AN: And I'm back! When I decided to take a brief hiatus from publishing this series, I wasn't expecting it to be for so long. Unfortunately, I think that because I had been writing and publishing so consistently for so long (3 years without missing a day?), I had run my creativity into the ground so much that when it crashed, it took much longer to recharge than the amount of backlog I'd built up. The creativity has returned finally, though I'm going to ease into the publishing schedule. I'll start with a single one-shot per week, though I am going to start ramping it up once I get into more of the long stories. But for now, enjoy this little one-shot going "back to basics."

"Wait, are you sure about this, Milady? I mean, that looks like a lot of flour…"

Marinette scoffed, gesturing toward the cooling racks filled with pastries lining the kitchen island, the aroma of the palmiers in the oven suffusing the kitchen. "Please; I've been baking pain au chocolat since I was old enough to count. Papa had me sitting on the counter, measuring and sifting the dry ingredients for him as soon as I was old enough to hold the sifter." So saying, she carefully sifted the flour into her mixing bowl to remove any clumps before mixing the ingredients together. A spray of white powder spilled out and drifted down to coat the kitchen floor, joining a few pieces of chocolate that had fallen earlier when she had fumbled the cutting board – although there were less pieces now than there had been previously. Sitting with her back against one of the cabinets on the opposite side of the kitchen, Tikki watched them amusedly, a large chunk of chocolate clutched in both paws.

Quirking an eyebrow at Marinette, Adrien sighed and grabbed the broom leaning against the kitchen island. "I guess you were just as messy then as now?" he asked, stifling a laugh as he quickly swept the flour and sugar together in the already-prepared dustpan.

With a deadpan look, Marinette placed one hand on her hip and turned to face him. "That depends," she replied testily, pouring the bowl of wet ingredients into the dry and stirring vigorously.

"On?"

"On whether you actually want any of these when they're finished," she informed him, sticking out her tongue.

Adrien's eyes widened, though Marinette detected a hint of amusement in his expression as his gaze drifted down from her eyes. "Of course I want one," he told her seriously, taking a step closer to her and leaning in. His voice dropped slightly in volume, forcing her to lean forward to hear him. "But I think I just spotted something I want a little more…"

Marinette started to open her mouth to respond, only for Adrien to drop the broom and kick it into the corner of the countertop, grab her on the hips, and pull her into a tight embrace, capturing her lips with his. Almost instantly, Marinette released her whisk and melted into the embrace, sighing and returning the kiss, leaning into his touch. She smiled, her hands meeting behind his neck. Everything was humming along just fine – the palmiers still needed to bake for at least four minutes, and she'd set a timer.

This was so much better than baking by herself.

These little moments were just one of the many reasons she enjoyed working in the kitchen with Adrien so much. Of course, most of the time she could work faster and more efficiently on her own than she could with his enthusiastic (albeit occasionally misguided) assistance. But watching his eyes light up when the finished product came out of the oven, listening to the disappointed sigh when she insisted on letting the cookies cool before tasting them, and especially these "kiss breaks" while they were waiting for pastries to bake, or for cookies to cool… she never had any of those experiences working by herself. In some ways, she imagined that having a child in the kitchen would be little different – she'd helped her father while Cosette was "working" at the bakery often enough to get an idea of how an enthusiastic-but-inexperienced child can complicate matters. Although, if Marinette was honest, Cosette had picked up the nuances of baking even faster than Adrien did. As Adrien's hand slid up to the small of her back, her breathing hitched. Working in the kitchen with him brought its own benefits…

A polite cough from the direction of the kitchen entrance quickly pulled Marinette's attention away from Adrien's lips. Breaking the kiss, she leaned into his chest and turned slightly to face the doorway. She could feel heat rising in her cheeks as met Emilie's gaze where she leaned against the doorframe to watch them, an amused curve to her lips. Marinette grimaced sheepishly, looking back and forth between Emilie and the partly-mixed pain au chocolat batter resting on the counter. Emilie arched an eyebrow knowingly.

Marinette coughed. "Um… we were… letting the batter rest?"

"I'm sure." Emilie covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. "Please, don't let me interrupt."

Adrien straightened up next to Marinette, running his fingers through his hair, his other arm draped over Marinette's shoulders. "Uh… how long were you watching us?" he asked.

Emilie's smile widened, her expression warmed. "Long enough." She sighed wistfully. "You know, despite insisting that we needed to have the best kitchen available, your father hardly ever wanted to do anything with it; I suppose now I see the reason why this room is so important: because someone was going to come along and claim it for herself." Giving Marinette a fond look, she added, "It's so nice to watch the two of you work together. Whether it's in the mansion, in the fashion house, or in your Headquarters, you really do complement each other so well."

Marinette nodded, looking up at Adrien as she found his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. "I know," she agreed, leaning into his side and kissing his chin.

An unreadable expression passed across Emilie's face, and she let out a breath, looking away from them. "What are all these pastries for, anyways?" she asked, moving over to the counter and leaning in to take a closer look at the macarons and mille-feuille cooling on several racks.

At that moment, the timer went off and Marinette quickly snatched up an oven mitt to retrieve the trays of palmiers. Placing the trays on cooling racks, she gave them a once over before nodding to herself. "They're for Sabrina's bachelorette party," Marinette replied, selecting one of the finished mille-fuille and dividing it in half, handing a piece to Emilie. "We're getting together at Le Grand Paris this evening – just about all our friends are going to be there for it. Chloe and I talked, and we're making it a combined bachelor/bachelorette party since Max really didn't care to do much of anything for himself."

"Hey, Nino, Kim, and I took him out to play laser tag over the weekend," Adrien protested. Marinette quirked an eyebrow. Grimacing, Adrien shook his head. "By the time we left, he had completely redesigned the laser tag system and fixed the trigger assembly on his gun."

Marinette stifled a laugh. "And you didn't think that would happen?"

Adrien shrugged. "It was Kim's idea…"

Marinette shared a look with Emilie. "And they wonder why Chloe and I didn't ask for their help." Emilie covered her mouth to hide a giggle. Sighing fondly, Marinette explained, "Anyways, that's what Chloe is doing right now. She and Zoe are getting the room set up for the party – decorating, getting chairs and tables, setting up for the music… I need to get these, plus a batch each of croissants and religieuse, finished and dropped off by five." She grimaced, her eyes drifting to the oven clock. "Good thing we have a portal to get it all there…" she muttered under her breath. "Papa is making the cake, but I wanted to contribute some pastries," she added.

"Some pastries?" Emilie repeated. "It looks – and smells – like a veritable patisserie in here!" She smiled. "It all sounds like so much fun! I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun there." Taking another bite of her mille-fuille, she hummed. "This is absolutely to die for!"

Marinette shrugged. "We're not planning anything too exciting," she explained. "Mostly it's just going to be our friends, along with a bunch of the other Heroes of Paris. Sabrina doesn't want to do anything crazy or stay up really late, so we're just having dinner, watching a movie…"

Emilie hummed, quirking an eyebrow at Marinette. "I do hope that this bachelorette party isn't quite as 'exciting' as yours was…"