14: Can we stay like this?

"THE GUARDIAN BOOK!" Tikki and Plagg gasped.

A groan suddenly echoed in the classroom. The two tiny kwamis gasped to see Adrien squirming from his sleep.

"He's about to wake up!" Plagg whispered.

"HIDE!" Tikki flew and disappeared into Marinette's side pouch. Plagg did the same but into his master's bag.

Adrien squirmed for a little bit then slowly opened his eyes. He feels so refreshed now that he's slept enough for a month's worth of exhaustion. The moment he was completely awake, the emptiness of the classroom shocked him. He then realized it was club period and that he'd probably have been asleep since class time. He scratched his head imagining how Nino has probably been waking him up and gave up.

"I should text Nino."

When Adrien was about to bend down to reach his bag, he caught a glimpse of a girl behind him sleeping soundly.

"Marinette?" he whispered, surprised of the coincidence this day has brought them both. "She's out cold huh..?" Out like a light.

His idea of texting Nino turned 360° the minute he saw Marinette. Adrien felt an unusual excitement seeing her sleeping face. It wasn't the first time he saw her sleeping (A/N: referring to Startrain episode) and yet he feels somewhat victorious seeing this side of hers without anybody else looking at her.

"Marinette.." he gently shook her, "Mari...school's over."

She wasn't waking up. He was not an expert at waking people up. More often than not, he's the one being woken up at home.

He decides to go near her left ear that was on the open side of the napping girl. He carefully scooted over hovering on the poor Marinette.

"Mari..wake up."

The girl jolted from her seat hitting Adrien's chin causing him to slip from his balance and topple over.

"Urgh..." moaned Marinette who was pinned down to the cold floor. She then notices that her body had become heavier. She tries to sit up but failed to do so.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to.." Adrien rambled but stopped the moment his eyes met hers staring at each other. Marinette was at loss. She did wonder why her body had become so heavy, but was more confused seeing Adrien on top of her. The two turned red as they fall into a deep silence gawking at each other.

"A-A-A-A-A-A..." she can't even say his name, "What are you doing here?"

Adrien got back to his senses the moment he heard her stuttering. He let out a small laugh pulling her up from their awkward position, "That stutter sounded like a woodpecker."

"Really?" Marinette got even more embarrassed, "It's just that fancy meeting you here when I was.."

"Me too." he grinned, "I was napping too when all our classmates left."

Mari gasped, "Oh no! Alya!" she finally remembered what she was supposed to do. She quickly grabbed her bag rummaging to check if she had all her things inside fixing everything that was in disarray. "Sorry Adrien, I have to go."

Adrien made a cute offended face.

"What's that look for?" she giggled.

"It's the look of your friend who is thinking of wanting to spend more time with you but then he thinks she'd rather walk away and keep her distance." his voice quivered.

Marinette's heart sunk. She never expected Adrien to act spoiled. Maybe she could see it if she was the girlfriend. She caught herself daydreaming in the middle conversation.

"Adrien, you should really be doing that to Kagami, not me." she smiled sheepishly.

He sighs, "Why is it that whenever I try to express something to you, you'd think that I'd rather show it to Kagami and not you?"

They fell silent.

"Adrien, you know I respect Kagami so much and I respect you," sadness filled her eyes, "But I don't want to get in your way."

"And yet your eyes say differently of what your mouth says." he said brushing her cheek with the back of his hand.

Marinette was in shock. He's treating her so gently, something he should be doing to a girl he loves. To his girl, Kagami. And yet she felt that his touch was right where it belonged. She wanted him. Mari knew spending time with Luka was amazing, but nothing beats the presence of the one you love.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

"Marinette??" he sounded alarmed.

Mari quickly checked the heat that fleeted on to her skin and realized that she was overflowing. She immediately turned around covering her face desperately trying to hide her sob.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what has gotten into me. Must've been that soap opera I watched the other day." she managed to let out a laugh. "You shouldn't be that gentle to me Adrien, people might get the wrong idea. I know you've been trying to make good friends and truly you're achieving that. It's really amazing how you've progressed in such a short span of time. I really look up to you."

Marinette rambled uncontrollably. He knew she was trying so hard to cover up her tears by letting out random chatter. Her voice was shaking, he could hear it despite her back turned against him. He couldn't hear anything. The world suddenly turned into a black and white movie. It was moving but in such a slow pace. Then it spinned with a splash of color bouncing off like a ray of light at Marinette's back. The next thing he knew, he already has his arms wrapped around the girl's shoulders.

"Adrien?" she said softly.

"Can we stay like this for a while? Please?" he whispered.

Marinette strongly resisted her thoughts. She filled her mind with how Adrien must've been tired and needed some assistance with his balance. She nodded. Her honest feelings slipping out as she let the boy rest his head on her shoulder.

The world moved slowly. Slower than their slow dance back at Chloe's party. The sounds started wobbling on the background then into a fade. The scene didn't play. It was just the two of them in their own world. All she could hear was Adrien's soft breathing and her heart that's about to jump out of her chest.

The moment Adrien felt a lot better, he decided to offer a Marinette to walk her home. Expecting he'd be receiving another rejection, he was surprised of Marinette's approval to the idea.

"Are you sure you'll be fine walking me home?" she said as they walked down the stairs.

"It'll be fine. I'll just tell my driver I'm walking you across the street."

Marinette giggled, "It'll probably be stupid if you'd send me home by car." they burst out laughing.

"And look at those two go." Alya whistled to herself as she pulled Nino to watch by the bench.

"Are we seriously just gonna spy at them?" Nino complained.

"Of course! We are not going to ruin that good atmosphere. You see how I do things? LEARN."

Alya watched the pair walk across the court then to the school gate. As soon as they disappeared, he pulls Nino to her direction to follow them. Just when they're about to reach the gate, Lila jumps in blocking Alya.

"Hi, Alya!" She said innocently.

"Hey, Lila!"

"Sup Lila!" Nino greeted as well.

"What you guys been up to?" she said observing how Alya's been jumpy looking around the corner.

"Oh nothing...just looking for pigeons." she laughed uncomfortably, "Well then we gotta go, Lila. Bye!"

"Bye!" Nino ran after Alya who escaped to the other side.

Lila fakely grinned to the leaving pair.

She then carefully glanced at the direction Alya was looking at. She gasped, and immediately hid behind a pillar.

"Adrien walking Marinette home?" her eyes gleamed as an idea came to mind, "Interesting."