Flying through snow

Adrien stared at the falling snow and held Marinette in his arms. Nothing else existed, no fake news, no tabloids, no villains, nothing. The wind subsided and there were few snowflakes lingering in the air and slowly settling down. It was Marinette who nudged him out of his trance because she went to prepare their food on the cooker.

They were cut off from the world and from the media, but that morning Ye and Ling have stumbled on some web pages that were dumping only tabloid kind of news, something clickable and sensational, filled with commercials on the sides of the page with nasty and barely plausible texts.

"Do you have any plan how to deal with the news?" Ling whispered to the girl while she stirred the noodles in the bowl over the fire.

"Why? What is wrong?" Marinette whispered.

Adrien did not move at all.

"You have not been reading the news this morning?" Ye asked quietly with apparent relief in his words.

"No" Marinette whispered and waved her head.

"You have been reading the tabloids?" Adrien asked quietly. "Don't. It is not healthy."

"We were looking for stories about us." Ling replied apologetically. They had fun while they read only the part related to them, but it was a different story once they read about Adrien and Marinette.

"They don't know you. They have tons of material about him … and me." Adrien spoke quietly. "Tons of photos." He took a deep breath.

"Is it bad?" Marinette asked timidly.

Her cousins nodded in response.

"It is actually stupid. Nobody who knows you at all should be able to believe that." Ye said with a note of disgust in his voice.

"I am a minor, my legal representative should handle it." The boy replied matter of factly.

"Is she good?" Marinette implored.

"Nobody is that good. But ..." Adrien took out his phone. "I have not checked my phone this morning."

"There is no signal here." Ling waved her head.

"The messages that arrived while we were up there in the temple should be stored on it." He said and opened the stored messages from his legal guardian.

"She actually bothered to ask me for approval to confirm officially to the media it was me fighting my father. She already did with the police. She had to." Adrien smiled. "She is sorry she did that without consulting me first and she actually bothered to ask." He exhaled slowly.

"What will you answer?" Ling asked.

"I will let her handle that. But she will have to wait for me to get a signal." He smirked. The boy was annoyed that he was put under supervision of another adult, and this was a person he never met. But he started to accept her.

"You have not notified her where you are?" Ye asked incredulously.

Adrien waved his head in response. "She has the numbers of all your parents and my bodyguard. I doubt she doesn't know already."

They finished their instant noodles, washed the dishes in the stream, filled the bottles with water and continued walking. Adrien put away the phone, he was glad to be cut off from the world, to be away from the media and any other means of communication. Suddenly he realized he was the only one in their group who had any experience with dealing with the media. And that was so far always organized by someone else. He had a lot to learn, but he also had something to teach.

Adrien fixed the backpack on his back and felt the miracle box on the bottom. Marinette noticed his move and took a deep breath. She felt Tikki patted her belly under her clothes. Plagg scratched Adrien on his chest as he fastened one belt from the backpack over his belly.

Marinette gave him a confident smile, he returned his Chat Noir grin. They were Ladybug and Chat Noir. They were going into this together.

"I do not know what my parents replied to your legal representative, but she can confirm my identity too." Marinette smiled. "I mean, you know which identity, right?" She whispered worriedly just after.

Adrien started laughing out loud as he stared at her. He could not ask out loud nor tease her.

"You really thought she asked me to confirm I was a cat?" Adrien whispered to her ear.

Marinette laughed with him.

"Okay, so what is your plan mister famous supermodel? How do we handle this?" Marinette teased.

"Yes, teach us how to be famous." Ling stroke a pose while she walked. The pose included an oversize backpack with a sleeping bag on top and her excessive breathing to compensate for walking at high altitude, the scene was funny.

"How do we deal with all those paparazzi that will be chasing after us?" Ye joined the teasing. He took a small stone from the path and threw it to the side and watched how it bounced from other rocks before it finally rolled on the ground.

"As much as I'd like to deal with some people that way." Adrien pointed towards the stone. "I am afraid that kind of interaction is not observed kindly."

Marinette snorted. Ling rolled her eyes. Ye took another stone.

"No? Really? I thought I am having nice practice." He threw the stone again and it bounced off one stone before it rolled away.

"so, what would you recommend?" Ling inquired.

"Ignore them, get a team of lawyers and public relations people if you can afford them." Adrien counted on his fingers (that were covered in mittens).

The wind and the snow subsided while they were sitting and the sun broke shyly through the clouds. The soil was partially covered with snow and the glare of the sun reflected from the snow made them half blind. Everyone was looking for the dark glasses.

"Let's assume none of us can afford that." Ling replied flatly as she put on her shades.

"This can help." Adrien put the sunglasses on. "But only to walk around."

"As well as a towel and googles, we have been there before." Ye teased.

"Basically, you ignore them and find a decent journalist and give them an interview." Adrien summarized. "Ask for the questions in advance and do not answer anything you do not want to talk about."

"But we are heroes. Why would they ask awkward questions?" Ling asked incredulously.

"Oh you wouldn't believe … " Marinette groaned as she remembered all the awful questions she used to get as Ladybug. But then she flapped her hand over her mouth as she felt she spoke too much.

"Don't worry. We have tabloids too." Ling replied.

"I think we have more." Marinette relied flatly.

"I bet you do." Ye replied with a knowing look towards Ling. They were appalled at few pieces of news they could read on different sites. They were short and non informative, but the titles were always insinuating some sensational and usually awful stuff.

The fairy tale scenery around them was a huge contrast to their subject of conversation. Without the shining glare of the sun reflected from the snow they enjoyed the view.

"Hey, let's make some photos." Ling proposed, her phone was already in her hand, her gloves removed.

"We can make it a photo shoot." Adrien exclaimed.

They made a few silly poses and Ling was taking photos of the all four, sometimes they made silly faces, sometimes they were mock serious, and more often than not, it was impossible to keep a stupid grin off from their faces.

They continued to walk with less talking, as each of them concentrated on the effort. They were climbing a very steep slope and it was becoming steeper and steeper. There were bits of ice and slippery gravel so they had to be careful with each step they took. Soon it was all about their breathing. Breathe in, one leg in front, breathe out, put your leg in front of the other.

The steep climb was in the shade from the sun and all of them took away their sunglasses. It was less cold and few students even unzipped their jackets open. Because the climb was difficult, everyone warmed up due to the physical exertion. Their faces were red and they breathed quickly, but they did not stop, they moved forward and up. From time to time, someone would trip and land on their knees or their but. The least lucky of all slid down the slope with the unstable gravel for a few meters.

By the time they reached the top, the sun was already setting behind the mountains in the distance.

"Let's go, we will have to walk in the dark, you do not want to sleep in the snow." The guide was obviously tired herself. She had to take a breath between every few words, but she was not giving up. It was a hard job to lead a group of people through such terrain.

The terrain they walked was uphill, but mild, almost flat, and the trail was mostly smooth. Everyone prepared their flash lights. But there was no moon, the clouds approached them and soon there were snowflakes floating all around them.

Many students pointed their flash lights upwards and watched the snow, in the dark, with only snowflakes slowly floating down.

Marinette and Adrien shared one flash light and kept the other to spare in case they emptied the battery on the first one.

Adrien pointed it upwards and they stopped. The snowflakes gently settled around them.

"It feels as if we are floating up, between the stars." Marinette whispered.

"Yeah, we are travelling into outer space again." Adrien smirked. They both remembered their travel on Startrain, but this time it was peaceful, they simply enjoyed the experience. There was no akuma to beat, no supervillains, they did not have to invent excuses that would hide their secret identities, there was no danger (except it was dark, they were in the mountains and it was cold, but they ignored all that).

They stood like that huddled close to each other for minutes, perhaps longer. They did not want to stop and break from their dreamy cocoon.

"Come on, you can spacewalk when we reach the campsite." The guide encouraged the kids to move.

Adrien sighed as he lowered the flash light, but he did not remove his arm from Marinette. It was comforting to know that she was there. They listened to Ling and Ye who chatted behind them. They were talking about all the space filmy and TV series they ever watched, or did not watch but wanted to see some time in the future.

It felt as if they walked in the dark for hours. Several students started to express their fear that they got lost, but finally, after they reached one of the higher points on their way and finally saw faint lights in the distance.

"Finally." The guide said. "We would have seen the camp site long time ago but the snow reduced the visibility. We will be there soon."

Unfortunately, many students stared at their goal and did not watch where they were going. That combined with exhaustion from walking all day and slippery surface made many of them slip, trip and fall. And sometimes, the next student would trip and fall over the first one.

"Okay. Okay. Okay." The guide shouted. "Watch where you are going. Do not make piles on the way. It is a rough walk as it is."

It took a mental effort, but they proceeded slowly towards the camp site. Everything was white, the tents, the trucks, the buses that waited for them.

"The other group left this morning, we missed them as they took a different route. The dinner is waiting for you. You will sleep in the same tent as on the first night." The guide explained and disappeared in the tent.

The four kids quickly left their stuff on the side close to the entrance to the tent and went outside. Adrien pointed his flash light up and all four watched the snow.

"It really looks like space travel." Adrien whispered.

"How would you know?" Ye asked exasperatedly, and then laughed.

"Perhaps he is so rich he could pay for his space travel, you saw those stories." Ling teased.

They all laughed.

"Actually an akuma took our train to outer space." Marinette spoke quietly after everyone settled down.

"Really?" Ye asked incredulously.

"Akuma let you do space travel?" Ling screeched.

"Mhm" Marinette muttered her confirmation.

"Mother of our classmate is now in school to become an astronaut. She was guiding the train at the time." Adrien explained as they watched the snow and enjoyed the show.

But then their stomachs started to groan due to their emptiness and the four kids reluctantly went to the tent with food to eat.

Once their stomach were full, they suddenly felt very tired and sleepy.

Adrien pulled out his phone, the quickly typed the message to his legal representative and ignored hundreds of other messages. Then he changed his mind and wrote briefly to Nino and his bodyguard that they reached the camp and put it away again.

Marinette sighed. "I can't believe how many messages I got, I do not have the energy to reply to anyone." She groaned into the air.

"Just do your parents and go to sleep." Ling sing sang as she already did just that and put away her phone.

Marinette sent the same message about reaching the camp to her parents and the girls from her class. She did not want them to worry. She did not read a single message that reached them.

They were glad they could simply roll into their sleeping bag and keep each other warm. The bag was cold. The air was cold. Ling kept reminding everyone of those facts.

Adrien ignored all the noises. He had his Ladybug in his arms. She was breathing calmly. He imagined she was already asleep when he buried his face in her hair and started to whisper.

"I lost my family. Long time ago, not this week. But I can face the world as long as I do it with you by my side." He whispered softly into her hair and then he held her tighter. But then she stirred slightly.

"I am here. I am here." She whispered softly back and held him tighter.

They remained like that for a few minutes. But Marinette huffed a few times.

"Ling, please stop." Marinette whisper shouted.

"I think it makes her feel warm if she is complaining about the cold." Ye replied tiredly.

"Come on, I am not the only one cold here." Ling motioned to several other students who whined and screamed about the cold even louder than her.

Marinette did not bother to open her eyes, she just smiled. Adrien raised his head and glanced towards one particularly loud student who whined about the snow in his sleeping bag. Adrien shook his head and slumped back down, his head slightly hit Marinette in the process, and she moaned in protest but did nothing more.

"Oh, sorry, sorry sorry." Adrien apologized.

"It is okay, I am too tired, you are too tired, we are too tired. Just go to sleep." Marinette begged with her eyes closed.

A few more breaths and they were both asleep. Ling looked at them with a small smile and nudged Ye to look too. They both feared for the boy and what was going to happen to him.