A/N: Based on an idea by Shiloa. Thanks for letting me abduct this, mon amie! I would gift it to you, but I'm still working on your Adrienette monster, so...

EDIT: Someone pointed out to me that the female form of 'Chat Noir' would be 'Chatte Noire', and they're absolutely right! So Marinette's Chatte Noire from now on. I apologize profusely for defeating the purpose of French Immersion (which is obviously to be able to watch rad French cartoons, yes?)

EDITED EDIT: Apparently "chatte" can mean "pussy"– whoops. It is now French Immersion that has failed me – for some reason they didn't teach us that in school. ;) Thank you to those who pointed this out to me! My newest solution is to call Marinette 'Chat Noire' (the male form (and I guess regular form) of 'cat' but the 'black' adjective is feminine). It's not technically grammatically correct, but I hope it's a good compromise. Please do let me know if it's still problematic!

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Adrien sighs as he enters his room, closing the door and sliding down it into a morose heap.

Immediately, Tikki flies out of his pocket to hover in front of him. "What's wrong Adrien? You've been blue all the way home, but I thought this day went well! You aced that math test, and you're making more friends!"

Adrien sighs again. "I know. And that's great!" A brief smile. "I'm happy. But I just..." he looks out the window. "The new friends remind me that I'm still not friends with the one person I really want to know..."

"Hmm," Tikki tilts her head, amused. "I know Marinette's shy, but I'd say she's your friend! She seems to like you."

"What?" Adrien looks at his kwami. "No, I meant Chat Noire!"

"This again," Tikki shakes her head, but then perks up, spreading her arms out. "I'm sure you'll find out eventually! You'll know when it's meant to be!"

"Meant to be..." Adrien's gaze drifts to the window again. "That's how I feel about her, alright." He rubs his neck. "I just wish I could tell her that."

"Then why don't you?"

"I can't." Adrien's head falls back against the door with a thud. "Every time I try, I just...my head starts spinning and my knees go weak and nothing I say makes any sense."

"Hmm," Tikki hums again. "How about you write her a letter?"

"A letter?"

"Why not? You would have all the time you need to think of the right things to say. And besides, what's more romantic than a love letter?"

Adrien beams. "You're right! And Valentine's Day is coming up!" He gets to his feet and hurries to his desk, sitting down in his chair and pulling out a piece of paper. He looks up at Tikki, who's landed on the computer monitor. "What about poetry? Do you think she'd like that?"

Tikki giggles. "I'm sure she'll like whatever you write, as long as it comes from the heart!"

Adrien looks at her with such earnest gratitude that Tikki can't imagine working with anyone else from this generation. "Thanks, Tikki."

She flies in close to nuzzle his cheek, and he laughs and cups her gently with one hand.

Suddenly he jolts, another hopeful smile on his lips. "Wait, what was that about Marinette? You really think she wants to be my friend?"

MEANWHILE...

"Message saved," says a cool female voice, utterly indifferent to the chaos its' causing.

Marinette looks like she's going to barf. "What? No! Nonononono." Hands shaking, she jabs buttons on her phone, but manages only to end the call. With a wail of despair, Marinette flops face-first onto her sofa. "My life is over.'

Plagg zooms around her. "What? You managed to ask him out, I thought that was the point."

Marinette groans. "I called him 'hot stuff'."

"I fail to see the problem. Unless you would have preferred the blindfold scenario. Which actually –"

Marinette jolts upright, gesticulating wildly. "He can't hear that message! Oh, what am I gonna do?"

Plagg pretends to think about it. "Well, you could always steal his phone and erase the message before he can hear it."

Marinette blinks at him. "And by stealyou mean...quickly and secretly borrow?"

Plagg beams. "That's the spirit!"

Face set, Marinette rushes to her desk and pulls down her scroll of Adrien's timetable, scanning it. "That's right, he didn't pick up because he's in fencing class!" She points at the scroll with a ruler, "For the next twenty-two and a half minutes."

Oh, this girl is a natural. "See? Easy."

Marinette laughs. "What would I do without you?"

Plagg smirks. "Just be a total spaz, I expect."

A sharp bing rings out, and Marinette goes to check her phone. She pales. "Oh no! I forgot about that statue unveiling ceremony for me and Ladybug! It's happening right now!"

"Eh," Plagg shrugs. "Blow it off."

Marinette's shoulders slump."No, I can do that to Ladybug." Then she straightens again. "So I'll just have to be really quick grabbing that phone." She turns to him. "Plagg, claws out!"

Plagg grins as he zooms into her ring. Definitely a natural.

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A/N: This was super fun to write so if people like this, I might do some more little one-shots about Adrien-Ladybug and Marinette-Chat Noir. I feel like Adrien would strut his stuff just as much in red as he does in black, and not care that he was called 'Ladybug', and that Marinette might actually turn into a half-decent liar.

The real question is who would make the puns.

Also yeah Marinette's scene is a reworking of that scene in the episode Copy Cat. Sorry Alya. I promise I love you.