"Mademoiselle Cheng. We've arrived." Marinette wearily cracked open her eyes at the sound of her bodyguard's voice and stifled a yawn, stretching her arms and neck with a tired sigh.

"What time is it?" In normal circumstances, Marinette would've been self conscious with her mumbling to a person who didn't seem to like her very much but frankly she was still sleepy as all hell and wasn't completely aware of her surroundings.

"It's now 8:40pm mademoiselle Cheng." He replied briskly, opening the compartment above their seats to retrieve her bags. Marinette frowned. Why was he leaving out her papa's last name?

"Excuse me sir but I have two last names and I would appreciate it if you would use both of them."

"I'm sorry miss but as you are a member of the royal Cheng family you will be referred as Marinette Cheng." He eyebrows furrowed in annoyance with her bodyguard. Why was she only to be referred by her maman's last name? Who the hell came up with that idea? Again, with her still being sleepy she didn't try hard to cover up her emotions in her expression with the bodyguard sighing tiredly and gesturing for her to get out of the seat. She sluggishly got up, quickly checked on Tikki, and took her bodyguard's offered arm.

"We should be getting to the hotel now miss."

"I thought that I was to be meeting my other relatives?"

"Not today miss, you deserve your rest and I can only imagine that you have a lot to think about since this news has been dropped on you." The small bluenette faltered in her movements a bit but the bodyguard kept on walking, making her keep up with his strides but her expression morphed into slight awe and disbelief.

Maybe this guy isn't so bad after all.

"Thank you." She said quietly but loud enough for the bodyguard to hear. He grunted in response.

They got past all of the luggage checks and the security, heading out into the crisp night air of Beijing. Marinette could definitely tell the difference between Beijing and Paris. For one, there were a lot more cars in Beijing than Paris. Two, unfortunately there were more poor people out in view in Beijing than in Paris making Marinette purse her lips and make a mental note of doing something about that later. Three, it was certainly more noisier than in Paris but she found that she didn't really mind.

She took in her surroundings, marvelling at Beijing's new architecture but was snapped out of her thoughts as her bodyguard called for her to get into a very expensive looking black car. She took a deep breath to calm down her nerves and slid herself onto the black leather seats and settled herself in with her hands folded on her lap. Her bodyguard closed the car door for her and she waited patiently for him to get into the front driver's seat. A few moments later, the engine hummed to life and they took off.

"Your relatives have arranged a first class suite for you at the Legendale Hotel." He informed her after a while.

"Okay." She replied back and the silence was back, filling the car to the brim. Marinette gazed out of the window before a beautiful building caught her eye. She pressed her face against the window to look closer, her warm breath fogging up the glass but she didn't pay any attention to it as she let out an awed gasp.

She heard her bodyguard chuckle from the driver's seat and sheepishly looked away the breath-taking sight and down to her fidgeting hands instead.

"Beautiful isn't it?"

"I-is that the hotel?"

"Yes mademoiselle Cheng."

"Oh. Did my relatives really go to all this trouble?"

"Only the best for the princess." Marinette fell silent at her new title and left the conversation at that. As the  car pulled up to the hotel Marinette could see a crowd of people huddled up at the front. She could also see that many of them held cameras and microphones, making it clear to her that they were reporters. But what were they doing outside the hotel? Was there someone important coming?

The second her bodyguard stopped the car, it seemed to be a trigger and suddenly every single one of the reporters swarmed around the car and was only held back by some intimidating security guards. Her breath hitched.

What is going on? Why are they surrounding the car? Do they know that I'm the princess? How did they know? Okay, calm down Marinette. This is going to be fine. This is going to be fine. Thisisgoingtobefinethisisgoingtobefine-

Marinette felt her throat rapidly dry up and she had a bit of trouble evening out her breathe, quickly taking in shaky breaths and started to hyperventilate before Tikki left her purse to nuzzle in her loose blue hair. Marinette found comfort in her kwami's presence in the crook of her neck as said kwami radiated a faint pink glow that helped Marinette time her breaths and eventually she calmed down.

I can do this. I can do this. This isn't a big deal.

She repeated over and over again while her bodyguard got out of the car and made his way to open the car door for her. As soon as the door was opened, millions of camera flashes filled her vision and she instinctively put her hands in front of her face to shield her face from the cameras and to block out the blinding flashes. Questions in Mandarin were fired left and right and the bluenette started to get overwhelmed again until a large arm wrapped itself around her and lead her out of the car and started moving forward. Marinette assumed that it was her bodyguard and so she started walking alongside him, keeping her face hidden within her hands and ignored the many reporters rapidly firing her questions.

Is it always going to be like this?

She immediately relaxed once she felt the pressure of people watching her go away, meaning that they must be inside the hotel but still didn't remove her hands since she didn't want to take any chances.

"Mademoiselle Cheng you can remove your hands from your face now." Her bodyguard reassured. Her hands hesitantly moved away from her hands and she spared a glance over her shirt and found the amount of reporters slowly decreases as they were forced to leave by the security guards. Letting out a sigh of relief, she nodded in reassurance for her bodyguard to know that she was fine now. They stopped at the receptionist table, getting her room key and he continued to lead her to her designated room as she trailed behind him.

Along the way, many of the staff paused in what they were doing and bowed at the sight of her causing her to smile awkwardly and quickly bow back to them to which they simply chuckled at her strange manners.

"Usually the royal family doesn't bow to those of lesser occupation." Marinette frowned then furrowed her eyebrows in agitation.

"It's the polite thing to do. Besides, the staff are older than me and I've been taught to show respect to my elders." She retorted, not wanting to just accept the fact that she wasn't suppose to respect other people just because they weren't of royal blood. People who thought that they were more important than others just because of their status always made Marinette want to slap some sense into them and made her blood boil thus why she never really had the patience when Chloe flaunted her father's power over everyone.

She expected a lecture from the bodyguard on how Marinette should act more proper and more regal in a sense but she didn't expect him to let out an amused snort before stifling it with the clear of his throat.

"That's certainly a better way of thinking."

"Thank you."

After an awkward elevator ride (at least it was awkward on Marinette's behave, her bodyguard didn't seem to have the emotional range for embarrassment) to the top floor, they finally came to a in front of a door with the number 736 imprinted and her bodyguard inserted the room key into the lock and the door swung open.

Cue jaw drop.

Just how much money did these people spend on me?!

Marinette's jaw dropped once again as she took a shaky step forward into her apparent room. Then she turned around to her bodyguard with wide disbelieving eyes and pointed at the room.

"Are you sure this is the right room?" She said with an incredulous tone. Her bodyguard kept his poker face and calmly responded.

"Yes miss. Your relatives wanted to make you feel comfortable."

"I-I... Isn't this- I mean this must've cost a fortune- oh my gosh-" Marinette fumbled over her words as she paced around anxiously. She didn't even know these people and yet-

"Miss, is this room not to your liking?" He questioned with an eyebrow raised. Quickly, she whipped her head to his direction and waved her arms around.

"Yes! Yes of course it is! It's just that..." The petite girl trailed off on her sentence as she moved around the room wistfully, examining every detail in it before sighing in defeat and exhaustion as her jet lag kicked in.

"No this room is fine. Thank you for escorting me here." Her bodyguard folded his hands in front of him and bowed deeply. In retaliation for his earlier comment, she bowed to him as well making him raise an eyebrow in what she thought was amusement.

"Good night mademoiselle Cheng."

"Good night bodyguard."

"My name is Jiānhùrén by the way."

"Well good night then Jiānhùrén the bodyguard." He left a second later while closing the door behind him, leaving Marinette alone.

Well until she let Tikki out.

"Marinette this room is amazing!" The small god chirped excitedly as she zoomed across the corners of the room and flitted around the pieces of furniture.

"This is so awesome." She muttered still dumbstruck making Tikki giggle at her chosen behind settled on the bed.

Marinette spun around on the spot and eyed the bed with only one thought crossing her mind.

Must test bounciness.

She immediately caved to her thoughts, not thinking of the thought that Tikki was still on it, and pounced onto the bed. Tikki yelped as she also bounced from the remaining vibrations causing a chiding look sent at Marinette. The bluenette simply poked her tongue at her kwami though and started to childishly jump on the bed, grinning at Tikki who was now playing along with Marinette. After a few minutes, she collapsed on the bed panting while Tikki set off for the cookies in her purse and closed her eyes for a few seconds before reopening them.

Marinette sat up and noticed that her luggage was already here and jumped off from the bed to find her toiletries.

"Found them!" She held the items over her head triumphantly and skipped her way into the bathroom to have a long warm shower to ease her strains.

Steam billows out from the bathroom a few minutes later as Marinette patted down her freshly hair dried hair and put on a tank top and pyjamas pants cut into capris, climbing into bed and turning off the bedside lamp. Tikki flew to her chosen's side and snuggled within the sheets and seemed to fall asleep almost immediately.

I should text Alya and the other's.

She bit the inside of her mouth before leaning to the bedside table for her phone and unlocked it. She quickly checked the time, with displayed 9:47pm, before oping up their group chat and started typing.

21:50
CupcakeQueen: hey guys, I got here safely and I'm at a hotel right now. I already miss you guys so much.

keep me updated on school and I'll keep you updated on my trip :P

Marinette set aside her phone tiredly before more notifications started rapidly popping up on her phone. She dragged her hand over her face before defeatedly opening up the group chat again to see he become a clusterfuck thanks to none other than Alya.

14:50
Ladyblogger: aHHHHH MY SWEET CHILD HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME! I WAS SO ALONE!!

niNO: i am offended we were with you the whole day

Ladyblogger: but my wife wasn't here

niNO: fine be that way i guess that i don't have to lend you my notes from today while you were too busy worrying over Marebear

Sunshine: He's got you there Alya

Ladyblogger: i'm disowning both of you

CupcakeQueen: you guys can keep being idiots but I'm going back to bed. good night

niNO: night Marebear don't be a stranger :P

Sunshine: Night Mari

Ladyblogger: good night my love

Marinette snorted, placing her phone back on the bedside table and pulled the comfortable bed sheets right up to her chin and exhaled deeply, relaxing into the sheets and feeling her consciousness slipping away once again into sleep.

[A.N: Jiānhùrén means 'guardian' in Chinese or at least that's what Google Translate says

Also China and France are 7 hours apart so that means Marinette's timezone is 9:50 while the other dorks' timezone are 2:50]