Summary:
Prompt: When one of Lila's schemes goes too far and severely injures Marinette, with Adrien as the only witness, he gets akumatized; his one purpose: to protect Marinette against everyone, especially Lila Rossi.
--- With summer (and summer sports) approaching, it was decided that the PE class would spend a month at the pool learning to swim and preparing for swim competitions. Adrien had never competed in swim sports before, but he had spent plenty of time with photoshoots at pools. He even did a mid-air photoshoot jumping off of the diving board of the local pool. He was a good swimmer, even better when he became aquatic Chat Noir. He enjoyed swimming. But if asked, Adrien would say that his favorite part was swimming with his friends. They spent an hour and a half in the water during PE. Only about half that time was spent training and racing. The rest was for ‘free swim’ and diving off the boards.
With the entire class there, sometimes the water seemed a bit overcrowded, so Adrien would sit on the side of the pool and talk with Nino, who typically swam for about ten minutes before deciding he’d much rather ‘people watch’. Adrien knew that by ‘people watch’ he really meant ‘Alya watch’. And Adrien couldn’t blame him. The girls were beautiful in their swimsuits. He’d noticed that Alya was pretty in her orange and black two piece swimsuit, but it was Marinette that had really caught his eye.
Each day she alternated between three swimsuits: a two piece pink suit with white polka dots, a one piece solid red suit that reminded him a bit too much of Ladybug, and the one she wore today: a green one piece suit with green cat paw accents that reminded him too much of Chat Noir. He remembered she’d been a fan (even confessed her love to Chat Noir–his rejection had led to Weredad, a moment he was not proud of). Now, watching her swim, Adrien was impressed with her swimsuits, and knew that she’d designed them all herself. The pink swimsuit showed more skin, but the black suit held his gaze. She was beautiful in his (Chat’s) colors.
“Dude, just ask her out, already!” Nino whispered. “I’d bet she’d say ‘yes’ in a heartbeat!”
Adrien glanced back at Nino. “What? Who?”
“Marinette! You’ve been staring at her for at least five minutes. I knew you were completely zoned when you didn’t respond to the three awesome puns I made in a row.”
“It’s not that…I was just thinking.” Adrien poorly defended himself.
“Yeah, thinking about how cute Marinette looks in that Chat Noir swimsuit she made!” Nino shook his head. “I thought you were a Ladybug fan. I’m starting to think you really just have a thing for cute girls in pigtails!”
Adrien attempted to sputter a response, flushing slightly. “It’s not like that!” He finally whispered in return. “Marinette is just such an amazing designer–”
“-Dude!” Nino interrupted, and Adrien looked over at his friend, startled. “You were not just looking at her swimsuit. She’s worn it three times already. You’ve had plenty of time to check out the design. You were most definitely checking out the designer!”
Adrien’s blush deepened from a pink to a nice shade of Ladybug red. He was struggling to find a response, when his ‘rescue’ came from an unlikely source…
“Adrien!” Lila’s voice chimed in, and she was swimming over to the edge of the pool. She was wearing a simple, black two piece swimsuit. She had pulled her brown hair into a high ponytail. Her face sported a fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes. His eyes widened, and deep down he realized he’d much rather be discussing his friend Marinette than talking to Lila. “I wanted to see what time you were planning on picking me up for the Jagged Stone concert this evening…”
Concert? What concert? Adrien was confused. He didn’t have a date with Lila. He had never had a date with her. Just photoshoots and events set up by his father. “I..I…” He glanced around and realized that some of the class had started glancing their way whispering. “I’m sorry, Lila, but you must be confused. I…I already had plans this evening, and I’d set them up weeks ago.”
