Sabrina was gone and Chloé was absent. That alone should have actually made for a pretty relaxing day, but Marinette couldn't help but think about what had happened on Monday night.

The Akuma attack had been strange, which she meant in the truest sense of the word. Akuma attacks were always strange, but there had been something off about the latest one. Not only had Sabrina not done any damage while an Akuma, but she hadn't come after their Miraculous at all. Not just that, but the object hadn't been on her, but hidden somewhere in the hotel.

What concerned her most of all was Chat Noir's behaviour throughout all of it. It had seemed like he had wanted to keep her away for the entire time and really the only noteworthy thing she had done had been to purify the Akuma. Which hadn't been that big of a feat since the Akuma butterfly had looked like it was about to drop dead any second anyway.

She remembered the way Chat Noir had reacted when she had asked him if it had anything to do with this mysterious Court neither he nor Tikki wanted her to know about. He had tensed up, stammered something incoherent, hissed at her to forget it, and then he had just run away.

Asking Tikki about it was a dead end, so she had done some thinking of her own. Her conclusion was less than satisfactory, but the assumption that Chloé was part of whatever the Court was seemed to be a good start at least. She had said something about it at the Dark Cupid incident and the akumatised object—a coat apparently?—had been hidden in her father's hotel. She still had no idea why it had been hidden there in the first place when it apparently belonged to Sabrina, so she shoved that thought to the back of her mind for now. It wasn't as if anyone would give her an answer to it anyway.

"Marinette?"

She jolted out of her thoughts and looked into Adrien's questioning gaze. They were the only ones still in the classroom and she hadn't even packed up her things yet. Obviously, he had been talking to her, but she had no idea what about. How embarrassing.

"U-uh…what did you say?" She asked as she hurriedly shoved everything from her desk into her bag.

"I was asking if you wanted to go to the library. They're holding tryouts for an Ultimate Mechastrike III tournament there right now and I thought we could enter? Only if you want to of course, it's okay if you'd rather do something else, I just thought—"

"Adrien, it's okay!" She interrupted him with a grin. "Kicking people's asses might actually be exactly what I need right now."

The relief was written on his face. "Come on then! They'll never see it coming," he said and took her hand. While Adrien seemed blissfully oblivious about his actions, Marinette had to fight a very intense blush and at the same time reprimand herself for it. They were friends. Best friends even! Just because she had a crush on him which got worse with every passing day didn't mean she had any right to ruin her friendship by being a flailing, blushing mess.

Just be cool, Marinette. BE COOL!

Not that such words had ever helped her body, and most especially her mouth, to obey. Specifically when she tried to be somewhat flirty or otherwise romantic, everything seemed to try to sabotage her. Her stuttering around him had never been worse and she had even started to randomly switch words. Never in her life had she dug herself more graves than when she was trying to be more than just friends with Adrien.

The things that mortified her were a great source of amusement for others. Especially Félix. His suggestion from Monday about just flirting with Adrien seemed more insane the longer she thought about it. She was trying, but if she wasn't even able to get out a full sentence without stuttering around Adrien then how was she supposed to be able to make the guy realise it was a flirt?! Clearly, Félix was highly overestimating her abilities there. Or, more likely, he just wanted to see her suffer.

The only times she managed to talk to him like a normal human being were when the topic was something serious, when her focus was on something else, or when she automatically reverted to what she called the 'just being friends' mode. So, basically, she only screwed up when she tried to make progress in the love department.

Just when they were already in the hallway to the library and Marinette tripped on a step did Adrien seem to realize that he was still holding her hand. He let her go as if he had burned himself.

"S-sorry! I just…yeah," he stammered and, no joke, blushed. He did that a lot lately…not unlike her, to be honest.

Suddenly, her thought process came to a screeching halt as the beginnings of a realisation nudged at the back of her mind.

Seeing as there was no reason to either blush nor stammer when they were just friends…

Marinette felt like she just had an epiphany.

Alright, maybe, just maybe, Félix had been right—wouldn't be the first time—with implying that she had a chance. This was a game-changer! But just MAYBE!

"Marinette?"

Oh no, I spaced out again!

"Yes?" she squeaked uncertainly. By the way he suddenly looked absolutely crushed, it had been the wrong answer. "I mean, no!" she said, a little too loudly, making both of them flinch. Meanwhile, she tried to puzzle out what she was actually disagreeing with.

"So, you do or you don't want to rather play Ultimate Mechastrike with anyone but me?"

Marinette was even more confused than before. "Why would you even ask me that?"

She had stopped in front of the door to the library since this didn't seem like a conversation anyone else should be privy to. Adrien shuffled nervously.

"Well, uh, you always win so I'm clearly not good enough and that's got to get very boring after a while and—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Marinette said, all awkwardness suddenly gone as she switched to protect-Adrien-mode. "You're good enough to beat most peoples' ass on Ultimate Mechastrike, Adrien. I might be a little better at the game than you, but that's all. We're pretty evenly matched on Mario Kart and you're better than me on DDR. And that's just mentioning video games. Don't put yourself down like that again!"

Adrien gave her a small smile. "Okay."

She sensed that it hadn't been quite enough to convince him yet. "Adrien, I'm only gonna say this once so you better listen: you're my favourite person in the world. And I love annihilating you in video games."

Just seconds later she fled into the library as her words caught up to her. Let's see, one thing was not like the others. Oh, right, it had been her unintentional declaration of…of what actually? Love? Simple adoration? Well, in any case, she had made clear where Adrien stood. And if it managed to cheer him up, then it was worth wishing to crawl into a hole and never come out again.

One look back told her that Adrien was still staring at where she had stood before, absolutely frozen in place.

Great. I broke him.

"Is that your way of listening to my advice?" Félix, who seemed to come out of nowhere but had probably stood there next to the door all along, said. Marinette jumped.

"T-t-that wasn't! I w-wasn't! I was just trying to—"

Félix patted her shoulder and walked away.

What is that supposed to mean?!

The screen declared Marinette the winner, which, for some reason, everyone in the library seemed to be surprised about. Well, everyone but Adrien, Félix, Nino and Alya. The latter had even recorded her fight and was now whistling in approval.

"You go, girl!" she screamed, but Marinette's attention went to Max who seemed absolutely defeated in more ways than just losing the game. According to what Kim had said, he had practiced for months to be able to compete in this tournament, and now he had lost. Because of her.

"With that, the candidates who'll represent the school at the tournament are chosen," Monsieur Damocles said, but Marinette was having none of it.

"Wait," she said. "I was just entering for fun. I step back from being in the tournament, so Max and Adrien can compete."

The principal seemed puzzled.

"No, you're better than me. You should compete and I step back," Adrien said which made her sigh in exasperation. She had expected that.

"But you wanted to be in that tournament too!"

"Yeah, with you."

Max was looking back and forth between them like he was watching a tennis match.

"Hey!" Nino spoke up and everyone turned his way. "How about you three go to Marinette's and battle out who works best with Max on a team? I'll be the objective judge."

"And I'll record it for the school blog!" Alya threw in. "It doesn't really matter who enters the competition as long as they win, right?" The latter question was directed at Monsieur Damocles. He still seemed unsure about what was transpiring, so he eventually shrugged.

"I suppose that's fine," he said.

"'Objective judge' my ass, Nino. You're just here for the food!" Alya accused her boyfriend with her hands on the hips and a frown.

"Uhm, yeah? Isn't that why you're here too?" Nino said from the kitchen table where he was happily munching on a leftover éclair. Félix sat beside him with his own plate of leftover goods.

Apart from a quick glance, Marinette didn't pay them much mind and rather worked on setting up the game. She sat next to Adrien on the sofa, controller in hand, and tried very much not to freak out about the close proximity they were forced into due to limited seating space.

"So, who do you want to go against first, Max? Or should we play a two against one match?" She asked and tapped her controller nervously.

"I suggest one on one matches where everyone gets a turn. That way it's easier to collect data points on how strong each of us are apart from the matches before, which will help determine which combination is most favourable in a one against two match," Max said.

Adrien nodded. "Sounds fair. So, who's gonna start?"

"It would be best if you two play against each other first as I have not seen a battle between you two yet."

"Alright then. Prepare to lose, KitKat," Marinette said as she chose her bot. At the same time the conversation from earlier jumped back into her mind. Had she really told him that he was the most important person in the world to her? That could be understood as platonic, right? Right?! She very much hoped so, because that had certainly not been her idea of a love confession.

Focus! You have a game to win! She told herself harshly when her bot was hit by a blast she usually would have dodged.

Marinette barely won that round. The next one she lost due to a very panicky string of thoughts that had been kicked off by Adrien leaning into her space. She should have been used to that. After all, he tended to flail and move around a lot when a battle was getting intense while she tended to stay calm and hyperfocused. At that moment it had caught her off guard for some reason. She won the last round by a landslide though.

Marinette moved over to the kitchen table when Adrien and Max played against each other.

"Hmm?" Alya said suggestively and gave her the grin. Marinette just took a croissant from Félix's plate which was met with a disapproving frown from him.

"So, you lost one of the three rounds," Alya said when she was tired of waiting for an acknowledgement from Marinette. She just rolled her eyes and bit into the croissant. "Care to elaborate on what distracted you?"

It was clear from her voice that Alya already knew what had distracted her, so Marinette didn't bother to reply. Two seconds later she was poked in the side.

"Don't you start with that too!" She hissed.

"Well, if what Nino told me is right, then that was your idea."

"Yes, but only for Nino!"

"Well, actually—" Félix began.

"Don't you dare say anything, copycat! As far as I know I never gave you permission to use it on me anyway."

"Hey, it's there to rid you of your obliviousness," Nino, the traitor, said. Marinette rolled her eyes. As if she was still oblivious after almost a year of that silly poking game. In fact, she had realised her feelings the very day it had started.

"What I actually wanted to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, was that you're using it the wrong way Alya," Félix pointed out. Alya looked intrigued while Marinette just glared at him. "It's to make any of them notice when they're acting like a couple, not when they get flustered by each other. They very much notice the latter after all, so there is no need to rub it in."

He stated it like a scientific fact and Marinette was tempted to throw the rest of her croissant at him. At least all of them were speaking quiet enough that at least Max wouldn't overhear. She wasn't very sure about Adrien as he had scarily good hearing, but he knew of the whole silly game anyway, so there wasn't much harm to be done.

Marinette endured her friends' light teasing until it was her turn to play against Max. Under heavy protests, she took a chocolate croissant from Nino's plate with her to the sofa and handed it to Adrien.

"Trust me, you don't want to sit over there," she told him and then took his controller.

The entire afternoon was spent playing matches in different combinations. At one point even Nino got included as a fourth player. When he and Max got paired against Adrien and Marinette as a team—for data points, as Max insisted—they had practically no chance.

"You two really work exceptionally well together. You must have practiced often to get this in sync," Max said after that particular match, which made both Adrien and Marinette laugh awkwardly. If only he knew just how much time they had actually spent together already. And while Max's comment had only been about video games, it made her think. Adrien and she really were quite in sync, even outside of video games. They guessed each other's train of thoughts; they both were experts at dodging each other's wild gesticulations when telling a story; they caught the other when they tripped and it just so happened that they had said the same thing at the same time on multiple occasions.

Automatically, she compared this level of closeness with how close she was to Nino and Félix, but neither of them came even close. Apart from Marinette wanting for Adrien and her to be more than friends, this realisation gave her confidence that it might actually work out. Now she just needed to bring up the courage to confess. And she couldn't just fall back on her Ladybug-courage either because this required a whole other kind of bravery.

Marinette let her head sink onto the desk and groaned in exasperation.

"It's like at a photoshoot, just without Vincent yelling something about spaghetti," Félix said. He was probably the only person in the room who the tension hadn't gotten to yet.

"How do I always get myself into these situations?" Marinette mumbled from where her head still rested on the wooden surface.

"You agreed to go along with Nino's short film idea and be the producer."

She lifted her head and turned around to him in exasperation. "Yeah, the producer, not an actress!"

"Don't worry, girl. It's just a short film. It'll be over before you know it," Alya said from beside her while avidly going through the script, probably to look for more changes Nino had made.

It was two weeks before the end of the school year and with homework being sparse and no one really knowing what to do otherwise, the class had agreed to enter a short film competition. With how things were going though, Marinette suspected that it was only a matter of time until an Akuma would flutter through the nearest window. The only ones not affected by the yelling and the back and forth were Félix and Rose.

Marinette would have actually preferred to transform and go up to the roof where she would just wait to spot a butterfly and purify it before it could get to anyone. It would surely save her from what was shaping up to be a very stressful afternoon. But as the producer and, as it seemed, also the lead actress, she had no chance to slip away unnoticed. Just her luck.

"I'm only doing this as a favour. When Mylène returns, she'll have her role back!" Marinette said and still held on to the hope that their original lead actress would return.

"Of course she will, chill out," Alya said and Marinette would have been thankful for her friend's attempt to calm her down, if she would have stopped talking there. "And just think, before the evening is over, you will have finally kissed Adrien."

The only appropriate reaction to that was a panicked squeal and hiding her face behind her copy of the script.

"Excellent job at calming her down, Alya," Félix said sarcastically.

"I do what I can."

"Can't you just change the script back to how it was before?" Marinette begged. "You're right, the kissing scene is unnecessary and I'm sure you have a backup of your original version somewhere and—"

"Nuh-uh. I'm not gonna pass up on this opportunity."

"I agree with Marinette. If you want your short film to win, then the story itself needs to be believable. You might be able to film it, but I can already tell you that with the script as it currently stands you'll have no chance to win."

"Gee, did you have to join the downers club?" Alya said and Marinette lifted her head again to see her frown.

"He's been in the downers club long before all of you," Adrien, who had approached without Marinette noticing, suddenly said from right beside her. She jumped.

"I'm merely being realistic, that's all," Félix said.

"I know," Alya said. "It's just completely unhelpful because we don't have time to change the script! Everyone would have to learn their reworked lines then and—"

"I don't know my lines by heart anyway, changed or not," Marinette interrupted Alya. "And I'm not an actress. Have you seen me trying to act?! This would be a total disaster!"

"You were the one who agreed to it!"

"I didn't! You volunteered me!"

"Uhm…y-you don't have to do it if it makes you feel uncomfortable," Adrien unexpectedly threw in, but looked away once their eyes met.

"Nonsense!" Alya immediately said and slammed her hand down on the desk so hard that Marinette jumped. "You're not trying to get rid of our third lead actress now, are you, Adrien?"

"I-I don't, I'm just saying—"

"Okay, everyone, places! We can't afford to lose any more time!" Nino suddenly shouted over the general commotion in the classroom. Marinette blanched.

In order to actually get to the front of the room, Alya had to pull her up from her seat and drag her there. Meanwhile, Adrien kept apologizing for some reason. She wasn't really paying attention.

How was she supposed to just kiss Adrien?! She couldn't do that! Flirting was one thing, kissing him was something completely different! Apart from Chat Noir—which had been an emergency and couldn't really be considered a real kiss—she had never kissed a boy. Well, Kindergarten kisses didn't count! She was going to ruin the short film by being not only a horrible actress but also a horrible kisser and Adrien would be revolted and never speak to her again and—

A pair of fingers snapped in front of her face a few times. "You still with us, girl?"

"How could you do this to me?! I thought we were friends!" Marinette hissed at Alya and ignored the fact that everyone was staring at them.

Alya—or should she rather say 'her ex-friend'—just smiled unapologetically. "Enjoy~!"

Only hesitantly and with using all her strength, she managed to turn around and look at Adrien. Meanwhile, her brain was looping 'oh god' like a very insistent mantra. She wasn't in any way averse to kissing Adrien but, as she already stated previously to Alya, not like this!

"I'm not good at acting, so this will be a disaster," she managed to say, knowing that Adrien of all people would not judge her for just bolting. At least she had given a solid reason for a spontaneous escape! She was just about to make a dash for the door when Adrien suddenly laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry. You'll do fine."

And how was she supposed to be able to flee then when he looked at her this softly?! So, she did all she could do in that situation: melt.

"Ready to roll? Camera…," Nino said, which thoroughly jolted her out of dream-land. Right, time for her ultimate demise.

"Horrificator, take sixteen," Alix said and Marinette tried her best to look like the character she was playing. A fearless fighter. Therefore…she chose the closest thing that she knew and borrowed some inner strength from her alter-ego.

"Action!" Nino commanded and Marinette immediately realised how difficult it was to act like Ladybug when she wasn't wearing the mask and—most especially—when she was directly looking at Adrien.

"I'm not scared of that monster, Officer Jones," she said, and she didn't need to watch the recording afterwards to know that her voice was shivering and not sounding the least bit convincing. She couldn't help but let her eyes stray from Adrien after just a few words, not able to keep eye contact with him at all, and the 'Officer Jones' part was said so weakly that it wouldn't even have convinced Manon who willingly believed in humans turning into unicorns.

When she finally brought up the courage to look Adrien in the eyes again, all her worries dwindled to nothing. Like on auto-pilot she laid her hands on his chest, closed her eyes, leaned in—

"Cut! I knew it!" Marinette jolted back so violently at the shout that she almost fell over. She almost didn't hear Chloé's ranting over her racing thoughts.

She had almost kissed Adrien.

She had almost kissed Adrien.

SHE HAD ALMOST KISSED ADRIEN!

And he had leaned in too!

It was a wonder that her brain didn't go into full meltdown-mode. Only the fact that she was still strongly against her first kiss being in a setting like this prevented it. She was also strongly conflicted over if she should thank Chloé for interrupting them. This way she had a second chance for a better first kiss. A real one. Not just some acting for a silly film project. That was at the same level as a kiss that happened during a game of spin the bottle. It wouldn't mean anything.

Only horrific screaming from outside the classroom drew her back to the present. She internally sighed heavily.

Here we go again.