Love Conquers All [COMPLETED] ✔︎

Chapter 9

Marinette sipped on her strawberry and banana smoothie as she and Adrien sat on a bench in the park, enjoying the view before them. That waiter was a genius, combining both their orders into one.

"It tastes better when it's together," he had said with a wink, handing them the two cups of strawberry and banana smoothie.

God, that waiter was right. It tastes so much better mixed together, both fruits balancing each other out. It's like yin and yang, you can't be satisfied without the other. Marinette internally thought to herself as she sipped the rest of her drink, then got up and threw it into a nearby trash can, returning to sit beside Adrien who was now finishing his drink as well.

He sipped the rest of it, then attempted to throw it in the trash can from his seat, landing it perfectly into the center. He rested his head on his arms, crossing his legs at the same time as he looked up at the sky through the branches of an early blossom tree that's blossoms were just beginning to bloom. Marinette joined him, both of them staring at the circular-shaped clouds in the sky, tracing its edges with their eyes.

"Have you ever thought of alternate timelines?" Adrien suddenly spoke, Marinette shaking her head in denial, "No, what's an alternate timeline?"

The blond chuckled, then set his hands on his head as he leaned back into the bench even further, fully relaxing his body, "An alternate timeline is when a set of events change or do or don't happen. And the original timeline never happened. So if you were to go back into time and change something, the original timeline would be non-existent."

"Oh." Marinette nodded, "So like a multiverse or a parallel universe?"

"Not exactly." Adrien denied, sitting up straight and looked at the bewildered bluenette beside him, "A parallel universe is a universe theorized as existing alongside our own, although undetectable. A multiverse is a hypothetical group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists, the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. It's like every choice you make for the day has a different universe where something you did in the current one, is different, therefore backlashing and created another universe, it has multiple copies of itself, each one very different from the rest. An alternate timeline is the same universe, though different sequels of itself. So if we went back into time and didn't go to the café, that would be an alternate timeline and the current one we're living in now would be non-existent."

"I am so confused." Marinette laughed, shaking her head laugherously as Adrien did the same, "How on earth do you know this?!"

"Homeschool." the supermodel replied easily, his expression dropping its cheerful level by fifty percent, a small, but not true, smile appearing on his face, "Nathalie taught it to me when I was, maybe ten years old?"

"TEN?!" Marinette gasped, the pigeons that were picking at the rocks on the pavement before them all spreading their wings and flew away as Marinette shot her hands frantically in the air, "I don't even know what on earth they are and we're 14, almost 15! Wow. Was homeschool hard?"

"Compared to our school right now? Yes."

"Oh."

Adrien shook his head at the memories of his younger age when his mom was still around. When his father wasn't as busy with work and still had time to spend with Adrien. Right now it was more like business conversations, the two sharing about three sentences a day, either for photoshoot information or about next scheduled dates. But usually, Nathalie, his father's assistant, took care of those. Sometimes Adrien would just speak randomly into the empty house as he was leaving for school, only to be met with silence. You could hear almost any noise in the mansion, it was so empty and grand that it was almost unlivable on the inside. Adrien hated it. He hated that he was alone almost all of the time. Though school was a big ego boost for him, successfully cheering up the boy that was stuck in his solitude for so long.

"Yeah, but between you and me, our school is so much better. Back home it's not as a-mew-sing." he winked at the end, his Chat Noir side rubbing off a little bit, though the bluenette didn't seem to notice as she giggled, then started hovering over with laughter.

"What's so funny?" he smiled a toothy grin, though his cheeks were tinted a slight pink colour.

"Puns." Marinette laughed, clutching her stomach dramatically, "That's so funny. Since when do you tell puns?"

"Since furever." he replied with a cheeky grin, Marinette playfully punching him in the shoulder, the blond a little taken aback by the action. Wow. So this was Marinette's confident and playful side, huh? Well, if this was the ticket, then he would do anything to make her more confident around him.

"You dork. I thought Chat Noir was much with his puns, but I would say, he would be proud to have recruited a new ally just as dorky."

"You know what I thought of?" Adrien smirked, tapping his chin with his forefinger thoughtfully, "They should make it a mandatory subject in school to learn the art of puns."

"Oh, yeah? But then Chat Noir's going to have a lot of competition." she laughed, Adrien crossing his arms stubbornly, "He is not. No one can out beat him."

She pointed dramatically at him, "You can... dork."

He gasped astonishedly, "Le gasp! I am not nearly as punny as he is! I don't compare to such mastery!"

"Keep saying those puns and you'll out beat him," Marinette smirked, but then covered her mouth in the realization on how she had been acting, blushing a deep crimson red. Oh no. Oh God, what did she do?! Please don't tell me...

NO.

"Oh my gosh..." she whispered, suddenly starting to twiddle her thumbs together nervously out of habit, peering over at Adrien who was still in the light heart mood, "I am so, so sorry, Adrien. I don't know what came over me, I just- oh no. This is bad. Oh, shoot, what have I done?"

She covered her rose dusted face with her trembling hands, immediately tensing as she felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder, peering up behind her fingers to see the two forest green eyes she could stare at all day, gently look into her bluebell ones, a small smile appearing on his features, "Hey, I like it when you act like this. You remind me so much of someone special."

Someone special? So there's 'someone special?' Who am I kidding? I guess I don't blame him.

"O-Oh." Marinette sighed, her bright cheery eyes suddenly becoming dull as she stood up, dusting her pants off, "You know, I just remembered a-about a test tomorrow. I have to go study..."

Before the loose-haired girl could take off, she felt a hand wrap around her wrist, seeing Adrien who almost had a pleading look in his eyes, "Was it something I said?"

"N-No." Marinette shrugged the feeling of guilt away, yanking her hand back to her side, "It's just- I have to-"

"What if we study together?"

She looks at him oddly, "You want to study with me?"

"Yeah." he nodded, a small smile tugging on the bluenette's lips, her eyes beginning to gain their sparkling twinkle once again.

Just how I like it.

He never wanted to see Marinette sad. Her features weren't meant to be sad. She was most beautiful when she was happy.

He felt a pinch coming from his blazer for like maybe the tenth time that day, immediately looking up to meet Marinette's gaze, "So, I guess your place?"

"Sure." Marinette quickly agreed, regaining her bubbly energy once again.

"See." Adrien then said, combing a hand through his hair as he stood up, awkwardly looking down at the short bluenette, "If we haven't gone to the café, then that wouldn't have led us here. The choice of not going is an alternate timeline where it could have happened, and this one would be non-existent."

The girl laughed, the two walking back to Adrien's car, "Yep. I guess alternate timelines are a pretty complicated concept, huh?"

"Yes." Adrien nodded as he opened the car door, Marinette heading inside the car and plopping herself down on the car seat, "Yes they are."