"W-w-will you, um, g-g-go out w-with me?" It's the third time Marinette's said it, but the first time in the correct order.

Adrien smiled sympathetically. "Did someone set you up to this?" The girl stammers endlessly, and half his time with her she's got this look that just knows he's secretly an axe murderer.

"N-no!" She threw up flat palms, making eye contact til the floor begged her back. "I've l-" she swallowed. "-liked you for a while, and um..."

She fidgeted in place.

"Listen." He put a hand to her shoulder. "You don't have to be forced-"

"It's not! I'm forcing you-! I'm not forcing-! I'm. Not. Being. Forced!" She closed her eyes, a long breath escaping her nostrils. "I'm probably forcing myself, a-actually. I'm sorry, I'm awkward. The truth is... I haven't been able to talk to you as well as I'd like, because I've had a crush on you. It's my first time l-liking someone like this, and it's made me... so tongue-tied."

Adrien's cheeks tingled. Suddenly he had to look anywhere but her. Marinette's raw truth enveloped him in an unexpected foreign comfort. A... crush? The world creaked to a halt. He's familiar with the term. A fluttering heart that ventures anywhere from love to like, but more likely longing from afar. Starry eyed girls his bodyguard holds back when he attends high end functions. Oh. Time reasserted itself harshly, a mundane taste settling on his tongue as he looked her over from a different viewpoint.

From there on it all felt so clinical. "I appreciate your feelings," he said, a script Nathalie's prompted him on running on repeat in his mind. "I'm flattered, honestly. However, I can't return your feelings."

She blinked rapidly, eyes flitting from the walls to the ground to her shoes. Marinette swallowed and licked her lips. "Thank you for listening, Adrien." Her hollow words carved into his professional facade. His awareness kicked into high alert, and he discovered it's different. She's not a face he'll never see again from a crowd. He knows her. They're friends. He should have thought this through more, because she's not taking it in a way he can let slide. She's not flailing into dramatics. She's not demanding another answer. She's Marinette. She's sincere, she's honest, and the empty classroom is suffocating. "I'm sorry to put you on the spot like this, I should have considered that you wouldn't like me like that."

He's taken her raw words and thrown them against his shell of an exterior. It's unfair. The least he can do in return is offer his rawness in return. "It's not that." He scratched the side of his head, then readjusted his collar. "I... can't accept your feelings because I like someone else. It wouldn't be right."

Marinette's waiting, he's not sure how much he should say but... he's her celebrity crush in his own right. So she'd understand. She has to.

"I like Ladybug." Her eyes widen. He's unsure of how to take that so he fixes his eyes on the window. "We've met a few times." Every other day in costume. "She's so stubborn in what she does, it's irresistible." He meets her eye and smiles. "It seems farfetched, but I'm hoping she'll give me a chance one day." Give Chat Noir a chance.

"Oh," the strain is still there, if not worse in her voice. "Yeah, Ladybug is... she's great." Marinette scoops up her bag then heads for the door. "Well, now that's out of the way maybe my tongue will untie itself haha."

"You're off to a good start already." Adrien laughs back.

They wave to one another and she's gone.

"Alya?"

"No way. Not now. She pushed me to do it. I tell her and it'll make us both upset."

"Your parents?"

"I don't want them to know yet either..."

"Then please do not allow your thoughts to stagnant until you have comfort. It's dangerous, Marinette."

"I'm not stagnating."

"As long as you can split your focus your emotions will not be pungent enough."

"And I am. I'm sewing and- ow."

"You continue to pause, Marinette."

"Because he turned me down for me!" Marinette flung her chair back as she stood, her fabrics tossed to the wall.

"Marinette!" Tikki held her paws forth, wishing to console.

Marinette gritted her teeth against the unbidden tears. "All those times you've told me that I'm what makes Ladybug. That I'm her, and I'm not."

"In Adrien's defense, you've never spoken to him with the same confidence as you do with everyone else."

"Yeah, but," she trailed off weakly. "He see's me with everyone else. It's about the same as watching Ladybug from afar like him and all of Paris does." She sniffled. "And you said..."

Tikki descended to Marinette's desk. "Oh, Marinette..."

Marinette could feel it. From the double time of her heart beating in her fingertips to the thrumming at the base of her skull. She stared at her computer screen, a picture of the eiffel tower. The absence of his photos somehow a stronger reminder than them actually being there. She's standing at a wall by not breaking down, and the pain of his rejection is only rotting her slowly instead of all at once.

"Why can't being Ladybug harden my emotions or something," Marinette mumbles between her teeth.

"The situations you face have sculpted your will to do what is right into your greatest weapon. You're always ready to stand up and say no when it needs to be done, and for that to have become your strongest trait, I am proud." Marinette stared unseeing at the ground, her mouth slightly ajar, but pacified, and it gave Tikki an idea. "Your powers as Ladybug grant more than that. Your physical boundaries in this persona have broadened as well."

"What? So I can jump roofs while not in the suit?"

"Perhaps. Why not try?"

Marinette scoffs. "Cause I could slip off and die?"

"We can transform if it comes to that. A fall from a roof would hardly be a problem for Ladybug."

Tikki tried to be optimistic. It is a dangerous stunt, but getting her adrenaline going would keep Marinette's mind off of the empty walls.

Author's Babble

No I haven't forgotten day 17 (balcony visits) of Marichat May, work and college decided to team up and pull back my progress. That and another chapter must be completed in That One Time Chat Noir Became Marinette's Biggest Fan since ch. 3 of it is balcony visits- or part of ch. 2, dunno, haven't got there yet. But I am catching up! I will get everyday, I must!

As for this chapter, it was already written, and the next is more geared towards day 18, which I will publish later today.