Secret Admirer

Chapter 6: Roses are Red

Marinette walked up the bakery stairs, untying her apron. She pulled it off and threw it in a laundry basket right inside the laundry room before closing the door and heading up to her room. She brushed off the loose flour flakes on her clothes on the way up.

"Ugh, that was an exhausting day, Tikki." Marinette sighed. "Mine and Papa's new pink lemon cheesecake is getting really popular. We're gonna have to make a few extra batches tomorrow morning."

"That's great, Marinette. Your family always makes the best sweets." Tikki cheered. "I'm sure nobody in Paris can resist them."

"I hope so. Me and Papa spent two weeks perfecting the recipe." Marinette pushed open the trap door. "All I know is I could really use a-" She turned to see a trail of rose petals. ". . . nap."

"Wow." Tikki's mouth fell open like Marinette's.

"What is this?" She questioned, following the trail with her eyes. The red petals led all the way up to the balcony. "A romantic gesture?" Marinette squinted her eyes.

"Looks more like a declaration of love. Maybe it's Adrien." Tikki suggested.

"Hmm." Marinette walked to her steps. "That doesn't seem like him, but . . . there's only one way to find out." She said, running up. She practically jumped up to her balcony. There were a bunch of light pink roses sticking out of the mailbox. She grinned. Marinette walked over and pulled out the bouquet. A letter fell out with it.

'I told him that roses were my favorite, but how did he know pink was my favorite?' She thought.

"Good evening, Marinette." Chat Noir said. Marinette slipped the letter in her back pocket and turned around to see Chat Noir with a single red rose in his hand. He smiled and held out the flower. "A gift from Adrien."

Marinette took the rose with a small smile. "Did you destroy this bouquet just to make my bedroom look romantic with all those red petals? Is this the only one left of the bunch?" She joked, sniffing the flower. "Wouldn't surprise me. You're always big on gestures."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

Her eyes widened, slightly twitching in panic. "Oh! I uh-I've seen you in akuma attacks before and uh . . . you're always making grand gestures for Ladybug, right? Yeah I've . . . seen you."

"Oh, yeah." Chat blushed, looking to the side. "I've . . . me and Ladybug . . . yeah I always do things all dramatic like that."

Her smile faded a little. "So this was your idea, not Adrien's?"

"No uh it was-it was Adrien's idea." He scratched the side of his face. "I just helped. It's kind of my specialty." He winked. "You know, cause I'm great at grand gestures."

Marinette felt one of the petals. "Well it's nice." She looked up and Chat Noir stared at her. "Thank you . . . for all of this." She smiled. Marinette was grateful and she didn't know how to thank him properly, but she didn't want to send a bunch of wrong messages to the wrong guy.

"You deserve it, Marinette. I'd do it all over again for you if I could." Chat grinned before making a more serious face. He tried to shake off any nerves, his heart beating faster and faster. "So . . . are you busy?" Chat asked without breaking eye contact, his pulse pounding in his ears. "Do you . . . want to go do something?"

Marinette blinked, confused. "With you?"

"Uh yeah." He nodded, biting his lip.

"Uh well . . . " Marinette looked down. "You're not Adrien." She whispered, but he still heard. "I was actually planning on taking a nap or something." She lifted her head. "I've been working in the bakery all day, so I'm pretty tired. I might play some video games first, but I'll need to get some sleep."