Marinette hadn't heard from Adrien in a day. A whole day! Which was completely unheard of. He was always first to message in the morning and she was last to message at night. She'd done her deed, sending the final goodnights of the day before she climbed into bed and tried to stop dreaming about him. However, when she woke up that morning her inbox was empty.

She'd checked multiple times if her message had gone through, and turned her phone on and off repeatedly in case there was an issue with it. The device currently sat with a black screen in her bag.

Tikki thought she was crazy, telling her that Adrien must have a reason and not to panic...but this was Marinette Dupain-Cheng and if she could do anything perfectly, it was panicking!

She headed into class at the normal time (5 minutes late), sat in her normal seat (next to Anthony) and attempted to focus, but all she could think about was Adrien lying in a ditch somewhere, needing help (her common sense attempting to telling her Plagg would have come and found her if that was the case), or that he'd ran off and eloped with Elise. She honestly couldn't decide which would be worse.

"And so the flare originated..."

Marinette continued to doodle and draw in her notebook, her attention switching off from the history of the flare to her best friend once again. Her eyes flickered down to her phone. Maybe she should just turn it on again and check to see if he had messaged. Her hand slowly moved in the direction of her side bag, only to stop when something hit her in the back of the head.

She jumped, glad that she hadn't made a bigger fool out of herself, and yelped. Finding the balled up paper that hit her, Marinette peeked over her shoulder to see where it had come from, only for a second to hit her square in the forehead.

This time she did yelp!

"Ms. Dupain-Cheng, am I interrupting something?"

Her face bloomed, a pink spark igniting in the centre before spreading like blossom all over her cheeks. "N-n-no, Sir. Just a muscle spasm. Sorry. Please, carry on."

She sank down in the seat, covering her face as those around her snickered. Oh, grand! Because she wasn't an oddball already, she had to go and make herself stand out even more.

Calming herself to stop the intense prickling in each cheek, Marinette found the paper and unravelled it, her heart rate increasing as she realised she recognised the handwriting.

Adrien.

She wanted to turn around and seek him out on the seats, but she was quite sure that would cause her to be removed from the class...just another unneeded hassle for her already growing isolation from the others in the class — everyone except Anthony, that was.

Hands trembling, she unfolded the note and began to read, praying it wasn't bad news.

I need to meet up outside asap when class finishes. It's really important.

Adrien's neat calligraphic writing was like a balm on a burn. He was here. Not in a ditch somewhere and definitely not in Las Vegas getting married by an Elvis impersonator.

Don't look at your phone yet! Please, trust me!

The trust was most certainly there, but now the curiosity was too. Maybe they hadn't eloped to Las Vegas. Maybe they'd tied the knot in a side chapel in London. Oh goodness, he'd probably been married by King Charles at St Paul's Cathedral. Wasn't he a fan of Adrien's?

Marinette looked at her watch and pressed the buttons to show her heart rate. Fat burn! Great! Her resting heart rate of 62 bpm had also doubled... Was she going to have a heart attack?

Another piece of paper flew down in front of her, her hands making quick work of opening the paper.

Stop panicking! It's really nothing to worry about!

Grabbing a page from her own notepad, she wrote a note.

Are you dying?

Then she threw it behind her.

"Ooo-wee!" she exclaimed. "These muscle spasms are getting worse!"

She heard his chuckle behind her. What the hell was Adrien doing here in this class?

"You might want to get that checked out, Ms Dupain-Cheng."

"Yep, sir, most definitely. I'll go straight to the doctor's when this lesson finishes."

Her lecturer gave her the most unconvinced look she'd ever seen, and she couldn't understand how Miss Bustier had fallen for her lies for so many years.

A flying snowball landed on her desk once more, Marinette reaching for it quickly and opening it up.

Definitely not! I don't want to get you into trouble, so I'll meet you out in the courtyard once your lessons are finished. I don't want anyone else to know that I'm here (Anthony excluded, as I can see he's reading these notes! Hi Ant!)

Peeking over her shoulder, he was gone, leaving her alone and anxious...the history of flares going in one ear and straight out of the other.

That had been the single most anxious two hours of her life. If she'd had to take a pop quiz to exit the lecture hall, she would have still been in there now, praying Tikki could send her some luck, and possibly some information, about the lifelong fashion crime of the flare.

Anthony, ever the friend, had promised to give her a copy of the notes. However, his attention was split too, as he announced his favourite part of the lesson was watching her design Adrien, a very fashionable wetsuit in case he told her he was going to try and sail the Atlantic on a surfboard.

When Anthony had quizzed further, Marinette unfortunately had to admit that firstly Adrien couldn't surf and secondly the loneliness of the trip would kill him, which then had her designing a second wetsuit just in case he was going to ask her to go with him — like she would say no.

Her hand waved at the side of her bag, itching to grab her phone, but he'd said to trust her and she did - which of course meant it would be bad news he was delivering, possibly something a news channel would have gotten hold of. Maybe it was something more about Monarch and Gabriel, and Adrien would have to go into hiding. She couldn't let that happen! She wouldn't! If he had to hide, she would go with him...they could live in a small cottage in the woods and grow their own food.

"Let's go and find your 'just a friend'," Anthony said, swinging an arm around her shoulders and leading her out of the classroom.

For the first time in a long time, she felt an anxious feeling wrapping around her tightly, almost like one of those itchy wool blankets her grandpa used to give her at Christmas, before he passed away.

"Is it just me, or are people staring?" It wasn't like she wasn't used to the attention. She was Ladybug, after all. But this attention as Marinette...well, it was a little unnerving.

"I don't think your bra is on show again," Anthony mused, a twinkle in his eyes.

She looked down just to check, but there were no buttons undone and no silk or lace poking through unfortunate tumbler dryer holes. She was perfectly dressed, for a change.

The feeling intensified as she made it out into the courtyard. The crowds thickened as they moved over towards the fountain and her usual meet spot with Adrien.

Marinette checked the time on her watch. This was odd for such a time in the day. Most lectures were still in session. It was only the fashion history class that finished earlier — being a two-hour lecture, rather than the normal three. Others were not due to finish for at least another hour.

"What's going on?" she said to nobody in particular, pushing onto her tiptoes and attempting to look over people's heads. Damn her 5 foot 2 height.

The hustle and bustle in front was causing a backlog of traffic - not one she wanted to be stuck in when she was in desperate need of finding Adrien.

"Something's happening in the square," Anthony replied, his 5-foot-11 frame making it easier for him to look ahead – if only he'd decided to wear his platform shoes today.

They looked at each other, making the silent decision to head over and find out exactly what had built up such an influx of people.

Absorbing themselves into the crowd, Anthony's gasp caught her off guard...before he started laughing like a menace. "No way!"

Bouncing up and down, Marinette wanted to see what had caused such a reaction from her friend. A reaction which seemed to have taken his breath away - and if his eyes were anything to go by, he'd just hit the eyeball jackpot.

He continued to push forward, this time with a greater speed, grabbing her arm and dragging her along for the ride, pushing people left and right, moving like Moses through the red sea.

Before Marinette could ask any more questions, she was propelled forward and into someone's body, her eyes squeezed tightly shut as she attempted to gain some sort of balance.

Once stable, she began to move, her eyes opening and seeing the most beautiful blue in front of her. A blue she was sure she'd seen before. On a homemade gift. For the love of her life. Who was also her best friend.

Suddenly realising his arms were wrapped tightly around her body, she slowly lifted her head, her eyes seeking out the owner of the scarf - the scarf which she had made.

Before she knew it, her eyes hit a strong jawline, perfectly peach lips, a wonderful nose, eventually landing on the most wonderful sight she'd ever seen. Emerald green eyes.

Well, it was fair to say she wasn't the only one to know he was here now. Why the hell wasn't he in disguise?

"H-h-hi, Adrien." She smiled up at him, only to notice something she hadn't before...he looked serious which could only mean he did have bad news to share.