Chat smiled softly as he watched her, sitting on her windowsill with his legs dangling back and forth in front of him as he tilted his head to the side, cat-like green eyes following her every move. He watched as she gracefully moved around her room, picking up different types of fabrics and tools and looking almost as if she was dancing. He'd only ever seen her this graceful as Ladybug, but he guessed her being in her element like this would allow her to be more swift when working; everything she was doing had been practiced after all.

He enjoyed watching her, it was a nice change from the stuttering and somewhat clumsy girl he knew in class. He still found it odd how she was more relaxed around Chat as opposed to Adrien, even after finding out their identities, but they had only found out a few weeks ago, so he guessed she still needed time to adjust. He knew he did.

Working on her designs seemed to have a calming effect on her, all the stress and worries from the day seemed to fade the second she picked up her design book and a large piece of fabric. He only was able to notice because he was watching her so intently, but it was nice to see her like this. It calmed him down, too.

He had offered to help her with her work multiple times, but she always declined, telling him that working alone on her designs helped her focus better. And it did, since she didn't seem frustrated at all when something went wrong and just worked on fixing it as quickly as possible, while he had seen her get very annoyed before when something didn't go quite right in a group project. She did tell him that he could help whenever she needed a model though.

Whether she was joking or not, he wouldn't mind walking around in one of her originals.

"Kitty," she spoke, eyes solely focused on her work as she pulled a pin out of her mouth and stabbed it through the fabric to hold it in place before moving to search for her pin cushion. "Something on your mind?"

Chat blinked, cheeks darkening considerably as she woke him out of his thoughts. How was she able to pick up on his somewhat dazed state if she hadn't looked over at him even once from the moment she begun on her dress? Either she was very good at keeping it hidden, or she had been multitasking the entire time and he hadn't even been aware of it.

"Nothing," he replied, voice not betraying anything as he watched her sew on a pre-made lace pattern to the back of the dress. From what he could see right now, she was working on a black evening gown.

Marinette stopped her sewing, freezing in the middle of the process as she tied the knot and looked up at him with suspicious eyes, causing the tips of his ears to redden along with the rest of his face. "It's obviously not nothing," she told him, carefully placing the lace fabric over the shoulder of her mannequin and walking over towards him. Her pretty sky blue eyes were staring right at his green ones, curiosity shining in them and he suddenly wanted to disappear.

Chat sucked in a breath, her face dangerously close to his as he leaned back against the window; making her frown. She wanted to know what he'd been thinking, right, because he could just go ahead and say that he had been thinking about watching her the entire time. As if that didn't sound stalker-ish at all.

"Really, Princess, it's nothing." He tried again, wanting to deny it to the best of his ability. "Nothing to worry your purrity little head about, at least."

He was getting nervous, why was he getting so nervous? It wasn't as if they hadn't been this close before, for the love of all that was holy they weren't even touching. He thought that maybe making puns would get her to drop it and back off, but if anything, it just made her all the more suspicious.

"Are you sure?" She questioned, tilting her head to the side cutely and Chat thought he might just faint. "You seemed to be pretty out of it before."

"I...I w-was just-"

"Thinking about me?" She cut in with a smile that left the cat to wonder what the hell just happened.

Marinette's smile just grew as she let out a soft laugh before backing away and walking back towards her unfinished dress. "Relax, minou," she assured him, the smile still obvious in her voice. "I'm just playing, no need to get so nervous."

Chat blinked, finally snapping out of his surprised state as he shot her a playful glare; which she reciprocated by sticking her tongue out and winking. "Seriously, though," she continued, her voice full of mischief and Chat didn't know if he would like this. "I didn't know I was that interesting to watch, thanks for the compliment, Kitty."

He narrowed his eyes, a devilish smirk playing on his lips as his green eyes shone with cat-like mischief that just screamed trouble. Oh, so she wanted to play it like that? "A Knight is allowed to admire his Princess, is he not?" He shot back, and Marinette shivered at his tone, wondering if she had just gotten herself into something she wouldn't as easily get out of.

Marinette had made a mistake, a very big mistake. A mistake that left her as much more of a stuttering and blushing mess than she had been before.

Adrien was flirting with her.

Adrien, not Chat.

And the devilish cat knew damn well what he was doing to her, if she had to go by the playful smirk that seemed to be set permanently on his face. Even if this was him, he was very clearly channeling Chat Noir at the moment.

She knew that they were very much the same person, so she shouldn't be so flustered at all by his bold behavior since a certain black cat tended to do this all the time. Still, that didn't do anything to ease her nervousness around her longtime crush. Marinette blamed it on the fact that she still wasn't quite used to the idea of the two of them being the exact same person, since their personalities did clash quite a lot but blended in a weird way at the same time. If he kept this up, however, there was no way that she wouldn't be able to make the connection after she had gotten over the initial shock of Adrien Agreste boldly stating his claim in front of the entire class.

In his defense, she had very clearly started it the day before; he was just playing along since he never had been one to deny his Princess of her wishes.

So when she had rushed in late for the umpteenth time that month and tripped on her way to her desk; him catching her shouldn't be considered odd or wrong, even if he held on for way longer or closer than was needed. Enough for their classmates to take notice, anyway.

Especially Alya, Adrien tried not to let his grin show too much as he heard the future journalist's frantic whispering from behind him, Nino was still watching him with raised brows, after all.

He followed with waiting for her after class, causing him, Alya, Nino and her to walk together as a group, although he made sure to stay near her as he tried not to enjoy her flushed face all too much.

Adrien made sure to keep his attention on Nino though, listening with rapt attention as his best friend told him about something related to his DJ'ing. Meanwhile, the young aspiring designer was trying her best to avoid Alya's knowing looks and grins. After all of this was over, she was going to test out if cats really did land on all fours or not by throwing him off Notre-Dame.

And that wasn't a metaphor either.

He had been pretty mild from that point on, acting like normal except for the friendly (but obviously flirtatious) comment thrown her way from time to time, leaving her a bit anxious for his next move. She knew her kitty, the moment he started playing, he wouldn't stop until he had won or very clearly had been defeated.

From the way she was acting right now, the both of them knew pretty well that she wouldn't be able to defeat him anytime soon.

It wasn't until Gym class that he made his next move.

Marinette had finally calmed down after nearly half a day of her heart pounding heavily against her chest. She had just calmly been doing the assignments with ease, since Gym was a breeze for both her and Adrien, until she slipped while running and of course he had to be near when that happened.

Adrien had acted quickly, mirroring his actions in the classroom by slipping his arms underneath hers and holding her up with ease. All eyes in the room turned on them, some in relief that Marinette hadn't broken anything, others were watching in anger (Chloé) and the rest was just watching in plain interest. And of course Adrien chose that exact moment to open his mouth. "Careful, Princess. This is the second time today, I'm starting to wonder if you're just falling for me."

As Chloé echoed an enraged "Princess?!", Nino just blinked in surprise, wondering just when his best friend had become this smooth and if he should start taking notes. Ivan, on the other hand, was actually taking notes for Mylène.

Meanwhile, Marinette was sure that her legs would've given out if he hadn't been holding her up. Her face was redder than Nath's hair as she tried her best to stutter out a response as he just watched her in amusement and pulled her up to make sure she could stand straight after the teacher called for them to break it up. The green eyed model decided to add one last final touch before completely letting go by leaning closer and whispering something in her ear before turning and casually walking back towards Nino.

Adrien's words of 'you started it,' both darkened the color in her face and gave her enough courage to shoot him a glare at the same time.

Screw throwing him off Notre-Dame, she was going to toss him off the Eiffel Tower.

Again, not a metaphor.

He had nine lives anyway.

But that wasn't even the worst of it.

No, the killer move was when they started practicing fencing.

Since Adrien already did the sport on a regular basis, he was used as an example, coming pretty close to actually beating their teacher in a sparring match. The class was put into pairs and - of course - she was put with him. He had gone back to his earlier behavior; acting as if nothing was wrong and just shooting her 'friendly' comments from time to time as he helped her get the hang of it- something she actually needed, since this differed quite a lot from her yo-yo.

But then his friendly smile had turned devilish again and Marinette started to wonder if so much mischief, paired with her nervousness, would actually be enough to attract an Akuma. At this point she actually hoped it could, just to have an excuse to get out of this.

"Princess, your stance is all wrong," he told her gently, and she raised a brow. Apparently, 'Princess' was going to be sticking around for a long time to come, not just as Chat. "I could show you how, if you like?" He asked, and she nodded a bit absentmindedly, not realizing the double meaning behind his words until he had already slipped behind her and placed a gentle hand on her waist.

His other hand slid across her arm to help her grip the weapon right, while the one on her waist kept her steady (which, from the way she was shaking, was definitely needed). He talked while he was doing it, explaining the basics and how she should keep her feet steady so she wouldn't lose her balance while striking, and she was only half listening because she was very much aware of just what he was doing and how her face had reddened quite a bit. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she was a little impressed since she had seen everything he was telling her while Chat was fighting, but all of that was clouded by the damned boy's actions.

His grip on her waist tightened as he stepped a little closer and she was starting to wonder if there were any other high buildings in Paris; the Eiffel Tower just wasn't high enough anymore in her opinion.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he released her, urging her to use everything he just told her against him, faintly aware of Chloé gritting her teeth in the background and he realized that Marinette wasn't going to be the only girl he'd have to deal with after this.

It was worth it, though.

He was actually surprised that he had managed to keep this up for the whole day without blushing even once, he had figured that by the time the day had ended, he'd be matching her adorably red face, but so far, he hadn't even felt the slightest bit embarrassed.

His sudden confidence boost wouldn't last forever though, he knew that. So, he needed to have as much fun as possible while it lasted.

But, by the time class had ended and they were walking out of the school, even he was starting to get tired of his own aimless flirting and he finally decided to put an end to it. They'd been dancing around each other for years now anyways.

He'd have to do it later though, she'd been lenient enough as is, he wasn't going to push it by making his move in front of the whole school.

A mischievous smile played at his lips and Adrien found himself not being able to wait as he thought of all the ways he could do it, and, despite his devilish expression; his cheeks did start to get a bit of color as he thought more about it.

One thing was for certain though, Chat Noir would be the one to do it.

Either way, she was going to kill him, and he found himself not minding one bit.