Behind My Smile - EDITING SOON

II) The Pink Ocean

Adrien threw his bag onto his bed with a small grunt, his phone to his ear. "I can't just pretend everything's fine, Nino. And I can't just ignore her. We have to work together, no matter what happened six years ago." Adrien spoke into the mic. He'd had a lot of time to think about what was happening with Him, Marinette, and his father during his photo shoot. Plagg sat on his shoulder, his tail swiping back and forth, numbing Adrien's back from the constant motion.

"Look, Adrien. All she did was ask you out-" Nino began, only to be cut off prematurely.

"And then she never talked to me again!" he interrupted, screaming into the phone.

"Because you rejected her without a second thought." Nino replied coolly. "She'd been crushing on you for our entire high school career, man. She was hurt really bad."

"Yeah, yeah. I saw her thousands of times on the news with Chat Noir, remember?" After her rejection, Hawkmoth had tried to akumatize Marinette nearly every day. It was the most interesting thing on the news for a while, before the new mayor was announced. The only reason he could save her the first time was by chance. He'd felt bad about rejecting her on graduation night, and went the next day to check on her as Chat. "But, Nino... what do I do?" the young adult cried. "She probably hates me."

"She does not hate you." Nino sighed, definitely holding his head in his hand. "She literally tried to invite you on our huge excursions four years ago. You never showed."

"Wait... four years ago? I was in the United States for a promotional modeling tour! And I thought it was just you and Alya?"

"Nope. It wasn't just Alya, Mari, and I either. It was nearly the whole class. Chloe even went. It was the trip where we all settled our differences. Since her father wasn't mayor, I think she finally learned she wasn't a goddess." Nino laughed. Adrien smiled at his best friend's cheerful tone. Talking to Nino always made him feel better, despite him being a whole continent away. "You'll be fine. Just... try and reconnect, okay? I'd like to hang out with my lovely fi-girlfriend alongside our own best buds. Our squad should remain strong. And, I think Mari is tired of being our third wheel places."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Adrien asked, to which he got no answer.

"Look, I gotta go. Today's the day. We're coming back to Paris." Alya and Nino had moved to Somalia three years ago to help out struggling families. "Hey, check your mail within the next month, alright?"

"O-kay?" The line clicked, leaving Adrien with his phone to his ear. He sighed and sat on his bed, the comforter initially poofing out from under him. "All this time... I've been missing out on my friendship, on experiences... on my life. And... none of them cared to ask me to join?"

"Adrien, you heard the ninja turtle. They did invite yo-"

"To an after graduation trip with our whole class. That's it. I never got the invitation. They've probably all had more meetings and parties since then. I guarantee it. It's obvious they all dislike me in some way or form, deep down or up front."

"Y-you saw Nathanael recently. You know he doesn't hate you." Plagg was grasping for something, anything, to keep Adrien happy. He could sense the negativity rolling off his holder's shoulders and down his legs. He was scared that Adrien might do something.

"Yeah, because he had a one-time gig as a makeup artist for a shoot. You heard the director pretty loudly say he was fired." Adrien leaned back into his bed. It was 5:22. Dinner had only been started when Adrien stepped through the front door. 'I'm sure a nap before dinner won't hurt' he thought, quickly falling into a deep slumber.

Adrien opened his eyes, only to find his vision blurry and his eyes slightly cold. 'Where am I?' he thought. He felt like he was falling. No, floating. Above him was a blinding light, brighter than anything in his whole life. Light blue streaks of highlight sat on his arms and legs, and his apparently exposed chest. 'I'm under water', he came to the realization. After what seemed like forever, Adrien leaned forwards, his head crowning out of the warm water. The blinding light he'd seen earlier was the sun, now even brighter without the barrier of water. Adrien looked over to the sandy shore, where he saw his whole graduating class playing on the beach. Some were sunbathing, some were building sandcastles, and others were getting ready to go swimming. Marinette and Nino were building a huge sandcastle, whilst Alya laid behind them with her sunglasses propped on the bridge of her nose.