Chapter Text
Adrien Agreste knew that it wasn’t a good idea for him to sneak off to a pro-bending match, but he just couldn’t help himself. The 19-year-old had been expressly forbidden by his father, who held much disdain towards any kind of bender, though Adrien wasn’t entirely sure why.
Adrien thought bending was amazing.
It was unfortunate that his family seemed to lack whatever it was that triggered the phenomenon in the first place. His father, fashion mogul Gabriel Agreste, came from a long line of non-benders who were very public in their disapproval of the bending arts. Adrien’s mother, on the other hand, while also from a line of non-benders, was more accepting of the gift.
Adrien could recall his mother taking Adrien to watch firebenders perform the Dancing Dragon during the Summer Solstice every year for his birthday. Of course, that all ended once she died, and Adrien’s father was vigilant in ensuring that his only son steered clear of any abnormalities.
It was just his luck that his father left Paris to go on a much-anticipated business trip, leaving Adrien at the manor with his bodyguard.
He was only too eager to give the man the slip, leaping from his bedroom window into the bustling crowd, his feet carrying him until he made it to the subway.
It was a sweltering summer evening in Paris, and Adrien had just stepped out of the crowded subway station close to the pro-bending arena. He could tell most of the passengers were headed for the match, as many sported T-shirts with their teams’ logo emblazoned across the chest.
There were also a handful of zealous fans, whose faces were painted in vibrant reds and blues, with an assortment of noisemakers ready to support their team. Adrien had also considered bringing something along for the occasion, but ultimately decided against it, as he didn’t need his father or Nathalie, Gabriel’s no-nonsense assistant, finding out what he was up to.
As Adrien pushed his way through the throng of excited spectators, he could feel his heart pounding into his chest as the arena came into view. Then, just as quickly as the arena came into view, it disappeared.
Adrien was blocked by a skinny middle-aged man. He was balding, with patches of gray hair sticking up haphazardly in all different directions. In his long, spindly fingers, he held a sign that read “STOP BENDER OPPRESSION. JOIN THE EQUALIST MOVEMENT.”
“Do not support this disgusting display of the bender regime!” the man spot contemptuously. “For years, no centuries, we non-benders have been pushed around by the bending elite! It’s time for change!”
A small crowd had begun to form around the group of protesters, curiously listening in on the man.
“We’re tired of benders being rewarded for their natural abnormalities,” the man continued, “It’s about time we put an end to the bending era! Join Papillon and he will show you the way.”
Adrien was well aware of this problem that’d been on the rise since before he was born. After all, he’d heard his father share the same sentiments over the morning paper, his cold blue stare reading the morning paper with disdain.
Adrien wasn’t exactly sure why his father hated bending, but he knew better than to challenge him about it.
“What exactly is your problem with benders?” demanded a stranger from the small crowd of fans. The protesters frowned at the interloper and ,judging from the sudden surge of tension that zipped through the air, Adrien decided to quickly walk around the impending altercation.
He hastily pushed the protest to the back of his mind as he continued towards the ring.
The arena looked more like a lightshow, with every inch of the building illuminated by giant spotlights that flashed across the darkening sky. The arena was a tall, wide stone building, embellished with stone archways that surrounded the entire perimeter of the second floor. Four towers stood at each corner of the building, a beam of blinding light shining down on the arriving guests from between its stone archways. In the center of the building was a magnificent glass dome, which Adrien could only assume hovered over the actual playing arena within.
Adrien felt his heart soar as his eyes fell upon the arena. It was even more spectacular in person, he decided.
Up ahead, Adrien could see a group of event staff standing before a great archway, multiple times larger than the ones on the second floor and on the towers above.
“Please have your tickets out!” one staffer, a large, surly-looking man with a mop of dark hair and a thick mustache, bellowed.
Adrien dug into his pockets, hastily pulling out his ticket.
He had no difficulties getting his ticket scanned by the staffer, and he was quickly pushed into the arena by the buzzing crowd. Once standing in the cavernous main lobby, Adrien scanned the crowd.
“Hey, Adrien!” cried a tall, brown-skinned boy in a red hat. Adrien smiled.
“Nino!” Adrien happily shouted, bounding across the lobby to greet him.
Nino Lahiffe had been Adrien’s best friend since the two met in college, the boys hitting it off immediately after their first encounter. Nino, though from a family of non-benders, discovered that he was a firebender at a very young age. Adrien, knowing how his father would react, kept this information from him so that he would be able to keep hanging out with his friend.
Nino was one of the few people who were regularly allowed inside Agreste manor without needing clearance from Nathalie.
Nino grinned at Adrien, “You get out alright?”
Adrien nodded, “The Gorilla just got a shipment of new action figures, so he was tearing through the crates when I left. I doubt he’ll check in on me with all the unboxing he has to do.”
“Awesome,” Nino said. He pushed his square-rimmed glasses up his nose and peered up at the clock right above the arena’s entrance. Twenty minutes to eight o’clock.
“Oh good, we have some time,” Nino jerked his head in the direction of another door, motioning for Adrien to follow, “I want you to meet someone.”
Together, the pair made their way through the crowd of spectators, passing by kiosks that sold colorful team jerseys, banners, and hats, and concession stands where the most mouth-watering smells wafted from. Accustomed to his strictly regulated diet, Adrien’s stomach snarled as they passed the food stands, and Adrien took note of every single thing sold.
There were about a dozen types of popcorn, succulent foot-long hot dogs covered in rich chilis and sweet carmelized onions, crispy nachos dressed to the nines with spicy carnitas, fresh queso fresco, tangy salsas, and creamy guacamole, piping hot dosas served with spiced potatoes and a colorful array of sauces, sweet deep-fried doughs delicately dusted in confectioners’ sugar and topped with ice cream and chocolate syrup, and an assortment of other delectable goods that would send Adrien’s nutritionist into cardiac arrest.
“We’ll grab a bite before we go up to our seats,” Nino promised with a laugh, eyeing Adrien’s ravenous expression knowingly.
He led Adrien through a series of doors, the chaotic noise of the lobby quickly fading behind them.
“Where are we going anyway?” Adrien asked curiously.
The final door the boys approached was located down a dark, dingy hallway. There was no sign; however, Adrien could hear muffled voices through the wooden door. Nino rapped a little song against it and waited.
To Adrien’s surprise, the door flung open instantly, revealing a curly-haired redheaded girl with red cat-eye spectacles perched on the bridge of her nose. Her full lips curled into a smile as her bright hazel eyes fell on Nino.
“Nino!” she exclaimed, leaning forward to peck him on his cheek, “I was wondering where you went.”
“I told you,” Nino replied easily, “I was grabbing my friend before the match.”
He gestured towards Adrien who felt very nervous when the redhead drew her attention from Nino onto Adrien. Adrien was relieved when the girl’s smile—if it was even possible—widened. Striding forward, she marched up to Adrien and greeted him with a customary kiss to both cheeks.
“You must be Adrien!” she chirped, “My name’s Alya! Nino talks about you all the time. He mentioned that you were dying to come to a Pro-bending match, so we only thought it appropriate to invite you! It’s the semi-finals, so it should be a really exciting match.”
The words flew from Alya’s mouth a hundred miles a minute, and Adrien blinked rapidly, almost as if the blinking would help him absorb the information better. To his relief, Alya didn’t take offense to his silence. He wondered if Nino warned her of his social awkwardness.
Adrien had heard of Alya before. She was Nino’s girlfriend of about one year. It was a crazy concept to Adrien that he’d never met his best friend’s girlfriend before this day, though he supposed that’s what happened when you were constantly flitting around Europe posing for magazine shoots, walking for fashion shows, and attending red carpet events.
It made Adrien appreciate the normalcy of the situation even more.
After a long moment of thinking, Adrien cleared his throat behind his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Alya,” Adrien said shyly, “I’m sorry we haven’t had the chance to meet before today.”
“It’s all good!” Alya waved him off, “And besides, we can all hang out now that we’ve officially met.”
Adrien jumped at the invitation of making another friend. He perked up immediately, smiling down at Alya, “Yes! Absolutely. And thanks for inviting me!” he added, “I’ve been wanting to come to a match for ages now.”
“It’s just our luck that Alya’s best friend is actually a player for one of the teams,” Nino told Adrien, who in turn gaped at this information.
“What?” he asked.
Alya nodded, “Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She’s the waterbender for the Capital City Pantherbeetles.”
The Pantherbeetles were one of the most highly-anticipated teams in this year’s Pro-bending tournament and were Adrien’s pick to win today’s game. Adrien had seen plenty of their games on TV at home and had poured over hours of commentary from plenty of industry professionals. They were brand new to the game and were the youngest in the league as well.
“Alya?” a new voice interjected, breaking the silence, “Who are you talking to?”
“Nino’s here and he brought his friend!” Alya called back, beckoning the two to enter the room.
There wasn’t anything particularly special about the room, Adrien noted. It contained an old coffee table, an ugly brown loveseat, a small TV set propped onto a crate, and a set of lockers across the back wall. Standing next to the lockers was a young girl no older than Adrien. She was petite, with ink-black tresses tied into shoulder-length pigtails, a light spattering of freckles across the bridge of the nose, and bright blue eyes that reminded Adrien very much of bluebells.
He also noted that she was actually quite pretty, looking over at Adrien and Nino with a friendly smile on her face.
“Marinette!” Nino greeted, arms outstretched to engulf the girl in a hug. Marinette grinned, wrapping her arms tightly around Nino’s shoulders, giggles escaping her as the taller boy lifted her off her feet, swinging her from side to side.
“Hey Nino!” she replied, “I’m glad you could make it!”
“There wasn’t a chance I’d miss it,” Nino threw a hand over his heart. “You guys will do great.”
“I hope,” Marinette sighed, “Kim’s been working us day and night. Alix nearly threw an earth disc at him yesterday because he was trying to correct her form.” she stifled a laugh, “It took him a while to remember that firebenders have different techniques.”
Nino shook his head in amusement.
There was a lull in the conversation, and that’s when Marinette finally noticed Adrien standing quietly by the door. Smiling kindly, she detangled herself from Nino and approached Adrien, one hand outstretched, her blue eyes twinkling.
“Hi, I’m Marinette!” she said cheerily, capturing Adrien’s larger hand in hers, “I’m guessing you’re Adrien. Thanks so much for coming to the match.”
“Thanks for inviting me,” Adrien responded warmly. “I’ve never been to a pro-bending match before.”
“Never?” Marinette parroted, her thin, dark eyebrows rising up against her fringe in surprise.
Adrien shook his head in confirmation, but before Marinette could respond, two resounding knocks to her door, followed by a louder bang echoed through the room. The door swung open, bouncing off the exposed brick wall with a loud thwack. Everyone jumped in surprise except Marinette.
“Alright, Marinette, we got 10 minutes till showtime!” exclaimed a short pink-haired girl. Adrien recognized the girl as the Pantherbeetles’ earthbender, Alix Kubdel.
“You can’t knock like a normal person, Alix?” Alya teased.
Alix scoffed, “Yeah, as soon as Marinette’s actually on time for our team huddle.”
“Hey!” Marinette whined, “I resent that!”
Alix ignored her, “Kim is so revved up, I wouldn’t be surprised if he burned a hole in his costume already.”
“He’d better not have!” Marinette said crossly, frowning at Alix, “Or else he’s just gonna have to play with a singed uniform. I’m not sewing anything with only 10 minutes left, I swear to God—”
“Well, let’s go then!” Alix snapped, grabbing Marinette by her wrist and dragging her towards the door.
“Ah, oh…um, I’ll see you guys after the match then!” Marinette called over her shoulder, “It was nice meeting you Adrien!”
“You too!” he called after her, watching Alix continue to haul Marinette down the hall until they disappeared around another corner.
“We should get to our seats now,” Alya sighed, checking her wrist watch, “We don’t have very long till the first round.”
Together, Nino, Adrien, and Alya made their way back to the main lobby, which was still just as crowded as it had been when Adrien had arrived. After successfully securing some snacks—Adrien insisted on paying for everyone and was quite satisfied with the gargantuan bag of fire flakes he got for himself—the trio made their way to their seats.
The arena was more spectacular on the inside than outside, Adrien noted. Marinette had managed to secure the three of them box seats, allowing them premier views of the entire playing field. The pro-bending arena was a large hexagonal platform, elevated high above a pit full of water. Two referee towers stood high above the ring.
The ring was half red and half blue, and each half of the stage was divided into three zones, marked by metal grates from which waterbenders could pull water from. Throughout the playing field, earth disc deposits were dotted in each zone—21 deposits per side, Adrien believed.
“So, this is what a pro-bending arena looks like in real life,” Adrien breathed, his green eyes scanning the ring, taking in every detail.
“It’s great, isn’t it?” said Alya, “I hear getting thrown into the ropes on the sides hurts a lot.”
“I’d believe it,” Nino snorted. “Marinette said she had bruises on her back because she was thrown into the ropes so often during that match with the Wolfbats.”
Adrien remembered that match quite well. It’d been a very close call, especially since the Wolfbats had been cheating behind the referee’s backs throughout the entire game. It was just the Pantherbeetles’ luck that their waterbender—that Marinette, Adrien corrected—was quick enough to dodge the Wolfbats’ attacks long enough to tire them out and knock them out of the ring.
The Wolfbats’ captain, a tall and lanky waterbender with sleek black hair, looked almost angry enough to spit fire.
The sports channels dissected the play for days, and video of the game had gone viral on social media, making the Pantherbeetles a trending topic for a considerable amount of time.
“It’s starting!” Alya cried, pointing down towards the ring, where the announcer appeared, a microphone clasped tightly in his hands.
“Welcome to this year’s Pro-bending semi-finals!" the cheering in the ring was deafening, and Adrien was sitting at the edge of his seat. The games were about to begin, and Adrien was more than ready for it.