Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 31


After the evening meal, Marinette gave her parents a calculating look. "I was wondering..." she ventured, "if you would mind if Adrien and I did something unusual tonight."

Three faces stared back at her with varying levels of amusement and astonishment, to which she blushed heavily. "Not anything like that!" she gasped. "Everybody's mind is in the gutter, all of a sudden."

"I don't know what you mean," smirked Tom, holding back a few other jokes. "What did you have in mind?"

"Going out for a walk in the park," suggested Marinette. "Just the one down the block. I figure that both of us could use a reminder that the outside world still exists."

"Hmmm. Do you think that that's wise?" wondered Sabine. "With everything that's going on?"

"Well, I figure that it'll be mostly deserted, don't you?" Marinette explained. "It's not that crowded in normal times. They've said that it's being around other people that can be dangerous, not just being out in the air itself. We'll practice social distancing if we encounter anyone, and wear masks. I made a handful of them for all four of us."

"They're up on your desk, right?" asked Adrien, to which she nodded. "I'll go get them."

"...Had you run this by Adrien before?" asked Tom, once Adrien had departed.

"Uh-huh, we'd talked about it a little bit. He's interested in it, if it's okay with you two," Marinette said. "Not if you think that it'll cause problems! He's still very worried about that."

"Well... the authorities have said that it's okay to be out like that and get a little exercise, within reason," Tom noted. "If you're careful. Those aren't, like, medical-grade masks you're talking about, are they?"

"Oh, no, but they're not intended to be, either. Your mask isn't so much to keep you from getting sick, but to keep what you're breathing or coughing out away from everyone else," agreed Marinette. "The Prime Minister said once a day, within a kilometer of your house, and no more than an hour, right?"

"That's what I had read," said Sabine. "Sounds like you've got it all figured out. Tom, what do you think?"

"No objections here," he declared.

With that, Adrien came flying down the stairs with a small bag in his hands, which he presented to Marinette.

"Thank you," she grinned, reaching inside and producing a variety of colored cloth. "See? A couple of floral ones for you, Mama, and solid colors for you..." she declared, handing them across. "I sewed them up the other night out of some cotton fabric I had lying around, and a couple of old T-shirts I'd outgrown. They're folded over for thickness and sewn in place, you can tie them back with these little straps, and there's a little pocket on the inside for tissues or paper towels as a disposable layer. Two for each, so that if we each use one you'll still have a clean one while the other one's being washed."

Sabine tried one on, and it fit securely around her mouth and nose. "I like this," she replied. "I might even think about wearing one of these down in the bakery. It covers what it should, but it's soft and comfortable, too. Thank you, dear!"

"They're easy to make. If you know anyone else who could use some, let me know." Marinette bounced in her chair, eagerly. "So... can we?" she bubbled. "While it's still warm and light out?"

"If you like. Just be careful and follow the rules, okay?" her father told them.

Marinette looked at Adrien, who grinned back. They each grabbed a mask from the pile, tied it on quickly, and headed for the back door together.


"Oh, my gosh, I have been wanting this for so long," declared Marinette, as she and Adrien strolled slowly down a walking path in the nearby park. As she had predicted, it was very sparsely populated, and others who were there joined them in keeping a more-than-reasonable distance.

"Getting out for a walk, or something else?" grinned Adrien, that humor more evident in his voice than in his covered face.

"Yes," Marinette giggled in response. "It just feels just a little bit normal again to be out like this, though."

"You have your balcony, at least. You can go up there whenever and look out over the city," Adrien pointed out. "Not many can say that they have that."

"True," allowed Marinette, "but that's always the same view, and a small, enclosed area. This, though... I don't know, weren't you getting tired of being cooped up, Adrien?" she asked.

"Oh, I couldn't knock the company," he countered, playfully. "But you know how I am about feeling locked away. I may be used to it, but I'll never like it."

"All the more reason for us to be out here," she grinned.

They wandered through the park for about thirty minutes, settling down on a couple of benches close to the street, sitting side by side and holding hands.

"What did Nathalie have to say to you today?" wondered Marinette.

"The usual. Same quarantine, same lockdown, Father's still pulling his hair out trying to juggle everything that's going on," sighed Adrien. "Looks like you're stuck with me for a while longer. They are sending the Gorilla over in the morning with some more of my things, at least."

"That's good. Not that you don't look good in the same couple of outfits, but it's good to have choices," she said. "I know that sometimes it feels like I'm just wearing the same old thing to school every day."

"I know what you mean. I think people think that I have five of the same shirts sometimes," Adrien agreed. "It's easy to fall into habits like that." Taking her hand, he added, "But sometimes it's worth it to dare to try something new, hmmm?"

"Definitely," said Marinette, very warmly. She leaned in close to him and murmured, "I'd kiss you if the masks weren't in the way."

"Why let that stop you?" he laughed, and they moved in face-to-face.

"Ahem!" came a stern voice from somewhere nearby. "If you would like a ticket, by all means, keep that up."


The kids jumped as one, very startled. "I beg your pardon?" exclaimed Adrien.

"You're at one ticket already," Officer Raincomprix declared. "Failure to socially distance while under lockdown. Care to go for two, son?"

"Um..." mumbled Marinette. "Hello, Officer. I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I'm in your daughter Sabrina's class at school?"

"I thought that was you," the officer noted. "And your companion is..."

"Adrien," he replied. "Adrien Agreste. I'm also in your daughter's class."

His statement caught the attention of someone walking nearby, who did a double-take from a safe distance. "Adrien Agreste, the model?" he heard them wonder, faintly.

"I can see that you know most of the rules," Officer Raincomprix told them. "You're masked, and you seem to be remaining apart from everyone but each other. But I am afraid that it looks like I will need to write that ticket."

"That's fine," said Adrien. "I'll cover whatever it costs."

"No, wait a second," interjected Marinette, rising to her feet. "We're only a few hundred meters from my house, we're masked, and we've been out for less than an hour. We're not endangering anyone else. What's the problem, Officer?"

"The Agreste mansion is more than a kilometer from here, young lady," he declared, pulling out his ticket book. "And you are only supposed to be out exercising alone, or with members of your household."

"As I said, I'll take the ticket, just to try and be a good example," said Adrien. "But there is... well... something of an extenuating circumstance, if I can explain..."

"And what might that be?" the officer asked.

"I'm... living with him now?" Marinette blurted out.


As Adrien took Officer Raincomprix aside and attempted to adequately describe his new living arrangements, Marinette caught a glimpse of the now-three passersby who were gaping at them.

"You're... living with Adrien Agreste?" one of them asked, incredulously.

"No! I mean... yes, yes, I am! But not, like... living together living together. Of course not. We wouldn't be old enough for... even if we were..." Flustered, Marinette did her best to produce a coherent sentence. "We've been quarantined together temporarily, that's all."

"It didn't look like 'that's all' a moment ago," quipped another.

"That's... none of your business," she snapped, turning back to watch Adrien plead his case for a moment. "Aren't you three standing a little too close together right now?"

Officer Raincomprix's head snapped around, and the passersby stepped two meters apart with all due haste. At his glare, they scattered, and Marinette returned to Adrien's side.

"Just a warning this time, all right?" the officer told the pair. "I shouldn't even do that. The Mayor has been insisting on zero tolerance on public canoodling during this crisis."

"Understood, Officer. We will keep our canoodles out of public places from now on, I promise," said Adrien, a bit nervously.

"All right, then. Move along," Officer Raincomprix declared, heading out to continue his beat.


Adrien and Marinette stared at each other... then burst out into mutual laughter.

"Shall we..." ventured Marinette.

"...get home before we're wanted criminals?" chuckled Adrien. "Yes, please."

The two ran back to Marinette's back door, feeling giggly all the way.

"Hello," Sabine greeted them as they entered. "How was your walk?"

"Oh... not bad! About like I'd expected. We were some of the only people there, and it was very nice out," Marinette declared.

"Good. Nothing unusual?" asked Sabine.

"Oh... nothing too unusual," whistled Adrien. For me, anyway, he thought.

"Perhaps your father and I will try that tomorrow night," Sabine smiled. "It's been a while since we've been anywhere besides the grocery store."

"I think that you'd both enjoy it. Just watch your distancing," chirped Marinette as the kids headed for the stairs.

Now, what did she mean by that? wondered Sabine, but left it at that for now.


Upstairs, the two of them settled down in Adrien's room, still laughing.

"Just once these days, I'm going to have a good idea that doesn't go horribly wrong," giggled Marinette.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Adrien declared. "I quite enjoyed it, right up until we got accused of crimes against humanity."

"You did see those people on the sidewalk, right?" ventured Marinette. "I did my best to put that fire out, once they'd heard your name."

"Thank you," breathed Adrien. "That's all we need, more reasons for my father to get nervous." He looked thoughtful, then added, "You know... this is something that we ought to talk about, Marinette. If we are going to end up being a couple, after all of this is over with... I do have to deal with paparazzi sometimes. Look at tonight; there weren't many other people out on this side of Paris, and four of them still found us together."

"You and Kagami had to deal with that sometimes?" she asked.

"Not very much yet... but sometimes, yes," he admitted. "I can't promise that you won't get drawn into it."

"I'm okay with that. I'm sure that I am," smiled Marinette. "You don't think that you'd be worth it? Or anything else?" She added, with a laugh, "At least for now, we're wearing masks."

"True," Adrien replied. "But you wouldn't want to spend all our time running around Paris in masks together, would you?"

Each of them looked a little more nervous at that than perhaps they should've.

"Let... me think about that a little longer," said Marinette, doing her best to keep a straight face.