From one writer/artist to another, I just want to wish you all a great holiday spirit.

Here's to hoping 2021 will be better than 2020.

Happy Holidays!

P.S.: I don't own Miraculous. Never have, never will.

Adrien (Perfect) Agreste had a dilemma.

Scratch that, he had a problem.

Scratch that, he had a BIG problem.

"To save this message, press 1.

To delete, press 2…"

Scratch that, he had a FREAKING BIG PROBLEM!

"Plagg! This is a disaster! How on earth could you have sent that message to Marinette?!"

Adrien had to struggle with his desire to pull his perfect blond hair out of his skull, clump by clump, root by root.

He also had to struggle with his desire to wring the neck of Plagg, that no-good, chaos-loving, stinky cheese-eating kwami of his!

It was all his fault!

"Hey, don't look at me, kid, you're the one who wanted to practice asking Pigtails out on a date," drawled Plagg in his usual "I want my Camembert now, silly human" voice that he only saved for Adrien.

"I was not asking Marinette out on a date! I was asking her if she wanted to go to the movies with me! As a friend! Because she is a -"

"-very good friend, yeah, yeah, I know the drill." Plagg shrugged and inhaled his Camembert.

"But seriously, kid, what kind of person asks their friend out on a date like this," Plagg screwed up his face and recited, in a very off-key voice:

"Hey, Princess, know what tomorrow is? The purr-fect time to ask meow-t to the movies fur-st chance you get. Your knight in cool leather will be there!'"

Adrien sputtered. "I did not sound like that!" He protested. "Besides, you're the one that said I should practice asking by recording myself on video. You even told me to act like Chat Noir!"

"I said to pretend that you are Chat Noir." Plagg deadpanned. "If I accidentally hit record and send-it's because you forgot your obligation to feed me."

"Forge-! I gave you plenty of cheese and you know it!"

"Whatever, Adrien," Plagg said dismissively. "What's done is done. You recorded a confession, I dropped your phone and hit send, and now Marinette is going to hit play any moment now. So how're you going to fix this?"

When Plagg put it that way, Adrien was done for. He had no way of getting Marinette's phone away from her.

Or at least Adrien had no way of getting it.

"But Chat Noir can!" Adrien pumped his fist up.

Plagg stared. "What."

"Chat Noir can easily ask Marinette to borrow her phone for a mission, then delete the message without her knowledge, then return it back to her without a single scratch. Problem solved!"

Adrien was so proud of himself.

Plagg, less so.

"That's a stupid plan," Plagg pointed out.

Adrien flushed. "Ok, there are a lot of loose ends but it's not like I have anything better. Do you?"

Admittedly, Plagg did not.

That didn't mean he was going to admit it. "Listen, kid, I really think that you should just-"

"Time's a-wasting! Let's do this! Plagg, claws out!"

Adrien (I-don't-plan-things-out-fully) Agreste was so confident that his (very poor and very stupid) plan was going to work out just fine.

...which is probably why he didn't notice Plagg, right before swishing into his ring (and giving him a stink-eye), fiddling with his phone.

Adrien (My-middle-name-is-Oblivious) Agreste was so proud.

Despite Plagg's whiny needling for cheese, he managed to (somehow) paw Marinette's phone (heh, paw, get it?), delete the video, delete video history, and hand the phone back before Marinette noticed it missing.

(It helped that Marinette wasn't around at the time.)

(For some reason, she never seems to be around when important events are happening.)

(Strange.)

Mission accomplished!

The next day, Adrien practically skipped to school (once he got out of his limo, that is. The perks of being a rich kid chauffeured to school everyday).

After all, everything in the world was right again. No embarrassing video call to his good friend Marinette, for one thing.

For another thing, Plagg was being oddly silent. (That should have been a clue that something was going to go wrong.)

Now he just had to ask Marinette out to the movies like a very good friend would do. (How is his "Oblivious" not one of his five names?)

What could possibly go wrong?

It is at this point that Adrien probably should have remembered that his phone backed up everything from messages to pictures.

Including videos.

He also should have remembered Plagg, a kwami with very destructive powers, should never have access to his phone.

But he did not.

Nor did he see Plagg zip out of his shirt and into his bag.

No, he was too busy worrying about what to say to Marinette. Which shouldn't be a problem.

All he had to do was walk up to Marinette, wave hello at her and and open his mouth to say-

-Beep!- "'Hey, Princess, know what tomorrow is? The purr-fect time to ask meow-t..."

Adrien paled and glanced into his bag, just in time to see Plagg duck back inside with the phone.

"Plagg! You little-!" Adrien hissed.

Ring or no ring, he was gonna kill that kwami as soon as he got out of school-

Wait.

That video was on full volume.

In school. With lots of students.

Including Marinette.

Adrien slowly turned around and saw Marinette turning into the cutest shade of red unknown to humanity until now.

At least before she fainted straight into Alya's arms.

Dang it, Plagg!