Marinette had been thinking about what Chat told Ladybug since their last patrol. It had been a few days since then, but Chat was still showing up to hang out with her, just like he had done before he told Ladybug about his feelings. Nothing changed between them and Marinette found herself feeling thankful for that.
She was working on doing some prep in the back of the bakery one day when her parents were at a catering event when she heard the bell above the door chime. "Good morning," she called out, "I'll be with you in just a moment."
"Take your time, Mari," Chat Noir called back from the front of the store. "It's just me and I don't mind being patient for a while."
"Chat Minou Noir," she called back, an edge of seriousness in her voice. "You know we're not allowed to be unsupervised in the bakery together after what you did to the bag of flour last time you were here." She made a tsk sound and heard him take a sharp inhale of breath. Adrien, who didn't expect to have his voice identified as Chat Noir's, was having a small heart attack from his spot next to the pastry display.
"Well, it wasn't my plan for you and Chat Noir to be unsupurrvised in the bakery today, princess," he responded, trying to sound like he wasn't dealing with heart palpitations, "just you and a civilian who happened to want to purrhaps purrchase some of your pastries. Now, though, that seems like it's a bad idea. I'll find another way to get them."
"S-sorry," she responded nervously when she realized what happened, "I wasn't trying to recognize your voice. It just… happened. I'll see you tonight?" He could hear the smile in her voice and wished he could've looked around the divider to see it, but if he could see her, she could see him and that would be bad news for both of them.
"Of course, purrincess," he said in response. "I'll be loafing around on your balcony when you're done with work later. I'll see you then." She could hear his smile too and made sure that all of her attention was directly focused on the prep she was doing until at least a minute after she heard the bell chime again, signaling his depurrture.
She let out a sigh of relief and finished the prep that she was doing in the back before she returned to manning the front counter of the store. She couldn't help but keep an eye out for blond boys who could've been Chat, practically memorizing the order of everyone who walked into the store that day, in hopes of leaving an extra note for the one that could be his.
None of the orders stood out as his. She knew he was a fan of pain au chocolat and macarons, but that would have described almost any order from that day. Even the order Adrien texted her to place with the plan of Gorille coming by to pay and pick it up for him. She thought it was a little odd that Adrien didn't just come by to get the order himself, but she shrugged it off.
After her parents got home from their catering event, Marinette excused herself from the bakery to see Chat. She brought some pastries with her because none of the orders stood out as his and she wanted to make sure he'd gotten something after she'd kicked him out so brutally before.
"Bunsoir, princess," he greeted from his spot on her balcony. Just as he had said earlier, he was loafing around, just waiting for her to come upstairs to hang out with him. He saw the pastries in her hand. "Are those for me?" he asked, standing from his spot. He walked toward her and touched the hand that contained the pastries.
He smiled at the pastry that was on top. She knew that it wasn't one of his favorites, but she couldn't help but grab it for him. It was an apple turnover. "An appleogy for kicking you out earlier. I wasn't sure if you ever got what you came in for after I made you leave so pastrily." She couldn't help the small blush that came over her face.
She was wringing her fingers in her hands and bit her lip. He wanted to tell her that he was flattered that she recognized his voice, but he didn't know how to explain that without implying that he'd expect her to recognize his voice as someone else's. "Thank you," he responded, sincerely.
"I appurrciate that you brought this for me. I was worried I was gonna macaron choice in coming back here to hang out with you tonight. Bundt, it looks like my fears were unfounded. I should purrobably bagette to eating this while it's warm. I am on a roll with these puns, though, so maybe I should just eat this later."
Marinette rolled her eyes at him, visibly showing how done with his naansense she was and the reaction caused him to chuckle. "I loaf you," she grumbled. He could tell that she meant it as 'I loathe you,' but he was kind of hopeful that if he never asked her to explain it, he would be able to pretend that she meant 'I love you' instead.
Marinette herself didn't fully understand rye she'd said that to him. She cared about Chat, of course, but was she bready to say 'I love you' to him? She didn't usually say those words casually, so she decided to do her best not to draw attention to it. She could easily play it off as telling him she 'loathes' him if he brought it up, but she was mostly hoping he wouldn't.
He wanted to say something sarcastic or joking in response, but there was a chance that she hadn't meant 'loath' and he didn't want to be a jerk and respond with something stupid if she did mean love.
"If you hated mew that much, you wouldn't have given me a free pastry," he told her, trying to get to a more safe jumping- point than her last comment. She nodded in agreement. She took a deep breath, thankful that Chat Noir had been clear about his interpretation of her statement.
She couldn't argue with that fact. She did like her partner enough to give him pastries, even if he bothered her with his jokes sometimes. And especially since he was willing to accept that she wasn't trying to confess her love to him, even if he did like her, according to his talk with Ladybug.
She found herself on the brink of blushing, remembering everything that he'd told Ladybug about the feelings he'd been developing for Marinette. He knew he could have told her he loves her, but he didn't want to stress her out more than he had already done in the bakery earlier that day.
Puns used in order: unsupervised, perhaps, purchase, princess, loafing, departure, bonsoir (good evening in French), loafing, apology, hastily, appreciate, make a wrong, but, probably, get, roll, nonsense, I love/loathe you, why, ready, me,
