What? Who? When?

F I V E • Trying to figure out what to do

After the Henrís left the Dupain-Cheng Bakery, Marinette quickly gave out excuses to her parents and raced up to her bedroom and carefully set the trap door down, not wanting to let her parents know her true feelings on the current arrangement.

Needless to say, Marinette did not fall asleep that easily.

She kept panicking to Tikki who, being the good friend she is, listened well and inputed her opinion every time Marinette asked for it.

"-This is a disaster! If Alya finds out, she'll keep teasing me and ask details about every little thing and Lucas's new admirers could possibly get jealous and turn into Akumas!"

"Marinette I doubt those girls know him well enough to turn into Akumas out of jealousy." Tikki rolled her eyes as she thought logically, bringing Marinette back from thinking up unlikely situations. "Besides why don't you just tell them you're not actually dating?"

Marinette groaned loudly and hit her pillow repeatedly, getting out her frustrations.

"Because if I mention it to them and they want to visit the bakery, maman and papa will mention it and then Alya will hound on me, being even more cutthroat with her questions!"

Tikki thought carefully. For once, that was a likely outcome.

"Okay, so not the best method."

Marinette stopped hitting her poor pillow that was now extremely dented and fell back onto her bed with her arms over her eyes.

"See? The best thing that I can keep them in the dark and if it comes to it, just tell them we're dating."

Tikki thought carefully. This was quite the dilemma her chosen had gotten herself into.

Nothing as severe as the past Ladybugs though.

I mean, Joan of Arc got burnt on a stake.

"Would it be so bad that your friends know?" Tikki inquired.

Marinette moved her arm slightly to peer at the kwami with an indifferent expression. She grunted and sat up with her pigtails coming out of the ties, reflecting on her panicked state.

"Alya keeps secrets well enough, I'm surprised she hasn't blabbed about my crush to Adrien but those two on the other hand-" Marinette grimaced and laughed breathlessly. She couldn't imagine Adrien telling anything but the truth and Nino was extremely open with his emotions and opinions. "-I don't think they could keep a secret for their life."

"Oh come on Marinette they can't be that bad at keeping secrets!"

That was bullshit.

Marinette could hold conversations with Adrien now rather than stutter and blabber nonsense like she did in the past. Oh she did stutter from time to time but only because of her past habit. Once she forgot about it, conversation flowed easily between the two and the duo became more than mere acquaintances. So she became close enough to him to know that he doesn't hide his emotions any better than Nino when around close friends.

She also had a very rude awakening that he and that damn cat shared more than a few intolerable personality traits.

Puns. The bane of my existence.

Marinette scoffed at the mention and reminder of Chat with slight endearment and pushed herself up from her bed.

"Tikki you're always in my purse, you do not know how those two get when we're playing Bullshit." [A.N: Does anyone know that card game? No? Okay...]

Tikki gasped scandalously as though it was Marinette's first time swearing.

It wasn't.

Tikki just didn't care for swear words. Thought that they were an unnecessary part of the English vocabulary.