•Back To You• {old title: She's Broken}

II

Adrien's POV

"Hey Adrien. Dude."

I turned around to see Nino walking up to me. "Dude, you gotta help me. Physics is just not for me." I laughed as Nino sat down next to me with his face in his palms. "What's wrong?"

"How the heck does Kinetic Energy relate with Osmosis?"

"Nino, you mixed it up. Osmosis and Kinetic Energy aren't related. Diffusion and Kinetic Energy are. The more the Kinetic Energy in the particles, the more they move, and thus, more Diffusion. And by the way, Osmosis comes under our Biology syllabus."

"Aw man. That's why nothing came up on the net!" He said as he showed me his phone. "Now it makes MUCH more sense."

I burst out laughing as Nino had an expression of a kid finally getting chocolates on Christmas as he wrote that down.

"Hey Adrien, you have a minute?"

I looked up to see Marinette looking at me with a hand waving at me

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

She glances at Nino with a certain look. Nino looked at her with slightly wide eyes, and then smiled. He gave a thumbs up to both of us and left.

"Weird. Any clue why Nino just left all of a sudde-"

"I like you, Adrien."

I looked at her confused.

"Wh-"

"Just let me complete it okay? I need to say this."

I looked at her, trying to understand what was happening. I slowly nodded for her to continue

"Look. I know you're really confused right now. So I'll just make it as simple and brief as I can. I- I like you okay? And when I say 'like' I mean I have a crush on you, alright? I don't like you because you're a model and all, I, like you because, you're you. The way you mask how lonely you are with a heartwarming smile, the way you mask how you want friends and company by getting along with seemingly cool-headed conversations,  The way you want to make mistakes and see if its okay to do them but you don't because you're afraid of them so you hide that by making this image of perfection, everything just intrigues me. And I saw that on the day you lent me your umbrella. And I know that's kind of cliche but, it happened okay. I've seen so many cases of people being sad and hiding it but you, yours is just, so interesting to me. And seeing that, out of nowhere, I just started growing a crush on you. And it's been about a year and I got tired of hiding it. I got tired of getting all flustered and nervous. I started gaining confidence and was able to talk to you normally. Like a good friend. And after that, well, today, I woke up with a determination to confess. Today morning in class, I wanted to tell, but I was just thinking of something else and I knew it wasn't the right time anyway, and I know this isn't either. Oh what am I saying, I never term any time as 'The Right Time'. But I felt like I could finally say it. So here. I, Marinette Dupain Cheng, have a crush on you, Adrien Agreste."

At this point, my mind was full of nothing but, shock I guess.
I was about to say something but Marinette put her hand and asked me to let her continue 'cuz there was more.

"I'm almost done. I know you won't be a jerk and reject me badly 'cuz I'm sure you know how it feels to be neglected and dismissed off and I'm sure that with your soft heart you don't want anybody to have a heartbreak. But I just wanted to say, that, after this is done, I'm going to have a heartbreak anyway. Not because you don't feel the same way but because you're in love with Ladybug."

My eyes displayed shock to another level. How did she...

"It's not that I'm jealous or anything. Why would I be? After all, the whole of Paris loves her. She's beautiful, strong, kind, fearless, pretty much the perfect superhero, don't you think? And me, I'm just clumsy and plain old Marinette. And I'm probably going to stay this way. There's nothing about me that could even be compared to her. Why be jealous? But I thought that you may have realised that Ladybug could be someone you just don't expect to be. She may be Ms.Perfect but behind the mask she could be probably nothing. So I thought you might have realised that and-"

I was about to say something but hearing the last part, I became slightly pissed. I didn't notice a dark butterfly fly around setting weird kind of pollen. I noticed the pollen but I thought it was normal dust. The pollen made my mind fill with rage. I grabbed her by the shoulders and pressed her to the walls of a nearby corridor of the city with force I shouldn't have used. I didn't know what came over me, but I know I shouldn't have done it.

"Marinette don't you dare talk about her like that okay?! You don't even know her! You can't just talk so lowly of someone like that! And how can you even think that I would ever think that of her?! I love her with my life and I don't care who she is behind that mask! And you define who you are whether you're with the mask or without it! It's not the other way around! And did you think that if Ladybug didn't exist I'd fall in love with you? That's low Marinette."

Her eyes started filling with fear and tears started to brim in her eyes.

Realisation came upon me as I let her go. Guilt struck my heart. By the time I was realising everything the akuma I should have noticed, had flown off.

"M-Marinette, I-I'm really-"

"Save it. This is why I hoped you'd realise about Ladybug. You could hurt someone with how blinded you are by how much you're in love with her." She looked down. "The other reason why I thought you should realise is because if you did, then, well, you'd still love her but you'd think a bit deeper, and you just might have seen that I've fallen for you but I was just way too scared to tell you. The last reason? It's top secret and as far as I know, only one person knows. I was planning to tell Alya or Nino, but now I think it's better that nobody else knows...."

She looked up at me with a sad smile with tears rolling down her face.

"I prefer to keep the rest to myself but now you know that one thing I've always wanted to tell you. But I think I made a mistake. Ha-hahah-ha."

I broke her. She trusted me. But, I broke her.

"Don't worry you were just defending the love of your life. I wish you would have understood but who am I to change your thoughts? It's cool. So basically, I like you, you don't like me back, I wanted to tell you about my feelings in brief and how I feel about your feelings towards Ladybug, but that resulted in you getting angry, you hating me, and you're probably a bit guilty now but I say that it's cool right before you get to say anything, but I'm gonna go home with some depression and probably cry. Yeah that's.....pretty much it haha-h....."

I wanted to hug her and tell her how sorry I am but I couldn't. I broke her, way too much. At this point, she was on the verge of breaking down into a million pieces.

"Oh would you look at the time, I gotta go home to the bakery. See ya sometime later Adrien."

She said as she ran off, breaking down. And I realise what a jerk I am.

I clutched my fists and rubbed a tear from my eyes. It's the first time someone's understood me other than Mom. And I lost that person too. I didn't want to hurt her. I just.....

A woman with blonde hair looked down at her child wih a sweet smile and asked, Adrien?

"Yes Mom?" The child replied

"If there ever comes a day where I might not be there, I'm sure your father might change. So if that day comes, I want you to be strong and find someone who cares about you and would do anything for you. Okay?" The mother stated.

The child's eyes sparkled with innocence and curiosity. And replied "I....don't really get it but Okay!" He smiled

I fell onto my knees and cried.
"Mom, forgive me.....I've found her....but I.....I pushed her away...."