Marinette finished unpinning the final poster of Adrien from her wall. It was the day of Nathaniel's first lesson, and even if she knew he was a good guy and trusted him, there was no way she was going to leave any evidence hanging up on the walls that she had a crush on Adrien. Not only was Nathaniel seemingly becoming good friends with Adrien, but he also had once had a crush on her too and she didn't want to hurt him. At least he had had the sense to not keep annoying her with his affections like Chat.

Putting the posters away in a box, she came across a magazine she had kept when Alya had been chosen as the winner to write a student article about Ladybug and Chat Noir. Marinette picked up the magazine, and it flipped open to the feature page on Chat. Her thoughts went back to the night before.

Ladybug and Chat had made a quick tour of the city, and for a moment while they had been swinging around the rooftops, laughing and joking, she could almost pretend that they were just normal friends. Well, 'normal' as can be when the two friends are superheroes who nothing about the other person. When they had finally reached the usual resting spot on top of the Eiffel Tower, they had stood awkwardly for a minute before Chat cleared his throat subtly and tried to start a conversation.

'Sooooo…' And paused.

But Ladybug was too scared of what he might ask next, so she ran away from it. She saw enough confrontations and broken hearts every day fighting akumas, she wasn't ready for her own. She felt her chest and throat tighten and her heart speed up as she prepared an excuse to leave.

'Oh sorry Chat, I have to get back home. My, uh, class has an English exam on Monday and I have to memorise some vocabulary.'

Chat could sense the awkwardness, but accepted that his Lady probably didn't want to talk about 'that kind of stuff' right now. He smiled gently at her to let her know he wasn't concerned.

'That's ok my Lady, I have a purrrramid of my own homework to do.' He hesitated. 'Will I see you tomorrow night?'

Ladybug felt her body relax.

'Of course Kitty, I wouldn't miss our patrols for the world.' She thought for a second. 'Only for a...a meow-ntain of homework.' She blushed at how terrible her pun was.

Cat laughed out loud.

'It's best to keep a paw-sitive catitude! See you tomorrow night' and leaned forward to give her the farewell kiss on the cheeks before they separated to go home.

Tiki watched as Marinette stood, gazing at the picture of Chat Noir, unconsciously touching his face in the picture. She sighed internally. This girl, when is she going to figure it out?

It was cute to keep watching them like this, and it was safer for them both. But connected as she was to Marinette, she could feel the inner turmoil of emotions as her heart was pulled towards the 'two' boys. She knew of course who Chat was, and had been around for enough centuries to know that Adrien liked Marinette too. When are they both going to figure it out?

Tiki subtly rustled some paper as she continued helping Marinette to clean up her room, making just enough noise to wake Marinette from her reverie. Marinette jumped and snatched her hand away from the photo of Chat, putting it back into the box.

'Thanks for helping me Tiki!'

'No problem Marinette.' She squeaked. 'It's so exciting that you'll be able to teach someone else something that you love.'

Marinette hummed cheerfully as she changed her computer screensaver so a selfie of her and Alya.

'Yeah, I never thought of tutoring sewing! I didn't think anyone would be interested. I'm a bit nervous but I think it should be ok.'

She had tried to put some determination into her voice, but her facade shattered as she hear the doorbell ring and her dad call for her.

'Marineeeeeeette! Your friend is here!'

Marinette frantically looked around her room.

'Ahhh did I forget anything?!'

Tiki flew over to Marinette and put her tiny arm on her forehead to comfort her.

'Relax Marinette. He's a nice friend who's here to learn from you. You're a great teacher and this is going to be great!'

Marinette smiled.

'Yeah! You're right Tiki. Let's do this!'