Marinette waited with their bags as Adrien talked to Tenzin, thanking him for his help. They shook hands and then Tenzin waved at Marinette before popping back into his car and driving off.

Now they were actually alone.

Marinette stepped closer to Adrien as they stepped into the airport. It seemed even larger than it had been before, and busier as people bustled back and forth, clearly knowing exactly where they were going. Now Marinette wished that they had accepted Master Fu's offer to come with them as far as the security, because this?

She didn't feel at all ready to travel internationally all on her own.

"Oh, I see where we're supposed to check in," Adrien said before Marinette could get too far into her panic. He reached out and took her hand. "C'mon, Bugaboo. Let's go get in line."

Marinette let herself breathe as she followed Adrien's lead, and she felt Tikki patting her side from inside of her daypack. That was right. She wasn't alone, and they did have Tikki and Plagg to translate in case Adrien had any trouble.

"I'm really regretting not learning Mandarin when I was younger right about now," Marinette commented as she and Adrien waited in line to check in. She shifted her shoulders, trying to adjust the weight of her backpacking bag on her shoulders. "I hate not knowing what people are saying."

"Mandarin wouldn't really help much now," Adrien admitted, glancing around. "It's mostly Tibetan, I think. Or I assume, at least, since I don't really understand it. But I'm sure the people at the counter will speak Mandarin."

"Hopefully. I don't want to have to try to repeat after Tikki to communicate or something." Marinette thought back to the mess at the restaurant their first night and shuddered. She could hear Tikki giggling.

"Oh, that would be bad! The agent would wonder how you know the words enough to string together a sentence but not pronounce anything correctly!" Tikki giggled again. "They would really be confused!"

Marinette spluttered. "Oh- hey! I could pronounce some things correctly, I bet! I've been working really hard at remembering what kinds of things to emphasize and some of the little linguistic accent-y things!"

Next to her, Adrien was doing his best not to laugh. His cheeks bulged out as he tried to hide his amusement, but all it did was make him look funny. Marinette pouted at him.

"Oh, not you, too!"

Adrien finally lost his battle with the laughter. It rolled loose, sweet and free. "Accent-y things? That'll make us have a ton of trust in your linguistic abilities for sure!"

"I forgot what they were called!"

Adrien just shook his head, grin stretching from cheek to cheek.

It didn't take long before it was their turn to be at the counter. The agent looked startled when it was Adrien, not Marinette, to address him in Mandarin, but he recovered soon enough and scanned their passports, printing out tickets and tags for their luggage.

Marinette rolled her shoulders and winced once she had removed her backpack. Boy was she ever glad that they hadn't had to carry the packs for their entire trip, because it would have made the whole thing a whole lot more miserable.

"Okay, we're good to go," Adrien told her after one last exchange with the agent. He handed Marinette her passport and tickets, sliding his hand around her elbow and leading her away from the counter while she tucked everything into her backpack. "Security line next!"

"Oh, fun."

This line was longer, and moved slowly. Marinette waited as patiently as she could, occasionally checking her watch to see how much time they had to catch their flight. The answer was plenty of time- they were going to be sitting at the gate for a while- but they wanted to ensure that they would be well through before Mrs. Agreste had to check in and worrying was a habit that she couldn't quite shake.

"I can believe I'm saying it, but I can't wait to be on the plane," Adrien said as they reached the front of the line. "Or, rather, I can't wait until we're back and we can actually say that we pulled this off."

"We can probably say that we've pulled it off once we get on our second flight," Marinette commented. "Though I suspect that the other passengers might look at us a bit oddly if we start cheering as soon as we get on."

Adrien hastily muffled another laugh.

With Plagg and Tikki's help, finding their way to their gate barely took any time at all. They chose a seat facing the window close to the flight attendants' desk, so that they could enjoy the view but not run the risk of missing an announcement.

And thus their trip home started without a hitch. It didn't stay that way for long.

"Ugh, I'm never getting on a plane again after this trip," Adrien grumbled as they got off in Chengdu. He was clutching at Marinette's arm, his face a little green. "I hate that feeling."

"We'll find a way to get you some of your tea on the next flight," Marinette promised. "We'll just have to remember to throw away the tea bags before we get to Paris, Maman said. Just to make sure that the customs people don't pull us over for it or something."

Adrien frowned. "They could do that?"

"Customs people can be weird, Adrien. Just accept that."

It didn't take long for the second problem to show up. As soon as they consulted the board of departures to find out what gate they needed to go to, they found out that their flight was delayed.

By an entire hour. Which meant that they had three hours to kill instead of their original two.

"My mom will be getting to this airport by the time we leave," Adrien said as Marinette triple-checked the flight numbers. "We'll have to keep an eye out, just to make sure we stay out of her sight."

Marinette blinked and checked the times again. "Really? I thought she was meant to be getting back to Paris ages after we do?"

Adrien nodded. "She is! It was supposed to be almost five hours after us. She and your mom just have a longer layover here. Remember how she was complaining about it being an awful schedule?"

It took a few seconds for her to place the memory, but yes- Marinette did remember that. Mrs. Agreste had been glad to have a flight home on such short notice, but she had wanted to know if there really weren't any flights to Paris earlier in the day, so she wouldn't have such a long layover and so she would get to spend more time with Adrien before he had to go to bed.

They had told her that while yes, there was an earlier flight, it was full. That was technically true, after all. Adrien and Marinette had taken the last seats. She had accepted that gracefully. "Complaining is a strong word. She was just commenting on it more than anything. I wouldn't want to have a four-hour layover, either."

"We're going to have a three-hour layover," Adrien pointed out. "But at least we're together, I guess. That's better than having to deal with such a long wait on your own." He scribbled the gate number down on his ticket and then hooked his arm around Marinette's so they could move out of the way of the other travelers who wanted to know where they were meant to go next. "To the gate, or do you want to explore a bit first?"

"Bathrooms first," Marinette said firmly. "Then find our gate, so we know where it is. Then we can explore."

By the time they found their gate, departure had been pushed back another half-hour. Adrien frowned and pulled out his phone to text Nathalie to let her know.

"There's definitely going to be overlap between when we're here and when my mom is," Adrien said, frowning at the new time posted on the board. "Uh, can we go look up where her gate will be? I doubt she would go right there first, but I wanna know where we'll have to avoid."

They did that and found that Mrs. Agreste (and Marinette's mom) would be flying out of a gate only two down from theirs. They would have to be very, very careful. Like, insanely careful.

Like, Marinette-didn't-know-how-they-were-meant-to-pull-this-off careful.

"Nathalie says that the website says something about the plane we're meant to be on being delayed on the other end," Adrien reported after a few minutes of waiting at the gate. "It's storming a lot there, and the plane can't take off until it clears. She looked at the radar and thinks that our flight will probably get delayed by another hour."

Marinette flopped back into her seat and groaned loudly. Now their layover would likely be four and a half hours, followed by a very long flight. They would have to hide from Adrien's mom for probably close to two and a half hours, if her hasty mental calculations were anywhere close to being correct. Adrien patted her head comfortingly. "Hey, at least we'll still get back to Paris just over two hours before my mom does. It could be worse."

"You are going to jinx it, Adrien."

With their layover lengthened, the two of them decided to go explore. Tikki kept an eye on the time and also kept an eye on Adrien's phone, so she would know as soon as Nathalie texted with any more delays confirmed. They dipped in and out of different shops, looking at the souvenirs that were offered in some of the shops. Adrien picked up a baseball cap that he could tuck his hair into so that the bright blond wouldn't stick out as easily in the crowd in one of the stores.

"I really like it," he admitted as Marinette helped him get all of the strands tucked up. She had picked up some bobby pins to help tame the mess so it wouldn't fall out. "It's a pity I won't be able to keep it without my mom asking about where I got it."

Marinette giggled as she pinned a particularly long lock of hair in place. "Kitty?"

"Yeah?"

"You've forgotten that you have a girlfriend with family in China who could have picked something up for you on a trip," Marinette reminded him, pinning back one last springy lock before pulling the hat into place. There was still some blond visible, but not enough to catch and hold attention from several gates over. "And we've been friends for- well, the entire school year as Ladybug and Chat Noir, and for months as Adrien and Marinette. I could have gotten it for you during the school year, before we started dating."

Adrien flashed that heart-stopping grin at her. "Right! Oh, that's great. Then I can actually wear it around." He adjusted the hat, making a bit of a face as the hair pins dug in oddly. "The sole souvenir that I got. Maybe we can go back someday and explore the area. I don't necessarily want to do that hike again, but I'd love to learn more about the culture."

"And pick up some trinkets."

Adrien laughed. "That, too."

"If you text Chloe, she might do some shopping for you. If you trust her tastes, that is." Marinette checked her watch against the one on the wall, making sure that she was set to the right time zone just in case. "Or Nino and Alya. They'll be hanging around with nothing to do for most of a day."

Adrien did that. It didn't take up any time at all.

After a bit more window shopping, they headed for the food court for a bite to eat. They would be fed on the plane, of course- such long flights came with meals provided- but that was still several hours out and those meals weren't exactly the most filling thing in the universe. It took a few rounds before they decided where they wanted to order, and then they took the food to a table and sat down to enjoy it properly.

After all, it wasn't as though they had anywhere to be in any hurry.

Once they were finished and they really couldn't make any further excuse to stay at a table, they headed back into the terminal to continue wandering around, pausing at the large windows to watch planes take off for a bit before wandering back in the direction of the stores, hoping to maybe find something to read or play with. They had just exited the first store when Marinette glanced at the time on a clock. At first she just glanced away again- after all, their flight time was still hours away (or potentially just an hour, if Nathalie 's guess wasn't right)- but then she looked again and the meaning of the time sunk in properly, making her freeze. "Adrien?"

"Yeah?"

"It's been over two hours since we arrived. Your mom will be here now."

Adrien froze and glanced around. He didn't see any other blonds in the area, which was good. He would hate to have blown his story already. "Oh, crud. I mean-!" he said hastily when he saw Marinette's poorly hidden smile. "Oh, you know what I mean."

It was weird feeling let down that his mother was in the same area as him after months and months of not knowing where she was and wishing to have her back, but Adrien knew full well that he would get in so much trouble if she found out he was out of the country. He definitely didn't want Marinette's family to be labeled as a bad influence, or lose Nathalie as the family secretary just because she approved the trip.

After all, even if his father had been the stricter one, Adrien knew full well that his mother could be just as dramatic if she so chose. He had forgotten a bit over the past year, but the time together with her on the trip back reminded him that over the past few months, he had enjoyed an unusually high level of freedom with Nathalie and the Gorilla.

"Have you texted your mom?" Adrien asked. He glanced around again, suddenly feeling the weight of a thousand invisible eyes on him. "She's keeping an eye on my mom, right? Maybe she could text us and keep us updated on where my mom is, so we can avoid that area."

"Oh, I'll do that!" Marinette pulled out her phone and texted her mother. Adrien pulled out his own phone and found that Nathalie had just texted him, confirming that their flight had been pushed back another hour, making it two and a half hours late. He made a face and texted her back to let her know that he had gotten the message.

"Another delay, this time an hour."

Marinette groaned loudly. "Really? I'm starting to think that the universe is against us. How are we meant to stay hidden from your mom for-" she paused, quickly calculating on her fingers- "another hour and a half, excluding boarding time?"

Adrien just shook his head. Maybe they would have to hide in another terminal- except did this place even have another terminal? It would probably be safer to not go too far while exploring, just in case there was some security checkpoint that they would have to go through if they wandered too far.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Marinette asked, pulling Adrien over to the wall so that they would be well out of the way of all of the travelers bustling past. "Go to the farthest points of the terminal? See if we can find somewhere else to hang out? Hide in the bathrooms for two hours?"

"That last one is last resort only," Adrien said immediately. He tugged on the brim of his cap, hoping that he wasn't dislodging any of his hair. "Uh, lemme think. My mom would probably head for the food court first, if I'm remembering right. She'll probably be trying to find something familiar to eat. And then I'm guessing that she'll be doing the same thing that we are with window shopping, because she doesn't exactly have a book to read. Not unless she borrowed some money to buy one."

"I think I heard Chloe saying something about maybe giving her some spending money to make the trip back easier," Marinette agreed. "And Nathalie was going to wire some money, remember? So your mom might settle down at the gate and read there or something."

Adrien made a face. He wasn't so certain. "Maybe, maybe not. She's going to be impatient to get home, so that'll make her more prone to wandering. I'd say that the hour, maybe hour and a half before her flight leaves, then she'll be parked at the gate waiting to leave. But we have several hours before that, and we should be leaving before that, too."

"So we should be okay to keep window shopping for a bit?" Marinette asked, just to be sure.

"We could probably even do some actual shopping too," Adrien pointed out. "If there's anything decent at a decent price."

Marinette had to laugh. "Adrien, nothing in an airport is a decent price. They know that we're a captive audience and they jack the prices up."

"Still."

So they did. Adrien modeled sunglasses in one shop, posing with increasingly ridiculous sunglasses for a few minutes until a few teenage girls started watching. They headed out of the shop after making sure that the sunglasses were put back nicely on the rack, moving to one of the shops much further down the hallway.

Sometimes it was a pain to be famous. Maybe the girls hadn't recognized him and were only watching because he looked different or because they were goofing around, but Adrien couldn't take that chance. If his photo showed up on the internet and his mom happened to see it- now that she had time and access to the terminal computers, it was possible that she would look up his name to see what he had been up to- then they would be in trouble.

The two of them headed into a store primarily selling souvenir clothes. T-shirts hung from racks and sweatshirts were piled up on tables, next to little decorative purses and jewelry on display stands. Most of the stuff was far too tourist-y for Adrien to even consider, but some of it wasn't so bad.

"Shit," Marinette hissed, making Adrien's head swing towards her in confusion. Before he had time to ask what was wrong, she was shoving his shoulder, pushing him down behind the display stand, rattling some of the jewelry as they dropped down. Adrien immediately obeyed, dropping into a crouch and looking to Marinette for instruction.

"Your mom just came in," Marinette hissed, looking panicked. She peered over the top of the stand and then dropped back down. "Shoot, shoot, shoot, she's wandering this way- mmph!"

"Don't talk!" Tikki scolded quietly, only just sticking her head out from one of Marinette's pigtails. "She's more likely to pick up any French she hears and then she'll come investigate."

Adrien and Marinette both nodded in understanding. Marinette popped up slightly again to track Mrs. Agreste's progress around the store, and Adrien took the time to glance around at the rest of the store, hoping to find an escape route.

He spotted several people staring at them in confusion. Lovely. He also spotted a changing room, not far away. It was open, and the curtain extended down to the floor.

"She's looking in the opposite direction," Marinette hissed in his ear. "Inspecting the sweatshirts."

Adrien nodded and jerked his head at the dressing room. Marinette caught his meeting immediately, and with one last glance to make sure that his mother wasn't paying attention, they dashed for it and shot inside.

"I really hope that the staff don't think that we're making out in here and come over to drag us out in front of your mom," Marinette whispered once the curtain had settled. "That would be so embarrassing."

Adrien nodded, keeping an eye on Tikki as she floated upwards to watch the shop. She didn't look alarmed, so maybe they had gotten lucky. He and Marinette fell quiet as they waited, since any hint of French might catch his mom's attention. Finally, after nearly ten minutes of anxious waiting, Tikki signaled the all-clear. Adrien and Marinette let out twin sighs of relief, opening the curtain and stepping out.

Only to be greeted by the not-so-amused expression of one of the store's employees.

Adrien gulped, trying not to be too obvious about it as he glanced around the store, just in case his mom was still around. Unless she was hidden behind one of the racks of shirts, she had left. When he looked back to the employee, they looked even more suspicious.

"Were you hiding from your mother?" he asked, planting his hands on his hips. He glanced out of the shop, towards the bustling airport corridor. "If so, I'm going to have to call her back and bring you to security-"

"No! It's, uh- we're supposed to stay hidden from her, because there's a surprise party!" Adrien blurted out, his mind racing to find the right words and an excuse for their actions all at once. He was pretty sure that some of his tenses were wrong. "And our flight was delayed. But if she sees us, then she'll know that there's a surprise party. So we had to hide."

The employee looked somewhat bemused. "You are traveling by plane to another country... for a surprise party?"

Adrien tried not to wilt. As far as excuses went, his was- well, it was pretty weak. "Well, she knows that there's a party with some of her friends in the other country for her, uh..." He scrambled for a few seconds to find the right word. "Her birthday! And we said that we would, uh, party once she got back, but we will be there instead?" He offered up a strained smile, hoping that all of his words were correct.

"Strange." Still, the employee shrugged. Clearly they weren't paid enough to really care about what antics their customers were up to, as long as there was no shoplifting going on. "Good luck with your surprise party, then, and with hiding."

"Thanks!"

With the employee appeased, Adrien and Marinette left the store warily, glancing around. Mrs. Agreste's blond hair immediately caught their attention from several storefronts down.

"Let's go in the opposite direction," Marinette suggested. "The far end of the terminal. We have enough time for it."

"You can say that again." Adrien followed his girlfriend, glancing back occasionally to make sure that his mom hadn't switched directions. "Come on. Maybe we can avoid her completely for the rest of our layover."

Somehow Adrien knew deep down inside that that wasn't going to happen.

Sabine Cheng was humming happily to herself as she kept an eye on Emilie Agreste in the Chengdu airport. Their plan had succeeded- with a bit of overnight driving, they had managed to bundle Adrien and Marinette off on the earlier flight, and now the two teens were safely in the air on their way back to Paris, where they would arrive several hours before she and Mrs. Agreste did. That would give them plenty of time to shower and change and decide if Marinette wanted to be there for the mother-son reunion or not. They might even sneak in a nap, which, well- Sabine could use a nap herself, truthfully. The rush from the magically-charged tea that she had had both to stay up all night driving and to wake herself up for the airport was wearing off. But she had to stay awake until both she and Mrs. Agreste had boarded their second and final flight.

After that? She would have to ask her seatmates to wake her up for meals, of course, but she was going to be pretty dead to the world for a bit. Exhaustion had settled in her bones and it would probably take a few days of rest to recover from the grueling trip.

It would be nice to be home, to be able to sleep next to her husband and make more familiar meals and to have fresh food to choose from and all of her kitchen appliances and tools to cook with. Sabine was looking forward to not hiking, and being able to have hot water to shower and a proper range to cook on and an actual bed to sleep on.

She had been happy to help on the quest to find the Miraculous temple and rescue Adrien's mother, but it had been a long, long trip, a long time without the comforts of home, and she was glad that it was over.

Emilie headed for the food court as soon as they got off of the plane, and Sabine followed. She was careful to stay a decent distance back, so that there would be less chance of Emilie noticing her enough to recognize her when they were back in Paris. Nooroo stirred in her pocket as she got closer to the shops, clearly interested in the smell of food.

"Soon," Sabine promised under her breath, hoping that the kwami could hear her in the noisy airport. She kept one eye on Emilie as she headed for a different food store, but it didn't seem entirely necessary. She didn't seem particularly inclined to dash off or anything- not that they thought she would, necessarily, but they wanted to make sure that she got back to Paris safely and wasn't going to be targeted for being Hawkmoth's wife- and, like Sabine, was simply killing time before their flight.

As she waited in line, Sabine checked her watch. Adrien and Marinette would be in the air by now, but only just. Hopefully Adrien wasn't feeling too sick from taking off. She had wanted to send them with little packets of tea- they had been gifted some lovely loose-leaf tea, after all- but, well. It was better for them to not be traveling with anything that Customs might question. They should be able to get through Customs in Paris without a problem, and then the only thing that they would have to worry about would be accidentally mentioning the trip in front of Mrs. Agreste or Mrs. Agreste looking up Adrien online and learning that he had been spotted at the airport.

Sabine was willing to bet that Mrs. Agreste would be so relieved to get home to Adrien and hear about what he had been up to in the past year from Adrien himself that it wouldn't even occur to her to look her son up on social media. It was what she would do in Emilie's place, after all, and they had Nathalie to redirect her as well, if needed.

Neither woman was in any particular hurry to finish her meal. Sabine let herself enjoy the food one bite at a time. Even if it wasn't up to homemade quality, it was nice to have something that they hadn't been able to eat on the trail.

From there, Emilie moved from store to store, idly browsing. She bought a few things- snacks, and a few trinkets that Sabine assumed were for Adrien- and then continued meandering. Sabine tried not to groan too loudly, knowing that it would just draw unwanted attention to her, but she was exhausted. She just wanted to sit down for a bit, but maybe it was for the better that Emilie was walking around so that Sabine couldn't sit down and accidentally fall asleep.

How many more hours of this did she had to endure? Three? Four? She should have brought more of that fabulous tea. Instead, she had to content herself with caffeinated soda, hoping that it would at least keep her on her feet and looking moderately alive until she could board. She did a little browsing of her own through the stores, but had to remember to keep an eye on Emilie.

While Emilie browsed through a rack of magazines, Sabine paused nearby, pretending to scan a flight schedule board. She glanced down the list, idly noticing that there was one flight that had been delayed by several hours already.

Sabine shuddered at the thought. Loads of people were probably going to be missing their connecting flights, and even those who weren't connecting were still having several hours added on to their travel time. Hopefully most of them didn't have long layovers to begin with, and no fussy children to take care of. Her flight was on time, which was nice.

Before Sabine could look back at the delayed flight and see where it was bound, just out of curiosity, Emilie was off again, headed for yet another store. Sabine sighed- she would really much rather find their gate and sit down, but she had to make sure that Adrien's mom got home safely and that meant following her around until they got through the Paris airport. She muffled a sigh and headed off, doing her best to not attract Emilie's attention at all.

In Sabine's purse, her phone sat, turned off and silent, the messages from her daughter and Adrien sitting unread.

Two hours after Mrs. Agreste landed, Adrien and Marinette decided that the best way to keep her from accidentally sneaking up on them was to follow her around. Not too closely- they were much, much further back than Mrs. Cheng- but just to make sure that they knew where she was, especially now that their flight was going to be a grand total of just over four hours late.

They very quickly came to the conclusion that it was not a particularly good idea.

"Can she pick one direction and stick with it?" Marinette asked in exasperation, pulling her own hastily-bought baseball cap lower over her eyes. She had let her hair down instead of keeping it in her signature pigtails, to keep the chance that she would be recognized as low as possible. "She's going to notice us soon, I swear."

Adrien just shook his head, glancing towards his mom. She hadn't picked one direction and stuck with it, going back and forth as she browsed aimlessly. He and Marinette had to keep dodging into doorways and side hallways. They had even both bought sunglasses, though Adrien was pretty sure that that addition to their outfits made them look like asshole American tourists who couldn't bear to part with their sunglasses indoors. But it would keep his mom (and anyone else who might recognize him) from recognizing his face as easily, and that was what was important.

As it turned out, potential recognition by fans and/or Mrs. Agreste wasn't their only problem. Their slightly out-of-place outfits and strange behavior (because admittedly, dodging into stores and behind walls and backtracking often whenever Mrs. Agreste changed direction wasn't normal) had caught a security guard's attention.

Which in turn meant that Adrien had to try to explain that no, they weren't trying to hide from anyone, sir, honest. This time, he decided to claim that on long layovers, he liked to pretend that he was a spy and follow one certain person around without them noticing him and this time, he had dragged his girlfriend into it. The security guard had given them an unimpressed look, but since his mom wasn't looking around like she had lost someone, the man finally decided that they must be telling the truth and sent them off with the instruction to not do that anymore, because it was distracting to the people who were trying to keep the airport safe.

They were fine with that. After all, they were now down to an hour and a half before departure and it would probably be a good idea to go settle in at their gate. Mrs. Agreste had pretty much been everywhere but there, anyway, and they would have a better choice of seats if they went to their gate now rather than later.

Well. Maybe. Everyone on their flight would have been at the airport for ages now and might have decided to sit instead of wandering like they had. But if they waited, then it was possible that the only seats left would be the ones closest to Mrs. Agreste's gate. The two of them went by the food court again first- there was no point in getting on the plane hungry, of course- and then they brought their purchases with them to the gate, after making sure that it hadn't been moved. Thankfully, there were still some seats open. They selected a pair of open seats closest to the gate check-in, with their backs to the wall so that they could keep an eye on the people around them. Adrien sat closer to the check-in, so that he could theoretically hide behind Marinette should the need arise.

"My mom still hasn't responded to any of my texts," Marinette reported, checking her phone with a frown before sliding it back into her pocket. She had checked periodically as they hid from Mrs. Agreste, and each time there had been nothing from her mom. "I bet that she thinks that we're in the air, so she didn't even turn it on. My dad has tried texting her, too, and got nothing."

Adrien nodded distractedly, checking his own phone. "Nathalie says that we should be arriving about half an hour before my mom's flight. So in theory we should be able to make it home before her."

Marinette winced. Considering how many times their flight had been delayed, in theory wasn't great. And on top of that, they would have to claim their luggage. Mrs. Agreste had no luggage besides her carry-on duffle bag, and would be able to go directly from the gate to the waiting car.

"We'll probably have to call a taxi, though," Adrien added, consulting his phone as it lit up with another text. "Because my mom specifically requested that the Gorilla pick her up, so she'll be expecting him to be waiting for her at the door and he can't get from the airport, home, and back in less than half an hour."

Marinette had to wince at that. Taxis were expensive. Still, Adrien's family had a private driver, which was bound to be even more expensive. It was very, very likely that the cost of a taxi- even one from as far out as the airport- wouldn't faze them at all.

Besides, cost was hardly the important thing. They had to keep their trip secret from Mrs. Agreste.

Thankfully the plane time seemed set now that the inbound flight was solidly under way, so they wouldn't have to worry about another delay that would lead to them returning later than Mrs. Agreste. Still, Marinette kept a watchful eye on the screen over the check-in to make sure that it didn't change again. If it did...

Well, maybe Nathalie would be able to come up with an excuse as to why Adrien wasn't at home when his mom arrived. Maybe they could fake an emergency at the bakery that would buy them enough time...unless Mrs. Agreste then made an immediate beeline to the bakery to see her son, which seemed entirely probable.

"Marinette!" Adrien hissed suddenly, grabbing her shoulder. He jutted his chin towards the corridor. "She's here!"

Marinette's head shot up and she peered over her sunglasses to see Mrs. Agreste's familiar blond ponytail wandering past at the edge of the walkway. She consulted her ticket, then nodded and headed into the seating area for the next gate over. Marinette's eyes followed her, and she was startled to see that Mrs. Agreste and her mom weren't two gates away. Their gates' numbers differed by two, and since even-numbered gates were on one side and odd-numbered ones were on the other side, that meant that the two Paris-bound gates were side by side.

Crud.

Adrien's head dropped back against the wall as he groaned. "We still have an hour. How are we supposed to stay hidden for that long?"

"Boarding usually starts half an hour before takeoff," Marinette reminded him. "So we only have to hide for a little over half an hour- oh, crud, not that seat!" Mrs. Agreste had settled into a seat that faced them, almost directly in their line of sight if they looked straight forward. If she looked up, she would be looking right at them. They did have their disguises- if the baseball hats and sunglasses could be called that- but would that really be enough?

Just then, their answer came in the form of a heavily pregnant woman who was clearly looking for a seat. With their flight time drawing steadily nearer, the area had filled in and there weren't any open seats. The two of them exchanged a look, and then Adrien was up and offering the woman his seat with a smile. She took it with a thankful look, and Adrien settled on the floor near Marinette's feet, strategically out of sight of his mother. One hand curled around her calf, and his cheek rested against her knee.

"I see my mom," Marinette told him quietly, aware that there were probably quite a few French-speakers around them. After all, the flight was Paris-bound. "She still hasn't seen us."

Adrien laughed. "Maybe we should have approached her while we were following her and my mom around. Or you could have, at least. And I could have hidden in the bathroom while you did that."

"Oh, that would have been a good idea. She could have turned her phone on and then given us a heads-up when your mom was heading from one area to another so we could stop getting chased around by them." Marinette glanced over at Mrs. Agreste. She was glancing around the area, clearly impatient to get on the plane already. Marinette glanced away when Mrs. Agreste looked her way, hoping that she would pay her no mind and that the baseball cap would hide her face. When she looked back, Mrs. Agreste was fiddling with a book in her lap.

Hopefully she hadn't had the chance to Adrien up online at any of the airport computer kiosks, or if she had, then hopefully people hadn't posted anything about Adrien being at the airport. Marinette glanced at Mrs. Agreste one more time, just to make sure that she wasn't moving around or anything, and then pulled her own phone out again, connecting it to the airport's internet before Googling Adrien's name.

Unsurprisingly, pretty much all of the top stories were ones about Gabriel Agreste and his trial and they just happened to mention Adrien attending the trial. There were a couple that mentioned the sudden lack of sightings of Adrien after Mr. Agreste's sentencing, and Marinette opened those. Thankfully the most that those articles said was that there were rumors of Adrien being spotted at the airport, but nothing had been confirmed.

Apparently she and her mom had managed to keep people far enough away from Adrien that they couldn't snap a good enough picture that would have confirmed the rumors. As it was, they could be brushed off as lies that people made up in order to make it sound like Adrien was fleeing Paris in shame. Which really didn't make sense, because he had known about his father being Hawkmoth for ages before the sentencing, but when did tabloids and slanderers care about logic?

In the next gate over, their plane had just pulled up and was disembarking. Marinette put her phone down and leaned forwards, looking out the window. Their plane was at the gate as well, but it must have disembarked before she and Adrien arrived. A team of people were refueling the giant plane, while others finished taking the previous flight's luggage out. More carts of luggage sat nearby, presumably the set of luggage from the next set of passengers, ready to be put on as soon as they were certain that everything else was out.

"I think I can see our bags," Adrien commented, rolling up on his toes in his crouch and resting his chin on her knees as he peered out the window as well. He pointed. "There, the two bags on top."

Marinette looked. Sure enough, their backpacking bags were on the top of the pile on one of the carts in line to be loaded.

"Almost there," Adrien murmured after a minute. "We'll start boarding, and then we're home free."

Marinette made a bit of a face at that. They would only be arriving half an hour before Mr. Agreste, assuming that the planes flew at the same speed and took the same route (which they most likely would). That meant that they really didn't have a whole lot of wriggle room for delays or errors. If Adrien got sick when they landed, for example, or if the other plane was newer or a different model and could fly faster, shortening the difference between arrival times to only fifteen minutes, or if their taxi got stuck in traffic but the Gorilla managed not to...

They would figure it out. They had to.

The loudspeakers crackled, and an announcement rang out. Once it was finished, it repeated, only in French.

"Ladies and gentlemen, flight 868 with service to Paris is now boarding out of gate twenty-two! We apologize for the delays and thank you for your patience. Flight 868 to Paris, now boarding those in need of assistance and families with young children. Once again, that's flight 868 to Paris, currently pre-boarding. Thank you."

Across the rows of seats, Marinette saw her mom's head fly up in surprise and she turned to stare at the other Paris flight, her eyes flicking over the passengers that had started getting up, clustering around waiting for their boarding group to be called. She spotted Marinette and her eyes went even wider. All Marinette could do was grimace and shrug.

"Flight 868 to Paris, now boarding first class! First class passengers can now board."

"What group are we in?" Adrien wanted to know, sliding back up into the now-vacant seat next to Marinette as the pregnant woman got up and headed for the desk. He kept his head down and his face hidden. "Will we be getting on soon?"

Marinette pulled out her ticket and consulted it. "Group four. I think first class is also called zone one."

"Flight 868 to Paris out of gate 22, now boarding zones one and two!"

"And once they get to zone three, that's a lot of people." Marinette sat back, glad that the line of boarding passengers was blocking Mrs. Agreste's view of them. "It'll take the longest so far, and then zone four will be just as bad."

"But then we'll definitely be out of my mom's sight," Adrien finished. He pulled his backpack up onto his lap so that the kids racing up and down the boarding line wouldn't trip over it. "So close..."

"We'll have to take the sunglasses off for boarding," Marinette said as the line of zone 2 passengers grew steadily shorter. "And maybe the hats too, I don't know. For ID purposes."

Adrien winced. "Oh, I hope not. The sunglasses? Fine. And maybe the blond wouldn't stick out quite so much at this gate, but, uh..."

"You have a very distinct hairstyle," Marinette finished. "And it looks a bit funny pinned up right now."

"I'm gonna have to fix it on the plane," Adrien said, running a hand over his hat reflexively. "Otherwise I won't have the time and it'll be a mess when I meet my mom."

"Flight 868 to Paris out of gate 22, now boarding zones one through three. Zones one through three for flight 868 to Pairs."

Adrien and Marinette watched as a huge chunk of the seated travelers got up, swarming into a rough line. There were a lot of them, and Marinette could feel Adrien getting fidgety next to her, clearly anxious to get onto the plane. She reached over, resting a hand on his knee and giving it a gentle squeeze. He rested his own hand over hers, sending her a small smile.

Several minutes later, it was their turn to board.

"Flight 868 to Paris out of gate 22, now boarding zones one through four-"

Adrien was out of his seat like a shot, zipping into line. Marinette had to gather up her things in a hurry and give the area a quick scan to make sure they weren't leaving anything behind before jogging after Adrien. The line worked its way forward, with Marinette always next to Adrien to try to keep him hidden from his mom.

Considering that she was nearly a head shorter than him, her use as a means of blocking Adrien from view was questionable at best.

"Almost there," Marinette said quietly, pulling off her sunglasses and making sure that her passport was open to the right page, her plane ticket tucked inside. "Adrien, you first."

The attendant looked from Adrien's passport to his face, nodded, scanned the ticket, and then he was through. Marinette was quick to follow.

And then they were on the plane.

"Oh, I've got so many nerves in my stomach from that," Adrien said with a small laugh as they slid into their seats, tucking their bags under the seats in front of them. "Either I'm not even going to register that we're taking off because I still have so much adrenaline running through my system, or I'm definitely going to get sick. There's no in-between."

Marinette let out a little laugh. "Let's hope it's the former," she said, reaching over to help Adrien get his hair loose from its tightly pinned state. It was a bit crimped as it came free. "Just focus on the fact that now, we'll be in the air and actually moving."

"Yeah, there's that." Adrien glanced through the small window at the airport, where his mom still sat. "And when I get home, my mom won't be long to follow, and I'll get to hug her for the first time in a year."

Marinette could only smile and hug Adrien, resting her cheek against his shoulder.

They just had to get through this last stretch of their journey successfully, and then Adrien could get his mom back properly. Marinette couldn't wait.

After nearly twelve hours in the air, fitfully napping in the uncomfortable seats, Adrien and Marinette were more than ready for the flight to be over. They were practically sitting on the edges of their seats as the plane landed and they taxied, heading towards their gate to disembark. Adrien's hair had gotten tucked back under the hat, but they had decided that it wouldn't be smart to pin it up again. After all, he would likely have to take his hat off during Customs, and it would look funny for it to be pinned up every which way.

"I wish we could have gotten seats closer to the front," Adrien told Marinette as they impatiently waited for the man taking the aisle seat to get up and move out of the way. "We're practically going to be the last ones off. And if my mom is one of the first people off of her flight..."

Marinette nodded, her eyes locked on the slow-moving people making their way up the aisle towards the door. "It's going to be tight."

Finally, finally it was their turn to get up and head out. They pulled their backpacks out from under the seats and headed forward, trying to not look like they were about to break into a run.

Well, for the most part.

"Adrien, your legs are too long for me to keep up when you powerwalk!" Marinette panted, half-jogging to keep up. "Holy crud-"

"There's no time to waste, my mom's flight lands in, like, fifteen minutes!" Adrien's pace sped up more. "I just want to get enough space between us."

Marinette jogged faster.

They came to an abrupt halt in the customs area. The lines were long, and they craned their necks to see where to go. There seemed to be different lines, and they were labeled based on who had to go in each.

"The green lines are pretty much for if we said no to everything on the customs form," Marinette said, eyes scanning the signs. "Yellow is for if we handled livestock and some other stuff, red is for fresh fruits and vegetables, weapons, et cetera. Green line is us, I think."

"There's a lot of people in the other lines, too," Adrien commented as they got in the longest of the lines, glancing over at the other sections. "And they're moving pretty slowly."

Marinette looked over as well. "I bet that's because they get questioned more, and their bags might get inspected. They shouldn't bother us too much, though."

Their line moved forward, and Adrien and Marinette moved with it. Marinette periodically peered back, watching newcomers come into the room as other flights landed. She hadn't spotted Mrs. Agreste, though, so maybe they were still good.

"I wonder what the dogs are for," Adrien said, suddenly catching Marinette's attention. He pointed to the orange-vested dog accompanying a Customs security officer. "Do you know?"

"Maybe they're sniffing for drugs?" Marinette suggested. "People wouldn't admit to having those, so they would have to search."

"Huh." Adrien turned to watch the dog work its way through the line, sniffing the air and dodging children's hands. "That makes sense, I guess."

Marinette nodded, sparing the dogs another glance before turning to see if Mrs. Agreste was there yet. She had the advantage of not having any baggage to claim once past Customs, which would probably cut their thirty-minute advantage- twenty-minute advantage now, at most- in half again.

"Sir? What is in your backpack?"

Startled, Marinette looked back at Adrien. One of the security dogs was sniffing intently at his backpack while Adrien looked supremely puzzled and borderline panicked, trying to turn out of the way. "I- uh-"

"Any fresh fruits or vegetables?" the officer continued. "Or dairy products?"

At last, Marinette caught sight of the words on the tiny dog vest. It wasn't a drug dog. It was a food dog.

Oh, no. She had made Adrien all panicked for nothing.

"I don't think there's any food in there now," Adrien said, having recovered faster than Marinette from the whiplash of new information. He pulled the backpack off, digging through it. "I had been carrying cheese in here at one point, though, and some of it got a little smashed in the bottom, but I thought I got it all cleaned out and- oh, phew. I just got a whiff of it."

Marinette caught sight of a hidden Plagg, who was looking guilty. There was most definitely no cheese crumbs in the backpack anymore- Plagg would have seen to that- but it was technically his fault that the backpack smelled.

"I'm going to have to ask you to move over to the red line for further inspection," the officer told Adrien before he could completely unpack his backpack. "Just switch the checkmark on your customs card to say yes for fresh food and dairy and explain there."

Adrien gave Marinette a panicked look but repacked his bag and moved. Marinette made to follow, but the officer stopped her.

"You should stay in this line. Too many people in the other lines will just slow them down." He nodded towards the desks that she was approaching. "And you're close to the front. You can wait for your friend on the other side."

Meekly, Marinette complied. She glanced back towards Adrien, who had joined the back of the red line. Sure, that line was shorter than the green line, but they had seen how it got frequently held up as officers confiscated restricted items or inspected paperwork for clearance. Marinette was still looking back when she went through, getting cleared quickly enough after claiming that she had spent the time in China with family. Once through, she headed to the far wall to wait for Adrien who, while no longer the last person in the red line, was still not at the front.

And then she spotted Mrs. Agreste.

Marinette's blood turned to ice as she tried to edge out of Mrs. Agreste's sight, tugging her hair out of her pigtails again. Mrs. Agreste didn't seem to be looking around a lot- which was good, because Adrien only had his baseball cap on and not the sunglasses- but still. Once she got bored with waiting in line...

Marinette gulped. They were so close! It would be completely unfair for them to get caught now, now that they were back in Paris and so close to being home. She tried to catch Adrien's eye, but he had spotted his mom as well and was keeping his head down, absent-mindedly tucking loose strands of hair under his hat.

Both Agrestes moved forward in their respective lines, Mrs. Agreste faster than Adrien. Marinette hoped that she would be held up at the desk- after all, she had been listed as missing for a year- but there was no such luck. The Customs person talked to her for maybe a minute longer than an average person, and then she was through.

Adrien was busy unpacking his entire backpack under another official's watchful gaze. Once it was empty, the official glanced inside of the backpack, nodded, and waved Adrien through. He re-packed in a flash and headed towards her, glancing around warily as he did.

"Your mom already went out," Marinette told him, and he groaned. "Just a moment ago. We'll have to book it and come up with a plan while we get our luggage. I don't know if we'll be able to get away with taking a taxi back."

"What other options do we have?" Adrien asked as they powerwalked/jogged down the hallway towards baggage claim.

Marinette could only shake her head. "I don't know. But we're Ladybug and Chat Noir, so surely we can figure something out- oh!" She clutched at his arm. "We're Ladybug and Chat Noir. We're close enough to the city- we can cut cross-country and go as fast as we can to your house. If the Gorilla gets stuck in traffic-"

"He will if he can," Adrien said immediately. "He knows that he needs to stall. So if there's a route home that has some crazy traffic jam, he'll go that way."

"Still, we shouldn't waste any time," Marinette decided, speeding up her jog. "Let's go grab our luggage, and then we can go find a place to transform."

a/n: One chapter left! I also have a bunch of outtakes for this universe left to post, but all (with the exception of one) are set post-trip.

Update on the internet thing: FINALLY. Finally I've found somewhere that I can get internet on a regular basis. I didn't expect it to take this long (I thought I would be able to get internet at my grandma's church, but they no longer post the password, then I tried the library but they block AO3 because clearly it's adult and scary (but not tumblr?) and then I tried using an hour of complimentary xfinity wifi but...that failed), but also my grandma has kept me busy when I'm not running off to work with birds. Hopefully I can figure out a schedule of sorts going forward.