"I can confirm that all windows are closed and locked, including the skylights", said Markov, floating down. "That means we are locked out."

Nino groaned. The day had started really well: The boys of their class had managed to bribe the janitor of a local sports grounds to give them the keys while it was supposed to be closed for renovations. With the entire area to themselves, they had a fun day of games, competitions (with excellent timekeeping by Markov) and talking about manly things, like girls and Pokémon. It had all been fun… until Ivan wanted to get a water bottle from the small building that housed the locker rooms, and realised that it was closed. With the key still inside.

"So we can't go in through the door or the windows," said Nino, counting down on his fingers. "We can't call the janitor because he's already on the plane to Ibiza. We can't call the police or anyone else because then he'll get in trouble for letting us go here in the first place."

The boys around him nodded.

"We could try digging a tunnel!", said Kim, but Max shook his head.

"By my calculations, digging a tunnel without any tools would take at least three weeks."

"I guess I could… break the door", said Ivan, pensively. "But then the door would be broken. That would be bad."

"I don't think Chat Noir could help us here", said Adrien, rubbing his chin. "He could Cataclysm the door, but then he'd have to call Ladybug to fix it again, and that would be very embarrassing."

"…and we have no way of contacting Chat Noir," said Nino. Adrien's eyes shot up in surprise, and he muttered, "oh, yeah, right, that too," as if he had somehow forgotten that he had no direct connection to the superhero. At least Nino was fairly certain that he hadn't. That would've definitely come up.

"We need to call someone, though," said Nathaniel, looking up from his sketchbook. "If the adults are out, then what about our friends? You know, someone who would be willing to help us."

"Yeah, and someone who is good at solving problems," said Nino.

"And someone who isn't afraid of anything!", shouted Kim, who had begun digging anyway.

"And they should be really good at going where you don't expect them to be," added Ivan. "You know, like–"

"Marinette!", said Adrien, smiling. Huh, Alya was right, thought Nino: Adrien's eyes really did light up whenever he started talking about her.

Max nodded. "Based on previous experiences, she should have a seventy-eight percent chance of solving this issue. Although her level of skills has been hard to calculate in the past…"

"Marinette can do anything," said Adrien resolutely. "Remember how during my party, she managed to get in even though you wanted to keep her out?"

Nino did not really care for Adrien's smug smile. It had been an all-dudes party. Adrien was not supposed to be proud of the one girl who had snuck in.

"I just don't know whether she has the time to help us. She's so busy with all her projects usually."

"She's hanging out with Alya and the girls right now at her parents' home," said Nino. "I think they were planning to watch a movie."

He thought for a second. Would Alya be annoyed by the interruption, or would she encourage it? It was cutting into sacred girl bonding time but it was also an opportunity to get Marinette and Adrien together. A difficult decision… Oh, who was he trying to kid.

"You should text her, dude, it's a worth a try."

"Sending message", said Markov. They all waited for a few moments before he spoke again.

"Reply from Alya. Marinette accepts, but as payment Adrien has to kiss her on the cheek."

"Wait, what?" Adrien blushed harder than Nino had ever seen him before. "I can't do that! She'd completely freak out!"

"New message from Marinette", said Markov. "She says to disre-"

"Wait a second," said Nino quickly. Honestly, Adrien's objection sounded perfectly reasonable. Marinette would likely freak out. But Alya clearly had a plan, and Nino knew he could trust her on this. Or at least, he knew better than to get in her way. "Would kissing Marinette be that bad?"

"No, of course not," said Adrien. "I wouldn't mind at all. It's just that-"

"Markov, tell them he accepts the deal."

"Message sent."

"Nino! Dude!" Adrien looked a tiny bit furious, but mostly really embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, dude," said Nino, "but it is our best shot."

Max nodded and looked at his calculator. "By my estimates, this payment should increase chances of Marinette succeeding by at least twelve percent."

Adrien still looked sheepish, but he nodded.

"Well, I guess…"

"New message from Alya," intoned Markov. "Marinette has just left the building and is on her way."

Nino made a mental note to high-five his girlfriend later. The other boys around them cheered loudly. Adrien was still blushing hard, but he also started to smile. He was really looking forward to seeing her, wasn't he?

"So when will she be here?", asked Ivan. "I don't want to hurry her, but I've got this date planned with Mylène for this evening, and I want to let her know if I can't be there on time."

Markov started beeping. "Based on average walking speeds in Paris, Metro timetables and the optimal route based on the information I have available, she should arrive here in forty-seven minutes or later."

"I bet I can run faster than that!", said Kim, but Max shook his head.

"You have tried outrunning the Metro on four separate occasions this year alone. It has never worked."

"Yeah, but now I've got more training! Especially swimming with Ondine lately. I bet I could outswim the train if it was underwater!"

"Update: Marinette has arrived at Haxo station" said Markov suddenly. Beams shot out of his chest and formed a floating semi-transparent image. It showed a tweet with a picture taken in a metro station. The text read, "This girl just caught a pickpocket all by herself! Sadly she had to leave before I could thank her properly." Underneath was a picture of a man on the ground, his hands tied with what looked like an old SCART cable. In the background, a girl with pigtails and pink trousers was rapidly running away.

"Wow, did Marinette really do that? That's awesome!", shouted Kim.

Adrien smiled proudly. "That's our Marinette. She never stands idly by when someone is hurting someone else."

"You really like her, don't you?", asked Nathaniel, smiling.

"Oh yeah, she's a really good friend!"

Adrien completely missed Nathaniel's knowing smile, because of course he did. Nino shrugged. He knew Alya was frustrated about this, but he had always been convinced that this was at least a really good start. After all, Alya and him were a great couple very much because they were really good friends.

To pass the time while they waited, Nino suggested they organise a little picnic with whatever snacks and drinks they had brought outside with them. Within a few minutes, they had arranged a tiny mountain of energy drinks, water bottles, and things like organic granola bars from Ivan, some highly efficient nutrient pills from Max, and an assortment of random wrapped packages that said 'Power' in shiny letters from Kim.

"Do we need to keep anything reserved for Marinette?", asked Adrien.

Nino shrugged. "If she can get the door open, then she can have all the water bottles we left in our lockers."

"Yes, but what if she doesn't get it open?" Adrien suddenly looked shocked at his own remark. "Not that I'm doubting her! I totally believe that she can do it. But I don't want to imply that she has to. I want to make sure she feels welcome here regardless. I mean, if she can't open the door, then that is still our fault for letting it close while the key was still inside, not hers."

Nino put his hand on Adrien's shoulder.

"Don't worry, dude. We'll make sure Marinette knows that we're happy to see her either way."

Adrien smiled and the others grumbled something in acknowledgement. Max added,

"There is a sixty-eight percent chance that she has already eaten at home and does not need any food. But I agree that we should leave something for her just in case."

Adrien actually looked less reassured at that than he was before.

"Oh, that's right. Maybe she doesn't want to hang out with us. After all, she's already interrupting her plans to help. I guess she'll want to go back immediately…"

Nino shook his head.

"Nah, dude, don't worry. You know Marinette. She's always happy to be with her friends. She won't just leave a party without a really good reason."

Adrien brightened up at that. Meanwhile, Markov chirped up again.

"Marinette was spotted again. Tweet received thirteen seconds ago by BananoirFan05, it reads, 'Real hashtag hero exclamation mark. My daughter was crying because her balloon had popped, but this random teenager came up and invented this silly dance for her on the spot, and now she's laughing again. Hashtag awesome Hashtag paris Hashtag Station Saint Martin"

He projected a video in the air, shot in a different subway station. Marinette was standing in front of a five-year old girl, doing silly moves and hand gestures with a wide grin, while the little girl laughed. It looked utterly ridiculous, but also objectively cute.

Kim giggled a little, but Adrien just smiled. "That is typical Marinette for you. She's so creative!"

"But isn't it… a bit embarrassing to be so silly?" asked Ivan meekly. Adrien shook his head.

"Not at all. This is exactly what the situation called for. My piano teacher always says that you have to do what is right in the moment, and ignore your ego." He nervously scratched his neck. "Of course she is way better than me at that."

Nathaniel gave a thumbs up, and Max nodded. "It's true. Putting Gamer into my video game was… difficult, but necessary. But if it makes people happy, then it is not embarrassing. Marinette taught me that."

He turned to his flying robot friend. "Is Saint Martin really correct? That puts her well ahead of our expected schedule."

Markov nodded. "The images of the video match images on Google for that station. We need to adjust her estimated walking speed at transfer stations."

In the meantime, Ivan had placed himself at the door with an array of twigs and some random pieces of plastic.

"That looks interesting," said Kim. "What are you doing?"

Ivan looked around nervously. "Well, Mylène and I have signed up for a lock-picking workshop at her eco activism group. I've been watching some videos about it on Youtube. So I figured, I could give it a try."

He looked at his twigs.

"I just don't have any of the right tools, so I'm not sure what I can do."

"Sounds awesome! How does it work?"

"Well, from what I can see, you use one tool to kind of turn the lock. And then you put some other thing with a hook inside. And then you wiggle it, and say stuff about 'nothing on one, two is binding, nice click out of three' and so on."

"I don't get it, what does that mean?"

Ivan shrugged. "I think we'll learn that at the workshop. It looks really easy, though. You just do that for a bit, and then you tell people to subscribe."

Kim nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. So you're lacking the right tool, right? I bet you I can find something that works quicker than you can!"

He raced over to Nathaniel.

"Hey, that stylus of yours, do you think you could open a lock with that?"

The artist just shook his head in surprise. Before he could even ask what was going on, Kim had moved over to Nino.

"Yo, dude, your glasses, can we have them? I think I can bend them so the wire part will fit in the lock."

Nino did not even know how to begin to answer that, but apparently his face said everything, because Kim immediately went on the defensive.

"Don't worry, dude, it'll be okay! You can get them back once we're done, I promise!"

"Oh god. Markov, please tell me you have an update on Marinette."

The robot nodded. "New tweet five seconds ago by MPigeon42. 'An idiot pushed these two senior citizens over at hashtag croix rouge. Good thing this girl managed to catch their stuff before it fell on the track.'"

The accompanying image featured an old man and woman, looking very relieved. Next to them stood Marinette at the edge of a subway platform. She was balancing precariously on her right leg, with a wrapped painting under one arm, a suitcase in her other hand, a plastic bag balancing on her outstretched left leg, and a potted fern on her head.

"Wow, that's amazing!", said Kim. "Didn't know Mar-girl had that in her. She's usually so clumsy."

"She's not clumsy!", shouted Adrien. Everyone turned to look at him in shock, which caused him to blush.

"Sorry for shouting. I just mean, she's not really that clumsy. Okay, maybe she can be clumsy at times, but that doesn't mean she is clumsy…"

He nervously scratched his neck as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"It's just that her head is always so full of great ideas for designs, or things that she wants to help people with, that she sometimes forgets to pay attention to where she should place her feet. But you should see her when she's really focused! She's awesome at dancing, and she's the most natural fencer I've ever seen."

He started to smile dreamily again.

"And I mean, yes, she can get tripped up, and that can be really adorable! But she's really good at catching herself! She kind of has that unique way of moving her arms and regaining her balance. It's really kind of graceful if you pay attention. And her gestures are so creative and expressive… Honestly, I could spend hours just watching her."

After a second, he seemed to realise that everyone was staring at him again. His blush returned, but he also seemed slightly confused by why they cared. Nino decided to take pity on his buddy and led him a few meters away.

"You're really fond of Marinette, aren't you?"

Adrien's eyes lit up again. "Of course! I'm really happy she's my friend."

"Did you ever think whether she could become more than that? I'm just saying, dude, when you got over that crush on Ladybug" - Adrien let out a small sigh - "why didn't you ask her out?"

Adrien looked at him with obvious surprise, as if he had never even considered that Marinette might have been an option, but then shook his head.

"I'm really happy to just be her friend. Especially after that rocky start we had with the gum. Besides, she doesn't see me that way."

Nino tried to hide his surprise. Oh god, this was going to be another one of those days where he spent the entire evening on the phone with Alya, just screaming about how stupid Adrien and Marinette were, wasn't it?

"Err, okay, dude. I… did not know that. What makes you say so?"

"Oh, she told me," said Adrien, smiling. "Repeatedly. In fact, whenever she says anything that could be seen as the tiniest bit flirty, she immediately clarifies that she didn't mean it that way."

His smile disappeared and he looked down. "In fact, sometimes I want to tell her that she doesn't have to keep rubbing it in. I definitely wouldn't mind if the prettiest girl in our class said I looked good…"

He started smiling again. "But I know she only does that so I can feel at ease around her, and it works! I know I never have to worry that she grapples me like Chloé or Lila, and I'm really grateful for that."

Nino wasn't really sure how to respond to that. He wanted to point out that Marinette had literally fallen asleep on Adrien before, but he already knew what the answer would be.

Suddenly, there was a series of loud bangs. Nino looked around and saw Max methodically hit the locked door.

"I bet you I can hit that much harder!," shouted Kim, but Max shook his head.

"That is not necessary. Markov and I are trying to create a model of the frequency response of the door. We believe that if we have a complete mathematical model of the geometry and the materials involved, then it should be possible to open the door by hitting it exactly once in the right spot with the right amount of force."

Kim scratched his head.

"But you're hitting it, like, a lot, now, aren't you?"

"This is purely diagnostic impacting. Markov records the generated sound waves to calibrate the assumed stiffness. We only need a few more before we can begin building the model."

"I built a model of a race car once, but I got bored halfway through. But I do know how to use glue! I bet I can help you! Oh, I can hit the door when you figured out where!"

"That would be helpful", said Max. "This will likely require a more substantial amount of force. We will let you know when we are finished."

Markov calculated a bit. "We estimate that at the current speed, with your help, calibration of the model will take us... one thousand four hundred and thirty five minutes."

Kim wrinkled his forehead briefly and shouted, "Dude, that's almost a day!"

"Wait, did you just know that by heart?", asked Ivan. Before Kim could respond, Markov chirped up again.

"We have an update on Marinette. The tweet reads, 'Scary moment! Loud noise in metro train at Porte des Lilas Cinéma. Luckily girl here explained that it was just blown tire, helped everyone get out in orderly fashion. Thanks!'"

The picture showed a now empty subway train, lots of grateful people, and on the edge, a pink leg and a dark grey arm quickly leaving the scene.

"It is unclear whether this update is really from Marinette. Being at Porte des Lilas Cinéma already is impossible even at running speeds."

Max shook his head. "It is possible if she found the shortcut from Champ de Mars to Porte Molitor via the old quarries."

"The existence of this shortcut is listed as unconfirmed on the relevant underground maps."

"Apparently she just confirmed it."

"That means she should be here in… no more than sixteen minutes."

The boys all cheered. Most of them, anyway. Nino noticed that Adrien himself was quiet and fidgeting.

"Dude, Adrien, you look nervous. Anything up?"

"I'm still not sure the whole kiss thing is a good idea."

"But I thought you liked Marinette? I mean, as a friend, but still…"

"But it still seems a bit weird, doesn't it? I mean, kissing her on the cheek as reward or payment, that makes it seem like it's some sort of ordeal for me. That's not true at all!"

He started getting louder without meaning to.

"Marinette is really great. I like spending time with her, and I'll happily kiss her whenever she wants me to."

Everybody stared at him as he began to blush.

"On the cheek, I mean. She's a really good friend, you know?"

The rest of the guys showed varying amounts of confusion and resignation, which Adrien all missed with practiced ease. He looked dreamily in the vague direction that he apparently thought Marinette would come from.

After a moment, Ivan looked up with wide eyes.

"Oh, wow, I just got it! That is why Mylene keeps saying you're sweet but kind of dense. It all makes sense now."

When he noticed everyone staring at him now instead, he looked down and touched his index fingers together.

"'m sorry, I wasn't supposed to say that."

Nino decided that it was probably best to spare his friend any further humiliation. He draped his arm around Adrien's shoulder and whispered,

"Look, if you really don't want to date Marinette, then you gotta be a bit more careful with what you say, dude. I mean, you've got that weird undefined thing with Kagami as well. What would she say if she heard you saying that stuff?"

With his other hand, he took a sip from his water bottle. He was feeling really parched now. Adrien actually seemed to think about the question for a moment, then looked up.

"You know, I think Kagami would be happy to kiss Marinette, too."

Nino sprayed water everywhere and started to cough.

"Erm, okay, dude…"

He had to get away from Adrien just a for a moment before his brain turned to goo. Spending just this evening with Alya screaming was not going to cut it; they'd probably have to pencil in at least two more.

Instead he walked over the Nathaniel, who was currently drawing Ivan's attempts to pick the lock with what looked like an elaborate construction out of grass and an iPhone charging cable.

Nino scooted over, and Nathaniel allowed him a quick look at what he was drawing. It was Ivan, apparently as a new superhero, in what seemed like a combination of a diving suit and a police officer's uniform, with gloved hands that seemed to end in lock picks.

"Just a quick doodle for the next comic. I wish I could help more," said the artist.

"Yeah, too bad you can't just draw the door away… oh, wait, sorry." Nino usually tried to avoid bringing up people's akumatisations. Sure, it helped him to laugh with Alya about how stupid his costume had been, but not everyone agreed. Thankfully, Nathaniel just smiled.

"No problem. I mean, I am really sorry for what I did... but I think the powers of the Evillustrator are a really fun concept for a good hero."

"I agree, having someone with his powers would be really useful for Ladybug and Chat Noir," said Adrien, who had walked over behind Nino.

"Thanks," said Nathaniel, who had apparently decided to take this a compliment. "I just never really liked the name. Marc has suggested Dessinateur instead."

"Oh yes, that's much better!", said Adrien. "Even at the time, you- no, he, that guy who replaced you, was one of the least evil Akumas of all time. All he wanted was to spend a nice evening together with Marinette on a boat on the Seine, just getting to know her better. I mean, we've all had that dream, haven't we?"

He stared out into space, with a smile on his face. Nathaniel made eye contact with Nino. The silent question in his face was clear: Does he really not get it? Nino nodded and shrugged.

In that moment, they heard a clicking and turned around. Marinette emerged somehow from inside the locker building, through the now open door. How had she managed that? Hadn't all the windows been closed? What-?

"Late Am Sorry I!", panted the girl breathlessly. "Lots of stuff on the way."

"Apologies are completely unnecessary", said Max. "You have arrived here fifteen minutes three seconds before we expected you…" He looked like he could not believe it. None of them could.

None of them except for Adrien, of course. He gave her the softest smile that Nino had ever seen on anything ever, and said, "You're amazing, Marinette! Thank you for being around."

Before Marinette could even begin to process what was happening, he had captured her in his arms.

"Without you, we'd have been completely lost, not just today, but every day. Markov has told us how you helped so many people on your way here, and you still arrived early. We really do not deserve you."

Marinette blushed so hard that Nino was fairly certain she could find work as a traffic light. Adrien just ignored that. He let her go, and then leaned down.

Nino was holding his breath, and so was everyone around them. Adrien seemed to have forgotten about any deal here and was just doing what came naturally, as he pressed his lips to her cheek.

"Thank you for being awesome, Marinette."

The other boys gathered round to thank her as well, all of them overjoyed and amazed. She didn't seem to hear anything; her blush was easily the most extreme Nino had ever seen. It took a few minutes before He was able to make his way to the front of the queue.

"Great work, Mari! That was amazing! Thank you so much, dude! We're all super-grateful for this!"

He bent down and whispered conspiratorially, "and I think you really impressed Adrien here."

"You think so?", she said quietly. "I don't know. I just wish, you know, that he'd finally notice me."