Glancing out the window, Marinette sighed.

"Looks like a storm's rolling in, little one. It seems a little ways off still, but I don't know if I can do this and tend to the garden. I wanted to trim up the mint again, I've really got to start on digging up those beets- and the carrots, and the turnips- not to mention trying to pick the peas. And the pumpkins are starting to look ready, and- oh, I really need to stop talking. Got any ideas, kitty? Ooh! I know! Why don't you go and pick the veggies for me? You've seen me tending them- you know which ones are ready!" She chuckled, resigned, and let her head slide off from her head onto the desk, her hair pooling around her and catching the sun.

Adrien looked up absentmindedly, wanting to see how far the storm was from their house. Maybe thirty minutes away? If they were lucky, they could probably get an hour and some change before the storm hit, but he didn't think her getting any garden work done was likely. She had decided to double down on today's work in order to give herself ample time to look for the communication spell tomorrow, but she was only partly done with the final sketches and she still needed to start figuring out fabric measurements. He could probably work on the mint right? And dig up the radishes? It couldn't be too hard, considering that he had been watching her in the garden ever since he met her, and he had had a garden- though much smaller, with his chosen crops changing every year- before he had transformed. The squash probably weren't doing all that well without him.

After another long moment lounging in the sun, he heaved himself up and padded over to the door. Meowing loudly, he caught her attention soon enough, and she came over to let him out.

"Be careful- and get back before the clouds hit!" He smiled and wove through her legs in thanks- a habit he had quickly picked up from Plagg. She shut the door a moment later, leaving him outside. Even if he hadn't seen the clouds, he probably could have guessed that it was going to rain. The humidity had gone up from earlier, and the treetops were rustling in a breeze that was sure to strengthen. With a quick shake to ruffle out his fur, he found the mint patch. Looking at it, it didn't seem terribly bad, but it was enough that he would want somewhere to put it- and that Marinette wouldn't want it going to waste. Going over to the little area on the side of the house, he found himself staring at several stacks of buckets- all of them at least four high.

Choosing the shortest stack-still four high- he stared at it for a moment, thinking, before standing up on his hind legs. When he stood like that, he could just get his top paws into the inside of the bucket, so he hooked his claws into the rim and pulled. Swiftly falling back onto all fours, he let it fall on his side- rather like he had done on market day- before carefully lowering it to the ground and biting onto the rim of the bucket that had once been on top of the stack. Tugging back firmly, he soon managed to pull it out of the stack, and from there it wasn't terribly hard to get it back to the mint bed. Picking out a wayward price, he got to work. It ended up being pretty easy- his claws made quick work of the mint, and there was only so much to do. Mint may spread fast, but if you worked on it regularly, it wouldn't give you too much trouble. The wind was a little faster by the time he had finished, but the clouds hadn't moved far- it had only taken him a few minutes to get through the bed. The closest bed to him held turnips and beets- both of which seemed ready, by his estimate. Marinette had declared them nearly ready a few days before, and they shouldn't be left underground for too long.

Carefully scraping away the soil from around a radish, he waited until it was loose in the soil to dig his claws underneath it and pull it out. It was a bit more difficult than it had used to be for him, but not too bad. Only then remembering to grab a bucket, he abandoned the radish where it was and went to get another bucket. This one stuck a bit, but soon enough he was doing his best to drag the bucket over, wishing Marinette didn't keep all the baskets inside. Throwing the radish in, he went to dig up another and another until the bucket was full. By then, he had gotten about half- maybe closer to two-thirds- of the planted radishes, with the exception of a few he had found that were undersized. For those, he had simply patted soil back in around them and let them be. Pulling another bucket out, he set to work on the remainder, spending another five or so minutes on the rest.

With a sigh, he got the last bucket. He was going to have to fell another stack if he were to get all of the beets. Glancing up, he found the storm a little closer than it was last- by his estimation, he had maybe twenty minutes before he had to get inside. Beets were a little larger than radishes, but they weren't much harder to harvest. Scrape, scrape, scoop. Scrape, scrape, scoop. One bucket filled, knock over a stack, take the bucket. Second bucket filled. Now what? He had ten or so minutes, and he really wasn't sure what to start. Marinette had said she wanted the peas collected; and the carrots, and the pumpkins. The carrots were probably safe underground, and the peas looked… daunting, to say the least. He wasn't sure if he could even reach all the way up to some of the peas, even when jumping. Pumpkins it was, then. Didn't want them getting hit with some stray branch and collapsing- if he could saw through even some of the stems, that would be amazing.

Plus, no bucket required! There were maybe twenty or thirty pumpkins there upon first glance, so he just made a beeline for the nearest one. Choosing where to cut, he started sawing through it. Or, rather, trying. Sharp as his claws were, they weren't great for sawing through things. Frustrated, he sat back and glared at the stem.

"Oh, I miss my magic. If I still had it I would already be done. Cataclysm," he said with a lazy swipe at the plant, letting the momentum of the swing drag him down til he was on his side. He had hoped to get more done before he had to go inside, but at this rate, he would be lucky to get even one fully cut through.

Pulling himself up with a sigh, he shook himself off and went to work on the stem. Only, his claws his nothing but air and a faint powering of an ashy black dust that soon blew away in the rising wind. Shifting to get a better look, he found a clean slice through the stem, slightly off from where he had originally tried to cut. Cataclysm. A spell that could destroy things, but it was a rather difficult spell that required more energy than he was usually willing to expend on something so destructive- cataclysm was difficult to control with finesse. But what else could it have been? Moving over to the nearest pumpkin, he reached out a careful claw, scratching a light line in the stem

"Cataclysm." Fascinated, he watched as the scratch grew deeper before his very eyes, producing that same fine dust that, like before, quickly blew away. Excitement riding, he moved on to the next, and then the next. Once he had completed the first row, he decided to try something. Making several quick nicks across the whole line of the second row, he quickly completed the spell with the activating word. To his satisfaction, the spell still worked, but it was significantly more tiresome than one at a time. In the end, he just went through the rest one at a time, leaving them where he stood before standing to the side and appraising his work. Catching sight of the peas, he decides to get creative.

By the time the peas had been collected, the sky above him was dark and the first few droplets were starting to fall. Quickly surveying the plants to make sure he hadn't missed anything, he decided everything was good and ran over to the door, yowling loudly to catch Marinette's attention. A moment later she cracked open the door, confused.

"Chat! I forgot I let you out- I've been thinking you were asleep behind me this whole time! Oh you poor kitty, come here." And with that, she bundled him into her arms, crouching on the doorstep. He purred shortly, before breaking off and squirming out of her arms. She laughed, not expecting that, and looked at him.

"Well, what did you go and do that for, huh mister?" She bopped him on the nose with a finger, and he wove through her feet before gently wrapping his tail around her wrist and tugging towards the beds. He wouldn't be able to move her, even if he really wanted to, but it got the intent across clearly- she laughed again, standing up and brushing off her skirt before following him lazily.

"What are you so intent on showing me-" stopping still, she simply looked at the full buckets of peas, the radishes and beets. "Oh. Oh. Did you do all this? Oh, Chat! I never in a thousand years would have guessed you'd go and do something like this for me."

She reached down and grabbed him by his underarms, holding him up to the rain and twining slightly, laughing as rain fell in her eyes and made her blink. She then pulled him close, giving him a gentle hug before planting a kiss squarely on the top of his head. He blinked, caught unawares, and stretched up to touch his nose to hers. With yet another one of her pretty little laughs, she put him down gently.

"Now, I don't think you can carry any buckets for me, so why don't you go inside and get warm? I've got this." Shaking his head, Adrien bumped into her leg, circling her before walking over to the closest bucket- peas.

"Alright then, but don't blame me when you get soaked through!" Shaking her head, she picked up a bucket in each hand- then a second for each- and started walking to the root cellar behind her house. Stompp, she was strong. Veggies may not be super heavy, but the buckets weighed a few pounds themselves, and they held quite a bit. Loping happily after her, he looked around the root cellar as she put the vegetable buckets in. There was a green shmear above the doorway on the inside, and it glimmered a little bit as he looked at it- not like it had caught the light, but in a way that was distinctly magical. A potion of protection, then, applied to the door and likely around the cellar. Certain potions could "protect" the freshness of fruits and vegetables, and they were really quite useful for root cellars.

"Oh, you looking around, Chat? Yeah, I know, I'm going to have to unload the buckets at some point. Seems a little silly to have everything all set up to hold it properly and I just leave it in a bucket, but the storm's nearly here and I've got to move. Why am I explaining this? You're clearly quite the thinker- I'm sure you've got it all figured out." She looked almost sheepish, and she open her mouth to speak again before clearly thinking the better of it and simply leaving for the rest of the veg. She was right, though- he hadn't noticed, but it was set up rather well to hold things in neat little cubbies and boxes- the buckets looked rather out of place. Realizing he had been left behind, he jumped up to follow her back out, finding the rain to already be stronger than it had been. Marinette was on her way with another load of four, and she simply put them down next to the rest before dashing out to grab the rest, speed steadily increasing in tandem with the growing rainfall. More buckets, several more buckets, and then he was on to grab the pumpkins. These were a lot slower- she could only grab one at a time. But the pumpkin bed was close to the root cellar, and soon enough the two were running into the house, Marinette slamming the door in her haste to keep out the rain.

Shedding her shoes, she went and flopped down lazily on her back into her bed, hair dripping onto the quilt covering her bed. She padded the area next to, and with a quick shake, he jumped up next to and curled up next to her. Absentmindedly stroking his back, Marinette rolled over to look at him.

"Thanks, Chat. I was getting worried about some of those vegetables, and I was starting to think I would have to harvest some of the more delicate ones out in the rain all by myself. That was the best thing you could have done for me at the moment. Now we just lie back and enjoy the storm- the house is protected, so there's nothing to worry about. Maybe I'll bake something, or we could just laze around like Tikki has been."

Hearing her name, the little red familiar rose up from a small pile of scrap fabric currently on Marinette's desk, rubbing her huge eyes and yawning slightly.

"Sorry, Marinette. The fabric was so comfortable, and the sky was dark… I must have-" she yawned- "dozed off."

Marinette chuckled, propping herself up on her elbow and cupping her hands in front of here. "Oh, come here, you."

Once Tikki was safely resting in her hands, she gently petted her head with a gentle thumb. "So what dessert do you think we should make then, Tikki?"

"Ooh! Maybe a cake? Or something more fancy?" Now awake, Tikki mumbled to herself for a few moments before arriving at a conclusion. "Ooh! An apple crisp! Nice and warm and sweet- perfect for a rainy day!"

Marinette smiled, standing up. "Apple crisp it is, then. Now, where did I put those apples?" Wandering off in search of the fruit, she soon located it and began tracking down the rest of the ingredients, humming as she did so. It wasn't like he could help, so he simply watched, getting drier in the comfortable heat of the house, as the house slowly began to smell of sugar and apples. Looking up as she slices apples, Marinette caught sight of Adrien and smiled.

"And don't think I've forgotten about you, little one. We'll look for that communication spell together, first thing. Alright? And who knows- maybe you can read, too. Not like you could surprise me much more, at this point." She chuckled, and looked back down at the apples, brow furrowing in a sweet expression of concentration, already distracted.

Adrien smiled, jumping down to the ground before finding his way up next to her, watching her slice the apples. Soon, I'll be able to talk to her.