He felt weird.

Really, really weird.

It wasn't her smile or anything. In fact, her smile was the one thing that always made his day, even before he found out who she really was. It was just so...contagious. It was hard not to smile or laugh when she did, the whole class could (and would) back him up on that statement...well, maybe minus Chloé.

Even Lila, who had initially tried to stay away from the class president because she reminded her so much of Ladybug (jeez, he wondered why) but had eventually given up and had- surprisingly enough -joined Alya in being one of the most protective people of Marinette in the class.

Honestly, the blond boy had always had a soft spot for the kind girl, even if she never managed to form a coherent sentence around him. He felt...protective of her, it was almost an instinctual feeling, almost as if he needed to make sure she was safe at all costs. For some reason, the intensity of it almost matched the protectiveness he felt for Ladybug, but he knew the reason for that.

His need to protect his classmate had confused the boy at first, he didn't understand why he was being so strange about it. He didn't know if it had always been there or if it had started since the Evillustrator incident, but it drove him crazy. And it had leaked through his behavior as Chat Noir.

While Ladybug (oddly enough) never seemed to be around when Marinette was, she always seemed to know what he'd been doing; and she wasn't above teasing him relentlessly about the fact that he always made a big fuss about making sure that the blue eyed girl was out of the way before he did anything else. With The Gamer he had a fairly good reason, since Max was targeting her after all.

But then again, he didn't really have to carry her that far away. He blamed it on him being paranoid though. She was a civilian and he needed to be certain of her safety, especially when Max had proved to be quite dangerous. It had nothing to do with his sudden urge to take her as far away as possible.

Neither Plagg, Ladybug, or even himself seemed to believe that though.

When both of them found out who really was behind their partner's masks, the weird sense of protectiveness he had for Marinette had started to make sense a little. Protecting Ladybug was also an instinctual thing, and Plagg had explained that every Chat Noir felt that for his Ladybug; although with Adrien it was ten times stronger because he actually had fallen in love with her. Even out of costume, that feeling stayed, and while he didn't know it at the time, Marinette and Ladybug were the same person, so it was only logical.

But all of that didn't matter at the moment. After all, it wasn't the reason why he was feeling so weird.

No, it was because she was smiling at Nathanaël.

It freaked him out, to say the least.

Marinette was sweet, kind and friendly, that was just her personality and it were some of the reasons why Adrien had ended up falling for her too. His problem didn't lay with the artist either, Nath was a good friend of his, in fact, all of his classmates were close with each other.

Then why on Earth did he feel so uncomfortable every time he saw Marinette and Nathanaël hanging out with each other?

Sure, they had revealed who they were to each other, and yes, they were aware of the other's feelings. But that didn't necessarily mean they were official, let alone a thing. They were just friends, maybe a little closer than before, but still friends. She didn't have to know that his heart was tempted to jump out of his chest whenever she smiled at him. He intended to keep that little detail a secret for a very, very long time.

But still, the way she was sitting beside him, admiring his drawings and commenting on the different outfits he had decided to put on his characters...it made him feel odd. And he didn't like that feeling, not at all.

The awed stare the redheaded boy was watching her with while he clutched his notebook to his chest didn't really do anything to help his classmate with his strange emotions. He could practically see the hearts forming in his eyes while she wasn't looking and he had to force himself to remember that this was Nathanaël and he was way too shy to try anything.

He was openly showing her his drawings though, and everyone knew that he didn't really like to- stop it!

Adrien really needed to try and get rid of these thoughts, it only succeeded in giving him a headache, and seeing as they had a test after break, it wasn't really the best timing.

"Yo," Nino nudged him and he snapped out of his inner thoughts, turning his questioning gaze on his best friend. "You okay, man? You're nearly boiling."

Adrien frowned and fully turned to face him. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that you've been burning a hole into Nath's head and you're clenching your fists."

The young model looked down, surprised to see that he really was clenching his fists. He hadn't been aware of that, he didn't even know why he was doing it. Because again, there was nothing going on between him and Marinette, Nathanaël was just a very close friend of both him and her; and she was just really kind-

"These are amazing, Nath! I really love all the detail you put into Ladybug's suit!"

...He was back to glaring, wasn't he?

"Oh I think I know what's wrong."

Both boys looked up to see Alya walking up to them, a smirk on her face and a glint in her eyes that had Adrien debating if he should run away or not. She was up to something, and he didn't know if he would like it or not.

The blogger stopped in front of them, still smirking as she put her hands on her hips and leaned down slightly so she was at eye-level with the boys sitting on a bench. "Our dear Adrien here, is a little jealous."

As Nino's eyes widened and he tried his best not to start laughing, Adrien's face just flushed as he tried his best to deny it.

"W-what? Alya that doesn't make any sense, what would I even be jealous about?"

"Hmm..." she leaned back and stood straight again, placing her hand on her chin and looking up at the sky as she pretended to think it through. "I don't know, maybe...Marinette hanging out with Nathanaël?" She grinned and he felt the color draining from his face...or was it heating up? If it was, then it most likely matched the aforementioned boy's hair color.

"Never knew you had a thing for Mari, dude," Nino joined in, teasingly nudging his friend with his shoulder as he grinned.

Adrien looked down and stubbornly crossed his arms. "I don't have a 'thing' for her!" He hissed quietly, ignoring the fact that was most likely the biggest lie (aside from his identity) he had ever told. "And I'm not jealous..." he mumbled the last part, almost pouting as he spoke.

That glint returned in Alya's eyes as she heard his last statement. She locked eyes with Nino and smirked. "You sure about that? Then why don't we see for ourselves?"

The boy's green eyes widened and he suddenly felt a bit more alert. "Wait, what?! Alya-"

"Marinette! Could you come here for a second?!"

With speed that he had only managed to use before as Chat, Adrien got up from the bench and quickly dragged the grinning girl away from everyone else. Nino simply watched them go before he shrugged and followed when his friend hissed for him to come too.

To be honest, the blond didn't know where he was taking the two, as long as it wasn't anywhere near the cute class president- damn it!

Marinette's attention shifted from the boy in front of her as she looked up with confusion in her eyes. She was sure that someone just called her name. "You heard that too, right?" She questioned absentmindedly, frowning when she failed to spot anyone.

"Sounded like Alya," the artist confirmed and her frown just deepened. So she hadn't imagined it.

She sighed and went back to what she was doing before. She figured she'd just have to ask her friend later then.

Alright, so Adrien had to admit, he was not proud of himself for doing this; but he just couldn't help it.

Alya had conveniently told him that Marinette and Nath were going into the city after school (Adrien wasn't stupid, he knew damn well that the future journalist was doing this on purpose.) Apparently, the blue eyed girl was running low on ideas for her designs, and when she had told the artist about it; he had offered to take her to his favorite place to go when he didn't have any inspiration; which she gladly accepted.

And while he knew that Alya was just making use of the situation and his...odd feelings, (he refused to believe that he was jealous) he couldn't help but see what they were up to. Even if it was very wrong and he was pretty sure that Ladybug would murder him if she ever found out about this.

He managed to stay perfectly unseen as he followed the two around- that thought alone made him cringe, it sounded like he was stalking her.

The boy managed to endure Marinette's adorable giggles and the shy and somewhat love-filled glances Nathanaël threw her whenever she wasn't looking, and Adrien was actually surprised that he had managed to keep his cool the whole time. Even with Plagg's constant nagging, saying that he should just man up and ask her out instead of doing things like this.

"Honestly, don't you think that this is a little bit pathetic?" The Kwami questioned lazily, seated calmly on his kitten's shoulder.

"Shut up," he shot back a bit bitterly to hide his embarrassment. He was well-aware of how pathetic this was, he didn't need a literal cat to remind him of that fact.

Plagg shrugged and yawned, his eyes drooping already. "Well, wake me up when you're done spying on them, kid."

"I'm not spying on- you know what, never mind." He grumbled, focusing his attention back on his two classmates, his Kwami had already fallen asleep anyway.

But, it wasn't until the red haired boy pulled out his notebook that the model's patience had finally ran out and he snapped.

"H-hey, M-Marinette?" The artist spoke nervously, his face matching the color of his hair as she looked up at him and smiled sweetly. "I-I drew you s-something, I don't know if you'll l-like it," he stated shyly, quickly flipping through the pages of his sketchbook until he found the page he was looking for. He swiftly ripped the page out in one quick movement and handed it to her, the paper facing downwards. "I-if you don't like it you can just tell me and I'll-"

Marinette turned the paper around and her eyes widened at the drawing- no, picture he had drawn. "It's beautiful!" She told him, voice full of excitement as she smiled brightly. It was a picture of herself, and there was so much detail in it that she couldn't help but admire it for a little while longer. He had even done his best in coloring the piece, so much that it looked too realistic to be just a drawing. He might as well have taken a picture of her, she wouldn't have known the difference.

The boy smiled shyly, his hands clasped behind his back and his sketchbook already put back into his schoolbag. There was a faint hint of a blush on his face as he stared at the girl. "I-it's yours, if you want."

Marinette looked up, her gentle smile still on her face. "I love it, Nath, thank you."

Alright that's it, screw being secretive. Even if Ladybug was going to kill him, he wasn't just about to do nothing. He had nine lives anyway.

"Plagg! Claws out!"

Marinette smiled at the picture one more time before looking up at the boy who did his best to make it. "How long did it even take you to do this?" She questioned, completely unaware of the fact that his blush was just deepening the more she talked.

"Well-"

"Princess, I didn't think I'd see you here."

The girl jumped and nearly yelped in surprise, quickly turning around to face the hero standing behind her. "Chat?! What are you-"

Before she could finish talking, the cat-themed hero had grabbed her hand and leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on her palm that had her face heating up and pulling her hand back quickly. "Isn't a knight allowed to see if his princess is okay?" He questioned cheekily, winking at her.

"I-I didn't know you knew Chat Noir," Nathanaël spoke up quietly, and her face flushed even further.

"Neither did I..." she muttered quietly, her eyes narrowing at the boy's odd behavior. Luckily for her, only the cat in question had heard her and he quickly looked away, knowing all too well why she had said that.

When they had found out about each other, they had agreed to keep the interactions between their civilian and hero forms as limited as possible so people wouldn't get suspicious; an agreement he had just carelessly broken.

She kept her mouth shut though, instead, she nervously turned to face her confused and somewhat bewildered classmate as she smiled sheepishly at him. "Yeah, he saved me once," she explained lamely, glaring at her partner as he coughed into his fist to cover up his laugh at the poor excuse. She really needed to work on that one.

He wasn't done though.

"Really, Princess? Just that? You wound me," he swung an arm around her shoulder and her face turned an even darker shade of red as her eyes widened comically.

"Kitty..!" She yelped in surprise, staring at him incredulously.

"She just doesn't want to accept her feelings towards me," he told Nathanaël jokingly, and even if it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, the boy got the hint quickly.

"Right..."

All three of them tensed as a woman suddenly screamed and a child started crying, and Chat wasn't surprised at all when Marinette pushed him away and dragged her classmate off to a saver place as he turned and went to help the woman. The Akuma was already getting closer, so he needed to hurry. Ladybug would show up soon after she had made sure Nathanaël was safe; he'd just have to hold him off until then.

After everything was said and done and the Akuma had been dealt with, Ladybug found her partner sitting alone on a rooftop, just calmly watching the city and completely unaware of the girl walking up behind him.

"So, care to tell me what that was all about?"

The green eyed hero tensed and looked up, sighing when he saw her standing there; her arms crossed and eyebrow raised. He expected her to ask this question, didn't mean he was very thrilled to answer it though, especially when he didn't even know the answer himself.

"I...I don't know," he admitted, looking up at her. "I just felt...weird, which doesn't make sense! I mean, Nath's a close friend of mine, so why am I-"

His partner smirked and placed her hands on her hips, mimicking the pose Alya had made earlier; despite not being there to see it. Her smile wasn't teasing or anything, instead it seemed amused and...was she pleased?

"Chaton, were you by any chance jealous?"

Chat's face turned a deep shade of red, and while he wanted to do nothing more than get up and run away, he made no move to do so. Instead, he stayed in his spot, seated on the edge of the roof as he looked up at her. "N-no, of course not! I have no reason to be!"

Ladybug hummed and walked closer. "Mhmm, then why are you blushing?"

"I-" he froze completely and stopped talking as she leaned down and he felt her lips on his cheek before she pulled away and stood straight again. Her hands stayed on her hips as she straightened up, her eyes a bit lidded as she smiled down at him.

"You really don't need to be jealous, kitty," she spoke softly. "Like you said, you have no reason to be. I mean, you're already mon minou."

The hero smiled, waiting for him to react as he sat there; completely frozen. She could tell that it was going to take a while before he would actually be able to react. She was tempted to make a 'cat got your tongue?' comment but figured it wasn't worth it seeing as he wouldn't be responding anyway. So instead she just told him goodbye as her Miraculous started to beep and walked towards the edge of the roof before jumping off.

If she was honest with herself, she felt a bit smug for getting that reaction out of him. Normally he always managed to act cool or dorky, and knowing that she was the one who actually managed to make him loose his cool was a bit of an ego-boost, although she'd never admit it.

And although she felt a bit bad for Nathanaël, she really couldn't wait to see how Adrien would act tomorrow.

It was bound to be interesting.