*Hi everyone! I hope you've been enjoying the story so far! I would like to thank everyone for the reviews I have received. They are greatly appreciated! So thank you again and keep the reviews coming! You guys are awesome! Anyways, enjoy Chapter 7!

Chapter 7

Marinette and Adrien were forced to end their make-out session when the car hit a speed bump. She fell backwards and managed to catch herself before she hit her head on the window. Adrien then silently cursed his driver for choosing a road with speed bumps, but then quickly turned his attention to Marinette. She looked like she was about to explode with joy. Her blue eyes were wide and brighter and her cheeks were flushed.

"Um," she quickly said, smiling like a mad woman. "I-I… um." Her hands fluttered up to her hair. She started playing with a lock of it as the reality of what just happened between them hit her like she ran into a brick wall. Marinette couldn't form a sentence to save her life.

Adrien shook his head as he smiled as she reverted back to her old habits. He thought that now they had finally kissed she might've gotten past it. He came to the possible conclusion that Marinette might always react like that around him.

"Do you wanna get something to eat?" Adrien asked her, hoping to get her mind off of what just happened so she could focus.

"I would love to," Marinette said clearly with no sign of a stutter anywhere. She was relieved to have found her voice again.

Adrien rolled down the partition that neither of them had noticed had been put up. He leaned forward and said the name of a restaurant Marinette had never heard of before.

"Wait, what time is it?" Marinette asked, looking around for a clock. There couldn't be too many places open that late at night. She found her bag sitting on the seat behind Adrien. He grabbed it and handed it to her. She opened it up, gave Tikki a tiny smile who was just grinning hugely at her girl. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. It was almost eleven pm, yet no text messages from her parents. Not even a missed call. She completely expected them to be checking in on her periodically. For once they were actually staying out of it.

"Don't worry," Adrien said, seemingly reading her mind. "I know this place will be open." He gave her a sly smile and relaxed in the seat. Something about his movements combined with the smile seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She shook off the thought. It would come to her eventually.

"What about me?" she asked. "I probably look horrible." She glanced down at her mostly dry dress. The fabric was a little stiff and the silk wasn't as pretty as it was before. She was sure her hair wasn't much better. She never got the chance brush through it, though Adrien did help with that some. She blushed as she remembered the feeling of his hands running through her hair.

"You look perfect," Adrien said with a warm smile.

She knew he was lying, but Marinette let him believe it.

The car stopped after another ten minutes of driving. She looked out the tinted windows but the streetlamp they were parked next to did little to alleviate the darkness out there. She had never been to a part of the city that was this dark. That was part of the reason she loved Paris; it was the City of Light.

His driver held the door open for her and Adrien. The Gorilla waited out in the car. Marinette was a little worried about him being out there all alone, but it seemed like a nice enough neighborhood, besides he could handle himself. She had nothing to worry about.

Marinette looked up at the store front's name. Yin and Yang Café. She wasn't sure if Adrien was correct in his assumption that this place was open. The windows were pitch black and the closed sign was up.

Adrien walked forward but stopped when he noticed Marinette was still on the sidewalk.

"Are you sure we can go in?" Marinette asked when he turned back.

He nodded. "Positive. Come on. This place is great," he said with a reassuring smile.

"Okay," Marinette said slowly, still unsure. Adrien opened the door and a little bell just like the one at her parent's bakery dinged with the motion. Once they stepped inside the lights turned on. There must have been a motion sensor or something in there. With the café illuminated she could really see the appeal of the restaurant. It had a very simple charm that immediately made Marinette feel at home. The design of the café reminded her of the French countryside. The tables and chairs had been painted a pastel blue with a complimentary patterned yellow fabric on the seat cushions. They paired well the antique cream walls and pastel watercolor landscapes hung up around the café.

"Are you sure it's okay that we're here?" Marinette asked. She still wasn't sure if they had permission to be there.

"Definitely," Adrien said without hesitation. He strode forward and disappeared to the kitchen. He came back with a covered baking dish. Now she was really confused.

"What is this?" she asked as he set the baking dish on a small table that was already set up with dishes and flatware.

"This is our first date," Adrien said with a timid smile.

"I'm sorry? This is our what?" She was becoming a little speechless again. How many times could that happen in one day?

"Our first date," he repeated. "I know the owner of this place, Fiona Genet. She used to be our personal chef before my father fired her. We still keep in touch though, and when I told her about the dance she wanted to do something special. So she made us this."

Marinette warily stepped forward trying to catch a whiff of the scent. "What is it?"

Adrien shrugged. "I have no idea," he said with a small chuckle. "She said it was a surprise. There could be anything in there."

"Okay, now I'm scared," Marinette said, holding back giggles.

"On three?" Adrien asked, placing his hand on the lid.

Marinette placed her hand over his. "Three."

"Un, deux, trios!" they said together. On three Marinette and Adrien lifted the lid of the baking dish. Inside was a scrumptious looking Tartiflette. It smelled even better.

"Wow! This smells amazing!" Marinette exclaimed. She leaned forward to get a better whiff of the cheesy potato dish.

"Shall we eat?" Adrien suggested.

"We shall," she said with a smile.

Adrien held out her chair for her. She gave him a big smile at the action. He quickly moved to other side of the table and started dishing up their dinner. The two ate quickly. The two teenagers were both ravenous from the night's events.

Adrien felt strangely liberated that night. He thought it was from finally putting Chloe in her place, but that wasn't it. It was Marinette. Kissing her, and having her kiss him back made him realize how much he cared for her. She had an effect on him that Ladybug had never given him, and she probably never would. He looked at her from across the small table and realized that while she was beautiful when he picked her up for the dance, seeing her like that with a fresh face and wide blue eyes while telling a story about her favorite TV show, she was absolutely gorgeous! He watched her talk as he ate quietly. She was very expressive he thought to himself. She used her arms a lot when she talked, and her face never stayed the same expression for more than a second. He couldn't believe that she ever thought for a second that she was boring. She was the most exciting person he knew.

Marinette took notice of how quiet Adrien was being while they ate, but never once did she believe that he was getting bored. His green eyes were always on her. He would smile or laugh at something she had said and that would give her a big boost in confidence. She knew she was talking a lot, but she had a lot of time to catch up on. It was like it was all coming out in one evening.

All too soon the cheesy potatoes were gone, and it was getting close to midnight. Marinette knew she should be heading home, but she didn't want to leave. It wasn't until she got a text from her parents that finally caused her to end the night.

They cleaned up the mess they had made then headed out to the car. She continued to talk on the drive back to her house, but this time she gave Adrien some chances to enter the conversation. They talked animatedly about various video games and movies. Adrien mentioned some places around the world that he had visited, and despite Marinette's fascination and want for details, he couldn't give her any. Adrien was always there with his father for business trips. Whatever parts of the foreign cities he actually saw was from the window of a car or a hotel room.

"I'd love to go back to some of those places one day. You know and see them properly," Adrien told her, lightly grasping her fingers and playing with them.

"I've always wanted to travel. The furthest I've gone is Belgium. It was great to get out of the country, but I want go further! I want to go to a different continent, maybe across an ocean!"

"Oh! You should see New York City!" Adrien sighed with a wide, wistful smile. "Paris might be the City of Lights, but New York is the City that Never Sleeps."

Marinette smiled at their hands intertwined together. Seeing him be this expressive about something was a nice change of pace. He had never been like that around her, well around anyone to be honest. He was probably like this around Nino since those two boys hung out all the time, but that was the only person Adrien had been real close with ever since he started school with them.

"One day, I'll go back and set things straight," Adrien said, continuing their conversation on New York. "The last time I visited… let's just say I didn't have a good time on my last visit. The trip didn't end well." His eyes darkened as his memories came back to him.

"What happened?" Marinette asked worriedly. She gripped his hand tighter hoping to comfort him.

Adrien shook off the thought and looked up at her with a smile. She knew it was fake but didn't call him out on it. "Never mind. It's in the past. There's no point in dwelling on it."

Marinette tried to smile back, but all she could manage was something vague and bland. She didn't like how dark Adrien's expression had become when he talked about the last time he was in New York. Now she was curious as to what happened back then. She would respect his privacy of course, but that didn't mean she couldn't wonder.

All too soon the car was pulling up to the door of her house. Adrien helped her out and walked her to the door.

"I had a great time tonight, Adrien," Marinette said when they reached the door.

"Me too, Marinette"

Their voices were soft as they spoke. Neither one of them could take their eyes off each other.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow?" Marinette asked him hopefully.

"Definitely," he said with a smile.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do. She wanted to kiss him goodnight, but was that what he wanted? She looked up into his eyes and that gave her the answer she needed. They leaned toward each other and kissed for the second time that night. Marinette parted her lips immediately and Adrien responded. That kiss was different from the ones they shared earlier. That kiss was deep and soft and familiar while before it was something new and exciting and exhilarating.

He pulled away to unwillingly break the kiss between them. Adrien kissed her quickly one last time before heading back to the car. Marinette was dazed as she watched him walk away. Without turning around she reached for the doorknob. She opened it up and slowly made her way inside. She shut the door and sighed as she rested her back against the wood. She bit her lip as she replayed the night's events in her head. Her head was spinning from all the emotions pulsing through her. That night turned out to be something even her imagination couldn't conceive.

"How'd it go?" Tom asked, surprising his daughter. Sabine appeared by his side with a huge grin on her face.

Marinette yelped at the suddenness of her father's appearance.

"Papa! You gave me a heart attack! And don't pretend you and Mom weren't watching from the window," Marinette said.

Her parents shared a look and shrugged. "We can't hide anything from her," Tom said.

Sabine ran forward to give her daughter a huge hug. "He kissed you! Are you guys dating now? Tell us everything! And what happened to your dress?" Sabine asked when she noticed Marinette's appearance. "What happened to you?"

"Oh," Marinette muttered, lifting a lock of hair and dropping it with a sigh. "Water bucket prank, Chloe, Adrien standing up for me." She smiled on those last words, but it was soon taken over by a yawn. "I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

She hugged her parents before making her way upstairs. All she wanted to do was to get out of the dress, put on her comfiest pajamas, and fall asleep, but she had to write down the night's events before her mind forgot. She didn't want to ever forget about that night. Marinette opened her bag and Tikki flew out squealing in excitement. She had been holding it in since their very first kiss.

"You finally did it, Marinette! It finally happened!" Tikki squealed.

"Shh! Tikki! My parents are still awake," Marinette whispered. "But oh my gosh! It finally happened! We finally kissed! It was like a dream come true!" Marinette spun around in her desk chair feeling like she was on Cloud Nine at the moment.

After sharing a few more excitement moments with Tikki Marinette went back to her diary. She scribbled the night's events down as quickly as she could so she'd always have the memories with her. Marinette changed out of the ruined silk dress and into something way more comfortable. She collapsed on the bed and fell asleep quickly.

Nothing could've brought Adrien down he was so ecstatic. He ran up to his room and took Plagg out of his pocket. He was still shivering from the whole water ordeal. He'd been inside the jacket when Marinette got the water dumped on her. Only Adrien had noticed the Kwami switching jackets as her friends helped her.

"I'm so proud of you, Adrien!" he said, his voice shaking from all the vibrating he was doing. "I mean, cheese is still better, but come on! You were on fire tonight!"

"Thanks, Plagg," Adrien said. Plagg went over to a couple of Adrien's shirts and made himself a little nest while Adrien went over to his computer and immediately opened up the journal he kept on there. He didn't have a written journal. It was too risky to keep one with the housekeeper always in and out of his room on a weekly basis. Besides he could type faster than his hands could write which really helped when he was trying to get information down as fast as he could. He started a new entry and basically went through the entire night minute by minute. Adrien didn't leave a single detail out.

Adrien tried to fall asleep once he was done, but he was still coming down from the excitement of the day's events. He dozed off a few times but in the end he ended up just lying in bed staring up at the ceiling. He thought about doing an impromptu patrol, but Plagg was still recovering from the assault of the water. He hadn't left his little nest in hours. Normally Adrien would just think he was being lazy as usual, but he really didn't look good earlier in the night.

Adrien decided to change his scenery and went to his couch. He stared out his window which had a wonderful view of Paris that he hadn't been able to truly enjoy until that night. For once Plagg didn't make a snarky comment about Adrien falling for a girl. He was too busy trying to recover from the horrifying ordeal that the water caused him, of course those were Plagg's words not Adrien's.

"How you doing, Plagg?" Adrien asked after a little while.

"Not good," he said, but he sounded like he was laying it on a little thick. "That water really took a lot out of me."

Adrien leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees. "I'm curious, as Cat Noir would I have the same reaction to water as you?"

"Not as bad," Plagg told him as he reached for another wedge of cheese he had piled up beside him. "But yeah. It's the whole feline thing. Cat's don't like water."

"So, what you're saying is I'd be useless during a light drizzle," Adrien surmised.

"Well not useless, you can do a lot of fighting from underneath an umbrella," Plagg joked.

"Oh, ha ha."

Adrien paused as his mind thought about what Plagg had said. Would water really be that much of a hindrance to him? He didn't like the thought of Ladybug fighting out there all on her own just because he was stymied by a light shower.

"Is that something I should be concerned about?" Adrien asked after a few moments.

Plagg shook his head. "Nah. I was just kidding. You'd be uncomfortable, but you could still fight just fine."

Adrien let out a sigh of relief. He couldn't let Ladybug fight on her own just because he'd be incapacitated by rain. That'd be the stupidest way to lose yet. He looked over at his Kwami. He was looking better, and it only took four containers of camembert to get him that way.

He sighed and relaxed back onto his couch to go back to his window staring. He could see the top of Eiffel Tower in the distance and started thinking about all the villains that had chosen that spot to have their final showdown, including Volpina. That was a really odd day. He thought for sure that she had a Miraculous, but he was wrong. Usually he had better senses than that. Ladybug knew though. She always knew. She didn't know that the "Adrien" Volpina had captured wasn't really him, but Adrien couldn't blame Ladybug for that mistake. She didn't know that Adrien and Cat Noir were the same person.

Adrien had thought about telling her that day. When she came back to check on him, he had the full intention of revealing his identity. He had only a minute left on his Miraculous, and normally he would've changed back immediately. Not that time, though. He hadn't realized he had made the decision until he was already doing it. He was ready to finally reveal who he was. If only she had stayed a few seconds longer she would know by then. He couldn't dwell on that any longer. That was weeks ago, and he realized he shouldn't tell her who he was. At least for a while. He had a feeling that they would find out one day, but there was no rush.

He leaned forward when Adrien saw a familiar figure swinging through the city. He smiled dreamily out the window.

"Plagg, you feel up to patrolling?" Adrien asked.

"Awww, man! Really?" Plagg whined. "After that traumatic experience I've been through? I think I need at least a week to recover! And maybe five pounds of cheese to help my poor, traumatized body!"

Adrien sighed and shook his head at him. Plagg could do Shakespeare he was so dramatic. "You'll be fine for patrol. Plagg, Claws Out!"

An unwilling Plagg got sucked into Adrien's ring and within seconds Adrien had transformed into Cat Noir. He opened up his window and vaulted himself out into the night to catch up with his lady.

Marinette had woken up in the middle of the night with just over an hour until the sun rose. She tried to go back to sleep but was too wound up. Marinette woke Tikki and easily convinced her to do a quick patrol. She transformed into Ladybug and swung out into the night. As she traveled through Paris the night's events unfolded in her mind. The dance, the prank, the kiss, it all came back to her, and it was amazing! She swung for miles just letting her emotions out. She somehow ended up at the Eiffel Tower. She went up to the top platform and sat down. She rested her head on a metal railing while looking out over her hometown. Ladybug knew that she would never get used to that feeling. She felt like she could do anything.

"Well hello, my lady," Cat Noir said. Ladybug turned and all she saw were a pair of large, green cat eyes staring at her. He stepped out into the light and sat down next to her. Their legs dangled out over the edge, yet neither of them were scared of the height. "What are you doing out here? I thought we decided to take the night off."

"I couldn't sleep," Ladybug said with a huge smile. "What about you?"

"I'm a cat. At night I rule," he joked.

Ladybug rolled her eyes, but gave him a smile.

"I couldn't sleep either," Cat Noir explained with a dreamy smile. Ladybug immediately wanted to know what that was about.

She nudged him lightly with her elbow. "Do you wanna talk about it?" Ladybug asked, hoping he'd give her some details.

His cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink as he hesitated telling her. Ladybug grew more excited. He never blushed! Ever! So what was making her kitty blush?

"Did you have a date?" she asked teasingly.

Cat Noir awkwardly reached up and rubbed the back of his head. If he did that anymore times he would have a bald spot back there.

"Yeah. I did," he said vaguely. Usually it was her being vague, now it was the other way around.

"I'm gonna say it went well, am I right?" Ladybug guessed.

Cat Noir nodded. "It went great," he said with a wide smile.

"Is it serious? Do you like her?"

He smiled dreamily. "Yeah," he said, looking surprised by his answered. "I really do."

"And she likes you?" Even though he made really bad jokes and never stopped making puns, Ladybug knew that Cat Noir was a great person. He was brave and kind and funny… on occasion. What girl wouldn't fall for that?

He nodded. "Definitely."

"I'm happy for you, Cat," Ladybug said honestly.

"Now let's talk about you, my lady," Cat Noir said, changing the subject. He knew that if they stayed on the subject of Marinette too long then he would slip up and mention something that would reveal his identity. "Why couldn't you sleep?"

"I actually woke up early," Ladybug corrected. "I just couldn't fall back to sleep."

"Nightmare?" Cat Noir asked, but that didn't make sense considering how dazed and happy she looked when he arrived.

She shook her head. "Nope. Too excited."

"Excited about what?"

She bit her lip as she thought over telling him. She tried to keep as much of her personal life secret, even from him. She knew that if she started to tell him about her date she wouldn't be able to stop. When it came to Adrien her mouth had no filter.

"It's nothing," she said. "Well not nothing. Today something happened that I have been dreaming of for months. It was better than anything I could've imagined." She knew how vague she sounded, but it was the best she could do without launching into a play by play of the dance. She felt like it would be enough detail to satisfy Cat Noir's curiosity without her actually telling him anything.

"You know, I never thought phrase 'Curiosity killed the cat' would be so relevant right now!" Cat Noir said. "You're seriously not going to tell me more?"

Ladybug shook her head with a smile. "Nope! Sorry, kitty. Maybe one day I'll tell you. Now come on. Since we're out here we might as well get some patrolling done."

He agreed and the two of them did their usual route throughout the city. They looked out for anything unseemly, whether it was an attack from Hawk Moth or just a run-of-the-mill crime. It was their city, and they were going to protect it from anything and everything.

The two superheroes patrolled until the sun rose over the horizon. The city was quiet that night and the two spent most of it just talking about whatever topic came to their heads. When the city started to awaken they departed with plans to patrol the next night if Hawk Moth didn't strike before then.

Later that day, after Marinette had gotten some sleep, she and Alya met up to talk about the dance and the fact that the video of the prank had gone viral. Marinette watched while cringing as she witnessed the prank from a different point of view. The video didn't stop after Chloe revealed it was being recorded though. Kim kept recording, and he caught the entire thing, up to and including Adrien going off on Chloe. Marinette couldn't help but feel a little smug at him standing up for her.

She started to wonder what she and Adrien were officially. They didn't really get to that last night. Were they just dating or were they boyfriend and girlfriend. Was it an "it's complicated" relationship? She'd like to think they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but that might've been just wishful thinking. He had a photoshoot that day so they hadn't done much more than just a text here and there when he had a chance. Despite this Alya had told Marinette that when they made it official in front of the entire school, she had to film Chloe's reaction and post it to her blog.

Marinette didn't think that would be such a good idea, but she didn't mention it to Alya though. If Chloe was hurt too much then she could get victimized by Hawk Moth, but she had already been akumatized once. So far the superheroes hadn't had to fight a person who had been akumatized once before, not counting Ivan. His akuma hadn't been purified and was still connected to him. That would've been a different situation. Just because it hadn't happened didn't mean it couldn't happen. Hawk Moth was still an enigma, and neither of the superheroes truly knew what he could do. That was what scared Marinette the most.