The Importance of a Kwami [Book 1] | Miraculous Fanfiction [#MLWattyAwards]

6: The Park

"And there you have it," the instructor concluded. "Any questions?"

Marinette shook her head and got to her feet, placing a sparkling badge on her sheet-white shirt. On it had a symbol of merging animals; a hawk soaring above, a lion roaring proudly, and a scaly fish extended along the bottom, with bubbles coming out.

"I will be observing your skills with the park animals," the instructor said, "so all I can say is good luck!" He adjusted his hat, with a style of military camouflage, and held out a hand for Marinette to shake. She shook in and smiled.

She felt quite nervous after the meeting. How was she supposed to do this all on her own, with no help? She tried not to panic as she walked over the rabbits and racked her brain for what she had learnt. About to start, she suddenly felt the presence of someone, and looked up - seeing a friendly, familiar face appear.

"Alya!" Marinette gasped. "What're you doing here?"

Alya grinned, and replied, "I thought I might help you out here. I thought you'd be a bit alone, you know." She pointed at her own badge. "This is gonna be great! We can do this together!"

Marinette thanked Alya before peering down at a note list that she had received. "This is going to be a long day," she sighed. "Well, at least I'll be working with you, Alya." Alya smiled in response, pulling back strands of curly brown hair.

~~~

It was noon, and the sun was at its scorching fullest. Marinette wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead while feeding a few rabbits, but she found that she was actually enjoying the experience. "I thought this was going to be boring," said Marinette, "but I guess I was wrong!" She saw jaguars leap in their cages as viewers snap photos, lions roar as the people clapped and talked to one another, different rare species of animals ... It wasn't as bad as she had thought of it to be.

After the rabbits were satisfied, Marinette and Alya found a bench under the shade and talked for a while. "That was exhausting ..." Marinette said, "But it was fun."

"Especially those rabbits!" Alya chuckled. "I've never seen anything like them before!" But she found that Marinette was not paying attention to the last sentence, but looking over to the right.

"Marinette?" Alya said, looking over to where she was looking.

"Look it's Adrien! He's visiting the park! Aah!" She whispered. 

"The lovestruck girl," Alya covered her face with her hands. "Look, we'd better get back to tending to the animals," she continued.

"Yeah ..." Marinette sighed, looking at the blonde boy, with his sparkling emerald eyes. "We'd better go." When Adrien caught Marinette's eye, he looked surprised and waved casually. "Hey Marinette!" He said. "I didn't realise you'd be there."

Marinette laughed nervously. "Y-Y-Yeah! I was, um, doing some work h-here at the park with Alya! For our ... Um ... Project!" She felt a blush creep up on her cheeks, and so she quickly waved goodbye and turned around. She facepalmed.

"My stupid self," she murmured. She felt her heart thudding loudly inside. Alya put an arm on her shoulder.

"Girl, it'll be all right. Don't need to feel so down," Alya said, comfortingly. She wiped some sweat off her forehead and the areas where it met her curly hair. She felt like she was going to melt into a puddle. 

"Hey Marinette!" Adrien called. Marinette panicked, her eyes widening. She looked nervously at Alya, and then turned around with a straight face.

"Y-Yeah? What is it?" She stammered. 

"I was wondering if you could give me a tour!" He replied. "You know, of this place. It's one of the only times my father lets me out to do what I want."

Marinette turned to Alya, who shrugged, and then she looked back at Adrien. "S-Sure! We'd love you! I mean love to! Love to!"

Adrien smiled thankfully and walked over. "Thank you, Marinette." 

"Take him to the birds area first," Alya suggested. Marinette nodded and stumbled over to a few a birds chirping quietly inside their confining cages.

"This is a starling," Marinette began, "it is a-a very common bird, with a fast flight speed and uh - a confident walker on the ground. They spend a lot of their time in - uh - flocks, and - uh - yeah! It's latin name i-is 'Sturnus vulgaris'. Well that's all that the uh instructor told me!" She smiled nervously. First sentence without stuttering! She thought to herself, proudly.

"That's pretty impressive for someone who just started learning about animals!" Adrien commented. "Are all of these birds common, too?"

"Yeah ..." Marinette replied. "Well except for the ones over there but I'm not allowed to go over there y-yet.

Marinette and Alya continued the tour with Adrien for around half and hour, until they finally came to a stop, and had went around a lot of the park.

"That was great! Thanks, Marinette." He opened up his phone. "But it's late, I have to go back, Nathalie is waiting." He smiled. "Bye!" He turned around and walked away, leaving the park to go home.

"Yeesss!" Marinette laughed, once Adrien was completely out of sight. "I can't believe I just gave Adrien a tour!" She squealed. "I'm so happy!"

"You did it girl," Alya grinned. "I can't believe you didn't have a brain black out! You said those words as if they had come out of the instructor's mouth!"

"Thanks, Alya." The sun was setting, and the work was almost done. Just six days left of working in the park, Marinette thought. A cool breeze carried their happy feelings into the fresh, Parisian air.