CHAPTER 9: CHEESE

I'm really surprised about how many new readers, followers and favourites I've gotten just in the past few days and I'm extremely grateful. That's why I've been working hard to post this chapter early.

A huge shout out to the people who have reviewed to my story in the past few days:

- Bluerose CS Fangirl

- Lilahater

- Hi

- RainbowRockCandy

Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy chapter 9!

Adrien looked away from the two flustered kwami's to check the time on his bedside alarm clock. It was almost seven. Adrien turned his gaze downwards. "I guess you have to g-…WAIT! Unless you want to stay for dinner?"

"Stay for dinner…" Marinette repeated dreamily.

"Yeah." Confirmed Adrien with a light chuckle.

"YES! I would too love! I mean love too!" Adrien smiled at Marinette's mix up. Classic Marinette.

"Natalie always makes it at the same time, exactly 7:00 pm which is a few minutes from now."

"Cool." Marinette replied, the slightest bit disappointed that it was so close. She knew perfectly well, Adrien was pushing how long she could stay and she was pretty sure Natalie or even Gabriel Agreste himself would kick her out if she tried to stay after dinner.

Marinette brightened up as she remembered she'd be seeing him pretty often now. While fighting evil super-villains as Ladybug and Cat Noir, at school, or maybe even on dates. She had never felt so full and happy in her life. She was finally with Adrien! The boy she had loved for over a year now! And she now knew he was also CAT NOIR her amazing crime-fighting partner. Her life had turned into a dream come true.

"So what have you two been doing?" Asked Tikki.

"I showed Mari around the house." Adrien replied with a smile. However, Adrien's smile turned into a slight smirk. "What have you guys been doing?"

Plagg and Tikki turned to look at each other for a split second, both trying to fight a light blush from appearing on their cheeks, before Tikki replied, "Plagg taught me how to play a few songs on the piano."

"Really?!" Asked Adrien surprised. He had originally thought they'd just float around being all awkward.

Tikki nodded with a slightly shy smile. Adrien and Marinette gazed at Plagg who nodded as well also acting slightly timid.

Adrien and Marinette grinned.

"Adrien, dinner's ready!" Natalie called from downstairs.

"Coming!" Adrien called back before glancing at the two girls. "By the way, there's probably a heap of cheese in the meal due to someone. Now I have to have cheese in almost every meal!...You don't mind do you?"

Marinette giggled as she shook her head. "No, I'm good with that, what about you Tikki?"

"Yeah, I guess. I'm not a big fan of cheese, but I'll try a bit." Tikki replied with a shrug.

Plagg grinned, "It's settled then."

"Okay. Let's go." Adrien stated as he opened his bag for Plagg to fly into. Marinette did the same and both kwami's flew into their hiding places. Then they all made their way downstairs.

Once they arrived at the table. The first question that popped up into Marinette's mind was, "Why is the table so long?"

Adrien shrugged, trying not to let his slight sadness show, "My father likes it that way."

Marinette looked from the chair on one side of the table then all the way to the other and frowned sympathetically. Did he seriously have dinner like this?

Adrien noticed Marinette glance at the chairs and grinned sheepishly. "I can move them if you like…"

"Yeah, I don't think we'll even be able to talk to each other if we keep the chairs as they are." Marinette stated, smiling with a tinge of sadness.

Adrien nodded in agreement as he grabbed one of the chairs and moved it to the side of the table. Marinette walk over to the other chair and did the same, moving the chair to the side opposite Adrien's. "Much better." Said Marinette as she finished.

"Definitely." Adrien responded as they both sat down.

Then Natalie strode in and looked at the two, noting that they both had moved the seats. She had known Adrien would allow Marinette to stay over for dinner. Natalie had found it obvious that they liked each other, although she wasn't too sure if Gabriel knew about it too. After the number of times, Marinette had stuttered and empathised 'AS A FRIEND', she would be blind to believe her. She had also begun to notice that Adrien always used a lot more effort to convince his father to let him go places if Marinette was coming too.

"Hi." Marinette greeted slightly nervously. Natalie sighed as her expression softened the slightest bit. "I expected you'd stay, so I made extra."

Marinette smiled, "Thanks."

Natalie nodded stiffly then left.

"She doesn't seem to mind at all, although she never really does. It's my father who hates me spending time with friends." Adrien told her looking down.

Adrien noticed Marinette was giving him a pitiful look and he quickly decided to change the subject. "Anyway, I-"

Then Natalie came back in holding two plates of very fancy looking pasta. Marinette watched it as it came closer to her. It looked so different from what dinner at her home looked like. The dinners she ate, anyone could tell they were homemade and they usually didn't look too neat. However, the dish being bought towards her looked like a meal only created for the looks.

They both thanked Natalie as she placed the food in front of them, but Natalie didn't give them any registration that she'd even heard them. Then she left as quickly as she came. Marinette frowned she seemed so emotionless, although she knew that probably wasn't the case.

Marinette looked down at her plate and then looked at Adrien who smiled. She smiled back. Then examined her food. Marinette smirked at the excessive amount of cheese on Adrien's plate. Adrien hadn't been kidding about Plagg's cheese addiction.

Although the pasta looked pretty good, it was a bit…small. Most of the time she ate double the size of this meal due to her being Ladybug, which took a lot of effort. Her parents still couldn't understand how she ate so much without gaining any weight. Adrien was Cat Noir, he did the same amount of work as she did. He should probably be eating more than this…

Marinette looked up at Adrien again, however this time instead of a smile on his face, his face showed a clear look of anxiety. "Don't you want it? I could try to make something else for you if you don't."

He heard Plagg chuckle from inside his bag and frowned. He wasn't that bad.

"Oh, no. It's fine." Marinette exclaimed, quickly. Adrien looked relieved as he picked up his folk. Marinette did the same with a smile. Adrien's folk was just about to touch the food before Plagg shot out of his bag and literally scooped up the Parmesan cheese from the top, greedily chucking it into his mouth.

Adrien put his folk back down and leaned his face on his palm. He frowned, totally unimpressed by Plagg's manners. Yes, he did do this pretty often, but there were guests over! Couldn't he at least eat it with a bit of grace!

Marinette and Tikki both watched with wide eyes as Plagg ate all the cheese off the top in seconds then sat down on the table with a content smile. Then he looked at the two girls' shocked faces and looked around himself curiously. Why were they so surprised?

Then Tikki laughed and Marinette smirked.

"Why, Plagg?!" Groaned Adrien as he put a hand to his forehead.

Plagg grinned. "I was hungry. I don't see anything wrong with eating when I'm hungry."

Adrien rolled his eyes at Plagg as he picked up his folk. Marinette giggled as she scooped up some pasta and tried some. It tasted great like it had come from an Italian restaurant. "It's really good. Tikki, do you want to try some?"

"Sure, why not." Tikki replied as she flew closer to the dish. Marinette then stifled a giggle as Tikki tried to get a strand of pasta without getting it all over herself or the table. It took her quite a few seconds but she eventually did it… Well, mostly. She still had a bit of pasta around her mouth.

"Tikki, you've got a little something…" Marinette informed Tikki, trying hard to hold back a chuckle at the look of embarrassment on Tikki's face. Tikki licked around her mouth. "Did I get it?"

Marinette nodded cheerfully. Tikki looked at the others just in time to see Plagg grab a stray piece of cheese from Adrien's plate with Adrien just watching disapprovingly. Tikki tried not to giggle as she flew over to Plagg. "Where's your manners Plagg?" Tikki asked with a smile.

"I don't have any." Responded Plagg as he quickly grabbed another shred of cheese off Adrien's plate making him scowl.

Plagg smiled as Tikki's sugary laugh filled his ears. Then Tikki sat down next to him. Making him panic for no reason and start to blush. Tikki glanced at Marinette and Adrien who didn't seem to be paying any attention to her and Plagg as they talked about what she believed to be Marinette's designing, though it was hard to tell.

Then she looked back at Plagg who was looking at her with a warm smile that made her feel weak. "You know I really have missed you, sugarcube."

Tikki suddenly found it hard to breathe as her heart rate picked up and she blushed harder than she ever had before. She had now become a flustered mess. "I-I m-missed you too!" Tikki squeaked in response, her face as hot as an oven.

Plagg blushed scarlet as he watched Tikki. She seemed nervous, although he knew better than to think it was because of him. Tikki meant the world to him. HE LOVED HER MORE THAN CHEESE! AND HE LOVED CHEESE! He knew he had fallen way too deep and knew he would love her forever, no matter what happened. This scared Plagg quite a bit. He felt so much for Tikki and knew he was just begging to get hurt by falling in love with her. However, it would be impossible not to! She was so kind, responsible and cheerful. Whereas he was lazy, cocky and selfish.

Plagg cursed himself for his shyness as he looked away from Tikki and spotted a piece of shredded cheese on Adrien's plate. This time he wasn't really hungry, he had been satisfied with the cheese he'd already had. However, he didn't know what else to say or do! His face felt like it was on fire and he had reasons to believe he was having a nervous breakdown. He needed to do one of the things he was best at, and that was being greedy.

Without another thought, Plagg grabbed the piece of cheese and stuffed it into his mouth, hoping the heat in his face would just go away.

Adrien glanced at Plagg about to glare at him for being so greedy. He DID NOT need every single shred. However, when Adrien looked over at Plagg, he didn't have the same satisfied grin he'd had the last few times. Instead, his cheeks were bright red as he self-consciously chewed on the cheese.

He didn't look like he even cared about the cheese. He looked so nervous and honestly maybe even slightly scared.

Plagg then noticed Adrien was watching him and turned his green eyes to him. Plagg could feel Tikki's eyes on him as he gulped and turned back to her. He really shouldn't have been thinking all that negative stuff. It was enough to push him over the edge.

Tikki playfully rolled her eyes at Plagg, "I'm surprised Adrien hasn't attacked you yet."

"He did once." Responded Plagg with a grin, trying his best to calm his racing heart and thoughts.

"Wait, really?!" Asked Tikki her eyes widening. Adrien definitely didn't seem like the one to attack someone, especially over something as minor as food.

"Well, maybe I exaggerated a bit." Continued Plagg sheepishly. "Basically, Adrien got a dish of pan-fried cheese for dinner. He was complaining to me that it was somehow my fault (which it wasn't). Then I got bored of his lecture and reached out to grab a chunk of cheese from his plate, but he tried to smack my hand away, but missed and ended up accidentally slapping me in the face. Adrien apologised to me for weeks after that and gave me so much good cheese. So in the end, I was actually kind of happy he'd slapped me." Plagg finished with a fond chuckle.

Tikki smiled. She was unhappy about her precious Plagg getting hurt, although she could understand that it had been an accident and Plagg didn't seem at all unhappy.

"I bet you milked it as best you could." Tikki smirked.

Plagg just grinned, making Tikki roll her eyes again.

Plagg often dramatised stuff just to get cheese, however that time he hadn't. Adrien had been so guilty, he had literally been close to tears when he realised what he'd done. He wouldn't do that to Adrien, despite his love for cheese. Although Adrien got him cheese anyway. A LOT OF CHEESE.

Tikki sighed with a shake of her head, "I don't understand why you like cheese so much."

"Wait, is that jealously I hear, sugarcube?" Plagg teased, leaning up to her with a sly smile.

Tikki's eyes widened in horror as she leaned away due to nerves. "H-huh."

Then Tikki shook her head again trying to act as if she wasn't jealous of Plagg's cheese. She knew it was crazy, but when Plagg hugged pieces of cheese, she had this bad habit of wishing the cheese was her.

"Seriously Plagg, me jealous of cheese? Come on." Tikki responded with a roll of her eyes. Although she looked away to hide her face because it may just give herself away.

"Whatever you say, Tikki." Plagg said with a shake of his head as he grinned. He knew perfectly well that she WASN'T and would NEVER be JEALOUS of HIS CHEESE! He was of course just playing. The horrified look on Tikki's face was a bit alarming though. Did she really dislike him that much or did she just hate the idea of being a piece of cheese? Plagg was then pulled out of his deep thoughts as he heard rustling sounds behind him. He turned around to see both Adrien and Marinette standing up.

His eyes widened slightly as he realised Marinette and Adrien had finished their food. This meant they were leaving. TIKKI WAS LEAVING!

"I think it's time for me to go…" Marinette stated with a sad smile.

Adrien nodded, looking down.

"M-Maybe, you could come to my house sometime." Marinette suggested nervously.

"Yeah!" Adrien responded enthusiastically. "Tomorrow?"

"Sure, i-if you want."

"I'll come to your house after Chinese. I'm sure my father won't notice I'm gone." Adrien told her eagerly.

"That sounds great!" Marinette replied with a warm smile, making Adrien grin happily.

Then Adrien recalled that Plagg and Tikki were still there and had gotten no say in these plans, however, he highly doubted they would mind. He turned to the two kwami's who were both staring at him and Marinette as they sat on the table. Adrien smiled joyfully as he noticed they were sitting quite a bit closer together than he'd last seen them. Sure they were 'best friends', however best friends didn't really look so nervous when simply sitting next to each other.

Adrien glanced at Marinette who was giving the powerful kwami's a gentle smile. Adrien and Marinette met gazes. Then both their smiles turning into smirks. There was no way the two kwami's hadn't heard their conversation, yet they were still huddled next to each other without moving. They must have known perfectly well that they had to separate, however they stayed exactly as they were.

"Come on, Tikki." Marinette said in a gentle tone.

Tikki hesitantly nodded, before glancing at Plagg again, who gave her a slightly shy smile. Tikki smiled tentatively back before flying over to Marinette.

"See you tomorrow." Marinette said with a small smile as she began to walk out of the room and towards the door.

"Bye, my lady." Adrien replied with a wink as he continued to walk beside her.

Marinette blushed lightly. "Silly kitty."

This made Adrien grin.

Then they reached the door. Adrien, being the gentleman he was, opened the door for Marinette and Tikki. "Bye, Tikki." Plagg said with a small wave.

"Bye, Plagg." Tikki responded, returning his wave. Then Tikki hid in Marinette's bag as they both left the mansion together.