"Come on now, Marinette. It's bad to avoid your friends. I'll tell him you'll be down in a few minutes."
And with that, her mother went back down the ladder and shut the trapdoor.
"This is exactly the opposite of what I wanted to happen!" Marinette rushed to the mirror and quickly combed out her hair and flattened down any creases on her pyjamas.
Tikki came out of hiding. "No time better than the present! Remember- try not to talk about your superhero identities! Keep things as civilian-like as you can."
"Right. Got it. Normal people talk. No Ladybug and Chat - oh my gosh, I completely forgot that he's Chat-"
"Don't think about it! Go downstairs and talk to him!"
She nodded with a determined heel-swerve, then nonchalantly walked down her ladder, almost falling down it in the process.
Adrien - god, that's Chat Noir- was sitting on a high table in the far corner, with his hand in one phone and his cheek resting in the other. And when he turned to look at Marinette when she called his name, he looked calm.
Too calm. Almost cold.
"Adrien, I-"
"Let me go first." Marinette pursed her lips and shyly nodded, sitting down on the chair opposite him when he gestured to it. "I've been thinking... it's time for me to move on from you-"
"It's not me."
"What?"
"It's not me you're moving on from, is it? It's.." she lowered the hurt and volume in her voice, "Ladybug, right? It's Ladybug you're moving on from. Did you ever even like me? Or, because you found out who I was, you started to? Is that it?"
Adrien gulped and just by the guilty glance at his hands, Marinette could tell she hit bullseye. "Look, I wanted to like you. I really did." Marinette could've broke down right there and then. "But you don't like Chat, so why are you so upset that I don't like you?"
"I was starting to." She sniffled. "I was starting to like Chat, Adrien. I liked his- your real personality." Marinette shoved herself off of her chair. "So much for that, huh?"
Then she stormed upstairs, leaving Adrien alone on the table.
_________
Trust in Adrien for me guys😪
