Marinette learned a lot of things during the morning.

One of the big ones was that she'd befriended a genius.

Azalea wasn't the stereotypical nerd with glasses that constantly recited information she'd read.

Not by a long shot.

But that girl knew her stuff.

She was smart.

Maybe, that's why Marinette wasn't surprised that she figured it out by lunch.

She'd taken her seat in the back of the cafeteria with her back to the corner.

The tray in front of her had some of the best looking food she'd seen.

Slowly each second ticked by.

Where was she?

Then she finally spotted Azalea.

The girl was coming towards her with firm footsteps and a very annoyed face.

Had she done something wrong?

"Your class is awful." And then she slammed her tray down.

"What happened?"

"Some french student came up to me when you left." This wouldn't be good. "They were more than happy to tell me all about what a terrible person you are. How you've been such a bully to the weeping Italian. Stealing, vandalising, pushing... Should I go on?"

Please, don't let this be the moment she lost another friend.

She panicked. "I didn't bully anyone. That girl, the Italian, has been lying since she came to the class and when I tried to stop her she just turned them all on me. I promise! I didn't do anything."

She begged her to understand.

To believe her.

Azalea scoffed. "I'm not an idiot. Anyone with any common sense at all would know that the tales that girl spins are lies. Bad ones too. They also seem to believe that I don't understand french."

Okay.

"You believe me?"

And oh, she sounded way to insecure.

That hadn't happened in a while.

But Azalea didn't mind and simply put her arm around her shoulders. "Of course. You're my friend. Even if I'd somehow lost all my brain cells and fallen for a single thing that came out of their mouths I'd always consider what you're saying before forming my opinion."

She felt like laughing.

A smile was enough though. "And what opinion do you have now?"

"That you should get out of that class abuse and never look back." No hesitation whatsoever.

Might be an opinion to take into consideration too actually.

She'd think about it later.

"Probably." She shrugged. "Was the lies the reason you stormed over here in rage?"

"No. That only made me think less of them as people and worry about your mental health." Those green eyes took on a murderous sharpness. "But the things they said to each other in french? The things they called you? I had to get away or I would have punched someone in the face."

"I'm proud of you for walking away without breaking any noses."

That was in no way because she was a saint herself, because she wasn't.

She'd punched her fair share of people.

There was a time and place for punching people though and she did not want Azalea to get in trouble for her sake.

"I wouldn't have broken her nose." Marinette doubted that. She'd noticed her muscles. "I would have gone for the jaw. It hurts more."

"You've put way to much thought into this to have walked away."

Azalea's eyes rolled skyward. "Nurse Ella is already busy today so I wouldn't want to make it worse for her."

"And you know that how?" Her eyebrows had shot up.

Azalea gave her an incredulous look. "I want to be a doctor. Are you really surprised I know the nurse?"

The afternoon continued on.

She still couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following her.

But no one was ever there when she looked.

At least until the last lesson.

That's when she caught a quick look at her stalker.

Less than a minute later she left the classroom with a hall pass in hand and headed to the bathroom across the hall.

She didn't have to wait long for him to arrive.

He phased through the wall.

"Plagg."

"Bug."

Unfortunately Tikki wasn't with her since she was sleeping in the bag she'd left in the classroom.

"Do you need anything?"

Why else would he be following her everywhere?

He nodded and floated up to her eye height.

It was a testament of how serious this was if he was serious.

"I'm officially asking you, as the guardian, to take back the miraculous from my current holder."

There was a few things in that sentence that was wrong.

Most of all the fact that he'd already told her she should take Chat Noir's miraculous a while ago.

She'd agreed, but couldn't do anything without knowing who he was.

Too bad the only human that knew had lost his memories.

But there was another thing too.

"Officially?"

And there was no mistaking the smirk on the kwami's face.

He had a plan.

"Well, I really need to stress to you that I can't take it anymore. He's not letting me have any camembert while we're here because 'it's a expensive and exclusive school where I can't go around smelling like stinky cheese'." The imitation of Chat Noir was impressive.

Wait.

Back up.

Crap.

He's in the school.

Her class was the only class beside the usual ones that were here.

Chat Noir is in her class.

And everyone had been akumatized except herself and one other.

Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir.

The rest of that lesson was spent planning.

She would sneak into his room tonight and grab the ring.

Whens, whats and what ifs had to be taken in account.

She was ready to do it.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Again?"

She and Azalea were standing right outside the school.

They were also starring at the bus that just left.

Her bus.

Azalea turned to her. "Again?"

Her eyes didn't leave the bus and her eyebrows had probably reached her hairline. "Happened yesterday too. Got a friend though so I was fine."

She wasn't surprised this time either.

"They left you behind in the city that's most known for it's high crime rate. Twice"

"Probably won't notice this time either. They're going out for dinner."

Azalea pinched the bridge of her nose and counted to twenty in five different languages.

She didn't look at her until she was done.

Then Azalea looked done with the stupidity. "You're more than welcome at my place. We could make pizza for dinner."

"This is the park where they left me yesterday."

That lead to a few incredulous looks. "You're class keeps surprising me. I thought they'd already reached the limit of possible stupidity."

"I told you they left me in a park before we even left school grounds."

"You did forget to mention that it was this park."

"What's so special about it? I mean except that the flowers bloom the entire year."

Azalea shook her head. "I forget that you're not from around here. This park is considered Poison Ivy's. She comes here all the time to care for the garden. People know better than to disturb her even though she's calmed down a bit the last few years. She's not someone you want to mess with. Makes for cheap apartments."

They went through the park and crossed the road to get there.

Top floor.

"Are your parents home?"

"Mom is. Dad is out of the picture."

"Sorry. I didn't know."

Azalea only smiled. "Of course, you didn't. Doesn't bother me anyway. Never met the guy."

They stepped through the door and came straight into a living room.

A woman was sitting on the sofa with a laptop.

It was quite obvious that Azalea got her looks from her mother.

"Hi, mom. This is Marinette. She's from France and has been in my class today. Marinette, this is my mom. She's writing a book at the moment."

The woman stood up and held fort her hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, Marinette."

She smiled. "Pleasure's mine."

"I'll be in here if you need anything. Are you staying for dinner?"

And she knew that look right there.

Her maman got the same one when Kagami or Luka came over.

Usually right before she manipulated people into staying to eat.

There was only one thing to do.

"Azalea said something about making pizza."

"And have you texted him yet?"

"Well..."

Azalea groaned and generally looked like she was dying. "Marinette."

She threw her hands in the air. "What am I supposed to do? I'll end up sending something I'll never be able to live down. I just know it."

"That's the good thing about texts." Azalea spun around on her office chair. "You can try writing them out to see how they look until you're happy with it."

That wasn't a half terrible idea.

She grabbed her phone and started typing.

Then she deleted it and tried again.

"No, that won't work. Too awkward! No, no, no! Definitely not." She paused for a second and read through the latest one. "That's probably the worst text I've ever written. No. This would leave me with a restraining order instead of a date. Not happening. Ugh. Yeah, nope." She dropped the phone and looked at it as if it had personally offended her. "This. Isn't. Working."

And Azalea chuckled and picked up the phone to start typing, but stopped. "A devil emoji? Really?" Marinette nodded. "Okay, I don't even know the name of the guy, but what about this?"

The phone was held out for her and she took it back and read. "No. There's no way I'm sending this."

"Isn't that exactly what you're thinking?"

"Well, yeah. But he will think I'm weird! What if he doesn't want a second date anymore? And I sound like a psycho too."

Then she went to delete it, but slipped.

Her phone went flying and she fumbled to catch it.

The relief was immense when it didn't smash onto the floor in a thousand itty bitty pieces.

But then the sound came.

She closed her eyes tight and pressed her lips together.

She had to bite her tongue not to scream.

Azalea's voice were lower than usual. "Did you just send it?"

She could only nod.

Hi. Thought a lot about it and have realised I really like you. When do you want to meet for a second date? / Marinette