Bourgeois: (adj.) of or characteristic of the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes

Chloe Bourgeois was not spoiled. Just because her father (the Mayor of Paris) loved her enough to buy her things when she asked did not make her spoiled, no matter what that ignorant red-haired girl had to say about it.

Besides, she thought with a sniff, anyone pairing black glasses with that horrible plaid shirt of hers clearly didn't know enough to go around judging anyone, much less the only daughter of the Mayor. Who did she think she was, anyway?

"Hey Chloe, wait up!" At the call behind her, the blonde straightened up and quickly wiped her nose, flipping her sunglasses down over her pink-tinted eyes. Taking a deep breath, she spun around and nearly crashed into the boy that was jogging to catch up with her, a fake grin already plastered into place. "Adrikins!"

"Hey, I just wanted to tell you that Alya is sorry for what she said. She didn't know and she really didn't mean it-"

"Forget it Adrien, her opinion doesn't bother me." Anymore.

"No really, is there someway we can make it up to you?"

"We?" Chloe looked at him skeptically over the rim of her glasses. "Who is we?"

"Alya, Marinette, and I. Nino's wasn't here today or he would be in to, but we all want to make it up to you, really." He ran his hand through his hair, flashing her a picture-perfect smile. "What are you doing tonight?"

She sniffed haughtily, doing her best to sound uninterested. "I already have plans, but thanks anyway I guess." With that, she spun on her heels and yanked open the back door of the sleek silver van that had just pulled up beside her, her driver sitting patiently in the front seat. Adrien held the door open as she ducked in and closed it carefully behind her. The driver, well accustomed to the demands of his charge, drove swiftly away.


"Daddy, I'm home!" The words echoed through the empty entryway, bouncing back off of the marble walls. Sulking to the kitchen, Chloe found a note from her father.

My dearest Chloe,

An emergency meeting came up, so I will be gone until tomorrow. There is food in the fridge for the butler to prepare and the maid was in today, so everything should be clean for you. Much love!

AB

Chloe, now feeling very alone, balled up the paper and threw it across the kitchen in frustration. Grabbing a popsicle from the freezer, she headed up to her massive – empty – room in calm silence. After laying on the couch for almost an hour, surfing through her phone and thinking about how miserable she was, she let out another sigh. Her finger hovered over her messaging app, and feeling as though she was going to regret it, she fired off the text before she could change her mind.

Change of plans. Does the offer still stand? -CB

Less than a minute later, her phone chimed a response, the sound echoing cheerfully in her empty room.

Absolutely! Meet us at the Dupain-Cheng bakery in 15? -AA

Chloe hesitated again, but what else did she have to do for the night? Cold pasta by herself didn't sound very appealing, anyway.

I'll see you there -CB


Chloe stepped out of the car and waved at the driver, who nodded and drove away, headed to the nearest park to spend the afternoon. Looking through the window to the bakery, the blonde blew her bangs out of her eyes and hesitated, tempted to call the driver back and just go home. Before she could reach for her phone, however, the door in front of her opened with a cheery jingle of bells to reveal a pair of startling green eyes and a dazzling smile.

"Chloe, you made it!" He pulled her inside and weaved through the displays to the counter, where a pair of their classmates waited, one blue-haired and anxious looking and the other with a phone in hand and a skeptical look on her face. Adrien, still in the lead, led them all around the corner to the bakery's enormous kitchen, which was currently empty, as the bakery was closed for the day.

As Chloe circled to look at the plethora of mixers, spatulas, and cupcake towers that decorated the counters, Marinette and Alya began pulling ingredients and pans out of various cabinets and refrigerators. Adrien winked at his friend and crossed the room to start up the smallest oven, moving through the settings with ease, thanks to the lessons from Marinette earlier in the year. Chloe, realizing what they had planned, began to fear for the safety of her manicure.

"And what, exactly, am I doing here?"

Adrien beamed, ridiculously excited that she had come and determined to make up for the grudging acceptance of the other two girls. "Making cupcakes, of course! It's going to be great, Marinette has this amazing recipe and Alya suggested decorating Ladybug-style-"

"-which is great because we already have red and black frosting, so we won't have to worry about making more," Marinette finished, gesturing wildly and accidentally knocking a bowl to the floor. Blushing slightly, she reached down to retrieve the clattering metal just as her father came around the corner to see how they were doing.

"You haven't even started yet? We'll we'd better fix that!" He passed aprons out to all of them (Marinette slipped her personalized apron on over her head after grabbing it from her hook near the door), and Chloe quickly found herself caught up in the baker's enthusiastic energy.

"So, Miss Bourgeois, how long have you been baking?"

She responded without looking up from the recipe book he held out (for her benefit – he knew it by heart, she was sure). "Um…never?" It came out more like a question than an answer, but she got her point across none the less. Mr. Dupain, thinking he had heard her wrong, stopped mid-stride on his way to the fridge and looked back at her.

"Never?" Chloe shook her head and shrugged, trying to look bored. "Daddy's chef always bakes for us."

The phone rang at the front counter of the bakery, making them all jump slightly. Marinette's father, handing off the book to their skeptical sous chef, winked at Adrien and left the kitchen to answer it. Alya and Marinette, used to working together, reached across each other for measuring cups and spoons, narrowly missing hitting the other in the nose. Chloe, left standing by herself in the middle of the kitchen, sighed and blew a stray piece of hair out of her eyes. I'm already here, right? It's not like I have anything better to do tonight.

To the surprise of her classmates (while Adrien broke into a grin behind them as he turned to wash his hands), Chloe stepped up to the counter and propped the recipe book on one of the many stands that littered the counter.

"How do we start?"


"Can someone help me with my sleeves?" Alya called, nearly elbow-deep in dishwater and watching the sleeves of her jacket slide precariously down her arm toward the soapy bubbles.

"I got it!" Chloe, who was on drying duty (Marinette and Adrien were in charge of putting things away after they were cleaned), reached carefully over the sink to snag the offending fabric, rolling it instead of just pushing it up the redhead's arm. Satisfied that it would stay, she rolled Alya's other sleeve to match, taking just a moment to make sure they were even before accepting the clean dripping bowl from her classmate. They finished the dishes in record time, and the oven timer went off just as Marinette put the last spoon away.

"Hey Chlo, could you grab some oven mits? They're in the drawer to your right." Handing the protective gloves to Adrien, she stepped back to give him room to open the oven and retrieve the final pan of chocolate cupcakes. Marinette, flushed red from the heat, reached around him to open the fridge and pull out the cooled pan to make room for the hot one.

"And now," she said, dropping each one carefully onto a clean stretch of counter, "the best part-"

"-decorating time!" Alya announced, joining them at the counter armed with four piping bags of frosting – one black, one white, and two red. Adrien, claiming the black, curled his arm protectively around his cake of choice. "No peeking, it's a surprise."

Chloe, red in hand, laughed, and found the taste was strange in her mouth. It was like the first time she tried sushi, she realized; strange, yet incredible.

Almost an hour later, Chloe twisted the plastic bag to force the last of the frosting into the tip, dotting it onto her cupcake with a dramatic flourish and a grin. She leaned back to look at her final creation, opening and closing her hand to work out the stiffness that had come from squeezing the icing bags for so long. She had covered the top of the miniature cakes with red icing and dotted it with black to create a pattern to mimic both the insect shell of a ladybug and the suit of the heroine of Paris. Alya, who had quickly figured out what she was doing, had quietly offered her a flowery tip to make the spots decorative. Alya had done several in both black and red; using the rounded edge of the cupcakes as a marker, she had wrapped the colors around each other in a yin-yang symbol, taking care to make sure that there was an even amount of both colors. She had opted to use white for the dots near the middle for some ("For dramatic effect!"), while others held true to the black-on-red and red-on-black crossover.

As Chloe carefully tucked her creations onto the rack on the counter, she looked over Alya's shoulder to see what Marinette had done. The blue-haired baker, well used to working with the icing bags, had drawn actual miniature ladybugs, complete with three pairs of legs, two pairs of wings, and a pair curling antennae on each. She had even used the white to add details to the spots and had put tiny flowers around the edge of the cake. As she finished her final cupcake, she reached into a nearby cupboard and pulled out three smaller containers, putting several cupcakes into each to send home with the people who had helped make them.

Marinette, who disliked having to clean tiny icing tips and bags, had thought ahead and used single-use bags that could just be thrown away when they were done. Adrien, his surprise creation tucked safely at the back of the counter under a napkin cover, had snagged the icing tips from each bag and put them all in a bowl of water in the sink to soak, as the quick-to-harden homemade frosting had solidified in the miniscule metal ridges. Just as Alya was wiping the final dusting of flour from the counters, Mrs. Cheng (whose husband hadn't reappeared after his phone call), offered to host all of them for dinner.

"We'll be right up, momma!" Marinette gathered the aprons from the group and hung them all up to dry (Chloe's was taken upstairs to get washed; she had discovered exactly why she was wearing it when she accidentally spilled an entire cup of cream on herself when she tried to pour it into the bowl).

"So… are you having fun?" Adrien asked as they walked up the stairs, nudging Chloe's shoulder with a stupid grin on his face.

The blonde sighed. "I guess…it's more fun that I thought it would be."

Adrien laughed loudly, startling the pair of girls on the stairs ahead of them. He grabbed for Chloe's hand and bounded the rest of the way to the apartment, his elation at her presence undisturbed by her seemingly-limited enthusiasm. "Just wait – dinner is always the best part."


When Chloe made it home several hours later, it was just as dark and quiet as she had left it. Ignoring the empty kitchen and living room, she quickly climbed the stairs to her room. She shut the door and dropped her bag on the couch, cradling her container of cupcakes safely in her arms. She sat down beside her bag and cracked the lid off the top, startled to find one of the cupcakes was wrapped in a paper towel with a note on top (in a small plastic bag to keep it frosting-free, of course). She pulled out the curtained creation and unwrapped it as she read the note.

Thanks again for coming today, Chlo! I hope you had fun, and I made this for you, I hope you like it!

Adrien

Looking down at the cake in her hand, Chloe laughed – really, truly laughed – for the first time in what felt like forever. It was black and red, like the rest, but this one was different than anything else they had done. This particular cupcake was mostly black, with several red spots dotting the top – Adrien had decorated it not for Ladybug, but for Antibug.

After all, Chloe thought as she took several photos of the design before starting to peel off the cupcake paper to eat the sugary creation. Not all villains stay evil in the end.

Marinette, Alya, Adrien, and Nino had dinner together every couple of weeks, usually at Marinette's house, she had learned. As Chloe was walking through the bakery to meet her driver after dinner, the blue-haired designer had stopped her in the doorway.

"Do you…do you want to come next time, too?"

This time, when Chloe smiled, she meant it.


Want more sappy baking? Check out The Bake Off for the full story of how Marinette teaches Adrien to measure, use an oven, and that you should never be afraid of frosting!