"Okay guys, I need to talk to you after school. All of you."
Surprised by Marinette's serious words as a greeting instead of her usual warm hugs her friends looked at her. "Something's up girl?" Alya asked worried but Marinette just shook her head.
"After school!" she repeated and headed to class without any other word.
"Oh man, did we do something?" Nino looked at Marinette's back in concern and then at his other two confused friends.
"She was alright just yesterday..." Adrien replied, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.
"What did you say to her when we were gone?!" Punching his arm Alya threw an angry glare at him.
"Ouch! Nothing! …I guess." His assailant just bristled with anger in response and followed Marinette to class.
"Dude, I hope you didn't screw up too bad" Nino said while putting one hand on Adrien's shoulder and grabbed the peak of his cap with the other.
"I didn't even do anything!" Adrien cried in despair but Nino just gave him a pitying look and squeezed his shoulder.
"Maybe that's the problem." And with that Adrien stood in the halls alone, no idea what he possibly could have done to cause such a situation.
Turned out they were just messing with him.
After the bell rang to free the students into a beautiful autumn afternoon Adrien stepped out of the school building and spotted Marinette who looked perfectly happy. Relieved he headed towards her, Nino and Alya who also seemed pretty glad it wasn't a severe situation after all.
Buzzing with anticipation Marinette jigged in front of her three closest friends. "It is November guys!" she finally squealed with glee and a thrilled beam on her lips.
"It certainly is" Alya agreed smiling fondly. Every time Marinette got so excited over something Alya loved her even more than usually. Her overwhelming joy also infected the two boys standing next to them, although they had no idea what caused Marinette to reach that level of enthusiasm.
"Man, you must have some great plans to get that hooked about a month like any other." Nino whistled impressed.
"It's not a month like any other!" Marinette disagreed indignantly as if he'd just insulted her. "It's the month before December!" she stated, stamping her foot.
"Riiiight…" he tilted his head and mystifyingly narrowed his eyes. Adrien laughed.
"Could you please bring back the overjoyed Marinette? I have to say I liked her way more than huffy Marinette to be honest." Carefully he reached out his hand to open the fist Marinette clenched without noticing it.
"S-Sure..." was everything she was able to mumble into her scarf, glad that she could hide her blush behind it. Nino and Alya exchanged a knowing look. "Back to business!" she continued in a cheerful tone again as she managed to regain her voice shortly after Adrien had let go of her hand. "What I wanted to say is that... it's Secret Santa time!"
Adrien's eyes promptly began to glisten, causing Marinette's heart to jump. He also liked one of her favorite things in the world! Nino's face brightened up immediately too and Alya clapped her hands in delight.
"That's a great idea, Marinette! But… I've never done such a thing. How exactly does it work?" Ashamed Adrien looked down to the ground where he drew circles with the tip of his toes to avoid looking at his friends who sure had done such things every year.
"Well, normal groups of people draw a partner by lot in December and buy them a present for Christmas." Alya explained to Adrien, showing him that he had no reason to be embarrassed. "But I guess Secret Santa in Marinette Style™ is quite different?" she added, questioningly looking at her best friend.
"You're absolutely right!" said friend answered and grinned back. "We all get our so called 'giftee' assigned at the beginning of November - means today, right here and now - so that we have enough time to prepare. Given that Secret Santa Marinette Style™ is a little more complex and has some strict rules you'll definitely need that time!"
"I am kind of terrified" Nino confessed playfully frightened but Marinette just laughed it off.
"Don't be! Actually it's pretty simple. You're supposed to make four gifts instead of just one, secretly delivering them one by one every week of December. The fourth one is ought to be opened on Christmas Eve, obviously. And most importantly, every gift has to be self-made!"
Adrien's eyes widened in shock. "How am I supposed to do that?"
Marinette's smile grew even bigger though nobody would have guessed that something like this would be possible. "We have some cute christmas angels who are willing to assist us!" She waved at someone behind Adrien and as he turned around he saw Rose waving back while Juleka took her hand and dragged her towards the group.
"Hey guys!" Rose chirped happily, not letting go of Juleka's hand even though they had already reached their destiny. "We'll help you deliver your presents!"
"Yeah. Just hand us the gifts every week and we'll make sure they'll end up with the right human" Juleka explained with a smile on her face.
While Nino and Alya were performing some sort of cute jig of glee together Adrien looked at the two girls in front of him in concern. "And you're ok with that? I mean, helping us but not participating yourself?"
"Sure! I had to experience a lot of Secret Santa rounds already. I'm kinda glad I don't have to do it again this year" Juleka sighed and he would have sworn he saw her shiver a little at the words 'Secret Santa'.
"That's true!" Rose nodded in agreement, still smiling brighter than the sun. "Juleka is everything I need anyway!" she added happily.
The world suddenly seemed to freeze. Alya and Nino immediately stopped in their tracks, Adrien and Marinette stood thunderstruck and everyone's glances flew between Rose and Juleka and their still touching hands.
"Oops. Dropped it" Rose laughed nervously while Juleka hid her face behind her free, gloved hand.
Before the silence could turn awkward Alya pointed her finger at Marinette with a triumphal smile on her face and declared "Told ya!"
Marinette giggled with joy. "This day is getting better and better!"
Placing her hands on Juleka's shoulders Rose sheepishly smiled at her classmates. "I guess we'll leave now or Juleka will melt on the spot. Please keep it to yourselves!"
"Of course we'll still be your errand girls" Juleka mumbled as Rose pushed her towards the school building.
"Nice!" Nino simply stated watching them leave and then turned back to Marinette as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Is that everything we need to know?" Before she answered his question Marinette made sure through eye contact that Alya felt the same urge to freak out about what they had just witnessed later.
"Nope, you don't even know the best part yet!" She went silent for a moment to raise the tension. Looking into her friend's eyes told her that it worked. "In the end you have to guess who your Secret Santa is and deluge them with all the love you have!" She bounced like an excited toddler on, well, christmas, causing her pigtails to bounce.
Alya chuckled as she put an arm around her shoulders. "Typical Marinette. Being the love spreading angel she has always been."
"Shh! The drawing begins at this very moment!" Marinette hurried to say to hide her flattered embarrassment. The attempt failed.
"As you wish" Alya tousled her hair before letting go of her with an affectionate smile on her lips. Marinette smiled back with still a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Nino, give me your hat!" Marinette reached her hand out towards him.
"Of course, Your Highness." Nino handed her his red cap while making a bow and she curtsied with a giggle as she took it. Reflexively she inspected it from every possible angle.
"By the way, you should definitely exchange this with a beanie to avoid catching a cold" she warned him but he just shrugged.
"Nah. I have my headphones keeping my ears warm, I'm fine. Thanks for worrying though."
"I hope that's true." Suspiciously she glanced at him but decided to leave it there. Rather than starting a discussion about her friend's valuable health she threw the four sheets of paper with their names on them she had prepared earlier into his hat. "Ladies first!" she said with a roguish grin on her face as she held it up to Nino.
"Very funny." He rolled his eyes, unable to bite back a grin as he reached out his hand. But at his comment Marinette pulled the hat back down with a playful snort.
"Tz, if you don't want to go first I won't force you to do it!" Instead she handed the cap to Alya who grinned and grabbed the first slip of paper.
"Whoops, got myself" she said apologetically and put the paper back into the hat.
"Try again!" Marinette encouraged her, nearly smacking the hat into her face. Amused Alya took a step back, chose a new one and rolled her eyes at it the moment she read it.
"Seriously? Again?" The other three laughed as Alya tried her luck a third time.
A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she gladly smiled at the name. "Got one!" Victoriously she waved with her piece of paper.
"Great! In that case I'm giving Nino the opportunity to draw next!" Turning back to him again she smirked at an impatient Nino.
"You're too kind!" Sincerely delighted he took his turn and scanned the name then nodded perfectly satisfied "Nice."
Slowly Marinette turned to the remaining participant, trying very hard not to blush too intensely. "Okay. A-Adrien it's finally your…" Before she could finish her sentence Adrien gently pushed the hat towards her.
"You go first, Marinette. It was your idea and you put so much effort into it, you should at least have a choice." His kind smile made her legs shaky and pretty useless. She shyly smiled back at him as she chose one of the last two names.
Nino.
Wondering if she should be relieved or disappointed about the fact that it wasn't showing Adrien's name was quickly replaced by tons of present ideas for the upcoming musician.
"Okay then! It's my turn!" Curious Adrien reached out for the last name. For a brief moment Marinette was afraid that he still could have ended up with his own name and they all had to try all over again but as he unfolded the small white paper he began to smile widely. "Awesome! This is going to be so great."
Sheepishly Nino cleared his throat and looked at them with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry guys but I have to leave now. I have to discuss our new physics project with Kim, wish me luck he doesn't turn it into a dare. See ya!" He waved at them as he walked away and Alya caught him clenching his fist and cutting a caper. Her buzzing phone interrupted her smiling shake of the head.
"Mom? Hey, what's up?" She quickly turned to Marinette and Adrien "Sorry guys, I'll be right back!" With that she took a few steps away from them.
While Alya talked to her mother Adrien worked up all his courage and hesitantly approached Marinette. This was possibly his only chance if he didn't want to confess his weakness to all of his friends. "Uhm, Marinette?" he tapped her on the shoulder so she would face him.
"Yes Adrien?" she turned around and looked up to him. The unprepared sight of his heavenly green eyes made her heart skip some beats.
"You know… When I asked how I was supposed 'to do that'" he drew quotation marks into the air in front of her face, "I didn't mean the secret delivery thing but the rule that everything has to be self-made. I'm… I'm pretty bad with those things." Nervously he averted his gaze and scratched the back of his head.
Marinette's eyes widened. You stupid little goopy mess!, she thought, wanting to slap herself. Making Adrien feel incapable and uncomfortable was the last thing she had intended.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! Sometimes I kind of forget that not all people do the same stuff as I do" she laughed awkwardly and lapsed into babbling. "I guess I kind of threw you in at the deep end, didn't I? But don't worry. Until you don't tell me who it is I will help you and teach you a thing or two about handicrafts if you want me to and I'm convinced you're better at it than you think! And I'm certain we will find another conclusion for you, I mean, it should be fun for all of us after all, right? Right, of course. Uhm, what I want to say is your giftee, whoever it might be, can and will be glad about the fact that they-"
Adrien burst out into a genuine laugh that calmed Marinette down a little as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "I didn't mean to make you feel guilty, there's no need to get nervous about this. I'd like to take your offer to help me as soon as I need it which, let's be honest about this, won't take too long. Thank you Marinette, I actually feel a lot better now!" She returned his warm smile although she had no idea how her absurd chattiness would help anyone.
Eventually Adrien looked down at his watch and his eyes widened. "Oh no… Unfortunately I have to leave now but it looks like Alya finished talking to her mom." Even though he seemed to be late for something he took the time to smile at Marinette and waved at her as he headed towards the street. "See you tomorrow! Bye Alya!"
"Bye Adrien" Alya waved at Adrien as she passed him on her way back to Marinette. "You were that excited over this whole Secret Santa thing that it even distracted you from acting weird and awkward in front of Adrien. It must truly be a Christmas miracle!" she gasped excessively.
"You are a horrible person, Alya Césaire" Marinette laughed and linked arms with her best friend.
"But seriously" Alya smiled and nudged Marinette's shoulder with her own "I'm proud of you."
For the next few days Marinette was caught in a relentless battle against her own self. Of course she could just change the rules entirely so Adrien wouldn't have to struggle too much with the crafting and allow him to buy everything instead. But then it wouldn't be Secret Santa Marinette Style™ anymore and if her parents drummed one lesson into their daughter it was that "amazing girls like you should never and under no circumstances change for a boy who simply couldn't handle their brilliance".
Thus changing the rules wasn't an option.
Another voice in her head tried to seduce her to take advantage of the situation and spend as much time with Adrien as possible under the pretext of showing him a thing or two about handicraft work. Marinette had to admit that she liked that idea a little too much but knowing herself she would just lose control over herself and screw both of her purposes – resisting the impulse to encroach on Adrien's projects (in that case it wouldn't be Secret Santa Marinette Style™ in Adrien Style anymore) and, even more importantly, acting like a decent human being around him.
So what should I do?!
Marinette groaned and tore her hair. "Seriously Marinette, you have to stop to treat yourself like a sinner for wanting to spend time with Adrien." Alya shook her head at Marinette's inner conflict. She may not have said anything for a while but Alya knew exactly what was going on behind those bangs.
"So I'm not a terrible person for considering exploiting Adrien's lack of knowledge?" Marinette, by now a picture of complete misery lying on her desk, mumbled into the crook of her arm.
"Get a grip on your unnecessary feeling of guilt, girl! May I remind you that Adrien Agreste himself suggested that you should teach him that stuff? In fact I would go as far as to say that he asked for your help and it would be very cold-hearted of you to refuse his request."
Slowly Marinette straightened up and Alya smirked proudly to herself. "If you put it that way I am obligated to help Adrien…" Pondering Marinette stared at a poster on her wall, straight into a pair of enchanting green eyes.
"Exactly." While patting her best friend on the shoulder Alya decided to get a pastry from the bakery below as a reward for the good deed she had just performed.