Christmas Poetry

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It was the first day of the Secret Santa Week organised by their class, and Marinette noticed quite a few of the others nervously trying to hide presents in various places without being observed. Much to her satisfaction, when Juleka saw the purple coloured pen she had bought her, she twirled it in the air several times, seemingly pleased with the gift.

Meanwhile, Chloe had somehow managed to get Adrien as her receiver, and she made no effort to conceal the fact as she pushed a huge box into his hands.

"That girl doesn't understand the meaning of Secret Santa," Alya muttered, scowling. Marinette nodded wryly in reply, but said nothing, for who could stop Chloe doing what she wanted?

Later that day, she found a snowflake-shaped notepad in her bag, attached to a card with a poem printed on it.

"Long live the wind of winter
Have a prosperous year, young Mari!
~From your Secret Santa"

It was adapted from the classic carol, with a (somewhat bad) pun rhyme on her name. Marinette couldn't help smiling as she folded the card and put it carefully back into her bag with the notepad.

-

On the second day, Marinette was thrilled to see Juleka put on the embroidered wrist warmer she had made for her. Her gift arrived after she went to the washroom: a small gift bag stuffed with tiny little sweets, attached to yet another card with a poem.

"Sweet night, holy night
In the heavens the star shines
~From your Secret Santa"

Another classic carol, with another bad pun on the word 'sweet'. Perhaps it was the influence of Chat Noir and his bad puns, but Marinette somehow found them rather endearing.

Of course, she wondered who her Santa was, especially when she realised later that the sweets were all of the flavours she liked best. It couldn't be Alya, because she had gotten Chloe as her receiver and moaned very loudly to Marinette about it.

But who else would have known her favourite sweet flavours?

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On the third day, Marinette's gift was waiting for her before she reached school. It was a little angel ornament made of ceramic, simple but pretty.

"Am I in Paradise tonight
For you are like an angel
~From your Secret Santa"

This time she simply burst out laughing, for it sounded like a cheesy pick-up line disguised as a Christmas carol. Both Nino and Adrien turned at the sound of her chuckles, and she felt her face turning red. Adrien was definitely smiling at her, and, wishing she had a hole to crawl into, Marinette hid her face behind the card.

It was a relief when Alya arrived a few minutes later, complaining about how she had heard Chloe criticising her gift yet again, this time for not being expensive enough. She smiled at the sight of Marinette's present, which was still sitting on her desk, but when Marinette caught the look and asked if she knew who the giver was, Alya refused to reply.

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On the fourth day, Marinette realised that she was looking forward to the gift when she was disappointed at the non-appearance of one for the earlier part of the day. Just before lunchtime, she snuck out to deal with an akuma that turned people into Christmas toys, and upon her return, she was delighted to see a little box stuffed underneath her bag.

There was a little glass slipper (rather like what Cinderella would wear) sitting on a nest of blue crepe paper, filled with more candies and sweets. Attached to it was another card:

"Don't forget your little slipper
Little Princess
~From your Secret Santa"

Little Princess. Obviously the 'little' was a reference to the original song of Little Father Christmas, but Princess? Perhaps the giver simply wished to emphasize the 'Cinderella' joke... but only one other person had ever called her princess.

Could it be...? Marinette wondered.

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On the last day, Marinette handed her final gift (a simple purple eyeshadow set) to Juleka with a bright smile. Their teacher had said that they could reveal themselves if they liked, or keep their identities secret to the end if they preferred. Marinette wondered if her Secret Santa would reveal himself (or herself).

Her final present came during geometry class, when she was helping their teacher to hand out their tests from the previous class. As she returned to her seat, she saw that a small gift bag had appeared on her table.

It was a bag of cookies shaped like musical notes, with red sugar frosting on the note heads. There was a card with her name on attached to it, written in the same familiar hand that she had grown used to over the past week.

"Spreading around a song of happiness
In the kingdom of my precious princess
~From your Secret Santa
Have a Merry Christmas!"

So flirty. So very like Chat Noir. Marinette could not stop the slightly exasperated chuckles that escaped her, as her heart filled with a warm, golden feeling that she couldn't quite name. As she closed the card and she looked up, she found herself at the end of an assessing glance from Adrien. He grinned at her before turning back around, causing her face to flush her usual shade of crimson once again.

She shook her head to clear it, then smiled down at the bag of cookies in her hands.

"Merry Christmas, silly cat," she whispered.

-

Written based on this prompt: "Our class is doing a Secret Santa and oH MY LORD YOU'RE MY CRUSH AND IM YOUR SS TIME TO HARDCORE FLIRT THROUGH SECRET MESSAGES" from otpmusings on tumblr... although I kind of went off in a different direction in the end XD;

The poems above were all adapted from various Christmas carols, with bad puns added by me. Many thanks to Frozenleaf for the help with the French! If there are any grammatical errors, the fault is all mine and I deeply apologise ;w;

"Vive le vent d'hiver,
Et bonne annee, jeune Mari!" (Vive le vent/Jingle Bells)

"Sucré nuit, sainte nuit!
Dans les cieux! L'astre luit." (Douce nuit/Silent Night)

"Je suis en Paradis cet noir?
Parce que vous ĂȘtes comme un ange."(Le p'tit renne au nez rouge/Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)

"N'oublie pas votre petit soulier
Petit princesse." (Petit Papa Noel)

"Semant tout autour
Une chanson bonheur
Au royaume de ma princesse precieux" (Au Royaume du bonhomme hiver/Winter Wonderland)