A Picture of You [An Adrienette Story]

Chapter Seven

After hiding round the corner for a few minutes they checked the coast was clear. Adrien led Marinette out by the hand being prepared to run again. Looking around them, they found the street to be clear and they burst out laughing.

"Welcome to the life of Adrien Agreste. It sucks." Marinette stretched up and positioned his sunglasses back over his eyes.

"Now, now ... it could be worse."

"Ok then, how?"

"You could be here with Lila." Marinette raised her eyebrows and they both fake shivered, another bout of laughter erupted between them.

"She's definitely one thing that worries me." Adrien announced.

"What doing an assignment with Lila?" They began to walk down the street towards a cafe Adrien had mentioned.

"Just Lila in general. That day she got you expelled, it pushed me over the edge."

"It's in the past, don't worry about it. I'm just gutted no one stood up for me, not even my parents. She's so good at being believable, there's no chance of catching her out. The quicker I can get my head to believe that, the sooner I can stop getting so angry at her." Marinette was looking at the ground twisting her bag strap. That day hurt so much, she was so close to being akumatized. She'd dread to think what would happen if she had been.

"That's not entirely true. The reason you ended up back in school was kind of to do with me ..."

Marinette stopped and grabbed his arm. "What? What do you mean? What you did do? - I mean - what did you do?"

"I just told her I was going to prove she's a liar if she didn't announce your innocence to Mr. Damocles. One thing is, Marinette, I'm very loyal and nobody hurts my friends. Especially good friends like you. I made sure Nathalie was still close by to hear the exchange in case Lila decided to twist it against me." Marinette looked at him eyes wide open.

"You ... you did that? For me?" Tears pooled in the bottom of her eyes. Only one other person would do something so selfless for her ... her favourite Kitty. She stood of her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek causing a deep blush from the two of them.

"Thank you, Adrien."

"You're welcome, Marinette." They'd reached the cafe and Adrien held the door open allowing Marinette to enter first, he was such a gentleman.

Adrien walked forward to someone at the counter and they directed the two teens to a table at the back of the cafe.

Continuing with his gentleman act, Adrien pulled out the chair for Marinette to sit down.

"Thank you kind, sir." Marinette nodded her head to Adrien as he made his way over to his side of the table.

"You're very welcome, m'lady." Luckily Adrien was looking down at his phone or he would have seen the colour drain from her face. That was it. That was the clarification she was waiting for. The two guys she had a crush on ... scrap that ... the two guys she was madly in love with were one and the same.

A warm ball knotted in her stomach and a fuzzy feeling engulfed her body. Is this what it felt like to be completely and utterly in love with someone? This one moment where everything clicked together made her wonder why she'd ever been so nervous talking to him. She spent most of her days with this beautiful boy who was currently sat opposite her.

She trusted him more than anyone, she defended him, he defended her. He was her life and now she understood that she was also his. Though that didn't stop her from being scared. Would he actually accept her? All of her?