For the second time that day, Marinette found herself standing in her father's office. Even now, when he was clearly angry, he was working away, hammer and nails in hand as he built a wooden train.

When he called her out in front of the mess hall she had been completely embarrassed. Adrien stood watching from the sideline as Tom Dupain had strode across the room, his long legs eating up the space.

"My office. Now."

Luckily, Nathaniel had just been passing on his way to the design room. So now, Adrien was with him and here Marinette was, getting a thorough dressing down.

"That was extremely irresponsible!"

"Well, I-"

"Not to mention dangerous!"

"It's not-"

"And you're very lucky that the situation wasn't worse! What do you think would have happened if you'd left him alone in the assembly line? Or even worse, in clockwork?"

Marinette bowed her head.

"Papa, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have left him alone like that, especially on his first day but Alya-"

"No buts," Tom interrupted her, putting down the sandpaper block and turning his full attention onto his daughter. "You are next in line to be Santa, Marinette. Do you know what that means? You can't be skipping out on your duties just because your friend shows up wanting a chat."

"It wasn't like that! She-"

"I don't want to hear it, Marinette. People look to you for guidance and if they see that you're slacking, what do you think they'll do? You can't just expect people to follow you and do as you ask if they have no respect for you. You must lead by example."

Marinette ducked her head again.

"You're right, Papa, and it won't happen again. Adrien and I rectified the problem this morning and production wasn't affected too badly. And he's doing well fitting in so far. I think... I think he'll do very well here, Papa."

Tom stood, his large frame a stark contrast to her own petite one. Marinette looked up at him uncertainly then squeaked when he scooped her up into a bear hug.

"There was a problem and you solved it. You made a mistake and you owned up to it. I am proud of you, Marinette. You will make a fine Santa one day. Now go," he said, setting her back onto her feet. "You still have responsibilities and I have a lot of work to do."


She met up with Adrien and Nathaniel in the design room. A large portfolio lay open between them and Nate was gesturing animatedly, his excitement over whatever he was showing Adrien was palpable. As she approached she realised what it was.

"Are you looking at... my designs?" she squealed, leaping forward and slapping a hand down on top of the sketches in an attempt to hide them. She dragged the portfolio away and slammed the cover closed. "Nate!"

The red-head blushed deeply, his eyes shifting guiltily.

"Well, I showed him what I was working on and he had a look around but he said he wanted to see what you had done and I didn't think there would a problem..."

Nathaniel trailed off, looking helplessly at Adrien who shrugged and mouthed the word 'sorry'.

Marinette glared at them. "I think we've seen enough here, don't you think? You get the idea. This is where all the toys are designed, I'm sure Nate did a great job showing you around so let's head on over to the armoury."

Carefully she placed her portfolio into a drawer and gently shut it, turning the key and pocketing it.

Nathaniel went back to his own work, his eyes flicking back to them. As they walked, Adrien tried to engage Marinette in conversation.

"You know, those designs of yours... they're pretty amazing."

Marinette picked up the pace although Adrien's longer legs managed the new speed easily.

She waved a hand dismissively. "It's just something I like to do in my spare time. A hobby, that's all. Design this close the the big day is really just skeleton staff since the big focus is on production so I don't get to do anything in there right now. Not that it matters, really..."

Adrien stayed silent as he walked beside her.

"As the future Santa I have to put my focus on more important things like training and supervising, stepping in wherever help is needed and doing what I can to reinforce defences which is where we are headed now. We have a large store of defensive weapons and a state of the art security system designed by one of the youngest in the defence team, Max. You might get to meet him later. At this time of day they're all out for training so it should only be Maman in there. Here we are."

She pushed open a heavy, reinforced door.

Along one wall stood rows of Bo staffs. There were various fencing blades with protective clothing, what looked to be police batons, a locker full of tasers and all manner of defensive weaponry. Marinette barely glanced at them. Behind her, Adrien took careful stock of everything he saw. Her mother stood in the corner talking to an elderly man hunched over a walking cane. The pair looked over to where Marinette and Adrien were and stopped talking. Marinette dashed closer to them leaving Adrien behind her. The older man smiled.

"Hello, Marinette. It's been a while. You must come and have tea with me sometime soon."

Marinette bowed her head slightly and smiled back.

"As soon as Christmas is over I will. I've missed our chats."

"Indeed. Well," he clasped Sabine's hand warmly before turning towards the door, offering Adrien a friendly nod. "I must be going. You young people are so busy, I wouldn't want to get in the way. Not like in my day. If there is anything I can help with, you know where to find me."

And with that, he left.

"What was great-uncle doing here, Maman?" Marinette asked. It wasn't unheard of to see Master Fu wandering around the complex but he usually kept to his room, especially this close to Christmas.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. He just wanted a chat. Ah!" Sabine spotted Adrien and her face lit up. "You must be Adrien. I've been looking forward to meeting you. My name is Sabine. I'm Marinette's mother. I run the defence force for the compound. If you like you can come here to do some training. I saw on your record that you are quite the keen fencer."

He smiled brightly, the skin around his eyes crinkling.

"That's right, Mrs Cheng. But I haven't fenced in a while. Perhaps I could come again after Christmas is over and I have some more free time?" he asked, his manners impeccable.

"That would be wonderful," Sabine said, her own smile growing. "And please, Sabine."

"Sabine," he acknowledged.

"Ahem," Marinette coughed pointedly. "Well, you've seen the armoury and that concludes our tour. I'll take you back to your room and later on you'll take our aptitude test which will place you in the department most suited to you. If it isn't to your taste then in a few months you can transfer to another department."

"Marinette, darling, before you go. Please come to the training room tonight. Starting today I will need you here everyday from six o'clock."

Marinette scowled. "Alright, Maman. I'll see you tonight, okay?"

Grabbing Adrien by the arm she pulled him forcefully behind her out of the room.

"Uh, Marinette? You're hurting me."

Marinette gasped, immediately releasing his arm and he flexed his fingers.

"Thanks. Hey, umm... if you're going to be doing training tonight, do you think I could tag along? I'd love to see what you guys are doing and maybe start doing some training as well?"

"Ah, I'm sorry Adrien, I don't think that would be a good idea. It's just- oh, hey, Alya, Nino!" She waved at the approaching pair and once again pulled Adrien behind her.

"Guys, this is Adrien." The boy in question waved awkwardly then rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey..."

"So, do you think you could do me a favour? I've got to do some stuff with Maman this evening and I was hoping maybe you could look after Adrien-"

"Well, I don't need babysitting or anyth-"

"and show him what we do for fun around here?" she finished, completely ignoring his interruption.

Nino nodded enthusiastically and slung an arm around Adrien's shoulder.

"Adrien, my man, we are gonna show you how we do, Elf style!"