So since I was on break, I thought that I would reread Jump and reread all the comments on the chapter cause I haven't done that since like october....I....wow, those last two chapter tho, like straight up sin and boarderline smut. Like why didn't you stop me, Dora? Well anyways, there was a purpose for bringing this up. I got many comments about Chat calling Marinette "Baby".... I'm warning all my readers now, that Adrien will almost definitely call Marinette "Baby" sometime during this story. My reasoning is that, a.) I'm the author and I can do what I want (as long as my mom says its okay) and b.) My parents (mom and stepdad) have always called each other "Baby" so that's a name I associate with a healthy, romantic relationship. So I'm gonna use it. I, of course, use the nicknames they use in canon, but this is a FANFICTION and the entire plot is practically non canon so I'm gonna use what words and nicknames I see fit. Sorry for the long rant guys, but just a warning. 

Adrien looked down at his watch, she was nearly twenty minutes late. He glanced around nervously, their plane would depart in less than half an hour, and Marinette was no where to be found. Nathalie was in an absolute panic. Adrien bit his lip, shooting her another text asking her where she was, even though his last four were left unread. 

Marinette had, in a turn of luck, managed to move up the date of their departure to the night of her fashion show. Apparently, Adalyn (nicknamed Addy) a co-designer and trusted friend of Marinette, offered to handle Marinette's clients and financial reports that would follow after the show. However, she did still have to walk her line and represent herself at said show. She worked it out with Nathalie that she would arrive at the airport at 11: 30, an hour after the show ended. This plan, while sounding good in theory, was risky as the end of fashion shows were never definite; Adrien would know, after all.  All lines being walked took longer than rehearsal, and then, of course, there was always socializing and creating beneficial connections after the show. Adrien had personally witnessed fashion shows that went hours longer than was the expected ending time. 

And, apparently, was the case with this show. Adrien checked his watch again: 11: 57 p.m.. Their plane was scheduled to leave at 12: 30 a.m. and they needed to be on the plane by 12: 10 a.m.. Adrien got up from the seating near the entrance of the gate, he started pacing. He heard Nathalie calling Marinette's cell phone for the twelfth time, leaving another frantic message. 

He checked his watch: 12:00 a.m. Midnight.

Again. 12:02 a.m.

12:05 a.m. 

12:07 a.m.

12:08 a.m. 

12:0----"I'm here!" 

Marinette sprinted towards them with heels  and passport in one hand while dragging a suit case behind her with the other. Adrien stood there, eyes wide as she half collapsed, hands on knees, in front of him to try and catch her breath. 

She was a perfectly imperfect mess. Her hair had come half undone from the side updo that still held the majority of it, dark strands coming down to frame her face, contrasting with her light features. As she looked up, an apology already falling from her redden lips, Adrien was struck by the stark brightness of her eyes. The blue, enthralling and compelling, against the black eyeliner and shadow that elongated and illuminated the striking dream that was her eyes. Her dress was black and long sleeved, with a neckline cut in a v. The bodice was skin tight, clinging to her small waist and delicate hips. The skirt puffed out, seemingly to stand on its own, due to the heavy black velvet fabric that was used. On the skirt was intricate embroidery, only a couple shades lighter than the skirt.   Angelic was not the correct word to use to describe her, neither was beautiful; although, both she was. No, with her darkened eyes, bright red lips, and captivating dress; Marinette was almost bewitching. She was damnably alluring; hauntingly  illecebrous; a sinful trouvaille.  She resonated with power. She knew she was worth everything, and she wore that idea, as if that concept itself were the embellishments of embroidered cloth and thread that she donned to conceal her naked form. 

"Sorry, I'm late," She said as tucked the loose hair behind her hair, effectively diffusing Adrien's thought process. She glanced at Nathalie, before trying to continue; 

"I--"

"No time!" Nathalie grabbed them both by the wrist and dragged them to the gates, pushing them through quickly as the stewardess made a last call for passengers.  Marinette, trying to put on her shoes while being dragged by Nathalie, would have toppled over if Adrien hadn't caught her. His hands around her waist, he lifted her up onto the stairs leading to the plane. Without taking much concern of Nathalie buzzing around in his ear, he took the shoe Marinette still held in her hand and bent down to delicately slid on her foot. 

"Oh, thank you." Marinette thank him a bit breathlessly as she looked down with a faint look of surprised delight. 

"Of course," Adrien said, an earnest and honest smile lighting up his face, causing his green eyes to twinkle. And for a minute, Marinette's breathlessness was not caused by the exertion and panic of loading onto the plane. They caught each other's eye, green and blue seeming to see clearly for the first time. Yes, just for a moment; however, that moment was interrupted by Nathalie. 

"Yes, yes that was very gentlemanly of you Adrien, now please board the plane!" 

"Best we board the plane, yes?" Adrien asked with a twinkle in his eye. He was answered with a breathless, if a bit sarcastic, laugh by Marinette. As she turned, Adrien allowed the pads of his fingers and palm to graze her lower back, offering a bit of silent support. He remained closely behind her, barely one step behind, his hand still on her lower back to ensure that she would make it up the stairs without a trip or stumble. 

 And so, they were swept onto the plane. 

Adrien thanked his lucky stars( or perhaps his lucky bugs?) that Marinette and him had seats in a different area from Nathalie and his press team due to the last minute arrangement of the tickets. It meant that both him, and Marinette may be able to breathe for a least a few minutes, for the first time in two weeks. And probably for the last time for a while. 

He lifted first his, and then Marinette's, carry on bags onto the overhead rack and then moved to sit down in the farthest seat. Marinette sat next to him. Or that is to say that she tried, the width of her skirt made it difficult. She finally gave up on crumpling the fine fabric, and squished the fabric upward, gather the excess in her lap. She leaned back and closed her eyes with a sigh, ignoring the pointed stares of the other passengers at her obvious overly dressed state. Adrien laid a light hand on hers, and gave a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Her eyes opened a bit, and she gave a small smile as she turned over her hand in his to return the pressure. 

"Ladies and Gentleman, please fasten your seat belts as we begin to ascend." 

The noise on the plane increased and then decreased, as the plane began to move. When the plane was high in the air, Marinette finally turned towards Adrien. 

"Hey." She whispered. 

"Hey," He whispered back with a soft smile. Their hands still linked together, as they were both, almost painfully, aware of the loving couple image they were expected to portray when in the public eye. 

"Sorry, I was late." 

Adrien shook his head and opened his mouth immediately to reassure her;

"Don't even worry about it." 

Marinette eyed him, her piercing eyes seeming to see deep past the mask he showed the world. 

"But I do worry, I caused trouble for you and the others. I made you anxious." 

"Who said I was anxious?" 

Marinette gave him a wry look with eyebrows raised before turning her head back center, leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes, she responded; 

"You sent me five texts." 

"So?" He asked stubbornly. 

"In a row." 

Adrien turned his head towards the window, his lips drawn in a pout. He glanced at Marinette out of the corner of his eyes to see a look of amusement on her face. She was looking back at him with a dark, almost sinister light, in her hooded eyes. The look was a challenge, and it made him bold. 

"Can't I send my lovely wife as many text messages as I please?" 

Marinette's eyebrows shot up. 

Perhaps, he was too bold. He bit his lip, wishing that he could draw those words that hung between them, and shove them back down his throat. 

Marinette closed her eyes and the a wry smile, once again, graced her lips. 

"Of course, you can send me as many texts as you wish; however, the fact remains, that you don't." 

Adrien opened his mouth to retort but closed it with a frown as he realized that he couldn't deny that statement. After all, it was the truth; he had, in all, texted her maybe twice in the last three weeks that they had been married, and one of those times had been an accident. 

Marinette chuckled at the sour look his face had contorted into. 

"Adrien, I'm only teasing. I'm just sorry that I caused you to worry so much." 

"Its--," He started to reassure her that it was okay but learning from the past, changed his sentence midway through the beginning of the previous. "Erm, why were you late anyhow?" 

"Mm, Mr. Agreste requested me to attend to some introductions at the last minute." She murmured. 

Of course it was my father, Adrien thought bitterly. 

"By the time I left, it was already 11. Then I had to come all the way across town, and traffic was really bad and there was an accident..." Marinette sighed again, "It was a disaster of a night." 

"Was the fashion show okay?" 

Her silence answered his question. 

"What happened?" He asked gently. 

"Nothing major, one of my models didn't show. Luckily, one of the other girls offered to stand in. Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly the size of my other model so the dress had to be altered pretty quickly. It worked out in the end, it was all just so..." She trailed off. 

"Stressful?" He finished for her. 

She nodded. Adrien looked down at the hand he was holding, and hesitantly stroked his thumb over hers. 

"But now, we're heading to Lugano, and it'll be okay for a little while." She said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. 

"Mmm." Adrien hummed out discontentedly. He realized how exhausted she was. He was used to an insane schedule, and even he was tired; moreover, Marinette was trying to juggle the publicity schedule and her normal work schedule(which is just as rigorous as his). 

"Well, we'll be there in less than an hour and a half so why don't you get some rest?" He suggested and Marinette willingly complied. 

He continued to stroke her thumb with his own and he didn't let go of her hand, even as his started to sweat, until after they touched down in Switzerland. 

It was nearly two thirty in the morning before they arrived at the hotel  and checked in. Adrien and Marinette wavered with exhaustion as Nathalie handed them their room key. Hers and the rest of the teams was two floors down due to the short notice, she explained. Adrien halfheartedly agreed on the time to meet her in the morning as they loaded into the elevator. And, it seemed, that even soft-hearted Marinette didn't have the energy to look attentive as Nathalie explained the following day's schedule. When the doors opened on Nathalie's floor, the couple managed a quiet good night before the doors closed. Adrien let out a long sigh as he slumped against the wall of the elevator. Marinette reached down and took off her heels. When she was back on two feet, she seemed to sway slightly from side to side. Her hand clutched the handle of her suitcase as if it was the only thing keeping her upright. As the elevator dinged and signaled the arrival of their floor, Adrien grabbed his own suit case and moved to stand by Marinette. He lightly, if a bit hesitantly, wrapped an arm around her waist to try and help support her. She glanced down at his hand surprised before leaning her head on his shoulder in gratitude. Adrien dropped his head down to rest on hers, and without moving away, they left the elevator. 

The room was at the very end of the hallway, and Adrien fumbled a bit with the room key before he finally inserted it correctly. He opened the door and held it for Marinette as she stumbled in. Marinette flipped on the lights to the suite and immediately collapsed on the first comfortable surface: the couch. Adrien left his suit case by the mini fridge in the miniature kitchen that was adjacent to the sitting room where Marinette was currently melting into a pile of exhausted goo. 

In a fit of exhausted frustration, Adrien ripped off his shirt and chucked it in the direction of his suit case. He headed towards the sitting room until he reached the couch. Marinette was lying there, one leg off the couch and her arm thrown over her eyes. He nudged her with his thigh, but she merely groaned indistinctly. 

"C'mon, Marinette, go change out of that dress and then we can go to bed." 

"Don't wanna move." Her voice, while taking on a higher pitch as she whined, was resolute. 

"Mari, you can't sleep in that dress. You can hardly move, c'mon." He nudged her a little more. He heard her heave a huge sigh before she got up quickly, in one fluid motion. Her makeup was faded and smudged badly  around her eyes;  her hair, while before the majority still remained in the updo, was now falling in large chunks around her shoulders. 

"Unhook me." Her language was short and concise but her meaning wasn't clear until she turned around and lifted her hair up. His eyebrows shoot up, but his fingers did as they were told. Nimbly and numbly unclasping the hooks, his fingers only hesitated slightly as her bra strap was revealed. He was too tired to be embarrassed or questioning of his actions. He finally got to the bottom of the bodice and stepped back, signalling to her that he was done. She swept off with her suit case and unhooked dress into the bathroom. While she was gone, Adrien quickly changed out of his jeans into some comfier gym shorts. He didn't bother putting on a shirt, and moseyed his way into the bedroom. He took one look at the bed, before falling onto it with a groan of appreciation. 

"Should I leave you alone with the bed? It sounds like you two are getting quite heated in here." Marinette asked, leaning against the door frame. 

"As if you would ever let me have the bed all to myself while you slept on the couch." Adrien's voice was muffled as his face was still smothered into the mattress. He heard Marinette give a dry chuckle as she walked over to the bed. Adrien turned to he side, eyes widened in shock at the sight of her wearing a long t-shirt. Only a long t-shirt. But before his tired brain could compute the long pale legs in front of him, Marinette threw back the blankets and covered his head in the process. 

"Hey!" 

He heard her giggle and felt the bed move as she got on it. 

"Well, are you just going to continue making love to the bed or are you actually going to sleep on it? Because either way, its  nearly three in the morning and I am going to bed." 

"You know, our love making session was going great until you interrupted." He grumbled as he crawled up and shimmied under the blankets beside her. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry for interrupting your intimate time with the bed. May I remind you that the bed is also mine." The amusement evident in her voice as she curled up on her side, facing towards him. 

He gasped dramatically. 

"Bed! You've been cheating?! How could you! I thought we had something special!" 

Marinette giggled again, before she reached out and lightly pushed his shoulder. 

"Go to bed, silly." 

"As long as I get to sleep next to you." He mumbled out before he realized what he said. His eyes flew wide open as he processed what he said. 

Shit. I didn't mean to say that. Oh no, she's gonna think I'm a total playboy now. Shit shit shit shit. 

He frantically tried to think of an excuse, he opened his mouth to let anything that came out try and justify what he just said when Marinette interrupted him. 

"You're very flirty when you're tired," She observed as she regarded him pensively, "You're more open too, less cautious and polite." 

"Sorry." He whispered into the darkness, his eyes shut tight against his own shame. 

"No, I like it. It makes me feel less like you're talking to a coworker or the cashier at the store, and more like you consider me as...well something more than a stranger." 

Adrien took her hand that laid lazily between them. Squeezing it lightly, before releasing it and lightly stroking up and down the side of her palm and her thumb with the tips of his finger, he said; 

"You know I consider you more than a stranger, Marinette." 

She smiled wryly, and Adrien could have misread her expression but it seemed a bit...bitter. 

"Of course, I'm your wife after all." 

"No-- I mean you are but," Adrien closed his eyes and swallowed hard, trying to compose what he wanted to say. He opened his eyes and grasped her hand determinedly, "You're not just my wife, Marinette. You're not just the spoils of some deal. You're not a stranger." 

Adrien moved his hand to interlace his fingers with hers. Lightly toying with the ring on her finger, he continued; 

"You feel this ring? It symbolizes all of my promises. I promise to keep you safe, to cherish you, and to try and make you happy." He paused, looking down at the ring he played with hard before looking back up at her, conviction sharp in his gaze as he moved close enough to her that their foreheads were only centimeters away from touching. Dropping his voice down, he continued. "I still remember my promise and I intend to keep it, Marinette. I-I want to love you,  whether it be romantically or otherwise. I want to learn about you, and I want you to learn about me. " 

He brought her hand to his chest, cradling it there, and resolution still fresh in his mind, he brought himself even closer so that their foreheads touched. 

"I want to love you, in any way, shape or form that is possible. In any way, shape, or form that you allow, I want to love you. So you were never just a stranger to me, not from the moment I put this ring on your finger. This ring is a promise, okay?" He brought her hand that he was cradling to his lips, where he left a gentle kiss on her knuckles. Opening his eyes to make sure she was okay with this much physical contact, he was surprised to find her eyes blown wide with tears dripping from them. He immediately tried to move away, to give her back the space he obviously violated. He was shocked when she pulled her hand from his grasp, only to thread her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck and lightly pulled him back into his previous position. She rubbed her nose against his, so faintly that he wasn't sure if it actually happened before she took a shaky breath and started; 

"Sorry, its just that you took me a bit by surprise. That was so incredibly sweet..."She took in a deep breath after the pause, almost seeming to brace herself to continue. "I think you think much better of me than what I actually am you know. I am just the same as you." 

"My opinion remains the same, no matter how hard you try to convince me otherwise, Mari." Adrien responded lightly, as he moved to mirror her position and allow his hand to delicately rest on the back of her head. 

"You're having a kalopsia."She muttered. As she closed her eyes, Adrien felt her eyelashes flutter against his skin. 

"A what?" He mumbled out, confused, but not really caring at the moment.  

"A kalopsia, its the delusion that things are more beautiful than they really are." 

"Yǒu xiácī de zuànshí yě yào bǐ wánměi de éluǎnshí hǎo." He, again, mumbled out in response. Sleepiness was starting to overcome him. He closed his eyes, content for possibly the first time in years. 

"What?" 

"It's a Chinese proverb, it means A diamond with flaws is better than a pebble without imperfections." 

"Are you calling me a pebble?" Marinette's confused and a bit offended voice drew out a soft chuckle from Adrien's chest. 

"No, I'm saying that you think that I believe that you're better than you actually are right?" He waited until she nodded before he continued. "Well, what I'm trying to say is that even if that's true, even if you have faults and flaws, it doesn't matter because to me you will always be beautiful, inside and out. Kalon, if you will, since you're apparently fond of weird words that nobody knows---beauty that is more than skin deep." 

Once again she was silent, before she pressed her forehead a bit more firmly against his.

"Mmm, you got all profound and sweet on me again. I'm too tired to come up with a good argument." 

"You mean that there is no good argument." He boasted cockily.

"I'm sure there is, I'll think of one in the morning." Her voice getting more mumbled as sleep began to claim her.

"You can't argue with Chinese proverbs." 

"I'm sure I can try, goodnight Adrien." Stubbornness coming through a yawn and a small sigh as Marinette succumbed to sleep. 

"Goodnight Marinette." 

And as Adrien began to give in to sleep, he entangled his hands into the dark curls of Marinette's hair and pulled himself closer to her. With multiple body parts either touching or entangled,  in an embrace he might regret in the morning, happiness and warmth enveloped Adrien. With a smile on his face, Adrien finally slept. And for the first time in many years, the knots in his muscles and his soul, unwound; his body and his mind, finally at ease. 

Adrien was finally able to sleep restfully, finally finding his querencia. 

Author's Note: So this chapter was just me trying to fit in as many unknown words as possible. Call it what you will; vocabulary building, the author's wish to revive long forgotten words, or forcing you to learn new things....where was I going with this? Idk, I forgot. Anyways I've left some vocabulary down for you all. Don't hesitate to comment down below if you want anymore words defined! As for this chapter, we're finally getting into some physical interactions. Hopefully everything was okay! I have to read up on Lugano for the next chapter, as I have never actually been there. Wish me luck! 

Illecebrous: enticing, alluring

Trouvaille: A lucky find, a valuable discovery, something found by chance

Querencia: a place where one feels safe, a place from which one's strength of character is drawn.

As always; 

Love, 

Cutesylittledemon