Under Lock and Key

Chapter 5: School Day

Adrien was sure his face matched his partner's suit perfectly right that second. A pleasant warmth spread inside him, and he did the only thing he could think of to derail his thoughts from a really dangerous path: he clambered towards the edge of the bed, half dragging poor Marinette in his haste, and mumbled, "We better get up now if we actually want to eat anything before school starts."

A few moments later, they had successfully pulled themselves into a standing position, not without some struggle on Marinette's part.

Marinette threw on a pair of skinny light-washed jeans and a chic halter top before giving Adrien the green light to remove the scarf around his eyes. As he did so, his fingers brushed against the familiar stitching on the end of it, for the very first time paying close attention to the threads. Marinette's odd reaction the day prior upon realizing he still had it was still lingering at the back of his mind, and he softly swiped the pad of his thumb across the light blue thread.

How he never noticed it before, he couldn't say for the life of him, but there was something embroidered into one of the ends of the scarf. His breath hitched in his throat, and waited, unsteady and anxious, his thumb gently tracing the letters he could decipher into the stitching.

"All good, you can get dressed, Adrien. Could you hand me the scarf?" Marinette's kind voice brought him back to reality.

He undid the knot, but instead of handing the scarf to his friend, his fingers lingered on it, his eyes examining the fabric closely. There it was, unmistakable, the word he thought he could feel under his skin a few seconds prior.

Marinette.

"Ma... Marinette..." Adrien breathed softly, unable to tear his gaze away from the birthday gift that had meant so much to him, from the single word that was currently morphing his insides into a wild roller coaster ride.

"Yes?" she asked, readjusting the wrist cozy on the handcuff, blissfully unaware of his inner turmoil.

He lifted cautious eyes toward her, knowing all too well that her answer to his next question could very well mean his undoing just as much as it could be the beginning of a deeper friendship between the two of them. "Marinette, why is your name embroidered in my favorite scarf?"

Their eyes met, and Marinette shifted uncomfortably in front of him. "I- Uh.... umm....." Her eyes widened and she could feel her brain getting frazzled as she desperately tried to come up with a plausible explanation. When she came up empty-handed, she sighed and resignedly admitted, "B-because I made it?"

"You... you did? But... how? Did my father buy it from you?"

Marinette flushed bright red, nibbling at her lower lip softly, and intently avoided his gaze. All her body language was screaming just how much she wasn't at ease with the conversation topic, and for a split-second, Adrien considered withdrawing his question. Before he could, however, she whispered, "No. No, he didn't. I'm sorry, Adrien." She gulped loudly, still averting her eyes from him. "I... I don't have a clue about how it happened, but there was some kind of mix-up that day, and you ended up thinking the gift was from your father. I... You were so happy about it, and I..."

"Why didn't you say anything about it, Marinette? I don't understand," he asked, unable to tear his eyes away from the blush spreading on her cheeks.

She smiled, a soft, gentle smile that made his heart clench in his chest and finally looked up at him. "I made that scarf to make you happy. And it did. The rest didn't matter."

That was far more than Adrien could take with a straight face. He was used to people going out of their way to make him happy, but they always had something else in mind. There always sought money, fifteen minutes of fame, or favors from his father.