The day of their field trip dawned clear, calm, and cold, cold, cold.

"It's good for the snow, according to what I found," Adrien said as the bus rattled towards their destination, a cross-country ski area. They were going to be there for the entire day, and there would be instructors for the people who didn't know how to ski (read: most of the group). Most of them were looking forward to it, even though the day had started so cold.

"It's supposed to warm up a little so it's not so brutal," Alya said, glancing at her phone. "But I'm still going to need a giant cup of hot chocolate after being out."

"I brought marshmallows for the hot chocolate!" Rose piped up, leaning over the back of her seat. "Mini marshmallows, of all colors, and peppermint sticks for stirring."

"That sounds good, Rose," Marinette said with a smile. "Hopefully they'll still have hot chocolate by the end of the day with all of us there!"

"Miss Bustier brought several jars of hot chocolate. I saw it in her bag." Alya glanced out the window again and perked up. "We're almost there! Ready to freeze your toes off?"

"Attention, class!" Miss Bustier called before any of them could respond. Their teacher was half-standing, half kneeling on her seat on the front of the bus as she tried to get their attention. Madam Mendeleiev stood behind the other teacher, eyeing her own homeroom kids. "I'm sure you're all excited to get out and learn how to ski! For those of you who already know how to ski, you can get started as soon as you get your equipment! If you brought your own boots, poles, and skis, you can go right away, as long as your pass is securely attached to the coat you'll be wearing on the trail and as long as you have a partner to ski with. Trios are fine, groups of four are fine- as long as you are not skiing by yourself. Am I clear?"

The classes nodded obediently.

"You will all get trail maps once we arrive. The trails are labelled by degree of difficulty and if you have any questions, the staff there would be happy to answer them for you. We don't want anyone getting stuck on a trail that they can't ski safely." She grinned at them. "Now let's get out there and have a great day!"

"I don't get it," Nino muttered as he shuffled down the trail, using his poles to push himself a little faster. "How are you two moving so fast?"

"We're inching along, don't exaggerate," Adrien said as he slid to an uneven halt up again. Behind him, Marinette let out a yelp and used her poles to stop herself before she slid into him.

Nino shuffled faster. "You're doing far better than Alya and I are. We're barely moving. At least you and Marinette can move more than a centimeter at a time."

"Half a centimeter, practically," Alya grumbled as she stopped behind Nino. "This is the last time around, I swear."

Adrien shot her a sad, wide-eyed look. "But Alya-"

"We've already gone around this godforsaken trail three times, Adrien. It takes forever, I've already fallen three times, and quite frankly, I don't understand how you're having any fun." Alya started shuffling forward again. The expression on her face strongly suggested that she wouldn't mind laying down and just giving up where she stood. "This is painful."

"I think it's more fun once you get the hang of it," Marinette said as the group started forward again. "Kim and Alix were really looking forward to the trip, and they've been skiing forever."

"I'm not surprised. This kind of thing seems right up their alley." Alya let out a snarl as she fought her way up a gentle incline. "Actually, I'm surprised you didn't already know how to ski, Agreste. Aren't you involved in all things sports?"

"Not outdoor sports."

"That's just sad, it really is." Nino's grimace as he followed Alya up the hill suggested that he was having about as much fun as she was. "I was surprised that Rose and Juleka already knew, too."

"And Nathaniel, too. He said that his family goes skiing at least once a year," Alya said. "And Juleka said that Rose taught her last year."

Their group paused at the top of the hill before sliding, one at a time and very carefully, down the gentle incline. Adrien grinned as he used his poles to propel himself faster down the slope, while Nino dragged his poles to slow himself down.

"Oh, I see the building up ahead!" Nino cheered after another few minutes. "Finally! Now we only need to get there."

Alya snorted as she double-poled her way along the path. "Right. Give us ten minutes, and we might be close enough to celebrate. My arms are about to die."

"The instructor said that you should be able to ski without using your arms," Adrien said, lifting his poles and scooting forward for a meter without them. "So, really-"

"Agreste, if you don't shush and stop showing off, this pole's gonna find a place in your side."

Adrien grinned and scooted forward. As he passed her, Marinette could have sworn he muttered, "You'll have to catch me first."

Once they reached the building, Nino and Alya shed their skis with surprising speed and dashed into the building. By the time their amused friends joined them, they had already settled at an empty table and were stirring steaming mugs of hot chocolate with the peppermint sticks Rose had brought.

"Wow, a lot of people are already back," Adrien commented as he settled in a chair. "I'm surprised. It's still early."

Nino snorted. "Dude, most everybody had just as much trouble as Alya and I did. They just didn't have an annoying friend insisting they go out again and again."

Adrien grinned, completely unrepentant. "It was fun, and it wasn't like I could go out by myself. It's more fun when all of us are there."

"My arm muscles disagree." Alya blew on her hot chocolate and took a careful sip. "This is fun, though. I need to tell Rose thanks for the peppermint stick, it really makes this better. Anyone for a card game?"

Adrien practically pouted as Nino agreed eagerly and headed off for the pile of games their class had brought along. Marinette followed him to help him pick something out. "We can play card games whenever, though."

"Adrien, my arms are going to fall off if I ski any more. Besides, that trail was boring."

Adrien shrugged. He couldn't really disagree with that. The beginner trail (or the kids' trail, according to the maps in the building) was almost completely flat, with the exception of a couple small hills, small enough that they could barely be considered hills. They had been the best part of the trail, actually, and Adrien had rather been hoping to find a larger hill he could test out- not too large, obviously, and definitely not the downhill dubbed "Suicide Hill" that Kim and Alix had been talking about before they took off- but a hill where he could get a decent speed going and where it took more than two seconds to glide down.

"All right, I got us cards," Nino announced as he slid back into his seat. "Marinette decided to go get hot chocolate while there were still marshmallows left, she'll be back in a couple minutes."

"Oh, cool," Alya said, reaching for the cards Nino held. "Adrien? Do you have a favorite card game? Adrien?"

Adrien wasn't listening. His eyes were focused on the map he had been given at the start of the day. Trails were color-coded by difficulty, and there were little blurbs about each of the trails at the bottom. One of the trails looked pretty nice- only four kilometers, fairly easy, and with rolling hills and gorgeous scenery.

He wanted to ski it.

"Does anyone want to go out on one of the other trails with me?" Adrien asked suddenly, turning to his friends with a hopeful look. "Nino?"

Nino fixed Adrien with a look. "Dude, no. I shuffled around the beginner trail three times already and my arms hurt. I'm not doing any of the harder trails."

"They would be more interesting," Adrien tempted them, waving a trail map. "More downhills! The ones we had on the easy trail were fun."

"Sorry, I'm with my boy," Alya said, leaning back in her chair. "You know I just couldn't get the hang of it. I'm not going out again."

Adrien's expression dropped.

"And I think most of the people in here right now would say the same," Alya said, glancing around. "I know Ivan and Mylene said they just got back right before we did, and then I heard a couple of Madam Mendeleiev's students saying that they only went around the trail once before quitting."

"And Mylene said that Chloe and Sabrina left already," Nino added. "Chloe wiped out on a flat stretch and decided that skiing was stupid. She called up her father and he set up a spa day for her and Sabrina and her chauffeur picked them up."

"I would pay to see that fall," Alya said as she pulled the cards out of the box and started shuffling them. "Did anyone besides Sabrina see?"

"Some students in the other class. They said it wouldn't have been half as dramatic as it was if Chloe hadn't panicked and started shrieking and flailing as she fell." Nino rolled his eyes. "Her pride was hurt more than anything else."

"Okay, but seriously? No one wants to come out with me?" Adrien asked, practically pouting at them. "I can't go out by myself, guys."

"Dude, just have your driver bring you back out here this weekend or something," Nino said. "You don't have a photoshoot this weekend or anything, do you?"

Adrien snorted. "No, but do you really think that skiing with the Gorilla would be fun? You've seen him when he accompanies me out. He wouldn't stay in the warming house, he would follow me out on the trail like a giant silent shadow and tell my father whenever I fell."

"If you wait, Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel might get back early enough for you to do the trail with one of them," Alya suggested, putting the shuffled cards down. "Seriously, what game do you guys want to play?"

"They would need to get back over an hour before the bus is scheduled to leave," Adrien pointed out. "Maybe even two hours. And what are the chances of that?"

"Well, good luck finding someone in here that's willing to go on something besides the baby trail," Alya said, leaning back in her chair and balancing it on two legs. "Now, are you going to play? Because I need to know if there are three or four of us playing, since I know Marinette will- oh! Marinette could join you!" Alya blurted suddenly, sitting bolt upright and sending her chair's legs crashing back to the ground. Marinette, who was returning with her drink, blinked, startled, and paused midstep to stare at Alya in confusion. "She was better at skiing than Nino and I, and she still has way too much energy. Take her out and wear her down, Adrien."

Adrien blinked, taken aback by Alya's sudden insistence. "Uh..."

Alya, who seemed to have been taken over by Miss Matchmaker Extraordinaire, popped out of her chair to grab Marinette and push her startled friend in front of Adrien. "She'd love to go out skiing with you after she finishes her hot chocolate, isn't that right, Marinette?

"Uuuh..."

"See? She'd love to! Let's just play a round of cards first so you can rest up before going out again." Alya steered Marinette to a chair and practically shoved her into it. "We can play, like, Go Fish or something, that's pretty fast so you'll have plenty of time to ski afterwards."

"We're doing the trail again?" Marinette asked in confusion as she sat, barely keeping her hot chocolate from spilling.

"I'd like to go out on one of the other trails. The guide says it's a pretty easy one," Adrien added when Marinette gave him a dubious look. "It's just a little longer and the hills are a little bigger than the molehills on the beginner trail. Not huge hills," Adrien amended. "It's still marked as an easier trail. But it would be more interesting than the other trail."

"And Adrien can't go out if you don't go with him," Alya added as she dealt out the cards. "And I know you wouldn't want him to miss out. Besides, then you can ski without having to wait for Nino and I to catch up."

"But Alya-"

Alya fixed her best friend with a look. "You can't tell me that you don't have the energy. I saw the way you bounced over to that hot chocolate. Besides, you'll get your energy back after you drink all of that." She nodded at Marinette's drink, where a whole handful of marshmallows was dissolving slowly in the hot chocolate. "Talk about a sugar rush. You'll be bouncing off the walls if you don't go back out."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Adrien called over his shoulder as they skied down the main trail to their turnoff. He technically had never gotten an answer from Marinette as to whether or not she wanted to try the other trail- Alya had kind of answered for her and not given Marinette the chance to respond. Even if Adrien wanted to try the other trail, he didn't want to force his friend if she didn't want to go.

"Yeah, the trail sounds interesting," Marinette called as she skied along. "Hopefully I won't wipe out on the downhills."

"You'll be fine," Adrien said with a laugh as they turned onto their trail. He double-checked the map (they were not lost- yet, at least) and led the way down the trail. He was glad that Marinette was relaxing around him this year, because she was a fantastic friend and they got along really well. "You didn't have any trouble on the other trail."

"Yeah, the mostly flat other trail."

Adrien laughed and nearly lost his balance when one of his feet slipped backwards sharply. He flailed for a minute before catching himself on his poles and pushing on. "This is mostly flat. There's just a couple of hills for variety."

"Variety that's going to kill me."

"You're exaggerating now." Sure, Marinette could sometimes be clumsy. Sure, maybe they would actually fall on this trail. But it wasn't as though they were going to go careening into a tree at eighty kilometers an hour. "And besides, if you go down, I'm probably going down too. It's not like I have any more skiing experience."

That got a laugh out of Marinette, and Adrien grinned as they continued on down the trail. They weren't racing along by any means, but without having to stop and wait for Alya and Nino, they were definitely moving faster. Both of them found themselves slipping a bit occasionally- they maybe weren't shifting their weight right, Adrien figured, or maybe there was an occasional icy patch that was causing the slips- but it wasn't slowing them much.

He was probably going to be sore tomorrow because of the slips, but this was more fun than sitting around playing cards for hours.

"That hill up ahead looks like it might be hard to get up," Marinette said, scooting up to ski next to him. "It's not big, but..."

Adrien could see what she meant. The hill was steeper than any of the ones they had faced on the beginner trail, and while it wasn't as though it would be any trouble to walk up without their skis, it was very probable that their skis could slide backwards on the way up if they just tried to ski up it like normal.

"Didn't the instructor say something about that? Something about angling the skis out?" Of course, it had been mentioned while he was still struggling with the moving forward part of skiing, so he hadn't paid that much attention. "Or maybe we walk up sideways?"

Marinette frowned. "That doesn't sound right." It really was too bad that they didn't have an experienced skier with them, because there was probably some really easy answer. "We probably should go up one at a time so we don't, like, fall backwards down the hill."

Adrien nodded. Falling backwards down the hill would be bad enough; falling on another person and going down the hill would be worse. They would probably end up whacking each other with their skis or worse yet, their poles. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I'll go first. Maybe I can just, like, run up the hill."

"You do that." Marinette stopped and watched as Adrien skied forward as fast as he could manage. He got up a short distance, then slowed, then slipped backwards half a ski length and nearly fell. Marinette winced and squeaked.

Tikki's head popped out of her coat, adorned in the little knitted hat Marinette had made for her. The matching scarf was just barely visible. "Are you okay, Marinette?"

"Just worried about falling down on the hill." Marinette winced again as Adrien's feet slipped once more. "It looks like we might have more problems on the uphill than the downhill."

"Ooh, I know how to do that!" Tikki said happily, turning her head to watch Adrien struggle. "One of my old Chosens lived in Norway and skied all the time. You angle out your skis, like- no, the other way, Marinette! Like that, a V angling away from you. You just have to make sure the backs of your skis don't cross over each other, so your legs have to be further away from each other. And then you step forward- use your poles to keep your balance!- and yes, just like that. And you have to lean forward when you're going up the hill. I think it's called fishsticking."

"I'm going to trip and fall backwards down the hill," Marinette grumbled as she moved her skis back to their normal position. "And fishsticking?"

"You aren't," Tikki said, wriggling up into Marinette's scarf. She adjusted her hat over her antennae. "You don't need to angle your skis quite as much as you did for this hill. The wider angles are more for steeper hills. And it's been a long time since my Chosens last went out skiing, I might be remembering the name wrong."

"Oh, that's good. That's probably easier." Marinette angled out her skies and took a few tentative steps. "I'm gonna fall and break a leg."

"Don't lift your feet up so high! Keep them close to the ground, just pick them up high enough that they don't snag on the snow." Tikki held onto Marinette's scarf as she supervised. "Yeah, like that!"

"This isn't working," Adrien said as he carefully stepped backwards back to the flat section of trail. Tikki vanished back into Marinette's scarf. "You want to try?"

Marinette grimaced. "'Want to' is a strong sentiment. I'll try. Don't laugh."

"I'd never." Adrien stepped aside and let Marinette pass him. She took a deep breath and carefully angled her skis apart like Tikki had told her to. Readjusting her grip on her ski poles, she took a few careful steps forward. When she didn't trip and break her neck, she kept moving. Soon enough, she was halfway up the hill.

"Hey, that's working pretty well!" Adrien called after Marinette. "Good job!"

"I haven't gotten to the top yet, don't jinx me!" Marinette called back, keeping her eyes focused on the top of the hill. A couple more steps, and then she could move her skis back to the normal position. Marinette slid forward, relieved to still be standing, before turning around and watching Adrien carefully fight his way up the hill.

They headed down the long, gentle slope on the other side one at a time as well, though neither of them had any problem with it. Adrien let out a whoop of joy as he glided down the hill, picking up speed for a few long seconds before he started to slow down and slowly came to a stop. Adrien turned and grinned at Marinette as she pushed off from the top of the hill.

"I didn't die," Marinette announced as she slid to a stop next to him at the bottom of the hill. "Yay."

Adrien laughed as they set off again down the trail. "So dramatic."

"It was pretty fun, once I got up the hill," Marinette admitted. "I was worried that I was going to trip over my skis."

"So was I, to be honest," Adrien said with another laugh. "But it was easy once I got used to it. It seems like it's pretty easy to learn how to ski like this."

"Yeah, I think Nino and Alya just didn't really want to learn and so they didn't." They certainly had ignored it whenever Adrien or Marinette suggested things to try to improve their skiing.

Adrien flashed a grin at Marinette over his shoulder. "That, and they were spending most of the lesson cuddling with each other and not listening."

Marinette snorted as she paused, letting Adrien get a head start up the next hill. "Were they really? I hadn't noticed."

"They were. They're probably doing the same thing now instead of actually playing their game." Adrien let out a short little huff as he reached the top of the hill. "Oof. I'm already getting sweaty."

"Me too." Marinette followed Adrien up the hill, leaning forward probably a little more than strictly necessary. If she was going to fall, at least she was going to fall forward. "We're probably going to freeze if we take a break."

Adrien flashed a grin over her shoulder. "I know, right? I thought I was going to freeze when we stepped out of the building earlier. I hadn't realized that I had gotten sweaty at all on the baby trail."

Marinette shivered as she remembered. She had had the same problem. It had seemed significantly colder when they first stepped outside again after being inside and for a minute she had considered just turning around and heading straight back inside. Now, though, Marinette was glad that she hadn't. She had warmed up fast enough, and really? This trail was fun.

They went down a long, gentle hill that seemed like it would never end, shivered their way through an open, windy section of trail, puzzled over a couple splits in the trail, and headed up a gentle uphill. Marinette was just thinking that the trail wasn't bad at all when they reached the top and were looking down the hill.

The slope by itself wasn't bad. It was a little steeper than what they had gotten used to for sure, but it wasn't awful. What made it bad was the fairly sharp curve in the trail.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Adrien said after a moment, skiing a few paces forward. "My skis should follow the tracks like they did on that other hill, right? It'll be fun, I bet we'll get some good speed going."

"Um..."

"I'll go first. You'll see, it'll be fine." Adrien slid a few paces forward and grinned over his shoulder at her. "Okay?"

"Oka-" Marinette started, then stopped. Her eyes had been tracing the ski tracks and just where the trail curved, the tracks had been wiped out. "Wait, Adrien-"

It was too late. Adrien was already sliding forward, grin on his face as he picked up speed. Marinette was left standing at the top of the hill, one hand outstretched helplessly as she watched Adrien hit the curve and immediately veer straight out of the tracks, continuing to head straight instead of following the curve. A second later, he hit the snowbank on the opposite side of the trail and went down with a yelp, a screech, and a cloud of powdered snow.

Adrien knew as soon as he spotted the wiped-out section of the trail that he was in trouble, but he was already sliding down the hill pretty fast and couldn't stop. He wasn't going to be staying in the tracks- the countless other ski tracks wobbling out of the crushed area was testament to that- and he didn't know how to steer.

What was he supposed to do, flail his poles until he got going in the right direction again? Pick up his feet and try to angle himself back down the hill? That would only end in disaster. He didn't have the time to think about it before he was already sliding out of control.

Adrien's skies veered out of the tracks, wobbled across the skate-ski tracks, and sent him straight into a snowbank on the opposite side of the trail. His arms flailed around wildly as he lost his balance, and then he was falling into the snow, skis tangled with each other and poles sticking out in opposite directions as white powder flew into the air.

There was an angry screech as Adrien blinked, disoriented and suddenly cold- he certainly hadn't wiped out like that recently in any of his other sports- and then Plagg was flying up in Adrien's face, covered in a thin layer of snow and glaring at him. "I was sleeping! What were you thinking?"

"Shhh!" Adrien hissed, grabbing Plagg and shoving him back in his jacket as Marinette called out to him from the top of the hill. "You can't be seen! Sorry! I'm fine!" Adrien added, twisting to call up the hill to Marinette. His friend was shuffling along the top of the hill to try to see him, while not getting too close to the start of the downhill slope. Clearly she didn't want to start sliding before she meant to. "Just give me a moment to get out and then I'll move out of your way."

"Okay," Marinette called back, but Adrien wasn't listening. He was trying to untangle his skis, which was harder than he had expected. They kept snagging in the snow. He kicked out and finally got his skis out of the snow, scattering chunks of snow across the trail as he did. From there, it wasn't too hard to push himself up out of the snow and angle himself so he could ski more or less in a straight line down to the bottom of the hill, where he could brush all of the snow off of himself. There were bits inside of his sleeves and in the cuffs of his gloves, and even up his jacket and in the bottom his pants.

"I'm coming down," Marinette called from the top of the hill, making Adrien jump and straighten up right away. "Don't laugh when I wipe out."

"I'm moving, I'm moving," Adrien called back. He scooted down the trail so that he wouldn't be in Marinette's way. "Ready!"

He could see Marinette bite her lip even at a distance. She had moved to the far side of the trail, away from the classic-groomed tracks, and looked like she was angling so that she wouldn't have to try to curve at all. As long as she didn't veer wildly off course, she should end up back in the classic tracks, right where she wanted to be

Of course, her skis might catch the tracks wrong and send her falling over then, but it was better to think positive.

Marinette started sliding, and Adrien scooted further along down the trail as she picked up speed. She wobbled a bit dangerously, making Adrien's heart stutter, but then she caught herself and slid the rest of the way to the bottom. She grinned widely at Adrien as she slowed almost to a stop as she joined him.

"Nice job," Adrien said as they set off again. "But what would you do if the trail curved too much for you to do that?"

"Do the same thing you did, probably. Plow into a snowbank and pray I don't die."

He couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up in his throat. "The worst that happened was all of the snow in my clothes. I think a bit went down the back of my jacket."

"That's a good way to cool down, I guess."

"I'm not exactly certain that I needed the help cooling down," Adrien said, grinning as they picked up speed again. "It's not exactly boiling outside."

Marinette had to agree. It wasn't so obvious in the woods, where the trees blocked the wind, but whenever they reached a gap in the trees or a long straight stretch parallel to the wind, it definitely was a little bitter. She was really hoping that she wouldn't wipe out like Adrien had. Snow was still clinging to his coat cuffs and the bottom of his pants, and Marinette was pretty certain that she had spotted a few chunks still stuck to the inside of his coat collar. Adrien had already reached over his shoulder a couple of times to try to dislodge a couple of the melting snow chunks, usually without much luck. They seemed pretty stuck to the fabric of his jacket.

"There seem to be more hills on this trail than the trail guide said there were," Adrien said as they came upon another hill. He headed up first this time, then paused at the top to watch Marinette head up. "I mean, they're fun, but the guide said- oh!"

Halfway up the hill, Marinette had fallen. She had been chugging along just fine, and then her ski had snagged in the unpacked snow next to the trail. Taken off guard and suddenly off balance, Marinette had fallen on her hands and knees in the middle of the hill. She let out a groan, covering her face with one hand to hide her embarrassed blush. She couldn't believe that she had fallen on an uphill, of all things, and in front of Adrien to boot-

"Are you okay?" Adrien called anxiously from the top of the hill. "Mari?"

"'m fine," Marinette sighed, pushing herself to her feet. She started slipping for a moment and then caught herself. "Nothing hurt but my pride."

Adrien nodded wisely, making Marinette immediately eye him suspiciously. "Yes, yes, I would imagine so. That kind of a fall would only earn you a five, tops-"

"Huh?"

Adrien grinned and gave Marinette space as she got to the top of the hill. "If you grade your fall. It was rather anticlimactic and had a distinct lack of snow flying everywhere. My fall earlier, on the other hand, was nearly a perfect ten."

Marinette snorted as they headed up the trail. One of the fabulous things that she had discovered about Adrien now that she knew him was that he made it nearly impossible for people to feel embarrassed around him. Like Chat Noir, he sometimes made jokes at his own expense to make other people feel more comfortable. "Wow. So generous with your own score."

Adrien snickered as they continued down the trail. "What can I say? It was a fabulous fall with all sorts of showmanship-"

"You slid out of control across the trail."

Adrien had to grin as he and Marinette made their way down the trail, bantering back and forth as they went. Even with their falls, he was having a ton of fun and Marinette seemed to be enjoying herself as well. It was relaxing to glide down the trail, even with Plagg hissing instructions at him every few seconds.

Adrien had gotten very good at tuning Plagg out. It was an acquired talent of his.

"Ooh, another downhill," Plagg muttered grouchily. Adrien tried not to roll his eyes. It was obvious why Plagg had abandoned his nap to try to micromanage Adrien's skiing- the kwami didn't want to accidentally be flung into the snow again. "Don't go out of the tracks again, you're just going to fall if you do-"

"Darnit, and I was planning on just hopping straight out of the tracks and flying right into a snowbank again," Adrien muttered back. He tucked his pole under his arm for a moment so he could poke Plagg back into his jacket. "Go back to sleep."

"I can't sleep if I'm worried that I'm going to be flung into the snow again! That was cold!"

Adrien sighed and pushed off from the top of the hill, so exasperated that he didn't even pause to check out the condition of the ski tracks. He bent his knees, the move almost natural already, and grinned as he picked up speed. Adrien was about to relax into the downhill run when one of his skis wobbled slightly, hopping just out of the track before slipping back in. He tensed up, trying to keep his ski where it belonged, only for both skis to hop over so his right ski was in the left track and his left ski was wobbling over the middle of the trail. Adrien froze, eyes locking on the trail ahead. The rest of the hill was a straight shot, so he shouldn't run off the trail again but he didn't want to count on that, maybe he should try to move his skis back into the right tracks-

"Don't try to move your skis back until you've stopped," Plagg said, almost as though he was reading Adrien's mind. "You'll just trip yourself up, and then I'll have to touch the nasty cold snow again."

"For a moment there, I almost thought you were concerned about me," Adrien said through clenched teeth as he hit the flat section of trail and started to slow down. He wobbled his way to a halt before carefully stepping back into the proper track.

Plagg watched cautiously until Adrien was back in the trail and moving normally down the trail. "I don't wanna hit the snow again. That was cold."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time." Once he was far enough down the trail, Adrien carefully turned to watch Marinette come down the hill. He wobbled alarmingly and turned back around quickly before he could tip over.

"If you're going to turn around, you have to turn your skis as well or you're gonna fall over," Plagg piped up from inside his pocket. "And if you fall over I'm gonna bite you."

"I'm not gonna fall," Adrien said with a sigh, carefully stepping so that he turned himself around to watch Marinette. She seemed to be having no more luck than he had with keeping her skis in the track. "You can do it, Marinette!"

"I thought I was going to fall," Marinette admitted as she slid up to join him. "I thought this trail was an easy one? I don't think these hills are particularly easy."

Adrien winced. "Yeah, it's definitely weird," he admitted. "I thought the trail guide said that there were only a few hills. But I bet this one at least would be easier if the track wasn't so funky."

"I'm glad that the snow is as nice as it is," Marinette called up to him as they headed around a curve in the trail. "If it were worse, these hills would be awful."

"I bet they would be fine even if they were a little worse if we were better skiers," Adrien said with a laugh. Even though he and Marinette were moving along pretty well, there was no denying that they were still far from being experts of any sort. "Are your legs starting to hurt? My legs are starting to hurt."

"My feet are starting to hurt," Marinette said. "And yeah, my legs too, if I stop and think about it."

"Was that a not-so-subtle hint that I should stop talking about it?"

Marinette laughed. "Yes, please."

"Okay, that's weird," Adrien said after they had been skiing in silence for several minutes. He lifted one pole and pointed ahead. "There's a trail intersection up there."

"There might be trails coming in that went further out," Marinette pointed out. "I thought I saw that on the map."

"I thought they would be coming in on the other side, though. Maybe I've gotten turned around." There was a frown on Adrien's face as he glided past the joining trail. "Or maybe there was a shortcut trail somewhere."

"On a four-kilometer trail?"

Up ahead, Adrien shrugged. "Maybe in case the trails are bad? I'm not sure."

"They didn't mark it very well, then. I didn't even see any shortcut signs." Marinette sped up a bit to catch up with Adrien. "And I thought they would have the signs with how many kilometers we have left on this trail, too. Like they did on the kid's trail."

"I thought I saw one at three kilometers left, but that was a while ago." Even from behind, Marinette could see Adrien's frown. "Maybe I'm misremembering where it was on the trail. I must be."

"Maybe they marked the distance on the map wrong," Marinette suggested after a pause. "Or something."

"I'm getting a little nervous the longer we go without seeing any signs," Adrien admitted as they powered down the flat stretch. "I'm not sure what time it is, but I was hoping to get back with a bit of time to spare."

"I see something up ahead," Marinette called out a minute later. "There's a little sign on the right!"

Adrien's head bobbed in acknowledgement and he sped up until he was close enough to the sign to read it. Once he got there, he froze.

"It says two kilometers left," Adrien said disbelievingly as Marinette joined him. He pulled out his phone to check the time. "I think we're supposed to be back in half an hour at the latest, and we still have two kilometers left."

Marinette stared at him- well, at his back- in surprise. When they headed out they had had plenty of time to go all the way around. "Really? How is that possible?" They hadn't been going that slow. She had been figuring that they were probably nearly back to the warming house by now, based on how long it had taken for them to go around the shorter trail ad accounting for how much Alya and Nino had slowed them down.

Even not adjusting for their friend-induced slowdowns, they should have finished the trail long ago.

"I don't know." Adrien was frowning as well. "The going up the hills and down the hills one at a time probably slowed us down a little, but it wouldn't add on that much time. Hang on, let me look at the map."

Marinette obediently waited as Adrien wrestled with his pocket. He took off a mitten so he could grab on to the zipper better, and not a moment later he had dropped both mitten and one of his poles into the snow. Adrien let out a long-suffering sigh as Marinette giggled, but he ignored both things in the snow in favor of pulling out the map and consulting it. He frowned a few times as he traced the trails and then let out a defeated sigh.

"What's wrong?" Marinette asked, craning her neck. She didn't want to ski into Adrien to see the map, but that was not a happy noise.

"I think we accidentally took a side trail," Adrien said with a sigh. "It added a couple of kilometers and that fabulous hill. I think we were supposed to take that trail that pretty much doubled back on the one we came out on."

"Really?" Marinette frowned at that. "That's strange."

"It wasn't very well marked," Adrien said as he folded the map back up and stuck it in his pocket. He zipped the pocket back up and bent down with a sigh to grab his fallen pole and mitten. He shook out the snow, grumbling all the while. "And that trail we saw join this one was probably the one we were supposed to be on."

"Your hands are going to freeze," Marinette commented as Adrien pulled his mitten back on. "And how much extra distance did you say the side trail added?"

"I didn't," Adrien said dryly. "But it doubled the trail, if I had to guess. So we've skied probably for six kilometers so far."

"Yippee."

They started moving again. "Well, I'm glad that we figured that out," Marinette said as they left the sign behind. "I was really worried for a minute there that we were only halfway done with the trail."

"No kidding," Adrien said with a laugh. "I don't think I could manage that- oh, look, another hill."

"It's just a small one, though," Marinette pointed out. She barely paused before following Adrien up the gentle incline. "It's nice to have the smaller hills again after those crazy ones on the side trail."

"I'm not entirely convinced that those hills quite qualified as 'crazy,'" Adrien said with a laugh. "Compared to the ones Alix and Kim were talking about..."

"Ooh, like that elevator drop one? That sounded awful."

Adrien sent a puzzled look over his shoulder. "Elevator drop one?"

"According to Alix, the hill goes almost straight down. She said it's even hard to walk up or down the hill in the summer." Marinette shuddered at the thought. "I don't know why Alix was so excited about it, that sounds awful."

They skied mostly in silence for the next kilometer. They had just passed the "1 Kilometer Left" sign" (both let out a sigh of relief) when Marinette felt her left heel sliding around a little more than it was supposed to. She frowned and paid more attention to that foot as she and Adrien tromped up a gradual hill. There was definitely some rubbing going on, which wasn't good. Her boot's laces must have gotten loose.

"I need to retie my boot," Marinette called to Adrien as he headed down the incline on the other side of the hill. "Don't get too far ahead."

"I'll wait down here," Adrien called back.

"At least you aren't cutting it as close as you thought earlier," Tikki said as Marinette untied her left boot. Her sock was working its way down as well, so Marinette pulled her foot out of the boot to fix that as well. As she pulled the sock up, her toes accidentally bumped the boot, sending it and the still-attached ski sliding away.

Before Marinette could react, the ski was sliding away down the hill, following the track and picking up speed as it went.

"I've got it!" Adrien called from the bottom of the hill. He hopped out of the track and started skiing back towards the hill on the skate-ski tracks, eyes focused on the loose ski. Marinette didn't hear him and, in a moment of panic, decided to go after the ski herself.

On one ski. Down a hill.

Tikki covered her eyes with her paws and vanished into Marinette's scarf.

"Shoot shoot shoot!" Marinette yelped as she picked up speed. She jabbed her left pole into the snow to try to get her balance back and when that didn't have quite the effect she was looking for, she kicked off the ground with her sock-clad foot. "Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot-"

"Whoa!" Adrien yelped right back when he saw her barreling down the hill. He slid backwards, moving both out of her way and out of the flail zone in case she fell. "Holy cow, Mari, I could have grabbed that for you!"

"I didn't think about that!" Marinette wailed as she frantically tried to keep herself upright. She had hit the bottom of the hill and was using her poles to keep herself more or less on top of her single ski.

"Obviously!"

Miraculously, Marinette managed to complete the hill and come to a stop without wiping out. She scooted herself forward carefully until she reached the rogue ski and the tugged the part with the boot back to where she was standing. Still being very careful, she tried to bring up her stockinged foot to brush off the snow that had gathered on it from when she had had to steady herself. She wobbled dangerously, and Adrien quickly skied over to give her a shoulder to lean on while she worked.

"Thanks," Marinette managed a bit breathlessly as she brushed the last stubborn clumps of snow off of her sock and carefully wrangled her foot back into her boot. She knelt to lace it back up as tight as she could. "I thought I was going to fall!"

"I thought you were going to fall too," Adrien admitted with a laugh. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. "Once you're ready, we really need to get going again. We're gonna be late."

"I thought we would be leaving without you," Alya teased as Adrien and Marinette slid into the seat Nino and Alya had saved for them, out of breath from running to the bus after returning their skis in the warming house. "Did you have fun out in the snow? We thought you would be back ages ago. Rose said that that trail shouldn't have taken anywhere near that long."

Alya's wriggling eyebrows and eager expression as she and Nino handed over cups of hot chocolate to Adrien and Marinette made it clear that she had thought that Marinette had confessed her feelings out on the trail, or that at the very least something had happened. After all, they had been out for over an hour longer than they should have been.

"We took a wrong turn," Adrien admitted, taking his cup and taking a careful sip of the hot chocolate. "Added on a couple kilometers and a few hills we didn't expect. It was fun."

"Did you fall?"

"We did very well given our experience level," Adrien said, sidestepping the question deftly with a smile as the bus began to move. "Did you have fun with your card game?"

Alya shrugged. "It was all right. It was more fun once more people got back. Rose and Juleka joined us for a few games and then a couple kids from the other class came over as well. Did you have fun?"

"Yeah, we did," Adrien said, glancing at Marinette and grinning when he found her nodding as well. "Actually...hey, Marinette," he added eagerly. "If I can persuade my father to let me come back out skiing again this weekend, do you want to come with me?"

Alya and Nino perked up, identical smirks on their faces, and pounced as one.

"Well we can tell who you like," Alya said before Marinette could even open her mouth. "You're not even going to bother inviting Nino or I, Agreste?"

"I thought we were best buds," Nino moaned, shaking his head. "And now you're not even going to invite me along? Straight through the heart, dude, straight through the heart."

Adrien, who hadn't quite picked up on differentiating between teasing and serious remarks, looked torn between confused and distressed. "But you didn't even like skiing!"

Before Alya or Nino could say anything more, Marinette took pity on him. "They're just teasing you, Adrien. They don't actually want to come out again."

"Are you sure-"

"I'm positive, Adrien."

Saturday morning found both teens headed out bright and early to get to the ski area before it got busy. The Gorilla tagged along, as per Mr. Agreste's orders. They had originally been a little disappointed by that, since the Gorilla had a bit of an overbearing presence, but they soon got over that.

As it turned out, the Gorilla knew quite a bit about skiing.

A/N:...yes, I maybe was writing from experience. I've done everything that these two have done (wipe out, jump out of trails, go skiing down a hill on one ski because my other ski ran away...), even though I've been skiing long enough that I really should know better.

What Tikki called "fishsticking" is actually called herringboning. I once accidentally called it fishsticking because. y'know. fish. Herrings. and bones are like sticks. I forget words sometimes, it only makes sense that a god that's been around for centuries might occasionally forget things too.

As with most of my stories, this IS a one-shot and is therefore complete.

Please leave reviews! They make my day :)