Red Strings And Markers

f o u r

"Marinette and Adrien." Ms. Mendeleiev called out the two of them and they jumped, both of them hiding their arms under their desks. "Since the two of you were paying so much attention in class, I'm sure the two of you could do the next problem on the board." Marinette and Adrien both swiped their arms, the art quickly disappearing as they stood to go to the front of the class.

Marinette and Adrien reached forward for a piece of chalk that was sitting in front of them, their hands bumping. They both pulled back of their hands, the two of them actually blushing.

"S-Sorry!"

"G-Go ahead."

Alya balled up a piece of paper and threw it at Nino's head, making him look at her questionably. Alya motioned her head over to the two who were now solving a math problem together on the board with a smile.

Marinette hummed thoughtfully. "I don't think that's right." She said as she looked up at Adrien's piece the problem.

"What? Why not?" Adrien asked, looking down at her.

Marinette pointed at the piece. "Look, if you're trying to cancel this out, the same thing of this has to be at the bottom of the factor."

Adrien looked back up at his work before give a small gasp and picked up the eraser and erased the piece before fixing it. He finished the rest of the problem and he smiled at Marinette.

"Who would have known it? Cute and smart." Adrien said in a small voice that only she could hear. A blush exploded on her face and he couldn't help his chuckle.

"Thank you Miss Dupain-Cheng, Mister Agreste You may take you seats."

At the end of the day, Marinette and Alya were heading to Marinette's house to do some homework together, talking about Adrien.

"I can't believe it, Adrien Agreste said that to you?" Alya exaggerated her voice and wiggled her eyebrows at Marinette, while Marinette shushed her loudly.

"Alya!"

Her friend laughed. "I just think it's cute, that Adrien is finally taking an interest to you." Alya said, looping her arm around Marinette's. "Who knows, maybe something will bloom between the two of you."

Marinette sighed dreamily. "I would hope so." She said.

The rest of the day went on and Marinette and Alya did most of their homework. They couldn't complete their work because they kept talking about Adrien and Ladybug and Chat Noir.

After dinner, Alya went home and Marinette went upstairs to go to sleep. As Marinette noticed that the lights of her parent's bedroom went off, she called out to Tikki.

"Time for patrol. Tikki, transform me!" Her hand touched her earrings and her kwami swirled into her earring, giving her costume.

Ladybug went out to her terrace, swinging her yoyo and extended it into the distance, jumping off her railing and swinging with the momentum of her jump. She landed on the roof of a building and she walked across the roofs, towards the direction of the park.

Although it was well into the night hours, the nocturnal people of Paris were wandering the streets, blending in to the peaceful light glow of some buildings.

Once she was close, she jumped down, going towards the bench where Marinette had shared a moment with Chat Noir. Being remembered of Chat Noir, she once again remembered the nightmare that she had of him the previous night.

Ladybug sat down on the bench, remembering how he put her head in his lap and they talked and talked. Remembering that night, that he laid in her lap and they continued talking. She let out a small smile before her nightmare haunted her again. Her shoulders shook softly.

"My lady." Ladybug's head snapped up and the black cat was standing before her, his green eyes looking at her curiously as she was sitting on the bench.

"Chat." She was happy that he came to look for her. All she wanted was to sit next to him and lean on his shoulder, telling him about the nightmare she had the previous night.

But he wasn't coming close. She forgot – she was Ladybug, the girl whom he got rejected by, not Marinette. Her happiness faded, but she tried to make it seem like she didn't notice his distance.

"You should be resting, silly kitty. You wouldn't be happening to push yourself too hard, are you?" She stood, going closer to him, scratching under his chin.

"Not at all my lady." Chat replied, leaning into her touch with a soft smile. Ladybug hummed.

"You went on patrol yesterday, didn't you? You should be getting some rest today. Didn't you have a long day yesterday?" She asked him.

Chat shrugged. "I didn't do much."

Ladybug remembered when he told her that he was stressed because his father had made him do things. She silently nodded.

"So how was your day?" Ladybug asked.

"It was alright. Sorry about suddenly deleting your art. Something came up and I had to hide." Ladybug remembered when Ms. Mendeleiev called her to the front with Adrien to solve the problem.

"It's okay, I got caught up with something too." She laughed a little and Chat gave one of his smirks. "Did anything else happen today?"

"Nothing that would make my lady worry." Ladybug noticed how he avoided talking to her about his personal life outside of Chat Noir. Ladybug was about to respond to Chat when an explosion behind them made them turn.

"None of you could appreciate true beauty of my gardens. I'll show you to stomp on my beautiful flowers!" Out of the cloud of dust that was starting to settle came out a girl with a green teacup dress that was made of ivy leaves, scarlet hair, black lipstick and an ivy leaf mask that covered her eyes.

"An akuma attack? So late at night?" The two were surprised and headed to the girl who was floating in the air.

"Well, if it isn't Chat Noir and Ladybug." The girl smirked.

"Who are you?" Ladybug called out as she pulled out her yoyo and Chat got out his baton ready.

"My name is Hereda, or you can call me Princess Ivy." The girl gave an evil smirk and a purple flower bloomed in the palm of her hand. "Now, if you would please give me your miraculous before this whole world becomes my slave."