"Alya...I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe we're doing this!"

"Chillax, Marinette! And stop movin' around or you're going to get burnt by the curling iron."

Marinette stopped fidgeting in her chair, and smoothed out her dress over her knees. The deep burgundy material contrasted well with her pale skin, and the simple black heels Alya had picked for her complimented it well.

"You're not crazy, you know. You guys have been good friends for months, now, and the flirting has been insane. And that's coming from me."

Marinette groaned. "Don't remind me of Ninofest 2016. That was one of the most painful summers of my life. Thank every deity known to mankind that you got together and stopped doing whatever gross thing you called flirting."

"Mari, honey, this is worse. And I'm done with your hair, so you can move. But...you sit on the couch and he lays across you. You make playlists for each other. He calls you every day when he gets off work just to complain about students. He goes to your house for flippin' family game night, and I think your parents invited him on summer vacation. Face it," she said smugly, "Adrien's your boyfriend and you've been to oblivious to realize it."

Marinette stared,dumbfounded, at her reflection in her mirror. Had she really been that oblivious? Sure, they hung out almost every day. And they did couple-y things, she guessed. But tonight was the apex of all of those months after the concert- she had agreed to go on a date with him.

And if you had told her months ago, that Adrien Agreste would be asking her on a date, she would've laughed in your face and then journaled about it for an hour. But, life gave Marinette what she was looking for, just when she had stopped looking.

Her phone lit up with a text and she felt the nerves in her stomach spark up again.

I'm here!

Alya smiled at her friend, nodding appreciatively at her appearance. "Knock him dead, Bug."

At the nickname, Marinette shrugged her shoulders back- her newly curled hair bouncing gently against them- and stride out of her house with confidence. _

If you need surveillance done, you go to Alya Césaire. Unless you are Alya. Then, you drag yourself and your boyfriend to hide behind potted plants across the street from where your best friends are on their first date.

"Babe, can we at least eat? I'm starving." Nino's stomach growled at that moment, to validate his statement.

Alya waved a dismissive hand back at Nino, the other hand clutching her Vortex Viper binoculars as she spied on the couple.

Adrien, in his hunter green dress shirt looked absolutely dashing, she had to admit. And sitting next to Marinette, her burgundy quite the compliment to his green, they looked like a pair dressed to kill. They could be well dressed spies or undercover superheroes instead of a physics professor and a fashion designer.

Damn their beautiful genetics. They would have amazing babies.

"At least tell me what's happening. I don't have binoculars because I'm not a stalker like you."

"They're just talking. I dunno, it looks as cute and disgusting as normal, except now they're both being shy. Their meal is almost finished, so hopefully they go home soon. My butt is cramping from this position."

"You know that you're the only one keeping you there, right, Als?"

"Hush, you. We put a lot of work into this couple, and they're going to come out happy, dang it."

She shuffled around for a second before handing Nino the binoculars, hand fishing into her pocket for her phone. She turned the camera on and zoomed until she got them both in frame, and waited. Adrien said something funny, probably a cat joke, and it made Marinette laugh.

Alya snapped a photo as her head leaned back with laughter and Adrien was beaming with pride over making her laugh. It was a good photo, if Alya did say so herself. And she did.

"Nino, when they get engaged, they're getting a scrapbook of all the photos we've taken when they're not looking. But I'm buying them a whole canvas to hang up in their house of this photo. I mean, they look like movie stars!"

Nino laughed. "Babe, I don't care what you do for them, as long as you don't slap my name on the card. I want no affiliation to the stalking business."

"Yet, here you are on a Friday night, stalking them with me."

"...I didn't have anything better to do." Nino put the binoculars up to his eyes to end that line of conversation, glasses smashing against his face as he squinted to see. "Hey, they're leaving. How much you wanna bet they kiss?"

She snorted. "I'm not betting anything because Agreste is a romantic. I mean, do you see how swanky this place is?" She gestured around wildly. "It's ridiculous for a first date, even if she's totally his future wife."

He patted her head fondly. "Yeah, I took my future wife to the produce market because she wanted to write an exposé on pesticides." Alya grinned. "And now look at us, we're on a date following our friends on a date so you can write a story on them."

"My blog has had so many hits on their story. It's even been shared on Buzzfeed, so I'm basically famous. 'Ladybug and Chat Noir: Tales of a Radio Romance.' Who knows, maybe I'll write a book."

She smacked Nino's shoulder and pointed, her hand peeking through the bushes. "Look!"

Adrien had walked Marinette to the car and smoothed a few flyaways behind her ear. His hand made a slow path across her jaw and her eyes widened before fluttering shut, just as he began leaning down. Alya scrambled to unlock her phone to capture the moment, as he pressed his lips softly against hers.

Alya felt like bursting out into laughter would be a little cruel, but watching her best friend make out with the man of her dreams under a streetlight in formal clothing after inadvertently falling in love with each other on her boyfriend's radio show was just too much.

To keep herself from feeling like a voyeur, she turned to Nino and stuck her hand out, palm up.

"Pay up, Lahiffe. You said after the concert, I said in the next year. You had too much faith in your bubble-headed blonde."

Nino grumbled and fished a crumpled dollar out of his wallet. He begrudgingly placed it in his girlfriend's outstretched palm.

Her hand immediately closed around the currency, and she grinned before pecking him on the cheek. The movement made his cheeks pink, and he responded with a small smile. Losing to Alya wasn't the worst, he conceded.

A devious look flashed through her eyes. "Wanna make another bet?"

He eyed her warily, hands coming to fidget with the headphones around his neck. "On what?"

"How long it's going to take Chloé and Nathanael to hook up. I'm thinking by the end of the night."

"You sound too smug about that. Why would I take that bet?"

"You shouldn't. She posted some aesthetic-looking photo of her face covered in paint and then another photo of Nath's lips covered in the same stuff. It doesn't take Alya Césaire, reporter extraordinaire, to figure that out."
_

Marinette thumbed through the scrapbook Alya had reverently placed in her hands. The pages were littered with photos she had sneakily taken of the couple over the years.

Photos from hangouts at Nino's apartment, from moving Nino and Alya in together, from that spring break trip they had taken, dancing at Nino and Alya's wedding (which prompted the question, "How did you even get this photo? Your dress didn't have pockets and you didn't have your phone!" "A good reporter never shares her secrets.) And even a few taken from the couple's social media accounts.

"That's from me, to you. And Adrien of course. Nino's giving Adrien his now. You guys can share and cry about it later, but I thought that night before the wedding, you deserved to cry with your best friend."

Marinette smiled. "I love you so much. Thank you for being my best friend."
_

Adrien pulled the headphones off his ears, tears tracking down his face.

"Nino, how'd you even get these?"

He shrugged. "It wasn't hard. Just made a couple calls and they were happy to do it for me. The kid who gave them to me told me I'm basically a legend around their parts because I hold the record for listener-ship. Now, I'm gonna go into another room so you can have those to yourself."

Adrien smiled and wiped the tears off from his face. "Come here." The two embraced, and Adrien patted Nino's back. "Thank you for everything you've done. You're the best man anyone could ever hope for."

"Well, I'm your best man. Literally. Tomorrow. Prepare for a kick-butt speech."

Adrien smiled and let go. "I don't doubt it. Go to your room and get some rest. It's a little ridiculous that we can't be together the night before," he grumbled.

"Dude...you've got the rest of your lives."

Nino shut the guest room door as he left, and Adrien shook his head. How did he ever get so lucky?

Grabbing the headphones from the desk where he left them, he placed one in each ear and pressed play. There was a brief staticky intro, and then he heard it.

"Caller, you're on the air."