Marinette sat in her room staring at one of her images of Adrien. After their tender embrace, Adrien had redirected them to studying. He had been patient and encouraging while he had quizzed her over the material. Like he had said, it wasn't that hard for her to catch up. Eventually, his driver had shown up and he had to leave. She had been offered a ride, but chose to walk instead, not sure how much more time with Adrien she could handle. But now, in the safety of her room, she missed him.

"So…." Tikki was sitting on her desk munching on a macaroon. "Did you want to talk about it?"

"What is there to say, Tikki? It was….sigh...amazing…" she traced lightly caressed the picture. It was from a perfume ad from about six months ago.

"I'm so happy for you, Marinette! It sounds like he really likes you." Tikki said in between bites.

Marinette blushed. Adrien's words had been so sweet and reassuring. Unlike hers. She frowned. She had sounded like a complete idiot talking to him.

"Tikki?" she questioned, "How stupid did I sound?"

"You didn't sound stupid, just nervous." Tikki answered, putting the macaroon down. She flew over and perched on Marinette's hand. "But less so than normal! And after that hug, you hardly stammered at all! I was proud of you!"

"Yeah…" she sighed deeply at the memory of Adrien's embrace. He had been so concerned for her. Even the memory of his arms pulling her closer took her breath away. She couldn't remember ever being so comfortable as when his arms squeezed her tight, her face pressed against his chest. I could have stayed there forever. He smelled so good. Her mind drifted off into a daydream of Adrien holding her, telling her how much he loved her. Part memory, part fantasy.

Marinette's phone buzzed, pulling her mind back to the present. It was Ayla.

"Hi, Alya," Marinette said, putting the phone on speaker so she wouldn't have to hold it up.

"Uh...hello? You were supposed to CALL ME!" Marinette glanced at the clock.

"Sorry, Alya. I lost track of time." It was true. She was supposed to call once she was finished with Adrien, which was over an hour ago.

"Before or after your date?"

"After." Marinette confessed. She leaned back in the chair.

"So….how did it go?"

"It was amazing, Alya. I don't even know what to tell you."

"EVERYTHING! Start at the beginning and don't skip a single detail!" Ayla demanded. Marinette laughed, but she started telling her every little thing she remembered. Of course, she had to skip over the Ladybug part and just say she hid under a table instead.

"And then, when Adrien got back…" she was saying when Alya interrupted her.

"Wait wait wait. He left you? During an akuma attack?" Alya asked.

"Well...yeah. We weren't sure what was going on, so he went to go check, but then he couldn't get back into the library."

"WHAT? No way. Uh-hu. He shouldn't have left you."

"Alya, it's fine"

"No, it's not Marinette! If Nino left my side during an attack, I would have his neck."

"Alya, no offense, but don't you leave him? To take pictures of Ladybug?"

"That's different! I'm a blogger Marinette. Adrien isn't. Leaving you was a total jerk move."

Marinette frowned. It wasn't like she could tell Alya the real reason she was okay with Adrien leaving her.

"Alya, I said it was fine. Besides I didn't want him to see...how...how...scared I was." Marinette hated lying to her friend, but she didn't want her thinking Adrien was a jerk.

"That's the point, Marinette. If you were scared, he should have been there to hold you!"

"But he did hold me, Alya."

"HE WHAT?" Alya screamed at her through the phone. "Explain. NOW!"

"Well...like I was saying...when he got back he felt really bad about leaving me so...he...he hugged me."

"What?" Alya said in a whisper.

"He hugged me. It was...it was…"

"Sweet?" Alya suggested.

"More like, the best moment of my entire life…" Maybe...maybe he'll do it again. Marinette squealed at the thought.

Adrien slumped into the chair at his desk, letting it spin him around a few times.

"Oh, Plagg," he sighed to the kwami who's head was already selected a few pieces of cheese from the cabinet nearby. "Today was the best day of my life."

"Oh, really?" he teased, "Let me guess….does it have something to do with a villain made of CHEESE?!"

Adrien narrowed his eyes at the little trouble-maker.

"Yeah, Plagg. That's why." He answered sarcastically, "It has nothing to do with the fact that Marinette said she likes me."

"Yeah, yeah. So what? You knew she liked you yesterday."

"But today she told me. And the way she hugged me...it was…"

"Disgusting! You do realize I was in your shirt pocket, right? I was nearly squished to death!" Adrien chuckled. He hadn't even thought of that. "You're lucky that Marinette didn't notice me."

"I'm sorry, Plagg. Next time, I'll make sure to move you to my bag first."

"Next time?" Plagg shoved a huge piece of camembert into his mouth and swallowed. "So, you plan on doing that again?" He picked up another piece of cheese.

"Mm-hmm," he closed his eyes and nodded. He had loved how she had clung to him. Sure, Marinette had put her arms around him countless times as Ladybug, but never in a loving embrace like this one. "Maybe next time, I'll kiss her too." He grinned. The thought was intoxicating.

"Eww...gross!"

"I didn't say you had to watch, Plagg." he noted, opening an eye to glance over at the kwami "I wonder if she's ever kissed someone before."

"Of course she has."

"WHAT?" he said, turning towards Plagg. His was still eating. "Are you serious? How do you know that?"

"Huh? Or right, I forgot! Hahaha. YOU don't remember!" Plagg burst into a fit of laughter as Adrien recalled the TV interview him and Ladybug had done a while back.

The reporter had shown them an image of them kissing, but, since he had been cursed by Dark Cupid, he didn't remember a single thing about it! Adrien moaned. Plagg was right. She had kissed someone before, him!

"HAHAHAH! YOU MISSED YOUR FIRST KISS! That's hysterical!" Adrien felt like a hot knife was being plunged into his heart.

"Oh, shut up already! So what. We'll just have to have another first kiss. A do-over." The kwami continued laughing at him. "Besides, Ladybug had to kiss Cat Noir. It wasn't like she wanted to."

"And you think Marinette wants to kiss Adrien?" Plagg teased, still laughing.

God, I hope so. He thought, but he didn't want to say anything out loud. It wasn't like Plagg was really paying attention to him anyway. Adrien turned to his computer. He flipped on the monitor. His desktop was still an image of Ladybug. I'll have to get a picture of her as Marinette. Plagg's laugher finally started to die off as he stared into her bluebell eyes. Adrien reach out and traced the shape of her mouth with his finger. Would you let me kiss you, Marinette? If I tried?