Words: 2671
Chapter Summary: Two days after talking to Master Fu, they give the cure a shot. At school, Marinette's friends have a small debate and come up with the perfect idea. After school, the gang hangs out, and Marinette and Adrien finally have a chance to play their favorite video game.
Author's Note: Sorry for the missed upload last week! This chapter wasn't finished and I didn't want to rush it. And I'm glad I didn't, because I love how this chapter came out!
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Thursday
Adrien walks around his house carefully. He can feel eyes on him at all times, and though his father and Nathalie say he's paranoid, he doesn't believe them. He thinks they're prepping to tell him the decision about school is final, and he was going to be stuck in his room until Hawkmoth is defeated.
He hoped Marinette and he could figure out a way to convince Gabriel he was fine being in school.
They got Fu's cure and used it for the first time last night. It was a little different than Fu had told them, instead of affecting the Miraculous directly, it was to make Adrien and Marinette more alert and aware of things around them. For it being only one night, Adrien didn't feel any different. But Fu had told them it would be a slight change, just enough to catch something strange, even in their sleep. Adrien wasn't so sure about it, but if it meant Marinette would be sleeping through the night, then he would believe it.
Nathalie and Gabriel have been asking more and more questions about him being Chat Noir. It's like that's all they have on their minds these days. He gets it, they're worried about him, but they're overdoing it a bit. He's been escaping the house a lot more often, and even going to school a little earlier. At least Gorilla didn't speak much; he didn't kill him with questions.
On the way to school that morning, Adrien kept thinking about all the times he's escaped this car. As they pulled up and Adrien was getting ready to get out, he leaned forward. "Hey, I'm pretty sure you knew a long time ago. Thanks for keeping my secret."
For the first time ever, Gorilla turned to Adrien and had a hint of a smile on his face. It was slight, but just enough to show emotion. What was even more shocking was when he opened his mouth. "It is my job to protect you," Gorilla said, very soft-spoken. Adrien has rarely heard him talk, but whenever he did, it was always heartfelt. Adrien's face glowed, and the biggest smile appeared.
"You're the best!" Adrien said as he got out of the car, running into the school. He was a little early, but he was okay with that. Dropping some things at his locker, he saw Alya and Nino sitting at a table, and they were also there early. When he approached the table, he noticed most of his class was surrounding it as well.
"She's probably the strongest out of all of us!" Alya said. "She could beat Kim in an arm-wrestling match."
Kim scoffed. "Yeah, right!"
"There's an eighty-nine percent chance she would win," Max backed up with facts. "Sorry, Kim."
Adrien chuckled as he walked up to his friends. "What are we talking about?"
"If Marinette is stronger than Kim," Nino filled in. "He's the only one who thinks he's stronger."
Adrien's eyes widened. "Trust me; she's stronger."
"Got any proof?" Kim crosses his arms.
Deadpanned, Adrien stared at Kim like he was crazy for asking that question. "I have personally been thrown across Paris by Marinette. Multiple times."
"He does have a point," Alix laughed, standing right next to Kim and punching his shoulder lightly. "If anyone would know, it would be Adrien."
"Ooh! I've got the best idea!" Alya jumped in her seat. "After school, we could record an arm-wrestling contest between anyone in the class that wants to take down Marinette, and post it to her channel!" Alya said. "Maybe then, haters would see that she is fit to be Ladybug, and she's not a fake."
Everyone nodded at her idea. "That's a great idea, Alya. The comments have really been getting to her, even though we all keep telling her not to look," Adrien sighed.
Kim took a deep breath, and everyone looked at him. "I have an eleven-percent chance to beat her, according to Max. But, if I am going to lose on those unlikely stats, then it'll be for a good reason," He said. "She needs some of that confidence back, especially after that weird Akuma last week."
"Glad we're all on board! All that's left is Marinette, and we can pass a sign up around the class for who would want to participate," Alya said, reaching for her bag to grab a piece of paper.
"I'll text her to bring her camera," Adrien said. "Hopefully, she's asleep. We got some help yesterday, and I don't think it helped me sleep any better, but I hope it worked for her," He confessed.
Nino patted Adrien's back. "You're also one of those people that when they go to sleep, they stay asleep."
"Not really. I've become a really light sleeper." After Adrien said that to Nino, he sent a quick text to Marinette, and she replied immediately. "Nope, she's not asleep. She's been awake for three hours. Ugh, I hope that's just because it was the first night."
"I offered to stay the night with her, but she wouldn't let me," Alya said.
Adrien nodded. "I know. She's pretty stubborn, and has been super paranoid. I don't blame her; my father and Nathalie keep prying so much that I'm doing everything I can to stay away from them."
Before the conversation about Adrien's father could get any more intense, Kim was yelling about sign-ups to arm wrestle Marinette, and it distracted everyone. Adrien definitely signed up; he would do anything to boost her confidence again. Right before the bell rang, Marinette was running up to her friends with her camera bag and backpack. "What's Kim yelling about?" She asked, and even though she was sprinting, she was barely out of breath.
"We came up with an idea..." Alya said as they started to walk to class.
---
The class was sat in the courtyard for the competition. "I still don't know if this is a good idea," Marinette told everyone.
"Of course, it is!" Nino said. "You get a video out of it, and you get to beat Kim's ass."
Almost all of the class had signed up to arm wrestle Marinette. Even if they didn't believe they could beat her, they wanted to aid in helping her self confidence and show the haters that she really was the best choice for Ladybug. Alya set up the camera, and Nino was monitoring the sound. Since it was such an impromptu video, it wasn't going to be perfect, but they were going to help as much as they could. Though Marinette didn't slow posts on her fashion channel, (except for that one week...), her second channel had lost out on a lot of videos.
Maybe after this video, it would get rid of some of the haters, and it would encourage her to post more fun videos again.
They started going down the list to go against Marinette. Rose giggled the whole time, Alix gave a good shot but knew she would lose, and Ivan had a good laugh at how quick he was taken down. Surprisingly, Chloé even showed up to support Ladybug, but there was no way she would go against her.
Nino was taken down much quicker than expected, and Alya held up a good fight. Finally, it was Kim's turn. He cracked his knuckles before he sat down, and had a smirk on his face. "Max said you had an eighty-nine percent chance of winning. That means I just have to be within that eleven percent to beat you," Kim said as they locked hands.
"Is this really that important to you?" Marinette chuckled.
"Extremely."
"It's not too late to back out!" Nino shouted from behind the camera.
"Three," Kim started.
"Two..." Alya continued. "One... go!"
At first, it looked like Kim was going to overpower Marinette, but it also looked like Marinette wasn't using her full force. "Ha, are you going to go down that easy?" Kim laughed loudly as he saw how close Marinette's hand was to the table.
"Oh, really?" She raised an eyebrow at Kim. Within a flash of a second, Marinette pushed as hard as she could, and Kim's hand hit the table. Marinette stood up with both hands up to celebrate. "Sorry, Kim. I don't do well with competitions. Ask anyone I've ever played video games with."
"It's true," Max and Adrien agreed at the same time.
Marinette stood up to take her victory and end her video, but before she could sign off, Alya jumped in front of the camera. "We have one last contestant! You know him, you love him, Adrien Agreste!" Alya called, making her friends laugh as Adrien sat down at the table.
"Are you sure?" Marinette giggled. They had arm-wrestled before. Every so often, they would get bored after a patrol, and stick around and talk. Chat Noir was always confident he could beat her, but never could.
"I must redeem myself, Mi'Ladybug," Adrien smiled.
Marinette shook her head and sat back down. "You know, if you didn't say anything, then people would not have known about the multiple times I've already beat you," She told him. "But too late." With that, she smirked and put her arm on the table, interlocking hands with Adrien.
"See, but they don't know if you're telling the truth. It could be a cover," Adrien shrugged.
"When have I ever lied about arm-wrestling?" Marinette said, and all their friends stared at them as their banter continued. Alya just looked at them, thinking that they really were made for each other.
"Whatever, let me just count down!" Alya finally interrupted. She counted down from three, and their hands had barely moved. It was clear that they both were trying, as hard as they could, but their strengths matched.
Their friends all cheered for one of them, and it was split about halfway for fairness. "Come on, Adrien, you know how this will end!" Marinette said through gritted teeth. "I'm not even using my full strength yet."
"Well, why not? Holding back?" Adrien asked, sounding just like Marinette.
"Fine, you don't want to give in?" She pushed on, and Adrien shook his head. "Okay, then," She said, and with a little more concentration, Adrien's hand was slowly making it's way closer to the table. Once it was only about two inches from the table, Adrien gave in.
He sighed. "You won. Legally," Adrien admitted, and Marinette's hand shot up in real victory. This time, Adrien walked up to the camera. "There you have it, folks, the superior superhero is Marinette! But we all knew that anyway," Adrien shrugged, and Marinette realized what he was doing and pushed him out of frame.
"Now, we're done!" She laughed. "That was a lot of fun, thanks to everyone for setting it up!" She called out to her friends. "And thank you guys for watching! I'll have everyone tagged below so you can follow all of my fantastic friends. I hope to get back to regularly uploading onto my second channel, but you know I've been busy. I really do love silly videos like this, so be on the lookout for more!" Marinette said with a big smile on her face. "See you in the next video!" She said, and with that, Alya shut off the camera.
She turned to her friends who were watching her finish off the video. "Really, thank you guys for doing this. It was a lot of fun, and I'm thrilled you guys aren't mad at me, too."
"Why would we be?" Kim's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You're still our Marinette."
Marinette walked over to Kim and hugged him. They had been really good friends for a long time, even if they don't hang out as much anymore. He still has the sappy moments, sometimes.
The day finished up, and all the students were dispersing, including Marinette. "Do you guys want to come over for some pastries? I feel like you deserve it," She offered Alya, Nino, and Adrien.
Unanimously, they agreed.
---
Alya and Nino were packing up their items in the bakery. Time had flown by, and they needed to get home for dinner. "You let me know if you need me to come over. I don't care what time it is; I will be over here within minutes. I want you to get the rest you need, Marinette," Alya told her.
"I'll be okay. I have the cure now, remember?"
"It's only a cure if it actually works, girl," She said. "And you said you didn't sleep well last night."
Marinette shrugged. "Probably just because it was the first night. I'll be fine. If not, I'll call you."
"Yeah, right," Alya winked. "Okay, we'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Bye, dudes," Nino waved as the two of them walked out of the bakery.
Marinette turned to Adrien, who seemed to be tuned out of the conversation. "When do you have to get home?" She asked.
Adrien shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. "Oh, I don't know. As late as possible? I'm trying to avoid the house as much as possible," He admitted.
"What? Why?"
He shrugged, taking a minute to figure out what he was going to say. "My father and Nathalie keep prying more and more, even when I ask them to stop. They know I'm not comfortable talking about it in detail, but they just keep asking. They keep trying to see my ring and asking me to take it off, and I'm afraid if I do that, they won't give it back and take Chat Noir away from me," Adrien word barfed. His thoughts had been circling in his mind all day, with no one to talk to it about. Once Marinette offered, he let it all out. He coughed once he realized what he said. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize," Marinette said, "It makes sense, I wouldn't want to risk it either. Especially with them thinking about pulling you out of school and keeping you contained. Maybe the next step is taking the ring from you, so you aren't endangering yourself. That isn't a good idea, but who knows what parents think is right," She chuckled, trying to bring some light to the situation. "I know! Want to go play some video games?"
Adrien sighed with a smile. "I always do."
The two grabbed their things and rushed to behind the bakery counter to run up the stairs and into the apartment. They threw their bags at the end of the couch, and while Adrien sat on the couch, Marinette turned the TV on and put the game on.
"You should record this," Adrien said, and Marinette replied with a confused look. "You did say you wanted to get back to uploading on your second channel. Why not record us playing our favorite game?"
"You want to have video proof of me kicking your butt, twice between two videos?" Marinette asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Adrien shook his head. "No, this is my revenge. I'm going to win."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," She said. While the video game was loading, she pulled out her camera from her bag and started the video. "Hi again! I'm Marinette," She said. "And Adrien's here again, too. He decided he wants to record me kicking his butt again, but I'm not against it. We're playing our favorite video game, Mecha Strike III!"
Their banter throughout the video was like earlier in the day. Joking with each other, and having snarky replies to everything. And the same victory as earlier, as well. They played a few rounds, and the sun had long gone down. But neither of them cared, they were having fun, and they didn't have any homework that needed to get done. Finally, after a few hours of playing, they turned the camera off and turned on a movie.
They didn't even get through one movie before both of them were fast asleep on the couch.