Welcome to New York

Marinette "He's Just a Friend" Dupain-Cheng

They sat down to eat at about five thirty, meaning they still had an hour and a half before the show.

Marinette was getting antsy. During the whole car ride to the restaurant, Adrien and Liam had hardly said a word to each other. For some reason, she felt as if having the two of them in a room together was a ticking time bomb, and she couldn't help but wait apprehensively for the explosion.

Could it be because of what Daisy had said to her about Adrien having feelings for her? Surely not. Marinette knew it wasn't true- so why would she be so nervous about having both of them in the same room all of a sudden?

"So, Adrien," Liam began after a few minutes. Oh, no, here it came. Marinette braced herself. "Do you have any funny stories about Marinette from school?" Oh.

Adrien thought about it. "Well, the second time we ever spoke to each other, I let her borrow my umbrella, and she accidentally closed it on herself almost immediately."

Liam laughed and looked fondly at Marinette. "Of course she did."

"Then there was the time when..."

Marinette was only halfway listening to Adrien's stories about her, but she still smiled nostalgically at the memories. However, her smile was also due in part to the laughter coming from both of the men at the table. They were getting along perfectly. Everything was fine. She had no idea why she had been so worried before.

"Did you know she had a shrine of pictures of you on her bedroom wall?" Liam asked at one point. Marinette blushed and rolled her eyes.

"Ha, yeah," Adrien laughed. "I forgot about that."

"Wait, what?" Marinette interjected. "You knew about that? I always took it down when you came over- how did you know about it?"

Adrien looked mildly panicked for a moment. "Oh, um- dang it. Sorry. I wasn't supposed to let you know that I knew." Marinette quirked an eyebrow. "Nino accidentally told me about it once when he was drunk. He freaked out and made me promise not to tell you I knew, even though we were, like, twenty-seven by that point. He still felt like he had betrayed your trust. He would kill me if he knew I accidentally let it slip, so just... please don't mention it to him."

Marinette laughed. "Okay, I won't."

"Thanks."

Liam kept glancing between the two of them. "So..." he said at one point. "I know Marinette had a crush on you, Adrien, but I can't help but wonder if that crush was ever reciprocated."

"Oh," Marinette shook her head. "No, he-"

"It was, actually," Adrien said. "But Marinette refuses to believe me."

"Adrien," she said. "I told you before that you don't have to tell me that to make me feel good about myself. I feel good enough about myself already. I'm freaking awesome." Liam chuckled.

"I'm not just saying that," Adrien insisted. "I really did have a crush on you."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Adrien, I was nuts about you. I paid close attention to everything you did. Everything. I think I would have known if you had a crush on me."

"And I think that maybe you didn't notice as much as you thought you did," Adrien said, leaning back against the back of the booth. "I was a pretty private person, Mari."

"Still. I would have known."

Adrien shrugged. "I didn't know that you had a crush on me, and when I asked Nino about it the other day, he said it was pretty obvious, so who knows? Maybe we were both just too blind and oblivious to see what was right in front of us the whole time."