Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 28
When Sabine had walked into her bedroom that evening, Tom was already in his pajamas and under the covers, but was clearly still awake. "Hello, my sweet," he called out to her. "The kids are still up?"
"What do you think?" Sabine grinned, as she walked over to her dresser to select her sleep attire. "They'll be a while yet, I'm sure."
"Agreed. Welcome to a new stage of parenting... having an actively dating daughter," laughed Tom. "At least she picked her first one quite well."
As Sabine rummaged through a drawer and selected a simple green nightdress, Tom added, "Did they say anything else about how their talk with Kagami went? I'm pretty sure that I got the gist of it just by watching them tonight, but I'm curious whether I'm right or not."
"No, not a lot of details. They were cozy, but not... all over each other," said Sabine. "And they were actually watching the show they had on."
"Heh! That's about what I noticed," agreed Tom. "It's as if they feel like they have permission now, at least up to a point. But neither one seemed broken up or distressed... and I would have expected that if there had been a rough breakup, or if Kagami had seemed hurt to them."
"Which was a very big worry for them." Sabine stepped into their bathroom, but remained within conversational distance. "Anyway... they're watching another movie. Or at least pretending to watch it."
"Takes you back, doesn't it?" Tom called to her. "To when we were that age?"
"Oh, I wasn't dating at her age. I didn't really start until I was well into lycee," she replied. "And not very much even then. I was very choosy."
"Well, obviously!" laughed Tom as Sabine emerged, now ready for bed. "Look whom you picked."
"Pfft," Sabine chuckled. "You weren't the only fish in the sea, you know. Lucky for you that I threw them all back until I caught a big one."
She turned off the light on the end table next to her, then turned to her husband. "It does take me back a little, though... to when we first started dating."
"Some very good times," Tom smiled. "A bit of kissing and hugging in the dark, trying not to get caught by your family?"
"And mostly succeeding," she replied. "Oh, I remember it well."
"Perhaps I'm not quite ready to go to sleep yet..." said Tom.
"Mmm-hmmm?" Sabine grinned back. "And just what do you have on your mind, honey?"
"Oh, perhaps a few ideas. Just because they're not old enough or ready yet..."
Around three-thirty, Tom woke up, showered quickly and put on his outfit for the day. He trod down the stairs quietly, not wanting to wake anyone else yet, heading for his kitchen for a light snack and a glass of orange juice before starting his morning bakery work.
As he entered it, he saw that one light in the living room was still on, and that the television was silent but also still on. That's odd, he thought. Why wouldn't Marinette have turned everything off before they went up?
He finished his snack and walked into that room, intending on rectifying that. As he got close, he stopped short... with a chuckle.
About an hour later, a gentle shake of her shoulder woke Sabine. "Hmmm?" she mumbled. "Is it six o'clock already? I didn't hear the alarm..."
"Not quite yet. A little after five. I hadn't planned on waking you up this early... but there's something downstairs that you simply need to see," her husband smiled warmly.
Slowly, Marinette opened her eyes just a crack. She wasn't immediately sure whether that was a good decision or not, so she closed them again.
Hmmm.
She opened them again, a little bit wider. Something about her first tiny glimpse of morning didn't seem quite... normal to her.
The first clue was that she was facing a television. It was still on, and a pop-up box reading Are you still watching? was on the screen, prompting her to press a button on the remote to start the next episode.
Yeah. That's right, we were watching that series about the kids in the old house... and all the weirdness going on around them there...
Huh. It must've stopped at the end of an episode. If you just let it play for a while without touching the remote, it'll do that... so that if you're binging a series, you don't forget where you left off if you have to leave and it's still running.
Or if you...
...fall asleep?
That made her eyes open all the way.
This isn't my room! This is the living room. And I'm horizontal.
Oh, my gosh! I must've fallen asleep, and Adrien tucked me in on the couch! That was so sweet of...
Of...
She looked down her body, and saw that she had indeed been tucked in comfortably. The quilt that had been folded over the top of the couch was now draped over her, and in her sleep she'd shifted enough to wrap it around herself more securely.
Something's still... different, though, she reasoned. Our couch is comfortable, but it's never been quite... THIS comfortable?
Abruptly... the couch moved slightly.
No, that's not it! Marinette told herself. Couches don't move by themselves, and with me on it, someone would have to push with all their might to move it. And it doesn't feel like that's what happ-
Oh!
Another brief movement made her realize that the soft cushions beneath her weren't the only things that she was lying up against. There was a warm presence behind her, breathing very slowly - the most comfortable cushion in the universe, she smiled to herself, with that realization making her tingle all over - and an arm around her waist. When it shifted, she realized that where her shirt had ridden up a tiny bit, his hand underneath the quilt was touching her side of her belly lightly, skin-to-skin.
Marinette took inventory, as quickly and as thoroughly as she could without actually moving or kicking off the quilt. Given where she was at that moment, she didn't want to move again for at least a month... but had the night ended like how she was sure that it had ended?
Everything... seems to be in order, thought Marinette. I can see my shoes over there, where I had kicked them off... but as far as I can tell, everything else that I was wearing is exactly where it's supposed to be. Adrien holding me like this feels better than an ice-cream sundae in Heaven... but I can tell that his hand is there because it's comfortable for us to lay this way. Naturally. Not going... um... exploring.
She heard a faint noise behind her, and worked out that it was Adrien snoring very, very lightly. He hadn't been doing that the whole time, or at least not when she'd first awoken... so perhaps the slight shift of his weight had put him in a position that was causing that.
Well, I certainly don't want you to feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, grinned Marinette. She pulled the quilt tighter against herself, her arm reaching down and cradling Adrien's, holding it right where it was. She closed her eyes once more, snuggled backwards slightly, and prepared to drift off for the second half of her catnap. It was as if she was floating in a dream, a dream that had come true at last...
...Um, wait a second?
Marinette's conscious mind began to reassert itself, poking gently against the rest of her brain and insisting that it, too should get a turn to play.
Okay. Now... THINK.
I wonder what time it is? I can't really reach my phone right now to check. It's not, like, mid-morning yet, or my parents would have -
EEP!
THAT'S a vivid thought! As good as this feels right now... maybe I need to get up before I do fall asleep again and my father catches us like this? It's not like we were DOING anything... but I'll never hear the end of "now that you two are sleeping together" jokes in private. Just a BIT embarrassing!
Hmmm.
I don't think that I can carry Adrien upstairs without transforming... and, yeah, THAT'S a bad idea on about twelve different levels right now. So I have two choices. I can either roll over and wake him up, and we can go up together...
...Or I can get up very gently and tuck HIM in, she giggled. Just as sweetly as he must have...
Er...
But Adrien didn't tuck me in like this. I mean, he certainly doesn't seem to be complaining one bit... but if he's behind me, I must've been the one who arranged us this way and pulled the quilt over us!
Wow, Marinette marveled. I kiss a boy a couple of times, and look at how daring I'm getting all of a sudden!
All right, now. I know what I need to do. I'm going to wriggle free, very slowly... and then I'm going to cover Adrien with the quilt again without waking him up. Then I'll kiss him on the forehead goodnight, I'll pick up my shoes, and I'll tiptoe upstairs to my room. And then we won't have as many questions to answer as to how cuddly we'd REALLY been!
Yep. That's a good plan.
Gathering her determination, Marinette reached down and lifted Adrien's arm up very slightly. She heard a slight noise from behind her, kind of a small grunt, and his arm moved and clasped her securely once more.
Oh, great! Marinette laughed to herself. It's like I'm his teddy bear, and he won't let go!
I guess that I'll just have to wake him up, she reasoned. I hate to do it, but...
Slowly, Marinette turned her head to where she could make out Adrien's sleeping face. She stretched as best she could, reaching up towards it...
"You don't have to wake him if you don't want to," a voice said, very quietly, and Marinette tried and failed to jump completely out of her own skin.
"MAMA?" Marinette hissed, suppressing a full-blown panic reaction through force of will.
"Yes, it's me," Sabine grinned, stepping forward to where Marinette could see her. "Your father found the two of you asleep like that, and put the quilt over you so that you wouldn't wake up cold. Then he woke me up to come and see 'the most adorable thing ever,' I think he called it."
Marinette opened her mouth to speak... then closed it again, with a dumbfounded smile on her face. BUSTED! she sighed to herself.
"I can explain...?" she ventured, wondering whether or not she actually could satisfactorily.
"What's there to explain?" countered Sabine. "You were watching television together, all cuddled up, and you both fell asleep, right?"
"...Yes?"
"And if I lift that quilt, there wouldn't be anything that'd make me worry?"
"Of course not!" insisted Marinette, a bit too loudly. She glanced up to make sure that she hadn't just awakened Adrien, which she hadn't.
"Then why should I complain?" Sabine assured her. "I mean, I wouldn't encourage you to make this a habit every night... but you don't have to get up just yet." Her knowing smile widened as she added, "You do look rather comfortable like that."
"...Even so," Marinette said. Very carefully and gently, she wriggled free of Adrien's grasp and replaced the quilt over him. Unconsciously, he moved towards the warm spot where she had been, and seemed to smile as if in a pleasant dream.
Marinette crept over to her mother's side, shoes in hand. "Thank you for understanding," she told her, still feeling quite embarrassed. "I promise you that it was innocent enough."
"I would find it hard to believe that it wasn't," Sabine noted. "Why did you decide to get up, if I may ask?"
"Because I know Adrien," blushed Marinette. "And if he woke up like that with you standing over him... he'd turn even redder than I am now."
Sabine grinned as she watched her daughter head for the stairs. The two of them really are such a perfect match, she smiled. And she's right... both of them are trying so hard to control themselves and not cross any lines that they shouldn't. And they're both so nervous about what finally seems to be starting, that they're nearly apologizing for it!
I wonder what they'd do if they knew that Tom snapped a picture of them with his phone this morning? she laughed to herself.
