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Marinette took in a shaky breath. She wasn’t going to cry. She was going to gather the rest of her things and she was going to thank Joseph for giving her the opportunity to work with his team and then she was going to go home and make a new plan.She was not going to cry.“This is so unfair,” Michelle said softly, helping pack the last of Marinette’s sketchbooks and tools into the company-provided box. “You’re the most talented junior designer here.”Marinette didn’t know how to respond. She’d never been fired before. Perhaps fired wasn’t the right term for this situation. She was being “let go due to financial strain on the company”, but it certainly felt like being fired. “Maybe when things turn around for us, they’ll be able to hire you back on. That’s what Joseph said, right?”She nodded numbly in reply and placed a stack of folded fabrics she’d personally brought in to work with for the spring line on top of the box. “I think that’s it.”Michelle pulled her into a tight hug. “Don’t worry. You’re going to land on your feet. You’re so freaking talented. I bet we won’t even get the chance to get you back. Some fancy fashion house is going to scoop you up before we can.”Marinette offered a tight smile. “Thanks.”“Keep in touch. We’re wishing only the best for you.”The sympathetic look Michelle was giving her was enough to make her eyes sting and she swallowed against the lump forming in her throat. Not trusting herself to speak she gave the other woman a stiff nod and picked up her box of personal items. Three years living her dream working in fashion and this box was all she had to show for it. She wasn’t even sure what she was supposed to do next. After a few minutes, she found herself crossing the street and heading towards the small park down the block. She would have to wait a few hours for Alya to get off work but she didn’t feel like she could go home.What was she going to say to Alya, Nino, and Adrien? They were always bragging on her but she wasn’t even good enough to hold onto the only job she’d managed to land. It wasn’t as if there had been fashion houses knocking down the door when she’d finished her internship. She’d been lucky Joseph and his team had hired her on at all. Gabriel Agreste had been right. She wasn’t cut out for this.______________________________“It’s freezing out here,” Alya said in greeting, rubbing her arms for emphasis as she neared the park bench her partner was sitting on. Her smile wilted when she took in the sight before her.Marinette looked up at her, her eyes red and swollen from crying and her nose and cheeks pink from the cold. She was clutching the cardboard box of her possessions from work. “I got fired,” she whispered.“What?” “They let me go. They weren’t making money and they let me go,” she explained in a numb voice. “Oh, Marinette…” Alya sat down beside her and pried the box out of her hands, setting it on the ground. “Your hands are ice. How long have you been out here?”“I don’t know. I was waiting on you. We were going to go get drinks after work.”“Are you even up for drinks now?”She shook her head miserably. “Not really.”“Come on,” Alya instructed as she stood and pulled the other woman with her. “Let’s go home.”“My box…”“I’ll get it.” She struggled to balance her purse and get the box up into one arm but she didn’t want to let go of Marinette’s hand. ______________________________“From what I can gather, they were making budget cuts and since she was one of the few junior designers…” Alya trailed off with a grimace. She tasted the sauce she was making and frowned as she reached for the garlic seasoning.“Budget cuts happen.” Adrien looked back towards the living room where Marinette was curled up in a blanket, her head resting on Nino’s lap as she stared blankly at the television. “It isn’t like she was fired for not being good enough. She’s great.”“Well, yeah. I know that and you know that and Nino knows that but Marinette isn’t taking it that way. She said if she’d been better, they wouldn’t have been able to let her go. Taste this.” She held out the spoon and let him taste the improved sauce and he gave her a thumb up. “I’m not sure what to do now. She needs time to sulk but I also know her. If we give her too much time, she’ll get in a funk. Last time something happened with designing, she didn’t touch her sketchbooks for years.”“Ah, yes, my asshole father was responsible for that one, right?” Adrien leaned against the counter. “Maybe she just needs the night to wallow.”“Yeah.”“She’s worked so hard. This sucks.” His eyes lit up. “Hey, I’ve had a few offers from agencies trying to get me to model again. Maybe I could use one of those to find her another job in fashion.”Alya gave him an uncertain look. “Maybe…”“It’ll be great. Leave it to me. I can be Marinette’s personal cheer squad.”“You might want to save your cheering for tomorrow.” Nino joined them in the kitchen and sat down on a stool by the counter. “Mari said she wasn’t hungry and is going to bed.” He glanced back past the living room to the hall. “She’s going to sleep in the other bedroom tonight.”Adrien frowned. “By herself?”“She said she wanted some time alone to think.”“Yeah, but—““That’s why we have that bedroom,” Alya reminded him. She took the saucepot off the burner and set it on a warming plate. “We’ve all slept in there alone at one point.”“Yeah, but that’s usually when we are working late or getting up early or sick or something. I don’t want her to be alone when she’s sad,” Adrien argued.“Believe me, I tried to talk her into letting me sleep in there,” Nino sighed. “I think she just needs some time. This was her dream and she feels like it’s gone.”“But it’s not! This is just a bump in the road.”“We’ll just be supportive and shower her with love and she’ll be feeling good and ready to send out her resume in no time,” Alya said, voice firm. “Dinner’s ready and you may as well enjoy it because I’m not cooking for you lot for another week.”“You’re too good to us, Al.” Nino kissed her cheek and reached past her for a plate.“You better believe it,” she winked.______________________________“Have either one of you seen her today?” Alya whispered. “She hadn’t come out of the bedroom by the time I left for work.”Adrien shook his head. “We were only ten or so minutes behind you.” They both looked toward the closed master bedroom door. “Do you think Nino is in their with her? We split up after the event and he said he had something to do.”“Go knock on the door.”There was the sound of the front door opening and Nino appeared at the edge of the living room seconds later. “Am I late?”“That answers that question then.” Alya gestured to the bags he was carrying to the kitchen. “What’d you get?”“Marinette texted me and asked me to pick up champagne for a big announcement. You guys don’t know what’s going on either?”They shook their heads.“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”As if on cue, Marinette walked down the hall. She wore a pretty pink dress and had her hair pulled back, the ponytail curling softly down to the nape of her neck. Her cheeks were slightly red as she took a seat in the armchair across from the couch Alya and Adrien were sitting on. “Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I didn’t realize the time.” She smoothed her skirt down before looking up. “Do you want to sit, Nino?”“Oh, uh, I have the champagne.” He lifted one of the bottles awkwardly. “Should I get glasses or wait?”Marinette’s blush intensified. “We can go ahead and pour it if you want.”“Come on, girl, the anticipation is killing me.” Alya moved to the edge of the cushion. “And you’re all dressy. Are we going somewhere? I might need to take a shower.”She took in a deep clarifying breath. “We don’t have to go anywhere. I just wanted to look nice for this.” She waited for Nino to bring the glasses and champagne over to the coffee table and take a seat on the arm of the couch before she continued. “Okay, so I know yesterday was a pretty miserable day for me but I don’t want to let it get me down.”“You shouldn’t! You’re an awesome designer,” Adrien smiled. “We all believe in you.”A small frown pulled at her lips but it was hidden when Marinette ducked her head slightly. “I really appreciate everything you guys have done for me. I know it was a sacrifice for us when I wasn’t getting paid much as an intern and I never really reached a great pay level as a junior designer anyway.”“We don’t care about any of that,” Nino interjected. “We’re doing fine. We wanted you to be able to do something you loved.”“I know and I’m so thankful that I have partners who love me that much.” She looked at each one of them in turn. “You have always been so encouraging about me going into fashion and it really means the world to me but I…” She trailed off and twisted her fingers into the fabric of her skirt, wrinkling the material. “But I think I’ve decided that it’s just not for me. I’m not going to try to get another design job.”“Marinette…”She released her skirt and held up a hand. “Please let me finish. I don’t think I’m the worst at it or anything but I was just mediocre and I don’t want to keep pursuing something I’m only okay at.”“There are a lot of avenues other than designing if you still want to do something in fashion,” Adrien offered. “I have contacts I can get in touch with.”“I have another idea that I’d like to share if that’s okay.” The blush that had been receding came back in full force and she dropped her gaze to her lap. “I know we’re doing well with money and we can be honest that I wasn’t helping much anyway.” Her fingers twisted into her skirt again and she took a visible deep breath before looking up. “So I think I’d like to try doing something else. It won’t make us any money but I think it will be so much better than any other job I could find.”Alya spoke up first after the long pause. “Well, don’t leave us in suspense, M.” Marinette’s eyes shone brightly. “I want to have our baby.”The sound of shattering glass diverted everyone’s attention and Nino looked down at the fallen champagne glass for a moment before he met Marinette’s eyes. “You’re pregnant?” he asked, voice hopeful.She laughed nervously. “No, uh, not yet, but I’d like to be.”Silence fell between them and Adrien shifted uneasily.“I thought we talked about this and all decided that maybe a baby wasn’t a good fit for us,” Alya began, keeping her tone even. “I even remember you saying you didn’t think children would be a good idea. We all agreed we were content with the four of us.”“I know, but I changed my mind.” Marinette’s jawline tightened. “I’m allowed to change my mind.”“I’m not saying you aren’t, but…”“You wanted a baby! You said you did,” Marinette countered angrily. “You even told me if anything ever happened with all of us and you still had time, you would try to have one with someone else.”Nino frowned at Alya. “You said that?”“I was upset and Marinette promised she wouldn’t tell you guys because you say all kinds of stuff when you’re upset.” Alya glared at her girlfriend. “I know what I said but maybe I changed my mind too. I would much rather be with the people in this room than have a baby with a stranger.”“Then what’s the problem? I want to have a baby for us.”“I’m the problem. We talked about this last time.” Adrien’s tone was laced with frustration. “I don’t want to be a dad. You guys know that. I can’t…I just can’t be a dad, okay? And how would we even explain this to a kid?” He gestured to all of them. “It wouldn’t work, Mari.” “You don’t know that,” she argued.“It’s not something we can exactly trial run!”“Calm down, dude.” Nino placed a hand on Adrien’s shoulder, his fingers digging in slightly. “Don’t yell at her again.”“I wasn’t…” Adrien’s face clouded over. “I didn’t mean to yell,” he said softly.Marinette swallowed against the thickness in her throat. “This was supposed to be happy news.”Alya sat back against the couch and crossed her arms. “It just feels selfish. And it seems like you’re scared to try again with fashion because you got burned. You don’t want a baby; you just don’t want to face reality.”“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Marinette hissed, anger overriding her hurt.“The last time things didn’t work out with design, you decided you never really want to go into design in the first place and we started doing the food truck,” Alya pointed out. Seeing the stricken look on Marinette’s face, her expression softened. “I promise I’m not trying to be a bitch but a baby isn’t a bandage for what you’re feeling right now.”There was an awkward pause and then Marinette huffed as she wiped at her eyes. “You were trying to be a bitch a little bit.” Alya let out a little laugh of surprise. “Maybe a little bit.” She stood and went to the armchair, wedging herself in beside Marinette. The other woman stiffened as she put her arms around her. “I love you more than anything. You know that, right?”Marinette relaxed fractionally. “Yes.”“And if you really want a baby, we can talk about it, but not like this.” She kissed her cheek. “Not while you’re upset about something else and just trying to make it better. Okay?”She swallowed loudly and nodded. “Okay.”Alya smiled and wiped at a stray tear that fell down Marinette’s cheek. “Why don’t you go clean up a little and I’ll jump in the shower and we can go get something really good to eat?” She looked across at their boyfriends. “Does that sound good?”“Yeah.”Adrien and Nino watched the women get up and hug each other as they made their way to the bedroom. “I can clean this up,” Adrien offered, already kneeling down to pick up the broken pieces of the fallen champagne flute. “You can go get freshened up if you need to.”Nino sat down heavily on the couch. “I need to tell you something.”“What?”“I really want a baby,” he confessed.
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“Say something, dude.”Adrien stared at the broken slivers of glass he’d already carefully placed in his hand. “I’m not sure what to say,” he admitted. “Since when have you wanted a baby?”“I think I’ve always just seen myself having kids when I got older,” Nino shrugged but it was more of a nervous gesture than careless. “When we talked about it a couple of years ago, it seemed crazy but now…” He trailed off with a frown. “I’m going to be thirty soon. By my age now, my parents already had me and Chris. I don’t want to reach a point where I regret not doing it.”“Yeah, but you can’t possibly think it’s a good idea. How would it even work?”“I doubt we’re the first poly group to want kids. We can’t possibly be.” Nino went to the kitchen and grabbed a paper towel to run under the faucet. He tapped the glass of Wayzz’s aquarium on the counter in greeting before he returned and joined Adrien, sliding the folded damp towel against the tiny slivers of glass left on the hardwood. “We could look stuff up just like we did before. We got a lot of it wrong at first anyway. Not all relationships work like ours.”It’d been a shock to find out that not all polyamorous relationships required each person being in love with each other. The only other group they personally knew insisted that’s the way it was and that’s what they’d decided for themselves too. It had been a bit of stress but it all worked out in their case, and when Nino looked back on it, he was glad things had gone the way they had. He’d been unsure if he and Alya could work within their group and now he loved her more than he thought possible. He loved them all so much.“But this is a kid.” Adrien stood and dumped his handful of glass shards into the trash bin, cursing as a few edges snagged the skin of his palm. “We were adults figuring stuff out. It’s not fair to bring a kid into something like this and I’m not going to.”“Why are you acting like we have some dysfunctional deal going on here? The four of us love each other and what we have may not be traditional but it works. Is that not enough for you anymore?”“You know that’s not it,” he muttered.“You’re not the only one in this thing, man. Marinette wants a baby and—““And you two are just going to go have one? What happened to the four of us are in this together?”Nino crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. “That’s not what I was trying to say. What’s this really about?”“I don’t want kids and it’s stressing me out that you’re even talking like this. I thought it was decided and in the past.” Adrien clenched his jaw and felt his heart rate jump. “I would be an awful father and what happens when this all ends, huh? It’s hard enough being split between two parents. How do you think four is going to feel?”“Adrien…” Nino reached for him but the other man stepped back, scuffing the toe of his shoe against a floor tile.“You know Nate and Chloe and Sabrina split up, don’t you?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the ground. “They couldn’t make it work anymore. They didn’t even somewhat stay together. They’re just all three alone now.”“That’s not going to happen to us.”“You don’t know that. And I know how it would go, okay? I’ve known since we started this that I’m the odd one out.” He hugged himself. “I don’t want to be alone again.”Nino reached for him once more and this time Adrien let himself be pulled into an embrace. “I love you,” he murmured, pressing a kiss into blonde hair. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise. You know you’re never alone. This could be a good thing for us.”Adrien was quiet in his arms for a long few minutes before he spoke again. “I don’t want kids, Nino. That’s not going to change.”______________________________“Do you really think I’m being selfish for wanting a baby?” Marinette stared at her reflection, noting the smudged mascara under her eyes but not bothering to wipe it away yet. She wasn’t sure if she was done crying.“I guess it depends on why you want a baby.” Alya stripped down and tossed her clothing in the hamper outside the bathroom door. “Do you really want a baby or are you looking for a purpose?”“Why do you suddenly sound like a self-help book?”“Because you need help, I guess.” Alya stepped into the shower and let out a content sigh as the water hit her skin. “You seemed pretty sure the last time we talked that you didn’t want one.”“I know.” Marinette sat down on the closed toilet lid. “And I thought I didn’t. But to be fair, that was a couple of years ago. I guess as I’m getting older, I’m starting to feel a little differently.”“If it wasn’t for the job thing, would you want one?”She twisted her skirt into her fingers. “I don’t know. I think so. It would make it harder though, I guess.” She looked up, catching Alya watching her through the glass stall door. “But did you see Nino when he thought I was already pregnant?”“Yeah, I did.” Her voice had gone softer and she turned away to reach for the shampoo. “I also saw how agitated Adrien got.”“I think he’s just scared. He would be a great dad. Don’t you think so?”“This isn’t something we can force on him, M.”“I know, but…” She trailed off and smoothed her skirt out. “He never gives himself enough credit. He’s so sweet and thoughtful. He would do such a good job with our baby, I just know it.”“Marinette.”“What if we were pregnant together?”Alya groaned. “You can’t do this to me, girl.”“So you do want a baby?”“You know I do. I’ve always wanted kids, but I really love you guys and I really enjoy my job so I was okay with us not going that route though.”“But we could go shopping for little clothes and decorate the nursery and pick out names. The guys could put together the furniture and pick us up funky food combinations and—”“You can’t let this idea run away with you,” Alya warned, mostly to Marinette but a little bit to herself. “We should all sit down and talk about it again but don’t get ahead of yourself, okay?”“Sure, okay.” Marinette nodded in agreement but could already feel herself falling deeper in love with the idea of expanding their family.______________________________“Been a while since we had the bed to ourselves, at least for a little bit.” Nino grinned as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it in the direction of the hamper. “You want music?”“Yes, please,” Marinette beamed, crawling into the bed. Alya had a hard time falling asleep to noise so it’d been too long since she’d gotten to listen to one of his bedtime playlists. She cuddled down under the thick blanket and watched him fiddle with the speaker on the dresser. Gentle music began to pour out and he gave it a nod of approval before rounding the bed and climbing in.“Are you feeling better since dinner?” he asked, pulling her towards him.She fit herself into the space between his arm and chest and let out a happy hum. “I am. Sorry for the freak out earlier. I guess losing my job messed with me a little more than I realized.”He kissed the top of her head. “You’ll figure something out. You always do. And we’ll be here to help you however you need. I wouldn’t be upset about you starting up the food truck again. I miss brurtles.”She giggled and poked his side. “We could make brurtles anytime you wanted.”“Yeah, but it’s not the same.”Marinette listened to the music play for a couple of more bars before she cuddled in closer to his chest. “How did you feel earlier when you thought I was pregnant?” She felt him go very still and held her breath as she waited for his reply. “It would’ve been a really nice surprise,” he finally said. “But it’s probably for the best that you aren’t.”“Oh.”He rolled onto his side so he could face her but still kept an arm around her. “I think Adrien needs some time.”“Yeah, I know.” She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “I know I get kind of crazy when I get an idea like this. Once it’s in my head, I can’t seem to focus on anything else.”“It’s okay.” He tightened his hold on her. “Believe me, I get it.”She pulled back enough to meet his eyes. “What if he’s never ready?”Nino didn’t try to hide his worry. “I don’t know.”The bedroom door opened and as if summoned, Adrien stood in the doorway, shifting his weight anxiously. “Do you guys want me to sleep in the other room? Alya’s going to stay up to work for a while.”Marinette could feel Nino waiting on her to answer and she pulled away from him enough to prop herself up on her elbows. “Of course we want you in here.” She offered Adrien a teasing smile. “I get to be in the middle though.” She was relieved to see his own smile spread across his lips. “That sounds fair.” He closed the door behind him and started shedding his clothes. “New playlist?”“I made it a few weeks ago but I don’t think I’ve played it for you guys yet.” Nino curled around Marinette, pulling her closer to him once more. Marinette let herself be cuddled closer with a note to self to pull Adrien to her once he got in the bed. She could feel Nino’s possessiveness starting to build. It tended to happen in some form or fashion among them. They all had certain buttons that got pressed sometimes and the other partners managed them the best they could. They were all only human after all.“I really like it.” Adrien dropped his briefs and got under the sheets, reaching out for Marinette’s hand. She grasped it and he gave her a relieved smile. The trio laid in the dark room, the only light and sound coming from the small speaker on the dresser. Adrien moved closer until he was bumped up against Marinette but she could sense how awake he was even as drowsiness started to pull her under.“Are you guys mad at me?” he whispered, voice so soft that his question could easily be ignored.The music continued to play and Marinette could feel herself being pulled under by the heaviness of impending sleep.“Not mad,” Nino answered and his voice forced Marinette back up to awareness for a few seconds. The statement lingered on the air as if it was unfinished and then the music stopped.
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“No resumes today?” Adrien settled down beside Marinette on the couch and immediately picked up the fabric in her lap to rub between his thumb and forefinger. “Soft.”“I’m thinking of using it to make a sundress.”“For you or Alya?”She bit her lip and straightened, keeping her gaze on the fabric. “Neither actually.”“I gotta be honest, I don’t think Nino’s going to wear a dress but if you really want to make me one, I’ll give it a shot.” He was relieved to see her smile.“I’ll make you a dress if you want one, but this one’s for something else.” She finally looked at him. “I don’t think I’m going to send out any more resumes. Three weeks of job hunting and turning up nothing feels like a sign. I think I’m going to try to start my own thing.”“Like your own line?”“Kind of, but not nearly so ambitious.” She ducked her head. “I thought I would get a few pieces done and then see if Nino will photograph me and Alya in them and then set up a website.” She chewed on the edge of her thumbnail. “I’m thinking of maybe doing ‘inspired-by’ type dresses? Like dresses that look like superhero costumes and character designs and that sort of thing.”“That sounds really cool.”“Really?”Adrien grinned. “Yeah, I think it’s awesome.”Her eyes lit up. “And it wouldn’t even be limited to characters and stuff. I could do outfits based on seasons and foods and anything really!”“You’re excited,” he said, fondness evident in his voice.“I am.” She nodded and draped the fabric over her arm. “I was feeling a little lost but I think doing my own thing for a bit is really going to help me figure out what I need to do next. And with you and Nino booking so many events lately and Alya getting that pick-up for her blog, if I’m ever going to try to do it, now’s the time.”He slid his arm around her shoulders. “I’m glad. I’ve got to admit you guys were scaring me with all the baby talk. I’ve been holding my breath all week since no one has brought it up again after it felt like that’s all we talked about the last two weeks.” He felt Marinette stiffen under his hold and immediately realized his mistake. “You still want that, don’t you?” he asked softly.She took a deep breath and pulled away from him slightly so she could look at him. “Can we talk about it, just me and you?”He shifted uneasily. “It’s not going to change anything, Mari, and I really don’t want to make you cry again.” He eyed her stricken expression. “But if you really need to talk about it, I’ll listen.”She took his hand and gave it a grateful squeeze. “I guess I’m just wondering why.”“Why?” he echoed.“Why are you so sure you’re going to be a bad dad?”“Did you really have to start with that?”She gave him a small smile. “Figured I may as well get to the heart of it. This might be my only chance.”Adrien ran his free hand into his hair. “You remember me when we first met, right?”“Of course I do.”“I was a wreck and that was me in a better place than usual for that time.”“We were all different. We’ve grown and changed. That’s what happens,” Marinette explained gently.“Yeah, but you guys are what keeps me sane, you know? If it weren’t for you…” He shook his head. “Look, if none of this had ever happened with us, I don’t even know if I would still be alive.”Marinette swallowed hard. “Don’t say that.”“I was drinking so much I rarely sobered up for very long,” he continued. “I was sleeping with anyone who would take me.” He let go of her hand to wring his together. “I thought about ending it a few times but then I would think about how upset it would make Nino and…” He took in a shaky breath. “It felt like he was the only one who cared about me for so long and I know I have you guys now and it’s better but sometimes I still worry that I’m going to fall back into that mindset.”“Maybe you could talk to someone,” she offered. “We all could, if it would help.”“I don’t do therapy. My mom forced me into it after the divorce and it just…it wasn’t for me.”“Adrien…”“Please don’t push this, Marinette.”She felt her eyes sting and tried to hold back the tears she knew were coming. “So that’s it then. If it’s not something you want, it’s not worth working through.”Adrien clenched his jaw. “And what happens if I say yes and go through therapy and still don’t want a baby? Is that when you guys dump me?”Marinette pulled back as if he’d dealt her a physical blow. “Of course not!”He stood stiffly. “Then it doesn’t matter because that’s not going to change.” He hung his head. “I promised myself I wasn’t going to make you cry again and now look.” His shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. Please don’t…” He shook his head. “Your dress idea is really great. I hope I didn’t bring your mood down too much. I’m really excited for you.” With that, he moved towards the hall and let himself into the other bedroom. Marinette watched him go, feeling frustrated and heartbroken. ______________________________“I thought I would find you here after I talked to Marinette.” Alya easily slid onto the open barstool next to Adrien. “How are you?”“I’m an asshole.”“You’re not an asshole.” She looked up as the bartender moved in front of her. “Whatever’s on tap.” He nodded and moved to the side and Alya returned her attention to her boyfriend. “Seriously, how are you?”“Scared and a little drunk.”“How many drinks have you had?”“More than I should’ve,” he admitted, finally looking over at her. “More than a little.”She noted the glazed look in his eyes but he was still responding to her questions so he wasn’t so far gone. She’d only seen that Adrien a handful of times and she had no desire to see him again. “Can we get a coffee over here?” she asked as soon as her drink was set in front of her. The bartender gave her an approving nod before he eyed Adrien. “Maybe some food?”“Yeah, a burger would be great,” she agreed.“I’m not hungry,” Adrien muttered.“Well, you’re going to try to eat. Besides, I’m hungry and a burger sounds good.” She reached over and put her hand on the top of his thigh. “But we don’t have to talk about anything if you don’t want to.”He seemed to sag in relief. “Thank you for being you, Alya.”She laughed quietly. “You know I love Marinette and Nino with all my heart but they could talk a person into an early grave.”“I love them so much,” he whimpered as he laid his cheek on his crossed arms. “They hate me now.”“They don’t hate you. They would never hate you,” she soothed. “This is just a rough patch we’ve got to work through.”“Nino hardly talks to me and I keep making Marinette cry.”Alya winced. She’d noticed the way Nino had been acting around Adrien but hadn’t brought it up in the hopes that it would smooth itself out. He wasn’t outright hostile but he was ignoring the other man when he could manage to do it without seeming openly cruel. And as far as Marinette went, she had been unusually sensitive since being let go. Any little thing seemed to send her to tears lately. “When you’re feeling up to it, maybe we can talk about some other options.”Adrien lifted his head and propped his elbow on the bar to keep himself upright. “Options?”“Now might not be the best time for a talk, Sunshine.”He gave her a slow blink. “What kind of options?”She groaned but turned more towards him on her stool. “Well, I know you said you don’t want to be a dad but are you opposed to Nino being one?”Adrien frowned, brow puckering. “No, not really. Nino would be great with kids.”“What about me and Mari? Would you mind us being moms?”His expression was already soft with drunkenness but somehow it softened even more. “No, you’d be perfect.”“Then maybe it would be okay. You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be. Do you understand?”“That would be weird though.” He scrubbed at his face. “We aren’t exactly normal.” She offered him a gentle smile. The burger and fries was set in front of them and Alya gave the bartender a nod of thanks. “No decision needs to be made right now, but it’s something to think about.” She cut the burger in half and slid the plate between them. “Now eat and then we’ll go home.”“I love you.”She winked at him. “I know you do.”______________________________“Hey.” Alya shook Nino’s shoulder gently. “Wake up.”He rolled and blinked groggily at her. “What’s going on?”“I want you to go sleep in the other room with Adrien.”Marinette grumbled in her sleep and curled in closer to Nino. He frowned up Alya. “I was already sleeping in here. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”“You’ll go in there with him tonight. You don’t have to talk but you’re sleeping with him. Come on.” She pulled up the edge of the blankets and Nino yanked them back down.“You’re going to wake up Marinette.”“A hurricane wouldn’t wake her up right now,” Alya countered. “Out of bed, Lahiffe, or I’m dragging you out.”He narrowed his eyes. “No.”She raised an eyebrow. “Fine.” She went to the end of the bed and reached under the blankets, quickly finding his ankle and pulling.Nino kicked out and scrambled upright before she could yank him off the bed. “Damn it, fine,” he swore. He picked his glasses up off the nightstand and slid them on. “This is a crappy thing to do though.”“The way you’ve been treating him is crappy.”He glared at her but quickly dropped his eyes. “I just don’t know how to deal with him right now.”“Well, he doesn’t know how to deal with you either so it’s a match made in hell,” she huffed. “He’s probably already fallen asleep.”Nino finally stood and reached for his robe. “Has he been drinking?”“What do you think?”His shoulders sagged. “Did you get him water and aspirin?”Alya felt her irritation give way at Nino’s thoughtfulness. “No, but that’s probably a good idea.”“I’ll get it.”She reached up and kissed his cheek. “Goodnight, Nino. I hope you both sleep well.”“Yeah, yeah.” He turned away but then turned back to kiss her. “I love you even though you can be a pain.”“Right back at you, babe.”He shuffled out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. He ran a glass under the faucet and grabbed the bottle of aspirin. The temptation to sleep on the couch was heavy but he pushed through the door of the second bedroom to find Adrien still fully clothed and curled in on himself on top of the blankets. “Are you awake?”There was a long pause and then Adrien whispered, “Yes.”“I brought you some water if you’re thirsty.”“I’m okay.”Nino set the glass and bottle on the nightstand and sat down on the edge of the bed. The heavy bar smell of cigarette smoke and stale alcohol floated up to his nose. “Come on, dude. Undress and drink some water.” He tugged on Adrien’s shoulder and the other man rolled into him easily with a sob, curling around him.“I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave me, Nino. Please don’t leave me.” His words slurred and Nino felt his heart break as Adrien began to shake. He held him as close as he could in the awkward position. “Never,” he promised.
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Nino scratched his fingernails lightly against Adrien’s scalp. He’d been letting his hair grow longer again and Nino had to admit he preferred it that way. While Adrien could pull off handsome with any style, there’d always been something about him with longer hair that he really loved. Maybe it was how it looked when he first realized how he felt about his best friend.“Can we talk about it?” he asked quietly and felt Adrien go very still beside him.“I’m so tired of talking.”“Yeah, I guess there’s a lot of that with four people involved in a relationship,” Nino sighed. He began to scratch at Adrien’s scalp again and the other man relaxed in his arms. “Do you feel any better after some sleep?”“I feel like I need to brush my teeth.” Adrien turned to press his face against Nino’s chest. “And take a really long shower.” He enjoyed the rumble he felt when his boyfriend laughed in response.“Yeah, you don’t smell great,” Nino agreed even as he held him tighter.“Did you sleep at all?”“Not much. I was thinking.”“About the mess I keep making?”Nino let out a loud sigh. “Dude, this isn’t all on you. I think we all kind of messed up. It’s a touchy subject. I know I haven’t been acting the best around you lately and I’m sorry.”Adrien swallowed and his throat felt scratchy. He’d overdone it with the drinking. It’d been a while since he’d had that much in one sitting. “I’ll do whatever you guys want,” he finally said. “I can’t lose this. I can’t stand the thought of losing any of you so if…” He trailed off and closed his eyes, listening to the steady rhythm of Nino’s heartbeat.“I don’t want you doing anything you aren’t comfortable with. We’ll figure something out.”They fell into silence and the sound of the shower coming on in the master bathroom floated in to them. Alya was getting ready for work. There was the sound of humming as Marinette passed by the closed bedroom door and then music began to play from the kitchen.“Alya would be such a good mom,” Adrien said, voice low. “She takes care of us already and she’s so patient.”“Yeah, she’d be pretty amazing,” Nino agreed. “I bet she’d have us reading every baby book ever written to prepare.”“Nah, only the ones with the five-star reviews.”“Ah, true.”“And I bet Marinette would absolutely glow,” Adrien added. “You know how they say pregnant women have a glow sometimes? I think she’d have that. They’d both be so beautiful and happy, I think.”Nino felt cautiously hopeful. “I’m kind of surprised you’ve thought about this kind of stuff,” he admitted.“Of course I’ve thought about it. I just…” Adrien pulled back enough to look up at Nino but found he couldn’t quite hold eye contact and dropped his gaze to his chin instead. “I just never see myself when I think about you guys as parents.”He considered that for a long moment. “If we said that we still wanted to have a baby and wanted you to stay?”“I couldn’t ever bring myself to go anywhere else,” he confessed. “But I think you guys would regret me staying.”“I don’t believe that.”“I do.” Adrien sat up and rubbed at his eyes. “But I don’t want to talk about this anymore right now. We need to get showered. We’ve got that birthday party tonight and they want a big set up. I’m supposed to meet the dance floor rental people at the venue at noon so I really need to get going.”“Yeah, okay.”“Wanna take a shower together?” He stood and stretched and Nino watched the action with appreciation.“Sure, if Alya didn’t use up all the hot water.”“Even more reason to share,” Adrien grinned. He dipped his head coyly, letting his hair fall in front of his eyes so that he was blinking at Nino through a curtain of blonde. “And you know I can be quick when I need to be.”Nino felt himself rouse at the implication and pushed off the bed and into Adrien’s arms as the other man laughed.______________________________“How’s it going?” Alya asked, hooking her chin over Marinette’s shoulder as she worked. “I think I’m almost done with this skirt which will give me three finished pieces. I want to try to get to ten before we do the shoot.” She lifted the skirt up and held it at arm’s length, tilting her head. “It’s kind of boring.”“I like it. The little darts give it character.”She frowned. “Maybe, but it still feels plain.”“You could always come back to it later. You might like it more or you might know what you want to add. That’s what I have to do with my pieces sometimes.” Marinette tilted her head back so she could kiss Alya’s cheek. “You have the best ideas.”“I know,” Alya grinned. “Looks like we have the night to ourselves. The guys are working a birthday party.”“Kid or adult?”“Adult, I think. Rich too. They went all out. I think this one was booked by some people who were at that big event they did at the zoo so you know it’s got to be expensive.”“Yeah, they definitely won’t be back anytime soon then,” Marinette agreed. “I hope they get to bring home some of the food like that last big party. Those cheesecake bites were so good.”“Yeah.” Alya walked over to Nino’s desk and looked down at the large planner taking up most of the surface. “He has so many gigs lined up. Crazy to think this all started with that small truck at the festival.”Marinette straightened up the piles of fabric on her desk. “I miss that truck. So many good make out memories.”Alya laughed. “So true. I miss our truck too.”“Yeah, it was really nice. Sometimes I want to go back to it and then I remember that we were younger and didn’t mind being in a hot truck in the summer with only a fan to keep us cool.”“I’ve definitely grown accustomed to a more pampered lifestyle.”“Me too,” Marinette giggled.“You want to take a break and watch a movie with me in the living room?”Marinette worried her lip. “I should probably keep working.”“Compromise and you can sketch while we watch?” Alya offered.“I think I can live with that.”“Popcorn?”“Ooo yeah.” Marinette grabbed her sketchbook, pencil, and kneaded eraser. “And do we have any chocolate? I think I’d really like some chocolate with popcorn.”“We might have some leftover from Valentines.”“Excellent.”They made the popcorn and Marinette melted chocolate over her bowl and they finally settled down to find something to watch. Marinette grabbed a few pieces of chocolate covered popcorn and hummed happily as she popped them in her mouth. She chewed for a few seconds and then grimaced, jolting upright and going to the kitchen trashcan to spit them out.“Everything okay?” Alya turned to watch as Marinette straightened and wiped at her mouth.“Yeah, I think maybe the chocolate was just old or something.”“It didn’t look old.” Alya reached for Marinette’s bowl and scooped up some of the popcorn to try. “Hmm, this is actually pretty good.”Marinette grimaced. “You’re welcome to it. My tummy doesn’t feel good now.”“Poor Mari.” Alya offered her the bowl of plain popcorn but Marinette’s lip turned up.“No thanks. I think I lost my appetite.” She settled back on the couch and pulled the blanket over her lap.“You’ve seemed a little off lately.”“I guess I’m feeling stressed about these designs.” Marinette erased a stray line in irritation. “If this doesn’t work, I’m not really sure what to do.”“Yeah, but you’ve been crying a lot.”“I’ve always cried a lot.”“Not like this.”“I don’t feel like I’ve cried that much,” Marinette shrugged.Alya studied her as she began to sketch again. “Have you had your period this month?”“What?”“Your last period. When was it?”Marinette’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know. Not that long ago.” She fished her phone out from beneath the blanket and opened up her calendar. “Oh.”“You’re late,” Alya said without needing to see the calendar for herself.“Only by eight days.”“That could be nothing. You said you’re stressed and mine’s been late before when I’ve been stressed.”“Yeah.” Marinette worried her lip. “Except…”“Except?”She smashed her cheeks with both hands and brought them forward to pucker her lips.“Marinette,” Alya prodded.She dropped her hands. “Okay, so there was a night last month when you worked late and Adrien was in that goofy kind of sexy mood he gets in sometimes and wanted to do a strip show for us.”“Uh-huh…” Alya had a sinking suspicion she knew exactly where the conversation was leading.“So he got started and you know how you end up laughing at first but then he actually starts being all sexy and it’s a big turn on? He was grinding up against me and I was sitting on Nino’s lap and then he started grinding and I was in the middle and our clothes just kept falling off and…”“You slept with Adrien without a condom, didn’t you?”“Don’t say it all judgmental like that! It was in the heat of the moment and I was feeling weak and needy.” She shrank in on herself. “And it wasn’t just Adrien.”“You didn’t use a condom with either of them?!” Alya threw her hands up in the air. “No wonder you’re knocked up!”“I’m not knocked up! We ran out and I thought it would be okay,” she winced. “I showered right after and picked up some condoms the next day. You know I’m always so good!”“I don’t think you get to use ‘always’ anymore.”Marinette’s eyes widened. “You don’t really think I’m pregnant, do you?”“Well, yeah,” she scoffed. “I’m pretty sure you are.”“Oh no…oh no…” She shook her head. “This isn’t good. Alya, this isn’t good!”“I thought this is what you wanted.”“Not like this!” She covered her face. “I’m such a slut. I don’t even know who the father is.”Despite watching her girlfriend melt down and the small jealous feeling nagging at her, Alya couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think that counts when it was your boyfriends. It could only be one or the other. It isn’t like you slept with all of Paris.”Marinette huddled in on herself. “Yeah, but what if it’s Adrien’s?” she asked weakly.Awkward silence settled between them and Alya closed her eyes, trying to think. “Okay, first things first, we go get a pregnancy test.”“Or ten.”“Yeah, the more, the merrier.”“And then?”Alya brushed Marinette’s hair out of her face and cupped her cheek. “And then we go from there.” She noted the worry still evident on her girlfriend’s face. “We could be having a baby, Mari. A sweet little version of you running around here.”Marinette melted with her words and touch. “Is it really going to be okay?” she whispered.“It’ll be miraculous.”______________________________“Okay, maybe I should take one more just to be safe.” Marinette chewed on the edge of her thumbnail.Alya pursed her lips. “I think the five sticks you’ve already peed on are proof enough. You hardly got enough on the last one. You’re running dry.”“I could drink a juice.”“Marinette.” Alya knelt down in front of her girlfriend, clasping her hands in hers. “How do you feel about this?”Marinette swallowed audibly. “I feel…I feel…” She swayed slightly and Alya steadied her. “I feel like I need to go lay down.”“Come on, sweets.” Alya helped her to her feet and led them back to the bedroom.
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“Okay, I have my appointment today at eleven-fifteen,” Marinette whispered, leaning close to Alya as the other woman poured creamer into her mug. “Can you come with me?”“Of course I can.” She gave her a quick hug and turned back to her coffee. “And you’re sure we’re not saying anything yet?” Alya kept her voice low as she glanced over Marinette’s shoulder at Adrien and Nino sitting at the breakfast table. “You know they will come if we ask.”“I think I just want to know from the doctor to be sure first. I don’t want to give anyone false hope or…” She trailed off and dropped her gaze.“Five tests aren’t going to be wrong,” she warned. “I know, but…” Marinette bit her lip and her eyes grew shiny.“Okay, hey, okay.” She pulled her into another hug and spoke against her hair. “Everything’s going to be fine, Mari.”“What are you two whispering about?” Nino set his plate in the sink and picked up the bottle of turtle treats beside the large aquarium set up at the end of the counter. He shook two out and reached his hand in to offer them to Wayzz. The old turtle studied the hand for a moment before beginning a slow creep towards it while Nino patiently waited.“Just girl stuff.”He raised an eyebrow. “Girl stuff?”“Yep. Girl stuff.”“As in ‘mind my own business’ girl stuff,” Nino nodded. “Got it.” He frowned when he caught Marinette’s worried expression. “But you’ll tell me if you need me, right?”“Yep,” Alya repeated firmly.Adrien squeezed past Nino to drop off his own dishes in the sink and he started running the water to wash them. “Hey, Marinette, do you want to grab lunch today before Nino and I go to work? I’ve been thinking of that little deli we found when we were by the park a few weeks ago. It’s been a while since you and I got to go out alone.”Marinette covered her mouth and looked at Alya with wide, panicked eyes.“We’re already doing lunch, Sunshine, but how about a rain check?” Alya leaned in to kiss his cheek and then quickly led Marinette out of the cramped kitchen and back to their bedroom.“Is it just me or are they acting weird?” Nino dropped the second treat into the aquarium for later and thrust his hands under the running water before he grabbed the soap. “They’ve been like this for days now.”Adrien’s shoulders sagged with relief. “I thought it was just me still. I’m kind of glad they’re treating you that way too.”“Thanks, dude.”He shot Nino a sheepish smile. “You know what I mean.”______________________________Marinette held her breath as the doctor slid the ultrasound wand along the goo covering her stomach.“Sometimes it takes a minute to find,” the doctor said in a reassuring tone. “It’s a really small target.”Alya squeezed Marinette’s hand and they both softly gasped when a fast thumping sound came through the speaker on the machine at the side of the bed.“There we go.” The doctor adjusted slightly and watched the screen. “That tiny little blip right there.” He used a tool to make a circle around a grainy blur against a background of black to the left of the screen. “That’s your baby.”“And this is the heartbeat?” Marinette breathed. “It’s so fast. Is…is that normal?”“Perfectly normal. It will even get a little faster before it drops back down. Sounds good and healthy.”She blinked back tears. “That’s our baby.” She looked up at Alya and her bottom lip trembled. “They should’ve been here for this. This is all my fault.”“I’ll get a picture printed off for you and be back in a few minutes. There are wipes on the counter,” the doctor said, giving Alya a knowing nod before he excused himself.Alya immediately went to the wipes and handed one to Marinette. “Get cleaned up, M. How do you feel?”“Guilty.”“We got to hear our baby’s heartbeat. Wasn’t it amazing?”She swallowed hard. “It was beautiful.”“And the doctor is going to bring us the first picture we will ever have of them.”Marinette gave her a teary nod. “Yeah. We should get a frame.”“We can do that when we leave here. And tonight, we’ll show it to Nino and Adrien, okay? As soon as they get home from work.”“What if Adrien’s mad at me?” she whispered.“Did you trick him into having sex?”Marinette blinked. “No, of course not.”“Did he fight you about not wearing a condom?”“Well, no…”“Okay, then.”“Yeah, but Alya—““Nope.” She held up a hand. “It’s very possible this baby isn’t even biologically his and we aren’t going to do eight months of drama. If he wants to be a father, he can be. If he doesn’t, he won’t be. We’re still going to love Adrien. And I’m going to be right here beside you and you know Nino will be too. That kid is going to be covered in love.”Marinette sniffled but started wiping the ultrasound goo off her stomach. “You’re right. We’re going to love this baby so much.”“Damn straight.”“And Nino is going to be the sweetest daddy.” Marinette sat up and swung her legs over the side of the exam table. “And we’re going to be good moms, right?” “We’re going to do the very best we can.”Her eyes lit up. “Oh! We can go shopping now!”“There’s my girl,” Alya grinned, pulling her close for a kiss.______________________________“Okay, so this blog says something totally different from the other one,” Alya groaned. “Why can’t everyone just agree on the foods to avoid during pregnancy?”“The doctor gave me this list.” Marinette searched through the stack of papers she had on the dining room table and lifted up a sheet. “It’s pretty easy to follow, I think.”“I know but I wanted to check the blogs too.”“Listen to you,” she teased. “Checking ‘the blogs’. You’re going to be a mommy blogger, aren’t you? You’re going to be a Pinterest mom with perfect Instagram photos.”“You will take that back or we’re breaking up right here and right now.”“I wonder what you’ll call your mommy blog,” Marinette continued. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Since your other blog is ‘Bread Makes You Fat’, you obviously have to play with ‘Bun in the Oven’.”“I’m ignoring you now.” Alya opened up three new blogs from a recommended search.The other woman quieted down and shuffled the papers in front of her. “They should be home soon, huh?”“Yeah.”“Are you nervous?”Alya gave her half a smile. “A little. How about you?”Marinette worried her lip. “I really don’t want to lose him.”“We aren’t going to lose him.”“We could.”At that moment, the door opened and both women jumped in surprise. Alya quickly stood and moved into the living room with Marinette following a little behind. “You guys are home early.”“Yeah, we were scouting out two possible venues for one of the events I have to plan in a couple of months.” Adrien dropped his soft briefcase by the door. “One of the venues got booked before we could put in our dates so it made the choice really easy.”“We were talking about how hungry we are. Did you guys have something planned for dinner or should we order in?” Nino walked past them all to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. He slowed on his way back as his gaze fell on the papers covering the dining table. “What is all this?”“Um, well, we actually need to tell you guys something.” Marinette wrung her hands together anxiously and Alya touched the small of her back.“Maybe we can sit down for a minute before we talk about dinner?”Nino looked at them with wide eyes. His mouth worked but no sound came out as he looked back down at the papers.“Come sit, Nino,” Alya urged, patting the armchair by the couch.Adrien dropped down beside Marinette as Nino moved to join them. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”With an encouraging nod from Alya, Marinette began. “Um, well, I’ve been a little off lately.”“Yeah, we were worried about that actually.” Adrien took her hand and shot Nino a concerned look but the other man’s eyes stayed on Marinette and Alya. “Is everything okay?”“Well, yes.” Her voice wavered. “Everything’s really great actually. I’m…I’m pregnant.”He froze beside her. “I…”“That’s amazing.” Nino knelt down in front of the couch so he could see all three of them. “Tell us everything.” He shifted to the side and pressed his shoulder against Adrien’s knees as if keeping him in place.Marinette glanced anxiously at Adrien. He still held her hand limply in his so she left it. “Well, Alya’s the one who realized actually. I’ve been moody and had food aversions and stomach aches and then we saw that I was over a week late for my last period.”“You guys were working late that night so we went out and got pregnancy tests,” Alya added.“Late?” Nino frowned. “Wait, last week?”They nodded in unison.“I didn’t want to say anything until I saw a doctor though,” Marinette continued. “I wanted to make sure it was real. That’s why I’ve been a basket case the past few days.”“Even though I told her five positive pregnancy tests were definitely real,” Alya said as she rose off the couch. She went to the table and shifted around the papers and books until she found a picture frame and brought it back to them. “But we were able to listen to the heartbeat and get our first picture.” She offered the frame to Nino and he swallowed loudly as he looked down at it.“This inside the circle? That’s the baby?” he asked in a shaky voice.Marinette nodded. “I’ll be nine weeks on Tuesday. The doctor said the heartbeat sounds good and healthy.”“Nine weeks,” Adrien murmured.“Yeah, around the time of your little unsafe threesome,” Alya replied cutting her eyes to him. “Marinette told me all about it and I have to say that I’m jealous and hurt.”“Alya,” Marinette groaned, covering her face.“What? I deserve a striptease too. It’s been so long.” She smiled at Adrien but he didn’t look up from the ultrasound photo Nino was still holding.“That was…you were still working for Joseph then,” he said, tone too even for the situation.“Yeah.”“Oh.”Marinette blushed. “So when I had my whole unemployed and need to be pregnant breakdown, it turns out I already was.”“That means the baby could be either of ours…if it was from that night that we...”“It can be both of ours either way.” Nino held out the picture frame and Adrien took it with visibly shaking hands. Nino stood and pulled Marinette into a hug. “I’m so happy, sweetheart. I’m so…I don’t even know what to say.” He pulled back to look down at her. “How are you feeling about all this?”She felt herself melt under his touch. Things were so easy with Nino. “I’m really happy,” she smiled, feeling tears prick her eyes. She’d been so tired of crying but seeing the look on his face and shine in his eyes, it didn’t seem so bad to do it again. They stared at each other for a few long seconds and then Nino opened his arm to pull Alya into the hug. “And how do you feel?”“Like we’re about to get a whole lot busier.” Alya rested her head against Marinette’s and let out a happy hum. “I’m excited. I can’t wait to meet our baby.”The trio turned their attention to Adrien who was still sitting on the couch and staring down at the framed ultrasound. Marinette said his name softly and his head whipped up, his expression unreadable. Nino and Marinette opened their arms and he jolted up and buried his face against her neck, whispering words no one could quite make out.
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“Thanks for coming out alone with me tonight.” Adrien stuffed his hands into the pockets of his slacks as they walked along the storefronts. “I have something I need to tell everybody but I wanted to let you know in private first.”Marinette tried not to let her mind run wild with the possibilities. It had been a little over a week since her pregnancy had been made official within their group and everyone was still trying to navigate how to act around Adrien. He hadn’t been acting differently but he also never seemed to want to stay around when they talked about the pregnancy, which was becoming very often. “You know you can tell me anything,” she prompted.He gazed at her anxiously before dropping his eyes to the ground before them again. “Maybe we could go sit somewhere? Are you supposed to be on your feet this much?”A little of her tension eased away and she laughed. “I’m fine right now but we can go somewhere to sit if you want.”Adrien blushed. “Sorry. I really don’t know the rules for this kind of stuff.”“I don’t either. I’m kinda learning on the job.” She gestured to a small café as they passed it. “Want to go in here?”“Sure.” He nodded and grabbed the door, holding it open for her. They each ordered drinks and got a large sticky bun to split.Marinette let Adrien fill in the time between bites with unimportant small talk until the suspense became too great. “You wanted to talk to me about something?”He grimaced but the expression was quickly wiped away and replaced with a pleasantly blank look. “Right. Um, so I’m going to be leaving for a little while.”The mug of hot cocoa Marinette was bringing to her lips paused between the table and her face. “You’re leaving us?” she whispered, feeling her heart start to race.“No!” he exclaimed loudly and then flushed. He tried to ignore the other customers whose attention he’d caught and leaned closer across the table. “No,” he repeated in a lower voice. “I’m not…this isn’t a break up.” He ran a nervous hair through his hand as he sat back. “Gabriel offered me a temporary modeling contract and I’m going to take it.”“You can’t.”“It’ll only be a for a few months. It’s a trial run for both of us. Nathalie’s reached out to me a few times over the years to come back and I think this might be a good opportunity.”Marinette’s bottom lip quivered. “Because of the baby?”He was quiet for a few seconds as he stared down into his mug. “Because I’m not the kind of person you need around right now,” he finally corrected. “And because I need to figure out some stuff for myself. I want to come back in better shape than I am now.”“And you really think being around your dad is going to make that happen?”“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I don’t think I can stay here.”Marinette put a hand to her stomach. “This could be your baby,” she said softly.Adrien looked pained and he sat all the way back in his chair, putting more space between them. “I know that. And…and I’m sorry.”“You really want to leave me right now. Like this.” She swallowed hard. “I need you here.”He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “You aren’t alone. You’ve got Nino and Alya.”“Well, I need you too.”“You really don’t. They can take care of you much better than I ever could.” He reached across the table for her hand and she pulled it back into her lap before he could touch it. “If you leave now…” She shook her head as if she was arguing with herself and finally looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “If you leave now,” she began again, “I don’t know if you can come back. I need you. I…I can’t do this without you, Adrien.”He let her words sink in and the heartbreak was evident on his face. “You’re one of the strongest people I know.” He looked down at his hands in his lap, twisted together in anxiety. “I wish I had half your strength, Mari. I know I should be happy about this. I know I should be here and take care of you, but I’m broken. I’m broken and the last thing I want to do is break you too so I have to go, okay?” He dared a quick glance up at her. “I don’t want to go; I have to. Please tell me you understand that.”Marinette picked up her napkin and used it to dab at her eyes. “I’m really mad at you right now.”He nodded miserably. “That’s fair.”“Yeah.” She ignored her fork and picked up what was left of the sticky bun and started to tear it into shreds on the plate. “But if you really think this is what you need to do, then do it.”He watched her and briefly wondered if she was imaging his head as the mangled sticky bun. “And when I’m ready to come back?”She let out a long exhale and looked across the table at him with tired eyes. “I don’t know,” she admitted.______________________________“I’m going to take a shower,” Marinette announced as she breezed through the front door and past a snuggling Nino and Alya on the couch. “By myself.”Adrien trailed in behind her and closed and locked the door. “Okay.” He winced as the bedroom door slammed and then there was another muted slam from the bathroom.“What did you do?” Alya asked, attempting to disentangle herself from Nino and the blanket. They both sat up and looked at Adrien expectantly.He slumped into the armchair. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell you guys together or separately but I may as well get this over with so you can hate me too.”Nino’s hand found Alya’s under the blanket and he gripped it hard. “What’s going on?”“I’m leaving to go work for Gabriel for a while,” he said, not bothering with a preamble. “I need some time and space to get away and work on myself and he’s wanted me to come back and model for years now so…” He trailed off with a shrug and picked at the hem of his shirt.“You can’t be serious, dude.”“I am.”Alya leaned forward. “Timing aside, why are you going back to him? He’s awful to you. You said you’ve been getting other offers. Why not take one of them?”“Because it has to be him.”Nino scrubbed at his face and dropped his hands with a groan. “Why? Why does it have to be him? What reason could you possibly have that you think you need to leave us right now to go spend time with your dad? The same dad who fired you and cut you off without a thought. You remember that, right? The man you hated so much that you drank yourself stupid almost everyday?” He stood and paced the length of the room in frustration. “These past few years have been the happiest I’ve ever seen you and you have to know part of that is being away from him.”“I never hated him,” Adrien said softly. “I still don’t hate him. That’s the problem.”Alya gave Nino a wary look before returning her attention to their partner. “What’s the problem?”“What if I end up treating the baby like he treated me and it still loves me? It’s messed up. I don’t want to do that.”Nino stopped in front of the armchair and glared down at the other man. “You’re nothing like him. You have to know that.”“You’ve never really seen who I am, Nino. You love me and it makes you blind to stuff.”“That’s bullshit. I know exactly who you are. I see your flaws. You’re not perfect, Adrien. Believe me, you’ve never been perfect and I still love you. I see you better than you do.”They glared at each other for a long second before Alya began to speak again, breaking the tension. “What exactly are you hoping to achieve here?”Adrien dropped his gaze and Nino backed up a few steps to fall back down to the couch. “I need to know how he feels about me.”“What’s that going to do?”“I just need to know.” He pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll sleep in the other room tonight. My flight leaves on Saturday but I can get a hotel room near the airport until then. It’ll make things easier.”Nino let him get to the bedroom door before he spoke. “When are you coming back?”Adrien paused with his hand on the doorknob. “I don’t know if I am yet. That might be up to Marinette.” Then he escaped into the bedroom and locked the door.______________________________Adrien packed up the last of his toiletries and did the customary walk around the hotel room to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything. One of Alya’s hair bands was on the nightstand and he picked it up and stuck it in his pocket. She’d spent the last few nights in town with him and had wanted to see him to the airport but he’d asked her to go. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to go through with leaving if she was standing there.Nino had come by once to try to talk him into staying but he didn’t spend the night. He had given him a goodbye kiss though and Adrien still couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.He hadn’t seen Marinette since the night he told her he was leaving. She’d remained scarce as he packed up the things he wanted to take on his trip. Every Saturday morning for the last five years, she’d sent him a message with a picture of some ridiculous cat she’d found with the greeting “Happy Caturday!” even when they were lying in bed next to each other. He had them al saved in a special folder on his phone. It was well past noon and there was still no message. He had the sinking feeling that he was about to lose the only people that had ever made him happy as soon as he stepped on the plane but he couldn’t turn back now.With a heavy sigh, he picked up his suitcases and left the room.______________________________Marinette stared at the picture of the fluffy cat with a gelled mohawk on her screen. She’d been looking at pictures of cats for hours but hadn’t been able to bring herself to save one to her phone to send to Adrien. She just couldn’t think about it any longer.“I think we should turn the second bedroom into the nursery,” she announced as she dropped her phone on the couch. “We probably need a bigger place but I don’t think we can afford that right now with only two of really us working so maybe we should go ahead and use that bedroom.”“I thought we were going to use the office as the nursery and move our work stuff to the dining room since we don’t really use it to eat,” Nino replied from the kitchen as he made a sandwich. “That way we can keep the other bedroom if we need it.”“Adrien used it more than anyone and he’s not here anymore,” she said simply. “Besides it has better lighting for a nursery, I think.”“What has better lighting?” Alya came into the living room with her hair wrapped up in a towel.“The other bedroom. I want to make it the nursery, I think.”“Are you sure? We use it a lot.”“We just went over this.” Marinette gave her a careless wave. “Adrien is gone and the three of us are fine. I’m thinking maybe a green? It’s a nice neutral color.”“Back up, sweets. Adrien is on a trip. He isn’t gone forever.”“I’ve been looking at different themes,” she continued as if she hadn’t heard Alya. “I kind of want to do an animal related one but I’m not sure what yet.”Alya shot Nino a worried look and he returned it. “Sweetheart, we’ve got plenty of time to figure all of this stuff out. The baby still needs to grow for a bit before it needs a nursery.” Nino rounded the counter and joined Marinette, pulling her back against his chest so he could frame her small belly with his hands. “We can talk about where to put the nursery next month maybe.”She pulled away from him. “No! We need to do this stuff now! It has to get done!” She looked between them frantically. “Alya, please tell him. We have to make a space for the baby. He needs to know how much we love him.”“He?” she asked softly.“Or she. I don’t know.” She deflated slightly. “But everything has to be perfect. And we need to start working on stuff now before we run out of time.”“Maybe we can just wait a little bit,” Alya offered. “Like Nino said, maybe next month we can start planning.”“But…”“Do you want to take a nap?” Nino gathered his pregnant girlfriend to him again and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “It might make you feel better.”“No,” she huffed. “Aren’t you making lunch?”“I can eat it later. I’ll even lay down with you.”“We both will,” Alya added. “I know I could use a nap. It’s just that kind of day.”Marinette let them lead her down the hall and she felt her heart clench as they passed the empty bedroom that no one had been sleeping in all week.
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“The proofs came in from the formal shoot at the Diplomat.” Gabriel poured a thin stream of cream into his coffee and stirred it in. “I think they showcase the new line well.”Adrien scooped a wedge from his grapefruit and ate it. It had taken a few weeks to get accustomed to a model’s diet again but he didn’t mind it for the most part. He did miss Marinette’s fresh baked bread though. And Alya’s pancakes. And the way Nino fried up sausage. He glanced down at the grapefruit sourly. “I’m glad,” he replied after a long pause. “I liked a lot of those pieces.”“They were created with you in mind so I suppose that can be counted as a success.” Gabriel pursed his lips. “The contract we set is coming to a close soon.”“It is.”“And I’m sure you’re aware that Emilie would like to offer you one under the same temporary conditions as ours once this one ends.”Adrien took his time scooping out another wedge and chewing it thoughtfully. The grapefruit was no piece of sausage but it was still decently good. “Mother reached out to me, yes.”He’d spent the last two months working with his father. When he’d taken the contract, he knew it would involve more than simply showing up to shoots like any other model would’ve been expected to do. He was brought into meetings and included in planning and it had turned into quite the show. Gabriel was showcasing him as his heir apparent without ever asking if that’s what Adrien wanted. It was almost comforting in a terrible and twisted way. At least he didn’t have to make any of the decisions.He’d come here to figure out things about himself but it’d been so easy to fall back into the old way of things. He let Gabriel and Nathalie run his schedule and he fielded phone calls from his mother who wanted him back now that he was returning to the fashion world. He was hearing from her multiple times a week now as opposed to the few times a year from before. He spoke to Alya and Nino almost everyday and that kept him from drinking himself stupid most of the time. They kept him updated on everything going on but they were both always careful not to mention Marinette or the baby in much detail and he could never bring himself to ask for more. Their conversations felt superficial and fake and he knew it was his fault.He’d been gone two months and wasn’t any closer to fixing himself but he missed the three of them like one of his limbs had been ripped away and he was bleeding out. He wanted to go home.He needed to go home.Why was he even here?“Why was I your only child?” he blurted out. Gabriel’s brow furrowed and he set down his coffee cup. “What?”Adrien dug the tip of his spoon against the rind of the grapefruit and didn’t look across the table at his father. “Why didn’t you ever have any more kids after me?”“We didn’t want any,” he answered simply. “Later this afternoon, we’ll be meeting with a possible high-end distributor in the States so I’ll need you showered and presentable.”Adrien ignored his obvious misdirect. “Did you want me or was I an accident?”Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. “If we didn’t want you, we wouldn’t have had you, Adrien. What’s this about? You’re twenty-nine. What does it matter?”“I don’t think I want children.”“They can be quite a handful.” He eyed the younger man warily. “To be honest, I never wanted children either, though my father pushed for it to continue the Agreste name. You weren’t exactly planned but it seemed…fortuitous timing when you were conceived.”Adrien scrunched his nose. “What’s that mean?”“Your mother was heir to a hefty fortune from her grandmother held with restrictions. She was the first one of her siblings to marry and have a child so she became the benefactor.”A sick feeling settled in his stomach. “You and Mom had me so you could get money?”“Don’t be so crude. Your mother and I loved each other once upon a time. Having a family wasn’t an entirely unpleasant idea.” Gabriel eyed him over the frame of his glasses. “Don’t tell me you are entertaining the idea of having a child now. Your career is just beginning again. They’ll be plenty of time for you to have an heir later.”“I don’t care about an heir. Why would I?” Adrien pushed his plate away and stood. “I think I’m going out for a walk.”Seeming relieved to end the conversation, Gabriel nodded. “Don’t be late for our meeting.”
______________________________“Excuse me, but you are not supposed to be in here.” Alya put a hand on her hip and pointed the white tipped paintbrush in Marinette’s direction. “This is a no pregnant woman zone right now. Fumes!”“I’m just peeking! It’ll be okay for a second.” Marinette stepped further into the room with a wide smile. “I love the green! Don’t you think it’s perfect?”“Of course it’s perfect. It’s the shade I picked,” Alya teased, admiring the freshly painted trim around the window. “Now scoot. If Nino gets back from the store and catches you in here, you know you’re in trouble.”“Fine, fine.” She stepped through the door and into the hall. “Is this better?”“You’re walking a thin line there, Miss Thang.”Marinette rubbed her thumb along the doorframe. “So, uh, have you talked to him today?”“My arms are getting sore and I’m tired and I’m not doing this with you right now. You have Adrien’s number. Call him.”“I don’t want to talk to him. I just want to know if he’s okay.”“Then call him.”“Alya.”“Marinette.”Marinette huffed and crossed her arms. “I still don’t like that he left.”“Then be mad but don’t ask me about him if you aren’t willing to call him yourself.”She worried her bottom lip. “Does he ask about me?”“I’m not doing this,” Alya sang as she sat down and dipped her paintbrush back into the paint. She ran it along the edge of the floorboard. “Didn’t you want to work on that dress today? Maybe you should go do that.”“Yeah, I guess I should,” she replied but didn’t move away from the door. She lightly skimmed her nails along the frame. “Do you still want to have a baby? I mean, not the baby I’m carrying right now, but like one you get to be pregnant with?”Alya paused in her painting and then began again. “Yeah, I’d like to if we can make it work.”“I’d really like that too.”A little tension visibly eased out of her shoulders. “Our kids are going to rule the world.”Marinette laughed softly and folded down to the floor with a grunt, leaning against the hallway wall and putting one hand on her slightly bulging belly. “I guess I just wanted to bring it up so you knew as far as I’m concerned, I would be happy for that to happen anytime.”“You trying to tell me you want me and Nino to get it on tonight?”“I mean I’d like to help too! I can’t exactly do the getting you pregnant part but I can be fun in other ways.” She flashed Alya a smirk and the other woman laughed.“Still feeling horny, huh?”“So bad! Why did no one tell me I was going to get super horny in my second trimester?!” She stuck out her bottom lip but it quickly transitioned into a genuine smile. “I mean it though. I’m on board with you getting pregnant whenever you’re ready. If it happened soon, the babies would be pretty close together so we could be doing most stuff at the same time.”Alya dropped the paintbrush in the pan and scooted to a dry part of the wall she could lean against and still see Marinette through the door. “I think I want to wait until Adrien comes back to talk to him about it.”“Oh.” Marinette scratched at the nail polish on her thumbnail. “You really think he’s coming back?”“I do. I even think he’d come back sooner if he heard from you.”They stared at each other for a long minute. “I may have been a little irrational with him,” Marinette admitted. “But he really hurt my feelings by leaving.”Alya nodded. “I know that. Believe me when I say I’ve heard my share between the two of you and you’ve both hurt each other.”“I guess we kinda put you in the middle,” she winced. “I’m sorry.”“Well, Nino’s in the middle with me so at least I’m not lonely.” Alya offered her a tight smile. “We want things to be okay between you guys again though and I feel like if you just talked, it would really help.”“Can I come in the room for a quick second?”“Why?”“I just want to kiss you.”Alya smiled and pushed herself up and went out into the hall to kneel in front of her girlfriend. “How about this instead?”“Thanks,” she whispered as their lips met. They kissed for a few seconds more and then Alya pulled back.“You okay?”Marinette considered it a moment before she answered. “I think I might go for a walk. The fumes are getting to me a little bit.”Alya nodded and stood to help Marinette up. “Take your phone and rest if you get tired.”“I will. I’m just going down to the park, I think. Love you.” She kissed Alya’s cheek and went to the kitchen to scoop up her keys and phone. She made it down to the lobby where she ran into Nino, his arms laden with bags from the hardware store. “Hey, sweetheart, where’re you heading?”“Just for a walk. I’ll be back in a little while. I’ve got my phone.” She held it up as proof.His expression was torn. “If you let me run these upstairs, I can go with you.”Marinette went up on the tips of her toes and cupped his cheek to pull him down for a kiss. “I’ll be fine. Alya needs a break from painting anyway so go help her.” Her fingers lingered against his hairline behind his ear and then she released him.Nino frowned. “Are you okay?”“I’m fine,” she promised. “Really.”“If you’re sure.” He still didn’t seem convinced but Marinette gave his arm a quick squeeze and continued out of the building before he could argue.She crossed the street and walked the short block to the small park near their apartment. It was getting close to dinnertime but there were still kids running around and dogs chasing Frisbees. She made her way to a bench she frequented and sat down with a small groan. Every day seemed to bring new aches and growing pains to her body and things that never bothered her before— like walking the block to the park— wore her out.Marinette looked down at her phone screen and contemplated what she could possibly say to Adrien after not speaking to him for two months. How did one even start that conversation? She didn’t feel like she was entirely in the wrong but telling him he couldn’t come back wasn’t her call to make, not alone anyway. The four of them were in this thing together. And she really did want him to come back. She missed him. Their relationship was completely different from the one she had with Alya and the one she had with Nino. They had their own special thing.Before she could think herself out of it, she scrolled to his number and hit call.
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“Adrien Agreste calling for Emilie Agreste please.” Adrien walked alongside the hotel pool as the sun set overhead. He tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear and kicked off his shoes and sat down at the edge of the pool. He rolled the ends of his pants up as far as he could manage and dipped his feet in the cool water. He wished Alya were with him; she loved swimming.The day had been exhausting. He’d attempted to find some time to himself after breakfast but Nathalie caught him going out the door and assigned him the task of approving some of his photos for a final design. He had to get ready for the meeting not long after that and he’d barely escaped afterwards but he wanted to be alone for a few minutes. He needed time to think.“Transferring you to her mobile, Mr. Agreste,” an assistant said over the line and there was a clicking sound and then he heard his mother’s voice.“Adrien, darling, I’ve been hoping to hear from you. How are you?”“Hey, Mom. I’m fine. How are you?”“Busy but what else is new?” She laughed and there was the sound of rustling paper and a low murmuring voice, most likely another assistant. “The agency poached the top five models from Giovanni this week so I have agents scrambling to take their accounts.”“Sounds hectic.” Adrien kicked his foot up and sent droplets of pool water flying across the surface.“It is but it’ll be worth it, I think. Have you given any more consideration to my offer, dear?”“I’m still thinking about it. I was hoping maybe we could talk about something else?”There was a pause. “I don’t have much time but I have a few minutes. Is something the matter?”“Yeah, uh…” Adrien moved his feet through the water. “How did you know you wanted to be a parent?”There was a longer pause this time and the rustling of papers over the line stopped. “I didn’t, not at first. Why?”“Just curious.”“You sound more than curious.”Adrien took in a deep breath. “My girlfriend’s pregnant.”“Ah.”“And I don’t know if I’m ready for a baby.”“Well, there are ways to take care of that, darling. If your father isn’t willing to help, know that when you sign with my agency, I’ll have someone handle the entire affair. I have three PR reps who literally only do that. We’ll make sure it’s all kept under wraps.”Any hope that Adrien had in finding answers from his mother evaporated in an instant. “Sure, thanks.”“I’ve got to go now, but call me when you’re ready to sign the contract. Love you.”The line went dead before he could respond and Adrien dropped the phone to the ground beside him. The temptation to throw it in the pool was great but he tried to reign himself in. He was angry and frustrated and confused and hurt. On some level, he believed his parents cared about him but it got so lost in the politics that it hardly mattered. He was their son and this baby could possibly be their grandchild. Shouldn’t they care?And why did he care if they cared? He didn’t even want the baby.At least he didn’t think he did.He swallowed hard and glared at the smooth water. Night had fallen and the pool lights lit up around him. He was glad he’d managed an odd time without any other guests around. He didn’t think he could bear talking to anyone in that moment. He thought about Nino’s grandmother taking him in and treating him like another Lahiffe child without hesitation. He thought about Tom and Sabine offering him seconds and thirds at dinner and hugging him goodbye every time he visited. He knew they weren’t exactly comfortable with the poly situation but they’d never treated him with anything else than kindness and respect. Alya’s family was just as amazing and even Nora had come around after a time. Maybe his parents and family dynamic was the outlier. Things didn’t have to be like that for his child because Marinette and Alya and Nino would be there. They were full of love and goodness and they would never make the baby feel neglected. They’d never let Adrien feel that way.Mostly.He looked down at his phone and had the sudden urge to call Marinette. He wasn’t sure what he would say. He wanted to apologize but he didn’t know exactly what for. He also wanted her to apologize but that desire didn’t feel quite as strong. He really just wanted to hear her voice. It had been sixty-three days. Before he left, he’d never gone an entire day without talking to her since they’d all started dating and now…Maybe it was too late. He’d probably screwed things up by leaving. He thought if he could come back to his old life that he could figure out what was wrong with him but all he’d done is fallen back into old habits.A small voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Nino pointed out that he hadn’t fallen back into all his old habits and that was progress.He supposed that was true. He obviously hadn’t slept with anyone since he’d been gone. And while he had an occasional drink and had toed the line of getting drunk more than once, he’d never gone past his limit. Old Adrien slept around and drank heavily. He wasn’t that guy anymore. Being in love had changed him. He wanted to be different than before.He thought he loved Nino for years and that’s what hurt so bad but he had no idea what love could really feel like. It was worth any pain he had to go through to get to the three of them. He had to call and make things right. He needed to go home. He couldn’t lose the best thing that had ever happened to him. He had no idea how much falling in love with Nino, Alya, and Marinette was going to change him for the better. Who was to say that this baby wasn’t going to do the same?Adrien reached for his phone and stopped himself. None of that changed the fact that he would be a bad father. He was broken and selfish and he’d probably screw Marinette’s baby up more than his parents screwed him up. Tears stung his eyes and he ignored them. His hands curled into fists at his side and felt his fingernails dig into the skin of his palms. He should just let them be happy together. They didn’t need him. They would be fine. The baby would be fine— better even— if he wasn’t around to do damage.His phone began to buzz and vibrate against the concrete beside him and it made him jump. He looked down to see a picture of a smiling Marinette lighting up his screen and he felt his heart skip a beat. He swallowed against a suddenly dry throat and picked the phone up with shaking hands and accepted the call.“Marinette?”There was a surprised breathy sound and Adrien felt himself crumple under the weight of it. “Hi,” Marinette answered and her voice held a shy quality to it. “How are you?”“I…” He was at a loss for how to reply. “How are you? Are you feeling okay?”“I feel like I’m the size of a house but other than that I’m okay.” She laughed nervously. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know what time it is for you now. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”Adrien blinked. “What time it is…we’re in the same time zone right now. Did you not know that?” He hugged himself with one arm while he held the phone. “How far away did you think I was?”Her voice was quiet. “I don’t know. It feels really far.”“I’m about a three hour drive, I think. Give or take. We’ve been traveling a lot but we’re here for another few days.”“Three hours. That’s…that’s not a lot at all. If I left now, I could see you before midnight.”Adrien froze. “You want to see me?” he whispered. There was a gasping sob and his heart broke into a million pieces. “Please don’t cry, Mari. Please. Do you want me to come there? I’ll come home. I’ll come home right now.” He was already pulling his legs up out of the water and standing. He looked around frantically for his shoes even though they were where he’d left them at the edge of the pool.“I’m sorry. I’m okay,” she sniffled. “You don’t have to do that. I’m sure you’re busy.”“I’m not. I’m going to be on my way. I’ve just gotta…” He trailed off and looked around the pool area. “Okay, well, I need to find a driver that will make the three hour drive but then… I think it’s too late to get a flight but I can check. I don’t know if that will be any quicker though. I guess I could go to—““Adrien.”“Please let me come home,” he pleaded. “Please tell me I can come home, Marinette. Please let me come see you.”“Wait! Just…um, okay, wait, let me think for a minute,” she stammered.Adrien slumped down on the end of a patio chair. “You don’t want me to come home.”“It’s not that! I just…” She made a frustrated sound. “Things have changed a little and I feel like you need to know before you come home because I don’t want it to spook you.”“Okay…” he replied cautiously.“Right, so, um, we are turning the second bedroom into the nursery. Nino and Alya are painting it right now actually. We had to put the king bed in storage but we’ve got a full bed wedged into the office now because that’s what would fit.”“That’s…that makes sense,” he nodded. “Yeah. I mean, we still needed a second bed. It’s just not so easy to share but we’ll make do. I’ve been having bad insomnia so I use it a lot right now. Um, okay, and then I look really different, so there’s that.”Adrien tried to picture Marinette like other pregnant women he’d seen but the visual wouldn’t come to him. “That’s what supposed to happen, isn’t it?”She laughed in surprise and it did his heart good to hear the sound. “Well, yeah, I guess. I’m not super huge yet but I’m only going to keep getting bigger which is terrifying.”“I’m sure you’re beautiful.”“You haven’t seen me craving Cheetos from that American grocery store down the block at three in the morning like an angry junk food-fueled gremlin. It’s not a pretty picture. I’ve been sneaking sodas every once in the while too so don’t tell Nino, okay? He’s sure the baby is going to be born with like four arms if I’m not careful about what I eat.”Adrien stretched out on the chair and smiled as he looked up at the stars beginning to come out. “Has he been a nervous wreck?”“I think he’s the worst of all, although Alya’s giving him a run for his money. She thought it would be a good idea to look up possible birth defects. Sometimes I hear the two of them whispering back and forth about how doomed our baby is.”He grimaced. “Is that stressing you out?”Marinette let out a short laugh followed by a sigh. “Actually, I think them being so stressed helps me relax. What could I possibly find to worry about with the baby that they don’t already have covered?”“It sounds like you guys are doing really great,” he said softly.“We miss you,” she responded, her voice just as low. “It feels so weird without you at home. I’m…” Her voice cracked and there was the sound of sniffling over the line again. “I’m so sorry, Adrien. I never meant for things to happen like this.”He wanted to melt down to the slime he felt like and drip between the slats on the patio chair. “No, Mari, I’m sorry. I was a jerk about the whole thing.”“I was a jerk too!”He chuckled. “Fine, we were both jerks.”“Yeah,” she sniffled again.“Please don’t cry over me anymore. I’m not worth it.”“Shut up. That’s my boyfriend you’re talking about, butthead.” She still sounded teary but there was an edge of humor to her voice. “How much longer is your trip?”“I still have a few weeks left on my contract. I can try to break it though.”“Will you get in trouble?”“Probably,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t put it past Gabriel to sue me for it.”“Then you can’t leave yet.”“Don’t say that,” he groaned. “Tell me to come home.”“Would you get in trouble for coming to visit for the night? Or…or maybe we could meet halfway and get a room or something?”Adrien bolted upright. “Really? Are you up to that?”“I doubt I’ll get away with being able to come alone unless I just leave right now and then I’ll be the one in trouble, but if you don’t mind seeing us…”“Go home and pack for the night and I’ll find us a nice place to meet in the middle and call you as soon as I have it booked and I’m on my way,” he promised as he stood and hurried back towards his room. “Are you sure?”“Positive.” He stopped to unlock his room and heard her take in a shaky breath. “I love you,” he promised.“I love you too.”
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“Did he say anything about the baby?” Nino asked for the third time as he maneuvered the car down onto the highway.“We talked about it a little,” Marinette answered distractedly as she plugged in the address of the hotel Adrien had texted her into the GPS on her phone.“And what’d he say?”Alya reached up from the backseat to squeeze Nino’s shoulder gently. “This is going to be a good night and we’re all going to hug and kiss and be happy to see each other.”“I know.” He nodded and cut his eyes to Marinette before returning his attention to the road. “I just…I’m a little anxious, that’s all.”“The timing worked out really well, I think. I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping around paint fumes anyway. This is probably better for the baby,” Alya said as she stretched out across the backseat and started a new text.Marinette half-turned to grin at her. “Alya does have a point.”“Don’t think just because I’m driving that I don’t see you two with your little smirks,” Nino complained. “You know I love Adrien a crazy amount but this whole situation has just been a lot and I feel like we were finally finding a good groove of things again.”“I have a good feeling.” Marinette took Nino’s free hand and he sighed. “Then I’ll hope for the best.”“Good because if you don’t lighten up, you’re going to have a heart attack before the baby even gets here,” Alya quipped.“Don’t let her bully you,” Marinette cooed. “She’s been back there sending Adrien warning texts since we got in the car.”“What?! I have not!”Marinette twisted as best she could and held out her hand. “Then let me see your phone.”“No.”“Mmmhmm.”Alya sniffed. “I was just making sure he was well-informed, that’s all.”___________________________________“Why don’t you go on up, Mari? We’ll bring the bags in a few minutes.” Alya shared a look with her girlfriend and with a hesitant nod, Marinette left her partners at the car and entered the lobby. “We should go with her,” Nino insisted and popped the trunk. “I think they need this. Today’s the first time they’ve spoken in two months.”“Yeah, I know, but…”Alya reached up and smoothed his hair back. “You can’t protect everybody all the time, you beautiful guardian angel. We have to give them a chance to sort things out.” She studied him. “You didn’t think Adrien would come back to us, did you?”Nino dropped his gaze. “No,” he said, voice quiet. “And I’m still not sure he is.”“You think he’s going to freak out again?”“Yeah, I do.”“This isn’t just about the baby, is it?”He sighed and pulled the small suitcase out of the trunk. “Can we not do twenty questions right now, Al?”She ignored his request and reached up to cup his face and force him to look at her. “You better talk to me, Nino Lahiffe.”He narrowed his eyes but set the bag down and leaned against the car. “Okay, yeah, he freaked out about the baby and that hurt my feelings but he also abandoned me, ya know? I’m not even talking about as a boyfriend, which was bad enough, but we were business partners. We’ve lost a lot of clients because he wasn’t around to do the event planning part of the gig and most people don’t like not having a timeline for when someone will be back on the job.”Alya frowned and leaned with him. “I noticed your revenue had gone down and I figured it was because we lost Adrien’s part in the business too but I didn’t realize you were losing clients.”He shrugged. “It just kind of sucks, you know? We’ve worked really hard to build up our name in the area and now I feel like it’s tarnished because I can’t deliver all of this on my own. I’ve still had plenty of music gigs but…” He trailed off with another shrug. “And he’s never said anything about it. We talk on the phone maybe once a week and he’s never asked how things are going with the business or if anyone has needed anything. It’s like he left and didn’t care what happened and I’m just…I’m mad at him for so many reasons and I know I need to be cool about this but I’m having trouble so it makes it easier to make it all about the baby.” Alya rested her head against his arm. “I think we’re going to have to approach everything in stages with Adrien right now.”“What’s the first stage? Try not to punch him?”She tilted her face up to look at him. “Do you really want to punch him?”Nino sighed. “No. I want to kiss and tell him to get his ass home so we can fix things.”“Then let’s go with that. We’ll call it Stage One.”“What’s Stage Two?”“You just leave that to me,” she winked.“How are you so chill about all of this? He left you too.”Alya deflated. “I just have to believe this is all going to work out. If I start thinking that it won’t…” She shook her head. “I’m trying to stay positive about everything. Yes, it really sucks that he left but, Nino, it is a lot. You have to admit that. We weren’t planning for this. And when the baby gets here, our lives are going to change even more. So yeah, Adrien leaving sucked but I guess I also kinda get it.”“I never thought about leaving.”“I did,” she admitted. “I mean, not in a concrete ‘I’m packing my bags right now’ kind of way but there have been nights that I thought it would be easier to just leave you and Marinette alone to have a normal life with a baby.”He stared at her. “Really?”Alya shrugged. “We’re weird. And we make it work but some days are harder than others and sometimes it’s easy to feel like the third wheel.”“Alya, I—“She held up a hand. “I know you both love me. I’m not worried about that. I’m just saying that I get Adrien being unsure about everything so I guess for me, being hopeful that this is all going to work out is the way I get by.”He pulled her to him in a hug and kissed the top of her head. “I love you so much and please tell me if I ever make you doubt that.”She poked his stomach playfully and got a chuckle in reply. “You’ve got a deal, buster.”___________________________________Marinette took a deep breath and knocked on the door. She had the instant terror that she’d remembered the room number wrong and then the door was being wrenched open and Adrien was staring at her with wide eyes.“You’re here,” he whispered.“Hi.” She tucked her hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture. “Uh, Nino and Alya are getting the bags but they told me to come ahead. They don’t let me carry anything these days anyway.” She felt his eyes zero in on her baby bump and she shifted her weight anxiously. “Can I come in?”Adrien shook himself and nodded, almost tripping over his own feet as he opened the door wider and let her inside. “Sorry it isn’t the biggest but it was what they had available.”“It’s a lovely room.” Marinette sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed as she immediately pushed herself back up.“What’s wrong?”“I have to use the bathroom every few minutes. That’s why it took us a bit longer to get here. Nino had to keep stopping for me.” She went to the bathroom door and realized she wasn’t sure what else to say so she slipped inside without any further explanation.Adrien fidgeted with the TV channel guide and then went to the window to look out on the parking lot. He spotted Alya and Nino talking and leaning against the car under one of the lot lights. Their expressions were serious and it made him nervous. Maybe this was all a bad idea. He could leave them the room and go back to his hotel before Gabriel even realized he was gone. He was so lost in his thoughts that he missed the sound of Marinette coming out of the bathroom. “You look upset.” Her voice was gentle but guarded and when he looked back, she had one hand resting at the top of her small belly. “Is it me?”Adrien shook his head. “It’s me.”She nodded, rolling her bottom lip under her teeth to try to keep from crying. “Should we go?”His expression turned frantic and he crossed the room to get to her. “No, please…please don’t leave me.” Gauging her reaction, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She cried into his chest and Adrien felt the walls he’d attempted to put up around his heart come crumbling down. He stroked her hair and murmured apologies and made promises he wasn’t sure if he could keep but really wanted to. He held her until there was a knock at the door and they reluctantly parted.Marinette stepped back and wiped at her eyes. “I’m going to clean up a little,” she murmured and slipped into the bathroom once more.Adrien wasn’t sure what he looked like when he opened the door but Alya and Nino’s expressions changed from pleasant to worried. “Marinette’s in the bathroom,” he said in greeting and stepped back to let them in.A heavy awkwardness settled over them and Alya pushed through it. “I guess it was too much to hope for one big bed. I call not it for sleeping with Mari. I’ve still got a bruise from last week when she kicked me.”“Hey, I apologized for that.” Marinette’s eyes and nose were still red but she looked otherwise put together again as she came out of the bathroom. “Maybe all three of you should pile into one queen and I’ll take the other if I’m such a nuisance.” She went to the suitcase Nino had set up on the waiting rack. “We’re staying here the rest of the night, right? It’s late and I think I want to put on my jammies.” There was no immediate answer as if they were waiting for Adrien to kick them out. She looked over her shoulder at Adrien. “You didn’t have anything planned did you, sweetheart?”His face changed to one of absolute longing and he shook his head. “No,” he replied, voice soft. “I just wanted to see you. All of you,” he amended, turning his attention to Alya and Nino.“I half believe you,” Alya winked. “And I’m definitely in camp jammies. Why don’t we go change in the bathroom, sweets?”Marinette looked confused as to why they weren’t changing in front of their partners but she let Alya lead her into the bathroom with their clothes. Nino sat down in the armchair in the corner of the room and made a point of taking off his shoes and ignoring his boyfriend while Adrien still stood awkwardly on the other side of the room.After a few quiet minutes with only the muffled sound of their girlfriends’ voices from the bathroom, Adrien went to sit on the edge of the bed furthest from Nino. “You’re mad at me.” “Yeah, I am.”“That’s fair.”“I know it is.” Nino got up to place his shoes in front of the closet. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “So what does tonight mean for you?”Adrien looked down at his hands. “It means I know that I shouldn’t have left and I’m really hoping that you guys will let me come back.”“What about the baby?”He hugged himself but then dropped his arms. “I still think I’d be an awful dad and my parents would definitely be terrible grandparents, but…but you guys are amazing so are your families and maybe it won’t be so scary.”Nino looked at his fingernails. “The baby isn’t yours anyway.”Adrien blinked. “What?”“There was a test we were able to take and I was the match so you shouldn’t feel obligated if that’s all this is.”It felt as if a chill had run through his heart. “It’s not…the baby isn’t mine?”“Nope.”“Oh.” He swallowed hard. “Oh, uh, okay then.”Nino studied him. “Are you upset?”“No, I…” Adrien trailed off and felt his eyes sting with tears. “This is so stupid. I didn’t even want to be a dad.” He stared at the lamp across from him and tried not to cry. “It’s better this way. I would just mess everything up. Yeah, this is…this is better.” He blinked again and looked up at Nino with shiny eyes. “Right?”The other man pushed away from the wall and knelt down in front of Adrien. “Why are you crying?” he whispered, reaching up to wipe away the moisture under one eye.“Because I want to be a part of our family,” he gasped as a sob tore its way out of his throat. He lunged forward and fell into Nino, both of them sprawling out to the floor as Adrien cried. “You’re a part of this family no matter what,” Nino soothed. “I’m sorry. I lied; I’m sorry.”Adrien sniffled and pulled back enough to look at his face. “What?”Nino winced. “The whole test thing…I made that up.”Adrien reared back further. “You what?”“I just wanted to know how you felt about things.” Nino sat up against the dresser and pulled his knees to his chest. “I mean, the baby could actually be mine but we don’t know that. It could still be yours too.”Adrien stared at him for a long moment. “I really want to punch you right now.”“That’s how I felt when I got here so maybe we’ll just call it even.” Nino quirked an eyebrow and saw Adrien clench his jaw.“That wasn’t cool.” He wiped at his eyes and nose in irritation.Nino shrugged. “Yeah, it was pretty shitty. I’m sorry.”“You’re not that sorry,” Adrien pouted. “I can see you trying not to look smug. You’ve never been able to hide it well.”“Takes one to know one.” He pushed his socked foot out to poke against the sole of Adrien’s. “You really want to come home?”“More than anything.”Tension visibly released Nino and he slumped slightly. “Dude, I’ve missed you so much.”___________________________________The sun was peeking through the curtains by the time they crawled into the beds. There had been more crying and apologizing but also laughing and kissing. Alya was softly snoring almost as soon as her head hit the pillow and Nino had gotten into the bed with her while Marinette was in the bathroom once again. The room was dimly lit by the filtered morning sun when Marinette padded back out and slipped under the sheets, curling up and facing Adrien. “Hi,” she whispered.“Hi,” he whispered back with a small smile. “Feel better?”“Until I have to pee again in a few minutes.” She rolled her eyes but a smile twitched at her lips. “I’m going to remind this kid how annoying this all is constantly whenever he acts up.”“Sounds fair.”“Mmhmm.”“You said ‘he’. Did you find out?”She shook her head and it made a rustling sound against the pillow. “We’re at a stalemate. I want to know but Nino and Alya wanna be surprised. But I kinda feel like it’s a boy. I don’t really know why.”“I’ll join Team Find Out if you want to help with votes,” he offered.“Do you really want to know?”“I think it’d be neat.”Marinette bit her lip. “Do you want to touch my belly?”“Oh, um, could I?”She smiled. “That’s why I asked, silly.” She reached under the covers and took his hand, bringing it to rest against her stomach. “I don’t think I’ve felt him move yet really. It could happen soon though, according to one of Alya’s books. I felt something that was almost like bubbles popping? I don’t know if that makes sense. I think that was him though, but Nino tried to tell me it was gas as if I don’t know what gas feels like,” she giggled. Marinette watched Adrien’s face as he reverently held his hand to her stomach and she couldn’t keep in the words that spilled out. “Are you in this now?”He startled and met her gaze. “I want to be.”“Because I love you, Adrien. I love you so much but this has been really hard and…” Her brow furrowed and she tried to concentrate on keeping her voice low so she didn’t wake Alya and Nino. “And as much as I love you, I have to do what’s right for my baby. I have to take care of my heart because he’s going to need it, he’s going to need me.” She gently lifted his hand from her stomach and linked their fingers together. “And if you’re not okay with doing the parent thing, that’s fine, but I need to know so I can set my expectations because I have to be all in and I just really don’t want anything like this to happen with us again.”Adrien was quiet for so long that sleep started to tug at Marinette’s consciousness. His voice was gentle when he finally spoke again but was enough to rouse her. “You guys are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You’re the good in my life and I think…I think this baby is just going to be more good. I was scared…I’m still scared,” he admitted, “but how can anything that is a part of you be scary? Marinette, you’re wonderful and beautiful and I want to be better for you, for all of you.” He closed his eyes as if he couldn’t bear to see her reaction. “Is that enough?” he whispered.She scooted closer to him, eliminating the small distance between them in the bed, and kissed him softly. “You’re always enough.”