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Marinette sunk down lower in her seat and heaved a sigh. Her luck was running out, only resurfacing in unnecessary moments such as this one. She had just gotten on the stockpiled bus when someone had got up, next to where she was standing. It wasn’t much, but at least it wasn’t completely gone. Marinette sighed again, whipping out her phone to distract her from the six essays she had due within the next two weeks.Connecting her headphones to her phone, she pulled up her ‘favorites’ playlist, a playlist that she had dedicated to her favorite songs only. The sad songs, the happy ones, the love songs, the songs about heartbreak and the songs with the fondest memories. Marinette smiles fondly when she hears the opening chords of ‘I’ll Be’ ringing in her ears and lets the music distract her, tension leaving her body.
‘… The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful, stop me and steal my breath…’
A buzz. Marinette ignores it and sinks down lower, focusing solely on the melody playing in her earphones.
‘… I’ll be captivated…’
Another buzz. What could possibly be that important?‘…I’ll hang from your lips …’More buzzing. Marinette sighs, bitter at being snapped out of her self-indulgent music session. It’s one of her favorite songs! What could anyone possibly have to say that could be important enough to warrant an interruption in the middle of Edwin McCain’s romantic crooning? Nothing, that’s what.
‘… and I’ll be your crying shoulder…’
Marinette closes her eyes in contentment and decides that whoever is texting her can wait a little longer.
‘… I’ll be better when I’m older…’
Another buzz.Oh, for the love of! Marinette sits up straight and curses the gods halfway to hell for interrupting her once again. She checks her phone, 10 messages! Forget double texting, this was a whole new level of annoying. Scowling at her phone, Marinette checks it again, intent on figuring out just whose ass she would have to beat into the next century for this.Alya. Of course. The only person on the planet who could manage to send 10 texts in under a minute. And they keep coming.Steeling herself, Marinette scrolls to the top and starts to read, actively ignoring the new messages ticking in at the bottom of the chat.
AlyaBug (Alya):
- Mari omg have you heard?!?!?!?!- !!!!- Mari holy shit- Marinette?- Mari for chist’s sake answer your damn phone- Gossip’s in the air, girl- And guess what?!!!- Alright I’m just to damn excited so I’m going to say it- Drumroll please- Adrien’s back in town!!!!- Mari?- Hello?- GIRL GET YOUR LAZY ASS IN THE CHAT AND READ MY GOSPEL- ADRIEN’S BACK- OUR PRECIOUS SUNSHINE CHILD AND FAVORITE AGRESTE SNACK IS BACKWhat? Alya’s statement sends Marinette reeling and suddenly the world around her seems to stop moving, sounds become muted and she doesn’t really know what to think. Once, she would have been excited to see her childhood crush again, but that was then, now she just gets kind of numb on the inside. Feelings like that are bound to surface when you crush dubs you ‘just a friend’. But it was for the best. Honestly. She needed to move on in her life, and while she still stares a little longer at his pictures than necessary, she has moved on.After that, the four of them became inseparable, doing everything together. And while it would be nice to reconnect with Adrien and form the gang again, what would this mean for her? Would she fall for him all over again? Would their relationship be strained after all this time?
AlyaBug (Alya):
- Mari?- I see you, girl, reply goddamnit.
GoldenGirl (Marinette):
- Yeah, yeah, I’m here- That’s great Al, we can get the gang back together.
AlyaBug (Alya):
- Maybe go on some double dates ;)- Just me and Nino, you and Adrien
GoldenGirl (Marinette):
- Alya!!- He barely gets back and you’re already going full Alya on him- Besides, you know it’s not like that
AlyaBug (Alya):
- But I know you wish it were
GoldenGirl (Marinette):
- Alya, that ended a long time ago…- He rejected me, remember?Marinette sighs as she restarts her music, closing her eyes and trying to chase the nagging worry that Adrien being back is going to cause her trouble.She closes her eyes, so intent on letting the music completely consume her this time that she didn’t notice Alya’s reply.
AlyaBug (Alya):
- I know it hurt when he rejected you, but that shouldn’t ruin your chances of friendship with him.- Just think about it.- Not the double dates but getting the gang back together. -o- 10 songs later Marinette decides that it’s time to snap out of it and start being productive. And by productive she means scrolling through Tumblr, answering asks and chatting with mutuals. Her blog, ‘LadyLuck’, where she posted and reblogged fashion designs and drawings, memes, vines, fandom posts, nature posts and just generally anything she saw that she liked, had gained a lot of followers within the last two months.Tumblr and music were the perfect distractions from Alya’s news. Marinette didn’t know how to feel now that Adrien was back, so she (naturally) decided to drown out her thoughts and leave them for future Marinette to deal with. He was running from his father. Which was a bad idea, and he knew that. But he did it anyway. He also knew that he would get in trouble for this. That would be a problem for future Adrien. Future Adrien would hate him, but right now that didn’t matter.Just as he rounds the corner where he remembers the bus stop lies, the bus arrives. Perfect timing, he thinks, stepping on to the bus. Pulling his hat down to further hide his face, he walks further into the bus and makes eye contact with someone. She looked surprised, her clear bluebell eyes widening. The finger toying with her raven hair stilled and she kept staring. He kept staring too, intrigued by those stunning eyes that gave him a severe feeling of déjà vu.Where had he seen those eyes before? How could he have forgotten eyes that sparkled in such a way and pulled him deeper by the second as if he was bound to them. Bound to her. Bound by destiny.How could he not remember where he had seen that smile before? The one that was playing on her lips before their eyes met. How could he have forgotten who had brought him the sense of security, of home, that he was now feeling again? How-The bus lurched, making a passenger stumble into him, and the moment was broken. She looks back down at her phone, smiling lightly at what she sees behind her scarf. He starts walking, instantly missing the warmth of their magical moment and the fragments of memories that roiled around in his mind at the sight of her. Her eyes, her lips, her hair. They all seemed so familiar, yet he couldn’t place how.Taking one last glance at her, he sits down on the empty seat behind her. He doesn’t know why, but his eyes keep landing on her. He’s in the middle of untangling his pesky headphones when he sees that she’s on Tumblr. He sees her scroll and stop on a text post, chuckling to herself at the contents. He sees her reblog the post, sees her get a message and sees her reply, going back to scrolling through the dashboard.He knows it’s wrong, but he keeps looking anyway, trying to learn more about the girl that made him feel something he hasn’t felt since before his mother disappeared. He leans closer, trying to get a look at what she’s looking at, and what he discovers stuns him momentarily. She reads the same kind of posts that he would, laughs at the same things he would, reblogs the same things that he does. Why, their blogs might be nearly identical.I need to find her. The thought came out of nowhere, but the longer he thinks about, the more he becomes convinced of what he must do. He leans closer, hoping to get a glimpse of her username, but she just keeps scrolling, painfully unaware of the guy hanging on her every move.He knew that his luck was tremendously bad, but this? This was overdoing it. In a span of 5 minutes, he didn’t get one good look at her username. Finally, he gets a glimpse, though he has to squint to see the abnormally small letters. But it’s there.He almost drops his phone three times trying to get it out of his pocket. He scrambles to get the app open, mentally repeating her username over and over. Heart beating a mile a minute, he types in the username, and there it is. Top of the list, staring him in the face: ‘LadyLuck’. He presses it hesitantly, suddenly not sure whether it’s a good idea. Shaking his uncertainty, he presses the follow button and looks up to see her reaction.When the notification appears on the bottom of her screen, she presses it out of pure instinct, not paying attention to what her fingers are doing. The page loads, and either he is really impatient, or the internet is shit. Or maybe it’s a bit of both. Definitely both. Her body stiffens and he knows that she’s seen it now, but he can’t tell whether her reaction is good or bad.He sees her press on his account and scroll for a while before going up and hesitating before pressing the follow button. His grin grows wide enough to split his face in half when he hears her scoff. Probably at his bio: ‘Black cats are lucky, fight me :)’. Much to his dismay, she clicked out of his account and continued scrolling.That wouldn’t do. That wouldn’t do at all. He reaches towards his phone and types out his best line.It takes three tries before he’s really satisfied with what he’s typing. But third time’s the charm, as they say. He leans back in his seat with a smirk, the game had begun. When Marinette had gotten a follow notification from someone calling themselves ‘ChatNoir’, she must admit that she hadn’t been expecting much. If she was being completely honest, she hadn’t expected anything at all. The account was probably a pornbot. After all, the 2018 Tumblr purge meant half the accounts on Tumblr were pornbots.But here she was, checking it anyway. And boy, this was not what she expected. This wasn’t a pornbot. No, not at all. This was an account weirdly similar to her own. Like, insanely similar. They had the same humor, reblogged the same things – just different fandoms.She scrolled up to exit, happy to have an actual person following her, when she saw his bio. She chuckled, and pressed the follow button, deciding to give this stranger the benefit of the doubt. She then exited and continued to scroll down her dashboard, expecting that to be the end of it.She was wrong. She was very wrong, and she realized that when a message appeared from the same account. Curious, she clicked on it. And rolled her eyes into the next century.
ChatNoir:
- Did you know black cats mean bad luck? I guess I’m pretty lucky I found you then, so I can steal some of your luck. ;)
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
For the second time within five minutes Marinette realized that she was wrong. She should never have given this guy (girl? Person?) the benefit of the doubt. Because seriously? A pick-up line? Are you serious? Who even uses those anymore? This person, apparently.The next song starts, and she’s reminded that she is still playing music. She closes her eyes for a little while, reveling in the music and makes a decision. So, when the chorus of ‘Sweater Weather’ starts, she opens her phone and begins drafting a response for ‘ChatNoir’. Two can play that game,she thinks.With another eye-roll, she sends her message and leans back in her seat to wait, incredibly pleased with herself.
LadyLuck:
- Sorry kitty, I only share my luck with special people.Again, she loses herself in the music, but it doesn’t take long for his reply to disrupt her.
ChatNoir:
- Meouch! You wound me, Princess!- I will have you know that I’m plenty special.Marinette chuckles, stopping briefly to check whether the bus reached her stop yet. It hadn’t, but it wouldn’t be long now. Looking back down at her phone, she types a message and sends it. Unbeknownst to her, and to the guy behind her, this exchange was the start of something much larger than an internet friendship.
LadyLuck:
- Nicknames so fast? Isn’t that, like, second base? I’m pretty sure we’re still at first…- Pfft, yeah. I’m sure you’re very special.
ChatNoir:
- Technically you were the first to use a nickname, I was just following your excellent example.- Besides, isn’t talking about bases third base?- I’m going to ignore the last comment and chalk it up to the fact that you don’t know me.- Because I’m generous like that.
LadyLuck:
- God, I’m so done with people who talk about bases like they believe in them.- Generous huh? Generous enough to tell me why you felt like contacting me?
ChatNoir:
- Well…- I hate to say it, but you’re the one who started the talk about bases (again)
LadyLuck:
- Shhh…- And don’t think I didn’t notice that you avoided the question- Get to it! Chop chop!
ChatNoir:
- You can’t run from it, Princess!- Alright, alright, I surrender!- Because I sensed your incredible friendliness from far away and decided to try to see if I could make a new friend.
LadyLuck:
- Do I detect sarcasm?
ChatNoir:
- Not at all- (a bucketful)
LadyLuck:
- Yeah, I thought I sensed a bit
ChatNoir:
- Just a little bit ;)Marinette smiles, and realizes that they’ve been talking for a long time. She jerks her head up, looking out the window to check whether the bus passed her stop or not. A few seconds later, and a few familiar buildings pop into view through the window. She heaves a sigh of relief and starts packing up her things just as a message ticks in.
AlyaBug (Alya):
- Hey girl, when are you going to be home?- We have a lot to discuss- You know, Adrien and stuffMarinette sighs and puts her phone away, deciding to reply as soon as she gets off the bus. But, while she was focused elsewhere, she didn’t notice the frown that the boy behind her donned. Or the two new texts that popped up on her screen.
AlyaBug (Alya):
- You can’t run from it, Mari. You can’t run from him. Not again.
ChatNoir:
- Bugaboo? You there?-o-Stepping out of the bus, the chilly February air envelops her, and she takes a deep breath, letting the air clear her head. Hearing the doors close, and the bus drive down the road behind her, she opens her eyes and starts walking the short distance to her and Alya’s apartment to the next song in her playlist. And with her feet hitting the pavement in time with the beats in ‘Needed Me’, she leaves the busy street and a pouting boy staring out the window of a bus behind.Her phone vibrates in her pocket, and she pulls it out, remembering the messages she told herself that she would answer when she got off the bus. She sees the notification for two new messages in addition to the ones from before. One from Alya, and one from Chat.
ChatNoir:
- Did my sarcasm scare you off? Because I promise I’m not always like that.
AlyaBug (Alya):
- Call me when you’re almost home, ok girl?Marinette heaves a sigh, knowing that Alya means well, but really wishing that she wouldn’t push the subject. Her history with Adrien was… complicated, to say the least, and she knew that Alya wouldn’t let this go. She just wished that this would’ve stayed buried in the past. She was over her ridiculous childhood-pedestal crush on Adrien, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be weird to see him again.Relax, you’ll be fine, she told herself, Alya just wants the gang back together again. And to be honest, so did she. She missed the days of gathering in cafés and joking around when they were supposed to be doing their homework. She missed having a group of people that she knew she could trust explicitly, and just be herself with.But after everything that happened, would things still be the same between them? After everything that had happened over the past few years, how would they fit into each other’s lives now? Yes, they were best friends. Yes, they had been through a lot together, but Marinette couldn’t stand the thought of them having grown apart. Couldn’t stand the thought of them not fitting together like the well-worn puzzle they used to be.She sighs, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath of the fresh air. Breathing out, she opens her eyes with newfound resolve, and starts typing.
GoldenGirl (Marinette):
- Hey Alya- I just got off the bus, I’ll be home in 10-15 mins- We can talk when I get home- But for now, I’m leaving you for my music
AlyaBug (Alya):
- Alright, see you soon
GoldenGirl (Marinette):
- See youShe exits the chat and gets reminded of the other person she needed to text back. Opening up that chat window, she looks over the previous messages and finds herself smiling.
LadyLuck:
- I’m here, you didn’t scare me off- Yeet- Yet** damnit- Bugaboo, huh? Very creative…A reply ticks in almost immediately, and she wonders if he was just waiting by his phone for her reply. She chuckles at his reply and suddenly the worries about Adrien and the group and drifting apart don’t matter.
ChatNoir:
- Well, what can I say? I’m a creative mastermindThe next message that appears on her screen makes her stop and do a double-take. Instead of the joking tone she’d gotten weirdly used to, this message had a whole other tone, a whole other mood to it. This message was soft, serious and exposed a vulnerable part of him.- Glad to hear you’re still there, Bug.She read the message again and again, dumbstruck over how he left himself vulnerable before her, until the opening of a new song snaps her back to reality. Bruno Mars’ silvery voice wakes her from her thoughts, and as he sings ‘Just the Way You Are’, Marinette decides that she must be crazy. She started talking to this person only an hour ago, and yet she still feels like she has known them forever. And that vulnerability that they just showed? That made her feel sick. It made her sick that someone had made this person believe that their sarcasm, of all things, could scare someone away. It made her feel protective, and hell if she wasn’t going to make sure Chat never felt this way again.
LadyLuck:
- Of course, I’m still here- I don’t scare that easily- You’re going to have to do more than that to scare me off :)
ChatNoir:
- Oh, is that true, Bugaboo?
LadyLuck:
- You bet- You can’t get rid of me now, Kitty
ChatNoir:
- Wouldn't have it any other way- Guess you’re stuck with me forever then, Bug
LadyLuck:
- I wouldn’t have it any other way ;)
ChatNoir:
- Aw, Bugaboo, you flatter me.
LadyLuck:
- Don’t let it get to your head, Kitty
ChatNoir:
- I wouldn’t dream of it, My Lady ;)Marinette chuckled, a warm feeling spreading through her chest. The next song in her playlist started, and ‘Budapest’ rang through her headphones, making her smile fondly at the memories that surfaced. She smiled as she saw Alya smile and drag her onstage, Nino and Adrien smiling up at the two girls as they sang and danced their way through ‘Budapest’. She chuckled as she remembered her and Alya acting their way through the song, dancing animatedly and singing to each other and the boys. The rush that came with singing at the karaoke bar and Nino’s blushed face when Alya had winked and blown him a kiss at the end of the song.Sending a quick reply to Chat, she turns off her phone and loses herself in the song, and the next, and the next, while making her way home.
LadyLuck:
- Sure, you wouldn’t, Kitty Cat ;)-o-She shot Alya a quick text saying she was outside and unlocked the front door of the apartment building her and Alya lived in. They had been rooming together since they started university and, naturally, it had its ups and downs. Sometimes the shared messes of looking through their entire closet for the right outfit, Marinette’s designing, Alya’s journalism, cooking and other things could get out of hand and be tiresome. But ultimately rooming with her best friend was great, and the two had loads of fun together.Making her way up the stairs, she nodded hello and smiled at Maria from 2b, a girl in her design class. Reaching her and Alya’s shared apartment, she could vaguely hear music coming from inside. Fumbling with the keys, she let herself in and the music grew in volume, and that was when she realized it was Alya’s cooking playlist. She found herself breathing in the spicy aroma and heard her stomach rumble.A voice from the kitchen snaps her out of her reverie, “Marinette, is that you?”“Yeah, it is,” she yells back, moving through the apartment to the kitchen, “it smells delicious, Al”.Alya wipes her hands on her apron and walks over to where Marinette is standing, ‘welcome home, girl.’ She smiles fondly at Marinette before moving back into the kitchen to save a pot from overflowing.‘I made your favorite,’ she calls from her spot at the cutting board.‘Butter chicken?’ Marinette’s mouth waters at the thought.‘You bet,’ Marinette perks up.‘You spoil me rotten, Alya.’‘You know it, girl.’Marinette smiles, but then remembers something. They only make each other’s favorites if they have something to celebrate, or bad news. She sneaks a glance at the redhead, but Alya doesn’t look like she has bad news. Hmm, weird… I better ask her about it, she thinks, and clears her throat.‘So, what are we celebrating?’ She says, as nonchalantly as she can, and gestures to the messy kitchen, ‘since you’re making my favorite.’Alya looks up, and as she meets Marinette’s eyes, there’s a hint of regret in her eyes. ‘We’re not,’ she trails off and looks at the ground, seeming to ask it for an explanation, ‘celebrating.’ The redhead looks back up at Marinette, whose eyes widen in realization.‘We have to talk,’ she says, ‘about Adrien.' she trails off again, but then straightens her spine with resolve and continues, 'and I figured the food might be, like, a peace offering, so you don’t kill me for bringing this up after I promised I would never speak of it again.’Oh no, the designer thought, please don't do this, please just let this be a cruel joke.