When the Cat Met the Wolf

41. Of Complications & Photographs

Arianne couldn't get even five minutes of sleep that night. Her kiss with Adrien was still carved in her mind, and she couldn't make it go away, for several reasons. The first one being that she didn't think that it would ever happen. The thought of Adrien possibly liking her back hadn't crossed her mind at any moment.

Second, it took her completely by surprise.

Third, she had kissed him back. Yes, she ran away after it, but she had kissed back, when she shouldn't have done it because she would be a bad friend to Marinette, but she did it anyway. And the worst part was that she didn't feel sorry, when guilt should have been swallowing her whole.

She was really a bad friend.

"Are you okay?" asked Thiago as both of them walked to school "You look tired"

"Oui, perfect" replied Arianne, holding back her yawn. Thiago frowned.

"Are you sure?" he asked once more, and she nodded. Then, she looked ahead, and immediately went to hide behind the stairs as Thiago gave her an incredibly confused glance "What are you doing?" he questioned, furrowing his eyebrows "Who are you hiding from?"

"I'm not here" that was Arianne's reply.

Why was she acting so weird? 

Because she had seen Adrien coming their way, and she couldn't face him. Not yet.

"Hey, Thiag" Adrien spoke up to Thiago, as both boys bumped fists. Adrien hadn't noticed the girl hiding yet, and she was hoping he wouldn't "Is Arianne coming to school?" Thiago looked at Arianne hiding out of the corner of his eye, and she shook her head.

"Yeah, but she's running a bit late" replied Thiago, looking back at Adrien. If Arianne didn't want Adrien to see her, she probably had a reason, which he would ask her about later.

As you may have already noticed, Arianne hadn't told Thiago about their kiss. She hadn't told anyone. The only one who knew was Ayu, because he was there with her at that moment.

"Oh, shoot" replied Adrien "I really wanted to talk with her"

He had no idea why Arianne had ran away like that when he kissed her, but if he had done something wrong, or maybe she didn't want to be kissed, he wanted to know. He wanted to apologise.

"Did something happen?" asked Thiago, folding his arms with interest, and giving Arianne a quick glance out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah, I—" he was about to answer, but the bell rang, announcing the beginning of classes "I'll tell you on the way"

"Uh..." Thiago gave Arianne another secret glance, and she nodded, signalling for him to go "Okay, sure" he nodded, looking back at Adrien and both boys went off, leaving only Arianne and Ayu behind.

"You gotta get to class, Aria!" urged the kwami "Or you'll be late!"

"I know, I just..." the girl sighed "I don't know what to do Ayu. What am I supposed to tell him?"

"Whatever your heart tells you to!" replied Ayu, and Arianne smiled in amusement. 

"That was so cliché, Ayu" she said, rolling her eyes a bit.

"Cliché is sometimes good!" replied the wolf cheerfully "Now, c'mon. Today's the class photo, you can't miss that!"

"Okay, you're right" she nodded and stood up. She walked to the class, and, thankfully, the teacher wasn't there yet.

And what is the first thing that she sees?

Adrien sitting on the first desk, while talking to Nino. When he saw her standing there, his eyes lit up a bit, but Arianne completely avoided his gaze as she walked to take her place next to Thiago. Needless to say, the blonde was very confused because of this.