Adrien stood there, watching Marinette disappear around the corner, in complete shock. As soon as his brain reconnected to his body, her hurried to Ms. Mendeleiev's class. He lucked in and found her setting out lab equipment.

"Hey, Ms. Mendeleiev, there's been a modeling emergency. I'm needed by my father for the next hour or so. Can I get today's assignments?"

Getting out of class was beyond easy for him at this point, and Adrien had found that if you asked for the assignment, teachers were generally far too busy describing it to you, to question the reason for your absence.

He jotted down the assignment as Ms. Mendeleiev told him about it, then he headed upstairs to his favorite bathroom on the third floor. It was typically abandoned, so he could chat with Plagg with few interruptions.

As soon as the stall door swung closed, Adrien was pulling on his overshirt, looking at Plagg.

"Can you believe Marinette is in love with me?!"

Plagg rolled his eyes.

"Yeah Kid, I think we went through this before. She said she loved you, you said you loved Ladybug, her dad got akumatized, and we missed out on the CHEESE COURSE!"

Adrien spluttered.

"Well, I AM in love with Ladybug. And she didn't know I was Adrien then, did she?"

Plagg looked at him with unfathomable eyes.

"You know," Plagg said slowly, tilting his head in thought, "I really don't know. Does that matter?"

Adrien had already moved on though.

"And she thinks I'm in a relationship with Kagami!"

"Um, Adrien…you ARE in a relationship with Kagami."

"Well, yeah, but I mean Marinette thinks I'm in a ROMANTIC relationship with Kagami."

"Ok, kid, even without a cheese toll, I am going to spell this one out for you. You asked Pigtails for love advice about Kagami. You then took Kagami on a double date with Pigtails and her musician friend. You accompanied her to a royal wedding. You escorted her to a movie premier. You hang out with her all the time. You ARE dating Kagami."

Adrien slid off the toilet and onto the floor.

"Oh, no! How did this happen?" Adrien moaned from the floor, his head in his hands. "What would Ladybug think of me? I can just see it now. 'Well, Ladybug, I didn't realize I was dating her? And that other girl, she's just a friend. Who happens to be in love with me." This is a disaster!

His mind was starting to spiral into panic when suddenly certain words and concepts fell together in his mind. LILA was planning on using HIM as her WEAPON of choice to HURT MARINETTE. He had no intention of letting that happen. He didn't know how to stop it yet, but he would. He started to slowly come up with a plan of action. It wasn't complete, but it was a start. 1) Reassure Marinette 2) Find out what was going on with Lila 3) Re-establish relationship boundaries with Kagami. Again. 4) Stop Lila. With that in mind, he got out his phone to text Marinette.

A: I was flattered and surprised by what you had to say to me earlier. It's a lot to think about. Can I have a few days to think about everything? Please don't be a stranger during that time. Thank you, also, for giving me a heads up about Lila. Can we talk about what is going on between the two of you sometime soon? I get the impression I'm missing some of the story. Also, I am not dating Kagami.

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The next few days were not easy. Marinette was back to stuttering around him like she had the first few months of school, but at least she wasn't avoiding him. And at least now he knew what caused it. She'd set up a time to talk with him and had caught him up on pretty much everything with Lila, from following the girl the first day of school out of jealousy ('Props on being honest there,' he thought. 'That had to be difficult to admit.') to being threatened in the bathroom, all kinds of Lila's lies, being harassed and threatened during and after school several times, right up to the day before when Lila had apparently caught Marinette alone in the hallway and told her she was watching her. It made a shiver go down his back. That was full on creepy.

He had also spoken to Kagami after fencing. He explained that while he enjoyed hanging out with her and valued her friendship, he was pursuing someone else and hoped he hadn't led her on. Kagami shocked him by saying that while she wasn't happy about it and maybe had been getting her hopes up, she'd already known he was interested in Marinette and that she respected his wishes regardless. She also went on to say that she was surprised he hadn't made a more aggressive move yet, as it was clear to anyone with eyes that Marinette returned his interest.

Needless to say, that night before bed he had a long, mostly one-sided discussion with Plagg.

"Plagg," Adrien called, trying to get the little cat's attention.

"Adrien," Plagg deadpanned back in his most bored voice.

"Did you hear what Kagami said?" Adrien offered his opener.

"Unfortunately, yes. We're about to analyze your love life again, aren't we?" Plagg questioned, as he flew up from the wastebasket, he'd been in.

"May-be?"

"Ughhh…Can I at least get some Camembert first?"

"I have a small wheel of Epoisses de Bourgogne saved for a special occasion. Interested in that?"

"Oh, no, this is going to be bad, isn't it? And yes, hand it over."

Adrien, being no fool, tossed half of it to Plagg, rewrapping and reserving the other half to ensure that his floating stomach stayed tuned in for the conversation. Then he opened his entire bay of windows and stuck a nose plug on himself so he could talk without gagging.

"Kagami thinks I'm in love with Marinette."

"Ok."

"But I'm in love with Ladybug!"

"Notice that you didn't deny that you're in love with Marinette."

Adrien stopped, flabbergasted. Why hadn't he flat out denied it? And then it hit him. He couldn't deny it. Not even right now. He could not say out loud, 'I am not in love with Marinette.' And he couldn't do it, because it would be a lie. He was in love with Marinette. But he was in love with Ladybug, too! He slumped onto the bed.

"Wow, looks like I got the point across really quickly tonight, huh? Can I get the rest of my cheese now as a reward?" Plagg teased as he flew over to Adrien. He settled onto Adrien's stripes.

"Hey, you're okay, aren't you? I mean, she loves you, you love her, Ladybug will be happy if you stop flirting all the time. It's a win, win, win, right?"

Plagg knew it was the best possible win, but a kwami has to have a few secrets, even if he doesn't want them.

Adrien scratched Plagg behind the ears and under the chin. Plagg did have a point. Marinette was amazing. And while he had never let himself think of Marinette in a romantic way, now that he was considering it, he could feel himself yearning for it. And because he knew she had a crush on Chat Noir and she claimed to be in love with him, he would be able to just be himself and not worry about projecting a certain image. That was a really nice thought. It would solve at least one of the problems Lila was creating, but could he give up on Ladybug?

He didn't know.

"Yeah, Plagg, I think I am all right." He looked down to see the little god of destruction, looking entirely too innocent, sleeping on his chest. He laid back down and fell asleep, too.

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Adrien woke up in the wee hours of the morning to a blaring akuma alert from his computer. Great. Morning akuma's wrecked so much havoc with his schedule. Couldn't Hawkmoth come up with something better to do at this hour? Like sleep, maybe? Adrien, still rumply from sleeping in his clothes, called on his transformation and made a hasty exit through his window.

Much to Chat Noir's amusement, the akuma today appeared to be an older kid, going by the moniker King Kandy. He was rampaging through Paris, turning all the buildings and structures into various candies and confections. Many Parisians were flocking to the delicious treats to enjoy them, while other's were getting stuck to fruit leather sidewalks, blown sugar glass walls, and frosting grass.

"Wow, LB, this sure is a sticky situation," he said, as he landed next to his partner on a building that hadn't been hit yet.

"Well," she said, smirking up at him, "hopefully, it will have a sweet ending."

Chat Noir could barely contain his laugh. Shaking off his mirth, he asked what the game plan was.

"I don't have one yet. King Kandy doesn't seem to have much of an offensive arsenal. If we can take him down without getting stuck to something, I think we'll have it made."

"I think a little luck could make this one even easier, don't you think? I don't know about you, M'Lady, but I have a pretty full morning schedule."

Ladybug laughed. "Yeah. My schedule was supposed to include more sleep. Lucky Charm!"

A bottle of vegetable oil fell out of the sky.

Ladybug grabbed the bottle and opened it up, covering her feet, hands, elbows, and knees with it.

"And here I was, hoping for a pillow," she said, as she tossed the bottle to Chat Noir. "Coat your baton, too. This way we won't stick to anything."

After that, their attack was simple and straight forward. The akuma wound up being in King Kandy's staff which looked like a totem pole of candy. When the akuma had been cleansed, the boy was left holding a treat bag he received at a birthday party, but his parents hadn't allowed him to eat. Things were cleaned up quickly. Chat Noir was headed home. A few blocks from where they had defeated the akuma, he was vaulting over an alley when he witnessed a flash of pink light and saw a red kwami fly out of a pair of earrings and into Marinette Dupain-Cheng's waiting hands. He crashed face first into the top of the next roof.

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After a full day of studying the artwork at the Musee d'Orsay, the class was relaxing at the Tuileries Garden before heading back to school. Kim, after being sushed repeatedly on the subject of naked women, had moved on to mocking the still lifes.

"I mean, an asparagus. Really? What was that all about?" Kim crowed, leaning back on his elbows.

"It is well known among artists and historians, that the purchaser for the original work, A Bunch of Asparagus, overpaid for the art," Max filled Kim in. "Manet, as a joke, painted one additional asparagus spear and sent it, since it was "missing from the bunch.""

Several kids in the class chuckled at that.

"I thought the museum was so romantic," Rose dreamily said to the class.

Max nodded enthusiastically at Rose's statement. "While researching the museum before our trip, I read about a love story mystery tied to the museum. Markov and I have are discussing whether or not we should offer our help to try to solve the mystery."

Several students looked on in anticipation.

"Tell us more about it," Alya insisted.

"Doug Block, a film maker, found a love letter in a book about Paris. It was addressed to someone named Betty. It was written by someone named Henri. The letter instructs Betty to go to the Musee d'Orsay. The film maker is trying to track down Betty and Henri but hasn't had any luck yet. The letter is…quite moving," Max finished.

"Oh, I just love a good love story," Rose trilled. "Tell us again about how Ivan confessed to you, Mylene!"

Much to Ivan's chagrin, Mylene told a detailed account of his bumbling attempts to win her heart. Then Alya chimed in and recounted a partial tale of how she and Nino got together. It was obvious that it was missing some details, as every time Nino would start to add something Alya would give him a look and vigorously shake her head. Lila had been listening and watching in fascination. She really didn't care how these losers got together, but this was about as close to a perfect setup as she was going to get for her "Embarrass Marinette via Adrien" plan.

"Wow, Alya that's such a great story!" Lila spoke up, using her "I'm your best friend" voice. Then she looked directly at Adrien and batted her eyes innocently. "How did Marinette confess to you?" she asked curiously.

Ah. The ball had landed in his court at last. And what a day for it to do so. He really hoped Marinette wouldn't kill him. He looked right at his would-be executioner and said, "It was so sweet and unexpected. You see," he said, glancing at Lila to make sure he had her attention before making eye contact with Marinette again, "There had been an incident right outside the bakery and we both just happened to rescue a baby together. I forgot his pacifier, so I went up to her balcony to get it…

Notes:

King Kandy is a character from the game Candyland. The story about the asparagus painting and the love story mystery are true. The love note is quite moving.