I can't believe the amount of follows and favorites I've already gotten. I just want to say thank you to everyone that has read this. Knowing that you guys like this just makes me want to write it even more! Thank you again, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Two: Casting

Two days after the incident with Ice Melt, Marinette was running to school just a few minutes before class was going to begin. She raced as fast as she could, almost falling as she turned the corner to the school. By the time she reached the building, there was a minute to roll call.

She ran up the steps, using everything she had to get to her classroom. She ran in seconds before the bell rang. Quickly making her way to her seat, she sat down, panting.

"Did you sleep in again?" Alya asked.

Marinette nodded, catching her breath before responding. "Stayed up doing homework and then my alarm didn't go off," she said miserably, her head in her arms.

"Don't worry, I think I've got something that will cheer you up," Alya said.

Marinette looked up at her friend. "What is it?" she asked.

Alya winked. "Patience, young grasshopper," she said in a mock-sensei voice.

"All right, everybody. We have a special announcement from a couple of our class members today," Ms. Bustier said after doing roll call.

Alya grabbed the notebook she had been pouring over for the past few days and went to the front of the classroom with Nino. Ms. Bustier moved to the side of the room to make the two students the center of attention.

"Nino and I talked to Principal Damocles, and we got permission for our class to put on a play that the two of us wrote," Alya began.

Chloe scoffed, interrupting. "You're going to force us to put on an amateur play? No way!" Next to her, Sabrina nodded dutifully.

"You don't have to do it Chloe, you just won't get any of the credit, because Principal Damocles has made it a class assignment," Alya said smugly. Chloe glared at her in response but said nothing more.

Marinette raised her hand. "What kind of play did you guys write?" she asked curiously.

This time, Nino was the one to answer. "Our play is about Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Marinette's eyes widened, and she had to stop herself from jumping a foot in the air. In her shock, she missed Adrien stiffening in much the same way. A Ladybug and Chat Noir play? Marinette thought. Why did it have to be Ladybug and Chat Noir?

"Who's going to play Ladybug?" Sabrina asked.

"Why, me of course!" Chloe said, only interested now that she heard it was about her hero. "Who would make a more perfect Ladybug than me?"

Alya and Nino shared a look before answering the question. "Actually," Alya said, "Nino and I have already decided who our main heroes should be played by."

A chorus of "who" rang throughout the class.

Nino pointed at Adrien. "We think Adrien would make a great Chat Noir."

"And Marinette would make a great Ladybug." Alya was pointing at her own friend.

Marinette and Adrien started, glancing at each other, then at the two playwrights. Their jaws hung open, both desperately trying to think of a way out of this.

"I'm not sure if I'd make a great Chat Noir," Adrien said, rubbing the back of his head. "You guys should have someone else do it."

"Uh, me too," Marinette said awkwardly. "I'm really not much of an actress. Someone else should be the lead."

Before either Alya or Nino could respond, Chloe spoke up. "If she won't be Ladybug, then just go with me. You should've in the first place anyways," she said haughtily.

"We think that Marinette would be more dedicated to the role," Alya said, not able to keep all of the spite out of her voice. She looked up at Marinette. "Come on, you have to. You would make a perfect Ladybug!"

"Yeah, Marinette. I think you'd be great," Adrien said.

Marinette's cheeks when crimson at the compliment. "Y-you'd be better than me. As Chat Noir, I mean! You'd be a better Chat Noir than I'd be a Ladybug."

Adrien's eyes widened and he laughed awkwardly. "No, I think you'd be a much better Ladybug. Besides, I don't have the time to be lead in a play."

"We thought about that. We can easily schedule practice around your shooting schedule, dude," Nino said, smiling.

"B- Uh, it's not just shooting. I've got Chinese, piano, fencing, and whatever else my father sends me to do," Adrien said, grasping for any reason to not be Chat Noir in the play.

Everyone in the class started talking at once. Everyone seemed to believe Adrien should definitely play Chat Noir, and everyone but Chloe and Sabrina wanted Marinette to be Ladybug. Marinette and Adrien shared almost pained looks before sighing and nodding in consent.

"Fine, I'll do it," Marinette said.

"I- Alright. I'll be Chat Noir," Adrien said dejectedly.

"How exactly did you think that making me embarrass myself in a play would cheer me up?" Marinette asked after class got out, staring down at the script in her hand. Alya had gone through and highlighted all of her lines, encompassing more of the pages than she wished they did.

"Because Adrien is your co-star! You guys are going to spend so much time together!" Alya said, smiling wide.

Marinette froze. "That's right. I'm going to be acting with Adrien. And I'm going to have to say a whole play. With him right there. Oh, Alya, I don't know if I can do this! I can barely talk to him as it is!" She buried her face in her hands.

Alya sighed, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll do great! I'll help you memorize your lines. Knowing what you have to say should help you stay coherent."

Nino walked past them, pounding fists with Alya. "That went great, Alya. I'll see you later to finish up with casting."

As he walked away, Marinette looked up at her friend. She scrunched up her face in suspicion. "Did you guys plan this? I mean, I know you planned the play, but do you guys have a hidden plan-behind-the-plan that you're not sharing with your BFF?"

For a moment, Alya avoided her gaze and pretended to be admiring a butterfly a few feet away. Marinette's gaze didn't waver, making her friend sigh and look back at her. "All right, all right. I admit we may have had an ulterior motive behind writing the play."

"And that motive was…?" Marinette pressed.

"We were tired of you being unable to ask out Adrien. So we decided to arrange a way for you to spend more time together without you having to," Alya said.

A mix of a whine and a groan escaped Marinette's lips and her face once more found its way into her hands. She sat down on the steps to the school and Alya sat next to her. "So now I get to embarrass myself in front of Adrien and the rest of the school because I couldn't stop embarrassing myself in front of Adrien?"

Alya laughed. "Oh, Girl, come on. Only you could take this opportunity and ruin it! We worked hard so you could hang with him, you can at least pretend to be excited."

That's when the full brunt of it hit Marinette. Her head slowly rose from her hands, her eyes wide. "I… I'm going to hang out with Adrien," she said dreamily.

Her friend's laugh increased. "There's the Marinette I know and love."

Adrien sat at his desk at home. "What am I going to do, Plagg? I just agreed to play myself in a play!"

"This is dangerous, Adrien," Plagg said. He was floating in front of the young blonde's face. "You can't risk them finding out who you are."

He groaned. "I know. But how am I going to get out of it? I can't exactly explain that I am Chat Noir and can't be in the play or my identity will be revealed. And I can't tell them how full my schedule is, either. They're intent to work around what my father has me do, but what about my superhero duties? How can I explain that in the little spare time I have I'm jumping from rooftop to rooftop dressed in leather and fighting crime?"

Plagg sighed. "This is why you shouldn't let yourself get caught up in relationships. Cheese comes with much simpler problems."

"Life isn't all about camembert, you know," Adrien said.

The black kwami looked at him in shock. "But what could be better than a wheel of camembert?"

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Friendship? Family? Just about anything other than the smelliest cheese you can find?"

"At least cheese doesn't threaten to reveal your secret identity," Plagg retorted. He flew towards the table of food set out by Adrien's personal chef and started munching on some of the cheese. Adrien watched his kwami devour it, wondering what his chef thought of Adrien's apparent change in dietary preferences. One day he hates stinky cheese, and the next he seemed to be craving mountains of it.

Sighing, Adrien turned towards the script that sat on the desk in front of him. Nino had highlighted what appeared to be a fourth of the script for him. "At least they gave me a few good puns. I wonder if I should suggest some more to them, they missed a few great opportunities."

"What is with you and bad puns?" Plagg asked around a mouthful of cheese.

"Bad? My jokes are great!" Adrien said.

At that moment, Adrien's father walked in. Plagg hurried and hid behind a pillow on the couch just in time. Gabriel Agreste looked down at his son, his face a stone.

"You are supposed to be practicing your piano, Adrien," he said disapprovingly. "Instead, you're… what is that you're reading? A school assignment?"

"Kind of, yeah. Our class is going to put on a play, and I've been cast as one of the leads," Adrien said. He looked up at his father, willing any semblance of pride or happiness to show on his sharp features. Instead, he saw a look of stern displeasure.

"Plays take a lot of time. I will not permit you to be in one if it in any way harms your studies," he said. He waved his hand towards the grand piano. "Now get to your practice or I will have to forbid you from participating."

Adrien hung his head. "Yes, Father," he said. He stood up from his desk, leaving the script behind, and sat down at his piano. Once he had started playing, his father turned and left just as stiffly as he had entered.

Plagg peaked over the couch, then flew to sit on the piano at which Adrien was playing. He watched Adrien as he played morosely. Even to the black cat kwami, it was clear that his father's words had brought down his mood even further.

"I thought you didn't want to be in the play?" Plagg eventually said.

"I don't. But it would be nice if my father could at least be happy that I'm cast as a lead. He didn't even ask what play we were doing." He finished the song and paused. "I need to clear my head."

Adrien pulled out his phone and pulled up a recording of his playing. He hit play and put it onto the speakers on his piano. Grabbing a remote, he opened one of the windows on the wall. "Plagg, claws out!"

With a burst of green magic, and a groan from Plagg as he was sucked into the ring, he went through the motions of his transformation. He jumped out the window and started soaring through the sky, either jumping or using his stick to get to each new rooftop.

He wandered Paris for a while with no destination in mind. Then he reached a roof across the street from where a familiar girl stood on a balcony. Marinette's blackberry hair was unmistakable as she leaned over the railing, looking at the street. It looked like she was talking to someone, but Chat couldn't see anybody else with her. She looked stressed, and he had a feeling he knew what about.

Propelling himself forward, he landed behind her on the rooftop. Marinette spun around, going into a fighting stance. That surprised him. He didn't think she had any sort of fight training other than the one time she had come to his fencing class.

When her eyes rested on him, she relaxed. "Chat Noir?" she asked, confused.

Chat grinned, his green eyes twinkling as he dropped down to the balcony with her. "The one and only."

"What are you doing at my house?" her bluebell eyes watched him awkwardly.

"I was just making some rounds and I saw you sitting here. You looked kind of stressed. Is something wrong?" he said.

Marinette laughed nervously, her hand going to the back of her head. "Nothing that a hero like you needs to worry about. Just my own problems."

He cocked his head. "You looked pretty distressed, talking about it might help." He leaned against the wall, looking at her with inquisitive eyes. She seemed to be avoiding his, her eyes occasionally glancing downward.

"I really don't think you'd care. You must have enough on your plate dealing with the people that have been akumatized, along with whatever you do when you're not a superhero," she said.

"And what kind of superhero would I be if I left the damsel in distress alone with her distress?" he asked, winking at her.

She looked up at him. "Superheroes don't deal with the damsel in distress. That would be a fairytale prince." Marinette crossed her arms, looking remarkably like Ladybug for just a moment. Then her words seemed to hit her. Her cheeks went pink and she dropped her arms, looking embarrassed.

"I can be your fairytale prince," Chat Noir said jokingly. "Seriously, why don't you just talk to me? I'm here and I want to help."

Marinette sighed, going back to her position against the railing. "My friends are forcing me to be in this play, but I know I'm just going to make a fool of myself. I'll never hear the end of it if I can't do it well."

Chat Noir walked over, leaning against the railing next to her. His eyes looked at her as she talked, though her eyes were downcast. "What makes you think that you're not going to do well?"

"You don't know me, but I'm not exactly graceful. I'm super clumsy, and with A- ah, someone involved, I don't think I'll be able to get my words out straight. I just wish I could get out of this thing."

Chat's eyes widened. He wanted to comfort her as Adrien, but reminded himself just in time that he wasn't Adrien, he was Chat Noir. He put a gloved hand gently on her shoulder. "I'm sure you'll do great. Plays are all about memorizing, so just make sure to get lots of practice. Practice makes purrfect after all."

Marinette looked up at him, rolling her eyes. "I'm starting to see why people tend to like Ladybug more than you," she said jokingly.

He put his hand to his chest, pretending to be hurt. "I'm wounded! Milady is wonderful, but I've still got my own fans. Everyone likes a devilishly handsome superhero, after all."

She laughed, making Chat smile even wider. His life may not be so great right now, but at least he could help Marinette feel better about her role. He looked out over Paris. She has a great view from up here, he thought.

"So what's your play about?" he asked. If he didn't it might seem suspicious.

Once again, Marinette looked down. "It's, uh. It's a play about, uh, about you and Ladybug. My friends wrote it, and they're making me be Ladybug."

Despite already knowing this information, Chat couldn't help but grin. "You're doing a play about me and Ladybug? Your friends must be great fans of us as well. If you're Ladybug, who you'll be wonderful at, then who's me?"

Her face went pink again, but this time she was able to meet his gaze. "You know the fashion designer Gabriel Agreste?"

He nodded, thinking of a quick reaction he might give if he didn't know that he was the one playing himself. "I hope he's not playing me. A bit old, and grumpy, don't you think?"

"No, he's not. It's actually his son, Adrien," she said.

"Well, if anyone can capture my essence it would be a model, wouldn't it?" Chat Noir smiled, but couldn't help feeling strange. He was talking about himself like he wasn't even there. It was always strange when he had to do that. At least this time there was no akuma involved.

"I'm sure he'll get you down perfectly. He's great at what he does." Her voice went a bit higher as she said that.

I'm really glad to have her as a friend if she thinks that, he thought.

The two of them stood there for a while, talking and watch as the sun slowly crept further towards the horizon in the Paris sky. He wasn't sure how much later it was when he remembered that he was supposed to be in his room.

"What time is it?" he asked suddenly, cutting their current topic of conversation short.

"Uh, 6:04," Marinette said, looking at her phone. Chat's eyes widened.

"I've gotta go!" He jumped up on the railing, looking around until he found the direction of his house. Before he left, he turned back to her to say one more thing. "Good luck with your play. You'll steal the entire show."

With that, he jumped to the next building and was racing back to his house before Nathalie would come get him for dinner.