Three days had passed since Ladybug's first "date" with Adrien and they had been together once more since then, during the weekend. Marinette couldn't believe she was finally spending time with the boy she liked so frequently. It felt almost… unreal.

They spent a lot of time in awkward silence and mostly spoke about trivial things, as they were only starting to get to know each other and couldn't really be considered friends yet, but the girl already felt like she was getting more comfortable around him and believed the same was true for him. She felt like there could be a chance for their relationship to progress to something more intimate if things kept going this way.

She hadn't realized it yet, but that thought terrified her.

.

On Mondays, they had French class with Miss Bustier in the morning. Marinette really liked the subject, but she just couldn't concentrate that day, as she couldn't stop glancing at Adrien sitting in front of her every other minute. He'd been looking so happy lately, probably due to the time spent with Ladybug. She was really happy about it, but she felt her stomach tie in a knot every now and then. Deep down, she wanted to be with him herself, not behind a mask.

She wanted him to look forward to spending time with her, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and not the heroine who always had to be extra careful around him, not to say anything that could give away her identity.

The girl played with her pale pink mechanical pencil as she stared at the boy's blond hair, completely disconnected from the real world and whatever her teacher was saying. She wondered how he'd react if he found out he'd been going out with her all along, the nice girl who sat behind him in most classes.

Would he be disappointed? Probably not, Adrien was as sweet and understanding as they could get. He never missed an opportunity to praise her and make her feel good about herself, so he'd probably be happy that "Awesome Marinette" was actually "Awesome Ladybug" as well. At least she hoped.

As she kept zoning out, thinking of possible identity reveal scenarios – which didn't seem like such a stupid idea anymore, despite what Tikki said – Alya brought her back to reality, snapping her fingers right in front of her eyes.

"Wake up, girl!" she whispered, "It feels like you're trying to make his head explode with your mind or something, the way you're staring at it so intensely!"

Marinette was so taken aback by her friend's words she dropped her mechanical pencil, which fell to the side of her desk and rolled all the way down to Adrien's bag. The boy noticed and rapidly picked it up and turned around to face her, smiling sweetly.

When they found themselves in that position, she felt like the world stopped. Her blue eyes took in his gentle expression as he held the mechanical pencil in front of her, her cheeks went pink. They didn't move for what seemed like an eternity.

"Adrien, don't turn around during class." Miss Bustier interrupted calmly, clearing her throat before speaking, "You can talk to your friend Marinette during break time, so please pay attention now. This part is very important and will come up in the test!"

The boy blushed when he snapped back to reality and put the mechanical pencil back on her desk awkwardly before turning around. Alya raised an eyebrow, skeptically, and Marinette could swear he had been staring at her as well for a moment. She then discarded the thought, blaming it on her imagination and feelings towards him. She could hear Rose's high-pitched giggles on the opposite side of the class and feel Chloe's intense glare on her face.

Around twenty minutes later that felt like an eternity, class was over and it was break time. Before Marinette and Alya could head to the toilets, Nino turned to them.

"Hey girls, wanna join us for lunch today?" he asked, raising his chin in Adrien's direction, including him in the plan. The blonde boy's eyes widened and he nodded in agreement, smiling like an excited child at the idea of having lunch with his friends. So cute, she thought.

"Sure" the girl with glasses replied for both of them, without missing a beat or even glancing at her friend, "At the usual bench?"

"At the usual bench." he grinned before the girls headed for the door.

Once at the toilets, Alya smirked maliciously to Marinette.

"Isn't it great? You'll be able to continue whatever that was you were doing during class just now." she winked. Marinette's cheeks went pink in a split second and she immediately covered them with her trembling hands. She looked like she would crumble any time soon from the embarrassment.

"Alya! Don't tease me like that!" she pleaded, looking around to make sure they really were alone in there.

.

Two classes later, the group of friends headed for the spot they agreed to have lunch at. Alya made sure she sat on the edge and pulled Nino by the arm to sit next to her, so that the other two had no choice but to sit together. Adrien didn't seem to notice the girl's mischievous plan, but Marinette surely did and thanked her with a shy nod, because she knew she wouldn't have had the guts to sit next to him on her own.

As they had lunch, Alya browsed the Le Parisien app on her smartphone and read a few news she found interesting out loud so that they could all discuss them afterwards.

The red-haired girl was aware her goal of becoming a journalist wouldn't become a reality unless she worked for it, so keeping up with the news was the least she could do. Plus, she enjoyed it. Marinette and Nino were used to it, as it was a recurring thing with her, but Adrien was pleasantly surprised by it, because he was used to seeing kids their age not care about newspapers or even about what happened around them.

"It seems like Audrey Bourgeois tried to sue some American airline for losing her luggage." the girl said, not taking her eyes off her phone while she ate her sandwich, "After I saw how she acted at Adrien's dad's runway, I can't even begin to imagine how she responded to it." she chuckled.

Marinette sighed, remembering the events of said event and how she still couldn't believe how such a ruthless woman had taken a liking to her and her designs.

"Nothing happened in the end, though." Alya added, a little disappointed.

"Guess she lost her case, then" Adrien replied in English. Nino actually snorted at the pun and gave him a thumbs up.

The two girls, however, froze.

They started at him, lips parted, eyes wide, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Adrien Agreste telling jokes seemed like a concept absolutely alien to them.

The boy started looking gradually more uncomfortable at their reaction to his joke. He started rubbing his neck, lips pursed and cheeks growing red. 'Was it too much to say something so silly? Did he say something he shouldn't have? Maybe they weren't close enough friends for him to show his jokester side yet? Did they even consider him a friend in the first place?' he started freaking out.

It was Alya who broke the extremely awkward silence that followed.

"I never thought of you as a joke-telling kind of guy!" she beamed, sounding as pleased as she could, suddenly aware of how horribly their reaction must have made him feel.

"Really?" Nino asked, swallowing the last bit of his baguette, "We joke around all the time, dude!"

"Well, I kinda dig it!" she added with a confident smile, "You should do it more often, right, Marinette?"

Marinette wasn't sure about how to react. She hadn't actually gotten the joke, as her English skills weren't the best – she wasn't good at foreign languages in general, truth to be told – but she understood enough to get that was a… pun? Really? She blinked twice before her focus went back to her friends, who restlessly waited for an answer.

"S-Sure!" she said quickly, sounding totally unconvincing, "I was just really surprising, uh- I mean, surprised! I was really surprised!" she started stammering, getting redder by the second and moving her hands around, as if trying to hold on to something, anything.

Adrien's shoulders dropped and his disappointment was obvious. Marinette quickly glanced at Alya, who looked like she could murder her at any second. She felt awful, so she felt the need to redeem for it.

"I-it's a good thing!" she managed to blurt out, face red as a tomato.

"We're just glad you're finally loosening up around us." Alya intervened to save her, who just nodded over-enthusiastically in agreement.

The boy's tension then seemed to dissipate and his lips curved into a small, relieved smile.

.

Back at home, Marinette kept rolling back and forth on her desk chair. Tikki was napping on her pillows peacefully, but the girl couldn't be more distressed.

She was still flabbergasted about the revelation at lunch break. Adrien is a jokester. The idea seemed so out of this world that she didn't really know how to react to it. He wasn't like that, or at least… She never imagined he was like that.

The girl looked around her bedroom, pictures of the boy scattered around the walls. She stared at them in disbelief. What else did she not know about him? So many things, probably… She started fidgeting with her fingers nervously.

This seemingly small detail about her crush was something that made her very nervous. Inside her head, Adrien was a shy boy who, sure, probably enjoyed joking around like everyone else, but… Making puns? Seriously?

It made her realize just how little she actually knew him.

During their meetings as Ladybug, Adrien had always been so cheerful and seemed so relaxed, especially when he talked excitedly about the things he liked. Yet, he had not once told a joke or made a pun. Why?

She thought they were getting closer, but could that not be the case?

Could he be holding back with her like he did with any other stranger?

Suddenly, her thoughts drifted towards Chat Noir. She always thought of the two boys as complete opposites, but it seemed like they were more similar than she had thought.

The girl sighed.

Chat Noir hadn't contacted her in almost a week, since the last akuma attack. She'd been too busy lately to do patrols, because all her free time went towards meeting up with Adrien. It had been her choice, but now she was having serious doubts about it.

It felt like everything was working against her lately.

First, her partner disappeared without saying anything, leaving her to deal with an akuma on her own. Awful.

However, immediately after, her long-time crush confessed to her! Awesome!

But then she found out her crush isn't exactly who she thought he was… Awful!

Before such negative thoughts got to escalate into pure chaos, her attention was brought to an email notification popping up on her computer screen. An email from Adrien.

"Dear Ladybug,

I know we were together just yesterday and I hope I am not bothering you by writing again so soon, but I would like you to know that my Chinese class tomorrow was cancelled! Seems like my teacher is travelling and will only be back next week!

That means I have about an hour before dinner, so we can hang out if you want to! No pressure, though! It's totally alright if you can't or don't want to, I understand!

Anyway, just tell me if you'd like to meet up so that I can find an excuse to give at home! Maybe I'll ask my friend Marinette to cover up for me again! Remember, no pressure! :))

All the best!

Adrien"

If the situation was different, she'd have giggled at his cute email, full of exclamation marks that clearly showed how nervous and just out of touch with the world he was. However, as things were now, Marinette couldn't help but compare her situation to his, only the roles were reversed.

The boy's idea of Ladybug was probably no different from hers of him. Something twisted to fit an ideal based on the little information they actually had about each other.

And probably far from the truth.

It's not like she could blame Adrien for holding back when he met with Ladybug, because she did exactly the same thing. The whole situation depressed her because they both only showed each other the side they wanted to show, and that was not healthy.

Such secrets were not healthy.

But it's not like she could just tell him her identity, right?... She hadn't told Chat Noir either, in order to protect them both against any harm. Giving her identity away like that would be dangerous.

But then again, if Ladybug were to actually date Adrien, wouldn't he be in danger? Wouldn't Hawkmoth eventually find out the super heroine had a love interest – who also happened to be pretty famous himself – and target him?

If he knew her identity, he could be willing to date normal girl Marinette and then he wouldn't be in danger. Plus, it wouldn't be as risky as telling Chat Noir, because Adrien wasn't even involved in the whole akuma-fighting madness. As long as he didn't tell anyone, telling him would be the safest option.

It sounded reasonable.

The girl glanced at Tikki, who kept sleeping soundly on her bed. She felt terrible but decided she wouldn't tell her about it. Revealing herself to the model was the most harmless option and she trusted him.

"Dear Adrien,

I would love to hang out with you tomorrow before dinner! Tell me what time and place works best for you and I will be there without fail.

Also, there is something I would like to talk to you about. It's nothing to worry about, though, I promise! :)

See you tomorrow!

Ladybug"