Vulnerable

10

Adrien decided to sit in the hallway to calm himself down after he walked out of their home.

The home they had to share together as a trial run.

He didn't have any excuse as to why he acted like he did towards Marinette. He wasn't stressed about work or about anyone. He wasn't tired when they fought, but now he's exhausted as he sit in the hallway.

After about thirty minutes of sitting in silence with a door between them, Adrien shyly knocked on the door.

"M-Marinette? How are you?" he asked. He didn't expect to hear a sniffle from the woman.

"I'm fine..." she whispered, barely audible through the door.

"Would...you like to talk to me?" he asked, trying to be patient. The chances of her letting him back into the apartment seemed to be slim at the moment.

"I didn't think you would ask." She said after a moment.

He tried turning the nob on the door when he stood on his knees, but it was obvious that Marinette had locked it and sitting in front of it. He accepted that and sat on the tile floor. He placed his arms on his knees as he leaned his head back.

"I'm sorry, Mari. I know that work is going in all sorts of places right now...and I'm sorry about what I said about your designs. In fact, I really don't care. But I care about if you're having fun with your career." It sounded sappy in his head, but that's how he wanted Marinette to enjoy work.

"And I'm sorry for every hurtful thing I said tonight. That was insensitive, and I don't want to walk out of the apartment we share ever again." He paused to hear if Marinette replied.

She didn't at first. She listened to him asking for forgiveness. She forgives him, but she wasn't ready to let him back in yet. Maybe this is a good separation idea.

"Adrien." She spoke up to stop his rambling of forgiveness, lifting her head up to rub her puffy eyes. "I'm not mad anymore."

"Then can I come in-"

"No."

"But it's cold out here!" he begged. For the first time in about an hour, he heard her giggle.

"No, I wanted some space for once." She said, leaning her head on the door like he was doing on the other side. "I needed breathing space and you just sent me over the edge." She said.

He adjusted his sitting position so he could be comfortable—he was going to be sitting there for a while.

Over the course of two hours, Marinette told Adrien all of the emotions she was holding for a while. She admitted not liking the idea of living away from her parents more than the three years she did previously. She admitted she was home sick and wished to visit sights and fly around Paris again like years ago.

Her voice was Adrien's favorite features about her. When three years were wasted on skype calls, text, phone calls, voice mails, and limited home visits, he wanted to hold her, stare at her eyes, mess up her hair, and spend quality time holding her. Though he fell in love with Ladybug first, he was satisfied knowing his crush was Marinette. And though Marinette fell in love with a model, she adored his personality.

Soon the two were laying on the floor, their noses touching the bottom of the door and their feet on the wall and window. The door was there to separate them, but if every night was spent as if it was pillow talk, he felt like this would be like sleeping together in one bed. They were over the argument, so they moved onto other topics besides work.

"So, my lady...how would you like our family to look in the future?" he asked out of the blue.

The memory of the quick rundown of her ideal family with Adrien came quickly to Marinette that she covered her blushing face with her hands. This was worse than talking about her dream wedding that she knew would be paid off.

"My ideal family." She sighed as soon as she composed herself. "Well, we would be living in a big house with a couple pets."

"Is a cat included?" he chuckled.

"Another cat to train?" she giggled.

Adrien rolled his eyes as he folded his hands on his chest. "What I mean is...how should we raise our children? Will there be a little girl I can spoil, call her purrincess, and play dress up? How many boys will we teach video games to?"

"Adrien, we're not even married." Marinette tried to stop him from talking any further. "If our parents found out we were having a child right now; they would kill us for sure." Honestly, Marinette had already agreed to her parents that marriage will come before children.

He chuckled a bit. "I know. I'm just asking."

She knew what he meant, so she went back to thinking about their future family. "I was thinking...three kids, two boys and one girl. We would name them Louis, Hugo, and Emma."

"I like those names, Mari." He smiled at the thought. Through the fear of messing up like his father did, or fearing that one of them would go missing like his mother, he knew Marinette wouldn't give up on him about being a father. "I'm not going to ask who will be first."

She rolled her eyes. "No, but a girl can dream, right?" she asked.

"You can dream of whatever you like, my lady." He sighed happily. "May I come in now, please?" he asked politely.

Marinette nodded a bit. "I guess you had enough of laying out there, right?" she asked.

"Well...it's almost midnight and I'm cold." He laughed a bit. "Can we cuddle and watch a movie?" he didn't receive a yes or no, so he assumed that she fell asleep on the floor. He recalled the conversation and noticed how soft her voice was when she is exhausted.

He took out the key under the door mat for the hallway and tried to unlock the door. Successful, but he knew he would bump the door onto Marinette and disturb her slumber. The door was able to open enough for him to slide his head inside to see if she was asleep.

When he looked down, he found a sleeping Marinette who was asleep on her side, facing the door. He gently nudged her body away from the door with the door and a foot he managed to slide through. He heard a snore and froze.

"You could have told me to move." She yawned and sat up. "I'm glad you decided to come inside." She said sleepily.

He opened the door enough to let him through and closed the door behind him. He picked up Marinette bridal style and carried her to her bedroom.

He wrapped her in a throw blanket she bought not too long ago for herself gently and fluffed her pillows. He had taken out the pig tails in her hair and ruffled them so they would flow naturally together again. He felt exhausted himself after their blow up, but it was going to happen eventually.

When he goes to walk out of the room, he felt a tug on his t-shirt. He turned around and saw his love's hand on his shirt.

"Cuddle..." she said half awake. "Please? You can sleep in here if you want to tonight."

He smiled kindly at her and moved to the other side of the bed to lay down and cuddle her from behind. That position didn't last long because Marinette wanted to lay her head on his chest like a pillow. He went along with it and wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back in circles.

"Best...three months ever." She whispered after a moment, commenting how long they have lived together at the moment.

Adrien nodded as he starred at the ceiling. "If you ever need your space. Let me know." He kissed her forehead and hugged her.

"I love you, Marinette. Sleep well, my Ladybug."