[Narrator's POV]

Marinette walks up the stairs towards school and spots Louis by the front doors.

"Louis!" Marinette calls out as she jogs towards him.

"Marinette, good to see you're okay." Louis says kindly. "Sorry about yesterday."

"No, I'm sorry Louis. I want you to know that I honestly wanted to be your friend before I suspected you of being Cat Noir. And I'm not in love with him, but I'm not in love with you either. I should have been honest with you but I thought it would seem arrogant of me to assume you wanted to date me." Marinette says. "I realise now that I might have been stringing you along and that's wrong. I hope we can still be friends."

"It's okay Marinette. I overreacted." Louis replies. "But I don't know if we can stay friends. I just can't help liking you, and I don't want to get in the way of you and Adrien."

"M-Me and Adrien?" Marinette repeats.

Louis smiles and nods in the direction behind her. Marinette turns to see Adrien, Nino and Alya approaching her. She looks back at Louis but he has already left.

"Hey Marinette." Adrien scratches the back of his neck. "Listen, I'm sorry if I have been a bit hard on you lately. I called you naive even though you're the smartest girl I know. I was being overprotective but I was just trying to look out for a friend so I hope you still want to be my friend."

"Oh, uh, s-sure Adrien." Marinette stutters.

Adrien smiles and pats Marinette on the shoulder before continuing his way into school.

Marinette's heart sinks. "Friends...this whole jealousy effort was wasted. We accomplished nothing!" She whimpers to Alya.

Alya nods solemnly and puts her arm around Marinette's shoulder to comfort her.

"Oh, and Marinette!'

Marinette looks up to see Adrien coming back towards her.

"I was thinking we could visit the Louvre this weekend. I could make it up to you for being a jerk and we could study the architecture for our project." He says.

Marinette's face lights up. "Yes! I-I mean—yeah, sure, whatever. I'll, uh, check my schedule."

"Cool. Let's exchange contact information so you can let me know." Adrien says.

Marinette gives Adrien her phone number, grinning so widely her cheeks hurt.

The four friends make their way into class to find all the students chatting excitedly.

"What's going on?" Asks Nino.

"It's the school's story book parade tomorrow of course." Rose answers excitedly.

"Ah, I completely forgot!" Marinette panics. "I don't have a costume yet."

"I'm going as Nancy Drew, the world's greatest detective!" Alya announces proudly.

"Um, think again. The world's greatest detective is Batman." Nino replies. "Ms Bustier, we can dress up as comic book characters right?"

"Comics don't count." Alya says.

"Uh, it's a story book parade and they are called comic books." Nino argues.

"I would advise you not to, Mr Lahiffe." Ms Bustier steps in. "The story book parade is supposed to celebrate novels to promote the library."

"Lame." Nino groans.

"You already insist on going as Batman for Halloween anyway. No need to embarrass yourself twice." Alya says.

Adrien chuckles. Meanwhile, Chloe and Sabrina are having their own discussion about costumes at their desk.

"What are we going as Chloe?" Sabrina asks eagerly.

"Duh, I'm dressing as Queen Elsa because I would look stunning in her dress. Granted, I look fabulous in anything." Chloe answers, flicking her hair.

"That's perfect! I can go as Princess Anna." Sabrina says happily.

"Excuse me? There's only room for one main character. You're going as my sidekick, Olaf. Isn't that just even more perfect? See, you've already got his nose." Chloe laughs at her own joke briefly before continuing with a cold glare. "There will be no other girls dressing up. All eyes will be on me. Most importantly, Adrien's eyes. Which is why you're lucky to be my sidekick because you get to help me keep it that way."

Ms Bustier claps twice loudly to get the class's attention. "There will be no more discussions about tomorrow's event, we are here to learn!"

The students grumble and whine. Nobody payed attention in class for the rest of the day, they were all too busy thinking of the fun that tomorrow holds.

.

*Tomorrow*

.

[Adrien's POV]

I walk up the school stairs in my green attire. Today I am dressed as Peter Pan. As soon as I enter the classroom I am greeted by my Captain Hook.

Nino approaches me wearing a full pirate getup—fake parrot and everything. Captain Hook doesn't even have a parrot. In fact, he doesn't look remotely like what Nino has dressed as. I think Nino was just stoked to wear a pirate costume.

"Dude, sick getup!" Nino says, giving me a fist bump in appraisal. "Oh, I mean—Ahoy matey, ye costume be the booty of the sea."

"Pfft—Please don't talk like that." I laugh. I twirl around and then strike a pose. "Do I look like Peter Pan?"

"You've certainly got his charisma."

I turn around to see Alya in a yellow sweater, a plaid skirt with knee-high socks and a pink headband. She is holding a magnifying glass. I suppose this is the Nancy Drew outfit she decided on.

"Hey Alya. Where's Marinette?" I ask, looking around.

Alya smiles cheekily. "Oh she's coming. Let's just say she's had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction."

"Adrikins!"

I shudder as Chloe comes shuffling over to me. I imagine it's not so easy to walk in heels as well as a dress as tight as hers. It is sparkling blue with a long veil that trails on the ground. With her blonde hair braided to the side and her blue eyes as cold as ice, Chloe bears an uncanny resemblance to Elsa. Sabrina stumbles behind her wearing some hideous, bulky mascot suit of Olaf with the face cut out.

"Well?" Chloe crosses her arms and looks at me expectantly. "Aren't you going to compliment me?"

"Uh, sure, nice costume Chloe." I say lazily. "But I thought this parade was to promote books from the library?"

Chloe scoffs. "Who cares. No one reads books anyway."

"I like to read books." I reply.

"Me too!" Chloe says, hugging my arm happily.

The classroom door slowly creeks open. I look over to see Marinette entering the room timorously.

Time slows. My heart stops beating. All eyes are on Marinette but none admire her as much as I do. Her hair is let down in loose wisps that fall just below her shoulders. She is wearing a beautiful white gown, like an angel—no—a goddess! I pull my arm from Chloe's grip and slowly walk towards Marinette. She's...breathtaking.

Marinette straightens her dress and shuffles her feet anxiously as I approach. Even when I stand right in front of her, she keeps her eyes locked on the ground. I reach out without thinking and touch her hair. As I thought, smooth as silk. Marinette finally looks up at me, startled by the gesture.

"Sorry, I've just never seen you with your hair down before." I say, retracting my hand. "You look nice. I mean, not that you don't look nice otherwise—you always look nice. But this, also, is very...nice."

Oh my god. Say nice one more time, Agreste, and I will punch myself in the face. What's wrong with me all of a sudden?

"Uhh, thanks A-Adrien." Marinette says. Her cheeks turn a rosy pink, contrasting against her pale skin and white gown and making her complexion all the more mesmerising.

"So, what character are you?" I ask, trying to steer the awkwardness into a more casual conversation.

Marinette looks down at her gown meekly. "I was thinking of being Keira Knightley from Pride and Prejudice or maybe one of Shakespere's female characters like Lady Macbeth, they're always interesting. So I asked my mum for a medieval sort of dress but she came back with this princessy looking thing. Now I probably look like every other girl who doesn't know a thing about books and just uses this parade to dress up all fancy."

"I think you look beautiful." I say quickly.

Marinette looks up at me. "Really? Y-You do?"

"Actually, I know you look beautiful. Who cares about all the uneducated dweebs, you're nothing like them." I assure her.

Marinette's mouth stretches into a broad smile but it soon fades when Chloe comes marching over to us.

"Were you trying to dress up as a princess? How adorable, I'm a Queen. Well at least you tried sweety, though you look more like an ugly step sister." Chloe sniggers.

"Frozen's not even a book Chloe." Marinette sighs in annoyance.

"Typical Marinette Dupain-Cheng the know-it-all. Maybe next time you should get your facts right." Chloe says. "Frozen was based on the book, The Snow Queen."

"Which I'm pretty sure Olaf wasn't a part of." Marinette retorts.

"Whatever, Frozen is a fairy tale which makes it a story so buzz off." Chloe waves her hand as if to dismiss Marinette before turning to me. "Adrien honey, I'll be needing a prince charming so what do you say we get rid of that hideous outfit and try on the one I bought you."

"But Elsa doesn't have a prince, or even a love interest." I say.

"So?" Chloe replies.

"So I came as Peter Pan and I'm staying as Peter Pan." I answer. "And by the way, I think Marinette makes a very cute princess."

I give Marinette a wink as Chloe growls in anger and storms off.

"Alright everyone," Ms Bustier speaks up. "Let's go around the class and hear what your character is, starting with you Chloe."

Chloe rolls her eyes. "I'm Queen Elsa, duh. And this is Olaf."

"Okay..." Ms Bustier says. "How about you girls?"

Alex, Mylene and Juleka are all wearing bear onesies.

"We're the three bears and this here is goldilocks." Alex answers shortly, jabbing a thumb in Rose's direction.

Rose, who is wearing an extremely pink and frilly dress, waves joyfully.

"And what about you, Kim? You look very well groomed. The Great Gatsby, perhaps?" Ms Bustier questions.

Kim is just wearing a grey suit.

"I'm Christian Grey." He says, clicking some finger guns at the teacher.

Ms Bustier puts her hands on her hips crossly but clearly has no patience for Kim's sense of humour. "You know very well that book is inappropriate for school. If anyone asked from now on you are to tell them that you are the Great Gatsby, understand young man?"

Kim chuckles complacently and leans back in his chair. Sitting next to him is Max, who's frizzy hair has been died all sorts of colours because he lost a bet with Kim and had to dress up as the clown from It by Stephan King. Nathaniel is wearing a black robe with a red and yellow scarf, he says he is Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, but Ivan is just wearing his normal clothes.

"Ivan. Why have you not dressed up?" Ms Bustier asks sternly.

"I'm from Harry Potter too. I'm a muggle." Ivan says dully.

"Right." Ms Bustier sighs, clearly losing faith in this class. "Next."

"I'm Nancy Draw, an independent female detective." Alya says passionately.

"I'm Peter Pan and that's Captain Hook." I speak up.

"Aye, me Hearties." Nino says.

Ms Bustier turns to Marinette, the last of the students. "And what are you supposed to be, Marinette?"

"Erm...I-I'm not too sure...um..." Marinette stammers unconfidently.

I watch Marinette empathetically. I know that when she gets really anxious she can lose her voice. I hate seeing distress cloud those beautiful blue eyes.

"Speak up dear, who are you dressed as?" Ms Bustier prompts.

Chloe sneers. Marinette looks down and grips the skirt of her gown nervously. My heart can't take it any longer, I have to step in. I wrap my arm around Marinette's waist and pull her in close to me.

"She's my Wendy!" I announce proudly.

[Marinette's POV]

D-Did he just say 'my Wendy'. Adrien said I was his girl? I've never been so happy in my entire life.

"Oww, well you look very pretty Marinette." Ms Bustier admires.

The class bustles with agreement and compliments. I smile shyly. Adrien still has his arm around my waist. Adrien is holding me beside him. His hand is so warm on my hip. His grip is so strong and comforting.

"I'm very impressed with all your costumes. Some, more than others..." Ms Bustier's eyes flicker to Ivan and Kim. "I'm sure our class will have a good chance at winning the cosplay competition."

"I didn't know there was a competition." I say.

"Yeah, today has loads of fun activities planned and at the end, all the teachers agree on one or more students who have the best costumes." Adrien tells me. "Sounds fun, right? This is my first ever school event."

Adrien's so cute. I hope he has the best day. It would be super cool if he won the contest. He sure makes an awesome Peter Pan with his golden hair and emerald eyes. I wish he would sweep me off to Neverland!

"After I've marked the roll you are all free to head down to the school courtyard where the parade will be held." Ms Bustier informs us.

After we've all been marked present, the whole class rushes to get out the door. When Adrien and I walk forward, he steps aside and gestures me to leave first.

"After you, Princess." He says charmingly.

I swear my heart has just exploded. "P-Princess?"

"Sure, I think it suits you. I meant it when I said you'd make a cute princess." Adrien replies.

I head through the door with my head bowed to hide my blushing cheeks.

Adrien called me Princess. I'm his Princess!

A-Am I going to faint? I hope my nose isn't gushing blood from all these emotions.

The school courtyard is set up with lines of stalls. Most of them are showing off books of course, but there are also plenty handing out yummy food and hosting fun games. There is music echoing out from the library.

"This looks amazing! Do we get to just walk around and do whatever we want?" Adrien asks excitedly.

"Yeah man, we just enjoy ourselves while the teachers walk round and look at all our costumes." Nino answers.

"Sweet!" Adrien exclaims.

"You guys have to check out my stall." Alya says.

"You've got your own stall?" Adrien replies.

"Yeah, anyone can set up their own stall if they ask the principle for permission." Alya says. "Rose has a scrapbooking stall. Come on, I'll show you to mine."

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that your stall is ladybug themed." I say as we begin walking. "..Even though Ladybug has nothing to do with the library."

"You betchya." Alya waves her hand proudly at a large stall painted red with black polka dots. "I bought tones of merch at the LadyNoir festival to use as prizes for all my minigames. You have to pay to play of course, gotta make me some profit. It's eight bucks a turn."

At the back of the stall is a rack of themed plushies. There are Ladybug and Cat Noir dolls, actual stuffed ladybugs and black cats, dolls of akumatized villains, as well as some LadyNoir shirts and posters hanging up.

Adrien's eyes sparkle as he shoves eight euros in Alya's hand. "What games do you have?"

"Okay. Here we have some life size cardboard cut-outs of Hawk Moth's villains." Alya props up some cardboard cut-outs of The Bubbler, Stormy Weather and Lady Wifi herself. She then hands Adrien a red yoyo. "You get three throws of the yoyo. If you can knock over all the villains, you get to pick a basic reward like a LadyNoir shirt or poster. Or you can try and use your yoyo to grab one of the bigger prizes on the prize rack like the themed plushies."

Adrien gasps. "I have to get that CatBug plushie."

A/N: CatBug is a cartoon character for those who don't know. Here are some references:

"What is CatBug doing here? That doesn't have anything to do with Ladybug and Cat Noir." I question.

"Get with the fandom, Marinette. CatBug is pretty much the cannon child of LadyNoir." Alya answers.

"That makes no sense." I say bluntly.

"I want it!" Adrien says firmly.

He attempts to throw the yoyo but it slips from his hands and hits Alya in the face.

"Ouch!" She yips, rubbing her forehead.

"Sorry. It's harder than it looks." Adrien grips the yoyo properly this time and throws it but it barely reaches the prize rack, bouncing pathetically on the floor. He then tries to pull the yoyo back in and whacks himself in the face with it.

"Dude. You're a danger to both the people around you and yourself, just give up." Nino says solemnly.

"No way, I have one more throw!" Adrien throws the yoyo determinedly but it merely bounces off the plushie. "Dang, how does Ladybug do this?!" He complains in frustration. Adrien slams another eight euros down on the stall counter. "One more turn! I'll just go for the easy prizes."

Alya gladly excepts the money, clearly having no problem with Adrien's sad failures. Adrien slings the yoyo at the cardboard Stormy Weather and hits it to his excitement, but just wobbles back and forth.

"Sorry, you have to knock it over." Alya shrugs.

Adrien hangs his head sadly and holds out the yoyo. "Anyone else wonna go? I've got two more turns, one for each of you."

"No thanks man, I'd rather not give my girlfriend a black eye." Nino denies.

I look at Adrien's sad face and then down at the yoyo. I can't risk giving away my identity, but...but if I did this for Adrien he would really praise me!

"I-I'll give it a go." I say.

Alya laughs and moves out of the way. "Forgive me if I don't want to be around when this clutz gets a hold of a flying weapon."

I take the yoyo and slowly step up to the stall. My heart is pounding. As soon as I wrap my fingers around the yoyo, my alter ego consumes me. I sling the yoyo with a perfect curve, slicing it through the three cardboard cut-outs and cutting them all in half with one swoop.

Alya gawks at the cardboard remains. "I-I told you to knock them over not destroy them!"

"Oops, I guess you're right. I am a bit clumsy." I say innocently. "How about I pay you back by not taking a prize. It was an accident anyway, I don't deserve it."

"Accident or not, that was awesome!" Adrien beams at me with ardour. "There's still one more throw. Think you could get that CatBug plushie for me?"

My heart flutters. "S-Sure!"

I narrow my eyes determinedly as I ready my stance. The desire to impress Adrien burns within me. I throw the yoyo at the prize rack, wrapping it around the leg of the shelf.

"What?" Alya gasps.

I yank on the yoyo, causing the prize rack to topple over. A wave of plushies piles down into the stall.

Nino cracks up laughing. "Well, technically she knocked it over this time."

Alya groans with defeat.

"It's okay Alya, I won't run you out of business." I kneel down and pick up Adrien's CatBug. "I just want this one."

Alya smiles weakly. "Thanks girl. Just don't come back, okay? I've got to fix the stall you just trashed."

"Okay." I giggle. I turn to Adrien and hold out the CatBug plushie. "Here you go."

"Really? For me?" Adrien bursts forward and hugs me tightly. "That was so so cool! Thanks Marinette!" He pulls away and claims his prize, his eyes wild with excitement. "Are there any more games to win? Let's go destroy another stall!"

I can't help but laugh. Adrien truly is adorable, and I just made his day! I'm so glad.

"You guys go enjoy the rest of the parade together. I'm gonna stay here to help Alya clean up." Nino says.

"Sure thing. Let's go Marinette!" Adrien takes my hand and pulls me through the crowd eagerly.

"Wah!" I desperately try to keep my feet on the ground. It would be so embarrassing if I stacked it, plus I want to hold Adrien's hand for as long as possible.

We walk around the school courtyard admiring all the stalls, annihilating every game we come across whilst also having educated discussions about our favourite books and authors. Turns out Adrien and I have a lot in common about literature and we make an awesome team too.

[Narrator's POV]

"Your bakery skills really came in handy in that muffin-decorating contest." Adrien says, taking a bite of the giant cookie we won. "Is there a game we can't beat?"

"Doubt it." Marinette answers, holding her fist up.

Adrien grins and fist bumps her. "We make a pretty good team you know."

"Yeah! It's like, with our skills put together there's nothing we can't accomplish." Marinette agrees.

Adrien's jaw suddenly drops. "The ultimate competition."

"What?" Marinette looks over at a large stall at the end of the courtyard, literally labelled 'The Ultimate Competition'.

"We have to beat it." Adrien says determinedly.

Marinette shrugs and follows Adrien over to the stall, which it turns out is run by Kim and Max.

"Hey guys, what sorta game are you running?" Asks Marinette.

"Game?" Kim laughs. "This is no game. This is, The. Ultimate! COMPETITIIOOONNN!"

"Okay..." Marinette says. "So what do we do?"

"We've set up a multitude of challenges within the parade. You are required to find them, conquest them, and return to us within the time limit." Max explains.

"Psh—Easy." Adrien says. "Sign us up."

"You sure about that?" Kim sneers. "You can't back out until you've either won the competition or run out of time."

"Please, it'll be a synch." Adrien shoves his CatBug plushie into Max's arms. "Hold my CatBug."

"Alright then." Kim smirks. "Both of you hold out your arms."

Marinette and Adrien exchange confused looks before holding out their arms. Kim whips out a pair of handcuffs and clamps them down on Marinette's left wrist and Adrien's right.

"W-What are you doing?" Marinette pulls at the handcuffs desperately.

"Dude. Aren't you getting a little too into your Christian Grey cosplay?" Adrien asks with a raised brow.

"If you had allowed me to finish explaining the rules, I would have informed you that all the challenges must be completed whilst the players are wearing these handcuffs." Max says.

"Sabrina's dad let us borrow them. Cool, right?" Kim adds in.

"You are not permitted to use your handcuffed limbs. You must work together with your spare hands." Max continues. "Four employees, Ms Mendeleiev, Mr Damocles, Armand D'Argencourt and our very own Ms Bustier, each wield a challenge. You must seek them within the parade and once you complete their task, they will stamp this card." Max hands Marinette a small piece of paper. "Return to us with all the stamps. You have fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes!" Marinette repeats.

"Oh, we'll get it done. Marinette and I, we can do anything" Adrien says confidently. He smiles reassuringly. "Right Princess?"

Marinette's worries melt away instantly. "R-Right! Let's do this."