When Duty and Desire Meet

The Bodyguard Arc Part l

"Remind me why I'm here again?"

Nino's voice turned high and squeaky when a model, clad only in a bikini, brushed past him to get to the food table he was standing by. She picked up a few carrot sticks and sauntered off, leaving Nino all but covering his eyes from the sight of her near naked body. When she was out of sight, he picked up a tray of donuts and nervously shoved one into his mouth whole.

Marinette giggled, plucking a donut off of the plate herself. "Adrien asked us to meet him here. Why? You scared of the sexy models?"

"I'm not scared!" Nino cried. Although, with a mouthful of donut, it sounded more like 'Imff noh sahrred!" and a few sprinkles flew out of his mouth. When Marinette raised and eyebrow at him, he finished chewing and added, more clearly, "I just- you know- Alya and stuff. I don't want her to think I'm ogling other girls like some horn dog."

"Well that's very noble of you," Marinette teased as Nino shoved another donut in his mouth, just as she finished her own. "Although, you're going to be made of dough if you keep nervous eating like that."

"The models aren't going to eat them, are they?" Nino shrugged. "More for us!"

"You make an excellent point," Marinette agreed with a wry smile, taking the tray away from Nino. "All for me!"

The pair began half-wrestling for the donuts, laughing and earning the ire or amusement of nearby staff and models alike. Neither of them noticed one such model approaching them.

"Ah come on Mari, no fair!"

"Na-uh! I'm cutting you off for the night, you've had enough."

"I'll tell ya when I've had enough!"

"You two look like you're having fun."

The pair froze in place, Marinette still clutching the tray as Nino had been unable to retrieve it from her clutches. There they stood, in some sort of strange sitcom-esque freezeframe, which Adrien chuckled at them for.

Nino himself wasn't bothered by the sight of his friend and was the first to recover. Standing up straighter he raised a hand to Adrien and offered a friendly head bob, which Adrien returned.

Marinette wasn't so quick to recover.

The thing about swimsuit photoshoots, she realised all too late, was that it wasn't just the female models who were half naked.

Her brain jutted to a halt, completely overwhelmed by wild hair and glistening skin and abs. ABS. Since when did Adrien (Mr 'I'll just wear a casual sweater over a button-down because I desperately want you to know I'm a graduate student') have ABS?!

Idiot, Marinette chided herself, he's a model, you've seen him in advertisements before, you know he has abs. You've just never seen them in person before.

But it was seeing those abs in person, his broad chest and wonderfully toned arms, that had her shaken to her core. The way every inch of him seemed sculpted by the gods themselves, that had her legs quaking, her arms jelly-like and no longer able to support anything she was carrying.

She dropped the tray.

The metallic sound might as well have been a gunshot for all the attention it drew. All at once the buzz around the studio died as the ringing sound of the metal on the hard, stone floor echoed around the room. At least a dozen eyes were now turned onto Marinette and the fallen pastries at her feet.

She wanted to die .

"THE DONUTS!" Nino yelled, distraught.

Marinette swore under her breath. Turning her eyes away from Adrien's chest (holy heck was is defined) she instead focused on cleaning up the mess she made. She mumbled an apology and leaned down. Nino, sensing her embarrassment, tried to cover it up by making a bigger fool of himself. Picking up a few donuts and cradling them to his chest, he faked a sob that Marinette was only half-convinced wasn't real. "It was before your time, little dude. So young. So fresh. Not yet eaten."