Chapter Text
The cooler breezes were starting to blow though and Marinette could smell autumn in the air. This was the start of a four day weekend and she couldn't be more thrilled.
Her bed had been whispering sweet nothings in her ear every morning for the last month. That start to school every year was one of the hardest things to get used to. Marinette really was spoiled during the summer since her parents let her sleep in regularly. Then school would come around and she'd be blindsided with fatigue. Well, that and the whole ladybug and chat noir thing they had going. Akumas were a lot easier to handle when she didn't have to worry about homework, school, or getting enough sleep.
"Honey, could you come down and help with something?" her father called up through the trapdoor.
She placed the little chrysanthemum she'd picked from her balcony garden in a little vase on her desk. "I'll be right down!" La di dum la di, la di dum la da, la di dum, la di dum, la da. 'For Now For Always' played through her head since her parents' anniversary was coming up. They've been married for twenty-one years, twenty-two here directly, and Marinette could see just how in love they were even to this day. She'd lucked out in having the best parents a girl could ever ask for. The song she was singing was one they'd claimed as 'their song,' and it was the one from the Disney film 'The Parent Trap' staring Hailey Mills and Margaret O'Hara.
Marinette hurried down the stairs. Perhaps a little too fast, as her toe caught on the bottom step. Luckily, her father was there to catch her, "Whoa there, pumpkin, can't have you injuring yourself. I need help in the bakery."
"Oh? Where's maman?" she asked, glancing around nervously for a sign of her mother. The living room was empty, as was the kitchen, and her father had been running the bakery pretty much solo all day.
"She'll be down in a bit." They walked into the industrial kitchen and Tom handed her a recipe, "I'll need you to make this dough for me, please. Go ahead and double it because I'm going to be making multiple flavors."
"Yes, sir," she saluted with a giggle.
Marinette had most of it mixed up when she heard a shuffling and a big yawn behind her. A second later there was a hand resting on her shoulder, "Thank you honey for being so helpful."
"No problem, maman," she beamed, "Are you tired?"
"Exhausted," she yawned again as if to accentuate the point.
Tom exchanged an encouraging glance at Sabine who nodded. Marinette pulled the bowl off of the mixer and set it off to the side to rise. Tom had disappeared into the store, but returned shortly after.
Sabine grabbed Marinette's hand, "Come with me. Your father and I have something to tell you."
If she hadn't been nervous before she was surely nervous now. Marinette glanced from her shifty father and then over to her increasingly pale mother. In fact, Sabine looked positively green.
"Excuse me," she exclaimed as she bolted from the room.
"Well," Tom coughed uncomfortably before snapping his fingers and smacking the same fist into his palm, "I guess we'll wait for your mother to return. Tea?"
He stood up and made his way to the kitchen, leaving Marinette to stew on the couch. Different scenarios ran through her head; all of them serious and bad. No money for college, moving away, changing schools, losing the bakery, someone died...
Sabine returned, "Tom, we had better hurry this along. I need to get something to eat and lie down."
Tom was back with a buttered croissant already in his hand and a smile on his face, "Way ahead of you, dear."
"You wonderful, wonderful man," Sabine grinned before biting into the croissant.
Marinette glanced between the two. Her mother had looked positively sick, but now she appeared to be ravenous. What was the deal?
"Honey, it has been a long time since we've done this, and we realize this might come as quite the shock, but..." she glanced over to Tom who was procuring an envelope from his back pocket, "we're going to have a baby."
It took nearly a minute for the words 'we're' and 'baby' to register. At first, Marinette blinked once, slowly, and then her eyes widened. She looked accusingly at her father and then her mother, "Was this planned?"
Tom burst out laughing. He obviously found the situation a whole lot more humorous than her mother, who was glaring at him, "No...no, not at all."
Sabine sighed, "We thought we couldn't have any more children after you, Marinette. We tried for years to have another."
"And, as luck would have it, we just didn't try hard enough, apparently," Tom beamed.
"Can you excuse me for a second?" Marinette excused herself to go to her room. Tom and Sabine exchanged worried glances. They weren't sure exactly what kind of a reaction that was, but they were going to give her some space to accept the news.
"TIKKI!!" Marinette shouted. The little red blurb appeared in front of her face, "Would you care to explain to me how my parents, who tried for years to conceive another child, somehow became pregnant not long after you graced me with your presence?"
Tikki shifted guiltily, "Uh..."
"Please, tell me you didn't have anything to do with that."
"I would..." Tikki fidgeted nervously, "I did say I'm also the kwami of creation, yes?"
"Yes," Marinette glowered, "But you didn't say that was going to affect anyone other than me!?"
"It kind of comes with the territory. Prolonged exposure can make people more fertile."
"FERTILE! My mother, my forty year old mother, is pregnant!?!?" Just then Marinette's jaw flopped open and she dropped to her chaise, face in her hands. Her breath was coming in pants, "I'm going to have a baby brother or a baby sister. I'm going to be a big sister." Marinette squealed happily, "I have to go talk to them."
Tom and Sabine sat patiently on the couch, waiting to see if Marinette would reappear, and to their delight heard her heavy footfalls bounding down the stairs.
"I'm going to be a big sister!!!" she shrieked excitedly, "I can't believe it! Maman, you're going to have a baby!"
"Yes, I know," Sabine grimaced.
"How do you feel?" Marinette asked, suddenly aware of how selfish her reaction had been. Her mother was having another baby. This was a big deal.
"Tired, and nauseous, but otherwise I'm okay. I'm just trying to come to terms with this."
"How far along are you?" she asked.
Tom held out the envelope and Marinette pulled out a little picture. It was dated yesterday and in the middle was a sonogram of her little blob of a sibling.
"Oh, my God! Maman, you're eleven weeks? How did I miss the symptoms?"
Sabine shrugged, "I hid them well from your father, too. I was in denial until I felt I needed to take a pregnancy test. I'd missed two periods and it was time."
"How did papa take it?" Marinette glanced over to Tom Dupain who sat looking like the cat that ate the canary.
Sabine rolled her eyes, "He whooped and hollered, overjoyed. I thought everyone in Paris could hear him."
"I did," he nodded. His eyes were resting on Sabine, a tenderness rarely seen, as his heart swelled, "We might be older than we'd planned, but I know that I've dreamed of having another child for as long as I've had the privilege of being your papa. Other than being a baker, being a daddy was the only thing I ever wanted to do. I'd dreamed your mother and I would have a dozen little children running through the kitchen beneath our feet. I was overjoyed we were blessed with you, Marinette, but to think we have a chance to do it again? After so many tries? Ah! I don't even know if words exist to express..." A single tear slid down Tom Dupain's face.
Marinette had never seen her father so emotional. She felt compelled to walk over to her papa and sling her arm around him, "You're such a great papa." Then she placed a gentle kiss to his cheek.
Tom chuckled, "I believe you are biased."
"I'd like to think I'm the only opinion that matters," she grinned, "And it doesn't make it any less true."