Standard disclaimers apply

Plagg looked up from his hidden stash of Camembert to see his chosen come into his room looking flustered again. The black cat kwami rolled his eyes, wondering why he always ended up getting the drama kings as his chosen. Plagg couldn't truly believe Tikki when she said that Marinette had been over-panicked and airheaded concerning her crush on Adrien. How could such a level-headed girl lose her mind over her crush? Then again, thought the cat kwami, weirder things have come to pass.

"Did your parents push the 'no-girlfriend' issue again?" Adrien's responding groan was all the answer Plagg needed. He returned to his cheese in preparation for Adrien's monologue. They were always incredibly long and full of drama; Plagg had learned over the years with Adrien that munching on cheese always made the monologue somewhat bearable, if still unbelievably annoying.

"It's not like I can't see where they're coming from. I mean, come on! We're each other's balance! And you and Tikki agreed that Mari and I are the most compatible Ladybug and Cat Noir pair seen in a century so it's not like it wouldn't be evident in our everyday lives . . ." Plagg was about to interrupt with his usual sarcasm when he noticed that Adrien's phone was vibrating like crazy and displaying his secret girlfriend's number.

"Adrien, I'm going to have to stop you right there 'cause your secret girlfriend is calling." Adrien glanced over at his charging cell phone and realized what Plagg meant; his lady was calling for the second time that day. They had agreed to not save each other's numbers to avoid any . . . unnecessary questions from their nosy families and friends. He rushed over to the ringing device, hoping Marinette wasn't too mad. If Adrien had to wager, he'd bet Marinette would use it as a chance to tease and flirt with him.

"Hey Tomcat. Did you finally notice my call?" Adrien scoffed before responding in a flirty and slightly cheeky tone to Marinette's tease.

"Of course I noticed your call. I just didn't respond right away 'cause I'm a cat. You can't tame this tiger."

"Tame?" responded Marinette in a slightly flirty tone, "Why would I need to tame a house cat?" Adrien thought a bit before realizing the perfect response.

"You're right; why tame me when you already own my heart?" Marinette's quiet giggling made all his lame one-liners worth it. Yeah; Adrien knew he wasn't the greatest comedian; but in his defense, he hadn't had any friends to bounce jokes off of growing up; just Chloe, who had always told him what he wanted to hear, not given constructive criticism. It's not the best way to develop your sense of humor.

"Okay," began Marinette, now all business, "we've got to talk about . . ."

"The play. I know milady. It's been bothering me too. How are we supposed to act like we're not dating and play a couple who are slowly falling in love? I know we're good, but not that good!"

"I know; according to the rules though, if we . . ."

"No Marinette. We are not going to lose our virginity just to be able to let everyone know we want to date each other." Adrien softened his voice as he continued, "I want our first time to be special, not because we caved into the pressures of being teenagers in love." Marinette sighed, knowing how lucky she was to have such a wonderful partner and boyfriend. After all, not many teenage boys would be the ones insisting to wait for sex if their girlfriend was offering.

"You're right; I guess we'll just have to wait the three months needed to start the betrothal stage. Ooh; why did we have to be cast as the leads!"

"Don't worry Bugaboo; if we've survived nine months of being 'just friends,' we can survive a measly three months."

"Don't be so sure kitty; Alya wrote the play, remember? I wouldn't put it past her to have based the leads on Ladybug and Cat Noir." Adrien shrugged before remembering Marinette couldn't see him through a phone call.

"We can just chalk it up to good acting."

"Can I just repeat what you said? We may be good, but we're not that good. Its' like Tikki always told me; we're superheroes, with or without the masks. We may be able to chaulk up our success to good acting, but it will only go so far."

"I know; we'll just have to play oblivious to the similarities. Shouldn't be too hard, considering we don't show our true selves on a day to day basis. If worse comes to worse, we can say that we're imitating Ladybug an Cat Noir's personalities."

"I hope you're right kitty."

The day of the first rehearsal came upon them their following literature class. Due to all the work needed to put on the show, their history and art teachers had agreed to give up half their class periods to increase rehearsal time for their senior class. Before the students could cheer about cutting the time for these classes, they were told there was a caveat. The only caveat was that every student had to turn in a project on a famous artist and/or period in French history relating to the arts. The students accepted the terms, albeit begrudgingly, in order to accommodate Adrien's busy modeling schedule.

"No, no, no!" Monsieur Louie yelled as Adrien spoke his lines in his usual polite tone of voice, "That is all wrong!" Adrien cringed, knowing what his teacher wanted but worried about revealing too much of his 'Cat Noir' personality traits in front of the class.

"Mr. Agreste," began Monsieur Louie, "You are playing the role of a rich boy trying to pass himself off as a breakdancer! Your character needs to be edgy, wild." Marinette stepped in, hoping to help her tomcat out with a little friendly competition, Marinette and Adrien style.

"Monsieur Louie," interrupted Marinette, "what if Adrien and I did a mock dance-off? It may help us get into character?" Monsieur Louie brightened at the suggestion. A little fun would certainly loosen up his leads for the play rehearsal.

"Nino;" called Monsieur Louie, "please play the music from the first scene." Nino nodded, not knowing what to expect from the 'not-couple.' Over the years, their classmates had picked up on some . . . quirks about Adrien and Marinette. It had started about a year ago that Adrien and Marinette were suddenly incredibly comfortable around each other. The frustrating thing was that they showed all the signs of being a couple but were just distant enough to be 'only friends.' It sparked the curiosity of the class like no other gossip could. Kim, sniffing a chance to make some bets, had his friend Max collect them on when Marinette and Adrien would start dating. So far, none of them had won, much to the classes' growing ire. They all were anxious to collect on the ever growing pot of money; even some students outside their homerooms had been attempting to cash on the loot.

"That song is all wrong!" exclaimed Marinette and Adrien, startling everyone in the theatre. Adrien, taking advantage of the shock, grabbed Marinette's iPod and quickly selected "Umbrella" by All Time Low. Connecting the iPod to the auditorium's speakers, Adrien gave Nino the signal to hit play to start the mock dance-off.

As the song played, everyone's jaws hit the ground as Adrien started a dance that was a cross between break-dancing, acrobatics and a competition against Marinette. Adrien started off by doing some fancy footwork, clearly showing off his mad dancing. He then startled everyone by doing a spinning roundhouse kick to finish off his bit. As the second verse started, Marinette mock-pushed him aside and began showing off as well, though her dancing had a more flexible feel to it as it ended with a leg stretched in the air at an 180-degree angle.

As the bridge began, Adrien and Marinette dropped the competition and began dancing together in an intimate, convoluted dance that was a cross between the tango and jazz dancing. As Marinette rolled over Adrien's back in a classic jazz dancing move, Alix groaned loudly, thus expressing what the rest of the class felt watching them dance and basically show-off.

"How the hell are they not dating!?" Alya and Nino shrugged before Nino responded to the classes' irritation.

"Me and Alya have been pushing for years. Unfortunately, our besties are incredibly stubborn. The funny thing is that its' obvious they both want it." Alya scoffed in agreement.

"That's an understatement. Marinette is so stubborn it's scary; I'm convinced the girl doesn't go for it because she's worried they'll ruin what they have." Nino nodded, agreeing with Alya.

"Same with Adrien."

"Brava! Brava!" interrupted Monsieur Louie and Madam Renault, "Now that our leads have gotten into the spirit, we can start from Scene 1. Narrator!" Thus rehearsal continued and Adrien and Marinette's love life was put on the back burner by their classmates; everyone, that is, except Chloe, who was angry at Adrien paying attention to Marinette despite the play calling for it.

Lunch break found our group of four friends (Alya, Nino, Marinette and Adrien) at their usual bench snacking on some delicious broccoli and cheese quiches from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Nino was regaling Adrien with some new DJ mixes while Alya was bemoaning to Marinette how her Ladyblog had reduced in popularity due to the unexplained disappearance of the akumas. They would have spent the rest of their break in this bliss except Chloe Bourgeoise had had enough of Marinette 'monopolizing' her Adrikins.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" screeched Chloe in a particularly ear-splitting pitch, "How dare you monopolize my Adrikins' time!" Everyone watched as Adrien angrily mumbled to himself. Chloe, thinking he agreed with her, asked him to repeat what he'd said. Adrien turned to his first friend with a scowl before he loudly and clearly declared his irritation.

"I said: when did I ever agree to be yours?" Silence filled the courtyard at Adrien's poignant question. After all, Adrien had always made it a point to confront people in private. This was a first for their classmates, though nto entirely unwelcome. If anyone could get through to her, it was Adrien. Chloe, on her part, was stunned before gathering herself to answer his direct accusation of her creating a relationship where there was none.

"What are you talking about Adrien? You told me I was important to you, remember?" Adrien scoffed in disbelief that Chloe would use something he'd said as a child as the basis for her claim.

"Yeah, when we were seven. Or did you conveniently forget that I was home schooled with virtually no contact with anyone my age besides you." Everyone winced at the venom in Adrien's voice. It had been so long since Adrien had been home schooled that his peers had forgotten that Adrien's only friend growing up had been Chloe. Marinette, seeing the discomfort on the faces of her classmates, leaned toward Adrien and whispered something in his ear. The young man visibly relaxed before turning to a hurt Chloe.

"I'm sorry if I sound harsh, Chlo. It's just that I've had others assuming how I felt for too long. Am I not allowed to decide for myself?" Chloe softened as she realized, finally, how much she'd hurt her first friend over the years.

"I-I-I'm s-s-s-sorry, Adrien. I . . . I got so caught up in how famous you became that I lost sight of what we had had. You . . . you do have the right to decide for yourself. Can we start over? As friends?" Adrien brightened, turned to Marinette for confirmation, then turned to Chloe and nodded happily. Chloe sighed, relieved she hadn't lost her friendship with Adrien. Sabrina, seeing Chloe was done and concerned for her bestie, cautiously walked up to her.

"Chloe? Are you okay?" Sabrina felt shocked at the look on Chloe's face; she looked . . . frightened, relieved, regretful and lost. Sabrina gently led Chloe out of the courtyard, away from prying eyes and ears so she could have a few moments to collect herself.

"About time you put her in her place, Adrien." Marinette turned to Alya with frustration and disappointment clearly written in her expression. How could Alya have missed the whole point Adrien was trying to make to Chloe? Adrien wasn't some wind-up toy waiting to perform for the pleasure of others!

"That's not why Adrien said those things Alya."

"Yeah, babe. My man said those things to have some personal space, right?" Adrien, although reluctant to lie, nodded anyway. There was no need to exasperate the tense situation; especially since only Marinette would get it anyway. After school and homework, Adrien and Marinette were talking while sitting on a middle beam of the Eiffel Tower.

"Come on kitty. Out with it." Cat Noir huffed before starting to talk to his lady about what was bothering him.

"It's just . . . frustrating how everyone, but you, sees 'Adrien the model' instead of 'Adrien the man.' It's like . . ."

"Like being loved for what you do and not who you truly are." Ladybug sighed deeply before scratching her tomcat behind his ear, causing a deep purr to erupt from his chest and succeeding in distracting him. Marinette giggled as Cat Noir glowed with embarrassment, his face as red as a apple.

"How's it fair that I have all the embarrassing transformation quirks?" Ladybug giggled as Cat Noir pouted at her teasing giggle. It was true, after all. Adrien did have all the embarrassing transformation quirks. As Ladybug, hers were more subtle; an aversion to cold weather, an attraction to flowers, tending to make herself appear bigger in order to warn off potential threats. Fortunately for Marinette, these things could have meant anything.

Adrien, on the other hand, had the quirks of a cat. Due to the fact that cats were more well known than ladybugs, his quirks were immediately identified as part of his merging with Plagg. Thus, it was much more embarrassing for Adrien than it was for Marinette. The worst part was that these quirks transferred to their civilian lives. It had taken a lot of creativity on their parts to get the adults in their lives to dismiss the differences in the two teens.

"Oh kitty; don't you see?" Marinette drew closer till she was a breath away from kissing him, "Who cares what they think? What matters is that we know who we are." Cat Noir smirked before responding with his usual cocky flair to his lady's semi-serious tease.

"Well, that's a 180, Milady. Who taught you such a stance?" Marinette drew closer and whispered right before they met in a searing kiss.

"You."