A/N: I'm not quite sure why, but this chapter was kind of hard to write. It wasn't so much that the material was hard, I just kept hating everything I put down lol. Anyway, I hope you like it.

The sun finally set and Adrien and Marinette got ready for bed. Everything was so unreal for Adrien because he had never had a sleepover before, it was odd to be sleeping in someone else's bedroom. On a occasion it would take him quite a while to fall asleep in a new environment. But Adrien was exhausted, he fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Marinette really wanted to talk to Tikki about the whole situation, but she didn't want to wake Adrien up, or reveal her identity. She would have to wait for another occasion to talk to Tikki. Marinette really wanted to sleep but she just kept thinking about Adrien sleeping just a few feet away from her. Why did he choose to stay with ME, could he possibly… no. He said so himself! But… Maybe he just doesn't understand his feelings! What am I saying? Somebody like him would never want me. But… he could! NO! I'm supposed to be getting over him! She kept thinking about everything going on and kept on like that for a couple hours until she finally fell asleep debating if she should really be wondering all of these things about Adrien.

The morning felt like it was only seconds after when Marinette fell asleep. She opened her eyes slowly and let out a small sigh. Adrien was already up and he was sitting on his bed.

"Oh, you're up."

"I'm so sorry, were you waiting long?"

"No, I just woke up."

That was a lie, he woke up a while ago and didn't know what to do, his whole life his father had him on a strict routine. Now everything was different, not just his surroundings, just thinking about his old routine made him feel paranoid. What if he had specific reasons for making me do all those activities, what if he just wanted me out of the way. For other reasons than to not spoil his evil plans, did he ever really love me? Of course he did! He's… he's my father. But… my father is Hawkmoth, my father is evil. He was glad Marinette broke his thought concentration because he would've kept spiraling and freaking himself out. He also didn't know where to get ready or what he would do, would he shower or was that inconsiderate, what was he supposed to do. The lack of structure was a very new experience, especially to someone who had never really been impulsive before, at least not drastically.

"Do you want to get ready first? I don't take too long because I'm usually always in a hurry." Marinette laughed awkwardly. It was true, punctuality was not one of her strong suits.

"Sure, thanks."

A little while later they were both ready for school and went downstairs where Mr and Mrs Dupain-Cheng had made breakfast. It smelled wonderful and Adrien was super excited for a home cooked meal, because that never happened with his father. Both of them came down the stairs at the same time, Marinette's parents were really cheerful as the kids went into the kitchen.

"Did you sleep well? Is everything okay here?"

"Yes! I slept great, thank you, you guys are amazing. I can't thank you enough for everything."

"Oh it's no problem! We love having another friendly face around!"

They were so sweet it was sickening, Adrien didn't feel like he deserved all this, they were being too nice to a kid they didn't even know the story behind why he was there. They didn't know he was a son of a supervillain. But I'm not just the son of a supervillain, I'm a superhero myself and I need to stop moping! I want to take down my father. As soon as they finished their breakfast, Marinette and Adrien walked to school together. The walk started awkwardly as neither of them knew what to talk about. The silence stayed for a couple of minutes, until Adrien said something he didn't really expect to come out of his mouth.

"I left because of my dad. That's why I ran away, that's why I needed to stay with you. I already told you that though… I just felt- I don't know."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. I've made everything so much more awkward."

"No! No you're fine!"

She paused for a few seconds, unsure if she should ask,

"What did he do?"

"I-it's just that I found something out about him. Something that feels like a big betrayal, morally."

He realized that if he went on talking he might have a full on breakdown thinking about it again.

"Seriously, that's horrible, if my parents were even a bit morally questionable I don't know what I'd do."

"Can we talk about something else?"

That was the most powerless Marinette had ever heard Adrien speak, he had a normal alluring confidence along with his appearance. She felt really bad at that moment because it felt like she was in with something she wasn't supposed to.

"Of course! I think we have a math test today, are you ready for it? Because I sure am not."

They continued talking about school related topics, Marinette was surprised that she could keep a conversation going with him because normally she couldn't say two straight words to him without getting flustered. Maybe I'm starting to get over him! …Or maybe I'm just getting more confident around him. They got fairly close to the school and Marinette realized that she normally walked into school alone.

"Do you think that it would be suspicious if we walked into school together? Unless you're ok with people knowing…"

"No, you should go in, I'll come in after the bell rings so that people don't notice the limo not approaching. Man. I hate that thing."

"You hate the limo?"
"Just too flashy."

And it just reinforced the idea that I'm supposed to be better than other people, like the driver. Just another display of how amazing Adrien Agreste is, but what if he wasn't as amazing as his father wanted the world to believe.

"Oh. That makes sense."

"Hey… Do you think that you could not tell anyone that I'm staying with you?"

"Why? I mean I respect that you don't want people knowing you ran away, but what about friends? Like Nino or Alya?"

"I just don't want it all to go public, you know how the media is, I'd like to tell Nino myself though. You can tell Alya, but just make sure to let her know that she can't tell anybody else."

"Ok, thanks for letting me tell her. I don't want it to be a big deal either."

"The media would be storming your house!" They both laughed.

"Oh come on, business would be great at the bakery! All that press, it would be a great opportunity! Who needs privacy?!"

They both started laughing a lot harder. They almost didn't notice how close they were getting to the school. Marinette didn't even noticed until Adrien said,

"We're getting pretty close to the school, I'll hang back."

"Ok, see you in class Adrien!"

She walked into school and had to act as if her biggest crush wasn't living in her house. It was a lot harder than she thought, just having another secret other than her superhero identity. Marinette did not like secrets, and she did not like keeping them. It was better than being withheld from them. At least she could tell Alya, Alya would probably be excited for her. She walked up to the building and found her best friend there.

"Hey girl! What's up? How are you?"

"Oh my god, Alya, there's so much I have to tell you!"

"Like what?! It must be really important."

It was. Marinette usually didn't really have a lot of news, so when she did Alya got really into it.

"It's kind of a secret so I have to tell you in private."

"Now you've got me even more excited!"

"I'll tell you after class, ok."

The bell rang and all the students ran into the building, Adrien joined the crowd. He couldn't stop thinking about Marinette. He assumed all of the close proximity was why, but something felt different about the way he was thinking about her. It was almost as if he was thinking of her the way he thinks of Ladybug. It wasn't nearly as strong, but it was definitely there. The first half of the day crept by slowly, Marinette could hardly pay attention to the what the teachers were saying. Her mind kept drifting off, she kept dreaming about spending more time with Adrien. We could play video games! Listen to music! We could just sit and talk. I'm so excited, I want to do so many things together. The bell for lunch finally rang, Alya immediately went to talk to Marinette.

"Hey! What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Ok, so y'know how Adrien was sort of upset yesterday."

"I didn't notice too much, but yeah."

"Well, something really bad happened with his dad. I'm not sure what, he hasn't told me about it. I don't blame him, I'm still curious though. Anyway, because something happened with his dad, he didn't want to stay at home with him. Well… he needed a place to stay, and now he's living with me for a little while."

"Seriously! That's great! Well, it's definitely not great that he had a big fight with his dad, but you get to spend time with him though!" Alya paused for a second when she remembered, "Didn't you want to get over him?"

"I did. But this was such a good chance."

"I knew you wouldn't be able to get over him."

"Hey!"

They both started giggling. While Marinette was talking to Alya, Adrien decided that it would be best if he told Nino as well. He'd find out anyway, it was best to tell him now. After they walked out of the classroom Adrien told him.

"Hey, uh, my dad and I got into a fight." He paused for a couple seconds, "a big fight."

"Dude?! Are you okay? Did he do anything?! I knew he was a horrible person, I just new it."

"No, I'm fine, but I sort of ran away."

"You can stay with me if you want! You're my best friend."

"No, this is kind of the more surprising part, I'm staying with Marinette."

"You asked her before you asked me?"

"I was going to ask you first, but you were talking about how crowded it was at home and I didn't want to bother y-

"You can bother me with this stuff anytime. You can talk to me, bro, you're my best friend!"

"Thanks, Nino."

The rest of the school day went by pretty slowly. At the end of the day Marinette had to stay after for a meeting as the class representative. Adrien didn't want to show up to her house alone, so he asked the music teacher if he could stay after to practice piano, for being forced to play it, it was pretty fun to be able to play an instrument. He texted Marinette about it so that they could walk together, maybe she could stay and listen to him play it.

"So, can I use the music room to practice for a bit?"

"Of course you can! Maybe someday you could accompany some of our groups here!"

"I'll think about it. Thank you for letting me use it."

"Say, why do you need to use our piano anyway? Don't you have one of your own?"

Adrien panicked for a second, but he quickly came up with a lie.

"Oh, ours is getting tuned and my father wanted the best of the best"

"Oh, ok have fun playing, and if you need any music, there's some over there." She pointed towards a table over in the corner of the room.

Adrien had never really chosen his own music before, father had always picked out some genius classical piece that he wanted me to perfect, I could choose anything to play, anything at all. There were so many things I never really thought about all that I can do now without him, there's really so many simple things I never had the liberty to do before. Thinking about this made him sad, he also thought something that he really wished that he didn't, why was I so surprised that he was a villain, he really is a horrible man. Shocked by his own thoughts, he decided to drown out his father by playing anything on the piano. Meanwhile, Marinette's meeting with the other class representatives was going well, she put up many good points to improve the student experience, like interchanging seating.

"The teachers could change our seating arrangements every couple of weeks, where we could sit with someone new and get new ideas about the topics that we are discussing in class."

"That's a great idea, Marinette!"

She didn't really like the idea all too much herself, even though she proposed it. Marinette liked sitting by Alya. But she did think it would give her a way to get to know her classmates, and to sit by Adrien at some point. The meeting went over well, but it ended early. She noticed the text on her phone and decided to go to the music room to see Adrien, the closer that she got, the more she could hear his music. She walked into the room quietly and Adrien didn't even notice. Marinette just stood there as she listened to him play. Once he made a mistake,

"Wow, that's a really pretty piece."

Adrien jumped.

"Wow, you startled me."

They both laughed.

"Sorry, it was just nice to hear."

"Do you want to join me?"

"Oh, I don't know how to play."

"Here, I can show you."

He patted a spot next to him on the piano bench. Marinette was nervous, but she sat down.

"Now just put your hands on top of mine. And then we just…"

Adrien started playing, Marinette's hands placed on top of his, she looked over at him. He had his eyes closed, probably because he knew the song so well. It was different from the one he was playing when she first walked in, it was the one he played all the time at home. Marinette tried to focus on their hands, but all she could do was stare at his beautiful, perfect face. Then, he made a mistake, the weightless ambiance of the soft music was shattered. Adrien opened his eyes and locked them to Marinette's for a split second. They were both blushing,

"Um… well, we should probably get going now."

"Yeah that would be good, let's do that."