A Christmas Miracle

Chapter 1
The Bet

Adrien Agreste lightly hummed to himself, as he completed the last of his homework. Plagg sat beside the blonde boy, snacking on some finely aged Camembert.

"Next week's Christmas" Plagg grinned. Adrien ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair.

"And?" asked Adrien, barely paying attention.

"The cheese shop across town's having that huge week-before sale!" laughed Plagg, floating up into the air.

Adrien nearly rolled his eyes.

"Not today, Plagg. Marinette and I are working on our biology project" sighed Adrien.

It had been a long time since his days of pining over Ladybug. Now, Adrien had seemingly fallen in love with Marinette. The two had gotten closer over the past year, after they graduated from College Francois Dupont.

Also, mainly because for some reason, she had stopped acting all weird around him.

Not that it was a bad thing.

Fishing his phone out of his pocket, Adrien rang Marinette's number.

"Bonjour, Adrien!" Marinette greeted. Adrien could practically hear the smile in her voice.

"Bonjour! What time should I come over?" he asked.

"Anytime works! Maman and papa will be out all evening, so you can come then. Lunchtime also works." Marinette replied.

Adrien bit his lip.

"I'll have to ask father about lunchtime. But I can come evening!" he grinned.

"Wonderful! See you then!" Marinette smiled.

The two hung up the phone, and Adrien excused himself out of the house to talk a small walk around town to pass time.

Evening couldn't come sooner, and soon Adrien was walking to the Dupain-Cheng Bakery.

"Welcome Adrien!" greeted Marinette's parents, holding suitcases.

"Bonjour, Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng!" smiled Adrien.

Marinette walked down the stairs, with a pastel pink t-shirt, and denim shorts, waving a hello.

"You two kids can go on upstairs. We'll be home by 9." Sabine smiled. Marinette grabbed Adrien's arm and led him upstairs.

"Where are your parents going?" asked Adrien.

Marinette ran a hand through her open raven hair, fixing it into a high ponytail.

"Some sort of a bakery convention. It's good for business, apparently." She replied. Adrien nodded understandingly, and the two teenagers sat down on the carpet. Marinette opened up a file folder and began riffling through it.

"I took a bunch of extra notes on these pages for our project" she explained, showing some of the pages to Adrien.

"These are really nice!" smiled Adrien.

Marinette gave her trademark smile, making Adrien blush.

"So, um—"

Ring ring!

Adrien froze.

"Was that an—"

"Akuma alert? Yeah," sighed Marinette grimly. Adrien cleared his throat, trying to think of a way to leave this place—stat.

"Uh, I should go," he began. Marinette blinked, and tilted her head sideway, confused. But she made no complaint since she had to go too.

"My father—err—he doesn't like me out during akuma attacks. Safety." He explained quickly. Marinette nodded, understandingly.

"Stay safe!" she waved and watched the blonde boy leave.

"You know what this means, Tikki!" grinned Marinette, as a red kwami peeked from her purse.

"Tikki spots on!"

"Where are you going? The akuma is that way!" cried Plagg, pointing to the opposite direction than what Adrien was running in.

"But my house is this way. And Marinette was watching me leave" he explained. Adrien quickly turned into an alleyway.

"Plagg, claws out!"

And off Chat Noir went to fight the akuma.

"Ladybug," Chat Noir greeted. Ladybug nodded in return.

"The akuma is in the victim's shoe. She's trying to destroy all the shoes in Paris." Explained Ladybug.

"Yikes," Chat replied.

Ladybug nodded,

"Then we better get to work."

After an extremely boring fight, Ladybug met Chat Noir at a rooftop.

"Is it just me or are Hawkmoth's victim's getting too easy?" asked Chat. Ladybug sighed.

"Or we're getting too good." She replied, biting her lip.

"Don't you mean, we're purr -fect?" grinned Chat, with a huge grin. Ladybug blushed.

After Adrien had begun dating Kagami, Marinette had realized that she had no chance with him. A few months later, Adrien and Kagami broke up, but Marinette had already fallen in love with Chat Noir.

"Cha-ton!" Ladybug protested, unable to hide her red face.

Chat Noir gave a small chuckle.

"But really—I mean the question. Hawkmoth seems to be lacking lately." He sighed. Ladybug nodded.

"He is. Maybe that's his plan. To make us think we're too good, then backstab us from behind." She mused.

"Who do you think Hawkmoth is anyways?" asked Chat Noir.

"Someone we probably know." Ladybug replied. Chat Noir raised his eyes, taken aback with her response.

"What do you mean 'someone we probably know'?" he asked.

"Face it Chat—everyone that was akumatized was someone we know of. Personally, or not. It only makes sense that Hawkmoth knows out civilian identities."

"Well then, wouldn't that mean that we know each other in our civilian identities?"

Ladybug froze.

Chat Noir wasn't wrong.

There was a likely possibility that the two superheroes knew each other in their civilian identities.

No, a huge possibility.

"Well then, there's only way we can find out." Sighed Ladybug. She opened her yoyo, and fished out two scraps of paper, and two pencils from there.

"We each write each other 3 hints of our civilian identities, and we have to try to figure it out before Christmas." She explained.

Chat grinned.

"Is this a bet, Ladybug?" he asked. Ladybug nodded.

"Yes."

"Ready?" she asked.

"Day one starts tomorrow!"