First Order of Business | Adrienette

Her Friend, Adrien Agreste

Her friend, Adrien Agreste, is back. He occasionally moseys out of his office to go talk to her about certain meetings she just emailed him about. It's mainly gossip. That person who is CC'd in the email almost got fired two years ago this. This person talks like he'd rather be in prison than working for Agreste Inc. that. She lets him have his moments of performance because she really has missed it in just the quick week it was gone. It always ends with him checking his watch and saying he should go do some real work.
The flowers Kim gave her are in two vases Adrien had for decoration on his office shelves. She told him they were too expensive to be actually used for their purpose, but he insisted like always. So now, two sleek black vases are sitting in her area. One on the corner of her desk and the other next to their expresso machine they both stand next to again. Adrien's two single flowers were trimmed to fit in one of his mugs, specifically the Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls go to Cancun mug.
It's nice to be back in sync again, but it feels even nicer because she knows everything that was really going on in his head. When she rereads the binder, his actions make more sense. He really just is a heap of a romantic. And still, it is an absolutely unmatched ego boost to know that Adrien Agreste saw her in that romantic light- even if it was quickly unlit for the sake of both of them.
Nearing the end of the week, Marinette changes the water in the flower vases and puts them back in their chosen spots. Adrien like always, watches her from his doorframe like a cat who believes himself invisible. She waits for him to ask a question because of course he will.
"Do you like flowers again?" Adrien asks as she fluffs out the flowers by the expresso machine.
"I do," she tells him. She arranges the flowers so the fresher ones are on the outside. "I think I just needed to receive some from someone genuine."
"You really haven't received flowers since that prank?" He sounds surprised about it. Marinette hums under her breath in contemplation. Would it be fine to finally break ground on her dating life? She knows all of his from tabloids, the binder, and the very rare story he will share.
"I have," she says. "But they were only for holidays. You could tell I got the last bouquet at the store one Valentine's Day, and I never forgot about it. We broke up maybe two weeks after that for another reason, but I mainly remember the half dying flowers." Adrien is too quiet for her comfort, so she walks back to sit at her desk to fill up the space.
"I do like how they look in here. It brightens up the space," he tells her. "We can probably get flowers every other week depending how long they'll last. If you don't mind them." Marinette smiles because she knows somewhere in his mind, he's trying to compensate for the disappointments all those years ago.
"I'd like that."
The weeks moves as it used to, and they reach Friday noon with what seems no ripples in the water. Kim and Ondine bring them both lunch, so they eat their lounging area area with the nice couches Marinette has never sat at. They're there, but she spends most of her time eating at her desk or outside- Adrien the same.
"I heard your dad is here today," Kim says while Adrien is mid-bite. He stops and stares at Kim in silence, Kim not phased by the look Adrien is giving him. Marinette's own body tenses up by seeing how haunted Adrien eyes seem. Mr. Agreste should have been back Monday, but it was all radio silence from the President's corner.
Adrien asks, "Whose dad?"
Kim laughs like it's a joke, "Well it's not gonna be Mari's dad." Adrien turns to Marinette, confused.
"Did you know?" Adrien asks her. Not in an accusatory manor but more in a way that reminded her of a scared child. She wants to understand why he's so worried.
"I did not," she shakes her head. "No email. No heads up." Adrien slaps his hand on his forehead.
"My personal phone," Adrien groans. "I lost it somewhere in my apartment last weekend."
Ondine raises an eyebrow, "You can go this long without a phone?"
Kim says, "The man would have a cup and string for the four people he knows if he meant not looking at a phone again." On a normal occasion, Marinette would laugh, but Adrien is getting whiter by the second.  "Dude, what's wrong? Are you allergic to salad now?"
"The archive," Adrien says. Now she gets everything that's going through his head with just two words.
"You're allergic to the archive?"
"No, I haven't set up anything."
"Anything at all?" Ondine asks. "We sent you everything like a week ago." Adrien stands up and puts what's left of his protein salad on the table.
"It's been a busy week," Adrien says as he walks over to the office. It has not been a busy week, but Marinette knows there are better reasons for him to avoid it. Marinette puts her own food down and trails behind him. "You should finish your food, Miss Dupain Cheng," he quickly turns his head just to tell her.
"I'll help you with the dresses," she says. His hand is on the doorknob to the office, and his entire gaze is on her now. He looks out of breath. "They're delicate, and I don't trust you with them," she lies. She saw how devastated he looked with one box on Friday before she made things worse. Whatever issues were popping up with his father did not need to blend in with his late mom issues. She just got him laughing again.
A smile manages to break through and although it's a small one, it's on his face. Kim and Ondine are behind her now, also willing to help.
"Thank you," he tells them before they all get to wok.
Marinette is glad Ondine is there to help her label and hang the dresses on the wall racks Kim and Adrien are rushing to build. There will be a more technical part to the abandoned filing cabinets in the corner later, but as long as the dresses were out of their boxes and in new clear dust bags, it'd be presentable. Ondine is mainly impressed with Marinette's ability to recognize what season and year a certain dress would be from, sometimes naming the runaway model that wore them down the catwalk. That part wasn't very hard because 80% of them were worn by Emelie Agreste.
Adrien is very quiet through the process, like he always seems to get when any of his parents are brought up. She wants to dig into that wound sometimes. See what could possibly be in there that makes the daylight in him burn out so quickly. But she wouldn't know what to say to him. She wouldn't know what to do if someone like him laid out so vulnerably what made him so docile and at the same time, so him. It's like his zest for life was constantly at odds with the subjects that spiraled him until there was nothing left. She wonders if he's ever caught a break.
Kim and Ondine do have to leave for their real jobs after a while, but Adrien promises to pay them back with a solid meal another day. The room does end up looking alright by the time they leave. There are still a few pieces left to unbox, but the most important ballgowns are out and Marinette can't stop staring at the emerald dress Emelie Agreste once wore for the Agreste Winter '94 collection. It's more iconic in person than it is in photographs, even without a model to put it on.
Adrien confesses to her, "This is my favorite dress." She is afraid to tell him it's hers, too. "She was going to wear it again for an anniversary photoshoot, but that didn't happen." He puts a hand over the clear dust bag and trails down the embroidered pattern on front that is beautiful, deeper shade of green. "I didn't know where it was all these years. I'm glad it's out of that box." He puts his hands in the pocket of his slacks, and they are both momentarily quiet.
The elevator sound goes off, and they both recognize it's the noise for the private elevator. Adrien exhales shakily, and Marinette is now realizing she is yet to meet Gabriel Ageste. It's always been Nathalie they communicate through. Now that she thinks about it, the last time she knew Adrien talked to his father, it was positive feedback for Alya's interview. What could have changed? He seemed tense getting the call, so being with him in person must be in a league of its own
Adrien marches out like a stoic soldier, and Marinette feels like she is following him off a dead end. The stop just outside the door, as Gabriel Agreste walks forward, seeming unimpressed.
"Hello, Father," Adrien says. Marinette notices they do not hug to greet.
"Adrien," he says with a cold smile. Nathalie is standing next to him, and she bows to greet them, completely silent. When she stands upright, her body shifts towards Gabriel naturally and quickly corrects itself back to perfect posture. There is something unspoken here. "You must be Miss Dupain Cheng," Gabriel tells her.
"Yes, nice to meet you, Mister Agreste," She is surprised they he reaches out first to shake her hand, and she takes it politely.
"I did not know you would be here today," Adrien tells him.
Nathalie clears her throat, ready to shake off blame, "I did inform you last night through your personal phone. I assume you have it off again."
"It's dead somewhere in my apartment," Adrien admits to them, his face turning slightly red. This is too awkward for her, and she was known for being awkward up until the last four years of her life.
"Can I speak to you in your office, Adrien?" Gabriel asks him. Adrien nods and follows Gabriel inside as if it were his office and not Adrien's. The door closes, leaving the two secretaries behind.
A small moment passes before Nathalie asks her in a low voice, "How is he taking the archive?" Marinette's raises an eyebrow. Did they know it'd be hard for him? Her head wants to start churning out theories, trying to find any string of malice being strung towards Adrien, but she can't put it together so quick. Archive equals busy work. Busy work that makes him distressed? They knew it would-
"Hello?" Nathalie asks.
"Sorry," Marinette smiles nervously. It's a fake smile, but she can get by with pretending for now. "What was your question, I didn't hear it?" If Nathalie thinks Marinette is lying, there is no change to her expression.
"How is Adrien taking the archive?"
"I'm not sure," Marinette's first instinct is to lie with the illusion of protecting Adrien from something. Nathalie looks towards the archive door, and she opens her mouth to say something, but she stops. Instead, she walks into the room herself. Marinette has worked with these people long enough to know to follow.
Nathalie makes a beeline towards the green dress and stands in awe of it, like the first time Adrien had opened a box. It creeps Marinette out, only slightly, that Nathalie runs her fingers over the embroidery the same way Adrien just had.
"I didn't know they were going to add this here," she says. She is so quiet, Marinette could barely grab each word that she's saying. Marinette has to strain to listen but she knows for a fact Nathalie says under her breath, "I told him not to."
-
There are worse conversations Adrien can have with his father, and there are better conversations to be had. It was stiff politeness as if he were another of his father's business partners, very little details about his trip and no information about his home life.
His dad is standing at Adrien's window where he's closed the blinds and asks, "How is the archive going along?" Adrien feels like he's in his father's office instead of his.
"Most of the pieces are up already. Then we're going to start going through the paperwork for them."
"I hope you're finding it enjoyable and not just something I threw at you. I don't trust anyone else with those dresses." It is somewhat emotional torture depending on how much caffeine Adrien has had that morning, but he won't say that.
"Are the dresses going to stay in the archive forever?" Adrien asks. It's best to avoid lying.
"No," he answers. "I'm sure we'll find a very good reason to bring them back out one day. I think it's important to keep them somewhere safer, though. While the basement goes through changes." Gabriel turns around and sees their family photo on his desk. Adrien thinks he's going to say something about it, but he looks at his watch instead. Can't say Adrien isn't his son. "I need to get going. I'll be working from home next week again, but if I'm to return here, Nathalie will email you."
"Yes, father. I'll see you out." When they leave his office, he sees Marinette and Nathalie coming out of the archive room. Nathalie is a hard person to read, but she's gotten mad at Adrien enough times to know that she's angry. Her hands are in a fist at her side, and she throws a glare so quick in their direction that he can't tell who it's directed towards.
He looks at Marinette for some clue, but his dad has approached her again and tells her, "It was nice to meet you, Miss Dupain Cheng."
"Likewise," she does a polite smile. Something is off now, and Adrien needs them to get out so he can pry. He walks to the private elevator and presses the button to open it himself, Nathalie's boots clicking on their way over.
"Goodbye, Adrien," she murmurs before getting in. Not cold, but not warm either.
Gabriel is right behind her, when he turns around and says as if he's finally realized something, "The Great October Incident of the First floor." His father is smiling, pleased with himself that remembers Marinette was responsible for that. He gets into the elevator right before the doors close, leaving Adrien and Marinette in silence. He forgets about Nathalie for a moment, the reason behind his father smiling being the most important thing now.
Marinette groans and pats her hot face, "He knew about that? I thought you guys didn't pay attention to the little people." The comment slightly stings, but he is already caught in a weird aftershock of seeing his dad look that amused over something so trivial.
"What happened in October?" Adrien turns to ask her. Marinette is leaning against the archival door that's closed, and she's crossing her arms.
"Will I get fired if I don't tell you?"
"Yes I'll do it myself," Adrien jokes. She wouldn't take him seriously anyway. She just lets out a little hum and walks to sit at her desk where Adrien follows her. He stands in front of her, and she gets occupied with something on her desktop, ignoring him. Did she kill someone in October or what? She is really going to make him work for it. "Marinette," he hears himself whine like a spoiled child. Maybe he is one.
She narrows her eyes at him at him from below and goes, "Yes, Adrien?" He struggles to not laugh at her feigned disgust. Maybe it's a terrible habit of his to pull from his own personal binder, but he knows most women tend to fold just by calling them by their first name. Marinette has never been the type to appease him, but it didn't hurt to try. In fact, it was funny. But overall in his mental notebook he writes:
First name calling- Ineffective.
"What happened in October? My father never laughs, so I'm curious now."
"He shouldn't be laughing. It was very serious," Marinette says with ice, spinning her chair around to face the wall. It was becoming her move now. He considers going to move her chair again, but he knows it'd be stepping over that line they drew in thick chalk.
"Can I ask who Nathalie was angry at then?" That seems to get a reaction from her. She turns around just a quarter of the way, her hands on her lap.
She hesitates answering him but she does say, "Not you. I think your father."
"Do you know why?" Again, there is a little bit of a quiet that's unsettling. He knew to be worried. Nathalie really isn't the emotional type. She is very caring, but she rarely gets swayed by her emotions. It must've thrown Marinette off to be left alone with her.
"I'm only telling you what I saw," Marinette says. She's handpicking her words. "She saw that they sent you the dress from 94 and that's when she got upset."
"The dress from 94? The green one?" She nods. Her chair slowly spins back to him, her lips pursed to the corner. Adrien doesn't know what to make of this information. All he can think of is that he's always had an attachment to that photoshoot, ever since he was a little kid. Green was his mom's best color, and she didn't make it look tacky for Christmas. She made it her own. "Did she say why? Does she think it's irresponsible to leave it with me?"
"No," Marinette says. That she is sure of. "I don't know her enough to know what she was thinking, but it must've been for another reason." Marinette seems concerned, and Adrien isn't sure why or if he should even ask. "She seems worried about you though."
"She always worries about me." Adrien tries to shrug it off.
"I've noticed most people do." That he doesn't know what to make of. Did this mean she was worried about him? She shouldn't be, though. But he thinks of Chloe and Nino who stress out about him. Is Marinette falling into that loop, too? It makes him feel guilty.
"I can take care of myself," Adrien tries to say. It comes out sounding pathetic and defensive. She must not see it that way because she smiles.
"I know." She goes back to typing something on her desktop, leaving him standing with a tight throat.
"I'll just call Nathalie later. I'll leave your name out," he tells her. She does a simple nod, still typing. Something about her not paying attention to him makes him itch. "Maybe I'll ask her about October." That gets her back.
"Why are you so nosy?" Marinette finally bites and asks. He can't help but burst out laughing, and he can see her fighting off a smile. "You can laugh all you want, but it's very annoying sometimes."
He calms himself down to ask, "If you just told me, I wouldn't have to ask."
"Aren't you in every single email chain in this company? Ever open them?" she asks. A visible spark of realization flashes on his face, and she looks mortified. He had forgotten about that.
"Thanks for the tip," he grins and starts heading to his office. He hears her stand up, and he breaks into a run to close and lock his door, barely on time.
"Hey!" she pounds on the door. Adrien can't open his email fast enough. She screams from the other side, "Curiosity killed the cat!"
"Do you have a gun?" he shouts back.
"Are you insane?! No!"
"Then I'll be fine!"
It really doesn't take more than a second to get the keywords right. He types in 'great october' and finds an email chain with over thirty replies that he did in fact open, but he didn't read. A terrible method of clearing out his inbox.
She yells, "Adrien!"
First name calling - Effective (on him)
He sighs and closes his laptop, going over to unlock the door and open it. She is standing with her hands on her hips, furious with her face red from the yelling. She looks cute, and he has to look away from her.
"I didn't read it," he tells her, pretending the elevator and their trash from lunch he could see behind her was more interesting to look at.
A moment passes before she says, "I accidentally create a force field." That gets him to look back her face. The red hasn't faded.
"You what?" He doesn't believe her. Marinette clicks her tongue, seeming to regret opening the door.
"I tripped over one cable while carrying a mop bucket, and our old expresso machine fell because of that cable, but it didn't get disconnected. It kinda," she starts making hand motions, "smashed open on the floor. But there was still electricity running so then that with all the water that was going everywhere, even behind the counter, was all, shocky."
"Oh wow." He doesn't know what to say.
"So when I noticied what was happening, I went to go stand on the counter. And someone called the firefighters already. Wasn't bad, right? But no. We had this sink in the back that I had left running while I was moving the mop bucket to wash it out, and it was always clogged and it overflowed. The forcefield kept expanding and by the time the firefighters got there, a lot of us were trapped on the first floor, standing on furniture, and I could've killed people."
"Oh wow." He really doubts it would've killed people, but he doesn't know how to cut in and say that.
"The expresso machine also blew up a little after they managed to cut off the electricity, so there was a fire that set the sprinklers off." He really didn't expect her to keep going.
"Is there more?" He is almost scared that she's going to keep going.
"Nope," she lets out a breath of relief. "That's the real story, though. The emails made it sounds prettier somehow. Like a silly little mishap."
"I mean, it kind of was." He is certainly amused and can see why even his dad would think it's funny. Unfortunate- but funny.
She looks disturbed with his reaction and tells him, "People almost died." She is so sure of it.
"Who told you that? That wouldn't have happened."
"My mom watches enough firefighter shows around me for me to know."
"Okay let's say people could have died. They didn't. The expresso machine got an upgrade. The floors got mopped. Everyone wins."
"Except me. It was the biggest humiliation of my life."
"But it's over and it worked out for the best." Adrien wants to pat her shoulder, but he's better when he keeps his hands to himself. She meets his eyes. She doesn't seem convinced, but she doesn't push it. "Now where was I for this?" Adrien tries to remember, but he can't. October was Halloween, and it was quite boring last year.
"Being an executive," she tells him. She points at her desk, "I'm going to go do my real job now."
"What's your fake job?" he has to ask.
"Entertaining you." He doesn't have anything to come back with to that.
-
Marinette likes Saturday mornings. She gets to sleep in with the smell of pastries reaching her attic bedroom. She gets up when she wants, wears what she wants, and ignores the bustle of customers she cut access to a few years back. Although sometimes she misses the smiles, not working in the bakery is better for her and her relationship with her parents.
She wakes up feeling refreshed, and it's only 9am when she finishes with her morning routine in the bathroom and changes into lounge wear. She scrolls on Pinterest for a while and answers Alya's texts she fell asleep to.
Her bedroom door suddenly opens up, and her mom breaks through, out of breath and panting.
"What's wrong?" Marinette asks. She always knocks, and she looks extremely excited and worried at the same time.
"Your friend," she is managing to say in between pants, "Adrien Agreste is here." Marinette's instinct is to say a cuss word, but she bites back. She looks at her mom and hopes she's being lied to. "He asked for you." Her mom winks before disappearing, leaving Marinette to momentarily spiral.