A Grateful Heart

Time certainly had not helped Marinette feel better about her encounter with Adrien as Ladybug. In fact, it had had the exact opposite effect. That morning she felt so anxious, so worried, so upset and so freaking scared of seeing him again that day.

She just to name-drop herself, didn't she? She just to do that.

What the had she been thinking?!

"Nooooooooo..." Marinette cried softly and slightly dramatically into the pillow she was hugging tightly onto, kicking her feet back and forth underneath her bed sheets. "Oh God, he's going to hate me, isn't he? Ooooh, what if he decides that I'm some sort of weird creepy stalker that keeps watching him and following him and I start to creep him out so he tries to stay away from me as much as he possibly can and then everyone thinks that I upset him and he starts to hate me for it?!" Her mouth moving about a thousand times faster than her brain was thinking, she began rambling illogical, improbably things that made perfect sense in her worried mind. "He-e-e-elp meeeeeee!"

"Calm down, Marinette." Tikki tried to reassure her human partner in her usual tender manner. "You know Adrien isn't that kind of person, don't you?"

"You don't get it Tikki!" Marinette responded. "I've never seen him like this, ever! He was so cold, so uncaring... Oh God, I feel like I've really just screwed up and made matters worse..."

"You were trying to help, Marinette. I'm sure that Adrien will understand."

"But what if he didn't me to try and help? I - Oh noooo..."

She'd have to apologize. She'd have to do that the second she saw him, provided she could get past tripping over her own tongue for long enough to apologize to the model. She'd have to pour her heart out in apology, essentially, and pray that he would be understanding.

If she ever needed her powers of good luck, it was today, above all other days.

Plagg wasn't good with emotions. He knew that, Adrien knew that. That was fine. They understood one another fairly well. They joked around, and threw banter back and forth between one another. They knew what made the other one tick. So that meant that Plagg knew Adrien was absolutely shattered by the fact Ladybug wasn't his soulmate, at least from the current perspective.

So it certainly came as a surprise to the Kwami that Adrien seemed to be a lot better the next day.

Adrien had awoke and had slept well, as opposed to the previous nights all nighter with a billion thoughts spiraling throughout his brain. He looked more rested, and seemed to be more positive. He didn't stare at the ceiling for hours on end, nor did he seem to mope around, or seem to dread going to school that same day.

He looked... Fine. And Plagg wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Kid, you alright?" The magical creature asked his human master, hovering a few feet from his face. While he wasn't an expert on emotions or humans, that wasn't to say he knew about the subject matters. One thing he did know was that heartbreak was not cured this quickly, nor did it heal at this superhuman speed.

"Yeah, Plagg, I'm fine. Why?" Adrien replied, sounding like his normal self. Not his low, monotone, chronically depressed voice, but his usual more energetic voice back in his words.

The Kwami looked somewhat shaken by this. Adrien wasn't one to bounce back quickly. underneath the exterior he put up around himself, he was a sensitive kid, and rather emotional at times. He had dedicated himself solely to Ladybug, and the idea of falling in love with anyone else had seemed alien to him.

What the hell was up with this guy?

"You seem... Better."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Its just... Unexpected."

"Gotta be honest Plagg, it is. I don't know why... But I feel like I'm gonna be okay." Adrien told his magical partner. It wasn't a feeling he could explain. More that it was something that he just knew. Part of it came from Ladybug's visit, and her mentioning Marinette.

That conversation had sparked his dormant curiosity about the blue haired girl in his class. She had certainly interested Adrien for a while now, in the sense that she was a nice, and rather interesting person. The two of them got along rather well, and Adrien did consider her to be a good friend, but they never really seemed to spend a lot of time together without something dramatic happening, pure circumstance preventing them from speaking, or the girls simple social awkwardness and stuttering problem she seemed to have around, specifically, him. Adrien wondered, why was that?

But this wasn't new. He'd just sort of come to accept that. He had always believed that it was because he was a model, and she liked fashion. He had assumed that she had felt somewhat intimidated by him, albeit not his intention to do that to her.

What had sparked his curiosity now was the fact that she seemed to know Ladybug.

How had that happened?...

That question rolled around in Adrien's skull for quite a while, before he spoke to Plagg again. "Hey Plagg, what do you reckon the odds are that Marinette knows Ladybug?"

"Uh... Certain?" Plagg asked, not quite understanding the question. "Didn't Ladybug say she knew who Marinette was? Isn't that why she came here in the first place?"

"There's more to it than that though... I'm certain of it..."

"Oh, Goodie! Feel like sharing with the class?" Plagg asked, referring to himself.

"Not really. I'm not sure yet, and it's not really something I can explain."

"You don't seem to be able to explain a lot of things these days, Adrien."

"That's because things seem to get more and more and more complicated with every day that passes." After he had finished speaking, his green eyes caught a glimpse of a green light from his finger. "Speaking of which..."

It was his miraculous, ready to transmit another cryptic message. Oh, . Adrien just cryptic riddles. He preferred the direct approach, but unluckily for him, that option wasn't available. Shielding his eyes and aiming his hand at a wall, he felt the light shin on his eyelids, and then fade. certain he wouldn't see the blinding light this time, Adrien opened his eyes, and read once again, a poem from a magical item.

"A valiant effort to heal your soul,

She feels as she had failed her goal.

An effort always fated with doom,

Fearing salt has been rubbed in wound,

Hope in heart, she'll try again,

Yet fearing efforts shall be done in vain."

"Well, isn't that just positive." Adrien sarcastically muttered. In that second, his eyes widened. "Hold on a second. This thing tells you the poem of a soul mate, right?... This... Sounds a lot like..."

Wasn't it her who wanted to make sure he was okay? Wasn't it her who asked Ladybug to check on him? Wouldn't it be her whom felt she had only made things worse, especially with the way Adrien had acted towards Ladybug? Knowing her, wouldn't she try to make amends for failing to do so, for fearing she had made matters worse?