He was late.

This Mr Prince Charming. This so called perfect guy that was so witty and good-looking that he had swept HIS Princess and Lady off her feet. This epitome of perfection was now currently two hours late and Marinette was distinctively getting agitated by it.

Chat Noir should know.

He could spot his Lady steadily growing irritated a mile away as she shifted from foot to foot. Her puzzled frown deepened into a scowl as she kept checking her phone.

He hadn't even called her!

This so called perfect prince couldn't even be bothered to call her to let her know he was going to be late or couldn't make it.

Chat hated him even more than he did two seconds ago.

When Adrien and Marinette had discovered each other's identities several months ago, it had been an excruciatingly long process to get to a point where Adrien could ask Marinette out and be semi-confident that the answer would be yes. Weeks of agonisingly awkward moments and smothering silences before they finally fell into a comfortable routine of banter, light flirtation, and genuine, warm, moments that were forever etched into his heart.

Two days ago Adrien finally got the nerve to ask Marinette out to the cinema….and she had said yes!

And then last night she announced she was going on a date with the most perfect guy.

It took all of superhero reflexes and modelling grace to not fall off the ledge he had been balancing on at that. It then took years of dealing with his father to help him keep from losing his self-control and hunting this damn sneaky git to hang upside down on the Eiffel Tower or destroy his house or something…

"A date?!" He yelped. "And who exactly is worthy enough to take Your Bug-ness out on a date, hmm?"

"Oh trust me," Ladybug said huskily, "he is the most perfect guy. A regular Prince Charming."

"Purr-fect, you say?" he managed to tease though he certainly had to choke it out from all the bile that suddenly filled his mouth. "And what exactly makes this guy so purr-fect, hmm?"

"Well," Ladybug rolled her eyes, "not his sense of humour that's for sure!"

"Oh," he smirked smugly, "this guy isn't a funny or witty as meow?"

"You two are on the same incredibly low level," Ladybug smiled, if he hadn't known better about this other guy he would say it was almost flirtatious, "you're both adorkable."

Chat gritted his teeth at the fact this guy was able to get HIS Lady to pun without hesitation while he struggled in vain to get her smile at majority of his own. "Well that is a shame his wit is nothing to recommend him by," he said calmly, "such a pity that he has nothing else to rely on."

"Oh I don't know," Ladybug said softly, "he's very beautiful. He could be a model, you know?"

"Pfft!" Chat snorted dismissively. "What's looks got to do with anything? He could be pretty but that's nothing without an actual purr-sonality."

"And he's kind," Ladybug added as her eyes shined with admiration while they bored into his face. It was like a punch in the gut to see her look so in love at him while talking about another guy. "The sweetest guy you'll ever meet. He's very honest and highly principled, and he does these incredible brave, selfless, things, and he so smart!"

Chat nodded and was able to say something witty and scathing at the same time to keep the banter going for the rest of the night patrol. He felt lost and confused that Ladybug could talk about another guy to him in such a teasing and flirty manner, that she managed to find another guy without him noticing, that she had forgotten their cinema date in favour of this other guy…

…it was then he decided to find out exactly who this perfect Prince Charming was to have swept his Princess off her feet without him noticing.

Which was how Chat ended up on the rooftops opposite the local cinema. He had started outside of the bakery as he dogged (catted?) Marinette's every step since she left for her date. It had now been two whole hours of him lying on his stomach, bored, as the arsehole didn't have the nerve to even show up!

Marinette tried to call the guy for the fifth time in the last half an hour and as she did she looked up heavenwards and their eyes met.

Chat's eyes widened in fear as Marinette's blazing blue ones narrowed in on him.

He ducked down quickly so he was pressed against the cold, gritty, grey surface and prayed desperately that she hadn't noticed him.

No such luck.

As soon as he slowly peered up to see if Marinette hadn't noticed him he realised that she had vanished altogether. He scrambled quickly to his knees just as Ladybug appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him into a headlock.

"Ah My Lady!" he wheezed out. "What an unexpected pleasure to meet you here."

"Yes," Ladybug said curtly as she released him so she could stand be both hands on her hips. Her beautiful blue eyes burned with fury and hurt as she glared down at him. "Want to explain why you are up here instead of where you're supposed to be?"

"I….well….you see…" he stammered as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "I….erm….just happened to be in the neighbourhood?"

Ladybug blinked at that. "What?" she said bewilderedly. "You got here and decided to hang out on the roof?!"

"All right!" he snapped unable to stand the scrutiny. He just couldn't lie to her especially when she was looking at him with those big, distracting, blue eyes. Man, they were really blue! "I confess! I came to spy on you on your date to see what's so perfect about this guy, happy?!"

He closed his eyes and braced himself for the sudden onslaught of the temper that was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He expected a long, loud, lecture couple with being stabbed repeatedly in the chest by strong finger before she abandoned him in a huff to never speak to him again…..

…..instead he got utter silence and when he reluctantly opened his eyes he is met with an extremely baffled expression.

"I…." Ladybug blinked again and shook her head, "I….Adrien, did you get your schedule from Nathalie today?"

"No," he replied, "today is my day off, the first time in months, which was why we were going to go to the….oh," he said slowly as realisation sank into him, "Oooooooooooooooh!" he groaned as he clutched his head and sank onto the floor in despair. "I'm a terrible person!"

"No, no you're not!" Ladybug said reassuringly as she knelt beside him. "You've just taken my place as the scatter-brained one in this partnership today. I'm sure I'll do something five times worse later this week and things will go back to normal."

"I just can't believe it's our first date and I stood you up to spy on our first date!"

"Pfft!" Ladybug slapped a hand over her mouth to smother her giggles. "Well," she said once she managed to compose herself somewhat. Her big, wide, grin indicated it wasn't very much. "When you put it like that it does sound incredibly stupid. What on earth made you think I was going out with someone else?"

"You were talking about me like I was some other guy last night," Chat mumbled, utterly embarrassed. He had not doubt that his face matched Ladybug's suit perfectly with his black mask over his scarlet red cheeks. "I just sort of jumped to conclusions."

"The kind, smart, brave guy with model-worthy looks but terrible sense of humour?" Ladybug's eyes twinkled. "Who else could that be but you?"

"I don't know!" he wailed. "I guess I'm just not used to you liking me!"

Between Ladybug's firm, quick, rejections and Marinette running away from Adrien, and all the awkwardness post reveal, it was actually really hard for him to believe that she could ever like him romantically.

"Oh Kitty!" Ladybug breathed out as she wrapped her arms round him. Her lips grazed a lock of hair against his temple which sent jolts of electricity fizzing through the entirety of his body. "I've always only ever liked you. It's why I keep making a fool of myself."

"Well today I'm the one that made a fool of myself," he said sheepishly, "I've completely ruined our first date."

"You were a bit of a green-eyed Kitty monster," Ladybug agreed, "but you haven't ruined our first date. So we've missed the movie," she shrugged in such a casual, easy-going manner, that she could have only ever picked it up from Alya, "so what? We can still go and get ice cream or something."

He smiled at that. "I would like that," he said shyly.

"Well then," Ladybug stood up as she offered her hand to him, "let's go and get some ice cream then."

As soon as they landed safely into the dingy, dank, alleyway they both dropped their transformations. Tiki gave Adrien a sweet, polite, greeting before she zipped into Marinette's bag without hesitation. Plagg, however…

….well, Plagg laughed.

A lot.

Hysterically.

And obnoxiously and loudly.

"You could have told me that it was me Marinette was going out with today!" Adrien scowled as he tried to take a swipe at Plagg. "I've made a right prat out of myself!"

"Kid, I'm your Kwami not your mother," Plagg snickered, "you should learn to manage your own timetable without your father's assistant reminding you every morning. You have a phone, don't you? It comes with that annoying reminder system thing, use that!"

"I will!" Adrien said as he pulled out his phone. "And the first thing I'm going to do is remind myself to NOT buy you any camembert." Plagg protested nosily but Adrien ignored him (which he is sure to regret at much later date when Plagg avenges his precious cheese) in favour to see all the text messages and missed phone calls he received from Marinette. "Twenty three texts and nine missed calls, Princess, I'm beginning to think you were worried," he smirked his best Chat Noir smirk.

"Oh!" Marinette flushed a bright pink. "Erm, yeah," she smiled sheepishly, "you might, erm, wanna delete those without listening to them. I might have….kinda….lost my temper near the end..?"

"Oh," Adrien grinned as he tapped in the number to access his voicemail, "now this I have got to hear."

"What!" Marinette gasped, outraged. "Adrien, No!"

"Oh come on, My Lady," Adrien backed away quickly as he held his phone out from Marinette's reach, "fair is fair, you got to see me make a complete prat of myself, it's only fair if I got to hear your potty mouth."

Marinette lunged for his phone but Adrien dodged her quickly and made a dash for it down the street as he hastily put his phone up to his ear.

He might have spoiled their original plans but in the end Adrien felt they managed to salvage it. After all he did get Marinette to chase him all over the park before they finally had that ice cream and their date ended on a very satisfactory note with a teasing kiss.