Chapter 1

Nonexistent Rejection

"Just tell me bugaboo, why do you like him so much?"

Ladybug stopped in the midst of her leap to look at Chat somberly. They were now perched upon the Eiffel Tower, which was usually the last spot during their parole before separating ways. An eyebrow raised and Chat Noir saw the beginning of a grin.

"Honestly Chat, do you really want to know?"

He didn't, but he did. He kept his mouth shut; he wanted her to continue nonetheless, but wasn't quite ready to prompt it despite being the first one to mention it.

"I thought so," she teased smugly.

Chat pouted. What did he want from her? It seemed so shambled that even Chat was getting tired of it. He wanted to know, yes. Was he ready to get disappointed that she would speak heavenly about this mysterious boy? No.

Still…

"Okay," she laughed. "He's just… nice."

Chat's frown deepened. He was nice? Chat thought himself to be pretty nice, as well. I mean, he was a superhero. Superheroes usually epitomized the characteristic of being nice.

"Don't give me that look," Ladybug argued. "He's quite the gentleman."

"And I'm not? I'd say I'm pawfully kind and chariscatic." He saw the way Ladybug physically cringe at his puns. Chat noir slumped his shoulders; surely she didn't think his puns were that bad, right?

"Oh kitty, I suppose you are. But what can I say, this boy makes even the brave Ladybug nervous."

Adrien was more than distraught; he was destroyed. Slumped over his desk with yet another wilted rose in hand, Adrien never felt more dejected in his life. He bit his lip. No, at least Ladybug gave him warmth and attention, unlike his father.

How many rejections had it already been? Four? Five times? All for the same reason: that boy. Who was he? He constantly tried to pry information from her time and time and again, but every attempt proved futile. Couldn't he at least know so that he'd have an idea of her ideal type, so that he could cater to her likes and dislikes, and prove to her that he was at least much better? She was iron clad with privacy.

"M'lady…" he whimpered.

Plagg watched from afar as he stuffed yet another Camembert down his tiny throat. He shook his head in pity, thoughts plagued with the irony of his supposed doomed love life. If only Adrien knew… Humans are so blind.

Soon after, Nathalie called Adrien for breakfast and to prepare for school. Adrien groaned and forced his legs to move from his desk and ushered himself out the room. He composed himself and prepped his mentality. Oh well, just another day. He'd get to see his friends today. All is well.

"C'mon Plagg, let's go."

All was not well.

Apparently he wasn't as composed as he thought he was. In a daze filled with thoughts of his pathetic rejection the night before caused Adrien to leave his home without his backpack. Panic rose as he searched for the time.

Thirty minutes. He had thirty minutes to run back home, grab his bag, request another ride from gorilla -his thoughts were immediately interrupted by an audible groan from Adrien. There was a reason he came to school early; he had to meet with his fencing teacher to solidify his schedule for the term. He didn't have time at all.

Adrien took a few deep breaths. Okay. He'd just have to tell D'Argencourt that he'll meet him during the break. "That should be fine," he whispered. In a haste, he turned a complete 180 and planned to dash straight toward the locker rooms, but immediately pummeled a person down.

"I'm so sorry, oh my gosh."

Adrien scrambled to his knees and started grabbing the scattered books. As he looked up to apologize he was greeted with an extremely frantic Marinette. Red and flustered, it took a moment for her to assess the situation before bursting into a heated mess.

Quickly she reached for the rest of her books and babbled incoherently. "You're very sorry -I mean sorry I am, sorry I- I'm so sorry Adrien! I should've paid more attention while I was gawking -walking!" Her rambles followed with nervous laughter.

"Don't be silly Marinette," Adrien excused with his usual bright smile. "It was my fault." He handed back her books in which she hurriedly shoved back into her bag. In the midst of it all, Adrien was somehow compelled to ramble about his situation, all in which Marinette took in patiently. "Sorry I didn't mean to vent," he whispered sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck and averted his attention away from her.

"I CAN HELP!"

Adrien's wide eyes snapped back to Marinette, whom was berating herself behind her growing pink hands. She peaked through the openings of her fingers, her cheeks exposed and flushed crimson. "I… I mean, if you think it'll help you worry less… I can help?"

"Marinette, I'm not going to make you walk back to my house to pick up my bag nor am I going to make you recite a very complicated schedule to D'Argencourt for my sake."

Adrien watched as she waved her hands in front of her face and shook her head.

"Oh no… no that's not what I meant. I mean you can call Nathalie or something or that big scary driver of yours to go get it from your room or something and then I can wait in front of the school for you while you go to Monsieur D'Argencourt to do your schedule thing and then I'll see you in class with your bag?" Marinette exasperated a heavy breath. Why hadn't she taken a breath, she wondered.

There was silence between the two of them; Adrien stared back at her with blank eyes. It just hit him. Duh! He could've just called Nathalie or the Gorilla. He frowned at the sudden obvious revelation -he really was off today.

Marinette mistook his look and frowned in comparison. "I'm sorry. I guess you'd rather not, huh?" She was about to leave, but Adrien stopped her mid way, his focus slowly resurfaced.

"No, sorry Marinette. That's actually a great idea!" He took her hands and brought her back to their upright position. "Do you mind?"

More nervous laughter; Adrien didn't know how to take the reaction, but considering how she offered the plan and smiled afterwards, it seemed like she was up to help. He smiled at her, and took in the realization of just how wonderful of a person she was.

Everyone's normal Ladybug.

"Thanks Marinette!" And he was off, running to the locker rooms while telephoning Nathalie as he went.

The talk with D'Argencourt went fairly smooth, and Adrien was just beginning to feel that the day would go on fine despite earlier mishaps. However, as soon as he entered his first class and noticed an empty seat next to Alya, he began to feel anxious.

A few minutes passed and Adrien was getting restless in his chair as he waited for a certain bluenette to walk through the threshold of class. Guilt started prying at him. Marinette was often late, but the one time she managed to come in early, he had gone and disturbed her.

"Hey man, you alright?"

"…"

Was he? He'd been so distracted. If an akuma were to terrorize another innocent civilian right that instant, would he had have enough of his mentality to protect and fight alongside his lady properly? No… He'd need to snap out of it soon. It wasn't right to send Marinette off to get his belongings.

He had just rose from his seat when Marinette ushered her way into class, his bag slouched on her shoulder. "Sorry," she huffed. "It looked like it took them awhile," she murmured before carefully passing his bag to him.

She was always sorry… "Don't be. I owe you one, Marinette." He gave her a smile; he really did.

"Adrikkins!" Chloe spat daggers at Marinette. "Why did she have your bag?"

Marinette matched her glare before rolling her eyes and explained the situation giddily with Alya.

"She just helped me out Chlo." He turned his body and leaned his arm over to Marinette's desk. You could mistake Marinette to be a strawberry with the complexion her face turned into -she already had the sweetness factor down. "Thank you."

Adrien didn't have patrol tonight, there hadn't been any akuma sightings as of late, and his father wasn't returning to Paris from a business trip until late the day after next, so there weren't any scheduled appointments for him in the meantime. So overall, Adrien had some downtime after school before he was needed to be picked up.

"Marinette, let's go somewhere for lunch. My treat. I owe you."

You could physically feel the clash of emotions that rippled throughout the class. While Chloe was in immense disbelief and anger, Marinette was both shocked and confused.

"Wha-" Both Marinette and Chloe were both interrupted by Ms. Bustier's greeting.

Before Adrien could even allow Marinette the opportunity to refuse or hear Chloe's disapproval, he quickly set the place and time of their meet up and quickly pulled his attention back to the front of the room, completely unaware of the bluenette's complete mental breakdown.

"Not cool man," Nino laughed. "We were supposed to get lunch."

Adrien frowned; he was right. "If you want, you can co-"

"We can get lunch," Alya quickly interjected, shoving her hand toward Nino's unsuspecting head irritably. "Right, Nino?"

Adrien stared at the reaction blankly. Did he miss something? He quietly observed the two as Nino nodded his head nervously while Alya gave him a disapproving look. What was that about? Adrien wondered.

He saw the way Alya perked her eyebrow in a way that said 'what are you doing, idiot?'

Which then caused Nino to repay her with a quick look of realization and bashful regret before he answered Adrien with a "no worries, Adrien. You and Marinette can get lunch together, while Alya and I can check out this new… story she was writing about."

Adrien finally understood the situation; he was always glad he had a keen sense of reading people. He smiled at Marinette before glancing briefly toward the silent bickerers.

Alya and Nino must be a thing, he concluded with joy. I shouldn't interrupt their time together.

I'll try to make chapters longer in the future c: I'm a big fan of Kingdom Hearts, so I've been playing all the games again to help me understand the story better while the final chapter comes out.

Therefore, chapters may seem short and whatnot until I finish KH3 and have more time to focus on this. Thank you, hope you understand~