Day 36

We sit in a circular booth. Exhausted from walking the distance between this somewhat famous restaurant, and magic museum. Arianna has been forcing us to walk everywhere, from the moment we arrived in Berlin, yesterday.

Apparently she has gotten used to moving around with bicycles. A habit caused by spending days in the Netherlands and Denmark. It was also easier for her to record the streets and life in those two countries. Perfect for photography and her YouTube channel.

Adrien pushes his sunglasses up and sets his elbows on the table. "We are going by train to the Museum Island," he states, his fingers drumming on his upper arm.

"Fine," Arianna grumbles, as she ties her hair in a ponytail. "Did you guys edit the videos of Monster Kabinett and Stasi Museum?" she asks, looking between me and Adrien.

"Weren't we supposed to make it ready on our last day in Berlin?" I answer her with my own question.

"I know," she replies in a pitched voice. Then continues, "But those are pretty cool and I want to upload it sooner. Plus, I figured we should quicken the uploading schedule,"

"No, we shouldn't," Adrien argues.

She leans into her chair, playing with the tip of her pink hair, "Why not? It'll help with the views,"

Adrien groans and she grins at him, "I'm sure Ellie doesn't have any problems with it, right El?" she fixes her round blue eyes on me.

"We can manage up to three times a week," nodding, I speculate.

Adrien's eyebrows raise up, crinkling the skin between them as he opens his mouth to argue. But Dylan's faster, saying, "Dude, you seriously need to learn a thing or two from her. Start with how to not be a nagging pain in the neck." Arianna and Dylan both burst into laughter.

Adrien leans back, facing the other direction, muttering, "Assholes," causing them to high five with each other.

I pick the menu and hold it in front of my face to hide my growing smile. I still haven't learned what are the exact things that irritate and offend him. And I'm not feeling up to explore them anytime soon.

She winks at me, making me giggle, and parts her orange-red lips to speak.

"Don't even think about starting anything new," Adrien warns her. Me, Arianna, and Dylan laugh.

After we quiet down, Dylan and Arianna scroll through their phones. And I focus on the long list of German dishes.

She sighs, drawing my attention to herself.

"I miss being in relationship," she starts and puts her phone away.

"Why would you miss something like that?" Dylan wonders, scrunching up his face. "Being single is the best part of life,"

"That's because you've seen no one worthwhile," she points out, waving her hand.

"And you have?" Dylan mocks. Adrien's head snaps to him. Arianna glares at him for a significant amount of time.

"What?" he defends, throwing his hands in the air. "If any of them were the right one, none of that drama would've happened,"

"Don't be a dickhead," Adrien says in a stern tone. It's hard to tell with Adrien's sunglasses on if he is glaring at him or not. But I'm certain they are having a staring competition.

"Okay guys, movin' on," Arianna starts, breaking whatever that was going on between them. "Ellie, any news from Theodor?" she asks, placing her elbow on the table, and putting her chin on the heel of her hand.

"Theo?" I question with surprise, knitting my eyebrows.

"Yeah," she nods, a feline smile arching her lips.

I shrug. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Adrien shaking his head. Dylan on the other side looks amused.

"Ask him to join us? If he isn't too busy," She suggests, her eyes shining.

I gape at her. What has gotten into her?

"I mean, we can travel together, and he's pretty cool," she adds.

"I am sure he has lots of work," I answer, sounding unsure.

She sighs, leaning into her chair, "Ellie," she smiles, "what I'm saying is, I like your brother and I need your help in bringing him here. I'll do the rest from there,"

And everything clicks into place, "Oh,"

"Hope you don't mind me dating him," she beams at me.

Didn't she see Theo's ring? Guess not.

Adrien guffaws, Dylan joins him a second later.

"He's engaged you smartass," Adrien utters between his laughter, making Dylan laugh harder.

Arianna straightens herself, "What?" she squints, shooting a glare at Adrien. Before turns to me for confirmation.

I nod, giggling at her. A smile forms on her face.

"Oh man, there goes my shot of not being single. Why all the perfect guys and girls are taken?" she complains playfully.

"I'm offended," Dylan shoots his palm up.

"Aw, you don't count," she tells in a sweet voice, earning a grin from him.

The waitress approaches our table to take our orders. Dylan and Adrien communicate with her in all the ridiculous ways when two people not speaking each other's language do. While I desperately struggle to hold back my giggles.

As the miscommunication between them grows, I interfere, recalling the German I learned when I was in middle school.

Relief washes through the poor waitress as I interrupt their struggles. And ask her if there are any recommended or famous foods. If not, then which food we'd have.

After she takes the orders and walks away, I'm faced with three pairs of wide eyes.

"You talk German?" Arianna asks with astonishment.

"That makes a whole lot more sense why you were laughing your ass off at us last night," Dylan speaks out his thoughts. And afterward questions, "why didn't you help though?"

"And miss having you two jumping around, playing pantomime," she expresses, leading to both of us bursting into giggles. Because it's hilarious watching them trying to ask questions when they don't understand a single word of the other person's language.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Adrien's gaze fixed on me, a warm smile on his face.

Her eyes spark up with curiosity, "How many languages can you speak?"

My fingers fidget as I answer, "Four,"

"Holy shit," Dylan breathes.

Arianna's eyebrows jump up, "English, French, German and?" she counts down.

"Spanish, but I can figure out Italian because of the similarities with the other two," I explain, chewing my bottom lip.

"Wow, wish I was like that too," she gushes.

"Didn't you pick French in high school?" Adrien speaks up. I nod. "Then when did you learn the rest?" he wonders

"My caregiver was from Paris, looked after me until I was eight. My parents insisted on her speaking only French with me and making the environment like I'm in France. And one of our house's caretaker and cook is a Spanish lady. She enjoyed teaching, so I learned from her. Eventually, Mom and Dad instructed her to only speak Spanish with me so I'd be fluent in it, I was around five. And I started learning German in middle school, out of boredom."

"Why didn't our parents do that?" Arianna complains.

"I don't know," Adrien answers with disbelief.

"We should sue them," she suggests.

"The nights I had to stay awake and study French. I could've spent doing much better things," he huffs.

"Exactly," she agrees with enthusiasm and adds, "we so have to sue them,"

"Drama queens," Dylan mutters and we both burst into laughter. And shortly, Arianna and Adrien join us.

***

Day 37

I push my glasses up my nose, busy with cutting out the unimportant parts of the video Arianna has taped while we went to Monster Kabinett.

Adrien returns to the desk, placing a cup of piping hot coffee in front of me. I peek up and thank him before diving back into the work.

"I think we have worked enough to have a few minutes of break," he claims as he sits next to me, setting his mug on near his laptop.

"But Arianna said she wants to upload it first thing in the morning," I glance at him. He pushes his glasses up his nose with his middle finger, then rests his chin on his thumb.

"Yeah," he removes his hand. Straightens himself as he turns to me, "I was considering something,"

I shift in my chair, pressing my back to its armrest and scrutinize him.

He rubs his neck before bringing up his eyes and meeting mine. He moves his fingers through his hair and starts, "So... I was wondering-" he pauses and scans the room, cheeks tinting pink. He clears his throat, fixes his gaze on me, "We should have movie nights," his pupils dilate as he waits for my reaction.

"Movie nights?" I repeat him, tilting my head and squint. I pick my coffee and take a sip from it.

"Yeah, I mean i-if you like." he stammers as I look at him from the brim of my cup. "I was thinking it'd be cool," he adds in an unsure tone.

"Sure. Have you told to Arianna and Dylan?" I ask, holding the mug an inch over my thigh, my thumbnail grazing the handle in a repeating up and down motion.

His cheeks become a deeper shade of pink, as he avoids looking at me. "I was hoping it would be the two of us," he pushes his hand through his messy hair, "Arianna hardly ever stops talking in movies. And Dylan prefers games and other stuff," he explains.

I nod.

"So... what do you say?" he asks with uncertainty, raising his eyebrows and studies me.

Movie nights. With Adrien only. It's such an odd prospect. I never imagined I would sit and watch movies with him, of all people.

"There's no pressure, just an idea. And you don't have to if you don't want to," he rambles. His cheeks burn bright red.

Is he nervous? I've never seen him apprehensive. Other than the time he almost accidentally electrocuted our professor in one of our lab projects.

But why would he be jumpy now?

I push that thought aside, as I smile at him and reply, "Okay,"

He halts and gapes at me with surprise as if he wasn't expecting I'd agree. "Really?"

"Yeah," I nod and savor my drink.

That's when I realize a huge grin with dimples on display and eyes crinkled has spread across his features.

"Great," he tries to respond in a steady voice but fails. Clearing his throat, he looks away.

"We should continue with the work," I suggest as I shift in my chair again and turn to my laptop.

Adrien nods, mumbling, "Yeah, sure," still beaming.

+++

((Can you believe it! Eleanor is finally comfortable around them! Laughing and all! Aren't El and Adi cute, making little progress? *heart eyes*

BUT, ever heard of 'the calm before the storm'? I'm sure you have. Well all I have to say is enjoy while it lasts. *Evil laughter*

Well jokes aside, what did you think about this chapter?

Thank you so much for reading this chapter ^.^ ))