Prompt: Snow

Adrien turned the full beams off before flicking them back on, repeating the action time and time again as he leaned forward and attempted to get as close to the front screen as possible. The sheer volume of snow was making the driving conditions quite impossible, and even though he wanted to be all macho in front of Marinette, this whole journey was terrifying him.

Since passing his test just over four months ago, his driving experiences had been zilch. The whole point of driving had been another shot of freedom for him, adding to that of being able to transform and take to the skies as Chat Noir. He loved the idea of taking a road trip cross country with his friends and being able to go where he wanted when he wanted. However, thick snow wasn't on his list of ideal driving conditions.

He flicked the beam on once more, the bright white light of the van hitting against the thick flakes of snow and almost blinding him. This was impossible. The effect of the lights against the clean whiteness of the snow blinded him but if he turned the lights off he was blind anyway, there was no win; the dark roads being a scary occurrence just on their own. He would have struggled even without Jack Frost adding in an extra obstacle.

"Are you okay?" He had no idea how long Marinette had been calling him, or talking to him, his eyes firmly set on their unknown destination.

"Hummm, yeah." He flicked the lights on once more, knowing full well it was only going to be the same old problem, the illuminated whiteness causing him to shut them down almost instantaneously.

"Kitty?"

Adrien looked down to the map on the centre console, using it as his navigation to keep him on the road. It seemed they had hit country lanes. The twisting and turning continued as they moved on down towards their destination. It had been at least ten minutes since they'd seen another sign of life. No other vehicles, animals or anything else. Just snow, snow, snow.

"Are you sure this is the right way, M'Lady? Did you put the correct address in?"

He felt her lean forward and pressed some of the buttons on the centre monitor, he quickly glanced down to watch her grab his phone too and, what he thought, checked the address.

"Yes, this is the one. Hang on a second..."

Out of his peripheral vision he could see her tapping around on his phone once more, looking between what he guessed was Google Maps and Waze — comparing the two apps to see if they matched.

"There looks like there's been some sort of major accident on the autoroute. It's red from just after the junction we came off at, so we're definitely on the quickest route."

"I'm not sure it's the safest though, this is getting a little hard to see." The wipers were working as hard as his retinas, the afternoon skies growing darker and darker as they continued on their mission. In a few minutes' night would have firmly placed itself in a position that was formerly held by day and thanks to this crazy route, there were no lights to illuminate the path, meaning... well... the thought was rapidly increasing his heart rate. If Plagg wasn't busy looking after Tikki he would most certainly be calling the kwami to come and calm him.

"Do we need to stop?" Marinette asked without warning, Adrien once more moving forward and closer to the windscreen, this time his head colliding with it slightly.

He let out a short hiss, and used one hand to quickly give it a rub. "I don't think just stopping on this road would be a good idea. It would be a death trap." The faint bounce of a light in the distance caused Adrien to slow down a little, not that he was exactly going fast in the first place.

As a car came cruising down the opposite side of the road, Adrien attempted to move as far to the side as he could, almost stopping to let the other car pass and praying for Tom's paint work that no hedge branches had scratched into the side of the vehicle.

He wouldn't admit it to Marinette, but he was on the verge of an anxiety attack. Never in his life had he felt so stressed. This was far too much for him to take, putting himself in the firing line of an akuma was child's play compared to this.

"We could see if there's somewhere to stop close by? Maybe a café or something? We could wait out the storm there." Marinette grabbed her phone once more, only to be interrupted by the ringing through the speakers, their Christmas song list interrupteby the sounds of Taylor Swift. "It's Alya."

Adrien tapped the button on the steering wheel, connecting them to Alya as best as they could, the distance from any main town or villages going against them as the phone's signal clung onto two bars as though its life depended on it.

"Hey Alya," Adrien said, starting to speed up again with a clear road ahead.

'Hey Adrien, are you both okay?'

"As good as we can be," Marinette responded, "what's up?"

A crackle sounded through the speaker, interrupting Alya as she spoke. Those two bars were losing their grip.

"What did you say Al? You're breaking up."

'We've had to stop. The roads are getting deadly and there's a lot of crashes. I think you need to pull over and let this pass.'

Adrien could have jumped through the phone and kissed Alya. The words sounding sweet in his ears and causing the tense ache in his shoulders to finally settle down, he could breathe again. They just needed to find somewhere to stop. He glanced at the map... no sign of life around them. He tensed once more.

"That might be a good idea," Marinette sighed, leaning forwards and taking her phone, turning to Waze and looking at the area they were currently in. "We're just over half way and it's sent us down a country lane."

'Do you think you can find somewhere to stay? I can't see this dying down at all tonight.'

Adrien could see the reflection of light in the windscreen, the flickering of blues, greens and reds as Marinette searched around the surrounding area. "I'm guessing there will be a bed and breakfast or something not too far from here. Hopefully we can find a room that's available and we can make it there."

'I think that would be a good idea. Will you two be okay?'

Adrien couldn't help the snort. The two superheroes of Paris stranded in the snow... it wasn't exactly a life or death situation, especially as Marinette had made sure to pack extra power ups for Plagg. A small sneeze sounded from the footwell on Marinette side, alerting all attention back onto the kwamis.

Marinette moved around a little, the shuffling noise distracting him more than he'd like to admit. A quick side glance saw Marinette open the bag and pull out the two kwami's. She settled them on her lap, beside her phone and continued speaking to Alya.

"We'll be fine, we'll find somewhere and pull over. I'll let you know when we've found somewhere to stay."

'Be careful. Both of you. Adrien, look after my girl.'

"You have nothing to worry about there," Adrien replied knowing full well Alya was privy to their inside joke.

The phone went silent, Adrien making sure his eyes remained on the road as Il Divo began to sing about when a child was born.

"Can you search for somewhere?" Adrien asked, continuing to steer them down the seemingly never ending road.

"The signals low but I can give it a try."

Silence overtook the van, only the sounds of Tikki's sneezing and Plagg's comforting purrs could be heard, adding to the warmth and becoming a little deadly — Adrien's eyes threatening to close.

He felt the tell tale sign of falling asleep; his eyes feeling heavy and in need of closure, the bright lights an added incentive to just shut them for...

"Got one!"

Marinette's loud screech pulled Adrien back to his senses, his eyes wide and focused once more, the chance of death diminishing now he was back awake. Damn Plagg and his demon hypnosis ways.

"Huh?"

"Were you falling asleep?" she questioned, a hint of humour in her voice. She wouldn't have been laughing if they'd crashed... he didn't want to think about that though. Geez, that was close.

"Pfft, no! Of course not."

He couldn't see her, but the silence that followed was a clear indication of a Ladybug speciality eye roll.

"Shall I give them a call?"

"How far from here are they?" Adrien asked. The lack of civilisation around the area did not fill him with confidence, and Marinette's inability to accurately judge distance did fill him with confidence about what she was about to tell him.

"About thirty minutes away."

"Sure. Go ahead."

Marinette tapped the number displayed on the website and Adrien couldn't help but pray they had a room.

Shaking his head, he stretched up to his face with one hand and rubbed his eyes fiercely before peering out the window once more. He really needed to stop, he wasn't entirely sure how much longer he could drive in these conditions.

He'd had a hard night the previous night. He wouldn't admit it to Marinette, but the Agreste men had once again gone head to head over what was right for Adrien and what was right for the company. An argument and a storming off was followed by a secondary argument and lack of sleep. When the Akuma hit that morning Adrien could have cried. He'd had it all planned out: get on the coach, snuggle with Marinette (because she'd let him) and fall asleep. At no point did he expect to be driving halfway across the country in a heavy snowstorm on long and winding roads.

"Hi, we're currently travelling and need to stop due to the weather. We're about 20 km away from your bed and breakfast and was wondering if you have any availability?" It was at that moment Adrien had realised Marinette had disconnected from the handsfree and Adrien was left in anticipation of the answer.

"It's just the two of us," she said, her voice not giving away anything. "18 and 19, and we both have ID with us."

He guessed whoever was on the other end of the line had asked their ages; Adrien wanted to scream down the line revealing their secret identities if it meant getting a room. Even if teens Marinette and Adrien were denied he was quite sure Ladybug and Chat Noir would be welcomed with open arms. Maybe even dropping that he was the 'Adrien Agreste' would help? He'd tweet, blog, whatever as long as they let them in.

"Okay," Marinette said, "that's great, thank you. See you soon."

Marinette was silent once more, the phone still against her ear. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Thank you. Bye."

Adrien flicked the full beam on once more only to have to take it off quickly as a car slowly crept around the corner and towards them. "Any luck?"

"She is a Ladybug, she's full of the stuff," Plagg's nasally voice said. Both heroes shocked to hear the little kwami's voice interjecting his own opinions.

"So that means?" Adrien wanted confirmation, he wasn't willing to get his hopes up only to have them ripped from him, he was doing that everyday with their relationship.

"They've got one room left," Marinette responded, typing in the directions to the bed and breakfast and resetting the centre monitor. He was so excited and happy his brain and mouth had decided to momentarily disconnect; words tumbling from him at speed and without any thought.

"This is the best news ever! I could kiss you right now!"