Sorry for the break! After the holidays, things got very busy for me for a while. I am now picking up the story again. Since the two heroes didn't get together by Christmas, we'll follow them through wintery days for a bit longer!

Let's pick up where we left: Marinette just heard that she might get a chance to intern at the Agreste design department, and in her immense joy, she flew straight into Adrien's arms. He just put her back down on her feet.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Megamodel

Marinette was looking at him with her big, blue eyes and she looked... stunned?
Their eyes were locked, and Adrien was unable to remove his hands from her arms or his eyes from her face, concentrating hard to keep himself from pulling her closer.

And then the door to the atelier flew open and Molly came rushing out, yelling at them.
"Get to securi…", she managed to say before she was frozen in space in a running motion.
An Akuma attack!
Adrien woke up from his Marinette-induced daze and grabbed her hand, pulling her down the corridor.
He had to transform quickly.
No, he had to take her to a safe place, then transform and fight the Akuma.
Transform, fight, and then get back to the hand-holding.
"In here", he half pushed her into the room, which was part of the storage area where their most exclusive garments were archived.
"You think you can hide in here while I inform security?", he asked, already pulling Marinette further into the room towards a big closet.
He would just leave her long enough to transform, and then get right back to take her away to safety.
Marinette frowned.
"What do you mean, inform security? Where are you planning to go?"
"Er", Adrien looked around, looking for an answer.
"I don't think you should be out there", she continued with a determined voice, "We should hide and let Ladybug and Chat Noir handle the Akuma."
Marinette looked around and pointed at two closets, "Why don't you take the big closet there, and I will hide in the one over there!"
She was already shoving him towards the closet. When he opened the door, he saw racks full of puffy ball gowns. Father would be furious if anything got damaged, but arinette's safety was all that mattered now.
"Why don't you go in here", Adrien wiggled out of Marinette's hold to instead shove her forward. "You are smaller, and you might enjoy the dresses. I'll take the next one."
Marinette gave him an exasperated look, but she moved the delicate dresses to the side and slipped into the closet. He saw that she watched him through the half open door of her hiding place, as he stepped into his own closet further down the line. It was full of clothing bags. He gave her a thumbs up before closing his door, hoping she would do the same and stay inside long enough for Chat Noir to be able to arrive and rescue her.

Inside her closet, Marinette opened her handbag.
"Tikkie, spots –", she whispered, but her Kwami shot forward to interrupt her.
"Wait, Marinette", Tikkie said. "Let me check first if Adrien is still in his closet. You don't want him to see Ladybug come out of the closet that Marinette stepped into just a minute before, do you?"
"He better stay in there", Marinette muttered, "How am I supposed to concentrate when Adrien is close to the battle.. Ok, you're right. Thank you, Tikkie, please go and check!"
Tikkie flew to the top of the closet before zooming through the wooden planks into the room, hopefully out of vision if someone was in the room. She arrived right on time to see Chat Noir step out of Adrien's closet. Of course Plagg hadn't bothered to warn the boy. She would tell that careless cat something.
Tikkie remained in the shadow and observed how Chat Noir turned towards Marinette's hiding place, hesitating. He was obviously torn between rescuing her and fighting the Akuma.
Tikkie's heart swoll with affection for the dear boy.
When a loud noise and screams came from the building, Chat Noir turned around and ran towards the door. She followed him into the hallway and watched him disappear towards the screams.
Then Tikkie returned to Marinette.
"It's safe", Tikkie whispered, "I followed him outside, he is far enough away."
"What?", Marinette said, "Adrien left?"
Tikkie blinked.
"Er, I mean, he must be trying to alert security", Tikkie improvised, "He was running away from the battle noise. Now quick, transform, I think I saw Chat Noir already."

Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated Megamodel in record time. Gérard, the embarrassed model who had flirted with Marinette before Adrien had put him in his place (Marinette still blushed when thinking of that), apologized several times, before running off.
"Well done, Kitty", Marinette turned to Chat Noir, "How come you arrived so quickly? Were you close by?"
"Er", Chat Noir touched his neck in a familiar nervous gesture.
Had he been close by to watch how her tour with Adrien went? She couldn't resist teasing him a little bit.
"Well, you weren't late either", Chat Noir countered and bopped her nose with his finger.
Oops, that was true and also a good reason to change topics.
On cue, her earring beeped once.
"I have to go", she said.
"Me too", Chat Noir said. They both turned in place, looking around unsure. Then he walked towards the closest window and opened it with a polite gesture.
"After you?", Chat Noir said.
"Actually", Marinette tried, "I think I'd prefer a different exit, if you don't mind."
He looked surprised, but agreed readily.
"You know what", he said, "I'm actually headed North, too. I'll also take a different exit."
"Ah, South", she said, shrugging. She had no idea where South actually was but she was determined to walk in the opposite direction of him to sneak away and transform back, or at least to check on Adrien and tell him some story about taking Marinette to safety.
She sighed. It had been such a nice day!

It turned out that the corridors of the elegant, shiny building all looked quite similar. Luckily, they were at least empty – it seemed as if people had hidden very quickly as soon as they heard off the Akuma and hadn't yet reappeared.
Marinette was considering to slip into one of the dark, quiet offices to transform back, but running foot steps interrupted her thoughts.
"Ladybug!", Adrien said slightly out of breath when he came around the corner.
"Hi Adrien", Marinette said. "I was just.. looking for you. Marinette told me to find you because you disappeared from the storage area where you guys were hiding."
"Oh, you have seen Marinette?", he was quite agitated. "She is gone, I cannot find her."
"Yes, I took her outside", Marinette improvised, "Given that the akumatization was partly about her, that seemed the safest solution."
"Oh", Adrien said, checking his phone. "She didn't tell me. I'll call her."
"I'm sure she will be in touch as soon as possible", Marinette said, placing her hand reassuringly on Adrien's shoulder.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
That night, while Marinette waited for Chat Noir on her balcony, she went over the events of the day. She was still confused why Adrien had left her in the storage area.
"Hey little one", Chat Noir landed beside her. "How are you?"
Marinette spontaneously hugged him. Chat seemed startled at first, but he quickly recovered and hugged her back. She pressed a kiss on his cheek.
"Does this mean you liked the present?", he asked, cupping her shoulders affectionately with his hands.
"I loved the present", she said. "So much!"
Chat smiled warmly.
"Who would have thought, with it ending in an akuma attack and all."
He leaned casually against the balcony rail.
"Well, it's Paris", Marinette shrugged. "Up to that moment, it was fantastic."
"Want to tell me all about it?"
"Sure", she said, "Should I get you hot chocolate?"
He laughed. "No, I'm ok actually. Just dying to hear how it went. Did Adrien behave himself?"
Marinette smiled even wider.
"He did… He was so kind! And he really knows the place well."
She fiddled with her hands.
"But, Chat, I wondered.." She looked up at him. "I never told you about Adrien. How did you figure it out?"
"How did I figure what out?" Chat looked confused.
Marinette frowned.
"That I.. that he.. Oh, don't tease me, Chat."
Silence.
"Oh", Chat made, as realization hit him. "You mean.. You mean, you like Adrien? Really?"
Marinette felt her face heat.
This was still Chat, no need to be embarrassed. He was kind and he was her friend.
"Oh", Chat made again.
"Wasn't that part of the plan?", Marinette asked confused. "To help me spend time with him?"
He slowly shook his head.
Uh – oh.
"But that's great", Chat said quickly, still staring at her and in a tone that did not quite match his words. "I guess... that must have made the day even better?"
His voice went up at the end of the sentence, turning it into a sceptical question.
Marinette nodded.
"Yes, he was perfect, as always."
Chat made a choking sound. Marinette ignored him. Was he jealous?
"And I learned so much! It was amazing to talk to all these professionals. Oh, and the best thing" she grabbed Chat's hands and started doing her happy dance in place again, "The best news was that I might be able to intern at the Agreste design department. Well, not an actual internship but like a jobshadowing thing. Because Adrien told the designer about my work."
"That's the best thing about today?", Chat asked.
"Actually", Marinette bit her lips. She wasn't sure whether she could tell him.
He wouldn't get jealous, would he? She would not want to hurt him – again.
"Actually there was that one moment that was even better."

Adrien had a hard time keeping a straight face as Marinette told him with an endearing blush and charming spark in her eyes about the moment. How she had jumped into his arms full of joy about the job opportunity, and how she thought that they connected after that.
Adrien knew exactly what she was talking about. He could still feel her soft hands wrapping around his neck and hear her carefree laughter when he had spun her around. That was one disadvantage of the suit: He couldn't even touch her hands right now.
"There is one thing, though", Marinette said. "That I don't understand. When we hid in that storage area.. I… I thought we would both stay there to hide. But, see, Adrien got into his closet just like me, but then just a minute or so later, he left without telling me."

Chat's eyes opened wide with astonishment, and he crushed the cookie in his hand into powder.