Thank you for all the reviews guys! I could never continue doing this without that support and im glad to receive constructive ones too, I will be going back and making the first few chapters longer and more well rounded at some point when I have the time. I literally wrote them at stupid-o'clock in the morning so I know they aren't great. I'm feeling much better and raring to go so without further ado, here is the next and longest chapter yet ~Midnight

What. The. Hell. Just. Happened.

Marinette entered the girls changing rooms in a mild state of shock, overlayed and mixed with joy, confusion and possibly a little bit of bliss. That was such a weird gym lesson.
First she'd caught Adrien staring at her after her run on the obstacle course like she'd become the most interesting thing on the planet, then she had watched him with unmistakable awe as he moved fluidly and almost with... well... feline agility, around the same course, coming one second behind her. 1 second! No wonder she had such a massive infatuation with him.
So athletic that he was one step behind a masked hero that practically flew around Paris! Only Chat could keep up with her like that.

What really threw her was the joint run though. The way they moved together, like they had done this a million and one times. Rehearsed to the point of perfection. Predicting each others movements and moving to accommodate them in order to move faster. The way her body fit perfectly into his when they used the rope to swing- no! stop thinking about that! she blushed deeply, kicking off her shoes and changing the rest of her clothes in a daze. He had a nice body. Definitely.

She thought about what he had said before they'd started, about showing Chloe, that was when she started to loosen up a bit instead of being a blushing timid mess. Her extreme dislike of the girl momentarily overpowering her embarrassment from the morning and driving her shamefully large competitive side made her much more comfortable around Adrien for those few minutes.
He'd even laughed when she'd flaunted her success in, admittedly, a rather childish way. That laugh did very weird things to her stomach and brain.

Shoving all of her clothes into her bag as she went, Marinette headed over to the exit on her way to eat lunch, maybe even use the extra time to create a new design and distract herself a little bit. Opening the door and turning toward the direction of the courtyard behind the school, completely lost in thought, found her smacking straight into something firm and fairly warm. Something which held onto her tightly as her body decided to rebound on a course for the floor, good luck be damned. Something that was as of five minutes ago, a very familiar shape that would always be imprinted on her memory.

She almost didnt want to look up at the one who had been both the problem and the savior too. Their grip still firm on her as if she might fall over again and, given who it was, she might do it just on principle. Faint on the spot.

"Are you okay Marinette?" the voice laced with concern and just a little guilt forced her hand, or rather her head, to turn and look at them. Looking up into big emerald green eyes tinged with worry and... amusement? She sorted through her brain for a minute desperately searching for that new found confidence he'd given her only a short while ago. She found a small fragment of it, tiny, but just enough.
She was still hyper aware of his arms and chest supporting her weight so she stood back on her feet properly, straightening up as much as she could in his hold. He soon looked down and realized what he was doing, carefully removing his arms and making sure she was steady before taking a step back. "Sorry about that"

She smiled a little, whilst she was terrified she'd say something stupid, he was worried about invading her personal space. It calmed her down considerably to see. Enough to talk straight anyway.

"I'm fine, Thanks for catching me" she smiled and he rubbed the back of his head guiltily.

"Well it was my fault you almost ended up on the floor in the first place so..." he grinned, offering a hand to her jokingly. "call it even?"

She moved her hand towards his and he took it with a slight bow and kissed it, grinning spectacularly and winked, actually winked, before straightening again. A giggle managed to escape before she could help it, he was acting like a dork.

Adrien Agreste, fashion model extraordinaire, coolest kid in school, butter wouldn't melt, was being a complete dork. In front of her.
Her luck powers must be in full throttle effect to be able to witness this. She relaxed even further. Just today she had gotten so many random glimpses of an Adrien she had never seen before and it was both weird and amazing. She nodded, blushing from the kiss on the hand.

"Even"

He smiled more sincerely for a second before seemingly remembering something, he looked down at her putting his hands in his pockets, rocking back slightly on his heels almost nervously.

"You know I actually came over to wait for you" He chuckled slightly to himself.
"Although I didnt expect to literally bump into you" She stared at him for a few seconds as if wondering if she had heard him wrong. Looking for...her? what could he possibly need from her? how could she have possibly gone from unable to say anything without stuttering to having a sort of normal conversation.
What the crap is going on today.

Having received no indication that she had even heard what he had said, let alone understood it, he continued quickly looking off to one side as if wondering whether it was a good idea to begin with.

"I er- just wondered if you'd like to spend our extended lunch time together" he looked back at her when she made a small squeak of both delight and horror, the blush forming on her face making a nice backdrop for the round 'O' shape her mouth was now making. He seemed to consider her for a second, a small smirk making its way from one corner of his mouth. The word familiar flashed through her mind when she saw that smirk very quickly before it was gone and he was talking again.
"After all, we worked so well together in that lesson and ive never seen someone beat me for speed even if only by a second, I was wondering what else we would we had in common"

She was going to faint, or say something stupid, or make veeeeery weird noises of confusion. Maybe she would do all three. Again, just on principle, she was sure this wouldn't be as much of an issue for her if it was Nino or Max or one of the other guys asking. But this was Adrien, possible love of her life 'i have multiple of your modelling shots as my computer wallpaper' Adrien, 'I have your schedule on a drop down display in my room' Adrien.
Instead of any sort of verbal response in which she could make a complete ass of herself, she settled for a nod.

The smile coming off of that boy did the same strange things to her stomach that his laugh did. She was seeing a lot of his smiles today.

He extended a hand towards her, inclining slightly as if going for another bow.

"I have the perfect place, if you would like to follow me"

Nodding felt like the response she should stick to, as it seemed to work well the first time. This wasn't like gym where he managed to get a reaction by bringing up her dislike of Chloe. here was nothing here to make her confident. Just him. In all his wondrous glory. So she nodded again moving to place her hand in his where he had offered. That god damn smile got even wider and he straightened, grasping it gently but firmly, just like he had when she had walked into him what felt like a decade ago, even if it had only been a minute or two at most.

"Lets go then, I think you'll like it"

And that was that, suddenly she was being slowly pulled from the spot she was stuck to until he had managed to coax her into a proper walk and then they were off, out of the front door of the school and round to the side of the building, past the windows of a few classrooms that looked still to be in session, and reached a small area near the back corner of the school that was obviously unused, and absolutely covered greenery.
Surrounded in buildings there was a small group of trees that seemed to have interwoven in the tiny space. He led her over to the trees and let go of her hand, to which she immediately felt the loss, before gesturing for her to follow him still. Then he disappeared.

Just like that. Gone. She looked at the spot he had been for a second completely confused, then looked around briefly as if it was some sort of joke, but then she heard something coming from the group of trees themselves.

"Just walk over here Marinette, you'll see" She took the advice of his floating voice and once she was there, she saw a small opening in the branches that had sewn themselves together so thoroughly. Taking the chance that this was where he had gone, she climbed in, and was immediately struck still by the sight.

The way that the trees had joined at the branches created a tight canopy of wood that still had enough gaps to let the light in that was filtering through the leaves on the outside, giving some absolutely stunning natural and faintly green lighting.
The roots on the bottom climbing over each other and weaving just as the branches had created a fairly even flooring that was joined by a much thicker root on the other side that was flattened on the top and looked remarkably like a seating area. Mother nature had worked hard on this little paradise. And within this, sat on the larger flattened root in a patch where the branches weren't quite so tight letting the light filter through a bit more giving him a hazy golden halo, was Adrien.

He looked like an angel.

He looked almost worried about her reaction having not seen her move at all since she set foot in this little haven he seemed to have found himself. Scratching the back of his head in a nervous or embarrassed fashion.

"Soo... what do you think?" His words spurred her into action, and before he could say anything else and instead of straight out responding she was already reaching into her bag for her sketch book, intent on capturing the moment in a design of some sort. Shades of green and where they would go on an outfit interwoven with strips of brown leather made to look like wooden colors, no longer thinking that it was Adrien and that she had the biggest most ridiculous crush on him.
She sat herself on the floor next to the root, leaning against it with her book resting on her legs.

"Its... Its absolutely gorgeous, the different sections of lighting, all those different tones... How did you find this place?" She had started sketching already whilst talking. Those few seconds had already given her the time to roughly sketch two human shapes, one male and one female.
She was listening out for his response as she did so, genuinely intrigued. He seemed to relax a little bit as she obviously liked the place, crossing his legs where he was sat and looking over her shoulder to inspect the extremely rapidly coming together design.

"Id like to say something cool and mysterious about it, like secret directions I found in the school or something, but the truth is when I joined the school before I made friends with Nino I used to wander around a lot, this is just where I ended up one day. I come here a lot now, mostly when Nino is busy to be honest, its nicer just to have to myself" She looked up to question that, why would he show her if that was the case? but came face to face with him hovering over her shoulder with the critical eye that only the son of a famous fashion designer could attain. And for the second, or maybe even third or forth time that day found herself staring into his eyes.
That lucky green shade she never thought she would see so much of, and in such close quarters. Remembering the first time she had gazed into them this morning after waking up, she thought possibly her luck was working even then. That was the catalyst for today. One dream and one mistaken identity is what sparked all of this.

They remained looking at each other for a few seconds before she realized what she was doing and very quickly whipped her head back down to the paper, pretending to inspect the makeshift design she would work more on later whilst actually screaming on the inside and trying not to fall into utter stupidity. She was starting to revert back to her usual 'Adrien is talking either scream or babble' code of conduct. He must have noticed her change in demeanor because he quickly found a subject to get her talking to him again.

"Those designs are absolutely brilliant by the way, you really have an eye for that kind of thing" He gestured to the sketchbook, smiling slightly. "Do you mind if I have a look?"

He wanted... to look at...her designs? Wait, he thought they were good? She might as well die and go to heaven. There was a lot of nodding going on and it was in his hands faster than he could blink. That made him laugh a little, the good laugh that did strange things. She really, really like that laugh.

She brought her knees up and wrapped her legs around them, leaning back on the large root as she watched Adrien flipping through her sketchbook with a look that she thought must be... impressed possibly? And contemplative as well. He looked up at her briefly.

"You know, there isn't a single thing that I can see in here that wouldn't look good on any model you put them on, That takes so much experience Marinette" He looked back down again, flipping the page and a Cheshire grin appeared on his face as he saw the next few pages. "Chat Noir casual? I thought you didnt like Chat Noir?"

She blushed a bit, shaking her head.

"I-its not that I don't like him, I just said he was a bit flirty" He reminds me of you sometimes to look at too, she thought. How could she not at least like that a little bit. "He has a good physique and black and green are a gorgeous color combination" His grin seemed to get minutely wider with every word. Something in his face told her that she really wanted to know why it was so amusing to him, but the other half reeaally didnt want to know.
It felt smug. As if she was talking about him instead of a completely different person.

"I'd love to model any of these, they're all brilliant" he had started flipping through the book again and obviously had no idea what that had done to her. Her heart had stopped. Skipped a beat as she imagined him in the black clothes with all those green extras. It would really set off his eyes, accentuate his... um... lines.
And make him look even more like Chat.
She shook herself to get rid of that thought. And it only got worse when he flipped the page again. The Ladybug casual. Where she had quite obviously drawn herself as the model. Well, it made sense. She WAS Ladybug. But Adrien didnt know that, it must look so weird to him.
She could see the grin fade and replace itself with vague confusion, the kind of face somebody gets when they have noticed something, but are unsure what it is.

"These are... Is that you?" He looked up at her, waiting for her to respond, and was met with yet another meek nod. He looked back down again. "It looks... You really suit these outfits you know?" He was blinking almost stupidly at the page, and she really wished she knew what he was thinking at that point, but he soon changed, the small grin coming back.
"The offer will continue to stand by the way, about me modelling some of these, but I have got to see you in a Ladybug casual outfit"

She froze first. Staring at him as if he had turned insane. Then she spluttered, what he had said registering in her brain. It wasn't long into that that Adrien started to bite his lip instead of laughing, she must look so ridiculous because it was only seconds he was able to contain that laughter. The light sound all around her in moments and her stomach was doing weird things again.

"Don't panic Marinette, it was just a suggestion" He was choking this out between laughs, still slowly flicking through the pages of the sketchbook. It took her a minute to calm down whilst he did so. Slow breathing. That was wholly unexpected. And whilst it was brilliant that he thought she should wear one for him, he wanted to see her wear one for him, and that was absolutely terrifying.

She remained in silence whilst she took her time calming down, watching him flick through the pages absentmindedly, the motion acting as something for her to focus on, and watching his face as he inspected them was always going to be interesting.
That was until she saw where he was in the book, and suddenly it felt like a bucket of ice washed over her. She wasn't quick enough to process it before he had turned the page, eyes resting on something that she knew he would recognise, and he went stock still.

Silence ensued, and she curled further in on herself, wanting to hide, and waited. Waited for him to react. Waited for him to get angry.

Waited for the end of this perfect moment in time.

i know the 'super secret place all to ourselves that ive only ever told you about' trope is ridiculously overused and im so sorry but I love it so I used it and I have no regrets, also I might start amping up the references to their secret identites, but as per miraculous fashion, these two are going to be absolutley oblivious ~Midnight