The Agreste Internship - Book 2

Chapter 4: 🎁Happy Birthday 🎁

Did Mari just friendzone me? No. She friend-zoned herself because she's Ladybug, and protecting her secret identity had to come first.

Even if it made things so much harder for them. He couldn't risk trying to tell her that he was Chat again because of Plagg's threat of telling Master Fu and possibly having his memory wiped--or worse, having the miraculous taken from him. But Adrien would probably give up the ring if it came to a choice.

He was quiet for a minute while they sat together, leaning against each other in a half hug. Mari knew that she should probably get up, but at that moment she didn't feel like moving away from Adrien.

"So what are your plans for tonight now that we've got the rest of the day off?" He asked.

She shrugged, "I am kind of tired and wanted to catch up on sleep." She also wasn't sure how much she could take of this before she cracked and just told him that she was Ladybug.

"I was hoping to have somebody else to go sight-seeing with." Adrien sounded disappointed.

"But it's raining."

"They have these things called umbrellas." He lifted one up to demonstrate. 

She gaped at him. Oh, he was so smooth. Too bad he wasn't flirting with me. "O...ok, fine." Stop being nervous. Act like he's Chat. Funny, witty, silly Chat. "I'll go with you. But I've got to go change out of my work clothes first."

"Do you need a ride?"

"It's just a few minutes away. I'll be fine." 

He got to his feet and then offered his hand to her. She grabbed it and got to her feet. He held her hand a moment or two longer than necessary before letting go. 

"Wait," Adrien stopped her before she could leave and handed her the umbrella. "I know you've got to walk a little further than me, so you should have it."

Mari smiled as she took it. Their hands touched for a brief moment again and she looked up into his green eyes. She flashed back to the first day she met him and he had given her his umbrella. She had started falling for him from that day. The moment was interrupted when she accidentally opened it up and the umbrella hit her in the face. Ow. 

She laughed, then looked at Adrien and said, "S..s..see you soon." She backed away towards the exit while looking at Adrien, and fell over only one or two things before she finally managed to exit. Once outside, she walked through the rain to her hotel as she held on tightly to the umbrella. 

When she got back to her room she noticed that the suitcase from her mysterious roommate was still in the same place from this morning, untouched. For a brief moment, she feared that Lila was her roommate, so she snooped at the tag on the bag. It said: Ivana Evanovich.

Mari breathed a sigh of relief and then went back to her bag and picked a casual outfit. She pulled on a pair of jeans and picked one of her sequined shirts that had a bare-shoulder. It was one of the more modest tops that Alya had packed.

Adrien: Gorilla has a rental car and I'm here whenever you are ready.

Mari: Ok. I'm almost ready.

When she went down to the lobby, she saw Adrien standing in the lobby. When he noticed her, his eyes lit up. "The car's this way." He grabbed her hand and led her outside.

It looked like an average red SUV, nothing like his normal limo. "T...t..this is different." Adrien opened the door for Mari, which seemed a bit unusual but she just smiled at him.

"Yeah, not many people know about the location of the shoot so we're trying to keep it low key. Isn't that right Gory?"

Gorilla, his bodyguard, was already in the car behind the steering wheel. He just grunted his response and nodded his head.