Adrien woke up Monday morning. It was day one of Operation: Make Marinette Fall in Love with Me Again, or MMFILWMA. The name needed work.

On the car ride to school, he tried to think. What could he do to make her love him? Give her a flower? Nah, that never worked with Ladybug.

He supposed that he could ask her out and hope for the best. But she would probably think that he was messing with her and not take him seriously.

What worked the first time? The umbrella, of course. But it would be pretty weird if he gave her another one. Plus, it would have to be raining at the right time.

His thoughts were interrupted by an alert on his phone. Another akuma attack. Now he would be late to school and not get a chance to talk to Marinette before class started. Ugh, why wasn't the universe cooperating with his plan?

A minute later his bodyguard pulled up to the curb of the school building. Adrien jumped out and ran inside. But instead of heading towards his friends, he quickly found an empty classroom and transformed.

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"Pound it!"

Okay, that wasn't too bad. It only took about twenty minutes to defeat the akumatized villain, who was really a ten year old kid. Maybe he could even be back in time to catch the end of his first class.

"Hey Chat, " Ladybug said, putting her hand up to her earring. "Would you mind taking this kid back home? I'm almost out of time."

Maybe he wouldn't catch his first class after all.

"Of course, Ladybug," he replied. Oh well, he was already late. A couple of extra minutes wouldn't matter.

"Thanks," she said, taking off with her yo-yo.

Chat Noir brought the kid back home and then hurried back to the school. He landed on the window ledge of the locker room and jumped down to the floor.

"Claws in," he said, transforming back into Adrien. His hand automatically went up, catching Plagg in mid air. With his other hand he pulled the container of Camembert out of his shirt pocket and popped it open.

The kwami quickly ate a piece and then flew up to Adrien's head.

"Come on Plagg, we're already late. We need to get to class."

He was about to walk towards the door when he heard a small noise from behind him. Slowly turning around, his eyes landed on Marinette, who was pressed up against the wall next to the window. One of her hands was clamped over her mouth, the other one was clutching a slim rectangular box to her chest. She was as white as a ghost and tears filled her eyes.

Adrien stopped breathing. He didn't move an inch. He watched as Marinette's eyes moved from him to Plagg. She shook her head slightly.

A minute, that felt like an hour, passed by.

"Um... meow?" Plagg finally said.

Marinette's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell sideways, crashing to the floor. Adrien tried to reach out to catch her but he wasn't close enough. He immediately ran to her and kneeled down, leaning over her.

"Marinette?" he asked weakly. He wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her up a little. With his other hand her brushed the bangs out of her eyes. "Marinette?" he asked again. She wasn't responding, her eyes were closed and her body was limp.

"Oh no," Plagg said, floating next to Adrien. "Ladybug is going to blame me for this."

But Adrien wasn't paying attention to his kwami. "I'm sorry Marinette," he whispered, tears stinging his eyes. "Please wake up." She had hit her head when she fell. Hopefully she didn't have a concussion, or something worse.

A few seconds later he felt Marinette stir slightly.

"Plagg, hide!" Adrien whispered.

"What do you mean? The cat's already out of the bag!" he argued back.

"Just hide!" Adrien hissed at him.

He groaned and disappeared into Adrien's shirt.

Marinette stirred again, her eyes still closed. She slowly reached her hand up to the side of her head, flinching from pain when she made contact. After a moment her eyes fluttered open and she tried to sit up, but fell back into Adrien's arm.

She blinked a few times, trying to regain her focus. Once her vision cleared, she froze at seeing the face in front of her. The tears welled up again as the memories came flooding back.

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Finally, Marinette tilted her head. "Adrien?" she said weakly, a single tear falling down her cheek.

"I'm so sorry Marinette," he choked out.

She continued looking at him but jumped at hearing the locker room door.

Alya walked in but stopped at seeing the scene in front of her. "Oh my gosh, Marinette. What happened?" she asked frantically, running up to them and kneeling down.

"Uh, uh..." Adrien sputtered, trying to come up with a convincing lie.

Marinette interrupted him. "I, uh... tripped and fell," she said, another tear falling.

"Oh Marinette," Alya lamented. "Are you hurt?"

"She hit her head pretty hard," Adrien said, keeping his eyes on Marinette.

"Come on, we need to get you to the nurse's office," Alya said, wrapping her arm around her side.

The two helped Marinette get to her feet.

"Are you okay to walk?" Alya asked.

"I can carry you," Adrien offered.

She looked up at him. "I can walk," she whispered.

He nodded and grabbed her hand, guiding her out of the locker room.

He and Alya led her to the nurse's office, where he explained that she fell and hit her head. The nurse brought her into the back room to examine her.

"You should get to class. I'll hang out here for a while and make sure she's okay," the redhead told Adrien when they were alone.

"I'll wait for her," he replied.

"No, you go. As her best friend, I want to be here for her. Seriously, it's not a problem."

He reluctantly agreed and went to class. When he sat down Nino leaned over and whispered to him. "Where have you been, dude?"

"Early morning photoshoot," Adrien mumbled back.

Nino nodded and turned his attention back to the lesson.