Riposte 2

A Date

Adrien and Kagami were planning to meet up for their "date" the next day after school. He had half a mind to invite Marinette to go with them. After all, Marinette and Kagami were good friends. But his best friend Nino talked him out of it.

"Dude, it's generally not a good idea to invite a second girl to your date" he told him during lunch, chuckling.

"It's not really a date" Adrien replied.

Nino looked at him skeptically. "What exactly is it then?" he asked.

"We're just hanging out. As friends."

"I think that Kagami is under the impression that she's more than your friend." Nino said. "Plus I thought you liked her."

"Yeah, I like her. But I'm not in love with her" Adrien explained.

"Well who are you in love with?"

Adrien looked down as his face started turning red. "No one" he mumbled.

Nino laughed. "Oh come on, dude! I can tell that you got it bad for someone. You're always spacing out during class. I know you're thinking about her." He put his hands up in a surrender motion. "Or him. No judging!"

Adrien groaned and looked back up at him with a frown.

"Okay, okay" Nino continued. "Her! But come on, if you can't confide in your best friend, who can you confide in?"

The blond sighed. "I don't even know if I'm really in love with her anymore. I've kind of started to think about someone else recently. Ugh, it's complicated."

"What's complicated?" Alya asked as she sat down at the table next to her boyfriend. Marinette then sat down next to her.

Adrien and Nino exchanged glances. "Nothing" they said in unison.

Alya raised an eyebrow at the boys. "Well that was super convincing" she said, earning a small laugh from Marinette.

Adrien looked over at the blunette. She had such a wonderful smile.

************************************

"We could go to the park for a picnic" Kagami suggested when they met up outside of Adrien's school.

"That sounds good" Adrien said.

"Alright, let's go pick up some sandwiches from that café around the corner."

"Why don't we just go to Marinette's bakery? It's right next to the park" he said. The food at the bakery was absolutely delicious. And besides, he might be able to see Marinette again.

"Uh okay. I guess we can do that" Kagami said hesitantly.

The walked the short distance to the bakery and went inside.

Marinette's mother Sabine was at the counter and recognized the blond boy as soon as he walked in.

"Adrien" she said smiling. "How wonderful to see you again. And who is this lovely young lady?"

"Hi Mrs. Cheng, this is Kagami Tsurugi."

"Nice to meet you" Kagami said.

"Oh yes, Marinette has mentioned you before. You two are friends, correct?" Sabine asked.

"Yes we are" she replied.

"How wonderful!" Sabine said, clapping her hands together. "It's always so nice to meet Marinette's friends. Now what can I help you with today?"

"We're heading to the park for a picnic and we wanted..." Kagami started to say before Sabine interrupted.

"Say no more my dear, we have exactly what you need. Now you wait here for a moment and I'll get everything together." With that she turned around and started packing up a bag with several different foods.

Adrien looked around the bakery while they waited. "Um, is Marinette here?" he finally asked when he didn't see her.

"She's probably up in her room right now. Would you like me to go get her?" Sabine asked.

"Oh no, you don't have to bother her" he replied, disappointed.

She smiled at him and continued packing up their food.

After another minute she was done and placed the bag on the counter. "Alright, well you two go enjoy your picnic. It's such a beautiful day to eat outside!"

"Thank you so much Mrs. Cheng, how much do we owe you?" Adrien asked.

"Don't you worry about that. It's on the house."

"On no, we couldn't..." he tried to argue but Sabine interrupted again.

"I insist" she said firmly.

"That's very kind of you..." Adrien started to say before he ran out of breath to speak.

"Maman, the next batch of macarons will be out in a minute" Marinette said as she came around the corner from the kitchen, holding a tray of baguettes. The apron she was wearing was covered with flour, and she even had a streak of flour across her cheek.

She stopped suddenly when she saw Adrien and Kagami, almost causing the bread to fly off of the tray.

"Oh sweetie, there you are" Sabine said, taking the tray from her daughter. "I thought you were up in your room."

"Papa asked me to help out with the flour delivery when I got home" she said, trying to dust off her apron. "Hey Adrien, hey Kagami, wh... what are you doing here?"

"We're going to the park for a picnic and we were just picking up some food" Kagami explained.

"That's nice" Marinette said, desperately trying to clean herself up.

Adrien couldn't help but stare at her. She was so precious, covered by flour and all.

"Well we should get going" Kagami said. "Thank you again Mrs. Cheng."

"It's my pleasure. You two have fun!"

"Bye Marinette" Kagami said, waving to her friend before grabbing the bag and walking towards the door.

"Bye" the blunette replied before looking over at Adrien.

He was frozen in his spot, unable to tear his eyes away from the beautiful girl with flour on her cheek.

"I... I hope you en... enjoy the food" she said to him, a light blush painting her face.

"Thanks" he said breathlessly, still not moving.

The smile disappeared from Kagami's face as she watched their interaction. She cleared her throat loudly. "Shall we, Adrien?"

He finally looked over at her. "Yes of course" he said, walking to the door and opening it up for her. He took one last look at Marinette before leaving.