Hiiiii! Basically, I originally wrote this story to be M rated and posted it under the title 'Best Friends' over the first week of the new year. It also had a Christmas theme running through it, leading me to rush aspects of the story. So, due to that, I decided to rewrite it to be T rated and erased the Christmas theme, making it more general and, at least I think, a better story. It's an alternate universe with no Miraculous, so it was very new to me to have to actually set up the backstory for the characters, meaning that the first couple chapter have a lot of set up in them.

My original inspiration for the story was from the many contemporary romance books I've read over the last few months of 2021, leading to the genre becoming a new obsession of mine. So this story merges two of my obsessions - Miraculous and those books, so much so that this story is very much a jumble of themes and ideas from The Love Hypothesis (Ali Hazelwood), You and Me on Vacation/People we meet on Vacation (Emily Henry), The Cheat Sheet (Sarah Adams) and To all the Boys I've Loved Before (Jenny Han).

I hope you enjoy and please drop a comment to let me know what you thought! And, if you'd like to go and checkout the M version (it's honestly not that different except for 1 chapter, but it is Christmas themed), it's called 'Best Friends'.

Chapter 1

"I'm so sorry," he said, before catching her lips in his. He couldn't believe he was doing this, kissing his best friend in the middle of a library study session. And to get away from the attention of a crazed fan no less. There had to have been an easier and less risky solution than this, but her lips were right there, and this kiss was starting to feel really good. It began as a glorified peck but had now morphed into something unexpected. Something electric.

Adrien's tongue brushed along Marinette's lips and he felt her melt into him even more. But then she was pulling away, her dazed expression turning to confusion.

"What was that for?" She asked, hope flickering through her eyes.

Adrien felt his face redden, feeling incredibly guilty about the reason. But he had to tell her, he couldn't lie to his best friend. Not the one girl who saw the real him behind the mask. Except he'd just kissed her. The one thing he swore he would never do.

"Erm," he started, his hand absentmindedly scratching the back of his neck, a nervous tick he'd developed after his mother died. "I saw Lila, that crazed fan I was telling you about, coming over and then I don't know what came over me."

Marinette's face dropped, and she turned her head, staring down at her work, then started to pack her things away.

"Well, erm, ok. I have to go home now. I forgot that Alya and I had a movie night planned. We've both been working so hard and she's been spending a lot of time with Nino, so we thought we could use a girls night," she rambled. She looked up as she got out of her chair, her eyes meeting Adrien's for a second. She averted her gaze, her face going red as she pushed the chair in and said goodbye.

"Wait, Marinette," Adrien called, watching as she turned to face him. "We're ok right?"

Marinette's face softened before she replied, "Yes Adrien, we are absolutely fine. I'll see you at your party tomorrow night." She gave him a small smile before she turned and rushed out of the library, leaving behind a rather dumbstruck Adrien staring at the space she had just left. He turned back to face the table, annoyed with himself for not being entirely honest at why, out of all the possible avoiding Lila options there were, he had chosen to kiss her.

Silver lining though. The plan worked. Lila was nowhere to be seen.

—-

Marinette was pacing. What the hell happened. Adrien kissed her. She enjoyed it. And then she was crushed when he said it was only to get away from the worst of his crazed followers. A crazed follower who also happened to be an ex-girlfriend. If she could be called that. They went on half a date at the beginning of this year when she presented herself to be a completely normal human being, but then turned out to be the craziest of the crazed fans and Adrien had to make an excuse to leave, an excuse in the form of Marinette phoning and pretending to be his father, the one person who could incite any fear into crazy people like Lila.

Ever since Marinette had met Adrien back when they were 11 and just starting out at secondary school, he was recognised as the son of famous actress Emilie Graham de Vanily and fashion designer extraordinaire Gabriel Agreste. But it wasn't until he was 15 that he started to gain fans of his own due to his father forcing him to do various ad campaigns for his company. Marinette had had a front row seat to not only the growth of Adrien's fame, but also the way Adrien changed in front of the camera and with his father. He hated modeling jobs, creating a persona for himself that the fans loved. He was seen as the poster boy of Gabriel, the perfect son and insanely good looking model. Marinette had always felt lucky to know the true Adrien, the pun loving goof who would make faces at her when no one was looking. The only other person who knew him like this was his mother, who passed away when Adrien was 14, effectively destroying any good relationship he had with his father. The way Adrien shriveled into himself around Mr Agreste broke her heart, but she stuck by her best friend, always there as a shoulder to cry on or an ear to rant to, even just as a video game buddy. When the day came for Adrien to apply to university, Marinette was the one he went to to seek solace when his father said he couldn't go. But they both applied, eventually getting offers and then accepted by the same three universities. They were both over the moon and went to Mr Agreste together, wearing him down until he reluctantly agreed to let Adrien stop modeling and go to University with his best friend, the girl he'd gotten to know well over the 7 years that she'd been friends with his son.

Now, they are in their third and final year of university and even closer, if humanly possible, than they were when they were 11 when they bonded over video games and a shared sense of humor. They had made the smart decision of living apart for their first year, both hitting it off immediately with their respective roommates, the four of them forming a strong friendship. But nothing could come between Adrien and Marinette. Except maybe a kiss that acted on the what if side of their relationship.

Marinette wasn't sure when she first thought about Adrien in a different light, but she did know she shut down those thoughts as soon as they started, not willing to lose her best friend and favourite person because she wanted to know what his lips tasted like. But they kept creeping into her conscious thoughts, each time shut down by the part of her that liked things as they were. However, she would be lying if she said that at times she did want more.

And now she knew exactly what Adrien tasted like. Passion fruit and her own strawberry lip balm. And she could not stop thinking about him. How was she ever going to be able to speak to him again? Their long history erased just because of this would be stupid, but something had stirred inside Marinette, all the what if's floating to the forefront of her mind, finally with something real to grasp onto. Was she imagining things, or did Adrien enjoy this kiss as well?

Alya walked in the apartment door at 8pm, coming home from a shift at the local newspaper printers where she was working to gain at least a little exposure to the world of journalism, a good four hours after Marinette ran away from the library in her panicked haze.

It wasn't that Marinette had lied to Adrien when she said she had girls' night, she just didn't need to be home as soon as she was. This meant that Marinette still had work to do that she did not get done in the library. But she had made little progress by the time Alya placed her bag down and came over, spending her time nervously tapping her pen against the table, her thoughts still refusing to move on from Adrien's lips. Or the hand that had made its way up her thigh to come to rest just below her hip.

"What's up Mari?" Alya asked in greeting, immediately noticing her roommate and friend's agitated gate. Marinette looked up from where her eyes were hazily focused on the page of her book, not taking in any of the words.

"Oh, hey Als. Nothing's up." Marinette replied, obviously lying.

Alya just shrugged, knowing not to push it, instead walking over to the fridge to take out the bottle of white wine she and Marinette only ever bought for girls' night. She then got down two glasses and started to pour, her eyes wandering to where her friend was still tapping her pen against the table.

"Would you please stop tapping now girl. I've been home for less than 5 minutes and I already feel like I never left the newsroom," Alya said, finishing her pouring and going over to the table where Marinette was sitting, handing her one of the glasses. "I thought you were supposed to be studying with Adrien in the library until 8:30. How come you're home already?"

Marinette's head shot up from her focus on putting her books in a pile upon hearing Adrien's name, causing Alya to raise her eyebrows at the reaction.

"Oh um, no reason. We were getting distracted so we went to our respective homes," Marinette lied. Then she took a sip of her wine, closing her eyes before saying, "He kissed me."

A loud crash caused Marinette's eyes to fly open, only to see Alya holding the snapped stem of her wine glass, her surprise causing her to break it in her hands.

"WHAT!" she exclaimed, a huge smile breaking out on her face. "How? When? WHAT!"

Marinette just nodded, leaning forwards and taking the broken glass out of Alya's hand before she cut herself. "It was nothing really, just sent me on a spiral and I haven't been able to focus all evening."

"Of course you haven't been able to focus. Your best friend, who you've been through everything with since you were 11, kissed you today. The person you've been denying feelings for for as long as I've known you, probably longer since we met when we were 18. You need to tell me everything!"

"First of all, I have not been denying feelings for him. We're best friends. We could never go there. It would be risking too much."

"So you've thought about it?"

Marinette shot Alya a reproachful look, only succeeding in making her burst out laughing.

"No, I haven't thought about it. I've only ever thought about Adrien as the best friend I could ever ask for. He's always been supportive of my fashion designing dream, despite his negative experience with that world. He's the one person who knows everything about me, even more than my parents. Not to mention that he's the biggest goof on the entire planet and has a weird obsession with puns as an expression of his humor."

Alya just smiled as she watched Marinette describe the Adrien she knew. Adrien has always fiercely guarded his true personality, so Alya had only recently seen the side of him that Marinette was talking about, but that was the side of Adrien Marinette had always known. The one she loved. As a friend or more than that was something that was up for debate, and had been for a very long time.

The two friends spent the rest of the night talking about everything and nothing, the topic of Adrien coming up more than once. They eventually made their way to Marientte's closet, the two tipsy 20 year olds deciding that the best way to figure out what the hell was going on was to choose a party outfit that made Marinette look drop dead gorgeous. Amidst a lot of drunken laughter, they were successful, picking out a stunning satin skirt with V neck sweater to keep warm in the cold December evening.

The next morning, Marinette woke up among the contents of her wardrobe, her head pounding but a sense of excitement at her firm resolve to make her best friend see exactly what he's missing, even if it never amounted to anything.