*Author's Note*

Yay! No more animals to screw up Chat Noir's plans! Doesn't mean they're going to go smoothly though... poor kid.

Sorry, had to jet for a few hours there, but welcome to part 2 of a 5-chapter publication day! Hope you're enjoying these longer chapters. I'm actually quite impressed, considering I spent most of 2020 not writing anything. So, yet another HUGE thank you for Taurus Pixie and her story for jumpstarting my passion for writing again!

Also, quick actual note for this chapter: We're gonna ignore the Season 3 finale for this story's canon. I don't want to say any more and potentially drop spoilers for both this chapter and the series itself (in case you're a new fan and haven't gotten that far yet), but... yeah... pretend Heart Hunter and Miracle Queen (and by extension the NY special) haven't happened yet, especially since the original story was written before the season 3 finale.

**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 9


School was again rough on Marinette. Her mind kept drifting back to Adrien and the rings, but she tried to listen to Tikki's advice the best she could: enjoy the time she had with Adrien before the winter break. She also had to focus on Chat Noir. Her feelings didn't matter right now; his did. She had to figure something out for him.

"Ug!" The moment Marinette made it to her room at the end of the school day she dropped into her computer chair and slammed her head onto her desk. "My head is about to explode! I'm out of ideas, Tikki."

"I find it unlikely that you, of all people, are out of ideas."

"None that are good enough. None that say 'I'm sorry you were just trampled by cows, and chased by birds, and nearly drowned in a lake because you've been up all week trying to get me the perfect gift when you had already done that'."

"He has had an oddly bad run of luck this week. The cows last night, the lake the day before, oh, and that swan taking off with whatever he had in his hand! The geese attacking before that."

Marinette rolled her head to her right and looked at Chat Noir's original gift. "And a partridge in a pear tree," she softly sung.

"What was that?"

Marinette wasn't entirely sure, it just felt natural to sing that line after the list Tikki rattled off. She wasn't even really thinking when she sang it. Now that she was though, it may have been the puzzle piece she needed. "Eight maids a-milking," Marinette sang, slowly sitting up, the wheels now turning.

"Marinette?"

"Seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying." Marinette ignored the next line. She couldn't think about five golden rings at the moment.

"Chat Noir is giving me the Twelve Days of Christmas," Marinette laughed. "I'm not sure how he's not-so-lucking into it, but the three French hens? The four 'calling' birds? He's just somehow cursed to be plagued by the animals of the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, but they're almost all there." She gave another little giggle. "He keeps trying, and then apologizing, because he thinks he's failing, but he's doing the exact opposite! I've had so much fun this week, and there is no way I could ever forget any of it. Whatever I do, it has to be memorable. It has to be big, Tikki."

"Does that mean you've figured out your gift?"

Marinette fumbled for a pencil and some paper. She quickly scribbled everything down; all of Chat Noir's gifts. She'd show him that his gifts weren't disasters. They were some of the greatest moments she'd ever have. She'd prove it by giving them all back to him. If he was going to stumble into giving her the Twelve Days of Christmas, then she'd intentionally give them right back.

"I've got a lot of work to do." She smiled at her kwami and tucked her list in her purse. "Tikki, Spots on!"

~o~o~o~o~o~

The farmers were easy enough to recruit. The ladies were excited to help give Chat Noir a well-deserved Christmas gift. It kept some time, but Ladybug was able to find the animal rights activist as well. He was just as happy to do something for Chat Noir as thanks for helping liberate the hens. The real challenge was figuring out how to round up the birds safely and humanely. As she was researching more into that she got a message from Chat Noir.

He wanted to meet her at a local convention that had sprung up in their honor. With everything that week, she had completely forgotten about it. She checked the time. There was just enough for her to make one more pit stop before she needed to head to the convention.

~o~o~o~o~o~

"So you'll be able to do this?" Ladybug stood on the doorstep of a woman in her fifties. She only had the time to do some quick research on the subject, but this woman was apparently top of her field in studying song birds. Ladybug just happened to luck into the woman also living in Paris.

The woman leaned casually on the door jamb and waved the superhero off. "Oh yeah. The timeline's a bit tight, but blackbirds are actually pretty smart and great mimickers. I won't really be able to do anything with wild ones, but domesticated are easy enough to train. We have a small flock at the university for us to study. You said you needed four?"

"Yes. Four calling birds." Ladybug grinned and gave the woman a grateful nod as she lassoed a nearby flagpole. "I'll get you more details as I iron them out. Chat Noir will love this. Thank you."

"Anything for the Heroes of Paris," the woman called back as Ladybug swung away.

It wasn't long before Ladybug came upon the Grand Palais. The front of the massive expo center was decked out with both Christmas decorations and cut-outs of Ladybug and Chat Noir. People bustled in and out of the main entrance in their superhero cosplay; the top halves obscured by thick parkas and heavy woolen peacoats as they bundled against the cold snap coming through Paris. No one seemed to even notice Ladybug as she walked through the front door.

She wasn't sure what to think as she wandered the convention in search for her partner. Part of her was flattered that so many people idolized her enough to dress as her, and a part of her was happy to be able to just walk around casually without getting a second glance; others probably thinking she was another devoted fan. A large portion of her, however, was extremely self-conscious about seeing herself everywhere. It was equally weird to see her partner everywhere, and a bit off-putting that so many seemed to only see him as a leather-clad catboy flirt. She hoped the Ladybugs being "wooed" by the Chat Noir cosplayers were willing partners to the pathetic Casanova-like advancements, otherwise she might have to knock around a few heads.

Despite it being a much easier vantage point, Ladybug resisted swinging into the rafters to get a bird's eye view of the convention to help her find her Chat Noir. It was probably best to not draw too much attention. The crowd swarming her would keep her from her meet-up, and Chat Noir didn't need further disappointment that week. Instead, Ladybug decided on wandering through the crowd for a few more minutes. Then, music caught her ear. It ended before she found the source, but she narrowed down that it was coming from a back corner of the center, so she headed in that direction.

As she got closer, a low squabble erupted from the corner. Quickening into a jog, Ladybug came upon a medium-sized stage. On the stage, eight women cosplaying as her were stretching and running through choreography with some very sour looks on their faces. Just in front of the stage was her partner standing between a ninth cosplayer and-

Eck. Chloé. Ladybug gave her own sour face as she rolled her eyes. Chloé was in her high-end Ladybug cosplay costume and poking the older cosplayer in the chest as the two women argued. Poor Chat Noir looked exasperated as he wedged himself between the ladies to try to break up the argument.

"Now-now, ladies," Chat Noir stretched his arms out, pushing gently on both of their shoulders as he forced them to take a few steps back from each other. He then turned towards Chloé, placed both hands on her shoulders, and tried to spin her towards the chairs set up in front of the stage. "Chloé, why don't you just go and relax, and enjoy the show?" His tone was kind, but his voice was tight. Ladybug could tell he was struggling to not snap at the blonde.

"Sure," Chloé scoffed, but then she smirked, and her body relaxed. "I'll enjoy the show, alright." She turned to the cosplaying woman she had been arguing with, huffed, and flicked her ponytail over her shoulder. With an extra dose of attitude, Chloé sauntered off.

Relieved to have ended whatever drama had been going on, Chat Noir audibly sighed. The cosplayer gave him a concerned quirk of her eyebrows, but he simply held up a hand and shook his head in reply. The woman seemed to catch his meaning, gave a nod, and went back to the other cosplayers to join in their stretching.

"Chat Noir?" Ladybug inched forward as she cautiously called out to him. Despite trying to be gentle about her intrusion, Chat Noir still leapt a good foot off the floor in a start. Ladybug skirted around to Chat Noir's front, then rested a hand on his upper arm to try to help ease whatever stress he had put on himself this time. "What's going on? Why did you want to meet here? Did you agree that we'd speak at a panel or something?"

She had hoped not. Chat Noir wasn't in a good mental spot after everything. She knew that he felt guilty about the cows the night before, and he was one to overcompensate for his faults. She feared he set up some sort of panel to try to bask in his heroics again. Ladybug wanted to pull him off to the side and make sure he heard her when she told him that no one lost faith in him, that he was still a hero and didn't need to prove anything, and that he needed to stop stressing himself out with these gifts; she loved the pear tree one. She didn't have a moment to say any of that though.

"No." Chat Noir popped on a huge, playful smirk. All of the stress he had been wearing half-a-second ago already forgotten. "I have something much better planned." He glanced past Ladybug's shoulder, gave a head tilt, then a nod and an 'OK' sign. Draping his hands on Ladybug's waist, he pivoted her to face the stage and pulled her back a few steps so she could see the full display. "Hit it, ladies!"

The nine Ladybug cosplayers ran to their marks. A man Ladybug didn't notice before who was dressed as Chat Noir if he were a break dancer instead of a superhero messed with a large production board. He dimmed the house lights around the stage, and brought up red track lights to cast a faint glow on the cosplayers. Behind Chat Noir and Ladybug, a few of the convention goers started to file into the folding chairs, murmuring excitement over the show that was just about to start.

Then the music started up: Clara Nightingale's "It's Ladybug" beautifully mashed up with Jagged Stone's musical dedication to the superhero. Ladybug was pretty positive it was Nino's remix that Alya posted to the Ladyblog a week ago. She gasped and turned to Chat Noir. She was so impressed that he liked Nino's song enough that he would bring her to a performance using it, and equally impressed that this group was apparently inspired by the song in the first place.

Why can't I tell Nino about this? Where is he, anyway? And Alya? Shouldn't they be front-and-center at a Ladybug and Chat Noir convention? Ladybug scanned the crowd for her best friend, but Alya was nowhere to be found.

Chat Noir cleared his throat. His grin widening, he nodded towards the stage. Spotlights lit it up, and the Ladybug cosplayers started dancing to the music. No, it was more than dancing, they were swinging their yo-yos around them in grand displays as well. It was like a gorgeous gymnastic showcase. It was a more intense version of rhythmic ribbon gymnastics as they swung their yo-yos in perfect unison. Their movements were far more coordinated and flowed far more gracefully than Ladybug could ever manage, and it both humbled her and inflated her ego a touch that people seemed to picture her so elegantly.

Is this how Chat Noir sees me? She stole a glance at her partner, and his eyes were fixated on her. As she blushed at the attention, Chat Noir twitched and shifted to watch the performance instead, his own cheeks pinkening at getting caught watching her.

Trying to forget that sweet and proud look in Chat Noir's eyes, Ladybug re-focused on the stage herself.

"Oh no," both Ladybug and Chat Noir muttered under their breath.

Shoving her way past the dancers, dodging under or jumping over their yo-yos, and even tangling some of the dancers up in their yo-yo string as she made her way to center stage, was Chloé Bourgeois. While her own dance moves were perfectly in sync with the music, they clearly weren't what the rest of the performers had practiced. Instead of elegant and gymnastic feats of yo-yo manipulation and control, Chloé's choreography was more focused on a fusion of jazz and ballet. It was Chloé showcasing herself in a Ladybug costume, instead of performers showcasing how they viewed one of Paris' superheroes.

Ladybug scowled. She hated that Chloé kept proclaiming herself one of Ladybug's biggest fans, but then would continue to do such selfish things as this. At what point did Ladybug endorse such behavior? In what world would Chloé think her idol would be happy with how she acted?

The cosplaying dancers were clearly professionals though, because the moment they got untangled from their props, they moved in perfect unison to block Chloé from view. They each did their own unique aerial leap over Chloé; some back flips, some hand springs, some three-sixties, and one woman did a barrel roll leap that reminded Ladybug more of Chat Noir than of herself. Once in front of Chloé, the troupe of dancers created a human wall and continued their original routine.

"Hey!" Chloé yelled over the music. She then began hopping up and down behind the dancers, waving her arms wildly to try to be seen. "Ladybug!" Chloé jumped at a slight angle so her head poked out above the shoulders of two of the performers. The women shifted to try to block Chloé again, but the teen persisted and found another open spot to poke out. "Over here!"

The performers shifted again, effortlessly. It was like they were of one mind and knew exactly what needed to be done to let the show continue with as few hitches as possible.

Chloé was more than a simple "hitch," however. She ended up crawling between one of the women's legs, throwing her off balance as her foot got tangled in Chloé's knee. Completely ignoring the woman she just tripped, Chloé jumped up and again waved her arms wildly.

"Look at me!" Chloé continued to shout, "I'm your biggest fan! Ignore these losers!" She thumbed behind her, where the nine women all snarled at her. The woman that was arguing with Chloé when Ladybug arrived was helping up the woman the teen tripped up. Two more women were holding her shoulders, clearly trying to talk her down from getting into another fight with the mayor's daughter.

Ladybug facepalmed. Of course Chloé would ruin this poor group's performance. The moment she saw her rival there Ladybug should have seen this outcome. Everything Chloé Bourgeois touched was tainted with her poor attitude and ruined. No one but Chloé was ever allowed to have a good time or enjoy anything.

The performers started shouting at Chloé, and the teen scoffed at their grievances.

"How am I supposed to impress Ladybug when I have such pathetic back-up dancers?" Chloé huffed as she again flicked her ponytail off her shoulder and started strutting towards the stairs leading off the stage.

"Back-up dancers?" One of the women yelled.

Chloé paid her no mind and shoved her way through the performers.

Ladybug had enough. She knew she should break this whole thing up, but it was too much. Plus, she was afraid she'd say the wrong thing to Chloé while reprimanding her. She always seemed to. She really couldn't handle Chloé being akumatized right now. She just needed to blow off some steam. Calm herself down, and then hopefully stop an akuma before it starts.

Leaving Chat Noir behind to try to break up the fight – he was better with people anyway – Ladybug sprinted towards an unused corner of the expo center, hugging herself tight to make sure she didn't lash out at Chloé.

"She has to ruin everything, doesn't she?" Ladybug asked herself. Reaching the dark corner of the convention, she still didn't feel secluded enough with stalls just a few paces away. She checked that no one was watching – she really didn't need the attention right now – and lassoed a roof support beam to bring herself into the rafters. Up there, the sounds of the convention were just a rolling murmur below her. She was safe to fume for a minute, and she could watch out for any black butterflies potentially slipping in due to all of that arguing.

Another one of Chat Noir's presents was ruined. Once again, it wasn't his fault, but Ladybug knew he'd believe it was anyway. He needed a win, and Chloé stole that from him, let alone was beyond rude to those performers. She was even incredibly inconsiderate to the audience enjoying the performance. On top of all of that, this could have been huge for Nino: one of his original mixes used in a professional performance at a convention. The more she thought about it, the more Chloé irked her. It was like she was shouting in her head.

Wait. That shouting wasn't in her head.

Ladybug looked down. The cosplaying dancers were still arguing with Chloé. One looked like she was being held back from straight up slugging the teen. Chat Noir was nowhere in sight.

He left them too? Where did he go? She quickly scanned the convention floor, but with all of the cosplayers it was too hard to distinguish which one was him. Her gaze flew back to the stage and the nine women circling Chloé as the blonde tried to not look intimidated.

This one was on Ladybug. She knew Chat Noir would be upset about another surprise for her going sideways, and yet she was forcing him to clean up a mess he didn't even make. That wasn't fair to him. Now the situation escalated and there were obvious threats of potential violence. This was way worse than a possible akuma finding any of these upset women.

Swinging in for the save, Ladybug landed beside Chloé and held up her hands to stop the encroaching mob of dancers.

"Stop! None of this is worth this. Please."

"Ladybug!" Chloé latched hard onto one of Ladybug's arms and beamed at the dancers. "See? I told you that I was her favorite! Ladybug, they threatened me! Beat them up!"

"I'm not doing that, Chloé," Ladybug retorted in a stern voice. She ripped her arm out of Chloé's grip and glared at her. "This is your fault."

"M-my-my what?" Chloé blinked in confusion.

"You ruined their performance. You were beyond rude to them. You could have hurt them when you interrupted their yo-yo tricks and started shoving them out of your way. You tripped one of them and didn't care. None of that is okay."

Chloé's lip quivered. She then looked around at the nine women, all standing tall with their arms crossed in front of their chests as they smugly smiled at her and nodded at Ladybug's words.

"Ladybug, but-"

"No! No buts, Chloé. Apologize to these women."

Chloé pouted, and her eyes started to gloss over with tears. Ladybug wouldn't cave though.

"Forget all of you! I was trying to do something nice for you, Ladybug, and this is the thanks I get? It wouldn't have been a problem if your partner had just asked me to be the lead of his stupid showcase in the first place!"

Wait. Chat Noir didn't just bring her to this showcase? He had coordinated it for her? Ladybug shook off the thought. That wasn't priority right now.

"I'm not hearing an apology, Chloé." Ladybug rolled her shoulders back and puffed out her chest to seem a bit more imposing.

"Just you wait until my daddy hears about this!" Chloé shoved hard against one of the women, pushing her out of the way as she stormed off.

"Chloé!" Ladybug yelled after, but quickly gave up. There was no changing Chloé Bourgeois. Instead, Ladybug turned towards the dancers. "I am so sorry for her. I was really enjoying your performance. You are all just so amazingly talented."

The tension instantly left the women. Some of them blushed slightly at the compliment.

"Thanks, Ladybug," the woman who had the initial argument with Chloé said. "That means a lot to us, right ladies?" The other eight sincerely agreed as they gushed back how amazing the superhero was.

"We were incredibly honored that Chat Noir picked our little troupe to perform for you like that. He put in a lot of effort to try to organize this on the fly. It's such a shame you didn't get to see the whole thing."

"Do you want to see the whole thing?" another woman chimed in, "Now that brat is gone, we could go through it with no problem."

"That's sweet." Ladybug gave them all a reassuring smile. "And I would love to take you up on that offer, but I should probably find Chat Noir first. It wouldn't feel right to watch the performance without him."

The women all nodded.

"Hey, wait." Ladybug quickly counted. She knew there were nine of them, but she had to be sure. She chuckled upon realizing that Chat Noir somehow did it again. "Could I ask you ladies for a favor?"

She quickly told them about her own Christmas gift idea. They loved it, and excitedly talked among themselves how they were going to help out. Thanking each one and then leaving them to plan out their part of Ladybug's gift, she ran back into the convention to see if she could find her kitty.

It was a lot easier on the ground. Most of the Chat Noirs she ran past were clearly not him. They either weren't blond – easy enough to cross them off – or their costumes weren't quite right, or they completely misread Chat Noir's personality: focusing on nothing but badly-forced puns and obnoxious flirting with the Ladybug cosplayers. It still took some time to find him, though, simply because of how large the room was and how many people were in it.

When she did find him, he had just confronted a cosplayer.

"Whoa! Whoa there, Bugaboo, I'm right here." He chuckled as he rested his hand on the cosplayer's shoulder. The girl, who, Ladybug had to admit, did look a lot like her, stared bewildered at him. "I think you need to practice what you preach about not being able to recognize people," Chat Noir finished.

Ladybug pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. So, her partner left a volatile situation with those dancers and Chloé, not because he was upset and needed to be alone, but because he put finding her as his priority, and he didn't even manage to do that? Worse yet, he was now berating cosplayers, thinking they're her? How many did he call out like this? It was easy enough for her to find the real him, but he couldn't do the same with her? So much for being in love with her.

She cleared her throat. "Errr, Chat Noir?"

He stiffened. He was like a startled cat that held as still as possible in hopes the threat wouldn't see them and move on. She wasn't planning on moving on, however.

"I'm right here." Ladybug was so tired. She just wanted to go home. She'll figure out the rest of her gift to him once she was a little less annoyed. Was he truly in love with her if he couldn't even tell when he was talking to the real one?

Chat Noir slowly turned. A toothy, lopsided, unsure smile stretched awkwardly across his face.

"Bugaboo?" the Ladybug cosplayer asked, a bit of amusement dripping from that singular word.

Great, Ladybug quickly rolled her eyes. Now even more people know he calls me that. How am I supposed to convince people we're not a couple when he does stuff like this?

Chat Noir ignored the girl and instead started to pull Ladybug off to the side. "Are you okay?"

No.

"Yeah." She hated liars, and she hated lying, but this wasn't the time to dump everything onto Chat Noir. She was just too mentally exhausted to go through this whole thing with him. "Sorry I ran off, it's just-" Sharp inhale. "Chloé."

Chat Noir nodded. He opened his mouth, but before he could get out a single word he was interrupted by Ladybug's yo-yo beeping.

She held up a finger to ask him to wait a moment, and then checked the notification. There was a hit on her earlier search for humane wild water fowl transport. This was perfect! She could have Chat Noir's present almost completely sorted out before she even went to bed!

"Look, Kitty, I've really gotta go." She gave his forearm a reassuring squeeze. "I'll see you for patrol tomorrow." She pulled him into a quick hug to make sure he knew everything was alright between the two of them, despite her irritation at that moment. He had left on a low note too many times. She needed him to know that they were good. "Thank you for showing me that show though. It was really nice until-" She pulled away and fumbled for the right wording. "Well," she waved her hand in a small circle in the air, not finding a proper alternative to "before Chloé screwed everything up because that's what she does, and then I ran off to leave you to clean up everything on our own, which wasn't fair to you, but then you left too, and so I had to break up an almost-fight between the dancers and Chloé, and then I find you confusing a cosplayer for me..." In the end, she decided to go with, "you know."

"Yeah." He sighed and stared at his feet as he scuffed at the floor with his toe.

Ladybug cupped his cheek, startling him into looking into her eyes. She simply smiled. A couple of seconds later, she was again up in the rafters. Before heading out completely, Ladybug swung by the dancers, gave them a wink and a thumbs up – which they returned – and then she slid through an upper window that was left open to help with air circulation.

She was indeed quite drained after everything that happened, but she had one more important stop. She headed for the lake-side park Chat Noir took her boating in. The image of Chat Noir's sweet smile pushing her forward through her exhaustion.


~ Thank you for reading. Comments are always welcome. ~


*Closing Notes*

It kept me quite a few tries to figure out how Marinette would get to that "12 Days of Christmas" conclusion. Considering I typically sing "and a partridge in a pear tree" whenever anyone rattles off a semi-long list, I'm surprised it kept me so long to get there for this story.

I loved making Chat Noir/Adrien such a big Nino stan that he made sure to use his buddy's Ladybug remix for the dance performance. Anyone know if a fan HAS found a way of recreating Jagged Stone's song? Let alone mashing it up with the show theme?

I also had a lot of fun this chapter kinda dunking on those fanfic writers that seem to always mischaracterize Chat Noir. He's more than forced puns and "inappropriate" flirting, ya know. *glares* But I did also have to throw in the Break Dancing AU in this con somewhere. Couldn't figure out how to sneak in a Coffee Shop AU or Spy AU though...