Love Dies

Chapter 3

           A flood of memories rushed Marinette. The heap of reality burning away all that she had to convince herself that this wasn't happening. The old office she used to share with Adrien feeling a bit cramped and claustrophobic. Her desk remained unchanged aside from the fact it was blank, and Kagami had used it for the past few months. The tension remained dramatically high as Mari finally encouraged herself to sit down in the vacant seat across from, her ex.

"Took ya long enough." Adrien mentioned, before turning away from her and picking up the yellow envelop on his desk. Was this going to be their entire experience together for the next week at the least?

"For your information, I don't want to be here in this situation as much as you do."

"And how would you know how much I do or do not want you here Mari?" He had her there. Her tongue too tied up to respond. "Exactly."Adrien returned to the file, his attitude cold and distant. The mood was pretty predictable for him, but he also came around fairly quickly. He was just that forgiving. However, with the circumstances she could see why he would refuse to do so.

"So,what's the mission?"

"Escaped convict. Monica Denni, murdered her boyfriend in cold blood,suspected connections to Hawkmoth."

"Nothing I haven't done before." Marinette spoke up, reaching out and taking the file from the man.

"Confident are we?"

"Shut up Agreste."

"You realize that the last case that was escaped convict, we did together right?" She didn't respond, choosing to shoot him a glance from the corner of her eye instead. Mari remembered the case he was referring too fondly. They had to recapture a novice jewel thief. The challenge was that he was a master escape artist. By the end it came down to Marinette's lucky charms and Adrien's cat like stealth that put the man away. Of course, Adrien being the jokester that he was snuck upon her for weeks afterwords. Though at the time, it had been a nuisance, looking back it was a pretty entertaining time in their history. Now a days, that was obviously different. To avoid the memory further, Marinette immersed herself into the case folder.There was a reason that the two were exes. Thankfully, Adrien turned his back to her, giving Marinette a peace of mind to truly focus on the case. Well, so she thought. When she peeked over at him again,she found herself distracted by him. No matter how long ago it was and the history between them, the young Agreste would always be attractive. He was her high school crush way back when for goodness sake! The model figure, the moderate muscling, the blonde hair, and piercing green eyes were something she was never going to wipe from her mind. On top of that, he was sweet and funny. Not that she would ever admit that to him. Dah! What are you thinking Marinette!?He's your ex. You can't still love him. Don't even think about taking him back. Your partners for this mission, and then it's back to avoiding him at all costs.

"Marinette......Marinette.......Marinette!"Snapping from her thoughts, Mari swiveled back to face her partner."Have you found anything?"

"Oh...uh...she was housed in London."

"Looks like we're going to London then." Adrien hoisted himself up out of his seat and made his way towards the entrance of the cubicle.

"Where are you going!?"

"Relax,Bugaboo, I'm just going to go get our tickets. They're not in the file, so they're probably in one of our mailboxes." His response was poised and defensive. Almost, as if he was ready for her to shout at him. The nickname gave her whiplash, as soon as she realized it had come out of his mouth. A shiver shooting up her spine in response to the cold harsh recollection of it.

"I'm not stupid Chat!"

"I never said you were LB." Again with the nickname! Before Marinette could retort further, Adrien took off down the hallway. Gosh, he was frustrating! Time ticked away slowly as the day continued. By the end of their shift, and the second that the clock chimed ten-thirty p.m., Marinette hastily gathered her things and made a be-line for the parking lot. Today, definitely had not gone to plan. Her red Mercedes sat alone in its space. The echo of her heels clicking on the cement rang in her ears, as she blocked out every other noise. Her determination to get home to her apartment evident. The figure fitting red dress she wore tightening 'round her with every step. As if the tears of stress she was feeling were not even enough to choke her on their own. Breathe Marinette. Breathe.Was she really about to cry? For what!? Woman up Marinette.This is nothing that you can't handle. Unfortunately, Mari had no control of her tear ducts, and the tears began to slowly drip down her face. Taking a quivering breath, Mari tried to regain control, the tear that fell reaching her lips.

"Mari!"He hadn't!? Adrien's voice expanded over the lot. His shout brought her to an immediate halt. How or why, Marinette wasn't sure, but chose to chalk it up to instinct. Quickly wiping the tear from her face, Mari turned to face her partner. A defiant smirk prevalent on her face. Adrien appeared winded and urgent. He was hunched over his knees, breathing heavily, his bright green tie hanging freely, giving the impression that he had chased her down.

"What do you want Adrien? I want to go home."

"Well,I....I just....uh.....I..." He straightened up, his arm reaching out to her as he struggled to find the words.

"Spit it out Agreste."

"I just wanted to make sure that you knew that our train leaves at nine a.m. tomorrow." It took him a second, but Adrien collected himself,and spoke with a fronted confidence. Marinette didn't believe him for a moment, but after reading Adrien's body language all day, Marinette refused to do anymore and thought no more of what it could have meant. She nodded with a sigh, before turning on her heels and heading for the driver's door. Once, she sat down, Marinette felt a release of everything that had stacked up to this point. For the past twenty-four hours Mari was struck with memory after memory of history with her partner. Trying to keep them buried had been a struggle. She placed the keys in the ignition, before falling back in the seat, her head hitting the back of the head rest. Now was not the time to cry. Marinette was sure that Adrien was still aware of her presence. She needed to go home. The silence of the drive was deafening. The endless cycle of her past being recalled, sending her into turmoil and her desire to lay on her bed that much stronger. Marinette was hardly in the door of her apartment before she let herself go. Streams of hot tears flowed down her cheeks. By the time she made it to her bedroom and flopped on her bed, she felt drained. Not bothering to remove her heels and clutching her pillow to her chest,she cried till she couldn't anymore. Why was this her reality!? Adrien had returned to her life! She couldn't do this again! Not again. During their time together, he was her everything. After they split, she had to convince herself that she didn't love him anymore. Marinette couldn't digress from that now. There was no way that she could take him back. The longer she laid on her bed, the more her heart and her brain battled it out. She couldn't love him anymore.Mari couldn't put herself in that fire again. Relationships between agents proved to never go right when she was involved. She wasn't going to test that again with Adrien Agreste. After this mission,they were separating for the second time. Marinette couldn't get attached to him, he wasn't going to stick around. No, she wasn't going to stick around, and that was going to be that. She didn't love him. She couldn't love him. Hoping to relieve herself of the situation further before tomorrow, Marinette refocused her energy to packing her bags. The twenty year old took her time, examining each garment and folding it just so into her bag. This of course, wasn't something that she usually did. Mari was the kind of girl that just shoved random outfits into her bag and hoped that she had enough to last her the time she was away. What compelled her to do it this way,she hadn't the slightest idea. Hopefully, for the agency's sake, she and Adrien were able to solve this case easily. Cause starting tomorrow, no one was getting out of here unscathed from a massive headache and the onslaught of arguments that were destined to appear within the next week. Regardless, how everyone else felt, this was going to be one heck of a ride.