Outtakes no. 4, aka the chapter that used to be part of the main story but I cut it for reasons and then couldn't bear to get rid of it.

Marinette was still floating on Cloud Nine when she went into work on Monday. She and Adrien had spent the rest of Sunday cuddling and hanging out together in their (ridiculous) matching pajamas while playing video games and munching on takeout from their favorite Greek restaurant. They had gone out for a run as superheroes once it grew dark that night, and it had all been amazing to get out again.

Abbey's shriek of delight brought her out of her memories.

"I see a ring!" Abbey sang, practically pouncing on Marinette and holding her hand up. "Oh, that's so pretty! And it's a seamstress's ring, too. That shouldn't snag on anything."

"I heard something about a ring?" Sarah appeared around the corner and gave a little gasp of delight. "Oh! Congratulation, Mari!"

Marinette's grin only grew.

"Hang on, I thought you weren't dating anyone," Shannon said in an exaggeratedly confused voice as she popped up next to Sarah. "And certainly not the Agreste boy. Surely the magazines would have said something if you were."

Marinette had to laugh at that. Oddly enough, the tabloids had been more or less leaving them alone over the past few months. "We're going to see if we can keep it on the down-low until we get home. I'd like to break the news to my parents myself, and I think that Mr. Agreste would spontaneously combust if he heard from the tabloids that Adrien is engaged."

"Ah, let him combust." Madam Rosalie appeared around the corner as well, grinning widely. The others stepped back to let her pass. "Adrien told me what he was planning on Thursday so that I could get my friend to have the garden opened for you two. How did it go?"

"Well enough for her to say yes, apparently," Sarah joked. She pointed at the ring sparkling on Marinette's finger. "Adrien has fabulous taste, by the way. I would have thought that he would go for a gaudy stone or something, since I know you've said that he tends to go over the top sometimes. But that's not going to get in your way at all."

Marinette grinned, nodding. Adrien had said that that had been something that he had specifically looked at when he was deciding on rings. "Yeah, he knew that large stones on normal rings would snag, so he didn't even look at those."

"Smart man."

"So was it a complete surprise?" Abbey wanted to know. "Or did you know that he was planning on proposing?"

"Well, we had talked about getting married before," Marinette told her. "So we were on the same page with that. But I wasn't expecting him to propose then, so it was a surprise in that way." She had suspected that Adrien might propose before they left London, considering his desire to not tell anyone about their relationship even once they had passed the point of his last semester's tuition being paid for, but even with the frankly perfect set-up- proposing right where they had gotten "married" before was simultaneously hilarious and romantic, considering the amazing backdrop with all of the flowers- Marinette hadn't been thinking oh, I bet he's going to propose. If Adrien had been nervous, he hadn't shown it at all. They had just been giggling over something stupid only minutes before they entered the last garden, and had been talking about how they were going to use up the last of their food and if they needed to do any more shopping at all. It had felt like a regular, ordinary date, which she was sure was part of Adrien's plan.

"That's so sweet!" Shannon exclaimed. "And it's good timing, too, since you won't have to keep it a secret for that long before you go home."

"Oh, that's right. I can't believe that you're going to be leaving soon," Abbey said mournfully. "It's going to be so different without you here. We're going to have to make your good-bye party into a combo good-bye and engagement party, because there is not enough time to do two parties."

"We'll have to make it an extra-awesome party, then," Sarah chimed in. "All sorts of treats and sugary goodness and an awesome meal and everything. You aren't allowed to cook any of it. You have enough to take care of."

Marinette grinned. "You guys are the best."

"Well, it's gotta suck to not be able to tell all of your friends back home- and your parents, of course- about getting engaged right away." Shannon patted Marinette's shoulder. "Though I'm sure that's going to be fun, since your parents don't even know that you were dating Adrien, do they?"

"I'm sure that they suspected that there were feelings there," Marinette admitted, remembering the little nudges and looks her parents gave each other when they saw her and Adrien together. "But not that there was a relationship. I don't think they saw enough to suspect that."

Abbey snorted. "Yeah, you two are not subtle. Anyone with eyes can tell that you're close."

Marinette had to splutter at that. "We've been careful!"

"Girl, there's a reason everyone here knew about you and Adrien before you told us anything," Sarah said with a laugh. "If people back in Paris don't know that you two are mad for each other, it's just because they don't see you often enough for you to give it away."

"Oh, there's no need to call her out like that," Madam Rosalie said with a laugh. "It's been fun to watch, at any rate, and I was thrilled to help. And I'm sure we'll all want to know how breaking the news goes once you're back in Paris."

Marinette grinned at the reminder. She was simultaneously nervous and excited about breaking the news back home. They had avoided telling anyone pretty much because they wanted to hold off until their engagement, since it would be funnier, but at the same time Alya was going to kill them for keeping it a secret.

Oh, well. At least it should be funny.

"So what do you think about maybe telling Nathalie first?" Adrien asked as he and Marinette finished up their dinner Monday evening. He had been thinking about how to best approach to breaking the news during the day, and he was starting to think that just going back to Paris and telling Mr. Agreste without any sort of cushioning was probably a recipe for disaster. "If we tell her now, maybe she can come up with some way to make sure that my father won't just blow up first and ask questions later when we tell him."

Marinette considered that. She looked a bit uncertain about it, which Adrien couldn't blame her for. While Nathalie wasn't going to blow up like his father likely would, her reaction to the news would still be a bit unpredictable. "It sounds like a good idea in theory. But what if she goes to my parents for some reason? I want to tell them and see their reactions in person."

"l can tell Nathalie to keep the news to herself, I'm sure she'll understand," Adrien promised, knowing that it was true. Besides, it would be out of character for Nathalie to go to the Dupain-Chengs when they wouldn't know any more about what was going on than he did. "But do you think it might be a good idea? To tell Nathalie and see if she can think of some way to make the news not quite so out of the blue?"

"If anyone can figure out some way to do that, Nathalie can," Marinette agreed. "Though I wish the first people we tell from back home would actually be excited for us."

Adrien winced. Yeah, Nathalie really wasn't an ideal person to go to if they were hoping for an excited reaction. She would probably manage to pull together a bit of excitement for them after her shock wore off, but that would be overpowered easily enough once they got home by his father's- what? Anger? Irritation?

Whatever his father's reaction would be, it wouldn't be pleasant. Adrien would try not to get too offended by it, since his father was never pleased by any of the news Adrien brought him. Adrien had a job? Ugh. Adrien was moving to London? Ew. Adrien was finally standing up for himself and getting a degree that he actually was interested in? Mr. Agreste didn't want to deal with it.

Once he and Marinette had finished dinner, Adrien called home. He jittered anxiously as the phone rang once, twice, three times.

"Hey, Nathalie," Adrien said cheerfully when his father's assistant picked up the phone. "Is my father around?"

"He's in a meeting right now," Nathalie informed him, and Adrien resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course his father was in a meeting, never mind that most people were long since done with work for the day. Still, that was exactly why he had called. He had known that Nathalie would be wrapping up for the day while his father worked, and so he could probably catch her alone. "Is there something you wanted to tell him before you got home? You're leaving London in five days, correct?"

"Well, I have news, but I wanted to just tell you for now," Adrien said nervously. Suddenly he was wondering if this really was a good idea. What if Nathalie, without knowing the whole picture, decided that he was being super-immature and told his father? It was ridiculous to think that the distance would deter Mr. Agreste if he really wanted to have words. After all, his father had decided to fly over when they had the fake wedding prank. What had made him think otherwise?

"Ah." Nathalie didn't sound particularly interested. "And that news is what, exactly?"

"I'm engaged," Adrien announced, deciding that he could probably trust Nathalie to keep a secret for the next five days. "I asked Marinette to marry me yesterday, and she said yes-"

There was a thud on the other end.

"I hope that was the phone and not Nathalie," Adrien said to Marinette, who was sitting on the couch watching him. She raised an eyebrow.

"What happened?"

"Something fell. There was a thud."

Marinette looked a little concerned. "Well, it was kind of without warning. They didn't know we were dating."

"I hope your parents take it better." The last thing Adrien wanted to do was make Madam Cheng or- heaven forbid, no one would be able to catch him- Mr. Dupain faint.

"At least we're waiting to tell them until we get back and can tell them in person. If we walk in there looking cuddly, it'll come as less of a surprise." There was also the fact that they had known about her crush during collège and lycée. Marinette's parents might not have said anything about it yet, but they probably suspected at least something was happening between Adrien and Marinette.

Adrien gestured Marinette to be quiet as there was noise on the other end of the line as the phone was picked up off of the floor. He waited.

"I think," Nathalie managed at last, though she sounded a little strangled, "that that might be the kind of news you would want to give him in person. Can you wait until you get home to make the announcement?"

Adrien grinned in amusement at the sound of her voice. He had finally taken Nathalie- Nathalie the unshakable- off guard. "Right. We weren't going to tell anyone else until we were back in Paris."

"Is- is this for real this time?" Nathalie asked a bit tentatively. "Or is this another prank?"

"It's for real," Adrien assured her, more than a little amused. He wouldn't fake another marriage-related thing. If he were to pull another prank, he'd go for something else, like saying he was going to move to America or something. That would inspire a lot of panic.

"But- but-" Nathalie seemed to be at a bit of a loss for words. "You haven't even been dating, though, you can't just go straight from friends to engaged."

"We have been dating, actually," Adrien corrected her cheerfully. "For two years."

"You said in the interviews that you weren't." Nathalie sounded a bit frustrated. "I mean, I understand lying to keep them off of your back, but..."

"I said that before we started dating," Adrien corrected her. "And then after we started dating, I evaded a lot. I asked them why they were still asking me about Marinette when I had already answered their questions before, so they decided to drop it." He grinned, even though Nathalie wouldn't be able to see. "I didn't lie, exactly. I omitted. A lot."

"Omitted and evaded." Nathalie gave a long-suffering sigh. "Your father's favorite tactics when it comes to that kind of press, naturally. It still would have been nice to know."

"Father wouldn't have allowed it. Never mind that I'm a grown adult completely capable of making my own decisions."

"Perhaps." Nathalie sounded so very done and Adrien had to grin. She really did put up with a lot. Most of his was his father's fault, of course, but Adrien couldn't deny that he definitely had something to do with it as well. "Very well. Congratulations on your engagement, and I'll try to see if I can do something before you come home to make your father more open to the idea of you being with someone. I'm assuming that's why you called to tell me now. And in the future, I would appreciate it if you could at least keep me in the loop instead of keeping things entirely secret so I could be prepared. I wouldn't have told your father."

"Right," Adrien said, trying not to roll his eyes. Nathalie had totally tattled on him before, and it had resulted in him getting in a lot of trouble. "Thanks, Nathalie."

"Good-bye, Adrien."

Marinette looked a bit amused as Adrien hung up and rolled his eyes at her. "What did she say?"

"That she'll try to think of some sort of lead-in so that my father is more open to the idea. I didn't even have to ask." Adrien grinned, then paused when he remembered something. "Oh, shoot. I forgot to ask her to not tell anyone. I mean, I don't think she'll go to your parents, since I did say that we weren't telling anyone else."

"I think that'll be fine," Marinette said. She grinned. "I can't believe she dropped the phone. That's hilarious."

"I hope we can get other people to react like that," Adrien said with a laugh. "If we can, it's gonna make everything entirely worth it."

Ben followed Paul up the stairs at Adrien and Marinette's building, a bit of a spring in his step. He was glad that he would get to see the two of them again before they left, because Adrien was a great friend and he would miss getting to chat with him about Physics stuff. They could call each other, but it wasn't the same as getting to hang out over lunch when his break coincided with Adrien's.

They would have to visit each other sometimes. It probably wouldn't happen right away, since he was on entry-level pay at the moment and Adrien would be as well, but eventually. Maybe once he made enough to get a car he could make a road trip out of it.

"It's nice of them to invite us over," Paul commented as he and Ben rounded the last section of stairs and got to Adrien and Marinette's floor. "They have to be crazy busy packing. They're both leaving on Saturday, right?"

"I think so. And with them having two apartments to pack? Awful." Ben wasn't sure how Adrien had managed handling the end of the semester while simultaneously getting ready to move back to Paris. There had been a lot of deciding what could and could not go back during their other trips to Paris over the semester. At least Adrien had given himself a week after graduation to finish packing up and cleaning. Apparently Marinette was working until Friday and then would be on the Eurostar with Adrien the very next day.

"I couldn't do it, but they seemed to think it was a good idea." Paul knocked on Adrien's door. "I just want to know how on earth they can clean anything when they're still living there. I wanna know what kind of magic they're using for when I finally move out of my parents' house."

"They might be keeping packed bags in one of Marinette's coworker's places," Ben pointed out. From inside of the apartment, they could hear footsteps as someone came to the door. "Just to keep them out of the way. Or they could just be moving stuff back and forth between their apartments so that they can vacuum and whatnot."

Before Paul could respond, the door flew open and Adrien grinned at them. "Hey! You're here!" He stepped back to let the two of them in, still grinning. "Sorry about the mess. We're kind of in the middle of packing right now."

"It really has gotten bare in here," Ben commented, glancing around. He wasn't sure what mess Adrien was referring to, unless he was talking about the pile of bags and boxes in the corner. Everything else was clean and devoid of clutter. "It's strange. I'm used to it looking pretty lived in."

Adrien made a face, nodding. "It feels strange to live in, too. It just feels so impersonal."

"Is Marinette's flat the same, then? It must be." Paul glanced around and then pointed to the boxes and bags stacked neatly near the couch. "Are you bringing that all back to Paris in one trip? You must be, right?"

"Some of it is Marinette's," Adrien pointed out, and- okay, yeah, how he had missed the pink bag in the pile, Ben didn't know. That was pretty obviously Marinette's. "And there are a few light things that we're shipping. And then Marinette might be leaving some stuff and then making a trip back to pick them up later on. Her coworkers offered to hold on to a few things for her."

"I think they just like the idea of being able to hold stuff hostage so that they can see me again," Marinette joked, emerging from the bedroom and heading up the short hallway towards them as Ben and Paul shucked their shoes at the door. "But yeah, it's super nice of them. And Abbey took the sewing table that I bought for her own flat, so I don't need to worry about what to do with that."

"I'd offer my family's house for temporary storage as needed, but, well, you know my sister." Paul shrugged at Adrien. "She'd probably try to, like, dig through and take something just because it belonged to you."

Adrien clearly winced at the idea. "Yeah, thanks, I'll pass."

"Overall it looks like you're doing a pretty good job, though," Ben said, pulling the conversation back on track. "You have, what, three days left before you leave?"

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. It's getting really close."

"Everything I'm doing at work now is wrapping up projects and making sure that I'm not leaving any loose ends," Marinette chimed in. "It's not as fun as starting new stuff. And there's a few new projects being tossed around, and I've heard a few things about them and they sound like so much fun."

"You'll find new projects to work on," Adrien assured her. "And you do have your commissions, too."

Paul glanced over at Marinette. "Oh, did you get a job back home? Congrats!"

Marinette shook her head. "No luck. There weren't any positions open at any of the places I was interested in. But I have commissions, and a website about to go live once I get home."

Both Ben and Paul nodded. Ben had seen some of the things that Marinette made, and even though he wasn't into fashion at all, he had to admit that they were super cool. If she wasn't getting hired, it was probably more due to a lack of jobs she was interested in rather than not being qualified.

It didn't take long for them to get settled down on the furniture. Adrien had set out some chips as a snack as they chatted, waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Ben asked about what Adrien knew about his lab right now, and he and Paul compared noted about what they had been told about their respective jobs. Before long, though, the topic of conversation turned back to the impeding move.

"We probably should have just rented a van or something and driven it back to Paris," Adrien admitted with a laugh. "But we've had our tickets for the Eurostar for forever, so I guess we'll just have to be those annoying people with a ton of luggage. I wouldn't want to try to drive a rental car in Paris anyway."

"I can help you get stuff to the station," Ben offered. "And once you get there, I think they have carts you can borrow."

"Oh, that would be fantastic." Marinette grinned at him as she got up for more chips. She picked up her plate and as she did, Ben caught sight of a ring glittering on her finger.

It didn't look like the decorative rings that some people wore, the just-because jewelry. Marinette didn't seem to really wear just-because jewelry, and that looked like an engagement ring. Which, uh...

Ben glanced at Adrien and Marinette again. Had he misunderstood something? He had thought that both Adrien and Marinette were going back to Paris but if Marinette had gotten engaged to someone in London, then wouldn't she stay here? Unless her fiancée was moving to Paris as well, in which case that had to be a really big production, having them move as well.

He hadn't realized that Marinette was dating anyone. Ben had always thought that Adrien and Marinette would probably end up together once they had both gone back to Paris and Adrien's father wasn't trying to ban Adrien from dating. They were obviously close, closer than Ben had ever been with any of his past girlfriends, and now...

Maybe he was reading things wrong, or somehow coming to the wrong conclusion. Maybe Marinette had been modeling rings at work or something and forgot to take one off. Maybe there was something else going on. He wasn't going to ask and make a fool of himself for coming to the wrong conclusion, though, so Ben said nothing.

Paul would probably notice too, right? Especially with the way that the light was catching that ring. And since Paul tended to blurt out whatever he was thinking

"Okay, I gotta ask about the bling on Marinette's finger," Paul said a couple minutes after that, nodding towards the ring on display on Marinette's lap. The look he gave Marinette and Adrien was deeply suspicious, which Ben could understand. "Are you trying to screw with the tabloids, or is there something that you want to share with the class?"

Adrien grinned. He looked curiously happy for someone whose best friend was apparently getting married to someone who wasn't him. "Yeah! We're engaged."

...okay, apparently Adrien's best friend was getting married to him, despite the fact that they had given absolutely no indication of having any sort of relationship before.

What. On. Earth.

Paul goggled. Ben was sure that his jaw was somewhere on the floor. "Dude. What even-? But you weren't even dating- or were you?"

"We were, we just didn't publicize it." Adrien reached over to take Marinette's hand, and the way they entwined their fingers was so comfortable. Clearly it wasn't the first time they had done that, not by far. "Because of my father and his ridiculous rules. And now I'm graduated and he can't do anything about what I'm doing with my life."

"Dude," Ben said after a moment, taken completely off guard. Whatever he had been expecting, he hadn't thought oh, yeah, these two would TOTALLY decide to do a secret relationship! He had assumed that if they said oh, we're not dating, then they weren't dating, end of story. "Okay, point taken, never believe anything you say. I thought for a minute there that Marinette must have been dating someone else here in London and gotten engaged to them. And I was like, wow, that must suck for you because anyone with eyes could see that you were head over heels for her."

Adrien had to laugh at that. "No, thankfully that's not the case. Marinette is my fiancée, and I couldn't ask for anyone better."

"You two, really- I can't decide if you're relationship goals or just straight-up ridiculous." Ben shook his head, more amused now that he knew what was going on. It must have taken some serious commitment to keep something like a serious relationship secret from everyone, just for- what? The sake of making it into a bit of a prank? "You could have mentioned something earlier, you know."

"They're both goals and completely nutty," Paul chimed in. He grinned at Adrien and Marinette. "You're absolutely bonkers. My mom would kill me if I hid a relationship from her for two years and then randomly popped up engaged."

"We were going to tell people earlier, once it was too late for my father to pull any funding, but by that point I was planning on proposing," Adrien explained, as though that somehow made his train of thought more reasonable. "And then I figured, why not just wait until then to mention anything? It was more amusing that way, too."

"You are so dead, dude."

Ben just shook his head at them, amused.

"We didn't tell anyone because we didn't want to risk it getting out," Marinette chimed in. She glanced over. "We did tell my team at work and my boss, but that was because Abbey was moving in to my old flat and we needed for her to cover for us. And of course our team visits each other, so they knew that Abbey was moving into my old place."

"And her boss helped me set up the proposal," Adrien said. "Because she had the connections I needed to do the proposal I wanted to do. We didn't mean to exclude everyone else, really. We were just playing it safe."

Paul was shaking his head. "No, I get it," he told them. "If I had known that you two were dating, I probably would have used that information to shut my sister up one of the times she started going on about she thinks that you and her are meant to be. And if she knew, it would be all over within an hour." He grinned. "Oh, how I'm looking forward to breaking the news. Only after you're back in Paris," he assured Adrien. "I can hold out for that long, at least."

Ben stared at Paul. "Your sister sounds like a complete horror."

"Oh, you have no idea."

"Think of the stereotype of obsessed fangirl, and you have his sister," Adrien chimed in. "Hopefully she grows out of it."

"She's going to freak when she finds out that you're officially off the market," Paul said. "Can you text me when you've broken the news? I want to see my sister's face. She's had stars that she was crushing on get involved with people before, but she knew that they were out of her league anyway."

"Or too old," Adrien suggested. Paul nodded in agreement.

"Or too old for her."

"Congratulations, by the way," Ben said, keeping the conversation from veering completely off when he realized that, with all of the surprise, he hadn't actually congratulated his friends. "I'm not surprised that you two ended up together, even if you decided to do it in, like, the most unconventional way possible."

"Oh! Yeah, duh." Paul smacked his forehead. "Congrats! You two crazies deserve each other."

Adrien and Marinette both had to laugh at that. "Thanks, I think."

Nathalie paused at the door to Gabriel's office. She could turn back now and not go through with the lie she had so carefully cultivated and leave Adrien to deal with the consequences of his surprise engagement on his own, like a proper adult. She was under no obligation to manipulate his father into believing that it would be beneficial for Adrien to be dating (or engaged, for that matter). She was Gabriel's secretary and Adrien's- well, Adrien's keeper when he was younger, but he had quite grown out of that- not the family peace-keeper. She didn't have to do this.

She turned the door handle and entered Gabriel's office.

Gabriel looked up as she entered. "Nathalie." His gaze dropped to the magazine she clutched in her hand and his brow furrowed. "Has Adrien ended up in the tabloids again?"

"Not by any wrongdoing of his own," Nathalie assured Mr. Agreste hastily, keeping her tone controlled as she strode across the room. She couldn't let him suspect anything. "It's, well..."

She held out the magazine and Mr. Agreste took it. He scanned the cover page in an instant and his expression immediately turned sour. Nathalie held her breath. Either this would work, or...

"They think that he's not interested in women just because every article about him dating has been denied and debunked? What kind of sensationalist nonsense is this?"

"To be fair, sir, most men of his status and age have been on at least a few dates," Nathalie pointed out as her employer glared at the magazine cover. "He's not eighteen anymore. Many of his peers are either dating, engaged, or married."

Gabriel glanced back up at her before flipping to the article the cover had advertised and glaring at that as well. "I suppose. Perhaps I should have you create a list of eligible women that Adrien could be seen on dates with, but that can wait until Adrien returns."

Nathalie was going to count that as a success. "Very well, sir."

"And if this tabloid tries to print anything else regarding Adrien, do look into libel laws. Speculating about someone's sexual orientation is crossing a line." Gabriel handed the magazine back to Nathalie and looked back at his desk. "That is all."

"Of course, sir." Nathalie retreated as fast as she had come, closing the door quietly behind her before letting herself give a little fist pump. She- well, of course she hadn't expected that not to work, because she knew Mr. Agreste well after working for him for over a decade and knew how to take advantage of his biases, but still. Mr. Agreste could be as unpredictable as a summer storm, and he had an uncanny eye for picking out fakes.

And of course, the article had been a fake. While there were tabloids that would gladly stoop to the level of trying to out celebrities, the one that Nathalie had used would not.

She had called in some favors and now needed to persuade Adrien and Marinette to give an interview to the editor who had helped her make the fake magazine. She hadn't wanted to, of course- involving the tabloids in any sort of personal business was risky- but despite the number and variety of skills Nathalie had acquired over the years, she wasn't very skilled in Photoshop, couldn't write a fake tabloid article to save her life, and wasn't entirely positive where she could get her hands on magazine paper and a printer that could handle that paper. She had had to search out an old friend from university at one of the more reputable tabloids to do the job for her. Most of the magazine was real, of course, but the blurb on the cover had been photoshopped in and one article replaced by the one about Adrien.

It would be less risky that way, Nathalie's friend had told her. Gabriel might have seen the magazine in passing and known that it existed, though a smaller headline would be easier to miss. It also had been cheaper than commissioning a whole new magazine just to trick Mr. Agreste into letting his son date.

She could only hope that it would help.