"Great going, Adrien. You burnt the croissants!" I hollered when pulling a pan full of crispy croissants out of the oven.
Today was Adrien's first work day at the bakery, and let me just say that he is horrible at baking.
Being that I was the boss of Adrien today because my dad and mom were off Christmas shopping, I felt overpowered knowing that I was the one who was yelling.
On the plus side after I got done yelling I felt guilt overwhelm myself, meaning that my amazing power to be connected to Adrien is telling me he feels guilty for burning my perfect croissants. Well, maybe.
Actually it didn't seem like it...
In reality after I got done yelling, Adrien gave me a disgusted look, rolling his eyes as he marched over to the sink in the kitchen. I just stood there beside the oven, folding my hands together like a lunatic while I watched Adrien splash water onto his face.
There was absolutely no way Adrien was so stressed out that he had to wet his face. I guess you could say that his first day of work was quite disastrous but that still wasn't a reason for him to be stressed.
"You're going to permanently be a waiter, that is final." I said after he turned the faucet off.
Adrien groaned and leaned on the nearest counter. "I'm sorry, Marinette." He mumbled, ducking his head. "I guess I mixed up the... timers."
"It's okay." I said shrugging.
"It better be. It's not like i'm going to get arrested for burning croissants." He added harshly.
I just stared at him with a baffled look on my face after he said the words. Did he really have to mention being arrested?
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I jerked back into reality when Adrien snapped two fingers in front of my face, looking more annoyed than before.
"Sorry, sorry." I said quickly, ducking my head, wondering how he moved in front of me so quickly.
"You really are a ditz, aren't you, Marinette?" Adrien said, an obnoxious smirk twisting the corners of his mouth.
"Yeah, well, only when you're around, Agreste." It was literal miliseconds after those words were out of my mouth did I realize just how incredibly stupid what I just said was.
I quickly sped out of the door and into the dining area of the bakery and went about picking up the stray dishes left on the tables.
I began to speed up my process when seeing Adrien walk through the door while I worked furiously hard to keep myself short of hyperventilating.
"Do I make you nervous, Marinette?"
Absolutely.
"No." I replied stiffly.
"I think you're lying."
"Yeah, i'm lying." I snapped back in a sarcastic tone. Adrien made some sort of humming noise, fiddling with our cash register.
Great. He broke the cash register.
"Why do I make you nervous, Marinette?" I quickly dropped a dish into the bin I was holding to place the dishes in and turned to Adrien with a glare.
"Why does it matter to you, Agreste? And anyways, I never said that you made me nervous as it is."
"You just gave yourself away right there."
I rolled my eyes, forcing back a disgusted sigh as I steadied the bin on my waist and moved to another table.
It was barely six in the evening, but the Paris skyline outside was already covered in pitch blackness, and the streets were still covered in a light dusting of snow from this mornings unexpected fall.
Since it was Sunday, the bakery had closed up early for the evening, and the place was entirely empty, except for the two of us, being that we had to stay behind and bake goodies for tomorrow and clean up.
And what a joy that was.
As much as I was pleased by the fact that Adrien and I were alone, that I could pester him with more questions, I was beyond nervous.
When I had shown up this morning for work and had been informed that I would be the one "training" Adrien in the art of baking, I discovered I was prone to acting like a complete and total airhead around him.
Okay, so it wasn't as if I was unaware of the fact that I already acted like an airhead around him. But this time everything just seemed to be significantly worse. Maybe it was because I had come to the conclusion that I had a huge crush on the guy the night before. Or maybe it was just because I was a total hopeless case.
I was going to go with the latter.
Once I broke free from my thoughts, Adrien was still leaning up against the front counter, his head in his hands, looking as if he didn't have a care in the world.
I'd always thought that he really didn't have a care in the world. But spending more time with his family, I was beignning to realize that he had a lot more responsibilities placed on his shoulders than most teenagers our age. It was sort of sad to think about, in all honesty.
I blew out a sigh, making my way around the front counter to get into the back kitchen. I had barely made over the threshold when Adrien stepped out in front of me and yanked the bin full of dirty dishes out of my hands.
"What was that for?" I squealed indignantly.
"We're ditching." He replied briskly, marching into the kitchen.
"Ditching what? Cleaning up?" I followed after him into the kitchen while he dumped the bin into one of the large sinks by the fridge, "It's your first day, my dad will fire you!"
He continued to ignore me, twisting on the faucet and sprayed water all over the dishes in the sink, but that was it. He dusted off his hands after turning the faucet off, and he had a no nonsense look on his face.
"Where are we going?" I asked him nervously.
He didn't answer, instead walking over to the coat rack in the far corner of the kitchen to grab his black jacket and yank it on.
"Adrien?" I repeated, a bit frantic.
"Shut up and put your coat on." Was the response I got.
I bit back a very rude remark and stomped my way across the kitchen to pull on my coat. Adrien stood beside the back door, his arms crossed impatiently, while I rummaged around in my coat pockets for my gloves.
After finding them and ramming them onto my cold hands, I turned to Adrien with a ridiculously bright smile, clapping my hands together.
"All right," I chirped. "Where are we going?"
Adrien rolled his more than amazing eyes and gestured over his shoulder with a thumb, to the back door. "Let's just go, all right?"
I followed after him as he walked down the cramped alleyway to the sidewalk. The air was full of fumes, like always, but there was a certain holiday scent hanging about that smelt a bit like peppermint.
Adrien and I walked side by side down the sidewalk in silence, dodging the clumps of people who weren't watching where they were going. I thought about asking him where we were going, but I figured he probably would just yell at me if I did.
I really had to get some confidence.
It became evident where we were going when we meandered our way across the street and came up short of the entrance to a place I hadn't been to in quite a while.
"The park?" I said excitedly, turning to Adrien. "This is where we were going?"
Adrien shrugged. "I like going to the park."
I tried not to stop right then and stare up at Adrien with a duped look on my face. This has certainly been an interesting day, no questions asked. How many times had I heard Adrien say anything about his likes or dislikes or anything about himself?
Like, zero times, that's how many.
"I used to go here with my dad in December," I said conversationally as we walked. "We'd always get hot chocolate and ride on one of the horse carriages through the light show."
"Mhm." He mumbled, I rolled my eyes. There was the same Adrien. I was going to have to get over my nerves and just start asking him questions, right?
I mean, Colt said I have to hurry up. It wouldn't do me any good if I kept stumbling over my feet and getting tongue-tied around him.
"Uh...." My words fell short as I watched Adrien walk to go sit on a bench. He began searching through his pocket and came up with a photo.
"What is that?" I asked softly while moving to sit beside him.
Adrien raised an eyebrow, opening the photo. "Just a photo of my mom.." He answered.
I felt like wanting to burst into tears when he said those words. The photo was very blurry but you could still see a couple standing together, a woman with blonde hair and a man with brown hair, wearing a suit and a red Christmas dress.
Seeing the way Adrien looked at his mother made me feel relaxed for the first time in almost a week.
"She's beautiful." I said as we sat.
"Was." Adrien corrected me, making me feel just awful.
And when he didn't say anything else, I thought he was about to go running off in the opposite direction, but a moment later, he tore the photo down the middle and chucked Gabriel's half onto the park ground.
"What was that for?" I asked, feeling horrified. He glanced over and down at me and scowled.
"Nothing." He replied and cleared his throat. I think that was what had made me finally snap.
"Stop, Adrien. Just stop! That isn't nothing. There is obviously something going on between you and your dad." I shouted, sounding like I were about to cry.
A few people around us who were walking the trail through the park around us actually stopped walking to stare over at Adrien and I. We had both had risen from our seats and were staring at each other with furious looks on our faces. It wouldn't have surprised me if we started yelling and shouting at each other in the next few seconds.
"Excuse me?" Adrien said pleasantly.
"I don't know what you're playing at, but you've seriously got to stop it." I snapped, letting my anger fuel my words. "Why can't you just be real with me for at least five minutes? Is that so much to ask?"
"The part I'm having trouble understanding is why all of this should matter to you, Marinette?" He fired back in a heated voice.
"It's not good to bottle things up, Adrien! You'd feel a lot better if you actually talked about things going on in your life, you know." I pointed out.
Adrien crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at me, his lips pressed together in a hard, tight line. I stared back up at him, trying to keep my nerves at bay. I didn't exactly know where I was going with this, but at this point, I figured I couldn't do any more damage by just going with it.
"And what would you know, hm?" He said in a low voice. "You're just some petty girl who thinks life is all about baking and glitter. What would you know about the real world?"
"This isn't about me!" I hollered at him. "This is about you!" Adrien looked just as shocked as I was when I saw I had leaned up and jabbed a finger into his chest, nearly knocking him back a step. "Why do you always avoid everything, huh? Did something happen to you that made you hate the world or something? Why can't you just grow up and face your problems? Do you think your family enjoys seeing you tear yourself apart on the inside like this? This isn't a joke!"
I quickly leaned away from him when I realized what I'd actually just said, processed, what words had actually just come out of my mouth. And judging by the look Adrien was giving, he'd just been given a verbal slap across the face, too.
Great. I was in for it now.
"Sit down," Adrien snapped, giving me a none too gentle shove towards the bench we were sitting on before. I glared at him while I took a seat, still very embarrassed with myself.
"You're a little brat, Marinette," He said in a disgruntled voice. "And if you ever speak to me like that again, I'm probably going to have you arrested for verbal abuse."
I stared at him with pursed lips. "Well, get used to it. You worry people too much."
Adrien didn't make some sort of sarcastic comment or snort out a laugh, like I was expecting. There was a quiet, guarded look on his face as he stared at me that made my stomach drop.
"It's not easy not wanting to be here." He finally said after a quiet moment.
"What?" I asked anxiously. He took a deep breath before blowing out a puff of air.
"Marinette, I— I don't wanna be here anymore."
Oh.
"Adrien, I—"
"I— I can't do it anymore. I don't wanna do it anymore." He continued, cutting me off. He was pacing in front of me, butting at his fingernails anxiously.
"Do— Do what?" I said softly, afraid of having him run off and never speak to me again.
Adrien looked over at me, a scowl etched on his face and for the first time, it suddenly seemed as if he were so much older than he actually was. Instead of being sixteen, it appeared as if he were actually a middle-aged man who had seen the horrors of the world in ways that most people can't even begin to comprehend.
"It's hard. I— Marinette I just don't know where she is. My m— mom," His voice cracked and he turned his back to me as if he were embarrassed by the fact. "I just don't know where she is. If she's safe, if she's... alive. Every day, since I was eight years old I see her and she's scared, Marinette. I don't know what to do and I don't want to do it anymore." Adrien said dryly, staring down at his feet.
It had felt as if my heart had broken into a million pieces. Adrien wasn't sixteen and standing in front of me, anymore. I seen the eight year old boy who couldn't find his mother.
Adrien blew out a sigh, "I think my father sees her too. She's scared... and we can't help her and..." I could tell he couldn't find the right words. "sometimes she speaks to me and she just wants help. And my father sees her too. It must be much worse for him, because it has him thinking that it was my fault that she had gone missing. It has me thinking that it's my fault. I get these punishments and they're not pretty." He motioned toward the fading bruise still on his face and he was seemingly done speaking.
I was fairly certain my jaw hit the ground as I stared at Adrien in horror. There were a lot of things in this universe I knew to be crazy, unpredictable, and awful. But this? What Adrien had just told me? What kind of sorry excuse for a man was Gabriel Agreste?
"Adri—"
He cut me off. I was wrong because he began to speak more. I listened. "It was the year I turned nine is when he started to hit me, again, that's when he had turned into a completely different man. And by the time I was fourteen, I wasn't an idiot. I could finally understand what my father was doing to me. I told my grandma and now they have conjoined custody of me until my father is proven guilty. I don't even know why my mom stayed with him. He was completely awful then and he still is now. He used to kick her around all the time when he'd get into messes and even though I was really little, I tried to stand up for her, and ended up getting kicked around a lot myself. I had never realized what he was doing to me and what he was doing to her. It makes me wonder if she— if she ran away because of my dad and why she'd... leave me with him."
My heart was starting to pound erratically against my chest, and there was a buzzing noise in my ears. Just how was I supposed to react to this? I'd never exactly been told anything like this before. My heart was aching for Adrien and I didn't know how to comfort him. Nobody should have to feel this way.
"What are you going to do about it?" I muttered, taking a deep breath.
"Nothing, I can't do anything, there's no finding her." He answered in a steely voice.
I sucked in a breath, "No, Adrien. What are you going to do about the fact that you don't want to be here anymore?" I said slowly.
Adrien sighed quietly, continuing his frantic pacing. "I'm not going to hurt myself if that's what you're thinking." He said in a flat voice. "I wouldn't, well, I couldn't..." He continued with his voice trailing off.
"Because of your family." I added confidently.
"Yeah." He agreed. "They, uh, couldn't live without me." He said with what almost sounded like a light chuckle.
I remained silent, my hands clasped together tightly on my lap.
I felt awful that I was listening to Adrien speak with sick fascination, but I wasn't so sure if I even wanted to hear anything else about what had happened with him. I really just wanted to cry my eyes out and hug Adrien to me as close as possible at the same time. Both of those things would probably get me more trouble than I would ever ask for.
"Hey Adrien?" I said after a long beat of silence, he looked up from still biting his fingernails, "What?" he asked anxiously.
"We're friends, aren't we?"
"Oh, I suppose so," Adrien sighed heavily, sounding a bit dramatic.
My lips twitched as I tried to fight back a smile. The serious air that had fallen on us had let up a little, but the mood wasn't entirely gone yet. I had a feeling that this wasn't the last time we were going to be talking about this. But the next time that was going to happen? I had no idea.
"Good." I stood from the bench, "Come with me." I said, reaching out to grab his hand.
Before he could object, I started dragging him back down the sidewalk, a destination fixed firmly in my mind.
"Where are we going?" Adrien demanded, sounding annoyed. I tried to keep my heart from pounding against my chest, since I was more or less holding hands with him and ignored his question.
He would occasionally keep asking in an annoyed voice where we were going, but I kept ignoring him. If I told him where we were going, he definitely would have objected.
"Oh, no." Adrien all but shouted, yanking his hand back from mine. "I am not going on a carriage ride with you."
"Come on, Adrien, please!" I exclaimed, sounding very much like a little kid. "It's so cool! It even has music! You'll love it."
"But a carriage ride? What are we princesses?" He whined. I stopped near the ticket booth and turned around to stare at him with wide eyes.
Had Adrien Agreste seriously just whined?
"What?" He snapped, frowning. I shook my head, holding up a hand to cut him off.
"Come on, just do me this one. I owe you for getting so upset about the croissants."
"Please, spare me," Adrien said, rolling his eyes. "You don't need to repay me with a cheap light show. I really don't fancy Christmas music, either."
I ignored him, gripping his hand again as I yanked him towards the ticket booth. Adrien stood behind me, no doubt sulking as I handed over a ten dollar bill to the attendant and getting two tickets in return.
"I swear, you'll be the death of me one day, Marinette." Adrien muttered sullenly as he slouched along behind me.
I had to fight back the urge to turn around and punch him or hug him at the same time. That was one of the things that sucked about being around Adrien. Everything that I felt always seemed to be so messed up and didn't make any sense whatsoever.
I handed over my and Adrien's tickets to the lady who was guiding the carriage and climbed inside, dragging Adrien with me, since he was putting up another fight, of course.
Since it was a Sunday night, the place wasn't too terribly crowded, but apparently there were enough people there for Adrien to start complaining about traffic even though we were in a carriage and not a car.
I bit back a sigh. Typical Adrien.
"Just be patient," I said, trying to force some cheeriness into my voice. "I know you're bored right now, but you won't be for long.
"This better be worth my time, Marinette." Adrien grumbled, looking very annoyed.
I swore I could've heard Adrien let out a sigh of relief once we pulled up next to some light, but that light so happen to be coming from one of the concession stands that gave out free hot chocolate.
The girl behind the stand looked to be a little older than Adrien and me, wearing a green Santa hat with elf ears coming out of the side. Not to mention looking very, very bored, but an interested sort of look came into her eyes as she watched us.
"Light show date? Cute." She said nonchalantly as she poured our hot chocolate.
"What?" I gasped, feeling the air being knocked out of me all at once.
This girl thought Adrien and I were dating? She thought that Adrien was my boyfriend?
Adrien reached out and thumped me on my back when it became obvious I was more or less choking on air.
"We're not dating," He said dryly. "We're just friends."
The girl stared blankly at the two of us for a moment before she cracked a smirk, popping a lid on one of the hot chocolate cups. "Right. If you say so."
I groaned and silently thanked God that the concession stand light wasn't bright enough to show off my obvious blush. How more embarrassing was this night going to get?
Good grief.
I quickly bent down, hoping not to fall off of the carriage and accepted my hot chocolate with quiet gratitude while Adrien grabbed his without so much as a thanks.
"You ever going to tell me why you brought me here, Dupain-Cheng?" I glanced over at Adrien as he leaned back in his carriage seat, sipping at his hot chocolate.
"Not yet." I said quietly, sipping at the hot chocolate to warm my body.
It was safe to say that my thoughts were firmly directed towards what Adrien had just told me, not even twenty minutes ago. It was hard enough for me to believe that there were people in the world that actually had the capacity to look at their child and purposely hurt them, but it was even worse, actually hearing first hand what it was like knowing someone capable of something so heinous.
I had no idea what to think. Everything in my mind was so jumbled at the moment I was feeling a little dizzy. How on Earth did Adrien manage to live like this, with everything that had happened to him resting on his shoulders?
With this, we were pulling into the light show. Carol of the Bells played and the lights flashed along with it, going so quick that I could hardly keep up with it.
Adrien seemed dazed, but I quickly noticed when he jerked his head away from facing the lights and looked over at me. "Why are we here?" He asked loudly, speaking over the loud music.
"What do you mean?"
Adrien gave me a pointed look as he sipped at his hot chocolate. "This carriage ride? This light show? Hot chocolate? What are you trying to do, make me feel better about the things that have happened in my life?"
Maybe.
"No," I said, blowing out a sigh. "I'm trying to make me feel better."
Adrien narrowed his green eyes that were glowing from the several color of lights and shifted in his seat.
"Don't ever pity me," He snapped, catching me off guard. "Just because bad things have happened in my life doesn't give you the right to feel sorry for me."
My natural reaction, of course, was to shout back at him about how ridiculous he was being. But that would not exactly go over too well this time, however.
"I don't feel sorry for you," I said, swallowing hard. "I want to help you." I'd muttered that last bit into my hot chocolate, so I wasn't expecting him to have heard me, but of course he did.
Instead of saying anything rude in response, like I was expecting him to do, he just remained silent. In fact, he remained silent for quite a while.
Just sitting, watching the show, his lips pressed together in a tight line, with his face set in a hard expression as he sat there.
"Would you think it's cool if I told you that the light show is special to the Dupain's?" I blurted out of the blue, staring over at Adrien.
Adrien looked over at me with one of his eyebrows raised. "Why is that?"
"Well, this is where my Great grandpa met my great grandma. Also, my mom and dad went on their first date here..." I felt my face radiating heat like a lamp after those incredulous words came out of my mouth.
I was half expecting Adrien to pour his hot chocolate onto my lap and then jump out of the carriage, but he didn't. I watched him cautiously out of the corner of my eye, waiting for him to say something that would make me go want to bury myself under a rock.
"Well, your parents and great grandparents are weird." He finally said as he leaned back against the seat, his arms crossed over his chest.
Okay, so that was the last thing I'd been expecting to hear him say.
"I think it's cute," I said slowly and defensively, biting my lip.
Adrien turned to me with an exaggered look of fascination on his face, "Well, Marinette, don't assume that your soulmate is going to be at a light show all your life, look in other places. You are not your great grandpa, nor your dad."
"Right." I agreed while I scowled at him.
So, maybe things weren't entirely perfect between us, and maybe I was never going to know what had completely happened between Adrien and his father, but for now, it was a start, right?
— ᴀɴ ✍︎︎
I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter! I just wanted to give a quick thanks to my buddy Mikey for helping with this chapter! Thanks Mikey, xoxo!