- A/N: Hi! I don't have much experience posting here but I hope you enjoy this :) I was watching choreography for Cheerleader and then I remembered a high school au in a different fandom where one of the characters was a cheerleader and I decided to write things, which was probably a bad idea -

xxx

Wednesday

Adrien tried his best to refrain from staring but continue appearing politely interested. He didn't think he was succeeding at the not-staring part, and he'd be right about that.

Marinette was really good at this routine.

Graceful, which should've been surprising considering how clumsy she was sometimes, but it seemed to fit.

He wondered why she'd never asked him to come watch, but he had to smile at the impossibility of the idea. Only Marinette could be confident enough to be the class representative but too shy to talk about her place on the cheer squad with her friends.

Of course, they knew anyway. But it never elicited more than light-hearted teasing when she left to go practice and she didn't make a habit of bringing it up at other times.

Alya had said something to him about it earlier that morning, actually. Adrien angled his face towards the ceiling and studied the patchy woodwork as he tried to recall…

::

"Agreste, you can't seriously be that thick."

Adrien winced a bit. He was apparently missing something important that Alya had refused to enlighten him on.

"Do you not understand that Marinette loves cheerleading? Whenever she talks about it her face lights up and she sounds so excited, it's insane. She's not shy about it at all! It's only when you're-"

Alya broke off abruptly and stepped back, shaking her head fondly at him.

"What?" Adrien had asked. "When I'm what?"

"You'll have to work that one out on your own, buddy." And she turned away, heading for the gym, no doubt to congratulate Marinette as soon as she came out.

::

Adrien wished desperately for a clue as to what Alya had been trying to say.

Just one clue, that's all he wanted, that's all he needed to piece it together, whatever 'it' was. He considered stopping by Alya's house that afternoon to try and get it out of her but right at that moment Marinette stuck the landing of an elaborate flip, and Adrien focused all his attention back on her.

He attributed the warm feeling in his chest to the fact that he was wearing a thick sweater in a bid against the cold and cheered - the irony not lost on him - with the rest of the spectators.

Thursday

"Marinette!"

Marinette swivelled around at the sound of her name and felt an embarrassingly bright grin adorn her face when she saw who the voice belonged to. Adrien was running to catch up to her.

"Ha, hi Adrien." So far, so good? Maybe he just thought she was happy about something.

Adrien stopped in front of her and gripped his knees, bent over and breathing heavily. She waited for him to catch his breath and took the opportunity to file away his flushed face and windblown hair in her memory for future reference.

"You were great yesterday at practice."

Marinette frowned in confusion and Adrien quickly elaborated. "I was watching in the gym. Cheerleading. You're amazing."

Marinette felt her insides sinking (juxtaposed with an odd sense of pride? She wasn't really sure why but knowing he had gone to the trouble of staying behind after school to watch her and the other cheerleaders practice made her feel light). "You were watching? What did you think?" Idiot, he just said he thought it was great.

Adrien smiled and opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Nino calling his name from the gates. He looked impatient. Adrien gestured at him to wait a second and when he turned back to Marinette, she could see Nino mouthing an apology behind Adrien's back.

Apparently everyone knew about her crush on Adrien except the guy himself. Figures.

"Sorry, Nino's waiting, I should go. See you tomorrow?" He smiled apologetically and began walking away from her.

She stared after him for a few seconds and huffed out an embarrassed laugh, her breath condensing in the cold air.

"Yeah. Bye." A nice sentiment if Adrien hadn't already been long gone. Probably for the best, though - if he was still around to hear those words he would've wondered why they sounded so breathless.

Inside Marinette's bag, Tikki sighed deeply.

Friday

Marinette and Alya lounged on a park bench and talked about nothing in particular. Alya had come over to Marinette's house to do homework but they both got bored and, after completing a few more questions so they wouldn't feel as bad, decided to go for a walk. They'd quickly ended up here.

Marinette followed the path of a butterfly with her eyes, a soft smile on her face at the thought of how beautiful butterflies were when not akumatized.

Alya probably thinks I'm daydreaming. Marinette chuckled quietly to herself and came up with something on the spot to satiate Alya when said friend glanced her way.

"Y'know Adrien came to watch cheerleading practice today."

Alya said nothing but made a go on motion with her hand.

"He said I was good."

Now Alya turned away to hide the growing grin on her face. "Those were his exact words, were they?"

Marinette coloured slightly and focused on the butterfly again, which was bobbing up and down near Alya's head. "Uh, no. He actually said I was great."

"And how do you feel about that?"

"Well, I- wait a minute, why are you smiling like that?" Marinette grabbed Alya's shoulders and turned her around so that they were facing each other. "What's so funny? Are my failures with Adrien really that hilarious to you?" Her voice cracked with the hint of a laugh, Alya was infectious, and she paused as she realised they were attracting attention.

People were pointedly not staring, which said more than staring ever could.

Marinette hid her reddening face in her hands, and Alya's stomach hurt, she was laughing so hard.

"Nothing Mari, chill! It's just that Adrien's never been into cheerleading before. Don't you think him suddenly coming to watch when you join means something?"

Marinette traced a finger along the lines of the bench and thought about it carefully. "I don't know. I mean, maybe it's just a coincidence."

Alya placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and willed her best friend to be more optimistic. "I don't think so, girl."

She stood up and stretched languidly, holding out a hand to pull Marinette up and shrieking in surprise when Marinette overbalanced her. They both went tumbling to the ground, tangled in each other and laughing again as Alya tried to see past the tears in her eyes to find where her glasses had fallen.

...

When she walked home later in the evening, Alya didn't bother hiding her satisfied grin.

Marinette liked Adrien. Adrien… probably liked her back, if his behaviour was any indication.

There was no real reason for Alya to refuse Adrien this information, but she sure enjoyed watching him try (and fail) to uncover the 'secret' on his own. And if he happened to fall in love with Marinette along the way, well, what are friends for?

Besides, Marinette really did make a good cheerleader.