Second Chances

you're a gem -------->chp29

She may not be on a date, but Marinette was still thankful that her parents decided to go out tonight. The last thing she needed was them spying on her like they did whenever Nathaniel came over in her teenaged years.

The doorbell rang, and Marinette bounded down the stairs to answer it. She quickly fluffed her hair and smoothed out her skirt before answering the door. "Hey."

"Dinner," he said raising up a plastic bag. "And wine."

"Oh, fancy," Marinette joked. "Come in."

"Nino suggested a pasta place, so that's what I got for dinner tonight."

"And wine?"

"Actually, this is from my pre-Emma private stash that I haven't broken into since... well, pre-Emma."

Marinette chuckled. "Then it's certain to be good." She began digging through the kitchen to find utensils. "What did you get food-wise?"

"Chicken parmesan and a penne with sundried-tomato dish."

"I'll take that one."

"Good. I kinda wanted the parmesan anyway."

With a giggle, she pulled out two wine glasses to set on the table before going back to look for the corkscrew.

Only to not be able to find it.

"She never put it back," she realized.

"Pardon?"

Marinette tapped the counter. "The corkscrew. My maman hid it away and never put it back."

"Why would she hide it?"

Marinette felt her cheeks warm as she grinned wide in embarrassment. "There may or may not have been an incident with wine a while back."

His grin was incredibly smug. "May or may not?"

"May or may not."

He nodded slowly. "Was Marinette a fun drunk? You seem like the kind that's gets all giggly-"

"And we're dropping it!"

Adrien laughed hard.

Eventually, after he calmed down, Adrien resorted to other measures to open the bottle, leaving Marinette impressed albeit curious.

"I taught myself ways to open a wine bottle as party tricks. My father was not impressed."

"Really? I thought he would be."

"Not after an incident with champagne and a sabre at a very classy event."

Marinette snorted.

Dinner was delicious and entertaining to say the least. Halfway through, Adrien was curious about Marinette's dish and reached across the table to take a stab. He got away with it, smiling with a mix of pride and smugness while Marinette looked over at him with her jaw on the table. She tried to retaliate, only to have him stop her with his fork. This turned into a silverware war that ended when Marinette's fork was thrown across the kitchen.