Anything For a Friend : A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfic

Chapter 8

"You have a rock climbing wall," Marinette said, her eyes wide and her expression almost appalled. It was a typical reaction when kids his age saw his room, Adrien supposed. Actually, Nino had made the same face, and he and Marinette were the only two people ever to have been in his room who were not paid to be there, so statistically it was a 100% common response.

"Yeah, it helps build up arms like these," he said, pushing up his sleeve to flex at her.

She giggled, and swatted his arm away. "Don't get such a big head, handsome boy, or you'll be just as bad as that Chat Noir," she admonished him, smiling wide.

He wanted to say that if she kept calling him handsome, there was no hope for the size of his ego. He wanted to pull her toward him into a tight hug, because he was so glad to have her smile adding warmth to his cold, white room. He wanted to know that she wasn't pretending to flirt with him, but that she meant it.

Instead, he winked at her, and told her to make herself at home.

Marinette responded to this by immediately settling into in his desk chair, raising an eyebrow at the three large monitors before spinning the chair to face him. She pulled her legs up into the chair and sat criss-cross applesauce, looking at him as though she were waiting for him to do something. It was a curious mirror to when he'd sat at her computer desk weeks earlier, trying to figure out her favourite animal.

"Say, why don't you like cats?" he asked, sitting on his bed.

She blinked at him, obviously not having expected that question. "They're morons," she said, laughing. "Why should I like them?"

"Well, you like Chat Noir, don't you? He's pretty much the most famous cat there is," he replied, desperately hoping that whatever face he was making wouldn't give away his identity.

She shook her head. "He's the worst one!" she declared, before pausing and evidently thinking the statement through a bit more. Which made sense since, as far as she knew, Adrien wouldn't have any reason to think that she had enough experience to form a real opinion on Chat. Adrien's mouth quirked its way into a smile as she went on, "I only met him for a few moments but he was the biggest...goof!"

Adrien found it interesting that she would try to conceal the fact that Chat Noir had visited her just last night. While he knew that he was no Ladybug, there were people who loved to get updates on Chat Noir's activities in the city, and there was nothing to be lost from bragging that a celebrity super hero had paid her extra attention. That is, unless she worried what Adrien would think. Either she didn't want Adrien to know she was sharing clandestine visits with Chat in order to protect Adrien's feelings, or she was embarrassed that Chat had decided to stop by.

Option one meant that she might have feelings for either Chat or Adrien (both were fine in his book). Option two meant...well, he wasn't sure what it meant.

"I kinda thought you liked goofs," Adrien replied, a cat-like grin on his face. "You do hang out with me and Alya often enough. Not to mention the biggest goof in this room happens to have her hair in pigtails..."

"Are you implying that I'm a goof?" she asked, crossing her arms. Despite her fake pout, a smile broke through.

"Are you implying that you aren't?" he shot back, leaning forward in his seat.

"I don't think you can really judge my goofiness," she decided, turning her nose up after him. "After all, I've sat through a month of your atrocious puns and--"

"And laughed at almost every single one," Adrien finished for her.

"Oh yeah? Well you kissed this goof," she said, grinning. His heart did a flip and his breath caught in his throat and he was not quite sure if that was a result of her smile or the fact that, yes, he'd kissed that goof.