miraculous Christmas special

chapter 1

It was a normal day in school and during lunch Marinette asked Alya if she had any idea what this means? she said, while showing the text to Alya.

"Need you," Alya read out loud, her eyes widening. "Library corner table in 5. Er, who's that from?"
"Adrien!"
"What? Seriously?"

Marinette nodded eagerly. "Do you think he's …"
"I don’t know, girl … sounds a bit odd for asking someone out. Not really Adrien's style." Alya's own phone beeped, and she looked down at it. "Oh. Well, that settles it. He's not asking you out."

"How do you know?"
"I just got the exact same one."
"Oh," Marinette said, her heart sinking. "Well … that's a bit of a relief, actually," she said bravely. "As much as I like the idea of him saying he needs me … I'd rather it was done in a bit more of a romantic way."

"That's the spirit. Come on, let's go and see what he wants."

They found Adrien already at the table, looking thoughtful. Nino joined him moments before the girls reached him.

"What’s up, dude?"
"I'll explain when...." Adrien broke off as he saw Marinette and Alya approaching. "Oh good, you're here."
"Yes, we are. So what's up, man of mystery?" Alya asked, sitting down. After a moment she nudged Marinette sharply with her elbow to remind her to sit down as well.

"Well," Adrien began, smiling at all of them, "you guys are my closest friends, and there's this … project I need some help on."

"What kind of project?" Nino asked, sounding surprised. "It's the last day of term!"
"Not that kind of project."

"Sounds intriguing," Alya said, grinning and leaning her elbows on the table. "What is it?"
"It's … well, kind of a romantic thing," Adrien said.

Marinette squeaked a little, and they all looked at her. She felt herself blushing red. "R-romantic?"
She wasn't sure if she could suffer through Adrien asking for advice about Kagami again.

The first time had been disastrous enough. And that had been in private. Not with Nino and Alya right there, both of who knew full well how she felt about the whole situation. Even her sweet oblivious Adrien might cotton on if he saw them give her too many sympathetic looks.

"Yeah. And that's really not my area of expertise. But you two have been together for months," Adrien said to Nino and Alya, "and you're really creative," he directed at Marinette. "So I'm hoping you can give me some pointers."

"Er …" Marinette could sense the tension his words had created, even if he couldn't, as Nino and Alya glanced at each other.

"Who's the lucky lady?" Nino said, apparently trying for a casual tone but it came out quite weird. Both he and Alya were determinedly not looking at Marinette, which was quite a relief.

"Nathalie."

Marinette blinked, and her friends looked quite startled as well.

I know that name. Where have I heard it before? I can't think of anyone in school with........