Hiraeth || Miraculous Ladybug

Twelve - Last

Adrien sat on the couch in his room, waiting for a text from Nino that he would be leaving. The night before after he had left his friends at the shop, he texted Nino to make plans since his father would be away for the day for business matters, and Nathalie agreed to him going out with his friends, so as he avoids the busier areas to avoid drawing attention to himself. When Nino confirmed the plans, he suggested inviting the girls along which he was on board with. Adrien decided that, out of convince, to create a group chat and send a message to them all at once. 

Adrien: Does the public pool sound good to you guys?

Alya: I'm down!

Nino: Yeah dude, that sounds fun

Marinette: Sure :)

Nino: Let's all meet by the school and go from there?

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Adrien packed his swim gear once a time had been set, and left quickly with Plagg gushing excitedly over the fact that there would be forgotten socks left in the locker room. Adrien gave him a disgusted look before rushing him into his white button up so he could leave. He hurried down the main stairs and out the front door, saying bye to Nathalie as he left.

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Marinette was packing some extra cookies in her purse for Tikki, since she was so willing to sit in a locker while Marinette was off with her friends in the pool. Marinette was overthinking what she would need to bring, when Tikki chimed in with her good advice as always. 

"Marinette, all you need is your towel and swim wear." She giggled and nuzzled the holder affectionately. 

"You're right, Tikki, thank you. I'm overthinking this as always." She admitted and gathered her stuff into a small beach bag she could carry with her. Before slipping her phone into her bag, she sent a text saying she was leaving any minute to meet her friends by the school. They had all left by now, since they lived further and would need more time to get to the school from their houses. 

"Hey guys!" Marinette called out as she spotted her friends who had just arrived seconds before. As always, she wasn't paying attention to where she was running and stumbled, crashing forward. She quickly shut her eyes and put out her hands, bracing to make contact with the hard concrete, when instead she collided with the warm body of someone. Someone who caught her. She looked up, meeting Adrien's green eyes. He smirked down at her, lifting her back up onto her feet easily. 

"What's with you always falling into him?" Alya hummed teasingly. "I'm starting to think you do it on purpose." Marinette glared in response to Alya, when Adrien stepped forward so he was looking down at her. 

"You know, what Alya's saying is making sense." He laughed. He knew she was just a clutz, but she was too much fun to tease anyways. He wasn't sure how she pulled off being as graceful as Ladybug at times. 

"Stop it!" Marinette whined and pushed Adrien away by the chest, getting another smirk from him. "That's not true!" 

"You guys, we are gonna be late to the swim if we don't hurry," Nino cut in and slid his phone back into his pocket patiently. With that, the four friends started jogging in the direction of the pool. When Marinette started falling behind because of her footwear, Adrien took her hand and grinned, as if telling her not to push herself too hard, that everything was okay.

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Marinette spun around in front of the changing rooms mirror, eyeing her pink, white and blue swimsuit. "Are you sure it looks alright?" Marinette pouted, suddenly feeling a bit insecure that Adrien would be seeing her like this. It's not the first time he saw her in a bathing suit, but they were closer now and she was more worried about his opinion. She sighed and quickly placed her purse and other belongings into the locker and set her combination code on it for safekeeping. She couldn't imagine if she had her belongings stolen again, like she had when visiting her uncle. She wandered back to the mirror and stared at herself, discouraged.