Walking into school the next morning Adrien nearly jumped when he saw Marinette at her locker. She was sorting through her schoolbooks and hadn't noticed him but his face was already burning with embarrassment. Then he remembered that Marinette didn't know he was Chat Noir and therefore didn't know that he was the one who had randomly kissed her in the dark last night. He breathed a sigh of relief, but still decided to slip around the opposite side of the row of lockers to wait for her to leave before going to get his own textbook. At least that was his plan but suddenly Nino appeared out of nowhere, greeting him cheerily and clapping a hand on his shoulder

"Adrien! Sup! You ready for that Chemistry quiz today?"

Adrien watched Marinette's head snap out of her locker when Nino said his name, looking quickly toward the two boys standing at the end of the row. Her eyes met his and he could tell, even from this distance that her cheeks were turning slightly pink. He sighed,

"Act natural…" he reminded himself before giving her what he hoped was a normal, friendly smile and a quick wave. She waved back hesitantly, smiling. Nino followed Adrien's gaze and gave her a wave as well,

"Oh, hey Marinette! What's up?"

"Hey Nino! Hi Adrien…" He noticed she stretched the 'A' at the beginning of his name out a little bit too long and smiled to himself, shaking his head. Pretending he didn't know anything was going to be harder than he'd thought. He'd been so preoccupied with his embarrassment last night, worrying about he was going to explain things to Marinette without revealing his identity and if/how he should tell Ladybug that he kissed a civilian, that he hadn't even been thinking about how he now knew that she liked him, as Adrien, and would have to spend all day at school with her knowing that. He supposed for now it would be easiest to keep acting like he didn't know anything…after all what was he going to do? Turn her feelings down? Ask her out? Neither one sounded right, he needed more time to think...

Marinette tried to be realistic with herself. There was no reason to feel guilty, it wasn't like she was dating Adrien, and she hadn't asked Chat Noir to kiss her either. So she definitely had nothing to feel bad for right? And yet she couldn't shake the feeling all day that Adrien was watching her. But that was crazy right? How could he possibly know? She must be imagining things. Sighing she looked up from her notes, where she had absentmindedly been scribbling and realized Adrien was turned in his seat slightly, looking at her. Her eyes widened and she blushed, covering her notes with one arm awkwardly.

"Hey, um, can I…borrow an eraser?" Adrien whispered, smiling apologetically. She nodded, a little too enthusiastically and leaned over to dig through her bag. As she did so, however, her elbow bumped into her notebook and it slipped off her desk, right into Adrien's lap. Twisting back around quickly she looked in horror as Adrien picked it up, reaching to hand it back to her and then pausing as he read what she'd written. Scrawled in her messy cursive handwriting she had been trying to organize the events of last night into a kind of list, hoping that somehow seeing it on paper might help her understand what had happened. Consequently Adrien was holding a piece of paper that read:

Chat Noir in my room - Sees pictures of Adrien - gets weird - me, blah blah blah Adrien - KISS?!

She felt herself turning bright red as he handed it back to her and looked away awkwardly, ruffling his hand in the back of his hair. He had definitely read it. But they were in the middle of class right now; there was no way for her to explain this to him. She glanced at Alya, who had witnessed the exchange but fortunately still didn't know what her notes contained. Her friend gave her a sly grin and a thumbs-up before turning her attention back to Ms. Bustier's lecture. Marinette felt like she was going to die of embarrassment.

She wanted to get her friend's help, Alya would know how to spin this so Adrien wouldn't think Marinette was a total weirdo but that would mean showing her the note and she would definitely want to know all about Chat Noir's kiss. She trusted her friend would be discreet enough not to post it on the Ladyblog if Marinette asked her not to but…she honestly felt bad for Chat Noir, remembering his painful expression revealed in a flash of lighting, and it felt like something that somehow should be kept…private, not dished about, not even with her bestie. Letting out a long sigh she turned the page over in her notebook to a blank one, feeling as empty as the paper in front of her. Suddenly a glimmer of movement in her peripheral vision drew her attention to the window.

An eerily familiar looking shape flitted right through the glass pane of the window, slowly drawing near to her and as it did Marinette's heart nearly stopped. The dark purple wings sent panic running through her mind as she recognized what it was. An Akuma. She glanced around the room quickly, scanning the faces of her classmates for anyone that may seem particularly upset but her peers were all more or less focused on their teacher's demonstration. Everyone seemed to fall somewhere in the range of mildly attentive to bored, but nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be going on with any of them. The ominous butterfly was still lazily drawing closer to her and she realized: she was the one it was heading for.

This couldn't happen to her, Ladybug was the only one who could purify an Akuma, if she got Akumatized it would all be over. She had to get out of there fast. Taking a quick breath and raising her hand but not waiting for her teacher's permission before standing up she slid around the back of Alya's chair, heading for the door as she spoke,

"Ms. Bustier, I have to go to the bathroom, it's an emergency, I'm sorry!"

Everyone in the class watched her in surprise as she rushed out the door without another word. She didn't notice Adrien spot the Akuma or hear him ask for permission to leave as well.

Marinette ran down the hallway, trying to think, checking over her shoulder and seeing the Akuma steadily flitting after her.

"Tikki!"

She hissed her Kwami's name in a harsh whisper, heading down the stairs into the courtyard, trying to keep moving. Her magical friend's tiny, red, head peered out from the pocket in her jacket and gasped, catching sight of the Akuma.

"Marinette! There's an Akuma, we have to find the person it's after!"

"It's after ME!"

Marinette huffed, trying to talk and run at the same time,

"If I transform to purify it while it's still coming for me, do you think that would reveal my identity as Ladybug to Hawkmoth?"

She had reached the main entrance to the school and the Akuma was starting to pick up speed, but she was almost on the street now and couldn't transform with all the civilians walking and driving past. Tikki ducked back down slightly,

"I-I don't know…"

Glancing around nervously Marinette was trying to weigh her options when a black blur swooped into her line of sight and she felt a rather familiar pair of arms scooping her up into the air.

"Ditching class, Princess?"

She blushed slightly looking up into Chat Noir's bright green eyes. He glanced down at her and grinned before focusing back on the rooftops he was jumping across with seemingly minimal effort. Marinette could've sworn there was a hint of pink spreading across his face but his mask covered most of it and it could have just been from the effort of carrying her and running over buildings.

They were blocks away in a matter of seconds and Chat Noir set her down gently as they stopped on top of a multi-storied bank building. Both of them were gazing warily back towards the school but the Akuma seemed to have disappeared.

"Do you think it found a new victim?" Marinette asked the boy standing beside her, worried that she had escaped at someone else's expense.

"Maybe…" Chat Noir was scanning the horizon carefully. Silence stretched between them before they both realized what exactly had just happened.

"Wait, where did you come from just now? I wasn't even Akumatized and you were already there…" Marinette turned to look at Chat Noir, partly impressed with his timing but also suspicious. Was he stalking her?

Her partner's eyes widened in surprise and he looked away nervously,

"I uh…I just happened to be passing by…" He had been ruffling the back of his hair awkwardly but then he paused and looked at her curiously,

"How did you know to run away? I've never seen anyone do that before, you seem to have some experience dealing with Akumas…"

Now Marinette's eyes widened in surprise and she glanced over the cityscape around them trying to think of a believable excuse,

"Uh…I…mean…I've just seen you and Ladybug a lot on the news and you know…you've been coming to my house all the time talking about fighting them…"

She arched an eyebrow and smiled at him and then froze, remembering the last time he had been at her house, in her room, last night. Looking back at him slowly he seemed to be remembering the same thing, his face was definitely turning pinker now and when she looked in his eyes he looked guilty. Neither of them said anything for a second and then Chat Noir broke away, awkwardly laughing,

"Hahaha, right, I guess you have spent a lot of time with an Akuma expert lately…"

Marinette scrunched her lips together to one side of her mouth and looked down at her shoes, not sure how to bring up what had happened last night, or what she even wanted to say. Of course she was confused by what had happened and she wanted to know why he had kissed her but more than that she couldn't shake the expression she'd caught on his face that was so dark and out of character for Chat Noir. Finally she looked back up at him. He was standing with his back to her now, still ruffling his hair nervously. That tic of his reminded her of someone but she pushed the thought out of her mind as she took a breath.

"Chat Noir…Last night…"

He turned, looking at her like he'd been caught with something naughty and knew he was in trouble. She sighed, shoulders slacking and looked into his eyes honestly,

"Are you ok?"

His eyes grew wider and she wondered what he had expected her to say but waited silently for him to answer. After a second he blinked rapidly and his typical sassy grin reemerged on his face.

"Just purr-fect, Princess."

"Ok…" Marinette wasn't convinced but as she was trying to put together what to say next a police siren went off, followed by distant screams. Both of them quickly turned to look back in the direction they came and saw helicopters starting to converge on an area several blocks away.

Chat Noir looked at her and grinned, a slightly guilty look still in his eyes as he put one foot up on the low railing edging the roof.

"Sorry we can't talk more but, well, duty calls!"

He winked and gave her a two-fingered salute before leaping off the roof onto the next building, quickly heading back toward the chaos ensuing in the distance.

Marinette sighed but felt a little relived to know the Akuma could at least be accounted for. As she watched to be sure Chat Noir was out of sight she found herself actually hoping he would come by her balcony to talk again soon, they definitely weren't done sorting out whatever had happened between them.

Shaking her head slightly she stretched out her arms and called to her Kwami,

"Tikki, spots on!"