Dreams of You

Chapter 22

Adrien

Technically, there was no way Marinette would dump him for waking her up at this hour without taking him back five minutes later. He'd like to believe their relationship was stronger than that, but... did he really want to anger his girlfriend after she let him spend Christmas with her family—something that turned out to be one of the best holidays he'd ever had—only because he missed her already? And did he really want to be clingy and annoying after he personally had taught Marinette how to create all kinds of things... including a ball of water held above his head by nothing but her powers. That is until she let go, giving him a shower he hadn't asked for, for the sin of accidentally embarrassing her with one of his jokes. She had helped him to dry up, of course, but from now on, Adrien was going to think twice before annoying Marinette again.

"Just go back to sleep." Plagg yawned, settling deeper in Adrien's pillow. "She said she'll call you when she's awake."

Adrien rolled his eyes, muffling a chuckle. Plagg took to Marinette. A lot.

His gaze shifted to the time. Eleven o'clock and still no messages or calls from his beloved. Was it even humanly possible to sleep in this late? Especially since she'd left their dreamland way before he did... which could be due to a middle-of-the-night bathroom trip. Not like that hadn't happened before, and they did have their dinner rather late yesterday. A middle-of-the-night bathroom break seemed to be a liable enough reason to pull Marinette out of their dreamland for the night. She didn't fail to remind him not to wake her up today before leaving, but surely she didn't mean the whole day. Perhaps, just not in an unreasonable time frame?

Adrien sighed, putting his cell phone down. Marinette was pretty clear, and he didn't want to be dumped. Not even for five minutes, and not on such a nice, sunny day. And especially not when he had himself woken up only about half an hour ago. Shifting, he whimpered and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Patience.

He was the epitome of patience itself and he could wait a little longer.

Ten or even fifteen minutes for sure.

Somewhere in the apartment, a door creaked. Adrien perked up. "Nino?"

"Yeah?" His friend peeked into his room, still shirtless after his shower, a towel swung over his shoulders.

Adrien stood, stretching. There was his much needed distraction. "Anything new back home?"

"I haven't checked yet. Just woke up. Give me a few."

Nino headed to his room. Adrien followed, looking over Nino's shoulder as his friend opened his laptop. A bunch of reports from Max, nothing out of the ordinary. Apart from his obligatory Royal appearances, his father hadn't celebrated at all, including not even bothering to send felicitations to his only son on Christmas Day.

Adrien swallowed the hurt. Mother's condition had changed his father. For the worse.

Lila and Felix went all out, partying the night away at one of the biggest events in the city. No sights of them this morning, though. Most likely sleeping it off like all of them.

No changes in his mother's condition.

Adrien plopped onto Nino's bed, staring at the ceiling. "So how was it at Alya's yesterday?"

"It was great," Nino replied, swinging in his chair to look at Adrien. "Her parents are quite nice. The twin sisters are a bit of troublemakers. Nora wasn't impressed with my physical form."

Adrien propped himself on an elbow to look at his friend. "What do you mean? You're in great physical form."

"I might be by our standards, but Nora's a part of the national boxing team. She'd even give you a run for your money without your powers."