Marinette had to admit, this plan they had come up with was brilliant. Alya and Nino hadn't suspected a thing, and seemed even more excited when Adrien and Marinette insisted on sitting next to each other at the movie they'd gone to see, so their friends would be forced to sit with each other. It was only the first phase of their "Weekend of Fun" as they'd named it (neither of them were very creative in the naming of it) but easily the most important. Alya was sitting next to Marinette with Nino on her other side, giving her optimal view of the goings on, as well as giving her a push.

They even split up the popcorn appropriately, hoping to get them to touch hands, like they did in the movies. Unfortunately, Marinette ended up touching Adrien's hand in the same manner before the movie had even started.

"Oops, sorry." she whispered.

He just smiled and gestured to their friends who were quietly arguing over where to put their own popcorn. She giggled when they finally decided that Nino would hold it, Alya sighing in defeat.

The movie started not long after that, an action-filled superhero movie that Alya and Nino had insisted they see since it reminded them so much of their personal heroes, both of whom were sitting right next to them. Marinette could only roll her eyes at how ridiculously inaccurate they portrayed secret identities. It wasn't quite that hard to find places to transform, but if you got thrown that hard into a building, superhero powers or not, it was going to leave a bruise the next day. Adrien was thinking the same thing, and subconsciously rubbed his arm where an akumatized person had thrown a medicine ball at him a week beforehand. He lightly bumped Marinette's arm in the process and she recalled them same moment, frowning at it and looking at him sadly. He noticed her looking at him, and dropped his arm, smiling at her instead. She gave him one final glance before turning her attention to their friends whose knees were touching as they whispered about something. She could see Alya blushing slightly when she noticed Marinette looking at her, and moved away from Nino to pay attention to the movie.

When the movie was over, the four of them made their way to the food court in the theatre to grab dinner, again Marinette slid into the seat next to Adrien before either of their friends could move. When their feet bumped under the table, her heart skipped a beat and she had to remind herself that this was for Alya and Nino's benefit and she needed to keep her head in the game. Nino spent half of their meal trying to flirt with her, while she attempted to keep a conversation up with Marinette.

"There's no way that she would have gotten back up so quickly after getting thrown into that building. She doesn't have super strength or super healing, so she would have broken at least a rib." Marinette argued.

"She's right Alya, you'd be in rough shape after something like that." Adrien added.

Alya shook her head. "But they're superheroes! They're a little more resilient than us normal folk."

"They're still people." Adrien said.

"Bro, it's a movie, but I've seen real heroes like Ladybug get hit pretty hard and get back up afterwards." Nino countered.

Marinette winced at the memories of being hit with and thrown into things. Adrien had a rebuttal first however. "Sure, but that's the adrenaline. I guarantee you, the next day they're taking heavy duty painkillers just to make it through the day. They have real lives too you know."

"Don't we! I want to know who they are so badly!" Alya gushed.

"Maybe we should team up and try to figure it out," Nino suggested.

"I work best alone."

"Alya, he's got a point. He's good with a camera, you could totally get closer with his help." Marinette added. Her friend looked at said boy, who was smiling hopefully at her and she sighed.

"Fine, I guess you can try and help me with it. Just know that I don't have room for slackers. My ladyblog won't run itself!"

Marinette and Adrien fist bumped under the table, and she flinched, hoping Adrien wouldn't sense the familiarity of the action. He didn't seem to take a second to think about it however, as the topic of conversation changed.

Later that night, Tikki was sitting watching from her hiding place as Marinette and Alya talked and watched a movie in Marinette's bed. She liked Alya a lot, but it was sometimes boring to not be able to float around her room freely. She was just drifting off into a nap when she sensed Plagg not too far from them. She waited for a particularly loud scene in their movie and flew out the window to see where he could be.

"Shouldn't you be with Adrien?" she asked him. He was sitting on the railing of Marinette's rooftop terrace, tail swishing back and forth.

"We need to talk about that actually."

"Please tell me you haven't told him."

Plagg scoffed. "Of course not. You know I stopped caring about the relationships between Chat Noir and Ladybug centuries ago. I only look out to make sure my chosen is well looked after."

Tikki took a seat next to him on the railing. "So why are you here? Normally you never come to see me of your own free will. Not that I'm complaining, I've missed you."

"You see me almost every day."

"Not in this form though. Not when we can talk just the two of us."

"I'm not sure what compelled me to come over here. It's not the first time that the normal lives of our chosen have been so close, but this time feels different. I've not cared for a chosen this much since... the incident."

Tikki took in a sharp breath. "You know that was not your fault. Bad luck or not, nothing could have stopped that. It was your chosen's decision to sacrifice himself for her."

"But that's the problem. Why do almost all my chosen have to love yours so fervently?"

"Fate I suppose. I have a feeling our chosen would come together at some point or another without our intervention. I'm worried about Marinette however. Adrien's decision seems to be taking a heavy toll on her."

Plagg sighed. "I told him not to do it. I could tell he was starting to notice her as Marinette instead of Ladybug beforehand, and wanted him to wait till he was starting to fall for her before he revealed himself."

"I think that would have made it harder for him to do. If he started to notice her before, then I think we have a good chance he'll fall for her anyway."

Plagg shuffled closer to her and took her hand in his. "I have missed you too. How many Ladybugs and Chat Noirs has it been since we were able to be together all the time?"

Tikki giggled. "It was only two before this. For how long we've been around, that shouldn't seem like so much time."

"You're just lucky I have camembert. My only other true love."

If Tikki could turn any redder than she already was, she was sure that it would be at that moment. "This will be the one, I'm sure of it. We can be together again soon, but for now, you should return to Adrien before he notices you're gone."

"Just a little longer. Who knows how long it will really be until we're together, and besides, Adrien and Nino are talking too much about Marinette and Alya. It's sickening. I don't think I would ever be into love if you weren't my perfect match."

"Thank goodness for that then," Tikki replied rolling her eyes but she leaned against him, reveling in the feeling of being together again, if even just for a short time.

The following day, the four of them met up again even though Marinette and Adrien's plan had worked. They already had the whole weekend planned out so they saw it as an opportunity to actually relax. They decided to head to the shopping centre for the day, as Alya insisted on checking out the new Ladybug and Chat Noir lines that they had brought out. Marinette watched as Adrien smiled knowingly at the garments, and grabbed one of the ladybug scarves they had, wrapping it around his neck.

"So, could I pull of the ladybug look well?" he asked the three of them.

"I think the mysterious Chat Noir would suit you better." Alya answered

Marinette noticed him stiffen slightly so she added, "I don't know, Adrien looks like the kind of guy who could pull off the black polka dots."

He smiled at her and she picked up her own accessory from the table, a black collar with a small gold bell and wrapped it around her own neck. "What do you think? Would I make a cute kitty cat?"

Adrien blushed and attempted to answer but just stuttered instead. Nino clapped him on the back. "Looks like he thinks you'd make an excellent Chat Noir there Mari!"

Marinette blushed a little herself and all of them laughed as they tried on different pieces of the collection, her avoiding Ladybug as much as possible and she noticed Adrien was steering clear of the Chat Noir stuff himself.

"Adrien, tell your dad that this was the best idea he came up with for a department store line ever! People are gonna go crazy about this stuff on the Ladyblog!" Alya said.

"It wasn't one of his ideas, but it's great that he approved it. He's thinking of making some high end stuff for it as well, as far as I've been told." he replied. He then mumbled to himself, "which of course means I'll have to model it."

Marinette caught that last part he'd said and smirked knowingly, hoping that he wouldn't have to wear any of their masks. She looked back down at the collar she'd picked up and decided that she would buy it, even if she never wore it, as well as a purse with little cat ears, the perfect size for Tikki.

Adrien couldn't help but notice Marinette's purchases being only Chat Noir things which confused him. She was always acting very standoff-ish around him when he had talked to her as his alter ego, so why would she be going for that stuff when he knew she always talked about Ladybug as if they were friends?

"Not going to get anything to do with Ladybug? She's pretty great too you know." he asked her.

She jumped a little at his proximity, but looked at her purchases and seemed to stop and think for a moment. "Ladybug is great, but she always gets all the attention, and I think that Chat deserves some every now and then, don't you?"

He raised his eyebrows at her, but smiled none the less. "While you're probably right, I think she deserves all the attention she gets, she is the saviour of Paris."

"She wouldn't be able to do nearly as much without him, I think. Who else is going to distract the villain while she thinks of a way to use her Lucky Charm? Or who will throw himself unnecessarily into danger to save her?"

"I don't think it's unnecessary. He just doesn't want to see her get hurt."

"Do you think she wants to see her partner get hurt either?" She said and turned to the cashier to finish paying for her things. He knew she was always a nice girl, but he was beginning to see that she cared for people much more than he had originally thought.