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“So you were right.”
“Was I now?”
“Yes. Ladybug agreed that buying expensive jewelry for a girl you are not dating does, in fact, send mixed signals.” Chat sighed as he dropped down through the skylight and sprawled out against the bedding.
“I told you.” Marinette grinned smugly, not even bothering to look up at him from her desk.
“I can’t believe that you two are ganging up on me!” Chat whined, burying his face into her giant cat pillow.
“I can’t believe you talk about me to Ladybug.” Marinette laughed, her attention already back to whatever project she was currently working on.
“well, she doesn’t like it if I talk too much about my civilian life and you are my only other friend as Chat Noir.”
“I know but… never mind.” She shook her head softly, muttering something under her breath.
“So what sort of present do you want me to get you for Christmas?” Chat asked peering over the loft railing. She froze, her eyebrows furrowing. He grinned in anticipation.
“You already got me a present remember? The absurdly expensive piece of jewelry?” She finally looked up at him with an eyebrow raised challengingly.
“Yeah but you hated it.” He smirked.
“I did not hate it! I just thought a 295 Euro necklace was a little much for a just friends present.”
“Yes you made your feelings on that perfectly clear last time. The point is I need to get you a present that you actually appreciate getting.”
“I do appreciate it! I am literally wearing it right now!”
“That’s just cause you feel guilty. I will get you the perfect present. Just watch.”
Marinette groaned, pulling distractedly on her pigtails.
“Chat you are being ridiculous. You don’t need to get me another present.”
“What do you want?” he asked, grinning wider.
“I want you to not get me another present.”
“Try again. What do you want?”
“I’m not telling you,” she huffed.
“Fine. I have other ways of figuring things out. Just you wait Princess, I will get you the perfect Christmas present.” He stood up, giving her a jaunty salute as he pulled himself back up through the skylight.
“Chat!” She called after him.
He waited silently on her terrace, holding back the bubble of laughter in his chest. He could hear her shuffling around in the room, waiting to see if he would poke his head back in or if he had actually gone.
“Stupid cat,” she muttered finally.
Only then did he disappear into the night.
…
“I am so excited to finally have a break from classes! Do you realize how behind I am with my Ladyblog?” Alya cried as they all milled around in the courtyard at the end of the midday break.
“You update it every day,” Nino replied flatly, “I don’t think that can be considered behind.”
“Yeah but half the posts this month have been fluff pieces. I have so much footage I haven’t even had a chance to post yet, not to mention my theory of the month.”
“What’s the theme this time?” Adrien asked, taking a sip of his caramel latte.
“Do Ladybug and Chat Noir know each other’s identities?” She replied.
“Not one of your better topics, in my opinion.” Adrien grinned.
“I told you I have had no time,” she said, “It was either that or Is Hawkmoth secretly in league with Mayor Andre Bourgeois?”
“Wow you weren’t kidding about no time,” Nino said, putting his arm sympathetically around her shoulder.
“I dunno, I kinda like the conspiracy theory angle,” Adrien replied. He finished off the last of his drink and lobbed the empty cup into a nearby trashcan, earning him an eye roll from Nino. “So on a somewhat unrelated note- what do you guys want to Christmas?”
“Are you planning on dropping an embarrassingly large amount of money on gifts again this year?” Alya asked.
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Adrien huffed, kicking the ground with his toe.
“I am not criticizing,” she stated holding up her hands in a pacifying gesture, “I just want to know that that is the plan before I say anything, so I don’t come across as a total bitch if I casually drop the hint that I could really use some new video editing software. That stuff isn’t cheap you know.”
“Duly noted. How about you Nino?”
“I like being surprised.”
“I’ll text you some ideas later.” Alya grinned.
“Thanks Alya.”
“Come on babe make him work for it!”
“Speaking of ideas,” Adrien interrupted before Alya and Nino could fall into their usual good natured bickering, “do either of you know what sort of gift Marinette would like? She always gives me the coolest handmade stuff so I would like to get her something really special this year.”
“Just walk up to her with a sprig of mistletoe.”
“Alya!”
“What?” Adrien asked.
“Nothing.” Nino said, clamping his hand over his girlfriend’s mouth. “Adrien it’s safe to say that Marinette will adore anything you give her.”
“That is not at all helpful.” He scowled.
“Maybe you should just try asking her yourself.” Nino offered helpfully, nodding his head in the direction of the main entrance where the girl in question had just appeared.
“Yeah, you do that,” Alya said, having freed herself from Nino’s grasp, “we are going to go be somewhere else.” She grabbed her boyfriend by the arm and began dragging him over towards the far side of the yard where Alix and Kim were having some sort of strange hand standing competition.
Adrien took a deep breath and steadied his nerves.
He could totally do this.
He hurried over to intercept Marinette before she could get trapped into a conversation with any of their other classmates.
“Hey Marinette, could I ask you something?”
She let out a soft squeak and spun around to face him, her expression softening to a hesitant smile when she registered who he was.
“Of course, you can ask me anything. Always.” She replied shyly.
“I was just wondering, what you would like for Christmas?” Adrien tried to sound as casual as possible. A paranoid part of his brain expecting her to narrow her eyes in recognition at his innocent request.
But there was no sudden shift in behavior, instead she simply blushed prettily and dropped her gaze to the ground.
“Oh! I really don’t have a preference, anything you get will be great I am sure.”
OK, this was getting him nowhere. Time for plan B.
“Well, the thing is,” he gave her his most helpless, sheepish smile, “the gang sort of put me in charge of figuring out what you might like this year. I was supposed to try and find out what sort of things you might want and then report back to the group without letting you catch on, but stealth isn’t really my strong suit,” he fibbed. “Do you think you could help a guy out?”
“If you were trying for subtle, asking me ‘what do you want for Christmas? ’ probably wasn’t the strongest opening.” Marinette teased, but he could sense her caving and could see a smile curving the edges of her lips.
“What can I say, I am a hopeless case.” He hunched his shoulders and gave her his best kitten eyes, a trick his mother had taught him years ago.
“You aren’t hopeless.” She laughed.
“So how about you take some pity on me and tell me what sort of things you like in general? Maybe I will get some ideas and this mission won’t be a complete failure.”
“Ok.” She replied, biting the inside of her lip as she thought about her answer.
Heh. He was the king of stealth.
“Well I can always use more sewing supplies. Gift cards are great too.”
They were also horribly impersonal.
“What other sort of things do you like to do?” he pressed, “maybe there is a perfect gift that you haven’t even thought of yourself?”
“I mean I like all the usual things. Music, movies, chocolates. There are a few good games that came out last month that I haven’t had a chance to pick up yet.”
Adrien made a mental note to tell that to Nino, who was notorious for doing his shopping last minute and never knowing what to get anyone.
“I guess for me,” she continued, “I am just happy that people are thinking of me and getting me a present in the first place. It doesn’t really matter what it is.”
Ok, clearly he needed to try a different tactic. She was too nice for her own good.
“Just hypothetically, let’s say you could get anything in the world. Something that no one could actually give you but that you wanted anyways, what would it be?” He asked, leaning in conspiratorially.
She stared at him for a moment, her eyes shining with something that he couldn’t quite read before she turned her head away, her face flushing a deep crimson. They sat in silence for a few moments, Adrien patiently waiting for her to respond.
“I guess if I could have anything, I would want a day off. It’s been a pretty crazy year and sometimes I get overwhelmed by everything. It would be nice to have a day where nothing goes wrong. Where everything is easy and there are no monsters attacking the city and I am not tripping over my own feet. Just one whole day where I don’t have to worry that something terrible is going to happen, or that I am going to end up screwing something up. Where I know that everything will finally work out right.”
“A day without any pressure,” Adrien said wistfully, thinking of his own overcrowded schedule.
“Exactly,” Marinette said, finally meeting his gaze with a soft smile. “But that’s not exactly something you can put in a box.”
Adrien laughed. “Maybe not. But who knows, maybe it will still give me some ideas.” He leaned against her and bumped his shoulder into hers.
She laughed softly and ducked her head in an adorably shy gesture.
“Well I should probably let the others know what I found out. Thanks for helping me out Marinette. And if you want to save me a lot of embarrassment please don’t mention this conversation to them.”
“No problem Adrien. But I meant what I said, you really don’t need to worry. I am sure I will like whatever you guys pick out.”
Adrien grinned and gave her a wink.
He wasn’t at all concerned about her liking her Christmas present from Adrien. He had that picked out almost two months ago. His father was holding a seminar next month. A publicity stunt where he was supposed to give advice and tips to up and coming designers in the fashion industry, as well as a luncheon afterwards where the hopeful attendees could meet and mingle with some of the who’s who of the fashion world. Adrien himself would of course be required to attend.
According to Alya, Marinette had practically been in tears when she had been unable to get a ticket before they sold out.
It hadn’t been difficult to acquire one of the few tickets that were always put on hold for any VIPs who wanted to attend last minute. He even managed to cajole his father into writing her a personal invitation to the event. Well, more accurately he had Nathalie write out the invitation and then convinced his father to sign it. Still, he was rather proud of his efforts.
Now all he needed to do was figure out the perfect gift from Chat Noir, and for the first time since the necklace debacle, he had a pretty good idea of what he was going to do.
…
“So I think I have figured out what present to give Marinette.”
“I thought you already gave her a ridiculously overpriced necklace?” Ladybug teased, nudging him with her arm as they sat side by side gazing out across the Paris skyline.
“It wasn’t even that expensive! I don’t see why everyone is making such a fuss!” Chat whined.
“Didn’t you say it was close to 300 Euros?”
“Yeah. 300, not 3,000. And even that’s on the cheap end for jewelry,” he said with an irritated wave of his hand.
“Your definition of cheap is clearly not on par with the rest of us kitty,” Ladybug said, shaking her head exasperatedly.
“Anyways,” Chat continued, “the point is, that this time I have found the perfect gift.”
“She probably doesn’t even want you to get her another gift. I am sure she is more than happy with the one she already got,” Ladybug admonished dryly.
“Too bad. It’s bad enough that you have put a restriction on what presents I am allowed to get you after last year. At least I still can spoil my other friends.”
“You know you don’t have to shower people with presents to make them like you.”
“I know that, but it’s a way that I can show people how much I care about them. I am not always good at expressing myself so this is a way I can do something that will communicated how much their friendship means to me.”
Ladybug was silent for a few moments, clearly wrestling with herself over whether or not to fight him on the subject. Ultimately she just let out a small sigh.
“So what is this perfect gift of yours Chaton?” she asked resignedly, clearly deciding to let him win this round.
“You have to promise not to tell her, I want it to be a surprise.”
Ladybug let out a soft snort, her eyes dancing merrily in the starlight.
“I promise she won’t hear it from me.” She grinned.
“I booked a deluxe spa package at L’oasis for her and her best friend. A full day of nothing but pampering and relaxation.”
Ladybugs jaw dropped open in genuine surprise, clearly impressed.
“Wow, she’ll love that.”
Chat preened at his own accomplishment.
“I know. I am the grand master of all things gift giving.”
Ladybugs eyes narrowed, her jaw clamping shut again as she gave him an unconvinced look.
“You know if you remove your ridiculous limitations I could get you the same thing.” he said, raising his eyebrows in an attempt to bait her. “Wouldn’t you like to get spoiled for a change?”
“How would you book an appointment when you don’t know my real name?” she shot back triumphantly.
“I could get you a gift card for the full amount,” he retorted
“Nice try kitty.” She flicked the bell on his collar, and he pouted.
“In all seriousness though, that was really sweet,” she said. “What made you think of it?”
“Well, to tell you the truth I actually know Marinette in my regular life.”
“Wait, you do? For how long?” she asked breathlessly.
“Two years. We are in the same class.”
“Two years, but that means…” Ladybug just stared at him, her eyes wide.
“Oh don’t look at me like that,” Chat grumbled as Ladybug looked over every inch of him as if scanning for signs of his carelessness. “I’ve been good. She never suspected a thing.”
Ladybug looked away, a soft smile playing on her lips. “I believe you Chaton.” She fidgeted beside him, biting her lower lip. “So, if you know each other in your regular life did you maybe just ask Alya for ideas about what to get Marinette?”
“No, I actually just asked her,” Chat laughed, looking quite pleased with himself. “The whole thing was very smooth if I do say so myself. I asked her what she would want if she could have anything in the world and she said a day without any pressure. This was the closest thing I could come up with.”
“I can’t believe I never saw it before,” Ladybug murmured, her head tilted to the side and an unreadable expression on her face.
“Saw what?”
She hesitated for a moment, then gave him a knowing smile. “What a hopeless romantic you are,” she said at last.
Chat blushed, and this time he was the one who looked away.
“I thought we already covered that I only have eyes for you, My Lady. Hence the entire necklace fiasco.”
She laughed, her eyes filled with mischief as she gave him another careful once over.
“Maybe you were right, perhaps you weren’t sending mixed signals after all.” She giggled.
“Thank you! I am glad to see that someone has finally decided to see reason,” Chat exclaimed, pushing his luck and scooting a little closer to her.
She didn’t draw away, instead she tilted her head so that they were almost touching noses.
Chat struggled to breath as she moved impossibly closer.
“Unless of course you do have feelings for Marinette,” she whispered.
“Ladybug…” he moaned, deflating at her teasing.
“Just a little bit?” she cooed, swaying side to side and trying to force him to meet her gaze.
“I told you-“ he muttered, his cheeks tinging with pink.
“I mean you do spend an awful lot of time together,” she sing songed, again with that devilish grin that made him feel like she could see through him.
“Ok, yes I’ve thought about it once or twice. But I am not about to give up on us just because of a small crush on a cute classmate. I am not fickle!”
Ladybug’s hands came to her mouth as she let out a happy giggle.
“You have a crush on Marinette,” she breathed, eyes shining.
“No I don’t,” he pouted unconvincingly.
“You just said that you did. You can’t take it back now, I’ll know you’re lying. You have a crush on Marinette!”
“Only a little one,” he mumbled. “So does half my class. It doesn’t mean I’m not 100% committed to you Buginette.”
“Okay,” she said lightly before leaning over and dropping her head on his shoulder, cuddling against him with a happy smile.
Chat was absolutely frozen. While they had always been close, and they had definitely never shied away from physical contact, Ladybug had never been this affectionate with him before. Her eyes were closed and she pressed even further against him, letting out a soft hum of contentment when he cautiously wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
Clearly an akuma had shown up and killed him during their conversation because this was heaven.
“So tell me Chat,” she asked softly, a teasing grin pulling at her lips, “if you could have anything you wanted for Christmas, anything in the world, what would it be?”
Chat was pretty sure he had stopped breathing. Was she flirting with him? Had her discovery of his other crush- no matter how much he protested it’s insignificance- perhaps made her jealous?
He tentatively let his fingers trace up and down her arm.
She didn’t stop him. If anything she relaxed more.
“Minou?” She asked, eyes opening to gaze up at him. He realized she was waiting for an answer to her question.
“Oh, um…” he stammered, heart thudding loudly as he realized just how close their faces were from this position, “I mean, if I can have anything…”
“Anything you want.” Her smile widened and she tilted her chin even higher so that their noses were almost brushing.
“Well a kiss from you My Lady, obviously.”
For several seconds neither of them moved. They simply sat, a hair’s breadth apart, as Chat’s words hung in the air around them. The only sound the harsh whisper of heavy breathing and the rapid thudding of heartbeats.
“Good to know,” she said, giggling. She pulled away then and stood, pulling out her yo-yo. “See you soon kitty.”
And without a backwards glance, she disappeared into the night, leaving behind a stunned Chat Noir in her wake.
…
“I’m telling you Plagg, she was being weird!”
“Really, I missed that point the first 100 times you said it.”
“I’m being serious. Something was different. I think she was flirting with me, and I have no idea why. It’s like one second everything was normal and then suddenly something… I dunno… changed. Like she knows something I don’t.”
“You wouldn’t happen to be talking about me, would you?” a flirtatious voice interrupted from behind him.
Adrien spun around, his hands clamping onto the back of his chair for balance at the sight of his partner casually leaning against the window she had clearly just come in from.
“Ladybug!” he sputtered, completely baffled as to what she could possibly be doing here.
He glanced down at his clothes just to make sure he hadn’t somehow transformed.
No, he was still just Adrien.
“What… what are you doing here?” he asked, his throat going dry as she sidled up towards him, her hands behind her back.
“I brought you a Christmas present!” She smiled brightly, edging a little closer and he felt his knees go weak.
“My- my Christmas present? Why would you be bringing me a Christmas present?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
“Well my partner is getting a present for his non-superhero friend, I thought it would be appropriate for me to do the same.” She grinned and raised an eyebrow at him, looking him over with an amused smile that could only mean trouble.
“I guess I didn’t realize we were friends.” he said hesitantly, wondering if she was playing with him. Maybe she had figured out his identity somehow and had decided to teach him some sort of lesson. After all, she had seemed pretty distraught when he told her that he was friends with Marinette, both in and out of costume.
“No I suppose we aren’t, we only see each other during the occasional attack after all,” she said softly, looking down and drawing a pattern against the floor with her foot. “But... “ she looked up through her lashes, “maybe I would like us to be.”
Adrien decided in that moment that he didn’t care what sort of game she was playing as long as she kept looking at him like that.
“Well that was awfully generous of you,” he said, trying desperately to regain any sense of composure as she nervously licked her lips. “I mean, I don’t have anything for you…”
“I think that will be ok,” she giggled.
Then without warning she began looking around his room, wanding in a bizarre circle as if looking for something.
Her eyes finally settled on the overhang from his library balcony and she tossed her yoyo, pulling herself up and hanging… something, before jumping back to the main level, a playful grin lighting her face like the sun.
“You should come over here.” She smiled coyly at him.
Adrien screwed his eyes shut, counted to five, and then opened them slowly.
Ladybug was still standing in his room, smiling at him, purposefully standing under a sprig of mistletoe.
He blinked again, shaking his head roughly back and forth as if dazed.
She hadn’t moved. He wasn’t dreaming. His face flushed as he let his eyes travel up to the innocuous little plant and back down the smiling girl underneath it.
“Hi.” she said softly, clearly amused by his bewildered reaction. But her face was also tinged with the faintest traces of pink along the edges of her mask, and there was the slightest tremor behind her smile. She was nervous too.
Her uncharacteristic shyness somehow bolstered his own courage and with a few quick strides he was standing in front of her. Hardly daring to breath he reached out and placed a trembling hand against her cheek. It took everything he had to suppress a triumphant cheer when she melted into the touch.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked, stroking his thumb against the exposed skin of her cheek and basking in the feeling of warm skin against his fingers.
“That was sort of the point,” she giggled.
She tasted like sugar, and cherry, and vanilla. Her lips were warm and soft against his own, only the barest hint of pressure. It was as if a thousand bolts of electricity were shooting through his every nerve. It was like the rush of power and exhilaration that he got whenever he transformed had been magnified a hundred times over. He didn’t even realize that he had closed his eyes until they were flying open as he pulled away, gasping for air after only a few seconds of contact. He stared awestruck into her shining eyes as every fantasy he had ever had faded in the distance. Every dream paling in light of the reality of having his Lady here, with him, looking at him like he was her entire world.
“Merry Christmas Chaton.”
“Wait, how-” his shocked cry was cut off as she leaned forward and kissed him again, more confident this time.
All fear and concern about her discovery evaporated as the kiss deepened. He lost himself in the feel of her heat, his hand sliding back to cup her neck as the other settled on her waist. The kiss seemed to go on endlessly, time slipping away until nothing existed but her. He was dimly aware of a flash of light behind his closed eyes, but papillion himself couldn’t have pulled Adrien away from this kiss.
She was the one to move away first, gasping for air and barely breaking contact as her fingers stroked his hair.
“You really didn’t need to get me a second Christmas present you know,” she said softly.
His eyes flew open and he gazed, astonished, at his classmate. She smiled shyly at him, biting her lip nervously, her cheeks flushed pink.
“Marinette,” he breathed, tracing his thumb across her cheeks were her mask had been only moments before.
“Surprise?”
He pulled her into a crushing hug, burying his face into her neck, relieved semi-hysterical laughter shaking his entire body.
“It’s you! Of course it’s you. Who else could it possibly be.”
Marinette let out her own happy sob as she clung to him. “Now you know how I felt last night. I’ve been a wreck all day waiting for a chance to come over and tell you.”
“Yeah I can see where I might have slipped up a little yesterday,” Adrien laughed. He kissed her again. Laughing against her lips, he picked her up, spinning in dizzying circles as he peppered her with kisses.
Eventually he was forced to stop, setting her down on the floor but never breaking contact. He stared into the eyes he knew and loved so well and wonder, how he could ever have been so blind as not to see her. “It’s nice to finally meet you, My Lady,” he said reverently.
“Oh minou.”
She closed her eyes again, pressing her face against his chest, smiling.
“I must say, My Lady, I think you outdid yourself on my present this year.” he teased, dropping a gentle kiss on her forehead.
“You did pretty good yourself,” she grinned. “Although you really shouldn’t have gotten me anything else. It makes me feel incredibly guilty, you know.”
Adrien smirked. “You are going to hate me tomorrow.”
“You didn’t!”
“In my defense, I didn’t know you were Ladybug, so TECHNICALLY this is my official present from Adrien to Marinette.”
“Did you go completely overboard again this year?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Adrien…”
He cut her off with another kiss.