"I'm home!" Marinette called out, stepping into the bakery. Her father looked up from the counter, a tray of freshly baked croissants in his hands.

"Welcome home, Mari! You came back a little later than usual today. Did you join a club?" He handed a croissant to her as she passed him with a smile.

"I had to stay after school to finish something for school," Marinette replied, biting into the pastry. "How was business today?"

Her dad shrugged. "The usual. Thursdays aren't that busy."

"I'm sure business will pick up tomorrow. Since it'll be Friday." She made a face. Celebrations almost always happened on Fridays. Either that or it was the one day people usually got a little loose with their wallet when it came to sweets, a habit that was great for business, but it also meant that she needed to stay home to help some weeks. "Do you want me to...?"

Her dad laughed as she left her question hanging. "We should be fine this week. No crazy office party this week."

She smiled in relief. As much as she didn't mind helping her parents out every once in a while, she did not like juggling customers, rush orders, and custom orders all in the same day.

"Okay. I'm gonna go my room now," Marinette said before stuffing her mouth with the croissant.

Tom glanced over his shoulder at his daughter. He had already turned his main focus back onto the tray of croissants before him but now raised his eyebrow at Marinette's retreating back as she started making her way up the stairs.

"I'm sure you'd want to say hi to your friend at least."

"My...friend?" Marinette turned, her confusion evident on her face. The only friend who came over was usually Alya, and they had just parted ways a few minutes ago. "What friend?"

"A young man. He's sitting with your mom right now, actually."

Marinette's heart leaped for a moment. "Adrien?"

Tom laughed heartily. "I knew that would be your reaction. Sadly, no. It's another young man. Never seen him here before."

Her heart dropped and she groaned. If it was who she thought it was... "It's not...Nathaniel, is it?"

Tutting disapprovingly, he shook his head. "That's a rather rude reaction."

"You're serious?" She grimaced. Marinette knew that she couldn't run away from that particular problem forever, but she didn't think that he'd go to her house. And so soon? She knew that he only had a few chances to corner her: lunch, ceramics, and after school. By practically ignoring the boy during ceramics and running off with Alya during lunch and after class, she had minimized the chances he had. Sure, she planned on talking to him eventually (maybe) but she didn't expect that day to be today. How long had he even been waiting there?

"You should go talk to him. He seems like a nice kid. Welcome!" He greeted a customer enthusiastically, giving Marinette one last glance. Knowing that there would be no more running unless she wanted a long lecture about ditching her "friend" later that night, she trudged up the stairs.

Nathaniel fidgeted, his hands tightening around his mug of hot chocolate. He'd heard Marinette's interaction with her father downstairs and, judging by the slight frown on her face, so had Marinette's mother. The woman sat on the other side of the baby pink L-shaped sofa, her own cup of hot chocolate cradled in her hands. The two had been talking for the past hour or so. What started as a polite conversation as he waited had turned to one of new pastry designs for the bakery and various sketches laid on the sofa between them. Sabine smiled apologetically at Nathaniel.

"She's probably just tired. I'm sure she's not actually unhappy to see you," the woman said soothingly.

Nathaniel attempted to smile, but it came out more of a grimace. He'd expected this kind of reaction from the girl. He kind of felt bad. His visit was more of an impulse more than anything, really. But after seeing her all but run from him at school, he didn't really have a choice. If it was anyone else, he would have probably even dropped the matter altogether and went on with his life. And, to be fair, he'd tried that route. Twice. "It's okay."

Not even a few seconds after his reply, Marinette appeared at the top of the stairs, something of a cross between a grimace and scowl on her face. The expression was so downright uncharacteristic for the girl that he held his cup to his lips, hiding his amusement.

"Hi mom." Then, like a reluctant afterthought, "...Nathaniel."

Nathaniel winced at her tone, amusement gone. He hadn't even heard her say Chloe's name like that before. Suddenly, coming here didn't seem like such a good idea after all.

Sabine frowned before disapprovingly sending a rapid-fire of Chinese at her daughter. Nathaniel had taken Chinese lessons before, as was recommended in the first year of middle school, but he couldn't catch a single word. Heck, he might have been crazy, but he could swear that even the tones were different. He might have been one of the worst students but he didn't think he was that bad. He prided himself on his skill to ask where the toilet was in Chinese.

As Sabine's barrage came to a stop, Marinette replied nearly equally as fast, her tone now exasperated and somewhat very annoyed. From the nearly constant stumbling over words and pauses between words, it was clear that she wasn't quite as fluent as her mom but her message seemed to get through well enough as Sabine cut Marinette off firmly with yet more Chinese. Nathaniel stared down at his nearly finished cup, uncomfortable as he knew that he was the very reason why they were arguing.

Nathaniel heard Marinette lightly stomp her feet with an angry huff.

"Come on, Nathaniel. Let's talk in my room."

He turned then, just in time to see her already halfway up the stairs. Quickly standing up, he started to follow the girl when he felt a hand on his back.

Sabine smiled at him. "Give me your cup. You're done, right?"

"Ah, um." Nathaniel quickly drank the last mouthful of the lukewarm drink before handing it to the woman. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it. I'll bring you two some snacks later, okay?"

Nathaniel nodded quickly. At least she couldn't get away with murdering him if her mom came up. He'd always thought of Marinette as the kindest girl he knew, but he knew that behind every kind smile was a person capable of unforgiving wrath. And seeing what she could do as Ladybug, he wasn't particularly looking forward to being left alone with her while she at annoyed at him. There'd been more than one rumor of Ladybug playfully pushing Chat Noir off a building. The other hero of Paris had, of course, easily caught himself and swung himself back up to return the favor, but Nathaniel far from a superhero and doubted that he could survive falling off a chair unscathed, let alone a building.

Not for the first time that day, he regretted telling her that he knew her secret identity.

Author's Note:

Sorry about the super short chapter; I found out from my professor that the last two exams are literally going to determine if I will get an A in the class...and as a nursing student relying on a merit scholarship, losing my 4.0 is literally losing money… (Lol update from 10/11/17: Didn't get that A. Welp, who needs scholarships for $56k/year tuition anyways /s)

Thank you for reading and reviewing!