First Order of Business | Adrienette

The Best

Marinette tends to forget that Chloe won't be there the following week and that she'll be all on her own on the floor with Adrien Agreste. She knew he was too curious for comfort before she got there and now she gets a front row seat at watching Chloe send him off multiple times a day. There was a time near the end of Tuesday where he walked out and right back into his office when he saw Chloe still at the desk with Marinette.

"Don't be afraid to tell him you're busy even if you're not," Chloe told her. "He's a huge chatter box when he's comfortable, and he's way too comfortable around you already. I guarantee you he has something to work on either way so just shoo him."

It's hard to send him away, though. At the end of the day when Chloe is gone, he leans against the secretarial desk, talking about lunch spots they could try the next day, Nino, and about his mugs. He doesn't stay for more than five minutes at a time, so Marinette counts it as a small break for herself to hear him ramble on. Sometimes she blanks out and focuses on how symmetrical his face it or how he brushes hair out of his bright eyes every few seconds. He catches her staring and although that might've sent her into cardiac arrest when she was younger, she doesn't let herself blush despite the churning feeling in her stomach because he is her boss, and it's not going to happen anyway.

Friday comes, and it's Marinette's job to try to stall Chloe on the fourteenth floor for as long as possible until her surprise party is ready. Chloe is done training her and is ready to go home and sleep for a week straight. The only thing keeping her back is Adrien being standoffish, and Marinette feeding her lies.

"Did you see how he just walked out without say where he was going?" Chloe muttered to her. She took a long sip from her tea, tapping her foot anxiously. "I bet he's going to go see a girl. I don't know how I could have been so careless. I take my eyes off him for one week and now he's out and about."

Marinette is bad at this, scratching at the side of her neck as she watches Chloe shift suspiciously. She feels her skin turning red under her nails. "I checked his schedule and there's nothing there."

"He wouldn't add a date on a schedule if he's hiding it. Usually, he'd at least have some nerve to tell me where he's going and with who to not stress me out." Chloe seemed more of an older sister to Adrien than his secretary.

"Am I going to have to watch him like this?" she asks her.

"Preferably but it's not really on your job description. And it's hard. He grew up in a strict house which means he grew up sneaky. Especially after his mom passed away." Marinette remembers Paris on that day. It was pouring rain, and it was hard to figure the outlines of clouds in the sky because it all seemed black. Still, hundreds of people stood outside the gated Agreste mansion to leave flowers for Emilie and hum songs from her movies. Marinette and Alya's parents didn't let them go, but they watched every and any video about the vigil outside. "You really don't have to be as intense as I am. It's just me. I worry a lot about him. I've sort of taken it on to protect him."

"I think it's nice," Marinette tells her. "That you care about him so much."

"It'd be nicer if he didn't stress me out so bad," Chloe sighs. She takes another sip from her drink and lets the mug sit on her stomach for a moment. "I hope he gives you an easier time than he's giving me these last few years. I'm way too close to a bunch of PR managers because of his little fiascos. What do they call it? Trauma bonding?"

"Was it the broken engagement situation?" Marinette asks. She feels bad for bringing the topic up to Chloe. They never bring it up around her, so it doesn't take a genius to assume it's not a comfortable conversation topic. Why would it be? But she thinks she can afford to be a little bit of a gossiper when Adrien listens in a lot.