"I love you," they said together.

Adrien lent forwards, pressing his forehead tenderly against Marinette's. They breathed in sync for a moment before she pulled away and opened her mouth. She felt like she needed to say or do something more, to cement this moment perfectly in her mind forever.

Adrien looked like he wanted to do the same before his eyes drifted to the left of her, over her shoulder. Slowly his expression shifted to one of incredulity.

"Wow, Marinette, I'm so stupid," Adrien marvelled as he threw a hand up to his forehead. Marinette frowned, tilting her head. That wasn't exactly the response she was expecting when they'd just announced their love for each other.

"Kitty, you're going to have to give me an explanation for that statement, because you honestly could be referring to multiple times in the past," Marinette teased. Adrien just shook his head, his eyes averted from her, still, and looking at the wall behind her. Marinette frowned and turned to follow his gaze.

"What?" she asked, searching the walls for whatever had him facepalming.

"I'm dumb. So dumb. I can't believe it. You've had a collage of my face on your walls every time I've been here, and I just always assumed it was because you were into fashion!" Adrien groaned. Marinette's eyes widened in horror and her stomach did a little flip.

"Oh no," she choked, pressing her hands to her cheeks in preparation to cover the blush she knew was surely to follow.

"But obviously it was because you liked me! Oh god, I could have saved myself so much angst!" Adrien exclaimed, throwing his hands up dramatically, in exasperation.

"Oh no!" Marinette repeated, knowing what would come next in Adrien's chain of thought.

"Hang on," yup, there it was, "you have a collage of my face on your walls! Ha ha! Is it fair to say someone is a little… obsessed?" Adrien smirked like the cat who got the cream, and he looked so much like Chat Noir even without his mask that it made Marinette wonder how she didn't see it before.

"God, I can't believe I've had your dorky face up on my wall all year!" Marinette stated, eyebrows raised, incredulous but still healthily flushed.

"All year!? How long have you been obsessed with me, princess? It's OK, you can tell me the truth," Adrien was still smirking his Chat-like smirk and it made Marinette's face burn with embarrassment and annoyance.

"Only since you lent her your umbrella that time!" chimed Tikki from nearby. Marinette's eyes bugged at this before she gasped out a scandalised 'Tikki!'.

"That long? Wow, Marinette, you sure are devoted," laughed Adrien, eyes lit with humour. Marinette groaned, annoyed at the silly cat but still embarrassed.

"I think this is the second most embarrassing moment of my life," Marinette moaned, finally pulling her hands away from her glowing cheeks.

"Second most? What was the first?" Adrien asked, tilting his head curiously. The expression he wore with his head cocked to the side was so Chat Noir that Marinette smiled, despite herself. And then she realised what he had asked and cringed at herself instead.

"Nope. There's absolutely no way I can tell you that," Marinette nodded firmly. She recounted in her head that awful voicemail message she had sent to his phone. 'Hotstuff'. Oh god. Marinette groaned and covered her eyes, as if that would shield her from the shame in her own head.

"Was it that voicemail message, Marinette?" Tikki's cheeky voice swam up from down below. Her red and black spotted face peeked up at her, eyes full of mirth. Marinette whipped her hands from her face to glare at Tikki in equal parts horror and betrayal. Plagg was obviously a bad influence.

"No Tikki! Shh!" Marinette gestured desperately as she saw one of Adrien's eyebrows arch up in humour.

"Oh, what voicemail message would this be?" Adrien asked, his eyes flicking away from Tikki and back to Marinette. Marinette who was now silently pleading at Tikki and shaking her head. Tikki giggled.

"I actually think he has a right to know, Mari. I mean, it does involve him. And there was also a crime involved," Tikki mused.

"Ooh a crime, your chosen is much more fun than mine, Tikki," Plagg remarked while Marinette dramatically fell back on her bed, defeated.

"It involves me? And what do you mean a crime, Tikki?" Adrien's face was a picture of curiosity.

"No please. Just kill me now," Marinette wailed, pulling a pillow on her face to hide. She was hoping to suffocate to death at this point. But suddenly the pillow was yanked away and the smiling face of Adrien was above her.

"What does she mean it involves me, Marinette?" His eyes were crinkled as he smirked at her. Marinette cringed again but figured she might as well tell the story herself so she could make it less… embarrassing… if that was possible.

"Fine. I'll tell you. But just so you know, it might kill me in the process," Marinette huffed, sending a bitter sulky look to Tikki who just smiled innocently.

"I wanted to casually ask you to go to the cinema, you know, to watch a film," Marinette nervously began. Adrien's eyes lit up at this information.

"Yes, Marinette, that is generally what happens at a cinema," Adrien laughed, Marinette pushed his shoulder with her foot, but he caught it and tickled it instead. Marinette let out an undignified squawk, nearly kicking him in the face to pull her foot away. Adrien just grinned at her, fondly, and not apologetically at all.

"Alright, no more smart tricks or comments from you, Kitty, or I won't tell," Marinette grumbled and Adrien straightened his smiling face into one of seriousness.

"Anyway. I couldn't even do that properly because I was so nervous around you because I liked you so much. So, I decided to do it over the phone because I thought that it would be… less awkward… yeah so, I rushed it. It was so awkward! And I ended up throwing my phone across the room in a blind panic," Marinette continued, but Adrien interrupted with a laugh, thinking it was over. Marinette sighed and shook her head; if he only knew.

"Alya was there for moral support, and she gave me this look that told me how useless I was being. And… then I might have said some embarrassing and incriminating things… and then I realised my phone was still recording the message… and then… it got sent to your phone," Marinette finished. Adrien's eyes widened.

"What? I never got a message from you!" Adrien exclaimed. Marinette grimaced and couldn't bring herself to say any more.

"Oh!" Plagg said after a moment, drawing their eyes to him.

"I remember you got a message once when you were fencing. And you never checked it afterwards. I thought that was strange since you're such a loser you always pounce on any and all human contact," Plagg explained with a smirk at Adrien's offended squawk.

"But I never saw it," Adrien repeated, looking back to Marinette who was just silently shaking her head. His green eyes then moved onto Tikki who was smiling angelically.

"No, you didn't, because Marinette broke in to your locker in the boy's changing rooms and stole your phone," Tikki explained and Marinette basically died of shame. She could practically feel her soul depart from her body and try to escape this nightmare.

"You what!?" Plagg and Adrien both gasped simultaneously. Plagg looked impressed while Adrien looked astonished. Marinette laughed whilst wincing.

"I remember that! When I thought I lost it and then I found it in my bag?" Adrien frowned as he thought back.

"Yup. That was me. I shoved it back in your bag in class, after deleting it. And I would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling kwami," Marinette scowled at Tikki who laughed and flew over to hug her. Marinette sulked and stuck out her bottom lip but accepted the hug anyway.

"Wait, that was why you didn't show up for the statue unveiling too, wasn't it?" Adrien theorised, barking out a laugh. Marinette winced and nodded, making Adrien grin before a thought seemed to dawn on him.

He pulled out his phone from his pocket and furiously began tapping on the screen, intense concentration on his face. Marinette panicked.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a squeak.

"Looking at the deleted messages," Adrien smirked but carried on looking.

"Now when was it exactly? 8 months ago?" Plagg theorised, Adrien's partner in crime. Marinette could swear she felt a tear reach her eye as Adrien's face lit up in triumph.

"Aha! Got it!" he exclaimed while Plagg cheered and danced around.

"NO! Don't you dare play that recording, Adrien Agreste!" Marinette lunged for the phone but Adrien easily evaded her. Marinette cursed tall people and their long arms. She also cursed Adrien right then because he was smirking at her.

"Nope, princess, you aren't going to steal my phone again," Adrien said with a wide grin, whilst Plagg snickered behind him.

"Tikki! This is your fault!" Marinette sulked again, folding her arms petulantly. Tikki had the conscience enough to look a little sheepish. Maybe Marinette would forgive her. Maybe.

Adrien played the message, Plagg crowding around the phone to listen. Suddenly Marinette didn't really want to forgive Tikki anymore. Her recorded voice sounded from the phone, and oh, it was just as awkward as she remembered. Adrien's face was almost gleeful as he listened to it.

"Aww you're so cute Marinette. I don't think you were even that bad," Adrien said after the initial awkward date request. Marinette blushed and kept on pouting, knowing it was only going to get worse from there.

Adrien's eyes widened as he heard the message continued, hearing Alya's exasperate sigh in the background. Then Marinette held her breath as the most embarrassing point arrived.

"What? What did you expect me to say? 'Hey, hot stuff, this is Marinette. I'd ask you on a date to a movie, but I've got such a crazy crush on you that the only way I can talk to you without foaming at the mouth is over this stupid phone.'" Marinette shielded her face as she heard her voice. Oh god, it was even worse than she remembered it being. Adrien's eyebrows were basically shot up to his hairline, and he was silently mouthing 'hot stuff?'. Then both he and Plagg burst into raucous laughter. Marinette could feel her soul ascend into the sky.

"Marinette? Marinette, hey." Adrien's voice sounded softer and closer to her, but she refused to move her hands to check. She'd honestly need about a week to recover from that ordeal.

"Marinette," Adrien whispered, gently prising her hands from her face. Marinette reluctantly opened her eyes to find Adrien's face close to her own. He wasn't laughing at her anymore. In fact, he was smiling sweetly, a light blush on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry for laughing. I've done some pretty horrific things too you know," Adrien consoled her, his expression one of kindness. Marinette felt her heart flutter as she remembered his kind smile that day in the rain.

"Yeah, you kinda have," Marinette whispered with a small smile. Adrien cringed slightly and broke eye contact with her.

"But I love you anyway," Marinette continued as Adrien began reliving some embarrassing moments of his own in his head. Adrien looked back at her at her words.
Marinette couldn't resist that beautiful smile. She leaned in to quickly kiss him.
And when she pulled away, she was pleased to note that he was blushing more than her. In fact, he looked like a blond tomato.

"Oh my gosh! I just kissed Ladybug!" he gasped, one of his hands gently touching his lips in amazement.

"Well, to be 100% accurate, Ladybug kissed you," Marinette grinned at him. The look of awe he gave her then made her forget any embarrassment she had.

And sat there in her room, with the boy she loved in front of her and their two kwamis watching on happily, Marinette knew that everything would be ok.

A/N hi, so this is chapter two. This is basically just the continuation of the same scene, but I do have ideas to sort of have a classmates reaction chapter too maybe. If you guys liked this and want to see more, feel free to let me know. :)