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“Marinetteee… you’ve gotta have something to help us cool off…”
“Yeah, we’re practically melting over here…!!”
“Can I stick my head in the freezer…”
Marinette could only blink, exchange looks with Alina and Alix, then smile awkwardly and turn on one of the small fans sitting on the kitchen island. “Then why did you guys come over wearing long sleeves…?”
Felix, Kagami and Flora practically fell over one another trying to crowd around the small thing, and Alina sighed as she fanned herself with a notepad that had been magnetized to the fridge. “Oh, Mar. You clearly haven’t gotten the memo that long sleeves mean elegance…”
There was a slight clatter, then a chill in the air as the freezer was opened, Alix digging through it for a moment. “Hey, she’s got ice cream in here!!”
The trio clustered by the fan snapped their attention to Alix, as if they were pets begging for scraps at mealtime. It always struck Marinette as saddening that half of her friend group didn’t get to have much sweets. And it was hot out, so… why not?
Marinette turned around and grabbed a few tubs of the stuff, looking over the flavors. “Oh, I completely forgot we had these!”
“How have you not destroyed them already?! They look so delicious…” Felix exclaimed, staring intensely at the strawberry flavored one.
Marinette shrugged, not exactly sure what to say in response. She couldn’t exactly tell her group of friends that she’d forgotten the ice cream existed because, usually in the midst of a heat wave, she poured all her energy into making new bug gadgets. “Uh… I don’t know, I guess I forget they’re there since I live in a bakery and all.”
“You have a scooper, right?” Alix asked, digging through more of the freezer even though the six tubs of ice cream were already sitting on the counter.
“Yep! I’ve got a few, actually…” Because she’d misplaced the first one and her maman decided to just buy a second one… which proceeded to happen again at least two more times after that. Whoops. “If I can find it, we can have a couple scoops!”
“Please.”
The response was immediate and overly intense, and thankfully, the scooper hadn’t been lost to the ether.
“Ok so, what flavor and how many?” She laid out each container with its label facing the couch as her friends looked them over. Strawberry, salted caramel, lemon, chocolate, cookies and cream, and peanut butter.
Felix was the first to come up, the heat evidently making just wearing his prosthetic unbearable as he’d taken a seat nearby so he wouldn’t have to hop back to the couch. “I’m going to go with the best flavors there are. A strawberry and lemon scoop for me.”
As Marinette prepared Felix’s request, they both heard a snicker from behind them.
“You’re joking!” Kagami scoffed. “The actual best flavor is salted caramel.”
Felix bit on his spoon from the remark, the dreamy look in his eyes cracking into one of almost frustrated shock before he turned around in his seat. “You’re free to be wrong, then.”
“Same goes to you, Sphinx.”
Alix walked over to Marinette, scooping out some cookies and cream. “You know both of you can be wrong at the same time, right? If there’s no surprise cookie chunk in my ice cream, then I’m staying the hell away from it.”
“What’s even the point of that?” Flora chimed in, walking into the kitchen and looking at Marinette. “You have a food processor, right?”
Marinette nodded, taking it out of the bottom cupboard, confused… until Flora grabbed a bottle of orange syrup from nearby the coffee machine. Was she…?
“What’re you doing, Flo’?” Alina asked, rummaging through the fridge at the same time she did. Alina had clutched in her arms a box of popsicles and Flora had a small bag of ice…
“The same thing you’re doing.” Flora replied, grinning as she scooped out some of the ice.
Felix’s eyes followed the two girls, almost like he was silently observing them, and Marinette realized just what her friends were doing as the food processor came to life, crushing the ice into tiny bits as Flora slapped a small plastic cup onto the counter.
Snow cones.
Flora was making herself a snow cone, Alina grabbed a store bought popsicle, and Marinette could feel the tension in the air as Felix fake coughed “Cowards.” under his breath.
“Excuse you?” Alina challenged, raising an eyebrow as she bit into the popsicle’s chocolate shell speckled with crushed almonds. “How are we cowards for wanting a bit of crunch with our treats?”
“Oh, no reason…” Felix answered over another bite, spinning the spoon in between his fingers. “You’re free to limit yourself to the five max flavors popsicles like that have. You’re just a coward for not experimenting.”
“Says the guy who went for the most predictable combination of fruit flavors!” Kagami retorted, already half done with her treat.
“And also, um,” Alix added, directing their attention to Alina and Flora. “You may call that a crunch, but clearly none of you have gotten a cookie chunk in your ice cream. Miles better than some nuts or ice, just saying.”
“What about you, Mar?” Alina asked.
“Yeah, which side are you on?” Felix added, mouthing something along the lines of ‘strawberry and lemon’ while drumming at his ice cream cup.
Oh, seriously…?!
Marinette felt her very being melting to the ground, all words or possible answers eluding her as she awkwardly answered “…Yes.”
Aaaand she might’ve just made it worse. Great.
She could feel the confused looks from her friends as she put the ice cream back in the freezer. It was still hot but this debate made her appetite for ice cream almost none at the moment…
“You’re not gonna have any? Aren’t you boiling alive?” Flora asked, and Marinette smiled wearily.
“Nah… I’m not hungry enough for ice cream,” That was a lie. “But I mean, if I was… I don’t think I have a favorite…?” That was (kind of) a lie. Maybe it was her Felix bias talking, but her pick would’ve been strawberry. “It kind of depends on the day for me.”
“Ok so,” Alix interjected, walking over to the sink to rinse out their cup. “If you absolutely had to, what flavor would you pick…?”
Were they a mind reader?! “Uh… out of all of them or the flavors I have here?”
“In that freezer, if you were just craving something sweet and cold, what would be the one you grab immediately?”
“Uhhh…” she swallowed, defeated. “…Strawberry.”
Felix slammed his hands on the counter, grinning as he pointed at the group. “Ha, I win!! Team strawberry and lemon, officially the best flavor!”
“This wasn’t even a competition!!”
Marinette felt like melting into goo in the summer heat even more at Kagami’s retort. ‘Isn’t it, though? Isn’t it?!?!’
Needless to say, Marinette’s patience had all but evaporated by the time her friends thanked her for the treats and left.
~🍨~
“Phew!! It’s quite hot out today isn’t it, Spots?”
Ladybug didn’t look up from her Bug Zapper, grumbling a bit as she fiddled with a black ball with circular windows into its glowing blue core, pulsing with energy.
“Spots? Is something wrong?” Chat Noir asked, his head popping in and out of a Black Hole portal, the other end in front of her workstation on the roof. “Is it something purr-sonal?”
“Mmmh…” Ladybug groaned again as she fit the ball into her zapper’s barrel, aiming the tip of the blaster at the wall nearby the other portal. “Can I test something real quick?”
“Uhh, sure?”
Without looking at him twice, Ladybug fired the zapper into the portal, causing Chat to fall through the other end with a louder thump than she thought.
Thankfully the side of him that got frozen wasn’t the one with the prosthetic, and she switched out the orb in the laser’s barrel to the orange one. Less of a ray that sets things on fire, but more like an instant melting gun. Without much change in her expression, Ladybug began to thaw Chat out.
Chat shivered even after the ice had melted, looking at her with an equally sour and confused expression. “What the heck, Spots? No need to put me on ice like that! It’s hot, sure, but damn!”
“It’s nothing, Chat. Just… a bit of an exhausting day…” Ladybug sighed, smiling tiredly as she sat next to him. She didn’t feel the need to tell him the sheer absurdity of the ice cream debate. If she did tell him, he’d just use that to tease…
“Ah, welllll…” Chat grinned and opened one of his portals. “How about we use my portals and go grab some ice cream? Maybe that’ll cheer y—”
“No.” Ladybug interrupted, gripping his shoulders in exasperation. “Can we go somewhere else…”
“Geez, Spots. Do you have some kind of bias against ice cream or something?”
Oh, this cat. “Also no. I’m just not in the mood for it right now.”
“Hmm… boba tea?”
“You know it.”
Traveling there without many eyes was easy enough, and Ladybug made sure to give Chat a few headpats of gratitude for saving her the migraine of people screaming that they were on a date, when… no. No they weren’t dating. They were just friends and anyone who didn’t see that should get their eyes checked.
Chat’s choice was interesting today. It was a honeydew milk tea and tapioca pearls flavored with brown sugar, a much lighter flavor than the last time, where he took a page out of her book and got the strawberry pearls in lemonade.
However, that wasn’t the flavor she went with this time. Instead, she got caramel flavored tea and green apple pearls. Maybe it was the ice cream debate from earlier, but she did not want a primarily fruit flavored treat right now…
“Say,” Chat said, peeking over at her as he sipped his drink. “That’s not your usual. Do you not have a favorite?”
“Uhh…” Ladybug bit on her straw to avoid replying, and to allow herself to internally scream. “Why does it matter if I have a favorite? Boba is boba, Chat.”
“I’ve gotta know what you like so I can master making it one day.”
“Pfft, you? Make boba?” She snickered, nudging his shoulder. “I’ve heard of your attempts at baking, Chat. You’d have a better chance at making macarons.” She hoped he’d get that she was joking, and the flustered smile he returned her was proof he did.
“To be fair, there’s not many ways you can mess it up so it’s a start, right?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“You never answered my question though,” Chat said through a longer than usual sip. “How come you don’t have a favorite?”
Truthfully, Ladybug didn’t have a favorite because she’d made a self imposed promise to herself to try every single tea and pearl combination and pick a favorite after everything was tasted at least once, but apart from that, she didn’t want to start another debate about “best flavors”.
“… I have no preference.”
Chat sipped on his drink, smiling with a mischievous look in his eye. “What, are you afraid of starting an argument about which combo’s better or something?”
Ladybug coughed mid sip, jolting forwards and covering her mouth at the question, and Chat continued to look at her, awaiting some kind of answer.
“I… don’t think you want to know.” She replied, awkwardly twirling a piece of her hair to distract herself from how spot on he was at reading her fears. “You wouldn’t argue with me, would you?”
“What? Like, start some kind of ‘best flavor’ discourse?”
She stiffened, blinking at him. How did he guess that…?
“…Maybe?”
At her squeak of an answer, Chat snorted and Ladybug’s face became dusted pink.
“Come on, Spots. It’s all in good fun, you know.” She grumbled something under her breath and thankfully he didn’t hear her. “How about this: I’ll tell you my personal favorite first, then you tell me yours?”
She held his gaze, and then he spoke again. “I won’t tell anyone. Promise.”
The way he spoke so earnestly made her look down to their drinks, then back up at him.
“…it’s peach green tea with strawberry pearls.” She said, catching him off guard as he looked like he was just about to say his own.
Then he grinned, and got that look in his eye.
The look he gave her when he knew something new and liked the sound of it.
“Interestingggg…” he mused, standing up to stretch. “Mine is mango milk tea, and for my choice of pearls… hmm, it depends, but I also like the strawberry ones too!”
“Guess you’re not the only one with similar taste to me…” Ladybug mumbled, then smiled in relief when he didn’t try to ask for clarification by what she meant, finally able to relax in the summer sun.
Maybe this heat could be beaten after all.
Maybe this heat could be beaten, and all it took was a little ice cream with her chaotic friend group and boba tea with her partner.
No matter if the debates of favorite flavors exhausted her, Marinette wouldn’t have it any other way.