Cinnamon and Vanilla

Chapter 2

Adrien had not long begun his piano practice when Nathalie knocked on his bedroom door.

"Adrien, your father is held up at the office and won't be able to dine with you tonight, would you like the chef to send your food to your room?" Nathalie didn't tend to show too much emotion, but Adrien could detect a slight edge to her tone, annoyance perhaps? He didn't think too much about it though. He was in too good of a mood.

"Sure Nathalie, that would be fine." He answered as his fingers glided effortlessly over the keys. His father missing dinner wasn't exactly anything new. There had been times where Adrien had gone a whole week and never saw his father. "By the way, I promised a friend I would help her with her Chemistry revision tomorrow since we have a big test coming up and she invited me to stay for dinner. Will that be alright?"

"Her?" Nathalie asked puzzled. Adrien stopped playing and looked up with a soft smile.

"Yeah, Marinette. Her parents own the Dupain-Cheng bakery remember?." Nathalie's face lit up in recognition.

"Oh, the aspiring designer? Of course, I remember her. Yes that should be fine." Nathalie had only met Marinette a few times over the years, but she certainly liked her better than some of those other girls that tended to hang around the young model. "You do have that early morning shoot in the park on Saturday though remember, so I can only give you until around ten."

"That's perfect. Thank you Nathalie." The assistant gave a small smile at the enthusiasm in Adrien's voice, nodding her head before leaving his room.

"So can you get me some of those gooey cheese balls you forgot today?" Plagg drawled as he floated onto the ivory keys.

"Sorry Plagg, it kind of slipped my mind." Adrien only half heartedly apologised as he resumed his playing. Plagg flipped his tail around with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah, I guess your girlfriend was a bit distracting." Adrien hit a wrong key and winced.

"She's not my girlfriend Plagg. Marinette's one of my best friends." He replied, replaying the chord.

"But she invited you to dinner at her house, with her parents. Isn't that...oh I don't know...like a date?" Plagg continued to tease. Adrien shook his head.

"No Plagg, that's just a friend being nice. You should try it some time." The black cat scrunched up his nose.

"I'm only nice to Camembert." He said, floating off to get another chunk of his favourite addiction. "And maybe you sometimes if you get me more of this one, it's so creamy."

"I thought you might like that one." Adrien smiled. Plagg turned the page on the music for Him before settling on his shoulder. If Adrien thought Plagg was going to drop probing though, he would be wrong. Unlike his chosen, Plagg knew exactly who Marinette was and he'd been waiting far too long to put an end to these identity shenanigans, whether Tikki liked it or not. Plagg always felt his kittens got the raw end of the deal from Tikki's Ladybugs, but this was different because this Ladybug was in love with his kitten, she just didn't realise it.

"So...what about Pigtails then?" Plagg drawled. Adrien tried to ignore the Kwami, but he was being persistent. "Don't pretend to me you don't like her, I saw you today dropping jokes and flirting with her." Adrien stopped playing and looked at his kwami.

"I wasn't flirting." He said defensively, although not all that convincingly. "You know I only ever do that with Ladybug." Plagg only grinned.

"Yeah, yeah. You just keep telling yourself that kid. Come on, you have to meet up with Spots soon."

Adrien set up his phone to play a recording of his practice session, complete with errors, and called his transformation. Chat leapt out the window and began his rounds of the city in the late afternoon sun, but he couldn't seem to put out of his mind the conversation he'd just had with Plagg. He hadn't been flirting with Marinette, he told himself, it had just been some friendly banter - right. After all, he jokes around with Ladybug all the time. He frowned to himself. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best defence in this situation. He shook his head as he stopped momentarily. Marinette was a friend, a really good friend. Then again, why did it make him feel so warm and fuzzy inside when Marinette blushed at him today and why did he find himself counting down the hours until school finished tomorrow so they could spend more time together?