Marinette didn't sleep again that night.

Her mind was buzzing with the fact that Chat Noir knew that she was Ladybug, that he liked her still, like her enough to decide to woo her, that he was wooing her with ridiculously sweet gestures and gifts to make up his own Valentine's Day carol. His parting words kept swirling round and round in her head as well and just as she would drift off she would hear him murmur because loving you makes my heart pure and she would immediately jolt up, wide awake, once more.

She didn't think she was going to make it through these next two weeks at all.

In fact she was fairly certain she was going to die of sleep deprivation before the week was out!

"Are you all right?" Alya asked worriedly. "You're not too disappointed, are you?"

"Disappointed!" Marinette squeaked as she suddenly became alert again. The warm classroom and the soft droning voice of her teacher over the very boring subject of mathematics had sent Marinette into a sleepy stupor. "Why would I be disappointed?!"

"Well," Alya said, "there was no second gift from your secret admirer this morning."

"Oh yeah!" Marinette brightened up considerably at this. Perhaps Chat hadn't been all that serious on the wooing thing after all. She wasn't sure how she would cope if he had been serious. "Perhaps he decided I'm not worth it," she said thoughtfully, "and gave up."

"If he gave up this early in the game because he didn't think you were worth it," Alya glowered at those words as if they were a personal insult to her, "then he's not worth it. And is a total moron to boot if he doesn't realise how lucky he would be to have you as his girlfriend."

"Alya!" Marinette flushed with embarrassment. "I'm not that great."

"I wish you wouldn't do that," Alya sighed heavily.

"Do what?"

"Put yourself down so much," Alya replied flatly, "No," she lifted up a hand and sent Marinette a stern glare when she tried to open her mouth to argue, "You do! And you shouldn't because you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, are wonderful."

"Meh," Marinette mumbled as she fiddled with her bag strap. She knew she couldn't argue with Alya but she definitely didn't agree with Alya either and therefore settled for a more neutral response. "If you say so."

"I do say so," Alya said with great satisfaction, "now then back to the topic at hand, do you have any idea who your secret admirer is?"

"Not really."

Marinette was pleased to say this was not a lie. She really had no idea who was behind Chat Noir's mask and therefore she had no idea who her secret admirer was. It was nice not to have to lie about something for a change.

"Hmm…." Alya stroked her chin thoughtfully as they halted to a stop in front of Marinette's locker, "do you think it might be Adrien?"

Marinette snorted at that. "It's not Adrien," she said firmly.

"You don't know that!" Alya cried out. "The whole point of a secret admirer is that they're secret. That means it could be anyone! And so far only Adrien has expressed any interest in your necklace and, more importantly, what you think about your necklace. He's a viable suspect."

"It's definitely not Adrien," Marinette said as she opened her locker door, "I'm pretty sure that Adrien isn't even aware that I exi-EEK!" She immediately slammed her locker door shut again and pressed her back to it as if she was protecting it from wild beasts.

Alya raised a snarky eyebrow at that. "What?" she asked. "What is it?! It's not another spider is it? Because I keep telling you girl, they're more afraid of you than you are of them."

Marinette would beg to differ, she was fully convinced that the spiders were conspiring against her. This time, however, it wasn't a spider causing her freak out and so she decided (as they didn't have long till their next class) to skip the rant about how her fear of spiders was totally rationale.

"No, not that," she shook her head rapidly. She then paused for a moment and looked round nervously for anyone who might listen in. Adrien wasn't too far away but he appeared to be engrossed in his conversation with Max to notice her and so she leaned in towards Alya as subtly as possible. "There's another note in my locker!" she whispered frantically.

"There is?!" Alya squealed delightedly. "Let's have a look!"

"What?!" Marinette yelped. "Alya! No!"

There was a little fumble that was a pathetic excuse of a fight as Marinette tried to prevent Alya from opening her locker (what if Adrien walked by and saw it and thought Marinette was definitely, definitely, taken?) and failed miserably as Alya's determination and stubbornness and Marinette's unwillingness to actually hurt Alya all worked out in Alya's favour.

Alya victoriously plucked out the folded up paper that had Marinette name typed on it in a small, neat, print. "Aha!" she cried out triumphantly. "Now let's see what your secret admirer has to say for himself," she said cheerfully as she unfolded the note, "on the second day of Valentine," she read out loud, "my true love gave to me, two sweet kisses."

Marinette's cheeks burned at the word kisses.

Her mind had involuntarily gone back to last year when she had kissed Chat Noir to break that spell…

….his lips had definitely been sweet. No! She scolded herself silently with another shake of her head. Bad Marinette!

She shouldn't be thinking of kissing her crime-fighting partner.

"There's a little box too!" Alya said excitedly as she handed Marinette a tiny white cardboard box with gold gilt cursive writing on the top. It was from one of the poshest chocolate boutiques in Paris. Marinette can honestly say she had never tried one of their chocolates before. "Open it! Open it!" Alya urged her.

Marinette did so, her shaky fingers were no help whatsoever, to reveal two perfectly formed chocolate truffles made in the same shape of those American Hershey kisses.

Her heart did a little treacherous flutter at the sight of them.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Marinette was not out on her balcony this time round but Chat Noir didn't blame her, after all it was frightfully cold and his Lady couldn't stand the cold for too long. He would much rather have her all cosy and comfortable rather than sitting out, trembling and miserable, on the balcony waiting for him.

He tapped on her trapdoor with three light knocks.

Marinette answered almost instantaneously in her pink fluffy dressing gown. He soaked in the sight of a Marinette he has never seen before. One completely unravelled with her hair loose around her shoulders and chocolate smudges around her pretty pink mouth.

"Good evening Princess," he smirked, "is this a bad time?"

"I'm about to go to bed, Kitty," Marinette sighed, "What do you think?"

"Then I won't be long," Chat promised, "I have an early start tomorrow morning as well."

"Yes," Marinette said sarcastically, "we can't have you late for breaking and entering other people's lockers."

"You wound me, My Lady," Chat said melodramatically as he clutched his chest, "your locker is the only one I ever break into and it's only to leave you presents." He swooped in close to her, their noses almost brushed against one another they were so close, and his thumb went straight to the corner of her lip to wipe at the smudge of chocolate that was still there. "Which," he murmured huskily, "it looks as if you enjoyed receiving."

Marinette flushed bright pink at that. "I…ah…you….me…gah!" she garbled out as he continued to rub his thumb against the stubborn chocolate stain. "Thank you!" she managed to choke out simultaneously with a sigh.

He was barely able to suppress the shiver that ran down his spine as he felt her warm breath through the leather of his glove.

"Did you enjoy my kisses, Princess?" he asked cheekily.

(He just really couldn't resist. He had been wanting to ask her that all day since she opened the chocolate box this morning. It just kept echoing over and over in his mind during class.)

"Yes!" Marinette squeaked as her cheeks began to turn red. "I mean no!" she blurted out when it occurred to her how what she had just said would have sounded like. "I mean yes! I liked the chocolates," she stressed as her eyes darted around to look at anywhere but him. "They were delicious and very sweet."

"Oh," he purred in his best flirty voice, "but I bet they weren't as delicious and sweet as your kisses would be."

Marinette's lips parted at that.

It was as if she had lost her voice entirely and what would have been another embarrassed squeak just vanished into thin air as she just swallowed nervously. Her blush deepened another couple shades and her breath hitched ever so slightly in her throat as he leaned in even closer.

"I would like to find out how sweet your kisses are," he confessed, his voice barely above a whisper as he stroked Marinette's bottom, plump, lip with his thumb. His heart skipped a beat out of sheer joy as Marinette tilted her head towards his touch and she leaned in ever so slightly in an inviting manner. He so desperately wanted to take her up on that offer and slam his lips against hers but he was in this for the long haul and he wanted her to know that. "But," he said much louder as he suddenly pulled away, "not tonight."

Marinette blinked and then suddenly shook her head as she woke up from her trance like state. "N-n-no?" she managed to stammer out.

"Nope," he popped the 'p' confidently as he took several steps back. His hands were shaking as he reached for his baton. He so badly wanted to back to that moment with his thumb on her lip but without leather gloves, without the need to restrain himself, he wanted to pull her in gently and kiss her over and over again until her lips were swollen and they were both utterly breathless. "I still haven't finished wooing you yet and so, until I am successful in that, I shall wait."

"Y-y-you will?"

"Of course," Chat said coyly, "I have waited this long. I can wait another twelve days."

"So confident," Marinette tried to sass but it came out a little shaky, "I might still say no."

"Two days ago you would have definitely said no," Chat pointed out, incredibly pleased with himself, "that would suggest my wooing is actually working." Marinette blushed once more as she spluttered indignantly at that. "Until then I will just imagine how your lips would taste."

"Meep!"

Chat chuckled as he finally extended his baton onto the street below them. "And Princess," he called back, unable to resist getting one last final word in, "I have no doubt they'll be delicious."

And with that parting shot, he threw himself onto the rooftop across the street and confidently made his way home.

He dreamt of her kisses that night.