She was surrounded by strangers. People she had once known and been close to, but now oh-so far away from. She didn't imagine it would be this distanced when she thought about this moment. The strangest part was that she had become so accustomed to Chloé's presence that Alya's felt awkward next to her. She was still her best friend, but...

She was starting to doubt it. She didn't like that feeling of doubt. It crept in the back of her mind and stayed for the rest of the night. Nino, however, had no such problem, seeing as they were soulmates and all. Marinette was fairly certain they snuck off together halfway through the night.

Some people were easier to reconnect with than others, but the feeling of distance never completely faded. A lot of them had developed accents from being in English-speaking territory for so long. The only ones who didn't change that much were Max and Sabrina who had moved to Quebec. Alix and Kim were the ones who were the easiest to talk to after moving. They'd only moved three years ago, and they didn't even move out of France. It was a wonder that so many of the high school relationships had stayed intact.

She tried to spend an equal amount of time with everyone, but the awkward levels kept that from happening. The only person she hadn't talked to was Adrien, and she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to. In all honesty, it could either go extremely well or absolutely horrible, and she wasn't really all that eager to find out.

The decision was made for her when he approached her near the end of the night.

"Hey."

She jumped, looking up from the drink in her hand. He hadn't really changed that much. His hair was still messy, albeit artistically messy because god forbid the son of Gabriel Agreste not use a comb. It was a slightly different style, but she supposed it looked good in him. Who was she kidding? Everything looked good on him. He could probably make his fangirls scream if he was wearing a goddamned trash bag for fucks sake.

"Hi."

They fell into silence, neither of them knowing what to say. Strangely enough, it wasn't awkward. It was comfortable, as if they had already said everything that needed to be said.

"You wanna go outside?" Adrien tilted his head towards the balcony doors, looking at her in question.

"Sure."

They made their way through the sea of people, trying not to bump into anyone as they moved. Thankfully, they managed to get outside with little hindrance, other than the near spill of a drink that had occurred. The night was strangely peaceful. The sound of a car honking could be heard a few streets away and the soft buzz of people talking from both inside and on the streets below rang in their ears. It was calming.

They didn't speak. They didn't have to. Marinette looked up at the sky, taking in the stars that scattered across the sky. For a moment it felt like she was with Chat on top of the Notre Dame again, until the sound of a door slamming behind them jolted her out of her stupor. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Adrien turn around out of the corner of her eye. The person who had interrupted the calm was Kim, who just blinked at the both of them before smirking, turning around and walking back inside.

They stared after him for a moment before glancing at each other. Marinette just raised an eyebrow and Adrien shrugged in response. That was all it took for a smile to form on her face and soon they were both laughing like they'd never done it before.

"Wow, I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard." Adrien brushed a stray strand of hair out of his eyes as Marinette caught her breath.

"Yeah," Marinette gasped for air. "I wasn't expecting that."

They lapsed into silence once more, although this time it was more awkward than last time.

"So, I've noticed that it's been awkward talking to some of our old classmates." Adrien turned to her, placing his drink onto the table next to them. She was honestly surprised they hadn't spilled or broken their glasses when they were laughing.

"Yep." Marinette copied his actions, resting her elbow on the railing.

"And it was always awkward between us during school," Adrien continued.

"Don't remind me," Marinette said dryly, narrowing her eyes when he smirked.

"But," Adrien looked her in the eyes, turning serious. "I want to get to know you, Marinette. Make up for lost time in the past few years and then some. So let's start over."

He held out his hand.

"What do you say?"

She stared at him for a moment, taking in his words. Looking down at his outstretched hand, she felt a smile curl onto her lips as she grasped it. Looking back up at him, she was glad to see a smile on his face as well.

"Okay."