Marinette is thrilled. She's spending her afternoon at the museum with Adrien, and even Manon's unexpectedly tagging along with them can't tarnish her happiness.
After all, what can go wrong for two seventeen-year-olds watching over a seven-year...
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The imposing man exited the kitchen, a wide grin on his face upon noticing their little problem. "You know, son, if you liked our lovely daughter that much, all you had to do was ask. You didn't have to put her under lock and key."
"DAD!" squeaked Marinette, red as a fire truck.
Adrien felt his own skin burning, so it wasn't too far-fetched to assume his complexion must match hers. He reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers comfortingly, a gesture that didn't escape her parents' eyes. Luckily for them, they were done with their teasing, and Sabine sent them upstairs to check on the cooking dinner.
Once they were safely hidden behind the apartment door, Marinette rested her forehead on the wall, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Concerned, Adrien asked tentatively, "Hey, are you okay?"
This was more than the young woman could take. She broke down in stitches, laughing so much she had to clutch her ribs with her free hand. "This ... this ... is ... ridiculous..." she managed to choke out in between her laughs.
Adrien gaped at her for a second, before joining in. She was right: the whole situation was simply ridiculous, far from the drama his father evidently thought it to be, far from the nerve-racking mess they had both considered it to be at first. Her parents' lighthearted reaction was a breath of fresh air and had cast a new light on their predicament.
After all, he thought to himself, if he could defeat akumas on a weekly basis, he could handle spending two days with a cute classma-where the hell did that come from?
Marinette distracted him from his wandering thoughts, showing him how to tell if the rice was properly cooked, and explaining how a slow cooker and a rice cooker worked. "My mom loves those," she said, "because they allow her to cook dinner safely and still help Papa downstairs."
Tom and Sabine joined them shortly after, and they all took a seat at the table with joyful banter. Dinner was spent in a comfortable conversation, Adrien and Tom happily exchanging pun after pun while an annoyed Marinette kept toying with her food. After a while, the blond noticed that she had barely eaten at all and inquired, worried, "Is everything okay, Mari?"
Surprised, the young woman's eyes widened, "Oh! Um, yeah, why?"
"You almost didn't touch your plate," Adrien pointed out, raising a curious eyebrow.
Marinette spluttered, blushing deeply, "I-um, I can't use chopsticks."
Biting back a laughter, Tom said, "What do you mean, cupcake? You've been eating with chopsticks ever since you were in diapers. What's wrong?"
Marinette's blush intensified, and for a second, Adrien felt sorry for his friend. She raised her right hand, bringing his up in the motion, "Yeah, with my good hand. I'm as far as can be from being ambidextrous, and those stupid chopsticks refuse to cooperate."
