Forbidden Love That Wasn't

Adrien (part 2)

Adrien had hoped that he wouldn't dwell on the fact that Marinette had been in love with him for years. It was a shocking discovery, to a degree, as it wasn't the first time a girl had had a crush on him, and it had never especially bothered him before. Not this time, though. This time it was different. This time it was Marinette, someone too dear to his heart to just ignore and eventually forget about. This time it didn't seem like just a crush as well.

Adrien survived the dinner at Kagami's purely on an autopilot, years of training in etiquette coming in handy in front of Kagami's mother, who barely differed from his father in her attitude. He barely slept at night, though, and found himself terrified to get out of the bed the next morning. As Gabriel's leading model and his only son, Adrien couldn't miss his work, especially not right before the Fashion Week. Marinette, as his father's protégé, couldn't do that either. Usually, Adrien looked forward to their frequent random meeting throughout the building but not today. Today Adrien wasn't sure if he was ready to face her yet, not when he didn't think that whole feelings ordeal through. Yet he had to go.

Grouching, Adrien rolled out of bed and got ready, a tiny hope sprouting in his chest. If he remembered correctly the last days before the big show were always extremely hectic. For him, it meant countless hours of catwalk practice with his colleagues, multiple last-minute fittings to do the necessary alterations and even photo shoots. Clothes, changes, cameras, makeup, shoots, ramp, walks, lights... Typically it would all fuse into a single mess of activities and Adrien would just blindly going through the motions. Marinette would probably be just as busy. He knew his father, he'd make her work to her limits at times like those. Therefore, there was a high chance that they wouldn't even see each other or at least they wouldn't have time to talk when they did. He could survive that until he could give it more thought and come up with a plan of action.

Except that didn't happen. The first person whom Adrien noticed upon entering the building was Marinette. And not an angry to a sobbing or even a pouting Marinette but a smiling one with his customary morning baked goods from her parents' bakery in her hands. Adrien gawked and looked at his empty ones. He completely forgot! It was their tradition ever since Marinette had started working at Gabriel – she would bring him treats, and he would pick up her favourite coffee from a little coffee shop by his house. Then they would meet here at exactly seven in the morning and do an exchange before riding an elevator together to their respected floors. This little ritual of theirs was the highlight in Adrien's day. Only today his hands were empty. In his mental hassle, Adrien had forgotten, and even if he would remember, he would've probably assumed that Marinette wouldn't have wanted a coffee from him anymore. Yet she greeted him with a smile.

"Good morning, Adrien."

"I'm sorry. I forgot your coffee," Adrien blurred out, accepting a box with two croissants and two eclairs inside. "Double?"

"I didn't know if you'd be having breakfast with Kagami, so I brought extra for her just in case." She smiled again, and Adrien felt his heart tightened. "And don't worry about the coffee. You seem to have had little shut-eye, so I'll make myself some at the staff room."

"How did you know?" Adrien murmured following Marinette to the elevator.

"If you're asking if it shows then no. Not much, but unfortunately for you, I know your pretty face too well."

She smiled yet again, and Adrien felt the corners of his lips lightly twitch. He could never resist smiling with Marinette. The elevator door opened and they stood in silence waiting for people to exit. They kept quiet riding up, their usual carefree chatter never staring. Despite the smiles, the air felt tense, and Adrien didn't know what to say so he just took one the croissants and pretended he could stomach it. Marinette didn't say anything either until he reached his floor. Then she wished him a great day with a smile yet again.