Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 27


It took a few minutes... and defiance of every instinct that the two of them possessed... but Marinette and Adrien managed to separate themselves just enough to be able to look into each other's eyes once more.

"Wow," they gasped at the same time... and then laughed together about that.

"So..." Marinette asked, shyly, once she caught her breath. "Did I do that right, Adrien?"

"I've never felt anything like that," he declared. "Ever."

"That doesn't exactly answer my question," she cooed, "but the expression on your face does, I think."

"I might need to try it one more time... just to be sure," grinned Adrien."

"Okay... just one more time," Marinette replied, her smile growing wider and a little bit craftier.

"I didn't say just one more," Adrien protested.

"Well, how about this?" she proposed, leaning in again. "We'll try it once more... since you asked so nicely... just to see if we like it as much the second time."


To no one's surprise, they did.


"Come here," beckoned Adrien, his arms outstretched. He patted his thigh to indicate what he was suggesting, and Marinette interpreted it correctly; she turned around and sat on his lap, facing away from him, and was rewarded with his arms wrapping around her waist.

"A girl could get used to this," she encouraged him.

"I'm kind of hoping that she will."

That got a chuckle out of her, and then a satisfied murring sound as he continued to cuddle her. "When I asked that... if I did it right... I didn't mean it like, to compare us," she mentioned. "Not 'am I as good as Kagami at that.' I don't want it to sound like a competition, like 'who's better at it.' If there's one thing to take out of that conversation, it's that."

"Oh, I understand that," Adrien assured her. He paused for a long moment, then added with a grin, "...but you are curious."

"Of course I'm curious!" she exclaimed, laughing. "But it's not something that I should ask you."

Marinette swung her legs gently, like a girl on a playground swing. "But... I really haven't done that before. Not with anyone," she admitted. "I kissed you on the cheek once, at the picnic. That's about it."

"That day that we were all filming a movie with our class. When Mylene got Akumatized, remember?" suggested Adrien. "You almost kissed me that day. Was it going to be anything like this was?"

"No! I... that was different then. You know that!" she grinned. "That would've been playing a role. I got pushed into that. Just like Alya pushed me that day with your 'statue.' This time... I wanted to. All of me wanted to. And the way that you looked at me... I just had to."

"I am so glad that you did."

They shared one more kiss, this one more of a quick peck than a life-changing experience.

"God, it feels good to be able to do that now," Adrien grinned.

"How about," suggested Marinette, "we head downstairs for a bit? I'm sure that my parents are wondering what happened."

"Like, whether one or both of us is crying their eyes out..." he agreed.

"...Or if we're celebrating just a little too much up here," she giggled.


Footsteps on the stairs made both Tom and Sabine turn in that direction. Seeing smiling teenagers emerge was reassuring to both of them.

"Well, hello," Sabine greeted them. "I take it that things went decently up there?"

"Very much so," confirmed Marinette. "We are all still on good terms with each other. Given what Adrien and I... know now, Kagami's not letting go of him... but she is sort of starting things over, giving Adrien some time to think about what he wants to do."

"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back... it's yours," smiled Sabine. "That old saying."

"Something like that," Adrien agreed. "Three very good friends... who will always remain three very good friends... and we'll see where things go from there."

"Very good. I was hoping that you'd reach some sort of agreement like that... given these crazy circumstances... but that's not always easy to do," Sabine noted. "One step at a time, as always. Would either of you care for some tea?" she asked them.

"I would. Chamomile?" suggested Marinette.

"Whatever's handy. Anything herbal," requested Adrien. "Thank you very much, Mrs. Cheng."

"No trouble at all," she smiled again.


Tom watched as Adrien and Marinette resumed their former position on the loveseat, from before the phone call from Kagami had interrupted them. They asked a couple of questions about the plotlines and what it was that they'd missed while they were upstairs, but when Tom offered to jump back to the previous episodes, they turned him down. Just being there, being close to each other, seemed more important to them than paying full attention to the program.

He casually studied their body language with a father's eye, looking for subtleties that might clue him into whether anything significant had changed between them. Not that I have a lot to compare to... he noted to himself, as male attention is fairly new for Marinette... but some things are fairly universal. And while I know that they know better... their door HAD been closed.

Things appeared to be very comfortable between them, and both appeared calmer than they had earlier in the evening. No nervousness between them, indicating new tensions... no excessive clinginess, either, which might hint at dramatically increased familiarity worth checking on. Marinette's head rested gently against Adrien as his arm cradled her shoulders, but both were about as focused on the television as on each other's faces.

Well, well, he smiled. If anything did change beyond what they told Sabine in the kitchen... it seems that they're both comfortable with where they now stand. Neither one is overwhelmed by things going too fast. And I like the sound of that.

As the episode they were watching ended, Tom suggested, "I'm trying not to binge this entire series in one night, and I might go up and get some sleep now. Is there something else that you two might want to watch?"

"I'll take a look, if you don't mind," Marinette thanked him, reaching for the remote. "Something that Mama might like, too."

"I won't be too far behind him," said Sabine, beside Tom on the couch. "But perhaps an episode of something light. A comedy, perhaps?"


Sabine was true to her word; after a half-hour episode of what Marinette had selected, she rose from the couch and stretched her arms out. "My eyes are drooping," she declared. "Don't stay up all night, okay?" she asked of them. "You can get the lights and such when you're done down here, right?"

"Absolutely. Good night, Mama," beamed Marinette, and Adrien gave her a nervous wave and a "Good night" of his own.

Once they were alone, Marinette gave Adrien a half-grin. "What is it?" she asked him. "You seem nervous."

"More like... maybe a little bit surprised," Adrien marveled. "I guess they really do trust us."

"Shouldn't they?" Marinette replied. "I mean... they don't know that we've started kissing yet, and we haven't given them reason to think that we're getting too frisky."

"True," he agreed. "But you are their teenage daughter, all alone on the couch with her first almost-sort-of-boyfriend, with your parents gone to bed and no one else to watch us. And a bunch of movie networks, too, and I'll bet some of those movies are pretty suggestive!"

"I mean..." he deadpanned, turning to her. "Aren't they worried about my virtue?"

That got Marinette laughing hard enough that she had to muffle herself. "Oh, yes," she giggled. "I'm just going to tear your clothes off and do terrible things to you, Adrien. Hold still, and I'll get started."

Adrien laughed as well, with just the tiniest hint of She's kidding, right? floating through his head. He wasn't sure whether he was more fearful or hopeful about that.

"Your virtue is safe with me tonight, trust me," smiled Marinette. "I feel like a kid with a new toy! I don't want to wear it out all at once. And... I don't want to push you, you know what I mean?"

She turned to face him on the loveseat, sitting cross-legged and looking more serious. "I know that Kagami... set you free, like Mama said tonight. I know that she wants you back that way. And I am so happy that I can hold you, and cuddle you, and kiss you now without feeling too guilty about it... but I want to make sure that you know that I'm not using that to win you, okay?"

"The fact that I can be here with you like this... I'm the luckiest girl there is," she added. "But I don't want you to choose me because you can kiss me and you can't be that close to Kagami any time soon. I mean, don't stop doing it just because of that, either!" she giggled. "I just don't want that to make your decision for you, that's all."


"Marinette... you amaze me, as always," replied Adrien. "You're on the brink of something you're wanting very much... and you're so focused on whether or not you're getting it fairly. And, no, I'm not picking on you right now... it's one of your best qualities. It really is."

"It's important to me," protested Marinette. "It's just how I am."

"And I can say that, yeah... that had crossed my mind as well. I'm not very experienced at this, either. I'd only ever kissed one girl before Kagami came along," he admitted. "The... Mystery Crush girl."

"Wow... you kissed her?" she asked him. "Like we did upstairs, or..."

"No, just a peck on the cheek," Adrien said. "And it was strictly friendly of me. I'd just asked her if there could be more... and she'd said no."

He looked visibly uncomfortable, leading Marinette to say, "We don't have to talk about that any more tonight. Not if you don't want to."

"Thank you," he smiled. "I'd rather not. But what I was saying was... kissing isn't something I do lightly. Especially like what we shared upstairs today. It's one of those things that... well... it has to mean something. And I promise you this... I was falling for you long before we started doing that, Marinette. I wouldn't have asked you to kiss me if I hadn't."

"So we'll take this slowly, like we'd planned," beamed Marinette. "And I'm just fine with that."

"Me, too."

He pulled Marinette towards him once more, turning her so that she was cuddled up spoon-style against him. "Wanna pick another movie?" he asked her.

"That would be perfect," she replied, meaning it in every possible way.