Chapter Text
“ Don’t let the silence scare you. Silence can be beautiful. Let the longer days and longer nights melt plastic candy waterfalls. Paper sky peels off the walls.” - Pauline, Darling Violetta
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By the time she sends the video out and her friends leave, Marinette is downstairs in the kitchen waiting for dinner, humming Kitty Section’s new song as she walks over to the table.
“You’ve sure been in a good mood for the past two weeks,” Sabine comments, as she places all of the tableware down, “I’m guessing things have been working out well with your friends?”
“Oh, yeah!” she exclaims, “Everyone loved their costumes and the video came out great! And I’m headed over there tomorrow again to hear them work on a new song!” She hums a little bit again, “Maybe I’ll design an album cover too while I’m at it…”
“I’m sure your friends would love that,” Sabine says, kissing her forehead, “You know, we’ve noticed that you haven’t been as stressed out lately.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for a couple of weeks, you’ve been dragging yourself around trying to get so much done and looking pretty upset about it,” she comments, “I even noticed you redecorated your room a bit too, after that show with Jagged.”
It suddenly clicks in her mind just what her mom is getting at.
Following the incident with Troublemaker, Marinette started removing posters of Adrien off her walls as possible. He thankfully took the sight of them in good faith, but it still left her feeling anxious and weird for the amount of them.
When the members of Kitty Section planned to come over to Marinette’s house to see the video sent off, Marinette wasted no time in hiding what was left of her Adrien collection. Juleka and Rose knew about it, but she didn’t want to share that with Luka and Ivan, even if they knew of it by now. She stored what was left of the photos in a box that she kept under her bed, locked up in a similar way to her diary. The schedule was thoroughly shredded, and she changed her screensaver to a selfie with the band members in their costumes.
But besides that, she had been so busy for the past two weeks, planning out the costumes, recording and editing the video, hanging out with the band, and being distracted by Luka, something entirely slipped her mind.
She hadn’t thought of Adrien at all.
Not while they were at school. Not when Lila, Kagami and Chloe made clear attempts of trying to get his attention. Not even when Nino and Alya attempted to make plans to hang out with him, and he even seemed to entertain the notion of being able to follow through with those plans.
All Marinette could think about during that time was finishing her costumes, having them fitted and having the band perform their song. Not to mention filming and editing the video in time for the deadline.
Smaller things too occupied her headspace. Jokes made by Rose that summoned some chuckles from Ivan and Juleka. Juleka and Luka “fighting” over who was better at Guitar Hero. Ivan taking extra time to model and pose with his new costume, just to show it off to Mylene.
Little glances and touches shared between her and Luka. She flushes at the thought.
She wouldn’t say that her crush on Adrien was completely gone. Daydreams of finally confessing her feelings and going on a date with him still had a place in her heart. And there were times where their hands accidentally brushed against each other where she blushed and stammered in response.
But following the Chameleon incident, Marinette felt herself drifting. The advice Adrien gave her she followed through and didn’t think about at the time, but now she was starting to have doubts. After offering to sit with her in the back, only for it to fall through, he didn’t really reach out to her again considering the matter. As far as he knew, it was a one time thing.
There was one saving grace. After her last confrontation with Lila, it seemed that Juleka, Rose and Ivan all caught wind of what happened, and actually apologized for what happened. To make up for what she went through that day, they invited her to listen in on Kitty Section’s jam session down at the houseboat. Of course, Luka was there and able to tell there was something on her mind, so everyone was able to vent and get all of their feelings across to one another.
After their group chat, everyone else picked up their instruments as she sat there and did some free sketching for new designs. She tried to think of concepts for album artwork, based off the songs they were playing. Most of them involved cutsey, cartoon cats, but she was eventually able to settle on one that she liked. She hid it away in the back of her notebook though,only to reveal it at an optimal time.
Following dinner, she goes back up to her room, noting her mom’s comments on it being cleaner. At first, she just planned to put everything Adrien related back up once Kitty Section left. Even the original file for her Adrien screensaver was still saved on her computer. But the more she thought about it, the more right it felt for her room to be Adrien free. Granted, he was still present in some class photos and some of her fashion references, but he easily faded away into the background.
Perhaps she’d leave it alone for just a day. Just to see how she felt.
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She’s on cloud nine walking home from the TV Station. The performance Kitty Section put on was absolutely wonderful, and they were getting all sorts of good press and attention online. Bob Roth kept pushing and pushing for them to sign a contract, but they all agreed to have their parents and a lawyer look it over before signing with the label. Not to mention, Rose and Juleka both really liked Marinette’s suggestion for a potential album cover.
A blush appears on her cheeks as she recalls what happened prior to the performance.
“ Because you’re an extraordinary girl, Marinette. Clear as a music note, sincere as a melody, you’re the song I’ve heard in my head ever since we’ve met.”
The glow from the stage lights and his soft smile as he spoke were still clear images permeating the front of her mind. The fact that he hadn’t said it once but twice left her astonished. And the way he didn’t force an answer out of her left her relieved.
Because she remembered the last time she got a love confession, and all the drama that stemmed from it. How she survived the Glaciator and Frozer encounters was a mystery to her, considering Chat prioritized his feelings over their mission. He never even properly apologized to her, now that she thinks about it.
But she won’t dwell on that, at least not for today. For now, she takes out her diary and records the day’s events, even drawing lots of smiley faces and hearts next to her description of Luka’s confession. In fact, she gets so distracted by the doodles, she pauses mid-sentence every so often and forgets to finish writing.
The only thing she’s worries about is the fact that she didn’t give him an answer. It happened just before he performed, and after leaving the TV studio, he didn’t say anything about it. He still walked her home, and asked if they could hang out the next day, to which she said yes. But were they just hanging out or was it a date?
She lets out a little sigh. It’s going to be okay , she assures herself. All she has to do is talk with him about it. If the past few weeks taught her anything, it was that she could bring up almost anything important with Luka and not have to worry about it. He’d give her a straightforward, honest answer and wouldn’t leave her hanging. He wouldn’t put words in her mouth and let her speak honestly in return.
For now, all she needs to do is sort out her own feelings and decide what she wants to do going forward.