Marinette hated blind dates.

Everyone she knew was aware of that, especially Alya since they were best friends. She didn't like the idea of not meeting someone before dating them. She didn't think of it as 'a surprise' or 'thrilling'. She had no idea what to expect for a blind date, and that unnerved her.

So then why was Alya always so insistent on the blind dates? Marinette tried to talk her way out of them, and managed to succeed a few times, but Alya was persistent.

"Come on, girl, you need go out there and get yourself some man candy! At this rate you'll wind up being a crazy cat lady."

"I don't need a man. I'm a single, independent woman who is perfectly content working her way up in the fashion industry. A man would slow me down."

"I know but…I just want you to be happy. I don't want you to be alone. Nino and I are getting serious, and I just-I just don't want to leave you in this shitty apartment by yourself. You deserve to be happy and have someone who loves you."

Marinette couldn't fight back against that. How could she, without sounding like an emotionless bitch? Although, she thought that Alya did have a point. She did want someone to love her and support her fully. While she did want to make her way up in the fashion industry, she definitely didn't want to wake up one day in an empty house, faced with the reality that she'll be alone for the rest of her life.

And so, she agreed to this date.

According to Alya, he worked at the same newspaper outlet as she did. However, instead of writing stories, he wrote and drew for the comics section of the newspaper.

"You both like to draw, so that's something you have in common!" Alya had proclaimed with a wide, excited smile.

She wouldn't tell Marinette what exactly he looked like, though. Only that his name was Nathanael and he would be wearing a green button-up shirt. When Marinette protested, saying that any number of guys could be wearing green button-ups, Alya had merely grinned and wished her luck.

Marinette smoothed the skirt of her long-sleeved red dress as she stared up at the sign of the chosen café. Peering inside, it appeared to not be totally casual, but not completely fancy either. It was perfect for a first date.

She hoped it would be a perfect first date. Even though she agreed to it, she still had her doubts about it. Nonetheless, she took a deep breath and strode inside, her black heels clicking softly behind her as she went.

As she opened the door, she immediately noticed that it was a seat-yourself kind of restaurant. Thus, she had no person to guide her where Nathanael was. She was on her own.

Biting her lip while internally praying she wasn't standing out too much, her eyes roamed over the dining area. She saw many couples, a few families, but none that…oh. Wait a minute.

Her eyes widened as she took in a blond male wearing a green button-up seated by himself, scrolling through something on his phone with his head propped against his fist. Even with his head tilted down, she could still tell that he was extremely handsome. Alya had implied that her date was cute, but damn, that was an understatement. This man could possibly be God's gift to women.

And the best part was that he was her date! She would definitely thank Alya for this later, probably by buying a bottle of wine for her tomorrow. Although, she knew that this man had to prove himself, first. He had the looks, but without a good personality it would never work.

Putting on her best smile, she walked to his table. She couldn't deny the butterflies she felt in her stomach as she went. Never before had she ever been this nervous for a blind date.

He didn't raise his head as she approached, prompting her to say a quiet, "excuse me" to capture his attention.

At once his head snapped up. She saw his eyes partially widen and his lips part, but he didn't speak. He looked surprised to see her…that was a good thing, right?

"Uh, hi," she greeted shyly, raising her hand to wave. She immediately put her hand down once she realized that the gesture probably looked all sorts of awkward. "You're Nathanael, right? I'm Marinette, Alya set us up on a date?"

He didn't reply. Instead he continued to gaze at her, unblinking as he took her in. The silence elicited a nervous shift in her stance, for she had no idea why he wasn't saying anything. Was he shocked? Disgusted? Or maybe this wasn't even Nathanael, and she just needlessly introduced herself to a total stranger?

Her cheeks warmed in embarrassment, since that was likely to be the case since he still refused to say anything. No wonder, he probably didn't expect a random girl to pop up at his table and assume him to be her blind date. She would've been caught off guard too.

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked, trying to make this situation even less humiliating than it already was. "I-you're probably not him. I'll just be going-"

"No!" he protested, raising his voice a little higher than necessary. She abruptly closed her mouth and blinked, honestly shocked that he finally spoke. It seemed he noticed too, because the next time he opened his mouth his words were at more of a normal volume.

"I mean, no, don't go. I'm-um-Nathanael…yes, I'm Nathanael! Sorry about that, it's just that Alya didn't warn me that you would be so beautiful."

A corner of his mouth quirked up in a grin at that, apparently self-satisfied by that line. While Marinette didn't think it was very original, she couldn't help but giggle and roll her eyes anyway. At least he put forth an effort to be charming. Without further prompting, she took her seat with a slight sigh of relief, thankful that she was able to correctly identify her blind date. And on the first try, too! Take that, Alya.

As she sat across from him, no longer feeling so embarrassed, she was able to notice how green his eyes were. Such a vivid, warm green, and they directed solely on her. She was also sure to correct herself from earlier, as she took in the way the shirt snugly fit him around the biceps and the way his golden hair fell in neat swoops over his forehead. He wasn't possibly God's gift to women, he was.

And he worked at the Temps Miraculeux with Alya? With his looks, he should be a model, not working on newspaper comics. Oh well, maybe she should be glad he wasn't one. Then for sure he would've seen a female model and pursued her, instead of sitting here in this café across from someone ordinary like her.

"So," she started, ready to get this date started. She already liked the outside, she was beginning to wonder if she'd like the inside, too. "What's it like working at the Temps Miraculeux?"

Nathanael blinked, almost resembling a deer in the headlights. Her eyebrows slightly drew down in confusion. She thought it was a valid question, a great one to start off with so they could get to know each other. Maybe he didn't agree?

"Oh, the Temps Miraculeux?" he repeated with a shaky chuckle. His eyes darted off to the side before quickly finding her own curious ones again. Why was he so nervous? All she did was ask him about his job?

"It's great! I love working there! It's fun writing the next big scoop and interviewing people." He smiled, only it faltered when Marinette frowned, even more puzzled than before.

"But Alya said you worked on the comics?"

"Oh, I do!" he replied, a little too quickly for what could be deemed as normal. "Yeah, I work on the comics, but sometimes I write the stories, too. What about you? What do you do?"

Well, that was a fast shift in focus. At least he expressed interest in wanting to know her too. There were too many dates she experienced where the guy just prattled on and on about himself without bothering to ask anything about her.

Just as opened her mouth to answer, a waiter came to their table, holding out a menu. That was odd, didn't he see that there were two people at the table? Why wouldn't he have two menus?

"I'm so sorry, sir," the waiter apologized to Nathanael, who strangely looked anxious for some reason. "I didn't know there would be anoth-"

"No, it's fine," Nathanael cut in with an overly large smile. "We weren't waiting long at all. I understand that you might be busy."

The waiter shifted his eyes from Marinette to her date, clearly confused if the crease in between his eyebrows was anything to go by. Nathanael looked up at the waiter, the meaning of the silent look that passed between them lost on Marinette. Was she missing something?

"Of course, sir. Thank you for understanding," the waiter said at last, sending a smile in Marinette's direction. No, it was more like a grin… "I apologize for only bringing out one menu, I shall immediately get another for you."

With that he gave the sole menu in his hands to Marinette then walked off, presumably where the other menus were kept. She raised a questioning eyebrow at Nathanael, wondering what that was all about, but he only shrugged and smiled in response.

She sighed and started to peruse the different dining options listed. Maybe nothing strange was going on at all. Maybe her aversion to blind dates was just making her paranoid. She didn't want to ruin this promising date because of something silly like that.

After the waiter left the second menu to them, she peered back up to Nathanael, whose eyes were currently scanning over the menu. She relented on trying to talk with him more, as she didn't want to distract him from picking out something he wanted, and returned her attention back to her own menu.

It was only a minute later when she gently placed down the menu, ready to order. Coincidentally, Nathanael put his down too, then wordlessly looked back up to Marinette.

This was the perfect time to finish their earlier attempt at conversation.

"You said you wanted to know what job I have?"

He nodded with an inviting smile. "Yeah, tell me all about it."

Her lips stretched into a grin, feeling proud for what she was about to say next. Meanwhile, Nathanael took a sip from his complementary water.

"I'm currently working under a designer at the Gabriel fashion label."

Nathanael's eyes blew wide, the water he was taking a drink of bubbling as he abruptly slammed his glass back down on the table. His mouth opened and out erupted a series of choked, spluttering coughs. Marinette's mouth dropped in horror as she straightened in her chair, trying to determine what was wrong.

"Nathanael? Are you okay? Are you choking?"

She didn't know CPR. Was she going to have to call an ambulance? But all he did was drink some water! Can someone choke from that little bit of water?

"I'm, I'm fine," he rasped, chest heaving as he tried to get his breath back. Around them, other guests paused in their meals and conversations to look at the couple in concern and curiosity. Marinette ignored them all, focusing on the man in front of her who looked anything but fine.

He stared intently at her face, as if he was trying to see something specifically. Apparently he didn't find it, since he slumped back down in his chair not long after.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked skeptically, not missing how his cheeks were flushed. "We can leave if you want."

"No, no that's okay. We don't have to leave," he replied, showing her a reassuring smile. "So, you work for Gabriel, huh? Do you like it there?"

She glanced around the room, satisfied that the other patrons were already beginning to go back to their own businesses. Thus, she deemed it safe enough to resume talking and acting like his coughing fit had never happened. Besides, she has done worse things on dates, so she couldn't judge him for this at all.

"I love it there. I feel like I'm gaining a ton of experience. The designer I'm working under told me she thinks I'll be able to have my own line one day." She beamed, just the thought of those words was enough to get her excited and dreaming for the future.

Nathanael rested his head against his fist, something shining in his green eyes that she couldn't place. His lips were upturned in a grin, one that she would say was just a little bit devious.

"So I assume you've met the owner, right? Gabriel Agreste?"

She nodded, trying her best to smile, although it came out a little forced. "I have. He's…well, he can be nice…sometimes…"

The man was practically an iceberg, but she couldn't tell that to Nathanael, whom she only just met. Besides, he worked for the paper, he could write a gossip article about it or something, and then she could kiss her job good bye.

Nathanael's smirk only stretched wider, new amusement sparkling in his eyes.

"And I hear he has a son working his way to eventually take over the company. What's his name again? Something with an 'A', I think?"

"You mean Adrien?" she supplied through a giggle.

"Yeah, Adrien! What do you think of him?"

Marinette shrugged. "I'm not sure? I've never met him before, so I can't really have an opinion of him."

And that was the truth, she really did never meet the mysterious Adrien Agreste. All she knew was that he started as a model in his father's company in his teen years, eventually retiring when he hit his early 20's. Apparently he mainly worked behind the scenes of the company now, learning all the bits and pieces for when he would ultimately take his father's place. She heard that he did a little modeling here and there, when the scheduled model couldn't make it and they had no time to get another one, and sometimes for holiday-themed shoots.

Alas, she never paid attention to those, so she didn't have an idea of what he looked like now.

"Don't people talk about him at work? Surely you must have something to form an opinion on," Nathanael pressed, oddly eager for some reason. Marinette shrugged it off, assuming it was just because he was thirsty for some work gossip.

"Well, I've heard some of my coworkers call him a sex god-" she had started to say, certain that he couldn't possibly write up an article on just that little detail alone, but stopped when she saw his reaction.

Nathanael's cheeks were deeply flushed, even the tips of his ears were stained red. Marinette paused in her reply to giggle.

"I didn't take you to be the easily flustered type, Nathanael," she teased with a smirk.

He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped as the waiter suddenly reappeared at their table. After giving their orders, he was off again, presumably to another table that might have needed him on his way to the kitchen. In the meantime, Nathanael's skin had time to cool and go back to its regular tanned complexion.

Adrien grinned, having already thought of a suave response to her earlier quip. Honestly, he thought he was doing a good job so far of pretending being this 'Nathanael' guy. Sure, he had a couple slip-ups in the beginning, but after she unknowingly supplied him with enough information, he was able to smoothly recover. He did feel bad about tricking her like this, but he knew that if he passed this opportunity up, he would very likely never see her again. Or if he did, she would be with the real Nathanael instead.

So he decided to roll with being this man who apparently worked on newspaper comics. It was working out fairly well. At the end of the impromptu date he would tell her the truth of who he really was and hopefully there would be a second date.

But would she be okay with dating her boss's son? He hoped so. Maybe he could ask her in some way if she was against dating coworkers while he was still in this Nathanael persona. He had to admit, pretending to be someone else was actually kind of fun. For once, he could be a regular guy, and not a rich, ex-model that was the sole heir to the most successful fashion label in France.

It was at that moment his eyes happened to stray past Marinette's shoulder, to a man standing at the entrance looking out of breath and hurriedly looking around. He was tall, had long red hair, and was wearing a green button-up shirt a few shades lighter than his. Perhaps the shirt was all that Marinette had to go by when identifying her date?

If that was the case, it had to be purely fate that he'd decided to be in this café, at this hour, wearing this shirt. Well, either that or some sort of divine intervention. Either one could be true.

The man, whom Adrien deduced to be the real Nathanael, tilted his head and squinted his eyes at him-er, rather, at Marinette. He wasn't sure what he had to go by to identify his blind date, but Adrien knew that he had to prevent Marinette from turning around at all costs.

"Nathanael?" she spoke up, causing his eyes to dart back at her. She was giving him a curious stare. "What is it?"

"Nothing!" he chirped, plastering a smile on his face. He leaned his head on his fist, gazing at her with interest. "Now, where were we?"

However, she wasn't deterred. Her eyebrows only drew down lower in her puzzlement.

"What were you looking at?" she softly questioned, mostly to herself. His eyes widened in panic as she began to swivel in her chair to look behind her, so he boldly reached across the table and gently took her wrist to stop her.

Luckily it was enough of a prompt for her to spin back around. She glanced down at his fingers on her wrist, then back his face. A corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile, while he internally prayed the expression was enough to reassure her. She couldn't find out the truth yet, not now.

"It's nothing, it's just that I thought I saw someone I knew. But it turned out to be a stranger. You ever get those moments, when you think you see someone you know but you're not sure and so you just start staring at them trying not to be creepy and-"

Marinette laughed, relaxing and facing him fully again after he took back his hand. Adrien cracked a grin, satisfied he was able to make his date laugh and that he was able to come up with such a good response. He never knew he was such a good liar!

He nearly exhaled in relief as he saw the real Nathanael glare at nothing in particular and leave the restaurant shaking his head.

Mission accomplished.

"Yeah, I get those moments sometimes," she confirmed, coming down from her amusement. Adrien took this chance to try to strike up another conversation, forgoing his previous plan of asking her whether or not she really believed Adrien Agreste to be a sex god. That was just being dangerously risky of her finding out what was really going on.

The night went on without any more sorts of social blunders. This was proving to be one of the best dates that Marinette has ever been on. Never before had she ever felt she had this much chemistry with someone else. He was perfectly polite, considerate, humble, and everything she could hope for in a blind date.

She also learned some little tidbits about him. He had a black cat named Plagg, who according to Nathanael was a grumpy furball who always tried to get into the cheese, even though it was bad for cats. He loved anime and proudly told her of his collection, to which she giggled amusedly at. He had smirked in return, knowing she wasn't trying to be mean by reacting that way.

She learned that he loved physics, but that he mainly focused on business when he attended University. He then added that art was just a side hobby for him, and that was how he got the job writing the newspaper comics.

As both of them laughed at another terrible pun he made, Marinette was positive that as long as he was up for it, there would definitely be a second date.

…

Their meals were finished, their glasses were empty, and now they were just casually talking as they waited for the bill. Marinette couldn't stop smiling for the rest of their date; she really needed to thank Alya for setting this up in the first place.

Lately they had been going back and forth with 'would you rather' questions. So far, she learned that he would rather go bald instead of being cursed with terrible haircuts (he claimed he could just buy a wig), that he would rather have every lost cat in the city turn up at his apartment instead of everyone's lost clothes in the dryer, and that he would rather be a normal person instead of being famous but ridiculed. He quietly shared that being famous wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, something that made her pause. It was almost like he was speaking from experience, but someone who just wrote and drew newspaper comics couldn't be all that famous, right?

"Okay," Nathanael prompted with a broad grin, drawing her out of her thoughts. "Would you rather have no eyebrows or only one eyebrow?"

"Hmm," she hummed in contemplation, trying to picture herself with either option. "One eyebrow, I'd rather draw in the other one instead of having to draw in both."

He nodded, taking her answer into consideration. "Good answer, I think."

"Thank you for approving it," she replied sarcastically, her lips quirking up in a grin. Nathanael matched her expression, his eyes dancing with humor.

She was in the middle of trying to come up with another question when her date's eyes suddenly bulged in apparent horror.

"Nathanael? What is it?" she asked, staring at him worriedly. And just when she thought everything was going so well. "What's wrong?"

Everything was wrong, but it wasn't like he could tell her that. There, at the entrance, was Nino holding a woman's hand. He knew that his friend was dating someone named 'Alya', so this had to be her. Marinette had mentioned that 'Alya' was the one who set up her blind date, the one he intentionally sabotaged by pretending to be her said blind date. He didn't know for sure if this was the same Alya, but with his bad luck, he didn't want to take his chances.

"Nothing's wrong!" he replied, masking his true feelings with an overly-large smile. He hastily stood out of his chair. "I'm going to get the check. Here!" He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, hurriedly tapped the passcode and photos icon, then presented it to her.

"I was able to get previews of the new designs for Gabriel's winter collection, you know, since I work at a newspaper?" he chuckled, though it sounded horribly forced. He could feel the beads of sweat trickling down his neck. "But keep your head down, like this."

He placed a hand on top of Marinette's head, while trying to ignore how the strands felt silky smooth, and steadily pressed down until she was almost nose-to-nose with the cell phone on the table.

"Um, Nath-?"

"It's top secret though, so we can't let anyone else see them, okay?" He smiled brightly, trying to not give away any indications that his heart was currently pounding in his chest. "I'll be right back."

Adrien walked as fast as was socially allowed to the first waiter he saw, which happened to be his own, who was serving another table. Throwing all normalcy to the wind, he tapped the man on the shoulder.

He turned around, looking just a little bit surprised that one of his other guests actually sought him out like this, and interrupted him serving another table, no less. Meanwhile, the guests he was serving weren't at all looking at their food, instead their bewildered gazes were on the flustered blond male in front them.

"We need the check, as soon as possible. A…ah, complication came up," Adrien said slowly, chancing a peek back at Marinette. He was relieved and a little amused that she was still bent over with her nose almost touching the phone screen, only raising her head to use her finger to scroll to another picture. Meanwhile, he spied Nino and Alya sitting at a table off to the side but still behind her. They couldn't see her face, but Adrien wasn't willing to take any more risks for the night.

The waiter, Pierre, if he remembered right, nodded.

"Of course, sir. Follow me and I'll have your check ready in just a moment." He turned to the two women at the table. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

"No, that'll be all, thank you," the brunette replied whilst peering curiously at Adrien, obviously wondering what was going on. If Adrien made a successful escape, no one would know.

Adrien followed the man to a little podium with a cash register on it. He tapped the screen a few times and printed out the receipt. Adrien read the total and immediately reached in his wallet for his credit card, not wanting to take the extra time to count out the money. After the other part of the receipt was printed, signed, and returned, Adrien went back to the table to get Marinette.

He had to give her props for being dedicated; her head was still low to the table to look at the pictures even after all that time.

"Ready to go?" Adrien asked, acting as if he wasn't trying to get out of there as fast as possible. It was only a matter of time that Nino would actually take his eyes off Alya and notice his best friend was only a few feet away.

"But I thought you said you were going to get the check?" Marinette replied, bemused as she picked up her head and allowed Adrien to retrieve his phone.

"I did." He moved to pull out her chair for her. Sure, there was another risk to being seen, but he was still a gentleman. "I just thought it would be easier to pay when I got it, you know?"

"You paid for the whole thing?" Marinette exclaimed, shocked yet guilt leaked into her tone. "You didn't have to do that; I would've given you half."

"Nonsense," he replied as he pushed in her chair after she stood. They needed to get out of there now. "What kind of man makes his date pay on the first date?"

"Of course you'd be chivalrous," she muttered with a teasing lilt to her voice. His fingers brushed the small of her back as they started to walk out of the restaurant. It didn't fail to escape her notice that they were probably walking a little fast for a couple who were just here to eat, relax, and have fun. Her date was speed-walking like hell was on his heels.

"Adrien?! Dude, hey!" a man's voice she didn't know called out. Instinctively she turned to face the source of the noise, but her attention was brought back to the exit in front of her as Nathanael hurried them out of there with new vigor.

She expected things to calm down once they got outside, but that didn't seem to be the case. He still kept up the fast pace, until she grew so tired of it she had to speak up.

"Adrien, what's going on?"

"Nothing! Nothing's going on! Everything's fine, everything's-" He stopped, halting in his footsteps. Slowly, he turned around to face her, visibly gulping at the skeptical glare she was aiming on him.

"How long have you known?" he quietly asked, knowing there was no point in delaying the inevitable.

Marinette sighed, in anger at being deceived, or in exhaustion, she didn't know.

"A little after you left to get the check. You got a text from Chloe."

Adrien felt his face grow ashen.

"I didn't read it," she continued, still giving him a flat unimpressed look. "But in the preview she texted your full name, then said something like 'how dare you forget about our movie date?'"

Her eyes narrowed into a hateful glare as her hands balled into fists at her sides.

"Is she your girlfriend? Your wife? If you're trying to use me to cheat on her, then I want nothing to do with you, boss's son or not."

"No!" he protested, frantically waving his hands. "No, she's not my girlfriend or my wife. We're just childhood friends, that's it. She wants to be something more, but I don't. I swear, I'm not using you."

"Then why did you lie to me?" she demanded, and though he couldn't tell, secretly she was relieved that he was single. She never wanted to be 'the other woman'. Her face fell, shoulders hunching as doubt filled her head. "How much did you lie about? Was anything you told me real?"

"Marinette," he whispered, taking the steps needed to decrease the space between them. Hesitantly, he reached out his hand to take her own. He frowned when she pulled away.

"Everything was real. Well, except for my name being Nathanael and actually working at the newspaper and having art as a side hobby. I can't draw to save my life." A light chuckle escaped past his lips, and Marinette couldn't help but crack a small smile.

"Besides that, I haven't lied to you. I have a cat named Plagg." He paused to reach into his pants pocket to pull out his cell phone. With a few taps he flipped it around to show her the screen, where a picture of a large, black mass laying down on a bed, giving the person taking the photo a warning glare.

Adrien smiled as he took in her amused expression. "Like I said, he's a bit of a grump, but he's really sweet. When he wants to be, of course."

He replaced the phone back in his pocket before he continued. This time, when he silently asked permission to hold her hand, he was elated as she let him.

"And I didn't lie about my answers for the 'would you rather' questions, either. I promise, I only lied about my name and job."

"But why?" she asked again, her desperation and curiosity not nearly sated enough. "Why would you go through all that in the first place?"

"Well," he murmured, his cheeks warming with a pink hue as he rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. "I mean, I had this beautiful girl in front of me asking if I was her date. You didn't know what he looked like, so I figured I'd take a chance and pretend to be him. I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to spend a night with you."

Both of their eyes widened as the implication of his statement sunk in.

"Not like that!" he hurriedly added, his features displaying practically a textbook definition of 'alarm'. "I meant that I didn't want to give up the chance to have a date with you. I didn't know if I'd be able to see you again, before I found out that you work at Gabriel. I couldn't pass up the chance. So I pretended to be Nathanael."

Marinette softly snorted, hoping that her blush wasn't visible in the night. "Well, that explains why you sometimes acted so weird. Alya didn't tell me anything about Nathanael's looks, just that I had to look for a guy in a green button-up. You were wearing one and alone at the table." She shrugged, the tell-tale feeling of embarrassment from the beginning of the night to come back. "So I figured you were him."

"So it was the shirt after all," he mused, slightly shaking his head with a disbelieving grin. Marinette raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms together.

"Adrien, is there something else I should know?"

He shifted nervously on the balls of his feet, reluctant to answer.

"Adrien?" she pressed, more strongly.

He sighed. "Okay. I think I saw the real Nathanael come in earlier. He was wearing a shirt like mine, only in a lighter color. That's the 'stranger who I thought was a friend' I told you about."

Marinette's mouth parted as the pieces clicked together in her mind. That was why he stopped her from turning around, so that she wouldn't be able see the real Nathanael and connect the dots.

"And then later I saw my friend Nino and his girlfriend, Alya," Adrien went on sheepishly. "I wasn't sure if it was the same Alya who set up your blind date, but I didn't want to take any chances. So I got us out of there as quick as possible." His lips curved into an amusedly bitter grin. "When I heard him call my name as we were leaving, I went straight into panic mode and moved even faster. And here we are, I guess."

His eyes strayed to his shoes in shame, his feelings of guilt intensifying the longer she stayed silent.

"I'm really sorry about lying to you," he said, giving her the most remorseful look he could muster. He hoped she would forgive him, he never hoped for anything more. "I just-I really wanted to go out with you. But I understand if you're mad and never want to speak to me again. Don't worry, I won't say anything to my father about it, you won't get in troub-"

"Adrien," she interrupted, holding a hand up. He visibly drooped, expecting the worst. Who was he kidding? After what he did, she'd never want to go out with him again.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking her time as she did so before letting it out.

"I can understand your reasons…mostly." She faltered, unsure of herself. "I mean, why would you lie to have a date with me when you could probably call up some female model instead?"

Adrien flashed her a crooked smile. "I thought you were prettier than any model I've ever worked with."

Woah. That was…unexpected. Marinette could feel the heat rush to her face at his compliment, not to mention feel her heartbeat start to relentlessly pound in her chest. He thought she was prettier than a model? Plain, ordinary Marinette? In any other circumstance she would've suspected he was lying, but the way those green eyes shone with such warmth and sincerity, she could tell that he was being honest.

"Thank you," she whispered, so softly that afterward she wondered if he was even able to hear her. But from the way his smile widened, she knew he did.

"Anyway," she said, taking a breath to cry to calm her strangely racing heart. "I'm not sure if we should date, though. I mean, you are my boss's son. What if I make it to the top and people accuse me of my connections for getting there? I want to be recognized for my talent, and not whose arm I'm holding."

For a wild moment, Adrien thought of offering to date each other in secret. He squashed the idea almost as quick as it had come, though. There was no way someone in the media wouldn't find out and report it. They'd have to spend all their time indoors and never go out on dates. What kind of relationship would that be?

Then another idea came to him.

"Maybe you could just prove them wrong?" he suggested, shrugging. "Prove to them that you have the talent to be where you are, and not because of who you're dating. If you make amazing designs that people love, then they can't possibly accuse you of using your connections to be at the top. Dating me would just be an afterthought."

Marinette laughed. "I don't think my dating an ex-model and future CEO would exactly be considered an 'afterthought'. However," she paused, shooting him an alluring smirk. "I do like your solution. You're right; if I make awesome designs, then they probably won't question how I got to be where I am."

"So," he trailed off, perking up. "Does this mean there will be a second date?"

"Hmm," she hummed, purposely putting a finger to her chin to mimic deep thought. "I guess I can indulge you with another date. But only if Adrien Agreste will be the one taking me out."

He chuckled and took her hand, raising it up to his lips for a kiss. She simpered at the gentlemanly gesture, having a feeling that in the end there will probably be more than a second date.

"I thank you for your kindness, my Lady," he said, looking at her eyes above her knuckles with a wicked grin curling his lips. "Can I ask you something?"

Her smirk fell into a puzzled frown. "Sure?" she replied, not having any idea of what more he wanted to ask.

"Well, now that you know what I look like, do you consider me a sex god? You said earlier that you couldn't have an opinion of me since you never met me…"

She scoffed, taking her hand back and took the steps needed to walk ahead of him. As Adrien watched her go with a slightly disappointed frown, she stopped to peer back over her shoulder with a coquettish curve of her lips.

"I'll reserve judgement for when the time comes."

Adrien blushed from his neck to the tips of his ears.

Remember, this is only a oneshot. As in, there will not be any more added to this story. No new chapter. That's all, folks.