For Forever | Miraculous Ladybug

E x c u s e s

In this chapter, you'll see a super blushy Adrien. Just a warning.

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♡Marinette's POV♡

Marinette frantically began stuffing pencils, papers, and her sketchbook into her backpack with a slice of leftover baguette slathered with tartine between her teeth.

"5 minutes," Tikki warned, floating next to Marinette's head, nibbling on a miniature apple tart.

"I geth ith, I geth ith!" Marinette yelled through her teeth and the bread. Her nose continued to ache badly and she was still recovering from the "Holy Shit Chat Noir Just Kissed Me" incident.

"4 minutes."

Marinette made a loud roaring noise from her throat, still unable to speak.

She zipped it closed and ran out the door, backpack on shoulder, Tikki in her new brown purse and breakfast still held between her teeth.

"3 minutes!" Marinette heard a muffled yell from her bag.

That pushed her to go faster. She sped past people and all surroundings turned into a blur. As the lycee came into sight, she skidded to a stop and jogged the rest of the way.

There were too many people in front of the school for her to be early. She searched for Alya in the huge wave of students. Marinette was so focused on finding her frienf that when she felt a tap on her shoulder, she yelped, causing her breakfast to fall from her mouth and onto the floor.

"Girl!" Alya said, accompanied by Nino, while Marinette crouched to pick up the slice of bread, facing the opposite direction. "Where were you? You didn't answer my calls-"

Marinette turned around and Alya shrieked, dropping her phone on the ground, while Nino gasped loudly. This certainly received a few looks.

Alya slowly picked up her phone, her eyes still locked onto Marinette's nose. "Wha . . ." her voice trailed off.

"Mari, what happened?" Nino finished for his awestruck girlfriend.

"Well," Marinette said shakily, twiddling with the end of her red blouse. "You see, I had to work an extra hour in my parent's bakery because I had to borrow some money from them, and so I was working at the cash register when a snobby rich woman didn't like her macarons so she threw them at me, causing me to stagger back, trip over a sponge, and fracture my nose." She exhaled. A perfect excuse.

But instead of buying the story, Alya laughed. "Marinette, that was one of the best lies you've ever come up with. It was all believable until the last part."

Marinette groaned in disappointment.

"Now tell me what really happened."

The obsidian haired girl gulped and straightened up.

"I, uh-" Marinette stuttered but was interrupted by an angelic voice.

"Salut, guys!" Adrien called out, raising one hand as he stepped out of the limo. His jade eyes scanned over his small group of friends, but he faltered when his eyes met hers. "Salut Marinette," he said before looking away, his face tinted pink.

Did he just . . . Blush? And why didn't he ask about my nose? Well, I can't expect everyone to ask about my nose. And anyway, I don't even have an excuse anymore. I can't just tell everyone-

"Hey, Adrien," Nino and Alya said in synch. "Do you wanna try and figure out what Marinette did to her nose?"

Adrien's eyes got as wide as saucers as if he just noticed her cast. He swallowed and adjusted his button-up shirt. Marinette quickly observed her outfit, checking if her shorts, loose t-shirt and pink flip-flops were acceptable. As a precaution, she redid her messy bun. "She broke it," Adrien finally answered.

Nino smacked his head. "No duh, Captain Obvious. I meant what she did to break it."

Adrien rubbed his forearm and shrugged weakly, not creating eye contact with his friends, especially not Mari. She wondered if there was something in her teeth or if she had eyeboogers or something.

"What's wrong with you, bro? You're not yourself today," Nino pointed out, slugging his model-friend's arm playfully.

Adrien sighed and shrugged once again. "I'm pretty tired. It's probably those photoshoots. They keep going on later and later each day and not to mention they're really tiring."

Nino patted him on the back. "Just think about this, dude: it's Friday! There's something to look forward to."

Marinette almost cursed aloud. Today was a patrol day and a patrol day meant seeing Chat. She hoped that Volpina would distract them from each other. Most of all, she didn't think she was ready to see him yet.

Before she could say anything, Adrien moved away from Nino and covered his face with both hands, but a deep red (one that was a bit darker than the blush blooming on Marinette's face) poked through his tight fingers and painted the tips of his ears. "You know what?" He said through his hands, eyes poking out between fingers. "I'm suddenly feeling very sick. I'm gonna call Nathalie and tell her I'm going home."

Marinette gently clutched her nose and gave a fake wince as Adrien walked out to the curb, phone to ear. "Ouch, my nose really hurts. My doctor told me that I need to go home when it does and get some pain medicine. Bye!" She hurried away, down the sidewalk and across the street just as Adrien was getting picked up by the limo that just dropped him off a few minutes ago.

Alya and Nino exchanged glances after the pair walked away.

"They act like they're secretly dating . . ." Alya tapped her chin, then looked at Nino with curiosity.

There was silence before Alya whispered, "I ship it."

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This chapter didn't really have a purpose to the story except mentioning that it was Friday XD

But I have an idea for the next chapter and I can't wait to write it ;)