Marinete was having the most wonderful dream. She and Adrien were having a date on a beautiful beach at night and he was holding her hand. Needless to say, she was rather annoyed with the constant beeping noise that was somehow managing to distract her from the love of her life. She rolled over in bed, pulling the covers closer around her ears.

"inette!" said a familiar voice. "Marinette! Wake up, you're going to be late for school!" Well, that woke her up. Marinette instantly began to roll out of bed…

… before she remembered it was a loft and nearly six feet off the ground. Despite her screams and flailing of arms, it was already too late for her to stop her doomed descent, and she fell o the floor with a great thud.

"Uuuhhg…"

"Are you alright, Marinette?" Tikki asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the teen groaned back.

"Well, in that case, hurry up! School starts in ten minutes!"

"WHAT!?" Marinette screamed as she quickly rose from her place on the floor. She dove for her phone, discarded on the chaise the previous evening, and saw that Tikki was right! She was going to be late! As quick as humanly possible, Marinette scrambled about her room to get ready before bolting downstairs. She barely managed to grab a muffin and give her mother a peck on the cheek before she was off again.

Bounding down the steps and out the front door, the girl ran as fast as she could to school.

Marinette sighed as she unceremoniously flung her schoolbag onto her chaise. It had been a long day. First, was late for class despite her rushing out the door, then she'd tripped as she ran through the classroom door- oh God, Adrien had seen her trip like a total loser!- then Chloe had seen it necessary to tease her about it as soon as the teacher stepped out of the room. And to top it all off, Ms Mendeleiev had blown up in her face during physics because- well, Marinette had stopped caring at that point, which only angered the teacher even more.

"Uuuhhg…" she grumbled as she flopped into her desk chair.

"Are you okay, Marinette?" came a sweet voice from her purse.

"I'm fine, Tikki. I just… need to unwind. I'm gonna go take a shower."

Ms Mendeleiev angrily paced about her classroom. No respect. Her students had no respect, not for science, not for her, not for anything! Especially Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Always late for class, leaving without notice, not paying attention when she had bothered to show up-! The teacher was so angry, in fact, that she didn't notice the black butterfly drift in through the open window.

Approximately two minutes later, Adrien and the rest of the fencing team got a rather unwelcome surprize as the akumatized teacher burst forth from her classroom.

"I AM PROFESSOR NEWTON! NO STUDENT SHALL DISRESPECT SCIENCE BEFORE ME!" Adrien immediately tensed, ready to spring into Newton's gaze fell upon an unfortunate underclassman and she pounced. There was a flurry of motion as the boys rushed to get to safety. Adrien, as quietly as he could, made his way for the wall opposite the akuma and started inching towards the locker room doors.

Now collected enough to more accurately analyze the situation, Adrien regarded the new akuma. The teacher's purple hair was now wild and vibrant, her skin pale white. She had large, green protective glasses covering the top half of her face, and her sclera had turned black. Adrien began to look at her flowing white lab coat when-

"Where is Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" the akuma hissed, her claw-like gloved hands gripping the boy she had jumped near his neck. Oh no, Adrien thought. Marinette's in danger! Not stopping to think, he rushed to the boy's locker room, flinging open his locker as quickly as he could.

"Plagg! No time to explain! CLAWS OUT!" The kwami in question, who had innocently been sleeping off a cheese coma, started awake.

"Wait, Adrien, the chee-" but he never got to finish his sentence, and soon Cat Noir had taken Adrien's place in the locker room. However, the space was soon empty again as the young superhero vaulted himself out the window, desperate to get to the bakery across the street as quickly as possible. As soon as his boots touched Marinette's balcony, he threw open the hatch and launched himself inside his classmate's room.

"Princess, it's not safe here! There's an aku… ma…" Marinette turned to face Cat Noir immediately, and for a moment was confused as to why he had trailed off. But then, as she saw his reddening face, realization hit her like a sack of bricks. She had just gotten out of the shower, and her wet hair hung loosely about her shoulders, in some places sticking to her skin and causing stray droplets of water to drip down her back. Her towel lay discarded on the chaise, and the only clothing near her were the panties she was wearing and the bra she had yet to put on. Had yet to put on. Had yet to- OH MY GOSH! She was facing Cat Noir and she wasn't wearing her bra! That meant that he could see her-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" She screeched, covering her upper body as well as she could with her arms. She shut her eyes as tight as they could go and her face turned as red as her Ladybug suit. Her scream seemed to shock Cat Noir out of whatever stupor had been in, turning around in an attempt to protect the shattered pieces of Marinette's dignity.

"Th-there's- uh-um- an akuma! Co-coming after you! N-not safe." Adrien choked out the words as well as he could manage. Coughing, he tried again. "I need to take you someplace safe." Good. His voice hadn't cracked. He didn't at all sound like he had just seen her-

NO! Bad Adrien! Marinette is in danger! Stop thinking about her- GHHAAHHHAHAAGG! He couldn't escape it! Alright then, he'd just stop thinking. That's right, if he wasn't thinking of anything then he couldn't think about seeing her-

Adrien was really bad at not thinking about this.

There was a soft whimper behind him. "Could I… put on some clothes?" Marinette squeaked.

"Of course! I'll be.. On your balcony. Waiting!" With that, Adrien ran. He was pretty sure his claws had left marks on the steps up to her bed. He didn't care. Seeing Marinette like that- hearing her voice like that was-

Adrien was REALLY bad about not thinking about this.

Less than a minute later, Marinette popped her head out of the trap door. Adrien looked at her, still flushing. She had forgone her usual attire, instead wearing a simple, pink cotton dress. Her hair was still wet, and Adrien could see bits of her bra from where the fabric had already begun to soak through. Climbing up onto the rooftop, he saw that the girl wasn't wearing shoes, which made his eyes trail up her legs and made her skirt seem shorter than i really was.

Adrien decided that after this was over, he would report himself to the police as a sex offender.

They stood there for a moment, neither quite sure what to say. Then a screech sounded from the street below.

"MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG!" Finally getting over his embarrassment in favor of concern for Marinette's safety, Cat Noir scooped her up into his arms and began bounding a across the rooftops of Paris. And he most certainly did not find the small squeak Marinette had given as he picked her up cute, nor was he distracted by the scent of her shampoo radiating off of her hair and skin, he was not he was not, he was not.

Maybe he should just turn himself in now. Surely Ladybug could handle this without him. She and Marinette would definitely be safer if he was locked up like he deserved to be. Finally finding a rooftop a safe distance away, Cat gently set Marinette on her feet. They were both still a little red, but before they could lapse into awkward silence again, Adrien mentally shook himself. Ladybug needed him, he couldn't just stand there like an idiot, even if he could see even more of Marinette's bra through the wet-

He decided to leave before he could entertain that thought any further.

"W-well, I'll see you later, princess," he said, somehow managing to get a little bit of his usual Cat Noir swagger back into his voice before jumping off the roof and towards the akuma. Adrien sighed in relief once he was sure he was out of Marinette's earshot. For some reason, dealing with a deranged super villain was a much more appealing prospect than talking to the girl he had just seen half naked.