42. Chapter 42

a/n: Just as a heads up- there are a fair number of time skips in this chapter! I think I was envisioning 1 week between dress shopping trips and maybe 1-2 weeks after that before Marinette goes back to Paris.

Chapter 42- aka the chapter that made Google think that I'm getting married. Thanks, search history.

Alya wasted no time in starting the search for her dress. Only a month after her return to Paris, she started searching for her wedding gown, with a bit of remote assistance from Marinette.

While Alya headed for the store on the other end of the line, Marinette got herself set up at her sewing table, a project on one side of the table and her phone propped up against a can on the other side, where she could see the screen but the phone wouldn't be in danger of getting knocked over.

"I'm glad you could make it like this," Alya told her as she entered the wedding dress section of the store. "I mean, I was worried that you would leave me to the taste of just my sisters because I know full well you can't just be coming back to Paris every weekend. They would have me dress up in a glittery ball gown."

"Oh, no, that wouldn't be doing anything for your figure," Marinette said immediately, wincing at the thought of what kind of ridiculous dresses Alya's sisters would be drawn to. They were at that age where big and fluffy would absolutely be a draw. "And sparkles..."

"I'm thinking that lace would be better," Alya said. The camera frame shook as they sat down on a bench. "I don't want a completely plain dress. I know that simplicity can be gorgeous, but I don't want to go completely plain. But sparkles... I think that that can get overwhelming pretty quickly."

"Wait, who do you have with you?" Marinette asked when she heard a long sigh heaved from behind the camera. "Not one of your sisters, is it?"

Alya laughed. "Nope. They don't have any patience for shopping."

"And I do?"

Marinette laughed properly as she recognized Alix's voice. "Alix! How did you get roped into this?"

She could hear the scowl in Alix's voice as she responded. "I lost a dare to Kim. Kim owed Alya a favor. I've been signed up as a camera-carrier for all shopping sessions that Alya needs. So if we could find a dress, say, today, that would be appreciated."

"Not happening!" Alya called back. "I wanna find the perfect dress. My mom's already warned me that it's probably not going to happen on the first trip."

Alix groaned louder.

"If it helps, you'll only have to do two trips at most before I come back to Paris to help in person," Marinette pointed out. "I think I was planning on coming the first weekend in March, because that's the very latest that Alya should be ordering her dress. So it's not like you're going to be in servitude for the entire year."

"Oh god."

"Anyway, I got your text with what shapes I should think about looking at," Alya interrupted before Alix could start groaning again. "Or maybe I should say I got your essay on dress shapes. And I'm gonna say right now that I'm in the best shape I've ever been from running around the world catching planes and hiking and everything, so I'm gonna go for the figure-hugging ones. I don't have anything that I want to hide, thank-you-very-much."

"If you got it, flaunt it," Alix droned in the most bored voice she could possibly manage. "Yaaaaaay."

Marinette tried not to laugh.

When Alya vanished into the changing room with a consultant, Alix let out a huff and set Alya's phone down so she could pull out her own. The beeps and dings of a phone game floated over the connection as they waited. Marinette picked up her tablet and returned to working on a grey-on-grey t-shirt print design for one of her customers as she waited. It wasn't long before Alya came out, looking distinctly uncomfortable in a ruched fit-and-flare dress.

"Ugh."

"Thank you, Alix," Alya said with a laugh. "That's my feeling, too."

"It's too many lines on you," Marinette agreed, picking up her phone and squinting at the screen to get a better look. She couldn't make out the details like she would be able to in person, but even like this she was wondering what the designer had even been thinking. The likelihood that anyone would look good in that dress was slim, to say the least. "You don't need the ruching."

Alya nodded, turned, and headed back into the changing room. Alix resumed her game, and Marinette went back to her design. It wasn't long before Alya returned. There wasn't any ruching this time, but...

"That neckline isn't doing much for you, and the flare is just..." Marinette shook her head. "It's a little too distinct. The elements of the dress just aren't working together."

"I don't like the neckline either," Alya admitted. "And I'm not sure about these straps, or the lace design. It's just not me."

The next dress got a ugh, no that made both Marinette and Alix giggle before it even left the dressing room. The one after that...

"It's a nice dress, and it's closer to what I was envisioning on you," Marinette said, tipping her head to the side. "But..."

"I'm not a huge fan of the tiered ruffles," Alya decided, turning around and looking at herself in the mirror from every angle. "And again with the neckline...and I don't know about the sparkle, but maybe that's just because I'm not a huge fan of the dress overall."

The consultant nodded and led Alya back to the changing rooms.

"Are you sure about that shape, Marinette?" Alix asked after a minute. "I mean, I think I kind of get where you're going with it, but it seems like a good chunk of the designers that made that style have, like, zero design sense."

"There's bound to be a good one there," Marinette said. "But yeah, it's also a silhouette that's not done well a lot of the time. Not everyone handles the flare section well. It's best when there's a pattern from the top part that can cover the seam well, and to have the flare be a little less dramatic from the start."

Alix groaned. "And you couldn't have said that when the consultant lady was out here? Are you and Kim conspiring to make my life miserable or something? I overheard the lady say that the next dress is gonna be the last one for this consultation."

Marinette winced, glancing at the clock. She hadn't thought that a ton of time had passed, but if Alya had only booked the appointment for an hour and a half, then yeah, it would be almost over. Picking out dresses from the giant stock and then getting them put on and clipped in to fit took a while, meaning only a few dresses per consultation.

Alya came out in the last dress, and Marinette could already see even on her phone screen that she was shaking her head.. It was obvious why- the transition from fitted to flared had a seam line right there, making Alya look a bit cut off at the knee.

"A softer transition there would be much better," Marinette told her friend and the consultant. "Both in terms of not having quite such an obvious seam and in not going from fitted to quite such a dramatic flair."

"We'll have to keep that in mind at your next appointment," the consultant told Alya. "But right now, we're out of time."

Alix cheered. The poor consultant looked confused at her sudden enthusiasm, but managed a smile and ushered Alya back to change into her street clothes again.

"I kind of hoped that we would be able to find something at least close today," Alya said once she emerged and had taken her phone back from Alix. Marinette saw the background shift as they walked out of the store. "But maybe my standards are just too high for getting something off of the rack. I'd trade the fitted look for a more traditional silhouette if it would be easier to find something that looks good."

"We'll give it another try next weekend," Marinette assured her, grinning when she heard Alix's loud groans. "And then we can do a marathon search when I come if you haven't found anything good."

"I don't have to be there, right?" Alix wanted to know. "When you're here, I mean."

Alya feigned confusion. "You mean you weren't enjoying shopping? Really? That's so unlike you, Alix!"

"I hate you guys."

Their second dress search, Alya explained as they waited for the consultant to finish up with her previous appointment, was scheduled to be a bit shorter due to the last-minute sign-up, an hour instead of an hour and a half. She was hoping to maybe get a couple good dress choices at this appointment, and make a final decision when Marinette arrived.

"If there's something you really like this time, you could just buy it and get fittings started," Marinette pointed out, making sure that she had everything out for the beading work that she was going to be doing while Alya shopped. "Otherwise you start running the risk of rush fees."

"How much is it going to have to be fit?" Alix asked from behind the camera. "I thought the nice thing about off-the-rack stuff was that it already came in your size. That's pretty straightforward to me."

"No two bodies are alike, though, so it needs to be properly adjusted to fit everywhere." There would be no drooping bust cups or straining seams in sight. "It's important for formalwear for things to be fitted properly, because otherwise it shows, and it just looks sloppy. It makes an expensive dress look like something bought from the bargain bin at a department store."

"They should make wedding dresses out of Spandex, then. It fits itself to the body."

Marinette laughed at that. "I think some women might object to that. Not everyone wants a completely form-fitting dress. Some dresses are designed to hide trouble spots, you know."

"And I wouldn't want to wear Spandex on my wedding day," Alya added as her consultant came up to her and Alix. "It's just not a good look, not in white."

Alix made a contemplative noise. Marinette figured that that was the last of her questions and turned back to her work as Alya headed off for the changing rooms, this time working on some intricate beading along the neckline of a dress. The band that had commissioned it had ordered a few pieces, which would probably keep her busy for a few weeks.

"So I've been wondering," Alix said after a few minutes. "Why don't you just design and make Alya's dress? Then she'll get exactly what she wants."

"Except I don't know what exactly she wants," Marinette pointed out. "Even if I were designing her dress, I would want Alya to try on some premade dresses or samples to see what she does and doesn't like. It would suck if I made a dress and then once Alya put it on, she decided that she didn't like it on her like she thought she would. And wedding dresses take a lot of time to make, and I have work and commissions to do."

"And Alya and Nino are getting married crazy fast," Alix finished. "Okay, I guess I understand. And it would probably be hard to do fittings from a distance."

"Oh, god." Marinette was glad that most of the things that she made for the bands didn't have to be incredibly fitted, because she only rarely met any of the band members in person. "Yes. So hard. Impossible. And I would feel strange charging Alya for anything, but between the materials and the time- well, there's a reason that designer wedding dresses are so expensive, and it's not just because of the label."

"But also because of the fancy-dancy label."

Marinette couldn't deny that. "...and also because of that, yes."

"First dress!" Alya announced, bursting out of the dressing room and pulling their attention back to her. "The skirt is pretty good- I get what you were thinking about with this trumpet shape- but I'm just really meh on the neckline. It covers too much."

"Yeah, it's a bit too much going on up there," Marinette agreed. "It looks like a turtleneck, only in lace."

"I hate turtlenecks," Alix supplied helpfully. "They feel like they're strangling me. Like a very weak person is trying to strangle me, rather."

"So very similar in the skirt, but a different neckline," the consultant summed up. "Okay, we can do that!"

"Maybe it'll be the next one," Alix said hopefully as Alya vanished again and Marinette re-set up her phone so that she wouldn't have to hold it. "They're getting close, at least. That last one didn't look horrendous."

...well, the nice thing about Alix was that if something looked horrible, she wouldn't be afraid to say it. Marinette wouldn't have to worry about Alya picking out a dress with some sort of awful lace pattern that she couldn't make out on the phone screen, because Alix would 100% say something about it.

"Alya might want to find a first and second choice," Marinette pointed out, which reduced Alix to a groaning mess again. "But it shouldn't be too difficult to find two things she likes once they've caught on to her tastes."

"It had better not be. I think I'm getting hives from being around all of this satin and lace and glitter nonsense."

"You are not."

Alix only laughed.

"I'm back!" Alya announced, bursting into the frame again. "Check this one out!"

Marinette looked, and a grin spread across her face. Alya looked pleased as she hopped up onto the little stand in front of the couch, absolutely gorgeous in a trumpet dress with sparkly beads. "Oh, that one's nice!"

"That's not too bad, actually," Alix admitted, and both Alya and Marinette laughed.

"That's approval there, then," Alya joked, turning around so that they could see it from all angles. This time, the flair on the dress was softer and more natural, and looked a lot better. "I like this better. I'm just not sure about all of the sparkle."

"Sparkly beads can be clipped off," Marinette pointed out. "But maybe go more in a lace direction? But you can list that one as a maybe, and then we can always look at it again when I'm there."

"Sounds good!" Alya grinned at the camera and then bounced back to the dressing room. The consultant was smiling, clearly glad to have gotten closer to what Alya wanted.

"If I ever get married, I'm going to get married in my roller derby outfit," Alix announced once Alya had vanished into the back room. "Less fuss, more me. All this lace stuff isn't for me."

Marinette tried not to laugh at the thought of what Mr. Kubdel's face would look like if he had heard that. He would argue with Alix, surely, and try to protest, but Alix was far more stubborn than he was.

And besides, the probability of Alix ever getting married? It was minimal, at best. She had never shown a single interest in romance, and that seemed rather unlikely to change anytime soon.

The sound of beeps and dings on the other end signaled that Alix had gone back to her game, and so Marinette returned her attention to her work. She had to inspect her beading pattern before she could continue, since the constant interruptions had thrown her off.

She had to hope that there weren't any mistakes. The band was paying a good price for the piece because of the glittery beadwork, and it would be a pain to have to go back and rip anything out. But she didn't spot any glaring errors after a practiced sweep of the eye over her work, so she continued. She got three more rows done, then consulted her chart again before reaching more for beads.

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait," Alix said suddenly, startling Marinette enough that she pricked her finger with the needle and nearly upset one of her bowls of beads. She glanced up to see Alix's face filling the phone screen. Apparently she had gotten bored with her phone game and had decided to see what was going on over on Marinette's side of the video call. "Wait wait wait. Did I just see one Adrien Agreste coming out of your bathroom in nothing but a towel?"

Marinette froze, chancing a quick glance over her shoulder. Sure enough, Adrien had clearly finished with his shower and exited the bathroom, because the bathroom door was open and she could hear the fan whirring. "Uh. The shower in his apartment wasn't working, so I said that he could shower over here while he waits for it to get fixed."

Alix arched one eyebrow at her. "Uh-huh. And so he headed into your bedroom in nothing but a towel why?"

"To get dressed, duh. Because that's what people do after they, uh. Shower." Marinette winced, knowing as soon as the words were out of her mouth that they were a crappy excuse.

"And he couldn't have gotten dressed in the bathroom why? He just brought his clean clothes over from his apartment and decided to drop them in your bedroom instead of bringing them into the bathroom with him?"

...crap. Marinette had been hoping that, awful excuse or no, Alix would still somehow buy it. "Yes?"

"Well, that's strange," Alix drawled. The look on her face told Marinette that crap, she'd been caught. "Normally when I shower over at a friend's house after practice or whatever, I change in the bathroom. I only come out in a towel when I'm at home." She paused and considered that. "Actually, no, scratch that. I still get dressed in the bathroom. But if I had my own place, maybe."

Oh, they were officially caught. She should have claimed that she was in Adrien's apartment or something instead. Still, Marinette couldn't help but put in a last-ditch effort to explain away Adrien's presence, just out of habit. "Well, he's more comfortable getting dressed in the bedroom?"

Alix snorted. "Yeah, right. I know model boy has some funny habits, but that's pushing things a bit. You know what I think is going on?" She glanced around, clearly checking for any eavesdroppers before continuing, her voice dropping so that no one would overhear her. "I think that you two are dating and living together. But Adrien's pops is being a bit of an arse, as normal, and doesn't want Adrien dating for his own nefarious reasons. Maybe he figures that Adrien is more effective in ads if he's single or something." Alix shrugged. "And of course, Agreste Senior is probably paying for all of Adrien's expenses over there, so Adrien doesn't want to upset him. So then you two decided to date and live together in secret. Props on that, by the way. I would have thought that Alya would have sniffed that out right away."

Marinette was pretty sure that her jaw had hit the floor.

"I'm not gonna tell anyone," Alix assured her, looking fully pleased with herself. "Because I've heard all about Agreste Senior over the years, and I get not wanting to cross him. But you just gotta promise to tell me exactly how Alya responds when she finds out, 'cause that's fucking hilarious. That's all I ask." She paused. "And also the right to brag to Alya about knowing first when you two can finally tell the world about how sickeningly cute you are together, because she will explode and it'll be hilarious."

"Fine," Marinette grumbled, seeing no point in denying anything further. She had the suspicion that if she tried, she would just end up digging herself into an even deeper hole. "Fine, yes, you've got it exactly right. We're planning to tell people after we get home, since we'll be living on our own and Adrien won't be relying on his father at all."

"Woo-hoo! Vive the liberated sunshine boy!" Alix pumped her fist, then glanced up. "Oh, wait, I think they're about to come out again. I won't say anything more, I guess, but I reserve the right to drag you guys so hard when you get back for all of your nonsense."

Marinette resolved then and there to never let Alix find out about that she and Adrien were Ladybug and Chat Noir and had essentially engaged in some sort of two-person love square for more than just a couple years, simply because they hadn't known each other's identities. Alix would never let them live it down.

"Guys, look at this one!" Alya called, and the view on the camera blurred for a moment as Alix turned the phone back around. It settled after a few seconds, and Marinette picked up her phone to see her best friend positively beaming as she came out in a gorgeous dress.

"They didn't go overboard with the glitter," Alix commented, sounding grudgingly impressed. "That's really nice."

"It's a good amount for an accent without it overpowering you or the rest of the dress," Marinette commented, bringing her phone up close to her face to try to get a better look at the details. "And I like the lace. It hides the seam lines at the flair pretty well, it looks like. And that's not too sharp, either. It flares nicely. And the neckline- how do you feel about it?"

"I like the off-the-shoulder look," Alya decided after a moment, twisting and turning in place to look at herself in the mirror. "I really, really do. It's not something I wear every day, but I do have some fancy dresses that have necklines like this and I'm comfortable in them. I've worn them for an entire day before, too- and yes, Marinette, I was listening when you were rattling off your list of One Hundred And One Tips And Hints Of Selecting A Wedding Dress, courtesy of actual wedding dress designers."

Marinette had to laugh at that. "It was stuff that I heard when I helped Mylène pick out her dress, too." Speaking of their friend, the custom lace Eiffel Tower that she had designed and for Mylène had been made and sent off earlier in the week, and Marinette had liked how it had turned out so well that she had made a few more of them in a variety of colors to make a few dresses as a gift for Mylène.

"Yeah, yeah. In any case, I listened." Alya turned around, letting the skirt flare out. "I really like this! I should probably sleep on it, though, and then make a final decision when you're home next weekend?"

"That sounds like a plan," Marinette agreed, still grinning as she watched Alya turn back and forth in her dress. "And honestly, Alya? It looks gorgeous. I cannot wait to see it on you in person."

Adrien was simultaneously amused and somewhat apprehensive by the news that Alix had figured them out, even if she had promised not to tell.

(He was also rather embarrassed that she had seen him in nothing in a towel, even if he had been in the very back of the frame for a very brief time during a video call. He had pulled that towel off to dry his still-dripping hair only shortly after entering their bedroom- what if he had tugged it off a few seconds earlier? He would have never been able to look Alix in the face again.)

"I'm sure she won't say anything about it," Marinette sighed as she stuffed the last of her winter clothes into her suitcase for her trip to Paris. She had to sit on it to zip it up, pouting a bit as she wrestled with her luggage. "And you won't see her until Easter anyway. She'll have probably forgotten that part of discovering our relationship by then."

"Or she'll remember it expressly for teasing purposes." Knowing Alix, Adrien was betting on that happening. "Ten years from now, we'll meet up for something and she'll go, 'Hey, Adrien, remember that time I saw you wandering around in nothing but a towel?'"

Marinette laughed properly at that as she finally got her suitcase zipper done up. "It's funny that you're so wound up about that. She spotted you in the background for a couple seconds, tops, and it was the background of a video chat over a cell phone. You were far less embarrassed about it when I supposedly caught you in the middle of a shower as Ladybug. If I had known that you would get like this then, I totally would have been suspicious."

Plagg snorted loudly. "Yeah, you would have been totally suspicious just from another hint that he was lying, along with the fact that, oh, I don't know, his hair wasn't wet."

Both Adrien and Marinette turned red. "I was trying not to look!" Marinette protested. "I just saw that he was in the shower area and then panicked and stared past him at the wall and then got out of there."

"And afterwards, when he came out with a completely dry towel around his completely dry neck to catch the nonexistent water falling from his completely dry hair?"

"Shut up, Plagg."

Adrien went back to his computer as Marinette continued packing for her weekend trip back to Paris. He was in the process of investigating a few different research labs around the city so that he could write up a decent cover letter to apply to summer internships, which would hopefully lead to future employment in the same lab. He thought that he had a pretty good resume, all things considered, but then again there were probably several dozen other people who could say the same thing.

Hopefully he would get an internship at a place he liked and would get a job there, with room for growth and promotion so that he wouldn't have to do this whole apply for jobs thing again anytime soon. It always felt like he was bragging about himself and going I I I all of the time in his cover letters, even though he tried to mix it up.

I got this grade. I did this at my previous job. I really enjoyed studying that. I am eager to learn more about this topic.

Adrien just wanted to get a job and get started once school ended.

"Do you have anything light that you want me to bring back?" Marinette asked, perched on top of her now-closed suitcase. A half-full duffle bag sat at her feet. "I don't think I could bring anything back to your room at your father's house, but I can store stuff in my room."

"I'll get a few things for you after dinner," Adrien assured her. "I just have to get two cover letters done, sooner rather than later."

"Of course!"

It was really a good thing that they weren't overworking themselves again this year like they had last year, Adrien mused to himself as he started working on a cover letter. If he had been drowning under his own pushed-forward homework schedule and trying to keep track of what had to be moved back to Paris at the same time, he would probably go a bit crazy. And there would have been no way for Marinette to handle a boatload of commissions and weekend trips back and forth to Paris to help Alya and Nino out with their wedding. This year, though, they were doing a much better job of balancing school, work, and their personal lives.

They were having more evenings spent together than they had the previous spring, too, trying to keep a couple evenings per week where they set at least a couple hours aside to spend time properly with each other, instead of just hanging out together in the same room but working on different things. While Adrien couldn't bring himself to regret the previous spring entirely- even with all of the stress and back pain that he had had to deal with, it had proved that he and Marinette could manage anything together if they put their minds to it- he couldn't deny that he much preferred their comfortable domestic routine.

(Besides, the previous spring had had the spa trip and, well... Adrien really wanted to go to a spa like that again once he and Marinette could go properly public with their relationship, because he had really enjoyed it and it would be nice to be able to act properly couple-y without fear of their secret getting out.)

It didn't take long for him to get a rough draft written up for both cover letters, and then Adrien headed into the kitchen to throw on some pasta for dinner. Marinette joined him when he was partway through making the sauce, looking a bit exhausted.

"Is packing not going well?"

Marinette shook her head. "It's fine. It's just that I was thinking about how much we have to bring back after three years, and then I was trying to calculate how much we could bring back per trip, and..." She let out a long huff and then shrugged. "I spiraled a bit. It's stressful to have to be moving at all, and to be moving back to another country..."

Adrien wound one arm around her waist, pulling Marinette close as he stirred the bubbling tomato sauce. "Was it bad when you moved here that first year?"

"Oh, gosh." He could practically hear the eye-roll in her voice. "It was awful, but I wasn't so much worried about transporting things. I figured that clothes and some knickknacks would probably be enough, and it wasn't that much to carry. But moving to another country, where I didn't know anyone, and where my first language wasn't spoken? Having to get all set up with groceries and bedding and figuring out where things were? Having to get an apartment agreement set up without ever setting foot in the building first? All of that was terrifying."

Adrien nodded, remembering his own frantic packing. He had been terrified that he was going to forget something important, even with the packing list that Nathalie had written up for him. And it had hardly been as though he wouldn't be able to get anything that he had forgotten- either he could go out and buy it, or he could text Nathalie and she would have it in the mail to ship to him within the hour. Still, there had been the worry that he would forget something really, really important.

It was silly, really. He wasn't going to die if he forgot to grab his pillow, or a toothbrush, or his pajamas. Really, as long as he didn't forget his phone or his wallet, he could probably make things work.

"Well, we can ship some stuff," Adrien pointed out after a moment's pause. "Light things that are bulky. And if there's things that we can't get back, we could leave them temporarily with Abbey or Sarah and then pop back to London for a visit and to get whatever we had left."

"That's true." Marinette nuzzled into his side. "I'll try not to get too worked up about it. We'll get back what we can get back." She paused for a moment, resting her head against his shoulder. "You might have to remember to remind me of that a few more times before we leave here. I'll probably start panicking every time I have to pack stuff to go home."

"I'll remind you as many times as you need," Adrien promised. The timer went off, and he reached over to turn it off. "But right now, let's have dinner together one more time before you abandon me for the weekend. Do you want to get out some you-know-what before Plagg comes in?"

"On it!"

Alya wasted no time in shuffling Marinette from the train station to the store that she had been going to for her wedding dress shopping, with only the shortest of detours to her parents' house to drop off her bulging suitcases and bag and to pick up some pain au chocolat to have as a snack.

"I'm so glad that you guys are going to come back soon," Alya told Marinette as they hopped off the bus in front of the store. "I know it's still, like, four months, but at least it's at the end of Adrien's semester." She gave Marinette a sharp look as they entered the store. "You two aren't going to pull the same thing on us that you did at the end of your first year where you just turn around and out of the blue say that you're going to stay for two more years, are you?"

"Oh, gosh no. We're moving back. Adrien is already looking for jobs back in Paris." He had told her that he would be polishing up the cover letters that he had written by the start of the week and get them in by Tuesday at the latest, just so he could make sure that his application wasn't coming in last-minute. "And I'm keeping an eye open for spots too, but I haven't found any open designer positions yet. There's still four months left to go, though, so..." Marinette shrugged. "Adrien suggested trying to do the same thing that he's hoping to do and that Abbey did, with entering as an intern and then moving up to a permanent position, but in most design houses, interns don't exactly design. And they're definitely not paid well. Madam Rosalie's is an exception."

"And you're definitely past the intern stage of your career," Alya agreed. "Hold out for those designer positions, seriously. I bet something will open up. And any openings at that level tend to be pretty immediate, right?"

Marinette nodded. "I wouldn't be able to wait four months before starting, right. I'll maybe start getting concerned a month out."

"Or you could just marry Adrien and be a trophy wife that does commissions and doesn't need a day job."

"Alya."

It didn't take long for a consultant to come out to talk to them. Alya told her what dresses she wanted pulled to try out, and then Marinette settled in on a chair to wait. The consultant came back with two dresses, and a couple minutes later Alya emerged from the dressing room in the last gown that Marinette had seen her in, a trumpet dress with an off-the-shoulder neckline and lovely lace detailing. She was positively beaming as she headed for the small platform in front of the mirrors.

Marinette leaned forward, scanning the dress from top to bottom. The lace was placed well, running over the seam at the flair and tapering off. The flair of the dress itself wasn't overly dramatic, either, not sticking out ridiculously like Marinette had seen on some of the other dresses.

"I think I'm decided," Alya admitted as she turned around in a circle again so that Marinette could see the dress from all angles. "I just really like this style, and it's within my budget. I love it just as much now as I did when I saw it the first time."

"It's a good choice," Marinette agreed. The lace was a nice pattern, not too dowdy or fussy, and the few sparkling beads were well-placed. "And you look gorgeous. Nino won't be able to take his eyes off of you."

Alya just beamed.

They left the store a good 45 minutes later, dress bought and Alya's measurements taken for alterations. Alya was bubbling along, grinning as she told Marinette about all of the progress she and Nino had made on their wedding preparations and what she had gotten done as far as organizing her research.

"I had to do a write-up of the highlights of my research two weeks after getting back," Alya told her. "I think you saw it- I put a link to it on the Ladyblog."

Marinette nodded, remembering Alya's big article. It had been super long, and she had to wonder how that translated to the physical newspaper, if any of it had had to be cut or if Alya just got several pages completely dedicated to her research. "Yeah! You reused a lot of the information that you did in the vlogs, I noticed."

"There was some new stuff! And I went into more detail when I did repeat some stuff from the vlogs. My boss has been having me do more articles about traveling, too, and on recommendations of where to stay or things to do in different areas. The main problem then is that I was never in the same area for long, and what I was doing included a lot of one-on-one tours and trips with a local that I chose because of their history knowledge." Alya let out a sigh, then brightened. "So what I've been doing is contacting those people again and asking for their local recommendations. It works really well, actually. I've already learned that the locals tend to know which tourist places treat their staff well and which ones don't, so I can steer people towards places with better business practices, instead of ones that just put on a good face for the tourists."

"Oh, that's great!" Marinette had to admit that that was a great idea. It probably also had the effect of steering people towards businesses that were local, rather than outsiders who came in to make a profit. "That's really cool."

"So that keeps me pretty busy while I'm at work," Alya continued. "And then the rest of the time, I'm working on wedding planning. Nino and I were just at your parents' place trying out flavors for our croquembouche tower last weekend, after I finished with looking at dresses. We decided to go with a fairly traditional combo, so it would go with our meal. My mom is going to have us decide on a menu this week, I think. And we've got a guest list pretty much done, we just have to check one more time to make sure that we aren't forgetting anyone."

"Do you have a checklist of things to do?"

Alya snorted. "Oh, boy. Do we ever."

Marinette had to laugh. "It's a long list, I take it?"

"Ugh. There's too many little details to think about." Alya rolled her eyes. "If I knew what I do now when Nino and I were deciding on the date, I might have been more inclined to wait a year instead. But we're locked in on our date now, and we can handle it. We just have to sometimes not go with our first choice for flowers or whatever. And let's face it- as long as we have the core elements, no one's going to complain too much."

"People will just be too happy to see you married to care if there were party favors on the tables or whatever." Marinette grinned over at her friend. "So have you guys decided if Nino is mixing the music, or...?"

"He's doing the ceremony and requesting some stuff for the reception, but one of his buddies is taking over for DJing the reception. It's his gift to us." Alya grinned. "And we've hired a photographer, too. It's someone that Mylène and Ivan found for their parties."

"And invites?"

"We've found the cards and the printer, and we're just waiting to make sure that we have everyone listed and have the correct addresses for them," Alya told her. "We're guessing that some people might not be able to make it, if they already have plans, but it should still be far enough out that it won't take people by surprise."

"Shoes to go with the dress?"

"I was waiting until I actually had the dress to do that."

"Wedding rings?"

"We'll be doing that now that I have the dress nailed down!" Alya said with a laugh. "Seriously, we have everything on our list. We got a checklist from a wedding store and my parents went over it to add a few things."

"I'd love to hear about what all you have planned so far," Marinette told her friend as they approached the bus station, pausing to check the schedule. "Unless your apartment is too messy for visitors?"

Alya snorted and shrugged. "Ah, it's only too messy for people who will judge me. You're fine."

Adrien grinned when he heard Marinette's key in the door Sunday evening. He looked up as the door swung open and saw her come in, empty suitcases rattling behind her. She didn't look completely exhausted, though, just tired, which suggested that the weekend had been less of an ordeal than the search for Mylène's dress had been.

(Another fairly good clue was the fact that Marinette had kept him updated throughout the weekend, texting as often as she could get away without accidentally catching Alya's attention, and it really hadn't taken long for her to text with the news that Alya had gotten her dress.)

"Hey, bugaboo," Adrien said, shoving his computer aside so he could hop up and give his girlfriend a proper welcome-home kiss. "How was your trip?"

"Good. It was nice to be there when Alya picked her dress, and I got to spend some time with my parents. They sent goodies," Marinette added, patting her backpack. "That's the only thing I brought back, besides my tablet and my empty bags. All of my other clothes I left back in Paris."

"That's progress, at least." Adrien took her second suitcase and her bag and followed her back to their bedroom, setting her things out of the way so that neither of them would trip. "Are you up for a date tonight?"

Marinette gave him a half-interested, half-suspicious look. "Date?"

Adrien had to laugh at her expression. "Yeah, I thought we were due for another date. I knew that you would probably be tired from the trip, though, so how does takeout, pajamas, and a movie sound?"

"Amazing."

"Great, because I already ordered!" Adrien startled at the sudden buzz on his phone, then flashed a grin at Marinette. "And I bet that that's them now. I'll go get the food."

"And I'll change!" Marinette chimed in, already pulling off her sweater as she headed for their dresser. "Pajamas, here I come!"

Adrien laughed and jogged out of the room, snagging his wallet off of the bedside table on his way out. It didn't take long to run downstairs and get the food from the delivery girl, paying and tipping her before heading back up. When he arrived, Marinette was setting up blankets on the couch, dressed in her Chat Noir pajamas. He grinned at the sight (no matter how much Marinette had groaned and rolled her eyes when he bought the pajamas, she at least had to admit that they were cute) and then headed into the bedroom to pull on his own Ladybug pajamas.

Marinette had had to alter them a little so that it would fit him, but it was still so comfortable.

"Do we want to bother with plates?" Marinette called as Adrien pulled the shirt over his head. "Or are we just eating straight from the containers?"

"Whatever you want to do," Adrien called back. "If you don't want to do any dishes, eating from the containers is fine." He was planning on making popcorn later on for their movie, but that was only a few dishes and he could wash those up. "Or if you don't mind a few plates, we can do that."

Marinette was still glancing consideringly between the containers and the cupboard of plates when Adrien came out, clearly torn between being lazy and having manners. Adrien laughed and went to get the plates.

"I'll wash them up," Adrien promised as he handed one of the plates to Marinette. "I was planning on making popcorn anyway, two plates won't be a problem."

Marinette's grin was sheepish as she accepted the plate. "Thanks. I'm just too tired to want to bother."

"What was so tiring, do you think?" Adrien asked, waiting for Marinette to serve herself some rice and tofu before serving himself. "Besides just the travel itself?"

"Wedding planning with Alya, mostly," Marinette admitted, flopping down in her chair. "Fun, but there's so much to think about. And they have it all crammed together, when normally the decisions would be made over several months. They have to make all of the decisions at once and then book everything right away instead of gradually."

"So you got to hear about all of it, all at once?" Adrien asked. He took a bite of his tofu and hummed in appreciation. The sauce made it insanely tasty. "That's a lot to take in. We'll have to make sure to allocate more time for our planning."

Marinette turned pink and gave him a smile. "Definitely."

"Did you get to help Alya with other decisions?"

"We went shoe shopping today, since we got little fabric samples to match the dress and Alya wanted my advice." Marinette rubbed her eyes, and Adrien could read the exhaustion in her shoulders. "That was exhausting. Alix was lucky that the consultations limited the amount of time that she spent shopping each day."

"Long trip?"

"There were so many styles of shoes."

Adrien grinned. "How much of a heel did Alya decide on?"

"She tried everything. Low heels to super-high, and she finally settled for a sort of mid-low heel, since she doesn't want her feet hurting. They're pretty heels, but I had to talk her back to ones that were more plain than the ones she liked first." Marinette shoveled another forkful of food into her mouth, chewing and swallowing before continuing. "Since they'll be under the dress, and you don't want too much going on at once. If she lifts the skirts to walk and the shoes are some crazy pattern, that's distracting. And then she was going for sleek instead of comfortable, and I had to point out that some of the shoes were definitely not built for comfort. It's…" Marinette huffed out a sigh. "Fancy heels have their place, and in my opinion it's not under a wedding dress."

"Right." Sensing that Marinette didn't really want to re-live any more of her morning, Adrien changed the subject. Now that she was home, he could tell that she was a bit more tired than she had been letting on earlier. "So, what movie do you want to watch?"

Dinner went by in a flash, and then Marinette went to go pick a movie while Adrien cleaned up, making sure that the kwamis were fed before starting to pop popcorn on the stove. Plagg hung around until Adrien got him set up with his own little bowl of popcorn, and then his kwami zipped off with his prize.

"Plenty of butter, just the way you like it," Adrien told Marinette, placing the giant bowl down on their coffee table and picking up the blanket that he had placed out earlier, wrapping it around their shoulders. It was an older, plain blanket, not the quilt that Marinette had made for him or one of Marinette's homemade blankets. Adrien didn't want to risk getting butter stains on any of those. "Ready to relax?"

"Definitely. Don't get offended if I fall asleep on you, though." Marinette shuffled to lean more of her weight against Adrien, reclining as she did. "You make a fantastic pillow."

"Pillow at your service, my Lady!"

Sure enough, with a dark room and a full stomach, it didn't take Marinette long to fall asleep. Adrien pressed a kiss to her crown before returning his attention to the computer screen and the movie that was playing. It was one of Marinette's favorites, probably so that she could follow the plot without being entirely awake. Adrien watched the characters cross the screen, munching on popcorn occasionally until he was full. By then, Plagg and Tikki had floated back into the room.

"So much for your date, huh?" Plagg asked, glancing at the sleeping Marinette. "Good thing you didn't decide to go for your other date idea."

"I knew that she was going to be tired." Adrien glanced down at Marinette again. It was a bit hard at this angle, with her head right under his chin, but that was fine. "D'you want to finish up our popcorn? I don't think I'll want more."

Plagg cheered and dove in.

"What was your other date idea?" Tikki asked curiously, drifting closer. "Can you share? I'm sure that Plagg isn't the best for getting feedback for ideas."

"Hey!"

"I thought we could try to recreate a YouTube recipe some evening," Adrien told Tikki. "It would be interesting to see if we could follow along well enough to recreate the dish. And doing the plating, too." That was the part that he was maybe most interested in, since normally he and Marinette just scooped their food up and ate it. Plating their servings like they would get at a restaurant could be fun, a bit of novelty that they could try. "It would make cooking a little different, so that can be part of our date too, instead of just something that we need to do beforehand."

Tikki gave a little wriggle of excitement. "Oh, that sounds fun! That's a fantastic idea."

Adrien grinned. "Thanks." In all honesty, the idea hadn't come completely out of the blue. With Marinette gone and his homework finished for the weekend, Adrien had been looking up stay-in date ideas, just to try to mix things up a little bit for their last few months in London. The sites that he had found hadn't been particularly helpful, mostly because they tended to assume that he wouldn't do things like actually spend time with his girlfriend anyway. One such site had suggested cooking together as a stay-in date activity, which Adrien had originally rolled his eyes at.

He and Marinette cooked together all of the time, so how could it possibly be considered a date? They helped each other out so that the work wouldn't entirely fall on one or the other, since that wouldn't be fair. But then he ended up watching a YouTube cooking channel video, and an idea for how to make their cooking together different enough to be considered a date had popped into his head.

"That sounds like fun," Marinette's sleepy voice chimed in, and she tipped her head back to look up at Adrien. "Not right now, I'm tired, but sometime. Maybe back in Paris."

"You want to wait until then?" Adrien checked. "I thought we could try some here, when we aren't super busy. Maybe start simple, then work up to some fancier ones?"

"As long as we don't need to buy any equipment for them." Marinette stretched, then rearranged herself so that she and Adrien could talk without craning their necks. "That's the one thing I've noticed with some cooking channel videos, they need a food processor or something and we don't want to be going out and buying anything like that here. Once we get home, we can get a food processor and a proper bowl mixer."

Adrien nodded in agreement. Marinette made a good point. They didn't want to acquire anything new that they would need to carry back to Paris, not if they could help it. "There are recipes that don't use stuff like that, I'm sure. We could probably find something, and then see who can serve it up better."

Marinette grinned, that competitive light flaring up in her eyes and hiding the exhaustion. "So we can each arrange a plate and sees who does better?"

Adrien groaned dramatically. "Oh, no. I've awakened the beast! How will I ever survive against such a competitive spirit?"

"Mmm. I might be persuaded to help out, for a price. " Marinette made a kissy face at him. Adrien grinned and dipped in for a kiss, ignoring Plagg as he zipped off.

"Hmm. I think I should be able to pay that price," Adrien murmured against her lips. "I might be able to manage it. It could be hard, though..."

"Oh, shush you."

Adrien laughed.

"You know what else would be super fun?" Marinette asked as they separated. "Doing that, but with a baking video, maybe when we get back to Paris and can borrow stuff from my parents. I've seen some amazing cakes that would be super fun to try."

Adrien laughed, thinking back to his last couple attempts to 'help' decorate things. "I'll do quality control taste-testing and tool cleaning. I'm hopeless with the decorating."

"You just need practice!" Marinette insisted, lips forming a small pout. "We can make cookies and frost them sometime soon."

"Love, you and your parents have been trying to teach me how to frost cookies practically ever since I met you." Adrien leaned over to press a quick kiss to the side of her forehead. "Just admit it: I have no artistic talent, particularly when it comes to the medium of frosting."

"You can learn, though."

"I can contribute a decoration of a stick figure drawn on a cookie, maybe." Adrien patted Marinette's side to encourage her to get up so that they could go to bed. As he stood, wincing as blood rushed back into his legs, Adrien snagged their bowl and brought it back into the kitchen to wash in the morning. "And I can always be your official taste tester, though we might have to bring leftovers to Abbey and Sarah and Ben and Paul so that we don't eat too much."

"I can't wait until we're back in Paris and can just run sweets off as Ladybug and Chat Noir," Marinette grumbled, her voice still sleepy. Adrien caught her waist and redirected her before she could stumble into a doorframe. "I miss being in tip-top shape without even trying. But I like your idea. We can do dates more regularly if we do stuff like that."

"How regular are you thinking?" Adrien asked, looking to Marinette. He had to admit that he had come up with the idea just for that purpose, because right now their actual, designated date evenings were a bit infrequent and sporadic. "Like, a weekly thing, or every other week?"

"Every other week, maybe," Marinette suggested. She smiled at him, so gently that Adrien was sure that his heart skipped a beat. "You're in your last semester, and we don't want to have you struggling to balance dates and your studies."

This woman was bad for his health, really. She could take him down with a smile. But Adrien loved every minute of it.

"Every other week sounds good to me," Adrien agreed. He smiled back at her, reaching out to intertwine her fingers with his as they entered their bedroom. "As long as I'm with you, I'll be happy. No matter what we decide to do."

a/n: Yay holiday updating! Do y'all want to know how fun it is to try to write/edit with a zillion family members around? :/ I love visiting, but it makes writing SO difficult.

In other news- I had an interview today for a summer job working with woodpeckers (!) and after it ended, I told my family that "I thought it went well!" and "He has 6-7 other people to interview so I'll know in the next couple days!". Maybe 30 minutes after the interview ended, I got an email with the job offer :D. Apparently my fall banding supervisor gave me rave reviews :) Now I just have to find a spring job, so hopefully that goes well!