Chapter Text
Card left in the suggestions box of the university’s library on Sunday evening:
“The reference librarian is super cute”
The card was signed with a little black cat doodled at the bottom.
Marinette loved working at the library. She loved getting to be surrounded by the rich scent of paper and ink, the constant rhythm of the printers, and being able to work on her designs during the quieter hours. The gratitude she got from the overwhelmed students she helped made her feel like one of the luckiest girls in Paris, and the fact that the reference desk had a clear view of the library’s small cafe was definitely an added bonus. As was the fact that her hours were almost the exact same as the cute barista that worked at said cafe.
His name was Adrien; she’d caught sight of his name tag while she was getting her morning coffee. He had perfect blond hair, and perfect tan skin, and perfect green eyes, and actually seemed a bit concerned the first time she ordered a “raspberry ivory mocha with six shots of espresso?” on her way out, even asking several times if “you’re sure you don’t just want two shots, I mean, you’re going to be awake for a week!” He also had a tendency to make ladybugs in the foam.
She strode into work on Monday, surprisingly alert for the start of the week. She’d been awake until 3:00 the previous night working on an essay about different types of fabric and their proper uses. A fashion major was not as easy as some people seemed to think.
Coming over to the reference desk, she heard two of her coworkers bickering.
“Come on, Alya, that handwriting is too pretty to belong to a guy, it’s obviously about me!”
“You can’t tell someone’s gender based off their penmanship, Nino. And even if it is a girl, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she likes guys.”
Marinette tucked her bookbag away under the desk counter. “And what are you two are arguing about this time?” She immediately started to load returned books onto the cart to be shelved. Another thing she loved about being a librarian; the soft thunk the books being placed on the cart, and the shoosh-shoosh of a book being put in its correct place.
“Mari, you know you don’t have to do that.” Alya pushed herself from her leaning position on the desk to take the books out of her friend’s hands.
“I know, but Mylène isn’t here yet, and neither one of you is doing your job,” Marinette countered, gently pulling the books from Alya’s grasp.
“We have a perfectly good reason not to be working, dude!” Nino said, joining the girls at the other end of the counter. “Look at this, Alya found it when she was sorting through the suggestion box!” He passed the notecard to Marinette, barely containing his enthusiasm.
“The reference librarian is super cute?” Marinette examined the little slip of paper. “So you guys are deciding which reference librarian the card is talking about?”
“Yes, and Nino is insisting that it’s him, even though I am obviously cuter!” Alya turned to face the boy in question. “And he keeps jumping to conclusions about the gender of the person that wrote it.”
“Have you ever met a guy with handwriting that good?”
“Just because you can barely read your own writing-”
"
“Yeah, but have you seen Alix’s chicken scratch? She’s a girl, and you know her cursive has been mistaken for Russian.” Marinette couldn’t help but chuckle at that one. She had to hand it to Alya; while she never seemed able to back down from an argument, she almost always came out on top.
Nino, however, didn’t know when to call it quits. “Okay, but that’s only one person. The note has to be about me! That is very obviously a girl’s handwriting, and you know the ladies can’t resist me.”
Marinette finished loading the cart, and just in time, it seemed. She caught the beginnings of her best friend’s lecture on heteronormativity and how she “had already said that, for fuck’s sake, Nino!” as she rolled her load of books away from the reference desk to be shelved. And if she decided to start with the books closest to the cafe, her friends were too busy to say anything about it.
Adrien loved working at the library cafe. He loved the thick aroma of coffee beans that clung to his clothes after leaving, the hum of the coffee machines, and getting to work on his physics homework during slower parts of the day. He loved the coupons and almost empty gift cards left by grateful students in the tip jar, and the fact that he had a clear view of the reference desk was pretty nice. Well, not the reference desk, exactly. More like the reference librarian.
Her name was Marinette, or at least that was the name she’d given him for her order. She had the prettiest blue eyes he’d ever seen, and she had short black hair that she usually wore in pigtails. (Though there had been one rougher seeming day where she’d arrived with her hair pulled back in the cutest messy bun. She’d also asked for a raspberry ivory mocha with SIX shots of espresso at the end of her shift.) He’d even taken to making ladybugs in the milk foam for her.
(She had these little red spotty earring she always wore, and a few times there had been a similarly patterned pen tucked behind her ear. She was so cute.)
The library was open until 3 in the morning, but there was nobody at the reference desk when Adrien’s shift ended Sunday evening. Perfect. He had something that he had to do. Quickly checking around, and seeing only the slight movement through the bookshelves coming from the night librarian resorting books, he strolled over to the suggestions box and wrote out a note on a slip of paper. He slid it into the box and headed toward the door. “Goodnight Juleka!” He called over to the girl still organizing the shelves. As he exited the building he heard a murmured farewell from the other side of the library.
When he came back on Monday, he arrived to the sounds of heated conversation coming from the two librarians at the reference desk, something about ‘chicken scratch’ and ‘heteronormativity.’ He grinned, those two were always so quick to start an argument. He pushed through the door to the back room, hastily putting his bag away and retrieving his apron. He went to his place behind the counter, immediately getting started on an ivory mocha with raspberry syrup for a certain black-haired librarian.
“How do you even know that she’s going to want that? She might decide to order something different today.”
“She always gets the same thing, Kim. And you know she’s going to ask for this, or you would have tried to make a bet with me by now.” Adrien nudged his coworker as he loaded the coffee with whipped cream.
“Ha ha, very funny. But seriously, one day she might ask for a vanilla latte, or a strawberry iced tea, or a caramel macchiato. Oh, look, here she comes. You gonna make me trade jobs for five minutes like you always do?”
“Shut up and let me man the register.” Adrien playfully shoved Kim to the side. “Good morning miss, how are you today?”
“I’m doing great, and yourself?” Marinette was almost always at least somewhat cheerful, but today she seemed in an especially good mood.
“Pretty well, thank you. The usual?” Adrien had to restrain himself from asking about the ‘suggestion’ he’d left the previous night.
“Yes, please.”
“So what are your friends bickering about over there?” He couldn’t ask about the note directly, but he had a feeling that this question might quench his curiosity a bit.
“Oh, someone left a note in the suggestions box saying that the reference librarian is cute.” Marinette smiled at this, obviously amused at her friends.
“So they’re arguing about which librarian the note is talking about?” Kim joined in.
“Naturally,” a grin spread across Marinette’s face.
“Are they the only two that think it’s for them?” Arien prodded a bit further.
“Yeah, pretty much. But that’s probably going to change as more people come in. I was thinking it could be for Rose. Juleka works the last shift, and I know she’s got a huge crush on her.” Adrien blinked. She didn’t even think it might be for her? “But it’s also got this little black cat doodle that's throwing me off a bit... Juleka and Rose are both pretty big dog people, from what I’ve gathered.” Is Marinette also a dog person? Adrien hoped not.
“Well, your drink is ready. Adrien had it before you even came over,” Kim said, interrupting Adrien’s thoughts.
“Really? You’re so sweet, I mean that’s so sweet, um, I mean, that’s, uhh, very nice of you, Adrien,” Marinette’s eyes softened, and it may have been wishful thinking on Adrien’s part, but was that a hint of a blush on her cheeks?
Either way, he definitely felt his own face heating up. “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. You always order the same thing so I just, um…” He reached up to scratch the back of his head. “I mean…”
“Hello, how are you? May I take your order?” Kim jumped to the rescue. Oh shit, we’ve got a customer.
Adrien straightened, remembering that he had a job to do. He managed to stutter out, “um, enjoy your coffee, h-have a nice day,” before getting the next drink together.
“Please, for my sake, just ask her out already, Agreste,” Kim turned towards his friend as the customer walked away. “I can’t take your mushy pining anymore.”
“Ugh, I can’t. She’s out of my league.” Adrien slumped against the counter, disappointment creeping onto his face.
“Dude, are you kidding? You used to be a model! And you still are, when your dad really needs you to do a shoot. What happened to the super smooth kid I knew five years ago?”
Adrien couldn’t help but sigh.
I’ve been asking myself the same thing.