Marinette's head exploded, when Adrien commented on her dress. She began to stutter trying to say something, but she couldn't form any words. Then the people who were staring at Chloe approach them.

"Marinette, I love your dress," a girl spoke.

"Um, thanks.." Marinette replied somehow gaining her ability to speak again.

"Where did you get it?"

"I made it."

Then there was a laugh coming from Chloe. She pushed through the crowd and stop right in front of Marinette. There was a huge smirk on her face. "I'm quite disappointed with your, Marinette."

"Huh?"

"If you were a 'fashion designer'," Chloe went on and did air quotes around fashion designer. "You would know that polka dots are so last season."

Marinette felt her blood begin to boil. Of course Chloe would try to put her down. She was just jealous that she was able to make something. Plus she took attention away from her. There was only of thing she could do. Marinette just gave her a cold shoulder and walked away from everyone. She then went inside the school and went their classroom. Alya followed right behind her.

"Aren't you going to fight back?" her friend asked.

"No because that's what she wants. Chloe feeds off of negative attention so why give it to her?"

"Good point." The two made it to their classroom and the rest of the class filed in. Chloe looked annoyed. Alya leaned over to Marinette. "I guess it worked."

Marinette opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Rose.

"Excuse me, Marinette?" she spoke in a quite voice.

Marinette turned and looked at her with a smile. "Yes, Rose?"

"I was wondering.." she paused for a moment. She looked hesitant. " Could you make me a pink a dress? I really like yours.."

"Oh, um," Marinette bit her lip. She has never made a something big as a dress before for someone. She usually made hats and scarfs. 

"Please!" Rose beg. "I really would love to have something you designed! I really loved your costumes from the play."

Marinette smiled at her. "Sure, why not. Just tell me what you like and I'll make a selection for you to pick on."

"Oh thank!!" Marinette's classmate cheered. She then told Marinette what she wanted in a dress. After Marinette wrote it down, the teacher entered the classroom and Rose returned to her seat.

Adrien saw the malicious glint in Chloe's eyes as soon as she approached them, but she spoke before he could stop her, resulting in Marinette leaving the conversation.  "Not cool, Chloe," he said as he heading in the same direction as Marinette.

Nino followed him, the hint of a small smile on his face. Adrien raised an eyebrow.  "Why are you smiling?  Chloe was putting Marinette down."

"I wasn't smiling about that." Adrien looked at Nino cluelessly until Nino continued, "I was just thinking you and Marinette have gotten pretty close, and you were blushing."

Adrien was quiet for a moment as he processed this news. "I mean, we've had a good time together when working on projects," he said.  Of course that didn't even touch on the blush and how hot he found her this morning.

"Dude, you played DDR in a public place for her.  We've never played DDR in public together because of your dad's restriction," Nino threw in.

Adrien shrugged.  "We're going to be late if we don't hurry," he said.  They continued to the classroom, entering just as Rose was asking Marinette to design her a dress.  Adrien smiled, watching as Marinette went from unsure to accepting the commission.

He and Nino sat in their seats as the teacher entered the room.  Roll call started, but Adrien barely paid attention.  If he was starting to like Marinette, did that mean he was not as in love with Ladybug as he thought he was? Or was he on the more confusing and painful path of loving two girls at once?  The last thing he wanted was to pursue both of them at the same time.

Shaking his head, he wrote a quick note and passed it to Marinette, 'Congrats on your first client. :)'  

Marinette looked shock, when Adrien passed her a note. She opened it and read it. Marinette was about to let out a scream, but bit hard on her lip. She couldn't believe it. He passed her a note. It seem silly to get worked up over something like this, but it meant she was getting somewhere. They were becoming friends. She quickly jot down a thank you and passed him back the note.

The moment Adrien was reading the note their teacher turned faced the class. She cleared her throat. "Alright so next Friday we're going to have a math test." The class let out groan. "And it's 50% of your grade." There was another groan. "Now calm down you have two weeks to study! It's should be easy."  

After school, Marinette and Alya were walking home together. They were talking about how Adrien passed her a note. As they were talking they heard a loud noise following police sirens. They turned and saw a car driving down the road super fast. The police were chasing it. The car turned a corner and then suddenly started driving up on a building. Both Alya and Marinette gasped. 

"Oh my god!!" Alya screamed in delight and dug out her phone. "It has to be an akuma!" She then started recording a video for a blog. "Alya here! Right now I am standing in front of an akuma attack! My friend Marinette and I are going to follow it!"

"What!?" Marinette yelled. "It's dangerous! We should let Ladybug and Chat Noir handle this!"

Alya turned the camera on her. "Well duh! We're doing this to record them fight! Now come on!" Alya took her friend by the arm and ran off dragging her. They ran down the sidewalk and Alya had her camera on the car. 

Marinette was panicking. She had to get away from Alya, but how? She thought for a moment and then an idea hit her. She let herself trip and fall to the ground. Alya stopped running and looked down at her friend. "Alya, go with out me I think I pulled muscle."

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine. Just keep on going! The blog needs you."

"Alright," Alya replied with a look a doubt and then ran off. 

Marinette stood up and went down an alleyway. Tikki popped out of her purse. "That was tricky."

"Isn't it always? Welp time to transform," Marinette replied. "Tikki spots on!"  Marinette transformed into Ladybug. She took her Yo-Yo and cast up to allow herself to the climb the building that was beside the building. She ran across rooftops until she spotted the car. It was back on the main road. She hopped off the building and landed on top of the car.

The driver's window opened and the akuma greeted her. He was dressed like an old race car driver. "It's a pleasure to meet you Ladybug. The name is Radracer."

"Pull over," Ladybug said in the demanding voice.

"No can do!" He put his head back in the car and increased the speed. Ladybug lost balanced and went flying off the car.

Adrien was in the middle of homework in the back of the car when his phone buzzed. He dug it out of his pocket to check what was going on. It was an alert from the Ladyblog.  He installed the alert system to keep him up to date with any attacks that did not happen near him.  Adrien opened the browser on his phone and watched a muted video feed to see Alya and Marinette heading toward an akuma attack. He quickly took note of the location.

"Uh, Gor... uh sir.  I need to stop real quick," he said, almost calling the driver Gorilla like he often did in his mind.

"I was instructed to take you straight home," the driver answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I know.  It'll be really quick.  I promise," Adrien answered, not sure if it would actually be quick or not.  He really needed to get to the fight.

"What exactly do you need?" Gorilla asked.

Adrien thought for a moment, his eyes falling on a nearby craft store.  "We have an art project that's going to be due next week.  I need some supplies.  Can we please stop.  I'm sure father won't mind if it's for school."

Thankfully, his driver took him at his word and pulled into the craft store.  "Is fifteen minutes enough time?  I don't think you can stay there any longer without interfering with your photo shoot tonight."

"I'll do my best," Adrien answered, jumping out of the car before Gorilla could protest.  He let himself blend into the crowd before ducking to the side of the building and making sure no one was watching.  

"Plagg," he whispered.  The kwami yawned from his pocket, making no attempt to move. Adrien gently dug the sleeping kwami from his pocket. He looked like a kitten when he was asleep. "Come on, Plagg. It's time for action. Claws out!"

Plagg's eyes snapped open in mild surprise as he was pulled into the ring, and Adrien transformed. He would have to apologize later, but he didn't have time to waste right now. He extended his staff and jumped to land on top of the building and jumped over the roof tops to get to where the attack was happening.

He just got to a building above the fight when Ladybug was flying off the car. Chat jumped, grabbing her mid-air; the impact pushing him backwards to land somewhat painfully on his back.  He took a moment to catch his breath, glad he had made it before she was thrown into a building. 

"Hey, Bugaboo.  I didn't know you were falling for me," he said with a smile while pushing them both up to a sitting position.  Thankfully, the magic of being a superhero had kept him from breaking anything in the fall, but man would he be sore after this fight.

Ladybug glanced at the ground as she was falling preparing to land until she felt something grabbing her. She then heard Chat's stupid pick up line. She just rolled her eyes and looked at him angrily. "Chat, you dummy! You shouldn't put yourself at risk like that!" She then patted him on the cheek. "Thank you though." She quickly stood up and the car was gone.

She took the roof of her building with her Yo-Yo. She glanced around and saw so signs of it. Ladybug then quickly jumped off and rejoined Chat. "He's gone. And I don't hear sirens anymore." She then let out a sigh. "I guess we're going to have to search for him tonight. Are you free?"

Chat averted his eyes as she scolded him, but perked up as she patted his his cheek.  She was the most important person to him.  Of course he would put his life on the line to keep her safe.  He did a few stretches as she went to look for their opponent.  She hadn't motioned for him to follow, so he figured she would return in a moment.

He smiled as she returned and asked him if he was free tonight.  "A date sounds wonderful, my lady," he said, taking the chance.  His eyes glinted in amusement as an annoyed look appeared on her face.  Honestly, he'd have to sneak out tonight and hope for the best, but he wasn't going to tell her that. "I'm free. Should we meet by the statue?"

Ladybug nodded her head. "Sounds good. Meet me there at midnight." She then cast her Yo-Yo on to a building and ran toward home. She knew Alya would probably come by to her house to talk about today's attack. 

Later that night Ladybug returned to the statue and saw no signs of Chat. She sat down on its pedestal and waited for him. Ladybug wondered if he had any trouble getting out his home. Heck she wondered about his home life sometimes. Maybe she would ask him about it someday.

Around 11:30, Adrien started to plan his escape. His father had recently upgraded their security system and hired extra security. This meant there were more obstacles to avoid as he sneaked out.  Plagg landed on his shoulder as he cracked the door to his room.  "Why not just go out the window," the kwami asked.

"We got a new silent alarm recently. All the windows are wired. I need to disable the alarm and go out the back door so the police don't show up," Adrien whispered, slipping out of his room as quietly as he could and heading down the long hallway towards the stairs. He had to duck behind a plant as Nathalie ran past a moment later. He never realized she stayed this late.

The rest of his route was pretty much void of people, and he was able to make it through the kitchen (grabbing some cheese for Plagg on the way) and out to the back door.  He put in the code at the back door security panel, waited for it to reset, and then set it again before sneaking across the yard and to the wall. 

He was able to climb over the wall in civilian form and hid in a tree.  A glance at his phone said it was 11:45pm.  So he was going to be a little bit late.  Well, Ladybug would probably understand.  He transformed and headed to the statue for their meeting.

Chat slipped down from the buildings and walked the rest of the way to the statue. Ladybug was already there when he arrived. "Good evening.  Did I make you wait long?" he murmured as sat next to her on the pedestal.

"Not too long," she replied. She was glad he could make it. She then jumped off the pedestal and smiled at him. "Let's get going then." They took off and searched the entire city for the akuma. Ladybug and Chat searched for about an hour until they took a break. They decided to take a break on the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug sat down on one of the beams and gazed out onto the city. It was a beautiful night.  "I guess this one is going to be tricky."

Chat nodded, looking over the city.  He could see his house from here; large, dark, and lonely with the occasional dot indicating a guard walking through the yard.  Hopefully, no one had noticed he was gone.

"I wonder where it could have gone.  You can't really hide a car driving that fast..." he murmured while continuing to scan the streets of Paris.  There were no lights or sirens from police cars, and the streets (other than the large, main roads) were pretty much empty.

His belt tail waved in the gentle breeze as they continued to watch for signs of the akuma.  While spending time with her was great, Chat needed something to fill the silence.  "So, how was your day today?  Other than being thrown off a car, anyway..."

"Hmm?" She was kicking her feet back and forth as she dangled them. Adrien's note popped into her mind and she was blushing. "It was pretty good." She looked back at him. "What about yours?"

Chat leaned back, looking at the night sky as he thought for a moment. "It was pretty much the same as any other day.  I always have a lot to do, so the days tend to meld together other than anything related to the akumas.  They're always a lot more unpredictable."

He didn't mention his being grounded and the need to sneak out to make it to the fights right now.  He should have since it had already made him late to the scene multiple times, but he doubted she would want to hear about it.

Hmm a busy Chat. She didn't picture him to be the busy type. Ladybug looked back at the city and let out a yawn. It was getting late and she had school the next day. She stood up. "I think I'm going to head home. It's getting late. We would have seen the akuma by now.." She then looked back at him. "Hopefully we'll catch it during the day tomorrow if not let's meet at the statue again tomorrow night. Same time." Ladybug then took off and headed home.

Chat watched her disappear into the surrounding scenery.  He wondered, for the umpteenth time, who she was.  It was her right to keep her identity a secret, but sometimes it hurt. They trusted each other with their lives every battle. Would it really hurt to reveal their identities?

'Yes. It could...' he thought. If either of them were put in a situation where Hawk Moth could make them tell him the other's identity it would be extremely dangerous.  But still...  It would be nice to be able to talk to her outside of battle...

He sighed and pushed the thought away.  He needed to head home too.  He eyed his house and noticed there were no more dots moving around the yard. Perfect time to get back inside. He stood and jumped, letting himself fall a few feet before extending his staff to catch himself and heading home.

It was now the following Monday and Ladybug and Chat Noir have yet to catch the akuma. He would drive around the city like crazy and then suddenly vanished. They spent most of their nights searching for it which was stressing Ladybug out. Ladybug returned to her room and detransformed. She then collapsed on her bed. Tikki floated above her with a concern look on her face.

"I think you're over doing it, Marinette," the kwami squeaked. 

"I am not," Marinette protested. She sat up in bed and turned on her lamp. She then grabbed her math text book. Earlier that night she spent so much time working on Rose's dress she didn't study for the test.

"You should put the dress on hold so you can focus on your studies and the akuma. Rose will understand."

"But she looked so happy, when I showed her the design. She wants to wear it to a family party so I need to make sure it's done in time."

Tikki sighed and closed Marinette's math book. "Go to bed. It's 2 am." Marinette could be so stubborn. She then turned off the lamp. Marinette obeyed Tikki and went to bed.

As the week dragged on Marinette was staying up later and later. She was trying so hard to balance everything. The akuma, the math test, and the dress. It was wearing her out. She even fell asleep in class one day. But that didn't stop her despite Tikki's protests.

When the day of the test finally arrived, Marinette crawled out of bed that morning. She felt like she was hit by a train. She walked down the stairs from her loft and got ready for school. Tikki was watching her closely as she got dressed. Marinette was moving quite sluggish. Tikki flew over to her and placed her hand on her forehead. It felt warm.

"Marinette, I think you should stay home," Tikki spoke in a concern voice. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine, Tikki," Marinette replied as she was trying to put her hair up. 

"But your warm!"

Marinette just patted her on the head. "I have to go. Today's the test."

"You can make it up!"

Tikki's owner ignored her and grabbed her school bag. Tikki quickly flew into the bag knowing she has the lost the battle once again. Her owner walked down the stairs and left the apartment quickly. She didn't want her parents to see her.

Marinette arrived at school and headed straight to her classroom. She was almost late. She entered her classroom and took her seat. Alya stared at her for a moment and made a comment about her appearance. Marinette opened her mouth to say something, but the teacher walked in. A few classes went by and Marinette pushed herself to sit through them. When it was finally time to take the test, she fell asleep.

The teacher took noticed and walked over to her. "Marinette, you need to wake up." She shook her.

"Huh?" Marinette opened her eyes. She looked lost.

Being a mom the teacher frowned. She then placed her hand on her forehead. "Oh, dear. You're burning up."

"I am..?' Marinette spoke in a daze.

The teacher looked around the classroom and laid eyes on Adrien. " Adrien, will you please take her to the nurse?"

"Ahh!! No I'm fine!!" Marinette spoke in panic. "I need to finish my test!"

The teacher grabbed it and looked at it. "Honey, you only wrote your name. You're not well enough to take it."

"But!"

"You can make it up," the teacher gave her a smile.

Marinette groan.