Rainy days and Restless Nights

Chapter 2

Adrien awoke to Nathalie knocking at his door. It was odd considering his alarm for school hadn't gone off yet. He rolled away from the door and groaned, acknowledging Nathalie's presence.

"Adrien." Nathalie opened his door and walked to the foot of Adrien's bed, her leg braces making soft metallic swishing sounds with every step.

"Mmmm"

"Adrien, your school and fencing lessons have been cancelled for the day, however you will still have Chinese. Your father has arranged a photo shoot starting at 9:00 a.m so be prepared to leave by 7:15." 

Adrien sat up and blinked, rubbing his eyes and face multiple times before finally speaking.
"Am I being punished for something?" His voice came out harsh and gravelly.

Nathalie looked down at her tablet. "No Adrien... school is cancelled for today and potentially the rest of the week. Your principal called this morning."

"Thank you for letting me know, Nathalie."

"Of course Adrien, you may go back to sleep or I can have the chef prepare your breakfast now if you'd like."

"I think I'll go back to bed." Adrien sniffed a little, his nose started to run as he was speaking. Nathalie looked at him suspiciously.

"You look and sound sick, how are you feeling?"

"My nose is just really runny and my throat is a little sore but that's about it." Adrien croaked.

"I'll have the chef prepare something extra to soothe your throat when you are ready. Your father will not be happy if you're too sick to do the photo shoot."

"Thank you, Nathalie."

"Of course, Adrien."

With that, she walked out of Adrien's room and down the steps to Gabriel Agreste's study. Adrien listed to her heels clicking on the cold, hard floor before snuggling back up under his blankets and drifting off into a feverish sleep.

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Marinette was awake when her alarm for school went off. Her dreams had been plagued with visions of Hawkmoth taking everything and Felix betraying her over and over again. Something was always different in the dreams but they were consistant and realistic enough to make Marinette wake up in a cold sweat.

Marinette listened to the sound of rain hitting the roof and closed her eyes hoping that the peaceful sound would lull her to sleep and give her better dreams. However, after 15 minutes of lying there, her second wake up alarm went off. She knew she was fighting a losing battle and there would be no more sleep for her.

She got ready at a slow and steady pace, feeling no need to rush since she was actually up on time. She bushed the knots out of her hair and began her usual routine of getting ready. Clothes, hair, skincare, makeup. Today Marinette chose her normal attire as well as spotted pink rain jacket and Adrien's black umbrella. She walked down the steps and into the kitchen where her mother was fixing omelets for breakfast.

"Hi sweetheart, you're up early." Sabine said surprised.

"I didn't sleep very well last night and was awake when my alarms began to go off. But hey, at least I'll actually be on time for school today!" She laughed.

"About that, your principal called this morning to let everyone know school was cancelled."

Marinette sat at the small dining table and dropped her head straight down onto it. Of course, the one morning she was actually up at a good time, school wasn't even in session.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Marinette said, her voice being muffled by the table.

"I figured you would sleep in and I could tell you in a few hours."

Marinette sat up and shook her head. "The one time I was up early..."

Sabine laughed, "oh Marinette, what am I going to do with you?"

Marinette smiled and grabbed a banana off of the counter.

"Is there anything you need help with Maman?"

"I'm fine, thank you Marinette. I'm just waiting for your father's omelet to finish cooking. Would you like an omelet as well?"

"No thank you, I think I'll stick to something light," Marinette walked to the refrigerator and dug out the orange juice from the very back, "banana and orange juice is all I'll need. I was thinking about asking Alya out to lunch, would that be okay?"

"Yes I think that will be fine. Do you know where you're going?"

Marinette tapped her chin as she thought. She really hadn't taken many places into consideration since she usually just ate at the bakery.

After a moment of silence, Sabine interrupted her daughter's thoughts, "might I give a suggestion?"

"That would be very helpful, thank you."

"There's a small cafe just around the corner. I've been wanting to try it out with your father for a few weeks now. Why don't you go ahead and scope it out for us?"

"That's a great idea maman, thank you."

"Anytime sweetheart— Oh, do be careful though! With the whole superhero verses villain thing last night, I want you to be careful."

Marinette kissed her mother on the cheek. "I will, I promise."

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Adrien's photo shoot when fairly well considering his throat still hurt, despite the cup of tea, and his nose was a little runny.

It was a quick shoot that was originally supposed to be 4 hours long but ended up only lasting 2 hours due to the rain.

Adrien had tried on a number of outfits that were meant to go along with the spring fashion line.

His favorite outfit had been a simple white tee with black jeans and a turquoise jacket. He liked the simplicity and thought that the blue was a nice pop of color next to the black and white.

After the photo shoot, Adrien's driver came to pick him up and take him home. It wasn't quite lunch time yet which meant Adrien had roughly half an hour to kill before anyone would be around to call him to lunch.

If he started on his Chinese work now, he could potentially be done before 1:30 and he'd have the rest of the day to himself. Honestly that would've meant an extremely boring day for Adrien had he not been Chat Noir. Perhaps after his Chinese lesson, he could sneak out while the rain had let off and enjoy a run around the city.

At 12:05 exactly, Nathalie knocked on his door to escort him to lunch. Once he was seated at one end of the large dining table, Nathalie gave a curt nod to a young man who was standing by the door that lead to the kitchen. He must've been new to the job because many of the household workers already knew precisely when the food was brought out and how it was done.

Adrien always felt weird having people be at his beck and call no matter the situation. He knew it was just their job but many of the servants were only slightly older than him yet he didn't know any of their names nor who they were outside of the Agreste Manor. Many of them stayed in the shadows and only did the chore work when no one else was around. Honestly the staff was so efficient, unless you caught them serving a meal or perhaps retrieving a fabric swatch for Gabriel, you'd never know that there were literal servants in the Agreste house.

After a mediocre lunch of salad with grilled chicken, Adrien excused himself to finish his Chinese lesson.

His lesson was over quickly and he was free to do whatever he pleased with the rest of his day.

And he might just be interested in visiting a certain baker's daughter...

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A/N:

Okay sorry to the 16 of you that read my story and probably thought I abandoned it. You were right, I did. But I had this chapter mostly written so I thought I might as well share it with you guys.

Don't know when I'll write next so enjoy this!

Xoxo - SourDolphin <3