The New Guardian

Since You've Been Gone

Previously: "Alya this is literally my room?" Marinette jokes back. "Alright," she turns to me and smiles, "see you tomorrow then."

"See you tomorrow, Mari." I say, quickly kissing her forehead and dropping down through the trapdoor, shutting it behind me.

This chapter is in Marinettes POV and is continued from when Adrien left her house earlier that night

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The trapdoor clicks close and I feel the rooms attention on me. I don't even turn around and make a run for the bathroom. Before I know it, Nino is in front of the door and Alya traps me in behind me. There's no where to run.

"Oh no you don't, we wanna know what happened out there my dude."

"Yeah, Marinette. Did you make out a bunch?" Alya asks teasingly, making kissy noises.

"Okay, first of all- that's my business," I laugh. "Second of all- I need to make sure my stitches are okay first, so move, Nino." I playfully push him out of my way.

"I'll help and you can tell us what happened." Nino suggests, pushing open the bathroom door.

I huff. "And why would I let you do that?"

"Well, it's on the back of your head so you don't need to strain to get a good look at your stitches and I was just certified in basic first aid for my Safety on Set class." He beamed. "So there's really no reason for me to not help you."

"Plus, we don't need to hound you through the door and risk your parents hearing." Alya giggles.

I groan in defeat and Alya pushes me into the bathroom. I sit on the toilet sideways and Nino preps his little work station to check on everything and clean it up for me. As strange as it was, I felt so comfortable with them. Nino usually had a queasy stomach but he seemed so confident after this class.

As awkward as I wanted to feel thinking about telling Nino, of all people, what just happened on the balcony, I couldn't. We've been friends since primary school. He's been one of my closest and only friends since like year 3. He would support me no matter what I did, even if he didn't really understand much of it. He was often confused by my antics but was there for me nonetheless. We were ruthlessly bullied by Chloe every year since year 1, the three of us being the only consistent people always together in a class for years.

Eventually, Nino and I found the common ground of being awkward and "abnormal" to the other kids. We were easy targets- submissive, shy and quiet. But as time went on, we got closer. We were the closest the year Adrien and Alya joined our class and have been close since. I'm glad my two best friends fell in love. They're perfect for each other, their own yin and yang. I wonder if this was how he felt about Adrien and I.

Alya sits down in front of me, stretching her long legs out and her arms hold her off the ground behind her, keeping her up. Nino patiently begins parting the hair around my cut and shining his phone flashlight on my head.

"Sooooooo..." My Auburn haired best friend starts, trying to get me to go on.

"Sooooo..." I start, wringing my hands against each other. "Obviously we went to make sure there wasn't an akuma attack. And, there wasn't! So that's good."

"And then? Oh, by the way, the stitches are still good. Anyways, back to you and Adrien." Nino states, dabbing at my head with a cold soaked cotton puff.

"I ended up tripping,"

"Big surprise there." Alya comments.

I glare at her. "Har, har." I roll my eyes. "Anyways, I tripped and he caught me. And I may or may not have ended up in his lap of sorts and I may or may not have kissed him. Which might have lead to us making out. Maybe." I blurt, sucking my lips into my face and waiting for the response.