*Author's Note*
**DISCLAIMER: This is an uncollaborated, unofficial, POV-swap, companion story to Twelve Days of Chatmas by Taurus Pixie. This story contains major spoilers for Pixie's story. If you have not read her story yet, stop what you're doing, and go read that first (it's published on this very site). I promise you, it will be worth it for the hurt/comfort, and this story will still be here when you come back.**
Chapter 5
It was an exhausting day. It was a draining day. It was one of the worst days of Marinette's life. She was curled up in a ball on her bed, hugging her pillow to her chest as she stared at her corkboard of Adrien pictures. Tears stung her eyes and a hot knot grew in her chest.
"Marinette?" Tikki drifted to her bearer. "Are you okay?"
"Who were they for?" Marinette choked down a sob.
"They?"
"The rings!" She squeezed her eyes shut and curled tighter around her pillow.
The day had started off typical enough. Marinette woke up late for school after a long night of figuring out her gift for Chat Noir. She was reprimanded by both her mother for sleeping in and Miss Bustier for sneaking into class after the tardy bell. She dealt with the normal harassment from Chloe and irritation over her classmates and teachers blindly listening to Lila's lies; everyone but Adrien, of course. Sweet, loyal, handsome, brilliant Adrien.
Marinette had spent so much of that week wondering what to do as a gift for Chat Noir, she didn't realize how little time she had left to pick out Adrien's gift. He was simple though, she had an entire trunk filled with gifts for him. She just needed to sort out which one she wanted to give him this year. It helped get her through the day to imagine the beaming smile on Adrien's face as he opened up her present. He may just fall in love with her then and there if she picked out the perfect one to give him next week. She fantasized about that during her walk home and through her homework, which, arguably, took longer to accomplish due to said daydreaming.
With her daily duties taken care of, she knelt by her trunk, opened it up, started pulling out various sweaters and hats and mittens, and then her phone buzzed. An akuma was attacking the west end of Paris. Grumbling about the interruption, Marinette quickly transformed and headed towards the Champs-Élysées.
She heard the screaming first, and then had to quickly dodge a car flung through the air. Adjusting her trajectory, Ladybug swung so she was on a roof behind the akumatized villain. It was a hulking man nearly four meters tall. He was covered head to toe in green fur, and his upper body was built like a barrel of muscle. Shreds of a Victorian-era caroling costume hung off his shoulders and his pants were ripped where his legs clearly grew upon getting his powers.
"No Christmas!" the villain yelled as he stripped lights from a nearby storefront, and used them as a whip to lasso a decorated tree. With a big yank, he pulled the spruce from the ground, and he hurled it towards a crowd of shoppers trying to escape.
Ladybug sprung into action and lassoed the tree herself, swinging it away from the civilians and into a brick wall.
"Ladybug!" A chorus of people cheered as they pointed towards her. She quickly swung down to the sidewalk and shooed them away.
The green monster roared at her, picked up a plastic Santa statue, and hurled it at Ladybug. She easily blocked it with her yo-yo, then skirted behind the villain again. Sliding between his massive legs, she effortlessly tangled the villain up in her yo-yo and hurled him into an empty store. Slamming the door shut, she blocked it with one of the uprooted trees.
"Hopefully that will slow you down for a minute." She looked up and down the street for more shoppers evacuating. There was chaos. The streets were already flooded with Parisians out shopping for Christmas, but hoards of tourists were there too. It would certainly be a hard battle to keep everyone safe while the villain raged in such a crowded location. "Where are you, Chat Noir?"
She checked her yo-yo, and once again there weren't any messages. She also didn't see him on her map. He wasn't powered up yet. She'd have to do the evacuation on her own. Sprinting up and down the street, she checked each storefront to make sure they were empty. Behind her, she heard the akuma roar again as he burst through the door.
That didn't last nearly as long as I would have hoped. Ladybug silently cursed. She glanced past her shoulder and saw the monster again tearing lights off the storefronts and destroying every last Christmas decoration. He barely moved from the empty store he had crashed out of. This could work, Ladybug thought. If he's that distracted by all the decorations, he might stay up where it's evacuated. I just need to watch for- She ducked under another Christmas tree aimlessly thrown down the street.
She checked the next half-dozen stores from each side of the street. They were either already clear or the last citizens were just leaving as she reached them.
Then she saw him.
Ladybug had caught up with the tail end of the escaping mob, and they stampeded past a blonde boy coming out of a jewelry store. As the crowd cleared the storefront, the boy was on his hands and knees, and looking quite distraught. Ladybug instantly recognized the swoop of his blonde locks, the slight rosy blush on his milky cheeks, and the blue knitted scarf wrapped around his neck.
"A-Adrien?" Ladybug swung across the street and landed beside him. She quickly glanced back to see how far away the villain was. They were safe, but she wasn't sure for how long. "A-are you alright?"
"L-Ladybug?" Adrien jumped a little as he noticed her beside him.
"Are you hurt?" He had been nearly trampled by that crowd, and he was on the ground now. She quickly circled him as she scanned for any injuries. Her cheeks warmed as she grew nervous that she wasn't able to protect him, and now he was hurt, and he'd hate her forever, and never consider her a hero again, and she'd forever lose her chance with him – not like she had a chance with him as Ladybug anyway since he could never know who she was, but-
"N-no, I'm fine."
She let out a long sigh and rested a hand on her chest to try to will her heart to calm down. "What are you doing here? You need to find somewhere safe right away. There's an akuma on the loose!"
"I-" His eyes dropped to his closed left hand, and then to the sidewalk.
Ladybug's gaze followed Adrien's. There were four golden rings scattered on the ground in front of him. One had an emerald with three rubies in a tiny triangle on either side. Another had small diamonds encrusting one side, and onyx on the other in an almost yin-yang pattern where they met at the middle. A third had grains of garnet and emerald embedded in the band in an alternating pattern with obsidian in between each gemstone. The fourth ring had garnet and onyx lining the golden band in an almost ladybug-like pattern. The thought made her blush a little as she quickly scooped them up and passed them over to Adrien.
He opened his hand to accept the rings, and the one he was already holding had a large princess-cut ruby in the center, surrounded by a frame of emeralds. It must have been unbelievably expensive, and it almost looked like an engagement ring. Ladybug's cheeks burned a bit hotter, and her eyes stung slightly.
"What pretty rings." She forced a small smile as she swallowed down the knot in her throat. I wish they were for me. She choked down another sob and forced her smile to grow as she handed the other four rings over. This person must be very important to him to spend so much.
"Oh..." Adrien let the word hang in the thick air between them. "Yeah..." He wouldn't look her in the eyes as he pulled the hand filled with rings close to his chest.
"Anyway!" Ladybug refocused. It didn't matter who those rings were for. What mattered was that there was a rampaging akuma just up the street, and Adrien was still in danger. "You need to get somewhere safe. Chat Noir and I will handle this."
"Yeah." Adrien shifted awkwardly to his feet as he put the rings and their respective boxes back into the bag from the jeweler.
Giving Adrien one last smile, she sprinted towards the villain; hoping her love would be alright, and that Chat Noir would show up to help soon.
Her partner did indeed show up just as she reached the rampaging akuma, and they were able to stop him not long after. It was a hard battle though; both her and Chat Noir either dodged a lot of heavy things hurled at them, or were tossed around themselves. The suit protected Ladybug from injury, but it was still exhausting work. It didn't help that Chat Noir still didn't seem himself, but Ladybug had her own problems. She just didn't have the energy to try to talk to him about the birds from the night before, or the hens the day before that. They barely had the time left in their transformations anyway, so they had a halfhearted fist bump and went their separate ways.
The second Ladybug got home she dropped onto her bed in a flop, and grabbed hold of her pillow to muffle her sobs as her superhero costume vanished.
"Marinette? Are you okay?" Tikki, weak but still filled with concern, drifted closer to her bearer.
Above Marinette the sky darkened, and below her the gifts to Adrien were forgotten across her floor. It wouldn't matter anyway. Nothing she'd give him could possibly turn his eye away from a woman he cared for so deeply he bought her five gorgeous and expensive looking rings.
Marinette cried herself to sleep, and dreamt of standing outside a cathedral during Adrien's wedding to a mysterious faceless woman.
~ Thank you for reading. Comments are always welcome. ~
*Closing Notes*
Oh, that got way more angsty than I had intended! This story is starting to take a little bit of a dark turn. 0_0 I'm gonna try to bring it back to fluffiness in the next chapter. Sorry about that.
In the original story (as you're well aware because I'm sure you've listen to me and read Twelve Days of Chatmas already), this chapter was largely just Adrien in the jewelry store, with only a small cameo from Ladybug as she helped Adrien pick up the rings. Which means I more-or-less had free rein on this... probably why the angst was able to creep in. (Can't leave me (creatively) alone for 2 minutes; I swear)
Also, I had no clue what to do with the akuma, so I made some weird Scrooge/Grinch/Hulk hybrid thing. *shrug*
