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quicksilversquared · 5 years

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How to Fake a Marriage: Chapter 43

links in the reblog

"I've got another in-person interview scheduled over the break!"

Marinette grinned as she stepped into her apartment and was greeted with an armful of excited boyfriend. Adrien's excitement was the best way to perk her up after a long day. "No way! Which one is it with?"

Adrien was practically bouncing in place as he stepped back to let her in through the door properly. "It's the one I really, really wanted, with the most opportunities to stay on afterwards and advance in the company. I'll get to tour the premises and talk to some of the current interns afterwards. And I scheduled it for after the first one, so..." Adrien let out a little breath, quick and excited. "Hopefully I can work off all of my nerves by that interview. I've let Nathalie know, and she's already had to reschedule a photoshoot."

"Was she upset?"

Adrien shrugged. "Exasperated, maybe, since it's only a week and a half notice. But I warned her that something like this might happen. I warned both her and my father and my father insisted on scheduling the photoshoot for then anyway. They can't be unhappy with me when it's their own fault." His grin returned full force. "Oh, I'm so excited!"

"I'm so proud of you!" Marinette told him with a grin. The phone and Skype interviews that Adrien had done earlier in the semester had made him simultaneously hopeful and really, really worried that he would mess them all up and not get to continue on in the hiring process. His exam and presentations had meant that he couldn't go back to Paris for interviews just any time, and even if he could go over the weekend then the hiring personnel weren't available. It was great that the companies were interested in him, and that they could work with his schedule.

She did wish that she could get as far Adrien had with her own job search, but Marinette wasn't going to let herself be jealous. Adrien had worked hard on his applications and deserved the interviews. Besides, he couldn't do his work independently, like she could with her commissions, and the main reason why Marinette hadn't gotten any interviews was because she hadn't applied to any jobs.

She hadn't applied to any jobs because there hadn't been any job postings for openings that she would be interested in. Everything that she had spotted- well, everything that she had spotted at the design houses that she was actually interested in- was for interns or sewing room, and she was past the intern stage (particularly the underpaid, not-actually-designing intern stage) and overqualified for the sewing room.

There had also been an opening for a junior designer position at Gabriel that Marinette had passed over, but she hadn't mentioned that to Adrien and wasn't going to tell anyone else about it, either. She didn't want there to be any way for Mr. Agreste to try to control her and Adrien, and taking a job at his company would hand that control to him on a silver platter. Plus, Adrien liked visiting her at work, and if she worked at Gabriel then he would run the risk of running into his father when he didn't want to.

And if that wasn't enough to cement Marinette's decision to ignore the posting, the Gabriel aesthetic didn't leave a whole lot of room for creativity and fun flair, and Marinette would miss doing that too much, even if she did enjoy doing formalwear. That would be the main reason she would give if Adrien found out about the opening and asked why she hadn't applied. She didn't want him thinking that she had given up an opportunity to get a job just because of him, because he would just feel guilty about it.

"We should do something to celebrate," Marinette announced, forcibly pulling herself away from thoughts of her own job search. "So what do you want to do? Eat out? Make a special dinner? Bake cookies?"

Adrien practically squirmed in place, looking abashed. "Oh, I don't know. Don't you think we're jumping the gun a little bit with celebrating already? I just have an interview, not a job offer."

"Two interviews, you mean." Maybe Adrien wasn't nearly as excited about the first of his interviews as he was about the second, but it was still progress in the right direction. "And we'll celebrate again later on when you get something, but we can be excited about this, too."

Adrien grinned. "Yeah! I wouldn't mind a night out, and getting interviews is the perfect excuse. We can go to that one place- you know, with the lasagna and ribs and everything? Over on Gloucester?"

"Sweet!" Marinette liked that place. "Just let me change out of my work clothes and find some more comfortable shoes, and we'll get going."

It didn't take long to change at all, and then Adrien and Marinette were heading out of their apartment and down to catch the bus. It started to drizzle as they waited, but Adrien was prepared with an umbrella. He popped it open, and Marinette didn't hesitate to sidle up to his side to share the protection from the chilly rain.

"I'm looking forward to having less of this weather once we're back in Paris," Adrien said with a laugh. "I hate rain so much. It's so damp, and it feels so much colder than it actually is."

"It'll be nice," Marinette agreed. Then she laughed. "But who wants to bet that it'll rain for a week after we get back? That would be awful."

"Ooh, don't say that, you'll jinx it!"

One short bus ride and an equally short wait in the restaurant later, and the two of them were being ushered to their seats at a small table close to the restaurant's front window. Marinette slid into her seat, glancing around at the other patrons. There were a lot of families sitting around the cheery tables, chatting and laughing. It was a very friendly atmosphere, and one that yelled fun friendly outing instead of date.

That didn't mean that it wasn't a date, but hopefully it would keep people from pestering them.

Once they were settled with a glass of lemonade each and a menu, it didn't take long for them to pick up their conversation where it had picked off earlier. Adrien told Marinette about the differences between the two labs that he had applied to and why he favored one over the other.

"It's a higher pay rate at the other place, too," Adrien finished, picking up his lemonade for a sip. "Not by a huge amount, but enough to make a difference."

"And I bet that as you advance in the lab, that difference might just get bigger," Marinette pointed out. "It would be interesting to see what that would be, but it might be awkward to ask."

"I'm gonna pick Ben's brain to see what kinds of questions I should be asking," Adrien told her. "And maybe he can ask some of his senior coworkers. They would probably have some really great tips."

Marinette nodded.

"But enough about my jobs- did anything new come up for you today?" Adrien asked, glancing over at her. "Or nothing again?

Marinette winced. She hadn't actually checked for- well, almost a week, actually. It didn't make sense to check every day, but she didn't want to sit back and miss anything, either. "I haven't checked. I should, but..."

"It's only additional stress, and it's not like new stuff comes up every day anyway," Adrien filled in. "At least not new stuff on your level. I'm sure something will come up soon, though. I know my father has at least a couple openings every year."

Marinette tried not to wince. After all, Adrien was right that there was an opening at Gabriel. His mentioning it didn't necessarily mean that he was encouraging her to apply, though.

"Though maybe that's because people tend to quit a lot," Adrien continued, oblivious to her cringing. "It's not exactly the most pleasant work environment ever, especially if my father visits. And you've talked about this before, haven't you? That my father's company isn't exactly somewhere where you would want to work?"

"Right," Marinette agreed, thankful that Adrien remembered hearing her mention that. "The work environment and then the aesthetic is kind of limited. It's very formal."

"And you like doing stuff that's a little more wild," Adrien filled in. "A little more creative, a little more fun. It makes sense to wait." He picked up his menu, but his eyes didn't leave Marinette's face. "What will you do while you wait for a better fit to come up?"

"I thought that I would be able to make it by on commissions, but that's really slowed down," Marinette said, but she couldn't help the note of worry that had slipped into her voice. While it was great that she didn't have to fret over an overwhelming wait list, she didn't want to get home to Paris and end up twiddling her thumbs and helping out at the bakery instead of designing and earning money. It would feel like a discouraging step back after three years as a design intern. "It's a good number of commissions for just doing on top of a full-time job, but it's not anywhere near enough to be a full-time job by itself."

"What if you advertised that you were taking commissions?" Adrien asked, setting his unread menu back down. "If you set up a website or something. Maybe you could sell your own designs on there, too. At least, like, screen-printed shirts or some simpler designs."

"It's definitely something to think about," Marinette said slowly. She was already warming to the idea. She could expand her customer base, and maybe do a wider range of designs. "I know Alya was suggesting it when I first started doing commissions, but I was getting so much attention already that I thought there wouldn't be a point. But I could do that, and then have pictures of all of the commissions that I've done."

If the musicians would be willing to let her use recognizable pictures of them, that would be even more amazing. Celebs had a lot of influence, and would make her designs more desirable.

"There's just one problem right now with the commissions website idea," Adrien said before Marinette could get too far into planning anything. "You would probably need Alya's help, and Alya is kind of busy with the wedding stuff."

There was a pause.

"Well, I won't need the site up and running until after I get back to Paris," Marinette said slowly, thinking things through as she spoke. "And I could make some of my own designs to have for sale as well, if I have time when I don't have any commissions to work on. So I can maybe start collecting the photos now and sorting them into different categories so that they're all ready for when Alya does have the time to help me with the site. And it's always possible that something will come up before then."

"But it's good to have a backup plan," Adrien agreed. Marinette nodded, just as their waiter appeared at her elbow.

"Are you ready to order?"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a guilty look. They hadn't even started looking at the menu. Their waiter seemed to realize that.

"I can return in another couple minutes to check in on you again."

"That would be great, thanks," Adrien told him, but he was already heading off. Marinette quickly turned back to her menu and started scanning over the choices. There were a lot of tasty-looking dishes, and Marinette wasn't sure what she wanted to try. She peered over the table at Adrien. "What are you looking at? I can't decide."

"Do you want to go for two dishes we both want and share?"

Marinette just grinned. Sometimes Adrien seemed to read her mind. "Do you even need to ask?"

With a plan in place, Marinette dove into her work, sketching out ideas for her website. There would be a past work section, of course, and that would be divided into categories. She had album cover art, screen printing, street clothes, fancy dress, and a whole variety of stage outfits. Her pricing page would ideally have examples of different price points, so that people would know off the bat what to expect and wouldn't waste her time with emailing when they weren't willing to pay. And of course it would be important for it to be easy for people to find the Contact Me page (Marinette had learned from experience with professor pages how frustrating it was to have to search for ages to find an email address).

"You should be able to update that page with if you're accepting commissions at the moment," Tikki pointed out as she watched Marinette sketch out her ideas at the table after dinner one night. "And if there's a long wait list. Or just any updates, really, to let people know if you have a lot going on at any given moment."

"That's a good idea," Marinette said, writing it down. "And I'll have to make it obvious, so maybe something that would show up on all of the pages of the site. I'll have to ask Alya for ideas- after the wedding, of course."

Adrien laughed from his spot across the table. "Yeah, don't distract Alya right now. I was texting Nino earlier, and those two are pretty much caught between frantically getting everything set up and trying to ignore it all for a bit. They would totally jump on a website designing thing."

Marinette grinned. Their friends were ridiculous. "The sooner they get the last details ironed out, the sooner they can just sit back. But I can understand the temptation to procrastinate."

A comfortable silence fell over then as Adrien returned to his studying and Marinette sketched out what she wanted her page to look like, adding and taking away details as she played with different looks. It didn't take long for her to get distracted, though, her pencil falling back to the table as the got lost in her own thoughts.

Nino and Alya would be married in less than a month now. Even though the news had long since sunk in, Marinette couldn't help but see it as something big. Something life-altering and a big step and- oh, she didn't even know. Maybe it was because of the other things that tended to come after marriage, like kids.

Maybe it was because she and Adrien hadn't been in Paris throughout the engagement and wouldn't really be there for the transition and really, doing things like dress shopping over video chat and being a sounding board for Alya's planning over the phone really wasn't the same as being there for it in person.

"I'm seeing some pretty deep thought going on over there." Adrien's voice brought Marinette out of her thoughts with a start and she looked up. He was giving her a concerned look. "Everything okay?"

"I guess I'm just now realizing that we're missing out on the whole transition thing with Nino and Alya," Marinette told him.

Adrien frowned. "You think things would really change that much?"

"It's not as big of a transition as you're making it out to be," Tikki told the two of them, making Adrien's expression relax. "Or that the media sometimes makes it out to be. They're still your friends, and they're still together, just like before! It's just that now there's legal ties holding them together. That's all it is. Think about it this way- if Nino had asked Alya later on, do you think their relationship now would be any different? Or if they had decided to wait on marriage for next year, would they be different? Marriage is a way to celebrate love with family and friends. It's a big celebration and everything, but at the end of the day, a relationship is only as strong as the people involved make it."

"Why are you wondering what being married would be like?" Plagg drawled loudly. "You've been acting like an old married couple for years. All the talky ceremony would do would make it official and put some bling on your fingers. And cost you a lot of money."

Marinette and Adrien both turned pink. How had the conversation turned from Nino and Alya's marriage to their relationship?

"He's right, you know. Things don't just magically change once you get married, like I was just saying," Tikki chimed in, hopping on the betrayal train and turning the conversation on its head to focus on Marinette and Adrien. "Maybe it used to be more different, back when people didn't live together before they married, but you've been living together and working around each other for a year now. More, really, even if you did have Marinette's apartment as back-up for the first bit."

Adrien chanced a glance at Marinette. She didn't look overly bothered by the marriage talk, mostly just taken off guard and flustered, and something in his heart skipped. Would she be open to getting married? They had only been dating for less than two years- well, officially dating, at least- whereas all of their friends that were getting married now- Ivan and Mylène and Alya and Nino- had been dating for years, ever since collège. Sure, he knew a couple models that were getting married now that had only been dating for what seemed like a short time- only a year or so, some even less- but considering that some of them were among the models that had congratulated him for getting "married" after "only knowing Marinette for a day", he wasn't certain that they were the most sensible people in the world.

But they had known each other for years before dating, and had liked each other in one way or another for just as long. With that in mind, did it really matter that they hadn't been dating for years and years? They knew that they would get along well together, no matter what.

"I guess I just wish that I could be there in person to help Alya out more," Marinette was saying, and Adrien pulled himself out of his thoughts to tune back in to the conversation. "And all of the prep that goes into a wedding just makes it feel really big, I think."

"And it is a big commitment, but so is any serious relationship," Tikki told her. "But it is a party, and big parties take a lot of planning! Just think of it like that."

"Back in the day, marriages were just little things," Plagg told them around a yawn. "Everyone dressed up in their Sunday best, went to church, and did their little signature thing on the paper. The whole thing's just been so blown up."

The conversation moved on then as Tikki got distracted by some element of Marinette's website sketch, but Adrien took a minute to get back to his studies.

If he asked...what would Marinette say?

Adrien's pre-break exams and presentations went by in a flash, and then he was nervously reviewing the list of questions and things to think about and look for that Ben and his advisor had given him on the train back to Paris. Marinette would be following in a few days, after both of his interviews had already passed.

Adrien couldn't help but think about how much nicer it would be to have his interviews and then go back home to a supportive Marinette instead of his indifferent father and an only mildly curious Nathalie. His father only wanted him to succeed in getting a job because it would be unfitting of an Agreste to be unemployed, and Nathalie wanted to know the outcome either way for photoshoot scheduling purposes. Marinette wanted him to do well and get the job offers because she knew that that was what he wanted.

He was lucky to have her. Adrien knew that there were some people out there that didn't even know him and still would prefer that he stay in modeling until he aged out of it. Some even wanted him to move into acting as well, since then his face would be in even more places.

The Gorilla picked him up at the station, and whisked Adrien off towards the Agreste mansion after piling all of the bags that Adrien had hauled along in back. Adrien had stuffed two suitcases, a backpack, and a bag with things to be brought back to Paris, so much that he had been struggling to keep it in line while he got off of the train and left the station. All of his luggage was stuffed to bursting, and Marinette's would be the same when she returned.

Moving from one country to another really sucked sometimes.

It was the same familiar routine as always when Adrien got back to the mansion. Nathalie met him at the door with a schedule (she had included his interviews and plenty of time to get to them, Adrien noted) and told him that his father was in his office before bidding him good-night and leaving. Adrien glanced towards the bright office and decided to put his luggage away first before talking to his father. After all, if the conversation went south, it would be easier to leave quickly without having extra baggage to drag along behind him.

...oh, he already missed being able to go into his and Marinette's apartment and having to worry about uncomfortable conversations.

The next couple of days in Paris went much the same as always. Adrien got up, did photoshoots and commercials- and boy was he ever looking forward to never having to do them again- and snagged bites to eat when he had time. He met up with Alya and Nino a couple times when he had a few minutes free that lined up with their free time, and then he went home to sleep in his large, empty room. His bed was cold with only his father's standard-issue, boring sheets and comforter rather than the lovely quilt that Marinette had made for him a couple Christmases ago, and especially without Marinette curled up next to him, but Adrien dealt with it, counting down the days until Marinette would arrive.

And then the first of his interviews came up. Adrien fidgeted through a morning of fittings, then had an hour free before he had to be at the lab. The Gorilla drove him to the lab and dropped him off early, and then Adrien paced. He had gotten a good-luck text from Marinette earlier, and he glanced at it again, hoping that it might help calm his nerves.

Adrien had not been expecting to see another text from Marinette.

Marinette: You'll do great! Swing by the bakery after you're done- Maman and Papa have a treat for you! I love you.

Adrien grinned. A Dupain-Cheng treat? He already couldn't wait.

The Gorilla dropped Adrien off at the Dupain-Cheng bakery after his interview, and Adrien waved cheerily to him as he hopped to the sidewalk. He had done well on his interview, he thought, and it had helped to know that there would be someone waiting eagerly to know how he had done right there for him in Paris.

And he also was very much looking forward to his treat. Anything that the Dupain-Chengs made was bound to be good, and a treat suggested that it was probably more sugary and delicious than anything that he had been allowed to eat since returning to Paris.

"Adrien!" Mrs. Cheng exclaimed as Adrien stepped inside of the bakery, the tinkle of the small bell above the door announcing his entrance. "It's so good to see you. Come over here and tell me about how your interview went and everything that you've been up to since we saw you last. Marinette tells us some things, of course, but I want to hear it all from you."

Adrien grinned as he was pulled behind the counter and given a hug. Mrs. Cheng was shorter than Marinette- Mari had passed her up in lycée- but her hugs were just as fierce. "Hi, Mrs. Cheng. How are you?"

"Good, good. But I want to hear about you." Mrs. Cheng ducked down behind the counter and came up with a generous slice of opera cake on a plate. She handed the plate and a fork to Adrien. "Marinette said that you had one interview today and another tomorrow! How exciting!"

Adrien grinned as he accepted the cake. It looked amazing, and was more than Adrien had expecting. "Yeah, it is! I'm hoping that one of them works out. They're both great labs."

"Did it go well?"

"I think so. One of my friends from London suggested what kinds of questions I might want to ask and I had answers for all of their questions for me, so that was good. I didn't feel that there were any awkward pauses or anything, so...?" He shrugged. "It felt good. Now I just have to wait and see, I guess."

"Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you for sure." Sabine quickly rang up a customer and then stuck her head through the bakery's back door. "TOM! Adrien is here! Come say hi to him!"

"Adrien!" It didn't take any time at all for Marinette's father to appear fresh from the bakery, a fine coat of flour covering the front of his shirt and his apron. Mr. Dupain beamed at Adrien when he spotted him. "How's my son-in-law doing?"

Adrien promptly choked on his opera cake.

"Tom," Mrs. Cheng scolded as she lightly thumped Adrien's back. He gave one last cough and wiped his mouth, setting his cake down for a moment to catch his breath. "No teasing. We were just looking through some old pictures last night, dear," Sabine explained to Adrien. "And we came across the ones from that wedding photoshoot. You'll have to forgive Tom; he's been waiting to spring that on you all day."

Adrien managed a weak smile before Mr. Dupain was scooping him up in a hug. "It's good to see you! You look far too skinny. Have you been eating properly?"

"I've been eating fine," Adrien assured Mr. Dupain, his voice coming out a bit choked. "Marinette and I cook dinner together all the time. I've just started going to the gym at school more and running a few laps when I have time between classes."

"Ah, I used to do that in school," Mr. Dupain told Adrien, letting him free of the hug. "I kind of had to, with all of the food that we made and then ended up eating. It's a nice break from studying for sure."

Adrien grinned, picking his half-eaten cake back up. "Yeah! And I find that I can focus better, too, when I'm not all full of energy and jittery. And I really need that focus, now that we've really gotten into some more advanced topics."

After a few more minutes of chatting, Mr. Dupain had to return to his work in the back of the bakery, but Adrien stayed up front with Mrs. Cheng. He finished his cake (so good) and then helped clean up the area behind the counter, telling her about his classes and some of the outings that he and Marinette had gone out on between customers. She nodded and asked questions, and Adrien couldn't stop grinning.

It was really no surprise that Marinette had turned out wonderful, considering how great her parents were. Adrien couldn't wait to have them as actual in-laws.

And to make it even better? It felt as though the Dupain-Chengs felt the same way towards him.

Adrien's second interview went as well as the first one- better, even- and then he was back at the Dupain-Cheng's bakery, having a celebratory slice of Mrs. Cheng's fantastic quiche and a couple petite fours. He couldn't spend the whole afternoon there, though, because he had promised Nino and Alya that he would come visit them for dinner.

"Thanks so much, Mrs. Cheng," Adrien told her as he finished cleaning his things up and got ready to head out the door. "It was really great to be able to come back here and talk about my interviews. I know that otherwise, I would have spent the time after my interviews worrying over every answer I gave."

Mrs. Cheng just gave him a friendly squeeze. "We were happy to have you, dear. Tom and I love hearing about what you've been up to. Come again any time, if you want a snack or someone to talk to or anything. Our doors are always open to you."

Adrien could only beam and nod.

One short bus ride later, Adrien was hopping off of the bus and starting the short walk over to Alya and Nino's apartment, a bag of bakery treats in his hand. He had tried to pay for them, of course- Mrs. Cheng and Mr. Dupain were running a business, after all- but they wouldn't hear of it.

(Adrien wasn't surprised, not really. He was Marinette's friend, after all, and so were Alya and Nino, and the Dupain-Chengs had never been shy about plying them with food whenever they visited before.)

"So your interviews went well?" Nino asked as soon as he answered the door. "Marinette said that she was sending you to her parents so that they could be excited with you."

Adrien grinned. "Yeah! They're great, really. I'm glad to have them. And I got to distract myself a bit after the interview, which was good. I wasn't expecting that."

"Well, now you gotta tell us about the interviews, because we're dying to hear about it, and then we can get you all caught up on what's going on in Paris."

"Great!"

Falling into conversation with Nino and Alya again as they sat down was the most natural thing in the world. It didn't take long for Adrien to tell them about his interviews, or about what had been going on in his classes. His friends laughed when he got too excited about one particular concept that he had learned about and flew straight into the slightly too in-depth explanation of it for several minutes before noticing their puzzled looks.

"Normally I'm really good at remembering not to do that!" Adrien protested over the sound of their laughter. "I've been working on figuring out how to explain concepts to people at a level they understand for ages, because it helps me understand things better. I've been explaining stuff in my classes to Marinette, like, every night, but sometimes I just...forget, I guess? I got excited."

"Does Marinette understand what you're talking about, or is she just really good at smiling and nodding, Mr. Science Geek?" Alya teased. "I know he was good at school, but you've gotten to some really advanced stuff."

"She asks good questions about stuff!" Adrien protested. "Like, it always sounds like she understands it. But maybe it helps that she's been hearing about it pretty much every night, so it's not so much of an infodump."

Alya was still grinning. "Right, Marinette is so getting a pop quiz when she gets back to Paris. I gotta see this to believe it."

"Oh, don't quiz her! That's so mean!"

Dinner flew by in a flurry of food and conversation, and the conversation moved on to what Nino and Alya had been up to. There were plenty of projects- Nino had been contacted by Max to help write and mix some music for a new video game, Alya had done another installment of her superhero articles and had organized a large chunk of her research, they both had done a lot of wedding planning and had cleaned their apartment, moving a large chunk of stuff into storage to make it a little less crowded until they could find a larger place to move to.

Adrien glanced around the apartment. He hadn't noticed it straight away- probably because his mind had been on other things- but sure enough, the apartment was much less cluttered and cramped than usual. There was more space to move around, and there was less stuff balanced on top of the shelves. There were things laying around the room, of course- Alya's desk was still pretty covered in stuff, and there were a few notebooks and loose sheets of computer paper laying around- but it was more normal clutter rather than clutter from things that didn't really have a designated spot.

Another hour passed, and Adrien was starting to drag a little. He had gotten up earlier than usual and had been busy all day, and the stress from the interview had exhausted him. As Nino and Alya got distracted by some detail about their wedding, Adrien found himself checking out a little. Alya's engagement ring glinted in the light as he gestured, catching his eye. Adrien found himself staring at it as she gestured.

It was a gorgeous ring, there was no doubt about it. It suited Alya perfectly, and Adrien knew that Marinette agreed. But the diamond and the prongs holding it were both on the large side and would easily snag on fabric, which meant that Marinette wouldn't want something similar from him. She would want something sleeker, with fewer parts that could get in the way.

Not that he was actively shopping for a ring or anything, but-

"Earth to Adrien, are you still there?"

Adrien startled, blinking at his friends. Both Nino and Alya looked simultaneously amused and concerned.

"Dude, you just zoned out on us," Nino said with a laugh. "Not sure where you went there. Have you been getting enough sleep?"

"He doesn't have any bags under his eyes," Alya pointed out, as though Adrien wasn't there.

"Unless he's covered them up." Nino leaned forward into Adrien's space, squinting at his face. "He knows how to use concealer to hide all flaws."

"True that." Alya gave Adrien another considering look. "So what was it this time? Another sunrise commercial?"

"An early shoot. It wouldn't have been so bad if I weren't still on London time." Adrien yawned, unable to hold it back anymore. "Nathalie gave me tomorrow morning off, though, so I get to sleep in. Well, if Father doesn't insist that I get up early just for appearances."

"Your father's an ass, have I told you that recently?"

Adrien snorted. "You tell me every chance you get."

"Well, It's true and I shouldn't be afraid to say it." Nino glanced over at Adrien as he yawned again. "Maybe we should catch up some more some other day. You're going to end up hitting a wall before the end of the break, and that would suck for you."

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan." Adrien reached for his phone, texting the Gorilla. The response was almost immediate. "It was great seeing you guys again. I'll text you my schedule, and maybe all four of us can get together some evening."

"We can go out and forget about school and wedding planning and moving for an evening," Nino agreed, grinning. "Just relax and hang out, just like old times. The old arcade is open, if you're interested."

"That sounds like a plan!"

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #How to Fake a Marriage #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #how did all of these chapters end up in Adrien's POV whoops

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softboywriting · 7 years

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Heal Me // Doctor!Shawn (A Soulmate AU) Part 4

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

“Why didn’t you go to your appointment today?” Shawn asks as he walks into your bedroom. No, it’s not yours. It’s the guest room. You were his guest. “I asked if you needed a ride and you said you had one. Why didn’t you go?” He sounds angry? Concerned? Upset?

“My ride fell through. I was going to reschedule but-”

“You didn’t reschedule right away? Did you call and say you weren’t going to make it?” His arms are crossed and he’s standing, weight shifted to the left, a very defensive pose. Why was he getting all upset? It wasn’t as if you weren’t living with a medical professional who kept tabs on you every day. It wasn’t like it was a big deal that some other doctor didn’t get to look at your leg. Shawn was more than enough, you thought.

“Shawn, I called but they had no openings this week. I said I would call back tomorrow after I found out when you would be available to take me,” you speak calmly, voice soft and level as to not irritate him any further. “My sister’s car was hit by a snow plow. She won’t be taking me anywhere for a while.”

“Oh,” Shawn runs a hand through his hair and sighs. He paces just inside the doorway, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. “Sorry I snapped at you. It’s been a long day, I shouldn’t make excuses though. I should have let you finish talking.” He looks over at you and you just smile a little at him. It was interesting, getting to see what he was like when he wasn’t actively trying to be perfect. “I can take you whenever. I don’t have any meetings and I’ll just be doing early morning rotations in the ER on Monday and Wednesday. The rest of the week I’m going to be working over nights as a back up in the trauma ward.”

“I hate over nights,” you mumble.

Shawn smirks and takes a step toward you. “You hate overnights because.....?”

You shrug. There was no way you were going to tell him it was because you hated being alone in his house at night. That you would miss him making you tea before bed and watching Cake Boss reruns until it was after midnight. Because that was becoming a thing you really enjoyed. “They just suck,” you say and he laughs.

“You’re not the one that has to work them!” He comes over and sits down next to you on the bed. “I think you hate them because you’ll miss me.”

“Yeah right.” You roll your eyes. The pink tint to your cheeks gives you away though. He knows you like him. “What is there to miss?”

He looks appalled. “Uh, excuse me, I am very missable.”

“Hmm, I don’t see where.” You look at him and then look around him and laugh, “Yeah, you’re too big to miss.”

“Not what I meant,” he groans and you giggle, knowing you’re getting under his skin. “You’re such a little shit.” You smile big and he pushes you back on the bed, falling back to lay with you. “For real. Why don’t you like my overnights?”

“It’s weird being alone in a place that isn’t mine.”

Shawn looks over and you’re looking up at the ceiling. He bumps his hand against yours and you clench your jaw, tamping down a little squeal of excitement that nearly escaped you. “It could be your place. If you wanted.”

“Are you asking me to move in?” Your heart is racing. This is a little crazy. No. This is a lot crazy. Sure, you really liked Shawn’s place and you really liked spending time with him and talking to him. But moving in, like for real? That was some advanced relationship level stuff. Not two and a half weeks stuff. The idea seems crazy logically but your heart says it’s perfect and you want nothing more than to wake up and see him every day. You think it must be because you know he’s your soulmate and you must be projecting your dreams on to him. This sort of thing doesn’t happen and doesn’t work out. You realize he hasn’t replied and you’ve been lost in your own thoughts. “Shawn?”

“I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know what I was thinking.” He covers his face with his hand that isn’t touching yours.

You hook your pinky finger with his and he lifts his head to look down at your hands together. “It’s okay. You just got caught up in the moment.”

“Isn’t that when the truth really comes out?” he asks quietly.

“Might be.” You look over and he’s staring at you, a smile on his face. He looks so cute like this, so boyish, not at all like the grown ass drop dead gorgeous doctor he really was. It makes you feel like you have butterflies in your stomach, knowing that this was something you would get to see as often as you liked if you were a couple.

Shawn curls his pinky into yours and says, “We should take a look at that leg, since you missed your appointment and all.”

You wake up in the middle of the night a few days later. The power is out and you can tell by the eerie silence in the house. No background hum of the furnace, no quiet hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen, nothing but dead air filling every room. It’s strange, the noises you are used to hearing when you think things are actually quiet. You sit up and look around the room, it’s dark but not pitch black, the lights outside reflecting off the snow outside creates a dim glow about the bedroom. There’s a storm going on and it’s loud. The winds practically roaring around the trees and homes, snow flying every which way. Whether it's falling from the sky, being kicked up off the ground or falling from rooftops, you couldn’t tell. Everything was white as far as you could see out the window from the bed.

“Are you awake?” you hear Shawn ask from just beyond your door. He pushes it open and walks in, careful not to trip on his own two feet. “Do you know how long it’s been out?” he asks.

You shake your head. “I just got up. I think the wind woke me up.” The window rattles violently and you jump, gripping the blankets, eyes snapping to it. Shawn walks over and makes sure the lock is tight, pushing it in hard and flipping down the little locking mechanism on top. The last thing anyone needed was a window blowing open in a storm like this. “Do you think the basement would be warmer?” you ask as he turns to you.

“Definitely. We should get down there before it gets too cold up here. The couch has a pull out bed in the den,” Shawn says and comes to stand beside the bed. “I’ll have to carry you down.”

“O-oh. I’m sure I could make it if I scooted down the steps?”

“I am not letting you scoot down the stairs in the dark. Speaking of which, I need to get some flashlights for us, my phone isn’t bright enough. Stay here.”

You laugh and throw your hands up comically, “Oh yeah, cuz I’m gonna get up and walk away.”

Shawn laughs and leaves the room to go get some flashlights from a utility drawer. He returns with a bag of candles and a single flashlight. “I swear I have five flashlights somewhere but of course I can only find one.” He tosses it to you and you flip it on. It’s one of those really bright LED bar light kind. It illuminates a good portion of the room. Shawn hands you the bag of candles and stands beside you.

“Are you going to be able to lift me?” you ask nervously as his arm comes around your back. “I’m not like super light or anyTHING!” He lifts you up with ease, surprising you, one arm around your back and the other under your knees. You’re pressed against his chest and holding the light down against your stomach. You lay your head against his shoulder. It feels so intimate and you lose yourself in the moment until-

“The light, honey,” Shawn says softly and you lift the light up. “Thanks, wouldn’t want to accidentally drop you.”

“Y-yeah.”

Shawn carries you out of the guest room and to the living room where the door to the basement was. He’s careful as he steps down each stair and you hold on to him, arms around his neck, fearing he could accidentally lose his footing at any moment and send you sprawling. Twelve suspenseful steps later and you’re in the basement. It’s still very warm and from what you can see it’s spacious, fully finished, and it looks like another living room but slightly smaller. There are two doors on the left of the staircase and another along the far wall. “There’s a bathroom down here, so we don’t have to worry about making a trip upstairs for that,” Shawn says as he carries you into the room.

“I hope the storm passes soon,” you say as Shawn lays you down carefully on the couch. He hums in agreement as he starts setting up candles all over and lighting them with a lighter he had in the bag as well. Soon the room is bathed in a soft orange glow and Shawn turns the flashlight off, setting it on the coffee table he dragged aside so he could pull out the bed from the secondary couch.

“Do you mind sharing the bed with me?” he asks as he locks the legs of the fold out bed in place. He goes to one of the doors beside the stairs, a closet it seems, and pulls some blankets and pillows out of it.

“I don’t think so? Why would I?” You are glad he can’t see your face as you say this. It would have given you away so hard. Of course you would mind. He was huge and cuddly and he smelled good and he was everything you ever dreamed of. How could you not mind?

“You’re not worried about me bumping your leg?” Oh. There was that. He comes over to you after a moment and squats down in front of you on the floor. “I wouldn’t want to accidentally kick it and have you be in pain.”

The way the light reflects off his skin makes him look otherworldly. He’s all soft looking with his dark eyes, tousled dark hair, and cute concerned look upon his face and he stares up at you. “I think I’ll be alright. You wrapped it really well. I haven’t had any problems.”

Shawn nods and hums. The next thing you know he wraps his hands around your thigh, well, mostly around your thigh, and he’s looking up at you. “How’s it feel?” he asks and you can almost see his cheeks flush bright red as he realizes what he’s said to you and how suggestive it sounded. “I mean your leg. Is it cold?”

You wiggle your toes a little, trying to get a sense of how it felt. “Um, I’m not sure? I’m a little chilly all over?”

“Do you mind if I-” Shawn lifts the hem of your borrowed sleep pants. They’re a pair of his and they’re really loose around your legs. You nod, letting him lift the pant leg up over your cast, bunching it up around your mid thigh. He slides his hand over your knee and cups the bit of your calf that isn’t covered with bandages. “It’s pretty cold. Do you mind if I try to get the blood circulating a bit?”

You aren’t sure how much blood he’s going to get to circulate because you’re pretty sure it’s all run to your face and between your legs. The way his hand was resting on your thigh and the other one around your calf had you so turned on you couldn’t think straight. “Can it be cold?”

“I would prefer it wasn’t. I don’t want to have any circulatory problems with it if it gets too cold. That’s the last thing you need. I asked if you wouldn’t mind because what I want to do may seem a little intimate.”

“I- uh...what are you going to do?

Shawn slides your pant leg back down over your cast and then puts his hands on your leg. “I’ll need to massage your thigh, stroking downward toward your knee. I might massage up here too,” he touches your hip and the side of your pelvic bone,” I promise, no funny business.”

“I know. Alright, go ahead.”

Shawn picks you up bridal style again and moves you to the couch bed. It’s almost like a dream the way the candles are lighting up the room, Shawn is laying you on the bed, his hands soon to be all over you. If this was your honeymoon, you might have died. But it wasn’t. It was a snowstorm and your leg was getting colder by the second. “Let me know if I hurt you,” he says, kneeling on the bed next to you and putting his hands around your thigh. He strokes downward, applying light pressure and then goes back to the top and starts again. He does this over and over again, his fingers coming close to the heat between your legs. There is no way he doesn’t feel how hot you are for him.

“Does it feel better?” he asks.

“Y-yeah?”

Shawn slides his hands up, fingers rubbing gently down your hip and your groin to your leg. You let out a soft moan and he freezes, hands on your hip. “Did that hurt?”

“N-no. I think it’s fine. You can stop.”

“Oh,” he says and you can hear the smirk in his voice. “Oh I see. I’m sorry I should have realized you might get turned on.”

You flush red with embarrassment. He can’t tell in the dim light, but you hide your face anyways. “I should get some sleep,” you mumble into the pillow you’ve put over your face. “Goodnight.” You roll on your side and try to ignore Shawn as he crawls to the other side of the bed and pulls a blanket up over the two of you. He chuckles and you groan softly into the pillow.

#shawn mendes fluff #shawn mendes fic #Shawn Mendes Imagine #shawn mendes writing #shawn mendes smut #my fic #heal me

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