Marinette's alarm went off at 4am. The only appropriate response was a pained groan.

"Nooooo," she practically sobbed into her pillow. Next to her head her cell phone beeped insistently. She fumbled for it blindly and her hand made contact with it. There was a clatter as it fell off the bed onto the floor.

"Aaargh." Marinette rolled to the side of the bed and groped for the still beeping phone. Once again her sleep-numb fingers betrayed her and the phone skittered away across the floor.

"Marinette, turn it off," Tikki begged sleepily.

"I'm trying, I'm trying."

There was no getting around it, even without the alarm. Time to get up. Marinette rolled awkwardly out of bed and switched on her light. Tikki burrowed deeper in her little makeshift bed in protest. Marinette was still too sleepy to even feel jealous. She lurched across the room after her phone and swiped her alarm off.

She was glad she had thought to lay out her clothes the night before because she certainly was in no shape to remember anything as complicated as pants at 4:06am. She dressed in a plain t-shirt and a pair of old yoga pants, and pulled her hair into its usual pigtails. She tucked a still-slumbering Tikki into her purse, slung it over her shoulder, and staggered downstairs.

The bakery was already warming up. Judging from the heat of the main oven Sabine had probably been up for a couple hours already.

"Good morning, Maman," Marinette said.

"Good morning, Marinette. Thank you so much for helping me today," Sabine said as Marinette entered. She was wearing a plain white Cheongsam instead of one of her usual colorful ones and her black hair was covered with a kerchief.

"'S fine," Marinette mumbled. She pulled a fresh apron off the shelf and tied it around her waist. Even considering the hour she was having more trouble with it than usual.

"Oh dear, you're so tired you put your purse on," Sabine said sympathetically.

Marinette shook her head to clear it. She was so used to carrying Tikki with her everywhere she went it was instinct to grab her purse. There was no way she could carry the kwami with her in the bakery, though.

"Oh, whoops! I'll just set it under the counter for now. Do you need me to set up the case?"

"Yes, please!" Sabine said.

Marinette stepped up into the storefront of the bakery. Despite her loathing of everything about the hour of 4am, there was something oddly reverential about it. The interior of the bakery was lit only by the display lights in the windows hanging over her father's towering display cakes and pyramids of colorful macarons. Outside, the streets of Paris were a velvety blue dotted here and there with golden street lights and the colorful flags of illuminated awnings. It felt for a minute like she was a mermaid princess in an underwater castle, looking out at her watery kingdom in the depths.

The illusion was shattered when a Noctlien bus rocketed past.

Marinette shook off her sleepy thoughts and removed her purse. As she knelt to place it under the counter she opened it a crack to check on her kwami. The small red creature was curled up in her handkerchief bed, still asleep.

"Tikki, Tikki," Marinette whispered until the kwami stirred.

"What is it?"

"I can't carry you in the bakery. I have to leave you here. Is that going to be okay?"

"Fine, fine," Tikki said, quickly going back to sleep. Marinette supposed she was still close enough if she needed to transform into Ladybug, but she really hoped she could avoid that, at least for today. She was way too tired to be fighting akuma.

She straightened and got to work.

It wasn't until after the mid-day rush that Marinette finally got a chance to catch her breath. She had been running almost non-stop from the time she came downstairs until now, with only a brief break to stuff some breakfast in her mouth. She had peeked at her phone earlier, but it was so early that Alya hadn't even woken up yet.

Now that there was a lull Marinette was able to surreptitiously check her phone while she stood behind the counter waiting for the pre-goûter rush. She scrolled through Alya's messages.

9:54

Alya: gonna see a star war!

10:07

Alya: omg if nino is late and i miss this he is DEAD

10:22

Alya: somebody looks nice today… ;)

Marinette opened the attached picture eagerly. It was a snap of Adrien grinning as he looked towards the camera in the line for popcorn. Nino was mugging in the background but Marinette didn't pay him any attention. It really was a great picture of Adrien. Marinette sighed appreciatively and saved it to her phone.

10:27

Alya: i told him to say hi to you

Marinette opened the next picture. Alya had snapped a selfie with Adrien waving bemusedly.

"Omigod," Marinette gasped. Bless Alya and her perfect camera work. Her friend was hardly in the picture at all and it was just a picture of a smiling, waving Adrien, just for her. Marinette felt her face go red and her knees get weak. She squealed in delight and flipped back to the texts to thank Alya.

12:34

Alya: omg you have to see this movieeeee!

Alya: its so goooooood!

12:36

Alya: sorry you had to miss it girl

12:47

Alya: I feel so bad about it.

Alya: I want to make it up to you ;)

Alya: So I'm sending you a souvenir. 3

Marinette narrowed her eyes at her phone. Alya didn't normally use punctuation in her texts. What sort of souvenir could she have gotten from a movie? And what did she mean "sending?" Marinette started to tap out a reply when she heard the bell over the shop door jangle.

"Bonjour," the customer said. Marinette hastily shoved her phone into her pocket and looked up to greet them.

"Bonjour!" she said automatically and then froze.

Adrien was standing in front of her.

Marinette's face popped up on Alya's phone as a call came in. Alya smiled with satisfaction. Her friend had been quiet all day. Maybe she had finally managed to say two consecutive sentences to her crush. Alya chuckled to herself. Not likely. She accepted the call and answered cheerfully.

"Âllo!"

"Âllo, Alya," Marinette said. Alya frowned. Marinette sounded like a zombie.

"Marinette? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me."

Something was still off about Marinette's voice. It was like she had been hollowed out. Maybe she was in shock from an overdose of Adrien.

"So… tell me all about it," Alya said. "How was your day?"

"Oh. Well." Alya felt a chill of apprehension go down her spine. Marinette was sounding more animated, but not the least bit happy. "I worked in the bakery all morning starting at four."

"At four?!"

"Yes. Because I was working in the bakery, not the shop." Marinette's voice was tight.

"But that means…."

"Adrien came by and saw me in my bakery clothes. My white shirt and grey yoga pants."

Alya flinched. "But the only grey yoga pants you own are the ones…"

"The ones with the bleach stains. Yes, those yoga pants." Alya started to sweat.

"Omigod, Marinette. I'm so sorry. I thought you were just going to working at the register. I never would have told Adrien to come visit you if I had known. I'll make it up to you, I promise! Do you want me to come in and do the register for you tomorrow?"

There was a long silence from Marinette's end. Just when Alya thought the call had been dropped Marinette's thin voice came through the speaker.

"No need. Because, you see, when Adrien came in my mom had to say hello. And then Adrien said it must be hard with only two people. And then he said he wished there was a way he could help. And then my mom said that he should come in tomorrow morning when we open and work the register."

Alya gaped at the phone, certain her ears had deceived her.

"Are you for real?!" she managed to say.

"Yes!" Marinette finally exploded. Her voice finally lost the dead tone, but Alya was pretty sure this panicky version wasn't an improvement. "Adrien is going to come in at seven in the morning and work the register while I get all sweaty and messy and covered in flour and I'm probably going to do something idiotic like forget to add salt or turn the oven up too high and I'll ruin everything because there's no possible way I can focus on anything when he's around and he'll think I'm stupid and he already thinks I'm an idiot because I had to show him how to use the till so he'd know what to do tomorrow morning oh my god he'll be here in like twelve hours ALYA!" Marinette ended on a wail.

"Just- um, just take some deep breaths for now," Alya said, stalling for time. "Look, it won't be that bad. He'll be in the front and you'll be in the back, and he'll probably be too busy to pay any attention to you."

Marinette groaned. Alya felt both better and worse - better because at least Marinette didn't sound like a tape being played too fast, but worse because she hated knowing that she was probably right. Adrien was just being friendly. The fact that he was helping out a classmate was probably the appeal for him. Despite the blow to her friend's pride, it was true that Adrien probably wouldn't be able to remember what Marinette was wearing, let alone whether or not she looked cute.

"That doesn't really make me feel better," Marinette sighed on the other end of the phone.

"I know. Sorry," Alya said. "But really, what's the worst that could happen?" she said brightly.

There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line and Alya felt her smile shrivel off her face.

"Er, well. Good luck tomorrow," she added lamely.

"Thanks," Marinette said wearily.

AUTHOR NOTES: I'm sure everything will go fine...

- In France everybody says "bonjour" when they enter a shop (and "merci" when they leave.) Though of course the translation is "hello" or "good day" it's such a unique cultural thing I left it in French.

- Sorry for the slow start and general lack of puns. The fun starts next time.