"I can't thank you enough for coming out with me. I know you have that art project due before the trip, so I'll try to make this quick," Adrien said after stepping out of his car. Marinette smiled and shook her head. They were no longer in all the same classes, Adrien deciding to take a more business focused route of study while Marinette pursued her passion for fashion in the arts program. However they still took litterature and history together, and they were in the same homeroom, and were therefore both going on a four day trip to Grindlewald, Germany.

"I actually already finished that, I was inspired, so I worked all night on it. Anyway, its no problem, what are friends for?" She said as they entered Snow Emotion, a store that catered mostly to professional, or at least frequent, skiers and snowboarders. Marinette had never been here, as all her snow gear had been bought at a larger, and much less expensive, sporting goods store.

In the two years since Adrien had joined her class, she had grown to accept that they would probably never end up together. She still held a kernel of hope that he would one day wake up and realize his dream girl had been standing right in front of him, but that was just a kernel. She was more than happy to just be his friend, working with him on history projects and helping him buy gear for a ski trip.

"So what do I need?" He said, looking at the racks of custom skis and snowboards. Marinette looked moved closer towards the more essential things like gloves and jackets.

"We are renting skis and boots there, so you don't need to get either of those, but since your dad already cleared you to "get what your friend feels you need", you might as well just get all the standard gear," she replied, looking a all the brightly colored waterproof parkas. Not a second later, a sales associate popped out of absolutely nowhere.

"Did you say 'all the standard gear?'" He said. Marinette jumped away from the rack she was examining.

"Ah!" She gave as her answer. Adrien came up to where his friend was standing and gave a more coherent response.

"Yes. I am going on a ski trip and require all of the winter sport attire," He told the attendant. The man's face lit up. He worked on commission, so this was going to make his week.

"Yes well, right this way sir. What is your size?" The attendant asked, shifting all his attention to Adrien. As Adrien told the man his measurements, the attendant pulled items from the racks. Marinette trailed after him, apparently not needed on this shopping venture at all.

The attendant was clearly pulling a specific color scheme for Adrien to try. Every jacket and pair of bibs he picked had the same black-lime-teal thing going on. He also made sure to pull a couple of black under armour for him to try it on with. When they made it to the fitting room, the salesman had probably ten items for Adrien to try. He got a number and put it on the door to the room where he had dumped the items while Marinette took a seat outside. The bell at the front of the store dinged.

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask," The attendant called behind him as he went to salk his new prey. Marinette just sat there, reading news on her phone while Adrien changed.

It had been a little over a year since any superheros had been seen in Paris, and even longer since Ladybug officially announced her retirement. The Parisian papers had nearly forgotten about the year people had been afraid to be afraid, with the ever looming threat of Hawkmoth and akumatization. Even the people had started to forget, Ladybug, Volpina, Golden Bee, and Chat Noir merchandise leaving stores and being replaced by the new fictional heros that the public so adored.

However Marinette didn't forget. Even though Tiki slept for days on end, and it had been 19 months since she had transformed, Marinette was still ladybug. She still wore the red earrings, which she had learned she could make slightly smaller, in the cartilage piercings she had gotten on her sixteenth birthday. If any supernatural horror were to appear, she would be ready, but since it hadn't she lived simply as a girl in her final year of grade school.

"Hey does this fit right?" Adrien said, stepping out of the changing room clad in only black under armour. He was twisting to get a feel for the garments when Marinette looked up, her face blushing slightly when she saw the material clinging to every toned muscle in his body.

"Uh, yeah it looks good. But you need to try it with all the outerwear to make sure it feels right," She said.

"Alright," He said, stepping back into the dressing room to pull on the bibs.

Just as Marinette had changed over the years, her hips were now fuller, her hair was grown out about 10 cm past her shoulders, and she had four piercings in each ear, Adrien had too. He had grown to be just as tall as his dad, his shoulders had broadened, and he had grown out his hair so much that he often wore it back in a small ponytail. They had both really come into there own, and as they were friends, they also sometimes dressed alike. They had both traded in their old layers for leather jackets, and they had also developed a taste for slim-fit button downs buttoned all the way up to the neck.

"Can you help me with these?" He asked, fiddling with the straps on his neon green bibs. She sighed sarcastically, tucking her phone into her pocket and getting up to help this grown man adjust his clothes. When she got up next to him and started adjusting the straps so that they lay flat on his shoulders and properly held themselves up, she realized how great his cologne smelled. Then she realized how totally rock hard his chest was. Then she noticed herself realizing these things and turned beat red.

Adrien, who had been trying to focus on anything other than how one of his best friends was delicately touching his chest. As one of the most sought after models in Paris, he was used to being manhandled by strangers, but it was different when it was someone he knew. It was almost embarrassing? And when he looked down and saw Marinette bright red face, he was officially feeling a little awkward.

When the moment passed, Marinette told him to go put on the jacket to feel the full look and went back to her seat and her phone, her face starting to return to its normal shade. When Adrien confirmed that the pants, jacket, and underwear fit, he grabbed two more sets of the underwear and went to purchase it with his dad's credit card. When he turned to his friend to ask if she maybe wanted to get coffee, she was gone.