A.n.- Well here's the next chapter. I wanted to thank you all for all the support. We're about a fourth of the way through ( if everything goes according to plan). Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 5

Marinette didn't even bother to inform her parents of her arrival. They would come up and check on her eventually, she would just lie if they asked how she snuck past them. Tikki pushes her head out of the purse cautiously, her Chosen's emotions were high, the Kwami just didn't want Marinette to do something that she would regret.
"Mari?"
"I want to be alone Tikki," she was supposed to respect her wishes, but the red bug knew that it would only deteriorate the situation. The last thing she should believe was that she was alone.
"But"- maybe she could reason with the tear stained girl. She could already feel the hurt radiating off her, it was the curse when their bond had grown stronger; she felt what her Chosen did.
"Please Tikki," the kwami sighed as she flew into the bathroom, she would give her a couple hours and try again. Marinette seemed to be as stubborn as Plagg when she wanted to be. Her senses were on high alert, if only she had noticed the dark matter sweeping through the window before it engulf her completely.

Above the sound of her crying the hum of a cell phone buzzing caught the girl's attention. Who could possibly be calling her now? It could be Chloe to rub in her date with Adrien, or even worst the aforementioned. But she didn't have any interest in anything that he had to say, he couldn't really explain away what she saw.

Marinette wiped her tear-clouded eyes and reached for the device that somehow worked its way underneath her pillow. Alya's face popped up on the screen, but instead of answering, she froze. Her best friend was probably calling expecting Marinette to fill her in on every detail of the date. But the more she thought about it, the more she concluded that this whole thing was Alya's fault in the first place. She pushed her into asking no matter how many times she tried to explain that she wasn't sure of Adrien's affections, her best friend had given her something worse, hope. Things were perfect the way they were, now everything had changed, and she could do nothing but watch from the sidelines. Every time she closed her eyes her mind would picture Chloe and Adrien together, how could she even face him?

It didn't take a second thought for Mari to decline Alya's call. She didn't even feel guilty turning it off to prevent future calls, she didn't want to recount the events of tonight with anyone, let alone her friend. The tears spilled over once more with every intention to let her body run dry. She had let her world revolve around the model for years, now she was lost. What's worse is she thought she knew Adrien, his likes and dislikes enough to know that he would never be interested in a shallow self-absorbed girl, but now proven wrong; she was the fool.

School would be abuzz tomorrow with the new power couple, just the thought made her want to vomit. Maybe if she just put as much distance as she could between them, she would fade into the background, almost like it was her natural preset. If it was worse than she thought she would fake being sick and not return after lunch, her parents wouldn't second guess her.

Her eye lids grew heavy and she didn't even try and stop them, sleep would be better than her reality. She was exhausted and broken, a state that she hoped would be gone tomorrow but deep down she knew it wouldn't be the case.

"Marinette," a whispered groaned from the walls themselves, the raven-haired girl brought her head to scout the room sleepily, but no one was there.

"Hello?" She must be going crazy or more exhausted than she thought. Clearly only the shadows kept her company, she had no reason to be afraid. Even still, when her head hit the pillow once more she tried to ignore the goosebumps forming on her arms.

"Heartbreak is hard, but I can help you forget." It sounded so tempting, sometimes memories were the worst form of torture. The longer she let them linger, the more pain it would inflict.

"Who are you?"

"A friend. I came to help," A couple months ago Mari would have written herself off as crazy but ever since the Miraculouses collided with her life she couldn't rule anything out.

"Will it hurt?" It wasn't till then she realized that the darkness had overcome the room, even the moonlight was blocked from the window. Before it could answer it surrounded her mentally transporting her to another place.

In front of her eyes were pictures of Adrien from various photo shoots throughout the years. The pictures started to whiz by her faster as the model grew older only to have everything fade to black once more.

"Honey, I'm home." Mari allowed her mouth to drop slightly agape, time had only aged him closer to perfection.

She watched as he ventured further into the suite, and it became clear that she could see him, but not visa versa. Two girls with sun kissed hair ran straight through her to greet their father with abundant hugs. He released some of the purest forms of laughter making her knees week, why was she being shown this, it only caused her further in her turmoil, but she couldn't bring herself to tear her eyes away.

A lady that she didn't recognize entered the room with a stiff nod, "Good Evening Mr. Agreste, Mrs. Chloe is waiting for you in the living room."

Marinette's whole world stopped. Adrien married...Chloe? She couldn't even bring herself to hear the scene playing out as her mind spun into multiple scenarios where this could be a reality, each one making her sick to her stomach.

"Stop it," the words barely brushed past her lips. Tears started to gather once more as she watched the model take the young girls into the other room to see Chloe lounging about on the sofa reading a magazine only to be surprised by a passionate kiss from her husband.

"Stop it," her voice gained some traction. The sound of the girls giggling in reaction to the affection was going to be burned into her mind. Any attempt that she made to escape only brought her back around to the same room, there was no way out. Her legs gave way forcing her to the ground tears fully flowing.

"Stop it."

The raven-haired girl jolted awake the sweat beads dripping down her body. It was just a bad dream, nothing more. All of this was happening because of the date earlier and her mind's mission to torture her further. She clicked on her phone sleepily to check the time, she couldn't have drifted off that long. Much to her dismay, her cell disagreed, an hour and a half had passed, and she had 6 missed calls 4 from Alya and the remaining...from Adrien. Her body erupted in swirling emotions that ranged from elated to wanting to vomit. It only made her wish for simpler times.

Her eyes bugged when the phone buzzed once more with the model's face plastered on the screen, once the panic set in she decided to toss the phone midway on her bed and stare at it.

She shouldn't answer it.

'Probably calling with some excuse.' Marinette knew that if she answered, she would come crawling back again. But something was different this time, any excitement that she had was drowned out in a minute by a sense of apathy. She had waited long enough at the coffee shop for him, Adrien could certainly wait a little longer. She clicked off the phone, allowing her body to be put in a place to drift back to sleep.

Adrien sighed as his vision didn't waver from the phone in his hands. How did everything get so tangled? He had just managed to make more of a mess with their friendship. He didn't blame her for ignoring his call, the pain that was plastered on her face was burned into his memories. He already doubled back to the bakery, but her parents insisted that she wasn't there. He did the only thing that he could think of, call Nino.

His best friend had been with him over every situation from problems with his Father to sharing everything but his identity as Chat Noir. Not that he didn't want to, several times he had been tempted beyond reason, but he wasn't sure of the proper way to tell anyone that he ran around in a tight leather cat suit.

"Sorry we don't have much to eat, but I was able to find some chocolate chip cookies." As much as the model loved his sweets, everything seemed less appetizing right now.

"Are you going to talk about it, or did you come over so you could stare at your phone?" Nino had seen Adrien in slumps before but the guy sitting on his couch didn't even reach for the cookies, something was definitely wrong.

"She's avoiding me."

"Well if it's Chloe, there are some upsides to that." His joke was met unappreciated with a solid glare. He feared that any more attempts to lighten his friend's sour mood would fail.

"I screwed up, you should have seen the look on her face."

"This is Marinette, just talk to her." He hated to be the guy that pointed out the obvious, but he doubted that something like this could destroy a friendship that had been building for years. Upon watching Adrien closely, he knew this conversation would take some work to regain his confidence in their friendship with the girl. "Walk me through what happened again."

"Marinette started talking to me before school, she asked something, and I thought it was for a rain check on video games, so I agreed. She got all- I don't know Marinette like"-

"What do you mean?"

"You know, where she blushes, stammers, and runs away." That was a summary of most of their interactions together, needless to say; he contained mixed feelings on the matter. "I later asked her what time and she texted back, everything was perfectly normal. After school I went home, but before I left my Father stopped me. Wanted my opinion on some upcoming shoots, me. Anyway, I texted her that I was going to be late, when I finally finished with him I was headed straight over on the subway. When I got off I pulled out my phone to tell her that I was almost there, and then out of nowhere Chloe grabs my arm and demands that we get a coffee together. You know what she's like if she wants something..."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Nino huffed. As they grew older he had his fair share of difference of opinion, he blamed his strong-willed girlfriend.

"Anyway, I was going to follow along with her plan until I got my coffee and then make an excuse to leave. When we rounded the corner, she was there, standing...beautifully." He muttered the last word under his breath, but it didn't go unnoticed, just unspoken. "At first, she stood there, but then her face started to break, I hurt her. She excused herself and took off running, I tried to catch her, but she just disappeared." He was slightly impressed by her ability, he was in peak performance due to his alter ego duties, but now didn't seem like the time to discuss such things.

Nino released a sigh of his own, sometimes his best friend would create his own problems by not being able to say no or being oblivious and as usual, it was his job to spell it out.

"Is there a probability that she didn't ask you about a rain check for the video games?"

The model tilted his head slightly to the side, there was always the chance. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it, why would she have been at the coffee shop instead of her house dressed up. Have you thought of the possibility that she asked you out, like on a date?" At the words any color drained from the Blonde's skin.

"Why would she do that?" It hadn't been a secret; the whole school knew how the raven-haired girl felt; except apparently Adrien. He would just put the boy out of his misery, but he feared what wrath Alya would unleash on him if he even breathed Marinette's secret. The blonde would just have to figure it out for himself.

"You'll have to ask her that yourself." He only hoped that his best friend would take him up on his suggestion, those two had to talk if anything were to come from it. " But if you want my advice, just talk to her, she's your friend. I'm sure she'll understand if you just tell her your side of the story."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Adrien reached for the chocolate chip cookie and took a small bite. Although a small part of him was still worried, there wasn't much that he could do right now.

"Want to get some practice before Marinette destroys you in your rematch?" Nino offered with a smile which was returned as they reached for the controllers without another word.

A.n.- At least you know Adrien's side now, sorry if it was halfway a filler but it did have some important stuff in here. Let me know what you think! Till next time.

-RGT-