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nobodys-pearls · 7 years

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Hit on Me Ch 10

Summary: Modeling? Drug Cartels? Adrien’s two favorite things

Read on [AO3]

Max pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and sat down on the park bench, hugging his knees to his chest.

He thought back to a couple days ago, when he didn’t have his glasses on, when there was nothing separating him from the world, from Kim, from his lips –

Maybe taking them off was a mistake. Maybe he could live in a glass box, watching life pass him by from the safety of his own space, where no one could touch him and nothing would change.

But things had changed, and he couldn’t take it back. Time travel was just not mathematically possible yet. And he checked.

Max squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.

“Don’t worry, I will not let that get in the way of our professional relationship. Or our friendship.”

That’s what he had promised Kim. And he broke that promise. He betrayed Kim’s trust, and now he was probably confused and angry. Max would never forget the look on Kim’s face as he practically ran out of his apartment.

He looked scared.

But a small, insistent part of Max kept telling him something worse – that for Kim it had meant nothing at all. It was just…practice.

That’s why he was too afraid to see Kim again. Because what if he acted like everything was normal? What if he waved it off like it was no big deal?

Because it was a big deal. It was such a big deal that Max’s heart could break from the weight of it.

‘What does this mean for us?’ Max couldn’t help but think. And think. And think.

That’s what he did. He thought about things until his brain hurt with information. It was safer that way.

Of course the one time he chooses not to think, but to act, he gets himself in trouble.

“How does Kim live like this?” Max thought, putting his head in his hands. He could feel his throat burn. It was too much.

He hated when he got like this. Kim was wrong. He was a robot. A robot who shut down too often.

‘Did I scare him away?’

‘Did I ruin our friendship?’

‘Do I even like him like that?’

‘Does he hate me now?’

‘Why am I like this?’

Max realized that his breathing had become shallower.

No. He couldn’t do this. Not here in the park where people could see.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm the trembling in his hands. He counted for five seconds, then held it in for three, and then exhaled for seven. He kept doing it until his breathing evened out somewhat.

“That was too close Max.” He breathed, hanging his head. He knew that was only a temporary solution. He had to do something to fix this. He had to talk to Kim, and he had to sort out his own feelings.

And whatever happened, Max needed to be ready to accept it.

But he didn’t feel ready at all.

“Porca miseria!” A voice said. Max opened his eyes and picked his head up. Near the park fountain he saw an older man shaking his camera and looking at it in anger.

“This thing never works when I need it to!” The man said with a thick Italian accent. “It’s more temperamental than my wife, and she’s a-crazy! The love of my life, but a-crazy!”

“Here, Vincent, let me take a look at it.” Another, calmer, voice said. Then Max spotted someone around his age, a good looking guy with blond hair and a bright smile. He walked over to the photographer and held out his hands. The older man gave it to him and huffed in frustration.

The younger man looked at it for a second, and then shook it lightly. When that didn’t work he looked back up at the photographer. “That’s all I got.”

Vincent slumped his shoulders in defeat. “Your father is going to kill me if this puts him behind schedule.”

“It’ll be okay.” The blond said, patting Vincent’s back. But Max could see the worry on his face.

Then Vincent picked his head up and caught Max staring at him.

“Hey you,” The photographer said, walking up to Max. “Do you know anything about fixing cameras?”

Max sat there in surprise for a moment, thoughts of Kim and love and panic fading as he stared at the Italian man who was pointing a finger at him.

“Hey Vincent, don’t scare the poor guy.” The blond said, joining them. Max shifted his attention towards him and realized that he’d seen him before.

“You’re the guy on the billboards.” Max said, racking his brain for a name as he moved to stand up.

The blond chuckled and rubbed his neck bashfully. “That’s me. My name’s Adrien.”

That’s right. Adrien Agreste. Famous model. Most eligible bachelor in Paris. His father was one of the biggest designers in Europe. No big deal.

“I’m Max,” He said, holding out a hand. “You know only about two percent of the world’s population has green eyes. And it’s actually a genetic mutation. It’s funny how mutations can become attractive.” Max said, adjusting his glasses. God, why did social interaction always make him so nervous?

Vincent looked at him in confusion while Adrien shook his hand and smiled.

“I think I’ve met you before.” Adrien said, looking at him thoughtfully.

“I feel like I would remember meeting a famous model.” Max replied.

Adrien furrowed his brow in thought, then his eyes brightened in recognition. “Wait I know! I saw you at the –” Then his mouth snapped shut and his eyes widened. “I mean, you’re right, nevermind, I was thinking about someone else.” He said hurriedly, letting out a nervous laugh.

Vincent looked between the two of them in exasperation. Then he held out his camera to Max. “Can you fix it or not?”

“What makes you think he can fix it?” Adrien asked.

“Because he’s small and wears glasses. He probably knows all sorts of techy things.” Vincent replied simply.

“You know the scientific correlation between eyesight and field of interest is not very strong.” Max said, remembering saying those exact same words to Kim. It felt like a forever ago. He clenched his jaw and pushed away the memory.

“So you can’t fix it?”

Max sighed and took the camera. “I can.” He turned the camera over in his hands. “When I was little my younger brother and I used to take apart cameras, toys cars, all sorts of stuff for fun.” He explained, opening one of the compartments.

Vincent had a smug look on his face as he glanced at Adrien. Adrien simply rolled his eyes and smiled.

Max took out the battery and memory card.

“Please be careful with that! That has a week’s worth of photos and I haven’t backed them up yet.” Vincent said, eyes wide.

“Now that’s not very responsible.” Adrien teased, blinking innocently up at him.

Max glanced up at Vincent and lightly hit the camera with his palm. He watched as the photographer bit his lip. “The person who invented photography was French, Nicéphore Niépce.”

Vincent tapped his foot. “Yes, but Italy has the best photographers.”

Adrien furrowed his brow. “I thought Italians were more known for their paintings.” Max could hear the tease in his tone.

Vincent frowned. “Italy is the paragon of all art.”

“But France has the Mona Lisa.” Adrien pointed out.

“And it was an Italian who painted the Mona Lisa.” Vincent replied.

Max adjusted the lens barrel. “da Vinci might have painted her, but Paris put her in a glass pyramid for the world to see. I think that’s a little more impressive.”

Adrien snorted behind his hand as Vincent shot him a glare.

“Young people these days, mio Dio.” He said, rolling his eyes.

Max put the battery and memory card back into the camera and then looked through the view finder. “It works now.”

“Really?” Vincent exclaimed, carefully taking back his camera.

Max shrugged. “It just needed to reset. And the barrel was stuck.”

“Grazie. Sono salvo!” Vincent exclaimed, kissing his camera.

“It’s what we visually impaired people do, I suppose.” Max said, sitting back down on the bench. ‘It was a nice distraction, while it lasted.’ He thought to himself, his shoulders tense as memories from that day came flooding back once more.

“Hey, can I actually ask you for a favor?” Adrien said, looking down at Max with a wide smile.

“Okay.” Max said suspiciously.

“Take some pictures with me.”

“Wh-what?” Max choked out, eyes blown wide.

“You’ve heard of the Cheerleader Effect, right?” Adrien asked, moving to sit next to him on the bench.

“Of course. It’s the psychological bias that makes people think that individuals are more attractive when they are part of a group.”

Adrien nodded his head. “It’s so boring doing these things on my own, but if I had someone do it with me,” He explained, pulling Max gently to his feet, “Not only will it be more fun, but I’ll look more attractive.”

“You know, we have been looking for a new angle,” Vincent said, looking Max up and down. “appeal to a larger audience of people.” He smiled. “Yes, I think your father would approve.”

Max squirmed under their gaze. “I’m not sure if I can – I mean,” He couldn’t help but think of Kim in that moment. He would jump at the chance to have pictures taken of him, let alone pictures with a famous model that would probably be seen in magazines. It was like Kim had this aura of confidence around him at all times. Nothing could touch him, nothing could stop him. Le Chien Kim believed that anything was possible – so much so that he could get the people around him to start believing as well.

Computers were simple. People were not simple. Facts and logic, those things were concrete.

Max was made to think, not to act.

But what if he believed that he could do something more? What if he did what Kim would do, and started to run?

Max took a deep breath and looked at Adrien’s pleading gaze. “You know what? As a famous painter once said, ‘What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?’”

“da Vinci?” Vincent asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“No. Van Gogh.” Max said with a smile.

“Another point for France!” Adrien whooped, throwing an arm over Max’s shoulders and leading him towards the fountain. Max could hear Vincent sigh behind them.

“Okay, so this is for our fall collection, so put on this and this,” Vincent said, handing Max a dark green sweater and a tweed chestnut jacket. As Max started to put them on Vincent turned to Adrien and handed him a long charcoal coat. Vincent checked his watch. “We’re waiting on a few more items. She should be here by now.” He said, furrowing his brow.

“I’m here!” A girl said, running up to them with a bag in her hands. A few loose strands of hair from her ponytail framed her face, and she took a moment to catch her breath. “I’m here.” She breathed.

“Hey Marinette.” Adrien said, giving her a small wave. Max watched the pink in the girl – Marinette’s – cheeks darken, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t from the running.

“Hi Adrien.” She said with a sweet smile. She stared at him for a moment, and then shook her head and reached into the bag. “So I have a few scarves, a few beanies, and another sweater.” She told Vincent, pulling them out gently.

“Thank you, Marinette.” Vincent said with a smile. He held two scarves up in front of Adrien and narrowed his eyes. “Which one do you think?”

Marinette looked surprised for a moment, and then she looked Adrien up and down. “The blue one.” She said firmly. Vincent handed her the scarf and she put it around Adrien’s neck. After a few adjustments she looked at her work and smiled. “Yeah, the blue one.” Marinette lifted her eyes and saw that Adrien was smiling at her, and her own smile widened. Then she noticed Max.

Max saw something in her eyes that he couldn’t quite place. She looked amused, like him being there was an inside joke. But also, concerned? Like she knew something that he didn’t. It was a little unnerving. He cleared his throat and stepped forwards. “I’m Max. I fixed their camera and now they’re making me model.”

Marinette giggled behind her hand. “Did you take this poor guy hostage?” She asked, looking at Adrien.

Adrien blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “When you put it that way, maybe? A little? But he agreed to it eventually.”

Marinette looked at Max for a moment and then smoothed out the collar of his jacket. “Well you look like a natural, Max. I bet you’ll turn some heads.” She added with a wink.

“Okay, let’s place you two.” Vincent said, lifting his camera up to his face. Adrien shrugged on the gray coat and glanced at Max.

“This is when Vincent gets into his ‘artistic zone’.” Adrien whispered.

Max quirked an eyebrow.

“He usually starts to talk about pasta. Particularly your mother’s pasta.” Marinette added with a shrug.

“Oh.” Max said, watching as Vincent adjusted his lens.

“Okay, so I want you two to stand a little to the right of the fountain. No, more right. Even more. Okay perfect.” Vincent said, still looking through his camera. “Marinette? Can you adjust them a little? Kind of like what we did with the spring shoot with the rain jackets?”

Marinette led Max over to the edge of the fountain. “Okay you can sit right here.” Max did what he was told and watched as Marinette moved Adrien to stand beside him.

“Now angle yourself –” Marinette said, putting his hands lightly on Adrien’s chest so that he was facing the camera better.

“Like this?” He asked, looking down at her.

“You’re perfect.” Marinette said a little dreamily. Then her eyes widened and she quickly stepped back from him. “I mean, that’s perfect, you’re – it’s perfect.” She said, hurrying to stand by Vincent.

“Now talk to each other!” Vincent said, backing up a few steps. “Talk about the pasta your mother made you as a child!”

Max looked at Adrien. “You weren’t kidding about the pasta thing.”

“It’s the kind of thing you can’t really make up.” Adrien said with a smile. Then he rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks for doing this, by the way. I hope you didn’t feel too pressured. If you ever feel uncomfortable –”

“It’s not too bad.” Max said with a smile. “It’s better than what I was doing before, anyway.”

“Now Adrien, put your hands in your coat pockets and face the camera a little more!” Vincent said. Adrien did as he was told.

“What were you doing before?” Adrien asked as Vincent continued to snap photos.

Max pursed his lips and looked past Adrien. They stayed like that in silence for a moment. “Have you ever been in love?” He decided to ask.

Adrien looked caught off guard for a second but he quickly smoothed out his expression and looked at the sky in thought. “I’m not sure. I think I am – at least, I hope I am.”

“You hope?”

“Okay Max you can stand up now! Take a few steps closer to Adrien!” Vincent called. Max glanced at Marinette, who was inspecting one of the sweaters. Then he got up and stood next to Adrien.

“It would be an honor to fall in love with a girl like that.” Adrien said, looking at Max. There it was – that aura of confidence that Max wanted for himself. If only there was some sort of equation he could use, or a cheat code. If only everything was quantifiable.

“What about you? For someone who’s so good at fixing things, I bet you still leave a lot of broken hearts.” Adrien teased.

Max smiled and crossed his arms. “Not exactly,” He said. Then he chewed his lip. “I mean, I think that maybe I might love this person? But at the same time, I only met him about a week ago. There’s a process for these kinds of things. Steps to go through, levels to beat, it’s not supposed to happen this fast.”

“Why not?”

Max looked up at him in confusion.

Adrien smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “The girl I just mentioned? I just met her about a half hour ago.”

Max looked at him for a moment in surprise. Then he shook his head and laughed. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not!” Adrien exclaimed.

“You can’t fall in love in that short of a time.” Max said incredulously.

“In my opinion, all it takes is a moment.” Adrien said with a smile, looking somewhere in the distance and moving his hand away from Max’s shoulder. “One moment, you’re living your life and things feel normal and comfortable, and then, and then you see them and – and your life isn’t comfortable anymore.”

Max scoffed. “That doesn’t sound appealing.”

Adrien turned to face Max once more and smiled. “When you look into the eyes of someone you can love, you realize that your life wasn’tcomfortable in the first place. Something was missing, and that incompleteness nags at you and nags at you until you realize – it was them. This person was what you were missing.”

Max looked at Adrien with wide eyes. Ever since he first met Kim, he began to change. And it wasn’t that he felt pressured to be something he wasn’t when he was around Kim. It was that he wanted to be everything he could be. Was that – was that was love was?

Adrien sighed. “I don’t know if I’m in love. Maybe a moment isn’t enough. But I swear, that moment felt like its own lifetime. And I still can’t get her out of my head.”

“I know the feeling.” Max said quietly, clasping his hands.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Adrien said, whispering even though Vincent and Marinette were too far away to hear them.

“Do you live a double life as a superhero?” Max asked seriously. Adrien looked at him for a moment. “I’m kidding.” Max said.

Adrien smiled. “As cool as that would be, sadly no. I hate modeling.”

Max looked at the camera and then back at Adrien. “You know that’s what we’re doing right now, right?”

Adrien slung an arm around Max’s shoulders and looked at the camera. “Well, would you look at that?” He mused, waving at the camera. Max could hear Vincent’s sigh. “I don’t like modeling, but I have to do it, that is, until I get rid of my college debt.”

“Isn’t your father one of the wealthiest men in Paris?” Max asked, looking at Adrien in disbelief.

“That he is.” Adrien said, pointing a finger at him. “And he was also not very happy when I told him that I wanted to major in physics and get a teaching degree instead of taking over his business.”

“You want to be a physics teacher?” Max asked.

“That’s the dream. And it will remain a dream until I make enough money to pay my father back for my tuition, that was the deal.” Adrien explained, smiling for the camera. “So I’m trying to make enough money as fast as possible so I can start living the life I want to live.”

“And that’s why you still model.”

“That’s why I still model.” Adrien said, nodding his head. “But I also have a new job coming up that’ll hopefully make me some more money.”

“I can picture it now: famous model Adrien Agreste delivering pizza. I actually know a guy if you need an in.” Max teased. He realized that he was finding it easier to talk to Adrien. He wasn’t as nervous anymore. Maybe it was because he reminded Max a little bit of Kim. Or maybe Max was beginning to feel like he didn’t need to overthink everything.

Adrien leaned away from Max and crossed his arms playfully. “Adrien Agreste will not be a delivery boy, thank you very much. Although it is a respectable profession, I managed to set something up that’s a little more my style.”

“And that is?”

Adrien put a finger to his lips. “It’s a secret.”

Max quirked an eyebrow. “Are you a drug dealer?”

Adrien choked and looked at him with wide eyes. “No I’m not a – I don’t –” Then he began to laugh. “It’s not illegal, I promise.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how hirable you’d be as a teacher if it got out that you ran an underground drug cartel.” Max said simply.

“You know, you’re probably right.” Adrien said, nodding his head seriously.

“And we’re finished!” Vincent said, packing up his camera.

“Already?” Adrien asked, walking over to where Vincent and Marinette were standing. Max followed.

“Yeah, you two looked great.” Marinette said. “I mean you always look great Adrien but having you two talking made it look so natural and Vincent got a really nice picture of you laughing and –” Marinette took a breath, “You both did good.” She said. Then she quickly moved away and began to pack up some of the equipment.

“Marinette is right.” Vincent said, slinging his camera bag over his shoulder. “I barely had to say anything. You might be Adrien’s lucky charm.” He said, looking at Max.

Max blushed and looked at his shoes. “You have to love the Cheerleader Effect.”

Vincent scoffed and pulled out his camera. “Hold on.” He looked at his camera until his eyes lit up. Then he showed it to Max.

Max looked at the screen and saw a close-up of him smiling. He looked so – unlike himself.

“You have to give yourself some credit Max, you’re a natural.” Vincent said with a smile. “You looked so comfortable in front of the camera.”

Comfortable. Vincent was right. He had felt comfortable. He thought he would panic once he was put in front of the camera but it just – never happened. A week ago Max never would have done something like this – but after meeting Kim –

Comfortable. Confident. All because he met Kim in that elevator.

He knew now. He didn’t kiss Kim just because he was attracted to him. He kissed Kim because he helped Max believe in himself.

Maybe Kim didn’t like him like that.

Maybe Kim didn’t think the kiss meant anything.

But he wasn’t going to drive himself crazy thinking about it. He was going to do something, and he had enough confidence in himself to know that he would get through this – no matter what happened.

He shrugged off his jacket, pulled his sweater over his head, and handed them over to Marinette.

“This was a lot of fun, thank you.” Max said, looking between Vincent and Adrien.

“We couldn’t have done it without you.” Vincent said, holding up his camera. “Maybe the French have some things going for them.” He said with a smile.

“We should do it again sometime.” Adrien offered, taking off his coat. “I can keep you updated on my drug cartel.” Vincent gave him a startled look.

Max chuckled “I’d like that.”

“It was nice meeting you Max.” Marinette said. There was a mischievous glint in her eye that he couldn’t quite understand.

Max smiled and then jogged back to the bench he was sitting at. He grabbed his bag and made his way out of the park.

There was only one thing on his mind:

He needed to talk to Kim.

#I love Max :')#max kante #adrien agreste #marinette dupain-cheng #kimax #le chien kim #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug au #pearl writes

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