38. Chapter 38

DJWifi Engagement Day (as Marinette and Adrien had dubbed it) started like any normal weekend day: Adrien and Marinette woke up, grumbled about it being too early, rolled over to sleep for a bit longer, then woke up again and properly got up, yawning all the way.

And then the reminder of what was going to be going on in Tibet that day popped up on Marinette's phone calendar, and she squealed. What followed was a lot of kerfuffle as she and Adrien tried to figure out what time it was in Tibet and if it might be time for Nino and Alya to make their journey to the hot springs yet. Then there was more panicking and a whole lot of scrolling through phone logs as they tried to remember if Nino had actually ever mentioned what time of day he and Alya were planning to go to the hot springs.

"I think he mentioned them having dinner afterwards," Adrien finally remembered after nearly half an hour of discussion. They had considered texting Nino and just asking, but they didn't want to risk Alya seeing the text and realizing that something was up. "So they would probably go there early to mid-afternoon, which would be, uh..."

They both tried to do more time conversions.

"Sometime in the morning here," Adrien finally concluded. He winced. "...that didn't narrow it down at all. Good job, me. And he might have changed the plan around a bit since we last talked, too."

Marinette tried not to laugh.

"Nino would have texted us if he had asked her already, right?" Adrien asked. He grabbed his phone, scrolling through his messages in case he had missed anything. There were a few texts from Nathalie reminding him that he was expected to be in shape for the winter photoshoots, but he ignored those for the time being. "Because we knew about it? I mean, I can understand not wanting to text everyone they know individually, but since we helped plan the proposal..."

"I'm sure he'll text us," Marinette assured him. She grinned. "You know, I'm pretty certain that you getting nervous for him isn't going to help Nino at all. Anyone would think that you're the one proposing instead of him."

"Ha-ha." Adrien was pretty certain that he would actually be less nervous when it came time for him to propose, since he would know what was happening. But he knew that Alya would say yes- she and Nino had been together for something like seven years, after all, and had been living together for several of those years. So he supposed that there was no reason to be nervous- and he wasn't, really, just anxious to hear about how it went. After sitting on the secret for so long, Adrien was bursting to hear how it went.

"It'll be another hour at least, I think," Marinette said, pulling Adrien out of his thoughts. She waved her phone at him. "Before they go to the hot springs, I mean. Just based on the timing that Nino told us that I can remember."

"So we have time to eat," Adrien concluded. "Fantastic! Uh, do you think I could get away with just texting Nino something asking what they're up to today? Is that vague enough that Alya wouldn't suspect anything, do you think?"

Marinette just giggled and gave him a gentle shove towards the kitchen. "Just go make breakfast, you dweeb."

Adrien went, but he made sure to bring his phone with him.

Mid-morning, Marinette's phone let out a chime and she immediately stopped sewing to grab it. Adrien abandoned the homework problems he had been half-heartedly working on to go hang over Marinette's shoulder and read the texts on her phone.

Nino: At the hot springs! We'll be here for a bit before I ask. Wish me luck!

Marinette: Good luck from Adrien and I!

"Good luck from the Lady Luck herself," Adrien quipped as Marinette sent the message. "It ought to go well now. Like, the only things that I can think of that might go wrong are-"

Marinette clapped a hand over his mouth, nearly tipping him over into her lap in has haste. "You'll jinx it!" she complained. "Don't say anything until Nino lets us know how it went!"

Adrien mimed zipping his lips, and Marinette removed her hand from his mouth. He shrugged sheepishly at her and grinned.

"Oh, the waiting is gonna kill me," Adrien complained a few minutes later, staring at their phones in front of them. His homework lay abandoned over on the table. "Do you think he'll ask soon?"

Marinette snorted and grabbed his hand before he could grab his phone and check it again. "No, I don't. They're probably going to relax for at least an hour first. If Nino asks right away, then Alya might not want to stay and relax as long because she'll want to jump his bones. If he waits, then she'll be relaxed and not be expecting anything."

Adrien grumbled and flopped down face-first on the couch.

"I'm not going to be able to focus on my studying until we hear from them," he complained. "Which isn't great at this point in the semester. What am I supposed to do for an entire hour?"

"You could cook," Marinette suggested. Adrien gave her a look.

"I would end up chopping a finger off!"

Giggling, Marinette abandoned her sewing machine and the quilt on it to slide over next to him on the couch. "Well, maybe I can distract you, then?"

Adrien's grin grew and he reached for her. "Oh, now that sounds like it might work."

Forty-five minutes later, Marinette's phone chimed. It took only a moment for it to register and then she and Adrien immediately lunged for the phone. When Marinette unlocked it, they immediately saw a selfie of Nino and Alya. They were surrounded by steam and water and were both beaming, with Alya holding up her hand to show the camera her ring.

Nino: She said yes!

"Like we ever thought she might say no," Adrien said with a laugh. "But I'm glad that nothing went wrong. I would have been worried about dropping the ring in the water."

Marinette went wide-eyed and groaned. "Oh, god. That would have been awful. That totally would have ruined their picture-perfect proposal."

"I'm guessing that it might be difficult to find a ring in the bottom of the hot springs," Adrien agreed. "...or would it maybe not be so bad? Were they going to the ones where the hot water gets shuttled into paved side pools because it's too hot otherwise?"

"Mm. I can't remember which ones exactly had that." Marinette frowned, thinking about it, then shrugged. "Either way, it doesn't matter now, I guess. Nino didn't drop the ring, and now it's safely on Alya's finger."

"But now how is anyone supposed to top that?" Adrien jokingly complained, but he kept an eye on Marinette to see her reaction. "Now Nino's set the bar for everyone else in our group."

Marinette laughed. "Not really. Alya's always been the one to want an adventure-filled life, so of course her taste in engagement settings is on the exotic side. But I think there's beauty in simpler settings, too. Look at Ivan and Mylène- Ivan proposed under the Eiffel Tower, and since we live in Paris and see the tower every day some people might think that it's either too common of a place or too overdone, but Ivan first confessed there. He proposed right where we landed after the Stoneheart battle."

"And with the same words that he used the first time around in his song," Adrien finished. "Yeah, that was really romantic, with those parallels. And Mylène loved it, of course. It was just her style."

"Simple yet romantic," Marinette agreed. She was smiling softly, remembering when Mylène and Ivan had shared the news. "Different people have different perfect proposals."

Adrien looked thoughtful at that.

"I wonder how long it'll take before we get more news from them," Marinette continued. "I bet they'll stay at the pool for a bit longer to enjoy the water, and then they won't call until they've dried off and gotten dressed again afterwards."

Adrien groaned. "Great, more waiting."

"Impatient kitty." Marinette ruffled his hair, and Adrien leaned into the gesture. "Don't you have studying to do?"

"Can't we go back to you distracting me?" Adrien asked hopefully. Before she could answer, Adrien's conscience kicked in and he sighed. "Actually no, you're right. I should study."

Marinette smothered a laugh as Adrien trotted off to go collect his notebooks.

The two of them worked- Marinette on the quilt for Alya and Nino, Adrien on his homework- for nearly an hour, occasionally exchanging a couple words as they waited for Nino and Alya to contact them again. An hour ticked by, and then two before Marinette's phone rang, making them both jump. Marinette practically tossed the quilt aside as she lunged for her phone and answered.

"Alya! Hey, how's it-"

Adrien laughed as Marinette yanked the phone away from her ear. On the other end of the line, he could hear Alya's excited shriek.

"Everything all right over there?" Adrien asked, leaning forward so that he could talk right into Marinette's phone. "Alya?"

"Oh, my god!" Alya half-shrieked into the phone. "Oh, my god, you guys- Nino and I are getting married! He just asked me, and, and-"

"Congratulations, you guys!" Adrien said, grinning. "We get photos, right? You got pictures?"

"Of course!" Alya sounded so, so excited, and the two of them exchanged a grin of amusement. "My translator's sister was going to the same hot springs that we were going to when Nino proposed, and Nino got a camera to her beforehand, and oh, my god, the fog cleared right when Nino got out of the water and got down on his knee in the snow right next to the springs and asked me and there were mountains and hot springs and it was amazing and everything was beautiful and oh, my god, just- it was perfect, it was more than I could have ever dreamed of. I... it was amazing."

"I was frozen," Nino added in. There was a clear grin in his voice, though. "I only wrapped a towel around my shoulders because it looked like Alya was about to get out of the water and there was no time to get warmer clothes on- but that ended up being a good thing, actually, because right after I got the ring on her finger she yanked me back into the water. Some really nice strangers near us loaned me an extra towel of theirs afterwards so I could actually get dried off properly and not get freezing cold and sick."

Adrien and Marinette both laughed.

"And now we're going to this amazing restaurant and the food there- you guys, all of the reviews say that it's incredible- and right now we're back at the hotel getting ready so we're not gonna stay on the phone long, but I just wanted to call you guys and my parents and oh, my god, this whole day- just. I'm just on the moon right now. Over the moon, even."

"And I'm glad she said yes," Nino chimed in. "I was a bundle of nerves all day and I was trying so hard not to let it show."

"Well, we'll let you go, then," Marinette said, grinning. Her best friend sounded so happy. "I'll expect those photos- well, maybe not right away, I'm sure you guys have better things to do than upload pictures to send to us-"

There was a distinct "you've got that right" on the other end of the line.

"-but soon, at least. It's so great to hear from you guys, and I'm so glad it went well!"

They exchanged their good-byes, and then Nino and Alya hung up so they could call their parents.

"I'm really glad that went well," Adrien said, picking his notebook back up. "And I'm glad Nino didn't freeze, because Tibet and winter and being out in the wind while soaking wet sounded very, very cold."

"Oh, I know. Thank goodness for friendly locals with extra towels." Marinette was grinning as she set her phone aside and picked the quilt top back up again. It was getting really large, nearly complete. "Otherwise he would be sick and miserable."

Adrien winced as he thought back to when he had been sick only a couple weeks ago. That wouldn't have been fun to deal with right after their engagement, especially since Nino would have a lot of traveling to do to get home and that would be miserable when shivering and sniffling and tired and sick. And if Nino got sick, then it would have been easy for Alya to get sick, too.

After all, he and Marinette had tried to be careful, and Marinette still got sick. She hadn't gotten as ill as he had, or been down as long, but she had caught the same thing.

Thankfully Tikki was a much better carer than Plagg.

They fell back into a comfortable silence. The sewing machine hummed along in the background, steady and constant as Marinette worked on the long seams connecting the pieces. The faint sound of music from an apartment a few down was occasionally audible over the sound of the whirring machine, but it was never so loud as to be annoying.

He and Marinette would be lucky to find an equally good apartment with equally good neighbors once they moved back to Paris. They might have to move a few times first before they found something perfect for a longer-term fit.

Not a forever home, of course. That would come when they both had established careers and had had a discussion about how many kids they wanted (and therefore how many rooms they would need) and could actually afford a larger place. But a good home, for now.

The sun had moved noticeably across the sky by the time Adrien set his pencil down and headed into the kitchen to make a late lunch for them. He buttered up some bread and started slicing up cheese, working quickly before Plagg could smell it and start hampering his efforts to get the sandwiches on the stove.

"Done with the top!" Marinette announced, holding the very large quilt top up as Adrien stuck his head out of the kitchen to see it. The fabric flowed into her lap and down to the floor, where it pooled around her feet and under the sewing table. "Big enough for their bed. That's them sorted, at least."

Adrien glanced over. "Uh, doesn't that need a back? And quilting?"

"I'm going to have a professional quilter do that part." Marinette got up and started laying the quilt top down on the ground so that she could fold it up. "I've done it before, of course, but Sarah has a friend who's just amazing at quilting. She's got a long-arm machine and everything, and can do all of these fancy designs. I had her do the final quilting on your quilt, too."

Adrien tried to remember exactly what the quilting on his quilt looked like. He had given it a good bit of attention shortly after getting it, of course- he knew that it was handmade and not just done by a machine in a factory somewhere, of course, and therefore every stitch was made by a human who put actual effort into it and he should appreciate that effort- but the exact designs eluded him.

There were fern-shaped swirls, he knew that much. And more angular designs, and little curls. It varied across the quilt, never too big of a block of the same design. It was spectacular work, and he knew that Nino and Alya would love their quilt as much as he loved his.

"I'm going to request that one corner get sewn with their names, with space to put the date of their wedding on later, once they decide that," Marinette continued. "I have this whole plan, actually- in the opposite cover of the quilt, I'm going to have the day of their first date, in the panther's cage, with a little cat face. And then I want to have other important dates in the rings that link across until it reaches the wedding date ring. It just adds a personal touch to the whole thing."

And that was the exact reason why Adrien always knew to pay attention to every stitch in the homemade gifts that he got. There was just so much thought put into them, he didn't want to miss anything. Even if Marinette delegated some of the actual work, clearly she had at least a bit of creative input.

"It's funny that you finished the top on the same day that they got engaged," Adrien said, returning to the sandwiches. He pressed them down, listening to the sizzle as the butter fried. "Are you sure that the quilter will be able to finish it before- when? Were you thinking Christmas?"

"Before Alya's return. I'll just tell Nino that I have a joint gift for them that they'll get when Alya gets back." There was a soft thump as Marinette put the folded top down on the couch, and then she appeared in the kitchen behind him. "And Angela will probably be swamped with stuff to get done before the holidays, but I've heard that there's a fairly big drop-off in deadlines afterwards. And if she thinks that she'll still be busy then, then I'll just show Nino and Alya the top and give them the physical quilt after it's done. Or if they decide to go for a wedding this spring, then maybe then. It all depends."

"Plans A through J, in typical Ladybug fashion," Adrien nodded, grinning. "And because I gotta ask- what's going on with the commissions wait list during the holidays?"

"It's on hold. I have a couple groups lined up for after the holidays, and I'll have to do more screen-printing then. But it's only maybe three groups, and I haven't gotten more requests recently." Marinette shrugged. "I think people know not to send in inquiries near the holidays."

"Smart, smart."

Plagg had woken up and was sniffing around by the time Adrien had pulled the sandwiches off of the griddle. He didn't cut them- cutting a grilled cheese sandwich left more edge open for Plagg to steal from- and then spent two minutes whacking his kwami with a spatula so that there would actually be cheese left in the sandwiches once Marinette finished setting the table. Plagg yowled after one particularly hard whack sent him out of the kitchen.

"I'm a god! You shalt not hit gods with a greasy spatula! That's the rule!"

"Gods shouldn't steal, only take offerings, I thought," Adrien shot back. He stepped aside to let Marinette grab her plate and escape with it. "And I would have gotten some of your cheese out so that you could eat, but someone was making a nuisance out of himself."

Plagg floated after him as Adrien made a dash towards the table. "Yeah, you, because you have no respect for gods!"

Five minutes of arguing (and some scuffling- Adrien couldn't deny it) later, Plagg had been settled with a hunk of Gruyere and a promise of cheddar cheese popcorn later in the afternoon and Adrien and Marinette were tucking into their sandwiches. Adrien had just finished nibbling the crust off of his grilled cheese when his phone chimed with an email. Adrien picked it up, saw an email with attachments from Nino, and immediately flipped open his laptop so that he could pull them up on a larger screen.

"Oh, that's nice," Marinette said immediately when she saw the first photo. Nino knelt on the rocky ground, towel around his neck, box in his hand. Alya's hands were clearly clapped over her mouth in surprise, though the steam coming off of the hot pools put the whole thing in a misty cast. It was a fantastic shot, clearly done with a decent camera (Adrien winced at the thought of what might have happened had the photographer accidentally dropped it into the water with them- presumably Nino had at least had enough common sense not to try to use Alya's good camera), and was probably the coolest engagement photo that Adrien had ever seen.

Not that he had seen that many, of course- his group of friends were only just starting to get engaged- but still. Very cool, and very Alya.

There were two more pictures of the engagement itself, including one of Nino sliding the ring on and another of Alya practically yanking him back into the water to kiss him. The last photo was a selfie of the two of them, with Alya showing off the ring, a grin stretching across her face.

Marinette and Tikki immediately started squealing about how cute it was. Adrien stared at the photo for a moment more.

Something about how seeing Nino and Alya engaged really drove it home that yes, people their age were getting married. It made it properly real, in a way that just hearing Nino's plans and the phone call earlier hadn't.

(Had Ivan and Mylène been engaged for several months longer than Nino and Alya? Yes, of course. But they were Ivan and Mylène, and had been together for essentially as long as Adrien had known them. And while Adrien was friendly enough with them, they weren't super-close friends like Nino and Alya were. It was different, thank-you-very-much.)

"It really makes it real, doesn't it?" Adrien said. He looked over at Marinette. "Before, it kind of felt like we were playing at adults, you know? Especially for me, I think, since I'm still in school and everything. But now..."

"Adrien, we live together." She paused. "But yeah, I think I know what you mean. Weddings are all official. But I think it's one of those things that people make a really big deal about, but it's just making a relationship official for the government too, now."

"Yay, paperwork," Adrien joked. "The real hallmark of adulthood that no one ever tells us about."

Marinette laughed, nudging his foot gently with her own. "So cynical."

"I kid, I kid." Adrien grinned when she stuck out her tongue at him. "I'm excited for them, I really am. It just hit me that oh, hey, we're adults. Even if I don't always feel that way. Like, adulthood has always been this big, scary concept, you know?"

"I know," Marinette assured him. She smiled at him, soft and affectionate and wow. "But don't worry, Kitty. With the two of us together, I know that we can face anything."