#apito

“Well…” Marinette sighed. How could she even begin to explain all of the emotions swirling around inside of her? It was like she was feeling every single emotion inside her all at once. She glanced over into the kitchen, where Tikki was quietly talking to Plagg. “I just…” Marinette looked down at her hands, receiving a reassuring squeeze from Adrien’s, before looking back up at him. “I’m just… Really, really surprised, that’s all. It’s… It’s extremely unexpected, you know? I mean, we were so careful… But one slip up was all it took…” Her shoulders started shaking a little.

Adrien smiled softly. “I don’t feel like it was a slip up at all. True, we didn’t necessarily plan this… But it’s happening, and it’s an amazing thing, Mari.”

Marinette started to smile more at that. “You’re right. I didn’t think of it like that, I guess.” The bluenette relaxed a little, a true smile on her face. “So… What now? We were supposed to go to my parents house for dinner tonight, should we still go? I can’t wait to tell them, but do we need to go to a doctor first?” She tensed again, starting to panic slightly. “W-what if something happens, what if I-I’m not really-”

Adrien interrupted her by pressing a finger to her lips. “Hey, hey, hey, shhhhh, calm down, Princess. It’s alright.” He soothed her. “About that, I have to go back and meet up with my dad tomorrow to discuss the photoshoot.” He sighed, glancing at the Kwami’s that seemed to have finished their conversation in the kitchen. Marinette followed his gaze, and couldn’t help but notice how concerned Tikki looked.

“So, why don’t we go over to your parent’s house tonight, and share the news with them? Tomorrow, I’ll schedule an appointment for you, and then afterwards I’ll go meet up with my dad. Does that sound good?”

Marinette thought for a second. She didn’t want something bad to happen to the baby. If she got her parent’s hopes up just to find out something bad happened, it would be awful. However, she really needed her parents right now. In the two and a half years it had been since her and Adrien finished high school, they had spent a lot of time with her parents. Marinette hadn’t moved out of her parent’s house for a while at first, busy pursuing her dreams of becoming a fashion designer (at least, as far as her parents were concerned; they didn’t need to know most of her time was spent saving Paris from Akuma attacks). Adrien, on the other hand, moved out of his dad’s house as soon as he was old enough to. Their relationship was extremely strained, and finding out about Gabriel’s secret hobby of using innocent people to try and steal their Miraculous certainly didn’t help things. Marinette and Adrien had moved in together shortly after finding out each other’s identities (and of course dating), a few months after the end of school.

“...Mari?” Adrien repeated gently.

Marinette smiled softly and nodded. “Yeah, I like that plan. I like it a lot.” She glanced back into the kitchen. “Until then, wanna help me with the cookies? I kinda forgot about them.” She explained, walking into the kitchen and picking up the bowl. Adrien started to follow, until he heard her sigh. She turned around, giving him a stern, yet playful look and shaking her head.

“Honestly, Chaton, you couldn’t stop yourself from getting into my cookie dough?” She scolded. “You ate half the bowl!”

Adrien tried to keep a straight face, but couldn’t hold it in anymore when she started waving a whisk around at him as she lectured him. He burst into chuckles, blushing slightly at how adorable his lady was.

Marinette tried to keep her stern face, but couldn’t help but start giggling herself.

“Hey, don’t laugh when I’m scolding you!”

Tom had just finished decorating a batch of cupcakes when Marinette walked in.

“Papa?” The young woman asked, poking her head into the door.

Tom grinned, and set down the last cupcake. “Marinette! You’re here early,” he said, taking off his apron and coming over to hug her. “That’s my daughter, I’m proud of you, showing up early to places!”

Marinette laughed, and hugged her dad back. “Hey, dad. I missed you too.”

“Oh, Marinette? You’re early!” exclaimed a voice from behind Tom. Marinette peeked around him to see Sabine standing there, a big mixing bowl in her arms. She pulled away from her dad to run over and throw her arms around Sabine.

“Maman!”

Sabine laughed. “Have you missed me? You know you and Adrien are welcome anytime!”

Tom’s eyebrows shot up, and he turned around quickly to see Adrien standing in the doorway. “Oh! Adrien! I’m sorry, I was distracted by Marinette. Come on in!”

Adrien listened, stepping further into the little bakery and shutting the door behind him. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it. It’s nice to see you guys.” He greeted Tom with the common kiss on both cheeks, and then turned to Marinette.

Marinette let go of her mom, and looked around, taking in a deep breath. “Ah, the bakery smell. I always miss this.”

Tom moved to wrap an arm around his wife, and they exchanged happy expressions. They were proud of their daughter, who was not only in a pretty serious relationship with the boy she had been in love with for a couple years, but also doing fairly successful in building her own career for herself. Yet as happy as they were for her, they couldn’t help but miss her. Tom understood his daughter was busy now that she had her own adult life to take care of, but he wished she would come over and visit a little more often.

“Well, proud as we are that you made it early, dinner won’t be ready for another twenty minutes at least.” Sabine explained, smiling as she noticed Marinette grab the hand of Adrien, who was standing next to her awkwardly. “It’s Flamiche, so it’s just gotta sit in the oven for a while longer.”

Marinette gasped. “Oh, actually, that’s perfect! We uh... Adrien and I have something we need to talk to you guys about.” She took in a deep breath and looked around. “Do you guys wanna go up to the living room? You might wanna be sitting down for this…”

Sabine looked up, confused, at Tom, who looked just as confused. “Alright…” Sabine said, nodding at Marinette and shrugging. “Sure, if you think that’s best.”

A couple minutes of excited-nervousness and confusion later, and all four adults were sitting on the couch upstairs. Adrien squeezed Marinette’s hand reassuringly. “Do you want to start?”

The young woman nodded nervously. “Of course. They are my parents, after all.” Marinette turned to face her parents, who were looking even more confused than before. She took a deep breath. “Maman… Papa… I… I’m pregnant.”

…

There was a moment of silence as both of Marinette’s parents processed what she just said.

…

Tom was the first to react.

“You’re pregnant?!” He exclaimed, jumping to his feet. Marinette jumped in her seat, not expecting the sudden movement. “I can’t believe this! This… This is… great! I’m going to be a Grand-père! A Pépère!” Tom tugged Marinette up off of the couch, pulling her into a bear hug. “I can’t believe it!” He repeated, laughing.

Marinette smiled softly, waiting for him to put her down.

“Have you gone to the doctor yet?” Sabine asked, as Tom put Marinette down and repeated the action with Adrien. “Do you have any details? How far along, gender, that sort of thing?” She glanced at her husband and laughed a little. “Tom, I know you’re excited, but you should let the young man breathe.” Tom listened to his wife, smiling nervously and apologizing to Adrien, who looked downright honored to have been bear-hugged by his girlfriend’s father.

“Well,” Marinette started to explain. “We just found out this morning. It started when I got really nauseous and threw up because of milk.”

“Hahaha, my daughter, upset by milk? Not a chance!” Boasted Tom, having finally sat back down.

Marinette smiled, and then continued. “Then, once I thought of the possibility, and did some math, I realized I was overdue for a certain something, so I went to the store and picked up a test. Sure enough, two lines. We didn’t want to bail on dinner, so we’re waiting to make an appointment for tomorrow. Besides, I wanted you two to be the first to know, anyways.”

“Oh, Marinette, this is great! I’m so happy for you!” Sabine said, opening her arms wide in a gesture for a hug. Marinette happily complied, relaxing in her mother’s arms. “And we are so, so happy you came to us first.”

“This is perfect!” Exclaimed Tom, grinning. “I’ve been wanting to bake cookies lately, but I haven't been able to come up with any new themes lately. I’m going to bake baby cookies!”

Marinette pulled away from her mom and looked at her dad, laughing. “That sounds like a great idea, Papa! You could do little bottles, or rattles!”

“That’s a great idea! My daughter comes up with the best ideas!”

“What about rubber duckies?” Marinette suggested.

“Yes!” Tom smiled even brighter. “And until you find out the gender, I have plenty of neutral colors of icing we could use! Come on!” He put an arm around and led Marinette upstairs, still rambling about babies. “My grandchild will be the best baker in the world!”

Sabine watched them go upstairs, laughing and shaking her head, before she turned to Adrien. “We should probably follow them up there; dinner should be done at any moment anyways.”

Adrien nodded. “Yeah…” He rubbed his arm nervously. “Uh… Mrs. Cheng?” He asked, glancing over at her.

Sabine smiled softly and sat down next to him. “Adrien, you know you can call me Sabine…” She reassured him. “What’s troubling you? I know this all must be very overwhelming. I love my husband very much, but not everyone has his unwavered enthusiasm.”

Adrien nodded again. “Yeah… But don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m not excited! I’m so happy about this! I just…” He trailed off, trying to think of the best way to word it. “Are you… upset?”

Sabine furrowed her brows. “Why would I be upset?”

“Well…” Adrien sighed. “We didn’t wait until marriage to… We’re not married. Does that upset you at all?”

Ah, so that’s what was troubling him. Sabine’s expression softened. While she would’ve preferred her daughter to be a little more responsible and wait until marriage, Sabine trusted Marinette. Sabine looked away for a moment, trying to decide how to approach this. Finally, she turned back to Adrien.

“Do you plan on proposing to Marinette?”

…

“Of course!” Adrien exclaimed, his face lighting up. “She’s amazing! Marinette is smart, and beautiful, and she always puts others before herself! She’s adorable, and she makes the best jokes, and she’s brilliant! Have you seen the designs in her sketchbook? She’s brilliant! And she’s so brave, and responsible, she’s going to be such a good mom, and-” Adrien’s eyes widened, and he blushed, slightly embarrassed. “...And I’m rambling. To her mom. Obviously you already know how amazing she is, you raised her to be the amazing person she is.” Sabine smiled. “I guess, what I’m trying to say,” Adrien continued, “Is that I’m in love with her. I’m so, so in love with her.”

“Well, the way I see it,” Sabine put a hand on his shoulder. “You are definitely in love with my daughter, and my daughter is definitely in love with you. If you two really, truly love each other…” She smiled and shrugged. “Sometimes things happen in a different order.”

Adrien stared at her for a moment.

“Can I… Can I hug you?”

“Of course.”

When Adrien and Sabine made it back upstairs, Marinette and Tom were standing next to a table, leaning over it. Sabine went into the kitchen, after waving for Tom to follow her. Marinette turned around, grabbed Adrien’s hand and dragged him over to the table. There was an open sketchbook sitting there, the two pages completely full of sketches of baby-themed baked goods.

“Look, look!” Marinette exclaimed, pointing down at one of the sketches. “It’s a teddy bear cookie! Isn’t it just the cutest?”

Adrien smiled and hugged her. “It really is adorable, your parents are gonna be rich if they use these ideas.”

Marinette smiled wider, before glancing over towards the kitchen, where her parents had disappeared to. “What took you and Maman so long to come up?”

Adrien took her hand and squeezed it gently, smiling. “Nothing too special, we just had a nice talk. It was… It was nice. Your parents are amazing, and it makes me so happy when they include me and make me feel accepted.” Marinette kissed him. “They really like you, you know.” She said, after pulling away. “Like, really like you. Whenever I come over without you, they won’t stop asking where you are, or how you’re doing, or when they’ll see you again.”

Adrien smiled, his eyes almost watering. “You have no idea how happy that makes me feel… I feel like I’m finally part of a real family.”

“Well, this happy family is about to have a very happy meal. I’m starving. ”

Adrien laughed. “Well, let’s go help your parents set the table, and then you can have a huge helping of Flamiche. After all, you are eating for two now. We have a hungry little kitten you have to worry about feeding.”

Marinette giggled, and then stopped suddenly. “Hey, why can’t the baby be a little ladybug? Why do they have to be a kitten?”

“Because kittens are cuter, are also, I think ‘little kitten’ is a purrfect nickname.”

Marinette sighed, laughing.