Chapter Three is up! Thank you to everybody who left a review, they have been so lovely and helpful! Thanks especially to heartfulyumi for your suggestion and I hope you don't mind I altered it a little for my own purposes. Please read and enjoy!

Marinette and Adrien went back to working in silence though both of them were now on edge for any more surprises. Marinette didn't dare look up at Adrien; if he looked into her eyes again like he had done when she was sitting on him, she didn't think she could take it. She firmly kept her head down apart from when she made little side glares at her bag. Her parents had brought up more cookies but she wasn't going to give Tikki any. She should have known better than to pull something like that, she thought crossly as she scrawled across the page and made a blob of ink splat onto her notes. What could have possessed her to do that?

Meanwhile Adrien was also trying too hard to focus on his work but his mind was whirring with other matters. He was attempting not to think about the girl sitting not three feet away from him because whenever he did, he felt something unsettling deep in the pit of his stomach. When he had found himself looking into the depths of her big blue eyes as clear and bright as the water in a rockpool and felt the way she had held him in terror, it had felt oddly familiar. All he had wanted to do for one split second was draw her in closer… No! He snapped at himself. He loved Ladybug with all his heart and that was bad enough, he didn't need feelings for his friend Marinette causing more confusion. Why did Plagg have to do that? He thought as he gave his bag a furious look. He had been planning to sneak him some Camembert but he wasn't going to bother now. He shouldn't have tried to pull something like that. If only he knew what trouble he had caused.

Unknowingly to them, both of the fairies were watching them silently and were creeping closer to the desk with each awkwardly passing minute. Tikki had her eyes glued to both of them, dismay written on her face whilst Plagg trailed after her with a grin threatening to split his face in two.

"Plagg, are you sure this is a good idea?" She asked him when they were only a few paces away. "I'm regretting telling you about this now…"

"Don't worry about it Tikki," Plagg insisted. "Everything will be fine. You saw how close we were last time, they were totally having a moment. All we need to do is make it last a little bit longer."

"Like this?" Tikki looked at him nervously before her eyes narrowed. "Why are you getting so into this anyway? You never usually want to help with anything."

Plagg crossed his arms and shrugged. "Do you want me to stop helping you?" When she shook her head he said "I like causing chaos, it's in my nature. You should know that. It's not like I want to help the kid or anything…"

"Aww Plagg," Tikki cooed at him. "You're not getting attached to Adrien are you?"

"I already told you, he gets me cheese!" Plagg snapped defensively, ignoring Tikki's knowing smile. "And if you didn't want to do this, you shouldn't have told me about those papers. Now, are you ready?"

"Ready." Tikki replied with an uncertain nod. They were now positioned right next to the desk, floating inches away from Marinette's elbow. They each gave a look and a nod to each other before they snuck a little bit closer to the drawer and touched it with their hands.

Magic pulsed through the drawer and it shot open with all the force and noise of a gun going off. All of the pictures Marinette had of Adrien, all the photos and pages ripped from magazines, came flying out and fluttered around the room like demented butterflies. They tumbled around the pair of them like giant snowflakes and Marinette felt cold fear rising up inside her like a wave of freezing cold water. If Adrien saw all this…

"Tikki!"

"Plagg!"

Both of them cursed as they leapt up and started pulling the sheets from the air in fistfuls. "Don't look!" Marinette yelled over at Adrien but she could only just see him in the flurry of paper. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, hold on I-Whoa!" Adrien reached upwards to grab more of the fluttering pages but his foot slipped on one of the shiny magazines that had already landed on the floor and he fell backwards. He closed his eyes, bracing himself to hit the ground but the jolt of pain he expected didn't come. He opened his eyes to see Marinette's surprised face looking down on his. It slowly turned the colour of a strawberry as they both realised that she, despite her usual clumsiness, had caught him. He could feel his own face blushing as their eyes were once again locked in a trance. He put his hand on the ground to steady himself but he couldn't tear his gaze away as the papers continued to fall around them like oversized confetti. She started to stammer an apology but he put his other hand on her shoulder and it made her fall silent, her eyes shining into his like two bright stars. If he leaned any closer to her, their foreheads would have been touching. If he leaned closer still…

"Hello! Do you two need any more food?"

The sunny voices of Marinette's parents rose from the trapdoor as it flew open. Adrien was dropped to the floor as Marinette silently screamed, her mouth contorting into panicked shapes and her arms failing about.

"No Mama, Papa! We're fine! Thank you!" Marinette managed to yell down as she slammed the door back down, almost dancing on it to make sure it was shut. She then looked over at Adrien with an awkward smile. "Hehe…sorry about that. I don't know what came over them. Or what is going on in my room at the moment."

"It's OK." Adrien said, not noticing the way she angrily looked at her purse as he hauled himself to his feet. "Let's get this all cleared up. Why do you have so many of these?" He asked her with a chuckle.

"I…erm…use them for…inspiration!" She babbled out as she quickly scooped up some of the pictures that pooled at her feet. "The clothes in them…I really like clothes!"

"I can see." Adrien smiled at her and the sudden image of him in her arms came flooding back into her mind. It was so intense she had to turn away so he wouldn't see her raging blushing. "So…earlier didn't you yell out something? Something like Tikki?"

"Oh, did I?" Marinette panicked. She wished the ground would swallow her up as she felt his eyes on her back. "I think what I actually said was…tuck it! Yeah, as in tuck all these papers back into the drawer!"

"Oh right." Adrien replied as she let out a massive sigh. "That does make more sense."

"Yeah." She said as something occurred to her. "Didn't you say something as well?"

"Oh, erm yes!" Adrien said, flustered as he tried to think of an answer. "I said…plug! As in, we need to plug this up!" He pointed at the drawer and gave it a stare, hoping that it would convince her. If she knew what was going on…

"Oh I see." She answered after a few seconds and he finally breathed out. They had gathered up the last of the papers and she closed the drawer hastily shut and gave a quick worried glance at her bed before saying "We should probably get back to work…"

As she spoke, her computer came on and the image of a ruffled-looking newsreader sprang up on the screen.

"Breaking news!" She announced in a severe tone. "The city of Paris is once again under attack by a creature that calls itself The Trash Man who claims to be 'ridding the city of its garbage!' Anything that he touches is being compressed and citizens are being warned to stay indoors as he marches on the city…"

Oh no, an akuma! They each thought as they watched the screen in horror. They saw footage of a hulk of a man walking down a street with people screaming and running away. He was in a bright yellow and green bodysuit with a hazard jacket slashed with silver draped over him like a cape. He also had a black gas mask covering his face with black gloves and heavy boots and the smell coming from him was so strong and foul, it was coming off him in visibly green waves. They gave each other a worried look as they each realised they had to transform but couldn't, not in front of the other…

"I have to go to the bathroom!" Marinette suddenly yelled, running and grabbing her purse before almost hurling herself down the trapdoor. She didn't see the small red blur that only just manged to get back into it before she picked it up. "I may be some time so you just carry on!"

"OK!" Adrien said back, relieved. "I'll just stay here…not doing anything…"

The second she disappeared from his sight he whipped around and unzipped his bag. He glared furiously down at Plagg, who was perched on top of one of his books humming like nothing was the matter.

"Plagg what the heck were you doing?!" Adrien snapped at him. Plagg's eyes widened at the unexpected anger in his voice. "Are you trying to get me ousted as Chat Noir?!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Plagg said, struggling to keep his face and tone neutral. "Have you got any cheese for me? You promised me more Camembert!"

"Later!" Adrien sighed, knowing he would get nowhere with the cheeky black fairy. "We have other matters to attend to."

Meanwhile Marinette had just got to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She opened her purse and Tikki catapulted out of it. She saw Marinette crossly glaring at her and she gave an innocent smile.

"Don't give me that Tikki!" Marinette hissed. "I don't know what you are trying to do but you need to stop!"

"Stop what? I haven't done anything!" Tikki exclaimed, acting insulted. Marinette groaned and shook her head.

"Never mind, we will talk about this later." She said grudgingly. "For now, there's an akuma we have to deal with. Ready?"

"Ready!" The red fairy squealed.

"Tikki, spots on!"

"Plagg, claws out!"

Dundundunnnn! So I'm in a bit of a dilemma on whether I should actually write the battle with the akumaised villain I made up. Should I or would it be an unwelcome break from the story? Please leave a review and help me make up my mind. Thank you again!