Chapter Text
“Disaster!” gasped Nadja Chamack. “A dozen puff pastries fall, setting Mme. Cheng back minutes! Three are on the floor, they’re lost, and she’s rushing back to collect replacements. The main structure of the croquembouche is sound, though, and as soon as she returns with the excess puffs, she’s right back to pinning them in place. Look at her go! Such precision! Such grace!”
“Ooooh, I can’t take this!” Marinette squealed. “It’s down to the wire. Come on, maman, you can do it!”
“Have faith in your mother, dearie.” Gina Dupain spoke with matronly kindness. It would have created a false impression for Kagami, had the blind girl not heard her roaring motorcycle and felt her leather riding gloves minutes earlier.
“Not too much faith, though, cupcake,” Tom added jovially. “Wouldn’t do for the world to think your mother was a better baker than me. I mean, she is, but no need for it to be on the six o’clock news.”
Mme. Chamack hadn’t stopped narrating. “And she’s caught back up, still on record pace, but with just twelve minutes to go, another error like that could cost her. And that’s row 38 complete. She slowly removes her hands, and… it’s stable! Quickly, she’s back to the oven to grab another batch of puffs.”
“Ooooh,” groaned Marinette. She and Kagami both held a loose plastic chain that cordoned off the kitchen and camera crews. Through its quivering, Kagami could feel Marinette’s jitters.
“Where is Grandpere? He’s going to miss it!” Mariette said.
“Come on, Marinette,” Tom said. “Pop’s slow, but he’s timely. He’ll be here before the buzzer. Mama, will you...?” he said, turning to his mother.
“I can be civil,” Mme. Dupain replied. “Come, Marinetta, Kagami. Let’s see if we can find the old codger outside.”
Marinette let the older generations take the lead, then took Kagami’s arm and led her towards the boulangerie storefront. On the way, she said, “I hope Nonna’s right about grandpere Rolland. He doesn’t adapt well to change. She said he would be perfectly fine with us dating, but… he cut off contact with his son for years, over rice flour. If I hadn’t found him, he and Papa still wouldn’t be talking.”
“He doesn’t deserve your kindness, Marinette,” Kagami replied, keeping her voice low so Tom wouldn’t overhear.
“He’s family. And everyone deserves kindness.”
“Not if his bigotry makes you sad.”
Marinette gave her a peck on the cheek. “I’m sure things will work out fine. Papa and Nonna are on our side, so even in the worst case, it will be four-against-one. Door ahead in three, two…”
Marinette maneuvered them through the bakery doors and out onto the sidewalk. Outside, Tom could be heard bellowing. “Papa, hurry it up! You’re running behind!”
Kagami heard the slow rhythmic shuffling of slippers and the tap of a walking stick approaching.
“I had to walk halfway across Paris from where I parked,” said a man whose voice made him sound very old.
“Paris can be busy, but I’m surprised it was that packed,” Marinette said. “It’s usually not that hard to find a place to stick a scooter. It’s not like it’s a car or anything.”
“Oh, there’s plenty of scooter spaces with those new-fangled card readers and paper passes. That’s not how it’s done! I had to drive for kilometers to find a proper meter that took coins!”
“Oh, Rolland,” groaned his ex-wife.
“Now let’s hurry up and watch Sabine make some pastries,” he grunted. Marinette, good to see you. And… who’s the blind girl?”
“Grandpere?” Marinette’s earlier confidence in Rolland’s better nature seemed to have evaporated. “This is Kagami. My girlfriend. We’re dating.”
“You’re dating… a girl?” said Rolland.
“Papa,” Tom tried to warn, but it was too late.
“That’s not how it’s done!”
Gina thundered to Marinette’s defense. “Rolland Arnaut Laurent Vassily Dupain! Have you gone senile? This is our granddaughter you’re speaking to!”
“Oh, don’t you throw my name at me, Gina,” said the grouch. Kagami could vaguely trace the direction of their voices, and it was clear they were getting right up in one another’s faces. “You lived through the same times as I did. Back in the day, girls dated boys. You know that! This isn’t how it was done!”
Kagami had no desire to interfere with a family dispute. She did, however, shift her body to put herself between Marinette and Rolland. It was irrational, of course, to think that the grouchy old man would turn violent against a loved one on a public street. But Kagami’s nature was to protect, and so protect she would.
However, Gina abandoned the conflict entirely, speaking suddenly with deep worry. “Rolland… are you alright? Have you been to the doctor lately? I shouldn’t joke about senility, but...are you forgetting things? Have you forgotten Lily?”
“Lily?” Marinette asked.
“Your grandma’s old best friend,” the old man replied. “They were joined at the hip back in the day. Lily never thought I was good enough for Gina, bit my head off every time I tried courting her. Then Lily’s family made her move back to Italy. Gina cried and cried, and I had to bring bread and cookies to her room for weeks before I finally got her out of the house and on a date. I think they reconnected after Gina left me, but at that point it was none of my business. See? I can remember perfectly well. But what’s Lily got to do with Marinette’s ‘girlfriend’?”
Gina inhaled sharply. “Mama Mia,” she slowly whispered. “Mio Dio. Forty-five years I’ve known you, Rolland, twenty-five of them as your wife. And this whole time, you thought she was my friend?”
“Oh, please, Gina,” grumped Rolland. “Before she left, you spent practically every evening visiting her, and half of your trips to my bakery ended with you talking about her. Do you really expect me to believe she was not your friend?”
Gina’s lips smacked open and shut like a gaping fish.
“Deficiente,” Gina said to the sky in disbelief. “Idiota. Scemo. Asino. How did I ever fall in love with this man?” Then, finally willing to address her ex directly, she exclaimed, “I expect you to believe she’s not my friend , Rolland, because I expect you to realize she’s my lover!”
“Wha… what?” Rolland’s confidence collapsed like a souffle after the over door had been slammed.
And Gina kept slamming. “She ‘bit your head off’ because you were trying to poach her girl! I cried for weeks because she ripped my heart out and took it with her! I waited until the divorce was final before moving into her villa so no one could say Gina Dupain was a two-timing woman! Forty five years. Forty five years! And this whole time, you never understood? How could anyone possibly be so dense?”
Kagami tensed as a body approached her and Marinette at speed, but it was Gina, not Rolland. She heard Marinette whisper “shoulder,” as one of Gina’s hands found its way to Kagami’s upper arm, the other presumably resting on Marinette’s.
“Marinetta, Kagami,” Gina soothed. “Don’t listen to the doddering coot. Girls loving girls is how it was done, back in the day.”
“Th-thank you, Nonna,” Marinette said. She leaned over, and Kagami accepted a kiss to the cheek with gratitude.
“In fact, girls loving girls is how it was done every single night,” Gina continued.
Marinette stiffened. Nervously, she repeated, “Nonna?”
“Usually, several times in a night!”
“Nonna!”
“Oh God, mama, stop!” Said Tom, sounding like a teenager rather than the grown man he was.
“Tom, bambino, you’re impossible!” Gina said with a chuckle. “First you tell me not to treat Marinetta like a child, now you want me stop treating her like an adult? She just had her eighteenth birthday! Or was it nineteenth, granddaughter?”
“Errr… fifteenth?” Marinette gently corrected.
“Oh.” A long, awkward pause was made all the heavier by the humid summer air. “Then forget that Nonna Gina said anything. But Kagami, my angel?”
“Yes… Nonna?” the unfamiliar term of endearment came trippingly off Kagami’s tongue.
“You stick with my Marinetta and you won’t regret it. Because in a few years, when she’s older, Nonna Gina will tell her all the secrets to making you a very happy woman.”
“I look forward to it,” Kagami said. Then she pressed her cheek to Marinette’s, savoring the warmth of the girl’s blush now that its color was denied to her.
“Mom!” Tom shouted again. “Let’s get you back inside. Now! Don’t wanna miss Sabine’s victory lap, do we?” Tom hustled Gina away, back to the bakery, ignoring her wordless objections.
Marinette hadn’t moved, and from her position, Kagami deduced that she was still staring at her grandfather. Kagami didn’t know where to begin to dismantle this familial entanglement, so she remained silent.
Eventually, Rolland spoke. “I should know better.” He was gruff and kept an unapologetic veneer, but the sharp edges of his anger had dulled completely. “My entire life, I had one girlfriend and one spouse, and I couldn’t even keep her. Who am I to instruct anyone about how love should be done?”
“Oh, papi,” Marinette sighed. She left Kagami’s arm briefly, and Kagami heard Rolland grunt into her hug. Then, two sets of footsteps approached the blind fencer.
“My hand’s at your eleven,” Rolland said. Following his instruction, Kagami accepted his handshake. “My granddaughter’s a special girl. You be good to her, you hear?”
“I plan to, sir,” she said plainly.
“And Marinette, I’ll tell you what I told your father at your age.”
“Yes, papi?”
“Don’t you dare get her pregnant!”
A growling, mortified Marinette dragged Kagami back to the bakery. Marinette’s exaggerated stomps only exacerbated the humor, and Kagami tittered the whole way.
------
“Done!” Sabine shouted, slamming her hand down on a buzzer.
“And that’s it, one minute, twelve seconds faster than the current record!” called Nadja. “Judge?”
The judge hustled over to the baking area. Something hummed and buzzed, some sort of electronic scanner, and then it beeped twice. “And the final measurement is… 201.5 cm. It’s confirmed! Mme. Sabine Cheng is the fastest of all time to build a 2-meter croquembouche, slipping under a record that’s stood since 1983!”
Kagami clapped demurely while Marinette, Tom, and Gina erupted into cheers. The room filled with the accompanying roar of an invisible crowd as Mme. Chamack hit play on a pre-recorded applause track.
“As a reminder to our viewers, the results of this charity drive will be on display today at the bakery. Then, tomorrow, it will be moved to the Hotel Grand Paris, where it will serve as a centerpiece for the 20th anniversary gala of Andre and Audrey Bourgeois,” Mme. Chamack declared. “But for the moment, let’s talk with the woman of the hour. Mme. Cheng, congratulations!”
“Thank you, Nadja.” Sabine was short of breath. The odor of her sweat mingled with caramel and wafted past Kagami as the chef approached the edge of the cordon for her interview.
“Mme. Cheng, what prompted you to take on this massive culinary challenge?”
“It’s these two,” Sabine said, her voice as thick as the caramel holding her tower together. “Marinette? Kagami? Will you come here for a moment?” Sabine called.
Kagami had planned on this outcome from the moment Sabine had informed her of the record attempt. She’d determined that she would tolerate it. Although she’d never been a fan of cameras, they were an unavoidable part of life when one was wealthy. The trick was to ignore them and act like they weren’t there. Now that she couldn’t see them, that was easier to accomplish.
Kagami lifted the plastic chain of the cordon and slipped underneath, then held out a hand for Sabine to take. Instead, Sabine pounced, pulling Kagami’s whole body into a crushing hug alongside Marinette. The hug grew larger as Tom wrapped his arms around all three of the women.
Mme. Chamack’s ‘audience-in-a-can’ played a heartfelt “awww”.
Kagami was coming to appreciate being treated as part of the family. But the Tsurugi household was one in which hugging did not exist, and she had limits to how much contact she could accept. Kagami was the first to squirm, and Marinette’s parents let them go. Kagami stepped back.
Marinette spun Kagami by the shoulders to face the camera. Kagami smiled, but she was sure it looked unnatural.
Sabine moved to Kagami’s side, slippers soft on the tile. “Kagami is my daughter’s girlfriend,” she said, “and she’s as good as family. They’ve only been together for a few weeks, but watching them spend time with one another, I’ve never seen a couple click the way they do--not even you and me, Tom! They support each other, they work together--Marinette’s even teaching Kagami to bake!”
“And… I couldn’t see it. I wasn’t accepting. I said that it was a phase, a gimmick.” Sabine’s regret was palpable; if Kagami hadn’t already committed to forgiving her, this speech would have been persuasive. “I almost chased away my beloved daughter. It was the biggest failure I’ve ever made as a mother.”
“Marinette? Kagami?” Sabine touched Kagami’s shoulder. “Two weeks ago, I bet your father a croquembouche that you two wouldn’t last a month. I don’t need to wait another two weeks to admit defeat. I can already see you together then, and far beyond. And I have never been happier to lose a bet.”
“Oh, Maman!” said a weepy Marinette, and then Kagami was once more crushed between three Dupain-Chengs.
According to the day’s script, Kagami was due to explain the charitable nature of this spectacle. She’d memorized the prosaic mission statement of the Raito Foundation for the Visually Impaired, and after reciting it, she was to accept a giant prop check on the Foundation’s behalf.
Just this once, she shirked her duty.
There was hugging to be done, after all.
-----
Some time later, the adults had adjourned for wine, and the teens had gathered more of their own to continue their celebrations. Rose, Juleka, Alya, and Nino sat around a large table alongside Kagami and Marinette. Peppy old-style English tunes played from the little jukebox at their table. A round of milkshakes, served by a waitress peppering her language with badly-pronounced Americanisms, scented the air with vanilla and chocolate.
Marinette was discussing a Chat Noir article on the Ladyblog with Alya, and her efforts to dodge Alya’s direct questions were making Kagami cringe. So, Kagami had turned her attention elsewhere and engaged Rose in a slow conversation in Japanese. Rose was picking up the language quickly, but it was obvious she was picking up bad habits from anime; her vocabulary and inflection sounded like a hostess at a maid cafe.
“ And Utena finds a sword in Anthy’s… heart? Chest? What’s the right word? And then they... “ Rose paused, then switched to French. “Kagami, you said the friend you invited was really tall, right?”
“Yes.” Kagami raised her hand to wave. “Doo Ri?” she called blindly into the crowd.
“There you are!” she heard Doo Ri call back from across the room. “We’ll be right there.”
“We?” Marinette asked Kagami. “I’m glad you’re reaching out to more people, but you didn’t tell me you had made any new friends.”
“I haven’t,” Kagami said self-consciously. “I enjoy the company of our classmates; you taught me to do that.” That comment earned a kiss on the cheek, which Kagami repaid with a short-lived grin. Then, more somberly, she said, “Nevertheless, I’m not social in the same way as you are. I cannot bond as quickly as you do.”
“That’s fine, Kagami. Everyone is different. Though I think you’re selling yourself short. You, Juleka, and Mylene really seem to be hitting it off with your meditation club. But if it’s not someone new, then who did you ask to join--” Then Marinette gasped, as the pair of friends approached into view. “ Adrien?”
Indeed, Kagami was by now on friendly terms with almost all of Marinette’s classmates, but she held a stricter definition of ‘friend’ than Marinette seemed to, and only two people met those criteria: Adrien and Doo Ri. So, when Marinette had encouraged her to invite friends along, Kagami had invited both of them.
Kagami had questions as to why they’d arrived together, but that could wait for another day.
“Hey, Marinette,” Adrien said uncomfortably. In Kagami’s mind’s eye, he was scratching the back of his head. “We left it off at ‘see you later,’ and according to Kagami, it should be ‘later’ by now. Hope that’s okay?”
“I-I-I- that’s fine!” she said. “We’re happy to see you. Meet you! Ugh, I haven’t used that idiom in over a week!”
Kagami had predicted this outcome, and was willing to ride it out. She slid over, bumping against Marinette, triggering a domino effect of students shuffling to make room. The table was large enough to accommodate everyone, but only barely. Adrien, ever the gentleman, offered Doo Ri the chance to sit. Doo Ri, ever tall, said she’d fit better in the aisle.
“Yo, dude, how’d you get out of your classes and shoots and stuff? Nino asked, thumping Adrien on the shoulder. “It’s sweet that you made it. I figured it wasn’t even worth inviting you cause of your pops.”
“Doo Ri and Kagami both have parents in the same social circles as my father,” Adrien said. “So I told him that I needed the time slot for a party they were both attending.”
“And that worked?”
“Well,” said Adrien, “I might have implied it was a formal gala rather than an ice cream social…”
“He came here in a bow tie,” Doo Ri added. “He took it off as soon as we were out of sight of his driver. Shame. He looked dashing.”
“It was just a tie,” Adrien said, almost bashful.
“You look dashing without it, too,” said Marinette. Then, a little too quickly, she added, “but that’s just a compliment, not flirting! I don’t need to flirt with you because I’m head over heels in love with Kagami, so why am I even saying any of this, Marinette, get a grip--”
“I shouldn’t be here,” Adrien said suddenly.
Just as suddenly, Marinette stopped. “I… I’m screwing everything up again, aren’t I?”
This has gone on long enough, thought. “Both of you, stop,” she said.
She went unheeded.
“You’re not, I am. Kagami said she wanted me here, and she’s a great friend so I obliged, but I didn’t give you your space and I can’t stand the thought of coming between you--”
“--and she’s so amazing, and it’s wonderful how she smiles when she hears my voice, and you’re cute an all but at this point the panic is just reflex, and--”
Kagami took a deep breath. Channeling her mother, she pounded her fist on the table. “I said stop! !”
This time, they stopped.
Kagami sighed.
“This is ridiculous. You two are friends, and it is time for these old habits to break.”
“Should we...go?” Juleka asked, barely audible.
Kagami shook her head.
“No. This will be over quickly. I refuse to waste my life waiting for these two to untangle their past. We will cut through this knot in a single stroke. Adrien?”
“Yes, sensei? I mean, Kagami? God, you sounded like your mother for a second.”
Kagami smiled. It was not a pretty smile, but it wasn’t meant to be. “Your concern for my relationship with Marinette is appreciated. It is also egotistical. You will not come between us.”
Adrien gulped. “Umm… okay?”
“And Marinette,” Kagami said, turning to her girlfriend. “It is fine to have lingering feelings towards Adrien. I have absolute faith in your love for me.”
“Hand,” Marinette whispered, and she intertwined their fingers. “I’m in awe of your certainty, ma Mousquetaire, but I’ll never understand it. How… how can you say that, when Ad--Ad-- when he still makes me a gibbering wreck?”
“Because you talk in your sleep,” Kagami answered.
“Huh? What’s that got to do with--”
“Who are Emiko, Hiro, and Louis?”
Marinette’s whole body stiffened, and her pigtails brushed Kagami’s face as she frantically moved her head side to side looking for an escape route that was not there. “Eep,” she squeaked, trapped.
Kagami’s heart twinged with pity, but this temporary shame would do Marinette permanent good.
“Well?” Kagami pressed.
“They’re… our children? In our dream marriage. I’m sorry, I’m so weird!”
At that point, Kagami’s sternness broke, and she stole a kiss from Marinette’s lips.
“Your dreams tell me all I need to know about your heart. The last traces of a crush pale in comparison,” Kagami said. “And some remaining warmth for him will be beneficial, down the line.”
“It will?” said Marinette. “But how… you’re the only one for me. Not Adrien. You know that, right?”
“Understand that I am answering… aspirationally. We are both young, and although we look forward, we cannot see the future. I am speaking of dreams, not commitments.”
“O...okay,” said Marinette, confused, but willing to trust. Always willing to trust. Kagami squeezed her hand again.
“I too dream of us starting a family.” Ignoring Rose’s ‘awww’ and Juleka subsequent ‘hush,’ Kagami pushed onwards. “I dream of children, and of providing for the fruits of our love as best as possible.”
“Sorry, is this... should I leave you two alone?” Adrien asked.
Doo Ri stepped in quickly. “Let her finish!” the Korean girl said. Doo Ri was privy to a few secrets that not even Marinette knew, and she could see where Kagami was heading. Kagami could imagine her smile as she waited for the punchline.
Kagami would not disappoint.
She lifted Marinette’s hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles.“We will provide them with the best housing. The best clothes, straight from the Dupain-Cheng portfolio. Yes?”
“Yuh-yes?” the young designer stammered.
“We will provide the best teachers, and the best schooling, to ensure they grow up wise and decent.”
“Yes.” Marinette’s voice grew in confidence, allowing the dream to sweep her away.
“The best food, and the best medicine…”
“Yes!”
“And of course…” Kagami turned towards Adrien. “...the best genetics.”
Rose gasped, Alya whooped, and Doo Ri chuckled. But poor sweet Marinette, and poor naive Adrien, were confused.
Adrien made noises of befuddlement whileMarinette began to babble, as was her wont. “I… guess? I’d want that, of course. Our children should be smart, healthy, and beautiful. But genes aren’t exactly something you can pick and choose, unless you - oh my god you want to have Adrigamis.”
Kagami returned her smile to Marinette’s direction.
“I want us to have Adrigamis... and Adrinettes.”
The group of young adults erupted into a raucous din. Several voices talked at once, including that of the increasingly flustered supermodel. But Marinette was louder than any of them.
“Oh my god. Alya! Alya! Alya! Alya!”
“Wha-a-a-a-a-a-t?” Alya’s wobbly voice painted a vivid picture of Marinette grabbing her by the collar and shaking.
“Alya! Alya! Alya!” Marinette inhaled. “Kagami and I are going to have the most beautiful children!”
Then, Marinette flopped backwards, landing her head on Kagami’s lap and dissolving into a puddle of dreamy, insensate goo.
Kagami stroked her hair, earning a pleased murmur from the back of her throat, and then moved to face Adrien once again.
“I… I don’t know what to say,” he said, choked up with an emotion that Kagami could not read.
The burden of the first response was taken by his best friend. “Dude,” said Nino. “Two hot chicks just asked you to be their baby-daddy. If you don’t say ‘yes,’ I’m gonna have to confiscate your bro-card.”
“Thank you for the advice, Nino,” Kagami said, bemused. Alya elbowed Nino in the ribs before he could say ‘you’re welcome.’
“But he should not say yes. Nor should he say no. It’s too early for a promise in either direction.” Kagami turned her unseeing gaze back to Adrien, her face a tranquil mask. “As I said, we are sharing dreams, not making commitments. Children are years and years away. I’m only bringing this up now to make something clear: you’re special, Adrien, both to Marinette and to me. The future we build together will be built with a place for you in it. That is, if you want one.”
“I…” Adrien tried, and failed, to find words. “I… don’t know... how do I…”
“Dude, are you crying ? Ow, Alya, knock it off! I’m not teasing him for this, I think it’s awesome that they all mean so much to each other!”
“Hey!” said Rose. Her voice was elevated; she had stood upon the bench. Her milkshake glass chimed when she struck it with her spoon.
“All this talk of things down the line means it's time for a toast!” Rose waited for the assembled teens to make some general rumblings of assent, then continued. “I loved the way Kagami put it. We’re building a future. It takes work, and we have setbacks. Some of them hurt. Sometimes, people… people who ought to love us… don’t want to be part of what we’re making…”
“Rosie,” Juleka whispered.
Rose banished her ghosts. “But we are still here, and we are with friends and loved ones. We lift ourselves up when we fall, we push onwards, and we keep on building on the good things. We build and build and build, until we’ve made our own futures. So… that’s my toast. To us. To the future!”
“To the future!” Alya, Doo Ri, and Juleka cried.
“To the future, dudes!” Nino said in his own way.
Adrien hesitated, but his friends' enthusiasm carried him along in the end. “To the future!” he said, and Kagami heard him steal her water glass to join in the toast.
Marinette was still in dreamland, oblivious to the world. “Emiko, Hiro, Louis? Your mommies are going whitewater rafting, but don’t worry, you’re staying with Uncle Adrien until we get back!”
Kagami held back most of her smile, because if she let out all her emotions at once, she’d have been stuck laughing and crying for hours on end. Instead, she lifted her milkshake glass, and counted six clinks--one for each friend. Then, she raised it above her head, and toasted:
“To the future.”
