Chapter Twenty-Eight: Jingle Bells.

Marinette's new hairstyle makes Adrien combust and they brave the lion's den and tell Nino and Alya about their new relationship.

Saturday 28th December 2019. 9.35 a.m. Marinette's home.

Marinette finished pinning the last piece of green ribbon in place and stood back to admire her new hairstyle. "What do you think Tikki?"

She was actually fairly impressed with it. This was her first time catching up with Alya and Nino since before Christmas and if that wasn't exciting enough Adrien had managed to get permission to come with them. They were going to have a belated Christmas celebration, just the four of them, and Nino had already promised to order a junk food take-away so they could ruin Adrien's diet in style.

It was going to be amazing!

That was why she wanted to do something different with her style. She was in her newest creation, a bright red Christmas jumper with white snowflakes that oddly enough matched the blanket that she had received from her boyfriend in a bizarre coincidence, but it hadn't seemed festive enough. She'd rifled through her desk drawers for some inspiration and eventually stumbled across some festive green ribbon and some tiny golden bells.

Perfect.

She'd tied the ribbons around her pigtails, with two bells on each bunch of hair, and attached a fifth one to a longer loop of ribbon to wear as a necklace. She loved the sound they made, jingling merrily every time she moved. It was wonderfully festive now.

Tikki didn't seem to share her opinion though. Not with the way she was smirking. "I think you're going to kill him and he will love you for it."

"Huh?"

"The look you've gone for."

Marinette pouted. "What's wrong with it? I think it looks nice."

Try as she might she couldn't see anything wrong when she looked at herself in the mirror again. Her pigtails were even and tied tightly, the ribbons weren't loose, her jumper fit perfectly as all of her own creations did, she was wearing thick jeans and fuzzy socks and not her pyjama pants, and even her make-up was good. She looked great! What was Tikki talking about?

Tikki sighed and shook her head in a fond way, the way Marinette often saw her mother look at her. "You're in his colours," the tiny goddess pointed out. Marinette still couldn't see the issue but Tikki wasn't done talking. "You'll be lucky if he doesn't jump you."

Marinette choked.

Tikki smirked again. "Or should that be, you'll get lucky if he does jump you?"

"Tikki!"

"I'm just saying!" she sing-songed and giggled.

Marinette huffed, sure that her blush matched her jumper by now. When did her sweet little kwami turn into this sassy monster? "Well you can stop saying and start hiding. We're going to be late!"

Tikki giggled but zipped over to Marinette's desk and began pulling on her think winter coat, boots and mittens. Marinette took a moment to admire the fit of her smallest creations. She had struggled to make them kwami sized but she was more than happy with the result and all of the pinpricks were worth it.

Marinette stepped into her own pair of boots and grabbed her coat and scarf off the back of her chair where she had set them out when planning her outfit. She wouldn't put them on just yet, not when she had to stop in the excessively warm bakery to say goodbye to her parents and grab some cookies for Tikki, but they really were running late so she didn't want to waste time by having to go back up and get them. The walk over to Nino's home usually took about twenty minutes so if she wanted to be on time she needed to leave now.

"Whoa!"

"Adrien!"

Marinette had run downstairs, turned the corner out of the kitchen, and nearly crashed right into her boyfriend who was just coming in through the front door. She should have known her silly kitten would have come to pick her up.

Though with the way he was looking at her now, leaving was the absolute last thing on his mind.

Marinette could feel herself blush again. Maybe she should have listened to Tikki. The soft little giggle escaping from her bag didn't help matters much either…

… but, she really couldn't lie to herself, there was a part of her that was undeniably pleased with the stunned and adoring look on his face right now. He was staring at her like he had forgotten how to do anything else, slack-jawed in surprise, and a gaze full of worship and warmth. She definitely liked it.

Much as she wanted to bask in his adoration they did have somewhere to be.

"Kitten?"

She could see Adrien try and pull himself back together again. He opened his mouth but nothing came out, swallowed, and tried again. "You… you look…" he gave a shaky sigh and huffed out a laugh. "Princess you're killing me!"

Marinette bit her lip. "Is it ok?"

"More than ok!" he nodded emphatically, before reaching out and flicking the bell on her necklace and listening to it jingle. He smirked then, all Chat Noir. "You look damn good now, ma minette."

Marinette scoffed. "Silly kitty. Come on now, we need to get going."

She pushed herself up on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss, fully intending for it to be a brief hello, then pull him down to the bakery and hurry to get to Nino's. She should have listened to Tikki.

His hands came up to cup her cheeks as soon as their lips touched, and the purr that rumbled out of his chest had her melting against him. One of his hands slipped into her hair, she could tell her was being very careful not to damage the ribbons and bells that had ensnared him so, but then he angles her head to better lock their lips together and rational thought bacme a thing of the past.

Marinette was barely aware of the wall she found pressed to her back. She was barely aware of the hand that drifted down to settle in the curve of her waist. She was barely aware of her own arms coming up to hold him closer to her. All she could focus on was him. The warmth of him, the rumble of his purr, and the way his lips brushed so tenderly and sweetly over hers.

Adrien is just as consumed with her as she is with him and he only pulls back from her sweet embrace when the need to breathe becomes stronger than the need to be with her. He felt a thrum of satisfaction when he saw the flush on her cheeks.

He huffed out a laugh at hed his forehead rest against hers. "Thank god your dress for the gala isn't green. I'd have made a complete fool of myself over you all evening."

She blushed, nodded, then straightened up and scowled at him. "And how do you know what colour my dress is? Did you- did you peek?"

"No, no," he chuckled. She was so adorable when she was outraged. "Tikki gave me a swatch a few days ago so I could find something to match you."

"You… you want to match me?"

"Princess, I want the whole world to know that I am yours."

When she gaped up at him, he realised that he had been so distracted by seeing her in his colours, and who could blame him for that when she was such a glorious sight, that he had completely forgotten to tell her the good news he had arrived with. Whoops. Time to remedy that.

"I talked with father this morning," he started gently. "He was greatly concerned about the fact that I facetimed you, a girl, for most of Christmas day, and he tried to give me the talk."

"No!"

"Yes." Adrien closed his eyes, trying to burn that horrifying memory from his brain. "I stopped him before he could traumatise me though. Once I told him that you were my girlfriend, and then yelled at him for his accusations of you using me for your career-" he couldn't help the scowl that crossed his face then. Even hours after that argument it still burned him. The same anger shone in her eyes. "-but after a lengthy talk, an explanation of our relationship, and a lot of ground rules being set down by him, ones I fully intend to ignore by the way, I now have his permission to date you providing we do nothing to interfere with my image too much." Adrien snorted again. "He's an idiot if he thinks something as insignificant as his permission would keep me away from you."

"Really?" she breathed, stunned.

Adrien just smirked. "Technically speaking I'm not supposed to be here with you right now. I'm not allowed in your home, alone with you, like this."

A cackle sounded from his jacket pocket. "Kid, you ain't alone! Go for it!"

Marinette burst out laughing at that, and Adrien could hear an echo from her bag. "Naughty kitty," she shook her head before pressing a sweet kiss to the corner of his mouth. "Just be careful with these rules though, okay? Now we'd better get going or we will be late!"

He rolled his eyes. "We do have a shortcut, you know?" he waved the hand bearing his miraculous.

She wouldn't hear of it though, instead pulling him down the stairs and out of the bakery and setting off on a quick walk to Nino's home - after grabbing a handful of cookies and a loaf of cheese bread for their kwami.

Adrien was still annoyed from his talk with his father that morning, and quite honestly he still didn't know how he didn't cataclysm the man's office after those cruel and cutting words, but by some miracle he had been able to stand his ground and successfully argue back against him. He still didn't know what he said to make Gabriel pause and consider his words but it had worked. So long as they behaved well in public so that no sleazy paparazzo could spin a ridiculous story about them, and so long as they comported themselves with decorum if they ever represented the brand together, Gabriel had no objections to them dating right now.

Adrien was determined to make sure it stayed that way. Marinette was his love, his future, his everything. If Gabriel didn't like that, then tough.

He felt Marinette slip and arm around his waist and saw her looking up at him with concern. Adrien wrapped his own arm around her shoulders and forced himself to relax.

Why on earth was he thinking about Gabriel when he had the most wonderful girl in the world in his arms?

He should be thinking about all the fun they were going to have at Nino's. It was going to be a belated Christmas party, just the four of them, and Nino had already told him that his mums had left him some money for a decidedly non-model-diet-approved take-away before they went to work that morning. It was going to be great. Especially now that they could admit that they were dating - it didn't matter if Alya screamed it from the rooftops now that Gabriel had agreed.

By the time they got to Nino's he had a bright and happy smile on his face. This was going to be amazing!

Nino had the door open before they'd even rung the doorbell and was pulling him into his arms in an excited hug. Alya squealed and did the same to Marinette. They tumbled inside the door, laughing, giggling, and talking a mile a minute at they tried to catch up on everything that had happened since they had seen each other at the snowball fight.

Nino took them into the living room, pointing out things like the kitchen and the bathroom even though everyone had been there at least once before - and Adrien would treasure the memory of sneaking out to play video games with Nino forever - before collapsing on the sofa with Alya and pointing at the comfy chair with a cheeky grin.

"Me and my girl want to snuggle up," he wrapped an arm around Alya' shoulder when he sat next to him, also wearing a teasing smile. "So we hope you don't mind the comfy chair. It can fit two, but it's a little bit of a squeeze."

It was a blatantly obvious set-up but it was also the perfect opportunity to tease them back. How could he resist?

Adrien smiled. "I don't mind at all."

He sat in the chair, deliberately spreading out, before grabbing Marinette's hand and pulling her into his lap. She was shaking with the effort of containing her giggles and he just chuckled at her and kissed her forehead, flicking one of her pigtail bells playfully.

He smiled at the shocked expressions he was getting. "You're right, bro. It's very comfortable."

"Wha- wha- wha-" Nino stammered out, staring at them in blank incomprehension.

"What the-" Alya was just as shocked but she managed to snap out of it faster. Her screeche could have shattered glass. "Marinette no-middle-name Dupain-Cheng you have got some explaining to do girl!"

Marinette just smiled and snuggled further into his arms. "Can't a girl snuggle with her boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend!"

The screech their friends let out was practically inhuman and Adrien could hold back his laughter anymore. "Yes," he confirmed, tilting Marinette's head towards him for a soft kiss. "Her boyfriend."

Alya choked and Nino let out a whine of pure frustration before, as one, they grabbed the scatter cushions off the sofa and leapt over the coffee table at their friends. Adrien tucked Marinette's head against him and raised a hand to protect himself from the attack as best he could, laughing hysterically at the sheer outrage in their friends' voices.

"Dude! Dude!" Nino gave him a few good whacks with the cushion before dropping it and gesticulating wildly with his hands. "You so suck! Weeks of effort, weeks, and you don't even tell me when you ask her out! Dude! You suck but I am so happy for you right now!"

"And you!" Alya screeched, hitting Marinette with the pillow and making her bells jingle. "You promised-" a blow to the legs "-that you would-" a blow to the arms "-tell me-" her back "-the very second-" and whack to the head "-that something-" another strike "-anything-" she accidentally got Adrien that time "-happened!"

Marinette could barely speak for laughing. "Oops?"

"Oops? Oops!" she screamed and went to town with the pillow again, and Adrien could hear the bells jingling wildly before he snatched the cushion from Alya and threw it behind him. Alya just huffed. "Girl its a good thing I love you and I am so super happy for you now! But why didn't you tell us!"

Adrien had forgotten about Nino's cushion though. Once Nino saw his girlfriend had been disarmed he picked his own weapon back up and started hitting Adrien, much to his annoyance and Marinette's laughter. "We actually-" he blocked a blow "-we couldn't-" Nino caught him twice and Adrien grabbed his cushion and threw it away with a huff. "Okay, okay, truce! Truce!"

Nino and Alya shared a look before nodding and returning to their seats on the sofa. "Okay, but you so owe us deets!"

"We'll tell them if you let us speak - and no interruptions!"

They quickly agreed to that and Adrien gave a relieved sigh. They probably wouldn't get around to ordering the calorie-bomb pizza that Nino had promised him for a while, let alone all the video games they had intended to play, but he would be fine if they got out of here alive once Alya realised that she had been a few scant metres away from Adrien when he had asked Marinette out during their snowball fight. Yup. Death was coming and her name was Alya.

Author's notes. Reminder, I have still not seen all of season 2 and none of season 3. Please check my author's profile for a list of the episodes I have seen.

This chapter is dedicated to Palaserece as thanks for being my 100th reviewer on AO3. They wanted holiday bells with green ribbons in Marinette's hair which, while similar to my original idea, was so much better and I just had to do it this way instead. I really liked how it turned out, and it gave me an excuse to write one of my favourite tropes where Adrien is Very Flustered when he sees Marinette in is colours. I adore that one. Thanks again Palaserece for liking and commenting on my story and I'm so sorry you had to wait so long for this chapter to come out!

Also, two chapters today! Just about. Woohoo!

I knew I'd have time to get one written up because, with this being the Sunday between Christmas and New Year, and just a few days after an absolutely ginormous Christmas Dinner, I didn't have to cook our normal Sunday Roast Dinner. Plenty of time to do two chapters I thought to myself.

Oh Aishoka you fool.

No sooner had the first chapter been posted then the sproglet... well, remember the song I had Plagg sing in Chapter 17: Christmas Tree? Yeah. Guess what the sproglet did.

Looks like we won't be keeping our decorations up until Twelfth Night this year. Damn.

Replies to reviews.

Guest (ch.26) - they arrange to call each other over facetime at the end of Chapter Twenty-Five: Christmas Day but I didn't actually show the call. I only made reference to it afterwards. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for the review.

owlthewriter - told you there would be more puns. Glad you liked it.

ELinkA - I'm glad you liked it, they're so adorable.

yellow14 - I don't think it counts as a spoiler either but it's good to know so thanks.