Late, Even When They're Not

Sabine Dupain-Chang was having a wonderful morning. Her daughter was already at school so no need to make sure that she got up in time. Her husband was softly humming while getting the dough ready for the second round of croissants for the later part of the day. And she was happily taking care of the customers who came to the counter with their orders.

It was as she was ringing up the latest customer when suddenly the bakery front that was bustling moments ago went silent. She looked up to catch a glance at the person at the door.

She recognized him at once. She didn't need to go into Marinette's room to recognize Adrien. Sabine realized that everyone in the bakery was looking or glaring at the boy. He looked uncomfortable and seemed to take a step back. She was not going to let this go on in her bakery. She quickly slipped out from behind the counter and walked quickly up to Adrien.

"Adrien!" She exclaimed in a voice loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. "My most prized customer. How are you doing today?" She walked up to him and directed him to go with her to the counter in the back.

"Ummm, good." Adrien was looking around at all the people who were staring at them. Sabine took the opportunity to give a stern look to each of the patrons who were giving Adrien glares. A few huffed and left the bakery, but others got the message and returned to what they were doing. Soon the bakery returned to how it was before he had entered.

When they reached the counter Sabine turned and took a deeper look at Adrien. He looked tired not on the outside, but he seemed to not have as much energy as she previously had known him.

"Is everything alright, Adrien? It's almost time for school to start." Sabine prodded while she finished ringing the next person's order. Before he could respond there was a light crash heard from the back room where they had the ovens.

"Adrien!!!" Tom's voice followed by heavy steps coming toward the doorway between the two rooms. Tom barreled in and picked Adrien up in a bear hug.

"Adrien!!! We heard what happened to you! Are you alright son? Is there anything we can do?" Tom said all while holding Adrien up in the air.

"Tom! Let the boy breathe. Then maybe he could talk." Sabine said, chuckling at Tom's antics. Her husband really loved this boy. They both had been really worried for him since they found out about his father.

Tom placed Adrien back on the ground and Adrien seemed to have perked up from the hug. Man, this boy needed more affection in his life. Adrien beamed up at Tom for a moment before he realized he hadn't told them why he had come yet.

"Ah, right. I just came to see if I could walk with Marinette to class." Adrien explained. Sabine looked at him confused. Her daughter was already in school. Unless this was one of those times that Sabine had been worrying about with her daughter. She always seemed to disappear at random times and sometimes in the most concerning moments like during an akuma attack. But, Sabine trusted her daughter.

"Oh. I am sorry Adrien, but Marinette headed out early today to do a school project in the library."

Adrien looked confused for a second. Then he seemed to have a thought.

"OH! Right! THAT school project. Right now I remember. I must have just missed her as she was going into the library. Ha ha ha" Adrien rubbed the back of his head in a nervous gesture. This boy has to get better at lying, but Sabine wasn't going to press it.

"Well then! Can you take these croissants to Marinette for me, my boy?" Tom interjected.

"Yeah! I'd love to." Adrien said as he relaxed at the change of subject. Tom filled two bags full of pastries and handed them to Adrien.

"Now that one goes to Marinette, but the other one is for you. You are too skinny. You need some fat on your bones."

"Yes, sir." Adrien said. Sabine laughed at Adriens formality

"Adrien dear you are like family to us. You can call us Sabine and Tom." Sabine explained. She saw something flicker in Adriens eyes and before he let the tears drop Sabine rushed into him for a hug. He returned it after a little bit. Then Tom came and gave them both a big hug.

"Now don't be late to class, boy. Or we will be very angry." Tom said with a mock frown.

Adrien seemed to brighten up at the teasing.

"Yes, si…. Of course Tom. I'll get the treats to Marinette as soon as I can and I will not be late to class." Adrien saluted Tom and walked out the door to the bakery.

Sabine heard a sigh from her husband and turned to see her husband looking sadly after the boy.

"I know Tom." Sabine wrapped her body around Tom as much as she could. "He will be okay and now he knows that he can come here for hugs and croissants. We will help him." Tom hugged her back, Then Sabine's wonderful morning continued, made even better by Adriens visit.

oo o0oo 000 ooo0 o 0o00 000 oo0

Adrien didn't keep his promise to Tom and he knew it was part joke and part serious, but he still felt guilty when he walked into class late. He just had the most amazing experience in the Tom and Sabine Bakery and he would never forget it. He would cherish this memory till the day he died.

He saw Marinette huffing in her seat as he sat down. She must have just made it seconds before him because he had seen her outside, but she breathed like she had run a mile. Where was she before school? She wasn't in the library he had checked there, before he had decided to wait for her in front of the school. What was so important that she would lie to her amazing parents about it? He shook off those questions. He could ask her between periods and give the croissants to her too. He lightened up at the prospect.

That's what he thought at first. When the end of the period sounded he turned around in his chair to see Marinette sadly looking down at her purse. He was about to ask her what was wrong until something struck his face. He touched where the thing was still stuck to him and found a wadded piece of paper. He had only seen this done in movies. He looked around to see who might have shot it at him. It was clear when Alya turned to Marinette and pulled her to go to the bathroom with her. Alya glared at him as they left the classroom.

This seemed to repeat during the day. Everytime Adrien tried to talk to Marinette she was whisked away by Alya or she was surrounded by her friends. The friends that used to be his too. This got increasingly frustrating the longer he wasn't allowed to speak to his princess.

"Why are you even trying?" Plagg asked unhelpfully "I mean she's 'just a friend' you say. You're pursuing her like she was the love of your life or something. Like if she was Ladybug" Adrien looked down at his Kwami. It seemed like Plagg was trying to say something, but Adrien couldn't figure it out.

"Because, Plagg. She's my only friend now. And I like her parents. I want to get to know Marinette a bit more." Adrien explained

Plagg head butted Adrien's chest without explanation. Adrien just ignored him as he peeked around a corner. Marinette was just ending a conversation that seemed like it would last forever and there was no Alya in sight to capture her again. This was his chance to speak to her. After checking around again to see if Alya was around Adrien peeked out and saw Marinette coming in his direction. Once she passed the corner Adrien grabbed her arm and pulled her around the corner hoping that no one saw them.

He looked around again, but no one seemed to be coming. He looked down at a startled Marinette trapped between him and the wall. She seemed to be growing a darker red the langer she was there.

"OH! I am so sorry." Adrien stepped back from her as fast as he could rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just I haven't been able to talk to you all day, and I tried so many times, but then Alya would pull you away or one of our other classmates had a problem that only you as the class president could fix. Then I kind of got desperate and made up this whole plan. Good thing it worked because there were other plans that I was planning on…"

He was interrupted by Marinette's twinkling laughter coming to his ears. He didn't know why she was laughing, but he couldn't help but smile as she did.

"Ha- Sorry Adrien." Marinette said once she caught her breath. "It's just usually I am the one who is rambling and when you do it, it looks cute." She stopped as her comment reached her ears and she seemed like she was about to try and explain it away, but he didn't want her to continue in her patterned Marinetteness so he said the fastest thing he could think of.

"Well, if it's cute when I do it. Imagine how I feel when you do it almost on a daily basis. Absolutely adorable." Flirt, that's the fastest thing that he could come up with to say? He slightly cringed, but held by what he said. Marinette seemed to redden, but not to an extreme level. He liked her blushes. They went well with all of the pinks that she wore and her shy smile was so much fun to coax out of her. Though it wasn't as awestrucking as her full out smile that she had given him yesterday.

"Uh, Adrien?" Marinette said, breaking him out of what he was thinking. He blinked and then twice before he realized that he had not yet told her why she had been jumped and dragged from the open hallway.

"Oh, Right! Sorry it seems like I am doing this a lot today. Where were you this morning? I was waiting outside the school to see if we could hang out before class started. " Adrien asked.

"I-I was… I was asleep. Right. I was asleep. You know me, I can't get up in time to save my life. I slept through my alarm."Marinette seemed alarmed as she answered. He knew she was lying, but he wanted to see how far she would take it.

"Hmmm… well okay then. I have something for you." Adrien said as he reached into his bag.

"Fo-for me?" Marinette seemed baffled. He pulled her bag of pastries from his bag and handed them to her. She looked at him then to the bag. She opened it and saw the pastries. She looked back up to Adrien, who had an accusing smirk on his face. Still confused she took a pastry from the bag and she realized.

These were pastries from this morning's batch. Her experience with these pastries helped her to distinguish how old they were. They were pretty fresh, but not as fresh as the pastries that her papa would have already used to replace the pastries this morning. There was no way for Adrien to have these unless he had gotten them this morning. That would mean he was at her house and probably knows that she hadn't in fact slept in.

Her face grew pale. As she looked up at Adrien's knowing smile again.

Adrien knew when she finally realized that he knew she was lying. "I thought you hated liars, Marinette? So, why lie? What could be so important that Marinette Dupain-Cheng would lie about it?" Adrien knew that if he was transformed his tail would have been swishing from side to side like he was about to capture a small bird. He even started creeping a little closer to her.

"I… I mean…" Marinette stuttered. "It's none of your business Adrien." She said with strength in her tone and looked away from him with determined eyes. "Now if you excuse me. I need to go home to… to - help my parents. Yeah, I need to help my parents with the Bakery." Marinette expertly dodged around him and started running toward the exit.

"Wait!" He called out to her. Instantly regretting pushing her on the question. He wasn't fast enough and she didn't hear or she ignored him. Either way Adrien found himself alone in the hallway.

"Way to go Prince Charming. Cinderella ran away from you and from the looks of it this time she didn't even leave a shoe." Plagg snarked.

"Shut up Plagg." Adrien said despondently "I know I messed up. There's no need for you to tell me." Adrien pushed Plagg back into his pocket as he made his way outside to his car. Alone again. He felt like he had lost another one of his friends, only this time it was worse. Hawkmoth couldn't be blamed for taking this friend from him. He had done that all on his own.


Authors Note:

Yay! Double upload day to make up for yesterday. ;) We wouldn't want to get behind now would we.

Thank you to all who review and Favorite. I like to see that people are enjoying the story. Comment what you like and what you didn't. It all helps me to improve my writing or story telling.

Thanks So much!!