*Hi everyone! Just a little info you should know before you start reading, this is a finished story, so please do not submit ideas for plot lines or characters I could add. I will not be publishing all chapters at once, but the entire fanfiction has been written. I do welcome criticism though. Feel free to comment and give ideas on how I can make my writing better. Any criticism is helpful. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

Alya sat in the center of Marinette's bed watching her best friend pace across the center of the room. Marinette's room was almost like a personalization of her mind. Her sewing machine sat on a desk next to a container of brightly colored threads and various sized sewing needles. Her latest creation was on her dress form. It was a simple sundress made out of a pale pink cotton trimmed with white lace, but she could see how well-constructed it was. Even without formal training, Marinette still managed to create clothes that were worthy of Paris's most expensive boutiques. Her sketch book sat on the desk next to the sewing machine. If Alya looked inside she'd see extremely detailed drawings along with unfinished sketches of ideas that were just not quite right. Her walls were covered in various posters, but she had a collage of pictures of her crush hanging up above her computer. Alya was rooting so hard for her best friend to get the boy one day. She just hoped that Marinette would be able to get past her nervousness and actually talk to him. In fact that was what Marinette called her over here for, but she hadn't gotten around to telling her what exactly it was yet.

"Okay!" Marinette exclaimed, stopping her pacing to face Alya. "Today's the day! Today is the day I am finally going to ask Adrien out."

"Wooo! Congrats girl! How're you going to do it?"

Marinette started pacing again and then started speaking so fast Alya had to concentrate to catch all her words. "Well, you know the dance tomorrow night, Adrien still doesn't have a date. He even turned down Chloe, which I thought was hilarious. Chloe was so mad! I wish I had a picture of her face. Anyway, getting back to my plan. I'll get him alone away from anyone who might interrupt, mainly Chloe, then I'll ask him using this script I wrote myself!" Marinette grabbed the sheet of paper off her desk and held it up proudly to Alya.

Alya grabbed the paper from her best friend and read it quickly. "Wow! This sounds amazing, Marinette!" Alya complimented. "Hopefully you can get the words out before you realize you're actually talking to Adrien." Alya extended Adrien's name out in a way that had become overly familiar to Marinette. She let her voice hang on the vowels in a sing-song sort of way.

"Ha ha," Marinette said, not amused whatsoever. She glanced over to her clock, saw the time, and then gasped. "Alya! We're gonna be late!" Marinette couldn't afford to be late any more times than she had. Her duties as Ladybug had caused her to miss at least half a day of class at times.

The two girls grabbed their book bags and rushed out of Marinette's house. They made it to class with minutes to spare. Alya was completely out of breath, but Marinette was not winded at all. Even without her Ladybug powers, Marinette had amazing endurance. Alya envied it from time to time, but only wishing she could use it to keep up with Ladybug for her blog.

Adrien stepped out of the car, pulling his bag with him. Plagg was nestled safely away in a side pocket eating a piece of camembert Adrien kept on him at all times. He could need to transform at any time, and the last thing he needed was a hungry Kwami. Of course it wasn't like Plagg was very willing in the first place. He was the manifestation of laziness. Plagg wasn't like that all the time. He did help Adrien from time to time, and Adrien knew that Plagg cared about him, in his own odd way. He believed that Plagg showed his affection through pranks and leaving cheese everywhere.

Adrien made his way up the front steps and glanced around at his classmates. Ever since he fell in love with Ladybug, he'd been doing his best at trying to find out who she was. He'd never force her to tell him, and he knew the reasons behind why she didn't want him to know, but it sucked. He loved her, and he barely knew her. Well that wasn't technically true. He knew she was confident, brave, quick-thinking, caring, stubborn, and sometimes a bit rash, but she had a good sense of humor. The same couldn't be said for her taste in puns, but all of those things added up to the very girl he fell in love with. He could barely remember a time when Ladybug wasn't in his life. It wasn't like his life was exciting before that. It was the same thing every day. Photoshoots, fencing lessons, Chinese tutor, rinse and repeat. He always followed orders without question, and had to think before he said or did anything. When he was given his miraculous, he realized he could be free. He was free from his overbearing father and the enormous mansion. He could go anywhere and do anything. He never had to watch what he said. Adrien knew he probably over did it a little bit, but he had fifteen years of life to catch up on.

As his eyes always did, they landed on Marinette. She and Alya were already up on the second floor. He could never tell what it was about her, but he kept finding himself wanting to be with her. He wasn't sure if it was their friendship, or if it was something else. She was his third friend ever, and that connection would never go away. He smiled to himself as he thought of the few times he'd had to save her from an akumatized villain. She always seemed confident when facing against an enemy. From the way she faced off with them it was like she felt no fear whatsoever. She was also quick on her feet to come up with solutions. Heck, she even helped him get out of that box when fighting against the Evillustrator, a solution he stupidly didn't think about. He kicked himself later for not realizing that sooner. Though it was a bit difficult being around her as Cat Noir. He had to pretend to not know her at first, but he did have fun showing off in front of her. It was nice to talk to her without Marinette tripping over her words around him. He still hadn't figured out why she acted so weird around him. It was like she was scared or nervous. He knew he'd figure it out one day, but it was just a matter of when.

The class bell rang, snapping Adrien out of his reverie, and all the students headed to their classes. Marinette and Alya sat down in their usual seats behind Adrien and Nino, currently empty. They came in a few moments after the girls did. Adrien smiled and waved at the two girls, to which Marinette returned with a deep blush and a sheepish finger wiggle.

Alya leaned over and whispered, "You'll never be able to do it," she whispered into her best friend's ear.

Marinette didn't disagree. She knew it was going to be a big order to fill, but she knew that if she just channeled the same confidence she had as Ladybug then this would be a cake walk. As Ladybug, she could actually talk to Adrien. She'd thought about this a hundred times, and Marinette had narrowed it down to the fact that Adrien had no idea it was her underneath that mask. When she was wearing that mask, she wasn't Marinette. With that mask on, she was Ladybug. And Ladybug wasn't awkward or at loss for words or had to look away just to talk to a boy she really liked. Ladybug was confident and graceful and sure of herself. Marinette wasn't, and she couldn't be like that when facing against a foe. That would mean putting herself, Cat Noir, and more importantly Paris in danger. As Ladybug, she couldn't be Marinette.

She went through her script in her head as much as she could in class. By the time they broke for lunch, she felt she was ready. All she had to do was get Adrien away from Chloe. That girl filled Marinette with disgust. Deep down, Marinette knew that Chloe was a good person. Way, way, way, way deep down. Like bottom of the ocean in Marina's Trench deep down, but she still hated her. Adrien could see the good side of her better than anyone else, and maybe that was just the fact they'd known each other longer. It didn't mean she liked it.

Luck was with her that day. Chloe and Sabrina had gone off campus, and Adrien and Nino were by themselves.

"Adrien! Nino!" she called, rushing down the stairs to catch up to them.

The two boys turned around at the sound of their names. Adrien had a small smile appear on his face at the sight of Marinette. Nino smiled as Alya appeared behind Marinette. The two of them shared a look that Marinette and Adrien were oblivious to. Marinette rushed forward and made it down almost all the steps before Adrien noticed that her foot was in the perfect position to trip. He moved with cat-like reflexes and held out his arms and caught her easily. He bit back a Cat Noir comment as he caught her. He couldn't risk cracking a joke around Marinette. She had spent enough time around Cat Noir to know that he was a big joker, and Adrien knew that if he let one slip Marinette might get suspicious.

Marinette looked up, her bluebell eyes wide and confused. After realizing what had happened she blushed a deep red, almost the same color as Ladybug's suit Adrien noted.

"Thanks, Adrien," Marinette managed to say without messing up her words. Adrien helped her stand up. She immediately went to her script and thankfully she remembered all the words. "Um, do you mind if we talk privately?"

"Uh, yeah," Adrien said. He glanced over at Nino. "I'll see you later, bud."

"See you in a bit." The two of them fist bumped then Adrien and Marinette started walking down the sidewalk.

"What did you wanna talk about?" Adrien asked after a few moments of silence.

"Uh," Marinette muttered, her voice quavering. She was starting to lose the words to her script. If she didn't want to sound like a complete idiot, like she usually did, she'd need to ask him now. "So, you know the dance tomorrow?"

His bright, green grass eyes looked at her warmly. "Yeah," he said, encouraging her to go on. Up until recently this would've been the longest conversation he had with her. Things changed when Alya called him to translate for Marinette when her uncle came to visit. Almost their entire time together Marinette wasn't timid or shy around him and ever since she'd grown more comfortable around him. She could hold a conversation with Adrien longer without tripping up or reverting back to making unintelligible noises.

"Well, um, I was hoping that — maybe if y-y-you didn't h-have a date already, you would like to go with me?" she asked. That went better than Marinette expected. She even gave up on trying to remember the script and just thought of the first words that came to mind. As she waited for Adrien to answer, her mind started to come up with every scenario and pretty much all of them ended up going badly.

Adrien was surprised by the question, but to Marinette's delight he didn't laugh in her face or flat out tell her no. In fact, he smiled widely at her and nodded. "I would love to," he replied excitedly.

Adrien was starting to wonder if he was going to have to go alone to the dance. He'd never been to one and he didn't want show up to his first dance without a date. He had considered asking Chloe, just so he didn't show up alone, but if he asked her she'd latch onto him and never let him go. He dismissed the thought almost as soon as it had occurred to him. So when Chloe had asked him just two days before Adrien told her no. He tried to turn her down as gently as he could, but Chloe was extremely emotional. She stormed off and for a moment he was afraid she was in danger of being akumatized, but when he saw her the next morning he knew his fear was moot.

Adrien knew the person he actually wanted to go with, but that would mean revealing his identity to her, and her to him. He had surprised himself when he said yes to Marinette's offer. He'd said no to every other girl that'd asked him, so he wondered why she was different. He couldn't figure it out. She was sweet and kind, if a bit shy, and he did like her. He knew the two of them would have a lot of fun. Maybe that was why. He looked at the girl in front of him, and her beaming and relieved face stirred something inside of him. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about her made him feel very comfortable.

"Great!" she blurted out after snapping out of the shock Adrien's answer had sent her in. Her excitement was starting to boil over. She was about to burst she was so excited. Her body was filled with something that was unidentifiable, but very familiar. She couldn't pinpoint what exactly what she was feeling, but at that moment she didn't care. This was the moment she'd been waiting for all this time! She was going to a dance with Adrien Agreste!

Adrien let out a small chuckle at her excited reaction. "Great. I'll pick you up at seven then?"

She nodded her head vigorously. "Seven sounds wonderful."

"Okay," he said, visibly excited as well. "Well, I'm sure Nino's waiting for me. I'll see you later?"

She nodded again. "Yeah. Later."

He smiled at her once more before running back in the direction of the school. Plagg flew out of his usual shirt pocket, holding his normal smelly piece of camembert.

"Wooo!" Plagg said. "Someone's got a date! Is she going to be your girlfriend? Are you over Ladybug already?"

To not risk anyone seeing him, Adrien ran to underneath a tree for some privacy. "No! Of course not," Adrien said. "It's just that it's my first dance ever. Marinette asked me so I decided to say yes. Why wait around and miss out on something normal when I could have fun with a great girl and actually enjoy my life?"

"Hm. I guess you're right," Plagg said. "But if you happen to fall in love with this new girl, how do you think Ladybug will take it?" He threw the cheese up in the air and caught it in his mouth, swallowing it whole. Adrien sighed at his Kwami. Ladybug would probably take it just fine. It wasn't like she had feelings for him in the way that he did for her. Adrien knew that Ladybug cared for Cat Noir. She'd shown that many times over, but was it love? He wasn't sure. He was sure that Ladybug believed his flirtatious nature with her was just how he was, but he honestly only ever flirted with her.

If Ladybug knew he only flirted with her, then maybe things would be different. She'd realize that his feelings for her were real and not just a joke to lighten the mood. He'd wondered on multiple occasions if she had feelings for someone else, or if she was dating someone when not in the costume. Surprisingly, he found he could be alright with that. All that mattered to him was that she was happy, which sounded super cheesy, but it was true. He had to remind himself that this was just all hypothetical. She was very private about her life outside of their superhero jobs, and so was he. He'd open up to her every so often when they were out on patrol, but he was careful not to mention too much that might give away his identity. Ladybug did the same, but she was even more reserved than he was. He had tried many times to get her to open up more, to at least tell him what her favorite color was, but he'd never gotten an answer. One day he might.

As he headed back to the school he discreetly sniffed his shirt and sighed when it smelled like cheese. Why did he have to be paired with a Kwami that basically only ate the foulest smelling cheese in all of Paris? He'd tried to convince Plagg to eat something other than camembert, but with little success. As he reached Nino Plagg flew back into his customary shirt pocket as to not be seen by Adrien's best friend. The two fist bumped then headed down the road to a deli to get something other than school food.

Alya ran down the sidewalk when she saw Adrien return but not Marinette. She began to worry about her best friend, but after seeing Marinette just standing there with a dazed look on her face she knew there was nothing to worry about.

"How'd it go, girl?" Alya asked when within earshot.

"He said yes," Marinette muttered. She was looking off into the distance, specifically the Eiffel Tower. It was her favorite landmark in Paris.

"No way!" Alya yelled. "Oh. My. Gosh! Marinette! I am so proud of you!"

"Can you believe it? He said yes to me," she continued in her same dazed voice. Alya recognized that voice and smiled to herself.

She put her arm around Marinette then started steering her back to school. "As soon as classes are out, we are raiding your closet for the perfect dress for tomorrow!" Alya said, hoping that pull Marinette out of her reverie. If Alya let her continue on for any longer she'd be daydreaming about Adrien for the rest of the day.

Alya and Marinette started talking animatedly about wardrobe options for the dance, but unbeknownst to the girls there was another girl about to ask Adrien. She walked up to him and with barely enough courage to look him in the eye asked him to the very same dance Marinette asked him to not two minutes ago. Adrien did his best to let the girl down gently, but he knew he couldn't do it without deeply upsetting the girl. He mentioned that he was going with Marinette and that seemed to be the last straw. She ran away, tears streaming down her face. She was hurt and sad and angry and was wishing that Marinette was out of the way. Her emotions were the perfect breeding ground for Hawk Moth's little akumas. The darkened butterfly flew over to the girl and landed on her bracelet in the shape of a lightning strike. With very little persuasion from Hawk Moth, she said yes and transformed, wishing Marinette could be zapped out of existence.