1. Just a friend

In which Adrien makes a discovery

It came out of nowhere. Or maybe he just didn't see it coming. Like a fever spike. Like a lightning strike.

Like a freight train.

It was on one of those school trips Miss Bustier liked to drag them onto. They went to Paris' Botanical Garden because there was no better time for that than April when the spring hit her peak and everything was blooming like crazy.

If someone told him he'd have a revelation in the fruit trees lane he'd probably laugh out loud. There was one girl in his heart, and nothing could convince him otherwise.

Well, the laugh was on him. And frankly, he didn't care.

Apple, cherry, peach and mirabelle plum. Trees in full bloom all covered in white fluffy, flowery snow. Yellow spheres of forsythias adorned the lawns. Distant magnolias tempted with pink shades of their petals. The garden look as if taken straight from a fairy tale. Or maybe this was what Eden used to look like.

And just like a good fairy tale it featured one beautiful princess. The woman in the garden of Eden. Only her name wasn't Eve, but...

Marinette.

She soaked in the views, the smells, the sounds, inexplicably happy. She whispered excitedly that she could live in spring forever. She hummed softly under her breath as she took in every little detail of her surroundings.

And Adrien watched, mesmerized, as her eyes lit up at the next flower, next scent, next insect industriously busying itself in the corollas. Her cheeks were as pink as magnolia flowers, eyes bluer than the sky above them. And she seemed so open and inviting he found himself surprised no forest animal decided to show up to sing to her.

The sight of Marinette vibrating with excitement at something as simple as nature, the way she seemed to shine with inner light stirred something deep within him. It left him flabbergasted. Breathless. Smitten.

He simply couldn't take his eyes off her. Blind and deaf to anything but her, tuned only to Marinette's hum of delight. Even Nino's not so subtle jabs went right over his head. There was nothing else in his world right now.

Just her.

She's just a friend, just a friend, he kept telling himself as his heart begged to differ. Only it was no longer his. All it wanted was to rip out of his aching chest and run, run to her, as fast as possible. It whispered about bringing her apple twigs every day, just to witness those eyes lit with joy, just to hear those lips sigh in wonder, just to see those hands clap in excitement.

The walls he had carefully built and maintained for so long where crumbling, crumbling under the onslaught of his senses. And each and every one of them told him the exact same thing.

That here, in the garden of Eden he found the love of his life, bathed in the spring sunlight to the smell of apple trees and the buzzing of bees.

'Monsieur Agreste, are you with us?'

'Yes, Marinette,' he breathed.

A bout of laughter, but not from her. Marinette caught his eye, flushed pink, and averted her gaze. He mourned the loss of the lit up sky in her irises.

'My name is Caline Buster, Adrien,' an amused voice said somewhere near. 'And I think you've had enough sun for one day.'

He doubted he'd have enough in a lifetime, but he let his teacher walk him to a bench in the shade, where he could watch Marinette some more.

Author's Note: I'm half a month late for the party, but oh well, this plot bunny wouldn't stop bothering me so I thought I could give it a try. There're at least a few prompts from Adrinette April I'm going to hit with this fic, though definitely not all of them. The schedule is a mystery too – probably every 2-4 days, but we'll see how it goes.

Let me know what you think! Your reviews make me want to write more! And if Adrinette is the content you're looking for, check out my last year's story for Adrinette April – "April Weather".

A huge thank you to Remasa for giving this chapter a look. Make sure to read her latest masterpiece "A Host Unto His Own".