I know it's been forever but you probably realized I hit a blockity-block. Hopefully I'll start getting more chapters out! I hope you enjoy this one. It's a little short though.

Music: Anomaly by Lights and Motion.

Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

As per usual, it turned out that she had been worrying for absolutely nothing. Her nausea had calmed down to twice per day and only one of those times usually happened while she was at work. She was already used to the warning signs of the nausea so she could usually escape to the bathroom fast enough.

Of course, her daily excursions to the porcelain barf bucket made her condition widely known around the office and she began to receive congratulations from people she barely even knew. She didn't even bother trying to deny it. What was the use anyway?

And of course, everyone wanted to know who the father was but Marinette knew just how much attention she and Adrien would get if she said it was his child so she opted to keep that fact a secret for now. The secrecy had two effects: some people were more intrigued and tried harder to find out, or they assumed that she'd slept with so many people she didn't know who the father was. Marinette didn't know whether to be annoyed or amused at both reactions.

But for the most part she was able to settle back into her job, even if every now and then the new scent of a piece of fabric would make her stomach churn and she'd have to swallow rapidly and retreat to her bin in order to fight down the nausea. She was a little more tired than before and sometimes she had to get Alya to buy lunch for her because she would find that she could not stand the food she'd packed, which had seemed perfectly delicious just that morning.

Adrien was an absolute darling as far as Marinette was concerned. He took her minor mood swings easily, calmed her down when she was frantic for nothing and had no problems driving to the store at odd hours to find her latest craving. He did look rather put out when she ate the entirety of that chocolate cake without giving him any though. Ooops. Alya had even taken to documenting her weirdest food combinations and Nino had begun suggesting the most distressing combinations of food for Marinette to try. Of course, it was more alarming that half the things he suggested actually made her mouth water. In fact they all had a rather pleasant three weeks before the decent into hell began.

It began, as some roads to hell do, with good intentions. It began with Nino's new CD. He had released it a week ago and it had made a hit. He'd hit the top of several foreign charts and risen really, really far up on international charts and that meant that his label was already planning a concert tour for him. Which was pretty awesome.

They all congratulated him, told him he had to give them free tickets and played his songs on repeat until they knew all the words and Adrien could do a pretty good a Capella version of all the beats and often did so while standing on her couch beating air drums.

But it still came as a shock to Marinette when Nino called her and made his request.

"Hey Marinette," his low, soothing voice greeted her.

"Nino!" she said grinning into the phone. "Hey! How are you?" She was sitting on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table. Adrien was sitting opposite her, cross-legged, with his laptop resting on his lap. At her greeting he looked up and cocked his head at her. She shrugged.

"Good, good!" Nino replied. "How are you? How's the bump?"

"I'm fine," Marinette said laughing. "Bump is great too!"

"Awesome!" he said. "Hey so we got the dates for my tour all worked out and then venues," he said.

"That's really good!' said Marinette beaming.

"Yeah," said Nino, "But here's the thing. I've had concerts before but no tours and want this one to rock you know?"

"Well obviously! But I don't think you have anything to worry about!"

Nino laughed. "Thanks, but what I'm trying to get to here is that I want you to dress me for the tour and design the costumes we use for the set."

Marinette froze and then blinked rapidly. Adrien stiffened in response and snapped her out of her surprise. She waved to tell him she was okay and he relaxed.

"Nino, I'd love to but I do work for a company and you'd have to present the project to them and then they'd assign the designers to you."

"Well, that's the thing," said Nino and she could practically hear him scratching his head sheepishly. "We already presented the project but I said I wanted you specifically. Your boss asked why you. I told her I knew you and then she asked me if I was only doing it because I was your friend. But I told her that being your friend only made me aware of how talented you were and that if I didn't think you'd do the best job possible I wouldn't have asked for you. I also told her that you know how to capture the heart of music in your designs and that, that meant a lot to me because image is important when it comes to music because you gotta capture the essence of the stuff without forcing people to only conform to that one viewpoint when they hear the music."

"Nino!" Marinette pressed a hand to her flushed cheeks. "You just made me blush!"

"What?!" said Adrien.

"I think we just made Adrien jealous too," she added smiling at Adrien who looked affronted and then pouted.

"You should dress him too," Nino said, "Oh wait, you probably already do that," he added mischievously.

"Nino!" Marinette cheeks flamed. She took a deep breath. "Back to business," she declared, causing Nino to laugh at her. Adrien lifted an eyebrow at her and she smiled and held out her hand to him. He came over to her, taking her hand in his. "So, what did she say?" she asked Nino.

"What else could she say?" Nino replied chuckling. "You got the job. So, what do you say? Will you help a brother out?"

Marinette laughed, half-ecstatic, half-panicked because so many designs!

"I'd love to!" she said grinning into the phone.

"What happened?" Adrien asked when she hung up.

Marinette turned to him, eyes sparkling. "Nino somehow got me the chance to actually dress him for his concert tour!" she squealed. "And to dress all the other background people involved in making the show!"

Adrien blinked and then his face spread into a smile. "Purrfect!" he said. "That's amazing!"

"I know!" she squealed and he laughed and hugged her.

"Is this the beginning of the Marinette machine that Alya told me about?" he asked teasingly.

"More like the Marinette factory!" she retorted. "Oh I need paper and my design folder. And Nino's CD on repeat 24/7."

Adrien laughed. "We already have his CD on repeat 24/7," he said and Marinette giggled. Adrien smiled down a her, his smile turning warmer, softer somehow. "I like seeing you so excited my lady," he said softly.

Marinette felt blood rush to her cheeks again and she blinked flustered for a few seconds. "I like seeing you do what you love too mon chaton," she replied, just as softly. "You're always so happy! I like to see you happy."

"Feedback loop," he said smiling, recalling her earlier words. "You happy makes me happy."

"Well then," she said looping her arm through his and looking up at him, "We'll just be happy forever."

They locked eyes and then Adrien breathed out, low and husky: "Purrfect." Trapped in his gaze Marinette definitely did not disagree.

Review please! And have a nice day/night!