Marinette had gained a large sum of luck by becoming the Parisian super hero Ladybug. Having been someone who made a fair share of mistakes, being ladybug had offered her a wealth of possibilities. She had gained the confidence to go after things that she wouldn't normally pursue. For instance a scholarship that would allow her to study abroad at a major fashion and art college. In order to get that scholarship she had to make the grades, she needed to pass her upcoming exams.

She needed to focus and she really wanted to, but force of habit led her eyes to start wandering to the seat in front of her's where Adrien Agreste who was noticeably falling asleep at his desk was. She had over many years of training herself come to the very healthy conclusion that she should move on. But she still couldn't help but steal glances every so often. Today he seemed especially exhausted and she wondered if perhaps he had a modeling gig which kept him out late last night or one of those VIP events that he sometimes attended.

Ayla's best friend senses started going off in the seat next to Marinette and the blogger tilted her head at her friend. Following Marinette's eyes before finally realizing what was distracting her. "Pssst Nino" She leant over her desk throwing her spare pencil so that it bounced off the boy's head causing him to jerk around to face her.

"Fiesty today huh?" He waggled his eyebrows getting ayla to roll her eyes in response "What did ya need babe?"

"You're bro over there needs to wake up from his little power nap we're in the middle of class."

Nino raised an eyebrow, which basically told the girls he hadn't realized that Adrien had nodded off, which was probably because he was too busy folding paper planes out of his notebook papers rather than focusing on the lesson or anything going on around him. Marinette watched as he gave Adrien a light push on the shoulder, instead of waking up, the model slid straight out of his chair hitting the floor, not even batting an eye, still completely asleep.

"Dude!" Nino gave a shocked yell as he jumped to the floor next the heavily comatose Adrien.

Something was not right. Marinette practically jettisoned out of her seat, like the rest of her class, and jumped the desk to check on him Ayla following close behind her.

"Oh goodness me." Their teacher gave a worried gasp as she halted her speech. "Is he okay?"

Nino very softly placed a hand over his friends head "Yikes…He's burning up…."

Before she had even so much as thought about what she was saying Marinette's arm shot up in the air. "I can take him to the nurse!" she blurted out, cutting off Chloe who was more than likely about to offer the same thing.

The teacher gave Marinette a skeptical look. "But how are you gonna get him th-..." she started. Before she could even finish her sentence Marinette had scooped up Adrien and was holding him up with minimal effort much to the bewilderment of everyone around her.

"DAMN GURL. I knew you worked out but I didn't think you worked out that much." Ayla gawked, adjusting her glasses.

Marinette knew she was going to have to let her redheaded friend feel how toned her arms were later there was no escaping that fate.

"Gross…" Chloe muttered under her breath.

And ayla wasted no time getting up in chloe's space to marinette's defense. "Oh shut up Chloe you're just jealous that Marinette's ripped."

"GIRLS. Get back in your seats this isn't a game." Thier teacher warned, giving a nod at Marinette "Ok you may go make sure he gets there safely."

She nodded before sliding out of the room, hearing chloe uttering curses under her breath as she passed her.

Maybe she didn't think this through, if he were to wake up she'd probably burst into flame, not that she hadn't been talking and hanging out with him. They were certainly friends. But picking him up princess style and carting him down the hall would not be the most flattering time to fall back into stumbling over words, and she would probably die of embarrassment.

This hallway seemed longer than usual. Impossibly long even. With every step she felt him be pressed up against her more. He was very warm she could even feel it through his clothes, he certainly had one hell of a fever, and she couldn't get over how light he was, it was like he weighed nothing at all. Not just because Marinette had the muscles to lift someone of his size easily anyways, he felt like he had lost a few pounds. It wasn't as if he had gotten this fever overnight. It had to have gone unchecked.

Why had he even bothered coming to school like this? She wondered as she turned the corner for the hall with the nurse's office. and right as she did she froze. Looking down at two very bright emerald eyes who were hazily staring up at her as if he were looking through a thick fog.

Shit.

"Ladybu-..." There was a pause as he squinted his voice even sounded worn

Did he just mistake her for- ohhhhh boyyy. Act natural. There's no way he knows. He's just sick and seeing things. Aaact natural.

"Hi- NNNNOPE …. MARINETTE JUST MARINETTE. TAKIN YOU TO THE NURSE BECAUSE- Because…fell?"

Nailed it.

He blinked at her. Her words had clearly registered but it was almost as if he were looking at someone else, or straight through her. It looked as if this surprised even him as he continued to rub his eyes analyzing her face repeatedly. She could feel her cheeks flush every time he looked. He finally averted his eyes shaking his head.

"So I collapsed huh?" He had pretty much deciphered what she had said. "Uhg I'm so sorry Mari… For making you carry me all the way here. I'm impressed you managed to lift me."

He pushed out of her arms wobbling to the floor, Marinette made a small sound in protest, before he grabbed hold of her shoulders to steady himself.. "I can walk like this for now." He assured her.

She took a deep breath her brain screamed at her for slipping into her old habits.

GET IT TOGETHER MORON.

"If you say so. Just please don't fall over again you nearly gave the whole class a heart attack." The coherency of that sentence in this situation shocked even her.

Adrien gave a light hearted laugh that made her own heart skip a beat possibly two. Suddenly she felt very light headed. Oh no now she's the one who's going to faint. She needs to get her head in the game. They were right outside the door, slowly and with a lot of effort keeping her head straight Marinette managed to muster through the rest of the journey.

"Thank you for worrying about me." He gave a very earnest yet strained smile as they passed through the door to the nurse's office and marinette helped him up onto one of the patient cots.

"Your welcome." Marinette whispered, she shot him a worried smile "Feel better ok?" and she slid out of the room to let the nurse do her thing.

.

She would have liked to have stayed but the bell had just rang and she needed to get back to class.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Marinette and Ayla had prepared a study schedule with Nino who had suggested they make a study group. Though marinette wasn't sure how much "studying" would actually get done putting those two in the same room together.

She wondered how Adrien was doing, she had thought about stopping at the nurse's office to check on him on his way out. But it was more likely that he got sent home. So she decided it would be better just to go home and work on some of her study guides.

She greeted her parents with kisses on the cheek as she passed them by when she got home, before following her usual routine and retreating up into the solitude of her room. There she tossed her backpack on the desk and threw off her shoes, next thing to come off was her bra, then her pants were flung into her hamper pulling out a pair of loose shorts with pink polkadots to replace them.

Ahhh much better.

She gave a sigh of relief as she sunk into her computer chair.

"Hey tikki..." She mused glancing at her small purse that was hanging up on her railing post, a small red head poked its way out of it.

"Yes marinette?" The little creature flew out of the back perching herself on marinette's desk.

"Do you think we could go… Visit a sick fan?" Marinette shrugged giving an awkward smile at her kwami.

"So long as your not going to use your powers to steal something again." Tikki teased.

Marinette frowned "Hey I don't steal things!..." Well that might not be completely true."That much….anymore…." She added her voice sinking.

"Study first. Then we can go." The small kwami unzipped marinette's bookbag gesturing to her schoolwork and marinette groaned.

After completing what seemed to be an eternity's worth of study guides. She stretched out of her chair. She could hear rain drumming against her window, but a little rain wasn't a problem for paris's famous super hero.

"Ok tikki we should go." She called but the kwami gave no response.

"Tikki?" Marinette looked around her room, not a single sign of her small little red friend, She had all but disappeared. why in the world was she hiding?

It was only then that marinette noticed a very misplaced mound of blankets next to her bed. she climbed the stairs glaring at it. It shifted under the pressure of her gaze. Marinette could clearly make out the

She groaned yanking the covers away to reveal the other half of her duo the one the only chat noir curled up in a ball. "How many times have I told you if you're going to come in KNOCK." She warned.

"How many times have I told YOU Princess, not to leave the trapdoor unlocked because creeps could sneak in." Chat sat up tapping a finger to his chin as if waiting for her response.

"You mean creeps… Like you?" She had him there.

"I mean creeps who would see you in short shorts and tiny tangtop and get some bad ideas"

"So I restate my point. Like you?" She raised an eyebrow.

Chat chuckled, clearly amused by her responses. He stood up wobbling a little as he got to his feet then perched on the bed sitting criss-crossed, staring at her. Marinette narrowed her eyes Chat wasn't as energetic as usual. As a matter of fact all his motions were downright lethargic.

She pursed her lips, suddenly struck with a tinge of worry at her partners lack of libido "Everything ok kitty cat?" She asked sitting next to him.

"Yeah everything's purrrfect. Why wouldn't it be? I'm in the presence of a Princes-" He started, she got inches away from his face staring him directly in the eyes causing him to visibly gulp mid sentence. "What?" he asked averting his gaze.

Marinette's eyes narrowed even further. He was flushed, he had no color, and he was covered in a light layer of sweat. Suddenly she lifted a cool hand brushing his hair out of his face before resting it on his forehead. It felt like his skin was set on fire, she immediately frowned pulling her hand away.

"Go home kitty you're sick." She ordered.

She had other plans. And he had just completely derailed them. She knew even if she told him to leave he probably wasn't going too.

Chat shook his head in protest. "I don't like being at home when i'm sick..." He whined flinging himself forward so that he draped over her lap. "I'm sure if you pet me with those nice cold hands of your's my fever would go down though."

Even though he was sick he still had the audacity to flirt. She almost couldn't believe it. It wasn't the first time she had pet him like this or that they had hung out making wise cracks at each other. But each and every time that this had happened the past few months. it got uncomfortably close to evolving into something else and the thought both intrigue and worried Marinette at the same time . The first time he had visited her was a few years back after she had helped him with a few akuma. She found him sitting on her balcony looking extremely distant. At that time she had worried that he had figured her out. As it turned out Chat was just an extremely lonely guy and had wandered to her house after an apparently rough day, she got to learn little tidbits about him that she didn't get to hear as ladybug. It was interesting, in a lot of ways he acted the same, but there was small differences and quirks to how he behaved around plain old marinette in comparison to the light of his life which was her alter ego.

"How long have you been sick for?" She pried tracing her fingers over the back of his neck.

Chat took a moment to respond "About a week… It started as a cold from going out in the rain." He admitted and Marinette's eyes widened.

He had gotten sick last week after the akuma they fought was defeated and it had started to downpour again. They had fought two more akuma since then and she had only just now noticed.

"Did you tell ladybug you were sick? You probably shouldn't be fighting."

Chat shook his head causing his hair to brush over her legs making her shiver "No can do" he said "She needs back up it's dangerous for her to go alone."

"Okay casanova but i think she'd be more worried that her partner was sick." She would, she would have told him to go straight home if she had known.

"Mew sound so sure of that." He turned to face her raising an eyebrow a cheshire grin spreading across his face..

SHIT BACKTRACK BACKTRACK.

"I-I mean she's the hero of paris so she cares for everyone most likely and I'm sure you're high on her priority list too."

He looked like he was considering her words deeply. More than likely she'd actually struck a nerve she didn't mean to touch. It took him a moment to formulate a proper response.

A gloved hand had made it's way onto her upper thigh and was dangerously close to the bottoms of her shorts. " You're about thigh high on MY priority list princess." He waggled his eyebrows.

"You are the absolute worst. You're a mess." She shivered slapping his hand away trying to sound as dry as she possibly could which was hard when she was in reality playing through scenarios in her had that involved a lot more than touching.

And she silently cursed herself for thinking such things. THIS WAS CHAT. AND HE WAS SICK. How low could her brain possibly sink into the gutter of R rated thoughts before she was tossed into a garbage can.

"Yes but a HOT mess." He chuckled purring at the motions of her hands. "Quite literally right now."

If he wasn't sick she would have picked him up and threw him off her balcony right then and there.

Oh she would have done it in a instead she let out a very annoyed sigh "Oh shut up." and continued appeasing the kitty, who turned into putty with every touched.

He had been extremely tensed up when he sat on the bed now he was so relaxed he might as well have melted into her lap."Mmmm Princess."

"Yes chat?"

"Thanks for noticing I was sick."

She felt her lips curve up into a smile. His words had honestly surprised her. She had expected another joke or another lame pick up line. She bent forward pressing her forehead against his.

"I think the fever is getting to you kitty." She whispered through a smile, feeling his incredibly hot skin burn against her's.

This was her first mistake.

"Oh is that so?" Chat stared at her through half lidded eyes, before reaching up and running a claw over her mouth tracing her lips. "Then can I blame me really wanting to kiss you on the fever?"

She rolled her eyes "Uh huh what about ladybug?" He had to be joking, at least that's what marinette thought. "You wouldn't."

"The fever remember? I'm not thinking straight."

Ooooh that sly smile was enough to make mari's blood boil.

Their faces were inches apart she could feel his breath against her cheeks, she got even closer till her lips were hovering just over his.

"Go ahead I dare you to get me sick before exams." She hissed.

"Was that a real dare?"

"What if it was?" She challenged.

This was her second mistake.

And just like that he locked his lips on hers and she every portion of her body stiffened. He had his hands locked around both sides of her head and pulled her to an angle that made the kiss deeper than Mari was prepared for, not that she minded much. After about a minute into the kiss Marinette leaned into it like her mouth had a will of its own she moved against his lips. She could feel every ounce of sense draining from her body.

Her brain had all but mentally blue screened.

Error: EXE marinette not found.

She let out a noncommittal noise as they separated from each other, both out of breath. Marinette placed her hands over her mouth giving a deer-in-headlights look, completely and utterly shocked at herself.

This was her third mistake.

She could almost see the pleased smile forming at the corners of his mouth

He was twice as out of breath as her, given the fever he still had even so he still managed a sly "Cat got your tongue…?" remark through his sheltered breathing.

"Oh my god."