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Disclaimer: I must make it clear that if you are not old enough to watch a PG-13 movie, you might not be old enough for this fanfiction, as there may be some humor or situations that would be considered inappropriate or too mature for that anyone below that age group. I'm not your parent. I'm not gonna stop you. But I also won't be responsible for anyone who reads beyond this point and gets "offended". You have been warned.

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The next morning was much more pleasant to both of them than the first, and much less dramatic. Adrien was pulled out of his dreams by the warm body in his arms stirring lazily, the weight of her head pressed into the crook of his neck. He cracked one eye open, glancing down to the sleeping figure beside him. Marinette was laying with her torso half-draped over his chest, her free hand gently splayed over his shoulder. Her breath was tickling the side of his neck and he repressed a giggle, softly nudging her awake, "Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty! We have school today!"

"Just give me ten more minutes, Chat, please,"

Adrien's hand stilled on her shoulder, and the sudden lack of motion seemed to be enough to jerk her out of her precious slumber. She jolted backwards, almost falling off the bed in the process, and stared at him with wide eyes.

Throat dry, Adrien stared back, stammering weakly, "D-did you just call me Chat?"

She let out a loud groan, hiding her face in her pillow. "I'm so sorry... You can't tell anyone, okay?"

When Adrien nodded, very well aware of the secret his friend was about to confide in him but curious about the way she was going to word it, Marinette sighed softly, "The thing is, from time to time, Chat Noir drops by my house. He's stopped by a few times while I happened to be asleep in my chair, must be where the confusion stems from... I'm really sorry."

"Are you two close?" he asked, conscious that he was grasping at straws by that point. Why her opinion on his leather-clad alter-ego mattered that much to him, he couldn't say, but he couldn't stand the idea of her disliking Chat Noir.

Thankfully, she cut his misery short, answering with a fond smile, "I guess you could say that. He's kind of a goofball sometimes, but he's the bravest and kindest soul I've ever met. Don't ever tell him I said that, but he's amazing."

Adrien couldn't have kept the goofy grin off his face if he tried. So he instead attempted to morph it into a teasing smile, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "Seems like someone's quite fond of a certain cat."

She blushed, a lovely shade of red that made his heart race a little faster in his chest. "Who isn't? I mean, sure, he can't cleanse the akumas by himself, but anyone with a functional brain knows how great a team he and Ladybug are, and how lucky we have to have them watching over us. She would be lost without him."

Adrien was sure his face matched his partner's suit perfectly right that second. A pleasant warmth spread inside him, and he did the only thing he could think of to derail his thoughts from a really dangerous path: he clambered towards the edge of the bed, half dragging poor Marinette in his haste, and mumbled, "We better get up now if we actually want to eat anything before school starts."

A few moments later, they had successfully pulled themselves into a standing position, not without some struggle on Marinette's part.

Marinette threw on a pair of skinny light-washed jeans and a chic halter top before giving Adrien the green light to remove the scarf around his eyes. As he did so, his fingers brushed against the familiar stitching on the end of it, for the very first time paying close attention to the threads. Marinette's odd reaction the day prior upon realizing he still had it was still lingering at the back of his mind, and he softly swiped the pad of his thumb across the light blue thread.

How he never noticed it before, he couldn't say for the life of him, but there was something embroidered into one of the ends of the scarf. His breath hitched in his throat, and waited, unsteady and anxious, his thumb gently tracing the letters he could decipher into the stitching.

"All good, you can get dressed, Adrien. Could you hand me the scarf?" Marinette's kind voice brought him back to reality.

He undid the knot, but instead of handing the scarf to his friend, his fingers lingered on it, his eyes examining the fabric closely. There it was, unmistakable, the word he thought he could feel under his skin a few seconds prior.

Marinette.

"Ma... Marinette..." Adrien breathed softly, unable to tear his gaze away from the birthday gift that had meant so much to him, from the single word that was currently morphing his insides into a wild roller coaster ride.

"Yes?" she asked, readjusting the wrist cozy on the handcuff, blissfully unaware of his inner turmoil.

He lifted cautious eyes toward her, knowing all too well that her answer to his next question could very well mean his undoing just as much as it could be the beginning of a deeper friendship between the two of them. "Marinette, why is your name embroidered in my favorite scarf?"

Their eyes met, and Marinette shifted uncomfortably in front of him. "I- Uh.... umm....." Her eyes widened and she could feel her brain getting frazzled as she desperately tried to come up with a plausible explanation. When she came up empty-handed, she sighed and resignedly admitted, "B-because I made it?"

"You... you did? But... how? Did my father buy it from you?"

Marinette flushed bright red, nibbling at her lower lip softly, and intently avoided his gaze. All her body language was screaming just how much she wasn't at ease with the conversation topic, and for a split-second, Adrien considered withdrawing his question. Before he could, however, she whispered, "No. No, he didn't. I'm sorry, Adrien." She gulped loudly, still averting her eyes from him. "I... I don't have a clue about how it happened, but there was some kind of mix-up that day, and you ended up thinking the gift was from your father. I... You were so happy about it, and I..."

"Why didn't you say anything about it, Marinette? I don't understand," he asked, unable to tear his eyes away from the blush spreading on her cheeks.

She smiled, a soft, gentle smile that made his heart clench in his chest and finally looked up at him. "I made that scarf to make you happy. And it did. The rest didn't matter."

That was far more than Adrien could take with a straight face. He was used to people going out of their way to make him happy, but they always had something else in mind. There always sought money, fifteen minutes of fame, or favors from his father.

But Marinette hadn't wanted any of that. She had done a wonderful thing for his birthday, for him.

Because she cared for him, and wanted him to be happy.

He felt tears pricking at his eyes, and a sudden jolt of apprehension at the idea that Marinette might witness him crying. At the same time, his heart swelled pleasantly, knowing what the amazing girl in front of him had done out of pure kindness.

Without thinking, he reached forward and pressed his lips on the milky skin of her forehead, wrapping his arms snugly around her back, hoping she hadn't had time to notice the tears shining in his eyes. In the back of his mind, Adrien briefly wondered if he should have been shocked at how naturally, how normal it felt to be touching her at all times like that, how comfortable he felt with her around.

The warmth of her skin under his lips, how good she felt within the embrace of his arms, maybe he should have thought it was strange, but it just felt right. He smiled against her forehead, pushing those intrusive concerns away, and whispered, "I can't thank you enough, Marinette. You're amazing."

She flushed, trying to keep her pounding heart in check. How fair was it that he had that kind of effect on her?

She finally came to and wrapped her available arm around his waist to return the hug. "You're welcome, Adrien."

Neither of them managed to utter anything serious after that, both of them instead focusing on getting Adrien dressed and eating their breakfast with comfortable chatter. Shortly after, they gathered their stuff for school and got ready to leave. With a small smile, Marinette slipped her free arm into her schoolbag's strap.

Her smile quickly turned to a frown as the unmistakable sound of fabric ripping pierced the air. She froze, panic filling her eyes as she clutched her top to her chest, afraid of the consequences of what had just happened.

"Are you okay, Mari?" Adrien asked softly.

"I... I think I just ripped my shirt."

Her tone was urgent, almost desperate, and having been around a lot of fashion faux-pas in his young life, Adrien thankfully knew exactly what to do on such an occasion. "Turn around, I'll take a look."

Granted, the sharp hiss that escaped his lips upon assessing the damages probably wasn't the best way of reassuring his friend on her current state of clothing.

"That bad?"

Adrien gulped, eyeing the ripped garment. "The stitches ripped open, you'll have to change."

"But I don't have another shirt with me! Can I just tie it up or something?"

"I'm afraid not. It's ripped all the way down, it won't stay upright if you let go."

Marinette let out a pitiful groan, but before Adrien could react, she raised her head back up. "Okay. I can roll with that. Do you have a dress shirt I can borrow? With long sleeves?"

Confused, Adrien led her to his closet, where she selected a pitch black cotton shirt that could serve her purpose.

He watched her wordlessly as she sprung into action, her brows furrowed as she focused on the task at hand. Marinette undid a few of the buttons, then stepped into the shirt like you would a dress. Wriggling the garment up to her chest, so that the button hem acted as the top of her makeshift shirt, she tugged the broken halter top out from beneath it. What happened next was pure magic as far as Adrien was concerned. She tied and adjusted the sleeves with finesse.

When she was done, Adrien gulped painfully, looking at the way the fabric of his shirt hugged her beautiful curves. The collar of the shirt was underlining her collarbone alluringly, and she had tied the sleeves in her back, making her waist pop.

Swallowing, Adrien sighed, ignoring the way her current state of dress was making him feel. "That's amazing... How did you even think of this?"

With a cheeky wink, Marinette chuckled lightly, a sound Adrien found himself quite fond of. "A girl like me basically lives on Pinterest, Adrien. I have tricks up my sleeve to do stuff you can only dream about."

They laughed and joked with each other as they gathered up their things to head back downstairs. Her heart beating hard in her chest, Marinette followed Adrien through the mansion, letting him carry her bag if only for the sake of her makeshift outfit.

Before they could get into the waiting car, though, someone rattled their throat behind them, startling them both.

"Isn't that one of my shirts?" Gabriel Agreste's voice enquired, startling both teens out of their playful banter.

Adrien was the first one to regain his bearings, blushing slightly and uttered quietly, "It is. Marinette had a slight wardrobe malfunction, so I lent her a shirt of mine."

Both teenagers were waiting for the storm to hit, shoulders tensed and heads hung low. What neither of them had been prepared for, though, was for Gabriel to stand appreciatively in front of the pair, eyeing her handiwork with a slight smile. "That was very resourceful, Mlle Dupain-Cheng. Well done."

In the amount of time it took Marinette to wipe the shocked expression off of her face after Gabriel Agreste had left them on that parting comment, they had arrived at school. Adrien's bodyguard hurried them out of the car, and they barely had time to greet their friends waiting for them on the school steps before Nino playfully pounced on Adrien, a cheerful "Bro!" echoing on the sidewalk.

What the young DJ hadn't accounted for, though, was that the motion would pull Marinette along with them, sending the impromptu trio tumbling on the concrete. Startled, Alya only managed to gawk at them, trying (and failing) to understand what had just happened.

"Uh... Marinette? Were you in Adrien's car just now?" she asked, incredulous.

Her best friend groaned in pain, accepting the hand Adrien that offering her to get up. "There... there was a mishap at the museum on Saturday. Adrien and I are more or less..."

Her voice trailed off, obviously unsure of the best way of presenting their predicament. Adrien smiled, holding their bound hands high so their friends could see for themselves, "Let's just say lovely little Manon played a trick on us."

Before Nino or Alya could reply, a loud shrill resonated through the entire schoolyard, scaring a life or two out of the group.

"MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY ADRIKINS?"

Sure enough, Chloe Bourgeois was marching toward them, visibly fuming, a frowning Sabrina in tow. Marinette braced herself for the confrontation, the pure hatred oozing from the mayor's daughter not being a really good omen for what was sure to follow.

The few people who weren't already staring at them across the courtyard turned toward the commotion upon hearing the outraged gasp that left the heiress' mouth at that moment.

"What is this, Marinette? What horrible mess have you dragged my poor Adrien into? Let him out of those things right now!"

With a resigned sigh, Marinette lifted their bound hands, the handcuffs shining almost tauntingly in the sunlight. "I couldn't even if I wanted to, Chloe. There's no key."

Chloe huffed loudly. "Is this some sort of con?" she barked, disdain and anger seeping through every word. "Did you handcuff yourself to him because you couldn't figure out on your own how to get him to actually spend time around you?"

Marinette felt Adrien stiffen next to her.

"Chloe, ouch," interjected Nino. "That isn't fair."

Alya was seeing red and shrieked, "You take that back right now!"

Chloe continued as if she hadn't heard either of them and rummaged through her purse to get her phone out, "This is ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! Hang in there, Adrichou, I'll just call Daddy and he'll get someone to free you from those tacky handcuffs."

Marinette took a deep breath, trying to calm her jittering nerves before replying to her long-term bully. She didn't want to turn this into a screaming match, and she knew that her words were only that, words.

Before she could react, though, Adrien scooted closer to her so they were shoulder-to-shoulder and grabbed her right hand, lacing his fingers through hers without any hesitation, (much to Chloe's disbelief and confusion) and beamed at his childhood friend, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "You got it all wrong, Chlo. I wanted to see what it would be like to have a girlfriend for a few days, so I handcuffed myself to Marinette. I've had a sheltered upbringing, I didn't know it wasn't socially acceptable! But on the plus side, I've loved every minute of it!"

Chloe stammered a few unintelligible words while glaring at Adrien and at their joined hands back and forth for a long, agonizing minute before spinning on her heels and vanishing into the school with a displeased scowl, muttering indistinctly to herself as she walked off.

Marinette let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, and looked at Adrien with a grateful smile.

"Thanks so much for this, you saved me from a very painful confrontation."

In the spur of the moment, she stood on her tiptoes, placing a soft peck on his cheek. Adrien froze and spluttered what he dearly hoped sounded at least a little bit like "You're welcome". Why in the world did Marinette touching him affectionately mess with his head like this? He shouldn't be getting flustered by a simple kiss on the cheek, he was French for Heaven's sake! Plus, he was already in love with Ladybug! You can't be in love with two people at the same time, right?

...Right?