No room to swing a Cat?

14 - A mysterious girlfriend

Marinette was surprised that Saturday passed so quickly. Half a day she'd been sleeping, but when she woke up in the afternoon, she discovered in astonishment, that she had no more headache, her throat didn't hurt and she was hungry... All of that proved that Adrien's magical cures for a cold worked quite well.

She got up carefully and wrapped up with the shawl that Alya had lent her a week ago. She slowly left her bedroom. When Adrien saw her, he jumped up from the couch.

"Mari! You should stay in your bed!" he exclaimed.

"Sometimes you need to go to bathroom, you know..." she muttered with a weak smile. "And I think I'm getting hungry..."

"I'll make you some soup..." he offered.

She only nodded and went to the bathroom. When she saw her face in a mirror she groaned in despair. She was pale, with dark circles under her eyes, her hair was matted and greasy at the same time! Marinette would never guess why Adrien hadn't run away seeing her like this. Besides, she had never let any of non-relatives see her in such a mess. Even Luka hadn't seen her looking so miserable, despite the fact they had been dating for years!

She sighed and tried to smarten herself up. After a while her face became more familiar and a mess on her head turned into her favourite pigtails. When she left the bathroom, she noticed a bowl of warm soup on the countertop. She sat down and met Adrien's surprised gaze.

"I can take it to your bedroom..." he offered.

"I'll eat like a human being. At the table. Then I go to bed, I promise."

"All right."

"I wanted to thank you for taking care of me..."

"I'm sure you'd do the same for me."

"I guess so... Yet, I can't promise I'll prepare an oriental tea for a cold or a Thai soup. How did you do this?"

"Believe me or not, but I have a brain..." Adrien laughed. "I'm not a stupid model."

"Yeah, you're a nerd." she commented. "It would be difficult without a brain..."

"I should be offended for calling me a nerd, but you're right. I am a nerd. And I like cooking. It helps me to relax, you know..."

"One day some woman will be thankful to have you..." Marinette muttered under her breath, and Adrien suddenly blushed. She didn't notice that, because she was staring at the bowl. "Oh my god! That soup is delicious!"

"Thank you! I hope it'll help you."

Marinette focused on her soup, but felt more and more uncomfortable when she caught once or twice Adrien's intensive gaze. She wasn't sure what he could want more, as she'd already complimented his cooking and thanked for taking care of her. What else could he expect? Her brain protested, because magical cures weren't so effective as she'd thought before. So after a few minutes of activity headache was coming back. The girl gave up and just to keep Adrien busy with anything but her, she asked in a casual tone:

"Will you tell me about your girlfriend?"

Adrien turned pale.

"About Kagami?" he asked in shock.

"What? No!" she denied immediately, glancing at him. "About your current girlfriend!"

"I... I d-don't have a girlfriend..."

"You don't? So, who do you date every evening?"

"She's not my girlfriend yet." Adrien confessed, blushing. "Wh-Why do you want to talk about her?"

"I'm eating and I'd like to listen to something."

"And you've just discovered that listening about my girlfriend is that what you want to hear?"

"Huh! So you admit she is your girlfriend!"

"Er..." Adrien hesitated. "All right..." he gave up and sat down in front of her. He clasped his hands and looked at Marinette uncertain. "You..." he began and stopped immediately. He corrected himself quickly: "She is a fantastic girl. I don't know where to start... She's intelligent, talented, funny. With sense of humour. We understand each other without words."

"I think I know what you mean..." she whispered, because she'd just imagined Cat Noir. Adrien smiled. Yeah... They understood each other without words sometimes.

"I just can't believe I was so blind for so long..." he muttered under his breath.

"So long?" she spotted. "So, how long have you both known each other?"

"A few years..." he replied evasively. "We didn't see each other for some time and recently I met her by accident just at the moment I needed help. And then, somehow..."

"Somehow you started dating?" she finished his sentence.

He smiled to his own thoughts, knowing perfectly who they were talking about. And she didn't have a clue about it at all...

"Besides, she's beautiful..." he added finally.

"Oh, right! That explains a lot!" she snorted.

"Well... She tends to be ironic. But not spiteful. It's great to talk to her, you know... She's... She's just perfect..."

Marinette felt hot. Probably after soup that she'd just finished... Or maybe because of emotions when she imagined that someone could talk about her that way.

"You know, Mari?" Adrien began and made a move as if he wanted to take her hand.

"I think I feel worse..." she managed to warn him before she fainted. Soup, emotions and activity did their job...

The last thing she noticed were strong arms that caught her before she fell on the floor.