Adrien sighed as he finished the last touch of the art. Finally he dropped his pencil and turned to Marinette. "Tomorrow, do you think I can come over so we can start painting?"

Marinette looked down as she thought about it. Luckily today her parents had went out so it had been quiet in the house. What if tomorrow, they stayed? What would they do to her in front of Adrien. 

"I don't know, sure," She finally nodded. 

Just as she was standing up, she heard the front door opening, and she groaned to realize that her parents were back. She was glad that Adrien and her were done for the day though, so there was no point of her staying here. She could go out and hang out by herself all day. 

"Marinette, come downstairs right now!"

"I have to go," Marinette took another deep breath. "I'll be right back." Adrien nodded, so she headed out of the bedroom and walked downstairs. 

Once she got there, her eyes widened when she saw Andy, but with a different woman with him. She frowned, confused at what was going on. 

"Who is she?" She asked, referring to the woman. 

"Marinette, this is Stella," Andy was actually cool enough to introduce the woman, but Marinette had a feeling she was not going to like this woman at all. 

"So, what is she doing here?"

"Stella was kicked out of her apartment, so I agreed for her to stay here for a while before she could buy her own house," Andy shrugged. "It would be no problem anyway."

"So, why did you call me here?" Marinette folded her arms. She didn't know what she thought of this woman yet, but she knew for sure that Hannah wasn't going to let this woman have an easy life in this house. Why did Andy think it was a good idea to bring another woman?! 

"Marinette, we were kind enough to give you the biggest room in this house-" Andy started. 

"No, no, no," Marinette stopped him, wanting to correct the mistake he had just made. "None of you guys bought this house, so you and Hannah didn't even have the choice to give me the biggest room or not. If you did have the choice, I know I would be living in the basement!"

"See, this is exactly why you get in lots of trouble. If what you're going to say is going to trigger me, then just keep your mouth shut!" Andy hollered. 

"So, what's up with my room?" Marinette asked again, ignoring Andy's warning. 

"Stella is a guest here, so we must make her feel welcomed. I'm going to have to ask you to move out of your room so Stella can have it," Andy finally answered, making Marinette frown. 

"What do you mean move out?!" 

"You ask too many questions, Marinette! You know exactly what I mean!" Andy sent her a little glare. "Stella is going to have your room. You're going to have the room in the basement!"

"But it's not even your choice. You don't own this house!" Marinette yelled, not caring if she was raising her voice. "Why can't Stella have the room in the basement! Okay yeah, she's a guest, but I've been living here just as long as you! Oh and besides, why can't she have your room. Why does it have to be mine?!-"

"Marinette-"

"You're making me angry on purpose! What are you trying to do, drive me away from here? Are you trying to anger me so much up to the point where I just grab a knife and slash your throat?!"

"Marinette-"

"It's okay, Andy. I can have the room in the basement," Stella shrugged. "It doesn't matter where I stay, as long as I'm here. I'll start bringing my bags over here tomorrow, 'k?"

"Good, I'm glad that's settled!" Marinette huffed, before she turned around to go back to her room where Adrien was waiting. 

"Marinette, you- How can you possibly act like this?! Stella is nice enough to agree to the room downstairs. Why can't you just help around here and make things work, you heartless child!"

Marinette didn't say a word as she walked inside her room. There she found everything cleaned up already, with Adrien sitting right in the middle of the room. 

"I heard you yelling. You okay?"

"No, I'm fine," Marinette looked away as she walked inside the room, closing the door. Finally she looked up. "Adrien?" She caught his attention, and finally asked the question that had been on her mind. 

"Alison, Celia, Bette, Amelia. . . Are those girls your friends? Are you close to them?"

Adrien quickly shook his head. 

"Then why do you believe them over me? Am I not your friend?"

"Who said I believed them?"

"But you didn't believe me either, did you?" Marinette pointed out. 

"Listen, the only reason why it was hard for me to decide who to believe was because this sort of thing really did happen last year," Adrien explained, looking down. "This girl was so obsessed with me; she would follow me everywhere, wait outside my mansion until I came out, walk beside me to class as if she was my girlfriend. I didn't know that the only reason she was doing that was because she had made a rumor that we were dating, and she was only being close to me to make others believe it."

"Lila, was it?"

Adrien nodded. "It was then that my father came up to me with the news. Lila had first started texting her friends about the rumor, then her friends texted others, and soon the news broke out. All around online, people were talking about it. When my father came up to me asking me to explain, I was just as confused as the others, and when I read the news online, that's when I understood what was going on, and the only way to tell everyone the truth was hold a press conference."

Marinette nodded. "But you know I would never do anything like that, right?"

"I don't know," Adrien shrugged. "It wasn't long since we started hanging out. I wouldn't know the kind of girl you are. But of course. . . After witnessing what happened today, I'm beginning to believe you."

"Witness what happened today?"

"You. . . Your, um, adoptive dad. You told me that you got into a fight with your mom before, but after hearing what those girls said about you telling them to take pictures of us, I started wondering if any of what you told me was even true."

Marinette sighed. 

"Hey, new subject," Adrien smiled. "Remember when you said you wanted to visit the Tom and Sabine's Bakery?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I can take you right now, if you want."

"It would be nice to get away now," Marinette nodded. "Cool, I want to go."

"Alright." Adrien stood up and followed her out of her room, walking downstairs. 

"A-Adrien?!" Andy gasped when he saw the boy. "What are you doing here?? Marinette, how dare you not tell me that Adrien was here. I could have served him, or something." Andy quickly walked over to Adrien. "Please, excuse my daughter's disrespect."

"It's okay," Adrien took a step back. "Marinette and I are going out for some while, just to tell you."

Andy looked over at Marinette. "Oh really? Okay then, you may go."

"Adrien, let's leave," Marinette couldn't stand the fake-ness coming from Andy. Soon she and Adrien made their way out of the house. 

"It's just over here. We'll walk," Adrien pointed to the left, taking her hand and walking over to the direction. 

Marinette let him lead her. "What if people take pictures, or gather around us?"

"You're right," Adrien stopped. "My father would not like that."

"Don't worry, I have just the thing." Marinette stated proudly, before walking back inside the house, while Adrien stood, waiting right in front of the house, where not many eyes could see him. 

Wanting to go up her room and get the disguise she had always been using, Marinette headed for the stairs, but before she could get to the stairs though, Andy stopped her. 

"When did you and Adrien get together? Why didn't you tell me?!" He looked mad, but Marinette couldn't care less. "Are you trying to use Adrien to scare me off?!"

"What? Why would I do that?" Marinette laughed. "Scare you off from what? From being the worst adoptive dad in the whole universe? Well if that's what you mean, then no. I don't think Adrien is going to stop you from being such a terrible dad anyways. Now please leave me alone."

"Look at you! Because Adrien is with you, you think you can talk back to me?!"

"Please, I started talking back to you before Adrien ever got here! Now let go. He's waiting!" Marinette slapped his hands off, before running up the stairs and going inside her room. 

Now where did I keep it? She walked over to the drawer beside her bed and opened it. Ah-ha! She grabbed the white bag and ran out of her room, running down the stairs and out of the house with Andy glaring behind her. 

"What is that?" Adrien pointed at the bag. 

Marinette chuckled and opened the bag, taking some stuff out. "Here, it's just some disguise we can use. I remember using these with Alya and Tiki. Before, a lot of people would run up to us, but now with these, nobody would notice us at all."

Adrien grabbed a black-haired wig from the bag and put it on. Marinette had tied her hair in a bun, so getting out a red-haired wig and putting it on was no problem. Next Adrien had took out a white cap and put it on, leaving Marinette to take the huge glasses. 

"Ooh, look at these," Adrien reached inside the bag and took out a black mask and a ladybug-spotted mask. "Did you make these?"

Marinette nodded. "Tiki said we needed masks, but we couldn't just go buy some in the store. People would know the kind of masks we bought and possibly even recognize us very quickly."

Adrien handed her the ladybug-spotted mask and put on the black one on his face. 

Marinette laughed. "Now no one can definitely recognize you with that one. Wait-" She walked closer to him, and then scattered his blonde hair with her hand, making it messy. "There, now you look different."

Once they were done with their disguises, Adrien started leading her to the bakery again. 

On the way, Marinette stopped. "Oh my goodness, is that. . . Tiki?" She looked inside the restaurant from the window, able to see Tiki sitting at a table with a guy. The guy had his back facing Marinette, so she couldn't tell who it was, but she sure knew it wasn't Plagg. 

Plagg had black hair. This guy was a red-head. So she might have believed me about Plagg, and then decided to go out with a different guy. Marinette frowned. That wasn't like Tiki at all. She wouldn't jump to another guy if her first crush didn't work out. 

"Marinette, we're almost there," Adrien spoke. "The bakery is actually close to our school, and I can see our school from here."

Marinette nodded and followed him again. Soon they were standing right in front of a bakery. There was a huge sign in front of it that said "Closed". 

The entrance to the bakery featured white walls, with white rectangles slightly outset from the walls, outlined in gold. The windows were tinted dark black with the letters in gold. Six of the windows (appearing in pairs) had a golden design, each depicting a peel, grains of wheat, and a croissant as the logo.

In the center of two of these pairs was an arch window, outlined in white. Above each arch was a small rectangular clear window. The door was styled similarly to the outside walls, with the same black window, gold lettering, and white outline. Above the windows and door was a white overlap with ridges, gold lettering, and a black background.

"That sign has been there for 13 years now," Adrien sighed, pointing at the 'Closed' sign. "I remembered when I was little; I always came here with my father and we would buy lots of pastries together. But now we don't do that anymore. I'm wishing that we can hopefully reopen this place."

"Me too," Marinette muttered. 

Adrien knocked on the door of the bakery. It took a while but finally the door was opened, and a large man was standing right at the entrance. 

He was a tall man with a large build. He had short brown hair, green eyes, sideburns and a mustache. The man wore a light blue shirt with two buttons at the front of the neckline, light brown pants, and dark brown dress shoes. He wore a silver band on his ring finger.

"Hello. May I help you?"

"T-Tom, it's Adrien," Adrien got close and whispered. 

"Adrien? What are you doing here? Who is she?" Tom Dupain looked from Adrien to Marinette, with a frown on his face. 

"She asked if she could check out the bakery, and I agreed. Sorry I didn't notify you earlier before we started coming."

"It's fine. Come in," Tom then opened the door wider for them to come in. Marinette walked inside after Adrien, Tom closing the door once everyone was inside. 

"We're free to take off our disguises now," Adrien nodded after Marinette, before taking down his hat and wig. 

"Tom, who is it?"

"It's Adrien," Tom yelled back to the voice that had asked the question. Then the woman who had asked the question showed herself. 

She was a short woman, short black hair with blue highlights and gray eyes.

She wore a white Cheongsam with a red, black and gold plant design, periwinkle pants and black and white dress shoes. She wore a silver band on her ring finger.

Marinette finally took off her mask and stared at the woman, as if she was familiar with her. 

"Well hello, you must be new in this bakery," The woman smiled. "My name is Sabine, but I'm sure you must have already figured that out."

"Sabine," Marinette repeated. Now that she thought about it, where had she heard that name before? 

"Marinette, stay here, stay here. I can't take care of you like I thought I could. Once you grow up, we might meet again in life. You might not even remember, but just know me by the name, Sabine."

                                                                                  ❣❣❣