7. Chapter 7

As he had with all of his other classes, Adrien had over-studied once again. He answered all of the questions on his last midterm with ease and even had time to go back and check over his answers. He handed his test in at the end of the test period, feeling good about his answers, and headed straight to the grocery store.

"Oh sweet, fabulous cheese," Plagg sighed as Adrien dropped several rounds of Camembert into his basket. "How I missed thee-"

"These have to last for the next week," Adrien warned him as he added two other blocks to his basket. "The people here already think I'm weird for always getting as much cheese as I do every time I shop. I'm not doing any mid-week trips."

Plagg pouted. "Oh, come on. Can't we buy any more?"

"Marinette'll get suspicious if she sees any more cheese in my fridge. You forget, she digs around in there too." Adrien left the cheese section, ignoring Plagg's whining. "And she already thinks it's weird that I'm always running out of cheese for recipes when she saw two kilo blocks in my fridge two days prior."

"You are weird," Plagg said. He promptly shut up when Adrien purposefully dropped a box of crackers on him.

Humming, Adrien continued on his way through the store. He wasn't going to do a full-out shopping trip for the next week like he normally would since he hadn't planned any meals out at all, but he wanted to have enough food for tonight, at the very least. He could make a simple meal and it would probably taste like gourmet after a week of frozen pizza and heated-up leftovers. He swung by his apartment to put things away and then headed straight back out to pick up hot sandwiches for himself and Marinette for lunch. Plagg complained, of course, but Adrien thought that he and Marinette deserved the treat. He added a couple of chocolate chip cookies as a bonus and headed over to see Marinette.

"This is stupid," Plagg grouched as Adrien trotted the few short blocks from the sandwich shop to Marinette's workplace. "Can't we just stay in the apartment and rest?"

"This won't take long," Adrien said with a sigh as they reached the Rosalie Fashions building. He reached out, opened the door and ducked inside.

And then he came to a screeching halt.

The ground floor was positively teeming with people. Workers, interns, and models alike were rushing to and fro, some pushing racks filled with covered clothes, others carrying boxes. Some looked strangely stressed, considering that Marinette had thought that things were nearly done. Adrien had to stumble back and hug the wall as several people rushed by him and out the door to the waiting moving van that had just pulled up.

He could only hope that Marinette's floor wasn't quite this insane.

Adrien zig-zagged across the ground floor, alternating between hugging the wall and dashing out whenever there was an opening. It didn't take him long to get to the stairs (though he did nearly slam into several people on his way) and then he sprinted up to the next floor, clutching his bag of sandwiches.

The first floor was, if possible, even more frantic than the ground floor. There was a sort of worried buzz in the air, which really didn't make that much sense. This wasn't Project Runway; the designers had had plenty of time to get things ready. Unless there had been some sort of catastrophe, they should be busy but not this insane.

"The problem is that, since it's Fashion Week, nearly all of the models are already booked," Madam Rosalie was saying as Adrien rounded the corner into the interns' area. The older designer was standing in the hallway between the cubicles surrounded by several of her workers, Marinette included. "There's only slim pickings left, and there's no guarantee that we'll be able to get them over here fast enough to do the alterations. Even if we did, they could be unprofessional or inexperienced on the runway and that's why they weren't picked up in the first place. We don't have time to train in a new model, and we can't make the models we do still have pick up any more looks. We already have a ridiculously short turnaround time for the models to change clothes."

"We can't just drop several looks," Marinette argued as Adrien drew close, curious. Had something happened to one of their models? No wonder they were so worried. "Could we maybe have a female model step in and just tuck up their hair and go for a unisex look? We'd have to do the alterations still, obviously, but at least we would know that they can walk and they're already on-site- Adrien! Hey! What are you doing here?"

Madam Rosalie spun around at the call and her eyes lit up as she saw Adrien standing there, looking about as puzzled as he felt. "Ah! He has heard our call for help and he has answered! Adrien, dear, one of our models was in a car accident and can't walk the runway tomorrow, you'll be an angel and help us out, right?"

Aha. A model in a car accident and unable to walk the runway would certainly explain a lot of the stress he had seen. And he was a model, and could take the missing person's place. Adrien didn't particularly like doing runway shows, but...

...well, he couldn't exactly say no, especially when Marinette looked so worried about the situation. Even if they weren't actually married, he would do almost anything to help Marinette out. That was what friends did, no matter how much Plagg wanted to read into it.

"Shannon, Emily, can you grab Richard's outfits and his shoes for me?" Madam Rosalie called to two of the other designers before Adrien could answer. His expression must have given his agreement away, or maybe Madam Rosalie was just used to getting what she wanted, just like his father was. Or maybe his people-pleasing reputation preceded him, even here in London. "Adrien looks like he should be the right size, we'll probably only have to do a few tucks to make it perfect. Marinette, can you help Adrien with the clothes? It should only take a few minutes and then you can eat whatever it was Adrien brought for you."

"Are you okay with this?" Marinette asked Adrien as Madam Rosalie whisked off to take care of something else, main crisis now averted. "You don't have to say yes, but it would really be a huge help."

"It's fine," Adrien assured her, resting one hand on her shoulder. "I've finished my midterms and we have next week off classes. I've done runways before. It's no big deal to help out with this one."

"You are an absolute angel," Marinette breathed, relief clear on her face as the other designers vanished, presumably to get the outfits that Adrien would be trying on. "We just heard about this model half an hour ago, so it was crazy last-minute. We weren't sure how we would get another person."

"Will he be all right eventually?" Adrien asked as he adjusted his bag on his shoulder. At this rate, the sandwiches would be cold by the time they got to them. Maybe the building had an oven or something they could use to heat them back up. "Or is the injury serious?"

Marinette shook her head. "No, he'll be fine. He's got a broken leg and some bruises and cuts on his arms, legs, and face, so he can't walk without crutches and even if he could, they would have to do some serious makeup work on him if they didn't want the cuts and whatnot showing up in photos."

Adrien winced. He knew full well how important looks were to a model's ability to work. If the guy couldn't do runways and wouldn't be able to do photoshoots until his injuries cleared up, he could be out a fair chunk of money. Hopefully he wasn't living from paycheck to paycheck.

"So what kinds of looks am I modelling?" Adrien asked, changing the subject. He was vaguely familiar with the kinds of clothing Madam Rosalie's company produced for women, but he had never really looked into their men's line. After all, he got pretty much all of his clothes from his father's lines.

"Fairly straightforward stuff, really. Shirts, jackets, dress pants..." Marinette shrugged. "There's a couple dramatic looks. Everything is fairly fitted, even for the men. Madam Rosalie hates baggy clothing. She says that it looks sloppy no matter what"

Adrien froze. Fitted pants? Normally he wouldn't have a problem with that, since he had worn fitted slacks to his business classes every day (he had promptly traded them out for jeans now that he was in the physics program, since he felt way overdressed otherwise) and he had definitely modeled close-cut pants before, but he had also been wearing different, well, undergarments.

Everyone- well, at least everyone in fashion- knew that one simply did not wear boxers under fitted dress pants. It made them bunch up and lump strangely. Adrien had known that for forever and had never, ever worn boxers to a fitting before. Until now.

Whoops.

"Is there something wrong?" Marinette asked after a moment when Adrien didn't say anything. A blush had started to rise in his cheeks. "Nothing's, like, super tight. We don't make leggings for men or anything crazy like that."

"I am...possibly not wearing the right kind of underwear to make the pants lay the way they're supposed to," Adrien admitted as his bush deepened. He suddenly found himself wishing that he was literally anywhere else but here right now. "I can run back home and change really quick if you want me to, because otherwise things are going to look pretty funny."

"Oh," was all Marinette managed to say. She seemed to have suddenly lost her words and her poise. Her face was quite possibly going redder than his as her eyes darted down almost inadvertently before she caught herself and stared at the ceiling instead. "Uh..."

"Maybe I can try on all of the tops and then while those get altered, I can run home and change?" Adrien suggested, wishing more than ever that he wasn't having this conversation with Marinette. Marinette was his friend, and she didn't need to be hearing about his underwear. Really, this conversation would have been easier with a complete stranger rather than a friend, as strange as that sounded. He wouldn't be worried about embarrassing a complete stranger. Besides, most dressers tended to learn to see models that they didn't know outside of work as walking, talking mannequins. Any kind of wardrobe malfunction was just seen as an annoying inconvenience rather than something to be embarrassed about.

Marinette just didn't have that kind of professional distance with him.

"Uh, I, uh..." Marinette was stammering, which was a bad sign. She hadn't stammered in front of him for forever. "Uh-"

"Emily! Can you run down the road and buy some men's briefs?" Madam Rosalie yelled over the noise of the floor, making both Adrien and Marinette jump. They hadn't seen her hovering near them. Adrien's face flushed impossibly redder in mortification as the other intern trotted over, regarding him curiously. "We need a set for Adrien to change into, let me grab you a company credit card- it doesn't need to be fancy, just a men's size, uh, let me see here-"

Adrien groaned and dropped his forehead onto Marinette's shoulder. It was making his neck crane somewhat painfully since she was so much shorter than he was, but it was better than listening to other people discuss his underthings. "Just kill me now. Death by humiliation." He paused. "They were checking out my rear, weren't they."

Marinette sounded like she was trying very hard not to laugh, which at least was a better sign than the stuttering. More humiliating for Adrien, perhaps, but he still preferred it to the uncomfortable stutters. "They were debating between two sizes. I didn't hear what they decided on."

Adrien was already wishing he hadn't stopped by. He had been expecting a hurried lunch with Marinette, followed by a relaxing afternoon where he would maybe try a new recipe or bake something for when Marinette finally stumbled back to their apartments, not being roped into doing a runway show and then having his underwear size debated by a friend of his parents' and a design intern while his friend stood nearby. Still, if it would make Marinette happy and not ridiculously stressed...

"Marinette, try the shirts and jackets on Adrien while Emily is out," Madam Rosalie ordered as she passed them again, ignoring the way Adrien was still banging his head against Marinette's shoulder. "She should be back soon, since she's taking my car."

"Will do," Marinette assured her boss. "Adrien, come on. Are you okay with changing shirts in my cubicle?"

"That's fine," Adrien assured her as he followed her into what was obviously her cubicle. He set the bag of sandwiches down on a clear spot on Marinette's desk and looked around. Another intern had already delivered the rack with his looks on it and the box of shoes to the small space, making it incredibly cramped. "I might have to duck into the bathroom to change the, uh, y'know-"

"Right! Right, right, of course." Marinette pulled the first hanger off the rack as Adrien shucked his t-shirt. He hung it over Marinette's chair and reached for the shirt she was offering him. It was fairly plain and straightforward, but that was to be expected. The star piece would be the jacket and probably the pants as well. He pulled the shirt over his head carefully, making sure not to stretch it. The shirt fit him almost perfectly, making him wonder how close he was in size to the injured model. The sleeves were a little long on him, though.

"Oh, this fits you better than it did Richard," Marinette said when she finally turned her attention back to Adrien (she had been staring resolutely at the wall, Adrien noted with some amusement). "It was a little tight on him, but somehow the marks got removed before we could alter it. We'll probably have to take in a couple other things." She reached forward to fiddle with the cuffs, tweaking them until they sat properly. Reaching over, Marinette snagged a few pins off of her desk and pinned the change in place.

"Hopefully the shoes fit," Adrien said as Marinette moved to the other sleeve and checked how the length was on him. "I can walk in large shoes, but it might affect my stride a bit."

"Ooh, we'll check those after this outfit," Marinette said, tugging the jacket off the hanger and helping Adrien into it. It was a long cut, dramatic in its shape, and had some nice details on it. "Then if we need to get a new size, we can send Emily out to get it. There's only the one pair for the male models, thankfully. Some of the female models have a couple different shoes."

Adrien grinned as Marinette grumbled and pulled the jacket right back off. It was too loose across the shoulders but fit everywhere else, so Marinette flipped the jacket inside out, put it back on him, marked the changes with pins and chalk, pulled the jacket back off, and waved down a passing worker to take the piece to the sewing room with instructions for the sewers.

"At least your old model wasn't smaller than me," Adrien said helpfully as he removed the shirt, making sure not to disturb the pins. Getting the fit messed up so close to runway week would be the absolute last thing they needed at a time like this. "And- uh, is everything else ready? Or do you have the seamstresses working on other things as well?"

"They were working on some prototypes for the winter line, but they can put everything aside for last-minute alterations for Fashion Week." Marinette hung the shirt up near her doorway and picked up the shoebox. "They work pretty fast, but they're a bit busy at the moment with little last-minute adjustments. There were some fit issues with some of the women's looks, and then- well, long story short, we have a lot of embroidery on some of the pieces and that makes the alterations a bit more difficult. That's putting them behind schedule a bit."

Marinette pulled out the first shoe and handed it to Adrien. He sat down in her desk chair to pull his own shoes off and pull the first one on. It fit pretty well, which was a relief. They were already busy enough without having to track down a pair of shoes that would fit him properly. He pulled the second one on and practiced his runway walk as best he could in Marinette's cramped cubicle. "These work well."

"That's good," Marinette said, relief clear in her voice as she watched him walk and pivot to head back in her direction. "We're already crazy enough in here today without any more, uh-"

"Any more trips to fetch things?" Adrien suggested, blush rising again. God, if this was how awkward they got when merely vaguely referring to Adrien's, ah, underwear problem, then how weird would they actually get around each other when it was time for him to try on the pants?

"Yeah." Marinette waited as Adrien sat back down and tugged the shoes off. She took them back and packed them back into the box. "Okay, now let's try the rest of the outfits. Maybe we can get these all done before Emily gets back."

They got all of the shirts and jackets marked for adjustments and were halfway through their sandwiches by the time Emily returned.

"I got turned around and caught in traffic," Emily said sheepishly as she tossed two packages of black men's briefs into Adrien's lap. Both he and Marinette turned pink almost instantly at the sight. "I'm not used to driving around the city. And Madam Rosalie and I couldn't decide on the right size so I got two sizes. One of them should fit."

"Right, thank you," Adrien managed before Emily bounced off to go take care of something else. He stared at the packages for a moment, wondering what the best way was to excuse himself.

"Oh! I should get you a bag to put, uh," Marinette's eyes flicked down again and back up. Her cheeks went even redder. "Keep things in. Um-"

"If we finish our sandwiches, I can just use the bag from that," Adrien said quickly. He set the packages of briefs down on the floor and picked his sandwich back up, eager to change the subject, even if only for a bit. "We'll both have to wash our hands before we touch the clothes anyway, so we might as well just finish these first while they're still somewhat warm."

"Right, of course." Marinette took another bite of her sandwich and hummed in pleasure, savoring the taste. "Thank you so much for the sandwich, Adrien. It's delicious. Just what I needed after the morning we had."

"I have cookies, too," Adrien said as he polished off his own sandwich in three more bite. He grinned as Marinette perked up. "They're in a smaller bag in this bag, though, so if you wanted to save them for later, we could do that."

"Later might be good. I want to get things over to the sewing room as fast as possible." Marinette finished her own sandwich and stood up, stretching as she did. "Ready?"

The pants all fit perfectly. Marinette let out a sigh of relief as she hung the last pair back up on the rack and waited for Adrien to put his jeans back on. She stared resolutely at the wall until the rustling stopped, and then she waited another ten seconds for good measure before turning around.

"That's it?" Adrien asked, patting down his hair. It had gotten a little mussed from him pulling his t-shirt over his head and probably also from him banging his forehead against Marinette's shoulder earlier. "That wasn't awful."

"We'll probably need you to come back in tomorrow sometime for final fittings," Marinette admitted. "I talked to Emily while you were, uh, in the bathroom earlier, and she said that there were some delays. They're probably still working on the embroidered pieces. I'm really sorry-"

"It's fine, Marinette," Adrien assured her, catching hold of one of her frantically flailing hands before she could whack it against the wall. He only let go when he knew he had her attention. "I wouldn't want the seamstresses to rush on my behalf. I don't have anything going on tomorrow, so I can come in, no problem."

"I know, but I'm sure you would rather go exploring or something instead." Marinette sighed, straightening the hangers that remained on the racks. She fiddled with one of the pairs of pants, making sure the creases stayed right where she wanted them to be. "I know you had talked about exploring London more-"

"It's more fun to go with someone else," Adrien assured her. "Maybe I'll go explore stuff you already visited before while you're busy here, but I would rather go with you to new places."

There was a faint oooh from outside the cubicle. Adrien and Marinette ignored it. Or, well, Adrien ignored it and Marinette turned pink and started fiddling with the hem of the pants on the hanger closest to her.

"So if we are all done, I think I'll take off and go see a museum or something yet this afternoon," Adrien said, stretching. "There's still a couple more hours until they close."

"You know how to get there without getting lost?" Marinette asked, abandoning the pants to glance over at him. "Because I can tell you what bus lines-"

"You already told me a few weeks ago," Adrien reminded her gently. He waved his phone at her. "I wrote everything you told me on my phone. And I can always text you if I have any questions."

"Okay, if you're sure. Oh!" Marinette suddenly jumped, turning to her desk. "The cookies! Here, we should have them before you go."

"Right, I almost forgot!" Adrien accepted his cookie from Marinette and took a bite. It wasn't quite as good as the ones that Marinette's parents made and didn't come close to Marinette fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, but it was still fabulous. "See you later, Marinette! Don't work too late!"

"I thought you said that we were going to go back to the apartment and sleep," Plagg complained as Adrien headed for the stairs. "This isn't sleeping. This is spending too much time in your underwear around your wife and then wandering around the city."

"Exploring is more fun," Adrien shot back, ignoring the dig about his underwear. "Besides, you can sleep in my pocket just fine." He reached the stairs and starting jogging downward. Amazingly enough, the insane frenzy that had been there before had magically vanished. "It's not as though I'm going to an amusement park. You aren't going to accidentally be flung out of my pocket again."

Plagg grumbled, sticking his head further out of Adrien's jacket when he saw the coast was clear. "I still don't trust you after that." A pause. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Adrien paused at the bottom of the stairs and glanced down at himself, frowning. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

"So you're just going to leave your wife to pick up your underwear, then?"

Adrien froze, then swore and spun around to sprint right back up the stairs. He had completely forgotten to take the bag with his boxers in it with him. That was stupid of him, and he couldn't ask Marinette to have to deal with them. Maybe he should have changed back into his own things, but he did want to get over to the museum before it got too close to closing time.

Marinette glanced up as Adrien skidded back into her workspace. "Adrien? What-"

"I forgot to grab this to take back to my place," Adrien said with a sheepish smile as he snagged the former sandwich bag. "Sorry about that. See you later, Mari!"

"Have fun!" Marinette called after him.

"Which museum are we going to?" Plagg asked as Adrien jogged back down the stairs, bag safely in hand. "Aren't there a ton of museums in the city?"

"Yeah, but I'm not all that interested in some of them." Adrien waved to a few passing workers and headed out the door and onto the street. "Like the Imperial War Museum, or the London Transport Museum, or the National Maritime Museum. The Design Museum would be something I'd be more likely to visit with Marinette because otherwise I really wouldn't get anything out of it, and I want a full day for the Science Museum. Mari and I already visited an art museum, so I probably won't go to another for a bit. I'm thinking I'll do the Natural History Museum. It sounds cool."

"Is there a cheese museum? If there is, we should go there."

"No."

Marinette found herself booted out of the Rosalie Fashions at four o'clock.

"You've been working overtime all week and everything you can do is done for now," Madam Rosalie said as she shepherded Marinette and several other workers towards the doors. "Go home, get your shopping and cleaning and whatnot done before Fashion Week starts, because even once our show is over, I suspect that most of you will hang around the building late watching other shows during the rest of the week. I'll need a couple of you for a couple hours tomorrow for the fittings that couldn't make it today, but otherwise I'll see you bright and early Monday morning."

"That's nice of her," Tikki said as Marinette headed down the sidewalk. "What are you gonna do with your free afternoon?"

"I need to go grocery shopping," Marinette said with a sigh. "Just a supply run, really, but I need some fruit and some bread at the very least. Maybe some more chocolate chips as well," she added, making Tikki squeal with joy. "So we can make more chocolate-chip cookies."

"Oh, well, we definitely should go grocery shopping, then!" Tikki decided, settling into Marinette's purse. "Onward ho!"

Marinette could only giggle as she headed down the street. "Has Adrien texted at all?"

"Nope. He must have arrived at the museum just fine. Which one was he going to?"

"He didn't say." Marinette unlocked her building's door and went in, jogging up the stairs. "Ugh, if I had known that I would have the time to shop, I would have brought my bags with me so I didn't have to come back here first."

"It was nice of Adrien to say he could help out," Tikki said as Marinette ducked into her apartment and grabbed the cloth bags stored by the door. She re-locked her door and headed back down the stairs. "That was scary for a few minutes there!"

"Yeah, I'm glad he showed up." It had been a surprise to see Adrien, of course, and she had been irritated for a few moments because they were in the middle of a crisis, there wasn't time to have a lunch break, but then Madam Rosalie had roped Adrien into filling their empty model spot and everything was all right again. Of course, they had to deal with some embarrassment as Adrien had to get undressed for Marinette to fit things on him (she had tried not to look), but they had got through it.

Eventually. With a lot of blushing. Of course, they would have to do the same thing tomorrow- or, rather, nearly. Since the pants needed no adjustment, they wouldn't have to try them on again at all. Thankfully.

The shopping trip took almost no time- after a couple of months, Marinette knew the place almost like the back of her own hand and besides, she wasn't getting all that much- and then she headed home again, swinging by a bakery that caught her eye on the way back. Adrien wasn't back yet- depending on what museum he went to and if he was staying until closing time, he could be a while- so Marinette got a batch of chocolate-chip cookies going before she contemplated what they could eat for dinner. There was the fruit she just bought, of course, and she could probably pull something together with what she had bought and what she had left in her pantry, but Adrien had said something earlier during the fittings about how he had bought fixings for dinner. Once he got back, she could bring over a salad and maybe some cookies along with the treat she had picked up at the bakery on her way home to go along with whatever Adrien was making.

Decision made, Marinette set to chopping up the fruit and vegetables she had bought.

Half an hour later, her phone charmed with an incoming text. Marinette abandoned her tray of cookies, half-transferred to a cooling rack, and trotted over to the table to check the message. Behind her, unnoticed, Tikki snitched a still warm cookie and took a giant bite.

"Adrien's just leaving the Natural History Museum now," Marinette reported as Tikki tried not to let her eyes bulge out too much at how hot the cookie was. Even after living with Marinette for over six years, the kwami had not quite learned to let the cookies cool some before eating them. "He said it was great and he wouldn't mind going back again on a rainy day." She shot a short text back and returned to the kitchen. She paused when she saw Tikki with a warm, crumbling cookie sitting by her and bulging cheeks. The kwami sent her a wide smile, trying to look innocent and failing.

"That's good he liked it," Tikki managed, trying not to spray cookie crumbs as she talked. "Was that the one with the insects?"

"I told you that you had to wait until the cookies were a little cooler, Tikki," Marinette said with a sigh. She went over to the fridge and pulled out a jug of milk, pouring a small glass of milk before returning the jug to the fridge and handing the tiny glass to Tikki. The kwami took the milk with a smile and took a sip before swallowing her mouthful of cookie. She took a few more sips, emptying the small cup.

"Thank you, Marinette!"

"The cookies will be cool enough to eat in a few minutes," Marinette said with a sigh, picking up her spatula and transferring the last few cookies to the cooling rack. "And they'll still be warm and gooey, but you won't burn your mouth. Think you can wait that long?"

Tikki nodded sheepishly.

Adrien, as it had turned out, had quite enjoyed the museum.

"It's practically right on campus," he told Marinette, grinning. "So, y'know, it was a little difficult to get lost."

"Oh shush," Marinette said with a laugh, swatting at his side as he smirked at her. "You didn't say which one you were going to. For all I knew, you could be heading all the way across the city."

Adrien nodded seriously as he stirred a pot of soup. "All the way across the city and up to Scotland, to be exact. I figured that would be the most sensible thing to do."

Marinette snorted. "Right. Of course." She snickered. "If that's your idea of sensible, I can understand why your father gave you a set of rules to follow while you're here."

"Very funny."

"I thought so, too." Marinette watched Adrien stir the pot for a few more moments, then asked, "Have you let your father know yet that you won't be heading back to Paris?"

Adrien froze, then promptly swore, one hand flying to his forehead. "Shoot! No, I completely forgot. Here, can you stir this while I text him?"

"Of course." Marinette stepped easily into Adrien's place, taking the spoon and continuing with the stirring with barely an interruption at all. "But how did you forget? He's only been sending you several texts per day asking about it."

Adrien just grinned sheepishly. "I just started ignoring it, to be honest. After a while, it just became background noise."

Marinette groaned at him. Adrien laughed.

"Do you think he'll come to London to watch you walk?"

Adrien snorted as he pulled his phone out from his pocket. "Hardly. He's seen me walk before at home. If he hasn't bothered to come to see Madam Rosalie's runway shows before, he's hardly going to start now." He tapped away at the screen, then sent the text. "Done. Actually, the runway gives me a nice excuse not to go home. I was worried that my father would call me every day to try to persuade me to go back to Paris for the break."

Marinette had to laugh at that. "You were never planning on going home for the break, were you?"

Adrien flashed her a sheepish smile. "Well, I mean, I did consider it..."

Marinette waited.

"...for about an hour sometime back near the start of term," Adrien finished, trying for his best innocent look. It didn't quite fit with the strangely familiar smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. "But I knew my father would pester me if I said that right away, so I let him think that I was still trying to make up my mind."

"He pestered you anyway," Marinette said with a sigh as Adrien's phone let out a ding. Adrien had complained about the pestering nearly every day and Marinette had only just refrained from pointing out that it generally was a good idea to make up one's mind about whether or not they would be visiting well in advance so that no one would have to scramble to get last minute plane tickets. She supposed that it probably wasn't a huge deal for the Agrestes, though. They certainly had enough money to buy last-minute tickets left and right. "I fail to see how telling him outright would have made a difference."

"I figured it would be like the difference in my father's behavior when I was considering going to school in London compared to when I made my final decision," Adrien admitted, checking his phone as it let out a ding. "Father was trying to gently dissuade me when I hadn't decided yet, and then once I had, he was coming up with new reasons every day why I shouldn't go."

"Was that him?" Marinette asked, nodding to Adrien's phone.

"Yup. He's not happy, but he can understand. He was just glad that he hadn't already bought tickets for me." Another ding, and Adrien checked his phone again. "Aaaaand... he apparently already had Nathalie look up when I would be walking, so he wants to know if I'll be coming back after my part of the runway show is done."

Marinette raised a curious eyebrow as Adrien tapped out a response. "Let me guess...you 'haven't decided yet'?"

Adrien grinned and sent the message. "Nah. I said that I wanted to stick around to see the entirety of Madam Rosalie's lines walk because this was your first show, and then I want to go with you to a couple of the other shows you mentioned. By the time those would be over it wouldn't be worth the time or the money to go back to Paris."

"Using me as a shield then, hmm?" Marinette teased before glancing down into the pot. "Uh, how long do I have to stir this for?"

"Until the timer goes off." Another ding came from Adrien's phone and he checked it once more. "And hey, it worked. He said that's great and that I should stay."

Marinette raised an eyebrow.

"I might have mentioned that your parents and Nino and Alya wouldn't be able to make it," Adrien admitted with a grin. "So I would be the only person from Paris that you knew here."

Marinette laughed at that, shaking her head. "You're the worst, really."

Adrien's stomach growled before he could respond and they both laughed.

"I brought fresh cookies," Marinette said before Adrien could start snitching from the salad. With her free hand, she pointed to the small basket she had brought over. Most of the cookies she had made she had left for Tikki, but just because the small god loved chocolate-chip cookies didn't mean that Marinette couldn't share some of them. Cookies were best fresh, after all. "Go ahead."

"I'll spoil my appetite," Adrien said, though she could tell that he wasn't terribly opposed to the idea. He drifted forward a few steps. "And I really shouldn't, not until I'm done modelling for Fashion Week..."

Marinette waited.

"But I mean, I did get in some decent walking around today, what with the grocery shopping and going to Rosalie Fashions and walking around in the museum..."

Smiling, Marinette kept stirring. Adrien might try to resist the call of freshly baked cookies, but they were his weak spot. Sure enough, seconds later, there was the sound of quiet munching.

Hah. She knew he wouldn't be able to resist.

"What did you look at in the Natural History Museum?" Marinette asked, peering into the pot of soup. "Surely you couldn't see everything?"

"Some things were more interesting than others," Adrien admitted. He didn't move away from the basket of cookies. "I spent most of my time in the Blue Zone. They have so many specimens, it's amazing. And the blue whale model, and the skeletons-"

The timer beeped, and Marinette stopped stirring. Adrien trotted over, cookie hanging half-eaten from his lips.

"Time to eat!" Adrien announced, switching off the heat. He took another bite of his cookie and grinned at her. "If I still have space for it, that is."

Marinette poked his side. "Yeah, yeah. You say that like I didn't just see you put away three whole servings for dinner yesterday. I'm sure you'll survive."

Adrien just laughed.

"Tart?" Marinette offered as Adrien brought his plate and bowl into the kitchen once they were finished with dinner. "I swung past the bakery while I was out on my supply run and I just couldn't resist."

Adrien groaned as he paused. The tarts Marinette was offering smelled (and looked) amazing, and there was nothing more he wanted to do than eat one, but... "Did you forget that I'm being a model again? I'm pretty certain I'm not allowed carbohydrates, never mind sweets. You'll destroy my diet."

"Do some jumping jacks first, then."

He couldn't hold back his laugh. "I don't think our downstairs neighbors would appreciate that."

"Do it tomorrow, then, between your fittings. No downstairs neighbors to worry about."

Adrien grinned and took the plate Marinette was offering before ruffling her hair with his other hand. His friend laughed and ducked away. "You're an awful influence on me, I hope you know that."

Marinette grinned as she patted her hair back down. "Guilty."

"I'm blaming you if I can't fit into my pants during Fashion Week," Adrien said with a laugh as he took the first bite of his tart. He closed his eyes as he let the taste melt on his tongue. "Mmmm. This is delicious."

"Worth the jumping jacks?"

Well, he wasn't about to let her win that easily. "Well, maybe..."

Definitely. It would definitely be worth it, even if Adrien had actually been worried about the extra treat at all. With his tests over, he could just go for a quick run over the rooftops to work off the extra energy from the tart- and from the cookies- in a heartbeat. Besides, it wasn't as though he had been on a diet in the first place. He had been eating normally, sweets and all, and the clothes had been fit to that.

"So dramatic," Marinette sighed as she settled into her chair with her own tart. She took a bite and sighed in bliss. "I knew these looked good. I just had to buy them."

"Doesn't everything in a bakery look good?" It certainly did to Adrien. He had to restrain himself from popping in to buy something from the bakery on the way to the bus stop every day.

"In a good bakery, maybe. Others are a bit of a mixed bag." Marinette took another bite and Adrien waited for her to swallow and keep explaining. "Some places tend to overbake things, or maybe they didn't do their caramelization quite right, or there's just things off that make me think that they didn't combine things quite right." She shrugged. "It comes with growing up in a bakery. Papa would sometimes experiment with new recipes and we would taste them. Some things were more successful than others."

"I can't see your dad making anything that tasted anything less than delightful."

Marinette laughed at that. "I'm inviting you over next time he goes on an experimenting spree. He almost always does it during the month that we have to be closed for vacation and some of his first round of creations are less than great."

"I can't wait." Adrien took another slow bite of the tart, savoring the flavor. He'd definitely have to buy more in the future because it really was superb. "Does he add new things to the bakery often, then, if his experiments work out?"

"Not often. Normally he turns those things into a special of the month, or holiday specials. Sometimes he finds something that's popular enough that he'll add it to the regular selection."

"Doesn't it make it harder to make everything if he has a wider variety of things that he offers?" Adrien wanted to know. "Because I know that croissants take forever, and decorating takes time, and your family makes so much of everything..."

"And we only have so much shelf space," Marinette pointed out. "But we do have mixing vats for some of the big bread batches, and my parents do have other staff that come in and help get things going in the morning. They wouldn't be able to get everything done themselves, even as early as they get up. My dad bakes throughout the day, of course, so that things on the shelves are fresh all day. Some people pile up the shelves at the start of the day and don't keep baking, but my dad said that just leads to dry, stale bread and a lot of people want warm bread when they come into a bakery."

"It does seem like it tastes better when warm," Adrien admitted. "Whatever your parents are doing, it certainly does seem to be working for them. Their bakery is amazing." He took another bite of his tart. "Do they make anything like this?"

"I don't think so. I should bring a couple to my father next time I go home and see if my dad can come up with a recipe of his own. I think they would be popular."

"You'd never get me to leave if your father made these," Adrien said with a grin before he changed the subject. "What time does Madam Rosalie want me to come in tomorrow? And is there a dress rehearsal before the show?"

"About nine, and no, we just have workers that shove the models into place and out onto the runway. It's less work that way, according to Madam Rosalie. And it generally works, as long as we have experienced models. That was part of the reason that we really didn't want to have to pick up a new model last-minute, because they might not be experienced enough to handle the way Madam Rosalie does it."

"I'll get to sleep in, then," Adrien decided with a grin. He finished his last bite of the tart, cleaning off the plat, and then he glanced up at his friend. "Well, I have nothing to study and you have nothing to sew. Want to watch a movie?"

"You bet."

A/N: Yay, something that resembles some sort of plot! :D (also why I needed Adrien free for a week in the middle of his semester). Next time: Runway week!