This has taken forever because I have been procrastinating. And working. But avoiding the... research... that went into the chapter was definitely a part of it. Anyway it has been forever since this fluff has been updated and it has not been read by anyone other than me... so enjoy (?)

"I'm sorry. I am going to fix this. I love you.

-Adrien"

That was the only thing she had received or heard from Adrien in the past four days since she yelled at him. It stung a bit more than she thought it would. Once the righteous anger had burned itself out and she was left only with coals of frustration as the lack of communication - before the conflagration and now - hurt. She had assumed that he knew by now it was safe to approach her, even though she hadn't seen him since shoving him into the gallery, not even a glimpse of his hair in the halls or different gallery rooms. At this point, all she really wanted was a bouquet of apology flowers (and she knew he would be able to find some that were suitable for that purpose) and for them to actually sit down and talk.

However, that was a bit of a challenge if he didn't actually show up. Either he thought he was still in danger from her wrath or he was planning something, and Marinette didn't know which concerned her more.

That concern ramped straight up into worry when her phone chirped with a new message.

Today, 13:25

NiNO: in advance I'm real sorry, Mar

Her eyes widened, that was not a particularly comforting text. At all. What did it even mean? What the hell was he apologizing for?

Today, 13:27

MC/DC: What do you mean?

MC/DC: What are you sorry for?

MC/DC: Nino?

MC/DC: NiNO you can't just say that and then disappear!

As she walked through one of the galleries, composing yet another message to Nino out of frustration and wanting some fucking answers at this point, the sound system throughout the museum came to life and music started streaming through the speakers. A song that she couldn't quite place but sounded extremely familiar. To the point that a number of the others in the gallery started snickering as soon as they placed it. As she looked around, eyebrows furrowed, her eyes were drawn to the doorway as Adrien slid through the opening, wearing a suit.

A suit that he made look good, even though it looked like the pants could fit a second person in them, and a jacket that was large enough and came down low enough you can just see his belt. She wanted to blame the blush on seeing her Too Handsome boyfriend (that was still a thing... right?) for the first time in days but was probably mostly because she had a pretty good idea about what was supposed to happen and she was already feeling the embarrassment (first- and second-hand) creeping in around her. Her hands rose up in an attempt to cover her face once she noticed phones making an appearance all around her to record the spectacle. There was no way Marinette was going to ever willingly admit that she too wanted to see what the hell Adrien was planning and that was the reason why she didn't hide her eyes behind the relative safety of her hands. Though even if she had it wouldn't matter as it was pretty clear she was going to be able to find video of it from any and every possible angle later that night.

While she had been contemplating death as a viable option of escape Adrien started dancing in his spot at the doorway. Well, it could technically be described as dancing but it was way, way below his usual standard of dancing (which she had seen when he was cooking, or when he twirled her around one of their apartments, or when he actually, finally, won against her in a video game) as it was all shoulder dancing, moving his hands around, and awkward hip swaying. She giggled at his antics, even as he made a retro style microphone appear from seemingly nowhere and began to sing into it, which was when she finally realized exactly which song it was, his voice slightly deeper than normal as he essentially crooned the lyrics to her… and the rest of the museum.

"We're no strangers to love / You know the rules and so do I…"

She could not believe this was happening right now… Admittedly, the lyrics were… decent... and that was probably the reason he chose this song as it was literally saying he wasn't going to give up on them, on their relationship. But he was still an absolute meme.

"...Never gonna give you up / Never gonna let you down / Never gonna run around and desert you / Never gonna make you cry…"

She had given up trying to actually watch this apology spectacle and was hiding behind her hands as much as she possibly could. She could feel him dancing around her as he continued to sing his devotion, with sprinkled glancing touches and caresses as he spun and sang and wagged his hips.

"Your heart's been aching but you're too shy to say it / Inside we both know what's been going on / We know the game and we're gonna play it / And if you ask me how I'm feeling / Don't tell me you're too blind to see / Never gonna give you up…"

This was sweet and all but there was going to be hell to pay for all of this embarrassment, for both Nino and Adrien. There was muffled laughter all around the gallery as Adrien was Still. Singing. She peeked through her fingers as he spun around her to dance in front of her. He must have been watching her face because as soon as he caught her eyes he winked causing her to groan and cover her face again, even as she felt her cheeks rush with heat. This was honestly more than she expected. Even if she had known he was probably planning something, though it was probably also his response to the Adrien Exhibit. Or at least part of it. She moved her fingers aside again as he continued to move around her, dancing and singing, and Marinette couldn't help but snort a little bit about the way he was dancing and hamming it up for all the cameras and for her own benefit. She couldn't smother the laugh that bubbled up as she watched him moonwalk while he sang, before he ended with another spin and slide to the side and then did another round of feet shuffling, lazy hip shakes, and more shoulder dancing. She watched him through her fingers until he threw a smirk before sliding on his knees to her feet, causing her to gasp and move her hands to cover her mouth in her surprise. Adrien, with a surprisingly serious glint in his eye, moved towards the end of the song.

"I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling / Gotta make you understand / Never gonna give you up / Never gonna let you down / Never gonna run around and desert you / Never gonna make you cry / Never gonna say goodbye / Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you…"

As he continued the ending refrain, while still maintaining eye contact, he put a hand out and a bouquet practically flew directly into his hand, which he then swung around to hand to her. He sang each word of the refrain like a vow, doing his best to make sure his message was getting across, to demonstrate and affirm his devotion to her, their relationship, how he planned on making sure there was more and better communication, how much he loved her, how he's in love with her. It was still ridiculous (he had to choose this song - really?), but she couldn't stop the tears at this point, as one hand reached towards the brightly colored flowers, her fingers lingering on his before she cradled the bouquet to her chest.

Once he finished singing and the music faded out, everyone around them burst into applause. Adrien stood up and gently took the hand that was still covering Marinette's mouth and brought it to his and placed a loving kiss, first on the back and then another on her palm before making unwavering eye contact.

"Marinette, mon trésor, I am so sorry for being such a dumbass, I really messed up. I love you so much and I really hope…" Adrien broke off as how quiet the gallery had gotten settled into his awareness. Looking around he realized people were still very much watching and most were actually still filming as well. Completely flustered and nearing a that's-probably-not-healthy blush he turns back to Marinette and quietly requests that they go elsewhere to talk.

With a shout relating to how the show was over Marinette drags him towards her office, both still blushing and her with visible tear tracks. Immediately upon closing the door behind them, she whirls and whacks him on the shoulder, once, twice, three times before poking him hard in the chest while declaring, "That's what you get for embarrassing me so much. In public!" and then launches herself into his arms bundling him into the biggest bear hug she can muster.

"I love you too, you ridiculous man. So much."

Adrien wraps his arms around her and buries his face in her hair letting his own tears leak out, "Does this mean you are willing to forgive me? I know I royally fucked up, princesse, so those flowers and I are both asking if you would consider forgiving me… the purple ones are hyacinths to express my sorrow at hurting you and for the things I said and one way to ask you for forgiveness. The white tulips and daffodils are both also asking for forgiveness and new beginnings. But I understand if you aren't ready yet…"

Marinette gave a wet giggle and nuzzled more into his chest before saying, "I forgave you a couple days ago but thank you very much. Though I do think we need to work on better communication," she smiled at his noise of strong agreement before continuing, "And I knew you would get a themed bouquet. Again. And while I love that we do all these grand, dramatic gestures I think we also just need to talk and listen to each other more. Also, no more complete ceasing of contact. That was the absolute worst part of all of this."

"I want to just say 'yes, dear' and just cuddle but I agree that we need to actually talk through things first."

They ended up just sitting on her office floor, still wrapped up in each other's arms, and talked. That was how Adrien ended up learning about Nathanael's partners and his role in the "L'exposition Adrien" as well as at least some of his father's help. He tells her a little about his dating history, not going into details at this point but talking about how he has been cheated on in the past, as well as the issues regarding his parents, all of which were part of what went towards his worries and anxieties while she was working on her project. There are some kisses, of course, and some laughs as they talk about their relationship, their childhoods, their friends. They talk about talking things out more and trying to avoid jumping to conclusions about each other, about their relationship. He confesses that a good portion of their few days apart was spent practicing the dancing and catching the flowers with Nino, and that there were quite a few failed attempts. At least once he had somehow ended up with petals up his nose. When Marinette threatened revenge on him and Nino, Adrien essentially just laughed it off until it occurred to him that her retaliating was what actually got them together in the first place...

So he begged.

"Mari, please no. I realize I probably deserve it but I don't want us to start a prank war on top of our Wooing War. I will get you more flowers if it means you don't give me payback for this. I think we need a break on that front."

Marinette huffed, "Fine... But no more flowers, I only have so many vases. I will accept chocolate though. And my parent's pastries. However, I make no promises about not getting Nino back. He definitely deserves it for those texts he sent earlier. And maybe for not talking you out of your plan."

A couple days after helping Adrien at the museum with his ridiculous plan to make it up to Marinette, Nino found all of the sugar in his apartment had been replaced with salt. Down to the individual packets. Which of course he did not realize until he was on the metro on his way to work and nearly spit his coffee all over the place. He then found his toothpaste was somehow also really salty which was just a really shitty experience to have. Then half of his socks went missing. And not that he lost a bunch of pairs of socks. No, each pair of socks was now a single sock, and he now had mismatched novelty socks.

Then all of his social media accounts had posts he didn't remember making? Most of them were something he would have said or shared but it was unsettling that he had no memory of making them, especially since he didn't actually post very often. One of the most unnerving was the one about Karma biting people in the butt. But there were also the ones about new releases or gigs from some of his DJ friends… when he hadn't listened to the new songs yet. And there were a bunch of strange events or meetings in his calendar and he was getting reminders at all hours.

Then it took him another couple days to realize that all of his clocks, even the ones at work and on his devices, had been set just 7 minutes back, making him at least that late to everything. It was a day after that realization and tedious resetting process that he found that the pockets on half his pants and some of his jackets had been sewn shut. Which was when he finally figured out what was actually happening (he hadn't ruled out imps before… and while he wasn't exactly wrong it was actually a lot simpler and less magical than that).

Today, 07:49

NiNO: Marinette! I am sorry, please stop! it won't happen again

NiNO: I promise I beg for forgiveness, oh great Marinette,

NiNO: I am very very veerrryyy sorry please please forgive me

NiNO: please

NiNO: please

NiNO: please

NiNO: please

Today, 07:53

MC/DC: Fine. Just remember this in the future, Lahiffe

NiNO: ofc! I have Learned

NiNO: also, how do I fix my pockets?

Today, 08:04

MC/DC: google it

ahahahhaha

The title within the doc for this was "The one where everyone gets fucking rickrolled, including the author"

Adrick Agrestly was suggested to me alllll the way back in June 2016 by bestangelbaby on and it was too hilarious to not do. And then I procrastinated. Also trying to rationalize and give that song big emotional impact was A Time. anyway

I love Nino and he most definitely does not like boring socks but is at the same time frustrated by his socks not matching each other (he doesn't care that they may not match anything else he is wearing but they have to be the same sock. and I am projecting it is fine)