I'm back! Unfortunately, I hardly found time to write over the past week, so I'm not as prepared as I would've liked. That's why I'm posting my update so late today. Hopefully I'll find the time soon to finish my writing and getting everything in order, but until then, updates are going to be a little late. That being said, here's the first chapter of the final part of my fanfic. Enjoy!

The next twenty minutes was one of the most awkward periods in Marinette's life. After discovering Cat Noir was Adrien, the two had kissed on her balcony, only for Marinette to realize she still wasn't ready for this. Now they were still on her balcony, their kwamis needing food before they could transform again, and both of them needed to get back to school.

Without speaking beyond a few embarrassed mutterings, Marinette led Adrien down into the kitchen, checking first to make sure her parents were gone. Their kwamis were now flying openly beside them, no longer needing to stay hidden, while Marinette searched for food for them both. They had no camembert, as Plagg requested, but he accepted other cheese as an alternative. Tikki was happy to munch a cookie.

After that, Marinette and Adrien, still awkward about the whole situation, quietly stole down the stairs, snuck past the back entrance to the bakery, and out the door. There they had to go around the block just to avoid walking in view of the bakery, finally making it back to school.

With the akuma having been dealt with for a while at this point, everyone had returned to class by now. Marinette and Adrien quietly rushed across the courtyard, up the stairs, and arrived at their class.

As Marinette opened the door and stole in, Alya was the only one who seemed to really take notice, but as soon as Adrien walked in behind her, suddenly it seemed like the whole class was staring. Ms. Bustier had looked up at her with a somewhat exasperated look at first, but that turned to a knowing smile when she saw Adrien. Marinette felt her cheeks burning from embarrassment. Attempting to ignore them all, she made her way to her seat, not chancing a glance back at Adrien. Almost as soon as she sat down, Alya sidled up closer to whisper in her ear.

"What were you doing?!" she asked, her tone both curious and accusatory.

"Nothing!" Marinette whispered back quickly, still blushing furiously. She refused to look at Alya, still uncertain how to feel about the whole situation, as she pulled her book from her bag.

"Did you two make up?" Alya pressed her, not willing to be ignored.

"No! Yes? Kind of, I guess…"

"Did you two make out?!" Alya went on, sounding both nervous and excited as she did.

"No!" Marinette's voice squeaked loudly as she answered, her blush deepening further as all eyes in the classroom were on her again.

"Marinette," Ms. Bustier looked at her sternly, "Please don't disturb the class anymore."

"Sorry," Marinette muttered, eyes downcast. Then, to Alya, she added, "Please, I don't want to talk about this right now."

"All right," Alya conceded, "but I want to know the details later."

Adrien was aware that all eyes in the classroom seemed to be on him, but he didn't care. The only person in the room he cared about was the one he walked in with. After their kiss on the roof and her subsequent rejection of him – though a temporary one, she claimed – he wasn't sure how to talk to her anymore, and he was afraid he might say something wrong. But she had given him hope that he could finally fix his mistake, and that they could finally be together.

He followed Marinette into the room and took his seat beside Nino. At first his best friend just gave him a curious, sideways glance, but said nothing. Adrien took his book out from his bag, which was still sitting under his desk, and tried to focus on what Ms. Bustier was teaching. As he tried to focus his thoughts, behind him he heard a sudden, squeaky, "No!" He didn't need to turn around to know it was Marinette.

"Dude, what happened?" Nino whispered, finally deciding to speak up.

"Oh, nothing," Adrien tried giving a nonchalant chuckle, but he knew it sounded forced.

"Come on, dude," Nino pressed him, "Where were you? You weren't in the locker room, and neither was Marinette."

"Okay," Adrien sighed, quickly trying to come up with a lie that was close enough to the truth. He was never good at lying, and he hated doing it with his best friend especially, but it's not like he could tell him the real story. "I pulled Marinette aside so I could talk to her again, and then we just… talked."

"Is that all you did?" Nino asked, eying his friend suspiciously.

"Yeah, of course," Adrien gave a nervous chuckle.

"You're a terrible liar, dude," Nino shook his head, "But we can talk about it after class."