16. Chapter 16

It didn't take long for Adrien to absolutely hate his schedule for the second semester. He had a ridiculously heavy load on Tuesdays and Thursdays, only a couple things on Mondays and Fridays, and absolutely nothing on Wednesdays. It hadn't sounded bad when he initially got the schedule, had been slightly annoying at the start of the semester, and now?

Now he was very tired of being alternately overwhelmed and having nothing to do.

"Just before the bell, just like usual," Paul commented as Adrien dashed into his Quantum Physics lecture classroom ten seconds before three o'clock. "Jeez, Agreste, did you run here from your lab?"

"Yeah, I did," Adrien admitted, settling into his seat and immediately diving into his bag to dig out his notebook. "It ran over just a bit. I had to leave my lab partner to clean up the last few things, since he doesn't have class for another hour and I had to leave."

Paul just shook his head in disbelief. Somehow he had been luckier than Adrien with getting his schedule, and his labs were more spread out through the week.

"It makes me miss Wednesdays," Adrien grumbled as the professor came in and started setting up. "Yesterday I had nowhere that I had to be and I didn't have to run around campus like a chicken with its head cut off."

"I thought you hated not having anything to do."

"I do," Adrien admitted, flipping through his notebook to find where he had left off. "I got bored of studying and surfing the internet by noon, so I went over to have lunch with Marinette before she had to go back to work. And then I went home and studied some more and was sick of being alone by three. But it's better than having to rush around campus because I have back-to-back classes all day."

"And you really do need a break after labs," Paul agreed. "I hear that they tend to run over more and more once you hit the higher levels. That's what an upperclassman told me, at least. Not every lab, but often enough."

"That's not gonna be fun," Adrien sighed. He'd have to take it into account when making his schedule, and that would force him to have weird breaks during his day. "At least those labs should be more interesting, though. As long as I actually have a break after them and I don't have to worry about getting to my next class, I don't think I'd actually mind that much."

Before Paul could respond, the professor called the class to order. Adrien sat up and forced himself to focus. He couldn't let his studies suffer just because he had been in class all day and had another class yet after this lecture ended. His father would just blame it on his traveling instead of on his class schedule.

Despite himself, Adrien couldn't keep his mind from wandering just a bit as the professor did a quick review of what they had covered in the previous class two days prior. It had been difficult getting out of bed that morning, partly because he had been dreading his class schedule that day, partly because he had been out a little later than he had intended with Ladybug, and partly because Marinette had been sleeping over because her neighbor had been loud again and the bed was lovely and warm and he didn't want to leave her.

He had been really lucky that Marinette hadn't come over until after he got back from being Chat Noir. If she had come over while he was still out or, worse yet, had been in his living room when he detransformed, then he would have been in trouble. He hadn't really thought it through before giving Marinette an extra key to his apartment, but he hadn't run into any problems yet and it was easier for Marinette to let herself in than for her to have to knock, especially when her neighbor started up the music pretty late and Adrien was already asleep.

They had also been lucky that the tabloids had, for the most part, lost interest in him and Marinette. He had only had to do one interview since the semester started (well, an "interview". A reporter had cornered him at the bus station and had annoyed him into answering a few questions before the bus came by and saved him), and he sincerely hoped that it would be the last. Once again he had been forced to confirm that no, he and Marinette weren't dating, because apparently having been told that a good five times previously wasn't enough.

And that was all that they were going to get from him. There was no way that Adrien was going to tell them (or anyone else) that while he and Marinette weren't dating now, it wasn't exactly impossible to think that they might in the future. The realization had snuck up on him over time, but Adrien had found just recently that he couldn't exactly deny it anymore.

He had always thought that Marinette was amazing. She was headstrong and opinionated, but that didn't keep her from being kind and willing to help others. Her talent for design was absolutely undeniable, but she wasn't at all conceited about it and she shared that talent with others through gifts designed specifically for the recipient. Adrien thought that she was just an amazing person overall, and it didn't hurt that she was absolutely adorable besides.

Now that he was thinking about it, he probably should have guessed that he felt more than just friendship towards her after spending most of Fashion Week delighting over her reactions to things going down the runway.

It probably also didn't hurt that Marinette strongly reminded Adrien of Ladybug. Both women had very similar personalities, enough that it was fairly obvious that Adrien had a type. Still, he wasn't going to act on his newfound crush for several reasons.

One, he was still very in love with his superhero partner, and it wouldn't be fair to Marinette if he got into a relationship with her while still having feelings for Ladybug, especially when he still saw (and flirted with) Ladybug at least once a week.

Two, he didn't actually know if Marinette was interested in him. After all, he hadn't exactly seen any larges changes in her behavior towards him since the school year had started and he was fairly positive that she hadn't been interested in him like that then. He didn't want to make things awkward by asking her out and then being turned down.

And three... well, his father hadn't exactly lifted the ban on Adrien dating. And Adrien was planning on complying, at least for now.

A sharp elbow to the side pulled Adrien out of his thoughts and he glanced to the side to see Paul gesturing to the front. The professor had moved on from the review to new material, which meant that Adrien should be paying attention.

He sighed, picking up his pencil and starting to take notes. He could figure it all out later, he supposed. After all, he had to focus on getting through the day in one piece first.

February turned into March, bringing with it weather that was occasionally actually decent enough for Adrien and Marinette to want to be outside for more than a minute at a time. Naturally, both suddenly developed a tendency to "go to bed early" on nice days, and soon Ladybug and Chat Noir would be out enjoying the cool evenings.

"Are you enjoying your time in London?" Chat Noir asked as they jumped over rooftops. "I know I am, even though we can't go out during the day."

"It's been fun," Ladybug said. She paused on a particularly tall rooftop to survey the city, letting the breeze tease her hair. She was wearing it mostly down today, with a bit pinned back out of her face. It looked quite a bit like the hairstyle that Marinette had been wearing earlier, and Chat Noir had to wonder if that particular hairstyle was in trend at the moment. He didn't know; after all, he didn't exactly pay attention to trends in women's hairstyles normally. He'd have to try to remember to ask Marinette about it sometime.

"It's amazing that we haven't been noticed yet."

Ladybug nodded. "Yeah! I mean, I know we've been careful, but even so, you would think that someone would just happen to glance up at the right time and see us jumping over the street. It's possible that people have glanced us and just not believed their eyes, I suppose, but it's not like we're hanging out in different areas each time we go out. If someone saw us more than once, then they might figure out that they weren't just seeing things."

"So... do you think we should be trying to go to different parts of the city, then?" Chat Noir asked. He really didn't want to, mostly because he knew these rooftops now, and if it started raining or sleeting (as it was prone to do at this time of the year), then it would be that much farther to get back to his apartment, and Plagg would be that much more likely to catch a cold. "Or, since no one's spotted us yet, are we still fine?"

Ladybug bit her lip, puzzling over that. "I...don't know. I mean, maybe we could try to shake up what direction we go in, but I don't know that it would make too much sense to go too far. I think for now, we should just stay as-is."

"Purr-fect." Chat Noir grinned at the exasperated look Ladybug gave him for the pun. "What? I happen to like this neighborhood quite a bit."

"If you say so." Ladybug suddenly looked a bit reserved, like he had maybe said something that he shouldn't have. She looked like that sometimes when he mentioned something that might reveal his secret identity, but he hadn't, had he? Unless she somehow thought that his comment about liking the neighborhood meant that he himself lived there and therefore it was too much information, but that was ridiculous.

After all, loads of people lived in the neighborhood that they roamed through the most. There were more than a few apartment buildings and townhouses nearby. Besides, he was fairly positive that he had once made some comment when they were in Paris about his family's house not being far away. Surely his comment now was far less revealing than that.

He decided not to worry about it too much. Maybe Ladybug was reacting to something else entirely. Maybe she lived in the neighborhood too, and she was just a little jumpy because of that.

That made a lot more sense.

"I can't believe how fast the year is going by," Ladybug said, breaking the silence as they started to move again. "Soon it's going to be properly warm again, and the days will be super-long..."

"Oh, that's gonna make things hard," Chat Noir realized with a bit of a jolt. "We'll have to go out really late if we want to stay hidden." That wouldn't be fun. He had been applying to jobs in London for the summer, and if he stayed up late to hang out with Ladybug and still had to get up early then he'd be tired for work. And, unlike in the classroom, his supervisors would probably notice.

Of course, depending on when Ladybug headed back to Paris, maybe it wouldn't be a problem. If she went back early, then there would be no real reason for him to go out as Chat Noir, because all he would be doing would be running around. He wasn't going to lie to himself and try to claim that meeting up with Ladybug was the real reason why he went out so often. Once she went back to Paris, he would probably only go out on occasion to stretch his legs and get some fresh air.

Or maybe he would go a little stir-crazy without Marinette across the hall to hang out with and he would go out every night just to enjoy the sounds of the city. It could go either way, really.

Maybe he would find himself trotting back to Paris over the weekend more often next year, simply because he wouldn't have either Marinette or Ladybug nearby and the homesickness would get to him. Part of him thought that it wouldn't be terrible, but the other part knew that it would be exhausting to always be traveling back and forth.

Besides, then he would never get out of doing any photoshoots.

"Being out too late would probably be a bad idea," Ladybug pointed out, pulling Adrien out of his thoughts. "I have a lot of stuff that I'll have to be getting done, and I'm never on top of my game when I've been up all night."

"It makes getting up in the morning impossibly more difficult," Chat Noir agreed. He glanced up to where the moon was occasionally visible, peeking out from behind the clouds. It had gotten pretty high in the sky while they were out running around, which meant that it was probably pretty late and he was going to regret this in the morning. Almost as though she was reading his mind, Ladybug sighed and slowed down before turning around.

"It's getting late. Let's head back, kitten."

Chat Noir pouted at her, and Ladybug only laughed. Reaching out, she scratched under his chin lightly until he purred. "C'mon, we've been out for ages. It's late, and I swear I'm only upright because of the suit. I'm gonna be half-asleep by the time I'm getting ready for bed."

It didn't take long for them to get back to where they had run into each other at the start of their "patrol". His apartment building was only a block over, so Chat Noir dawdled a bit on the rooftop so Ladybug wouldn't accidentally see him landing on his balcony and heading inside. Only once she was out of sight did he pole quickly over to the building and drop down onto his balcony.

And then he heard the music.

"It's not even the weekend yet," Chat Noir grumbled, stepping inside. The music wasn't particularly loud in his apartment, but he could still hear it faintly floating under his door. "That's not coo- oh, shoot!"

Music going late meant Marinette coming over once it was her bedtime. It was just after one in the morning, according to the clock in the kitchen- wow, he and Ladybug had sure been out for a while- which meant that Marinette had probably already come over ages ago and found him not in the apartment. This was bad, this was very bad, this was very, very bad- what if she had heard him come in and found Chat Noir instead?

Diving into the kitchen, Chat Noir detransformed, flinging open the fridge to provide a little more shelter and to try to disguise the light from his detransformation. Plagg took the open fridge door as an invitation to dive right in and help himself, but Adrien ignored him, standing very, very still as he listened for any sign of Marinette.

There was the sound of a key in the door. Adrien froze, grabbed a half-filled glass of water off of the counter so it would look like he had just come to the kitchen for a drink, and closed the fridge before popping innocently into the living room, ignoring Plagg's disgruntled "Hey!" from inside the fridge.

Marinette blinked at Adrien curiously as she stepped inside and re-locked the door. "Adrien? I didn't expect to find you awake!" She paused, getting a better look at him. "...are you really still dressed?"

...shoot. He was, in fact, still wearing his jeans. He really should have changed into his night clothes before transforming and going out.

"Did you fall asleep doing homework again?" Marinette asked, sounding a little exasperated. "Adrien."

"No, I was just reading and fell asleep before I could finish getting ready," Adrien claimed, pretending to take a sip of his water. "And then I woke up and needed something to drink. What about you? I would have thought you would have come over earlier."

"Fell asleep early on my couch," Marinette said after a pause. "So I slept through the start of the music, and only just woke up. So. Yeah. And now I'm here."

"And now you're here," Adrien agreed, still a little jumpy after nearly being found out. "Ah, so I still have to wash up and all, but you go ahead to bed. I'll be there soon enough."

Marinette nodded through a yawn, running a hand through her hair. "Okay. Good night, Adrien."

"'Night, Mari."

As Marinette headed down the hall, Adrien slumped a little against the wall, letting out a sigh of relief and silently thanking Ladybug for deciding to turn around when she did. If he had gotten back any later than he had, he would have really been in trouble. He couldn't think of any plausible excuse that would explain away why he was out of his apartment after one in the morning. Marinette knew him too well for any of his normal half-baked excuses to work properly, even when she was tired beyond belief.

"Hey! Lemme out!"

...and at least Marinette was now in the bedroom and he didn't have to explain why his fridge was yelling. That would have been really hard to explain.

The rest of the first half of the semester positively flew by, even with Adrien's less-than-ideal schedule. Rosalie Fashions went through another Fashion Week, this time with all models present and intact. The man that Adrien had replaced for the fall Fashion Week was as good as new, and Adrien was pleased to hear that he had recovered quickly from the car accident and hadn't been too badly impacted. A bit after that was midterms, and then after that Adrien had the chance to breathe a little as he got another week off for spring break and the Easter holiday. This semester seemed to be harder than the last, partially due to the classes themselves and partly because of his crummy schedule alternating between making him scramble across campus and boring him to death, so the break was welcome.

But short. Way too short, and it went by way too fast.

Adrien had more time at home than Marinette, who had to use another couple of her hoarded vacation days to extend her stay long enough to see her parents properly. Adrien himself had to suffer through another round of photoshoots while he was at home, this time for late spring and early summer looks, before he could go out and visit his friends- and by that, he mostly meant Nino, since Alya had just gotten a potential lead about an old Miraculous holder and she could only tear herself away from the computer for a short while to say hi to Adrien before diving back in.

It was amusing, but also slightly concerning. Adrien decided that Marinette's concerns about Alya potentially neglecting her actual work to keep researching her own project when she found a promising lead were probably well-founded and likely at least a little accurate.

"I'd say that we would visit you guys in London again soon, but I don't know if I could drag Alya away from her work for long enough," Nino had told Adrien, sounding a little exasperated. "It takes almost everything I have to even get her to set things aside long enough for a date night, let alone any longer trips."

"But she is still getting her work for the newspaper done, right?" Adrien wanted to know. Nino had just made a face.

"At the moment, yeah. She lets things slip when she gets like this, though."

Adrien could only sigh and hope that Alya would take a few steps back and realize before it was too late that the Ladybug research stuff could wait, but her actual job really couldn't. He was sure that one reprimand from her boss would set her straight in a hurry and she would do everything she could to get back in the newspaper's good graces, but it still wouldn't look good to have that on her record.

After the too-short break, Adrien and Marinette were back in London. Alya had sworn up and down that she and Nino would come visit again later in the semester, but neither Adrien nor Marinette had particularly believed her. After all, whenever she wasn't eyeball-deep in Miraculous research, she was scrambling to catch up with the things she had neglected at her job during her research spree. They would have to content themselves with video calls for the time being.

Besides, it wasn't as though Adrien and Marinette really had the time to spare to host their friends again. Now that the second half of the semester had started, Adrien found that he had several more projects that needed to be worked on on top of his normal homework. Marinette had shown Madam Rosalie the results of hours upon hours working on potential fabric patterns and now she was working with an experienced fabrics designer on the staff to make her designs reality. It involved a lot of printing out short sample pieces and going over what proportions worked and what ones didn't and then editing and reprinting, over and over and over to get a pattern that would read well. On top of that, it was Marinette's turn to get a bit more experience working with models and photographers on photoshoots, so she was rushing from one to the other to try to get everything done. It resulted in more than a few long days and working on weekends to get everything done.

They were both badly in need of a break. So when Adrien heard about a local festival in mid-April in a town a ways to their north from a classmate of his who was from that area, both of them were eager to check it out. It would be an overnight trip, both because it was a ways away and because they wanted plenty of time to explore the festival, because the classmate had made it sound like it was a pretty big deal.

They had assumed that a pretty big deal for a town that size just meant that locally, it was a big event. Like, everyone in town would go, and maybe people who had families there would go back, and maybe a couple people from neighboring towns would show up as well. That assumption was apparently wrong.

"Nearly all of the hotels in the area are booked, and absolutely all the nice ones are completely full," Adrien reported as he clicked on yet another link. "But those would be out of our preferred price range anyway. And then there's a room with two single beds in it in a midrange hotel, but it's a smoking room."

"Nope," Marinette said immediately from where she was putting dishes away in the kitchen. She had been unfortunate enough to once not check on the smoking designation of the room, and she hadn't been able to sleep at all because of the stench. She was not doing that again.

"Then the only non-smoking rooms left only have one bed each," Adrien reported. "And there's only- oh. There's only one room left. That's it."

There was a pause.

"Well, it's not like we've never shared a bed before," Marinette offered. Since her neighbor hadn't yet kicked the habit of playing music late into the night several days a week (at least they had been largely confining it to Fridays and weekends after too many noise complaints), Marinette had found herself slipping over to Adrien's apartment to share his bed. He had never minded, even though the bed was perhaps a little small for both of them to really spread out, and Marinette herself definitely didn't object. "As long as the tabloids don't follow us there and then find out that our room is a single bed. And I don't think they will. I haven't seen anything printed about us for months." The reporters had been bad right after the runway and then spiked again after Christmas (apparently since they had been spotted hanging out in Paris, which was honestly ridiculous) and then again at Valentine's Day, but after several further rounds of interviews (generally at Mr. Agreste or Nathalie's request) where Adrien had to reiterate that no, he and Marinette's relationship status had not changed and they were not dating, they seemed to get bored.

It was really about time, in Marinette's opinion. She didn't understand what their appeal even was. Sure, Adrien was a model. Sure, maybe he was somewhat well known in the fashion world for his work as a model. But that was it- he was well known in the fashion world. Normal people out in the street probably wouldn't recognize him, if it weren't for the tabloids' seemingly constant coverage. She didn't particularly approve of their hounding of actors and other actually famous people either, but she could understand where people's curiosity about them came from, at least. With models, they were supposed to be pretty much vehicles for showing off clothes. Sure, they were gorgeous (her eyes slid over to Adrien; even in a simple t-shirt and jeans combination, he looked amazing), but there were plenty of gorgeous people who didn't go into modeling.

The sound of a few more clicks came from the other room, and then Adrien spoke up again. "So just share the room and the bed?"

"If you're comfortable with that, yeah." Marinette paused in the middle of putting things away. Was that an uncomfortable edge to his voice that she was hearing? She had thought that Adrien would be fine with it, since they had shared a bed so many times. Maybe somehow sharing a bedroom and not having the rest of the living space made it different somehow, but she couldn't understand how. They would have a bathroom that they could change clothes in, and-

"Yeah, I'm fine with it. I just wanted to confirm before booking it." Adrien's voice cut off Marinette's sudden internal panic-induced monologue and she let out a relieved breath. She had been worried that she had somehow crossed some invisible line in their friendship for a moment there. How, she wasn't sure, considering the number of sleepovers they had had thanks to the blaring music from her neighbor, but she supposed that there might be some difference if someone else- in this case, the receptionist- knew that they were sharing both room and bed. "Booked."

"Great. I'll get the train tickets after I finish this." Marinette paused for a moment as she tried to remember where Adrien normally kept his ladles. A second later, it hit her and she turned around to toss the utensil into the right drawer. "You said you can be ready to go by midday Friday?"

"Yeah, my one o'clock class is cancelled."

With the last of the dishes put away, Marinette drifted out of the kitchen to join Adrien at the table. "Did your professor say why?"

"A conference of some sort that he has to go to, I think." Adrien shrugged and made a face. "I can't remember the details, but he did give us extra homework to make up for it."

Marinette could only giggle. "Aw, that's too generous of him. He shouldn't have."

"Yeah, he shouldn't have all right. One of the problems is a real beast and I have no idea how to solve it. I'll have to see if some of the others in the class want to get together mid-week and work on it together." Adrien didn't look terribly pleased. The majority of the study groups that he had gone to hadn't been terribly productive, largely because of how easily some of the others got pulled off task. "That's why I like the class discussion groups better. The professor does a great job of keeping all of the groups on-task so we actually get stuff done."

Thankfully for Adrien's sanity, the classmates he found for a study group actually were pretty focused. They all came to the mid-week session with as much of the homework done as possible, and then they worked together through the sections of the problems that they had had trouble with. He left the study group satisfied, with his completed homework sheet tucked away carefully in a folder in his backpack.

"I only have a little bit of homework left that I want to finish over the weekend," Adrien told Marinette that Friday as they boarded the train. "Hopefully I can get it done on the train. Neither are things that are due right away on Monday, but I like starting the week without the little stuff still hanging over my head."

"Well, we do have a few hours of travel before we get there," Marinette pointed out as they settled into their seats. "Hopefully we won't have any loud kids or anything in our carriage. Did you bring anything for any of your projects?"

"Just a book to read," Adrien said. "I didn't want to over pack. I brought post-its and that highlighter tape stuff so I can mark up anything I think is important for later. I was gonna bring a couple papers to read, but I'm pretty sure that I won't even get through half of the book during the trip."

As the train started up and sped out of London ten minutes later, Adrien was already neck-deep in homework problems and Marinette was paging through a book, iPod earbud wedged in one ear. They had gotten largely lucky with their train carriage- the only members of the under-twelve crowd in the carriage was two babies that were currently fast asleep- but they had spotted a large family getting onto the train in the next section up just prior to departure. From the slightly exasperated expressions on the faces of the other passengers that they could see through the carriage windows, it looked like the family wasn't being particularly quiet.

Several hours (and several relatively short crying baby episodes) later, Adrien and Marinette hopped off the train and headed down the street to the hotel Adrien had found. The town was bustling with activity, and banners and posters alike hung from windows, advertising the local holiday.

"Well, at least there's so many people here that we shouldn't stand out," Adrien commented as they dodged around the family that they had spotted on the train earlier. The youngest kid was already hanging off of his mother's arm, begging for pastries from a stall set up on the street nearby. "And there should be plenty to do."

"You mean plenty to eat," Marinette corrected with a laugh, glancing around the crowded street. "That pastry stall smells pretty good, and believe me, it takes a lot for me to notice things like that."

Adrien grinned and made a sharp turn to detour over to the stall, tugging Marinette's arm so she followed him. "That, I can believe. I remember when we went to fairs and whatnot when we were in lycée and you almost never bought pastries from the food stalls while the rest of us were already digging out our wallets with the first whiff."

Thankfully the line at the pastry stall wasn't long, and soon Adrien and Marinette were continuing their journey down the road with a pain au chocolate each. It took all of the self-control Adrien had to not just scarf the whole thing down, but then again he had had the same problem with nearly every other pain au chocolate he had ever encountered. Marinette was only halfway done while he was licking the last traces of pastry and butter off of his fingers.

"We're going back to that stall again," Adrien announced as he finally got the last traces of his pastry off of his fingers. "I know the pastries from that shop near us are pretty good, but I always feel guilty about going there more than once a week."

Marinette laughed. "And somehow going back to that stall will be different?"

"It's a holiday, Marinette! All rules about feeling guilty are off the table when it's a holiday, don't you know?"

Marinette only groaned.

There wasn't much of a line when they arrived at the somewhat run-down hotel. Adrien and Marinette waited for a small family in front of them to check in with the bored-looking receptionist, and then it was their turn. If someone was going to make a big deal about them sharing a room, it was going to be now.

"Name?"

"Adrien Agreste," Adrien said, sounding a bit nervous. Now that they were here, he was thinking that they probably should have made the reservations under Marinette's name instead, since his was much more recognizable than hers was. "One room, queen bed."

"Uh-huh." The receptionist didn't even blink as she brought up the reservation. In fact, she looked impossibly more bored as she glanced up at them. "Card?"

Adrien handed over his card. A minute later, he and Marinette were setting their bags down on the bed in their room. After another moment, they both burst out laughing.

"We were all worried for nothing," Marinette chortled. "She didn't even care! We could have had the Queen along and she probably wouldn't have even had a change in expression."

Well, I have heard that customer service sucks the soul out of people," Adrien offered, flopping back into a chair. He was still grinning. "I've never actually seen it in person, though."

They fell silent for a moment and then Adrien spoke up again. "So, what should we do first? I don't suppose we can go back to that pastry stall, can we?"

Their overnight bed-sharing trip went so well that Adrien and Marinette decided that, should they take any more overnight trips like that (and Adrien hoped that they would), they were more than willing to share in the future as well.

"It is a pretty easy way to save money," Marinette commented as they sorted through the bills from their last trip. "One room with one bed is almost always the cheapest option, and I think it worked really well."

"And it's nice and warm if the room is cold," Adrien added a bit dreamily, remembering how lovely it had been to slip in between the sheets and find them already warm because Marinette had been there already for a few minutes. He hadn't even minded that she took up more than what was strictly her fair share of the bed (how she did that when she was so small was beyond Adrien), because now that they had been sharing a bed a couple nights a week they didn't really worry as much about keeping space between themselves as they slept. If Marinette rolled over to take up two-thirds of the bed, Adrien would just curl up next to her instead of clinging to the edge of the bed to make sure she still had her space.

Adrien certainly didn't mind the proximity, and neither did Marinette. She occasional grumbled if he jostled her too much when she was about to fall asleep (or was already sleeping), but she never minded him occasionally falling asleep practically on top of her.

Of course, if she complained, she might be a bit hypocritical. Marinette sometimes moved around a lot in her sleep and ended up half-draped over Adrien. She had apologized the first few times it happened, but Adrien had hastened to assure her that really, he didn't mind it at all.

(Plagg teased Adrien about it mercilessly whenever Marinette wasn't in the apartment, insisting that Adrien was far more clingy with his "wife" than any of his past kittens had been with their mates. Adrien had finally decided to ignore him, but that approach just led to Plagg cackling about it even more in an attempt to get a rise out of him.)

Marinette's snort snapped Adrien back to the present, and he grinned a bit sheepishly at her amused look. Her cheeks were just as red as his felt, and Adrien had to wonder why. After all, he had been the one to wax poetic about sharing a bed with his friend, not the other way around...

It hit him like a slap to the face, and Adrien had to shake his head at his own momentary oversight. Of course Marinette was embarrassed by his comment about how much he enjoyed sharing a bed with her. It wasn't exactly something that most strictly platonic friends did, after all.

"I kind of want to go back to that town again next year for the festival," Marinette spoke up, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence. "It was fun, and that food was great."

"I really liked the dances," Adrien agreed, and then he did a double-take, hope starting to rise in his chest. "Wait, next year? Won't that be a bit too far to travel if you're back in Paris? Or...?"

Marinette's cheeks turned slightly pink at his expression. "I've been considering asking Madam Rosalie if I could stay another year. It's not unheard of," she added when Adrien looked like he was going to ask about that. "One of the head designers I work with a lot was an intern for three years before getting offered a proper job. And I do enjoy getting to work there, it's a lot of fun, and I'm learning a lot, and, uh. Yeah. I've made friends there, and it looks better to have been working somewhere for more than just a year."

"Right, of course," Adrien said, trying not to smile. It certainly sounded from Marinette's sudden nervousness that she maybe wasn't entirely telling the truth, which in turn suggested that maybe him being in London had been part of the reason behind her considering an extension. Either way, he was all for it. After all, Adrien enjoyed Marinette's company very much. She was one of his best friends, after all.

Now if only whatever had brought Ladybug to London would get extended as well...

A/N: yay stuff actually happened! And next chapter... well, let's just say I like next chapter quite a bit :D

As always, reviews are always appreciated!