It had taken some work, but Chat Noir had finally, (well mostly), moved on from Ladybug. He'd realized he'd never get anywhere with her, since even if he did win her over their masks wouldn't allow a real relationship anyway. They had to depend on anonymity, and being in a relationship wouldn't help that. But as he moved on from her, another girl caught his attention... The one girl in the whole school who couldn't even talk to him.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

He'd seen her with their other classmates, standing up for them when they were bullied, and too hurt to fight back, or when Chloe was being unfair. He just didn't understand why she wouldn't talk to him. But he'd fallen. He'd fallen hard. So he'd worked on their relationship, pushing and pushing, patiently of course, hoping upon hope that she'd finally open up to him. And she did. They were finally at the point in their friendship, where she'd laugh when he did something embarrassing, and then teased him about it, and he could laugh when she somehow dropped all her books, while headed to their next class and she'd pout at him. It was honestly the cutest thing he's ever seen. So, he'd decided his heart couldn't take much more of this, how much he daydreamed of kissing her, and holding her in his arms, and calling her his, and letting the entirety of Paris know how much he loved her. Because he did, he really did.

So, he'd asked her out.

Marinette had noticed a change in Adrien. He was less active in Alya's discussions of Ladybug, never even talked about her anymore, which was a norm for him, and looked overall upset. She didn't want to push though, they barely even talked to each other! (Though that was mostly her fault...) But then, after a few weeks, he started acting differently. She wasn't sure if it was just around her (although Alya said it was), or whatever happened with his Ladybug fiasco. He started talking to her more, in which she'd blush and stutter out a reply, started coming over to the bakery, started hanging out with her in general...

She liked it. But she wasn't going to jump to conclusions. She was finally getting somewhere with him, and no silly-little-unreciprocated crush was going to get in the way of that. She stopped putting him on a pedestal, and viewed him as a normal person. She could joke around with him, tease him, laugh at him, it was all a dream come true, and she was afraid one day she'd wake up and find out it was all a dream.

But apparently, she hadn't been misreading anything as he'd asked her out.

She'd said yes, of course.

They'd been happily dating for almost a month, when she realized all her hopes and dreams were going to come crashing down around her. They were in the middle of a date, and all of a sudden there was a loud crash outside, and a whole bunch of screaming. And what exactly was she supposed to say? Hey, I'm Ladybug and I have to go save the city? Because that would go over so well. But he reacted first.

"I, uh, have to go. Nathalie texted me, and said my driver outside."

She nodded, to busy trying to find a safe place to transform, to fully comprehend the fact that he didn't even have his phone out, and it was on silent.

"Pound it!"

Ladybug and Chat Noir had just defeated another akuma, Arbre, a tree-lover who was upset they were going to be cutting down the trees in her favorite hang out. She had been very tough to beat, but with the help of her Lucky Charm, a bag of nuts, they were finally able to defeat her.

"I-" They said at the same time.

Chat made a gesture for her to go first.

"There's somewhere I really need to be right now. Do you think you can help her out?"

"...Of course, LB."

She never commented on how he stopped calling her 'M'lady', (or how much she missed it).

She rushed back to the cafe, but couldn't find Adrien anywhere. Had his driver taken him home? She pulled out her phone and called him. He didn't answer. She was in the middle of calling him for the third time, when he came running down the street, threw the door to the cafe open, and rushed over to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked, a worried expression adorning his face.

"Am I okay?" She retorted, "You're the one who took off in the middle of an akuma attack, and wouldn't even answer my calls!"

"I- what?"

He took out his phone, and sure enough, three unanswered calls from her were on the top of his message list.

"I had my phone on silent." He said, going to change it.

She took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Adrien. I was just... Really worried about you." She caressed his cheek. "I don't wanna see you get hurt."

She kissed him.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were perched at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

She sighed.

"What's wrong, Ladybug?" He asked, looking up at her.

"I just... My boyfriend ran out in the middle of an akuma attack, he didn't answer my calls, and I was super worried about him. What if something had happened?"

"Your lucky charm would've fixed it." He pointed out.

"But that doesn't take away the memory of seeing it." She countered.

"True." Was that how Mari felt? I must've really scared her...

"My girlfriend... She reacted how you basically just did. But, what'm I supposed to tell her? That I'm Chat Noir, and I have to go save the city?" He joked.

"Maybe." She whispered, so softly he couldn't hear it. "Maybe."

They'd had three akuma-attack-interrupted dates in a row. Maybe the universe was trying to tell them something? Adrien texted Marinette to meet him at the park in five. She found him sitting on a bench, his knee bouncing, and by the expression on his face, she could tell he was nervous.

"Adrien, are you okay? Is something wrong?" She asked, slowly approaching him.

He shook his head.

"We need to talk..."