"Nothing happened, hm?" Adrien hummed into her ear.

Marinette shivered under his lips, which traced the lines of her wispy hair until it trailed into her neckline. Her breath hung heavily in the air as they made their way, up and down, up and down again… Adrien grinned overtop her heated skin, blowing lightly into the sensitive spot underneath her ear lobe. Marinette laughed lightly under the ticklish sensation.

"I'm sorry, alright?" She chuckled, blushing at her own words, "I just got embarrassed."

Adrien nipped lightly at her earrings, careful not to actually break her precious miraculous. She whined a little at the slight tug, then bit her lip in surprise to her own reaction. A small thrill rushed through Adrien, and he continued his teasing dominance.

"Embarrassed?" He chided lightly, "About what?"

Marinette groaned. It was only minutes after Adrien had invited her to his house as her civilian form for the first time that he decided to bring out a completely different side of his personality. She remembered the way his fingers unraveled the scarf from her throat, his eyes gazing hungrily at her bare neck, and the way she suddenly became self-conscious. He'd easily picked up on her weakness, and backed her into his bedroom wall with only a couple purposeful strides. His arms barred either side of her head, hands fisted lightly overtop of her, a soft but impenetrable wall preventing her from escaping.

The girl was brought back from her daydream with a harder nibble at the soft flesh of her neck.

"I just didn't want them to know," She ghosted into his left ear, sending a sensational feeling over his left shoulder as she leaned slightly into him.

He grinned again into her skin, teeth glancing over the swirl of baby hairs adorning his target.

"About what?" He asked, licking lightly over a spot on her neck, "About… This?"

He clenched onto the spot on her neck, tugging at her flesh between his teeth, causing his Lady to wince beneath him. He pressed his lips into the spot, causing her muscles to ease before he tugged once more. It was a delicate balance of tugging and kissing that he was proud to say he'd nearly mastered over the past couple of weeks. Marinette whimpered beneath him, breath stolen and knees weak.

"Adrien-" Her breath caught in the back of her throat, but she wasn't choking. She was slipping into comfortable bliss. Drowning in sensation.

Adrien paused, lifting his lips from the bruised circle he'd proudly created. Marinette shifted in slight disappointment.

"Yes, my-" He nearly slipped and used his flirtatious nickname, "Mari?"

Marinette flicked her focus on Adrien.

"Do you want people to know?" She whispered thickly.

She'd caught him. He didn't know if he wanted this little secret relationship to become public, it could become messy if anyone ever saw him with Mari's alter ego. He didn't want to endanger her identity, but…

"Only if you want to," He hushed into her partly opened lips.

Marinette leaned forward and pressed herself onto his mouth lightly.

"I do."

"Then it's settled."

"What, should we make a Facebook post?" She teased, her quirky wittiness showing through her smirk.

Adrien laughed, leaning towards her neck once more.

"No, but," He licked at the freshly made bruise, "We just don't hide anything."

Strangely, he could feel Marinette's grin grow wider over his shoulder, and he paused at her new-found dominancy. It was always a struggle between them, the roles switching so constantly, each battled for the power to make the other weak.

"Sounds good to me," Marinette poured her sultry whisper into his ear, and Adrien knew she had something up her sleeve.

He felt her fingers ghost on his hip bones, and she trailed her way down, so lightly he shivered from the anticipation the heat radiating from her almost-touch brought. Her other hand pressed itself into his lower abdomen, dangerously close to a place they'd yet to explore. It snaked it's way, hard, up the ridge of his torso. They both knew it was one of her favorite areas of his body. Marinette paused in the center of his chest, her left hand placed on his upper butt, her right hand on his chest. She felt the rise and fall of his breath once before working on his collarbone. If his abdomen had been her first choice, his collarbone was a close second. Her teeth sunk lightly into his thinner skin, massaging and biting until a nice ring of broken blood vessels formed from her own handiwork. Adrien groaned above her, and slung his fingers into the loops of her jeans, pulling her body closer. Marinette's thigh pressed into him, which was a little more than he was expecting. He pushed her back lightly, to her surprise.

"Don't do that."

His face was beetroot red, and her eyes widened at his sudden innocence. She felt awkward suddenly, trying to form words of apology about- about what exactly? She looked back questioningly into Adrien's steaming expression, and he avoided her eyes as he shrugged from behind the arm that instinctively tried to cover his embarrassment. Marinette looked down for only a moment, and her eyes widened. Oh.

A new plan suddenly formed in her mind, she was rather surprised at the lack of shame she felt over seeing the natural instinct. Adrien was a boy after all. She didn't really care, and some part of her even felt flattered over his lust for her. She reached an arm over his shoulder, his wide, slightly misted green eyes met hers. He was a little afraid of how she'd react. Her eyes met his with nothing but a syrupy trap. She flicked a nail over his jawline, and he gulped. Not from fear, but from excitement.

The girl pushed him squarely in the middle of his chest, causing him to lose his already shaky balance and stumble onto his bed, calves knocking out from under him and causing him to fall onto his mattress. He knew he was in a disadvantageous position, but he was okay with being pushed around a little bit today. It was comforting after the conversation the pair had earlier at school. Marinette looped one slender leg overtop of him, before hoisting herself overtop of his hips. She sat lightly on top of him, and grinned down. He returned the grin, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

Do your best.

Her own eyebrows raised in mock astonishment for him to have posed such a challenge. Did he think she would not win? Sadly, he would be mistaken. Or perhaps, not so sadly.

She brushed away an arrant strand of blonde hair that had fallen into his vision, and let her fingers continue downward, tracing her way to the tip of his chin. She pressed her thumb against his slightly swollen lower lip, and leaned down. Adrien followed her gaze for as long as he could, before her lips met his own. She pressed herself down slightly more onto his pelvis as she pushed her mouth a little harder onto his. He couldn't help but let out the lowest growl of protest at her blatant disregard for his earlier warning. Adrien could feel her lip perk up slightly at his annoyed noise, clearly she was amused. Maybe challenging her had been the wrong decision. Her hands made their way up to encircle the back of his neck in the way he always found toxifying, and her spine curved slightly as she pressed her body even further onto his. Instinctively, he sighed a groan into their deepening kiss. Damn, she was winning.

She knew it, too. It was rather fun to channel her alter ego onto the boy, and watch him melt beneath her every movement. Yes, she'd sort of ignored what he'd told her about not touching certain areas, but by the way his own hands were urging her pelvis even closer to his own, she had the feeling it would be okay to continue. She nibbled casually on his lower lip, his breath steaming against her as he gasped for air. Marinette decided to let the poor boy catch his breath, but that didn't mean she was going to stop. She pressed another light kiss on the corner of his mouth, and shifted her legs slightly to that her thigh was between his legs. Marinette almost blushed at her own boldness as she grinded slightly against him, while moving her trail of kisses over to his ear, copying his move from earlier. Adrien whined boyishly underneath her. She grinned. All this was very good for her ego, she had to admit.

His hands were locked behind her back, and she continued to lightly press her body onto his. Despite his mouth being left to its own, he found it extremely hard to catch his breath. It wasn't because Mari was lying on top of him, either. She was damn light for being as muscular as she was. She continued to tease his senses for a while, before she lost stamina and fell into his outstretched arm beside him. They lay on the bed for a while, before she leaned into his ear and whispered warmly.

"I win."

"What are you wearing to the Valentine's dance?" Alya mumbled while playing on her phone.

Mari pushed a comb through her hair. She hummed to herself under her breath, thinking of swaying in an ankle length dress, almost feeling the fluttery gauze against her heels. Of course, she'd go with Adrien, too. He'd be there, and they'd be hand in hand, on display for all to see. Including Alya. She paused mid-brush.

"Hmm…" She pretended to be thinking about the question, "I don't know."

Alya sighed. Marinette flicked a glance behind her.

"Are you going to ask Nino?" She inquired casually, continuing to brush her hair.

Alya jerked from her laying position on Mari's bed.

"Probably."

They fell back into silence.

"Are you asking Adrien?"

Marinette hesitated, knowing the conversation that was about to unfold.

"Probably."

This time, Alya sat up. Her expression was understandably skeptical.

"Actually, this time. We're much… Closer now."

Alya leaned forward, silently demanding details. Marinette rolled her eyes to the ceiling, and shrugged her shoulders up to her chin. She mustered the best apologetic expression she could.

"We're maybe dating?"

Alya's jaw dropped immediately.

"What?!" She shrieked.

Marinette shushed her immediately, knowing her parents were probably asleep by now.

"Be quiet!" She listened to make sure no one was coming up the ladder, "We just got closer over winter break, that's all."

Alya sprang from her bed to tackle Marinette in a hug, whisper-squealing into her ear.

"Girl, finally!" She screeched happily, "What do you mean maybe, how do you maybe date?"

Marinette inhaled, this was the tricky part.

"Well we haven't really talked about what we are yet," She pondered quietly, "But we're something."

Alya clapped her hands in excitement.

"That's farther than you've gotten in years!"

Marinette grinned, feeding off her friend's praise. She was right, they'd gotten way father. Her face steamed a little bit with memories of exactly how much farther they'd gotten.

Alya gave her a thoughtful look.

"Are you designing your own dress?"

Marinette nodded, recalling her idea from earlier. The dance wasn't anytime soon, they still had a month and a half before the school was hosting it, but Marinette was so excited she'd already started making the dress. Secretly, she was kind of hoping Adrien would ask her to the dance himself, but she knew he could be rather shy when it came to public appearances. Or maybe that was her. Either way, she just assumed they would go together.

"Shoot!" Her best friend muttered beside her, her phone screen lighting up the time, "I really have to go. I have to clean my bedroom before school tomorrow."

She groaned. Marinette offered a pat on the shoulder for her pitiful friend.

"Tell me how it goes, okay?"

Alya gave her a small wave over her shoulder before swinging open her hatch door and making her way down the ladder. Marinette checked the clock hanging on the wall. She had to get going too, patrol started in about an hour. A sigh escaped her lips at the thought of dealing with Chat Noir, but she remembered that most of the drama had occurred between her civilian self and him, not Ladybug. Hopefully, she could manage to act somewhat normal around him tonight. She had the feeling that she'd completely gotten over him since Christmas break ended. She hoped she was right.

Chat hoped he looked unperturbed. Nonchalant. Cool. Like nothing was bothering him. He hoped Ladybug wouldn't notice his longer-than-usual stares. He was trying his hardest to strangle his flirts in his throat. Ladybug, or rather, Marinette, had everything sorted out. She'd finally gotten together with her long-time crush (though technically he wasn't supposed to know about that), and though they weren't exactly dating yet, he certainly didn't want to mess up one of the relationships he had with her. Well, his only non-platonic relationship with her. So, he said nothing unnecessary, nothing unusual, nothing friends wouldn't say to each other on a daily basis.

Because of that, she of course noticed.

"What's with you tonight?" She asked when they landed on a rooftop, "You're unusually quiet."

"Huh?" He'd been pretending to scout over the city below them, "No I'm not."

At this remark, she turned to him. Usually, he'd respond with a witty or flirty response, but tonight, he was different.

"Are you feeling okay?"

She placed a spandex-clad hand onto his forehead, pushing his sandy hair above his mask and revealing the ear she'd noted when they met before Christmas. She willed herself to focus only on the present moment. He wasn't hot or anything. No fever.

"I'm fine," He let out a soft little grin, and gently pushed her hand away.

His voice was different tonight, his actions totally unlike himself. It was like she was standing in front of the person in the recording, the pianist she'd fretted over for the past weeks. Which of course she was. Her eyebrows furrowed at the memory, the melody instantly surfacing to the tip of her tongue.

"Really! Totally fine," He blurted uncomfortably.

The boy took a stride backwards, stepping away from her outstretched hand. He looked a little… She didn't know. Guilty? Sad? Marinette's stomach coiled inside her.

"Oh. Oh, okay."

She laughed awkwardly, and looked away. She casually stepped over to the edge of the roof, wanting to jump off and run back into her little room for safety.

"Hey, actually, I need to tell you something."

Marinette winced faintly, pretending as though what he was about to say was nothing more than the flirtatious banter he so often spouted.

"Hm? Really…" She droned monotonously.

A small hesitation ensued.

"I'm going to give up on you."

Marinette lifted her gaze to meet his glowing green eyes. He bore holes into her. Piano notes trailed through her memory, from the crown of her head downwards, passing through the veins in her cheeks, to the skin on her lips, before nearly floating out on words she knew she'd eventually regret. Those feelings played through her mind for a moment that felt like eternity, before she finally refocused on the way his usually deep forest gaze turned bright, shining, almost happy. Like an emerald sea. She blinked, and tried to grin. No doubt it looked more like a grimace than a smile.

"Ladybug?"

His gaze shifted over her own.

"Oh yeah!" She jolted, and broke from his gaze, "Yeah, okay. No worries."

Chat Noir looked at her worriedly. She couldn't meet his eye, and broke away to look over the blurring lights of the Parisian cityscape.

"That's fine."