[Thanks again for all the sweet reviews and feedback on Chocolate Cake!]
Chapter 3
Adrien had to physically hold himself back from consuming the mass amount of sweets around him. He was supposed to be helping, not hindering. But the cookies in the oven called to him. Maybe he could sneak one later.
"Okay, next we need the cocoa powder." Adrien was immediately snapped back to reality. He was baking a cake. Or, trying to at least. Marinette was doing most of the baking. He had just been watching her bake this whole time. It was a strange sight to see. Marinette, who was usually fumbling over every other word, now speaking each sentence with ease as she poured first flour, then sugar, and eggs into a mixing bowl. It must be the fact that she was home where she belonged, or doing something she enjoyed; probably both.
"And now we're done!" Marinette clapped her powder covered hands and looked at Adrien with accomplishment and pure joy written on her face. He smiled back and pretended that he had been paying attention. "Do you think you can do it on your own now Adrien?"
The model nodded vigorously. He had no idea what had just happened, but he could probably figure it out, eventually…
"Thanks so much Adrien! I need to go upstairs and work on an order before we open the shop. Will you be alright down here on your own?"
"Yes." Maybe. No.
"Cool! I'll be upstairs if you need anything."
Adrien waited a couple of minutes to make sure that Marinette wasn't coming back down before he picked up his bag and unzipped it to let Plagg out into the open air.
"Plagg, please tell me you heard what she was saying?"
"What who was saying? Adrien I have no idea what's going on, I was trying to sleep you doofus. I was dreaming about cheese. Cheese Adrien! CHEESE!"
Adrien groaned and softly banged his head on the counter a few times. Plagg wouldn't be any help. He should have been paying attention. It wasn't that he didn't want to learn how to bake, he was just...distracted. There were sweets all around him, including the single sweetest person he had ever met. It made him extraordinarily happy to see Marinette comfortable around him for once. It was just, wait a sec. All of a sudden he remembered something important. Something that could help him bake.
"Plagg!" The kwami jumped at the sudden noise. "I have a phone! I can just google it! Google had saved me!"
"Yay for google… Don't wake me up again." Plagg quickly flew back into the bag and did his best to zip it closed before he lied down to take a long, uninterrupted nap.
By now, Adrien had his phone out and was waiting for the 'Baking for Dummies' page to load. It took him a few minutes to finally notice a piece of paper lying on the counter. Of course... She had left him the recipe. Well, he thought, time to figure this out.
All week, Marinette had been using everything she could to make managing the bakery easier. That included using her family kitchen alongside the bakery kitchen.
She had just put her ready-to-be-baked chocolate cake into her family's oven, seeing as Tikki still had several batches of cookies in the bakery ovens downstairs. And now, Marinette was decorating a huge three layered cake that Tikki had been working on when the two teens arrived. It didn't take long to finish, so 20 minutes later, Marinette made her way downstairs to put the cake in the back until the customer arrived to pick it up. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Adrien working on his cake, but everything looked fine, so she continued on to the back.
But once she turned around, she was greeted with flour. First of all, she noticed the large blob of flour on the floor, then her eyes followed a small trail of even more flour that made its way to Adrien, who was covered in flour. It was in his gorgeous hair, on his black shirt, and plastered all over his designer jeans. He looked absolutely ridiculous.
Marinette tried to keep herself from laughing, but in the end, laughing was inevitable. There was flour everywhere. She didn't know it was possible to make such a mess. And Adrien's guilty smile made it even worse. She could not stop laughing. But for once, she wasn't embarrassed or disappointed for expressing herself. It felt nice to laugh again. To really, truly laugh.
Unbeknownst to Marinette, her laugh was extremely contagious. Adrien knew how ridiculous he looked, so it wasn't long before he was laughing along with her. It was even funnier that she hadn't noticed the flour until after she had put the cake away. And seeing her happy just made his heart flutter. He didn't know why, but he felt amazing. Actually, he did know why. It was her. There was just something about Marinette that could make anyone smile. It was just then that Adrien realized this moment was probably the first time she had laughed all week. He hoped that by helping her out, he could see her laugh like that even more.
They stood there laughing for a few minutes before Marinette realized what time it was.
"Ahh! I totally forgot! I need to open the shop!" Marinette started heading toward the front door, but after taking a few steps, she spun on her heel and faced Adrien again.
"A-are you done with that cake?"
"Yeah."
"Can you take it upstairs and put it in the oven? It should say what to set the oven to on the recipe. Oh, and take the other cake out first, it should be done by now." Before he could say anything else, Marinette was outside flipping the CLOSED sign to OPEN and getting ready to rush straight back to bake who knows what.
Adrien entered his bake-as-fast-as-you-can mode and dumped the messy batter into the waiting pan and practically threw the bowl into a nearby sink. And just as he turned around to head upstairs, Marinette zipped past him into the kitchen area of the bakery.
He briskly ran upstairs to find a cozy family kitchen with the smell of chocolate cake wafting through the air. While looking for the source of the sweet smell, he saw a warm oven tucked away in the corner, and quickly made his way to it. He dropped the pan on the counter and pulled the oven open to be greeted by the sweet scent of Marinette's cooking, only just remembering to grab a hot pad before pulling the mouthwatering cake out of the oven.
A second later, Adrien all but threw his masterpiece into the waiting oven and shut the door with a bang. He couldn't help but twirl around to grab the recipe as he set the oven timer and ran downstairs. He just couldn't help how happy he was. Adrien hadn't had this much fun in ages. And seeing Marinette being so chill and comfortable around him was just great. Oh it was amazing, that girl was amazing.
But once he reached the stairs, Adrien was immediately hit with the sugary aroma of freshly baked cookies. And of course, he grew extremely hungry. The cookies just smelled so good. He would have to ask Marinette if he could take a few once they closed the shop.
As the model wallowed in his hunger, the aforementioned girl ran past him with a tray of cookies bouncing in her mitten covered hands, and Adrien looked longingly at the gooey goodness. However, his hunger didn't stop him from hearing a small 'ding' from the front of bakery.
"Adrien!" Marinette shouted as she ran, "Can you man the counter for me?!"
"Yeah be right there!" He shouted back as he rushed to the counter. He got there just in time to see a rather prestigious looking man browsing the fancier looking pastries. Maybe his father's etiquette classes could be put to use after all.
"Is there anything I can help you with sir?"
Adrien had been working at the counter for hours. Apparently, when you were a famous model working at a bakery, everyone had to know about it. He had seen Marinette working behind him in the kitchen or heading upstairs to work on probably more orders, so managing the mass amount of people visiting the shop was left to Adrien. It surprised him just how many customers they were getting, and when Marinette would look his way, he could see that she was surprised to. Overwhelmed even. He could tell why she had been so stressed, and he still couldn't imagine how she had managed on her own for so long.
After treating one particularly cheery young woman, he looked up with a smile to help the next customer. He looked up to see a very large man with a bushy mustache and a round face; and to Adrien, he seemed very intimidating. When he spoke, it was in a very deep and gravelly voice that sounded to Adrien like rocks. Possibly boulders.
"I've come to pick up an order with the name of Guerin."
Adrien swallowed and smiled nervously at the man. For once that day, He didn't know what to do (aside from how to make a cake, he still didn't know how to do that). Marinette had always magically appeared when someone had come along to pick up an order. But now she was nowhere to be seen. He looked around frantically, trying to spot her somewhere in the mass of people, but it was no use. He gave the man an apologetic look and turned around to search for Marinette when he heard a happy squeal to his right. That girl must be a ninja.
"Mr. Guerin! It's so great to see you. I have your order in the back it will only be a sec." Before Adrien even had time to turn around, she was gone again and he was left with this Mr. Guerin. Though the man did look very intimidating, the way Marinette had acted toward him seemed to contradict that idea. Adrien was about to make some small talk when he felt a small pinch on his ankle. He looked down to see a pair of both hungry and angry green eyes look up at him. Though to Adrien they looked mostly hungry.
Luckily, Marinette reentered the room just then, and perhaps even more luckily, she unknowingly offered him a way out of Plagg's nagging.
"Hey Adrien this is Mr. Guerin," she said while setting the cake on the counter. "He's one of our most frequent customers. And would you mind taking care of the rolls upstairs? I was thinking you needed a break from all the chaos down here."
"Yeah sure. Umm weird question, but do you have any cheese?" Adrien made sure to whisper the cheese part. He didn't need everyone here to think he was cheese crazy or something.
"W-why?"
"I'm just uhh really craving cheese right now."
Marinette giggled a bit before answering.
"Okay help yourself to whatever's in the fridge upstairs." Adrien sighed in relief and Marinette smiled just a bit more than usual. After making his way upstairs with Plagg tickling his leg the whole way (which was extremely difficult), he raided the fridge for all the cheese sticks and cheese balls he could find and threw them at Plagg with no thought to the safety of the cheese.
"Adrien!" Plagg said as he stroked a ball of cheese, "You do not treat cheese this way! It is too precious to be thrown around like that!"
The boy glared at the kwami and quickly turned around before the urge to hit Plagg was too strong.
"My precioussss…"
Just walk away Adrien, just walk away, walk right into the counte-
"Ooomph!"
Of course there was a counter there, he knew that. And now he was mentally smacking the hysterical kwami who was laughing and eating cheese simultaneously.
"Adrien, I don't think you understand how funny this is. And it's even better with you covered in in all that flour." Adrien stopped.
"What?"
"Can you not see all that flour caked on your clothes? It looks hilarious!"
The flour. He'd never changed, never washed it off. He'd been covered in flour for hours and he hadn't even known. All those customers. They must have thought he was cosplaying as a marshmallow or something.
"Adrien! Oh this is great! Your face is as red as your hair is white! Hahahaha!"
The boy turned and gave Plagg a glare that would rival his father's (if his face hadn't been beet red that is). He immediately turned to the sink and tuned out Plagg's uncontrollable laughter as he vigorously scrubbed at his clothes and hair. It had been nearly 10 minutes when he finally gave up. He had gotten most of the flour out but there were still a few stains, some of which he could cover up with the white jacket he had left downstairs.
Just as he was about to head back downstairs, he remembered the reason he had come up in the first place and made his way to the oven. Still annoyed at how he had slipped up, Adrien didn't notice the unusually heavy platter on the edge of the counter, or the pile of flour on the floor. So as soon as he dumped the warm tray of rolls on the counter, Adrien stepped back into the flour and felt flat on his back. He didn't have time to right himself, because the platter Tikki had dropped earlier was about to fall on his face. He ended up needing both hands to keep it from crushing him, so when the clumsily placed tray of rolls started sliding, Adrien stuck his foot up to stop it and immediately regretted his decision. The tray was hot. He was so glad he was wearing shoes.
"PLAGG HELP ME!" The lazy kwami looked indifferently at the scene before him, and turned his head away before responding.
"Apologize to Camemberto first…" Adrien didn't want to deal with the kwami's snarky remarks right then.
"PLAGG GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OVER HERE AND HELP ME BEFORE MARINETTE COMES UP!"
"Apologize!" The model unwillingly gave in to the ludicrous request.
"I'm sooooorrrry Camemberto, now help me!" Plagg sighed and gently placed the half eaten Camemberto on the table and slowly made his way to the struggling Adrien.
"Push the rolls back onto the counter Plagg!"
"Ooookay." Plagg flew over to the pan and started picking up the rolls and setting them on the counter one by one. Adrien was ready to go all Cat Noir on the kwami, but sadly, that wasn't pawsible.
"The tray, don't forget the tray…"
"Oh the tray. Adrien I thought you just said the rolls. You really need to specify." Adrien decided, right then and there, that he would starve the kwami until he needed to transform again.
Once the rolls and the tray were on the counter, Plagg was lifting the abnormally heavy platter off of Adrien, when the two heard footsteps nearby. The kwami instantly dropped the platter to go hide. Adrien barely had time to stop it from crushing his face.
That was when Marinette appeared from the stairway and looked at Adrien with a mix of concern and befuddlement on her face. But rather than laughing or questioning him, she walked over with a smile and picked up the platter with ease.
"Let me help you with that." She set it back on the counter and held out a hand to help the model up. Adrien graciously took it and stood with his head bowed.
"I'm really sorry about today Mari, I've probably been more of a hinderance than any help really."
"N-no Adrien, you've been great!" The boy looked up in surprise. "I've really enjoyed having you here to help! It's been so much fun and I really needed a break from all the stress and responsibility. Thank you, really." Adrien was grateful for the remark, but he still felt bad for messing up so much that day. He really didn't know much about managing a bakery, but he wanted to make it up to her somehow.
"Hey Mari?"
"Yeah?"
"Would it be alright for me to come help out tomorrow too? I feel like I haven't done enough, and I can't imagine letting you do all this on your own." Marinette nodded happily and Adrien noticed a soft blush on her cheeks. He couldn't help it, she was just too cute.
"Is there anything else you need me to do before I go?"
"Nope, I just closed up shop. And you've really been a big help today. It was nice just having you here." Adrien smiled in thanks and the two made their way downstairs. The bakery was now empty, so Adrien grabbed his jacket from behind the counter and started heading towards the door.
"Adrien w-wait a sec!" The boy turned around to see Marinette reach behind a counter and reappear with a bag of cookies in her hand.
"F-for all your hard work today." She held out the cookies toward him and gave him the cutest smile he'd seen all day. Little did Adrien know that he was blushing as red as Ladybug.
Before taking the cookies, he stepped toward this wonderful girl and gave her a huge hug. She immediately hugged him back and the two couldn't help but squeal internally at their good luck. They ended up sharing several thank yous and goodbyes before Adrien made it out the door, but in the end, they both felt great. Adrien was a mixture of embarrassment and excitement, but overall, he'd enjoyed getting to know Marinette more, and he looked forward to seeing her tomorrow.
Marinette, on the other hand, was ecstatic. She had just spent half the day with Adrien, and she would be seeing him again tomorrow. She stood there in the bakery, twirling with happiness, until some loud noises outside the bakery broke the silence. All of the excitement from that day was pushed back as the heroine rushed up the stairs to find Tikki. The girl really didn't feel like stopping an akuma attack right now, she was exhausted. But, it was her duty, and some akumized citizen needed her and Cat Noir to save them.
A few minutes later, the two heroes of Paris could be seen flying over the rooftops of their city. Both of which were just a bit more tired, and slightly more joyful than usual.
[Just so you all know, I will be writing more. I'll get chapter 4 out as soon as I can]