"No, Adrien, for the last time, I don't want to go out with you."
"Why? I'm a perfect gentleman, rich, and a model. Why wouldn't you want to date me?"
Marinette resists the urge to throttle the blonde, and spouts the first thing that comes to mind. "I already have a boyfriend." She moves to stride away, but Adrien grabs her wrist.
"Who is it?" He spits. "Who could possibly be better than me?"
Time to make something up. "Jason Todd-Wayne." Marinette shrugs her hand out of Adrien's grip in his shock and runs home.
Once she's in the privacy of her own room, she transforms with Kaalki and heads straight to the Cave. Robin is sitting on the couch reading Pride and Prejudice for the billionth time.
"Uh, Jason? I have a favor to ask you. Can we go to your room?"
"Sure." Once Jason closes the door behind them, he asks. "What's up?"
Marinette smiles sheepishly. "Well, Adrien asked me out again today and I said no, but then he wanted to know why I kept turning him down so I said I already had a boyfriend."
Jason raises an eyebrow. "And how, exactly, do I fit into this?"
"I kinda told him that you were my boyfriend?" Jason looks at her face and bursts into laughter.
"Don't laugh, Jason! I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend in front of my classmates so they'll get off my back about rejecting Adrien!" Marinette crosses her arms. "Do it for your best friend?"
"Sure. Okay." Jason wheezes. "Do you want me to come pick you up from school a couple times or something?"
"We have to go to Andre's at some point as a couple." Marinette muses. "It'll be suspicious if we don't. Picking me up from school would work, I think."
"What about PDA? There needs to be at least some to be convincing, right?"
Marinette turns pink. "Well- uh- only what you're comfortable with. We already have nicknames for each other. Are you okay with hand holding?"
Jason nods. "Cheek kisses will probably be necessary too, but nothing more than that. That cool with you?"
"Yep!" Marinette says. "I'm French, we do those anyway. We need to establish a background. How we met, how we started dating, et cetera."
"Easy. You and I met at Jagged and Penny's wedding last year. We kept in touch after that, and I asked you out six months later when I came to Paris to visit. I brought you a bouquet of roses and a box of dark chocolate, your favorite. We went on a walk down the Seine. Tomorrow is our six month anniversary, I'll pick you up from school to celebrate the occasion."
Marinette blinks. "How did you come up with that so fast?"
"I read a lot of romance, Pixie." Jason grins. "Plus, I'm a Bat."
Marinette spends the next day at school being carefully watched by Adrien. When the final bell rang, she made sure to leave in the middle of the crowd, to make sure that if he didn't see Jason, at least others would and would report it back to him.
Sure enough, Jason is standing outside a limo (why are all the Waynes so dramatic?), scanning the students. Marinette hears the whispers already, and grins.
"Jason!" She calls, and his head snaps towards the sound of her voice. Marinette takes a running start and crashes into him while wrapping her arms around him, eliciting an oof.
"Hey, Pixie." Jason laughs, pressing a light kiss to her scalp. "Happy six months. You ready to go?"
"Of course." Jason opens the limo doors and lets Marinette step inside first, then shuts the door after him. Alfred smiles at them from the front seat.
"Good afternoon, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I have somehow been roped into a scheme. Do you have any idea how that happened?" Marinette blushes.
"Oops?" She smirks at the look on Adrien's face as the limo pulls away, glad he can't see her through the tinted windows.
Andre is ecstatic when he sees the two of them approach, hand in hand.
"Ah, Jason and Marinette! You have finally found your other half! Congratulations!" He hands them a cone. "Blueberry, Mint, and Blackberry. Enjoy!"
The ice cream combo tastes surprisingly good, and Marinette savors every bite of it. Jason smirks. "Model boy incoming."
Sure enough, Adrien approaches a moment later. "Is this the boyfriend you were talking about, Princess?"
Jason smiles dangerously. "Jason Todd-Wayne, nice to meet you."
"Couldn't say the same." Adrien retorts. "What are your intentions with my Princess?"
"Excuse me? I am not your Princess!" Marinette says indignantly. "Is your ego really so large that you cannot handle a rejection?"
Adrien crosses his arms. "He's using you, Princess. After all, nobody could ever truly love you except for me."
Jason growls, and Marinette puts a placating hand on his shoulder. "Leave me and my boyfriend alone, Adrien. Or I will be filing a restraining order."
"And the Wayne family lawyers will be there to back it up." Jason adds smugly. That does the trick. Adrien pales and practically sprints off the bridge.
The next day, Alya confronts her in front of the entire class. "Marinette! Why didn't you tell me you were dating Jason Todd-Wayne? I could have gotten an inside scoop!"
"Why would I tell you?" Marinette replies. "My love life is none of your business, Alya. You never managed to understand that."
"We're best friends! If you just told me, I wouldn't have tried to get to date Adrien!" Alya protests.
Marinette raises an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Because I seem to remember you telling me in very clear words last year that Lila was your bestie and that we weren't even friends anymore. And even before that, when I was dating Luka, you crashed every single date you heard about to tell me that I could 'do better' and that I should dump him and 'accept Adrien before he gets tired of waiting.'"
"Because you and Adrien are meant to be together!" Adrien smirks at her from the corner of her eye.
"Alya Cesaire, I'm saying this again. My. Love. Life. Is. None. Of. Your. Business. I am not interested in Adrien Agreste. Liking him back in collége was a mistake. I detest his attitude and his spinelessness, and I will never accept his offer to date."
Marinette grabs her backpack and walks out of the classroom, taking the nearest zeta to the Cave.
Her little speech got Alya to back off for a full month. However, when Jason came back to Paris to surprise her for their 'seventh month anniversary,' Alya was not so lenient.
She walked straight up to Marinette and Jason in the middle of the courtyard. "Kiss."
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Pardon me?"
Alya crosses her arms. "Kiss. If you're really a couple, you shouldn't have a problem with that."
"Alya, just because we're a couple doesn't mean we're comfortable with PDA." Marinette says, pinching the bridge of her nose. Hopefully, Alya bought it, otherwise it might blow her cover.
"Nah, it's fine Pixie. They want a show, we'll give them a show." Without warning, Jason dips Marinette, eliciting a squeak, and presses his lips on hers.
Kwami, this feels good. Marinette thinks, and then she panics because this is Jason! Your completely platonic best friend! His lips are soft, and taste like her vanilla chapstick- Wait. Her vanilla chapstick?
Marinette suddenly pulls away. "You're the one who stole my chapstick!"
Jason's cheeks are dusted with red. "Guilty as charged." He laughs, then turns to Alya, who is gaping along with the rest of the students in the courtyard. "Was that acceptable for you?"
Alya huffs. "I guess. Only real couples could possibly pull off something like that."
They continue like that for another three months, sharing kisses in public every once in a while to keep up appearances. Marinette finds herself longing to kiss him again, and so she initiates it one day during their weekly movie night.
Jason stiffens for a moment, and Marinette freaks out because she just ruined their friendship, this is going to be so awkward, she won't be able to ever look him in the eye again! She pulls away, apologies sputtering from her lips.
"I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me! Can we just pretend this never happened and mmph!" Marinette is cut off when Jason kisses her. It's passionate and sweet, and her chest floods with warmth when she tastes the vanilla chapstick she never got back.
They both pull away, gasping for air, and Jason smiles.
"I've been waiting to do that for over a year now. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, will you be my girlfriend, for real this time?"
Marinette beams. "I'd love to."