Chapter Text
“Don’t forget, tomorrow is the breakfast party!” The four friends walked down the hall toward the courtyard of their school whist hearing their previous teacher remind her students of their arrangement for the following class. The only guideline for the party was to bring something, anything that could be eaten for breakfast.
Nino, facing Adrien while walking backwards, had the largest of grins as they headed outside. “Dude, I have the BEST idea for what to bring, but my lips are sealed. You three are going to be stunned with what I come carrying tomorrow morning!”
Adrien rolled his eyes. "I'm sticking with something close to home. are we all keeping it a secret until then?" Adrien turned to the two girls walking beside him, looking for a response. Alya nudged Marinette with her arm and nodded. “Sounds like a plan, right Mari?” Marinette’s eyes widened with joy, “Y-Yeah! I really hope you guys like what I have in mind.” Adrien grinned. “Your food always tastes great! It must run in the family, huh?” Marinette’s cheeks flushed at his words, nodding. “I learned from the best.”
—
Marinette was up before sunrise working on her part for the party. Did I even go to sleep last night? She let the thought slide out of her head and refocussed on the mess of flour, salt, baking soda, and other ingredients lying in front of her in a bowl. She was hellbent on making the perfect pancake batter.
Four other iterations had been through her rigorous checklist and failed miserably. She only had a few hours until school started, and being late to the party was not an option. Tikki hovered next to the teen’s shoulder, giving advice here and there. Marinette poured a fair amount of syrup onto her plate and took a bite. “Tikki, thoughts?” She raised a small piece of the pancake up to her. Tikki took a bite and grinned. “It’s perfect, Marinette!”
—
Across town, Adrien awoke to the smell of Camembert. He glared at Plagg, "Enjoying your midnight snack?” After swallowing the slice of cheese whole, the kwami smirked back at him. “Actually, it’s only about four in the morning. Besides, didn’t you need to bake breakfast or something?” Adrien jumped out of his bed, cursing himself for almost forgetting. “You’re a life saver Plagg!”
Within minutes, Adrien was in the kitchen baking one of his favorite breakfast foods, pancakes. “You better hope no one else brings these to class,” Plagg announced from within Adrien’s apron pocket. Adrien ignored the comment, focusing on the pancake batter in front of him.
—
Adrien was the last to get to class, rushing in with a platter of pancakes hiding beneath a bowl to keep them warm. He bribed Plagg with a half wheel of camembert to keep him quiet during the party, and so far, it had worked.
“About time Adrien! We were going to start guessing who brought what without you!” Nino smiled at his friend as Alya and Marinette turned around to see Adrien placing the plater next to his desk. On cue, Chloe ran over and hugged him, “Adrikins! I thought you forgot!” Adrien more or less pushed her off of him, attempting to ignore her. “So, who’s going first?” Adrien said toward the three classmates looking back at him.
Alya stepped to her left to show her plate. Removing the plate on top to keep it warm, she revealed a pile of croissants. Her friends complimented the appearance of them, grabbing one or two for later. Nino went next, taking a bottle of syrup out of his backpack larger than his head.
“I…I can’t look at you right now.” Alya turned away, trying her hardest not to burst out with laughter. “You can’t have breakfast without syrup, everyone knows that!” Nino protested. Marinette patted him on his shoulder, “Actually, that will go perfect with my part.” She introduced her friends to her stack of pancakes with a proud look on her face, or it was proud until she saw Adrien’s jaw drop. “A-Adrien, is everything alright?”
Adrien nodded, “Yeah, sorry. I, um.” He hid his platter behind him, trying to divert any and all attention away from it. “They look amazing Marinette!”
Chloe reappeared holding Adrien’s platter. “Why don’t we see what the star of the class brought?” “Chloe wait!” Adrien tried to stop her from lifting the cover, but was a second too late. Marinette’s eyes dropped.
“Pancakes. I brought pancakes.” Marinette had never heard Adrien speak so quietly. “I’m positive I’ll like yours much better, Marinette.”
“How could you do such a thing, Marinette? Look what you did to Adrien! He’s distraught because you brought the same thing as him!” Chloe didn’t even try to sound sincere, and everyone knew it. She was putting the blame on Marinette once again.
“Marinette didn’t do anything wrong, Chloe. We agreed on not telling each other what we were bringing to the party so it could be a big surprise. Things like this happen.” Alya put an arm on Marinette’s shoulder and shot her a grin. “Besides, I don’t see you with anything breakfast related, or any food at all.”
Chloe stuttered. “I-I-I didn’t bring anything because…” Their teacher walked over and glared down at the teenager. “Chloe, if you did not bring anything to add to the party, you do not get to participate. Please step outside.”
Chloe’s eyes turned to flames. “HOW DARE YOU?! How do you think you are, bossing me around?!!” Their teacher stayed calm, calmer than Chloe at least. “That’s it! Go to the principal’s office. I will not allow that tone of voice from you, especially on a day like this,” she explained, pointing at the door. “Out.”Chloe stormed out the door, grumbling something to herself, leaving the four friends to themselves to enjoy their breakfast with the rest of their class.
—
After everyone had a plate full of various breakfast treats, Alya and Nino went off to a separate table, hoping to settle their dispute over Nino’s ginormous bottle of syrup and how he managed to fit it in his backpack.
“I guess that leaves the two of us.” Adrien lightly poked Marinette’s arm, to which she jumped and squeaked at a pitch Adrien had never heard before. “Y-Yeah, just us and our pancakes.”
Adrien laughed to himself, which caught her attention. “Oh, nothing, I was just wondering if I’d be able to taste the difference between our pancakes. Dumb idea, right?” Marinette frowned. “It’s a fantastic idea! I-I could use something as a blindfold and we could do a taste test! If you want, of course.” Adrien grinned. “I’d love to! Though, I doubt it will be very hard with how amazing your pancakes are, even without syrup,” he said as he winked at her. She blushed as she started looking for a blindfold.
—
Adrien held up a peace sign and asked how many fingers she could see with their makeshift blindfold on. “Uhh, none?” She sounded confused. “Close enough. I take it you can’t see anything?” Marinette shook her head. “Not a single glimpse of your perfect hair.” She covered her mouth. “I-I mean no! Not that you don’t have perfect hair or anything, I mean-“
Adrien blushed slightly at her comments. “Thanks Mari. Are you ready? I’ll give you a bite each, and you just have to tell me which you think is which.” His friend nodded, a slight pink was still showing in her cheeks.
Adrien cut a small piece of her pancake and gave it to her, followed by one of his own. “Which do you think tasted better?” Marinette took a moment to answer. “The second was sweeter than the first, so I’d have to say that one.” She removed the blindfold and smiled at him. “Your turn!”
She helped resize the blindfold for his head, making sure it was not too tight on him. “Are you ready, Adrien?” He responded with a nod.
Without knowing it, she repeated his steps exactly. The first bite was hers, the second from his pancake.
Adrien was quick to respond. “The first pancake was, how do I put it, better. I can’t quite put my tongue on it, but it was just, somehow, perfect. There we go, perfect.”
Marinette removed his blindfold, grinning like a dork. “You chose my pancake over yours.” “You did the same, choosing mine over your own.” Adrien grinned, “I guess we did pretty well, being able to figure out which was better.” Marinette starts to laugh to herself. “But we chose different pancakes!” “But, I’m pretty sure you cheated. Besides, yours was much better than my pathetic excuse for a pancake.” Marinette pocked him in the arm, payback for earlier. “There’s no way that it beat your perfect pancake!
Adrien rolled his eyes. “We both know that yours was class favorite.” He stood up and shouted across the class to Alya and Nino, who both missed his question as they were more or less yelling at each other as to what the appropriate size of a syrup bottle is.
He turned back to Marinette, who was currently laughing her butt off at the situation. Adrien sighed, and started laughing along side her. It wasn’t clear as to who won their impromptu taste test, but they equally enjoyed each other’s baking.