A/N: I kind of feel like the story is going a different direction from what it started as, so I'm sorry if the description is a bit off at this point. I'm also not sure how many more chapters I'm going to make, but I have an ending in mind so I'm not going to leave it unfinished. I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

Marinette and Adrien were living together for about a week. They were settling into a routine and no matter how much they tried to deny it, they both were falling in love with each other. Marinette didn't think she could fall more in love with Adrien than she already was. The way she felt it was more than she did before. The simple things that he'd say to her during the day. The way they'd talk before they fell asleep. Marinette was hardly nervous around him anymore too. Adrien loved being around people all the time. Marinette's parents were so caring and sweet. They treated Adrien as if he was their own kid. As much as Adrien loved that, it made him miss his mother even more. But it also caused him to grow more angry at his father, who couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention. He was also surprised about how bored he was, there was so much free time now to do whatever he pleased. It was liberating, but at the same time it was terrifying. On Saturday, Marinette and Adrien were just finishing up on their science homework. It went a lot faster when they helped each other.

Mr and Mrs Dupain-Cheng came upstairs, they had gotten a really big order and didn't realize that they needed more ingredients. It was for a wedding, and they had a strict time limit to complete all of the pastries. They weren't assigned the cake, the bride wanted to have a different bakery make it, so that they could devote their full attention to it. The parents knocked on Marinette's door.

"Are you two busy in there? We need some help in the bakery."

Marinette's mother popped her head through the opening.

"Yeah mom, we're doing homework."

"Hey, we're almost done anyway. It couldn't hurt to take a break. Besides, this could be fun."

Adrien was a bit embarrassed, he had never really baked anything before. Plus, once you bake something you get to eat it in the end. In this case, not so much, but there were always the screw-ups. Marinette on the other hand, baked all the time and it was practically second nature to her. She was good at it, but at times it was pretty boring. It also lost a bit of its charm, it was nice to make something nice for people she cared about though. Her parents still hold onto the romantic aspect of baking, though. It's pretty sweet how they don't let the time get to them.

"Ugh, sorry about them. We don't have to-"

"It's okay! It'll be fun! I… well, I've never actually baked anything before. I don't know if I'm any good."

"Really? Not even with your m-" Marinette realized what she was saying and stopped herself. "I-I'm sorry."

"It's ok. We never did. We're done anyway, let's go help them."

They went downstairs into the bakery, there were two different recipes sitting out for Marinette and Adrien to work on. The order had a bit more but they only tasked the kids with two because they were buying materials for the rest. The bakery was set up for them to start right away.

"So, what are we making?"

"Well, looks like macarons, I'm not surprised, and mini eclairs."

"Man, that sounds really hard. I'm really going to need to follow your lead."

"I guess it seems difficult, but it's really not. I'll gladly lead you."

They looked at all of their ingredients and sorted out all the measuring materials and bowls that they needed. Adrien was a little bit nervous about screwing up, because this was for customers and he didn't want Marinette's parents to be disappointed in him.

"What are we going to start with?"

"We'll do the macarons first, we have to make a lot more of those. We'll measure the ingredients and pour them into this bowl and then you mix them while I get the rest of the items ready."

"Alright." It seemed natural to him that she was taking charge. As if she already had, dozens of times. Adrien was pretty good at following others' orders, it's what he did most of the time. They started to mix the ingredients, Adrien was smiling like a small child and Marinette couldn't help looking at him. It made her happy that he was so excited about this, about something she could do well.

"What flavor are we making?"

"Well, it's a wedding, so I think they'd want a color and flavor to match their theme."

"Do you know what their theme is?"

"Let's see," Marinette looked through the recipes and the papers around that her parents left out. "It looks like they're using purple, blue, and, of course, white."

"We could do each color interchangeably in the tower! Like blue then white then purple then white again."

"Oh! And the white ones could be half vanilla and half coconut, the blue ones could be blueberry, and the purple ones…"

"What about passion fruit? That's my favorite flavor."

Marinette knew that already, she knew that all too well.

"Yes! Of course!"

"How will people tell if its vanilla or coconut?"

"Well, maybe we could put it on the top of the tower, a little guide. And the coconut ones could have coconut pieces on top."

"You're sure that they gave us creative liberty on the flavors?"

"Nothing says otherwise."

They started mixing all the flavors into different bowls, and creating the cookies. They started getting into a rhythm and when Marinette would tell Adrien to get or do something, when she would teach him something, he would follow perfectly.

"Man, I feel like we've done this before."

"What?"

"Worked together like this."

"We haven't, but I feel it too."

They had worked together before, thousands of times. They just didn't realize the connection between fighting Hawkmoth, and having fun baking. Not to mean that saving the city wasn't fun, but it was a completely different situation.

"Maybe it was destiny for us to create this order." Adrien laughed. Marinette laughed because he did, his laugh was so adorable. She wanted him to do it forever. After putting the flavors into the mixtures, they had to dye the passionfruit and the blueberry. Marinette was dying the passion fruit, and Adrien was dying the blueberry. As he had never baked before, Adrien didn't realize that he should only use a tiny bit of food coloring. So, he poured a bunch in.

"Adrien?! What are you doing?!"

"Coloring it?" He didn't understand what he was doing wrong.

"Oh my, you used so much color."

"Oh… did I use too much? I'm so sorry. Shoot."

Marinette wasn't really mad in the first place, but seeing Adrien so disappointed in himself made her feel really bad. She mixed it for him and he started laughing.

"Oh my god, it's so dark."

Marinette started laughing too, it was pretty funny.

"Well… they're more of a, a…"

"Deep sea blueberry." Adrien started giggling.

"Yes, an aquatic blueberry." Marinette joined in with him.

"The blueberries just came back from their Atlantic Cruise."

In between laughs, Marinette managed to choke out,

"They tanned a bit, sorry for the color."

They started laughing hysterically to the point where they couldn't comment anymore. As if either of them could come up with anything else. After a while of the two giggling and piping out macarons, they managed to get them in the oven. Somehow, they made the fillings without any trouble. They had to start making the eclairs soon, Marinette's parents were going to get back soon and they needed to finish things before the order was due. Her parents would want to use the rest of the kitchen while they helped clean up.

While Marinette dug around the kitchen to find bowls and supplies for the eclairs, Adrien watched her. He didn't realize so many things about her before now. She was running around frantically, but there was a charm to each one of her actions. She may have lost her balance or came close to dropping something, but she didn't, the fluidity of her actions mesmerized Adrien. Most of the time, when he would watch his photographers, Nathalie, or his father work, they were cold and rigid. It was nice to watch something unplanned. Adrien felt a warm feeling inside, something that wasn't quite love, but more of a feeling of admiration. It was a sweet feeling, a soft feeling, just like a pastry. In a way, watching Marinette run around made Adrien feel calm. Marinette was anything but calm, she wanted to get everything quickly so that she could still be alone with Adrien to talk to him. Not only was she thinking of collecting all of the supplies and putting them together, she was also replaying all the things that they had said to each other in her head. Did I say something wrong at all? He must think I'm an idiot or something, ugh look at me right now running around like a chicken with its head cut off. He probably thinks I'm crazy. I don't even think we've made any progress. I mean, sure I'm not as nervous around him and I can actually speak my sentences… But just being able to speak to someone doesn't guarantee that they will develop feelings for you, this is probably a lost cause. Between her racing thoughts and doubts, she didn't even notice that she took out way too many items. She continued to race around.

"Hey, Marinette? Are you okay?"

"Yeah! Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well… I don't know the recipe, but do we really need 10 bowls to make these?"

Marinette looked over at the counter and saw all that she took out. Her face went red.

"Oh shoot, I'm such an idiot. I-I.-"

"Hey, it's okay, I understand that this is kind of stressful. You don't want to let your parents down and all."

"No, that's not it. I know that everything is going to turn out fine. It's-" She didn't know why she was saying this, she could've gone with his lie but instead she told him exactly why she was so flustered. "It's just that I feel so intimidated around you."

"There's nothing to be intimidated about! I mean I could try and-"

"No! It's just because the way you lived before you came here, you had all these things. You were doing all those activities and your house is so big compared to mine, and you, you, you're just so perfect. Your life was all perfect, other than your dad I guess… Man, why am I even saying this, this is ridiculous I'm so sorry."

"Listen, Marinette" He locked eyes with Marinette. "I've been the happiest I've been spending time with you and your family, ever since my mom…" He looked down at the floor for a second, and then looked back up at Marinette "And, well, I don't miss being at home! Not at all, I was so alone there. It was so cold and empty. And here, well it's just so full of life and, and it- well, it makes me happy. It was anything but perfect." I know everyone thinks it is, I know everybody thinks I am, but I'm not.

They both stared at each other for a couple more seconds.

"I-" She was flattered in a way, but really didn't know how to respond. "Thank you?"

"I, really, should be the one thanking you."

"… Do you want to just, start making the eclairs?"

"Yeah, okay."

They created the dough and started putting it into piping bags. They both had their own trays and piping bags to place down. Marinette started and everything was working fairly efficiently. Adrien tried his best, but he couldn't get the hang of the piping, and none of the pastries took shape.

"Hey, can you help me? Or at least tell me what I'm doing wrong?"

Marinette didn't even realize that Adrien was having trouble.

"Oh, haha, here let me help you."

She put her hands on the piping bag and showed Adrien how to squeeze it out correctly, and how much. She placed her hands intentionally, out of the way of Adrien's, but in her focus of piping, she moved them where half of her hands were on top of his. As she finished demonstrating, she looked up at him and smiled. Then, she realized the positioning of her hands, her face went red and she let go of the bag.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

"Sorry? What are you sorry for? You explained this really well, I totally understand how to do it now."

Marinette tried to explain why she had apologized. "Well I, er, uhh… hands? On your-"

"Hey, whatever it was, I accept your apology."

They completed their desserts as Marinette's parents came back and finished up the order. Everything was all packed up and ready to be given to the wedding. Due to a mixup with a friend, the bride came to the Dupain-Cheng's to pick up the treats. Right before she entered the store, she got a call from the flourist that was going to deliver the flowers.

(A/N: The convo is just from what you hear from the bride, I didn't think it needed the other dialogue, its self explanatory.)

"Yes? What do you mean you ran out of roses?! What flower shop runs out of roses?! No, I can't exchange them for another flower because then it wouldn't match the scheme! Another day? I'm getting married TODAY, this is MY wedding day and you're going to get me those flowers! I prepaid for them ages ago!" With all this pent up stress, the woman walked into the bakery to retrieve her order, a couple of friends came with her to carry them all.

"We could cater these at the event if you want! You really don't need to take them now."

"There are specific things that I want done today, and I need to make everything perfect. Thank you for the offer, though."

"You're welcome! Thank you for using our bakery for the wedding, I hope that it's magical."

The Dupain-Chengs didn't quite understand why the bride herself was completing all these tasks on the day of her wedding, but they didn't want to judge the woman. As soon as she left their bakery, she gives all the pastries to her friends, who take them to the venue. The bride gets a phone call, it's one of her family members, they told her that they couldn't make it to the ceremony. That was the last straw. She went into a complete meltdown, which Hawkmoth was very excited about.

During the week his son has been gone, he's been pretty much ignoring that he's gone. Gabriel buried himself in his work, as if he could more than he already did. Sometimes he'll tell Nathalie to check on Adrien, just to reinforce the idea that nothing has changed. She plays along with him. After Hawkoth sent out the akuma, it transformed the bride after it flew into her phone. She grew a bit taller, and wore a lavishly extravagant wedding gown, her phone became a sort of wand which Hawkmoth would explain the power for.

"Hello, I am Hawkmoth. I have transformed you into Bridezilla and I have given you the power to control someone's mind, so that they can make everything perfect for your wedding. In exchange for these powers I need something in return, the miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir, can you do this for me?"

"Why, of course Hawkmoth!" She smiled deviously, ready to make the world her's.