Ok, I'm starting to understand now why it takes people so long to write PhDs, and that would be even harder than this omg :')

I'm just gonna stop apologising for taking so long each chapter, please know that I'm forever sorry and am doing my best 3

Marinette took one more look around, then began to trudge back to the sports ground. She had gone back to the building where Chat had left her just in case he had come looking to check on her like he usually did. This time, however, he didn't show. Perhaps her accidental confession to liking someone had shocked him into forgetting about her. She shook that thought off quickly. Chat was definitely a womanizer, there was no way he would be that hurt by her comment because he undoubtedly had someone else he would immediately move on to.

Distracted by her thoughts, Marinette tripped on a small rock. Her arms windmilled for a moment and she felt her right ankle start to twist. By some miracle she managed to get her left leg out in front and catch herself before she fell, but the slight twist in her ankle had been enough to send a jarring pain up her leg and remind her of her knee injury. She had almost forgotten about it in her worry over Chat. She stopped walking and looked down at her leg and to the bandage which poked out from beneath her shorts.

Tiki flew out of her bag and hovered above the injury to check on the healing.

'It's not as bad as it could have been, but you've definitely reopened the wound again.' She shook her head gently. 'It'll add maybe another day onto the healing process, but it still shouldn't be more than a week until you're back to normal.' She zipped back up to be level with Marinette's face and tried to cup her chin in her small hands. 'Cheer up Marinette. You defeated the akuma and you're going to heal.'

Marinette sighed. 'Oh Tiki, I'm fine about all that I'm just worried about Chat. He didn't come to get me you know?'

Tiki nodded, understanding. 'That's true, but he was pretty tired from being chased by that akuma? He probably just needed to detransform and take a break.'

Marinette still felt unsure. 'But Tiki, he's been tired before and he's still come to check on me.'

Tiki glanced at her curiously. 'Why do you need him to come check on you? Do you…miss him?'

Marinette floundered for a moment. 'No! I...I just….I don't know! What if he was too tired to come back? Or if he's coming back later and I'm not there and he worries?'

Her kwami still looked suspicious but decided to more on and let Marinette work out her feelings some other time. She put on her wisest all-knowing face and looked deep into Marinette's eyes to try to calm her down.

'Marinette, I'm sure he's ok. If he wasn't he would have sent a message by now, and he'd know you'd return back to the sports field eventually once you saw the miraculous cleanse. It'll be fine, trust me.'

Marinette took a deep breath. 'You're right Tiki.' Her phone buzzed and she turned to pull it out of her bag. 'Oops…I forgot to message Alya.' On her phone were 20 missed calls, 5 voice mails, and 36 messages from her best friend, as well as 2 messages from Nino. As she scanned through them, Alya's name popped up on the screen as she called Marinette again. Marinette swiped the answer button and started walking again, bracing herself for the barrage that she knew was about to happen.

'MARINETTE! Where have you BEEN? You were carried off by Chat Noir are you ok? You completely missed everything! What happened with you?! We're waiting by the field where, are you now?'

Marinette let her finish, and then tried to calm her down. 'Hi Alya, I'm fine, I'm walking back now. I can see the field I'll meet you back where we were before.'

She began the ascent up the small grass knoll that lead to the sports field.

'Hmmm fine, me and Nino will meet you back there in a minute and you'd better have a good excuse for not answering your phone!'

Marinette reached the top of the hill and looked around to get her bearings, seeing Alya and Nino standing about 20 meters to her left. She started to walk towards them, and saw Adrien and Nathaniel approaching at the same time from the other side. At least if they were there Alya might not completely destroy her.

Then she saw Adrien and Nathaniel suddenly turn and walk off towards a different group of people from their class.

Marinette walked over to Alya and Nino but was so distracted by watching Adrien walk away that she didn't notice where she was until she bumped into Alya's back.

'Ah! Sorry Alya!'

Alya spun around and raised an eyebrow. 'Girl, how did you not notice where you were again?'

Marinette bowed her head. 'Sorry, but I was kind of…distracted?'

'By what?'

Marinette pointed to where Adrien and Nathaniel were talking to Juleka and Rose. Alya turned to look and raised her other eyebrow.

'Wow, golden boy is making new friends. I can see how that would distract you, are you jealous?'

Marinette jumped. 'No! Definitely not, he's not really my friend anyway I don't own him! Nino is his friend.'

ALya rolled her eyes and nudged Nino, who was busily looking at something on his phone.

'How about you, babe? Jealous of your bestie making new friends?'

Nino looked up and to where the girls were looking at Adrien and shrugged. 'Hey the guy's got rights. If I'm busy with Alya then he should have a few friends to talk to. Have you guys seen this new meme?' He turned the phone to show Alya and Marinette.

Marinette nodded and let the conversation change to talking about whatever it was that Nino and Alya were saying, paying no attention to them and instead focusing on the boy that now felt so far away.

The rest of the day passed without any major incidents. Marinette's class ended up coming second in their year by 2 points, due to a penalty of -10 points from an argument between Kim and Alix that resulted in a broken megaphone.

Even with their feud, they each managed to win their own races. Adrien unsurprisingly came second in their age group. Marinette had watched his race with excitement, enjoying the chance to watch him run without fear of tripping over again. She had stood by the finish line with a banner for their class, supporting the boy's race with the other girls, but although he smiled at her when he saw the banner, she still noticed that he continued to socialize with the other members of the class more than he usually would.

Adrien in his turn had really enjoyed the rest of the day. Having never been to a cross country carnival before he had run his best during his race and felt rewarded by seeing his cheering and screaming classmates as he turned around the last corner, urging him to go faster and faster, overtaking some other guy and then coming second. Adrien felt proud of his accomplishment, and even prouder when he celebrated with his classmates. He felt a little bad about basically ignoring Marinette, Alya, and Nino, but he figured they were probably fine without him. The little empty ache he could feel in his chest he put down to the Ladybug drama.

He had chosen to walk back to the school with Nathaniel, a few meters behind the other three friends. As they had laughed and joked he had watched as Nathaniel, usually so quiet and in his own world, had started to open up and smile more. He still hid behind his hair quite a lot, but his posture was straighter and he even once managed to make eye contact with Adrien for a full two seconds. Adrien found that he really liked him. He was different to Nino in that he had the same interests; where Nino talked about music and technology, Adrien could talk to Nathaniel about his art. He discovered that Nathaniel also had a secret interest in fashion, which he put down to his crush on Marinette, but this shared interest had helped to create a bond between them as Adrien told him stories about his modelling and fashion work.

'So do you design clothes too, like Marinette does?' Adrien asked him.

Nathaniel nodded his head, again blushing just at her name and glancing ahead of them to see if she had noticed.

'I can design them yes, but I can't make them. That's Marinette's talent alone. She's very good at it.'

Adrien gave him a sly smile.

'You should get her to teach you.'

The other boy's face flashed terror for a moment, then he smiled and gave a quiet laugh.

'You know I couldn't do that. She's…she's Marinette, you know? She probably has more important things to do. And you've probably noticed I'm a bit of a mess around her, I'd probably end up breaking all her needles or sewing my own hands together or something.'

Adrien's smile turned into a relaxed grin.

'Oh, I don't know. It could be a good chance to spend time with her; she'd love to share her passion. Plus she would get to know you and realise how nice you are and marry you on the spot.'

Adrien swore that for a moment he saw Nathaniel's eyes roll at his statement.

'I never realised you were such a romantic.'

Plagg snorted in Adrien's pocket, but Nathaniel seemed lost in his thoughts for a moment so Adrien took a moment to poke Plagg to get him to shut up.

Nathaniel sighed.

'Even if you're right – though not right about the marriage thing! Even if you're right about the spending time with her thing, I don't think I could ever ask her.'

'Maybe I could ask her.'

Nathaniel's eyes shot up.

'You? Why would you do that?'

'Hey, I'm a romantic remember? You should've seen what I did for Nino.'

'What did you do for Nino..?'

'The usual, hid in the bushes and gave him advice through a hidden earpiece.'

Nathaniel choked.

'YOU WHAT?!'

'Hid in the bushes and gave him advice through a hidden earpiece. What's so difficult about that?' Adrien gave him an innocent smile.

Nathaniel almost tripped over from laughing so hard.

'Oh my God. I didn't know people did that in real life!'

'They don't, that's why we're animated. Anyway, I don't think you need that extreme help but I can talk to her for you I'm sure, and get her to invite YOU to sewing lessons! Good plan hey?'

'I…I guess. Only if you want to though. I don't want to force you to do that. And you can't tell her anything!'

Adrien held his hands up.

'Hey of course, I'm a master of subtlety.'

He started to walk faster to catch up to Marinette, but Nathaniel grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. Adrien smiled internally as he thought about how romantic that would look in slow motion in an anime.

'Adrien. Going to her right now, right when you've been talking to me, that's not subtle.'

Adrien hesitated.

'Oh yeah.'

Nathaniel face-palmed.

'Oh my god. I'm going to regret this now.'

Adrien grinned at him.

'Nahh it'll be fine. It'll be great in fact! I'll speak to her this afternoon after school, there's no way she'll say no!'