Marinette tried to listen to what Alya was saying, but wasn't successful. They were walking Marinette back to her house for lunch, but it was a slow process with her bandaged knee. In the end, once they'd managed to get back to the school and washed her up, the cut didn't look so bad. The school nurse had assured her that with proper rest and care it would be almost completely healed within the month.

However, unluckily (luckily?) this injury meant she wouldn't be able to participate in the school's cross country carnival the next day. It would be somewhat sad but she cheered herself up at the thought that instead of participating in the events, she would be able to encourage and support her classmates.

Each class had a special colour shirt made for the day to encourage better camaraderie between the students, and to boost competition between the classes. Marinette's class this year had the colour yellow, chosen by Chloe. Although at first she had shuddered at the colour (it wasn't that she didn't like it, she just knew that it was a very difficult colour to pull off and didn't look nice on some people), Marinette had been working on making some designs which they could pin onto their shirts. She was thinking about them at that moment as Alya continued talking about whatever she had seen with Ladybug and Chat Noir the other day.

Marinette had already cut out the pieces of material and fixed all the edges so they were ready to pin, all she needed now were some designs to put on them. Hmm perhaps some sort of class symbol? Do we have one of those? She thought for a bit, trying to think of anything that could symbolize their class. There were akumas? Pretty much everyone in the class had been akumatised by then, the most of any class, and they were known as the 'class of akumas'. She knew that for some of the class, the symbol of the evil purple butterfly would make them feel quite uncomfortable. But perhaps the white symbol of the purified butterfly might work…it was beautiful and free, and flew much like how she was sure her friends would fly over the course. Plus, the material was already white and it wouldn't take too long to put a black outline of a butterfly on them. And maybe inside the butterfly she could decorate with each of her classmate's names and something that meant something to them. Marinette was thinking about how she could style Rose's with roses, when something Alya was saying caught her attention.

'…and it just confirms all the theories! Ladynoir is finally a thing!'

'What? How? When? What?!' Marinette choked out.

Alya rolled her eyes in exasperation at her friend.

'Why am I not surprised that you weren't listening?'

Marinette giggled awkwardly and flushed a little.

'Sorry Alya. What were you saying about Ladynoir?'

She hated that term so much but she knew that her friend loved it. And if Alya was happy, then she would be happy too. Even if it made her highly uncomfortable to hear about how people shipped herself with her partner.

'Well, as I was saying Marinette, last night my mum was driving me home and we were stopped at a traffic light and I looked up and saw our favourite superheroes standing on a roof and get this right, Ladybug had her hand on his head and he put his hand on hers and just yes.' Marinette almost tripped over the curb as they crossed the road near her house.

'The way they were looking at each other and how they were standing so close, I just KNOW that its FINALLY a thing Mari, they must have finally confessed their true feelings towards each other!' Alya concluded.

'But Alya, surely that doesn't mean anything?' Marinette said desperately, 'They are partners after all and just because they were together doesn't mean that they're together, together!'

Alya shook her head at her friend's naivety, 'Nope, it's definitely a thing, I saw it myself.'

Fortunately for Marinette, they had just reached her house which meant she could escape the conversation.

'Sure Alya, but I'll only believe you if you can give me definite proof.'

Alya grinned and gave her a quick hug goodbye, saying 'You're on Marinette, I'll get you that proof! Take care.'. And with that, she turned around and began walking to her own home.

Marinette opened the door to the entrance of the bakery, smiling at her parents as she shuffled through the store. Her parent's smiles quickly turned to frowns as they watched her awkward walk across the room, and her mother left her father at the counter serving customers as she walked over to Marinette.

'Marinette? What's wrong?' She said, then looked down at the bandage on Marinette's knee, now visible as she got closer. 'What have you done to your leg?!'

'It's ok maman, I just fell over today in PE class and the nurse said I'll be fine in a few weeks.' Her mother still looked worried, so she added 'Really, maman, I'm fine.'

Her mother gave her a wry half-smile, and nodded slightly.

'Well, I guess it's not your worst injury ever. But you should still be careful going up those stairs, and call me or your father if you need anything. And here, take these choc-chip biscuits your papa baked this afternoon, I know how much you love them!' She said, handing the plate of biscuits to Marinette.

Marinette returned her smile and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

'Thanks! I'll go eat these in my room!'

Her mother bustled back to the counter and Marinette continued on her way to her room, struggling somewhat with the final ladder leading to the trapdoor. When she finally got in, she shut the trap door and Tiki zoomed out of her bag and flew in circles around her while she set the plate down on her desk.

'Marinette! I know you keep saying you're ok, but are you sure? What if you've broken something?' She squeaked at Marinette worriedly.

Marinette held out her cupped hands, and Tiki flew into them and reached her arm up to rest on Marinette's cheek as Marinette brought her up closer.

'I'm really, truly ok Tiki. I've had way worse injuries before right? Sure they usually go away once I do the Miraculous Cure, but I've still had way worse pain. And besides, this will go away soon.'

Tiki acknowledged this and sat a little more peacefully in Marinette's hands.

'Actually,' she said, 'it may go away sooner than the nurse expects. As Ladybug you have to always be ready for danger so part of your power is actually sped up healing. And when you wear the suit, depending on the severity of your injury, you should still be able to do everything you usually would to fight akumas.'

Marinette grinned at her. 'See, Tiki? I'm going to be fine, there's no need to make such a fuss over me! Now, I need to start on those designs for tomorrow!'

Knowing she would be walking slower than usual, Marinette set off to return to school early and ended up being early for the first time in months. She was surprised to see a small box of chocolates and a rose on her desk waiting for her when she entered the room. Looking around the room, she could see that the only people there so far were Rose and Juleka, sitting in the back and chatting, and Nathaniel in his corner working on his drawing. As she was watching him though, he looked up and smiled at her. He glanced at the gifts on her desk and then back at her and blushed.

Marinette walked over to him.

'Hey Nathaniel, are those from you?'

'Y-yeah, I got them on my way back from lunch. They're get well presents. For you. To get better.' He managed to get out, blushing an even darker shade of red.

Marinette also blushed a light shade of pink, touched that he had thought of her.

'Thank you. But I don't really need that many chocolates to myself, want to share?' She walked back to her desk and grabbed the box and opened it, bringing it back to him. 'Here, you should have some! Not only did you buy me these, but you also helped me a lot when I was in a lot of pain, so just thank you a heap.'

Nathaniel mumbled a small thank you and no problem, and shyly took one out of the box.

At that moment Nino and Alya walked into the classroom, and Nino called over to Marinette.

'Hey, Marinette! How are you going?'

Marinette gave one last smile to Nathaniel and walked back to her desk to talk to her friends.

'Hey guys.'

Alya looked at her watch and pulled a fake expression of exaggerated surprise.

'Gee Marinette, you're here early! Perhaps you need to fall over every day to get here on time.' She said jokingly, but gently to let Marinette know that she was still concerned about her friend.

'You know Alya, I do fall over every day already! Just usually, I have the sense to land on grass and not rocks.'

Adrien walked into the classroom and joined them just as Alya gave a quiet snort at Marinette's humour. He moved over to his desk and put his bag down and smiled at his friends, glad to see that Marinette was there and smiling too. And if her face had enough blood to turn that red colour it usually became as it was becoming now, then that was probably a good sign too.

'I'm glad to see you're still here, Marinette.' He said to her, causing her to turn an even brighter shade of red.

'T-t-thanks. You're great. I-I mean, y-y-your was great help. This afternoon. Your help. Thanks.'

Alya subtly rolled her eyes at her best friend from behind and slightly to the right of Adrien and stepped in to help Marinette.

'Marinette, where did you get those chocolates from?' She said, to change the topic before the confused Adrien could translate what Marinette had said. To her surprise, Marinette smiled slightly, as she said 'Oh, they're from Nath.'.

Alya glanced at the shy boy sitting up the back, who was watching the conversation and, she thought, probably Marinette. Everyone knew of his crush on her after the Evillustrator event so that was no surprise. But what was surprising to her was the way which Marinette had said his name. Was there affection there? She would have to grill her on that later.

Adrien also glanced over at Nathaniel and to his surprise he found himself wishing that he had been the one to think of a gift. After all, he was one of the richest teens in the class, and perhaps all of Paris, and he could have bought her something even better. And for the second time, he was surprised at himself. Why was he suddenly caring about Marinette? He had never really thought about them before and had always assumed that the two were eventually going to end up dating at some point, but now he didn't want that to happen. He realised that he didn't want Marinette to date Nathaniel, and that for some reason, he suddenly no longer liked the other boy. Was he perhaps…jealous?