Adrien slammed the car door behind him and turned around to wave at Nathalie, even though he knew that she'd never wave back to him. She didn't, and the car drove away. His smile fell, just a bit, but he picked himself up quickly. He faced the school and started up the steps. Just as his foot was falling onto step eight, he heard the first ring of the bell. Great, he thought, and ran up the rest of the steps, hoping to get into his classroom before the bell was done. He was only a few steps away when the sound abruptly stopped, leaving him to barge into the classroom like a madman with every head in the classroom turned towards him. The teacher frowned and marked him late. He stepped forwards, about to say something, but she glared him down until he looked away. There was no point in arguing with Ms. Bustier. He felt like he was shrinking as he took the agonizingly long ten steps to his chair and sat down quickly. As soon as the lesson started he slumped down in his chair, not bothering to take notes.

Adrien's head was buzzing, but not with chemistry or punctuation. Not even with anything Miraculous related, which was new. No, this time the fight with his father was one of legend.

"She used to be your best friend!"

"She's horrible to everyone, Father! She's been behind most of the akumas in the past year!"

"I don't care! Her father is very powerful, and…"

The argument went on for a while after that, but Adrien didn't want to think about the rest. He didn't want to think about his father at all. All he wanted to think about was his stupid history class.

He reached for a pen, eyes dull, and started to write. He wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. It was going in one ear, into his pen, and out the other, and Adrien was trying to focus. He just couldn't today.

A few periods later, the day was over.

Marinette was thinking. The back of Adrien's head had seemed down all day, and her suspicions were confirmed when he went straight to the library after school instead of chatting with his friends, and generally making the most of his time out of his room.

"What's wrong with Adrien?" she asked as Nino and Alya looked over at her.

Nino winced. "Oh, man. Didn't you hear? His dad told him that, basically, he wasn't spending enough time with Chloe, and he wouldn't let him come back to school unless he either talked to Chloe more or had a good reason not to."

Marinette's heart stopped. "A-a-adrien might leave?"

Alya glared at Nino. "I told you not to tell her!"

"But can't we do anything to stop if?" Marinette was frantic, and her voice was probably louder than it should have been. Several people around the gym stopped what they were doing to stare, and she blushed as she waved awkwardly. Turning back to the group, she added in a whisper, "Is Adrien okay?"

Alya shrugged hopelessly. "I don't know, Marinette. You might want to start trying to get over him now."

Marinette scowled. "I'm going to go see if he's alright!" She raced up the stairs towards the library.

Nino turned to Alya, who shrugged again. "Well, we tried."

Adrien was in the library, trying to read his notes. The Marquis de Lafayette aquired the ship with his own funds...aquired the ship...

"Adrikins!" Oh no.

"Chloe! Hi!" He forced himself to smile, cursing his luck.

"Adrikins! I was wondering if you would want to go with me to Restaurant Lasserre tonight for dinner!" Chloe's voice was bright, the one she reserved just for him. He couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand her. He tried to think of something, anything. His eyes cast around the library wildly, looking for answers.

"Oh, I wish I could, Chloe, but I...have…" His eyes fell onto Marinette, whose head was just peeping around the corner. He reached around the corner, and had an awkward second or two of patting around her leg before he grabbed her hand and pulled her around to stand next to him. "A date! With Marinette! Yeah!"

Marinette was perfect. She was pretty, nice, and his father didn't mind her, which was his version of love. And did he mention she was pretty?

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. He could feel the heat of her blush under his lips.

"WHAT!" Chloe screamed. "You can't date her, she has nothing! Nothing at all!"

Adrien was pretty sure that Marinette was in no position to defend herself, so he stepped up. "What do you have that she doesn't?"

Chloe looked around wildly. "Um...money?" She gave him her best 'queen bee' grin and tried to lace his arm in hers. He pulled it away to place it around Marinette's shoulders. To her credit, she leaned into his touch a bit.

"Forget it, Chloe. I'm going out with Marinette tonight. At the Restaurant Lasserre." The last part may have been a bit rude, but hey. He was on a streak now.

Chloe narrowed her eyes. "Well, you better actually be going. I'm going to be there. After all you do need a backup plan." She shot a look at Marinette.

"Goodbye, Chloe." Adrien must have looked confident, holding Marinette next to him as if he was a superhero, but inside he was shaking. Chloe may have been horrible to him, but he still didn't want her to hate him. Even if it was only for his father's sake.

"Augh!" The girl stormed out.

As soon as she was gone, Adrien turned to Marinette with a wide-eyed look of panic on his face. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry for dragging you into this."

Marinette seemed frozen. She took a shuddering breath. "Oh, it's fine, Adrien, I would do anything for you-shoot." Her eyes managed to get even bigger. "Sorry for making you go out with me."

"Making me go out with you? Surely, you've forgotten who asked who out."

It took a moment, but Marinette smiled. "Okay," she said. She giggled, just a bit, just enough to make Adrien need to take a deep breath and look away to be able to concentrate.

"Number?"

That froze her again. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

"Can I have your number, so that we can figure this out later? Plus, I should probably have my girlfriend's phone number…"

Her blush was back, but she read off her number. "Gotta go!" Marinette said as she slowly backed out of the room. "I mean, bye!" She ran off.

Adrien's eyes remained looking towards where her back was for a while afterwards, a little smile lingering on his face.

Marinette was a block away from school when she decided that she was calm enough to call Alya. Pulling out her phone (the same phone she had used to get Adrien's number!), she tapped Bestie 3 in her contacts and raised the phone to her ear, shaking just a bit.

Alya picked up mid-ring. "Hey, Marinette. Listen, why didn't you-"

"Adrienaskedmeout." It all came out as one word. Maybe I wasn't calm enough after all.

The following screech that came from Marinette's phone was loud enough for her to wince, and for a pedestrian to jump, startled, and glare at her. She covered up the mouthpiece and said, "Sorry!", then put the phone back to her ear.

"Alya, calm down!" She hissed into the phone. "He only did it because he didn't want to hang out with Chloe and- sorry, I have another call coming." She took the phone away to look at it, annoyed at whoever it was for interrupting her conversation about the best thing that had happened to her.

She stopped being annoyed, however, when the name Adrien Agreste showed up as her phone buzzed.

"Sorry, Alya, gotta go, Adrien's calling!"

"Girl, you better-" Beep beep beep.

"H-hi, Adrien!" She blushed. Damn, why did she have to stutter all the time when she talked to him?

"Hey, Marinette! Okay, so I have big news." Adrien sounded so excited that she couldn't help but giggle to herself.

"Yeah?"

"So my dad actually approved of me, uh, you know…" He trailed off, obviously flustered. He's nervous too. Confidence surged in her as she raised an eyebrow (not that he could see her) and responded, with a lilt in her voice, "No, I don't think I do know, Adrien. Remind me?"

"Oh, uh, I mean, dating, I guess? He's okay with me going out with you." A grin practically split Marinette's face as she processed this.

"Really? Awesome." It seems so surreal to actually be going out with you.

Adrien laughed, a bright, clear bell sound. "I feel the same way." Wait, did I say that out loud? "See you tonight, Princess. Uh-" Beep beep beep.

There was so much for Marinette to process the rest of the way home. His dad had approved of her, she had flirted-flirted!-with Adrien, and oh, he had called her Princess! She twirled down the sidewalk and into the bakery, inside her head the whole time.

It wouldn't come off. The damn tie wouldn't come off the hook.

Adrien tugged once. Then twice. Then three times.

Then, of course, he did what any sane person would do and grabbed the tie and threw himself backwards.

It came off.

Adrien went flying across the room and landed a good six feet away with a crash. He heard an ouch! and a black kwami came out of his vest, rubbing its head and complaining.

"We're going to miss patrol tonight. We're going to miss patrol, and because of what? Because the boy couldn't keep it in his pants, that's why."

"PLAGG!"

"What? It's the truth. You humans, liking girls and boys. Me, I just like Camembert. Speaking of which, got any for me?"

"No. Because you've already have enough, and I need to save some for tonight-when I go on patrol."

Plagg stopped and looked at Adrien. "So you're going to ditch your date? And here I was thinking you were smart."

"No, you idiot," Adrien rolled his eyes, " I'm going to do a quick, five-minute patrol, then come back to Marinette."

Plagg shook his head and continued his search for cheese. "If you say so." He opened Adrien's school bag and dove in. "Aha!"

"No! Plagg! Wait for later! STOP!"

Alya grinned as she threw open the closet doors. "Okay but Marinette, you really have to give me something to work with here. Give me an angle to shoot for."
Poor Marinette was standing in the middle of her room as the hurricane that was Alya whizzed around, talking a mile a minute. "What do you mean, an angle?"

"She means, 'what do you want Adrien to think of you as.'" Nino was sitting on Marinette's bed, munching on a croissant as he talked. "Like, do you want cute? Nice? Sexy?" She gave a little yelp at the last one.

"I don't know, I just want Adrien to see me as me." Marinette's eyes were glued to her feet, which she was shuffling. "I want him to look at me and feel like he's known me forever, but he still has a lot to learn." She looked up, remembering. "Oh- and don't forget, he just asked me out to get away from Chloe, so don't test it."

Alya snorted. "Girl, please. I've seen the way he looks at you. If this was just an accident, then I'm Ladybug."

Nino pointed his croissant at Marinette. "You, madame, are a work of art. Trust me."

"Ooh!" A squeal from the general direction of Marinette's closet made both her and Nino jump. "I've got it!" She pulled out a dress. Nino's mouth dropped open. Marinette didn't even know she had that dress. Alya thanked God she did.

Adrien checked his watch. He took a sip of his water, then checked again.

I know I was a little early, but what if she's not just late? What if she stood me up? What if- He shook his thoughts away, and checked his watch one more time. He took another sip of water and smiled at the waitress passing by, and when he looked back at the door his jaw dropped.

N

Marinette was there, and she looked gorgeous.

Her hair was out of its usual ponytails and pulled up into a bun, with little strands of hair falling out onto her white dress. The dress itself was simple, sweet, a little lacy, gathered together under her (cough) chest, and falling down from there. Adrien had never seen Marinette in anything but her usual jeans, and her creamy legs coming out from under the dress distracted him for a few seconds before he looked up at her face.

"Adrikins!"

The screech came from across the restaurant, and Adrien winced at the pitch. Chloe came running over, her face scrunched up into a fake pout.

"Oh, my poor Adrien, all alone and-" Before she could finish, another voice cut in.

"I'm sorry, what am I? Invisible?" Marinette slid into her seat, pushing Chloe aside as she did so. "Sorry I was late." She smiled sweetly at Adrien. Turning to Chloe, she stated cooly, "Can you please leave us alone, we have a date."

Chloe's eyes widened. "But-"

"Bye." Straight to the point. Adrien knew he picked the right girl.

As soon as Chloe turned her back, Marinette's arched eyebrow and satisfied face collapsed and she took a shaky breath. "S-sorry about that. I got a little carried away, and-"

Adrien grinned. "It's fine. You were just acting like the princess you are." He looked at her playfully to find her blushing. "And to tell you the truth? I never liked her anyways."

Marinette gasped from across the table. "Really?" Adrien nodded. "Why did you hang around with her, then?"

"Well-" Adrien quieted as the waitress came up to their table. "What would you kids like to drink tonight?" She smiled.

"I'll-"

"Um-"

They both blushed, then said together, "No, go ahead." Then Marinette's eyes dropped and Adrien apoligized to the waitress, who smiled fondly.
"I'll take a water, please." Adrien ordered, then he looked at Marinette. "How about you?"

"Oh, I'll have an iced tea, thanks." Marinette looked up at the waitress with blue eyes wide. "Could you bring sweetener, too?"

"Sure." The waitress, whose name Adrien noticed rather late was Juliet, smiled at the girl. "Coming right up!" They both thanked her as she walked away, then turned back to each other.

"Well, princess," Adrien continued, Marinette smiling at the nickname. "Our parents knew each other, and Father said that her father was important. Plus she was my only friend for ten years, so…" He trailed off, seeing Marinette's face.

"Is that really it?" she whispered, almost to herself. "No wonder you were clueless on the first day of school."

"Hey!" Adrien objected, making her giggle. A surge of confidence seemed to sweep over her as she set her eyes upon him. He looked into them, seeing just how blue they were, as she spoke.

"You know, you may not have had friends then. But you have friends now. And we'll never, ever, leave you behind. Okay?"

He felt like she had just jumped over a barrier that he didn't even know that he had put up. In two sentences, she'd provided more comfort than he had gotten in years. Years! In true Chat form, he just...wanted to sleep on her lap, knowing that she'd be there when he woke up.

He looked at her with watery eyes and took a deep breath. "Marinette, I think-I think I might lo-"

Crash! The building shook as an akuma landed outside.

"I am the Bookworm!" it cried with a laugh. "Let all children learn!"

The crowd scattered, terrified. With a smirk, Adrien saw Chloe scream and hide behind Sabrina, terrifed. He turned to Marinette.
"Listen, get out of here! I'll follow you."

Marinette faced Adrien. "No, I'll follow you."

"No, I'll follow you!"
"I'll follow you!"
"No, you!"
"No, you-"

"Aha!" The Bookworm fell down from where it had been in the sky, cracking the pavement. Adrien, to his regret, didn't stop to think. He just ran. He ran until he saw a table to duck under.

"Plagg, claws out!"

The battle didn't last too long, especially since Ladybug showed up not too long after him. With the akuma captured, the heroes escaped to the roof before the press showed up.

They stood on the roof, gazing out at the rooftops of Paris. The lights and the contrast made quite an impressive skyline.

Chat broke the silence first.

"So, milady, what got you here so quickly?" Ladybug turned in surprise.

"Quickly?" she quipped. "You were here before me, kitten."

"Well, yes, but I know what I was doing. I do not, however, know what you were doing, my Lady." The cat bowed mockingly, and gazed up with green eyes through blonde eyelashes. Those eyes, they're...familiar.

"Hmph," Ladybug snorted, and she wondered what to say. Despite what people seemed to think, she tried to be as gentle as possible in the Ladybug costume as she was without it. But she could see no way to soften it.

"Chat, well… I was on a date, Chat." Surprisingly, his face didn't fall. His eyes were full of understanding, no cheap jokes or puns..

"Well, I was too, my Lady, so feel free to be jealous." Her eyes widened. "It's one of your friends." He smirked at her, apparently hoping to get a reaction, but was met with silence as she tried to figure out who it could be.

"But I've never introduced you to any of my friends," The wheels were turning in Ladybug's mind. Alya? Never. Rose? She has Prince Ali. Chloe? No, she didn't have a date-

"Sure you did! That Marinette girl, remember?"

Surely, there was no air left in Paris, because Ladybug couldn't breathe. After a few seconds, she slowly became aware of Chat Noir-Adrien- looking at her, concerned.

"Ladybug?" Chat seemed genuinely worried. "Listen, I'm sorry, okay? If it upsets you-" he wiggled his eyebrows at slightly the wrong time- "I won't go out with her again, alright?"

"What? O-oh no, it's- it's fine- I really have to go." Ignoring Chat's questions, she ran down the length of the roof and leaped off, swinging through Paris. Her earrings were beeping by the time she touched down and sprinted through the city, looking for a place to hide. Ducking into an alleyway, she detransformed and plopped down on the ground with her head in her hands.

Her phone chimed, a text from Adrien on the screen.

Adrien: Hey, r u ok? I didnt see you leave.

She ignored it and curled up tighter.

Tikki zoomed out from behind her. "What's wrong, Marinette?"

"Adrien is Chat Noir."

The kwami seemed to-was that wincing? "Oh, Marinette, I know that it's hard. But you just need to-"

"No!" It may have been the first time she had ever shouted at Tikki. "I don't care what I 'just need' to do! Adrien has some misguided idea going around that he-he-" She shook her head, blood creeping into her cheeks. "That he loves Ladybug, I guess, and if he knows how I feel- He can't know."
"But Marinette-"

"He can't know, okay! Because it seems like he's completely different than I think that he is!"

"But Marinette, you're completely different than he thinks that you are!"

All of a sudden, everything stopped. Marinette turned to Tikki, finding tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Exactly. And he only loves that version of me. The fake one." The bitterness in her voice was clear even to her. She got to her feet, Tikki trying to comfort her the whole time.

It really wasn't worth it.

"I don't get it! What did I do wrong?"
Adrien paced his room frantically, Plagg floating along beside him.

"Well, genius, maybe it was when you told her you were dating her 'friend'." Plagg snickered.

Adrien, of course, had no idea what he meant.

"Why did you say 'friend' weird?" Plagg rolled his eyes and landed on his shoulder.

"Because something was weird about the relationship between her and Marinette, don't you think?"

Think, think, think- No. It couldn't be.

"Wait, Plagg- Is Ladybug Marinette…" Plagg nodded enthusiastically. At least he did until Adrien continued.

"...'s girlfriend?"

Plagg fell of Adrien's shoulder. "What the hell?" Plagg was now laying on the floor and seemed content to stay there, so Adrien bent over him.

"What did I do!" At this point, Adrien didn't have a clue what was going on.

"You're a twat, that's what. Ladybug kissed you."

"She WHAT!"

On his computer, the Ladyblog played. It was mostly background music to his musing, but every once in a while he looked up at the screen to see his Lady jumping around. Right then, it was playing a scene from the Pharoh's akumatization.

What could I have done to make her bolt like that? All I did was mention Marinette… she couldn't be jealous, could she? And as a scene began to play out in his mind of what could happen with a jealous Ladybug, he sighed and leaned forwards on his hands.

Leaned forwards a little too much apparently, since he fell forwards onto the keyboard. When he got back up, he saw Ladybug. There was a short, but intensely embarassing freakout before he realized that she was just on the computer screen. But to be fair, it was a closeup, and Adrien silently thanked Alya for having a nice phone as he stared into Ladybug's blue eyes.

He swore that he'd seen those eyes before. Sparkling, as she told him that she would always be there for him. But in his mind, it wasn't Ladybug in those pictures. It was-

Adrien shot away from his keyboard, almost tipping his chair. He quickly regained his senses and leaned over the computer. He started searching Alya's blog, looking for someone besides Ladybug in the recordings for once. The one girl who he had never noticed was missing.

He slowly clicked on the "Could You Be Ladybug?" link on Alya's page and, with shaking hands, pasted a yearbook picture of Marinette. As the site loaded, Adrien's breathing was irregular. It was neither early nor late, and all he could do was watch the little yoyo go in and out.

In and out. In and out. In and out. Inandout. Inandout. Inandoutinandoutinandoutinandoutinandout-

Adrien looked up at the screen to see his Lady, smiling sweetly, as if posing for a school picture.

Marinette groaned loudly as she woke up, only to hear a "shhhhh!" hissed at her. Opening her eyes sleepily, the first thing that she registered was the fact that it wasn't morning. Not even close. It was 12:37, according to the clock, and she had just turned to TIkki in curiosity when a dark shape landed on her balcony.

She was about to scream when she saw the cat ears and heard the light footfalls of the stranger, and realized that it was Chat. Tikki flew in next to her ear before she could say anything and whispered, "He said that he was coming a minute or two ago. I thought we'd have more time- I'm sorry."

Still a little loopy from waking up she whispered back, "Oh, no, it's fine," and went out to face the cat.

She stepped out onto the balcony and his ears flicked towards her. Shivering in her light tank top and rubbing her arms, she realized that he probably should have forgotten her address by now. Walking-the best word would really be stalking-towards her, he came to a stop close to her.

She had never seen Chat look at her like this. The green eyes seemed to whisper secrets, threatened to tell her own. And he was...smaller, somehow.

Something about this felt different. Marinette wondered if she was still dreaming. She reached out and put a hand on Chat's chest, to make sure that he was really there.

He was really there.

Staring up into his eyes, her hand on his chest, they stood for a while, before Chat spoke. "I don't know what to do, my Lady." He tore his eyes from hers and looked at the ground, seemingly ashamed of himself.

Marinette's eyes widened, and she pulled her hand back. But surprisingly, she didn't feel scared. All she felt was the desire to make Adrien and Chat one in her mind. So she put her arms around him, and tried to make "them" a "him".

Chat hugged her right back. His hands on her back, just where Adrien always caught her.

Marinette tried to make sense of it in her mind. Chat and Adrien. Two different people, one who kept the other from achieving her love by attaining her love himself. And he didn't know it.

But now, there was no circle of love. Nothing to keep Marinette from tilting her head up and meeting Chat's lips as his head hung.

His lips tasted like euphoria, like the feeling in the pit of her stomach when she reached the top of the roller coaster and knew the drop was coming.

He was still for a moment, then kissed back with a tenderness she didn't know that he had in him. As a flash of light rolled across Marinette's closed eyelids, she flinched and pulled away. Adrien stood there now, and just as her legs started to fail her, he grabbed her and planted his lips back onto hers. She put up little resistance as he pushed her back, back, back until she hit the wall, and still he kept pushing. If Chat tasted like euphoria, Adrien tasted like greed in this moment, taking as though he'd never had anything in his life as good as this.

Marinette was on top of the world.

When he finally pulled back, she took a moment to catch her breath before she opened her eyes. Sillhouetted against the night sky, Adrien Agreste was grinning, lips just as red and kiss swollen as hers likely were.

The next day at school, Adrien dashed inside to see Marinette behind Alya and Nino. Raising an eyebrow, as he got closer he heard the topic of their gossip.

"Marinette, WHO HAVE YOU BEEN MAKING OUT WITH!"

"Adrien!" At the shout from Chloe, Alya and Nino turned. Chloe began to run over, and Adrien thought fast. He took the few steps towards Marinette and kissed her, hard. Chloe began to shriek, and Adrien held in a grin. Soon, they were interrupted by another shriek from Nino, almost as ungodly as Chloe's.

They broke apart, smiling, only to have Alya's phone shoved in their faces.

"Did you hear? Ladybug and Chat Noir got together last night, too!"

Wide-eyed, Adrien feigned surprise. "What!" It was followed by a "no way!" from Marinette.

"Yeah! They were caught behind, get this, a church tower." As Marinette glared at Adrien, he remembered their conversation from last night.

Are you sure they won't see us here, Chat?

Trust me, my Lady. We'll be fine.

He shrugged at her sheepishly. Oops.