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It had been going on for three weeks now and Tim was getting annoyed. There was a back corner table in his favorite coffee shop that was perfect to sit at and work on both WE paperwork and cases. No one could sneak up on him or look at things over his shoulder, it was secluded but still had plenty of light, and the baristas left the table alone since it was clearly being used by people who didn’t want to be bothered. It was the perfect table, and it had been taken by some girl with blue hair again .
This was the fourth time this week he had gotten here after her and he very nearly went straight to the table instead of ordering first just to get it before she went to sit down. That would have been in poor taste though. The two of them had been getting there earlier and earlier trying to beat the other ever since he realized what was happening.
From what Tim could gather she was a student nearby and her class got out with enough time that she got to the shop about the same time he got here from leaving his midday meetings. This meant that about half the time he was standing in line at the same time she was. Tim was hyper aware of her and knew her order almost as well as he knew his own. So while he waited for her to order he thought about trying her drink. It didn’t have as many shots as his, but it did have more sugar and a sugar rush might help him too.
Then she did something unexpected. “Eight shots of espresso and a dash of cream please.”
That was his drink. That was the drink he ordered every single day. That meant she had to be as aware of him as he was of her right? That meant that she was stealing his table on purpose! It wasn’t just a one sided annoyance, she was doing this to him. Oh, he would show her! Two could play this game!
“The usual?” The barista asked him and he jumped a little and looked back. Since he was watching the blue haired girl so intently he hadn’t realized that the guy in front of him had finished ordering
He saw her smirk at him from his table and he gave the barista his full attention. “Actually today I want to try something different. Can I get five shots with extra cream, whipped cream, and a drizzle of salted caramel?”
The barista cracked a small smile and finished writing out his order. “Coming right up.”
He paid for his drink and then went to sit at a table that gave him a good view of his table and glared at the girl while she smirked and sipped at her coffee.
The same barista brought his drink over and smiled. “I also have a note for you.” She handed him an index card. “She said if you ordered her drink then I should give this to you.”
“Oh, thank you.” He accepted the card, read it, and then glared at the girl again.
The barista was still standing there awkwardly and finally cleared their throat. “We’re all dying to know, what does it say?”
Tim turned the note over and showed them. They laughed and then said something walking away. He was far too preoccupied with coming up with a plan to care.
This means war
-MDC
---
It had been a week since he had read her note and Marinette was having the time of her life. Stealing the corner table of the little cafe was officially the highlight of her afternoons. After leaving her business class a little after twelve-thirty she would come to this cafe and order her drink and see if she beat the tired boy with the clear blue eyes to her table. It had started as something that she didn’t notice, but when he shot her a glare a couple of times the week that her class let out early she realized that they had been trading off the table for a while. It was just fun now that they were both in on the little game.
Marinette wanted to up her game and so today she came prepared. It was Friday and she knew that the guy usually got there a little early, so she was leaving class early to get there well before him.
“Hi, Marinette!” Vyse greeted. They were Marinette’s favorite barista.
“Hey, Vyse! How are you today?”
“Excited to see this play out.” They laughed quietly. “Still planning on going through with it?”
Marinette kept talking to them while another worker made her drink. “You said I could use the outlet and he’s usually here for hours on Fridays. I wanna wait him out.”
“You really think he’ll come talk to you?”
“He will when he sees this.” She turned her phone with the sketch of the shirt she was working on pulled up.
“You’re making that?” They gasped at the intricate planning for embroidery.
“Embroidery assignment for class. Had to pick at least three words and an object. I’m guessing at his size based on seeing him every day this week. I’m gonna go get set up. Give him my note if he doesn’t come over before getting his second drink?”
“Yeah, yeah I will.”
Marinette set up her portable sewing machine and got out the fabric she had pre-cut out for today. It was a soft yellow shirt with brown and cream for the embroidery, it was going to be gorgeous.
“Tikki, you’re sure you have the machine running quietly now?” She whispered to the goddess while she finished setting up.
“As quiet as a mouse, Marinette,” she responded.
Marinette hadn’t been working long before she felt the eyes on her. She was putting the sleeves on when he sat down at the table he always picked when she got there first. The shirt was constructed and she had just finished switching the machine to embroidery mode when he walked over.
“You left another note?”
She turned off the machine and looked up to smile at him. “I did.”
“You wanted my attention?” he asked, giving her a look.
“I’m proposing a truce.” She waved to the other side of the table. “There is plenty of room, and we both clearly want privacy. Why not share?”
He looked cryptically at the other side of the table. “You would share?”
Marinette smiled again. “Even while sewing I only use half the table, and I’ve seen you work, you also stay contained to just part of the table. Why not share?”
He blinked twice and then held out a hand. “My name is Tim.”
She shook his hand. “I’m Marinette.”
“The things I work on are very… secret.”
“My designs are copyrighted, I can respect your secrets if you’ll respect mine.”
He gave her another calculating look and then turned around to his table. “I’ll be right back.”
Within just a few moments he walked back over holding his bag and laptop. Vyse had come by and dropped off his drink and Marinette’s third drink of the afternoon.
“That was surprisingly good when I tried it,” he commented on her drink as she lifted it to sip at it.
She smirked at him. “You should add more cream to your drink. It’s just a tad too bitter to be drunk in one go.”
“I don’t usually chug it,” he responded.
They worked next to each other in silence for the next couple of hours. Marinette was finishing the last bit off by hand when she looked up and saw the divider he had set up between them, apparently whatever he was looking at was super secret. She didn’t mind though, just meant that she was trusted enough to not knock over the divider.
She finished up sewing her name into the bottom hem and then looked at him. “I made you something.”
He startled a little and looked at her. It was like he had forgotten she was even there while he was so engrossed in his paperwork. “What?”
“I made you something. I will need to get a few pictures of it still, but I wanted to give it to you today.” she held out the folded long sleeve shirt.
“You made me a shirt?” He asked as he accepted it.
“It might be a little big, I was guessing at your measurements.” She explained.
He unfolded it and then laughed. “Oh my god! My brother is going to laugh at me so hard.”
“I thought it was fitting.”
“So you think it’s true?” He leaned close into her space.
She giggled and pushed him back by the nose. “Play your cards right and it might be.” The playful banter was familiar and made her just a smidge homesick. “Well, I have to go. My personal number is on the back of my card.”
---
Tim smiled as he put on his favorite shirt. He had played his cards right and had indeed fulfilled the shirt that his now girlfriend had made him. It read ‘ Enemies to lovers? In my coffee shop AU?’ and he had never loved anything more.
Marinette laughed and tried to shove him back towards his room. She had met him at his apartment since they would be going to pick up her friends from the airport together. “You can’t wear that!”
“Why not? It looks good on me!” He led her out of the apartment and locked the door behind him.
She laughed and went to push the button on the elevator. “Adrien will never let me live it down when he finds out we’re a coffee shop au!”
Tim laughed and joined her in the elevator. “But the enemies to lovers is fine?”
“He can’t judge on that one! He and his boyfriend started the same way. Well, they were rivals, but same thing,” she responded.
Tim leaned down and kissed her then smirked. “Well, then this will be fun.”
---
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you met at a coffee shop!” were the first words out of Adrien’s mouth when he saw the two of them waiting by the gate. He scooped her up in his arms and spun her around. “I missed you bugaboo.”
“I missed you too Kitty. Now let me down so I can introduce you to my boyfriend.”
Adrien placed her on the ground and then started laughing. “Oh my god. Chloé is going to die!” he reached out a hand to shake Tim’s and tried to control his laughter. “It’s good to see you again man.”
Tim was smiling and shook his hand. “Marinette, you didn’t tell me your best friend is Adrien Agreste .”
“You know each other?” She looked between the two of them confused.
They walked to the car and Adrien was the one to answer. “My mom was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne’s. We used to go to the Christmas Gala he threw every year.”
“And obviously my parents were wealthy Gothamites, so I was going to the galas even before becoming a Wayne myself,” Tim added in his part.
Adrien smiled. “We used to play when our parents weren’t paying attention. And when my mom would convince Chloé’s parents to let us take her she would join us. So we’ve been friends for a long time.”
“Sooo, coffee shop au, huh?” He poked Marinette in the side from the back seat.
“You can’t say shit Mr. there was only one bed!”
Tim started laughing and Adrien went white. “That’s how my brother got together with his boyfriend. They went on a… work trip and there was only one bed. You should be meeting him this week Mari. Dick said he was bringing him for family dinner Wednesday to meet everyone.”
Marinette looked right at Adrien and then looked between him and Tim. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”
Adrien groaned and sank further into the seat. “I forgot he was a Wayne.”
Marinette and Adrien started talking as though Tim wasn’t sitting in the driver’s seat. “You cannot!”
“It wasn’t a bad idea at the time! His family is all on teams too! I didn’t expect him to be your boyfriend’s brother.”
“You’re revealing my identity though!”
“No, I think you just did that bugaboo.”
“Shit!”
Tim had stopped the car at her apartment and was staring at her. “You’re Ladybug.”
“Please tell me you’re not Red Hood,” she whispered from behind her hands.
“That’s Jason.”
Marinette sank to the floor of the car and just laid there half in her seat half on the floor. “Leave me here to die, please."
“No can do. B is gonna need a full debrief and that includes knowing that Ladybug isn’t dead like we were led to believe.”
“It’s a convenient cover story!”
“Yes it is, but it’s still something that someone in the league is going to want to know.”
“Diana knows.” Adrien piped in from her now-open door. He had gathered his suitcase and was now waiting for her to get out of the car.
“Dinner will be interesting,” Tim said when they got into her apartment... “Jason is going to love this. I’ll have to make sure he’s there.”
“You don’t have to tell Bruce.”
“I really do Mari. How would you feel if Adrien didn’t tell you when he knew about Nightwing?” he asked her.
“Point taken…” she grumbled out.
“Come on, it really won’t be that bad.” Tim smiled and kissed her softly. “Trust me. It’s us against the world.”
“Yeah, us against the world.” She smiled and kissed him back.
Wednesday would come, but for now, it was just them showing her best friend around her adoptive city, and nothing could be better. Even Batman couldn’t stop them.