Chapter Text
Tuesday went without Monarch-related incident, but lunch saw Chloé’s first on-school breakdown over the Sabrina issue. It wasn’t entirely unexpected: at the start of the lesson before, they’d all been handed back their graded French assignments, the first graded work that Chloé had done after Sabrina split off from her and, in all probability, the first graded work she had done in her life. Ever since, Chloé had been seething in her seat looking upset.
As Marinette sat down with Alya and Nino and a plate of pasta, the pressure finally came out. Chloé stomped away from her table and over to where Sabrina sat alone, and thundered out a tirade about how Sabrina was the worst friend in the world, and that she should be ashamed of herself. “I hate you, I’ll never talk to you again,” she yelled.
Chloé was vibrating with emotion: she wasn’t crying, but she seemed close; she wasn’t incoherent, but she hadn’t ordered her thoughts enough to make them come out in a convincing order. When Marinette walked up to Sabrina and took her back to Alya and Nino’s table, Chloé managed to maintain enough composure to stand there and glare at them for about fifteen seconds, then hurried out as the composure slipped.
Nobody else in the dining room said anything about the event, and when Kagami phoned later that night, Marinette had the uncertain pleasure of explaining that whole drama to her, as well as the rather more certain pleasure of hearing Kagami’s voice.
“Could I come over tomorrow?” Kagami asked. “I think I need some time away from Mother’s expectations. She expects me to be studying Russian.”
Marinette, still helplessly dashed against those rocks, agreed. She hoped Kagami would come over one day without having any reason to other than wanting to see her.
Monarch didn’t show up that Wednesday, either, but Marinette quietly noted a whole week without progress for Alix’s prediction.
“You know,” said Alya, “maybe I should rename it to the Scarablog now. Since she’s the star, after all.”
“Yeah, she is!” said Marinette, and greatly enjoyed the dismayed look on Alya’s face as she realised the bait hadn’t been caught. “I’ll even help you write the blog cause you can't be Scarabella and write the blog at the same time.”
“Hey, I might actually pick you up on that.”
Max invited the whole class to his birthday on Friday, at the Sorbonne. That lifted the class’ spirits some. Apart from Chloé and Lila, everyone agreed to come, though Marinette and Alya both mentally prepared themselves for an akuma to show up in the middle of the party by doing a brief meditation circle after school ended.
When Kagami showed up at the bakery later that day, she had her Russian textbooks with her. She did not speak any Russian, but face to face with Kagami Marinette felt like a matryoshka doll, each of her layers peeled back until she sat uncovered and compact and tiny next to this beautiful and radiant and fully whole creature, who had just suddenly decided to spend the evening at her house.
“I’ll call you again tomorrow,” said Kagami when she left, and Marinette spent the rest of her waking time putting herself back inside each of her outer shells.
On Thursday, Marinette was getting worried about the lack of akumas. She thought Monarch must be planning something dreadful for the weekend, that he had his most dangerous akuma yet waiting in the wings and just needed time to set things up.
Alya, on the other hand, thought he must be crying himself to sleep every night in frustration. This was a more pleasing thing to imagine, which was why Marinette immediately rejected the possibility.
“Maybe I should change my hero name,” Alya said. “You know how every akuma lately has been called something-ella?”
“Are you scared people might think you’re an akumatized villain ain?”
“Nah, I’m just worried I’ll be associated with his terminal uncreativity.”
This was also the first day Marinette ever heard a genuine laugh from Sabrina. Adrien had been telling her a story about some mishap at an old photoshoot, and as she laughed, Myléne smiled at her, which made Ivan smile and hug Myléne, which made Rose kiss Juleka, which made Juleka stutter.
It was the sort of moment that could inspire any teenager to write a sappy and amateurish poem about how joy is contagious, but Marinette was too hung up about the lack of akumas to appreciate it. Later, though, she remembered it had happened, and smiled to herself.
The phone call with Kagami didn’t last that long. They only talked for a little over an hour and a half.
Friday saw Marinette even more nervous, because she was absolutely certain that Monarch would send out a dozen akumas or worse in the middle of Max’s birthday party. To make up for it, she’d put extra care into her gift for him (a hand-sewn back pillow with the epithet ‘#1 Gamer’), and asked her dad to bake something sweet for everyone. This, she hoped, would lead to the akumas going elsewhere, to ruin someone’s day other than Max’s.
“So how are things with Kagami currently?” Alya asked her suddenly, when they had a quiet moment at school.
“I don’t know… She was on the phone yesterday.”
“My mother showed me the pictures of you at the gallery.” She pulled a photo of an inside page from a gazette up on her phone. It showed the two of them as Kagami held Marinette’s arm, behind Tomoe but definitely made to be the secondary focus of the photograph. “That doesn’t look like an ‘I don’t know’ to me.”
Marinette shook her head. “She was just trying to get back at her mother, I think. Also that was a week ago, why are you just saying this now?”
Alya ignored, or possibly failed to register, the question. “But it was you she asked to do that with, right? I think that’s a good sign.”
It wasn’t that Marinette didn’t want it to be. But she couldn’t make herself believe it. “I hope you’re right,” she said.
Once school ended, Marinette went straight home to get ready. She freshened up and got dressed, brought the present from her room, and was just picking up the box of pastries from her father when her mother asked, “Is your girlfriend going with you today?” and she almost dropped everything on the floor.
“Um, Kagami isn’t my girlfriend!” she stammered out. “And she’s not coming with me.” She thought the look her parents gave each other must have meant something, but she decided she’d rather be out of there before her blush became too visible.
In the end, no akumas showed up at the party, or anywhere else in Paris. Marinette let herself relax a little near the end. Maybe the Tom Dupain method of baking things that smelled good had actually worked.
Alya, who had been ready for an attack but without actively worrying about it, had a far better time of it at the party. Her gift for Max had been a headset, which she bought together with Nino. Max hugged them both for it, same as he did with Marinette as it was a awesome gift.
Saturday was still akuma free. But that wasn’t important.
That day, Kagami showed up at the door, while the whole Dupain-Cheng family were working in the bakery. After customary greetings, Kagami walked up to Marinette and looked her in the eyes.
“May I hold your hands, Marinette,” she said.
“Um… Here?” Marinette looked at her parents, who shared knowing looks with each other, and offered her no clues.
“Yes. Is that all right with you?”
“Um… Sure, but –“
She was interrupted by Kagami taking each of her hands in one of hers, which led to Kagami getting flour on her hands, and also to Marinette feeling that she was going to explode into confetti right there on the floor.
“Marinette,” said Kagami, “I would like to ask you on a date tomorrow.”
A lot of questions passed through Marinette’s head then and there: Is this for real?; She’s actually into me?; She’s asking me here, in front of my parents?; Why is she asking me here?; and finally, Why haven’t I exploded yet?, but there was only one answer, and that was Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!. However, it didn’t pass from the mind to the mouth.
“Marinette?” Kagami prompted. She was smiling. That freaking Mona Lisa smile of hers.
“I, um, I, I think, really? You wanna ask me on a date?” she managed.
“Yes. That’s why I asked.”
It’s very possible that Marinette did explode then and there, and that the confetti spelled out letters, because she didn’t remember speaking a word but she did see the softly pleased expression on Kagami’s face, and also heard her say “I’m glad.”
And Marinette felt she might well have remained there forever, floating through the air only anchored by Kagami’s steady grip, if her father hadn’t leant forward and asked “So, Kagami, are you at all interested in learning the baking trade?”
Marinette, now fully cohesive again through sheer embarrassed terror, firmly pulled Kagami to the upstairs kitchen to finalise the details outside earshot of Enterprising Businessman and Father Tom Dupain.
Later in the day, after she’d landed, Marinette called Alya and told her. Alya, after excited congratulations, told Marinette that she should have just gone after girls this whole time. “This was way more efficient than your Adrien crush,” she said.
At supper, Sabine admitted that Kagami had informed them about her intentions on Wednesday. Marinette, who had spent the meal thus far trying to look normal and calm and collected, suddenly failed spectacularly.
When Sunday rolled over, all thoughts of akumas had been sandblasted out of Marinette’s brain. Not that she was any less nervous or jittery.
The date wasn’t even supposed to be a big affair. Kagami’s plans were for late lunch at a café, and then a walk along the Seine, explicitly casual and quiet. She was also very upfront that she wanted to be girlfriends.
“Are you doing this to mess with your mother?” Marinette asked.
“That’s very hurtful of you,” Kagami replied. “Do you really think I’m being dishonest with you?”
And because she didn’t, Marinette fervently denied it, and that was the end of that discussion. They were girlfriends now, somehow. And even though she felt like she had been placed into a cart without brakes or a steering wheel, she didn’t think the cart was headed downhill.
It was a pleasant date, in the end. The food was decent at best, but the company made up for it. Kagami stated clearly her intention to kiss Marinette under Pont de Sully, and then they parted ways with promises to meet the next day.
She only remembered to think about akumas that night, when she crawled into bed.
There were no akumas in the night, either. Marinette woke up and hoped she’d have a normal Monday at school, which proved to be difficult when she met Alya and had to deal with her journalistically incisive attention to detail. Nino had also been informed, clearly, because he thumbsed her up and proposed a double date.
The rest of the class didn’t seem to catch on, though. Alya kept her questioning to breaks and lunch, and while Nathaniel and Rose caught Nino’s remark they must’ve assumed it was about Adrien.
“You two are so perfect for each other,” said Rose, which – given the circumstances – was a little bit distressing to hear.
Chloé had another explosion that day, near the end, although it wasn’t related to any test results and nor, it seemed, to the real world. She just shouted in frustration and left the room, and Sabrina shrank away from her as she walked out.
Otherwise, the class seemed unchanged. Sabrina’s presence at Max’s party had been minimal, and Adrien was still the only one to truly talk to her. Everyone else went about business as normal, still not comfortable with the new dynamic.
Kagami showed up right after class and planted a big, territory-marking kiss on Marinette’s lips, in full view of most of the class. Then the two of them went for ice cream, and the whole rest of the day passed without further incident.
There were no akumas, either. And for the briefest of moments, Marinette dared to hope that Monarch had given up with all her heart she had wanted to hope he gave up.