Marinette was so tired from portal jumping. She and Chat Noir had not got back into Paris till early that same morning. It was a wonder she had even dragged herself to class...even if the first period was already nearly over.

Her parents had been concerned, and urged her (with worried glances) not to let the stress of the Bourgeois internship make her 'burn the candle at both ends.' They nearly made her stay home for a day to rest, but decided they didn't want her getting into the habit of skipping classes.

Marinette felt more than a little guilty pinning the exhaustion on the internship, but she had returned with some homemade paper and fabric from Bhutan. She couldn't wait to incorporate them

into her portfolio designs. Marinette doodled on the edge of her page a dress she had thought about making.

In front of her a very bleary-eyed Adrien was slumped over the table with his head in his hands.

"Someone looks like they had a good weekend!" Nino teased. "That mystery girl keeping you up at night?" Nino wiggled his eyebrows.

"No, it's not like that," Adrien sighed. "We were actually going to get some time off together and I thought it was going pretty great. But things kept happening to mess it up. Something always gets in the way. I have the worst luck ever!" Adrien groaned and he buried his head in his hands.

"But you're finally dating! You said you were crazy about her forever, and now you're taking all these romantic trips like every weekend!" Nino tried to encourage his best bud. "That is pretty lucky!"

"We're not," Adrien mumbled miserably.

"Not what?" Nino whispered.

"Adrien sat up and tilted his head back in his chair looking at the ceiling. "We're not even dating."

"What! But I thought..." Nino's voice rose.

Across the classroom Chloe and Sabrina glared at Nino, whose raised voice had caused the teacher to look up and catch Chloe on her phone again.

"We're partners...friends I guess...we're...I don't know what we are," Adrien sighed again.

"You've got to knock this ""Just Friends" habit of yours. An amazing girl has been practically throwing herself at you, and adores the ground you walk on and you just keep her at arms length," Nino shook his head. (He hated to think that this model girl or whoever was just stringing his best friend along. Especially after the year Adrien had gone through he deserved better than that...heck anyone deserved better than being toyed with!)

"Lady...I mean the Lady...er...girl that I'm into doesn't do that. I've told her how I feel, even keep asking her out...but every time it's not the right timing, or she's into another guy, or..."Adrien tried to explain.

"Dude! I wasn't talking about your illusive mystery model or whatever!" Nino whispered.

"Then who...?" Adrien questioned back.

"Seriously man! You're too smart to be this clueless. You can't think of a single gorgeous "Very Good Friend" of ours you may have overlooked?!" Nino hissed in a forced whisper.

Adrien stared at Nino with a blank expression.

Nino stared back growing visibly agitated. (Alya was going to kill him for this, but he couldn't take it any more). Nino jerked his head toward the girls sitting behind them.

Adrien glanced behind him, and mischievously smirked back at Nino. "Oh but Nino! Alya's your girlfriend, don't you think that'd be awkward!"

Nino punched Adrien in the arm, Making the girlfriend in question look up suspiciously from her notes. Marinette on the other hand was leaning dreamily against her arm still doodling on her page.

"Okay, okay...you mean Mari," Adrien rubbed his left shoulder.

"Of course that's who I mean!" Nino whispered exasperatedly. "I'm telling you, if you don't make a move you are going to regret letting her skip through your fingers."

Adrien glanced back at Marinette, feeling that Nino was probably right. He quickly sat back when their principal Mr. Damocles entered the room and started going over the plans for the spring dance on Friday.

Marinette oblivious to all else, drew smooth pencil lines down the side of her page. She couldn't get the skirt just right, so erased it and started again. Her head swung up, when Alya urgently jabbed her in the ribs, and whispered, "Mr. Damocles is asking if you want to help with the decorating committee!"

Mr. Damocles was tapping his foot, with a bushy grey eyebrow raised, awaiting her response.

"Uh...yeah sure! Of course I'll help!" Marinette gulped.

"Excellent, anyone else?" He moved on to scan the rest of the senior class.

"I'll help!" Adrien volunteered.

"Great! That's the spirit! We will meet to get started after school today!" Satisfied with a list of volunteers to fill the quota, he thanked their teacher for allowing the interruption, and swung the door shut behind him.

As their teacher turned back to writing notes on the board, Marinette whispered to Alya," What did I agree to exactly? What are the decorations for?"

Alya sighed good naturally at her bestie. "It's a good thing you have me," she whispered back. "Ninos been going on about DJing at the dance for weeks! You could've missed the chance to head up the dance decorating committee with Mr. Wonderful over there!"

"Oh my gosh! The dance! I totally forgot! Oh no...I can't believe I agreed to do all the decorations too...ahhh...I already had too much on the go!" Marinette threw her head down on the table in front of her.

The teacher looked back at them from the board and warningly cleared her throat.

When their teacher returned to writing notes, Alya leaned over and whispered," Busy schedules are besides the point! Didn't you notice it wasn't until after you agreed to be in charge of the decorations that Agreste suddenly took an interest!"

"He did?!" Marinette squeaked, making the teacher turn back and glare. The other students in the class, including Nino and Adrien glanced back too.

Not needing detention on top of everything else, Marinette dutifully scribbled down the notes on the board. Although the smirk on Alya's face was hard to ignore, when Adrien glanced back more than once at the blushing girl.

Somehow Marinette had nearly made it through the day without getting caught snoring in class. Although by gym class last block she was falling asleep on her feet. Suddenly a red rubber dodge ball flew through the air and hit her right in the side of the head.

"Gotya! Kim called gleefully.

"Headshots don't count!" Alex yelled back, chucking the ball back at him.

"You're not hurt are you?" A concerned voice asked, as Marinette rubbed her reddening jaw.

"No, I should've been paying attention...I..." she replied opening her eyes to see Adrien standing in front of her.

"Are you sure?" Adrien asked, moving his hand gently to the red mark along her cheek, "Sometimes Kim gets overly competitive and carried away!"

"I...uh..." Marinette's mind went blank, as Adrien's hand trailed upwards, sweeping the loose hair behind her ear.

Adrien suddenly realized that his hand was still lingering on his "friend's" soft skin, and he pulled it back behind him."I'm glad you're okay," he threw in quickly.

"I might just go grab some ice," Marinette sidestepped towards the door.

"I'll come with you! I mean I could if you want?!" Adrien offered.

"Yes, I want you!" Marinette answered, but it took her a moment before she realized her slip up. Adrien looked at her a bit amused, but searched her eyes to try to figure out desperately if Marinette could possibly mean it."I...I...must have got hit harder than I thought..." she shuttered, kicking herself for regressing back to a fumbling mess in front of Adrien. "I should probably go...you don't have to..."

"I want to," Adrien jumped in, carefully taking her hand.

Alya bundled up Marinette's things, and tossed them to Nino. Nino gave Adrien a wink, and handed him the bundle as Adrien escorted Marinette to the nurse's office.

"What was that about?" Alya asked her boyfriend.

"I don't know what you mean my love," Nino avoided.

"The wink! You honestly expect me to believe there's nothing going on here!" Alya crossed her arms, looking skeptical at Nino, who seemed to be holding his breath in an attempt to keep all words from spilling out of his mouth.

"Bro code!" Nino finally sputtered.

"What!" Alya gaspt.

"Bro code!" Nino repeated, running away across the gym.

"Don't give me that! You know that I know you know something!" Alya chased after him.

Meanwhile, Adrien sat in a orange plastic chair across from Marinette. She tenderly applied an ice pack to her cheek outside the nurse's office.

"Does it look bad?" Marinette asked him quietly, pulling the ice away.

"No, you look great," Adrien replied, nervously scratching the back of his neck. He couldn't bring himself to tell her that the way she was looking at him right then, with those heavenly blue eyes made his heart more conflicted than ever. Maybe it was wrong that they kinda reminded him of Ladybug's eyes. Each girl was amazing in their own way, but maybe with Marinette he might have a chance to be more than friends. He needed to know..."Umm Mari...you know the dance?"

"Um hmm," she answered absentmindedly, adjusting the ice pack.

"Would you like to go together?" Adrien asked hopefully.

Marinette's mouth gaped open, and her eyes widened. The ice pack she was holding dropped out of her hand. As soon as the bag of ice hit the cement ice shards skidded across the floor. The janitor who had been walking by, grumbling about kids not picking up after themselves, slipped on one ice cube and flew across Adrien and Marinette's laps.

Quickly the two teens helped the poor janitor up, and sprung to gather the loose ice before it caused any more trouble. As Adrien and Marinette scrambled on hands and knees to retrieve the ice, they found themselves face to face.

"Yes!" Marinette burst.

Yes?" Adrien questioned.

"To dance...with you...yes!" Marinette gushed, a smile overtaking her and lighting up her eyes.

"You will!" Adrien could barely believe it.

"Of course!" Marinette laughed happily.

They stood up in front up each other, their hands filled with melting ice cubes, dripping down their elbows.

"I'm just going to find a place for these!" Marinette lifted the ice awkwardly.

"Yes, me too...I'll see you for the decorating committee after the bell,"

"See you soon!" Marinette smiled.

Adrien was about to go, but turned back and said, "...and Marinette...I can't wait for Friday!"

Marinette held in her breath like a tea kettle simmering, until she had raced into the bathroom and dumped the ice cubes numbing her arms into the sink. Then she let out a piercing squeal, jumping around in a circle.

"Tiki! Did I pass out in history class? I must be dreaming. It was so much like a dream! Don't you think? Maybe Kim hit me so hard I got knocked out! Oh Tiki tell me it's real!"

Tiki giggled elated herself for her young weilder who had pinned away after the boy. "It is real!" Tiki assured her. (Although Tiki was unsure why Chat Noir would suddenly switch from Ladybug. But she knew Marinette and Adrien had grown much closer after Hawkmoth's arrest. Only the kwamis had known how hard it had been on Chat Noir on both sides of the mask).

Arriving at the decorating meeting Marinette gave a shy wave to Adrien at the door. He lit up and returned the wave. Alya shot Nino a glare. Nino busied himself with the light/soundboard he was coordinating with Max and Markov.

The rest of the week was so full Marinette was a little disappointed she didn't really get any time alone with Adrien, but at least while they worked on decorations they could talk while they worked.

She did however have another frequent visitor that week. A certain cat prowled around her balcony most nights looking to 'chat!"