I lied. I can't stay away from these crazy kids.

Part I.

Somehow, this whole secret dating thing was working out just fine. It had been a couple of months, and they'd been working on setting some boundaries (as of now, there would be no Ladybug and Chat Noir kissing. Far too risky). They had managed to go on some dates, and with Paris being as big as it was, they'd yet to run into anyone they knew. As far as school was concerned, the game was 'how many kisses can one sneak upon the other'.And so far, the answer was plenty. Marinette had no idea how their friends had not caught them just yet.

Yes. They were going to tell their friends, but for now, the hormones had won out and they'd found that sneaking around was far too entertaining to let go just yet… for now. Besides, they were trying to balance all the other things that they had to do; such as school, their extracurricular activities, Marinette helping at the bakery and Adrien's modelling gigs; so they were enjoying their alone time for now. Also, They'd found a less conspicuous way for Marinette to sneak into his room, which was frankly large enough for them to lounge around and get at least their homework done.

The time alone had been great for getting to know Marinette better. Sure, sometimes still got flustered when he got too close, but she recovered quicker now. It had been illuminating. It had been easy to see the flashes of Ladybug coming into her civilian life. She joked, and poked fun at him; and she even rolled her eyes at him eyes when he got too cheesy. It was honest. And they were learning how to just relax and be themselves. Which of course, included plenty of kissing and snuggling.

This meant that Adrien could also relax when it came to her. He didn't need to boast and brag to get her attention; he already had it, and while Marinette was discovering that there was far more Chat in his true personality than she had expected; she… actually enjoyed it. She was learning just how alone he had been growing up; and she could see how the boy she liked was just an amalgam of so many little details that accounted for every part of his personality. Also, Adrien was a bit of a cuddler. She had not seen that coming.

They would both agree. It had been illuminating.

So far, in this past few months, they had fallen to a comfortable routine. They would spend a couple of afternoons a week watching movies, or working on their homework at Adrien's room. After all, his house was so much bigger than hers, and once he had his schedule for the day, unless he had a photoshoot, no one would bother them.

This meant that they were currently at Adrien's room, the blond sitting at his desk finishing his homework for the day, while Marinette, having finished what she had while Adrien was at fencing class, sat on the sofa in his room, sitting sideways, her legs stretched across the lenght as she read; he knew she wasn't going to interrupt him while he was doing homework. They were both aware that keeping their grades up would help the grownups in their life to be more at ease and basically… leave them alone for what they had to do.

Grounded heroes were not good for Paris.

Adrien stood up, making his way to the sofa, sitting on the arm opposite Marinette, who was still quite into her book, and not paying any mind to Adrien.

This wouldn't do.

The blond edged closer, slowly moving on the couch. Yes, it was good that they both worked on their school things. However, Adrien had been working on his homework for almost an hour, and he wanted some attention. He crawled on the couch, carefully avoiding her stretched legs, until his head was on the other side of her book, green eyes peeking on top of it. "I'm bored", he said before attempting to push the book down.

"Aaah!" she laughed, as she closed the book, marking the page with her index finger as a first attempt to save her book from the attack. "Waaait! I have to mark the page!" Marinette looked down at the couch, where her boyfriend had somehow managed to crawl pretty much all over her and was currently eyeing dangerously the obstacle between him and her attention… Marinette held the book above her head, her finger still marking the page she'd last read, doing her best to get it out of Adrien's reach. This of course, gave Adrien an open window to get very close to her, a feline grin lighting up his face as his fingers ghosted over her sides.

"No!" she said, squirming in anticipation "don't youdare!" She warned her boyfriend as she used her free hand to quickly rummage through her pockets, trying to find something before he attacked. "Waaait!" she laughed, as she found an old receipt, which she quickly used as a bookmark in replacement of her finger and closed the book, dropping it carefully by the side of the couch, she'd learned that it was a lost battle to try to get anything done when something like this happened.

Objectively, she didn't mind; she would have told him so if she did. After all, she'd been pretty much waiting for him to get his homework done, using the time to get ahead on some school reading.

"I'm bored" he said, resting his cheek on her shoulder, his long body stretched out all over the couch, though he took particular care on not crushing her with his weight.

She laughed. "You're such a cat" she said, poking him on the ribcage.

The blond squirmed, "I'm your cat though" he said, flashing his best charming look at her, which caused Marinette to roll her eyes.

She rolled her eyes, "Dork" This earned Marinette a renewed tickle attack "nooo" she said, between fits of giggles and squirming to get away. She pressed her arms to her sides, though it did little to stop him, so there was one other way to stop him, still laughing she grabbed his face and began planting kisses on him. It usually distracted him. "I'm Sorry! Sorry" she said, giggling between kisses. "Adrieeen". It was rather hard to kiss someone while one was laughing and the other grinning, but the intention was there, and she could try and be very through.

He loved her laugh. It was just so free. Before all thishad turned into a reality, it was something he just saw from afar, and usually when she hadn't noticed he was in the near vicinity. However, he was not going to disagree with her defense tactics, he approved wholeheartedly. And yes, he was going to stop tickling her but if she wanted to try and stop him with kisses, he was not complaining. He had already learned the hard way that there was a thin line between 'fun, tickling time' and'getting hit in the face because she can't handle it'.

In her defense, she hadn't meant to hit him and she had been very apologetic after the fact.

Now laughing from his position, he held up his hands and gave her another kiss just for good measure. He considered himself the winner of this round.

Once the giggles had subsided, they settled on the couch; but not before some mutual shifting and shimmying, Adrien assumed what had become his favorite position, and was resting against Marinette, his head settled against a pillow on her stomach.

"So" he began, "We're sticking with the plan for tomorrow?"

Tomorrow, yes. It was the end of the year formal, with every student in their Lycée in attendance. Since their budding relationship was yet to be unveiled at school, they had talked on how it was probably a better idea to keep it quiet for a little bit longer. Besides, they hadn't really told their best friends… which was probably something they needed to work on. They had to notice at least something. Marinette wasn't a stuttery mess around Adrien, and the blond wasn't even subtle in his attempt at spending time with them. Group lunches had become the norm now.

"I'm thinking yes" she said, maybe they needed to just get on with it and tell them. "I wanted to try and tell her before, but she had already planned the afternoon for prep" Prep of course, meaning hair and makeup. And obviously Alya would have insisted that they went together, not wanting to stand in the way, and she didn't really want to leave her best friend on her own when they had already made plans together. That was just not cool.

"We should probably do that tomorrow" he said, green eyes closed, as his own fingers drew endless patters above her knee. Yes, this was much better than sitting at his desk. He craned his neck, to look at her face "Alya has really not said anything to you?" The girl wasvery perceptive. Granted, sometimes she got it completely wrong (Chloe? Ladybug? Come on now); but she had gotten his identity right ages ago. She just didn't have the confirmation and seemed to have dropped the topic.

"I… really don't know "she said, frowning as she pondered more about it "I think she should know, but she usually would have said something before. Then again she jumps to conclusions way too fast sometimes," She pursued her lips, pondering other alternatives. "She does get really focused when she's set on something, so it just be that."

That could be it. "We could just tell them together" he said. Less of a tell, more of a show?

The corner of her lip quirked up as she pondered that particular possibility. She would like to see the look on their friends' faces though "That might not be a bad idea" she said. "It might be funny to see how they react"

The next day, right after school, Marinette and Alya settled in the redhead's room; set on getting ready for their school's event. They were finishing up their hairstyles and soon would move on to getting their makeup done.

"Don't move!" Marinette chastised, her attention split between her friend, and the screen on her laptop, where a girl on YouTube gave out instructions that seemed far easier that what they were actually attempting "or I'm going to end up stabbing you in the scalp with this bobby pin"

"Okay, okay!" Alya sat still for a couple of seconds, wincing as Marinette pulled a bit too hard, finally relaxing when she was done with that particular part of her hair. Maybe they should have tried being a little less ambitious with their styles.

Alya turned towards her friend, who was reviewing the next part of the video, rewinding it to watch it few times, until she could feel confident enough to try it on Alya "So." the redhead began, ready to have a bit of a more complicated conversation, since they hadn't had enough time on their own lately. Marinette had offered to make both of their dresses, and Alya knew her enough to know that she would be in the Zone and there was no point in attempting any sort of conversation. And at school, they had barely had enough time on their own to chat it seemed that their little friend group had grown from the two of them to a foursome. "Adrien seems prettyfriendly nowadays" Alya looked at Marinette, trying to gauge the other girl's reaction.

Well, this was had been expected "Uh Yeah, I guess" she said, flushing slightly as she devoted her attention to the screen, doing her best to seem as casual as possible.

"and…" she began "You seem really comfortable around him now"

This was a chance to come clean. Just tell her. But they had said that they'd be telling them later tonight. "We've been talking a lot" Not a lie. "we're…getting to know each other" Also not a lie.

"So, is the dilemma, solved now?" Alya asked, referring to her friend's earlier crisis about liking two people at the same time. "Ouch"

"Sorry!" Marinette apologized "Almost done" she pursued her lips in concentration as she finally tied up the last bit of Alya's hair. "Yeah, It is." she said fighting the small quirk on her lips. She would have had a dilemma about liking the same boy.

"Adrien won, didn't he?"

Marinette blushed, leave it to Alya to be so… blunt about it. "Yeah…"

Well, Alya would have liked meeting whoever it was that got her doubting her crush, but she had to admit it, seeing Marinette interact as a normal human being with Adrien, had her kind of rooting for the two of them. Besides, she was sure that it was a mutual thing; and that something had to happen soon enough.

So yeah. Alya shipped it.

"Alright, I need to make sure everything won't fall apart before we make it there, and you're ready" Marinette announced, arming herself with a bunch of bobby pins "So stay still"

The two friends fell into a comfortable silence, as the girl from the YouTube video continued her instructions and advice, the noirette haired girl was carefully examining her handiwork, tugging here and there to make sure everything was settled well enough. The idea was that it was able to withstand at least the first dance. If Marinette had to be honest, Alya's hair was turning out great. Now she just had to make sure that…

"I think Nino wanted to ask me to go with him" Alya blurted out and Marinette's eyes widened, this was… new.

"How do you know that?"

"I just do. He was being really weird and then just… changed the topic"

Marinette officially paused the video. What… had she missed? "Did you want him to ask you?" she probed gently; sure, she had been kind of lost in her own Chat Noir/Adrien daze, but she had liked to think that she was balancing things nicely. Apparently not.

"I think so. I don't know. Maybe" Alya pursued her lips, the thing was, that while Alya thought that she did like him, their interactions had always had a certain ease to them, unlike what she'd witnessed firsthand with Marinette. And sometime she couldn't help but wonder whether she just didn't work that way. Sure, she did hope that she'd find someone to fall head over heels for, but somehow it had yet to happen in the world stopping way it seemed to happen to her best friend. "It's just… we've always been close, you know?" They had known each other since they were children, same with Marinette, but somehow the other two had a different bond. "So I've never really been awkward around him. So I don't really know what that means" She glanced at Marinette, who shrugged a little.

"What are you going to do?" Marinette asked.

"Well," Alya said, her eyes glancing to where the two dresses were hanging "With that dress you made, I'm sure he's going to wish he did"

The ball had already started an Adrien was already with Nino in the ballroom, cheerfully catching up with his best friend as he glanced at the door every now and then. Marinette had still not arrived. Now if he had looked at his friend, who was eyeing his phone every now and then, he would have had a much better 'estimated time of arrival on that.

After a while the two girls entered the ballroom, arm in arm, "Mari" Alya said, "I love this" and Marinette couldn't help but feel proud at her work. Sure, she might have stayed up longer than she should have, and yes, she was a little sleep deprived this past month. But the dress looked just as she had imagined it, and she couldn't be any prouder. The dark storm blue complimented both her hair and complexion, and the silk chiffon flowed beautifully with every step the girl took. After some talking with Alya, and several reviews of the design, they had settled with a flattering V neckline, which tied in a faux bow on her right shoulder. The flowing skirt reached the floor, and her waist was accentuated with a small belt in a bright satin, with some embroidered beads that shimmered in the light.

"We should get something to drink" She said, as she looked around, supposedly looking for the refreshments bar. Of course, what she was looking for was the general location of her boyfriend. She spotted him easily; years of glancing around for him had kind of given her atalent when it came to that. And it seemed that he was a fan of her look as well, judging by the sudden widening of his eyes once he'd seen her. "Hi" she mouthed, one of the corners of her lips quirking in a small smile. Sure, she had worked really hard on this (her index finger had been stuck so many times she was sure she'd lost all feeling on it).but the look on his face was a good reward.

"Guh" He was speechless. Her dress was simple, but most definitely not ordinary. She looked… absolutely radiant, her hair for once was down, wavy and free, and styled more to the side, pinned back with a flowery pin behind her right ear. The dress' fabric was a dark rich deep shade of red; a tad darker than the shade he was used on seeing on her as Ladybug. The dress was strapless, and the silhouette was formfitting enough that it accentuated her small waist and the tight fit continued right until a little past her hips, where it began flaring down until the reach the floor; the fabric swishing around gently as she moved. Her neck was bare, but just beside the bodice of the dress, began a delicate red embroidery that crossed or the way to her left shoulder, looking like tiny jewels adorning her left collarbone and shoulder.

He shouldn't find it so enticing; he saw her in a catsuit almost on a daily basis, for crying out loud.

But before he could walk towards her, he was surprised by a flurry of pink silk tweed and blonde hair that quickly attached to his neck.

"Aadrien!" the overtly saccharine voice of Chloé Bourgouise just confirmed who he knew was the source of the attack. "You look absolutely wonderful tonight!"

"Uh, Hey Chloe" he said, shifting uncomfortably as he did his best to detach her arms from around his neck, and giving his friend a pained glance. Nino raised his hands up in defeat; fully aware that there was nothing he could possibly do about this and merely took a step back.

"I'm just going to go…" he pointed in the general direction of where Alya and Marinette had gone off to; but at the pleading look in Adrien's face, he had a change of heart "Fine…." he sighed as he backed away from the scene to wait for the moment that the blond managed to send Chloe on her way.

The thing about Chloe was that she was not a person to hear the word "no" very often, and despite everything, Adrien hated being rude, even if Chloe wrote the book on rudeness; but right now, the blonde was the cause that his girlfriend was clearly keeping her distance right now, and he wanted to solve that.

Chloe was dressed in a very expensive looking pink ball gown; a strapless number with an asymmetric bodice and folds on the front; the skirt was full; which meant that most students created a security area around the girl, knowing that stepping on it would set off the blonde's rage.

"I still don't know why we didn't come here together" She said, lacing her arm with his in a clear attempt to at least make it seem that they'd be together.

Detaching from Chloe was a herculean task. The blonde's movements were fluid and casual as she continuously imposed her company on him. "Uh Chloe, I'm… excuse me for a second" he said, trying to turn away from the blonde girl, but that was almost impossible to do.

"We have to dance later" she said, fingers attaching themselves to the lapel on his jacket. "We are the best looking people in this place you know. Adrien disagreed with her on that point, but he just needed to get away from her without Chloe causing a scene.

"Ummm… right" he muttered, squirming away "excuse me" he said, finally managing to squirm away from the grabby blonde, and heading towards where Nino was.

Marinette, however, was not happy. Not that she didn't trust Adrien, since she did completely, but come on, Chloe was the absolute bane of her existence. Still… she would not make a scene either, so she gritted her teeth and carried on with her evening. He was clearly trying to get away from her, and she would meet up with him soon. Of course she had forgotten to account for Chloe freaking Bourgeois in their 'Let's just attend separately' plan. Chloe would definitely seize the chance to make a move on the blond model. And since their relationship was still a secret… she just had to grin and bear it.

And of course, somewhere during her moment of silent rage, she'd found she'd lost Alya in the crowd. Maybe she'd found Nino? She refused to turn towards where she'd last seen Chloe, lest she started getting angryagain. Figuring she needed to regroup and cool down, she decided that she needed to check on Tikki, to give the little kwami a chance to move around a little bit before being locked back inside the purse. Sure, it was bigger than her usual, and it was mostly for Tikki's benefit, but she cared about the kwami enough to care about her comfort.

She figured she needed a minute to regroup, so she decided to find a bathroom or somewhere emptier to check on Tikki, and give the little kwami a chance to move around a little bit. Marinette had almost made it through the door when she heard someone speak to her.

"Hello there!"

Huh? Marinette turned around to find herself facing two older students. "Hey…" she said, recognizing the students as two upperclassmen. One of them was tall, dark haired, and objectively speaking, quite handsome. The other was blond, good-looking as well, taller than her, but not quite as tall as his friend, but stockier. He probably did some sport requiring a lot of strength training. She was sure they two went to their Lycée. She just didn't know their names, having never interacted with them before.

"You're… Marianne, right?" And clearly they didn't know her name either.

"Marinette" she corrected, not quite sure what was happening here "… I don't know your names" she confessed. No reason to lie about it.

That didn't faze them in the slightest. "Oh, I'm Émile" the dark haired one said, "and my friend here is Philippe" The aforementioned Philippe, nodded his head, smiling at Marinette "We were just wondering, how is it that a pretty lady like you came all alone to the party."

"I didn't" she said "I came with my best friend," unfortunately she couldn't find Alya to bail her out smoothly out of this situation. First Chloe throwing herself at Adrien and now these two creeping on her. Ugh. It was far too early for all of this.

"Well" Émile said, reaching for her hand and brushing his lips on the back of her hands. "I can keep you company until she gets back" he said "Or we could go on the dancefloor while she appears…" he suggested, giving a slight tug on her arm.

Blue eyes widened slightly… Alright then, this was a bitmuch. "Um… Thank you" Marinette said, retrieving her hand back, her back tensed as she tried to keep her distance "I think I'll just go and get something to drink." She said, immediately regretting her choice for an excuse.

"Well I can go get something to drink and meet you here beautiful" he offered, winking at her, which was a gesture she realized she did not appreciate from anyone other than Adrien and well… Chat; which was all the same.

"Oh, no don't…" she began, but they clearly didn't care about what she had to say, so she sighed, rolled her eyes and turned to walk away. She'd vent to Tikki in a bit.

Emile and Phillipe looked at each other and the blond nudged his friend, as he laughed "Dude. What are theyfeeding these girls" the blond muttered, snickering as they looked at Marinette's retreating figure. "The girls in our grade do not look like that"

The other one, Émile, laughed "that's the best part of these things" he said "a lot of these girls are all romance starved. It's easy pickings, or at least a moment to lay the groundwork for more,"

"She seems shy though"

"You know what they say about the shy ones…"

Meanwhile, Alya had caught up with Nino and Adrien and was currently looking at what could possibly become a double homicide. While Alya was definitely disgusted, (because seriously, why were some guys that gross?). She was glad that Marinette had definitely noticed just howcreepy they were, which was obviously been why she'd left them. What she had thankfully missed was the lewd gestures and comments they had made behind her back.

And if Alya was disgusted, Adrien was positively seething with fury. The blond jaw was locked as he stared daggers at the two. Alya glanced at Nino, a worried look in her eyes. They had to distract the blond or else this whole evening would end before it actually began.

"Adrien" Nino warned, nudging at his friend's arm. Adrien picking a fight with either or both of them would do no good to anyone. Alya joined in, carefully placing a hand on his arm as Nino added "They're just dicks, dude. It's not worth it"

The blond took a deep breath and without another word, walked away and into the people leaving his two friends behind and not quite sure what to do. "This could be bad" Alya said, gripping Nino's arm as they watched the scene unfold. Clearly, there was no steering Adrien away from what he'd set out to do. Surprisingly, walked right past the two creeps (though he would later admit that it took a lot of restraint on his part), ignoring how they recognized him with an "hey, that's the model kid!" and just went towards Marinette, who turned around with an annoyed look on her face, her expression relaxing when she saw it was Adrien.

"Hey" she said, warmly smiling up at him before noticing the look on his face "Whats wr…" she was not able to finish her sentence, because Adrien simply reached for her, one hand going to her waist, pulling her to him swiftly, as his other hand reached to cup her face as he kissed her. Why? Because he could, damn it.

His lips were firm and insistent but she couldn't help but melt against him, as usual. She had not seen this coming. Sure, they had agreed that they were going to tell their friends and all that, and that they weren't going to hide anymore; but… she had not expected him to just go for her. His hand was firm on her waist and it was pretty nice. Almost enough to fix her previous bad mood at the lousy start the evening had had. It was a short kiss, by their current standards but he was sure that it got the point across. He would have turned around to see whether the two idiots got the message (off limits); but he was sure they were watching.

At the slightly dazed and questioning look on her face, he said "Can we talk outside?" At her nod, he placed his hand on her waist and the two of them left the ballroom, for the somewhat empty hallway outside of one of the doors.

The door closed behind them and Marinette turned towards her boyfriend, one eyebrow raised in silent question, "those two…" he began, slightly more at peace now, but still very annoyed.

Ah. That. "Adrien… They were idiots, it was obvious" She sighed in annoyance, "I handled it" Honestly it wasn't the first time, someone had acted like an idiot around her. There was even a guy who had been akumatizedbecause of it. It came with the territory, they supposed, public figures and all that. It was however, the first time attention like that was directed toMarinette. "You know I can take care of myself" Even if they had tried something on her… it would have not gotten very far.

"I know that. And that's not really it…" he rubbed his face, continuing when he saw the look on his girlfriend's face. "I know can handle yourself but… you didn't see it" He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, still annoyed. "The things they were saying, like you were easy prey for them…" She was miles above their league. They weren't fit to look at her, much less talk. Added that to the flurry of frustration he had felt earlier… it had been a recipe for disaster. She looked absolutely beautiful and he'd yet to tell her that… all because a couple of morons had ruined the start of what should have been a nice evening. "I… all I wanted when I saw you was just go up to you and kiss you and then…"

Yes. Chloe and the two morons. "Adrien they're creepy. I don't think that knowing that I had a boyfriend would have stopped them from saying something gross."

Adrien sighed. She had a point there.

She placed her hands on the side of his face "You don't have to jealous…" she pointed. "Things like this will keep on happening. You model. You have fangirls who will probably not be very nice about my existance" As Chat and and as Adrien "I can't just go over and plant one on you whenever I get jealous"

"You could" he offered, earning himself a swat on his chest. "I know Chloe being… Chloe annoyed you" he said, he had seen her walk away after all, and the look on her face read so clearly 'I am counting to one thousand to calm down'. He had learnt to read her face while the mask was on. Of course he could understand it once it was off. The girl gritted her teeth slightly, and Adrien took it a small victory. "You were jealous too" he grinned, causing Marinette to square her shoulders and shake her head in denial.

"I was not!" she said "I was annoyed. There's a difference" And she would dig her heels in defense of that point.

He did enjoy the idea of her jealousy a little; and to be honest, he hoped that Chloe would also take the hint once she saw he was also quite unavailable. But yes, he had to concede something here too "And fine, I was jealous" he conceded and the admission earned him a smile as her arms slide up his chest to rest on his shoulders.

She stepped on her toes to kiss him softly; "you don't have to mark me in front of other people, you know" she told him, her hands softly stroking the back of his neck "I'm with you" She smiled at him, as he leaned and rested his forehead against her, enjoying the closeness for a second, before she remembered what else she had to add to this conversation. "Also, kiss me again just to prove a point to other people and I swear…"

He gave her a sheepish smile. "Point taken". This was not the time to mention that it was a pretty good kiss, if he did say so himself.

"We should probably go back" Marinette said, beginning to turn around towards the door. There wasn't many people around, which meant that they were about to officially start the party and the dancefloor too.

"Yeah" he said, holding on to her hand as she began to walk towards the door, tugging on it slightly; at her questioning look, he lifted their hands over her head and lead her into a twirl; which she did with an amused laugh. He grinned at her, pulling her back towards him again.

"Silly cat" she mouthed at him.

"You look beautiful" he said, his tone honest; and she couldn't help the bashful look that appeared on her face "I just… needed to say that before we go back to the crazy people in there" He looked at her, admiring the way her blush tinged her cheeks pink, before pulling her closer for another kiss.

He was, after all, pretty sure he couldn't get away with kissing her like he wanted once they were inside

There wasn't just a couple of disappointed creeps; but two other teenagers who had their own particular reaction to the very, very spontaneous display of attention. Nino and Alya were staring at the door that had just closed blinking in absolute disbelief. "Did hejust…?" Alya said "He totally did… oh my God" Her mind was currently torn between congratulating Marinette and murdering her for clearly hiding this

"did you know about this?" asked Nino, looking at Alya who simply shook her head, before a very determined look lit up her face "What are you thinking?" he asked her before his hand was seized by the feisty redhead and dragged towards the door that the couple had just slipped through. Now, he wanted to poke fun at Adrien and all that, but he wasn't sure he wanted to see whatever was going on behind that door.

"Come on!" said Alya. tugging along his hand as they got to the door. "I'm getting answers"