"What do you think?"

Marinette's father leaned over Adrien with an eager expression, watching as the boy bit into a freshly baked pastry of his making. It was an original recipe specific to the family bakery, and he had thought it appropriate for a new friend of his daughter's to try, especially one with so much potential.

Marinette was desperately wishing her parents would stop swarming him, coming up with treats and bread for them when they had been rooting around in the kitchen.

"It's amazing, sir!" Adrien praised Tom, responding to the man's infectious enthusiasm. "You are a very talented man, I can see where Marinette gets it from."

Tom beamed as Adrien had been hoping he might, wanting to make a good impression. The large man seemed ecstatic to receive praise not only on his craft, but also on his daughter.

"Well, you certainly seem to have good taste!" Tom laughed, turning to depart. When his back was turned to his daughter, he winked at the handsome lad. "I'm glad you like them, have as many as you want!"

Adrien choked on pastry from the comment, and wasn't able to recover in time to reply before the man was gone. He was burning red and focused intently on his food, he didn't have to look over to Marinette to know that she was in a similar state.

Marinette was mortified! She couldn't believe her father, she was going to kill him, what was he thinking!?

When her mother left temporarily to check on the laundry, she whispered hoarsely, "I am so sorry about them. They are really sweet honest, they just get sorta... excited."

Adrien looked up at her, easily able to tell that she felt humiliated, and something in him desperately urged him to fix it.

"Hey, no, it's fine!" he smiled, finding it easy to discard his own embarrassment when faced with hers. "I've been alone with Alya and Nino all morning. Trust me, that was mild."

Marinette gave an airy laugh, rubbing at her neck nervously but feeling a little better.

"I really like them," Adrien added, looking off in the direction her mother had gone, "They seem really nice. And your dad's so happy, it's really cool. They are both very friendly."

Marinette took a slow bite from her pastry, biding her time to form an answer.

"They like you too," she responded finally, giving him a warm smile, "I'm sure they'd love to have you around, so you're welcome any time."

He was stunned by the sudden offer, but smiled at the idea of returning to the warm bakery. He liked watching their family dynamic, the way Marinette had hugged her mother and happily introduced her, welcoming him into the fold almost instantly. Sabine had been so friendly, insisting on a hug and giving him a miniature tour of their home while Tom brought up the food. She had shown him all the rooms, each one having a story she summarized in passing. It was amazing.

He had a feeling that Sabine's quick acceptance had something behind it, the way she watched him as he joked with her husband seeming almost... heavy. She had started telling him stories and asking him about himself as soon as they met, so he had a suspicion that she knew something about him and his home life, probably from Marinette. She had made a grand effort right off the bat to make him feel welcome, and he was extremely grateful for it.

"That sounds awesome," he said finally, smiling happily at Marinette. He didn't mind the teasing. If he could deal with Nino, he could deal with anyone. He knew where his love lie.

Adrien filled himself on the wide variety of breads and treats supplied by Marinette's parents, astounded by how much they had made to prep for his arrival. In just the small time that he had been there, he could see characteristics he saw in Tom and Sabine (as they insisted on being called) reflected in their daughter. It was interesting to see the sources of Marinette's sweet, caring nature as well as her bubbly fun side.

She was definitely bubbly, and he loved it. The longer he was there and the more he interacted with a familiar environment of hers, the more comfortable she got. He laughed uproariously when she practically threw her croissant across the room, thanks to her wide hand gestures as she was telling a story. He found himself laughing a lot through the half hour they took to eat and snack on various foods stashed around, enjoying her company more than he had expected he would, and he had already been expecting a lot. She was just so much fun, and rather silly and easily flustered. There were a few times when she would get self-conscious and suddenly fall quiet, but he was always quick to reassure her, just like she had done for him the day before. There was still a sort of tension as both of them wanted to make good impressions on the other, but it was overall very pleasant. Eventually, they made it back to her room, wrapped up in a conversation about her work.

"Please!" he begged, sitting backwards on her desk chair and scooting after her as she moved around. "Please, can I see them? I really want to know what the winter suits will look like!"

Marinette tried to play distant, desperately ignoring how cute he was when he putted around like that in the swivel chair. "They are just hypotheticals. They're not real designs."

"Oh liar! I saw Cat Noir with that hood yesterday, you are totally designing for them!" He smirked at how caught out she looked, using his superhero alter ego to his advantage for information he wouldn't otherwise have as Adrien. "That's so cool! You're a designer for superheroes!"

"Shh!" she hushed him, looking at her closed door and hoping her parents didn't hear. "It's a secret!"

"I knew it!" he cheered, though he internally wondered why it was a secret from her parents. Hadn't Ladybug been in the bakery the day before? How much weirder would it be? He couldn't ask, though, without giving himself away. "Marinette, superhero designer! You should get a business card."

She laughed at that, shaking her head. "If I show you, you can't tell. If Alya knew I was hired by Ladybug, she would never let it go."

"I swear I won't!" Adrien gave her his best smile, grinning so wide he had to close his eyes to manage it. As Marinette walked to her desk to find her sketchbook, he said, "Can I ask how you met Ladybug, or is that top secret?"

She tensed, but quickly recovered, remembering that she had a good excuse.

"Yeah, I met her during the Evillustrator attacks." She pulled out her book and beckoned him over. "She somehow found out that I was the target and met up with me before sending Cat Noir."

He scooted over, making her giggle. "How did she know you were a designer?"

"She came to my house to find me. I was working on something when she swung in."

She flipped through her book a little before letting it fall open to two pages with her Ladybug winter design. She was in love with it, and couldn't wait to start working on it.

"WOAH!" he exclaimed loudly, swooping down to pick up the book again much like he had the first time. Marinette smiled proudly at his wide-eyed reaction, poring over it with intense joy in his eyes.

The hood was elegant and simple, attached to what sort of looked like an asymmetrical peacoat, except with a tighter fit and of a thicker material (thank you, modeling career). The peacoat, as well as the hood, was a bright scarlet red but the two rows of buttons down the one side mimicked black spots. There was also a small collection of black dots on the shoulders, and the coat at large was complemented by the spotted leggings. The notes scattered across the page said they were 'thermal knit', whatever that meant. Probably just meant they were warm right? They were inverted from Ladybug's typical color scheme, the leggings being black with red spots, leading into boots of the same shade of red as the coat. There were tons of notes indicating material and practical design elements, like extra traction on the boots and thick material for the black gloves. The note that made him smile the most was the one in regard to the gentle ruffle at the bottom of the coat that read, 'More moveable, but mostly just really cute'.

"This- I-" he stuttered, mouth gaping wide before he spun the chair to face Marinette directly, "This is unbelievable!! It's amazing, Marinette! It looks so cool, I'm sure Ladybug is going to love it!"

He burned her expression into his memory: happy and powerful and proud, with her hands on her hips confidently. She laughed and blushed, somehow blurring the line between flustered and confident and creating an entirely new girl that made his heart jump in his chest. His words caught in his throat and he suddenly felt incredibly nervous, knowing his face was hot with an emotion he couldn't place. Oh god, in that moment she looked exactly like Ladybug.

"You really like it?" she asked, looking away from the book in his hands and up to his face, freezing in surprise when their eyes met. "Adrien?"

"Uh- I- Yeah!" he stammered, looking away from her and trying to hide behind her book, pretending to get sucked back in when in reality his mind was far too distracted to even see the pictures. He swallowed against the thickness in his throat, violently shoving any and all thoughts as to the comparison to the back of his mind. He could deal with whatever that was later.

He wanted a distraction again. "I especially like-"

The two of them fell into conversation over why she chose to do a certain thing instead of something else, and it wasn't hard to get pulled in. When she was talking about her designs, she got very detailed and animated, making it easy to find questions to ask and just enjoy her passion while she answered. He was genuinely interested, wanting to engage in the things she liked. They continued on like that until he heard the bell for the door chime downstairs, and Tom called up, "Mari! Alya and Nino are here!"

Adrien and Marinette shared a look before she stashed the sketches quickly and playfully put a finger to her lips. "Remember it's a secret, okay?"

"You got it-" he bit his tongue abruptly, just barely cutting off the 'Princess' from that sentence, and followed her out of the room. They were passing through the kitchen when she started coughing roughly, so Adrien said, "Go on ahead, I'll be right down."

"Okay, the bathrooms that way," she gestured down a hall, assuming that's what he was after, and went downstairs.

Instead of that, though, he went in the direction he had seen her mother go earlier and found her reading in her room with the door ajar.

"Um, excuse me, miss," he started awkwardly, feeling weird for tracking her down like that in her own home.

"Yes?" she responded, looking up and putting the book down, "Did you need something? The bathroom is down the hall."

He smiled at that, but shook his head.

"Um, no, it's just that Marinette was coughing again and I was wondering if you had any tea?"

The mother gasped adorably and put a hand to her heart. "That's sweet of you. Of course, let me show you where it is."

"Hey girl!" Alya greeted her friend as she came downstairs, meeting herself and Nino just inside the door. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing okay, thanks," she said with a smile, knowing her voice probably still sounded pretty awful. "What's up?"

"Our lunch hour is almost up, but we wanted to come by and see you before we went back," Nino explained, looking behind her curiously. "Did Adrien ever make it here? He left the school in a hurry."

"Yeah, he's upstairs. He told me about Chloe. I am so sorry you guys got in trouble for defending me, but it's really cool of you that you did."

"Of course we did," Alya said with a huff, crossing her arms but still smiling. "We weren't going to let her talk about you like that."

"You should have seen Adrien," Nino chimed in. "He was all fire and brimstone, taking her down like he did."

Nino grinned when Marinette blushed, waving it off but still smiling. He was going to take advantage of his friend's absence to talk him up a little.

"He was so pissed! Like 'How dare you,' I thought I was going to have to hold him back."

They politely refused the offer to come upstairs, really only having a few more minutes before they needed to go back. Nino was still giving quotations of what exactly Adrien had said to defend her, paying special attention to the whole 'I would rather hang out with Marinette a hundred times over before I even said good morning to you, so just shut up and leave her alone' bit, which made her blush even more than before, when the man himself arrived. Adrien's cheeks tinted a little as well when he walked into the conversation, giving Nino yet another glare before saying "Hello," and handing a cup to Marinette.

She looked at the cup in confusion before seeing that it was tea and gasping slightly. "Oh, Adrien, thank you!"

He smiled happily. "Yeah, your mom said it's your favorite. Your mom also said you don't like too much honey, but your throat seemed like it was bothering you again, and I thought it would be better for soothing your throat. I'm sorry if it doesn't taste so great..."

"Ooh that's sweet of you, Adrien," Alya cooed, beyond excited for her friends. Adrien just rolled his eyes, but she could tell he really cared about Marinette's wellbeing. "I'm glad you have a good nurse, I'm sure you'll be better in no time."

"Hey, dude, I've got to ask," Nino cut in, shaking out Alya's umbrella on the rain mat to keep it from dripping on the floor. "Why did you run off like that? I've gotten calls from Natalie, there is no way you haven't."

Adrien grimaced, having been strategically ignoring his phone ever since he made it to the bakery. He nervously looked down at it in his pocket, frowning at the solid wall of notifications. There was even one call directly from his father, which made his blood chill a bit at the sight. That couldn't be good.

"I figured I was already screwed, so why waste the day at school when I could go check on Marinette?" he answered honestly, but everyone noticed the weight on his shoulders.

"Are you really going to get in that much trouble?" Marinette practically whispered, and he felt awful for worrying her. He knew that no matter what he said, she was still going to feel bad.

"I'm sure it will be fine," he responded with a half-hearted chuckle, looking back down at the notifications. "I'll get grounded for a while, but it will be alright. I can still see you guys at school until it's lifted."

All three of his friends had looks of sympathy, Nino reaching out to pat him on the shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. Adrien just smiled weakly before shaking his head and changing the subject.

They chatted easily until it was time for them to leave, and Alya couldn't help but smile at the image her friends made as Nino and herself headed for the door. It was Adrien, standing a little too close for just friends, and Marinette subconsciously leaning towards him while she gently sipped the tea he had made for her. It was so cute, and she couldn't help but feel like they both deserved it.

Each other, that is.

"Feel better!" the best friends chorused as they left.

Nino turned to Alya as they shared her umbrella. "Those losers have it bad and it's only been a few hours."

"How much you wanna bet they'll be together by the end of the week?" Alya joked, and Nino shook his head.

"Nah that's too long, he'll have proposed by then."

They laughed loudly as they hustled towards the school, Alya overjoyed but Nino still a little concerned. He really hoped Adrien didn't get in trouble for this. Leave it to his dad to ruin a good thing for his son.

"Do you think you should go before you get in even worse trouble, or would you like to hide here for a while?" Marinette asked once they were alone, leading the way back towards the stairs (mindful of the stool this time around). She looked over her shoulder and saw his face fall.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to stay a little," he admitted, pulling out his phone. "I'll just tell Natalie I'm not dead or anything and that I'll be home later. I'm not sure when I'll be allowed out again."

Marinette slowed down to a near crawl up the stairs, suddenly deep in thought. Adrien pulled back to keep from running into her, looking curiously into her deeply concentrated expression.

"What's up?" he asked as they eventually came to a stop on the steps.

"I feel bad that you will probably get grounded because of me," she started, but held up her hand to keep him from responding, "and I was just thinking. You said you like to explore, right?"

He just stared at her for a second before saying, "Uhh... yes?"

"Weeell," she shrugged her shoulders before darting up the stairs and calling back to him, "I'm feeling better than I was this morning and a bit of fresh air might be good for me! And I can think of a spot you might like."

He ran after her, chasing her to her room and already protesting. "Wait, no! We can't leave, you could get even more sick!"

She ran to her dresser, turning to look at him with a playful smile that made his breath hitch.

"I'll bundle up! It will be fine."

"I don't want you to risk getting worse! Let's just hang out here!"

"I'll let you wear Cat Noir's hood," she singsonged, pulling out a scarf and sweater from her drawer.

He hated to admit it, but it got him curious.

"What hood?"

She laughed, throwing her sweater on over her shirt.

"I made Cat a 'to-go' hood for yesterday, but I started working on his real hood last night and finished it this morning. It's the final design and I know you liked the hood page I showed you yesterday."

She continued to get dressed but turned when the silence had stretched for too long. When she saw the torn conflict written across his face, she burst out laughing, covering her mouth as he scowled at her. Her giggles slipped through her fingers, though, and he crossed his arms stubbornly.

"No way, I don't want you to get worse."

Marinette took a moment to gauge his expression before heaving a fake sigh.

He watched her deflate, her shoulders pulling in and her smile fading. For a second, his heart hurt, suddenly willing to give her whatever she wanted to wipe that sad look from her eyes, but then he saw the mischievousness behind it.

"Okay..." she said slowly, practically dragging her feet as she towards her desk. "I guess I can't test this super important hood to see if it works..." She reached down and pulled a shapeless stack of black leather into his hands, and his curiosity was burning a hole through his head. It was his hood, his hood, the one designed specifically for him (more or less) by Marinette.

And she looked so sad, even if she was just playing him. To a surprising degree, he really couldn't deal with it.

"Eeeaaaah OKAY okay fine," he finally conceded, walking up to her briskly and pointing at the cloth. "But I get to wear that like you promised. And we only stay out for like an hour or two, okay?"