The beach episode ended on... a semi-good note, with Haruhi leaving a little earlier than the rest, the twins crying something about "BDSM".

Marinette relied on Adrien for moving around a bit, since she was still recovering from her ankle, and she only milked that opportunity as much as she could.

Still... There was some guilt associated.

"I'm sorry I'm making you help me back and forth. I"m already as clumsy as ever, and a twisted ankle would only make it worse." Marinette mumbled as they walked through the doorway.

Adrien helped her sit in the living room, shaking his head. "You don't need to apologize. I should be the one apologizing." He replied.

"We're not going down that road again, Adrien." Marinette warned him.

The night of Marinette's injury, just shortly after Adrien bid Marinette a goodnight, Adrien slip into a Bad Mood, where he did come back to Marinette and... Well, unpacked his worries.

Adrien felt like a burden, felt that he wasn't worth being around. Felt bad that he couldn't be there to protect Marinette when she needed it. He felt like a terrible friend, someone that Marinette should replace as soon as possible.

Marinette gave Adrien a stern talking to, telling him that he shouldn't be talking bad about himself, and that she's glad to have become friends with him.

Putting all the model infatuation aside, Adrien was very smart and talented.

Like one time, Tamaki got roped into getting an underclassman apprentice, and both Tamaki and Adrien gave a piano performance of a lifetime. Sure, things with that apprentice didn't really work out well, but everyone was so move by Tamaki's and Adrien's duet.

How fluent he was with Japanese, and not only that, but Mandarin as well, which was a language that Marinette was still getting tongue twisted with.

The way physics and math came to him so naturally, while Marinette was just a step above being considered an absolute idiot. Okay, maybe she was exaggerating and down playing her own smarts, but that's not the point...

"The point is, Adrien, is that you aren't allowed to talk about yourself like that. Even if you weren't a model, son of France's most famous designer, and super handsome... I-I would still be friends with you. What matters most, Adrien, is your actions and your thoughts. Maybe you could have prevented me from getting hurt, but regardless, the fact that you said, 'I should have been there', proves to me how much you care."

She doesn't know where all this comes from but... That's a lie, she knew exactly where it came from and it came from the Fountain of Adoration for Adrien.

And that whole spiel was the FAA trying to make Adrien Valid.

Adrien was still a bit saddened about the whole thing with his mother , that not only did she leave her first, but both sons.

There was some resentment that Marinette helped Adrien through, despite not knowing the reasons to Mama Agreste's disappearance, but it ended up with a desperate hug and shaky breaths.

In the end, they spent the night together, Marinette telling him embarrassing pastry stories of days past, playing with his hair as he laid his head on her lap.

The weekend was unfortunately over, and while the events were still fresh in their minds, Marinette didn't want it to have ended.

Yet, here they stood (well, at least Adrien was), looking at each other with narrowed gazes.

"Listen, if I'm not allowed to apologize, then you shouldn't be able to do it either, Dupain-Cheng." Adrien huffed.

Marinette was taken aback by his address, sounding all too familiar to someone else she knew. "I guess we can agree to disagree, Agreste." She replied.

They remained quiet for a moment, their gazes still locked until Adrien broke and he smiled, a chuckle slipping through his lips.

"Will you furgive me?" He cooed.

"Absolutely not." Marinette replied in a heartbeat, but rolling her eyes at the cat pun. "Especially now." She finished, trying to hide the smile on her lips.

Adrien's smile grew, the two of them going about their own business.

Marinette was able to heal her ankle with the limited amount of activity in the Host Club, despite how much she still did.

They had a whole Halloween competition, where they tried to figure out who the biggest scaredy cat was. Some guy named, or well, nicknamed? Nekozawa? Was obsessed with cats, scared the living lives out of all of them.

Adrien seemed to get along with Nekosawa fairly well, much to Marinette's displeasure.

"Is it the cat thing?" Alya asked one night on a video cat.

"It's absolutely the cat thing." Marinette groans, letting her head fall into the pillows.

There was laughter. "Oh, come on, deep down, I know you like the cat stuff." Alya cooed.

There was a knock on the door and Adrien peeked his head in once Marinette gave the okay for him to come in.

"Marinette, look!" He came into the room, holding a plushy of a long, white cat. "Isn't he purrfect? They call him 'Longcat'!" He held the cat up to it's full length and then spun it around before he left her room.

Marinette looks over at Alya, who had been on the phone the entire time. A smirk grows on Alya's face as the silence extends between them.

"I knew it."

"Shut up." Marinette relented.

The end of the year came closer before they all realized.

Next thing they knew, they were already planning the end of the year party. It wasn't just the end of the year party for the Host Club, but it was also their annual auction, and the end of the year party for Adrien and Marinette.

Marinette was finishing pinning up the rest of her hair when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in." Marinette called from her restroom. She could hear her door open and then footsteps at the threshold of her restroom. "Adrien?" She asked, not looking away from her reflection as she tried to fix a stray hair.

When no response came, she turned to Adrien, who was just standing there, staring at her reflection.

"What?" She asked, replying to his reflection.

"You're beautiful." He murmured.

Marinette could feel a blush burning up her neck. She straightened and squared her shoulders. "You're just saying that to me because it's the host in you." She murmurs.

He chuckles lightly and he reaches to take her hand, bringing her knuckles to her lips. "I say it because it's true and you should know it." He replies against her knuckles.

She snorts lightly. "Flattery can..." Get you nowhere. "Get you many places." She replies, flicking his nose playfully,

"Will it get me a dance later at this fancy masquerade party?" He asks, giving her a gentle spin.

She giggles and shrugs teasingly. "We'll see. Unless I get swept up by another blond princely type."

Adrien made a face that cried 'I'm offended'. That made Marinette laugh. "I'm appalled.You'd let another prince court you?" He questions.

She rolls her eyes and puts on a black and red spotted mask. "Now, how do you think I'd let myself get courted by another prince when there's a specific prince who already has my heart?" She asked, turning to look at him fully now.

He put his mask on too, his emerald eyes glittering against the black of his. "Well, whoever that person is, I'm going to fight them."

Marinette giggle and patting his shoulder gently as she walked past. "Good luck fighting yourself, Adrien."

Adrien chuckled and he followed behind her, going to the door as she collected her clutch purse to head out with Adrien.

When they all made it to the ballroom, it was really a lot fancier than the two of them expected it to be.

Well, at least on Marinette's end. She's never been to such a fancy masquerade party, while Adrien has been to fancy fashion parties against his will.

Marinette liked the idea of the masquerade, the theme of the party catching her interest when Tamaki brought it up, however she was sure that Kyoya was the one who thought of it in the first place.

Each family of the hosts' had their matching colored masks. The Dupain-Chengs, who had flown to join the end of the year festivities, were wearing matching masks as Marinette.

Nathalie and Gabriel, much to Adrien's surprise, was present, and wearing masks identical to Adrien's.

It was cute, a little way of identifying which family was which, but still made everything a little more mysterious.

Adrien seemed to stiffen a little under his father's gaze and presence, but Marinette managed to soothe him while they weren't under his scrutiny.

There was fancy, nonalcoholic beverages, fancy food plates, and classy music. Everything was fairly enjoyable, the hosts interacting with their families and the rest of the party guests as well.

It was interesting to see the different families of the hosts. Marinette tried not to freak out when she noticed a woman with a matching mask of the Hitachiin family color. Tamaki was rather tame around his family, especially an older woman who refused to wear the mask and was in traditional Japanese garb.

There seemed to be some displeasure with the woman that Marinette could only assume was Tamaki's grandmother. She doesn't know much importance the Suoh family is, but by the amount of, guards maybe? That surrounded her, she must be of high importance.

The Ootori family didn't to be very pleased either, murmuring something about, 'Why couldn't he be president? Vice-president, pathetic'.

Marinette found herself frowning a lot more rather than... enjoying the party.

"Everyone's so... upset. With everyone's state and position." Marinette grumbled.

"Rich people could learn to be humble." Haruhi agreed.

Marinette bit her lip, looking around the party. Besides the hosts' family, everyone seemed to be enjoying the party.

Marinette could vaguely recognize everyone at the party. The usual guests, subjected to plain white masks, the different colored masks identified families, but there was one person that Marinette couldn't recognize. She had a black mask with golden accents and she was... Gorgeous, to say the least.

The Suoh family had gold colored, the Ootoris had lavender. The Hitachiins a light blue, the Haninozukas a light red, almost pink, while the Morinozukas had a darker blue. All other guests had white.

Marinette couldn't help but stare, wandering around the party until she bumped into Tamaki.

"Hey Princess, are you enjoying the party?" He asks, smiling as she twirls her to dance to the music.

"I'm having a good time." Marinette replies simply, smiling at his twirl. "Despite this being a masquerade ball, we kinda know all the guests here, don't we?"

He waltz with her, giving a brilliant smile. "Kyoya suggested the idea. It's a little twist to our usual course of action." He replies.

Marinette chuckles, looking towards Kyoya, who was speaking with the mystery woman. "Quick question though, do you know who that woman is?" She asks, motioning over towards Kyoya and his guest.

Tamaki turned his gaze towards her motions, humming softly. It was strange, because she was the only one in the whole party who had a mix of colors. "That's... strange. I'm not sure who she could be." He replied. "Maybe a special guest?" He questions.

"But wouldn't you, the club president, know who a special guest would be?" Marinette questions back, looking up at him.

He smiles and shrugs lightly. "Kyoya has a little more authority than me. He does a lot more than I do. So, he probably knows who she is."

"And you're going to trust him?"

"Kyoya's never lead me astray." He replies.

Marinette hums thoughtfully, curiosity peaking.

The colors on the mask, they were black with specs and details of gold.

Black was the Agrestes family color, gold was the Suoh family's color. Could it be possible that she's in both families? Does that even make sense?

While she was lost in her thoughts, the woman in black and gold watched the two of them dance. It wasn't long before Tamaki gasped and severely apologizing to Marinette before leaving.

The woman laughed as Tamaki stormed off to Haruhi, who was being asked to dance by one of the Hitachiins.

Marinette, who had been ditched, was laughing, before Adrien went up to her and asked her for a dance.

The way the two acted was shy, but the chemistry between them was obvious.

"Madame," Her sight was pulled away from Adrien and Marinette, looking to the young man who grabbed her attention. "I apologize that this will be the way that the evening will occur."

"Since you found me, Kyoya, the least I could do is partake in a little drama." She cooed.

Kyoya chuckled lightly. "There hasn't been a year where the festivities haven't ended in drama." He offers his hand to her and she takes it gingerly, following his lead.