"And look at that, our little Marinette finally shows up to school on time!" Alya jokes as her groggy best friend joins her in entering the school building, "Finally set your alarm?"

Marinette rolls her eyes, "I went to bed early last night."

"Seriously girl, you gotta get some sleep! Overworking yourself can't be good for your health!" Alya expresses her concern to an obviously tired Marinette. They continue to walk by the court yard when Marinette spots Adrien from across the area.

"Oh look it's Adrien!" her best friend points, "You should go talk to him!"

Marinette jumped at Alya's suggestion and a look of panic spread across her face, "O-oh what-no! I can't talk to him!"

"Oh come on!" Alya laughs, grabbing Marinette's wrist and practically dragging her across the court to her crush, who was talking to his friend Nino on the bench.

"Wow dude, you seem happy today," Nino notes, blowing another bubble.

"I had a good day yesterday," Adrien replies dreamily. Nino gives him a strange look before saying anything else, "Adrien...are you seeing someone?"

The model's face went bright red when his friend suggested that, "Wha-no! Well sorta- it's complicated...I think."

"Dude, do you have a crush?"

"Who has a crush?" a voice suddenly speaks. Nino and Adrien look up to see Alya standing up confidently above the boys as if she reigned superior. Behind her was Marinette who was meekly hiding her face behind her bangs.

"Hey Marinette!" the blonde greets the shy girl who continued trying to avoid eye contact. 'Why does she hate being around me so much?'

"Oh-um...hi!" she greets him back awkwardly. Marinette could feel the blood rising to her cheeks, 'How could I mess up a simple hello!?' she mentally slaps herself.

"You didn't answer my question," Alya reverts back to the topic on hand.

"It's Adrien," Nino answers, nudging Adrien's arm playfully. Adrien turns bright red as he covers his face with his hands.

"Ooh," Alya teases the flustered model, "Is this true?"

Adrien scratches the back of his neck nervously. It had always been a nervous habit for him, "Well, I guess, but she doesn't go to this school so you probably don't know her."

Marinette's heart plummets to the ground. He likes someone else. These words get replaying themselves in teenager's head in an endless loop, 'How could you have been so stupid to think that he would like you back!'

Just then Marinette feels a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looks behind her to find Alya looking at her sympathetically. 'This must be how Chat feels whenever I turn him down...' she sighs to herself, 'Well that is if he's actually serious about his feelings.' Suddenly, a pang of guilt hits Marinette. She never really considered Chat's feelings until now.

The bell suddenly rings and Adrien and Nino get up, "We should probably head off to class," the reporter notes. Marinette nods as they start heading towards their classrooms.

Marinette stays behind the group, giving Tikki a chance to pop her head out to speak, "Are you okay Mari?"

"Yeah," Marinette looks down at her kwami, "I guess I'm just disappointed."

That was a lie, Marinette was heart broken.

"Don't worry about it Mari! He just hasn't realised what's standing right in front of him yet!" Tikki adds reassuringly

Marinette smiles meekly but then gets bogged down by another sudden realisation, 'Was there anything in front of him to begin with?'

Marinette arrives to the class and sits down in her usual seat. Alya was already there, staring down at her phone, "Hey Mari! Look at this video someone submitted to my Ladyblog!" the young reporter shows her best friend excitedly. Marinette watched the video and smiled to herself. It was a fifteen second long clip of herself and Chat Noir fighting an akuma.

'I wonder that that stupid cat is doing anyway?' she wonders to herself. 'Probably stalking the Ladyblog, I bet,' Marinette chuckles to herself.

walks into the room and quickly places down all her books, relieving herself from the weight, "Good morning class," she begins cheerfully, "So I'm just going to jump right in today. Over the course of the next two weeks you'll all be doing some pair work for me."

She turns around and starts writing on the board and explaining the project. Marinette yawns quietly before pulling out her sketch book. She hasn't designed anything in weeks and she was beyond desperate for inspiration at this point. The bluenette felt a tap on her shoulder, "Drawing? Any new designs?"

The young designer nods, "Yeah but I'm a little uninspired lately."

Alya stops to think for a moment, "Well Valentine's Day is coming up soon, how about you design something for Adrien?"

Marinette's eyes shift back down to her sketch book"But he's not interest-"

"Marinette and Adrien," calls out. It takes the girl a few seconds to process the new information until it strikes her, "You're partners with Adrien!" her best friend squeals. The bell rings and all the students begin to make their way out of the classroom.

Just as Marinette is about to walk out the door her crush makes his way up to her, "Hey, should I come over after school to work on the project?"

"Oh, yeah sure! I mean-if you want to," Marinette stumbles over her words nervously.

"Cool, see you later Mari!"

Marinette's heart flutters as he walks out. Being the last one left in the class, Tikki hovers above her shoulder, "He called me Mari..."

A rush of adrenaline hits Marinette the moment she throws her bag on her bedroom floor, "Quick Tikki! You have to help me take down all these posters before Adrien comes!" the bluenette panics, ending in both her kwami and herself running around, getting rid of every Adrien Agreste related thing they could find.

Taking down the last few remaining posters, Marinette hears the door bell, "Oh God he's here!"

She quickly makes her way down the stairs to find her crush casually conversing to her mother, "Oh look there she is!"

"Hey Marinette!" Adrien waves, smiling innocently.

"Oh um hi Adrien! We should go work on out project!" Marinette says quickly, trying to get out of the potential awkwardness that would be bound to come if they stood around for any longer. The model nods and follows Marinette upstairs to her bedroom.

Marinette quickly pulls out an extra chair for Adrien so they can both sit down. Adrien makes himself at home before the bluenette panics once more,"Paper!" her eyes light up, "We need paper! Wait here!"

Marinette sprints downstairs to find the supplies, leaving Adrien alone in her room. Suddenly a cat-like kwami flies out from under his shirt, "Wow, this is a lot of pink!"

"Quiet Plagg!" Adrien scolds quietly, "We can't let Mari hear us!"

Plagg laughs mockingly, "Gee kid, a few minutes in and you already got nicknames! No wonder Ladybug thinks you're coming on too strong!"

"PLAGG!"

All of the sudden footsteps could be heard, "Quick hide!"

Plagg hide under Adrien's shirt just in the nick of time.

"I found this poster-paper. That's what it's called, right?" Marinette asks, sitting back down in her seat and straightening out the sheet.

"I just called it paper," Adrien laughs, causing Marinette to blush. After a long, awkward silence, Adrien breaks it by spotting her sketch book opened on one of her old sketches, "Wow, are those your designs?"

The fashionista feels the blood rising to her cheeks, "Yeah, but they haven't really been up to par lately..."

Ignoring her comment, he picks up the book and flicks through her designs "These are really amazing, you should become a designer!"

Marinette smiles at his compliment, "Well that's the plan," she says dreamily, "I'm hoping that this will go somewhere in the future."The girl's eyes suddenly widen and she scratches the back of her neck nervously, "Oh sorry, I'm rambling again!"

Adrien smiles calmly, "That's fine. I like listening to you talk anyway. Who knows, maybe one day I'll wear one of your designs," he winks playfully.

Marinette giggles nervously, still red. It made the blonde happy to finally see her relax a bit. She always seemed to uncomfortable around him. At first he brushed her off as shy but after his visit as Chat Noir and seeing how confident she was to him examining the way she acted in class only to realise that she only acted like this around him. It hurt him knowing that he intimidated her, especially after growing fond of her after their multiple encounters as his alter ego, which led to him trying to talk to her more, even going as far as asking for her autograph. She kinda reminded him of his lady. 'My lady, I wonder what she's doing right now...'

"So the girl you like," Marinette brings up awkwardly, "Are you two a thing or...?"

Adrien blushes slightly at the thought of his lady, "Well not yet anyway," Adrien chuckles playfully. Marinette nearly choked at his remark. 'That sounds like something Chat would say,' she thinks to herself, almost rolling her eyes. A few moments later his face drops a little, "I was just joking, I doubt she likes me back."

"W-what makes you say that?" Marinette asks, her heart aching at how much he seemed to care about this girl. He really did like her. There's no point in her making something for Adrien, he's not interested. However, she might as well comfort him. They can still be friends.

"Well she always seems to shut me down everytime I try to ask her out," Adrien pauses for a moment, "Well in fairness we always seem to get interrupted but still."

"Actually there's this guy I like too but he doesn't return the feelings," Marinette explains, thinking of her own experience with unrequited love.

"That's ridiculous, any guy would be lucky to go out with you," Adrien states. They both smile up at each other before it strikes both of them that they were both pouring out their hearts and souls to each other whereas they weren't even able to maintain a proper conversation just minutes ago. 'Could this be it?' Adrien wonders, 'Are we finally friends?'

Marinette looks at Adrien, "You should ask that girl out!" the blonde looks at her, stunned by her advice, "She would be crazy to say no," she continues. It hurt Marinette to know that her feelings weren't mutual but the least she could do was see him be happy.

"Thanks," he smiles back, "I think I will."

Suddenly Marinette's eyes shift back on the project, "Oh, look we haven't even started! We should-"

"Probably begin?" the model finishes for her, "Yeah, I'd say so too."

All of the sudden there was a huge bang outside, causing both teenagers to jump. Both of them exchanging a worried glance one of them finally decides to speak, "I need to go to the bathroom!" Marinette excuses herself.

"Oh, um, I have to go check on something too!"

Adrien runs downstairs, leaving Marinette on her own, "Tikki, spots on!"

{A/N} Oh my goodness! I just posted this here and I already have lovely reviews from you guys! Your all seriously the best! I'll be updating a little sooner on Wattpad since that's where I first write up the chapters, then onto AO3 then here. Love you guys!

Liz~