22: Awkward

"Ma..."

"Mar...."

"Mariiinn..."

"MARINETTE!"

Alya finally raised her voice that made Mari yelp and stand up really quick responding with "Cookies!" which wasn't the appropriate response for the conversation.

Alya, Nino and Adrien stared at her weirded out by how she responded. Their group was assigned to cleanup all the used and unused laboratory equipment after class because Mari clumsily spilled the liquid earlier which got Miss Mendeleiev fuming and punished their group as a consequence.

"Uh..girl? I was asking you to get me the test tube so I could clean it." Alya said pulling her down to her chair.

"Oh." Mari shyly giggled getting the test tube from her side of the table and handing it to Alya. "There you go, Alya."

"Thanks..."

Mari covered her face, "I'm really sorry. This is all my fault. If I hadn't spilled the whole tray of Iodine for the class, we wouldn't be in this situation." she whimpered.

"It's really okay girl, spending time like this is like hanging out" giggled Alya but with a worried look on her face, "More importantly.."

"Are you okay, Marinette?" Adrien's voice startled her.

"Yeah dude, you've been out of it today." Nino added putting away the alcohol lamps.

All three had worried looks on their faces.

"Ahahaha, sorry," she let out a little laugh, awkwardly smiling, "I didn't sleep last night so I'm kind of in a constant daze right now."

"You didn't sleep?" Alya complained, "I thought you said you can finally be able to sleep properly?"

"Well yeah but.." Marinette had to come up with an alibi, "You see, I have this other project coming up different from the one I did last time."

"What other than making portfolios is Dupain-Cheng signed up for then?" Alya said folding her arms.

Mari knew Alya wouldn't let this slide. She's a very tedious information collector after all. The songwriting is supposed to be a secret but then she doesn't have a choice since she's just too bad at making up things on her own.

"Truth is..I'm working on some lyrics.." she replied shyly.

"Are you writing a song?" said Adrien who was cleaning the beaker.

Mari nods blushing.

"Woah, I never knew you were into music too." said Nino standing up and playing an imaginary guitar.

"Well, it's not a surprise since she once worked with Jagged Stone for his album cover," said Alya wiping the rest of the glass equipment, "Wow, to think Jagged would entrust you with his lyrics."

"Actually...it's not him."

"What?" all three exclaimed.

But before Marinette could tell them who it was, there was a knock on the door which made them turn around.

"Hey.." greeted the person on the door.

"Luka! Come on in. We were just cleaning up some...things." Alya invited and Luka came walking in.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have band practice?" Marinette glanced up to him (the girl was sitting on a high chair).

"I heard from Julieka that you guys got in trouble in lab earlier so I decided to drop by."

Marinette slumps down, "Ah..that would be my fault."

Luka chuckles, "I figured it was you who caused it."

"Hey! Are you telling me I'm clumsy?" she pouted.

"Aren't you?" all four of them replied in monotone. Mari felt defeated.

"That was uncalled for Luka." she frowned.

"Haha sorry. You're just too cute." he said tapping her shoulder.

The term 'cute' perked up Nino and Alya who exchanged surprised glances.

"You two sure look chummy." commented Nino at Mari and Luka which made Adrien flinch.

Mari felt her face burn up, "W-W-W-W-What are you saying Nino? This is the normal us!"

"Ohoh~ For Marinette to stutter at someone other than Adrien.." Alya playfully remarked.

Mari nervously glanced at Adrien who looked shock but continued to wipe on beakers, "Alya!" exclaimed Mari who was already on her feet.

Luka laughs, "Don't read too much into it you guys. I'm just here to visit my lyricist." he said putting his arm around her startling Marinette.

Adrien glanced over to them, "Lyricist?"

"Yeah," he grinned and poked Mari's cheek saying, "This smart girl over here agreed on helping me make the lyrics for my new song that is going to debut on the Mayor's ball."

"There's gonna be a ball?!" exclaimed Alya.

Luka nods, "Which brings me.." he pulled away and faced Marinette.

"What is it Luka?" blinked Mari.

"Originally it was meant for the harvest but the Mayor tweaked it a little bit. The schedule for the ball has been decided."

Mari gasps, "When?"

"On the next full moon."

"That's like three weeks from now." Alya said showing her phone calendar.

"THREE WEEKS?" Mari immediately turned to Luka, "Will we make it?"

"Don't worry. We have enough time to make the lyrics. I'll pick you up tomorrow afternoon so we could hear those lyrics you've made so far." he winks.

Mari flinches, "Y-You heard that much?"

Luka grins and pats her head, "I'll leave now. I have some errands to run. I'll see you tomorrow?"

She felt her heart melt with his smile, "Mmkay." she replied with a small voice and Luka waves to the rest of them leaving the room.

Marinette was in a daze. Her cheeks flushed in rose feeling embarrassed but happy that Luka showed up saving her. At least her alibi didn't sound like a lie.

"Oh Marinette~" hummed Alya teasing her best friend who looked extremely bashful after Luka's advances.

"W-What?" Mari stammers.

"You didn't tell me you've been spending time with Luka lately, hmmmm?"

Mari sighs, "You're reading too much in it. Like what Luka said, I'm his lyricist and that's all to that." she replied putting away the cleaned test tubes.

"But isn't he courting you?" asked Adrien that made her turn to him. The look on Adrien's face piercing her. Alya and Nino froze in shock. Marinette couldn't respond.

Alya runs up to her, clinging and shaking her, "What? How? TELL ME ALL THE DETAILS!"

Mari couldn't shake off her persistent best friend. She knew that if Alya knew of Luka's confession, she'd flip out and squeeze her dry with the details. "Alya, we have to finish cleaning up first haha.." she tried to laugh it out but even her laugh sounded awkward.

Alya knew Mari was trying to escape, but she's not letting her go this time, "I believe all that's left is to put all the equipment away. The boys can handle that."

Nino suddenly stepped up protesting, "Hey that's unfair there's still some bottles that needs cleaning and―"

"THE BOYS CAN HANDLE THAT." Alya hissed looking like an angry serpent in Nino's eyes.

Nino's thoughts: Isn't she supposed to be a fox? ( ;∀;)

And without further prying into his girlfriend's business, Alya pulls Marinette out of the room as Mari yells "I'll be back!"

The two girls disappeared and Nino was left with a silent Adrien busy wiping the petri dishes.

Nino whistled a little then decided to nudge Adrien on the side making him trip over a little.

Adrien chuckles on his best friend's sudden interaction, "What is it, Nino?"

"Oh nothin'. You were comically too serious so I thought you turned into a statue or something."

"Would a statue be cleaning lab equipment?" he laughs.

Nino shrugs, "Guess not." and the two of them laughed at each other. Adrien's inner turmoil finally calmed down.

"I was losing my composure." Adrien blurted out which made Nino look at him.

"You were?"

Adrien scoffs at himself, "I don't even know why I'm feeling this way. The way how affectionately Luka looked at Marinette earlier made me feel uneasy. It was like my best friend was being taken away right before me."

Nino hums to himself, but he wanted to test something out. He felt like it was high time he helped him fix the tangled red thread and Alya might just praise him for it.

"Are you sure it was your best friend?" he mumbles.

(A/N: YES NINO!!! ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS (･ัω･ั) )

Adrien's hands stopped moving. He turned to Nino thinking it was just one of Nino's random banters, but Nino was looking straight at him.

"The way I'm hearing it is, you got scared that Luka would take away Marinette from you and it's not even in the context of friendship anymore."

"What do you mean?"

Nino breathes, "Okay let's put it this way. You say Marinette is a very good friend, right?"

"Uhuh." Adrien nods.

"You knew Luka's intention of courting her."

"Okay?"

"Do you like it when Luka's making moves on her?

"...."

Adrien didn't reply so Nino had to change the approach.

"Okay, you're very good friends with Chloe right?"

"Yeah! More than very good friends. We've been childhood friends." Adrien cheered.

Nino nods, "Nice. Okay so, how would you feel if a guy courts your very good friend Chloe?"

Adrien then gets deep in thought, "I'd want to know who the guy is but I would definitely support whatever Chloe decides on."

Nino grins, "Then think about this, you already know who Luka is and you've known for a while now that he's such a good person. But if that's the case, why do you feel like you don't want Marinette to get together with him?"

Adrien looked stunned. Speechless and dumbfounded at the same time.

(A/N: Checkmate!)

"But I'm with Kagami!" he exclaimed.

"Then how would you feel if Kagami gets taken away from you?" Nino said crossing his arms.

Adrien fell silent. He knew he should say that he'll feel really bad, but that didn't sound right. The more he tried to look for words to show Nino how much of a protective boyfriend he is, it just didn't click. If he were to accurately describe how he felt towards that thought, he'd say "I respect her decision." without any feeling of regret or resentment to whoever will take her from him.

And that's when Adrien knew he screwed up.