Chapter Text
Prompt: Ice
Time can change everything. It can change how you look at someone, how you trust someone, how you love someone. Time is fragile; just like relationships. One day you can be best friends, considering your future and what the next event you want to experience together is. Then there’s that day where you can say one wrong thing and the solid foundations you thought you had built begin to crack and crumble, causing a subsidence in something you thought was unmovable.
But wasn’t love meant to be the strongest emotion? Wasn’t it meant to be the underpinning of all other emotions? Strong, unbreakable, all consuming?
Or was it the one you needed to look after the most? One to nurture and treat with the utmost respect and care?
Love.
And to love in Paris, the self proclaimed city of love, was such a tremendous and heartwarming achievement.
Love.
Such a crazy thing. It can help us grow, make us be the best we can be; it can also break us down, making us fall hard and fast with nothing underneath to cushion the blow.
Marinette knew what she needed to do; she just needed the strength to open her mouth and say it. She could talk to him about anything now; anything apart from this — that was. But life was funny, and every now and then it liked to send you into a spin.
The gang had split after lycée, each going their separate ways to live their lives unrestricted and to the maximum — everyone except for herself and Adrien. The two heroes had no choice but to stick around in Paris, the constant appearance of villain after villain making it difficult for either of them to leave. Forget being the city of love; Paris seemed to be the official hub of the criminally insane and crazy.
The Miraculous gang checked in whenever they could, making time for each other during breaks from university and if they were in Paris. Each Christmas having a week set aside just for the gang to catch up and spend time together. It had been a strange turn of events losing everyone, but it didn’t matter because he was still here. Still a present and strong force in her life, the absences of everyone else just pushed them even closer together. Closer than they already were.
Winter had set over Paris; transforming its concrete jungle into one layered in snow and ice, a combination treacherous to most, but deadly to the delicate footsteps of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
“Come on, Bug, we’re going to be late.” Adrien’s amused voice did nothing for her balance, instead sending her slipping and sliding a metre in front of him; the boy laughing and chasing after her the way he always did.
Boy? The word didn’t suit him anymore. At 19 years old, Adrien Agreste was a fully fledged man. He was tall, fair and handsome and a wonderful sight to behold. His personality was just another side to the dreamboat that he was and she got to see him in ways others only ever dreamed about. A day didn’t pass when she didn’t realise how lucky she was.
He took a hold of her arm, and, with it, led Marinette down the road and in the direction of their old collège — the meeting point for the minibus and the rest of the gang.
“Come on, M’Lady, we're going to be late if we don’t hurry.” Adrien couldn’t stop himself from the small chuckle leaving his lips, Marinette clinging onto him like Bambi on ice.
“You try wearing heeled winter boots then say that,” she huffed, her partner dragging her with him down the sidewalk and through the shopper crowded streets of France's Capital city.
Christmas in Paris was amazing, and she didn’t just say that because she lived there. The ambience was perfect and set up the festive spirit better than anywhere else in the world, okay so she might have been a little biassed about that, but she did love the place; even more so when she was clinging onto Adrien like an unstable newborn koala.
They were on their way to catch the minibus from their old collège to the resort where the gang had chosen a nice winter getaway together before Christmas; games, catching up, alcohol, and, if it was up to Marinette, mistletoe kisses. Unfortunately, but not unusual, Marinette was running late; however, this time it wasn’t her doing that had caused such a feat, instead it was Paris’ new supervillain and their need to battle around the city like it was one enormous playground. A single battle could take place anywhere within a 150 km radius; sometimes even starting in Notre Dame and finishing in Nice — there was also the one time they made it all the way to Monte Carlo.
With the recent weather turning so cold, Tikki needed to stop and recharge often; the new longevity of their powers no match for the frost and coolness. Plagg, however, could retain his catlike bodily warmth and began to be the main power to complete their winter battles; he also became the warmth to settle Tikki after a tough win. Because, of course, they still always won.
“For the record, Bugaboo, you were the one who wanted to wear fancy boots for the journey. You could have worn your snow boots but, for some reason, ESMOD has made you fashion mad.” Adrien tightened his grip on Marinette, holding her closer into him as they moved as one along the streets.
“I wanted to look nice to see everyone. Is that such a crime?” she huffed back at her partner, his strengthened grip a savour to the slippery sole of her shoe.
She knew Adrien liked her in heels — he’d said so himself — so when she saw them in a shop window she just had to buy them. However, thinking about it now, it wasn’t actually the best idea to wear them in Paris… in the midst of winter, and a impending snowstorm.
The sidewalks were growing treacherous under the cooling aura of winter. But, Marinette loved her boots, they were nice boots; regardless of the inability to keep her walking steady down the street. The knee high laces plus the fur trim and lining was the perfect fight against the low temperatures — aesthetically at least.
“When you can’t walk… yes it is! Remember when you wore stilettos to the gala the other week? You’re lucky you didn’t come away with a broken ankle.”
“Thank you about that, by the way, you were my knight in blue crushed velvet that evening.”
“And thanks to you I was front page news. ‘Adrien Agreste gets up close and personal with his new beau.’ They failed to mention my hands were only in that position because you fell on me,” Adrien laughed, obviously he wasn’t as mortified by the gossip columns as she was. The picture of her rump had been blown up and disproportionated, the main view being of Adrien’s hands, seemingly, squeezing it. Surprisingly, her Maman and Papa found it funny more than anything, of course, believing the truth that Adrien wasn’t actually groping her but saving her from another Marinette catastrophe.
She was still trying to figure out how it happened, coming to the conclusion that she must have blacked out. There really was no other explanation, even if Tikki had set the blame firmly on Plagg.
“I’m sorry I put you in that position,” she sighed, knowing full well what Adrien had to endure as an aftermath.
“I'm not,” he laughed, “my father hit the roof. It’s the most he’d spoken to me in years.”
Marinette winced. Making enemies with Gabriel Agreste was not on her agenda. That night was meant to be her night to prove she was one of them, that she was worthy of joining the fashion world and that she was serious about pursuing a career. Now, everyone just thought she was dating the son of ‘one of them’, not that she wouldn’t be happy with that title, it just wasn’t true.
A buzzing at her hip had her tiny kwami opening the bag and pushing the phone out towards her holder, the dithering little ladybug barely keeping a hold of the phone as she attempted to complete the action. Plagg suddenly appeared from inside Adrien’s jacket, spiralling his way to his counterpart and snuggling in closely, gripping her tightly and spreading his warmth.
Marinette and Adrien stopped and looked down into her bag, both taken by the cuteness of their kwami’s huddled together in the way of a penguin family. Adrien moved his hand and arm, hooking them around Marinette’s waist as she lay her head against his shoulder — ever such the proud parents.
“Are one of you going to answer this, or are we waiting for Tikki to catch hypothermia?” Plagg’s nasally voice ripped Marinette from her ‘family day dream’. She reached for the phone, closing her bag in the process and whispering a quiet ‘sorry’ to her kwami.
Tapping her thumb on the green button she placed the device to her ear and prepared for her best friend to get onto her about being late — as usual. It’s not like Alya knew the truth or anything (cue the sarcastic Ladybug eye roll).
‘Girl, where are you both? The Akuma was dealt with ages ago.’ The hissed words of Alya was overtaken by the sound of loud chatter in the background, and if Marinette heard correctly, Kim challenging Alix to some sort of snowball fight as soon as they reached the resort.
“We’re literally a couple of streets away now. Tikki needed to detransform and I’m not having Chat Noir carrying me across Paris.” Marinette looked up to Adrien who just shrugged in response, before he started walking them again towards Collège Françoise Dupont. Slow and steady; his arm securely around her and keeping her on her feet — they were almost there.
‘The weather forecast has changed. Kim wants to leave now. I don’t know how much longer I can hold them back.’
“Alya, seriously, we’re almost outside Françoise DuPont, just tell Kim to wait another couple of —” before Marinette could finish her sentence, her foot collided with a sheet of black ice sending her spiralling around in circles and aiming directly for the sparkling, white ground.
Even with his arm secured around her, Adrien couldn’t keep her on her feet; instead, Marinette sent them both spinning in an Olympic worthy ice dance as they attempted to maintain their balance. Marinette’s feet flicked one way, as Adrien’s battled in the opposite direction ending with them both landing on the ground, Adrien’s back taking the brunt of the fall and taking the wind out of his chest.
‘Marinette? Marinette? Are you there? What was that noise?’
Marinette remained frozen, her body hovering over Adrien’s as they lay staring at each other, their breath exhaling deeply and colliding in a puff of steam between them.
They’d been in this position numerous times, but this time was different. When it usually happened, in battle, the soft intimate details of each other's bodies were forgotten and not important; right now, they were together without the fear of attack or harm, they were just two young adults, laying together on the floor absorbed in each other's gaze. And without the additional layer of supersuit, their bodies moulded together and fit in the most perfect jigsaw.
‘Marinette? Come on, girl, what’s happened? Do I need to contact TikTok Han?’
Alya’s nickname for the Celestial guardian pulled Marinette out of the moment with Adrien and back to her best friend who was shouting out through the speaker. Remaining on her hands and knees over Adrien, Marinette reached out and grabbed her phone, repositioning the piece of technology at her ear — no care taken to the cool dampness seeping through her knees and most likely Adrien’s back.
“I’m here, sorry. I fell over but luckily Adrien caught me.” She looked down at her friend, his eyes glazed over and expression unreadable.
She scrambled, attempting to get to her feet, the boots doing nothing to help her stand again. Adrien followed a fraction of a second later, managing to make it to his feet before reaching out to help her up, dusting down her knees with care and affection.
‘I bet!’ Suddenly the call was overrun by frantic talking and angry voices. ‘Marinette, I tried my hardest but with the weather forecast and the fact you’re over thirty minutes late… Well, everyone wanted to go. I’m sorry. Myléne said maybe Gorilla could give you both a lift.’
Marinette looked at the corner of the street just in time to see the minibus heading in the opposite direction to them. Marinette knew even if they ran they couldn’t catch up — not that she could run anyway.
Alya and Nino waved to them from the back, Adrien exhaling beside her, his whole body deflating as he held her supportively against him.
‘I couldn’t exactly blurt out the truth could I?’ Alya continued down the phone, her voice lowered with a slight hiss.
“No, no, it’s fine. We understand, we’ll work something out.” She noticed Adrien’s shoulders slouch even lower. He was looking forward to this more than she was. “Have a safe journey and keep us updated.”
Shutting down the call, she placed the phone into her pocket, so as to not upset the kwami’s, before turning to Adrien and mustering up her most ‘don’t worry, we’ll sort it’ smile, aka ‘The Ladybug’ smile.
“So,” she said, clapping her hands together, “how about we get something to eat and replan?”
She hooked an arm through his and began to walk/stumble past the collège and towards the bakery. If one thing was for certain it was that she wasn’t going to let Adrien down.