Soulmate AU where any item you lose winds up with your soulmate.

Adrien hated mornings.

Between his father's photoshoots, school, his extracurriculars and his extra- extracurriculars waking up in general was never a pleasant experience. But there was something particularly needling about rolling over in his sleep only to be stabbed awake by a stray pin to his thigh.

His father's staff had long ago stopped checking on him when he yelped in pain.

Son of a bitch, he winced, rubbing at his bleeding skin. When Adrien finally met his soulmate they would be having words.

Of all the items to lose it just had to be needles.

A problem, really, as he frequently showed up to photo shoots with pin pricks and red scratches on his face. His father may be rich but there was only so much one could spend on band-aids.

And it wasn't just in his bed.

They were everywhere.

In his shoes, on his bench, in the shower.

After one particularly unfortunate incident involving his boxers Adrien made sure to inspect his clothes very carefully before putting them on.

Plagg thought it was hilarious.

Or rather, he'd thought it was hilarious until he was on the receiving end of a few stray needles of his own. He wasn't so amused after that.

"I'm a god not a pincushion," He yowled, pulling yet another needle from his paw. "You find this person. You find them soon or so help me-"

"Believe me, Plagg. No one wants this to stop more than me."

He'd tried asking Ladybug about it - an admittedly vain attempt at finding out if the love of his life was actually the love of his life - but it was a nonstarter.

"We can't talk about that stuff, Chat."

Which left Adrien back to where he started.

Unfortunate as he didn't even know where to begin to look. As a model who grew up with and around designers lost needles weren't exactly an uncommon problem.

He was literally looking for a soulmate in a needlestack.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" He groaned as he pulled yet another stray needle from his backpack. "This is absolutely ridiculous."

"Tough luck," Nino said, shooting his friend a sympathetic smile.

It wasn't fair. The worst Nino had to deal with was crumpled up papers and the occasional guitar pick. He didn't have to pull needles from his pillow case before going to sleep at night.

"Seriously, Agreste," Alix said, shooting him an exasperated glance across the empty hall as she slammed her locker shut. "If it bothers you so much why don't you just talk to her about it?"

Adrien scowled. "Gee, why didn't I think of that."

Alix rolled her eyes. "Then buy her a pincushion or something. Sure, Marinette will probably lose that too but–"

"What? " Adrien asked, his heart lurching up to his throat as he stared down his pink-haired classmate.

"Dude." Nino exhaled. "Dude. That makes so much sense. "

"You seriously didn't know?" Alix took in his confusion with disbelief. "It's so obvious."

No it wasn't. At least not to him.

At least not till now.

"Oh my god," He whispered. "Oh my god."

Adrien didn't have time to process this revelation before the locker room doors burst open and Marinette Dupain-Cheng came storming through, Alya trailing close behind.

"It's getting ridiculous," She huffed. "I don't even know where they go."

Alya smirked, patting her friend's arm consolingly. "I'm sure your soulmate is keeping them safe for you."

"Well I wish they'd give them back," She whined. "I'm bleeding money buying all these replacement needles."

That snapped him out of it.

"I have to disagree with you there," Adrien said, causing the two girls to whirl around. Marinette's eyes widened at his abrupt appearance as he stalked closer and closer and closer still until he was nearly pressing her back into the lockers. "If anyone here is doing the bleeding it's definitely me."

"A-Adrien?"

"I believe this belongs to you," He murmured, eyes roving over her rapidly reddening face as if seeing her for the first time. He reached for her hands, nervously clutched in front of her chest, and slowly unfurled them to return her most recent loss.

Marinette stared dumbly at the silver sewing needle in her palm before looking up to meet his smirking grin.

"You really need to invest in a pincushion."