Birthdays.

Birthdays. Birthdays. Birthdays.

Adrien couldn't help but feel he had to be under some kind of birthday based curse or something. How else could he explain his bad luck?

His birthdays were usually nothing special. They could barely even be called events. Usually they passed by as regular days, except that occasionally he got a cake and his father gave him a gift.

Adrien's last birthday had been something of an exception.

He had gotten a party (sort of). He got to spend time with Ladybug (always a plus). And his father had gotten him an actual gift (instead of a pen that Adrien felt sure he just reached into the back of his desk and pulled out as an afterthought).

Of course two of those three things happened as a result of his friend Nino getting akumatized. Something that Adrien still felt bad about. His selfishness had almost let things get out of hand. Thankfully Ladybug had showed up, and together they had freed Nino from the akuma and things went back to normal.

But none of that was what was bugging him now.

With a sigh he glanced down at the pink rectangle that lay on the table in front of him.

It was a very well put together invitation. Practically a professional job. Pink paper with a black border, and a flowing flower design in one of the corners and along the side.

It fit the tastes of Marinette Dupain-Cheng very well.

Which made sense since it was an invitation to her birthday party.

Adrien sighed once more, this time much more loudly, as he kicked away from his desk and allowed himself to spin in his swivel chair. His head lulled over the the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling of his room in dejection.

He wouldn't be able to attend.

When he had first gotten the invitation (handed to him by Nino who had gotten it from Alya who had slipped it from Marinette's bag) Adrien had been happy. For a long time he had feared Marinette still held some animosity towards him after their less than stellar first meeting. He wasn't blind to how differently she acted towards him as opposed to how she treated just about anyone else.

Around Alya, Nino, and most of the class Marinette was a friendly, witty, creative, if a bit clumsy girl. Around Chloe she had become a downright spitfire unwilling to put up with anything the blonde put forward (something Adrien himself could never seem to manage to pull off). And around Adrien…. She was an awkward stuttering mess.

Adrien didn't know if she was intimidated by him or what, but the two of them just couldn't seem to get very far conversation wise. Things had gotten better recently seeing how Marinette could now manage to string together full sentences in his presence but the difference in treatment was still visibly noticeable.

So the fact that she was now comfortable enough with him to actually invite him to her birthday party was enough to bring a smile to the boys face.

Of course then he bothered to think it through for more than ten seconds.

If his father was strict enough to not allow Adrien to have his own party, he didn't even have to guess how he would react to him attending someone else's. Chances were Nathalie had already drawn up the ever dreaded schedule for the next month and anything unexpected like a birthday party would send her into an anxious mess.

The only conclusion that he could possibly draw was that he was cursed. A bad birthday curse or something like that.

"You're reading too much into it." Plagg casually waved the issue aside. "You miss events and stuff all the time. Don't see why it's such a big deal this time."

"Of course you wouldn't care." He snapped back. "But it's a bit different for me."

Marinette was finally comfortable around him, if he went AWOL on her birthday it might damage all the progress the two had made. So what if she could speak in complete sentences if he couldn't even be bothered to come to her birthday party? What would she be left to think of him?

(Naturally Chloe hadn't been invited, though she didn't really seem to care. Sabrina, interestingly enough, was invited. But one stern look from Chloe made it clear the other girl would NOT be attending.)

"So why not just skip out on your schedule and go to the party yourself?" Plagg tempted.

"I can't do that." Adrien stopped spinning and sat hunched over with his chin in the palm of his hand. "If I do that too much Nathalie could get fired."

"But you do it to turn into Chat Noir all the time!"

"That's only when I'm sure no one will notice!" He protested before blushing and adding, "And besides I'm only supposed to transform for emergencies."

"You mean like that emergency last week when Nino invited you to the movies?"

"He had stood in line for five hours Plagg, I couldn't say no."

"Kinda like how you couldn't say no to Kim's track meet?"

"Everyone had agreed to support him."

"Aaaaand," Plagg smiled. "What about your late night 'outings'?"

Adrien flushed. "It's a self-imposed patrol."

"If by self-imposed patrol you mean running around the roofs of Paris with a huge smile and screaming your head off-"

"Okay okay I get it." Adrien put up his hands in surrender. "I abuse Chat Noir's powers for my own selfish purposes. I admit it. What do you want from me a written confession?"

Plagg didn't respond right away as he was too busy stuffing his face with smelly cheese. When he was finished he just burped and reclined against the rim of the now empty box of camembert. "Ahhh that's the good stuff."

Rolling his eyes Adrien checked the clock on his phone. It was almost time.

"Time to go Plagg." Standing now he walked over and picked up the box of camembert that Plagg was currently using as a makeshift sofa.

"Awww, do we gotta?"

"Yes. Plagg, Claws Out!"

It was nearing nine-thirty when Chat Noir managed to make it to the meeting place.

Ever since this whole affair with the akuma had begun Ladybug and Chat Noir had taken to patrolling Paris every now and again in order to try and get a leg up on any akuma attacks that might happen.

Most nights were boring with no action, though occasionally they did manage to get to the site of an attack ahead of time and minimize any damage. Ladybug could fix even the most severe damage with her powers, but that was no reason to be reckless.

At least that's what Ladybug said.

Chat had once taken it into his head to point out that on at least one occasion one of his Lady's plans had caused the Eiffel Tower to be sliced in half. The look on her face had prompted him to realize it was a sore subject to bring up.

"It was a one time thing, and I'd rather never do anything like that again." She had said it in such a way that had told the feline hero that Ladybug herself wasn't particularly proud of the event in question.

He couldn't blame her.

Even though everything could be fixed there were people who were less than happy about the constant threat to the numerous historical monuments that dotted the bright city of Paris. Especially the Parisian Historical Society who were tearing their hair out trying to find some way to ban masked superheroes from public property. Needless to say they never got very far.

But the reactions of those few people had been enough to make both he and Ladybug nervous. The two superheroes adored Paris. The bright lights, the monuments, the history, and of course the good parisians who looked up to them. The last thing either teen wanted was for their actions to inadvertently damage the city they loved.

And so they had decided to make their patrols much more regular.

There was little either could really do to prevent akuma's from showing up outside of stopping Hawkmoth. Which they would have done already if they knew who or even where he was. But they didn't know. And so far neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir knew how to figure that out.

So for now they focused on just dealing with the akuma as they came, waiting until a window of opportunity presented itself to confront Hawkmoth.

And that was the reason that Chat Noir had set out in the middle of the night to the top of the Eiffel Tower to meet Ladybug.

As ashamed as he was to admit it, he was almost thankful for all the disgruntled historians. Because of them he got to see his lady that much more often.

He had taken a seat on the edge, letting his legs hang from the side as he stared out at the beautiful lights of his city.

Nothing could beat Paris at night. Of that Chat Noir was almost certain.

The sound of a zinging cord behind him, and the gentle thump of feet hitting metal made the cat smile.

Oh right, there was ONE thing that rivaled the beauty of Paris.

Getting up and approaching the new arrival Chat bowed and took his Lady's hand, "Good Evening, M'lady." And kissed her knuckles warmly.

(( Hooray another Miraculous Ladybug fic!

Poor Adrien. He really wants his friendship with Marinette to go well!

I have no idea when Marinette's birthday may be. A part of me was tempted to put it in winter since I would love to write a Miraculous story set in winter with all the winter fashions and whatnot.

Ohhh it would be glorious.

Alas though, I decided to go with a generic spring setting. Will probably set a fic during winter in another fic maybe

Thanks for reading! And if you have the time please leave a review!))