"Marinette, I really don't think this is your best idea."

As the hero in question moved around her room adding ingredients for a potion, Alya stood nervously off to one side.

"Oh, come on Alya, what could possibly go wrong?"

"You blow yourself up, or remain a mouse forever? Have you ever watched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids?" Alya said, bringing a hand to her head and shaking it.

"I'm not using it on me, I'm using it on these." Marinette pointed to the chaise lounge in her room, the one full of gifts and letters, all addressed to Adrien.

"I know, but I repeat... are you insane? Just give him the gift yourself. Why do you, so suddenly, need to become the Nutty Professor?"

Marinette chuckled at her friend and continued with her experiment. She had tested it out a couple of times and if she just put the right amount into the mix, the gifts would stay small enough for her to leave them in Adrien's locker overnight, allowing them to expand back to their normal size just as he arrived at school. The idea was genius — if she did say so herself. All she needed was two Miraculous', a shrinking potion and a whole lot of luck.

What could possibly go wrong?

*****

Gift One: The Jacket

Ladybug entered the locker room and checked around for other people. The collège closed around 30 minutes ago and she'd locked herself in the janitor's closet, before making her grand entrance as her alter ego once the collège was free from staff.

Where Marinette would most likely be expelled for late night breaking and entering, Ladybug would be welcomed with open arms with maybe only a question about how she was and the offer of a biscuit and a cup of tea.

She flicked on the lights before heading over to her destination: Adrien's locker. It was simple. Transform, combine Tikki and Mullo, sneak in with the present in her yo-yo, before pulling it out and adding a couple of drops of her potion. Easy!

And by morning, the coat would be the correct size and Adrien would find the note. He'd then want to know who loved him enough to make the most perfect present and go on a search like the prince did for Cinderella.

He'd find her, tell her he couldn't live without her... they'd get engaged there and then, marry and have three kids and a hamster named...

"Ladybug!" Mullo hissed. "Focus!"

Ladybug continued moving forward, arriving at Adrien's locker before checking around and calling the combination. "Tikki, Mullo, unify."

As soon as the transformation took place, MultiBug shrunk herself down and squeezed through the gap at the bottom of Adrien's locker. Settling herself inside, using the glow of her jump rope to give her a little slither of light.

Opening her yo-yo, she grabbed the jacket from inside, before reaching in again and finding the growth syrup. If her experiments were correct, 4 drops would bring it back to normal size.

A quick squeeze, and then using her yo-yo she swung the jacket up and onto the coat hook.

Happy with the placement, and sure that everything was going to work out perfectly, MultiBug made her way back out of the locker, reformed herself and headed back to the bakery, a nervous energy surrounding her as she thought about Adrien's reaction in the morning.

The next morning came a lot quicker than anticipated, probably because she'd barely slept the night before. She dressed (early), headed to school (at a respectable time) and prepared herself to be Adrien's most favourite person of the day... maybe even the month... or year! Oh, it was going to be wonderful!

Walking into the class, she noticed everyone swarming around Adrien, the model standing proudly in the centre showing off (yes, you guessed it) his jacket! A warmth flooded Marinette as she saw how perfectly it fit him, and how the colour brought out his eyes. This was the best gift ever.

"Adrien, dude! Niceeeee jacket!" Nino entered the room and bounded straight up to Adrien, completing their handshake before getting the ex-model to 'do a turn'.

"Amazing isn't it! Whoever made this has a greater talent than my father!"

She dazzled in the compliment; she knew Adrien well enough to know he only said what he meant.

"You don't know?" Nino asked, looking at Adrien quizzically before flicking his eyes over to hers and raising his eyebrow. She was quite sure Alya hadn't told, but she was also sure the red-hot cheeks she was modelling herself, might have been a bit of a giveaway.

"Nope," Adrien replied, eyes firmly on the jacket. "It was just labelled from 'Anonymouse', I think whoever signed it got a little excited," Adrien chuckled. However, Marinette did not. Instead she moved swiftly over to Adrien's desk and looked at the label.

There it was... as obvious as night and day... she had signed off on the note as 'Anonymouse'.

Oh, damn!

"Seats everyone, please!" Miss Bustier entered the classroom as everyone split to head to their desks.

Even though she'd messed up the simple part of the plan, seeing the electric green of Adrien's eyes glowing so much made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Marinette slid dreamily into her seat as Adrien continued to look at his jacket. She rested her cheek on her hand, the wedding March playing over and over again in her head...

Dah da da dahhh, dah da da...

"Dude!" Nino's hushed voice interrupted her walk down the aisle. She looked forward to where Nino was leaning across the desk to whisper into Adrien's ear. "Dude, somethings wrong with your jacket."

Marinette's curiosity turned into a frown. Wrong with his jacket? There was nothing wrong with the jacket! It was made to perfection, each and every stitch was one of love.

"What do you mean? There's —"

Her gasp was loud, causing both Adrien and Nino to turn and face her. "The - the - the -"

The continued stuttering grabbed Alya's attention, the girl looking up from her tablet only to scream. The jacket was began to grow... bigger and bigger and bigger.

As the seats in front became hidden in the cotton material Marinette had used for the jacket, Adrien took his arms out of it and threw it down onto the seat, diving with an impressive forward roll over the desks and onto the floor.

Nino was next to move away, followed by the girls — Alix taking a rather interesting detour through the classroom window and out onto the street.

As the jacket continued to grow, the collège was evacuated in need to prevent a garment suffocation.

Luckily, that afternoon's Akuma started a rather large fire which Adrien's jacket so perfectly put out.

*****

Gift Two: The Note

So, the jacket wasn't the best idea, and obviously there was a flaw in the plan. But now she knew 4 drops was too much, and obviously there was some sort of reaction with the material on the jacket. She just needed to use something simpler like paper... and half the number of drops.

Once again, Marinette entered the school as her alter ego, before combining the Miraculous' and shrinking herself to the size of a mouse. This was it! She had to have it this time, after all, she'd already tested out the drop with the paper and in 16 hours it would be perfectly sized.

Climbing into the locker once again, MultiBug pulled the envelope out of her yo-yo and placed it on Adrien's self. She'd checked, checked and triple checked that: firstly it all made sense, secondly that she'd dotted all the i's with little hearts and thirdly, that she'd remembered to sign it with her name.

Marinette – not Anonymouse.

She had a good cry about the jacket label when she returned home. She had no idea how that had happened, but it was clear as day she'd written 'Anonymouse'. What an absolute idiot!

Anyway, back to the present (literally), finally she was in. She gave one last look at the envelope of the greatest love letter of all time, and placed two drops on the paper — nothing more, nothing less.

This time, she'd nailed it.

The next morning, again, had come around too quickly. Not wanting to look too eager today, and trying to keep her nerves at bay, she took the normal amount of time to get ready and headed to school with a casual hop, skip and a jump walk.

This was different, she knew Adrien, she knew a letter like this would be something he'd keep close to his heart and worship for years to come. He wouldn't parade it around, instead he would fawn over how someone knew him so well and how someone was perfectly connected to his heart.

She was sure she'd round this corner and walk into the classroom, and everyone would be wondering what was wrong with Adrien, curious about why he was so carefree and dreamy all of a sudden (and without it being his perfume). He would be sitting at his desk, chin resting on his hand as he stared off into space thinking about their three children and hamster.

He'd be...

The sound of laughter hit her ear. What the hell?

She bounded her way up the staircase and into the homeroom only to find everyone around Adrien's table, as Nino read 'the letter' and Adrien looked completely mortified.

The blood pumping heavily through her veins had suddenly turned ice cold. Oh, no!

"And my love, we will forever be together in a world of halliness and beans, for you and I are density!"

Everyone fell about laughing as Nino dramatically read the end of her letter... well, not quite because they were 100% not the words she'd written down.

Marinette began to march over, ready to grab the letter and check what was on there. If that had changed what else had? As she was in reaching distance, someone blocked the way and restricted her from making a fool out of herself.

"Don't do it!" Alya warned, moving closer to Marinette.

Marinette pushed up onto her tiptoes, looking over her friend's shoulder, only to see Adrien's face was redder than her usual super suit.

"I can't let him think he has some idiot as a secret admirer."

"So, you really think marching over there now and unveiling yourself as the sender of probably the worst written letter in the history of France, is a good idea?" Alya hissed again.

Marinette looked between her friend and the love of her life and bit down hard on her lower lip. Okay, so maybe Alya had a point.

"This needs to stop, girl! You've tried two things, and both have been colossal failures! Just give it up and tell him like a normal girl. He doesn't need these convoluted declarations. Just... tell... him!"

With one more nibble on her bottom lip, she took a deep breath and headed in Adrien's direction, only for someone to push her over and out of the way.

"Umph!" The exasperated sound left her lips as her bottom collided with the floor. Ouch!

"What idiot sends that sort of declaration to my Adrikins!" Chloé snatched the paper from Adrien's desk and held it up like a smelly fish before bringing it in front of her and looking at it.

Please don't read it out, please don't read it out!

Chloé pretended to gag before screwing the letter up and throwing it in the trash can. "Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous."

Marinette remained seated on the floor as everyone departed the room to their lockers, only herself and Adrien remained. She watched as he slowly rose up from his seat and headed over to the bin, pulling out the paper and laying it flat on Miss Bustier's desk. Delicately, he tried to brush out the creases. Marinette watched him with curiosity. He seemed to be reading the letter, one hand fumbling behind his neck, completely absorbed in the words.

Carefully, as to not fall again, she stood from where she was sitting on the ground and made her way cautiously over to Adrien.

"Are you okay?" she asked, tentatively.

He turned to look at her, his eyebrows frowned before looking back at his letter. She watched as he seemed to study something. His eyes moved from the letter to her and back again. Adrien looked at her again and seemed to go into some kind of a trance.

"Um – Adrien?"

His eyebrows creased a little more, looking her over before blinking himself out of it and once again placing on his 'model' smile.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just amazed someone would go to such efforts to make me a jacket and then to write me this note."

"So, you're not mad that they were... oh, I don't know, messed up?" She began to play with her hands in front of her body.

"Of course not! They've put time and effort into this, even if it is a little... questionable. I'm positive their heart was in the right place."

He looked at her again, or should she say through her. What was he —

"How do you suppose they got this in my locker? The jacket too?"

"Oh, if I was to guess I'd say they broke in... yep, used some sort of lock picking tool and just let themselves into your locker."

His nose wiggled in such a cute way, it was a shame she knew he didn't believe her.

"Maybe... or they might have been as tiny as a mouse..." He glared at her again before moving towards his bag, letter in hand. "Coming to the locker room?" he asked her.

"Sure," she said nervously, grasping her hands tightly together.

As they walked, Adrien sighed. "If only I knew who it was so I could thank them personally. Oh, well, tomorrow they might leave me something else with a little clue, maybe a delicious macaron... strawberry and cream flavour — that would be totally awesome."

A macaron... strawberry and cream flavour? The minute she was clear of Adrien, she messaged her Maman to check what ingredients they had at home,

She had work to do.

*****

Gift Three: The Macaron

Marinette wasn't sure why she hadn't done this yet! A sweet treat was the perfect gift to give Adrien, not only was it delicious and heartfelt, it also wouldn't matter if it grew to the size of a new landmark, or if it became slightly disfigured, it would still taste delicious.

Once again, Ladybug made her way into the college grounds, macaron hidden in her yo-yo, and necklace hanging around her neck. Entering the locker room, she combined her Miraculous and climbed into Adrien's locker. Third time's a charm, right?

Once inside, she opened her yo-yo and pulled out the perfectly formed treat.

MultiBug added the desired two drops of potion and placed the macaron on Adrien's shelf, complete with a pink bow and note.

Love, Marinette x

Done.

Exiting the locker, she couldn't have been happier. This time it would work. Adrien would open his locker, find the macaron, know it was Marinette and propose to her there and then on the collège's steps. Simple.

"Tikki, Mullo, separate."

A flash of pink coated her body, leaving just Ladybug alone in the locker room, happy that her plan was finally working out.

She sighed in relief, turning back to the locker and placing a hand on it. "I love you," she whispered.

"Didn't you know breaking and entering is kind of illegal?"

With a squeak, Ladybug jumped, turning sharply and crashing her back into the locker behind her. Resting against the locker opposite, looking far too cool for school, was Chat Noir – ankles and arms crossed with a questioning eyebrow raised.

"Looks like this cat has caught a mouse."

"A mouse?" Ladybug laughed, looking around. "There's no mouse here, pfft, what are you on about?"

Pushing himself off the locker he was resting on, Chat Noir stalked his way over to his prey. His eyes filled with playful mischief which had her insides stirring. He looked ready to pounce, to play with her before consuming her whole.

"Now, now, I think you have some explaining to do, Bugaboo. I just need to figure out where to start."

Finding her own confidence, she stood tall and stepped forward coming face to face with her partner, standing almost nose to nose.

"Me? Explain? Come on, Kitty, I think you need to explain why you're at this random collège in the middle of the night. Are you following me?"

He laughed, lowering his head down allowing the tip of his nose to rest against hers. He looked her straight in the eye – strong and steady. "I think, Marinette, you need to tell me what you're putting in people's lockers."

Trying not to be affected by her civilian name, Ladybug held her ground. "Marinette, Purr-lease!"

"Let me guess, you think Marinette isn't anywhere near as awesome as you. I think I would have to agree."

"Hey," Ladybug said, covering her mouth as her eyes widened.

"A bit defensive of Marinette, I see!"

"No! It's just you can't talk about someone like that when you don't really know them."

"Oh, I know them. She threw herself at me just last week, though the kiss... wouldn't make my top 5."

Anger boiled inside her, boiling over like a volcano of wrongdoing. She placed a hand on his chest and pushed him backwards away from her, her pointer finger slamming hard into his chest.

"You enjoyed it as much as I did!" Her hands shot up to clamp over her mouth again. "I can't believe you did that," she muttered through her hands.

Chat Noir laughed, taking the staff from his back before extending it and flinging it over his shoulders. His lopsided smile, for once, wasn't attractive at all. Instead, she had the urge to open the nearest locker and throw him in it. If Adrien's perfect macaron wasn't in there, she just might have committed to the felony.

"If it makes you feel any better, M'Lady, I was lying. It was the best kiss of my life... though, all my other kisses have also been with you, and I can't remember any of them. Still, I'm sure kissing Marinette is more satisfying than kissing a mask."

She stood staring at him, looking bewildered. How could he be so calm?

Suddenly, he walked past her to Adrien's locker, using his claw to unpick the lock and open it, taking the macaron and popping it into his mouth. Next he picked up the note, read it, before slipping it into his pocket.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "That's for Adrien."

"Why? Do you like him or something?" he said, spraying crumbs all over the place.

She wiped a couple of stray ones from her cheek as her nostrils flared in indignance. "What's it to you, Mr Macaron Stealer?"

Chat Noir licked off his fingers before a wide, fanged grin took over his face. "Why don't you just tell him how you feel instead of sneaking around like this? It's a lot of effort for multiple failures."

"If it was as simple as just telling him, don't you think I would have done it already?"

Chat Noir shrugged. "Who knows? But I'm sure he'd like to know straight from the mouse's mouth. Why don't you practise with me?"

"I'm not practising my confession to you."

"Why not?" Chat Noir said, closing the locker and checking it was locked before heading to sit on the bench in the centre of the room.

"Why? Because I've already practised it on you, and you laughed in my face."

"You mean, Buttercup is me – I mean Adrien, I mean – oh, man!"

She froze. Had he just said?

"You?"

"Slip of the tongue, Princess."

"No, no, NO! You said 'Buttercup is me'. That would mean you're – and I've – oh my!"

"Yeah," he huffed, causing her to giggle.

She moved to sit beside him, her hand cautiously reaching out to take his. However, she pulled it back at the last moment, and placed both of them in her lap.

"I – um, I'm not entirely sure what to do now. I didn't expect this to go quite this way."

"This is awkward, isn't it?" she laughed.

"Just slightly. I suppose I could – if you wanted to – maybe we could go on a date, or something. Get ice cream or – or – or go to the moon? I'm up for anything with you to be honest — just name it."

Ladybug laughed. Adrien Agreste was her partner, her partner who was nothing more than a glorified dork. Her partner who she loved. "What's happened to all your confidence?"

"I'm just a guy, standing in front of a girl hoping she'll love me. It's kind of scary that I could actually mess things up so completely now."

Ladybug giggled again. This was her Chat Noir, someone who'd loved and looked after her for months and the guy she was madly in love with – the kind and caring lost boy looking for love. Taking her partner's hand and turning her body towards him, she took a deep breath preparing to finally admit what she'd wanted to for months. "I love you Chat Noir, and I want you to take me out on a date."

She stood up, pulling him with her and keeping their hands joined as she walked out of the locker room and into the main halls of the collège.

"Do I get to kiss you?" he asked, following her the way he always did.

She stopped to look at him, tracing her finger over his mask before smirking. "It depends how good the date is."

Sailing out into the night, two heroes embarked on the first of many dates... and for those wondering – Chat Noir did get his kiss, time and time again.