taking my time trying to do this story right.. sorry for the delay guys but thanks for the continued support! here's some fluff while you wait :0*

xo moonbaby

...

"Hold still!" Marinette admonished, grinning through her exasperation. "I thought you would be better at this, considering you are a model."

Adrien wiggled his eyebrows at her and leaned in again for a kiss. She rolled her eyes but smiled as his lips met hers, finally pulling away when he tried to get closer.

"Ok seriously Adrien! I wasn't actually planning on making you a skating outfit but now I have to deliver, so hold still!" She swatted him with the measuring tape.

"Fine…I'll hold still." Adrien flexed dramatically, making Marinette laugh out loud.

"Kids, you need anything?" Sabine's voice came up the stairs.

"No, Mom, thanks!" Marinette called back, giving Adrien a look.

Instantly, Adrien was all innocent cooperation. "Does it usually take so long for you to take measurements, Marinette?" She squealed with indignation and he laughed, enjoying her flushed face at his teasing.

"Ok, ok, I'll behave." Adrien chuckled again and held still, letting Marinette measure his neck, chest, shoulders, and arms. She wrapped the tape around his waist, and then blushed a little as she measured around his hips. He smelled her hair and sighed with happiness.

"Uhm.." Marinette was bright red. "Uh, can you…the inseam."

Adrien looked at her innocently. "The what?"

Marinette glowered at him. "You know what it is." She held the measuring tape out to him. He took pity on her and accepted the tape, looping it between his legs for the rise, and then holding it to his crotch. It was Adrien's turn to blush as Marinette knelt in front of him, pulling the tape down his leg to measure crotch to ankle.

She exhaled and stood up, jotting the final numbers down and absent mindedly hanging the measuring tape over her neck, looking over her sketches.

Adrien came over and gently rested his hands on her shoulders.

"Thank you again, Mari." He said softly. "I don't know if you know how much it means to me that my dad is going to be there."

Marinette took a deep breath and let it out. "It seems like the least I can do after you took care of me…after Michel showed up." She turned to face him. "And then," her voice was almost a whisper, "you came back." She looked up into his eyes.

His eyes widened with surprised confusion. "Of course, Mari, I—I mean, there was no question. Skating with you, being with you, it's the best thing that's happened to me since I got—" my miraculous, he thought, "to go to school!"

Marinette's breath caught as she flushed dark red. "B-being with m-me?" she stammered, wildly hoping, heart hammering in her chest, suddenly a little dizzy from the smell of his shirt.

Adrien's heart was beating fast too. "Marinette, do you…I mean, will you—"

He was interrupted by a commotion downstairs, and Sabine's voice saying "Oh no, not again!" The volume on the TV was turned up and some words floated up to them. "…not in almost two months….akumatized…by the Musee d'Orsay…"

"Perfect timing." Adrien muttered, but Marinette was suddenly stiff, eyes determined.

"Come on." Marinette opened the trap door and headed downstairs, Adrien close behind. Her parents were in front of the TV.

Nadia Chamakh was on the news, showing footage outside the museum. "A new akuma victim is on the loose, an art restorer determined to put Paris back to how it was before 1880."

Adrien had to get away. "I have to go home. Thank you for everything, Marinette, stay here and be safe ok?!"

Marinette grabbed his hand, internally conflicted. "What are you thinking? It's not safe for you out there!"

Adrien looked at her and then at her parents, mind racing. "I'm sorry, but it's my dad's orders…and if the akuma is at the Musee d'Orsay, I should be ok, my house is in the other direction and just a few minutes away."

He pulled Marinette into a hug. "I'll call you," he said softly, breathing her in, before grabbing his jacket and skating bag and running out the door.

Marinette's heart was torn- she couldn't protest because she had to be Ladybug, but she couldn't bear to let him be so unsafe. "Mom, Dad, I'll be upstairs, ok?" she said, already halfway to her room.

Ladybug was on the balcony in an instant, scanning for Adrien, but she couldn't see him, just Chat Noir's small form leaping toward the Orsay. Be safe, Adrien, she prayed, leaping towards the fight.