It's the 5th December which is Krampusnacht. Be sure to be on your best behaviour girls and boys.
With Marinette in training, Adrien found himself with some new faces. It was to be expected really, when the only person he knew here was Chloe. Looking in the mirror one last time he tugged at a wayward lock of hair and smoothed down his shirt. He didn't know what Nino had in mind for the evening but he wanted to make a good impression.
Taking a deep breath, he headed out of the door.
"Whoo!" he yelled, the sound of his voice swallowed by the electronic music pumping through the speakers and the pew pew of the laser guns. With a camo vest and helmet, he didn't really blend in to the surroundings but it sure helped him feel the part. The slightly blue tint to his goggles protected his eyes from the flashing lights and he crouched low, poking his head from behind a wall and quickly withdrawing it at the sight of a muzzle.
It didn't take very long before he had been shot, a red light on his chest indicating his demise.
Arms raised and a huge grin on his face he came out of his hiding place. After five rounds (of which Adrien almost won one) the pair called it quits and went in search of food.
"Alright man, the mess hall's okay and the food's pretty decent I'll admit, but if you want some proper, messy, can barely hold it together in two hands, out of this world burgers, it has to be Cesaire's. Alya's parents run it. It's amazing, like, you have no idea. You did alright at laser tag, I'll give you that but you definitely need more practice, and if you're gonna be an elf here, we gotta do this right. Burgers. Shakes. Let's get messy."
Adrien grinned thinking about all those calories and how just one month ago he might have cared. Now? "Bring on the burgers."
Marinette took a deep breath and tried to find her inner calm like her mother had just taught her. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the imaginary ball of light in her centre. Breathe in. Breathe out. Don't think, just react.
A conk to the head – surely by tomorrow she'd be black and blue – brought her out of her meditative state, or what there was of it.
"Ow! Maman, I'm never going to get this," she said, rubbing the sore spot. "And I really don't understand why now all of a sudden? Between training with you and showing Adrien around and trying to deal with whatever issues Alya is bringing to me, I haven't been able to help the other elves with Christmas. We're running out of time. Shouldn't we just put this off 'til January?"
Sabine didn't reply but instead spun the Bo in her hands in an elaborate move that Marinette could barely follow before taking up an attacking stance. She sighed and tried to replicate the defensive position from before, adjusting her hands and feet at her mother's instruction.
"The attacks upon us have been gaining in frequency," Sabine finally said, swiping the staff at Marinette's feet, which she just barely managed to jump over. "And you are of an age where you must learn. Perhaps we should have started earlier but we though we were safe enough. That was my mistake. With threats upon the compound increasing, we are afraid that you might become a target for the more... dauntless among them." Marinette parried against a few of her mother's attacks before another sweep knocked her flat on her back and the breath out of her lungs. She lay gasping for air, unable to move, her brain going over Sabine's words. Was she really likely to be the target for an attack?
"Very good, Marinette," her mother's hand grasped her own and hauled her back to her feet with ease. "Let's go again."
It was several hours later that she finally made it back to her room. The majority of the compound was asleep already with a few night shift workers waving a hearty hello as she passed. Lying in her bed, the cat pillow curling around her head giving her much needed comfort while the events of the past couple of days fought for dominance in her brain. Her peaceful life as designer and eventual Santa – something so far in the distant future that she barely gave it a thought – was turning rapidly on its head, not unlike herself earlier in the evening. It seemed as though there were pieces of a puzzle before her, and maybe it was more than one puzzle and she couldn't fit anything together because most of the pieces were still missing and until she found more, the picture wouldn't be...
Her train of thought became more muddled and less tangible as sleep took her. But that night she dreamed of faceless people coming to take her as one by one the people around her disappeared until finally it was just one green eyed boy stood by her side.
