Marinette stumbled out of the classroom with a dazed look on her face. A part of her was screaming profanities in her head but the larger part was still trying to convince herself that what just happened was all just a strange nightmare.

It wasn't working.

Alya stared at the shorter girl curiously, clearly wanting to bombard her with questions, but too worried about the poor noirette's wellbeing to do so. "Girl… you ok?" Alya asked. Marinette didn't respond. "Marinette? You alive?" Marinette trudged silently forward as if she couldn't hear Alya. She turned her bluebell gaze to the flow of students, many of whom were gathering around the courtyard and settling in the hallways for lunch.

Lunch, she thought miserably. Why couldn't we have a class next? At least then no one could say anything, though they'd likely still stare at her.

"Girl, I have so many-"

"Hey Alya," a voice interrupted. "Can I steal Marinette for a moment?" Alya smirked as she looked up and realized the source of the voice.

"Of course," she purred to Adrien. "I couldn't come between two lovebirds."

Alya turned back to Marinette and waved a scolding finger at her. "Don't think that just because I'm not interrogating you now means I won't later," she said. She narrowed her eyes at her friend. "You have a lot of explaining to do, mademoiselle." She stalked off, sending a wink over her shoulder as she did so. Marinette turned bright red and faced Adrien. He opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by a black blur that whizzed out of his shirt pocket.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Marinette nearly jumped three feet in the air at the sudden noise. "You two-" Plagg wheezed out between laughter. "Are so-" He nearly fell over mid-flight as he clutched his tiny belly. "-stupid!"

"Plagg!" a squeaky voice scolded. Tikki phased out of Marinette's bag and soared up to the other kwami. "Stop it! This is serious!"

"I-I know, sugarcube," he managed, green eyes still alight with amusement. "But this has got to be the most ridiculous identity reveal I've ever seen."

"You stinky sock," she huffed, crossing her tiny flipper-arms.

"Oh come on now, like you didn't find that funny at all."

"I'm sure she didn't, Plagg," Marinette said, poking the cat kwami in the head.

"Well…" Tikki hesitated. Marinette whipped around to stare at her kwami.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," Tikki said sheepishly. "You have to admit it was a little funny." The blonde in front of her chuckled.

"I mean, they've got a point," he said. Marinette groaned.

"You know what, this doesn't matter," Marinette dismissed. She pointed a finger at Adrien. "We need to talk." Adrien raised his eyebrows and looked like he was going to say something, but was once again cut off, this time by a whirlwind of blonde ponytail and acrylic nails.

"Adrikins!" Chloe squealed. "There you are! Now that I've found you we can go clear up to all those peasants that you would never be interested in Dupain-Cheng." She waved a disinterested hand at Marinette. "Normally I don't like to interact with… lower life forms, but I can't let them continue to besmirch your name with ridiculous rumors!" For a moment the two just stared at Chloe with blank expressions.

"I don't have the energy to deal with this," Marinette said unblinkingly. Adrien laughed and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Marinette just glared at the hand as if it had personally offended her.

"Chloe, I know this is hard for you, but I love Marinette-" Marinette sputtered and jerked her head up to stare at Adrien wide-eyed. "And of course I love you too." Chloe smirked at the other girl, puffing her chest confidently. "Not in the same way of course," he hastily added. "You're my oldest friend, and it would mean a lot to me if you could get along with Marinette, since you both are really important to me." Chloe bit her lip thoughtfully with an annoyed look on her face. For a moment Marinette thought she was going to blow up, but instead she let out a loud, accepting huff.

"Fine," she said begrudgingly. Marinette's mouth fell open in utter shock. "I suppose if you really love her, I can be a little nicer to Mari-trash." Adrien gave her a pointed look. She stared back at him unregretfully. "Dupain-Cheng is the best you're gonna get." Adrien smiled brightly and pulled her into a tight hug. "All right all right, no need to suffocate me Mr. Sunshine." As he released her, she turned a glare to Marinette. "You better take care of him." Marinette flashed Chloe a hesitant smile and was about to respond when Adrien spoke.

"Actually, Chloe," he said. "Marinette doesn't feel the same way about me." Chloe stared at the other blonde.

And stared.

…

And stared.

Her eyes darted briefly to Marinette, and back at Adrien. Then, much to Adrien's surprise, she burst into a fit of laughter that could have matched Plagg's.

"Oh Adrikins, you're precious," she chuckled. "Good luck with him, Dupain-Cheng." With that she turned on her heel and marched off haughtily. Adrien blinked.

"What was that about?" he asked. Marinette's face darkened.

"Right, like I said, we need to talk," she said.

"Ok, what-"

"There you are, dude!" Nino jogged over and threw an arm around Adrien's shoulder. "Everyone's looking for you two." He grinned at Marinette, giving her a suggestive wink.

"Actually, we were kinda hoping we could-" Marinette started.

"Oh, you found them!" Alix exclaimed. "Come on, we only have 20 more minutes of lunch." Adrien and Marinette shared a look. Later, she thought, and Adrien seemed to get the idea.

Marinette, Adrien, Nino, and Alix made their way to their normal spot at a table off to the side, where most of their classmates were waiting expectedly for them. Kim looked up as they approached. He smirked and opened his mouth to say something, but Marinette shot him a deathly glare and he promptly snapped his mouth closed.

Marinette sat down by Alya, across from Adrien and Nino. They silently took out their lunches. Several eyes were drawn to Adrien and Marinette as they chewed their respective meals, not looking at one another. Marinette was still trying to gather her thoughts and was honestly a little thankful she didn't have to talk to Adrien just yet, however annoyed she was that they kept getting interrupted. Adrien briefly darted his eyes up to look at Marinette, but her gaze was stubbornly fixed on her food so he looked back down and did the same. For a long moment, no one spoke.

"I gotta know, what were in those texts?" Kim asked, finally breaking the awkward pause. The ever rambunctious boy had been fidgeting uncomfortably in the silence and lost patience quickly. As if he had crashed through the dam of awkwardness, everyone else began talking at once.

"Do you really-"

"So how is he in-"

"I totally won the-"

"I don't know why I'm sur-"

"PLEASE TELL ME YOU DIDN'T-"

"Dudes, why didn't you tell-"

"Are you going to eat that sandwich?" All heads turned to Nathaniel with baffled expressions on their faces. He blushed and hit behind his hair. "I'm hungry," he mumbled. Marinette smiled kindly and handed him a sandwich. (She always carried two in case someone forgot their lunch. Baker's instinct.) Nathaniel brightened as he unwrapped it. "So, who wins?" he asked through a mouthful of pb&j.

"I'm glad you asked!" Alya said, pulling out a sheet of paper. "Kim loses… every single one." Kim groaned loudly. "Fork it up Kim." Alya held out a hand.

"How?" Kim asked. "We don't even know all the details."

"Kim, all your dates are at least 3 years in the future and you said the person who would make the first move was their children," Alya deadpanned. Still grumbling, Kim slapped a handful of euros into the blogger's hand. "Alright, as for the details," Alya turned to Marinette and Adrien, the former looking ticked and the latter confused.

"Who made the first move, and when?" Alya asked.

"What are they doing?" Adrien whispered.

"They made bets on us getting together," Marinette growled. Adrien looked at her in surprise. He turned to Nino, who gave a confirming nod. Adrien thought on this for a moment like the confused little ball of sunshine he was before something seemed to come over him and he smirked at Marinette.

"So, what you're saying is… everyone thinks we belong together," he said cheekily and leaned towards her. "My lady," he finished in a low tone so only Marinette could hear.

The Marinette part of her wanted to squeal, grab his face, and kiss him. The Ladybug part wanted to murder him for enjoying this horrible, embarrassing, possibly dangerous situation. Finding a common denominator to start with, she shrieked and dove at him. Alya gasped loudly at Marinette's furious face and grabbed her before she could reach the blond.

"This is all your fault!" She exclaimed, letting out all she had been hoping to hold back until the two got an actual moment alone. There was so much she wanted- needed to say to him, but instead she found herself waving her arms wildly, attempting to grab the poor blond. Adrien looked genuinely frightened for a brief moment before relaxing and smiling at the girl's familiar anger. He'd seen that same fiery temper and justice driven rage painted across a polka-dot masked face on more than one occasion. It was enough to make him question how he had never seen the similarities before.

Unfortunately, Adrien's ease fueled the Ladybug part of Marinette. "You better wipe that grin off your stupidly handsome face, Agreste!"

She silently cursed her Marinette side.

"Handsome?" Adrien questioned. His grin grew even as he blushed despite himself. Marinette turned bright pink.

"Th-that's besides the point!" She squeaked.

Emboldened by her stammering, Adrien went on. "No, I want to know exactly how handsome you think my f-"

"I'm not-"

"Come on now bugaboo," he said with a roguish grin. Marinette's eyes flashed dangerously.

"You know that phrase 'there's a hundred ways to skin a cat?'" She asked all too sweetly. Adrien eyed her warily.

"Yea-?"

"I know all of them," she hissed. An 'ooooooooh' echoed from the table, reminding the two that they still had an audience.

"As adorable your little bantering is," Alya said, smiling at Marinette and nudging her suggestively with her elbow. "I'd really like to settle these bets. So, first move?" Alya took a bored sip of her water as if she already knew what they were going to say.

"I did, the day of Glaciator," he said, smiling a little at the memory. Alya did a spit take, spewing water all over Nino.

"Ah! Babe you-"

Alix jumped up triumphantly. "HA! I knew sunshine couldn't be this oblivious! I win!"

"You guys have been dating that long!?" Alya shot a withering glare at Marinette. "And you didn't tell me!?"

"No," Marinette said simply, not even bothering to look ashamed as she just stuck to the truth. "I rejected him."

"WHAT!?" Alya exclaimed. "Why would you do that!?" Adrien's smile faded. He sheepishly pushed his salad around with his fork.

"She's in l-"

"I was scared," Marinette answered honestly. Adrien jerked his head up and his eyebrows furrowed curiously. Marinette looked him in the eyes. It didn't seem like they'd be left alone to talk until they gave an explanation to their friends. At least I can use this opportunity, she thought. "In that moment, I didn't want anything to change between us. I didn't want to ruin everything we'd built." Our partnership, she said internally, hoping he understood. "And Ch- Adrien's always meant so much to me." Everything to me. "We're such good friends." Best friends. "Honestly I couldn't figure out what I was feeling, much less understand it." I care about you, I always have. "So… I just freaked out. I told myself there were reasons, good reasons, like circumstances-" Secret identities. "-people in the way-" Hawkmoth. "-and the future to think of." Chat Blanc. "I was so stupid." I thought I loved someone else. "And I was so wrong." I love you.

Adrien's mouth parted in shock, eyes filling with hope. For a moment they just stared at each other, searching each other's faces for something. Neither was sure what exactly. Beside Alya a sudden wail filled the courtyard.

"That's so romantic," Rose squealed, her blue eyes wide and watery. Marinette blinked as she snapped out of her trance. She turned and smiled at Rose.

"Not really," Marinette said sullenly. "Even after I realized my mistake, it wasn't all happily ever after. I had convinced myself that Adrien was in love with Kagami, his fencing partner, and that they'd be much better together than me and him." At that point the whole class, including Adrien, was at the edge of their seats, curious for the rest of the story.

"Then what!?" Kim asked impatiently.

"When did you finally get together!?" Alix asked.

"Yeah, how did you confess your feelings?" Alya asked.

"TELL US WOMAN!" Alix shouted as she slammed her hand on the table. There was silence for a moment as they all stared at her in surprise. Alya turned and gave the pink-haired girl a flabbergasted look. "Sorry, I'm getting really into this," she said sheepishly. She paused, as if remembering something amusing. "You should see me when I watch mystery movies." Nathaniel shivered, seeming to have conjured his own memory of Alix that wasn't quite as funny.

Marinette just grinned, well aware of Alix's penchant for dramatics (in other people's lives only of course.) "It was actually today," she said. A gasp rang through the table. Marinette met Adrien's curious gaze. "I told him I love him," she said with a small smile. Adrien brightened so much he could have melted the glaciers with just his smile. "And he asked me out," she continued meaningfully. Adrien chuckled, nodding along nonetheless. "And we're going out this Friday," she said. "At 7." She paused for a moment. "He's picking me up." Adrien cocked his head and raised his eyebrows at her specificity, but she just smiled back at him.

"So sweet," Rose sighed as she leaned against one hand lazily.

"So, wait," Alix said, raising her eyebrows. "You went straight from planning your first date… to sexting in class?" Marinette froze.

Oh right.

That.