11. Chapter 11

All right. Before we start, I would like to address a review I got from a guest, oh, maybe two days ago. They said, and I quote, "please post soon its been a while"

It had been three. days. since I had last updated. THREE DAYS.

In what world does three days count as "a while"? It doesn't. Ever. And on top of that, begging an author to update is never cool. Don't do it again. I have my update schedule and I am sticking to it.

They woke up bright and early Saturday morning. Neither Adrien nor Marinette were particularly cheerful about it- weekends were for sleeping in, darn it- but if they wanted to fit in everything that they planned, they had to catch the earliest train out of London to Salisbury.

"I'm gonna sleep the whole way there," Marinette announced as they boarded the bus, breakfast in hand and lunches in backpacks. "How long is the train ride? An hour and a half?"

"Something like that." Adrien stifled a yawn. "I'll check and then set my phone alarm so we wake up five minutes before we get there. I'll probably drop off too."

"Funny thing, I remember you being an annoying morning person when we were younger," Marinette said as they settled into their seats and the bus rumbled off towards the train station. "I was the only one always running late."

"I grew out of that good habit," Adrien said with a laugh that immediately turned into a jaw-cracking yawn. He only just managed to cover the yawn with his hand. "I'm hoping to find a reason to move into my own apartment when I get back to Paris after I graduate, because my father gets up at five and thinks that everyone else should, too."

"Yuck."

"I usually managed to push back my wake-up to six, but that was still too early. Especially on weekends." He yawned again just remembering it. "And wake-up was six-thirty most days when I was younger, and earlier if there was a morning photoshoot. Once I was in school, the sunrise photoshoots were on the weekends."

"I would have said to greenscreen it," Marinette managed through another yawn. "Too early. Not worth it."

"They were nice pictures," Adrien admitted. "It's hard to mimic that kind of lighting in a studio. And it wasn't that bad most of the time. I was used to it." He'd be a walking zombie if he tried that now, though. The makeup artists would have to spend half an hour just covering up the bags under his eyes and trying to make him look awake, and then they would lose the lighting that they had wanted to get.

Marinette just yawned in response and let her head droop onto Adrien's shoulder.

"You aren't allowed to sleep yet, Mari," Adrien insisted, jiggling his shoulder. "Eat your breakfast before you fall asleep and drop it."

Marinette groaned, lifting her head and shooting a disgruntled look at Adrien before she sat up and started eating the toast-and-jam sandwich she had made for her breakfast. Adrien had to smother a snort at how incredibly grouchy she looked. He hadn't known it was even possible to look so disgruntled while eating.

It was actually pretty cute.

They fell into an easy silence as they ate their breakfasts. The bus stopped and started up again, pulling over at stops every few blocks as it rumbled towards the train station. Marinette started leaning against him again once she finished eating, and Adrien had to grin as he nudged her back upright. Marinette obviously was very determined to fall right back asleep.

"You know, I was kind of kidding about sleeping on the train," Adrien said as Marinette grumbled and rearranged her head on his shoulder again. "I kind of thought we would both be wide awake by the time we got there, since we have to, y'know, walk around and pay for our tickets and find the platform-"

"Less talking from the pillow," Marinette ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Adrien responded immediately, and then he noticed where they were. "Actually, Mari, we're almost there. Up up."

Marinette's only response was another long groan.

"If I need to carry you into the station, you know the tabloids will be all over us again," Adrien warned her, prodding her side. "C'mon, do your zombie walk off of the bus and to the ticket office. You can sleep on the train, but not before we get on."

"I hate early mornings," Marinette grumbled as Adrien shoved her upright and steered her off of the bus. "They should be outlawed. It's not even that light out yet."

"You didn't complain this much during Fashion Week," Adrien pointed out, amused. Sleepy Marinette was honestly adorable. "You got up early then and functioned just fine."

"I was running on a half-dozen liters of caffeine," Marinette admitted, yawning. "Coffee and tea and more coffee and more tea and-"

"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Adrien said, cutting off Marinette before she could ramble too much. "Maybe we should buy some tea along with our tickets."

"But then I wouldn't be able to sleep on the train," Marinette protested. She leaned against Adrien as they headed down a set of stairs. "And I wanna sleep."

"Right, tea at the station in Salisbury, then." Adrien steered Marinette towards the ticket office. "You think you can make it to the train without falling asleep again?"

"Ugh."

Marinette did, in fact, manage to get to the train without falling asleep again. Somehow she also managed to not wake up further while she and Adrien were walking around the station.

"Your yawning is making me tired again," Adrien said with a laugh as he herded Marinette onto the right train, making sure that she didn't trip as she stepped into the train. "If you keep that up, I'm going to fall asleep on the train ride too."

"I thought that that was the plan?"

Adrien didn't correct her as they settled in their seats. Adrien took the window seat- he was more likely to be awake, so he could admire the countryside rushing past, and he could also deal with the sun in his face- and Marinette settled in the seat next to him. She was still yawning, which in turn was making him yawn.

"I'm starting to think I might end up dozing off as well," Adrien said as Marinette settled her backpack in her lap. "You're making me tired."

"'kay," Marinette mumbled through another yawn. Then she frowned. "But if both of us are sleeping, who's gonna watch our bags?"

"I'll take your backpack," Adrien offered, holding out a hand. "If it's between my side and the wall it should be safe, even if both of us are asleep."

"Great." Marinette handed over her pack and immediately dropped her head onto Adrien's shoulder. "Good night."

Adrien snickered.

Despite his worries, it didn't take Adrien long at all to drop off. Marinette's head on his shoulder made a perfect pillow for him. They both slept soundly as the train rattled from London towards Salisbury and then, just as planned, Adrien's phone woke them up shortly before the train pulled into their station.

Marinette groaned and buried her face in Adrien's shoulder. "I was sleeping."

"We should have gone to bed earlier," Adrien said as he tried to dislodge Marinette. He wasn't having a whole lot of success. She could be as heavy as a boulder when she wanted to be. "Come on, time to get up."

"Ugh."

The train started slowing down as they approached the station. Marinette finally let go of Adrien's shoulder, sitting up and accepting her backpack as Adrien handed it back to her. They waited for the train to come to a stop and for the doors to open, and then they were stepping out into the crisp fall air.

"I'm glad that it's actually nice outside," Adrien said as they headed for the bus stop right outside of the train station. "It would probably be miserable if it were raining."

"Oh, that would be awful," Marinette agreed around a yawn. "I mean, maybe Stonehenge would look more mythical if it was foggy outside, but I would probably be tempted to run up, snap two photos, and then immediately run after the bus again. Being outside wouldn't be any fun."

"How long do we have until the bus to Stonehenge comes?" Adrien asked. Just down the street there was a little shop that looked like it might sell tea and if he had a few minutes, it would probably be a good idea to buy something. Both he and Marinette were still a little drowsy and could probably use a bit of a jolt so they could actually enjoy their day.

Marinette checked her phone. "Ten minutes. That's if it's on time. Emily said that it was running a little behind when they came."

"All right! I'm gonna go check out that shop, all right? Hopefully they would have something that wake us up."

Marinette looked interested. "Yeah, yeah, that would be good! Just- I mean, don't cut it too close. We don't want to miss the bus."

"I'll be back with plenty of time," Adrien promised. It couldn't possibly take that long to grab two cups of tea and maybe a cheesy treat for Plagg. "Green tea?"

"Yeah. And a little sugar, please."

Adrien nodded and turned, jogging up the block. The small cafe was nearly empty, but Adrien still had to wait in line for a few minutes before he could place his order. Plagg vibrated excitedly in his jacket when Adrien ordered a cheese bread bun- as he had expected- and then Adrien had to wait for several agonizingly long minutes as the tea was made. He wouldn't be even half as impatient any other day, but he had a bus to catch.

Adrien tucked a bite of the cheese bun into his jacket for Plagg and then jittered his leg impatiently.

"Two green teas for Adrien!" the barista called, and Adrien practically rocketed to the counter. He plopped a few sugar cubes into each, snapped the travel lids on, and was out of the building as fast as he could go. He could see the bus coming up the street towards the stop where Marinette was waiting.

Shoot.

Adrien broke into a jog, trying to keep the tea from sloshing too much. He could see Marinette's expression turned relieved as she caught sight of him. She waved down the bus and boarded as he drew closer. Adrien got on seconds behind her, just in time to see Marinette paying the tickets for both of them.

"Cutting it just a bit close, eh?" Marinette teased as Adrien followed her back to one of the empty seats. "I was starting to worry."

"Yeah, there wasn't much of a line but I failed to take into account steeping time," Adrien replied, handing one of the cups over to Marinette. "But hey, I got us our caffeine."

"Perfect." Marinette popped the lid and took a careful sip. "We might actually be functioning human beings by the time we get there."

Stonehenge was awesome.

Marinette and Adrien made a beeline for the stones themselves first. They couldn't walk right up to the stones, of course, but they could stand behind a rope about ten meters out. Since they had gotten there pretty much as soon as the place opened, the crowds were light.

"This is so cool," Marinette said as she snapped a few photos. "And to think that no one knows why it was built in the first place! That's just... wow."

"Right," Adrien agreed. As soon as Marinette turned back to admiring the stones, Adrien glanced inside of his jacket at Plagg. "Plagg! Do you know why Stonehenge was built?"

"Wasn't around this part of the world at the time," Plagg said, yawning widely and only sparing the stones a bored glance. He peered up at Adrien. "Do you have any more of that cheese bread?"

Adrien sighed but passed Plagg another bit of the bread anyway.

From the stones they headed to the visitor center. Adrien found the science more interesting than Marinette did ("I think I vaguely recall some of this stuff from, like, lycée," Marinette said after Adrien had to clarify what one of the signs was saying), but they both had a lot of fun exploring.

"Ooh, we might want to get going soon," Marinette said after a bit as she checked her phone. "The bus is coming soon, so unless we want to hang around for another whole hour we should probably make our way in that direction."

"Ooh, good catch!" Adrien pulled away from the board he had been absent-mindedly staring at to glance at the time on his own phone. Sure enough, the bus would be coming in ten minutes. They probably wanted to give themselves five extra minutes of wriggle room just to be sure that they wouldn't miss the bus by accident. "Yeah, I think I'm done here. I think I've read everything that I would be interested in. After a while, it just starts getting to be a bit much."

"Agreed," Marinette said as they wove between displays. "It's one of the reasons why I love that some of the museums in London don't have a fee for general displays. I don't have to feel like I have to see everything to get my money's worth."

"Yeah, yeah! I like that. You read a couple exhibits one day, then come back another day and read a few more so it doesn't get too overwhelming." Adrien glanced around at the exhibits surrounding them. It was a lot of information to look at and take in. "This is cool but any more and my brain is gonna explode."

"I got some lovely pictures," Marinette said, holding up her camera with a grin. "And I think I have a couple pattern ideas I want to play with. I might try to get a couple rough sketches done on the bus so I don't forget anything."

"Always working," Adrien mock-scolded with a playful grin on his face. "And while we're out on an adventure, no less. Shame, shame."

"It's killing time on the bus," Marinette shot right back. Adrien immediately snorted. "I- oh, what are you snickering about?"

Adrien grinned at her as they left the building and headed to the bus station. "Well, if you hear it the right way, it's killing time on the bus. Like, time to kill-"

"That is not what I meant," Marinette groaned as she caught on to what Adrien was saying. She reached out to swat at his side. "Really, Adrien, how on earth did you hear it like that?!"

"I was just reading about the theories that Stonehenge might have been the site of religious sacrifices," Adrien pointed out, still grinning at Marinette's exasperation. "So I do actually have an excuse for the somewhat morbid turn that my thoughts took."

"Uh-huh. If you say so."

They fell quiet as they joined the small crowd waiting for the bus. They hadn't been there for long when the bus rolled up and they boarded. Marinette settled by the window and pulled out her tablet to get her rough sketches started.

"Isn't that your old tablet?" Adrien asked as Marinette opened her drawing program and started making a few quick lines. "You aren't using the one from Madam Rosalie?"

"This one still works," Marinette reminded him. A color wheel popped up on her screen and she make a few quick swipes before selecting a dark green color. "And the other one is expensive. I didn't want to have to worry about losing it, or someone stealing it, or dropping it in our rush to get somewhere."

"Fair point," Adrien admitted. He watched as a lovely pattern took shape on Marinette's screen. It was actually surprisingly neat for what was supposed to be a rough sketch. Marinette switched between colors and pen thicknesses with ease as she filled in the screen. After the first rough draft was done, Marinette saved it and started a new page. By the time they got back to Salisbury, Marinette had three designs started.

"Maybe you should start a line of English Attractions-patterned skirts," Adrien suggested as they headed over to the Salisbury Cathedral. "Is that what you were going for?"

"A little bit, maybe. I don't know." Marinette checked her map and kept walking. "Mostly I wanted to draw my ideas while I had them. I'll figure out what I'll do with them later."

"I bet you'll get inspired to do something stained-glass related when we get to the cathedral," Adrien said confidently, guiding Marinette around a light post before she could run into it. "They're supposed to be gorgeous."

Marinette made a face at that. "I don't know. People have already done stained glass designs, y'know? It's not anything new."

"Maybe, but they aren't you, and you haven't done stained glass windows," Adrien said, patting Marinette's shoulder. "And nobody else can do things exactly the same as you do. Don't let the stained glass patterns that already exist prevent you from getting inspired."

"Maybe you should go into inspirational speech writing instead of Physics," Marinette teased, grinning. "Ooh! Look, the Queen Elizabeth Gardens!"

"Do you want to pop in?" Adrien asked. It wasn't on their list of places to visit today, but they could change their plans easily enough.

"I don't think so. It's late fall, so there wouldn't really be any flowers blooming or anything." Marinette peered in through the fence regardless, glancing around the part of the garden they could see. "Maybe we can come back in the spring. I can't imagine that it would be that different than the parks near us, though."

"Fair enough." Adrien waited as Marinette snapped a few quick pictures through the fence and then they were on their way again. "How long do we have until we need to catch the train to Bath?"

"An hour and a half. It's not super-long, but if we want to explore Bath while there's still daylight..."

"We'd better march, then. Chop chop, hurry along!"

By the time they had finished touring Bath, the sun was almost completely set. Adrien and Marinette hurried to the train station in the semi-darkness, exhausted, footsore, and very, very hungry.

"We should have packed a bigger lunch," Adrien said as they waited for their train. The smell of food was wafting over to them from the two cafes at the station, tempting him and making his stomach rumble. If it weren't for the fact that the train was about to arrive, he would definitely have bought something. As it was, the combination of the time and the long lines for food made it a definite no. "How long will it be until we get back to London?"

"Ninety minutes. And then we'll still have the bus ride back to our building." Marinette glanced at her watch again, checking the time against her ticket. "I really thought we had packed enough. I mean, I figured that we might get a little hungry near the end of the ride back to London..."

"We're buying chips the second we set foot into the London station," Adrien said decisively as their train pulled into the station, clacking to a stop in front of the waiting passengers. "We can eat those on the bus back to our building."

Marinette gave him a dubious look. "Uh, I see two problems with that. One, the food inside the station is bound to be at least a little more expensive than the places nearby and besides, the lines will probably be awful. Two, I don't think eating is allowed on the bus."

Adrien groaned. "Ugh. Killjoy."

"No, just practical. C'mon, let's get on the train."

Adrien followed with a pout. He knew Marinette was right, but it was going to be a long, long ninety minutes with a complaining stomach and the countryside too dark to see anything interesting. Add in a few whiny young children that were bound to be sharing a carriage with them, and Adrien already couldn't wait for the ride to be over.

"It's nice to get away for a day," Marinette said as they settled into their seats on the train. "Especially this weekend. I would have gone mad if I had to stay in my apartment this weekend."

"Why, because the weather is so gorgeous?"

Marinette shook her head. "No- well, okay, partially. But you know how my next door neighbor got married and moved out? There's a new renter there now and they were moving in some stuff late yesterday and were making a ton of noise. I bet they were going to move the rest in today and I really didn't want to listen to them banging around."

Adrien raised an eyebrow at that. He could maybe understand hearing a lot of thuds if a neighbor upstairs was moving in, but a next-door neighbor? He hadn't heard so much as a peep from his next-door neighbor, who was another Rosalie intern. "Surely they couldn't have been making that much noise?"

"I thought it was impossible too. I was wrong." Marinette rolled her eyes. "I don't even understand what they could have possibly been moving around! The apartment is already furnished, so it's not like they had to get furniture in. That I would have understood."

"They might still be moving in some other furniture," Adrien reminded Marinette. "Another few living room chairs and, I don't know, another desk or something. The stuff that came with the place is kind of basic even by, y'know, normal standards." He grinned, remembering his own room back in Paris. "Maybe they're moving in a Foosball table."

"It sounded like they were moving an entire mansion in," Marinette grumbled. Her lower lip jutted out in a pout. "And then playing Jenga with the furniture."

Adrien snorted.

"I'm hoping that they'll be quieter once they've gotten everything settled," Marinette added with a sigh and a pout. "I mean, at least I'm not studying in the evenings or anything like you are, but still. If they're going to keep being loud..."

"Let's not get too worried about it unless something actually happens, eh?" Adrien suggested, wrapping an arm around Marinette's shoulders and tugging her into his side. "They may be perfectly nice people who just aren't particularly skilled at moving."

A small smile slipped onto Marinette's face. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just not used to hearing anything over there. My old neighbor on that side was as quiet as a mouse."

"And maybe this one will be, too," Adrien said. He smiled at her. "And besides, you know that you can always go over and complain if they're being too noisy, right? Just ask them to turn it down. Maybe they're used to having their own place out in the country or something and aren't used to having neighbors. And if they don't stop, then just talk to the landlord. I'm pretty sure there's some article of the lease we signed that says something about noise levels."

"That's true." Marinette fell quiet as the train started up again, slowly chugging out of the station before starting to pick up speed. They both turned to watch the lights of Bath fade away as they sped away towards London.

"Did you get inspired by any of the stuff we saw in Bath?" Adrien asked, breaking the silence once the lights from the city faded away into pinpricks in the distance. "I thought the architecture and decorations were pretty cool."

"They were. I took some pictures of the stuff I want to play with." Marinette smothered a yawn with her hand and continued, leaning her head against Adrien's shoulder. "And you know how the steam kind of blew around so one moment things were kind of muted and the next, the steam blew away and you could see people on the other side who were wearing really bright clothes? I want to experiment with something like that, I think. It could look really cool- or like a disaster, if I do it wrong."

"It'll look good," Adrien said, completely confident. Marinette could make anything that she put her mind to, he was sure of it. Maybe it would take a little trial and error first, but Marinette was both determined and crazy creative.

"I still don't quite get how some people visit every month," Marinette said, referring to a couple they had passed earlier in the city. They had overheard the two talking about their monthly visits to Bath, which both of them had been a little surprised to hear. "I mean, I can get coming back maybe twice a year or something, but every month?"

"They were probably referring to the Bath Spa," Adrien pointed out. "I wouldn't mind coming back and checking that out sometime. Maybe we could do that next time when I have midterms and you have a runway show. Or whenever," Adrien added hastily after a moment. He had almost forgotten that Marinette was only supposed to be in London for a year. It was very possible- very probable, really- that Adrien would finish his fall midterms the next year and go back home to an empty flat. He wasn't looking forward to that. "It would be a nice, relaxing day trip."

"That would be nice." A pause. "Aaand then reporters would be on our backs about a 'romantic getaway' to a 'romantic spa'."

Adrien only grinned. "Then I would just point out that going by myself would make me look like a pathetic loser with no friends. Stuff like that is always more fun with another person. Besides, it's not like it's a nude resort or anything, it's completely normal-" At Marinette's giggle, he rolled his eyes. "And I just made it weird, didn't I."

"I didn't know that you knew that nude resorts even existed. I thought that you were supposed to be the socially clueless kid." Marinette giggled again. "Should I even ask, Mr. Agreste?"

Adrien flushed. "It's- okay, I'm socially clueless, maybe, but I grew up with a computer in my room. The internet is a dark, dark place."

"Ooh, spicy!"

Adrien turned even redder. "No, I didn't mean- that's not- I didn't-"

Marinette cackled.

"Someone mentioned their existence online and I googled it," Adrien finally managed. "I didn't just, y'know, decide to look it up or anything, and all of the photos on the websites are censored anyway-"

Marinette choked, snorted, and then laughed even harder. Adrien frowned for a moment, reviewing his words, and then he flushed even deeper as he realized what he had implied. He spluttered helplessly, protesting as best as he could. "That's- no, I wasn't looking at websites to look at pictures, I was just curious about- I mean, not curious about the people, I was curious about what they actually were and how they actually worked, I swear I wasn't-"

"I know, I was just teasing you." Marinette cackled again, wiping away a few stray tears. "I know we joke about you being all oblivious and pure and all, but apparently we should have looked at your internet search history before coming to that conclusion."

"Oh, shush you," Adrien said with a laugh, elbowing her lightly. "You forget that I was young and oblivious once and didn't have any friends to answer my questions for me, to I had to look it all up on the Internet. And then I would look one thing up, and it would mention another thing that I didn't know about, so I would search that, too."

"Corrupted from a young age and we didn't even know it," Marinette sighed dramatically as Adrien groaned. She giggled at his distressed look and finally took pity on him. "So you were saying about the spa?"

Adrien perked up. "I think it would be fun to go for part of the day. Maybe we wouldn't do any of the treatments or massages, but swimming around in the hot pools could be fun."

"How much did you look up about the spa?" Marinette asked, curious. "It sounds like you know at least a little bit about it."

Adrien pulled a pamphlet out of his bag and waved it at her with a grin. "I snagged this from the train station when we came in and then I flipped through it a little when you were taking pictures of that one bit of wall. It sounds interesting."

"Some of these treatments just sound weird," said Marinette, who had snitched the pamphlet from Adrien and started flipping through it. "I mean, bamboo rod massage? For nearly an hour? What do they do, roll a stick back and forth on your back?"

Adrien shrugged. "Or do taps. I've heard of that, too."

"And a candle massage where they drip melted wax from a candle on you? How is that relaxing?"

"I think it's a special wax with a lower melting temperature," Adrien offered. "No burns involved."

"Yeah, that would probably be bad for business." Marinette regarded the pamphlet again before handing it back to Adrien. "It sounds like it could be fun. I've never done something like that before."

"Then we have to do it. Someday, somehow." Adrien tucked the pamphlet back in his bag before glancing over at Marinette again. "Uh... you did bring a swimsuit to London, right?"

"I did. But even if I hadn't, it's not as though I never visit Paris," Marinette pointed out. "I mean, I can't imagine that we would be going to the spa this fall or this winter. I'll be back in Paris for a bit over Christmas." Still, she didn't look particularly convinced. "I just... I'm a little concerned about the cost. I mean, the occasional trip by itself isn't bad, but for multiple trips... Even if we make reservations ages in advance and apply promotion discounts, train tickets add up, and then there's entrance fees for the baths themselves. I don't know how much stuff costs, but..."

...oh. Adrien really hadn't considered the cost much, but Marinette was right. He really should have. Their visits to the museums and other sights around London really hadn't cost much, but their current trip had been more expensive. They were hardly traveling every weekend or anything, but Marinette was living on an intern's salary and from other conversations that they had had during their dinners together, it sounded like Marinette had wanted to start getting some proper savings built up sooner rather than later. Going on big trips wouldn't exactly help with that.

"There are a lot of different levels of pricing," Adrien hastened to assure her. "Just the baths themselves really aren't that expensive. And actually, now that I think about it, it might be fun to do one of the treatments while we're there. Just to see what it's like."

Marinette looked supremely unconvinced. Adrien suspected that the cost might still be holding her back.

"We don't have to make any sort of decision about it now," Adrien pointed out when Marinette didn't say anything more. "It was just an idea to keep in mind for the future, if we wanted to go traveling again."

"It does sound interesting," Marinette allowed. "But it looks like a lot of the treatments are only offered Monday to Friday, so on top of the cost I'd also be missing work and using up one of my vacation days, and I'd really rather not do that."

Adrien frowned a bit. "Do you not get many days off? I thought you said that you were getting more from your pattern design time."

Marinette nodded. "I am, and I'm really glad that I am, but I didn't have many days to start out with and I had wanted to save them for trips back home...even though right now it looks like that will mainly just be at Christmas and Easter."

"So you don't want to use up those days on a trip out here again," Adrien finished. "Like I said, we don't need to decide anything, and we don't even need to come back again. It's just an idea."

"I'll keep that in mind," Marinette promised, then she glanced up at him. "So how long of a break do you have for Christmas?"

Adrien perked up at the mention of the holiday. He hadn't really thought about it much before since he had so many other things demanding his attention, but it was starting to get relatively close, and the start of his break even closer. "About three weeks, give or take. I'll be coming back after two, though. I told Nathalie that I needed the time to get ready for the start of the second term." He realized with a start that Marinette wouldn't have anywhere close to that amount of time off. They had never actually discussed it, but talking about the upcoming holidays reminded him that he didn't know any details. Even with all of the time they spent together, they seemed to spend most of it talking about their day or just talking about nothing in particular. "How long do you have off?"

"Not long enough," Marinette muttered a bit rebelliously. She huffed out a short breath and then sighed. "I get several days off for Christmas, and then like I said I'll be using a couple vacation days. I guess it's a decent amount of time and all once that's taken into account, but it's just not as long as I'm used to getting, and a couple days are going to be used up travelling to Paris and back."

"Right, right, of course."

They fell silent again, watching blurry shapes rushing past the train windows. A rain had started up, streaking the windows and making it even more impossible to see out. Adrien let his thoughts wander back to the upcoming holidays and what he would be doing with his time in Paris. He was fairly certain that he wouldn't have his two full weeks in Paris actually off, nor had he ever been able to relax completely and do absolutely no work during his school holidays. There were photoshoots to do and functions to attend scattered throughout his time back. He was tempted to check with Nathalie to see if he had bookings throughout his break or if he could either leave London later or return even earlier than he had initially planned so that Marinette didn't have to be by herself for so long around the holidays-

Except that she had planned to be in London by herself, Adrien reminded himself before he could get too involved in the idea. It wasn't as though they had planned to come together. Marinette had her friends at work to hang out with, and they probably had a holiday party before everyone left, too. She wouldn't get too lonely.

Of course, he could always hang around more and spend most of his nighttime hours prowling the rooftops and trying to run into Ladybug. She hadn't mentioned at all what her plans for the break were, so he wasn't actually sure when she would be going back to Paris- or, technically, if she would be retuning at all. Like with Marinette, he had sort of just assumed what her plans were without actually asking.

"If you take the train back, you could always draw patterns then and count it as work time instead of as a day off," Adrien spoke up again, breaking the silence between them. "...or you could draw regular clothes designs too, I suppose."

"Thank you for the permission, O Great Fashion Guru," Marinette deadpanned, making Adrien grin. Sassy Marinette was fun. "I don't suppose I could wrangle permission to design a couple hats or some jewelry, could I?"

"Does Madam Rosalie make hats and jewelry? I didn't know that." His father did, Adrien knew that. He didn't make a ton of jewelry, but the pieces he did make tended to be simple and elegant.

Marinette shrugged. "She dabbles in it, I think. But if I come up with a hat or necklace design, I can design an entire outfit to go with it. It's a good jumping-off point."

They fell silent for a bit after that. Adrien scrolled through the pictures on his phone as Marinette did a few more rough sketches for pattern ideas and doodled a design for a filigree necklace. By the time they pulled into the London station, though, both of them were poised on the edges of their seats, ready to get off and make a beeline to the bus station so they could get back to their flats, where there were leftovers that were definitely calling their names.

"Can't this bus go any faster?" Adrien grumbled once they were on the bus back to their apartments. He fidgeted in his seat and pressed a hand to his growling stomach. "We should have bought a snack before we got on the bus, Mari. I don't know if I'm gonna survive the ride home."

"If we had stopped to buy something, we would have missed this bus and would have had to wait half an hour for the next one." Still, Marinette couldn't help the annoyed huff she let out when the bus pulled over yet again to pick up another couple people. Seriously, wasn't it late enough that there shouldn't be that many people taking the bus? "I'm sure you'll survive. I'm not dragging your lifeless body up the stairs to your flat."

Adrien only grinned.

Adrien was, in fact, still living as the bus pulled up to the station closest to their flats. They still had to walk a few blocks to get to their building, but it wasn't a bad stroll at all. Or at least it wouldn't have been, if Adrien had been able to stop his impatient jittering.

"I'm this close to just sitting on you until you stop," Marinette said grouchily as Adrien made to dash forward again. Really, he was just as bad as Chat Noir had been when their fights went on for too long and they missed a meal. Both boys got impatient and a bit whiny when denied their food, apparently. "I've heard that if you're hungry for long enough, you just sort of stop feeling it after a while."

"Cruel and unusual punishment," Adrien claimed immediately, all but jogging in place as Marinette caught up to him. "Do you really hate me that much, Marinette?"

Marinette could only sigh.

Another five minutes, and Marinette found herself sighing again as Adrien dashed up the stairs in their building. She couldn't help but let her own feet speed up as she followed, only to nearly slam into Adrien in front of his door. He was staring down the hallway towards her new neighbor's door. Music floated down the hallway, not ridiculously loud but still clearly audible.

Marinette groaned. There was really only one explanation for that look. "Are they really still being noisy?"

"There was a really big bang a few seconds ago," Adrien admitted. "I can see what you were talking about earlier. I'm kind of curious now about what exactly they're doing that's making that much noise."

"I don't care, as long as they cut it out soon," Marinette grumbled, edging past Adrien to get to her own door. If she had to put up with moving noise, she was going to do it with food in her stomach. "I won't be able to sleep if they keep doing that."

"I'm sure they'll stop moving things around by the time you go to bed," Adrien said, even as he cast a nervous glance down the hallway. "We've always had nice neighbors here before. Surely it won't be that bad."

Marinette could only hope he was right.

A/N: ...gee, famous last words, maybe? Can't possibly imagine what that might lead to :D And yes, this chapter was 100% the result of too much research that I didn't want to let go to waste.

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