Marinette was absolutely not having a good day. It had started fine - she woke up, started working on some designs for the upcoming Wayne Gala, and really was just working at a relaxed pace for once. It was one of the most relaxing days she's had since moving to Gotham and opening up her online boutique.
And then she had gotten the call . The call reminding her that she would be meeting with Mr. Timothy Drake that morning to go over her plans for donating some clothing pieces to the Gala's charity event. She's done it for every charity event since opening her boutique, knowing that helping those with less than yourself was make or break for a lot of communities.
Charity events and opening shelters and soup kitchens were some of the only things that kept Paris afloat during Hawkmoth's reign. If people were less desperate to make ends meet, they were less likely to get taken over by the villian. Mari had learned a long time ago that the only truly efficient way to stop crime from happening was to fix the poverty issue at it's core.
And so, despite her absolute fury over having to see Mr. Drake every couple of months for these discussions, she went willingly in order to hopefully better the lives of some of Gotham's residents.
Well - maybe it wasn't absolute fury. Just a low, simmering annoyance that sat in the back of her mind throughout the entire meeting. She couldn't tell what it was about him that bothered her. It could be the fact that ever since she first met him - back in high school - he seemed to always be there, always asking her questions about France and her life and her past. It had almost been like a constant interrogation no matter how many times she'd told him to cut it out. And then there was the fact that he was almost always late to class, or just missing in general, and then he never needed to catch up.
It could also be the fact that something about him set off her guardian training. She didn't know what secrets the Wayne's held, but it was constantly setting her off. She felt like she was constantly on edge when they were in the room, like they were more dangerous than they let others see.
"Let's just get this over with," she grumbled, feeling her eyes twitch as she stared up at the building.
Tim was absolutely not having a good day. He'd woken up late - later than usual - after crashing from his current no sleep streak and was going to be late for a meeting this morning. Normally this wouldn't matter, he was the co-CEO of the company, he could afford to be a little late to most meetings because it made him seem all the more important.
However, he wasn't meeting with any old codgers this morning - he was meeting with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Fuck, he thought to himself, glancing at the clock on his car dash as he parked. She is never going to let me hear the end of this.
Tim looked forward to the meetings with Marinette every time they came around - something about how irritated she was throughout the entire endeavor just brought him a nuanced stream of joy. He and Marinette had met back in high school, her just moving here from France and not speaking English very well, and him worshiping the ground she walked on.
He'd follow her around everywhere, even going as far as changing all of his classes to match hers after the first day and telling her that he'd just been skipping the previous day. That had been the wrong thing to say. He could still remember her looking down at him - somehow managing that with him being over a foot taller than her - and coldly telling him in French that skipping school was going to lead to nothing good.
She, unfortunately, from that point on assumed he was a slacker who got away with not showing up because of his money. And while she wasn't necessarily wrong, he did have to miss a lot of school because of his nighttime activities, he mainly got away with it because of his grades being absolutely perfect at all times.
That hadn't been the only thing that colored him darkly in her mind though. He had stupidly, oh so stupidly, in an exhausted state after stalking some criminal on the bat computer for far too long, spilled coffee on a design she had been working on. And then it happened again with her drawing tablet. And then he actually spilled it on her.
Needless to say, Marinette thought he was the bane of her existence as far as he could tell. So he loved these meetings, because he was pretty sure that each time she showed up and sat in his office he was reassuring her that he was not the man she thought he was, that he didn't slack off and didn't spill coffee on people on a regular basis.
Which is why it was absolutely not okay that he'd overslept this morning. She was going to look down on him when he walked into the meeting wrong and raise her eyebrow at him, reminding him of Damian when Jason said something stupid, and they'd be back to square one.
He was rushing, he knew it, everyone in the lobby knew it, making it into the elevator just before the doors closed. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the button for his floor just before looking around the small space. Shit.
There Marinette was, leaning against the wall of the elevator, eyebrow raised and taking in his disheveled appearance.
"Good morning, Mr. Drake," Marinette said, turning away from him to look at the slow moving numbers of the elevator. She wished that for such an expensive building, the elevator would move just a tiny bit faster. She also wished that he didn't have an office all the way at the top.
"Good morning, Marinette," Tim said, smirking a little at how she was already annoyed. Granted, she usually came into the meeting annoyed that it was happening in the first place. He was mildly optimistic now - he wasn't that late for their meeting. They'd be showing up together, it seemed.
Marinette sighed, stretching her neck to the side and hearing a low crack. Maybe the meeting won't be that bad, she thought to herself, trying to remain optimistic. She even supposed that it wasn't Tim's fault she absolutely loathed meetings in general, or that something about him set her off. Everyone was entitled to their secrets - she just hated not knowing them. Yeah, I'll try to be nice this time.
There was a harsh jerk on the elevator, and then it stopped moving. For a second, Marinette thought that it was just going to open the doors to let someone else in. And then the lights turned off.
Neither of them said anything for a few moments, each processing what was going on. Then Tim turned to her, not really sure what he was going to say but knowing he had to say something. "I'm sure it's just a momentary thing," he told her, smiling reassuringly even though she couldn't see it.
"Right," she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She turned on the flashlight and pulled the emergency switch. Nothing happened that she could see, but she hoped that it was alerting someone somewhere in the building considering she had no service on her phone.
She went back to leaning against the wall, staring off into space, wondering why this had to happen to her. Why did she have to get stuck in the elevator with the one person who had always made her feel extra cautious? She honestly thought she might have preferred to get stuck alone. At least then she could relax.
"So," Tim said, taking a seat on the floor of the elevator. "How have you been?"
This is going to be a while, Mari thought, absolutely devastated thinking about the fresh bread she'd baked waiting for her at home. "I've been quite well. And yourself?" She knew to keep her answers short with Tim. If she explained anything a little too much he suddenly would have six more questions to ask than before.
"That's good," he said, taking a sip of his coffee. At least I didn't spill the coffee on her.
A couple of hours passed, and Mari was starting to wonder as to whether anyone had noticed the non-moving elevator yet. She knew that there were three others in the lobby, so it's not like it would really cause that much congestion in the flow of people. "Does the emergency button not make a sound on our end?"
Tim sighed, shrugging. "I'm honestly not sure. I've never been stuck in here or heard of anyone getting stuck."
"Just my luck," she muttered, stretching her legs out on the ground.
"Could call it fate," Tim suggested, smiling to himself. Of all the people in the world to get stuck on an elevator with, he was glad it was her.
"I highly doubt anyone would call this fate," she told him, narrowing her eyes at him in the dark.
Tim sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with her while she was so defensive. "Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?"
"Act so cagey around me."
Marinette pursed her lips, trying to think of a response that wouldn't get her kicked out of the Gala. "I can tell you have secrets. I can also tell that you essentially interrogate me every time we meet."
"I don't interrogate you!" Tim said, accidentally shouting.
"Yes, you do, Tim," she said, noticing that he didn't deny having secrets.
"How do I interrogate you?"
"Tim," Marinette said, turning to look at him with the most deadpan face she could muster. "You have literally spent 10 minutes asking me about what kind of allergies I have."
"Why is that weird?" Tim did not see what the problem was. Knowing what someone's allergies were was important to their safety.
"I don't have any."
"Right," he said, still not understanding.
Marinette sighed. "You really just do not understand boundaries at all," she muttered, looking away from him.
Tim pursed his lips and turned away, and if anyone had asked him right then and there he would insist that he wasn't pouting even though he was. He thought about it. Do I interrogate her? He supposed that he could be pushy, and he didn't really ever understand when she told him she wasn't comfortable talking about a subject. And he did have a tendency to do research on her when he was bored, which may have been kind of obvious from his line of questioning. And most people don't have a 'line of questioning' regarding their friends.
He groaned, knocking his head back against the elevator. "I interrogate you."
"I know."
He felt awful, now understanding why she would always get annoyed by him. He thought it was because he was flustering her - yes, a very cocky presumption he now realizes. Anyone in his family would've gotten annoyed about someone digging that far into their lives without cause. And she hadn't really given him a cause to do so besides thinking she was attractive.
"I only did it because I thought you were cute," he said, looking down at his shoes. Not that she could tell - they'd been sitting in the dark for so long at this point that he was pretty sure the lights would blind him when they turned back on. It was a good thing that neither of them were afraid of the dark, or small spaces.
Marinette hummed, thinking that over. "One date."
"What?"
"You get one date, where the only one of us who gets to ask questions is me. If I decide I'm interested in you after that, then I will let you know. If not, no more interrogations whenever I have to meet with you." She felt like it was a win win situation, either she got to go on a fun date, or she got him to stop all the amatuer police detective techniques.
Tim however, was absolutely gobsmacked. Maybe today wasn't going that poorly after all. "Deal," he said, smiling brightly at her.
Just then the lights turned back on and the elevator gave a quick jolt. They were moving again.
"About time," Marinette grumbled, standing up off the floor.
Somewhere in the elevator shaft…
"She finally agreed to go on a date with him?" Jason asked, looking over at Dick.
"Yup! Told you this would work," he said, very proud of himself.
