Quarantine In Prague

Chapter 1: The Luckiest

Well. Let's simply say she was crushed by not being able to see her crush everyday. Marinette frowned. I haven't seen Chat in so long that I started making my own puns? What a horrible time to live in. And now... I won't be able to see Adrien either.

Her eyes flew from side to side at the thought of the blond. He was not amongst the celebrating. Oh no, she thought. Not only is school closed but I won't even be able to say goodbye to him. If he was here - this time, she was persuaded that she would have walked up to him and wished him good luck for the hard times they all found themselves in... and she would tell him what she felt. Yes. She would go right up to him, and ignoring that he was with Kagami, she would still tell him what she was feeling all these years. She was sure 100% she would do it, heart on display, no excuses. Shame he was not here-

"Hey, Nino, are you there?" said Adrien a few feet behind Marinette. She froze. All her confidence deflated like a popped balloon and her thoughts vanished.

Nino responded with a few coughs. 

"Nino?" repeated Adrien, worry ringing in his voice. 

Marinette not-so-stealthily shuffled closer and closer, if just to hear Adrien's voice. OK, it's not really polite to listen on other people's conversations, but as a wise man once said, desperate times call for desperate measures. She wanted to sigh at her own confusing excuses, but she creeped closer anyways, just enough to hear Nino respond on the phone.

"S-sorry dude. I am really sorry I am not there in person. After that week with Alya's relatives, I didn't feel too good-"  Nino coughed again.

"It's all right." Adrien's chin dropped slightly as he looked over the cold street ahead, standing to the side of the other classmates almost as an outcast. "I just..." he trailed off. Marinette couldn't quite believe her eyes - she could swear she saw a flash of sadness on his face. The Adrien? The boy with smiles ready at every twist and turn? Just that simple sight twisted her heart.

"So I reckon that thing with Kagami didn't end up that well." said Nino. Marinette perked up at the mention of the Japanese girl, Adrien's first official girlfriend.

Adrien shook his head - not that Nino could see him, but he understood the silence as a good enough answer. "So you split." Nino paused. Marinette nearly gasped, but choked on her mask instead. "But what about your planned retreat? Prague? It's finished then? I thought you were supposed to go soon..."

"No." Said Adrien and huddled in his soft, cute black coat that brought up his best features. "Father insists. I will go there no matter what. I have to continue studying, modeling and fencing and Prague is one of the few places that actually let's me do all that on a high level without restriction. You heard the new French laws, didn't you..."

Nino hummed in agreement before bursting in another series of coughs. "So nothing really changed."

Adrien sighed painfully, frowning.

"I know, I know, but you were so excited about Prague, remember? Romantic, cute and wonderful city in winter? Brilliant! That didn't change, did it?"

"Yes, but I hoped I would go there with someone nice, Nino. I wanted to enjoy it... I thought you could go with me instead of her-" Adrien was interrupted by Nino's cough. "I... I don't know what to do now." Adrien sank to the glacial stairs leading to the school's entrance but paid the cold no mind.