The Spirit of Christmas

Chapter 1

Adrien grumbled to himself as he saw the detour sign looming in the distance and a road worker waving a wand towards a side road. Just his bad luck! All he wanted to do was get back to his apartment, have a shower and finally crawl into bed. He was dead on his feet after working overtime on his shift and he didn't even want to know what the time was. Why he agreed to work the Emergency Department was beyond him. Maybe he was just a glutton for punishment, or perhaps he should look at specialising.

The wind whipped up around his car and he had to put on the windscreen wipers to flick the snow out of his line of vision as he tapped his fingers to the music on the radio. Soon though the area was becoming unfamiliar and after a while he felt his GPS was starting to send him around in circles.

Letting out a loud yawn, he spied the lights of a café still on and Adrien figured it might not be a bad idea to grab something hot and ask for directions back to the main highway.

"The forecast is predicting deteriorating conditions as the week leading into Christmas..." The radio announced. "...but it will definitely be snuggle up weather, am I right? So why don't you light the fire, pull up the covers with the one you love and sink into this Christmas favourite..."

Adrien turned the radio off the moment the first few strains of Michael Bublé started to warble out. It was bad enough that seasonal music was all that was being played every time he went into a grocery store. Thankfully here he didn't have to listen to it if he didn't want to, and he definitely didn't want to. Especially not that song.

Parking the car Adrien let out a long sigh as he watched a pair of lovebirds walk arm in arm out of the café. He really needed to pick up shift a for Christmas Day. The last thing Adrien felt like doing Christmas Day was sit around his empty apartment surrounded by nothing but memories. At least at work he had something else to think about to make the day pass faster.

Getting out of the car he was greeted with a large Merry Christmas sign on the café door. Well he figured it had to be expected. Christmas still held something for other people, just not him. Not anymore. Pushing the door open the place looked empty but Adrien still couldn't help raising an eyebrow at all the festive decorations. Maybe this had been a bad idea.

~~~~~

Marinette wiped down the last of the empty tables. It was a relief when those two lovebirds finally decided to take their canoodling elsewhere. Not that Marinette minded so much, they were actually quite cute, it just reminded her how at 23 she was still very single. It wasn't like she had much time for socialising anyway. As happy as she was to be co-owner of this little café in a small country town near the ski slopes, there wasn't as much opportunity to meet people as there was back in Paris. She was counting down the days though to Christmas Eve when she would make the trip home and be able to spend time with her parents and friends, although she was slightly dreading the inevitable "so have you met someone yet?". Her parents meant well of course, but they also like reminding her that she isn't getting any younger and they were hoping for grand babies they could pass the bakery down too.

Looking up at the clock it was only another 15 minutes until the 9pm closing time and Marinette couldn't wait to go up to her apartment upstairs and have a hot shower, put on her festive PJs and curl up in a warm bed. Maybe a hot chocolate before bed to warm her up would be nice too. The heater seemed to have been playing up and the café was colder than it should be. She would have to leave a note for Tikki about that.

The wind howled outside causing the lights to flicker a little. The forecast had been predicting that the weather was going to be particularly cold and blowy this year and there was the possibility of a blizzard. Marinette hoped she would at least make it home to Paris before that happened.