Heels Over Head

Chapter Three - "The Pacifist"

  "He's coming to my house," Marinette falls into her computer chair, shaking the sweat off her clammy hands, "I invited him to my house to fight him!!"

Needless to say, Tikki can tell she's freaking out, "At least it's a friendly fight! And you can teach him some fancy martial arts!"

"Tikki, I've never been to a martial arts class in my life! I only told Nino that to cover for my Ladybug reflexes. I don't even know the terminology for anything that I do as Ladybug. I just do it."

"You can make it up."

"You don't understand how much I can't do that."

"Listen, Marinette, you just have to handle this with confidence," The kwami flies into a pile of clothes and comes out with a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, "You can change into some workout gear and start stretching to get your mind off of it."

The girl reluctantly does as she's told. After all, Tikki's advice is usually correct; Marinette just needs to calm down and stay focused on the task, not the person she's doing it with.

She finishes stretching her hamstrings and looks at the clock on her phone, "5:10. Maybe he's not coming?"

Just as Tikki is about to respond, there's an impeccably timed knock on the front door. Marinette can hear her mom answer it with the same amount of excitement she'd show a preschooler.

Unfortunately, the girl had to spin a few white lies to pull this one off, otherwise there would be a heap of questions about why she of all people is teaching Adrien how to fight. So—as far as her parents know—Adrien is teaching her the fine art of speaking Chinese.

"Marinette, Adrien is here!" Sabine calls up.

"Coming!" She shakes the nerves out of her hands one more time and opens the trapdoor to her room, climbing down the stairs.

Adrien is abashedly standing in the living room next to her mom in shorts and a t-shirt. He perks up a little when he sees her, "Hey, Marinette!"

"You're late," Marinette says simply, trying to hide her nerves behind an air of strictness.

The boy doesn't have to say anything before Sabine pipes in, jokingly, "Well that's no way to talk to your teacher!"

Adrien glances confusedly between the two. Marinette freezes momentarily but regains her composure, grabbing his hand and pulling him up the stairs before he can say anything, "You're right, mom! I guess we better get started, then!" She shuts the trap door behind them and falls on the floor to catch her breath.

She can feel Adrien's amused look boring down into the side of her head, "What was that about?"

Of course he would ask, how did she ever think this lie wouldn't fall apart instantly? The only other option is the truth. Or, at least the half-truth, "My mom doesn't know we're fighting. I might have told her you're teaching me Chinese."

"Uh, why exactly? I'm confused."

'Half-truth, half-truth, half-truth. Think, Marinette!'

"Uhhh, well... a contact sport with a boy alone in your room is not generally something a set of reasonable parents allow in their house," That's not entirely false, just not entirely true.

"Oh," Somehow the thought hadn't occurred to him. He's now uncomfortably aware of the fact that she is, indeed, a girl. And not the 'ew you have cooties!' kind of girl either, "I'm sorry if I pushed you into this. You don't have to if you're not comfortable."

She looks at him, giving a nervous smirk, "It's a little late for that now."

Adrien offers his hand to pull her off the ground, "Ten minutes late, to be exact," He laughs, "Maybe we should get started?"