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“Crap.”
Marinette cursed quietly under her breath as she felt the back of her ear. She wasn’t sure what had caused her to reach up and check, but sure enough, the post was sticking through her ear, the protective backing nowhere to be found.
“You okay?” Alya asked from the seat next to her.
Marinette turned to her with wide eyes, careful not to let her voice rise too much as she answered while the teacher continued to talk. “I’m missing the back of one of my earrings.”
Alya’s eyebrows shot up on her forehead. She quickly glanced down at their feet, panning the area for any telltale flashes of silver.
Marinette’s hand reached out to cover her friend’s where it rested on the desk. “No,” she whispered. Her eyes glanced back to the front of the classroom, making sure the teacher’s back was still turned. “I just noticed it was missing—I have no idea when or where it fell out.”
She felt icy coils rising up from the bottom of her stomach. How could she not have noticed? What if she had lost the whole earring? Or, worse, what if she had lost both? She was such a klutz she wondered how this had never happened before.
“Marinette, it’s okay,” Alya whispered back. “We’ll find it… and if we don’t I’m sure we can get a replacement.”
Marinette nodded, despite herself. She hadn’t noticed the blonde head in front of her turning slightly to listen in on her and Alya’s hushed conversation.
Against her thigh, she felt a gentle pat, and she turned to see Tikki, just barely peeking out of her purse on the bench beside her. The little kwami gave her a gentle smile when their eyes met, and Marinette felt some of the anxiety slip away. Tikki was still there. She still had both earrings. It wasn’t the end of the world. She took a deep breath.
Turning forward, Marinette forced herself to try and listen to the teacher’s lecture again. By the end of the hour, her notes were somewhat legible, but hardly sensible. The only thing on her mind continued to be her earrings.
“Okay, class, that’s it for today,” the teacher finally, finally announced. “Don’t forget to read Chapter 11 in your textbooks.”
Marinette shot up from her seat as soon as she heard the scraping of chairs around her. Her mind immediately tried to form some sort of plan of action. They had a lot of ground to cover, and with just Alya, Tikki and herself, it would probably take awhile. First things, first, she had to look in her immediate vicinity. She grabbed her bookbag from the ground and dumped its contents onto her desk.
“Hey, Marinette,” a gentle voice called out from in front of her.
Her panicked eyes flicked up from her pile, meeting green. Her eyes went wide as she realized she was staring into Adrien’s face.
“I heard you and Alya talking,” Adrien said, looking a bit sheepish as he admitted to eavesdropping. “Nino and I can help search, if you want?”
She looked over to Adrien’s side, where Nino was still seated. The other boy gave her an encouraging smile.
“Uh,” was all that came out of her mouth. Alya elbowed her in the side, and Marinette came back to life. “Thanks, Adrien. That would be a bug yelp— big help,” she replied, hoping her smile looked more thankful than manic.
He smiled back, clearly unphased by her panicked state. “So what are we looking for?”
She turned her head to the side, presenting the ear that still thankfully had an earring completely intact. “My earring back,” she said, pointing at the back of her ear. “It’s kinda shaped like a little bowtie? If you haven’t seen one before—not that it would be weird if you did—or wait, no… I guess I have seen you with earrings—um…” She stopped when she felt Alya’s not-so-subtle kick to the side of her leg.
Adrien continued to smile, nonetheless. “Got it,” he said with a nod.
Nino spoke up from where he was still seated. “Should you take out the other earring, though? Just so it doesn’t fall out while we—”
“No!” Marinette shouted, a little too loud, cutting him off. Her face colored as she realized her mistake. “Uh, no, it’s fine,” she said, “I don’t think it will fall out and I’ll be careful.”
“Okay…” Nino responded slowly, not seeming like he got it, but dropped the subject anyway. Marinette sighed in relief.
The four friends soon fanned out in the classroom, retracing Marinette’s steps and searching for the tiny earring back. She felt so lucky that the boys seemed to understand how important it was to her without her having to explain a thing. She would have to find a way to thank them later.
Eventually, after completely scanning every nook and cranny of the classroom, they decided to expand the search. Carefully, they made their way out to the hallway, watching their feet all the way. Still no sign of the earring back. Most of the students had already gone home for the day, so no one said anything to the four with their necks craned down at the ground. Marinette just hoped that no wayward feet had sent the little silver piece flying to somewhere they wouldn’t be able to reach.
“Maybe we should split up,” Alya suggested. “We’ll cover more ground that way.”
Marinette, Nino and Adrien nodded in agreement. Too preoccupied with finding her earring back, Marinette failed to notice Alya’s trademark scheming expression.
“Okay, Nino, you and I will head to the cafeteria,” Alya continued, grabbing her boyfriend by the wrist. “Adrien and Marinette, why don’t you head to the locker room?”
That caught Marinette’s attention. Her head snapped up to glare at her best friend, who’s eyes only sparkled in gleeful craftiness.
Before she could say anything, Adrien nodded his ascent. “Sounds good,” he said. “Let’s go, Marinette.”
He walked towards the door leading to the locker rooms, giving Marinette a chance to aim one more, perfectly leveled scowl at Alya behind his back.
Alya gave her a little wave as Marinette turned on her heel. They would be having a discussion later. This was about her earrings! Ladybug’s earrings! Not the time to fall over her feet over Adrien. Though, she couldn’t help but adore how kind and selfless it was of him to offer his help.
She looked up from her feet again as she got closer to the door. There was Adrien, standing there with his arm holding it open, a kind smile spread across his face. Her answering expression was nervous, but grateful.
As soon as they got into the locker room, it was back to searching. Adrien started on the side by the boys’ bathroom, and Marinette started at the girls,’ the plan being that they would meet in the middle to ensure every square inch was checked. Marinette had a little more ground to cover, being that she would have had no reason to actually enter the boys’ bathroom, meaning Adrien had no need to search inside.
They had been at the search for a while now, and Marinette was starting to accept that, perhaps, it was all for naught. And really, it wasn’t the end of the world if they didn’t find it. She knew she had plenty of earrings at home that were virtually unworn these days, and she could easily just use the back of one of those. As long as she had the studs in her possession, surely, that was enough for her to be Ladybug.
She opened up her purse once she was sure that Adrien was behind a row of lockers and out of sight. Tikki looked up at her with gentle blue eyes and a kind smile. Marinette couldn’t help but smile back, feeling much better.
She closed the purse and straightened up, ready to call off the search and relieve her friends of their duty.
Before she could say anything though, Adrien’s head popped out from around the corner of the lockers. “Marinette!” he exclaimed. “Is this it?”
Marinette’s head whipped around to look at him, her heart pounding. Too late, she realized she had moved too fast.
Plink! Clink, clink, clink.
Marinette’s backless earring flew from her ear, rolling and bouncing across the floor until it stopped at Adrien’s feet. A strangled gasp escaped her throat as her eyes followed its journey. She should have listened to Nino.
Adrien blinked at her where he stood, his eyes following her gaze to where the earring sat on the floor. He leaned down to pick it up, freezing before his fingers took it into his grasp.
His eyes widened as he looked from the lone earring, to Marinette, and back again.
Marinette held her breath where she stood, wondering why he had stopped moving. She mustered the courage to call out to him. “Adrien?”
He seemed to break from his stupor at her voice. Gently, so gently, he plucked the earring from the ground and held it reverently in his palm. He placed the earring back that he had found beside it.
Slowly, he looked up at her to meet her eyes, then took careful steps towards her. When he finally stood just a mere few inches away, he offered the earring to her.
Marinette broke her eyes from his gaze to look down at her earring. She was delighted to see that it was indeed the earring back she had lost, but her blood ran cold when she realized what had stopped Adrien in his tracks earlier.
There, caressed gently in his palm, instead of the usual solid black, was a red-and-black-spotted stud.
Marinette swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. Adrien had yet to say anything on the matter, and nerves were swirling around her gut. She squeezed her eyes shut. No matter what he thought, she needed her earring back.
She opened her eyes. Adrien was still patiently holding out his hand, waiting for her to take the proffered jewelry. She reached out her hand and slowly covered his own. Tingles ran up her arm as they made contact, but she forced the feeling out of her mind, wrapping her fingers around the earring and back.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“You’re welcome, my Lady.”