Shandy: Time for the plot to thicken.

Candy: I'm ready.

Shandy: Reviews!

Guest: I completely agree. ;3 #ProtectCinnamonRollAdrien

Candy: Enjoy!

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"Marinette, why haven't you come back?"

"I can't remember, kitty." She reached out for him, but he only seemed further away.

"I don't understand." The figure admitted.

"What don't you understand?"

"How am I supposed to do this?"

"Do what, kitty?"

"I want to meet you! You've seen me before, Mari!"

"When? I don't remember…"

"Marinette…"

"Marinette…"

"Marinette!"

"I'm up, maman!" Marinette sat straight up in bed, instinctively rushing out of bed, only to trip over herself and fall to the floor.

"Ouch." She hissed, rubbing her neck as she sat up. "Nothing seems broken…"

"Marinette!" Her mother called from downstairs. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, maman!"

"Hurry up, honey! You don't want to be late again!"

"I'm hurrying!" Marinette sat up and walked around her room, getting ready to go to school as she reflected on this dream.

Now, she had looked up the meanings of dreams before, ever since she had started having them. She knew her subconscious was trying to tell her something… but what? Would it be in her personal life, or would it be something to do with kitty?

He had said that she's seen him before. Kitty had never said anything like that in prior dreams- it was usually him asking where she had gone, why hadn't she shown up to talk. It was never like this.

Which meant that something had changed.

Either that, or something big was going to happen soon.

She ate breakfast, pondering over her dream silently as she finished coloring in the jacket that she had started yesterday. She kissed her parents goodbye and hurried off to school, determined not to be late.

Alya met her up by the front gates, talking excitedly about her blog. It was all about superheroes and theories on certain situations. It was quite popular among the superhero community, but Alya stopped talking when she noticed Marinette's mood.

"Girl, is something eating you? What's up?" Alya asked.

"It's just this dream that I had."

"Is it the one that you've been having for a while now?" Alya asked. Marinette had told her about them when they had first started happening. Marinette nodded.

"Kinda." She admitted. "It was different this time."

"How so?"

"Well, he told me that I've seen him before." Marinette admitted.

"Really? Did he look any different?"

"No." Marinette shook her head with a sigh as they walked to class, Nino and Adrien already there. "He looked just like he did in every other dream."

"That's weird. To think, he would've changed if you've seen him before."

"Maybe only my subconscious knows that it's him."

"Maybe." They slid into their seats. "Anyway, how's your parents? Bakery still going well?"

"Yeah, it's going swell. We just got an order for some cupcakes for a baby shower, and you know how fun those are to decorate. How's your mom surviving at Chloe's place?"

"Just about as well as anyone else who works there that hasn't been fired." They laughed. "Honestly, I'm surprised my mom hasn't exploded yet."

"I am too."

"Alright class!" Mme. Bustier walked in, smiling at them all and stopping their conversation. "While I take roll, I want you to take out your textbook and flip it to page 39."

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Marinette was walking into class after lunch when she heard someone call her name.

"H-Hey, Marinette?" She turned around curiously, only to come face-to-face with a hopeful and shy looking Adrien. She smiled kindly.

"Yeah, Adrien?" She asked soothingly. "What is it?" She really didn't want him to be intimidated to ask her something- she was there to help him.

"I-I, um,…. was wondering, uh…" The words seemed to be on the tip of his tongue, and Marinette smiled encouragingly. Shy cinnamon roll. "You're a designer, right?"

"Yeah!" Marinette said happily. She had no idea why he seemed to be like this around her. Then again, he was like this around a lot of new people, so she supposed she would only have to get closer to him.

"Well… uh, I was wondering, uh… If I could see some of them?"

Marinette blinked in shock. He wanted to see her designs?

"Oh, sure!" She smiled and pulled out her design notebook, handing it to him. He looked shocked, but now she understood why he had been so nervous. Asking a designer to look through their designs could lead to them copying designs, but this was Adrien- there was no way that he could do that. "I'll just need it at the end of class." She reminded him. "I hope you like them!" Then she moved to go and sit down in her seat, waiting for Alya to get back.

Adrien stood there for a few seconds before moving to sit down in his seat as well. She could see him flipping through the pages with great care, and it brought a smile to her face.

'You like him.' Some voice inside of her head said.

'No I don't.' She replied to the random wisp of thought.

'Yes you do. You're just scared.' She studied Adrien from her seat behind him carefully, memories of a time she wished to forget resurfacing.

The teacher walked in as the bell rang, and she pulled out her bellowork to work on it.

'We're just friends.' She said honestly.

'That's what you want to believe.'

'We're. Just. Friends.' She replied with certainty. The voice in her head seemed to sigh in defeat, and left her alone to work on her bellwork. However, now unwanted thoughts and feelings were swirling through her mind, distracting her from the question on the board.

Suddenly, her design notebook entered her line of vision, and she looked up to see Adrien doing it while the teacher wasn't looking. She took it and read the sticky-note on the top of the notebook.

Is there any way that you could make me the cat-hoodie on page 78? I'll buy the materials and everything.

Knowing that she had multiple cat-hoodies/hats/jackets he could be talking about, she flipped through her notebook until she came upon the one that she had started designing on his first day of school.

The one that she had designed with Kitty in mind.

She glanced up at the back of Adrien's head, watching him shift a little bit, nervous. She imagined the jacket on him, and admitted to herself that he would look great in the jacket. And she did have materials coming in today that she had asked for a different project, but they would work splendidly for the jacket.

'But that jacket's for kitty!' Part of her mind exclaimed.

She shook her head, dismissing the thought, and pulled out some scratch paper to write her response down.

I'd love to! I'll talk to you after school about it if that's ok. She handed it back over to him and he read it. She could see the smile break out on his face as he relaxed, and she smiled, silently giggling to herself. He turned around a bit and gave her a nod in agreement, and she felt affection rise up in her chest.

'You should catch yourself before you fall for him all the way.' That small voice in the back of her head warned.

'We're just friends. Besides, this is his first year of school! He doesn't need to be swallowed with girl problems while he's getting used to this.'

'Just admit it already, we both know you're lying to yourself.'

Marinette stared at the back of Adrien's head in deep thought, and then she looked back down to go to work.

'Maybe a little.'

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