12. Chapter 12

Wednesday night, Adrien was awakened by the sound of someone pounding at his door.

"What on earth," he groaned as he rolled out of bed. Plagg whined in protest as he was jostled. "Who in the world would be at my door at half-past midnight?"

"Paparazzi hoping for a picture of you in your pajamas," Plagg suggested sleepily.

"How would they even get in the building?"

"Don't know, don't care," was his only response.

Adrien rubbed at his eyes as he stumbled down the hallway towards the front door. He was too tired to deal with this right now. If it was reporters hoping for a picture, he wouldn't hesitate to call the police on them. He peered through the peephole on the door, expecting to see someone clutching an oversized camera.

Instead he saw Marinette, looking exhausted and clutching a blanket around her shoulders.

Adrien didn't hesitate to unlock the door and pull it open. "Marinette? What are you doing still up?"

"My neighbor is playing music pretty loud," Marinette said, yawning. She looked absolutely miserable. "I tried earplugs, I tried noise-cancelling headphones, I tried sleeping on my couch but that wasn't much better. I can't fall asleep, so I was wondering-"

"You can sleep over," Adrien said immediately. Now that he was out in the hallway, he could hear the music. It was ridiculously loud, especially considering that it was both late and a weeknight. "Of course, come on in."

"Thank you," Marinette breathed as Adrien ushered her in. The blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders dragged a little behind her as she walked and there was an odd bulge on her side that Adrien suspected was her pillow. "I'm sorry about waking you up."

"It's not a problem," Adrien assured her quickly as he locked the door again. "Did you lock your flat up?"

"Uh-huh," Marinette managed around a yawn. She fished a hand out from under her blanket and deposited a set of keys and her phone on the table next to the couch. "I figured you would say yes." She yawned again as she flopped down on his couch. She reached into her blanket and pulled out the pillow, fluffing it under her head and shuffling her blanket around to huddle under it. Adrien watched in amusement as Marinette slowly vanished under the blanket. Messy strands of black hair poked out from the top.

It was cute.

"You are not sleeping on the couch," Adrien insisted after a moment, suddenly realizing what Marinette was doing. "I'm serious. It's no good for your back. I've tried to take naps on it before, and I always regretted it. I can share the bed, it's definitely big enough."

Marinette's head popped up from under the blanket, eyes wide as she stared at Adrien. "I couldn't-"

"I'll be the perfect gentleman, I promise," Adrien said, holding up his hands. "Really, Marinette, your back will be killing you tomorrow. We can share the bed. It's clean, I swear. I just washed the sheets yesterday."

Marinette bit her lip, looking uncertain, and Adrien waited. He didn't want to push her- if she was uncomfortable sharing the bed with him, he wouldn't push it and risk making her uncomfortable- but he just had to make sure that she knew that he didn't mind. He didn't snore (according to Plagg, at least; the kwami didn't exactly have any reason to lie), he didn't steal the blankets (much), and they were both on the leaner side, so in theory sharing the bed should be fine.

(Of course, Marinette might snore and steal blankets, but somehow Adrien doubted that.)

"I suppose," Marinette said at last, rolling off the couch and shuffling towards Adrien, still wrapped in her blanket. Her pillow dangled from on hand. "Thanks."

"It's not a problem," Adrien assured her, snagging her pillow and following her back to his bedroom. He grinned as they entered his room. "Imagine what a frenzy the tabloids would go into if they could see us now."

"Ugh, don't even joke." Marinette sounded exasperated as she rounded the bed and claimed the far side for herself. "Everyone at work is still joking about our prank and the first round of tabloids. They would be impossible if anything else came out."

Adrien suspected that Marinette's colleagues probably found Marinette's reactions when the subject was brought up more hilarious than the actual articles about the two of them, but he wasn't about to tell Marinette that. After all, he rather enjoyed seeing Marinette getting flustered himself. She just had such an adorable way of being flustered, where she would stutter and turn red and her hands would fly all over.

"Good night, Marinette," was all Adrien said instead as he slid back into bed and pulled his pillow from the middle of the bed to his side. "Sleep well."

"You too. Good night, Adrien."

The next morning, Adrien woke up to the sound of an unfamiliar alarm beeping. He frowned for a moment- maybe Plagg had been fiddling with the settings on his phone again, it certainly wouldn't be the first time- before rolling over and picking his phone up from his bedside table.

It wasn't going off. In fact, there was no alarm set at all, since he didn't have classes until later in the day on Thursdays and he normally took the opportunity to sleep in.

A groan on the other side of the bed made Adrien jump, and then he remembered that Marinette was sleeping over. She shifted in the bed, and then the alarm shut off as she picked up her own phone. Adrien frowned- he definitely didn't remember either of them remembering to pick Marinette's phone up when they moved to the bedroom, maybe Plagg had decided to be useful for once and had moved the phone for Marinette- before pushing himself up onto his elbows, watching as Marinette dragged herself out of bed with a grumble. Her hair stuck out all over the place, and there were pillow lines on her cheeks.

It was cute.

"Good morning," Adrien said with a yawn, sitting all the way up. He wasn't going to fall asleep again, so he might as well get up and at least pretend to be productive. Marinette squeaked in surprise, whipping around with wide eyes and nearly tripping over her own feet. "Did you sleep well?"

"I- yeah, I did," Marinette managed. After a moment, she jumped and clapped a hand to her forehead. "Oh! Right, I forgot that I came over."

"I figured." She had practically jumped out of her skin when she saw him. "You're welcome to come over whenever, if this keeps being a problem."

"Thank you." Marinette reached over to give him a hug. "I'll try to come over earlier next time. I just kept hoping that they would turn the music off and I wouldn't have to bother you."

"You're not a bother," Adrien assured her, swinging his own feet out of bed to get up. "You could never be." He had actually slept better than he ever had before with Marinette sleeping right next to him. Contrary to Nino's horror stories about how awkward it was to sleep next to someone for the first time, Adrien had dropped straight off without any issues. "And hopefully it was a one-time problem. You've never had a problem with your neighbors before, have you?"

"They're new," Marinette reminded him. "Remember? The old person left a few weeks ago- I think they got a new job across the city?- and a new person moved in a few days ago."

"Right, right, of course," Adrien said as he followed Marinette to the door. She had grabbed her blanket back and had wrapped it around herself again, probably so any neighbors wouldn't see her in her pajamas. "See you later?"

"Of course," Marinette agreed, rolling up on her toes to press a friendly kiss to Adrien's cheek. "I'll leave by five today, I promise. I'll cook."

"Sounds good." Adrien waved as Marinette scooped up her keys from the couch and headed back down the hall to her flat. He let the door click closed and headed back to his room. As long as he was up, he might as well get dressed and maybe do a bit of review before he had to eat lunch and head to class. As much fun as sleeping in was, it also threw off his sleep schedule.

Plagg zipped out of his closet as Adrien reentered the room. He circled around Adrien, a wide grin on his face. "So a sleepover with your wife, hmm? Spicy!"

Adrien swatted at the irritating kwami. "Her neighbor was being too loud for her to sleep. We just slept, nothing happened."

Plagg knew that, of course he did. He just liked being irritating more.

"I hope this was just a one-time thing," Adrien said as he pulled a t-shirt out of his dresser. "I'd hate for Marinette to be chased out of her apartment by rude neighbors."

"You mean you don't want her to stay over again? You were practically purring in your sleep!"

Adrien flushed, pulling out the rest of his clothes and starting to get dressed. He couldn't deny that the warmth of another human body nearby while he was sleeping had been incredibly soothing. If Marinette needed- or wanted, just for kicks and giggles- to sleep over again, he definitely wouldn't turn her down. It was nice being that comfortable with another person.

"I'm not hearing an objection," Plagg sing-songed tauntingly, spinning around in a circle. "Suspicious suspicious!"

"She was warm," Adrien blurted out at last. He turned redder. "I mean, I would probably have the same reaction with an electric blanket. It's your darn cat influence! I like sleeping next to warm stuff! Stop laughing!"

Plagg only cackled more.

By the time Adrien got home, he had resolved that he wasn't going to let Plagg's teasing influence him at all. So what if he and one of his best friends shared a bed? He wasn't going to make it weird just because Plagg said that it was romantic. Adrien valued their friendship too much to mess it up.

And if they got weird, their friends would definitely notice. Alya and Nino had just texted him earlier mid-day, asking if they could come visit Adrien and Marinette that weekend, even though it would only be a couple weeks before Adrien and Marinette went back to Paris for the holidays. Adrien had texted Marinette to check before replying- if she had had any plans for the weekend then that could be a problem- and Marinette had responded enthusiastically. Nino and Alya would have to sleep on their couches (or Adrien and Marinette would have to take the couches for the weekend and give their friends their beds), because while it would have probably worked quit well in theory for Adrien and Marinette to share one bed and for Alya and Nino to take the other one, they would never hear the end of the teasing.

"Madam Rosalie has an air mattress large enough for two," Marinette reported that night as she stepped into Adrien's apartment. She stepped into the kitchen and made an excited noise as she spotted the stew Adrien had brewing on the stove. "She said we could borrow it when she overheard me mentioning that Nino and Alya were coming over. According to her, the couches are way too uncomfortable to have guests sleeping on them."

"Oh, that's fantastic," Adrien said, grinning. He hadn't really wanted to subject Nino to the horrors of sleeping on his couch, not when he had just insisted on Marinette not sleeping there. It was decent enough to sit on, but sleeping a full night on it really was a horror. "So what do we still need then for their visit? Do we just put normal sheets on the air mattress?"

Marinette looked a little dubious. "We can try, I guess. I think it might be a little too thick for that. If Nino and Alya could bring sleeping bags, they could just use those."

"We should probably get the air mattress a few days early and try the sheets first," Adrien said. He let out a short huff. "And I want to see how big the thing is. We should probably have them stay over here, in case your neighbor is loud again-"

Marinette grimaced, though whether it was at the thought of her neighbor being noisy or at the thought of what Alya and Nino might say if they caught her sneaking into Adrien's flat to get some sleep, he didn't know.

"-and I want to know how much floor space I'll have left," Adrien finished. "Would that be the kind of thing that I would deflate during the day so we can actually move around?"

Marinette only shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. I'll have to ask."

As it turned out, Madam Rosalie had special sheets that went with the air mattress, and even a couple extra pillows to go with it.

"Actual lifesaver," Adrien sighed as he and Marinette wrestled the mattress into place and started the machine going to inflate it. "Does she have people visit her regularly, is that why she has all of this stuff?"

Marinette shook her head, then shrugged. "I think she has enough interns and regular employees that come from out of the area, live in these flats and have people visit. It sounds like she lends out the air mattress fairly frequently."

Adrien looked thoughtful. "So we were lucky to get it this weekend, you mean? We might not be so lucky if people want to visit closer to the holidays or something."

"I think you at least would be going back to Paris for the holidays," Marinette pointed out. "I mean, I will be too, of course, maybe just not for as long."

"You could always use some of your pattern-making bonus time for an extended Christmas break," Adrien reminded her. They had talked about it before- well, okay, they had briefly mentioned it in a conversation once- but he still thought it was a good idea. The fact that he had recently found out that he would definitely have to stay in Paris for pretty much his whole break had absolutely nothing to do with him bringing it up again. "Have a couple extra days. More time with your parents and Nino and Alya." And him, of course.

Marinette shrugged, not really responding to his suggestion. Adrien gave a small internal sigh and decided to drop the subject. After all, how Marinette wanted to spend her vacation days and hard-earned extra days off was up to her, not him.

"If we're going to get visitors at all frequently, I might look into getting an air mattress of my own," Adrien commented, going back to their earlier topic of conversation. "So we don't end up trying to get it the same weekend as someone else and make Alya and Nino or your parents sleep on the couch."

Marinette snorted at that. "You mean you might have Nathalie look into getting us an air mattress. I think we shouldn't rush it," she added. "It's not as though air mattresses are in short supply or anything. We could just wait until a conflict comes up before going out and buying one. We don't need the most top-of-the-line model, Adrien," Marinette said when she saw him opening his mouth, about to protest and make some argument for why they absolutely needed an air mattress of their own. "We can always ask Madam Rosalie where she got hers and what brand it is if we ever can't use the mattress some weekend."

Adrien stuck out his bottom lip, ready to pout, and then he realized that she was right. The jutting lower lip quickly retreated. Marinette laughed at him.

"This is actually pretty nice," Adrien commented as the mattress really started to swell up. The pump was surprisingly quiet as it worked. "I'm kinda curious how comfortable it actually is."

"Probably not quite as good as your bed back home," Marinette joked. "But it'll be better than the couch and that's what's important, right?"

Adrien grinned ruefully. "Yeah, my father probably won't be sleeping over on this any time soon. Not that he would come over here unless he felt that he had to anyway." He waited for the mattress to finish filling all the way and then disconnected the pump. He tossed one edge of the sheets to Marinette and together they put the air mattress bed together.

"I'm definitely not keeping this out during the day," Adrien said as they plopped the pillows into place and flopped onto the mattress themselves. It actually wasn't all that uncomfortable at all. He wouldn't mind sleeping on it for a few nights. "It's too big. We would trip over it all day."

"Plenty of space to spread out, though." Marinette stretched, her arms spreading out and taking over most of the mattress. One of her hands brushed against Adrien's arm and then rested there a bit limply as she relaxed next to him. "It'll work. Do I have to get up?"

Before they knew it, the week was over and they were meeting Alya and Nino at the train station. They didn't both need to go, of course- their friends were hardly carrying a lot of luggage for the two day visit- but neither had wanted to hang back and wait any longer to see Alya and Nino.

"Hey, you two!" Alya called cheerfully as soon as they spotted each other outside the station. She elbowed her way through the crowd, Nino following along in her wake. She threw her arms around Marinette first, hugged her tightly, and then attacked Adrien with the same sort of bone-crushing hug.

"Good to see you too, Alya," Adrien choked, patting her on the back. Alya laughed and released him so that Nino could say hi.

"So you two are neighbors, huh?" Nino said as they finished their greetings. "Funny coincidence."

"Really convenient, too," Adrien admitted as they turned and headed for the bus station. "Marinette knew where everything was by the time I arrived. I would have gotten lost if it weren't for her helping me."

"Mmm-hmm. I bet it's convenient," Alya said in a bit of a sing-song voice. She exchanged a look with Nino that Adrien couldn't quite read. The two of them smirked at each other, and Adrien exchanged a confused look with Marinette. She looked strangely resigned for some reason, and Adrien made a mental note to ask her about it later. If she knew why Alya and Nino were acting so oddly, he would certainly appreciate an explanation. He was rather lost.

"Anyway, it's been nice having someone in the city that I know," Adrien said before the strange quiet could hang on for too long. "Someone I can talk to in French, after hearing nothing but English all day." Technically he had Plagg to talk to as well, but none of the others knew that. Besides, Plagg wasn't the greatest conversationalist ever. He only ever wanted to talk about cheese and he already knew everything that Adrien had done that day.

"Well, you are in England," Alya pointed out. "I would expect that you might hear a fair bit of English."

"It's just nice to have a break, that's all," Marinette chimed in before Adrien could respond. "It's nice to have a conversation where you don't have to really think about the words at all."

"I can see that," Nino said. He glanced around them and then shrugged at the group. "Like, you don't have to give 100% of your attention to the conversation to be able to follow it. It got exhausting just during those classes at school; I can only imagine how tiring it can get if everything you hear all day is in another language."

"Very tiring," Marinette said with a shudder. "Especially when people use these technical terms that I know perfectly well in French, but in English? It's better now, but at the start I felt like an idiot for having to ask about everything all the time. Thankfully Madam Rosalie understood and she would just tell me the word in French instead of trying to just explain everything at a very basic level like some of the other workers did."

"Same with some Physics terms," Adrien added. He and Marinette had talked about it before, when his semester was just starting, and Adrien had been thrilled to learn that he wasn't the only one who had the problem with having to relearn technical terms for everything. "It's a pain, especially when I'm trying to take notes. It's hard to understand concepts if you're building off of things that you can't quite place. Some stuff I can figure out based on context, but other things I have to go back and look up. Hopefully it'll get better by the end of the semester."

The group moved on to different topics as they waited for the bus and rode back to Adrien and Marinette's building. They chatted about Marinette's first Fashion Week and about Alya's most recent news article assignment, and then moved on to discussing the odd jobs Nino was picking up as he tried to nail down exactly what he wanted to do with his life. His most recent gig had been organizing the music and being a cameraman for a small indie film. According to Nino, it had been an interesting experience but he hadn't really been all that interested in the contents of the film. He entertained them all with stories from the small and apparently somewhat disorganized set as the bus rumbled towards their stop.

"I'm making dinner and Marinette is making cookies for dessert," Adrien said as the group hopped off the bus and headed for their building, pulling Alya and Nino's bags as they went. "We were planning on each of us using our own kitchen, but we could probably make it work in one if we want to stick together and catch up while we're cooking."

Alya and Nino exchanged another one of those glances before turning back to Adrien and Marinette. "Separate is fine," they said together. "I'm sure Marinette and I want to talk about stuff that you and Nino wouldn't care about," Alya added before Adrien and Marinette could look too confused. "And you and Nino want to talk about stuff Marinette and I wouldn't be interested in. Better all around."

...somehow Adrien wasn't quite buying that.

Nino hung over the divider between the dining area and kitchen, watching Adrien as he chopped vegetables for their dinner. "So... you and Marinette, huh?"

Adrien glanced up and frowned at Nino. He was a bit confused by the sudden and unexpected change of topic. "We're friends."

Nino looked unconvinced. "Uh-huh. Right. Dude, I've seen pretty much all of the photos of you that have been popping up in the papers. Alya hordes them like a dragon. You don't look at a girl like that if there's not something going on."

"Like what?" Adrien was pretty certain he didn't look at Marinette any differently than he would look at any of his other friends, like Nino or Alya or Ladybu-

Okay, not like Ladybug. He knew full well that he often gazed at Ladybug like she hung the moon and the stars, so she probably wasn't the best example of people he looked at platonically.

Nino gave him a long look. "Like- oh, I need to pull up a picture. You won't be able to deny it when you see- oh, let me see-" He scrolled frantically through his phone and then his face lit up. "This! Right here!" He spun the phone around, so Adrien could see a photo of himself gazing adoringly at Marinette at their mock wedding.

Adrien let out a long sigh. "Dude. That was a staged photo. We were trying to trick people into thinking that we were madly in love."

"You look madly in love."

"It's called acting," Adrien pointed out, going back to his veggies. "I was trying to be convincing. I've done that before, you know- modelling for photoshoots required that I look happy when I'm not, or sultry when I'm actually tired and grouchy and ready for a nap."

"Fine." Nino took his phone back and started scrolling again. "No wedding 'photoshoot' pictures. That's fine, I have plenty of other pictures to choose from."

"If you say so." Adrien wasn't particularly convinced.

"Oh, I say so all right," Nino said, pausing in his perusal of photos to wave his phone at Adrien. He turned his attention back to his phone for a minute. "Aha! Here, look at this and tell me what you see."

"I'm seeing a photo of me smiling at Marinette," Adrien said dryly as he glanced over at the photo. The picture was nothing too exciting, just something snapped of the two of them while they were waiting for a runway show to start. Marinette was laughing and he was grinning at her. "I don't see what you're trying to prove, Nino."

"It's an adoring smile!" Nino insisted, waving his phone at Adrien. "It's obvious!"

Adrien rolled his eyes. "It's an amused smile, Nino. She had just told a good joke. What, am I meant to be as straight-faced as the Queen's Guards whenever I'm in the presence of the fairer sex?"

Nino only let out an exasperated huff as he returned his attention to his phone, presumably to find yet another photo.

"And you do realize that all paparazzi photos are going to be taken out of context, right?" Adrien added. "They publish things that fit what they want people to believe. For that picture you just showed me, they probably took a dozen photos and discarded the others because my smile wasn't quite right." Adrien dumped his chopped veggies into a bowl and reached for the next tomato. "And then there's Photoshop to make those last little alterations."

"Fine. But you can't deny that you're hanging out with her practically 24/7. That is the behavior of someone who is interested in a certain someone." Nino wiggled his eyebrows. "C'mon, Adrien. Admit it."

"I have school and she has work," Adrien reminded Nino, who had apparently forgotten those tiny details. "It's hardly 24/7. And of course we hang out, we're friends, we live right next to each other, and all of our friends and family are in a different country."

Yeah, it was definitely a good thing that he and Marinette hadn't decided to share one bed so Alya and Nino could take the other. Their friends would just make a huge fuss about it and pretend that it was a bigger deal than it actually was. They definitely wouldn't be able to mention the sleepover earlier in the week, the cuddling that went on during movie nights (their friends would probably try to cry date over the movie nights themselves), and the sleeping on each other on the train. They were lucky that Alya had shared an apartment with a journalist friends for a semester abroad while she was in university and that the two had cooked meals together and taken turns when they were busy, because otherwise Nino and Alya would no doubt be calling date on that as well.

Having friends that were determined to matchmake between him and his other friend was exhausting sometimes.

What confused Adrien the most was the fact that Nino had once told him that everyone perceived closeness and contact with other people differently. Some people showed romantic affection in little ways that would be considered friendly touches by other people. Some people, like Adrien, liked being close to others in ways that people who didn't know him would see as romantic. Nino had assured him that it wasn't weird- and at the time, Alya had agreed- but clearly they weren't willing to listen to their own words now.

Well, actually Adrien didn't know about Alya for sure, but the sly look on the reporter's face as she left to join Marinette as she cooked dessert made Adrien suspect that Marinette was getting the same interrogation as he was.

"But, like, travelling with each other," Nino tried again. "And going out to explore the city. Whenever you text me about whatever you're up to, you're always with Marinette."

Adrien rolled his eyes. Seriously, that was reaching.

"Travelling and exploring are more fun when I'm not by myself," Adrien said. He stirred the pot that was just starting to simmer and dumped the first batch of vegetables into the broth. "If I go with someone else, it's more likely that we won't forget something important or get lost. We find more things to explore with two sets of eyes, we're less likely to miss a train or bus because we got lost track of time, and we're interested in seeing the same things anyway, so why should we go to all the trouble of going somewhere separately?"

"Dude, you are so oblivious," Nino groaned, letting himself collapse into a chair. "It's a wonder that the magazines don't bother you more often, really."

"I'm boring," Adrien said dryly. He pulled the first few of the spices he wanted off of the shelf and started measuring them. "Besides, they focus on more famous people. Movie stars and royalty, not mere models."

"Dude," Nino groaned again. "You just- fine. Fine, okay, whatever. Whatever. So how is school going?"

Next door, Marinette was getting the same interrogation from Alya.

"Well, you two have certainly gotten a lot closer," Alya said as a starter. She, like Nino, was watching Marinette work in the kitchen and hadn't offered to help, though perhaps it was because no one in their right mind would interfere with a Dupain-Cheng baking.

Marinette sent her a confused look. After an awkward first year back in collège, she and Adrien had already been pretty good friends before either of them came over to London. "...I don't understand what you're talking about."

Alya only snorted and rolled her eyes. "Sure you don't. I've seen plenty of photos recently that say the contrary."

"Photos?"

"Uh-huh. Ones of you and Adrien sharing quite the steamy kiss, of him making googly eyes at you, of you making googly eyes at him. You two are hardly subtle."

Marinette couldn't contain the snort of laughter that escaped her as she started pulling out the ingredients for the cake. "Really? You're still going on about the fake wedding photos?" That had been forever ago, and really, it should have been quite clear by now that it had all been faked. They had since posted what the other interns called "behind-the-scenes" photos of the mad rush to get everything set up, and then photos that clearly showed the cameraman from behind and the sparse "audience". There had even been a couple goofy photos from when Madam Rosalie had been coaching Adrien and Marinette on how to act like they were madly in love before the "ceremony" started.

Well, okay, it hadn't exactly been hard to act like she was completely in love with Adrien- far from it- but she had exaggerated her expression just a bit and Adrien had certainly done his fair share of acting.

"And the ones that have come out since," Alya said with a grin. "You've gotten Adrien's attention, even if he hasn't admitted to it in any of the interviews. I can understand him not wanting to tell reporters about you dating because they would never leave you two alone. But I know him and I know you and I know that there's more to the story. Talk."

"I would, but there's not anything more," Marinette said. She carefully measured out the flour and sifted it into her batter. "We're friends that happen to live next door to each other and do things together, because that's what friends do. The only reason they're making such a big deal out of it is because he's a guy and I'm a girl."

"And because Adrien's famous, I presume," Alya added with a laugh. Then she narrowed her eyes at Marinette. "...you aren't actually serious, are you?"

"I don't know why you don't think I am," Marinette shot right back. She measured out the sugar as well. "Adrien and I are friends. We enjoy each other's company. Just because I used to have a crush on him doesn't mean that we can't just hang out without it being something more."

Of course, she still had a crush on Adrien, but she wasn't about to admit that to Alya. She would just make a big deal out of it. It wasn't as though it mattered, anyway. For them to even consider a relationship- which wouldn't be a good idea anyway, not with the tabloids watching their every move and Mr. Agreste still firmly against the idea of his son dating- Adrien would have to feel the same way about her. He didn't, though. He saw her as a friend, and he had hardly given any sign that that was ever going to change.

Alya let out a long groan. "I knew I should have cornered Agreste on his own instead of sending Nino over to try to finagle any information out. You're too used to my questioning and Nino probably just gave up when Adrien said you guys weren't dating."

Marinette whipped around, shocked. Her hand narrowly missed batting the eggs off of the counter. "You had Nino asking Adrien about- about us? Alya!"

"What?"

"I only barely got Adrien to forget about that text you sent him after the fake wedding," Marinette said with a groan. "You know, the one where you said something about me confessing? He's gonna put the pieces together and think that I still have a crush on him and then everything is going to be all awkward!"

Alya looked slightly abashed before her expression went back to confident. "He wouldn't get awkward. Believe me, if that boy figured it out, he would definitely be dating you."

"You don't know that!" Belatedly, Marinette realized that she had forgotten to continue to deny her still-present crush on her friend. Alya would take that as confirmation that Marinette was still madly in love with Adrien and would secretly appreciate any matchmaking efforts she made while she and Nino were visiting.

Marinette made a silent vow to herself that if anything did happen between herself and Adrien- which it wouldn't, she was positive, Adrien didn't see her like that- she wasn't going to tell Alya right away, just because she didn't appreciate the meddling in her relationship.

"I totally know that," Alya said, though Marinette knew full well that Alya was just guessing. After all, Alya had insisted all through their first year together that Adrien was definitely interested in Marinette, even though they almost never talked. Once Marinette had calmed down and gotten to know Adrien better, she and Alya had learned that Adrien wasn't even remotely interested in dating someone that he didn't know that well. Whatever so-called 'signs' that Alya had seen that made her believe that Adrien might see Marinette as more than a friend were completely wrong.

"So how is your newspaper internship going?" Marinette asked, making the executive decision to change the topic. Alya would probably read too much into it, but she didn't particularly care. It wasn't as though it mattered. "I know you said the most recent article went well, but what about the rest of it?"

"I know what you're doing," Alya warned her, but she didn't try to resist the change of topic. "It's going pretty well, for the most part. I know I complained about one of my articles to you a few weeks ago, but that was really a one-off more than anything else. Sometimes I have a deadline that feels a little too rushed for the research that needs to go on or I can't get a response out of someone for an article, but my boss is pretty reasonable most of the time."

"Have you settled on a specific area of interest?"

Alya made a face. "...not really? I get to cover any Ladybug and Chat Noir stories, of course- I was so happy when my supervisor said that, I thought that one of the senior writers would get first dibs for sure- but that area is kind of slow right now, with Hawkmoth defeated and all." Alya looked disappointed, which Marinette found slightly exasperating. It seemed that Alya never quite considered how disruptive the akuma attacks could be to Paris- and to Ladybug and Chat Noir- and she only paid attention to the heroes' appearances. Back when Hawkmoth was taken down, Marinette had been ecstatic. Alya had been deeply disappointed.

Marinette loved her friend and all, but she was sure exasperating sometimes.

"I've been doing local news pieces," Alya said after a pause. "It's interesting, and it does at least keep me at home. But I'm thinking of applying to this program through the paper where I would get to travel around the world for half a year and do these pieces from all over. But that would put Nino and I in a long-distance relationship, and I just don't know..."

"You two have been together for forever. I'm sure you could make it work." Marinette checked the temperature on the oven before returning to her work. "And maybe he could come visit you and get inspired by the local music."

Alya perked up. "That's an idea. And when I go places he can't come and visit, I could buy CDs for him." Her shoulders slumped again. "Ugh, why am I even considering it? There's so many applicants, and I don't know if I could come up with a good research topic. That's in the application requirements," Alya explained after a moment's pause. "We need to know what we're going to be mainly researching and doing stories about. That's how they figure out what countries the winner is going to go to. Everybody who applies has a topic that they wanted to explore, something that they're known for. All I'm known for is superheroes."

Another pause, as Alya sulked and Marinette was hit with an idea.

"Do that, then," Marinette suggested, deciding after a moment's internal debate that any research Alya did couldn't possibly threaten her secret identity at all. If the years that Alya had spent chasing Ladybug and Chat Noir hadn't already turned up anything that would connect Marinette and Ladybug, any additional research on other superheroes wouldn't do anything. "Research Miraculous superheroes throughout history. There have to be legends."

It was as though someone had flicked a switch in Alya's head. She snapped upright and Marinette could practically see the gears whirling in her head. "Miraculous users throughout history? I haven't heard of many, really, just Ladybug back in ancient Egypt, but I bet you're right. Ladybug and Chat Noir and the Butterfly and I bet there's others, it wouldn't make sense to just have the three. I'd have to do a ton of preliminary research and honestly, I don't know how much I would actually have to travel for most of the research, but it would be an interesting piece even if I didn't get to go. It would get me attention from my boss for sure."

Marinette smiled but didn't say anything else. She knew full well that there were several other Miraculous- there was the turtle, obviously, and the peacock and the bee- but since it didn't make sense for her to know that, she didn't tell Alya anything. Maybe she could subtly steer Alya in the right direction later on, once Alya started doing her research in earnest, but Alya wasn't quite at the point where Marinette could do that without being suspicious yet.

"I'm gonna start doing research for that as soon as I get home," Alya decided. "I don't know if I'll be able to get enough together in time for a super-strong application for this year's selection, but it's worth a try!" She bounded into the kitchen and tackled Marinette into a hug. "Thanks for the idea, Marinette! You're the best!"

"I do try," Marinette joked as she hugged her friend back before extracting herself so she could reach for the mixer. "So, how do you think you're going to start your research?"

Naturally, Alya was still talking about the research she was going to do by the time the two of them joined Adrien and Nino over in Adrien's apartment for dinner. She had decided to start with what little they had heard from the Egyptian exhibit so long ago.

"I'll have to ask Mr. Kubdel when the papyrus was from," Alya said, ignoring her food completely to gesture with her fork. Nino looked somewhat puzzled at where the topic and where the sudden enthusiasm for it had come from, but he hadn't questioned it yet. "And then I can look into legends from around that time and see what's there. That's the only lead I have right now, but maybe Mr. Kubdel would might have heard other strange legends." Alya flopped back in her seat with a loud sigh. "Ooh, it's gonna be so much work. And I've already been so busy that it would be impossible to keep up with the Ladyblog if things were still, y'know, happening." Alya let out another long sigh. She suddenly looked despondent. "Of course, I'd be able to keep up with the occasional sighting, if there were any. They've both been missing for ages."

"It's very weird," Nino told Adrien and Marinette, clearly glad for the slight change of topic to something that he actually knew a little about. "You know how they were still occasionally seen out and about after Hawkmoth went down? I think the longest without a sighting was maybe one week, maybe two, and now they're both missing for months. They didn't say anything. It's weird." He looked suddenly concerned. "D'you think something happened to them? Maybe whoever gave them their Miraculous took them back."

"They're hardly obligated to tell the city when they'll be gone," Adrien reminded them both, surprising Marinette. She had remembered Adrien as having a bit of a crush on Ladybug when they were younger, so she had expected him to seem more concerned. Maybe he had spotted her and Chat Noir at some point when they went past the building. But then why wouldn't he say anything? "Maybe they were going to be, I don't know, travelling or something, and telling people would risk their identities."

"That's true, I guess," Alya allowed, then she perked up. "Both of them missing at the same time- they're together, they have to be! Maybe they're a couple now! What a story that would be! The entire city has been rooting for them to get together for forever."

"I thought Ladybug vanished before Chat Noir did," Marinette protested, ignoring the last part of what Alya had said. She had been in London for months before her partner popped up. Maybe they had just been missing each other before, but she was almost positive that he had made some indication that he had only recently arrived. If Alya got her teeth into the idea that she and Chat Noir were dating, she would never let it go. It had happened before, and it was months before Alya stopped talking about it. Marinette couldn't say anything to Alya about it, of course, but it was always a bit awkward to hear her best friend speculating about her relationship status with her superhero partner.

Alya looked let down. "But..."

"She's right," Nino pointed out, and then he gave Marinette a quizzical look. "I thought you didn't pay attention to Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Marinette tried not to wince. Her apparent lack of interest in the superheroes from when they were younger really did backfire on her sometimes, but there were really so many theory sessions about herself that she could sit through without getting bored beyond belief. But she had gotten significantly better at coming up with excuses compared to when she was younger. "I... I just remember a conversation I had with someone back when Ladybug hadn't shown up for several weeks. Chat Noir was still around then."

"Yeah, there was definitely quite a gap between when they left," Adrien agreed. "Like, months of difference. Maybe they ended up in the same place somewhere, but they definitely didn't leave at the same time."

"That's a pity," Alya sighed, shoulders slumping. "Drat. I've been trying to figure out where they went, but there haven't been any sightings at all. I've been keeping an eye out whenever I travel somewhere, just in case either of them are in the same place."

Marinette froze. She really should have thought to warn Chat Noir about Alya's impending visit. It would be hard to explain how she knew that Alya would be visiting without giving away her own identity, but she probably could have thought up something. It would have been worth it, especially now that she knew almost for certain that Chat Noir lived in her building. Of course, maybe Chat Noir didn't go past Adrien's window. He had never mentioned seeing either of the superheroes to her, and he wasn't saying anything now either, even with Alya clearly frustrated about the lack of superhero sightings.

Maybe Chat Noir would be too busy to go out while Nino and Alya were visiting. He was obviously in London for some reason, and that reason could very well keep him sufficiently busy for the two days that Alya was there. She could only hope. As much as she loved her friend, Marinette didn't exactly want Alya travelling to London every weekend and spending the entire time scouring the city to try to find her and Chat Noir. Having to dodge Alya at the end of every fight hadn't been fun when they were younger, and trying to avoid an older and more experienced Alya sounded like it would be about the same amount of fun.

That was to say, absolutely no fun at all.

"The possibility of that is pretty much zero, though," Nino pointed out. "I mean, if they happened to be in London for some reason, they could easily be on the outskirts on the other side of the city. You might hear about it over the internet, but you probably wouldn't just happen to see them."

"You almost always had to go searching for them even in Paris," Marinette agreed. "Even when you had a good idea of where they would most likely be active."

"It's still worth a shot, though," Alya insisted. "Especially now that I want to do research on them! If I could find them, I could ask about where the Miraculous were in the past and I could ask about if there are other Miraculous that exist. I'm sure they would be willing to answer a few questions to help me get started!"

"If you can find them again," Nino pointed out.

"They might end up back in Paris over the holidays," Adrien suggested when Alya's face fell at Nino's comment. "I mean, a lot of people go back home to their families over Christmas. If Ladybug and Chat Noir grew up in Paris, they probably have family there that they would go back to visit."

Alya perked up immediately. "Do you really think so? That would make sense! But what if something happened to them and they aren't Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore?"

"Maybe just wait until the holidays are over with before you assume the worst," Marinette suggested. "You can't forget that Ladybug and Chat Noir have their own lives to live, Alya. I mean, if you think about it- how many of our old classmates live somewhere other than Paris now?"

"Quite a few," Alya admitted. "I mean, there's you two, and then Sabrina moved to Nice, and Nathaniel is living somewhere in the country now, and I think Rose and Juleka are both living right outside the city. So I guess that makes sense that they might move now that Hawkmoth is gone."

"And who knows, maybe they're making up for years of vacations they couldn't take because they had to stay in Paris," Nino added. "I know that if I had been in their place, I would have left Paris to go travel 'round the world as soon as Hawkmoth was defeated. They probably decided to be all responsible and go to university first, though."

"Well, it wouldn't be like they could tell their families, 'Hey, I just spend the past zillion years fighting a supervillain, see ya around'," Marinette pointed out, spearing some of her salad with a fork. "I mean, they still had to keep their secret identities secret, right?"

Alya snorted at that. "You can't tell me that their family and close friends hadn't figured it out. I mean, I mean, I definitely would have known if any of you guys were superheroes."

"Exactly," Nino chimed in. "And I'm no reporter, but I definitely think I would have noticed as well. I mean, how would you miss something like that?" He grinned and exclaimed, "Dude, just imagine how cool that would be, though! Being best buds with Ladybug or Chat Noir?"

"That would be pretty cool," Adrien agreed, though he looked somewhat amused for some reason, his lips quirking up at the edges. "But what, Nino, am I not cool enough for you?"

"But Chat Noir, dude." Nino was starry-eyed. "I bet he's super-chill. Like, did you see the way he always hung around to comfort the akuma victims? And, like, looking back, I can see a ton of times when he and Ladybug totally would have been within their right to get irritated about something, but they didn't. Like, remember Reflecta? He was trying for a sneak attack and I went and gave away his position like an idiot. And that happened to them a ton. They were, like, super-patient."

"Well, they had to be to be superheroes," Alya insisted. "They're supposed to help people and not get annoyed by it."

Nino fixed Alya with a look. Adrien and Marinette exchanged a uncomfortable look and silently resolved to stay out of it. "They're supposed to save people, and that's what they did. To the best of my knowledge, there was nothing in their superhero job description that said that they had to be super-nice to people while they did that. There was also nothing that said that, say, they had to give interviews or constantly haul reporters out of danger while they were trying to fight a supervillain."

Alya huffed, then deflated a bit. "Well...I mean..."

Nino waited.

"...I suppose I can see where people might have gotten in their way a bit," Alya finally admitted. "But they were superheroes and getting to report on superheroes had been my dream since, like, forever! And I did get better at staying out of the way later on."

"Right, right, of course," Nino sighed, and then he perked up as a new thought hit him. "Oh! Have you guys heard the rumors about Jagged Stone doing another tour? Think he'll come to Paris again?"

"Why did you say that about Ladybug and Chat Noir earlier?" Plagg demanded once the evening was over and Adrien had bade good-night to his guests and closed his bedroom door. The black kwami flew after Adrien as he shucked his jeans and slid into his sleeping pants. "You're gonna make them suspect you when Ladybug and Chat Noir do show back up at Christmas- or were you not planning on going out while transformed then?"

"They aren't going to suspect me, because I did say that," Adrien refuted. "I reminded them that a lot of people go back home over the holidays. That way, they're less likely to see Chat Noir back in town and then correlate that with just me getting back." Adrien shucked his shirt and tossed it in the laundry basket. "And I'll definitely want to wait a couple days after Adrien shows up at Christmas before I go out transformed."

Plagg looked somewhat mollified. "Oh. I suppose. But you couldn't have waited for someone else to say it?"

"I can't read minds, Plagg. For all we know, no one else would have thought about it." Adrien reached for his brush and started working through the tangles in his hair. "But you have to admit, hearing Alya and Nino claim that they would have known if they had a superhero for a friend was pretty funny, right? I was a little freaked out at first, because I thought maybe they were just trying to hint that they had figured me out, but..." Adrien grinned. The expressions on their faces had been all the clue he needed to know that none of his friends had guessed that he was Chat Noir.

Well, Marinette's expression had been a little funny too, but she would have told him if she had figured him out, right? She definitely would have said something, he was positive.

"They definitely have no idea," Adrien finished with a quiet laugh. Oh, but their faces would be precious if he ever did get to tell them one day. The wide eyes, the dropped jaws...

It would be great.

The weekend flew by in a heartbeat. Before any of them knew it, it was time to bring Alya and Nino back to the train station so they could go back to Paris.

"I wish we could have stayed longer," Nino said mournfully as he hugged Adrien good-bye. "It's so different not seeing you guys every week! I can't believe you're staying away from me for three years, dude."

"Oh, I'll be back before you know it," Adrien said with a laugh. "And we can still call each other, you know. It's not like I'm all the way around the world or anything."

"You might as well be," Nino grumbled, but he let himself be patted consolingly on the back.

"Oh, look at the time!" Alya said suddenly, catching sight of the clock on the wall. "How did it get to be so late? C'mon, Nino, we gotta go or we'll miss our train."

Nino jumped as he saw the clock as well. Both of them hugged Adrien and Marinette again, and then they were flying towards the entrance to the train station.

"Good luck on your Miraculous research!" Marinette called after Alya, waving at her friends. They waved back one more time, then vanished into the station.

"What is she doing this research for?" Adrien asked as they headed back to the bus station. "I forgot to ask Alya before they left. Is it just a side project to keep the Ladyblog active now that the superheroes aren't in Paris, or something for work?"

"It's to try to get into this program that would send her all over the world," Marinette told him. Alya had shown her the advertisement for the contest on her phone, and Marinette had to admit that it looked like a very cool opportunity. "She has to come up with this topic to research and the paper will pay for her to go do research all over the world for half a year! She'd have to write little travel updates once or twice a week or so, but then there would be a big piece after it was done. She wants to research past Miraculous holders and what kinds of things they fought."

Adrien blinked and suddenly he looked a bit wary. "Uh, does Nino know why Alya's doing her research? He didn't mention anything about Alya taking such a long trip abroad to me."

"Well, it's hardly finalized yet," Marinette admitted. "Alya just heard about the opportunity recently, and then I helped her come up with her topic. She had wanted to enter before, but obviously she didn't have a chance if she didn't have a topic ready yet." Still, Adrien brought up a good point. Had Alya discussed the contest with Nino at all? That seemed like something that would be important, considering how long they had been dating and especially since Nino already seemed a bit down about Adrien and Marinette both being out of the country.

Adrien still looked concerned, and Marinette couldn't blame him. That would be a bit of a nasty shock for Nino to just one day suddenly find out that his longtime girlfriend was taking off around the world for six months when he hadn't had any prior notice. Even if he could visit Alya while she was gone, it would be nothing like their routine now, where they lived together and saw each other every day. There would probably be times when Alya would be too busy or in a far enough off time zone that they wouldn't be able to call or Skype each other for a while.

She really hoped that Alya wasn't going to put off telling Nino for too long.

"I'll talk to Alya about it," Marinette assured Adrien. "She should be telling Nino for sure, even if nothing is even remotely close to being nailed down yet."

Adrien's shoulders relaxed. "Thanks, Marinette. I know she wouldn't do anything to purposefully hurt Nino, but I think he's having a hard time with us being, y'know, not nearby."

"It's just part of growing up," Marinette responded with a sigh. She certainly missed her friends in Paris, and she definitely missed her parents. It helped to still have Tikki with her, and it was absolutely fantastic to have Adrien living right next door, but it still could be hard. She had to admit that she had kind of fallen out of touch with some of her old friends now that she wasn't bumping into them every few days.

"Yeah." Adrien's smile was a bit misty too. He bumped her with his hip gently to catch her attention again and then he smiled down at her. "I'm glad I have you here, though. It definitely made moving away from home easier."

"Right back at you, model boy." Marinette grinned as she hip-checked him back teasingly. It was hard to be melancholy with one of her best friends at her side and another hanging out in her jacket pocket. She didn't let herself think of next year, when Adrien might be alone in London. That was still months away. "Right back at you."

A/N: Yaaaaay, sleepovers and the start of stuff for another arc! Next time...is Christmas, I think. In January. (that really didn't line up well whoops)

Reviews are always appreciated! :)