Marinette's POV:

Marinette heard about the Lila Rossi mistletoe attack on Adrien from Nino's own lips a few hours after it happened when he visited her in the hospital wing. She felt horrified. Firstly, at Nino's clear description of Adrien not enjoying the kiss at all but sticking with it out of politeness and a desire to avoid confrontation. She felt so sorry for him and outrage on his behalf that Lila would trick him into kissing her on the lips. Lila had claimed it was an accident but Marinette scoffed. The only accidents that happened around that girl were of her own manipulation. Secondly, and a guilty secondly at that, the whole fiasco kind of nipped her mistletoe daydream with Adrien in the bud, right? The castle already had heard rumours that Adrien Agreste actually followed tradition, would kiss complete strangers if the circumstances arose and was an amazing kisser. She'd seen the amount of casual mistletoe in the castle almost double this Christmas and it wasn't hard to connect the dots and see why.

But no. Her friendship with Adrien would come first. She told Nino that she knew lots of ways to navigate around the castle, borne mostly out of a need to cut corners on her way to her morning classes after her night-time design inspiration kept her up at night and her roommates left her snoring through breakfast.

When he came to her for help, another idea occurred to her! She could spend the prefect patrol shift with Adrien clearing out all of the mistletoe that had sprung up throughout the castle. After getting permission from the Head students to do so, that would really help Adrien's situation.

When their prefect shift rolled on by, a spell she had picked up in fourth year via extra study after her disgruntled self had spilt one too many things came in handy.

'You're really great at the vanishing spell, Marinette! Your aim is so good.' When Adrien complimented her she couldn't help a pleased giggle escaping her.

'This is the one transfiguration spell that doesn't make me break out into hives,' she admitted. 'I've had particular practice with this spell because I'm pretty clumsy. Lots of spills in life to clean up.'

She went ahead of him, working on increasing the range of her vanishing spell. After a while she glanced behind her and realised that she had left Adrien behind. And also left some mistletoe. 'I missed some mistletoe!' she exclaimed.

Adrien looked up above him and pointed his wand. 'Evenesco!'

The mistletoe did not vanish. 'Um,' began Marinette, walking back towards him. 'I think your pronunciation might have been the problem.'

'Oh?'

'Yeah. It's evANesco, not evENesco,' she clarified.

'Evanesco,' he repeated after her, softly. She nodded at him encouragingly and waited for him to try and cast the spell again. Adrien looked up at the mistletoe but instead of casting the spell, he blurted, 'Marinette, we're directly under the mistletoe!'

She felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment as he pointed that out. 'Look, I heard what happened with Lila. You definitely don't have to worry about such underhanded behaviour from me.'

Adrien turned a curious shade of red at her statement. 'That's different. That wasn't consensual,' he explained.

She noticed the tips of his ears go red to match his blush. It was freaking adorable, a look she hadn't seen on him before, and she couldn't resist a taunt, 'Would this be a consensual kiss then, Adrien Agreste?'

'I-' Adrien began, but he didn't finish. Instead, his blush deepened.

She grinned, seeing an opportunity present itself. 'Well, if consent is not an issue, it would be a shame to break tradition, wouldn't it?'

Closing her eyes and hoping for the best, she stood on tiptoes to reach his cheek. She was startled when warm lips instead met hers. He was kissing her, Adrien Agreste was kissing her! She almost died on the spot. Luckily she didn't though, because he paused to kiss her again. And again. And then she lost count as he pulled her close and she tilted her head, feeling a shiver of pleasure as their mouths opened in unison. As they kissed, she reached up to run her fingers through his blonde hair, finally living a recurring daydream of hers. His hair was so soft, and his large hand was a warm, comforting presence at the small of her back. When they finally broke apart, their breathing sounded loud in the empty corridor and she noticed with a hint of pride that his lips were swollen from their kisses. She wondered what her own looked like. Adrien then bent forward to press a butterfly soft kiss on her cheek and whispered, 'Merry Christmas, Marinette.'

Then he pointed his wand upwards towards the mistletoe above them and declared firmly, 'Evanesco!'

This time, the mistletoe vanished and she smiled at him, pleased at his spellwork progress. 'Shall we?' he gestured to the rest of the corridor. Marinette didn't know whether her brain could work, let alone the fine motor skills required to move her legs after a kiss like that. But he pulled her along, her hand encased in his, so she supposed she was about to find out.