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Chapter Text

By this point, pretty much the entire class was trying to set up Marinette with Adrien. The only person who didn’t yet know about Marinette’s glaring crush was Adrien himself – the poor sweet boy remained blissfully oblivious. Through various schemes that her friends came up with, Marinette was constantly pushed into awkward one-sided conversations with him, attempting to remember the details of convoluted plans, trying so hard to get through even just one sentence without stuttering and flailing and just totally screwing up.

And it was exhausting.

Yet another fruitless day had gone by, and still no real progress. This time Alya had convinced Marinette to ambush Adrien immediately after his fencing lesson to ask him for one-on-one homework help, and that conversation hadn’t exactly gone swimmingly. Marinette had been too nervous to even feel remotely comfortable, and Adrien himself seemed to be tiring at her constant bumbling efforts – though of course he remained polite about it.

“I’m afraid I have to go, I’ve got, uh Chinese lessons. See you tomorrow!”

And with that, he grabbed his bag and zipped out of the locker room at top speed. Marinette pulled out her phone and doubled checked the schedule she had on there. Yep – he didn’t actually have Chinese today. It was just an excuse to get away from her.

Leaning back against the lockers, she sank down to the floor. What was even the point of this? If she still couldn’t get in a real word around Adrien, even after all these months of hard work, then would anything ever change? She’d tried so many things, and none of it worked. Heck – it even did work sometimes, and yet somehow still didn’t! Like the time when Alya and Nino had abandoned Marinette and Adrien at the zoo together, a successful version of the attempt that had been cut short by Animan much earlier. That should have been great – after all, it was a date, wasn’t it? But it hadn’t been fun at all. Not when the stress of actually being on a date with Adrien Agreste was dampening any joy she otherwise would have had.

The locker room was emptying now, the rest of the fencers leaving too. Marinette sat there on the ground hugging her knees to her chest. No one really paid her any attention. She was barely surprised when her eyes started filling up with tears. Should she call Alya and let her know that yet another plan had failed? She really didn’t feel like it right now. All she felt like doing was sitting here, wallowing in misery and self-pity.

Tikki popped out of her pocket once no one else was around. “Marinette! Are you alright?”

Marinette just gestured vaguely to the tears now running down her face.

“Oh, Marinette…” Tikki flew close and nuzzled her cheek. “I’m proud of you for trying. I know it must be frustrating to try so hard with no results.”

Marinette sniffed and wiped away a few of the tears. “Maybe I should just give up.”

“It’s up to you, I’ll support you no matter what. But if you do, don’t think of it as giving up – think of it as starting afresh! Perhaps you and Adrien just weren’t made for each other. You might be happier with someone else, or even no one at all.”

Tikki had already told her this before, but she had never really listened properly, sure that only someone as wonderful and perfect as Adrien could be her true love. Only now was she beginning to realize that Tikki might just have a point. That didn’t make it hurt any less to accept, though. She had been hung up on Adrien for far too long to just suddenly stop being obsessed with him after one too many failed attempts.

“You… you might be right,” she said. “Maybe I should move on.”

Even just saying those words seemed to punch a hole in her heart. She had been crushing on Adrien for so long, and if she just gave up now, would that make it all have been a waste of time? And what about the fact that everyone in her class was rooting for her? All those hours Alya had poured into making plans, all those times her friends had been over to her house for brainstorm sessions, all that breath Nino must have wasted telling Adrien how amazing Marinette was…

Would it all have been for nothing?

“I’m very proud of you,” Tikki said, settling atop Marinette’s knees. “It’s not easy moving on, I know. But everything so far has been an experience for you, and you can always learn from it. Use this opportunity to grow as a person!”

Marinette nodded, still feeling oddly guilty. She could already hear Alya’s hypothetical reaction in her head, indignantly refusing to surrender, still trying to egg Marinette on in her eternal pursuit of Adrien’s love, and she could hear the shocked gasps of her classmates wondering what could have happened to lead to such a decision, and even the cruel taunting of Chloé telling her that of course she should give up, Adrien would never love her and she wasn’t good enough for him–

She clenched her fists. That wasn’t true. If Adrien didn’t love her, it was because they simply weren’t meant for each other like that. No single character flaw was at fault here, no matter what Chloé might say about it. Adrien respected Marinette as a friend and classmate, and that… that should be good enough.

Oh, but what now? What was she going to tell everyone? They’d all be so disappointed in her, she knew how much they had wanted her to succeed, and now she’d just have to go for someone like Chat Noir or Nathaniel, someone who liked her already so that maybe things would take a lot less effort this time…

The door opened. Tikki quickly flew into Marinette’s pocket, out of sight. Marinette didn’t move other than resting her head on her knees and closing her eyes, hoping whoever it was wouldn’t bother her. Hopefully it wasn’t Chloé or anything – while most of her classmates were nice enough that she wouldn’t mind crying around them, Chloé was not one of them.

“Marinette? You okay?”

She definitely didn’t need to open her eyes to recognize that voice.

“Just having a rough day, Kim,” she replied, aware that her nose was blocked so much that it was obvious she had been crying even from her voice alone.

“Really? What’s up?”

It was no surprise that she heard him walking over and sitting beside her. For starters, he had always been a supportive friend, for as long as she could remember – and far longer than she had known anyone else for. And anyway, nothing Kim did ever really surprised her. She was well-used to his ridiculous antics.

Well, if she was going to move on from Adrien, she would have to tell everyone somehow. Why not start with Kim?

“I don’t think Adrien will ever love me back,” she mumbled. “So there’s no point in me even trying.”

“Really? Why don’t you just tell him you like him, and then see what he says? Just to be sure?”

“I can’t just do that! Not everyone’s as straightforward as you, Kim.”

“Oh, okay then…”

“Anyway, I should just move on. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do.” Affirming it out loud seemed to be strengthening her resolve a little. “I can find someone else.”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit!”

Kim punched her lightly in the arm, much as he always did with her. She finally lifted her face away from her knees and opened her eyes to see–

Toothpaste???

He really was holding a bunch of toothpaste boxes right in his arms. Well, whatever. She had seen him carrying weirder things than that in his various dares over the years.

“What’s the toothpaste for?” she asked.

“Uh… nothing! Nothing, really.” He quickly stuffed all the boxes into the pocket of his hoodie. “That’s not important. I wasn’t gonna play a prank on anyone, I swear.”

Marinette couldn’t help but smile a little. “Whose locker were you planning to fill with toothpaste?”

“No one!”

“Well I’m pretty sure ‘no one’ would have found a way to get revenge on you anyway, even from her tiny vantage point.”

Kim just laughed and ruffled her hair. “You’re so good at reading my mind, Mari.”

Marinette smiled even more. Out of all her friends, out of everyone she even knew in general, Kim was the only one who ever called her “Mari”.

“But I guess I won’t do it now,” he continued. “I wasn’t really thinking it through but it would probably be a bad idea, I mean, even if I don’t get into trouble it’s kinda mean, and like… I don’t think I actually have enough toothpaste here… it would be a waste of pocket money…”

Oh, classic Kim. He never thought anything through. Plenty of times Marinette had caught him right about to do something stupid, only for him to suddenly stop when he actually considered it for a moment and realized how stupid it was. Well, unless she encouraged him, like that time on Valentine’s Day when he had tried to ask out Chloé and ended up being akumatized…

At least Kim also knew how it felt to hopelessly pine after someone who would never love you back. Marinette was not sure what he possibly saw in Chloé, but hey – Kim was a weird person in general. She had long stopped judging him. And it wasn’t like you could help who you fell in love with. At least he seemed to be fine with Marinette’s decision to move on.

“Thank you for not making a big deal of things,” she said to him.

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone wants me and Adrien to end up together, you know, there was always a lot of… pressure. But you don’t seem to care that much.”

“Well yeah, I mean, do what you want! Half the kids at this school are in love with you, you’ve got no shortage of admirers to pick from, right?”

He wasn’t exactly wrong. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was certainly not on the low end of the popularity scale. Plus, she was Ladybug. Chat Noir was always going to be around as a backup.

Unless he decided to give up too…

Well anyway, it wasn’t like Marinette needed anyone. Sure, it would be nice, but for now just focusing on getting over Adrien was the main task. After that she could decide what to do.

“Exactly,” she said. “I guess I can go for someone else. Adrien isn’t the only wonderful person I know.”

“Example: me,” Kim said, winking at her. She couldn’t help giggling a little, before quickly stuffing that back down. Kim’s ego did not need boosting.

“More like example: almost everyone in our class. That’s not the problem, though. Everyone’s been trying so hard to set me up with Adrien, for months now! What am I going to tell them? That I decided their help wasn’t good enough? They’ll be disappointed!”

“Pfffff, you don’t have to go for Adrien just because everyone else wants you to!”

Oh, of course, he was right. Somehow an airhead like him actually did have a bit of common sense. If Marinette didn’t want to go for Adrien anymore, she didn’t need the expectations of others guilt-tripping her into being unhappy. In fact, the pressure of it all had been wearing on her for quite a while. Next time she certainly wasn’t going to let everyone wingman for her, not if it made her so nervous that it actively started ruining her chances! It was very possible that her ridiculous relapse into stuttering around Adrien might have been more to do with that than the fact that she liked him.

“You’re right,” she said. “Maybe I just… won’t tell anyone though. I don’t want to make it a big deal. You won’t tell anyone either, will you?”

“Of course not. I promise.”

He held out his pinkie finger. Marinette linked hers up with his, relieved. Kim was such a good friend. She was glad that out of all the people who could have discovered her crying in this locker room, it was him. Her old friend.

“Well now that’s sorted–” Kim leapt to his feet, back to his usual energetic self. “Let’s go do something fun!”

“That’s really nice of you, but um, I don’t really feel like doing anything much right now… I’ve got homework I need to get on with…”

She put her head on her knees again, sighing. Stupid homework. She was supposed to have been doing it with Adrien right now, but of course that hadn’t worked out. Now she would have to do it by herself. There was no way she was getting Kim to “help” her with it – he wasn’t exactly the smartest kid in class.

“So, uh, are you going to the library or home or what?”

The library would have people there, and she just couldn’t deal with that at the moment.

“Home,” she said.

“Alright then, let’s get going!”

He was always so full of energy, wasn’t he? Usually Marinette could say the same for herself. This specific subset of heartbreak that she was suffering, however, seemed to have zapped her of her normal enthusiasm for life.

“I wish I could, but I don’t have the energy to move right now…”

“That’s why you’ve got me, right?”

What? She was about to ask what he meant, when he suddenly scooped her right off the ground and up over his shoulder.

“I’ve always got enough energy for anything!” he bragged, before walking off with her.

Marinette was too shocked to say anything – alright fine, maybe Kim still could surprise her on occasion…

As Ladybug, plenty of times she had carried civilians like this. Just hoist them up on your shoulder and off you went, easy peasy. She had never expected anyone to ever do it to her. And out of all the people it could have been, Kim? She definitely had not seen that coming.

It was almost kind of… well, annoying! Kim was already too full of himself, he didn’t need to go inflating his ego even more by carrying people around! And what would anyone think if they saw this? It was so silly! Usually no one was around the school at this time of evening, hopefully there wouldn’t be anyone here to notice…

She was tempted to ask him to put her down, but her head was feeling oddly heavy. Today had taken more of a toll on her than she realized. So instead she let Kim carry her out of the locker room, out of the school, and over to the bakery. All the way he was showing off, saying how strong he was for being able to do this, stupid stuff like that. Marinette tried to drown it out, but it didn’t exactly work. He was too loud.

And he was right, at least a little, as much as she would hate to admit it. While Kim wasn’t as exaggeratedly strong as he made himself out to be, he certainly was one of the most athletically fit members of the class. Marinette knew the only way she could really out-compete him was as Ladybug.

He had carried her right to the back door of the bakery before she even knew it, and put her back down gently.

“There you go! I’m guessing you’ve got enough energy to walk upstairs yourself, right?”

Part of her wished he’d just pick her up again and take her to her room and dump her on the bed so she could sleep straightaway and not have to worry about anything else. But no, she had homework to do, so sleep was not an option yet. And she didn’t need anyone carrying her!

“I’ll be fine now,” she said, ignoring how her head was spinning. “Thanks.”

“You sure? You don’t look that well.”

It was hard to look well when akuma attacks kept her busy so long and homework kept her up so late, but as much as she wanted to, she could never tell anyone that. The true reason she was always so tired would have to remain a mystery forever.

“Really, I’m fine,” she said. “But thank you Kim. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He didn’t look completely convinced, but he smiled anyway and said, “Cool, lemme know if you need anything else. See you, Mari.”

With that, he was gone. Marinette turned to the house and opened the door, her mood sinking somewhat again. Should she have asked Kim to stay a while? Maybe that might help her feel better. He had always been pretty good at cheering her up. But he would certainly have been a distraction from homework, that was for sure. And anyway, she had Tikki.

As if on cue, the kwami jumped out of her pocket. “Marinette, are you sure you’re alright?”

Marinette began the long trudge up the stairs to her room. “I… I will be. I just need some time.”

“That’s alright, I understand.”

Oh, it was so nice to have understanding friends like this. Would she be able to say the same for the rest of her classmates? How would they take the news? Would it be worth it, telling them?

Well, now was not the time to decide that. Now was the time to get her homework done, and to maybe try to somehow, magically, get over Adrien without too much pain.

Chapter Text

It was amazing how much difference just a few short days could make. Marinette had gone back to school the next day filled with resolve, and the first thing she realized was that she could actually talk to Adrien.

Well, at least, she managed to say hi to him without messing up or feeling overly nervous. That was a start. Just this small victory sent her spirits soaring – perhaps she was managing to move on after all! Maybe Tikki was right about everything. It would make sense. That little kwami had been around for thousands of years and had experienced so much, so her advice was always going to be helpful.

Within a few more days, Marinette managed to have a simple conversation with Adrien without stuttering even once. It was strange not to have her heart thumping in her chest like it used to do, instead just feebly picking up speed for a few seconds before dropping back to normal again. And when Adrien smiled at her far more genuinely than he used to, and bid her goodbye with a fist bump, she couldn’t help feeling like she’d made the right choice after all. This was working!

Her resolve increased to the point where she couldn’t keep this a secret for much longer. She cornered Alya in the locker room one morning when no one else was in there, too determined to back down now.

“Alya, I have to tell you something!” she said, hands on her friend’s shoulders, hardly able to look her in the eyes.

Alya seemed unfazed. “Sure, what is it?”

“Um… well…” Marinette took a deep breath. “The truth is, I’ve realized recently that, well… I’m not really into Adrien anymore.”

Alya blinked for a few seconds. “Oh – really?”

“Yeah. I mean, he’s super cute and really nice and all! But I don’t really feel the way about him that I used to. I just want to be his friend now. I’m moving on.”

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Alya smiled and said, “Good for you! I’m happy for you.”

“So you’re not mad?”

“What? Why would I be mad?”

“Well this whole time you’ve been working so hard to set us up and I really appreciate your efforts, but now it’s all been for nothing…”

Alya pulled Marinette into a hug. “Oh Marinette, don’t worry about that! Your feelings are what’s important!” She pulled back and looked right into her eyes. “I’ll always support you, no matter what.”

Oh, thank goodness. Of course she would. Marinette internally was kicking herself for having doubted Alya even for a second. Her amazing best friend was always going to be there for her.

“Thank you, Alya,” she said. “And same here, for the record. If you ever need anything I’ll help you out.”

“Thanks, you wonderful person. I guess I’ll have to set you up with some other cute guy now, huh?”

Marinette winced – she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to go through Alya’s intense wingwoman-ing ever again without cracking like an egg under the pressure. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone slamming a hand on the locker behind her.

“Did someone say CUTE GUY? Were you guys talking about me, by any chance?”

She turned around to see Kim there towering over her, leaning against the locker, stupid yet dazzling smile in place. Oh, trust him to have overheard! Marinette couldn’t quite stop herself giggling – it was just so typical of him to go and use this as an excuse to show off about how he was obviously the most handsome, athletic member of the class, the one who everyone was secretly in love with, et cetera. He was always doing that.

“Kim, you’re hilarious,” she said, willing herself to stop laughing. “We weren’t talking about you, but we all know you’re cute.”

“Yeah, damn right I am.” He finger-gunned at her before swaggering off looking far too pleased with himself. Marinette allowed herself a little chuckle, then turned back to see Alya looking at her, stunned.

“Marinette!”

“What?”

Alya’s stunned look was now replaced with one of sly determination. “Why were you even going for Adrien this whole time? Kim’s right there!”

That wiped the smile right off Marinette’s face. “WHAT – no! I’m not – he’s – he’s just a friend–”

“Oh really? Then why were you flirting?”

“N-no I wasn’t!” Marinette ignored the blush creeping onto her cheeks. “Well maybe a bit, but we’re always like that with each other! It doesn’t – it doesn’t mean anything!”

Alya shrugged. “Mhm. If you say so.”

“Seriously! He’s been my friend for a long time and we always treat each other like this, but he’s my friend, there’s nothing else…”

She stopped talking, knowing she was just making it worse. It was true though! Kim was just her friend! And this was exactly why she tried not to indulge his ridiculous antics too often. She didn’t want anyone thinking it meant anything, when it definitely didn’t. And the only reason her cheeks were red right now was because she was annoyed, obviously. Kim was sweet, but not like that.

“Anyway,” she said, changing the subject, “about me not liking Adrien anymore, um… don’t tell anyone else.”

“Sure, but why not?”

“They all ship it so much, they’ll riot. I can’t deal with that.”

Alya put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “I’m sure they’ll be just as okay with it as I am! But I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks, Alya.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Phew, it’s nice to have told you. It’s actually kind of weird, but I feel so much better now that I’m not trying to impress Adrien all the time. I actually had a conversation with him yesterday!”

“That’s awesome! You go, girl!”

“In fact,” she continued, frowning now, “he made a really lame pun, which sort of put me off him even more…”

The bell rang for class. Alya grabbed Marinette’s arm and began pulling her towards the door. “I guess you’ll have to find someone who doesn’t make lame puns then, won’t you?”

“Haha, maybe!”

The next week or so was more of the same, though with some differences. Marinette was becoming more and more confident around Adrien, much to her relief, and managed to have several more uneventful conversations with him. He certainly still was very nice, and polite to a fault, and as handsome as he’d always been, and yet… it was like she was now getting to know him better. There was a dorky side to him, one that she’d always ignored before. It was sweet.

Many of her classmates still watched her progress with eagle-eyes, noting how comfortable she was with Adrien now, and trying to rope her into more schemes. She declined every time, wondering if she should just outright tell them that she wasn’t interested like that anymore. Tikki, Alya and Kim had all taken it well – would the rest, too? Logically she knew that they would, but somehow the thought still made her too nervous to act on it for now.

It wasn’t until something happened in class that she realized something was up.

She caught herself daydreaming.

Several months ago she often used to daydream about Adrien in class, staring at the back of his head and ignoring the teacher’s waffling voice droning on in the background. Honestly, a lot of it had been pretty self-indulgent. Sometimes it was even enough to put Nathaniel’s little comic-book doodles to shame. But it had been a very long while since she had last done that, nowadays preferring to actually concentrate in class, and finding nothing interesting to daydream about Adrien anyway.

But now she caught herself doing it again, and not about Adrien this time.

Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she shook her head and looked back down at her work. What was Mendeleiev saying again? Something about ionic bonds?

It was no use. Within a few seconds she had zoned out again. Class was way less interesting than daydreaming about akuma attacks – there, that wasn’t self-indulgent, was it? It was perfectly fine. Imagining an akuma attack happening, the class having to flee, Marinette transforming into Ladybug to save the day, jumping into the fray and picking Kim up over her shoulder, carrying him to safety–

She almost dropped her pencil.

Why was she daydreaming about that?!

Okay. She took a deep breath. Last week Kim had carried her back home, right? So obviously, she just wanted to return the favour. Give him a taste of his own medicine. That was all.

She took another deep breath – why was her face getting all warm? Obviously she must be embarrassed, that was it. Daydreaming about her classmates being put into danger through akuma attacks was a bad thing, and she was ashamed for thinking about it. Yes, that was it. That explained everything.

Content with this, Marinette cleared all daydreams out of her mind and began properly focusing on the lesson this time, all worries gone from her mind.

Only it happened again the next day. And the next, and the next, and the next. It wasn’t exactly the same daydream every time, but it was similar enough. Marinette would transform into Ladybug, pick Kim up the way he’d done with her, and carry him out of danger.

Well, it still didn’t mean anything – it was nice of her to want to save her friend from danger! Wasn’t it?

Once more, she tried to drive it out of her head and focus on the lesson. But her mind just kept going back to it. Why did she want to pick up Kim so much, anyway? How was that any different from picking up anyone else?

Turning her head slightly, she took a glance at him out of the corner of her eye – and then quickly looked back at her work when her face started getting warm again.

Yeah, he was… hot. Not that she didn’t already know – he never shut up about it, after all. Everyone knew. But everyone ignored it, since they all knew how much of an idiot Kim was. It went double for Marinette, since she’d known him for so long that his looks and physique just didn’t even make a difference to her. She barely even noticed.

At least, she’d barely noticed until now. Her mind resumed the daydream, this time more vivid, the feel of all those rippling muscles under her arms–

Okay fine! He was hot, he’d got hot at some point over the past few years, and now she was noticing it. That was all. It didn’t matter. Friends could think each other were hot, couldn’t they? After all, Marinette thought Alya was hot! It didn’t change anything. Kim was still just her friend, like he always had been.

And anyway, he was in love with Chloé…

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

She jerked upright. Madame Mendeleiev was standing right in front of her, a hand on the desk.

“Um… yes?”

“I seriously doubt you were listening to any of what I just said, considering your habit of falling asleep in my class. But this time you need to pay attention. Your project is due on Monday, so don’t be late! Your partner this time is Kim. I know better than to put you with Chloé again.”

Wait… Kim? That Kim?

She turned in her seat to see him grinning at her, that stupid pretty face of his. Her heart gave an unexpected jolt.

For once… maybe just for once… she might have been better off with Chloé…

But facing Mendeleiev’s wrath by protesting would be a bad idea. It was fine. Kim was her friend, yeah okay her hot friend, but that didn’t matter and she’d get over it once she’d had a bit of time for it to sink in.

“Alright, thank you,” she said.

With that, Mendeleiev moved away from the desk and began announcing the other pairs for the class. Marinette had ceased to pay attention. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she quickly took it out to sneak a look.

Kim: soooo, are we going over to your place to work on the project tonight mari? ;)

It wasn’t unusual for him to end his messages to her with the winky face or smirky emoji or whatever, but for once it threw her off entirely. Temperature rising by the second, she typed back a quick sure and then just grabbed Alya’s water bottle off the desk next to her and took a swig.

“Hey, what the–”

“Sorry,” she whispered, handing it back, wiping her face with her sleeve. “Needed a drink. Thirsty.”

“Um, okay…”

Right. Kim was coming over after school to work on the project. That was fine. This was all fine.

Chapter Text

It certainly wasn’t the first time Kim had been to Marinette’s house. Far from it. For as long as she could remember he had been welcomed there with open arms, her family always giving him free snacks, him taking refuge there during some akuma attacks. This wasn’t like the odd time when Adrien came over, when her parents would be extra sweet towards him and spy on his and Marinette’s interactions to judge how they were getting on, much like her classmates did. No, they tended to leave Kim alone with her.

Usually it didn’t matter at all. This time, however…

“I see you’ve taken down all those pictures of Adrien,” Kim said as he sat down at the desk, getting out his homework.

He had noticed those? For some reason she had always thought him incapable of noticing things, what with how self-absorbed he was all the time. She just watched him for a few seconds, wondering what could be going on in that ridiculous brain of his. Then she quickly looked away as her cheeks heated up. No staring!

Anyway, of course the real reason her cheeks were heating up was because of this June heatwave that was hitting Europe, obviously. Daytime temperatures were soaring. Even now in the evening it still hadn’t cooled down. Considering Marinette’s room was upstairs, all the heat was trapped up here with her. It made logical sense.

She shakily ran a hand through her fringe, which was now starting to catch the sweat from her forehead. “Is it hot in here or is it just me?”

Kim turned and looked at her with a sudden grin on his face, giving her a wink. “Uh, actually it’s me.”

Oh, for god’s sake! Could he not go five minutes without flirting?! Or being a show-off? He wasn’t exactly wrong, but still…

Seeing her facepalm – more like an excuse to hide her face from him – he chuckled and said, “Nah, but you’re right, it is hot in here. Hang on a minute…”

She had only just removed her face from her hands to see him reach up and–

No. He wasn’t going to take off his hoodie, was he?

But he did. She watched him pull it off and… oh okay there was a shirt underneath, thank god. That being said, she still couldn’t tear her eyes away, indignant fury welling up inside her along with something else – it was so unfair! Why had puberty been so nice to him? Marinette, despite being Ladybug, had to deal with a spotty face and spindly limbs and dorky voice and yet this freaking goblin-looking little kid just had to turn out to be hot!

For several more seconds, though it felt longer, she let herself stare at that annoyingly tight shirt, at everything that certainly hadn’t been there a few years ago that a bit of fabric couldn’t hide, not even noticing Kim’s look of confusion when he caught her watching… which quickly turned to a smirk. He threw the hoodie right at her face.

“Admiring the view, huh Cupcake?”

Cupcake…?

Well, at least that managed to snap her out of it.

“Cupcake, seriously?”

He grinned sheepishly. “I know, it’s lame, but like… you live in a bakery, so…”

“Alright, I’ll allow it.”

“Nice.”

She felt like she ought to say something else, but her mind was blank. She just clutched the hoodie in her arms, still annoyed that someone as cocky as Kim could be the one to win the puberty bingo, still half mesmerized by the fact that he definitely had not been that shredded the last time he took off his hoodie–

“So are we gonna start doing homework or what?”

Oh yes – homework! Marinette flung the hoodie over her shoulder into the corner of her room. “Yeah, let’s just get on with it!”

Phew. Maybe homework would distract her from her… annoyance. She put her homework out in front of her, still feeling far too hot. Which was still because of the heatwave, of course! She fanned herself with one of the pieces of paper, wishing her electric fan hadn’t broken. If only she could use Lucky Charm to cool herself down!

“Mari, if you’re hot why don’t you just take off your jacket? Why do you even wear that thing literally all the time?” Kim’s grin suddenly returned. “I mean, I know you’re probably jealous that you’re not as ripped as me, but…”

She tore off her jacket and threw it at him, not even daring to look. “NEVER MIND, LET’S JUST GET ON WITH THE HOMEWORK NOW…”

Kim had never exactly been the best at homework. That being said, he did try hard when he had to, for which Marinette was grateful. What she was less grateful for, however, was how her own brain did not seem to be working at full capacity, only worsened whenever she looked aside and caught sight of this damn hunk sitting next to her.

What was the big deal anyway? Okay, so he had muscles, whatever! It wasn’t like Marinette herself didn’t. Sure, she looked scrawny on the outside, but all that exercise as Ladybug had left her stronger than she looked – a fact that even Alya had been shocked by that one time she came across Marinette in a sports bra. And Kim’s handsome face wasn’t a big deal either. She saw that smug mug of his at school every day, and she herself was no slouch in the beauty department.

No. Big. Deal.

It would have been way easier to convince herself of all this if it hadn’t been for his near-constant flirting. She was used to it, of course, since that was how they always acted with each other. Kim was full of himself, and expected everyone else to love him that much too. Usually Marinette just laughed along and took it in stride. Today, however, it was making her feel far too hot, even beyond the point that the heatwave could explain it…

It was all because he’d taken off that stupid hoodie! That was to blame. Marinette had never cared before, so why should she start now? She was distracted because he was hot, and once that fact had been fully accepted by her brain then things would go back to normal. They had to. She was sure of it.

Until then she would just have to grit her teeth and bear the sudden heart attacks every time he spoke, every time he even moved…

Kim had to leave later that evening to go back to his own place for dinner. He put the hoodie back on – oh, that was a little better – and then she went downstairs with him to let him out. Her parents called out to them on the way past.

“Kim! You’re always welcome to stay for dinner, if you’d like!”

“Sorry, Mrs Cheng, I’d love to but I have to go – but maybe next time?”

It was odd how polite he could be to her parents, considering how hot-headed and reckless he was the rest of the time. In any case, she was pretty glad he wasn’t staying for dinner, since she wasn’t sure if she could deal with more of him right now.

Well… mostly glad. He was kind of nice to look at. Not that it mattered, though!

She let him out of the back door, forcing her brain to work again. “See you at school tomorrow, Kim.”

“Yeah, you too Cupcake.”

That silly nickname again! He didn’t give nicknames to other kids in the class. Maybe it was just a side-effect of having known her for so long, or maybe–

Her train of thought was halted in its tracks as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek, then walked off without another word.

Marinette stood totally still for several seconds, her face slowly flushing bright red… at least until she remembered that they were French, and it wasn’t the first time he’d done that, and the only reason she was blushing was because of everything else on her mind today, NOT because it meant anything. Because it didn’t!

Tikki floated out of her pocket. “Marinette, are you okay?”

She took a deep breath. “Yes. I’m fine.”

She was. She really, really was. And with that, she turned around and went back inside.

After dinner that night she transformed into Ladybug and met up with Chat Noir, as she often did. The temperature was still ridiculously warm, though luckily her suit caused her not to feel it so much. Of course, her suit did nothing to stop her feeling so warm on the inside, so annoyingly, uncomfortably warm, especially since she couldn’t stop thinking about… certain things…

“So what’s up, my lady?” Chat asked her, laying on the surface of the roof like an art model, so over the top as usual.

“Not much,” she said after a pause. There was no need to get into her personal life with him.

Amusingly enough, though, she couldn’t help thinking fondly of how similar Chat could be to a certain someone. Giving her a silly nickname, acting so flirty and extra, always putting on the charms, always being there for her like friends should be. Not too shabby-looking, either.

So then why didn’t Chat Noir affect her? Why did this heartthrob of a superhero in a skin-tight suit not send her mind reeling the way Kim had been doing lately? Chat Noir was hot too, and she knew it! All of Paris knew it!

“Well I’ve been having a paw-some few days, so I’ll try and make your day a little better too!”

Oh, his stupid puns. They always brought a reluctant smile to her face. “What’s got you so upbeat today, chaton?”

He got to his feet and walked over, resting his baton across his shoulders. “Nothing big. There’s this friend I have, and she was always really weird around me – but recently she’s been warming up to me! It’s nice to be able to get to know her better.”

Well, at least his life really seemed to be looking up. “That’s nice. Having friends is always good.”

Except when they were way too hot and stuck in your mind no matter what…

“Don’t worry, you’ll always be my best friend,” Chat breathed, leaning closer. Oh, this silly kitten and his ridiculous attempts at flirting. It was just as entertaining as it always had been.

“You’re always my best friend too. Anyway, come on – we’ve got a patrol to be getting on with!”

She swung off the roof, and he quickly followed.

The next day, Miss Bustier’s birthday, was a day of celebration for the class. Or at least, they had wanted it to be. The teacher herself refused to let the kids make a big deal of things. Marinette still brought in a box of cupcakes from the bakery for everyone to share, though, and Alya snapped away a bunch of class photos to send to everyone. They all appreciated their teacher, and they wanted to show it.

Later that day Marinette stood alone in the lockers, quietly opening her bag and slipping the last cupcake inside for Tikki to eat as a treat. That wonderful kwami deserved all the food she could get, really. She closed her bag again, about to go back to the courtyard to meet up with Alya, when someone suddenly covered her eyes from behind.

“Guess who?”

Judging by that voice, and the fact that she had a mini heart attack on hearing it, she didn’t even have to guess. “I know it’s you, Kim.”

“Yeah, of course it’s me.” He took his hands away and came round to stand in front of her. “Hah, Cupcake actually brought in cupcakes! I’m totally psychic.”

Boasting again? How predictable. “It’s just a coincidence.”

“That’s exactly what I want people to think,” he said with a wink. Marinette found herself having to stifle a giggle, and also having to ignore a sudden adrenaline rush – what was up with that? Anyway, this stupid kid’s ego was way too big for his own good, and she wasn’t about to let herself add to that!

“It’s very childish to pretend to have superpowers,” she said.

“How do you know I’m pretending? What if I’m secretly Chat Noir?”

“That’s ridiculous, you can’t be Chat Noir, because–”

She stopped. How to explain that she knew Chat Noir too well to be fooled by something like that? That Chat Noir didn’t give her heart attacks when speaking to her? Oh – and that Kim had literally been akumatized before, and she and Chat had saved him more times than they could count?

“See?” Kim said when she didn’t continue. “You’ve got no proof! I’m totally a superhero, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

He tapped her on the nose, then walked off. She clenched her fists, a second adrenaline rush hitting her. That – that guy! He was so annoying! And not just because he was hot, but everything else about him too…

Chapter Text

Marinette and Kim returned to her house after school that day to finish off their project. It probably wouldn’t take too much longer, thankfully. Marinette was not sure how much more of Kim’s presence she could take – maybe if she could just get away from him a while, things would go back to normal? Until then, she would just have to deal with his ridiculous flirty attitude and keep reminding herself that they were friends, and none of it meant anything…

It really, really didn’t help when he took off his hoodie again, this time without prompting, and dunked it right on her head. “I thought you might like this, don’t think I didn’t notice you blushing last time, Cupcake…”

Oh, curse this stupid heatwave, and curse that stupid nickname and stupid hoodie! Marinette lifted the hoodie up slightly to see him lounging on the chair with his arms behind his head, smirking at her. She quickly threw the hoodie back at him.

“I wasn’t blushing!” she insisted. “My cheeks were red because I was hot, obviously.”

He winked at her. “Sure.”

Ugh, there was no point trying to fool him. They had known each other for so long, it was easy to tell what was blushing and what wasn’t. The thought made her blush again – yikes, that was not good. She quickly turned aside and slammed her homework books on the table. “Enough messing around, let’s just get on with this.”

Kim, however, had ceased to pay attention and was looking at something on his phone. “Hey look, Alya’s just sent all the photos from today to the class chat! These are great, I look amazing in all of them…”

Marinette rolled her eyes – of course he would be admiring himself, wouldn’t he? She checked her own phone to see that Alya had indeed sent them all plenty of photos from today’s celebration, most of them just of the classmates themselves, since Miss Bustier had been trying to keep their lesson on track the whole time and didn’t seem to care that it was her own birthday.

Wait… what was this?

“Kim,” Marinette began, willing herself not to burst into laughter, “is it me or are you doing that bunny-ears thing to me in every single photo here?”

“Yep!” Kim leaned across and poked her on the nose. “I’ll never stop.”

“It’s been like 10 years since you started doing that!”

“Well yeah, it’s kinda like a friendship meme for us, isn’t it?”

Friendship meme…

Marinette ignored the odd pang deep in her chest at hearing the word “friendship”. Of course they were close friends. It didn’t need to be anything else, obviously. That would be ridiculous…

“Come on then, let’s do our work,” she said firmly. At least when absorbed in the project, her mind wouldn’t be tempted to wander, would it?

They were soon finished with the work. Hopefully they would get a good mark on it – both of them had actually tried hard. Marinette was adamant to make up for all the homework she missed and bad grades she got thanks to her duties as Ladybug, and luckily Kim had been putting in the same effort.

And now he would leave, and she would have some peace of mind again…

“So Cupcake,” he said, getting up from the chair, “when are you next inviting me over? I mean, I need some excuse to take off my hoodie in front of a pretty girl, right?”

…pretty girl?

Marinette dropped her open pencil case. Red in the face, she crouched down to scoop up all the fallen stationery, very stubbornly refusing to look at Kim. She wanted to say something back to him, something to wipe that stupid grin off his face, but her mind just had to be blank! And it was all his fault!

Finally she just grabbed his hoodie and thrust it back at him, intending to say, “JUST PUT YOUR DAMN HOODIE BACK ON, KIM,” but ending up spluttering too much to be intelligible. At least he got the message. She still refused to look directly at him as he wore the hoodie, tried hard not to listen as he said something else that was probably stupid and self-centred as always, and ignored the heat in her face as he kissed her cheek and left.

Phew…

Rational thought was beginning to return to her brain, at long last, slowly trickling in like a welcome drop of water to a parched desert. Yes… yes, maybe she was being a flustered idiot. But she had to remind herself that Kim probably just treated all girls like this, the annoying player that he was. For starters, he had a crush on Chloé, he’d literally been akumatized over it.

And if he thought Marinette was pretty…

Well yeah, he was absolutely right! It was true, and he had good taste (except for Chloé), fair enough. Plus, beauty didn’t matter as much as Marinette being a superhero and saving the city constantly, something that Kim would never know. He was just being an idiot, as always, an idiot who always thought he was the best at everything, and thought he was all charismatic, and hot, and thought he could get everyone to like him even though he was so reckless and stupid and… charming…

“Tikki, spots on,” she whispered, her patience with herself at an end.

Leaping over the rooftops as Ladybug did nothing to calm her brain down. She tried so hard to focus on the wind in her face, the sounds of Parisians going about their lives, anything! But all she could think about was some stupid boy, and it was killing her.

She almost tripped off the rooftop when she spotted said boy ambling down to the bus stop below her, kicking loose pebbles out of the way absent-mindedly. And before she could even think for a second, she had thrown out her yoyo and dropped down in front of him Spider-man style – oh why had she done that…

“Hi Kim, what’s up?” she said. At least being in this superhero suit seemed to give her brain the false confidence that it needed to speak without going into the old oh-shoot-it’s-Adrien mode.

Kim looked startled for a second, but then smiled at her. “Hi Ladybug!”

Well, he certainly didn’t treat Ladybug the same way he treated Marinette. The guy was acting like a total fanboy now – that goofy awestruck grin, bouncing on his toes in excitement of seeing his hero right in front of him.

“I hope you’re not challenging any more panthers, are you?” She wanted to smack herself in the head as soon as she’d said it. Was bringing up the panther incident really a good idea around this kid? Luckily Kim didn’t mind.

“Haha, no, I was just hanging out with a close friend and doing homework and stuff,” he said. “I haven’t even been back to the zoo since that one time.”

Before she could stop it, her imagination was throwing all sorts of potential zoo date scenarios at her – okay wow, that was not what she needed to be thinking about right now. It occurred to her that she had no real reason for speaking to Kim as Ladybug, especially since there were no akumas around right now, and he wasn’t causing any trouble, and Chat Noir was the one who went around having casual conversations with civilians, not her!

But the thought of stopping was constricting her throat so oddly. Clearly she really, really wanted to talk to her friend. Spend time with him. All that stuff. Friendly things.

“So how’s life?” she asked quickly. “Any more stupid challenges in general?”

Oh come on, why would Ladybug be interested in asking him something like that…

“Nah, I’ve been trying to be less idiotic lately,” Kim said, seeming somewhat more down-to-earth than usual. “I know it gets me in a lot of danger and trouble and a bunch of akumas have already killed me before, so I don’t want more of that.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely a bad thing!”

“I think I might actually be doing okay these days, though. Thinking before acting and stuff. Or at least… better? Well, sometimes anyway. I keep, uh…” He was looking at the ground, blushing slightly. “…I still keep saying stupid things around this one friend I have and I can’t stop, I hope she’s not annoyed…”

Wait, really? Not only was Kim being humble for once, but he was getting flustered around someone?!

She smiled encouragingly at him, ignoring the voice in her head screaming IT’S ME!!! HE’S TALKING ABOUT ME!!!

“I’m sure you’re doing great!” she said. “And she probably doesn’t find it annoying, I mean, maybe she does, but maybe she finds it cute – well I don’t know, but–”

For god’s sake, why couldn’t she just shut up? She was really digging herself into a hole there.

“I doubt it,” he said, shrugging. “I’ve known her way too long, she knows I’m an idiot, she’d never find it cute, haha…”

Known her too long?? Known her too long???

“Um I’ve GOTTA GO, SEE YOU LATER!” She gave a quick wave and then zoomed right back up to the roof, leaving Kim standing there bewildered.

He couldn’t have been talking about her. No way. Definitely not.

Oh, but he had said it was a girl he was friends with…

Nope. It couldn’t be Marinette. Kim had loads of friends! He was close with Alya, right? Maybe he meant her. Or maybe he counted Chloé as a friend, despite how she treated him, and actually was talking about her. After all, he had already tried asking her out before. Or did “friendly rivalry” count as friends? Because then that could even apply to Alix!

But he had said he’d known the friend for a long time…

That already ruled out almost everyone else in the class. But surely it couldn’t be Marinette! It just couldn’t!

Anyway, even if it was her, it didn’t matter. He was just a friend.

And no matter how many more times she had to keep stubbornly, aggressively telling herself that, she would do it.

“Are you okay, Marinette?” Tikki popped out of her pocket. “You were quiet at dinner…”

“I’m fine,” Marinette replied. “I’m going to bed.”

“Already? It’s so early!”

“Goodnight, Tikki.”

The poor kwami must have been confused, but Marinette did not feel like explaining right now. Or perhaps Tikki was not confused at all, and her multi-generational knowledge gave her a level of insight that Marinette could never hope to achieve. Whatever.

She curled up on her bed, trying to think about kittens and rainbows and nice things, anything to keep her mind distracted as she fell asleep. And maybe tomorrow her brain would actually start working again, and things would be back to the way they used to be…

No such luck. Marinette was no stranger to lucid dreams. She knew perfectly well she was dreaming, and made no move to wake herself up.

Not even when her dream self, sick of flying like she always did, had landed on the ground right in front of someone annoyingly familiar.

Not even when that familiar, gorgeous guy leaned forward with an alluring smile, gently slipped her jacket off her shoulders, slid an arm around her waist, pulled her in closer, ever so slowly.

And she didn’t wake herself up when she looked into those enticing grey eyes of his, or when he leaned in so close that she was sure he was going to kiss her, and she allowed herself to hope that he would, and closed her eyes and waited, only to feel his breath tickling her cheek and then hear his voice in her ear…

“So are you in love with me, Cupcake?”

Cupcake?!

Marinette catapulted awake.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

She was NOT just dreaming about kissing Kim. No way. No way!

It was just a dream, it didn’t mean anything–

But it was a lucid dream! A lucid dream! She knew she was dreaming, she could have done anything at any second, and she didn’t, she didn’t do a thing! And oh god, was she sweating?! Well obviously that was because it was summer, and she was warm, and – and –

Oh, for fuck’s sake!

She turned around and just screamed into her pillow.

That… that GUY, honestly… how dare he always just be so smooth and so flirty all the time? And even if he was, she shouldn’t fall for it! Marinette knew how much of an idiot he was! She had always known! There was no way he was charming enough to get her all hot and flustered, there was no way she could find his arrogance and cockiness attractive, when it should be annoying, and this was just so stupid and stereotypical!!

She lay down and tried to go back to sleep, kicking off the covers, far too warm to need them. But was sleep even a good idea? She just kept hearing that stupid voice of his on repeat in her head, and that dream just kept playing over and over, and as much as she tried to fight it off, it wouldn’t leave.

And part of her didn’t even want it to leave…

Oh come on! She had just managed to get over Adrien! Did she really have to go and start pining over some other guy, some guy way more annoying in every possible way? Did she have to be all lovesick and stupid like this? She could fight this! She could definitely, absolutely fight this!

Right?

But every time she remembered the way he called her “Cupcake”, or the way he held her so close in that stupid dream, and how good it felt, and how much she wished she hadn’t woken up and let it all fade away…

Oh, forget it.

Marinette curled up around her pillow and just let herself daydream to hell and back. About grabbing Kim’s stupid face and kissing him senseless, ripping off that stupid hoodie, running a hand over every one of those stupid muscles that hadn’t been there before, ruffling up that stupid hair, listening to him whisper that stupid nickname…

She didn’t know when she fell asleep, where the daydreams stopped and the hopelessly lucid dreams began. It wasn’t like it made much difference anymore. Who even knew how long the night lasted? It was morning before she knew it, a hot sunny Saturday, and she simply lay there in her bed refusing to move.

Fine… there was no point denying it any longer, was there? She had to admit it.

Marinette had a huge crush on Kim.

And it felt so damn good.

“Marinette?” Tikki was tugging on her hair. “It’s almost noon!”

That late already? Time really flew by when she was hypothetically making out with that hot loser, didn’t it?

“I don’t know what to do,” she mumbled. Somehow, intuitively, Tikki already knew what she was talking about. Or at least seemed to.

“Maybe talk to Alya?”

“Oh, but I don’t wanna tell anyone…”

Even before finishing her sentence she recalled how accepting Alya had always been of everything Marinette had told her. If anyone was going to know, it had to be her.

“Alright, fine,” Marinette said, pushing herself up and out of bed. “But just Alya.” She grabbed her phone and sent a quick message telling Alya to come over urgently, then lay back down and waited, feeling too useless to do anything else.

“Marinette! Everything okay?” Alya burst up through the trapdoor and ran over. “What’s the problem? Do I need to fight anyone?”

“No,” Marinette sighed. “Just me.”

“Aw, babe, what did you do this time?”

She planted her face in Alya’s shoulder. “I accidentally have a crush on someone.”

“What? Oh, that’s so awesome! Who is it? Do you need my help?”

“No, no, nothing like that! Please Alya, just… don’t start scheming or anything, not this time. I just wanna get this off my chest, that’s all. I don’t want any help.”

“Alright then, you disaster…” Alya patted her on the head. “So who’s the lucky guy? Or girl?”

Marinette took a deep breath. “Um… it’s Kim…”

Alya, the blessed friend that she was, did not engage in any “told you so!” type taunting. Instead she gave Marinette a hug and said, “Nice! And I promise this time I’ll let you handle things yourself. I know sometimes I can be a bit… intense.”

“Thanks, Alya.”

“No problem. I hope things work out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, I mean, are you gonna make a move?”

Crap – that was something Marinette hadn’t even thought about yet. She could barely even wrap her head around liking the guy, let alone actually doing anything about it.

Well, should she make a move? On the one hand, of course she wanted to! But on the other hand there was no way she could let that arrogant smug fool know that she liked him, or his ego would increase ten-fold and he’d be completely intolerable…

Alya seemed to notice the silence. “Hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to decide yet. You’re barely even over Adrien.”

Adrien felt like a million years ago at this point. It was impossible to remember what she ever saw in him that she didn’t see in anyone else.

“Alya, please distract me,” she said finally. “I need to get my mind away from… from…”

From how much she wanted Kim, how much she couldn’t wait to hear him call her “Cupcake” again, and give her one of those silly winks…

“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.” Alya stood up and pulled Marinette up with her. “Let’s go do something fun. Like getting footage for the Ladyblog!”

Marinette couldn’t help grinning. They wouldn’t exactly have a high chance of seeing Ladybug around if Marinette was too busy being with Alya to transform! But hey, maybe they would bump into Chat Noir, or find some other interesting things going on in this giant city, and maybe then Marinette would have regained enough of her common sense to decide what to do.

Chapter Text

As soon as Marinette walked into school on Monday morning she was ambushed by her girl squad, all huddling around her throwing furtive glances in every direction to make sure they couldn’t be overheard. She knew what they were planning before any of them even spoke.

“Marinette, you’ve been doing so well recently!” Rose gushed, her already high-pitched voice going so shrill it could break glass. “You and Adrien are such close friends now, it’s like you two are just made for each other! Me and Juleka came up with another plan and we ran it by the others and only Alya didn’t like it, but we wanted to see what you think–”

Alya herself was standing slightly away from the circle, giving Marinette a helpless shrug. Marinette cleared her throat and placed a hand on Rose’s shoulder.

“Rose, that’s really sweet of you! But… uh, the truth is…”

Was it time to tell them? They were all looking at her with such fierce determination in their eyes, so eager to help no matter what. Marinette wanted to trust them. They were her friends, after all. Sweet Rose, noble Juleka, loyal Mylène, fierce Alix. If Alya could handle the truth then surely so could they.

“The truth is that it’s you who I love. Uh, all of you I mean!” she added quickly. “You guys have spent so much time with me trying to set me up with Adrien, but if I’m being really honest, I like the time I spend with you more than anything! Even more than the idea of going out with Adrien. I mean… I don’t even think I’m really into him anymore. I like being his friend. And I like being your friends too. So even if you’re not helping me with him, let’s still be friends and hang out! What do you say?”

There were a few seconds of silence.

“You… don’t love Adrien anymore?” Rose squeaked.

“I do, but not like that,” Marinette said. “You guys… you’re not… mad at me… are you?”

The next second, Rose leapt at her and crushed her into a hug. “Of course not Marinette! You’re our best friend and I love you so much!”

The others all joined in the hug one-by-one, though slightly more subdued, thank goodness. Marinette gladly hugged them all back.

“It’s fair enough if you don’t want to be with Adrien,” Mylène said, pulling back to give her an encouraging smile. “But if you change your mind or have someone else in mind then we’re always happy to help!”

“Uh, thanks, but I’m good for now,” Marinette lied, hastily deciding that Alya and Tikki could be her only confidantes for now. No more crazy wingman shenanigans, no more over-the-top plans from well-meaning friends.

“Mmhhrrbhrbrhrmhr,” Juleka mumbled, giving Marinette a pat on the back and then hurrying to go stand behind Rose again.

“Um… thank you Jules.”

Alix smirked. “Good going, Marinette. Romance is for losers anyway.”

“Uh-huh, yep, losers. Thanks, you guys, you’re the best. I, uh, have to go now…”

Marinette untangled herself from the group hug and ran off, pausing along the way to return Alya’s high-five before ducking into the locker room and leaning over to catch her breath.

Phew… that had been oddly nerve-wracking. It was such a relief to have finally got it over with, though, so much that she simply couldn’t get a smile off her face. Her friends always tried so hard to be there for her, no matter what! The pressure of trying to get with Adrien had warped her viewpoint so much, she hadn’t even realized how weird and twisted the whole thing was. It was like she was finally starting to see the world with some clarity again.

No more pressure this time. Whether from other people or herself. This time, she had the courage to do things properly. Tikki had been right – this was a fresh start, and she had learnt so much. It was going to turn out better this time. She could just feel it.

“Hey Mari, you okay?”

Oh boy, she knew exactly whose voice that was, especially considering the heart attacks that accompanied it. Taking in a deep breath, she looked up to see Kim standing there in front of her looking at her with mild concern, and… and… ugh, he was so much hotter in real life than in the self-indulgent daydreams she had been dwelling in all weekend. So much.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, trying her best to sound normal. “I just managed to tell all my friends about not wanting them to help set up me and Adrien anymore and they were all cool about it of course… I don’t even know why I thought they wouldn’t be! Maybe the whole Adrien thing was a mess in the first place, I didn’t even realize how much it was grating on me…”

Dammit, now she was just rambling. She gave a shaky laugh and ran a few fingers through her fringe, noting with alarm that her forehead was already getting sweaty – was she allowed to still blame that on the soaring summer temperatures?

Kim’s smile was far warmer and gentler than his usual overconfident grins, and when he spoke, his voice was too. “I’m proud of you, Cupcake.”

Oh, that stupid nickname! It had been playing in Marinette’s head on repeat for the past several days. Whenever she heard a customer say the word it pushed her hypersensitive brain into overdrive. Hearing Kim say it, in that smooth, encouraging voice, had at least ten times the effect.

“You’re the coolest, you know?”

Almost as if in slow motion, Marinette watched as he stepped forwards and pulled her into a hug.

What was with everyone being so nice today? It was killing her. And now she couldn’t even move, because this hug was killing her too, and as much as she wanted to say something – anything at all! – she was far too busy having an internal meltdown for her brain to continue to function.

He started to pull away, only for Marinette to instinctively pull him back in. Wait, no, why did she do that?! She couldn’t help it. Everything was so warm, so close, she just didn’t want it to stop. The faint scent of deodorant drifted into her, making her dizzy… Was she being stupid? She was too flustered to tell.

For a second Kim froze up in surprise. But then he just wrapped his arms around her and held her tighter, so tight he almost lifted her off the ground, the tips of her toes still barely resting on the floor.

Wow… now this was a hug. Somehow it was better than anything Marinette had been dreaming about while curled up over the blankets in her bedroom, it was so much more vivid and vibrant and still not enough. She could feel all those back muscles she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about, just under her arms through a few layers of fabric. She could even hear his pulse. Or was it her own?

It wasn’t enough, it just wasn’t enough… could she pluck up the courage to kiss him?

She wanted to, of course she did, it was all that was on her mind. Even a weekend of liveblogging with Alya hadn’t distracted her. Her nights had been spent hoping Tikki would be too fast asleep to notice her antics with a spare pillow, imagining it was a certain someone’s lips instead…

Was it truly possible to faint from swooning hard enough? Marinette just pressed her blushing face into the hoodie fabric on the side of his neck, breathing in deeply. Oof, that deodorant. And just a hint of her favourite perfume, Adrien, the fragrance. That perfume sure wasn’t going to remind her of Adrien anymore.

It wasn’t even the first time she had hugged Kim, far from it. But now he pulled her so close her feet left the ground entirely, and she simply melted right into him, the only coherent thought in her brain being that she had never hugged anyone like this before.

And all she wanted now was to abandon all restraint and make out with him until she couldn’t even feel her face…

Several seconds later he pushed her off and took a step back, grinning nervously. “Look Marinette, I know you think I’m super hot and all, and it’s true…” He ran a hand through his hair. “…but a school locker room probably isn’t the best place to seduce a guy, y’know?”

With that, he gave her a quick wink and then walked off.

Marinette turned to the nearest locker, opened it, and put her head inside it.

“HHHHRXCKCKRCXKRKHXCKHKHKHXKCHKMMMMMMMMMMFFFFFFFF!!!”

There were too many emotions welling up inside her to deal with, and only screaming into a locker could counter it – what did he mean?! Was he just being his usual stupid flirty self and she was just reading into it too much??! It sounded like way more than normal flirting, and that HUG, oh boy, that HUG…

She slammed the locker shut and slid down onto the floor leaning against it, too livid at everything to think about what she was doing. Part of her wanted to run into the bathroom, fill up a bucket of cold water and just dunk her head into it. No – that was insane!! Oh for god’s sake, what was this boy doing to her??! Please say this was just one of those “teenage hormonal mood swings” her parents had warned her about, please say she didn’t find that idiot so attractive it robbed her of all her reason…

But no. No, it was her who was being the idiot. After all, if Kim of all people thought it had been a stupid idea to try making a move in a locker room, where anyone could wander in at any second… yeah, it was stupid. Stupid Marinette. She stood up and smacked herself on the forehead.

“Marinette don’t do that!” Tikki rushed out of her pocket and flew up to the spot that Marinette had hit, giving it a gentle rub. “You seem frustrated…”

“I thought my crush on Adrien was bad, but this is worse,” Marinette whispered, her voice hoarse. “So much worse. Tikki, what am I going to do?”

“Tell him the truth?”

Marinette nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t let this drag out too long or I’ll start stuttering and stammering and being the mess I always was.”

Tikki beamed at her. “You can do it!”

“Thanks.”

She watched Tikki zoom back into her pocket, calming down slightly. Yes, if she could just find a way to make it clear how she truly felt, then things would work.

Maybe.

The rest of the school day, Marinette kept mostly to herself. If a locker room wasn’t the best place to make a move, then nowhere at school was. For now she would have to be patient and not make a fool of herself. At least most people were far too concerned over the abnormally hot temperature to bother paying much attention to her. It really was far too warm – which meant that surely someone would get akumatized over it, and Marinette would have to go save the day while dying in the heat herself. Great.

Kim caught up with her just as she was leaving at the end of the day. “Hey Marinette!”

She tried to ignore the shudder that went through her as he leaned his elbow on her shoulder. “What’s up Kim?”

“I just wanted to say I’m gonna miss working on that project with you, now that it’s done. It kinda reminded me of when we were little kids and we used to do our homework together.”

He was going to miss their homework sessions? On a whim Marinette blurted out, “You should come over again tonight then!”

Crap… well, she was going to have to confess to him at some point, right? Might as well be tonight.

“Ah sorry, I can’t,” he said, sounding genuinely disappointed. “I’ve got training tonight. Maybe some other time though?”

“Yeah, sure! Have fun!”

“You too, Cupcake!”

He winked at her again before leaving. Marinette immediately hurried home, her mind whirring in a mess of restlessness and longing.

That evening the Europe heatwave turned it up a notch. Marinette had thrown all the windows open and now paced around her room in nothing but a crop top and pyjama shorts, wishing she could sit still in order to bear the heat better but simply unable to. She had to walk, she had to vent, and poor Tikki… well, poor Tikki had to listen.

“…and I just don’t know if he likes me or if he’s just acting like that because he’s a… a player? I don’t know! And I know I should trust him since I’ve known him so long, but still, what if he’s just messing with me? I don’t even know why I like him! Well okay he’s hot, and he can be really dorky and cute and… ughhhh he’s so annoying and stupid and… a-and he likes Chloé anyway, so…”

Tikki just watched, probably feeling sorry for her. Marinette herself knew she should shut up and do something productive, like homework. But sometimes she just had to be a moody teenager. Fuck homework, she had feelings to sort through!

She took another long drink from her water bottle. The heat was making her so thirsty, much thirstier than she had been in a long time. That akuma was going to hit soon, no doubt. Maybe it would even be her, and Paris would be doomed for once.

The sound of her mother’s voice came up through the floorboards. “Marinette! One of your friends is here to visit!”

Oh thank goodness! That would probably be someone like Alya or one of the other girl squad members, right? Whoever it was, they would be a welcome distraction from her thoughts.

“Sure, just send them up!” she called back, gesturing at Tikki to hide in her pocket.

Heavy footsteps raced up the stairs, and she heard who it was before she saw them – the only person in the world who was not going to distract her from her thoughts.

“Hey Marinette! I made it after all! I mean I know it’s like super late but I had to go home after practice and shower first and it’s like 40°C out there and all the transport’s broken down so–”

Kim flung open the trapdoor and leapt up into the room, only to stop abruptly when he saw her. His face was slowly turning the colour of his hoodie.

Marinette grinned – making him blush was so oddly satisfying somehow. And looking down at the ring of bare skin over her Ladybug-powered stomach muscles, remembering Alya’s similar reaction to them, she could guess exactly why he was blushing. “Well, you didn’t think you were the only shredded one, did you?”

Kim blinked a few times, but then his usual smirk returned. He walked right over to Marinette, leaning in so close she stopped breathing for a few seconds.

“Nah, I’m just surprised that even though you’ve changed into these comfy clothes, you’ve still got your hair tied up.”

Without breaking eye contact, he lifted his fingers to her hair. Marinette held her breath. He gently pulled on the end of one of her hair ribbons until it came loose, ever so slowly, then the other one, then took her hand and put both ribbons into it, before finally leaning away again and crossing his arms, smug as ever.

Marinette reminded herself to breathe. How… how could he just so effortlessly go and do something like that? And make it seem so… attractive?! She was just losing the plot, honestly.

Well, two could play at that game – she hadn’t forgotten about him blushing, after all. She did the hair flip she had seen so often in movies and TV shows, letting her hair fall naturally down to her shoulders in a way that not many people had seen before. There, that had made him blush again!

“Your face is red,” she said, a wave of confidence washing over her. “Are you hot? You could always take off your hoodie…”

He grinned and rolled his eyes. “Fine, since you clearly want me to…”

Unfortunately he didn’t get the chance – at that moment there was a crash outside. They both ran over to the window to see that several nearby buildings seemed to be tipping over, melting right into the street below them in a giant beige puddle. A gloopy-looking villain was bouncing around over the tops of them, laughing maniacally.

Ah, well there was the akuma attack. It had absolutely awful timing, for the record.

Marinette began backing away towards the bathroom. “I just remembered I uh… am on my period! And I gotta go! You stay safe though, I’ll catch you in a minute!”

Ignoring the confused look on his face she ran out of sight to go transform, and hopefully get this out of the way as soon as possible.

As Ladybug she quickly made her way out of the house and towards where she had last seen the akuma villain. It was only when she saw her parents down below on the street, running away from the bakery, that she turned back to see it melting down into nothing.

And Kim was still in there!

“Hey my lady, looks like we have a sticky situation on our hands.”

Chat Noir had just jumped up next to her, chipper as always.

“Chat, I’m so glad to see you!” she said. “Go find the akuma villain and distract her. I’ll be there soon, I just have to uh… do something quickly.”

“Sure!” He bounded off.

Right, now to go rescue Kim before he drowned in melted building – that would not be a pleasant way to go, even by akuma standards. She headed towards the remains of the bakery and bust through the window into her bedroom.

“Ladybug!” Kim turned to look at her, relief on his face. “The building’s melting and the doors are all glued shut–”

“I know. I’m getting you out of here.”

“What about Marinette and her family?”

“Uh… they’re already safe. They escaped on foot. Your turn now.”

Without even thinking, she picked him up over her shoulder and leapt back out of the smashed window, heading in the opposite direction to the spread of whatever was causing all these buildings to melt.

It was only when she was a safe enough distance away that it occurred to her.

She was carrying him. Over the shoulder. Like he had done with her not too long ago. And that she had started daydreaming about it in class, causing all this in the first place.

She quickly put him down, trying so hard not to dwell on it. The city needed saving right now, she couldn’t go turning into some lovesick idiot! There was no time for that!

“Thank you for saving me,” Kim said.

“No problem, that’s my job.”

“Are you sure Marinette’s okay?”

He was worried about her, oh boy… “Yeah, she’s definitely fine, don’t worry! You’ll see her again in no time.”

“Oh good, I mean, she’s the coolest person ever so she’ll be alright, but I’m glad she’s safe…” He buried his face in his hands for a few seconds, blushing. Oh, it was so stupidly cute. Too cute to think about right now.

“Well, um, I’ll probably go now…”

“I like your new hair, by the way.”

New hair…?

She put her hands up to her head – oh, of course, she didn’t have her hair ribbons in for once. Apparently that translated over to when she was Ladybug, too.

“It’s funny,” Kim was saying now, “Marinette did the same thing with her hair. She used to copy your hairstyle, you know. And then I took off her hair ribbons because – uh – I mean, I – well, her hair’s down now, it’s really weird that you did the same thing…”

No. No, surely he was too oblivious to make the connection. No one else had done it so far. He wouldn’t. No way.

“Actually, she left just when the akuma attack started… I know she does that all the time but… but… wait a second… don’t tell me you’re…!”

His eyes widened in shock.

“I have to go now!” she yelped. “Don’t – don’t say anything! Just… oh, I’ll talk to you later!”

Swinging off on her yoyo, she left him standing there, totally dumbstruck.

Kim knew.

Soaring over the remaining rooftops, her mind was in complete chaos.

Out of all the people who could have figured it out, it was Kim.

And it was all because of those stupid hair ribbons!

Kim knew she was Ladybug. It just wasn’t sinking in.

Her yoyo rang, and she picked up the call. “Chat?”

“I’ve found Fondrella! The akuma is hiding in the cone she’s holding – apparently she got akumatized because her ice cream melted and fell on the floor. Hawk Moth’s really losing his edge, huh? Akumatizing little kids again.”

She shook her thoughts out of her head and tried to focus. “Thanks, kitty. You keep stalling her, I’m on my way.”

Time to defeat an akuma villain. The issue of her secret identity could wait.

It didn’t take too long, but the heat was draining her energy even through the suit’s magic. After fixing the city and bidding Chat Noir goodbye, she swung back over to the bakery, exhausted.

What to say to Kim? How was he taking the news? Would this make things dangerous for him?

Her earrings were beeping urgently. She ignored them and jumped into her room through the balcony trapdoor. The magic had put her parents back downstairs and Kim right back in the room. He looked startled at her sudden entrance – in fact, she couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking.

The last few beeps sounded out, and her transformation ran out, leaving her standing there in front of him as Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Everything in the past hour had been a surreal blur, and this especially.

“Tikki, go help yourself to some cookies,” she said to the little kwami. “I guess I’ll have to sort this out…”

Tikki gave her a somewhat nervous, somewhat encouraging smile, then whizzed off to the cookie jar in the corner of the room. Kim was still in total shock.

“So,” Marinette said, her heart thumping in her chest. “You know now. I’m… Ladybug. B-but you can’t tell anyone! It has to be a secret! You’ll… you’ll do that for me, won’t you?”

For a few seconds he still stared. But then a smile broke onto his face, and he stepped forward to hug her. “I won’t tell anyone, I swear. I’m just… oh man, I’m so overwhelmed, you’re freaking Ladybug and you saved me and…”

“The less you know, the better, so maybe we shouldn’t talk about it.”

“Oh, right! Okay then. I’ll keep quiet.”

Thank goodness he was fine with it all. Of course she knew he would be, but it was still nice to be sure. Perhaps having someone to cover for her at school would make things easier for her in future akuma attacks. And now he would know why she got so tired so often, fell asleep so much in class, got so behind on homework. This wasn’t all bad.

All those sensible, coherent thoughts began to drift away when it occurred to her that he was still hugging her, and that she wasn’t exactly wearing much on the upper half, and there was more bare skin contact than there had ever been…

Getting more flustered by the second, she decided to change the subject. “You said to Ladybug that I’m the coolest person ever…”

He pulled her in a little closer. “Um… I mean… yeah, I guess I did say that, didn’t I… I was wrong though, you’re not cool at all, you’re super boiling right now, I can feel it! You know, temperature-wise. I guess you’re the hottest person ever instead… WAIT, NOT LIKE THAT – I mean yeah okay, maybe like that too – well except for me, because I’m the hottest–”

Wait, was he getting all flustered too? He was messing up his words, saying all sorts of ridiculous things, and judging by how warm his skin was, he wasn’t exactly wrong.

Marinette smiled into his shoulder. “Well if you’re so ‘hot’ then maybe you should take off your hoodie…”

Only after saying it did she realize how cheesy it sounded, and her face warmed up so fast she was sure she was about to start melting like the buildings earlier.

Kim spoke right in her ear, quieter than usual. “Yeah, but then I would have to stop hugging you… unless you take it off for me, of course…”

Marinette was too busy having multiple heart attacks to reply. In any case, Kim pulled back enough to get the hoodie off, smirking at her as he did so.

“Well, what now, Cupcake?”

He leaned in so close, in that tight shirt of his, so incredibly close, to the point where Marinette wondered for the first time if he actually might kiss her. The thought sent her brain into acrobatics. They were simply too close, she didn’t even know whether to stare at his eyes or his chest or his lips or–

He suddenly pulled the hoodie over her head so she was wearing it herself. Marinette jumped out of her thoughts and looked down at herself. This thing was massive! It even covered her shorts completely.

Kim was standing there laughing. “What a look! That’s so cute, honestly, you should keep it!”

Marinette managed to get her arms through the arm holes to put the hoodie on properly, her mind quickly descending into madness again. Oh god, she was wearing his hoodie right now, his actual hoodie, the one he had been wearing a second ago, and now he just had that shirt thing on, making him so hot, as usual, and his laugh – oh his laugh was so cute – !!

Her heart was on fire, so on fire she might burst into flame at any second. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him into another hug, wrapping her arms around that shirt of his, completely overwhelmed.

“So Cupcake, how long have you been in love with me?”

The stupid cocky grin could easily be heard in his voice. Marinette sighed, patience finally at an end.

“Kim, can you please be real for a second?” she said. “Enough with the jokes and the flirting and everything and just tell me if you actually mean all this, or is this just some… some joke? Like haha, Marinette’s in love with me, aren’t I so amazing and handsome…”

She hadn’t expected tears to be springing to her eyes, but they were. Today had been so wild there was no telling what kind of emotions she’d be going through next.

Kim, still holding onto her, pulled back enough to look right at her. The stupid cocky grin was gone.

“I’m sorry, I’m not really good at being serious,” he admitted. “The truth is, it feels like I can’t think properly around you and I keep acting really stupid and it’s lame, I’m sorry, I just…” He looked down, his cheeks blazing. “Cupcake… Marinette… you mean a lot to me and… I…”

He lifted his eyes to meet hers again, and there was more vulnerability in them than she had ever seen before. For once, he truly was being serious.

After several seconds of just gazing at her, at a complete loss for words, Marinette realized something. Kim had no idea what he was doing, did he? As much as he bragged about everything, as overconfident as he always acted, underneath it all he simply didn’t have a clue. He wasn’t some smooth, suave casanova.

He was just a dorky teenager with a crush.

Just like Marinette.

A smile returned to her face, positive emotions rushing back into her at the speed of light. This really was an odd rollercoaster ride.

“I understand,” she whispered, relishing how little space there was between them. “You can carry on being your stupid flirty self now.” After all, as much as she hated to admit it, she did love his smooth flirty self.

His demeanour changed back within just a few seconds. He curled a finger under her chin and gently pulled her face closer.

“I never thought I’d ever hear anyone say that,” he breathed, in a voice so low it sent Marinette’s brain into shutdown once more. And when he slipped a hand under the hoodie and around her waist, she didn’t even try to fight the tingles it sent up her spine.

She had only ever kissed Chat Noir before, and even then, that didn’t really count considering that he had been brainwashed at the time. It hadn’t even been particularly fun, or memorable. More like magical CPR than anything else. Funnily enough, that had been Kim’s fault.

Right now, though, she was pumped up in all the right ways, almost drowning in love for the boy whose arms she was in, needing to be closer, too far gone to even think about anything other than giving in and kissing him.

So she stepped up onto his feet, tightened her arms around him, leaned in close, and finally pressed her lips against his.

This was nothing like Chat Noir – this was fiery, deep, everything she had wanted, and more. She was melting, and it wasn’t enough, she pulled him even closer, feeling his arms sliding up her back and holding her tight, she just couldn’t stop.

Better than a self-indulgent daydream? Oh yes, infinitely.

It was only at the sound of a ringtone that Marinette allowed herself to be pulled away, not realizing how out-of-breath she was or how fast her heart was beating until now. Wow.

The sound was from inside the pocket of Kim’s hoodie – the hoodie that Marinette was wearing. She took it out and sheepishly gave his phone back to him. She hadn’t meant to steal it, honestly.

Kim checked his message. “It’s getting late, I’m supposed to go home…” He looked back up at Marinette and smiled, softly running a hand through her open hair and then resting it on the side of her face. “Enjoyed that, Cupcake?”

She nodded, too busy swooning for much coherent thought. “Yeah… and I know you did too…”

He blushed, before taking a little box out of his trouser pocket. “I guess you’re my girlfriend now, which means, um… do you want this?”

He flipped open the lid of the box to reveal the brooch from Valentine’s Day, the one that he had been intending to give to Chloé, the one that had got him akumatized. Marinette recognized it very well. Somehow it was something that had just stuck in her memory.

She took the brooch out of the box and pinned it to the front of the hoodie. “I’ll only have it if I get to keep the hoodie.”

“Sure. You look awesome in it.”

“And you look awesome out of it…” She quickly covered her face with her hands, blushing hard.

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow, then?”

School! How was everyone going to take this? Barely a week ago she was still apparently head-over-heels for Adrien, and now here she was having just made out with Lê Chiến Kim of all people!

Well, it didn’t matter. Her friends were always going to be supportive, just as they had proven. She had nothing to be worried about. In fact, she had a feeling things were going to be awesome from this point on.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” she asked, thinking about how excited her parents would be about her new boyfriend.

“Would you like to stay forever?” Tikki piped up from inside the cookie jar.

“Tikki, oh my gosh, you can’t just – !” Marinette broke off into giggles.

“If you’re cool with that,” Kim said. “The dinner bit I mean! I can’t stay here forever, I… uh, yeah. Dinner. That’s cool.”

“Nice!” Marinette took hold of his hand, a welcome rush of adrenaline running through her. “And I know I said I didn’t want to talk about Ladybug things, but maybe later on I’ll introduce you to Tikki, because I’m sure she’d love to meet you…”

Kim grinned. “I still can’t believe I’m dating Ladybug. This is the best day of my life, you know.”

“It’s the best day of mine too! Anyway, let’s go downstairs, I can’t wait to tell my parents…”

“They won’t mind?”

“No, don’t worry, they love you!”

“Phew…”

Marinette couldn’t get a smile off her face as she walked him downstairs. Who knew things would turn out like this? If she had told her past self that she’d move on from Adrien, she wouldn’t have believed it. And if she said that the person she would move onto was Kim, her past self would probably have straight-up slapped her.

But here it was! Going for a totally fresh start had been worth it, and she hadn’t even needed the help of five separate wing-girls to do the work for her.

Things were really looking up.