"Here, Maribug. Drawstring pants." Adrien handed over the soft pants with a clean shirt. "Need help changing?"

Marinette blushed. "Um, the zipper? I can get it, but it's easier without help. If you don't mind. I'll figure it out if you do mind."

"You're acting like I don't do this all the time. Turn." He unzipped it halfway. "Can you get it from there?"

She reached behind her back to feel where it was. "I can, thanks."

"Hand it out so I can start soaking it." He closed his bedroom door behind himself, fully aware of the humor in the situation. He picked her up from her boyfriend's party, and now he had her undressing in his room.

The door opened a crack, and Marinette's hand with the dress popped out. "Thank you."

"No problem!" He took the dress and ran it under cold water while he read the instructions on the bottle.

Marinette came in while he was still reading and peeked at it over his shoulder. "Is this even in French?"

"The middle portion, yes. I think the other part's Korean. And English, of course. Wait, what does that say?"

She pointed to the words as she spoke. "Soak, spray, rub, soak, launder."

"Are you sure?"

"Adrien, it's right on the package. I'm pretty sure."

"If you say so." He sprayed the stain remover on and rubbed it in.

"No, circular motions. Like when you're putting foundation on." Mari demonstrated with her fingers.

Adrien stopped for a second. "I don't put it on. It gets put on me."

"Whatever. You still know how it works."

He huffed and rubbed it in circles.

"Have you even used this stuff before?"

"Yes. Once. My dad bought it when I complained about something not coming clean. He doesn't know why I do my own laundry, but he got it for me anyways. Actually, he probably told his assistant to find something and send it with his name on it. Wouldn't surprise me." Adrien started rinsing the stain.

Marinette frowned. "That's terrible, Adrien. I'm sorry."

"Eh, I'm used to it. I don't think he much approves of stuff I do, but he hasn't fired me, so there's that. Sometimes I'd like to quit, but it's a steady job, and it pays well. Overall, can't say that it's a bad gig. Do you think that's rinsed enough?"

"Probably. What do the directions say?"

Adrien squinted at the tiny letters. "I have no idea. I'm gonna call it fine. Cold water fine to wash it in?"

"You should always use cold if you're not sure about the stain. Heat sets it in. Yeah, ask me how I found that out." Marinette bent down and picked Plagg up, following Adrien to his washer. "How do you think I found that out? Huh?" She shifted his weight to just one arm so she could scratch his head. "How's that? Am I your new favorite? Or does Tikki still have a few points on me?"

Adrien stared at her for a moment. Even if he ignored that she was in his clothes—which was difficult, so difficult—he couldn't deny that there was something so stunning about her cuddling his cat and talking to him like he was more than just a fat, lazy animal.

"Okay, down you go. Making my arms hurt." She stretched a little as Adrien closed the door. "Your cat is freaking huge."

"I know. I've tried everything to help him get to a healthier weight, but he's really that fat. I wish I could say that it's muscle and give the poor guy some credit, but he's just fat. Yes, you are. No, don't argue. You almost broke Marinette."

She giggled. Adrien shook his head in disbelief and started the washer.

"It'll be like an hour before that's done. I can take you home in that, or you can hang around. Or you can leave. Whatever floats your boat."

"I'll hang around. I'm sure the party isn't even over anyway. Besides, Plagg's my new cuddle buddy." She flashed a smile and left to sit on the couch. Plagg jumped when she shifted her weight, settling when he saw who it was.

Adrien followed her, scooping Plagg into his own lap. "Other than the dip-saster, how was the party?"

Mari rolled her eyes. "Okay but weird. His family is super nice, and his friends are, too. August kept interrupting our conversations, which is strange. I know some of his work friends, just like he knew some of mine. I spent most of my time at the snack table because I got booted out of conversations every time he showed up. He liked his scarf, though. He even kissed me for it."

"That's nice."

Marinette nodded noncommittally. "It's odd that it was every time he came over. Like, dude, let me get to know your friends, too."

"Did you just call your boyfriend 'dude'?" Adrien stroked one finger along Plagg's chin.

"Shut up. I'm trying to make a point."

"Okay, okay. Point taken. It is weird, Mari. You need to watch out."

"He also called me 'my lady,' and I asked him not to because that's your nickname for me. Granted, I didn't give him a reason, but I asked him not to, and he got all upset with me. We practically had an argument in the street." She tugged her hair out of the braid she'd done and combed her fingers through it.

Adrien pressed his lips together and batted Plagg's paw. "You're freaking me out with this already, Marinette. That's not normal behavior."

Marinette stared at nothing while she formulated an answer. "It's one time. He was probably stressed about the party stuff."

"He shouldn't be yelling at you because he's stressed about something else."

"He didn't exactly yell, Adrien. He just got really nosy and a little mad when I didn't explain. No yelling was involved."

Plagg hopped off Adrien's lap and wandered off. "He still shouldn't be arguing with you if he's stressed. Not that we've never done that as friends, but it's not healthy, and you've known the guy a little over a week."

"Why does everybody keep bringing that up? We'll have known each other longer than that in no time, this will all be a forgotten instance—minus the dress incident—and we'll all get along." Marinette hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on one of them.

"If you say so."

"I do, Adrien. Oh my gosh, no wedding jokes!"

"But you brought it up!"

She poked his nose. "No. None."

He licked her finger, laughing when she shrieked.

"Ew! Adrien!" She wiped the finger on his knee and scooted away from him with a pout. "What was that for?"

"You poked my nose. Your finger was right there, waiting to be licked."

"That's gross, Adrien. I expected it from your cat, not from you."

"Plagg doesn't lick. He scratches."

"Whatever. Oh, Alya's calling." Marinette answered it. "Yeah?"

"Ladyblog. Now."

"Hold on, Alya. Putting you on speakerphone." Marinette switched over and started opening the Tumblr app. "Say hi."

"Hey, August!"

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Actually, it's Adrien. Wardrobe mishap, Mari's doing laundry here."

"What?"

"Someone ran into me and spilled dip on me. I left to get it taken care of, but August didn't let me drive there. Called Adrien because he wasn't far. Two seconds, Alya." Marinette swiped and pressed a few more buttons until she found the Ladyblog. "Son of a bitch, Al. Again? You called to tell me that?" She turned the screen toward Adrien so he could see the damage.

"The hell?" Adrien scrolled through the pictures, shaking his head.

"Hey, I got the sunset pictures you asked for. It just didn't have the complete artwork. The sunrise ones aren't bad, though."

"I have half a mind to stake it out and figure out who's doing it. This is uncalled for." Mari bounced her leg to diffuse some of the anger.

"Don't, Mari. That's not what we call a safe life choice."

"Alya's right. We really shouldn't mess with that."

"Are you suggesting that we sit here and do nothing? It's not right, Adrien."

"No, it's not right, but putting yourself in danger isn't going to be helpful, either."

"Then what do we do?"

Alya started typing, which could be heard over the phone. "Right now, nothing. I'll do more research on it—like I haven't already—and see what I can find. Surely Papillion has slipped up somewhere. We're pretty sure he did the one with the butterfly taking the ladybug, right?"

Plagg meowed and wandered back onto the couch.

"I'm pretty sure, Alya. The color they used for the purple in the butterfly is the same one they use all the time. It's a pretty rare color to sell. I doubt many people would buy it anymore unless they wanted that negative association. Ow, Plagg, quit it!" Adrien pried Plagg from his lap and settled him differently. "I understand that you're still upset with me for taking them from you, but that doesn't mean you should retaliate! Stupid cat."

Marinette giggled to herself. "Gee, why do you know so much about it?"

Alya was silent for a moment. "Adrien, do you know what the color's called?"

"Not specifically. I can find someone to ask. My paint guy probably knows. It's definitely in the cool purple family, definitely metallic. Probably purchased some time ago, based on the spray patterns."

Marinette opened and closed her mouth a few times while she searched for words. "You have a paint guy?"

"Don't you have a yarn person?"

"Well, yes, but you've never talked about your paint guy."

"It didn't come up."

"Marinette, is this what it feels like when you're on the phone with Nino and me? Because you two are ridiculous."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Look, I'll do research, I'll let you know what I find, and you can get home whenever you get out of Adrien's clothes. You are wearing clothes, right?"

"No, Alya. She's embracing her inner nudist." Adrien fought to keep the corner of his mouth down.

"Adrien! Yes, I'm definitely wearing clothes. Yes, they're Adrien's. You'd be complaining a lot more if I had my own clothes over here, by the way." Marinette pouted to Adrien.

"Either way, this is blackmail material. The blackest of blackmail."

"Shut up, Alya." Marinette hid her face in one hand despite Alya's need to keep talking.

"This will be great. 'Alya, can you do something for me?' 'Depends, do you remember that time you were dating August and ended up in Adrien's house in his clothes?' Oh, I can't wait to tell Nino!"

Adrien sat with a grin slowly spreading on his face.

"If you tell Nino, you're a dead woman. Or do you want me to tell Adrien everything I've heard from your accidental phone calls? Better yet, your sisters. All of them. Actually, no, just one of them, and I won't tell you which one, but they'll all slowly learn it from each other."

"You wouldn't."

"Watch me."

"I'll tell your mom about what happened at that sleepover before graduation."

"She already knows about that! Ha!"

Adrien interrupted them. "We get the point. It's blackmail! But don't share it with anybody else. Alya, didn't you want to start doing research?"

Plagg leaned over and meowed right into the phone.

"Plagg's right. You should probably get right on that. Let us know what you find, bye now." Adrien hung up on Alya despite her protests. "Sorry. Just wanted to get her back on track."

"It was a little rude, but thanks. We get distracted pretty easily."

"I hadn't noticed."

"Whatever. But can we have a serious conversation about this? Just the two of us."

"About what?"

Marinette pressed her lips together while she figured out what to say. "This whole Papillion debacle makes me want to stop doing yarnbombing. It makes me feel like my art isn't good enough, and I'm really considering quitting it altogether if we don't get this solved."

"I…wow. It makes sense, of course, but okay. I can't say that I blame you at all, but why?"

"I just put so much time into my pieces, and it's disheartening to have someone come along and destroy it every time I put it out there. It would be one thing if it were an animal, or because the piece was old, but it's been every time for a few months now. It's really upsetting."

"I can assure you that your art is good enough. We just have some jackass who wants to ruin our fun, that's all. I wouldn't blame you for quitting, though. I expect mine to get painted over, but I never thought this would happen to your stuff, too. I really wouldn't blame you."

She nodded slowly as his words sunk in. "I'll keep doing it for a little while, but I'll make no promises if this keeps happening to us. I'm not about to keep having my work destroyed."

—

A/N: Well, there's that. Sorry it's abrupt; I had no idea how to end it without it being an excessively long chapter in comparison to the rest. Thanks for reading! And thank you for all the lovely reviews! They really keep me going throughout the week. -wwot