Requested by @AddisonOffxcial

A nice big extra long one-shot filled with lots of angst? Say less because that is my specialty.

*inserts an apology for taking so long on this request* forgive me 😪 but wow, did I love the way this one turned out? It's much longer than what I usually write, so I hope you enjoy it (and it appeases you after waiting for so long)!

Friendships are hard for Marinette. That's why she doesn't have any—but that all changes the day Adrien Agreste decides he wants to be her friend. Desperate not to lose him, Marinette will do anything to keep him in her life, even if her tight hold is insufferable.

_______________________________

Marinette had a personality disorder.

The doctors were torn between diagnosing her condition as Avoidant Personality Disorder or Paranoid Personality Disorder—both of which made having any type of relationship (both platonic and romantic) extremely difficult for her. She either had one or the other, but Marinette liked to believe that she'd been cursed with having both because she'd always been just that unlucky. It was why she had no friends. No one wanted to be friends with someone who always thought the worst of them... or was afraid of being hurt by everyone around them.

So, Marinette spent a lot of her time alone. She didn't go to the movies with friends like the other girls did or hang out at the café after school with a group of kids from her class. Instead, she was more focused on her schoolwork since that was all her time was ever devoted to.

That all changed, though, the moment Adrien Agreste approached her.

She was transferred to a new high school when her parents decided to move cities, and the move was more stressful for Marinette than it was exciting. What relieved her anxiety only a bit was knowing that wherever she was going now, she could start anew. No one would know about her disorders and tease her for it, and maybe she could overcome them on her own and actually be normal for a change.

Adrien Agreste had been a student for many years at François Dupont before she started attending the same school. He was incredibly tall, so popular that pretty much everyone could put a name to his face, very handsome, and his hair was so blonde she often pictured it as bright as the sun. His eyes were a deep shade of emerald green, so open, welcoming, and very... friendly. His smile was so warm. His jawline was so... sharp.

Marinette thought of him to be extremely dangerous for her pounding heart.

The first time he had approached her, she'd been seated alone in the back of the library, nose-deep into the novel Moby Dick. One thing she found she had lots of excess time for since she didn't have any friends was reading, and Marinette enjoyed it very much.

He pulled out the seat across from her and sat down, which startled her enough to jump slightly and peer over the top of her book.

"Hey," He was smiling as he watched her closely, and it took all of her willpower not to stand upright that second and run away. He didn't exactly give her a chance to respond either before he introduced himself. "I'm Adrien."

Marinette wasn't sure what to say... because she already knew who he was. And it wasn't as if she was good at making friends either. So, she said honestly, "Uhh... I know who you are."

He chuckled at her blunt response, his smile never wavering. "Right. I guess I should've expected that, considering my reputation. You're new here, right?"

She nodded, not quite sure what else she should say.

"You know..." He began softly, "If you need any help finding any of your classes or just a friend, I'd be happy to be of service. I know this whole place like the back of my hand, and I've been told I'm excellent company."

She came to realize Adrien was a very nice guy.

Marinette assumed the most popular guys weren't, according to the movies, and the ones who made fun of her back in her old school, but Adrien was different. He actually asked her if he could have her number and told her that he would text her. Their first encounter left Marinette feeling really confused as to why he would even want to text her to begin with.

But he stayed true to his word. Later that evening, he sent her a text.

And it startled her so much that Marinette threw her phone across her bedroom.

The next morning, she arrived at school with a phone that now had a long crack all the way up from the top to the bottom, which ran along the middle of her screen.

Adrien noticed it whenever he found her in the library again.

"What happened to your phone?"

Marinette glanced over her book to look at him again. She was seated at the same table she had always chosen since starting school there, and Adrien was once again seated in the chair across from hers. Unlike yesterday, he was wearing a pair of Bluetooth headphones around his neck, and she could faintly hear his music playing through the speakers. Her phone was lying face-up on the table, which made it easy for anyone who walked by to spot the screen damage.

"I dropped it."

An absolute lie. She'd thrown it. But she wouldn't dare tell him that.

"Well, that's a bummer," Adrien said. "Did it mess up your screen?"

Her eyes fell back down to the words in front of her, trying to focus her attention on the story she'd read at least fifty times in a row by now. "Not really."

"Sooo... that means you're able to text me back then?"

Her eyes snapped back up to look at him, widening slightly as the realization that he'd confronted her upon the matter dawned on her. Of course, after freaking out over the fact that he had actually texted her and hadn't been bluffing, she hadn't known how to respond. So she ended up ignoring it.

She figured he would leave her alone if he were ghosted from the start.

Apparently, she'd been wrong.

Marinette cleared her throat as her eyes lowered to her book once more. "I'm sorry. I'm not very good at making friends."

Adrien smiled softly at her. "That's okay. You don't need to do anything except be yourself around me."

She couldn't help but look over her book at him again, a single brow raised as if she didn't believe him for a second. Which she didn't. Because she usually was herself, and no one ever liked that about her.

"You want me to be myself?"

Adrien nodded, his smile having yet to waver. She was anticipating it, though; she really was.

Her eyes quickly returned to her book for the last time.

"Be careful what you wish for, Adrien."

Marinette tried her best to be as neutral with Adrien as possible, but there was just something about him that intrigued her as much as she wished it didn't. Adrien continued to visit her in the library. He would take the seat across from hers every time he showed up and would spend the entire period trying to talk to her. Apparently, her warning that her true self wasn't exactly the best person to be around didn't seem to perturb Adrien at all.

In fact, it only seemed to be more of a challenge for him.

After two weeks of Adrien continually spending a period a day with her, Marinette finally lowered her book to tell him her name.

His response was a growing smile as he told her that he thought her name was beautiful.

A comment like that would've made any girl blush, but Marinette wasn't used to being complimented. So instead, her response was a confused frown and a question as to why he liked her name so much since it was nothing special in her eyes.

Adrien didn't have an answer for her. But he did laugh.

She found the corner of her lips twitching slightly against her will.

After a month of regularly talking to Adrien and discovering that she was actually beginning to enjoy his company, Adrien invited her over to his house for a movie marathon.

Marinette instantly hesitated. She had never been invited to someone else's house before.

Adrien seemed to sense her distress quickly. He instantly denied his own idea before she could answer, insisting that he had a better idea that she would feel more comfortable with. When she asked him what it was, he smirked and told her that it was a surprise she would have to wait until next week to find out about.

After the weekend had passed, he returned to the library the following Monday with his laptop and a large bag of Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn.

Marinette arched a brow at him in confusion. "What is all this?"

"Since you didn't feel comfortable coming over to my place, I figured I would bring the movie marathon to you," Adrien said as he offered her a sheepish smile. She wasn't given a chance to object before Adrien took ahold of her wrist and pulled her along, guiding her toward the back of the library where no one would see them. He began to set up his mini theater, and although she was rather impressed that he was going to such lengths to spend time with her, she was still nervous despite it.

He sat down on the floor after he was done, his back leaned against a shelf of books. When he placed the laptop in his lap, he looked up at her with his charming smile and patted the vacant spot next to him.

Marinette slowly lowered herself to the floor beside him.

Adrien handed her the bag of popcorn.

Marinette eyed the already-opened bag suspiciously. "Won't we get in trouble?"

"You only get in trouble if you get caught," Adrien said matter-of-factly. "Which is why we're sitting back here. No one sane ever comes to read these dusty old books. And besides, it's a free period. You don't have anything better to do, do you?"

Hesitantly, Marinette glanced over at her backpack, which was lying on the ground in front of her, opened. Inside, she could easily make out the spine of Moby Dick. Perhaps Adrien was right that she had nothing better to do, but the old book was calling out to her, and that usually only happened when she was nervous. Moby Dick was her comfort read.

Also, Adrien making fun of dusty old books, which was her favorite, was kind of offensive.

When Marinette told him that—as an attempt of a joke, of course—his smile instantly vanished and was replaced with absolute horror. The words that tumbled out of his mouth next were a series of apologies for offending her.

Marinette couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd ever been given a genuine reason to laugh. She couldn't even remember the last time she smiled. But Marinette couldn't help herself that time, despite her attempts at remaining stoic around him. Slowly but surely, Adrien was starting to peel down that wall she'd built around herself for her own protection.

And she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Her laughter seemingly took him completely off guard, if his agape mouth and widened eyes had any say on the matter.

When she noticed, her smile instantly fell because she thought she was being judged.

"No, wait...!" He quickly leaned forward to grab ahold of her arm as if he thought she might leave, even though she hadn't budged an inch from her spot next to him. "Don't stop! You have a really beautiful smile."

"I do?" No one had ever told her that before, so his confession was rather shocking.

"Yes." Adrien nodded slowly, seemingly still stunned. "You don't really smile much, which is a total bummer. You should do it more often."

Marinette didn't understand why it mattered to him so much, but his words did slowly pull a small smile to her lips, and Adrien's grin actually widened at the sight. He probably would've abandoned the whole movie idea altogether and rather watched her smile for entertainment had she not ruined the moment to ask him what they would be watching.

He was still smiling even as he looked away from her to start his pick, and thankfully, he didn't get to see her slightly tinted pink cheeks.

No boy had ever had this effect on her before.

After their first movie marathon, Adrien brought his laptop every time he came to the library. Sometimes he brought snacks with him too—snacks that varied between popcorn, chips, and even candy. They weren't even supposed to be eating in the library, but considering they were already breaking the rules by watching movies, Marinette didn't bother to voice out her concern for breaking another rule. They continued to meet up for their daily movie date, as Adrien liked to word it, and Marinette found that Adrien had really good taste in films. They spent most of their time together criticizing the films in low whispers as they shared junk food.

Marinette started to enjoy herself with Adrien so much that Moby Dick ended up being the last thing on her mind. The book was eventually abandoned in her backpack, a bookmark still in the same place where she'd stopped reading weeks ago... and perhaps that was a good thing.

Things were going really well in her friendship with him... until they weren't. Her first problem arose when Adrien didn't show up one day in the library.

Marinette waited a while before she started to panic. Her fingers itched to reach for her phone and text him to ask him where he was, but that was her disorder talking, trying to convince her that Adrien had had his fair share of her, and now he was tired of her. She sat in the library alone at their usual table that entire period as she waited for him, forcing herself to take deep breaths and calm her anxiety even though students walked by and blatantly whispered about how silly she looked.

Adrien ended up never showing up that day.

Later that day, she saw him down the hall talking with a few of his friends.

Her fingers flexed in the material of her shirt.

The first symptoms of her disorder usually started with fear of abandonment, but sometimes, jealousy would beat that feeling to it. What followed would be her becoming incredibly clingy because she was afraid of losing that person, and that's usually when it all ended... because that person had had enough of her. But Marinette hadn't been clingy to Adrien, had she? She tried to rummage through her mind to see if she had. Because if she had, that was it... she had ruined her friendship with him. Like she always did with all the others—

"Marinette!"

She lifted her gaze from her shoes as soon as she heard her name, her eyes instantly finding Adrien's. As usual, he was wearing his familiar, charming smile, the one that was beginning to make her insides flutter tremendously—which only further proved that she was beginning to develop feelings for him that definitely outweighed platonic intentions. But as soon as their eyes connected, she watched as his smile slowly fell, a frown quickly replacing it.

And then she realized why...

Because she was crying.

And the students who were already around her to witness the scene they didn't understand were whispering, and they weren't exactly subtle about what they had to say. Marinette took a few steps back as she tried to gather her overwhelming thoughts, even as Adrien reached out to her in concern.

"Marinette? Are you okay?"

She didn't know how to respond. In that moment, she felt too vulnerable, especially with the crowd already increasing and beginning to laugh at her crying. So she did the only thing she was good at.

She ran.

She escaped to what she deemed her safe haven on the school campus: the library. The one place where she could be herself and not have to worry about being judged because the books didn't mind who read them... they were just happy to get pulled off of the shelf. She was alone when she arrived—the lights had already turned off and the entire room vacant—because the school day was pretty much over, and the librarian had already left for the day. Marinette found herself seated in her usual seat, the one across from her empty. But instead of pulling out Moby Dick as a form of comfort, she found she didn't have the energy to read. So, she simply folded her arms on top of the table and hid her face in them.

Somewhere in the midst of dozing off, she heard the door creak open.

Marinette didn't lift her head to see who it was.

She already had a pretty good assumption of who it was, and she stood corrected when she heard the seat he usually sat in get pulled out. Adrien took a seat across from her and gently called her name. "Marinette?"

She didn't stir.

She heard him let out a heavy sigh. "Are you okay? If this is about our movie date, I'm sorry I missed it. One of my friends wanted me to come watch her cheer for the game since it was her first time. She got accepted on the team, which was so lucky, so I wanted to be there to support her."

Her. Marinette would've preferred if he hadn't explained himself. His explanation only made her feel worse. Because now her impending jealousy was thinking it had a right to be there, and she didn't know how to make it stop.

He'd gone to hang out with a different girl instead of her.

Marinette lifted her head from her arms, not bothering to hide her already tear-stained cheeks from him. He'd already seen it, after all, along with half of the student body, so it wasn't as if she could get any more embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I told you I'm really horrible at making friends—"

"Hey, why are you apologizing?" Adrien interrupted her with a soft smile. "You don't have anything to be sorry for. I'm the one who skipped out and didn't tell you that I wouldn't be coming. It's entirely my fault."

His words didn't make her feel much better, though. She did have a reason to apologize—for getting jealous even if he didn't know she was.

Nonetheless, she offered him a small smile which he instantly returned, and then he promised her that he would never skip out on another one of their movie dates ever again.

Marinette agreed to come over to Adrien's house when she was invited a second time. Adrien lived in an apartment with just him and his mom, and his mother was one of the sweetest ladies she'd ever met in her life. Emilie, Adrien's mother, was a rather dashing woman with long hair just as blonde as Adrien's. She looked like a model. Not only that, but she and her son held such a close resemblance that she knew for a fact Adrien had taken from his mother entirely.

Adrien and Marinette spent hours together watching movies, and Marinette even got to have dinner with them and experience Emilie's amazing cooking.

She had so much fun that night that she easily forgot all about her worries from before.

Before she left for the night, Emilie told her that she could come by anytime.

Marinette was genuinely surprised that she was welcome to come back. No one ever extended an invitation to her, especially more than once, but she happily accepted because she loved Adrien's home atmosphere. She felt more at home in his apartment than she did in her parents' lonely condo.

That night, Adrien drove her home.

The next day, they met again in the library, and Marinette walked home with Adrien.

She had dinner with them again that night.

This routine repeated for at least a week. Marinette found herself at Adrien's apartment every day, either for dinner or during the weekend, where she could simply spend the day with him doing nothing. They spent most of their weekends binging movies or playing video games. A couple of times, Marinette would even accidentally lean her head on Adrien's shoulder as she dozed during the film, and he would actually let her stay there.

Things started to change after a week, though.

Adrien started to avoid her in school. His library visits were less frequent, and when they did happen, they no longer spent the period watching movies together. Because she already spent so much time with him outside of school now, a few missed library days didn't bother Marinette as much as it had in the beginning. Now all they did in the library was sit across from each other in absolute silence. For the first time since she first spent a period with him in the library, Adrien actually started to bring a book every time they met up. At first, she was super excited to see that he was beginning to form another interest similar to hers.

But then she realized he only brought the book so that he wouldn't have to talk to her.

Things only got worse from there. Marinette followed him down the hall like she always did because she didn't know anyone else, and Adrien helped keep her anxiety at bay. But instead of holding her hand or interlocking their arms like he always did, Adrien's arms were at his side as he marched forward. He didn't spare her a glance, nor did he spare her a word. In fact, she was almost certain he had tried to lose her in the crowd of students a few times.

Marinette saw all the signs. In fact, she had anticipated them. She knew this would happen.

But even knowing what was to come, Marinette couldn't have prepared herself for the heartbreak that would follow.

Marinette tried to save their friendship... she really did. Because she knew that she was losing him, she involuntarily became even more clingy than before. As an act of what she believed to be pure retaliation, Adrien showed up to school one day with another girl on his arm, claiming that they were dating. Well... Marinette thought that his actions were an act of retaliation until she saw just how bright his smile was whenever he was around her. His smile looked genuine. He looked so happy to be with her.

Marinette knew that she was losing Adrien... yet she still tried to hold on to him.

And that's when Adrien finally snapped at her.

It'd been in the middle of the hallway, too, surrounded by probably the entire student body. Marinette hadn't meant to be a nuisance, she really hadn't, but she was following Adrien to his next class only because she wanted to catch him before he went in so that she could apologize. But Adrien must've known that she was already there. He whipped around so suddenly to face her, causing her to stumble back in fear, and the look on his face was anything but happy to see her. Marinette briefly glanced to his right where his girlfriend was currently latched onto his arm, and even she had the audacity to look at Marinette oddly.

That wasn't fair.

Adrien's outburst had been expected. "Oh my god, Marinette. Stop following me!"

She held her breath as she carefully studied his eyes, hoping that he really didn't mean it.

But he did, and he didn't stop there. "You need to back off, okay? Seriously, how many signs do I need to give you for you to realize that you need to give me some space!"

She didn't mind his outburst. That in itself wasn't even what bothered her because she knew it was bound to happen one day. Every person whom she'd grown close to in the past and then left her in the end had always given her an outburst, but Adrien was the first one to do it in public. To embarrass her in front of so many other students their age.

Marinette simply stared at him. By now, the rejections she received regularly were usually numb experiences. Only sometimes did she find herself crying later in the privacy of her bedroom over some of her lost friendships. But in this situation, Marinette was too numb to even react to his words.

Adrien's frown deepened when he didn't receive a response. "Did you hear what I just said? You need to stop following me around. It's making me uncomfortable."

And that's when it all seemed to click, and she finally looked up.

Not to meet his eyes, oh no. She locked eyes with his perfect-looking blonde girlfriend, and as his girlfriend looked at her expectantly, Marinette realized and remembered that she was never the type to take out her anger on other people who didn't deserve it. However, Adrien's golden girlfriend needed to know something important, and Marinette was going to be the one to tell her.

"Adrien once told me that he likes people to be themselves around him," Marinette said with a voice that held no emotion. She did not glance over to look at Adrien himself. No. She spoke about him as if he wasn't there, and she made sure that her point was made as she grimly added, "I just hope that you can do that without him stabbing you in the back for it."

And then she turned away, giving neither of them a chance to respond.

____________

Adrien didn't know what to think anymore.

When he'd first been informed of a new student joining their school, and a female nonetheless, he couldn't be blamed for being excited. Perhaps that excitement was just the male in him, but his intentions of befriending her had always been genuine from the start.

Truthfully, when he'd first laid eyes on Marinette, he found her to be incredibly gorgeous. Her shoulder-length raven locks were a shade of blue he'd never seen before, and what made it so amazing was just the fact that it was her natural hair color. She had fair skin, but the freckles that danced along her skin made her stand out even further. He believed her blue eyes to be enchanting because every time he looked at them, he couldn't find the will to look away.

But even despite her remarkable beauty, Marinette hadn't been what he'd expected.

She was a very isolated person. He figured that out the second he found her all alone in the school library after searching the entire campus, which took most of his morning. Thankfully, his absence never really affected his classes since he'd willingly volunteered to help her get accustomed to going to their school. After all, he knew what it was like being thrown into a new atmosphere knowing absolutely no one.

It didn't take him long to figure out that Marinette was also extremely quiet.

It took him days just to get her comfortable enough to tell him her name.

And then... they started to become really good friends.

And Marinette started to open up to him.

It was great. In fact, Adrien really enjoyed being Marinette's friend. She was funny, smart, great company, and liked a lot of the same things that he did. It was his idea to start a tradition of him bringing his laptop to their free period so that they could watch movies in the back of the library where no one would see them breaking the rules. Marinette had been weary about breaking the rules at first, but it seemed that she started to really appreciate their little movie dates (as he liked to call them) as time went on.

He even decided to invite her to his house.

They started having movie nights there instead. They'd cuddle up on the couch without even realizing just how non-platonic their closeness was. Sometimes, Marinette would fall asleep on his shoulder, and he found that he never minded. She stayed over for dinner multiple times, too, and Marinette even met his mother.

Things started to change when Adrien realized Marinette was around all the time.

At school, she was always glued to his side. At first, it didn't really bother him, but when she started to feel like his own shadow, it started making him uncomfortable, and it got even worse when Marinette showed up at his house every day after school, having dinner with him and his mother and cuddling up next to him on the couch every single night.

It was like he had no personal space anymore.

Adrien tried to be subtle about his discomfort, throwing multiple hints left and right to see if Marinette would catch any of them. He became less talkative in the library, even bringing a book (A BOOK OUT OF ALL THINGS... because he really despised reading) just so that he wouldn't have to talk to her. At one point, he started skipping several of his meet-ups with her on purpose just to avoid her. He even started dating some girl he didn't even like romantically, just to see if him having a 'girlfriend' would give Marinette enough of a hint to back off.

But it didn't work. In fact, it only made things worse.

Marinette started to get even more clingy.

And when he couldn't take it anymore, Adrien snapped.

His intention had never been to hurt her. He hadn't meant to snap, and he certainly hadn't meant to embarrass her. But as soon as he did, he knew it wasn't something he could take back, and before he could stop himself, Adrien was letting out all of his emotions in front of the entire school that should've been privately spoken between just him and Marinette.

He expected Marinette to yell back at him, maybe even cry.

What he hadn't expected was for her to completely ignore him and, instead, turn to address his fake girlfriend. The exchange was short and clipped, but what she said next was an absolute jab to his chest.

"Adrien once told me that he likes people to be themselves around him. I just hope that you can do that without him stabbing you in the back for it."

Adrien watched her walk away with a solemn look. His so-called girlfriend tugged on his sleeve, insisting that they head on to their next class, but he hardly heard her words and was reluctant to move instead. He watched as Marinette marched easily as students parted the hallway for her. And when she disappeared around the corner, a part of him wanted to chase after her.

But he didn't. He stayed rooted in his spot.

He didn't see Marinette after that tense encounter. She went back to hiding, isolating herself in the library. Adrien was certain that if he went in there for himself, he was guaranteed to find her at the same table where he'd first met her. But he was never brave enough to actually seek her out. So, instead, he accepted the unfortunate fact that he and Marinette were no longer friends, and the reason for their broken friendship had been his fault. He broke up with his girlfriend a few days later, mostly out of guilt since he'd never had any genuine feelings for her anyway.

After a full week of having yet to spot Marinette randomly in the halls for a chance to apologize for his outburst, his mother approached him with a rather suspicious conversation starter.

"I spoke with Marinette's mother yesterday."

Adrien perked up slightly from his spot on the couch, the program he'd been watching completely abandoned. A part of him was excited to hear that, but the other half of him was confused as to why their parents had been conversing in the first place. "I didn't realize you were friends with her."

"We just got acquainted, actually," his mother said as she took a seat beside him on the couch. "I happened to run into her mother at the grocery store. Imagine our shock when we discovered our kids both went to the same high school."

Adrien hummed idly at that, not sure how he should respond.

His mother broke the silence with a heavy sigh. "I'm not sure what happened between the two of you, Adrien, but I do know something is up. Marinette hasn't been over here in three weeks... which isn't like her at all. I want to know what's going on."

Adrien ran a hand down his face as he sighed, "Nothing is going on—"

"Don't lie to me." Emilie immediately interrupted with a frown. "Marinette's mother informed me that Marinette has been gloomy herself. Did you two get into a fight?"

Adrien's eyes widened slightly. He wanted to question what his mother meant by that, but he figured, with the way her anger was beginning to intensify, that now wasn't exactly the best time to indulge his curiosities. So instead, he decided to be honest with her. "Not really. It was me. It was all my fault. I'm the one who lashed out at her."

His mother seemed surprised by that revelation. "Why?"

"I didn't mean to do it." He quickly clarified before his mother could scold him. "But my frustration isn't invalid, okay?"

"Of course it isn't, honey." His mother assured him with a fond smile.

He let out a heavy, defeated sigh, a small smile pulling at his lips when his eyes slowly lifted to meet her gentle ones. "I don't know if you've noticed, Mom, but Marinette is incredibly clingy. She's always here, and the more we hang out, the more personal space I don't have. It was becoming overwhelming."

His mother nodded as if she understood, though he wasn't sure how she could. "Did you tell her how that made you feel?"

The blonde shook his head. "I didn't want to hurt her feelings."

"But you ended up doing that anyway."

Adrien sighed and averted his gaze, his guilt only further rising.

His mother was right.

Emilie reciprocated his defeated sigh. "Adrien... did you know that Marinette was adopted?"

Adrien tensed as he quickly turned to face his mother with wide eyes. "W-What?"

"She's adopted," Emilie confirmed with a sad smile. "Her mother told me that they adopted her when she was seven. She didn't go into details and I didn't ask, but she did say that the situation Marinette was in wasn't a good one."

Adrien ran a hand through his hair, exhaling a bit shakily through parted lips. He and Marinette had gotten extremely close over the few weeks he'd known her, and Adrien liked to believe that he'd known most of the important bits about her, but in reality, he hardly knew Marinette at all. It was clear she'd kept things from him despite how close they'd gotten. It was obvious that she didn't trust him fully, even though he'd never given her a reason to doubt him.

Until now, that is.

"There's more, sweetheart." His mother said solemnly, her calming voice breaking him out of his reverie. "The reason Marinette displays such... clingy behavior... (as you like to word it) is because she suffers from one or more personality disorders."

He furrowed his brows in confusion. "Personality... disorder? What is that?"

"I didn't know much about it either, so I looked it up. The internet says it's a type of behavioral pattern that causes long-term difficulties in personal relationships or the ability to function normally in society."

And suddenly... something clicked in Adrien's mind, and Marinette's subtle but blatant words made so much sense. When she'd first told him that she sucked at making friends, that'd been why. Because of her disorders.

"Do you know what causes them?"

Emilie looked at him almost sadly. "From what I've read on the internet, they're usually genetic, the result of childhood trauma... or abuse."

"Abuse?" His eyebrows shot up in fear. Now, instead of just being overwhelmed with guilt, he was starting to feel horror too. "Marinette was abused—?!"

"I don't know, Adrien, and I didn't ask. It's best not to jump to any conclusions. It's possible they're simply genetic from her biological parents... and that should be something to consider."

Adrien did consider it. As he did, everything Marinette did seemed to make a lot more sense. Then, he realized just how terrible he'd been... making her feel so bad for something that wasn't even her fault. She couldn't control it. And even if the probability of this issue was genetic, he couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of Marinette being abused as a child.

Because what if these problems had arisen from abuse? Adrien couldn't even imagine a parent abusing their child, but it was even harder to imagine when it concerned someone he knew and cared about.

For the next several days, Adrien continued to attend school with these thoughts plaguing his mind. They weighed so heavily on his heart that he found himself too distracted to make time for his studies or his extracurricular activities. He even began to distance himself from his friends.

His eyes would worriedly scan the halls of crowded students in hopes of spotting Marinette somewhere amidst the crowd. He was unsuccessful for many days, and a part of him was soon planning to give up on his search until one morning, a familiar bun atop a head of raven hair caught his sights. His eyes instantly lit up as he watched her disappear into the library a moment later.

Shoving his way through students, he bolted after her.

____________

The familiarity of Moby Dick tucked underneath her arm was comforting at first. Marinette had fished the book out of her backpack shortly after Adrien's rejection, clinging it to her chest as she tried to keep her tears from spilling down her cheeks. She, of course, was unsuccessful, and the giant white whale on the cover caught her tears once again, and he was the only one who ever would. Books were the only thing she could ever rely on, knowing that they would forever be there for her when she needed one. They were more reliable than people, really. Kinder too.

She was back in the library where it all began, at the same table where Adrien had first offered to be her friend. Little did he know what he was signing up for. Just like the rest before him, he was disappointed when he realized she wasn't normal, that she wasn't like everyone else, that she had problems no one wanted to deal with. That she was a burden.

Marinette buried her face into her hands. Every time she lost a friend, it hurt... but losing Adrien seemed to hurt her the worst. Perhaps it was because she liked him. Perhaps it was because he was the first boy she'd ever truly had a crush on.

But it was pointless to indulge such feelings. It was clear Adrien would never like her back.

As she sat down in her familiar seat once more, Marinette opened Moby Dick to the spot where she'd left off. The pages were already stained from past tears shed from different heartbreaks. Now, new tears joined them, tear stains that would forever remind her of the bond she thought she once had with Adrien.

Marinette stared at those words with glossy eyes. She quickly slammed the book closed.

Moby Dick no longer brought her comfort. All it did now was remind her of Adrien.

Suddenly angry at herself, Marinette threw her once beloved book across the empty library. The book clattered to the carpeted floor, opening as its pages bluntly took the brunt of the impact. A small snap indicated that the pages had come undone from the spine. Marinette couldn't find it in herself to care. The book was old and was bound to break someday. It was only a matter of time before it could no longer put her broken heart back together.

Her fists clenched atop the table. She should've never agreed to become Adrien's friend. She should've never trusted him enough to open up her heart to him. She should've never allowed him to climb over the wall she'd built for her protection. What had she been expecting? That he would be different than the rest? That he would accept her for who she was? That he would overlook her abnormalities? She'd been foolish to believe that.

Everyone was the same. Everyone despised the difference. No one wanted to be patient with them.

The shuffling of one's shoes along the rug touched her eardrums. Marinette's head shot up to the sound, only to find the one person she'd hoped to never see again right in front of her.

And in his hands, he held the spine of Moby Dick in one and its pages in the other.

"Marinette..."

With an immediate shake of her head, Marinette's eyes quickly averted from his. She hastily stood from her seat and, with trembling hands, moved to collect her stuff. She didn't want to talk to him. She didn't want to see him. She didn't want to be near him.

"Marinette, wait!" But Adrien was persistent and rounded on her before she could escape. He cornered her against a bookshelf, his gaze pleading. "Please! I just want to talk—"

"Leave me alone." Her voice was emotionless when she spoke, but her eyes spoke volumes. Tears clouded her vision, but they wouldn't cloud her judgment. Not this time.

"Marinette, please." But he didn't listen, and he certainly didn't care either that she wanted him gone. Instead, he begged for her reconsideration. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean what I said, okay? I was just frustrated, and I didn't know how to handle it, so I took it out on you. I didn't mean it, and I'm sorry! You have to believe me when I say I'm sorry!"

But she didn't believe him. Perhaps she might've, considering no one had ever come back after rejecting her, but Adrien had been the last straw. He'd been her last chance at feeling normal.

Now, all she felt was emptiness... and numbness. Adrien's apology meant nothing to her.

"I just want you to leave me alone." She said. Her eyes, empty and dull, wouldn't avert from his until he understood this—until he understood that she wanted nothing more to do with him.

His pained eyes were rapidly searching hers. "Marinette, please, you have to believe me. If I had known how my words would've affected you—"

"You wouldn't have said them to begin with?" She finished his thought before it could even leave his lips. His gaping mouth was enough to assume she had guessed correctly. "Typical."

"I'm telling you the truth, I swear—"

She didn't let him finish. "Do you know how many times I've read that line in a book? You're not the first one to try and fix everything with that phrase."

"Marinette, please, just listen to me—"

"I was stupid to want to be your friend." She raised her hands only so that she could gently push him away, and he let her. With a few steps backward, she now had room to escape his agonized gaze. "But I was naïve to think you would ever want to be mine."

She moved to step past him, not even bothering to look over her shoulder at what his reaction might've been. She walked for several steps, each one slowly nearing her towards the exit of the library, until he finally said something that had her pausing in her step.

"What about Moby Dick?" Adrien's monotone voice asked, "It's broken. At least let me fix it for you."

Her back remained facing towards the blonde as she emotionlessly said, "Don't bother. That book means nothing to me now. I already know how it ends."

A tense silence filled the stuffy air between them. Marinette found herself rooted in her spot, only curious about how Adrien might respond.

His response was hesitant but anticipated. "H-How does it end?"

Her head tilted to her left, revealing her jawline, but her bangs cascaded into her eyes, concealing them from him.

"Moby Dick wins." She answered. "Everyone hated him simply by what they saw instead of realizing that they were the ones who made him into the monster they feared. So, he decided to be what they all assumed he was."

Marinette immediately felt lighter after explaining that to him. In fact, a smirk found its way to her lips. A moment later, a bitter chuckle echoed throughout the newfound silence, the sound being her own.

"And I'm Moby Dick."

_______________________________

*me rereading this as I edit it and my stomach clenching as I read all of this angst*

Anyways, I'm getting a villain-y vibe from this.

Like Marinette has finally reached her endpoint and has become the bad guy. idk.

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one! See you in the next one-shot! (Be sure to check out my bio or the 'Welcome to My Profile' book underneath 'update schedule' for when the next scheduled update will be.)

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