POUND IT! (On hiatus until my brain cooperates with me...)

Chapter Twenty

"Mama, Papa! I'm home!" Marinette said as she walked into the bakery, her stomach grumbled. She didn't get a chance to eat dinner after all that had happened today. She stuffed a croissant into her mouth and gave Tikki a macaroon. She walked into her living room to see her parents sitting there, watching the news about Heartbreaker.

"Marinette!" Her dad said as he hugged her tightly, "Are you okay?"

Marinette shifted her weight to make sure that the Miraculous didn't get crushed by her dad's giant bear hug. Chat Noir's Cataclysm might not be able to destroy the Miraculous, but her dad? Yes. "Yes Papa. I'm starving though, is there any leftover dinner?"

"Put her down Tom." Her mom said. Tom put her down. Then Sabine frowned, "Didn't you eat dinner with Adrien, honey?"

Marinette's expression darkened, "I'm gonna go see if we have any instant noodles." And with that , she stalked off to the kitchen.

"Marinette, why didn't you tell your parents you got akumatized?" Tikki said.

"Because, if I told them that I got akumatized because of Adrien, we would have a repeat of Weredad."

"Point taken, but you're gonna have to tell them eventually."

"I know Tikki, I just need to think." She walked up to her room. She stared at all the photos on her wall, her eyes landed on a specific photo. It was the photo of her and Adrien's intertwined hands, both of them wearing each other's lucky charms. She fiddled with the lucky charm on her neck. Then she set it down on the table, "Tikki, I think it's time I did some redecorating around here."

"R-redecorating?" Tikki stammered, was Marinette really over Adrien? "Are you sure this is a good idea Marinette? Don't give up on him yet!"

"Why shouldn't I? He's already made it clear that he likes Kagami more than me, I respect that." She started to throw pictures of Adrien in the trash and replacing them with photos of her family, Alya, and Chat Noir. She had ripped down every photo of just Adrien and her except for the lucky charm photo.

"Leave that one up there," Tikki advised, "It displays the beautiful friendship you have with him."

'Friendship. That's all he thinks of me. He doesn't want to go out with me, he just wanted to hang out as friends.' She thought, 'But I'd rather have his friendship than to have nothing with him.' She sighed, "Yeah, friendship. I like the sound of that." She started to put up more pictures of her, Adrien, Alya, Nino, Rose, Juleka, Alix, Max, Kim, and Nathaniel. She discarded the schedule she kept of his activities, "If we ever do become more than friends, I don't want him to think I'm stalking him." She laughed, that laugh turned into a hiccup, the hiccup turned into a sob. She cried for a while, taking down and putting up pictures.

"Oh Marinette, is there anything I can-" She stopped. There was someone on the balcony.