Pastry
It was the time just after the interview, Ladybug and Chat Noir left the studio and hid in the changing room where they detransformed.
"It was awkward to sit there." Adrien whispered after he detransformed. "I just had to sit next to you. It would have been awkward the other way around."
"Yeah, I know the feeling." Marinette laughed nervously. He was touchy as Adrien and as Chat Noir, but he was careful what he did in front of the cameras as Adrien.
"It would look odd on TV too." Adrien thought how it would look if Chat Noir hugged Adrien instead of Marinette. As Chat he would not care, but as Adrien he was trained. Perhaps it was a bit more than just a friendly hug. Perhaps he glared at himself for a reason. He was not aware he glared at Chat while he was Adrien, but he definitely saw it when he was Chat.
"I can't believe how much make up I am wearing. I bet this is how a building feels when it gets a facade." Marinette was frustrated. She wanted to find a make up remover. Adrien was quick to locate a nondescript bottle.
"Here it is." He exclaimed as he retrieved the bottle. They got busy with removing layers of make up.
"I totally forgot how this feels." He said while he wiped the layers from off his face. "I did not miss this at all." He added.
The two of them met Alya in the hallway. She was excited about the superheroes and had ideas for her future interviews for her blog. She was as lively as ever. She was so excited about her own interview with Nadia, her two friends who returned from China and the surprise encounter with Ladybug and Chat Noir that she entirely forgot anything else. Nino met them in front of the building.
"Dude" Nino greeted Adrien with a hug and then did the same with Marinette. "I can't stay long, but I had to be here, I am so glad you are back and okay."
"Thank you Nino" Marinette replied with a wide smile.
"Thanks Dude." Adrien replied. "I will be staying with Marinette this evening and we can agree when can I move in tomorrow."
"That is great because I got some family over for a visit, they have some errand to do in Paris." Nino smiled.
"So the two of you are together now or what?" Alya asked what was on her mind for the last two weeks, she might have asked earlier, but she kept babbling about anything and everything that happened that day and avoided one other particularly inconvenient subject.
Adrien put one arm around Marinette's shoulders while he rubbed the back of his neck with the other. Marinette blushed but she wrapped her arm around his waist.
"Yes." They both said in unison.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Alya screamed and pounced on her boyfriend. Nino just smiled at hid friends and laughed at Alya's celebratory dance. "What? You knew?" She screamed at her boyfriend. Nino nodded. "You told him before you told me?" She screamed at Marinette.
"Well technically, I was not able to tell you anything at the time." Marinette replied calmly, she prevented her thoughts from going further in that direction not to remind herself why, instead she laughed at Alya's antics.
"And you knew and did not tell me?" She screamed again at her boyfriend.
Nino shrugged. "You were so busy with your blog, you only got your phone back last night or something and there was never really a chance." And she was still grounded. Her mother insisted she went back home instantly after the interview. So Nino said goodbye to their friends and walked away with his girlfriend.
Marinette and Adrien were taken to the bakery by Penny.
Sabine had already prepared the dinner.
"I remember how much you liked the noodles, and I wanted to make something quick for you to eat when you return form that interview." Sabine put the pot on the table. Adrien's bodyguard was arranging the plates.
"Where is papa?" Marinette asked as she turned around.
"Tom went to the bakery, he is baking something down there. He could not wait until the morning to start the ovens." Sabine waved her head.
Adrien was the first one who felt the fine smell of croissants and turned around.
"I had to check if they are ready to work in the morning." Tom exclaimed as he carried a box pastries. "Imagine if we opened the bakery in the morning and all the pastries were half baked."
"We have to test them then." Adrien smiled and reached for one.
The adults went to sleep quickly after they ate. Due to the time difference and the travel, it was really late for them. Marinette went into her room and carried her backpack with the miracle box inside.
They closed the hatch, Marinette went up and opened the window that lead to her small terrace to let some air inside.
"Do you have any Camembert in the house, by any chance?" Plagg finally woke up from his food induced coma.
"If we do, it probably expired, because it was bought before we left." Marinette sighed.
"Excellent. I can find it myself." The tiny black cat exclaimed and phased through the hatch door.
Adrien found a macaron and offered it to Tikki. She took the macaron, but she turned around to her chosen. The girl was busy as she arranged the room.
"Adrien gave it to me Marinette." Tikki chirped quietly. Marinette finally raised her eyes.
"Oh it is the special macaron." She smiled sheepishly.
"How special?" Adrien asked eagerly.
"it was for you." The girl blushed and busied herself with unpacking.
"She used to make this special macaron for you every week." The tiny red goddess of creation started to explain.
"Not a word." Marinette muttered.
"Oh so it is for me." Adrien smiled and looked into a box, there were more cookies.
"Don't worry, these are fine for me, you can have it." Tikki chirped and the two of them ate.
"Hey, Marinette." Adrien called to the girl who was still pretending to be busy. "Do you think we could make that fort here tonight?"
Soon they arranged the sheets to make a tent in the room, but instead of playing a film, they took a few miraculous jewels each and took the kwami out for feeding and floating around. Adrien brought down the bed linen, blankets and pillows while Marinette arranged them with some help from the kwami. They leaned onto the pillows, wrapped themselves in blankets, talked tot he kwami and laughed at their antics. Plagg found the cheese, ate it on the spot to everyone's satisfaction and phased back through the hatch door.
"So we can teleport to that cave if we want to go for a visit." Marinette asked. Kaalki confirmed.
"I feel like I still have more questions than answers." Adrien whispered.
"That is okay." Sass replied calmly. "One never stops to wonder."
"But we are supposed to be finished with the training." Adrien replied.
"Oh no, you are never finished with your training. You are simply deemed capable to continue on your own." Wayzz cut in.
"But we do not have the book." Marinette whispered.
"It used to be in the safe in the office in the Agreste Mansion." Adrien shuddered. Marinette decided not to ask anything further on the subject.
"Why was Plagg able to cataclysm the temple if the cursed stone was inside." The girl asked quietly.
"It is that tremendous amount of fine cheese I could find in the business class food cart." Plagg replied in mock seriousness.
"You glutton." Adrien teased.
"Why doesn't it surprise me you would come up with such explanation?" Tikki was exasperated.
"Yes but you ate that like ten days before that night." Marinette raised her eyebrows.
"And how did you manage such precise destruction on your own? Because the last time you did cataclysm on your own, the Eiffel tower got snapped in half and there were cracks all over the place." Marinette wondered.
"When did that happen?" Adrien raised his eyebrows.
"When Chloe's mum got akumatized and turned you in a statue of golden glitter." Plagg retorted.
"Um yes, you told me Chat Noir lost his miraculous back then." Marinette said thoughtfully.
"What?" Adrien asked incredulously.
"It was Master Fu who came up with that idea, not me, certainly not me." Plagg retorted.
"You said he was one of the least responsible wielders you ever had." Marinette teased.
"You? I? What?" Adrien whisper shouted.
"Plagg, I can't believe you said such a thing!" Tikki scolded her companion in her high pitched voice.
"I can!" Several other kwami replied in unison.
"That is irrelevant. Anyway, the cracks were there, you just did not see them well in the dark." Plagg turned away and raised his nose.
"Okay, but the stone, it did not affect you?" Marinette asked worriedly.
"You found the stone, you recognized it, that was what helped me." Plagg replied.
"So now you know where the cursed stone is?" Mullo floated over to Plagg.
"I know where it used to be." Plagg raised his nose.
"Why is it so important for kwami not to know where it is?" Adrien asked as he laid down.
"Some kwami think the cursed stone is just a story." Sass started.
Marinette covered both Adrien and herself with a blanket as they listened to the story.
"The powers that kwami give you are altered and diminished while you are in the temple." Wayzz spoke as much as he knew.
"There is a good reason for that." Tikki chirped.
"You can imagine some wielders had problems while they were controlling their powers and their kwami." Sass looked towards Plagg for some reason. The tiny god of destruction looked away as if that was not related to him in any way.
"I have a feeling that was not the first time you used your cataclysm on the temple." Marinette squinted her eyes.
"It wasn't me, it was my wielders." Plagg pouted.
"Was it part of the training?" Adrien inquired.
"Hm, not really." Plagg muttered.
"Ladybug brought it back?" Marinette raised her eyebrow and yawned.
"Yes, of course they did." Tikki hovered with her tiny hands on her hips.
"Well then everything turned out okay?" Adrien shrugged.
"And my both of my girls completed the training?" Plagg raised his nose.
"You had two wielders at the same time?" Marinette asked.
"Nah, but those two that transformed and destroyed the temple were girls." Plagg retorted.
"They forbid training of wielders in the temple at first." Wayzz spoke.
"But it was not a good choice." Mullo waved her head. "So the monks found a different solution."
"They used the cursed stone after that and the whole temple was protected by magic." Sass added.
"They resumed training of wielders." Wayzz finished.
"And they trained the guardians too." Adrien reminded himself.
"Especially them, they had to meet all the kwami, not at the same time though, and few of us are a handful." Wayzz added.
"Not me, I am nice." Mullo protested.
"You always want to play hide and seek." Plagg retorted to the mouse kwami.
"But they trained wielders in the temple too, and they needed something to make the kwami stay close to their wielders. So the kwami always knew there was something in the temple that would eat away their powers. But the cursed stone is real, it makes the kwami weaker." Sass spoke.
Then Wayzz took over the story, but by that time both teens were asleep.
They both woke up early, it was still dark outside, but they could smell the bakery was already operational. The smell of pastry filled the air and the two kids who were used to a different time zone were waking up.
"Good morning." Adrien greeted in hoarse voice. They were sleeping on the pillows on the floor underneath some tent-like structure made of bed sheets.
"Mmm" Marinette mumbled back.
"Marinette, your parents are up. You might want to hide the miracle box before you go to school today." Tikki chirped.
Adrien looked around as much as he could in his position.
Plagg snored on one of the pillows, Sass phased in from somewhere, wherever he was snooping around. Mullo was cuddled with Marinette and Wayzz said his greetings from his position on top of the desk just outside the construction of the tent.
"Miracle box." Marinette whisper shouted as she sat up abruptly.
"Yes, it is there, what about it?" Adrien motioned towards the box.
"We have to put the extra miraculous jewels back inside." Marinette whispered. She patted Mullo and took off the pendant necklace. Adrien told his greetings to Wayzz and Sass and took off the bracelets.
They stored the jewels back into the box. Marinette looked at the pin and the brooch stored safely at their positions in the box.
"I am sorry Master Fu did not get to see this." She whispered.
"Yeah, it would have made him happy." He smiled.
"Not as happy as a piece of Camembert would make me." Plagg cut in.
"Well, the only Camembert we might have is the one you left last night." Marinette teased. "But my parents are awake now and you should not go on your own and phase into the fridge." She warned.
"You have a package of Camembert, it was not the best and the most expensive kind." Plagg spoke while Adrien rolled his eyes.
"You can't expect her to have ..." The boy cut in.
"But it was past it's best before date and it spoiled rather nicely." Plagg continued.
"Blah" Tikki released a disgusted sound.
"I can't listen to this, I am going to eat one of the cookies left over from last night. Do not forget about the box Marinette." Tikki floated away.
"Actually I think it rotted to the point where it could not be called Camembert any more, but I am not certain which new name it assumed." Plagg pondered.
Two kids raised their eyebrows.
"You know the cheese in this country does not get spoiled it just changes its name, don't you?" Plagg wiggled his tail while his wide open green eyes were waiting for response.
"Paggembert." Adrien replied with a smirk. "We can call spoiled Camembert Plaggembert."
Marinette rolled her eyes and took the box. She crawled out from the makeshift tent while she carried the box in her hands. She got to the large chest where she used to store the miracle box before she went to China, it was the same chest that stored all her gifts for Adrien. It was locked all the time ever since Chris got akumatized.
"Hey, I thought we are sharing the duty now, I thought I should know where the box is and be able to reach it." Adrien said half teasingly as he crawled after her. He saw when she opened the large box. He saw the contents. His face lit up the same way Chris had when he saw all the presents wrapped up.
Marinette stood with her eyes wide like a rabbit in the middle of the road.
"What is this?" Adrien whispered softly. He knew Marinette made beautiful presents, although he might not have been aware before that some of his presents were from her, he loved them anyway. He was practically bouncing in his spot. "For whom have you made these? Can I have a look? Did you make them yourself? I always admired your work Marinette. Can I just take a peek? I will not spoil anything, I swear." The boy was practically bouncing in his spot from excitement.
"For you, I made them all for you." She replied in a small voice with a huge pink spot over her face. "I used to make gifts for you and wrap them up and store here. I intended to give them to you on different occasions." She whispered.
"For me?" Adrien almost screamed with excitement. "These … are these all for me? Oh. I spoiled the surprise."
"Actually, before we left, I was not even sure if I would ever … " She sniffed and took a deep breath. She remembered the state she was in before she left. She was scared that Adrien would never want to talk to her once he learned about the contents of the large box. Instead, the boy was excited.
"Can I open one now?" Adrien was eager.
"Um, why not." Marinette shrugged.
"I don't have to, I'm sorry I ruined it for you, you did all this work and I behave like some impatient child." Adrien took a step back.
"No no no by all means, pick one and open it." Marinette smiled, she did not want the boy to be sad, he was so happy when she told him these were for him.
"Um, I do not know how to chose. Perhaps … do you have here something I could wear to school today?" The boy was rubbing the back of his neck. "I really do not want to wear anything from my father's brand."
Marinette looked at the contents of the box and picked up one package.
Adrien opened it.
It was a black t-shirt with one wide red line with black spots over his chest.
"I love it." He exclaimed. "Oh, this is so cool. Thank you Marinette." And then he rapped her into his arms and kissed her.
And that was the moment they heard the hatch door opened.
They jumped apart.
"Good morning." Sabine greeted. "You should get up … oh I see you woke up already." She turned around and saw them. "Please get ready and come down for breakfast. The food will wait for you on the table. I will be in the bakery with your father, um, Tom." She smiled at the two kids and retreated back down.
"Um, you can have the bathroom first." Marinette offered as she blushed and turned away. This time she was blushing because her mother almost caught her. It did not matter how much time she spent in Adrien's proximity, they were not in a relationship before, they were a boyfriend and a girlfriend now, but they did not had a clear picture what had changed.
"Oh Tikki, for how long will I be like this?" Marinette asked her kwami when Adrien finally retreated to the bathroom. She was picking out clothes for school and decided for her usual combination.
"You are only a teenager, Marinette. Everything will be okay." Tikki chirped.
"Yes, but I spend two weeks with him we shared … anything we could sleep on and I was mortified that maman might see us kissing." The girl waved her head. "How will I survive today in school." She groaned.
"I say a little Camembert might help you with that." Plagg floated over with his piece of advice.
Marinette rolled her eyes.
"Just go to school and do not worry so much." Tikki chirped.
"Most of all, I dread what kind of lies will I have to face today." Marinette waved her head.
"You should not be bothered by that girl." Plagg muttered.
"But I am." The girl clenched her fists.
"Hey." Adrien greeted her, dressed up in his new t-shirt with plain trousers and a shirt he bought in China. "How do I look?" He turned around.
"School worthy." Marinette nodded and went into the bathroom.
"Huh, this first day of school is going to be interesting." Adrien sighed.
"Are you concerned about Lila too?" Tikki asked worriedly.
"Nah, I doubt she will appear in school." Plagg dismissed the concern.
"That would be nice, we might avoid some interesting conversations." Adrien beamed. "On the other hand, let's have her telling anyone I was ever her boyfriend." He smirked.