"Exactly what do you need me for here?"

"In case he spots me, I need to look like I was just walking by. If you're here, it looks more convincing, Alya."

"Girl, I really think you're getting crazier. You might want to look into this whole stalking thing."

"This - This isn't stalking! This is... Watching from afar!"

"No, that's what they call it in movies. In real life, we call that stalking."

Marinette and Alya had been waiting outside the school building for over an hour at this point, simply waiting for Adrien to finish with his regular Chinese lessons. Alya had absolutely no idea why Marinette wanted to do this. She'd known him for well over a year now, and not once had she insisted on basically following him back home. That was fairly creepy to Alya, ever for Marinette at this point. She knew, of course, her friend wasn't planning anything weird. She knew her well enough to know Marinette wasn't like that, but when you get a text on a Sunday evening asking you to stay behind with your bestie to follow and basically spy on her crush the next day... That was certain to raise an eyebrow.

"Remind me again, why are we following him back to his house?" The tanned skinned girl asked her friend, who was peeking around the corner of the wall they were hidden behind.

"It - It's a gut feeling, okay? I get the feeling something bad will happen." Marinette knew that that was a poor lie, but she couldn't think of anything else if she tried. Saying she just wanted to watch him sounded weird, and saying she got a message from a magical device would sound absolutely insane.

She was fully aware of Tikki's warning, that this may turn out to be nothing... But on the very slim chance, as Tikki put it, that it was real... Marinette would never, ever forgive herself if something happened to the blond model, while she had had information about it. She had to make sure that he would be okay. And it wasn't even anything to do with her crush on him. It was that part of her that was Ladybug, that part of her brain that told her this was part of her duty as a hero... The fact is was Adrien was just an added bonus.

Yeah... An added bonus.

"So we're out here, based on your intuition?" Alya questioned with her usual smile and raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." It wasn't the best excuse, but it was all Marinette had. She felt lucky that because she was looking away from Alya, her friend was unable to see the crimson blood blush on her otherwise pale face.

"Wonderful. Second question... Why are we hiding from him exactly?"

Thankfully, the bluenette didn't have to come up with an answer to that question. She saw the doors to the school open, and shot herself behind the wall again, to hide from whoever it was leaving. At this time, it only could be Adrien. When she sneaked a confirming look, she saw she was right.

There he was, waiting as usual, for his ride to show up.

"Okay, so he's here." Whispered Alya to her friend. "What do we do now?"

"We just... Make sure he gets home okay, I guess."

"...I'm not gonna lie girl, this is weird. Are you okay?"

"Hello?" Adrien asked. Marinette froze, fearing she had been caught before she'd even started. She held her breath and felt her heart stop. "Father?" And then it started again. She took in a deep intake of air, and peeked around the corner at the blond, trying to expose as little of herself as possible. She saw that his head was hung somewhat low, with his phone against his hear, indicating he was on a phone call. Occasionally, he would nod. "Uh huh... Okay. I understand, father. Yes, I'll be fine." He then hung up, and placed his phone into his jean pockets, and began to walk down the street, in the total opposite direction.

Adrien walking back home was something that Marinette hadn't seen much of. He usually was given a lift by his family's limousine. In fact, that seemed to be his main method of transport. He arrived at school in it, he usually left in it, and went basically anywhere with it.

Marinette glanced at Alya and nodded. While this wasn't exactly what she had thought she would be doing today, she had promised herself she would make sure Adrien was safe, even at the risk of her looking like a total idiot. She carefully sneaked out of her hiding space, and followed Adrien, leaving about twenty meters between them at a bare minimum. If he saw her, she could either duck behind something, or look like she was walking with Alya, and just happened to have wound up behind their classmate.

Against her better judgement, Alya followed her friend. With another smirk, she jokingly commented, "Seriously Marinette. Stalking. You should go see someone."

Having followed the blond teenager for roughly fifteen minutes, Marinette really did begin to feel more and more ridiculous as time went on. the good part of that was that nothing seemed to be placing Adrien in immediate danger. He was just making his way home, and seemed to be enjoying himself. He seemed to be rather upbeat about this, for whatever reason. A few times he had turned around, but he hadn't seen either Alya or Marinette, but it was obvious he also had the feeling he was being watched.

While Marinette was certainly glad that he seemed to be okay, she was silently worrying that Alya was going to think she was absolutely insane, but she would just have to make up some sort of excuse later on. She didn't know at this point. the main concern was Adrien's safety.

"Okay girl, we've been following him for a while now. I'm pretty sure your gut feeling was off." Alya commented, a thin layer of sarcasm and mild irritation coating her voice.

Marinette would have agreed in that assessment, had she not kept her eyes on Adrien at that exact moment.

Adrien seemed to come to a sudden halt when passing an alley way, before taking a couple of steps backwards, and peering into it closely. staring deeply into the alleyway, like he was being beckoned to it, he walked down the alley, reemerging a few seconds later, having dragged out what looked to be a large cardboard box out onto the main street.

"What the heck is he doing?" Alya asked, watching just behind Marinette.

The miraculous holder herself had absolutely no idea what he was doing either. She kept her eyes on him firmly, watching each move her made carefully.

Pushing the box to the side carefully, so as not to crush it, Adrien then knelt down next to his recently acquired cardboard. the top of the box was missing, and whatever was inside it seemed to interest Adrien. Her seemed to stare at whatever was in that box for a short while, rather intensely, before he actually reached into the box, scooping up whatever was inside.

A cat.

More specifically, a kitten. A small, grey kitten, that couldn't have been more than a few months old. It was incredibly tiny, maybe about the size of a outstretched palm in length. It was a very malnourished kitten also, very thin compared to other cats. It seemed to be rather aggressive towards the teenager that had just picked it up, and attempted to scratch him, but to no avail. Apparently, it had been de-clawed before it had been abandoned here. It managed to bite one of Adrien's fingers, but it didn't seem to bother him too much.

'Though kind of heart and kind of soul, These actions soon may take their toll. Unsuspected and put in danger, By the acts of an unlikely stranger.' Marinette could practically hear her brain smashing itself against her skull. Was the miraculous seriously talking about a freaking cat?! A cat?! Why did her miraculous even tell her about this?! What was even dangerous about a cat, especially a de-clawed one? She wasn't sure if her miraculous had just intentionally humiliated her or not. She felt both embarrassment and anger.

"Aww, look at you, you cute little thing." Adrien seemed to coo at the tiny kitten he had found, despite it currently trying to sink its teeth into his skin. Marinette could swear that Adrien's face had melted upon seeing the tiny little feline creature. He stood upright and held the kitten close to his body, like a parent would a newborn baby, and, after shoving the cardboard box back into the alley he had found it with his foot, carried on walking, this time deviating from his way back home, and going deeper into the shopping district.

"So... Your gut feeling... Was telling you about a cat that Adrien found?" Alya asked, with a grin on her face. She was having fun. "You sure that this gut feeling isn't psychic-jealousy? 'Oh, you cute little thing'" She mimicked Adrien's cooing at the cat, lightly patting Marinette on the head. "Marinette, jealous of a kitty cat."

Totally red in the face, Marinette just sighed and accepted her friends teasing. "I, uh..."

"If you want to keep following him, we should move now."

"I... Yeah." Marinette knew she was way too far in with this plan to just bail out now, so, still feeling completely flustered and embarrased, she began following the same pathway Adrien had taken.

This time, Adrien hadn't gone too far. He had found a building on the corner of a street. It looked to be a rather old building, one that had been re-purposed time and time again throughout the course of the colorful history of Paris. It was in a far more secluded area of the shopping district, but was still somewhat busy around. Adrien went inside, taking the small kitten with him.

"Do you recognize this place, Alya?" Marinette asked, looking at the store from a distance. She wasn't really hiding anymore, since she knew that it didn't matter if Adrien saw her now. She also hadn't been in this area of the district often, and rarely paid attention to the stores when she was here, so she had little idea as to what was around here.

"I don't know. But Adrien's in there."

"I know. so?"

"So... go talk to him!"

"Wha - " Marinette stumbled back slightly at the suggestion. "Did you forget we're supposed to be staying hidden here?!"

"Yeah, but that was because you had this weird gut feeling he was gonna be attacked or something, and that turned out wrong, so unless that cat is gonna rapidly age and become a panther, I think we're fine to abandon the whole weird stalker thing."

Technically Alya was right, but Marinette really didn't want to talk to Adrien right now, mostly due to her inability to string together a coherent sentence whenever she was around him. Trying to talk to him was like trying to poke a needle through the leg of an angry spider, not that she had tried that, obviously. "I can't..."

"You need to get over this irrational stuttering of yours." Alya sighed, and took hold of her friends wrist, dragging her to the entrance of the building, despite Marinette trying to break free of her grip. "You'll thank me later. Go get 'im, girl!"

"Alya, wait a secon - " Marinette protested a final time, before she suddenly found herself inside the building.

Thankfully, Adrien, nor anyone else, was actually in the main room she was in, so they didn't see her nearly trip up the second she had been thrown in. The door had a notification system, however, which sent a large buzzing noise throughout the building, to inform the store owners that someone had entered their store.

Marinette froze up, like a deer in the headlight when she heard that noise, and before she had gotten the chance to bail out of the store to avoid having to bail, she was greeted, by none other than Adrien himself. "Marinette?"

A massive blush covered the teenage girls face. She was alone with her crush. "I - Uh - Adrien! He - Hello!" She managed to force out. It only occurred to her right now how absolutely ridiculous she looked. She was there, with her hand on the doorknob to leave, but as soon as she saw Adrien, she shot right up, practically standing at attention. he blush only grew thanks to that.

After shooting her a confused and somewhat shocked look, he asked, "What're you doing here?" She noticed that Adrien was still holding the kitten that he had collected. It seemed far more relaxed with Adrien than it did not long ago. It was now a lot fluffier, and didn't seem to be trying to escape from him, continuously emitting a low purring noise while being held.

"I um - I like - Um, you - You um - You like cats?"

"Hrrm? Yeah, I love cats." Adrien commented. As he did so, he scratched the ears of the grey kitten, which earned another, far louder purr, that even Marinette could hear clearly. "I volunteer here occasionally."

"O-Oh!" Marinette kept stuttering. Her brain started working on overdrive, until she found an excuse she could somewhat work with. "I um- I just was - I was just looking for accessories! For um, you know, cats! To um, draw!" Adrien knew of her love of fashion design, right? She could get away with that.

"...You do realize this is a kitten shelter, right? Not a pet store." Adrien informed her, with an amused smile.

Her mind screamed, 'Bail!' "No - I - I knew that! No - I mean um, I wanted to um, see what accessories would look good on cats! For um, practice! for - for me to draw the accessories on!" 'Stop embellishing, Marinette!'"Eh heh heh..."She scratched the back of her head awkwardly, praying to God Adrien would leave it at that.

Although he gave her another weird look, mostly in confusion, he smiled and nodded at her, understanding her made-up reasoning. "I could show you a few if you want then. Like this lil' guy."

Seeing the little kitten up close, Marinette did think that the feline was rather cute. It had large, green eyes, and was very fluffy and soft to the touch. With Adrien, it seemed to be very affectionate, despite having only known him for maybe fifteen minutes, presumably thanks to Adrien having brought it here to be taken care of. "He is quite cute..." Nowhere near as cute as Adrien was, but still cute. "What's his name?"

"Tino." Adrien replied. "I only found him like, on my way here. He was in a box in an alleyway." Marinette knew all of this, but she let him keep talking. He was holding up the kitten so that she could stroke it easily. "We found the collar underneath his fur, and apparently they put his name on that, and his name is Tino. You wanna hold him?"

"Um, O-Okay" Marinette agreed. Adrien carefully placed the small kitten into Marinette's open arms, while the flustered girl tried her best not to blush at the small distance between them now. Once Adrien pulled away, she was left holding a very light kitten, which let out a very loud purr this time, and seemed to affectionately paw at Marinette's hand. "Wow... He - He doesn't weigh a lot..."

"Well he was starving when I brought him in." Adrien told her, scratching the cats ears again. "It'll take him a while to put on some weight."

Squirming suddenly, the cat seemed to jump up from Marinette's arms, and onto her shoulder, where it proceeded to affectionately again, paw at her face. She knew that the little cat was declawed, so she wasn't worried about the cat scratching her. She let it happen,, laughing lightly as her cheek was tickled by the cats soft paws. "Eh heh. Carefully, kitty."

"He seemed to like you, Marinette." Adrien smiled with a soft laugh to his voice.

Marinette smile again and rubbed her cheek against the kittens. So her miraculous alert had been a false alarm, just like Tikki had suspected. but it did help cement the idea in her head that Adrien was, in fact, the person she shared her Soul Link with. And it had lead her to sharing this moment with Adrien.

It wasn't as as bad as she had thought it would be.

So, a few ideas went into this chapter.

The primary idea was that with the cat shelter. According to MArinette's schedule of Adrien (which is sort of creepy when you think about it) , Adrien does volunteer at a cat shelter occasionally, so I thought, what the hell, and threw that in.

Second, the cat in the story is actually inspired by my best friends cat, also called Tino, which is a previously wild, grey cat, which is the most affectionate and loudest purring animal I have ever seen in my life. He's so tiny and adorable and I freaking love him ^_^

So, there may be a few more chapters like this sprouting up in the story occasionally if I feel like making one of these two look like an idiot. Who knows? I just hope it was fun to read... And that I didn't make Marinette look completely insane.

If you enjoyed this, you should check out my , where I have many stories for you and many fun thins ^_^

My YouTube, TheGamingEmpire, is also a location to be for the funnies, and for the games and animes. We have fun here as I start to lose my freaking mind! : D

My Tumblr, GamingEmpire, is also available for those of you who like to leave suggestions and the likes, as well as interacting a bit more.

Links are in my profile description.

Don't be afraid to point out mistakes, leave ideas, theories, or anything else you guys may have, I know a few of you like to do that sort of thing, so go for it. It always makes me smile to see.

And I will see you in the next chapter of whatever it is I do indeed decide to write next. See ya!