Stay by my Side

Stay by my Side - Chapter Twenty-Eight

Marinette carefully walked through the through the school gates, Nathanial, Marc and Luka by her side. She walked up to the doors, feeling all eyes on her, from classmates she used to trust. Lila turned them all against her. She paused, standing between the school gates, and grasped Luka's hand in her left one, and tightly gripped the cold metal of the gates with her other. She sighed.

Even with everything being 'solved', there was still... too much going on for Marinette to stay calm. Lila may have been given after school detention, and there may be a zero-tolerance policy going on for anything Lila does to Marinette, but that doesn't mean nothing will happen, no matter what the school does.

At least... at least she has her friends. Nathanial, Marc, Luka... Adrien?

Is... is Adrien a friend?

"Are you... are you Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

At the time she had laughed, made a quick excuse, and zipped away, but now... there's nothing she can do. He basically knows her identity already, and she'd already done so much to try and persuade him otherwise that... this time, there's probably no getting out of it.

But... does she actually mind telling Adrien - telling Chat Noir - her true identity? While some of her screams in protest, that she shouldn't tell anyone her identity at all, another part of her strongly disagrees. Adrien trusted her enough to tell her his true identity, so... shouldn't she do the same? And besides, even with the awkwardness and the ignoring he'd done to her at school, Chat Noir had always been there - on the phone, on her balcony, he was always there, right by her side.

That doesn't mean she isn't scared though. Adrien cares about her. She knows this. And yet... if she tells him her true identity, it'd change everything. What would happen to them both... would they... start dating...? Her face flushed at the thought. She wouldn't exactly mind dating Adrien, but... was he interested in her for HER, or because of Ladybug? She couldn't tell him yet, she had to see whether Adrien liked the Ladybug that existed when the mask was off.

Luka tightened his grip on her hand for a second before letting go and allowing the three of them to enter the school building without him, sending a soft comforting smile Marinette's way when she turned to him, fear in her eyes.

"Luka, I wish you could come with us..." Marinette muttered, shaking slightly, nervous.

Luka comfortingly smiled back at her. "Unfortunately I'm not a student here. But you have Marc and Nathanial, they're here for you. And you can text me whenever you need, okay?"

Marinette nodded slowly in reply, before waving at him with a slightly forced smile and turning back towards the main doors of the school building. She glanced once at Marc, once at Nathanial...

... and then stepped towards her fate.

---TimeSkip---

Adrien's head lifted from his desk as he heard the classroom door open. He watched as Marinette and Nathanial said goodbye to Marc and the two of them entered the classroom together. Their hands were intertwined as they walked past him, and he found himself watching them - their hands - with mild irritated eyes.

Part of him wanted to reach out, snatch her hand and pull her away from Nathanial and into his arms, but after before, he really had no right to. After asking Ma- Ladybug, such a serious question and her running away without giving him an answer, well... he was confident enough in his theory - he was certain Marinette and Ladybug were the same person. He just...

... he just knew.

They had to be the same person. They had to be.

He sighed again and forced his eyes away from Marinette, resting his head back on his desk. If they were the same person, then why would she just run away from him? Did she - Ladybug - hate him? He trusted Marinette with his identity... why couldn't she trust him with hers...?

He leaned his head to the side, deciding to once again risk glancing behind him, and accidentally locked eyes with Marinette, who was still sitting with Nathanial. At this point, multiple members of the class - especially Alya, who had been in tears all day - had gone up to her to apologise, but she had waved them all away, saying she really didn't want to talk to any of them.

Adrien agreed with Marinette brushing them off - regardless of whether or not Lila was the cause - the rest of their classmates still followed along with her and made her life awful for ages.

Wait, that included him. Dammit.

His face blushed as they connected eyes, and he quickly forced his head away. At this point he prayed Marinette and Ladybug were the same person, as if not, he'd have a really tough choice to make between them both.

Well, if Marinette or Ladybug even wanted to talk to him - let alone date him.

"Adrien?"

"WhathiMarinettewhatareyoudoinghere?" Adrien backed away, slightly surprised at Marinette suddenly popping up in his vision out of nowhere. Wasn't she with Nathanial-?

He glanced to his left, and saw Nathanial standing slightly away, next to the desk he and Marinette sit at, eyes slightly narrowed. He didn't seem annoyed at Adrien, rather he seemed concerned for Marinette. Well then.

"I was here because I wanted to ask whether you could see me after school today? I need to talk to you about something." Marinette said, staring straight into his eyes. Adrien found himself taken aback. Had Marinette... ever spoken so directly to him before? Had she ever seemed so confident?

Had she ever seemed so... so much like Ladybug?

Hiya! Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

I'm going to keep the author's note short this time haha, but thanks for all the support! Even with the slow updates, it's been fun writing this! There's not many chapters left, it's more a free-style kinda ending, could be the next chapter, could be 5 or so chapters from now, who knows?

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed :D

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊