Part 1: Through A Bug's Eyes

Chapter 1

…n'ayant alors pas encore adopté le calendrier grégorien, la date de naissance d'Isaac Newton est enregistrée en date du-RING.

Marinette looked up at the clock on the wall to see it had all of a sudden gotten to the end of the day. Panic set in as she tried to quickly finish writing down her notes.

"Don't forget, you need to have all of chapter 8 read before tomorrow's class," Ms. Mendeleiev said, raising her voice over the sound of her students packing their bags from the end of the day. As a few stood up and rushed towards the door, she called out, "Tomorrow we'll be using what you learned!"

Marinette quickly wrote down the date of Christmas, 1642, in her tablet and clicked save before tuning the screen off.

"Are you coming, Marinette?" Rose asked, startling Marinette into flinging her tablet and pen out in front of her.

Marinette let out an embarrassed squeak as the device hit Adrien in the back, falling into his seat. She quickly covered her mouth as the blonde haired wonder turned around, confusion on his face.

Adrien's face quickly turned to a soft smile as he realized what had happened. He picked up her tablet and pen and put them on her desk. He gave her a smile, letting her stare at him for a moment, before turning to Rose and Juleka to ask, "Are you going somewhere?"

"Oh right, you had to run out for a shoot during lunch," Nino said, placing a hand on Adrien's shoulder. "There's this new shop opening up across the river."

"It's supposed to have the newest and cutest stuff from Japan," Rose said, her hands at her cheeks.

"It's also supposed to have some wicked action figures and video games not released over here yet," Nino added.

"That sounds cool," Marinette said as she quickly threw her belongings back in her bag. Her hand rested on a stray piece of paper and pulled it out only to see a list. "Oh no, I'll have to come some other time."

"What is that?" Alya asked, leaning over her friend's shoulder to look at the piece of paper. "Your parents are making you go grocery shopping?"

"They're super busy with this thing tonight," Marinette admitted, standing up so she could throw her bag on her back. The six started walking out of the now mostly empty classroom as she added, "It's so secretive, they're not even telling me who it's for."

"Maybe Chat Noir finally asked Ladybug and entrusted your family to keep it secret until the big dinner reveal," Alya said, whipping out her phone.

"Aw, wouldn't that be adorable," Rose said, a day dreamy look taking over her features.

"Announce what? They're our age, right?" Marinette asked.

"Maybe they don't have long to live," Juleka offered. "Superpowers can mess with heroes' health."

Marinette led the way down the steps and turned away from her family's business. "You all have fun going to that new shop. I better get going to Monoprix."

"I'll join you," Adrien offered, freezing Marinette in her tracks.

"We'll all go, girlfriend," Alya said, wrapping her arm around Marinette's shoulders, knocking her attention from Adrien. "Maybe we can finish your grocery shopping in enough time to hit the place on the way back."

"Yeah, sure, gives me more time to procrastinate on my homework," Nino said with a smile.

"Oh, you don't have to," Marinette said only to find herself being pulled by Alya as the group headed towards the school's left.

Alya took the list from her friend's hands and eyed it. "Your mom does realize she put eggs on the list."

"They had to take the house eggs for whatever they're working on," Marinette explained.

"It'll be fun," Adrien offered, appearing beside Marinette. She jumped only slightly, getting a giggle from Alya as she took her arm off of Marinette's shoulder, as Adrien continued, "Besides, I've never been to a supermarket before."

"What? Really?" Marinette asked out of surprise.

"Never needed to," Adrien said with a shrug, turning to look where they were walking as the sidewalks stared to get busy. "My father's always had our groceries delivered."

"Speaking of him, I'm surprised he gave you some free time after school today," Marinette pointed out. "Doesn't he normally want you home for din-" she quickly cut herself off, realizing she shouldn't know Adrien's schedule so well. Scrambling her mind she spit out, "I mean, your body guard is always waiting for you at the school gate so I just assumed…"

Adrien gave her a smile as her flustered brain stalled. "He's throwing a dinner party tonight for some important people," Adrien admitted. "That's who your parents are catering tonight, though why they didn't tell you is strange."

"Maybe your father asked them to not tell anybody," Marinette said with a shrug, wondering the same.

"But anyway, he said I didn't have to come home until 6."

"So where's your bodyguard?" Marinette asked, looking around for the silver car.

A smile grew on the teen's face. "He was needed to help prepare the ball room." He looked over at Marinette and added, "First time my father's let me have an hour to myself."

"Now I really feel bad for making you join me to Monoprix," Marinette mumbled, glancing over her shoulder to see Alya showing Nino, Rose, and Juleka the latest Ladyblog video.

"Don't be," Adrien tried.

Marinette turned her attention back to the boy beside her only to get lost in the smile he gave her.

Adrien's smile quickly disappeared as he reached over and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the way of a large group of tourists. Marinette lost her balance and fell into Adrien's chest.

"Marinette!" Alya exclaimed, noticing her friend's accident.

Adrien grabbed both of Marinette's shoulders and helped her to her feet, worry on his face. "Are you okay?"

Marinette looked up at him and smiled, "He, he, yeah, I'm alright."

"You've gotta remember it's tourist season, dude," Nino pointed out as Adrien released the girl's shoulders.

"Sometimes I wish they wouldn't come here for their vacation," Juleka admitted.

"But if they didn't, than neither would most of us be here or even be friends now," Rose offered.

"I wouldn't trade our friendship for anything," Nino said, somehow managing to separate Marinette in-between Alya and Adrien to wrap an arm around them so that his other arm was around Rose and Juleka.

Alya let out a laugh, the first to break out of the group hug. "Come on, Monoprix is just across the street."