Marinette is leaving the store when it begins to snow.

"Hold on, Alya," Marinette says into her phone. "Wait- hang on-" She tucks her phone between her ear and her shoulder and readjusts the package in her arms, hiding it under her jacket to shield it from the snow. "It just started snowing. I'll call you back."

"Well, don't just stand around in the cold! I'll talk to you-"

"Wait!" Marinette pauses, biting her lip anxiously. "You're… you're sure he'll like it?"

"Of course! It's adorable," Alya says confidently.

"If you say so," Marinette says, relaxing slightly. If there's anyone who can make her less nervous about this, it's Alya.

Marinette reaches her destination a few minutes later. Her hair and clothes are covered with snow, and the sky is still clouded in white. She pulls the package out from under her coat, shivering in the cold as she slips it into Adrien's mailbox.

She's still standing there, fixing her scarf, when someone calls out to her.

"Marinette!"

Adrien.

Oh, no. Here I am standing outside of his house like a stalker-

"Marinette!" Adrien calls again, hopping off his front steps and jogging down the driveway.

Marinette's heart is pounding, and she can barely manage a slight wave. "I- I was just, um, walking home from the store," she mumbles, blushing slightly.

Adrien smiles. "Do you want to come in out of the snow for a minute? You must be freezing."

Marinette's eyes widen, and for a second she thinks she might just explode. "Yes!" she blurts out before taking a deep breath and starting over. "I mean, you must want some family time on Christmas Eve. I wouldn't want to intrude…"

Adrien frowns, and Marinette trails off. Then he brushes it off with a light laugh. It's a sort of practiced and polite laugh, but Marinette struggles to breathe properly nonetheless. "Nothing much going on here," he says with a slightly forced looking smile. "But if you have plans-"

"I don't have to be home until later… so I can come in for a little," Marinette says softly, her words sounding more like a question than a statement. She shivers.

Adrien's face brightens as he leads Marinette up to the house.

The entryway is warm, a vent further down the hall blowing out heated air, but Marinette is still shaking from the cold. She removes her muddy shoes and leaves them at the door.

Adrien takes her coat and hangs it up. Little white snowflakes sparkle in his hair, and Marinette can't help but stare at him. He leads the way down the hall, and she notices how sadly undecorated the house is compared to her own.

Adrien opens the door to a medium sized room with a large couch and TV taking up most of the space. "Sit down; I'll bring you something warm to drink," he says, disappearing out of the door. When Marinette doesn't reply, he sticks his head back into the room. "Okay?"

Marinette nods quickly. "Thank you!" she squeaks, slowly sitting down on the couch.

Adrien disappears again, and Marinette hears cabinet doors being opened in another room.

Snow piles up outside the windows. The only thing remotely cozy about the neat, formal room is a soft brown blanket hanging over the back of the couch. Marinette drapes it across her legs, rubbing her cold hands together. She frowns at the thought of Adrien sitting in this cold house alone on Christmas Eve.

Butterflies are fluttering in her stomach, and she fidgets slightly. She pulls out her phone and scrolls through various pictures posted of Chloe's Christmas party. Of course, there's a huge tree, covered in bright ornaments and strands of colored lights, and extravagant decorations lining the walls. Marinette turns off the phone and sets it on the couch beside her.

Why isn't Adrien there instead of sitting in his house alone?

Marinette looks up as Adrien hands her a cup of hot tea. It smells like cinnamon and gingerbread. "Thank you," she says, inhaling the warm scent.

"No problem." He sits down beside her, and Marinette blushes as their shoulders press together.

She shivers slightly.

"Are you cold?" Adrien laughs and wraps the blanket around her.

Marinette smiles shyly and takes a sip of her tea.

The two sit in silence for a few minutes, slowly huddling closer together in the cold. Marinette looks around the room, her gaze falling on an unopened box in the corner of the room.

Adrien notices her looking. "My parents and I used to decorate together before Christmas, but my dad's been too busy. And without my mom… I just never got around to it, I guess." He looks away, shoulders hunched, and Marinette can't think of a time when she's seen him look so upset.

She tries to imagine celebrating Christmas without her mother, but she can't quite picture it. The thought leaves an empty feeling in her chest. "I… I could help you decorate," she suggests softly.

"Really?" Adrien looks up and smiles slightly.

Marinette nods enthusiastically, her confidence boosted by his small smile. "Of course!"

Adrien stands up and pulls the box over to the couch. He removes the lid and starts to pull out various decorations and lights. "Hold on." He hurries off into a small closet down the hall, Marinette trailing behind him, and returns with a large green bag. "It's not as good as a real tree, but it's better than nothing, right?"

Marinette smiles and helps him drag the bag into the entryway. After a fair amount of struggling to figure out which pieces fit together, they manage to assemble the tree next to the staircase.

Adrien steps back to look at the lopsided tree and laughs happily.

Marinette thinks it's the best sound she's ever heard.

"I like it," Adrien says, reaching one hand out for a high five.

Marinette slaps his hand lightly and laughs.

"I'll get the ornaments and lights." Adrien runs down the hallway, sliding across the floor in his socks. He returns with the box of decorations.

"Lights first," Marinette instructs, and Adrien hands her two strings of lights shaped like snowflakes. She twists them across the banisters on each side of the staircase while Adrien covers the tree with brightly colored lights.

When the lights have been successfully hung around the house, Adrien pulls out ornaments. They work without talking much. Occasionally Adrien pauses to show Marinette a specific ornament and tell her a story about it, where it's from, who bought it. How much his mom liked it.

When the ornaments are finished and the other various decorations have been placed around the house, Adrien warms up the mugs of tea, and they sit together on the couch again. "Thank you," Adrien says after a moment.

Marinette blushes. "Of course!" She drinks a sip of her tea.

"It's still snowing. Maybe we should watch a movie until it stops," Adrien suggests.

Marinette nods, trying to keep her face from turning red again. "Sure!"

Adrien hops off the couch and kneels in front of the cabinet under the TV. "A Christmas movie, right?"

"Of course. I think it might be illegal to watch anything else on Christmas Eve," Marinette says jokingly. While Adrien looks through the movies in the cabinet, she pulls a hairbrush out of her bag and tries to brush out her damp, tangled hair.

After starting the movie, Adrien rejoins Marinette on the couch. "Need some help?" he asks, tapping her hand as she struggles with a particularly bad knot.

Marinette turns bright red before stammering out an okay. She hands over the brush and tries to focus more on the movie than on the fact that the boy she has a huge crush on is brushing her hair.

It doesn't work very well, clearly, because her face is still burning.

Adrien parts her hair into three pieces and braids it, tying it with the hairband Marinette hands him. "Ta da!"

She glances at him over her shoulder, noticing his slightly pink cheeks.

Is he blushing?

Somehow this observation makes Marinette's face grow more red, and she mumbles a thank you before pulling the blanket up to cover half her face.

The rest of the movie passes mostly in silence, aside from a small game of tug-of-war over the blanket, which Marinette clearly wins. By the time the ending credits drag across the screen, she and Adrien are both half asleep.

The room somehow seems ten times cozier than it did when she first arrived,

Adrien yawns and glances out the window. "It's not snowing anymore," he says, his voice carrying a hint of disappointment.

Marinette looks up. "I should probably get home," she says softly, as if there's some sort of silence she can't break.

Adrien walks her back down the hall, handing over her coat. "I can't believe my dad's still not back," he mutters, mostly to himself, looking at the time on his phone.

Marinette tentatively places one hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure he'll love the decorations."

"Thank you," Adrien says softly.

She slips her shoes back on and opens the door. "Thank you for having me," she says, stepping outside.

"Wait, Marinette."

She turns around.

"I'll walk you home," Adrien says, and takes her hand.

Adrien opens the mailbox and pulls out a small package. It's wrapped in red paper and covered with a careful pattern of silver snowflake stickers. He brings the present into his room, Plagg perched on his shoulder, and unwraps it.

Under the paper is a gold box, with a small stuffed black cat inside. A note is tied with brown string around the cat's neck like a collar.

Merry Christmas! You told me once that you liked cats.

-Marinette