"Just a Friend?" Book 1 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy (MLB FanFic) |COMPLETED|

Chpt 43: Detectives Marinette and Adrien.

Adrien and Marinette stood outside Gabriel's office door. "So, you took care of the security cameras somehow?" Marinette asked him nervously.

Adrien looked over at her. "Yes, Plagg helped me with that. No idea what he did, but he assured me we were good. Ready to do this?" She nodded at him and he pushed the door open. They walked through, closing the door behind them.

Marinette examined the room. "Wow, this place is so big!" She walked into the middle of the enormous room and twirled slowly. There were some statues with corresponding fashion art sketches behind them and lots of light from the banks of windows. She stopped and looked over at Adrien, who was heading toward Nathalie's desk, which was right by the door. "Your father really spends all of his time in here?"

Adrien nodded at her. 

"But, there's basically no furniture! Where does he sit?" she asked.  The only seats Marinette saw were a chair at Nathalie's desk and some uncomfortable looking benches set in a u-shape down some steps, kind of in a cut out space in the floor.

Adrien shrugged. "Whenever I'm in here he's standing right there working on his computer." He pointed to a raised computer screen at the top of a few glass stairs.

"That's really weird!" She couldn't imagine being able to be inspired in this room. Or relax. There was really nothing here. She admitted there were a ton of framed photos of Adrien on the wall- photos of him did always inspire her! A Klimt-style painting on the wall caught her eye. She walked closer and stared up at the blonde woman. "This is your mom, right?"

Adrien looked over at Marinette to see which portrait she was referring to. He stopped searching the desk drawer and went over to stand by her, joining her in gazing up at his mom. "Yes. He's had this painting for as long as I can remember and these days he spends a lot of time standing in front of it, looking at it lost in thought. I've often wondered whether it was good for him to have it in here. I know he misses her, but the amount of time he spends right in this spot seems unhealthy. He would never listen to me about it, though." Adrien shook his head and they both continued to gaze at his mother. Marinette found that is was difficult to break her gaze from the mesmerizing painting.

Adrien touched Marinette lightly on the arm. "We better continue our search. Who knows how much time we have before they're back?"

"Oh, right, yes." They had planned for Adrien to search the drawers and more personal spaces and that Marinette would look for possible secret doors and such. She walked along the walls, looking for any cracks that could indicate another secret room or passageway. Marinette then ran her hands along the wainscoting, but didn't feel any obvious cracks or indentations. They both poked into all of the corners and tried to examine all the tiles.

They finished their searches and came to stand in front of the painting again, feeling discouraged. "The only thing we haven't looked at is behind this painting," said Adrien.

Marinette glanced at him, curious. He swung the painting out revealing the safe behind it. "In there is where I found the Miraculous book. I don't really remember what else I saw in there, as Plagg had opened it for me, and I could hear someone coming, so I quickly closed the door before anyone found me. Although, Father saw me on his security camera footage anyway. I suppose it would be good to check it again. Plagg, could you open it please?"

Plagg always loved breaking the rules, so he happily zoomed through the wall safe, unlocking it, and pushing open the door. Adrien and Marinette peered in at the contents and Tikki flew over to join them. There wasn't really too much in there: a book on Tibet, a photo of Adrien's mom, a brochure from a hotel, and the Miraculous book.