One year and some-odd months later...

"Masha, if you're going to be right next to Emma, of course she's going to try to use you for support, you silly cat!"

"She can't understand you, Marinette," Tikki said with a laugh. "But yes, Masha should have figured that out by now. It's not like this is Emma's first attempt at walking. Or her first time using Masha for support, even."

"Sasha is looking much smarter right now," Adrien said, pointing to where their younger cat was curled up and watching the scene down below from the safety of a stack of boxes. Or maybe she was just taking a nap, it was hard to tell. "Out of reach of the grabby hands."

"Eventually Masha is going to be there too, I bet." Marinette kneeled down on the carpet, watching Emma trying to balance herself on the furniture (and their older cat) before taking a shaky step forward. "Masha, you're just getting in the way now."

"A cat getting underfoot? You don't say." Adrien grinned, then hopped to his feet at the knock on the door, making sure to give the trio on the floor a wide berth. "Your parents are here!"

"Oh, good." Marinette glanced up as Adrien answered the door, letting Tom and Sabine in. "Emma! Look who's here!"

Emma looked up and lit up at once, falling to her hands and knees so that she could crawl over faster. "Nana! Papi!"

Sabine grinned, handing a large pot to Adrien so that she could bend down and scoop Emma up. "Hi, Emma! How's my little granddaughter doing today?"

"She's working on walking again," Marinette told her mom, pushing herself up. "She's almost got it, I think."

"She'll pick it up soon enough, and then you'll never be able to contain her." Sabine beamed down at Emma as she held her tight. "And then comes the climbing, and then nothing is safe."

Adrien laughed. "Yeah, you've told us before. We're trying to baby-proof as we unpack, but it's hard."

"Yes, well, that's why we came over today, isn't it?" Tom grinned down at Emma, then returned his attention to Adrien and Marinette. "I see that you've gotten some stuff unpacked already."

"Just the furniture, really. And a couple pots and pans." Adrien headed into the kitchen to set the pot down, then returned to the front room to take the bag that Tom was carrying. "I'm glad we got a company to help us with the move. We would have been spinning in circles if we had tried to move everything ourselves. Do you want a tour first?"

Tom and Sabine agreed eagerly, and so they started with the living room/dining room area. It was larger in their three-bedroom apartment than it had been in the two-bedroom, which was nice. It gave Emma more space to tumble around, and once she was joined by another sibling (whenever that happened), then there would be space for them to play together without taking up the entire floor. The kitchen was larger, too, which Tom and Sabine heartily approved of.

"It's larger than ours, which will be nice for you," Sabine said, looking around. "And it's open to the living room, so you can watch Emma while you cook. I love all of the counter space."

"I can't wait to start cooking in it," Marinette admitted. "I'll be able to have things cooling on the counter and still be able to cook without bumping into them. Or Adrien and I can cook together and have plenty of space. It's probably one of the best things about this apartment."

"It's lovely," Sabine told her. "It's so nice that your landlady had these apartments as well, so that you didn't need to do a lot of searching."

Adrien could only nod in agreement. There had been hardly any work involved in getting the new apartment, really. They had told their landlady that they would be interested in a three-bedroom apartment once it opened, she had put them down on a list, and she had let them know as soon as she knew that one would be opening up. They had popped over to the next building over to tour the place and confirm that they wanted it, and then they had moved.

Well, the move itself had been a lot of work. Getting all of their things plus Emma's stuff plus the stuff for Masha and Sasha all packed up had been difficult. Luckily his father had helped with the move- well, Nathalie had, at least- by sending over a check for them to use to hire a moving company. It wasn't terribly expensive since they were just shifting one building over, but it was still appreciated. Adrien and Marinette had been able to drop Emma off with Nino and Alya for the couple hours it took for the workers to clear their old apartment and get things into the new one, and then for the time it took for them to finish their cleaning and do a final walk-through with the landlady before turning over the old keys and getting their new ones.

"How is Emma taking the move?" Sabine asked as they headed out of the kitchen and towards the bedrooms. "I know sometimes little kids get upset when they get uprooted and moved elsewhere."

Marinette grinned. "She's doing well. It helps that we did a bunch of unpacking in her room before she came in for the first time, so it looked really familiar. And she got to pick which of the two kid's bedrooms that she wanted to be hers before we moved, though, uh, I doubt that she knew that that was what she was doing."

"I'm sure there's plenty yet to unpack in there, though." Sabine followed Marinette into Emma's new room, and Tom and Adrien followed her. "Ah- yes, plenty of things."

Adrien winced. There was a pretty big pile of boxes, mostly full of toys and clothes and diapers and all of the extra supplies. They had packed a box with enough for a couple days to unpack right away, but everything else still had to get put away. "Yeah, we were working on it a bit earlier, but then Emma decided to try to walk and we didn't want to miss that. "

"You had to leave some stuff for us to do, and I doubt that you want us unpacking all of your clothes." Sabine was already over at the box pile, glancing over all of the boxes. She set Emma down and then started pulling the topmost one open. "I think I know where all of this goes. Tom and I can get this room while you start on yours."

Marinette giggled. "So much for the rest of the apartment tour, then?"

"Oh! Right!"

It didn't take long for them to finish up. There were two smaller bedrooms- Emma's and Marinette's sewing room- plus a bathroom, then the master bedroom with its own bathroom and the large walk-in closet. It was large enough that Marinette would be able to easily store a lot of her sewing things in it once they needed the third bedroom for a second kid.

Not that Marinette had been sewing a ton at home now, between mainly doing commissions for graphic designs for t-shirts and caring for Emma. But she would need the storage space, at least, and it would be better if the sewing machine was easily accessible when she needed it and not packed away in a box or anything.

"Your bedroom is a nice size," Tom commented, glancing around. The room was really bare so far, with only one blanket on the bed and nothing on the dresser. "It's incredible that anyone would leave once they got this place, but I suppose if they were moving out of the city or outgrew the apartment, it would make sense."

Adrien nodded in agreement. No matter how nice the apartment was, he knew that it wasn't their forever home, not yet. He and Marinette had discussed moving to a townhouse in anticipation of having more kids- they wanted three, after all, and trying to make a move with two or three young kids would no doubt be a nightmare- but they hadn't seen any that they liked open just yet. Besides, townhouses in Paris weren't exactly cheap, and while he and Marinette were pretty well off- between his income as a model for over a decade of his life, her job at the boutique, his job at the Physics lab, and her commissions on the side, they certainly weren't struggling- they had agreed that they wanted to build up a little more savings before going out and buying a house.

"The timing of this place opening up ended up being pretty good, if you think about it," Sabine commented. She bounced Emma on her hip when she started to fuss, making a silly face at her. Emma settled down right away. "Think about trying to move within her first year- it would have been pretty hard, right?"

Neither Adrien nor Marinette could hide their winces at that. Pretty hard was a bit of an understatement there. Their first few months with Emma had been hectic at best as they dealt with diapers and feedings and laundry- so much laundry- and trying to stay on top of their normal household chores. Things had settled down as they got used to balancing it all, and as Emma's feedings grew less frequent (and she started eating baby food and then, later, soft foods, so Adrien could help out more) and the number of diaper changes she went through lessened, they actually got some of their time back. They spent most of it playing with Emma and reading to her, but if they had been trying to move then or before things settled down?

They would have been a mess.

"At least now Emma is old enough for daycare, so if we need more time to unpack we could always take a few days off to pack without her being underfoot," Adrien pointed out after a few seconds. "She loves it, so it's not like she would mind. Or notice that anything was different, really, considering that she goes pretty much every day."

Tom grinned. "You like her daycare, then?"

"Yeah! I don't think we ever thanked you enough for finding that one for us."

Sabine laughed. "It was no problem at all, really. We just asked people who came into the bakery with kids where they had their children go for daycare and if they had been happy with it. No real work required on our parts."

"Still. My father's idea of 'helping' was to tell us that we shouldn't be sending Emma to daycare and that we should get a nanny instead." Adrien rolled his eyes. "I already know that Emma would hate that. She likes seeing the other kids at daycare. And it would be expensive to have a nanny." And Mr. Agreste knew that- he had to, since Adrien had had a nanny for years even though both of his parents had worked from home- but he just didn't think it was fitting for his granddaughter to be going to a common daycare (never mind that the one they had found was definitely on the slightly more upscale side).

Tom made a face. "I'm sure he'll settle down eventually. Or he'll keep doing it and you'll just tune it out," he added, chuckling. "I suppose it's more likely to be the latter."

Adrien sighed. "Yeah, probably."

It didn't take long for them to dive into the unpacking. Tom and Sabine headed into Emma's room to finish unpacking and putting stuff away there, and Adrien and Marinette stayed in their own bedroom, hanging up some clothes and folding others to put away. Emma was put in her crib, where she could watch her grandparents while staying well out of the way.

"After this, I think the kitchen is the next priority for us," Adrien said as he pulled out another blanket and draped it across the bed. "We need to be able to cook. Your parents should be able to do the bathrooms."

"They could do the towels and soaps and cleaners, at least," Marinette corrected, and Adrien winced. Right. If they were having her parents set up the bathrooms, they should pull one of the boxes that was there right now. Her parents didn't need to know about everything that they kept in the bathroom. "And we have to remember that we have two bathrooms now, too. We're going to have to buy more stuff for one of them."

Adrien nodded, thinking about it. "I vote that the stuff we have- the shower curtain and the rugs, mostly- goes in our bathroom, and then we can find some stuff that's maybe a bit more fun for Emma's bathroom. Maybe we could do, like, a tropical fish theme or something?"

"Ooh, I like that!" Marinette had paused, shirt half-folded in her hands as she went into planning mode. "And the mirror and the walls on the tub could have those little sticky gel fish on them as decoration! It would be super cute."

Laughing, Adrien leaned over to kiss her. "Oh no, I've awakened the decorating beast."

"It's fun, and you know it is."

The two of them had only just finished working on clothes when Sabine stuck her head in. "We've finished working on Emma's room for the most part. All you have left are the wall decorations, and I know you like putting those up."

Adrien grinned. "You didn't want to deny Marinette the joy of decorating Emma's room?"

"Not when she enjoys it so much."

"We were just talking about what kinds of decorations we might want to buy for our second bathroom, now that we have two," Marinette told her mom. "We thought we might have a tropical fish theme in Emma's bathroom. It would be fun, and those colors are really pretty."

Sabine grinned. "Oh, she'll love that, I'm sure. It's fun, but not so childish that guests would think anything of it. Tom and I once went to a friend's apartment where they had decorated their kid's bathroom in unicorns and sparkly pink, and it was like here, where the kid's bathroom is the one that any guests use. It was cute, I guess, but..."

"Are you talking about the unicorn bathroom? It was absolutely overwhelming." Tom appeared behind Sabine, a slight grimace on his face at the memory. "I don't think I've ever felt so out of place. It was clear that it was a little girl's bathroom, and I felt like I was intruding."

"So be careful with the level of decoration is what I'm hearing," Marinette said, exchanging a look with Adrien. "Or maybe we could include a few pieces that are less strictly kid-ish."

"I don't think there are many unicorn things that scream adult."

Sabine laughed. "They were talking about doing a tropical fish theme, Tom. No unicorns involved."

Tom looked relieved, and they all laughed.

Emma went down for a nap while Tom and Sabine started setting up the master bathroom, and they worked for another hour before stopping for a quick snack break. Adrien grinned as he surveyed their work.

The apartment was starting to look like home again. It wasn't quite there yet- there were several rooms left to unpack, and of course the books and knick-nacks and pictures wouldn't be put up until later- but stuff was out and getting put away, and more and more boxes were getting flattened and piled up by the door to be taken out. The floor was slowly appearing as boxes were removed, and Adrien could actually see more of their furniture again.

"Was the cat tree a first priority to get up again, or did you just never take it apart?" Tom asked with a laugh when they had managed to uncover it. "And- aha! I see Sasha! I had wondered where she went."

"We never took it apart," Marinette admitted. "Since Mr. Agreste was paying for the move, we figured that we might as well save ourselves a little work and leave it together. And can I just say that I'm glad that we did?"

By the time Emma woke up again, hungry and in need of a diaper change, the bathroom boxes were unpacked, her bedroom was ready (with the sole exception of the wall decorations), the master bedroom was largely unpacked, and a good deal of progress had been made on the kitchen.

"I think I'm unpacked-out," Marinette admitted once she returned with Emma in her arms. "I never thought we had so much stuff."

"Well, we can come again next weekend and spend another day helping out," Sabine offered. "Or we can have an early dinner and see if we have enough energy to finish the kitchen, at least."

Adrien nodded in agreement. That sounded good. If they got the kitchen done, that only left the living room and Marinette's sewing room with serious unpacking left to do. Marinette would probably want to do her sewing room herself with Adrien acting as an extra pair of hands to move things around, and most of the stuff for the living room was just knickknacks, things that they didn't really need but added some personality to the apartment. Those could wait for a little longer, maybe for an evening or two where they had some time on their hands.

They would have to find the cat toys, at least. Otherwise, Masha and Sasha would start getting into things that they shouldn't.

It didn't take long for them to put the pot that Tom and Sabine had brought over on the stove, and stick the bread that they had brought with it in the oven to warm. Adrien kept an eye on the food while Marinette and her parents played with Emma. When he came back out, Masha had made herself at home on Tom's shoulder while Emma sat in his lap, giggling as Sabine acted out a story with some of Emma's stuffed animals.

It was adorable, and Adrien was glad that Emma had one set of grandparents who loved kids so much. Whenever his father saw Emma, he simply acknowledged her with a short nod before addressing Adrien and Marinette.

There was a reason that Emma didn't like him very much. Whenever she saw Mr. Agreste she hid and fussed. Whenever her other grandparents entered a room, though, she lit up and babbled for them. It was an interesting difference, and Adrien wondered how much it would continue once Emma was older.

It wasn't long before Sabine was done with her story and dinner was ready, and Adrien scooped up Emma to put her in her high chair. She squealed happily as he spun her around on the way to the table. "Da!"

"I'll put the cats back in the bedroom," Marinette said, reaching up to scoop Sasha off of the cat tree. Masha meowed and followed Marinette back to the bedroom, used to the routine by now. They couldn't keep the cats out during meals anymore, not with Emma in full Messy Eater mode. They would both get used to stealing table scraps, and that was not something that Adrien and Marinette wanted to deal with.

"You know, a baby gate would be good for that," Sabine pointed out as Sasha tried to escape. "Then you could just dump Sasha over that and not have to wrestle with getting the door closed before she escapes."

"You assume that Sasha wouldn't just climb right over," Marinette called back. "Because she would. We're hoping that she mellows out with age."

Adrien tried not to laugh at that. It would probably be years before that happened.

"Okay, but if you hung a piece of metal or something on it, would that keep her from climbing?" Tom asked. "If I gave you a couple industrial sheet trays, that would cover the holes on the baby gate. Unless Sasha is the world's best jumper, she's probably be stuck."

"It's worth a try," Adrien admitted. "It would be nice for mealtimes to not be such a ordeal."

"I'll bring the trays over during the week, then," Tom decided. "I have a few that probably should get retired, so you can have those."

"Fantastic."

Dinners took longer now that they had to account for Emma, though at least she wasn't a fussy eater. She was feeding herself now, too, and once she stopped eating it was a surefire sign that she was actually full. Adrien appreciated it, especially because Alya and Nino hadn't gotten so lucky and it was a lot harder to feed Elodie. Still, even though she fed herself it didn't mean that she did it quickly. There was a lot of pauses as she babbled to her grandparents, something almost resembling an actual word occasionally slipping out as she pointed to her parents and grandparents and her food.

"She's a little chatterbox," Tom chuckled as Emma smashed a handful of food into her mouth. "She's going to start picking up words really soon now, I'll bet. And once she starts, she'll learn a lot."

Adrien grinned over at Marinette. "I get feeling that we're in for another Marinette story."

Sabine laughed. "You are! Marinette went to daycare most of the time when she was young, but there were a few days where I just brought her down into the bakery- mostly because there was a cold getting passed around the daycare or when Marinette got fussy and wanted mommy time. And once she started learning words, she picked up all of the names for the different pastries in the bakery and would name them as people put them down. Or she would tell people what colors their clothes were. Most people really thought it was cute-"

"As they should, because Baby Mari was adorable," Tom added in.

"But not everyone was great at watching their language around babies," Sabine continued, and Marinette buried her face in her hands with a groan. "These poor boys- they had popped in to get some rolls for their mom, I think, and they dropped their money after they had paid and one of the coins went under the counter. They swore just out of habit, and then Marinette repeated them. I don't think I had ever seen anyone look so mortified before."

"They hadn't realized that there was a toddler behind the counter, listening to everything that was going on," Tom told them. "And they apologized, of course, and then hightailed it out of there. Thankfully Marinette didn't make it a permanent addition to her vocabulary."

Adrien grinned at his blushing wife. "At least not at that stage. I know I've heard some colorful vocabulary when she stabs herself with a needle."

"Oh, hush you."

"So, you said that your father helped pay for the move," Tom said, grinning at their exchange even as he changed the subject. "Have you been seeing more of him now?"

Adrien snorted. "Once every month or two. Thankfully he doesn't make it a long visit, since Emma gets fussy and he doesn't like hanging around then. She's our new get-out-of-jail-free card."

Sabine raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "That sounds like you had an old get-out-of-jail-free card."

"Father is allergic to cat hair," Adrien reminded her, gesturing towards the bedroom. "He used to cut dinners a bit short because his nose would start running. Then he started taking stuff for his allergies before we came over, so he could monologue at us for as long as he wanted."

"Or sit across from us in silent disapproval," Marinette added in. "Though he's mostly stopped that, at least. I think he's finally given up hope that Adrien will give up on Physics and come back to Gabriel and that I'll quit my job and work for him instead."

Sabine rolled her eyes. "It's obvious to anyone with eyes that you love your job where you are. So he's still working, then?"

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. Nathalie is doing her best to get him to take a step back, though. She thinks that he would be a lot less stressed if she was just designing and not doing absolutely everything involved in actually running the company."

"But he's not listening?"

"He's not listening," Adrien confirmed with a sigh. "Even though his doctor agrees. Being head of the company just keeps him stressed all the time." The stress was going to land his father in an early grave, Adrien was sure of it. At the rate Gabriel was going, Adrien was starting to worry that his father wouldn't still be around to tell when they got pregnant with their second child.

Even if his father had never been that engaged with him- and had been a distant, controlling parent ever since Adrien's mom vanished- Adrien still couldn't imagine not having his father around. It was a foreign concept, and not exactly a welcome one.

"And he's older than us, too." Tom was frowning. "By nearly a decade, right? Even so, he shouldn't be having that many health issues. My mother certainly isn't, and she's older than him."

"And he wouldn't, without all of the stress." Adrien wondered how much of a difference it would make if his mom were still around. She might have been able to get through to his father better than he or Nathalie could, and she and his father could have split the workload of running the company. But she was gone- none of the leads that they had had ever panned out- and what-ifs wouldn't help now. "And if he weren't just ignoring everything, thinking that stuff will go away."

Tom and Sabine both winced at that.

"At this point, I think it's going to take a major health scare to get through to him," Adrien admitted. "Which certainly isn't ideal."

"Not at all," Sabine agreed. "And I'm happy to report that both Tom and I go in for check-ups and screenings every year and we haven't had any problems. And if we did, we would certainly take the doctor's advice about how to fix it."

"And thank goodness for that."

Tom and Sabine insisted on doing the washing-up, and then they helped finish unpacking and setting up the kitchen under Adrien's supervision while Marinette decorated Emma's room. By the time they left, everyone was yawning and Emma was nodding off in Tom's arms.

"Off to bed for us, I think," Tom said cheerfully as he and Sabine gathered up their things, handing Emma back to Adrien. "Let us know if we can be any help this week. We have enough staff now that we don't have to work such long hours and can easily spend the evenings over here. Or if you ever need someone to take care of Emma for a couple of hours..."

"We know, you tell us every week," Marinette said with a laugh. "We'll keep it in mind, just like always. And I'll send you a video if Emma starts walking on her own. She's getting so close."

"They grow up so fast," Sabine bemoaned briefly, but she was smiling. "Good-night, you three. Stop by any time."

"Good night!"

The door closed, and both Adrien and Marinette almost immediately made a beeline for the couch, flopping down on it and letting out identical long breaths.

"So, we've moved," Adrien told the ceiling. "I don't think I can handle another move for at least a couple more years."

Marinette nodded fervently. "Yeah. Not until we're ready for Kid Three and need the extra space." She sighed, then glanced around. "I think we'll be happy here, though, once we settle in. There's plenty of space for Emma, and for us, and for expanding our family again once we're ready for that."

"Two adults, two kwamis, two cats, one toddler..." Adrien laughed. "We're a bit of an odd bunch here, really."

"Well, it might be a little weird, but it's our weird," Marinette said fondly, leaning over to kiss Adrien. He returned it happily, smiling into the kiss. "And I wouldn't change it for the world."

Fin.

A/N: Yes, before anyone asks- the decision to not specify exactly how old Emma is is entirely because I have zero reference points for what one-year olds are like and Google only gets me so far so Imma be vague instead and avoid the problem.

This is the end of HTAAP and the end of HTFAM-verse (for real this time)! I hope you enjoyed this little extra story with the hopeless dorks :D In case anyone hasn't already noticed, I have 100+ other MLB stories for people to explore and more coming all the time (and another long-ish story coming soon that I'm really excited about!).

And as always- reviews make my day! :)