"Hey beautiful! You look like a divinity in this dress!" Nino said as he checked his girlfriend out, not even hiding it, before his head bowed down in order to plant a delicate kiss on her lips.
"Oh, stop it!" She said, before planting another kiss on her boyfriend´s lips. "Nino, this is my BFF slash sister in crime: Marinette! Marinette, this is Nino." Alya finally introduced two important people of her life to one another.
Nino hugged Marinette quickly, greeting her warmly, before beckoning both in. A few people were already present.
The girls greeted Nino´s cousin Mark, before helping to set up the last few things. The living room filled more and more as the minutes passed, but the host couldn´t help but notice that a certain blond hair was still missing.
"So Marinette, right?" Mark asked as he approached Marinette with an opened beer bottle in his hand. Mark didn´t look at all like Nino. He didn´t have a tan, he had pale skin, clear eyes and jet black hair, making him look nothing like his cousin.
"Yeah…" Marinette answered as she turned to face him properly and stopped gazing out of the window. "So have you enjoyed your stay in Paris?" Marinette asked politely.
"Yes! It really is different than where I live. Way bigger and full of people … I quite didn´t remember the city like that when I visited the family the last time, but well it was ages ago as well…" He said shrugging his shoulders.
"Where do you live?"
"In a small village near Nice, I could afford a small house there and I have space to paint and create. It´s calm, peaceful." He described looking at her intently. "You lived here your whole life?"
"Yeah, pretty much, but I wouldn´t have it any other way. I love this city, I love how I know the little things about this city."
"So you don´t see yourself ever starting new in another city?"
"NO! Why would I do that? I have all my life here, my friends, my parents… Paris has it´s negative aspects, but still I couldn't live anywhere else... So you´re an artist from what I´ve gathered as information? Seems like it runs in the family, Nino making music and you chose the more eternal arts."
"Well, I guess maybe grandpa and grandma had some influence on us. They hoped that Nino´s mother, my aunt, would be an artist and weren´t very happy when it didn´t turn out like they wanted so maybe they turned it up the notch with the artistic education with Nino and me when we came over for the holidays." He said chuckling, making Marinette laugh.
While Marinette and Mark struck up a conversation, a certain blond had showed up. Nino opened the door, before pushing his friend back in the hallway and closed the door behind him.
"What the hell man? I have been texting you for a couple of hours now asking where you were!"
"Sorry Nino, I had a couple things to take care of."
"No-no, you had nothing to do, I know that because you are my best friend! Don´t lie to me! I have a golden opportunity for you to get closer to her and you dismiss it like that! After a month I finally had an excuse for having you both in the same room outside the hospital! I am trying to help you, man!" Nino argued, fed up with is friend. Adrien sighed, closed his eyes and turned his face towards the ceiling.
"I know I´m sorry Nino, but I don´ think this is a good idea. She´s been ignoring me for a week now, so I won´t do anything tonight." Adrien explained before passing the bottle of wine he had under his arm to his friend, before opening the door and shoving his friend inside and entering the apartment himself right after him.
"Adrien! Nice of you to greet us with your presence!" Alya said walking up to him to hug him quickly, before ushering past him to stand next to Nino who was still glaring at his friend.
"Well...go mingle, Nino and I have some amuse-bouches to prepare. Mark is standing by the window if you want to greet him." Alya said before dragging her boyfriend to the small kitchen, leaving the blond friend behind. After throwing his coat on the pile of coats on Nino´s bed.
He entered the living room once again which was filled with Ninos´ friends. He peered around with his green eyes before they landed on Nino´s cousin who was standing by the window. He took a step forward to go greet Mark, but suddenly his gaze drifted down to Marinette´s small figure standing next to the cousin. A small smile was grazing her face as she leaned with her back against the wall, a glass of some fizzy drink in her hand as she peered outside as she listened to Mark. Adrien was torn, but a slow green-eyed burning feeling creeped its way into his brain and heart. His grip on the beer bottle tightened as he halted his step, thinking if it was wise to walk up to them. Marinette was nodding absently along while Mark kept talking.
As he was about to walk up to them, a hand clapped down on his shoulder making him turn around swiftly.
"Adrien! Long time no see!" One of Nino´s friend said, before dragging him into a conversation with a couple of other people, hindering him from ending a conversation between two others on the other side of the room.
The noise in the room made Adrien seek for silence in the hallway, he took his coat and left the apartment and made his way downstairs. He opened the door and welcomed the cool night air. The street was calm and not busy like it was during the day. He shuddered before buttoning his coat up and breathing in deeply through his nose, his hands deeply hidden in his large pockets. If he wanted, he could just leave right now without telling his friend, it was quite tempting, but Nino would kill if he left without saying goodbye and with it wasting his chance to talk to Marinette.
He resigned himself to walk up again. Behind the front door was Nino saying goodbye to one of his coworkers.
"Hey Adrien! I was wondering were you had gone to." Nino said as he pulled on Adrien´s sleeve to shove him inside his apartment once again.
"Well about that, I think I will be heading home now so I was only returning to say bye. Maybe we can catch lunch or dinner this week some time." Adrien added rapidly in order not to anger his friend.
Nino sighed deeply. There he had finally found the perfect moment for his friend to strike up a friendly conversation with Marinette and now he was chickening out after only a couple of hours. This had been a golden opportunity since they seemed to always avoid one another at the hospital… and he had to admit that the hospital wasn´t the most romantic pace either. His apartment wasn´t that romantic either but at least it wasn´t a hospital! Nino resigned himself to force Adrien to stay with them. Adrien kept staring at his friend that had stayed silent for a minute. Nino reached below his glasses in order to rub the skin on his nose where the glasses rested constantly, before taking in a deep breath.
"Alya, don´t worry ! You don´t need to call an Uber, I want to walk home and I´ll be just fine!" Marinette said as she approached the small hallway where the boys were still standing quietly. Alya was following her steps as she helped her put on her self-made coat.
"Thank you." Marinette said as she took a quick look into her purse to see if she had forgotten anything. "I´ll text you when I am home." Marinette said as she hugged Alya, before turning around and freezing in her step. Her wide blue eyes stared at the two men in front of her.
"Well actually, Adrien was just leaving too, I am sure he has nothing against walking all the way back to your apartment with you. Right Adrien?" Nino didn´t even wait for his friend to answer or even react, before he slapped Adrien shoulder hard and bid Marinette goodbye before ushering the mute duo out of the door.
"Bye Marinette!" Alya said before slamming the door behind them.
"I can´t believe you jump on this golden opportunity so fast!" Alya exclaimed.
"I did learn from the best!" Nino grinned.
"I taught you well, love." Alya said as she gave Nino a passionate kiss.
Marinette looked up to see Adrien already gazing down at her with his emerald eyes.
"I…um sorry… you don´t need to walk me home. Alya was just being overprotective." Marinette said her gaze dropping to her fumbling hands.
"No." Adrien said a little bit too loudly, making Marinette look up to him again confused. "I would not be letting you get home by yourself at this hour either." Adrien said putting his foot down figuratively. He didn´t know where his determination came from, but he was thankful for it. Marinette didn´t seem to object either so he took it as a win.
He gestured towards the step, silently inviting his colleague to descend the staircases first as he followed behind. Once they stepped outside, Marinette rapidly closed her coat so the cold wind of the night wouldn´t make her freeze for the entire walk. Adrien waited patiently next to her as he tired his best to not stare at her dimly lit figure. The street lamps emitted a dim light casting their shadows as they walked down Nino´s street.
"How are your parents doing?" Adrien asked, his try to break the silence between them, startling Marinette.
"Oh, they are doing fine. The bakery is still running, and they have more and more orders to take care of. I think that´s positive… even if I think there are starting to get overworked. I would like them to look for someone to help them out part-time or even full-time." Marinette explained and Adrien was thankful it wasn´t just a one-word answer. His heart nearly burst as he heard the soft chimes of her voice.
"I´m sure they´ll pull through it without any difficulties." Adrien tried to reassure her as he glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. Marinette only nodded, but kept her eyes trained on the ground.
They neared Marinette´s building and Adrien was getting restless since he didn´t get to talk about what he wanted to address yet, but his brain couldn't utter out a word.
Regretfully, they arrived soon in front of her building and Marinette started looking in her large purse in search for her keys. As she looked up with her keys in hand, she watched Adrien gaze at the floor as his foot played with a pebble on the ground.
"Mari? Can I be honest with you tonight?" Adrien finally asked as he looked up to her unsure. Marinette cocked her head to the side, not really knowing if she wanted him to ask her something. She couldn´t even think straight, since he was near her and her heart ached painfully in her chest at the prospect of what subject was about to pop up.
"Mari… I realize we haven´t been on one another good side and I guess that… I do not fully understand why. I mean I do understand that I acted out like a brat a couple of times, but I do not get your… well our sudden change of hearts." Adrien tried to voice his thoughts carefully, not intending to hurt her more than he already did.
"I just wish you wouldn´t have led me on for this long and actually told that you didn´t want something more than friendship directly from the start… I mean… how did you think it would make me feel to kiss me one day and then ignore me the rest of the time, only to start spending time with the one person that I hate the most at the moment. You made me believe there could be more, but you crushed my hopes. Do you think I would want to keep you company after how you made me feel?" Marinette said her voice breaking at the end of each sentence. She breathed in deeply before turning her gaze away from him towards the empty street.
Adrien took a step towards her, his hand reaching out for her jaw and tilted her head up to him.
"Marinette, I never intended to make you feel that way. I… I am not particularly skilled when it comes to me declaring my love to the one my heart desires most. Since I laid my eyes on you, I wanted to get to know you and the more I got to see the wonderful person you are the more I needed to be near you and my heart longed for more. Mari, I love you. You are so kind, selfless, beautiful inside and out. I regret hurting you the way I did, but I took your silence as a way of rejection and I didn´t cope well with it."
Marinette shamefully looked down, but Adrien tilted her face up again.
"I guess we both aren´t skilled at admitting our feelings." Marinette smiled shyly.
"No we are not." Adrien chuckled quietly into the silent night.
"Can I then?" Marinette asked boldly, earning herself a confused frown from Adrien. She rose on the tip of her toes and kissed him.