Miraculous The In-Betweens

Could it Be?

 The little red ladybug kwami shook her head at her miraculous holder, as she hid in the handmade purse listening to the conversation happening outside of the bag. She loved Marinette, but sometimes the girl really needed a boost in confidence. More specifically a boost in confidence around her crush. She had hundreds of pictures of him in her room which she talked to all the time, but not in a conversational way, more of just talking to herself about him. The poor girl was hopeless when it came to a live interaction. Of course, now the boy knew about those pictures seeing as that was what the whole interaction had sparked from. The fact that her bedroom had been live on TV, and Adrien himself had seen all those pictures while watching the show.

"Are you lying?" He asked her teasingly. The bag swayed back as Marinette moved. Man, it would be a lot more interesting if Tikki could actually see what was happening outside of the bag.

"No! I'm so not into you, sure I'm interested in you but not in that way." Answered Marinette adding a very unconvincing laugh to the end of her splutter of words. Tikki just facepalmed her tiny fin sighing as her Ladybug made a fool of herself...again. Another more realistic laugh joined hers.

"Just teasing." He said, "I understand, don't worry. I've gotten used to having fans, and photographs of me everywhere. Even in the most unlikely places." Marinette laughed nervously.

"As if someone would have a picture of you under a bed right?" Oh Marinette, way to give yourself away again, Tikki thought.

"Yeah, I was wondering since you're into fashion so much," he paused, "you could come watch my next photo shoot?"

"No way! For you? Freal...real...for real?" Hey, maybe Marinette wasn't completely hopeless after all, even with all the stammering. Or Adrien was just being extremely kind, which he always was according to Marinette.

"Honestly it's pretty long and boring but if you were there it would definitely be more fun. Whaddya say?" Tikki hoped Marinette wouldn't mess up again and say no, she did that once when he offered her a ride home, after all the effort her and her friends went through to get that to happen too...

"Oh, wow! YES!" Marinette said way to eagerly for someone trying to hide her feelings for the boy, she lowered her volume, "Thank you Adrien."

"I'll keep you posted then. See you later in class." He said as Tikki heard his footsteps walk away and felt the bag and Marinette swing around to follow his exit. "I'm glad to have you as one of my fans." He said softly as he left. Marinette just gasped a little and then Tikki heard the door open and close signaling that he had left. She peeked out of the bag and looked at her Ladybug.

"Relax Marinette you can breathe now," Tikki said smiling at the grinning girl.

"He invited me to one of his photoshoots!" She said excitedly putting her arms in the air. Tikki flew up to Marinette's face so she could see her better.

"Yeah, that's awesome! And you even managed to get some normal sentences out too." She teased. Marinette paused and put her arms down looking at her beloved kwami.

"Oh come on, that's not funny." She said, Tikki put her hands on her hips and shook her head serious-faced.

"You're totally right. It is not funny." Marinette looked at the cute little face trying to be serious and smiled, the two end up laughing at each other. Okay, it was a little funny.

Adrien lay his head against the back of the door where he'd just left the giddy Marinette. He had a lot to think about after all. Though he wasn't completely certain, he had a feeling he knew who Ladybug was, and he felt bad about it. He hated to admit it, but even though he wanted to know who his Lady was, he also loved the mystery behind her spotted mask. He shouldn't jump to conclusions like Alya often did when it came to the same topic though and he didn't have time to just sit there all day, school would be starting soon so he headed towards the stairs where Alya and Nino stood talking to each other. It was funny to him how "in love" Nino had been with Marinette before he got a moment with Alya locked in a cage together. He was glad his two friends had gotten together though, it was still fun hanging out, they never made anyone feel like they were third wheeling or anything when they were all together.

"Hey guys. Ready for class?" Adrien asked them as he hit the bottom stair to go up next to Alya.

"Yeah, and I'm really excited too," Nino said sarcastically. Adrien laughed at him.

"You guys go on, I'm going to wait and see if Marinette's going to be able to show her face today after yesterday," Alya said looking towards the entrance. Marinette had been determined to avoid everyone when she came in and had almost made it unnoticed, till Adrien appeared almost magically beside her locker.

"She's here already." Adrien said, "I'll see you in a bit." Nino and Adrien headed up the stairs as Alya shook her head at her crazy bff.

"Marinette, Marinette, Marinette..." She mumbled. She was going to have some explaining to do when Alya found her. She'd go easy on her though since yesterday disaster probably already mortified her clumsy friend. The bell rang the final warning and Alya knew that Marinette was either waiting to slip in unnoticed while the final rush of students came into class, or late so as to avoid any conversation. So in other words, she knew she oughta just get to class. Either way, she would be seeing Marinette fairly soon anyway.

Just as she thought, class started up and Alya watched as Marinette tried to sneak her way in. Alya had set on the very edge of her seat so she could let Marinette into their shared desk without having to cross in front of Adrien himself. She surprised Alya with her ability to appear unnoticed. Nobody, not even the teacher, who granted was turned around, looked her way besides Alya herself. Alya slid out of her seat stealthily and Marinette slid across to hers somehow successfully, passing Alya a grateful look afterward. Marinette looked down at Adrien smiling to herself thinking about when she'd get to go see his photoshoot, what if she got to be in it?! Marinette started to ask herself about a thousand what if questions, letting her imagination get the better of her, per the usual. Alya shook her head as she watched her friend in her own world freaking herself out, or calming herself down.

Nino, on the other hand, was not having as much fun sitting next to Adrien who looked straight ahead at the teacher. Though he looked like he was paying attention, Nino knew his best bud better than that. Adrien was clearly in a different state of mind much like Marinette was, only his was more of an inner struggle. Adrien had had the chance to see who Ladybug was yesterday and he didn't want to look and ruin their team trust, it had been an accident to see as much of her as he did. Her mask had come halfway off, and while he hadn't had the best view of her at first, in an attempt to quickly retrieve her earring, she'd turned around giving him the perfect view of the unmasked section of her face. Not for very long though, in fact, it was barely two seconds, he'd wanted to look away but he couldn't. Luckily it wasn't enough to give him a guarantee on who she was so he could play it off as if it were nothing. But then, after seeing how Ladybug was acting while they were in Marinette's room full of pictures of, well, him, which was another thing he had to wonder about. He started to think that maybe, Ladybug could be Marinette. He had to see, so that's when he decided to talk to Marinette that morning, he'd decided to play a bit of his Cat Noir self into his Adrien to see if she would react differently. He'd leaned into her with a Cat Noir smirk and she'd pushed him away, then went back to her usual stammering self. After the dance he'd had with her at Chloe's party, he didn't know why she would've pushed him away now unless it was a reflex from pushing away Cat all this time...Adrien shook his head putting his hands on his face. This was getting too complicated. He should've just looked away. Nino looked at his friend concerned, but class just continued and there wasn't much he could do for him for now. After class though, he'd make sure he was okay before he had to go to his cold home where no one would be there for him.