Alya was never going to forgive her.

But if that meant that she was safe, then so be it.

Keeping their trip a secret was exactly the opposite of what Alya asked, of what Marinette promised, but with the voice growing louder and louder on the back of her mind, with the shivering beneath her skin, so foreign that made her itch, there wasn't really anything else to do but to break every promise and just do what she was meant to do the first time.

She looked to her side, Adrien was reading a small book and holding her hand, stroking his thumb across her knuckles.

Marinette smiled and threw her head back, trying to get comfortable on the plane seat.

She hadn't been able to do it since they left Paris hours ago, and she was starting to think that it had nothing to do with how uncomfortable economic class was, but how guilty she felt by leaving everything behind, knowing that she might not come back.

Of course, this was a thought she hadn't even shared with Adrien, not explicitly at least because Adrien was being his extremely positive self. He really believed that they together could go against anything.

Marinette did believe that things were going to be easier with him there, nonetheless, she wasn't so confident of their power as he was.

Her heart had been thumping against her ribcage, and she felt nauseous. She hadn't eaten much, only a small chocolate bar Adrien bought for her when he realized she wasn't giving a single bite to the airplane meal.

She wasn't going to eat anything until they landed on China, or maybe even after they took their bus that would take them to the Tibet.

"Hey," Adrien leaned closer and kissed her cheek softly, "Take deep breathes."

"I'm fine," She lied.

"I know you're not," He answered, it was bitter but not mean, "Are you feeling anything?"

"Not really," She shook her head. With Nooroo out of her body, she didn't feel emotions nor strange stuff anymore, or at least, they didn't come as visions or strange tingles on her body.

She did still feel Adrien, and old Marinette and new Marinette were starting to get along better, which made it easier to read him, having all the information on him.

"Did you tell someone we were leaving?" She asked, changing the subject.

"No, I did not. We agreed on that, princess."

"I'm sorry," She sighed, "I know I'm being annoying and dumb, and it sounds like I don't trust you."

"I know why you're doing it, don't worry about it. Like really, don't worry about it, about anything at all. This is our decision, this is our duty and maybe even destiny, we decide how we take it."
"We are gonna hurt a lot of people if things go wrong."

"Thing won't go wrong… or at least they won't end wrong. I can feel it."

"You are so sure," She huffed and closed her eyes, a little bit annoyed.

"I have a feeling."

"A feeling won't save us from anything."
"No, but our magic will, and your experience will, and my cataclysm can do some purr-etty epic things," The last part, he said it teasingly, it was obvious that he wanted to clear the air. They still had two or three more hours of flight.

And how could she not laugh?

His dumb puns were so bad, and yet they made her laugh like nothing else.

"You know that I

love you, right?" Adrien asked.

"Yes, and I love you too."

"I know," He smiled, "So, would you let anything happen to me?"

"No." She gasped and shook her head, surprised with such a question.

"And I won't let anything happen to you.. so how could we fail if we are both protecting each other?"

Marinette bit her inner cheek, doing her best to not smile. But such control did not appear and she launched herself towards him, catching his lips in a passionate yet still very tamed kiss.

"We are gonna go through this together, my lady," He said between the kisses.

And for a second, she let herself believe it.

xx

Everything, after they dropped off the plane, had been a blurry stain of fast passing moments that he couldn't put together even if he tried. But somehow, they had made it into a small hotel room in Markam.

It had been easy to find the hotel, there was nothing much around, and it wasn't peak season so there were rooms available.

It all had been quiet and quick until the moment they started to go up to their room and one of the cleaning ladies gasped when she looked at Marinette.

She wasn't the only one triggered by such an encounter. Marinette started to feel dizzy and she hugged herself tight.

Now, as she lied in the middle of the bed, she had her hands on her ears and she was softly sobbing.

Adrien was doing the best he could in this situation.

Marinette's head was on his lap, and he was gently playing with her hair, humming at the rhythm of a piano melody, hoping that would help Marinette drown the noise of the voice.

"It's so loud!" She whined and shuffled a little on the bed.

Adrien moved, pushing Marinette up, and using all his strength to pick her up and put her between his arms.

Marinette reacted immediately, helping him out, putting her arms around his neck, and hiding her face on its crook.

"Was it this loud when you came the last time?"

"I think so," She sobbed, "But it was different."
"Different how?"
"I can't tell."

Maybe that's why it was so infuriating for her.

Adrien rubbed his hands on her arms and rocked them back and forth.

He looked up searching for help, but Plagg looked as lost and concerned.

Nooroo on the other side looked as he was about to cry.

So, yeah, none of them seemed like good options to ask for a solution.

Adrien looked at her concerned, she felt strangely warm. He put one hand on top of her forehead to check her temperature, but he got an odd reaction from her.

A screaming moan of relief came out of her lips.

"What?" He asked taking his hand away.

"No, no, no," Marinette mumbled, "Put your hand on me again."

He crooked a brow but did as she said.

The stiffness on her body dissipated.

"It lowers it down," She explained as she was able to breathe normally again.

Adrien furrowed his brows stranged but one long look at his hand gave him the answer.

"The ring," He said aghast, "It must be the ring. But… why?"

"Its energy," A small voice said across the room.

Nooroo was shaking as he approached them.

"The energy of this being calls Marinette because it is her opposite because it needs her… when your ring is close to her mind, to the centre of her magic…

"It balances it." He finished.

"It's fading away."

Marinette's pained expression faded away too, making Adrien smile.

He kept his hand there for ten minutes until Marinette said that it had gone back to the small voice she usually heard.

He took his hand off and they waited to see how Marinette reacted.

After twenty minutes of things staying the same, they decided to relax a little.

"Before you go to sleep we will do that again," Adrien said, putting one ordering finger up.

"Okay," She said smiling and pulled him down for a kiss.

Adrien chuckled and then put her back in the bed.

"Now, don't miss me much, I'm gonna take a shower," He announced, "I feel all yucky."
"You don't look yucky," Marinette said, crawling on the bed to wrap her arms around his waist, "But if you must."
"Believe I must." He laughed and kissed her forehead before leaving towards the bathroom.

"Should I ask for room service? I think I'm hungry now."
"Sure," He said, closing the door behind him and starting to undress inside the bathroom.

He turned on the shower and he leaned against the cold wall as he waited.

A knot formed on his throat and he covered his face with his hands, rubbing his forehead.

The tension on his body felt horrible, it was like he had muscles made of cement.

Not only the situation was stressful, but he was also lying to Marinette.

He has told someone… he had told Willem.

He couldn't just leave without letting someone know. Truth was, as much as he wanted to pretend that he was confident in them, the chances of losing, the chances of things going wrong existed, they were probable, and he couldn't brush them away just because he wished for things to go right.

He didn't tell this to Marinette, of course, he wanted her to feel safe with him, because whatever was going to happen, good or bad, he wasn't going to let Marinette get hurt, not like she had been, and if the time came when he had to choose, then he was going to choose her happiness, her life, over his.

But he could not tell Marinette this, if he did then it was all lost.

Adrien entered the shower and stood right under the showerhead. His hand landed on the wall and he sighed. Letting the hot water burn his skin in sweet delight.

He shut his eyes close tight, not letting himself cry, no matter how much he wanted to. If he started he was not going to stop, Marinette was gonna see his red eyes and then he would have to tell all the truth.

Moving his neck from left to right, he hoped that a few of the knots on his muscles would go away.

It was relaxing and quiet and he stayed inside for a long time until the water wasn't soothing anymore.

He turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around him, he closed his eyes again and put his hands on top of the sink, leaning down, stretching his back.

Suddenly the door creaked and Adrien felt the nape of his neck turn hotter than the water.

"Ma-

"I was feeling lonely," She muttered and peppered a few kisses on his back, wrapping her arms around him.

"Are you alright?" He asked, and felt her rubbing her cheek against his back, "You're going to get your clothes wet."

"It's fine," She answered, "Are you alright? You're stiff. Should I leave?"

"No!" He shouted and that made her laugh, "I was just taken by surprise."

"Alright… but it is okay then… that I'm here?"

"Yes, it's more than okay… I love you, and I love when you touch me but... what is really on your mind?"

"I really just missed you."

"So you're not doing this because you think we don't have more time to spend together?"

They both sighed at the same time.

Adrien finally turned around, cupping her cheeks, looking straight into her eyes.

"What if we don't have more time?"
"You really don't think we are gonna be able to go through this."

"You just saw what happened to me… I don't wanna miss any second with you, we've already been separated for so many years."

"You won't miss anything."

"You can't assure it, Adrien. You can't, you weren't here the first time."

Adrien's mouth sat on a harsh line.

"Tomorrow we are gonna go to the salt mines, we are gonna go through the path that almost kills me. Tomorrow defines what is gonna happen in our lives."
Adrien closed his eyes and looked up, water dropped uncomfortably on his face but it wasn't worse than the feeling growing inside of his heart.

"Today is our last certain day," Marinette puts her hand on his neck and brings him closer, pressing his forehead against hers, "I would love to know that we have a whole life together to be excited about, but we don't know that. We only have today, and I don't want to spend any second away from you."

"I like to believe we have a future," Adrien said, close to her lips, "Promise me you will think this way too. Promise me that tomorrow if things start to go down and our path gets rough, promise me that you will keep that in mind."

"I will," She gasped, fingers intertwining in his hair.

"Promise me you won't do anything to threaten that."

Marinette pulled him into a harsh kiss and all conversation was over.

Adrien was too lost in his drunk love to realize that the kiss hadn't been an answer.