Sorry for the wait guys, its taken me a while to get back into writing again so im hoping that this chapter lives up to the standard ive hopefully set for myself, if not, leave a message after the beep? I don't know. I went to MCM in London this saturday as Adrien and the amount of people that recognised me was phenominal, i'd love to do it all the time. If anyone was there at the meetup, i'm the Adrien you all picked up in the group photo with the cat ears!~Midnight

"So when did you two start going out then huh? I want the details!"

He stared at Alya, blinking, knowing that his mouth was forming a small round 'o' although he wasn't sure if it was because he had no idea what to say or whether it was the sheer suddenness of the question.

If he wasn't so caught off guard he might have laughed at the odd color Marinette turned when she heard it, thinking about it later he supposed it could possibly be described as Gryffindor scarlet, It was without doubt adorable.

He could see the gleam in Alya's eyes and he knew what it meant, or at least he thought he knew. Either she was teasing them both in such an embarrassing fashion that only a good friend could probably pull off, or she had noticed the way he had been looking at her yesterday and this morning and was testing him. He wasn't sure which one was the more horrifying option.

On one hand he could reject the idea outright, because no, they aren't going out. But some part of him maybe wanted to... see how this went? Maybe if he just gave evasive answers without a direct answer then it would be enough. The Chat side of him however wanted to stake a preemptive claim on Marinette, just outright say they started dating yesterday and hope to all hell and back that his sweet little princess didnt object to the idea at all and just went along with it. He couldn't do that though, because it still kinda felt like he would be cheating on Ladybug, even if there was nothing to cheat on.

He was halfway through opening his mouth to respond with some sort of awkward denial, watching Marinette do the same thing out of the corner of his eye, when another voice joined the fray.

"Come on Wifi, leave those two alone will ya?"

Nino came strolling towards them, one hand taking his headphones off to put them around his neck where they normally stayed like a permanent feature, obviously having been listening to something on the way to school. He had a sort of self satisfied smile on his face like he knew everything in the world, one that Adrien had grown to be wary of at some points and grateful for at others, today he was grateful.

Alya groaned, the gleam diminishing to one of... possible adoration? He filed that away for later analysis and watched them, stepping forward to stand properly next to Mari as they both watched the interaction between the other two.

"Oh come on Bubbles, you never let me have any fun" Adrien turned to look at the beautiful girl beside him just as she did the same to him, frowning and mouthing 'Bubbles?' to each other in confusion, and then his frown worked deeper as he added to it, next mouthing out 'And Wifi...?'

He could see the cogs in her head turning for a minute, trying to place the very familiar new monikers as he stared blankly at her waiting for the answer, before her face cleared like a light had turned on behind those too blue eyes. He watched her turn to their friends with a strange look on her face, halfway between amusement and semi disgust, interrupting their mock bickering.

"Really guys? Akuma nicknames?" Of course! Now he knew why it sounded so damn familiar, he couldn't help a sort of muffled chuckle slip out, but it quickly faded when he watched Alya and Nino's faces warp suddenly into truly sadistic smirks. It was Nino who spoke first

"Oh? Not to your taste My Lady~?" Adrien couldn't help laughing properly this time as his princess flushed a deep scarlet yet again, but abruptly stopped when Alya decided to turn her smirk in his direction.

"And you Kitten? What do you think about them?" Now it was his turn to join Marinette in blushing, holding his hands up in a show of defeat and smiling sheepishly.

"Ahh haha OK I guess we really don't have any right to judge do we so maybe if we just call this even...?" Alya raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms and a hip cocked itself. The very picture of 'Boy we are so not done with this' and it filled him with absolute terror. But instead of continuing, she just smiled and shook her head, relaxing from her pose and moving forward to envelop Marinette in a hug, laughing as she did.

"Alright alright i'll stop teasing, I know Mari would have told me if you guys were dating anyway, I just wanted to get revenge for the detention you caused! We are sticking with the nicknames though" Adrien noticed her dip her mouth to Marinettes ear quickly and his eyes narrowed as she whispered something too quiet for even him to hear so close, making the princess flush once again in what he can only guess was embarrassment? He didnt have time to think about what she could have been saying before a high pitched squeal met his ears, getting louder, coming in his direction. He could see Nino frown ever so slightly and knew exactly who was on their way over. Although he had graciously put up with her obsessiveness most of the time, Nino still really didnt like Chloe, and it was very obvious.

"Adrieeeeeeeeeen sweetie turn around!" A quick glance to his left showed Alya and Marinette with identical looks of disgruntlement, but he could also see the mischievous gleam in Mari's eyes and her anticipation to what was about to come next, he shot his best Cheshire grin towards her completely baffling Alya once again in the process before turning to face his first friend and her 'bestie', grin replaced with the polite smile he used at modelling shows.

"Morning Chlo, how are you?" He saw Marinette cringe slightly at the nickname he had used for her since he was little and he forced down a chuckle. It was a bit cringe-worthy now that he was older and not really spending all that much time around her, but the nostalgia that came along with it was worth it. Chloe sighed loudly, doing a marvelous impression of someone that had been wronged at every turn of her life, shooting small glares towards his small group before charging into a story she quite obviously wanted to share with the whole damn world. He forced down an eye roll as she started.

"Oh ADRIEN I had the worst morning ever can you believe that Daddy got me a gold iPhone instead of a rose gold one? I cant believe he would get the two mixed up I-" She cut herself off, giving him an intense look up and down before stalking around him, hand on her chin. It was a look he had seen many times before, and normally preceded questions or demands much in the way of "Daddy buy this for me" or "Give me that." She smiled hugely, clapping her hands together. He knew what was coming next and couldn't help but smirk slightly, deciding to get see what she would say before he told her who had made his clothes for today.

"Oh my god Adrien that outfit is soooo you! When did you get it? I've never seen it before" He smiled, looking down at himself and holding his arms out to subtly display it a little more, pretending to be sort of self conscious about it.

"You like it? I only got it this morning. Wasn't sure if I should wear it to school or not 'cause I didnt wanna ruin it"

"Like it? I LOVE it Adrien! It suits you so much! Does it have ladies range too or...?" She cocked her head, finger on her lip and he pretended to rub the back of his head sheepishly.

"Sorry Chloe you'd actually have to ask the designer herself, this was made specially for me"She had the expected reaction, a small frown that lasted a fraction of a second followed by her very best 'Of course they would im the daughter of the Mayor' smile, walking towards him pretending to smooth down a crease on the waistcoat that really wasn't there at all, she always seemed to use any excuse to touch him. He perked up a bit when he heard an even lower rumble replace the soft giggles he had heard before, was... was Marinette actually...? Growling? Well, he supposed, she had put an awful lot of work into this particular outfit for the class bully to be putting her hands all over it. His earlier smirk started to creep through as he took Chloe's hands and lowered them away from himself receiving a small petulant pout from her before she pushed on.

"I'm sure it can be arranged cant it? No designer in Paris would refuse my patronage, they would have to be stupid" He found himself holding back a small growl of his own at the dig she had unknowingly sent in Marinettes direction but managed to keep his cool.

"I don't know... She isnt all that well known in the fashion industry yet, but my father sees great things for her future" The growling replaced itself once more with a soft gasp. It was true to an extent, his father really was very interested in the style of clothing Marinette had displayed in the hat competition, he just hadn't seen this particular outfit yet. Adrien wondered if he would even be at home TO see it when he returned that afternoon. Probably not. He smiled a bit more sincerely, expanding on his earlier statement.
"In fact I think she may actually be my favorite designer , maybe I want to keep her all to myself for now, monopolize all of her talents"

He He could tell by the way the line as forming in the middle of her impeccably, routinely moisturized and made up forehead that she wasn't going to buy that, or at least was going to push him more for it. She wasn't used to hearing no but she couldn't upset him too much just because of the power his father had over his particular industry, not that he would ever care enough to do it but one word from him and that was half of Paris's revenue shifted in a new direction because he really did have his fingers in every pie imaginable. Fashion, perfume, jewelry. You name it, there is a version with the 'Gabriel' brand plastered on it.

"Come on Adrikins you've always shared before, it only makes me want those designs moooooore now that you seem so interested in them" He tried not to visibly show the shudder that went through him when she said that, he really hated that nickname with a passion. It was so horrendously false sounding from her mouth. Making a big show of sighing as if in defeat, instead of telling her a name which she obviously expected, he actually turned his head to look over his shoulder towards his princess. She had such a cat that caught the canary grin that it would take a true fool to not realize who he had been talking about, then again Chloe never had liked her so she probably wasn't even looking in her direction. He smirked, tilting his head to the side in question whilst the 'poor girl' in front of him looked on in confusion and not a little bit of annoyance and jealousy.

"What do you think? Think you could knock something up?" He watched in satisfaction as she raised her hand to her chin, giving the other girl the professional looking run down of measurements she had given him earlier, but he could tell she wasn't serious about it this time by the smile that reached her eyes. Having seen it once before he knew the difference between what he might call from now on 'designer mode' and her having a bit of fun teasing. She walked forward to stand next to him.

"I don't know Adrikins, i'd have to do a few sketches first, and it would need to be a lighter material than yours... I'm thinking something bee themed?" He could hear Chloe spluttering behind him obviously struggling to make much sense of the situation, he continued to ignore it for now, instead reacting to Marinettes playful suggestion.

"Bee huh?" He nodded, closing his eyes as if picturing it. "I can certainly see it, the color scheme matches with all the black and yellow-" He was interrupted by a short squeal of indignation.

"I'm not wearing anything made by her! What is the meaning of this?!" He raised his eyebrows, cracking one eye open to look at the tiny little ball of fury he had just induced.

"But you said you really wanted some of these designs, I just went straight to the source instead of giving your her name that's all" He frowned, crossing his arms and peering at her, she really wouldn't wear anything made by Marinette? Where was the source of all this completely unfounded animosity, its not like the princess was unlikable in any way
"What is so bad about Marinette anyway Chloe, you seemed quite happy about them a minute ago" He could hear Plagg inside his bag, quietly laughing up a storm from what he could hear.

She didnt even seem to want to bother answering him, instead fuming to herself for a moment before turning a complete 180 and grabbing Sabrina by the wrist, dragging her off towards the entrance of the school. Adrien frowned even more and made to follow her, suddenly greatly interested in what would set Chloe off so badly, but he felt a soft hand on his arm retraining him. Turning his head to look, he saw Marinette shaking her head with a small smile on her face and he relaxed into it a little.

"Don't worry about it Adrien, she has always been like that towards me, I've stopped trying to understand" she chuckled a little bit,looking up towards the door herself before turning back for the three of them.
"Come on, lessons will start soon anyway, you guys all coming or what?" They shrugged and moved towards the door themselves as she pulled on his arm gently, he still wanted to know the reason behind the hate there,but it didnt look like Marinette would be giving that up any time soon so he calmed himself a little, shaking his head of the thought and compliantly let her lead him towards their first lesson, science.
He had always been quite good with science, especially physics, which is what he hoped would be the topic today. He was hoping to grab Mari as his partner if they were doing anything practical but he wasn't holding his breath. Alya was quite possessive after all.

They all made their way towards the classroom speculating what was going to be on the agenda today with Ms Mendeleev, she was known for her fairly random choice of topics so it really was up in the air as to what they would be learning about. As long as she vaguely stuck to the syllabus the school board wasn't too worried about it. They continued up the stairs, Marinette still loosely holding onto his arm where she had guided him earlier and it just made him hope all the more that they would have the time in lesson to just have fun with something. It didnt look like things were going to go Adrien's way this time though, as the desks were all separated with single sheets of paper laying on them. A test.

A collective groan could be heard issued by those that reached the door first, travelling down the corridor to the rest of them to convey the message. This was the third pop quiz style test she'd pulled this month and absolutely nobody was impressed, but they just had to put up with it. He sighed when she let go of his arm to go and sit in her seat on one of the separate desks shooting him an apologetic glance, and silence commenced.

It was a long hour.

Every so often he would glance back to see what sort of face she was pulling, it was slowly becoming a favorite game of his because she obviously was not a science fan and some of the expressions that crossed her face were absolutely hilarious. . There was all sorts of frustrated expressions thrown in there, a few confused ones, maybe the odd moment of triumph. The last face she pulled when the timer bell rang for the end of the damned thing made his heart stop though.

Complete relief made her look like she had avoided something absolutely catastrophic and come out smiling on the other side. He could see it wash over her quietly but the change in her features was intense. He himself had absolutely blitzed the test, he had been home schooled after all, and all that lack of social interaction and a proper friend structure had to be good for something.

He stretched, closing his eyes for a brief moment to relax a bit, he really did have it bad if he couldn't even last the length of a test to even glance at her let along anything else. It cast him back to last night though with his Lady, the deal they had made. He wanted so badly to know who she was, but had given her a free pass should she decide not to reveal herself. That made him anxious beyond belief thinking about, because all he wanted to do was reveal himself to her and have her accept him for who he was, but to also know her as well. But the chance was there now that he never would and that was a terrifying thought.
What he wouldn't give to find out that Marinette was Ladybug. That he hadn't been so fickle as to fall for every strong willed girl with pigtails and the most stunning blue eyes... Maybe Chat Noir could pay her a visit some time...? But no, he wouldn't push the situation, god knows he would only screw it up.
Sighing, he was about to put his stuff back in his bag when he heard a loud thud from the back of the room and Ms Mendeleev's scratchy tones reached his ears, after all this time he almost expected them to perk up at the noise like his other ones did.

"Whats this?!" He turned unsure what to expect at the back of the classroom, but all he encountered was a sleepy looking Nathanael lifting his head from the desk in surprise, the test he'd just taken covered in doodles. Adrien shook his head, he was always drawing on his stuff, looks like he just pulled her last straw though.

"Its just a few drawings... I finished early so I thought i'd pass the time...I didnt mean to fall asleep..." Luck really didnt seem to be in his favor though today, as Chloe who was sat on the next desk over for her test, well separated from anybody that would willingly slip her the answers, lent over to take a look and started full on laughing.

"Oh my actual god is that you and Marinette?! What a loser! Who would ever fancy her?"

He was sure that if anybody was looking at him then they would have seen all the color draining from his face at those words. Nathanael fancied his Princess? HIS Princess?

There was a moment of blinding jealousy before he realized that actually, Marinette wasn't his. Not in the slightest. At the most they were now friends. At the very least he had pushed his way into her friend circle by force. He had absolutely no claim over her whatsoever. And whilst that was infuriating, he scolded himself for it. She wasn't something to be owned she was a person. And really, Nath was a nice guy, probably much better suited for her than he was too. They both were artistic in nature so they would probably understand a lot more about each other from that respective point of view too. It would actually probably make much more sense actually than Marinette liking such an awkwardly stupid guy like himself.

He was incredibly furious with Chloe for her words as well. HE Fancied Marinette. NINO had fancied Marinette. Hell he was half sure everybody must have had a crush on her at one point so he shouldn't have really been surprised at Nathanael's either. There did she get off on such a ridiculously unfounded comment like that? And he could tell by the mumble that swept the room that he wasn't the only one thinking it either.

He glanced in her direction again to find her expression was half frozen between shock and anger. The anger probably had to do with Chloe really, the shock was probably reserved for Nathanael. But before long it settled into a casual acceptance that he really didnt like. It was the kind of face you pull just after you accept that someone has died and you are never going to see them again, it made him uncomfortable and really didnt sit right. Something terribly wrong had just become a conclusion to an something he didnt know if she had ever asked herself and he had no idea what that question was. But he had the sneaking suspicion that it was going to cause trouble.

Lots and lots of trouble.

Once again sorry for the stupidly long hiatus I unintentionally put this story on, I just couldn't write for the life of me. I hope this isnt too bad and I will see you in the next chapter ~Midnight