The events of this chapter are ignoring the law of the show, in which the kwami Plagg has been seen phasing through a solid object (unlocked the safe behind Adrien's mum's portrait) but for the sake of this story he does not have that ability.

Just didn't want anyone being like "meh, meh, meh, he can go through stuff" cuz I know, but dudes it's a fanfic XD

[Narrator's POV]

"I'm so proud of you Marinette," Alya says. "I thought you would be messed up after what happened. You're stronger than I thought, sorry for underestimating you. I really admire your perseverance."

"When you feel this way about someone, it's easy to love them. You love them no matter what, even when they can't reciprocate your feelings." Marinette says, quoting Cat Noir's words.

"Aww, Marinette!" Alya flings her arms around her best friend. "You have a heart of gold, you know that? And someday Adrien will know it too."

The school bell rings a final warning. Alya and Marinette hurry into class and take their usual seats. Nino and Adrien follow soon after, sitting down in front of them.

"Hey guys!" Adrien greets brightly.

Marinette's heart melts at the sight of his cute little smile. "Hey, hi, A-Adrien!"

Nino leans over the back of his chair to kiss Alya just as Chloe and Sabrina enter the classroom.

"Ew. Sabrina, they're sharing their dork germs." Chloe grimaces.

Sabrina takes out a cleaning spray and clouds the air around Nino and Alya. They both cough as they wave the mist away.

"Your obnoxiousness is suffocating enough thankyou." Alya snaps.

"Hmph." Chloe turns her head up and continues her way to her desk.

"She's just jealous." Adrien tells Nino.

Marinette rests her head in her hands and smiles down at Adrien. "As bad as it is to have to see Chloe every day, I'm glad to be back at school." She says to Alya.

"Alright class," Ms Bustier speaks up. "Today we'll working in the library to research for our new assessment topic. We will be studying French architecture. Students will be required to make a presentation about your chosen French landmark or architect. You'll be working in pairs—"

The class buzzes with excitement.

Marinette turns to Alya happily, "Let's work together. You can come to my place after school and maybe even have a sleepover, it'll be fun!"

"No way." Alya says shortly.

"What?" Marinette responds, a little hurt.

Alya smirks. "I'm going to pair up with Nino so that you can work with Adrien."

Marinette's frown stretches into a smile.

"Quite please!" Ms Bustier continues firmly. "I will let you pick your pairs only if you promise you can cooperate and work responsibly."

The class nods and murmurs in agreement. Adrien turns to Nino but Alya quickly cuts in,

"Nino! Be my partner?"

Alya stares at Nino urgently. His eyes drift over to Marinette's smiling face and then back to Alya.

"Sure." He grins.

"Nino, you always preach Bros before Hoes." Adrien says. "You know Chloe is going to try to pair with me!"

"This ain't no hoe, Adrien." Nino replies proudly. "This is my girlfriend."

Alya smiles and kisses Nino on the cheek. "Besides, you can work with—" She starts.

"Adrikins!" Chloe skips over to Adrien's desk. "Let's be partners!"

Adrien shudders. "Sorry Chloe. I'm, uh..." His eyes shift around the room, searching through all the other students who are already paired up until finally landing on Marinette. Adrien's eyes light up. "I'm working with Marinette!"

"What?" Chloe replies in disgust.

Marinette smiles smugly at Chloe. "That's right. We're partners."

Chloe growls angrily.

"It's okay Chloe, I'll be your partner!" Sabrina says happily.

"Fine. But you're doing all the research." Chloe replies. She crosses her arms and returns to her seat.

"Alright class, all paired up?" Ms Bustier asks.

"Yes!" The class answers in unison.

"Then let's head on up to the library." Ms Bustier says, leading the class out the door.

"Hey Nino, since this is a pretty big topic to cover you should come over to my place after school to do more research." Alya says especially loudly so that Adrien and Marinette can hear.

"That's a good idea," Adrien turns to Marinette. "Mind if I come over after school?"

Alya winks at Marinette before continuing her work with Nino.

"Not—not at all." Marinette says. "A-Are you sure you want to study at my house? It's a bit small and my parents are very invasive."

Adrien looks away bashfully as he talks, "Actually, I...I really like coming over to your house. My place is so big and empty but yours is always so warm and homely. It probably sounds stupid since I've only been over once when we had to practice for the gaming tournament but I like the loving family environment, you know?..."

"I-I don't think it's stupid!" Marinette replies. "I think that's really sweet Adrien. I would be happy to have you over after school."

Adrien looks back up at Marinette and smiles.

The rest of the day was easy for Marinette to get through. All she thought about was spending time alone with Adrien after school and the hours seemed to just fly by. When the school bell rings at the end of the day, Marinette rushes home. She races up the stairs and into her bedroom.

"Adrien will be coming in exactly thirty-seven minutes." Marinette says as she starts packing up her photos of Adrien.

"Ooh, I'm so excited!" Tiki replies.

Marinette opens a desk draw and puts away her framed portrait of Adrien. She then begins taking down each of the pictures on her wall. Marinette pulls them off one by one until reaching the photo of Cat Noir. Her hand hesitates to grab it as she stares into the smiling face of Cat Noir. For some reason this photo captures her attention. It's a lot harder to take it down, though Marinette isn't sure why. It doesn't mean anything to her but Cat Noir's caring gaze seems to warm her heart. She knows he didn't mean the message he wrote for her but still it makes her smile.

Marinette shakes herself from the photo of Cat Noir. She grabs it and puts it away in her desk draw with all the pictures of Adrien.

Marinette checks the time on her computer only to realise that her desktop is still of Adrien. "GAH!" She hurries into settings and changes her computer background to a generic default one. "Phew. Twenty-eight minutes to go. That's plenty of time."

Marinette plops down into her desk chair and gets out the pink box that her diary is kept in. She unlocks the box with her key, takes out her diary and starts writing her daily log.

Marinette just finishes writing and places her diary back into the box when her mother calls from downstairs,

"Marinette! Adrien's here for you!"

"Coming!" Marinette yells, running downstairs before her parents get the chance to embarrass her.

"Hey." Adrien greets with a wave. "Thank you for having me over, Mrs Cheng."

"No problem." Marinette's mum, Sabine, says. "But Marinette dear, I said you could have a friend over if you cleaned up the kitchen for me."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I lost track of time and I completely forgot." Marinette replies.

"Your father and I are swamped downstairs. Please at least put on the dishwasher, it won't take you more than five minutes." Sabine says.

"But muuum!" Marinette groans.

"It's cool Marinette," Adrien cuts in. "I'll go upstairs and get started."

Marinette shifts uneasily, thinking of all the photos of Adrien sitting in her desk draw. "O-Okay."

Sabine heads back downstairs into the bakery and Adrien goes upstairs into Marinette's bedroom whilst she hurries to stack all the dishes in the dishwasher.

Adrien climbs through the hatch door and puts his satchel bag down on Marinette's desk. Plagg immediately comes zooming out.

"Ooohh, interesting." He says. "Alone in a girls room, and it's this Marinette girl you like too."

"I don't like Marinette. Now hide before she comes back!" Adrien snaps.

"Don't you want to snoop around for a bit?" Plagg flies around the room until coming across Marinette's open diary box. "Oooo, Marinette's secret diary. Just imagine the juicy stuff in there!"

"Absolutely not." Adrien says, grabbing Plagg.

"Oh come on. You aren't the least bit interested?" Plagg asks mischievously.

Adrien's eyes linger over to the diary box for a second but then he returns to Plagg strongly. "No."

He puts Plagg back into his bag and slowly paces around the room to pass time. Plagg peeks out of Adrien's bag and eyes the pink box next to him. He sneaks out just to have a peer inside. Plagg crawls into the box when all of a sudden the lid slams shut on him just as Marinette bursts through her bedroom hatchet.

"Okay I'm ready!" Marinette announces happily.

Neither she nor Adrien noticed the diary box behind them snap shut. Marinette had assumed that she closed it before going downstairs. When she sees the pink box sitting on the desk she instantly grabs it and hides it away without considering whether she had left it opened or closed.

"Woops. Didn't mean to leave that out. I can be so forgetful sometimes." Marinette says nervously. "Anyway, sorry I kept you waiting. Parents and their annoying chores am I right?"

"I wouldn't know. We pay people to do the housework." Adrien sighs. "I think you're pretty hard on your parents. You have no idea what an amazing family you have. It's so fun and welcoming. I don't know...they're like the family I wish I had sort of thing."

Marinette looks at Adrien sadly but he will not meet her eye.

"Well, you will always be treated like family here at the Dupain-Cheng bakery." Marinette says kindly. "You're always welcome and you're always loved. So I don't know what you mean by 'you wish' because you do have this family right here."

Adrien finally lifts his eyes to meet Marinette's. She smiles gently at him and his heart skips a beat.

"I'm glad we became friends Marinette." Adrien says. "I...I'm really lucky to have someone as kind-hearted as you in my life."

Marinette blushes, her smile stretching into a grin. "I'm glad too."

The two friends continued to do their work in relaxed silence, looking up at each other every now and then before quickly looking away. At 5:00, Adrien stands up from his seat and stretches.

"I didn't even notice the time, I have to go now." He says.

"But your car isn't here yet." Marinette replies.

Adrien scratches his neck. "Actually, I asked the gorilla to pick me up at 5:30 in the park...don't ask why."

Marinette tilts her head. "Are you sure you don't want me to walk you there?"

"No, it's fine, but thank you so much for letting me come over." Adrien says.

"No problem, I enjoyed it." Marinette replies. "At least let me walk you to the door."

She and Adrien head downstairs and out of the bakery. Marinette waves goodbye as Adrien leaves for the park. He puts his hands in his pockets and breathes in the evening air. The sky above is dimming to a purplish-blue. Orange light lines the dark clouds as the sun begins to hide away in the horizon. Adrien walks into the centre of the park and lies down on the cold grass. He loves to watch the sunset but his father rarely lets him out late. Adrien reaches his hand up towards the fluorescent sky above him. A tear escapes his eye as he watches the sun fade from sight...just as his mother, the light in his life, disappeared to leave him alone in the dark. Adrien's hand slowly drops back down. He closes his eyes to except the darkness as he lay in the bitter cold of the night.

Suddenly, a loud honk startles Adrien awake. His eyes shoot open as he bolts upright, only to see his car waiting for him outside the park. Adrien exhales deeply and lifts himself off the ground. He lumbers glumly out of the park. Adrien slumps down into his car seat and stares out the window as he drives further and further away, not realising what, or whom, he has left behind...