Marinette stared at the bright red numbers that were displayed on her clock, and couldn't help but hate the color. Red was the color of fire, it was associated with blood, and it reminded her of the past that she couldn't return to. But it was also associated with luck and ladybugs, her favorite bugs alongside butterflies.

Knowing that she wasn't going to be getting much sleep that night, Marinette got out of bed and decided to walk around her room for a little bit. She hadn't felt like exploring the first two week that she had been there, and to be honest she didn't feel like exploring now, but she couldn't risk lying in bed and doing nothing; the memories tend to attack her more frequently when she wasn't busy.

The room that had been provided for her by the Agreste was large – larger than her family's living room – but it was mostly empty aside from her bed, nightstand, couch and coffee table, and the desk and chair she had placed at the top room that was connected to her main room through the staircase. There was also a patio connected to the top room, and Marinette felt a deep gratitude to the Agreste for giving her a room that was vaguely similar to her old room at the bakery. She always loved going to her rooftop at night and staring up at the sky; looking out at the lights of the city glowing all around her like a sea of artificial stars or staring up at the moon on clear nights.

But even those good memories of nights before were tainted by the sadness and loss that Marinette felt, and she immediately shut her thoughts away from the patio before her mind could torment her any further. Because of the bareness of the room there wasn't much for Marinette to use to distract herself with, and she turned back to look at the clock once more; the numbers 4:43 a.m. were displayed. There was nothing she could do at that moment in the room that would occupy her mind long enough for her to dose off to sleep, and Marinette had to do something before she got ensnared in her memories.

She had to do something, anything that would be enough to distract her while at the same time not require much thinking. Cleaning her room would have been a viable option, but her room was cleaned daily by the staff and so there wasn't much to clean at all. In that instant, Marinette regretted telling the Agreste that she didn't want anything from her home aside from her clothes, but she… she just wasn't ready to go back and look at the house that contained so many memories of her maman and papa.

Releasing a tired sigh, Marinette glanced back up at the upper-level room that housed the desk and chair before turning away and shaking her head. No. She was trying to avoid her memories, not make them worse by designing. She glanced back up at the door that connected her room to the rest of the house and made her decision.

Walking back to the nightstand to check on the small jar of fresh fruits that was placed there a few hours before, Marinette was pleased to find that they were mostly untouched; only missing a few blueberries here and there. Picking up the round brooch that was next to the jar, Marinette securely pinned it to her shirt before quietly walking out of her room and heading straight towards the kitchen.

Cookies? No, it was too early in the day to make cookies. Maybe something breakfast-related, like pain au chocolat? She immediately scrapped the idea after realizing that it was too complicated of a recipe to do just to keep herself busy and she doubted that the Agreste would help her eat them due to the amount of sugar that would be required to make them.

Maybe croissants? Yes, fresh croissants required quite a bit of time to make but she was familiar with the recipe after helping her parents make them so many time for the store, and the Agreste might be willing to eat a piece or two. Suddenly remembering the shelter homes that her parents used to send all their unbaked goods to, Marinette decided that if there were any leftover pastries she could always asked the kitchen staff to send them there.

Finally reaching a decision, Marinette walked about the kitchen and grabbed the smallest apron she could find before searching out all the ingredients she needed to make the croissants from scratch. She measured out the ingredients from memory and went about making the dough; folding and rolling it just the way her maman had taught her. When the first dough was done being folded she place it aside and started on another batch of dough, and so continued the process of making the croissants. By the time she was done with the third batch, the first batch was finally ready to be folded and molded once more.

While she was busy working on the croissants, she didn't notice the kitchen staff slowly trickling in. They all watched in silence as the little girl before them focused on her task; it was the first time they had seen her doing anything outside of hiding in her room all day or disappearing for hours on end with the Gorilla.

When the oven beeped, signaling the completion of the first batch of croissants, Marinette was surprised when larger hands pulled out the hot pan and placed them on the counter behind her. She looked up for the first time since she had started her task and was surprised to see most of the kitchen staff watching her; feeling slightly embarrassed at having been caught in the kitchen and with flour covering her, Marinette blushed and gave a quick apology for entering the kitchen without permission.

"Do you mind if I tried one?" An older gentleman asked; the same one that had pulled the pan out of the oven.

Marinette nodded dumbly, surprised that she wasn't getting scolded for trespassing. Kitchens were usually considered sacred by chefs, bakers, and cooks and entering one uninvited – to bake no less – was considered an encroachment on territory.

The man took off the oven mittens that he had previously worn, and took one of the still hot croissant from the pan with a napkin before blowing on it and taking a bite. He immediately pulled the croissant away from his face and gave it one of the most calculated looks Marinette had ever seen. Before Marinette could apologize for the taste of the croissant, the man turned to her and gave her one of the biggest smile she had seen in a long time.

"This croissant is quite amazing Little Miss. You are quite skilled at baking it seems." He complimented before eating the rest of the croissant; burning his mouth a little bit in the process.

Curious by the taste of Marinette's croissants, the kitchen staff that were all there requested if they could try one – seeing as she was making three batches of a dozen croissants – earning a quick nod from the small girl. Each of the staff were delightfully surprised at the deliciousness of Marinette's croissants, and complimented her on her amazing skills.

Her face now a bright pink, Marinette resumed her chore of completing the rest of the croissants; silently reminding herself to ask the kitchen staff to bring some of the croissants to the Agreste for breakfast and sending any leftovers to any nearby shelter homes. Somehow, Marinette doubted that there would be any leftovers.

Recently the Agreste household has been dealing with an influx on pastries, and Gabriel Agreste couldn't understand why. Normally the kitchen staff stuck to the strict health diet that M. Agreste had informed them about, but there has been an increase in starch and sugar in the Agreste diet lately.

Wanting to find the cause of this sudden change, Gabriel headed towards the kitchen; only to halt right at the doors when he smelled the sweet scent of freshly baked cookies. Weary of the smell in his home, he slowly opened the door and was met with the sight of Marinette at the kitchen island; delicately putting the cookies on a cooling rack while another set of hands moved the next batch of cookies into the oven.

The rest of the staff were quick to notice their employer and immediately moved to silence him before he could say anything; which could potentially interrupt the young girl's concentration.

Too surprised by the staff's sudden reaction, and Marinette in the kitchen, Gabriel obediently followed his head chef back out the doors. "M. Agreste, we are quite surprised to see you here."

Quickly regaining his control, Gabriel replaced his shocked expression with one of indifference before turning to his head chef. "Yes, well I came by to ask why there was a sudden change in my family's diet, but I do believe that I've already been given my answer."

"Ah, yes. The Litt- I mean, Miss Marinette has been coming by lately to bake whatever comes to her mind, and none of us had the heart to turn her away. If you wish M. Agreste, we can send all of Miss Marinette's pastries to the shelter homes nearby. That is what we've been doing every time she makes an excessive amount of a certain baked good." The chef offered, worried that M. Agreste might forbid the young child from going into the kitchen again.

Gabriel gave a small hum before shaking his head, "No, the arrangement right now is fine. Just make the portions of the sweets smaller from here on out."

Without another word, Gabriel walked back into the kitchen and watched how Marinette placed the last batch of cookie dough on the tray and setting it aside. She checked that the cookies she had just laid out were perfectly cooled before nodding her head at one of the kitchen staff whom handed her a box to place the cookies in. Pleased that the normally sad child looked to be somewhat content in the kitchen, Gabriel turned back around and headed to his office. No doubt his wife would be just as pleased as he was to learn that Marinette had taken up a hobby to distract herself.

An hour later Gabriel and Tara Agreste were found in the former's office, where they were offered a plate of three cookies. Both adults took one cookie each, much to the surprise of Mme. Agreste, and took a bite of the sweet. While Tara took a hearty bite of her cookie, Gabriel took a more delicate bite and was pleasantly surprised when he found that the cookie wasn't overly sweet and tasted rather good. Within three short bites, the cookie that had been in Gabriel Agreste's hand was gone and he was found rather perplexed that the cookie had been finished so quickly.

Tara couldn't hide the giggle that bubbled up at her husband's silly reaction, before finishing her cookie and reaching out for the last cookie on the plate. A second later Gabriel reached out for the cookie as well, but was met with an empty plate. Surprised at the emptiness of the plate, he looked up and was met with the face of a highly amused Tara and he couldn't help the annoyed frown once he saw her holding the cookie triumphantly in her hand.

Adrien was upset. Very upset. It had been roughly two and a half weeks since Marinette came to live with them, and he hadn't had a chance to talk to her at all. Every time he went to go look for her, she would always mysteriously disappear. She never ate breakfast, lunch, or dinner with the family and when he had asked his parents 'why?' they simply told him that Marinette had already eaten or was eating in her room as per her request.

To make matters worse, Chloe had come over to play with him at his house the previous day and she had immediately run off to find Marinette on her own. Normally there wouldn't be a problem because he was certain that Marinette wouldn't be found anyways, but no. Chloe had found Marinette in the backyard and actually managed to get into an argument with the normally quiet girl before he reached them.

In hindsight, the argument wasn't even that big of a deal. Chloe had just been rude and demanded that the other girl play with them, but Marinette had refused on the grounds that Chloe was being incredibly mean to her. Chloe got angry at the accusation and threw a terrible tantrum at the half-Chinese girl; a tantrum that served to agitate Marinette even more, and she was quick to scold Chloe for her childish behavior before walking away from the pair.

Of course, Chloe couldn't allow someone who wasn't her to have the last word in an argument and so she followed after Marinette and persistently nagged at the girl to play with them until she finally agreed; only to say that she wouldn't play with them until Chloe asked again, but nicer. Surprisingly, Chloe had asked the girl to play with them once more and even added in a 'please' at the end to further convince the other girl to play with them; though she did this reluctantly and looked like she was about to throw another tantrum.

For almost the entire day yesterday, Marinette had actually played games with them; games ranging from princess and dragons to hide-and-seek. Marinette had played with them. The quiet girl who always mysteriously disappeared whenever he was looking for her, had been found by Chloe within an hour and whom had managed to get her to play with them. Something that he had been trying to do since she first came to live with him and had yet to complete.

There wasn't a real reason why Adrien should have been annoyed that his friend had managed to do something that he couldn't, but the young boy couldn't help but feel jealous that Chloe had managed to accomplish something that he couldn't. Not only was he worried that Marinette would not want to be friends with him, but he was also worried that Chloe and Marinette might become the best of friends and leave him behind.

Getting up from his bed, Adrien left his room and headed towards the kitchen to get some water to drink. It was still really early in the morning – the sun wasn't even up yet – but Adrien was a big boy now, and he wasn't afraid of any possible monsters that lurked in the shadows. Besides, he was too upset to really care about the monsters anyways.

Walking down the hall, Adrien stopped right in front of the kitchen doors when he noticed that the lights were on inside before shrugging and opening the doors anyways. The smell of fresh croissants permeated the air as soon as he opened the door, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the croissants that were placed right in the center of the kitchen.

Believing that the kitchen staff had started on making breakfast earlier, Adrien walked towards the croissants and carefully picked one up to eat. When he was done with the first croissant, he picked up another and another. By the time Adrien had started on his fourth croissant, he had noticed the batch of croissants in the oven and another batch that was placed on another counter. He was slightly suspicious of why there was so many croissants, but opted to ignore them and went back to pick another croissant from the pile before immediately freezing.

Marinette was standing on the other side of the kitchen, wearing an apron that was slightly too big on her. An apron that was slightly coated in flour. Marinette had flour on her hands and on one side of her cheek. Marinette had made the croissants, not the kitchen staff – which he finally realized that there was none of in the room.

Having been caught eating her croissants, Adrien blushed an embarrassing shade of red before apologizing profusely. "I- I'm so sorry Marinette! I came in for water, but then I saw these and thought the staff made them. Not that there's anything wrong with you making them, they're really good! I mean, you used to live in a bakery of course you know they're good. I mean – sorry I shouldn't have said anything. I'm really sorry!" Adrien fled the kitchen as quickly as he could, feeling incredibly embarrassed about his rambling and having been caught eating Marinette's pastries without her permission; speaking of pastries, the croissants tasted as good as the pastries that had been given to him this entire week.

When breakfast came around and Adrien was given a few croissants, he was embarrassed to realize that he had eaten Marinette's pastries before. Later, after breakfast, when he had asked his parents if Marinette had been the one making the pastries and snacks of the past week he was further embarrassed when they revealed that she had in fact made them. This entire time, he had been eating Marinette's pastries without even realizing it and had made a complete fool of himself yesterday when he had bragged to Chloe about how awesome his chefs were for making such amazing snacks and desserts; right in front of Marinette!

He must have looked so uncool to her yesterday when he was gushing about how amazing the person who made the pastries were. Groaning to himself, Adrien stopped right in front of the staircase and sat down on one of the steps there and hid his face in his hands. How was he supposed to make friends with Marinette after he just completely embarrassed himself in front of her yesterday and this morning?

"Adrien, is something the matter?"

Looking up, Adrien came face to face with Nathalie. His pére's secretary looked concerned for him but other than that remained at a respectful distance away from him. He groaned again and hid his face once more.

"Adrien?"

"Why am I so uncool?" Adrien asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Uncool?" Nathalie asked; clearly confused at the boy's question.

Having no one else to talk to since his parents had left for a business meeting, Adrien told Nathalie about what had happened and explained to her why he must have looked so uncool to Marinette. Once he was done explaining, he resumed his self-pity and once more hid his face in his hands.

Not quite understanding the logic of a seven-year-old, Nathalie was at a complete lost on how to comfort the boy; not that she could have done much better if he had been older and his woes had been more sound. Deciding to imitate Mme. Agreste's mannerism during situations like these, Nathalie awkwardly placed a hand on Adrien's shoulder and tried to give him a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure Marinette doesn't think that you're umm… uncool, Adrien." She tried to soothe.

"But then why won't she talk to me? She never wants to play with me, and the only time she did play with me was because Chloe asked her to. Chloe actually managed to talk to Marinette!" Adrien sadly pointed out.

Not having the answer to that question Nathalie awkwardly stood there in silence; at a complete lost on what to do. Knowing that that was all he would be able to get out of Nathalie – and feeling slightly guilty for making the woman uncomfortable – Adrien slowly got up and headed towards his room, while mumbling a halfhearted excuse for his departure.

A few hours later, there was a knock at Adrien's door and he reluctantly got up from his couch and placed his book down on the table. Still feeling dishearten about his situation with Marinette, he was completely surprised when he saw the girl on the other side of the door carrying a platter of croissants.

Marinette shuffled around for a bit before pushing the platter towards Adrien; a clear indication that she wanted him to take it. Once the platter was safely transferred from one pair of hands to another, Marinette released a quiet sigh before looking up at him. He was once again struck by how blue they were and couldn't help staring at them while Marinette was speaking.

"I saw how upset you were today, and you said that you liked the croissants I make so I made you some fresh ones right now to help cheer you up. I hope you like them ju– Adrien?"

Adrien snapped back to reality and stared down at the platter full of croissants that had just been given to him and then looked back up at Marinette. When her words finally processed in his head, Adrien gave her his brightest smile. Heading back to the table, Adrien bent down slightly to carefully place the platter down before standing back up and racing back towards Marinette.

"Marinette, do you want to play some video games with me?" Adrien asked hopefully.

Marinette's body immediately tensed up before she forcefully relaxed herself, and shook her head in a negative. However, seeing the way Adrien's face immediately fell made Marinette guilty and she was quick to explain why she couldn't play video games with him at the moment. "I'm sorry Adrien, but your pére wants to talk to me right now. Maybe I can play with you on Sunday?"

The bright smile quickly returns on Adrien's face and he nodded his head in agreement. "Okay! Then we'll play on Sunday. Pinky promise?" He raised one of his pinky to Marinette and waited for her to link her pinky with his. Once the pinkies were linked and the promise made, Marinette bid good-bye to the blonde boy before heading towards his pére's office.

It was late at night and almost everyone in the Agreste household was asleep. The only source of light in Marinette's room was the nightlight that Mme. Agreste had given her a few days ago, but no amount of darkness could possibly obscure her vision enough that she couldn't make out the small item in her hands. The key to her family's bakery.

M. and Mme. Agreste had both presented the key to her earlier that afternoon after she had dropped off the platter of croissant to Adrien, and ever since then she couldn't wrap her mind around what had happened. The bakery was hers now. No one could buy it and throw away all the items that were still inside that building. Her home was still hers. But it wouldn't be the same anymore. 'Life hadn't been the same for a while now.' Marinette dully noted.

"Marinette? You need to sleep." A soft, tired voice called out from the pile of pillows on her bed.

Marinette turned to the source of the voice and apologized, "I'm sorry Nooroo, did I wake you up?"

"It's fine Marinette, but I'm really worried about you. I'm glad that you're finally reaching out to Adrien, but ever since you got that key you've been really sad. Please come to bed Marinette." The butterfly kwami got up from his pile of pillows and flew over to Marinette; rubbing his head against Marinette's cheek as a sign of affection and the kwami equivalence of a hug.

Not wanting to worry her kwami any more than she already had, Marinette placed the key on the nightstand and got into bed. Nooroo resettled on his pile of pillows and drifted back to sleep, Marinette followed soon after; for once not haunted by her nightmares.


Hey guys, I'm gonna be trying to update on Thursdays. Of course, if I don't have time then I won't be able to make the dateline because I don't want to write a rushed chapter. Anyways, I'm curious to see if anyone got the initial hint at the beginning of the chapter about Marinette's brooch?

Thanks a lot to everyone who commented, favored, and followed the story. Like last time, please tell me what you guys liked and don't like about the chapter.