Lucky Charms.

vi. animan

               "you're cool!" insisted adrien, nodding. "trust me — or you wouldn't be my best friend. invite marinette to the zoo. she'll say yes, i know it."

               nino's face was dubious, but he steeled his shoulders and walked over to marinette. the girl was sitting on the stairs to the second level with juleka and rose, flipping through a magazine — this week's edition of teen model, oddly enough. for inspiration, charlotte figured, since marinette made her clothes and aspired to be a fashion designer in the future. nino made it halfway across the courtyard, before he chickened out and ran back to charlotte and adrien.

               he slunk next to charlotte, holding his head in his hands. "what if i act like a dumbass?! or if she disses me, or thinks i'm lame, or —"

               "nino, honestly ..." charlotte reached for her bag to move it over so he could have more room to sulk. "marinette's not like that!"

               "but what if she is?"

               "nino." adrien placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, smiling at him. "we'll help you! don't worry!"

               charlotte blinked. adrien said, "we'll help," as in her and adrien? she looked between the friends, a dumbfounded look on her face. she wanted to protest, saying she had too much going on. in reality ... she did (?). besides chores — which she barely counted as everyone had some sort of chore — she had volleyball practice, along with learning how to drive, and stupidly, she had to work out because of volleyball (part of her wanted to ditch the gym as coccinella was a whole work out, but she knew her father would have her if she tried), and she had school — the hours spent at school, and then the time she gave studying and pouring over homework. however, one look at nino's desperate face, and she knew she'd be horrible for leaving him hanging.

               "hey," she spoke up. "how about i get alya involved too? she's a lot better at feelings than i am." she tried to make it a joke, smiling at nino, but his eyes widened.

               "i don't know about that ..." he murmured, popping his knuckles.

               "i think it's not a bad idea." adrien slung an arm over nino's shoulder. "charlotte — where is alya?"

               the black-haired girl shrugged. "no idea," she admitted. "probably working on the ladyblog."

               adrien's eyes widened slightly as if he was excited at the chance to discuss the blog. "yeah, um, how's that going? i know alya's super invested in finding out coccinella's identity."

               "too invested ..." charlotte murmured, drawing her eyes back down to the darkened laptop screen. she turned it back on, typing a few incoherent sentences for miss bustier's upcoming essay; she'll have to go back over everything she's written. "if school wasn't a legal obligation, i think she'd drop out and work on the ladyblog full time."

               adrien raised his eyebrows, but he didn't look all that surprised. "i guess i can't blame her," he mused with a small smile. "i mean ... i think it would be cool to know who's under the coccinella mask."

               "cool?" nino looked at adrien through his top lashes, a ridiculous expression of shock written across his face. "charlotte, adrien's in love with coccinella, i swear!"

               for a moment, adrien sputtered, but he finally managed to choke out, "am not!" but charlotte's awkward smile grew into a genuine, amused one. a small spark of pride ignited in her chest; it was one thing to see on the news that people loved coccinella, but it was another thing to see a classmate of her she liked (as a person! not as a romantic partner, no matter what tikki and alya said!) also look up to her alter-ego. it was ... confirming in a way. adrien, despite being a famous model and the son of the gabriel agreste, was more tangible than the millions in paris who were faceless to charlotte.