a/n: After two (it's only been two, right?) cross-country skiing one-shots, I've decided to branch out and do a downhill ski one-shot, in honor of my season working in a downhill ski area coming to an end. Since I've never downhill skied before myself (I value my life, thank-you-very-much) and our hill was tiny (seriously, the rise is like a tenth of the height of the smallest ski areas in Colorado, and closer to a twentieth of the larger ones out there, and I'm pretty sure our maximum rise was referring to the slope with a jump on it that nearly doubled the height of the hill and not all of our main runs), I'm relying 100% on what my coworkers were telling me about the bigger ski areas and also what we overheard from school groups when they came back in, so if there's anything wildly inaccurate, that is why.

Everyone had been looking forward to this day for ages. Getting out of the classroom, getting out of Paris, and being outdoors for a day. It had been talked up for weeks, people checking with each other- can you come? Can you come? How about you?- to make sure that their friends would be there, too. They had talked about nothing else for the days leading up to it, and now it was here.

The school field trip to a downhill ski area. They had taken a train out of Paris early- too early for Marinette's liking, and she had napped for most of their time on it- and now a bus was shuttling them from the train station the rest of the way to their destination.

Despite the fact that most of the group had either never been skiing before or hadn't really skied much, the excitement levels were high. Kim and Alix boasted about what runs they wanted to do, each talking up larger and harder slopes until Ms. Bustier put her foot down and informed them in no uncertain terms that some of the slopes would be off-limits to them, since the teachers weren't comfortable with how potentially dangerous they could be and there was no way of knowing if their parents would be okay with it..

"We are not going to have any broken arms today," she told them sternly. "So if you want to go off on your own and do anything bigger than the bunny hill, we'll have an instructor go with you for a run or two to make sure that you can handle it."

"They could have asked our parents, too," Alya pointed out as Kim and Alix settled back down with nearly identical pouts on their faces. "I've been downhill skiing loads of times. I'm not going to do anything crazy, of course, but I can definitely move off of the bunny hill."

"Yeah, I'm mostly going to be on the blue slopes, and maybe some of the easiest red slopes," Nino agreed, and both Adrien and Marinette frowned.

"Red slopes? Blue slopes? What does that mean?"

"Intermediate and beginner slopes," Alya explained. "It's the classification system, so that people know what hills they'll be able to do safely before they get to the top of the hill. I'd be surprised if all of the red hills are open to us, actually. There's a couple that are easier and then a few that are more difficult even within the red classification, so people can choose what they want."

Marinette nodded nervously. She hadn't ever been downhill skiing before, so everything was so new. "Why don't they make smaller classification types, then? Wouldn't it make sense to mark hills as specifically as possible so that people don't get hurt?"

"That's what all of the waivers are for," Nino joked, waving the forms that they had been given to fill out at home. "We sign our lives away before we even get out there."

"Not helping."

"They usually have write-ups of the slopes in the brochure," Alya told Marinette, sounding tired. "Nora had a copy from when she went last year with some of her friends, so I've been looking at them and deciding which ones I want to try. I'll start on the easier slopes, I think, and work my way up."

Marinette nodded. She would be starting on the bunny hill, and in all honesty would probably be staying there. Even though her coordination had improved since becoming Ladybug, putting heavy boots and skis on her feet would probably throw all of that out the window. She probably wouldn't see Alya all day, which was disappointing. But she didn't want to hold Alya back, either, and being on the bunny hill when she was used to intermediate slopes wouldn't be fun at all.

"I wouldn't even touch red slopes in some places," Nino was saying when Marinette tuned back in. "The really big areas that are way out? Nope, not a chance. I like my neck too much. But this is a smaller area, so the slopes aren't as long or as steep as some places."

"There was one place I went to once- because my mom was catering for a party there, we got free passes- where I only dared touch, like, half of the green slopes," Alya agreed. "And then there were people whipping down the black slopes, and I was just like, are you nuts? You could die! And there were always accidents. Several injuries per day wasn't uncommon- but not necessarily bad injuries!" Alya added hastily, seeing the looks on Adrien and Marinette's faces. "Like, sprains and concussions. I mean, there were some broken bones, but-"

"Alya, just stop talking," Nino cut her off with a laugh. "The injuries were on the more difficult hills. The most you'll get on the bunny hill is a couple bruises, probably."

"I'm not liking these qualifiers," Adrien told Marinette. "And there seem to be a lot of them."

"It'll be fine, I promise!"

"So Alya, if you ski so much, why don't you have your own equipment?" Marinette wanted to know, changing the topic before Alya and Nino could devolve into debating all the possible injuries that one might be able to get on the bunny hill. "Nino does."

"I outgrew mine last year," Alya admitted grumpily. "And I'm not tall enough for Nora's old skis yet. So I'm renting this year and probably next year, too, unless my dad has an afternoon off and we can make it to a used equipment store or something."

"Downhill stuff isn't cheap," Nino added. "My family always buys used. Used, or deeply, deeply discounted, when the stores have old stock sales."

"I did bring my own helmet, though, since I don't really want to use the ones in the rental shop," Alya told them. "And my goggles. I didn't outgrow those."

Marinette's anxiety mounted as the bus continued down the highway, even as their conversation moved onto other topics. She could already see herself tripping and falling and somehow breaking an arm or a leg or something- or worse, breaking someone else's bones. Maybe she would accidentally stab someone with a pole while falling. Maybe…

Oh, gosh, what if she hurt Adrien? She'd never be able to face him again.

"They won't give beginners poles." Nino's voice cut Marinette's thoughts short. He was talking to Adrien, who looked about as concerned as Marinette felt. "It's just one more thing to trip over and worry about. You don't need 'em, really. Not for the basic runs."

"Oh, thank god."

The bus slowed and turned onto a smaller road, and the excited chatter in the bus turned up another degree. They wound through a tall forest of pine trees, branches brushing over the top of the bus.

"Oh, great," Adrien muttered. "If there are trees like this on the hill, we're going to end up running into them, aren't we?"

Nino whacked his shoulder. "Stop worrying so much."

"Sorry, that's impossible."

"Oh my god, you're such a downer, dude."

The bus continued through the trees for a bit, winding upwards. Slowly, the trees thinned out and bright white snow replaced their view, extending out in all directions as far as the eye could see. Automatically, Marinette peered out the window at the gleaming slopes outside. Immediately, though, she wished that she hadn't.

"That's small?" she demanded in a squeak, eyes bugging out of her head as she whipped around to face Alya. Behind her, she could hear Adrien expressing a similar sentiment to Nino. "And we'll be going down those? Alya-"

"Oh, relax," her (absolutely insane) friend told her, grinning. "It'll be fun!"

Adrien's nerves weren't going away as they were shepherded into the building and through the rental area. The hills were huge, super tall and long and steep. Almost no one else seemed surprised by that, which meant that they had probably gone downhill skiing at least once before or at least was more familiar with the concept than he was.

Well, almost no one except for Marinette. She seemed as intimidated as he did, which was honestly a relief. They could stick together and be terrified as a team.

The workers behind the rental counter worked together almost seamlessly, shuttling their class through the area incredibly quickly, considering that the entire lycée was going through at once and it looked like absolute pandemonium to him. Then they were bundled up and shuffled outside to meet their instructors.

Adrien did not see any hills that didn't look absolutely terrifying. They were all tall, all steep, and worst of all-

"Why isn't there any room to stop at the bottom?!"

-there were really only maybe a dozen meters between the bottom of the closest several slopes and the mesh fence right in front of the chalet. Marinette was staring at that space with a look of horror on her face, clutching at Alya's arm as though her friend could change that somehow.

"You start slowing down before you hit that bit," Alya told them. "Slow and then turn so that you run along the bottom instead of straight into the building."

"How?"

Adrien wanted to know that, too.

"They'll teach you," Nino reassured them. "You won't just hop on the hill without any idea of what to do. They'll tell you how to slow down and stop first."

"But we're just supposed to go up without any practice?" Adrien demanded, voice coming out embarrassingly high. "There's no short slope to practice on first?"

Nino gave him a disbelieving look. "Dude, that is the short slope."

Adrien made a noise that he wasn't sure was entirely human.

"Can the more experienced skiers come this way, please!" one of the instructors called. "We're just going to do a quick run or two down the hill before we turn you guys loose."

"Right, see you guys later," Nino told them with a grin. "Don't die on us!"

Alya slapped his shoulder. "Nino, don't joke about that!"

"I was just trying to be funny, I swear!"

And then Adrien and Marinette were left on their own. Adrien suddenly wondered if it would be suspicious if he vanished and Chat Noir appeared to ski in his place. He would feel a lot safer in a indestructible super suit, but somehow he suspected that his classmates weren't that oblivious.

They watched as their more experienced classmates hopped onto the lift, slowly ascending the slope before vanishing at the top. There were a few minutes of nothing, and then they started appearing, zipping down the hill like it was nothing.

As though there wasn't an entire freaking building at the bottom, solid and imposing and unmoving.

Someone was doing fancy zigzags, curving from side to side as they went down. They all started slowing down as they approached the base of the hill, though Adrien couldn't tell how.

Whose bright idea was it to strap bits of plastic and metal to their feet and go plummeting down a hill? Seriously, how did anyone find that fun?

The group piled back onto the lift and headed back up. Adrien would have kept watching, but the instructors had started dividing the rest of the students up into groups and he wanted to be sure that he stayed with Marinette. They could fall down the hill together.

And then their lesson started. Adrien listened as closely as he could, trying to soak up all of the information before they got sent down the slopes. He was hoping that Nino was joking, that the actual bunny hill was hidden away somewhere, but no such luck.

At least it wasn't one of the hills with the chalet immediately at the bottom. If they didn't stop or turn right away, at least they wouldn't go straight into the side of the building, just the mesh fence and all of the ski racks at the side of the building.

(Well. Unless they turned in the wrong direction, they wouldn't go into the side of the building. If they did, they would be in for a world of pain.)

"I'm honestly surprised that we're still doing field trips like this," Marinette said quietly as they were shuffled towards the lift. "What with Hawkmoth's akumas interrupting class so often…"

Adrien nodded. It was a struggle for the teachers to stay caught up on the curriculum when classes were interrupted, and although not all attacks caused interruptions (for the majority of the school, at least), the ones that did added up over time. He had only dared to leave the city because Hawkmoth and his kwami had been injured in the last attack, two weeks prior, and their magic hadn't recovered enough yet for him to be able to akumatize anyone. "Maybe they knew that people would complain if they canceled. I bet a lot of people were looking forward to it."

"Crazy people."

Adrien could only laugh and agree.

They were up next for the lift, and Adrien's knuckles turned white under his gloves as he sat down and gripped the bars. His feet felt awkward and heavy- a huge change from when he was fencing, or playing basketball, or being Chat Noir- and his skis clunked together and criss-crossed as they lifted up into the air. Marinette didn't look like she was faring much better.

They climbed up, and up, and up. The top of the hill grew closer, and Adrien gulped as he glanced back down the slope.

Could he just stay on the lift and go back down? He had changed his mind, he didn't want to do this.

Their instructor left them no choice. She met them at the top, ushering them off and into a haphazard line.

"We'll go two at a time, to make sure that we aren't tripping over each other," she told them. "Ready?"

"Nope," Adrien muttered under his breath, and next to him, Marinette let out a nervous giggle.

In pairs, starting with the people who had skied a couple times before, the group started down the hill. They wobbled, swerving unevenly back and forth as they made their way down the hill.

It didn't look any smaller from the top. Adrien gulped, watching the line get shorter and shorter as he and Marinette got closer to the front.

And then the first of the first-timers went, sliding haltingly down the hill.. They let out a screech as they fell, only a dozen meters or so from the top of the hill.

That was embarrassing. Adrien hoped that he wouldn't do that. He had a reputation as athletic and coordinated that he wanted to uphold, so hopefully he wouldn't be wiping out. Not right away, at least.

If he got to the bottom of the hill and wiped out, that would probably be understandable. Bottom or two-thirds of the way, at least. Of course, if he fell then, he would probably be going faster than he really wanted. Going faster and coming to a sudden stop would probably mean a higher chance of breaking bones or otherwise injuring something, right?

...maybe he could swallow his pride and be fine with falling earlier. He probably wouldn't have a lot of choice in the matter, after all. And the only people who might actually judge him- Kim and Alix, mostly, plus a couple people from his fencing team- were already scattered across the mountain, far out of sight.

And Marinette wouldn't tell anyone. She would probably be falling right next to him on their way down the hill.

"Okay, you two next," their instructor told them. "Snowplow the entire way down, so that you don't pick up speed, and then get out of the way once you reach the bottom."

Adrien gulped and glanced down the hill. Nope, it hadn't shrunk at all since the last time he had looked. Not even a little bit. Still, Marinette was inching her way forward, so he couldn't stall any longer.

His skis inched over the edge, and then he was moving downward in starts and stops, wavering uncertainly. Marinette had started making a noise that was not unsimilar to a teakettle as she moved down the hill, just a bit faster than Adrien was going.

He managed a smile at that. Even when flustered, Marinette was cute.

"Wait, how do I turn at the bottom again?" Marinette yelled as they reached the halfway point. "I've forgotten!"

"You do something else with your skis, I think!" Adrien hollered back from nearly a dozen meters behind her. "At least I hope that that's what it is, because that's what I was planning on doing!"

Marinette turned her head partway, clearly about to give him a dubious look, but then she wobbled alarmingly and whipped back to face the front, arms extended to try to keep her balance. Adrien winced, fully expecting her to fall, but she didn't. Surprisingly enough, Marinette made it to the bottom of the hill upright and wobbled across the flat part at the base of the hill, finally inching to a halt right before the plastic mesh fence.

Adrien was still a third of the way up the hill, inching his way down at a much slower pace.

"Are you scared of going faster?" Plagg asked, popping his head out of Adrien's jacket. "This is so slow!"

"I picked this speed and I'm sticking to it," Adrien insisted. He tried adjusting his skis and squawked when he jolted forward. "It's a perfectly good speed."

"Your friend is already at the bottom of the hill," Plagg pointed out helpfully.

"Yeah, she must have been doing something different." Adrien wobbled as he hit a bump in the snow, windmilling his arms to stay up. "I'll get there. Eventually."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

"I don't exactly have a supersuit on right now," Adrien pointed out tensely. "If I fall or run into anything, I could actually get hurt. And if I get hurt, then I can't fight akumas as well as usual."

Plagg groaned loudly. "Oh my god, I can tell already why you don't have any downhill skiing experience, you're such a worrywart. I'm surprised that your parents didn't have you learn."

"Neither of them liked it, so why would they teach me?" Adrien let out a yelp as his ski hit a bump and made him wobble. "And I can see why they wouldn't like it, too!"

Plagg snorted and retreated back into Adrien's jacket as they finally got to the bottom of the hill. Adrien wobbled to a stop, then shuffled his way over towards Marinette.

"I thought that I wouldn't be able to stop," Marinette told him with a laugh. "I nearly hit the fence!"

"At least it wouldn't have been a hard hit," Adrien pointed out. "And you were going faster than I was. I was going at the approximate speed of a particularly tired snail."

Marinette giggled, and they moved over to join the rest of the group. "I wanted to go slower, but I didn't dare adjust my skis at all. By the time I was halfway down, I was fine with it. Mostly."

Adrien grinned at that.

It wasn't long before their instructor joined them. She waved them into a tight group, then smiled at them. "Okay! That was a nice first run. Now we're going to divide up a bit- people who didn't fall on the run will try doing a loose zigzag. Maddie will demonstrate- you want to go from one side of the run to the other and back, very shallow zigzags so that you don't go too fast. People who fell will do another snowplow run."

"Oh god," Adrien muttered as the assistant instructor started divvying them up. "Zigzags? That sounds like it requires adjusting the skis mid-hill."

He wasn't looking forward to that. There would no doubt be several seconds of the skis facing directly downhill while they made the turn itself, and if they weren't turned in time he could find himself zipping straight down the hill.

"I promise not to laugh if you fall," Marinette offered helpfully. "As long as you don't laugh when I fall."

"And I'll even promise to do my best to not fall on you if you fall," Adrien said with a laugh. "I'm not sure how much my best counts for, though."

They rode up the lift again, waiting anxiously in line for their turn. Their assistant instructor went first, making smooth turns before heading easily across the snow again. The first pair went, and Adrien was surprised when there was no falling.

Then he remembered that oh, right, some of the others have skied before. They just hadn't skied much, which was why they were in lessons with the rest of the beginners. They would be more confident than he and Marinette were on their skis, just not confident enough to head off without a review first.

"I can't wait for lunch," Marinette commented as they inched forward in line. "Getting off this hill and having a break? Eating food? That I can handle."

"I think we have to have mastered the basics before we can go in," Adrien said glumly, because now that she mentioned it he was remembering the food choices on the menu that he had looked up, and some of the offerings sounded really good. "And maybe it's a good thing. If they can make this at all enjoyable before we go in, maybe I'll go back out after eating instead of staying in and playing games on my phone."

Marinette made a face. Clearly she was in favor of just staying in. Adrien was leaning that way too, to be honest, but he had only done one run so far. Maybe it would get better.

Of course, maybe he would end up falling down on his face like the person who had just started their run down the hill. That didn't look comfortable.

And then it was time for him and Marinette to go.

Adrien gulped as their instructor angled him and then gave him a gentle push off the top of the hill. He started across the hill, at a shallow enough angle that he wasn't picking up too much speed, right at the trees that bordered the run.

He wasn't a fan of that bit. Couldn't the run be bordered by cushions or something? Maybe some pillows?

Behind him, Marinette's teakettle noise had started up again. Adrien chanced a glance behind him, spotting Marinette as she caught up to him.

Apparently she was going faster than him again.

Marinette took the turn before he did, letting out a tiny cheer as she successfully got herself turned around. Adrien tried to follow, and instead found himself angled a little too far down.

Oh, no. He didn't like this. Not one bit. Not at all. He wanted off, now.

"Adrien!"

"Shoot shoot shoot, what do I do?" Adrien yelped, wobbling as he picked up more speed. "Plagg-"

"Turn, kid! Turn or fall!" Plagg had stuck his head out again and was watching nervously as the opposite side of the slope approached quickly. "Or do that snowplow thing that you were doing earlier!"

Adrien tried. He pushed his heels out and his toes in, trying to put on the brakes. Instead, his skis got tangled up and he pitched forward into the snow. There was a loud click from the vague direction of his feet, and he had enough presence of mind to hope that it was his boot or the ski instead of his bones or something else important before he hit the ground face-first.

Nothing seemed to hurt, at least. Well, except for the sting of the snow against his face.

"Adrien, are you okay?" Marinette's worried voice cut through Adrien's mental groan (he couldn't have at least had a slightly dignified tumble? It had to be a complete and utter failure of a fall?) "Adrien- oh! Your ski!"

Adrien extracted his face from the snow in time to see one of his rented skis head down the rest of the hill without him. He stared after it for a few seconds- that explained the click, at least- then heaved a sigh and planted his face right back in the snow.

There was a distinct snicker from his jacket. Apparently Plagg was amused by the situation. That made exactly one of them.

"Adrien, can you get up?" Marinette pressed, and Adrien resigned himself to getting up. There was no point in needlessly worrying his friend just because he was embarrassed. "Adrien?"

"'M fine," Adrien assured her, pushing himself to his knees. To his surprise, Marinette was only a meter away and had somehow managed to grind to a near-halt without falling herself. He blinked at her, and after a moment realized that she had probably been headed straight for where his head had been before she had stopped herself.

Well. That was fortunate that she seemed to be doing better than he was at downhill skiing, at least.

Marinette's whole body drooped with relief. "Oh, good! I was worried! That looked like a nasty fall," she added. "And your legs kind of went at funny angles, too, so…"

"Everything feels all right," Adrien told her hastily. Then, just to lighten the mood, he added, "Well, except for my pride. But it'll recover."

Marinette was still watching him like a hawk. "Are you sure?"

"I promise." Adrien glanced down the hill, where his ski had settled against the side of the building. "I'm not sure how I'm meant to get down now, though. If downhill skiing sounded hard, downhill skiing with only one ski sounds even harder."

Marinette craned her neck and wobbled dangerously. Adrien winced, fully expecting her to topple over on him. Miraculously, though, she stayed up. "I think I see one of the instructors getting it. They'll probably bring it back to you."

Adrien briefly wondered if he could just bury his face in the snow again. No other student had needed a teacher to come down and help them mid-hill, so it was embarrassing that he did.

It didn't take long at all for the instructor with Adrien's ski to get up the hill and then back down to him, expertly sliding to a stop next to him.

"Marinette, please proceed down the hill," she told Marinette, who had managed to stay relatively close to Adrien. She hadn't been able to completely stop moving, so she had made a sharp turn and was now creeping past on Adrien's downhill side. "We'll meet you down there."

With one last look at Adrien, Marinette adjusted her skis and started moving down the hill again, slow but steady.

She was definitely getting the hang of this faster than Adrien was. He would have been jealous, but honestly he was proud of her. She was dealing with her nerves a whole lot better than he was.

"All right, Adrien," the instructor said, turning to him and holding out his ski. "Let's get this on and finish the hill, all right?"

Marinette got to the bottom of the hill and turned one last time to glide along the flat area, a grin on her face as she managed it. She had wobbled pretty badly on several- well, most- of her turns, but for once her clumsy tendencies had worked in her favor. She had plenty of practice in catching herself before she properly fell, and there had only been one time when she floundered enough to have to push off the snow to stay up.

It was really a miracle that she hadn't overbalanced and fallen the other way. A miracle, or just really, really good luck.

"Good job!" Tikki told her proudly. "I told you that you could do it!"

"I just had to do the same thing I did when I was learning how to use my yo-yo, just like you told me to," Marinette told her kwami. "The fear is there, but I have to not let it overtake me and stop me from learning and trusting my gut. And then I was worried about Adrien, too, so I had to act on instinct- and it worked!" She was a little giddy, to be honest. The entire way down, she had been convinced that she was going to mess up and end up zipping into a tree, but she hadn't. When she had tried to turn, she had actually turned, just like she wanted to.

Marinette wasn't going to be going any faster anytime soon- the lazy curves that she had been doing were the perfect speed- but she had done it.

"I hope Adrien is all right," Marinette added, glancing back up the hill towards where Adrien and the extra instructor were making their way down the hill. She seemed to be making sure that he wasn't going any faster than he wanted to be. "That was a really nasty fall. I didn't even see what happened."

"I think he tried to snowplow and angled his skis too much," Tikki told her. "And then they criss-crossed and he came to a faster stop than he expected."

Marinette winced.

Adrien's face was pink when he finally got to the bottom and shuffled over to join her in line for the lift. He looked distinctly disgruntled.

"You have snow in your jacket," Marinette commented, automatically reaching up to try to brush some of it off. "That doesn't look comfortable."

Adrien winced as he reached up as well, digging his fingers down the back of his jacket and pulling out several chunks of snow. "Yeah. That's what I get for being an idiot and falling."

"You're not an idiot," Marinette said immediately. "You're just learning."

"You're learning faster than I am," Adrien said, sounding discouraged. "I mean, the rest of the run went all right, I guess, but the instructor was pretty much tugging me into place every time. I keep not being able to do turns as tightly as I want to."

"I was nearly falling every time I did the turns," Marinette pointed out. "Except for that one time when I was barely moving at all. It's not like I was zipping down effortlessly."

"I'd rather nearly fall but make the turn right than end up not making enough of a turn and send myself zipping straight into the trees." They moved into position and sat down on the lift seat before starting their ascent again. "I wish we had a shorter slope to practice on. Shorter, and less steep."

Marinette nodded. That would be nice.

During the next run, she finally fell on a turn. It wasn't a hard fall, though, and most of the other turns seemed less wobbly, so she was going to count that as improvement. Maybe this would be fun after all.

Adrien seemed less convinced. He had nearly fallen once, but had also been snowplowing all the way down, except when he was turning. It was a surprise, really, since he was fabulous at every other sport ever, it seemed, but Marinette supposed that Adrien couldn't be good at everything. Besides, maybe he had had a steep learning curve for all of his sports but it had just been so long ago that he didn't remember it. She had heard that once somewhere, that little kids were less worried about getting hurt (or maybe they just couldn't know how badly they could potentially get hurt) so they didn't hold themselves back as much as teens and adults. Maybe that was what was going on with Adrien, too.

"Is it lunch yet?" Adrien asked as they headed up again. "It has to be soon, right?"

Marinette tried not to giggle at his exaggerated pout. "You just want to be done, don't you?"

"I mean- yeah, kind of," Adrien admitted. "It's frustrating that I'm so good at other sports and yet I'm at a complete loss here."

Marinette glanced over at him, curious. "Didn't you start out not so good at your other sports, too? I mean, you didn't just get thrown into fencing and immediately start winning trophies, right?"

Adrien laughed at that. "No, definitely not. But those sports are fairly safe, you know? If I ever felt uncomfortable when I was doing them, I could just stop. And none of my normal sports ever threw me onto a slippery hill with two bits of fiberglass strapped to my feet. It's that bit I don't like." He shrugged, wriggling his feet a bit and watching little bits of snow tumble off of his skis and fall to the ground below. "But there's also a part of me that wants to get at least one good run in, you know? Like, I have to improve enough for that, to make up for the mess earlier."

...well, if Adrien's pride was going to bring him out again after lunch, Marinette wasn't going to complain. She was intrigued now, just a little bit- and she wasn't going to lie and say that she wasn't also interested in making a nice, smooth run down the hill, free (or at least largely free) of wobbles and falls.

It turned out that the ski instructor had other ideas.

"Marinette, do you want to try going a little bit faster this time?" she asked, smiling at her. "Just a little bit! You can always snowplow if you decide that you want to slow down partway down the hill."

Marinette was sure that her whole expression dropped. Faster? Well, sure, she could try it, but wouldn't faster mean that she would be more likely to fall?

"And you can snowplow going into the turns," the instructor added, as though she was reading Marinette's mind. "So that you stay upright on them."

"You can do it!" Adrien encouraged her, beaming, and, well, there was no way she was going to say no after that.

"I bet you'll do great!" Tikki whispered as Marinette and Adrien joined the line. It was shorter than before, she noticed, and it didn't take long to realize that people were both going down faster and they weren't waiting for the full group to reconvene before having people go down again.

It gave her less time to really worry over the concept of going faster, which was probably a good thing. Hopefully it would be like when akuma fights had forced her to put aside her worries and focus on the moment instead of all the possible ways that she could mess up.

At least then she had had a magic super-suit to keep her from getting injured when the learning curve was a little too steep and she ended up falling or ramming into the side of a building.

When she and Adrien went up, Marinette started first. She did her best to avoid seizing up as her skis went a little bit faster than she had gone before.

"That's it, stay relaxed and move with the skis," Tikki coached. "You're doing well!"

"I'm repressing the urge to panic," Marinette ground out through gritted teeth.

"That's great! Keep repressing!"

For some reason, that made Marinette giggle. "And here I was thinking that repressing emotions was a bad thing!"

"Repressing is good- wait, no, that's not what I meant!" Tikki giggled as well. Then she gasped. "Oh! It's almost time to turn!"

Gradually, Marinette angled her skis in, slowing herself down until she was comfortable turning. It took a few seconds after the turn to readjust so that she would go just that little bit faster, and then she was off again.

It actually….wasn't that bad. She had slowed to a crawl, and had only really needed to work a little to keep her balance.

Huh.

She crossed the ski slope again, and this time when she turned she was confident enough to go a little faster, even. She had to give herself more time to slow down before the following turn, but it wasn't bad at all.

Cross the slope. Turn. Cross. Turn. Cross. Final turn-

"Why don't you go a little faster for the bottom one?" Tikki suggested. "It'll be fun!"

Marinette made a face. It was tempting, but… "We'll see."

She slowed down to a crawl, then re-angled herself, at a tiny bit steeper of an angle. To her surprise, it didn't feel bad at all.

Maybe she was getting the hang of this after all-

"Hey! Coming through!"

Marinette yelped and veered as someone went flashing by. The sudden movement threw her off, and then she was going much faster than anticipated down the remainder of the hill. She struggled to get back under control, but then she was at the bottom of the hill and skidding towards the chalet. Marinette angled her skis the best she could, altering her course enough that she wasn't headed directly at the building. There wasn't enough time to snowplow first before her turn, so she took it too fast and too sharply.

It really wasn't a surprise when she went tumbling into the mesh fence moments later. Marinette sighed at the sensation of finding herself on the ground (not that it was a new feeling, really), pushed herself back up, got herself untangled, and moved out of the way so that Adrien wouldn't hit her once he reached the bottom of the hill.

Adrien, who no longer had his ski instructor chaperone helping him. Marinette frowned, glancing around, and almost immediately spotted the instructor headed right for the man who had nearly hit her, a scowl on her face as she chased him down.

It took another minute for Adrien to get down. He seemed much steadier this time, and there was a small smile on his face as he drifted to a stop near her.

"That wasn't bad," he told her with a grin. "But that guy nearly took us out, didn't he? He knocked me over, too. What an ass."

"It looks like he's getting chewed out now," Marinette commented. "Hopefully he'll move to the other hills. Clearly he's good enough to do it."

They watched the man argue with the ski instructor for another minute before he suddenly conceded and stomped off, red-faced. The instructor glanced around, spotted them, and headed right over.

"We'll not have to deal with him again," she told them. "He had no business being on the bunny hill."

"What was he doing there in the first place?" Marinette wanted to know.

The instructor laughed. "He's from the US and didn't think that that was the bunny hill. He was raging on about how they shouldn't let beginners down the intermediate slopes, and I had to inform him that it was our bunny slope. I pointed him towards our intermediate slopes, though, and I think he maybe isn't quite so keen on them."

They both laughed.

"I'm guessing that he's from somewhere flat, where their expert slopes are our more basic intermediates," she added with a giggle. "And he probably didn't bother to look up the rise on our slopes before coming."

"So wait, what would their bunny hills look like?" Adrien wanted to know. "Not like this, apparently?"

"Very short and very flat." The instructor glanced at her watch. "On a more cheerful note, I think it's time for the lunch break! You can re-join us after lunch or ski on your own," she added. "I think you two might be interested in that slope over there. It's longer, but there are large portions that are a gentler slope than the bunny hill."

Marinette and Adrien gave the hill in question a slightly dubious look. It was taller than the bunny hill for sure, and longer, but at least it didn't have the chalet or a fence directly at the bottom. There was plenty of room to slow down.

"You can do it, I'm sure," she assured them. "And you don't have to decide right away. Think about it over lunch."

She headed off, and Adrien and Marinette shuffled towards the building. It took a bit of wrestling before they got their skis off- it was not straightforward- and then they headed in. The cafeteria area was already busy, and so the two of them dug out their money and headed over to get in line. Some of their group was already getting food, but most of the people around were adults, people who were serious skiers taking the day off to tackle the harder slopes. Still, it didn't take too long for them to get their food, and the two of them wound through the main part of the chalet to grab a table by the windows that were facing the mountains.

"I can't believe the instructor thought that I should be going anywhere near a hill that's not the bunny hill," Adrien commented as he dug in. "You, sure, since you seem to have gotten the hang of things, but she was still pulling me back on track."

"But the other hill isn't quite as steep," Marinette pointed out. Now that the instructor had suggested it, it stood like a challenge. She wanted to try it. She probably wouldn't have felt the need to do it before she became Ladybug, but now? "So you wouldn't be going as fast, right?"

Adrien glanced over at her and suddenly his expression turned thoughtful. Maybe he saw the pleading and hope in her expression- she didn't want to go down by herself, that would be no fun, and so far they seemed to have some sort of unspoken pact to stick together for the day- and was thinking about it. After a few seconds of thought, he spoke up again. "Maybe we could do the bunny hill a couple more times first? I'd- I'd be willing to try it after getting a little more practice with my turns."

"Sure!" Marinette wouldn't mind more practice, either. She needed that one good run without wobbles and falls. But more than anything, Marinette was glad that Adrien was willing to join her, despite his misgivings. It was really nice of her, and there was a tiny part of Marinette that wondered if he was going along with her because they were friends, or if maybe, maybe it was an indicator of his interest extending a bit more…?

"Oh, there's still a few people from our lesson out there," Adrien commented, pulling Marinette out of her thoughts. "I guess they wanted to try the bunny hill a few more times?"

"Maybe they just sent us in earlier because of that man who almost hit us," Marinette suggested, watching as two people slowly criss-crossed the hill. "I mean, I was a bit shaken after nearly getting hit. It was nice to get a bit of a break after that."

"Yeah- oh, look at that guy!" Adrien exclaimed, pointing, and Marinette looked. One of the other students was flailing a bit, and suddenly their skis were pointed down the hill. "Oh no! Look at them go!"

"They're not going to be able to stop!" Marinette gasped, leaning forward to watch. "At least they were most of the way down the hill when that happened, but oh! They're not snowplowing at all! And- oh, no, turn the other way!"

"Panic makes people forget all of their lessons," Adrien pointed out. He was leaning forward, too, a frown on his face as the skier slid across the flat. They hit the mesh net and went down in a heap, tangled with the plastic netting. They slid a little further before hitting the building with a low thud.

The instructors were on them in an instant, trying to untangle net and skier and then get the netting back up before anyone else came in danger of hitting the building. Somehow the skier was unharmed, and he was soon scooting off across the snow.

That did not make her want to get back out there on the hill.

"At least he didn't have poles," Adrien commented. "If he did…"

Marinette winced. Sharp, pointy objects and flailing combined? That would have been bad.

They settled into a comfortable silence as they ate lunch together, and Marinette thanked her lucky stars that she had gotten better about keeping her composure around Adrien. She only really stuttered and flailed around him now if she was trying to ask him out or if he startled her (and who knew that Adrien could be so sneaky?) but the rest of the time, they could hang out normally. The two of them had even exasperated Nino and Alya on occasion with their pun-offs, and giggling with Adrien was fun.

If she had still been getting all flustered around Adrien like she had the previous year, this trip wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. She would have been too busy tripping over both her words and her feet to be able to enjoy herself.

"Ready to head back out?" Adrien asked as they finished up their food. He scraped one last bite off of his plate and popped it into his mouth. "I'm done."

"Sure!"

The rest of the afternoon positively flew by. Adrien and Marinette hadn't returned to skiing right after lunch, instead opting to wander around and explore the area for a bit. They had watched snowboarders and skiers alike pull off crazy tricks on the terrain park hill, only leaving after seeing a particularly nasty tumble. Then they stumbled upon the trailhead for a few cross-country ski trails, which had Marinette grumbling that they hadn't been told about that.

"I mean, I've only done cross-country once and it was years and years ago," Marinette told Adrien as they headed back across the flat area. "But it was fun! And the hills were a lot smaller, too."

They stopped at the bunny hill next. Three runs later, Adrien was more confident with his turns and Marinette was celebrating a run that had been practically perfect.

And then Ms. Bustier informed them that their group would be leaving in just under an hour, and if they wanted to try any of the other hills, they would have to do it now.

"Wow, time really flew!" Adrien exclaimed as he and Marinette shuffled over to the hill that the instructor had pointed out earlier. "We haven't been here for that long, it seems!"

"Well, part of the day was taken up by getting here," Marinette pointed out. "It took a while. And then we had to get our stuff."

Adrien nodded. That made sense. Still, they had had to get to school early to get going on their field trip, and they weren't even trying to make it back by the normal end of the school day. It would have long since fallen dark by the time they got back to school and could go home.

This time, the lift ride was longer. Adrien's knuckles turned white again when he glanced back and saw how far off the valley floor they were getting.

It wasn't anything like the big slopes, the ones Adrien could see vanishing into the distance- the ones where there could be twenty or thirty people or even more people going down and they would still look pretty empty- but he could tell that they were going farther than before, and also just a little bit higher.

Hopefully the angry man from earlier had moved on to completely different slopes. Adrien didn't exactly want to get yelled at again. Or run down, either.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Adrien asked with a bit of a breathless laugh as they got off the lift and moved across the top of the slope. "Any preferred route down?"

"I was planning on pointing my skis straight downward and seeing how fast I could go," Marinette said, and Adrien's vision practically blurred with how quickly he whipped around to stare at her. His (confusion? Mild panic? Extreme panic?) quickly dissipated, though, when he saw the amused grin that she was (unsuccessfully) trying to hide.

"Ha-ha, you really got me," Adrien deadpanned, trying to not sound as amused as he felt. "Very funny."

Marinette's smile turned smug. "I thought so, too."

Surprisingly, their first run down the hill went better than Adrien had expected. He had fallen, sure- there had been one section that switched from really gentle slope to a slightly steeper slope, and there had been enough of a change that he had toppled- but it really wasn't bad at all. Longer, yes. It took longer to get all the way down and he and Marinette couldn't criss-cross the entire slope or they would get in someone's way, sure. But it hadn't been bad.

They went down twice more before they were called in. Adrien felt a bit bad for the workers in the rental area as an absolute pile of equipment was returned all at once as their school packed up, boots and helmets filling the counters and skis absolutely everywhere, but they didn't seem to be bothered by the complete and utter mayhem.

"Oh, gosh, my feet," Adrien groaned as he finally pried his boots off, feeling blood rush back into his feet. He could walk again! "I didn't even realize they hurt that much."

"I've got pins and needles," Marinette agreed as she hobbled towards the counter to give her boots back. "Ow ow ow."

One hasty gathering-up of their things later, and their group was bundled out the door and onto the bus, sweaty, tired, and a little bruised up. Apparently Alix and Kim had ended up on the Terrain Park later in the day and had tried a few tricks that they had really never learned. They had both wiped out pretty hard, and Alix was nursing a bruised wrist while Kim had gotten a sprained ankle. Needless to say, the teachers were not happy with them.

"So did you two ever move off the bunny hill?" Alya wanted to know as she and Nino piled into the seat in front of Adrien and Marinette. She was flushed and sweaty from skiing and her hair stood up on end as she pulled her hat off. "You must have been out a lot, Nino and I didn't see you at lunch!"

"Well, it was busy," Adrien pointed out. He tugged off his own hat- and wasn't it fabulous that Marinette had managed to find yarn in the exact shade of his favorite scarf and made a hat to match?- and did his best to tame the wild mess that his hair had turned into. "And we weren't in for long! It was nice outside."

"So the slopes weren't quite as scary as you thought, huh?" Nino asked smugly. Adrien just shook his head.

"Oh, they were just as scary." He turned to Marinette with a smile, reaching out to give her hand a friendly squeeze. "But you know what? They're not so bad with a friend to keep me company."

A/N: ...yes, I have actually seen people do those kinds of falls before. We had at least a couple people hitting our safety nets every day, and a couple go right through them and hit the building. Yes, it was slightly concerning to be inside sitting and eating lunch when all of a sudden there was a loud thud against the side of the building. I still don't know how kids managed that.

(also the boot thing was something we heard with every. single. group. I'm still very confused about that because my cross-country boots are super comfortable.)

also #adrinettebeingbros forever. C'mon show, stop being cowards and let us see these dorks being friends. the power of dweebs, always so strong...

And as always- reviews make my day!