Love Beyond Time and Space

A Journey to a New Life

"Yes. Just... as soon as we get back to mine I promise I'll explain."

"Back to yours?" she questioned. Oh, bother! What had she let herself in for?

The words processed in her head – she was about to 'visit' Adrien Agreste's apartment with 'their' daughter. She felt every single inch of her Ladybug resolve disappear. She could physically feel herself shrink back into the chair, once more becoming the blubbering Marinette Dupain-Cheng who was nothing more than a schlub.

"Are you okay?" A hand touched her shoulder and she almost created a Marinette shaped hole in the roof.

"Yeah, yeah... I'm fine," she lied, looking away from the heart throb. The heartthrob whose picture had lined most of her walls from the age of 12 to... well... she'd need to remove some things from her wall if he ever visited the bakery.

The sudden vibration and sound effect coming from her phone almost sent her onto the roof again. This was insane!

Pulling the phone from her side bag, she gave Tikki an apologetic smile only for the kwami to smile back in understanding. If Tikki was smiling maybe this wasn't all that bad; she just needed to channel her kwami's strength and... oh, who was she kidding nothing good was going to come from this lie. To distract herself from overthinking the situation, Marinette pulled her phone from her pocket.

Big mistake.

Her eyes widened as she read the amount of notifications on her phone; names of people she hadn't spoken to in years, and numbers she didn't recognise danced across the screen. She continued to scroll down: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, messages, emails... It went on and on. Her thumb hovered over the screen with the intent to see what was on Instagram, however a hand shot out and stopped her.

"I —" He coughed before starting again. "I wouldn't look at any of your social media accounts. Rarely is there anything positive posted on there so it might be worth avoiding it for the next week or so, my father and his team will deal with the PR side of things."

Adrien's warm hand over hers made her heart dance to the beat of the Conga. It was strange but reassuringly comforting. The feeling was so overwhelming considering the simplicity of the action; one that had her eyes burning and nose tingling.

"Hey, hey, it's okay."

Without knowing quite what was happening a splash rebounded off her phone screen, wetting her cheek on its way down. Great! Now she was crying in front of Adrien Agreste. In a matter of seconds the trembling, 'film noir' crying turned into full slasher movie sobbing, and it wouldn't stop.

"We'll be at my place soon and we can discuss this. We can fake a break up asap, we just need to pretend something happened. Whatever you want. Seriously, Marinette, I'll do whatever you want. I'm so stupid."

For some reason his kind, reassuring words made her cry harder. The thought that this man would care enough to do whatever she wanted was amazing, but nothing made sense. Why did he feel like he needed to be so nice to her? She was 'a nothing' and he was 'a something' – they didn't fit together.

Her phone began to vibrate again in her hands, the flash of her maman's face increased the tears free flowing from her eyes. She was going to be drier than the Sahara desert at this rate.

"Marinette, would it be okay if I?" He nodded down towards her phone, the screen turning black before igniting once again with the smile of her mother. Worried the continuous buzzing noise was going to wake up Emma, Marinette handed the phone over to Adrien and reached in her bag for a tissue. Someone had to speak to her parents and right now there was no chance she could.

As her fingers threaded together, she began to play with the smoothness of her painted nails, ending at the quick and starting to pick.

"Hello? Hi, it's Adrien Agreste."

Adrien went silent as he spoke to her mother, every now and then his eyes meeting hers. The voice of her mother sounded out through the speaker in a muffled hum, Marinette intently trying to pick up words as she picked at her nail varnish and nibbled on her bottom lip.

"I understand... yes there is a lot that needs to be explained and I would prefer if we could do this face to face."

Marinette couldn't help but marvel at how confident Adrien sounded, his voice reassuring yet authoritative, like he knew what he wanted from the discussion on the other side of the phone and he was determined to get it.

"I completely understand, but Marinette isn't feeling too well at the moment and I don't want to disturb her whilst herself and Emma are asleep." He looked over to her with an apologetic smile, but her heart was too busy skipping beats as he lied for her, understanding the way she was feeling at the moment and even standing up to her parents.

Thank you, she mouthed. Adrien responded with a 'you're welcome' as he continued to listen in on the conversation with her parents.

"Yes., I'm sure she is," he said down the receiver. "How about you come around to mine tonight, I'll – we'll – tell you everything you want to know."

Nodding his head, Marinette couldn't help but feel like, although angry, her parents were going to give them this opportunity before kicking her ass. Once she knew what the hell was happening, she'd have the opportunity to talk to her parents and explain what she knew. She just had to know first.

"Is there anyone else you want me to talk to?" Adrien said, ending the call and handing the phone back over to her. She took it gratefully and placed it back down into her bag, giving Emma a quick glance and marvelling at how content this child was.

Marinette shook her head. "No, there's only really Alya and Avery, and I can message them later. I don't really have any other friends."

Silence engulfed the car again; however, this time it was Adrien's phone that broke the lull in conversation. As Adrien answered his phone in a professional yet friendly way. Marinette began to look through her own – sticking to the messages and not social media.

The messages continued to arrive, a repetitive buzz sending quivers through her arm. There were a couple more messages from Juleka and one from Luka. More unknown numbers and double the amount of messages from Alya and Avery. She hadn't got the brain capacity to deal with more than just the people she knew, so in distraction she pulled up Alya's number, and typed a message.

Alya

MarinetteI know you're desperate to know what has happened, and I promise I'll explain what I can tomorrow. But I'm okay and Adrien is being nothing but sweet.

Copying and pasting the message, she pulled up Avery's number and sent the same message to her friend.

Tomorrow would be an interesting day... that's if they could find a babysitter.