"We've never been attacked like this before," Sabine said. "They were so organised."
She took a sip of her water and looked down at her plate. She had yet to touch any food.
"Was it him?" Tom asked. It was unusual for him to join them for dinner, he'd normally be holed up in the workshop until the early hours and would often be already gone before they got up in the morning.
Sabine shook her head.
"We didn't see him. But for another separate targeted attack at the same time we're fighting against the Krampus? It seems too much to be a coincidence."
"So what... who was attacking us?" Marinette asked, poking at her food with her fork.
"There were six attackers, as far as we can tell." She picked up a bowl. "More potatoes, Adrien?" Adrien nodded, his cheeks filled out like a cute hamster and he held out his plate for her. Sabine put one hand on her cheek smiling brightly while she ladled on more food.
"Maman," Marinette chided. "The attackers?"
Sabine nodded.
"They wore strange clothes and had powers like I've never seen. One could control the weather."
Adrien swallowed. "What, like the X-men?"
Sabine laughed and Marinette rolled her eyes with a smile.
"I suppose so. There was one who was creating things, just pulling them out of thin air with his pen. Another one seemed to have control over birds."
"Where are they coming from?" Adrien asked.
Sabine's mouth tightened.
"That we do not know. And after we unfortunately sustained injuries I made the decision to fall back to protect the team. We..." She drew in a breath. "We lost someone."
Her words were met with silence.
"I wanted to go after him. I wanted to. He disappeared. He... Roger..."
She closed her eyes, her hands bunched into fists on the table.
Tom stood and came to stand behind her, bending down to wrap his large arms around her tiny frame. Marinette reached a hand across and placed it over one of her fists.
After a moment she straightened up and Tom sat back down without a word.
"Sorry about that, Adrien."
He shook his head.
"Now then," she shook out her hands, a small but sincere smile on her face. "About your training. I understand you have met Plagg and Tikki. That uncle Fu was right and you are the fated two."
The kwamis were in another room catching up and eating.
Adrien nodded enthusiastically.
"I'm keen to start training with Marinette," he said. "I hope we can help to stop anyone else going missing and to find everyone else."
He picked up a bread roll and tore a piece off, popping it into his mouth and humming appreciatively.
"This is so good, Mrs Cheng."
"Sabine," she reminded him and he nodded. "And Tom made those."
"It relaxes me," Tom said now. "I'm glad you enjoy them, Adrien."
"Yes, now that you have Plagg and Tikki we have no time to waste. You're training will start tonight in earnest. I will give you some time after dinner so we'll go to the armoury at eight."
After that the meal was more cheerful. They laughed and chatted and it was the happiest she had seen Adrien look.
After food Tom raised an enquiring eyebrow at Marinette.
"Really?" she asked. "Can we?"
Tom nodded and she could hear his booming laugh following her as she scampered up the stairs to her room, grabbed the gaming console and ran back to the living room, quickly setting it up. Shyly she held out a controller to Adrien.
"Wanna play?"
He smirked and grabbed it from her.
"It seems a bit rude to completely annihilate someone in their own home. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."
Marinette put a hand to her heart.
"Such a gentleman I have never seen! You would do that? For me? Can you believe this, Papa? Chivalry isn't dead after all!"
Tom chuckled, patting Adrien on the shoulder.
"I wish you luck. You're going to need it."
The first round was over quickly. True to his word and to his detriment Adrien really did go easy on her. She crushed him.
He sighed in defeat, hanging his head between his arms which were outstretched, his wrists propped on his bent knees where he sat on the floor. Marinette was sat cross-legged beside him. He looked at her out the side of his eye.
"That was amazing. I thought I was good at this game. I've never seen anyone play like you. How do you do it?"
She smiled, putting down her controller and reached into her pocket, pulling out a string of brightly coloured beads. She hesitated then held out her hand, the bracelet in her open palm.
"My lucky charm," she said, rubbing it with her thumb.
"What? You can't be serious."
Marinette smiled fondly at the beads, closing her fingers around them and holding them tight. Taking Adrien's hand in hers she placed the bracelet in his.
"Try playing a couple of rounds with it. You'll see. Besides, my Dad wants to play you now. You're definitely gonna need it. He taught me everything I know."
Tom snagged Marinette's controller from the floor.
"But not everything I know!" he said with a grin. "Get ready, Adrien. You're about to see how we do it, Santa style!"
He posed ridiculously, one foot up on the coffee table until Sabine came past and scolded him, slapping his leg affectionately.
Adrien did better after that and Marinette saw him rubbing at the bracelet more than once.
Cute.
It was a nice break from reality, a couple of hours of video games and banter. By the end, Adrien and Tom were trying to outdo each other on puns and Marinette and Sabine spent most of the time groaning and rolling their eyes while holding in laughter.
Sabine leaned against the kitchen island, a cup of coffee in hand watching the boys. Marinette sat with a hot chocolate on a stool.
"He's a good boy, that Adrien," Sabine said now, blowing the steam across the top of her drink before taking a sip. "I like him a lot. Cute too." She smiled.
"Maman," Marinette groaned.
"Polite, fun to be around, good looking. He's quite the catch."
Marinette rolled her eyes.
"It's not like that. We're friends."
Sabine nodded, taking another careful sip.
"We are! That's all. Friends."
"Okay honey," Sabine said and Marinette groaned again.
She hopped off the stool.
For a small window of time Marinette could almost believe that she was just a normal girl having a night of fun with her parents and a friend. But the time flew and it was Sabine who broke the spell.
"I think it's time we got to training now," she said, putting her coffee cup in the sink. Tom got to his feet, slapping his thighs as he did.
"And I really must get back to the shop," he said, grimacing. "It's been a lovely evening, Adrien, and I hope we will have many more like it in the future. Good luck with your training, both of you." And with a kiss on Marinette's head and a quick embrace with Sabine he was gone.
"Now then. If you'd like to fetch Tikki and Plagg, we'll go."
A/N That's right, I am going to shoehorn in all my favourite scenes from the show