37. Chapter 37

"Delivery for one Marinette Dupain-Cheng who definitely lives across the hall and not with her secret boyfriend at all no siree!"

Adrien laughed as he answered the knock on the door to see Abbey standing there with a box and a postcard balanced on top. "You don't have to announce that every time you have something for Marinette, you know."

Abbey answered his laugh with a grin of her own as she handed over the package and card. "But what fun would that be? I always check to make sure there's no one in the hallway first, in case that helps. I don't want to be the one to spoil your secret."

"That's appreciated." Adrien set the box down on the couch. "Is Marinette still at work?"

"I assume so, if she isn't over here." Abbey glanced towards the staircase. "I think she was over in the fabric design department. We were looking into making an ombré winter coat and Marinette was going to look into if our machines could handle the dying on that kind of fabric."

Adrien frowned slightly, puzzled. In his experience, it was usually the head of the design group that talked to other departments, not an intern- even if that intern had been there for three years. "Why was Marinette talking to them instead of Mrs. Kelly? Wouldn't that be more typical?"

"Yeah, maybe in most groups. But Marinette has been working with the fabric design people more than the rest of us, so they know her better and she understands their jargon." Abbey shrugged. "It just made more sense to send her. Mrs. Kelly figured that they would be more willing to work with Marinette than with her."

That made sense. Marinette had mentioned working with the fabric design team before, talking about the challenges of patterning and how different types of fabric and the size of the knit or weave affected how the pattern looked. It just hadn't clicked that oh, right, Marinette has a lot of experience with that team. "Would it have to be made off-site if the on-site people can't do it?"

Abbey shrugged. "I don't know. Hopefully. I mean, we would probably hand-dye the original, but we want to produce and sell the coats, too, and hand-dying each one would, uh, not exactly be ideal."

"Or consistent, probably. And no one wants to go home every night with hands dyed weird colors."

Abbey made a face at the thought. "Yeah, exactly. Anyway, I'd better go. I have a date tonight. Have a good evening."

"And you too," Adrien responded. "I hope your date goes well!"

Abbey nodded and waved before vanishing into her apartment. Adrien headed back to the kitchen to continue layering the lasagna that he was making for dinner. He hummed as he placed another level of noodles on top of the cheese and sauce of the layer below it, then added more sauce. He swatted Plagg away from the cheese again with a sigh.

"I'm hungry!"

"Give me a minute and I can get you some of your cheese," Adrien said, sprinkling the cheese on and quickly covering it. "And you just ate an hour ago. I swear I'm going to find something else for you to eat that doesn't cost so much."

Plagg made a rude noise. "I wouldn't eat it. I want cheese!"

Adrien just rolled his eyes as he got a chunk of Brie out of the fridge for Plagg to eat. He was lucky that he and Marinette were doing well enough financially to not have to worry about the impact Plagg's eating habits had on their budget. Maybe his kwami would cooperate if they ever had to tighten their budget belt, but Adrien doubted that they would ever find out.

He had just popped the finished dish into the oven and set the timer when the door opened and Marinette came in. He stepped out of the kitchen, breathing a small sigh of relief as he did so. Between the stove and the oven it had gotten pretty warm and the heat had started to make him feel a little ill, especially since he was still wearing a heavy sweater since it was so chilly outside.

Adrien quickly shucked it and tossed it over the back of the couch. Their apartment was kept warm enough that he didn't really need it.

"Hey, Kitty," Marinette greeted him, rolling up on her toes to kiss him. "How are things going?"

"Well, I met up with Paul today," Adrien told her, taking her coat and heading to the closet to hang it up. "Over his lunch break. He read over two of my essays for final edits, so I have those finished up now. He said he can meet up again this weekend to look at my other projects." Which was good, because his grad student tutor still didn't do reading papers, even though Adrien had tried to explain that no, he didn't need any help with the content, just the grammar. "And I got those changes fixed, so I can just check those off my list of things to do."

"Great! I have a few things I need to check off my list of things to do, too. Not too many, though." Marinette glanced over at her sewing machine. "Then I can really start doing Christmas presents."

Adrien tried not to laugh. As far as he had been able to tell, Marinette had started do Christmas shopping several weeks ago. She had come back from a shopping trip for both the fabrics for a commission and a whole pile of other fabrics. They were the kind of fabric that was used for quilts, and Adrien's suspicions were confirmed when he spotted quilt patterning pieces on the floor. A good number of blocks had even already been sewn together, in between her commission work. He wasn't sure if she had started anyone else's presents yet, but something told him she probably had.

Marinette headed to her sewing machine while Adrien sat down with some notes to review. Tikki and Plagg settled down in front of Marinette's computer to watch a movie, each wearing a single earbud. An air of domesticity settled over them all, making Adrien smile just a bit.

This is what he wanted from life. Never mind the career path, or where they lived, or any of that. As long as he was with Marinette, he would be happy.

The sewing machine hummed in short starts and stops as Marinette got a jacket liner in and attached, complete with pockets. Her tongue poked out of the side of her mouth as she worked, a slight crease appearing on her forehead while she did difficult parts.

Not that Adrien was staring or anything, of course. He was focusing on his homework like a good student.

By the time the timer went off, Marinette had finished the jacket and was snipping threads off of it. Adrien cleared the table and pulled the lasagna out, making a pleased noise when he noticed the browned cheese and bubbling sauce. He set it on the counter to cool a little and firm up while he set the table and pulled out the leftover salad from the previous night. Before he had gotten far, though, there was a sound rather like a cat getting its tail stepped on. Adrien spun around to see a whining Plagg, frantically trying to get molten cheese off of his paws and tongue.

Adrien just sighed, turned the sink faucet to cold, and left it to run while he brought the salad out to the table. Seconds later, the sound of splashing and gurgles floated out of the kitchen as Plagg flew straight under the running water.

"How much do you want?" Adrien asked Marinette as she came to hang over the divider between kitchen and dining area. "A big piece, middle, or small?"

"Middle, please."

Adrien served the piece up, then turned to his own plate. After a moment of deliberation, he took a small piece. He was feeling a bit tired and if he were going to go to bed early, he didn't want to do so on an overly full stomach.

"Abbey dropped by with some stuff from Alya," Adrien commented as they sat down. "And she said that you were doing something with the fabric printing team this afternoon?"

Marinette perked up. "Yeah! It took a bit of back-and-forth, but I think we've reached a good decision, I'll just have to talk it over with my team. We'll have to make a slight compromise on the outermost fabric because they can't do fabric quite as thick as we were thinking, but Sandy suggested a liner in between to make up the difference and that should work. And we'll have to print out a few sample pieces to get the ombré just right, but that's honestly the fun part! And-"

Adrien listened as Marinette filled him in on her day, occasionally eating a few bites of his dinner as he did. Marinette frowned when she finally got to the end of the story and she noticed his still-full plate.

"Are you not feeling well?"

Adrien glanced down, frowning when he noticed that he had only taken maybe five or six small bites. "I'm not that hungry, I think. I was standing over the stove in a really thick sweater for too long and that made me feel a bit off."

"Do you want me to turn down the heat?" Marinette was already halfway out of her chair, ready to head straight for the thermostat. "I can do that, just give me a moment-"

"No, it's fine. I took the sweater off." Sure, it was a little weird that the ill feeling hadn't entirely vanished yet, but he was sure it wouldn't help if he was cold on top of that. "I'll finish this up and then maybe go to bed early. Maybe I'm just tired."

Marinette immediately looked concerned. "Are you coming down with something?"

"No, no," Adrien assured her. "I never get sick. This is just a little bump. Really."

Adrien was not feeling all right.

Sniffling miserably, Adrien reached for the box of tissues closest to him. It seemed like overnight, an entire gallon of crud had been shoved in his nose. No matter how much he blew his nose, he still couldn't breathe.

"Oh, Adrien," Marinette sighed, rolling over. Adrien could feel her hovering over him. "You're sick after all, aren't you?"

"Ugh," Adrien groaned. "I can't be sick. I have class today, and I need to study, and -"

"You'll be staying home and resting," Marinette told him. "That's the only way you'll recover. I'll pick up some vitamins to help, and make you some soup. You can get notes from your classmates." At his groan, she frowned at him. "Adrien."

"Fine, fine, I'll stay home. I just have a couple classes today and tomorrow. I'll miss lab tomorrow if I'm still feeling sick then, but-"

Marinette pressed him back into bed firmly. "You can email your professor this afternoon. Rest."

Adrien sank back down, half-dozing as Marinette moved around their room, combing her hair and getting dressed. Even though he was only half-awake, Adrien still noticed that Marinette's clothes were definitely not the kind of thing she normally wore to work.

"You don't have to miss work for me," Adrien protested when he realized that Marinette wasn't leaving at all. "I'll be fine. I'm an adult, I can take care of myself."

"You're sick. Let me take care of you for a day." Marinette sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling the covers up to his neck. "And I want to make sure you actually eat something. You might be an adult, but I know you. You'll just stay in bed all day and not take care of yourself."

Still, Adrien protested. "You're using up your days off. You'll be needing those this year."

"I'll work from home. I have some prints to work on, after all, for some designs our team came up with. It might actually be easier to work from here, since one of the other teams at work is having model fittings and that is always hectic." Marinette brushed his hair off of his forehead, checking his temperature with the back of her hand as she did. "I'll run over to work and grab the stuff I need for that really quickly and check with the rest on the team on the coat printing, then I'll be back in case you need anything."

Once Adrien had been set up with everything he could possibly need, Marinette headed out, leaving the two kwamis to keep an eye on Adrien. Adrien sniffled miserably, reaching for his phone to text Paul and a couple other classmates to see if he could get notes from them. He would probably be out today and tomorrow, and then he would have the weekend to recover enough to be back in the classroom on Monday. This was the worst time of the semester to be out- they would be dealing with their most complex theorems and other things they had spent the entire semester building up to, and Adrien was probably going to have to schedule extra time with his tutor to get fully back on track and ready for finals.

It did not help that some of his classes, for the first time in his program, only had a final. That really put the pressure on.

Adrien dozed off once the texts were sent and only woke when the bed dipped under Marinette's weight once she returned. He blinked his eyes open, watching as she sat on the bed with her tablet in her lap, making adjustments to whatever was on her screen. A pile of test-size fabric prints sat next to Marinette, a variety of patterns and colors thrown together. Some had more iterations than others, which made Adrien guess that they were either closer to final print or just being trickier to get just right.

Mid-morning, Adrien couldn't possibly sleep any longer. He sat up partway, watching Marinette work. She would inspect the bit of fabrics, sometimes looking at the pattern itself, sometimes looking at something in the drape of the fabric and how it worked with the pattern. He wasn't quite what she was looking for, but sometimes she nodded, pleased, while other times she would make a face and make a note of something on her tablet.

It was relaxing to watch Marinette work. She was so focused on her work, but behind that focus was a true passion. Expressions flitted across her face as she worked with the fabric, and her tongue stuck out ever-so-slightly as she focused on making slight changes to her patterns. When she got something to work the way she wanted to, Marinette practically lit up.

Even as miserable as he was feeling, Adrien still couldn't help but enjoy watching her.

"I'm going to go make you some lemon tea with honey," Marinette announced mid-morning, setting her tablet and fabric samples aside. "That'll help with your throat. And I'll get you something to eat, too."

"Not hungry," Adrien muttered. He knew he should eat, but he didn't feel like it. His stomach was still roiling a bit. "But I'll take the tea."

Marinette sent him a sharp look. "You'll take the toast, too."

...on second thought, it was probably not a good idea to argue with Ladybug. She got stubborn when she had her mind set on something, and she wasn't going to back down.

Adrien sat up on the edge of the bed so he wouldn't spill anything when Marinette brought back the tea. He winced as he ran a hand through his bedhead.

Maybe he should take a shower or something after he had his tea. He didn't really want to do anything, not really, but it was probably a good idea. He had heard that the steam might help him clear up his nose, too, which was really tempting at this point.

He had forgotten what breathing normally felt like. It was awful.

"I'll make you chicken soup for lunch," Marinette said, making Adrien startle. He hadn't realized that she had returned already. "I've got the ingredients for it. But have this for now."

Adrien took the toast and tea with a quiet thanks. Marinette headed back out to get the soup going, and Adrien sipped cautiously at his tea. There were two pills on his plate and Adrien considered them for a second before shrugging and washing them down with a gulp of tea and a bite of the toast. He wasn't sure what exactly they were, but he assumed that Marinette wasn't trying to off him or anything.

One shower and a round of teeth-brushing (and hair-combing) later, Adrien wandered out to the living room, trailing a blanket behind him. Marinette had gotten set up at their table with her tablet, her computer and a sketchbook and was hard at work.

"Oh, you look a bit more alive now," Marinette commented as Adrien came in. She considered him and then grinned. "Well, better than before, at least. I'm not sure that's really saying much."

Adrien tried to muffle a laugh and ended up in a coughing fit.

They fell into a comfortable silence as Marinette worked and Adrien pulled out his phone, scrolling through his messages and checking his email. Occasionally Marinette got up to check on the soup, occasionally stirring it a bit.

"Any news from Paris?" Marinette asked when his phone buzzed with a message. Adrien checked, grinning when he saw that the text was from Nino.

"Nino said that his final itinerary for his Tibet trip was finalized today," Adrien reported, reading the text. His brow furrowed. "Which...about time, really. He leaves pretty soon."

"What on earth did he still have left to finalize?" Marinette asked, looking over at him. She looked about as startled as he felt. "Tickets get expensive when they're last-minute like that!"

Adrien consulted the text again. "Train and motel, apparently. The plane tickets he got ages ago." Oh, that was better. Those kinds of things didn't really increase in price, he was pretty sure.

Well, train tickets might. The hotel at least shouldn't.

"And he's looking forward to it?"

"Oh yeah."

Adrien spent most of the rest of the day resting, occasionally having a bit to eat but not so much that he felt ill again. Once four rolled around, Marinette saved all of her drafts, set aside her sketchbook, and headed over to her sewing machine to work on her quilt. She had gotten more pieces together the night before, enough that a pattern had clearly started to emerge, but it clearly needed a good bit of work still.

Adrien rolled over to watch Marinette as she lined up two edges and slid a pin into the fabric to keep it in place. "That's an interesting pattern. Pretty, though."

Marinette grinned, holding up the section of pieced top she had made. "It is, isn't it? It's called a double wedding ring quilt. I knew I had to make one as soon as Nino told us the news. Maybe I should have waited until their wedding to give it to them, but..." She shrugged. "I'm sure they'll have a wedding registry that we can choose from, and I wanted to be the one to make their quilt. Otherwise they would probably would end up with a stupid store-bought one."

"That's a traditional wedding quilt, isn't it?" Adrien watched as Marinette turned back to the machine and sewed up the seam. "I know that much, at least."

"It is! I couldn't resist." Marinette picked up another partial block and started pinning edges together. It looked a bit awkward with the curved edges, but Adrien knew Marinette would work her magic and then it would look amazing. "I've been meaning to make them a quilt for ages, but I just never got around to it."

Adrien dozed off as Marinette continued to pin and sew. He woke up a few times with his nose clogged, and he just sniffled and blew his nose before burying himself in the blankets again.

Ugh. He had been starting to feel better, and now he just felt crummy again. How was he going to get well enough to go back to school so he wouldn't fall behind?

Adrien had just fallen asleep- or so it seemed to him, at least- when Marinette was shaking him lightly to wake him up. Adrien rolled over, yawning-

-and nearly rolled right off of the couch.

Marinette laughed as she caught him. "Easy there, kitty. You don't want to hit your head on top of everything else."

"Forgot where I was." Adrien pushed himself up, yawning. "What's up?"

"You should eat again, and have more vitamins," Marinette told him. "It's been a while. And then if you're going to sleep, sleep in our bed. You'll get a crick in your neck otherwise."

Adrien followed Marinette to their table. She had more soup set out for him, with several slices of lightly buttered toast. There was a steaming cup of tea at his spot, and Adrien sniffed it. The warm steam cleared his nose just enough for him to be able to pick out what it was.

Ginger and honey. Mmm.

"You're a rock star," Adrien told Marinette as they started to tuck in. "Seriously. I probably would have made some toast and called it a day."

"I'll be going into work tomorrow, so you had better eat more than that," Marinette warned him. She pointed at Plagg. "You're in charge of making sure that he eats well. If I get any complaints from him that you're bugging him too much, I'll go buy some of that Gournay cheese you were drooling over from the cheese shop."

Adrien spluttered as Plagg cheered. "Marinette! My own girlfriend, conspiring against me with my own kwami."

Marinette and Tikki both giggled. "To make sure you take care of yourself! So there's leftover chicken soup, plenty of bread- I bought more fresh this morning- tea and honey, yogurt- and you will eat some, even if it tastes too sweet- oranges, crackers, vitamins for you-"

"I'll be fine," Adrien assured her. "And I'll eat. You don't need to have Plagg on my case."

"I think it goes without saying that the cheese offer is off the table if you keep Adrien from resting," Tikki told Plagg, which was good because his traitorous girlfriend was still giggling over his distress. "Marinette, maybe we can make up a list of what you want Adrien to eat minimum, so Plagg can know when to stop bugging him."

"I don't want Adrien to eat so much that he gets sick," Marinette objected. "I just want him to at least get some food in his stomach whenever he's up."

"But by putting Plagg in charge?" Tikki objected.

"Hey! What's wrong with me being in charge?"

"It'll be fine," Marinette assured them. "Really."

The next day, Adrien was woken up from his mid-morning nap by a cracker hitting his forehead. He blinked, then glared at Plagg, who was floating above him with his little stubby arms full of crackers.

"What was that for?"

Plagg blinked down at him innocently. "What? You moved, so I figured that you were up."

"I was sleeping."

Plagg shrugged. "And now you're up. Eat." He deposited the entire armful of crackers on Adrien's blanket-covered lap and then zipped off, looking very proud of himself.

"I ate two pieces of toast earlier!" Adrien yelled after his kwami. "And I had juice, and my vitamins!"

Plagg's voice floated back around the corner. "Eat your crackers!"

Sighing, Adrien pushed himself up in bed, gathering up the crackers and nibbing on the edge of one. His appetite had been returning- he hadn't even needed any urging to eat the toast earlier- so Plagg's help wasn't even needed.

Hopefully his kwami would consider his job done after that. For once, Plagg's laziness could work in his favor.

But it didn't.

When he got up to eat lunch, Plagg followed him around the kitchen, adding random things to his plate. Adrien sighed as he removed two apples, an orange, and an entire sleeve of crackers from on top of his cheese sandwich (which looked curiously plundered around the edges). Once he finished his meal, Adrien made sure that everything in the kitchen was properly put away, and then went to go do a little bit of homework before going down for another short nap.

This time, he woke up to a cup of yogurt balanced on his forehead, a spoon precariously perched on top.

"Plagg, cut it out," Adrien called, removing both cup of yogurt and spoon off of his head before sitting up. The cup was still cold, which meant that Plagg hadn't put it down long before Adrien woke up.

There was no response, so Adrien got up to put the yogurt away- he wanted to sleep, not eat- and headed right back to bed. This time, he pulled the covers up over his head so that he wouldn't get woken back up again unexpectedly.

Surely Plagg couldn't bug him like this.

When Adrien woke up, he breathed a small sigh of relief to find that there were no bits of food balanced on top of his head. He pushed the blanket down, yawning-

-and came eye-to-eye with Plagg.

"Eat."

"Oh, my god." Adrien pushed himself upright, reaching for his phone. "Look, I'm texting Marinette to say that you're annoying. Will you cut it out now?"

Plagg zipped over to peer over his shoulder as Adrien typed in his message and didn't leave until Adrien hit send. Then he made a pleased noise and zipped off.

As soon as he was sure that Plagg was gone, Adrien quickly typed out another message.

Literally just sent that to get Plagg off of my back. He's made himself into a real pest. He keeps waking me up.

As soon as the text sent, Adrien deleted it from his history. He didn't want Plagg to dig through his phone and decide to continue to pester him just because he thought that Adrien was jeopardizing his cheese.

With Plagg out of his hair, the rest of Adrien's afternoon was much more restful. Adrien finally got around to eating the yogurt that had previously been balanced on his head and reading through the lecture notes that Paul had sent him. By the time Marinette was unlocking the door and stepping inside, Adrien felt good enough to pull out some leftover macaroni and cheese to heat up for their dinner.

Naturally, that was when Plagg mysteriously rematerialized.

"Get off, you little rat, you have your own cheese right there!"

"But I love macaroni and cheese!"

Adrien swallowed a swear when Plagg bit him. "You can have some after Marinette and I finish dinner if there's any leftovers."

Plagg scoffed. "If? I'm a god! I shouldn't be relying on leftovers!"

"Plagg, you have your own cheese." Marinette's tired voice joined the conversation, and Adrien spun around to see her standing in the entrance to the kitchen. "It's not leftovers. Leave our food alone."

Adrien quickly shoved the pan into the stove and headed over to hug Marinette. He took a step back and gave her a worried look. "Are you feeling all right? I didn't get you sick, did I?"

"I just didn't sleep well, that's all," Marinette assured him. "You were snoring a bit because you were congested and that kept me up for a bit, and then I had a crazy day at work. But I've been taking the same vitamins you are, so even if I do get sick it shouldn't be quite as bad."

Plagg zipped up to her. "Did you get my cheese?"

"Well, that depends." Marinette set down her bag and considered Plagg. "Did you interrupt Adrien's naps?"

"No!"

"Yes, he did," Adrien said, exasperation clear in his voice. Plagg scowled at him.

"I did not!"

Adrien fixed his kwami with a Look. "Uh-huh. So what do you call dropping crackers on me when I was asleep?"

"It was only one cracker, and I was just flying by to deposit them on your bedside table!" Plagg protested. "I just over-estimated how many I could carry."

"And then you accidentally dropped one while you were just happened to be flying over my head?"

Plagg nodded. "Uh-huh."

"And what about the yogurt you put on my head?"

"I thought you were awake!"

"My eyes were closed."

"An innocent mistake!" Plagg claimed, eyes wide and pleading. "How was I supposed to know that you were asleep?"

"And then you decided to hover in front of me and pounce the second I opened my eyes!"

"You woke up on your own that time! You can't blame me!"

Adrien was pretty sure that there was steam coming out of his ears.

Marinette was giggling. "Oh, boy. It sounds like you two had fun today."

Adrien just made a dubious expression. Fun was pushing it. Exasperating would have been a better way to describe it. Irritating, disruptive, and not particularly restful would have also worked.

"Can I have my cheese now?" Plagg wanted to know. "I worked so hard to make sure that he ate!"

"You did pester him when he was sleeping, which I told you not to." Marinette stepped around Adrien and opened the fridge, starting to unpack the bag she carried. Plagg hovered over her shoulder, eager and impatient as Marinette tucked a fresh bag of cherries, some carrots, and a bin of spinach into the fridge. "But there was some effort, so I'll give you a small piece."

Plagg let out an excited squeal as Marinette pulled out a hunk of Gournay from the bottom of her bag. He hovered anxiously as she sliced off a small chunk and tossed it to him, and then he zipped away to enjoy his treasure.

"He really didn't deserve that, you know," Adrien told her, pressing a kiss to her cheek as Marinette wrapped up the remaining cheese and put it in the fridge. "He just purposefully made a pest of himself so that I would text you. I finally had it when I woke up to find him staring at me. It was unnerving."

Marinette giggled. "But you know that he would have bugged us if I didn't give him at least a little. If it's any consolation, I got the smallest chunk I could buy. The people there think I'm mad, since normally we buy cheese in bulk."

Adrien groaned. "We're going to have such a reputation there by the time we go back to Paris. There and in the grocery store."

"It's just going to be worse when we're back in Paris and have been there for a few years," Marinette pointed out. Closing the fridge door, she turned back to him and wrapped him in a hug. "We'll have to spread our shopping out. Cheese store one week, grocery store the next, farmer's market the week after that..."

Adrien groaned louder at that. "I'm gonna have to keep modeling to pay for that. Honestly, can we just put Plagg on a diet of cheesy popcorn or something?"

"Ooh, did someone mention cheese?"