Adrian liked it when he had company over, whether it was just him and Plagg, him and Marinette, or those rare occasions when Master Fu would pretend to be his Chinese instructor and tell him about the miraculous holders of the past. But this, this was possibly the best. The teens had finished their project fairly quickly between the four of them so they soon had more downtime than Adrian had had for nearly two weeks. Out of the suit at least. Marinette always made sure he got some kind of relaxation during the day but mostly during the night.
Skies above, he think he loved her more than anything in the world. It was a lovely afternoon, Marinette and Alya were laughing about something that Adrian and Nino couldn't hear over the sound of the foosball table, Adrian could see the American's appeal to the table game, but the boys could tell that the girls were enjoying watching them. Finally, when Adrian beat Nino for the thirty seventh time (10-2), Nino declared defeat. "How are you so good at this game dude?" He asked incredulously.
"Practice and a great teacher." Adrian commented vaguely, it was the truth, Plagg certainly was an amazing teacher. That cheese loving cat certainly knew his way around the table game. "Well I give up." Nino said with a small laugh and a rub of his brow. "Ah, seems it's my turn then, Alya you mind holding my purse? I don't want my stuff to get shaken up." Marinette asks, distractedly taking something out of her small purse.
Adrian knew she was checking to make sure Tikki hadn't returned to her purse, Tikki and Plagg had both disappeared when the teens started their project, but then took out a wrapped pastry to mask her movement. "Good luck dudette, I don't think you'll get very far though against Adrian, especially if you're eating during it." Nino says with a smile and Alya nudges him. "Never question Marinette, she's full of surprises."
"Oh don't worry Nino, this chocolate croissant isn't for me, at least not yet. Whoever wins gets it." She teases, waving the chocolate goodness in front of Adrian and then setting it on the edge of the table. "Oh so that's how you want to play it, huh Mari?" Adrian asks with a lifted brow. "Damn right Agreste." She smirks and grabs the hand holds.
"Bring it." Was all Adrian has to say before they launched themselves into their own, far more difficult, game of competitive foosball. Every time one of them scored, the other would have to remove a point, every time one of them completely span the little men they'd have to remove two points, and one more thing. "I can't believe you'd distract me like that!" Marinette exclaimed with an annoyed face, Adrian simply laughed in triumph and bit into his hard earned chocolate croissant.
"We both agreed distractions are allowed Mari." He says and leans against the table. "Oh just you wait Agreste, I'll get you back for that." She threatens with a devilish smirk. "Uh oh, seems that someone is in trouble now, better run dude." Nino laughs, he and Alya were both surprised at how short the game had lasted. Those two definitely had played against each other before, it only lasted six minutes! Their friends had definitely been hiding something, but it wasn't really their place to snoop, much to Alya's disappointment, so they backed down.
Besides, they had other means of finding out if their friends were visiting each other more often than they told. It was perfect, up until Natalie opened the door and Adrian stuffed the rest of the croissant down his shirt and wiped the chocolate off his face like he'd done it a thousand times. "Adrian it is time for your friends to go home, your Chinese instructor has arrived," she said blandly, her eyes washing over everyone and lingering sadly on Marinette.
The akuma has only gotten closer and was now resting comfortably in her hoodie pocket, which she didn't seem to mind. Adrian however had his arm wrapped protectively around her waist, ensuring that her skin was covered and untouchable by the little creature.
Strange. Just who was this girl?