This is an AU where the soulmates get born with a certain smell in their nose of the location where they'll meet their soulmate. When the scent gets stronger they come closer and it becomes the most intense when the characters meet. The scents can be neutralized at once with a kiss or a touch, though a touch lets the scent fade slowly.

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Some people smelled freshly mowed grass, even if they lived in the desert. Some others smelled shampoo, or a bakery like Adrien, or curry, like his father and mother had.

That's how people found their soulmates.

From their birth on, people smelled the one scent until they met their soulmate. Some couldn't get it out of their nose and some only occasionally smelled it, some smelled the same as their soulmate, some smelled their soulmate's scent.

Some smelled their scent daily, not only in their head, and some didn't smell it at all but just held a faint memory of their smell, never getting less and never going away.

Marinette had always had a pretty strong smell of Camembert in her nose so she said, and when Nino got to know Adrien, he told him he sometimes got lost in the intense scent of a bakery that he smelled.

To say he was a bit jealous was an understatement.

Adrien and Marinette had found themselves when Adrien had joined the class in tenth grade. They had met right in front of Nino's nose and their eyes had widened when they had understood.

Throughout the months they had needed a bit of adjusting and dancing around each other but almost a year later, Adrien had built up his courage and asked her.

And she had said yes.

They had been friends for the time before that, close friends even, and with Nino they had been inseparable. But then they had taken different paths. Marinette and Adrien had stayed together, Nino had felt left out. And now, a few months after his two best friends had gotten together, Nino was getting a little annoyed. The whole class cheered on them as the perfect couple, and even Chloé had to begrudgingly admit that nobody could argue against the soulmate scent.

Personally, Nino had always had multiple scents in his nose. This wasn't uncommon, many people smelled a multitude of things. It meant that they met their soulmate at a very specific time and place where no strong scent was sticking out.

Some smelled subway stations, some smelled fast food restaurants, where a lot of scents came together. Nino was just glad he hadn't gotten the scent of a public toilet.

No, for him, it had always been Christmas. Which had made it a little crueler each year. The smell of freshly bakes Christmas cookies as well as cinnamon, oranges, the faint smell of mulled wine, a little cold air, grilled sausages, pie, all these wonderful things that had made him drool before already.

Yet… No matter how many Christmas markets he had visited, no matter how many times he had travelled through the land to get to Christmas markets, he never found his soulmate.

He was sure this was the scent of a market, though, he knew. He had been on so many already, he knew only these surroundings were able to create this unique scent.

And yet.

Yet he hadn't found them. He had looked high and low and had spoken to as many people as he could on these markets, but he had never found someone where the scent suddenly got so strong that he couldn't ignore it anymore.

He had sworn he wouldn't go to these markets anymore. Or, well, only occasionally, when his family was going.

Still, he found himself wandering again, from one Christmas market to the other in Paris, past stands that sold stuff he had seen a hundred times already. He sniffed the familiar scent in and sighed, shaking his head. He just couldn't keep himself from doing it. Maybe he would at some point find his soulmate, but he doubted by now that it would happen anytime soon.

He had been on Christmas markets so many times by now.

He wasn't even sure if that was just a scent that he always remembered, or if it was just his imagination. Well, he knew that the soulmate thing was for real. But was his soulmate for real?

Nino began to doubt it.

Though, just as he passed a stand of hot dogs, a strong scent of mulled wine suddenly made him stumble. It got stronger, and cinnamon joined. Nino's eyes widened as he understood.

His soulmate must be close. With faster getting steps he followed the scent of cinnamon, squeezing past people in thick jackets and trying not to slip on the slippery cobblestone.

They were close, they were here. Nino went faster, putting his phone away while he ran. A quick glance on his wrist watch told him the exact time and he swore he wouldn't forget this moment.

The scent got so strong that he got a little dizzy from the intensity of the mulled wine and the cinnamon. Just when he thought he'd have to stop, a girl in front of him squeezed past a couple and got to a halt, staring at him. Their eyes locked and Nino immediately fell in love. Well, he wasn't one for love at first glance, he actually hated that cliché, but as soon as he looked at her, as he took her in and her lips parted, probably to say something, he fell.

It felt like the scent got just a little stronger even, before vanishing completely as she stepped closer. His ears were numb and he heard everything through a wall.

His father had often told him about that. It was actually a chemical reaction in his body when he met his soulmate to immediately feel like he'd fall in love. The real feeling would come later, maybe.

If he fell in love, some soulmates didn't. And even if they wouldn't, he'd be more than happy just to have her in his life.

The girl now stood in front of him and seemed as perplex as him. He faintly registered two others following her and coming to a halt, maybe her friends.

Suddenly, she cupped his face and pulled him down to her, pressing a light kiss to his lips. He had read somewhere that this helped letting the intense scent of their soulmate fade, but it wasn't a really reliable theory since not everyone liked to kiss a stranger at the first meeting.

Though, as she let him go and he opened his eyes again to see her friends cheering, the scent was gone. He blinked and locked his eyes with her again, his ears now slowly letting sounds come through to him again.

"S-Sorry.", was the first thing he heard her say, "I mean, I know I don't know you but-… I uh, I kinda had a bet with my friends and also I don't really like the smell of mulled wine so, uh, it was making me dizzy. I uh, I'm really sorry to just jump on you like that, I really didn-"

Before she could finish, Nino cupped her face in return and pulled her in for a kiss, their teeth lightly clacking against each other before he parted from her again, his lips hovering merely just a centimeter over hers.

"… Name's Nino…", he mumbled with a grin, feeling her hands slowly coming up to his sides, "… We're even now. And I'm delighted to meet you."

"… A-Alya.", she stuttered, her warm breath smelling of cinnamon brushing over his cold chin.

Slowly, he opened his eyes again and smirked at her as she opened hers as well, their gaze meeting once again. His cheeky smile jumped over to her and she mimicked his face as she wrapped her arms around his waist now, pulling herself closer to him.

"Hi Nino.", she whispered and he nudged her nose with his.

"Hi. Wanna, uh… Get to know each other properly?"