*peeks in* *bows repeatedly* I'm very sorry that this took so long. At least it's a good chapter (I hope). Hope you all enjoy this!

I do not own anything Miraculous Ladybug.

Tikki was facing the rush that happened during the temporary lull in panels. The lull came from most of them prepping for the evening activities. She was working on autopilot with helping clients, but any time she had a moment to herself, her mind was on Plagg. It was driving her nuts.

On one hand, he was fun and thoughtful (when he tried), and his out-of-the-box way of thinking never ceased to entertain her. On the other, he was carelessly rude and socially oblivious at times. Then there was whatever her half-awake brain must have said that made him start acting weird. She was absolutely certain something must have happened but was starting to wonder if it might be for the best to play along with Plagg and pretend that whatever happened, hadn't happened.

"URGH!" Tikki shoved the last of the restocking supplies onto the shelves with enough force to knock off some of the items sitting at the end.

Manon glanced over at her boss's exasperated scramble. "You doing okay over there?"

"Fine," Tikki snapped.

"That is the least fine 'fine' I've ever heard in my life," Manon commented as she checked out another customer.

Tikki took a breath to calm down and remind herself that she wasn't mad at Manon. When she thought about it she wasn't really mad at Plagg or even herself. She was just tired with tiptoeing around him. She let out a heavy sigh. "I'm fine. Just tired and maybe a little frustrated."

"Men," Manon said with a sage shake of her head.

Tikki side-eyed the teen. "What do you know about dating?"

"More than people give me credit for. For example, am I wrong or right that you're frustrated because of a guy?"

"Right, but that doesn't mean I want to talk about it."

Manon shrugged. "All right then. I say you should just ask Plagg out. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I didn't say anything about which guy it was. For all you know, I'm talking about Adrien and Marinette's engagement."

Manon raised an eyebrow of disbelief. "Are you?"

"You know, has anyone ever told you that saying about curiosity and cats?"

"Did you hear that satisfaction brought it back?" Manon countered.

"You've been hanging out with Adrien too much."

Manon laughed. "That guy has more bad dad jokes than my dad."

"Did you hear the one about where cats go when they die?" Tikki asked, jumping on the topic change.

"Purr-cat-tory!" they both exclaimed.

They spent the next couple of hours punning back and forth between dealing with customers, repeating all the ones they'd heard Adrien tell them until the announcer came on through the intercom to remind everyone that it was almost time for artist alley to close for the day. Both breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you going to the dance tonight?" Manon asked.

Tikki gave a tired laugh. "I don't know how you have the energy to still stand, much less dance."

Manon grinned. "The power of youth and unholy amounts of caffeine."

"I'm not that old," Tikki grumbled, cleaning up the shelves that had gotten disorganized since she turned her back on them.

"If you're not going, do you think you could help me with my hair so I'm not late?"

"Sure thing."

Which was how Tikki ended up dancing around Manon with a curling iron, trying to not burn off her ear. "Would you stop moving?"

"I'm trying to fix my eyebrow."

"You're about to lose an eyebrow if you don't stop moving," Tikki said with exasperation as she tried to hold the curling iron steady while Manon leaned forward with a makeup brush, making tiny strokes to reshape her eyebrow. Tikki was having flashbacks of helping Marinette get ready for school dances. It was frazzling and frustrating, but she couldn't deny the energy of excitement in the air.

Manon was wearing the dress she'd been working on, a sparkling ensemble of pink glitter and white accents, most notably the white diamond on her chest and the butterfly mask on her face—like if the Pink Ranger and a butterfly had an elegant baby. Tikki was endlessly proud of her little protégé.

Tikki turned off and unplugged the curling iron before setting it in the sink. "There, all done!"

Manon turned her head this way and that to examine the final look of the swirling up-do. She'd left little curls to cascade down – a trick she'd learned years ago helping Marinette look fancy. Her lips were a hot pink to match her dress. While it was loud to look at, Tikki had to admit that it was well made. Manon was certainly learning. She felt a wave of affection for the girl she'd known so long.

Her heart felt another pang at the reminder of time marching on, whether she was ready or not. She pushed that away and leaned forward to hug Manon.

"You look amazing, and your sewing has really improved too!"

Manon positively glowed under the praise. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"Naw, you'd have figured it out eventually. Now, get going. You don't want to be late."

Manon laughed, grabbing her purse and convention pass before throwing their hotel door and letting out a shriek of surprise.

Tikki grabbed the curling iron for a weapon and rushed over to seek what was wrong and saw a cowering Plagg and Manon clutching her chest.

"Great Mjolnir, you gave me a heart attack!" Plagg cried, coming up from his crouch.

"I gave you a heart attack? I wasn't the one lurking outside someone else's door!" Manon shouted, putting her hands on her hips.

"I was about to knock!" Plagg shot back.

Tikki could see that their neighbors across the hall had popped their heads out to see what the commotion was. She stepped forward. "The party, Manon. You don't want to be late."

Manon bit her lip and looked between Tikki and Plagg. "I can wait a minute."

Tikki waved the curling iron, still clutched in her hand, at the younger girl. "Shoo. Shoo. Go have fun."

Manon laughed and danced out the door. "All right, but I want details when I get back tonight!"

Plagg went red at that, but Tikki made herself stay focused on Manon until she watched her disappear down the hall. Other hotel guests had opened their doors as well and were watching with expressions ranging from amused interest to plain annoyance. Tikki turned back to Plagg who was now wringing his hands anxiously. She made one last glance down the hall at her nosy neighbors before grabbing Plagg by the wrist and pulling him inside.

"Come on, I'm sure you came here for a reason."

He let her pull him inside, uncharacteristically quiet. She frowned at his pale complexion and the fact that even his wringing them couldn't hide the fact that his hands were shaking.

She led him over to the couch. "Are you all right?"

"Is something burning?" he asked, ignoring her question as he sniffed at the air.

She held up the curling iron, "I did Manon's hair."

"And burned it?"

"That's just what hair smells like when you heat it up," Tikki said as she returned the curler to the sink.

"Huh," Plagg said, finally sitting down on the couch.

Tikki came to sit beside him, watching what she could only perceive as a meltdown as Plagg stared at his hands with the intensity to light them on fire. "You going to tell me what's going on?"

"I was never good at tact," Plagg blurted.

Tikki had no response to that so she sat and waited for him to get his thoughts in order. Clearly, something was eating at him.

Plagg got up and started to pace. "Words and people in general were never my strong suit. Adrien complains that I'm either too blunt or I use too much sarcasm. I never really thought that was a problem, until now. I just don't know what words to use."

Tikki's eyes never left him as he paced back and forth. Her jaw dropped ever so slightly as her brain started piece together what was happening. A flutter filled her belly and she felt a tingle down her spine. The whole thing felt surreal. Subtly as possible, she reached over and pinch her own arm. Yup, definitely awake.

"Everything was fine. I was content to just to leave things as they were, but then things kept happening, and you were just too adorable. And then there was this afternoon!"

"What did I do this afternoon?" Tikki asked quietly, an entirely different heat flooding her cheeks and neck.

He ran his hands through his hair making it stick up at odd angles. Between that and his pacing he looked like a panicked cat. "You snuggled me!"

She'd guessed that much from remembering the makeup on his arm. What had she been thinking? She must have weirded him out.

"And then you nuzzled me and told me you were always surprised that I smelled good. Like you'd sniffed me before!"

What? Tikki wanted to fall through the floor in embarrassment, but she couldn't get her apology out because now Plagg was on a roll and he wasn't stopping.

"I'm not going to lie, I kinda liked it-"

What.

"- and I was getting hopeful. Then you went and said that sometimes you do weird stuff when you're asleep so now I don't know if you meant it. I've been tearing my hair out over this. Finally, I decided that I just needed to talk to you and say what I came here to say." He stopped in his pacing and took a big breath before finally meeting her gaze for the first time in his entire rant. His eyes practically glowed green in their intensity. Tikki felt her breath hitch as the full force of it was focused on her. "I like you. A lot. I'd very much like to know what you think of me."

Tikki's whole body was burning. She understood why Plagg was pacing; her whole body was buzzing with energy. She felt nerves as she tried to work up the courage to give her answer – and he'd been the one to speak first!

All Plagg's courage left him then, his gaze dropping down to his shoes like they had just become the most miraculous thing in the room. Therefore, he couldn't see her smile.

"Paul, I like you too." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but Plagg jumped like she'd shouted.

His gaze snapped back up to her. "What?"

"I like you too," she said, louder this time with more surety as the words left her a second time.

Plagg wobbled where he stood and Tikki shot up to catch him, tripping over her own feet in her rush, causing her to crash into him. They grabbed at each other in an attempt to stay upright. After wobbling for a bit, they stabilized. Tikki looked up and realized she was quite thoroughly entangled with Plagg. Her arms were around his waist and his hands had a firm grasp on her elbows. Their chests were pressed so close that she could feel Plagg's erratic heartbeat and the rapid rise and fall of his stomach with every breath he took.

Plagg's grasp tightening on her elbows brought her back to her other senses. "I'm sorry, did you say you liked me back?"

The heat intensified and flooded her cheeks before pouring into the rest of her face. Still, she managed to maintain eye contact when she replied. "Yes, I did."

He released her elbows to smother her in a hug, which did finally throw them off balance and they toppled to the floor.

Both gave cries of alarm and Plagg immediately began a mantra of "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Tikki couldn't take the ridiculousness of it all and burst out laughing. The shaking beneath her reminded her that she'd landed on top of Plagg, but both were currently too busy laughing to care.

As their chuckles died down, Plagg's arms reached up to wrap around her and hold her in place.

"So, I'm not crazy and didn't just hallucinate when I fell just now. You said yes, right?"

Tikki buried her face in his chest to hide from his gaze. It was making her heart beat way to fast. "Yes, I said 'yes', all right?"

He squeezed her tighter for a moment before lightening back up to a gentle hug, and she found that she found herself quite comfortable in his embrace. "It's just, I've been agonizing over this for forever and then you just go and say yes and now I don't know what to do."

She propped her head up on her hands so she could better look at his face. "I could say no if that makes it easier for you." She made as if to get up.

His arms tightened once more keeping her pressed against his chest. She didn't fight back. "No, thank you. Just give me a minute to process this."

She resettled herself so she was more comfortably laying against him. He simply stared at her, the wonder in his eyes shining and the grin on his face getting dopier and dopier by the second. Her cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling back, but she felt no desire to stop.

"Hey, can I ki-"

"I forgot my pho- . . . ne." Manon came bursting in as an absolute killjoy whirlwind and froze when she saw what was undoubtedly and very compromising position. What with Tikki laying on top of Plagg in the middle of the hotel floor and all.

Tikki shrieked and rolled off Plagg who was too shocked to stop her. "Manon! I- um- this is-"

Manon held up a hand to cut her off. "I don't care, and I don't have time, just please be done doing whatever you're doing before the dance ends tonight and please don't do it on my bed."

With that she was gone just as quickly as she came, taking the mood with her.

Plagg got up off the floor with a groan and made his way over to the couch to collapse on there. Tikki was still frozen in mortification on the floor. He watched her with concern.

"You okay there, Bug?"

"Y-yeah. That just wasn't how I was planning on everyone finding out."

He shrugged. "Saves us the trouble of having to tell them."

"Aren't you embarrassed?" she asked incredulously.

He shrugged. "I mean, yeah, but it's not like I can do anything about it and honestly, I'm too happy to care."

She sat up and stared at him. His cheeks and the tips of his ears looked pink, but he still had a small smile, and his knees kept bouncing with a nervous energy like he could barely contain himself. Honestly, who could be nervous or embarrassed in front of this dorky, puppy of a man?

She got up and sat near him on the couch. "All right, if I'm not dying of mortification, what should we do then?"

"Uhhh, oh, I know," Plagg pulled out his phone and opened the screen. "I was reading these articles on dating advice, and there's this one with a list of suggested questions to ask each other."

Tikki cocked her head and blinked at him. "You read dating advice articles?"

Plagg's cheeks went from light pink to scarlet. "It's a more recent pastime of mine. I thought it might be useful. Just in case."

He'd been reading them in case she said yes, she realized. "You really are a secret optimist," she mused. She leaned in to snuggle against his arm.

He blushed but didn't deny it.

"Well it looks like 'just in case' has come. Read away."

He started reading the first question, and they spent the rest of their evening together like that, curled up on the couch like a couple of content cats. Tikki found she rather liked it.

Once again, I'm very sorry that this took so long. I only went through half of my editing process this time to get it out, so I apologize now for mistakes. Still though, at least now we can get into some fluff right? At least, as much fluff as Plagg is capable of :P