Deeply lost in thought Adrien inspected the present he had found inside the little box that had lied on his desk today. "What's that? A bracelet? A keychain?" he asked puzzled and narrowed his eyes at the thing inside his hand, intensely trying to solve the mystery.

"Maybe you'll understand once you get your last present?" Nino offered, unsuccessfully trying to not sound too suspicious and obvious again. But again, just like the first time, Adrien didn't took notice of it at all.

"I guess…" he answered distracted, still determined to come up with the answer to his (extremely important) question.

There was another person barely paying attention to their surroundings: Marinette. Not that she wasn't interested in her friend's presents or thought they were lame, not at all, she was just completely captivated by the beautifully decorated sketchbook inside her hands. It's front was red, covered in green paws and black dots with some glittering highlights as a pink logo spelled 'Marinette's greatest ideas' in bold, cursive letters above it all.

Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes as she quietly stared at it for 5 minutes straight, unaware of Alya watching her doing so with a happy, proud smile.

Since it was clear that her best friend loved her present Alya decided it was time to unwrap her own gift and she did exactly that without any further hesitation. With a gasp she let the fabric of the seemingly self-braided lasso run through her fingers. "It's a weapon! It's my weapon! I have my own weapon! I'm like a true superhero now!" she exclaimed almost ecstatic and grabbed Marinette's shoulders to shake her, not exactly lightly, before she posed epically in front of the class. She gained some giggles, impressed hums and an annoyed huff from Chloé in response.

In the meantime Nino had another breakdown.

"But I need to wear my glasses! All your work goes to waste!" he cried out in agony, kneeling on the ground and dramatically holding his new spectacle case up to the sky. Before anyone could try to calm him down he made up his mind. "You know what? Whoever you are, your effort will be appreciated!" Determined he took off his glasses and put them inside the case. "I will not be able to see anything today but that's totally worth it." He stood up from his kneeling position and tried to sit back down on his seat but the whole class watched him tripping and nearly falling over the backrest. Hurryingly Adrien stood up to guard his best friend to his seat. "Thanks man" Nino said and blinked, looking slightly past him.

Sighing Adrien shook his head in disapproval. "You should really put your glasses back o-"

"No! My Secret Santa and their work will be appreciated!" Nino cut him off and crossed his arms in front of his chest, pressing his point.

Marinette tried to hide her giggle behind her hand. Of course she was a little worried about her friend but Nino was too dorky and adorable for her to handle this situation seriously. Also she was sure Adrien would take good care of him, not allowing anything to happen to his best friend, so she had no real reason to worry.

"You're a Marinette-Elf! A Marielf!" Chat Noir's eyes sparkled with excitement as he inspected her hat, skirt and shoes while circling her. "I'll definitely hold on to that nickname by the way" he decided, ignoring her disapproving snort. She had known it would be a mistake to show herself to him like that but she was really proud of her design and for some reason she wanted to present it to him.

"Where did you buy it?" Chat asked after his 5th round around her.

A disgusted gasp made its way over her lips. "Excuse me?" she revolted with her hands on her hips.

"Where did you get the costume? I would love to get a matching costume to dress up with you" he admitted sheepishly but she was too offended to realize how sweet he was.

"Chat, I made this myself" she clarified deadpanned.

"What?!" Wide-eyed he circled her another 5 times and inspected the beautiful green and red striped fabric even more precisely. "Oh my god Princess, I am so sorry! Marinette, that's impressive! It looks so professional and it is really well sewn; of course I knew you're good but why didn't you tell me that you are a genius?" he asked genuinely overwhelmed, his eyes almost falling out of their sockets.

Actually Marinette wanted to be a tease and ask him why he had thought so poorly of her, hearing him apologize and beg for forgiveness. But strangely his admiration embarrassed her incredibly much and made her blush so intensely that she couldn't get out a single word as he stepped closer. Extremely close. Too close.

Although he was only so close to get a good look at the pattern she had stitched onto her collar, her breath caught in her throat with his face just a few inches away from her own. After a moment of Marinette staring at Chat, unable to breath, he slowly looked up, finally realizing how near her face was as well. How close her lips were. Temptingly close. Irresistibly close.

For a few seconds they got caught up in each other's eyes and forgot everything around them. While Chat noticed that the clear blue of Marinette's eyes had a calming influence on him, she decided that the vivid green she lost herself in was from now on her uncontested favorite color.

Eventually Chat flinched away from her as if he had just burned his hands on her body. In fact, it exactly felt like that. Heat crept through his entire body from where he had touched Marinette, despite his gloves and her costume preventing their skin from touching.

He began to laugh nervously. "Well, Princess… ha… uhm, what do you want to t-teach me today?" he stammered, desperately trying to cause the tension between them to disappear. He didn't succeed and instead felt like an awkward idiot who saw a beautiful girl for the first time in his entire life.

"Wearing ridiculous costumes" she exhaled still paralyzed, staring at him.

This situation and the emotions that unexpectedly flooded Chat in consequence of it were too much for him to handle, too much for him to deal with. So he followed his cat instincts and did the only thing he was able to manage at this moment: running away. "In that case I already passed my lesson for today, didn't I? That comes in handy because I forgot I… I need to be somewhere else. See you soon!"

And with that, he was gone.

For way too long Marinette kept staring at the spot where Chat had stood only seconds ago, a single, frightening thought circling inside her head, screaming at her: She had a helpless crush on Chat Noir.

Marinette couldn't stand it any longer, she needed to talk to someone about her confusing feelings. Too late she realized that Alya may not have been the best choice.

"He's just a flirt."

"He is not!"

"I guess you have to know better. I mean, you're the one dating him after all." Mischievously Alya smirked at Marinette who rolled her eyes.

"I am not" she simply disagreed.

Alya shrugged "But you want to and in that case you totally have a crush on said flirt."

"I told you he is not a flirt! He tries his best to be a gentleca- man. A gentleman."

Oh no.

There was no way Alya overheard or would ever let go of what she'd just said.

Unsurprisingly, her best friend's eyes widened, her mouth fell open and her 'I don't really care'-attitude was gone within a single second. "Were you just about to say gentlecat? Are you freaking kidding me, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?!"

With her cheeks turning bright red Marinette avoided eye contact and fumbled around with her purse, Tikki hidden inside of it. Come to think of it, she should have rather talked to her in the first place.

"I didn't… I wasn't… Seriously that was not what I was going to say!" she desperately tried to perform some damage control. Obviously, she failed.

Alya managed to finally regain her composure and shot Marinette a knowing grin. "Whatever you say girl. Oh, for your interest, you didn't even deny that you have a thing for Chat Noir at all."

With a resigned sigh Marinette slid down her chair. "I don't have the power to do that. Please give me a break." Laughing Alya patted her best friend's head to at least comfort her a little.

Neither of them noticed Adrien sitting in his chair one row in front of them as straight as a post. He had heard everything.

For the last few days, two equally, insanely strong feelings had accompanied him on every step he had taken: the urge to confess his affection towards Marinette and the painful dread of being rejected by her. Despite the second one he made up his mind at that very moment and decided determinedly to tell Marinette how deeply he felt for her. Soon.

Persuading himself that as Chat Noir he would be able to handle it if she rejected him and that he could always try harder as Adrien gave him all the courage he needed.