Marinette sat at her desk nervously, she barely slept and showed up to school early to avoid her parents asking about the bags under her eyes. 

The class was mostly empty, only a few students were there, most of them in the back chatting. 

The reason she didn't sleep? The kiss was on her mind the whole night. 

She still couldn't believe Adrien (Chat?) kissed her! But at the same time, she felt bad. She told him she liked someone else but there she had been, on his lap making out with him.

She got an earful from Tikki when she got home. The little kwami told her it was wrong and she needed to stop seeing him. It was clearly starting to get out of hand. Marinette understood, but at the same time, she didn't care. 

Her teenage hormones were going wild and their actions felt exhilarating. 

Things were ok with Adrien. He seemed to have healed since Marinette rejected him, but she assumed it was because of Ladybug. He freaking kissed her!

And now she had to see him in school. Marinette nervously tapped her foot on the floor and bit on her pen. She stared down at her sketchbook, hoping her nervousness could be passed off as her concentrating on her designs. 

The class slowly started to fill in and Adrien was one of the last few people to enter. Marinette tensed up seeing him sit down in his seat in front of her. Thankfully, it seemed like no one noticed. Not even Alya. But that was probably because she was busy flirting with Nino. 

She could feel her heart begin to race and the blood rush up to her freckled cheeks. 

Adrien didn't turn to look at her, instead, he just sat down. He was still somewhat shunning Marinette, although he wouldn't admit it. It was for selfish reasons, he found comfort in someone else. Besides, he couldn't go around saying he was seeing Ladybug almost nightly. 

Was he seeing her, or seeing her? Adrien frowned. What were they? Friends cuddle, but they don't make out. 

Before he could ponder any longer, the teacher walked in and immediately started the class. 

Neither Marinette nor Adrien could concentrate on the class. Their thoughts were plagued by the kiss. Marinette couldn't help but blush every time she looked at him. Adrien didn't know to feel, he felt very confused. His inner turmoil made it hard for him to concentrate on anything really.

On one hand, he really liked the kiss and he very much enjoyed having her on his lap, but on the other hand, he was just using her. Ladybug didn't deserve that. As far as he knew, Ladybug had nothing to do with his heartbreak. Adrien was just stringing her along.  

"I am assigning a group project. Now, this project is important and will heavily impact your semester grade. Normally, I'd assign the groups, but since this class is small, I will give you guys the freedom to choose your own group. Groups should be no less than 3 people and no more than 5," the teacher spoke. "Please get into your groups and then have a member come up and choose a paper slip from the box to decide your topic."

"Why don't the four of us work together?" Alya asked, turning to look at Marinette and Adrien. "Yeah, dudes, it'll be fun for us to work together," Nino added. 

Marinette tensed up a little and she blushed, looking over at Adrien. "I-I'm perfectly f-fine with th-that," she spoke quietly.

"What about you man? You in?" Nino turned to Adrien. Adrien turned to look at his friend and then shrugged, "Beats working with Chloe."

Marinette let out a small sigh of relief, letting herself relax. Alya gave her friend a sympathetic smile. Alya was well aware of Adrien's treatment of Marinette, but it seemed to be improving. He did want to be in the same group as her, that had to count for something. 

"I'll go get the paper slip," Adrien spoke. He got up and went over to the teacher's desk, getting in the small line leading to the box. 

Nino turned to look at the girls, "He said yes, that's good. Why don't we all go out for lunch? My treat."

Marinette nodded, still feeling a little nervous. "Alright, but you're asking him," Alya smiled. Nino nodded.

Adrien came back a few moments with a small paper strip and an instructions sheet. "What did we get?" Marinette asked quietly. "We got the Greek Empire," Adrien replied. He sat back down in his seat, passing the instruction sheet over to the girls. Alya picked it up and looked at it, "Hm, ok, it looks like we have to cover its entire history, technology, beliefs, and its impact on the modern world. Ok, not too bad, we can divide and conquer." 

"Hey, we got something interesting, I love Greek mythology," Marinette smiled. "It is pretty cool," Nino spoke. 

"So, where do you dudes want to go eat?" Nino asked. He turned to Adrien, "I'm inviting, you coming?" Adrien thought for a moment before nodding. "Cool, so where to? Just don't break my wallet."

The girls laughed and even Adrien gave out a chuckle. "We can just go to the little sandwich shop a few streets down from here," Alya suggested.

"I'm good with that, I love that place!" Marinette said excitedly. Nino turned to look at Adrien and Adrien nodded in approval.

.

When lunchtime rolled around, the group went out and headed to the little sandwich shop. On the way there, Adrien's thoughts drifted back to Ladybug. He knew he was being selfish by keeping her around and by using her to make himself feel better, but he was always so selfless. He always put others ahead of himself, even his cold, unloving father. Maybe it was time for him to be selfish and put himself first. At least, that's how he rationalized his actions.

Alya and Nino were walking a bit ahead of Marinette and Adrien. They were flirting and oblivious to the other two. Marinette walked next to Adrien and she couldn't help but stare at him. She could tell he was in deep thought. She wondered if it was about Ladybug. The kiss had been on her mind all day, surely it had to be on his mind too, he was the one that initiated it. 

Marinette took in a deep breath and then quietly asked, "Are you ok?"

Adrien was snapped out of his thoughts and he turned to look at her, "Hm?"

"A-are you ok?" she asked again, a little louder this time, but still quiet. Adrien looked away and pressed his lips together, "Yeah, I was just thinking."

"O-ok." Marinette could feel her heart racing and her palms start to sweat a little. 

The friends arrived at the sandwich shop and they placed their orders. Nino was thankful that this did not break his wallet. Once they got their food, the group went to go sit down. They conversed in random topics that came up and much to the group's excitement, Adrien joined in too. 

Marinette felt extremely happy as she was having a normal conversation with Adrien. It wasn't anything deep and it wasn't one on one either, it was mostly group conversation, but it was still something. Marinette's beating heart had calmed down by then and she felt like she could relax a little bit.

Adrien didn't feel the need to be so cold towards her. Why would he? He had someone else to bring him warmth. He didn't need Mari anymore, he had Ladybug.

Unbeknownst to him, they were the same girl. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It may seem like the story is escalating quickly but it's not. At this point, they've been seeing each other for a few weeks. Don't worry lmao, I'm not repeating the same mistakes I made with my first book.