Rainy Days

Worth the Trouble

Adrien sat down besides Nino in their first class of the day assessing two things at once. The first was that Chloe was refusing to even look in his direction, and the second was that Marinette's seat was empty. He had arrived fairly late, the class just about to start, so the students should have mostly arrived before him. Granted Marinette had a tardy record similar to his own, but still, he couldn't help but think she should have been there already.

He tried to just be patient, spending the opening minutes of class observing Chloe from the corner of his eye. She didn't look happy... guess that should have been obvious. Just because they purged the akuma doesn't mean they fixed the problem, but at least the problem wasn't as immediately threatening to his life now. He looked again and Chloe was staring down at her desk, not being loud or disruptive like she normally would be. He felt a pang of sympathy for her, but knew he had to leave the situation alone. Unless it endangered Marinette again, in which case he definitely wouldn't.

The lesson got underway and Marinette was still nowhere to be seen. Adrien started to panic, worrying that his proposal for lunch had intimidated her out of even coming to school, but that didn't fit his ever growing image of her in his mind. She was shy and timid, but she was also brave and a little stubborn. Maybe the akuma attack had rattled her? But that didn't fit either. She hadn't been in danger, Ladybug had seen to that, so she should be fine. Maybe it was just the idea of facing Chloe again? That didn't seem right...

Nino tapped his arm, drawing his attention from his speculation to the note he was being given. It had a sharp 'A' on the front, so he knew it was from Alya, but when he opened it his heart sank.

She was sick.

Alya watched as Adrien visibly deflated upon reading her message, his shoulders sagging slightly, his fingers loosening against the paper.

'She said to pass along that she was extremely sorry, but she didn't feel well enough to make it to school. She got caught out in the rain a bunch yesterday, and I guess it got to her.'

Adrien lifted his eyes from the note to glance over at Alya and give her a nod, acknowledging the message but not writing anything back yet.

He didn't hear a word the teacher said, he was too distracted by his guilt. It was his fault, every second she had been caught out in the rain the day before was thanks to him and now she was sick. After doing so much and coming through for him so spectacularly she now had a cold as thanks, how was that fair?

He knew Marinette though, or at least he liked to pretend that he did, and he knew she probably felt awful. Not just physically, but about missing their lunch too. That was the sort of soft hearted girl she turned out to be, always thinking about others first. He wouldn't be surprised if Alya was giving her a play by play of his reaction by text message, and caring more about his feelings than her current health status.

His face set suddenly in determination, and he wrote out, 'Can I have her number?'

As he passed the note back he mentally tallied up some information. He should probably stick around for biology, he needed to turn in the course work, and after that was lunch. After lunch was just gym, physics and math. He had immaculate grades in all three soo...

He received a reply, ignoring the winky face doodle and entering the number in his phone while the teacher was turned away.

He resisted the urge to save it under princess, just entering Marinette and saving the contact. Then he stashed his phone and decided to cover his bases with the person who knew her best.

Alya took the note back from Nino (who was playing middleman like a good sport on the condition that he got to read the notes as well) and raised an eyebrow at his giddy expression. Until she saw what Adrien had written that is and immediately understood why.