Fictober Day 31 - I’ve Waited So Long For This
Here we are. The final Fictober... six months overdue. By sheer cosmic irony, it is fluffy Adrienette during Adrinette April.
“I’ve waited so long for this!” Adrien was practically vibrating with excitement as they waited in line for the movie.
“Yeah…” Marinette replied dreamily as she stared at him, “Me too.”
Adrien looked back at her with a confused, but pleased smile that made her heart flutter. “I didn’t realize you were a fan too. If I’d known, I would’ve talked to you more about it! Nino’s great and all, but he doesn’t watch it, so any conversation I’d have with him about it would be completely one sided. You know?”
“Um, y-yeah. Definitely.”
While she wasn’t completely in the dark about this movie franchise, she also wasn’t prepared for his adorably enthusiastic gushing about it. While he was trying to be considerate by involving her in the conversation, she didn’t know enough to keep up the discussion. Even completely lost as she was, at least it was cute to watch him get animated as he talked about something he loved. It almost came as a relief when they reached the tickets stand, Adrien’s attention shifting to pay for their seats.
Her heart didn’t get to enjoy the brief respite since immediately after he had the tickets in hand, his other hand reached for hers.
“C’mon, Marinette! We still have time, let’s get some snacks for the movie!” They reached the concession booth and in his excitement for food, he completely forgot to let go of her. Not that she was going to remind him. “What do you want?”
“Shouldn’t I pay? You already got our tickets. I don’t want to-”
He smiled down softly at her. “It’s no problem at all, trust me. Get whatever you want.” He gave an over exaggerated wink as he whispered to not be overheard by the people around them, “Modelling pays pretty well after all.”
Normally, she’d put her foot down on this, but between him being so enthusiastic about it and him being Adrien she found it hard to muster up that kind of will power, especially since she was too busy being a puddle of goo since he was still holding onto her hand. After she ordered a few snacks, Adrien got them far too much for popcorn and drinks, and they headed in to find their seats. It was still fairly early, so there was only a few other people in the theater. Even so, most of the good seats had been bought in advance and they were stuck towards the back. He didn’t seem to mind, though.
Adrien watched her struggle to find places to set down their snacks. “Sorry about that. I guess I went a little overboard.”
“Wha- Oh! You’re perfect. I mean! It’s fine. This is fine. Everything is a-okay!” She buried her face in her hands and groaned. He smiled indulgently as she only barely stopped herself from babbling.
A long moment of silence passed, one in which Marinette was angrily berating herself for not being better composed. They were only going to a movie. Together. And then going to a restaurant. Together. She sighed. Saving Paris was easy compared to this.
“It sucks Alya and Nino had to cancel at the last minute. I hope they’re both okay - whatever they had sounded pretty serious.” Marinette only barely resisted rolling her eyes, perfectly aware that Alya was the picture of health. No doubt this was another plot that Marinette had not signed up for.
“Listen… Marinette?” There was something strangely earnest and vulnerable in his voice that stilled her thoughts and drew her attention back to him. “I know you aren’t super comfortable around me, but I really hope you’ll have fun today. I can get pretty excitable sometimes and I realize that can get annoying, so just let me know if I get to be a little much and I’ll tone it down, alright?”
“Adrien, who told you that you get annoying?” It was hard to imagine anyone seeing this bubbly boy as anything but precious, let alone get irritated by it.
“Well, father snaps at me when I bring these kinds of things up and everyone else just sorta tends to ignore me when I do, so…”
She reached out and gripped his shoulder. “You are not annoying, Adrien. Sure, this stuff isn’t exactly what I’m interested in, but I love you and your passion for it no offense or anything but I don’t normally see you get this fired up for much although maybe that’s because we don’t hang out a lot outside of school and I uh…” She realized that she had started rambling again and finished lamely, “I’m, uh, I’m just happy to see you happy.”
Glancing over at him, he had a wide eyed expression and his mouth was agape. Before she could go back over what she said to find out what had that effect on him, he said, “You… love me?”
“Um...” Admit it and risk everything, or lie and retreat to safer ground? Panicking, she defaulted to instinct. “...Yes. I may have had a crush on you since you gave me your umbrella.”
“I… wow. I didn’t think you of all people would.”
“...What do you mean by that?” She was suspicious, slightly uncertain about where this conversation was going.
“You’re Marinette! Class representative, Ultimate Mecha Strike III champion, an excellent baker, our everyday Ladybug! The beautiful, amazing Marinette Dupain-Cheng!” His energy left him and he slumped against his seat. “I’m just… me. Most of my worth comes from my last name. I’m just so… lame compared to you.”
Surprise evaporated in the face of blazing anger. She did not spend the last year obsessing over this boy for him to call himself lame. “Now you listen here…” He shrunk from her as she got on her knees in her seat to lean over him in an angry whisper - she was pissed, but not inconsiderate of the people still filing into the theater. “You are the kindest, the sweetest boy that I have ever met! That’s why it took until the umbrella for me to fall for you - I’d shown you nothing but disdain and you still kept reaching out to be my friend. It was in that moment I realized I wanted to be much more than friends-” She covered her own mouth and fell back. “Can you… maybe forget that I said that last part?”
Grinning, he grabbed on her hands and kissed the back of it, looking in locking eyes with his emerald stare all the while. “Not a chance.”
