Maribug Split

Chapter 4: Heart lesson

Another day, another morning. It’s amazing how every beautiful day gets ruined from the word go simply because it has to start with a morning. Days would be so much better if they started around noon when things slowed down. Mornings were always a rush, having to get up and start moving quickly enough to be ready for what society decided should be the start of the day. 

Living at a bakery, you’d expect Marinette to get used to early mornings. With her parents up and baking hours before the sun came up, it should have come naturally for her to join their routine. Wake up early and achieve a multitude of tasks before the sane people of the city left their beds. Alas, that was not to be. Marinette found it excruciatingly difficult to pull herself out of the comfort of her bed.

Routine helps to get through it all. Get up, wash face, brush teeth, stand in front of the mirror trying out different outfits she’s made, put on the same clothes as always, have a quick breakfast, throw a few chocolate-chip cookies into her purse, kiss mom, hug dad and out the door to school.

Art was always Marinette’s favorite lesson. She had the freedom to let herself explore, work with different mediums, and try her hands with various art forms. At home she concentrated on her primary passion - fashion designs. At school, she dove into every assignment and experience it to the fullest. Lately, it was painting. Painting still life, painting landscapes, and today they were painting Mia. A gangly pretty girl with long blonde hair, stretched out legs, and elongated dark eyelashes. Marinette was convinced she got her long body from being tortured on “the rack”, her even if Nath insisted ‘it hasn’t been done in centuries’. True or not, Mia was far from professional, giggling often when setting up the pose and moving too much during the session. She was not there for the art, she was enjoying a get-out-of-class-free card by posing for them three times a week. A few of the guys muttered this would be much more interesting if they were painting a nude. Marinette thought this would be much more interesting if they swap the model for another blond one. He was a professional model, afterall. And it could still be a nude painting.

At that thought, Marinette froze and turned bright red. She stood there with the brush in the air, her eyes wide open and her heart beating fast. 

“Mari, are you ok?” 

Marinette jolted, her hand jerking up over her head, sending paint up only to come down on her face. 

“What? Oh? Yah, I'm fine. Why would I be otherwise? We are just standing here painting Mia, not someone else, with his clothes on, I mean her clothes.” She turned to Nathaniel, her face burning so hot she could smell the smoke coming out her ears.

“Ok, you just looked distracted.” Nathaniel looked worried. Although, Marinette distracted was not a rare occurrence.

“How is your painting going?” Marinette pushed the attention away from herself.

“Not too bad, although nothing I’m proud of. I wish Mia would stop changing positions.”

“What are you talking about?” Marinette said, peeking over to check out Nathaniel’s painting. “This is amazing. She looks better in your painting than in real life.”

“That’s because I didn’t capture her personality.”

“Nath!” Marinette giggled, “don’t be nasty.”

Marinette tried hard to concentrate on her painting for the rest of the lesson. She struggled to look at Mia without blushing and was sure that her painting looked more masculine than it should. She stayed in during the break to complete the painting.

She managed a better job with no one in the room. Then the silence broke by the door swinging open and rapidly shut. She could hear the heavy breathing of whoever had just rushed into the room. Peering around her painting, she found Nino leaning against the door, his head resting on the door with his eyes closed.