"I should know more about you," Marinette told him once he recovered from reacting to the macaron. "I mean, we're dating. I should know more about you than your favorite superhero and subpar taste in bakeries." He rolled his eyes at her 'facts about him.'
"Well, what do you want to know?" He took a sip of his water and raised an eyebrow at her curiously. She shrugged.
"Whatever you're willing to tell me, I guess. I mean, you're studying business. I think you might have voiced Chat Noir in a movie once, uh… you're good at noticing details? Like the Multimouse dress. I don't think many other people would have been able to tell the difference between her and Polymouse. What did you like to do growing up? What was your family life like? Just, stuff, I guess. What should I know about my boyfriend, Adrien Agreste?"
Adrien sighed. He wasn't ready to tell Marinette about his messed up childhood and he couldn't tell her about his somehow more normal superhero life. "I don't know that I liked the things I did growing up, but back in my prime, I was pretty good at fencing, and I used to be decent at speaking Mandarin, according to my tutors, at least." He shrugged a little, but Marinette didn't seem satisfied by his answer.
"I'm also still pretty good at playing piano. I'm not a virtuoso or anything, but I had fun playing when I was younger so I kept playing when I grew up instead of just when I was a kid." Adrien laid back on the blanket during a pause. "You said it yourself, though, my father is pretty harsh, so I never really got to do things for fun when I was young."
"That's enough of sad Adrien hours, though," he told her, trying to brush off his own comment. "Your family seems a lot better than mine. Same question, but it's your turn. What should I know about my girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" She smiled, surprised by how much she liked the sound of Adrien saying her full name.
She laid down on the blanket a few centimeters away from him. They were close enough that he could feel her radiant warmth, but far enough that he couldn't feel her skin on his. "I've wanted to be a designer for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure I was designing before I even knew what the word meant."
"That's nice," Adrien said with a smile on his face, "I'm glad you get to do something that makes you happy." He placed his hand down on the blanket between them and was surprised when he found Marinette's hand already there. She twisted her hand enough to grab his hand in hers.
"I'm a firm believer in love," she added after a moment, "that's how maman and papa raised me. There's not enough good in the world. Too many people are afraid of the perception of love, like afraid of what it would mean if they told someone they love them. I'm big into the platonic idea of love." Marinette squeezed Adrien's hand before she continued her explanation.
"Say this for example. If I tell you 'I love you,' now that I've explained, I'd hope you'd know that I'm saying so platonically, but if anyone overhears, they'd think 'Oh, this girl is in love with her boyfriend. That's nice for them.' If I say 'I love you' I mean it, but to me, there's a huge difference between saying 'I love you' and saying 'I'm in love with you.'"
"That might be helpful for us," Adrien said, squeezing her hand in response, "just being able to say we love each other in public. If you become comfortable with me saying that to you, or with saying that to me, that is."
"I am," Marinette said, "I love you, Adrien." Adrien found himself getting choked up at Marinette's statement. He took a few deep breaths to collect himself. He couldn't remember the last time that someone had told him they loved him and that was probably something he should talk to his therapist about.
"I love you, too, Marinette," he responded. That felt good to say, and good to hear. His heart felt better than it had in a while. He started to think through everyone he knows and was wondering who else he could say he loves. He could definitely explain to Ladybug that he loved her platonically, and if Alya and Nino knew Marinette's thoughts on love, that meant he could probably tell them he loves them, too.
He felt like he could probably tell Carapace and Rena Rouge without it being weird, and he could probably get away with even telling Gorille. He'd want to tell Nathalie and his father, but he was worried that they wouldn't have as pleasant of a reaction as everyone else. Back in therapy territory. He should come back to that later.
"While we're talking about this," Marinette added, "how do you feel about casual affection? At least under the circumstances of this?" Marinette squeezed his hand to indicate that she was talking about their fake relationship. "Not like, kissing on the lips, but cheek kisses, forehead, hand, maybe." Hand kisses made her think of the early days of her partnership with Chat Noir, but she knew she shouldn't have been thinking about Chat while she was with Adrien.
"I think we should play it by ear," he told her, "I'm fine with casual displays of affection as long as they've been given permission. I'm never going to try to pressure you into anything and I expect the same from you, but if there's a situation that calls for affection beyond what we've been doing so far, we can kind of figure it out in the moment."
He shifted his body so he could face her and leaned up onto his elbow, hand still in hers. "Speaking of figuring things out in the moment," he said, "what do your parents know? You let go of my hand before we went in there and I don't know if that's because they don't know that we're together or if they know something else."
"I haven't told them about us," Marinette answered. "And I probably won't, not unless I have to." Marinette shifted in the same way as he did, but she leaned on her opposite elbow to face him. She ran a thumb softly over the back of his hand.
"I'm sorry to say that with me, 'have to' might come sooner than you think, princess," Adrien almost whispered to her. "I know you've been noticing our… audience just as much as I have today. While I appreciate you playing along, you can tell your parents whatever you need to, I don't want to cause any problems between you and them."
"You won't, buttercup," Marinette said, brushing the thumb of her other hand across Adrien's cheek, trying to make it look like they were having a moment, "I love you, Adrien, and they'll accept what makes me happy." His heart soared at hearing her say she loves him again and he didn't know how he went so long, hearing those words as infrequently as he had.
Adrien checked the time and realized that the two of them had been hanging out for a few hours already. He didn't even notice that time was passing with how comfortable he'd felt just spending time with her. "I have to head back to campus soon," he said with a little frown on his face, "I have a lab at 16h15 and it's already 15h30."
Marinette looked at her phone's clock, shocked by how much time had passed without her realizing. "I can get you back in time," she told him, "if you're okay giving me a hand getting everything packed up and back to my parents before that." Adrien nodded and Marinette started to pile all but the box of pastries into the picnic basket.
Adrien carried the blanket, admiring the small, almost unnoticeable cat faces in the black fabric as they walked back to the bakery. He opened the door for Marinette. She walked in before him and placed the box of pastries on the counter to make sure they'd take them when they left. "Is it okay if we just leave these with you?" Marinette asked, motioning to the basket and blanket.
"Of course," her maman responded. "I take it you two can't stay for dinner this evening?"
"Not today," Marinette told Sabine, "we'll come by another time and I'll make sure we bring Alya and Nino along, but tonight Adrien has a lab class that he can't miss." Tom came out of the back room to give Marinette and Sabine a group hug.
"Let us know when you get to campus safely," Sabine requested. "We love you."
"I will," Marinette called. She picked the box of remaining pastries up again and led Adrien back out the front door of the bakery. "I love you, too."