Seven Seconds

Hand-in-Hand

Tom and Sabine waved them off to school. "Oh, they are such a cute couple!" Sabine said to her husband, just loud enough for Adrien to catch it as he and Marinette started their walk back to the building.

Their trip was a silent one, at least on Adrien's part.

Marinette, on the other hand, couldn't get herself to stop talking. "I am so sorry about that, Adrien. That is exactly the situation that I was trying to avoid. My parents mean well, they really do, but they can be overbearing sometimes. Actually more than sometimes, a lot of the time. But it's done with good intentions. And I'm sorry about what my father said. He wasn't serious of course. Please don't let that worry you..." She rambled on and on about how sorry she was until they reached Miss Bustier's classroom.

Finding themselves to be the first ones back to class, Marinette finally stopped speaking and turned to face him. With a weak smile she reached over and grabbed his hand, just like he did back at her house. "Adrien," she said quietly. "Are you sure that this is what you want?"

He moved his head back slightly in surprise. "Wh... what?"

"Our relationship. Are you sure that you want to date me? You've just seemed so different today. Not in a bad way, of course. But, just different. Like you've been really quiet, and... I don't know, not your normal self."

Adrien blinked at her.

"It's okay," she insisted. "It's okay if you changed your mind. I don't want to force you to do anything that you don't want to do. I um, I really care about you Adrien," she continued, looking down bashfully before meeting his gaze again. "But I'll understand if you don't feel the same way. The last thing I want is for you to be unhappy. And that's how you've seemed today." A pause as she gave another weak smile. "You said you wanted to talk, and you started to say that you were sorry about something before my father interrupted us. I realize now that maybe you were about to say that you didn't want to date me anymore. Is... that what you wanted to say?"

Adrien stared at her. He subconsciously rubbed his thumb over her skin, their hands still clasped together. "Marinette," he started slowly, "I..."

"Dupain-Cheng?" a shrill voice called out to them. Chloé Bourgeois waltzed into the room, her minion Sabrina close at her heels carrying a large stack of books. "Why are you holding Adrien's hand? Are you making a move on him or something? Like he would ever be interested in someone like you!"

More shocked than anything, Marinette quickly pulled her hand away.

"You're so pathetic," Chloé continued, moving right up to them. "Thinking you have a shot with Adrien Agreste." With a smirk she turned to him. "You know she's in love with you, right? I mean, how delusional can she be? Thinking she has a chance!"

Marinette's face blushed furiously as the girl laughed at her.

Seeing her embarrassed reaction, Adrien turned to Chloé with disgust in his eyes. "She has more than a chance. We're already dating," he said, grabbing Marinette's hand once more.

And a grateful smile crossed Marinette's lips.

Chloé's smirk disappeared. "You can't be serious!" she demanded. "You're dating Marinette?"

"You're dating Marinette?" Rose repeated with a happy squeal, overhearing the conversation as she came into the room flanked by Juleka and Alix.

Adrien looked over at them flabbergasted. How was it possible that this kept getting worse? "Yes," he replied with what he hoped was certainty in his voice instead of dread.

Rose squealed again, Alix gave Marinette a thumbs up, and Juleka mumbled "Awesome."

Chloé's eye twitched as she turned towards her desk. "This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" she declared, storming over to her seat. Sabrina quickly followed, relieved to finally be able to place the books down.