Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 24


As Marinette entered the kitchen, Adrien studied her closely for signs of what to expect. She looks pretty calm, he thought. Things couldn't have gone too badly up there.

"Hey," Marinette smiled. "I looked for you in your room, and found you here. How are you doing?"

"Pretty well, I guess, considering," said Adrien. "And by that I mean that I'm a nervous wreck. I was just getting a drink and talking with your father for a few minutes."

"Would you come up and talk with the two of us for a little while?" asked Marinette, holding out her phone to show that Kagami was still connected on their call. "We won't bite; I promise."

"Me, too. And not just because teeth don't bite well through a phone screen," Kagami added.

"All right." Adrien took a deep breath and rose from his seat, then joined Marinette for the climb up to her room. He considered holding her hand on the way up... but he wasn't entirely sure that he was still allowed to.


Once in the room, Marinette closed the door behind them. "Kagami... can we do this on Skype, instead of over the phone?" she asked.

"That is not a problem. Hang on," said Kagami, and the phone call disconnected.

"Get comfortable," Marinette directed Adrien as she busied herself at her computer. "This should only take a few seconds..."

As expected, Kagami's face appeared on Marinette's monitor after a short delay. She saw the two of them and smiled and waved.

"Perfect," noted Marinette. "This way it feels more like you're here. You're more life-sized now. It's harder to picture that when you're seven centimeters high on my phone."

"It is good to see you again, Kagami," Adrien agreed. "Not that you don't make an attractive samurai in our game."

"And you were a handsome... whatever you were," smiled Kagami. "But this is much nicer. Now... shall we just dive in? Adrien, I can see how nervous you look right now... We all are. And I would rather clear the air than dance around what we all need to talk about."

"Then let's do that," said Adrien. "Who wants to start?"

Marinette jumped in. "I guess I will," she volunteered.


"Okay. Adrien, Kagami... I think that we can see that even with everything that's happening... we're all still friends, and we should all feel safe in what we're going to say here. That doesn't mean that everyone's definitely going to leave this talk completely happy..." Marinette ventured, "but I don't want anyone to leave it feeling lied to or betrayed. I need all three of us to be honest, and I don't think that's too much to ask."

"It isn't," Adrien agreed. "We really need that. Kagami?"

"Thirded. It's honesty that got us into this position," she noted, looking at Marinette, "so it's our best tool to find the way out."

"Adrien... I also want to make this clear..." said Marinette, flinching slightly at Kagami's subtext. She's not being mean by implying FINALLY! about my confession, she's being honest, she told herself. "Kagami and I aren't about to tell you how things are going to be. We're not going to give you an ultimatum and say 'Choose one, and that's final.' We need you to be part of all of this... because there is no this without you. Do you understand that?"

"I do," smiled Adrien, nervously. "The two of you are still on speaking terms with me, so I'm lucky that way; it's only polite of me to respond."

"If you're feeling like you've done something horribly wrong, Adrien, you can knock that off now," Marinette told him. "This isn't a game of 'who screwed up worse.' This is us figuring this out and moving forward. Okay?"

Adrien nodded, then Kagami did as well.

"So let's summarize this. Kagami, you knew that I was so into Adrien, and you held off from what you wanted to give me endless chances to be honest with him about my feelings. But... I didn't find a way to do that," Marinette sighed. "So you made your move, and Adrien responded to that very well. Adrien, you didn't know my feelings about you... so you entered into a relationship with Kagami with no regrets. And I saw the two of you being very happy together... and I did my best to move on and be a good friend to you both."

She took another deep breath. "And then this insane situation happened. And Adrien and I grew so much closer... but in a mostly friendly kind of way. I knew that there were lines I shouldn't cross, and I didn't. But then I admitted that I'd had feelings... and that I still do. I told Adrien the truth about them, not to steal him away but to be fair to him. And I never imagined his reaction... okay, I may have dreamed it a thousand times but I didn't think that it could happen! Especially now."

"And now..." she sighed. "Kagami... I really didn't want to do this over the computer like this. I wanted you and Adrien to talk things out first in person, but that's kind of hard to arrange right now..."

"Which is not your fault, Marinette. And neither is the situation that you're in. We are all dealing with this in our own way," replied Kagami.


"Adrien," Kagami continued, "you and I do have something meaningful between us. You are the only boy that I have ever kissed. You are the only boy that I have ever wanted to," she confessed. "And you do it very well, I must also confess."

Adrien turned some interesting colors, but he didn't flinch. "I have no complaints on my end, Kagami," he smiled.

"And Marinette is quite correct; I did hold back. I did give her room to speak her mind to you, Adrien. And I did tell you that I sensed her feelings for you... but that was one of our few points of disagreement so far," noted Kagami.

"And I was wrong. Completely wrong. I know that now," replied Adrien, quietly.

"I want to make this very clear. Marinette, I am not angry at you for loving Adrien... and Adrien, I am not angry at you for responding once you knew the truth," Kagami declared, sounding surprisingly confident in her own words. "I held back because I sensed the truth... and I wanted it to play out before I asked Adrien to commit to me. When it became clear that it would not... I could not wait forever. Perhaps I did not wait long enough after all... but who could have anticipated this chain of events?"

"Adrien..." she continued, "I pressured you to decide between the two of us. Or possibly three," she added, "...as Marinette confirmed my suspicion that we were not the only two girls on your mind this year."

Marinette turned to Adrien. "You told me that you'd had a serious crush on someone else... and I told Kagami. I hope that I didn't overstep," she said, worriedly.

"You didn't," Adrien told her, unconvincingly.

"Part of me is very curious as to who that was..." Kagami wondered.

Marinette shot Adrien a look that she hoped was more reassurance and comfort than her own desperate need to know.

"...but we don't have to go over that tonight if you do not want to, Adrien," continued Kagami. "If it's in the past, it's in the past. Right?"

"...R-right," smiled Adrien. "Some other time, maybe."

"Which brings me from the past to our present," Kagami said, looking more troubled. "In which I thought I had a boyfriend... or something very close to one... or someone in my life who kissed like one, at least. But I knew that he didn't know the whole truth, and truth to tell, I wondered if I would be looking over my shoulder, always waiting for this to happen."

"But now, at long last, it has," she declared, refocusing her eyes on Adrien and Marinette. "And I am glad that it has. Because now we can do this the right way... with all of our eyes open. And if we continue as we have been, Adrien, I will know that it is because you want to... not because I am pressuring you to."


Marinette watched Adrien take in all of this. "Before you start, Adrien, can I say something?" she asked, to which Adrien nodded.

"What's been happening here has been happening fast," she emphasized. "And it's complicated. And it's delicate. And it's not something that you have to make a decision on right now."

"I don't know how I can't," Adrien replied, quietly. "I feel like I owe it to both of you to figure this out, and quickly."

"I'm sure that you've figured this part out by now," Marinette said, "but no matter what you decide about me, I want Kagami to be a big part of your life, Adrien. Maybe she'll be your girlfriend, and I'll be your best friend who hugs you and talks with you late at night and cheers you on with Kagami. Maybe I'll be your girlfriend, and Kagami will be that kind of special friend to you. Maybe we can both date you, like, casually, and see how we all feel about it?" She looked at Kagami, who nodded. "But you might not be ready for that," she told Adrien, "so don't feel like you have to consider it if you're not."

Adrien processed all of that, but was silent for the moment.

"You are not obligated to do anything. I would prefer to think that what we had between us was significant, Adrien... but do not let it dictate what comes next. Because I will clarify something... for the moment, you have lost your makeout privileges with me," Kagami laughed.

It was as close to a giggle as Marinette had ever heard come from Kagami's mouth.

"That is not a punishment, please understand; it is simply my acknowledgement that the entire game has changed. It is time to reset the scoreboard... and start anew, this time with everyone on even footing," smiled Kagami. "If you do still want to be with me that way, I will welcome you back with open arms and those privileges will be restored, make no mistake! My own feelings for you are just as strong."

"Or," she continued, staring straight at Adrien, "if you fall into Marinette's arms tonight and she learns how good of a kisser you are... will I have some disappointment, some regret? Yes, I will, I will admit that much. But I will know that you will be with someone that you love... and I will be glad of that. I would rather be your good friend than standing in the way of your true desire, if it turns out that I must be one or the other."

"Or you could say that this is all way too crazy and too sudden, and you want to date neither one of us for a while and let your feelings settle down," added Marinette. "And that's fine, too. Honest, it is."

"But whatever you choose to do... you're not hurting us by doing what you feel is right," said Kagami, quietly. "Either of us."

"You are too caring of a person to feel like you would be," echoed Marinette. "We both know that. Neither of us is going anywhere whether you pick one of us, or both, or neither right now."

"With one exception," interjected Kagami, her voice turning serious. "One that both Marinette and I agreed upon."


"Oh?"

Adrien flinched at the change in tone. "What, uh... is the exception to that?" he wondered, nervously.

"If you tell us that your new girlfriend will be Lila Rossi, we will come for you and we will find you and we will break both of your legs," intoned Kagami.

"One leg each," agreed Marinette. "I get the left one."

The room fell silent for several seconds...

...and then erupted in loud laughter, coming from all three of them, lasting quite some time.