The man came in every morning after that. He continued to be polite and courteous while working his way through their entire pastry selection with the excitedly delighted demeanour of a small puppy. Marinette could barely manage to make any sort of small talk with him, steadfastly confining herself to the bare minimum of interaction so she wouldn't stutter conspicuously. It's been a while since she last had a crush on anyone, but she'll be damned if she'll let it get to her.
She makes a concerted effort to be the one manning the register each morning, which for the most part is not difficult. Her parents appreciate being able to spend more time in the kitchen, and any other employees working that day don't usually clock in until 9am at the earliest, and so she falls into a routine. He comes in everyday around the same time, tries to engage her in small talk, buys his food and leaves her an embarrassed wreck. It's dangerous, she knows, to fall into a routine of any kind, but she can't help enjoying it too much to stop. She is gleaning little details about him all the time, and he is kind and sweet, and really very cute.
His name Is Adrien. He gives it to her one day with a sunny smile that causes her mind to blank for a second before she recovers somewhat and stutters out her own name in return. The delighted expression he makes at this minor concession makes her heart stutter. She also leans that he likes cats and science, and he prefers their croissants to almost anything else on offer, with the possible exception of their macarons.
It had been three weeks since she had been partnered with CN413, and they had been assigned on a few easy missions in that time, all things that she could do by herself, nothing that required them to know who the other was, something that required a level of trust that they simply did not have yet. All of them were a waste of her skills, and probably CN413's. But anything more difficult could fall apart if they both refused to work with each other, and so she understood the need.
It was frustrating though, to constantly be forced to spend long periods of time doing nothing with only CN413 for company. She knew him a little better now. The man was an incorrigible flirt with an outrageous love of awful and cringeworthy puns, most of them cat-related, for some mysterious reason.
But she knew that the higher-ups couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually, her skills would be needed, and she hoped that they would be needed soon.
She was right. However, right at this moment, she wished she wasn't.
She can hear him giggling. She is dangling off the side of a building with only CN413 to hold her up, and he is giggling. They are supposed to be professionals, for fucks sake. And of course she can't respond, since she needs both hands and all the concentration she can muster to get into this unnecessarily secure office building through the only window, which has a ridiculously complicated lock on it.
There is nothing in this particular office that was of interest to them or their assignment, but it's the easiest way into the building itself. With a satisfying whir, the lock gives and LB777 slides the window gently open and scans the room as scrupulously as she can. Noticing nothing that could present a threat to their assignment or give warning of their presence, she slips inside and unclips the rope that had been holding her, giving it a sharp tug and signalling the all clear.
It's a short wait for CN413 as he makes his own way down the side of the building, and LB777 spends it going over their plan and schematics in her head. There is a safe they need to access in the basement of this building, and it's currently 8 floors below them. She knows the best route to take, thanks to some schematics that another agent had pilfered for them, and she knows roughly what stands in her way. Between her and CN413, she figures this shouldn't be too hard.
She hears the soft thud of CN413's feet hitting the floor behind her, but doesn't bother to turn around. He knows the plan as well as she does.
"Let's go," she says softly, motioning imperiously with her left hand as she begins to move forward. The silence presses around them as the slink through the hallways of the building. There are no obstacles until they reach the first basement level, which is locked with a scanner lock, one that takes no more than a little fiddling with TK-E to pop open. Some where behind the near maze of underground floors is a safe that contains their mission target. LB777 adjusts her mask and pushes forward into the dim lighting.
"Another mission success, LB. Congratulations. You too, CN413, despite certain…mishaps." LB glances at her partner, sliding a glare sidelong in his direction. Mishaps was certainly an understatement. It's a wonder they managed to salvage the mission as well as they had, in all honesty.
"The two of you have been working fairly well together, but we have been noticing that there is a certain lack of partnership between the pair of you. You will need to work on that before we send you back out into the field. That is all."
She leaves them alone in the room, probably in the hopes that some kind of partnership will spontaneusly appear. The expectation that everyone seems to have for her, that she'll suddenly be okay with accepting a partner out of nowhere, is incredibly frustrating.
She gets up. CN413 is still sitting slightly slumped in his chair, eyes watching her from behind the dark mask. "I'm out, I have things I need to do." He bounces up like an excitable puppy and makes to come after her. "Alone." He sags slightly, but lets her leave without him.
The corridors are empty for the most part, and the occasional run in with people on her way to return her gear settles her frustrated nerves. By the time she reaches the nearest exit she feels better about her determination to resist this forced partnership. She can work well enough with him, but he won't be the partner she knows she doesn't need.