"Dude, I still can't believe your dad let you go on this trip," said Nino. "How'd you do it?"

He slapped his best friend on the back and Adrien laughed.

"I don't know; maybe Ladybug's luck rubbed off on me," he said, rubbing the corner of his eye.

"Well, no matter what greater power let you come here, we're glad," said Alya, elbowing the model playfully before she boarded the bus. "Right, Marinette?"

The raven-haired girl flushed as she plopped down in her seat, though the effect was ruined with the yawn that she produced.

"Y-Yeah," she said, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night."

Seriously, did Hawkmoth sleep? That akuma - the one that had so rudely woken her up at three am with its screeching and wails - had taken up a good hour and a half of Chat Noir and Ladybug's much needed sleeping time.

"What could have possibly kept you up?" Alya said. "I knowit couldn't have been the akuma this morning because you would have called me to make sure I was up, which I wasn't, so what's up?"

Marinette opened her mouth to reply but she could only come up with another yawn, and her best friend sighed.

A glance over at Nino told her that he was having just as much luck with Adrien. Seriously, what did these two even do to be so tired all the time?

Well, Alya figured it was Adrien's busy schedule that kept him exhausted. And maybe Marinette had been up late working on a design.

Suddenly, Alya was struck with a brilliant idea and she nudged the boy that wasn'ton the verge of sleeping while standing up. Nino gave her a curious look when she nodded meaningfully at their two best friends; after a few pointed stares, he got the hint and grinned.

"Come on, buddy, you need the sleep," said Nino, guiding his friend into the empty seat besides Marinette. "You can sleep on the bus ride."

Adrien merely sighed as he snuggled into the seat; his cat-like tendencies always had him seeking out the closest source of heat nearby so it was no surprise that he moved closer to Marinette, nearly burying his face in her shoulder.

Fortunately - or maybe unfortunately, depending on whose point of view one was looking at - Marinette didn't acknowledge her crush snuggling into her as she had already been carried off to the dreamland by the sandman.

Nino and Alya exchanged wicked grins before she held up her phone and snapped a picture.

OoOoO

Marinette yawned as she slowly came to.

She had been in the middle of a dream, one where she and Chat had picked off the kiss she had given him during the battle against Le Dislocoeur. Why she had the dream, she wasn't sure, but at least she got to sleep long enough to have timefor dreams. Even if the dream included an empty alley with her pressed against the wall.

The real question was, why was Alya's perfume different than the one she had been wearing earlier?

Rubbing her eyes, Marinette shifted her head and looked down, only to halt once she saw that the person she had been leaning on was certainly not her best friend but in fact the boy she had been in love with since his second day of school.

What was worse (arguably better) was that she couldn'tmove, not when his head was resting on top of her shoulder and he was very near clinging to her deadweight arm.

Marinette gave a panicked look to their surroundings and found their two best friends chatting each other up in the seats in front of them.

Traitors.

Heart jumping around wildly in her ribcage like Manon on a sugar rush, Marinette considered her options.

Option I: She could let Adrien continue to sleep on her shoulder and she could die from cardiac arrest.

Pro: She could revel in having her crush snuggling against her so adorably for the next how-many-hours.

Con: Aside from dying from heart issues, Adrien was going to wake up and sue her for sexual harassment while he was sleeping and she was going to go to jail and possibly die and Paris was going to go to hell because Ladybug couldn't save the day and Chat Noir was going to wonder where she was and do something idiotic to prove she was okay and she would never know because she was going to be too busy rotting away in a cell.

Option II: She could wake up Adrien and only suffer mild mortification.

Pro: Adrien would let her off easy and would only request that she move to another country.

Con: Adrien would lose the sleep he clearly deserved with his busy schedule.

Well, it didn't take a genius to figure out which option she would go with. She would rather go through a thousand deaths than deprive Adrien of his much-needed sleep; he always showed up to class tired - he covered it up well with tea and makeup, but she really did notice everything about him - and she wasn't blind to the little cat naps he would take at times.

Satisfied with her decision, Marinette smiled shyly and snuggled further into her seat. Adrien let out a sleepy whine as he followed her down, burying his face further into her shoulder.

Any other time, her face might have blown up with a redness that outmatched Ladybug's suit, but at the moment, all she cared about was the model getting his sleep.

And if she happened to get a few more hours of shuteye as well, there was no harm done.

OoOoO

When Adrien was very young and his family was still a family, he used to go and sit by the fire regardless of the weather.

His mother would make hot chocolate, all loaded up with whipped cream and sprinkles of cinnamon on top. His father would pull him onto his lap and lazily cuddle him as they wanted for her to come back from the kitchen.

Then they'd sit by the fire and just enjoy each other's company, talk about their days. Adrien never had much to say but his parents always talked to him about what he played that day or what he wanted to do tomorrow.

He would get so excited and forget his hot chocolate was still, well, hot, and he'd try to take a sip from his mug, only to jerk away in surprise and get whipped cream all over his face.

His father would click his tongue at the mess and try to wipe it off, but his mother would always laugh and try to get a picture. Adrien would pout and the small toddler would curl into his mother's lap, trying to avoid the picture.

She always smelled like cinnamon, and that was what comforted the little boy enough to lull him to sleep. He'd wake up in between his parents in their big bed, and he never felt as at home as he did when he woke up to the cinnamon scent of his mother and the light snoring from his father.

Perhaps that was why, despite the high-quality mattress and comforters, Adrien found it difficult to sleep alone these days. Only Plagg's purring on his cheek would comfort him some nights.

So when he woke to the smell of cinnamon and the feeling of light vibrations from someone's snoring, he was confused and surprise Confused because he hadn't experienced either in so long, and surprised because he quickly realized the familiar sensations weren't from his parents at all.

He certainly was snuggled against someone warm and kind, like his mother though.

A part of him felt guilty and embarrassed for the position he was in with his classmate, especially since he didn't remember even falling asleep on her in the first place, but a majority of him felt far too content and satisfied.

For the first time in weeks, Adrien felt fully-rested and the shy smile Marinette sleepily sent his way once she noticed he was awake, was enough to wake him up even more.

"Hi," she murmured, long lashes already fluttering as if she were fall asleep again.

Adrien slowly smiled as he lifted his head so it was hers that settled on his shoulder, her face buried in the crook of his neck, the opposite of what they had been doing before.

"Hi," he said. For a moment, he didn't know what to say. There was too much and not enough.

"Thank you," he finally settled on.

Marinette hummed and the vibrations on his skin was like a jolt of electricity running down his spine.

From the way her breathing evened, he knew she had fallen asleep again, and he smiled, secretly glad that she felt comfortable enough to sleep with him.

Well.

Not sleepwith him, of course.

Not that he had anything against Marinette; she was sweet and kind and brave and incredibly cute, especially when she was nervous or excited and she did that dance that made her butt wiggle and it was really noticeable especially since her jeans were just tight enough and-

Adrien felt his face burning as he put a stop to that train of thought immediately.

Marinette was his friend (he hoped) and it was highly appropriate to have such thoughts about his friend, no matter how attractive she was.

The point wasthat he was glad Marinette trusted him enough to fall asleep in such a position, and he trusted her enough to close his eyes and rest his cheek on top of her head, ready to fall asleep again. He had no doubt that if they weren't seated awkwardly, he would have been spooning her because she was so warm and soft and she smelled so nice.

Maybe one day.

(And maybe when Alya and Nino weren't continuously waking them up with the shuttering sounds from their camera phones.)