Love Bug

Chapter One

The weekend was just around the corner, and both Marinette and Alya had been excitedly awaiting the final bell to signal the end of class. They two girls had decided to spend the time they had off at Marinette's place binge watching all of their favourite movies, and all of the ones they had been dying to see but hadn't found the time for yet. Marinette had also felt a little guilty, what with her duties as one of Paris' superheroes and all, she often found herself having to come up with some excuse - usually a pretty lame one at that - as to why she couldn't hang out, or had to cancel plans, again and again. But this time would be different! She and Alya had the entire weekend planned out, and Marinette had even informed Chat Noir that she may be unavailable for patrol for the night, and while she didn't go into detail for fear of her feline partner possibly gaining some clue as to her identity, once she had explained that it was to make up for blowing off a friend several times due to Akuma attacks, he was actually very understanding. He had even gone so far as to offer to handle patrol on his own, and promised to only call if it were an emergency. And it was times like that where Marinette found herself feeling overwhelmingly grateful for having such a pawsome partner. Yes, she had made the pun, and yes, she hated herself for it almost immediately only after seeing the smug, proud look Chat had given her.

Now, sitting in class, Marinette couldn't contain her jittery excitement as her eyes darted towards the lock above the door every few seconds as she hastily and messily scribbled down any of the notes she would need. She was so caught up in her excitement, that when the bell finally sounded signaling the end of classes, she leapt from her chair with such enthusiasm that she managed to get her foot hooked around her other ankle. Falling forward she let out a startled scream. Adrien shot up and tried to catch her arm however he was just a fraction of a second too slow, and Amirnette landed with a loud thus face first on the floor below.

"Marinette are you okay?!" Came Alya's concerned voice as she rushed to her best friend's side whilst their fellow classmates, even Chloe, looked on with worry.

Groaning, Marinette pushed herself up onto all fours before sitting back on her heels. She held her face with her hand. That was going to bruise later, she was sure of it. She was just thankful she hadn't accidentally bitten her tongue when her chin smacked the hard floor.

"I'm alright," she managed to say and offered Alya a somewhat pained smile. There was already a lump forming where the impact had occurred, and the skin around the area had begun to turn purple.

"That looks pretty nasty, are you sure you're okay Marinette?" Adrien had gotten down onto his knee beside his friend who had flushed red the moment she noticed him. Adrien, being the ever oblivious young lad he was, passed it off as her simply being embarrassed about tripping and injuring herself.

"Y-yeah!" Marinette said in a slightly higher pitched tone than her usual inside voice consisted of. "Good I am - gah - I mean, I am good!" She quickly corrected herself and offered the blonde a reassuring smile as she very quickly ducked past to go back to collect her belongings which were still scattered across her desk. All she needed to do was gather up a few loose papers and her notebook and put them into her bag.

By that point most of their classmates had left the room, most of them voicing their concern for Marinette as they went, saying they hoped she was alright, etc. At the moment it was only her, Alya, Nino and Adrien still lingering inside the classroom together. Busying herelf with fixing her things Marinette didn't notice the sly look Alya shot her way before turning to Nino and Adrien. Without giving her a chance to protest, she asked, "hey guys, Marinette and I were going to have a movie night tonight. But we were thinking of going to get something to eat before hand, wanna join us?"

Beat red Marinette nearly dropped her bag when she heard both Nino and Adrien agree. "Yeah sounds like fun," Adrien smiled over at Marinette who awkwardly grinned back and waved, her entire body stiff with nervous tension.

"Great! We'll meet you at the front of the school, for now I'm just going to grab the rest of my stuff and make sure Marinette doesn't trip again on the way down." Alya beamed at her best friend, proud of herself despite Marinette's flustered disposition. She was going to be the best god damn wingwoman and there was nothing Marinette could do to dissuade her. And besides, after that nasty fall she'd just had Alya thought the poor girl could use some cheering up.

"Alya!?" Marinette whisper shouted as she glanced down the hall both ways, making sure that nobody could potentially eavesdrop on their conversation. "Give me a little warning first before you invite Adrien along to hang out with us!" She was panicking, tugging at her pigtails. "I need to mentally prepare myself! I mean what am I going to say? How do i even begin to have a normal conversation with him? What if i trip again?! What if i trip and spill something on him and then he hates me and never wants to speak to me again and ohmygodAlyahelpme."

Regarding her friend with a calm, but understanding smile, Alya gently placed both of her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "Girl, relax," he began, knowing it would take more than a few words to get through to her, "look we're just going to get something to eat, we'll hang out for a while, talk, like friends do. And then me and you will head back to your place and binge watch as many Marvel movies as we can in one night, while gorging ourselves on popcorn and pastries!"

Taking deep breaths, Marinette attempted to calm her racing heart and quell the chaos that her brain had been thrown into just moments ago. "Alright," she said with a shaky breath, "I can do this! We're just friends, hanging out! I'll be fine!" She was saying this more to psych herself up than anything, even going so far as to fist pump the air as she walked out of the classroom, with Alya laughing as she followed along behind her.

The moment Marinette lay eyes on Adrien again all of her confidence seemed to vanish into thin air all at once and she was left a blushing, stuttering mess all over again as she tried desperately to think of something, anything to say to lessen the awkward tension.

"So," Nino jumped in quickly, sparing Marinette from floundering before she could get her footing in the conversation, "Alya where were you guys thinking of going?"

Marinette sent Nino a smile and mouthed the words 'thank you' at him while Alya places her hand to her chin in thought. Just the she clicked her fingers and grinned, "there's a new cafe that opened last week! I've been wanting to go there sometime, so why not go together and check it out?"

"Sounds like a great idea," Adrien smiles happily at his friend's suggestion.

"Great, Marinette what do you think?" Alya turned to her friend, wanting to give her the chance to voice her opinion before dragging her along.

With a bit more composure than she'd had earlier, Marinette smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically and, before she could stop herself, said, "sounds purrfect!" She slapped her hands over her mouth, mentally cursing herself for allowing Chat to have such an influence on her. Alya and Nino only laughed, and had Marinette been laying more attention, she might have noticed the way Adrien's cheeks flushed pink or the adoring smile that found its way into his face.

This is the first Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction I've ever written and I honestly don't know if it's any good so if you have any constructive criticism or suggestions please feel free to let me know! It would be greatly appreciated.