Adrien shuffled in his seat, glancing out the plane windows at the clouds outside. He was glad that they had finally gotten on the plane and settled, because there had been a lot of staring going on in the airport. People recognized him and stared and pointed, some even going so far as to start heading in his direction before the twin disapproving glares from Marinette and her mother made them reconsider. He was sure that there were people trying to take his picture, too, so it had definitely been a good idea to have Master Fu, Nino, Alya, and Chloe keep away from the three of them. Nathalie was most definitely going to see at least one of those posts and it would be best if there weren't people with him that he hadn't told her about.

If they managed to recover his mother, Adrien would have to hope that she didn't look up any mentions of him on social media. He (well, mostly Nathalie, but also him, and Marinette's family as well) would get in trouble if his mother heard that he had been spotted at the airport.

But now that they were on the plane and in the air, everyone was seated and there were no stares. Adrien was free to twine his fingers with Marinette's and relax, but he couldn't keep from fidgeting as his mind raced. In a few hours- well, maybe more than a few, it was a really long flight- they would be in Tibet. They would take a day to rest up and buy grocery supplies, and then they would set out to try to rescue his mother.

The thought made him slightly ill from nerves. They wouldn't know for certain if they could free his mother from the booby trap at the temple until they were actually at the temple and had tried it, and Adrien had been doing his best not to get his hopes up. And even if they did get her back, there could be problems.

They would have to tell his mother that his father was in jail and would be there for years on charges of domestic terrorism and attempts to change the timeline. They would have to interrogate her with all of the questions they had come up with from reading all of the Agrestes' journals. There had been a lot of holes, a lot of things that conflicted or didn't quite make sense. At least one of the kwamis would have to be out when they told his mom- probably Nooroo, as the emotion-sensing kwami- to see if she was telling the truth. They would have to travel transformed back to civilization and then to the airport, all without getting their identities revealed, which would present all sorts of logistical problems.

It would be worth it, of course. If the spell worked, which still wasn't a for-certain thing.

"You're worrying again," Marinette murmured, squeezing his hand. "Remember what Fu said, about looking forward instead of back?"

"Yeah, but it's the forward that I'm worrying about." Adrien huffed and squeezed Marinette's hand back. "We don't know if the spell is going to work, and what happens if she comes back and she's not who I remembered? Like, I thought I knew my father, but look how well that turned out."

He didn't want the same thing to happen with his mother. He didn't think he would be able to handle it, not right now. Not even with his support network, even as strong it was.

Marinette just chewed on her lip, not answering. Adrien knew that she didn't want him to get his hopes up only to have them dashed later on. Right now, all signs pointed to his mother's interest in the Miraculous being entirely innocent- the journals said that his parents had just been looking for the missing Miraculous to recover them for a friend of his mother's who had a family member with a Miraculous- but if Adrien were going to have any ill intentions with a piece of magical jewelry, he wouldn't leave a paper trail, and most other people would be smart enough to do the same.

The friend was a woman that Madam Agreste had met while studying abroad and was the grandchild of the Rat Miraculous holder. Apparently their grandfather had always dreamed of recovering the two lost Miraculous and returning them to the Guardian. The Rat was a lower-level Miraculous and a support player in all of the battles that it had actually participated in, so recovering the Peacock and the Butterfly- two powerful upper-level Miraculous that had been lost for several generations- would be a great achievement for them. But the grandfather had gotten too old to look, and Mrs. Agreste had wanted to help him achieve his dream, and Mr. Agreste had been interested in helping, just for the sake of helping.

At least, that was what the entries in the journal claimed. They would only know the truth if they could save Mrs. Agreste and talk to her.

"It just occurred to me that maybe we should have asked my father before we left," Adrien admitted quietly, dipping close to Marinette's ear so that nobody else could hear. "We could have gone as Ladybug and Chat Noir and brought Nooroo along as a magical lie detector and asked why he was looking for the Miraculous in the first place, just to test him. I should have thought of it earlier."

"Would you have been okay with seeing him again?" Marinette asked. She slid her hand into Adrien's hair, pulling him close so she could pet him as she spoke. "I know it was hard, when we had to go and testify at the trial."

Adrien worried his lip, thinking about it as Marinette played with his hair. She had a point, he knew that. He had been so sure that the trial would be easy. He had had space from his father at that point, and prior to that had suffered through nearly a year of a cold, aloof parent. He hadn't thought that there would be any reason for this father to change.

But instead, Chat Noir arrived at the trial to find that his father seemed almost meek, the fight drained out of him. He had shown concern about what had happened to Adrien, and that alone made Chat Noir step back and take a minute to compose himself again. Thankfully the superheroes weren't required to attend all of the proceedings, because Chat Noir wouldn't have been able to handle it. They stepped back out almost as soon as they could, under the guise of needing to get back to their civilian lives before anyone noticed that they were missing.

Maybe it was a good thing that he hadn't had that idea while they were still in Paris. Having to face his father without the space and prying eyes of the courtroom might have been too much, especially if his father continued to act humbled and regretful. Having Ladybug go alone would have looked strange and wouldn't have been fair to her. Besides, Adrien was still protective. He wouldn't have wanted her to go see their former nemesis without backup- and specifically him as backup.

It wasn't that he didn't trust their friends to have her back, but... well, Adrien knew that he was a more experienced fighter than any of the newer members of their team. In case something did happen, he would want to be the one to be there.

"I wouldn't have wanted to actually see him in jail," Adrien confessed, face buried in Marinette's neck. "It's one thing to know that he's there, but to see it..."

"Of course," Marinette hugged him, and Adrien relished in the contact. He didn't think he would ever get tired of it.

As the plane flew on, Adrien and Marinette started in on their collection of in-flight games. It would be a long-haul flight, thankfully with two meals served on the plane.

It was one hell of a flight to be Adrien's first-ever plane ride. Only two hours in, and he was already getting restless.

"At least we can sleep for part of it," Marinette pointed out when Adrien grumbled about it. "It won't be comfortable, and I'm sure Chloe will complain about not having gotten a first-class seat for it, but it does make the time go faster."

Adrien perked up, grinning. "So you're suggesting that I take a catnap?"

Marinette groaned.

Three hours in, the smell of food filled Adrien's nose. He perked up, twisting in his seat to try to locate the source of the smell.

"They'll be serving lunch soon," Marinette explained when she spotted Adrien craning his neck around. "So they're warming everything up now."

"And then they'll come around with it?"

"They serve people with special requests first," Marinette explained. "People who are vegetarian or who can't have wheat or can't have dairy. Things like that. Then they just go up the aisles with the standard meals and feed everyone else."

Adrien was sorely tempted to claim that he was vegetarian the next time he was on a long flight like this. Getting food even a little bit earlier sounded amazing right now. He hadn't even realized that he was hungry before, but now he was ravenous.

"We probably should have brought snacks to tide us over," Marinette admitted when Adrien said what he was thinking. "More than just leftover cookies, I mean. But we would have had to finish everything fresh before landing, because otherwise we might run into some bumps with customs. And if we packed crackers, then we would eat far too many of them. Boredom eating, you know."

Adrien didn't particularly see a problem with that. After all, they would be eating fairly healthy when they were traveling, right? And they ate healthy at home, too. It would just be for the flight where they would be eating things that they maybe shouldn't be.

Their meal finally arrived, and Adrien eagerly dug in. It wasn't gourmet by any means- nowhere near as good as the food he got at home or anything Marinette's parents made- but it was food, and it was decent enough. He dug in, torn between eating quickly and drawing it out a bit, just so eating would take up a bit more time.

"It's better than some airplane food I've had," Marinette said as she dug into her own food. "It really varies."

Up a row, they could see Chloe making a face as she tasted the first few bites of her food. Thankfully she didn't comment at all, instead just huffing as she continued to eat.

All too soon, the meal was finished up and the flight attendants came around to collect the containers the food had come in. Adrien tried to go back to his crossword puzzles, but he was too fidgety to focus. He didn't particularly like sitting still in such a cramped space for such a long time.

And they weren't even halfway there yet.

"You can do a bit of walking up and down the aisle once the flight attendants are done with their rounds," Marinette told him. "So you can stretch your legs. I would recommend it, actually."

Over the next several hours, Adrien made several rounds up and down the plane, feeling like a trapped, prowling cat. He spent ten minutes with one of Chloe's magazines before deciding that trying to read through the pages and pages of celebrity gossip was worse than having nothing to read at all. They got another meal, and then the lights dimmed so that the passengers could sleep for a few hours before they landed.

Adrien yawned, wishing he could lay down in a proper bed or at least stretch out a little bit. The chair in front of him reclined, cutting into his already limited space, and Adrien was about to be irritated until Marinette showed him how he could do the same thing with his own chair.

It wasn't long before Marinette dozed off against his shoulder. Adrien let his head drop onto hers, relaxing and dozing off a bit himself, even as uncomfortable as the position was. He woke with a start when the roar of the engines changed slightly, becoming ever-so-slightly louder.

"We'll be landing shortly," Mrs. Cheng told Adrien as he blinked awake, leaning across the aisle and over her daughter so he could hear her. "You might want to make sure you have everything packed up and then wake Marinette up. She can sleep while we wait for the next flight."

Adrien nodded, leaning forward to tuck Chloe's magazine and his book of word games back in his backpack under the seat in front of him. He made sure that nothing had fallen out, then sat back up.

Or, rather, he tried to sit back up. But when he leaned forward, Marinette's head had slid off of his shoulder and behind him. Adrien couldn't sit all the way up without squishing his girlfriend's head.

How Marinette had actually managed to stay asleep, Adrien really didn't know. She was just talented that way. She was also probably pretty tired, considering that they really hadn't been asleep for that long.

Adrien twisted around as far as he could, pushing Marinette's head back up so he could lean back. He had just re-settled her head into place on his shoulder when Marinette's eyes blinked open blearily.

"Sorry for waking you up," Adrien said immediately. "We're going to be landing soon, though."

Marinette groaned and buried her face in Adrien's shoulder. "Nooo. I wanna sleep."

"Well, we're going to be in a different time zone, so maybe being a bit tired will help," Adrien suggested, though he really didn't know personally since he hadn't really been out of the country before. In fact, was lucky that he even had a up-to-date passport. On top of that, he rather agreed with Marinette. He wanted to sleep for several hours more. "We'll be getting up early every day, and that's even without the time change."

Marinette groaned louder. Adrien laughed and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, grinning down at her.

Maybe they were going on a trip to try to save his mother and they had no guarantee that it would work, but Marinette's familiar groaning was providing a sense of normalcy that he sorely needed.

The plane angled downwards, and Adrien clutched Marinette's hand nervously as the bottom of his stomach dropped out. Marinette looked perfectly calm, as did her mother, but Adrien had just decided that he didn't like the feeling of the plane coming in to land, just like he hadn't particularly liked takeoff.

And they had one more flight to do to get to their airport in Tibet, plus two flights to get back to Paris once they were done with their trip. Adrien was already not looking forward to it.

"Can I not have the window seat next time?" Adrien asked, cringing as the earth appeared in the window. They were so high up, higher up than he had ever gone even as Chat Noir, and it was making him queasy. "I just- I don't like seeing the descent. Or feeling it."

"We should have brought along some catnip to chill you out," Marinette said. She reached out to hug him. "Maybe we can find some in the airport."

"Why is it that we couldn't just get a direct flight?" Adrien grumbled. He pressed his face into Marinette's neck. "We're overshooting Tibet and then going back. That makes no sense."

"The airport in Tibet doesn't have any direct flights from Paris," Sabine told Adrien. "Yes, it's frustrating, but that's how it is."

It was Adrien's turn to groan.

"And then it's three days of travel by car to the point where we start hiking," Marinette added. "But there's no flying involved then. Just all seven of us jammed into a car."

"Two cars," Mrs. Cheng corrected her. "And two of Master Fu's contacts will be driving, so add them in, too."

Adrien honestly couldn't wait. He would prefer being cramped up in a car with his girlfriend over having to deal with more airplane descents. Besides, they would be passing all sorts of lovely landscapes, which would be great. They missed that part while flying, even if flying was faster.

The plane grew progressively closer to the ground, and Adrien did his best not to get sick. He could feel Plagg groaning in his pocket- his kwami was clearly in total agreement about planes and how ill they made him feel- and Marinette kept rubbing his back, keeping him as distracted as she could.

Finally the plane touched town, and Adrien kept his eyes squeezed shut until they had come to a stop. Once they had touched down Adrien wanted nothing more than to get off, to walk around and shake off the ill feeling that had come with flying, but their group had to sit tight as the rest of the passengers got off. Only once the aisle had cleared did Master Fu hop out of his seat and gesture that they should follow. Chloe glanced up and finally tucked the magazine that she had been perusing away in her backpack before following him. Alya and Nino were fast to follow, but Sabine waited for Adrien to extract himself from his seat. Marinette snagged their bags before following him up the aisle, and Adrien brought up the end.

"I can't believe that I'm the only one who got affected by that," Adrien said with a bit of a scoff as he got off the plane. He could tell that Alya and Nino hadn't been bothered at all- he had heard them giggling over something behind him and Marinette as the plane descended- and Master Fu hadn't seemed rattled at all either, though perhaps that was because he had slept straight through it. Adrien was meant to be some worldly model- that was what he had overheard his father tell the marketing people when they were developing his "image", whatever that meant- and here he was, ill from a simple plane ride.

"It's not your fault, kitty," Marinette assured him. Once she was off the plane, she linked her arm through his as they headed for Customs. She didn't look entirely awake, but she was making a valiant effort. "Some people just get more affected than others, and all of us have been on planes before, too. We'll try to find some tea in the airport that might help for the next flight."

"How soon do we have to get on that flight?" Adrien asked. He rested his head against Marinette's for a second as they walked, then realized that she was still carrying his backpack and scrambled to take it from her. "Can we just get it over with?"

"We have three hours before our next flight," Mrs. Cheng told him. "Which we'll need, to get through Customs and then to our next gate. I wouldn't want to cut it any closer."

Adrien made a face.

Going through Customs was slow, but not particularly difficult. Plagg inhaled what was left of his cheese stash before it could be confiscated, and then they were heading for their next gate. Master Fu got spotted by some helpful airport attendants and they got a little go-cart to drive him and his luggage to the next gate. The rest of them practically had to jog just to keep him in their sight, which wasn't much fun when they were all still yawning.

"We're a bit of an odd group," Mrs. Cheng said with a laugh as they claimed a section of chairs and a bit of floor for their backpacks. "We're attracting a bit of attention, I think. Adrien, would people recognize you here?"

"I hope not." He didn't know for sure, since he had never been to China before. "I don't know, though."

"Hmm." Mrs. Cheng looked thoughtful, then she popped up off of her chair. "Well, then perhaps the three of us should go sniff around for some teas for you until we need to be back here for the flight. Grab your backpacks, and let's go."

"I'm going to go try to find somewhere decent to eat for breakfast," Chloe announced. "Alya, let's go. You can take pictures while you help me look."

"Wait, how are we going to order anything?" Adrien heard Alya ask as they left. "I don't know if people here would speak any French."

Adrien and Marinette trailed after Mrs. Cheng as she strode through the airport. She checked a map before heading confidently off, weaving between other travelers. It wasn't long before they arrived at a small tea shop nestled between the other airport stores. They had only been in the store for a couple seconds when an assistant materialized out of mid-air at Mrs. Cheng's side. They immediately started discussing possible options.

"Uh-oh," Adrien said as he followed along with the conversation as best as he could. "Some of the things they're talking about are the same things we used to help me sleep right after my father was arrested. Valerian and catnip, too."

Marinette grinned around a yawn. "Well, you can't get air-sick if you're knocked out."

"Right, but then who's going to carry my unconscious body around once we get to the airport in Tibet?"

Mrs. Cheng was shaking her head, asking for more options. The sales associate pointed at a few more things and Mrs. Cheng nodded, smiling. She picked up two small boxes, then headed over to the counter to pay.

"Do you think we maybe should get valerian or catnip?" Adrien asked Marinette quietly. "I mean, I can definitely see myself getting really nervous and not being able to sleep once we get closer to the temple, or on the way back. I don't want to be relying on it again, not when I just got off of it, but-"

"I'm sure Mom is planning on buying some," Marinette assured him. "But airport prices are always ridiculous, and the product isn't always that quality. We'll probably go to a proper tea shop tomorrow morning and stock up there."

There was a giggle from Marinette's jacket, and Tikki peeped out. "Oh, we'll definitely go to a proper tea shop! Wayzz told me that Master Fu packed a camping tea set. He'll stock up on all sorts of teas, both for him and for Wayzz."

"He'll be a traveling turtle tea tray," Adrien joked, pleased to see Marinette giggle. Mrs. Cheng stepped away from the counter with her bag of purchases, thanking the worker, and the two of them jumped to follow her. "Wait, where are we going to get hot water for the tea?"

"That's what I was just asking the saleslady. There's a hot water tap just down the hall, in the food court." Mrs. Cheng led the way. "I've got a thermos in my pack that I'll fill, and then we can grab a cup for you to use right away."

By the time they finished that errand and got back to their gate, Chloe and Alya had returned with food for all of them. It smelled amazing, though Chloe didn't look entirely convinced as she picked at her serving.

Well, Chloe had always been a picky eater. At least she wasn't making a scene about it.

As they ate, Mrs. Cheng steeped some tea for Adrien. He downed almost the entire cup quickly since their flight had just started boarding, and almost immediately he knew that he was going to regret that later.

Hopefully the bathrooms on the plane were clean.


Adrien groaned as he fell face first into bed. Maybe it was technically still midafternoon in Lhasa, but he hadn't gotten that much sleep over the trip and he was ready to pass out for the rest of the day.

"I can't decide if I want to eat or if I want to sleep," Marinette said from where she was collapsed next to him on the bed. "I don't know how Mom and Master Fu have enough energy to go out shopping."

"They slept better than we did on the plane, I think," Adrien told her, his words muffled by the pillow. He felt ages better now that they were back on solid ground, less sick and jittery. The second landing had been no better than the first- the raspberry and ginger tea that Sabine had handed to him as the plane descended really hadn't helped much at all (in fact, all it accomplished was to make him really, really need the bathroom)- and Adrien was of the opinion that if he had had to do that again, he probably would have gotten sick. "And they need to stock up for the kwamis, too. And get food for us."

Plagg's head appeared from his backpack. "Food? Have you gotten me food?"

Adrien's head dropped back down onto the pillow and he groaned.

"Why don't you explore the hotel and see if you can find something?" Marinette suggested. "Just don't pig out."

"I never pig out!"

There was a whoosh as Plagg zipped out in search of food. Adrien thought about being concerned about it for all of ten seconds before deciding that he was too tired to be worried about Plagg. Seconds later, he was asleep.

The sound of a door opening woke both Adrien and Marinette up, and they sat up to see Mrs. Cheng stepping into the room, loaded down with grocery bags. She set the bags down next to her bed before stepping over to rouse the two teens.

"We're going out to dinner soon," Mrs. Cheng told them. "You might want to get up and freshen up a bit before we leave."

Adrien rolled out of bed obediently, heading for his backpacking pack to grab a change of clothes and his toothbrush and comb. He wished there was time to shower because he felt gross from the time spent on the plane, but that would have to wait. Marinette was definitely slower on the uptake, groaning her way out of bed. By the time Adrien had gotten into the bathroom, Marinette was only just rolling out.

With Mrs. Cheng hurrying them along, it didn't take long for the two of them to get ready and head out to the hallway to wait for the others. Master Fu and Nino were already there and waiting for them.

"Hey, the Snooze Room made it!" Nino joked as they joined him. "Now we're just waiting on the Shower Room."

Adrien blinked, puzzled. "The what now?"

"Chloe apparently couldn't stand to smell like an airport for another minute, so she hopped in the shower right away," Nino reported. "And then had to get her makeup back on, of course. And then Alya apparently thought it would be a great idea to freshen up, too."

Adrien couldn't help but grin. "And you know this how? Were you and Alya just texting back and forth all afternoon?"

"Only a little bit! We were trying to coordinate dinner. Besides, she only has Chloe to talk to when they're in their room."

They only had a few minutes to wait before Chloe and Alya emerged from their room. Alya's hair was still damp, but Chloe's looked like it had been blow-dried. She looked almost annoyingly fresh, even after presumably not having gotten any sleep since arriving at the hotel. Master Fu smiled at them and then led the way towards the entrance, the rest of them following. Adrien took the opportunity to glance around at the hotel, noting the narrow halls and old carpet.

It wasn't exactly the kind of place that Adrien would have thought Chloe would go for at all- and that wasn't to say that it was a seedy hotel at all. It was a rather nice place, if perhaps a bit generic, but Chloe didn't generally go for nice or generic. She usually went for fancy and one-of-a-kind, based on what he had seen in all of the vacation photos she had shown him over the years.

The fact that Chloe had decided to share a room was also a bit of a surprise. As far as Adrien could tell, the adults hadn't even had a hand in that decision.

"We found a nice place to eat while we were out shopping," Fu reported as they left the building. "The locals recommend it highly, but the prices aren't ridiculous, just as requested."

Adrien blinked and glanced over at Chloe. Just as requested? Who had made the request? Chloe looked satisfied, which suggested that she had been the one to ask for reasonable prices, which was... unlike her. Chloe enjoyed high-class, expensive dishes. Even if she was the one who would be paying for all of it, he wouldn't have thought she would be bothered by the cost. Her father was plenty able to pay, after all.

Maybe Pollen had said something about it being smart to save money or at least to spend wisely. She was the only one Chloe really seemed to listen to. Adrien wasn't going to say anything, though. He didn't want Chloe to get defensive and spend a ridiculous amount of money just to try to prove something.

Their group attracted a few stares as they headed up the street. Adrien couldn't blame the locals- after all, they were a group of mostly teens with a variety of heritages, led by a tiny Tibetan man in a Hawaiian-print t-shirt. He tried to hide in the middle of the group, just in case anyone recognized him.

(Adrien was pretty sure that his father's influence didn't extend here, but he wasn't willing to take any chances. After all, the news had more of an eye on him than usual these days, and if something got out, Nathalie was sure to hear about it.)

(It would be very hard to do any damage control from several countries away if that happened.)

Chloe's nose wrinkled as Master Fu led them into what looked like a bit of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but she didn't make any comments about the location. He got them all seated, and a waiter brought menus to pass around. Master Fu thanked him and cheerfully started to flip through his. The rest of them just stared down at the menus, exchanging looks.

The first problem: they couldn't read it. Apparently it was written entirely in Tibetan, with no Mandarin translation.

"I don't know what any of this is," Chloe complained loudly after a few seconds of flipping through the menu. "How am I supposed to find something I like to eat?"

Master Fu didn't look bothered as he glanced up. "Well, I would say that most everything on the menu would be tasty, but I know not everyone is as fond of the local flavors as I am. Now, Pollen-"

There was a flash of yellow as Pollen shot out of Chloe's bag and zipped over to Master Fu, hiding from the wait staff's view by hovering by his shoulder. The two of them perused through the menu, Pollen nodding or shaking her head as Master Fu pointed to different things. Next to Adrien, Marinette perked up.

"Oh! Tikki!" Marinette hissed, opening her little purse and peering inside. "Can you read the menu for me?"

Kwamis emerged all around the table as everyone else caught on. Adrien leaned closer to Marinette so he could hear Tikki as well since Plagg didn't seem interested in emerging and being helpful. Tikki was translating for Marinette, explaining the dishes in more detail whenever she or Adrien indicated interest in something.

Ordering was just as much as an ordeal. Even with the kwamis whispering the names in their ears, their pronunciation was by and large atrocious. Master Fu ended up being their go-between to make sure they all got what they wanted, and both their table and their waitress breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.

"I must admit, I'm looking forward to when we start camping," Master Fu said with a bit of a laugh as he sat back in his seat. "It's much more straightforward to cook our own food, even if that cooking is done over a camp stove or a fire."

Adrien grinned eagerly. He had already been warned that the food they would make on the stove wouldn't be fancy at all, but he thought it would be fun. Across the table, Chloe didn't look nearly as enthused at the thought.

"So, what stories did everyone tell people about why they're gone?" Nino asked as they waited for their food. "I know I told my parents that I was going to be on a trip with Marinette and Adrien and Alya. And Mrs. Cheng, of course," he added. "I didn't say where, and I maybe played up the getting Adrien away from the reporters."

"Same," Alya chimed in. "And I know Marinette and Mrs. Cheng didn't have to lie to anyone."

Master Fu chuckled. "I didn't have to lie to anyone either. I simply said that I would be visiting my home country for an undecided number of weeks. My customers were quite understanding."

"And you all know that I told Nathalie that Marinette and her mom invited me along to visit family," Adrien chimed in. "I'm still astounded that she didn't insist on the Gorilla coming along."

All eyes turned to Chloe. She looked up from inspecting her nails and rolled her eyes. "What?"

"We're wondering what you told your father," Adrien prodded. "So we know what kind of answers he'll be expecting and from who when we get back."

"I told him that I was going on a trip with Adrikins to get him away from the media, of course," Chloe told them, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "I didn't say where, and I didn't tell him that we were hauling a whole bunch of other people with, but I did say that poor Adrien's accounts were all frozen so we would be paying, of course. And he would assume that we would be flying first class, of course, and staying in the finest hotels and eating at the best restaurants. He's not as likely to notice if I go with middling hotels and eateries. Not that he'll ever look at the charges anyway, but just in case."

That was actually quite smart of Chloe, Adrien had to admit. Her father wouldn't look at the charges and immediately think seven people were responsible for them. For once, Chloe's expensive tastes worked to their advantage.

"And he'll be busy for a chunk of the trip," Chloe added. "He's got a whole bunch of meetings with different people- important people, of course- about policy stuff, and then there's some important diplomats staying at the hotel in two weeks, so he'll be busy entertaining them."

"I would have thought that you would want to be there for that," Alya commented. Her camera had come out and she was snapping photos of the restaurant. "Don't you like meeting all of the diplomats and famous people?"

Chloe sniffed. "Not the old dusty ones. I only care when it's people like Price Ali. Or properly famous people, like Jagged Stone. And I figured it would make sense for us to leave shortly after Mr. Agreste's trial wrapped up instead of waiting. I hadn't expected them to drag the decision out for quite so long, though. I thought there would be about half a week between the decision and us leaving, not one day."

They were gaping at her. Alya, though, was frowning in confusion. "Wait, why wait until the trial was over? Why not just leave before?"

"The police might have wanted to talk to Adrien again," Marinette pointed out. "Or they might have called him back into court for another round of testifying. They might have been fine with him not being available, but Mr. Agreste might have wondered what was up." The rest of her sentence- and he might mention it to Mrs. Agreste later on- went unsaid.

"Yes, yes, I suppose that might have been important, too," Chloe sniffed, waving a hand airily. "But it was so that reporters would see Adrien out and about after the verdict, so they couldn't start rumors that he was hiding away out of shame. But there wouldn't be enough time for them to really get much of a chance to bother him. It's a delicate balance. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

...well, okay. Adrien had honestly thought that Chloe had just chosen a date at random. He hadn't realized that she had been keeping an ear open to catch when his father's trial and sentencing would most likely be over. She hadn't said anything.

"And your dad was okay with you spending the money?" Mrs. Cheng asked. Adrien was sure that she had asked it before, probably every time Chloe pulled out her (well, her father's) credit card to pay for something.

Chloe waved off the question. "Of course. He insisted that I cover most of the costs because Adrien shouldn't have to."

"Won't he get suspicious when you suddenly stop spending money in the middle of the trip?"

Chloe didn't look at all bothered by the question. "Of course not. Why would he even check that? It's not like I would spend too much."

Now Alya was looking a bit dubious as well. "Right, but what about when he suddenly stops getting texts and emails from you because we've gone out of cell tower range? The first thing he's gonna turn to is the credit cards to see where you were last, and then we're going to have a manhunt after us and a ruckus in Paris."

Adrien was about to get worried- Alya was right, and even as distracted as Chloe's father could be sometimes he would notice if he hadn't gotten any texts from his beloved daughter for a couple days- when Chloe rolled her eyes. "I already thought of that and I bought a satellite sleeve for my phone. I can text Daddy whenever I want, so he won't even bother checking my spending. I can't do photos with it, but that's fine. He probably won't even notice."

Adrien wondered if Nathalie knew about extensions like that. Something told him probably not, considering that she hadn't bought him a satellite sleeve for his phone despite not being pleased about the possibility of him being out of reach.

"I know how to keep Daddy off of my trail," Chloe finished with a sniff. "I won't be the one causing problems. The question is, are the rest of you so positive that you aren't going to make your families suspicious?"