Author's Notes: Sorry it's been a couple of days. I struggled with this chapter because I had almost no idea how a sleepover was supposed to work so I had to do some research. Anyway, I hope you enjoy despite my ignorance on the subject matter!

Chapter 25

Nathalie approved. Not immediately but she did. The excitement in his face was too good for him and something she didn't see that often unless it had something to do with his friends or someone… else. She was very aware of how often he'd started to talk about the Dupain-Cheng girl and she knew that his father was impressed by her, so she saw no harm in allowing him to spend the evening with her.

She'd run coverage with his dad. The boy deserved a night off. Especially after the week he'd had in Italy.

Ten minutes later, he came nearly bolting down the stairs with an overnight bag ready to go. He was vibrating. Nathalie adjusted the glasses on her face to hide the smile that crossed her lips. "Adrien, you'll be dropped off there for the evening. We will pick you up tomorrow afternoon." He nodded. He nearly leaned up to place a kiss on her cheek but he hesitated and smiled instead.

"Thanks Nathalie." She allowed him to see her smile this time.

"Have a good time Adrien. Enjoy your night off."

He waved her off before running out the door and into the waiting black car.

It had been nothing to convince her parents to allow Adrien to sleepover. Tom had been hesitant but Sabine had smiled instantly, patting his arm reassuringly, before agreeing brightly; Marinette immediately ran up to them, hugging them tightly, before sending an all clear message to Adrien who sent one in return saying he'd been cleared too. Sabine kissed her daughter's forehead. They spoke briefly. Her parents expressed their trust in her and Adrien but her face turned a bright red when she realized what they were implying the longer they talked. She assured them nothing was going to happen (outside of a make-out session) but agreed to leave her door open if they went up into her room (which was going to happen because cuddling in some privacy was a must and she wanted to watch some cheesy movies with him at some point while doing so).

Marinette immediately set out to collect some materials. She grabbed a couple of cups, drinks, and snacks from the kitchen. She then set out to raid the linen closet. Everything was going smoothly until Tikki tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the dress. She gasped, hearing movement from down stairs, before quickly grabbing her mannequin and shoving it into her side closet. She closed it in just enough time to turn around and meet Adrien coming up the stairs with an awkward grin. He eyed her for a second.

"Hey… Marinette," he said slowly, "What're you doing?"

"N-nothing! Nothing," she laughed. Moving off the door, she skipped over to meet him, a sly smile replacing the previously awkward one. She helped him bring his stuff up into her room before placing a gentle peck on his lips. He deepened it by lacing his fingers in the back of her hair. They stayed like that for several seconds before pulling apart again, smiling like a couple of idiots. "I hope you're hungry. Mom's going to be calling us down for dinner soon. Until then, wanna play some Mecha Strike?"

"Of course. I have to warn you though, I've been practicing. I'm good enough to beat you now."

"We'll see about that," she challenged, handing him a controller and turning on her game.

Tikki giggled at the two of them and Plagg, who had already escaped from the confines of his partner's outer shirt, rolled his eyes before the two of them disappeared for the evening to give them some privacy. Marinette made sure to supply both of them with a large amount of snacks to munch on at their leisure.

An hour later, fifteen matches and thirteen losses, Adrien slumped downstairs followed by a giggling Marinette who playfully patted his shoulder. "What's wrong? I thought you were going to beat me."

"Oh shut-up," he pouted. She giggled again and moved around him to playfully poke his nose.

"Oh come on. Don't pout. You'll be able to beat me one day."

"You're darn right. I'm going to beat you if it's the last thing I do!"

"Good luck with that," Tom smirked, setting down a plate of bread. "I haven't been able to beat her since she was eight."

"What can I say," she returned, "The student has beaten the master. Isn't that like the plot of nearly every major movie ever?"

"At least Star Wars."

"True."

They sat around the table. Sabine smiled brightly and told them to dig in; the conversations were pleasant. Tom and Adrien immediately started in on a pun war that had both women rolling their eyes frequently throughout the meal and Marinette groaned, pleading for it to stop. They only teased her. It got worse. When the meal was finished, the two younger people helped clean and put the dishes away. They returned to the table where Tom had pulled out Monopoly and they played that for about an hour before the game ended in a mass piece throwing war; for the record, Marinette started it by throwing a little red house at Adrien first. They laughed before Sabine made everyone clean up all of the pieces scattered about the room and shooed them off to bed with a reminder to Mari to leave the door open. Her face turned bright red but she mumbled her agreeance. Adrien smirked, realizing what was happening, and smiled brightly at Sabine with the same agreeance. They were finally left alone and once they heard her parents disappear into their room, his smirk turned on her and he leaned down to kiss the back of her neck softly. She shivered.

"So your parents don't trust us," he breathed. She licked her lips, her chest felt tighter all of the sudden, and the red on her face definitely got worse.

"Oh they trust us. They're just not… oblivious?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Was that some kind of shade?"

She giggled and winked. "Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't." She moved away from him and picked up an armful of pillows and blankets, smirking. "We are so doing a blanket fort." He hesitated.

"Uh… I've never…."

"That's alright," she chirped. "They're relatively easy to make. We're just going to have to move some of my furniture around quietly." She pulled out some extra yarn she had and tied it securely to the beam on the left hand side of her corner desk; she then tied the other end to the railing leading up to her bed. They pushed the chaise lounge out of the way by lifting it and turning it sideways to not disturb her parents. Adrien grabbed her rolling chair and moved it too. They placed a couple of the blankets over the yarn and back of the chair which made almost a triangular tent shape. Marinette climbed up to her bed and tossed down her pillows and blanket and the full sized cat body pillow. Adrien made some quip about if she wanted such a large cat to cuddle, all she had to do was ask, and this required that she look over the side of her bed, glaring. She stuck out her tongue. Once everything was set, they worked on the inside, positioning a majority of the blankets underneath them to make the ground more comfortable before setting the pillows all around them in a nest shape. Marinette disappeared into the bathroom to change into her night clothing (just a t-shirt and sweat pants) once everything was set. He took that opportunity to do so as well, changing into his "I 3 Ladybug" shirt and black sweats, causing a raging blush across her nose upon her return. He smirked knowingly. Teasing was a two way street and he so owed her from a couple of Wednesdays ago. She cleared her throat. "So what now?" He shifted nervously before reaching into his bag.

"Okay, so don't laugh but I brought some of my favorite movies from home." She eyed him but watched as he pulled out a rather large stack of movies; most were animes of some kind but then she saw another that piqued her interest.

"What's this," she asked, raising one up in particular. Adrien's jaw dropped.

"What do you mean 'what's this'?" It's Godzilla versus MechaGodzilla!"

"Yeah, I can read that. What's it about?" Adrien playfully gripped at his chest.

"My lady! You wound me so much! How could you have never seen a Godzilla movie?"

"Because I have a life and I'm not a dork?"

"Har-har." He took the movie and waved it at her. "Prepare to be dorkified. This is the greatest in b-rated movie experiences ever."

"If you say so." Adrien inserted the movie into the computer and returned to join her in the fort. As the movie started, he lay back on the pillows; she shifted to nestle into his side, laying one arm across his midsection while her head rested on his shoulder. He tightened his arm around her. Placing a gentle kiss on the top of her head, he turned his eyes to watch the screen. The longer it went, the more Marinette realized just how much of a dork Adrien really was. He was able to name every actor, even translated a couple of the phrases for her when the subs didn't or messed up, and he was able to name every monster to appear in subsequent movies after. She gaped at him. Shaking her head, she playfully poked his nose and mumbled something about him being a major dorkasaurus. He only returned the smirk, stroking her hair gently.

The heat from cuddling made her dizzy. She yawned, nuzzling her face into his neck, causing his grip on her to tighten just a little bit. Her eyes drooped. After a couple of minutes, Adrien looked down to find her breathing evenly, her arms still around him. A soft smile crossed his lips and he shifted a bit to make her more comfortable, placing a gentle kiss on her head, before whispering, "I love you Marinette."

He closed his eyes too. The heat and noise of the movie lulled him into sleep as well.

Before he completely passed out, he was pretty sure he heard her mumble, "I love you too."