Fake Dating

15 - A thin line

He had been in love! Marinette couldn't forget about it for the rest of the day. Even in the evening, after coming back home she was thinking about this discovery so intensively that she barely fell asleep. She still remembered it in the morning when she was preparing for the third day with Adrien.

Yesterday in the maze he had asked her similar questions that she had asked him before. And she had to run back and forth, because her answers mostly were incorrect. Finally, he sent her those two last questions, which she'd left for the end as well. When she in her naivete went to the left, she was wrong in both cases.

He had had someone. He had been in love once. And that someone confessed their love to him. So, why Adrien needed all this mystification if he had a beloved one? She was sure only about one thing – it wasn't Nino. Apparently, she was missing some information...

Why was she so moved by discovering a secret of his heart? He was almost a stranger for her! The news shouldn't spoil her day!

Even worse, she was aware that Adrien had noticed a change of her mood and became worried and sad. Was he afraid that she could take their fake dating too seriously? If so, she had to convince him at all costs that there was nothing to worry about! Even if it meant pretending for the whole day. Because that was the truth – she had to pretend that... Ugh! That wasn't a part of the plan! When and how had it happened?!

She sighed in defeat, leaving these sorrows behind. She went out to meet Adrien, who – as usual was waiting for her, leaning against the car. He still looked concerned, as yesterday. That helped Marinette to recover composure. She had to dance to their tune.

"So, where we're going today?" she asked light-hearted.

Adrien glanced at her in surprise.

"Uhm..." he hesitated, but finished after a while: "Fontainebleau."

"Really?" she exclaimed, and this time she was excited for real, forgetting about her yesterday dilemmas.

"This time we're going to visit the palace."

"Oh, I've thought you're taking me to the forest!" she joked, but avoided his sight.

"Not today. Nino said that he had enough all that walking in the nature."

"Yeah..." his friend confirmed, as only he got out the car. "All those games in mazes were too much for me. One more and I'll let you get lost for real."

"But seriously..." Adrien continued, and Nino just rolled his eyes meaningfully. "I think that we've got quite a lot of details for our story, so we can have some fun now."

"I'm in!" Marinette smiled to herself. She knew that in the palace they wouldn't have time to talk about that change of her mood yesterday.

She didn't wait for her fake boyfriend to open her the door – just got inside quickly with a hope he didn't notice she wanted to avoid his touch or look into his eyes.

Adrien didn't even tried to catch her anyway. He had got so mixed messages from her that he needed a moment to understand what had just happened here. He felt that Marinette's ease was fake. On the other hand he had an impression that she'd been honestly excited to visit Fontainebleau. Well, girls could be so complicated!

He sighed heavily and got in the car. Although he was sitting next to Marinette, he felt as if a glass wall appeared between them. There was no option that he could take her hand like yesterday.

The drive through the city was like a nightmare. There was a perfect silence in the car, and the tension could be cut with a knife. Nino looked from time to time at the rear-view mirror just to notice Adrien's glances at Marinette, who kept staring outside the window and not saying a word. What the heck had happened in that maze? He had been with them for the whole time and didn't see anything alarming. They were writing messages to each other and running back and forth. Happy like children.