Adrien ran his hand along the racks of clothing at the first designer store that they had stopped at. Gorilla had parked the car, while the two of them had gone inside to shop through all of the pieces. It hadn't taken Marinette long to get excited about the various different materials.

"What about this one?" Marinette held a red a-line dress up to herself and all he saw was Ladybug.

"Ladybug…" Adrien sighed her name and zoned out for a moment. It had been so much easier when it was just Ladybug and Chat Noir and not a combination of the four of them.

Marinette caught her hero name on his lips and she bit her bottom lip. Everything seemed to be moving so fast after years of moving slow paced. "Adrien?" She softly spoke and tried to keep the tears from falling from her eyes.

He noticed how her lip was turning red beneath her teeth and how her eyes seemed to shine more under the light. He quickly grabbed a few items from a rack and whisked her off to a dressing room. He shut the velvet curtain and hung the items of clothing up onto a hook.

Marinette peered up at him with a confused expression, but all he did was wrap his arms around her. She suddenly clutched at the back of his shirt and let the tears fall. He ran his fingers through her dark hair and just held her. "I'm sorry, this is so stupid. I don't know what's wrong with me or why I'm so upset. I- I don't understand what's happening or what I'm feeling. I-"

"It's okay. It's a lot to take in like you said. You went from having the best time in your life, to waking up in my bed, to seeing some of what happened on the news, and now you're being forced to date me by my father." Adrien sighed and tried to not let it get to him either. Someone had to be strong during this whole disaster.

Marinette wanted to agree with him that it was because of everything that had happened in less than twenty four hours, but it was mostly due to him thinking about Ladybug and not her. Not Marinette. She rubbed her face into his shirt and he felt her tremble against him. She wanted him to say Marinette in the tone that he had just said Ladybug.

"How about if we ditch my bodyguard and head out for some lunch? On me." Adrien spoke against her hair and she sniffed. She didn't know if that would make her feel worse or better. She didn't know if anything would make her feel better at the moment. She honestly just wanted to go home and crawl underneath the blankets and forget this ever happened.

"Can you take me home, please?" Marinette's voice shook and sounded weaker than he had ever heard it. Adrien's heart burst and ached for the woman in his arms. He hadn't wanted for her to get hurt and for some reason he felt like this was all his fault.

"Okay. I'll pick out some clothes here and send a text over to my father about how you were able to find everything you needed at this shop." Adrien pulled the clothing from the hook and took her hand; before, leading her out of the dressing room.

Marinette hid in her hair, as they walked through the shop. She nodded to give her opinion on each ensemble he selected for her and before long, they had enough clothing ensembles to appease Gabriel.

"Alright, now I just have to pay and… send photos off to my father." Adrien sighed and handed his metal credit card over to the cashier. They slid it and he gathered the bags in one hand, while he placed her arm into the crook of his elbow. He lead her out of the shop and into the car. "We were able to find everything she needed there. Head to Mademoiselle Dupain Cheng's apartment, please." Adrien politely ordered Gorilla to drive her home.

He sent texts of the pieces to his father and smiled at the approving reply. "He seems to be happy about the items you chose." Adrien excitedly spoke to Marinette with a bright grin. It quickly faded as he took the sad woman in.

She was leaning on her palm with her elbow on the car door. Her vacant stare worried him, as she peered out of the window at the city passing by them. Adrien noticed how she had her bottom lip between her teeth and seemed to be causing it to become raw with each passing of her teeth. Her fingers were busy shifting the fabric of her black pencil skirt; while, her shoulders were drawn into herself.

He didn't like seeing her that way. It was off putting and not like Marinette or Ladybug. It was the shell of a human being. One that had been let down and put through a machine till they couldn't go on anymore.

"Say something. Please." Adrien touched her chin and made her eyes meet his and it was startling. The way the bright blues had faded into stormy grey tones. His heart sank at the sight of her.

"I wish I was the woman that you wanted." Marinette let the tears fall that had been previously burning her eyes.

Adrien sat perfectly still and silent. He parted his lips to speak, but she had caught him off guard with her words. The sentences lost their structure and tangled together in his throat and his stomach turned. He knew he should say something, anything to reassure her about how he loved her and had always loved her.

The car stopped in front of her apartment and she shivered and reached for the handle. Adrien almost reached over to lock her door to keep her from leaving. He was so close, so close to keeping her with him and taking her back to his apartment. His eyes grew wide as, he realized he had in fact reached out and locked the door. Marinette looked up at him with widened eyes that were filled with tears. She hadn't expected him to lock her door.

He quickly unlocked it and rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Promise me you'll be okay?"

Marinette nodded and got out of the car. She smiled for him, but he knew it was forced. She shut the door with a small thank you from her lips; before, she headed for the front door to her apartment, greeting the doorman as usual.

Adrien sat back against the seat with a groan and immediately dialed a number on his phone. "Hey, Alya. I need you to go check up on Marinette. It'd be great if you could stay with her for the night too. Yeah, she's… she's alright. I just don't think she should be alone right now." Adrien hung up his phone and scanned through his contacts for Nino's number.

He needed to unwind and Nino was the perfect person to ask. Nino might also know what had happened at the party and he really wanted to know more about the whole situation. The more he knew the better off Marinette was.

Nino answered on the second ring, which surprised Adrien. It usually took a few rings for him to pick up. Adrien leaned back in his seat and adjusted his hips to be more comfortable.

"Hey, man. I'm on my way back to my father's and then I'll be heading out. Um… I was wondering if I could come by. If it's not too much trouble. I know you got Alya and everything." Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and leaned his elbow on the door, while he peered out the window, as they pulled up to the mansion.

"Yeah, yeah. Come on over. You know you're always welcome." Nino looked over at Alya. She was busy getting ready to head over to Marinette's place.

"See you in ten." Adrien hung up his phone and told Gorilla that he was going to head out. "Tell my father that I'll talk to him tomorrow."

Gorilla went to protest, but gave up. He was used to Adrien escaping with one excuse or another and there really wasn't anything he could do about it. He knew he would pay for it later, but there really wasn't another option.

Adrien shut the car door and hopped into his own car. He started the car and shifted, taking off towards Nino's studio apartment.

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Alya greeted the doorman at Marinette's apartment with a warm smile. Her arms were full of bags from the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. She had gotten all of Marinette's favorites. She didn't know why Adrien had asked her to head over to check up on her, but it wasn't typical for him and that worried her.

She knew that the party had gotten a bit out of hand, but she didn't know how much until she had seen the video that she had taken. When Marinette had called her about it… she had immediately took it down from the site, but it hadn't taken long for others to capture the footage and place it onto other sites as well, making it impossible for her to fully erase it.

Alya knocked on Marinette's door. The door slowly opened and it took Alya less than a second to understand why Adrien had asked her to come over. "Oh girl…" She watched Marinette crumble at her words.

"It's bad. Everything is going downhill and I don't know how to fix it all. There's no lucky charm for a broken heart, Alya." Marinette sobbed and slumped onto her couch in her Chat Noir themed pajamas. Her pants were black with small neon green paw prints and she wore a neon green tank top with a long sleeved black hoodie with cat ears on the hood. Neon green piping ran around the edges of the zipper and ears. She put the hood over her head and pulled her knees to her chest.

Alya was shocked to see she owned something like that. "Did you make that?"

Marinette nodded and Alya sighed, as she closed the door to Marinette's apartment. She set the bags down onto the coffee table and fell onto the couch beside her distraught best friend. She was still surprised that her friend would own something that was themed around a guy that she couldn't stand in high school. She had often complained to Alya about their random encounters during akuma fights. "What happened?"

Marinette took a deep breath and Alya passed her a pink macaron. She held it in her hand and looked down at it. "I don't remember what happened at Nino's party past dancing and drinking with you guys. I woke up this morning in Adrien's bed, naked with kagami beside me. And then-"

"Wait! Kagami was there?" Alya's eyes went wide at the thought of Adrien with two women in his bed.

Marinette nodded with a blush and Alya felt her head begin to spin. "With you? In Adrien's bed… where was Adrien?"

"Standing at his mini bar staring at the bed. He didn't look too happy." Marinette hid further into the hood of her jacket.

"Wait, so you don't remember what happened after we danced and drank. Then you wake up in Adrien Agreste's bed? We are talking Adrien Agreste? Like the guy you've been crushing on for years?" Alya was in shock for some reason. It shouldn't surprise her, but the fact that Marinette had still not told him how she felt… made being in his bed a bit surprising.

"Yes." Marinette squeaked and wanted to be swallowed into the couch. "Then we saw the article online with the photo… and then your video… Neither of us know what happened." She gripped her hair in her hands and yanked the hood down further.

"Marinette… what photo?" Alya searched her eyes, while Marinette hid in the hood of her jacket.

Marinette groaned and picked up her phone from the arm of the couch. She searched for the article and set it down for Alya to see it. Alya's hand went to her mouth and her eyes widened at the photo. "Girl, I do not remember that being taken." She passed her phone back to her and Marinette wanted to cry harder.

"Were you able to take the video down?" Marinette stared at her best friend with all of the hope of the world in her blue eyes.

Alya cringed and wrung her hands together. "Well… I was able to take my upload down, but… others had already captured it and uploaded it onto other platforms. So… now I can't take it down." She waited for the storm to hit, but it never did.

"Gabriel Agreste found out…" Marinette mumbled and nibbled on the macaron.

Alya shot her a look of concern. "Shit. What'd he do?"

"He's making Adrien and I date to prove that he's not an arrogant drunk playboy." Marinette rolled her eyes and Alya could feel the tension radiating from her.

"That's good though, right? You're dating. Isn't that what you wanted?" Alya tried to look at the bright side in the whole situation, but it didn't make Marinette feel better.

"He saw a red dress that I was holding up to myself and Ladybug came from his lips like she was his world. Not Marinette." Marinette sniffed and felt her heart drop at the thought. "I asked him to take me home."

"And you think that man doesn't love you?" Alya raised an eyebrow at Marinette. She had heard enough from Nino to know that that boy was still hooked on her.

Marinette shook her head. "I said, I wish I was the woman you wanted and he didn't say anything. He just froze up and for some odd reason reached over and locked my car door, while I was trying to get out." She sighed and her heart felt hollow and like it was shattering. "Then he tried to play it off like he hadn't done it."

Alya burst out laughing at the two of them. "He tried to lock you in the car with him? And you're seeing that as a man that doesn't have feelings for you? Because he said Ladybug with too much affection." She calmed down and looked at her best friend with a warm smile. "Marinette. You need to rethink everything he's done so far and then let me know how he feels."

"He also keeps leaning into me and then for some reason we kiss and it feels like I can't get close enough to him. But it has to be all of the crazy emotions and stress put on us in the last twenty four hours, right? It can't be because he still has feelings for me. Well, you know what I mean." Marinette searched Alya's soft eyes with wild blue ones.

Alya shook her head and giggled. She took her glasses off and cleaned them with her shirt. "You need to rethink all that shit you just told me and then talk to me, M. Or better yet… ask the man that asked me to come here in the first place."

Marinette thought for a moment, before her eyes got wide. "I'll be back. Don't wait up for me." She ran off to the bathroom. Alya replaced her glasses onto her face, picked up a croissant, and laughed harder at the whole situation.

Marinette had told Alya that she was Ladybug, as long as, she had promised to not tell anyone or her blog. Alya had easily agreed to not break that promise. She was thrilled that Marinette had been Ladybug this whole time, but if she was honest… she was worried every time her best friend fought an akuma.

The familiar sound of 'spots on' didn't even phase Alya. She sighed into the couch and texted Adrien. "Your girl's headed to your secret spot."

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Adrien sat at the bar with Nino and pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket to see Alya's text. "I got to go, Nino. I'll come over to play that new fighting game with you. I need to talk to someone anyway."

Nino nodded and waved him off, as Adrien ran out of the bar and into an alleyway to transform.

He was confused as to what had happened to make Marinette transform. He feared it was an akuma and he knew he had to be there for his lady no matter what. So with adrenaline filled veins mixed with vodka shots… he became her protector and leapt across Paris towards the Eiffel Tower.

Song I Wrote to:

Thinking About You by Ariana Grande