Chapter 11: Hugs

I'm so sorry again for not updating sooner. It's nearing the end of term and that means lots of tests and assignments. :(

When the holidays come, I'll be able to update much more frequently. Anyway, despite all my school work, I've finally finished the chapter. Thanks so much for all your support. I truly love writing and getting all the positive feedback makes it even better. :)

Again, thank you so much for all the faves, followers, reviews and readers. I still really can't believe how many people like my story!

Anyway, here's chapter 11!

"Marinette! What about this?!" Marinette looked where Tikki was pointing and rolled her eyes. "Tikki, I don't think he would care too much about the pictures. He knows I like him anyway…"

"Marinette, these pictures you have of him are kind of creepy…" Tikki responded, cringing at the look her owner gave her. "They are not creepy! They're beautiful!"

Tikki raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to scare him, off, do you?" She knew perfectly well, Adrien would never ditch Marinette just because she kept photos of him on the wall! In fact, he'd probably be flattered, but it was her last resort! She couldn't let Marinette keep those pictures there!

Marinette's eyes widened as she looked from Tikki to her hundreds of photos of Adrien and finally to the outside window where she knew Adrien would appear any moment. She bit her lip. "Maybe I should clean them up…"

"Definitely." Tikki nodded in confirmation.

Marinette made an incoherent choking noise before jolting into action, carefully taking off any Adrien picture in site. Tikki sighed in relief as she whizzed around, trying her best to help Marinette despite her size. "WAIT! The cheese pastries might be burning! You should go check on them!"

Marinette put both hands to her head as she continued to stress out. "Ahhh! Tikki, I can't! I have too much to do."

Tikki's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You are NOT burning them just to get rid of a few creepy pictures!"

Marinette was about to protest, but the threatening look in Tikki's eyes instantly convinced her to do what she said. Marinette sprinted down the stairs and almost burnt herself as she tried to take the pastries out of the oven. She then placed them on a cooling rack and bolted back upstairs.

Tikki was in there floating around and trying her best to neaten stuff up, even though it wasn't too messy in the first place. Marinette had never seen Tikki so frantic. "Are they done?"

"Mm-hmm." Marinette hummed in response as she immediately got to work taking the photos down. Then Marinette stopped and whined. "Tikki, I ripped one!"

Tikki stopped to give Marinette a sympathetic look. She knew how much she loved those photos... "Don't worry, Marinette. I'm sure we can print out a new one."

Marinette let out a short solemn sigh before nodding. Then Tikki literally shrieked.

"WHAT?!" Marinette asked, fearfully. "Is it an Akuma attack?!"

"No, it's WAY worse! THEY'RE HERE!" Tikki exclaimed, now flying around the room so fast that all Marinette saw was a red and black blur.

Marinette screamed. "BUT LOOK AT ALL THE PHOTOS I STILL HAVE TO TAKE DOWN!"

Marinette was just about pulling out her hair as the doorbell rang. "What am I going to do, Tikki?" Marinette moaned.

"There's nothing you can do, but answer the door…" Tikki replied with a sigh. "I'll do the best I can while you're gone, but it will be impossible for me to take down all of them."

Marinette nodded shakily before she stumbled downstairs. She ran to the door, only for it to be already opened by her parents. Marinette face-palmed. How had she forgotten to tell her parents that Adrien was coming?

Marinette looked between Adrien and her parents. They were going to embarrass her, she knew it. Marinette quickly walked closer to the door, making Adrien able to see her. "Hi!" Marinette greeted in a high, nervous voice. For some unknown reason, Adrien looked super shocked. The first thing she asked herself was, 'What had they done?'

"Oh, Marinette. You never told us your boyfriend was coming over." Tom stated, excitement shining in his eyes.

Marinette's eyes widened as she looked over at Adrien who just grinned sheepishly. Marinette huffed as she grabbed Adrien's hand. "H-Huh?" Adrien stuttered in embarrassment and confusion.

Marinette began to walk towards the stairs, dragging Adrien along with her.

"Aww, look honey. They're holding hands!" Tom stated with a satisfied smile.

"Oh, stop Tom. You're going to scare the poor boy away." Sabine told her husband playfully as she smiled as well.

Marinette gave both her parents a glare as she ascended the stairs and arrived in her room.

"Sorry about that. My parents can be a bit…Nosy sometimes."

Adrien laughed, "Oh, it's fine. They seem very nice."

"They are." Marinette told him with a light sigh as a smile showed up on her face. She wasn't really angry at them, just did they really have to?!

Then both Marinette and Adrien gasped, due to what looked to be a black dot shot out of Adrien's bag faster than the speed of light. Then it came right at Tikki. Tikki squealed as she was pulled into an embrace by Plagg himself. Tikki absolutely froze and as much as she tried, couldn't register what was happening! Was Plagg really hugging her? Why was he doing this? She felt like she was about to faint!

Tikki timidly looked at Plagg, who was still hugging her. Then she shyly hugged him back. "P-Plagg?" Tikki finally choked out as Plagg continued to hug her. She was a mess right now! She had been so shocked and unprepared for that and he hadn't let go even though it had been almost 10 seconds. She felt like her face was on fire as she embraced Plagg in pure bliss.

Plagg couldn't wait any longer! HE HAD TO SEE TIKKI! Plagg flew towards her without a second thought and hugged her. Once he realised what he'd done he literally freaked out.

'I'M ACTUALLY HUGGING TIKKI!' Plagg screamed in his head. His brain seemed to have left on a vacation in the time he needed it most.

Plagg blushed as he felt Tikki's arms wrap around him. Once he'd realised that he was actually hugging her, he'd expected her to push him away. He had been just about to let go of her when she didn't hug him back, fearing the worst. However, he was honestly stunned when she did.

Finally coming back to reality, Plagg began to relax. He stayed clinging on to her, NEVER wanting to let go. He loved her so much! If only she liked him…

Plagg finally let go, knowing perfectly well that he'd been hugging Tikki for way longer than just friends did. "Sorry, Sugarcube." Plagg apologised, shyly.

Tikki tilted her head in confusion. Why was he sorry for hugging her?

Then Adrien spoke reminding the two kwami's that their owners were in fact still there. Adrien couldn't control the smile on his face, but in his defence, how could he not smile? Marinette was smiling too as she tried her very best to not say, 'Aww'. They were both acting so shy and blushing so hard!

Adrien honestly hadn't thought Plagg had it in him. Sure, he knew Plagg was usually very confident, maybe even overconfident to the point it got annoying. However, when he was anywhere near Tikki or even talking about Tikki, he got quite jumpy and nervous. Yet he'd hugged Tikki. He was proud of the little guy.

Marinette, just like Adrien, was pretty shocked by Plagg's surprise hug. It made her want to laugh due to her knowing how much this affected Tikki. She'd be stuck in a state of shock for days!

Adrien finally looked away from Tikki and Plagg to explore his surroundings. He almost jumped as he instantly spotted a quite large picture of himself on the wall. What was THAT doing there?! After Adrien took a moment to calm down, he let a small, amused smile show on his face. He stared transfixed at a picture of him on the wall. He wouldn't be surprised if one of his fans had pictures of him, but it made him feel warm inside to know that Marinette had pictures of him too. It helped him believe Marinette liked him just as much as he liked her. Although, he knew he'd never feel comfortable seeing pictures and posters of himself everywhere. It was a pretty weird feeling…

Marinette looked away from the two red-faced kwami's to look at Adrien. Her breath caught in her throat as she realised he had noticed the pictures. HOW HAD SHE THOUGHT KEEPING THOSE PICTURES THERE WOULD BE ALRIGHT?! She really should have listened to Tikki earlier. Then she might have been able to get rid of them in time and save herself from the shame and embarrassment of him finding out about them.

"Uh, A-Adrien. Don't worry about them. There j-just well…"

Adrien watched as Marinette stuttered before she looked down. "It's not too creepy, is it?"

Adrien couldn't hold in his laughter, making Marinette cross her arms and frown at him. "Sure, I used to save images of you to my phone, but this is amazing." Exclaimed Adrien as he sniggered. Marinette huffed as she had no real response to that. "Well, don't think I didn't notice your ladybug pillow and all your figurines."

This shut Adrien up as he blushed lightly and let out a sigh, "I can never win against you, can I?"

"Nope." Replied Marinette happily.

Adrien smiled with a shake of his head.

"So do you want to play some video games or-" Marinette started, before stopping as everyone in the room instantly turned their heads to her trap door which had begun to open. Marinette frantically looked over at Tikki who was flying with great speed towards her small stack of pillows. Relieved, Marinette looked around to see her parents smiling at the two of them. Marinette groaned. They left her alone most of the time, but when Adrien came here, it's like they couldn't resist coming in.

"Hi." Adrien greeted politely, although Marinette could tell he was confused to why they'd come in.

"Hey you two. Marinette said you love cheese so she made lots of yummy cheese pastries for you." Adrien tries to stop himself from face-palming. Marinette noticed this and giggled. "I just don't want you to forget about them." Sabine said, looking slightly guilty for interrupting the two. Marinette had no doubt that her dad had convinced her to come in.

"They're much better when they're hot." Tom added with a grin. He looked extremely smug, like he was happy to have disturbed them.

"They're fine." Marinette stated with an unimpressed glare.

Sabine instantly got the message as she began to descend the stairs, trying her best to pull Tom along with her. "Have fun, okay." Tom called as he was pulled away by his wife.

Marinette rolled her eyes as she closed the trap door a little more forcefully than necessary.

"Sorry about that. They're too curious for their own good." Marinette told Adrien as she sat down on one of her desk chairs.

Adrien waved away her apology with a bright smile as he sat down in her other chair. "So you made cheese pastries huh?"

Marinette nodded cheerfully. "Yeah, but it was Tikki's idea."

Adrien smirked as he looked around for Plagg and Tikki, but for some odd reason he couldn't find them anywhere. Were they still hiding?

(With Tikki and Plagg)

Tikki flew in and let out a sigh of relief. Luckily, she had moved in time. Due to her shock of Plagg's sudden act of happiness, she hadn't been sure of if she'd be able to do so. Then her eyes widened as she saw Plagg extremely close to her. She almost cried out in surprise, but quickly held it in. Had she chosen the same hiding spot as Plagg without even realising it?

Plagg looked just as surprised as she was, but kept his voice low in fear of being heard. "Sugarcube?"

Plagg really didn't know what to say as he blushed. She was literally lying right next to him. He was still embarrassed about the hug, however, didn't regret it. Sure it had made almost everyone in the room confused and made his crush on her more obvious, but it was totally worth it. He had hugged Tikki! Although, being stuck with her in a small space straight afterwards was just too much for him.

Tikki rolled her eyes as a smile blossomed onto her red face. He looked so shocked and was obviously trying to keep quiet, yet he still calls her that dumb name. She really would hate to admit it, but she actually liked when he called her that. It was so sweet of him. This made Tikki smirk slightly, 'and he calls me sugarcube'.

"It's Tikki." Tikki responded, unable to hide her smirk as Plagg grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, Tikki." Plagg insincerely apologised.

"Much better." Tikki stated with a small nod.

Then Plagg heard it. The magic word. Cheese. He just made out Marinette's mother say, "Cheese so she made lots of yummy cheese pastries for you." He didn't care what she'd said beforehand or what she'd said after. They had cheese!

"Tikki! Did you here that?! Cheese pastries!" Plagg whispered, longingly.

Tikki rolled her eyes again playfully as she tried her best not to let any sadness drag her down. He really really loved cheese. She would have probably gotten upset if it hadn't been for Plagg hugging her earlier. After that, she doubted she could feel any negative emotions.

"Come on. You've got to be excited too!" Plagg exclaimed enthusiastically.

"You know I don't like cheese, Plagg." Tikki replied, letting out a very quiet giggle.

Plagg grinned lightheartedly. "Well, it's a good thing I like you and cheese or I would've forced you to like it."

Tikki's heart skipped a beat at Plagg's words. She knew he didn't mean anything by what he'd just said, but this meant he could maybe like her as much as his cheese. Tikki desperately tried not to think about it as she strained to quickly think of a response. "And how would you do that?"

Plagg pretended to be deep in thought before he let out a small shrug. "I think the best way to do it would be to stuff horrible foods into your mouth until you'll be begging for cheese."

Tikki tried to hold back her laughter. "Plagg…I don't think that would work."

"Really?" Asked Plagg with a devious smirk. "You know, there's only one way to find out…"

Tikki's eyes widened before she punched him in the shoulder. "Oww." Plagg whined, pretending to be much more hurt than he really was.

"Come on, I didn't hit you that hard. Besides, you deserve it after implying such horrible things."

Plagg couldn't hold back a giggle. Why did Tikki have to be so loveable. Then he picked up on Adrien's and Marinette's conversation, this meant that it was safe to leave their hiding spot.

"So you made cheese pastries huh?" He heard Adrien ask.

Marinette then replied. "Yeah, but it was Tikki's idea."

Plagg froze as he turned to look at Tikki who immediately looked away from him. Tikki had had the idea. She was so thoughtful…

"It was your idea?"

"Ah…Y-Yeah, I just thought you might like them, since you love cheese so much and well..."

It warmed Plagg's heart to know Tikki had suggested them mostly to please him. She was so kind and she knew him so well. "Thanks, Tikki. I never thought you cared so much."

"W-What?! I don't care! What would give you that idea?!" Tikki replied hurriedly with a shake of her head.

This made Plagg laugh. Why would anyone get angry with someone saying that? "Whatever you say, sugarcube."

Tikki's blush deepened as she groaned. "Don't call me that!"

"Uh, Tikki? Plagg? Where are you two?" Marinette asked, slightly nervously.

"S-Sorry, we're here. We didn't notice your parents leaving." Tikki told Marinette as she flew out of the stack of pillows, closely followed by Plagg.

Adrien glanced between the two and then laughed. Marinette couldn't hold back a giggle as well. "What?" Asked Plagg self-consciously. 'What were they laughing about?'

He turned to Tikki who shrugged looking to be slightly annoyed, but didn't say anything.

"Anyway, wanna play some video games. Then again, what's the point? I already know I'll beat you." Marinette stated teasingly as she waved a controller in Adrien's face.

"Hey! You haven't seen the true extent of my gaming abilities!" Adrien told her boastingly.

"Yeah, yeah." Marinette responded with a competitive smirk. Adrien playfully narrowed his eyes as he grabbed the other controller. He was so going to beat her.

Then with that, the two pro gamers began to play one of the latest game. Ultimate Mecha Strike 4!

Tikki crossed her arms as a smile made its way to her face. Adrien and Marinette were so perfect for each other and they looked so free and happy. She then glanced over at Plagg who was watching them too. Tikki smirked as she had an idea. She had this sudden ounce of confidence and she wanted to use it before it disappeared.

Tikki flew closer to Plagg making him look at her in slight confusion. He knew that look. She was definitely planning something. Then Tikki grabbed his hand and practically dragged him over to Marinette's study desk. Plagg let her take him in contentment. Although, he was super surprised and had no idea what Tikki was doing, Plagg of course trusted her and would do anything to spend more time with her. When they stopped and Tikki let go, Plagg felt quite sad. He wished she could do that to him all the time. That way he'd be able see and talk to Tikki, while feeling the amazing sensation it gave him whenever she was around…And he wouldn't have to move himself again. Plagg smirked to himself. He was so lazy.

Tikki didn't say anything as she walked over to a large finely decorated jar. This was where Marinette kept all her black, red and blue pens and her grey-lead pencils.

"Wha?" Plagg tilted his head in confusion. What was Tikki doing? Pencils/pens were giant to them. It was extremely hard to do anything with them.

Tikki giggled. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing either. She'd just wanted an excuse to hold his hand and now she was just doing stuff to confuse him. However, while she was doing that, she was also confusing herself. 'Hmm…Maybe I could…Oh, I could trip him. It's always funny to get a reaction out of him.' Tikki thought to himself, cheerfully.

Tikki picked up a blue pen and struggled to get it out of the jar. Did it have to be so big? Tikki then began to walk towards Plagg, unable to hide a cheeky smile from her face.

Plagg didn't know whether to stay put, turn back or just run. He looked behind him, but couldn't bring himself to move. Tikki wouldn't do something bad to him…Well, mostly. Besides how could he run away from her when he was longing to get closer. So he stayed where he was or though ready to run at any moment.

Tikki had almost reached him. He looked at her in apprehension before his eyes widened as she tripped over the pen in her hands. Tikki let out a small cry as she fell forwards. Plagg yelped as instead of falling to the ground, Tikki bumped into him. Plagg cheeks went extremely red as Tikki clung onto him for a few seconds. He faintly heard a soft thump as the pen fell to the ground. It's like time had stopped working. He felt like everything was happening in slow motion. His senses of everything around him were long gone. All he cared about was Tikki, who had accidentally fallen on him. Luckily, he'd been there to break her fall and was able to stay standing.

His heart was beating super fast. He desperately prayed Tikki couldn't hear, although that was doubtful. She was literally leaning against him. Plagg watched as Tikki looked up at him and blinked twice. Then she let out a sweet smile. "Thanks Plagg. You're always there for me."

Plagg felt so stunned. He was trying to not get too lost in Tikki's beautiful, dark blue eyes. They were so lively and soft. Just like her personality. How was she so perfect? She was everything he was not. She was responsible and full of energy, while he was lazy. She was helpful and hardworking, while he was lazy. She was extremely kind and talented, while he was lazy. She was selfless, while he was selfish. How could she ever like him? She was like a star high in the sky, whereas he was like a speck of dirt looking up at her.

Plagg tried to calm his mind and his racing heart. "And I always will be sugarcube." Plagg replied with a grin.

Plagg expected her to scold him for calling her that, but instead. She simply giggle lightly. "What? you're not going to tell me off?"

Tikki shook her head, then gave Plagg a smirk. "No. I'm too lazy."

Plagg chuckled at this as he shook his head. She was the exact opposite of lazy!

Although Plagg was pretty good at hiding it, he was getting increasingly nervous about Tikki arms still being wrapped around his waist. Had she forgotten she was still holding on to him? He absolutely loved being so close to her, but he felt like it was almost dangerous. He couldn't handle it for much longer. She was too cute and so sweet! He'd end up on the ground, unconscious in mere seconds. He was already feeling dizzy. It was probably from the extreme heat in his face. He knew his cheeks were probably quiet red and he felt like his face was literally being cooked over a fire.

What he was feeling definitely wasn't normal. Just that moment, Tikki surprised him as she suddenly jumped back and looked down shyly. She had done that so fast. He didn't know what this could mean and he tried hard not to think about it. Plagg looked down too. He'd had this sinking feeling as Tikki let go and was now disappointed that she hadn't held on longer.

Then two were quite startled as Marinette let out a loud, triumphant, "YES!"

"Come on, really. How are you so good?"

"I have my ways." Marinette teased as she smiled smugly. Marinette watched Adrien pout before adding. "Although, you were a hard competitor to beat."

This made Adrien perk up a bit. "Really?"

Marinette rolled her eyes as she turned around to check her phone. Then her eyes widened. She had gotten a message a few minutes ago. She must have missed it due to being with Adrien. In her defence, how could she not get distracted?!

There was an Akuma alert at the Eiffel tower. Apparently, there was some woman that could make plants grow anywhere she liked. They had to go now!

"Akuma alert?" Adrien question, suddenly more serious.

Marinette nodded.

"Let's do this!"

Just to clarify, when I started my story, it was before the episode Adrien found out about Marinette's pictures of him, so I decided to not confuse the times and make him not know about them. :)
Anyway, hope you enjoyed! ^.^

Also, the next chapter will hopefully be coming quite soon.