They arrived at Marinette's apartment not too long after that and they were still talking about a combination of everything and nothing. Instead of leaving her at the door to the complex like Chat Noir had done, Adrien walked Marinette to the door of her apartment.

"Thank you for walking me home, Buttercup," Marinette said with a shy smile. She almost immediately winced at the nickname she used for him.

"Buttercup?" His voice didn't sound disapproving, just genuinely curious. "Is that my new nickname?" He had a smirk on his face that felt strangely familiar to Marinette, but she could figure out where she'd seen it later.

"Maybe," she answered honestly, "I don't know if I'm sold on it as a nickname, but nicknames are coupley and I think having them would help sell the ruse to Alya and Nino." Adrien nodded in understanding and smiled at her.

"Well, I think buttercup sounds like a good nickname to me, princess." Marinette smiled in response to his comment.

"Princess, good choice, Adrien. Alya's going to love that." Her face brightened with excitement and Adrien had a bit of a suspicion that Alya wasn't the only one who would like the nickname, but he wasn't going to mention that. The two exchanged les bisous and then Adrien left her apartment.

— — — — —

Ladybug and Chat Noir just finished an akuma attack on the far side of town from campus and Marinette didn't bring anything with her to transform back into Ladybug when her timer ran out. She did have her metro pass and no classes for the rest of the day, so she decided it would be a good idea to grab some lunch and get home as a civilian.

"Princess," she heard from behind her. She saw her 'boyfriend' jogging up behind her with a few girls staring after him. She put a smile onto her face as he approached her and he smiled just as widely, painting the picture of a happy couple who happened to run into each other. He stumbled a little bit as he jogged, but caught himself before he fell over.

"Hey, buttercup," she greeted when he approached her. They exchanged les bisous and she placed her hand into his. "What brings you to this side of town?" She didn't know why she asked, she didn't want him to ask her the same thing. She didn't have an excuse to be on this side of town.

He considered using the excuse that he needed to meet with his father because Nino would usually accept that excuse, but Marinette probably wouldn't accept that he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt to meet with his father. He considered what was on this side of the city, "I was craving some pastries and my favorite patisserie is on this side of town."

Marinette knew she shouldn't expect her parents' patisserie to be his favorite, but she was still surprised that it wasn't. She'd overheard dozens of people say that it was the best in the city and she couldn't let her boyfriend, fake or otherwise, think anything else. "If you want pastries, I know just the place," she told him. "You up for an impromptu date?"

He chuckled. "With you? I think I can make some room in my schedule." He added a wink for good measure. She gave his hand a little squeeze and started pulling him toward a metro station. She had a mental map of how to get to her parents' bakery from anywhere in the city and she was happy to put it to good use.

Adrien tried not to audibly swallow as they entered the metro station. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather just walk there?" He had never had to ride the metro before and he was a little bit nervous about it.

"Positive," she responded, "the bakery is about a 15 minute ride from here. It would take too long to walk there and I didn't have breakfast this morning."

"I haven't gotten a metro pass yet," he admitted. He wasn't really planning to get one when the semester started. Everywhere he'd need to go, he could usually get by walking, being Chat Noir, or getting a ride from Gorille.

"Sounds like this is the perfect time to get you one, then," Marinette told him with a wink of her own. "Now, come on, I'll even help you if you need me to." Adrien smiled at Marinette and the two of them went over to the machines to buy tickets. He got a refillable student ticket that came with 20 uses.

It took long enough for them to miss the first train, but it just meant another (maybe) 5 minutes of hanging out together before the next train came. Neither of them complained about spending those extra few minutes waiting together. "So, can you promise me that this patisserie will be better than my usual?"

"For sure," Marinette said confidently, "it's Ladybug's favorite patisserie in the world." Adrien quirked an eyebrow. Why did Marinette know that? He, as Ladybug's partner, didn't even know her favorite bakery. Was that something he should have known?

"I don't think I believe you," he responded with a chuckle, "but I'll trust your choice in patisseries this time." The train pulled up and both of them were pleasantly surprised by the fact that it was relatively empty. They sat down in seats next to each other and Adrien put his arm around Marinette's shoulders instead of holding her hand.

"I don't need you to believe me," Marinette joked with a shrug, "I have proof of my claim and you can't convince me otherwise." Marinette booped Adrien's nose while she joked with him and she couldn't help but to feel a little shy when it seemed like someone across the train car from them was taking a picture. She tried to ignore them and just have a nice talk with her friend.

They spent the rest of the ride talking and joking with each other. The name 'Lamarck- Caulaincourt' came up on the screen of the train and Marinette nudged Adrien gently. "This is our stop," she told him. He stood first and extended a hand to her to help her stand up. She accepted and they went over to stand by the doors to the train.

The doors opened and Marinette led Adrien out of the metro station. Once they left the station, it wasn't too far of a walk to Tom and Sabine's. Before they went inside, Marinette let go of Adrien's hand.

The first thing Adrien heard when they entered was a call of "Marinette's here," that came from the cashier and he didn't know who it was directed toward until he saw a man, larger than the Gorille, coming out from the back.