She was terrified, to say the least. Marinette stood in front of her closet mirror and appraised her tenth possible outfit for that evening.

"This feels too casual," she said, twisting and turning to get a good view. "Why did I even buy this shirt, it's hideous!"

Tiki was sitting on top of her wardrobe and kicking her tiny feet back and forth.

"Do you think it's ugly, or do you think Adrien will think it's ugly?" she said looking down at Marinette.

"I don't know!" Marinette sat on the floor of her room defeated. "I'm not just going to wear my everyday school outfit to hang out with Adrien, but I hardly wear anything else. All my other clothes are either too fancy or practically pajamas!"

She looked at her sad reflection staring back in the mirror. Her hair was out of their pig-tails and messy over her shoulders.

Looking down at her hands she noticed the red nail polish was chipping.

"Ugh, this is a disaster," she said bitterly to herself.

Tiki flew down from the dresser and onto the floor in front of Marinette.

"You look fine. Just put on outfit number five, it was really pretty!" Tiki offered.

Marinette pushed herself off the ground and turned to the pile of crumpled clothes on her bedspread. She rummaged through until she found the long sleeved shirt and jeans Tiki suggested.

"Do you think the butterflies are too childish?" she said over her shoulder to the little fairy. Tiki only shook her head, exasperated.

"I know how silly I sound," sighed Marinette. "I'm just really nervous," she sighed. "I think Adrien really meant this to be a date, but I can't tell. People say It's a date! all of the time as a figure of speech but…" Her eyes drifted beyond the pile of clothes and she remembered earlier today as if it were happening again. Adrien's eyes so close to hers… something so familiar and warm about them.

"And the way he looked at me," she said quietly as if only meant for herself to hear.

She didn't notice Tiki flying up to her and hugging her shoulder. "Oh, my fille amoureuse. Wear what you'd like, but hurry because it's almost six o'clock."

Marinette gasped looking at the clock and ran to the bathroom.

"I'm going to be late!" she cried and began to comb her hair back into her trademark style.

… … … … … …

Adrien was bouncing off the walls. He got ready the moment he got to his room which was already in perfect condition. The maids cleaned his room every morning but that did not stop him. He dusted the already clean shelves and swept the sparkling tiles. Plagg hovered over in a corner, avoiding the whirlwind of a boy that was Adrien at the moment.

"Boy, oh boy," he said to himself. "Un garçon amoureux is not one to be intercepted."

Adrien did not hear anything but his own mind spinning with questions and things to say to Marinette. He began setting up the video game console system for the fifth time to make sure it would work properly tonight.

Plagg did have something bugging him, however, and had to intercept despite himself.

"Adrien, listen here."

Adrien looked up from the Nintendo and at his fairy. "What? I'm a little busy here."

Plagg flew down and looked Adrien right in the eye. "I know you love Lady Bug with all your heart, but be forewarned."

The small cat like fairy looked suddenly stern and important.

Adrien laughed. He couldn't imagine his silly little Kwami looking so cross.

"Why the sudden scholarly diction, my friend?"

Plagg sighed, "Adrien this is actually important. You love Lady Bug, right?"

Adrien's eyebrows furrowed. "Of course."

"But you have hardly noticed Marinette before you knew who she was. I know I laughed before but listen, you should really learn to love her for her and not her alter ego."

Plagg normally didn't have such important lectures to give but he seemed to be worried about this. Adrien wondered if Plagg ever loved someone before, or if a fairy even could.

He put the Nintendo down and took Plagg into his hands, smiling softly.

"You don't seem to know me as well as you think. Do you really think I'm just going to forget that Marinette is her own person?"

Plagg shrugged.

Adrien went on. "When I'm Chat, I am still myself but I am a little different. Behind a mask, anyone is different. This is why I decided to ask her over, so I can get to know the girl behind the mask. Then I will know for sure if this love is real, understand?"

Plagg stood on his hand wide-eyed for a moment.

"You are quite mature for a teenager, do you know that?" he finally said. "I'm proud of you, my superhero, you," and with that Plagg hugged Adrien and flew off into his closet where the cheeses were kept.

Adrien looked back at the console and left it alone on the ground. He got up and walked over to the mirror and thought about what Plagg had said.

Adrien was making sure that this was real love and not an infatuation with Lady Bug after all, but it was something else too. He wanted to know if Marinette liked him, and not just romantically. Well, romantically too but…

She was the second friend he made while at school and she was always the sweetest, but the shyest. They hadn't spoken much over the last couple of months but he wished they had. That day when he lent her his umbrella he swore he saw something in her eyes that drew him to her. She'd been so aloof since then that he didn't think much of it. Plagg might have been right about her having a crush on him but it was still wishful thinking.

He wanted to make sure.

He was so lost in his thinking that he jumped at the knock on the door from Natalie.

"A- um, visitor, Mr. Agreste?" she said from the door.

His father hardly ever allowed for this sort of thing to happen. The only times Adrien and Nino hung out were at Nino's house and with the perimeter secured by his bodyguards. The house tended to be a no-no for hanging out, but his father left early that morning for some reason and Natalie was being generous.

She leaned into his room. "Do not let your father find out about this," she whispered and allowed Marinette into his room.

Natalie disappeared from view and Marinette walked in alone with a large duffel bag stuffed with what looked like boxes from the outside.

Adrien couldn't help his heart from beating hard, despite Plagg's voice in his head telling him to not be hasty about his feelings.

Her own face looked nervous but normal, she was smiling.

"Hey, Adrien," she said standing in front of the door.

Adrien never felt so paralyzed by nerves but he breathed out and remembered who this was. It was just Lady Bug, his partner in crime and it was also just Marinette, his friend from school.

His beautiful friend from school. How had he never noticed how big and beautiful her eyes were? He breathed in and out again.

There was nothing to be afraid of.

"Hey, Marinette," he said, "So, what video games do you like to play?"

Leading her into the room, he showed her a place to put down her bag which, when she unzipped it, revealed to have been filled with snacks from the bakery.

"Hmmm, that's a good question," Marinette said setting down the bag and removing a container.

Adrien walked over to the television to turn it on and sort through the games he had on file. He glanced back at Marinette all the while.

Before she answered his question she looked over a particular container filled with croissants.

"My parents are so embarrassing," she blushed, removing the lid and filling the air around them with the smell of freshly baked dough. "They gave me half the bakery just because I was going on a date- um day out with a friend."

Adrien stood up and walked over to her again.

"Don't feel bad about it," he said. "I love the stuff from your parents bakery."

He took a croissant from plastic Tupperware and bit into it happily and closed his eyes.

Marinette giggled and looked at the rest of the treats.

"I guess these will go to good use after all," she said.

Adrien opened his eyes and looked at her, forgetting to say anything. She noticed the prolonged look and blushed, looking away.

"Mario Kart," she said.

"Huh?" he said, his mouth full.

"Mario Kart," she said again, running over to the controllers on the shelf. "We should play that."

Adrien blinked and then nodded, "Sounds like fun."

… … …

Marinette looked at Adrien eating the croissants that were in the oven not too long ago. He looked so sweet and blissful with crumbs all over his mouth.

He said that he loved the food at her family bakery, which made her feel warm inside. She liked to imagine that he ordered from them often, even though she was normally the delivery girl and never saw him on her runs. She wondered if he was the destination on one of her parent's trips.

She looked at the pile of plastic filled with desserts and sighed with relief that they would not go to waste. She was worried that Adrien would think that her family was crazy for giving her so much to bring.

She looked up at him and noticed that he was smiling down at her. His eyes twinkled in a certain way that made her blush.

"Mario Kart," she heard herself stammer.

Adrien was confused for a moment there and she reminded him of his question from earlier by running over to where the controllers were.

Butterflies were filling up her stomach again and she needed to calm herself down. Tiki told her to just remember that Adrien was her friend and that there was no need to be so nervous around him. Of course, no one could control the feelings of being so close to your crush, not even a magical fairy.

Adrien grabbed a couple of the containers, stacked them on his arms, and sat in front of the television again. He began to open more of them so that they could eat them later and the room grew heavier with the smell of the bakery. Marinette loved that smell, it reminded her so much of her own home. She liked the thought that her world was mixing with Adrien's.

He turned to look at her and pointed out the remotes they'd need for this particular game. She grabbed the two remotes off of the shelf lined with at least fifty controllers. None of the cables were tangled, in fact, hardly any of them even had cables.

"Oh, and can you set the lighting to evening?" Adrien said as she handed him the controllers.

"The what?" Marinette asked.

Adrien looked at her for a moment and looked like he remembered something and was embarrassed by it. He probably realized that normally people only had two settings on their lights; on and off.

"Um, right behind you. You see the middle one? Yeah, that one."

Marinette clicked it and instantly the room lights dimmed to the perfect amount of light and the television shone just bright enough.

"Woah," Marinette said as she sat next to Adrien.

Adrien looked down, his face red. "My dad installed like five different settings in my room so I can practice modeling with different lighting," he played with his sock. "I honestly just use it for better lighting when I play games or read."

Marinette put a hand on his shoulder and he looked up surprised.

"I have mood lighting next to my bed in my lava lamp. I got it on a trip to Amsterdam with my family," she said kindly.

Adrien looked incredibly grateful that she tried to relate to him, and he looked comfortable again.

"That's really cool," he said.

They continued to talk about places they've traveled to. Marinette traveled for family reasons, Adrien for work, but they glossed over that part.

The floor in front of the television was covered in a thick carpet, comfortable enough to be a bed. Marinette was reminded how different Adrien had it from everyone else at school. Maybe being this famous teen model wasn't all that great when you felt so alienated from everyone else. She wondered how many people even got to sit where she was sitting now. No one ever talked about going to Adrien's house. She couldn't even remember if Nino mentioned being here.

She looked at his face now and saw how happy he was loading the game on the screen. She wondered how grateful he felt to have a friend over today.

Marinette connected her remote and bumped his shoulder lightly with her fist.

"Hey! I wanted to be Dry Bones!" she laughed, feeling the tension from earlier ease up.

Adrien bumped her shoulder back. "I don't think so! He's the most aerodynamic!"

Both of their cursors hovered over the character.

"Fine," she said turning her sitting position to face him. "We both have to choose a character that isn't him."

His eyes narrowed, but with a smile on his face, "Deal, but no cheating or I will take all the croissants."

She bit her smile away unsuccessfully. She could feel that he was being flirtatious and she didn't know what to do about it. Strangely, she wasn't scared. It felt like she was used to this kind of flirtation from somewhere else.

They both turned to the screen and made their selections with their eyes closed. When Adrien opened his eyes he fell back laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" she cried.

Adrien was in tears of laughter and couldn't compose himself.

"You chose Wario?! He's the exact opposite of aerodynamic!" he laughed.

Marinette giggled as well.

"I thought it would be ironic."

Adrien's laugh was the most beautiful thing that Marinette ever heard. She loved seeing him filled with so much joy. He sat back up, still cracking up as he made his selection. Marinette laughed this time at his choice.

"Waluigi?" she looked at him questioningly.

Adrien pointed at himself. "If you're going to be Wario, I'm going to be his partner." There was something in the way he said that that held more weight than Marinette understood.

"Besides," he went on, "he's as aerodynamic as Dry Bones."

She hit him playfully on the arm again. "Adrien! You cheated!"

They laughed again and played a few laps of the game. Marinette beat him most of the time but he got to her in the last two rounds. As the night went on he edged closer to where she sat which made her lose her concentration.

As they played they had their fill of macaroons and croissants. By the time the last lap rolled around, they were so full they had to lay down on the carpet floor and just relax for a while.

…. …. ….

"Adrien, you didn't tell me you had stars on your ceiling," Marinette said quietly in awe.

Earlier that evening he was beginning to feel bad about all the gadgets he had that he knew no other teenager had. Maybe Chloe shared that with him but she prided herself on being better and different from the kids in school.

Marinette made him feel at ease and she sounded amazed now at the latest one she found.

The ceiling was dotted with hundreds of tiny lights that flickered and shone like bright distant stars. Some were brighter than others and some were only a faint haze. They looked so realistic that anyone who didn't know any better would think the roof was removed and that there was a blackout in Paris allowing for these stars to be seen so clearly.

"My mother had them installed when I was younger than I can remember," he said quietly. "I look up at them when I can't sleep. If you look closely, shooting stars are programmed to shoot out randomly across the room."

Mariette searched around trying to catch one.

"They're so pretty," she sighed.

Adrien wasn't looking at the stars on the ceiling, he was looking at Marinette. They had so much fun playing games and eating and joking with each other. He had half forgotten to remember that she was Lady Bug. They were so obviously one and the same person. He occasionally kicked himself for being so stupid as not to notice. She was so kind and brave and smart. He couldn't tell the difference between them now. Then again, she had never been this confident with him before.

He wished with all his heart he could go back in time and just talk to the shy girl who sat behind him. He would have realized sooner that she was the same girl behind the mask that he had fallen in love with.

He wanted so badly to tell her that it was him, that he was Chat Noir. He was the partner in crime that always failed at flirting with the most incredible girl he ever met.

Before he realized what he was doing, Adrien leaned in closer to Marinette on the carpet. She turned her head slowly and realized how close he was.

Adrien looked in her beautiful blue eyes leaning in closer, and she let him.

His lips were centimeters from hers now. "Marinette," he said softly, "your eyes are prettier than all the stars in the sky."

And with a soft gasp from her lips, they were kissing. It was a soft, sweet kiss, but it lasted for a good long while. Marinette's heart beat hard in her throat where he was stroking softly. She sat up and he followed her, pulling her closer. His fingers curled in her dark blue-black hair. Her perfect pig-tails undid themselves and became disheveled under his touch.

Marinette lost all her fear if there was any left and dug her fingers into his hair as well. Her soft fingers grabbed and pulled him closer.

He was filled with her smell, vanilla and flowers, and dough. She smelled like heaven and her lips tasted just as sweet.

She parted gently for air and whispered with a heavy breath. "Adrien."

He looked at her and it killed him that he couldn't tell her everything. He had a deep desire to just spill out everything about himself, about Chat Noir, about his family, about everything.

For right now all he could do was kiss her, and that is exactly what he did. He brought her in closer and she kissed him this time. He forgot about whatever it was he was thinking about and could only focus on her. His heart leaped and stayed in his throat as they kissed each other hard under a shooting star.

... ... ...

Hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter! Sorry, it was a little late, I'm working on some midterm assignments.

I added a tiny line referring to the Origins episode if you noticed that. With upcoming chapters I will keep them as up to date with the episodes as long as it matches with the infrastructure of this story.

One last thing, guys. Come support me on ! It's a donations website where you can donate as little as a dollar to support me and my fanfiction writing self. If you don't, it's okay, the stories will continue but it would be largely appreciated as it helps with college a lot.

Since I can't add links on here (boo) here's how to find me.

Just go on . com and search my username: Pinkmochiprincess (my icon is the girl drinking tea.) Thanks so much guys!

Stay miraculous!