Chapter 6

The next morning came, but for once, Marinette had some time; so she still remained in her dream world. Her alarm finally went off by vibrating underneath her pillow. She stretched her arms, legs and wiggled her ankles, all with her eyes still closed, and as she rolled over, her knee bumped something squishy, and warm. In a split second, her eyes opened, and much to her surprise, there lay a sleeping Adrien. She gasped, and sat up carefully, not wanting to wake him. Something of the old Marinette took over, and she stared at him, with a deep blush rising. She gently touched his cheek, and passed her delicate hands through his ruffled blonde hair.

"I can't believe Adrien Agreste slept next to me!" she thought to herself and smiled broadly. She held one of his hands, and looked at it, one of her fantasies starting to formulate in her imagination; an image of their first date, them at the school dance, him proposing to her, marriage, and three children, Emma, Louis and Hugo, life together, and having fun in their family, still occasionally transforming, patrolling, and protecting Paris. Stars shone in her eyes as she was picturing her fantasy, but her bubble burst when she felt Adrien squeezing her hand rather tightly, and he wore an expression she had never seen in neither him nor Chat, but in a matter of seconds, both it, and the grip disappeared.

"It's okay Adrien, I'm sure it was just one of those bad dreams," Marinette whispered tenderly while brushing a few stray strands hair from his face. She then decided that she would have a bath, and get some breakfast both for her, and Adrien. She washed her hair, and made a breakfast of two stuffed croissants, orange juice, and a miniature blueberry muffin. When she returned to her bedroom, Adrien was gone, but he at least had the courtesy to make her bed.

"I know that he had to get ready for school and all, but he could've at least said that he was leaving," Marinette thought. She had her breakfast, and headed to school normally, and she actually arrived on time. She soon found Alya hanging out with Nino at the bottom of the stairs, and joined them.

"Hey Alya, why didn't you post any Ladyblogs yesterday, wasn't there a villain?" Nino asked out of the blue.

"I um, I couldn't record anything because my phone, it needs um, fixing, you know?" she said, but didn't make eye contact with Marinette or Nino.

"But I saw you recording," Nino said.

"Oh, I was looking at some videos and I stopped to look at the fight, nothing's wrong with that, right?" she said.

"It's okay Nino, don't mind her and her videos, but I know when and where she could get some information and when. Right Alya?" Marinette said, nudging her friend.

"Uhm, what do you mean Marinette?" Alya asked.

"Oh, nothing!"

Adrien walked up to them, looking like he had just beaten himself up for some reason.

"Hey, what happened this morning?" Marinette asked.

"Oh, something just happened, I had to leave. Sorry for not telling you anything," Adrien said with a very slight blush.

"Did Adrien spend the night at your place?" Alya and Nino asked in unison.

"By accident, I fell asleep right after she told me to leave," Adrien said.

"But why were you in her bedroom so late to begin with?" Nino asked.

"Why are you asking so many questions? Can't a guy just sleep over with his girlfriend?"

"No; as a matter of fact, you have a father, doesn't he care that his son didn't come home last night?" he asked, then realized that what he said had an effect on his friend's already dismal mood.

"So what if my father doesn't care, it's not like he cared when him and mom were quarreling all the time and she left him, he only cared after she left and now it's like I'm more of his slave!" Adrien blurted out and ran off.

Marinette followed after and found him sitting on the floor of the locker-room, leaning his head on one of the lockers with his eyes closed. She knelt down in front of him, and stared at his face once more. The expression from earlier that morning was there again, but deeper. She observed that his cheeks and ears were now a slightly darker color, and the way he was letting out little breaths made her feel sad.

"Adrien, are you okay?" she asked while scooting closer to his side. He opened his eyes, looked at her, nodded, and closed them again. "You're lying; you know how much I hate lying."

He turned his head and looked at her. "Ever since she left, there has always been this particular dream that I have and it recalls all of the events of that day, before it happened and all our good memories as a family. It's just that it gets to me every time it comes."

"Oh; one more thing by the way, why were you squeezing my hand so tightly?" Marinette asked.

"I was doing that? That just happens, I'm a mamma's boy, we always held hands, especially whenever I was scared," he replied with a smile. " It feels great to finally tell someone how I feel, My Lady." Marinette started blushing.

One, she made Adrien feel much better about something personal, and two, he called her 'My Lady'. Feeling a sudden surge of bravery and confidence, she leaned over to kiss him on his cheek, but he turned his head, and that turned into a full lip contact kiss with Adrien, and they stayed like that for a few seconds.

"I kissed him. I really did it, oh my gosh, I finally kissed Adrien, it was not what I was imagining, but for once, I've had a good accident!" she thought with a dreamy look and giant ridiculous smile.

"I can't believe I turned so abruptly, she kissed me! I can't believe it! I surely don't regret it though, she's Ladybug, I got kissed by My Lady and my Princess, bonus!" Adrien thought, also with a dreamy expression, but looked as if he was about to melt from the heat of his face alone.

"Wow!" the both said as they looked at the floor, blushing profusely, and an awkward silence followed in which they played with their fingers.

Suddenly, the school bell rang, and they ran up to their class with a few minutes to spare before the teacher came in. Alya and Nino were shocked when their best friends walked in, red as ever, and not speaking a word.

"Hey dude, you okay?" Nino asked.

"Huh? Oh I'm just fine," he said and looked at Marinette as she was sitting in her seat.

"Psst, hey, what happened to you?" Alya asked.

"Nothin's wrong with me, I'm perfect!"she said and slid deeper in the seat. Chloe rolled her eyes, walked over to Adrien and threw herself onto his chest.

"Adri-kins! Do you want to go out tonight?" she asked. He gently pushed her off.

"No, sorry. I'm already going out with Marinette tonight, sorry," he said and pulled the girl to his side.

"We are? Oh, we are!" Marinette said with a half-smile. Chloe just simply went 'humph', and walked back to her seat, when the teacher came in.

Later That Day

Alya sat on Marinette's bed as she was throwing clothes out of her closet; a classic case of 'notingtowearitis' which every single girl has been through at some point in their lives. They soon came to the usual conclusion, they went out to shop. They searched many stores, and finally Marinette found the perfect dress; a knee length dress that was polkadotted in red and black with a black band around the waist. She also purchased a pair of red flats.

"I see you're going Ladybug themed," Alya said.

"Yes, that's true. By the way, I know that you know," Marinette replied.

"You do? But how?" she asked, and the entire thing was explained to her in full detail, but of course she didn't stop there, she asked questions like where Ladybug and Chat Noir keep their suits, where they get their powers from, how they learnt to use them; the usual questions, but Marinette refused to answer any. Of course Alya knew her secret but does she have to know everything?

"Hold on, Adrien is calling me," Marinette said and answered her phone.

"Hey Marinette, I forgot to say some things. We're going to the movies, but about dinner, there's something I've always wanted to try and I wanted to make sure if you're okay with it," he began.

"Cool, what is it?" she asked.

"I would like to try fast food, you know, like a burger and fries?" he asked.

"Sure, no problem. What time?"

"I'll pick you up at around seven and we can start our date from there! It feels weird saying date," he said.

"I know, date? Okay, see you tonight!" Marinette said.

"You mean in an hour," Adrien said. She looked at the time, and the sky. Saying their good byes, Marinette hung up.

She and Alya ran back to her place, and went straight up to her room. She showered, washed her hair, and changed into her new dress smelling as sweet as a rose, and put on her shoes. Then she paused. She climbed up to the balcony and looked at Alya.

"What should I do with my hair? I can't leave it like this!" Marinette said and shook her head and the two short locks on both sides of her face hit her cheeks. Alya got up and looked at her friend whose hair was partially in one.

"Close your eyes, I'm going to comb your hair. I might know what I'm doing though," she said.

"Wait!" Marinette shouted and almost made Alya fall back to the ground.

"What? What is it, why did you shout?" she asked frantically.

"It sounds like a casual date, this dress won't do at all!" she said with a pout.

"Right there. Well, get something else to wear, time is running out!" Alya said when she saw that it was quarter to seven. Marinette grabbed some random clothes from her closet and ran Alya went back up to the balcony so that her friend could change in peace. In about five minutes she went back in and found Marinette dressed in blue skinny jeans, a white fitted t-shirt with the print 'I love Paris' in black with a pink Eiffel Tower in the background, and the same black flats which she had purchased earlier.

"Ah, perfect!" Alya said. "Wait, no, your hair!" she said, and pulled the hair tie out. She quickly brushed it out and put it into a messy bun with the usual two locks on either side of her face. She picked up her Tikki's bag and put it around her shoulder, then checked the time. Five more minutes, great.

She and Alya ran quickly downstairs to the bakery, and they both froze at what they saw; Adrien sitting with Marinette's parents, looking as adorable as ever, all keeping up a casual conversation.

"Adrien?" Marinette said.

"Oh, you're ready. Then may I be excused to escort my date outside?" he asked politely.

"Go on sweetie; you two enjoy your night and don't stay out too late," Tom said, proud of his daughter for finding the perfect boy.

Adrien opened the door for Marinette, and sat down after her. At first she sat some distance away and was looking out the window, and he was just sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

"Sooo, what do you want to talk about?" he asked in an attempt to make conversation.

"I don't know, what about you?"

"I don't know. Well what movie should we look at?" Adrien asked.

"Anything would do, it doesn't really matter to me," Marinette said and turned to him.

"Okay, I guess we'll look at whatever seems good then," he said. Marinette realized that the scarf which he was wearing, was the one she had made for him.

"I see you like the scarf I've made for your birthday," she said.

"This? Oh no, my father gave me this… Wait a minute, this was the gift you were trying to give me when Chloe pushed you away, I remembered the box, I still have it at home!"

Marinette froze. She entirely forgot the reason why she had never told him about the scarf.

"So basically I got nothing from my father, but at least I have more reason to love this scarf and the delicate hands that made it," he said, scooting closer to her and put his hand on hers.

Thank you for all those who read my story, sorry about the late update. School is closing soon and I have end of year exams, so please excuse me with that. Enjoy your night and my story! J