By the time Lila and Marinette made it back to their friends, it was way past the movie time. Also Adrien was suspiciously missing.

"Mari and Lila are back!" Nino pointed up at them as they descended. "And its Chat Noir!"

"Marinette!" Alya called out as she extended her arms. "Are you okay?"

Marinette wasn't sure what to feel as she smiled at Alya. She'd just gone against a solid several months of being extremely in love with Adrien Agreste, and then she'd just given her first kiss (at least, where the other person was aware of it), and she'd also nearly been chucked off of the Eiffel Tower. Also, her identity was revealed.

"I'm fine." She said in response, accepting the hug. When Alya was satisfied with the embrace, she stepped back.

"Sup, Chat Noir! What happened to Lila?" She asked, looking past Marinette at the girl behind her. "You okay, too? Being an akuma is rough." Marinette turned around to face Lila, too. But every time she looked at her she felt heat flooding her face.

"I think she's alright." Chat Noir chimed in. "Ladybug got to her pretty fast. I didn't even have time to help out."

Marinette smiled to herself, and then at Lila, who returned it. Because they both knew exactly how fast Ladybug had been to get there.

"Well, I'll see you later. Places to be, people to rescue, all that jazz." Chat Noir winked. "Ciao!" And then he extended his staff to the top of a building and was gone. Not five minutes later, Adrien Agreste came jogging over.

"I'm back!" He said, waving an arm.

"Dude, you just missed out on Chat Noir!" Nino said as he approached.

"Hey, the toilet calls when the toilet calls." Adrien replied, shrugging his shoulders and laughing. And then he gave Marinette and Lila a strange sort of look. Then he winked.

Marinette didn't know what that was about.

"So what happened to make you go Volpina?" Alya asked. "Or you don't need to talk about it if you don't want to."

"I'd rather not." Lila said, and Marinette silently agreed. She wasn't sure what the two of them even had together, and she wasn't quite sure how Alya would react.

"That's fine. One heck of a way to start off the best months of your life, though. At least you got to see your best pal Ladybug again." Marinette laughed quietly to herself as Alya spoke. "We need to focus on the real problem. The movie already began."

Ah yes, they had gone to see a movie.

"Well, you know how they are with commercials. We can probably make it in time." Nino glanced at his phone.

"True. Oh yea, do you have my phone?" Marinette remembered what she had lost the very beginning.

"Right here, girl." Alya smiled and pulled out her desired object. A couple of scratches on the case, but not too worse for wear.

"Thanks." Marinette said as she pocketed it.

The group of friends continued on their way to the theater. Even if it was too late, they could always see a different movie.

But to Marinette the most pressing matter was that she liked someone new, who appeared to like her back, and was currently walking alongside said person. What were they now? Were they dating? Were they just gal pals? Now that she'd gone and kissed Lila, she felt hyperaware of her presence. Like even though there were at least three other people around her, all she could think of was Lila.

Of Lila's warm hands cupping her face. How Lila had looked at Marinette like she was an angel. How it felt to have Lila's lips against hers.

Marinette became dreadfully aware of heat rushing to her face. If she thought about what had happened anymore, she might just faint. The only reason she'd been able to hold together when it had happened was because she'd been in her Ladybug mode, even if she hadn't been wearing the suit during the kiss. All she'd been thinking of was saving Lila. Now that it had all happened, she was mildly freaking out. Furthermore, even though she'd thought Lila was pretty great, she hadn't realized she'd liked her enough to kiss her. She still didn't know how much she liked Lila, and that was screwing up her thoughts, too.

And she transformed right in front of Lila. Even though she knew that Lila had already learned the truth somehow, it was still jarring to be so blatant about her identity in front of another person.

What was going on in Marinette's life?

"Marinette, you okay?" Alya's voice suddenly cut through her thoughts, and she looked up to see everyone glancing at her. Whoops.

"Yea, I'm fine." She said. "Just still coming down from the attack."

"You're going to have to tell me about that for the blog, you know." Alya laughed and then winked. "And you, too, Lila."

"Later." Lila said, waving it off. It seemed like Marinette was the only one feeling anxious about the whole ordeal. Lila already appeared to be back to her suave self. Despite her earlier claims of being unable to keep it cool around Marinette, it seemed as if she had been able to calm down. While Marinette should be happy that Lila was doing fine again, she may or may not have felt a bit disappointed that she was no longer affecting Lila the way she had been earlier. Perhaps Lila didn't like Marinette just as much as she'd thought.

But she kissed me...

"I'll see if there are seats available." Nino asked as they entered the theater, and he walked up to one of the machines near the entrance. Suddenly Marinette wondered what it would be like if she sat next to Lila for the movie. And then she got even redder.

"I'm fine with sitting anywhere. I'll grab some popcorn and drinks now." Alya volunteered, and then went off after everyone gave her enough money for whatever sustenance they desired.

"Um, looks like there's just enough seats left, but they're separated." Nino said, looking up from the screen. Marinette peered over to see. There were only seats open in the back of the theater, with three in the corner and then two open directly in front of it. There were a couple of other seats scattered around, but they were all singles.

Sitting in the back with Lila…

"Nino and I can take the two seats." Adrien said as he evaluated the options. "You girls and Alya can sit behind us? Unless you don't want to sit in the back."

The boy was so considerate.

"I don't mind the back." Lila said.

"Fine by me." Marinette agreed, her mind racing with the possibilities. Hand holding… leaning together…

Stop, you fool. You don't even know how much you like her. Marinette thought sternly. You don't even know if you're a thing yet.

Honestly though, what were they? They kissed, and now what? And Lila knew about Marinette's identity, too, which was more than anyone else on the world could say. She felt like that connection bonded them tightly.

But even though Lila had been distraught when she'd thought Marinette hated her, even though Lila had literally been akumatized over thinking Marinette didn't like her, even though she confessed that she acted strangely around Marinette, she didn't seem to care as much right now. So how much did Lila even like Marinette? Now she was doubting the warmth she'd felt on her lips and the hands she had held.

"Let's go!" Alya called from afar, arms full of drinks and popcorns and assorted other foodstuffs.

Hoo boy.

When they entered the room, the movie had already started, but they had only missed around ten minutes. The group made their way to the back. Alya curiously decided to eject Adrien from his previously chosen seat, so for some godforsaken reason Marinette sat between her former crush and her current crush all the way in the back.

In the dark.

Marinette began to sweat, thinking that she needed to tell Alya about the new development with her feelings so that she was no longer being set up with Adrien. Little did Marinette know, Alya was merely attempting to confirm that Marinette's affections had changed targets. She probably knew more than Marinette just exactly what she was feeling.

The group fell silent as they began to watch the movie. Since Marinette was in the middle, she was the popcorn lord and held a ridiculously large cardboard bucket of popcorn on her lap, and had not one, but two ridiculously attractive people reaching over her to grab a snack.

Marinette was dying.

She was more focused on the fact that she was sitting next to Lila (in the dark) and she kept shooting her confused glances. She was trying to be discreet but she wasn't very good at that when she wasn't Ladybug. Marinette wasn't sure if she wanted Lila's hand to come and touch hers. But she kept thinking about it. Lila didn't seem to be paying her much attention and it was very disappointing. What had happened?

Clearly, if she wanted something to happen, she needed to initiate it. But she didn't know if she wanted it (she did) and she didn't know if Lila wanted it.

I can do it. She thought to herself, and with care she very slowly raised her arm and laid it on the arm rest. There. It was out. If Lila wanted to go further and put her hand down on it too, it was up to her. Maybe this could help reveal Lila's true intentions. Then Marinette had a better idea, and she turned her hand so that her palm was face up. Because then, if Lila wanted to, she could thread her fingers through Marinette's.

A solid minute passed and Marinette was staring at the screen very hard, anticipating something on her hand. As time dragged by and Marinette kept thinking, she realized that if she was expecting it so much, she might like Lila more than she thought.

She likes you. A voice in her head said. She saved you. She kissed you. She likes you.

It seemed like the answer would be clear.

So what the heck is she doing now? Marinette was about to give it up and just hold off on thinking about love until later when all of a sudden a warm something touched her fingers, and then her heart literally leaped out of her chest.

I think I actually like her a lot .

Marinette moved her eyes to look at Lila, who was suddenly looking at her with a strong gaze, and then down to their hands, where Lila had placed her right hand (which she had thankfully cleaned of any popcorn butter) directly on top of hers. And then, holding Marinette's gaze, she curled her fingers down so that their hands were entwined.

Marinette didn't know how she managed to keep a hold on her immediate feelings. How she managed to stop herself from doing anything more than let her mouth fall slightly open in surprise. She was fairly certain several bombs had just gone off inside of her heart. Marinette definitely felt a pounding in her chest, and for a moment the movie and her friends and everyone else was just a background to this moment. Lila was looking at her so intensely and her hand was so warm. Marinette was briefly worried that her hand was going to sweat but she pushed herself and curled her own fingers around Lila's.

She hadn't realized just how much she wanted to be close with Lila.

Just then Adrien's hand came sailing out of the heavens and into the popcorn bucket on her lap and her gaze was broken as she glanced over at him. He wasn't looking at her; he had absently just reached over.

He hadn't noticed anything. Marinette slightly felt like she was betraying him, because she had liked him for so long. But the feeling then vanished because Lila suddenly squeezed her hand. Whatever lingering feelings she might have had for Adrien were nothing compared to the affection she felt now to Lila. Marinette exhaled as she squeezed back, and then all of a sudden Adrien looked over at her, then down at Lila, then at her hand. Marinette froze, and in consequence she suddenly squeezed Lila's hand harder. She'd been caught.

But then Adrien smiled and winked. Then he leaned over and Marinette had a ridiculous thought that he was going to try and kiss her (it was the end result of a months-long crush on him, she supposed) and she slightly leaned away, hand still tangled with Lila's. However, he didn't lean very far before he began to whisper.

"You two became friends really fast." He said quietly.

Um. There was a silence as Marinette digested those words.

Honestly, sometimes she wondered how oblivious he was to anything romantic. Had Adrien even had any experience in romance?

"Actually." Lila said from behind her, and then before Marinette could do anything, she leaned over and planted a small kiss on her cheek, shocking her into silence. "We're more like girlfriends."