Seven Seconds

Superhero Muscles

Adrien and Marinette walked up the stairs and through the front door of the Agreste mansion. Once inside Adrien quickly released her hand, too embarrassed to be seen by his father.

Gabriel was waiting for them on the foyer stairs.

"Father," Adrien said, stopping on the marble floor. "This is Marinette, my... uh, girlfriend."

"How nice to see you again, Marinette," Gabriel replied.

"Thank you Mr Agreste. It's very nice to see you too. And thank you for inviting me over today."

"You're very welcome. Adrien tells me that you and he have started dating."

"Yes, Mr Agreste," she said, her cheeks flushing. "We have."

"How wonderful," he lied. "There's nothing quite like young love."

And now both their faces were burning.

"Well if you'll excuse me," he continued. "Right now I need to get back to work. We'll talk more at dinner." Without another word he went into his study and closed the door behind him, leaving Adrien and Marinette with Nathalie.

"You may spend the time in your room if you'd like," she told them. "I'll call you when dinner is ready."

Adrien nodded and grabbed Marinette's hand. "Come on," he insisted, pulling her up the stairs. She giggled as they ran up together.

Once inside his bedroom, Marinette took a few steps and looked around in wonder. "I always forget how amazing your room is."

"Yeah, it's pretty nice," Adrien agreed. "But the main reason I have so many different things in here is because my father doesn't like me leaving the house. I think that he figured that I would never want to go outside if I had a rock climbing wall, and a basketball hoop, and everything else right here to play with." He shrugged. "He was wrong of course."

"Not an indoor type of guy, huh?" Marinette teased.

"It's not really that. I don't mind being inside. It's more that I was forced to stay indoors." He paused for a moment. Then he continued, his voice laced with sadness. "Both my parents, especially my father, wanted to keep me safe from the outside world. So they did everything they could to keep me in here."

"Wow," she murmured softly, stepping up to him. "That must have been really tough." Then she placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Adrien."

He gazed into her eyes, not wanting to look away. "It's okay," he whispered.

With a small smile, she gazed back for a moment. Then, without thinking, she leaned towards him once again. But just like before, Adrien's eyes went wide and he moved back.

Horrified that she tried to kiss him again, she sputtered an apology. "I... I'm so sorry!" she declared, removing her hand from its place on his shoulder.

Adrien immediately wished that it was back. "No, no don't be sorry. It's me, not you. Please don't be upset."

Seconds ticked by as Marinette looked at him, contemplating his words. "Okay," she said weakly. Then she turned and ambled over to the foosball table, desperately wanting to get their minds off of what just happened. "Do you want to play?" she asked, gesturing to the game.

He nodded slowly and joined her.

They played a few rounds of foosball. Adrien won all of them. Then they played a few rounds of Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Marinette won all of them. Then they stayed sitting on the couch, talking and laughing.

And before they knew it, Nathalie was at the door calling them for dinner. Where in the world did those last three hours go? Adrien would have sworn that only about an hour had gone by.