Wild Hearts || Miraculous Ladybug

9.5|| The Plight of Fame

Just as she hoped, Adrien quickly redacted his statement. "Never mind then," he stated with a small shake of his head, straightening up and looking away, "it was probably just my imagination."

Elizabeth smiled again and quickly changed the subject, pulling Nino and Nathaniel into the conversation while dismissing the matter.

Sorry, Adrien. But I couldn't let you dwell on it any longer. You can't know the truth.

-----

The four settled down in a booth at the café. Elizabeth sat beside Nathaniel while Adrien was next to Nino on the opposite side. No words were spoken among them as they consumed their food.

That suited Adrien just fine. He was starving. Well, that and he was scarfing his food down so they could finish up quickly and head to the arcade.

The golden-haired boy pulled out his phone and checked the time. A small sigh escaped his lips when he realized that he'd have to head back home in an hour or so. It seemed that the fight with Timebreaker had taken more free time out of his schedule than he thought, and unfortunately he knew for a fact that his father wouldn't extend his time off just because an akumatized villain crashed in.

Man, Hawkmoth sucked.

Adrien's shook his head slightly and tucked his phone away. He took another bite out of his sandwich and looked at the others. Nino and Nathaniel were busy with their food, clearly hungry. Elizabeth, despite eating much slower than the others, already had half of her sandwich consumed.

Seeing his gaze, the girl stuck a conversation. "How much time do you have before you have to head back home Adrien?" she asked, hazel eyes regarding him curiously.

Adrien wasn't going to lie, Elizabeth made him nervous. He wasn't exactly sure why. Perhaps it was the fact that she was always so composed. She had a stoic demeanor and no matter what happened she always seemed to be unfazed by everything.

At first glance, one would easily mistake her neutral composure for lack of care. Adrien sure did. However, that was proven to be blatantly incorrect when he watched as she put Chloe back in her place for sticking gum to Marinette's seat on his first day of school, simultaneously clearing him from the blame in the process.

He knew at that moment that he wanted to know more about her. Considering that they were actively hanging out outside of school that very moment, he had to say that it was going well.

He really hoped this meant that they were friends.

Elizabeth continued to look at him, and Adrien realized that she asked him a question. Had he been staring at her that whole time?

"Oh!" Adrien exclaimed, face heating up with embarrassment from zoning off. "About an hour. I have to be home before two. I take Chinese with my private tutor then."

"Man, you have classes on a Saturday," Nino gawked, shaking his head in disbelief. "Your old man is so uptight."

"Tell me about it," the blonde glumly replied.

Nathaniel set his food down and jumped into the conversation. "At least he let you come to the race today. It could be worse." Nino shrugged, silently agreeing that the redhead was right.

"You're not wrong," Elizabeth jumped in dryly, eyebrows raised and she looked over at Nathaniel, "but that's setting the bar a little low don't you think?"

The ruby-haired boy just returned to eating.

Elizabeth looked at him a little longer, but seeing at the boy wasn't about to respond anytime soon, she returned her attention to Adrien. "Why Chinese? That's an interesting choice."