E L E V E N

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        Marinette liked talking to her father; however, she didn't like hearing about bad news left, right and center whenever they were having a conversation these days. It had been five days since she and Tikki had read the article about Nathaniel's arrest, and her father had been filling her in on the movement of the redhead.

       She also found out that Nathan was back in France and he was with Nathaniel before he got arrested – that wasn't the kind of news she wanted to hear. Nathan was dangerous; she and her father knew that, she was unsure yet afraid of what he might do to them if Nathaniel actually got sent to Prison.

       Not only that, but her father was now telling her that there had been no progress with her mother. Sabine had made no signs of waking up and it was obviously taking a huge toll on both Marinette and Thomas.

         What if she didn't wake up?

         Marinette heard of people being in comas for as much as two years...what if her mother ended up like that?

         What if she died?

         Then Nathaniel would be sent to Prison for a long time, she thought to herself. And I would no longer have a mother.

         No. She shouldn't be thinking like that. Sabine needed time to heal. She would wake up soon.

        "...ette are you still there? Marinette!" The blunette quickly pulled the phone from her ear after she heard her father yelling.

        "Yes? Sorry, my mind left for a second there," She said as she grabbed her bag. It was her lunch time now. "I'm at work now, Papa. I'll call you when I get home...You go get some rest now."

          "Ah, yes," Thomas replied, sounding awfully tired. Marinette's heart broke more for him. She was blaming herself, while her father was doing the same. He blamed himself for not being home at the time when Nathaniel attacked, while she blamed herself for leaving Nathaniel in the first place and putting her parents at risk. "I love you, Mari. Stay safe."

        "I love you too, and I will," She smiled softly. Her smile slowly dropped after her father hung up.

         Her stomach growled lowly causing her to gnaw on her bottom lip slowly. She hadn't eaten much for the past few days, nausea had kicked in and she couldn't stomach a few things. All she had eaten without throwing up whole morning was crackers and cheese. She needed to eat something soon...but what?

            "Hello there," A familiar voice said right by her ear causing her to let out a small squeak.

        "Mr. Agreste!" She exclaimed, turning around with her hand laid on her chest. "You startled me."

         "You can call me Adrien," The blond man gave her a toothy grin which made a blush light up her face. "I'm sorry if I scared you, I just wanted to know if I could treat you to lunch right now. As you know, it's my last week of overseeing the store, so I'd like to have lunch with you before I go. It is your lunch time, right?"

        "M-Me?" She stuttered out, tucking her hair behind her ear when he nodded.

          He wants to have lunch with just me? What about everyone else? She thought frantically.

          Clearing her throat lightly, she replied. "Yes, I'm about to go on lunch right now."

            "Would you care to join me for lunch then?" The blond asked her, the handsome grin still on his face. "I'll pay."

            Drawing her lip between her teeth, she pondered on whether she should say yes or not. Peering up at the blond, she saw the hopeful look in his green eyes couldn't help but to nod reluctantly. "Sure."

           Marinette allowed Adrien to lead her out of the store, ignoring the curious eyes of her coworkers and her boss, and to a diner just outside of the mall and down the street.

           "This place has the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had the pleasure of eating," Adrien commented as he opened the door for Marinette to step in first. The strong smell of coffee, and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on, hit Marinette like a truck; it made her feel awfully nauseous. "I recommend you giving it a try."

          "I'll definitely be giving it a try today," She said, a small smile grazing her face. The blunette was craving cheese for some strange reason, and a grilled cheese sandwich sounded perfect since she hadn't eaten anything substantial.

            After finding a booth in the corner and telling a waitress their orders, the two sat in a suffocating and awkward silence. Marinette tried to ease her nausea while glancing out the window, while Adrien sat – his fingers drumming lightly on the table – while he thought of how he could strike up a conversation.

           "So," Adrien suddenly spoke, causing Marinette to look at him with slightly wide eyes. "How is your pregnancy going?"

           After the words passed his lips, he mentally face palmed.

            What kind of conversation starter is that, Agreste?!

          "It's normal so far," Marinette began to reply, keeping her gaze on the napkins and sugar packets on the table. "I'm just experiencing the nausea and the occasionally cravings. The coffee smell here is driving me crazy."

           The blunette felt like that was the longest sentence she had ever spoken to Adrien since she has known him. Not only that, she managed to not stutter – not even once!

           "Do you want us to change to somewhere else?" Adrien fussed lightly, slowly starting to get up. "I wouldn't want you to be uncomfo-"

           "No!" Marinette cut him off, a bit too loudly, her hand shooting out to hold onto his suit jacket. After realizing what she did, she quickly retracted her hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. Well that was embarrassing, as usual. You can't just touch people, Marinette; especially not Adrien Agreste. "I mean its fine. The smell is bearable. We can stay."

           Adrien watched with slight amusement as a blush spread across her face as he slowly sunk back down in his seat. "Alright."

            The silence that was there before quickly returned, and it was much more awkward than before, and it was killing Marinette.

          She had barely had interaction with men other than Nathaniel over the four years she lived with him, so she found it extremely hard to keep up a conversation with Adrien.

           About a minute after, the waitress returned to the table with Marinette's grilled cheese sandwich and orange juice, and Adrien's cheeseburger and soda – he had told her that he was taking a cheat day while they were ordering.

         "So, Mr. Agreste-"

          "Adrien," The blond corrected her with a low chuckle as he shoved a fry into his mouth.

           "Right, Adrien," The blunette blushed as she chewing on the hash brown that came with the sandwich only to gag. The texture made her want to throw up; she couldn't help but to eye Adrien's fries – they looked like they tasted way better. "What do you do for a living exactly?"

            "I own a company that manufactures vehicles," He responded, leaning his head in his open palm as he watched the blunette closely. "You have Honda, Toyota...and now you have Noir – my brand. I also model for my father's company at times when he asks."

          "How comes you're in America?" She stammered out, biting her lip in regret afterwards. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to!"

          "I have no problem answering. Its fine," Adrien chuckled. Marinette watched as he slowly pushed his basket of fries towards her and blushed when he gestured for her to take it. She whispered a 'thank you' to the blond and quickly started stuffing her face. "I wanted to branch out of France and just far away from my father really. Not that I don't love him and all, but as long as I stay in France, people would know me as 'Adrien Agreste, the son of Gabriel Agreste' and not just 'Adrien Agreste'. You get me?"

           She nodded slowly, understanding what he meant. After getting that out of the way, the air around them became lighter and they began talking about little of everything and a little of nothing. Marinette slowly began understanding more about Adrien, while not letting him know much about her – Adrien didn't mind though; talking to her was enough for him.

            "It's about time for you to get back to work, right?" Adrien checked his watch after paying the bill.

          "Ah, yes," The blunette answered, standing up with Adrien.

           The two walked back to the store, but Adrien didn't enter.

          "Er...Marinette?" He scratched the back of his head as the blunette turned to him. She hummed at him in response, her blue eyes practically staring into his soul. "Are you free any time next week? I would like to, I don't know, become friends? Maybe we could hang out? If that's okay with you."

         Marinette tilted her head to the side as Adrien glanced around nervously.

          "I'm going back to France next week, so I won't be free," She replied, twiddling her thumbs. "But I'd like to be friends with you, sure."

           Why do you have to go back to France? The question was on the tip of his tongue, but he knew it wasn't his place to ask, so he swallowed it.

          "Really?" The blond grinned as she nodded slowly. "Great. So...I'll see you at the bakery?"

          Marinette nodded with a small smile on her face before she quickly disappeared into the store.

*****

        Adrien sighed, draping the towel he used to dry his hair over his shoulders.

         Pulling on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers, he took a seat on his bed, his phone in his hand. He scrolled through his business emails – they consisted of actual important information, spam mail, and just fangirls that thought using the email they saw on the company website was a good idea.

           While scrolling aimlessly, he allowed his mind to drift back to the events that took place earlier that day.

            He had a full blown conversation with Marinette – she even agreed to hang out with him in the future. After leaving the store, he allowed nothing to spoil his day, he was too happy to allow to happen.

           What he wants to know is more about her. Even if she doesn't want to share anything about herself, Adrien would be happy just to have casual conversations or even a normal relationship with her – they don't even have to date.

            He was forcefully drawn out of his thought when phone started vibrating in his hand. Glancing at the screen, he saw that his father was requesting a group video call.

             The blond let out a low groan when he saw who was going to be a part of the video call; suddenly he felt the urge to throw his phone out the window.

             Letting out a huff, he planted a faux smile and answered the call. "Good night, Father, Felix. What do I do for you to grace me with your presence this lovely night?"

            "If it isn't the ever so perfect cousin; how do you do, Adrien?" Felix smiled behind his screen.

         "Don't get cheeky," Gabriel rolled his eyes at his son. "I didn't expect you to be awake actually. Isn't it like...twelve a.m over there?"

          "Yes, and you just interrupted my beauty sleep," Adrien replied, faking a yawn only for it to become a real one.

          He heard Felix cough out a 'liar' and chose to ignore him.

           "Anyways," Gabriel spoke "I'm calling you to tell you that I'm handing over the company to Felix next week and I would like you to return to France for the whole week."

           "Why do I have to be there?" Adrien grumbled, leaning back against his pillows.

           "Because I need your help with something," Gabriel lied through his teeth.

           "Whatever. I'm going to hang-"

           "Did you hear about the thing with Nathaniel Kurtzberg?" Felix quickly interjected, a coy smile on his face.

            "What thing?" Adrien now became intrigued at the sound of a familiar name.

              "Weren't you gonna hang up just five seconds ago?" Felix teased.

             "Shut up and talk."

           "That's redundant"

          "Would you two stop?" Gabriel huffed. "What thing are you talking about, Felix?"

          "News about Nathaniel Kurtzberg getting arrested is all over social media," The man cackled. "I'm surprised you two haven't seen anything about it."

          "Why was he arrested?" Adrien asked, now fully interested in the conversation.

            "A little birdie told me that it's some assault and domestic violence things," Felix spoke nonchalantly while Adrien's eyes widened. "I hear the court case will be sometime next week. If the rumors are true then we know that this would just be swept under the rug...the Kurtzbergs are good at doing that."

             He got arrested for domestic violence and assault? Adrien didn't want to believe it. He hoped it wasn't true since he knew who Nathaniel's wife was.

          "Speaking of the Kurtzbergs, I recently received an email from Nathan Kurtzberg asking me to become a shareholder in their company," Gabriel said. "I haven't replied to him, but the answer is obvious."

          "Do it."

          "Don't do it."

           The blonds spoke at the same time, Adrien once again rolling his eyes at his cousin.

            "There's literally no reason for us to turn him down," Felix smirked. "If we get their company, we can easily make it ours. Trust me."

            "I'll leave this one to you then, Felix," Gabriel shrugged. "The company will be yours by next week anyways."

              "Seriously?" Adrien gaped at his father.

              "If you had taken over the company instead of branching off, you could have an opinion right now," Felix laughed. "But you aren't the one taking over, so sit still and look perfect like you also do."

            Adrien laughed dryly before smiling falsely at his phone. Felix sure knew how to upset him. "Well then, since you're so confident about this being a huge success for you, I will not be helping in any way when it all goes wrong. Good night."

             With that said, he hung up.

            He threw his phone onto the night table and turned off the light, trying to calm his slowly rising anger.

             His mind slowly drifted back to Marinette and he didn't find sleep that night.

* * * * *

Well, hello there. Looks like we're going back to France now, huh?

It's been a while, guys! But same old, same old --- University sucks, I hate it wholeheartedly. My school finally gave us our break...sadly, it's starting up again in a week.

Anyways, how was the chapter? What are your thoughts?

I hope you enjoyed it. We finally got a little progress with Adrienette, so savor the sight because we won't be seeing that again for a while.

Until next time,