A/N: I came back with this chapter as fast as I could. I work retail and we're gearing up for Xmas. And without knowing wtf is going to happen with whats going on with Covid, people are shopping early and while I get a lot of hours, on top of being a parent, working on a book, planning several fanfics, and running a small business, I don't have a lot of time. But I don't want anyone to think of this as a chore. I assure you, getting to actual write something fun is the best part of my week most days.

That being said, I thought I would let you all know Consequences of Falling With You won the vote, so after this story is complete I will start writing that one. Maybe before November is over. I am about 3/4 done planning it right now.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Please Keep My Secret

Chapter 7

Marinette could barely focus on her essay she had supposed to finish for the next day. Her mind kept replaying the afternoon over and over again. It was a great day. She got to see the latest Gabriel Design, and see Adrien modelling them in action. Then she got to spend the little time they had talking and laughing. The visit ended with a kiss on her cheek, which was just the cherry on top.

It didn't help that he was sending her memes and funny gifs all evening. Though when he sent her a picture, she lost it and was in stitches as she laughed. The photo was a selfie of him, and he was holding up a plate with one of the croissants. He was looking at it suspiciously. She couldn't hold it together when she saw it and it set off her giggling fit. Tikki had been napping but she peeked up and looked at Marinette.

"What's so funny?" Tikki asked. Marinette showed the photo to the kwami, who giggled when she saw the photo. "That's so cute!"

Marinette was giddy, her paper completely forgotten at the moment. She sent him a text back.

Marinette: Darn! You figured me out.

She giggled some more, but put her phone down long enough to turn back to her computer and try to type up at least one more paragraph before she got distracted by the pretty model giving her attention. Tikki returned to her napping spot, while the teenager tried to focus on her homework. While she was working, she could hear her phone buzzing, but she ignored it for now. She had to get this done. Marinette knew her classmate would understand. Though he was perfect enough he probably had all this done Friday Night before patrol. Finding time after Piano lessons, or his Chinese lessons.

Her phone buzzed again.

'No, no, don't look,' Marinette tried to remind herself.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

She stopped typing, and turned to glance at the phone she desperately wanted to ignore but also check. It couldn't be an emergency. What could have change in just the few minutes that she had sent him that text. She tried to turn her attention back to her computer. She had to get this paper done. Her attention was drew to the phone as it then began to ring. She froze when she heard her ringtone. Her eyes glanced at the phone, expecting the screen to be it up with Adrien's face, but rather it was Alya's. Her eyes went wide and she grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" she answered. "Something wrong Alya?"

"Girl! I need to know what the hell happened today, and why I'm only finding out about it on social media," Alya cried into the phone.

Marinette was confused. "I'm sorry, what are you talking about?"

"Your date with Adrien!" she exclaimed.

"Huh? Date? I didn't go on a date with Adrien. He invited me to one of his dad's photo shoot's and we talked for a while after," Marinette explained. "I got to see some of the new Gabriel designs and got to see the indust-"

"Marinette, stop bullshitting me. I am staring at a photo of him kissing you right now!" Alya cried.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at the photo I sent," Alya said. "I texted it to you but you didn't reply."

"I was trying to work on the history paper. Give me a second, I'm putting you on speaker," Marinette explained as she began to look through the messages Alya sent. They were mostly the same as the conversation she had with Alya just now, though when she got to the photo, she clicked on it and her cheeks went red. It was a photo from behind her, taken at the moment when Adrien had planted a kiss on her cheek. Except, from the angle, it didn't look like a kiss on the cheek, but like they were standing by the bench kissing. Lips on lips. Marinette let out a yelp and nearly dropped the phone.

"I demand answers!" Alya stated.

"No, no, no," Marinette cried. "It isn't like that! He gave me a kiss on the cheek before he left. It wasn't romantic at all, I swear Alya."

"So it really wasn't a date, and it wasn't a kiss? Not on the lips, anyway?" Alya asked.

"Do you really think I'd be able to keep my mouth shut if it was a date, or if we kissed. It was a friendly outing," Marinette explained. "But where did you get that photo?"

"Mari, its on social media. On Adrien's fan page," Alya explained. "Someone was taking photos from the shoot from afar, and they were spying on you I guess. Everyone's wondering if you two are dating. People are freaking out," Alya explained.

Marinette put her phone down and opened up new news feed and searched for it. It didn't take long for her to find it. Her cheeks went red. There it was on her large computer screen. You couldn't see her face, but anyone who knew Marinette would know her from behind. You could see her little purse that she hid Tikki in right in the photo. Then beside it was another photo. This one focused on Adrien during the actual shoot, but you could see Marinette in the background, from a side angle. And then others. One of her pouring him hot chocolate, and then the one of the two of them laughing over the frozen croissants. The final one was of Adrien smiling at her, and her expression full of wonderment. It was the moment he had told her that her smile was her best feature, and how much he liked it. Her heart raced in her chest and she stared in awe.

"Are you looking at it?" Alya asked when Marinette didn't reply.

"Yes," Marinette answered.

"These photos look really intimate. Are you sure it wasn't a date?" Alya asked.

"It was just a friendly outing," Marinette repeated the sentiment.

Marinette's eyes were glancing over the comments. Many were questioning whether the outing was romantic, but when people saw the one with the questionable angle, there was rage. There was a pain in the pit of her stomach and she thought she might throw up.

"Mari, you better not be reading those comments," Alya warned.

"Too late," Marinette stated factually. Marinette sometimes a lot of girls in Paris likes Adrien probably as much as she did. She didn't actively go on the Adrien fan pages everyday. And she didn't engaged in the comments. She liked to think she was different from these other girls, since she went to school with him, and saw almost daily. This was different though. This was painting a target on her back, and she knew it.

"Close that page," Alya ordered.

Marinette did, and turned away from the computer now. She was frowning and she felt awful, and wished that a hole would open up and swallow her. Her eyes glanced at a clock on her wall, to see that it was nearly 11PM. She was suppose to be done her essay by now and should be getting ready for a late patrol. She just hoped that an Akuma didn't attack tonight of all nights. The fresh air might do her good, but truth be told, Marinette didn't want to leave her bedroom.

"I'm sure this will blow over," Alya said. "Once they have more pictures of Adrien they will move on and forget about it. Just like they did when you went on that adventure with him in your pajama's."

Adrien hadn't had a girlfriend before, so it was hard to say how fans would react to him actually having a girlfriend, but Marinette hardly wanted to be the test subject for that social experiment. The ache in her belly only grew as the conversation grew. Marinette didn't know what she could say to Alya, or how she deal with this.

"Just...go to sleep Mari, rest up, okay? I'll see you in the morning," Alya stated. "Okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," Marinette replied.

Marinette hung up, and stared at her phone, seeing that she got some text's from Adrien while on the phone with Alya. She looked at the messages. Many were more memes. He even made a cat pun, because of course the secretly a superhero did. She cracked a smile for just a moment, but she returned to frowning as she notice the several more notifications coming into her phone now. All from social media. She was being tagged, and then she was getting requests for permissions to receive messages from new contacts. No good could come from looking at them, no matter how much she wanted to look at them. She tossed her phone down, and turned off her lights, and crawled up into bed. Tikki was sound asleep. Marinette climbed into bed, her clothes still on, her essay unfinished, and her patrol uncompleted. She could only stare into the darkness, her mind racing with what she was going to do tomorrow. Sure that this would be everywhere by then.

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter. I wanted to make it a full length chapter, but this is all I could manage this week. I am going to try and get another out this weekend, but I make no promises. I hope you still enjoyed the new chapter.