A/N: So this was a deleted chapter from HTFAM that I discarded in favor of a bit of a time skip and then decided to keep and turn into an outtake. It's set after Adrien and Marinette decide to move in together for the remainder of their time in London.

One of the funniest things about Adrien and Marinette, all of Marinette's team members agreed, was that the two of them were not anywhere as smooth as they thought they were. The two of them hadn't even remotely tried to hide how friendly they were with each other during Marinette's first year, and everyone had seen how their relationship had gradually progressed from a simple close friendship into something more.

And everyone had seen how suddenly, they were working to keep a little distance between them, like they were trying to pretend that they were back to just normal friend status- but when they thought no one was paying attention, they gravitated right back towards each other with little touches and fond looks. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were dating but for some strange reason, had decided to keep it secret from the world- or, rather, as secret as it could be when speculation about their love life was being published in the tabloids every other month.

None of them asked why. It had become a kind of source of amusement for the group of them, watching as Adrien and Marinette scrambled to act innocent whenever there were other people around. But everyone could see how Marinette lit up at the mention of Adrien and how she was always happy to go home and spend time with him, and how protective Adrien was of Marinette and how eager to please her he was.

Even if they weren't actually living with each other, the two of them acted like newlyweds and not all of the acting in the world could hide it.

Abbey Bernard's lips twitched in amusement as she thought about her most recent visit to Adrien and Marinette. She had mostly wanted to swing by to tease Marinette about the most recent slew of tabloid coverage about her and Adrien- their spa visit hadn't gone unnoticed, and wasn't that the cutest thing ever? Abbey wished that she could find a guy that would treat her as well as Adrien treated Marinette- and Marinette hadn't been over in her apartment. Instead, to the surprise of absolutely no one, she was hanging over at Adrien's apartment across the hall.

And- wasn't it the funniest thing?- it rather looked as though Marinette lived over in Adrien's apartment. Her things were scattered all over, her work ID tossed casually in a bowl on a table near the door next to the apartment keys and Adrien's school ID and bus pass and two sweaters of hers over the back of the couch. The last time that Abbey had seen the inside of Marinette's apartment, it had looked curiously bare.

"Hey, Abbey!" a voice called, and Abbey internally groaned, re-focusing on her work. She had a whole pile of paperwork that she had to get done- most of it having to do with fabric orders- and any interruptions would drag it out that much longer before she could finish and return to actually designing. "I had a question for you!"

"If it's about the editing on the latest photoshoot, I don't have a clue, ask Shannon," Abbey said automatically, and then she glanced up and saw Marinette hanging over her cubicle call. "Oh! Marinette! Hey, what's up?"

"I had a non-work question, but first- uh, could you keep something a secret?" Marinette cringed as soon as the words came out. "That sounds weird, I'm sorry, I mean-"

"If this is about you and Adrien dating, everyone here already knows- or, well, they all suspect, at least," Abbey said, cutting her off and making Marinette's eyes fly wide in surprise. She just internally shook her head. Had Marinette really thought that no one had noticed? Good lord. Well, maybe now they could stop the acting, now that they knew that their secret was out. "You two aren't subtle with the flirting, you know."

I- but-" Marinette spluttered, looking incredibly flustered. "We haven't flirted here-"

"You two never stop flirting." Abbey grinned, shaking her head. Even as sickly sweet as Adrien and Marinette could get at times, it was still cute. "But I'm guessing you didn't just come over to update me on your relationship status after-" she checked her calendar- "what, almost ten months of dating?"

Marinette spluttered even more, looking completely taken off guard. Abbey just waited patiently, knowing that it shouldn't take too long for her to recover. Thankfully Marinette managed to recover, though her cheeks were still a bit pink. Abbey watched as she straightened her shoulders, visibly composing herself before speaking again. "I, uh- well, I was wondering if you were still looking for a new apartment to move to."

Abbey made a face at the question, remembering her latest attempts to get out of her (rather terrible) apartment. It wasn't that the space was a mess or anything- it was just cramped beyond belief, was freezing all the time because it was always in the shade, and it wasn't in a great location, considering where she worked. The only opening that she had been able to find at a slightly better location had gotten snatched up before she could get it, which was actually worse than not being able to find anything at all. "Yeah. I gotta re-sign my lease by the end of the week, though, if I can't find anything. And I haven't been able to find anything. Why?"

"I'm planning on moving," Marinette told her, and Abbey's eyes went wide and hopeful. Marinette was moving? Oh, but that would mean that one of the lovely prefurnished apartments in the Rosalie workers' preferred building would be open! "Into Adrien's apartment, so mine will be open."

"But your lease isn't up until- what, the fall? Isn't that what you said last year?" Abbey's mind raced, trying to figure out how she could make sure that her lease would line up with Marinette's apartment opening. If she went for a month-to-month, maybe-

"I've been cleared to sublease," Marinette said before Abbey could think about it too much, and she immediately perked up. "And subleasers get approached first when the main leaser's contract is up and they aren't renewing."

Abbey was grinning. "Oh, I officially love you," she told Marinette. "Not as much as Adrien does, probably, but- oh my god. I've been trying to get into that building for forever. My current lease is up at the end of the month, but I can extend for a week at a time if needed. When can I move in? And will I need to sanitize every flat surface?" she added impishly, her grin turning wicked.

Marinette snorted. "No, we've kept that to Adrien's apartment- I mean!" she corrected quickly, catching herself just a few seconds too late. Abbey snickered in amusement. "No! We're- we've- that's- I mean to say that that's not a concern and also I'm cleaning before I move out anyway, so there!"

Abbey howled with laughter, cackling at Marinette's red face. It took her a minute to calm down and wipe the tears from her eyes. "Right, right. So, anyway- when will I be able to move in?"

Marinette stepped into the cubicle so one of the senior designers could get by, pushing a rack of clothing. Abbey waved to them sheepishly as they gave her a look. Clearly everyone in their section of the floor had hear her laughter. "We can probably manage at the end of the month. I just have to get a few more things out-"

"-aka you've been living with Adrien for a while, then," Abbey filled in, grinning.

"-and then clean and get the inspection done before you move in. It shouldn't take long. Adrien and I can clean this weekend." She giggled. "I'm sure he'll love that I'm volunteering him."

Abbey grinned at her, excitement starting to properly brew in her chest. "That's so great! I'll have to talk to my landlord, then, and tell him that I'll be moving after all. And then I'll start packing, and maybe move some boxes over? Would I be able to store a few small things in Adrien's apartment until the inspection is done? I mean, I can definitely wait, but if I could just move a few things per day so the final push isn't so hard..."

"I'll ask," Marinette promised. "And then I'll text you tonight to let you know. We could probably store some stuff under the couch or maybe in the hall closet. And I'll try to get the apartment cleaned up soon so I can get the inspection done."

"Wanna go over the details at lunch since we're technically supposed to be working right now?" Abbey suggested. She glanced down at her pile of paperwork a bit ruefully. "I want to know everything about the contract, of course, but I'm also supposed to be reviewing a bunch of paperwork right now."

"Of course!"

"You really don't have a ton left in here," Adrien commented as they surveyed Marinette's apartment that evening. "I mean, I think a lot of your clothes are over at my apartment anyway, and your blankets and pillows and towels, too, and- I mean, I think your apartment is basically just a sewing room at this point, and it's only even that much because we haven't moved the sewing machine back yet."

Marinette nodded a little sheepishly. "Sewing room and extra kitchen, really. And extra room so that Nino and Alya don't realize that we're living together when they visit."

"I'm so glad that Alya won the competition," Adrien said as he and Marinette headed back to the bedroom to see what she had left there. "Not just because I'm proud of her, of course, but she'll be preparing for her trip and then gone for a good chunk of the year, and all of Nino's trips will be to see her. We'll just have to figure out how to keep them from coming over after Alya gets back in- what, January?"

"I just figured that we would make a lot of trips to Paris under the guise of getting most of our stuff back home before the end of the school year," Marinette offered. She checked the first drawer, then reached in to pull out a pile of socks and underwear that she then promptly deposited in Adrien's arms. "And if I find any jobs to apply for, then I would go back for tours or interviews. Hopefully that would be enough visits for them."

"Hopefully," Adrien agreed. He had to think that their trips to Paris would be enough. Nino would be wanting to save money for his trips to see Alya, so if they just resolved to visit Paris several times a semester- which was more than what they had been doing- then maybe they could get away with living in the same apartment. They could maybe schedule more Skype calls as well, so that they could talk... well, not face-to-face, exactly, but as close to face-to-face as they could. "It's funny- like, I want to see Alya and Nino in person, of course, yet I don't want them to visit. That sounds so bad."

Marinette laughed.

It didn't take long for them to clear out the bedroom, even with Marinette's rather extensive wardrobe, though it took longer to puzzle out where they could store things in Adrien's apartment. The rest of the apartment took a similarly short time to clear out, even the living room. Marinette had apparently spent a couple evenings cleaning up and packing away the scraps and leftover fabric into bags before she went back to Paris, so it was no big hassle to move all of the sewing things back to their normal spot in Adrien's apartment.

By the end of the evening, Marinette's apartment was sitting empty and was ready to be cleaned- especially the living room, which had bits of fabric fibers everywhere thanks to all of the cut fabric from the commissions, and the bathroom which, despite their best efforts at the time, had some of the screen-printing chemical residue still smeared on the floor and in the tub.

"That wasn't that bad," Adrien commented as Marinette locked her apartment for the night and they headed back across the hall to their apartment. "But it's going to be harder to move out of our apartment once we're done in London," he added, making a bit of a face. "We'll have tons of stuff to carry back and we'll be cleaning and still living there at the same time."

Marinette made a face. "Oh, don't think about that now," she said. She kicked off her shoes at the door and tossed her keys on the table while Adrien locked the door. "I know we'll have to bring stuff back gradually, like most of our summer things going back to Paris at the end of summer and most of our fall things going back at Christmas, but it's still going to be so much."

Adrien couldn't help but laugh. "Funny, you say that we shouldn't think about it, and then you start talking about what we should do to get ready to go back."

Marinette just stuck out her tongue.

The next evening, they started the cleaning. Adrien attacked the bedroom and the living room with a vacuum while Marinette took on the bathroom. It wasn't fun work, especially when Adrien had to pause in his vacuuming to unwind a ribbon that had gotten overlooked and sucked into the vacuum and was very much stuck, but since Marinette had kept the apartment in such good condition for so long, it didn't need a deep cleaning. The kitchen just needed a quick wipe-up, a thorough scrub of the fridge, and a check to make sure none of the cooking things or silverware had migrated across the hall before it could get crossed off of the list of things to do, and the hall closet just needed a quick dust.

"Marinette, can you come help me move the couch so I can clean behind it?" Adrien called, flipping the vacuum off for a moment. "After those are done, the bedroom, the hallway, and the living room will all be finished."

Marinette came trotting out, wiping her hands on a towel. She was grinning. "Really? That's great!"

"And then I'll finish up the closet and work on the kitchen," Adrien told her as they moved the couch and the armchair away from the wall. He flipped the vacuum back on and quickly cleaned the newly exposed carpet. "It helps that most of the apartment hasn't really been used much for a while. There's not a bunch of grit and grime built up. Everything is just a quick clean, really."

"Says the guy who isn't cleaning the bathroom," Marinette said. She waited until the vacuum was off again and in the corner before grabbing her end of the couch so they could move it back up against the wall. "I've gotten most everything off, but there's a few stubborn spots, and I need to clean out the drain."

"Fun, fun."

"Not even remotely. I'm almost tempted to transform into Ladybug so I can have super-strength for the scrubbing. It might go a little faster that way."

Adrien couldn't help the snicker that slipped out. It was just a funny mental image, thinking about Ladybug super-cleaning a bathtub. "Somehow I don't think Tikki would be happy about that."

Marinette's lips twitched upwards in a small smile. "No, probably not."

Despite Marinette's grumbling, it didn't take long at all to get the rest of the cleaning done. Marinette went over the entire apartment again, making sure that that the windows were fully closed, nothing had been left out on the balcony, the adjustable dimmer light over the table was fully off, and all of the chairs were pushed into the table straight. Once that was done, Marinette joined Adrien at the door.

"I thought it would feel weird to be pretty much officially moved out of here, but it doesn't, not at all," Marinette told Adrien. "It feels more like well, at last."

"Well, you haven't exactly been living there for a while," Adrien pointed out, holding the door so Marinette could leave. "It'll probably be weird to move out of our apartment next year, though." He paused when Marinette didn't leave the apartment, eyes still scanning the room. His voice softened. "Marinette?"

She startled, as though she hadn't realized that she had checked out for a moment, and then reached over and took his hand, smiling up at him as she did. "I'm fine. I'm just really tired from all of the cleaning today and I just zoned out for a second."

He scanned her expression. She looked exhausted, almost like she was going to fall asleep standing up. Hopefully she could make it through the shower before falling asleep. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Let's go home."