Fake Dating

12 - Work or passion?

"Are you sure Nino won't be eavesdropping?" Marinette asked in whisper, when they entered the garden.

"I can rely blindly on him." Adrien smiled. "He'll keep away to let us talk comfortably, but close enough to chop off your head before you stab me in my back."

"What a picture!" Marinette laughed.

This joke overcame an awkwardness they felt every time they stayed alone. In addition, since the moment Adrien had made Marinette aware of breaking a touch barrier, she kept thinking about taking his hand again. To control herself she folded her hands in the back, just in case. By the way she noticed that he hid his hands in his pockets and she couldn't stop wondering if the reasons of that weren't similar to hers.

"Luckily for you, I left a knife in another purse..." she joked.

"What a relief!" he laughed. "But still I should be careful. You know, you may be a ninja or some assassin."

"Nah, you're a small fry, so revealing my assassin's profession wouldn't be worth it." she snorted theatrically.

"Good to know. So, I can remove martial arts from the list of your talents?"

"I wouldn't say so. My mom enrolled me once in aikido. She's always said that every girl should know how to defend herself."

"Wow..." he commented.

"Not a big deal." she shrugged. "Everyone can learn it. You could try. Then you wouldn't need a shadower anymore and Nino could stop pretending to be your bodyguard. You could be normal friends."

"He doesn't pretend. He's really good."

"Have you ever needed him? You know, in real life. I mean... Has anyone ever attacked you?"

"It's been a few times when someone overstepped the bounds of acceptable contact."

"What happened next? Did Nino chopped off their heads?"

"No knives, so all heads stayed where they were. But he could broke some bones. I didn't look."

"Oh, you're one of those sensitive..."

"It's rather about protect me from witnessing in case we were sued. I could always say that I saw nothing."

"No offense, Adrien, but it's wrong. It's like you were a coward."

"My father told me that I should do that. He wanted me to avoid troubles."

"But you would leave your friend in the lurch!" Marinette clearly didn't accept his excuse. On the contrary, it made her truly mad. "You couldn't even testify to help Nino in case of a lawsuit or even a penalty of imprisonment! Someone could accuse him of overstepping the limits of necessary defence!"

Adrien was staring at her in astonishment. He'd never thought about it that way. He had been taught to follow his father's commands without question. Nobody had told him that what he was doing was wrong...

"I think you're right..." he whispered after a while. "I'll have to learn to keep an eye on Nino."

"Learn?"

"You know... It's difficult to change your habits. Especially when your father spent years on teaching you how to behave."

"Geez, Adrien! It sounds like a training not a parenting!"

"I've never thought about it that way. My dad prefers a disciplined behaviour." he admitted.

Saying this he stopped at an arcade corner of the garden in front of Château d'Auvers-sur-Oise. He leaned against an arch support and although he put his hands out the pockets, he crossed them on his chest.