Once Marinette returned to her house and released her transformation, and fell onto her bed and sighed.

"Tikki...What do I do? I think I love Chat fucking Noir! What do I do about Adrien...?" She sighed.

"Perhaps you're over him? and it's always been normal for a Ladybug to fall in love with their Chat Noir! It's faith." Tikki flew down by her cheek, "Besides, he's helped you a lot. Didn't he say that he loved you indirectly?" 

"W-well...yea..." Marinette closed her eyes.

"Look, get some rest. Tomorrow, let's try go to school. We got this!" Tikki hugged Marinette's left cheek.

"Alright. But tomorrow you also tell me where you flew off too!" Marinette whispered a yell, making Tikki sigh and agree.

As soon as Marinette's vision got taken over by dreamland, Tikki flew out the window and made her way to someone's home.

Once she came across her destination, she knocked on the big windows, and the boy let her in.

"The hell?" The blonde boy said, never seeing this creature once in his life. 'is this a Kwami?' he thought.

That's when Tikki mentally cursed to herself. She had totally forgotten that the two didn't reveal their identities yet, although she knew he was Chat Noir. She'd shown up at his window making him confused. So, she fled. Leaving Adrien incredibly dazed.

Tikki didn't know what to do. Long story short, she fucked up, and she fucked up bad.

"That was...strange..." Adrien said dizzily. He soon walked over to his bed and decided to sleep it off, pretending it was all a weird hallucination from lack of sleep. 

Luckily though, Plagg had seen Tikki outside of the window. He waited a few more mere minutes until he took his leave, and headed straight outside the slightly opened window. 

"Tikki?" Plagg looked around. Something must've been happening, Tikki hasn't come to him for thousands and thousands of years. 

"Plagg! I need you to make sure Adrien takes care of Marinette tomorrow. I want her to go to school tomorrow, and I don't need Chloe taking control of her, especially in this situation, without anyone to be there for her. Alya came in the other day as pissed as ever, and screamed at her. Please do this for me." Tikki practically begged for help from the black kwami.

Said Kwami sighed, "Alright. But you owe me 5 wheels of Camembert!" Plagg flew away and headed back in, so Tikki took her leave and went home.

"Yo, Adrien." Plagg tried waking up his holder.

It didn't work.

"Adrien."

Nope.

"ADRIEN AGRESTE."

Nada.

"Marinette's in trouble!"

"What?!" Adrien basically screamed in a whisper formation, bouncing up from his bed in sheer worry. "What happened to her?" 

Plagg snorted, "Nothing! I just needed you awake." Adrien groaned at his magical being's response and slapped forehead, sliding his hand down his face.

"Ugh, what do you want this time?" Adrien lead back down. Plagg flew onto his stomach.

"Listen up, kid. Tomorrow Marinette will be returning to school and even I know she will face difficulties, and a lot of them. She's depressed, she needs help. She needs someone. And you are the perfect guy to do so, whether you're Chat Noir or Adrien."

"But she trusts Chat mor-" Adrien tried to say but got cut in before he could continue.

"And with that, she may think only a superhero likes her. Come on, she's got to have someone to talk to at school. She might've had a falling out with a few friends? Say, hypothetically, Alya came in and screamed at her for not talking to her for so long, she's all Marinette has got at school. She needs you, and as Adrien." Plagg was reasonable for once. 

Adrien thought long and hard on Plagg's wistful words, until he finally agreed.

"I guess you're right. She might not have anyone at school... Nathaniel did sit next to Alya the last few days, maybe something did happen between them?" Adrien pondered, with his hand in an 'L' shape on his chin. "Ugh, I don't think Marinette even properly spoke to Lila.  Lila's only started going to class for a few weeks, before that she just studied and learnt more English since it isn't her first language. The only spare seat is next to Lila, I don't want Marinette being sat by her! She's such a fake..."

"And that, my dear child, is why you protect her." Plagg stomped a foot, causing no pain to Adrien.

"Did you just call me your dear child?" Adrien held in his laughter.

"Don't ever bring that up again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'A new day...A new start...' Marinette began pacing bath and forth in her room, deciding if going to school was an actual good idea. She had put concealer and foundation over the scratches on her wrist, and put plasters on the ones that wouldn't cover up. If anyone was to ask her what happened, she would simply say she fell over.

What she was really worried about though was how people would act. She knew Chloe would laugh, Alya would ignore her, Nino would be silently distant, and Adrien...

Adrien never noticed her that much until her father passed, anyways. Why would he care?

"Okay, Marinette. We got this! Any trouble...Speak to someone! I dunno who...Adrien, perhaps?" Tikki tried hinting, soaring into the pink purse that went around Marinette's shoulders. 

"Yeah right, as if he'd actually care that much. He's had the same problem as me, well, he's mentioned it before, not actually going into full detail - so it might not be the same...But even so! He probably doesn't wanna go down that road with someone else." Marinette refused. She sighed and looked up. 

"But hey, let's give it a go!" Her mouth rose into a small smile. 

Marinette walked downstairs, waving goodbye to her mum. She had almost said he normal "Bye Mum, bye Dad!" but she couldn't, and it broke her.

She gave her Mum a quick kiss on the cheek and a small, fake, smile. She made her way outside.

Marinette awkwardly walked around the corner and into school, looking smaller each step she took. 

She decided to head right into class, since she saw Alya talking with Nathaniel and Nino. Adrien still hadn't arrived yet -

"Hey, Adrien!" 

Or so he had.

"Hey guys!" Adrien walked towards his normal set of friends. That was until he saw Marinette walking into school with her arms wrapped around her body and her head down, walking into school. "Uhm..I'm gonna catch up with you guys!" Hey left with a bunch of confused stares at the back of his head as he ran up and to the girl with the blue eyes.

After Ladybug's wise words to him last night, he thought about it over night. Ladybug mentioned being in love with a boy, sure it broke him, but he decided maybe it was for the best. After all, they didn't even know each other outside of costume! (Well, They didn't know they did, at least.) 

And so he decided, yeah, he was falling in love with Marinette.

"Marinette?" She ignored him. She ignored everyone. She didn't want to be talked to, or laughed at. But, he thought she just couldn't hear him, so he ran towards her even more. "Marinette?"

She looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "Are you..trying to prank me?" She said in a small voice, sounding more insecure than ever. He was shocked at her provided words. 

"Prank you? Marinette, why would I do such a thing?" He grinned with a soft smile. "After all, I've known what's happened with you-know-what, and I'm here to offer help if you need me today. I would gladly talk to you any time, Princ--Marinette."

"What were you about to call me?" She closed one eye slightly and furrowed her eyebrows, looking extremely confused.

"Huh? Oh! Uh, nothing! Let's just head to class, huh?" He smiled. He noticed Marinette was still walking very slowly, so he walked at the same pace as she had been.

The bell soon rung, and the students over took the two. Alya noticed Adrien with Marinette, and she was confused as to why he would hang out with her if she had been ignoring him as much as she was with her.

"You can catch up with them, y'know. I know they're your  b-best friends..." She stammered. She was proud of herself for not stammering, but she figured she might've been over Adrien since she seems to be falling head over heals for Chat Noir. 

"Nah, I'm here for you, aren't I?" Adrien said gently, making Marinette feel more at peace. "C'mon, let's get to class."

The pair took a while to get into class, arriving a bit late. Although, the teacher understood since she was aware of Marinette's situation with her Father. 

"Marinette, you're now sitting by Lila. Oh, also, welcome back!" Miss Busteir gave her a sincerely sweet smile, she was mostly strict with her students, but Marinette deserved to be given kindness. 

Marinette nodded at Adrien, and he pursed his lips. He sat down, still worrying over how Lila will treat Marinette.

Marinette sat down next to Lila. She knew Lila, but Lila didn't know her.

What Marinette didn't know, was that Lila has been given so much shit recently. Ever since they found out she had been lying this whole time, Lila has dug herself into a new hole. 

"Hey there. I'm Marinette. Nice to be meeting you!" Marinette smiled at Lila. She could tell that Lila was feeling alone, so she thought she should greet her with a friendly greeting.

"You're not gonna scream at me for lying at everyone?" Lila tutted and lead more into her elbows that was dragged on her table.

Marinette put her head on the table as well, and looked her in the eyes. "Nope! I'm here to meet you." 

This shocked Lila, this shocked her a lot. She hadn't been treated nicely for months, everyone picked on her for being such a liar and a thief - even though so many people have lied before.

"The name's Lila." Lila raised her head off her desk and put her hand out. "Nice meeting you, Marinette."

"Pleasure, Lila. I hope we can become friends!" Marinette turned her head slightly and grinned. 

"That'd be great." Lila returned the smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hi here's my Lila surprise

yeah she's nice in the story

i love her in this book don't ruin this for me pls

i'm not making her mean

SHE'S GONNA BE A NICE CINAMMON ROLL AND YOU SHOULD APPRECIATE HER HERE >:L

also i just noticed i have written a sHIT TON OF WORDS WOAH WOAH WOAH

do you want:

long chapters, long wait for update.

Short chapters, less wait for update.

I don't have a lot of time once school starts, entering Year 10 (which is an important year over here in England) 

bois i hope you enjoyed this

Feedback pls don't tell me "UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE"

bros I HAVE A LIFE

k ily  all byeee

side note: fucking 1800 words YOU BETTER BE HAPPY.