This story was inspired by the cover image, which is a piece of fan art by the lovely dori_sketches on Instagram. Go check out her work! I don't own Miraculous Ladybug. No Season 4 spoilers.
On the eve of her crush's birthday, Marinette finished wrapping the last of a stack of birthday presents.
'Phew! That's the last of them, Tikki. Adrien's going to love them!'
Marinette pushed away from the desk with her legs and spun in a happy circle. Tikki flew over to the pile of neatly wrapped gifts and eyed it with a mix of sadness and admiration.
'Are you sure you want to do this, Marinette? Why not just give him one special present from you? Take credit for your own work? He'd like that.'
'This is going to make Adrien happy, Tikki. I know because it happened last year. I've been planning this for months, I can't back out now!'
Tikki shook her head. When that girl got an idea into her brain, there was no stopping her.
'If you're sure you want to.'
'Absolutely.'
Marinette took out her favourite pen and wrote the label on the final present.
Dear Adrien.
Happy birthday.
Love from…
The girl hesitated before signing the name. Then, with a deep breath, she wrote:
Father.
She looked down at her handiwork, wondering if it was right to lie to Adrien, to trick him like this. But she couldn't forget the look of pure joy on Adrien's perfect face when he'd shown up at school wearing the blue scarf that she'd knitted with her own hands, believing it was from his dad. She wanted to recreate that.
She began to place all the gifts into her backpack. Some were handmade, some shop bought. She'd put a lot of thought into each one – they had to be things that Adrien would realistically believe were from Gabriel Agreste. There were a few items of clothing, of course – another scarf, some fancy socks, a nice tie – all black with his signature stripes on. Then there was a watch from the Gabriel summer collection. Marinette had not enjoyed looking at her bank account after buying that one. Luckily she'd convinced her parents to let her take a shift or two in the bakery to earn some extra cash. Finally, there was a pen with the name Adrien engraved into it. Marinette remembered him saying his dad had got him pens for his previous birthdays, so this was an obvious choice. She'd gone the extra mile to make it special for him, so it wouldn't be the same as all the previous years.
'Since you're set on this,' said Tikki, 'How do you plan on sneaking them into his bedroom? I hope you're not thinking of doing it as Ladybug. You know what happened last time.'
Tikki had a point. Last time her owner had snuck into Adrien's room while transformed, it had ended badly. I.e., the world had almost got destroyed. But that was because she had accidentally revealed herself to him as Ladybug.
'Don't worry, Tikki. I've planned it perfectly. The gifts don't have my name on them. Adrien's doing a photoshoot all afternoon. His room will be empty. And even if he finds me, there's no way he'll guess I'm Ladybug this time. I'm going to do it as Multimouse!'
Her kwami's eyes widened.
'Multimouse?'
'That's right. If Adrien sees me, he won't know who I am. If he does, I can say I convinced Ladybug to lend me the Mouse Miraculous. But thanks to the Mouse's power, I'll be able to hide easily.'
Tikki was starting to wonder if her owner really was mad. But then again, she had once pretended to be a boy to get into Adrien's party, and if Operation Secret Garden was anything to go by, she knew not to underestimate Marinette when it came to crazy ideas.
'You're going to come with me and keep watch, Tikki. I might get some of the other kwamis to help too. It's a fool-proof plan!'
'Remember, Marinette, you're still a child, that means if you do use the mouse's power you still only have five minutes until you transform back into yourself.'
'Oh, yeah. Good point. But like I said, he won't be there, so hopefully I won't have to use it. What could go wrong?'
Marinette leapt excitedly out of bed the next morning.
'Happy birthday, Adrien!' she sang. Being careful not to crash into her mannequin this time, she slid down the stairs and began her usual routine of kissing photos of the famous model.
It felt like the longest morning ever. Marinette knew the photoshoot started at 2pm – she'd heard Adrien telling Nino in class. She gave up on homework pretty quickly, and not even sewing or sketching could occupy her mind. She could hardly concentrate on the lunch her parents had made and barely noticed what she was eating – even though it was her father's own handmade bread. She got a funny look from him when she wished him a happy birthday instead of saying thank you.
After bolting down a macaroon or two for dessert, she went upstairs to go and pace agitatedly in her room. She double checked all the gifts were in her bag, as well as the Mouse and Fox Miraculouses. Trixx had agreed to help out, and the fox's power would be a useful one to have just in case anything went wrong. She'd still be wearing her Ladybug earrings, of course, in case of any akuma attacks.
Finally, at 1:45, she decided it was time. Adrien would definitely be out of the house by now. She told her parents she was going out for a walk, and then headed over to the Agreste mansion. Then she darted round the back, crouched behind the bins, and put the backpack down so that it wouldn't transform with her. Then she took out one of the necklaces and put it on. A pale grey kwami emerged from it.
'You still think this is a good idea, Marinette?' Tikki asked. 'You know not to use the Miraculous for selfish reasons. It never ends well.'
'Yes, Tikki. This isn't selfish. I'm doing it for Adrien. His dad means so much to him. It'll make it the perfect birthday. He'll never know the gifts are from me.'
'Okay. But just know that if something goes wrong, you'll have to be the one to put it right.'
'I do. I understand. Mullo, Get Squeaky!'
