The Line Between Love And Hate

Chapter 15: You Were Right Princess

~Flashback~
"Agreste! Hurry! We're meeting with the other training agencies today. I don't want to be late." "I didn't actually expect you to be here on time. You're always late to everything." Adrien says as he walks out of his dorm.

"I want to make a good impression." "For what?" "It looks good when other school are interested in you." He looks at me skeptically. "You're not planning on leaving me are you?" "I would never." "I can only dream." He teases and I elbow his side.

"You wouldn't be able to last 2 days without me by your side." He laughs and puts his arm around me. "I'd be lucky if I got 2 years away from you." I roll my eyes and shove his arm off my shoulder.

"You know... United Heroes has been giving me plenty of offers. If that's truly how you feel, maybe I'll consider it." His smile falls. "That's not funny Mari." "It's a joke Agreste. Loosen up."

Without using words, he tells me that he knows I'm joking, but he's scared it'll actually happen. He's scared that I'll end up leaving him. He's scared that he'll lose another important person in his life.

I smile and hold my pinky out to him. "Would you feel better if we made a promise?" He looks at my pinky and back at me. "What kind of promise?"
"That no matter what, we'll always stay by the others' side."

He happily wraps his pinky around mine. "Unless we hate each other." I joke and he rolls his eyes. "That's not possible Mari."

Present Day
~Marinette~
"You're going to make us miss our flight!" I've been banging on the restroom door for 10 minutes. "Adrien! Hurry up! Our flight is in 30 minutes!" I got Adrien to agree to a public airplane. It took some convincing... Okay, a lot of convincing.

I had to agree to do whatever research necessary for Adrien's "boring" cases. But it was a small price to pay as long as I don't have to sit through another hour alone with him.

As soon as the door opens, steam rolls out. "Oh my god. What we're you doing in there? Making a sauna?" I flail my hand around trying to clear the air as much as I can.

"Why don't I show you what I was doing in there princess?" He teases and I roll my eyes. "Can you stop making jokes and hurry up? I want to go back to Paris."

"Not like much is waiting there for you." "Well it's more than you can account for." "Ouch." He says with a laugh. "You got some sass to you this morning. Did something steam you off?" He smiles and I respond with an eye roll. "Just hurry up or we'll miss our flight."

"I think I got the memo princess. You've told me hurry up about 100 times in the past 12 minutes." He grabs his suitcase and pulls out clothes. "Well you're still taking your sweet time, so it doesn't look like you got the memo."

Adrien lifts his clothes up. "Once I change we'll go." He walks back into the restroom. I groan and throw myself on the bed.

"I'm gonna leave without you." "Please! You'd be doing me a favor. I'm getting tired of your nagging!" He shouts from the other side of the door. "And I'm getting tired of you!" As soon as the door opens I jump off the bed and grab my suitcase.

"Finally! Let's go!" Adrien slowly walks to his stuff. "Can you be any slower?" "I actually can. Want to see?" He takes on step and stands there for exactly 5 seconds before taking another one.

"Adrien-" He starts taking bigger steps now. "Before you start yelling. It was a joke Mari. Loosen up."

~~

Our plane lands and Adrien is the first one off. I make my way to baggage claim and find him waiting for the luggage.

"I hate public transportation." "It's not that bad." "I had to sit next to a crying baby and the kid behind me kept kicking my seat." I laugh.

"You couldn't have at least gotten us first class?" "Look who's nagging now." He rolls his eyes.

The belt brings around 2 familiar suitcases. Adrien pulls both of them off. He sets mine down beside me and lifts the handle to his.

"Hurry up Mari! All the cabs are going to be taken!" He says sarcastically as he walks towards the exit. I roll my eyes and follow him.

~~~

The next day I walk into the building and take a seat at my desk. Alya walks over to me and leans on my desk. "What is it now Al?" "How did it go?" "The trip was a fail. We found exactly zero leads." "No not the case! How did it go between you and Adrien?"

"Alya-" "I'm just curious that's all. You were with him for 4 days." "Nothing new. We argued and came home." "That's it?" I nod. "That's it."

"Mari!" Adrien walks in and pulls the chair from the empty desk beside me. He greets Alya and turns back to me. "What do you want Adrien?" He places a paper in front of me.

"What's this?" "Look at XY's bank statements." "He likes macarons. Nice?" I say confused. "What are we supposed to get from this?" "And you call me the blonde." I roll my eyes. He leans over me and points towards the place of transaction.

"He bought them from your parents' bakery. On Tuesday." Tuesday? "Does anything seem off now?" I nod. "He was in London at this time." "That means our suspect enjoys your bakery." "That only cuts it down to about thousands of people."

"But how many of them visited your bakery on Tuesday at the exact same time XY was having dinner in London?" He says.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you were right princess." "Say that again." "What?" He smirks and leans toward me. "Princess?" I push him away. "No. That I'm right." He laughs and leans back in his seat.

"Yeah 'Just argued and came home.' " Alya breaks her silence. We both turn to look at her. "We are definitely talking about this later!" She whispers to me before walking off.

"So." I turn to look back at Adrien. "It's time we pay your parents a visit."