15. Chapter 15

After the holiday break was over, it didn't take long for things to get back to normal. Adrien dove into his second semester of classes with gusto, eager to get into some deeper subjects. He was most looking forward to getting to explore what different specialties he could go into with Physics, and they would be getting more of an introduction to that with one of his classes that semester.

Over at Rosalie Fashions, Marinette was having fun with the spring line. Spring was one of her favorite seasons, both because of the weather warming up again and because the range of weather meant that she could make a whole range of different styles and still have them work.

"I'm making this gorgeous raincoat," Marinette told Adrien mid-January as they worked together in his kitchen. "Well, designing it, at least. I need to finish the design completely before I do any sewing."

"Isn't designing coats difficult?" Adrien asked. He hip-bumped Marinette. "Stove, please."

Marinette frowned in confusion as she stepped out of his way. "Why, because they need to be able to work as coats still? I think it can be fun. I mean, even though we have some restrictions on sleeves and necklines and whatnot so they keep their function, there's still a lot we can do with them."

Adrien just shook his head as he flipped the chicken cooking in the pan on their stove, still impressed. In all honesty, if he was asked to draw a coat, he would have the most basic silhouette in existence. Maybe he would be able to find a fun fabric to use, but that would be it. He just wasn't that creative.

"And we have to sometimes do twists on classics, too," Marinette added. "We could lose an entire section of our customers if we just focus on innovation and not tradition and comfort. Some people just want a classy, low-frills coat, one that's a bit more upscale than what you would find at just any store but that isn't crazy."

"Timeless style," Adrien finished. That was something his father had always talked about. They needed to have lines that were either on-trend or trendsetting, but also classical, timeless lines for the crowd that didn't want to completely redo their wardrobe every year just to not be out of style. "So what do you like doing better, timeless styles or innovative designs?"

Marinette hummed under her breath as she thought about it, absently kneading some bread dough as she did. "I guess it depends. I like making new stuff, but sometimes I just don't understand the trends. Timeless is always gorgeous, though. It's just a matter of being able to do something original with it."

"I've always wondered how you can just keep on creating new stuff day after day," Adrien said, squeezing a lemon over the sizzling chicken. "Don't you run dry after a while?"

Marinette twisted to look over at him as she continued working. "I mean, sometimes? And when we do, then we help with something else. Sometimes there's hand embroidery to do, or beading something, or there's some paperwork to help out with, or inventory to do, or we help out in the sewing room. Or we sew our own designs, I've done that before too. I enjoy that more than having to make a technical drawing for the seamstresses so they can do it, really. I like being able to work with the fabric myself and see how it drapes with the style lines I have in mind, but Madam Rosalie insists on us doing technical drawings for some things so we can make sure we're doing it so the sewers can interpret things correctly. All of it's important to learn how to do to keep a fashion business of any size going."

Adrien frowned. While Marinette had been gone from her desk a few times when he dropped by, most of the time she had been either designing or filling out order forms. He had assumed that the order forms were for her own designs, but maybe Marinette had been on inventory duty. Maybe she hadn't hit a really bad creative block yet, or maybe Adrien just had ridiculously good timing with his visits.

If it was the latter, his good timing didn't just extend to his civilian life. Whenever he had the opportunity to go out as Chat Noir, Ladybug was usually out as well. Most of the time they ran into each other within a few minutes of him going out; the rest of the time, all Chat Noir had to do was glance at the tracker app on his baton and Ladybug wasn't far away. There had been a few times where they had each gone out solo, of course, but most of the time they ended up together.

The probability of both Ladybug and Chat Noir going out on the same night once in a while was...decent, he supposed. They both went out twice a week on average. Adrien's outings were based entirely on when Marinette needed more sleep and headed off to bed early or when he pleaded the same thing. He didn't know what Ladybug's decision to go out was based on, but somehow it yielded nearly the same "patrol" schedule. And that? The probably that they would both go out at the same time that often?

Not high.

Of course, he did have to take the Miraculous into consideration. He and Ladybug were two halves of a whole, so maybe there was some mystical power pushing them together as often as it could.

"So when do you have your next runway?" Adrien asked as Marinette set the bread aside to rise before she baked it. "I know it seemed like my father was always doing one runway or another."

"There's a spring/summer show. We're starting work on it, but it's still early on enough that we aren't too fussed about it yet." Marinette peered over his shoulder at the cooking chicken before heading into the dining room so she wasn't in his way. While they had gotten pretty good about moving around each other in the kitchen, that didn't erase the fact that it was still pretty small. "We have far more photoshoots, but Madam Rosalie tries to space them out so we don't have a zillion outfits that all need to be ready all at once."

"I think my father does that too," Adrien commented. "He says the outfits can have a better fit and finish if he doesn't try to have everything done for one large photoshoot." It wasn't just about the clothing fit, either. Photoshoots could drag on and on for the models, and after a certain point it got very hard to hide fatigue and boredom. They had to plan out the length of the shoot in advance and take into account shots that had to be redone or ones where the model just didn't quite get the emotion what the photographer wanted. The longer a photoshoot was, the more off models could get and the more impatient photographers would get, resulting in subpar photos that would just need to be re-taken, making the whole process even longer.

Shorter photoshoots that were a week or so apart were much better, both to give seamstresses time to finish and fit properly and so models and photoshoot staff alike could perform at their best.

Chicken finished, Adrien turned the heat off and stepped back to let the meat rest before they cut it up. He joined Marinette at the table, settling into the other seat at the table as they waited for the chicken to be ready.

"How are your classes going?" Marinette asked, breaking the comfortable silence after a moment. "I think you said something about one of them having a bit of overlap with the stuff you learned in your business courses?"

Adrien nodded. "Yeah, one of my classes has a partial focus on professional skills. And, you know, we covered that in business. There's some differences, but the basic concept is the same."

"You wouldn't think that there would be as much emphasis on that," Marinette commented, looking puzzled. "I mean, wouldn't the science be the biggest part?"

"And the math," Adrien agreed. "Yeah, the professional skills classes aren't worth much. At least they're worth more than the class I had last semester, that really basic one-"

Marinette giggled. "The one you complained about all the time because it was so easy?" She looked deeply amused. "I can't believe that they would make you do something basic."

Adrien had had a hard time believing it too. It had been a very, very easy class, and Adrien hadn't even found it at all useful, not like the Mathematics class that had helped him brush up on his math skills after three years of nothing but Business-level math. Apparently it was to make sure that all of the students had the basic skills for all of the courses in the Physics program.

Adrien was of the opinion that all of the concepts covered in that particular class could have been covered in a reading or in brief intros in other classes. It would have been less of a waste of time.

"Overall, classes have been much more interesting this semester, at least so far," Adrien added, answering the rest of Marinette's question. "Even though my schedule is awful. It's still largely the basics, but at least most of it isn't stuff that we covered in lycée. Next year gets into the interesting stuff."

"The painful stuff, you mean," Marinette said with a laugh. "I glanced at that list of classes once and yikes. That's heavy stuff."

Adrien couldn't hold back the laugh at that. He had heard the same thing from Alya and Nino, plus several models that he had worked with over the break who had asked about his coursework. "I'm sure the design classes you had would probably sound awful to me, since I can't draw anything but stick figures, I can't sew, and I can't design anything to save my life. But I really understand the math and science, so it's actually a lot of- well, fun might be an exaggeration, but enjoyable enough. I enjoy challenging myself." He got up and headed back into the kitchen to cut up the chicken. "It's not like the business degree. I hated a bunch of those classes."

"I'm glad you like the Physics classes," Marinette said, joining Adrien in the kitchen. She peered over his shoulder and let out an appreciative hum when she saw the chicken. "That looks fabulous, Adrien."

"Thanks." Adrien picked up a plate, serving up a portion and passing it to Marinette before serving himself. "So, how soon is this latest bit of weather going to stop? Going outside is actually miserable right now."

Marinette paused to think about it as they headed back to the table and settled into their chairs. "Uh, I really don't know. I think the weather will probably will be like this for a bit yet. It's a pity, because I kind of wanted to go outside and wander around the neighborhood more, instead of exploring downtown all of the time."

"It would be nice to know the area like the locals do," Adrien agreed. "I'm not really interested in restaurants and whatnot, but finding little shops would be interesting, I guess." He suddenly snorted, shaking his head. "It's funny, I can't even think of what kinds of places I like at home. I spend a bunch of my time either hanging out with you guys at your places or in my room, or sometimes at cafes, and then all the rest of my time doing photoshoots, or, you know, whatever."

"Yeah, it's funny how much of the neighborhood I really don't know super-well," Marinette agreed. "I've lived in the same building my whole life, yet there's shops only a few blocks away where if they changed hands I totally wouldn't notice. It would be nice to just wander around the neighborhood a bit and just discover the little shops in the area."

That sounded nice. Adrien probably wouldn't want to do it for hours on end or if it were raining heavily, but it might be interesting to poke around. Maybe he would find a little shop with potential Christmas gifts for the next year. There was only one small potential problem. "I don't know if the reporters would leave us alone if we did that, but it would be fun for one weekend, at least."

"It would pass the time a bit, at least," Marinette agreed as they both dug into their dinner. She huffed, glancing out towards the window. Rain streamed down the glass. "Though if this keeps up, all I'm gonna want to do is stay inside with some popcorn and a blanket. I can't wait until January is over."

Valentine's Day came and went, bringing with it a few more scattered attempts from reporters to make Marinette and Adrien's relationship appear to be more than just friends. Marinette and Adrien ignored the articles and made pizza from scratch for dinner before settling down in front of Adrien's computer to watch an old Disney movie and then separating to their own apartments to sleep.

(Well, to "sleep". Chat Noir and Ladybug appeared on the rooftops later that night and ran around for an hour, somehow unnoticed by the assorted couples milling around on the streets below, before actually going to bed.)

What Marinette was more interested in, though, was what came after Valentine's Day. The due date for Alya's Miraculous research proposal had been on the thirteenth, and Marinette couldn't wait to hear how soon Alya would find out about her chances of winning her newspaper contest. Alya hadn't known prior to entering- she had been more focused on doing the primary research instead of finding out when a decision was normally made by- and Marinette knew better than to call her friend on Valentine's day herself. Alya would absolutely kill her.

The day after, though, was totally fair game.

"So, when do you hear from the contest people?" Marinette asked as soon as Alya answered the video call. Marinette had been impatiently waiting the entire day to be able to call Alya after she was done with work. "Do you know? A week? A month? Do they tell you if you get past the first round of the committee?"

Alya suddenly looked a bit shifty, glancing away from her phone screen, chewing on her lip. Marinette frowned. That hadn't been what she had been expecting Alya's reaction to be. Marinette had thought that Alya would be nervous, definitely, or maybe overflowing with things that she wished she could change, or even already planning where she would be going or more research that she needed to do. But instead, Alya looked uncomfortable.

"...Alya?"

"I...didn't enter," Alya admitted after a short pause. She bit her lip, glancing away and then back again, but never quite making eye contact. "So I won't be hearing from them at all this year."

Marinette blinked, stunned, then found her voice.

"What do you mean, you aren't entering?" she demanded, staring at Alya's face on her phone. "Alya! But you had such a great idea! And you had already made some good progress on research, I thought! That was what you told me before I came back to London!"

Alya held up her hands in defense- well, one hand up, at any rate. The other was still holding the phone. "Hey, I know, I know. But I still hadn't gotten enough preliminary research done by the due date to do the topic any justice. I'll have a stronger case this time next year, and a better idea of where I need to travel to get the most out of my time. Besides, I..." Alya glanced to the side, abashed. "...I know I told you that I was going to tell Nino that I was entering, but then there was never a good time. So now I actually have time to, y'know, bring it up."

Marinette groaned at that. Nino had been actively helping Alya do her research, but clearly she hadn't corrected his incorrect belief that the research was just for the Ladyblog. "Alyaaaaa..."

"I know, I know! But then Nino kept talking about how much he hated the gang being broken up with you two in London right after you guys left after Christmas, and I just couldn't say anything then. I wanted to, but then I was still having trouble getting the research really going even with the hints Ladybug and Chat Noir dropped and I started thinking about pushing back my entry by a year, so I wasn't even sure if there was a point in bringing it up since I wouldn't be going this year." Alya looked uncomfortable and was clearly trying to dodge the look Marinette was giving her. Finally she gave a huff. "There just wasn't ever a good time! Besides, he never straight-out asked why I was trying to get all of this research done. I would have told the truth then, I swear."

Marinette barely refrained from facepalming. Really, her friend drove her crazy sometimes... but it was probably karma considering how much she drove Alya crazy with her Adrien drama when they were younger. "Okay, okay, I can maybe see your point. But you have to tell Nino about the contest by fall, okay? Promise me. Give him some time to get used to the idea before you win."

"I will," Alya promised. Then her serious look fled in favor of the eager I-just-found-a-Ladybug-related-lead expression that Marinette knew so well. "I almost forgot to tell you! I think I found another lead for my research. There were some odd fables in Ireland about a century back, in one of the time periods that Ladybug and Chat Noir mentioned, and from what I've seen, there's some of overlap with Ladybug and Chat Noir's powers. And there's other fables that are super-similar but they talk about other superheroes! It's not much and some stuff could be completely made up, I know, but then I can compare the animals that they mention to the ones that the Chinese fables talk about, and the Egyptian ones as well!"

"And then you can start looking for times when those superheroes popped up on their own without Ladybug and Chat Noir," Marinette finished. She had been wondering when- or even if- the other Miraculous users would ever pop up with the historical Ladybug-Chat Noir duos. "Congratulations, Alya! That's great!"

"I know, right? And just based on that, I think I've found a couple other stories that are probably about those other Miraculous users. They were active during a war, though, not fighting akuma, so that's strange. And one of them talks about a butterfly hero, so I don't know what to think about that."

"It probably depends on the user," Marinette pointed out quickly. She knew full well that the Butterfly Miraculous and Nooroo were meant to be forces of good, but Alya and the rest of the civilians in Paris apparently did not, even after the comments that Ladybug and Chat Noir had made after Hawkmoth's defeat about how the man behind the mask was the evil one, not the Miraculous. They maybe should have elaborated on that a bit more, or else they might find that next time Master Fu tried to assign the Butterfly Miraculous to someone, they would reject it out of fear that they would turn evil.

...actually, that alone made it suddenly Critically Important that Marinette steer Alya towards focusing at least part of her article on properly heroic Butterfly holders from the past. Maybe it was a bit manipulative, but Marinette was definitely not above using Alya's reputation as a superhero reporter to get the word out that the Butterfly Miraculous was not inherently bad.

"Actually, didn't Ladybug and Chat Noir say something about that after they defeated Hawkmoth?" Marinette asked innocently as a lead-in. "About the Butterfly Miraculous being used by heroes in the past? Maybe you could spend part of your article talking about that. I mean, there have to have been Ladybugs and Chat Noirs in the past that weren't entirely good, too." Granted, Tikki had never mentioned having a corrupted Ladybug before, but that didn't mean that it hadn't happened.

...maybe those users were the ones that Tikki had very deliberately excluded from the list that she had made for Alya. Marinette would have to ask.

Alya made a dubious noise. "I don't know, Marinette. Ladybug is a superhero. She wouldn't be corrupted-"

"Not this one, but don't you remember Hawkmoth trying to get her Miraculous? What if he had? Then he would have used it and his Ladybug sure wouldn't have been a hero!"

Alya looked thoughtful. "Yeah, I guess you're right. So maybe it would be important to do a bit on that with both heroes and supervillains with the same Miraculous, so people know not to jump to conclusions in the future if a particular Miraculous shows up. It could be dangerous if someone like Hawkmoth got Ladybug's Miraculous and people automatically trusted them."

"Exactly! Besides, it's interesting." Marinette would definitely have to do some behind-the-scenes manipulation so that Alya would just so happen to stumble upon some corrupted users. They were probably far and few between, and if many of them were like Hawkmoth and worked behind the scenes...

If that were the case, finding any documentation of them would be very difficult.

"I'll definitely have to research this butterfly hero more, then," Alya decided, already clearly distracted. Marinette suspected that she was itching to get back to her research. Hopefully Alya wasn't neglecting her actual work when she got leads like this. "And what about the war heroes? Do you think that's an actual lead?"

"Why not?" Marinette asked, waving to Adrien as he poked his head through the door to let her know that dinner was ready. He paused, staying quiet so Alya wouldn't notice him and make a big deal about it. "They're not always going to have a Hawkmoth to fight. Why not fight in a war and try to minimize some of the destruction to their side?"

Alya nodded again. "Yeah, I forgot about that. So maybe I should be doing a lot of looking at war records for odd occurrences that Miraculous holders might have been responsible for. That makes sense that they would be more active around then. A She grinned at Marinette. "Are you sure you don't want to become an assistant reporter for me? You're the one who keeps coming up all of the ideas for me!"

Marinette giggled. "Hardly! Anyone could do the same thing I've been doing. Nino could probably help come up with ideas too. He's super-smart and he's more interested than superheroes than I am. Besides, he was the one who originally gave you the lead about them not always appearing as superheroes. That was a huge breakthrough, I think."

Alya snorted out a laugh. "I still can't believe that you aren't that interested in them. I think you're one of the only people in Paris who isn't."

Marinette shrugged as Adrien grinned in amusement in the doorway. She couldn't exactly just out and say that she wasn't that interested in hearing endless theories about herself and her partner when she knew the truth (well, most of the truth- she knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't dating, that they hadn't been bitten by radioactive animals, that they weren't in fact thousands of years old but their kwamis were, that both Ladybug and Chat Noir were currently located in London, not missing- in fact, pretty much the only thing that she didn't know was her partner's identity). If she weren't Ladybug, then she could definitely see herself being interested in the superhero duo- maybe not as obsessed as Alya, but definitely interested.

"Well, I gotta go and make dinner," Alya said, glancing over in what the Marinette assumed was the direction of a clock. "I'll let you know if I have any more breakthroughs with my research."

"Sounds good!" Marinette answered.

"Alya found something?" Adrien inquired politely as Marinette hung up and slid her phone back into her pocket. "And what did she say about the contest?"

"Well, she's not entering this year, for one," Marinette responded as they stepped out of her apartment. She paused to lock the door before heading across the hall to Adrien's apartment. "She hadn't gotten enough initial research done."

Adrien's eyebrows shot up. "Really? But she seemed so pumped about it at Christmas."

"She decided that she didn't have enough information to make a really strong proposal this year, so she's waiting for next year," Marinette explained. They stepped into Adrien's apartment, and Marinette paused to take a deep breath of the delicious smell coming from the kitchen. "I always thought that she would enter anyway, just to try even if she didn't think it was the strongest proposal ever. There would be time afterwards to iron out more details."

Adrien let out a long hmmm at that. Marinette raised an eyebrow at him, and Adrien shook his head at her. "I actually was surprised that she had been considering entering this year at all, considering that she only had a couple months' worth of research to go on. I looked up winners from previous contests, and most had done at least a year or two of independent research before entering. She could have entered, sure, but then she would lose the initial surprise and interest value of the topic." He shrugged and headed into the kitchen with Marinette trailing behind. "This way, she gets a double whammy next year of both an interesting new topic and solid research, instead of just the research. She probably knew that and decided to wait because of that."

Marinette had to admit that it was a good point. She had mostly based her guess on what Alya would do on her friend's tendency to dive headfirst into things, sometimes without thinking them through all the way first. Alya had gotten better about it as she got older, sure, but she was still very much a 'act-first-ask-questions-later' kind of person. Still, Adrien's reasoning had missed one very important reason for Alya to wait. "I guess. She also hadn't told Nino about the contest yet. This gives her a bit more time."

At that, Adrien's expression turned displeased. "She hadn't? But I thought she promised to!"

"Apparently Nino was still down about the two of us being out of Paris, and she didn't want to add the possibility of her leaving for half a year to that, especially now that she's pushed entering back for next year." She could understand it, but that didn't mean that she liked it. Nino didn't particularly like being left out of the loop, especially for so long.

She should have made Alya promise to tell Nino before summer or, better yet, before Easter. Fall was far too far away. Nino let a lot roll off his back, but that would be testing his patience far too much.

"There's absolutely no way that Alya won't win once she enters," Adrien said confidently as they dished up their meal and headed to the table to eat. "And Nino will know that, too. I'm mostly curious about where she'll end up going. Like, what fables could she possibly find by going somewhere instead of researching? I think that'll be the only sticking point the contest people might have."

"I think it would probably be a lot of finding artifacts that reference the potential superhero," Marinette said. She had thought about that problem as well, since it was a good point. She didn't want the contest people turning Alya down just because they thought that she wouldn't gain anything of value from travelling around the world. "And sometimes even the best researcher in the world can't come up with the right keywords to find just the right fable, so she might have to talk to local folklorists instead of Googling. She'd be able to find them online and probably email, but then could go there to interview them in person if they knew any promising stories."

Adrien grinned. "You've certainly though this through. Have you mentioned all of that to Alya yet?"

Marinette paused, fork in the air, and then groaned as she slumped in her seat. "No. You're right, I totally should have. But I guess there's not exactly a rush to bring it up now. I'll just try to remember it when I call Alya next so she can keep that in mind as she does her research."

There was a pause as they both ate in silence for a minute, and then Adrien spoke up again. "It's nice that Alya could get the opportunity to travel somewhere new. She's always seemed the type that probably would have done a study abroad if she could have, but it seemed like she didn't want to leave Nino when they were in university."

"Probably because they had just gone through a bit of a rocky patch," Marinette pointed out. "I didn't blame Alya for not wanting to leave the city then. Nino was so busy with his program plus his job that it would have been impossible for him to leave to go visit. They wouldn't have seen each other for months."

"Not a good thing, when they had been arguing about not being able to see each other on a regular basis because of their course loads and jobs," Adrien agreed. "But I guess Nino could take time off now to go visit Alya a few times. I always thought he would travel more, too, but I guess it's easier when you have, y'know..."

"The funds to do it?" Marinette finished. "Yeah, I agree. Hopefully some of the places that Alya'll get to visit will be close enough that he can go without it costing him an arm and a leg. Like, I know that there's one Alya mentioned that was active further north, and that's not that big of a trip, really-"

"Look at us, planning out what Alya and Nino should do," Adrien said with a laugh. "And all before Alya even enters. Talk about planning for the future. Maybe we should wait for Alya to actually enter first, yeah?"

"Oh, I suppose," Marinette sighed. "Fine. Fine. So, how are your classes?"

A/N: s...more stuff happens next chapter I promise.As always, reviews are much appreciated! :)