Maybe Saturday at Alya's was supposed to be hell, but Monday morning was sure to be. As Marinette rounded the corner to the classroom she could feel it fall: bad luck, everywhere.

(She knew she shouldn't have spent as much time with that dumb cat)

They day seemed innocent enough: the sky was clear, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping merrily, but looks are deceiving. You can't judge a book by its cover, et cetera.

"Whoa!"

"Oh my, I'm so so so so sorry! I'msoclumsy….justlookatmerunningintoyoulikethis….I'msoakwardandwowyou'regorgeous,sorryforknockingyou,um,overhahaha…"

Yup, she knocked over Adrien (again; she had a history…). He didn't look like he minded at all, though, as she grabbed his arm and hauled him up, her cheeks covered in pink.

"Hey, it's okay!"

Of course he would say that; he's Adrien and he's just that nice. Stupid crush.

Stupid cat; she didn't know what he'd done to her, but her week had already turned unlucky. The day before she had spent hours looking for Alya, since neither of them had mentioned location, and Ladybug never broke her promise. Eventually she had used her top secret detective skills, i.e. her best friend privileges, to spy out where Alya was and finally give the interview, where she was bombarded with questions about her relationship with Chat.

She was tired.

And here she was, the technical day three of her attempts to be over Adrien, blushing because she'd just knocked him over. And staring at his gorgeous face. And feeling really overwhelmed because he's just so nice…This was hopeless.

She smiles nervously up at the boy she had just, rather roughly, hauled to his feet.

"Thanks."

What was really weird was not the fact the she probably looked utterly dazed as she stared up at him, but the way he was staring back at her. She was really sure she was dying because those eyes…

"Um, yah, you too. You're, uh, really strong."

Where his cheeks pink?

If there were any way she could crush any harder she would swear she just did.

"Uh, thanks."

"Um, yeah."

The bell rang.

Neither of them moved.

"We uh…"

"Yah, we should probably get into class."

Like the true gentleman he was, Adrien steps in front of her and opens the door, flourishing it with a little bow. Marinette giggles a little; he was just too cute. His bashful smile didn't help.

Her cheeks are (of course) red by the time she reaches her desk.

How was she ever going to get over him if he kept acting like that?

Alya smirks at her as she sat down.

Oh, have pity on her poor heart, she didn't deserve this!

XoX

It was exactly three hours and fifty-two minutes later when entered the room; Marinette had been savoring her last hours. With a clap of her hands, their over-enthusiastic teacher called the class to attention, and asked who felt the most prepared to show off their skit. Most of the class mumbled amongst each other, most of them unprepared to the max.

Alas, not Alya; she waited a few minutes lest someone else beg to be the first volunteer, and then jumped to her feet when she saw no one else wanted the dreadful position of first.

" , we're ready!"

She grabbed Nino, who grabbed Adrien, who glanced back at Marinette who slowly rose to her feet. Every footstep closer to the front of the classroom, every breath she took, it all brought her one second closer to her death.

"Wonderful!"

clapped her hands again.

"Let's see it!"

Shoving everyone there scripts, Alya began her part as the narrator.

"Once upon a time…"

With those words, her grave was sealed.

"Chat Noir,"

Her hands shook, she tried to make eye contact.

"Distract the akuma; I need to summon my lucky charm."

"As you wish, M'lady."

There it was, that subtle little twinkle that was so Chat.

Her heart sank; it suited him so well.

"Chat Noir, hand me that useless stick…"

It was now hard to move her eyes; their eyes were locked, neither of them could look anywhere else.

"I need it for something…."

He was waiting, and then, oh! There went her breath; she couldn't breathe.

"Please."

It was a whisper, but the rest of the room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

He too, seemed a little caught up in the moment because he answered her just a second too late.

"As you wish my Lady."

She couldn't help herself; here he was so near, so beautiful, and so absolutely kissable… Her body was moving on its own when her head moved just a smidgen closer and touched his lips with hers.

" And one day she realized that what he really was saying was "I love you"."

She backed away, her cheeks turning pink. This is nothing but a skit, she promised herself; you're just acting in character.

Wait, what?

This wasn't in character at all!

Of course Chat meant nothing when he called her "M'lady", and she certainly wouldn't kiss him… well, more than that one time, anyways. She felt absolutely no romantic feelings for Chat in or out of costume. Especially not when he snuck up on her like he had last Saturday; it was absolutely stupid and not at all romantic… at most it was cheesy.

She looked back at Adrien, whose eyes had closed when she had… kissed him. He looked a little flustered too, and no wonder; that hadn't been in the script. His lips moved, and she remembered that she had a line here too.

"But what if you never come back?"

That was ridiculous; she would never question if Chat would come back; he always managed, despite his bad luck. But this time, Adrien made the first move, and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer, so much closer…

" I object!"

Oh. Right. They weren't rehearsing anymore; they were actually performing, in front of their whole class, and that class included Chloe, who in all honesty was more of a villain than the akumas she fought on a regular basis.

Who was really, really possessive over Adrien.

And who really, really disliked Marinette for challenging her.

Immediately she pulled away from Adrien, who seemed very reluctant to let her go, and whipped around to face Chloe.

"Can't you see we're acting here?"

Well, sort of.

Not.

"Chloe, sit down right now."

took over.

"Alya, Nino,"

She turned to the four of them grinning.

" I've been reading this script and it's absolutely delightful, if not a little long for a skit. Adrien and Marinette, your performance just now was spectacular! You portrayed both your characters and the emotions perfectly!"

Now she paused, considering what she was about to say.

"I'd like to talk to you four some more about this after the rest of your classes. Alright, who's next?"

Marinette breathed a sigh of slight relief; really, the beginning was nothing. If there was this much tension in the relatively innocent first moments, how would she have survived the kiss at the end?

She pointedly avoided Adrien's eyes for the rest of the class.

xOx

Despite having high hopes for avoiding Adrian the rest of the day, she had neglected to count in Alya being simply thrilled that Ms. Bustier liked their skit and so dragged her along with her to the teacher's classroom for their little meeting; of course Adrien was there too, along with Nino.

"Alya, Marinette, wonderful you could make it!"

The smile that stretched a crossed her face was unnaturally big, and since Ms. Bustier was a very smiley person, that was saying something.

"So, like I said earlier, I'm really excited about this little skit you wrote up, although little… might not be the word."

She looked pointedly to the two script writers.

"There are, as always, flaws in your work, but nothing unfixable; I appreciate the effort you all obviously put into this despite having so little time."

Now her lips pursed together and excitement danced in her eyes.

"I have a proposition for you; all four of you actually, but right now I'm talking you two, Nino and Alya. Would you two like to direct this as our school play for the spring festival finale? It will be revised a bit, of course, but-"

"Yes!"

There they go, talking at the same time.

"This is awesome!"

"I told you we'd struck gold!"

The two of them danced around in circles, giggling, jumping up and down… and Alya thought she and Chat were a couple. Sheesh, how could two people be that oblivious?

Marinette moves a hand to cover her mouth as she smiled at the two idiots, but her elbow bumps something and she glances up….Oh. Adrien. She smiles awkwardly.

"Ahem!"

Ms Bustier was beckoning them to her desk.

"I'm sure you've both already guessed this,"

Guessed what?

"But I really can't ask anyone else to play the leads; you two were simply astounding in your performance for me this morning and I'm certain that no one else could portray Ladybug and Chat Noir as much accuracy as you did this morning! Maybe even the two superheroes themselves!"

A nervous giggled slipped through her lips as she unconsciously moved closer to Adrien and he unconsciously moved closer to her until they were just touching. Touching unconsciously, but her arm was hyper aware.

"So what do you say?"

No. A thousand times no. This was a bad idea.

But looking back at Alya, who had stopped dancing with Nino and was watching what was happening with her journalist's eye, she shut her mouth and thought before speaking. Alya had written this part for her; she seriously doubted that anyone could do justice to Ladybug as well as Ladybug could; Adrien made a terrific Chat; all in all, this was a lot of fun.

So she looks at Ms Bustier.

"I'd love to."

Adrien must have been waiting for her answer, because he accepted right after her.

"Yah, of course; I'd be honored."

Great. Just great.

More kisses with Adrien; so much for being over him.

XoX

"Hey Marinette!"

Alya calls her as she leaves, jogging to catch up to her.

"So, I see you've been cast as Ladybug; you know what that means?"

Marinette sighs.

"Yeah."

"Huh. You don't seem very excited for someone who keeps getting to kiss their crush."

"It's just acting, Alya. That's all."

"Right… so that little improvised kiss thing we saw this morning was just acting? 'Cause you really fooled me. You and Adrien both."

"Well… mostly. Adrien is just really good at being Chat Noir."

"What, so you have crush on oh-so-charming Chat Noir, huh? Too bad he's already taken."

"NO! He's an annoying flirt with way too many cat puns; I do not have a crush on him."

"Whoa, girl, I was just teasing… wait, do actually have a crush on Chat-"

"No! And I'm done crushing on Adrien too, okay?"

"…Okay. But, just as a heads up, I think he might have a crush on you. The way he was looking at you, well… I'm pretty sure that wasn't acting. Just say'n"

" Yah, well…. I'm pretty sure you were just imagining things."

Alya gives her a look.

Sure.

XoX

"Tikki, what am I going to do!?"

Her kwami looks at her with sympathy.

"You'll figure it out as you go along; you always do."

"Yeah, but what if Alya's right? What if he does like me?"

"Well, what if? You don't know. He didn't tell you, did he?"

"No."

"Well then you don't have anything to go by. Really Marinette, just enjoy yourself; if he likes you back, he likes you back. Obviously you've liked him too long to stop."

"Ummm… About that. Uh, when you kind of start realizing that you, uh, like someone else, doesn't that mean you're over the other person?"

"Who?"

"Um… okay, don't go crazy on me, I'm not even really sure of it myself yet but… maybe… Chat?"

"Really?!"

Wow; that wasn't exactly what she expected.

"Oh, wow, this is awesome! Already too! I can't wait to tell Plagg-"

"Don't tell anyone! Wait, who's Plagg?"

"Oh, just Chat Noir's kwami who I haven't seen in forever. He's a real cheeseball; you'll know what I mean when you meet him."

"Meet him? Why?"

"Well, if you like Chat Noir, then there's really no reason not to tell him since you already knows he likes you-"

"He does?!"

"And since you both have finally realized you like each other, you will inevitably want to reveal yourselves so you can go on dates and do all that cute couply stuff, you know-"

"What?!"

"And while you guys do your thing, Plagg and I'll do ours and it will be like the big happy family we always are! Oh Marinette, I'm so happy you aren't as clueless as the last few Ladybugs were when it came to acting on their feelings!"

"Right."

Tikki danced around the room excitedly, happiness shining out her eyes; Marinette felt nothing but confusion.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Where?"

"To see Adrian of course! You know, suit up!"

"What?! Umm… Spots on!"

xOx

Two minutes later she found herself on the roof of the Agreste Mansion, absolutely clueless to why she was there.

"Why am I here?"

She whispers to herself.

Of course, Tikki couldn't tell her; she was transformed. Until then, she would have to bumble her way through this… ah, visit. She drops on top of Adrien's window ledge (well, she hoped it was Adrien's; it was the only window with a light on) and peers through the glass (yup, it was Adrien's).

"Wow!"

It was huge, filled with all the extravagances that only a rich teenager would think of: indoor basketball court, skater ramp, three computer monitors, walls full of bookshelves… it kept going on and on. She stares at it, in the perfect position to get caught; and she is.

"Ladybug? What are you doing?"

"Chat!"

She spins around, startled.

"Uh…ha…Is it time to patrol already?"

"I could be asking you the same thing."

"Ummm, well, it wasn't… I just… wanted to explore…"

"By looking in other people's windows?"

"Oh, that… I wanted to catch a classmate… but it doesn't look like he's home."

Chat gives her a funny look.

"You do this often? Visit random civilians?"

"No."

She answers honestly.

'But I know someone who does.'

"Huh. You got a thing for this Agreste boy or something?"

"NO! He's a friend is all… though I will admit; I'd never seen his room before. Isn't it huge?"

"Eh, it's not so great…You know him?"

Chat was asking a lot of questions; she looks at him suspiciously.

"What's it to you?"

Pulling himself together, Chat points his nose in the air and tells her.

"Well if you have to know, he happens to be one of my biggest fans, and I like to… visit every now and then. Did you know he's acting as me in his school's spring festival drama?"

Chat seemed to preen at that.

She sniffs.

"I don't see what's so great about that. You know that girl Marinette I had help you out a few times—"

She was going to get herself in trouble.

"She's acting in it too, as Ladybug,"

Despite her better judgment

"And she's doing pretty good! Trust me, she'll give that Adrien of yours a run for his money!"

Well… no. She'd really just try to forget how many times she'd be kissing him under the guise of acting.

Strangely, when she said that, Chat's face seemed to turn a little pink, but night was quickly descending, so it was hard to tell.

'Well, uh… I'm sure she will…"

He was rubbing the back of his neck, and he really looked awkward.

"But, uh, do you know Adrien?"

"Yeah, like I said a classmate…"

Think of an excuse, insert here.

"I was going to ask him some questions about Marinette… yeah…"

"Really?"

"What, I'm friends with her, okay? It's awkward having to kiss a guy multiple times if you aren't sure of… where you stand with him. So yeah, doing a friendly interrogation is all."

Huh, that was actually kind of close to the truth.

"Friendly? Couldn't she just talk to him?"

She glared at her kitty.

"No! That would be super awkward and she really doesn't need more of that."

"Well she really shouldn't go around initiating kisses if she didn't want things to be awkward."

He mumbles.

"What?! She was acting!"

"Well maybe she was, but was he?"

"That's what I was here to find out!"

Staring into each other's' gaze, arguing about something that they, as superheroes, were not supposed to care about, dropping their gaze, it hit her that this was perhaps the longest conversation they'd ever had about their civilian lives; it was… uncomfortable.

"Oh."

"Yeah. And… she might not have been acting. She's had a crush on him for forever."

Why was she telling him this?

"Really?"

His ears perked up.

"Uh-huh. But she's also a little afraid she likes someone else too, who she's been friends with for forever, and she doesn't really think Adrien likes her back anyways, so she kind of wants to give the other guy a chance."

And now here she is, telling the other guy, and he'll probably never have a clue.

Did Chat's eyes widen just a bit, or was she imagining things?

"Did she tell you that?"

Well, in a roundabout way.

"Yes."

"Could you… maybe tell her…Well, Adrien was definitely not just acting on today… and he's in sort of the same predicament as her."

What?

"You're kidding?"

She looks at him in disbelief as he pointedly looks away.

"Well…no, I'm not. He's uh, he's really confused."

Oh, poor Adrien; she wishes she could help him.

But Chat hastens to say something and she remembers… It's either Chat or Adrien.

And honestly, sitting here, talking to her crush about her crush, she feels all the more conflicted.

Because Chat is too sweet.

Because she already knew Chat liked her, and that had made her decision a little easier, but now finding out Adrien might like her too…

"But, you know, he knows this other girl he likes doesn't really like him back that way, so… If you gave Marinette a hint or something…"

He seems almost sad as he said it.

"He wouldn't mind."

He needed some cheering up, but she wasn't sure that she, as Ladybug, could do it; she didn't really know how.

But maybe… maybe if she couldn't talk with Adrien as her superhero persona… maybe talking to Chat as her civilian self could help her sort her feelings out.

"Why don't you go tell her?"

"What, me? I uh—"

"Sure! What with you sneaking up on her all the time, I'm sure she wouldn't mind hearing from you."

"Well… maybe. You knew about that?"

"Ah-haha! Well, I'd best be getting home. I've got a curfew. Bye bye, kitty!"

"But what about patrol?"

"Well, you need some kind of excuse, don't you?"

She smiled at her kitty's blush, but wondered what she was doing. Well, she knew; she wanted to see if Chat would do it: tell Marinette about Adrien, and how he would do it if he did. She could never tell if Chat actually liked Marinette, or if he just liked her, as a friend.

She really hoped she wasn't leading him on; she didn't want to mess with Chat's feelings.

She was messing with her own enough.