"Girl, you said it's been how long since you went to your mom for advice about this?" Alya questioned her best friend.
With cheeks blazing, Marinette rested her head on the restaurant table and groaned. "Around two weeks," she grumbled. Alya clucked her tongue in disapproval.
"And nothing has happened between you and Adrien as yet? Look, I don't know what kind of libido-killing pregnancy vitamins you're taking…," she mumbled into her glass of water.
"Shhh, Alya! Lower your voice! It's embarrassing enough I'm going to people asking advice about this!" Marinette's head shot up as she whisper-shouted to her friend.
"Good thing Kagami isn't here then," she retorted. Marinette raised her eyebrow at that. "I'm not sure you'd remember but, Kagami can be worse than me sometimes."
"Uh-huh." Unconvinced, Marinette continued eating her lunch.
"It's true!" Alya protested. "She's really… blunt."
Alya soon switched back to the topic. "Have you ever just talked to Adrien about not waiting until the baby was born to – you know?"
Marinette paused from eating momentarily to give her a look.
"Right, I forgot that it's you we're talking about," Alya sighed.
"Anyway, your mom's advice about starting from scratch and rekindling the romance in small ways is pretty good. But you can't just leave it there, it's meant to be a starting point. Now you've got to kick it into high gear with some next level seduction," she leaned forward with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Uh oh.
Marinette internally wondered if she was ready to follow Alya's impending suggestions. Her mom's gentle, PG-rated encouragement was a piece of cake to carry out. But Alya? She tended to be spicier, and Marinette had the feeling that she would be expected to be more proactive about the whole situation, which she wasn't sure she could pull off at this point. Even after a few months of adjusting to this reality of being married, she still felt shy about certain things.
Like the time she accidently walked in on Adrien in the bathroom just after he had gotten out of the shower. He was standing there, in all his sunshine glory, without a care in the world, brushing his teeth in the mirror. His towel was around his shoulders of all places. Marinette had eeped before quickly covering her eyes. And Adrien, being the little tease that he was, had the nerve to turn to fully face her and ask what was wrong.
"I-I, uh, I have to use the t-toilet!" she had squeaked out.
"Toilet's free," he nonchalantly gestured to it before returning to finish brushing his teeth.
If she didn't have to go urgently, she would have just left, but she stood her ground.
"It helps if I go in private," she choked out.
"If you say so," he had responded. "I'm done in here anyhow." And with that, he had turned toward her again to walk out of the restroom, all the while smirking because he had caught her peeping through her fingers when his back was turned. He took his time as he approached her with his model gait.
"ThanksbutIreallygottagobye!" she fairly pushed him out the rest of the way out of the room before she wet herself or worse, suffered from a nosebleed. She had slammed the door shut before calling out to him:
"And cover up! The curtains are open!" She guessed them sharing a room again after a while had caused him to revert to his comfortable ways around her, not that she completely minded.
Marinette felt a bit pathetic as she zoned back into her conversation with Alya. Even though she had felt like such a spaz then, the feelings of wanting her husband still remained, even if she was kind of a coward about it.
"And lastly, your body is a weapon, so use it to slay him!" Alya concluded with a flare.
"Ah, I don't feel like I've got the right artillery right now," Marinette sighed. "My body feels more like an incubator if you ask me."
"I didn't," Alya deadpanned. "To a real man, nothing is sexier than the woman he loves carrying his baby," she tried immediately to crush her friend's negative views of her body. "Or that's what Nino told me."
Marinette laughed at that. "Thanks, Alya. I'll take your advice, and hopefully that's enough to make even Adrien realise that I'm ready."
"Seriously? All this time and still nothing?" Alya exasperatedly questioned her friend weeks later.
"Well, yes, but no," Marinette tried to explain. Sitting across from her in her now favourite café, Alya and Kagami raised their eyebrows for an explanation.
"You see, we're a lot closer now. Much more than before. And I'm way more comfortable around him," Marinette pointed out.
"Not close enough apparently," Alya remarked sarcastically as she bit into her English muffin.
"He's just really oblivious okay!" Marinette protested.
Kagami, who had been mostly quiet during the exchange, and even before when they explained her amnesiac friend's dilemma to her, decided that now was the time to speak up. She set her glass of orange juice down with a resounding clink which caught the attention of her friends, and maybe a few café patrons nearby.
"Why don't you just jump him then?" she asked bluntly.
At this, Marinette spewed out her tea and Alya swallowed a chunk of her muffin without chewing. Kagami waited patiently, sipping her juice, while her friends simultaneously choked and sputtered over their brunch.
"Kagami!" Marinette hissed. "People can hear you!"
"I told you she was worse than me," Alya rasped out, still not fully recovered from the food stuck in her throat. Giving her a few deft wacks on the back to dislodge it, Kagami continued:
"I'm being serious. Whenever I want Luka to—,"
"DON'T," Alya interrupted, before she took a swig of water. "Don't finish that sentence!" knowing fully well what her friend was capable of saying.
"I'm just saying," she smirked into her glass of juice, "I never hesitate."
"Yeah," Alya's voice was still a little shaky. "You made that clear when we asked about your honeymoon that time."
Curious, Marinette was about to ask before she though better of it.
"Poor Juleka was traumatised," Alya added, sensing her friend's curiosity.
"Listen, all I'm saying is that she needs to directly approach Adrien so that she could get a clear answer. If he's fine with it, which I can't see why he wouldn't be, you'll know. And if he wants to stick with the original plan, you'll know. Just go for it," Kagami advised.
Contemplating her words, Marinette could see that she had a valid point.
"She's right, y'now," Alya spoke up. "Think of it as another stepping stone. You followed your mom's advice, then mine, and know it's time to try Kagami's."
Taking a deep breath Marinette spoke with confidence, "You're right. I can do this."
Completely devoid of confidence, Marinette plopped herself on the foot of the bed, "I can't do this." She was in the middle of dressing after her shower and had paused to examine herself in the mirror. She had gotten big.
There is no way that Adrien would be 'slayed' with a body like this, she sighed to herself. She felt like this assumption was valid based on the past few weeks of failed seduction. Even though they had become much more comfortable with each other, even to the point where Adrien took over Tikki's position in helping her film the pregnancy progress videos, he still treated her like an unwed virgin whose honour he did not want to taint.
Resigning herself to defeat, Marinette fished out the most matronly nightgown she could find and began dressing herself.
"Marinette, have you seen my glasses? I think I left them-," Adrien burst into the bedroom just as Marinette was pulling the nightie over her head.
"O-oops, sorry," he apologised before starting to retreat.
"It's okay, you can come in," Marinette finished dressing then sank back down on the edge of the bed and stared off into space.
At this point Marinette's mood was already down and Adrien picked up on this.
"What's wrong, Bugaboo?" he asked, concerned.
"Ah, it's nothing," Marinette sighed. Adrien sat next to her on the bed, and wrapped his arm around her.
"You sure?" he questioned.
"Yeah," Marinette replied. "It's just that my body's been a bit sluggish lately. And all my clothes now are as big as tents. Which is fitting seeing that I'm like a whale now. Not to mention that I haven't seen my toes since—," Marinette's self-deprecating rant was cut off by Adrien placing a searing kiss to her lips.
They stayed like that for a while, with Adrien kissing her more passionately and intensely than Marinette could recall, until they both had to come up for air. While Marinette sat dazedly on the bed, Adrien quickly shifted his position so that he was standing over her with his hands planted on either side of her hips.
"I've tried for so long to hold it in and wait until after the baby was born," Adrien's voice was low and husky with desire. "But you've been making it so difficult for me recently…" His breath tickled her skin as his nipped incessantly at her ear and neck.
"A-adrien—," she mumbled. Marinette truly felt like a fool for doubting Adrien and taking a round about way to approach him. Kagami was right all along. She decided to let go of her doubts and insecurities and live in the moment as she placed one hand over his racing heart while the other looped around his neck.
It was after a few more breathless kisses when the akuma alarm went off on their phones. Startled, the couple separated at the noise. Another low sound caught Marinette's attention before she realised what it was. Adrien was growling. He tossed a feral look of disgust in the direction of the phones before leaning back in to kiss his wife.
"Wait, Adrien," Marinette protested, placing her hands over his lips in attempt to stop him. "What about the akuma?"
"It can wait," was his simple reply as he caught hold of her hands and began to kiss the inside of her wrists.
"Adrien," Marinette said firmly, catching his attention. He let go her hand in disappointment and sighed like the world was ending. "The sooner you go out to defeat the akuma, the sooner we can get back to this," she said in a gentler tone. He soon realised that she was right. It would be better to leave now before things actually got started.
"Promise?" he asked, dropping his head on her shoulder like a child.
"Promise," she said, affectionately patting his hair.
In no time, he was jumping out the window, fully transformed with her earrings in tow, while Marinette collapsed back unto the bed with her face as red as a tomato.
She didn't know how or when she fell asleep, but the sunlight barely filtering through the window curtains greeted Marinette as she got out of bed the next day. Yawning and stretching, she looked around, only to realise that she'd slept on Adrien's side of the bed; something that he would never allow if he had gotten home that night. Sighing, she concluded that he must still be out fighting the akuma.
After dressing, she made her way to the kitchen, where she was surprised to find Adrien sitting at the table, tiredly sipping coffee.
"When did you get back?" she asked.
"Almost an hour ago," he replied. Marinette's heart went out to him in his exhausted state.
"You poor thing! How did it go last night?"
The two casually chatted about the previous night's battle while they ate their breakfast. As they were finishing up, a thought suddenly crossed Marinette's mind.
"Are you going straight to work after being up all night fighting?" she asked.
"Yeah," Adrien responded. "I technically don't have to go in 'til noon, but I wanted to get a head start on checking the midterms that the TAs marked so I can relax for the rest of the weekend."
Rising from her seat, Marinette sauntered, or at least tried to saunter, over to Adrien. She had made in her mind about this, and she wasn't going to back down now, especially since she knew what Adrien's thought were.
"I think you should stay home and rest for a bit," she said, dropping her voice. "It's still early."
"Hmm?" Adrien did not catch on to what was happening at first. "I know, but I already had my coffee…," he trailed off when Marinette sat in his lap and started to run her hands up and down his shoulders.
"Well, maybe I can be convinced to go in later," he gave her his signature Chat Noir smirk, which made her heart skip a beat.
"I'll see what I can manage," Marinette cheekily responded as she began to loosen his tie.