❛love letters ❜ (finished)

✰𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚝𝚑𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗✰

The second he hears his door open, he knows a few things.

First and foremost, he knows she's found his extra key that he lost at her apartment a month ago. After that, he knows that she closes the door just a bit too quiet for it to be unintentional. The last thing he knows, though, makes his stomach drop.

She knows.

He considers pretending he's asleep, but he can already hear her kicking off her shoes, which gives him the impression that she's not leaving anytime soon. He takes that as a good sign.

"You up?" she whispers, and he hears her walking closer. For the first time in a long time, he feels scared in her presence. Usually, he's content and comfortable; the way he should be in front of the girl he loves. This time his throat is dry and his heart is pounding—which he guesses shouldn't really be anything new.

He makes a decision. "Yeah, I'm up."

"Oh," Marinette says like she hadn't been expecting a reply. "Alright."

Adrien winces when he hears the distinct sound of a newspaper being folded. "Yeah. Hi."

"Hey, turn over." She pushes his shoulder, almost playfully, and Adrien feels like he's setting himself up for a letdown when he rolls over. "Hi."

He doesn't look at her. He has a feeling it'll be one of those times where looking at her hurts. "Did you read your letter?"

"I did."

There's no positive or negative inflection to her voice, and Adrien knows she's neutralizing it. That's nearly enough to make him turn over and ask her to go away simply to save himself the embarrassment. "And?" he somehow says, though he can't even hear himself say it due to his erratic pulse.

"It makes sense," she decides. "I mean—it all, you know. Yeah." He nods. "So..."

Adrien throws his elbow over his eyes and closes them as tight as he can. "I love you," he says, so quickly he's not even sure if he actually pronounced the syllables. He may have just grunted. He clenches his jaw after that, but the knot in his chest unwinds a little now that he's admitted it aloud. "Like. Love you. For real. In a completely non-bestfriends way."

"I got that part," Marinette tells him. She's quiet for a few seconds, and Adrien tries to calm his heartbeat just enough to hear her steady breathing. He thinks about all the times it's soothed him before, and he wonders if it'll work this time. "Would it be weird if I asked you to look at me and say it?"

Adrien presses his arm closer to his face and tucks his bottom lip into his mouth. "No."

"Then can you?"

He bites his lip. "No."

She lets out a giggle. Marinette pulls at his arm, and Adrien bats her hand away on reflex. "Please?"

"No," he repeats defiantly.

And then, for some reason, Marinette pinches his side. He squirms and jerks away, glaring at her. She smiles, raising her eyebrows, and Adrien... Adrien is very much in love.

He thinks of the first time he met her, right at the start of ninth grade. He thinks about how he'd found her pigtails cute. He thinks about tenth grade when he and Marinette had a sleepover instead of going to the Valentine's Day Dance because no one had asked her. He thinks about every memory from the start until where they are now, and he'll be damned if there aren't a million more things to come.

"Fine" he breathes. "Okay. Um..." Marinette chokes out a laugh. "Stop laughing at me!"

"I'm sorry, it's just—" She shakes her head and pinches her nose. "Just say it, you wimp!"

"I'm not a wimp, I just wrote to you love letters for months excuse me—"

"Adrien," Marinette says, drawing out his name.

"Marinette," he says back, in the same tone. She rolls her eyes but smiles after, and Adrien realizes his heart isn't racing anymore. He bites his cheek and stares at the freckle to the left of her eye. "Say your Starbucks order."

Marinette raises an eyebrow. "Is this some weird kind of—?"

"Shh!" He lifts a hand and locks their gazes. "I'm serious. Say your order."

"A tall iced coffee in a cup with extra two shots of espresso, three pumps of hazelnut, an inch and half of the non-fat milk with a dome lid and a venti straw," Marinette recites, narrowing her eyes slightly.

Adrien lets out a defeated breath. "Yeah. I love you."

Marinette purses her lips, but she ends up smiling anyways. "Okay."

"Okay?" Adrien asks incredulously. "All that trouble just to—"

And then Marinette leans close. Very close. Closer than she has ever ventured. Adrien, before he truly knows what he's doing, tilts his chin forward until their lips align and—he's kissing her. He makes a belated, startling noise, which makes Marinette laugh, so he takes it as his cue to pull back. "I'm sorry, I... I would have made that a lot better. Impulsive."

She shakes her head. "No, it was perfect. Like kissing my best friend."

"Like—" She kisses him again, and Adrien completely forgets where he was going with that sentence. He stares at her. "I'm going to be so pissed if I wake up and this is a dream."

Marinette laughs and shakes her head. "Nah, I pinched you earlier. You would have woken up."

"But what if I dreamed the pinch and—"

"Remember how I said that I didn't want the first kiss to be earth-shattering?" she interjects, keeping her face entirely too close to his. He feels drunk, but he manages a nod. "Redeem yourself. Third kiss. Let's go."

It's so Marinette to order him in that way, that he's smiling when he finally presses his lips to hers. And it is earth-shattering because Marinette pulls his face back in right when he moves away; because he's so ridiculously in love that he would probably swim across oceans for her; because Adrien is very much kissing his best friend of four years, and he's been in love with her for all of them.

It's a half-hour later that Marinette says, "Chloe Bourgeois was right."

So, Adrien laughs and kisses her with already swollen lips. "Dear M'Lady, I love you. From Cat Noir."

"Ugh," she groans, pushing him away. "You're disgusting. I can't believe I just made out with you for half an hour. I'm regretting this already."

He smiles, because he can't stop smiling, and pushes his nose against her cheek. "Hey. Hey. Heeey, Marinette."

"What," she deadpans.

"I love you."

"Ugh," she says again, hitting him with a pillow. It feels a lot like love to Adrien.

𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛'𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎&𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚕𝚕!

- 𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚝?

- 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚍?

- 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝙸 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚎?

𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝:1145

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