Timing is everything: Miraculous ladybug

|5|: Pregnancy makes you snarky

  For the first time in a week, Marinette attended school. Everyone was greatly relieved to see her and the constantly asked how she was doing. She gave them the same vague answer every time. "I'm doing as well as I can be."

  She had decided not to tell anyone about the baby yet, it just didn't seem like the right time to say anything.

   As the day dragged on, Adrien watched Marinette from afar. He was relieved to see her back in school. He hadn't seen her since Luka's funeral the week before. She hadn't returned any of his texts either. But he understood her need to be alone.

  Throughout the day he had noticed that Marinette seemed to brighten up a bit as she conversed with all her friends. She almost looked like the Marinette that he used to know. Of course Adrien knew that it would be a long time before Marinette healed completely. He vowed to himself that he would be there for whatever she needed.

  ~free period~

  Because the teacher was out that day, the class had a free period to do whatever they wanted. Most of them talked amongst themselves or played on their phones. Marinette sat at the front of the class catching up on the homework she'd missed. She was working hard and was barely paying attention to the world around her. Adrien had to admire her concentration.

  "Hey Marinette, I meant to give this to you earlier, but I have a gift for you." Nathaniel said, breaking Marinette's concentration. She looked up at him and smiled slightly. "You didn't have to get me anything." She said.

  Nathaniel blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Yeah, I know. But I wanted to. Besides it wasn't too much trouble, I made the gift myself." He said as he handed Marinette a drawing.

  Just looking at the drawing made Marinette tear up slightly. "Thank you Nathaniel, I love it." She said before getting up and hugging him. Adrien felt a pang of jealousy in his chest but ignored it.

  "Let me see!" Alya said excitedly as she took the drawing from Marinette's hands. The drawing was of  Marinette and Luka standing in front of the Louvre. It was incredibly detailed and well done.

   "I recognize this. Wasn't this an actual photo of you guys at one point?" Alya asked. Marinette nodded. "Yeah, it was the first one we took as a couple, but I accidentally deleted the photo." She said sadly.

  "I remember how disappointed you were when you deleted that photo, so I decided to recreate it as a drawing from my memory. I know I only saw the original picture once, so sorry if my drawing is a little off." Nathaniel said. "Are you kidding? It's perfect!" Marinette said happily. Nathaniel rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm glad you liked it."

  "Ugh seriously? You actually like that piece of garbage?" An annoying voice said. Everyone looked up to see Chloe standing in front of them. Nathaniel looked down sadly.

  "Shut up Chloe, you wouldn't know what decent art was even if it bit you in the ass." Alya said angrily. Chloe scoffed and took another look at the drawing.

  "Well I will say one thing... he captured your ugliness perfectly Baker girl. Although, it might be a little too pretty. But hey, everyone makes mistakes." Chloe mocked. Adrien frowned deeply and was about to speak up, but Marinette beat him to it.

   "Yeah, I can attest to that. After all, the universe wasted an perfectly good asshole when it put teeth in your mouth." Marinette shot back.