The class trip had been someone’s idea of closure — “one normal weekend before senior year.” Normal. After Paris had nearly fallen apart under Monarch’s reign? You weren’t sure anyone remembered what normal felt like.

Still, the ocean helped.

The air was salt and sunscreen, and laughter drifted across the sand. Nino and Alya argued over music; Marinette sat under an umbrella sketching something she swore wasn’t him.

And Adrien —

Adrien stood knee-deep in the surf, jeans rolled up, staring at the horizon like he was waiting for it to answer back.

You walked up beside him, toes sinking into wet sand. “You look like you’re thinking about running away.”

He smiled faintly. “Maybe I am.”

You bumped his shoulder. “You finally get a weekend without the city falling apart, and you want to leave it?”

Adrien laughed — soft, real. “Habit. When things are quiet, I don’t trust it.”

The waves hissed between you. You watched him breathe, slow and deliberate, sunlight glinting his golden hair as he gets more and more lost in his thoughts. All he can think is how his father would’ve never let him come along with this if he was still here. Heh. Old times…