Marinette spent several hours describing what happened to Alya, the two of them talking well into the night, only stalling long enough for dinner and to say good night to Alix.

The discussion of the date probably lasted longer than the actual date itself, with Alya and Marinette sharing a tub of ice cream as night crept up behind them. But they didn't pay any attention to the time, neither of them were going to work in the morning, so they would be able to sleep off whatever exhaustion they got from staying up so late.

"But he didn't kiss you goodbye!" Alya said suddenly, "Marinette! Why didn't you kiss him?"

"Because, Alya! I was too scared to! And besides, if he really wanted to kiss me, he would've done it... Wouldn't he?"

"Girl, all I can say for sure is that you missed a big opportunity. Alix and I could've vacated the premises and given the two of you some 'alone time,'" Alya said, wiggling her eyebrows and using air quotes around the last words.

"Ew!" Marinette laughed, sticking her tongue out, "Alya, I'm not that kind of girl, you know that. Besides, Adrien isn't that kind of guy, either. I wouldn't like him as much as I did if he was."

"You're right," Alya said, "You know who does seem that kind of girl? Chloe whatserface. The girl that Adrien brought to the party, she interrupts your date and tries to steal him right out from under you? What a sleaze."

"Oh come on Alya, she can't be all bad. Everyone deserves a chance."

"Yeah and she used hers to be rude and then end your date early. What's her deal? And you said she had another girl with her? What, like a groupie or something?"

"I think it was more of a personal assistant?" Marinette said with a shrug, taking another bite of ice cream. Her brow furrowed and she frowned. She didn't feel all that happy anymore, was it because she was sharing all this with Alya? Her little secret get away with the man of her dreams, and she was so freely gossiping about it? No, that couldn't be it. She loved Alya like a sister and would share anything with her, no secret too great. Alya was the first person Marinette told about her crush.

It must've been talking about Chloe and her friend- Sapphire? No... Sabrina- behind their backs. It wasn't like her. It made her feel... dirty. It wasn't a feeling she was really comfortable with, so she tried to push the thought of the two girls out of her mind and go back to talking about the date.

"Can we please talk about the good stuff, Alya? I really don't want to remember what went wrong."

"Ok," Alya said, scooping out some more ice cream for herself, "He walked you home. How very gentlemanly of him."

"That's not even the best of it!" Marinette said, "Instead of going along with Chloe, he insisted on walking me home first. I told him that I was fine, of course, because I would've been fine. But he said that it would be no trouble at all and went ahead and chose to walk me home. I mean, he was probably late for whatever it was he had to do, and I feel a little bad about inconveniencing him like that, but he genuinely seemed to not care, like I was his top priority and honestly, Alya, it felt so amazing to be chosen over Chloe like that."

"But you didn't kiss him," She said, raising her eyebrows. Not flirtatiously this time, not even mockingly, it was an honest question.

Marinette had to give some thought to her response. Did she like Adrien? Yes, of course. Did she want to kiss him? Yeah, she still does. She felt great about him walking her home. The date was a huge success. What had stopped her? Honestly, she didn't even really understand it. They didn't even hug. "I was just too nervous to initiate anything..." Marinette chose, "I don't think that I'm bold enough to start anything like that, and since he didn't..."

"Girl, look at me." Marinette hadn't even realized that her gaze had drifted down to her lap where she was slowly spinning the spoon between her fingers. A gentle hand cupped her cheek and pulled her eyes to Alya's, framed by her glasses, "You are so bold enough to do something like that."

"What?" Marinette sputtered, trying to shake her head and wave away the statement, almost slapping herself in the process, "Me? No way!" She could feel the blood rushing into her cheeks, a blush creeping across her pale skin.

Alya grabbed her friend by the shoulders and held her back against the couch, forcing Marinette to calm down and look into her eyes. "Yes. You are. Marinette, you're the one who asked out Adrien Agreste. Adrien Agreste! The boy of your dreams, the guy that so many girls heartthrob over. Not only that, but he said yes. Marinette, look me in the eyes and tell me that you can't be brave enough to do something else. Marinette, you can do whatever you want to."

"I..." Marinette said slowly, she had to think. If she could do whatever she wanted to, then she only had to do what she wanted to. So what did she want? "I want to see him again."

Alya cracked a smile, her serious demeanor gone, replaced by her supportive, happy self, "Then you should. Did you get his number?"

Marinette's eyes glanced up, trying to remember if that was a thing that had come up. Maybe during the waterfall? Uh oh...

"You didn't, did you?" Alya said, slumping back and crossing her arms.

Marinette laughed nervously, "Well, we know where he lives, at least," she pointed out.

"At least it's something," Alya said, rolling her eyes as she stood up, "I'm going to bed, Don't do anything too crazy, ok girl? We can go see Adrien together tomorrow."

Sure enough, the next day, Marinette woke Alya up. Which was weird enough on its own, usually Alya had to drag her lazy roommate out of her room by the ankles to get to work on time. But today, Marinette was all dressed up, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, bouncing in front of Alya's door after having knocked in rapid succession like a woodpecker pounding into a tree.

"Ready to go?"

"Good morning to you too," Alya said, wiping sleep out of an eye before placing her glasses on, "What time is it?"

"Almost 10. I've been up for a while now. I made breakfast, hurry and eat so we can get going!" Alya looked around Marinette and saw a pot of coffee, now empty. Sitting next to it was Alya's favorite mug with gentle steam curling off the top.

"Breakfast implies food, Marinette," Alya said, brushing past her friend and into the kitchen to get two bowls for cereal.

"We don't have time for that!" She whined, bouncing up behind Alya.

"Girl, it looks like you have to go to the bathroom," Alya said, glancing over her shoulder at the impatient Marinette. She had to say though, even if her friend was sleep deprived, caffeine-high, and a little insane, she could throw together an outfit like nobody's business.

"Alyaaaa..." Marinette complained as her friend was purposely slowing down her movements to bother Marinette.

"What? It's not like he's going to the main land or anything, he'll be there whether we show up now or in five hours. Chill out, where's your aloha spirit?"

Marinette stopped and frowned, looking at the bowl of cereal that Alya had made for herself, and then at the empty bowl next to her. Her stomach growled low. "Fine! I'll eat something and then can we please get going?"

"Only if you sit down while you eat," Alya said through a mouthful of real breakfast. She walked past Marinette and grabbed her cup of coffee, "Thanks for the coffee by the way."

Marinette sighed, trying to calm down. Her nerves were frazzled enough as it was and she was trying to ride her own nervous energy. If she tried to slow down, she would inevitably try to stop herself, and she didn't want to go through all that. Not after seeing how great just going for it was. She had to act otherwise nothing would get done. Alya had shown her that. And now her friend was trying to show her that she couldn't just rush into things. Marinette had to wonder how her friend had become so wise as she took a seat next to her and started eating the bowl of cereal.

Maybe it was because she had an outsider perspective on the whole matter. Thinking back on it, Marinette had encouraged Ivan to ask out Mylene, and they turned out great! Maybe that was the power of being on the other side of things. As far as she could tell, Marinette's situation had been only slightly different than Ivan and Mylene's. So maybe Alya had a situation similar. Maybe all her friends did and she just couldn't see it.

"I'm going to change, think you can wait for another minute, Speedy?" Alya said, putting a hand on Marinette's shoulder as she stood up and went to her room.

Marinette nodded dully as she took the time to think, staring into the light blue color that her cereal had stained the milk. A few spare pieces were floating around in the bowl and Marinette started to push some of them together.

"Ivan and Mylene," She said, a little yellow one pairing up with a larger dark blue piece of cereal. "Adrien and me," She said, a green one matching with a pink. "Kim, he could go with Alix or Max," she said, putting a small green one and a small red one on either side of a large red piece. A purple one with an orange, a yellow with another orange. That left two orange pieces left, "Alya and..."

"Come on!" Alya said, grabbing Marinette by the wrist and pulling her to her feet, "Let's get going!"