Love by Design - Adrienette

Mylene is Your Opportunity

Something needed to be done. Now that Adrien knew who Ladybug was, he absolutely had to talk to her. Coming into class, he caught an amusing look on Marinette's face as she passed Alya's phone back to her. She must have just seen that post. He'd reacted to it earlier in the privacy of his own bedroom. Adrien had developed a habit of checking the Ladyblog first thing in the morning to see if there were any clues he could use to identify his partner. Even though he didn't need its help anymore, it didn't feel right to set his habit aside just like that.

"Dude - hello? I asked you if you heard about the akuma attack last night!" Nino waved a hand in front of Adrien's face.

Adrien was able to pull himself together and respond. "You mean with MeTuber? Yeah! Wasn't it awesome?!" He would have to slip away from Nino; his conversation would be between him and Marinette.

"Uh, okay, it wasn't that cool, they save the city like that all the time, unless you mean their new development. Are you into that?"

"Oh, right, silly me, they're just doing their job. Hey, do you mind if I just... slip off somewhere for a moment?"

"Yeah, sure dude, go ahead." Nino pulled his headphones over his ears, leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes. Adrien smiled. His best friend was always there for him, but he didn't express a need to be in on everything. That made him easy to be around.

"You need to look at this." Marinette's best friend was the opposite. There was Alya, shoving her phone back in Marinette's face. Adrien realized that slipping away from Nino wasn't the half of it, he would need to pry Marinette away from Alya. They had secrets that weren't for her ears, but he was fairly sure that "a private word with Marinette" would only serve to deepen Alya's curiosity. He considered the four of them - himself, Nino, and the girls - to all be friends, but there was something about Alya that he found slightly obnoxious. It was the same investigative reporter mentality that had allowed her to create a sucessful blog in the first place. It served well, but right now she was getting in his way. He would need to get rid of Alya. No, that made it sound like he intended to hurt her. He needed to distract Alya.

Realizing he wouldn't be able to talk to Marinette at that moment, he stepped outside the classroom to think. From under the edge of his jacket, Plagg snickered, "You've - RRRRIIIIINGGGG! DIIIIINGGGG! DOOOONGGGG!" The school bell rudely interupted whatever - most likely teasing - thing Plagg had to say, and Adrien went to take his seat. "Good morning, Marinette," he greeted the girl in the seat behind him. He was afraid of saying any more than a salutation in others' presence, but he didn't want her to think he'd forgotten.

Between completion of the first assignment and start of the next, he looked around the room for something that could help distract Alya away from Bugaboo. Applying that endearment to Marinette was somehow a discomforting twinge that wasn't unpleasant. It was him, coming to terms with the placement of his feelings. Several visual sweeps of the room gave him nothing, but the fourth time he caught Mylene glancing back at Ivan. She did so several times before Ivan looked back at her. They both blushed and looked away. It looked as if he and Marinette weren't the only two having relationship drama, but Ivan and Mylene had shared a kiss after the Horrificator incident; they should be past that stage by now! An idea started to unfold in Adrien's mind, one for getting a little bit of time alone with Marinette. He'd need his best friend's help.

He wait until the break to approach his friend. "Nino! Have you noticed Ivan and Mylene?"

"Nah, what about them, dude?"

"They're still trying to get up the courage to be together! Don't you think It's time someone gave them a little nudge?"

"Eh, I guess that'd be cool. Who do you think would try that?"