinette's shoulders, "You must've left it at Luka's place when you went to get Juleka's measurements."

Her eyes widened to the size of the macaroons and she held her head in realization. "Of course! Thanks Mom! Call me if you need anything!" she said, grabbing her bike helmet and dashing out of the bakery. "Marinette you didn't even-"

She had already sped off on her bike.

"-say hi to your friends," Mrs. Cheng said.

"Or a bye to her mom," Mr. Dupain chuckled. "She's so busy these days. I wonder how she'll have the energy to bike back"

Adrien watched as she disappeared into the Parisian streets. He felt a pang of sadness because she barely talks to him at school, aside from a friendly "hi" or "bye". Marinette didn't say bye to her friends...

"Marinette seems busy. No wonder she forgot it," Kagami said.

"Oh this is nothing," Mr. Dupain said, placing the macaroons in the box, "She once made me travel to my father's house to get a box of thread. I wonder how she's gonna handle bigger orders."

Mrs. Cheng chuckled, "She's already doing too much and school is adding the pressure! She really needs to organize if she's gonna handle school, too." 

 Mr. Dupain handed him his macaroons and ruffled his hair. Kagami giggled and took out her phone. "Look here, handsome," she said, clicking a very unmodel-like picture of Adrien.

"Hey!" he said, in annoyance, "People pay to get photos of my handsomeness."

"How about I just pay for these macaroons?" Kagami said. Marinette's parents took the money and waved bye. Adrien thought he imagined it but Mrs. Cheng's smile wavered as she watched the couple exit the bakery. 

They went to the park and settled down on a bench but Kagami got up to pick up a phone call from her mom.

As Kagami walked away, Adrien replayed Marinette's entry into the bakery, he'd never seen her like that. The shrieking for sure, but something was very different. Her hair was messier, up in a bun and her face glowed more...maybe makeup? He swore her lips were darker. She was still in pajamas: an off-shoulder top and cotton pajama shorts...in the middle of a Saturday. And she stepped out like that as well, which he never expected. That and the fact that she hadn't even noticed him.

During the final few weeks of school last year, she barely seemed to be around her friends. Sure Alya had Nino, Myléne had Ivan, Rose and Juleka had stuff to do, Alix hung out with Kim and Max but Marinette was rarely seen with them. She spent most of her time in the Art room, designing and uploading for her website, constantly. It was growing quite popular and had Juleka as a permanent model, along with her classmates making appearances once in while. Alya's promotion of the Ladybug and Cat Noir outfits on the Ladyblog and Marc and Nathaniel's constant shout outs in their comics only added to the popularity for the fashion blog and online store. Myléne's dad wore Marinette's tailored suits for his shows and Rose never failed to show up Juleka's shoots, sometimes even joining her. Adrien got all this information either on his feed or rare video calls with Nino over the summer.

Okay so maybe Marinette did hangout with her friends...just not as much with Adrien. Did we ever hangout that often? he thought. They occasionally talked at school, belonged in the same friend groups and even hung out at her house for video games once. 

Maybe it was because of his horrible summer vacation.  Don't even think of summer...You'll only get more upset, a voice echoed in his mind.  Summer vacation had been a joke when it came to the time he spent with his friends, which was nil. 

What bothered him was Marinette's ignorance or rather, why she couldn't even look at him. Was it on purpose?

No, Marinette would never do that to a friend. Maybe she really was extremely preoccupied, after all her parents had joked about how she could possibly handle so much at once.

"Okay Mom, bye," Kagami said, ending the call. She sat down next to him and plucked out a macaroon, biting into the crunchy cookie. "These really are excellent," she said. 

Adrien bit into one too, wondering if he should be worried for being this concerned about a friend. She's an important friend, of course I should be wondering, he assured himself.

"Hey do you want to see what an idiot looks like?" she said holding out her phone, displaying the picture from the bakery.

"Hey delete that pic!" he said grabbing it from her. She tackled him and he ended up on the ground unable to breathe from laughing so much.