miraculous Christmas special

chapter 3

"Well, since my mom's been gone, I've pretty much been on my own whenever I was ill. But last time, Nathalie stayed with me for the first few hours, and then somehow managed to talk my father into taking the rest of the day off work and spending time with me himself. And a few days afterwards, I heard them make an agreement that when it came to what was best for me, he basically gave her permission to talk sense into him whenever he was wrong."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And things between us have been so much better since then. He's been making a special effort to join me for meals. We've actually gone out together several times, which he'd only done a couple of times in almost a year before that. And whenever he has to cancel doing something with me now, he always makes it up to me later. I know it doesn't sound like much, but....."

"Having met your dad, I'd say it sounds like a huge deal," Nino said.

Adrien grinned. "It is. Um, but I've got off track a bit."

"Yeah. It sounds great for you, but I'm not sure I'm seeing why it means he likes her in that way," Alya said.

"That's just one example. Father really isn't a physical person. I swear my mom and I are the only people I've ever seen let him touch him outside of polite handshakes (and he doesn't shake hands very often either). Until recently."

"You've seen them hugging or something?" Nino asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing that dramatic. It's just like little touches on the arm and stuff. If it were anyone else I wouldn't think twice about it. But it is just so not like Father. And there's something different in the way he looks at her too. Especially when he's smiling. That's something else he rarely does. I'm telling you, it means something."

"Okay, you know them best," Nino said. "We'll take your word for it."

"And we're in," Alya said. "Right, Marinette?"

"Yes, of course!"

"Great. Thanks, guys. So ... any suggestions?"

There was a pause while they all thought.

Marinette tried to put herself in the potential couple's shoes. She didn't know them anywhere near as well as Adrien did, obviously, but she had met both of them more than once.

They were both closed books, really. One cold and distant, the other cool and professional. Clearly they were less so around Adrien at least sometimes, but all the same, she could imagine people like that being put in an unexpectedly romantic situation would fell quite awkward, especially if there were others around. And since it would mostly likely just be Adrien, and possibly his bodyguard ...

"Are you having any other family over for Christmas?" she blurted, and they all looked around at her.

"No," Adrien said. "My father doesn't have any other relatives, and my mom's family always have other plans at Christmas."