I had the WHOLE day yesterday to work on this chapter. And you want to know when I started it?

Nine. PM.

Who needs a healthy sleep schedule anyways?

MariChat

Marinette must've been the only one to not be surprised at the rose scattered across Adrien's desk.

"What?" seemed to be more or less the consensus of the class.

So Marinette tried to act accordingly surprised.

Adrien held up his hands. "It's probably just one of my fans, guys. Valentine's day is just ten days away."

She didn't know if anyone else noticed him hiding the card, but she knew she was the only one who knew what was written on it- and not a little nervous about it.

Hope this makes your cheeks ROSY.

- Your Secret Admirer

Sure, she inwardly cringed at borrowing Chat's cheesy pun, but she had to test out what Adrien liked. And judging by the fact that Adrien really did seem a little flushed, it seemed to have paid off. Maybe Chat really did know what he was doing.

Everyone seemed to disperse then, Adrien gathering up the petals. She wondered what he would do with them. Personally, unless she knew it was from him, she'd throw them away. But he decided to stuff it in his bag.

Why did he do that? Why?

Marinette frowned as she approached her own seat. She expected him to at best keep a few, but that was twenty-three rose's worth of petals. Yeah, they smelled nice, but doing something like that might make the bag have the aroma permanently.

Marinette felt Alya nudge her in the ribs, and her attention returned to her own desk.

Oh, right.

The twenty-fourth rose. It seemed like a waste to not keep at least one of them intact. It would go well with the other red and pink roses she had kept from Chat.

"You got a rose, too?" Alya smirked. "Looks like someone might have some competition."

Adrien looked up at them, seeing the rose, and then looking at her face, and then the rose again. He looked like he was trying to figure out where the last piece of the puzzle was.

Marinette hoped this clue would be enough, and smiled at him before turning back to Alya. None of what she said had been false. Just that Marinette very well knew the person who gave her the rose. Or not, considering that she didn't know Chat's identity.

"Guess I have a secret admirer, too."

Chat was absent-mindedly setting up the trap for the heart confetti surprise he had for his Lady tomorrow before he went on patrol. But he wasn't really paying much attention to it. Because he was just too darn confused.

A secret admirer. Using the same tricks he'd been using on Ladybug.

Was it a coincidence? Or did they also get all their romantic ideas from manga?

Hope this makes your cheeks ROSY.

Chat groaned. They used his puns. It couldn't be Ladybug. She hadn't been too appreciative of that exact pun last night.

Then who was it?

Also, what was with Marinette? She'd been at school- not only on time, or early, but very early for two days now. And she had a rose while his desk was covered in petals. And that look she had given him when he'd looked back at her.

There was something there, but he couldn't quite figure out what it all meant.

Needless to say, the second-most popular hero of Paris was distracted while leaping across the roofs of Paris on his patrol (which somewhat defeated the point of having the patrol in the first place, but Chat was too worried about that at the moment- he had other things on his mind).

And when the object of his preoccupation called out a friendly hello, he was startled enough that he missed a step and ever-so-elegantly crashed right into her balcony, landing face first.

You know, like every guy wanted to do in front of a cute girl.

To her credit, Marinette immediately scrambled over to him. "I'm so sorry, Chat Noir! I was only trying to give a friendly greeting, since I was out here sketching while you were on patrol. I didn't mean for you to-" She cut off. "Oh. You even scraped your cheek."

"It's fine, Princess," Chat reassured her. "Only the suit is indestructible, not my skin that's still exposed, and it doesn't hurt that mu-"

Wait. His cheek? It may only be a scrape, but those took time to heal, and it wasn't exactly like it would be easy to hide if it was on his face. "Oh, no. No no no no no. My father's going to kill me."

Chat Noir's plan was working well, and it certainly was good. There was just one problem with it that neither he or Marinette had considered.

If she was going to soften him up, as Chat had put it, what was she supposed to do on the days she wasn't able to get any suggestions from him. What about the days in between their patrols together?

Marinette realized this as she was out sketching on her balcony, and asked Tikki about it.

"Well, Marinette, maybe you should think about what he likes," the kwami suggested.

Marinette tapped her chin as if that would help her think. "I dunno, besides having free time to spend with his friends, or his father actually paying attention to him. But I can't exactly give those to him, can I?"

Just then, she saw a darker shadow than the surrounding city start bounding towards him. It was his night for patrol, wasn't it? And maybe she could get advice from him, anyways. It didn't hurt that he might be more willing to help Marinette with her crush than Ladybug, because he was not competing for her heart.

So she stood up, waved to her partner, and called out, "Hey, Chat Noir!"

And watched frozen as he looked at her like she came out of the blue and crashed onto the balcony.

"I'm so sorry, Chat Noir!" Marinette apologized, raining towards him to help him up. "I was only trying to give a friendly greeting, since I was out here sketching while you were on patrol. I didn't mean for you to-"

She halted as she saw the light traces of red form on his right cheek. "Oh. You even scraped your cheek."

"It's fine, Princess," Chat quickly responded, obviously immediately going into civilian- reassurance mode. She could understand that easily enough. "Only the suit is indestructible, not my skin that's still exposed, and it doesn't hurt that mu-"

He had a point about the suit, but it had never come up before, because the portion of their uncovered bodies tropically didn't get hurt during the course of battle.

But then Marinette noticed that Chat had cut himself off, pulling her from her watched as his eyes widened and he put a hand on the cheek. "Oh, no. No no no no no. My father's going to kill me."

Marinette raised an eyebrow. "I thought that you were the king of puns, not hyperboles, Chat Noir."

"That's because it's not a hyperbole," he said defensively, meeting her eyes. Then he recoiled. "Well, maybe it is a little bit of a hyperbole. But my father still won't like it- I can't say why without going into details about my identity."

Marinette took a moment to think about it. Tikki could heal things, right? Well, she'd have to ask, but for now… "Why don't we go in so we can take care of that, if you're so worried about it?" she suggested. "I think I might have something that just might be able to help."

Chat complied, and once they got down from her loft, Marinette turned to him, and said, "Think you can stay in here while I go get first aid from the bathroom?"

"Sure."

"Without getting into anything?" she double-checked.

"Uhh…"

Marinette facepalmed, and it wasn't internally. "You're supposed to be the suavest superhero in Pairs?"

He gave her an awkward grin. "Yes."

She sighed. "I'll be quick. Please try not to get into anything, if you will."

"No promises."

"Of course not," Marinette grumbled as she left. "You're a cat."

As nervous as she was about leaving him unattended in her room, Marinette was relieved to be away from him for a moment, and have another chance to talk to Tikki.

She really did get the first aid kit out. It was good to have, especially if Tikki couldn't heal him magically.

"Tikki?" Marinette asked. "Could you heal Chat's scrape, without leaving a scar at all?"

"Sure!" the kwami chirped.

"Normally I wouldn't even care at all, but… he just seemed so concerned about it," Marinette continued.

"Marinette."

"Hmm?"

"I already said I could. If I can fix Plagg's cataclysms, a simple scrape is even easier than a piece of cake."

Marinette shook her head, collecting her thoughts. "Yeah. What am I waiting for?" She was getting too concerned over Chat. "Let's go fix up a mangy alley cat."

Chat, despite not being certain enough to promise not to go through Marinette's things, really was trying his best not to.

It helped when he got distracted by all the pictures of himself on her wall. When he had asked, she said it was just for fashion, but… if that was the case, why weren't there any female models? He thought he'd seen more drawings of female designs in her sketchbook on the few occasions he'd been able to get a glimpse. Or other male ones, even?

Chat was still rather confused about Marinette. And it seemed like all of these pictures had something to do with the answer to all his questions.

"Alright, let's see how much of a mess you made in here," Marinette's voice announced her arrival.

Chat turned around to watch her as she poked her head through her trap door to her room, setting down the first aid kit before hauling herself up. "Wow. You actually didn't mess with anything, even in a room littered with fabric and sewing supplies. Are you sure you're a cat?"

Chat pouted. "Can't you just take care of my wound already?"

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Wound? You're being dramatic. That's got to barely hurt. Didn't you ever get scraped as a kid?"

"Yeah, but it's been a while, and I didnt make a habit of getting hurt on my face."

"Whatever. Sit on the chaise."

He complied, too worried about angering his father to resist any of her orders for the treatment. She sat next to him, pulling out an alcohol pad, some gauze and medical tape.

"What, a bandaid wouldn't do?" Chat joked.

"Chat- is it okay if I call you Chat? Your whole name is a bit of a mouthful."

He smirked. "Only if I can call you Mari. Your name is a bit of a mouthful."

"Chat…" she groaned again. "You're seriously making me start to regret offering to help you."

"Fine, fine. Then, for both our sakes', let's get this over with as soon as possible."

Marinette started to open the alcohol wipe packet. "A bandaid wouldn't cover it."

"I'll apologize, too," Chat offered.

"No, I mean-" she extracted the wipe from it's packaging and used it to gesture towards his face. "The scrape covers a good portion of your cheek, Chat. That's why we need to use the gauze and tape. Hold still."

She slowly raised the wipe to his cheek before a stinging sensation hit the side of his face. Chat pulled back, hissing at the pain.

"I told you to hold still," Marinette complained.

"It hurt!" he protested. "I'm used to taking hits while fighting akumas- it's part of the job description. But Ladybug never makes it hurt so much while tending to my wounds."

She gave him an odd look, then took off the small purse she always seemed to wear. "Here. Wear this for me."

Chat frowned. "Why?"

"It's magic," she said, her voice completely even.

"Really?"

"You have a magic kwami that turns you into a cat-themed superhero. Why can't I have a magic purse that helps take away pain from injuries?" Marinette retorted. "Seems to always help me with all the bruises I accumulate on account of being a klutz."

She had him convinced- Chat took the purse. As she went back to work, wiping his cheek and putting on the gauze and tape to hold it in place, it didn't seem to hurt nearly as much.

Once she was finished, she leaned back smiling. " And that is what we call the placebo effect."

His jaw dropped. "Hey!"

She cackled at that.

"I'm leaving now," Chat grumbled, moving to take off the offensive loan.

"Wait," Marinette said, stopping him. "True, I did want you to shut up, but I want you to stay."

When she said that, all of his confidence and charm came swaggering back in full force, and he left the purse on. "I knew no one could resist my charm."

"Except Ladybug." Ouch. "But I actually planned-" She intentionally wanted this to happen? Double ouch. Or was it triple, since he had been physically hurt earlier? "-on asking you for romantic advice for another boy."

Quadruple ouch.

"You planned this?"

Marinette made a disgruntled face. "Not you getting hurt. I was just wondering what I should do for this boy I like in class, and I thought, You know, Chat seems like he knows a lot of romantic stuff, and sometimes he'll stop by, so why don't I ask him for advice? And then we would've had this conversation up on my balcony. Except that you fell."

So she hadn't meant for him to get hurt. Still, that left him at double ouch.

"Fine, Princess," Chat relented. "So, who's the lucky prince?"

Marinette froze up. "I… You know what? If I'm going to tell him how I feel, I need to get used to telling other people about it, too. It's...well." She gestured to the wall.

The wall covered by his face.

"It's not just a celebrity crush!" she said defensively, as if his opinion on the subject mattered somehow. Well, it did, but his opinion shouldn't matter to her. All she knew was that he was a superhero that had agreed to listen to her and give her advice. "In fact, at first, I didn't even like him because of it. But then he explained our misunderstanding and gave me his umbrella and I found out how sweet and kind and caring he was… and then I never could hardly get out a coherent sentence around him."

Wait. She loved him for being him?

That was… oddly refreshing. Chat was overjoyed that she liked him like that. Her choice of words for describing him we're familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"And then leave it to me to fall in love with the most oblivious boy in Paris. Even when I've tried confessing to him, he can't tell that I am."

Okay. Chat deserved that guilt. Leave it to him to have the most amazing civilian girl he knew be head over heels for him for the past three years and he was just now getting a clue about it.

Deciding to change the subject of the conversation away from talking directly about him, Chat said, "So… what exactly do you need help deciding?"

Marinette fidgeted. "Well, I've been taking advice from-" she paused, giving him an odd look "-a friend, who told me to soften him up first. So I've been getting up early in the mornings to go put something on his desk, because I'm still a bit scared to be doing this at all."

Chat's breath caught. He wasn't sure how he didn't piece it together when she first confessed her crush Marinette was secret admirer.

That realization certainly got his cheeks rosy.

"So… why do you need my help, if you have this friend?" he asked shakily.

"Uh… I don't have a chance to see my friend everyday, and I don't exactly have a way to contact them. That's why I figured I'd ask you."

"Okay," he said. "I'd say probably… give him something that he likes?"

"OH!" Why did she have to look so adorably cute, lighting up at the thought of making him happy? "He loves macarons- though he doesn't get them often since he's supposed to be on a diet as a model. And passion fruit is his favorite flavor!" She bit her lip, smiling. "Thanks, Chat."

"I… hardly did anything."

She shrugged. "You got me thinking in the right direction."

Chat was trying really hard not to blush. And to control his heart.

"Let's check your scrape."

He frowned. "It couldn't be healed yet, could it?"

"It doesn't hurt to check."

Then she was pulling it away. And smiled. "All fixed up."

Chat's head swiveled towards her mirror. She was right. "But- how?"

"Maybe my purse really is magic," Marinette mused. "Which I want back before sending you off to finish your patrol. No reason to keep you here any longer."

He took off the purse and handed it to her. She smiled at him, and his heart was not supposed to do that just because his friend smiled.

"Thanks for helping me out, Chat Noir." Marinette went on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

Chat knew that there was nothing he could do to hide his blush now. "I think you helped me more than I helped you, but you're right. I need to go now."

It was good that he had already completed most of his patrol already, because he was even worse with paying attention than he had been before.

Sorry it's so long. Marinette and Chat are actually good at talking to each other. TOO good, in fact. I'm apologizing because that's why it took me so long to post it.

And I feel like the very ending is a bit rushed. Again, sorry. At this point I just wanted to finish it.