Adrien POV:

The next seven days passed by painfully slow for Adrien Agreste. He knew he was being impatient… but he couldn’t keep his feelings inside any much longer.

The first day had been manageable. Sure he still had to restrain himself from turning to look at the girl behind him every five seconds, but he could manage it.

The next day was a little harder.  He blamed it on the fact that some other guy had tried to flirt with Marinette at lunch.

He had to admit, it had been quite satisfying but also terrifying to see how quickly Marinette had brushed the guy off.

This was why he was waiting, he thought to himself. He didn’t want to end up pushed to the sidelines. Ladybug was smart, he trusted her. He could wait.

The third day he proved himself wrong. He couldn’t help himself but sneak glances off her every chance he had.

His eyes were drawn to her. His smile made his heart flutter and her laugh brightened his days. He found he began to notice little things about her which he hadn’t before. Like the way she would stick her tongue out whenever she was drawing designs in her sketchbook, or how strands of her raven hair would escape from her pigtails when she was working, or the way her blue eyes would crinkle when she laughed, or in general the way her blue eyes seemed to have literal stars in them.

“Ugh, are you seriously writing a poem about her? How sappy can you get?” Plagg asked, intrusively looking over his shoulder.

“Oh Marinette, her majestic bluebell eyes and soft pink lips and luxurious hair… she’s human for god’s sake not a majestic space alien” Plagg mimed his holder, before pretending to barf.

Adrien felt his face grow hot as he hastily looked away from Plagg’s taunting grin. He knew he hadn’t successfully hidden the blush he could feel rising in his cheeks.

“Be quiet Plagg, you don’t understand all you’ve ever loved is stinky camembert,”

“I understand having unrealistic expectations and that’s you right now!” Plagg said before stuffing his face with Camenbert.

Adrien shook his hand, dismissing Plagg’s comment. Unrealistic expectations? He didn’t have unrealistic expressions. Besides he was already waiting an entire week. A week that was passing agonizingly slow. How much longer was he going to have to hide his feelings.

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Marinette POV:

After her break up with Luka, Marinette could feel a shift in the environment around her. Sure, before she had dated Luka the occasional guy would ask her out, but she was a lot more observant of the attention she’d been receiving from some of her male classmates.

Sure, it was only a few, some she’d never even talked to, but the whole atmosphere felt different.

“I guess in the past I’ve been fully focused on Adrien… and everyone knew I liked him so nobody really considered me an… an option?” Marinette said to her kwami. 

The two of them were in the bathroom, talking together. Marinette wasn’t sorry for hiding out in the bathroom, there was only so much rambling about nonsense she could take from her teachers before she needed a five minute break. Plus, she hadn’t gotten the chance to have a conversation with her kwami in a while.

“Marinette your beautiful, smart, kind, I’m not surprised you're suddenly getting all this male attention,” Tikki said giggling.

“T-thanks Tikki,” Marinette sputtered, “I don’t know I just guess after everything with Cat Noir and Luka, I didn’t really see myself that way...I think I’m blowing things a little out of proportion. It’s not like there’s ten thousand guys trying to marry me or something, just a couple guys and some light flirting. Nothing I can’t handle” Marinette said, giggling

“Marinette, practically ten guys today were staring at you today in class,” Tikki said teasingly.

“WHAT! That is not true! Do I even have ten single straight guys in my class?” Marinette said.

“Marinette I’m exaggerating, there was only one or two. Besides, even if there were ten, you’d just tell them that you aren't interested.” Tikki laughed, patting Marinette’s arm reassuringly.

“You’re right Tikki. I’m taking a break from romance, if anyone asks I’ll respectfully decline. I got this” Marinette said confidently.

“That's the spirit Marinette!” Tikki said smiling at her newfound confidence.

“Come on Tikki, let’s get back to class” Marinette said, gesturing Tikki back into her purse.

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Adrien POV:

Five days had passed since Adrien’s talk with Ladybug. Five days of waiting. To say Adrien was impatient would be an understatement.

Waiting had never been his strong suit. He’d always been the one to dive right into something, to act on an impulse. It had led him into several problems in his life, and as Chat Noir into direct danger, but most of the time he didn’t regret it.

But now he had to wait. He knew he needed to give Marinette time, she just broke up with Luka, but he couldn’t help the deep yearning building inside him, to blurt out his true feelings to her.

One week. That was what Ladybug had said. Two more days, then he could ask Marinette out and they would start dating and then they could get married and have kids and a hamster named…

“You ever considered the possibility she’ll say no.” Plagg said, bringing Adrien out of his fantasies.

Adrien brushed off Plagg’s cynical comment. “She won’t say no. When she was under truthstealer’s influence she admitted she used to like me!” Adrien stubbornly argued.

“Yes Adrien exactly, she used to like you. Key word being used too.” Plagg said rolling his eyes before stuffed a big chunk of camembert into his mouth.

“But those kind of feelings don’t just disappear Plagg...she must still feel something for me,”

Plagg sighed helpless, there was no use in trying to talk sense into this kid, he was head over heels in love.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt again. You did the same thing with Ladybug and you’re still not over her kid. You’re being too optimistic” Plagg said, putting in one last effort to save Adrien from his own lack of reason.

“You’re just a pessimist.” Adrien said, brushing his kwami off once again.
Plagg knew that Adrien was just going to end up getting hurt again. He had known that Marinette was Ladybug for a while, ever since the day that an akumatized Mr. Damocles had trapped the two heroes in a metal shipping container, forcing them to detransform inside.

Plagg also knew that Ladybug, aka Marinette, was interested in Adrien’s alter ego, Chat Noir. Adrien confessing to Marinette and Adrien would only lead to rejection. What a painful love square the two of them were trapped in.

Plagg shook his hand as he felt a pounding headache come on, this was just too much. He’d faced drama like this in the past with other miraculous holders but nothing quite as ironic as this. He needed more camembert.

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Adrien was practically shaking with joy when he woke up on the seventh day. He could finally stop waiting and ask Marinette out!

He jumped out of bed and over to the small calendar sitting on his desk. He smiled happily at the date that had been circled with a green marker and marked Mari <3. He couldn’t help the blissful smile that spread across his lips.

He quickly got dressed for school. Making sure to put extra deodorant on and styling his messy blonde hair out of his eyes. Today was going to be perfect, and he wasn’t going to let his appearance ruin the romantic mood.

He had planned to ask Marinette out after school. His plan was simple, ask Marinette if she wanted to hangout after school. Alya and Nino had a date after school so it would just be the two of them.

Then, he would walk with her to the park, and a little after they arrived he would ask her out. Then, they’d be officially dating and him and Marinette could go on dates and spend time together and watch movies and...

“Adrien are you in there? It’s time for breakfast” Nathalie's voice echoed from outside his door.

He felt a sudden surge of nervousness, but his all-consuming excitement overcame the fluttering in his stomach. By the end of today, Marinette would be his girlfriend.

“Coming Natalie!” He called as he checked his appearance in the mirror one more time before rushing downstairs.

Adrien reached the dinning room to see his breakfast sitting at the head of the table. Usually a feeling of loneliness consumed him while he ate breakfast, alone, because his father was too busy to spend time with his son.

But today, today was different. His thoughts were preoccupied with what he was going to say to Marinette. He wanted her to know how much he had grown to love her, he wanted to reassure her that he would try his best to be the amazing boyfriend she deserved.

That he understands he’s messed up horribly in the past and probably didn’t deserve her, but everyday he would do anything to prove to her that he loves her, more than life itself. 

Adrien was so caught up in his emotions that he barely heard the sound of Gorilla honking the blaring horn of the car. He looked down at his half eaten meal, quickly shoving some food in his mouth before running to the car, preparing himself to meet his  fate.

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At lunch it was time to put the first step of Adrien’s plan into motion.

He found Marinette walking down the hall towards the cafeteria and pulled her aside quickly, causing the girl to look alarmingly around before her eyes fell on Adrien.

“Hey, Marinette I was wondering if you wanted to hangout after school at the park?” Adrien asked, slightly nervous.

“Sure, I’ll ask Alya and Nino as well, it’ll be fun!” Marinette said excitedly, already looking forward to spending some quality time with her friends.

“I already asked Nino, him and Alya have a date, so it’ll be just you and me.” Adrien told Marinette happily.

He watched Marinette’s expression, noticing how her smile shrinked slightly before growing back to it’s full size.

“Oh well, just us is still awesome. I’m surprised your dad is actually letting you hangout for once” Marinette said, lightly bumping Adrien’s arm. “Let’s go have lunch, I’m starving!” she said, grabbing his hand and tugging him to the cafeteria.

Adrien trailed behind her, a lovestruck look on his face. She had said “us”. As in him and her. There was an us! Nothing could possibly go wrong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0-0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After what felt like far too many classes, it was finally the end of the day. It was finally time.

Adrien could practically feel his excitement radiating off him as he tried to slow down his rushed footsteps to go and find Marinette.

He found her in the foyer, looking around for him. He stood there for a moment, simple admiring the way her dark hair flowed into two symmetrical pigtails. Who had given her the right to be so cute.

It took him a moment to realise that Marinette was now waving at him. Adrien cleared his head, he needed to think straight in order for the plan to succeed.

Adrien softly waved over at Marinette, trying not to seem too excited, as she looked up to see him approaching.

“Hey Mari, you ready to go?” Adrien asked, surprised to see how calm his voice sounded compared to the flurry of excitement and nerves inside him.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Marinette replied, casually looping her arm through his as she started walking towards the doors of the school.

Adrien tried to hide his flushed cheeks as they walked to the park. They made light small chatter and laughed about Ms. Mendeleiev’s failed experiment today which ended in a massive explosion.

The closer the two got to the park the more jumbled and apprehensive Adrien’s thoughts became. What if he made a fool out of himself and mixed up his words. What if he accidentally confessed to another girl with black hair and he ended up dating her instead of Marinette.

“You thinking about something?” Marinette asked, breaking the silence that had settled in.

“Just about how awesome you are,” Adrien responded, before blushing after hearing his own words.

Marinette smiled at him. “Thanks Adrien, you’re pretty awesome too” she said lightly bumping his shoulder with hers.

“Just pretty awesome? I’ll have you know that I’m super mega foxy awesome thank you very much” Adrien said, drawing out some confidence and humor that he typically only showed while transformed.

Marinette let out a laugh at his cocky statement. He couldn’t help but become captivated by her laugh. Her head thrown back, her raven hair waving softly in the breeze, her blue eyes crinkled in amusement. He needed to make her laugh more.

“Whatever you say Adrien,” she said playfully, rolling her eyes.

Before Adrien knew it, they had reached the park, and he felt as if a thousand butterflies had been released in the pit of his stomach.

“So, now that we’re at the park, what do you want to do?” Marinette asked.

“Well, actually, there’s something I have to say,” Adrien said, pulling her over to a nearby bench.

“Oh, what is it?” Marinette asked, looking at him in a way that was both calculating and curious.

Whatever that gaze was Adrien found it very attractive.

Which made it very hard to concentrate on putting together a declaration of love.

Maybe it hadn’t been that lame of an idea to write a script.

“Adrien you good? You’re spacing out” Marinette said, waving a hand in front of his face.

Adrien awoke from his daze as he glanced over at Marinette’s curious stare.

“Sorry, anyway I was saying…” Adrien said, his sentence dying off as he failed to come up with anything.

He had been so confident, so sure before, what was wrong with him. He’d never had this much trouble expressing his emotions to Ladybug.

He decided to just be straightforward. He could worry about the other stuff later.

“So, uh, you see, I really like you Marinette. As in  a more than a friend way, a romantic way.” Adrien said, still struggling to formulate his words.

Marinette said nothing to this, just stared at him with wide eyes, so Adrien continued.

“You’ve always been more than a friend to me, I just didn’t see it before. I was in denial. And you’re just so smart and kind and I don’t know how I didn’t see what I’m seeing now. I know at one point...you used to like me and I don’t know if you feel the same but I just needed to tell you. I needed to take a risk and be brave because if there is still a chance you want to be with me I need you to know I feel the same.  I’m sorry that this is so sloppy it was supposed to be perfect and I just basically really like you” Adrien said, trying to deal with how flustered he was.

“Basically, will you be my girlfriend Marinette?”

A/N
And it's a cliffhanger! I'm not sorry haha
What do you think will happen next? Comment your predictions ❤️