I highly recommend you read "To see you smile" first if you haven't already as this story is set immediately after that one and there are a few hints in there that will be kinda important to where the characters are at.

Marinette was not in a good mood.

It should have been an average Friday at school. In fact by all logical accounts it should have actually been a pretty good day for the teenaged superhero. Papillion had been surprisingly quiet for the past week, her teachers had managed to assign a reasonable amount of homework for once, and she had a meeting tomorrow with Master Fu so on Monday she could finally relieve her guilty conscience and return that book to Adrien.

Yet in spite of all the positive things that were going on, she found herself seething as she packed up her belongings at the end of the school day.

It had started on Tuesday.

Unfortunately for Marinette, although she had managed to vanquish the imposter Volpina the day before, her civilian counterpart was very much still a part of the class and just as determined to stir up trouble.

Adrien, seemingly incapable of being anything less than perfect much to Marinette's dismay, had decided not to hold Lila's bragging or lies against her and in fact had gone out of his way to be nice to the girl as the rumors about her impressive (and very public) akumatization circled throughout the school. According to Alya, who of course had gotten the inside scoop from Nino, Adrien was worried that between her humiliation and her position as the new girl that Lila would get turned into an outcast if someone didn't step up as a friend. Predictably, this good will gesture had only increased Lila's infatuation with the blonde model, and Marinette soon discovered that wherever Adrien could be found, the pretty Italian girl would never be more than a few steps behind.

Anxious to insert herself into everything that was 'Adrien approved' Lila had quickly attached herself onto his closest friends- namely, Nino, Alya, and by extension Marinette herself. While Lila had been striving to tone down her obvious dislike of Ladybug around the group, it was still a clear point of contention between her and Alya. Which left Marinette in the extremely uncomfortable position of being thrust into the role of Lila's new favorite friend. For the last 4 days Marinette had been all but dragged around throughout the course of the school day by the transfer student, who was desperately trying to include herself as much as possible into Adrien's life and social activities, and had decided that Marinette's presence along side her would somehow make her stalking more palatable.

Marinette might have laughed at the irony of the whole situation if the girl weren't so incredibly infuriating.

She tried to take comfort in the fact that Adrien seemed to be just as unreceptive to Lila's less than subtle advances as he was to all of the other girls she had seen chase after him over the course of the year they had been together in class. But even her crushes blissful lack of interest in Marinette's new escort was small comfort in light of the inconvenience of dealing with this recent development.

By Thursday evening Marinette had already been at her wits end with trying to hold in her irritation at both Lila's determined flirting and her continuing jabs at Marinette's own alter ego whenever Adrien and Alya were out of earshot. After all what could she really do about it as Marinette without possibly exposing herself as ladybug, or worse exposing her own feelings for Adrien?

Patrolling with Chat had been a welcome relief and she had found herself relaxed and happy for the first time in days, enjoying the warmth and comfort her partner constantly bestowed on her. His unguarded honesty had come as a pleasant surprise and she had gone home feeling content. His antics and flirtations had been amusing and flattering, even if his parting comments had been peculiar even for her silly kitten.

Unfortunately the aftermath of her time with the leather clad teenager had only managed to add a new complication to her already frayed nerves.

Marinette had gotten used to waking up from dreams of running her fingers through soft blonde locks while she lost herself in glittering green eyes between desperate heated kisses. But she found herself stifling a scream when she bolted out of bed at 5am this morning frantically repressing the lingering image of a wide self-satisfied grin and a breathless 'My Lady'.

Even with a full day of school looming, Marinette had opted for a long cold shower and an extra large cup of coffee rather than risk going back to sleep with her subconscious in such a clearly unstable state.

Things had not improved from there.

Day four of Lila's clingy attentions had been amplified by the fact that Adrien, sweet perfect Adrien, the only boy who should be making any appearances in her late night romantic fantasies, had been waiting for her when she arrived at school. Apparently Ultimate Mecha Strike 4 had been released last week and he wanted to see about getting a group together over the weekend to try it out and wanted to see what a good time for his 'partner' would be. It should have been a perfect moment and Marinette could feel her teeth clench at the memory.

"I have something on Saturday afternoon but I should be free in the evening wherever you want- I mean whenever you want me- I MEAN- I totally want you- WANT TO! I totally want to play with you! GAMES! I MEAN GAMES!"

Somehow Adrien had managed to not flee in terror at her horrifying babbling, instead gazing down on her with an indulgent smile. "Great! After all I still haven't had a chance to try that lucky charm you gave me." His gaze flickered down to his bag and Marinette's eyes widened when she recognized the bracelet looped around the strap. He had kept it! She felt her cheeks flush with pleasure and she beamed up at Adrien.

"I can't believe you…" Marinette was cut off by a loud squeal.

"MARI! There you are! Oh and Adrien, isn't this just perfect all my favorite people right in one place." Lila half tackled Marinette her eyes locked on the boy in front of her, a sly smile plastered across her face.

"So what are you telling my darling Marinette that has her looking so enthralled Carino?" Lila cooed linking her arm through Marinette's and sidling closer to her prey.

Adrien nonchalantly side stepped away from her but didn't drop his smile. Instead he placed his arm lightly around Marinette shoulder. "Marinette here is a championship gamer, so I wanted her imput on a small gaming party I am hoping to put together this weekend." He looked down at Marinette with such a look of unabashed pride that she felt her breath catch in her throat. She mentally made a note to hug her father at the next available opportunity for getting her addicted to that ridiculous game.

"Oh I love games! And of course we must be supportive of our precious Gattina" Marinette could feel her eye twitching, her smile locked into an uncomfortable grimace as she watched Lila attempt to make her some sort of joint charity project.

"Gattina?" Adrien asked, his brows furrowing adorably in confusion.

"Oh, sorry it's just a pet name we use back home. How would you say it… ah yes! Minou! Kitten. I just think would suit Mari so well." Marinette felt the blood drain from her face. Oh God no. The last thing she wanted was Lila giving her nauseating Italian nicknames. It was hard enough trying to tolerate this awkward friendship already.

Adrien however was looking back at her with an indescribable expression. His soft easygoing smile betrayed by an unholy glint in his eyes. "I guess I never really thought of that." Adrien says his voice taking on a lightly teasing tone. "What do you think Marinette? Would you consider yourself a cat person?"

"Of course she is." Lila gushed before Marinette even had a chance to draw breath. "After all Chat Noir is by far the best superhero in the city."

And thus began the complete and utter downfall of Marinette's day.

Both Alya and Chloe had managed to be in earshot for Lila's proclamation and the ensuing argument had raged for the entire rest of the afternoon. Marinette had staunchly avoided taking part in the conversation, but her resolute silence had not done much to help her composure. By the time lunch rolled around she could feel a pain in her jaw from grinding teeth as she fought to bite down replies to Lila's scathing criticisms of Ladybug. 'If you watch the videos you can see that she uses Chat abominably! He ends up taking all the damage and she somehow walks away with all the credit'. Added to that was the pounding headache that came from having to listen to Chloe, of all people, championing the cause that by rights belonged to Marinette. 'Ladybug is the real hero! She always saves the day no matter how undeserving these losers may be.'

Her hopes of getting an hours respite during the lunch hour were dashed when Adrien, and subsequently Lila, Alya and Nino, suggested grabbing lunch together at her parents nearby bakery so they could enjoy the afternoon sun.

Adding insult to injury, all of the talking of the various merits of Chat Noir had filled Marinette's head with memories of her conversations with him the previous evening prompting her to grab her umbrella before the group headed back to the school grounds with their purchases.

She had caught Adrien looking pointedly at it as they walked back, and felt herself flush with shame. What had she been thinking! There hadn't been a cloud in the sky. Why did she let herself get flustered by that stupid cat and his idiotic advice?

For the second half of the school day her mind had been doubly occupied. Now on top of her already frazzled nerves over the Great Ladybug Debate, as Nino was calling it, she couldn't stop the rush of curiosity over Chat odd behavior last night. Why had he made such a point of telling her to grab an umbrella if there wasn't going to be any rain? Was he just teasing her? Or was there some sort of deeper meaning to his words that she was somehow missing.

By the time the school day ended Marinette was more than ready to be rid of everyone. She purposely spilt her school bag as she got up to leave, waving everyone off with a promise to catch up. Fortunately her absence went largely unnoticed as the crowd followed excitedly after the still heatedly arguing classmates. Once the room was empty she slumped down in her seat eyes closed and took several slow steadying breaths.

The Silence that engulfed her was an absolute blessing. She allowed her muscles to finally relax and her mind to clear. For several minutes she just sat there, a small smile of relief overtaking her features. A soft, pleasing, thrumming sound tickled its way into her consciousness and she languidly opened her eyes. She looked out the window into the rapidly darkening sky as the rain poured down.

It looked like Chat had been right about the rain after all.

Marinette sighed and cursed herself. It served her right getting worked up over nothing. She was looking forward to a nice long relaxing weekend.

She gathered up her things and headed out to the front entrance, glad that she had grabbed the umbrella after all. Even though her home was only a few blocks away the rain was picking up and she had never been fond of getting her clothes soaked though. However when she pushed open the front door she found herself frozen in her tracks.

Standing alone on the steps, staring towards her with a look of perfect contentment, was the slightly damp, and breathtakingly handsome Adrien Agreste.