Reunited (A Miraculous Ladybug Romance)

17: The Boyfriend

Art above is some fan art for the gala event. Drawn by art_machine on instagram
3/24/18

    "Okay!" Adrien nearly shouted as we casually walked hand in hand down the Parisian streets. "Picture this! Nino comes in riding on an elephant and then slides down its trunk landing in a kneeling position, on one knee of course, and pops the question. Alya will have no choice but to say yes with an entrance like that."

    I glanced over to see Adrien grinning from ear to ear, clearly pleased with this ridiculous theory that he had concocted. Before I could even muster up a response, he began to giddily bounce up and down while quickly, yet passionately blurting out his next idea. "Oh, I know! Nino will somehow convince the zookeepers to lock him and Alya inside of that cage again, or maybe he will set up some sort of dance party in the zoo in which he is the DJ."

    I couldn't help but to giggle. Adrien looked so cute when he got all worked up about something. I never imagined that his theories would be so goofy, but it was a nice change of pace from the serious tone that covered the earlier conversations of the evening. His eyes sparkled with a mischievous joy that I felt like I had seen somewhere else before. I never remembered seeing this look on Adrien, and I couldn't quite place why it seemed so familiar.

    "You're hopeless," I sighed giving Adrien a slight squeeze of the hand. "Is this seriously what you think a proposal should look like? The idea is to woo the girl, not to scare her away."

    In an instant, I was yanked to the side and engulfed into Adrien's arms. He leaned forward touching his forehead to mine sending an immediate surge of heat running through my body. "You mean like this?" he whispered as my knees turned into gelatin. Adrien could be such a dork at times, but he had this fascinating, nearly irresistible, ability to immediately turn on the charm. However, just as quickly as it began, the moment ended with Adrien releasing me from his grasp and resuming his position next to me leaving me short of breath and completely flustered.

    "Oh. My. Goodness!" A shrill voice from behind us began. I turned around to see a wide eyed Chloe standing next to a lanky brown haired, green eyed boy. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste. A couple?" I could feel my face heat up as Adrien pulled me closer wrapping his arm around my waist. This was it. Chloe was going to explode. Any resemblance of a friendship that we had begun to form would simply be wiped away.

    The blonde girl's eyes lit up as she came bounding towards me, grabbing on to both of my hands and excitedly jumping up and down. "Marinette! Why didn't you tell me about this? This is great! You two make a perfect couple!"

I couldn't believe my ears. Chloe Bourgeois, Adrien's biggest fan girl in high school, the one who had vowed that she would marry him someday, was actually complementing the fact that he was with another girl. Not only was Adrien with another girl, but she was Chloe's worst enemy in high school. Now, I knew that Chloe had changed, but this one definitely took the cake.

The ecstatic girl then let go of one of my hands to wave forward the confused looking boy that she had left standing all alone. He obliged, quickly stepping forward to place his arm around Chloe's waist in an exact imitation of how Adrien's arm was wrapped around mine. He was about a head taller than Chloe, and he had a small bit of facial hair extending, underneath his chin, from one ear to the other. He was quite scrawny but sported a nice looking tan. He wore a pair of tight fitting skinny jeans with converse shoes and a baggy long sleeved burgundy T-shirt.

"Willy," Chloe nearly shouted with excitement, "I would like for you to meet Marinette, the girl who saved me."

The world became silent as I could feel my heart drop to the pit of my stomach. Chloe had just spilled the beans to Adrien about my daring act of heroism that I had inconveniently failed to mention to him. I had convinced myself that I had not told him because it had not been my story to tell. However, deep down I knew that simply was not true. There were two reasons that I had chosen to keep this little event from Adrien. One, I did not want to say anything that would lead him anywhere near the truth that I am actually Ladybug, and two, I did not want to be reminded of the guilt that I had felt for not helping out Chloe more. Instead of waiting for Chloe to call me, I should have reached out to her to see how see was doing. To my own regret, I left her to recover completely on her own while I brooded over my own problems. She seemed to be fine now, but there was no way that I could have known that earlier in the week. I had been selfish, and now Adrien was going to find out the truth from someone other than myself.