MIRACULOUS ADRIENETTE - The Christmas Party

Chapter 3

Marinette could only stand there stunned for a few seconds, his absence no registering in its suddenness. Then her mind finally engaged.

"Adrian! Wait!"

He didn't stop, taking to the stairs and practically flying down. He'd never ignored anyone, ever, and the coldness of it made her shiver.

"Adrian!" She dived forward, and managed to grab his wrist before he could go any further. "Adrian please, listen!"

This time, he stopped, but didn't face her.

"I have to go. I'm sorry. See you tomorrow." She couldn't see his lips move, but Marinette knew they wouldn't be smiling.

"Yesterday... If I, if I hurt you at all..." She trailed off as Adrian turned, and she saw the muted indifference in his eyes.

She'd always been fascinated with his eyes. The perfect emerald-green, so bright they sparkled with their own kind of light, in or out of the sun. Every day she gazed into them via the multiple posters on her wall, and felt she knew them to the last centimetre.

But today, it was as if a storm had settled inside each iris, the green dark and sharp, sour. It made release her grip on his arm and take a step back, this person suddenly foreign and unfamiliar.

"I'm fine, Marinette." He straightened, and flashed her a model-smile – the one on the billboards, and the hearts of every teenager in Paris - then hurried down the stairs, and out the courtyard doors.

It was the first time that smile had scared her.

...ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ

He hadn't meant to.

Thinking about the hurt look on her face as he'd snatched his hand away, he inhaled sharply. But he couldn't bear to see his friends' smiling faces right now. He had to have space, some time to think... Oh, to have some space!

He jumped onto a wifi pole, and raised his face to the wide, endless sky. He wondered what it would be like to feel nothing at all, and let his eyelids droop and his grip on the wire slacken –

No. His claws retracted, gripping onto the wire just at the last second. Not yet, not like this...

He hopped back down onto the rooftop, resting on his stick moodily. It wasn't as if anyone would truly miss him, anyway. Yes, he had his fans, he had his friends at school. But they didn't like him because of him, they liked him because of the smile, the soft voice and the carefully curated manners.

If they saw what was truly going on in his head – they'd run a mile and never come back.

Never. He slashed at the wires, and the pole jerked to the side, off balance. Tempted to finish the job, he slid a finger down the last cord, almost hard enough to cut.

But not enough.

He was never enough, was he?

The car was pulling out now, sliding through the muddy slush on the road. Thanks to cat's vision, he could see it perfectly - his father's favourite, the grey Mercedes with black wheel caps, shining coldly in the winter sun as he gazed from above, merely another staring civilian to the man inside.

Away for the holidays. It was even Natalie who told him, her face the same blank stare as always, her lips barely moving as the words formed.

As much as he wanted to follow the car, to the airport, maybe even smuggling himself in the luggage compartment, anything to not be alone with his head this Christmas – he knew it was hopeless.

Nothing would ever change.

-

"There you are!"

When Marinette opened the door to the classroom, it was like a different place, silent except for the sound of scissors on felt and the low Christmas jazz Ms Bustier had put on it the back ground, everyone working diligently like worker bees at their desks.