A/N: Thank you so so much for all of the feedback so far! I've read every single review and I'm instantly put in a good mood whenever I read them! I'm glad you guys are enjoying so far! ^^

Without further adieu, enjoy the adrinette fluff!

Before he even knew it, time had flown by and Adrien was packing up his bag for the end of the school day.

Surprisingly to him, when he messaged his father asking if he could spend the evening at Marinette's house, he said yes. Adrien had a feeling that his father, Gabriel Agreste, didn't mind Marinette all that much, since she wanted to be a fashion designer when she grew up and drew inspiration from him. Of course, this time it worked out in Adrien's favour, since his strict parent often didn't let him spend time in his friend's households.

Once gathering up his resources, Adrien approached Marinette at her locker and asked with a smile, "Hey! Ready to go?"

"Y-yeah, totally! I'm r-ready."

The kind girl's stuttering is something Adrien had grown accustomed to over time. She always seemed flustered when she acted clumsy around him, but the blonde boy didn't mind.

In fact, he often found it rather cute.

Nino and Alya left their two close friends to their own accords as Marinette and Adrien exited the school side by side. He found himself feeling very relaxed whenever he spent time with the pig-tailed girl, and this time was no exception. Adrien felt very lucky that he had an empty schedule on this day.

"So, summer's getting pretty close. Got any big plans?" he spoke up, making some pleasant conversation to break the silence they had been walking in.

Marinette tapped a finger lightly to her chin in thought. She replied after a few moments, "One of my c-cousins is having a wedding that my family's been invited to, and my parents had also t-talked of making some new recipes. I want to start designing a dress tonight too, and after that I'll probably continue to make new clothing designs over the summer."

Adrien smiled while he listened to his close friend continue to talk. She seemed to have an easier time chatting and growing more relaxed if he let her just ramble on. It's was almost like she forgot that he was standing there beside her. Before the duo even knew it, they had arrived at the front door of the Dupain-Cheng Family Bakery. Getting lost in your thoughts definitely does that to you, and Adrien chuckled when Marinette was shocked at them arriving so soon.

As they entered the small little shop, a genuine beam spread across Adrien's face as the warmth and comfort of the bakery made him almost immediately feel more at home. His green eyes shone with delight as the aura of fresh pastries and sweet sugary goodness smothered his senses. It was a sort of bliss he felt on very rare occasions, but Marinette's house happened to be one of those places.

It had a very sweet vibe, in more than just the smell.

Her father Tom gave them a quick greeting, "Hey there honey. Oh, and you've brought Mr. Agreste home with you as well! Hello sir!"

"Good afternoon Mr. Dupain."

"Hello papa!"

The young girl went up to her two parents and gave them both a peck on the cheek, while Sabine rubbed the back of her neck and told the two of them, "Unfortunately, Tom and I just finished all of our orders for the day and now we have to go out and deliver them to the customers. We were going to ask Marinette to cover bakery duty for a few hours until we get back, but we didn't know you'd be coming over Adrien. I'm very sorry."

Adrien gave a wide smile. "Don't be sorry, I'd love to help out Marinette!"

He couldn't help but notice the bright blush that appeared on his friend's face when he spoke, though she seemed to be trying to hide it.

"Y-you don't have to A-Adrien," she stuttered.

He waved his hand to her and replied, "Nah, I haven't baked in years. I'd love to help out!"

Tom nodded and began helping Sabine pack up their deliveries, ranging from cinnamon buns, to pies, to colourful cupcakes. "Thank you very much young man, I appreciate your understanding. We'll hopefully be back in three or four hours," he explained to them.

Sabine smiled as she opened the door for her husband. "Have fun you two!"

"Thanks," Marinette and Adrien spoke in unison.

With a final ding of the familiar little bell that hung over the front door, the couple was gone, leaving just the two teens alone in the bakery.

After an extended moment of standing in silence, Adrien looked to Marinette eagerly and questioned, "So, what are we gonna do first?"

"H-Here, follow me!"

Marinette led the way into the large kitchen, which was even more of a paradise for the golden-haired teen. The delicious smells grew more enhanced as they stepped into the baking grounds, with fresh goods laid on trays that scattered the counters next to many bags of flour, sugar, baking soda, and a heap of other ingredients.

She began opening up the multiple cabinets throughout the room and searched through them one by one, until she smiled at a large book with a thick green and yellow spine and she pulled it out. As Marinette set it down on the counter in front of the two of them, it made a 'thump' and blew up small white clouds of flour remnants.

The book cover showed an assortment of fresh cookies and had the title, 'Sweet and Simple Cookie Recipes!'

"This is one of my favourite cookbooks to search through when I'm just baking for fun," Marinette exclaimed. "C-Cookies are my favourite!"

Adrien nodded happily in agreement, getting flashbacks in his head from when he was a younger boy. "Yeah, I used to bake cookies a lot with my mom. She would always let us bake oatmeal chocolate-chip, since they're my favourite." He had to keep himself under control to not get too emotional over thinking of his mother. Not right now. "Do you have a favourite kind in particular?"

Her eyes lit up as he asked her the question and she turned to the cookbook, beginning to search through it.

He couldn't help but notice that whenever Marinette got engaged in an activity she was very passionate about, she grew much more relaxed and seemed to stutter less. The same thing happened when the two of them practiced together for a gaming competition a while ago.

She flipped through the large book swiftly, taking a few moments to scan each page as they went by, until she stopped and pointed to a recipe for sugar cookies. The picture showed many varieties of the one flavour: Some being plain and just sprinkled with grains of sugar, while others being decorated with colourful sprinkles or smothered with frosting.

Needless to say, they looked delectable.

"I've been baking sugar cookies since I was really little," she went on to explain. "I've always loved how they can be very simple, but if you want you can make them more unique, or make each individual cookie it's own. You can choose to make them decorated with small blue sprinkles, or decorated like a flower with icing. It's all based on what you want it to be, and it's something I really enjoy."

Wow.

Adrien was astonished. Marinette was so passionate about baking, in a way he never could have imagined. Just one recipe for some cookies held so much meaning for her. He smiled as he made his decision.

He asked his friend eagerly, "Can you teach me how to bake them?"

She looked back at him with surprise, stuttering back, "Oh, I-I mean we don't h-have to. I mean, w-we can bake whatever you'd like to, i-if you want."

Adrien laughed lightly. "I'd like to bake these. They look delicious!"

Marinette gave in after that, giggling as she turned to the book for instructions.

"O-Okay then! Step one: Preheat oven to 375 degrees."

He acknowledged the instructions by turning the dial on the stove.

What then ensued was three lively hours of the two friends having a cookie-baking riot. The sugary treats surprisingly came out very well most of the time, but some other batches had disaster ensue beforehand. It was certainly quite the adventure.

And Adrien adored every second of it.

Once when they were mixing a bowl of dry ingredients, Adrien grew a mischievous smirk across his face before he dipped his thumb into the bowl and smeared a line of flour, baking soda and sugar across Marinette's cheek.

"H-hey!" she had giggled.

"Oops!" Adrien expressed innocently. "My hand slipped."

Marinette grinned with a snicker as she grabbed a small handful of flour from the tan bag and threw it at his head, dusting the right half of his face and some parts of his blonde hair completely white. "That's what you get!" she retaliated.

They couldn't take anything seriously after that.

Once when Adrien had been trying to decorate a sugar cookie, Marinette scooped up a finger-full of the blue frosting and smudged a smiley face onto his arm. Another moment when the girl was taking out a finished tray, the blonde teen stole a spoonful of cookie batter and stuck it in his mouth. She had tried to act annoyed, but he could tell she really didn't mind.

It resulted in more flour-throwing.

When the duo finally got around to tasting some of the completed sugar cookies, Adrien was impressed at just how good they were!

"This is such a tasty recipe Marinette!" he had praised, before winking at her and adding, "Man, I guess I see now why you're such a sweet person!"

She had laughed for a few moments before a look of realization dawned on her face.

"Wait, did you just make a pun? Who are you, Chat Noir?"

"Uh, d-does he make puns? I'm surprised, I didn't know you knew him that well."

"O-Oh, well yeah w-we've met a few times before. O-On occasion."

Adrien smiled. It was true that when he was Chat Noir he had rescued Marinette during multiple missions before. She acted a bit different around the cat-like hero than she did with others, although he supposed that she might have a different way of interacting with everyone that she knew.

He still couldn't risk her figuring out his identity though, so he had to hide his knowledge.

Occasionally while they were baking cookies, Marinette had to slip out into the shop's entrance to provide for any customers who came by, but lucky for them it was kept fairly tame.

Finally, when Adrien took notice of the bright amber sun setting toward the horizon, he turned to Marinette and said, "Looks like we've been going at this for a few hours now. Think we should stop?"

The whole kitchen had become calamity with some sort of ingredient or pastry substance on nearly every surface. The pale blue and silver tiles had been caked with grains of sugar, bowls flecked with leftover cookie dough, trays of completed sugar cookies, different coloured frosting smeared on multiple spots, and even more that peppered the room. It basically looked like a tornado had made it's way in and destroyed the entire room, leaving behind mayhem.

However, what came out of the horrid mess was about ten dozen sugar cookies, the ones decorated being many different colours and styles. Marinette seemed very pleased, and during the process it hadn't taken her long to become completely laid-back. The two of them easily enjoyed each other's company, additionally getting themselves quite contaminated in the process.

"Yeah, we should probably start cleaning up before my parents see what a disaster this place is!" she added with a giggle. "If you don't mind gathering up the dirty bowls and cutlery, I'll grab a mop and start scrubbing the floor."

Adrien nodded and did as he was told, however just as he started retrieving the soiled dishes he heard a sharp yelp from his friend. He swung his head over just in time to watch Marinette slip on a puddle of milk spilled on the floor, and collapse back-first onto the floor with a hard 'thud.'

He felt a spike of worry jolt through him at the sight. He quickly scrambled over to help her, kneeling down at her side as a groan escaped her lips and her head lolled to the side. She weakly lifted an arm to rub the back of her head, indicating that it was aching. His eyebrows furrowed with worry.

"Are you okay? Anything broken?" he questioned somewhat frantically.

Adrien pressed his hand against Marinette's upper back to help sit her up, and she winced as he did so, keeping her hand against her head.

She replied, "M-My head feels really sore. I must have bashed it hard on the floor when I fell."

That didn't sound good. "Can you walk?"

"Probably... not?" she muttered. "Everything is s-spinning..."

Adrien sighed with concern. She definitely damaged her skull in some way shape or form, meaning she needed to rest.

"Here, hang on," he told her.

Carefully, Adrien wrapped one arm around her back and another below her knees, and lifted her up from the floor in bridal style. Despite navigating slowly to try not to agitate her injury, Marinette still winced lightly. However, at the same time, the deep red blush across her cheeks also caught his attention.

He gently carried his friend upstairs to her room, both of them remaining silent along the way. Adrien expected to feel a twinge of awkwardness at treating Marinette this way, but surprisingly he felt fine. In the meantime, he hoped he wasn't making her uncomfortable, but she seemed focused on holding the back of her head, ruffling her dark blue hair.

Once in her bedroom, Adrien carefully sat her down on the pink chaise in the corner of her room and smiled at her.

"You- uh, you need anything?" he asked.

Marinette smiled and gently shook her head. "No, I'll be okay. Th-thanks for helping me Adrien."

"You're welcome," he replied with a soft smile. "You just rest here while I go clean up."

She tried to insist to him that he shouldn't have to clean up the whole room alone, but Adrien told her that he'd be okay.

While he cleared up the kitchen, Marinette's parents returned to the bakery and he had to explain to them what happened to their daughter. They thanked him, and took over tidying duty while Adrien arranged and put away the sugar cookies that they made.

A small irritation returned to his chest as he thought about Marinette sprawled on the floor and the similarities she had to the Ladybug from his nightmare, when she bled out in his arms.

Adrien sighed sadly.

Looks like Marinette's not the only one hurting today.

A/N: I'll be away for about 5 days without a computer so expect the next chapter to take a little longer, but hey I'll do my best :P

Please never hesitate to let me know any critiques you may have or improvements you think could be made! I always work hard to get better!