On the first of February, Adrien was lying in his bed, looking at Tinder just like he had been doing every night before he went to sleep for the last few days. On his screen was a picture of Marinette's profile. He knew that if he swiped right, they'd match because he swiped right on her account, but if he swiped left, she would never even know he'd been an option on Tinder.

He had been considering whether to swipe left or right consistently during every minute he was awake. Eventually, he flipped a coin, but he wasn't satisfied with either answer. He bit his lip and took a deep breath before making a final decision. At 22h30, Marinette got two new notifications from Tinder.

'One new Super Like!'
'You've matched with Adrien!'

Marinette opened the app. She didn't remember swiping right on anyone named Adrien and she thought she would have remembered something like that given it was the same name as the man who had been seeming to occupy her thoughts for the past few months.

She opened the app and was surprised to find that Adrien, the very same one who had been occupying her thoughts, was the Super Like who she had matched with. There was an immediate message that came through from him.

'Hey, Marinette! I hope you don't mind the Super Like. I do that when I see friends here so that it doesn't accidentally make things weird. ' He had never done that before, but Marinette was also the first friend he had ever found on Tinder, so he supposed it wasn't technically a lie.

She smiled at the message. 'No problem. I totally get it. I probably would've done the same, but I guess Alya probably swiped on you when she had my phone last week.'

Something about being on Tinder instead of text made them start to talk more. Marinette asked about the cat on his profile and was offended by the fact that he had adopted a cat and never invited her over to meet Plagg. They ended up staying up messaging back and forth for half of the first night after they matched.

He invited her over on Sunday of the following weekend to meet his cat and she was happy to accept. When she arrived, Plagg immediately ran over toward her before he flopped down at her feet, demanding her attention be given to him. She giggled at the cat and bent down to give him some little scratches.

She planned to greet Adrien, but he understood that Plagg was extremely distracting and deserved as much attention as she was willing to provide. After a short while of scratches, she started to move slowly, lifting Plagg to move him far enough that Adrien could close the front door after her. "He's such a good baby!" she enthused.

"He really is," he agreed. "He's allowed on the couch, if you want to sit down over there." She smiled then sat down on Adrien's couch. Plagg nuzzled into her lap when she sat down and let go of him. She continued administering pets to the cat in her lap. Adrien sat down on the couch next to her, giving Plagg some pets also.

"When did you get him?" she asked. A huge smile broke out on Adrien's face and he was practically bouncing with excitement.

"I got him on New Year's," he began, "Nino took me to the shelter to surprise me. He knew that last year had been kind of rough for me and he didn't like that I'm living alone. He thought I should start off the year with a companion. That's also kind of the reason he made me get Tinder."

"Glad I'm not the only one who was pressured into getting a Tinder account," she half-joked. "Alya set up mine a few weeks ago and I love her, but I'm not interested in using it to hook up with people. I'm definitely more of a relationship person than a hook up person." He nodded, understanding and agreeing with the sentiment.

"Well, I'm sure Plagg is glad you agreed to sign up for the app. And we're both hoping you'll find someone to make you happy." The two smiled at each other, then Adrien went back to looking at his cat sitting in Marinette's lap.

"I'm hoping you'll find someone to make you happy, too," she told him. She kept giving Plagg all of the love he was willing to accept while she talked with Adrien. Just like usual, they spent their time together laughing and joking with each other. In what felt like an instant, the seeming seconds turned into hours and it was quickly approaching dinner time.

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" he offered. "I was planning to make an easy pasta with meat sauce if that sounds good to you. I don't have a lot, but I have enough ground beef to make at least enough for the two of us if you want."

Marinette smiled brightly. "I would love to," she told him, "is there anything that I can do to help you with making dinner?"

"I would say yes, but it doesn't look like Plagg is going to let you up to help me anytime soon," he said with a small chuckle. "I understand, though. I probably wouldn't want to move either if I could just sit around getting attention and affection all day."

Marinette giggled in response and Adrien smiled brightly. "Well, if you need a hand, just let me know. I'm sure that Plagg can give up attention for a little while." Adrien got up and went over to the kitchen. He started preparing the ingredients that he needed to make dinner and she couldn't help but watch him work.

She couldn't help but think about how perfect he was, at least in her eyes. He's smart, funny, knows fashion, immediately offered to help her cook last time they hung out, likes animals, and now he knows how to cook, or is at least trying to cook for her. She found herself blushing at the thought of how nice it would be if he were interested in her.

When she turned back to start looking at Plagg again, she didn't even notice that Adrien kept looking back over at her. When he looked at her, he found himself thinking about how wonderful she is as well. He watched her continue holding Plagg and giving him as much of her attention as she could.

They looked so sweet sitting there together, it looked natural, like she belonged there, but that was probably a little extreme for him to be thinking. He hadn't even known her for very long. She probably didn't even consider him in that way.

Dinner didn't take very long for him to make and while he was waiting for the spaghetti to finish cooking, he went over to grab some food for Plagg. He poured about 1/3 of a cup of food into Plagg's bowl and he immediately got off of Marinette's lap to go over to eat his dinner. Adrien also filled up Plagg's water bowl and Marinette smiled at the little scratches Adrien gave him before he went back to the kitchen.

Marinette stood up, happy to stretch out her legs for the first time in a while since Plagg had been sitting on her lap. "Is there anything I can do to help," she offered, despite knowing that there probably wasn't any work still left to do on preparing the meal.

"Not really," he said, "if you want a drink, though. You're welcome to help yourself. I don't think I ever ended up opening the bottle of rosé you brought to my housewarming. Not that I didn't appreciate it," he added quickly, "I just don't really drink alone, so I didn't have a reason to drink it after you brought it over that night."

While he was speaking, Marinette approached him. She placed a hand on his arm. "I understand," she told him with a smile. "I'm not upset you haven't gotten around to drinking it yet. If you want to, though, I'm happy to have some with you while we eat." He was a little caught off guard by her touching his arm so delicately, but he was able to focus his attention back on putting dinner together.

Adrien smiled at her, then moved to his cabinet to get two shallow bowls and two wine glasses. He grabbed some forks from the drawer right next to his fridge, then took the bottle of rosé out and poured them each a glass. "Help yourself," he said as he poured the wine. "Ladies first."

Marinette scooped some of the spaghetti into her bowl, followed by some of the meat sauce. She was excited to see how well he was able to cook. He handed off one of the glasses to her and he served himself dinner before they both went over to his dining table. They sat next to each other to eat and spoke between bites.

While they ate, Plagg hopped onto the table and tried to steal a piece of parmesan off of Adrien's plate, but Adrien grabbed him off of the table, gave his head a very firm kiss, then placed him gently on the floor. Adrien wiped off his face with a napkin to avoid accidentally eating any of his cat's fur.

Marinette smiled at the affectionate action and felt her heart speed briefly in her chest. The two talked between bites and got to know each other more. Marinette learned about the fact that Adrien was an only child, but he had a family friend he grew up with who was like a sister to him and Adrien learned about the fact that Marinette had always wanted pets growing up, but she wasn't allowed to because of health codes at the bakery.

After they ate, Marinette helped Adrien do the dishes. She was happy to wash the pots while Adrien put the leftovers into a few plastic containers he'd had. Marinette and Adrien exchanged les bisous before she decided she needed to head out for the night.

After that, the two started talking more regularly. It started with messaging over Tinder more, but as time progressed, Adrien decided he wanted to send pictures of Plagg, which wasn't something the app supported. He started texting her instead of messaging her over the app and she didn't see much reason to open the app as often after that.

Marinette hadn't been paying attention as days went on. The second Tuesday after she'd gone over to meet Plagg, she got a message from him. 'Do you want to go out for dinner tonight?'

'That sounds great! I'd love to!' She sent the text back almost immediately and Adrien felt his heart speed up. Marinette agreed to go out with him. He was going out with Marinette. They were going out! On Valentine's Day!

She followed up with a second text a minute later. 'Where do you want to go?'

'I was thinking we could go to The Rooftop?' Marinette couldn't help the smile that blossomed on her face. It was a new restaurant, but the reviews had been great. Alya had even recommended it, she said that the food was almost as good as her maman's.

'That sounds wonderful. I'm always happy to dress up. What time should we head over?'

'I have a reservation for 18h00 if that's fine with you?'

'18h00 sounds perfect! I can meet you there!'

'I can drive you. It'd be my pleasure, plus it would be easier to get there together since we live so close. Meet me downstairs at 17h45?'

'Great! It's a date!' She meant it in a friendly way, knowing that he wasn't interested in women, but she couldn't help but let her heart flutter at her own message. Gosh, how she wished it could actually be a date between the two of them. What would it be like to go on a date with Adrien.

Adrien, on the other hand, was kind of losing his mind when he saw the message. He knew he had already kind of been thinking about it as a Valentine's date, but he just got confirmation. He got confirmation that the coolest girl in the world had agreed to a date with him. He was not prepared for an actual date with Marinette. He didn't even think she would have accepted if she had known it was a date, but she was the one who had recommended that the two of them call it a date.

He looked at the time. He knew that he would have had enough time to shower and get dressed nicely before dinner, but now it's a date. He needed to get flowers. Or would Marinette prefer chocolates? It was 16h00. He grabbed his jacket and then went out into the February air to get some flowers.

He was surprised that there were so many yellow roses on the shelf at the florist's shop. He thought roses were the main type of flower that people would buy for others on Valentine's day. He saw a beautiful bouquet of 5 yellow roses. They all had the faintest bit of red on the very tips of them and they were perfect.

He purchased them from the attendant and brought them home. He brought them into his bedroom and placed them on his dresser, closing the door behind him so Plagg couldn't follow him inside and destroy the flowers. He got dressed in a dark grey suit with a blue tie that would match Marinette's eyes.

He was planning to meet Marinette in the lobby of her apartment complex, but now that he'd gotten her flowers, he didn't think it would be appropriate for her to take them along to dinner with them. He finished styling his hair and put his glasses back on. He made sure his outfit wouldn't embarrass him in front of Marinette, grabbed the flowers from the counter, and let out a long exhale before he left at 17h30.

At 17h40, he knocked on the door to Marinette's apartment. Marinette was about to head downstairs to meet him, so she answered the door quickly. When she did, he could see that she was ready to go. She was wearing a strapless navy blue dress with a sweetheart neckline. The high-low skirt started just above her knees and went down to just above mid-calf in the back.

She paired the dress with a pair of silvery heels that added about 5 cm to her overall height. Her hair was done up in a half-back style, leaving curls down to add a frame to her face. She was wearing a grey jacket, almost the same shade as the suit that he had been wearing, and her lips were stained with a deep sangria color.

She took his breath away for a moment when she opened the door, but she didn't notice his speechlessness because she was distracted by her own. He extended the flowers to her. The roses. She knew enough about flower meanings to know that yellow meant friendship. She knew they were friends, obviously, they weren't going to be anything more than friends, but it still felt like a little slap in the face to be reminded so bluntly that they were just friends.

"Thank you. They're lovely, Adrien," she said with a soft blush across her cheeks. She accepted the roses and brought them up to smell them. She smiled at the delicate scent. "Let me put these in some water, then we can head out." He nodded and followed her back into the apartment so she could put them into a vase.

She cut the ends quickly, then placed them into a vase her maman had given her as a housewarming gift that she was almost certain she had never actually used before that day. "I'm glad that you like them," he told her, "you look amazing. Your dress is gorgeous. Is it one of your designs?"

Back to talking about her designs. She loved to talk about her work, but she was starting to get the feeling that it was something he wanted to talk about because he had wanted to design growing up, but wasn't allowed to for one reason or another.

"Yeah," she said, happily. She finished putting up the roses and turned back toward him. "I made it this past fall and this is the first time I've gotten a chance to wear it. So, thank you for giving me a reason to finally break it out of its permanent spot in my closet. I really appreciate that you invited me out tonight." She wanted to kiss his cheek, but was worried it would be too extreme for this early in the evening. Usually, she wouldn't kiss his cheek until the goodbye and didn't want to accidentally make things weird.

"Shall we, princess?" he asked. He internally winced at the nickname. It was their first date. Are they at the stage where he can start giving her nicknames, or would she be uncomfortable? She had a smile still brightly shining on her face and he took that as a good sign. She linked his arm through his and led him back out of her apartment.

"We shall, my knight." He felt his heart pounding in his chest at the nickname. He wanted to be her prince, but being her knight carried a sense of protection with it that he didn't expect, but really liked.

He found his face growing hot in reaction to the nickname, but he tried to not draw attention to the redness creeping over his cheeks. He led her carefully to his car and opened the door for her, like a gentleman should do and after he made sure she was safely inside, he went around to his side of the car and got in.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Adrien opened her door again and she linked her arm back through his. They got inside and it was gorgeous. It was lit almost entirely with candles and decorated with hundreds of roses. The floor was even covered in rose petals encased in resin. Marinette saw a coat check when they arrived and leaned up to speak to him.

"I'm going to leave my jacket at the coat check. You can go ahead and let the maître d know we're here, I'll be there in a moment." He placed a hand over hers momentarily, conveying that he heard her plan and agreed that it seemed like a fine idea. He walked over to the host.

"I have a reservation for 2 for Agreste," he said to the employee. He looked through the little book on the stand and smiled at Adrien when he saw the name on the list. Marinette came over a moment later and looped her arm back through his elbow as though she were afraid that she would lose him in the restaurant.

"Right this way, Monsieur," the host said. He made a motion towards a nearby hostess who had two menus in hand with the plan to take them to their seats. She motioned to their table and Adrien made a point to push in Marinette's chair before moving around to his own seat. The hostess gave them each a menu and Marinette opened it.

Marinette hadn't even noticed at first that the menu didn't have any prices on it as she was so enraptured by the options in front of her. She was barely able to resist her urge to drool over half of the food on the menu.

They decided against getting wine that night, knowing Adrien had to drive them both home after dinner. Adrien ordered a steak and Marinette ordered shrimp scampi. "Next time we go out, I'm paying," she told him once she noticed that there weren't any prices on her menu.

Next time, those words made his heart pound in his chest. Marinette wanted there to be a 'next time.' She wanted to go out with him again. They spoke the entire time that they were waiting for their meals, eating the bread on the table.

When their meals arrived, they barely took enough breaks from talking to eat. They 'stole' bites from each other's plates, pretending like they had been sneaky when they were both fully aware of the bites that they had been taking. They had been smiling and laughing throughout the entire meal and before they knew it, the restaurant had been getting ready to close. Adrien blushed when the waiter came past the table with the check. Adrien placed his card into the holder and the waiter came by to take the payment. He signed the check and the waiter shooed them out of the restaurant as politely as possible.

Adrien reminded a distracted Marinette that she needed to recover her jacket from the coat check and she blushed at the fact that she would have just left without it because she had been so distracted by the nice time she was having. Adrien helped her put her jacket on and she linked her arm back through his as he escorted her back to his car. He opened the door for her again and took her home.

He walked her back to her apartment and he wanted to kiss her. He didn't know if she was ready for a kiss, but he was hoping that she would make the first move so he would know what she was comfortable with. When they arrived, she leaned up to give his cheek a kiss. "I had a great time tonight," she told him, "I really like spending time with you."

"I really like spending time with you too, princess," he said with a recently formed blush on his face. "We should do this again soon." She smiled and nodded, then she opened her apartment door. "Good night."

"Good night," she said quietly before she disappeared into her apartment. Her breath caught when she entered through the door. She saw the roses and felt herself falling a little bit more in love with Adrien, the man she could never have.