Shandy: Please don't kill us for this chapter.

Candy: Also, if you didn't read the author's note last chapter- we are thinking of doing a companion story to this story, only in Marinette's POV. We want to know if you would like to read it, and if it should be called 'A Princess of Many Talents', or called something that you suggest in the reviews.

Shandy: Speaking of which- reviews!

KawaiiFanficLover: Have fun with that! #OnlyAdrienIsWorthyOfMarinette #OnlyMarinetteIsWorthyOfAdrien

mayuralover: Thank you for your opinion!

LoomyLadybug: My furst friend sounds like a great title, we'll see if it makes it or not (my sis will be deciding fur me). And thank you!

Candy: Enjoy the chapter!

Shandy: And please don't kill us!

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Every night for the next several weeks, Adrien went as Chat Noir to Marinette's house so that they could get to know each other better. She had a new game or movie to show him that he had never seen before every single time. Sometimes, he would bring gifts to her because he wanted to, and more often than not he left her house with a box full of sweets in thanks.

Things had been going swell between the two friends.

That was, until tonight.

As Chat Noir sat on top of the Eiffel tower, he couldn't help but sigh in sadness.

He should've seen it coming.

When Chat Noir had landed upon her window, he had expected her cheery smile, and an opportunity to let out a million puns just to annoy her.

But when she came up, her eyes were down cast, and she was looking at him nervously. She wouldn't look him in the eye. He frowned.

"What's wrong Mari?" He asked. "Is that Chloe girl bothering you again? If she is, I can-"

"I… I don't think we should meet up like this again, Chat."

"Wh-What?" He was so shocked, he wasn't sure if he could say anything else.

"I-I'm sorry." She said, and tears seemed to build in her eyes. "But… as amazing as it has been, being me and my stupid self, I didn't think past the here and now. Something… something opened my eyes about me, about you- about us, today, and… and we really shouldn't meet up with each other anymore." She took a big, shaky breath, squeezing her eyes shut. She looked ready to cry. "I know you're my childhood friend. But I also know you and myself too well now." She turned away. "S-So goodbye, kitty."

The trap door closed, and with it, something shattered inside his chest. Something that made it hard to breathe, something that made his eyes swell with tears, something that hurt so much that he physically felt as though he was going to collapse.

Several minutes (or was it hours?) later, he finally found the strength to stand up. Shakily, and with a breath just as wavering, he bowed, hoping that she could hear him. Hoping that she would be alright. Confused as to what was happening.

"A-As you wish, Princess. You won't have to see me like this ever again."

He stared up into the sky. The sun was rising now, he hadn't had any sleep. He doubted he would've been able to sleep anyway.

He wondered how Marinette was doing. Well, he wondered a lot of things dealing with Marinette. Was she okay? What would he do when he saw her in school tomorrow? Why had she said they couldn't hang out anymore? Should he ask her about it? What had opened her eyes? What was she thinking right now?

Would… would he ever be able to see her ever again?

That was a silly question- of course he would. He would see her at school. Every weekday. And, if she went into the fashion industry and got a job under his father, then he would be able to see her there too.

She would see Adrien Agreste. But when would she see Chat Noir? Never? On accident? Or would she call for him?

What if… what if she had decided that he was a monster?

He shook his head. No. Marinette wasn't like that. She had said over and over again that he wasn't a monster, never would be one. And he believed her full-heartedly.

But the doubt wouldn't go away.

Eventually, he found it in himself to vault himself back home so that Nathalie wouldn't find him missing from his room.

He got dressed for school, wearing the jacket that Marinette had made him. It made him feel guilty and sadder for some reason. He couldn't understand anything. Plagg was oddly silent throughout the whole ordeal, but Adrien was glad that that was the case. He was more than ready for school by the time Nathalie was at his door to wake him up.

"Adrien?' She asked. He opened the door, and she stared at him for a moment. "Is something wrong? Are you ill?"

"Nothing's wrong, Nathalie. I'm fine." He lied. He wasn't fine. But he also didn't know what was wrong with him, so he couldn't ask Nathalie for advice. Besides, anything he told her made it's way to his father at some point.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Guess I didn't sleep well." More like at all. Nathalie stared before nodding.

"If you say so. Feel free to call me if you need to be checked out." She looked down at her schedule. "Come on, you're father wanted to talk to you during breakfast this morning."

Since when had his life decided to take a turn for the worst?

"Oh." He smiled. "Uhh, just give me a moment." He went back into his room, to the bathroom, and washed his face for the third time that morning. Once he was done, he nodded to himself, and then went back out, closing the door to his bedroom behind him.

It was rare that his father would actually have breakfast with him, and he didn't want his father to think that anything was wrong.

He sat down on the opposite end of the table. His father was sipping on some coffee, a newspaper in his hand. He didn't even look up when Adrien came in, and Adrien was given his usual breakfast of cereal and orange juice. He didn't know why, but they just seemed to taste bland today.

"So, uh, how's the company going?" Adrien asked, as he always did when his father joined him for breakfast.

"It's going well. A few new employees are always a headache though." Gabriel admitted, glancing up. He looked back down, and then back up again. Adrien froze.

'Don't ask if I'm okay, don't ask if I'm okay-'

"I've never seen that jacket before." He commented. "Where did you get it?"

"It's the one Marinette designed and made for me." Adrien admitted. His chest squeezed at the thought of Marinette. "She wants to become a fashion designer when she's older."

"Hand it over here." Adrien stood up while taking off his jacket, handing it to his father for him to look at. He looked over it expertly, and Adrien fidgeted a bit.

"Exquisite for one of your age." he muttered under his breath. "Clearly very crafty with her hands." Then he spoke louder. "You say she designed it?"

"Y-Yeah." Adrien swallowed. Gabriel nodded.

"Invite her for dinner the first saturday of next month. I wish to meet her in person."

"Y-Yes, father." Gabriel handed the jacket back to Adrien, looking back down at his newspaper.

"Finish eating breakfast- we don't want you late for school."

'What if I want to be late?' Adrien asked in his head, but he didn't voice it, obeying his father's commands.

He couldn't stop twiddling with the bracelet that Marinette had given him during the drive to school, though he knew he couldn't keep it out. If she saw it, she would know that it was him. And he couldn't afford to loose his first friend in both aspects of his life.

But, now he had a new problem. He had to talk to Marinette, without giving off any hints, about his father wanting to meet her in person.

This, he knew, was not going to end well.

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When he got to school, he knew he was going to look worse than he normally was, but he couldn't leave any clues to what had happened on the other side of the suit. So, he hated to admit it, he looked better than Marinette was.

And she looked terrible.

He guessed they were both lucky that Alya and Nino were sick for the day, because Alya would surely kill him the moment she found out that he was probably the cause behind Marinette's sleep-deprived, red, and puffy eyes that looked as dead as he felt. And Nino would probably die of worry.

"H-Hey." He swallowed the lump of guilt in his throat when she looked up at him as he walked up to her seat.

"Hi Adrien."

"A-Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just didn't sleep well last night." She admitted, but he could tell that she wasn't fine. He wasn't either. "You?"

"I'm fine." He lied again. Oh, he was lying straight to her face. If Adrien had learned anything about Marinette as Chat Noir, it was that she hated liars. And now he was one. He paused for a moment. "Uh… so, Nino's absent today."

'Way to grasp at straws, Adrien. I'm gonna die of embarrassment one day.'

"So is Alya." Marinette sighed. "Looks like we're the only people in our friend group here today." She smiled up at him.

"Y-Yeah. A-About that."

'No, no, no, don't do it, don't-'

"I thought that, since Ch-Chloe's been extra mean lately, that, uh, maybe w-we could sit together?" He half asked. "I-It's just that she won't stop bothering me and I'm still learning to stand up for myself and normally Nino helps but since he's not here today and-"

'NONONO Why'd I have to ask, and now I'm ranting! She's definitely going to hate both sides of me now! I shouldn't have said anything!'

"Sure thing, Adrien!" Marinette smiled at him and scooted over so that he could take her seat. "I don't mind."

"Th-Thanks, Marinette." He sat down in her normal spot, blush on his face.

'Did she really accept that? Am I dreaming?'

They sat in silence for a bit when Adrien realized that it was going to be this awkward all day unless he said something. He opened his mouth.

"So, I wanted to ask-"

"Adrien, I was wondering-" A voice spoke at the same time as him. Adrien and Marinette turned to look at each other, realizing that they had spoken at the same time.

"Oh, you can go first-"

"You can go ahead and ask-" Her voice echoed his.

"Oh, I insist you go-"

"It's probably more important-" They paused, simply staring at each other for a moment.

And then she laughed. Her amazing, beautiful laugh, and Adrien felt as though any and all awkward walls fell with her laugh. He joined in not that long after, and when they had both calmed down, she smiled up at him.

"You go ahead, Adrien."

"R-Right." He nodded. "Well, uh, my father was eating breakfast with me this morning and saw the jacket you made." He admitted. Instantly all of her attention, if he didn't have it all before, was on him. He savored it. He probably wouldn't be getting any as Chat any time soon.

"And?" She asked. "Did he like it? What did he say? Any pointers? Tips? Criticism?"

"Well, he said that it was finely made, and he asked where I got it from, and I told him that it was you, and he, well, he wants you to come over for dinner on the first saturday of next month." Adrien admitted. He watched as her eyes went wide and a smile grew on her face that looked much more real than the previous ones that she had given him.

"Y-You're father." She said with a stutter, and he was surprised. Never had she stuttered before him or Chat Noir before. "Gabriel Agreste, CEO of Agreste Industries, wants to have dinner? With me?" Her voice grew in pitch as she continued to speak. "And said that my jacket was finely made?!"

"Yes." Adrien nodded, and suddenly Marinette was squeezing the life out of him in an excited hug.

"OHMYGOSH!" She squealed. "This is a dream come true! Adrien, do you know what this means?!"

"Uhh… n-no, not really." He admitted.

"You're father was impressed by my work!" She said, letting go of him. She looked so happy, Adrien suddenly wished that she was hugging him instead because dang did that girl do weird things to him. "You're father! The king of fashion! Impressed by one of my designs!" She almost swooned. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! I could get an internship and work under you father! I could learn from the best of the best!" She squealed and hugged him again. "Thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou! I'll go to the dinner on Saturday, clear any plans that I might already have! Thank you so much, Adrien!"

"You're welcome!" Adrien cheered, his mood having been improved drastically since that morning. She let her have her moment for a bit before asking, in a softer voice, "So… what did you want to ask?"

"Huh?" She blinked at him, having clearly forgotten that, and her smile and the sparkle in her eyes fell a bit. "Oh, uh, I just needed some advice."

"I'm listening."

"W-Well, asking for a friend here. It's been bugging me recently." She admitted, pushing her index fingers against each other, showing that she was nervous. It was adorable. "S-Say that there's this guy that you've been friends with for a while now. You had met once in your childhood, but you had recently found each other and started to get to know each other again." She glanced at Adrien, and he nodded to show that he was listening. "And then, one night, you're up late thinking about everything that you know about him, and all of your interactions together, and you realize something."

"And what's that?" He asked curiously. Her friend's situation sounded similar to their own. She blushed, pink dusting her whole face, and he found it to be adorable.

"That you love them. Fallen for them. Would do anything to help them and make them feel safe." She glanced at him again, and then back at her fingers. "And because of something that happened before, you grew scared because you didn't want be hurt again, so you shut them out to stop yourself from the inevitable hurt that would follow if you let it continue any further. But you feel so empty without them and you feel like a monster because they probably think it's their fault, but you're too scared to go out and look for them because they might ask too many questions that you can't answer. What… what would you do?"

How could he answer? How would he- he was at the complete opposite end of, at most, half of the situation! But she needed advice, and as a good friend, he would do his best to give it.

"Well…" He paused, trying to find the right words. "I… don't exactly know. If you still don't really know, it's okay to wait a few days to sort everything out with yourself. It doesn't sound like you completely understand, and waiting a few days could also show you what you should do." He shrugged. "I can't really talk, because I don't know what it feels like."

"What what feels like?" Marinette tilted her head curiously.

"The love you talk about." He admitted. "Once, a long time ago, I knew what family love is like, and I still do, mostly anyway. I feel if for father and Nathalie every day. Then we have the friends-love that I learned about on my first day of school, but… romantic love? I don't know if I've felt it or not." It was silent for several minutes.

"Romantic love…" She said slowly. "There's two types. You have lust and love. Lust is where you find them really attractive. You want to kiss them, touch them, have them close to you, but it has nothing to do with who they are as a person." She described. "Lust is like… this strange feeling that echoes throughout your whole body. It excites you. Love, on the other hand…" She placed a hand over her heart, and the other over his, and his heart did something weird again.

"You feel it here." She said softly, smiling up at him. "When your eyes lock, your heart flutters because you can see every emotion that they're feeling. When you see them smile, your heart jumps, and you can't help but smile because they're happy. When they laugh, your heart skips a beat, and you laugh too because they're too adorable for their own good. When their hurting, your heart hurts because you want to help them be happy again. When they're scared, you're heart grows and urges you to comfort them. When they're in danger, you feel the need to protect them so much, that you'll take the bullet for them, because they're your world and you couldn't imagine a life without them."

"But…" She frowned. "If the person you love hurts you, even if they love you too, you're heart breaks. Sometimes it's a single crack down the middle. Sometimes it's lots of little cracks that shatter your heart." Tears enveloped her eyes, and she took a steady breath. Adrien could physically feel his heart yearn for him to do something. "It hurts. So bad. Sometimes you want to stop loving. Other times you can't stop because you don't want anyone else to go through the pain that you went through." She wiped her eyes and smiled up at him, though he could still see the tears.

"That's love, Adrien. The romantic kind." He moved his hands to hold hers comfortingly, and looked her in the eye when she stared at him, waiting to discover what he would say.

"Marinette…" He paused. "That… that was beautiful." His expression changed from awe to worry in nearly an instant. "But… you sound so sure of it… have you…" He swallowed. "Have you ever fallen for someone before?"

"Y-Yeah…" She admitted. "Back in seventh grade. There was this guy named John. He stood up to Chloe when she tried to bully me into doing things. He taught me how to stand up for myself. We became friends quickly, and when I described him to Maman, she told me that I was in love with him. So, I planned to tell him how I felt about him. And then…" She bit her lip, not looking Adrien in the eye. Releasing one of her hands, he used his right hand to cup her face and turn her back to look at him.

"Mari, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He said softly.

"I want to." She assured him. "No good relationship is built on lies and secrets." She took a steadying breath. "John, he loved me too. But not in the same way I did. He only saved me because he lusted for me. He told me the day I had planned to confess that he didn't want anything to happen to my beautiful figure. That scars don't look good on me. That, in return for his good deeds, I should let him do what he wanted with me."

Adrien nearly growled. But that wasn't what Marinette needed right now. So he didn't.

"I reported him to the Principal, and he was expelled from school because that wasn't the first time he did something like that. Later I found that his family had moved away, so I wouldn't be seeing him ever again. Which I was glad for. I just wish I could travel back in time and slap myself out of it. Save me from the pain."

"I'm glad you told me that, Marinette." Adrien said, pulling her in for a hug. "If, If you ever need me, I'll be here. You can talk to me about anything you want to, okay?" Marinette hugged him back, and Adrien swore to himself that, no matter what, he would protect her. From anything that could hurt her, whether she wanted him to or not. He would find a way.

"Th-Thanks Adrien." She whispered. A few seconds later, she pulled out of the hug and smiled up at him, rubbing the extra tears out of her eyes. Adrien found himself smiling back at her, glad that she was okay. He could see it in her eyes. She would be okay.

And then it hit him. As they locked eyes, he could see her emotions.

When she laughed, he did too. And he found it adorable.

She was hurting, and he wanted to help her out.

She had been in danger in the past, and he felt protective just thinking about it. Even though the danger was no longer there.

And all the while, his heart fluttered, skipped, jumped, and grew.

Because of Marinette.

Was… was Nino right?

Did… did he love Marinette?

It was then that the bell rang. Other students began to flood the classroom with the teacher right behind them. Marinette went back into the seat that was usually Alya's, leaving Adrien alone to his thoughts.

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