From a young age, the kitchen became both a place to be wary of and excited to be in. It became a family place, somewhere to be among family, and enjoy good times. A family that baked together or cooked together seemed to stay together or as much as Marinette knew.
She'd learned to bake and to help her father out in the bakery, learned to cook dinner with her mother when it was getting late, and to naturally help clean up from a hard day in the bakery or rush upstairs to make sure that the dinner was going well.
Marinette had learned to work in the bakery as easily as if it were simply another fact of life, and so even now, she headed over to the bakery, easily washing her hands and slipping an apron on, easily joining her father as she focused on baking the bread very carefully and yet naturally. It felt like air sometimes to bake, as easy as it had become, and yet Marinette didn't mind in the least helping out.
It was where her parents had given her advice over the years, and it was where she'd first found an outlet for her pain or anger. Marinette knew just how to lose herself to the baking, to get lost in the action of doing so, and to enjoy doing all that she could. She loved kneading dough, and yet she also loved decorating the baked goods just as much.
Kneading dough was one of her first outlets as a child, and decorating was always a task that she could get lost in and thrill over. Baking or cooking with family meant the world to her, had become everything that she'd ever wanted to do, and she couldn't help how it made seeing moments where families didn't bake or cook together with love just as odd as could be.
Marinette loved these moments together though, wouldn't trade them for the world, as she pressed closer to her father as Tom and her talked about anything, keeping their hands busy, and their hearts warm with love.
Her dad sometimes seemed like her favorite person in the world, and her mother at other times. Marinette smiled as they talked of everything from whether they were going to play Ultimate Mecha Strike Three after the bakery closed for the day or if they should all watch a movie and who should pick the movie tonight if so.
"Maman should pick." Marinette told him, "We picked last time, and I'm sure that she'll want to pick next."
"But you should pick, Marinette. Your maman picked the time before that, and you hadn't really picked the last time." Tom told her with a smile, and Marinette just shook her head at him.
"No, I wanted to watch the same movies as you did last time, Papa. Don't you remember?" She asked.
"You did, but I picked the movies the last time." Tom answered her back just as easily.
"Papa!" Marinette grumbled as she stared up at her dad, still often surprised in little moments like these that he was just so much taller than her.
"Don't fight." Sabine peeked in, "We could always play Ultimate Mecha Strike Three later anyway. I'll give it a try too if you want."
"You hear everything." Tom grumbled affectionately, and yet Sabine just giggled before she went back to man the counter once more.
"Maman's good at that." Marinette murmured with a smile, and all really was okay in the Dupain-Cheng family. They wouldn't have it any other way.