"James!" Marinette smiled happily and rushed over, hugging the male who lifted her up and spun her around.

"It's been forever! How are you princess~?" James questioned in a teasing manner as he set Marinette down, hugging her gently.

Hearing HIS nickname for Marinette being used, Adrien walked over, feeling protective over Marinette for some reason.

The bluenette stepped back, closer to Adrien and looked up at James.

"I'm sorry about that. It's been good! I'm definitely happy to be back here with all my friends." Marinette hummed lightly.

"You've grown so much since I last saw you! So pretty I bet Uncle Tom has to fight boys off with a stick huh?" He questioned as the bluenette blushed.

"Oh please, I bet you have girl's throwing themselves at your feet!" The bluenette snickered.

"True, but, speaking of boys.." James' eyes trailed up to Adrien and he seemed to be examining the blonde boy standing beside Marinette.

"Did little Marigold get herself a boyfriend? And didn't tell ME about it?" He placed a hand on his chest, acting as if he was hurt by the girl's actions.

"B-boyfriend?! H-him I-" Marinette began fumbling over her words at the mere thought of someone thinking Adrien was her boyfriend.

"Yup, I'm her boyfriend!" Adrien draped his arm over Marinette who's face managed to somehow turn even brighter than before. He looked down at her and couldn't help but chuckle at how adorable she looked.

"Kidding, kidding! We're just friends." He said as he looked over at James.

"Ugh! I don't appreciate you both tag-teaming to embarrass me!" Marinette huffed and hid her face.

"Aren't you gonna introduce us, Mari?" Adrien asked and Marinette nodded.

"James this is my friend Adrien and Adrien this is James one of my best friends when I lived in China." She explained, grinning softly. Although they weren't really family, Marinette had always thought of James as somewhat of an older brother towards her when they had been children.

Seeing him again just reminded her of simpler times when she didn't have to worry about anything.

"Nice to meet you Adrien. If you're a friend of Marinette's, then your a friend of mine too." The male bowed his head gently before shaking Adrien's hand.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you too!" Adrien nodded as they shook hands.

"Now if you don't mind, could I snatch Marinette away for a few moments? We have a lot of catching up to do." James hummed lightly, glaring slightly at the blonde and Marinette looked back at Adrien.

"James, we can catch up later. I'd feel bad leaving Adrien here alone." Marinette said.

"No, no! I'll be fine Marinette. I might just go see if I can hang out with Chloe and Sabrina for a bit." He assured her, urging her to go and spend time with her old friend and smiling weakly.

"Are you sure? It's not a big deal I like hanging out with you Adrien." She questioned, looking between the two males.

"Marinette, go on and catch up with your friend. I'll be fine alright? Just make sure to save me a dance okay?" He grinned and gently tapped her nose, earning a light nod and smile from the bluenette.

"I promise, I'll save you a dance." She assured him before being lead off by James onto the dancefloor.

Adrien didn't particularly feel like going off to find Sabrina and Chloe. They were of course together, though he'd noticed the two had become particularly close in recent days.

Instead, Adrien decided that he'd wait for Marinette, watching her dance with James. His face turned red as he realized that he'd claimed to be Marinette's boyfriend, scolding himself for embarrassing her like that in front of her friend.

Honestly he didn't even know what came over him. Marinette was just a friend wasn't she? And even if he did like her, which he didn't, his heart belonged to Ladybug and he could never do that to someone as sweet, caring and amazing as Marinette. Sure he'd wondered a few times before about how different things would be if Ladybug wasn't in the picture. He knew that he definitely would be into Marinette. Sure he did have a crush on her when they first met but that was before Ladybug came in the picture.

And sure he'd imagined what it would be like if they were together.

But that didn't mean he liked her in that way now. Definitely not. That was normal wasn't it?

It was just because she was such an amazing person.

Plus, she deserved someone who would have feelings for only her.

He watched Marinette and James again. Though the boy was oblivious when it came to others feelings towards him, he could definitely see that James was a little bit closer than he'd prefer to his princess.

Crap.

He frowned and turned away, tilting his head up and sighing. This was stupid. It felt like a well of emotions that he'd been burying away had just come flooding open again.

"Dang it I'm lying to myself." He muttered softly and brushed his fingers through his hair."

"I like Marinette..."

Word Count: 866
Status Unedi- JUST KIDDING LET'S CONTINUE!

Adrien felt distressed, unsure of what to do but the more he thought about it, the more that he realized that he had a crush on Marinette.

In a lot of the times that he was thinking about Ladybug, those thoughts had turned into him thinking about Marinette.

It was no surprise, the two were so alike it was amazing.

Adrien got lost in his thoughts, not even realizing that Marinette had returned until she knelt down in front of him and tapped his shoulder.

"Hello? Earth to Adrien" The bluenette said, giggling softly as he lifted his head to look at her.

"Marinette? Sorry I- I was spacing out for a while there." He laughed a bit and stood up.

"Sorry for leaving you, it's been forever since I've seen James. We haven't talked very much since we were kids." She explained and smiled weakly.

"Don't worry about it Marinette, it's fine. But, if I do recall correctly, a certain someone owes me a dance." He teased her and she laughed.

Adrien held out his hand to her and grinned.

"Shall we, princess?"

"Yes, we shall~" She nodded.

Word Count: 1064
Status: Unedited
A/N: Heyo, sorry for disappearing most of this month. Things got really busy, now I'm quarantined, my musical was cancelled and I'm taking school online. So a lot has happened this past month. I decided to drop an update hope you like it! Apologies if Adrien was ooc this part, but I wanted to really go into the utter panic the poor baby boy is in and I wanted to start moving the romance stuff along uwu. I may or may not have plans for some Marichat. Possibly. Also, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in reading if I started writing another story. It would be something based on superheroes but it would be a story with original characters, an original plot/universe etc. What do you guys think?
Anyways that's all for now
Stay hydrated
Wash your hands!
Be nice to each other
Stay safe
This is XxxSunkistStarlightxxX
Signing off until next time
Love ya,
Peace!