#with whom she actually has genuine connection and it appears that stormy's nightmare is coming true...

[dfcfanfics]

A Big Ol' Season Four Plot Bunny For You To Raise: Miraculous Prompt of the Day

So... here we are. Truth has aired. Lies has aired. In an imaginary show with Serial Storytelling Continuity, which is not something Miraculous is particularly known for, where ought we to go from here?

The first tentative attempt at actual romance for both Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste... didn't go quite as either of them had intended, both with whom they gave it a try with and how it ended up. Needless to say, this brings on a lot of emotions in each of them, and as much as certain friends of theirs would like to see newly-single-again classmates hook up... neither one of them is ready for that.

- - -

Marinette knows that Adrien and Kagami broke up... but no matter what Alya may think, that doesn't mean that it's time to make her move on him. Quite the opposite, in fact. To move on Adrien now would likely put a major strain on her friendship with Kagami... making her think that Marinette might have been undermining things behind her back to get Adrien for herself, which is the last thing Marinette wants her to believe. (Largely because it isn't true.) She is second-guessing herself over how things ended with Luka... here was a boy who was sweet, caring, sensitive, eager to please and very much into her, and she couldn't find a way to make that work due to everything else in her life. So how can she even think about going after the boy she gets tongue-tied around on the regular? And, most importantly... all of the stresses and responsibilities that torpedoed Lukanette are still right there in her life. Breaking up with Luka was hard enough for her to do... but if she tried to start something with Adrien and then broke _his_ heart as well... that would destroy her.

But she is seeing Adrien moping around, obviously unhappy, weathering the strain of all that's going on his life, and she knows one thing for sure...

He needs a friend. A GOOD friend. Someone to comfort him, to be his anchor, to be the best friend they can possibly be to him.

That may be all that he's ever wanted from me... and if that's what he needs from me, he's damned sure going to get it.

- - -

All things considered... Adrien isn't any happier with his situation. His default response to most problems is "what did I do to cause this"; the fact that he _does_ bear some responsibility for Adrigami not working out makes that weigh all the more upon him. He thinks about all the other couples in his peer group, and how most of them seem perfectly stable... and his brain spends far too many cycles trying to work out what made him incapable of that.

There is a certain pretty classmate, sitting right in back of him, who might seem like a good choice for an emotional rebound... but Adrien can't do that to her. She's told him, straight to his face on multiple occasions, that she doesn't think of him romantically. Whenever the subject even comes up, she reacts awkwardly... and causing one of his favorite people emotional distress just eats away at Adrien. Some Stormy Weather 2-era thoughts do cross his mind... the unsigned Valentine that he's now sure was from her, for instance... and she DOESN'T have Luka now, as he was sure that she did then. But the last thing he'd want to do is pressure Marinette, who is amazing but can be a little fragile at times, with something that he's sure that she doesn't want.

But he watches her every day in school, and it's obvious to him... Marinette is hurting. She's being stretched thin by something in her life, and it's wearing on her, and her normal good cheer and pleasant smile just don't seem to want to show up very often any more. And he knows one thing for sure...

That girl needs a friend. A GOOD friend. Someone to comfort her, someone she can rely upon, someone to be the best friend they can possibly be to her.

And maybe that's all that she'll ever want from me... but I'll always want to be what it is that she needs most.

- - -

And so... a friendship finally begins to blossom properly. When Adrien begins asking Marinette if she'd like to walk and talk for a bit, if he could hang out with her after school, if she'd like to come over and spend a little time with him at his house... at first, Marinette is more than a little bit startled and hesitant. Her friends think that Adrien is finally making his move on her... but his words don't seem to match up with what Adrien tells her when they're alone. He seems genuine about simply wanting to know her better, to wipe out whatever awkwardness that he thinks he's caused in the past... and, lord, she thinks, he needs someone to connect to and he's reaching out to her and how can she not respond to that?

And, slowly, the two become largely inseparable. They eat lunch together, they spend what little free time they have together, they text and call each other at night... the yin has finally met the yang, and this time they fit together perfectly. If you were to ask either one of them, of course, "we're NOT a couple" would be what you'd hear... because neither one even brings up the subject of romance or kissing or officially dating. But anyone watching the two of them together couldn't possibly imagine either of them dating anyone else.

Not to mention that, when Akumas threaten and they need to make a quick escape and an unexplained disappearance... Marinette and Adrien soon discover that each other might be the ONLY people that seem just as evasive as they are. When danger appears, they don't face twenty questions when they need to separate OR when they get back. Not that they don't care about each other's welfare... more like that neither one seems to want to push the question of "where did you go and what did you do" very hard, as long as the other ends up okay.

And THAT is a major comfort for both of them.

- - -

It doesn't take THAT long, however... for Adrien to find himself wanting more. He had found himself attracted to nervous, tongue-tied, awkward Marinette over time; relaxed, chatty, comfortable friend Marinette starts taking up more and more space in his dreams each night. He's conscious that he's missed out on what might've been opportunity for this to happen "for real"... but he can feel their closeness growing daily. He can't be the only one who feels it, right? Maybe she's got some feelings slowly growing... just like he knows that his are?

He pulls Alya aside one afternoon, feeling desperate, and asks her... has Marinette ever hinted to HER that she's had romantic feelings for him? And Alya hesitates momentarily... but sees the opening that might FINALLY bring the two of them together, and spills. Of _course_ she has, she says. She's been crazy about you since the second day you met. She's nervous around you because she likes you that much, and she always has. She kept pulling back because she was always sure that you would say "no." How could you not tell any of that, you dum-dum?

And, so... Adrien begins to slowly escalate things. A "let's hang out after school" invite becomes "would you like to join me for dinner at my house?", and then "what are you doing Saturday night?" Friendly hugs begin to linger, just a little bit. Marinette sees a light in Adrien's eyes that wasn't there before... and it's a light that she's desperately wanted to see, a spark that filled her own dreams for over a year, the answer to her prayers.

But... her internal nightmares haven't gone away. She's still Ladybug, she's still the Guardian, she's still playing zookeeper for a menagerie of Kwamis that are more than a headache to manage sometimes. She's still stressed, she's still being pulled thin... and she's still got that vision in her head of starting things with Adrien, them falling apart just like they did with Luka... and THEN what? She'd have screwed things up with her One True Love, broken his heart, and she'd have to live with that forever.

So her answer to his slowly-escalating requests for Actual Dates... is 'no.' And it stays that way.

- - -

Adrien is highly confused. It's not that he doesn't understand what 'no' means; he's heard it enough times from Ladybug, after all. She's feeling fragile, and he doesn't want to press too hard and break what they've built up together as friends. But on the other hand, his feelings are growing every day. He can SEE and FEEL Marinette's growing bond with him. Alya told him and keeps telling him, look, she IS crazy about you, I know she is!

...So what is it that he's doing horribly wrong _now_?

Their friends are bewildered... especially Alya. These two are made for each other; Martians staring at the Earth through telescopes can tell that. They are pining for each other; Nino hears about it from Adrien every day, when they're alone; he's so sure that he's doing something wrong, but he can't figure out what. Marinette admits it to Alya, when THEY'RE alone; she feels Adrien reaching out and she is soooooo tempted to reach back.

"So what in the world is STOPPING you?" Alya and Nino both say.

Each of them is startled when their close friend makes a decision, one fateful afternoon. Marinette faces Alya, while across town, Adrien faces Nino.

"There's something that's in the way. Something major," each says. "Something that I've been hiding from everyone... and especially from THEM."

Their friends look startled as they speak. "What I am about to tell you... cannot leave this room. EVER. You must never tell another living soul. Not your parents, not our friends, ESPECIALLY not your boy/girlfriend. If this gets out and becomes public knowledge, my life will be ruined!"

"Then why are you telling me this?" they ask, simultaneously.

"Because if I am ever going to have any kind of life... or a relationship with anyone... I need help figuring this out. And right now... that means you. Do I have your WORD?"

"You do..."