"Are you finished?" Sabine asked, smiling as she gestured to her daughter's plate.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." Marinette smiled apologetically, setting her phone on the counter as her mother retrieved her plate. She tapped her fingers on the countertop guiltily, knowing her parents preferred she not text in the middle of dinner. But as she did it so rarely, no comment had been made.
Her father was out manning the bakery, as it was his night to do so, which left Marinette with her mother for the evening. A normal system, one or the other parent a night with the exception of Sundays, when they were all together. Marinette had been kind of waiting for a night alone with her mother, in order to bring up Adrien's... request. Her mother tended to be more understanding of such things—quite literally. Her father, while kind and gentle, tended to question everything and jump to the wrong ideas, if only in attempts to do what was best.
"So, mom..." Marinette trailed her finger nervously over the counter, her mother nodding acknowledgment from the kitchen sink, where she was washing their dishes. "Would it be okay if- if I had a friend over on Friday?" Best to start things off slow, after all.
"Of course. Alya, like usual?" Yet, her mother's tone was knowing. Because if it was Alya, she wouldn't be so hesitant in asking. Most of the time, she had Alya over without even mentioning it first.
"W-Well, no..." Fiddling her fingers together, she stared down at the back of her phone as a distraction. "I was actually wondering if I could have, uh, A-Adrien over. On Friday." For reasons she chose not to focus on, her cheeks flushed red.
Sabine's washing came to an obvious stop—Marinette didn't have to look up to know. "Why would he be coming over?" her mother asked strategically.
"J-Just to hang out," Marinette replied quickly. "We're just friends. I promise."
"Well, I don't see why not." Her mother was shrugging when Marinette finally looked up again. "All of your friends are welcome here, Marinette. You know that." Which she did, of course. But she hadn't gotten to the hard part of the conversation yet.
"Yeah, I-I know..." She pooched her lips and put her attention back on the counter. The silence seemed to imply more than she'd wanted, however, because her mother was once again coming to a stop to stare at her.
"...What is it?"
Marinette took a huffing breath. "It's just, uh, well, would it- would it be okay if- if he..." How did she even properly ask this? "That is, um, can he... can he stay the... night?" She cringed as soon as the question was out of her mouth.
And rightfully so. Her mother's eyebrows shot up almost immediately, before she removed her hands from the sink and dried them. Coming closer, she leaned a hip against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest—as though waiting for further explanation.
"I know it-it's weird, because he's a boy, but if it was Alya, you- you wouldn't care."
"Alya is also your best friend," Sabine countered. "Not the boy you've clearly had a crush on for months." Because, as her parents had so delicately mentioned when Adrien had been over to practice for the Mecha tournament, she talked about him all the time.
Marinette swallowed, deciding it was pointless to try and quell her blush. "I know. But we're not like that. I just want to be his friend. And I'm kind of one of the only friends he has."
This seemed to draw her mother's interest, those thin eyebrows coming together just a bit.
"See, it-it's like this." Marinette turned to face Sabine a bit more directly, placing her hands on the counter as she did. "Adrien was homeschooled until this semester and he's not very good at making friends. I'm his friend and this other boy, Nino, too. And I'm making Alya be his friend. But, anyway, he doesn't have very many. And I don't think he's ever done stuff like sleepovers or parties before. And I- He's- I just think that's really sad..."
