The Family lunch

The adults on the train did their best to entertain themselves. They chatted, read books and papers, Tom and Adrien's bodyguard played games on their phones, especially those they could play against each other or in tandem. Sabine enjoyed the time with her family and relatives. But she was homesick in a different way, she missed Paris and the bakery. She felt guilty for missing her home while she was with her relatives.

The kids were playing a card game, again. But this time, Marinette was more determined to win. So she did. And, as after every victory in any game, Marinette did her victory dance. That would not be a problem in normal circumstances. But the kids sat on the top level of the bunk beds.

Marinette wiggled, exclaimed her victory cheer, jumped in the air, bounced of the ceiling and, naturally, missed the bed while she was falling. A pair of strong arms caught her before she fell to the floor. More specifically, Adrien caught her under her arms. His arms were wrapped around her chest. Tom and Adrien's bodyguard quickly raised their heads from their game to see what was going on. Both were too slow to catch her and were relieved when Adrien caught her.

"Falling for me, Princess?" Adrien teased. With his hair in a mess, green eyes glowed underneath, and a crooked smile that followed, Marinette wondered where had Adrien gone, because all she could see was the mask less Chat Noir.

She groaned and tried to pull herself up all by herself, but he did not let her go and pulled her up himself. Tom was relieved his clumsy daughter was saved and returned to his phone and then hissed as he forgot to pause the game and lost. Adrien's bodyguard simply shrugged and restarted the game.

"Luckily your charming knight is here to save you, Princess." Adrien leaned into her side. Marinette blushed and pushed his nose with her index finger without thinking. Adrien blinked and looked cross eyed as he followed the finger with his eyes.

Ye ignored them and pretended to be really interested in the pictures on the cards. Ling hid her face behind the cards she held in her hands and cheered quietly. Her face fell slightly because she expected some more action or something like a kiss, but that did not happen. Well, that was life.

The two young teens soon grinned awkwardly as they realized they were watched, blushed and turned away from each other. That earned them a chuckle from Ling while Ye was particularly interested in one of the cards.

"Um would you two like a rematch?" Adrien asked tentatively. Ling threw her cards to the bed. Ye raised his eyebrows and finally turned his eyes towards the boy.

"You know, perhaps we should go and make lunch." Marinette nudged Adrien in his shoulder. "We have promised papa, haven't we?"

"You mean those noodles we have left over from the excursion?" Ye asked exasperatedly.

"Yes, we promised to make lunch today and we have all these noodles left over and frankly that is about the only meal I know how to make." Adrien grinned.

The other three teens looked at him.

"You say you would know how to make them all on your own?" Ling inquired with raised eyebrows.

"Well, I was counting on a little help from Marinette." Adrien shrugged.

"Adrien." She spoke gently. "Those are instant noodles, of course you would know how to make them."

Adrien was not so sure about that.

"Well then, off you go." Ling ushered them to leave. Marinette took the bag will all the noodle packages they had and they left to the compartment that had a heating unit and served as a kitchenette.

Plagg phased straight into the fridge and Adrien opened it and retrieved the tiny god of destruction.

"Here is your cheese Plagg." Adrien gave him one piece. "The rest of the food is not ours, do not eat other people's food."

"Have a cookie, Tikki. But the two of you have to hide, someone might see you." Marinette said.

"So how do you make these?" Adrien asked as he pulled out two bags of instant noodles.

"I don't know." Marinette stated simply as she put the water in the kettle to boil.

"What do you mean?" Adrien practically screamed. What was the girl thinking? He was counting on her. She lived in a bakery. Of course she knew how to cook.

Marinette smirked back. Plagg was finished with his cheese, he floated in front of Adrien's face and gave the boy an incredulous look, but then he disappeared in the boy's shirt without a word of explanation.

"I do not know how to prepare those." The girl waved two bags of noodles herself. She shrugged, but her smile was telling there was something not said. Tikki floated to Marinette's shoulder and ate her cookie.

"But you said those are the instant noodles and of course I would know how to cook them." Adrien raised his hands and rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand.

"Yes, you would know how to prepare them, not me." Marinette smiled, but there was teasing lilt in her voice and the glint in her eyes gave her away. Adrien stared at her. She was not going to help him? The boy promised her father to make a lunch today from these noodles. He was a dead boy, her father was huge, not to mention she had plenty of relatives on that train, and they were about to be hungry.

"What's the catch?" Adrien asked quietly. He surrendered. He knew she was teasing.

"The instructions are written on each bag. In Chinese." Marinette grinned as she took one of the bags and held it in front of his eyes.

"You can't tell me you know so little that you do not understand this." Adrien waved his head and giggled, the clue was so obvious, it was straight in front of his eyes. And the instructions were really simple.

"Well I probably do. But, how would you justify all those years of learning Chinese from a personal tutor?" Marinette teased.

"You are right. I had to go through years of training to speak the language to be able to read the instructions from a bag of instant noodles." Adrien replied and giggled, he had read the instructions on the two bags he had and studied those that Marinette took out.

"So what is your expert opinion oh Master of Chinese, what should we do with these?" Marinette teased back. Adrien was thinking, he checked the four bags again and took out two more. Then he suddenly got an idea and he was sure it was brilliant.

"Well we see how much water we have to use for each of them and how long we have to cook them and then we add up all the water and put it into one large pot." Marinette's mouth gaped at the boy while he explained his elaborate plan. "And then you would be thankful that I am so well versed in science." He raised the index finger of his right hand. "Because we have to take those which have to cook the longest and then compute how much later we add all the other different kinds of noodles depending on how long they have to be cooked so that they are all finished at the same time."

Marinette stared at him like a fish.

Then she started laughing out loud.

"Those are all different kinds of noodles, you do not mix them and cook them in the same pot." She giggled.

"No?" Adrien frowned.

"no, we have to prepare them separately." Marinette laughed.

"But that … that will take forever." Adrien looked at the bag.

"No, each of these requires boiling water and stirring for a few minutes. We can arrange all our bowls and just pour boiling water over them." Marinette grinned proudly as if she had just explained him the procedure how to remove a trigger from the atomic bomb.

"But here it says to boil them for ten minutes." Adrien took one bag and pointed the signs to Marinette.

"Really?" She asked incredulously.

"Really." Adrien confirmed.

"And these have to be cooked in three and half decilitres of water for three and half minutes. And these in three decilitres of water for two minutes and these are a kind that you just pour boiled water over it and wait." Adrien took different parcels of dried noodles and read the instructions.

"Why do we have so many different kinds of noodles?" Marinette looked in the bag. "Are they all different?"

"Well, I expect they are." Adrien rubbed the back of his neck again. "I bought them all." He smiled sheepishly and Marinette looked like a fish again. "You see, I thought we were going to eat that all the time and I wanted it to be different each day and there were so many kinds of noodles in that shop in Beijing and then there were even more of these in Lhasa so I bought one of each kind." The boy shrugged.

"But there are … I don't know, perhaps twenty small bags of noodles." Marinette said exasperatedly as she examined the contents.

"Um yes, they all fitted in that large backpack we had for the excursion. But I had to return it. Then your papa decided we can have them for lunch and dinner today because we have limited amount of baggage we can take on the flight." Adrien was trying to explain.

"Okay, so we will start making these. Which kind do you want?" She asked as she turned back to business.

"Um, I don't know, I have not tried them yet." Adrien looked at a few packages.

In the end, Marinette took a few random packages because the water boiled already. She opened one bag, she threw the package in the can and asked. "How much water?" Adrien read the number and she poured water over the noodles.

"For how long do these have to cook?" She asked again.

"Two minutes." the boy replied.

She put the dish in the microwave, set the timer and that was it.

"Okay, now those were without cooking?" She continued. Then she prepared the next portion and threw the package into the trash can.

"These are two minutes too." The boy gave her the next package, but she returned it quickly.

"I let you have the honours." She smiled and took a step back while she watched him. The boy did exactly as was instructed. And he was careful to dispose the waste.

Once they assembled four small meals it was time to take them to the compartment. But right at that moment Sabine and Ling joined them.

"Oh, you managed to prepare some food for us?" Ling said with a teasing lilt in her voice.

"You doubted?" Marinette shot back.

"You are quite quick." Sabine said as she nodded over the bowls and smelled. "I did not expect you would have something finished already."

"But it would get crowded if we took too much time." Marinette protested. The lack of patience might have contributed to their speed, but she was not about to admit to that.

"There were a few people who peaked inside. We thought we should hurry." Adrien added. The fact that he was also hungry definitely helped in speeding things up, but he was brought up not to be impatient when it was about food. And old habits die hard.

"Oh, your uncle cooked for two hours on our way there." Sabine laughed. "But he did start early in the morning." She sincerely doubted that the other passengers would let him occupy the common kitchenette for so long if he was not a famous cook.

"Okay, we have these four ready." Adrien said proudly and motioned to the four bowls. "Another is being prepared in the microwave." He motioned towards the unit mounted on the wall. "And we are going to make some more."

"You can take them to the compartment." Marinette grinned towards her mother and her cousin. She was relieved that she did not have to carry them. She clearly remembered her clumsiness and expected she would trip and fall and spill the food all over. "And then come back for the next round."

"These smell good." Ling said as she was taking two bowls. "What is inside?"

"Um, the noodles?" Adrien replied, he scratched the back of his neck.

Marinette facepalmed.

"No I mean, I know these are noodles, but with what, what is the taste supposed to be, what is the topping, you know?" Ling clarified.

"What do you mean?" Adrien was baffled, these are all noodles, they were supposed to be all fine.

"Each is different kind but we do not know, we have not read the ingredients." Marinette replied.

Then Adrien realized their error and started to laugh.

"Haven't you read what is written on the bags?" Sabine asked worriedly. She was concerned if the food prepared by the two kids was in fact edible. Then she smirked. She checked the large bag. There were plenty of noodles left. It was all Tom's idea. And she had an idea of her own. "Well, it was all Tom's idea after all, I am going to make Tom the guinea pig and he is going to be the first to try what his daughter and her boyfriend have prepared."

Marinette groaned. Adrien blushed.

"Marinette does not understand what is written on these bags anyway, I guess." Ling sighed exasperatedly.

"Yes we have, but we just read the instructions, not the ingredients. We forgot to read what kind of taste they are supposed to be." The boy spoke between laughs.

"We did cook them according to the instructions, maman. And I can read the bags. Some of it. Anyway." Marinette reassured her mother.

"Well, they will be fine whatever they are." Sabine said. "Besides, uncle Wang can surely detect what these are only by the way they smell and he has his spices." Ling doubted that, she ate these often and was never able to tell them apart, except the very spicy ones.

Sabine swiftly took two bowls and carried them away. It was Tom's idea and a deal between Adrien and Tom, she just hoped they will all survive without digestive issues.

"Yeah, uncle Wang will make them all better." Ling sighed.

"What do you mean better?" Adrien teased while he pretended to be offended.

"If you do not like what you got then you are not hungry, young lady." Marinette put her hands on her hips as she mock scolded her older cousin.

"You know, some people chose what they eat because they have to not because they are picky." Ling retorted. "They can be allergic, or vegetarian or simply distaste some particular kinds of food."

"Don't worry, Ling, uncle Wang will sort it all out." Sabine called after her niece. "Take it and let them continue the preparations."

Ling walked away and carried two steaming bowls with her.

The next round of four small meals was ready in a minute because the microwave just finished. So the kids prepared the instant ones, but this time Adrien was reading the ingredients.

"So this one is chicken." He held one bag. "And this one is beef." He raised the other hand. "And both are ready instantly."

He opened both bags and put the contents into bowls while Marinette poured water over them.

"They smell exactly the same." Marinette concluded.

Adrien smelled the food and frowned. "You are right, perhaps I could ask Plagg?"

"I can tell you that none of them contains cheese." Plagg muttered from Adrien's shirt.

Sabine and Ling were back for the next set of four bowls.

"Uncle Wang said it is edible." Ling announced as soon as she entered.

"Tom is eating it. And your bodyguard too." Sabine smiled. "I guess it is in their job description."

Marinette glared at her mother for the teasing. Adrien rubbed the back of his neck shyly and looked between Sabine and Marinette, he was not sure if he was scolded, praised or teased.

"Oh, don't worry, I am just teasing, you did a good job. You can't make a culinary masterpiece from instant noodles." Sabine reassured the boy, she swiftly took two more bowls and disappeared.

Marinette studied several packages, they were more fancy with heavily edited photos of food on the bags while the other bags mostly had simple drawings. Actually the drawings were so simple that it was sometimes impossible to define what was it supposed to represent.

Adrien was busy as he was already starting on the next round.

"Those are all vegetarian." Ling pointed to one particular sign.

"Ah, okay." Marinette inspected the sign.

"I'd like one of those." Ling noted while she was leaving and carried two more portions.

"So what is inside these?" Marinette asked Adrien as she tried to guess from the pictures on the packages. Adrien was behind her back and leaned over her shoulder, but then he could not resist and leaned on her back while he wrapped his arms around her.

"This is with mushrooms." Adrien pointed to one. "And vegetables and … spicy vegetables."

"Lets make all three." The girl proposed with a smile.

Adrien was doing very well on his own, he measured and poured the boiling water in the bowls while the girl studied the contents of the bag.

"Why are these two packages empty?" She asked and retrieved two plastic wrappings that were not opened but were obviously void of any content.

Adrien finished with pouring the water and proceeded to stir.

"Let me see." He asked quietly. Marinette put the two empty packages in front of him and stirred the contents once while Adrien took the packages and read the ingredients.

"These are with cheese." He groaned. "Plagg, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"You need a lot of calories when you climb mountains." Plagg replied flatly and never bothered to move from Adrien's pocket."And you should believe me that I was hungry if I ate that."

"Hush, Plagg." Marinette whispered.

Sabine and Ling were back.

"Those portions are a bit small, you know, so they already took out other food they brought, you can come back with us and take the food with you." Sabine said and took one bowl and the bag with uncooked packages. Marinette and Adrien first tidied up the space and then followed.

"Do you like spicy food Adrien?" Ling asked with a hidden note in her voice. Marinette frowned.

"How spicy?" Adrien was suspicious.

"Hot spicy." She replied flatly.

"Don't take any spices she gives you Adrien." Sabine whispered to the boy. Ling heard her and frowned.

"Do you think they actually ate what we cooked?" Adrien asked Marinette quietly. She shrugged.

"Don't worry, they did eat the food you cooked." Ling replied.

"Actually, everyone who tried your food said it was good." Sabine smiled.

The two teens were met with smiling faces and another task. Apparently the prize for making lunch was that they were also making the dinner.