Marinette and Alya grinned at each other as they ran out the school door, the final bell still ringing. They stood at the top of the steps, watching the gently falling snow cover the streets of Paris. The Christmas holiday had finally started and they had two weeks of freedom, fun, and free time.
Well, Alya would, at least. As far as Marinette knew, akumas weren't in the habit of taking holidays, so there was no knowing when Ladybug would need to save the city again. Given that the Christmas holidays were an emotional time for everyone, Marinette was certain that Ladybug would need to make at least one appearance before the holidays ended.
"Let's go skating at the Hotel de Ville!" said Alya, smiling and waving her arms around the slowly falling snowflakes.
"That's a great idea!" said Marinette. She crossed her arms and shivered. "Can we stop by the bakery first though? I forgot to bring my hat and gloves today."
Alya saw Adrien standing with Nino at the bottom of the steps, waiting for his limousine to show up and take him home. He was, she noticed, wearing the scarf that Marinette had made him for his birthday, and was twiddling his fingers around the soft fringes, gently clutching the ends.
She turned to her friend and tapped her shoulder. "Want to invite your prince to come with us?"
"Oh, he can't! He's been doing photoshoots for Burberry every Friday for the past three weeks," said Marinette automatically.
Alya laughed. "I forgot that you have his schedule memorized."
Marinette turned bright red and smiled sheepishly. "I've been trying to figure out the best time would be for me to drop off his Christmas present at his house. Which would be when he's actually at home. You'd be surprised how often he's out of the house. But I've finally figured out that the best time is today, around sunset. That's usually when he returns from his photoshoots, except when he has something unexpected come up, which has been happening more often than usual, actually. I wonder why. Maybe I should add a space to my schedule map—"
Alya raised her eyebrow. "That's fine, but did you—"
Marinette interrupted her with a laugh. "Don't worry! I actually remembered to sign my gift this time. Tikki—I mean, my planner, had a reminder in there. I made him a blue hat to match with his scarf. And I made sure there are no feathers!"
Alya smiled. "I'm sure he'll love it. But are you sure you don't want to invite Adrien to come skating with us? It's probably the last time we're going to see him until January. This might be your best chance to finally get to know him!"
Marinette looked around for the omnipresent blonde ponytail that usually made "getting to know him" difficult, if not impossible.
Alya laughed. "Don't worry, Chloe already left. She's going to Switzerland to some chateau her father bought out for Christmas. I heard her telling Sabrina that she had to leave class early because of her flight and to make sure she did all of her physics homework."
Marinette bit her lip and turned to look at Adrien, who was now standing alone. "Okay. I'm going to do it. Maybe he can cancel his modeling appointment. I hope his father doesn't get angry."
"Forget about Monsieur Agreste. Focus on his son—now go!" said Alya, pushing her down the steps.
Adrien sighed as he said bye to Nino. The wind was getting colder and he was not looking forward to two weeks at home, sitting alone for hours in his room and at the dinner table, punctuated only by the occasional interruption from Natalie with a message from his father, meetings with tutors, lessons, and photoshoots. Anticipating the boredom, he had even come up with a list of holiday related puns to try out on the Gorilla. His goal for the two weeks was to get his stoic bodyguard to crack at least one smile.
He overheard the others in his class talking about their plans for break—Chloe, going to Switzerland with her parents, Sabrina, visiting the police station with her father on Christmas Eve to sing carols, Alya, helping her mother out with the annual Christmas feast at the hotel, Juleka, doing...something. He hadn't quite been able to figure it out, but it involved an underground punk concert near Père Lachaise.
And of course there was Marinette, who was busy with the bakery and all the holiday orders. Over the past few weeks, she had come into class smelling of sugar and caramel, often carrying a small bag filled with goodies she would distribute in class. One day, Alya had even called her a Christmas elf and Adrien had noticed Nathanael surreptitiously sketching something that looked suspiciously like Marinette wearing an elf hat with a tassel that looked like a Christmas cookie.
It seemed that even she was excited and happy for Christmas, even though she always seemed tongue-tied whenever Adrien tried to talk to her. At first he thought it was because she was shy, but after becoming the class president, it had become obvious to him that shy was the last thing that Marinette was.
He had thought then that it might be because she had a bit of a crush on him because of his high profile modeling career (he didn't want to be vain, but there were many girls at school who acted just like her whenever he had a new ad come out, which was flattering but mostly annoying, especially considering how Chloe treated them afterward). He wished Marinette would relax a little—she seemed like a fun girl when she was around her other friends. Sometimes, when he saw her at student council meetings after school, the way she lead the meetings even reminded him a little bit of Ladybug—confident and outgoing.
Ladybug. He hoped that he would see his crime-fighting partner at least once over the holidays, even though he knew that would mean that her own family celebrations would be interrupted. He wondered if Ladybug had a family that cared about her, or if she too, spent her days being someone that people admired but rarely spoke to. Was she an only child, or did she have siblings? She always seemed so reluctant to share anything about her civilian life, preferring to stick to flirty banter and no-nonsense commands, which was fun, but which also meant that she remained as much of a mystery as she had been when they first met.
Of course, he was pretty reluctant to share any details about his family life himself. He wanted to know more about her, but he doubted that she would even be interested in hearing about how quiet it always was at home, how he was never allowed to invite any friends over, and how he received fan letters from girls all over France, but only two Christmas cards from any real friends—one from Nino, and one from Rose, who gave a card to everyone in the class each year.
Adrien imagined sitting with Ladybug on top of a snowy rooftop on Christmas Eve at midnight, watching the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower. It was a lovely dream, but he knew it would never happen.
Everyone in his class was excited and happy to see their family over Christmas and he was happy for them too, but he wished he had someone to share the holiday with—and so he hoped, at least, that he would see Ladybug once before the holidays ended. That was his Christmas wish.
Suddenly, Adrien felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned around to see Marinette, her eyes wide and cheeks red, but standing with conviction.
"Hi, Adrien. Would you—would you like to come ice skating with Alya and me?"
"Yes," he found himself saying before he could even think about it.
"We're stopping by the bakery to pick up Marinette's hat and gloves first," added Alya, who had joined them. She saw that Adrien's ears were turning red from the cold and nudged Marinette, who quickly noticed.
"Oh—and since you're not wearing a hat either, you can borrow one of my father's caps if you'd like! It's getting pretty cold out here, and it'll be even colder at the rink."
"That would be really nice," said Adrien. "Thank you for inviting me."
"Of course!" said Marinette. "What are friends for?" added Alya.
Adrien smiled. He had wished that he could spend Christmas with someone special, and even though Marinette and Alya weren't exactly who he had been imagining, ice skating with friends was going to be a great way to start his holiday. Maybe the next two weeks wouldn't be so bad after all.