Chapter 6

After waking up in each other's arms, breakfast was a fairly uneventful event. Marinette and Adrien were sitting on the opposite end of the table to Gabriel, and the conversation was limited to "how was the trip?" and "keep yourself busy for the day."

Marinette just sat there, quietly enjoying her pastry that tasted a lot like her parents. Her eyes kept going between father and son, trying to understand the relationship between the two and coming up completely empty. She was bewildered at the thought of Adrien growing up like this, her heart aching for him. Although, she knew it wasn't always like this. Marinette remembered a dinner that she'd had at Adriens when they first became friends. They were really young and his mum was bustling around them, making sure they had everything. They then had a wonderful dinner with both of Adriens parents. His father was always a bit standoffish, but there was a light in him when he was around Emilie. He was happier and you could see the love in his eyes when he looked at her. But that light died out the day Emilie passed away, and nothing was ever the same.

Once Adrien and Marinette had finished eating, Adrien held out his hand to her, leaning over as she stood up to whisper in her ear.

"I want to show you something."

Marinette just nodded, following behind Adrien as he led her out of the dining room and round towards the back of the house. She had to quicken her pace to keep up with Adrien, who seemed very keen to escape the chill his father brought to breakfast. He led her to a beautiful ornate door, stopping in front of it to take a breath, bracing himself before entering.

"I haven't been in here since we left for uni. Anytime I came home, it wasn't for very long and it never felt right to be here by myself. My father hasn't even come close to this room since my mother died, making this a fairly safe place to keep one of the things I want to show you." he explained.

Marinette placed a hand on Adrien's arm. "You don't have to show me anything if it's too hard." she said, her tone going soft.

"I want to show you. You're important to me and… well you'll see." He took Marinette's hand again then opened the door.

Inside was a beautiful library. It had floor to ceiling bookshelves all surrounding a big table in the middle of the room. The table reminded Marinette of one of the fancy cutting tables they had at school, and she was proved right as they wandered further in to see a sewing machine along with all the threads imaginable resting on the far end of the table.

"I had Natalie bring in that for you yesterday. She had to do it behind my fathers back, but I don't think she minded," Adrien said, addressing the machine.

"Adrien, it's wonderful. This entire room is wonderful," Marinette replied, awe threading through her voice as she spun slowly round to take in all the beautiful book spines. She managed to pick up some of the names, each one more impressive than the last. "Thank you for showing me this. I know it's been hard for you since she died, but you should know that I loved her too and I miss her for you." She rubbed her hand up and down Adrien's arm, her other hand reaching up to brush away a tear that had fallen from his eye.

"Thanks. I've been thinking about it for the last few days since you mentioned that promise we made after my mum died. You supported me through that extremely hard time in my life. You helped me navigate the new relationship with my father, showing me that I didn't always need him or his approval to feel validated. It really has been you and me against the world all these years and I could not be happier because of it," he said, pulling her in for a hug. They stood there for a few minutes, taking comfort in one another's arms. Then, Adrien slowly released his arms, drawing his hands up to wipe the last few tears of his face then Marinette's. "There's one more thing I need to show you."

He beckoned Marinette over to a small adjoining room that she had not noticed before, a small excited smile crossing his face.

"This is going to need some context," he started. "When my mother died, my father got fairly angry and started throwing out a lot of my mothers stuff. He eventually came to his senses and stopped, instead building some sort of shrine to her with what he hadn't thrown, but Natalie managed to save a few things which she gave to me thinking I may want some of my mothers things. She was right but I didn't know what to do with certain items so I put them here, knowing my father wouldn't find them here. It was only the other day when I realised what they were perfect for." He then stepped to one side, revealing a rack with six stunning dresses in amongst an amazing array of what Marinette recognised as some of Emilie's most treasured possessions. "I thought that maybe you'd want to wear one of the dresses tomorrow evening. I know that they're not 100% your style, but I thought you could tailor it and make it your own."

Marinette stood gaping at the rack, not knowing quite what to say. She stepped forwards and tentatively took a closer look, knowing immediately which one she would choose.

"Thank you so much Adrien! They're beautiful! But are you sure you're ok with me altering one of your mothers dresses?" She eventually responded.

"Of course I am. You are your own person and my mother loved that about you. I think she'd be so honoured if the next big Parisian designer were to use one of her dresses as a base!"

"I'm not going to be the next big Parisian designer. That would mean knocking your father off his pedestal and he would hate me for that and probably ban me from seeing you again. A world without you is not a world I want to experience."

Marinette's eyes widened when she realised what she said, both of them blushing and turning away from each other. Adrien scratched his neck while Marinette internally panicked.

"So," Adrien said, breaking the silence. "Will you use one?"

"Of course. I'd love to honour your mother and…" Marinette pulled out a particularly beautiful rose pink gown with long sleeves and a boat neckline. "This is amazing."

Her smile was so bright that it made Adrien laugh at her excitement. He put his arm around her shoulder and led her out of the room back to the big table in the middle of the library.

They sat there for most of the day, Marinette working away on her dress for the ball while Adrien was slumped over an armchair reading a book. They had the radio on, every now and again them both looking up from what they were doing and singing along to the lyrics. They both burst out laughing every time it happened, bantering with each other before going back to their activities.

Marinette soon finished her dress, running up to Adrien's room to try it on, telling him to take his time as she wanted him to see it for the first time before the ball. He listened to her, slowly closing his book and putting it away. He then followed Marinette upstairs, catching her hanging up the dress and putting it away in his furthest closet, the one that was empty because of the clothes he took to uni. She had an excited shine in her eyes when she turned to face Adrien, one he did not question because he already knew the answer. Instead, he made his way over to the TV, turning on his games console and holding out a controller to his friend. She gladly accepted it, her face becoming steely competitive as she sat cross legged on the sofa.

They spent the rest of the afternoon thrashing each other on various video games, both of them excelling on the games that they were insanely skilled at while failing at the ones they weren't. They got so competitive when playing their favourite from their childhood, screaming at each other for cheating.

After many games, they both flopped back on the sofa, completely exhausted from the games and the screaming.

"I miss this," Adrien said.

"Miss what? Spending copious amounts of time together?" Mari joked. Adrien bumped his shoulder against hers in laughter.

"No! I miss us just being us. Like we used to when we were younger. This past week has been great, but we haven't been doing it for us, we've been doing it for my father and the press. I like spending time with you without all the social pressure."

Marinette shifted to face Adrien, her knee up on the sofa as she studied his face.

"I think I know what you mean. It's like the other night at the restaurant. We were just us and then you spotted the camera and it was like we were in a fishbowl."

"Exactly. You were the one part of my life that was saved from the fishbowl until now."

Marinette placed her hand on Adrien's arm. "You know that even though we may be in a fishbowl outside, you and I can always have moments like this and spend time together without the pressure right? We've been doing it since we were 15, I think we can do it for the rest of our lives."

Adrien tried to hide his smile, but it only led to a smirk. "Rest of our lives huh?"

"Of course. I meant what I said earlier, a world without you in it is not worth it."

Adrien's eyes softened, his hand reaching over to brush a stray strand of hair that had fallen out of Marinette's ponytail out of her face. His fingers lingered for a second and they were both leaning closer, their foreheads nearly touching. He looked straight into her eyes, judging whether she was ok with this, but was met with the most striking and determined gaze of bright blue, making his stomach turn into immediate butterflies.

"Dinner's ready Adrien!" Natalie called from the other side of the door, snapping Marinette and Adrien out of the moment. Marinette leapt up from the sofa, wringing her hands and taking a deep breath before turning to face Adrien. He was looking a little spaced out but he shook himself out of it, standing up and making his way towards the door, Marinette following behind.

—-

"What the hell was that! He insulted you throughout the entire meal!" Marinette shouted when they got back up to Adrien's room after dinner. She was absolutely fuming, her entire being shaking with pent up anger after the most frustrating dinner she'd ever attended.

"Mari it's ok, it was honestly nothing that I hadn't heard before," Adrien responded, his tone staying calm.

"No it's not Adrien. You go to one of the most prestigious schools in the country to study Physics. You're wicked smart and an amazing human being, despite the fact that you've been raised by a monster, and he has no right to say that you are wasting your talents by not modeling or training to one day take over his company THAT YOU HAVE NO INTEREST IN!"

Adrien raised his eyebrows at Marinette, trying to tamp down the smile that was threatening to break free. He was watching her pace the room, her anger making the air around her sizzle.

"And he said all of that in front of me! And what do I do? Sit there and shovel food into my mouth so I don't start screaming at him. I really should have done though. You don't deserve to be berated every time you come home," she stopped her pacing and whipped round to face Adrien just as his radiant smile broke free. "What?"

"Oh nothing," he replied, forcing himself not to laugh at his tiny best friend standing in front of him with her hands on her hips and smoke coming out of her ears. "Just…thank you for caring so much."

Marinette visibly deflated, her hands leaving her hips to come knot in front of her. "Of course I care about you. You're my best friend and I love you."

"You love me?" Adrien whispered, shock taking over his body. Maybe he hadn't been reading too far into things between them recently.

Marinette stood there gaping at Adrien, her mouth opening and closing until she started pacing again, changing direction every couple steps.

"Well, yes I do love you. But not that way. I love you like a friend. Wait more than a friend. Like a best friend. Ugh no, describing it as best friend love is not quite eno…phmm!" Her rambling and pacing was interrupted by Adrien striding towards her, stopping her in her tracks by taking her face in his hands, bringing her lips towards his in a gentle yet long overdue kiss. He soon pulled away, looking Marinette straight in the eyes, but finding them closed. She opened them quickly, a questioning glint in her blue irises.

"What was that for?" she whispered, her head still reeling from the kiss.

"I wanted to test a theory," he whispered back, moving one of his thumbs to brush against her cheek, under her eyes.

"You are a physicist after all."

"Indeed I am."

"Did you get your answer?"

"Hell yes!" And with that he kissed her again, this time not holding back as he pushed her up against the wall behind her. He felt her whimper against him as he bit her lower lip, replicating the move from the restaurant but taking it a step further by following it up with a lick of her lip. They melted into each other even more, Marinette's arms snaked around Adrien's neck, her legs looping around his while his arms came down to cradle her bum, lifting her up off the floor. His lips left hers, kissing down her chin to her neck and back up again, meeting her lips again for a searing kiss. Marinette broke away, meeting Adrien's eyes.

"So we're really doing this huh," she asked, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"I guess so," he laughed, his fingers running up and down one of Marientte's thighs that was looped around his waist.

"Do you wanna move away from the wall?" The glint in her eye got stronger as she insinuated that she wanted to take the next step.

"Are you sure? That's moving quite fast."

"Absolutely. I think I've been waiting for it for a while."

"Oh god, me too. You're the most beautiful woman I have ever met and it's been the absolute pleasure to watch you grow into the amazing person you are today."

Marinette had to bite her lip to stifle a laugh mentally facepalming at his words.

"Adrien, that was the cringiest thing you've said to me, especially right now, and now I don't think I want to go further."

"Oh really?!" he gripped Marinette's legs, spinning her around and carrying her over to the bed, dropping her onto the covers. She laughed and rolled around on the bed, moving away from Adrien when he lay next to her, reaching over to her to tickle her waist where her sweater had climbed up her torso. Their laughter soon died as Adrien stopped tickling Marinette, his hand gently resting on her waist as he lay on his side next to her, their legs touching. She reached her neck up to him, meeting him in the middle for a sweet kiss.

"I just want to make absolutely sure that this is what you want. If we do this we can't go back," Marinette said, resting her forehead against Adrien's.

"I don't want to go back. You're everything," he whispered back, leaning back down to kiss her. They allowed themselves to fully give in to each other, Marinette rolling on top of Adrien , her knees landing on both sides of his hips, their lips continuing to move together for the rest of the night.

—-

"Why haven't we been doing that forever?" Adrien asked while he was catching his breath.

"Because we were both idiots who were too afraid to risk anything." Marinette replied, her hand going up to rest on Adrien's chest next to where she had laid her head.

"That's true. But I think I found something to do instead of running in the freezing cold early spring morning air."

"Oh yeah. And what may that be?"

"You."

Marinette burst out laughing at Adrien's bluntness. She nuzzled closer into him just as he started speaking again. "Seriously though, it's never been like that for me before."

"Me neither. I think we should do it again."

"Oh really?"

"Yes I do. And I don't think we should ever stop."

"I don't want to stop either," he whispered to her before leaning down and kissing her deeply.

A/N: This is one of my favourite chapters I've written. It incorporates all the books and love stories that own my heart and I'm quite happy about it.
There is something I added to this version because of a comment on one of the last chapters about the primise my iterations of these characters made to each other when they were kids. I wanted to add that in somehow because of how important it is in the show and I love reading AU fan fiction that can seamlessly use context from the show within their stories. I think I may need to work on that a bit! Basically, the promise they made was after Adrien's mum died - 'It's you and me against the world'. The comment said that they'd love to see how it comes again and I went, oh no I haven't added it anywhere else. So I did. It's not much, but I tried to put it a little more into their background. I hope that satisfies your wish!