AN - Based on the comic from Ceejles on tumblr. It's so cute, I just had to write something based on it.

After a year away, Adrien was finally back in Paris and starting school again. Marinette couldn't wait to see the little twerp.

"He's going to be so upset when he sees how I'm even taller now," she said to Alya as they waited outside for school to start. She'd grown another half inch to be exact and was ready to lord it over him.

"You guys are weird." Alya leaned against the railing at the top of the steps, then looked hard at her, brows slightly scrunched. "Have you seen him lately?"

"No. I haven't even talked to him." She'd been spending all her free time working in the bakery and babysitting to earn cash for a new sewing machine. "Why?"

"Nothing." Alya grabbed her phone and stared at it. "Absolutely nothing."

Well, that wasn't suspicious at all. Just as Marinette opened her mouth to hound her friend, someone called her name, cutting through the din of all the students talking and laughing. The person had sounded familiar with a voice like Adrien's but deeper. And it did funny things to her stomach.

Her gaze darted around the clumps of students hanging out in the courtyard. No one was trying to get her attention, though. A group of kids walked up the steps, but they were focused on each other. She bit her lower lip.

"I could've sworn I heard my name."

Without looking up from her phone, Alya said, "You did. They're here. Nino just texted me."

The group shifted and she caught sight of Nino getting out of a car with...Adrien? She nearly dropped her book bag. Not only had he grown up, but he was now insanely, stupidly hot. She swallowed hard.

Where were his chubby cheeks, scrawny figure, and stubby legs? He was all broad shoulders, hard jaw, and—she compared Adrien to those near him. There was no getting around it. He was tall.

The two boys moved toward them. Adrien's green eyes held a mischievous glint that were fixed on her as if she were the only other person there. One corner of his mouth curved upward and part of her wanted to bolt.

'If I grow taller than you, you'll marry me, right?'

The question, spoken in Adrien's younger voice, repeated in her head, growing louder and louder, spinning around and around, her heart racing, cheeks warming.

The trapdoor to Marinette's bedroom flew open with a bang that startled her. She practically jumped out of her chair.

"Hey, Mari. Guess what?" Adrien asked as he climbed inside, banging his shin on the last step as he usually did.

Her heart settled to its normal rhythm and she went back to writing in her journal. "What?"

He plopped onto her desk, making her pens rattle and books shake. "I'm gonna be a model."

"Not with that bandage on your face." She smiled at the pink spreading across his cheeks. "Were you trying to be a superhero again?"

He stuck his tongue out at her, and she did the same back to him.

"Maybe when you're a big shot model you can wear my designs," she said. She had loads of notebooks filled with her ideas.

All silliness left his face. "I'd have to ask my dad first."

That was probably a no then. Mr. Agreste didn't like anyone. She wasn't even sure if he liked his own son. Which was just sad. Sure, Adrien was loud and annoying—he was a boy, after all—but he was also sweet and would give someone his lunch if they'd forgotten theirs. It was why she always brought extra food from the bakery to school.

She caught him staring at her journal and slammed it shut.

His gaze flew to hers and she couldn't stop a blush from popping up. Rather than letting him think she was embarrassed, she narrowed her eyes at him, then stood to put away her journal. It was better if he thought she was angry.

She'd been writing down everything her future husband had to be: kind like her father, funny, cute, and taller than her. With him barging in and being all nosy, she didn't get to add older to the list. All the boys her age were shorter than her and had made it clear that it wasn't a good thing.

oOoOo

"Wow, look at you all fancy," Marinette said to Adrien after he came out of the model's dressing area. He was in a perfectly fitted, dark formal suit for the wedding themed photo shoot. "They even put a flower on your lapel."

He looked at her funny, clearly not understanding what she'd said.

Sighing, she stood from her spot on the floor, out of the way of everyone running around, and walked to him. She touched the folded over cloth of his dress coat. "These things."

"Oh."

She beamed, happy with sounding smart. "I'll try not to laugh as you pose."

"Good. 'Cause my dad said you can't come with me anymore if you're a distraction."

Something tightened around her chest, but she ignored it. "I'm not promising I won't laugh later."

"Yeah. Yeah." He stepped back and stood straighter. "Do I look dashing?"

"Dashing?" she asked with a chuckle. What was he? Eightie?

"That's what I was told to go far. That and distinguished." He gave her a serious face with eyes that sparkled.

"You don't even know what distinguished means."

He waved a hand at her like that part didn't matter. "But you think I'm cute, right?"

"Cute?"

He nodded.

"I...I don't know. Maybe." She hadn't really ever thought about him in that way, but he did look sorta cute all dressed up.

His gaze on her narrowed, but then he grinned and walked away with a bounce in his step.

Boys were weird.

After the photo shoot, Adrien came back to her in his normal clothes. For a moment he just stood there, staring at her. Was he expecting her to start in on the jokes?

She struggled to come up with one, except he shot to his tiptoes and stretched out an arm as high as it would go above her head. "So, if I grow taller than you like this, you'll marry me, right?"

The little fake wedding must have messed with his head.

"Right?" he pressed

Oh, he was just trying to beat her to the jokes.

She crossed her arms. "How 'bout we see if the time actually comes, shortie?"

That was a pretty good come back, but he didn't really react. Instead, he just looked more urgent. "And if it does, you'll marry me?"

She laughed at his antics and said, "Yeah. Sure."

Since that day, they'd made it a game to compare their height, even marking one of her walls every month. He'd never come close to her and now...now he was nearly a head taller.

Out of the corner of her mouth, she asked Alya, "How come you didn't tell me he'd grown so much?"

"He asked me not to." She shrugged at Marinette's wide-eyed expression. "Well, he asked Nino to ask me, and you know..."

"Yeah, yeah. You can't say no to Nino." Under her breath, she added, "Couple of love sick puppies."

"Girl, I heard that."

Adrien moved toward her with the grace of a panther stalking its prey, eyes still fixed on her. She couldn't breathe under the weight of his stare. Which was crazy. He was just Adrien. Goofy, clumsy Adrien. And he very likely had forgotten about the promise—joke. It had all just been a big joke between a couple of kids.

"Besides," Alya continued, "he mentioned wanting today to be a surprise. And you like surprises."

Her heart thumped once before trying to beat its way out of her chest. Oh god, he remembered.

Nino nudged Adrien with an elbow and said something before breaking away to rush to Alya. They hugged and maybe kissed, probably spoke to each other, but she was too focused on Adrien to pay attention to her friends.

He stepped to her, barely leaving an inch between them. His warmth and soft cologne surrounded her, making her insides twist and turn.

Her cheeks warmed, no burned. She tried to think of anything besides him: the history exam she wasn't ready for. Why did he have to smell so good? Her sewing machine should be coming in any day. Why hadn't she ever noticed how mesmerizing his green eyes were?

He placed a hand over her head the same height as him and said, "Do you see me now?"

She looked away, wishing she could turn to water and evaporate to thin air. She was already halfway there. Her bones were liquefying and she was on fire.

"I'm also kind," he said while taking her book bag. She nearly fell over from the sudden loss of its weight. "Some say I'm kinda cute." That was an understatement. "Oh, and I just found out I'm colorblind."

Her gaze flew to him. "Wha. Whap. Wart." Oh my god, she couldn't talk. What was wrong with her?

He nodded, unfazed by her strange behavior. "The diagnosis came completely out of the purple."

One of her brows lifted. Surely he'd meant blue.

He grinned, the very same one from years ago when he was up to something. Why was he trying to be funny and pointing out that he was kind and cute?

'If I grow taller than you, you'll marry me, right?'

Kind, funny, cute and tall. That little twerp had read her list from her journal.

Buoyed by indignation, she placed her hands on her hips and said, "That wasn't very funny."

He hooked an arm around one of hers and led her to the front doors of their school. "Well, I have plenty more to try."

She would've groaned, but the dork was touching her and she was busy trying to remember how to walk and breathe and not stare at him like he was the cutest boy she'd ever seen.

He winked at her, and she tripped.

What had she gotten herself into?

AN2 - Thanks for reading! And thanks to my beta, my lovely sister!