A/N : We present your next gift in the series!
The Captain and crew hope you enjoy!
The first time Adrien saw Marinette with her hair down was on the day that Ladybug was forced to become guardian. When they escaped the hotel, with Kagami in tow, Adrien caught the whiff of passion fruit shampoo.
The next day, he was surprisingly disappointed to find her back in pigtails. And thus began his new favourite habit:
Stealing Marinette's hair bands.
It wasn't intentional at first. The first incident happened when it started to rain. With all of them getting wet, and Marinette's hair soaking up all the water, she had to take them out. At first, it stuck to her face and caused her to silently curse, and then she asked Adrien to squeeze the water out.
That's where it went down hill. You see, Adrien had no problem effectively taking the water out, but… Well, it was just that Mainette's hair was so soft! Whilst he had met plenty of people with soft hair, Marinette's hair was a particular brand of soft. It was silk and velvet wrapped into one and the ravenette didn't even seem to know it. She only brushed it back with a spare hairbrush from Alya and grumbled about her hair bands becoming wet before thanking Adrien and leaving her hair out to let it dry.
Throughout the day, Adrien held back his sudden desire to constantly look at Marinette. As a model, he's seen countless people's hair out but Marinette brushed off the compliments about her hair and seemed oblivious to jealous waves Lila seemed to be letting out.
So then began his mission in stealing every single hair band Mainette owned.
It was casual at first. Slip by her and casually chat her up, whilst Plagg slipped them off with the promise of 5 wheels of Camembert. Or maybe get Nino to distract her and he slipped them off, because Nathalie seemed to be getting a bit too suspicious with the amount of cheese he was consuming. And then maybe some midnight adventures as Chat Noir to sneak in and steal her box of hairbands.
There was nothing that he wouldn't do to ensure that Marinette would wear her hair loose.
But then she started wearing ribbons,
Red ribbons.
And if that didn't add fuel to his theory that Marinette was Ladybug, he didn't know what would. At first she used the ribbons to tie her hair up in pigtails, but Adrien always managed to steal them or, if he didn't have a hand in it, they got lost on their own because of that silky, velvety hair making them slip down until Marinette had lost them.
But then, when all was well and good in his mission, Alya caught him.
And truthfully he thought she would tell Mari or be creeped out from his embarrassing ("Stalker." "Shut up, Plagg!") habit. But she only grinned, patted his shoulder and said, "I've got your back, Sunshine. Plus, Marinette's done worse."
"Wait,what!?" he exclaimed in surprise, but he never did get an answer to that question.
Marinette once again came in with her hair out and Alya asked the inevitable question, "What's wrong, 'Nette?"
Marinette plopped down in her set and munched on her croissant in an adorably grumpy way, swallowing, she spoke, "I'm sure someone's been stealing my hair bands and ribbons." Alya cast a look at Adrien's way as he sunk down in his seat. "Even I know that I don't lose them so frequently! My hair bands are gone and now someone keeps stealing my ribbons! I can't even buy anymore because I know that they'll inevitably be stolen again and I could be using that allowance to buy more fabric! I'm sure someone's up to something and I'm going to find out who it is!"
Adrien butt in as he tried to divert the situation, "I'm sure no one would be that… cruel, right Marinette?" Marinette only huffed as Alya continued.
Alya grinned and leaned closer with a shark's grin, "Who knows? It could be because they have an…infatuation with you." Adrien choked as he prayed for Marinette to not ask any further. "Why would someone steal my stuff when they could just ask me out instead?" She asked, leaning on the table with her chin in her palm. "Well, I know one person that's done that before." Alya replied, ignoring Marinette and Adrien's red, embarassed faces.
Marinette brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she took out her notebook for class, "Well," she muttered, still loud enough for Adrien to hear, "Whoever keeps stealing my hair bands has a funny way of showing their love."
Adrien had never felt so embarrassed in his life.
Time Skip
After several years of denial, obliviousness and rom-com style longing, Ladybug and Chat Noir finally revealed themselves to each other. Imagine their surprise when they both find out that the people that they had been choosing between to give their heart to were the same person!
And after the initial surprise, Marinette couldn't have hoped for anyone else to be her best friend, Chat Noir. The awkward time in between being friends and lovers seemed to ebb away with a drunk confession from the both of them and in a few months they were practically inseparable. Couple goals, if you ask Alya.
6 months into dating and Adrien asked Marinette to move in with him (He waited 6 years for the identity reveal, before that they were practically an unofficial couple, Marinette could forgive him for not wanting to wait another year or two to ask her to move in with him).
And here she was, into her second year of university majoring in fashion design at ESMOD Paris, one of the best fashion schools in France, and now being able to move in with her Chaton? Pshh, like she wouldn't take the chance to spend more time cuddling him without the interruption of either one of them being able to get home.
Ready to move some of the boxes full of her fabrics into Adrien's apartment attic, she couldn't help but notice a small box in the corner of the room. It was covered in a thin layer of dust and was tucked away behind some bigger boxes. Setting her fabrics down, she made her way over to the box in the corner.
Wiping away some of the dust, she found a latch on the box and opened it, covering her hand from the flying dust. Her mouth opened as she called out to Adrien who was moving her stuff into his bedroom, "Hey, Adrien?"
She heard a loud bang that was, probably, Adrien banging the boxes against something. Heavy footsteps rushed up the stairs, "Yes, Mari--" his breath failed him as he spotted what was in his hands.
Well I'm dead, was his only thought before Marinette turned towards him with an unimpressed eyebrow raise, "Why do you have my hair bands and ribbons from collège in this box?"
Adrien seemed to involuntarily back away as Plagg and Tikki popped in through the trapdoor as Adrien supplied his answer, "I may have… stolen your hair bands and ribbons in collège to admire you with your hair out? But I swear I took good care of them!"
As Marinette seemed to combust on the spot, Plagg added some much-needed commentary to Tikki, "Oooh, the kid is dead." Tikki only hit him on the head as Marinette finally managed to get the words out, "You mean… that for a total of 4 months you just conveniently stole any and every hair tie and ribbons I owned? Please don't tell me you used Chat Noir to help."
"...No?" Adrien squeaked as he felt the ominous gaze of his girlfriend turn on him as he ran down the stairs with a demonic Marinette trailing behind.
As Adrien tried to evade near-death by the hands of his girlfriend, Plagg turned to a slack-jawed Tikki, "I told you she would kill him. Also, where's my 50 Euros worth of Camembert for our bet on how many things they could steal from each other? I'm waiting, y'know." Plagg finished, a lazy grin spreading over his face.
It was safe to say that Adrien was not the only one that escaped near-death that day.
