A/N I'm not rewriting season 3 based off of the existing episodes. I plan to take bits and pieces from the episodes to build the story I have, but I won't be outright rewriting them. So anything that happens before Oni-Chan happened in this fanfic, but anything after will be altered. This will be the last chapter for today. I'll get another one ready and released by Friday!

Chapter Four: Dating

~Marinette~

"Marinette! You need to get ready for school." Tikki calls as she attempts to wake her holder.

Marinette groans but obliges Tikki's request. She slowly climbs out of bed, rubbing her eyes, and begins to get ready for the day. She sits on her chaise, fully dressed and ready, but still half asleep. She stayed up all night working on new designs to show Mr. Agreste, so she didn't get much sleep at all.

"Marinette! Your friend is here to take you to school!" Sabine calls to her daughter with a giggle.

"My friend? Alya?" Marinette questions.

Tikki shrugs and slips into Marinette's purse as a knock comes from the trap door. Marinette rubs her eyes and opens the door, ready to leave.

She groggily says, "Hello, Alya." Before her eyes widen and her body finally wakes up.

Adrien chuckles, "Good morning, Marinette. Sorry if you were expecting Alya instead of me."

Marinette blinks at him owlishly, "O-oh. Um. No, I wasn't expecting anyone. What are you doing here? Not that I don't want you here. I'd love for you to always be here… Wait! I mean. Ugh!" She groans.

Adrien smiles at her antics, "I wanted to talk to you before we went into school. We only have a few minutes before we're late, but we really need to talk before we go."

"T-talk?" She asks.

Adrien nods his head, "May I come in?"

Marinette nods her head as she returns to her room, Adrien following close behind. They sit on her chaise together. Marinette plays with her hands as Adrien rubs the back of his neck.

"It'll be easier if I show you." He says before retrieving a magazine from his bag and handing it to Marinette. "My father showed me this at breakfast. He said he liked the photos we did, so he decided to share them. He made sure to credit your outfit design to you, but he didn't specify the nature of our relationship."

Marinette's cheeks flame red as she reads the headline, "G-girlfriend?"

Adrien nods, "I am so sorry, Marinette. If I hadn't changed our pose without Vincent's guidance, this wouldn't have happened. Now everyone thinks you're my girlfriend. Again! But… Well, that's not all." He rubs his neck again nervously, "My father made a suggestion for how we should address this."

"W-what did he suggest?" Marinette asks without taking her eyes off the magazine.

She can't stop looking at the wonderful picture of her and Adrien. The passion shown in their eyes, the way his hand cradles her cheek, the way she remembers his warm breath mixing with hers.

"He suggested that we date." Adrien says, ripping the band aid off.

"D-date?!" Marinette exclaims, finally looking at the blonde.

"N-not really!" Adrien hurries to clarify, "He said that he wants us to date, real or otherwise. We can just pretend to be together. No one has to know the truth. He thinks it'll be better for both of us if we just go along with the rumors for a little while. He said that denying these rumors, after denying them once before, could cause more trouble. I don't want you to get hurt Marinette, and there may be a lot of jealous girls out there, but if they believe you and I are dating, then they might leave us alone." He rubs his neck, "Father thinks that this might be a deterrent for Lila too, and I kinda agree with him. It would be nice if I didn't have girls chasing me all the time… But you don't have to agree to this! You can say no and we will deal with whatever effects it causes! This is your choice, Marinette."

Marinette stares at him stunned, lost for words. Can she really pretend to date Adrien? She would finally be with him, but it would all be fake.

She looks up at him and her eyes catch on the concern evident in his. He's worried, and she could help ease some of that worry.

She sighs, "Okay. I'll do it."

"Really?" Adrien breathes.

Marinette nods, "Really. If this can help you get some peace, then I'll do it."

Adrien pulls her close to him and hugs her tightly, "Thank you, Marinette! We will figure this out together. I promise that we won't have to lie about this for too long. I'm sure that we can come up with a way out of this together."

Marinette just nods her head. Adrien pulls back from the embrace and smiles down at her.

"We'll have to decide how we are going to do this. Our friends will have to believe it too, but maybe we can at least tell Alya and Nino in private. I know they'll help keep our secret." Adrien says.

Marinette breathes a sigh of relief, "Yeah, we can tell them."

"Okay, so. We need to get to school now. Do you mind if I walk you?" Adrien asks.

Marinette chuckles, "Isn't that what a boyfriend would do?"

Adrien smiles, "You're right, let's get going then, girlfriend."

Adrien reaches his hand out towards Marinette. She flushes as she grabs hold of it and they walk downstairs together.

"Is this okay?" He asks.

Marinette nods.

"Good." He says.

The two make it to Collège Françoise Dupont, hand in hand, a good ten minutes late for school. They hurry to Ms. Bustier's class and only release each other's hands when they move to their individual seats. The entire class watches them with wide eyes, more than aware of the news circulating the two.

"Girl, you have to give me the deets!" Alya whispers to Marinette excitedly.

Marinette groans, "I'll explain it to you later, Alya, but it's not what you think."

"I think I just saw you walk into the classroom late holding Adrien's hand!" She whispers.

Marinette shushes her, "I will explain everything later, Alya. Not here."

Alya gives her an inquisitive look before nodding her acceptance. Marinette takes a deep breath and focuses on the lesson for the day. She can deal with this fake dating mess later.

~Adrien~

"Dude! You're dating Marinette?" Nino whispers to Adrien as they sit together in class.

Adrien shakes his head, "I'll explain it later, but you have to keep it a secret. This is all fake. For the tabloids and the fans. Marinette and I agreed to fake a relationship."

"Dude! That's crazy." Nino whispers.

Adrien shushes him, "I know. It was my fathers idea, and I think I agree with him. If it'll keep Marinette's reputation clean and the rabid fans off my back, then I'm fully willing to date Marinette. I already care about her a lot. It's not too hard to pretend we're romantically involved."

Nino shakes his head, "This is a bad idea dude. You could really hurt Marinette if you're not careful. You could break her heart"

Adrien winces, "Marinette agreed to fake date too. I would never hurt her Nino, she's one of my closest friends. Besides, there's no way she has feelings for me. I can't break her heart if she doesn't feel that way about me."

Nino shrugs his shoulders, "Whatever you say man. I'll keep your secret, but you need to be careful."

"I will be." Adrien says before turning his attention to the lesson.

Could this really hurt Marinette? There's no way she feels that way about me. Sometimes I'm not even sure if she likes me as her friend. Are we doing the right thing?

A/N Ahh the fake dating trope. I've personally never written about it, but I think this will be fun to explore. Hope you enjoyed!