Adrien hated the way Marinette seemed to be so...small when he was around. When he spotted her talking to Alya or even to Chloe, her stance was entirely different-she was bold, and she held her own in a conversation. Even when he'd dropped in as Chat Noir she'd been comfortable in her own skin, and daring enough to nearly trick Evillustrator into handing over his akuma. The only conclusion he could arrive at is that she really did not like him, and was too polite to tell him that she was uncomfortable and to leave.

It was so selfish of him to have asked her to do this when she so clearly loathed him. But they'd both committed to this, and he was going to do his best to put her at ease. Given that his only real friends were Nino and Ladybug, he figured that the way to her heart (or at least her friendship) was with bad jokes. Nothing was as uniting as laughing together over a genuinely terrible pun, he was sure.

So when Marinette's eyes widened and she contorted with laughter, so much that she even snorted, there weren't words to cover his delight. Surely, this and some free food would smooth over whatever he'd done to upset her so.

They arrived at a small diner, not too far from the school so that they could return before the hour was through. It was a diner Adrien was fond of for school lunches-as he never lacked for money, and he didn't expect Nathalie to pack him a home lunch, he liked to take Nino here whenever Nino wasn't too caught up with filming his latest thought experiment. The owner knew him by name, and not because of his modeling. It made him feel welcome and warm, glad to not only be Gabriel Agreste's son, but his own person, a patron of small diners and a good tipper.

After all, he was either Gabriel Agreste's son, Ladybug's sidekick, or nobody most of the time. He glanced at Marinette, seated across from him at the small table, and added 'Marinette's boyfriend' to his list.

Marinette was staring around the restaurant with wonder in her eyes, attempting to take everything in. The way her eyes flitted from object to object in the room almost made it look like she was looking for an escape. He wanted to put a hand on hers and assure her that she should relax, but seeing as every time he'd even come close to touching her she'd tensed up like a deer in headlights, he thought better of it.

Their waiter, a kind looking man in his mid thirties, stopped by and filled their glasses with water.

"Can I interest you in our lunch special, kids?" he asked, his eyes crinkling as he smiled. Adrien recognised him-he'd worked in this restaurant as long as Adrien had come, and he always seemed to be ready with a smile. He seemed to have pride in being a waiter.

Before Adrien or Marinette could answer, another voice came from across the restaurant.

"Waiter! Chop chop, not all of us are paid to flip burgers and stand around!"

The waiter's face fell for a moment as he turned, but he plastered on a false smile as he reassured the teenagers that he'd be right back.

"Oh, I hate people that are rude to waiters," Marinette said, her face scrunching up as the waiter walked away.

"I'm with you," Adrien replied, shaking his head.

Marinette smiled at him, then, her cheeks very slightly pinker than usual (or was that his imagination?), before she turned and buried her face in the menu, obstructing his view. He stared at the back of the menu for a while, wishing he could see whatever expression she was making. Marinette had the bluest eyes, he'd noticed, and whenever she looked at him it was as though they were trying to communicate a message. So imploring, but what did she want from him? He would never be able to put his finger on it unless he asked, but how did one ask what one's eyes were after?

It was a foolish train of thought, and he abandoned it, opening his menu as well.

A crash was heard from across the restaurant, accompanied by an older man hurling insults at the kind waiter who had seen to them just moments before. The older man had thrown his glass of water at the server, forcing him to stumble back and crash into a chair, while the customer ranted and raved about how useless he was.

Marinette began to rise to her feet to defend him-how curious, that such a timid girl would be willing to leap in for the sake of others-but the waiter fled the restaurant, tears in his eyes. Marinette sat down with a thump, angry eyes still staring at the one loudmouth customer who was trying to ruin everybody's day.

Adrien only wished he could transform into Chat Noir to beat up normal jerks, instead of just super powered ones. He unclenched his fist and resolved to ignore him-as he always tried to do with bullies. Sometimes it worked, after all.

"I hope he'll be okay," Marinette murmured, turning to look at the door.

Moments later, the door banged open and Adrien turned to see what had caused the expression of pure shock on his date's face. A man who was very clearly under the influence of an akuma, dressed up like a pure chrome version of a 60's style superhero, had kicked down the door and was rather deliberately posing.

"I'm the Silver Server, and you should know better than to think you can do a better job than I!" he announced, and immediately chucked the platter he had in hand at the rude customer. It was like a sharp frisbee, and the older man only barely dodged it. Rather than collecting the platter anew, it shimmered and regenerated right into the Silver Server's hand.

As soon as Adrien set eyes on the shiny chrome cape of the akuma victim, he knew he had to get out of there. He turned to Marinette, who was already out of her seat.

"You need to leave!" she said, pushing him out of the door. He was too shocked at her initiative (and willingness to touch him) to do anything but comply. "It's not safe, you need to run!"

"You do too!" he insisted.

She nodded firmly and sprinted in the opposite direction, just as he ducked into an alleyway to transform.


Ladybug skidded and rolled back into the restaurant, with Chat Noir hot on her heels. She grinned at him and faced the Silver Server with determination.

Her first 'date' with Adrien had not exactly been what she'd daydreamed about, but as Ladybug, she had no real time to bemoan her fate as Adrien's fake girlfriend. She could only hope he'd gotten to safety. The thought of him being, what, decapitated? By this akuma victim was too much for her.

She gestured toward Chat, and he dutifully came close enough that they could talk while Silver Server was distracted by trying to chase down his prey.

"This guy's a waiter here, and the guy he's chasing is a real jerk," she said. "I don't know what his akuma is just yet, but we need to keep him from killing that jerk, alright?"

"As you wish, my Lady," Chat Noir said, blowing her a kiss as he pounced after the target of the akuma victim. With ease, he picked the man up and tossed him over his shoulders, and ran away to someplace presumably safe.

She rolled her eyes at him, but kept focused on work. She slung her yo-yo at Silver Server, bonking him on the head, and he whirled round at her, tossing frisbee platters at her almost faster than she could flip and dodge them.

"That horrible man isn't worth all this!" she said once she realized she'd gotten into a corner.

"I can't help it," he replied, free hand on hip. "I'm the world's best waiter, and I'm serving up just desserts for those who don't appreciate the services people like me provide!"

Ladybug closed her eyes as he wound back to hurl a sharp platter directly at her, with no place to run, but the blow never came. She opened a single eye to see that Chat Noir had restrained the Silver Server by his cape, and was twirling his own tail casually.

"I give points for the word play, but I can't condone hurting my Lady," Chat said, grinning cockily.

"Get your hands off me! " Silver Server roared, yanking his cape from Chat's grasp.

"A little defensive of that, are you?" Ladybug said, squinting at the cape. "I think the cape's the akuma!" she called to Chat.

He nodded, and tried to get his paws on the cape immediately once more. Silver Server dodged his claws, and with a firm jump, surged to the ceiling and punched directly through it. He sailed off, leaving Chat Noir and Ladybug open mouthed in his wake.

"I hate it when they can fly," Chat commented casually.

"Where did you put his target?" Ladybug asked.

"I'll show you!" Chat pranced off, and she followed close behind, leaping and rolling and narrowly clipping corners. "How did you get here so fast, anyway?" he asked as they ran, turning and shining his green eyes at her.

"I was in the area," she replied cryptically, smiling. "What about you, alley cat?"

"I was on a date," he replied, sticking his tongue out at her.

She slowed for a moment, surprised, but picked up her pace again as she realized they'd come to their destination. Sure enough, Silver Server had found his way here as well. The old man was dangling from an ankle as the chrome villain attempted to drag him into the sky.

"It's time to pay your bill, sir," he was saying snidely.

Ladybug flung out her yo-yo and got it caught on Silver Server's leg, and pulled hard. He was pulled back, but refused to drop his target, instead using his free hand to attempt to slice the string of the yo-yo with a platter. Instead, the platter ricocheted off of the string (kwami magic is resilient stuff, after all) and bonked him directly in the face.

He tumbled to the ground from an altitude of some twenty feet, dropping his target. Chat Noir, without instruction, dove forward and caught the unpleasant man rather than letting him fall to surely broken ankles, as Ladybug was tempted to do. Ah, but Chat Noir was like that-always leaping into danger at the drop of a hat to save others. It was that foolish selflessness of his that she was so fond of.

With her yo-yo wrapped tightly around Silver Server's legs, and him only just coming to from his spill, snatching his cape and ripping it to shreds was child's play.

Chat Noir left the side of Silver Server's target, but stalled before fist bumping Ladybug. His face was suddenly very pale. "You didn't use Lucky Charm!" he said.

"Yeah?" Ladybug replied.

"How are you going to fix everything without a Lucky Charm? You can't leave that diner with a hole in the roof, can you?"

Eyes wide, she hastily tossed her yo-yo up into the air, calling out her catch phrase, and came back with...another yo-yo.

"Well, I guess this serves the purpose as well as anything else," she commented, before chucking it back into the sky.

Relieved, the duo fist bumped peacefully before being interrupted by the loud mouth customer of the restaurant who'd caused so many issues to begin with.

"Thank you so much! I'll tell everyone about how you saved me!" he said, bowing profusely and reaching for their hands.

Both heroes snatched their hands away and grimaced.

"This once, I wouldn't mind if nobody found out we saved you," Chat said, laughing. "You're a bully."

Ladybug smiled at Chat Noir, ignoring the sputtering sounds coming from the akuma victim's target. He hadn't been there to see how awful the man had been, simply trusting her words that he was a jerk and acting on them. She was really glad to have someone who trusted in her as much as Chat did, even if-

"Hey, what's this about you going on a date?" she demanded, poking Chat's chest.

"What, am I supposed to wait for you furever?" he said, grinning wide. "You got yourself a boyfriend, and since I can't physically fight him for your affection, I may have found myself someone who cares about me."

She glared, but pulled back, unsure why she was even so mad at him. Perhaps it was the idea that Chat could just go out and get a girlfriend on a whim, while she'd had to wait patiently for months for so much as a faux relationship with the boy of her dreams.

"Well, good for you, then," she said, slightly huffily. "I don't know how hard she must have hit her head to think you'd make a good boyfriend, but I hope the two of you are very happy and the next of your dates can go on without you having to suit up."

He clutched his chest in mock pain, wheeling back. "You wound me, my Lady! Maybe you're just jealous!"

"Not on any of your nine lives!" she snapped back playfully, but heard a tell-tale beep of her earrings calling her away.

With a cheerful wave, she backflipped away-just as much of a show off as Chat-until she found a safe place to detransform.

As soon as she was in her civilian clothes, she started to jog toward the school building, whipping out her phone to attempt to text and run at the same time.


[Text From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng 12:47 PM]
Are you alright? When I was running away I didn't see you follow me! I'm really worried :-(

Adrien smiled at his phone as he got out of the limo in front of the school. Despite their first 'date' going so badly, Marinette was still as kind as ever. She'd quite literally tried to push him to safety, disregarding her own, before running off and assuming that he'd follow. In all honesty, he felt a little bad about presumably abandoning her to his fate.

Well, it was better to play a coward than to reveal his identity, he supposed.

[Text To: Marinette Dupain-Cheng 12:50 PM]
I'm just fine! i hid in the limo the entire fight...is everythin else ok? i didnt stay around to see how things turned out

He hated sending those words, realizing how bad they made him look, but he closed his eyes and pressed 'Send' anyway. Some part of him definitely wanted Marinette to think he was brave and cool, but he couldn't sacrifice his identity just to impress a random girl in class, could he?

As he sat down in class, he caught himself in a lie: Marinette was no longer a random girl from class. True or false, she was his girlfriend now. He turned to look at her, possibly with a thumbs up to reassure her that he was completely okay, and was shocked to note that Marinette simply wasn't there.

[Text To: Marinette Dupain-Cheng 12:52 PM]
hey where ar you? you're not hurt or anythign are you?

He texted her urgently, suddenly concerned that she'd been skimmed by one of those deadly sharp platters and was bleeding out in a ditch somewhere. Could Ladybug's Lucky Charm fix damage done to people, too? Was there a range to it? These were questions he'd never thought to ask, for his faith in Ladybug's power was so complete. If an innocent civilian like Marinette got hurt because of him being too lazy to ask such questions, he could never live with himself.

[Text From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng 12:53 PM]
You're so kind to worry about me! Don't worry, Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day. I just had to walk all the way from my hiding spot by the diner to school, so I'll be there in a moment! I'm glad you're okay! It's smart to hide when supervillains start rampaging! :-)

He breathed a sigh of relief and put his phone in his pocket. Marinette was safe, Ladybug was a hero, and he was on time for class. Too bad he hadn't gotten to eat any lunch, though.

Marinette dove into the classroom a moment later, and sprinted up to her seat. He grinned at her as she came in, always mildly surprised at how fast a girl like her could run when she was late. She waved a tiny, timid little wave at him as she sat down, and immediately pulled out her textbook, apologizing rapidly for being late.

Adrien turned back to face the front, and found himself smiling to himself. Well, akuma aside, it wasn't a total disaster of a date , he thought.