Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 13
There was definitely a remarkable energy in the air that afternoon, Sabine mused... but she couldn't quite put her finger on its cause.
Oh, some of it is obvious, she smiled. Adrien can't keep his eyes off of Marinette... Tom is right, I think. That boy is SMITTEN.
How the tables have turned! Marinette spent all year pining for that boy... and she had excellent taste, I must say... but she was too nervous to approach him properly. Now he's got stars in his eyes and she's the composed one. Who would've thought it?
I suppose that I shouldn't be THAT surprised, she considered. Marinette is a caring and thoughtful girl, and she's so devoted to Adrien... but her jumbled nerves kept him from truly getting to know her. He started seeing the fencer girl, and that took pressure off of Marinette; now she's letting him see the real her, and he can't get enough.
I wonder if SHE'S noticed that he's noticing, that she's much more than a friend to him now?
Sabine glanced through the bakery's kitchen door and watched Adrien for a moment. She very nearly called out to him, worried that he might get his fingers caught in the beaters of the stand mixer if he didn't pay closer attention... until Marinette noticed his stare and grin and broke out in a wide smile of her own.
Note to self: Tell Tom not to let Adrien handle knives back there, she jotted in her mental notebook. Lest we return him eventually with seven fingers.
If we let him remain back there at all... but after his defense of us and of his wanting to help there this morning, how can we not? she marveled. That young man has STEEL inside of him... covering up such a gooey center. He's such a sensitive sort that seeing him transform like that on the phone was an eye-opener! Quite the protective instinct.
But when it comes to standing up for himself... he doesn't seem to react the same way. He wants to please others so much, and he'll set his own needs aside to make that happen. And if he thinks that he's failed at that in any way... he flinches. Like he's expecting punishment. Or that he's punishing himself.
Sabine frowned, recalling the look on Adrien's face when he had apologized to her that morning. The poor boy nearly crumbled in my arms after confronting Nathalie, she considered. Just what DO that horrible woman and his father demand of him over there?
I know what I've heard from Marinette about them so far... but I think that I need to hear more.
Watching the teens closely, she considered their antics for another few minutes. They're BOTH nervous, she perceived. Is it just that they're sensing each other's attraction now, or... is it something left over from earlier?
Or is something else entirely worrying them?
At supper, the feeling of unspoken anticipation continued to permeate the house. Tom wondered aloud what had gotten into the two of them; Adrien and Marinette shared a case of the giggles, with what seemed like private jokes passing back and forth between them steadily.
Sabine simply observed, passing plates and dishes and keeping the overall table conversation flowing smoothly. She was careful to avoid the topic of Nathalie's phone call; as startling as it had been, she felt like Adrien had been through enough today regarding it, and decided that she wouldn't bring it up with him unless he did.
After the dishes had been done and Tom had settled in for some evening television, Sabine told him that she'd be there shortly; nothing much, just something small that she needed to take care of. She stood in the next room, idly rummaging through some belongings as if tidying them, waiting... and hoping.
It only took a few minutes.
Shyly, Marinette approached her mother. "Mama... could I talk with you for a few minutes?" she asked. "It... um... might be kind of important."
Sabine suppressed showing off the unmitigated joy of a mother whose teenage daughter still values her advice... and smiled gently, instead. "Absolutely, dear. Come into the kitchen with me," she whispered, and they snuck off together.
Sitting across from Marinette, Sabine opened by saying, "I was hoping that I could talk with you tonight. You've seemed like you've been on edge much of the day. Not in a bad way, necessarily..."
"I don't think it's a bad way," said Marinette. "But I am nervous. I had asked Adrien if he'd want to go up top and talk one of these nights... and tonight's one of those nights."
Aha! thought Sabine. A big moment between them that they're both anticipating. "That would do it," she replied. "What's on your agenda to talk about?"
"Well, I was..." Marinette trailed off, momentarily. "I was going to admit to him that I've had feelings for him all along, and that I wasn't truthful with him when he'd asked that before."
She needs to talk this out for her own benefit as much as mine, reasoned Sabine. I'll let her lead this conversation. "He'd asked you before? And you'd said no?" she asked.
"Twice," admitted Marinette. "Once on that horrible day when the TV crew was filming in my room, and Jagged Stone told the world about my crush. Adrien approached me the next day, and I could barely face him, I was so nervous! I babbled at him about just being 'really into fashion.' I thought that he could tell that I was lying... but he let it go at that. The other time was at the wax museum... and, uh... that I don't really want to talk about in detail."
"I know that you came in that day looking like someone had shot your dog," sympathized Sabine. "I wanted to ask, but..."
"...It's a long story, Mama. But that was the day I found out that Adrien loved someone else, I'll just say that," said Marinette, quietly.
"And that someone was Kagami."
"It has to be," Marinette replied. "No one else even makes sense to consider."
"Hmmph," mused Sabine, not quite as sure of that. "But that was some time ago... and I have been watching him this week, and he's been watching you this week. I know that you felt before as if he couldn't see what you're really like, but right now... I assure you, he is."
"And that's why I was going to tell him tonight, but now I'm not so sure," said Marinette, looking down into her lap. "It may not be the right thing for me to do."
"Have your feelings for him changed?" her mother wondered. "As in, you're not as attracted to him as you once were?"
"Not at all," Marinette answered. "Very much the opposite! It's like, everything we do just makes it grow right now. We're talking about all sorts of things, we're comforting each other about everything that's going on, we're having fun and helping each other relax... actually, that's it! I'm relaxing around him now. And then yesterday... he told me just the sweetest thing ever about what I mean to him."
"What, when you checked on him late last night?" asked Sabine.
The response from across the table was beet red. "Nothing happened," emphasized Marinette. "Nothing."
"I didn't say that anything did! Merely that I thought I'd heard a little mouse scurrying down our hallway," Sabine grinned. "And I'm kind of glad that you did, to be honest. Tell me... I know that he's happy to be with you, and that he seems to be enjoying his stay. But... he's troubled, too. And Lord knows that he has reasons to be, but is there anything you can tell me about what else he's going through at home? You saw how shaken up he was after that phone call."
"Oh, he loves it here. I think that he'd move in for good, if he only could," Marinette explained. "But he and his father are... complicated."
Briefly, Marinette described their dynamic as she understood it: the pressures Adrien feels being Gabriel's son, the impact of the loss of his mother, and the distancing Gabriel had self-imposed after her disappearance. "Adrien wants so badly to be one of us at school, to fit in. And he has! There's nobody that doesn't like him... but his father just will not let up on him, ever," she lamented. "Which was a big obstacle in my trying to get closer to him. They don't seem to want anyone close to him."
"Except for Kagami," noted Sabine.
"Except for Kagami," Marinette agreed. "She's from a similar kind of background... her mother has some business thing going on with his father, and Adrien's not sure just what that's all about; he just knows that there's some kind of contract in the works. But the two of them have been pushed together... and now they are together."
"Are you sure?" Sabine wondered. "He didn't seem entirely sure the other evening, when your father asked him."
"They've been kissing, Mama," explained Marinette, patiently. "You don't go around kissing people that you don't want to be with like that."
"Oh... well, I suppose not," said Sabine. She has a bit to learn about that... she smiled to herself, and I'm a little glad that she hasn't already!
"So I'm torn," Marinette continued. "I want to be honest with him so much. Just so that I can turn that page and we can keep being best friends like we're becoming now! But I just think that things could get... you know... weird if I do. He might not look at me the same way. Kagami could feel hurt if she thinks that I'm making a move on her boyfriend."
"And what if he doesn't look at you the same way, once you've told him?" argued Sabine. "What if you say 'I've been in love with you,' and he says 'I love you, too?'"
Marinette sat perfectly still for a moment, as if astounded that anyone else imagined that it could even be a possibility, much less someone rational like her mother.
"Then I really am in trouble," she whimpered. "Because there's no way that I can say 'no'... and there's no way that I should say 'yes.'"
"I can't tell you what to do," Sabine began. "You have to make up your own mind about you and Kagami and what could change between you if you're honest. But I will suggest two things."
"Please do," Marinette said, attentively.
"One is that honesty is rarely a bad thing, in and of itself. It seems crazy to me that Adrien doesn't know that you wanted to be his... but if you've told him otherwise, maybe he doesn't!" said Sabine. "What's there between you is growing by leaps and bounds, though. You have such a connection now... and I think that if I was him... I'd want to know how you feel."
"Maybe. But maybe I'd just hurt him if I tell him! I'd just confuse him about what he has with Kagami-"
"And the other thing I have to say... is that Adrien is a very fine young man. A very smart, very sensitive, very caring young man. He has a big heart and a sharp mind. And he is allowed to change his mind, especially if what he knows about you changes as well," Sabine continued. "I am not saying that he would simply fall into your arms and sweep you off your feet, of course. I don't know how he would react. But as close as he's become to you this week... I am sure that he would react, and no matter what, he would be very protective of you. He would move mountains to keep you from feeling hurt."
"But not by hurting someone else," Marinette insisted. "I can't let him do that."
"And if his bond with Kagami is that strong... he wouldn't just dump her lightly for some kind of casual fling with you. I think we both know that," counseled Sabine. "That wouldn't even be an option for him. I think he'll find a way to keep both of you close, just like you're working so hard to do."
"Yeah," agreed Marinette. "So... okay. I have a lot to think about now... but thank you for all of this, Mama. I'm heading up to my room before... you know."
"Good luck to you, sweetheart... no matter how you choose to handle this," Sabine smiled.
She watched her daughter turn and ascend the stairs, then joined her husband on the living room couch. "Is everything all right?" Tom asked her.
"I think so," said Sabine. "Things may be lining up just the way that they should." When Tom looked at her quizzically, she simply added, "I think you'll see by tomorrow. What are we watching?"
