'Hey, Mari. I'm going to be moving into my new place on 3 December if you want to come by that night to celebrate.'

'That sounds fun, Adrien. Do you want me to come by to help you with actually moving that day? I don't have anything going on and I love helping people!'

'If you want to come by, you're definitely invited. It'll kind of suck, though, so I don't want to make you help us.'

'Sounds good, I'll see you then! Text me when you're around so I know when to come by!' Adrien smiled at how sweet Marinette is, but he still had a meeting in a few minutes so he couldn't keep texting her. He put his phone into the pocket of his suit, straightened the lapels, then walked into the meeting with the stockholders.

3 December was Saturday of that week and Marinette got a text from Adrien at 10h30. She looked out the window and saw Adrien and Nino taking things out of the moving truck across the street. Marinette needed to take an extra second to find him because he was wearing a black beanie.

Marinette put on a jacket with the joggers and sweater she had been wearing. She put on a pair of sneakers and grabbed her keys before she went outside to meet up with them. When she got outside, she was surprised that in addition to Nino and Adrien, Noël, Kim, and Ivan were helping with the move.

Kim saw her when he didn't have anything in his hands. "Nettie!" he called out excitedly, coming over to greet her. He gave her a brotherly hug and she smiled brightly at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I met Adrien through Nino and I live across the street, so I offered to give you guys a hand as a break from work."

"Then come on, take those bakery guns and go grab some boxes." Kim ruffled Marinette's hair then walked away to the back of the truck. Marinette giggled and grabbed Adrien's hand to follow Kim and work on taking the boxes inside.

Adrien was shocked that Marinette had taken his hand so casually. He followed along after her with the lightest blush on his face. He was hopeful that Marinette wouldn't think about the blush. If she did see it, maybe she would just think it was just a reaction to the windchill outside.

After Adrien and Marinette both grabbed a few boxes, Adrien led Marinette into the building. She looked around as they walked through and she admired the interior of the hallways. Adrien took her to the building's elevator that was barely big enough for the two of them to fit with the number of boxes.

He pressed the button for his floor number and the ride up felt like it went on for an excruciatingly long time. The door opened and he left the elevator as soon as he could to get out of Marinette's personal space before he could make her uncomfortable. His apartment was the second door on the right side and he opened the door for them.

Marinette walked in and saw the most natural light she thought was possible in an apartment. His kitchen was gorgeous and it looked like there were a total of four doors around the interior of the apartment. She was struck by how big it was. She knew that it seemed like Adrien worked all the time, but what did he do to be able to afford this place?

Thankfully for him, the apartment came furnished and everything matched the general aesthetic that he liked. He would probably try to decorate more at a later time, maybe he'd even ask Marinette for advice when he got to that point, but for now, they had more boxes to take inside.

They left the apartment once again and got back into the back of the van. The two stayed at about the same pace, but after the first time going up in the elevator together, Marinette and Adrien opted to go up one at a time instead. Thankfully, Adrien's door was cracked open for the moving process so that they didn't have to just stand there waiting for him to grab the key.

They finished getting all of the boxes in at around 14h00 and Nino, Kim, and Noël collapsed onto Adrien's couch, tired from all the exertion. Adrien sat down on one of the chairs at his dining table and Marinette sat in the seat next to him. "Can I get you guys lunch," Adrien offered generally to everyone in the room.

Everyone nodded in appreciation. "Sandwiches," Nino recommended, getting a generally affirmative sound from everyone in the room.

"It looks like Café Cloche is open and they're right down the street. I can go pick up lunch while the rest of you relax," Adrien offered, seeing the menu pop up on his phone screen. He copied the link to the menu and sent it to the three guys on the couch, who each texted him their orders. He handed his phone to Marinette and she started scrolling while he grabbed his laptop.

He came back to the dining table and sat back down next to her. Thankfully, his laptop was fully charged when he put it away to take it to this apartment. He pulled up the website and put in everyone's orders from the texts he got back. He made his own choice, then moved the laptop so Marinette could make her selections.

"Do you want me to come with you," Marinette offered, "I should probably stop by my apartment to get some measuring tape so that I can take Kim and Noël's waist measurements while they're here."

Adrien nodded in agreement and Marinette grabbed her jacket off of the back of the chair. The restaurant gave Adrien the estimate of 15 minutes and the two of them decided to stop by Marinette's apartment before they went to the café. They greeted the security agent at the front, then the two of them went up to Marinette's apartment.

She grabbed the tape measure from her desk along with four things that looked like they were just strips of fabric. Adrien couldn't see exactly what they were, but he figured it didn't really matter. Marinette went back to him at the door and they walked back out of Marinette's apartment and Marinette waved goodbye to Wayzz.

When they stepped out into the chilly December air, Marinette subconsciously linked her arm into Adrien's, not really thinking through her actions as they walked. He didn't seem to mind, so she didn't see a problem with holding onto him like that for the remainder of their walk. When they arrived outside the café, Adrien opened the door for Marinette.

She walked in first and he followed her through the door. He walked over to the attendant at the counter. "Hello," he greeted. "I'm picking up a to-go order for Adrien." The girl behind the counter flitted her eyelashes at Adrien and Marinette felt a little bit bad that the girl seemed to be trying to flirt with Adrien who wasn't even noticing.

The girl handed Adrien one of the bags of food and he looked over to Marinette to give her the first bag while he accepted the second from the attendant. Marinette led Adrien back out of the café and the two of them walked back to his apartment as quickly as possible to get back out of the cold.

Now that they weren't both holding huge boxes, they rode the elevator upstairs at the same time. They were talking and laughing together while they walked and Adrien opened the front door, letting Marinette walk in first.

She placed her bag onto the counter and opened it, quickly identifying the sandwiches and calling out her friend's names instead of the sandwiches like Adrien expected. Adrien chose a sandwich and salad and was able to identify his own while Marinette grabbed her soup. The five sat at the dining table and Marinette and Adrien sat next to each other.

At the end of the meal, Nino, Noël, and Kim were planning to head home, but Marinette stopped them before they could. She took Kim and Noël's waist measurements so she knew how big to make their cumperbundts, then the last thing she did before they left was take the pieces out of her pocket.

She gave one of the fabric pieces that she grabbed from her apartment to each of them and Adrien could immediately tell that it was a bowtie. It didn't particularly stand out as a new or innovative piece, but he really liked the color that they landed on. He thought it would look gorgeous with Marinette's skin tone, so he was hopeful Jacques did well matching the original chiffon.

"Thanks, Nettie," Kim said, leaning over slightly to place a sloppy kiss on her cheek. He ruffled her hair when he stood back up. "It was fun hanging out with you, mec," he added, reaching out his hand to shake Adrien's. "I'll see you both for Nino and Alya's New Year's Party?" Both of them nodded with a smile.

Noël stepped up and gave Marinette a slightly awkward hug. He smiled a little bit at Adrien, then left the apartment quickly, hurrying after Kim, who had given him and Nino a ride to Adrien's in the first place.

"I'll see you tonight," Nino suggested once the other two left. "After I get a shower. Are we still planning to do a wine and charcuterie thing?" Adrien nodded and gave his best friend an excited hug. Then Nino went to exchange les bisous with Marinette before he headed for the door to get home with Kim and Noël.

Marinette had been enjoying spending time with Adrien, but she knew that Nino had a point about the fact that they should shower before meeting up later. "What time should we come back tonight?" She smiled brightly at him and his only thought was that he wanted her to come back as soon as she was willing/

"I'll be ready to play host starting at 18h00, probably. Anytime after that sounds fine to me." Marinette nodded in confirmation, then leaned up to kiss his cheek delicately, clearly unlike what Kim had done earlier before he left.

"I'll see you then," she told him before leaving his apartment. He closed the door after her and checked the time. It was 15h45, so he had at least 2 hours to get ready for his guests. He texted Nino, suggesting the same time he'd told Marinette and went into his room to find some clothing to wear after his shower.

When Marinette arrived at 18h00, she was surprised to see how much of Adrien's stuff had already been unpacked. Where there were 8 boxes in the kitchen and living room area earlier, there were now 8 flattened boxes leaning against a wall close to the front door that he needed to take to recycling later.

He had managed to unpack all of his cups, plates, utensils, and other kitchenware, so when Marinette arrived, he had 4 wine glasses sitting out on the counter in addition to a tray with an assortment of crackers, salamis and cheeses. Marinette placed the baguettes onto the counter next to the tray and handed him the bottle of rosé. He placed it into the fridge.

"Would you prefer to start with red, white, or rosé?"

"Rosé or white is my preference, but it's up to you from there." He took the bottle of white out and opened it. He served some to Marinette and some to himself before he put a wine stopper in and placed it back into the fridge. He brought the charcuterie board over to the living room and placed it onto the coffee table.

She followed him and after another moment, she took a small package out of her bag. She held it out to him and it was wrapped in a piece of green wrapping paper with a black little bow on top. "It's a housewarming gift," she told him, "I recommend opening it sooner rather than later. Opening it now is fine, or if you'd rather wait until I leave that'd be okay too."

He looked at the package and after a minute of consideration, opened it. There was a small cardboard box inside and he opened the box as well. There were four coasters inside. The set that she had given him were crocheted into the shape of little cat heads. He looked at them and smiled before lifting his glass to put a coaster beneath it.

"Nino mentioned you like cats and I figured coasters aren't something people prioritize getting when they move," Marinette explained politely. He smiled brightly at them and placed another one down for her to use before placing the last two into the center of the coffee table for Alya and Nino to grab when they arrived.

"Thank you. I love them, Marinette. They're purrfect." He added a wink to the end of his statement and Marinette rolled her eyes at his pun. She placed down her own wine glass on the coaster he'd set out for her. They were seated next to each other on the couch, slightly turned toward each other to talk.

Marinette offered to help Adrien unpack and they spent the rest of the time while they waited for Nino and Alya unpacking the boxes in his living room that contained movies, video games, board games, and consoles. Marinette was surprised that Adrien had every game in the Ultimate Mecha Strike franchise, even 4 which was lackluster.

They stopped unpacking when Nino and Alya showed up and the four just spent the evening joking around, playing some games that were unpacked, and talking about work and about the wedding. Marinette hadn't even noticed that Adrien didn't talk about his job during the conversation, too caught up in Alya and Nino's accomplishments.