Our Little Cliché is also published on
(Published 2021-04-09)
Chapter one- The little bakery on 12 Rue
Cancer.
It. Sucks.
Marinette knew from experience. Real experience.
Well, she didn't exactly have cancer. In fact she didn't have cancer at all. She had rheumatic fever that led to her heart conditions. Thanks to a hole in her heart she was prevented from doing things girls her age were doing. Marinette's condition was so hard for her that she couldn't even leave the goddamn hospital anymore. There was always some sort of appointment, always a big pill that nearly choked her when she had to take it, always movies she watched where being sick was romanticized. But she never got to live that movie viewing life. Instead, she vomited so often that a tooth had to be replaced after getting so much acid that it had rottened.
It started as a suspicion- her mortal condition. She remembered that her dad and her went to the doctor for a checkup when she was fourteen, only for the doctor to tell them in person this big, life destroying news like it was nothing. It led to Marinette being hospitalized almost monthly. Well. Not monthly. She lived at home until she moved out, and she was still her parents little girl, but it wasn't the same. Apparently rheumatic fever is a rare condition and the success rate for surgeries is so small that the doctors prepare the death document for you beforehand. The fact had completely changed her. The sewing kit for instance underneath her bed was collecting dust, and she had dumped her boyfriend Luka two years ago when the fever made her immune system weaker which overall was a sign for her that this sickness might be the end for her. They had only been going out for a few months so it wasn't the end of the world, although it still sucked.
The grass beneath the nineteen-year old girl was damp after the rain last night. Marinette liked the rain. Rain meant staying indoors, snuggling against a window while reading the Harry Potter saga for the trillionth time, and drinking the tea which her nana always sent with when she came from China to visit. She looked at the pink horizon above the scented flowers following their heads with the summer breeze, and thought "wow". As she thought this, two birds landed a couple of meters to the right from where she was laying on the high, wet grass. They swung their little beaks on the ground to collect material. "Probably for their nest" Marinette thought, as she peacefully watched them. Everything was right with the world until she suddenly heard someone scream:
"Marinette!"
Marinette was startled from the sudden disruption of quietness. The little birds flew away to the forest in the distance as quickly as light traveled. Annoyed, she lifted her torso to turn around. There, she saw her best friend in the world: Alya, who was holding Marinette's cat Tikki in her arms. Her irritation vanished quicker than the birds flying away and she smiled toothly at the girl heading towards her.
"Hey" She said. Alya nodded in response when she got to her and bent down to let Tikki wander around in the high grass by herself. She went down on her knees and quietly looked at the girl laying on the grass with not a single care for the world around her. "What?" Marinette continued, feeling a little creeped out that she wasn't herself today. Then she suddenly remembered last night and decided not to ask what was wrong. Alya was the type of girl who liked to open up when she decided to, and hated when people tried to make her talk. Marinette closed her eyes as she waited for her best friend to start talking. The two birds who had flown away a couple of minutes ago were letting out chirps to interact with the other birds in the area. It was the sound she loved the most, but it was again disrupted by Alya.
"Nino wasn't the one who sent me the love letter '' Alya said out of a sudden. Marinette shot her eyes up in awe and stared at the brown haired girl who was staring at Tikki chasing a squirrel. Last night, after Alya was coming home from a long day of med school, she had received a love letter from a boy in her university. Because she had a huge crush on one of her best friend Adriens best friend Nino, she thought it was him. The whole "Will they, won't they'' story had been going on since she first met them at the hospital where her mom worked. Nino had gotten alcohol poisoning and Adrien introduced the both of them to each other. The whole thing was making Marinette dizzy just by thinking about it. They were like Ross and Rachel, never making their minds up about how they feel about each other. Unfortunately, Marinette had met him several times when he came to visit hers and Alya's place.
"Does he like someone else?" Marinette responded with a physical question mark above her head. Alya shook her head, sighed and gazed at the horizon, like Marinette had done before that.
"I didn't let him tell me," She continued. Marinette only nodded slowly. "I walked away super mad"
"Well, he's not the only fish in the sea. I mean look at you, you're a med student working part-time at a hospital at the age of 21. He has changed his major like three times since you both started university" Alya started to laugh and flicked a dandelion at her face.
"So what, how are we supposed to afford our house if I wasn't working part time"
"I work at my parents café every saturday and you always empty the place like that" Marinette snapped her fingers when she ended her sentence, before laying on the grass again. "Although we both need to agree that we could only afford this house if it wasn't for your mom's money" Alya didn't answer or even chuckle. Instead she stood up and wiped the dirt off her pants. "Nino really must've wrecked her heart" She thought as she watched her best friend leave with compassion.
"I'm going to cook dinner. Can you make sure Tikki doesn't run off again? Oh, and also I brought your new prescriptions at the pharmacy. They're on the dinner table" She mumbled, heading towards the red small house which they both shared.
"Okay, and hey! I baked pastries and they're in the pantry" Marinette shouted after her, scaring the birds from the scene away entirely. But the girl leaving decided not to answer as this was her most peaceful time of the day just like it was for Marinette. You see, her life is always stressful. Between managing a mortal condition and working at her parents patisserie in the city, she's also studying philosophy as a major in university. But she works from home as the fever had spread to her joints, making everyday tasks harder than they already were. So having to travel to Paris every day was a suicide mission waiting to happen.
Tikki had finally catched the squirrel and started to play with it. When the doorbell to their house rang she didn't care for it to answer. "Alya is closer" She thought and closed her eyes again, letting the breeze caress her face. She started to doze off for a moment. But the chit chats and laughs from the house made Marinette give up sleeping and instead carefully stand up as her joints were extra stale today. She walked up the flower surrounded hill, into the balcony, nearly knocking some of the pots placed on the terrace and dragged the window door open, making her entrance a tad extra grand. Although that was not what she was focusing on.
Beside Alya, there was a blonde haired, tall boy carrying books in his one hand, and one of Marinette's freshly baked pain au chocolat in his other as he was telling a story to Alya, who in return was preparing the pans and ingredients for dinner quietly. Marinette didn't talk, as she could only focus on the fact that he was holding her last pain au chocolat from the city for today. Her best friend noticed her presence the second she walked in.
"Hey Mari! This is my friend Adrien. I've mentioned him to you a couple of times" Alya said, pointing her arm at the boy finishing her pain au chocolat. "He was just dropping off your homework since I forgot to because...You know." Adrien smiled and reached his arm out for Marinette to grab it, and she did. But she didn't say hi.
"You have chocolate here" Marinette said instead in a monotone voice. She pointed to her left lip corner. The boy left her grip and quickly wiped the chocolate away on his white arm cloth.
"Oh, sorry" He said "This patisserie is amazing! Who made it?" Alya pointed at Marinette, who blushed deeply when the boy smiled widely at her.
"My parents own a patisserie in the city so I help out every now and then" Marinette answered, trying to remain calm. The boy only continued to smile at her. He opened his mouth again to answer but-
"Marinette, where's Tikki?" Alya asked worriedly, breaking the gaze between the two of them.
"I-" Marinette stuttered, and suddenly remembered Tikki running off to play with the squirrel in the forest far away. "Oh my-" she covered her mouth with both of her hands. "I'm so sorry I forgot." Alya annoyingly looked at the balcony and sighed.
"Great, last time I chased after Tikki I nearly got bit by a tick. Adrien, you can place her homework on the table. By the way, do you want to join us for dinner? I'm making Tikka Masala as soon as I find that dumb cat." She asked as she made her way to the terrace and dragged her brown boots on.
"Thanks Alya, but I can't. You know what my dad's like when I change plans last minute" Adrien said politely before turning to the girl in front of him. "Here's uh, your homework for today" He said before lasting her arms gently with dozens of heavy, crushing books like it was nothing. When Alya started to run down the hill Adrien added playfully "I see you're majoring in philosophy?"
"Yeah, I was going to major in design studies but you know" She began, worrying she might give off too much information "Sometimes your old hobbies just become boring".
"Tell me about it." Adrien said, like he could relate. Marinette didn't know about his complicated relationship with modeling and his father. He opened his mouth yet again to add something to say. But closed it with the same worry in his eyes that Marinette had felt before. Instead, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked around the place one last time.
"Uh, I should go now. The ride here was like forty minutes, and the car is waiting for me outside. Tell Alya I said bye." Marinette nodded as he left. But before he closed the door after him, Adrien smiled at her warmly. Marinette smiled awkwardly back and waved as he gracefully shut the door.
Later that evening, when the roommates were eating Chicken Tikka Masala, Alya still hadn't found Tikki. None of them were worried though as Tikki often wandered out by herself and could be gone for days. One time, when Marinette and Alya just moved in, she missed Paris so much that she strutted all the way back to her parents apartment.
"I'm sure that bloody cat will come back" Alya assured when she fell quiet during dinner. Marinette hadn't noticed that she was frowning and staring at her food.
"Right," Marinette answered, bringing the fork with rice and chicken up to her mouth before chewing it, still deep in thought. "So that boy visiting us, that was Adrien?" Alya swallowed her food hastily before responding with a simple nod. Marinette noticed how the incident with Nino must've brought her down a lot. Because she didn't answer that much when Marinette asked questions, nor did she hum along to "These boots were made for walking" playing on the radio.
"He seemed nice," Marinette continued after a while, both of them deep into a second round of food.
"He is. But sorry if he seemed weird. He just broke up with his girlfriend Kagami like a month ago and he's been bummered ever since"
"That was him being weird? He was super nice to me" Marinette began, swallowing a huge chunk of water. "It's nice meeting a boy who's graceful every once in a while" The silence lifted, and the two of them went back to eating.
Marinette was always bad at comforting people she cared about, as her awkwardness tended to make her say the wrong things and only make the situation worse. Future events that she didn't know about yet would be the perfect example of why sometimes not speaking is a better choice. It was a good thing that Adrien was the polar opposite, and why they blended each other out so well.
The next morning was a Saturday, so Marinette put her hair in two pigtails (which Alya always teased her for), and prepared for the long car ride into the city. They still didn't find Tikki so Alya joked about how she should keep an eye open when she arrives at the patisserie.
When she arrived forty minutes later her mom was wiping off dust from the windows where the company title "Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie" covered a huge percent of the windows on each side of the door. Marinette opened her door and was immediately greeted by her parents welcoming her in and handing her robe before returning to their busy tasks of greeting customers and managing their orders. She went behind the checkout to help her father out as three teenagers were trying to order a seasonal cheesecake that wouldn't be in store until christmas.
The bell rang and a boy she recognized entered the patisserie looking around the place before landing his eyes on hers. She had wished it was that kind boy from earlier today, but instead it was-
"Nino!" Marinette greeted half-heartedly, still kind of ticked that he had in a way rejected Alya the day before. Nino awkwardly waved at her and made his way to the cashier.
"Hi Marinette," He said. "How is everything?"
"Oh you know, same old same old" Marinette responded with a gentle shrug. "I have an exam in metaphysics in a week and I just started studying for it. But Alya promised to help me so I'm relieved to have her as my best friend" She hoped for him to remember what he had "done" to her, but he didn't catch the glimp.
"By the way, I found your cat Tikki in mine and Adrien's dorm room if you want me to escort you there. That's why I came here!" Nino said with a smile. "Although I did kinda hope to grab one of your delicious coffee flavored éclairs" He nodded his head to the glass cabin underneath the cash register where the éclairs were laying.
"Here, have one on the house as a thank you for finding my cat yet again" Marinette said and carefully took the éclair with a napkin before handing it to him. She took out her own purse and put in the money in the register to cover it before adding. "Though I'm afraid I can't leave because I just started my shift. I can come by later on when my shift ends. Just make sure she's still there, will you?" He nodded as his smile almost faded with the éclair in his one hand, and a waving gesture with his other.
"Don't thank me, Adrien found him an hour ago and was going to call but I remembered that you told me once how you come here every satur-" The line behind him started to grow and people became more and more annoyed.
"Thank Adrien then" She interrupted, not wanting the customers to be angrier. "And give him that éclair. I really need to work right now, but I'll call you later?" Nino nodded and started to head out. Marinette handled the next customer with one eye, and watched the boy ride his bike away from 12 rue.