Author's note:

Lyra: Did you HAVE to write about Lila at Christmas!? Way to kill the mood. Gah.

MR: I killed the mood… but nobody else!

Ep: Ho ho ho indeed. On the other hand, if there was one charac-wait, I shouldn't put this on paper, should I?

Reveal: Marinette

Marinette was exhausted. Between the akuma attacks, becoming the new guardian of the miracle box, and all of the commissions she had piling up for the holidays, not to mention trying to make Christmas presents for all of her friends, she'd only had a passing relationship with sleep for almost 2 weeks. Fortunately, Christmas was only 2 days away, and she was planning on asking Father Christmas for a nap.

The lack of sleep did nothing to change her normal cheerfulness, but it did make her ramblings somewhat less comprehensible than usual. More than once she'd been heard muttering about baskets of yarn and sewing boxes shut.

Amazingly, she arrived early to class on the last day of school before Christmas, and had handed over to Juleka the sketches for Kitty Section's fan t-shirts that they had been hoping to start selling. Capitalizing on the shot that Bob Roth had inadvertently given them on Alec Cataldi's show, and the fact that Jagged Stone was impressed enough with them to invite them along to a few music festivals, they wanted to do something to give back to their fans.

Naturally they had turned to Marinette to design the shirts. She had been happy to do so, creating a stylized version of the four masks, the Couffaine siblings flanking Rose and Ivan.

The masks served a dual purpose. Since they never performed without them, it made them instantly recognizable when they stepped on stage, and blessedly anonymous without them.

All of their friends knew who was under the mask, most having been to at least one rehearsal, so nobody was surprised or in awe when Lila started talking about the band like she knew the members. She breezed into class one day announcing that she would be attending their rehearsal that evening. Ivan looked surprised at Juleka who shook her head. Not wanting her to feel bad if she showed up on the wrong day, Rose gently corrected her. "Kitty Section rehearsals are tomorrow."

"Oh. Is it only Thursday today? I must have my days confused." Lila covered her tracks quickly, surprised that sweet, delicate Rose of all people would be into Kitty Section enough to know their schedule.

Ivan had given the t-shirt design a thumbs up, and Juleka was showing it to Rose when Lila walked in. She saw the design, and smiled sweetly at Rose. "I could get you an autographed t-shirt if you like. Their lead guitarist asked me out once, but I had to turn him down. I was too busy with my charity work, but we're still good friends."

Juleka snorted, then started shaking with silent laughter. Ivan shot a confused look at Mylene. Rose's jaw was hanging open, surprised, and looked at Juleka for confirmation. Juleka glanced at Marinette who had her arms folded around her purse, upon which rested her cheek. Her eyes were closed, and she appeared to be fast asleep. Shrugging one shoulder Juleka turned her attention back to Lila. "When did you meet Luka?"

"Luka? Uh, I helped him rescue his pet snake. He was devastated that it had escaped through his apartment window and into the park."

Juleka was smiling sweetly, finally understanding what Marinette had been warning them about all those months. "Oh. His pet snake! What was his name again?" She was looking at Lila, but asked the class at large.

Adrien was the one who supplied the answer. "Sass."

There was more giggling and whispering in the class than Lila was comfortable with. She tried to salvage the situation. "I didn't really think that he was your type, but would you like me to introduce you to him?"

At this point the class was openly laughing, so Lila turned on the crocodile tears. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to do something nice for a classmate. If I was wrong then, I'm sorry."

Alya shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Girl." She tried hard to compose herself. "You just offered to set Juleka up with her brother. You also offered to get her an autographed t-shirt for her band."

Giving another one shouldered shrug, Juleka started to shrink under all the attention that was on her. "I can get you a signed shirt though if you want. Even introduce you to Luka." She glanced at Marinette again, but the girl was fast asleep. "But I know who he wants to ask out. And it isn't you."

Ivan turned to Mylene questioningly, and she just patted him on the arm, mouthing 'later'.

Just then, Miss Bustier walked into the room, and called her class to attention, everyone scrambling back to their seats. Nobody noticed the purple butterfly phase through the window at the back and merge itself with Lila's necklace. Everyone was staring at Marinette, whose name had been called twice already, until they heard the words, "Yes, Hawkmoth" and turned to see Lila disappear in a purple haze.

Miss Bustier started shepherding everyone to the front of the room away from Lila, or Volpina, as she had once again become. Marinette was still sleeping in her seat, and Adrien was working his way towards the door, all the other students were staring at Volpina.

For her part, Tikki was poking Marinette's cheek. "Wake up, Marinette! There's an akuma!"

Hearing her kwami say the word akuma right in her ear, Marinette shot straight upright, and before she even opened her eyes, sleepily cried out, "Tikki! Spots on!"

The whole class stared in shock as Marinette's clothing disappeared, replaced by the red and black spotted suit of Ladybug. After her transformation, she opened her eyes, only then taking in her surroundings. There were a lot of muttered conversations that broke out, some about how Lila was definitely NOT Ladybug's best friend (Alya squealed, "I'm her best friend!")

Blanching white at what just happened, Ladybug told her classmates that they were not allowed to mention this to anyone. They all nodded, and huddled by the door, Volpina backing away from where Ladybug was approaching her up the aisle.

At that moment, Chat appeared in the window behind Volpina. He grinned at Ladybug, but stayed quiet as Volpina backed up, her eyes locked on Ladybug. She stepped back, right into him, his left arm locking around her, and whispered 'cataclysm' as his right hand brushed the faux miraculous around her neck.

The necklace crumbled and Ladybug captured the akuma releasing it with her typical wave. She turned to Chat, shocked, as the class burst into applause. "I think that's the fastest we've ever beat an akuma. Even faster than Mr. Pigeon."

Chat shook his head, looking over the class behind him. "Alright then." He paused when his ring beeped, then jumped back up to the open windowsill. "Catch you later, Milady!" With a flip, he leaped out of the window.

Everyone was slowly making their way back to their seats, hugging Marinette and promising to keep her secret as Adrien slipped back into the classroom. He didn't pay any extra attention to Marinette, and the class realized he hadn't been in the room when Marinette transformed. They all swore to themselves that they wouldn't tell Adrien, no matter how hard that might be, so when he turned to Nino, asking what he had missed, Nino just smiled at him and said, "Nothing, dude. Just the superheroes doing what they do."