The Truth and What Remains: An Adrienette story

Chapter 13: A Cold Christmas (Christmas Chapter Pt. 2)

Marinette fixed the snug beanie on her head before continuing to gather the rest of the presents on her list. When she came home, she opened the apartment to find it empty. Slightly cautious, Marinette stepped inside and found a note left on the dinner table:

Hey Mom! I took Hugo and Emma out for some last minute Christmas shopping, we'll make our way to Mrs. Bourgeois's hotel to meet you later.

                                                                                                                                         ~Louis

"Out Christmas shopping? I wonder what he's buying? Although... it's not really safe out in the streets right now with Gabriel on the loose," Marinette thought to herself as she held a curled finger to her lip, "I mean... he's responsible enough to watch them right? They're good kids, they won't tire out their older brother too quickly... even though he's only 14, he's forced to act more mature for his age considering the things he's been through. I trust him... although I can't say I have all my faith in him, I trust him enough to not freak out about it." Marinette sighed before grabbing some spare wrapping paper out from her closet and wrapping the gifts she bought with Adrien's gift flitting around in her mind.

Elsewhere in the Christmas decked streets of Paris...

"You know... it'd be nice to know what Maman wanted before coming out here in this blizzard to buy her gift," Hugo sucked in a cold breath as he brought his Christmas tree themed mittens up to his mouth and blew hot air to warm himself up.

"I think I have an idea for what would be a good gift," Emma suggested as her brothers looked at her with interest as she pointed to a jewelry store across the street that they could barely see. Louis nodded slowly, but he was still confused.

"A piece of jewelry?" Louis asked as Emma smirked and snapped her fingers.

"Not just any piece of jewelry, but birthstone earrings!" Emma replied proudly as Hugo and Louis looked at her in amazement.

"That's an amazing idea! Alright, guys, hold my hands as we cross the street," Louis replied as his siblings nodded and held his hands as they all crossed the street together and into the store, shaking off the ice and snow before they came in.

"Alright, Maman's birthstone is a ruby since she's born in July," Hugo explained to Louis and Emma as a quiet employee bowed to them.

"Really? I thought it was onyx?" Emma wondered aloud as Hugo looked at her questioningly and Louis whipped out his phone and googled it. (A/N: Ok! I actually have no idea when is Marinette's birthday but since her earrings are either black or red in the tv series, I picked the month that had both a red and black gemstone as its birthstone: July. It has both ruby and onyx but ruby is more widely accepted so yeah... so don't @ me at that)

"Well you guys are both right, July has ruby and/or onyx as it's birthstone. However, I think she'd like ruby a lot better," Louis said as he read the gemstones off his phone. Hugo and Emma nodded and they continued into the store to find the birthstone jewelry displays. As they approached one of the displays, an employee greeted them.

"Hello, may I be of service to your shopping today?" The employee asked as Hugo spoke for the group.

"Yes, we're looking for birthstone jewelry, do you happen to have any displays in here?" Hugo asked as the employee nodded happily and gestured her hand further down the displays.

"Yes we do, if you would follow me..." the employee said as the three followed her further down the aisle and they stopped at a display that was full of colorful jewelry, shining with the sparkles of every color of the month, "now, there are special fusion birthstone jewelry where we take two birthstones that are associated with the same month and incorporate them into the same jewelry." The three siblings gasped as they all had the same thought: is there a ruby/onyx fusion birthstone jewelry?