knowlee- Hi! This was my Secret Santa gift to s-t-a-r-c-o over at Tumblr and I'm posting here as well as on my Ao3! Hope you guys enjoy it!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Miraculous Ladybug or its Characters. They belong to Thomas Astruc.

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir Oneshot Fanfiction

Twinkling Lights

By: Knowlee Raven

Secret Santa Gift For: s-t-a-r-c-o

If someone asked Adrien how he ended up helping one of his classmates from school hang up Christmas lights on her balcony as his superhero persona and nearly kiss her, he wouldn't be able to give them a straight answer. The first reason being that there would be no way anyone would ask Adrien that question because according the entire populace of Paris he and Chat Noir were entirely two different people. And the second reason being that he would vehemently deny that he was developing feelings for his classmate when his emotions were supposed to be towards his Lady.

But as Plagg would say, he was just in denial.

But to get back towards the situation that was mentioned earlier, here's how it all went down:

Chat was out and about doing his usual patrol of Paris. It was his night to do it, so Ladybug was free to take care of whatever it was she did on her off days. And even though Chat did miss the company of his Lady, he absolutely loved being in her presence, he was actually glad that this night was one where he wouldn't run into her. With how his evening went earlier before he left to do his superhero duties, he was glad to be alone for a little while.

While lost in his thoughts, he had went through a good portion of his usual route without realizing it. Before he knew it he had come up to the part that included the area around his school. He was taken aback a little bit by how much he had not been paying attention. His lady would be disappointed in him! He then decided to push all of his loathing thoughts out of his mind and fully focus on the task at hand. He quickly moved past the school and leapt between the gap that separated that building from the next. He stuck the landing on the next building and had started to move forward again when he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a faint noise that sounded a bit like cursing.

Although he was curious as to what the noise was, he also knew that he needed to ignore it and move on, but he couldn't help his ears turning towards the direction the noise came from. Then when he heard it happen again, he found himself growing even more curious. What was going on over there?

In the back of his mind the old saying of 'curiosity killed the cat' was coming to him as a warning for giving into it, but at the same time he knew that if he didn't, it was going to kill him to not figure out what was going on. Sorry, my Lady. He crept closer and closer to the sound's location and once he got close enough, he was a little surprised to see that it was none other than his classmate, Marinette. He smiled at the sight of her.

Chat watched quietly as she brought a strand of Christmas Lights, the colors red and green, up against the wall that was the backdrop of her little balcony. She hooked it on top of a nail that appeared to have been just driven into the wall based on the hammer that he saw was in her other hand and the box of nails on the ground next to her.

Once the strand was properly secured, he saw her reach down to grab another nail out of the box and moved a little ways down from where the other one was at to place it against the wall. She slowly brought the hammer up to it, measuring where she would need to bring it down, and slowly began tapping the piece of metal into the wall to get it more secure. When it was in there enough, she brought the hammer back a bit farther and, using a bit more force this time, began to drive it further into the wall…

...only to miss and curse when the tool hit her thumb instead. She cursed at the pain that immediately began coursing it's way through it.

Chat threw his hand over his mouth to try and stifle his laughter, but he couldn't hide it completely. After Marinette was done cursing like a sailor, she jerked her head up to look up in his direction. At first she was a bit surprised to see him there and he did startle her, but once she figured out that he was laughing at her, her surprise turned into a deep glare.

At the sight she gave him, Chat quickly coughed to hide his laughter, but he unfortunately he couldn't quite wipe the smile off of his face. "My apawlogies, Princess. I didn't realize that you knew such language."

The glare remained. "Ha, ha. Very funny, Chat." Rolling her eyes to show her exasperation at his attempt to hide his amusement at what had happened, she decided to ignore him and brought the hammer back up to try to hit the nail again. Just as it was about to hit though, a gloved hand caught her wrist, preventing it from going any further. She turned her head slightly to see Chat standing next to her, his hand stopping her from completing the motion. "How about you let me do that, okay, Princess?"

Marinette raised an eyebrow at his suggestion, but ultimately decided to let him do it. It wasn't like she was bad at working with tools, heck she helped her dad around the house with fix-it jobs all the time, but as far as making sure that she could consistently hit the nail with a hammer without missing, she definitely needed some practice with it. Besides, maybe with Chat's help she could get these lights up quicker.

She sighed and swallowed her pride while she moved out of the way to let Chat take her place. She watched as he got into position. Once he deemed it alright to try and hit the nail, he moved the hammer forward…

...only to follow Marinette's example from earlier and miss completely, hitting his thumb as well. He let out a yowl and his tail and ears stood upright at the sudden pain. The string of curses that came out of his mouth were probably worse than what Marinette had come out of her mouth. And speaking of the girl in question, she had doubled over in laughter at what happened and had tears coming out of her eyes due to laughing so hard.

Chat stuck the side of his thumb into his mouth and bit on it in an effort to numb the pain slightly. He glared at the girl standing beside him and blushed in embarrassment, his ears pulled back on top of his head.

It took a few moments for Marinette to compose herself, but eventually she got to that point. She stood back upright and wiped away the few tears that remained. She smiled at Chat Noir. "Seems like you're just as bad as me at this, kitty." She chuckled a bit as a smirk formed on her face.

Chat removed his thumb from his mouth, the pain now a dull throb. "Either that, or my bad luck decided to kick in just then." He laughed at the irony. Why couldn't he get good luck for once?

A few more nails, another couple strings of curses and missed attempts later, the two were sitting back, Marinette on her lawn chair, Chat on the stone barrier next to her, admiring their handiwork. The red and green lights twinkled against the brick wall and around the wire fence that surrounded the balcony. There was even a small miniature tree that Marinette had brought up from he room that was lit up with white lights sitting next to the trap door.

In short, the sight was beautiful. It filled the two up with glee at seeing the glowing lights and they both smiled as it instantly reminded them of times when they were younger and had shared Christmas with their parents. The smile stayed plastered onto Marinette's face as her thoughts continued onto what would happen to her this Christmas. She and her parents had plans to have their traditional Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve night before turning in early to wake up to have and early Christmas breakfast and then exchange gifts.

Chat's on the other hand changed into a frown. Unfortunately for him, it looked as if he wouldn't get a chance at another happy Christmas. Ever since his mom had disappeared his dad had gotten further and further away from him and it looked like this Christmas wouldn't be like the others they had before she left. Especially since he learned earlier this evening that his father was booked to be gone during the entire Christmas vacation. Sure he could try and hang out with his friends instead, but since his bodyguard and Nathalie were left with strict instructions to not let him out of their sight, that likelihood had dwindled. He sighed.

Before his companion could notice, Chat drew himself out of his dark thoughts and quickly changed his frown back into a smile. The last thing he wanted was to make her feel upset for him and ruin her happy moment. He turned towards her and flattened his ears against his head when he saw her distraught face. Apparently he didn't do it fast enough. But instead of acknowledging that she had caught his sad expression, he decided to play dumb. "What's wrong, Princess? Did we miss something as we were decorating?"

She sighed. How was it that she knew to expect him to avoid his problems? "No Chat, we didn't. Is...is there something wrong?" Chat opened his mouth to voice his denial, but she spoke again before he could get a word out of his mouth. "And don't try and deny it. I saw that frown earlier. Now, what's wrong?"

The mention of the previous expression on his face caused it to return. He sighed and turned away from her, his gaze staring at the ground in front of him. "I was just thinking about how Christmas isn't going to be the same for me as it was when I was a kid."

"Oh. I see. I'm – I'm sorry to hear that." Marinette's eyebrows furrowed together at the thought of Chat having a bad holiday. She turned away from him to look at the small tree she had sitting in the corner. Although a tiny part of her wanted to know more about his situation, she also didn't want to push the subject. His identity needed to be kept a secret from her and if she were to learn about any details about him, it could potentially out him to her. A thought in the back of her mind kept telling her that that little bit of information wouldn't do that, but it didn't hurt to be too careful, right?

She glanced back at him to see him still looking miserable. At the same time though, she couldn't just let him suffer through the holidays. If there was someway she could help him, she would take the chance. Even though their identities needed to be kept a secret, he was still her friend. Both in the suit and out.

"Would you like to come by here on Christmas Eve and on Christmas too?" She saw Chat's ears perk up at her voice and he turned to look at her, his green eyes glinting with curiosity and what she could only guess, a little bit of excitement. "Do you mean that? I mean – I don't want to impose..."

Marinette shook her head. "No, you're not imposing! I just want you to have to a good Christmas. It – it may not be as good as your Christmases were when you were younger, but that doesn't mean we can't still have fun." She smiled at him to emphasize that she meant every word.

Chat's eyes widened as her words slowly sank in. Was she – was she really inviting him over to spend Christmas with her? Inwardly he was doubting her words as he was used to disappointment all his life, but based on the fact that he knew she would never do something like that to him as she wasn't that type of person and that her face showed that she was being completely sincere, he was inclined to believe her. A wide grin broke out on his face. "Really?! You mean it?!" Another nod from her confirmed it. His tail began thrashing back in forth in glee. "Sure, I can make it! What time should I come over? Oh, and what would you like for Christmas? I can't just come here empty-handed! So don't try to tell me that I can!"

She giggled at his excitement. "You don't have to get me a gift, Chat." At the sight of his joyful smile going away slightly, she decided to amend her statement. "But knowing you, I don't think I can stop you." The smile returned with full force. "But don't go overboard though! I'd hate to know that you spent a lot of money on me for just one gift. So please, don't."

He nodded. "Can't promise I won't, but I'll try." He turned his attention to the lights surrounding them and felt his smile grow even bigger. The sad feelings he had inside of him before he arrived here had now fully disappeared. Instead of spending Christmas being cooped up in his house with no one to see him, he now had something to look forward to. He sighed in content.

He turned his head back in her direction to ask her what exactly they would be doing to celebrate, when he caught her staring at him. He wasn't sure why he reacted the way he did, but he completely stopped what he was doing and found himself unable to turn away and stop staring into her eyes. He tried his best to break the gaze, but he couldn't find the strength to do so. It also didn't help that the Christmas lights surrounding them kept twinkling and made her eyes bright and put a slight glow about her.

He didn't even notice that the two were even getting closer to each other until he noticed they were mere centimeters apart. At the realization of what was about to happen, both of them immediately shot away from each other and turned their attention elsewhere. He brought his hand up to his neck in a nervous gesture and tried to hide his embarrassment. "Heh, heh, so...uh, what time should I be here again?" Why the heck did he do that? He had feelings for his Lady, not Marinette!

Marinette desperately tried to fight down her blush. Why the heck did she try to kiss him for, she liked Adrien for goodness' sakes! "Um, about 9 in the evening. Me and my parents finish eating Christmas dinner before then, so, we – we can hang out then, okay?"

"S-sure thing! I'll be here at 9 and I'll – I'll be sure to bring your gift too. I'll try not to spend too much." He moved to stand up and began walking towards the fence, not looking at her. He was still too embarrassed to let her see the blush on his face.

"A-alright then!" Get a hold of yourself, Marinette! Why was she acting this way? She'll definitely have to discuss this with Tikki later after he left. "I'll see you then! Oh, and thanks for helping me with the lights earlier!"

"No problem." He leapt onto the railing. He took a deep breath to try and calm his nerves as he bit his lip while trying to decide what to do next. He decided that he could chance a glance back at her now that he felt significant calmer. He gave her his signature two-fingered salute as he did. "See ya then, Princess!"

And with that, he jumped over the gap separating the bakery from the next building and started making his way home. He knew that he needed to finish his patrol, but after what had happened earlier, he wanted nothing more than to go home and forget that it ever happened. Although he was sure that he wouldn't get the chance as Plagg would definitely not let him live it down. He was still questioning why he even found himself doing that. He didn't like Marinette! Well, he did like her, but just as a friend, nothing more! His heart belonged to Ladybug.

Still though, he thought as he leapt over another gap. He couldn't help but think of how beautiful she looked with the Christmas lights twinkling around her. He groaned as the thoughts persisted.

How was he going to survive Christmas around her if these thoughts wouldn't leave him alone?