A Big Question

"So, how's your throwing arm?"

"Better than most peoples."

Adrien had to smirk at the confidence Marinette was displaying right now, but what was far more amusing to him was the fact that he knew she was right. There was no way in hell she was going to mess this up.

The two of them had found themselves at the funfair, and within moments, they had been called over to a knockdown game. It was basically a set of three pyramids of cans, and you were given three baseballs to throw. If you knocked down every can in the set, you won a prize. The classic carnival game, and the ones that were almost certainly rigged against the player. But never impossible. They had to give the player some semblance of a chance.

The person who owned the stall they were at looked like he had come out of Texas, with a cowboy hat and an empty holster, probably part of his uniform for the carnival. He had probably called the two of them over after making the conclusion they were on a date - Easy targets.

Adrien would not consider Marinette to be an easy target. She had accepted instantly.

"You realize this is probably rigged, right?" Adrien whispered to her as she handed over the money needed to participate.

"I know. I just love besting liars."

"That explains Lila, then." Adrien muttered, before stepping back, remembering Ladybug's intervention between him and Lila when she first showed up in school. "Alright then, Mari, good luck."

Not that she even needed it. And Adrien knew that just as well.

She barely even needed time to aim. All of her practice with her yo-yo as Ladybug, the skillfuland delicate hands needed to create the beautiful dress she was currently wearing, the strength and basically everything else about her physical capabilities was practically designed to utterly obliterate this sort of challenge.

One solid throw was all Marinette needed. Throwing the ball like a perfectly served pitch, she hit the center can on the bottom row, and watched the rest of the cans fall around it while gravity finished off the rest for her. Every can fell down around it, knocking the entire stack down in a single strike. The stall owner was obviously shocked.

"Nice." Adrien complimented with a one-sided grin on the right side of his lips. "Looks can be deceiving."

"I told you, my pitch is better than most." Marinette told the stall owner. She was unusually smug right now, but Adrien figured after a serve like that, and after being considered an easy target by the stall owner, she deserved to be.

"Y-Yeah... It seems so." The owner straightened himself up, mentally making a note to pick his targets better. He reached up into the shelves of prizes, filled with stuffed toys, primarily, none of which Marinette particularly wanted. She had just done this for the challenge of it. "Well, you did the test, so here's your prize!"

Adrien had a hard time not bursting out into laughter. "That's cool." He commented, after seeing the strained look on Marinette's face.

It was a Chat Noir doll.

Getting away from the stall owner, Adrien basically fell apart with his fits of laughter. That had been far too perfect a prize. He couldn't have come up with a better irony if he tried. And the look on her face, of both otter disgust and contempt for both the stall owner, and the boy who was holding back laughter, was beyond perfect.

"That was perfect!" He howled with laughter, clapping his hands together in applause. "I should have tried winning one of those for you."

"You're enjoying the irony in this too much." Marinette sighed, but she was happy that Adrien was enjoying himself. She didn't remember ever seeing him in just pure, unconcerned joyous laughter at something stupid like winning an ironic prize.

"Ah, that's made my ." Adrien commented with a smirk. "We could go home right now and I'd call it a good night."

"Heck no!" Marinette told him. "We've only just got here!"

"I was only kidding, Mari." Adrien reassured her. "I've been looking forward to this way too much for me to be prepared to head straight home after just that."

"See anything you want to try?"

"Not really." Adrien commented. "What about you?"

"I chose the first thing."

"And that brought me of joy, Mairnette. Trust me, I'm not too bothered." Also aided by the fact that Adrien had, honestly, little to no idea how a funfair even really... Well, worked. He was socially awkward as people came, not out of anything other than his own ignorance as to how these sorts of situations worked.

"We could get some food if you're hungry." Marinette suggested. There had to be some stalls or something around the place, didn't there?

"I mean, if you want to, sure." Adrien nodded, standing upright.

Throughout the course of the night, Adrien was awkward. Not to the degree someone could call him out on it, but he felt incredible out of place. He was enjoying himself, and the fact he was with Marinette, their hands held the entire time, filled him with joy to absolutely no end. He was having fun.

He just felt like he was out of place. He hadn't even known that at the target range, the guns weren't actually loaded with live ammunition, like he had previously assumed. When firing one, he had expected a loud bang and buckshot. He had to ask the person running the stall if his weapon had actually fired because he had no idea.

Marinette found this an endless source of entertainment, but she always made sure he was comfortable with everything. She was almost acting like a sister to him in a certain way. She knew what this sort of place was like. She knew how to interact with people. Adrien didn't, thanks to his upbringing, and would either come across as cripplingly shy, or overly social, two very different extremes.

Still, just being at this event with him, just spending time with him... Not as Chat Noir, not as Ladybug. Just being able to be close to one another and, just for once in their lives, be able to enjoy themselves without having to worry about anything else... It made her happier than words could describe.

His hand was warm... So very, very warm, just thinking about how warm it was made her blush, which, in turn, made her warm even more, continuing the cycle over and over again.

"You're cute when you blush."

And that random compliment just further added to her growing embarrassment. "What? That - That's not helping get rid of my blush..."

"I know. That's why I said it."

After a few hours of fun, both of them decided it was a good time to pack everything up and head back home, so Adrien wouldn't miss his ride home. Marinette constantly assured him that it was okay. He didn't get a choice in the matter, and she didn't blame him. All the same, Adrien kept apologizing, in some cases, he apologized for apologizing.

"You know... This was fun. A lot of fun." Marinette told him, deciding it best, for his sake mostly, that she attempt to steer the conversation forward more.

"It - It was, Mari..." Adrien agreed. "I don't remember the last time I got to just relax and have fun with someone..." He bit his lower lip, not sure if he should even ask the question, or if he'd sound stupid or not. "Uh.... Listen, this might sound stupid, or taken for granted or, something, but..."

"Yeah, Adrien?"

"Um, a-are we?..." He pointed at himself and Marinette a few times, before adding on, "You know... Are, um... Are you like my g-girlfriend now, o-or?..."

An unavoidable blush came onto Marinette's face. A year of fantasizing this very moment hadn't done anything to prepare her for hearing something like that. Aside from a crimson blush, and widening eyes, she remained very, surprisingly calm. She had a very distinct waver in her voice when she spoke, however. "D-Do you... Do you want... Me to be?"

"I-If you want to..."

She wasn't sure if he was messing around or was genuinely having a stuttering problem, but she calmed down. His stuttering, and his own blush reminded her - He was nervous too. He was just as nervous as she was, probably even more so than she was. Her waver was gone now, but she was still dealing with a heart that felt like it was going to burst out of her chest and run away on its own any second now. "Adrien... I've watched you for over a year... I've had a crush on you for such a long time... You've seen my wall. I fell for Chat... I-I even kissed you... And then here we are, on a date." She smiled warmly and asked. "Want to have a guess if I want to be your girlfriend?"

"A no, and then a punch to the gut?"

"Way to kill the mood, Agreste." Marinette laughed. She couldn't blame him for wanting to lighten the mood though. "I... I want to be your girlfriend, Adrien...." She then exploded into a blush, realizing the sentence that had just come out of her mouth.

Marinette didn't even get a second to back up when she felt Adrien pulling her into a loving kiss. Her heart nearly exploded right then and there, but she quickly stopped resisting it, and accepted the kiss, and returned it happily.

She was surprised with how soft his lips were. When she had kissed him, she hadn't really been able to take note of that, since she had been a bit too over eager and assertive to really take notes of anything. But they were . They were . And they were .

The kiss barely lasted a couple seconds, but all the needed emotional value was in there.. Both separated from the other, looked at their other, their Soul Mate, their Soul Link partner, and smiled.

"Come on." Adrien said with a warm smile. "We really do need to get back now..."

Marinette nodded, still a bit dazed, but she agreed, and grabbed a tight hold of Adrien's hand.

Turning around, Marinette could have slammed her head into the pavement.

Right there, watching everything unfold, was Chloe.

Marinette froze, as did Adrien. Adrien made a vocal response, very befitting the situation. "Oh, crap."

The blue haired girl was expecting the absolute worst. She was preparing for Chloe to basically explode at her, and attempt to drag Adrien somewhere else, as far as she could physically get him from her. She was expecting the absolute worst.

Chloe just walked on.

She even sent them a friendly wave.

Adrien and Marinette stopped dead in their tracks, watching in surprise as to the fact that Chloe - - The girl who was such a... Words wouldn't even come close to describing the kind of person she was.... And how open she had been about her supposed feelings for Adrien, had just walked by, after seeing them kiss like that.

Both of them made an appropriate action at that point. "What the hell?"