I got a ko-fi request from miraculousstuffwotifound: "hey could I possibly request a drabble of the miraculous class celebrating Hogmanay? bonus points if Luka (who is theorised to be Scottish) is the first footer and everyone is super confused by the Scottish custom. 3 I love your writing!"
I didn't quite use the whole class but I did go with our fav four. Enjoy the Adrinette and Lukanette teases!
Miraculous Hogmanay
Marinette stared at her phone in confusion for a moment after reading the message that had drawn her attention with a sharp ping.
"Everything okay M?" Alya asked her from her place on the couch, watching the Parisian celebrations on the television while Adrien and Nino sat on the floor, having the latest bout in their thumb war over the table. They looked dangerously close to knocking over the bottle of Champagne.
"Uh, fine," she said, glancing up briefly before looking back at her screen, "Just didn't expect to get any messages. I thought the network would be overrun."
It was already 11:47 pm on New Year's Eve and when she had heard her phone chime, she had expected it to be an early celebratory message from someone who knew they'd be too excited to send one later. She'd already done the same, sending out messages to her whole class minus the three her parents had encouraged her to spend new year with. New Years was supposed to be spent with friends after all. It was why her parents had gone out with their own friends for the night.
Returning to her phone to reread the message before her, Marinette nibbled on her lip awkwardly as she scanned the screen.
Are you at home for new years? Luka x
She briefly wondered where he had gotten her number from before her common sense caught up to her and she realised that he must have asked Juleka, so he could contact her himself. Despite the text sounding perfectly innocent and friendly, Marinette felt her heart pick up its rhythm and risked a panicked look across the room to ensure no one else had noticed.
Yeah, I'm home. U?
She agonised for a few minutes before adding a kiss of her own on the end. Giving it one last glance to proofread, she quickly hit the send button before she could overthink any and every possible undertone of the message. The reply was fast and frustratingly cryptic.
Not quite
She stared at the message for a minute or two. "What is that supposed to mean?" she eventually asked aloud.
"Marinette! Quick! It's the countdown!" Adrien shouted suddenly, full of endearing child-like excitement.
Dropping her phone in her haste, she dashed across to her friends, Alya's arm slinging over her shoulder as they began to chant.
"5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Joyeuse année!"
Fireworks exploded in the skies over the bakery and Marinette found herself jumping on the spot with her best friend before launching herself at her for a hug. Nino soon tapped her on the shoulder and tilted his head towards Alya, a silent request to kidnap his girlfriend away from her which she quickly complied with.
There was a moment of brief awkwardness when she realised why and turned away from their public display that they were attempting to pass off as a simple new year's kiss. As she did, her eyes met Adrien's and they both blushed profusely as they tried to work out how to broach the topic of the same tradition.
"Um, we don't have to-"
"Would you like to-?"
They both gave a small chuckle before Adrien placed a gentle peck against her cheek.
"Happy new year, Marinette."
Marinette simply stared, cheeks darkening further as she slipped into another of her fantasies. Adrien had kissed her. Just on the cheek, but still -he had kissed her! Maybe he'd lean back in and they'd share a far more intimate moment?
She sighed deeply and might have remained frozen there forever, eyes glassy and Adrien beginning to worry that she had zoned out, but it was at that exact moment that the doorbell rang, and she shook herself free long enough to furrow her brow in confusion.
"Is that your parents?" Nino asked.
"It's far too early," she said, opening the door and turning to make her way to the downstairs entrance. She had locked up earlier and no one would have been able to make it up to the front room like normal, so she'd have to traipse down to let whoever it was inside, "And they have keys."
Bounding down to the door quickly, she took a quick glance through the marbled glass and took in the view of dark hair ending in obviously teal tips. Wait, it couldn't be? Could it?
She flung the door open so swiftly it almost bounced off the wall and only her quick reaction time saved her having to explain a dent in the plaster to her parents later. "Luka?" she gasped.
"Hi," he said, standing before her, a bottle of something amber coloured in one hand and a simple wave coming from the other. "Can I come in?"
"Of course!" She stepped back for him to enter, closing and locking the door again once he was inside before leading him up the stairs to the front room.
As they made their way up in a strangely comfortable silence, Marinette eyes were drawn to Luka's outfit. He wasn't dressed unusually for him -just jeans and a t-shirt- but the writing across his chest caught her attention. It was hard to get a good look without openly staring but she was pretty sure the words weren't French, and it was frustrating her that the cursive font made it difficult to tell.
They quickly made their way into the living room, alerting the others to their presence when the door clicked closed behind them. "Look who I found," she announced, as the others ceased their dancing.
"Luka?" shouted Alya, her eyes flicking towards Adrien briefly before she moved forward and enveloped him in a hug, giving Marinette a pointed look over his shoulder.
"Nice T-shirt dude," Nino said after she had pulled back, his face equally confused looking as Marinette had felt when she had tried to decipher it. "What does it say?"
"Oh. It's English," Luka said, "or rather Scots. It says, 'Happy Hogmanay.'"
"Hogmanay?" Marinette asked.
"Oh, wait a minute!" Adrien suddenly burst out, "That's the Scottish flag in the background isn't it?"
"Yeah. Well spotted." He turned to face Marinette. "Hogmanay is what we call New Year's Eve in Scotland. Just like it's called La Saint-Sylvestre here."
"So, you're actually from Scotland too, not just your maman?" Alya asked.
"I was born there. Maman brought us over here just before Juleka came along." He smiled softly and Marinette's tongue suddenly felt far too large for her mouth. "She's determined to make sure we remember everything she can tell us about Scotland."
Marinette had almost forgotten about the bottle he was carrying until he lifted it, passing it over to her and placing his hand over hers as she reached out for it.
"Here. For you and your family. Guests too," he said, glancing at the others.
"Oh no! I c-can't accept-" She cut off unexpectedly at the sound of his gentle laugh once again, a soft sound that made her feel like she had swaddled herself in a fleece blanket -fluffy and warm and impossibly comfortable.
It's Scottish tradition Ma-ma-marinette," he chuckled, "I'm your First Footer. I was the first foot to come in over the threshold after midnight. I have to bring you a gift."
Glancing down at the amber liquid, she noted with a little uncertainty that it was Whisky. Real Scottish Whisky too, from the look of the label. That was kind of…intimidating actually.
"You're meant to pour out a small shot into a glass and sip it straight -it's called a dram," Luka was telling Adrien who was peering over her shoulder at the bottle for a look of his own, "but it can be too strong if you're not used to it. I take mine with water and ice."
Feeling her face heat up from the proximity of the only two boys to have ever set her heart compass spinning, Marinette quickly moved away to get glasses for everyone, struggling at first to reach the ones furthest back on the top shelf until Adrien leaned over to help. His chest brushed her back as he did so, and she had to force down a squeak at the contact.
Dashing to the counter, she attempted to pour out small measures of the precious liquid but soon found her hands shaking to do much more than splash the liquid towards the glasses, almost coating the counter while she tried. Luka reached out and steadied her hand helping her to pour first the whisky before topping up one with water from the jug in the fridge to show them all how much to add.
"You should all try it straight first. Just to see what you think," he said whilst Marinette tried to regain the strength in her knees.
He smirked then began to laugh as they all made a unique assortment of faces at the taste of the strong liquor before adding water and ice, making it only marginally more palatable for them.
The fun of the night continued again soon enough and the longer it went on, the more Marinette seemed to relax – most likely aided by the glass of whisky and multiple glasses of champagne she had drunk.
Turns were taken dancing with one another to the music playing from the TV and anecdotes were shared. Nino became disgruntled for a while when Marinette told a particularly embarrassing story about him tearing his jeans in école andattempting to hide it with his coat tied around his waist until someone had grabbed it from him, but he soon warmed up again when Marinette squawked at his threats to tell everyone of her own childhood adventures.
Luka even convinced them all to attempt singing Auld Lang Syne, something which failed so hopelessly that the girls collapsed to the floor in giggles while the boys attempted to continue with the dancing. Their circle was far too small to allow them to move in and out and Nino kept uncrossing his arms as he tried to concentrate on the lyrics.
"This isn't fair!" he snickered when the boys too finally gave up, tipsy and slumping to the ground in fits of laughter, "I'm good at English! Some of these words are made up, I'm sure of it."
"They're Scots, not English," Luka explained, scooting across the floor on his knees to sit on Marinette's right, "There's Scots, there's English and there's Scottish-English. And I haven't even mentioned Gaelic yet." He burst out a snort of laughter when Nino flopped onto his back with a grumble.
"So, what does Auld Lang Syne mean then?" Adrien asked from Marinette's other side, making the girl jump at his sudden appearance.
"Old long ago. Basically, it means 'the good old days.'"
"Hey! Describe me in Scots!" Adrien said leaning his chin on Marinette' shoulder and speaking with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm for a boy who didn't realise the girl beside him was slowly combusting where she sat.
Luka watched him for a second as he thought before finally- "Bricht easy chuffed. It means you're excitable," he snickered.
"What about Nino?" Alya asked watching her boyfriend purse his lips from his spot on the floor next to her before losing her balance and slumping down beside him.
"Leave me out of this!" he complained before rolling over to snuggle into Alya's side.
"He's definitely crabbit," Luka said with a teasing smirk. "Grumpy."
"And me? And Marinette?" Alya's slurred and muffled voice asked from Nino's shoulder.
"Well, right now you're steaming, blootert, pissed. And puggelt" He hadn't dropped that smirk. "Drunk and tired." He only received a soft snore in reply and turned back to where Marinette sat beside him, Adrien also starting to doze lightly on her shoulder.
The sensation of his breath on her neck combined with the intense look Luka was giving her, she began to wonder if a person could actually melt into a puddle, and if they could, would Adrien notice that his pillow had disappeared before or after she started to evaporate from the heat in her face?
"As for Marinette," Luka said, glancing at the half-asleep boy on her other side before his eyes found hers again, holding her gaze, "I don't think I'm the only one here who thinks she's an extremely bonnie lass."
This made me insanely happy because I'm Scottish and so I got to share my own traditions with you all!
-Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) is huge in Scotland because back in the late 1500s/early 1600s Christmas was banned for being "too Catholic" (Presbyterian back then) and the people needed to find a way to celebrate without being arrested for the next 400 years until it was allowed again.
-First footing, or being the First footer is a huge tradition and folks used to be expected to bring coal to heat the home, shortbread or Whisky. These days something sweet to eat or a bottle of alcohol is the norm. If the first footer doesn't have a gift it's basically a slap in the face.
A good luck omen is if the first footer is a dark haired male (as fair haired people weren't too popular after the Vikings invasions in the past). You're expected to greet everyone with a hug or a kiss and to wish them "Lang may yer lum reek!" which directly translates to "long may your chimney smoke!" basically meaning you hope they always have heat in their home and none of the smokey unpleasantness of a clogged chimney.
-I hate Whisky but that's how it's meant to be drunk. So no mixers except water.
-You probably all know this but, Auld Lang Syne is a Scottish song made popular by famous Scottish poet Robert (or Rabbie as we call him) Burns. The Scottish version of the song (because other English speaking countries have tweaked the lyrics) uses a lot of Scottish-English.
-Scots is a language separate from English but there is also Scottish-English which is a combination of both and is most widely used here. Scottish Gaelic is now a minority language but was once used all over the Highlands of Scotland.
[No, Scots is not just English with an accent. Words like "dreich" (wet weather), "bubblyjock" (turkey) and "skelp" (slap) prove you can't use them interchangeably].
-All of Luka's descriptors are real Scots words which I have absolutely used.