A/N: Surprise, early posting! Last chapter was a bit short, so I wanted to go ahead and get this one out too.

Enjoy them dancing around each other for just a bit longer.

Song: Want You Like That by Charlotte Sands

I brace for the damage
You're perfect, I panic
So happy it's tragic
Yeah, I want you like that.

When she didn't find Adrien after leaving Luka, Marinette made her way back to his apartment, letting herself in when he didn't answer.

She sat down on his couch, flipping on the TV to watch something while she waited.

Eventually, the door opened and Adrien walked in, still grumpy from before. "Taking advantage of your spare key privileges, I see."

Marinette turned her head, grinning at him. "Sure am. I wanna finish that episode of Bridgerton we were watching."

Adrien groaned. "Fuck, I can't believe you make me watch that damn show."

As Marinette's boredom had increased over the past several weeks—seriously, how the hell had Shadybug endured being alone for so long?—she had begun spending her evenings with Adrien, usually doing nothing but watching shows together. They switched off who got to pick, and Marinette had been delighted to discover that this universe had a slightly different version of one of her favorite shows.

Adrien may have griped about it, but she thought she could tell that, despite his vocal complaints about the characters, he had gotten invested.

Even with the show calling to her at the moment, however, she shut it off, turning back to him expectantly. "Come on, what's this about a goose?"

He scowled at her. "Is that really important? How about we talk instead about what to do now that we have Cobr-ass-us supposedly on our side?"

"Mmm, no. I'd rather talk about the goose."

Groaning loudly, Adrien stalked through the living room, shutting himself in the bathroom.

After waiting a few moments, Marinette called out, "My assumptions are just getting worse the longer you go without telling me."

The door flew open again. "Fine," he grumbled, walking back into the kitchen to rummage around in the fridge. "I was running on a rooftop before a mission. And then a damn goose appeared out of fucking nowhere, and I...I may have lost my composure for a moment."

When he didn't continue, merely staring sullenly into the fridge that Marinette knew was nearly empty, she prodded him. "...And?"

"And what?"

"That can't be all; that isn't an incident."

He slammed the fridge shut, walking into the living room. "I fell off the roof, alright? Wasn't my best moment."

Marinette couldn't hold back a laugh at the image. "Oh, please tell me Shay was there and saw that."

Adrien glared at her as he slouched into the chair near the couch, the slightest bit of red tinting his cheeks. "Yes, alright. She was. You'd have thought I made her fucking year. She didn't let me forget it." His nose scrunched together. "Maybe Lucas was lying. Maybe Shadybug told him."

"His name is Luka, and do you really think so? That Shadybug was close enough to him to do that?"

With a sigh, he admitted, "No. I suppose not. I must have. Damn, don't know how he managed to pull that from me in only, what, five minutes?"

Marinette shrugged. "He said he's up to 15 now."

Adrien merely grunted. "Okay, fine. So with him on our side, what next? We go for the sister?"

Marinette nodded, standing up. "Yes. But again, we shouldn't move too quickly. We need to try and figure out her motivations, and why she's in. We should also meet more with Luka, to learn what we can from him."

Adrien sat up straight as she started to walk towards the door. "Hold on, are you leaving?"

She paused, looking back with curiosity. "I was going to head back."

"You don't have to," he said, his face carefully neutral. "If you wanted to stay for a bit."

Her heartbeat picked up slightly. It was the first time that he had asked her to stay since they had started hanging out outside of their Supreme and infiltration-related meetups. Marinette usually just showed up on her own, with no pushback except for the gentle ribbing here and there.

But she knew he was lonely; she had picked up on that fact pretty early on. Which was why she had started joining him. So that was all this was, of course.

Still, she couldn't help but to tease him just a bit. She leaned against the couch as a smile pricked at the corner of her mouth. "You just want to watch more Bridgerton, don't you?"

He let out a scoff. "Fuck, no." Then, something sly slid across his face. "Obviously, I want to watch more of you, Sweetness." He waggled his eyebrows a couple times as she huffed and threw a pillow at him. He batted it away, his expression relaxing as he leaned back into the chair. "Your reactions to it are way more interesting to me. I could watch you be happy all day."

Marinette froze for a moment, her eyes on him.

There he went again, confusing the hell out of her. She would have written it off as more teasing, if it weren't for the hint of warmth that she could swear had snuck into his tone, cutting into the silliness of their exchange.

Her silence must have lasted a bit too long, however, as his expression shifted to something like panic, and he stood up quickly. "Uh, let me go change first. You can start without me."

He turned abruptly, and Marinette felt her own worry fall into place.

He must not have meant anything by it. Way to misread the situation and freak him out, Marinette.

Trying to keep his cool, Adrien shut his bedroom door and leaned back against it.

Damn, I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing.

He'd been aware that he was falling for Marinette for some time now, but he also knew there was no way that she felt the same. He thought that hiding his feelings in plain sight would work just fine for him. Teasing her and having her tease him back was easy, but apparently he was fucking even that up, if the look on her face after he'd apparently said yet another idiotic thing was anything to go by.

A hole opened up in the ceiling, causing Adrien to immediately tense up, until Bunnilark dropped through and landed on the floor.

Adrien relaxed. "What the fuck are you doing in my room?"

Bunnilark plopped down on his bed, lounging on top of the blankets as her red hair fanned out beneath her head. "Gonna take a nap, of course. This job's hard work, keeping all you losers in line."

He eyed her. "Seriously?"

"Of course I'm serious! Well, maybe not the nap." She grinned at him as she sat back up. "I came for you, silly." She widened her eyes all innocently and puckered her lips. "Does the wittle kitty need some help?"

Glaring at her, he hissed, "No. Go away, you meddling rabbit."

She leaned back on her hands, grin returning. "A wascally wabbit I am indeed." Then her tone shifted to something more serious. "Come on, if not from me, then I could take you back to your partner, if you really want some advice."

Adrien wavered at that, glancing back at his door.

"I'll bring you right back," she continued, cocking her head to the side. "What do you say, Shamrock?"

Ah why not.

"Sure, fine. Beam me up, Scotty."

She hopped back to her feet. "Wrong universe, but points for effort, I guess."

After she opened the full portal, Adrien transformed, knowing he felt more comfortable with Shay and model-boy that way, and stepped through.

He came out in their living room, noting that Shay and the other him seemed to be wearing the same clothes that they had been in on the day he and Marinette had left them.

Baby bug was missing now; she must have been napping again.

As the portal closed behind him, Claw noticed Shay giving him an oddly amused look, one matched by the blond beside her.

Claw looked down at himself. "What's so fucking hilarious, Shade?"

They both schooled their expressions. "Oh, nothing, Fleabag. You interrupted something." Shay relaxed further back into the couch, her arms stretching behind her head. "How's it going?"

Eyeing his doppelganger briefly, Claw decided he didn't give a damn that he was there, and launched into his complaints. "I don't know how the fuck to do this."

Shay shared another glance with her boy toy before responding. "You talking about the Supreme or...something else?"

Claw glared at her, biting the inside of his cheek as he stayed silent, debating.

This was a stupid idea. He didn't need to talk this out. He just needed to go back, shove his feelings further down, and finish the job.

No portal opened up, however, so Claw continued to stew in silence instead.

He watched as Shay leaned closer into Adrien's arms, the contentment radiating off the two of them like the glow of a campfire in the night.

Longing—potent and uncontrolled—shot through Claw like a bullet.

Not for Shay—no, those feelings had long since melted into something different—but for the happiness he saw before him.

Scrambling to minimize the damage, Claw pushed the longing back inside, trapping it deeply in his heart.

The effort left him irritated, and he finally fell into the chair to the side of them.

Their continued amusement at his apparent inability to say anything finally let the lid off his filter. "Not the Supreme. Fucking Marinette."

Shay's eyebrow rose. "You need help fucking Marinette?"

"What? No, you damn cockroach." Claw ground his teeth together as she smirked at him. Finally he let out a breath. "I keep screwing things up, saying stupid shit. It's all fine most of the time. She'll banter right back, but I don't know how I keep fucking it up and making her uncomfortable. I'm not trying to do that—trying hard not to, actually."

Shay pursed her lips. "So, you're saying that you do want help fucking Marinette?"

Glaring at her, Claw hissed, "No, I don't. She doesn't want that anyway."

"Uh huh." There she went again, sharing that damn cryptic look with the man next to her. "And you do?"

"I…no, well she's…" Claw floundered for a moment before finally snapping, "It doesn't matter what I want, she's made it clear that our focus is on the Supreme, and I don't disagree, but I need help not making things worse."

Shay rolled her eyes. "Well, you're going to have to give me examples, Claw. I'm not a fucking mind-reader over here."

He ran his hand through his hair, scrambling to remember. Unfortunately, he had a habit of blacking out part way through his teasing conversations with Marinette, and nothing specific actually came to mind. "I don't…know, alright? I'll be joking about her owing me a kiss, make some shitty innuendos, but then she gets me so damn out of it that other corny shit slips out. And I think that's what's making her upset."

"Ah." Something soft fell over Shay's expression. "Has she…said that it upsets her?"

"No. But I can tell."

Shay watched him, deep in thought. "I don't really think you have anything to worry about, Claw."

Beside Shay, Adrien finally spoke up. "Believe me, you'll hear it from Marinette if she has a problem with what you're saying. She was always good about keeping me in line way back when."

Claw didn't say anything, not bothering to inform them just how unhelpful they were. They didn't get it, just like he didn't get why Bunnilark had even sent him here for advice when he was too much of a damn idiot to even explain anything properly.

As though summoned by his thoughts, the portal re-opened.

Claw stood, heading towards it without as much as a goodbye.

"Hey, Claw," Shay said as he crossed the room. "If you do fuck her, don't forget protection."

He scoffed. "I'm not stupid."

As the portal closed, he could have sworn he heard laughter behind him.

When Adrien returned from his room to join Marinette, she noticed that he seemed much more surly than when he'd left.

"Is…everything okay?" she asked.

"Yep," he said, avoiding her gaze as he glared at the TV. "Let's just watch the show."

Frowning, Marinette turned away to hit play.

Adrien remained in a mood for the first part of the episode, until Marinette's commentary finally got him to loosen up. By the end of the second episode, things had returned mostly to normal.

As she fell into another fit of laughter at one of Adrien's jibes at the show, Marinette's thoughts strayed to something she'd been contemplating asking for a while.

When the third episode ended, she paused the show, looking over at him. "Can I ask you a question, Adrien?"

He rolled his eyes. "If you have to."

The answer nearly made her laugh. As much as he offered up a token of resistance to her probing personal questions, Adrien had never really closed himself off from her. It was almost the opposite, actually, as time had passed and the two of them had drawn closer. Answers poured out of him, as though they'd been kept locked up for a long time. Which, she knew they had been, due to his frosty relationship with his father and surface-only one with Shadybug.

It was while musing on these facts that she'd realized she didn't quite understand something. "I can't help but notice that you don't really spend your time with anyone besides, well, me. Am I keeping you from your other friends?"

Adrien let out a laugh devoid of his previous humor. "No, Marinette. You're not keeping me from anyone. Shadybug was it, and she never considered me a friend until...after she left."

Marinette's brows furrowed. She didn't understand—despite his rough edges and his attitude, Adrien was very much likable. "What about at University?"

His voice was harsh as he responded. "I was a villain who was destroying the city in my off time. There was no way I was about to drag anyone else into that by being friends with them."

Marinette's heart cracked slightly for him as she sensed his self-loathing come through, evident in the curl of his lip and the glare he directed at nothing in particular.

Did he not realize the truth about him that his actions had revealed? That he had chosen to keep others safe?

When she told him as much, however, he scoffed. "Please. Like that even matters compared to everything else I've destroyed."

"Adrien." Marinette moved along the couch, getting closer until only a foot remained between them. She set her gaze on him, trying to get him to understand. "Of course it matters. And we're here to fix things, remember?"

He met her intense gaze only briefly before looking away again. "Yeah, well. Not everything can be fixed."

Uncertain if he was talking about himself or his mother, Marinette hesitated before responding. Her hand twitched as she longed to reach through the space between them to place it on his arm.

She brought her hand into her lap instead. "What happened to your mom wasn't your fault, Adrien."

He looked back to her then, his expression unreadable. Finally, he let out a breath. "It's a nice thought. Wish I could believe it." He stood up abruptly, turning away. "I'm gonna go to bed. Guess we should figure out what our next steps are tomorrow."

Marinette stood up, watching him leave with a heaviness in her heart. "Yeah, we should. Goodnight, Adrien."

He didn't answer as he disappeared into his room.

Marinette left the apartment, walking out into the street as she mulled over what they needed to do next for the plan.

Unfortunately, a certain green-eyed man kept shoving his way into her thoughts.

She was having a tough time wanting to push him out.

When she reached her hotel room, she collapsed on her bed. "Tikki," she groaned, rolling over to face the ceiling. "Tell me that I'm being an idiot."

Tikki landed lightly on the bed beside her. "Why would I do that, Marinette?"

Turning her head to the side to face her Kwami, Marinette said, "Because it's a bad idea to want to get closer to Claw Noir."

Tikki hummed. "I'm not so sure it is. That would help strengthen your partnership, wouldn't it? The more you understand each other, the better you can work together."

"True," Marinette admitted, rising up to sit against her headboard. "And it should have been easy to do that without my heart getting involved. I mean, he's so arrogant at times, won't shut up, thinks he's hilarious. But there's this whole other side to him he keeps locked away and won't admit to, but I can see it. And…" She let out a groan, bringing her hands up to rub at her eyes. "I can't afford to fall for him, Tikki. Not now. Not when there's so much riding on me. But I can already see it happening, and I need to stop before I let it."

Her Kwami remained quiet as she floated over to land on her leg. Tikki finally asked, "What are you afraid of?"

"Failing," Marinette answered immediately.

"And you really think that falling for Claw Noir will cause that? This isn't the same situation as before, Marinette. I think it's highly possible that you two becoming closer will help you both work even harder to defeat the Supreme, don't you?"

"I…I suppose." Marinette looked down at her hands. She was so used to sacrificing everything for her role as Ladybug. It was a hard thing to come around on the idea that perhaps she didn't need to, this time.

You're almost there, came the small voice from inside her. Your job is almost done.

Despite wanting to think that, Marinette argued with herself. I'm not done yet. "I can't get distracted. Isn't that what you always told me? This seems unlike you, Tikki. To encourage me with distractions."

The smile that Tikki gave her held a hint of something else. "Marinette, you've been my holder for long enough that I know what you can handle. I'd hate to see you miss out on something great. You're going to be here a while, if the plan works as you think it will. Surely there's a little time for distraction?"

Letting out a sigh, Marinette said, "I really shouldn't, Tikki. But maybe…just maybe. It doesn't matter though, because he most likely isn't feeling the same way I am, anyway. He's probably just having fun, and I'm reading too much into things."

"But…" Tikki said, leadingly.

"But," Marinette repeated with a sigh, "but if there is something there, I won't be completely closed to it. Alright?"

Tikki nodded with satisfaction, and snuggled down next to her as she fell asleep.

A/N: You guys are awesome! Would love to know your thoughts :)