"You know , I heard him last night . I thought an clown akuma hit him or something "

Marienette gripped her arms tighter , her face face buried in them as she sat in her seat listening to Alya and her classmates talk about Kim's late night Chat noir sighting.

Apparently, he heard some laughter out his window and and opened it to to see Chat noir bounding away at a distance , practically stumbling across rooftops as he laughed 'borderline hysterically' considering he could hear him from his room . From prior experience, he had assumed some laughing akuma had hit him with something.

Chat was stumbling across rooftops, bubbling over with laughter .

It was around the time he dropped her off at her place .

And she Knows there wasn't an akuma.

End result : Marienette couldn't raise her head from her arms due to how red her face was . There was no way , No Way she could let Alya get suspicious, because then she would badger her for answers and she cannot tell her about what happened last night .

'Sorry to disappoint , princess...'

SHE WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED! That stupid , overconfident, sneaky , flirty , annoying, insufferable,...

Adrien sat in the seat in front of hers with a straight face while physically straining himself to keep from laughing as he overheard both the loud conversation about his alter-ego's assumed mental breakdown (when your famous , after a while , most rumours become more entertaining than insulting ) and the softly mumbled complaints of the girl behind him , who was also the only other person who knows Exactly why Chat noir was laughing last night .

To be fair , he never meant to embarrass her . He made sure to go far away enough so she couldn't hear him before letting his amusement get to him . But unfortunately, he was overheard .

Man ! He's a little fearful of how she'll react the next time she sees him ...well, the Chat noir him . Good thing he has superpowers. No matter how sweet and shy she is around him in class , she doesn't seem to have any inhibitions around Chat noir and he knows even the quiet ones can be deadly .

How ? No idea . But Nino warned him about underestimating people cause they seem nice . Once you give them a reason to hate you , they Hate with a passion , he said . Personally, he can't imagine Marienette being that bad but he would much rather not find out . After all , Nino has way more experience dealing with real girls than he does.

Just then , the teacher walked in and he turned around and tapped her arm with a whisper.

"Marinette..."

Her reaction, well,...reaction's' were ...confusing.

First she looked up from her nest of arms , her face slightly red , her lips in an adorable pout and her eyes slightly narrowed with frustration, but when she saw him , her eyes widened in shock , her mouth parted with a small gasp as her blush Increased before she gave a nervous laugh , trying to look anywhere except directly at him before Finally forcing herself to look at him , her body tense .

"Adrien,...I ...yes, what...um..."

"The teacher's here ."

She looked up to see the teacher then looked back at him with a grateful smile . He gave a small smile in return before turning back to the front to face the teacher .

Seriously, why was she so uncomfortable around him in school when she was so ...free around Chat noir ? . He just didn't get it . Pretty sure superheroes are higher up in the intimidation scale than models or rich kids . And it's not like she's like that around Chloe.

He sighed as he heard her let out a groan of relief .

Did she hate him or something and was just too nice to say anything about it? He needs to ask Nino about it . But if Nino tells Alya and Alya tells Marienette, then ...shoot ! The teacher was looking at him , better try to listen .

.

Marienette was tired. She spend a good amount of time fuming before realising she had a dirty , wet hoodie that was given to her by the same boy that , as she now knew with almost 100 percent certainty , was laughing at her for becoming as flustered as she had tried to make him . She now had that quality hoodie in her closet carefully washed , dried and folded . He did help her after all , but that doesn't mean she won't give him an earful when he comes back for it.

Though , to be fair , she did start it . He just played along ...and won . Urg!...She should have known better to challenge the flirting king in his own game . A mistake she will not make again ...hopefully ... She wasn't really thinking the last time she did it . Wow, if she ever said something like that to Adrien , ...she'll probably die of a heart attack the next second.

A slip of paper flipped on to her book . She gave quick look to the side to confirm it was from her best friend before flipping it open and reading it .

'What's up with you ? You're making more weird faces than usual .'

She felt her cheeks get hotter as she glanced at Adrien to make sure he didn't ...something . Another paper flipped onto her book .

'Never mind . Same as usual, I guess ;)'

She quickly scribbled a response and send it back .

'It's nothing. We'll talk at lunch .'

.

.

"Well , it's lunch , Mari . Talk ."

"It's nothing, Alya . I was just wondering some..."

"That's just not Fair !"

The two girls turned their attention to Nino and Adrien , who after the previous class , seemed upset about something. Nino was more of a angry upset while Adrien was just plain upset .

"Nino , I'm sorry . You know I can't do anything about it."

"But , can't you talk to him ?."

"The last time I tried that , he 'hinted' that maybe I was better off homeschooled "

"Bro . I know he's your dad , but ..."

"I know , okay ...trust me ,...I know ."

Marienette's heart clenched at the resignation in his voice . She wished she was brave enough to give him a hug . She tried to force her mouth to work but the fear of making it worse or saying the wrong thing kept her quiet .

Alya didn't have that problem.

"What happened ?"

Adrien and Nino turned to face Alya . They shared a look , a silent conversation occurring between them for a few seconds before Nino answered with a sigh .

"Adrien has a photoshoot on friday and we had plans ."

"I thought friday was your free day ?"

Three heads turn to look right at Marienette. Which wouldn't be a problem if one of those heads wasn't a cute , sweet , kind boy who was looking Right At Her with ... confusion? .

"Yeah ...that's why we only plan for those days . How did you..."

"OH WELL ! We better get lunch before break ends . Come on , Mari ! Let's go !"

Alya shouted as she grabbed Marienette's arm and dragged her away .

Best ! Friend ! Ever ! ...like Ever !

"Eating outside?"

"Sounds good to me !"

The speakers in school shouted as soon as they had gone outside.

"Students are to get inside the school and close the doors as an akuma had appeared not far from the campus and appear to be coming closer . I repeat ..."

Alya and Marienette both jumped , one with gleeful anticipation and one with worry and annoyance.

"COME ON , MARI ! WE NEED TO GET A GOOD SPOT SO I CAN FILM THIS !"

"Um...Right behind you , Alya !"

Marienette ran with Alya for a while till they entered the school and ditched her in the crowd of students running into the school before ducking around the school and jumped behind some bushes.

"TRANSFORM , LADYBUG !"

Ladybug reached the site of commotion and looked down just in time to see her partner doing ...the chicken dance ...With sound effects , while dodging ...exploding ...eggs ...

Which would've looked more ridiculous if there wasn't a grown chicken-man throwing them at him .

"Geez ! what has your feathers ruffled , Chucky ?"

"Give me your miraculous !"

She couldn't stop the soft smile that formed on her lips , all thoughts of letting him get knocked around a bit this time was just swept out of her mind.

Seriously though , how did she ever think she could embarrass this guy ?

.

.

After the announcement was made , Adrien managed to dodge Nino when he left the classroom to find Alya , knowing she'll try to film whatever was attacking them .

How did he escape a classroom filled with kids ? Simple . He ran to the back of the classroom and jumped out the window onto the top of a tree.

Hey ! He was a pretty athletic guy , even without superpowers.

Which is why he had the honour of being the first to meet ...

"NO HEARTLESS CORPORATION WILL GO HEAR MY PRIZE CHICKENS ! THEIR BEAUTY IS NOT FOR YOUR STOMACHS !.."

...Chicken guy . A guy in a chicken hat and skin-tight red and yellow suit ...with a feather tail . There was a satchel over his shoulder and a chain around his waist.

.

So . Many . Jokes ...

.

...Brain ...Over ...Loading...

Okay ! concentrate ! Distract from civilians . Go !

"HEY ! CHICK KING !..."

Chicky threw an egg at him . Rude!

He dodged to the side and the egg hit the wall behind him bursting a hole in it .

Oh well ! At least , he's not being attacked by an army of chickens.

"That all you got ? Bawk ! Bwack ! Bwack ! buc ! buc, !..."

Sure , he should be more concerned with the exploding eggs but the situation Demanded the chicken dance . It Had to be done . Plus it was easier to lead the akuma away after they ...

A purple butterfly mask outlined his face and he groaned .

...ah! here we go !

"Geez ! what has your feathers ruffled , Chucky ?"

"Give me your miraculous!"

He rolled his eyes .

"Wow ! Didn't expect that !"

Chick King grabbed the chain (which had a beak at it's end ) from around his waist and launched it at him and it wrapped around his leg before pulling . The same time a familiar string wrapped around his hand .

Both pulled .

"Woah!"

His hand was pulled upwards and he grabbed the familiar polka-dotted yo-yo as his leg was pulled towards the Chick King resulting in him being suspended in mid-air and being stretched like he was on a medieval torture machine.

"CHAT ! CLIMB !"

He stretched his neck up to look at his lady standing on a nearby rooftop pulling him . He grabbed the string and pulled himself towards her .

"NO !...AARRGH !"

She winked at him and his eyes widened in understanding as she let go of the string just as the Chicky gave a strong pull causing him to stumble as Chat was yanked right towards him , the chain around his leg loosening as he got closer . Chat twisted in mid-air and and landed on the Chick-king's head before using him as a spring-board to launch himself up to the opposite roof .

Ladybug landed next to him . He gave a bow , extending his arm which held her yo-yo .

"I believe this is yours , m'lady .."

Ladybug rolled her eyes and picked up her weapon .

"The chicken dance , ...really , Chat!"

He stood up straight and , looking her in the eye with a serious face , replied in a firm voice as if he was a solider who had just carried out a secret undercover mission .

"The situation demanded it ."

She rolled her eyes , a fond smile on her lips .

"Let's go , Kitty !"

"After you , m'lady ."

.

.

AN:-

Hope you liked it . Next chap's a bit more emotional.

Please review.