"You don't have to do this," Marinette assured Chat, squeezing his hand gently. "I know that brunch with my parents didn't really go well last time and I don't want you to be uncomfortable." She bit her bottom lip from the inside.
"I'm happy to have a meal with your parents, princess," he assured her, squeezing her hand in response. "After last time, at least, there's no where to go up. Plus, I don't have to turn you down this time." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"You know that none of us blame you for that, right?" She stepped in front of him to meet his eyes. "All of us were pretty off base last time you came over for lunch, but papa purromised to behave himself this time and no one has any resentment from last time."
He took a breath and let it out slowly. "I love you," he whispered to her. He leaned forward to place a kiss on her head and when he pulled away, he saw a beautiful small smile and blush cross her face.
"I love you, too," she told him. "Are you ready to go?" She motioned toward her trapdoor and he swallowed the pool of saliva in his mouth one more time.
"Bready as I'll ever be," he replied quietly. She opened the door and led him down the stairs to the kitchen. When they got downstairs, Sabine and Tom were in the kitchen, preparing brunch for the four of them. The meal was inherently less romantic than it was last time, and Chat didn't know if that should make him feel more stressed or more calm than last time.
"Go ahead and take a seat, you two," Sabine told Marinette and Chat Noir, "we'll be finished in just a few minutes."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Chat offered when Sabine finished speaking. Marinette followed her maman's instructions and sat down in one of the seats, pulling out the seat next to her to indicate where Chat should sit.
"Not right now," Sabine said with a smile, "though I may ask for your help with dishes when we're done." He nodded in understanding.
"Please let me know. I'm always happy to help. Thank you both for having me over for brunch." Tom hadn't said anything as he focused on finishing the bacon he was cooking over the stove and Chat didn't know if he was supposed to say anything to make the situation better for all of them.
He sat down in the indicated chair and Marinette grabbed his hand to hopefully provide a sense of comfort to each of them. She knew that he, as her partner, probably did more to comfort her than she did to comfort him, but she was hopeful that holding hands made him feel at least a little better about brunch.
Tom and Sabine joined the teenagers at the table a few minutes after they sat down. Sabine sat in the chair across from Marinette, leaving Tom seated across from Chat, which made the hero feel anxious. As Adrien, he was very aware that Tom Dupain was the least menacing man on the planet, but Tom never had a reason to dislike Adrien.
The four of them sat in a relatively awkward silence for what felt like hours, even though it had only been about a minute since they'd all been seated.
"And here I was, thinking muffin could compare to how uncomfortable our last brunch was," Sabine said, holding up the tray of muffins in offering to her daughter and Chat. "I suppose I was wrong."
"At yeast Marinette won't end up heartbroken this time." Chat was surprised when his statement was joined by the same words coming from Tom's voice. Tom and Chat both broke into reams of laughter in response to making the same pun.
Marinette dropped her face into one of her hands and let go of Chat's with her other one. She reached out to the cup of ice water that was sitting on the table in front of her. "I guess that's one way to break the ice," she said quietly before taking a sip from the cup.
"Ma chou," Tom responded, "if you wanted to start bacon the ice between us, you could've just said so. I just wasn't sure how to make Chat feel comfortable here after the last times he had seen me as Papa Garou." He smiled brightly at the others at the table and Marinette rolled her eyes at her dad's pun.
"Omeletting that entire experience go," Chat told him, "as long as I can be forgiven for hurting Marinette last time you had me over for brunch. This time my feelings for her aren't scrambled, I care about her a lot and I would never dream of hurting her again."
"Sounds like this entire situation is overeasy. See, Marinette, orange you so glad that your dear old papa and boyfriend can put the past behind them?" Marinette rolled her eyes as Tom picked up the glass of orange juice to take a sip from it and she wondered how she didn't think through introducing the two biggest punners in her life.
"I juice want you both to know that this is the last time I plan to ever be in a room with the both of you. I don't think that I can deal with the two of you yolking my ears off." Marinette shook her head as her papa and boyfriend burst into laughter together. They both knew she liked puns, but she had fun pretending she didn't.
"I guess that I understand," Chat relented a little more dramatically than necessary, "I'd hate to be a pain in my girlfriend's side, even if it would mean more time that I could spend getting to know her papa. He does seem purrtty grate, after all." Chat was using a small spoon to sprinkle grated cheese onto his eggs.
"If you use that many puns in one line again, your relationship with Marinette may be toast," Sabine added jokingly.
"Probably not," Marinette corrected, "I've already been dealing with his crêpe for this long, I think that I should be able to deal with his taste in bad jokes for at least a while longer. If he can deal with me at my most stressed when I was applying for the internship, I think I can return the favor by putting up with him at his punniest."
Marinette leaned up and gave Chat a quick peck on his cheek, causing her maman to coo over how cute the two of them are.
