5. Chapter 5

A/N: So after two chapters in a row where I left on what some considered to be a cliffhanger with Alya's text...I did a time jump. Whoops.

Marinette let herself smile as she carefully pieced together panels for a dress at the end of a long day of work. While it was starting to get late, she was almost done with the base of the dress and it was already shaping up to be just as pretty as she had imagined it. She almost wanted to just forget the time and keep working until the piece was done, but she couldn't. Adrien would be expecting her over at his apartment soon.

Marinette couldn't stop her grin from growing as she thought about her friend. She had managed to avoid any awkward conversations with Adrien ever since she dodged his question about Alya's text (she was still grumpy with her best friend about that, but at least Alya hadn't said anything about "at least she finally confessed" or something like that; Marinette wasn't sure how she could have recovered from that. Instead, she had managed to laugh off his questioning by saying that well, of course Alya had wanted them to get together, because then they could go on double dates and Alya had probably thought that it would be fun. Adrien, the oblivious dork, had taken her at her word). They had been cooking together every night since; it was faster than cooking separately, they didn't have to worry about things spoiling as much as they would have to if they ate alone, and they were having a lot of fun hanging out together.

They might have gotten close during lycée, but they were growing even closer now.

Adrien had started his classes earlier in the week and from what Marinette could understand, he absolutely loved them. They were far more interesting than his business courses had been, at least so far, and his professors were great. The best part, Adrien had told Marinette, was that physicists didn't really seem to care a whole lot about fashion, so none of them had any clue who he or his father were. They weren't about to treat him with kid gloves just because his father was a giant in business.

Also, the physics students had no idea who he was. For possibly the first time in history, Adrien had the chance to make friends without his father's influence hanging over his head.

"The business students all figured it out pretty fast," Adrien had told Marinette over dinner one night. "And they thought if they befriended me, they would be able to get an internship with Gabriel's business department pretty easily. It got old really fast."

Marinette could imagine. It was probably for the best that Adrien wasn't particularly interested in fashion and design because he wouldn't have had an easy time finding real friends there and he would never be able to break free of his father's shadow.

"Are you really still here, Marinette?" Madam Rosalie popped her head around the door. "That can wait until tomorrow, it's already getting dark outside."

"I'm just finishing this up. I didn't want to lose my place." Marinette held up the piece she was working on. "I'll only be ten more minutes, tops."

"All right. Good night!" Madam Rosalie called, vanishing back around the door. Marinette resumed her sewing as her boss's heels clicked away down the hall.

"You really shouldn't stay too long," Tikki said, flying out from hiding and perching on Marinette's shoulder. "I know you let Adrien know you were running late, but he can't wait forever."

"Has he sent any more texts?"

Tikki zipped down to Marinette's bag and pulled out her phone, unlocking it. "Just a confirmation that he got your text."

"Can you let him know that I'll be done in ten- no, nine, maybe eight- minutes?" Marinette finished one seam and moved to the next. "I'd hurry, but this can't be rushed. Photoshoot pieces have to be perfect."

"One second- done! Text sent!" Tikki tapped Send and put the phone down. "That's a really pretty design, Marinette! Is it one of yours?"

"Mmm. Partly." Marinette bit her lip as she carefully worked the seam. "The top part of the dress is Madam Rosalie's design, the bottom is mine. She was having trouble figuring out what would work best with the top design and had all of the interns take a shot at it, and mine won. I wanted to do all of the sewing myself so I can get all of the details just how I envisioned them."

"It looks good!" Tikki cheered. A buzz caught her interest, and she held up Marinette's phone. "Adrien said okay, he's started making dinner so just go straight to his flat, it should be ready to eat as soon as you get back."

"Adrien is a lifesaver." Marinette loved not having to cook every night, loved not eating the same leftovers for a week straight, loved having the new recipes Adrien brought with him…. and, of course, loved having the company. She didn't doubt that later on they would have problems with both of them being busy at the same time, but for now they were doing a pretty good job of trading off cooking nights when they were busy.

"He also said that he has a late meeting with a professor tomorrow, so if you can cook then that would be good," Tikki reported.

"It'll be my turn anyway," Marinette said. She snipped a couple threads and turned the dress again to attach the next panel. "And I didn't really have to start the skirt part tonight, I just wanted to get it done. I'll find a better stopping point tomorrow."

It actually only took Marinette seven more minutes to finish all she needed to get done for the night- the zipper could wait, after all- and then she was jogging down the stairs towards the exit. If her apartment were any further away, she would transform into Ladybug to cover the distance faster. As it stood, it would probably take just as long to find a safe place to transform and detransform as it would take for her to just powerwalk the short distance.

"Nice timing," Adrien called from his kitchen when Marinette burst in his door, panting and clutching the cramp in her side from sprinting up the stairs. "I just took everything out from the oven."

"I'll leave earlier tomorrow," Marinette promised, setting her bag down by Adrien's couch and heading over to help set the table. "Sorry about the delay, I just wanted to get one last thing done and it wasn't a thing I could just set down and pick up tomorrow."

"That's fine." There was a clatter from the kitchen. "Do you often work that late? You haven't since I got here."

Marinette finished straightening the napkins and turned to watch Adrien pull out the plates as she thought about the question. "I don't think so? Maybe once. I don't like working so long, it burns me out and then I don't do as well the next day. I think it'll be somewhat unavoidable once we get close to Fashion Week, though."

"Hopefully midterms won't line up with Fashion Week," Adrien said as they served up the baked macaroni and cheese. "We'd both be busy all the time and end up having frozen pizza for a week."

Marinette made a face at that. She really wasn't particularly fond of that idea. Leftovers was one thing; having the same thing day after day sounded absolutely awful. "One of the older interns suggested making stuff in advance and freezing it so we don't end up doing that. I have a couple things stashed away in the freezer already that we could pull out and reheat as needed."

Adrien grinned as they headed to the table. "Like a squirrel. And really, already? Planning that far in advance?"

"It was mostly because I made enough food that I couldn't eat it before it spoiled," Marinette admitted. "So there's, like, half a lasagna and some soup and a couple other odds and ends."

"I have an ice tray," Adrien offered helpfully, thinking of his barren freezer. "And maybe some frozen corn."

Marinette pressed her lips together as she tried not to laugh. "Tasty."

Laughing, Adrien swatted at her. "Oh, shush. You know what I meant."

"Do I?"

Their dinners together continued as Adrien's semester went on and the weather slowly started to get chillier. There were a couple nights when they couldn't get together- Marinette had to work late, or Adrien was invited over by a classmate or a friend of his father's- and there were a few nights when they invited other people to join them, but for the most part it was just Adrien and Marinette.

And that was the way they liked it.

Conversation sometimes hit a lull when Adrien had spent the entire day studying and Marinette had done nothing other than hem things or do paperwork for Madam Rosalie, but then neither of them had a problem with turning on the TV and bonding over commentary on whatever show was showing on TV. Cooking shows seemed to be a favorite of theirs, especially cooking contests. They got way too invested in it, but that just made it more fun.

"Do you want to watch a movie later?" Adrien asked Marinette over the sound of their favorite cooking show running in the background as he collected the plates after they finished eating. "I think there's a pretty good one showing on TV a little later."

Marinette bit her lip. She did, but she also had been planning on going out for a run as Ladybug and she would be too tired after the movie ended to go out. Granted, she could always wait for another day, but she really just wanted to transform and burn off some energy. It had been way too long since she last flew over the rooftops.

In fact, she hadn't gone out since Adrien arrived. They had always spent their evenings together, even if Adrien was sitting at the table studying and she was curled up on the sofa drawing or reading. It was nice to hang out with another person in the evenings, even if it meant that she couldn't talk to Tikki as much.

"I think I might pass," Marinette said at last, raising her voice a little so Adrien could hear her over the sound of the TV and the running water in the kitchen. "I've been having a little trouble sleeping and was hoping to catch up on it tonight."

"Okay." Adrien rinsed the plates off before sticking them in the dishwasher. "That sounds good, actually. I might do the same." He winced. "I had an eight a.m. class today and I forgot how much I hated those."

"Owtch." Marinette remembered those classes. It seemed that despite her best intentions, she had gotten at least one day a week with the early classes, thanks to either scheduling conflicts, filled sections, or classes that were only offered at the early hour. Needless to say, it was very frustrating. She liked sleeping in too much to really be able to enjoy those particular classes.

"D'you want to take off now? I can deal with the rest of the dishes," Adrien offered. "There's really not that many."

"No, I can help!" Marinette assured him hastily, rising from the table to bring the dishes of leftovers into the kitchen. "Besides, I want to know to see if the asshole chef gets eliminated."

Adrien sniggered as he glanced over at the TV, where the chef in question was currently frantically stirring some sort of stir-fry on-screen. It looked like it might be a little charred. "You really have it out for him, huh?"

"He's got a big head. It just rubbed me the wrong way."

Adrien glanced at the screen again as Marinette transferred the leftovers into smaller containers. "He's really sweating. Everyone else seems like they're doing all right, though."

"That's good." They fell silent for a few minutes as Marinette stashed the leftovers in the fridge, rearranging other things so they would fit, and Adrien started washing the things that couldn't go in the dishwasher. The TV prattled on in the background as the timer counted down and the chiefs rushed to finish their dishes. As Marinette and Adrien finished putting the last things away, Marinette's least favorite chef was really sweating. It was looking more and more likely that he might be the one to get eliminated.

"Do you want me to record the rest of the episode for tomorrow?" Adrien asked as he closed the last cupboard. "Or do you want to stay until it finishes?"

Waiting until the episode finished could take another half an hour with commercials. Marinette didn't care about it that much. "Record it, I think. I'll probably enjoy it more if I'm not about to fall asleep. Besides, we can just skip through the commercials if it's recorded."

"Sounds good. Good night, Marinette."

"Good night, Adrien."

Marinette flashed one last smile at Adrien as she stepped out of his apartment for the night. As soon as the door closed, though, the facade of weariness promptly vanished. She unlocked her apartment's door as fast as she could before ducking inside, relocking the door, and making a beeline for her balcony. Tikki popped out of her pocket, just as eager to transform as Marinette herself was.

"Tikki, transform me!" Marinette cried as she darted across the room. The pink light washed over her just before she reached the door, and Ladybug darted out of the door and into the waiting city.

It wasn't like running around in Paris. Even after a couple months, the rooftops of London were still unfamiliar and strange. Unlike in Paris where she was often spotted and would take breaks to come down from the roofs to greet people, she tried to stay out of well-lit areas; while it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for people to see Ladybug in London, it might put her identity in jeopardy. People would be scouring the city, trying to find people who had been in Paris during the time that Ladybug and Chat Noir were active in an effort to uncover Ladybug's identity. Keeping that in mind, Marinette had asked Tikki to alter her outfit, making it darker and better able to blend into the night. Since it was already fairly dark- she had changed her outfit's design to have black knee-high "boots" and black up her arms and over her shoulders back before she and her partner defeated Hawkmoth- it was mostly just a matter of darkening her trademark fire-engine red suit to a deeper shade of red and extending the black areas just a bit. Even with the changes, she kept up on the rooftops and out of busy areas to minimize the possibility of her being spotted.

Since Marinette hadn't seen any headlines about Ladybug in London either in newspapers or on the Ladyblog, she was pretty certain that she had been successful. It definitely helped that the Londoners weren't looking for her. If they spotted anything on the rooftops out of the corners of their eyes, they were more likely to ignore it and write it off as a bird. And further helping was the fact that Londoners generally didn't go around staring up at rooftops.

Ladybug flew through the air, twisting into a flip and resisting the urge to let out a joyous shout. She loved the feeling of flying, the knowledge that she could let herself drop and she would be able to catch herself without a problem. It was more fun when she could let herself whoop or shout during a particularly intense flip, but that would blow her cover just as much as a bright red suit would.

It really just wasn't the same. Besides, she was definitely missing having her partner by her side. Running around alone was just so much less fun.

Ladybug had only been out for ten minutes when she caught sight of a dark shape running over the rooftops. She immediately landed lightly on a roof, hiding behind a chimney and peeking out to get a look at whatever had joined her in running above the city. The shape apparently hadn't seen her, as they kept running over the rooftops without pausing. Ladybug's mind raced- surely there couldn't be an akuma in London, they had defeated Hawkmoth and the butterfly Miraculous was back in Master Fu's hands- and she was about to worry that the Miraculous had been stolen again when the figure shot up into the air on a long, sticklike thing before helicoptering his way back down to the rooftops in a very familiar manner.

Chat Noir!

Ladybug didn't hesitate to take off after her partner, racing over the rooftops as she followed him. He had gotten a head start when she froze in surprise, but she had an advantage because she was far more familiar with this skyline than her partner was. She knew how fast she could run without tripping, where she had to slow down and where the shortcuts were. If she hadn't run over these rooftops dozens of times before, she wouldn't have stood a chance against Chat Noir's night vision.

As focused as Chat Noir was on figuring out his path, he didn't even hear Ladybug racing up behind him. She bowled into him without slowing down at all, sending both of them flying down into the empty street below. Chat Noir yelped and struggled as they fell, and only just managed to twist so they landed on their feet.

"What on earth-" Chat Noir started, whipping around with his baton raised defensively. He froze when he caught sight of Ladybug standing there with a huge grin on her face. "Bugaboo?"

"I didn't know you were coming to London!" It would be harder for them to remain unnoticed if both of them were in London now, especially since they liked calling back and forth as they flew over the city. Still, it would be much more fun going out if Chat Noir was going to be out and about as well. She couldn't race herself across the city, after all.

"Yeah, I didn't know for sure until after you left." Chat Noir put away his baton and stepped forward to envelop Ladybug in a hug. "It's good to see you again! I really missed you."

Ladybug grinned and hugged her partner back. She had missed her kitten a lot as well. He was one of her best friends, after all, even if they didn't know each other's real names. Even after only a week in London, Ladybug had considered trying to track down Chat Noir next time she was back in Paris to see if her partner would be interested in getting a secondary phone so that the y could stay in contact while they were apart. Maybe they could set it up now, while Chat Noir was in London. Or maybe- better yet- Chat Noir would be in the area for a while and the phones wouldn't even be necessary.

"Are you in London for a while?" Ladybug asked, voice muffled by Chat Noir's chest. She couldn't let herself get her hopes up- her partner might just be visiting a friend in the city, after all, or maybe he was on vacation. The chances that he would actually be in London for the same amount of time that she was going to be there were slim. If he was in town for a vacation, they would probably only have a week together at most. If he had gotten a job in London, he would probably remain even after she returned to Paris.

That would actually be crushing. She didn't want to permanently be apart.

"I am! I'll hopefully be here for a couple years," Chat Noir said as they loosened their grip on each other and stepped back. "And you? Are you going to be in London for a while? I wasn't expecting to see you here!"

"I'm here for a year," Ladybug told him. She was considering the possibility of extending her internship since she was getting a lot of good experience (and because hanging out with Adrien was fun and she didn't want to abandon him in London, even if he could probably take care of himself), but she wouldn't be able to ask about doing that until much later in the year. Besides, things could change between now and then. Maybe something else would come up that would change her mind.

Chat Noir's ears drooped. "I'll be here for three. Are you going back to Paris after this year?"

"Probably." That was what she had originally been planning, because she had absolutely no intention of trying to get a fashion job overseas (she wanted to be able to see her friends and her parents on a somewhat regular basis, after all) and while she liked London well enough, she liked Paris more. There were plenty of labels based in and around Paris that Marinette liked and would gladly apply to. There was no point in getting Chat Noir's hopes up by mentioning the possibility of her staying longer now.

Her partner sighed. "Bugger. At least you're here now, though," he added, perking up. "That's more than I was expecting. I was planning on flying back to Paris once you showed up there again just so I could let you know that I was out of the country. I couldn't exactly leave a note somewhere hoping you would find it, since it's more likely that it would blow away or something."

"It might get made into a pigeon's nest," Ladybug suggested. "Or eaten by a rat."

Chat Noir grinned, and the familiar impish expression made Ladybug . "Eaten, my Lady? I imagine such terrible news would taste pawsitively awful."

Ladybug just groaned.

Adrien could not believe that Ladybug was in London. What were the chances of both of them ending up in the same city, and in the same part of the same city to boot? It was absolutely fantastic to be able to see her again, even though they would have to be extra careful if they wanted to avoid being spotted. Now he had two friends he knew in London, which was far more than he had ever expected.

It was great.

"I really wasn't expecting that," Adrien told an uninterested Plagg as he washed up for bed. Adrien had jumped on the opportunity to transform and go out when Marinette left early to go to bed. At best, he figured, he would get in a good run and maybe get to do a little stargazing. At worst, he would dry out his skin running around in the cool night air.

Instead, he had been knocked off a roof by a very enthusiastic Ladybug and they had spent an hour running around and catching up with each other before going their separate ways for the night.

Adrien had missed his partner ever since she left Paris. She had told him that it would be a couple months, at the very least, probably at least a year. He hadn't asked for details- even after all of these years and Hawkmoth's defeat, they kept their civilian lives private- but clearly whatever it was that was taking her away from Paris had brought her right to London.

"Are you going to get all sappy over her again?" Plagg asked, annoyance clear in his voice. The kwami had been more than a little exasperated by Adrien's moping in the days and weeks after Ladybug's departure. Adrien thought he had been perfectly justified in his misery; after all, being Chat Noir just wasn't the same when he was prowling the rooftops by himself instead of alongside his Lady. It was lonely going out at night and not running into her, especially since he couldn't keep in contact with her any other way. But now-

Now she was here, in London with him, at least for a year. They wouldn't be able to meet up every night- Adrien wouldn't be able to transform and go out every night without blowing off Marinette, and he was not going to do that, and no doubt Ladybug would have nights when she was busy as well and unable to go out- but at least there was the possibility of them running into each other. It was more than he had expected.

"I wasn't sappy," Adrien said at last, resisting the urge to spin in happy circles around the room. His downstairs neighbor was probably asleep by now, and they would hardly appreciate him clomping around and waking them up. "And we're friends, why shouldn't I be glad to see her again? We haven't had the chance to hang out for forever!"

Plagg rolled his eyes.

"I'm glad she's here. I haven't been able to see her for months." Their accidental meet-ups had gotten fewer and farther between after they both entered university, though they had made some effort to see each other on a semi-regular basis. Both superheroes had thankfully been in Paris that first time around, but Ladybug had an internship of some sort on top of her studies and he had been both a model and a student. Their schedules were packed, and they had been lucky to be able to meet up once a week when they were out and about.

(Or course, not all of their run-ins were due to luck- Adrien always snuck out whenever he saw news on the Ladyblog that Ladybug had been spotted out and about, and it only took him a month to realize that there was a pattern to her outings. Granted, that pattern changed every time the semester switched, but it was still a pattern that he could- and did- take advantage of.)

"I wonder if we could try to set up a schedule," Adrien wondered out loud. He hadn't needed to in Paris- while he lived in his father's home, Gabriel Agreste never checked up on his son after dinner. He was free to take off into the night, so long as he went to bed at a reasonable time so he could be up and alert at a time his father approved of. Here, though, he normally hung out with Marinette until one of them decided to go to bed. They didn't necessarily talk much, but having the company was nice. Adrien liked the little snippets of conversation that occasionally popped up as they worked- or, rather, as he studied and as Marinette read or doodled. It would be rude to Marinette if he started shooing her out of his apartment or dining and dashing when they ate at her place just so he could maybe run into Ladybug. Besides, he liked hanging out with Marinette. She was one of his oldest friends as well, and she also would only be in London for a year unless she got an extension with Madam Rosalie's company. "Maybe if I beg off to go to bed early every night I have an 8 o'clock class..."

Plagg snorted. "And then you'll be miserable and sleepwalking into everything the next day and Marinette will wonder why."

"I don't stay out that late." Adrien glanced at the clock as he turned off the lights and slid into bed. "It's only just now one, and we stayed out longer than we normally do catching up." As much as they could catch up, that was. Despite Hawkmoth's defeat, they had yet to share their identities with each other. Adrien really had to bring up the subject sometime soon and see if Ladybug's kwami had changed her stance on sharing their identities at all. It was really frustrating trying to edit himself all of the time, steering away from subjects that might give away who he was behind the mask. If they could share identities, Adrien would. "And I can drink tea or coffee or something to wake myself up. It'll be fine."

Plagg didn't look convinced.

Adrien was positively dragging the next morning. He hadn't been able to fall asleep right away after getting into bed since he was so distracted with thinking about what Ladybug might be doing in London and how he might tackle asking her about the secret identity thing again, so he was running on far less sleep than he had planned. It had probably been close to two o'clock before he actually fell asleep.

"I toooooold you so," Plagg sing-songed from his jacket collar as Adrien stumbled blearily into class, fingers clutching a mug of green tea laced with sugar and honey. It wasn't nearly strong enough to wake him up, but Adrien had discovered when he got up that his supply of caffeinated drinks was nearly nonexistent. Apparently he had just kept forgetting to refill things when he went grocery shopping, so he was out of coffee and had been running too late to stop at a coffee shop on his way to class. "You talked to your lovebug for too long. Now you're gonna be sleepwalking for the whole day."

"I would be fine if I had actually been able to fall asleep," Adrien muttered back out of the corner of his mouth. Talking to Plagg before class was always risky- people could see him and ask him what he was doing. It was easier in London compared to back in Paris, where people tended to pay more attention to him, but even now it was getting harder since he was becoming friends with a number of his classmates. They wouldn't hesitate to ask him about his apparent talking to thin air while entering class.

Plagg sniggered and fell silent.

"Hey, dude, how's it going?" Adrien's classmate Paul asked as Adrien slid into his seat. "You look like the walking dead."

"I feel like it, too." There was no point in lying. Paul wasn't going to ask; he knew full well that Adrien wasn't a morning person. Paul, the weirdo, was. Somehow he bounced out of bed fully awake at some ridiculous hour in the morning. Adrien suspected that Paul probably was one of those people that ran or swam laps in the mornings before classes, just so they could be super-productive and (inadvertently) rub it in people's faces.

Admittedly, Adrien used to be like that too. He went to bed early and got up early, often before his alarm went off. Years of nighttime patrols and late-night akuma attacks had thrown off his carefully constructed schedule, and then proper Teenagerhood hit and Adrien was trying his best not to sleep through his alarms. He had at one point tried to recover his earlier sleeping habits, after Hawkmoth had been taken care of, but it seemed that Adrien was doomed to not be a morning person.

Adrien didn't particularly care, but his father did. When he was living at home, every day came with a wake-up call at six in the morning, even if Adrien didn't have anything to do that day or if there had been a late-night photoshoot the night before. One of the many things he loved about London was that he could sleep in.

It was fantastic. Eight o'clock classes were less fantastic.

Paul sighed and shook his head. "I've been up for hours, dude. You missed out on a gorgeous sunrise."

"Ugh."

"All these purples and pinks and blues-" Once they had gotten to know each other better and the other boy found out how much Adrien hated eight o'clock classes, Paul had decided to go out of his way to annoy Adrien with his cheeriness when Adrien was still wishing he were in bed. It was much like having another Plagg around him all the time, except a Plagg that was annoying him with incessant cheeriness instead of being a complete and total grump. Paul also didn't constantly scarf Camembert, which was a relief. That was strictly a Plagg thing. "You should have seen it! And I got to enjoy it with my fresh chocolate croissant and a smoothie..."

"Yeah, yeah," Adrien started, rolling his eyes and glancing out the windows. He froze when he realized that it was overcast outside and had been since the previous night. He turned back to Paul with a suspicious squint. "It's cloudy. You couldn't have seen a sunrise this morning."

Paul grinned.

"And you hate croissants," Adrien continued, giving his friend a look. "You think they're tasteless and dry- which, by the way, you're still wrong about that, they're delicious- so you never eat them. Very funny."

"I thought so." Paul glanced down at his phone, where it was sitting on top of his desk. "But it's supposed to be clear tomorrow morning, if you were interested-"

Adrien made a face, and Paul laughed again.

"All right, settle down," their teacher called as she finally got the overhead projector to turn on. "How is everyone on this lovely morning...no? Okay, fair enough. We're picking up where we left off last time..."

The morning dragged on. Though Adrien found his classes interesting- much better than business, for certain- even his sugar-laced tea wasn't helping him focus much. He was distracted by thoughts of Ladybug. Would they run into each other again soon? Would she be open to sharing identities? He didn't want to push, because if he did Ladybug might take off and avoid him, and then he would never see her again, because she wouldn't go out to patrol until she had left London and then maybe she would move somewhere else, like Italy-

"Dude, are you seriously spacing out right now?"

Adrien blinked and the room swam properly back into view. He sat in front of his computer, stimulated experiment complete, and-

He swore. He had spaced out mid-run and had completely forgotten to time the stupid thing. He would have to set up and run the entire thing again, which meant that he would probably have to stay after class to finish, which meant he would miss his bus back to his apartment and would have to wait another half-hour to get his lunch.

Darn it.

Paul raised an eyebrow at Adrien's outburst, but thankfully didn't comment. It probably didn't hurt that Paul spoke no French, so for all he knew Adrien could have been saying "well gee willy wonkers, that's inconvenient".

(spoiler: that wasn't what he said.)

"I need a nap," Adrien decided, switching back to English. "Or coffee. I'm not normally this distracted."

"No kidding. Is everything all right?"

Adrien nodded, even as his attention got divided between Paul and the digital experiment he was resetting. Everything was fine- better than fine, actually, because Ladybug- and the only problem was that he was overthinking things.

"If you say so."

"I just stayed up too late, that's all." With everything set up properly again, Adrien got his stimulated experiment running again, this time with the timer going as well. He would definitely have to keep a close eye on it this run; after all, he didn't have any extra time to spare. Any mistakes, and it would only add on to the time he would have to stay after class to fully complete his assignment. "And then I had trouble falling asleep."

Paul snickered and shook his head, turning back to his own computer. "Night owl. Strange."

"Early bird. Stranger," Adrien shot back. It was a familiar chorus for them by this point in the semester.

"Whatever, dude." Paul glanced at his computer again and briefly turned his attention back to the data sheet they were meant to be filling out. After scribbling down a number and re-setting the experiment for another run, he turned his attention back to Adrien. "Have you started studying for midterms?"

Adrien frowned. "Er, not really?" Midterms were a couple weeks out still, and Adrien was still mainly focused on getting his assignments and readings for his classes completed. Thinking about it now, though, he probably should start reviewing stuff from the start of the semester at least somewhat soon, and he and Marinette definitely needed to start really focusing on stocking up the freezer in case they both got too busy to actually cook. He also really needed to ask her if she knew when Madam Rosalie would be having her runway shows, just so they could start planning.

"I'm going to start this weekend," Paul said. He paused to check on the progress of his experiment before turning to look at Adrien again. "Any interest in a study group?"

"That would be nice." He hoped, at least. Adrien had always wanted to be part of a study group back when he was in his business program, but his busy schedule and the lack of classmates he was actually close to kept him from meeting up with anyone to study. Such groups usually varied in productivity, according to his friends. Some went well, with people filling each other in things they missed or were unsure of. Others, according to Alya and Nino, ended with people cracking up as they imitated professors or shared goofy things they had written down in their notes during lectures. They were good for blowing off some steam, his friends had said, but not particularly useful for learning anything. He had attended study groups with his friends in collège and lycée, of course, but Alya and Adrien together were good at keeping those groups on task. It was easier to scold people back into focusing when he knew them really well and they spent most of their time together anyway.

Paul nodded, looking pleased, and then both boys fell silent as they focused on their "experiments". By the time the clock hand had ticked to the end of class, Paul had wrapped up his assignment. Adrien was still working.

"Good luck, dude," Paul said as he packed up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I'll text you to set up a time for the study group. It probably won't be right away since we should probably figure out what we each need to focus on first, but it would probably be better to not wait until last minute."

"Sounds good," Adrien said, glancing up from his computer to wave as Paul left. Soon he was the only person left in the lab.

"You just missed the bus," Plagg informed him from his bag. "Hurry up, or the next one'll leave without you, too, and you'll have to walk home in the rain."

"I can't rush the experiment, Plagg. The program doesn't work like that." Adrien checked his timer and filled out yet another entry in his data sheet. He was almost done, so unless he got seriously distracted he wouldn't have any trouble catching the next bus. Hopefully. "I'm almost done anyway. I'll be packing up in probably five minutes."

"And then you're going to go visit your wife before you finally go back to your apartment and give me more cheese. I know how this goes."

Adrien glanced away from his screen for long enough to flash Plagg an annoyed look. "Marinette is my friend and the bus stop is right next to her building. It would be rude not to drop in and say hi."

Plagg gave him a look, which Adrien ignored. "You're going to see her at dinner."

"I know."

"And all evening."

"I know."

"And you saw her yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and the-"

"I know that Plagg, thank you."

Plagg floated over so Adrien could see him out of the corner of his eye. "That's good. I'd thought you'd forgotten, considering that you're going out of your way to see someone you literally see all the time."

"I'm not going out of my way. Madam Rosalie's building is on my way from the bus stop to the apartment building."

"The stairs up to Marinette's cubicle aren't on your way home." Plagg floated closer and Adrien ignored him. It wasn't an easy thing to do, since Plagg would just look like a small black shadow right at the edge of his vision, but Adrien had had plenty of practice ignoring Plagg over the years. "You just want to see your wife like a good husband."

"You do remember that Marinette and I aren't married for real, right?" It was something Adrien found himself saying on an increasingly frequent basis, since Plagg insisted on calling Marinette his wife, just like he had insisted on calling Marinette Adrien's Princess for weeks after the Evillustrator incident. Even though it had been weeks since the fake wedding, Plagg had yet to grow tired of the nickname.

"You might as well be. You spend all of your time together acting all domestic-like. Believe me, I would know," Plagg added, flying up to perch on top of the computer. "More than a few of my Chosens have gotten married. I know the signs."

"You know how to be annoying is what you know," Adrien shot back absently as his experiment wrapped up and he hit his timer to stop it. He scribbled down the numbers he needed, closed the program, and logged off of the computer. "Marinette is my friend and we live right next door to each other, of course we're going to hang out a lot." Adrien glanced back at his computer to make sure it was logging off properly before packing his bag and slinging the strap over his head. Plagg quickly abandoned his perch on the computer to fly into Adrien's bag. "That's all it is. I love Ladybug, remember?"

Plagg made an interesting noise that was somewhere between a snort and a strangled laugh. Adrien decided not to ask.

The walk to the bus station didn't take long, nor did the ride to his stop. After that was a short jaunt up to say hi to Marinette and remind her to actually eat before he headed back to their building to eat his own lunch.

"Your life is so boring these days," Plagg complained as Adrien put his dishes in the sink, poured himself another cup of strong green tea and headed back to the table to spread out his books to study. "You don't go out and do anything, and then what do I get to do with my time? Waste away with subpar cheese, that's what!"

"I have to study, Plagg."

"That's all you ever do. That and flirt with your wife."

Adrien decided not to comment.

After a few more minutes of moping and moaning around the room, Plagg found a bright patch of sun to take a nap in and Adrien dove into his notes. Hours passed as he pored over formulas and theories, jotting down notes on areas he needed to focus on and questions that he needed to ask the professors to clarify concepts. He was so absorbed in his work that he jumped into the air when there was a knock at his door. A second later, he was scrambling to answer it.

"Did you lose track of the time?" Marinette asked in amusement as she stepped into the room and spotted the papers and notebooks scattered across his table. "I thought you would be wondering where I was since I forgot to text, but clearly no concern was needed."

"Is it late?" Adrien asked in surprise, pulling out his phone to check the time. Sure enough, it was late enough that normally by this time, they would have already eaten and would be most of the way through cleaning up. "Wow. Was work busy?"

"I lost track of time," Marinette admitted. "And then I got on a designing kick for the winter collection, but I still had to get my work for the upcoming collection finished after I got done with that."

Adrien laughed. That was so like Marinette to get so distracted that she completely lost track of the time. "Please tell me you get extra time off when you work overtime."

"It would be nice," Marinette said as they headed back into the middle of the room. "Do you want me to cook tonight? You look like you're in the middle of something."

Adrien's stomach chose that moment to growl loudly and they both startled. Marinette's lips quirked upwards in amusement as Adrien laughed again.

"Maybe we need to dip into our leftovers supply," Adrien said after a moment. He wasn't certain how he hadn't noticed that he was getting hungry before, because it was certainly obvious now. "I'm sure we'll be able to refill it before we get into crunch time."

"Sounds good." Marinette headed for the kitchen and started rummaging around in the freezer. "Did you have a good day at university?"

"It started too early," Adrien complained as he moved to clear the table. "I couldn't fall asleep and then my classes started at stupid o'clock."

Marinette's head popped back out of the freezer so she could give him a puzzled look. "I thought your eight o'clock was yesterday, not today? Or did I remember wrong?"

"It was yesterday," Adrien admitted sheepishly. Right. He supposedly went to bed early last night. "But I ended up not being able to settle down, so I watched some stuff on TV, and then I still couldn't fall asleep, and then my class started at nine. I probably could have slept for another hour or two."

"Did you take a nap after you finished?"

That...sounded like a really good idea, actually. "No. I should have, maybe, but Paul was talking about setting up a study group and I wanted to be prepared for that. I hadn't really done a ton of review so far this semester, so I just did a ton of it this afternoon."

"Don't burn yourself out," Marinette advised as she pulled a glass pan out of the cupboard to reheat the leftovers and started preheating the oven. "I've done that before and then ended up not studying closer to the actual exams because I was so tired of spending all my time with my face in my books."

"I'll definitely take breaks," Adrien assured her. "I don't want to burn myself out, not in the first round of tests in my first semester here." His breaks would probably come in the form of going out running over the rooftops at night, but he couldn't exactly tell Marinette that.

"That's good." Marinette spun around again to dig through one of his drawers. She found the ladle she wanted within a few seconds, making Adrien smile. Even though she kept things in her apartment in slightly different place, she had been over enough times to memorize where he kept things. "Do you have projects as well? I know sometimes I had papers or projects instead of tests."

"There's a couple projects, but they're on top of exams." Adrien gave her a rueful grin. "So some of my study breaks will comprise of working on those."

"Ugh." Marinette made a face as she wrestled the leftovers into the pan. "That's no fun. And that doesn't count as a break, I hope you know that."

Adrien shrugged. "It's school. At least this time it's in a subject I like. I've been feeling like I'm understanding everything, so hopefully I'll just be reviewing equations and theorems and, y'know, doing practice problems. Not that bad."

Marinette laughed. "That sounds like torture to me, but to each their own."

Adrien grinned as he stacked his notebooks and papers carefully along the wall. He had run into that reaction several times before, both among his friends and among the other models at Gabriel. "I'd say the same about fashion, but I actually do find the process fascinating. I'm just hopeless at designing and I've never tried sewing."

"Never?"

He just shrugged at her flabbergasted expression. "I've never had reason to try. My dad's known for forever that I'm hopeless at drawing and designing- he tried to teach me, and all I could do was draw stick figures. I don't have any groundbreaking design ideas either."

"It's usually more important that things be pretty rather than groundbreaking. I've been looking through some of the runway show archives from around the world and let me tell you, there are some weird things out there." The expression Marinette made told Adrien all he needed to know about what she thought about those looks. "I'm kind of not surprised because there's, like, such a focus on new and never seen before and whatnot in design school, but sometimes designers lose sight of how to make actually flattering and wearable clothes."

"What's the weirdest thing you've seen?" Adrien asked curiously as he entered the kitchen and started digging in the fridge for the oranges he was positive he had seen earlier. They had to pretend to make their meal healthy somehow.

Marinette bit her lip as she thought. "Oh, gosh, I don't even know where to begin. There was something that looked like a green potato sack with suspenders at a Fashion Week in the United States. There've been oversized coats with weird seam lines, and strange patterns, and...ugh." She shuddered and Adrien hid his grin. "And then you look at some of the big designers and they basically have repeats of the same dress in different colors or different patterns or, y'know, with different embellishments."

"Not very innovative, then."

Marinette shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. They're going for pretty and understandable instead. A lot of people don't understand the really funky shapes that some designers are making. It's too avant-garde for them, and they don't commission those designers. The fashion world loves innovation, the general population tends to value tradition and classic looks more. It's a matter of balancing the two."

Thinking back to the shows he had seen (and participated in), Adrien couldn't help but agree. His father certainly came up with some fantastic ideas, but he stayed well within the boundaries of wearable.

"So what is Madam Rosalie's style like?" Adrien asked. He found the oranges and pulled them out. "How out of the box is she?"

Marinette bit her lip as she thought. "Kind of in the middle, I think? We play with new design elements, but it's more approachable. We try to kind of meet a certain design style so it's recognizable as ours."

Adrien perked up. While he wasn't super interested in fashion, any distraction from his studying was fantastic and design style wasn't something he hand Marinette had really discussed much before. "Is it hard to try to alter your design aesthetic to match Madam Rosalie's?"

"Not really. I had to submit my portfolio to Madam Rosalie when I applied to the internship. She takes design interns that have similar aesthetics, so that everyone meshes together well design-wise."

"Ah, that makes sense." Adrien should have guessed that, maybe, but he hadn't exactly been involved on that end of his father's business. Still, he had seen the entries in plenty of his father's contests and the winners did tend to have design aesthetics similar to Mr. Agreste's own. That should have been a pretty good clue. His father did occasionally pick a surprise winner for their fresh point of view, but it never veered terribly far away from his typical style.

It was starting to get ridiculously late as they sat down to eat, and by the time they finished and washed everything up there wasn't any time to really do anything together. Marinette bid Adrien goodnight and took off as soon as everything was put away. Adrien briefly entertained the idea of going out as Chat Noir- he definitely wanted to see his lady again- but he finally decided against it. If he went out running, he would quite possibly fall off the roof falling asleep mid-jump, even after all of the tea he had gulped down in an effort to stay awake and get some productive studying done.

Besides, he had to deal with Paul again in his first class first thing in the morning. He needed to get some sleep.

A/N: So, re: why the text wasn't a big deal- Marinette's grown up, and she's gotten better at making up excuses (and gotten past the ridiculous stammering). She can take advantage of Adrien still being somewhat clueless and willing to accept what she says at face value.