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Living in Paris with regular attacks by akumas and giant monsters, Sabine had seen just about everything. But the sight of two, slightly frantic teenage boys bursting through the bakery door with half baking sheets covered in towels was a new experience.
The fact that both boys were friends of Marinette’s was the only thing about it that wasn’t new. Nino and Adrien were regular visitors, both to the bakery and to their home, but Sabine had never seen either boy so nervous.
“Mrs Dupain-Cheng, is Marinette here?” Nino panted, watching Adrien out of the corner of his eye.
Sabine smiled, though her motherly instincts were still sensing trouble. “I’m sure she’s home, boys, but what’s the emergency?”
Adrien’s face, already pink from the cold and apparent run, turned scarlet. “Really, ma’am. It’s not-”
“It’s a baking emergency,” Nino interjected. “The girls are coming round to my place later for Christmas movies and Adrien and I offered to provide the snacks.
“And I take it things did not go as planned?” Sabine eyed the covered trays the boys were holding, already envisioning a thousand possible outcomes - besides, she knew the scent of burnt cookies very well.
Adrien’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “No, ma’am. I found a recipe online… and Marinette makes it sound so easy when she brings us treats at school… and I… wanted to do something special for her. For my friends, I mean. For Christmas.”
“I see.”
“More than you realize, poor boy,” she thought, but continued aloud. “The real question is are you okay with ruining her surprise by asking for her help?”
Adrien worried his bottom lip between his teeth and Sabine couldn’t help but smile. Whatever he may have convinced himself and everyone else in regards to his feelings towards Marinette, the fact that the normally confident young man had picked up one of her girl’s nervous habits was a sign that he was not as indifferent to those feelings as he thought he was.
She stepped out from behind the counter and reached up to pat him gently on his shoulder. “Sometimes, Adrien, the best gift is that of time spent with the person you care about. You are special to Marinette and I know for a fact that she would rather spend time teaching you how to make cookies than have a perfectly made one presented to her.”
“Do… do you really think so?” Adrien’s voice was so desperate, so hopeful, so full of longing that Sabine was tempted to throw her arms around the boy and adopt him on the spot. But unless he asked her for help, this was something he and Marinette would have to work out on their own.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to give him a little nudge in the right direction.
“Here,” she said, taking the tray from Nino and adding it to the one Adrien was holding. “Nino, you go and get the other things ready for your get together. Adrien, you go wash up in the kitchen and I’ll call Marinette down. You can ask her yourself what she would like best.”
Not only was her daughter’s crush blushing, but he was smiling happily. “Yeah. I can’t think of a better present than getting to spend time with her.”
He walked dreamily back into the kitchen, the door swinging shut behind him. Nino caught her eye and grinned.
Sabine held up a finger while she called Marinette on her cell phone. “Yes, honey. No, everything is fine with me but your friend Adrien is here and he says he needs your help. Something about a baking emergency?”
A loud, frantic squeal could be heard from the phone, causing both of them to wince. Sabine then returned the phone to her ear for a second, shook her head, and hung up.
“That was smooth there, Mrs DC,” he said. “Real smooth. I didn’t know you were the matchmaking type.”
She flicked the bill of his cap with her fingers. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Nino. He burnt the cookies didn’t he?”
“Worse. Burned them on the sides and bottom, but most were still raw in the middle.”
“The cookies spread?”
“Melted like snowmen in July.”
“Oh! The poor thing! He really was trying to meet her on home ground, wasn’t he?”
Yeah,” Nino said, rubbing his hat around on his head. “My bro is usually pretty smart, like crazy smart, but Marinette has always been in his blind spot for some reason. I guess he’s finally realized that ‘objects in mirror are closer than they appear’.”
The urge to adopt Adrien was even stronger. The boy might be hopeless in the kitchen, but he had a kind and gentle heart. For all the fame and fortune, Adrien asked for so little out of life and he had managed to stay kind, respectful, and humble where others would have let it go to their heads.
Sabine had always known that Marinette didn’t just like the young model for his looks, but to see so clearly what had made her daughter fall for him was affirmation for her mother’s heart.
Just then, there was thunderous cacophony as what sounded like a herd of antelope galloped down the back stairs where there was a loud bang followed by a shout and a metallic crash. Both Nino and Sabine jumped and dashed to peer around the door.
Inside, Adrien was holding a startled Marinette cradled to his chest surrounded by a collection of rocking mixing bowls. Both teens were staring at each other, paralyzed by the near disastrous entrance, and seemed completely unaware of them being observed.
“Are you okay, Marinette?” Adrien asked worriedly. “Did you get hurt?”
Marinette shook her head hurriedly. “Fine, I’m hurt!” she blurted out. “No, I mean you’re fine. I mean, of course you’re fine, but I meant in the okay sense, not the hot sense though you are hot too or you wouldn’t be a model, but I know it can get kind of hot in here with the ovens going all day, so I can get you something cold to drink if you-“
Sabine pinched the bridge of her nose as she closed the door with a sigh. “Is she always like that around him?”
"What a clumsy, babbling mess?” Nino asked, through his soft chuckle. “Yeah. The dudette loves my bro, but she has some serious confidence problems when it comes to talking to him.”
He cocked his head back towards the kitchen door. “Do you think she’s muffed it again?”
Sabine shook her head. “Hmmm, I doubt it. Not the way he talked about wanting to spend time with her. Oh, by the way… what kind of cookies was he trying to make?”
“Gingerbread. He even ordered these special cutters and everything.”
That piqued her interest. “Really? What kind of cutters?”
“Not that you could tell after the cookies spread, but -“
“YOU MADE ME GINGERBREAD ZOMBIES?!”
The squeal, that could only have issued from her daughter, had started loud and went up in pitch until it would soon become a threat to their glass display shelves.
Nino doubled over, one hand over his mouth to keep from interrupting his friends, his eyes squeezed shut behind his glasses.
Sabine rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Goodness.”
“To… his credit… he was trying… to… make the Grinch,” Nino managed between gasps of laughter. “But zombies is sooo much funnier. Alya is going to flip when she hears that she missed a possible Adrienette date.”
“You can tell her all about it later at your little Christmas party,” Sabine assured him, giving him a gentle nudge towards the door. “But I wouldn’t wait for those two to come over if I were you.”
Nino held out his fist and Sabine, grinning, tapped it with hers. “Pound it,” they both said, softly so the two secret love birds couldn’t hear.
The bell over the door rang as Nino left and Sabine started cleaning up for the day. Whatever had been said between her daughter and Adrien, the sound of laugher and the familiar clattering sound of Marinette’s baking filtered to her through the close door.
After the usual clean, sanitize, and putting away, Sabine flipped the sign on the door to ‘closed’.
She may not be able to play matchmaker for her girl, but she could make sure that boy felt at home here.
“And I am going to make a stir fry for dinner,” she thought determinedly. “The poor boy looks half starved and for more than just food.”
Having made up her mind, Sabine turned off the light and passed through the kitchen on her way up to the apartment. Marinette fumbled the egg she had been about to crack, leaving a splattered mess on the wooden counter, and Adrien looked happier than Sabine had ever seen him.
Well, the way to a man’s heart might not be through his stomach, but a good, home cooked meal and a pretty girl to watch while you eat it is certainly a step in the right direction.