Adrien was sitting on his computer, browsing through the Ladyblog. The video Alya and Nino had been working on was posted. It was a small documentary about some of Ladybug and Chat Noir's toughest battles. Adrien was impressed with the quality, but the video didn't give him any more leads on Ladybug's identity. And even though he had seen Ladybug a few days prior, he wanted to see her again.
"She was right here in my room once," Adrien reminisced as he looked around his bedroom. "She stood right there and waited for me. She sounded really nervous when I was pretending to shower. It was adorable! She never gets that flustered around Chat Noir..."
There was a slight blush on Adrien's face. "Every time she sees me as Adrien, she seems to get nervous like how Marinette used to be. I wonder why... What's so different between Adrien and Chat Noir? If anything, wouldn't a man clothed completely in black with matching cat ears and a tail be weirder than some boring model?"
"Does she know me as Adrien? Is that why she acted strange? I hope I didn't scare her off because I'm a model. I don't want her to think of me that way. Even though I want her to love Chat Noir, I would want her to love Adrien too..."
"Ladybug, just who are you?"
"Are you in one of those moods again?" Plagg sighed as he sat down on Adrien's. "Every time you look at this blog, you get these weird goo-goo eyes and don't say anything for hours. I couldn't think about anything for that long. Not even cheese!"
"I have so many questions about her, Plagg," Adrien moaned, leaning back in his chair. "The more time I spend with her, the more questions I have."
"I thought you were getting over this now that you had that Marinette girl."
Adrien's heart thumped and his posture stiffened. A few weeks ago, Adrien would've simply scolded Plagg and told him to buzz off. But now, Adrien couldn't deny his words. There was something about Marinette that had creeped inside him. The mention of her name caused his body to tingle and his face to heat up. Her kindness entrapped him and her smile made him weak in the knees.
How had he let this happen?
"Plagg... is it okay to like more than one girl at once even if you like one more than the other?"
"Kid, I think you're asking all the wrong questions." Plagg had a devious smirk like he knew something Adrien didn't. Adrien could see the cogs turning in the little creature's head and wondered what he was talking about.
Adrien exited out of the Ladyblog and was met with his homescreen, a picture of his mother. "If she were still here, she'd know what to say," Adrien thought sadly. "She was always so outgoing and tough like Ladybug. She would go out of her way to help anyone and everyone. Maybe that's why I love my lady so much... She's just like Mom."
"So is Marinette," a voice in Adrien's head interrupted. "She's just as strong and brave as Ladybug. Marinette is kind and helps everyone even if she puts herself in danger. That was something Mom always did. And her smile is just like Mom's too."
"I should stop thinking about these things!" Adrien sighed, breaking away from his thoughts. "I'm starting to get a headache."
"Should you work on this design?" Plagg said. The kwami pulled a piece of paper out of Adrien's desk. It was the sketch he had worked on with Marinette. Little else had been done to it since he worked on it with Marinette. Adrien had gotten so caught up in spending time with the pig-tailed girl that he had forgotten to work on the design!
Adrien grabbed the paper and looked over the notes Marinette wrote him. "What do all these mean?" He thought. "I completely forgot everything! God, I'm such an idiot. What should I do now?"
"I don't remember what half these notes mean," Adrien sighed, setting the paper down. He rubbed his temples and tried to think. He knew he had to color it, but Marinette had told him to make other adjustments too.
"Call Marinette over," Plagg said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If you two work together, you could have the whole thing finished in no time."
"Did you not just listen to the conversation we just had?"
Plagg shrugged his shoulders. "I don't care if you finish the design or not. All I want is more cheese!" The kwami flew over to Adrien's secret stash of camembert and began to gobble the wheels of cheese up. Adrien gave an exasperated sigh. He knew Plagg was right. He couldn't do this without Marinette.
Reluctantly, Adrien grabbed his phone and dialed Marinette's number which he had somehow memorized by heart. She quickly picked up and said a confused "hello?" into the receiver. "Hey, it's Adrien," Adrien explained. "I need some last minute help with my design and I was wondering if you could come over and help."
"I'll be over as soon as I can."
"Thanks, Mari." Adrien hung up the phone and took a deep breath. During that entire conversation, he felt oddly anxious. "Snap out of it," Adrien cursed himself. "Ladybug will think you're just another dumb flirt if you like another girl. Ladybug! Not Marinette!"
Marinette was standing outside the Agreste Mansion completely motionless and about ready to pee herself. As Marinette, she had been there once before for Adrien's birthday party which ended up being nothing more than akuma attack. This was the first time Adrien had invited to her over personally and she was freaking out.
"Marinette, you have to press the button," Tikki whispered from inside Marinette's handbag. Marinette nodded and reached a nervous hand over the button on the gate. A camera appeared and a voice said, "What business do you have here?"
"A-Adrien invited me over. We have to work on something..." Marinette stammered. The camera would never stop being creepy. The camera retracted and the gates opened. Marinette took a hopeful step forward and tried to contain her urge to scream. She was really doing this.
She entered the mansion and was greeted by Adrien who had been waiting for her. "Nathalie didn't give you too much trouble at the gate, did she?" He asked. Marinette shook her head. "Good," Adrien smiled. "Sometimes she can be mean to guests."
"Your house is so big!" Marinette said in pretend awe. She had to act like she hadn't been here before. "You could fit the bakery in here ten times over!"
"It's a bit overkill if you ask me. How could two people fill up a mansion this size?" Most of the time, it's only one person.
"I see what you mean..." Marinette agreed. A place like this could easily feel large and lonely. Not to mention, the walls were gray and dismal. The only bits of color were some plants and a painting of Adrien's mother that Marinette could barely between the doors on the sidewall. When she had visited as Ladybug, she had seen the painting. It was an incredible work of art.
Adrien led Marinette up to his bedroom which he had kind of forgotten to clean for her visit. It wasn't a big mess. There were just a few stray clothes here and there, nothing too embarrassing. Hopefully, she wouldn't notice that or the faint smell of cheese. That was all Plagg's fault.
"I don't have another desk chair, but you can sit on the bed if you'd like." Adrien gestured to his king-sized bed and Marinette happily accepted his offer. She plopped down on the bed and was amazed at how soft it was. It was like sleeping on a pile of feathers. She could definitely get used to sleeping on this every night. While lying on the bed, Marinette spotted the door to Adrien's bathroom and blushed. She was still embarrassed about that moment.
"So how far are you with your design?" Marinette asked while playing with one of the pillows on the bed. "You should be close to finished, right?"
Adrien let out a nervous laugh and said, "Well.. I might have forgot about it, so there's still a lot of work to do and I couldn't remember what any of the notes I took meant so..."
"You've really dug yourself a hole here. Good thing I can get you out. We'd better get started right away!"
The pair immediately got to work. Adrien closely followed Marinette's instructions, but wouldn't let her do any of the work herself. He insisted that at least a little bit of the work had to be done on his own. Marinette oversaw the coloring and detail work, making sure to stop Adrien before he made any grand mistakes. He accidentally grabbed the purple colored pencil instead of the black one which would have been a grave mistake if Marinette hadn't stopped him.
Having Marinette hover over him the whole time was starting to get to Adrien. When she needed look over his shoulder, she would lean against his back and point at what he needed to fix. Her scent filled the room. It smelled like sugar and spice. It was becoming intoxicating. Adrien found himself struggling to focus.
Marinette, on the other hand, was the opposite. When she was thinking about fashion, nothing could distract her, not even Adrien. She was efficient and worked smartly. Her closeness to Adrien didn't even faze her. She was too focused on the task of finishing the design.
After about an hour of hard work, the design was finally complete. It was exactly how Adrien had imagined it with a little bit of Marinette's magic touch.
"It looks amazing now!" Adrien said in shock. He could hardly believed he had contributed to something so wonderful, but he knew most of the credit had to go to Marinette. "I wish I was as good as you," Adrien sighed. "Marinette, you're amazing at everything. Not to mention, everyone likes you..."
"I would disagree," Marinette smiled, sitting back down on the bed. "I'm terrible at physics and Chloe hates me with a passion. I'm hardly perfect."
"In fact, I'm probably the clumsiest, most awkward, unperfect girl in the whole world," Marinette thought. "I suppose it's all a matter of perspective though. The grass is always greener, they say."
"Also, everyone loves you too," Marinette continued. "You're sweet and kind to everyone. I've never met a person who didn't like you."
"But it's all just lies. People only like me because my father is famous or because they think I'm cute. It's not real..."
"You're wrong!" Marinette cried, surprising Adrien. "People like you because of how you treat others. You're a role model. You work hard everyday and treat people with respect even Chloe! People notice that. I notice that..." Her last sentence trailed off quietly.
"You always know what to say," Adrien said, getting out of his chair. "This isn't the first time you've helped snap me out of a funk. It's like you see right through me."
"It's not that hard," Marinette giggled. "You wear your emotions on your sleeve when you're around someone you trust. A friend of mine is the exact same. I can always tell when he's upset." Adrien stiffened at the mention of the word "he". He didn't know Marinette had other male friends outside of him and Nino. He felt a little jealous.
Both of them went quiet for a moment. Deep moments like these were becoming more common between the two of them. Adrien wasn't afraid to spill his heart out to Marinette and she wasn't nervous about telling him her fears. Neither of them seemed to notice the steps they were taking. Adrien didn't realize how close he had become to Marinette. Marinette didn't realize that she was no longer a stuttery mess when she talked to Adrien. After a long wait, they finally stood on equal ground.
"Do you want something to eat?" Adrien said suddenly. "I can grab something from the kitchen if you'd like. You've been here for a while, so you're probably hungry."
"Uh, s-sure," Marinette replied, recovering from the moment of silence.
"Great. I'll be back in a few minutes." Adrien left the bedroom to go get food. Marinette opened her purse and let Tikki fly out. "Tikki, we're really here in Adrien's bedroom!" Marinette squealed, her hands shaking violently. "I can't believe it! I've only dreamed about moments like this!"
"Marinette, did you see the way Adrien looked at you?" Tikki smiled. "I've been around for a long time and I know that look he kept giving you was one of love. You need to confess!"
"Confess! Tikki, are you crazy? I've never even thought about confessing. It's too much. While I trust your judgement, I don't want to risk the friendship that I built with Adrien. It's really important to the both of us and I can't ruin that. I'll keep my feelings to myself for now. It's better that way."
Tikki was surprised at Marinette's consideration for Adrien's feelings. She expected Marinette to plough forward with her crush, but for once, she had stopped to consider the consequences. It was clear that Marinette had thought long and hard about this already. She cared too much about Adrien to risk letting him go. Having him by her side as friend would be enough.
There was a sudden crack of thunder and a flash of lightning. Marinette looked out the windows and saw huge drops of rain falling from the sky. "When did it start raining?" Marinette wondered. The skies had been perfectly clear when she arrived.
Marinette laid her head against one of Adrien's pillows. She could smell his scent on them. "This is Adrien's bed," she smiled to herself. "He sleeps here." She closed her eyes and imagined Adrien lying in the bed. Tikki hovered above her, giving her a strange look.
"Marinette?" Tikki asked. She poked the Marinette's nose, but garnered no response. "Marinette?"
It was no use. The poor girl had fallen asleep.