Build Me Up Buttercup

by FormidableCoccinelle

Marinette wants to redecorate her room using furniture from Ikea. Who better to build that furniture with her than her partner? Or, maybe her crush? All four sides of the Love Square give building Ikea furniture a try and maybe build feelings in the process.

For the sake of this fic, I need this Ikea to have a full warehouse instead of shipping purchased products after the fact. That's how Ikea is near me and it's what I'm used to, so that's what I'm gonna write about.

---

"For the last time," Marinette announced to the cat-themed superhero sitting on the chaise about a meter from her, "my papa is going to meet me outside of Ikea with the delivery van so we won't have to carry anything all the way back here."

"If you don't need my help carrying things, why am I even here?" he asked theatrically, draping the back of his hand across his forehead.

"I do need your help carrying things," she assured, "I just need you to help get things into the van, then getting them up here once we get back. You shouldn't just be carrying a desk that's bigger than you all the way across the city. I feel like you'd get in trouble."

He knew she was right, but he never really liked admitting that. Ladybug probably wouldn't approve of the 'risks of carrying furniture across the city.' Then again, he was also pretty sure that Ladybug wouldn't approve of him going to Ikea with a civilian in the first place. She never stopped him from hanging out with Marinette before, but he also usually didn't go anywhere public with her either.

"Why are you even re-decorating? I thought you liked all the pink?"

"I do," she defended, "I'm not going to paint the walls or anything, but I've been getting more commissions and need more workspace for my sewing and other projects. Plus, I want to get a wardrobe thing that I can use for the projects I'm working on."

She pointed to the areas she was going to put the new furniture around her bedroom. "I also saw a few desks online. I'm sure one of them will be a perfect size for me to be able to have my computer take up less of my deskspace and I'll be able to move my current desk somewhere else as a new flat workspace."

Chat Noir nodded in understanding. "When do you want to go?"

"I don't have anything better to do if you want to go today? I'll even buy you some Swedish meatballs." Chat smiled at the offer of food, Marinette knew him so well. He checked the time on his baton. It was 11h30 and he didn't have anything to do that day until dinner at 19h00 which was probably going to be canceled.

"Sure," he agreed, "let's go!"

"Let me tell my parents we're heading out," she told him. She swung her purse across her shoulder. "I'll meet you out front in a minute." Chat Noir leaped up through her trapdoor while Marinette went out front through the bakery. "We're going to head to Ikea," Marinette told her parents, "I'll call when we need a ride home."

She gave her maman and papa each a kiss on their cheeks and smiled at the two of them. "Have fun, mon chou," Tom said, "don't break anything before you buy it." Marinette knew he was just teasing her, but it was probably a fair warning if she were being honest with herself.

"Of course, papa." She went around to the far side of the counter toward the front door. "I'll see you soon. I love you."

"We love you, too," her parents called out as she left through the front door. When she left through the front door, Chat Noir was standing there, leaning on his baton while he waited for her.

"Baton, metro, or bus?" he asked, looking at a map on his baton, "it looks like the bus and métro will take about the same amount of time for us to get there, but we can probably get there faster using my baton. I'm cool with whatever." He added a casual shrug and she stepped closer to look at the map he had pulled up.

He was right, the métro and bus would take the same amount of time, but that time would be like 45 minutes, which Marinette didn't necessarily think was worth waiting for.

"Baton," she landed on, "not like it'll be any worse than going to Ikea together, right?" He nodded in agreement and knelt in front of her so that she could get into a piggyback position. He stood up and hopped a little bit to get her into a more comfortable spot.

"Ready to go, princess?" he asked with a bright smile on his face. Her arms were wrapped solidly around his shoulders with her face slightly tucked against the back of his head.

"Let's go," she said, feeling her heart nervously pounding in her chest. He used his baton to hoist the two of them up, far above the street to a nearby building and Marinette found herself wondering why she didn't just suggest they leave from her balcony. He landed on a roof and started running, checking his baton for directions occasionally.

After about 30 minutes of Chat Noir running and bounding across rooftops, he jumped down onto the ground and put down Marinette in front of the store. He had always seen the store from the outside, but he had only heard stories about the furniture shop. He was excited to go inside for the first time.

Marinette opened the door to the building and he walked in first. Within a moment, he was in awe. There was so much going on around him and it felt almost overwhelming. "Do you want to eat before we shop or eat at the end?" Marinette grabbed a yellow bag from a bin to pick things up while they walked through the store.

"Let's eat while we wait for your papa," Chat told her. "Right now, it's furniture time." Marinette smiled agreeably and pointed him in the direction of the entrance to the showroom. There was a bright smile on his face as they entered the first floor. Marinette looked at the sign and saw the word 'workspaces.'

"Over there," she told Chat Noir, leading him in the direction of the arrowed sign. She already had an idea in mind of what she wanted for her desk, and she had a list of maximum measurements that she could use to compare to the dimensions on the tag. When they entered the section, Marinette felt filled with glee.

She went over to the first desk along the side and started admiring it. It was smaller than she wanted, barely bigger than her desk back home and as much as she loved the slick white and the part of the MALM desk that she could fold away when she didn't need it, it didn't feel like it would give her the extra storage she was looking for.

She admired the extra storage of the KALLAX/LINNMON, but the desk itself was kind of… underwhelming. The MICKE desk was closer to what she wanted, and she thought it could have been perfect if the back panel were a whiteboard or a magnetic material, or something along that line.

The last desk she saw was perfect. The FREDDE gaming desk was big enough that she would be able to make the most of the space, with several shelves she already knew how she could fill. It was too tall for her to reach whatever she'd put on the top shelf on a regular basis, but she mostly planned to put decorations up top anyway.

She looked at the measurements on the tag and felt her heart drop. 185 cm. She only had 165 cm maximum that she could use for that space. She let out a deep sigh and pouted for a moment at her rotten luck.

"What's wrong?" She had momentarily forgotten her partner was there as she was distracted looking at the desks. She mentally shook herself out of her stupor and bit her lip.

"It's 185 cm," she told him, "I don't have enough room for it." Chat Noir looked at the desk in front of him. He was 180 cm and he was definitely taller than the desk was wide. As a model, Adrien also knew that his wingspan was 176 cm, so he stretched his arms out in front of the desk, placing one fingertip against one side.

"It's definitely not 185 cm," he told her, showing where the desk landed against his forearm. "I know that my arms are like 175 and this desk is much smaller than that. I'd guess like 140ish?" He started looking around the desk to figure out why the measurement was wrong.

He walked over to a piece that was connected to the side. "I think they count this," he told Marinette. "It looks like you can put them on the inside, though. Do you have room for a 140 cm wide desk?"

Marinette nodded. "Plenty," she told him, "with some extra room in case your incredibly scientific method of measuring somehow gave you the wrong size. As long as you don't think you're wrong by more than 20 cm."

"There's no way. I can just about promise you that." She laid down her small notebook on the desk and wrote the information for the desk. She wrote down the article number and the warehouse location so that they could find it when they eventually went downstairs. "Okay, so the next stop is 'wardrobes and storage'."

This time, Chat Noir was the one who saw the sign. He pointed her in the direction they came from so that they could take a shortcut that would get them over to the correct section. Marinette didn't have anything particular in mind for the wardrobe she wanted, but she knew she didn't want any sliding doors.

When she got to the wardrobes section, she quickly realized that wouldn't be a problem. It looked like there were almost none that had sliding doors. She also hadn't realized that she could do whatever she wanted with the insides of the units, as long as she bought from the correct lines in the store.

She saw one PAX wardrobe that was compatible with mirrored doors that she loved. She knew she would need to figure out what to do with the inside, but she figured she could start with a few clothes rails and shelves, then customize it if she needed something else later. She placed the clothes rails into her bag and wrote down the information about where to find the wardrobe in the warehouse. She made an extra note about the VIKEDAL doors for the front.

They moved to the other side to get to the 'storage' section and Marinette knew exactly what she wanted from over there. She made a note to get a KALLAX 2x4 cube shelf. She was going to put it on its side so that she could put her Cricut and printer on top of it. She made the same notes about where to find the storage unit when they got downstairs.

She grabbed a few inserts that she could use for storing her vinyl and fabric. She also picked up one of the inserts with a door and thought it could be a perfect place for her to store the miracle box, as long as she was careful. She considered getting another table but figured she could probably repurpose one of the desks she'd already had.

They stayed in the store, browsing every section that they walked through even though Marinette knew what she was planning to get. Chat Noir kept suggesting that she get different things as the two of them wandered around the store.

"Fairy lights," he suggested, "you seem like you'd like some fairy lights. I'm always a little surprised you don't already have some on your balcony." He held up a box excitedly, proud of his own suggestion.

"Are they waterproof?" she asked, "I don't want to put anything that isn't waterproof outside because I will totally forget them out there. It happens more often than I like to admit."

"Apparently not," he said disappointedly as he looked over the words on the box. He placed it back down where he found it, then he went over to start looking at the art in that area. "Okay, hear me out?" He picked up a picture of the Eiffel Tower and she chuckled.

"Hear me out," she responded, "Alya takes a better picture of the Eiffel Tower than that like every other day and this one, doesn't even have you or Ladybug in it. What's the point?" She was right, so he put the poster back down where he found it.

He went over to another aisle where he had seen something else to suggest. He held up a metallic-looking statue of a banana. "To commemorate your favorite superhero?" he suggested.

"Roi Singe?" Chat Noir acted like she had just stabbed him through the heart. "Oh, or did you mean Banananoir, that superhero who I definitely had never heard of until he and Bikerbug had to fight that sentimonster in the streets without their powers? He was okay, I guess."

"Just break my heart, why don't you?" She could hear the playful tone in his voice as he spoke and after another second, he went to put the little statue back. On his walk back to Marinette, he saw a print of the Mona Lisa, so he picked it up and started to bring it over to her.

"Put it back," she told him, "I'm pretty sure that after Copycat, you aren't even allowed within a meter of a print of the Mona Lisa." He rolled his eyes and put it back down where he found it. He picked up another poster, this one had the phonetic and morse code alphabets on it.

"Only nerds know morse code," she told him, taking the poster from his hand.

"I know morse code," he tried to defend.

"I know," she responded. She stuck her tongue out at Chat Noir and had a fond little smile on her face as she kept looking around. He put the poster back and kept looking around the art section. "I don't think I'm going to get any art here, Chat. I usually like to support smaller artists, but if you find a piece of work from an independent artist, I'll get it. Deal?"

He smiled brightly. "Deal," he agreed excitedly. The two of them left the showroom to head down to the warehouse to grab the furniture she'd chosen. Chat Noir grabbed one of the pallet carts and she led him down the first aisle to grab the KALLAX cubbies. She reached out to grab it, but Chat Noir stepped in before she could.

"You said I could carry stuff," he reminded her, causing her to roll her eyes at him. She shook her head fondly at him.

"Fine," she agreed, "but now it's on you if I end up with the wrong color of furniture. I'm like 90% sure this one is white, but you're now officially responsible if it's not."

"I'm willing to take that risk," he told her, lifting the shelf to put it onto the cart. She led him over to the next aisle to find the desk. She went to the sections that had the same article number as what she wrote down earlier and placed a hand on each stack, indicating that they were the next ones she needed.

Chat Noir picked them up one at a time and placed them onto the cart as well, having a little bit more trouble with those boxes because they were taller and wider than the last one he moved. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Marinette would even be able to get it through her trapdoor, but she was practical, she probably already thought through that.

Marinette led him to the next section to find the wardrobe and when they went to look for the article number, they didn't see it. "It isn't here," she said with a raised eyebrow. She took her phone out of her pocket to pull up the Ikea website. When she found the piece she was planning to get, she saw a disclaimer at the top.

'NOTE: Many of our products are taking longer to get to us and therefore we cannot guarantee availability. Certain colors of the PAX product line have been discontinued.'

She wasn't happy with that information. She understood, but she wasn't happy about it. Her face developed a small grimace and she sighed again. "Cannot guarantee availability," she told Chat Noir. "I need to choose something else."

She leaned against a wall at the back of the aisle they were standing in and she scrolled through the 'wardrobe' section of the Ikea website. She really liked the PAX wardrobe and was disappointed that she hadn't looked out for a second choice while they were in that section of the showroom.

"What about this BRIMNES one," Chat Noir suggested, holding up the webpage in front of her. "We can find a different mirror to attach to it and with this one, you don't have to think about what shelving pieces you want." She took the baton from his hand and looked through the pictures of the unit.

She nodded in agreement and he took her over to aisle 13, where the website said the wardrobe was. He looked at the stacks and saw that this wardrobe came in three packages. He picked up one of each and put them onto the cart.

"Anything else to grab while we're here?"

"I don't think so," she told him. "Not unless you want to get one of the classic blue Ikea bags, but I'm fine without one. Before we check out, though, let me call my parents to see if they need anything." Marinette stepped over to the side to make her call outside of the flow of foot traffic.

"Papa asked that we bring him some meatballs once he gets here with the van," Marinette told him when she got back. "Other than that, we're good to check out. He said he should be here in about 40 minutes, once the afternoon rush settles down a little bit."

Chat wheeled the cart over to one of the checkout lanes. The cashier scanned everything and told Marinette the total. It ended up costing much less than she expected now that she wasn't getting the PAX piece, which she appreciated. From there, the two went over to the food court where Chat tried to be a gentleman by offering to pay for their food.

He stopped arguing with her about paying when she reminded him that getting him meatballs was the bribe she had offered to get him to Ikea with her. He found a table for the two of them and sat, trying to be patient while he waited for her. She came over to the table a few minutes later carrying two plates of meatballs and three forks.

"I can either share with you or papa," she told him, "depending on how hungry you are after all of our shopping today."

Chat Noir moved the plate closer to the center of the table, offering to share the food with her. She placed the other plate over to the side for Tom and stabbed one of the meatballs on the end of her fork. He took one and the two of them 'cheered' the food together over the plate for fun before taking their first bites.

They ate the meatballs with smiles on their faces and spent most of the time joking around and laughing with each other. She had a few short of half the plate, then pushed the plate back toward him, letting him know he could have the rest. He was happy to continue eating them while they waited for a call from her dad.

Tom called a few minutes after Chat Noir ate the last meatball on his plate and the two of them threw away their trash. Marinette carried out the plate of meatballs for her papa while Chat Noir rolled the cart of furniture out to the pickup area. When they got outside, they saw Tom opening the back door of the van.

Marinette tried to hand him the plate, but he was insistent on helping Chat Noir move the boxes into the van instead. "I can handle this, M. Dupain," Chat said politely, "you should eat before they get cold. Besides, Marinette told me that she brought me along just to help put things in the van, anyway."

"No, I didn't," Marinette corrected, sticking her tongue out playfully. "I also brought you along to unpack the van once we get back to the bakery." He rolled his eyes and Tom accepted the plate from his daughter. He kissed the top of her head.

"If you two need a hand, let me know," he told the teenagers before he went to the driver's side of the van to sit down while he ate.

Chat Noir got all of the boxes into the van singlehandedly while Marinette put in all of the smaller things. Everything was able to fit well in the van, including Chat Noir who had been talked into sitting in the front seat while Marinette sat in the back seat next to the six boxes of furniture pieces.

---

When they arrived back at the house, Tom parked the van outside and Marinette started unloading the smaller things that she got. Tom was planning to help Chat Noir bring boxes upstairs until Chat grabbed one of the boxes and jumped onto the roof, figuring it would be easier than bringing the box up all the stairs.

Chat Noir had managed to get all six boxes into Marinette's bedroom by the time that she had brought the smaller things upstairs then went back downstairs to grab the toolbag and some snacks from her parents. "You're planning to stay for dinner, right?" He usually did, but Marinette always thought it was more polite to make sure.

She held out the plate of snacks to him, including a camembert danish that her parents had perfected when Chat Noir originally started spending more time at their house. He didn't explain why he needed it, but he counted his blessings that they never made anything with camembert for dinner when he was over.

"Let me go check," he said, pointing down the stairs. She nodded and he went down to go transform into Adrien and check his phone. As expected, he'd gotten a text from Nathalie informing him that Gabriel had a meeting and would be unable to attend the dinner they had scheduled.

While Adrien responded to the text, Plagg ate the danish. He transformed back into Chat Noir and went back upstairs where Marinette had already leaned five of the boxes against one of her walls and was in the process of opening the sixth with a box cutter.

"What are we starting with?" Chat asked when he emerged from the trapdoor. "Also, I can stay for dinner if I'm welcome."

"You're always welcome to stay for dinner, minou," she assured. "I figured we would start with the storage cubbies. They seem like the easiest to make, so it should be a good starting point." She texted her parents that he was planning to stay for dinner then put her phone over to the side and opened the box.

On top of the items, there was a set of instructions and they seemed easy enough to follow. They took each of the pieces from the box and put them into piles of same-shaped pieces. This particular set only had a few different sizes of wood, so it was easy to separate all of them into 4 piles.

It was about 15h30 when the two started to build the unit and Chat was confident that Tom and Sabine would be downstairs in the bakery for another few hours. "Can I play some music while we work?"

"Go for it," she told him, "as long as you know I'll be judging your taste the entire time we're working."

"You and all of Paris," he clarified. Marinette didn't know how she forgot that Ladybug and Chat Noir made their Spotify profiles available for Paris to follow, so that they could see what the heroes listened to in their free time. Chat Noir was a lot more excited about the idea than Ladybug was and seemed to always listen to music.

He used the bluetooth on his baton to connect to Marinette's little Google Home and put on a playlist that he had titled 'Bluebell.' He hoped the title was vague enough that people would assume it was a playlist for Ladybug even though he knew he put it together for Marinette. The entire playlist was just songs that made him think of her, for one reason or another.

The first song that came up for his playlist was 'Warrior' by Beth Crowley and Marinette wasn't opposed to his music choice, so she started working on putting the cubbies together. "Okay, so the instructions say we need the long side pieces and one of the short side pieces first." Chat Noir handed her the requested pieces and she laid them down to match the diagram.

She handed him the hammer and he put in the little pegs to line up the screw holes when the time came. It was the first time he'd had to build furniture and he was having a surprisingly fun time with Marinette. The next song started playing while they worked and it was 'Count On Me' by Bruno Mars.

Marinette was quietly singing along and he took it as a sign that she was a fan of his playlist so far. The next song that came up while they worked was 'Love Story (Taylor's Version)' by Taylor Swift and he already knew that she was a fan of the song. "What is this playlist?" she joked while she worked on driving in one of the screws. "Another declaration for Ladybug?"

"What? No, of course not," he defended, "this list has nothing to do with Ladybug. Did you miss the 'that's what friends are supposed to do' in Count On Me?"

"Did you miss that that was immediately followed up by a song literally called 'Love Story?' You can't blame me for making that assumption." Marinette's comment was followed by a small giggle and her sticking her tongue out at him. Chat Noir was planning to just let the playlist go, but he wanted to be blunt about the playlist's origins, so he queued up the next song he wanted.

"It's based on someone," he admitted, "but it isn't Ladybug. And it also definitely isn't a love declaration." He rolled his eyes and picked up the next piece, holding it in place while Marinette screwed it into the wooden sides of the shelf.

He handed her one of the little caps that cover the screws to keep them from scratching the floor and she put it into its spot. Marinette picked up the next piece of the shelf as the next song started playing. The next, very familiar, song.

"Why do you build me up (build me up) Buttercup, baby," Chat Noir sang out in time with the song. Marinette threw the piece at him and the distracted superhero didn't think through his own plan as he said "Cataclysm" between lyrics and destroyed the piece of wood that was flying at him.

"Chat!" Marinette shouted, "first you make a freaking playlist for me and buttercup, then you destroy part of my bookshelf. You're a superhero. You could have just caught it!" The dusty remains of the wood were now scattered across the rest of the stark white shelf that they had been building.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, "I didn't think you'd dislike the playlist. I can get you a replacement piece if you want. Or I could get you an entirely new shelf." Marinette sighed, disappointed by the fact that she wouldn't be able to finish making the shelf without that last piece.

"I'll call the company tomorrow about getting the replacement part," she told him. The music was still playing in the background and the song changed. The starting notes of Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' started and Marinette's expression could only be described as 'Done.'

"You have terrible taste in music," Marinette told him with a deadpan expression. "Go deal with your transformation while I deal with this." She gestured vaguely to the incomplete shelf and he winced. He didn't like the idea of Marinette being upset with him. He nodded in agreement and went back downstairs to the bathroom to deal with Plagg.

He gave Plagg the okay to take one (1) camembert danish from the Dupain-Cheng's fridge where he knew they were stored. He would have gotten it on his way into the bathroom, but he knew he was upstairs for a while after he used his power and he didn't want to risk being caught in the apartment without his transformation.

Adrien was trapped in the Dupain-Chengs' bathroom longer than he expected while Plagg was making the most of his free reign over the main floor of the apartment. He didn't do much, but he did make a stop in Marinette's bedroom to say hi to the rest of his friends in the Miracle Box while he had the chance.

While Adrien was waiting for Plagg to come back, he swiped through a few applications on his phone, including Twitter where he could see that there were a bunch of people who were reacting to Chat Noir's Spotify choices. He wondered if he could host a listening party and post a link to it on Twitter.

Plagg flew back into the bathroom while Adrien was thinking and he knew it was time for him to transform back into the hero. He went back upstairs and was surprised by how much Marinette had done in the short while he was downstairs. She had moved the shelf against the wall and it was on its side, just like she planned from the beginning.

There was nothing on top of it and he figured that was probably for the best. The final piece she needed to add once she got the replacement was leaning against the end of the shelf and he couldn't help the feeling of guilt in his chest. The desk and wardrobe boxes were still leaning against the wall, so he figured they were done building for the evening.

The two of them played Mecha Strike for a while before Sabine called them downstairs for dinner just before 17h30. Sabine had made soup and Tom brought up a loaf of bread to eat with it when he came upstairs.

"How has the building been going so far," he asked the teenagers at the table, "need a hand from your good old dad?"

"Not with this one," Marinette responded, "the box we got was missing one of the last pieces. I'm thinking I might go back tomorrow to see if they happen to have any spares before I reach out to customer support." Marinette was pushing her food around in her bowl with the spoon that she was using.

"That sounds like a good plan," Tom responded, "smart thinking. Are you two going to work on a different piece when we finish dinner?"

"I need to go home after dinner," Chat piped in, which was news to Marinette. Usually, he liked to stay as long as he could. "I'm happy to help with the desk and wardrobe another day, but I have some civilian things to take care of tonight."

Chat Noir spent a while of the evening with the Dupain-Chengs eating dinner and just talking. It was about 18h15 when they finished dinner and Chat helped Sabine with washing dishes before he said goodbye to her and Tom. On his way out through Marinette's balcony, the two of them exchanged les bisous.

---

He was able to leave by 18h40 and immediately ran off in the direction of the Ikea that they went to earlier. He knew it might be a long shot, but it was worth trying to get the replacement piece for Marinette if he could. He landed outside of the Ikea warehouse just before 19h00.

He went into a nearby alleyway to transform into Adrien, knowing Marinette had a point about the fact that he shouldn't be carrying a box across rooftops as Chat Noir. He figured he'd call Gorille for a ride once he was done there and, hopefully, he wouldn't get in too much trouble for going without permission.

He grabbed one of the pallet carts, then went to the spot he and Marinette picked up the cubbies earlier and grabbed one for himself. He was hopeful that since it matched the aesthetic of his room, his dad and Nathalie wouldn't really notice that it hadn't been approved by them. Worst case scenario, he could keep it in his closet and make it almost a little oasis for Plagg, or somewhere to store his hero merch.

With the shelving unit on his cart, he made his way over to the 'Customer Service' desk to ask them about getting the extra piece. He took a deep breath and he was surprised by how nervous he was. Nathalie was always the one who dealt with situations like this for the Agrestes, so this experience was new for him.

"Hello," he greeted when he approached the counter. "I was wondering if you happen to have a spare piece for this shelf?" He lifted the shelf so that the employee could see which one he was talking about.

The woman behind the counter looked at the KALLAX box and considered for a moment. "Why do you need a spare piece? You haven't even bought the shelf yet?"

"I broke my friend's," he admitted shyly. "I was helping her build her shelf and I accidentally broke one of the panels that goes in the middle of the cubbies." He made a vague little hand motion to try to show an example of how the panel would sit. "I want to replace it before she calls and has to wait for it to be shipped to her in a few weeks."

He blushed a little bit. "I understand if that's not something that you have, or if that's something I'd have to pay extra for, but I feel bad and I-"

"It's okay, I understand," the kind woman assured him. "What color do you need? I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best."

"She got it in white, but I can paint it myself if I need to." She nodded in acknowledgment before she stepped away from the counter towards a back room where they kept defective or returned products. She knew someone had returned a KALLAX shelf a few days ago because it didn't have all the shelves, but she didn't know which color it was.

She found the box and looked for a label. It was white and she was so happy that she would be able to help the nice boy and his girlfriend. She opened the lid of the box and took out one of the square pieces that he had described. She made sure that the piece wasn't broken or bent then she went back out to the front.

Adrien's smile was huge when he saw the woman walking back over to him with a white square in her hand. "Do you want me to check you out over here, dear?" she offered with a polite smile on her face. "Or do you want to go to the cashier line?"

"If you wouldn't mind, that would be nice," he said politely. The woman scanned the bookshelf for him and he paid with the Camembert credit card, knowing an extra purchase wouldn't go noticed by his dad or Nathalie. He texted the Gorille the address of the store and he responded with a thumbs-up emoji.

"I hope your girlfriend appreciates you getting the piece for her," the woman said with a smile on her face.

"Oh, thank you. She's just a friend, though. I'm sure she'll appreciate it." She smiled at him, not really believing what he was saying. She waved to him when he turned around to leave, not wanting to accidentally keep the store open past closing time.

His smile was bright as he looked at the box and the extra piece in his hand that he could bring to his good friend tomorrow. When Gorille pulled into one of the parking spots next to the door to the building, Adrien picked up the box and brought it into the back seat for the drive back to his house.

The ride was quiet, but it was pleasant. He was scrolling through his phone, checking on his friends' social media feeds. When they got back to the house, Gorille was happy to carry the box up to Adrien's room for him.

"Thank you," Adrien said with a bright smile on his face. "Uh, before you leave, do you know if we have a hammer." He was a little concerned when Gorille seemed to pull one out of his suit pocket, but he would rather not think about the fact that the giant of a man just happened to have a hammer on him. "Thank you, I'll get it back to you tomorrow."

Gorille closed the door behind him as he walked out of the room and Adrien grabbed the scissors from his desk to open the box. He laid out all of the pieces, stacking the square piece that the customer service representative gave him on top of the same shaped pieces.

"What are you working on?" he heard a voice coming from his window and practically jumped in surprise. He looked up and saw Ladybug, standing in his open window. He stared up at her, mouth dry as he stared at the heroine who was suddenly in his room.

"Shelf," he practically squeaked. "I'm building a shelf. My friend, Marinette, got one and I could use some more storage space. So, I went out and got one for myself, but now I have to build it." He didn't know why he was explaining that, but he was thankful that Marinette had posted about her 'missing' piece on Instagram so he could use her as an excuse.

"Have you ever built something like this?" she asked, attempting to quirk an eyebrow under her mask. She genuinely thought Adrien could do whatever he set his mind to, but she was also concerned that he would end up hurting himself if he wasn't careful.

He couldn't say he'd built this exact unit with Marinette earlier that day, but he didn't have to make himself sound totally incompetent, right? "Not this exactly, but I'm good at working with my hands," he answered confidently. Ladybug averted her eyes from him and he thought through what he said, "no. I mean that I think I'll really nail this project." He was holding the hammer from Gorille in one of his hands.

He punned, why did he pun? Ladybug doesn't like puns. She was going to leave and he would have deserved it for following up an innuendo with a pun. She giggled. The sound was glorious, just what he needed to hear after the heart attack he'd been certain he was having a moment ago.

"Well, do you think you might need some help? I don't know if you've heard, but I'm a pretty big fan," she paused as though she were done speaking, then she realized how ridiculous that sounded, "of helping civilians. I'm a fan of helping civilians. I'm a superhero. That's what I do."

"Sure," he said with a smile, "I love you. I'd love your help. I'm not great at this, obviously. I'm starting this at like 20h00. Obviously, if I were better at this, I would have started the project at a better time, but I mean, if you help me, I'm sure we can have it done in no time."

"I love ya-to, I'd love to help you. I'm sure we can get this taken care of in no time. I mean, we're both smart. It shouldn't take us too long, I've built a shelf like this before. That only took like an hour and a half." She sat down on the floor about a meter away from him, legs crossed as she looked at the stacks of pieces.

"You have too many of that one," she said confidently, "the square one. You have five, but the shelf only needs four." She rubbed the back of her neck, "I mean, I think you only need four for the shelf. The side parts only have enough thingies for four shelves, so I don't know why you'd need five squares."

"Oh," he responded, pretending to be surprised, "I guess you're right. The instructions say I only need four. I think that might be the piece Marinette needs, I can probably give it to her tomorrow. Right? She got her shelf from Ikea. I mean, I think she did. We might have the same one, I might have even seen her while I was there, not that I was there with her or anything."

"Yeah, you're definitely her missing piece. You definitely have her missing piece. Not that I saw her Instagram post, just based on what you described. In fact, I can just take it to her. Let me just grab that and I'll head over to her place right now and save you the trip over there tomorrow." She started to move toward the stack of square pieces of wood.

Adrien placed his hand firmly on top of the stack of pieces. "I don't want you to leave- I don't want you to take it there. I'd be happy to bring it over there tomorrow and I can get some pastries while I'm over there. Of course, you're allowed to leave if you want to, I'm not trying to force you to stay here or anything. That would be weird. I just want to bring it over myshelf."

He winced at the second accidental pun that slipped from his lips as he spoke to his lady, who didn't know that she was his lady. Not that she was his. She was her own person, of course, but… he got distracted by her hand that he now noticed was sitting on top of his on the pile of wooden square pieces of the shelf. Her hand was right on top of his Miraculous and he wondered if she had any idea that the Black Cat Miraculous was so close to her in that moment.

"Sure," she agreed, "I'm sure she loves you. She would love to see you, now that it's summer, she probably hasn't been able to see you in a while and she'd love to see you, not more than Nino and Alya, just the normal friend amount. She would probably appreciate the missing piece of her shelf."

Adrien wanted to ask why Ladybug knew so much about Nino and Alya, but he also knew Chat Noir was friends with Marinette. Was Marinette just casually friends with both of Paris' main superheroes? She's so cool. He mentally considered if she would even be able to befriend Shadow Moth if it came to that, but he was with Ladybug, why was he thinking about Marinette?

"Yeah," he agreed, not even remembering what Ladybug had said. "So, you wanted to help me build this shelf?" He mentally shook himself off, but he couldn't help how his eyes kept getting drawn to the love of his life sitting just half a meter in front of him. She nodded quickly, biting her lip to keep herself from saying something else that would embarrass her.

"Yeah, let's do it!" she said excitedly. "Let's build this shelf. Not something else…" They both went quiet and Adrien held out the instruction booklet to her, but she didn't take it from him. She had the instructions practically memorized from that afternoon and didn't think through the fact that it would be weird for Ladybug to just automatically know how to build the shelf.

The two of them built the shelf and it was pretty easy, even easier than it was that afternoon when they both built the shelf. The worst part of the entire process was trying to talk during it. "Screw it," she told him at one point which caused him to blush. She realized what she said and blushed even brighter than him. "I mean, you should screw in that piece. You have the hex key."

"Right, screw m-it. Screw it in, of course, that's what you meant." He moved toward the shelf laying down on the floor and used the small piece of metal in his hand to screw in the bolt that was sticking out the side of the shelf. "Screwing, totally. Makes total sense. Yep."

The entire experience was awkward and they both kept saying wildly inappropriate things out of context. Ladybug was half expecting to get kicked out every time she opened her mouth and Adrien was thanking his lucky stars that he was Chat Noir because he was confident that Ladybug would never want to be close enough to save him again.

They finished building the shelf and it was incredibly awkward. Ladybug went in for a fist bump and Adrien went in for a hug. Then they realized they were on different pages, so Adrien went in for the fist bump because that should have been obvious, but Ladybug moved in for a hug. They did this little 'dance' a few times before they met in the middle with the most awkward 'mid-five' either of them had ever experienced.

"Where do you want me, it? Where do you want me to put it? I'm a superhero, I'm strong, I can move it for you." She desperately hoped that he wouldn't be put off by her drastically inappropriate comment.

"Closet," he said. "I was planning to put a collection on it, but I don't want my père to see it because he would make me get rid of my Ladybug merch collection. And Chat Noir, and all the rest of the heroes, I'm not like… obsessed with you or anything." He opened his closet door and three Ladybug action figures fell, joined by one, singular, Chat Noir figure.

Ladybug lifted the shelf and he found himself wondering if she'd be able to carry him that easily. "I was thinking against this wall." He pointed to a wall before he scooped down to pick up the action figures. When she put the shelf down and moved it against the wall, he immediately put the figures down in one of the cubbies.

"Purrfect," he said through his voice cracking. "It's perfect. Thank you. I'll bring the spare piece to Marinette tomorrow." She noticed that the way he was hovering was slightly unusual for him and she wondered what was going on with him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something bright red.

There was a pair of Ladybug boxer briefs half hanging out of his laundry hamper. "Yeah," she said, face going red enough to match her mask. "I'll see you around, Adrien," she responded, wanting to burst into flames on the spot. She made her way toward his window and couldn't help but notice the clock on his nightstand.

They spent 5 hours building that shelf? How was it already 01h00? There was no way that it was possible for that much time to have passed, right? She opened up her yoyo and was shocked to learn that apparently, Adrien never changed his clock. It was already 02h00. She left through the window to head home as quickly as possible.

Marinette went to bed that night and wasn't able to sleep for a long time. She couldn't cool down her face. She was certain it hadn't turned back to its normal color after she left Adrien's bedroom. Adrien's bedroom. She spent 6 hours in Adrien's bedroom, building one singular shelf with Adrien. Sure, Chat broke part of her shelf, but it took them almost no time to finish the rest of it.

She decided it was Chat Noir's fault that it took so long for her and Adrien to build the shelf. Chat left a bad taste for building in her mouth and that threw her off. Tomorrow, she will build her desk and it will be great. Adrien would bring her the last piece of the shelf and she would get her building ability back.

---

She finally managed to fall asleep close to 04h30 once she was able to ignore the fact that she would probably be seeing Adrien the next day. She slept in until around 10h30 and got dressed in a pair of black leggings and an oversized pink t-shirt before she went downstairs to the bakery to get a pain aux amandes for breakfast.

She gave her parents each a kiss on their cheeks and smiled, fully forgetting about the experience she'd had with Adrien last night. Well, she managed to forget until she heard a voice say, "Morning, Mari," from about a meter away from her. "I saw your Instagram post and I was wondering if this is the piece you need."

He held up the square of wood between them and she looked shocked. She was more shocked than she had any right to be, he told her his plan last night, there was no reason she shouldn't have known that Adrien was coming over that day and bringing her the piece to replace the one Chat had broken.

"I think it is," she said, forcing a smile onto her face. "Thank you, I've been trying to redesign my room recently and if this is the piece I need, it would be a huge help. Do you want a pain au chocolat in thanks? Even if it doesn't end up being the right piece, I appreciate you coming over here to give it to me." She was rambling and had to physically bite her tongue to stop.

"That would be great," he responded with a bright smile on his face. "I think I got the same shelf as you did recently, so when I saw yours was missing a piece, I thought it would be nice to see if I could make things easier for you." She grabbed a pain au chocolat and handed it to him politely, expecting him to leave immediately after.

"If you wouldn't mind helping Marinette do some building, I'm sure she would appreciate it," Sabine suggested. "She had a hand yesterday, but I'm sure she would appreciate a nice young man helping her do the building and rearranging today. We'd be happy to give you more thank you pastries."

Marinette was mortified. She assumed her mom didn't try to embarrass her, but maybe she gave her mom too much credit. "That sounds like fun," Adrien said with a bright smile on his face, "I feel like we haven't been able to hang out since summer started." Marinette took a deep breath, trying to stay calm in the situation.

"Sounds great," she lied through her teeth, "is there anything else you want before we head upstairs?" Sabine practically shoved a box of pastries into Adrien's hands and Marinette led him up to her room.

When they got upstairs, it didn't look much different than it did yesterday, but Adrien hoped that was about to change. They could finish the shelf and maybe he'd be able to convince Marinette to let him help her build her desk, maybe the wardrobe, but he figured that she'd want to build the biggest piece last.

She went over to where the bookshelf was laying down and she tilted it onto its face like the original instructions called for. She slid the piece into place and Adrien let out an involuntary sigh of relief that it was the correct size. He didn't have a backup plan for if it wasn't. Marinette screwed the last of the screws in place and Adrien moved to help her tilt the bookshelf back to how it was when they got upstairs.

"Nice," he said with a smile on his face. "You and your friend from yesterday did a great job on it." He knew he was patting himself on the back, but Marinette didn't have to know that.

"I did a great job on the bookshelf," Marinette joked, "he just did a great job being a mewnace while I worked." She immediately chastised herself mentally. She shouldn't have said that, it was so suspicious. Adrien was going to know that she was friends with a superhero and that's so dangerous. He laughed at her pun and didn't give it a second thought (beyond wondering why she never shared the joke with Chat Noir).

"So, what can I help you with?" Marinette went over to the boxes marked FREDDE and leaned them away from the wall. She laid them both on the floor.

"My plan is to build my desk today," she told him. "Your height will probably come in handy," she added with a shy blush on her face. Honestly, though, I think I'll mostly need your height once I'm decorating. For now, though, if you could open that box and just take the pieces out, that'd be great." Marinette handed him the pair of scissors from yesterday and she opened her box with a box cutter.

Adrien was able to unpack his box faster than Marinette did. "If you want to listen to music, we can," she told him, "if you connect to the Wi-Fi, you can stream through my little Google Home." She pointed to the tiny speaker near her sewing box. "Just make sure you connect to MDC, I don't think my parents are over the last time someone connected to the bakery speaker instead."

Adrien had to do his best to keep the memory from showing on his face. It was him, as Chat Noir, who connected to the wrong speaker, but Tom and Sabine were scared it was part of an akuma attack because they were the only people in the bakery at the time. He apologized to them and they forgave him, but he wasn't planning to duplicate that anytime soon. He considered what to play before he selected a song from a playlist and pressed shuffle.

'Je Ne Sais Pas' by Joyce Jonathan started playing and he watched a smile grow on Marinette's face as she sorted the pieces for the desk. She quietly sang along as it played. "I love this song," she added as they approached the end of the song. He already knew that, but he was still happy with the choice that he made.

"That's coincidental," he lied with a smile on his face. He sat down on the floor about a meter away from her and joined her in sorting the pieces. The next song that came on was 'It's Getting Boring By The Sea' by Blood Red Shoes. It was her favorite background song from one of her favorite movies. Chat Noir knew that, but Adrien didn't, so he didn't draw attention to it.

She was quietly humming as she started assembling the pieces. Adrien was doing his best to not be in the way. He was mostly handing her pieces and making sure that everything was at the correct angles for the screws to go in without splitting the wood and handing her things. It was nice working with her like this.

It seemed like she was always nervous around him, but being distracted by building the desk was making her able to act a little more like she usually would around Chat Noir. He didn't notice her small wince when the next song, 'Love Story (Taylor's Version)', came onto the playlist. "I really like this playlist," she complimented through the lump caught in her throat. "The songs are great."

"I can't take credit for it," he responded, "I found it on Spotify." She didn't know what the playlist was, but it felt almost mean for him to have played some of her favorite songs for her and follow it up with a Taylor Swift love song. She tried to ignore that, though. She quietly sang along and he did the same. She took a short break from building when 'Warrior' by Beth Crowley began and Adrien took over as the main builder.

Yesterday, with Chat Noir, was the first time she'd heard the song, but she was spending time with Adrien. It wasn't a very upbeat song, but it was pleasant to listen to. She took over his job of handing over pieces and stopped having a distraction that she was building furniture with Adrien. The first time she tried to hand him a piece, his hand touched hers and she immediately dropped it.

"Sorry," the two of them apologized in unison. She moved to pick it up, but saw his hand reach for it and decided it would probably be better to just let him. She spent the rest of the song blushing and started picking up the pieces in a much more awkward way where she would only touch a few centimeters of it so that she wouldn't touch his hand and drop any others.

The next song began and it was bright and cheerful, much more upbeat than the last. "Why do you build me up," Adrien began quietly singing when the lyrics began. Marinette dropped the next piece as she felt her heart start to pound in her chest. There was no way that Adrien Agreste started playing the Buttercup playlist from Chat Noir, right?

"Is this… Is this one of Chat Noir's playlists?" She was shocked that she could get the words out as much as she could. She picked up the piece she dropped and immediately dreaded the answer to the question. He nodded, deliberately not looking at her after how annoyed she got about the song yesterday. "What's it called?"

"I think it used to be named after a flower," he said, "but yesterday, he changed the name." He pulled his phone out of his pocket to 'check the name' despite the racing of his heart that served as a reminder that he already knew the name of the playlist. "It looks like the new name is 'Princess'." He added a shrug. "Guess it's a new nickname for Ladybug."

They both knew it wasn't, but neither of them was about to admit that. "Could we skip this song?" she requested, now that he had his phone out. He pressed the button and the next song started playing. 'Princesses Don't Cry' by CARYS began and it made her smile a little bit. It was ironic given how many times Chat Noir had seen her cry, but she found herself liking the song.

She was certain that the previous name of this playlist was 'Buttercup,' but that would have been a strange song choice for him to have included in a playlist for her and Adrien. Maybe that was just an addition he'd made since he changed the title. Marinette was paying much more attention to the songs that day than she had been the day before, partially trying to make sure none of the song choices would embarrass her.

Well, embarrass her more than 'Build Me Up Buttercup'. She thought she was going to be sick when the Ember Island cover of Umbrella started. She hadn't even told Chat Noir about the 'umbrella thing,' he didn't even know who buttercup was. She wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that Adrien seemed to know each song well enough to sing along, or at least hum with all of them.

It didn't take much longer after that for them to finish building the desk. Adrien let Marinette put on the last few pieces so that she could have the satisfaction of properly finishing the desk. It was a nice gesture, but Marinette couldn't stop thinking about the 'Princess' playlist that had been playing during the whole process.

"Where do you want to put it?" he asked, gaining Marinette's attention enough for her to zone back into her surroundings. He already knew her plan as Chat Noir, but Adrien didn't so he asked in order to not be suspicious.

"Oh. I was planning to replace my current sewing table against that wall," she said. She pointed to the table that was situated against the wall perpendicular to her loft. "I should clear it off before we move that table, though. I don't want to end up scattering sewing needles around accidentally."

She went over to it and immediately started moving everything to the table that was still right next to it. Thanks to Chat's observation at Ikea, she knew that there would be enough room for the desk without moving the second table. She put everything that would go onto the desk right next to it so she could move it easily later.

Adrien came up behind her to help her move things and when she felt the general warmth of his presence, she dropped the cup of tailor's pencils she was holding. They fell to the floor and the two of them picked them up, bumping heads as they each bent down. She looked away from him and kept grabbing for the items she dropped.

He hoped they'd gotten past the point of her avoiding looking at him. After all, he had built the desk with her in only about 3 hours when it took him 6 hours to build the much easier shelf with Ladybug yesterday. And Ladybug was his partner, there was no one he was better at working with than his partner.

'Absolutely Smitten' by dodie started playing next and Marinette took a deep breath. She bit her lip and continued to stack things onto the second table, being careful not to accidentally bump her computer mouse. She had a few rotating backgrounds set up, so there were equal chances of the background being a picture of her with Adrien, her with Chat, or her with any of her other friends.

Adrien was apparently less careful when he moved things because he bumped into her mouse and her screen woke up, revealing a picture of her and Chat Noir. "That's a nice picture," he commented, thinking back to the day when Marinette took the picture. She made them go up to her balcony specifically so it would look like she just asked him for a picture while he was on patrol instead of just hanging out playing video games like they were.

She tried to put a little nervous of a smile on her face for the picture, like she hadn't been sitting a few centimeters away from him just a few minutes before that. He thought that it was a good idea, but there was no way that anyone who knew Marinette would think that the expression was real.

"Thanks," she said nervously. She made it a point to not talk about the picture unless she was asked, but he interpreted the situation as her just not wanting to talk to him, so he didn't say anything else. They finished clearing off the table and Marinette moved her desk chair out of the way.

"If you grab that side, I can grab this side," she told him. "I'm thinking we can put this table against the wall on the other side of this support thing." She gestured vaguely to the support beam that was behind him. He nodded in agreement and got into position to lift the table. "On three. One, two, three."

The desk was lighter than the two of them thought it would be, which made sense. Marinette hadn't tried to move this desk since before she gained her Ladybug powers and Adrien almost never moved furniture before the last few days. It was mostly just big and would've been too clunky for just one person to carry.

They moved the table successfully and shared a high-five and a smile, much less awkwardly than it had been between Ladybug and Adrien last night. They went over to grab the new desk and placed it in the spot where the table used to sit. Marinette looked at the clock on her nightstand.

It was already close to 15h00 and Chat hadn't come by. He'd been visiting her daily since summer break started and as much as she was enjoying spending time with Adrien, he wasn't Chat Noir, and she was excited to tell her minou that he didn't have to worry about replacing the piece of her bookshelf anymore.

Adrien noticed Marinette looking up to her balcony occasionally and he knew that Chat Noir wouldn't be there anytime soon, but he couldn't explain that to her without opening himself up to a slew of questions. "Do you want help with the last piece?" he offered, pointing to the three remaining boxes against her wall.

"No, thank you," she responded, "I think I'm probably done with building for the day." Something about working with Adrien while they listened to a playlist that her partner made for the two of them made Marinette feel unsettled. She wanted to talk to Chat and get an explanation about his playlist. "Thank you for the help today," she added.

"Do you still want to hang out?" he suggested. She did, she thought she did, but she wanted to talk to Chat Noir more than that. She would even be willing to call him as Ladybug and 'pass along a message from Marinette' if he didn't come by soon.

"Another day," she told him. "We should spend more time together this summer," she added after another moment, "I feel like we never hung out outside of school this last year." That was the most coherent sentence that Marinette had ever said to Adrien. 'Just a Friend to You' by Meghan Trainor started playing and Marinette actually heard the lyrics for what felt like the first time in her life.

He nodded in agreement. "That sounds great, Marinette," he said with a bright smile on his face. She leaned up slightly to exchange les bisous with him, something he never expected to happen between Adrien and Marinette. It made his heart flutter to find out that she finally saw him as a good enough friend for that. "I'll see you later. Text me?"

"Of course," she agreed. She walked him out of the building and took a deep breath as she picked up her own phone. She had never even considered following her partner on Spotify, but now she felt like she needed to find out more about his 'Princess' playlist, especially after that last song.

---

She put in her earbuds and went upstairs to her bedroom. She put the playlist on shuffle and popped up to her balcony. She made sure that the little painted rock was green side up, giving him permission to come in. She thought that if it were flipped, that could have been the reason he didn't come in while she was with Adrien, but apparently it wasn't.

About an hour passed of her laying in bed, eyes closed, listening to the music when she felt her mattress shift slightly. "You have bad taste in music," Marinette said when the weight settled at the foot of her bed. Her eyes were still closed, but she unlocked her phone with her fingerprint and showed him the playlist she was listening to.

"I'm pretty sure you're lying to me," he responded, smiling at the fact that she was listening to the playlist he made for her. "My taste in music is great, it isn't my fault you don't appreciate it."

"Most of this music doesn't even fit Buttercup and me," she added, "he put the playlist on while we were hanging out earlier and there was only one song that felt like it would represent the two of us. The rest of it sounds closer to something you and I would listen to together." His breath caught in his throat, but he tried to react silently because she couldn't see him at that moment.

Marinette was listening to this playlist with buttercup earlier. She was listening to it with Adrien earlier, but there was no way that Adrien was buttercup, right? That would be weird. She wouldn't have feelings for him. On the other hand, though, would Marinette have had time to listen to the playlist with anyone else between when Adrien left and when Chat showed up?

"I can't believe you changed the name of the playlist from 'Buttercup' to 'Princess'," she added after another few moments. "You're such a dork." She let out a small chuckle and shook her head fondly about the superhero who was sitting at the foot of her bed.

"It was never 'Buttercup'," he corrected. "I never called it 'Buttercup.' Its old name was 'Bluebell'. You're the one who said it had to do with him, I just put together a playlist of songs that remind me of you." She cracked an eyelid open and was able to see him through the slit. "It used to be called 'Bluebell' to make people think it was for Ladybug, but when you called me out yesterday, I decided to change it."

She could see that he was rubbing the back of his neck and she felt terrible. She sat up quickly, eyes flying open, and put a hand onto the arm that was still by his side. "Your taste in music is wonderful," she corrected. "I was just trying to poke fun at you before. I'm having a wonderful time listening to this playlist and I appreciate that you made it because of me."

The blush on her face was almost enough to match her Ladybug mask. "So, Adrien Agreste is buttercup?" he asked, trying his best to sound casual. She swallowed the saliva stuck in her throat and nodded. She felt terrible again, assuming that he had come over while she was spending time with Adrien.

It wouldn't have surprised her if Chat had seen her spending time with someone else and just left in order to keep their friendship a secret. She took the earbuds out of her ears and placed her hands into her lap. "He is," she responded shyly. "I thought you'd figured it out because you put Umbrella on the playlist. Uh… that was when I fell for him, he lent me an umbrella when we first met."

He remembered that moment, of course he did. That was the moment he never understood. It seemed like she forgave him for the 'gum incident,' but she didn't seem to be interested in being his friend. Things started to click together in his mind when he thought about the fact that Marinette wasn't wanting to be his friend because she was wanting to be more than that.

He felt his heart pounding in his chest at the onslaught of revelations. He had created a playlist for the girl in front of him, one that she accused of being for the girl he'd been claiming to be in love with for years. Okay, maybe 'claiming' wasn't the right word to use, he was in love with Ladybug, but maybe he had more feelings for Marinette than he originally thought.

He had 'Love Story' on the playlist and said it was because he knew she was a romantic. He supposedly only had the Caleb Hyles cover of 'Someone You Love' because he knew she loved his voice, not because he could 'get kind of used to being someone [she] loved.' He thought about when Marinette heard 'Just a Friend to You' earlier and he could only describe her expression as awed.

'So much more than just a friend to you,' he recalled were the lyrics for that song. He had put love songs throughout the entire playlist without even realizing it. All of them just felt so right for the two of them, he couldn't help himself. That should've been a sign, the fact that he couldn't help himself. Of course he had feelings for her. He would've been stupid not to.

He felt like he had been silent for so long. Marinette didn't know what to say, it was clear that she didn't have anything else to explain and he couldn't form any words. He wondered if it would be inappropriate to ask Ladybug for advice about what to do about his feelings for Marinette. She wouldn't mind, right? It wasn't like she had feelings for him.

"That's cool," he finally said. It felt like it had been hours since Marinette admitted to having feelings for Adrien, but she knew it had only been a few seconds. She was entirely unaware of the inner turmoil he was experiencing. "I hope everything works out well for you." That was the singularly stupidest thing he felt like he could've said at that point.

She nodded in agreement. "So do I," she responded shyly. She dropped her head into her hands. The next words she said were muffled as she basically spoke into the palms of her hands. "Can I be honest with you about something?" Her heart started to speed in her chest as she thought about what she planned to be honest with him about.

"Of course, princess," he assured, "what's up? What are you thinking about?" He knew he had a lot on his mind already, but he couldn't just shut Marinette down after she had already been so honest with him about her feelings. She bit her lip and thought through what she wanted to say.

"There's someone else," she admitted, embarrassed by her own words. "I kind of always thought Adrien was the only one for me, but when we were hanging out earlier, it didn't feel like I wanted it to… there was someone else on my mind the entire time." She wasn't speaking into her hands anymore, but she was so quiet he could barely hear her.

"Do you still feel the same way about Adrien, though?" Chat asked, heart pounding in his chest. He was trying to figure out his feelings for her, there was no way that she could fall out of love with him just as he started to come to terms with his feelings for her, right? That would just be a cruel twist of fate.

"I don't know," she admitted, "I don't think I would be upset if he and I started dating, but this other person just means so much to me and I don't want to miss out on a chance with them because I've been hung up on someone for years who has never even shown a sign of feeling the same way about me."

He felt his heart drop in his chest. "I'm sorry," he said sympathetically. "They're both extremely lucky to have you liking them and it's a shame if they don't understand just how lucky they are." He reached up and placed a hand onto her arm, she looked up and met his eyes with a small smile on her face.

"Thank you." She silently hoped that he didn't realize that he was the person she'd developed feelings for. His eyes were soft as he looked at her and she felt her heart pound in her chest. She didn't know what else to say, so she looked over the edge from her loft to the furniture she'd finished building that day while listening to the 'Princess' playlist with Adrien.

He knew it would be so suspicious if he had left within just a few minutes of arriving, so he looked around, begging for a way to talk about something lighter. A way to kill time, at least until he could go home or see Ladybug and really figure out how he felt. "I see you finished your shelf. Congratulations."

"Thank you," she said, putting a smile on her face. "Adrien brought me a replacement piece for the part you cataclysmed yesterday," she teased before sticking her tongue out at her partner. "He also helped me build the desk. I don't know if you saw that, too." She motioned in the direction of the desk against the wall.

"It looks great," he responded, "looks like you two made a pretty good team." Marinette nodded in unsure agreement. Her 'team' with Adrien didn't feel nearly as good as the Cat and Bug team, or Cat and Girl team in this case. Since she'd met Adrien, all she'd wanted was to spend more time with him, but she spent hours with him that day and it felt like all she did was miss Chat Noir.

"Yeah, it was cool," she concluded. "I don't think I would mind your help decorating, though, if that's something you think you have some time for? You don't have to, obviously, but I like hanging out with you and you're tall." She was certain that she sounded silly, she wouldn't have been surprised if he decided to just leave.

"I'd be delighted to help," he told her. He jumped from his spot at the food of her bed and landed silently on the floor of her room. "Do you need a hand down, princess?" He extended a hand up to her, but she gently batted it away and climbed down her ladder on her own.

The two spent a while putting up some sentimental items and pictures. Marinette handed him a few things that used to be on a shelf so that he could put them up top, where she could see them, but wouldn't touch them very often. He moved her Google Home up there and she set up her phone to stream the 'Princess' playlist from her phone, both of them purposely ignoring the implications of every song.

When Marinette was satisfied with her desk setup, she thanked Chat for his help by giving him a kiss on his cheek which made both of them blush. She offered for him to stay for dinner that night, but he said he couldn't, mostly because he didn't know how much longer he could be around her when he was so conflicted about his feelings.

"I'll see you soon, princess," he said with a smile on his face. She nodded in agreement and he jumped back through the trapdoor to her balcony and bounded off into the Parisian sunset. She was glad that they had patrol that night so that she could see him again, even sooner than he thought.

At 20h55, Ladybug left her balcony in the direction of the Eiffel Tower where she was supposed to meet her partner. She saw on her yo-yo's Spotify account that Chat was listening to the 'Princess' playlist once again and she couldn't help the small flutter in her heart. When she landed, he had one earbud in and he was laying down with his eyes closed. He was as close to copying her position on her bed earlier as he could be.

She sat down next to him when she landed and a smile broke out over her face. She bopped him on the forehead to make him aware of her presence if he wasn't already. "Good evening, Buginette," he said with a soft smile on his face. He paused his music and took the earbud out, eyes still closed.

"It is solidly night," she corrected, "I don't think people would consider 21h to be evening." He shrugged and opened his eyes, sitting up and stretching slightly. She wondered just how long he had been laying there. When he left her place, she assumed he'd had dinner plans, so she was hopeful he hadn't just been on the Eiffel Tower since he left her three hours ago. "How was your day?"

"Do you ever feel like you messed things up before you even knew there was something to mess up?" he asked in response. She tilted her head inquisitively at him, silently begging for an explanation while not wanting to force her hero partner to share his personal life with her. "I think this girl fell out of love with me."

"What?" she asked, trying not to chuckle at his strange statement. "You think a girl fell out of love with you and that's something that you think you messed up?"

"I found out today that this girl was in love with me as a civilian, but I didn't know that. I thought she didn't like me and I was just trying to get closer to her because I wanted to be her friend. Today, we spent the afternoon together and she started treating me more like a friend, which would normally be wonderful, but now I think she used to treat me weirdly because of her feelings for me."

He took a deep breath and tried to think of what else he could say that wouldn't out either of his identities. He knew that Ladybug knew that Adrien was going to see Marinette that day because he was going to drop off that piece of the shelf. "I think I might have fallen in love with her just in time for her to have gotten over me and I feel like an idiot."

He dropped his face into his hand and Ladybug tried to listen, she really tried to listen, but she couldn't get over the tiny heart attack she was having over the fact that Chat Noir might possibly be Adrien. Then again, there was a possibility that she was totally off base. It was definitely possible that someone else told Chat Noir about being in love with another civilian that day, right?

She knew that wasn't right. It was such a ridiculous concept, of course people weren't confessing their feelings to Chat Noir all the time, except for Marinette for some reason. "Is this girl your 'Bluebell'?" she landed on asking, pointing to the earbud he was still holding in one of his hands, "I noticed you've been listening to that one a lot lately."

"Princess," he corrected, "I changed the name to 'Princess' after she accused me of making a romantic playlist for you yesterday. Yeah, though, it's her. I spent some time with her over the last few days and it was the first time I'd ever played it for her." He rubbed the back of his neck as a nervous habit.

"She told me it was terrible," he informed Ladybug with a fond smile on his face. "She said it 'didn't represent her and the other boy.' Apparently, it 'represented her and Chat Noir.' Evidently, it represents both because he and I are one and the same. Now, I've been listening to the playlist for hours and I don't think I want to stop anytime soon."

"Do you have feelings for her?" Ladybug asked for clarification. He swallowed and nodded in confirmation, glancing to the screen of his baton where the song 'Just Friends' by Caleb Hyles was displayed on the screen. She recognized the song from Star Vs. The Forces of Evil and felt her heart pounding in her chest.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think that I do," he responded with a gentle smile on his face, "but, I'm pretty sure she's getting over me, or maybe she's already over me and I don't want to set myself up to just get hurt by her. I wouldn't even blame her, honestly, she's apparently been in love with civilian me since the day we met. I'm kind of shocked that she didn't give up on me before now."

Ladybug didn't know what to say. She had solid proof of his identity and didn't know what she should do with it. She knew that the correct answer was to probably do nothing with it, but she didn't think she could do that without losing her mind with just pining over him, the boy she'd developed feelings for twice.

"What if she fell out of love with you," she began, gesturing broadly at the civilians of Paris, "because she fell in love with you?" She gestured toward him, trying to gauge his reaction while she tried to figure out if she should just come out and admit that that was exactly what had happened.

"I'm not that lucky," he said with a light chuckle, "Mari's too smart to fall for a guy who runs around the rooftops of Paris in a leather catsuit." He pursed his lips and immediately looked away from Ladybug in hopes that she hadn't heard what he had just said.

"Mari?" she questioned, causing a blush to cascade over his cheeks, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng? I was just hanging out with her a little bit ago. She's great, but she told me that you did terribly when she asked for your help with building her bookshelf." Her voice was taunting and he felt defensive of the fact that he wasn't bad at building things. He had built so much stuff in the last few days!

"No I'm not," he argued. "I'm great at building things! She's the one who's bad at building things! And Adrien Agreste told me that you're the one who is bad at building things, Mlle. 6-hours-on-a-shelf. I refuse to take blame for Marinette throwing a piece of wood at me and me having to break it in self defense!"

"I'm hearing excuses, chaton," Ladybug said, trying to muster a pitying glance. "Sounds like you might be in denial. Plus, I'm great at building things. I'm the superhero of creation. I'm basically a pro at construction by default."

"Creation and construction aren't the same thing," he told her with an eye roll. He stopped talking before he could make the comparison that demolition and destruction weren't the same because when it came to his cataclysm, they kind of were. "I bet I could build something better than you could."

"I don't believe you," she told him with a giggle. She knew he was probably right, but she wanted to tease him a bit first. They'd already built something together as Marinette and Chat, as Ladybug and Adrien, and as Marinette and Adrien. She was kind of hoping that she would be able to goad him into building something with her as Ladybug and Chat Noir, too.

"I can," he reaffirmed. "Marinette still has a wardrobe that she needs built! I bet I could build it better than you could!" It was easier than she thought it would be to get the chance to build something with Chat as Ladybug. She had no idea how he planned to judge who did a better job at building the shelf they were building together, but that sounded like a him problem. "Come on, let's go."

He bounded off in the direction of the bakery and Ladybug followed him closely from behind. He landed on her balcony and looked at their signal rock. "We should come back later," he said with a sad tone in his voice, "the rock is red side up, that means I shouldn't come in."

"Well, if green means Chat can come in, wouldn't it make sense that red means Ladybug can come in," Ladybug said, opening the trapdoor into Marinette's bedroom. "I'm sure that she won't mind if you're here with me." She smiled brightly at her partner and jumped in, bypassing her bed to land almost silently on her floor.

He didn't want to break the rules he'd set up with Marinette, but Ladybug waved him inside and he feared her wrath slightly more than Marinette's, so he followed her, landing even more quietly than she did. "She's not here?" he asked. "I wonder where she is. She didn't say anything about having plans tonight." Ladybug shrugged and grabbed the boxes.

She kept two for herself and gave one to Chat Noir who laid it on the floor so he could open it. He went over to Marinette's desk and grabbed the box cutter and scissors they'd used earlier that day. He gave the box cutter to Ladybug, who opened both of her boxes and unpacked them quickly while he did the same to the third box.

He also grabbed the tools they'd used earlier while Ladybug opened the pamphlet of instructions. The two worked seamlessly together during the construction of the main body of the wardrobe, just like they always did when they were heroes. They got through the first 17 pages of instructions by just screwing things in place with the screwdriver.

Step 25 involved hammering some nails to attach the backboard to the body of the wardrobe. Ladybug picked up the hammer and started to put in each of the nails in her side of the wardrobe. Chat Noir did the same with the nails on his side, making sure to put them in as symmetrically to hers as possible.

They finished putting the nails in and the next step was to screw in the doors which was easy enough. The wardrobe was fully built and the two heroes moved it to its spot against the wall before they decided to put in the shelving and hanging rack. When the two of them finished, it was only about 40 minutes since they had arrived in the first place.

They met fists in their signature "Bien joué," just in time for them to be interrupted by a rapping on the trapdoor between Marinette's room and the rest of the apartment.

"Marinette," Sabine called through the door, "I heard a lot of noises up there, is everything okay?" Ladybug immediately moved her hand to cover Chat's mouth before he could react and mess things up for them. She was confident that he was going to tell her that Marinette wasn't there and she didn't have a plan to explain that.

"Oui, maman," she called out in response, "I just finished building the new wardrobe." She knew she couldn't detransform so close to the trapdoor when her maman was right there, the pink light was able to be faintly seen through the crack of the trapdoor, she'd had the kwamis test it with her when she first became the guardian.

"Is Chat here?" Sabine called back, "you haven't been working very long to have already finished building the shelf." Chat reached a hand up and grabbed Ladybug's hand off of his mouth so that he could respond to Sabine.

"Yeah, I'm here," he responded, "Sorry for closing the trapdoor. We just needed the extra floor space to spread out all of the pieces." He used his eyes to signal for Ladybug to go behind the screen in the corner to transform back and she did while he went over to open the trapdoor, which was the rule for when he was over.

By the time Sabine poked her head in, Chat Noir was standing above the door and Marinette was standing near her changing screen holding a half dozen commissions that she was going to move into the wardrobe. She looked a lot more calm than she felt and just hoped that her identity wasn't revealed to more than just Chat.

"Thank you for opening the door, dear," Sabine said to Chat Noir while Marinette walked her pieces over to the wardrobe. She started hanging each of the pieces on the rack, trying to ignore the conversation that her partner was having with her maman.

"Of course, Mme. Cheng, I don't want to jeopardize how much you and M. Dupain allow me to come over. I'm sorry that you were woken up by our construction." His smile was shy as he spoke. "Ladybug mentioned that Marinette was wanting to get everything finished tonight, so I came by. I should get home, though, now that we're done. I think we can all use a good night's sleep."

"We'll see you soon, I hope," Sabine responded.

"Feed a stray and they always come back," Marinette reminded both of them, walking up to where Chat was talking to Sabine in the trapdoor. "I can walk you out." Sabine smiled as the two of them went up to Marinette's balcony, now keeping both trap doors open. The night air was chilly and now that she was a civilian, she knew that a t-shirt wasn't warm enough for the breeze.

"I'll come back to see you tomorrow, Buginette," he almost whispered as he lifted a hand to cup her cheek. She placed her hand on his, slotting her fingers in the grooves between his.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Adrien," she responded. He felt his heart soar from his chest when she said his name. He knew she'd said it earlier that day, but there was something more special about her saying his name now that she knew his biggest secret. "I love you, minou," she added in a soft voice a moment later.

"I love you, princess," he whispered in reply. The two of them both leaned in to meet in a soft kiss.

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This fic was inspired by a prompt I saw from laydeebouge on Tumblr