Slowly, Adrien helped Marinette take baby steps out into the hallway; each step becoming steadier than her last.

"Thank you, Adrien," Marinette said between labored breaths. "I guess I just had the wind knocked out of me."

The corner of Adrien's lips twitched slightly as he fought off a knowing smirk, but now definitely wasn't a time for teasing grins. Instead, he looked down to give her a worried frown.

"Maybe you should take the morning off, Marinette. You seemed pretty rattled," he noted, hoping she would take his advice. In all honesty, he was surprised to see her at school in the first place with how badly her stomach was injured from the previous day, but Marinette had always been the stubborn one.

"No, no, I'm fine," she reassured with a forced smile as she inched out of his embrace. Adrien fought the urge to pull her back into his arms, knowing his sudden movement might be considered overstepping some boundaries while in his civilian form.

"Are you sure?" he asked with one of his hands hovering awkwardly over her shoulder, ready to embrace her if she needed the support. Marinette looked up at him and gave him a smile that made his heart flutter.

"Really. We should get back to class before we miss roll call," she suggested. Adrien hesitantly agreed.

Adrien was quick to his feet as class dismissed for lunch. The four friends normally ate together in the park except for the occasional trip to Marinette's whenever her parents had leftover treats.

Reaching down before Marinette was even out of her seat, Adrien picked up her bag and wrapped it around his shoulder. Marinette looked up at him in surprise, cautiously standing from her chair.

"Adrien, what are you doing?" she asked curiously, lifting her hand to retrieve her bag. Without a second thought, Adrien cupped her hand with his before instantly freezing in place. He mentally slapped himself for getting lost so easily in his Chat persona, and reluctantly let her hand drop.

"I, uh, figured you might like some help carrying your things. You know, incase you were still sore from earlier," Adrien sheepishly admitted while a very uncharacteristic red tint stained his cheeks. Marinette stared at him with a blank stare on her face. For a split second, her long time crush had reminded her of someone she knew all too well. Quickly forcing herself to shake away those thoughts, Marinette returned his gesture with a warm smile.

"Thank you. That'd be great," she answered while their two best friends watched on from afar with excited grins.

"Want to have lunch at my place today? Papa made a few extra macarons, and I know he would be thrilled if we could take them off his hands," Marinette giggled as the group discussed their plans for lunch. It didn't take much convincing after that for everyone to agree, but secretly, her cut had begun aching even more and Marinette wanted to go home to take some medicine for the pain.

While her friends grabbed a few plates of macarons, Marinette snuck up to her room to take her medicine.

"Hey, why don't we eat up here today?" Alya suggested as she peeked her head through the trapdoor that led into Marinette's room. Quickly, Marinette shoved her medicine back into her dresser drawer before turning around to face her friend.

"Alya's right, we rarely ever hang out up here anymore," Nino agreed as he and Adrien followed.

The three friends made themselves comfortable in Marinette's cozy room. Alya sat in the desk chair with Nino sitting in the floor next to her using her legs as a backrest. Adrien took the opportunity to sit on the chaise lounge leaving a space open next to him.

As Marinette looked back and forth between her friends, she caught Adrien's eye. He smiled brightly at her before patting the empty space on the lounge next to him. A faint blush flashed across Marinette's face as she made her way over to sit beside him.

"Marinette, how are you feeling?" Adrien whispered next to her ear so only she could hear him. Marinette's heart rate began to race as she looked up at him with wide eyes. After all their time as friends, how could he still manage to have such an effect on her? She forced herself to take a deep breath before answering.

"I'm ok," she replied in a soft tone to match his. Adrien lowered his face closer to hers so he could hear her properly. Without saying another word, he stared into Marinette's bright blue eyes just like he had done the night before while they were cuddled together in her bed. His cheeks began to flush as thoughts of the previous night began to invade his mind.

"Marinette-"

"Marinette-" Adrien whispered at the same time Alya called her name.

The two quickly broke apart as Alya's voice shattered the silent spell between them. They both looked her way to find Alya examining the items on top of Marinette's desk.

"It's nice to see you finally put pictures in the frames I gave you," Alya teased as she looked back to her friend. Marinette let out a small giggle.

"I know," she admitted sheepishly before slowly standing to walk over to the desk. To her surprise, Adrien followed.

"It just took me awhile to find the right pictures I wanted," Marinette confessed. She looked down fondly at her favorite pictures of her friends while taking a macaron from Alya's plate.

"Look Nino, we made the cut for two of the three," Alya exclaimed with a sly grin. Marinette's heart dropped to her stomach. She wondered if Adrien would notice he was in all her pictures. Chat sure enough cared to notice.

"Only two out of the three? Dude, Marinette, I thought we were your friends," Nino teased before taking a bite of his lunch.

"Well at least one of us made the cut for all three," Alya stated, her eyes mischievously narrowing as her grin grew. Marinette quickly let out a nervous chuckle, but her eyes squinted in a warning glare at her best friend. Alya playfully raised her eyebrows in a silent reply.

"Wait, I was lucky enough to make it into all three of the pictures," Adrien said as he moved closer to Marinette so he could look over her shoulder at the frames. His chest was now almost completely pressed against Marinette's back.

Of course, Adrien already knew exactly what pictures Alya were referring to, but as he played along a clever idea popped into his head.

"Marinette, why is Adrien lucky enough to be in every picture?" Alya questioned with faux ignorance. If Marinette's face wasn't pink before, it was definitely burning red now.

"Yeah, it's almost as if...you're showing favoritism, princess," Adrien whispered softly into Marinette's ear from behind her. Instantly an inaudible gasp escaped Marinette's mouth as she twirled around to find Adrien staring down at her with a smirk on his face.

Their faces were only inches apart as Marinette stared at him. Adrien gave her a wink only she could see before all the color drained from her face.

"You," Marinette whispered to herself. Adrien's smirk grew into a grin as he raised an eyebrow playfully at her. Another gasp escaped from Marinette's throat as she took a reflexive step backwards, bumping into her desk and making her picture frames topple down.

"Marinette, are you ok?" Alya asked in concern.

"Uh, yeah! No, wait, no! Actually I feel pretty sick. You all might need to leave before you catch it!" Marinette exclaimed in a panic as she grabbed both Alya and Nino's hand and began shoving them towards the trapdoor.

"But what about Adrien?" Nino asked, reaching for one last macaron. Marinette quickly granted his request, shoving two macarons in his hands before lifting the trapdoor.

"You know, I've been feeling quite under the weather myself. Perhaps I should stay to keep Marinette company," Adrien thought aloud as he rubbed the back of his neck. Alya and Nino paused before looking at one another with a knowing grin.

"Sure. Just call us later. Hope you two feel better soon," Alya said before giving her friend a wink and rushing her boyfriend out of the room.

Once Alya and Nino were gone, Marinette turned back to Adrien. The look on her face was hard for Adrien to read. He couldn't quite tell if she was angry or in shock.

"What-" Marinette began, but her voice cracked. Clearing her throat, she began once more.

"What was that about?" she asked suspiciously as she took slow, cautious steps back towards the blonde boy in her room. Adrien grinned at her skeptic demeanor.

"Whatever do you mean, Marinette?" he asked playfully. Marinette stopped in her tracks, a few inches short of being face to face with him.

"Earlier with the pictures. What you said about favoritism and whatnot," she babbled out quickly. Adrien's smile grew once more as he filled the space between them. Silently, he took one of her hands into his. Marinette's breath caught in her throat as she watched his every move.

"I can't help it if you're partial to favoritism, m'lady," Adrien whispered before placing a light kiss upon her knuckles. Marinette's eyes widened in realization as she snatched her hand out of his. She stared at him in a silent disbelief.

"...Chat?" she whispered so softly Adrien had to strain his ears just to hear. An excited grin spread across his face before he bowed in front of her.

"At your service, purrincess," he replied, looking up at her through his bangs before standing upright again.

Marinette felt like she was going to pass out. Her long time crush was the same guy who had been pining after her alter ego for years.

"...How?" Marinette barely managed to ask, still in shock. Adrien took a few steps to fill the gap between them once more. He lifted a hand to affectionately stroke her bangs back from her eyes.

"We're just lucky, I guess," he smirked. With that, a tiny black cat kwami flew out of Adrien's shirt pocket and into Marinette's bag where her own kwami still rested. Marinette continued staring in her silent shock until she forced herself to take a long blink, mentally absorbing all the new information.

"So, last night-?" she began, unsure of what she even wanted to ask. Adrien looked down at her fondly, moving his hand from her hair to now rest gently on her hip.

"Last night I bandaged you up," he began in a whisper while his thumb lightly traced circles near Marinette's injury, "and stayed with you until you fell asleep in my arms."

Still staring up at him in awe, Marinette slowly lifted one of her hands towards Adrien's hair. Very carefully, she brushed her fingers through his hair until it resembled the look of her beloved partner. In that moment, all her nervousness seemed to disappear as a wide grin spread across her face.

"Hello, Chaton," she whispered. Butterflies formed in Adrien's stomach as he wore a matching smile. He slowly leaned forward to press his forehead against hers like he had done the night before.

"M'lady," Adrien greeted, his nose brushing against hers before he ever so carefully pressed his lips against hers. They had done it. They had finally found one another.

A/N: Thank you everyone so much for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much I enjoyed writing it!