Dear Adrien,

I'm sorry for my delayed response.

Do you ever stare at a blank page and expect words to magically appear? Because I was struggling to come up with how to respond to your last letter. I wrote and rewrote this letter no less than thirty times.

…I wish I was kidding.

I finally figured out exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it after talking with a friend. And I felt bad because the whole time I was with them, I couldn't stop thinking about you. Maybe that's why it's been hard to write back to you …because I realized that I'm really starting to like you as more than a penpal.

Sorry, I'm probably not doing a very good job of explaining myself. Words don't come easily to me when it comes to love. I tend to stammer over my words or make a fool of myself. Like I can tell my best friend I platonically love her, but when it comes to feelings of the heart, it's hard for me to just say what I'm feeling aloud or on paper or otherwise.

And before you write something encouraging, I know from experience that I'm not good at it because I wasn't able to confess my feelings to someone I had liked for years. I was constantly getting in my own way when it came to him. I tried a hundred ways to get his attention and failed at every turn.

Pathetic, huh? It's okay, everyone else thought so, too. And don't worry! I've moved on. I actually ran into him earlier in the coffee shop, and I didn't feel a thing. It was a big moment—trust me. It was just him and I talking together like friends. No doves flew or angels sang, it was peaceful and pleasant.

And do you want to know how I knew I was over him? Because while I was with him, the guy who I thought I could never get over, I was more interested in being with you.

I wanted to know what your coffee order would be or what pun-derful mug you would get. I wanted to know what it would be like to stand next to you in line and talk about everything and nothing like we do in our letters. I wanted to know your opinion on which pastry you thought was the best (by the way, it's the pain au chocolat—I will not debate this).

There was a couple in front of us, holding hands and, well, they seemed so in love, and for a moment, I thought that maybe someday that could be us—?

So, confession time…

I started the Ladybug challenge to put myself out there. I needed to become confident in myself and to find someone who'd want to be with me and see me as more than a friend.

This isn't easy for me, so please take my confession for what it is. I'm starting to like you… like I really, really like you. Which is crazy, I know! We've only been writing for a short time, how could I possibly know if I like you that way?

Well… I reread your letters often, and my best friend pokes fun at me for constantly bringing you up. I blush when I try to imagine what you look like and what it would be like to hold your hand. I want to introduce you to my friends and have all of us hang out together, share baked goods and hot cocoa and snuggle together on chilly evenings.

There's something calming about your letters, and you really understand me. I feel like I already know the boy behind them. He's honest and sincere and comforting. Everything I could have imagined, you've made into a reality.

I think what I'm trying to say is… I want you to know that I'm glad it was you who found my letter.

I'd like to meet in person soon. I'm not sure if you're ready for that, and it's fine if you're not.

I'm ready whenever you are,

Ladybug

P.S. That's totally fine if you steal 'lip virgin' from me. Maybe one day, you could steal a kiss from me, too.

"She wants to kiss me!" Adrien exclaimed happily, jumping up from his chair in the café, abandoning his post and flying up the stairs toward the second floor.

He swung open the door and yelled, "Nino!" running over to his unsuspecting friend sitting on the armrest of the couch.

Nino jolted upright, his glasses nearly flying off his face when Adrien clapped his hand on his shoulder and shook him vigorously.

"What the—?" Nino shoved Adrien's hand away, taking off his headphones and throwing up his hands with a challenging glare from the sudden attack. "Bro, what are you do—"

"She wants to meet me!" Adrien beamed proudly, waving the letter about. "And kiss me!"

Nino inhaled deeply, calming himself and lowering his fists as he sensed no danger. His annoyance was clear in his voice as he said slowly, "…good. Good. That's, um… couldn't you have told me that without assaulting me?"

Adrien stepped back, taking in Nino's defensive stance and wincing. "Sorry…"

Nino adjusted his glasses and shrugged as he said, "It's cool. Just warn me next time, so I can dodge you." He smirked, eyeing Adrien with a challenging look and wiggling his eyebrows. "Or kick your butt. Whatever my fight or flight response decides to do."

Adrien half-smiled, relaxing as he took in the after-school crowd lounging about the space: the theater kids, the musicians, the artists, the bookworms.

"So, she wants to meet you, huh?" Alya appeared out of thin air as Adrien leapt back.

"Whoa! Where did you come from?" He yelped, catching his breath and wondering if this was instant karmic payback for startling Nino moments before. He swallowed down his fear as he said, "Um, she does."

"Maybe Sunshine here will get the girl of his dreams after all." She said as she stood behind Nino, wrapping her arm around his back and resting her chin on his shoulder. "Hey, honey."

Nino smiled sweetly, looking over at her. "Hey, yourself." He kissed her cheek as she hummed.

"You guys could get a private room, you know," Adrien teased, looking away to give them a moment.

"Oh, please. As much as we have to hear about Ladybug, you can deal with it," Alya quipped.

Adrien's cheeks heated as he shuffled his feet. He hadn't talked about her that much… had he?

"So, what's your plan? When are you going to meet up with the infamous Ladybug?" Nino asked, smirking.

"New development in the Ladrien saga, huh?" Alya mischievously grinned, looking over at Nino for confirmation. "Is our bookworm ready for that, babe?

"Ladrien?" Adrien asked, confused and slightly offended from their jests.

"Ladybug-Adrien. Ladrien: it's your couple name," Alya explained, waving her hand as though it were something obvious that Adrien should have already known even though he definitely had no idea up until this very moment that his relationship status was anything other than perpetually single. "You know… like celebrity couples have? Brangelina, Tomdaya, Bennifer," She listed off with her fingers.

Adrien protested, saying, "How could we have a celebrity couple name? We're not even a real—"

"Mmmm, I'm going to stop you right there because I don't feel like going into a full explanation of the complexity of celebrity couple names nor do I need another denial-ville reply from the Ladrien duo about how you're not one hundred percent infatuated with each other." Alya interrupted with her hand out as Adrien's mild fog of confusion transformed into a thick blanket. "My main concern is whether or not you have a plan. Come on, I'm sure you've thought up a million places of when and where to meet your girl."

Adrien paled, frantically conjuring up ideas through the dense workings of his inner thoughts yet coming up short at every turn. "Umm… I, well, I'm not. I wasn't exactly planning on this… yet…"

"Stop teasing him, babe. I got assaulted by his excitement about Ladybug's recent letter." Nino rolled his eyes, rubbing on his shoulder and sporting a pout. "Don't make my shoulder pain go in vain."

Alya brushed off his comment. "Pfft, Sunshine is more than up to the task," she added with a wink. "Isn't that right?"

Adrien swallowed thickly, nibbling on the inside of his cheek. "I have an idea—in fact, I have tons of ideas!" He played it off as smoothly as he would with a plastic recorder—pitchy and uselessly with an unamused audience as his friends' faces fell flat.

"You didn't see this coming at all, did you?" Nino shook his head. "You had to have known she would suggest it at some point."

Adrien's cheeks turned pink. "I wasn't even sure she'd respond. I thought she was going to say goodbye or tell me it wasn't going to work out."

"Even though I told you a million times that there was no way that was going to happen."

"It's not like I didn't have a reason to worry! To go from a letter every other day to nothing was very concerning." Adrien crossed his arms.

"Dude, I'm going to have to buff the floors now because your fancy shoes made a long skid mark along the wood from all your worrying," Nino scowled as Alya rubbed his back.

"Go easy on him, babe." Alya said, "It's not like he's ever had a girlfriend before."

Adrien furrowed his brow as his heart banged against his rib cage at the thought of Ladybug being his girlfriend! But alas, her affection wasn't his to claim. "She's not, uh—Ladybug's not my girlfriend."

Alya groaned, hitting her forehead against Nino's shoulder as he adjusted his red cap and patted his girlfriend's head.

"I don't know what to tell you, bro. That's for you to decide, but it's definitely heading in that direction, wouldn't you say? I mean… you do want to date Ladybug, don't you?" Nino asked.

Adrien hadn't really thought of it. Well, okay, he had thought of it, but he didn't really know if that's what she wanted. Now that the letter confirmed she held affections for him in return, it was as if the wide, romantic world had opened up for him. He didn't know what to do! He had never even considered what he would do. He blurted out, "Yes, absolutely. But I can't just date her at any time! We have to meet first."

"Which brings us back to how do you want to meet her?" Alya asked.

"I—I want to do something big. Something where we could both be comfortable. Maybe something here at The Nook? But I'm not exactly sure what she would like or when her schedule would line up with mine."

"Don't worry about the schedule. I'm sure we could ask her," Alya mentioned casually without thinking.

"You'd ask her for me?" Adrien cocked his head as Alya and Nino gave each other a look.

Alya shook her head and corrected herself, "I meant, you! You could and should ask her."

"Okay… what should I do?" Adrien asked aloud, more to himself than to anyone in particular.

Nino twisted his lips as Alya looked over at the bulletin board filled with upcoming events.

"Do you want it to be a private meeting or a public meeting?" Nino asked.

"Public, probably," Adrien mused. "Not that I don't trust her, but… I can never be too careful. My father would throw a fit if I was murdered because I was too stupid to meet a stranger without witnesses."

"Yeah, can't let anything happen to your pretty face," Alya added, pinching Adrien's cheek like his aunt used to do. He frowned; he didn't like it then, and he certainly didn't like it now. "Ladybug might be an axe murderer. You never know."

"Oh, yeah, definitely. Or she could be a crazy fan." Nino tacked on, keeping the bit going. "And hey, at least if you need back-up, I heard Luka's mom knows some swashbuckling pirates. They'd rough her up for you."

"What was that about my mom, Lahiffe?"

Nino's eyes went wide as he turned and saw Luka standing over him with his arms crossed.

"Oh, nothing. Just that if Adrien over here ever met Ladybug, he could hire your mom's friends for back-up if she turns out to be a murderous psychopath." Alya said as she lifted her chin up and unglued herself from her boyfriend. "You know, if The Gorilla somehow became unavailable."

His shoulders slumped at the reminder of his limited access to freedom. "Not that father would ever allow me to go anywhere without him," Adrien muttered.

Luka brows shot up, disappearing behind streaked, highlighted teal strands. "Wait… you're telling me this is Ladybug's—?"

"Ooooh, yes. The one and the same." Alya nodded with a fox-like grin.

Composing his stunned expression, Luka blinked slowly, his cyan eyes locked onto the model as he asked, "So, when do you want to meet her?"

"Wait, wait." Adrien's jaw dropped. "How do all of you know Ladybug's identity before me?" He held up his hands as he tried to figure out this new development. "Does Marinette know her, too?"

They all shared a glance, having a silent conversation as Adrien waited for someone to confirm or deny. Not that it mattered if Marinette knew. He had a feeling his Lady and Marinette would get along really well. He couldn't wait to introduce them to one another!

"Nope. Nobody else knows about Ladybug," Nino said matter of factly, reaching out for his girlfriend's hand and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles as she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and clenching her jaw. "Just the three of us."

"Oh," Adrien sagged. He didn't know why, but it hurt knowing Marinette was out of the loop. They were good friends, so she had a right to know about his penpal, too. His chest swelled with excitement as he thought of Ladybug and Marinette becoming friends. He couldn't wait for all of them to hang out together.

"Actually, I might have an idea for how the two of you can meet," Luka mused, taking a step back. "If you want to do it publicly, anyways."

Adrien cocked his head curiously as Luka walked over to the bulletin board, ripped off a blue sheet of paper and handed it over to him.

"There's going to be an open mic night here this Saturday. Might be an easy way to break the ice," Luka suggested.

"Wait—there's an open mic night, and I didn't know about it?" Nino asked, seemingly offended as his lips twisted into a scowl and face scrunched in horror.

"It was a last minute thing." Luka folded his arms. "My sister and her girlfriend wanted to test out some new songs for their band in a small crowd, so they asked if they could use the second floor space. I figured it could be a good way to drum up some interest for them and find some local talent. Fu gave the okay for the event only a couple hours ago."

"Smart," Alya said, glancing over Adrien's shoulder to see the ad.

"You still could have kept me in the loop," Nino sulked.

"Maybe I would have told you if you were actually working today instead of just hanging upstairs with your girlfriend." Luka quipped, twisting Nino's cap before walking away and chuckling to himself. "See ya Saturday, Adrien! And good luck with Ladybug!"

"I'll get you back for that, Couffaine!" Nino shot back, adjusting his cap and grumbling to himself.

Adrien stifled a laugh, rubbing his mouth to remove his smirk as Alya audibly wheezed at her boyfriend's expense.

When the trio settled, Adrien asked, "So, do you think I should sing to Ladybug?" He mentally filtered through different songs, sorting through the one which conveyed his feelings best.

Nino snorted, crossing his arms. "Man, not even the cats want to hear you sing."

Adrien's mood soured, his lips pouting as Alya suggested, "You could always reveal yourselves that way. Like one of you recites a love poem or lyrics to a song."

Adrien perked up. "Do you think she'd like that? If I declared myself in front of her?"

"Declared yourself? This isn't a Shakespeare sonnet. You can just meet up, talk and sit together," Nino flippantly joked as Alya jabbed his side harshly for the quib and made him yelp. "Ouch! Babe!"

Alya smirked from her small victory. "I think declaring yourself sounds lovely. She'll like that a lot," she reassured.

"But how will I know if it's her?" Adrien wondered aloud, poking out his tongue and tapping his hands against his pants as he thought. "We have to figure out a secret code or a way to identify one another, so that only we know the other one is really who they say they are."

"Well, what do you want to do?" Nino asked, still rubbing his injured side.

"Not sure yet." Adrien smiled, folding the open mic ad, and shoved it in his pocket as he straightforwardly decided, "But I know I'm going to write her a letter."