The Line Between Love And Hate

Chapter 7: Those Two Are Made For Eachoher

~Marinette~
I look up from my desk and watch Alya walk into the building. "Alya!" She looks up and walks over to me. "What's up?" "Can you do your best friend in the whole world the biggest favor?" "Depends. What's the favor?"

"Can you text Adrien for me please? I need to talk to him." I see her eyes light up and it hits me that I've seemed to have given her false hope.

"I just found something out about our case and since he's my partner, that kinda makes me obligated to tell him." I continue, making sure it clears the air. I know it does when I see the hope that I had just built up, get crushed.

"Why can't you just text him?" "I don't have his number anymore." She raises her eyebrow at me as she crosses her arms. "What?" I ask.

"We both know when you were crazy in love with him, you had number his memorized better than the back of your hand." I roll my eyes. "Yeah , but I'm not crazy in love with him anymore. And when everything happened, I forced myself to forget it." She looks me up and down.

Shoot! She knows I'm lying! She doesn't say a word as she stares at me. It feels like she's staring into my soul. It's almost like I can actually feel her hands pulling the words out of my mouth.

"Okay fine! I lied! I do still remember his number, but please don't make me text him!"

"Oh my gosh! How do you manage to make that work every time?" I ask and she laughs. "It's a gift." She shrugs. "But if you need to talk to Adrien you have to set it up. Nino and I are officially done with our set up days. We banned them actually."

"Come on Al, I don't want his name to be there whenever I want to text someone." "You heard me M." "Just one more set up?" I ask and she shakes her head. "Ugh! I really hate you sometimes." "No you don't."

"Just go to his department. He's usually in by now." "I'm going to kill you." "You would never." "Can you at least go with me?" "Cant. I'm meeting Nino right now." "But Nino is in the same department as him!" "Is he? Must've forgot." She says and walks right back out the door she came in from.

~~

I take a deep breath right before I walk into Plagg's department. I scan the room until my eyes land on a lock of blonde hair. Adrien's sitting at his desk, typing into his computer. I walk over to him and stand there for a few seconds.

I know he feels my presence when I see him glance from the side of his eyes and then almost immediately go back to typing. He's completely ignoring me.

"Adrien." He continues typing. I clear my throat and still nothing. I do it again, but this time louder. Adrien sighs and without looking up at me he says, "Can I help you?" "Well for starters you can look at me when I speak to you."

He rolls his eyes and turns his chair towards me. "This good enough for you princess?" "Perfect actually." I say with a sarcastic smile.

"What do you want?" "I just cracked something big in this case." "And that is?" I smile and hold up the files. "The next target." "How would you even be able to figure that out?" "Well if you actually payed attention to the data we collected you would be able to see that they only target the people who don't know how to spend their money."

I pull out a paper from the file and place it on his desk. "Take Mr. Ramier as an example." Adrien reaches for the paper and brings it up to him to look it over.

"He wanted a better life for his pigeons and I'm assuming Hawkmoth and Mayura promised him that. He just had to disclose a certain type of information." "And that would be his personal info and bank account numbers?" I nod.

"Now look at Ms. Bustier." I place another paper on his desk. "She was promised better learning technology for her students. And take a look at Kim." I place another paper down. "His was pretty simple actually. They just had to tell him they'd give him shoes that could make him run faster."

I place another paper down. "Marc was promised his stories would be published, Officer Roger was-" He stops me before I can place another one down. "Okay Okay. I get it. So who's the next target?"

"XY." "You're kidding right?" "I really wish I was, but I know how much you love him and of course you'd want to keep your favorite singer safe." I tease. "Like you could even call what he does singing." He says and rolls his eyes.

"How did you figure this out?" "I'm glad you asked." I walk over to his desk and take a seat on it. He sighs and turns towards me.

"He's looking for his next big hit right?" Adrien nods. "Well HM would make a pretty terrible team if they can't see that XY would be a great person to rip off."

"How did you find out it's him though?" "Come on Adrien. Give me more credit. An idiot would be able to figure that out." "And lucky for us one did." "Good one golden boy." I say sarcastically.

To my surprise, Adrien laughs. And not like a fake, sarcastic laugh either. A real, genuine laugh. One that I haven't heard in years. I suppose he notices too because right after he does it, his face falls and his eyebrows furrow together. He clears his throat before speaking.

"Um- Anyways, we need to figure out our next move." He says trying to shake away the awkwardness. "And we can start with you moving off my desk." "Aww, but it's so comfortable up here."

Adrien stands up and puts his hands on either side of me. "I said move Mari." He whispers. His voice low and deep. His face is so close that I can feel his breath. I can see all the little details in his eyes.

"It's Marinette, golden boy." "I don't really care what your name is. I just want you off my desk." "Why don't you make me." He comes closer to me. He places his hands on my waist and in this exact moment, I'm praying that he can't feel my body tense up.

He slides me off his desk and my body is pressed to his. "We'll have a meeting later princess. Im going on my lunch break." And with that, he's gone.

~Nino~
"Did you just see that?" I ask Alya as we watch Adrien walk out from my desk. "Mhm." She says with a nod. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" "That they're totally still in love? Cause if so, then yes. Do you know what I'm thinking?"

"That we should call off the set up ban and keep setting them up?" I ask and she nods. "They're perfect for each other. How can we be the only ones to see that?" Alya says.

"You're not." Plagg walks over to us and leans on his desk. "This whole mission is a set up." "So they didn't get it because of their skill?" I ask. "I told you Nino! We're just as good as they are!"

"I wouldn't go as far to say that. They are best in the field and we do need them on this case, but we could've easily been prevented teaming them up." "What do you mean?"

"Tikki and I have gone through great lengths to keep them apart, but we've decided that this little fued has to end. They're in love. Tikki knows it, I know it, you both know it. The only ones that are oblivious to it are, Marinette and Adrien." "So what are you saying?"

"We put both of them on this case, not only because they'll be an unstoppable team, but because this one is going to require them spending a lot of time together. And I mean a lot. The time they spend together will get them to realize they actually miss each other. They'll become friends, realize they're in love, and then from friends they'll become more."

"Do not take all the credit with this plan, Plagg." Master Fu says as he and Wayzz walk over to us. "Master Fu? You're in on this too?" Alya and I ask in sync.

"We've been keeping an eye on you guys for a very long time. We were waiting for the moment where Adrien and Marinette were mature enough to open up to each other once again. Now is that time." "But they're still closing each other out."

"It won't be immediate, but the results will be great." "So you specifically chose them?" I ask and Wayzz and Master Fu nod.

"Those two are made for each other."