The city of Paris was covered in sunlight from the sunrise, the beginning of a beautiful day. Parisians would soon be out for walks along the Seine, picnics in the park, and overall enjoying the wonderful weather. One small girl in particular was getting a head start on this lovely day. Marinette sat huddled in her room, the red light from the sunrise coming in though her window and onto her bed, while she sat focused over her design book. She was trying to finish a design she had been working on all week, but never quite had the time to finish. That was because it had been quite the hectic week for Ladybug, with Akumitized villains popping up all over. This had left her zero time for anything other than fighting crime and finishing her homework, if she had wanted to get any time to sleep that is. But, she knew she needed to finish this design, and so sleep she did not. Mr. Agreste, Adrian's father, was hosting a design contest later that week, and she needed to win it. She had won the contest previous, with her hat design, and so the pressure was on for Marinette to hold onto her title and win this one as well. The most important reason that she had to win, however, was that Adrian would again be wearing the winning design at his father's fashion show later that month, so Adrian would yet again be wearing her designs if Marinette was able to win this contest. Plus, she would get a free ticket to the show, and get to actually see her designs in action (plus, have some alone time with Adrian!) So, Marinette had to get these designs done, hence why she was up so early trying to get them done. In fact, she was only up early because she hadn't actually gone to sleep at all. She had been up fighting off yet another of Hawkmoth's villains last night, leaving no time for her to sleep between that and her design due date that morning before class.
"Oh Marinette," said Tikki, waking up to see the tired look in Marinette's eyes, "you really need to take a break and get some sleep! There's a lot of pressure on you, I know, but you won't be in any shape to do any of it if you don't take care of yourself first!"
"I know Tikki, I know," replied Marinette, "after this crazy week is over and the designs are in, then I can take a break, but you know how important this design contest is!"
"Yes, but will any of that matter if you aren't awake to see it?"
"I can handle it Tikki. If I can scale rooftops and fight off crime, I can take a couple of nights without proper sleep." Marinette yawned her way through the last of that sentence, leaving her little Kwami extremely unconvinced. "Either way, I'm done now, take a look!"
Marinette held up her suit design to Tikki, who gasped in awe. "Marinette, it's beautiful! You'll definitely win, I'm so sure of it! And won't Adrian look so dapper in that suit?" Marinette had designed the most gorgeous of suit jackets for Adrian, with a matching vest and pants. There was no doubt about it, it was amazing.
"I hope you're right Tikki," Marinette replied.
She then looked at the clock only to realize the time. "Oh no! I'm going to be late!" Marinette grabbed her school bag off of her desk chair and ran down the stairs, grabbing Tikki quickly into her clutch as she went, and managing a quick "Bye Mum, bye Dad!" before she grabbed a croissant off of the plate on the counter and ran out the door. She could hear the faint sound of her parents laughing at their daughter's constant tardiness as she went, with no time left to even roll her eyes at them.
Marinette ran all the way to school that morning, and was almost at the there, barely looking where she was going, when she ran straight into another student, who was running from the opposite direction. The two collided, spraying the contents of their book bags everywhere.
"Ow!" the student said.
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry," Marinette sputtered as she started to clean up the mess of papers and books from the sidewalk, "I am such a klutz I didn't mean t-" Marinette cut herself off as she looked up and finally took in who she had bumped into. "ADRIAN! Oh hi-hi there fancy meeting you here-you're so pretty-I mean I'm so sorry-I mean what are you doing here!?"
"Uh.. hi Marinette, it's okay, honest, not a big deal." Adrian replied as he helped her clean up the papers surrounding them. Marinette couldn't help but notice how Adrian looked just as tired as she was feeling.
"R-rough night?" Marinette queried, barely managing to get the words out through her embarrassment.
"Huh? What do you mean? Why would it have been rough?" Adrian replied, maybe just a bit too quickly. Of course, he had in fact had a rough night, but not for any reason he could explain.
"Oh I didn't mean anything by it, sorry," Marinette squeaked, "I didn't mean to pry. It's just you're running late, I mean so am I, but I just figured that you'd woken up late or something. Not that you look bad or anything! I just assumed that you didn't get a lot of sleep or whatev-" Adrian's laughing cut Marinette off, leaving her panicked with her mouth gaping like a large fish.
"Yea, it was a rough night, actually. I didn't sleep well on account of… uh... my... dad's fashion show! Right. It gets hectic right around now. So I had to stay up late finishing my homework! I just haven't gad any other time." Adrian thought that would cover his tracks. He couldn't reveal why he had actually not been able to sleep that night; that would require admitting that he was Chat Noir, and of course, he couldn't do that. "What about you?" Adrian then asked, "Why are you so late this morning?"
"Uh, I also didn't get much sleep. Same reason! Well no, not same reason because I'm not a model of course…" Marinette awkwardly laughed, "but kind of? I was up all night working on my designs for your dad's contest!" It wasn't a total lie; it's true she hadn't gotten any sleep because she had been working on her designs, but she knew that wasn't really what was to blame. After all, she wouldn't have needed to stay up working on her designs if she hadn't been so preoccupied with the Akuma attacks all last week.
"Wow! I'm so happy that you're submitting something, I'm sure it's amazing," Adrian said honestly. He couldn't help but remember the last design of hers he had gotten to model, and the amazing craftsmanship that she had put into that design. "But, no feathers this time, right?"
Marinette let out a snort at this, remembering what had happened with her design last time.
"No no no, I learn from my mistakes, I swear! You're allergic to feathers, I know that… now anyway," she added. She also remembered how weird that had been, learning in one day that both Adrian and Chat Noir were allergic to feathers. Funny coincidence.
"Well, I'll be really grateful for that when I'm wearing it down the runway," Adrian said with a smile in Marinette's direction. This caused her to blush uncontrollably, and almost drop all of the books and papers she had just finished clearing up. The vote of confidence from the boy she loved uncontrollably was almost too much for her to bear. "Wait, aren't those designs due today? Like, right now?" Adrian asked.
"Ah! Oh my god! You're right!" Marinette gasped, taking off in the direction of their homeroom class. Adrian looked on at Marinette, shaking his head, laughing. She was quite something, that Marinette. Always a source of amusement, that was for sure. He only then realized that he was also late to class, and took off running right behind her.
"Alright, anyone have any last designs to add to the competition before we close it off?" Miss Bustier asked her class that morning. "Going once… going twice…"
"I DO!" Marinette yelled as she burst through the classroom door, her designs up in the air triumphantly as she went, almost being thrown out of her hands as she tripped on her way in. The class went dead silent and everyone looked in Marinette's direction. She cleared her throat, regained her composure, and repeated: "Uh I mean... Yes, yes I do." Marinette walked over to the pile of designs on Miss Bustier's desk and placed hers on the top.
"Ah Miss Cheng, how nice of you to join us. Well, I'm at least glad you have something to contribute." Marinette stood awkwardly smiling at her teacher. "Please… Marinette, take your seat." Marinette laughed, embarrassed, and went to go take her place beside her best friend Alya. Alya was covering her mouth with her hands, stifling a laugh at her friend's remarkable entrance. She was used to Marinette's tardiness at this point, and knew to expect the strangest of excuses for her latest escapade. Alya didn't know whether or not to believe any of these unusual answers she received, but she didn't have any better explanations for her friend's strange disappearances, so she trusted the little information she got. Just as Marinette was almost at her seat, the classroom door flew open yet again, this time, sporting an out of breath Adrian.
All eyes were then on him, as he sputtered an awkward, "uh, sorry for being late Miss," and went to take his seat in front of Marinette.
"Why is it," Miss Bustier pondered exasperated as Adrian and Marinette fumbled to get settled, "that you two can never manage to be on time to any of my classes? That's the third time this week that you two have wandered into my class tardy, and I know I'm not the only one of your teachers to notice this. That, and all of the absences! What in heaven's name is the issue?"
"Really, I'm truly sorry Miss Bustier," Adrian stammered, knowing that he couldn't do much more than apologize. After all, it's not like he had a good excuse for any of it.
"Yes Miss, me as well," Marinette added, also unable to come up with a viable excuse for her tardiness.
"Well, I'm not sure if I believe that, either of you. Being apologetic means actually doing something to change your actions, and I'm not so sure that you two plan on doing that anytime soon. For that reason, I know something has to be done before any progress will be made. Both of you, detention. After school, 4pm."
"WHAT?!" Adrian and Marinette yelled in unison.
"But Miss you don't understand-" Adrian pleaded.
"I really am sorry Miss, truly! I can't afford-" Marinette interjected overtop of him.
"Quiet both of you!" The two students silenced along with the rest of the class, who were looking on in awe at the events unfolding in front of them. "I really am sorry to have to do this," Miss Bustier continued, "but you two need to learn that punctuality matters! You'll thank me one day, I promise you."
Marinette and Adrian slid down in their seats, distraught over the outcome of that morning. It really wasn't their fault, but of course, nobody would ever know that but them.
"So…" Alya inquired as the lesson began, "What was it this time? Dog ate your homework? Great grandmother stole your bookbag?" Marinette glared at her friend.
"Don't even ask," she whined, not even bothering answer. She was in no mood to deal with any of this, as all of her attention was going towards keeping her eyelids from shutting permanently.
"You know," Nino prodded at his best friend Adrian, "Miss Bustier isn't wrong. Why is it that you and Marinette are always late at the same time?"
"Okay that's not even true," Adrian replied. But as he said it, he started to realize that it was true. He and Marinette seemed to always be late on the same days. Weird.
"Oh, is and you know it," Nino answered. "Come on, have you two started secretly dating or something and not told anyone?"
"WHAT?" Marinette interjected at the loudest whisper possible, "Of course not what would make you think that I would even like Adrian like that? We're just friends! With similar schedules! That's it!"
"Real smooth Marinette," she thought, sliding back into her seat, embarrassed, and tried to focus on the lesson at hand.
Adrian, however, couldn't help but get a little taken aback by her outburst. He had always known that Marinette acted a bit awkwardly around him, but he didn't think it was because she disliked him that much. He had always just assumed it was because he was a famous model and she was a fan of his father's. It made sense given her love of design. "I'm not that repulsive," he thought, "she doesn't need to be THAT pushy about our lack of a relationship."
Marinette also couldn't help but think further about her comment. It wasn't even true. Of course for the obvious reason, but also because Adrian's schedule could never be similar to hers. Nobody's schedule quite resembled Marinette's. "Except maybe Chat Noir's," Marinette thought. She tossed away the idea as soon as it entered her head. She was sure Chat Noir didn't have to deal with any of this annoying school stuff; he was probably some rich aristocrat in his other life, not having to trifle with such silly simplicities as Math or French. That would explain his cocky attitude and suave behaviour. Whatever. Who cared what Chat Noir did in his spare time, she knew it couldn't be anything like what Adrian was dealing with.
Nino and Alya shared a look over their peculiar friends. Who knew what was going on there, but Alya was certain that if anything had progressed on the Adrian front that she would have been the first to know. Marinette wouldn't have been able to shut up about it.
The rest of the day continued on as usual, with no Akuma attacks to be seen, leaving both Adrian and Marinette grateful for one small morsel of luck in a very unlucky week. However, soon enough, 4 o'clock rolled around, and while all of their classmates were packing up to go home, Adrian and Marinette were not so fortunate.
"Text me when you get home, I want to hear aaaaall about how it goes!" Alya sing-songed.
"What do you mean how it goes?" Marinette moaned, "It's detention! How much more painful could that be?"
"You dummy! Yes, it's detention, but it's detention with Adrian! You'll be locked in a room together for the next hour and a half!"
Marinette finally put together the pieces of this situation, and she started to realize that maybe having detention wasn't actually too bad a thing. Not too bad at all.