(Two days later)

Well after Cheng Sifu's victory in the 'World's Greatest Chef' competition, and Artemis's dinner with the Mayor, the weekend on Marinette's end had come and gone rather quickly. However, her school principal had announced that classes were canceled that day for reasons Marinette had no idea, but had left the school open for students to use the space for any projects they had due. But while Marinette and Alya were one of those students, the pigtailed girl had totally forgotten about her study date in favor of staying in her room and writing in her diary about an akuma the night before.

'Dear diary, guess what happened last night!' Marinette narrated in her thoughts as she wrote on the diary page, laying on her bedroom floor on her stomach as she did so. 'I was only down to two spots away from transforming back and revealing my true identity to Chat Noir when...' the designer continued to regal in her mind, her pen flowing on the diary paper with practiced ease before Tikki flew over to her.

"Hey Marinette, weren't you meeting Alya back at school this afternoon to research your term paper?" Tikki questioned her holder, floating in front of Marinette as she pulled the girl out of her internal narration. At her kwami's words, Marinette suddenly remembered the prior engagement and stopped writing in her diary to check her phone for the time, only to see that she was massively late.

"Oh no, I'm late! Again!" Marinette cried out when she saw the time, quickly getting up from the floor and putting her diary in her box before locking it up.

With her secret-filled diary safe, the pigtailed girl grabbed her purse; Tikki flying into it at the last minute, and backpack before racing down the stairs to the bakery at the ground floor. From there, Marinette ran out of the bakery's front door and made her way to the school, zooming through the crosswalk so she could reach Collège Françoise Dupont. But when she raced into the courtyard so she could get to where Alya and her had agreed to meet, Marinette stopped in her tracks when she suddenly heard noise coming from the library.

"What's that noise?" Tikki wondered out loud, popping her head out of Marinette's purse to get a better look at what was happening.

"Hide, Tikki!" Marinette told her kwami despite the empty courtyard, the response mostly out of habit to prevent others from seeing her kwami.

Regardless, Tikki followed the command before Marinette ran to the stairs leading up to the library, eager to see what the noise was caused by. Once she reached the library, Marinette had opened the door just in time to see her class was playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III, with Adrien and Max the ones playing at the moment while everyone else watched them.

"Come on, Max!" Kim cheered for his friend, Max and Adrien choosing their respective mechs while Marinette spotted Alya recording as she walked over to them.

"What's going on, Alya?" Marinette asked Alya, only for the bespeckled girl to shush and shoo her away just as Adrien and Max began their battle.

"Try-outs for the Paris Ultimate Mecha Strike III Tournament!" a voice to Mairnette's right cheered, causing Marinette to look and see it was Rose who spoke up. "The school will send the two students with the highest scores!" Rose explained, her excitement reaching the roof as she filled Marinette in. But before Marinette could say anything more, Kim walked up to the trio of girls.

"Actually, the tryouts are to find a partner to team up with Max in the tournament." Kim remarked, placing his elbow on Marinette's shoulder as he leaned his weight onto her.

"Why Max?" Marinette asked as they watched Adrien and Max battle their mechs, a little unsure as to why only Max had been chosen already.

" 'Cause he's unbeatable and a total rockstar! He's got the highest APM over anyone!" Kim exclaimed, confident in his best bud's abilities in video games, unaware of how right he was as certain memorized codes flashing through Max's mind as he played the game.

"APM?" Marinette questioned, not familiar with the term Kim had used.

"Actions per minute!" Kim answered, lifting himself off of Marinette's shoulder as he spoke. "This tournament is his whole life! He's been grinding all year to level up." the jock regaled out of pride for Max, only for Adrien's NAD03 robot to use its special attack on Max's MX-01 robot, crushing it and declaring Adrien the winner as his mech upgraded.

"Adrien is now in the lead." Ms. Bustier announced, those watching the gamers play soon saw the model's bracket moving up to first place on the leaderboard.

"What happened, Max?" Kim groaned when he saw the resident geniuses defeat, right before the spectators cheered for Adrien's win, Marinette more than the others. But despite his defeat, Max took a breath as he pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose before turning to face his new partner as the cheering died down.

"Awesome job, Adrien. We're gonna make a killer combo." Max congratulated, the two of them high fiving and causing the spectators to cheer for both of them. But Marinette hadn't joined in the cheering, seeing as the 'Adrien Centered' gears in her head suddenly came to life.

"So let me get this straight." Marinette began, pulling the attention of Alya, Kim and Rose onto her, the reporter herself halting her recording to focus on her bestie. "If someone manages to beat Max's score, they'll team up with Adrien at the tournament?" the designer asked, seemingly innocent in her questioning to the untrained eye... or rather anyone that wasn't Alya, who immediately knew where this was going.

"No one can beat Max!" Kim exclaimed. "Or rather Max and Adrien. It's a slam dunk. They're our school's dream team!" the jock proclaimed, his hands moving to mime a headline while Alya pulled Marinette away from Kim and Rose by her hand and dragged her to an area enclosed by bookshelves next to them.

"I see where you're going with this, Little Lady." Alya warned as she pointed an accusatory finger at Marinette, voicing her earlier discovery of her best friend's thought process.

"Just imagine, teaming with Adrien!" Marinette exclaimed, not even trying to hide the fact Alya was right and decided to be truthful to her.

"Are you out of your mind, girl?" Alya interrogated, wondering if her best friend really was going insane with her infatuation with Adrien at this point. "This is about stepping up and representing! Not snuggling up and snogging!" the reporter reminded Marinette, fully invested in what this event could mean for the school.

"This is serious business!" Alya exclaimed, hoping that her words would get through to her bestie.

"Seriously Alya, you think I'd actually go through with that?" Marinette rhetorically questioned Alya, quickly walking out of their little corner just as Adrien and Max got up from their seats to stand next to Mr. Damocles and Ms. Bustier.

"Well, I think we have our two champions lined up for the Paris tournament." Mr. Damocles announced.

"Wait!" Marinette cried out, bringing everyone's attention onto her as she stepped out into the crowd again. "Is it too late... to try out?" the pigtailed girl asked, Alya standing behind her as she tried to use gestures to tell her not to do it while Kim and Rose gasped at her question.

"Well, the library is closing up in five minutes, but..." Mr. Damocles trailed off, not seeing the harm in letting Marinette try out if she wanted. Taking the response as a sign of permission, Marinette marched over to the seats that the gamers used when trying out, Alya trying more than ever to signal her to not go through with it. Unfortunately, her efforts were in vain.

"Oh, boy..." Alya sighed out, placing a hand on her head to soothe an oncoming headache while Marinette sat down in front of the screen the game was played on. Once she was comfortable, she held out her hand and gestured to Adrien and Max for either one of them to hand her a controller. Much to her joy, Adiren was the one to give her his joypad.

"Adrien's controller! Ohhh...!" Marinette quietly squealed to herself while Adriem walked over to join the onlookers, rubbing it on her face before focusing back onto the task at hand. All the while, a mentally exhausted Alya had decided to just let things play out and walked back to Rose and Kim to record what she assumed to be Max's victory over Marinette.

"Is she serious? There's no way!" Kim exclaimed incredulously, not believing that Marinette thought she had a chance to beat Max.

"Unless the particular player has a particular motivation." Alya commented, pulling out her phone and started recording the ensuing clash between classmates.

"The rules are elementary. You battle each other's robots with your own and..." Max began as he sat in the seat to Marinette's right, explaining the rules to his seemingly merger opponent.

"Please... Every time you win, you loot its items and gain XP, which upgrades your mech." Marinette tiredly finished, surprising Max at her knowledge of the game. "I'm not a newbie, thank you very much." the designer added with a smirk in Max's direction. Once she did, the memory of her, her father and brothers playing Ultra Mecha Strike over the summer played in her mind, making her smile at the look on her family's faces when she whooped their butts simultaneously.

Contrary to the belief of her classmates, Marientte was a boss at video games. Growing up with two brothers and her video game loving Dad, it was no surprise that the designer had developed a love of them too. However, when her father and brothers decided to finally teach her how to play, they didn't expect her to become so good so fast, leading to them being beaten by an 8 year old when she got the hang of it. Needless to say, Max had no idea just how much he was underestimating his opponent.

"Ah, sounds like you have a sufficient amount of knowledge." Max remarked after getting over his initial shock. "Let's see if it's enough to beat me." the resident genius challenged, the two of them shaking hands for the match before choosing their mechs.

"Yeah, this will be fun." Kim muttered to himself as the two sifted through the available mechs. As they did, all of the spectators were clueless to Chloé and Sabrina watching the ensuing battle on the level above them.

"Seriously? How could anyone spend so much time in front of a screen?" Chloé scoffed to Sabrina, not understanding all the hype about video games.

"I know, as if." Sabrina agreed, only for the two girls to contradict themselves and started texting on their phones. As they did, the spectators below them continued to watch as Marinette chose the LB-03 mech while Max chose the MX-01 mech once again. With their chosen mechs, the two gamers waited for the countdown to end so they could play.

"Come on, Max, you can do it!" Kim cheered on, the countdown reaching zero and signaling Marinette and Max to start playing. No sooner than they did, the others and Max could quickly see how skilled Marinette was, her fingers flying over the controller so fast that it shocked them to no end as she grew closer and closer to winning.

"And now, quarter circle plus heavy kick, and Flying Hyper Storm!" Marinette recited, using one of her favorite take-down moves to finish off Max's already severely damaged mech. "Triple hit combo, Marinette style! Booyah!" the pigtailed girl cheered with a final press of a button, taking down Max's mech once and for all and winning the game.

"Woo! Yeah! Woo hoo! I win! Uh-huh!" Marinette cheered, jumping out of her seat and doing a little victory dance, all while everyone else was still in shock.

"Wha! I can't believe it!" Kim exclaimed, still taking in what he had just witnessed. "She... she beat him?" the jock questioned incredulously, all the while Alya could only widely smile at her bestie's victory.

"Beat him? She pulverized him!" Alya excitedly cheered, leading to the others; sans Kim, to join in as well.

"The king's been knocked off his throne!" Rose proclaimed, joining in with the crowd as Marinette's bracket zoomed up to the top of the leaderboard. But while they were celebrating, Max looked down to the floor in disappointment of his defeat. However, in order to be the bigger person, the resident genius composed himself and stood up from his seat to face the quieting crowd.

"I accept this defeat and I relinquish my position at the tournament." Max announced, his voice still filled with disappointment as he turned to his victorious opponents. "Congratulations, Marinette. You too, Adrien." he sadly congratulated, turning to walk away after he had done so. But despite his efforts, Max's despair was still obvious to see to everyone around him.

"Max, wait!" Adrien called out, hoping to at least help the bespeckled boy feel a bit better.

"Oh, Max..." Kim added, feeling sorry for his buddy as Max walked to the library doors.

"Look. I'm fine, I lost fair and square." Max assured, clearly not fine if his voice had anything to say about it. "But if you don't mind, I'd like a little solitude." the resident genius requested, walking out of the library in a sulking posture. But despite the saddened mood that settled on the group, Mr. Damocles decided to redirect everyone's attention back to the task at hand.

"So it has been decided. Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste will represent Françoise Dupont Middle School at the Paris Ultimate Mecha Strike III Tournament." Mr. Damocles announced, bringing everyone's attention onto him while he stood between the two aforementioned teens. "Good luck to both of you." the principal well-wished, prompting Adrien to glance to his right over at his new teammate.

"Well, I guess I'll be coming over to practice... with my new partner." Adrien commented, still a little upset on Max's behalf but happy to spend time with Marinette, which brought an eager smile to the lovelorn girl. "See you later." the model fare-welled before walking to the exit, eager to tell Nathalie about his new unexpected activity.

"See... ya..." Marinette replied back, her voice trailing off as she fell into a dreamy-eyed state at the thought of Adrien coming over to her house. But while Marinette was occupied with frolicking in 'La La Land' a skeptical Alya walked up to her bestie.

"Now you gotta win, M!" Alya exclaimed to Marinette, who was still staring at a retreating Adrien even after he already left the room. "You're gonna be representing the school! Not just hanging out with Adrien." the reporter reminded her bestie, hoping for her words to sink in.

"Oh, Adrien..." Marinette sighed out, still in her dreamy-eyed state and not registering anything Alya had said.

"Oh, brother..." Alya groaned in frustration, facepalming herself at Marinette's state. 'Here's to hoping that things won't spiral out of control from this point on.' the reporter prayed internally, hoping that things would turn out well.

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Meanwhile outside of the school, Max had left the building and had begun to angrily walk home. Now that he was alone, he could finally stop being the bigger person and vent his frustrations out to no one in particular.

"This is a travesty. An unequivocal travesty!" Max ranted, angrily stomping down the street at how unfair he thought his defeat to have been.

But unbeknownst to Max, his anger was like catnip to Gabriel when the resident supervillian sensed the boy's growing negative emotions. Wasting no time at all, the fashion designer made his way down to his lair and transformed into his evil alter ego so he could take advantage of the new prospect presented to him.

"Ah, a competition! I know you like that, my little evil akumas." Hawkmoth said to the butterflies, the lair window opening up and disturbing them enough to flutter around the space. "Where there's a winner, there's always a loser." the emotional manipulator pured before he transformed one of the white butterflies into an Akuma, allowing it to flutter free from his grasp after its transformation.

"Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize him!" Hawkmoth commanded the butterfly, the little insect fluttering out of the lair as it set its target on Max.

Unlike the past few akumatizations, the akuma had much more distance to cover this time when making its way to its new victim. But regardless of the increased length of travel, the akuma soon found Max as he continued walking home, lamenting about not going to the tournament. With its prey in sight, the akuma didn't waste any more time and fluttered towards the angry boy.

"I should've been going to that tournament. I was the chosen one!" Max seethed, feeling robbed of what should have been his. "I worked so hard for it! This is completely inconceivable!" the bespeckled boy growled, just as the akuma finally got close to him and flew into his glasses, infecting them.

"Gamer, I am Hawkmoth. I'll help you win the tournament of your life." Hawkmoth offered Max, the supervillian's words catching his interest very quickly. "But in return, you must help me achieve my high score." the 'villain' said, laying out Max's part of the deal.

"Absolutely, Hawkmoth. Game on!" Max exclaimed, agreeing to the deal Hawkmoth had given him. "Now they'll see who's the greatest gamer in Paris!" the resident genius proclaimed, triggering his transformation into Gamer.

In addition to his supervillian transformation, Gamer was then surrounded by his newly constructed mech, which was made to resemble his favorite mech in Ultra Mecha Strike. But instead of being like the MX-01 mech in the game, it was level one version of it, taking the shape of a simple floating black pyramid with a green eye. Regardless of the current level of his mech, Gamer evilly laughed to himself before he began piloting the mech towards the center of the city, eager to cause some chaos.

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Just as Gamer had begun to make his way further into town, Marinette had left Collège Françoise Dupont and was walking home, hoping to get ready to spend time with her crush. Suffice to say, she was super excited.

"Ah, training with Adrien! Adrien!" Marinette squealed out in her joy, twirling around as she walked towards her house.

"If all you wanted to do is spend time with Adrien, there are other ways to do that!" Tikki said to her holder, poking her head from out of Marinette's purse as she spoke.

"What are you getting at?" Marinette questioned her kwami, now pulled out of her excitement thanks to Tikki's words.

"You know how much Max wanted to be in that tournament. Kim said he'd been training for it all year." Tikki reminded Marinette, making the pigtailed girl start to feel a little guilty in her part in making Max upset.

"You're right. All I could think about was Adrien." Marinette agreed as she arrived at the crosswalk across from her house, now seeing what Tikki had meant... until she realized something. "Hey! Adrien's coming to my house." the designer remembered, only to gasp out of dread realization.

"Adrien's coming to my house!" Marinette reiterated, her voice becoming more horrified as she remembered what her room was like at the moment. "No, this is a total disaster! I have to clear out my room!" the pigtailed girl cried out just as the crosswalk light changed, allowing her to race back into her house.

As soon as she entered the front door, Marinette ran up the stairs to her family's apartment, passing by her parents in the living room area before going up to her room. Once she passed the threshold of her trapdoor, Marinette was quickly greeted by her hundreds of Adrien photos plastered on her walls. At the sight of the photos, Marinette was scared stiff as she began to think of the possibility that Adrien would see all the photos of him if had come over right then and there.

"I was just about to warn you about that, by the way." Tikki added as she flew out of her holder's purse, floating next to a shaking Marinette as she made her admission.

"Oh, this... is not... happening!!" Marinette panicked, spiraling into a mess of thinking about Adrien's reaction to her having so many photos of him.

"Calm down, Marinette. You still have time." Tikki assured Marinette, zipping over to float in front of her face and catch the girl's attention, which worked well in calming Marientte down. "It's not like he's gonna show up this very minute." the ladybug kwami added, only for the universe to prove her wrong when she and her holder heard the doorbell ring from the floor below. Immediately, with Tikki's help, Marinette frantically took the photos of Adrien down from her walls and hid them to prevent him from seeing them..

"Marinette! Someone's here to see you!" Sabine called up from downstairs, unaware of Marinette's panicked photo stashing.

"Uh... C-c-coming!" Marinette replied back, taking the photos from Tikki to hide them with the others. When she was satisfied with her room being cleared of the photos, Marinette headed back downstairs while Tikki went to her loft bed to hide. Just as Marinette opened her trapdoor, she could hear Adrien being greeted by her parents before they asked why he had come over.

"Marinette and I are finalists in the Paris Ultimate Mecha Strike III Tournament." Adrien explained as he stood near the front door, leaving Marinette's parents pleasantly surprised by his answer.

"No way! That's my girl!" Tom cheered as his right arm was wrapped around his wife's shoulders, he and Sabine standing in front of the foot of the stairs leading up to Marinette's room. "But then again, she did learn from the best. Tom style! Booyah!" the baker proudly exclaimed, dabbing as he copied the phrase Adrien heard Marinette use in the library when she won.

'So that's where she got the phrase from.' Adrien remarked in his thoughts, now seeing yet another similarity between the father and daughter.

"Marinette never told us about this Tournament." Sabine pointed out as Tom placed his arm around her shoulders again, a little confused as to the sudden news.

"The school didn't really do a good job in spreading the word, so the try-outs happened at the last minute. We were just paired up today." Adrien elaborated, he himself finding the school's lack of notification for the tournament disturbing.

"You two are a pair, huh?" Sabine slyly questioned, a quizitive eyebrow raised at Adrien as she spoke. "Well, I'm not surprised. Marinette talks a lot about you, you know?" she added, surprising Adrien. At her mom's potentially embarrassing words, Marinette had decided to finally make her presence known.

"Mom!" Marinette groaned out in embarrassment, suddenly bringing her parents and Adrien's attention onto her as she stood in the middle of the stairs to her room. "Ignore her Adrien, she's just trying to tease me. Come on up!" the designer invited, gesturing for Adrien to follow her up to her room.

"Uh, very nice to meet you." Adrien said to Marientte's parents before he followed after her, leaving Tom and Sabine at the foot of the stairs to watch their daughter and her crush head up to her room.

"Ohhh..." Tom & Sabine awed, happy that Marinette and Adrien were going to be spending time together. But knowing the two kids, the baker and his wife couldn't help but start thinking of ways to help guide them in the right direction. With the unspoken plan in mind, Marinette's parents got to work.

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While Marinette and Adrien were about to start practicing, Gamer's mech had made it to the center of Paris and was floating menacingly in the streets. At the sight of the mech, the citizen's that were walking in the area ran away, all while Gamer piloted the floating pyramid before Hawkmoth decided to check in on his latest akuma.

"Gamer, it's time to get to the next level and show everyone that you're the best!" Hawkmoth proclaimed from his end of the psychic link between him and the akumatized gamer, knowing that they needed to draw Ladybug and Chat Noir out.

"No time like the present!" Gamer agreed before Hawkmoth left the link, leaving the akuma to his own devices as he powered up his mech's laser beam. Once it was ready, the green eye of Gamer's mech started blasting at the citizens in the vicinity, trapping them in floating green orbs that serve as experience points. From there, Gamer's mech absorbed the green spheres, gaining more strength as the akuma evilly laughed at his growing success and continued his rampage.

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Back over at the Dupain-Cheng household, Marinette and Adrien were up in the girls room and were about to start practicing for the tournament after setting up the arcade edition of the game on Marinette's computer. However, as they sat next to each other in front of the screen, they both reached for the controllers that were laying on the desk in front of them, leading to the two of them touching hands.

"Oh! Sorry." Marinette apologised, she and Adrien pulling their hands back out of nervousness after their hands had met.

"No, you go." Adrien nervously replied, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked at anything other than his gaming partner.

"I'll use the other one." both teens said at the same time, leading to them taking each other's hands again as they both reached for a controller. After another recoil of their hands, Adrien quickly took one of the controllers before Marinette followed his example a second after he did, the two of them starting their practice in an awkward silence.

"Your parents seem nice." Adrien spoke up, breaking the ice while he and Marinette played the game.

"Oh yeah, they are. But... sometimes..." Marinette agreed, trailing off as she leaned back in her chair. But when she did, Marinette quickly saw Tikki trying and failing to move a framed photo of Adrien that sat on the designer nook area of her workspace, and next to the one of her and her brothers. "Ahhhh!" the pigtailed girl screamed, startling Adrien enough to look over at her in concern as she grabbed the photo of Adrien and threw it to the other side of her room before he could see it. With the photo gone, Marinette tried to play her sudden behavior off with a nervous smile as she awkwardly reclined in her chair, hoping to avoid him probing as to why she acted so strangely.

"Sometimes what?" Adrien asked, deciding to not ask about why Marinette screamed just as the framed picture landed on the floor with a shatter behind them, soon followed by someone knocking on Marinette's trapdoor. A few after the knock pulled the teens' attention to the door, Tom opened the hatch as he had a tray of croissants in his other hand.

"Everything going well?" Tom asked. "I thought just in case you wanted something to eat..." the baker explained, much to Marinette's cardigan as she got up from her chair and walked over to him.

"Uh... thanks, Papa." Marientte thanked as she took the tray, not missing how Adrien's face had lit up at the sight of the baked goods. "But we're doing just fine at the moment." the pigtailed girl assured, knowing that the real reason why her dad brought up the croissants was so he and her mom could peek in on her and Adrien.

"Well then, maybe you could use a few tips. You know... dad style!" Tom offered while Marientte walked back over to the desk, not willing to bow out just yet much to Marinette's growing exasperation.

"Thanks. But no thanks, Papa!" Marinette nearly growled as placed the tray near her and Adrien, looking over at her dad with a 'Please leave' look on her face. With his daughter's request, a smiling Tom knew to leave well enough alone and closed the door, leaving Adrien and Marinette alone again to practice.

"Sometimes my parents could be a little nosey." Marinette explained to Adrien with a sigh of relief when her dad was gone, her and her crush turning back to continue playing the game with soft smiles on their faces.

However, just a few seconds later, she could hear her trap door creak open behind her, causing her to turn and see her parents spying on them with endearing looks on their faces. Though when they saw Marinette's annoyed glare in their direction, they quickly closed the door just before Adrien finally looked over to see why Marinette was distracted. When she saw her crush looking at her while turning back to the computer, Marinette only offered him a nervous giggle so he wouldn't find out about her parents spying.

"Where were we?" the designer asked, prompting the two to look back at the screen and continue practicing.

"I honestly don't mind. It's their way of showing they care." Adrien admitted, an amused smile on his lips while side glanced at his hostess.

"True. But you haven't grown up with it." Marinette remarked with a smirk, pointing her finger at Adrien as she spoke before glancing to her designer workshop desk. "Both me and Jim can attest to how many times they've butted into some of our private matters." the pigtailed girl admitted, pointing to the picture of her Jim and Toby on her desk near Adrien, causing the boy to look over and see it.

"Who's Jim? You've never mentioned him." Adrien asked, trying to play it off that he didn't already know a fair bit of knowledge about the mentioned boy.

"Adrien, you don't need to lie. I know you know about Jim. And about Toby too." Marinette said, deciding to give Adrien a way out of his blatant lying to her in hopes of keeping her from finding out he knew. At her words, Adrien's eyes widened in fear, thinking the worst was about to happen.

"Uh, what? No! How would I possibly know..." Adrien nervously stuttered out, placing his controller onto the desk before his now sweaty hands could drop it.

"Nino told me you were coaching him that day at the zoo." Marinette responded, interrupting Adrien's attempts to keep his technically unsanctioned knowledge to himself in the hopes of not upsetting her.

"He did?" Adrien asked, his worries soon dissipating when Marinette nodded in confirmation. "Okay, fine. I do know." the model admitted, glad to not have to lie to his friend.

"How much do you know, exactly? Did Nino..." Marinette questioned, starting to think the worst of her childhood friend.

"Oh no, he didn't say anything at first. Nino only told me the bare minimum about them when I admitted to accidentally overhearing the end of one of your guy's conversations a while back." Adrien hastily replied, assuring Marinette that Nino didn't say anything more than the bare minimum about her family life. "And please don't take this the wrong way, but... before Nino told me, I thought you were talking to your boyfriend at the time since I only heard you guys saying 'I love you' before the conversation ended." the blonde adonis elaborated, feeling the need to explain why Nino told him in the first place.

"The only reason Nino even told me about their existence was when I brought it up when he first told me..." Adrien started to further explain, only to come up short when he found that he couldn't tell her why without breaking the 'Bro Code' and spilling Nino's past crush on Marinette.

"That he had a crush on me?" Marinette responded, causing Adrien to look at her with wide eyes. At his reaction, Marinette stifled a giggle at how cute he looked at the moment and paused the game before putting her controller onto the desk. "Don't worry, Nino told me that too." the designer explained, clearing up the little bit of misunderstanding that had occurred.

"And you have nothing to fear about me taking things the wrong way. I totally get why you would think that without knowing all the facts." Marinette assured Adrien, to which he finally let out a sigh in relief.

"That's a relief to hear." Adrien breathed out. "But I really am sorry Marinette, I didn't mean to find out about something you consider private." the model apologized, feeling like he had crossed a line he shouldn't have.

"It's okay. You have nothing to apologize for except for looking out for your best friend." Marinette replied, trying to convey the message that he didn't do anything wrong. "I know I would do the same if I was in your shoes." the pigtailed girl admitted, looking off to the side while tucking in a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she spoke. Thankfully, her words were enough to bring a relieved smile to Adrien's face.

"Thanks Marinette." Adrien said, grateful to have the air cleared between them. "But in all seriousness, what's the deal between you and your brothers? How come you've never mentioned them before?" the blonde asked, his curious cat side coming up now that he had the opportunity to find out the full truth.

"Well, how much did Nino tell you, exactly?" Marinette questioned, hoping to get a basis of how much Adrien already knew.

"Just that your brother is off abroad and that his best friend is your honorary brother. Also, very few people outside of your family know about them." Adrien explained, paraphrasing what Nino had told him. "I don't mean to pry, but I'm honestly dying to know what's going on." the model admitted, prompting Marinette to take a deep breath to brace herself before looking back at him.

"Can you keep a secret?" Marinette asked Adrien, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to tell her crush.

"Yeah, why?" Adrien wondered, a little concerned with Marientte's sudden question.

"Because Jim is going to be calling in the next minute for our daily catch up video call. I need to know that you won't tell anyone besides Alya and Nino what you're about to learn." Marinette elaborated. In her words, Adrien had only grown more curious.

"Why only Alya and Nino?" Adrien asked.

"They already know about Jim and Toby. I'm more worried about other people finding out about what you're going to learn about my family." Marinette explained, voicing her concerns about telling Adrien the truth about her family. "Can you promise to not say anything?" the designer asked again, her gaze almost pleading.

"I promise." Adrien answered, just before Marinette's computer screen switched to her video call app and showed Jim was calling.

"Ah, right on time." Marinette remarked, glancing over at her clock as it read 12pm. "By the way, how's your English? Toby's learning French but isn't fluent yet, so when he's on call with me and Jim we usually talk in English." the pigtailed girl questioned, needing to make sure there wouldn't be any problem in communicating with her brothers.

"My mom was from England, so my English is impeccable. I think I'll be fine." Adrien revealed, much to Marinette's relief.

"Great." Marinette said before she clicked on the call button, letting Jim and Toby appear on the screen. "Hey guys! How's the sleepover going?" the designer greeted the two boys, who were surprised to see Adrien with their sister... in her room!

"Care to explain the guy sitting next to you?" Jim interrogated Marientte, a little concerned for the answer.

"Nice to see you too, Jimbro." Marinette tiredly replied, not surprised in the slightest about his response to seeing Adrien with her. "But yeah, introductions are in order." the pigtailed girl reflected, seeing the need for such.

"Jim and Toby, allow me to formally introduce Adrien Agreste." Marinette said, gesturing to her crush as she mediated the introduction between the boys. "Adrien, these are my brothers, Jim and Toby." the designer finished, pointing to the respective boy as she named them to Adrien.

"Hi there! It's nice to meet you guys." Adrien greeted, waving to the boys on the other end of the call.

"Yeah, it's... nice to meet you too, Adrien" Jim replied back, a little skeptical of Adrien's presence.

"Awesome! It's about time she introduced us to you." Toby exclaimed, glad that this day finally came. "Though, Mari here never said anything about you coming over to her house." the geology nerd remarked, now realizing that this was a little out of the blue.

"Care to shed some light on that, sis?" Jim questioned Marinette, knowing she would have the answer.

"Long story short, our school is participating in a Ultra Mecha Strike 3 tournament tonight." Marinette replied, simplifying the reason for Adrien's presence to save some time.

"How come we're just hearing about this now? This sounds like something that would be announced to the whole school." Toby asked, both him and Jim curious as to why the tournament was only now being brought to light.

"No idea. I only found out today when meeting up with Alya to work on our term paper." Marinette admitted, she herself was a little concerned about the school's poor announcement planning too. "Either way, Adrien and I are now representing the school in the tournament." the pigtailed girl revealed, bringing extremely surprised looks to Jim and Toby's faces.

"Wait, seriously!? Mari, that's awesome!" Jim exclaimed, happy to hear about what his little sister was going to do.

"Finally, someone else will be at the brunt of your video game wrath instead of us and your dad!" Toby cheered, excited for Marinette too.

"I can definitely attest to that. She whipped the floor with Max when trying out." Adrien added, making Marinette blush at the praise he had given her.

"Ah, let me guess... 'Triple hit combo, Marinette style!'?" Jim questioned, all too familiar with Marinette's skills in defeating them. "Tobes and I have had our fair share of defeats by Mari's hand. Same with our dad." the Trollhunter explained, not ashamed of his admission.

"Speaking of which, I'm only getting more curious about your guy's whole situation." Adrien admitted, not sure of how much longer he could hold out. "Just to give you a heads up, I'm already aware of some of the details, and can guess that it's Jim and Marinette that are actual siblings with how similar you guys look. But I'm still in the dark about the whole story." the blonde added, laying out what he knew to Jim and Toby.

"It's... complicated." Jim replied, not sure of any other way to explain it without giving any big details. "I'm not even sure we should tell him, sis." the Trolllhunter admitted, looking over at Marinette as he spoke.

"I'm not here to judge. Just to listen." Adrien said, trying to assure them that he could be trusted.

"I'll vouch for him, bro. I trust him." Marinette told Jim, hoping to get him to agree to telling Adrien about their family's story. "Please?!" the designer begged, pulling out her best pleading face and soon making Jim sigh in defeat.

"Fine. If you trust him, then I suppose I'll give him a little bit of mine." Jim relented, knowing that Marinette wouldn't let the matter drop. In his words, Marinette couldn't help but squeal out of joy.

"Thank you, Jim!" Marinette thanked, happy that he agreed to tell Adrien the full story. With the confirmation from her brother, Marinette turned to face her crush, ready to let him into the loop. "Now Adrien, what my brothers and I are about to say isn't something we as a family are embarrassed about. But if Chloé or someone who can't keep their mouth shut finds out... let's just say it wouldn't be ideal for us since people can take this story the wrong way." the pigtailed girl explained, laying out the consequences if Adrien told anyone else that didn't already know her family's story.

"Okay, but what exactly is this sensitive information?" Adrien asked, causing the three siblings to look over at each other and nod in agreement before Marinette turned to face her crush again.

"Well to start off, Jim is my brother like you had guessed, while Toby is my honorary brother." Marinette began, taking her time in telling this story to avoid any misunderstandings or mixed up words. "But the thing is... me and Jim are only half siblings, with us having the same dad and different moms." the designer finished, causing Adrien's eyes to widen and his jaw to drop in shock. Despite telling multiple people about this story, the look on Adrien's face had discouraged Marinette a bit from continuing.

"Yeah, crazy right?" Marinette timidly remarked, nervously looking to the ground to avoid any of Adrien's shocked staring.

"Incredibly, yes." Adrien muttered, himself looking off to the side as he processed the new revelation. "Uh, exactly how old are you, Jim?" the model asked, hoping to get a better understanding of this information.

"15. Turning 16 a little bit after Christmas." Jim replied a little harshly, a little worried about the assumptions Adrien was coming up with.

"15? But I remember you saying to Alya that your mom and dad were married for 20 years." Adrien recalled, trying to put the pieces together in order to make sense of all he had learned so far.

"Before you ask, our dad technically didn't cheat on my mom." Marinette exclaimed, clearing up the little misunderstanding that was about to take place. But Adrien's look of confusion was all Marinette needed to know that he needed further elaboration. "It's a long story." the pigtailed stated, a shy smile on her lips as she shrugged her shoulders up, her arms sticking out when she did.

"Well, we've got time, so..." Adrien prompted, eager to finally learn the whole story. At his words, Marinette took a deep breath and was soon prepared to tell Adrien the truth.

"It all started 20 years ago. My Mom and our Dad had just gotten married." Marinette awkwardly started, once more explaining her family's more than complicated story.

From that point on, Adrien was silent as Marinette took the lead in telling him about how her and Jim's dad were friends with Jim's mom for a while before he met and married Marinette's mother. Adrien's silence continued when Marinette told him of how Sabine and Tom went to Barbara's hometown to celebrate her birthday, only for the three of them to end up getting into a drunken three-way that night. The story continued with Marinette revealing the conversation between her and Jim's parents, plus the development of Barbara's pregnancy followed by Tom's promises to be in Jim's life as much as possible.

Jim even jumped in and explained the part about when Sabine became pregnant with Marinette when he saw his sister was starting to lose steam in her storytelling. But both siblings finished the tale off when explaining how they became thick as thieves ever since they first met and started having their summertime visits to Jim's hometown. They even told Adrien of how Toby joined their dynamic when Jim had turned five, with Marientte meeting him the summer of that year. The story finished off with Marinette explaining the video call system they started a few years after Toby joined their duo, which is what Adrien had accidentally overheard at the end of a few weeks back. All in all, the youngest Agreste male was left speechless by the end of their tale, and all the croissants had been eaten as he listened to their storytelling.

"Wow, I had no idea." Adrien muttered to himself in shock as he took in the story." This is a lot to take in." the model admitted, now understanding their want of secrecy.

"Yeah, it is." Marinette replied, knowing just how much information had been shared with him in such a short amount of time. "Things aren't going to be too... awkward between us now that you know... will it?" the designer asked Adrien, now worried that she had lost any chance of being his friend, much less a potential girlfriend, now that he knew the less than ideal truth about her family.

"What? No! Like I said, I'm not judging at all!" Adrien exclaimed, now seeing that his reaction was taken in such a bad way. "Yes, it's definitely a lot. But that doesn't change my opinion of you guys at all." the blonde admitted, hoping that his words would sooth any worries the trio had.

"And... What is your opinion of us?" Jim questioned, an interrogating eyebrow raised at him as he awaited Adrien's answer.

"Well, while I only just properly met you and Toby today, I don't have enough information to have a truly accurate one. But from what I can tell, you guys seem like nice people..." Adrien replied, giving them the most honest answer he could at the moment. "A lot like your sister." the model added, glancing towards the girl in question sitting next to him.

"I can see why you guys get along so well." Adrien said, making Marinette smile at him with Jim slightly smirking as well.

"That's a relief to hear. I'm glad that we can still remain friends, Adrien." Marinette breathed out, happy to hear Adrien's words.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I want to?" Adrien rhetorically asked, quickly taking Marientte's hands into his. "You're absolutely amazing, Marinette! Just because I now know something that is sort of hard to tell others, doesn't mean I'm going to not want to be friends with you anymore." the blonde adonis assured, making Marinette blush and leaving her and her brothers blown away by his confession.

"Th–thank you, Adrien." Marinette managed to stammer out, not quite capable of saying anything else.

"Ora capisco perché sei così irremovibile riguardo alla tua cotta per lui, sorella. Ha un rizz pazzesco senza nemmeno rendersi conto che lo sta usando! (Now I see why you are so adamant about your crush on him, sis. He's got mad rizz without even realizing he's using it!)" Jim said to his sister after snapping out of his surprise, switching to Italian with ease as to avoid spilling the beans about Marinette's crush on Adrien. At his words, Marinette composed herself and turned to her brothers on her computer screen.

"Vuol dire che finalmente lo approvi? (Does that mean you finally approve of him?)" Marinette questioned back in Italian, hoping that it would be the case.

"Oh, neanche una possibilità! Il fatto che non sappia quanto sia gentile non fa altro che aumentare la mia ragione per non approvare Adrien. (Oh, not a chance! Him not knowing how suave he is just adds to my reason to not approve of Adrien.)" Jim replied, now having even more reason to not approve of Adrien with this new information.

"OH FORZA, JIM! SMETTILA DI ESSERE COSI TESTARDO! (OH COME ON, JIM! STOP BEING SO STUBBORN!)" Marinette exclaimed, almost fed up with her brother's stubbornness while Adrien stared at them in confusion.

"Uh, what are they saying?" Adrien asked, surprised by the sudden switch in language.

"Heck if I know, dude." Toby groaned. "Whenever Mari and Jimbo have things to hash out between them, they switch over to Italian faster than I can blink." the rounded boy explained, much too used to Jim and Marinette's little trick.

"I didn't know that you could speak Italian, Marinette." Adrien remarked, taking note of yet another previously unknown skill in Marinette's repertoire.

"It never came up." Marinette replied.

"Fair point." Adrien said, realizing that she was right. "So, what were you and Jim talking about?" the blonde asked, his curiosity growing yet again.

"Uh... you don't need to know." Marinette hastily answered, hoping to avoid answering that particular question. "He was just... being a bit of a troll." the pigtailed girl assured, a sly smirk on her face as she made that jab/joke at her brother.

"HA! Good one, MariFariy!" Toby laughed, immediately catching the reference she had made.

"TOBY!" Marinette cried out, suddenly feeling embarrassed by the familiar nickname being used in front of her crush while her cheeks turned red.

"'MariFairy'? What's the deal about that?" Adrien asked, much to Marinette's disappointment that he had thought to ask.

"Well, if you must know–" Toby began, eager to regale this certain tale to Adrien. At Toby's words, Marinette immediately knew what was about to come next.

"OKAY! Time for us to go! If we keep talking, Adrien and I won't be able to get in any more practice before the tournament." Marinette exclaimed, stopping Toby from telling Adrien about where the 'MariFairy' nickname was from and subsequently embarrassing her. "Bye guys!" the designer quickly farewelled, nervously waving to Jim and Toby as she reached for the 'End Call' button.

"Sis, wait—" Jim tried to protest, only for Marinette to hang up on him before sighing in relief, leaning back in her chair and looking up at the ceiling as she did so.

"You're brothers are a hoot!" Adrien said to Marinette, a wide smile on his face as he looked away from the screen and back to her.

"Yeah. And also a pain in my rear sometimes." Marientte breathed out, looking away from her ceiling and back at Adrien.

"Oh." Adrien muttered, not sure of how to respond to her remark.

"Relax, this is usually how siblings act. We might tease each other a bit, but it comes from a place of love." Marinette assured, trying to tell Adrien that she was all good. "You get used to it after a while." the pigtailed girl added, readjusting herself to sit back up.

"Glad to hear... MariFairy." Adrien replied, deciding to be a little teasing and use Toby's nickname for her.

"Oh, not you too." Marinette groaned, placing her hands onto face to cover her embarrassed reddening cheeks from Adrien.

"So, care to explain Toby's nickname for you?" Adrien asked, a sly eyebrow raised at Marinette as he spoke.

"It's just a nickname that stuck from when I was a kid. Nothing too embarrassing." Marientte replied, dragging her hands down her face before looking back at him.

"Really? Because from your reaction, it seemed like..." Adrien mussed, causing Marinette's eyes to widen a bit.

"Trust me. Nothing interesting related to it." Marinette assured, hoping to avoid answering that question. "Now, I think we still have some training to do, right?" the designer pointed out, grabbing her controller from the desk. Seeing Marinette's adamant desire to drop the subject, Adrien finally relented.

"Okay, I'll stop asking for now." Adrien said, dropping the subject. "But one of these days, I'll find out the truth." the model promised, grabbing his own controller while keeping his eyes on Marinette with a smirk.

"We'll see about that." Marinette slyly remarked before unpausing the game, the two of them now continuing to practice with a much deeper bond between them than when they started.

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Meanwhile in the streets of Paris, the Gamer's mech continued blasting at and absorbing people as he neared the Le Grand Paris Hotel..

"I'll be at level 2 in no time! My skills are indisputable!" Gamer cheered as his mech kept absorbing people, which soon extended to vehicles as well since they gave him more XP than the citizens. "I am unstoppable! Hahahaha!" the akumatized prodigy proclaimed, his mech evolving into level two as it gained a set of tall tentacle-like legs on the base of the previously floating pyramid.

"Excellent!" Gamer purred before he piloted his robot down the streets, turning more and more people into XP and absorbing them, gaining more power as he continued deeper into the city.

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Over at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, Marinette and Adrien continued to practice and soon won another round of the game. However, Adrien had had more difficulty in his part while Marinette had done so with ease.

"Wow! We won again, thanks to you!" Adrien cheered when they cleared the level, making Marinette smile at his words.

"Yeah, um, yes we did." Marinette replied, taken aback by his praising of her skills.

"We? That was practically all you." Adrien remarked, placing his controller onto the desk before pushing himself back from the desk, leaning back into his chair in self frustration. "You're so amazing, Marinette, that I'm sure you wouldn't even need me. I'm so lame compared to you..." the blonde continued, starting to feel inadequate when paired with Marinette. But while Adiren was starting to dive into a void of self pity, Marientte mulled over his words in her head.

"That actually adds up." Marinette muttered, looking off to the side while a hand gripped her chin in thought as she spoke.

"Huh?" Adrien replied, looking back at the girl in confusion and causing her to realize that she had said that loud enough for him to hear.

"Uh, I mean... You've been playing the game alone up until now, right?" Marinette hastily asked, trying to salvage the situation. Despite the confusion running through his mind, Adrien nodded 'yes' in response to her question. "Then it makes sense that you have no experience in co-op gaming or working with a partner. I've been playing with my dad and brothers since I was a kid, so I grew up on co-op playing." the pigtailed girl explained, her words bringing up some very convincing points to Adrien.

"Oh. When you put it that way, it does make sense." Adrien replied after taking in her observations, now seeing that she was right. "But that still doesn't make it right that you're carrying your team." the model added, now feeling guilty that his partner needed to pick up the slack he had caused.

"It's okay, really. I don't mind at all." Marinette assured her crush, only for the trapdoor to open back up and reveal Tom again, who was holding yet another tray of baked goods.

"Anyone want cookies? Baked hot from the oven!" Tom asked the teens, once again trying to see what was happening between them. However, neither teen was keen on taking the treats after the croissants they had eaten earlier.

"Papa, we're trying to work here!" Marinette exclaimed, tired of her parents's attempts to be nosey and prompting Tom to exit the room, leaving them be. With her dad gone, Marinette turned to face her still crestfallen partner and decided that something needed to be done to cheer him up. "Actually, I've got an idea." the designer said, only to pull out her lucky charm  from her pocket and show it to Adrien.

"Try playing with my secret weapon." Marinette offered, to which earned a skeptical stare from Adrien.

"Are you messing with me?" Adrien questioned, thinking Marientte was joking when holding out the charm bracelet to him. But contrary to his belief, Marientte was dead serious.

"Try playing a match with it." Marinette suggested, hoping that her lucky charm would do the trick in helping him out. Seeing how adamant she was, Adrien decided to trust her word.

"Alright, thanks Marinette." Adrien thanked, gently taking the lucky charm from a smiling Marientte's hand. But just as he didn't, the trapdoor opened back up behind them and pulled their attention to see Tom was joined with Sabine this time.

"How about a delicious salmon and spinach pie? You can tell me what you think of it?" Sabine offered as she held out the aforementioned pie towards the teens, to which only further annoyed Marinette as she nearly bore a hole into her parents with her heated glare at them.

"Uh, Marinette. A little break wouldn't hurt, would it?" Adrien asked, playing peacemaker to avoid any arguments between the family in front of him. At his words, Marientte calmed down enough to agree to the compromise, hoping to spend some time with Adrien without her parents butting in all the time.

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Soon enough, the break Marinette and Adrien had taken led them to sit on one of the benches in the Place des Vosges, where they were soon about finished eating their pieces of pie.

"I'm really sorry. It's impossible to get anything done with my parents around." Marinette apologized to Adrien, now seeing that she had been a little short with her parents earlier and wanted him to know that she didn't mean to be like that in front of him.

"It's okay." Adrien replied, assuring Marinette that she didn't offend him at all before he finished eating his piece of pie. "I didn't know your dad made such yummy pie! Your family is truly amazing!" the boy exclaimed, delighted by the delicious snack he had just finished and thanking his lucky stars that he knew such wonderful people.

"Oh, uh, I... yeah!" Marinette stammered out, surprised by Adrien's praise before she composed herself. "So, shall we go back?" the pigtailed girl asked, her head clearer now that she had taken a break.

"Let's see if it works." Adrien agreed, taking out Marinette's lucky charm from his pocket as he spoke. But their plans were suddenly halted when Gamer's mech appeared from behind them, towering over the streets as it continued turning people into XP and making so Marinette and Adrien couldn't help but notice it.

"Tell me this isn't some kind of publicity stunt for the tournament!" Marinette nearly whined, finding the akuma attack very inconvenient since it meant she had to run off and defeat it, which also included leaving Adrien.

"Doesn't look like a publicity stunt to me." Adrien replied, he himself finding the akuma's appearance annoying since he found himself enjoying spending time with Marinette. But as they took in the giant mech towering above them, Gamer had finally noticed them and zoomed his screen feed to focus on Marinette, the girl who defeated him and inadvertently caused his akumatization.

"Well, well, well, Marinette. Let's see who's victorious this time." Gamer taunted from his cockpit, eager to do away with his former advisory now that he had such superior upgrades. Wasting no time at all, Gamer's mech charged up its laser and fired at Marinette and Adrien.

"Look out!" Adrien shouted, quickly pushing himself and Marinette off of the bench and landing on the ground, Adrien on top of Marinette as the bench turned into a gathering of green pixels before completely disappearing. Once they were clear of the blast, Marinette soon realized the position she and Adrien were in, and nervously smiled at the boy as he got up and helped her to her feet.

"We better get outta here! Now!" the model exclaimed, taking Marinette by her hand and leading to the both of them running towards the park exit. But as they did, they got separated when a bench came in between them and caused them to go their own ways, to which Marinette ran out of the park and into the streets. As she ran, Gamer had begun to chase after her, soon leaping into the air to land right in front of her, keeping Marinette from going any further.

"Game over, Marinette!" Gamer proclaimed from his cockpit, his voice coming out from a speaker so his soon-to-be victim would hear him.

"How does he know my name?" Marinette wondered out loud, only to soon come to the realization that the akuma was... "Max!" the designer cried out, only for Gamer's mech to fire it lasers at her and making her turn back around to keep running away from the akuma

"I guess he really did want that spot in the tournament!" Marinette exclaimed as she kept running, hoping to find a way to lose her pursuer so she could transform into Ladybug.

Unbeknownst to her, when Adrien had gone his separate ways from her he had managed to find a good spot to hide in the park so he could transform into his super alter ego. Though this time, Adrien was a little more on edge when he thought about Marinette being in danger, which had him buzzing to go after her as quickly as possible so he could save her.

"Time to transform." Adrien exclaimed as he opened his overshirt to let Plagg fly out into the air in front of him, now pulling out his runestone necklace and clasping his hand over it to activate his Chat Noir disguise. Once the disguise had taken full effect, he finally took the opportunity to say... "Plagg, claws out!" the boy proclaimed, transforming into Chat Noir before he went off to battle against the latest akuma as it continued to chase after Marinette.