It was just another long day, and Adrien just about had it. 

  He had barely made it home in time for dinner and because it was winter, the sun had set earlier, leaving Adrien to return to a dark home. 

All he wanted to do was make a bowl of hot noodles and guzzle them down whilst he waited for Marinette to return from doing her school work.

The new year was just around the corner, and Adrien was whipped when it came to the events that he was appointed. Most French corporate companies were paying top dollar for the Agreste name. They needed photos of Adrien promoting their products, they needed Adrien to attend their events to push said product and sell it - not to mention Gabriel's fashion stocks had been selling out rapidly so Adrien was in higher demand. 

  Anybody who was anyone wanted something from the world renown fashion designer, Gabriel Agreste. It was almost like getting Gucci for someone's birthday.

It was a must-have and it was given mostly to Adrien's disadvantage. He was the one having to put in all the extra back-work to make the profits.

Adrien inwardly groaned at the long work ahead of him; it wasn't as if he had a choice. He would have loved to find a way to sneak out of it the way he used to when he begged for lunch, but Nathalie had tightened her grip on him. 

  It was as if her hands had gotten bigger and Adrien's worse fears had come to life. Each time he had found himself distracted, he had unintentionally trained himself to see Nathalie bending mop sticks, and the mere thought of Nathalie smashing a frying pan into her head over and over with a straight face had permeated through his dreams. He knew that if he saw Nathalie smacking herself with a frying pan with a straight face, he had fucked up somewhere or was about ready to. 

  Adrien had just hopped into his pyjama bottoms, his eyes sore from standing in the spotlight all afternoon. He could feel his stomach growl relentlessly and that bowl of noodles only seemed more and more appetizing. 

The thought of stuffing his face and seeing his beautiful wife step through the back slider doors made his heart warmer than his belly. It was such a delightful thought, it made living so much more worth it. 

He grabbed his comfortable pyjama shirt and pulled it over his head. 
Adrien nearly tumbled down the stairs in a rush, his shirt bunched awkwardly at his waist. He wandered into the kitchen, grabbing the cat food and filling up Tikki's bowl before he began to rummage through the cabinet on the other side for some noodles and perhaps a bit of Sabine's homemade mango hot tea recipe.

Adrien felt the excitement in his toes as he reached for the bag of noodles. He was just about ready to tear the bag open and dump it into one of the pots on the drying rack but stopped the moment he heard a firm knock on the back slider doors.

  He pouted, moving his eyes to the silhouette that permeated through the moonlight. Adrien set his uncooked noodles aside and swiped his hands together as he approached the door.

"Marinette..." he chuckled, sliding open the door with a small smile.  His heart squeezed inside of his chest with the anticipation to see his wife after such a long day. "I already told you where the spare key was-" He glanced up, his words caught in his throat at the sight of his ex-girlfriend who stood on the other side of the door. 

The smile on his face immediately faltered, and Adrien couldn't help but to instantly feel worry. His heart quickened in his chest and he exhaled as he stepped out rashly and shut the door behind him.

"Kagami...what are you doing here?" He questioned, his eyes trained on her firmly as she stumbled back awkwardly.
Adrien quickly glanced around, the lines beneath his eyes deepening as he worried Marinette would walk into the garden at any moment and find Kagami here. 

"You weren't answering my calls or texts again," Kagami deadpanned, her voice strained as she crossed her arms with an impassive expression. 

Adrien sighed, grabbing her wrist and carefully tugging her with him deeper into the garden. It hadn't occurred to Adrien that he didn't put any shoes on to protect him but at that moment, all he cared about was getting Kagami away from the door. He knew that Kagami and Marinette had an animosity against one another and he wasn't sure how it would pan out if Marinette discovered Kagami standing outside their door despite the many times the young woman claimed that she was leaving Paris. 

"So I don't answer your calls and texts, and you show up to my doorstep?" Adrien asked calmly, letting her hand go and allowing it to fall sloppily at her side. "In what planet or universe is that okay to do?" 

"Then maybe you should actually respond to me and stop pretending that I don't exist," Kagami replied, crossing her arms tautly against her black coat.
Adrien crossed his arms as well, partly because he did indeed feel distant to his ex-girlfriend, but mostly because it was freezing and he hadn't thought to bring jacket or shoes to keep him comfortable.

  "What do you want?" Adrien asked, narrowing his eyes. "I can't be here at your beck and call. My father usually picks up a ton of deals during holiday seasons so he has my schedule completely booked. I can't always get to my phone right away, I barely have time to eat anymore," Adrien sighed, ignoring the fog that escaped from his lips.

  "Yeah, well, when we were together I was busy with a lot of things, and even though I'm moving right now I still somehow make time for you. I get that we all have lives and I still held onto that promise you made me, you said that we could still be friends and I know it's been a while since the last time we talked, but you can't seriously still be mad at me. I put you up on this pedestal that you were such a nice person- and that despite how cruel the world is, you can't really hate anyone. I could have sworn you didn't hate me, but here we are - you hate me. I wish I could do what I can to stop this but... I'm trying everything I can but you can be so stubborn..." Kagami rambled.

  Adrien sighed, slouching forward with a grimace as he tried to listen to what she had told him. He pressed his lips together, his heart racing in his chest as he had began to drown out the sound of her voice.

  His brow furrowed and Adrien widened his eyes at the sound of a frying pan thumping away inside of his ears. Adrien maneuvered his eyes towards the fountain in the garden, his heart quickening as he could vividly see Nathalie sitting on the fountain, smacking a frying pan against the side of her head with a straight face.

"Adrien!" Kagami exclaimed, immediately drawing Adrien away from his inner thoughts.

"Huh?" Adrien mused, blinking as Nathalie completely dissipated and left an anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had a gut feeling that something bad was about to happen. "What?" Adrien asked, clearing his throat.

"You're not even listening to me..." Kagami breathed, glancing down and covering her face with her hands. "It’s like you're a completely different person now..."

Adrien pressed his lips together, shifting his weight as he could almost feel his feet freezing to the concrete beneath him.

"Look, I'm not mad at you. I don't hate you, I don't think you're trash. What happened to us in the past is left in the past. I admit that I had ignored you a few months ago because I was still angry, but for right now I honestly can't see how we can be decent friends. Our past is much too complicated and the fact that you're moving will only make things more awkward and difficult," Adrien elucidated with a weary expression.

"That's just the point..." Kagami breathed.  "I called you because I needed your help. I was able to get a truck, but I need help moving my things," Kagami replied casually, turning around to run a gloved hand through her hair. 

"You were able to get a moving truck, but the dudes who are bringing it to you can't help you move?" Adrien asked, perking a brow as the obvious doubt laced into his voice. "And where's Luka? He can't help you? Why does it have to be me? The only guy you know with perhaps the busiest schedule at the moment."

"I don't talk to Luka anymore," Kagami retorted coldly, her expression breaking right in two. "I told you before that I was going to start being truthful, I wasn't going to make these types of mistakes again. I know I hurt you in the past and if I continued to keep myself associated with him that would just make me a liar." 

  Adrien pressed his lips together, his fists clenching as he was almost positive that Kagami left Luka alone, not because she wanted to prove something about her morals, but simply because Luka was actively vocal about his feelings and adoration for Marinette. 

"I appreciate that you are taking the initiative to prove yourself trustworthy, but I can assure you that it's not necessary. If you're moving away then there's no need to strain yourself silly over something that happened in the past. Just think of it as a clean slate," Adrien murmured, shivering as a gust of cold wind brushed through the both of them. 

Part of him wondered if pneumonia was a great way to stay out of work and finally get some sleep.

"You really do hate me, don’t you?" Kagami breathed, her voice quivering. "It’s like you're doing everything you can to keep me away." She turned to face him, her lips twisting as tears bubbled into her eyes much to Adrien's dismay. "I'm glad you can just pretend that I never existed, I'm glad to see that getting rid of me was the best thing you could have done. Apparently I'm just a piece of shit who deserves to disappear."

  Adrien frowned, reaching up to nervously tug his hair. His hand dropped down to the back of his neck where he groaned awkwardly. 

Sure, it was true that he didn’t need Kagami in his life the way he used to before, but he couldn't let her believe that she was nothing to him. 

It wasn't in his blood to treat anyone like that. It certainly wasn't the way his mother raised him to be either. 

Adrien shifted his weight, glancing down at her with a grimace.

"I don’t hate you. I never thought you were garbage and I never wanted to get rid of you. I loved you, you were a large part of my life back then, but trust is something huge. Once that's severed it can be incredibly hard to get what we had back. I can understand wanting to try again, but I don’t think it would have worked out. We bumped heads way too much and from the trust issues that I've spawned since the whole incident, I feel like it would have led to a whole slew of arguments and misunderstandings. It wouldn't be a happy relationship. There's no point in one if we were both unhappy and couldn't trust each other."

"So...you don't hate me?" Kagami asked, reaching up to quickly wipe away the tears that pooled in her eyes. "You love me?"

  Adrien cleared his throat, slouching his shoulders with a nervous glance. 
"I did. I loved you back then. I mean we spent so much time together and we made so many memories. There are still times I think of them fondly." Adrien glanced away, nearly feeling guilty at the thought of mentioning his past lover especially now that he was happily married. "But that was then... this is now."

  Adrien turned his head, attempting to look at Kagami, but simply froze as she threw herself into him. Adrien barely had time to react, his heart ached inside of his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. He caught the tears in her eyes and his heart shattered the moment she had layered her lips on top of his.
_________________________________________

Marinette genuinely felt like she was ready. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that Alya was right. 

The train fit perfectly inside of the tunnel, and Adrien was just as inexperienced as she was. There was nothing to be scared of. She trusted Adrien, and they had already been married for quite some time. Adrien was gentle with her during the small moments they were intimate and lately, Marinette only craved him. 

She loved when he held her, she loved when he kissed her and she certainly loved it anytime he touched her. 
He was a magnetic energy and Marinette had never met anyone like him before. Since being married to him, there were a lot of bumps in her life regarding a lot of drama with the people in her life and she certainly got a lot of attention she didn't really want, but there were moments with him that she truly felt happy.

She couldn't remember the last time she connected so well with someone, and Marinette knew without a doubt that she could trust him.

Anytime she had asked him to stop, he stopped. When she asked him to be gentle, he was gentle. When she asked him to look away, he always looked away. 

Marinette never really intensely thought about losing her virginity before, and in the past prior to learning that Felix was having an affair, she only ever thought about giving herself to him.

But now, she couldn't stop thinking about how much she wanted to be with Adrien.

Marinette bit her lip with a small smile, sliding her hands into the pockets of her coat as she casually opened the gates to the back of their home. She closed them securely behind her, her fingers tracing along the loop of her backdoor house keys. 

A small blush coated her cheeks, and Marinette felt a little nervous, but she was more than willing to push them away. 

  That train was okay, she was certainly going to be okay as well.

She was going to tell Adrien that she was ready to finally give herself to him. She had her contraceptives ready and she knew everything was going to be okay and they were going to be safe.

She smiled, biting her lip as she wandered towards the garden where she knew the backdoors were. She gently pulled her keys from her pocket, sliding them along the ring for the right key so that she could quickly hop inside and grab a shower in case Adrien wasn't home yet, and if he was home she had hoped to get the chance to talk to him thoroughly about what she wanted.

After all, if he was a participating partner, then she would prefer to have his consent as well. She knew he often got tired after work, but only a couple nights before he was more than willing to carry her to the shower even when she said she wasn't going to.

He didn't force her to either, and it was those small moments that made Marinette trust him with her body even more. She was definitely ready to give her virginity to Adrien and she was going in without a doubt to tell him just that. 

"I mean we spent so much time together and we made so many memories. There are still times I think of them fondly."

Marinette paused at the sound of his voice. She blinked, her brow furrowing as she only heard him from the direction that led deeper into the garden. Marinette gently placed her keys back into her pockets, her heart squeezing in her chest as she wondered who he was talking to.

Usually when he returned home from work he was either eating or sleeping, she hadn't recalled any visitors meant to come over. The sounds of the conversation didn't seem like it was quite safe for public assumption as well.

"A-Adrien?" Marinette asked timidly, her voice quivering as she quietly stepped along the stone path where she figured he could be. "A-Are you there?"
Marinette frowned, her blue eyes moving along the bushes that had already lost their leaves from the cold. 

She followed down the path diligently, her blue eyes remaining on the pavement for any possible patches of ice.

She could feel her heart squeeze in her chest and with a hopeful smile, she glanced up. She froze, the cold air barely even having an impact on her as opposed to what she had began to witness.

It was almost as if her heart had been shattered completely. Her eyes widened, and Marinette was sure she was ready to fall apart when she saw Kagami wrapped completely around Adrien, their lips locked together in a taut kiss. 

  Her stomach dropped, and her smile of hope faltered. Marinette almost felt sick to her stomach. 

She felt confused, she felt angry, she felt completely shattered but mostly, she simply just wanted to puke.

  Her heart sank deep into the acid of her stomach and Marinette had no time to think. She took a few steps back, tears pooling in her eyes as she wasn't quite sure what to think.

But one thing was for sure. 

  She was only going to do the thing she knew how to do.

And that was to run away.

She had every intention to.