Hey guys so I had this story idea for a while, and after starting Season 2, I decided to come back to it.

Summary: Adrien took a little too long to come clean to Marinette about the gum incident. Before he had time to work up the courage and explain his innocence, Marinette fell for a knight in black leather, and Adrien developed a crush on the cute, but stubborn girl sitting behind him.

Chapter 1: A Real Hothead

Adrien didn't know how this had gone so wrong, he hadn't even done anything. It had all been Chloe, she was the one who put the gum on the seat and yet the glare from the blue haired girl seemed to always be on him. It had been two weeks now and he just couldn't seem to fix things with Marinette. He knew he should just talk to her and explain that he was trying to help, but every time he tried to talk to her, she would either pretend to not notice him or leave before he even got a chance to try.

His thoughts ceased as the sound of an explosion rang throughout the school. Everyone rushed through the door in a panic, some trying to find a place to hide, while others wanted to catch front row seats to the action filled afternoon entertainment.

There must be an akuma, Adrien thought to himself. I need to find somewhere to change quickly, this one seems pretty destructive. He looked around frantically for a second until he found a small supply closet with the door slightly cracked open. It seemed that the custodian had been getting supplies before the attack and had been too distracted to lock the room after he ran out.

Adrien slipped into the room cautiously making sure that no one was watching him as he entered. When he was inside and the door was firmly closed, a tiny black cat-like creature flew out of his shirt pocket smelling very strongly of Camembert cheese.

"Plagg I need to transform before this gets out of hand," Adrien said to the kwami who was still rubbing his eyes after the nap he had evidently just awoken form.

"I think I might need some cheese first, that nap really took a lot out of me." The kwami responded finishing with a yawn.

"We don't have time for this! I gave you plenty of cheese during lunch which is what made you so full you had to sleep it off, remember?" A loud boom echoed through the walls and Adrien called out, "Plagg- Claws out!" In a flash of green the teenager appeared again only this time wearing a black mask and a skin tight leather cat suit.

Chat Noir darted out of the room following the sounds of shrieks and screams into the science lab. It seemed that the room was empty with the exception of two people. One was his partner, Ladybug, looking courageous and strong as she threw her yo-yo at her target trying to tangle the akuma up. The other was the akuma himself. The akuma was mostly normal looking the only thing that really set him apart was the purple shadow covering his face and the fact that his hair was actually on fire.

"Is it hot in here or is just me?" Chat Noir said jokingly to his partner who laughed quietly at his attempt at lightening the mood. The next second they had to dodge apart as the akuma threw a fire ball at the both of them. When it missed the akuma's hair seemed to get hotter as the blue section grew slightly. He threw another fireball, this time Chat Noir took out his baton and hit the oncoming inferno like a baseball. "Looks like we have ourselves a purrrdicament here. Any ideas Ladybug?"

Ladybug looked around the room swiftly and her eyes landed on the fire extinguisher by the door. The only problem was that she would have to get close to the akuma, who was in the front of the room, to reach it. "Cover me!" She yelled to her partner who simply nodded and started waving his hands around to catch the akuma's attention.

"Hey hot stuff! Look over here! I bet I'm hotter than you I mean, seriously check out these muscles!" At this Chat Noir started using his baton like a saber attacking swiftly and effectively but unfortunately his fencing skills were not enough to keep the akuma from hitting him with a ball of flame which caused him to hesitate in his attack and allowed his opponent to knock him into a wall momentarily stunning him.

Luckily for him, Ladybug had reached the fire extinguisher and was just finishing reading the instructions when the akuma turned to find her. She squeezed her eyes shut and blew the white foam that doused his flame to barely a flicker before the canister ran dry, this gave Ladybug a chance to check on her partner. He was in pretty rough shape from the burn and probable concussion, but he was able to get to his feet. It was clear, however that this fight needed to end soon. She looked closely at the akuma and suddenly her eyes focused on his hand where he held a crumpled paper in his hand that looked like it had been singed.

"Chat! It's in his hand, we have to get that paper." Chat Noir nodded at her but it was apparent that his previous injuries were getting to him. Ladybug realized he probably wouldn't be able to help her too much from that point on so she threw her yo-yo up and called out, "Lucky Charm!" When the glitter cleared away, a hose fell into her hand. A hose? There was nowhere to connect one!

She looked around frantically. The akuma's flame had grown once more and he had started to sending fireballs again. She dodged one and came face to face with the safety shower used to wash off harmful chemicals, she had an idea. "Chat, I need you to cataclysm the eye wash station!" She said quickly to her partner.

Without hesitation he yelled out, "Cataclysm!" He swiped at the eyewash station, as it crumbled into nothing, it revealed a water connection that Ladybug would be able to connect the hose to.

The akuma continued attacking, realizing that Ladybug needed time to fix the hose to the spigot Chat Noir attempted to grab their opponent's attention. Despite his attempts it appeared that the akuma had learned its lesson the last time and could not be distracted by the cat hero. The akuma focused and created a bigger fireball than it ever had and threw it hard and fast towards Ladybug who was still turned around working on getting the hose properly fixed to the water source.

Chat Noir tried to call out a warning but it was too late, he had to act or his partner wouldn't be able to return everything to normal. Without a second thought he leapt in front of the oncoming ball of flame. Ladybug, finally finished with her task, turned around as she heard Chat cry out in agonizing pain.

She knew that the sooner she got that paper the less pain her partner would be in so she forced herself not to look at him. Her heart constricted as she thought of her partner willingly sacrificing himself to protect her.

Ladybug turned on the hose and blasted the akuma with water. She continued spraying him until the flame had completely disappeared. She then walked forward and pulled the paper from his sopping wet hand as he cursed her trying to form a fire ball. She looked at the paper briefly and immediately ripped it to shreds. All of this pain and destruction over a bad grade on a chemistry lab? She quickly captured the akuma and released a beautiful white butterfly, trying to hurry the process as much as possible. She could hear Chat Noir in the back of the room breathing heavily and trying to keep quiet about his pain.

Finally she yelled out, "Miraculous Ladybug!" As everything returned to normal she quickly hurried to her partner whose wound began to quickly heal. In less than a minute he was up on his feet saying he had to go before their transformations fell. Ladybug stopped him before he was able to sprint out of the room. She hugged him tightly, tears running down her face. "You saved me, if you hadn't taken that hit I'd be a pile of ash right now." She finally whispered to him.

"You're my partner, I've always got your back." He responded with an easy grin. He then turned and ran through the door to find a place to change.

Marinette stared after her partner's retreating figure, feeling her face heating up to unbearable temperatures and her heart starting to beat a little farther.

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!

~M