Author's note: Back at it again with the 2016 updates! Hope you enjoy some good ol fashioned Adrinette fluff!

Marinette finally collapsed into her bed after a long night of patrol and turned to look at the clock on her nightstand. "3:30 a.m." it stared back with a red glow. Yet, despite the long night of patrol, Marinette didn't feel at all exhausted. Maybe that was because patrol wasn't really quite the right word for it. Despite how much she tried to keep Chat on track last night, their patrol turned into a large game of chase over the streets of Paris, the two yo-yoing and bouncing over the rooftops, trying to catch each other, swinging around the old buildings. Frankly, it was the most fun Marinette had had in a long time; she hadn't ever realized just how much fun Chat Noir was to have around when they didn't have to worry about villains trying to take a swing at their heads and they could just be themselves. Or, as much of themselves as they were able to show through the masks.

Marinette laid back in her bed, and a smile crept across her face. Earlier that evening, while in the middle of their game of cat and mouse (or rather, cat and bug), Ladybug had swung around a building so quickly, trying to catch the end of Chat's tail, that she had swung full around the other superhero, tangling him in her yo-yo string, causing the both of them to crash onto the nearby roof of a candy shop. They had rolled across the rooftop, their limbs tangled around each other, as they tried desperately to stop the momentum from their fall from rolling the two off the building entirely.

Ladybug remembered finally stopping and being caught there, pinned under Chat's body, looking into his eyes, her heat pounding. She remembered not being able to tell if it was the exhilaration from the exercise causing her to hear her heart beating loudly in her ears, or something else entirely. Being that close and tangled around a person did things to a person's brain, she had eventually decided, and had let it go.

But she couldn't help but think back on that moment, over and over, and remember how Chat had seemed to take just a moment more than necessary to detangle himself from her and get up, his cheeks reddening as he did so. "From the cold," she thought to herself, unconvinced, "or maybe from the exercise." But no matter how hard she tried, and how much she rationalized the encounter, she couldn't get the image of Chat Noir on top of her out of her head. She remembered the way his blonde hair had been so rustled from the ordeal, and how it had hung around his face as his emerald green eyes had stared into hers, like they were searching for something, making her catch her breath. She couldn't help but, in that moment, notice how Chat Noir was actually pretty attractive. "I so have a thing for guys with blonde hair and green eyes," she thought to herself, thinking back to Adrian, her real crush. As she did, her stomach immediately twisted up.

Why had she been thinking about Chat Noir at all? Adrian was the one she really cared about; he was sweet, caring, smart, and polite, all things Chat would never be. She knew that if Adrian were to only give her the time of day, all thoughts of Chat would immediately fade from her vision and she would be the happiest girl in the world.

But Adrian never had seemed to notice her so far. The thought brought an ache to Marinette's heart. Why did she have to think about this all now? She knew thinking about her unrequited love for Adrian only hurt her, so she wiped the tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes away, and let her mind drift back to Chat. She knew that any teasing in her direction from her feline friend was only ever in fun, and that he didn't seriously like her in any romantic way, just as she didn't like him in that way, but she allowed herself to relive her moments in the sky with him as she nodded off to sleep anyway, thinking that a little harmless thought wouldn't change a thing.

Adrian woke up to the sunlight streaming through his blinds, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes to see that it was just past noon. He'd slept in an awful lot, but it was understandable given his late night. He pulled himself out of bed, and almost leaped when he remembered that he had fencing practice at 12:30, and that he was going to be late. The one day a week Adrian was allowed to sleep in, and he'd definitely succeeded. He threw on some clothes, the first things he saw in his closet, and grabbed his gear to race out the door.

At fencing, Adrian couldn't keep his focus. He kept thinking back to his night with Ladybug, and how wonderful it had been. For what felt like the first time, he had finally seen Ladybug cut loose a little bit and have fun. Her laugh still echoed through his mind, and he knew he'd do anything he could to hear it again in person. He couldn't help himself; he was absolutely, 100 percent head over heels in love with Ladybug, especially after he saw what fun she was to be around. Sure, they'd always goofed off before, with witty banter between punches, and he loved to see her roll her eyes at his terrible puns (which he mostly made just to get a rise out of her), but those moments were nothing like the ones they'd had last night. They'd forgotten about work entirely and had been free to be themselves, and even though they were both wearing the masks, it was the closest that he'd felt to someone, ever. Nobody made him feel as free as Ladybug did, and he wanted to feel that way always. He was thinking about how amazing she looked when she was smiling at him when he felt himself get stabbed in the side – again.

"Adrian," said his sparring partner and fencing coach Armand D'argencourt, "that's the fifth round I've won in a row. Your head is not in the match. What's on your mind, boy?"

Adrian sighed and took off his helmet, sitting himself down on a nearby bench. "I'm sorry M. D'argencourt, I think I just need a break."

"Alright," he replied, eyeing Adrian warily, "10 minutes, then we'll continue with the lesson."

Adrian tossed his head back and groaned. How was he supposed to get anything done when all he could think of was Ladybug, and who she really was? He knew that he had said to himself that it didn't matter, and he was happy with everything just as it was, but it wasn't really true. He would never be truly satisfied until he knew who his love really was, behind the mask. He picked up his phone and started looking through his contacts, not quite sure what he was looking for – something to distract himself possibly. He was rolling through his contacts when he spotted Marinette's name, glowing on the screen.

"Oh no," he thought, remembering, "I totally forgot about that stupid essay for Madame Bustier. Maybe Marinette and I can work on it together. Some company would help to keep my mind of Ladybug, and Marinette seems like just the person." He couldn't wrap his head around that girl, and a puzzle was just what he needed at the moment. More to the point, he had no idea how to even start that stupid essay for detention, and figured Marinette would know what to do. "Two birds with one stone, am I right?" So he clicked on her name and starting typing up a message:

Hey, what are you up to today? – A

He put his phone back in his bag, grabbed his water bottle, took a quick swig, and then put his helmet back on just as M. D' argencourt was coming back onto the court.

"Alright Monsieur Agreste, let's see if you can get a touch in against me now, shall we?"

Marinette woke up to the sound off her phone chiming, signalling that she'd gotten a text. Figuring that it was Alya, bugging her again for the details of her detention with Adrian, she had flailed at it with her hand, trying to silence it, but she wasn't able to find it from this angle. The vibrations coming from her phone had shifted to her bed, and this was enough to shake Marinette slightly out of her slumber. The sunlight streaming through her window was the final straw that kept her from being able to nod back off. She peeled open one of her eyes to see the time, and realized just how late it was in the day. If she didn't get up soon, her parents would think she had come down with something, and she wouldn't be allowed to leave the house for a week. Marinette groaned, stretching in her bed for a minute, and reached around her covers, trying to feel around for her phone. Finally grabbing hold of it, she looked at her missed notifications on the lock screen.

"18 text messages from Alya" she read, not surprised, but her eyes caught on the most recent notification, saying that she had received one text message from none other than Adrian Agreste. Now fully awake, Marinette unlocked her phone to read the message, ignoring Alya all together. She read the message and the gears started to turn in her head, contemplating all of the different reasons he could have sent this. Knowing only one way to find out the answer for sure, Marinette started to compose a reply:

Not much, you? – M

"Is it too simple?" She thought to herself, "Will it look like I don't actually care about the reply?" She erased what she had written and typed out:

Hi Adrian! Nothing at all, why? What are you up to? –M

She immediately erased that, thinking that it looked far too needy. Also, she wanted to look a bit busier than "nothing." So, she instead settled on a simple:

Hey! Not a whole lot, why? – M

She hit send before she could overanalyze this message too, letting out the breath that she'd been holding in without realizing. While she waited for a response, she looked at the messaged she'd missed from Alya from the night before and this morning. She had been far too exhausted to even bother eating dinner when she got home, let alone remember to text Alya the gossip, and had passed out on her bed within minutes of getting home, waking up only to answer Chat Noir's "distress" call, leaving no time to check her messages. She looked at the first one:

GIRL. How was detention? Was Madame Bustier hard on you? – Alya

Then, she read the next one:

More importantly, did you talk to ADRIAN? – Alya

Half an hour later than the first two, she had received another message saying:

Omg Marinette, where are you. You're killing me here –Alya

She had then received several variants on the following message:

MARINETTE. REPLY TO YOUR MESSAGES. YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! – Alya

These variations all included varying levels of distress and anguish, as well as some very creative use of emojis. Alya had finally given up for the night around 11:30pm, only to recommence in the morning with a single message at 9 am:

Please let me know when you come back to life. I wait patiently for your reply, and if I don't hear anything from you before 3pm I'll assume you've been murdered and call the police. Don't tempt me woman. – Alya

Oops. Well, at least it was before three. She started to create a reply to her friend, explaining her absence and starting on her time in detention, and what Madame Bustier had assigned for them to do. She then moved onto discussing her conversations with Adrian, and everything he had said about her designs and how incredibly sweet and wonderful he had been. She was in so deep she couldn't even see the light of day anymore when it came to that boy. She finished off her monstrous paragraph by telling Alya how he had texted her today, and asking her to comment on what the heck it meant. She received a reply back in minutes.

Well first thing, Madame Bustier wasn't wrong in giving you that assignment. You could use a schedule. Just saying. Second, OMG TO ALL OF THAT?! What did you say back? He has to want to see you, there's no other reason for the text. Give me any updates as you get them! – Alya

Just as Marinette was about to send a reply, her phone buzzed with a text from Adrian:

I was just wondering if you wanted to get together to work on that essay. I'm kinda lost to be honest. If you're busy I totally get it! – A

Marinette didn't even think about her reply before hitting send.

Yes, I'd love to! When and where? – M

On that note, Marinette pulled herself out of bed and started to get ready, knowing that she'd probably be out with Adrian soon enough, and wanted to look her best.

Adrian was in the locker room, showered and finished fencing when he got around to checking his phone again. He saw the response from Marinette and shot back a quick message suggesting his place in 15 minutes. He hoped into the town car and drove home, to then run quickly up to his room to try and make it somewhat presentable. Yes, the house had maids, but they generally stayed out of his personal belongings, only vacuuming and dusting around his things. He had just stuffed all of his scattered papers into a drawer when Natalie buzzed into his room, letting him know that he had a guest, with a slightly disapproving tone in her voice, both pf them knowing that he wasn't really to have guests over.

"Thanks Natalie, I'll be down in a sec," he replied, and rushed out the door to sneak Marinette in past his father, and Natalie, expecting to have to tell Natalie that Marinette was just here to drop off a book that he'd forgotten, only to sneak her in past Natalie, but surprisingly that wasn't necessary. Natalie wasn't hovering near the doorway; it was almost like she was turning a blind eye to his having Marinette over. He thought about how strange that was, because he knew that she would never do that with Nino, but he shrugged it off and went to let Marinette in, still keeping relatively quiet, knowing that his father would not be nearly as lenient as Natalie had been. He opened the door to see the sweet, nervous girl standing on his doorstep, with books in hand.

"Hi Adrian," she said with a nervous smile on her face.

"Hi Marinette! Come in, and don't worry about your shoes," he replied, closing the door behind her. "Thanks again for coming over, you have no idea how lost I was with this essay. If that isn't a sign that I'm not organized, I don't know what is," he said with a chuckle, and Marinette laughed along with him, her face blushing a bit as she did. Adrian couldn't help but feel like he'd heard that laugh before, and he thought about how beautiful it sounded. Weird, as he wouldn't normally call a laugh beautiful, but with Marinette, it just seemed to fit. It was like when Ladybug had laughed with him that past night; now she had a beautiful laugh.

"Stop it Adrian, this is supposed to get your mind off of Ladybug, not on it!" he thought to himself, and started to realize just how difficult a task forgetting about Ladybug would truly be. He tried to laugh all his thoughts off with Marinette as he led her up to his bedroom.

"Make yourself comfortable," he said as he sat down on his couch in the middle of his room, pulling out the paper and the planner Madame Bustier had given them in class and placing them on the coffee table.

"Thanks," said Marinette with a smile, as she sat herself down next to him, on the opposite side of the couch, keeping her distance in an attempt to try and keep her wits about her. One step at a time.

"How was your night?" Adrian asked, trying to make small talk as Marinette rummaged through her bag, looking for her notebook.

"Alright, I passed out basically as soon as I got home, I was so exhausted. What about you?"

"Um, yea, same thing," Adrian replied. Not entirely a lie. He had taken a quick cat nap before meeting Ladybug last night.

"So, this assignment," Marinette started, settling down to do the work she came here to do.

"Oh, yea, right, the essay," Adrian said back. He knew Marinette was always a bit nervous around him and he couldn't really place her head, but he was hoping that they might talk about more than just work while she was here; he truly wanted to get to know her and be her friend. Plus, he wasn't really used to people behaving the way she behaved around him, and really wanted to break down her walls. People just liked Adrian, he'd never had a problem winning anyone over before, and he didn't like the thought of somebody as sweet as Marinette feeling so uncomfortable around him; it just didn't sit right with Adrian. The only other person who ever played hard ball with him was Ladybug, and that was just their relationship.

"I'm serious Adrian! Stop thinking about Ladybug!" He tried to shake all thoughts of her out of his head and get back in the moment.

Marinette and Adrian worked on their essays and planners for about an hour and a half, until they both heard Marinette's stomach growl so loudly Adrian swore it could've been heard next door, and Marinette turned beat red. They both started at each other, eyes locked, until Adrian burst into laughter, holding his stomach, he was laughing so hard. This caused Marinette to turn an even deeper shade of red, but the sound of Adrian's laughter and the look of pure, non malicious joy on his face was too infectious, and soon, Marinette was also doubled over in laughter, tears streaming down both of their faces, until eventually their laughter died down, and Adrian, out of breath, suggested that they get something to eat from the kitchen. Marinette more than happily accepted, and they got their food and brought it back up to Adrian's room, using the food as an excuse to take a well needed break. Eventually, Adrian broke the silence that was starting to form between them, trying to avoid an awkward moment.

"Hey," he started, putting down his mini cucumber sandwich the kitchen had prepared for them and looking up at Marinette, "can I ask you something?"

Marinette swallowed her bite funny and just about starting choking at that comment, not sure how to really reply. She managed to pull herself together before she did anything noticeably embarrassing and replied with a small, "Sure, what?"

"I was just wondering," he started, but immediately forgot his question as he looked into Marinette's eyes, seeing the bright blue eyes of Ladybug staring back at him, losing his train of thought entirely. "I was just curious," he continued, in a new direction entirely, "what do you think of Ladybug?"

Marinette froze for a second, stunned. "I mean, what I'm asking," Adrian continued, noticing her silence, "is how much do you know about her? I know that Alya runs the Ladyblog is all, and I figured you'd know a fair deal about her. I was just curious if you'd have any additional insight into who she is? What she likes? I don't know, anything really…" Adrian trailed off awkwardly, noticing Marinette still silent, just short of having her mouth blatantly in an open gawk.

"Uh, ahem, well," Marinette stalled, not sure where to go. This was her big chance, the one thing she actually did know about that she could use to converse with Adrian, and actually develop a friendship with him. However, it also risked her telling him too much, and blowing her cover. It was true, she could use Alya as an excuse, and say that her best friend told her tons of information, but would she be able to draw the line and keep it believable? Marinette was at a loss.

"I'm sorry, I really don't mean to make you uncomfortable," Adrian said with a blush forming on the back of his neck, truly embarrassed by how miserable he was at making conversation with this girl. He had thought this would be a safe topic of conversation. Guess not.

Marinette saw this and immediately her inhibitions melted away, and all she wanted to do was turn this around and make Adrian feel reassured. "No, not at all, I'm not uncomfortable, what would even make you say that?" Marinette chuckled nervously, obviously uncomfortable. Surprisingly, given her secretive line of work, she couldn't really pull off the whole acting thing in front of Adrian. "I'd be happy to tell you things about Ladybug, what would you like to know?"

Adrian smiled, finally feeling like he was wearing down her walls. "Well, let me see," he said, "well to start off, what do you think of her?" Adrian stared at Marinette expectantly.

"Well, I think she's pretty great. She seems so strong and fast, also good in a fight and at thinking on her feet! I'm glad Paris has her around," Marinette replied, thinking that was vague enough. "Plus, she manages to put up with Chat Noir every day, and anybody that can do that is my everyday hero," she added in for good measure.

"What do you mean by that?" Adrian replied, slightly taken off guard.

"Oh you know all his cat puns and how highly he thinks of himself. Don't get me wrong, I think Ladybug needs him around, and that they're an amazing team, but anybody that listens to him all day must be a very special person." Too much? Maybe. Oh well, no taking it back now.

"I don't know, I like the puns. They add character!" Adrian interjected, fighting for his honour. Those were his puns after all, "And I'm sure Ladybug enjoys them too. Everyone likes a good old-fashioned groaner every once in a while."

"Yea, you keep telling yourself that," Marinette replied, rolling her eyes at Adrian. She caught herself, a bit taken aback. That was how she would react to Chat Noir, not Adrian. This whole conversation was confusing her brain. Further, the action didn't go unnoticed by Adrian either, who stared at Marinette, also confused by this puzzling enigma in front of him. The more he talked with her, the more he started to really like Marinette, and how he could never tell what she was going to do next.

"I don't know about you, but I have had enough essay writing for one day," Adrian looked at Marinette, checking for her response, "want to play some Ultimate Mecha Strike III? I know you'll kick my butt, but I'm prepared to learn a few things if you're willing to teach me."

Marinette looked back at Adrian and smiled, nodding her head and grabbing the controller Adrian had outstretched in her direction, "You sir, don't know what you just signed up for."

"Oh believe me, I'm well aware of that fact," he said back with a smile, agreeing that he'd never know what he signed up for with a friend like Marinette, but he was more than happy to go along for the ride until he did. "And I will," he thought, "Someday Marinette, I will figure you out."

Author's note – hope you've been enjoying the chapters. I'm officially halfway through updating the old chapters, which means I'll be able to focus on finishing this story soon!