Author's note – Slowly but surely making my way through updating the 2016 chapters… hope you continue to enjoy some season one based fluff!

Marinette and Adrian had been talking when Adrian excused himself to use the washroom, leaving Marinette alone with her thoughts, which only led to panic. So, to avoid a total breakdown, Marinette turned to her purse, with her back to the restaurant, and started talking to Tikki.

"Tikki," Marinette whispered, the frustration clear in her voice, "what am I doing here? What is this supposed to be? I only just started to be able to talk to him, and I swear I'm about to fall back into old ways at the thought of this being a date. I don't think I'd be able to speak, let alone eat."

"Everything will be just fine Marinette," Tikki replied with a hint of laughter, "either way, Adrian wants to be here with you right now, is that not enough?"

Marinette suddenly panicked, "Oh no Tikki what if he doesn't? What if this is all some cruel prank? Oh no oh no, I should just leave before I find out I'm being punk'd or something"

Tikki sighed through her laughter. Just as she was about to reply, Marinette saw Adrian's reflection on the window in front of her and snapped her purse shut, turning to face the table again before Adrian noticed anything peculiar.

"Sorry about that," Adrian said as he sat back down in his seat, "where were we?"

Marinette opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, she was cut off by a large bang from the window beside them. Adrian and Marinette whipped their heads to see the tail end of a witch on a broomstick, who had nearly flown straight through the window, but instead had only hit her broomstick against the pane.

"This has to be the work of a nasty little akuma. I have to stop this," Marinette thought to herself.

"Excuse me," both Adrian and Marinette said in unison, "I'll be right back."

They stared at each other for a moment, thrown off. "Where on earth is she running off to? She should stay here where it's safe," Adrian thought, perplexed by Marinette even further.

"Uh… bathroom," Marinette said just as Adrian was saying "Uh… gotta call my dad."

With no time left to ponder the strange occurrence, the two ran off in opposite directions. "Tikki!" Marinette said, releasing her little kwami just as she had locked herself into the single person bathroom, "Spots on!" Marinette transformed into Ladybug and opened the window, climbing out into the street and flew herself into the battle. Just as she was arriving at the scene, so was Chat Noir.

"Hey, fancy meeting you here," Chat said, "good timing am I right?"

"Come on Chat, we have some more pressing issues to deal with at the moment," Ladybug replied, pointing in the direction of this witchy akuma, who was going around turning her victims into pumpkins and black cats. Who knew what her motivation was?

"I gotta say," said Chat as they ran over towards the action, "although I like the sentiment of a bunch of black cats running around, Halloween is still a week away. Let's shut this akuma DOWN!" On that note, Chat extended his baton, flinging himself up into the air and grabbing on to the back of the witch's broomstick, throwing off her balance and sending them spiralling to the ground with a large crash.

"Can't that cat keep himself out of trouble for once?" Ladybug sighed to herself as she swung herself over to help her feline friend. The two fought alongside each other, the perfect crime fighting pair as usual, as thought they were reading each other's mind and sensing what was going to happen before it did.

"My lady," Chat said in the midst of the battle, after a particularly unfortunate incident with a pumpkin had led them to both be caught in Ladybug's yoyo, facing each other and trapped, "I think her akuma is in her broomstick." Chat was breathless. Being this close to Ladybug, inches away from kissing her, made his hair stand on end. Ladybug also wasn't moving that quickly, caught in the moment.

"Those eyes…" she thought, looking into the piercing green pair that look down at her, "I swear, they look so familiar, like I've seen them on someone else…"

Chat couldn't help himself. He started to slowly lean into Ladybug, closing his eyes… causing Ladybug to snap herself out of the moment and retract her yoyo, latching it onto the witch's broomstick, causing her to go flying. Chat went for the kiss just as soon as Ladybug was gone. "Focus Chat! Come on, you can make googly eyes later!" He swung out after her, distracting the witch, allowing Ladybug to grab the broomstick and skid off with it, snapping its handle in half. The witch went back to being a normal citizen, a very quick battle to say the least.

"Wow, we didn't even need your lucky charm today M'lady," Chat said, helping her to comfort the slightly distraught old woman and give her her broomstick back.

"Yea, we were really working well for this one. We're a good team Chat," Ladybug said with a smile. Chat's heart fluttered. "Come on," she said, grabbing his hand, forcing the slightly frozen Chat out of his own head, "we better get out of here. I don't know about you, but I really have to get back."

"Oh," Chat thought with disappointment, "We could have had time together, no fear of unveiling, but she has to go. Wait. I have to go too! Marinette is waiting on me."

"Shoot, me too," Chat said. Thinking on his feet, he said, "I've got a hot date to get back to."

"What?" Ladybug was shocked. "A date? You were on a date?"

"Yea," Chat said, slightly embarrassed by the lie. Or half lie. "you don't know everything about what I do. I have a whole other life you know." Chat knew he was exaggerating. His lunch with Marinette wasn't a date (was it? No of course not) and yet he said it anyway. He was hoping to make Ladybug jealous. He knew this, and he felt awful. He shouldn't use Marinette that way, as some prop to make another woman jealous. What was he thinking?

"Oh… right. I mean of course. You have a life to live. I get it." Ladybug did feel kind of jealous, but had no idea why. What did it matter what Chat did in the rest of his time? She didn't care about him like that. She'd just always thought that maybe, he might like her a bit more than that. But obviously not if he was out on dates with other girls. Her jealousy got the better of her. "I mean actually, it's fine, because I have a boy to get back to myself."

"Wait. Hold up," Chat said with shock. No no no no no way. Ladybug did not have a boyfriend. There was no way. Chat was panicking. He never should have said that stupid lie, he'd heard too much and he was regretting everything immediately. "You're telling me that you have a boyfriend? Ladybug, how could you have not told me. I thought we were partners. I should know these things."

"I never said I had a boyfriend, I said I had to get back to a boy," Ladybug said, a slight embarrassment reddening her cheeks. It wasn't a lie; she was going back to a boy. Just... a boy who didn't remotely think of her in that way.

"Well then," Chat said, hardening, "better let you get back to him." Adrian was angry with Ladybug for letting him think that he ever stood a remote chance and even more upset with himself for lying his way into getting the confession. So, he hurried away, not looking back.

..

Ladybug watched as Chat hurried off, not able to catch him before he left. Maybe she shouldn't have led him to believe that she was going off to some hot boy toy, but he had started it! Why was he so upset anyway, he actually had another girl; he didn't need her. Ladybug was frustrated and jealous, and hated that she was more than anything. Back at that sushi restaurant was Adrian Agreste, the boy she actually cared about, and yet she was so fixated on this girl Chat was seeing. Exasperated, she flung her yoyo out, hoping to get back to the restaurant before Adrian finished his phone call, knowing how unlikely that would be, but really hoping that she wouldn't have to explain why she had been in the washroom for what could have been easily 45 minutes. As she swung, she couldn't help but imagine the girl chat would be with. "Probably some blonde stuck up princess, like Chloe. She would be able to get a guy like Chat Noir." Ladybug fumed all the way back until finally she arrived back at the restaurant, de-transformed, and shimmied back into the bathroom through the window. She gave herself a quick once over in the mirror, and prayed that Adrian wouldn't be sitting waiting for her when she got back in. He wasn't. Thank god. So, she sat herself back down in her seat and waited for him to get back, her mind wandering to Chat Noir and his date.

Adrian entered the restaurant, straightened himself out, and saw Marinette sitting at the table, waiting for him. "I am so so sorry about that, my dad really likes to jabber on," Adrian said feebly as he sat back down in his seat. Marinette gave him a slight smile in return. "Is something the matter?" he asked, sensing that something was off. Marinette had lost that beam that she'd been radiating all morning.

"Huh? Oh, yea, everything's fine," she replied, lost in her thoughts, and lost at the idea of Chat being out with some other girl. She didn't understand. It was Adrian that she cared about, and Adrian that she liked. Why was this bothering her so much? Adrian however, could sense that this statement of hers was a platitude, and didn't believe her for a moment. She wasn't fine, and Adrian felt sick at the thought.

Ladybug had another man, that much was clear, but here was Marinette sitting right in front of him. She had been here, and he had run off to spend time with Ladybug, who wasn't even remotely interested in him. He genuinely cared that Marinette was upset, and feared that it was because he'd blown off their lunch.

"Look, I'm really sorry for running off like that, my dad can just be so-"

"Really, it's okay," Marinette said, interrupting him and placing her hand on his. They were both shocked by the action. She cleared her throat and took her hand back. "I'm not upset with you. I was actually… on the phone as well, with Alya. Apparently there was an akuma attack, so she was giving me live updates. I was fine." "Nice cover!" Marinette internally pattered herself on the back for that one. Adrian stared at her, still a little shocked at the previous gesture.

"Marinette, I-"

"You two!" the server interrupted, coming up to their table. "Finally back, are you? Took you long enough," she winked at both of them who stared back at her, understanding her insinuation.

"Uh no we weren't-"

"No miss, you don't-"

"Kidding! Kidding. No need to get all defensive," the waitress laughed, "But actually, you were gone so long that your food has been sitting there ready for 20 minutes. Would you still like it or…?"

"I don't know about you, but I'm starving," Adrian said towards Marinette, who gave back a nod of agreement. "Yea, that would be great actually," Adrian replied to the waitress, smiling an apologetic smile.

"You, young lady, are one lucky little cookie, you know that?" the waitress said in Marinette's direction, and went off to find their food. Marinette blushed and her hair fell in her face. Adrian reached over and tucked her bangs behind her ear, causing her to lift her chin up at Adrian. They stayed like that, his hand just barely touching her face, while they stared at each other, eyes wide.

"Here ya go!" the waitress said, placing their food down in front of them on the table, "Enjoy you two."

Adrian whipped his hand back down to his chopsticks, the two of them darting their heads down and avoiding eye contact. Marinette's stomach was in knots and could barely get her food down. Adrian finally looked back up at this girl across the table from him and smiled. They finished their lunches, both absolutely ravenous from their fight, and Adrian picked up the cheque.

"Really Adrian, you don't have to do that."

"I already told you Marinette, my treat as a thank you."

"Fine," Marinette replied, "but I don't have to like it."

"You are so stubborn; you know that?" Adrian said with a chuckle as the waitress smiled and asked Adrian if he wanted his receipt, still totally smitten with this adorable little couple in front of her.

"Yes, I have been told that a couple of times," Marinette replied, thinking back to the numerous times Chat had said that exact phrase in her direction. The thought made her smile. Ugh, she was thinking about Chat, again. She needed to snap out of it.

"Hey, what are your plans for the rest of the evening?" Adrian asked. Well, that certainly snapped Marinette to attention.

"Uh, why do you ask?" Marinette replied, not sure whether to lie and say she was doing something to seem interesting because he was just making small talk, or whether to say she was free and have him invite her out.

"Well, I just, I thought that maybe you'd like to play some more Ultimate Mecha Strike III at my place? Or yours I mean I don't care where we play… Just, you know, I need some practice obviously if I'm ever going to stand a chance at beating you." Marinette screamed internally.

"Yea, I'd love to," she replied with a smile, over the moon. So Adrian did want to spend time with her for her, not just to get some help with a stupid essay. She was elated. "If you're having trouble with your dad, we could always go back to my place…"

Adrian looked visibly relieved. "Lead the way," he said, as he opened the door out of the restaurant for her, and Marinette led the boy of her dreams towards her house.

Author's note – a little bit of a half date to get our Adrinette fix. Hope you enjoyed!