Marinette held her breath until a pair, whose faces looked nearly identical to Alya and Nino, stepped into their private compartment.
Rose cheered. "You made it!"
"We had to shut it off to get through Customs, but we turned it back on soon after." Kagami confided, happy to turn the system off and let the battery recharge. "We couldn't afford to be spotted out in public. In Paris at least."
Adrien shut his off right after, shooting a worried glance in Marinette's direction.
She patted the seat beside her as Kagami sat down beside Luka.
"Are you alright?"
He smiled softly. "Your plan worked perfectly. It was great thinking!"
"Yeah, I'm a genius." Marinette quickly dismissed. "You look worried, though."
Adrien sighed. "Alya and Nino didn't exactly seem pleased to have to deal with each other."
Marinette's jaw dropped. "Really? They seemed fine at the bar the other day."
Adrien nodded. "I was a little surprised."
Marinette shook her head. "Nino has always been really nice. I went back through my old diary after we ran into each other the other night, and he was sweet enough to ask Alya and I out to the zoo just after she started school there. He was always really quiet but he'd been nice to me. I don't think I ever heard Alya complain..."
Adrien's arm shifted behind her. "I think I'll feel better once we're on the ship and far enough out that our parents can't find us for a little while."
Marinette smiled, finally glad that someone else shared her usual anxious energy about everything going wrong. She reached out, slipping her hand into his. "We're almost there."
Arms crossed over her chest, Penny beamed at the whole group, clearly pleased they were all there and could finally get moving. "Now that we're all here, I wanted to go over the plan. Once we get to London, I've arranged for a hotel for the rest of the evening and then for us to do some clothes shopping first thing," Penny explained from their compartment car, which at least could fit all 7 of them together more quietly. "The yacht wasn't available on short notice, so I had to go with something more commercial for the seven day trip to New York City. They had a fairly formal dinner dress code, and I couldn't get that information to all of you in time."
"When will Luka and I get married?" Kagami asked.
"I've arranged for the Captain to officiate the wedding on the third day of the cruise, when we'll all be well out at sea and well away from any coastline."
"Meaning we have to try to lay low for a while?" Luka asked, Kagami's hand in his.
"As long as we can anyways."
Jagged nodded. "I'll even tone down the makeup a bit. Penny got a rocking wig for me to hide my hair while out around the other guests." He beamed over at her. "She even arranged a concert in New York where we can announce the wedding, hopefully before your mother has realized she's too late to try and force any dirty tricks."
Kagami smirked. "Now I'm a little sad I won't be in Paris to see the look on Mother's face."
Adrien chuckled, grinning down at Marinette. "Maybe we can see if Nino can have Max arrange it."
"Can I ask what kind of dresses you brought?" Penny asked.
"To be honest, not much." Kagami sighed. "The focus was more on getting out any which way we could."
Luka reached out to grasp Kagami's hand. "Did you at least think about what kind of dress you wanted to get for the ceremony?"
"Nothing traditional." She declared without hesitation, "I would love it if we all found something to match our personalities."
"I'd like to finalize the arrangements before we arrive." Penny tapped her stylus on the tablet screen.
Marinette glanced down at her phone. It was already late enough that most of the restaurants around the train station had stopped serving dinner.
Marinette pointed to a few stores on Penny's list that would probably have some good options. Adrien leaned in over her shoulder and pointed to two more.
"Is anything going to be open that late?" Kagami asked.
Penny smirked. "Your soon to be father-in-law might not have the pull your mother does, but his name can still open a lot of doors when it counts. But for now, you should all rest up while you can. I'm going to see if we can get in somewhere tonight, and if so we'll be out quite late."
Jagged and Penny headed back to the other car to arrange the final details. Or to cuddle.
Either way, everyone under the age of thirty was being left to their own devices.
Luka just smiled as Kagami cuddled in against him and pressed her lips quickly to his. "We can always rest when we get to the ship."
Adrien took a hint, pulling Marinette against his shoulder and averting his eyes and ears from the soft smack of lips from the other end of the train car.
She glanced up at him for a moment before she shut her eyes and leaned against him.
The tension ebbed out of her shoulders once she felt Adrien relax back into the seat.
Maybe he was just worried about needing to keep up the ruse, even more now that Kagami was about to put a halt to her mother's efforts.
Gabriel Agreste had no small amount of ruthless means, from the very start of his career, but he had been out of the limelight for so long it was hard to know exactly what to expect from him.
Reassuringly, Marinette placed her right hand in his, entwining their fingers together. He only hesitated for a moment before he mirrored the action.
For the rest of the ride, she pretended she could sleep. She pretended her heart wasn't still racing at the fact that their escape had not only worked... That it would mean they would get to spend a whole week together, making this pretend engagement seem real.
Marinette nibbled at her lip, fiddling with the ring on her left hand.
Trouble was, it already felt pretty real to her... But she knew the truth.
Although they had arrived in London before midnight, the first shop they stopped into had been a bit of a bust. They'd found a few nice dresses and shoes to wear to dinners. Nothing really stood out to Kagami. Of course the racks were an endless sea of white and ivory satin, lace, and tulle.
The third shop was a little light on both options for bridesmaid dresses and suits.
Marinette leaned against the counter, glancing around. "You don't happen to have any other colors in the back, do you? Maybe something in red?"
The shopkeeper frowned. "The last red dress we sold we had to custom order."
Marinette sighed wearily.
Adrien stepped in beside her. "Is there anywhere we could go to get a red dress quickly? I'm afraid we're in a bit of a rush today."
"Well," the cashier tapped her fingers on the counter. "If you don't mind avant garde, there is a costume shop a few blocks over. The local Ren Faire season is over and they're likely to be stocked with a bunch of sizes."
Adrien smiled, falling in at her side. "Any other wedding shops we should check? Just in case that doesn't work out?"
"Not going to lie, I love the idea of a jacket for holding down the Best Woman role." Juleka's gaze was locked on a deep burgundy women's long coat with black accents. The window display was dimly lit.
Rose beamed up at her. "You would look amazing in that."
Marinette smirked, trying to keep pace with Adrien's ridiculously long legs as they all filed into the tiny shop. They were lucky that the owner lived so close and was a bit of nightowl herself. The fact that Juleka was instantly drawn to a jacket from the shop window was a very good start. It might need some minor pintucks to match her thin frame, but she could do it in a pinch. "Honestly, you should own that."
Juleka's shoulders slumped. "Too bad I can't wear it for the wedding."
"Why not?" Marinette shrugged. "Kagami doesn't want to go with a traditional look, and I've been puzzling how to go about that with a few nods."
Rose peered back at her, suddenly curious. "You think you could find enough here to make it work?"
Marinette nodded. "I've been looking for something with a little red for Kagami. I know she doesn't want to do too traditional, but some flashes of red would probably pop. And it's a lovely color on her."
Adrien gasped. "Penny mentioned she did find one place that had a black dress with red accents in her size, but I didn't think that would work."
"Oh!" Marinette's hand rested on his shoulder. "Can you call them back and have them send a picture?"
He beamed, phone already in hand. "Right away, my Lady!"