I Knew It Was You [COMPLETE]

8. Smile

Yes, Marinette was laughing. From crying big tears to a full smile, he made her laugh. His chest inflated like it was absorbing her happiness, suddenly overwhelmed by the change in her mood and a smile so fascinating. Wow, he thought, I made her...laugh.

"I'm so sorry, but you just sounded like me which just so ironic especially since we're talking about Adrien and wow," she said, in between laughs. She burst out laughing again, making his cheeks heat up, but before he could notice that he quickly clicked a picture with his staff. I'll look at it later, he thought, just as her laugh slowly turned into a chuckle. She pushed her hair back, which was coming out of its bun and looked at him, a smile on her face. Only then did he realize he was grinning from ear to ear.

"What?" she said still smiling, but shifting around, feeling self conscious.
Still smiling, he said, "You have no idea what that smile of yours can do Princess."
Her face quickly changed into a more surprised one, a shade of pink dusting her cheeks. He mentally high-fived himself, seeing her blush. He stood up and started climbing the ladder, the pain on his foot only a glimmer compared to this new warmth. The last thing he wanted to do was leave but the reality of his life hit him: he has school tomorrow and so does she.

"Good night, Princess," he said looking back at her, "thank you for...everything." She stared at him and got up, standing near the foot of the ladder. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a hug. He was startled at first but slowly wrapped his arms around her. This is way better compared to when she was crying...

He sighed and they pulled away, his hand on the rail. "Thank you, Cat," she said, "thank you for...everything."
He smiled and said, "Don't let anyone take you happiness away." He climbed up the ladder and went out the trap door, the night was still and he gave one more glance at the trapdoor.

"I'm gonna make sure no one does," he said to himself before extending his staff and jumping over the buildings. When he crashed in bed, the earful he got from Plagg was silenced by the image of Marinette laughing. 

-x-x-x- 

"Hey girl," Alya said as Marinette approached. She was later than usual today but not as late as she used to be. Adrien cut a quick glance at her: she was wearing a green tank top covered by a black lace cardigan and gray skinny jeans. Her usual pigtails were tied up with green scrunchies instead of the usual pink ones. He smiled to himself at the resemblance of her outfit to his superhero persona. 

Suddenly, she looked over to him and smiled, pulling away from her friend group who were all engrossed in a conversation.
"H-Hi Adrien, h-how are you?" she said, hand on her elbow.
 "I'm fine, I guess" he said, shrugging.
"Great." She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "Um okay, well there's no easy way to- um okay I - uh okay...um, listen, I guess you have noticed that we haven't talked much or hung out as often, right?"
He knew this was coming up, but tried his best not to seems like he did. "Um...yeah, I guess. Is there something wrong?"
"Huh? Uh no...I mean, well you didn't do anything Adrien, I just wanted to apologize for ignoring you. I swear, I didn't do it on purpose-"
"I'm so glad you brought this up. I wanted to apologize, too," he said, smiling as genuinely as possible, because he really did want to talk about this.
"Huh? What for?" 
"I mean, I should've asked you too. Friendship's a two way street, right? I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to you like I should have and-"
"WHAT?!" she shrieked, and then went wide-eyed-red-cheeked, "I mean, uh um no! O-of course not! You shouldn't apologize-"
"Relax Marinette, it's okay." He knew full well what she wanted to say, he didn't want to see her go sad again, "Let's just drop it okay? I mean we weren't doing this purposely and we don't hate each other. Wait, you don't hate me, right?"
"No! No of course not!"
"Good, so let's just forget this happened and go back to the way we were. A-Assuming, you don't have anything else to say. We're good right?"
She looked up him, and nodded, a slow smile spreading across her face.

-x-x-x-

"Oh no," Adrien said, looking up from his phone, "I have a photo shoot this afternoon."
"When are you leaving?" Marinette asked.
"After lunch."
"Um, I hope you have a good shoot? I don' t know you wish someone for this."
Adrien chuckled, "Me neither. I'm just really tired of these."
"Well, it's not easy being a model."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah, it must be pretty tiring."
Adrien made sure he heard her right. 'Pretty tiring '? Now that's something he didn't hear often. "I guess so. I'm starting to hate them now. My whole summer got ruined because of them."
"That must suck."
"I must sound pretty spoiled, right? Going off about taking pictures all day and not doing any 'actual work'."
"No Adrien, not to me," she said flatly.

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows but could see Marinette in the corner of his eye, staring off into the distance, a silent and sad aura around her.
"It's much harder than it looks, modeling. You need to be responsible, punctual and really good at time management, and you already are all of that and that, too at such a young age. And at the end, despite everyone's efforts, it's the model that shines. That's a lot of pressure, right?
"Oh and the whole deal about models being dumb. You are one of the smartest people I know Adrien, academically, practically and emotionally. You're so calm and collected and you never fail to impress everyone around you. You're loyal and obedient and you're not a total snob like most rich kids. And you know, you're so hard working? I've never heard you complain, not even once.
"Point is, you're so much more than 'just a model'. I don't understand why you don't see that."

Marinette snapped out of her daze and blushed a deep beet color. "Wow, did I just say that all out loud?" she asked. Only then did he realize he'd been holding his breath and looking at her.
"Th-That made day," he said, a wide grin taking over his face.
Marinette offered a small smile and mumbled something about going to class.
He turned around and felt his brain turn to mush as she walked away, also making knots in his chest twisting his stomach.

Did I just get nervous? No...I'm staring at her hair...She's going away after saying those sweet things....
Oh no, he thought. He felt like he took his first breath after a deep dive as a feeble voice in his mind spoke: I guess she's more than just a friend.