Chapter Text
Marinette was trying really, really hard not to take pictures of the view out of the plane window. She was sitting in the aisle seat next to a very serious looking businessman and the last thing she wanted was to seem like a hyperactive, spazzy traveller on an 8 and a half hour flight.
Marinette had never left France before, and she had certainly never been on an airplane. When she had heard about the study abroad program in New York, she filled out the application, collected the requisite reference letters, documents, and wrote her personal essay in two days. Now, a few short weeks later, Marinette sat on a plane for the very first time, fidgeting with her headphones.
A flight attendant handed Marinette an impossibly tiny bag of pretzels. “Would you like anything to drink?”
Marinette nodded. “Yes, water please. Thank you.” Marinette took a sip of her water and discreetly looked out of the corner of her eye to see what Very Serious Businessman was up to. His tray table was down and he was typing furiously into what looked like an Excel spreadsheet. Excellent. Distracted. Marinette carefully reached for her purse underneath the seat in front of her and set it onto her tray table. She unzipped it slowly and found a pair of large blue eyes staring up at her.
She wondered how on earth Tikki managed to slip past airport security. When asked, Tikki just rolled her eyes and said, “Honestly, Marinette, do you seriously think you’re the first Ladybug who’s had to travel?” and left it at that.
Marinette slipped Tikki a few pretzels. Three hours left until Marinette arrived at JFK. Marinette put on her headphones, selected the dulcet tones of Jagged Stone, closed her eyes and smiled.
Adrien Agreste was bored. XL Airlines had a decent first class cabin, you know, the kind where each seat is in its own little cubicle and the seats extend out into tiny beds? Yeah.
But this flight didn’t have WiFi, and that was a problem.
He stirred his manhattan absently. Plagg had made an indignant huff from Adrien’s messenger bag when he heard the name of his miraculous holder’s beverage. Just because Adrien was staying in New York for a year did NOT give him an excuse to make hideously bad puns.
Adrien sipped his drink, eyes narrowing and lips pressing together as the whiskey warmed the back of his throat. He wondered how Paris would fare in his absence: sure, Hawkmoth had been mysteriously silent for the past 10 months, but who knows if that will last forever. What if something happened? He had spoken with Ladybug before leaving, of course. It wouldn’t do for Adrien to just up and disappear without giving his partner a heads up.
Ladybug, to his surprise, was also taking a break from their nightly activities. She was frustratingly tight-lipped about it, as she always is about anything concerning her life outside of the mask, but he didn’t blame her. It’s not like Adrien gave Ladybug any specifics about his plans.
But boy was he excited about his plans.
Adrien was double majoring in Fashion Industry and Business Administration and minoring in Applied Physics at Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Panthéon-Sorbonne offered a one-year study abroad program at NYU to explore American fashion and culture and Adrien KNEW he had to go. New York Fashion Week? Possibly catching a glimpse of Dr. Bruce Banner in Avengers Tower? Yeah. Adrien had to go.
Convincing his father to allow him to participate in a study abroad program wasn’t as difficult as Adrien imagined—Adrien and his father’s relationship had drastically improved since Adrien had attended Lycée. As Adrien grew older and accomplished more successes both academically and within the Gabriel brand, his father adopted a polite-but-distant attitude toward his son and Adrien treats his father the same way. Mutual respect, professionalism, and treating each other as coworkers instead of family is how the Agreste family functions best.
Adrien had suggested that studying abroad would allow him to assess Gabriel’s competition and examine upcoming industry trends in America. He may or may not have bribed his father with promises of a detailed report of his findings: a trend forecasting report, SWOT analysis, designer interviews, customer feedback surveys...Adrien may have laid it on a little thick, but it worked and here he was, flying first class to New York.
Adrien wondered what his host family would be like and frowned. He never had any brothers or sisters growing up. He wondered about his host father and his throat tightened.
“Would you care for another?”
Adrien blinked. His manhattan was gone. “Uh, sure. Thanks.” Great. Getting drunk on a plane, just what he needed.
Adrien sighed and pulled out his phone before remembering that this flight didn’t have WiFi. Adrien closed his eyes. He couldn’t even lurk on the Ladyblog archives to kill some time.
He hoped that flight attendant would return with his drink soon.
Marinette was convinced that the distance between her gate and baggage claim was over two miles long. She was tired and grumpy, her hair was tangled and her butt was numb from sitting for so long. Her phone was blowing up with notifications from Alya and her parents and she couldn’t bring herself to respond with more than “just landed.”
After collecting her bags, Marinette scanned the sea of travellers for her host family. Her eyes landed on a bored looking twenty-something holding up a sign that read “Dupain-Cheng” and she walked over to her.
“Looking for me?” Marinette tried, smiling weakly.
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” the girl responded. Marinette didn’t have the energy to suppress her snort at how the girl butchered her name.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“Nice. I’m Michelle, but my friends call me MJ. Wanna get out of here?”
“Oh my God yes.”
Marinette followed Michelle to a tan Chevrolet Malibu that looked like it was parked VERY illegally near a sign that said “taxis only.”
After squeezing all of her bags into the trunk and back seat, Marinette sat down in the passenger’s seat and immediately decided that she hated Michelle’s driving.
“The 678 is NEVER this clear and the faster I drive the faster we get there, right?”
Marinette gripped the edge of her seat and held on for dear life.
After about 20 very frightening minutes, they arrived in a suspiciously suburban area that Michelle called Forest Hills. Michelle parked on the street in front of a small white house. “It’s not much, but it’s home.”
Michelle helped Marinette with her bags. “It’s just me and mom, and she knows you’ve travelled a long time. Hopefully she won’t keep you up for too much longer.”
Michelle’s mother was very welcoming and positively delighted when Marinette presented her with a box of macarons from the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie Pâtisserie (Marinette may or may not have wrapped those in a bathrobe in her checked luggage to keep them safe). Marinette was shooed off to a guest room with promises that she and Michelle will have a chance to explore the city tomorrow after she’s gotten plenty of rest.
Marinette was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Wade Wilson was terrifying. That was Adrien’s first impression. It wasn’t the scars, necessarily, Adrien had been exposed to a lot of jarring imagery working in high fashion for so many years. They were shocking of course, but Adrien knew better than to stare or ask any questions.
It was Wade’s energy. Adrien had never seen anything like it.
The man was all booming voices and smiles and giggles and hand gestures and bouncing up and down and Adrien couldn’t keep up with him.
Adrien laughed nervously, overwhelmed, and followed Wade into a cab.
“Dopinder! My man! What’s up?!”
“Same as always, Mr. Pool.” Mr. Pool? There’s got to be some story behind that.
“Wonderful!” Wade clapped his hands together and grinned. “Me and my French model here need to go to my apartment.”
New York never failed to take Adrien’s breath away. It was nearly 23:00—11:00 PM, Adrien was going to have to get used to that—so the traffic in the Midtown Tunnel wasn’t too bad. Wade lived in a 3-bedroom apartment in Chelsea with his daughter, Ellie. “Ellie’s a total badass. She’s more badass than me, and I’m pretty fucking badass,” Wade had mentioned offhandedly.
Adrien looked out of the cab window for a while. He had been to New York before, of course, as a part of Gabriel’s fashion campaign, but he always forgets how long it takes to get from JFK to Manhattan and how busy the streets are at night.
Dopinder pulled up in front of a nice-looking apartment building. Wade high fived him, gave him finger guns, and began making his way out of the cab.
Adrien, a little shocked that Wade was just leaving the cab without paying hastily pulled out his wallet and threw four $20 bills in the passenger seat.
“So,” Wade began as they stepped into the elevator. “You hungry, kid? Because I have about 37 decent takeout places on speed dial. What are you in the mood for? Thai? Mexican? Please say Mexican. Wait. Actually, no, you look like you’re about to pass out. But Ellie really wants to meet you, she hasn’t shut up about you for WEEKS now and she’s going to be so pissed at me if I send you to bed without introducing you to her…”
Adrien smiled. “I’d love to meet her. I don’t have any brothers or sisters and she sounds really cool.” Adrien followed Wade down a hallway on the fourth floor.
“She’s SO cool. The coolest,” Wade smiled fondly. Wade unlocked number 407 and held the door open for Adrien. “Alright, here we are. How about we save the tour for tomorrow? I’ll show you where you’re sleeping—oh, hello there Ellie!”
“Daddy!” A mess of brown curls attached itself to Wade’s leg and peered up at Adrien. “Are you Adrien?”
Adrien chuckled and nodded. “Nice to meet you, Ellie.”
Ellie scrunched her nose at him and poked him really hard in the gut. “You don’t look real. Daddy, why does he look like he stepped out of a magazine?” Wade shrugged unhelpfully.
“Well, uh, I model…” Adrien rubbed his abdomen. That hurt.
Ellie raised her eyebrows at him, impressed.
Wade cut in before Ellie could respond. “Alright, El, c’mon, leave the kid alone. He’s been traveling all day. You can interrogate him tomorrow.” Ellie stuck her tongue out at her father. Wade stuck his tongue out back at his daughter. Ellie headed to her room, yelling “Goodnight!” before shutting her door.
Wade showed Adrien his room. Adrien set his bags in the corner of the room and decided that unpacking would be a problem for tomorrow.
Marinette couldn’t tell you exactly when she developed a coffee addiction, but she could’ve kissed Michelle when she took her to a Dunkin’ Donuts. “Because,” Michelle had said, “you need to experience real American culture.” Marinette ordered a chocolate chip muffin for Tikki and two coffees for herself: an iced coffee to chug immediately, a hot coffee to sip throughout her morning.
What? She was tired, okay?
It took the pair about an hour to travel from Queens to Greenwich Village, where Michelle showed Marinette around Washington Square Park and pointed out a handful of NYU’s academic buildings.
“What are you studying, again?” Michelle asked as the girls made their way up to Midtown.
Marinette took a sip of her coffee. “Fashion Industry and minoring in Marketing. I want to be able to actually SELL the designs I create. Hopefully.”
Michelle looked amused. “Very practical. I’m working on a Ph.D in Women’s and Gender Studies. Looks like I won’t be a TA for any of your classes…”
Marinette smiled. She rather liked Michelle. MJ? Did Michelle consider Marinette enough of a friend for her to call her that? Michelle was simultaneously very serious and very laid back and that balanced out Marinette’s over enthusiastic personality. Marinette was excited to get to know the older girl and continue exploring New York with her over the course of the next year.
The streets became more densely packed as the girls neared Midtown. Marinette had to nearly shout to speak with Michelle and the streets smelled like piss and street meat and she couldn’t be happier. This city was so alive.
Marinette bought a few notebooks for the semester at a CVS, which was a huge mistake. Each notebook was around $6. Oh well. The girls tried on hats from a street vendor—Marinette opted for a black floppy hat that coordinated well with the rest of her outfit and Michelle bought a puke green conductor hat that Marinette wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.
Time Square took Marinette’s breath away. She had never seen so many people in her life. Everywhere she looked there was something flashing, displaying a new product or musical or clothing line. Distant conversations rang through her ears like a muffled hum, interrupted only by the angry honking of a car horn. Marinette’s heart felt light and she couldn’t stop smiling.
Marinette whipped out her phone and snapped a picture of Michelle.
“Ugh! No! You’re making me look like a tourist!”
Marinette flashed her a shit-eating grin in response.
“You’re the worst. C’mon, we can do some shopping on the way back if you want. We’re almost at Central Park.”
Central Park was like a breath of fresh air compared to Time Square. It was ridiculously busy—it was a beautiful, sunny, Saturday afternoon—but Marinette loved the splash of nature.
Marinette turned to Michelle. “Can we hang out here for a little bit?”
The girls (miraculously) found an open grassy area in the shade that was an acceptable distance away from other park patrons. Marinette laid in the grass and closed her eyes. She could stay here forever. Right here in the grass. There was nothing anyone could say or do to make Marinette feel less than perfectly conten—
“What time do your classes start on Monday?”
Marinette’s eyes flew open.
Adrien looked at the time on his phone and groaned. 6:00 AM on a Saturday and Wade Wilson is shouting for him to wakey wakey for eggs and bakey.
Adrien had no idea how the man had this much energy all the time.
Slipping on a pair of sweatpants and a black t-shirt, Adrien made his way into Wade’s living room where he was greeted by an equally sleepy Ellie.
“Hey,” Ellie said. “Dad’s making pancakes. He’s probably going to be a while,” Ellie shook her head, mumbling something about ‘that time with the swimming pool.’ Swimming pool? Adrien thought to himself. I wonder if that has anything to do with the name that cab driver called Wade.
“Oh!” Adrien said suddenly. “I almost forgot. I have something for you and Wade!” Adrien went to his room and dug through his suitcases. Ellie poked her head into Adrien’s room curiously.
“This is from my father’s upcoming fall/winter children’s collection.” Adrien held out a heather grey hoodie with kitten ears on the hood and metallic stitching. Adrien grinned. “I chose it myself.”
Ellie gasped excitedly and immediately put it on over her t-shirt. Adrien pulled the hood down over eyes.
“Hey!”
Adrien laughed and headed to the kitchen to update Wade’s wardrobe. Adrien found Wade humming Gwen Stefani’s The Great Escape under his breath. Wade’s eyes landed on Adrien. “Good morning sunshine!” he said loudly, effortlessly flipping a pancake. Wade was wearing a dark grey hoodie with the hood pulled tightly around his head, black boxer briefs, and a stained white apron. “What’s up, buttercup? I hope you like pancakes. I love pancakes. Perfect breakfast food: fluffy but never stuffy, drenched in an ocean of 100% pure Canadian maple syrup? FUCK, I think I just came, oh my god, we need to eat these right now—” Wade stacked six pancakes on a plate and shoved it into Adrien’s hand. “EL! Pancakes are ready! Hey, what’s that?”
Adrien set his pancakes on Wade’s kitchen table and glanced down at the fabric draped across his arm. “My father said you worked for him a number of years ago?” Wade’s eyes widened. “He said that he was extremely satisfied with your attention to detail and wanted to thank you for taking me in for a year,” Adrien finished, handing Wade a custom black jacket Gabriel had designed for him. Wade rubbed the back of his head nervously. “Oh! I just remembered he said to say that he was looking forward to working with you again in the future. I didn’t know you worked in the fashion industry.”
“I don’t.” Wade didn’t elaborate. “Jesus...I barely remember that job. Wait! That must’ve been that time in Europe where…” Wade rambled on for a little bit. Something about a tight sequined number and Bea Arthur? Adrien couldn’t keep up. “Wow. This is nice, though!” Wade smiled, his scars pulling against his face.
Ellie waltzed into the kitchen, served herself some pancakes, and plopped down at the kitchen table with Adrien and Wade. Wade paused for a moment. “Why haven’t you asked me why I look like a piece of swiss cheese that someone shat out and then threw up on?”
Adrien shrugged. “It’s not any of my business. Not that this really compares to anything you’ve probably been through, but I get what it’s like to be judged based on appearance. People take one look at me and assume they know everything about me. I know we only just met yesterday, but it seems to me that there’s a lot more to you than just your scars.”
Ellie stopped eating and stared at Adrien like she was seeing him for the first time. “Shit, kid, I’m blushing,” Wade said, a little breathless.
Breakfast at Wade’s was a lively affair after that.
Adrien helped Wade with the dishes and afterwards eagerly accepted Ellie’s challenge to play Mario Kart with her. (He lost spectacularly.) He followed up by challenging Ellie to play Ultimate Mecha Strike III with him. (He won spectacularly.) Wade, Ellie, and Adrien all argued about their favorite Sailor Senshi on Wade’s couch. They ate ice cream and ordered Taco Bell (Wade had been positively offended when Adrien informed him that there are no Taco Bells in Paris) and watched reruns of Golden Girls.
Adrien’s chest grew warm. He felt so welcomed by this family. He had spent more time with Wade and Ellie in the past two days than he had spent with his own father in the past two months. He had the chance to spend a year with a family that was interested in getting to know Adrien as a person and not as a tool to increase revenues.
Sitting here with this bizarre man who made wildly inappropriate jokes and his daughter who would someday rule the world, Adrien smiled and cherished every moment.