The bell rings and the class begins, as Marinette barrels through the door at the last second. Miss Bustier takes no notice.

Marinette faces resolutely to the front of the classroom, not really paying attention to the words on the board, ignoring Peter's whispers from across the classroom, and not even touching his passed notes.

She thinks back to last night. Chat had messaged her on her yo-yo. He had logged into the tracker account and watched the signal go up, and up, and up, until it had stopped and disappeared. The tracker is made to track across countries, so that means wherever Peter is staying must be able to cancel the signal.

Unless he's found the tracker.

Marinette makes it all the way to lunch, trying to act casual and nice to avoid suspicion, but she also feels violently sick from betrayal everytime she looks at Peter, until Alya confronts her in the bathroom.

"What is up with you, girl?" she asks, exasperated, one hip cocked to the side. "Why are you avoiding Peter?"

Marinette is torn as she panics. She can't tell Alya the truth, but she's also terrible at lying, but it would be great to get some advice from her best friend. Ah!

"I- well- technically I'm not avoiding him," she stammers, and Alya raises an eyebrow. "I just don't exactly feel comfortable talking to him right now..."

This isn't exactly a lie. She hasn't been intentionally avoiding him, but perhaps she has been acting a bit coldly...

Alya sighs dramatically, relaxing her stance and dropping her arms to her sides. "Is this about Adrien? If you like Peter, too, then you like Peter, too. It's simple. You shouldn't hate him for it."

"What?! Alya, no!" Marinette rushes to interject, all but slamming her hands over Alya's mouth to get her to stop talking. "That's not what this is! It's-"

Marinette is cut off- saved- from answering by Alex slamming the door open, exclaiming, "Oh my God! You guys have got to check this out!"

-

Adrian feels Peter sit next to him at the lunch table, he doesn't bother to look up from his sandwich, as he desperately wishes that Nino will hurry back from the computer room.

"That gym class was brutal," he hears Peter drone on, taking out his lunch bag from his school bag, and setting his food on the table. "Kim really needs to give the other boys a chance- apple?" he offers.

Adrian shakes his head, and Peter takes a bite from the fruit.

How had he not seen this before? He thinks amongst Peter's crunching and his obnoxious chattering. Peter's reflexes in sports have always been way better and faster that everybody else's, even - he reluctantly admits - his own.

"Do you ever think about why Marinette is late everyday?" Peter asks, his tone curious and light.

It makes his blood boil.

"No," he says, his tone bland and carefully balanced, "Why would I?"

"Do you think she's doing something secret? I don't believe she always sleeps in," he says, leaning in like it's some kind of conspiracy.

"I don't care; it's none of our business," Adrien shrugs, taking a sip of his orange juice.

There is a moment of irritating, skin-crawling silence, where Adrien tries to focus on his drink.

"Can you show me how to answer this question from Miss Bustier?" Peter asks, and Adrien fights back his groan. Peter sets his book out on the table. "I just can't wrap my head around it."

Without a word, Adrien takes his pen out of his pocket, grabs Peter's book, scribbles down the answer, and barely stops himself from shoving the book back at Peter.

"What is with you today?" Peter snaps, exasperated and bitter, standing up to shove his book into his bag. "Honestly, I haven't done anything to you!"

Adrien snaps.

In a flash of blind rage, Adrien's fist connects with Peter's jaw in a vicious upper-cut. Peter barely catches himself from crashing to the ground.

"Adrien!"

He barely hears the few shocked gasps and exclamations as he moves forward.

Peter gives him an unsure look, considering him.

What, a model can't fight?

He moves forward to land another punch, which Peter catches, pulling him forward so that they stand face-to-face.

"Stay away from Marinette!" Adrien hisses, pushing against Peter's chest and trying to kick his legs out from under him.

Peter let's him, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down with him. They scramble on the floor, throwing loose punches as each boy fights to gain the upper hand.

Peter quickly triumphs, Adrien not being as skilled outside of the suit, pinning Adrien to the floor by sitting on his stomach, sending a flurry of punches as Adrien blocks his face with his arms.

"BOYS!" A teacher admonishes angrily while the rest of the school continues shout and chant.

Two of the male staff members pull them apart. They're brought to their feet to face a seething Miss Bustier.

"Principal's office. Now!"

-

Peter sits in the plastic chair outside of the principal's office. Adrien had already been collected by his bodyguard and his father's assistant almost immediately.

He sees Tony striding down the hallway, Miss Bustier in tow.

"You must see how this is entirely inappropriate-" he hears Miss Bustier ranting as the two draw nearer.

"Yes, yes, of course - I agree," Tony says confidently, not paying the teacher much attention as he makes eye contact with Peter. "A week suspension is more than reasonable. C'mon, kid! Time to go," he calls.

Peter slugs his school bag onto his shoulder and walks over to the pair, licking his already healing split lip. It should be better by tomorrow, if not sooner.

"We do not tolerate fighting at this school, Peter," Miss Bustier continues her rant from earlier, obviously still very angry. "Under no circumstance are you to ever do this again."

"I understand, Miss Bustier. It won't happen again," he gives her a small smile, hoping to convey sincerity and shame.

It's not lost on him how unfair it is for him to get lectured and suspended for Adrien attacking him. He supposes it's Gabriel Agreste and his legal threats that they are really afraid of, especially with Chloe's obsession with Adrien and her father's political position.

Miss Bustier eyes him skeptically before kindly wishing them both a good afternoon.

"Talk about a no tolerance policy, are these people blind?" Tony echoes his thoughts from earlier, walking them both out of the building.

"Tell me you at least got some information from Agreste," Tony demands as they cross the street, "because you getting suspended is really going to hold back our mission."

"No, no information," he reluctantly admits, staring down at his shoes on the crosswalk. He really doesn't want Tony to be disappointed in him. He hears Tony sigh, before adding quickly, "He was acting super weird, though."

"'Weird'?" Tony repeats as they continue down the street. "'Weird', how?"

Peter instinctively smiles at Tony's interest. "He wouldn't even look at me. He refused to talk about Marinette, he snatched my book from me when I asked for help, then, he, you know, actually attacked me." He emphasises the last part.

"Maybe that strict diet that the kid is on is making him hangry," Tony suggests with minimal humour, "That still doesn't give him a reason to kick your ass- or, try to."

They walk in silence as Peter thinks over the situation. Everyone says that Adrien is super kind, and all the teachers had looked shocked when they had learned that Adrien had participated in a fight, and even more so when he had admitted to starting it.

He can't remember doing or saying anything that would have annoyed Adrien this much.

What was it that Adrien had said during that fight?

'Stay away from Marinette.'

There's a crash from behind them, followed by a string of, "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

They turn and look back to see Marinette holding a single, cracked pot, surrounded by a sea of ceramic shards, and a very angry salesman telling her off and demanding to be repaid.

Tony strides forward. "Oh no, what happened here?" he asks airily and with false concern.

The man turns to direct his rant to him, and Tony calmly takes out his wallet, pulls out a wad of cash, and drops it onto the empty display table.

"Keep the change," he says coolly, "You're Marinette, right? Peter's friend." He gives Marinette a charming smile.

"I- yes, I'm friend- I'm Peter- I'm Peter's friend!" she stutters, blushing nervously.

"Cutting class? I thought Peter said you're not a troublemaker?" he continues before she can answer. "I'm going to head into that coffee shop and grab a latte. You can hang out with Peter until I get back."

He doesn't wait for a response, quickly walking away into one of the many shops on the street.

"Why are you skipping class, Marinette?" Peter asks, concerned. He doesn't want to think that she was following him, but that's exactly what this looks like.

How would he have given himself away? That's the only reason he can think of for her following him. He hadn't even used his super strength in that fight! Well, not all of it.

"Um," she says dumbly, looking around them before perking up. "I actually came to make sure you're okay! I can't believe that Adrien would actually do that, especially to you. Or, well," she considers, reaching up to gently touch his bruised cheek and now healing lip. "I guess it's not that hard to believe."

Peter's breath catches in his chest at the contact, remembering their hug, that night, disguised as their alter egos. If Marinette ever finds out that he is SpiderMan, she'll never trust him again.

"Yep, well, I've had worse," he says.

She pulls her hand back to her side, tilting her head curiously, "So, who is that guy that you're with?"

Peter looks back in the general direction of where Tony went. "Oh, um, that's Tony. He's my boss."

"Your boss? I didn't know you have a job," she asks immediately, surprised, "What do you do?"

Oh no. He hadn't thought this far.

"Oh, you know, just," he stalls, fighting to rub at the back of his neck, "technical... work... things," he says lamely, and it comes out as more of a question. He changes the topic.

"I've been trying to talk to you all day, are you okay?"

She narrows her eyes at the diversion. "I've had a lot to think about," she answers. "What's Tony's last name? He looks familiar; I might go and look him up."

She is acting very weird. Why is everybody acting weird today? Oh, please, she cannot know. He'll be in so much trouble if she's already figured it out.

"Stark," he states, suspicion becoming evident in his voice. "Are you sure you're alright, Marinette? I've already had one person throw a punch at me today, and I am not ready for another one."

She steps towards him with the same look of anger in her eyes that Adrien had had in his. He fights not to take a step back, taking comfort in the silence of his spidey-sense.

"I've had enough of your games, Peter, Spiderman, or whoever it is you actually are." She keeps walking until they are standing right in front of eachother. He looks down at her, her face concrete with anger and determination. "It's time for you to stay away from me and my friends, go back to America, and stay there!"

He considers laughing. Denying everything and trying to salvage what he can. Keep her away from his identity. But, deep down, he already knows that it's too late.

He starts to speak, but she has already turned away. She gives him a curt and pointed, "Goodbye," over her shoulder, and disappears amongst the Parisian crowd.

He hears Tony come back out of the coffee shop, and he sighs.

She knows that he's Spiderman.

She's never going to trust him again.

-

2021 Words

Hey, guys! Thank you for all of your support. You're all wonderful! :)

The story is almost over now. If you have any suggestions, now is the time to let me know!

Don't forget to vote and comment. Your encouragement fuels me!

See you soon! :)

♡