"So, Adrien, this is my girlfriend. And you better run."

The blond glanced at the wild-eyed, dark haired woman holding his best friend across the table and audibly gulped. She was seething.

"You mean to tell me that all this time, Adrien-freaking-Agreste was the black cat to my best friend's Ladybug? You didn't think that was pertinent information, Nino? Huh?" Nino nervously fidgeted with his glasses, righting them on his nose as he shrugged his shoulders defensively.

"Babe, you know I told you he asked me to keep it a secret, because of his dad and everything."

"I don't care that he's got a perfect face, I will punch him directly in his nose." She seemed ready to deliver on that threat, what with the way she was still keeping Nino hostage.

"Hang on- you're best friends with Ladybug? Is she here?" Adrien interrupted, glancing around in the hope that he could potentially apologize for his dead phone. It was all a huge misunderstanding, and they could get through this- he hoped.

"Not anymore, because you-" this was punctuated with a finger pointed directly in Adrien's face, "told her she was unimportant. She went home, crying, and it's because of you as Adrien and as you as Chat Noir!"

"When would I have ever called her unimportant? I didn't talk to any…" he trailed off as he thought over his night. Like a light coming on behind his eyes, Alya saw the moment he realized. "Oh. Wait...M-Marinette? She's Ladybug? Like, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Marinette?"

Alya deflated and let go of Nino's shirt. He tried to brush out the wrinkled front to no avail as she explained. "Yeah. How many people named Marinette do you know?" Alya had a point. "She is Ladybug. Or- was. She came to me crying, saying Chat Noir wouldn't pick up the phone and had been ignoring her. And then she went to talk to you, and you were a jerk to her. I don't think she's picking up that moniker anytime soon. I'd laugh at the absurdity of the situation if things weren't so messed up right now. I mean, how messed up is that? You're into her as Ladybug, she's into you as Adrien-you, and...oh. I wasn't supposed to say that."

Adrien sat still for a moment, head turned down. Marinette, the really kind and shy-but-cute woman he chatted with when he went to lunch with his father, was the same person that he had been boldly flirting with-and been rebuffed by- every day of the week.

But the more he thought, the more he wondered why he never recognized it. They both had the same sense of humor. And how did he not recognize her voice? Either of them? Er- her? He talked to her every day, as Adrien and Chat Noir. Alya's voice broke him out of his reverie. "For someone who's so book smart, you sure are acting stupid right now."

He shook his head, lost. "But...what do I do? I don't know how to fix this!" He threw his hands up in the air. Nino's booth was steadily attracting more attention from all the yelling. There was a pink haired girl Adrien remembered as the Timebreaker recording everything on her phone, but he was too worried to deal with that. "I mean, I fall in love with this amazing woman over the radio because she's smart, and funny, and sassy, and then somehow I mess it all up by telling the real her that I didn't want to talk because I was waiting for...her? They don't exactly make a Hallmark card for that!"

The brunette strode over to the physics teacher and smacked him in the head. He let out a soft "Ow" as she berated him. "You messed this up. What kind of a person doesn't charge their phone? This was supposed to be romantic and a lot of us had a bet going that you guys would get together. Now, all of that is ruined. So, here's what the three of us are going to do. Step one: I am going to go comfort my best friend after I deal with you two. Step two: you will have to contact her. I suggest in a grand, sweeping romantic gesture because you seem like a giant softie and she'll appreciate the gesture. You may not be romantically together yet, but it'll happen as long as you don't royally screw this up. You WILL apologize to her, because what you said was rude. You WILL make this up to her, in some fashion. And step three: we all live happily ever after."

Adrien nodded along to her list, blindly trusting this rage-filled woman on a mission."Not to be rude, but...you didn't exactly tell me to do anything I wasn't already planning on doing."

"I don't care. This isn't my mess up, so I don't feel like I need to fix everything. You're supposed to be smart, although I'm having some doubts about that now," she whispered the final part, not quietly enough. "But! You will need my help with it. Because whatever this is does not get fixed unless I go work my magic." She whirled on a heel, but turned around to shoot the men a harsh look. "Nino Lahiffe, you owe me so much. And Agreste, know that if you manage to mess this up further, I will not hesitate to be a thorn in your side. I hope this works, for all of our sakes."

Nino and Adrien both shut their slightly gaping mouths as they turned to each other with equally helpless looks in their eyes. "So...that was Alya?"

Marinette heard a rapping at her door, and she shuffled to open it, her bunny slippers scraping pitifully against the floor as she rubbed at her eyes. They were puffy and swollen from crying. Alya had called her and explained that she met the real Chat Noir after Marinette left- she wouldn't tell Marinette who it was, only that they had met- and that his phone had died, which honestly left her feeling a little silly.

She felt lonely and scared, and the only thing that had happened was that his phone died. But she also didn't feel remorseful for what she said. Maybe, if he had cared enough, he would've let her know before his phone died. Maybe, if he had cared enough, he would've charged his phone. Maybe-

No.

Thinking like that never did her any good. She had to accept what she had said and move forward. Did she forgive Chat Noir? Not entirely, but she also wasn't as mad as she had been before.

Her hand reached the doorknob, and she pulled the door open, turning her back on it as she said, "Alya, honestly, I'm fine, you didn't have to come over here."

A male voice that was DEFINITELY not-Alya replied, "I'm not Alya, but she did send me." Marinette jumped at the sound of a deep voice that did not belong to her best friend, and she whirled around with her hands in a defensive, karate-like stance.

Instead of the masked assassin her brain told her this unidentified person was, she was greeted with a very large bouquet of red roses. Her eyes followed the roses to the hands they were held in, up the arms, and into the face of Adrien Agreste. Marinette squeaked in a very undignified manner, and tried to shuffle around to make her appearance more presentable, patting her hair and trying to smooth the flyaways back down into a pigtail-esque appearance.

"Adrien! Um- what..I mean-what, uh, why are you here? How do you know where I live? Wait, you said Alya. Why would Alya send you? How do you even know her- I...what is going on here?" she breathed out.

He fidgeted nervously, the ring on his right hand glinting in the apartment lights as he lifted his arm up to scratch the back of his neck, as he extended the bouquet toward her with his other hand. "Well, Marinette, uh, I'm Chat Noir. And I'm here to say sorry."