Hmmm. There seems to have been a sufficient amount of suffering. This pleases me. Very well, you may have the next chapter.

Voice of Reason: Oh, please. You've been dying to give it to them.

I THOUGHT I GOT RID OF YOU!

Voice of Reason: You CAN'T. Please, stop trying. It's embarrassing.

HEY! I'M the main personality! Show some respect or I'll throw you in with the fujoshi!

Voice of Reason: No! I don't want to go in the basement! It's dark in there!

But gosh, if all I had to do to get a lot of comments was give you guys a cliffhanger, I would have done it sooner! (Not really) This chapter has gotten more comments and reviews than any of the previous ones, and on both sites too! And I never get that many views on a Wednesday! Hmmmm. Now I have ideas…

Marinette wasn't sure what she expected that day, but getting targeted by an akuma again wasn't at the top of her list.

The day started out normally, with her waking up to one of her various alarms (it only took four that day, which she counted as a personal victory) , ate some breakfast, gave each of her parents a kiss goodbye, and walked across the street to school. She wasn't late for a change and was really looking forward to talking to Alya. Sure, she couldn't tell her best friend about her boy troubles, but the normalcy it brought was always enough to make her feel better.

Then Chloe happened.

She hadn't caused an akuma for at least two weeks, so she apparently decided she was long overdue. Her current victim was the dark-haired boy from Ms. Mendeleiev's class- Wei, if she remembered correctly. His family owned a restaurant in Quartier Chinois that Marinette's mother liked to take them to when she was feeling a bit homesick. Marinette had known hm for a while, but they'd never been particularly close. He was a nice boy, and certainly didn't deserve whatever Chloe was trying to pull.

They were already deep in an argument by the time Marinette walked up.

"What is it this time, Chloe?" she said, exasperated. The blonde turned around, a snide grin crossing her face.

"Well, if it isn't Marinette Dupain-Cheng," she sneered, saying Marinette's name with her usual distaste. "What excellent timing you have! We were just talking about you!" Marinette simply sighed in irritation. Chloe wasn't worth getting upset over, but she was still a pain to deal with. The dark-haired girl wondered if it was good or bad that Alya wasn't here yet. It was good because the fiery red-head wouldn't get into another fight with the snobby rich girl, but bad because Marinette didn't have any solid back-up. She didn't really need it much anymore, but the emotional support still felt nice.

"Look, Chloe, I don't really care what you say about me. Your opinion doesn't matter. But would you mind not making a scene in front of the whole school? You're bothering everyone." Marinette moved to stand between Chloe and Wei, hoping that the blonde's attention would focus on her instead.

"Still fighting other people's battles for them, huh, Marinette?" Chloe taunted. "And here poor diner-boy was trying to be your prince charming! Talk about rude!"

"Just leave her alone, Chloe!" Wei shot back. Marinette turned and put a calming hand on his shoulder.

"It's fine, Wei. Just ignore her. She isn't worth it." She gave him a reassuring smile. Wei scowled, clearly unconvinced, but backed down nonetheless. Marinette sighed with relief. Maybe there wouldn't be an akuma today after all.

"Hmf! If you ask me, you're the one who's worthless, Marinette! In fact, you two suit each other! Diner-boy and baker-girl! A matching set!" Chloe laughed snidely as she walked off to the classroom, Sabrina trailing behind. Wei growled angrily, chest puffing up in indignation.

"Hey! Just calm down, alright?" Marinette said soothingly. "It doesn't bother me. Chloe's just full of hot air." She smiled again and blinked, waiting for Wei to calm down. The boy flushed and shuffled away, muttering something under his breath. "Wei?" she asked innocently.

"It's nothing, Marinette," he said, shifting his bag on his shoulder and looking away. "I'll see you later."

"Wei…" she called, but he was already on his way to the boy's locker room, knuckles white on the straps of his bag. Marinette sighed, hoping nothing would come of it.

She was wrong. Of course she was wrong. When had Hawk Moth ever made things easy for her? Never, that's when. So she really shouldn't have been surprised when, a few minutes later, an akuma burst into the courtyard dressed like a prince from a fairy tale- aside from the mask surrounding his crazed eyes, of course. She shouldn't have been surprised when the akuma, Prince Harming, made a beeline straight for her and grabbed her by the wrists. She shouldn't have been surprised that it was poor Wei, upset over Chloe's usual bad behavior, had decided to take it upon himself to right the situation.

She shouldn't have been surprised, but she was. She hated it when an akuma targeted her. It made it so much harder to get away and transform, which she needed to do if she wanted to fix this. So she struggled against Prince Harming's lock on her hands, trying to break free, even though she knew it was hopeless without her Ladybug strength.

"Let go of me!" she cried.

"Stop struggling, Princess. I don't want to hurt you," Prince Harming said smoothly, tugging her closer.

"Wei! Stop it! I told you, this isn't worth getting upset over!" Reaching out to an akuma had never worked in the past, but hey, she was an optimist. It couldn't hurt to try.

"Oh, Marinette," the villain murmured, taking her chin in his free hand. "That's what's so great about you. But," his face darkened, "it's also exactly why I won't put up with this anymore. You're my princess, and no one, especially Chloe Bourgeoisie, is allowed to talk about you like that."

"Wei-"

"I'm not Wei, I'm Prince Harming! I'm not the loser who can't protect you or tell you how he feels anymore!" Marinette's eyes widened. Tell her… how he felt? Did Wei… like her? Sure, it wasn't an absurd notion, but she'd known him for years and he hadn't said anything. Why hadn't-

"Mmmff!" Any further thought was immediately stalled by Prince Harming lifting Marinette's face to his and kissing her full on the mouth. She was so shocked she stilled for a moment before finally managing to wrench free one of her captured wrists and slapping the akuma as hard as she could. "How dare you!" she fumed as she hit and smacked at the arm still holding her prisoner. Prince Harming merely laughed and rubbed his jaw.

"You really are the best, aren't you, Princess? And now you even look the part!" Marinette furrowed her brow, confused as she looked down at herself to find-

A pretty pink princess dress. Wonderful. At least it looked nice. She would have had to personally hut Hawk Moth down and strangle him if he'd put her in some ugly, frilly monstrosity. Her dress had a straight cut neckline with off-the-shoulder sleeves and beading all across the bodice. The skirt was simple, puffy tulle that flared out at the hips. The entire thing was one of her favorite shades of pink, and she could almost make out matching shoes underneath it. Her hair was down, too, with what she assumed to be a tiara sticking into her scalp. All in all, a very nice outfit. That didn't stop it from being embarrassing though.

She looked and felt like Princess Peach!

This day can't possibly get any worse.

She was wrong again, of course.

Adrien was seething. It had taken a minute to pry his feet off the steps so he could get away and transform, but he did it, even though his every instinct was screaming at him to go back there and rip Marinette from the akuma's arms. No, he couldn't do that. Not as Adrien, anyways. He needed to be Cat Noir. Marinette needed him to be Cat Noir. So he ducked behind the stairway and called for Plagg. He raced back up the steps, only to find something that set his frozen veins on fire. The akuma. Kissing Marinette. The akuma. Kissing Marinette.

Adrien barely registered Marinette's reaction, or the magical flash that changed her into a dress, over the grinding of his teeth.

How dare he! How dare he! It would have been one thing if Marinette had kissed another boy of her own free will. Adrien would still be jealous, but not angry. Marinette was her own person after all. But this was unacceptable. She was scared, didn't want it, trying to get away, and didn't want it. No one touched her like that without her consent, period, especially not an akuma! Adrien was halfway across the courtyard before he even knew what he was doing- not that thinking would have stopped him.

"-ou even look the part!" the akuma was saying, but Adrien didn't care. That thing needed to get away from Marinette now. Adrien's had snapped out and grabbed the akuma by his forearm with crushing force.

"Sorry, but I think she's a bit to classy for a Disney reject like you," he said. Adrien had the presence of mind to keep his tone light and teasing so as to not let Hawk Moth on to how much Marinette meant to him. He couldn't quite keep the edge out of his voice, though.

The akuma hissed in pain and finally, finally, let go of Marinette's arm.

"Cat Noir," he seethed, a glowing butterfly appearing around his eyes. "I am Prince Harming! No one will keep me away from my princess!" Adrien's eye twitched. He'd been too shocked to register it before, but this jerk was using his nickname for Marinette! He barely contained a low growl.

He mentally shook himself. It was no time to be worrying about his temper. Getting Marinette to safety came first. So, Adrien roughly shoved 'Prince Harming' away, grabbed Marinette around the waist (eliciting an adorable 'meep'), and vaulted out of the school before the villain could regain his balance. Adrien's anger was partially pacified by the weight and feel of Marinette in his arms, but was still eager to end the battle as soon as possible. Luckily, Prince Harming wasn't very fast on his own, so the feline superhero was able to easily outrun him. Adrien held Marinette tightly as he scanned the Paris skyline for a safe place to hide her. His eyes landed on Le Grand Paris and he swung the two of them onto the roof.

Marinette let out another small squeak as he gently set her down, but she seemed off-balance and clung to his forearms.

"Sorry about the quick exit, Princess, I just wanted… wanted to…" whatever words Adrien had been about to say disappeared into a puff of smoke as he finally got a good look at Marinette's outfit. She was beautiful. She looked like an actual princess, and it was very troubling because it was stealing his ability to form coherent sentences. "I-I…. uh…"

"Cat?" she asked with an innocent flutter of her lashes. "Are you alright?" No. No he was not. He was dead. She had killed him, because there was no way she could possibly be this pretty, even if she was Marinette. It just… it made no sense!

She's asking a question, genius! Adrien abruptly snapped back to reality and Marinette's concerned face.

"Are you sick? You're turning red," she said worriedly, leaning in closer. He choked a bit before managing to spit something out.

"Oh, I, uh, fine I am, I mean, we're fine, wait no I'm fine, not that you aren't, uh- you are very attractive!" He blinked. She blinked. Did he really just say that?

Yes.

Adrien and Marinette's faces heated up simultaneously and they were suddenly unable to meet each other's eyes.

"SO! Uh, the akuma!" he said eloquently, snatching his hands away from hers to rub the back of his neck.

"Oh! Yeah, right. That," she agreed, cradling her arms to her chest. "You should, uh- you should probably go take care of that."

"Right! Of course! I'll uh, go do that now. Stay safe, citizen!" Oh, just shoot him now! He didn't even bother to wait for Marinette's reaction as he rushed off to find the akuma again,trying to get back into a 'hero' mindset. For some reason, it was much harder now than it was when he'd had Marinette slung over his shoulder in her pajamas.

I thought we were repressing that.

Oh, SHUT UP!

It wasn't a particularly hard battle, at least, not after Marinette got her head straight and started to focus. Prince Harming wasn't a very physically intimidating villain. His only power seemed to be whatever that kiss thing was he'd done with her, so it was fairly easy to trap him with a Lucky Charm and a well-timed Cataclysm.

Soon enough, Marinette was holding out her fist for the customary 'pound it' with her partner, only to find him distracted. Cat Noir was turned away from her, looking in the direction of the hotel.

"Cat Noir?" she said, snapping his attention back to her. "Are you alright?" She knew he was worried about her, or rather, Marinette, but Ladybug had to play dumb.

"Oh, I'm fine, m'lady, just, uh, thinking about the civilian this akuma was after." He reached back to scratch his neck nervously and shifted on his feet. "I… I think I'll go check on her!" What? NO!

"Wait!" Marinette cried, grabbing his hand. "You don't need to do that, I'm sure she's fine!" She was also very much not where he left her.

"I'm sure you're right, but I should check," he insisted, pulling away again. Marinette desperately searched for a reason to stall him.

"But…uh, what if she isn't there anymore!"

"What?"

"I mean, did you ask her to wait for you or something?"

"No," he said thoughtfully, shaking his head.

"So she might have gone home! And you're about to change back anyways," she reminded him, gesturing to his ring.

"I guess you're right-"

"Of course I am! So you should wait to recharge before you go check on her! You know, just to be on the safe side!"

"Okay…" he said reluctantly. "But what if-" He was cut off by the beeping of both of their Miraculous.

"You worry too much. Gotta go!" she called over her shoulder as she scampered away from the very conflicted kitty behind her. Marinette didn't pay him any mind as she swung back to her house and dropped onto her bed a few seconds before her transformation fell. Tikki swirled out of the earrings and into her Chosen's cupped hands.

"Well, that was close," the little god chirped. Marinette nodded in agreement.

"Hopefully Cat will listen to me- er, Ladybug- and not go straight to check on me, well, Marinette-me." The girl sighed dramatically. "Why do these things always happen to me, Tikki?

"Oh, Marinette," the kwami giggled. Marinette decided to ignore the implications of that and focused back on the matter at hand.

"Anyways, you should go hide in your drawer for now. Cat Noir will be coming to check up on me here as soon as he realizes I'm not at the hotel anymore."

"Are there cookies in there?" Tikki asked, trying to hide the excitement in her eyes (she failed, and it was adorable).

"Of course," Marinette chuckled, scratching her kwami's head softly.

"Yay!" And with that, Tikki flew down to her drawer to rest and charge up, leaving Marinette alone on her bed to wait. She didn't have to wait long, though, as only a few minutes later an incessant knocking started coming from her trapdoor. She smiled fondly. Her kitty must have been really worried about her. She reached up to open the door and poke her head out.

"Hello the-" the second her head came out of the room, she was swept up in a tight embrace. Cat placed his face in the crook of her neck as his arms wrapped around her securely. "C-Cat?" she said with some surprise.

"I'm sorry, Princess," he muttered into her neck, his breath blowing warmly against her skin. She suppressed a shiver.

"W-what?" It was a little hard to think with him close like this, his scent overpowering her.

"I didn't- couldn't-" his hold on her tightened, not enough to be painful, but enough to show her how upset he was.

"What's wrong, kitty?" she asked gently, one of her hands moving to his hair. It was more intimate than they'd been before, but somehow it just felt right. He pulled away a little bit to look her in the eyes.

"He kissed you," Cat said. "And you didn't want it. I should've- I shouldn't have let that happen to you." Mariette could see the emotion in his eyes, the guilt he felt over not being there for her. It broke her heart to see him so distressed.

"Do you want to come inside so we can talk about it?" she suggested gently. Cat nodded and moved to enter her room. Unfortunately, in the process, he tripped over the lip of the trapdoor and sent both of them sprawling onto the bed. Marinette let out a small squeak and lit up like a traffic light.

"Oh! Uh, I'm-I'm so sorry!" Cat stammered as he lifted himself off her. "I didn't mean…" He trailed off, staring at her. Marinette's face grew more and more red as she thought about the situation she was it- pinned under her partner on her bed. She opened her mouth to say something- anything- but no words came out. All she could do was look into Cat's deep green eyes, hoping he would break the silence.

He didn't. Instead, he bit his lip thoughtfully, before refocusing on her with an intense look. He didn't speak, but his eyes held a question: May I? Her mouth went dry as she considered it. Should she let him? Was it really a good idea? A million questions ran through her mind, but none of them could stop the small nod she gave, Yes.

And then he was kissing her.

He was kissing her. He was kissing Marinette, and in that moment, Adrien couldn't remember why that was a bad idea. Why he shouldn't get close to her in the mask. Why he should stop, leave, and never come back as his superhero alter-ego again. None of it mattered when he could finally feel how soft Marinette Dupain-Cheng's lips really were, when he could feel her warmth beneath him, when he could taste her breath. She made all of is rational thoughts fade away and he just wanted to be closer. Marinette's hand wound their way into his hair, pulling him further down and fulfilling his wish. His own hands found a place on her hips, and for a moment the two just lay there, soaking each other in.

They did, however, have to come up for air eventually, so with great reluctance (at least on his part), the two teens pulled away from each other. There was no sound in the room other than their heavy breathing. Neither of them knew what to say. What could they say after something like that? That one kiss, a simple action, had changed their relationship in a massive way and neither quite knew how to broach the subject. One of them had to say something, though. But what?

"Wow," Adrien breathed.

Eloquent.

At least I said something!

Marinette giggled beneath him. "I guess that's one way to put it." She had the prettiest smile on her face, the blush on her cheeks highlighting the light sprinkle of freckles across her nose. Adrien didn't think she'd ever been more beautiful than she was in that moment. "So what now?" Adrien's brow furrowed and he sighed heavily. That was the million-dollar question, wasn't it? How could they go on from here? It was exactly the kind of situation he'd wanted to avoid.

"I… I don't know," he answered honestly. He really, really wanted to be with Marinette, but he didn't want to pull away from her, either. And even if he did, there was no way to do it without hurting her. But she could get physically hurt if she started dating a superhero and somebody found out. Adrien's mind kept running in circles, going over the same reasons why this was a bad idea, but not coming up with a good solution. He needed to talk to Ladybug, but now wasn't the time. He wouldn't see her again until the weekend. He sighed again. How had he messed this up so badly? They wouldn't have been in this mess if he hadn't been so thickheaded.

He felt Marinette's hands cup his face, forcing him to look her in the eye. "You're beating yourself up over this, aren't you?"

"You see right through me, don't you Princess?" he chuckled as he touched their foreheads together. "I really like you, Marinette." He heard her breath hitch beneath him. He didn't have to look to know she was an adorable shade of red.

"… what about Ladybug?" she whispered, so quiet he probably wouldn't have heard without his enhanced hearing.

"Ladybug will always be my first love," he told her. "But if she doesn't want me as anything more than a friend, I'll have to live with that. I don't want to risk our partnership for something she's made it clear she doesn't want." For some reason, this caused Marinette to squirm uncomfortably beneath him, but he pressed on. "But I really, really like you, Marinette." He loved her, actually, but he wasn't brave enough to say that quite yet. "I don't… I don't know if it's as much as I love Ladybug yet, but I know I could. You're amazing." He looked her in the eye, trying to convey how serious he was in case his words weren't enough. Her face was bright red, but she was looking at him intently, as if he was the most important thing she could focus on right then.

"I really like you, too," she confessed. He felt his heart start beating faster, so much so he was surprised she couldn't seem to hear it.

"What about Adrien?"

WHY DID YOU ASK THAT?!

I DON'T KNOW!

Marinette's brow furrowed as she thought over his question.

"Same as you, I guess," she sighed. "Adrien's never seen me as anything but a friend, and it never works out when I try to tell him how I feel, anyways." Adrien, who most certainly saw her as more than a friend, shifted guiltily over her. How could he have been so dense? "But it's… nice being with you." Her eyes seemed more blue than usual as they seemed to strip him down to his core. "I… I'd like to try being with you." Adrien's mouth went dry and he swallowed heavily.

"It'd be dangerous," he warned her.

"I know."

"You won't be able to tell anyone."

"I know."

"We can never have a normal date." Marinette smiled coyly.

"I'm more than okay with that." He couldn't take it anymore. He leaned in to kiss her again, reveling in the feeling of her lips on his.

This was dangerous.

He was making a mistake.

He couldn't care less.

Yes, I am skipping the battle. Because fight scenes are hard.

So, right after inventory, I had to babysit for one of my mom's friends (don't worry, I love those girls to pieces, they are actual angels) and since the girls didn't know what they wanted to do and had never seen Miraculous before, I thought: Hey, why don't I show this children's show to actual children? The result was interesting to say the least. Aside from insisting that Adrien is made of toilet paper (don't ask), their unique solution for Timebreaker (kill one of them) and being aghast that no one recognized our heroes out of costume (we got as far as Lady Wifi, and I swear one of them broke at the ending) my favorite reaction had to be Pharaoh:

C: His powers are literally the same as the bubble guy (Bubbler) and the flamingo bug chick (Timebreaker)! Literally the same!

Me: Really?

C: Yeah, they need new powers, like a pizza guy!

Me(containing laughter): A pizza guy?

C: Yeah, like, I'll cut you with my pizza!

Me:…. What if I told you that actually happened?

Both: What.

[cue uncontrolled laughter]

I love those kids.

Marinette's dress: pin/855613629180634682/