After the incident had been solved, everyone was now back at the beach-house. The two teenagers were in Marinette's room working on the given worksheet together. If they weren't cuffed they would've went their own ways. The girl traced her fingers over the miniature plastic container, pulling at the lid to pop it off and take a few pieces of lead for her pencil. Adrien inhaled some air.
"This room smells like..you." "W-What?" She looked at him, his sudden praise clearly catching her off guard. "Yeah, did you spray perfume in here?" "N-No does it smell bad?" "I wouldn't say strawberries smell bad." He smiled in a friendly manner. "...Strawberries?" "Yeah, you smell exactly like them." She couldn't help but laugh at what he said, which made him smile. Marinette sat down on Alya's bed (bottom one), grasping the worksheet in one hand, she took a mental note of what they've written so far, making sure no questions were missed. "There's just one more question left to answer." Marinette motioned over with the tip of her finger.
Adrien sat down next to her because of the painful ache suffocating his wrist. "What did you notice about your shell?" Marinette read the printed words. "What kind of questions are these?" Adrien chuckled, clasping his hand over the pencil that Marinette held before writing.
'I noticed that the shell was purple.'
He wrote on the paper.
"What am I supposed to write?" Getting a hold of the paper again, she took the pencil from him. "That the shell is medium sized and we figured out that it's a snail's shell." Nodding, she wrote down his statement. "There, we're done, now let's turn it i-" The door flinged open, causing them to flinch from the loud sound. "WASSUP MY DUDES-" "NINO! QUIT SLAMMING THE DOOR LIKE THAT!" Adrien yelled at the top of his lungs. "Why? Y'all hiding something?" A playful smirk crossed his face.
"Yeah right." His eyes rolled back. "Anyway love birds come downstairs we're makin-"
"Marinette! Come! Mrs.Bustier said we're making a cake from those fruits we saw at the forest!" Alya called from downstairs.
"Cake?" She murmured, thinking deeply about what she had said. "Adrien there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Lila tramped inside, setting her bag down on her own bed. "You said you would help me with my homework, remember?" Her green envious eyes gazed over the blonde boy. "Oh...right." His own green ones darted away from her figure. Nino took notice and spoke up.
"Uh Lila we're literally on like a vacation, plus this is Adrien's first time on a school feild trip so why the h!ll would you wanna do homework?" "It's due tomorrow and I struggle with the subject quite a lot. Adrien seems to have pretty good grades so he's like the only person I can count on."
"We're literally on a trip. Mrs.Bustier wouldn't mind if you turn it in late." Alya joined in on the conversation, appearing behind her boyfriend. "It's fine I can help you Lil-" "NO! WE'RE GOING DOWNSTAIRS!" Nino stomped, snatching his friends hand and technically dragging the two out. "Hm, I'm starting to understand what Marinette meant now." Alya stared down at her intensely. "What are you talking about?" Her jaw clenched, eyes squinting to give her the same dirty look.
"Nothing." Swaying back to the door behind her, Lila cackled agitatingly. "I have no idea what you're talking about. But from the look on your face I could tell she's been trash-talking about me, tell her to keep her mouth shut or I will tell on her." Retorted Lila. Alya's flailing arm gripped the door handle in anger. "Lila. You're always spilling nonsense with your bad mouth, thinking you're so full of yourself. I don't know what Marinette did to you or what's going on between the two of you but whatever it is quit-"
"Ah! So you're defending her now. Come on Alya, knock some sense into your brain, can't you see that Marinette is the troubled one here? It's obvious she handcuffed herself to Adrien. She did it all out of jealously. She knew I wanted to spend time with him. She know's that he isn't interested." An arrogant smile appeared over his lips.
"Isn't interested? No he's not interested in you. At the airport Adrien had gotten uncomfortable because you wouldn't keep your hands to yourself. And if you really believe that Marinette handcuffed herself to him, why don't you go ask her then? Oh that's right. You can't. Why? Because they're handcuffed duh! Everything you say, the other will always hear. And we both know you're too afraid that Adrien will look down on you. You gotta keep up the act to impress him right?"
"You're only saying that because she likes him and know that I do too." "Exactly! You like him too! Sounds like to me that you're the jealous one here. Let me give you some feedback..keep that bad mouth shut and go get a f!cking life." Returning a cheeky smile, she left the room, hammering the door shut. After a few seconds of having her words sink in she furiously barged out the door. "Ugh! What a b¡tch."
...
"So today we are going to bake a strawberry cake! Here we have all the ingredients already set out and ready to use." Mrs.Bustier leisurely ran her hands over the ingredients above the large white counter. Different ingredients layed out in front of the cuffed teenagers.
'Well it'd be nice to have some cake sense it is my birthday anyway.' Marinette thought.
Adrien stared into the bowl of fresh strawberries. His desperate eyes showed that he really wanted to try one. Mrs.Bustier passed out a pink sheet of paper with instructions. Marinette picked it up from the counter and began reading. "First step, baking powder." Her eyes averted over the counter, there were so many shades of powders that she had no idea which one it is.
"Two right?" Max questioned, Adrien nodded in response as his classmate handed him two aprons, walking away to proceedingly hand out some more for his other classmates. "We should put these on before we start." Adrien stated, handing her a pink apron with small flower prints. Nodding, she attempted to tie the strands behind her neck but Adrien's hand kept getting in the way. "Ugh it's not working!" She complained. "Let me do it." He grabbed the strands and began to tie a knot. His hands paused at the bottom strands behind her waist. "Ahem!" He immediately tied them together into a bow.
"What the-is he looking at her...you know." Rose whispered over to Alya. "I mean you're kinda supposed to when you're tying something behind them." "ALYA!" Rose exclaimed. "What? Me and Nino grab our ass*s once in awhile." She spoke so casually. "WHAT-" She looked back at Nino, astonished by his girlfriend's sudden confession. "Alya if you don't shut the f-" "Look!" Alya pointed, turning their heads to look, Adrien pulled Marinette's shirt up.
Rose became stunned by the action. Once he saw her bare back, he instantly pulled it back to how it was before, patting the apron to get rid of the fabric wrinkles. It wasn't his intention to do so but the fabric kept rolling up on its own. "I think he's starting to simp bro." Nino uttered, cracking two eggs into the bowl Ayla had set down in front of him. "This is like a movie, very interesting to watch." She mixed the cake batter to blend the ingredients in one. Rose was just as fascinated as the couple were.
After helping him tie his apron, Marinette stood next to him, he showed her a bashful smile as they reached for the pink paper with instructions. Their hands pressing against the other. She sucked in a breath.
'No not again...'
She became hesitant to look back at his eyes, Adrien looked at their hands fondly. Instead of apologizing or shifting his hand away he tightened his hand to close the gap. Using the other hand, he slipped the instructions out, his thumb soothingly rubbing against her skin. Marinette fixated her gaze back onto the boy. His smile flickered across his face.
'Why is he doing that?..'
A sinking sensation roamed throughout her stomach at the thought. Normally he'd take her hand when they walked. Now they were standing. The metal cuffs shined through the dim lights, it all made her feel so special. "So that's what we have to do first." Marinette shook her head, returning to reality.
"What?" "I said first let's put the baking powder then the brown flour." Adrien hauled the bowl closer, his free hand taking the brown flour. "This should be the brown flour because of the color." His green inquiring eyes landed back on the strawberries. Marinette giggled. "You can eat some you know." "Really?" Her smile faded. "Yeah just save some for the cake." "Will I gain weight?" Her brows furrowed at his question.
"You're not allowed to eat strawberries either?" "No only vegetables." "That is messed up." "He says fruits have sugar so...I have to listen." Scoffing, she grabbed a strawberry, stuffing it past his luscious lips. His eyes widened in surprise. Removing the bowl from his grasp, he chewed on the strawberry. Eyes closing and cheeks puffing up, enjoying the taste. He seemed very happy over a fruit. Marinette chuckled at his reaction. This poor boys father barely fed him.
"Which ones the baking powder? There's like three different ones." Adrien opened his eyes, swallowing the fruit. "This one right?" He hinted with a finger. "Uh..I don't know." She raised a hand as their teacher spotted it and hurriedly walked over. "Yes-" The sound of shattering caught their attention. The bowl had broken into peices as the brown powder scattered all over the ground as well as Adrien's shoes. "Uh-oh...hehe." He awkwardly leaned down to pick up a few peices, his other arm uncomfortably going up by the cuffs. "Oh my, what happened?" Adrien rised back up and faced his teacher. "Uhh.." "It's okay we can clean it up." Marinette said.
"Give me a second." They watched Mrs.Bustier make her way to Juleka who had her hand raised. Adrien smirked deviously after an idea crossed his mind. He grabbed a bowl and threw the powder at her chest. "Adrien! What the hec-" The tiny grains of flour spreaded, forcing her to stop speaking, after inhaling them she coughed repeatedly. "Oops, sorry." He teased. Marinette smiled smugly which startled him, her hand clutched around an egg and smashed it on top of his head, his jaw dropping gradually. "Don't mess with me ever again." She spat, turning back around to continue even though she hadn't even started.
"Oh game on princess." He sniggered. "W-What? Princes-" An enourmous cloud flew over her face. "ADRIEN?!" He chuckled but his laughing session soon came to an end once Marinette tossed flour at his own face. "HEY! I CAN'T SEE!" "Hahaha!" She hurriedly looked around, finding a full bag of flour on top of the fridge. Attempting to use her free hand to grab it, Adrien quickly caught on.
"Here, allow me." Stretching an arm out, he purposely tilted it over, an extensive amount of white dust pouring all over her head. He sniggered even more, Marinette snatched the bag, throwing flour towards his legs. The war had simply begun, attacking each other like bear cubs, chuckling with joy because they looked liked floating white ghosts. Flour invaded the entire counter and painted the floor. "Hey! Hey! That's enough!" He insisted, she hurdled up a handful of the flour in her hands, flinging it to his hair.
Adrien would've ran away if he could. Specks of white particles flowed past Alya, she looked up and gasped, seeing the huge mess all over the kitchen. Alya saw her two friends charging each other with the white powder, she chortled with delight. Nino held an astounded expression. "Should we stop them?" "No just let them be."
Not able to keep his eyes open, Adrien tripped over the bag, screaming as his hands immediately reacted by clutching onto Marinette's shirt. Tumbling onto the floor, flour surrounded them almost causing them to choke. After a few seconds, their view became clear again, Adrien's green eyes found Marinette's. His mouth opened to speak but no words seemed to come out. It was as if time had stopped, only they existed.
For the first time, Marinette didn't feel nervous, she didn't feel her body shaking in fear, embarrassment or worry. It all felt normal. His free hand slid past her waist, resting over her lower back. Slowly pulling her closer, their eyes almost half-shut until...
"WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED?!"
To be continued...
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