Friday went by painfully slowly, and Adrien discovered just how much he hated the school holidays. Having additional time off meant his father had packed his schedule with additional photoshoots, good old Gabriel was expecting more and more as Adrien got older. So, instead of wandering around with his friends having fun during his summer break, he was wandering around photoshoots trying to keep Lila away from him.

Over the past few months she'd begun to get a little more handsy than he appreciated which caused a lot of time ducking and diving into small alcoves along with faking colds and naps. He knew it was all starting to look suspicious and that his excuses could only work for so long. With that being the case, he made a mental note to ask Nino if he could borrow his super soaker. He was sure that'd put a stop to it all.

Saturday went by even slower, with only piano practise and Chinese tutoring to fill in the afternoon lull. Adrien began to think his clock had stopped. Five times he double checked the time against his phone, and three times he changed the batteries. Well he'd attempted to change the batteries. Each of those three  times he realised his clock was actually plugged into the mains and therefore couldn't run out of battery, the faint hum of his computer also informed him that there wasn't a power outage.

Being as extra as he was, Adrien pulled up the blueprints of the plug courtesy of Google and found a screwdriver to check the connection. Of course, the clock was fine, but he was beginning to worry about his own mentality. Plus he was one more question away from being watched, after all, there's only some many times you can ask for a new fuse.

By six o'clock that evening Adrien was a bundle of nervous energy stalking from one side of his room to the other. Rubbing the back of his neck, the cool, calm, suave Adrien Agreste was turning into a pile of goo. His mind was running over drive as he considered there were only two options for this evening; the date was either going to go really well, or shockingly bad.

He needed it to go well. He needed Marinette to fall for him. This was his last chance to capture his Lady's heart. He just prayed the rumours were actually true and Marinette did, in fact like like him. He needed her to be his girlfriend.

Adrien made his way into his closet and began to look at the outfit he'd spent seven hours choosing the previous night. Ok, seven hours may have been a slight exaggeration, it was more like four.

He slipped on his black skinny jeans and leather dress shoes before looking at his chosen top again. It was a simple khaki green tee with a black leather jacket. Although it was summer, there was still quite a nasty chill in the air at night and he wanted to make sure he had a jacket to drape over Marinette's shoulders. If they were going to be walking after they'd been to the restaurant he wanted to make sure he could be as gentlemanly as possible, and be able to keep her warm. Nothing said romance more than slinging his jacket over her shoulders.

Happy with the overall look, he studied himself in the mirror one last time. Not too shabby at all. Spritzing a little of his self named cologne in the air, he walked through making sure he was coated in the heavenly scent, before finally realising he was ready. Adrien Agreste was finally ready for his date with Marinette Dupain-Ladybug-Cheng.

Physically at least.

"How are you getting out of the house, kid? You know your pop's won't agree to this."

And, just like that, Adrien Agreste was no longer ready to go on a date with Marinette Dupain-Ladybug-Cheng.

He scratched the base of his neck and began to think when the idea hit him. He was actually disappointed with himself for not thinking of it straight away. The issue was only minor. He was Chat Noir for Pete sake, he could escape the mansion whenever he wanted.

"Where there's a will there's a way. Plagg, claws out."

"This isn't a good idea -" before Plagg could finish his sentence, the kwami of destruction had been absorbed into the ring turning Adrien's fashionable date outfit into one of leather and studs. Now all he needed to do was head over to Marinette's and woo her.

Adrien pulled his baton from around his back ready to launch himself out of his window, before noticing the green paw print was flashing. Odd. Sliding it open a word lit up the screen.

Message

He tried to remember when he last transformed and whether it was an old message. There had been no akuma's for the past couple of days, and his patrol was Wednesday so it has been - what? - three days since he was Chat Noir?

Holding his finger on the correct button, the voicemail began to play and he placed the baton against his ear.

"Hey Kitty Cat, just to let you know I won't be making the interview tomorrow night. Something has come up in my civilian life and I - well - it's - um - it's important. Keep me informed how it goes and please don't drop too many puns. Talk to you later, Bug Out."

Interview? Tomorrow? Chat Noir looked down at his baton wondering what this 'interview' was. He looked at his calendar for Sunday and it was clear. Had she got the wrong date?

He looked back over the message and checked the day it was left. It was from Friday, which meant tomorrow was Saturday, which meant it was today.

Oh no! No, no, no, no, no!

An interview was planned for today with Alya and the Ladyblog, and the reason Ladybug couldn't do it was because she was on a date with Adrien, who was Chat Noir, who was on a date with Marinette, who was Ladybug.

He needed a plan and fast! There was absolutely no way he was cancelling on Marinette, he did this numerous times with Kagami and it ended up kicking him in the rear, not only that though, this was Marinette. The Marinette. Ladybug herself, the girl under the mask.

Pulling up Ladybug's name on the communicator he pressed the dial button and waited. Of course, there was no answer, she'd be getting ready at this moment, not sitting around in her suit waiting for a cat call. He looked over to where the remote lay for the cat plushie she held. It really wasn't an ideal time for this and it wasn't that important, she'd kill him for forgetting, plus he could handle it. He was a superhero too, she always said they were equal, so he could do this. He could sort it out, all he needed was a little of her luck.

"Hey Bug, I've got it all covered. Enjoy your evening M'Lady, and don't miss me too much!" He cancelled the connection to Ladybug before pulling up the next number.

The LouLou Paris Michelin Star restaurant.

"Good evening, Sir, Chat Noir here. I would like to book a table at the bar for this evening around 7.30pm, we won't be eating, just drinks and maybe dessert?"

"I'm sorry, Sir, but we are already fully booked."

Adrien rolled his eyes. No they weren't, everywhere had tables for celebrities especially the heroes of Paris, or a teenage supermodel.

"As much as I would like to believe you are actually fully booked, I know for a fact you will have a couple of tables free and who better to give one to but one of the saviours of Paris."

"How do I know this is the real Chat Noir?" The maître d' asked. They never asked him that when he booked under Adrien Agreste, obviously Chat Noir didn't seem like a Michelin star restaurant type of guy.

"You don't, but Alya Césaire will be interviewing me for the Ladyblog and if you want some free advertising-" He let the last word hang in the air, there was no way they'd say no to this, free PR was every company's dream, especially when linked to one of Paris' golden duo.

You see, one thing he'd learnt was, as Chat Noir and as Adrien Agreste, his name held some sort of leverage. Throw the name around and he could get most things he wanted, not that he did it often mind you. Just sometimes people need a teeny tiny bit of a push in the right direction.

"I will hold the table for ten minutes only. No show and I hand it off to another attendee."

"Deal." Chat Noir replied, hanging up the call and dialling one last number before he headed to Marinette's.

He was now on the verge of running late, even though he knew Marinette was rarely on time for anything, he didn't want to start their possible relationship on a negative note. He prayed that this next call would be quick, he needed to get on his way.

"Hey Alya, it's Chat Noir."

A banging around was heard, followed by a quiet yelp, a gasp and, if he wasn't mistaken, a cuss word.

"Chat, hi," she sounded out of breath and frantic.

"Are - are you ok?" Chat asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, just this is unexpected when I'm seeing you in about half an hour." She replied.

He decided to ignore the details which caused the noise and concentrate on the call.

"Well, I'm the King of surprises and I have a wonderful one in store for you. Have you ever heard of LouLou's?" He asked.

"The restaurant near the Louvre?"

"That's the one," Chat said, "meet me there at 7.30pm on the dot. We have a table booked for drinks at the bar, if you're on your best behaviour I might be able to splurge out on a dessert too."

Adrien kicked himself, sometimes he really was just an idiot.

Stop with the flirting Adrien!

It was times like this he had a strong dislike for the Chat Noir side of himself, he just liked to spew out compliments and act like a complete knob.

"It's a date," Alya replied.

"No," responded Chat, "no it's really not." He wasn't going down that route again.

Alya started to laugh down the phone.

"Fine. I'll see you for our, not-a-date, date at 7.30."

"Excellent," and with that, Chat powered down the communicator and extended his staff. It was time to go pick up his lady.