Funny how my first fanfic on this website is just a one-shot that displays my Trashiness with flashing lights and signs. I guess that's just how it goes.

Warning: slight Adrienette fluff.

Takes place a week after Bubbler accures.

Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous, or Miraculous Ladybug, or Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir, or whatever the hell this damnable show is called.

Enjoy~

Everyone was acting weird.

Scratch that, everyone was acting suspicious.

They would purposefully avoid Adrien, make up lame excuses for why they couldn't talk with him at the moment, or just plain run away. Literally. They left dust clouds behind them.

Even Nino was avoiding him. He could stand everyone else's silent treatment, he knew he may not have been the most likeable guy, but Nino's just plain hurt.

What did he do? Adrien couldn't remember doing anything so awful to everyone that they would have stopped interacting with him all together. Was it because he was growing more famous? Was there some rumor going around about him that he didn't know about? Did they just not like him anymore?

Adrien buried his face in a pillow. He's taking years off of his life with all this worrying. Without meaning to, he complained out loud, "What did I do?"

Plagg, who was eating a block of camembert, shrugged and retorted, "I dunno, but everyone really seems to just hate you." He greedily took a bite out of the cheese.

Adrien turned his head in the direction of Plagg, deadpanning. "Gee, thanks Plagg. You really are a light shining through the darkness of my life."

"I know I am."

He had to stop himself from throwing a pillow at the glutton.

Flipping over and staring at the ceiling, he sighed. What did he do to deserve everyone's hatred?

Rephrase: What did he do to deserve everyone's attention?

The next day he wasn't ignored by his classmates. No, instead it seems he became the butt of their jokes. All day whenever somebody would glance at him, they would break into a grin and start giggling with their peers.

And it wasn't just any sort of giggling; it was a giggling that someone only did when they knew something someone didn't—in this case, something Adrien didn't. It made him feel even worse.

At least Nino started talking with him again. He seemed really happy, like the rest of his classmates (minus Chloe and Sabrina—though Adrien doesn't think either of them has the ability to experience happiness). Nino was practically glowing. When he saw Marinette, she also seemed unusually happy as well. She would hum to herself and seemed to be daydreaming most of the time. She almost ran into a pole, and would have if it weren't for Alya maneuvering her out of the way.

It seemed as if everyone was in on some inside joke that centered around himself. He couldn't think of what it could be. He couldn't think of anything remotely embarrassing he had done lately. Was it another rumor? Did somebody photoshop one of his pictures into something really weird and/or embarrassing? Was it that they thought it was funny that he thought he, a famous model and something of an aristocrat, could fit in with a bunch of normal teenagers and found his attempts at friendships hilariously stupid?

Adrien shook his head. No, that probably wasn't it. The people at this school were nice—well save for Chloe, but nobody could expect anything other than what she is from her—they wouldn't find his cringe-worthy attempts at socializing funny. Even if they were terrible…and considerably forced…and kinda funny…

Wait a minute—

Adrien's thoughts were interrupted when Nino tapped him on the shoulder. Before Adrien could turn to look at Nino, a blue note was pushed toward Adrien on the desk.

Meet me in the school gym tomorrow at 5 PM.

He was about to question what Nino meant when the bell rang and Nino was out faster than you could say 'camembert.'

Adrien stood in front of the gym doors hesitantly. He didn't really know what he expected to see in there. Right now it was dark, and the high windows weren't giving him any sort of hint as to what could be in there. He dreaded going it. He felt like something was going to happen to embarrass him, or in the very least, hurt him right in the feels.

Maybe he should just go home—not that home has any sort of better feelings than he's feeling now. Anywhere else sounded better, though. Maybe Nino called him here to break their friendship. Maybe there's going to be some big humiliating thing that happens and Nino will post it online and ruin his life. Maybe Nino wanted notes for this one class he missed and nothing is wrong at all.

Adrien sighed. Only one way to find out, he guesses. He pushed open the double doors and steps inside.

It's quiet. The loud opening of the doors echoes through the gym and slowly fades away. Nothing happens. Did he read the note wrong? Did Nino not come? Did he just imagine the whole ordeal and everyone is still acting like Adrien's the plague? Doubt filled Adrien and he turns to walk away, dejected when—

"SURPRISE!"

The lights flash on and Adrien's met with a huge party scene. There are multicolored streamers, balloons, and lights everywhere. Tables filled with food and presents are along the sides of the gym and there's a DJ turn table on the far side of the gym, in which bass-dominated music began playing. His classmates are all there too (except Chloe and Sabrina, but that doesn't really surprise him) and they're all wearing party hats and big smiles on their faces. Nino comes up to Adrien and pats him on the back. "Happy late birthday, Adrien!"

Then everyone else choruses: "HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY ADRIEN!"

Dumbfounded, Adrien stutters, "I- what- birthday- I don't-"

Nino laughs. "Don't say anything, dude. We all know you've never had a b-day party before, and that one I threw a week ago for you wasn't really the greatest thing in the world, so we decided to throw another." He started leading Adrien into the thick of it, where the music was louder and one had to shout to hear the other. "Sorry it took so long! We had to get the approval of the school, which took forever! We didn't want to ignore you all week, but all of us are terrible liars and we didn't want to ruin the surprise."

Everyone nodded and murmured their agreements.

Nino turned Adrien to face him and grinned a grin that showed off his teeth. "So? What do you think?"

Adrien looked around at everyone's happy smiles, their excitement. It was a huge improvement from the party Nino had thrown as Bubbler. "I think…" He broke into a grin. "That we should start partying!"

Everyone cheered and the dancing begun. Adrien doesn't really know how long the party actually was, but he remembered every bit of it. He remembered dancing in a big group with everyone, laughing at his classmates' terrible dancing skills. He remembered being showered with unique gifts (the one Marinette gave him—a black handmade hat with cat ears—looked suspiciously similar to the scarf his father had given him for his birthday… But he'll address it later). He remembered having fun with his friends and having to be convinced multiple times that they did not hate him and that the party was planned out of sincerity and not some ploy to humiliate him further, you stupid model (curtesy of Alya). But what really made the party great was when Adrien thanked Nino for planning the party.

"Me? Oh no, I didn't think of this. I was too busy sulking about taking away everyone's parents." He had been filled in on what happened after the events, as he wouldn't stop asking. "Marinette was the one who first had the idea."

"Marinette?" Adrien looked toward the young fashionista. She was talking with Alya, her face burning bright red from what he could tell in the different colored lights, and Alya was laughing heartily at her friend's embarrassment (he learns later that Marinette was embarrassed because Adrien had worn the cat hat the rest of the party).

"Yeah man." Nino nodded. "She felt so bad that you never had a birthday party before, so she came up with these whole scheme. Though she didn't intend for it to take so long." He laughed a bit. "You should have seen her, dude, she was freaking out because of how many days had passed since your birthday."

Adrien laughed a bit and smiled in the direction of Marinette. She, who was glaring pointedly at Alya, felt eyes on her and turned. Their eyes met and for a brief moment everything disappeared. It was just the two of them, sharing a silent conversation. He thanked her and she said it was no problem, she would do it again if it meant him being happy. Then the world begun spinning again, Marinette flushed and turned away shyly, and Adrien begun to wonder how he hadn't ever seen Marinette before.