Hello, beautiful people! I got bored waiting to post another chapter of my other story, so I decided to post a new story! I'm not sure how often I will post on this story, but I have quite a bit of material already. I hope you enjoy this story, reviews are always appreciated!

"Chat Noir! Stop with your flirting and be helpful!" Ladybug shouted as she dodged another beam.

"I am being helpful! I'm complementing our polar-opposite powers, and how we are meow-gnitized to each other, My Lady!" he quipped back.

Ladybug couldn't help the grumble that escaped her lips as she dodged another beam. The new akumatized villain was a young university student. It's the week before midterms for students at university, meaning that stress levels are high for everyone. Although she herself is still in college, she felt the stress too. They too have tests next week, though not as detrimental as in university. The bakery has been extremely busy with those who get snacks for study groups, or those who stay at school late for those same purposes. Late nights and early mornings with studying (and duties of course) and helping her parents in the bakery were taking its toll on her.

This akuma in particular had a large project due in her science class. She had this assignment assigned to her since the previous spring, so she has worked intensively on it for near half of a year. According to what Ladybug has picked up, it seems that someone sabotaged her and placed a magnet on her data, ruining it in the process. Now her powers involve said magnet, and she can magnetize and demagnetize whomever and whatever she chooses. Unfortunately for her, that means Chat Noir has practically free range in puns. The fight just began, and she already has a headache from the many puns he's spouted thus far. "Just stop punning and get to work, I have somewhere to be!" she shouted a little more cross than she intended, but Chat didn't seem to notice.

"With purr-leasure, My Lady!" Luckily for them, despite having to dodge her many magnetizing beams, she was relatively easy to beat. It wasn't even an hour until she was defeated, which had interrupted their outdoor classroom session and cut only a few minutes of their lunch. It was early fall of their last year at college, being in grade 11, before they would go to university. Luckily today was a beautiful day, quite possibly the last beautiful summer day before fall rolls in.

Marinette inhaled deeply as she walked inside the school to her locker to exchange her belongings. Before she could close her locker, she was tackled into a tight hug, emitting a light squeal from her. When she turned around, she realized that it was Alya who tackled her. She sighed as she believed that she would be okay, only to take one look into her friend's eyes and know that she was screwed. Gulping, but young heroine braced herself for the worst. "H-hey, Alya, w-what's up?"

"What's up? WHAT'S UP?! Girl! You freaking vanished on me! POOFED OUT OF THIN AIR! You can't keep doing this to me, girl! You're going to give me a premature heart attack!" At least Marinette was decent enough to seem guilty, even though she really was. She didn't like lying to Alya, but she couldn't help but to do so in order to protect her.

"What did she do?" a voice asked behind her, causing her to squeal once again, this one louder than the first one. She whipped around to see the equally surprised and guilty Adrien behind her. He began scratching his neck nervously as an apology for scaring her. She placed a hand over her rapidly beating heart as she felt her face going ablaze. One would think her blush is from her crush on him, but they couldn't be more wrong. She still likes him, but as a friend now, almost a brother. Not on Nino's level, or even Kim's, he was just close to her on a different level. She realized a year ago that after pining after him for a year, she couldn't last very long, it was doing… things, to her. She would psych herself out, stress, and even go into depression at times because of her crush on him. When she began seeing him as a friend and not a crush, she began to notice that he was more of a dork than she originally thought. It was still endearing, but he was no longer on the pedestal she used to put him on. She actually preferred being his friend than being something more. It would be nice, sure, but now she felt like it wasn't really meant to be. At one point, the four of them were drinking at Alya's house, and all got different levels of drunk. Alya and Marinette would dance with each other while Nino and Adrien would spout insults to each other. Marinette and Adrien would flirt shamelessly with each other, while Alya and Nino would go who-knows-where doing who-knows-what. One of those times when Adrien and Marinette were alone, she confessed her feelings. She doesn't really know what all she said, being so drunk, but from what they talked about the next day, it seems like she told him that she liked him ever since he gave her his umbrella and it continued to grow from there. But she also admitted whilst drunk that she no longer harbors such feelings anymore, that he's like her best friend, besides Alya. He was like the Chat Noir to her Ladybug, and she subconsciously laughed to herself at the irony. When he told her all of this, he had a light blush to his face, no doubt embarrassed over the whole thing. But when he mentioned the part about the Chat Noir and Ladybug thing, his blush deepened ever so slightly and there was a new light to his eyes, something that Marinette couldn't place… was it hope of some kind? What kind of hope? "Uhm, yeah, I'm sorry Adrien if I made you uncomfortable. But it's all in the past now, and now you know. We can move on, okay?" she remembers saying. She also remembers the drainage of color from his face and the slight droop of his shoulders. She couldn't say what that was from, but she didn't relish on it at the time.

"Sorry, Marinette, I truly didn't mean to scare you like that," his deep voice brought her back. It has been two years since they all met, spare Nino and Marinette, and everyone has changed, at least slightly. Both boys were slightly taller and more muscular, Adrien far more than Nino, while the girls became curvier, once more, Marinette more so than Alya. Before when they met, Alya already had curves, having matured faster. Marinette didn't grow in the right places until about a year ago. Her once old figure that was lean and muscular, only seeming to have curves in her spandex, now had an hourglass shape to it. She hated to admit it, but Adrien shaped up just as well to contradict and compliment her. His once lean body has, in a sense, beefed out. His legs grew about twice the size along with his arms, his chest puffed out a bit, and he actually has a six pack now. She only knows this due to his newer modeling audience: older teens and young adults. He modeled for swimsuits last spring, showing his refined figure. She won't admit to how many hours she spent staring at his photos. Nope. It didn't help that his voice got deeper, sounding heavenly like an angel, and equally sending shivers down her spine. If he was the angel, then she was definitely going to hell.

"I-it's okay, Adrien," damn, she thought she could control her stutter, but she can't help it if she doesn't prepare herself. "Alya already had me on edge-"

"Just because the shit you pull every time an akuma attacks!"

"What shit?" Nino piped up.

"She always runs away from me when there's an akuma."

"Maybe because you follow the akuma every time and your ass needs to be saved," Marinette mumbled to herself, where Adrien somehow heard and snorted, causing her to smirk ever so slightly. Unfortunately, she always forgets that Alya's reporter hearing is top notch.

"Excuse me if I want the best blog in the world about the best heroes in the world to have the best footage of that sort of stuff! Trust me, if it means that we'll be saved by them, then it's worth it. You're safe as long as they're there!"

"But why be there so close when it would be easier for them to fight not having to worry about saving or protecting other people?" Marinette piped up, and for once, Alya couldn't think of anything to say. "Anyways, a lot of the time I either lock myself up or I get trapped somewhere. Rarely do I fall victim though, so don't worry," she tried to console.

"Oh really? Then what happened to you this time?"

"Euh…" she began. It didn't take much to make up what happened, but still she didn't want to say it. "I got magnetized to a tree…"

"…"

"…"

She knew that was a lame excuse. Trees can't be magnetized, but the victim's powers allowed anything to be magnetized. Still, it sounded stupid to her own ears.

"Magnetized… to a tree? That's ridiculous."

"Don't sound so sure, Alya," Adrien stepped in. "That akuma was a pretty nasty one. She was magnetizing anyone to anything. I saw it with my own eyes," Adrien tried to help, only to receive three incredulous stares from his friends. "What?"

"You mean to say…" Nino began.

"You left the school, which was locked down-" Alya continued.

"To chase the akuma?! ALONE?!" Marinette all but screeched. While Nino and Alya were looking at Adrien like he was crazy, Marinette had a look in her eyes that he couldn't quite place. Was it fear? Concern? He wanted to scoff at their expressions, but then they would question him. He can't really tell them that he's perfectly safe, that he was Chat Noir. Nope. But he couldn't help but to roll his eyes.

"I was perfectly fine guys, I was well hidden and Ladybug and Chat Noir had her handled. It didn't take long to defeat the akuma."

"Maybe this time, but what about all the other times? Were you hidden and safe all those times too? Would they have been able to protect you if something happened?" Adrien turned surprised eyes to the voice, Marinette's, which surprised him further. "What if, what if you're not so lucky next time," she all but murmured. "Please, all of you. Please promise me that you'll try to stay far away from any akuma. Please," she begged.

Adrien could tell that Alya wanted to protest, but all of them agreed, nonetheless. Marinette sighed a breath of relief, finally releasing the tense atmosphere. They walked out of the locker rooms and into the fresh fall air, relishing in the warm sun and the crisp breeze that blew around them. Today was peaceful, despite the akuma. It was early fall, so the warm days still lingered, hence their outside session. This peaceful atmosphere couldn't last, however, as the lunch bell rang off in the distance, they were broken out of their reverie when a painful screech pierced the air. Glancing towards the source they knew was to be Marinette, they were surprised to see her already gone, with a literal dust cloud in her place, so much so that they could've found it comical if their ears weren't in pain. "Sorry guys," they heard a yell ahead of them, causing them to look. "I promised my parents that I'd help in the bakery! I need to help them with some chores at home too, I'll see you in class though!" and then she promptly disappeared behind a wall.

A couple moments of tense, awkward silence ensued, before Alya broke it. "Well, that's our girl. I wonder what those chores are, she normally doesn't have chores until after school. Oh well, but we should follow her example. Care to join Nino and I, Adrien? We're trying out that new café down the road," Alya suggested. Adrien thought it was sweet that they still tried to invite him to places. He knew it wasn't out of pity or anything but seeing how they still wanted him to feel included whenever possible made him warm up inside.

"Sorry guys, I have a photoshoot during the lunch period. If all goes well, I should make it to class on time. Besides, I don't want to be a third wheel to your date," he insinuated with a wink, causing them to blush. It was no secret to anyone that those two have begun a relationship, but they still got a little flustered whenever someone brought it up out of nowhere.

"W-wait, it wasn't-"

"It's not like that, it's-" they both began, only to be interrupted by Adrien when he raised his hand for silence.

"It wasn't going to be a date to begin with, but now you have no one stopping you, so go enjoy the new café as a date," he ended with another wink as he walked to his awaiting car. He waved one last time to his two friends, who had blushes adorning their faces (Nino more so than Alya), and then closed the door. He placed his bag at his feet as the Gorilla pulled away from the curb, choosing to glance out his tinted window. They were just passing by Marinette's bakery as she ran inside, making him smile.

"Stop gawking at your girlfriend already, your sighs are making me nauseous," a voice drawled beside him. Before Adrien could answer, he received a nose full of awful smelling cheese.

"Geez, Plagg. What did I say about bringing that cheese so close to my face?" he asked rhetorically as he plugged his nose. "Besides, Marinette isn't my girlfriend, she's just a friend."

"Yes, and those sighs and the looks you send her way every day aren't the same ones you give Ladybug," Plagg said sarcastically as he swallowed his cheese whole. Adrien decided to ignore his friend as he continued to look out his window, also the heat slowly rising into his cheeks. It didn't take long to reach the location for the photoshoot, where Adrien would have to spend most of his time modelling with about five minutes to spare to eat lunch. He sighed as he placed down his bag and got changed.

He was half right in his assumption for the shoot. It did drag on for what felt like an eternity, but he had about ten minutes to eat lunch, so that was a plus. It felt like a long drive back to school, but that was probably his exhaustion, despite it only being two in the afternoon. Even Plagg was silent, most likely sleeping in his bag. I wish I could take a cat-nap right now, he commented dryly before he stopped. He wanted to snicker for his pun, but all he could manage was a mixture of a smirk and a grimace, releasing a soft groan. No wonder Ladybug groans after my puns, perhaps she's too tired to laugh at them. I wonder what makes her so tired? Once again, the drive to school was spent wondering about his lady, which proved fruitless.

Adrien went straight to his classroom and sat next to his awaiting friend, whose girlfriend gave him an energetic wave and smile while he held out his fist in greeting. He couldn't help but to smile as big as he physically could at that moment and reciprocate the fist bump and give Alya a small wave of his own. "Wow, dude. No offense, but you look like death," Nino commented directly. Adrien wanted to laugh at his forwardness, he truly did, but he was too tired to do much. His girlfriend, however, had plenty of energy and hit his arm, and by the way Nino flinched from her it was somewhat hard.

"Nino! That was rude! That shoot must've been a tough one, huh?" she asked gently after she scolded Nino, who was still rubbing his arm with a small pout on his face.

"Yeah, Vincent was very eccentric today, but wanted everything 'absolutely perfect' for the upcoming winter line. It didn't help that some of the other models were acting up. I guess I should call myself lucky that we finished early."

"You actually got to eat today, dude?" Nino asked with a surprised look, but one filled with amusement. "What is this world coming to? First an akuma attack, and then you get to eat?! What's next, Marinette coming early?" His last comment made all three begin laughing. The class filled up with everyone but the aforementioned girl. Everyone was talking quietly amongst themselves until the teacher walked in, where they promptly finished their conversations.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Sorry about the session being cut short earlier, but hopefully we will finish our assignments before tomorrow?" Madame Bustier stated with a knowing look at everyone, gaining nervous laughter by most of her students. She shook her head in amusement as she placed down her stack of books and papers, before beginning to hand out said papers. "Now, for today's class, we will be-"

The classroom door opened with a bang as Marinette ran in, face flushed and hair disheveled. Her already red face from her presumed run over here turned even more red by the disapproving look Madame Bustier sent her way. "S-sorry, Madame Bustier."

"Marinette, please refrain from entering my classroom in such a manner next time you are late, would you?" she sent a small scowl her way, before it disappeared into a kind smile. "Now, please sit and I will begin discussing what we will be doing." The class filled with small laughter as she quickly took her seat, the loudest being Chloe, of course, but not in the way one would think. Over the last couple years, Chloe decided that she wanted to change, seeing how things wouldn't go her way like they would before, so she figured she wanted to be a bit nicer to others. Surprisingly, her and Marinette became close over the last year. Still not as close as Alya and Marinette, but they would occasionally go shopping together and such. She still wasn't 100% nice, she would show her cruel streak occasionally, but normally it wasn't so bad anymore. Marinette discovered she normally only says something if she feels insecure about something or wants that something.

Marinette sent a playful scowl her way before sitting down and practically flopping over her desk, eliciting a questioning look from her three best friends. She waved them off, letting them know that she would tell them later. Later took about ten minutes as Mme. Bustier described their next project and presented examples. When the boys turned around, they were beaten to the question as Alya demanded answers with the spark of her eyes.

"Stop looking at me like that, Alya, you're acting as if the reason I was late had something to do with the secrets of the universe. You know I'm late quite often."

"Yes, but I also know your parents hardly ever have you do chores during your lunch break, so spill, girl!"

Marinette released a small giggle before speaking, not realizing that her giggle caused a small blush to appear on Adrien's face, but he squashed it down quickly. "Well, we had to deal with the bakery for the first hour and then quickly cleaned the rest of my house-"

"The entire house?!" Nino practically shouted before Adrien elbowed him. "Sorry, that just sounds like a lot."

"No, not really. We keep it pretty clean all the time, but we did a little extra cleaning and rearranging for some reason."

"Think family is coming over?" Alya asked.

"I doubt it, we didn't do much when my uncle came over."

"Weird. Wait, but the whole house, do you also mean-"

"Yup, even there."

"No way!"

"I'm sorry, I'm lost. What's 'there'?" Adrien asked confused.

"It's a spare bedroom the Dupain-Cheng's have that they only open for family and guests to stay in," Alya waved dismissively to him. "So girl, who do you think it is?!"

"I honestly have no idea, Alya. My parents just said that it has been a long while since they last cleaned it, so they wanted to clean it."

"That's a bogus excuse," she commented dryly. "That's on your level of lame excuses." Adrien didn't know it was possible for someone's expression to go from sickly green to an extreme pale with rosy cheeks so quickly. He watched as the girl with red cheeks scratched the back of her head and shuffle her feet, a nervous habit she must've picked up from him, he thought with a small smile. "Come on, girl, you MUST have an idea!"

"I'm sorry, Alya, I just don't know. That's honestly what they told me, so I don't know what you're expecting-"

"Marinette, Alya, I hope what you're talking about is in relation to your project?" Mme. Bustier interjected with a stern brow, eliciting a nervous giggle from the pair as they set to work on their project.

The second half of the school day went a lot slower than the first, but when the final bell went off the small group seemed to release their own sighs for their own reasons. Adrien was still exhausted from the akuma and shoot he had earlier, Nino and Alya went on their date doing who knows what, and Marinette… well, he didn't know with Marinette. She looked tired, just like him for some reason, but also super tense. Whenever someone walked past, she jumped ever so slightly with a small 'meep.' He waited until she switched her books at her locker and made her way to the door before he approached her. "Hey, Marinette?"

He knew that she would react, but he didn't know to what degree. He certainly didn't expect her to literally scream and ram herself into the lockers. Quickly running to her side, he planned on apologizing and helping her up, when she waved him off. "I'm fine, Adrien, I guess I'm just a little jumpy today," she admitted with an embarrassed giggle. That didn't help his guilt, nor stop him from helping her up.

"Why are you so nervous? If I can ask," he began awkwardly, not wanted to overstep his boundaries.

"It's fine, you're not being nosy for asking," she laughed. He was always amazed by how easily she could read him. Thinking about it, Marinette has truly grown in the last two years. She was a lot more confident around him, joking with him occasionally, even yelling at him when he rightfully deserved so. He wasn't going to mention how she's filled out her wardrobe, that she now has a perfect hourglass figure, or that her slightly longer hair drove him crazy every time it brushed her collar bone- stop it, you perv! She's your friend, she won't see you as anything except a friend. Wait, what? "Anyways, I guess I'm just nervous about what Alya said. She's right, we normally don't prepare the room unless someone is staying in it. The only thing is, I haven't been told who it is going to be. So I'm just confused on what to think. I don't know, I feel like I'm overreacting."

"No, not at all! If I was in that situation, I think I would be nervous too in that situation. I see it as a science variable: b is going to follow if a occurs, but if c is taken out-" he began rambling before another loud laugh stopped him. He turned towards the sound to notice Marinette trying, and failing if he may add, to hide a large grin that almost split her face. Once he took in her expression, what he was saying came flooding back to him, causing his honey-glow face to turn a beet red in embarrassment.

"Way to make me feel better using science," she snorted. Adrien couldn't help but smile at her amusement, despite it costing his own reputation.

"Any way I can help," he mockingly gestured with a slight bow, releasing a little Chat Noir personality. It's not like he doesn't do something like this that often, in fact he does it constantly with his three best friends ever since he accidentally slipped some Chat Noir-level puns a year ago. They realized he's just as goofy as the hero, and it is part of his personality, so they embraced it just like they embraced him. Surprisingly, Marinette was the one who embraced him the most after his catastrophic blunder before; she seemed to relax a lot more around him and even joke back with him. This would be one of those times, where he was still in his slight bow before she scoffed and pushed him away from her ever so slightly, bringing a larger smile to his face.

"You're such a dork! But really, thank you, Adrien," she ended with a bright and genuine smile, causing his heart to skip a beat, confusing him greatly. They were broken from their moment when she got a text notification, and one quick look at her phone made her release another squeak and give a quick goodbye before bolting back home again. He could only gaze at where she stood once before shaking his head in amusement and making his way to his fencing class.

Marinette didn't know why she felt like she needed to run back home, the text her maman gave her only said "We have a guest in the house, so be polite when you come home." Perhaps it was because she's been so anxious to find out the reason why they cleaned the spare bedroom, and now she knows that Alya was right. Maybe it was also because neither of her parents told her who was staying, and now she can discover herself. It could have also been that her and Adrien were left alone and were talking comfortably with each other. True, they've gotten extremely close over the last couple years, but that school-girl crush still stubbornly lingered in her brain, and sometimes her heart. She would sometimes become bashful whenever they were alone together and there was nothing but silence, and awkward silence at that. She cringed as she thought that he must see her as a crazy lady for sprinting back home twice in one day, and the fact that today she was squealing more often than not. But then she remembered how he made her feel better by comparing her nerves to a science problem. He was smart and all, but also pretty dense when it came to complex emotions, and she kind of liked that about him. She couldn't help the slight giggle when she remembered his embarrassment when he realized what he said to her, but she relished in the warm feeling that she knew she made him feel better about it too. All of her thoughts came to a complete stop when she realized that she was standing right in front of her front door, and that's when she noticed it. The bakery below her feet should be loud with business, but all that she could hear was silence from below. She focused her hearing to her front door, which was difficult due to the thickness of it, so she wouldn't be able to hear anything unless she placed her ear to the door itself. And that was exactly what she did. With her ear flat on her door, she could hear her maman and papa talking in the kitchen, presumedly to the third person that must be in there. She could tell from the distance of her maman's voice, she must be in front of the oven making dinner while her papa is near the island. There was laughter, so the guest must be familiar with them somehow. She grumbled to herself as she figured that the guest wasn't talking at all, so she couldn't tell who it could be. A sudden voice seemed to pierce through her despite it being blurred through the thickness of the door.

"Marinette should be here any minute, unless she stopped to talk to one of her friends," she heard her papa say. She took a deep breath before beginning to twist the handle to the front door, when her papa spoke once more, "or she was listening outside the door the whole time." She hated how smug he sounded, it's as if he knew the whole time. With her face ablaze, whether it be in embarrassment or anger, she burst open the door to look at her father with what she hoped was a furious glare, but most likely ended up being more of a pout. "Ah, there she is! Just the young lady we were talking about!" her father exclaimed jovially. Before Marinette could retort, however, the third mysterious voice finally spoke up.

"I don't see a young lady in here, other than maman. All I see is a little pipsqueak," the tenor voice teased from behind her. Marinette wanted so bad to tackle the person who called her a pipsqueak, she really did, but when his voice registered in her memory, she couldn't help but to forgive him and launch herself at him in a tight hug. He quickly embraced her and spun them both around a few times, wary of the furniture around them.

"Anthony! Oh my god, why didn't you tell me you were coming home?!" Marinette asked, trying to hold back tears of joy.

"I wanted to surprise you, so…" he drawled before he placed her down in front of him and raised his arms comically to the side in jazz hands, "surprise!"

"It was a surprise, alright," Sabine, their mother muttered from the kitchen. "He called this morning after you left for classes, asking us to keep his arrival a secret. Of course, we didn't have enough ingredients for dinner tonight, so-"

"Wait, so THAT'S WHY I had to help in the store and clean? Because HE was coming?"

"Your brother has a name, Marinette," their maman chastised teasingly. "And yes, I'm sure you figured someone was coming, seeing how we cleaned the spare bedroom."

"Yes, I did, but you also said that we were cleaning it because it hasn't been cleaned in a while."

"That was true as well, pumpkin," Tom spoke up. "It hasn't been cleaned in a while, so it needed to be ready for Anthony when he arrived."

"So… you fibbed. I guess Alya was right," Marinette mumbled as she ran a hand down her face in exasperation.

"Don't think of it as a fib, Mari, it's more of a half-truth," Anthony snarked with a wink, earning him a playful elbow to the ribs.

"That's enough, kids. Now, how about you two go talk elsewhere, I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about." Sabine wasn't able to finish her sentence before they ran off upstairs to Anthony's old room, the spare bedroom. Tom chuckled behind Sabine while she shook her head at them. "Kids."

"Yes, kids. Our kids, and we couldn't love them less," he stated as he kissed the top of Sabine's head.