Miraculous Ships

A Comforting Paw

Marinette woke up in the middle of the night, sweating heavily. All night, she had been having nightmares of Adrien proposing to Chloe the next day at school, even though they were only fourteen years old. Nightmare Adrien had really shaken her after Sandboy.

Tikki flew over to where Marinette was sitting, having awoken by Marinette's sudden jolt of movement. "What's wrong, Marinette? There are no Akumas around."

"I need to tell Adrien how I feel before he proposes to Chloe."

"Marinette, you're fourteen years old, I don't think-," Tikki said, but she was cut off when Marinette threw her bed sheets back and leapt out of the bed.

She began to rush around the room, grabbing her clothes and hurriedly throwing them on as she tried to rush out the door, brushing her hair into new pigtails as she left her room. Then Marinette realised she had forgotten her bag so she ran back inside. "Tikki, come on! We have to go, we'll be late!"

Tikki flew in front of Marinette's face, forcing her to halt in her tracks. In her tiny voice, she shouted, "Marinette! It is three in the morning on a Sunday and Adrien is too young to propose to Chloe! You are all fourteen!"

Marinette thought over Tikki's words, then looked out the window. It was still dark outside and her clock read 3:16 am. Marinette groaned and walked back over to her desk, dropping her bag onto the table and collapsing on her bed. "I'll tell him tomorrow morning."

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"Marinette, get up, you're late for school!" Sabine appeared through Marinette's trap door, still holding a bowl from the kitchen that was filled with cookie dough.

Marinette flew out of bed, still in the clothes she had thrown on the last time she woke up, grabbed her bag and rushed into the kitchen.

Sabine was standing in the kitchen mixing another batch of cookies. "Why are you in your school clothes?"

"I must have changed into them in my sleep. I have to go, bye Mama!" There was no way Marinette was admitting what happened.

She grabbed a croissant and a few cookies for Tikki before kissing Sabine on the cheek and running towards the school. She flew down the street, arriving at the school just as the bell rang.  Marinette sprinted up the stairs, taking them two or more at a time.

'I can't be late,' she thought frantically, 'not another time this week.'

In her frantic rush to get to her classroom, she didn't notice Adrien, who was walking from the library holding a huge stack of books in front of him. The two of them collided, the books falling to the fall and Marinette tripping over the books and knocking Adrien to the ground.

Marinette realised what had happened instantly and started to gather Adrien's books for him. "I'm so sorry Adrien! I was in a hurry, and I didn't see you! Are you okay?"

Adrien pushed himself up off the ground, rubbing the back of his neck. Marinette stood up and handed him his books. Adrien smiled at her. "Thanks, Marinette. I'm fine. Are you? These books are pretty heavy."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Marinette remembered that today was the day that she was going to tell Adrien that she liked him. Adrien started to walk away from Marinette, holding the pile of books, but Marinette called him back. "Adrien, can I talk to you? It's serious."

Adrien turned around with a huge model smile on his face. Marinette felt her heart skip a few beats and she started to get nervous, but she pushed her nerves back. She HAD to do this. No matter how much her heart was threatening to beat its way out of her chest.

Adrien walked back over to Marinette. "What's up? You look nervous."

Marinette breathed in deeply, at first, her words seemed stuck in her throat, but once she started to speak everything blurted out together. "I... I really like you, like as more than a friend, but I know you're probably only going to think of me as a friend and that's perfectly okay, I just really
needed to tell you this now before I chickened out again and I wanted to know how you feel about me even though I already know the answer-."

"Marinette! Relax! You're rambling. Can you repeat that, slowly?"

Marinette was mortified. She had rambled to her crush, not that it was the first time, but this time she had told him about her feelings. So, she repeated it, slowly saying, "I really, really, really like you. As more than a friend, even though I know you won't feel that same way, but I needed to know, to hear you say it."

"I'm sorry for having to tell you this, but I like someone else, and I don't want to lead you on. You are one of my closest friends, but I don't think of you as anything more. I'm sorry." Adrien looked apologetic like he knew how much those few sentences would hurt Marinette. Marinette thought she could just hear Adrien say those words and go to class, but she wasn't expecting it to feel like her heart was being ripped apart from the inside out.

"It's fine... I'm fine... thank you for telling me. I needed to hear that." Tears started to well up in Marinette's eyes as she walked past Adrien, trying to keep a steady pace, but as soon as she was out of his line of sight, she sprinted off towards the bakery. In her haste to leave, she hadn't noticed Tikki peering over the edge of her purse, glaring at Adrien for hurting her holder.

Marinette ran home, sprinted home, faster than she had ever run to school. She needed to get away. Asking Adrien about his feelings was a mistake.

Marinette burst through the door to the bakery, tears streaming down her face. Without talking to anyone, she sprinted upstairs into her room. She threw her bags across the room, forgetting Tikki was inside. Luckily, the Kwami had flown out of the bag just as Marinette got to her room.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Tikki landed on Marinette's back, giving her a tiny hug, trying to make her feel better. She had seen how big Marinette's crush had become, and now it was crushed. Ironic, really.

"I can't believe I did that, but I can't try and interfere with his feelings. I have to let him be happy with Kagami, right? If that's what he wants, I'll let him be happy. I'll get over it. Maybe I can talk to Chat sometime?" Marinette's voice was muffled by the tears she was trying to hold back and the pillow she was hiding her face in, but it was determined nonetheless.

Tikki nodded, flying back to the desk to snack on the cookies Marinette had grabbed from the kitchen this morning, less than an hour ago.

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The rest of the day was spent with Marinette trying not to think about Adrien, while Tikki watched over her. Sabine and Tom had been too busy in the bakery to check on Marinette, but she preferred it that way. She didn't want to answer the questions they would ask.

Tikki was about to fly across the room to check on Marinette again when someone knocked on the trapdoor that leads out to the roof. No one would have been able to get up to the roof without going through Marinette's room unless they had superpowers and a magic pole that could lift them up to the roof...

Marinette climbed out of bed, unlatching the trap door. When Chat dropped in, she wrapped her arms around him and started to cry, loud sobs that shook her entire body.

Chat was shocked for a few moments before he reacted. Hugging her back with one arm, he ran a hand through her hair, removing the ribbons holding it in place. Then he picked her up and walked them both over to Marinette's chaise lounge, lying down on it with Marinette still crying.

"What happened, Mari?"

"I was stupid. I told a guy I liked him when he's already been on a date with someone else. It's my fault, and I already knew what he was going to say. I should have just kept my mouth shut."

"Marinette, please don't think like that. You were incredibly brave to tell someone how you feel about them, but at least you know now. You can move on and be happy. Get over the guy and do something awesome."

Marinette stared up into Chat's eyes. "Thank you, Chat. That helped."

"I know you won't get over it overnight, but now you're one step closer to it. I don't mind if you cry. You can't be strong all the time." Chat hugged Marinette tighter, still running a hand through Marinette's hair.

"Can you stay tonight?"

"If that's what you need, of course, I'll stay."

"I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You'd laugh a lot less at amazing puns," Chat said playfully, trying to make Marinette laugh and feel happier.

It worked. Marinette giggled slightly, but she felt better anyway. Whether it was because of the horrible joke or just being around Chat, she couldn't tell, but she felt better. Chat was right. Now that she knew how Adrien felt, she could move on and be the best person she could be.