Chapter Text
Adrien Agreste had been blind for a while now. It had taken him a long time to get used to it. The day he had lost his vision, he had sunk deep beneath the waves of it. Being told that he would slowly lose his ability to see had been a shock to him, and for a while that was all he could think about. He had let his disability consume him and define him until the day he ran into Marinette Dupain-Cheng, an intern at his father’s company.
Marinette wasn’t watching where she was going and ran right into Adrien as he was tapping his cane along the wall in the hallway of the office. Her embarrassed giggle vibrated in his ears.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized and reached out in front of her as if to catch him.
He laughed, “It’s alright.”
Adrien couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed before that. He smiled at her, feeling her gaze running along his suit and pausing at his dark aviator sunglasses.
Adrien licked his lips and placed his cane beneath his arm to hold out his hand, “Adrien Agreste, and you are?”
“Ma-Marinette,” she placed her dainty hand into his and shook it. “Nice to meet you. You’re Gabriel Agreste’s son! I’m so sorry. I’m so clumsy.”
“It’s alright. No harm done.” Adrien smiled and grabbed his cane to place the end back on the ground. “Looking for your office?”
“Well, actually, I was looking for yours,” Marinette blushed.
“Mine?” Adrien was surprised that she wasn’t looking for her own office or his father’s.
“Your father put you in charge of showing me the ropes,” Marinette swallowed hard.
Adrien sighed and put on a smile, “Come.”
He ran his cane along the wall, and Marinette followed him. Adrien took note of all the doorways, running his fingertips along name plates to read the braille before moving onto the next ones. He continued until he reached his own.
“Sorry, they just moved my office to a bigger one.” Adrien blushed and felt the door for the door handle before opening it. “Ladies first,” he gave a charming smile and held the door open for her.
“It’s okay. Thank you,” Marinette warmly smiled and stepped past him into his office.
Marinette watched Adrien shut the door and use his cane to tap on a chair that was in the way and walk around it before finding the edge of his desk. His hand reached out to tap the desk a few times, running his fingers along it before finding his office chair to sit down in.
He shortened his cane and felt for the top drawer to put it inside of it before shutting it and placing his hands on his desk. Marinette noticed that most of the items on his desk had braille on it to tell him what it was, and if it wasn’t labeled... he seemed to have a system of laying the paperwork a certain way to know what was what.
“There should be a chair in front of my desk, if you would like to have a seat, Marinette.” Adrien smiled and gestured towards the chair across from him.
Marinette pulled the chair away from his desk and sat down in it, setting her notebook and pen down onto it. She swallowed hard and watched him feel around his desk for a paper with a sticky note on it. He ran his fingers along the braille punched into it, reading the note before ripping it from the paperwork.
“Here we are,” Adrien ran his fingertips along the pages of poked holes, feeling each one and reading it.
Marinette’s gaze locked on his full lips, moving in whispers as he read. She raked her teeth along her bottom lip, watching him run his fingertips along the paper to take the information in. He licked his lips and stopped reading.
“Bastard,” Adrien sighed and shook his head. “Sorry, Marinette, um, let’s get started.”
“It’s okay,” she opened up her notebook and clicked her pen, making him perk up and peer at her.
“I’m not entirely sure what you want to learn from me that wouldn’t be better hearing from him.” Adrien sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I mostly deal with marketing.”
“Well, marketing isn’t my strongest suit, maybe we could start there.” Marinette smiled and wrote down the word, ‘Marketing’, at the top of her page.
A weak smile fell onto Adrien’s lips, “Sounds good.”
“So, where should we start?” Marinette patiently sat and waited for him to talk.
Adrien thought about how so many would have already been exhausted by him taking forever to do a task. How so many people would have taken the paper from him to read it for him. How so many would have read each name plate and not let him find his office on his own, and yet this woman had followed him. She was patient and kind, letting him take his time. His own father hadn’t even given him that, and still didn’t. Adrien knew better. He was aware his father had assigned Marinette to ‘help’ him when he didn’t need it. There was no other reason that his father had given her to him.
He sighed and reached over to thumb through the stacks of papers, searching for the one he had dog eared. “Here, I usually start my day by looking over numbers. This tells us where we should focus our promos at for the brand.”
Marinette took the papers from him, looking over an array of numbers on various social media accounts. She softly smiled and peered up at him, “Instagram seems to be where it’s at.”
“Instagram is the best that we have aside from Facebook.” Adrien smiled and felt for his monitor, shifting it to face Marinette. Each time he hovered his mouse over something it read to him to tell him what it was. “Then you can visit them and find out which type of ad did the best once you have figured out where your audience is.”
Marinette began to take notes, “Do you make all the promos for Gabriel?”
Adrien nodded, “I do.”
Ad made by Quantum Chickpea
“They look amazing!” Marinette took in the advertisements and how they stood out and looked professional compared to others she had seen.
“Thank you, I try really hard on them.” Adrien warmly smiled, but something about it made Marinette concerned.
“I’m sure you hear that a lot, but I’m being honest with you. They really look beautiful.” Marinette gave him a sincere smile, and he knew she wasn’t just taking pity on him like so many others.
“Thanks,” Adrien softly spoke and cleared his throat, “Then, uh, we move onto what we can do better. What do we want to focus on? What kind of theme do we want? That sort of thing.”
“Sounds good,” Marinette wrote down what he told her.
“Anyway, let me show you more before I head to lunch.” Adrien shifted gears, moving onto what he does for the day and what he expects from not only himself but others.
Once he was done telling Marinette about everything he could think of, he got ready to leave. He could feel her eyes on him, piercing through him and the nervous energy radiating off her was enough to make him pause with his cane in one hand and his other in his pocket.
“Did you want to ask me something, Marinette?” Adrien smirked at her.
“Um, I, uh, I was won-wondering if you... wanted comfany, I MEAN, company at lunch?” He heard her smack something, probably her forehead.
“Only if you want to.” Adrien shrugged, and heard her quickly reply to him, making him snort when he held back a laugh.
“OF COURSE! I mean—” Marinette covered her mouth with a blush, “—I’d love that.”
“Then it’s a date,” Adrien warmly smiled. “Ready to go?”
“Right now?” Marinette stumbled as she closed her notebook and stood up, tripping on the corner of the chair and squealing.
Adrien suddenly grabbed her arm to catch her, making her gasp, “You alright?”
“Y-yes, how’d you do that?” Marinette peered into his aviators.
“Cat like reflexes, I guess. I heard your foot hit the chair and the squeak from your lips.” The corner of his lips curled up into a dangerous smirk. “Shall we?”
Adrien let her go and pulled his cane from his desk, elongating it and using it to walk towards the door. His phone spoke when he clicked on the screen until he found what he was looking for, clicking on Gorilla’s name to text him. He brought his phone to his lips and used voice to text to ask for him to bring his car around.
Once he pocketed his phone, he pushed the elevator button to take it down to the parking garage. Marinette thought about offering to drive, but it seemed like he wanted to take her someplace. She relaxed beside him as they stepped into the elevator and took it down.
She brought her toes together, chewing on her nails and peering over at him. He smiled and softly spoke, “Do I intimidate you, Marinette?”
“N-no, not at all.” Marinette raised her hands and waved them. “Sorry, I just—I get nervous sometimes.” A blush warmed her cheeks and ran down her neck and along her shoulders beneath her dress.
“Me too,” Adrien softly smiled over at her when he heard the elevator beep, and the doors move.
He placed his hand on the door, keeping it open for her to step out. Adrien stepped out afterwards, using his cane to find his way. Marinette walked beside him and spotted Gorilla beside a silver car.
Gorilla grunted and opened the door, letting Adrien close his cane and feel along the door. He grabbed it and held it open for Marinette, letting her slide in first before getting in. She stared at him as the door was closed behind them.
“Where are we going to eat at?” Marinette swallowed hard, watching him pocket his cane in his suit coat and adjust the garment by its lapels.
“A small café down the way. My best friend owns it.” Adrien warmly smiled towards her, but something about it wasn’t genuine.
Marinette nodded, “Sounds nice.”
“He DJs there on the weekends at night. During the weekdays they serve coffee and the best sandwiches.” Adrien became excited talking about it.
Suddenly, the loud sound of crashing concrete and screams invaded Adrien’s ears. He touched the headrest of the seat in front of him, “Pull over so I can climb out and get Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng to safety.”
“Wait, Adrien!” Marinette went to protest as Gorilla pulled over to let Adrien out.
He hit a button on the side of his cane and elongated it, walking away from the car as Marinette was taken away from him. Her heart raced a mile a minute, as she turned to Gorilla with a frantic expression. “Pull over two blocks from here. I can head home from there. Thank you.”
She needed to stop whatever akuma was terrorizing the city along with find out where Adrien had gone.