Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 14


"I'm... scared."

Plagg studied his young host's face carefully. "Among other emotions," he said, flatly. "Yeah, I can see a little of that mixed in with the rest."

"I am serious, Plagg!" Adrien moaned, trying to keep his voice low enough to not be overheard. "Tonight could be absolutely huge. Yes, I'm happy and I'm excited, too... but I'm still trying to figure out what to say when I get there with her tonight. If I'm doing the right thing."

"Fine. Talk me through it, then," Plagg sighed. "You and Marinette are going up on her balcony tonight to 'look at the stars.' As if that isn't code for something else entirely. Go ahead."

"Excuse me," Adrien retorted. "I have been up there dozens of times before with Marinette, which you would know since you were there! I've never laid so much as a paw upon her, much less a lip."

"As Chat Noir, yes. But Adrien's never been up there maskless," Plagg agreed.

"Adrien's never been up there, about to ask his good friend if she has feelings for him deep down," said Adrien. "And that he hopes that she does."


"Okay. Now, you are going to follow my advice, right? Don't push too hard. You've made so much progress with her, and you're stuck in this house with her, so tread lightly unless you're getting good signs back!" advised Plagg. "Keep her comfortable."

"I intend to," agreed Adrien. "In fact, I thought of that last night when she came to my room! I almost asked her then and there... but she was still catching her breath and shaken up, so I held back."

"I know; I was there," said Plagg. "Smart of you. Once in a while, I know what I'm talking about."

"More than I give you credit for sometimes," Adrien conceded. "And then other times, you're a raving cheese junkie."

"To mine own self be true," grinned Plagg, toothily. "Anyway... here's a question. You're not going to push Marinette if she's too emotional or overwhelmed. Are you either of those?" He searched Adrien's face, growing more serious. "That was quite a show you put on this morning in the bakery."

"Nathalie had no right to go after Mrs. Cheng like that. None," Adrien emphasized. "She was completely out of line."

"Don't get me wrong!" Plagg exclaimed. "You did great! I'm proud of you for that. But pushing back against them... that took a lot out of you. Are you up for this tonight?"

Adrien pondered that for a moment. "I need to be," he declared. "Marinette invited me up for stargazing the other day. She asked me because she had things that she wanted to talk about, so I need to be there to support her and to listen. Not for, uh... what I'm kind of hoping it might turn into."

"And what is that, exactly?"

"That's the part that I'm still figuring out," mumbled Adrien.


"Ladybug is still... Ladybug," Adrien began. "I still love her. I think I always will. That doesn't just... turn off. If it could, she'd have Lucky Charmed something that would've done the job months ago."

"But her answer has been 'no.' Every time. A little louder each time," he admitted. "And at some point... I had to at least show her that her answer had been heard, and to stop pushing so hard. Do I hope that she'll change her mind someday? Of course I do. But I can't make Ladybug fall for me."

Plagg nodded, holding back his first three reactions to that statement.

"And then came Kagami. She's the first person I've ever been interested in who's liked me that way, too," Adrien continued.

"I... okay. We'll go with that," said Plagg, picking his words carefully and getting a confused glare from Adrien.

"Well, she did! It took us a little while to really start to click... but once we did, she made it clear that she wanted something more. And I must admit that she is very, very persuasive," he smiled.

"As I've seen," Plagg chuckled. "Are you and her 'a thing' or aren't you, though? That might make a lot of difference for you tonight."

"I don't know," Adrien answered, flatly. "That sounds terrible of me to say, but it's true... we're still figuring a lot of that out. We're closer to that than I've ever been with anyone else... everyone seems to assume that we're a couple now. But we had planned on getting together and talking about it before all of this virus stuff happened."

"So you're single. You think," deadpanned Plagg.

"Attached enough that I wouldn't ask out anyone else lightly," Adrien confirmed. "And Kagami and I still need to talk before I'd commit to anyone else. Relationships are more complicated than I'd ever thought, Plagg! There are more levels than just 'dating' and 'not dating.' But I'd still put 'single' on my student ID."

"I doubt that many lycee students put 'married' there, but I get what you're saying," Plagg noted. "And that brings us to contestant number three..."


"See, that's the question for tonight, isn't it?" smiled Adrien. "If romance is a big game, I'm not even sure that Marinette wants to play it with me, much less win. Or that she hasn't already found a different partner."

Adrien's face showed a wide range of emotions, all at once. "I know what she's told me before. But I know what you and I had talked about, too, how she was caught up in her emotions when she said it then. And this week has been... Plagg, I just have to believe that I'm not the only one feeling it! That this time up close with her this week has opened her eyes, like it's opened mine."

"But maybe I am just seeing what I want to see. Maybe she is just being friendly and comforting while I'm stressed out. Maybe she's more comfortable with me now because she thinks I'm with Kagami, so she shouldn't have to worry any more about my asking her out. And maybe she's Luka's girl now," mused Adrien. "And I have to prepare myself for that, too."

"Anything's possible," Plagg replied. "But what are you hoping for?"

"More."

Adrien let that word ride for a moment. "Whatever she wants us to be. A deeper friendship, something more flirty than that, a let's-try-it-and-see-if-it-works real date, a kiss that lasts half an hour and still isn't long enough. But more. I'll follow her lead, follow what she wants, because I'd follow that girl anywhere."

"Sounds like you've got your head on straight, then. Now go comb your hair and try to relax for a while," smiled Plagg, "'cause you'll follow her upstairs soon."


A gentle knock at Adrien's door made him jump... which made Marinette jump... which made them share a gentle laugh.

"Hi," she said. "Would you still like some company tonight?"

"I've been looking forward to it all day," Adrien beamed, hopping up off of his bed. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to a little basket in her hand.

"Supplies," Marinette grinned. She showed off two bags of popped microwave popcorn, a couple of drinks and some napkins. "Being a good hostess."

"Then how can I resist?" Adrien grinned back. "Lead on, my lady."

His choice of phrase seemed to register with her for a moment. She looked at him curiously, as if... wondering...

...but then she shook that off, and led him upstairs with a broad smile and a few butterflies dancing in her stomach.


"Yesssss," Adrien exclaimed as he cleared the balcony hatch. "There is still such a thing as an 'outside.'"

"I promise that I haven't been hiding it from you!" Marinette told him. "Any time that you'd like to come up, you don't even have to ask."

"It'll be hard to keep me away," Adrien declared. "What a view!" He walked over to the railing, next to where Marinette was standing.

"Letting me have my room with access to this was one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me," agreed Marinette. "It's such a great place to come up and people-watch, or do some drawing, or just think about things... sometimes I'll even sunbathe up here in the summertime."

I REALLY need to come by here more often as Chat in the summer, Adrien thought.

"And right now... it looks so different than usual," she added. "Look at all the buildings out there that are dark tonight. Normally, the whole skyline is lit up at night."

"Why run the lights if nobody's home?" said Adrien. "If businesses are closed... I mean, a lot of them are still on anyway. Automated systems, I'd guess."

"Now, look up," Marinette smiled.

Adrien did... and saw the sky ablaze with constellations.

"So much less light pollution!" she grinned. "It's like everything aligned to give us even better scenery tonight."

"Definitely," Adrien agreed. "It reminds me of when I was very little, and we visited some distant family that lived out in the country... I'd look up at night and it was if it was a completely different sky from what I was used to. Like a fireworks show, but frozen in time. And in a way, it is!"

He pointed to a familiar constellation, guiding Marinette to look as well. "Like, Orion up there... each of those stars is many light-years away, hundreds or thousands of them, and light can only travel so fast. So what you're seeing isn't Betelgeuse now, but what it was like back in the 1300s or 1400s."

"Huh!" marveled Marinette. "I'd never really studied astronomy... that's quite a thing to wrap my head around."

"One of many subjects my father insists that I know something about," Adrien replied. "I must be an exceptionally well-rounded frontman for the business someday."

"Speaking of your father..." Marinette interjected... "thank you again for defending my parents this morning, Adrien. That meant a lot to them... and to me, too."

"You're welcome, but it was no big thing. It had to be said," he demurred. "You and your parents have been nothing but welcoming to me... and thank you for that."

"That wasn't easy on you to do, though. C'mere," beckoned Marinette. She stepped over to a lounge chair and pulled it next to a similar one. Sitting down on the left one, she patted the seat of the right one with her hand. "Let's talk about that for a minute, okay?"

Adrien, not needing an engraved invitation, quickly stretched out next to her. "They drive me crazy sometimes," he admitted. "Yes, I know that Agreste is a multi-million-Euro brand and a major player in multiple global industries..." he intoned, as if reading aloud from their sales brochure. "And I'm stuck with being part of that because of who I am. But not everything in this world should be about money and influence and lawyers, and they forgot about that a long time ago."

"I get that. It's a big reason why I'm glad you've kind of found a home in our class," Marinette smiled. "I know how much you want to be liked for being you, not for who your father is or what label your picture's on."

"I love that you understand me like that, Marinette," Adrien told her. "Because you're so right."

"Luckily, liking you for being you is very easy to do," she giggled.

"That's why... um..." Adrien faltered.

"Hmmm?" wondered Marinette, seeing that. "Just say it, whatever it is."

"That day that I asked you about those pictures on your wall... and you said that you were 'just really into fashion'... if someone else had said that to me, I might have taken it the wrong way," he ventured. Like, 'I'm just into you because you're a celebrity.'"

He saw alarm in her eyes and cut off her rebuttal before she could voice it. "And I knew that you were nothing like that, Marinette," he assured her. "You have been genuine with me from the moment that we met. Maybe the realest and the sweetest person I have ever known."

"Th-that's... because I took one look at a boy on the school steps, opening up to someone he barely knew and handing her his umbrella in the rain..." she stammered, "and I knew that he was someone just as real. Someone that I just had to get to know better."

"Best investment I ever made," Adrien grinned.

"It's still here," Marinette smiled.

"Definitely! I'm looking right at her."

"I... meant the umbrella," she blushed.


Marinette shivered, just a little bit.

"Are you all right like this?" asked Adrien. "I didn't bring a coat with me... but we could go get a couple of blankets, or something, or just go inside and talk..."

"No, I'm fine," she replied. "There's... just a tiny chill in the air, but I'm still warm enough... and I don't want to go inside yet."

Adrien gave her a look that, all by itself, warmed Marinette from the inside out. "I don't, either."