Miraculous One Shot Compilation

At Least Friends

"Adrien..." Marinette managed in a hoarse whisper. Her voice was just beginning to return to her after it had run away due to the shock of seeing Chat Noir's true identity.

"Marinette..." Adrien acknowledged Ladybug's civilian form. His voice was a little steadier than hers, but he didn't seem to have any better idea what to say.

"I..." Marinette clenched her fist and looked at her feet. "I have to go!" With no further explanation, Marinette turned on her heel and ran.

Adrien watched in confusion as his friend, whom he'd just learned was one with his love interest, retreated. What was wrong? He'd never quite been able to read her, so it really wasn't that much of a surprise to learn she was behind the mask of the girl he'd fallen so hard for. However, she was only continuing to increase in relevance to his life, so he guessed he'd have to learn to understand her sooner or later.

A snicker came from inside Adrien's jacket, "You might be the worst lovesick Chat Noir I've ever had!"

"Oh, shut it."

--

Chat's stomach twisted as his baton rang Ladybug's number. She wasn't picking up. She probably wasn't transformed at the moment, but he hoped her kwami would let her know someone was trying to contact her.

Ever since the identity reveal, Marinette had been avoiding him - in both forms. At school she wouldn't even say hi, and as Ladybug, she only communicated as much as was necessary to do their job. He didn't know what he could have done wrong!

Finally, after six rings, she picked up. "Hello?"

"Hello, M'Lady, this is Chat, um..." His carefully prepared words fled from his grasp, and he wasn't sure his suddenly dry throat could have uttered them anyway - why did this girl have such an effect on him? It didn't matter anyway; she interrupted him.

"Is it an emergency?"

"No," his voice cracked at exactly the wrong moment. 'Why?! I thought I was mostly over that!'

"Then can we talk about it later?" Her question was apparently rhetorical, since the line went dead before he could respond. 'She must be busy,' he rationalized.

--

Several hours later, he was sure she must be done with whatever she had been doing. "I'll try calling her again - what?" The last bit was directed at his kwami, who was looking disapproving at him.

"Can't you leave me out of your attempts at a love life?" Plagg grumped.

"I'm not making an attempt at a love life right now!"

Plagg gave him a look that said 'Really?'

"Okay," Adrien blushed, "I admit I'd like to be something more with her, but I'm not even trying right now. Right now, I have to make sure we remain at least friends."

"If you're friends, why don't you contact her personally?"

"I don't have her phone number." Adrien absently looked at his phone. It was true, he didn't have Marinette's phone number, but he knew where he could probably get it. Back at the beginning of the year, Alya had gone around giving out her number along with the directive to contact her immediately with any news leads for her to look into. The gregarious reporter had most likely collected the phone numbers of everyone in their class, not to mention she was his partner's best friend.

He opened a text message to her and paused... 'How do you ask someone for her best friend's phone number? Should I lie and say we have some kind of project?' That wouldn't work - Alya was in their class. He decided vague was the way to go, and see how little information he could give her. However, he still suspected he'd probably be interrogated.

"Hey Alya, would you mind telling me Marinette's phone number?"

"Sure! If you can tell me what you plan to do with it."

"Do I need a reason to want to talk to her?"

"No, but you need a reason to get her number from me. Are you planning to ask her out?"

"No." Before he could decide to do otherwise, he sent a follow up message. "Not yet at least."

"But you're going to?"

"I've definitely been considering it."

"+33653257"

"What?"

"Her phone number." Then an immediate subsequent message - "Don't keep her waiting longer than you have."

Oh...kay? At least he got the number. He wondered why Alya seemed so sure that he was going to ask Marinette out. She even made it sound like Marinette was hoping he would - yeah, right. He certainly wasn't asking her out any time soon. His first priority was to get her to talk to him as friends. Then maybe he'd reconsider trying to move things further.

He added Marinette's phone number to his contacts and hit "dial". Surely she must be finished with whatever business had prevented her from talking earlier.

She picked up quicker than she had as Ladybug. "Hello?"

"Hi, Marinette." He resisted calling her by one of his pet names for Ladybug. "This is Adrien - hello?" He switched to testing the connection mid-statement when he thought he heard a click. Apparently he was correct, because the line was once again dead. A quick check of his phone signal confirmed that it was full. Either hers was bad, or... had she hung up on him?

There was no question in his mind as a heavy feeling settled in his gut. Marinette was mad at him. He had no idea what he'd done to anger her, but if her hanging up on him twice in one day wasn't proof, he didn't know what was. He was a little intimidated, to be honest. Though the girl was generally as sweet as her parents' confections, he had seen her angry side before - and it was an extremely difficult obstacle to bypass. If he wanted to get back in her favor - which he did - he'd have to work at it.

--

"Marinette! Wait!" Adrien called out to her as they were exiting class. She ignored him and tried to move past him out the door. He grabbed her by the wrist, forcing her to hear him out. "I don't know what I did wrong, but I'm sorry. If you'd just tell me what I did, I swear I'll try to make things better."

She looked up at him, her blue eyes questioning him before her words did. "What are you apologizing for?"

"I don't know. Whatever I did to make you mad, I hope we can still be friends."

"At least friends!" It took watching the surprised smile grow on Adrien's face for Marinette to realize what she had said; her free hand immediately covered her mouth. "I mean..."

Adrien didn't want Marinette to take back what she'd said, so he quickly changed the subject. He had a question that he'd been wanting to ask her anyway. "Then why did you hang up on me twice?"

A look of understanding flashed through Marinette's eyes before she shifted her gaze downward. "I'm sorry, I didn't stop to think how that would appear to you. It's just... finding out who you really are was such a shock to me, and I wasn't ready to face you yet. Not that it's a bad thing! I couldn't ask for a better partner, so... still friends?"

"At least friends. " He turned her own words back on her with a wink. He lifted her hand, grazing it gently with his lips before letting her go. He was so relieved that things were more than okay between them. She made her exit, turning briefly to give him a cheerful smile before she was completely out the door.

Neither could have known that they simultaneously let out the breath they'd been holding in. "Is this for real? My amazing partner wants a relationship with me?"