Miraculous Christmas

Chapter 4

"Plagg, do you think it seems a little suspicious that Ladybug and Marinette both have broken ankles?" Adrien asked, as he walked back to the bakery.

"What do you mean?" Plagg was trying to figure out how he was going to get out of this without giving anything away.

"I mean, do you think they could be the same person"

"Oh. It's probably just a really big coincidence."

"I don't know. Now that I think about it, they look very similar. Marinette is always missing class and disappearing. I think we might be on to something, Plagg."

"Adrien, I don't think you should try to figure out who Ladybug is. She clearly doesn't want you to know." Plagg was starting to panic.

"I know, but I can't help it if I figure it out by accident."

They came upon the bakery, and Adrien paused before going in. He took a deep breath then went inside. What if he was right? What if Ladybug had been right there the whole time? His heart started racing at the thought of it.

He found Marinette sitting behind the counter running the cash register. When she looked up and saw him, she nearly fell out of her chair. 

"Adrien! HI! How you are? I mean- how are you? "What I really mean is how did everything with the akuma go? Did you guys get some good stuff for the Ladyblog?"

He had totally forgotten about Alya. He saw her once, but then she disappeared. "I actually couldn't find her, so I found a place to hide, but I know that Ladybug and Chat Noir caught the akuma, with the help of Rena Rouge. So, I'm sure she's safe at home now."

"Oh y-yeah, I'm sure she m-made it h-home." She couldn't keep herself from stuttering, which made her blush from embarrassment. 

Adrien noted how Marinette didn't act anything like Ladybug, at least not around him. 'It's almost like I make her nervous,' he thought. But he couldn't use that to disprove his suspicion. After all, he was different as Chat Noir.

"My parents asked me to look after the bakery while they went out Christmas shopping, so I won't be able to hang out with you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Maybe I can stay and help too."

"Oh- no. You don't have to do that, Adrien. I think I can handle it myself. Besides, it can be pretty boring sometimes."

"I'm sure you can, but I want to. I really don't want to go home and sit in my room alone. Maybe it won't be so boring if we do it together."

Marinette couldn't turn him away after he said that. "Okay, if you really want to..." She looked around the room. "You can pull up a chair next to me."

"Okay!" He did what she said. "So what do we do now?"

"We wait until someone comes in." He nodded, and they sat in silence for a few minutes. 

"You weren't kidding about it being boring, Marinette." He said with a laugh.

"You really don't have to stay." Marinette frowned deeply.

"No," he waved his hands in protest. "I was just kidding. It was a bad joke." He mentally scolded himself for being so rude.

The bell over the door rang as someone walked in the door. He sighed in relief at the distraction. He watched Marinette carefully as she helped the old man and boxed up his order. She laughed when the old man whispered something to Marinette that he couldn't hear.

"Have a good day sir," Marinette said, waving him off.

"What did he say?" Adrien was curious to find out what had made her laugh.

"Oh," she smiled. "He just said that I should probably feed you because of the way that you were looking at his box of cookies."

"I can't help it. Especially since I know how good they taste." He said, trying to find a good excuse. He didn't want to admit, even to himself, that it wasn't the cookies he was looking at like that, but Marinette. 

"Help yourself," she slid open the door of the dessert case. "It's one of the perks of working in a bakery."

"What do you recommend?" 

"Hmm..." she looked over all of the options. "I would go with gingerbread Chat Noir."

"Not gingerbread Ladybug?"

"Nah. I prefer Chat. He's more fun." Adrien smiled.

"Well, I prefer Ladybug," he said and watched her reaction. She looked shocked, yet happy. 

"Really?"

"Of course. I think she's amazing. She's so brave and smart and..." He stopped himself. If she really was Ladybug he didn't want to keep rambling on about how great she was in front of her.

Her face was turning red, and she was stunned for a second, but she recovered quickly and said, "Got a crush on the bug?" she smirked, not expecting him to say yes.

He was not expecting that. He didn't know what to say. "I mean- I- uh" he rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe a little bit." 

Her jaw dropped. Was he serious? Adrien had a crush on her? She almost passed out from excitement. 

Adrien was not expecting her to react the way that she did. Was she really that happy about him having a crush on Ladybug? Did that mean that she liked him as Adrien? He reached in and pulled out one of each cookie. He passed the Chat one to Marinette and kept the other for himself. They ate their cookies in silence, each deep in thought. 

Another customer came through the door, the sound of the bell pulling them out of her thoughts.

"Hi Mrs. Chamack. We'll have your order in just a minute. Adrien, would you grab the cake in the back for me?"

"Of course!" He was happy to be useful.

When he came back Marinette and Nadja were talking about Manon and how she had gone to take her picture with Santa Claus at the mall. 

She paid for her cake and left, leaving the two of them alone again. After a few more minutes of silence, Marinette spoke. "So, Alya and I were talking about maybe having a little Christmas party for all of our friends next week. What do you think? Would you be able to come?"

"That sounds really fun. I've never been to a Christmas party with people my age before, only boring stuff with my father."

"That's terrible."

"Eh." He waved his hand. "It's not  a big deal. It just means that this one will be the best I've ever been to." He smiled at her, but she just looked sad.