The best laid plans of Marinette may not be enough to get her as Ladybug and Adrien in the same place at the same time….

Looking at her diary Marinette frowned. Operation "Happen across Adrien as Ladybug" needed a plan. One she was going to come up with this very moment so that true love could prevail. Except she was struggling coming up with ideas. The news that Adrien had a crush on her alter ego kept distracting her.

"Hey Tikki, do you have any ideas?" Marinette asked.

"I still think all of this is a bad idea," Tikki said, floating in her face.

"I told you I'll be careful," Marinette insisted.

Tikki gave her a bit of a frown. "Well, just make sure whatever you do you don't do anything out of the ordinary for Ladybug. So don't just randomly drop in or something," Tikki warned, then floated away.

Marinette sighed. She was on her own then.

Picking up her pen again and looking down at the page, she began writing.

Plan 1:

Wait by his next photoshoot until a Ladybug-level emergency happened and after saving whoever swing through the park after "on her way home".

It would give Adrien a chance to get her attention and be completely normal for Ladybug.

Wait, no. That wouldn't work. What if there was no emergency? Then Adrien might notice she, Marinette, was at all his photoshoots, and he might think she was stalking him and then he might be creeped out and get a restraining order and then they couldn't be friends and he wouldn't confess his love to Ladybug and then what would happen to their hamster? No, she couldn't go with Plan 1.

Sighing to herself, she tried again.

Plan 2:

Swing by wherever he is after an akuma attack, as if on her way home. She could wave casually at them, which is normal for Ladybug to do when people notice her.

Yeah, that should work. Assuming she finished up quickly enough for her to have time to talk to him before her transformation ran out. She could do that, she'd just need an akuma attack at a time when she knew where Adrien was. As long as she checked her own, pull-down schedule each morning for times when she knew what Adrien was up to, she should be fine.

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Adrien sat at his desk, pen in his mouth as he thought about Marinette's advice. He'd never really considered confessing his love to Ladybug as Adrien before. Ladybug didn't know him very well, at least as far as he knew. Plus they rarely saw each other that way because he was Cat Noir. But maybe it would make a difference. Who knew? It couldn't go any worse than his attempts as Cat Noir, right?

And while Ladybug didn't know him well as Adrien, it couldn't be said she knew him well as Cat Noir either. Her insistence on making sure their identities were kept secret ensured that personal information wasn't shared. So, either way, they'd be starting from a similar place. He'd just have to be careful that he made sure nothing he did around her made her think he was Cat Noir or she'd be mad at him for sure.

He grabbed the pen out of his mouth and began writing on his notepad. He wasn't likely to get very long to talk to her, so maybe giving her a note would be the best plan. Especially since it would be hard to get her alone as Adrien.

But the words never seemed right. He was pretty sure he had torn out half his notebook as he threw out his pathetic attempts to write something that might actually get her to meet with him.

"Plagg, do you have any idea how to write a proper love note? Or at least a note that would convince Ladybug to meet with me?" Adrien finally asked. Plagg looked up at him, half a wedge of cheese sticking out of his mouth. The mischievous Kwami slowly finished the bit of cheese, making Adrien wait for him to respond.

"Not really. My true love is cheese, and it doesn't talk much," Plagg said. Helpful as ever with Adrien's love life.

"I just don't know what to say. How do I get the most amazing girl in all of Paris, no, in all the world to meet with me, a random stranger?" Adrien whined.

Plagg gagged at that. "Ugh, kid, this mushiness is going to make me puke up my cheese. Besides, didn't she give you a lift back to that big fashion show a couple months ago?" Plagg asked. "So she's saved you before. Besides, your face is all over Paris. You're hardly a random stranger. Just a mushy one."

Adrien gave Plagg his very best 'excuse me?' face at that. Sighing, he turned back to his notebook. He wrote one word and was already tempted to tear it out, along with some of his hair. This was stupid, he was never going to get it right!

"Best advice I can give you is keep it simple. The simpler it is, the less likely there can be a miscommunication. You can save your mushiness for if she meets with you—and trust me, you have plenty of that so once she's there you should be fine," Plagg advised.

Adrien sighed. It seemed so lackluster, but he supposed that it would work. He thought over his schedule, trying to figure out a time that he could get away from his body guard for a minute. Maybe Marinette could help him? It had been her idea, after all. Yes, he was sure she would help him get away for long enough to meet with Ladybug if he came up with a time that he wasn't scheduled for something else. Though that would be a nightmare all its own.

Writing down a time the following week he put the note in his pocket. Now he just needed to find a good time to give it to her.

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"Pound it!" Ladybug said, bumping her fist to Cat Noir's. She still had four dots left on her earrings. And she knew Adrien was at a photoshoot just down the road.

A few reporters walked over excitedly. No, she didn't have time to deal with them right now! She needed to swing over Adrien's photoshoot!

"Sorry kitty, can you handle the press? I need to get going," Ladybug explained. Her partner looked a bit surprised but nodded. Ladybug smiled at him then swung away.

She reached the park in no time. She still had over three minutes before she transformed back. Perfect! However, when she reached the park there was no Adrien in sight. She waited for a minute before the photographer noticed her. He waved and put up his camera to grab a shot of her. She posed for him, something she sometimes did when she noticed someone getting a picture of her. But there was no Adrien and she had to go. Sighing she swung away. Next time, she was sure!

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Adrien ran around the corner back into sight, as if from where the Gorilla had hidden him. The press had been particularly difficult to shake off this time and he had been surprised when Ladybug had left him to handle it by himself. He wondered where she had to get to in such a hurry.

When he arrived back at the photoshoot everyone was gathered around Vincent, who was showing them something excitedly.

"Hey, what's going on?" Adrien asked curiously.

"Oh, you just missed it! Ladybug swung by on her way from the Akuma attack. Even paused to let me get a photo!" Vincent said excitedly.

"Really? She came back by here?" Adrien asked, frustrated. She had come by and he had just missed her! Seriously? And hadn't she said she was in a hurry? Yet she stopped to let Vincent take a picture of her. He supposed that was the kind of nice thing Ladybug did, but it was still frustrating. Why had she left him so quickly? He hoped she wasn't mad at him.

Next time. Next time hopefully he could get away sooner and maybe, just maybe, get a chance to give her his note.

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Two weeks. Two weeks of slipping away from akuma attacks quickly to try to go by where Adrien would be, just for him to be nowhere in sight. She'd even sneakily walked around where he was supposed to be a bit, trying to happen upon him.

No such luck. Wherever the Gorilla hid him during akuma attacks was very effective. If she couldn't even find him after the attacks, there was no way a crazy akuma could find him during one. And while she was glad he was safe, it meant getting close to Adrien as a result of an akuma was not going to be a possibility.

It was so frustrating! The chance to be with her true love was so close and yet here she was, two weeks of effort and nothing to show for it. She thought ladybugs were supposed to be good luck!

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Adrien flopped face first on his bed with a dramatic sigh. He'd had another long, annoying photoshoot which had been interrupted by an akuma attack.

Once again, Ladybug had left him to deal with the akuma victim, insisting she had somewhere she needed to be. And somehow, she had happened to swing right over where his photo shoot was, but minutes before he could get back. It was like his life was taunting him, placing her right where he needed her to be seconds before he could get back.

Maybe black cats really were unlucky.