Adrien hurried up the steps of the school to get to class in time after another photoshoot he had been forced to attend. He already missed his favourite class and he couldn't be late to history.
Fortunately the bell hadn't chimed yet and pushing open the door of the classroom, he was met with chattering students, only few of them turning their heads at the sound of him bursting through the door.
He sighed in relief and waved at Nino who took his headphones off and smiled brightly at seeing his friend.
"Dude, you missed the most awesome lab project today! I was so bummed that you couldn't make it. I had to third-wheel Kim and Max."
"Yeah, the photoshoot took longer than I expected," Adrien looked behind Nino and greeted the red-haired girl who was tapping her phone and was fully engrossed in what she was seeing on the screen.
"Hey, Blondie!" Alya didn't even look at his direction, so his gaze wondered over to Marinette, who to his surprise was staring at the paper in front of her, not acknowledging anything happening around.
"Hi, Marinette!" he tried to coax some kind of reaction from the girl who didn't move a muscle, not even registering his voice.
Curiously, he leaned forward to see what had her so focused and unresponsive only to feel his face become suddenly hot as he recognized the picture.
It was from the latest issue of the magazine for which he had had an embarrassing photoshoot the month before. On the page opened before Marinette was a high quality glossy photo of him wearing only a white button up shirt with a tie and silver glitter shorts, posing in suggestive setup.
His legs were almost fully exposed, showing off the muscles that the tight shorts emphasized. Not to mention, the shirt, which was slightly see-through. The whole picture looked too provocative for his taste, but it had been an important cover shoot.
Adrien wasn't aware that Marinette even read the magazine, but he should have expected it, as it often showed the newest fashion trends and pieces.
"Marinette?" He repeated, trying to get her attention again; he was starting to feel a bit uneasy and embarrassed that she had been looking at his picture that intensely and seemingly for too long. He didn't know what to think of that.
Abruptly, Marinette raised her gaze and stared at Adrien, horrified and panicky. Her hands moved in record speed, trying to close the magazine as quickly as possible to prevent him from seeing it. It was too late for that, but he appreciated her attempt.
The magazine slipped from her hands and they reached down at the same time to take it up. Both red faced, they looked at each other's eyes.
"Please, tell me you didn't see that," she whispered and he was glad to notice it was without stutter.
The palm of his hand moved automatically to cup the nape of his neck, cheeks becoming even warmer.
"I-I don't mind," he tried to give her what he hoped was an encouraging smile, but she looked even more terrified.
The teacher had started the class and reluctantly, he moved back to his seat. Adrien threw a glance towards Marinette and saw her clutching the magazine against her chest, Alya lightly patting her arm in comfort.
He felt really bad that he had managed to scare her so and that because of him Marinette was nearly having a breakdown. He couldn't figure her out.
The class passed by too slowly with Adrien fidgeting on his seat, not hearing any of the new information the teacher was mentioning today. He wasn't able to stop thinking about Marinette and how she had been staring at his picture like that.
Maybe she liked the shorts and outfit, and she had been in the middle of an inspiration strike before he rudely interrupted her thought process. And now she was going to dislike him even more.
"Dude, are you coming or not?" Adrien startled and looked around seeing the students shuffling, putting their tablets in their bags indicating that the class had already ended without him even noticing.
Nino sighed and said something under his breath as Alya, who had appeared next to Nino from nowhere, dragged him towards the exit.
Adrien realized that most of the students had left or were departing except for Marinette, who was visibly having trouble with fitting her things in the pink schoolbag she carried around.
Swinging one strap of the bag across her shoulder after succeeding in pulling the zipper shut, she lost her balance on one of the steps and tripped right into Adrien's arms who caught her instantly.
"Uhm, I'll just, I'm gonna, eh, go?" Marinette tried to wiggle her way out of Adrien's hands which were touching her skin. She was not ready for that much physical contact.
She turned hastily around and started leaving before Adrien's voice stopped her.
"Wait, Marinette, did I do something? If it's about the picture, you can stare at it as much as you want, ugh, that came out wrong, I mean I don't find it strange that you're looking at fashion pieces I'm modelling, it's my job after all," he was rambling, embarrassed and unsure of what he was supposed to do.
"No, no, you didn't do a-anything! You just looked different, good different of course, I mean really goo–," her speech cut off as she coughed, trying to hide her slip-up.
"Alright, I'll see you in next class, right?" She only nodded; attempting to speak coherently was a risk she was not willing to take at the moment.
Adrien left and Marinette quickly grabbed her bag – its zipper fallen halfway open – and dashed to the bathroom.
Checking all the stalls and making sure that no one else was there besides her, she slipped into one of them and opened her purse to let Tikki out.
"My life is over! He never wants to talk to me again. I made an absolute fool of myself."
"Marinette, don't say that, he didn't seem to be upset," Tikki tried to assure her.
"Because he's too nice to say anything," Marinette sat on the toilet seat and held her head in her hands. Tikki floated in the air next to her, not knowing what to say to her wielder, who didn't think enough of herself.
The bell rang for the class and Marinette had to hurry back to not be late for no reason. She avoided looking at Adrien and his blond hair, which was not an easy task as he sat in front of her and her stare always seemed to stop on him.
For a whole week, it was as if nothing had changed, which she was thankful of, except she felt his eyes on her more than usually and that freaked her out.
The week after, she had completely forgotten about the chemistry test that day. Akuma attack the night before had so worn her out that she passed out after it, homework being the last thing on her mind.
So, imagine her surprise when she realised she wasn't the last one to arrive in class, even if Mrs Mendeleiev was already passing out the tests and frowned upon her sneaking into the class. Adrien wasn't there.
Her head was blank. Okay, so she might have been able to balance the chemical equations, but she had no idea which alkaline-earth metal was in the bones and could colour the flame brick red. What even was an alkaline-earth metal?
Ten minutes in, trying to make up answers to the questions; she had already given up the chance of getting a passing grade.
"Dude, what's with your eyes?" she heard Nino whisper to someone, but she was so concentrated on remembering anything to write on her test to hear the answer to his question, if there even was one.
In the end, she had to hand in her half-finished paper that was full of nonsense scrawls. That was a disaster.
"Adrien, you look so fierce!" Alya exclaimed from next to her and she looked up to notice that Adrien had made it to class and she hadn't noticed it. She almost choked when she saw that Adrien was wearing an intense eye makeup. Dark eyeliner was smudged on his lash line and his eyelids including the space underneath the brow bone was gleaming silver, chunks of glitter spread all over.
"The photoshoot ran longer than I expected, so I had to hurry over here. I didn't want to retake the test as my whole week is so packed, because of nearing holidays. Glitter is a pain to take off, I didn't bother."
He glanced at Marinette, who stared at him. Failing to control her shaking legs, she thumped back on her chair, earning the worrying looks of three of her friends.
"Well, do you want to come with us to lunch or take off the makeup?"
Adrien seemed to ponder over his answer, clearly at loss of what to do. He was hungry, but he didn't really fancy going around with full on makeup, he already felt his skin dragging under the heavy layer and his eyes getting tired. He forgot a little detail, which settled his answer.
"I don't have the makeup remover with me at the moment."
"Oh, you can totally borrow Marinette's," Alya had a wicked look on her face as she slyly winked at a mortified Marinette.
"Can I, Marinette?" Marinette still seemed to avoid interacting with him, though he tried to seek her out.
"I-I guess?"
"That's settled then, we're going to eat something and you two can dine at Marinette's, right?" Marinette glared at Alya, who was proud of herself for getting the two together and preventing Marinette from refusing without her making up a reason.
Nino, who was confused and didn't understand anything what had just happened, got dragged away by Alya, leaving Marinette and Adrien alone.
"Thank you so much for helping me out. I hate going around like this. It attracts lots of unwanted attention."
"It's alright." Marinette took her schoolbag and walked out of the class with Adrien in tow. They walked in silence out of the building, Marinette trying to think of something to say while Adrien was quiet.
"How do you think you did on the test?" he finally asked.
"Horrible."
"Me too. My father won't be pleased," Adrien sighed and hung his head.
Neither of them dared to ask why the other didn't study for it.
In the bakery, Sabine was behind the counter and greeted them joyfully. Marinette kissed her mom on the cheek and Sabine ushered them upstairs, promising to join them soon after she had taken care of the few customers.
"Uh… wait here, I'll bring the remover." Adrien nodded and Marinette ran to her room to retrieve the makeup remover.
Adrien sat down on the couch and browsed through the magazines that lay on the table while waiting for Marinette to come back. Thankfully, he wasn't in any of them.
When she appeared in front of him again, merely a minute had passed. Adrien thanked her for the remover and the mirror she had also brought and proceeded to take off the extensive amount of makeup. Marinette figured, it would take him some time and went to the bathroom. She stared in the mirror and at the dark circles under her eyes for far too long.
Arriving back in the living room, Sabine was already there and preparing food on the kitchen counter. Before she could say anything, Sabine noticed her and walked to her.
"Shhhh, you're waking him up!" Sabine warned her and Marinette saw Adrien sleeping on the couch, the remover and mirror stood on the table. Marinette felt a tinge of disappointment settle in her.
"Don't worry, dear. You can spend time with him some other day. I'll prepare both of you something for lunch for takeaway. The poor boy hasn't got enough sleep, it seems."
Marinette looked at Adrien sleeping peacefully on the couch and dejectedly decided to use the lunch break for a rest as well. After the Akuma and the test, she really needed some.
It was the last day of school before Christmas holidays. No one wanted to sit in class and study before a vacation. That's why Kim and Max decided to play a harmless prank on their teacher.
"Kim, you could get detention for that," said Alya while she expectantly looked towards the door, her phone in hand already recording so she wouldn't miss the moment.
"Hey! Live a little, it is called spreading the Christmas spirit. I'm sure she will laugh it off."
"Suit yourself. We,"Alya motioned to the whole class with one of her hands," had nothing to do with this."
At the same moment the door opened and everyone was on the edge of their seat to see how their teacher reacted. Unfortunately, it was not Ms. Bustier.
Adrien Agreste stood at the doorway, covered with glitter from head to toe. His head was shimmering, the blond colour almost invisible underneath it. The silence could have been cut with a knife.
"Guys...," Adrien whined and he tried to wipe his eyes and face to get rid of the glitter. A moment of silence until the whole class broke into laughter, apologies spurted in between the giggles. He looked like a Christmas ornament that could be hung on a tree.
The floor was a mess and their class got scolded for it, but even Ms. Bustier couldn't hold back a smile, when Adrien tried to brush the offending sparkles out of his hair. He didn't succeed.
Just as the teacher was explaining their home reading class, the screams sounded from outside. Way to ruin the last day of school.
Ms. Bustier urged them all to leave the classroom immediately, informing them that she will send the assignment with an e-mail. It made transforming to Ladybug much easier.
"Okay, Tikki, we have work to do. Transform me!" said Marinette when she had found a secluded place where she could transform into Ladybug.
At the same time Adrien cursed his bad luck. Even as Chat Noir, his hair was shining like a beacon. He rushed outside and to his relief, Ladybug soon swung to meet him on one of the roofs.
"We're dealing with another monster," was the first thing she said to him as she landed next to him, "The concrete on the ground was damaged before I arrived here."
"Let's see if he has some snow cones prepared for us, then!" Chat winked at her, though she didn't even look in his direction; and they both ran towards the screams.
Ladybug had been right.
"I'm Abomination! And I exist!" the big creature roared to the unlucky passerbys who hadn't yet escaped and had to become the subject of its wrath.
"The name serves you right," Chat yelled, "You're not that good-looking; it's such an atrocity that we are forced to see you!"
Abomination turned around and narrowed its eyes at the duo.
"You! I want your miraculous!" Abomination took a heavy step towards where the two stood, but Ladybug swung behind the Yeti-creature and Chat got on the other roof just before Abomination bashed the roof in, leaving behind a rubble.
"What a surprise! Hawkmoth is not in a jolly mood, eh?" Ladybug joined in, trying to make out the cursed item on Abomination's furry body, but coming up with nothing. It was not going to be easy fight. Abomination dashed forward again.
"Oh, what big feet you have!"
"All the better to squash you with," the snow monster paused as he discovered the flaw in his plan, "eh, after you give me your miraculous, of course."
"Not a chance, Snowball!" Abomination reached for Ladybug with its hairy arm, but she jumped out of the way, before it could grab her. She needed to detect the possessed item as soon as possible.
Few hours later, the fight was finally over. When Ladybug turned towards Chat to pound their fists together as to celebrate winning the battle, she finally got a good look at him. To her surprise, his hair was shining.
"Chat, what in the world is in your hair," she started giggling and reached out to him while his eyes considerably widened. She hadn't been that close to him without danger looming over them in a while.
Ladybug's fingers sunk into his hair and she picked up the strands of his hair inspecting the reflecting tiny particles that were stuck to the hair.
"Chat Noir hasn't always been this glam."
She stopped moving his hair around and looked him straight in the eye before Ladybug burst into laughter and leaned onto the curve of his neck.
"And is your stuff shiny, too, kitty?"
He choked audibly and Ladybug couldn't control her laughter. Laying his palms on her shoulders, he gently pushed her away.
"You got to go," Chat smiled sadly and pointed at her earrings that only had two spots left. She touched her ear and then took his hand in hers and lightly squeezed it.
"C'est la vie, mon ami." Ladybug dropped his hand and swung away, Chat watching her go.