Chapter Text

"That was insanely boring!" Adrien complained to Marinette. Apparently even though he was a quiet person he couldn't help sharing this obvious information with her. Marinette was surprised to hear him speak up.

"Well, this is how it goes every year, it is bound to be boring! Luckily, today we only have a class with the homeroom teacher, after that everybody just goes out and in the evening there's a party going on at the lake." Marinette had a feeling that Adrien was not at all interested in the lake party, but she wanted to see his reaction to it and he did not disappoint. He scrunched up his nose in disgust and shrugged. Marinette gave a wholehearted laugh and shook her head. Adrien again looked at her with a straight face, although she could clearly see his eyes smiling (N/A: I don't really know what that means, just go with it). That was odd, the second time Marinette saw his eyes do that and not his lips. Somehow she figured out Adrien was not at all the normal every day kid who smiles or smirks. He was quiet, mysterious, locked away, straight faced, nothing to give his emotions away besides his eyes. The absolute perfect definition of what Marinette would rather stay away from, but she felt drawn to him, like it was something there that kept him from enjoying life and he intrigued her.

They walked together to the homeroom class and sat next to each other. They were among the first few students to enter the classroom, so when it started filling up, people gave odd looks to Marinette and her new companion. Some girls were looking at Adrien intensely, clearly mesmerized by his looks. The sound of guys scoffing was constant. Although Marinette thought Adrien would be totally oblivious to the attention offered to him, it was becoming quite clear that he was aware of it and wanted none of that. He slid a little lower into his seat and cast down his eyes, while playing with a leather bracelet on his right wrist. Marinette's gaze was drawn to the bracelet because of the movement of his hand. The bracelet was completely black with a few undistinguishable symbols marking it. Adrien noticed that she was looking, so he stopped and picked up a pencil to play with.

He looked at her and she was still checking his wrist out intensely. He put the pencil down and pushed the sleeve of his hoodie up to his forearm. Marinette was caught by surprise and she lifted her eyes to meet Adrien's. He simply placed his arm in front of her letting her take a look at his bracelet. Marinette chuckled softly. There were 3 bracelets perched on his arm, one thin, the one he was playing with earlier, the second wider and with a chain-like pattern drawn on it and the last one was made of dark blue beads. Those bracelets screamed "dark and brooding". She saw that all bracelets were slightly discoloured like he had worn them since forever. Gently, Marinette ran her index finger over the symbol-engraved bracelet and slightly frowned. There were some words written on it. "Never flinch. Never fear, and never ever forget". She recognized the words instantly. They were a quote from a book, Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. Marinette looked up at Adrien who never took his eyes of her face.

She smiled teasingly "I love that book. But I hope your ambition in life is not to become an assassin?". Adrien raised one sandy eye brow and shrugged. She continued checking out the other bracelets and once she was satisfied took in his forearm. Marinette could see the tendons and the veins on slightly tanned skin and the edge of something dark peaking from under the hoodie's rolled up sleeve. A tattoo.

"You have a tattoo." What started out as a question turned into a statement. Adrien let a low sound from his throat, a sound of approval. He pulled the sleeve higher up, unveiling a dark cloud with lightning bolts coming out of it and rain drops.

"You love lightning storms?". Again Adrien grunted.

"Well, I happen to like them as well." Truly, for Adrien, the eyes were the window to his soul. He seemed to not believe her by giving her a hard look, but then he saw the small smile in the corner of Marinette's mouth. She did like them, she didn't just say that for show.

" 'Guess something else we have in common, you know... besides our style..." Marinette teased. Adrien gave her a disbelieving look. She sounded like a 3rd grader trying to make a new friend.

"Our style?" he retorted.

"Yes… you know... black, skulls, band t-shirts…".

Marinette had this "duuh" classic expression on her face and Adrien slightly nodded as if confirming that she is right and accepting her childishness. "This girl is so confusing."

Marinette turned her head a little bit away smiling to herself. Suddenly, a loud bang rang through the room; the classroom's door closed slammed by the teacher, an old lady frowning creating the impression that she had mono-brow. Sternly she introduced herself to the class as Mrs. Ban then proceeded to talk about how the class will be divided in two for French language classes… and other irrelevant stuff. In about half an hour the whole charade was done and everybody was free to go when Mrs. Ban added:

"About the division in two classes during French… alphabetical order, split in half. Tomorrow the rooms will be on the schedule."

Everyone in the class was already standing up impatient to get away, only Adrien was still sitting. Marinette curiously looked at him at the exact moment he lifted his eyes. He lifted an eyebrow in question. Marinette blushed a bit at the intense look he gave her and said to herself "Holy shit, his eyes… I'm a gonner…" and then outloud: "What?" Adrienne slightly sighed and asked almost whispering: "What's your last name? ... 'cause I hope we're in the same French class".

Marinette barely suppressed a huge smile: "Dupain-Cheng and yours?" Adrien's eyes lit up: "Agreste". He got up from the desk, stretched his hand to the side inviting Marinette to pass by him towards the exit of the room. Marinette's eyes winded: "You're from France, too?". Adrien nodded and shifted his weight on the other foot as if uncomfortable and touching his pulled up hair. Marinette puffed, rolled her eyes and spoke in French: "Thank fuck I'm not the only one who will have to suffer through useless French lessons". Now it was Adrien's turn to widen his eyes and, for the first time in a long time, the corner of his mouth twitched in an adorable way that made Marinette's heart skip a beat.

She thought to herself "He's going to be the death of me" . Regaining her aloof attitude, she straightened her back and by-passed Adrien heading for the school's exit. After a few steps she turned around, noticing that he wasn't following. "Coming?" Marinette raised an eyebrow and Adrien grabbed hold of the strap of his backpack, hoisted it up on one shoulder and walked towards her while thinking: "She's going to be the death of me!"