"Knock knock," Nathalie's voice came through the door accompanied by her actual rap on the door. Marinette and Adrien shared a strained glance at each other before Marinette accepted the fact this between her and Adrien would need to be put on hold. Also thankful, as this also gave her time to assess how she would address her deception to his probable alter ego.
Stepping away from Adrien, she made her way to the other side of the cutting table to put distance between them while calling for Nathalie to enter.
Upon entering, Nathalie looked between the two with a fleeting raised eyebrow and flashed a smirk before retorting to an indifferent expression. "You both have a visitor."
Adrien had an idea who was going to present themselves, and immediately cursed under his breath, noticing this, Marinette shot a worried look over to him before turning to the new figure in the door way.
There he stood. Oozing sex appeal, this tall, dark and extremely handsome heartthrob, was shooting his smouldering gaze directly at Marinette. Casually flicking his trademark teal tipped bangs out of his eyes with a simple movement of his head, he stood with his hands resting in the pockets of his ripped denim jeans. His plain white t-shirt gave a hint of the toned body laying underneath. Since his success within the music industry, his confidence had grown, with an unfortunate addition of arrogance to his rocker persona.
"Adrien, Marinette." Nathalie addressed them, "Gabriel wanted to meet with you both this afternoon but his attention has be drawn to other unforeseen issues. Can you both make yourselves available for a meeting at eleven tomorrow morning please."
They both nodded in reply, before Adrien thanked Nathalie and she made her exit, closing the door behind her. Adrien quickly remembered himself and smiled a warm friendly smile at Luka along with his out stretched hand to shake his.
"Luka! I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow, great to see you here!" There was slightly too much enthusiasm in his voice, immediately indicating that his words were not quite as sincere as they should have been After the talk surrounding Luka last night, Adrien was not so keen for him to turn up at the house anymore.
Luka broke the gaze he had fixed on Marinette to her relief, as she also schooled her face from annoyed to a warmer look that you would give to a friend. "Adrien! Hi," he shuck Adrien's hand and they both stood with their hands resting in their pockets. Mirrored in stance, the men came closer to the cutting table as Luka looked to address Marinette.
"Hey." His smoulder was back as he nodded at Marinette. "Adrien mentioned you had started working here, so I thought I'd pop in while seeing him." He gestured with his head to the blonde, who looked slightly annoyed with Luka's early arrival. "What are you doing Friday?"
Meeting his gaze firmly, she answered his question. "I'm meeting Alya," although plans had not already been made, Marinette knew her friend would not let her down. Marinette was becoming fed up at having to rebuke his continued unwanted advances since they had gone their separate ways. Seeing Adrien was watching her tense hands, Marinette smoothed out the roughly cut piece of black fabric she had been holding on to. A piece of black fabric which had two eye holes cut out of it. He shifted uncomfortably as she folded it up neatly and plopped it in her bag, a small smirk played on her lips as her face was looking away from them. She had just revived the confirmation she needed.
"That's convenient," Luka said with a low chuckle. "She must have forgotten when I seen them earlier, because they accepted my invitation to come to dinner followed by a show at Madame Sarfati Comedy Club-"
Course they did.
"-I guess you'll be able to make it then." Marinette strained a smile at Luka, as he continued with his cocky demeanour, not able to wriggle out of spending time around him. Luka looked back to Adrien, "you can bring Chloé if you need a date Adrien."
Adrien's jaw clenched as he also strained a smile at the rocker. Seeing an opportunity, Marinette took it, keeping her face as nonchalant as possible.
"Why would he need a date?" She commented lightly.
Both men gave her their full attention. Luka turned quizzical with a furrowed brow and narrow, assessing eyes. Adrien pursed his lips, obviously trying to keep a grin from forming on his face, green eyes glittering as they met mischievous blue. For a moment, Adrien waited with baited breath in hope that this was going to work in his favour, before Marinette continued.
"He's the mystery man I've been telling you about."
Luka shot a brief look mixed with confusion and anger at Adrien, nostrils flared, he was obviously not happy with what he was hearing. He quickened to form a softer gaze as he continued to survey Adrien and Marinette.
"We've kept it a secret because of this-" Marinette added as she gestured to her work in front of her and the room around them. "-it would look bad if it appeared that I was only here because I was dating the boss's son." Resting her chin on her laced fingers, Marinette shot Adrien a sickeningly sweet smile. Batting her lashes, Marinette delivered the final blow, "isn't that right Minou."
In a state of shock, at how brazen the bluenette was, Adrien had to clear his throat to disguise his surprise. His wide eyes gave him away however, as Marinette raised her eyebrows expectantly at him while Luka kept his eyes locked on Adrien.
"Yes." He struggled to get anything else out as his mouth had suddenly become very dry. Failing to keep his grin off his face, he smiled broadly back at Marinette, avoiding Luka's gaze. "Are we telling people now then?"
"I guess the cats out of the bag now!" She peered at him as she turned back to her work. "Although if you could keep it quiet for now please Luka?" Still looking down at her work, "I think it's best Adrien tells his dad before he reads it in the tabloids."
Adrien and Luka left Marinette to work in peace as they headed towards the main doors to the house. Adrien had been friends with Luka since he was mixing in similar circles due to his success, they got on relatively well usually, but there was now a tension between the two friends. After confirming his suit fitting for the next day, Luka left. Obviously perturbed by the revelation, he had made his appointment for the general building across the city as to not run in to Marinette or Adrien the following day. Adrien still saw him out, but the exchange was much colder than he was used to.
Adrien turned on his heal with the full intentions of heading back to speak to Marinette, when a tall dark figure collided with him. Paper flew up in the air on impact as Adrien was suddenly on the floor with a man flailing on top of him. Scurrying to his feet Adrien started to pick up the paperwork and handed it to the person who had dropped them.
In front of Adrien stood Chase Brodeur, although slightly disheveled, he still had a calculating look in his eyes as he looked Adrien up and down. With a swift thank you, Chase carried on towards the stairs as Adrien suddenly felt obvious movement of his Kwami in his pocket. Feeling Plagg poke him rather significantly, Adrien headed to the privacy of his bedroom to allow them the space needed to talk.
"Kid you've been slipped this," Plagg popped out of the shirt pocket holding a small piece of folded paper. Once Adrien had took it, Plagg seized the opportunity to grab a wedge, or three, of Camembert from the fridge.
Adrien unfolded the note as Plagg approached his holder shovelling each piece into his mouth with ease. "Whath doth eh ay? Plagg tried to speak with a mouth full of cheese, spraying crumbs all over the note in Adrien's hand.
"Marinette is being watched, meet me at Le Peloton Café at six tonight, do not bring her, burn this note?" Adrien questioned the instructions as he reread the note several times. "What the hell does this mean?"
"Something tells me that Chase isn't who he says he is Kid." Plagg casually perched on Adrien's shoulder to get a better view of the note. "You gonna go?"
"What if it's a trap?" Adrien pondered.
"You won't know unless you go," Plagg pointed out, "besides, you're Chat Noir, and he's not to know that." Plagg smirked as he floated lazy back into Adrien's pocket.