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quicksilversquared · 5 years

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There’s No Camembert in Tibet Outtakes: Chapter 7

Adrien: Future

Adrien loved having his mom back.

It wasn't all smooth and easy, not by a long shot. She had a lot to deal with in order to get reintegrated into the life that she had been pulled from. She wanted to spend time with him, of course, since she had been missing for a year, and she wanted to get to know all of his friends and other classmates, but she couldn't just do the fun stuff. She had to talk to police and tell them what had happened when she went missing, and catch up with what was going on with the company, and then deal with the reporters that kept clamoring to know what had happened.

And then, of course, there was the whole need to deal with his father. She hadn't told him what had gone down during her visit to the prison, but she hadn't seemed very happy afterwards.

But his mom was getting along with his friends really well, and she seemed to adore Marinette already. Adrien had definitely heard the two of them discussing how they might renovate the front hall area to make it not so intimidating, and she seemed to really listen to what Marinette had to say.

...Adrien was a little concerned that he and Marinette wouldn't get any time to properly relax together, between them simply spending time with his mom, meeting up with their other friends that they hadn't seen for the first half of the summer, and doing all of the shopping for the impending redecoration. His schedule had already started up again with fencing and basketball and piano and photoshoots, keeping him busy for several hours each day almost five days each week. His mom had agreed to not resuming his Mandarin classes as long as he spent some time chatting with Mrs. Cheng every week, so he didn't have that, but still.

At least she had agreed to let him continue going to public school. Otherwise, Adrien probably would have had tutors starting to come in on top of everything else, and his summer would be done for.

(To be fair, she hadn't even argued that one. It was just automatically a given that Adrien would be returning to school, it seemed.)

"Sitting around doing nothing isn't all it's cracked up to be," Marinette assured him one day as he was practicing piano and she was listening, perched on the bench next to him. "It gets boring. I know Nino was talking it up, but he probably lasted for all of one full day before needing to do literally anything else at all."

"He's not gotten his full day of relaxation, either. He texted me grumbling about it." In fact, out of all of them, only Chloe hadmanaged to sit back and fully relax. Alya had had to babysit her sisters, Nino had been put in charge of his little brother Chris, Master Fu had re-opened his business, Mrs. Cheng had been working in the bakery again filling in for a worker that had come down ill right after her return, Adrien had had his activities, and Marinette alternated between designing, helping in the bakery with especially large orders, and helping his mom with redesign and renovation plans. "Maybe once we're back in school we'll get a Saturday free or something."

"And we've had half days here and there to hang out," Marinette pointed out. "Even if there were some very noisy kids around."

Adrien winced at the memory of Chris, Ella, and Etta running around screaming at the pool on top of the Grand Paris on their last afternoon out. If it hadn't been for their connections to Chloe, Mr. Bourgeois probably would have tossed them out right away.

(If Chloe had actually been there and not on a shopping spree, she would have probably kicked them out herself, friends or no. They had gotten the kids to calm down after a bit, but they were still a bit splashy.)

"Maybe we can go on a date this week and have an afternoon and evening to ourselves," Adrien suggested, finishing up the song with a practiced flourish and sitting back. "Not to do anything fancy, but maybe pizza and a movie? Or go to the arcade and trounce everyone's high scores."

Marinette beamed at him. "Oh, I'd like that," she agreed. "We can maybe start with one and move to the other after dinner, depending on when shows are playing and how late the arcade is open. Will your mom let us be out that long?"

"She's being strangely lenient about me being out and about." It was surprising, really. Adrien had prepared himself to be coddled to the point of nearly being smothered, but instead he had nearly as much freedom as he had had with Nathalie and the Gorilla watching him. Nathalie had warned that it probably wouldn't last forever- his mom probably felt guilty about leaving him on his own and about all that he had had to go through while she was gone, and was still trying to figure out where to set new boundaries now that he had gotten used to more freedom.

Adrien was going to enjoy his freedom while he still had it. Once his mom set new limits, there was a possibility that some of the stuff that he had taken for granted over the past couple of months would be off-limits until he turned 18- or until after he had graduated university and moved out.

The sleepovers were already out-of-bounds, they didn't even need to ask to know that much- and Adrien didn't want hangouts in the park to be next, just because some fangirls (and fanguys) didn't understand the concept of leaving him alone and his mom was worried about them harassing him.

"Right, so let me check my calendar." Adrien pulled out his phone, hoping that his mom wasn't going to come investigate if she didn't hear piano music for a while. He knew that he was meant to be practicing, and he did have a lot of ground to make up after not playing much after his father's arrest and not practicing at all for the first part of the summer, but his girlfriend was right there. After being together all the time on the trail, their separation back in Paris was jarring. So sue him if he maybe wanted to set practice aside for a little bit to figure out when they could have another proper date before their evenings filled up with homework and projects again. "Ooh, it looks like most of my photoshoots have passed! I only have one this week."

"More fall stuff?"

Adrien winced at the reminder that he would have to get dressed up in clothes that were far toowarm for the hot Paris weather. "Ugh. Yeah. Promise you'll come rescue me?"

"I can bring iced lemonade again. Does that work?"

"That sounds purr-fect, my Lady."

"Oh, we're getting dirt all over the floor!"

Adrien grinned at his mom's distressed exclamation. "Mom, we have a broom. And a top-of-the-line vacuum."

"And mops," Marinette added, trying to push her hair out of her face without actually touching it with her dirt-covered hands. She wasn't entirely successful. "It'll all come up! We knew it would get messy! That's why we didn't put the rugs down yet."

"Oh, but still." Mrs. Agreste scanned the footprint-covered floor. "I know we wanted the entry hall to look lived in, but this is going a little too far."

Adrien caught sight of Nathalie peeking out of the office at the mess and wincing before vanishing back into the room. He grinned at that. Nathalie wasn't used to seeing the mansion in anything but perfect shape, and right now, in the middle of their redecorating, the front entry hall was anything but perfect. The couches, chairs, tables, and rugs that Marinette and his mom had found for the space on one of their little outings were shoved together and piled up in one corner, waiting to be arranged. Another corner was filled with their new curtains, the light, airy fabric draped over the banister of the stairs and trailing across the floor in anticipation of being hung later on.

And in the middle of the space, almost every centimeter of floor was covered by planters, pots of plants, and bags of dirt. Marinette had come up with the idea to replace the old planters, formerly filled with dark red plants, and replace them with a number of new ones, light and fun instead of dark and businesslike, and then fill them with a more playful arrangement of plants. Ferns and bamboos and palms and orchids and all sorts of plants Adrien didn't recognize were scattered around them, waiting to be planted and arranged around the room, making his mom and Marinette's vision for the space a reality.

Of course, before they could get planted, they needed to actually fill the planters up with dirt. That...was taking a while.

Mostly because Marinette was the only one out of the three of them to really be willing to get elbow-deep in dirt and fertilizer. Adrien was doing his best, he really was, but he wasn't used to the feeling of dirt under his fingernails, and his mom was fussing over the dirt that was getting on her clothes and on the floor. Apparently she was willing to put up with a little dirt while camping, but not at home in Paris.

Adrien could relate, honestly. He felt the same way.

Things got sped up when the Gorilla came in, saw Marinette wrestling with a heavy bag of dirt just as big as she was, and heaved a sigh before helping them get all of the containers filled properly in no time at all.

"Okay, arrangement time!" Adrien's mom said cheerfully once the empty bags were cleared away. "Marinette, dear, what were you planning on doing?"

As Marinette and his mom planned which plants would go where, Adrien became the muscle, rushing around to get the plants they pointed out and placing them in front of their designated planters. There was a bit of back-and-forth before they settled on their arrangements, making notes to go back and out and buy a couple more of certain types of the plants, and then it was time to actually remove all of the plants from their flimsy plastic pots and get them in the planters.

By that time, the Gorilla had managed to return with a couple hand trowels and gardening gloves. Adrien pulled his on eagerly, grinning at the cat pattern that ran across the back of the gloves. His mom cooed over her own ladybug-spotted gloved before diving into the work with renewed vigor.

"This place is going to look so nice once we're finished," Mrs. Agreste said eagerly as they started arranging things in the first of their planters. Now that they were past the step of wrestling with heavy bags of dirt, her cheerful mood had returned. "Just switching out the painting already has changed the mood of the room!"

Adrien nodded, glancing up the main stairs. Up on the landing, overseeing the entire room, the dark portrait of Adrien and Mr. Agreste had been replaced as soon as possible with a colorful painting of flowers and butterflies. His mom hadn't been sure about having butterflies in the picture at first, but Adrien and Marinette had eventually convinced her that not all butterflies were bad, so there was no reason why she should avoid them.

Besides, there were no purple butterflies in the painting.

"And then the electrician is going to come in this afternoon and switch out those ugly light fixtures," Mrs. Agreste continued, absentmindedly stroking the fronds of a fern. "And then- what else will we have to do, Marinette? There's so much."

"All of the rugs and couches and everything will get put out," Marinette reminded her, patting the dirt down firmly around a plant with trailing vines. "And the curtains will go up. It's not that much, really, it's just bulky."

"Can you really call them curtains if they don't really block any light?" Adrien mused, handing Marinette a plant with silvery leaves. "They have about as much substance to them as a wisp of a cloud. Not that I don't like them, of course, I trust your vision, but..."

Marinette giggled. "They're just for show. Fabric makes softer lines."

"We're all going to get a good night's sleep tonight, that's for sure," Mrs. Agreste announced. "And- oh, this plant won't come out!"

It took them nearly three hours just to get the planters all finished, though a couple had small notes on them with what needed to be added in the future. The three of them headed in for lunch with growling stomachs and dirty hands, and it was only Nathalie catching them at the door that made them remember that they had to wash up first.

As they ate, Adrien couldn't stop smiling. It never failed to make him amazingly, stupendously happy when he saw how well his mom and Marinette got along. He had worried about it at first, of course- if his mom would feel like Marinette was taking up too much of Adrien's time, or if she might not like Marinette simply because she felt that he was too young for dating, or- well, anything, really. He had read so many stories and seen so many shows where the main character had to deal with a disapproving family, and Adrien had been so, so worried that he might have to deal with something similar.

Thankfully his mom didn't seem to have any problems with him dating- she was quite supportive of it, it seemed- and she adored Marinette. The two of them had hit it off right away.

She would love Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng once she got to spend more time with them, of that Adrien was sure. They had only had time for a few short meetings so far, since both families were understandably busy, and, well, so far, so good.

Lunch went by too fast, and then they were back out in the front room, moving the planters into place. Thankfully they all had tiny wheels on the bottoms, making it easy- well, easier, the planters were still heavy- to get things into place. The white planters and colorful plants filling them hid a lot of the dark marble and filled in a bit of the empty space around the room, already making it feel a lot nicer.

"We were thinking of doing a hanging herb garden over that bit of marble so that the cook could use fresh herbs without having to get them from the store, but the hanger hasn't arrived yet," Marinette told Adrien as they maneuvered the last of the planters into place. "And there'll be air plants around the room, too, but we're still trying to figure out where."

"It'll be easier to tell once we have everything else in place," Mrs. Agreste told them. "There's no point in overdecorating and making the place feel cluttered."

Their maid appeared out of thin air to help them clean up all of the dirt on the floor, sweeping and vacuuming and then supervising Adrien and Marinette as they mopped up the last bits of dirt. She made sure that the floor was dry enough for them to not slip and fall before vanishing again, taking the cleaning supplies with her.

"Rugs next?" Mrs. Agreste asked. "Maybe the large one first?"

Wrestling the large entry run into place was a hard, sweaty task, but it was so worth it once it was settled. It covered the large black-and-white motif on the floor and made everything not feel so empty. There were a couple more smaller rugs, ones that would go under the tables and chairs, and one fun little mat that Marinette had made for their shoes.

That one got tucked behind the planters at the entrance, mostly hidden from view but still fun.

The rest of the day went by in a rush of sweat and sore muscles. The electrician came, switching the light fixtures in the entry area from straightforward and functional to more artsy and brighter, switching the light's tone from cold to warm. The Gorilla helped them hang the light, airy curtains, softening the windows. A few smaller paintings went up around the room, adding color to the space without tearing anything out.

Adrien's personal favorite, though, was the several comfy benches and chairs posted around the space, some obvious and others tucked away behind the planters. Near them, a couple tables had been arranged and decorated with warm lamps. Per Marinette's idea, baskets with blankets in them had been tucked under the tables, in case anyone wanted to curl up in a corner with a cup of tea and a book.

His mom had forbidden the two of them from using the hidden chairs to make out. Whether or not she was being entirely serious, Adrien wasn't sure.

"Well, I think we did a good job," Mrs. Agreste said once the last of the tables was in place. She pushed her hair off of her face. "I don't know about you, but I need a shower now. We have showers in the guest rooms," she added, looking at Marinette. "And Adrien has plenty of extra soap, or you can use some of mine if you want. Then maybe we can have some ice cream and plan what room to attack next?"

"Are you trying to steal my girlfriend away again, Mom?" Adrien joked. "Maybe I wanted to spend some time with her."

His mom giggled. "How about we keep the planning under an hour, and then I can give you money for the two of you to go out for dinner?"

Adrien pretended to think it over. "Hmm. I suppose."

"That sounds lovely," Marinette told Mrs. Agreste. She playfully poked Adrien in the side. "Adrien can share for a bit longer."

Adrien could only laugh.

Adrien had messed up.

He hadn't meant to freak his mom out, he really hadn't. But he had spoken without thinking, talking about his relationship with Marinette as though he were in front of Tom and Sabine instead of his own mom, who didn't know the whole picture. Who didn't know that he and Marinette had been close as Ladybug and Chat Noir before finding out each other's civilian identities. Who thought that Adrien and Marinette had only been friends for a couple months before they started dating, because that was what Nathalie had told her and several of their classmates had apparently said the same thing.

So yeah, in hindsight he could see where his mom would maybe not take him casually mentioning that he fully planned on marrying Marinette in the future well. But hindsight wasn't going to help him now.

Nathalie had warned him that his mom would likely get strict again, setting boundaries that he didn't much like because he was used to getting free rein. Adrien just hadn't expected the change to be so sudden, rules materializing overnight even though there hadn't been any issues before.

His door couldn't be closed if Marinette was over, and they were meant to do homework together in the dining room instead of his room. He had to let his mom know if he was going over to Marinette's house and for how long and if they would be supervised. She had to know when Marinette came over to visit him. Dates had to end right after dinner, and wouldn't it be fun if they did group dates instead of individual ones? When Marinette did come over, it seemed like his mom always just happened to get off work early to come home and watch them together.

In short, he was being heavily oversupervised.

His mom had apparently talked to Marinette's parents at one point, right after his accidental slip-up, but they had only had a few minutes to chat since the bakery was so busy. It seemed that their chat had only made his mom more anxious, though, since Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng hadn't seemed that surprised about Adrien's declaration and clearly had a bit more relaxed parenting style.

His mom didn't really like it when he went over to Marinette's house for exactly that reason, actually. She didn't think that they would be adequately supervised.

"My parents have Sundays off," Marinette told him as they ate lunch together on the school steps after two weeks of Mrs. Agreste's hovering. "Maybe she can sit down and have a proper conversation with them then? Because I don't think they gave off a very good impression that one time when they were super busy and your mom came over in a panic. I can ask them to invite her over this weekend, and then maybe you can have some of your freedom back."

"We can stop having her hovering over our shoulders, you mean?" Adrien dropped his chin onto the top of Marinette's head, giving in to the urge to cuddle despite the still-warm early fall weather. "Yeah, I liked it better when we could just hang out and she was encouraging us to go on dates instead of making sure that there was someone around all the time so that we don't rush anything."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah. And maybe no more comments about getting married," she added, giving Adrien a Look. "Or else she'll still be following us around and making sure that we're behaving when we're in university. We won't get to do anything except cheek kisses ever again."

"I probably shouldn't tell her that you've already come up with names for our kids, then?"

"Adrien!"

Adrien and Marinette didn't get to sit in on the Sunday morning meeting between their parents. Instead, they were sent off to the park with a picnic basket of pastries and fruit.

It would have been easier to enjoy their breakfast if they weren't worried about what was happening in the Dupain-Cheng kitchen. Adrien was mostly worried about the Dupain-Chengs accidentally saying something that would make his mom really not trust them and not want him around Marinette any more.

If they let on that Adrien had slept over before, that would be it. He probably wouldn't be able to date again until he turned 18- or worse, until he was through with University.

"I wish she would trust us more," Adrien said quietly as they sat back against the trunk of a large tree- or, rather, as Marinette sat against the tree and Adrien reclined with his head on her lap. "Like, I can see where what I said might have freaked her out, and then Nathalie told me that it wasn't helping that your family was my main support network when I found out about Father."

Marinette frowned. "Wait, why?"

"Because I wouldn't want to break up with you and lose them, too." Adrien squeezed Marinette's hand. "But I know that your parents wouldn't just stop talking to me if we broke up, as long as it wasn't messy. That's just not their style."

"They adore you." Marinette rested against Adrien's side. "Hopefully they'll tell her that and she'll believe them. They'll probably still be more lenient with us than your mom will after their meeting no matter what, but she doesn't know about the kwamis. And the kwamis are why they're fine with us being in my room by ourselves."

"I don't mind keeping my door open. I understand that, and Nino and Alya both said that their parents enforce that as well. It's the constant supervision when we're just hanging out." Adrien groaned and stretched. "Constant parental supervision, that is. Tikki and Plagg are different."

"Yeah, because they're off doing their own thing half of the time." Marinette ran a hand through Adrien's hair, drawing a purr out of him. "I can understand where your mom is coming from, really, it's just..."

"She overreacted?"

"Yeah."

It was a full two hours before Marinette's phone dinged with a text to let them know that they could come back up. It didn't say how the parent meeting had gone, so both teens were a bit anxious as they headed back across the park towards the bakery.

They found three smiling parents at the door.

"See, I told you they wouldn't be long," Tom said with a laugh, reaching out to usher them in. "Don't look so worried, you two. We had a good chat."

"We cleared up a couple misunderstandings," Mrs. Agreste chimed in. "And came up with a revised list of rules."

Adrien and Marinette turned their expectant, hopeful looks on her.

"I'll stop hovering," she told them. "Though I still expect the bedroom door to be open when you both are in there."

Adrien and Marinette nodded in unison. They had expected that. It was fairly standard.

"And I still want you to text when you're going anywhere other than home or your regular activities," Mrs. Agreste continued. "Just to know where you are, in case you lose track of time or something comes up. That's just a safety thing."

Adrien nodded. "Yeah! That sounds reasonable."

"And we can discuss curfew times after dates later on," Mrs. Agreste told them. "We want to be reasonable, of course, but you're both young. It's not smart to stay out super late, we all agreed on that."

"In the past, we've always aimed to get home by nine," Marinette told her. "Unless there was a movie or concert that we wanted to go to that ran later, and then we discussed it with Nathalie and my parents beforehand."

Mrs. Agreste perked up. "Oh, that is very reasonable."

"And we made sure not to do late movies on nights when either of us had something we needed to be up for early the next morning," Adrien added. "And it's a once-a-week thing. We're not going to go overboard with it."

"I know." His mom reached out, pulling him into a hug. "You two are smart. I just- it's a lot to take in and adjust to."

Adrien nodded. He knew that. He could see the strain that everything was taking on her- from getting back into her job to getting to know his new friends to dealing with the whole deal with his father (the divorce, the new charges against his father's continued planning to get the Miraculous, all of the reporters wanting to get an inside scoop). Even if he didn't like it, it made sense that she might try to control what she could.

He was just immensely grateful that Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng could get through to her and talk her out of going too far with her overprotective parenting.

"It's a learning process as the kids grow up," Mrs. Cheng said fondly, patting Marinette's shoulder. "You want them to stay young forever, but they don't. All you can do is make sure that they have the support and the knowledge that they need to grow and fly."

"It's the letting go part of that I'm having trouble with," Mrs. Agreste said wistfully, though there was no disagreement in either her voice or her face. "I liked the ten-year-old stage. They're still cute but can take care of themselves, but there's no dating to worry about."

Adrien gasped, playing up the wounded look. "You don't think that I'm cute, mom? I'm hurt! Marinette, you still think that I'm cute, right?"

That broke any lingering tension and they all laughed. Mrs. Agreste shook her head as she giggled, ruffling Adrien's hair.

They stayed for another half an hour, chatting idly about what was going on at school and around Paris, and then Adrien and Mrs. Agreste had to leave to go meet up with an old friend of hers.

"See you at school tomorrow," Adrien told Marinette, dipping in for a quick kiss before pulling back. "I can send you my schedule tonight and we can figure out when we can get together with Max and work on our group project."

"That sounds good." Marinette returned the quick kiss and beamed up at him. "Can I text you later if I have any trouble on the Chem homework?"

"You bet. Even if you don't, we could Skype and work on it together."

Tom laughed. "You haven't already gotten it done? What were you doing for the past couple hours?"

"Breakfast in the park and worrying about what was going on up here." Adrien grinned cheekily. "We're expert worriers."

Sabine rolled her eyes. "You guys have no faith in us, honestly. There was nothing to worry about."

It didn't take long for them to get out the door, and then it was just Adrien and his mom again as they headed back up the street towards home. It was one of the last nice days of the season, so they had opted to walk instead of having the Gorilla pick them up.

"I'm glad that I had a chance to properly sit down with Marinette's parents and talk," Mrs. Agreste commented as they rounded the corner and headed past the park. "They're lovely people, and I would have hated to be at odds over me misunderstanding them before. We had never really talked about boundaries in your relationship before, just about... well, everything else."

Adrien nodded. That was understandable. He knew that his mom had been really concerned about what he had gone through and how he had grown so much over the past year. Figuring out the dynamics of what had initially seemed like a normal teenaged relationship was naturally pretty far down on the list of things to do. "And then I seemed too serious, too soon."

"Right. It didn't help that I was a bit anxious about what the effects of a break-up might be like," Mrs. Agreste added. "I've seen people get married young and then divorced shortly afterwards, and I've been finding out just how much a pain in the rear it is to get a divorce. It's not just a matter of signing a paper and being done with it."

"I'm not going to rush into anything," Adrien assured her. It was true, more or less. They weren't rushing at all, but to an outside view, it might appear that they were. "We didn't when we started dating, because we knew that there was no reason not to wait a month or so for everything to settle down and for me to be properly ready. It wasn't going to be healthy to get into a relationship when I was still coming to terms with- well, with everything."

His mom's smile grew. "Yes, I heard about that! I hadn't known about that before. Given the timeline I had been hearing about, I had assumed that you two had started dating either right before or right after Gabriel was arrested. And Marinette's parents said that they had already talked with you guys about not rushing into marriage?"

"Not rushing into marriage or anything else," Adrien agreed. Yeah, he wasn't going to forget that conversation any time soon. He was pretty sure that he hadn't been able to look Mr. Dupain or Mrs. Cheng in the eye for several days after that, but he couldn't deny that the conversation had been an important one to have, and was pretty informative to boot. "They said that it's important to build a good foundation instead of rushing to hit milestones. There'll be time for that stuff later on."

"They're very wise." Adrien could see the look that his mom was giving him out of the corner of his eye. "You seem to have paid attention to what they told you."

"Of course, they've been happily married for ages!" There was no doubt that Marinette's parents were excellent role models and had a stable, loving marriage. Adrien wanted to have a marriage like that- well, when he grew up and was old enough, that was. If they were willing to share any of their advice, Adrien was going to sit up, listen, and take notes. "They clearly did something right."

"What else have they told you?"

"Besides not to rush?" Adrien thought about it. "Communication! They're big on communication. Letting the other person know when something is wrong and then listening. Not waiting until something becomes a big issue to address it. Making sure that one person isn't putting in all the effort in- well, in the relationship, in a household, whatever- while the other person coasts by." He grinned. "They've been teaching me how to do things like dishes and laundry and cooking and cleaning. And baking, of course."

"You're probably a better cook than I am, then," his mom admitted with a laugh. "I haven't in years, since we have a chef."

"I can teach you! And Marinette can help. She's really good at stopping me before I can make too many mistakes when we cook together-" Adrien caught himself. Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng had suggested that part of his mom's concern might have stemmed from how attached he and Marinette were. They did a lot of stuff together, preferring to attack things that they had to get done as a team. It might be nice to have some things reserved for mother-son bonding only. "I mean, if you want to."

"I'll... think about it."

Things improved a lot after that. Mrs. Agreste was supportive of Adrien and Marinette's relationship, but not to the point where Adrien was wondering if the pod people had taken her over. She didn't hover, letting them have their privacy as long as they didn't abuse the privilege.

She didn't tease them like Tom and Sabine did- she still wasn't as laid-back about their relationship as Tom and Sabine were- but that was okay. It was understandable. She still had a different parenting style than they did, and she didn't know that they were Ladybug and Chat Noir, the Heroes of Paris.

That was okay, though. Mrs. Agreste was giving them enough freedom to have a comfortable relationship now, and she was talking to Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng on a regular basis. There wasn't any tension between her and Marinette like there had been after Adrien's marriage comment, and questions about their dates had gone back to sounding like a curious mom, rather than tense interrogation.

No doubt there would be shifts in the future, times when she felt like Adrien was growing up too fast and she would overreact about it, and he would have to push back. For now, though, they had found a good balance.

For once, Adrien could have it all- a parent who was there and present, a fantastic, supportive girlfriend, and a whole army of friends. It didn't matter that his father was going to trial again on continued conspiracy to steal the Miraculous and change the timeline to get out of jail, or that there were still reporters who occasionally tried to stop him or his mom on the street to get an interview. They were inconsequential details, really, unable to permeate the bubble of happiness that had surrounded Adrien in one form or another, ever since his mom returned to Paris.

And to think- it was all because Plagg had wanted more cheese.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #There's No Camembert in Tibet #last chapter!!!

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