19. You're Beautiful

Marinette probably should have gone back to her own room for the evening. Then maybe she wouldn't have found herself in this situation.

But then again, she couldn't find herself to fully regret her situation, either.

Adrien's strong arms pulled her closer to his chest as he pressed a kiss on her neck, and she grabbed his shirt tighter as a whine escaped her. "You're so beautiful," he whispered against her skin, sending shivers down her spine.

Sure, sure; but she was also in trouble.

The evening had started out innocent enough. They once again had brought dinner back to the hotel so they could talk and be obnoxious without disrupting the other people at the restaurant. But dinner had turned into snuggling, which turned into kissing, which turned into Adrien having Marinette pinned to the bed while he lavished attention on her.

Geez, they were going home in two days, and she was going to be covered with hickies at this rate. She figured she was only okay with that if—

"Ah! Adrien," she moaned as he kissed her pulse point. "Stop that."

"Stop what?" he challenged, his voice low, husky, and hot against her skin.

She groaned. How did this man go from "best friend" to "snogging her senseless" in the span of a day?

Better question: how did she become so okay with it?

He tapped one more open-mouth kiss to her neck before pulling away, propping himself up on his elbows to meet her gaze. "Too much?" he asked, voice laced with a hint of concern.

This is my chance.

She contorted herself so as to get just enough leverage to throw Adrien off her, rolling him over to the other side of the bed so now she was laying on top of him.

The shock on his face stoked the already hot fire in her. While this wasn't much better a situation and she still found herself up to her neck in trouble, she did find this fun.

Actually, she might find herself in more trouble like this. She did always love having the upper hand on him.

"Fair's fair," she purred, voice low as she straddled him, giving her the best angle to lean forward to his neck.

Adrien's chuckle was flirty and deep. It wasn't fair that he was this sexy, dang it. And it was worse when he grabbed hold of her hips. She gasped at his contact before her lips could hit his neck.

"Oh?" he purred. "You gonna leave marks on me now? Is that how it is?"

She didn't bother answering—her voice was gone, anyway—and let her kiss on his neck answer that for him.

He growled, his fingers digging deeper into her hips. "Yeah yeah, fair's fair," he said, voice strained. "But let me warn you, princess, at this rate, this is only gonna last a little while longer before I kick you out."

Worried she might have crossed a line, Marinette pulled away a bit, her brows furrowed. What she hadn't expected was Adrien hissing at the movement and grabbing her thighs to keep her from leaning back any further. She gasped at his sudden grip, face flooding with heat. "W-why?" she stuttered out.

Adrien's smile almost looked strained. "Last thing I want to do is go way too far too fast, Princess. And you're really testing me, at the moment."

"Is that a bad thing?" she asked, beginning to back off.

"No, just something to keep in mind for when I hit the brakes on this thing."

A wicked smile crossed her lips. "Noted."

With that, she leaned forward to keep pressing kisses to his face and neck and collarbone, returning all the attention he'd given to her with a new mission in mind.

How fast could she make him kick her out?

20. Passionfruit

Adrien couldn't help but be nervous. He was dating his bosses' daughter.

He knew he and Marinette wouldn't hide the fact they'd gotten together. But as they sipped on a couple of smoothies they'd gotten before they hit the airport, they were debating if they wanted to tell her parents the truth or lie a bit and wait until a week passed by to break it to Tom and Sabine so he and Marinette could play off like they'd spent the trip as just friends and nothing happened between them.

For example, like they hadn't swapped hickies in his room two nights in a row.

Adrien had had to grab make-up to cover the ones Marinette left on him. She'd looked way too smug about it, too.

"Why you gotta cover them up?" she'd teased, watching as he expertly put on the concealer.

He'd just glared at her. "Because I want to live."

"Aww, come on, be brave," she'd joked, shooting him a wink.

"Do you not want to be with me? Because if I die, you'll be alone, too."

Marinette had just shrugged. "Meh, I'm cool with that."

"Wait! Marinette! Marinette!"

She was lucky she was cute and could get away with those things. Problem was she knew she could get away with those things, which only caused a headache for him.

Why was he dating her again?

Eh, give it ten minutes, and he'd be reminded why.

"I think I just want to be honest with them."

Adrien looked down at Marinette. "Huh?"

"My parents," she answered. "I don't want to lie to them about it. I don't want to give them any reason to make them question their trust in me. So we'll tell them the truth. Besides, they do like you a lot. I don't think they'll be disappointed or anything."

Adrien nodded. "I agree. I don't want to lie to them, either. They put a lot of trust in me to take you to New York and keep you safe and all. I don't want to make them question their trust in me, either."

Marinette smiled. "So, we have a plan, then?"

"When do we tell them?"

"They're making us dinner for when we arrive back there. We'll tell them, then."

Adrien's brow furrowed. "We'll be getting back late, though. Is it okay for them to wait up for us?"

"They insisted," Marinette said with a shrug. "And you know them: they wouldn't hear otherwise."

That was true. They would insist staying tup to check over their daughter when she arrived back at the very least.

"So, we'll tell them over dinner," Marinette said. "I'll lead."

Adrien nodded. "Okay, then it sounds like we have a plan."

When Marinette grinned, his heart was put at ease. "Sounds like a plan."

She was the one who leaned forward, but Adrien was more than happy to meet her more than halfway. She always tasted sweet, but today, she was doubly so. And he wasn't sure if that was because of the passionfruit on her lips or just pure coincidence.

21. Kittens

Marinette was looking at the numerous cats and kittens that filled her sketchbook, but she just wasn't liking any of them.

With a sigh, she pushed it aside and snuck up to her balcony to cool her head in the night air. It had been almost two months since she and Adrien had gone on their New York trip where they'd ended up confessing, and they'd been going strong ever since.

She had been so nervous to tell her parents, but much to her surprise, they didn't seem very surprised at all. Instead, both her and Adrien had watched in shock as her papa slid money over to her maman.

"As owners of this bakery, we are not oblivious to its innerworkings," her maman had said, beaming grin on her face as she took the money. "With you two as close as you were, it was only a matter of time before you two got together. I guessed it would happen during the trip, but Tom thought it would happen after. So I won."

"Maman!"

While she had been feeling minorly mortified, Adrien had simply doubled over laughing, finding the whole thing hilarious.

Part of her could not believe her parents did that while the other part of her was relieved that her parents took it in stride and practically accepted Adrien as their own already.

Occasionally, she got to thinking about when Adrien would actually become part of the family. Yes, they'd only been dating for 2 months, but Marinette didn't feel like it was impulsive to think that they worked together and would for a long time. She'd known him for almost a year now, and they'd somehow clicked quickly and had become very close friends before they'd started dating. She didn't think it was a stretch to say she could see a future with him.

Actually, it was much harder to imagine a future without him and his teasing and his support and his nerdy love of anime and… and so many other things that now made up her daily life.

He matched her perfectly, being both her equal and perfect counter.

Perfect counter…

Inspiration struck her, filling her with a second wind as a night breeze rolled across Paris. But she barely noticed it as she slipped back down her hatch and headed back to her sketchbook.