45. Chapter 45

Adrien had a problem- and it wasn't one of his homework problems.

(He had those too, admittedly, but they weren't casing him any problems. Or not problems, really, but concern. A great deal of thought and inner reflection.)

A thought had been running around Adrien's head for several weeks, ever since Nino and Alya's wedding and his and Marinette's conversation with Tikki and Plagg beforehand. The kwamis' comments about what being ready for marriage actually meant kept rolling around in his head, over and over.

"I just don't know if we're already ready, or if I'm letting the thought of how funny it would be if we went back engaged when no one knows that we're dating influence me," Adrien admitted to Plagg one afternoon, pushing his book to the side and pulling up the hidden folder of bookmarks on his phone. He clicked one, pulling up a picture of an elegant engagement ring. He had been browsing online lately, looking through the offered styles to try to get an idea for what Marinette might like after it had become apparent that quite a few styles wouldn't work for a designer that regularly worked around easily-snagged fabric. "I don't want to jump the gun or anything since we haven't been dating anywhere close to how long Alya and Nino did, but..."

"Okay, I'm going to be properly serious for a few minutes here and give you some advice," Plagg said before shooting a sideways glance at Adrien. "Unless you didn't want my advice and just wanted to moan and mope about?"

"If I didn't care about your advice at all, I wouldn't mope around in your general vicinity," Adrien pointed out. He moved on to the next page, inspecting the design again. He had tended towards rings with small, unraised stones, since he knew from being around designers so much that rings with rough edges tended to snag. Some of the women in his father's sewing room opted to wear their rings on a necklace during the day instead of on their fingers because the diamonds on them snagged so badly.

Adrien wanted for Marinette to not have to take her ring off. Maybe he was just a possessive kitty, but once he slid that ring on, he wanted it to stay on.

"You've moped all the time about your father being an ass around me before, but you always reject me when I offer to shove breakable stuff off of his desk." Plagg perched on the arm of the couch, giving Adrien a sharp look. "Something about how it's not helpful or whatever."

"Yeah, because it wouldn't be. It would just tick him off and then he would take it out on me."

"And those times when you moped about Ladybug not liking you when you were a wee lad, and then told me that you didn't need my advice?"

"It was all cheese-related advice, that was why." Glancing away from Plagg with a sigh, Adrien glanced back down at his phone. He had tried searching websites for advice, but hadn't found much of it helpful. "Gah. I wish I could ask Nino, but he hasn't exactly seen Marinette and I properly together. And he would probably be really confused if I asked him how he knew that he was ready to propose, but-"

"Kid, listen to me." Plagg flew in front of Adrien, cutting his rambling off and blocking the phone's screen, drawing his full attention. "Answer honestly: do you think you and Marinette will still be together at this time next year?"

Adrien didn't even have to think about it. "Of course."

"Can you see yourself settling down with her?"

"Yes, of course. You've heard us talking about what we want in the future and how our plans fit together."

"Do you want to change anything about her? Do you get annoyed with any of her behavior?"

Adrien shook his head. "I don't want to change her. And if there's anything that we do that annoys the other person, we talk about it. We help each other fix our bad habits."

The corners of Plagg's mouth turned up in a toothy smile. "Could you see yourself with anyone else?"

"Never." Adrien had fallen for Ladybug first, and then had been nursing a sizeable crush on Marinette even before he found out that they were one and the same. "She's literally my other half."

"Do you communicate, or sweep problems under the rug?"

Adrien gave that one some proper thought, since Nino had thought that he and Alya communicated well until the whole trip thing came up. "I think we're learning to communicate better. I mean, last year Marinette didn't tell me about being overworked, but now she knows that I'm not going to get upset about her for stuff like that, where it was a mistake that got the better of her. And we've communicated on the little things, like dinner and planning dates and when we're going on trips and what we want for the future."

"I would ask if you've had the money talk, but-" Plagg yawned, wide and toothy- "I've already sat through that. It was boring and dusty and involved a lot of guesswork because only you know what you're going to get paid in the next few months after you get back to Paris. So- any potential sources of conflict?"

"Only outside sources of people being idiots who think that they're entitled to our love lives." Adrien was sure that they would have little arguments. They had had a couple small disagreements, but always listened to each other and came to an agreement that they were both happy with. They had never let it get out of hand. "I mean, we've talked about both wanting kids. We both want to stay in Paris, or at least close enough nearby that it wouldn't be hard to visit. We want to start with an apartment, and then move to a townhouse before having our first kid." Adrien smiled, remembering the conversations they had had, sometimes a long talk over dinner and sometimes just a short comment about what they had in mind for the future.

It was comfortable, being able to talk about their future. And when Marinette described what she would want in an apartment, Adrien could practically see it in his head.

And boy, did he ever want it.

"And last- do you feel like you're ready, or like you're getting pressured into it by others?"

Adrien snorted. "You mean the five or so people who actually know about Marinette and I? Hardly."

Plagg shrugged. "That, or by Marinette, or just by the fact that your friends are doing it right now."

Adrien shook his head. "I still don't think so. Sure, Nino and Alya just got married and Ivan and Mylène are getting married in the fall, but it's more like... good for them, I guess? I'm glad for them, and it does remind me that people our age are getting married. But I don't feel, like, the need to be next or anything." Adrien worried his bottom lip as he thought about how to describe it. "It's just like- why wait any longer, really? If I know that we work well together and we want to spend our lives together, and we're in a place in our lives where we can do that..."

"Then I think you have your answer." Plagg floated off of Adrien's phone and settled back on the table contentedly, picking up the remainder of his chunk of cheese. "Don't you?"

Adrien grinned and nodded, feeling more sure already. He looked at the ring on his screen again, flipping forward and back. He would have to see them in person before he made a final decision. And he might snitch Tikki for an afternoon to get her opinion, because even as surprisingly helpful as Plagg had been with talking to Adrien and letting him figure out that yes, he was ready to propose to Marinette, that help probably wasn't going to extend to wedding ring shopping. Plagg would just complain that none of them were edible and that really wasn't any help. "Yeah, I know. I'm going to have to start planning how to ask soon." His grin widened. "I can't wait, honestly."

Plagg snorted. "Oh, I know. You're completely obvious to anyone who knows you. Sure, maybe it was a good idea not to rush the relationship early on, when you were transitioning from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend, but it's not rushing anymore." And then Plagg grinned. "Besides, the Ladybug and Black Cat are meant to be worn by soulmates. When both are out at the same time, the holders are meant to be together."

"You couldn't have just started with that?" Adrien asked, utterly exasperated. "Really?"

Plagg only smirked, shooting Adrien a toothy grin as he groomed his tail. "Nope."

"Are we going on an adventure?" Tikki asked curiously as she and Adrien headed across town. Adrien had gotten permission from Marinette to take her kwami out for a bit and while she had clearly been curious about the request, she had agreed. Adrien left Plagg with her- or, rather, with his heated rice-pack and a chunk of cheese in a beam of sun in Marinette's general vicinity- and headed out, sunglasses perched on his nose and hair tucked up in a baseball cap. He had gone for a simple outfit, a button-up and fresh jeans that wouldn't make him stand out at all among the crowds. "Are we getting treats?"

Adrien laughed. Tikki could be almost as bad as Plagg sometimes, even if she wasn't obvious about it. "Not treats. You'll see."

He hopped on a bus, headed for a certain section of the city where he knew there was a jewelry store that carried a wide variety of engagement rings, including some of the styles that he had seen online. Tikki was practically buzzing with curiosity for the entire way, but Adrien didn't want to tell her anything until they reached the store.

And when he did, Tikki didn't disappoint.

"Are you getting something for Marinette?" Tikki asked curiously from inside of his jacket collar as Adrien made his way across the store. "It's not her birthday, though, or Valentine's Day, or Christmas, or- oh! Are you looking at engagement rings? OH!"

Adrien hid a grin as Tikki's excitement became so much that she was practically bouncing right out of his jacket. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

"We've talked about our future several times, and about getting married," Adrien told her quietly, trying to look like he wasn't talking to himself. "And I was a little worried that I was thinking about asking just because other people were doing it, or because of the timing, with us going back to Paris, but Plagg talked me through that. He- well, he talked a lot of sense. So I thought I would take a study break and find a ring."

"Oh, this is so exciting!"

Smiling, Adrien continued into the engagement ring section. He had gotten a few ideas from the website of what he thought Marinette would most like and what he wanted to steer clear of. The large stones were pretty, but impractical for designers. He also had a budget that he wanted to stay in, and he couldn't fall in love with any rings that were outside of that.

After all, it wouldn't do to not have any money for rent just because he just had to get a certain ring. Both he and Marinette were more practical than that.

As he perused the rows upon rows of sparkling bands, Adrien was glad that he had taken the time to do some research beforehand. If he hadn't he would be overwhelmed.

He was still a bit overwhelmed. That was a lot of options, and some of the rings looked virtually identical.

"They're all very sparkly," Tikki offered, sounding as overwhelmed as Adrien felt. "Uh..."

"Any that are definite no's?" Adrien asked, glancing around. "You've been with Marinette for the longest, so you know her taste pretty well, right?"

"Hmm." Tikki had the most adorable look of concentration on her face as she scanned the rows of rings. "No big stones! One of the designers on one of the other teams always talks about how they snag."

Adrien nodded. He knew that much. "Anything else?"

"Um..." Tikki thought about it. "Oh! Plain bands are boring. So engraved ones, I guess? Is that what they're called? I don't know the terms like Marinette does."

That was progress. Adrien favored more decorative rings himself, but it was nice to know that Marinette thought the same and he wasn't just picking out something that he would like but Marinette might not necessarily be so keen on. "Okay! Uh- stones?"

Tikki just shrugged.

"I guess we can just look and see where to go from there," Adrien muttered, looking around. There was no sign that anyone in the room had noticed him or recognized who he was, which was good. He would hate for his surprise to be ruined. "Uh, so... let's start here?"

Tikki and Adrien looked over ring after ring. The few things that they had decided so far- no large, easily snagging stone (or prongs, or general design) and an engraved band- helped narrow the selection down quite a bit, but nothing was feeling right. They were all just glittery bands, common and not Marinette enough.

Adrien wasn't sure if he was just being too picky or not. Maybe the perfect ring wasn't at this store, which would be unfortunate. Maybe he was just waiting for an aha! moment, when it really wasn't that deep at all.

He kept looking. And looking. And looking.

As it turned out, looking for rings was frustrating.

"Oh, those ones are the same color as Marinette's eyes!" Tikki exclaimed right when Adrien was about ready to throw in the towel for the day, and he automatically turned to look to see where she was pointing.

There, filling an entire case at the end of the counter, were sapphire engagement rings, each one glinting with a gorgeous blue stone. The blue stood in sharp, elegant contrast to the silver, rather than just adding colorless sparkle. They were the color of Marinette's eyes, and Adrien was immediately drawn to them.

Oh, this was much better.

Adrien looked over the rings, crossing some of them off right off the bat because of too-large stones and plain bands. There were still a number of rings left to look at, though, and Adrien gave each one a good look, watching the way that they shone in the light. His eyes slid over stone after stone, and then stopped.

A ring glittered brighter than the rest, it seemed, gorgeous blue set in twisting silver. The stones weren't too big and the band itself was elegant without being overly busy or plain. It was well within Adrien's price range, too.

It was perfect.

"Oh, that one is gorgeous!" Tikki squeaked, peering out at the ring. "It's perfect! Marinette would love it."

"That's the one, for sure," Adrien decided, leaning over to get a better look. "I just know it. I was going to sleep on the decision, but honestly? I think I can make my purchase today."

"That's great!" Tikki gave an excited little wriggle. "Look, there's a salesperson! Wave them down and then we can get Marinette's ring! You have everything you need to buy it, right?"

"Of course," Adrien started, and then froze before glancing down at Tikki as he realized one very, very important detail that he had forgotten to figure out before leaving the apartment. "...uh, I don't suppose you would happen to know Marinette's ring size, would you?"

Thankfully for Adrien's sanity, most of his finals had been replaced by final projects and presentations instead. He worked on those between classes and before Marinette came home, leaving his evenings mostly free for him to spend with Marinette.

And they spent a lot of time together, either just casually hanging out or doing stay-in dates. They played Mecha Strike, mostly as a team after there was a little bit too much cheating during one particularly competitive round. They watched movies together, and sometimes Marinette quizzed Adrien to help him study for the tests that he did have.

"Last test done, and now I just have one presentation left," Adrien told Marinette on his final Wednesday of school as they warmed up leftovers for dinner. "Do you mind being an audience for it tonight? I kind of want to do one last run-through."

"Of course!" Marinette pulled another dish out of the fridge. "I'll probably understand none of it at this point, but I can nod and look interested."

"And give feedback on how fast I'm talking and if I'm gesturing too much," Adrien added. "I'm mostly looking for that, really. I know the content is good, I've already gone over it with Paul."

"You know I'm biased. I think your gesturing is cute." Marinette grinned when she spotted the pink that Adrien could feel creeping up his cheeks. Normally such an innocent comment wouldn't fluster him, but Adrien could remember the last time that Marinette had made the same comment and, well, it definitely had not been in a PG-13 setting.

She knew what she was doing, the little imp.

It didn't take long for dinner to get warmed up, and then they were sitting down at the table. As Adrien glanced around, he couldn't help but mourn at the increasingly bare walls of their apartment. He and Marinette had really made the apartment feel like home, and over the past few months, that hominess had slowly started getting packed away and sent back to Paris.

He couldn't wait to get a more permanent apartment with Marinette back in Paris and get their things all set up again. It was really coming up soon and-

-uh, wow. They probably should have started looking into apartments already. Whoops.

Well, he could start doing that after his last presentation, maybe. He would have to talk with Marinette first and make sure that they were on the same page with what they wanted in their next apartment.

"I've been looking at my commissions, and I've decided that my sewing machine can wait," Marinette said suddenly as she scooped up another bite of food. Adrien blinked, surprised. He knew that they had talked about how they were going to get Marinette's sewing machine back at one point, but he hadn't exactly been expecting her to (temporarily) leave it behind, not when she had (as of yet, at least) been unsuccessful at getting a designer job and would be depending on commissions for at least a little while. "I have a few screen printing things to design and do, and combine that with the fact that we'll be looking for apartments- that'll take me a few weeks."

"That will make things easier," Adrien admitted, reaching over his textbook to grab his checklist of stuff they had left to get back to Paris from a leaning pile of papers. "That's a really bulky item, and heavy-"

"And fragile," Marinette added.

"-and it would have required that you carry a lot less so you could keep it safe," Adrien finished. "And now we can focus on everything else."

Marinette nodded. "And if we can find an apartment we like quickly enough, then maybe I won't even need to bother with getting my sewing machine all set up in my old room again first."

"Yeah." Adrien glanced over at Marinette. "And speaking of finding an apartment- if we can talk about what price range we want to look at and what kind of layouts, I can start looking online to see what there is. I know we weren't looking earlier because of everything that was going on and since the listings could vanish before we got back, but we should be good now."

"Two bedrooms, for sure," Marinette said immediately. "I'm going to have commissions for at least a bit, and even once I get hired on somewhere I'll want a sewing room at home. A balcony would be good, both for plants and screen printing and for superhero access."

Adrien nodded, writing those down at the bottom of his checklist. Both were things that they had discussed before, but it was good to go over them again to remember and to make sure that their priorities hadn't shifted since their last conversation.

"And I don't want to go any smaller on a kitchen than what we have now," Marinette added. "We tend to cook together a lot, so we need the elbow room, and this is pretty much the bare minimum of counter space that I'm willing to tolerate."

"Noted." Adrien gave the short list that he had scribbled down another look. "I'd say that storage would be another thing to look at, even if we'll have your sewing room. I like the closets we have here. Uh, location in Paris?"

"It's hard for me to have a preference when I don't have a job yet." Marinette worried her lip as she thought about it. "Nothing too far out on the outskirts. Wherever is convenient for your job, I guess."

"Right, of course." Adrien made a mental note to check again on where exactly his internship was, and what neighborhoods were nearby. He had only just gotten confirmation that he had gotten his first-choice placement a week prior, and he was super excited. Hopefully Marinette would end up with a job nearby.

"And- oh! Has to be pet-friendly if we're going to get cats," Marinette added. "Some might just require a larger deposit if we have pets, but some are straight nos."

"Okay. And how much are we willing to pay?" Adrien asked, trying not to grin at the idea of getting a cat. He had always wanted one, for as long as he could remember, and they were so close. "Keeping in mind that I'll have an internship and we don't know where you'll be yet or what kind of salary you'll get once you get a job. I do have pretty good savings from modeling, but..."

"We don't want to dip into that too much," Marinette finished when Adrien trailed off. "Or into my savings from commissions from the past few years. Uh..."

"Maybe I can look stuff up first and see what different places cost before we completely lock ourselves in price," Adrien suggested. "We should probably have an upper budget set, though, so we don't see and fall in love with something completely out if our price range."

Marinette nodded. "That's a really good plan. Uh..." she floundered for a bit. "Maybe we should use our apartment here for reference? I'd be willing to pay a bit above what we pay for this place. And we should probably expect two-bedroom apartments to cost more than this."

"Yeah, they will." Adrien absentmindedly twirled his pencil between his fingers as he considered his list. He wasn't sure how much more a two-bedroom place would cost, and he didn't want to make their cut-off too low. They didn't want to live in some cramped apartment with rusty pipes and poor lighting when they could afford better, after all. "I'll see what I can find just based off of this, and then we can go from there."

Marinette nodded. "That sounds good. And we can always ask around, too, to see how much our friends spend on their places. The ones that have moved out from their parents' places, I mean."

"Right, of course." Adrien grinned as he remembered his conversation with Nino only a few weeks prior. "Oh, you'll get a kick out of this, I can't believe that I forgot to tell you about it. So I was talking to Nino at the reception, and he was totally trying to set us up. Like, he wasn't subtle at all."

Marinette was already giggling. "Oh? And what did you do?"

"Played dumb, of course. I acted like I didn't understand what he was getting at." Adrien grinned. "I mentioned something about enjoying having you as a, ah, neighbor, and Nino suggested that we share an apartment. I thought it would be a great idea to agree with him and talk about how great it would be great to come home and hang out with such a great friend."

"Oh, gosh. I bet his face was priceless." Marinette was properly laughing now, and Tikki had started giggling as well. "He was probably steaming! Imagine their faces if we told them that we were looking for a two bedroom apartment so that we could keep being neighbors."

Adrien's face lit up. Their friends would absolutely explode. "Oh, we gotta tell them that now. I'm gonna see if I can work it in somehow. Like, I can ask how much two-bedroom apartments cost, and of course Nino is gonna ask why I'm looking for two bedrooms instead of one."

"And then you tell him you and your really good friend want to split an apartment!" Tikki piped up. Adrien laughed and reached over to pat Tikki's head.

"That might be a little too heavy-handed. It would tip him off. But I would probably say something about how we decided to take their advice and continue being neighbors, only this time in the same apartment. And then we can be roommates," Adrien sing-songed. "And have sleepovers, and have pillow fights and do each other's hair and-"

Marinette groaned. "Adrien."

"Isn't that what people do at sleepovers?" Adrien asked innocently. "And obviously we wouldn't get up to anything inappropriate, because we're just roommates. I mean, we might get a little spicy with one of those truth-or-dare games-"

Marinette's expression turned devious. "What kinds of spicy truths and dares can you come up with? I think we should play that game tonight. It sounds fascinating."

Adrien swallowed hard, thoroughly distracted by that expression. "I- I, uh-"

"I thought you were practicing Adrien's presentation tonight," Plagg said loudly before Adrien could start thinking up what kinds of things he might ask Marinette. "And not being gooey and gross."

"We can do both," Adrien said cheerfully. "Presentation first, and then truth or dare afterwards."

Plagg groaned. "I do not get enough cheese to deal with this."

Adrien's last presentation went by in a flash, no thanks to his run-through with Marinette the previous night. He had to do his best to focus on his words and not think about the very fun game that he and Marinette had played after he had finished his presentation.

He finished up without turning too pink, and then sat down and listened to his classmates do their bits. They finished up just in time, and then Adrien's last class of undergrad was officially done.

"Well, I gotta be productive now," Adrien commented as he and Plagg headed back to their building. "I promised Marinette that I would at least glance at apartment openings. I can text Nino, too. He's off this afternoon, so I could even call."

Plagg snickered. "You just want to frustrate him by pretending that you and Marinette are still oblivious to your feelings when you're actually about to be engaged."

Adrien froze mid-step. "Oh! Right! Thanks for reminding me, Plagg. I need to go talk to Madam Rosalie today and see if she can help me with my plan."

Plagg let out a long-suffering sigh. "You need to check the weather forecast for Saturday, too."

"Oh, I should have done that on the bus." Still, Adrien stepped to the side of the sidewalk so that he wouldn't be in anyone's way while he checked his phone. It seemed clear, so he put the phone away and headed for Marinette's workplace. It was a familiar route at this point, and no one blinked an eye as Adrien trotted up the stairs. He steered away from Marinette's group's area for the time being, heading up to Madam Rosalie's office first.

Where he had a very productive meeting with her. She waved him on his way, grinning as he left her office. Adrien waved as he headed downstairs, so he could say hi to Marinette before going home. She was headed for a meeting when he stuck his head in, so he simply stole a kiss before heading back to the apartment.

After a late lunch and a few minutes of apartment hunting, Adrien called up Nino.

"Dude, aren't you coming home in a week and a half?" Nino asked, sounding a bit exasperated. "Why didn't you look before?"

"We were busy!" Adrien protested. "And I can always spend a bit of time living in my old room or something. But I know you said something about how apartments go pretty fast, and I kind of want to be able to look at places in person before committing this time."

"Okay, that's fair," Nino said grudgingly. "Right, so why were you calling me? For suggestions? I mean, the apartment building that Alya and I were in was decent enough. Cramped, sure, but that was with two people. I'm sure you would be fine."

"Actually, I was looking for a two-bedroom apartment," Adrien said cheerfully. He grinned at Plagg. "And wanting to know what I should expect those to cost."

There was a pause on the other end, and then Nino spoke up again. "Uh- two bedroom apartment? Why? Like, I can understand you wanting more space since you grew up to that big-ass bedroom, but it's not like you can combine the two rooms or anything. It won't work in the way you're thinking it will."

Adrien laughed. "Oh, no, no, that's not why we're looking for two bedrooms. Do you remember when we were talking at the wedding, and you said that I got lucky having Marinette as a neighbor? And that it would be a great idea for us to split a two-bedroom apartment so that we could keep hanging out? We talked and decided to look into doing that."

There was a longer pause, and then Nino groaned. "Dude. I was not serious. Are you kidding me?"

Adrien put on his best confused voice. "What do you mean? It's a really good idea! Splitting a two-bedroom place is gonna be less than getting two separate one-bedroom apartments, right? And we can share meals, so that stuff doesn't go bad just because we can't use it in time."

"I- I just-" There was a frustrated noise on the other end of the phone and then a sound on the other end let Adrien know that Alya had no doubt come home and Nino had put the phone on speakerphone. "You two drive me up the wall, you really do. Like, isn't there any other reason for you two wanting to live together other than cost and sharing meals? Like, dude, c'mon."

Adrien kicked the confusion up a couple notches. "Aren't those good reasons, though? It's responsible! And I like hanging out with Marinette! She's such a great friend!"

There was a high-pitched noise of what could only be utter frustration from Alya, and Adrien grinned. From his place on the table, Plagg sniggered.

"And we can hang out and play video games!" Adrien continued, just because he could. "And she's been trying to teach me how to do the fancy decorations on cakes, and how am I supposed to keep learning if we live across the city from each other?"

"How- you-" Nino seemed properly speechless now. "That's it? That is all of your reasoning? I seriously can't tell if you're messing with me, dude."

Adrien exchanged a gleeful look with his kwami. Plagg seemed to be enjoying the whole conversation as much as he was. "What do you mean? Why would I mess with you? I thought you said that it would be a good idea for Marinette and I to be roommates!"

"I- well, yeah, but-" Nino was spluttering. "I didn't mean- I thought-"

There was a hiss of "Don't give it away!" from Alya, followed by some hastily-muffled conversation. Finally Nino came back on the line.

"Right, so apartments," Nino said, and Adrien tried not to snicker. "Yeah, I can tell you what I know about pricing on the two bedroom ones. D'you know where in Paris you wanna be? Have you and Marinette talked about that?"

"Yeah, we want to be close to my internship for now," Adrien told him. "Since there still haven't been any good postings for designer positions in Paris, not for positions that Marinette would be qualified for and interested in. We mostly want to know what we should be expecting for cost, so that we don't just go in and fall in love with an apartment that's way out of our budget."

"I can think of someone you could fall in love with," Nino muttered, and then raised his voice again. "Okay. So, yeah. I can tell you what Alya and I's budget was when we went shopping around for a two-bedroom apartment. So, we didn't care too much about the size of the second room, but you two will want them pretty much the same size-"

They talked for a good half an hour, and then Adrien finally had to say good-bye to his friend so that Nino could go help Alya with getting dinner ready. He hung up with a grin, setting his cell phone aside with a grin.

Nino had made one more none-to-subtle attempt to push Adrien towards Marinette before the call ended and the frustration obvious even over the phone had been hilarious.

Oh, their reactions when he and Marinette got back to Paris and could finally could share their secret were going to be great.

"You know," Adrien told Plagg with a laugh, pushing himself to his feet. "Maybe it makes me a bad person, but honestly? Getting those reactions out of the two of them makes all of the secrecy entirely worth it."

A/N: So hopefully updates will get more regular now that the holidays have passed and my computer has gone through the repair shop (again. For the third time in a year. Computer, behave.).

There are three more chapters plus three Outtakes left! Woo-hoo home stretch!