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“Alright,Plagg. Today’s the day.”
“Kill me now.”
“You are an immortal demigod,” Adrien said flatly, “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“You know what? I take back what I said earlier. I will happily suffer through another three hours of you incessantly asking my opinion on everything you find on Pinterest and Etsy if it means I don’t have to go another day listening to you freak out whether or not you’re ready to pop the question to your girlfriend.”
Adrien rolled his eyes as he fiddled with the small velvet box in his hands.
“I just want it to be perfect. She deserves perfect.”
“I already gave you the perfect idea-“
“I’ve told you a hundred times, I am not going to stick Marinette’s ring into a wheel of Camembert!”
“Your loss,” Plagg grumbled, wriggling to find a more comfortable position in the nest he had made in Adrien’s hair.
Adrien sighed and looked out his window at the sunset. He had been wracking his brain for the last three weeks, ever since he picked up the custom ring he had safely tucked away inside the small case. The delicate silver and white gold braided band with it’s large princess cut diamond had cost a small fortune.
He had spent hours agonizing over setting, speeches, atmosphere--should he have a gift to go with the ring? Should he do it in front of her family and friends, or keep it small and private?
It hadn’t helped his anxiety when a week ago Plagg had casually told him that as the harbinger of bad luck trying, to arrange anything that required a lot of coordination was probably a bad idea.
One thing he did know was that Marinette had always wanted to be surprised (something that she had mentioned to him years ago, back before they even knew each other's identities).
In the end, he had decided to give up on the theatrics entirely and just stick to a straightforward simple proposal.
She had been spending the day working on a semi-formal tea length summer dress for her design class , but tomorrow they had prearranged to have the day together simply relaxing and spending time with each other since between her finals and his most recent Runway show they hadn’t had a real date in weeks.
Now was the moment of truth. He would show up unexpectedly, surprise her with his proposal, hopefully spend the night cuddled up with his new fiancee, and then tomorrow they would have the entire day to just laze about and celebrate.
Nice and simple.
“She’s going to say yes, right Plagg?” Adrien asked nervously.
He winced when he felt felt tiny claws kneed into his scalp in irritation.
“Of course she’ll say yes. She isn’t the one I am worried about.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that she can’t ever say anything if you don’t stop fussing and just get on with it already,” Plagg grumbled.
“I already told you, this is it.”
“Yeah, but look at you! You’re more jittery than a toddler on a sugar high. I bet you a wheel of Camembert you don’t do it.”
“You’re on!” Adrien shot back defiantly. Plagg merely chuckled. “You did that on purpose so I would stop freaking out didn’t you?” Adrien asked more softly.
“I don’t know where you would get such a crazy idea. Next you’ll start saying that I actually care about you,” Plagg replied fondly as he snuggled against his chosen.
Adrien smiled gratefully, reaching up to pet the small feline and eliciting a soft purr from the tiny deity.
I can do this . He thought to himself, rising up from his desk chair to stare out at the darkening city. He just had to keep it nice and simple. How hard could it be?
“Plagg, Transforme moi!”
…
Chat Noir stared through the window at his girlfriend and wondered how on earth he had ever gotten so lucky as to deserve her.
She was crouched over her sewing machine with such an intense look of concentration that she hadn’t even noticed his face pressed against the window for the past five minutes.
His heart warmed as he pictured their future together. Her doing projects like this but from the comfort of their home, him curled up on the couch reading or playing video games while she worked. Bringing her coffee when she stayed up too late and dragging her off to their bed whenever she tried to push herself too hard.
Maybe they’d build a little kwami den for Plagg and Tikki in the living room.
He watched as Marinette’s face contorted into an adorable pout as she struggled with a troublesome bit of fabric.
It was time.
He took a deep calming breath, rolled his shoulders back, knocked lightly on the window and waited.
And waited.
Marinette, pulled out a seam ripper and began tearing at the stitching she had just completed.
He knocked again.
Marinette continued to be oblivious to his presence as she slid the fabric back into the sewing machine, letting out a muffled groan when the thread snapped and she was forced to rethread the machine and repeat the whole process.
Adrien might have been irritated by her lack of attention to his presence if she wasn’t so ridiculously cute.
He knocked a third time but with just as little impact as before. He pulled out his baton and flipped to her cell phone number, which he had programmed in. As fun as it was watching her like this, it was a little chilly.
He paused momentarily, an idea striking him as he watched his breath fog the window.
If he wrote out his proposal on the frosted glass, when she came over to let him in she would…
No that was a terrible idea. For one, his handwriting was appalling and for another he would have to write the whole thing backwards.
Stick to the plan , he thought determinedly. Keep it nice and simple .
He pressed the call button on his screen.
Meow!
Marinette jumped and Adrien had to stifle a laugh as he heard the muffled sound of her custom ringtone. He had never realized that she had a separate tone for his baton calls vs his regular cell.
Meow!
He shook his head in amusement at the drawling cat voice, watching as she fumbled around, putting aside her project and answering the phone.
“Hello, kitty! Paris still safe?”
He grinned at her teasing tone. They both knew full well that neither of them were scheduled to patrol tonight and his transformation was entirely self-indulgent. She had scolded him on more than one occasion that he was perfectly capable of coming to visit her through the front door, but where was the fun in that.
“Of course, my dear lovebug!” he replied smoothly, his grin widening as she rolled her eyes. “How could it be anything else with us on the case?”
Marinette’s face spread into a wide affectionate grin as she laughed lightly finally coming over to the window to let him in.
He climbed through and immediately dropped his transformation, one hand immediately sliding into the pocket of his jacket to make sure the small velvet box was still tucked inside. He could feel Plagg chuckling silently against his shoulder where he had landed, mocking his stress induced paranoia.
“Tikki is in the usual spot, there should be some cheese left over if you-“
Marinette didn’t even get time to finish before Plagg had zoomed off, although whether in search of the aforementioned cheese or to gossip to his other half about Adrien’s intentions was anyone’s guess.
“Sorry about him,” Adrien commented. “I keep hoping he’ll learn some manners, but…”
“Not everyone has had your experience in decorum, Adrien,” joked Marinette. She smiled up at him and Adrien could feel his breath catch in his throat. He loved her so much. He was going to spend the rest of his life trying to keep that smile on her face. He was going to ask her to marry him.
He couldn’t have stopped the lovesick smile from stretching across his face if he tried.
He shook his head, forcing himself to focus and trying to school his features back into a neutral expression as he bounced nervously on his toes.
Okay. You can do this, keep it simple . The mantra played in his head as he shifted his weight unconsciously from side to side.
But how did one casually go about proposing? The only proposal story he knew was his parents’ and that had involved an exclusive Paris restaurant, five dozen roses, a bottle of champagne and a 20 piece orchestra- not exactly the definition of simple.
“What’s wrong?” Marinette asked
Adrien looked up, startled.
“N-nothing’s wrong!”
Marinette glared at Adrien, already having established long ago that he could read him like a picture book.
“O-okay,” he stammered. Breathe coming fast as he desperately tried to remember his hours of practice with Plagg. “It’s…um…”
But the words weren’t coming. He needed to warm up to it.
Marinette’s look of concern was starting to deepen and he needed something to change the subject with. Adrien wracked his brain for something to talk about--her day? His day? No! He couldn’t talk about his day, his entire day revolved around practicing five words over and over and looking up proposal ideas and cutesy gifts on Pinterest. But he needed to say something before Marinette assumed he was having a stroke... Okay, just say the next thing you think of…
“How experienced are you with yarn stuff?”
What the …
Adrien could almost feel Plagg cringing in embarrassment from wherever he was hiding. Maybe he should have just gone with the Camembert plan.
Marinette’s eyebrows shot up, clearly not expecting the conversation to go in that direction.
“Uh, pretty experienced, I think? I mean, definitely not as much as my sewing, but I need to know knitting and stitches for certain kinds of designs. Why do you ask? Does Plagg need some new toys?”
“No, he’s fine.” Probably thinks I am a hopeless idiot, but what else is new? “It’s…well, I was, um…” Adrien wondered if there was any point in trying to salvage this particular attempt or if he should just double down on his own desperate ramblings. He clasped his hands together. This was hardly the dumbest segue he had ever used. Given his constant need for akuma-related excuses, he could totally recover from this. “I was wondering if you’d teach me? Knitting, or crochet, or something like that?” There, that sounded plausible. “I want to learn.”
Adrien was fairly certain that he could hear the faint sound of kwami laughter, but Marinette was entirely focused on him, a surprised and delighted gleam making her eyes shine like stars.
“Of course!” Marinette grinned. “That sounds like so much fun! Is there anything in particular you wanted to make?”
“I’m not sure,” replied Adrien, gaining confidence in light of her enthusiasm. At least something good might come out of this particular fiasco. “Like I saw some cool stuffed characters, like from Ghibli things-“
“This is what happens when he gets too much time on Pinterest!” came a high-pitched, rather annoyed voice from her bags. He knew that the minute he got home he was in for another lecture from Plagg about his need to “suck it up and just do it already.”
“Plagg, be nice!” Tikki scolded, although Adrien could hear the slight trace of amusement in Ladybug’s kwami’s voice, Clearly Plagg had already gotten her up to speed on what he REALLY had planned on saying.
Rolling his eyes, Adrien continued. While he might not always be the greatest at coming up with excuses at least he knew how to sell it. “…anyway, there were some cool hats and scarfs and stuff, and I figured it’d be nice to make things, you know? Keep my hands busy.”
Marinette nodded and walked over to her yarn stash. She seemed genuinely excited by his sudden and unprecedented interest, and Adrien decided there were much worse fates than learning something new from his girlfriend.
“You got it. How about tomorrow we do Crocheting 101? Get you started on a nice black scarf?”
Well, at least if they were spending the day together working on this he would have ample opportunity to try this whole proposal thing again.
Plus, the atmosphere would be perfect! Just the two of them, comfortable and happy, her expertly instructing him on how to properly tie… sew… hook? Whatever one did when they crocheted. Maybe if he was lucky she would play with his hair while he worked, gently massaging his scalp with gentle fingers while the little black ball of yarn gradually disappeared…
Adrien grinned as a brilliant idea swirled through his brain.
It was perfect!
“Thanks, Princess!”
He closed the gap between them before crushing her in a hug, holding her tightly as he imagined the look on her face when she finally saw the ring.
“You’re the best,” he murmured happily into her hair.
Marinette smiled into his chest and he squeezed her tighter. Soon she would be his fiancee.
“But then,” he continued lovingly, “you probably already knew that.”
“You should get home.” Marinette smiled at him fondly but he knew a dismissal when he heard one. She still had that project for class. If she was going to spend the day with him tomorrow she would probably want to try to finish it off tonight. Or possibly head to bed now so she could get up early and power through it before he arrived. Technically he wasn’t supposed to have come over tonight in the first place for that very reason. s
“I’ll see you soon for your lesson,” she added, giving his hair a light ruffle before turning away and heading back to her sewing table to tidy up.
Adrien quickly transformed before heading to the window, feeling decidedly more confident than he had in weeks.
Turning to give her one last look, he grinned a Cheshire smile.
Marinette Agreste. He liked the sound of that.
“I eagerly await to our tutoring session,” Chat Noir/Adrien said, throwing in a smirk for good measure. “Tomorrow you have complete control over what my hands do and where they do it.”
With that, he fell backwards out the window, laughing as he vaulted across the rooftops.
* * *
Adrien paced his room, going over the plan with Plagg for what must have been the fifteenth time as the kwami lazily nibbled on a wheel of cheese.
“I just need to go and pick up a thing of black yarn, tie the ring to the end of it, then when we get to the end of the scarf- Bam! Ring, proposal, best afternoon ever.”
“You really have no idea what you are getting into, do you.”said Plagg under his breath.
Adrien was too busy doing a happy victory dance to catch the prophetic words.
“This is perfect, Plagg! I don’t think I could have planned something better if I tried! I actually found a way to incorporate some of Marinette’s favorite things into my proposal: a cozy night in, sewing…”
“Her being significantly better than you at something.”
“Plagg!”
“What? I was agreeing with you.”
“Next time I’m getting you the cheap Camembert,” Adrien grumbled. But even his kwami’s teasing couldn’t shake him from his giddy mood.
Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.