can't help falling in love (with you)
[yes this is based off of that gum commercial blAME BECCA]

Adrien was always the popular boy.

Surrounded by girls, making jokes with the guys, but never really being seen, just being a pretty face to look at thanks to daddy Agreste's influence (because being the heir to a multi-million dollar company made you known everywhere, it seemed). His first year of high school started off the same way every other school year started—Chloé Bourgeois making a fuss about something and his good friends cocooning him into a protective circle to shield him from the buzzing queen bee and her little worker bee, Sabrina.

And as he watched Chloé loudly clack her way into the building with heels more expensive than the textbooks provided by the school, his green eyes met a pair of bluebell ones, whose wide, innocent expression—open mouth and blinking lids, with pigtails that seemed to add to the adorable look she had on—seemed to look a little farther than most would tend to see. She smiled at him bashfully and looked away, but he caught her eyes looking back at him again.

Nino nudged him inside as the warning bell rung, and he lost sight of the pigtailed beauty as the sea of students poured through the front doors.

It was past third hour that he had his first real, face-to-face, heart stopping, mouth dropping encounter with her.

He'd asked around, and wow, did everyone know who this girl was except for him? God, he was such the loser. He learned her name was Marinette. Daughter of a pair of bakers who owned the best bakery in all of Paris, and apparently the number one target for a certain blond bully. It was odd that Adrien had never heard or seen a hair of Marinette but Chloé had her dartboard basically glued onto the poor girl's back and was getting a bullseye on every throw she made.

Like right now, for example.

He had his back turned to her while she was fiddling around in her locker, talking with Kim about the latest football match against the rival school when there was a soft thud followed by an even softer curse. All of that was followed by an obnoxious laugh somehow louder than the heels clicking against the tile as Chloé drew all the attention to Marinette, who was crouched at the ground, trying to quickly pick up all her loose papers, her face colored a bright red.

Adrien mumbled a quick apology to Kim as he rushed over and bent down to help her pick everything up. The pair smiled at each other briefly, and stood, Marinette adjusting her binder to reach into her purse. She pulled out a small cookie wrapped in colorful paper and shyly handed it to him. "Marinette," she whispered, smiling when his hand brushed hers to take the treat away.

"Adrien," he replied, slipping the pastry from its wrapper and sliding it into his mouth. "Say, do you want to get together one day?"

"Get together?" she asked, blinking innocently at him. "What do you mean?"

"Like," he stopped, waving his hand in the air with a blush as his other hand went to scratch the back of his neck unconsciously, "on a date, or something like that?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, just as the bell rang for their next class. She gently patted his shoulder as she passed by, whispering, "I'd honestly like that."

Adrien smiled as he glanced down at the wrapper still in his hand, barely registering that he had to get to his next class.

Their first kiss was three weeks later.

It was a late night, they'd just returned from seeing a movie and Adrien insisted that he'd walk Marinette home. She argued that his insanely large mansion was on the other side of town, but he simply stated that he'd get his driver to pick him up at the bakery. Marinette looked like she didn't believe a word he said, but his limousine was waiting outside the store when they arrived, and her worries went away.

She turned to him, releasing a breath through her nose. "Thank you, Adrien. Tonight was fun."

"Just as fun as the other ones?" The dinner, the social gathering for elite designers (that one was pushing it, but he was using daddy Agreste's influence in a good way by introducing Marinette to the competition. In reality, he also didn't want to have to bring Chloé because ugh), and now a lovely romance movie that had him closer to tears than her. He didn't mind letting her see his weaker side, she held his hand tightly through all the tear-jerking scenes anyway.

"Just as fun," she laughed, her blue eyes meeting his. They stared for a few moments, before she bashfully looked away as she always did, and god, did Adrien want to kiss her. She reached into her purse and pulled out another cookie; wrapped in the same paper as the first, handing it to him. "As a thank you."

"You already thanked me," he whispered, leaning in a little closer.

"I can thank you some more, too," she replied, pushing herself onto her tiptoes and pressing her lips against his. His hand instinctively reached up to cradle her cheek as they pulled away, faces light pink, and they leaned in again, for a softer, quicker peck as Marinette untangled herself from Adrien's embrace. "Bye."

"Bye-bye."

The next cookie (because Adrien now kept track of the paper they came in, for reasons) was given to him on a picnic he took Marinette in a park on the outskirts of the city.

Sure, the young girl lived next to a park, but that was too easy for him. He decided to pack a basket with good food, so when he told his chefs that he was taking his girlfriend out on a picnic date, they promised him that they'd pack him with every food a picnic could need, model diet be damned. Adrien couldn't thank them enough when he saw the look on Marinette's face when she opened the basket on the way to the park, comfortably cuddled up to Adrien in the back of the limousine.

They ate in a comfortable silence under the warmth of the sun, Adrien occasionally making puns while making sure that Marinette didn't choke on her food. Afterwards, he pulled her down next to him and allowed her to curl up against his side, pointing to the clouds to draw out pictures. A cat, a whale, a dog running with a bone, god, did this girl have an imagination. The cloud shaped like a cat with cheese ("No, Adrien, that's obviously a cow") had them practically rolling over each other in laughter, their giggles dying down as they stared into each other's eyes. She handed him a small, wrapped cookie, and leaned in to gently brush her lips against his.

At least, until Adrien ruined the moment by letting his fingers dancing against her ribs.

She immediately jumped into attack-mode and started chasing Adrien around the grassy area, laughing as he stumbled but quickly recoiled after he turned and started running after her. She only won when she managed to press him against a tree and kiss him senseless.

At some point they returned to the blanket where Marinette yawned and apologized for being tired; apparently she had a big project she was working on recently and it had kept her up all night.

"You mean you were up picking an outfit?" Adrien teased, receiving a blush in return.

"Alright, maybe you know me a little too well," she laughed, rolling on her side while Adrien laid on his stomach. He watched her carefully as she slowly drifted off, making sure to precariously remove any stray hair getting caught on her lips. Adrien quietly took out the cookie from the packaging and chewed as he uncapped a pen he had dug out from his jean pocket.

They spent the final hours of daylight before the Agreste driver was to pick them up strolling hand in hand by the lake in the center of the park.

Winter came, and Adrien had to admit, he had a fondness for kisses in the snow.

They filled him with such warmth that is was incredible. And kisses from Marinette were already warm in themselves, so the added bonus of that made the smooches all the more enjoyable.

She tasted like cookies and milk, probably because they'd just spent twenty minutes cuddled up on her couch with hot cocoa (and a little cookie wrapped in decorative Christmas paper, for Adrien, of course), before she excitedly asked if he wanted to have a snowball fight.

And Adrien, being the boy who was brought up by the cold and isolated daddy Agreste who would never, ever allow his perfect son to partake in a snowball fight what kind of tomfoolery—just couldn't say no to those bright eyes.

And that's what brought them out into the cold, bundled up in layers as they tossed snow at each other. And then Marinette brought him in for a kiss. And another, and another, until the rest of their bodies were numb from the cold but their lips were hotter than the sun.

The final dance of their last school year came up, and Marinette and Adrien were in the center spotlight all night. Alya and Nino kept going on about how the two of them were "goals" and how it was so beautiful to see them together. Marinette's light pink dress matched perfectly with Adrien's vest and tie, and clashed well against the dark locks let loose to spill across her shoulders.

When she passed him a wrapped cookie, Nino shot him a look, but Adrien dismissed it. The cookies were their silent way of saying "I love you" now.

Shortly after graduation, Adrien finally moved out of the Agreste mansion with all that money he saved up from modelling and into a small apartment, making sure to have a spare room for Marinette so she could move in as well and have her own little office to work on designs.

She had applied for an internship with daddy Agreste, and repeatedly expressed how much room she needed to make her sketches come alive. So Adrien kept that in mind as he searched for a new place to call home and settled for a two bedroom apartment. He'd called his girlfriend and told her the good news, only to be rewarded with squealing on the other line before there was a muffled conversation between her and her parents and then she was asking if he had any extra cardboard boxes lying around that she could borrow.

In all honesty, he was really surprised that Sabine and Tom allowed their daughter to move in with him without much hesitation. His own father (dear old daddy Agreste, all unemotional faces galore) even threw a tiny hissy fit when Adrien had announced that he was moving out.

And not even two weeks of having Marinette's things in his apartment did the argument start.

According to Nino and Alya, Marinette and Adrien were a fluff couple. Meaning, they were the cutest thing anyone had ever laid eyes on, and the blond was pretty sure a majority of the people they went to school with would agree, because they had never gotten into a fight until now.

Both of them were stressed, Marinette had deadlines and Adrien was still modeled for his father, but the photoshoots were longer and more unbearable now that he didn't have school to worry about. And Marinette had found his bills and started complaining that she didn't have enough to pay just yet, and Adrien fought back that he was perfectly fine with paying for everything until Marinette was able to help. But she wasn't having it, she had been working on a dress for the past few hours and skipped out on dinner and she just wanted Adrien to understand that this was a serious issue for her.

The pair collapsed on either side of the couch in exasperated silence until Marinette reached over to the side table and picked up a small item. She tapped Adrien's shoulder with it, and his green eyes glanced down at the all-too familiar wrapping of one of Marinette's famous cookies. He smiled and pulled her close, bills forgotten for the time being on the coffee table as his wonderful girlfriend rested her head on him.

When Marinette was offered to study in America for a semester during her final year of university, Adrien felt as though his world had come crashing down.

Paris was a whole ocean away from New York, and he knew Marinette would have such a huge opportunity to have this abroad study look absolutely amazing on her resumés when applying for jobs, but he'd be forced back into that loneliness he felt before he'd met her. Just another young man forced into servitude by his father living in an apartment that had so much of Marinette in it at this point that it would suffocate him.

But, his lady's happiness was more than anything he could ever want. And so he came with her parents to see her off at the airport. She hugged him so tight, as if when she would let go that would be the end of everything they've known, and goddamn was it hard for the both of them to not cry.

For a split second, Adrien wished he'd bought that pretty ring he'd saw at the jewelry store he found one day during one of his breaks. He'd been planning to propose for a while now, anyway.

Marinette handed him a cookie wrapped in dark red paper. "If you ever want more, just ask my parents. They'll supply you with as many as you need," she said, twining her fingers with his.

The blond looked into her eyes. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"It's only for a semester," Marinette reassured.

And she then turned to wrap her parents in a tight hug. As they had their moment, Adrien unwrapped the cookie, tossed it in his mouth, and pulled a pen out of his jacket pocket.

Marinette seemed to be having a blast in New York, if the glint in her eyes every time they skyped said anything. He was truly happy for her, staying up in the late hours of the night just so that they could talk for hours about what she had done that day. Daddy Agreste wasn't very happy about how tired his son was at the recent photoshoots, but money be damned, Adrien wanted to spend as much time with his abroad girlfriend as he could and if that meant sacrificing already precious hours of sleep, then so be it.

She'd almost taken out a nearby man with her suitcase, and practically knocked Adrien over with how hard she tackled him, but having Marinette back in his arms after a couple months of constant skype dates was heavenly. He twirled her around with a tight hold on her hips and pressed his lips urgently against hers like he was running out of oxygen.

That night, as she drifted off to sleep thanks to jetlag next to him, he felt the beating of his heart quicken. This was it. This was what he truly wanted. He pulled out another paper from a cookie she'd given him earlier.

"Where do you want me to go, again?" Marinette laughed into the phone one night, standing at the curb as she heard Adrien's breathy sigh on the other line.

"To the art studio Nathanaël opened up, over by city hall," he replied, and Marinette continued in that direction, groaning into the phone.

"I swear, tomcat, if this is another one of your pranks, I'm not making dinner for three weeks."

"Take-out is fine with me," he laughed.

"Alright, I'm here," she said eventually, standing in front of the door. "Call you back." She hung up and walked inside, being greeted by an empty floor. Usually Nathanaël had sculptures sitting about, but the only things in the main room were small picture frames hung up on the walls.

Marinette walked up to take a closer look, smiling at the cute drawing that depicted...her with Adrien, on the day they met, by her locker.

A few over was their first kiss in front of the bakery.

Marinette could feel the tears in her eyes as she walked to the other side of the room, a snowball fight replaying in her head.

The last picture was of doodle-Adrien, down on his knee, a box in his hand, in front of doodle-Marinette, who had a surprised look drawn on her face.

The girl took in a deep breath as she turned around, a stray tear rolling down her cheek as she saw Adrien—real, honest to goodness, Adrien—down on his knee, a beautiful ring sitting in a box of velvet and satin, a nervous smile on his face and blush adorning his cheeks. Words failed as all she could do was nod, her hands wrapping around his neck as he stood up to kiss her.

"Are these the cookie wrappers?" she whispered as he slid the ring onto her finger. "You kept them all these years?"

"Yeah," he replied breathily.

"You're such a dork, I love you so much."

author's notes:
becca
becca this is youR FAULT
this was all her fault
do y'all know how much i cried during this because i kept having to watch that fuCKing commercial
also: hey if anyone is going to animenext in the next week in atlantic city, new jersey, i'll be there! hit me up on any of my social medias on my bio and we can meet i'd love to meet y'all
if you ain't going, i'm sorry. still, hit me up