Lovebug

Part 3

Marinette had woken up hours before she needed to that morning so she could fully prepare herself for what she was going to do. She dressed differently than usual, swapping out her casual clothes for a cute floral dress and white pumps.

She put on more makeup than usual and wore her hair down and slightly wavy, some strands of her bangs hanging over her eyes. Marinette stared at herself in the mirror for a pep talk before leaving the house.

"You can do this Marinette!" she told herself. "worst-case scenario, he rejects you, and the last four years spent crushing on him will have been a waste of time". Marinette suddenly pauses realising what she has just said as her nerves build up.

Instead of running in late in a crazed frenzy, she calmly saunters to school and meets up with Alya outside the school building. Alya notices her best friend's change in apparel and raises an impressed eyebrow.

"Wow, who are you and what have you done with Marinette?" She laughs. Marinette gives a shy smile before pulling Alya close to reveal her plan.

"I'm gonna do something kinda stupid today. But it's a long time coming and like you said yesterday, I need to do it now or forget it".

Alya's eyes widen and she beams with excitement. "You're gonna do it?! You're gonna ask Adrien out?!" she squeals. "Ahh, that's amazing gurl!"

"Yeah," Marinette replies, her cheeks glowing softly pink with nerves. "Today we are in the same Languages class at the end of the day. Usually, we end up walking out of the class together and talking, so that's my opportunity to ask him"

"Seems like a solid plan, I'm proud of you Marinette," Alya says, before the pair hug

Across campus,  Adrien was sitting alone reading his open notebook and discreetly talking to Plagg. Inside the notebook was a list of almost every girl in Paris who could be Ladybug, of the hundreds of names in the book, most were scribbled out.

"This doesn't make any sense Plagg" he whispers. "There doesn't seem to be any girl in Paris around my age with dark hair and blue eyes who could be Ladybug. I have seen every one of them in the same place as Ladybug at the same time. It's hopeless"

He slumps back against the wall, closing the notebook and placing it back into his backpack. Just then, Chloe shouts to him from a few metres away and runs towards him, Sabrina lagging slightly behind.

"Adrikins!" she exclaims squeezing him tightly around the neck in a hug before shooing Sabrina off to make excuses for why her homework was unfinished.

"Hey Chloe," he says. "How was your vacation?" 

"Ridiculous, utterly Ridiculous!" she exclaims slumping down beside him. "I was in Los Angeles for two weeks. Two weeks! and not ONE modelling agency hired me. They must have some weird beauty standards in America if I'M not attractive to them."

She stops and see's Adrian is pensive over something. "So anyway, what's new around here?" she asks. "I see you're still obsessing over Ladybug" she points to his notebook, the corner of which is sticking out of his bag.

He kicks it away, embarrassed. Around a year ago, during one of Mayor Bourgeois very boring parties, he and Chloe snuck upstairs with some alcohol and got drunk. He almost slipped and told her that he was Cat Noir, but instead let it slip that he had a crush on Ladybug. 

This was also the night Chloe slipped up and told him that she also likes girls, something she didn't want to tell anyone else yet. The pair promised to keep each other's secrets and have tried to help each other out since.

"Adrien. I've been honest with you before and I'm gonna be honest with you again,  Ladybug, Cat Noir and all the other superheroes are impossible to unmask." She says