Summary:

I am placing the Glaciator events in their second Valentine's day so that it makes more sense. There's been over a year that they've been fighting akumas.

The week passed by and Marinette was learning to fill out properly some chouquettes. The crème that goes in those little puffs can become quite messy when you don't improve your technique. She spent her week learning from her father how to round them up, how to add the sugar powder and now how to properly fill them up. If these worked out, she would be able to bring some to share them with her class.

Marinette finish the tray and brought it to her father to validate her work. "Is this better papa?" She asked.

"Oh! This looks nice!" He smiled proudly at his daughter. "Let's try the taste!" The baker said while taking one of the crème puffs between his fingers, he sniffed the chouquette and smiled. Then squeezed it a bit to confirm how stiff the ball was. "Just the perfect amount of crème." He savored it properly to give his daughter his verdict. "Mari, my child. These chouquettes are even better than the ones I do. Good job!" He smiled and placed his hand on her head. "Would you like to help me finish up this bread?"

"Yes!" She grinned and thought to herself "I hope that Adrien likes them." She Move forward to her father. "So, where do I start?"

"Could you please close the mini-fridge after taking your cheese out? Now the whole room stinks!"

A pillow flew through the room and hit the black kwami that was taking a sun bath. "Ay!" Plagg fell down to the floor. "Kid! Don't wake me up from my beauty sleep!" He claimed with an importance gesture.

"You deserve it! The whole room smells like cheese and the fridge door was open!" Adrien scolded the cat like creature.

"I took the cheese off the fridge. I wanted it soft and gooey to try it with this baguette I was able to snick in from the kitchen this morning." He pointed to the bread on Adrien's desk. "I needed this camembert to be soft and smelly"

Adrien face palmed to that comment. "That explains a lot… Now I have to open all the windows. I hope that the smell gets cleared by the time I go to bed." He went to the side of the room and opened the windows. "What do you think Plagg?" He started to walk to his desk and moved his computer's mouse. "Do you think that Ladybug will agree to tell me how she got the fox miraculous?" His Ladybug screen came up. "I just hope that she will tell me soon." He glanced at Plagg again who was back at the sun spot next to the climbing wall. "You are unbelievable." The blond chuckled to himself.

"Ok, time for some research in the Ladyblog." He said while starting to browse through the videos that Alya has posted earlier that week. "Oh! This battle was tough!" He kept browsing, until he reached one of his favorite videos. "Here it is, the time Ladybug dropped her book." He clicked to open the video and it didn't work. "Let's reload then." The blond reloaded the page and tried to open the video once more. 'Not able to reproduce, no source found.' The error message showed over and over again. "Maybe Nino can check with Alya? It could be that the site is having problems."

Adrien reached his phone and looked for Nino's messages. "Hey Nino! How is your weekend?"

"Hey mon pote! It's been sweet! Spring is out!"

The blond smiled to his phone and decided to call so that he can talk freely. "Ok, this is better!" He grinned when he heard his friend on the other side. "And you are right! Plagg's been taking sun baths the whole weekend. It's nice to look out the windows and feel the warmth again." He paused a bit. He took his hand to the back of his neck somewhat ashamed about the question he had in mind.

"I know what you mean, Alya's been dragging me out to different places all day." Nino laughed.

Adrien took a deep breath and sat down on his bed. "Yes, Nino, about Alya. Do you know if there's anything going on with the Ladyblog? Is Alya doing some maintenance or something?" The Ladyblog was one of the resources that Adrien used whenever he wanted to see his Lady. He felt vulnerable, but at the same time he was happy he could share this with Nino.

"Well… She did mentioned something about removing some videos and other things that could lead to the identities? I didn't quite follow her reasons exactly, she was mumbling about discretion and protecting the heroes." Nino glanced at his girlfriend, she was asking André if he remembered something about the day when he was akumatized.

"Really?" Adrien opened his eyes and his mouth, he couldn't believe what Nino was saying. "Bububut..." He stuttered and closed his eyes, then he looked at the ceiling and let himself drop flat on his bed. "I don't understand." He brought the back of his hand to his forhead and then passed his hand in front of his face. "I mean, don't get me wrong, but I thought that she wanted to publish the heroes' identities!" He sighed sounding a little disappointed.

"Yes, I don't really know why, but she took down some videos and I think she took down some pictures too. Why?" Nino smiled at the red head that was walking to him with a big ice cream to share with him. "Were you trying to find out Ladybug's identity? I though you said that you must keep your identities secret." He smiled softly to himself while letting a sigh out "Adrien, just let it go. It is better this way." He said apologetically to his friend. "I gotta go! Talk to you tomorrow!"

Nino hanged up and Adrien was left with a very confused look. "So Alya took the video off..." He said in a whisper. "I guess that it is a good thing I might not be able to figure out who Ladybug is, but this way no one else will." He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then jumped to his feet. "Well, I guess it's good news that Alya realized that we need to keep our identities secret." He scanned the room when he noticed that he was talking to himself. "Plagg, where are you?" He started walking to the window. "Stop it Plagg, come out!" The blond sat down in front of the piano in defeat. "Ok… I guess I'll start my practice then."

It was study time. M. Damocles wanted to give the class some time to prepare to choose properly which specialization they will choose going to Lycée. Le Bac is tough on its own, and now if you want to choose something that goes along with what you want to study… They were given some vocational tests and also some reading about the different choices they have. There was a pamphlet with the different options after getting a general Bac, you could count one for literature (L), and one for social science (ES), for science (S) it was a small guide with the options you can choose, and all the other options and descriptions. It was a lot of information for sure.

"I will continue with the ES Bac, I decided it when I started Collège. Best option for journalism!" Alya said with a triumphant smile on her face. "That way I can take the social science options in Terminale." She looks at Marinette and adds "I thought about L Bac too, there is a lot of writing in journalism, but I measured a couple of things between just writing and communication classes that I will have from the journalism point of view."

"It's ok Alya, I wanted to be in the same class as you too, but I know that we will study very different things." Marinette gave her redhead friend an apologetic look. She looked at the information in front of her and moved her head to the side looking up at Alya. "I will do the L Bac, I want to keep designing and taking the arts path will be the best one for me."

Nino sat on the table looking at the girls. "Well, I guess I will be with you Marinette. I will be taking the L Bac." He smirked. "I want to keep up with the audiovisuals, that movie we did last year was funny. " He beamed a big smile to Alya. "And if we go all to the same Lycée then we can hang out together as always!"

"Nathalie has a special file to give information to my dad from time to time." Adrian stepped up and walked toward the girls too. "I will be taking S Bac, I want to keep up with physiques, or math, or something in between, maybe engineering? Hehe." At this point all that he wants is that his father lets him keep going to Lycée with his friends. He gave Marinette a look and when his eyes met hers she jumped in surprise. This startled him so he watched her trying to find out what she was thinking. She was moving on her sit uncomfortable "Is everything ok Mari?" He questioned the designer with a concerned look.

"Ah, em… Yes, the thing is..." Marinette looked at her bag nervously. She locked her hands together and started moving her shoulders uneased. She took a deep breath, slightly flustered she opened her mouth, closed it, looked to the side and opened her mouth again. "Ok, I made chouquettes for the first time… I brought some for you guys to try them out." She told her friends. "My dad taught me this past weekend, so I don't feel very comfortable sharing them with everyone just yet, you could say it is an experiment?" She took the box from her bag and placed it in front of her. "Go ahead and try it, I prepared the crème myself."

Adrian's face lit up, you could see his eye in awe tilting with hope and happiness. "Can I really take one?" He hesitated, moved his hand to the box to open it, then paused. Pleading with his eyes for Marinette's authorization.

Marinette took a moment to realize what was going on with her crush. "Oh! Yes! Please do!" She smiled softly a little shy but happy that he was so eager to taste the chouquettes. She opened the box and moved it to his reach. "Take as many as you want." The designer got a boot of self-steam after seeing Adrien's reaction. She felt warm at her heart and this translated into pink cheeks.

Adrien was as happy as a 10 year-old with a new toy. His eyes were closed, smile wide savoring the crème pouf with all his soul. His reaction was more than what Marinette expected for sure. He even thought about Plagg and how much he mentioned that eating cheese was his pleasure… Well, Adrien's found pleasure in these homemade chouquettes, done by Marinette chouquettes. Marinette, she can actually cook this type of desserts. "OMG Marinette!" he thought in surprise. His eyes popped open and stared in awe at his friend. He took another chouquette from the box and looked at it, then looked at Marinette, looked back to the dessert, back to Marinette. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. "Ah…" He couldn't word it. The chouquettes had always been his favorite pastry, but this is the best thing he had ever tried.

Nino smiled softly and kept silent when he saw his friend's reaction. His poker face has been getting better and better. This time Alya didn't notice him, she was stunned about Adrien's reaction and she was about to push Marinette to his arms. She toyed with the idea for a moment, until she discarded it. Yes, it was amusing, but she could break her friend too. She didn't want the clumsy girl in front of her with pink to red cheeks to freak out and run away. The DJ placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled in for another chouquette for himself. They were indeed very good.

Marinette was starting to panic, she was happy of course, but her anxiety was winning, her heart beat was faster than a hummingbird's wings flying away. She could feel her cheeks getting hotter and hotter. She felt her pulse against her neck. Her mind whispering and babbling "Ah! Did he like it? He doesn't like it! He's just being polite… This is the fifth one! I think that he did like it, didn't he? Ay! I don't know! Why doesn't he tell me anything? He's just… there… oh no… I want to cry... or scream… Marinette! Don't panic!"

Adrien took a bite of the chouquette he was holding, he couldn't imagine where else he'd tasted paradise like this. As if reading Marinette's head he took a deep breath and said: "Mari, these are amazing! I don't know if you knew, but chouquettes are my favorite sweet pastry. And These!" He finished the bite size he had in his fingers, closing his eyes and visibly enjoying that last bite. "These are the best chouquettes I've tried! Ever! I didn't even know that you could add cream to them like this!" At this point he had taken Marinette's shoulders and Alya grinned at the proximity of his face while saying these words with such passion.

Marinette was speechless. If she was panicking before, she was out of herself now. "Adrien…" was all she could say in a weak whisper. She kept her eyes locked with his. Her hands were trembling as she brought them together to control the movement, so she started tapping her fingers against one another. Her mouth was parted a bit as she looked at Adrien's lips for a moment. She blinked once, twice, feeling the blond's hands tighten his grip against her. "Thank you. I still have much to learn." She shyly moved her sight to the side, still looking at him nervously with a soft smile on her lips.

Part of the class noticed the closeness and his pure emotion while talking with his friends. This included Chloé. She was in shock too, but because Adrien's hands were touching Marinette and not her. She stood up determined to rampage attention for herself. "Adrichou!" Started saying trying to get the blond's attention. "Adrichou!" She sang as if he was paying attention. "Do you know which Bac you'll try? Let's choose together Adrichou!" She started walking towards the blond. Mylène and Alix noticed what she was about to do and stood up as well cutting her steps.

Adrien cringed at Chloé's voice, he shrugged his shoulders and loosed his grip against Marinette's. He peeked to see Chloé stepping up calling him again.

Marinette looked at the mayor's daughter and then looked at Alya, to see the frown that Alya had, she looked at Adrien pledging to sit down. He agreed and asked Marinette to show him her latest designs, which she did with a wide grin.

"What are those?" Alix asked catching Alya's attention. Alya looked over and noticed the steaming Chloé standing right behind Alix and Mylène. The red head took the box and walked over to Alix and Mylène and presented the puffs for them to try. "Marinette baked these for testing, I think there are still some for you girls to try out!" She winked at the two saviors and remained with them blocking 'miss perfect annoyance' from reaching the fashion duo.

Nino glanced at Marinette and Adrien from the corner of the eye. He stood next to his girlfriend and winked his eye. She whispered "did you see that? He was about to kiss her without realizing!" He glanced at the fashion duo, looked back to those hazel nut eyes, and grabbed her arm. An assent with his head let the girl know what he was thinking. Alya understood at the moment. "Ok, so Cinema plan it is! Do you get the tickets? Next Saturday?" her eyes were glittering, big smile on her face. Nino only smiled and continued with the conversation with Mylène and Alix.

Notes:

Next time a meeting and a confession.

Ok, so I rewatched the part of Le Pharaon to confirm in which grade they were. The show started in Troisième, so I might be editing some things there to be accurate to this. Taking in count that at this point we've had 2 Valentine days, this means that they should be in Seconde already, even that the show places them still in Collège and should move to Lycée...

I might not do much about this, and just keep them in Collège, but I would like them to live life and also the interaction going to Lycée in different classes and all that...