1 Souvenirs
It was strange for both Marinette and Adrien to be back at school, strange and familiar at the same time. The school break lasted only two weeks. That was not much time. But so much have happened for the both of them within that short span of time.
They went to China, together, with her parents and his bodyguard while they were hiding from Gabriel and Nathalie who travelled there too. And they both hid the true purpose of the voyage for each of them, because they had to keep their superhero identities a secret.
The two teens reached the recovered temple of the guardians and it was the monks there who recognized them and made them reveal their identities identities to each other. It was the monks who made them realize who Hawk Moth and Mayura were.
Traditionally, the guardians and the wielders, as well as the monks, underwent schooling and training that took years to complete, but as they both took in regular school, and were tried in combat against magical villains so many times, the monks let them fight the two villains and their monsters.
The monsters started to appear at and around the temple as soon as Gabriel and Nathalie arrived to the camp below. Ladybug and Chat Noir pretended they teleported from Paris for each fight, but they never entered the temple transformed, because advised not to do so.
Adrien and Marinette faced Hawk Moth and Mayura as civilians, fought and won by ripping the butterfly pin and the peacock brooch of their suits, all while Marinette's cousin Ling was streaming it straight to Alya's blog. The two teens were not fighting alone, they had help from two young monks from the temple, Pema and Dorje and Marinette's cousin Ye stepped in too. But it would not have worked without the temple magic that drained the miraculous and tampered with the magic if the wielders were transformed on the temple premisses.
Marinette and Adrien were allowed to leave the temple as schooled and trained wielders, their worth proven in battle, and they got to share the duty of a guardian, but by all means, they were expected to share a life, and therefore the monks performed a small ceremony after which the two kids were married, at least according to the ancient rules.
Gabriel and Nathalie were left in the prison in China. Their memories were erased by an ancient magic invoked by Tenzin, the old monk that lead the temple school. But both Gabriel and Nathalie got their belongings back and as they were digging through their diaries and other files they collected there over the years, they managed to restore some of the facts for the years they have lost, albeit not together, and the resulting feelings were somewhat different.
The travel home for the two heroes was long, but they used the time to deal with the feelings for each other as well as the problem of Adrien being a minor and without a parent. But the support of his friends had kept everything in a positive perspective.
They returned to school and were greeted as heroes, but they both knew that their identities had to remain a secret for the rest of the world. Because they were guardians and permanent wielders and they were to expect future missions and assignements.
Lila finally exposed herself, she was in school with a teaching assistant, Mlle Rosa Benini, a student of psychology who volunteered to help out troubled students.
Chloe was not thrilled with the idea that Adrien went on a trip to China with Marinette, especially since she only found out about it when the rest of the world did (during the final battle), but she decided to set aside those cheap feelings and take the matter in her own hands as the queen that she was.
Adrien was looking forward to moving in with Nino. Although that meant he was going to be separated from Marinette for the first time in eighteen days. Not only Marinette, but his lady too. And that was making him anxious. But he was looking forward to spending more time with his friends.
They were back to school, on a Monday morning and after a few classes things started to look normal again and the two teens got lulled into a pretence that they were just two teenagers going to school again. The lunch bell rang and Mme Mendeleev dismissed the class.
"I can't believe you brought us souvenirs!" Alix snickered at a small item she just got from Marinette. Adrien reached into the bag, consulted Marinette and gave the next magnet to Juleka.
They distributed the fridge magnets among their classmates. They did bring something extra for Alya, Nino and Chloe. They felt obliged. Even Lila got a magnet. The girl wanted to throw it away but Rosa, her learning assistant, caught her hand and led her out of the class. The rest of the class dragged the duo into the school courtyard. It was story telling time.
Each of the students just had to tell exactly where they were and what they were doing when the final battle with Hawk Moth had unfolded. Even those who did not follow them religiously tuned in the moment it became known that civilians were fighting them, and when the first classmate recognized them, the news spread like a virus.
"I can't believe the two of you shared a bed." Alya teased. Of course, out of all the photos of the monuments, their travel, the airplane and the train, the teenagers were the most interested into that bit of information.
"We didn't really." Marinette blushed and waved her hands while Alya, Nino and Adrien were snickering. "I mean we did, but it wasn't like that. You make it sound like we ..."
The fact was that the whole class was listening, perhaps the whole school, because they were in the school yard at the time, and there was really high probability that someone was making a video of the whole show. Max might have computed the exact numbers, but he kept quiet because there was a story to be told.
"Come on, my parents and your bodyguard were always there." Marinette wanted to smack that Chat Noir grin straight off Adrien's face.
"Not after we left Lhasa." The boy teased.
Marinette blushed. Then she sat down in protest. If he wanted to tell the story, he was perfectly able to stand and talk. She could sit and cover her burning cheeks. It was not as if there was any option to hide that part. They had to give this curious beasts (their classmates) something to chew on, and they could not straight out admit that they were Ladybug and Chat Noir.
"The thing is, it is really cold to sleep outside in Tibet." Adrien spoke in a tone of mystery. There were a few giggles and laughs while several students already whistled as they anticipated what was coming next. "So the best way to preserve body heat is to share it."
Tell that in front of a school full of hormones. Marinette wanted to smack that boy. Ever since they returned, his Chat was showing so much that it did not matter how many tricks Bunnix pulled, he was going to give himself away. She narrowed her eyes at him. Adrien schooled himself down.
"You slept outside?" Someone asked a decent question.
"Well not really outside, but in a room with no heating or in a tent." The boy shrugged. But his face revealed just how proud and excited about the whole thing the boy was.
Marinette agreed to show photos from their travel later in the library, after this lunch break that will never end and after few more classes in the afternoon. Since Adrien gave all the photos to Nino and Alya, the choice on which photos to show was on their best friends, so Marinette knew that shutting up was only postponing the inevitable.
"But first we were flying to Beijing." Adrien smiled and looked at Marinette. She blushed, oh she remembered well how he was using her as a teddy bear and a sleeping pillow on the flight. "Then we did some sightseeing with Marinette's relatives and then we boarded the train."
Adrien could talk. Marinette noticed. He was able to tell a story about a forty hour train journey that sounded like it was a fun thing to do. But then it became obvious that it was really a fun experience for him.
"Then we did some sightseeing in Lhasa and the next morning we were on a bus to the temple." Adrien continued.
"There is a bus line?" Alix inquired.
"Oh, no." And then the boy explained all the oddities, including a little cheat they placed to actually get on a bus and be allowed to go to the temple.
"Come on, I want to hear the part where you sleep together." Kim teased.
"We actually just slept." Marinette groaned. "And I would have friezed if we did not share a sleeping bag, so shut up."
Adrien chuckled.
"So what did you do in the temple?" Chloe huffed. She did not want to hear anything about how Adrien and Marinette were sleeping together. It was hard for her to accept that the two of them were apparently together but she did not need to hear any more details about that, thank you very much.
Marinette was grateful to Chloe. Until the only thing on her mind was the training for the miraculous wielders and the battles and she had nothing that she could actually tell.
"Well, we had the water duty." Adrien dragged. "Then we cooked meals. We ate with the monks. We listened to their stories."
"And where did you sleep?" Rose piped in.
"Rose!" Marinette hissed.
"Most of the students slept in one large hall, including us, maybe some students slept somewhere else if there was not enough space, I really wouldn't know." Adrien shrugged.
"How romantic." Rose cooed.
"What?" Chloe raised an eyebrow.
"You slept on the floor?" Ivan asked.
"We did not really sleep in proper beds for 16 days." Adrien replied.
"They had proper beds in the train." Marinette protested.
"Well, the beds on a train are hardly proper beds." Ivan acknowledged.
"And I loved every moment of it." Adrien added.
That earned several howls.
Marinette flushed and covered her cheeks.
'We travelled half the world, we beaten freaking Hawk Moth and Mayura and all they want to know is how we slept together. Freaking teenagers and their freaking hormones.' Marinette thought to herself. 'At least they are not asking about us being Ladybug and Chat Noir.' She told herself to stay quiet and let them have their fun.
Adrien was having so much fun telling the story. He spent the school break with his lady and he knew her identity and she was Marinette and she loved him and the sun was shining and the birds were singing and he was just so happy.
None of the students was asking about Hawk Moth. Nor Mayura. Because Hawk Moth was Gabriel Agreste, Adrien's father, and Mayura was his assistant. So nobody wanted to ask Adrien about his father, the villain who terrorized Paris with his akuma and who was currently in prison in China and awaited trial or extradition or something.
And the boy was obviously very happy talking about beds and sleeping bags, about getting two warm onesies for him and Marinette, and Tibetan tea and cheese?
They explained how they cooked noodles, cleaned up in cold water, and what they were wearing and eating. The more the boy was speaking about the cobblestones and old buses, about walking over cold streams and sleeping on plain ground or hard floor, about cooking simple foods in the temple or making instant noodles, and about freaking Tibetan tea, and the boy kept being happy about each and every step of the way, the more Chloe realized they were indeed never meant to be.
Marinette finally relaxed and decided to go with the flow. She still blushed at each question that involved a bed or a sleeping bag, but the boy she loved was so happy when he was telling the story that she did not mind to blush once in a while.
Well, once in a while.
Not all the time.
The boy looked at her with those dreamy eyes and it was like all her dreams came true. Well they still had to find a house and have three kids and a hamster … It was still a long way there.
"Come on, they slept in freaking onesies, it was as if each of them was in a sleeping bag of their own before they packed themselves in that big sack." Alya shouted at Kim who just could not stop nagging about it.
Marinette blushed when she noticed that most of their teachers and even the school principal stood around the school yard and listened to their story. Great, how was she going to look any of her teachers in their eyes now that they all knew that she spent all her nights sharing anything you could sleep on with Adrien Agreste?
Adrien shut his mouth and observed Marinette.
"I know you are going to plaster this all over your social media, but please beware that hypothermia is a serious issue when one is in the mountains and one could never be too careful about it." The boy recited his excuse and schooled his face the way he was trained. He could already see the tabloids and the gossip news. Perhaps Marinette could ask Nadia Chamack to invite a few experts to her studio who would explain how what they did was absolutely necessary.
Alya took the hint so her and Nino decided to go through the choice of photos once more. The boy was a teenage star, and that unfortunately meant that his right for a private life was something that came with a price. Not to mention that he was also the son of Hawk Moth and the boy who defeated him.
"Listen everybody." Alya took the stand. "Our friends are telling us how they spent their holidays, this does not have to reach the media, okay?" She demanded.
Aurore and Mirelle crossed their arms and pouted but both also muttered okay.
"Can Marc and me make a comic book about you?" Nathaniel asked quietly.
Marinette hid her face again. Adrien smiled and shrugged.
Fortunately the bell rang and they had to head back to the classroom for a set of afternoon classes.