#spoiler alert: he is a bit allergic to cats. not enough to kill him but for him to be annoyed | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theyrejustbehindtheveil · 4 years

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Now presenting my @mlsecretsanta gift for @phantompierce-okamoto. Merry Chrysler :)

Ao3

///////////////

“Look, all I’m saying is, if you put Ladybug and Chat Noir together, then all the black cancels out and you get Christmas colours.”

“For the last fucking time, Als, we are not tinsel bombing the heros of Paris.”

Chloé crosses her arms and lean forward “Yeah. Ladybug deserves better, Cesaire, and you know it.”

Nino frowns. “How would you even make that happen?”

“Ambush?” Alya says, slightly too eagerly in Marinette’s opinion.

“How about we don’t”

“But Mariiiii” Alya whines.

“Alya, you know she wouldn’t like it.”

“Yeah but Chat Noir would probably be down. Cats love chasing sparkly stuff.”

“Chat Noir would absolutely be down.” Adrien interjects.

“What makes you so sure, Adrien? Huh? What if he’s allergic to tinsel, same as he is with feathers.”

“He is not!”

“How do you even know that, Dupain-Cheng?”

“Um. The Ladyblog?”

...

“Okay but what if it was a tinsel akuma.”

“Alya!”

“Yeah but, Alya, how would you even make that happen?”

“Do not doubt my skills, Nino, for I am Ladyblogger and journalist extraordinaire!”

“And that gives you the power to influence akumas?”

“No but I’m very persuasive. And I know Chloé!”

“Hey!”

Marinette really honestly thought that would be the end of it. Just the stress of the end of the year sending them all a little loopy and ridiculous. And yet, once Chloé and Alya get an idea properly lodged in their heads, it’s nearly impossible to talk them out of it. And so, Marinette, and therefore by extension Ladybug, finds herself at the beginning of December, in the midst of the end of term assignments and homework and the upswing in customers at the bakery, also having to evade her friends and their plans, and the armloads of tinsel that were Chloé’s main contribution to this exercise.

“Guys, I really don’t think she’s coming.”

“C'mon Mari, don’t be so worried. This is totally gonna work. She always comes by this time on a Monday”

“How do you even know that, Alya?”

“My skills are many and varied and also Ladybug is bright red and we’re near my house. I can see her out my bedroom window.”

Ah. Whoops.

Minutes pass. Nino starts fidgeting, not used to staying still for so long. Marinette wishes she’d thought to bring her sketchpad or something as she fixates on the hatching of the brickwork across from her and the way the shadows fall across Alya’s hair.

“Alya, babe, I don’t think she’s coming.” Alya’s grip tightens on the bundle of tinsel in her hands

“Shhh Nino. She’s coming, I know it.”

Marinette wishes she could sneak away and draw them away, but her only escape route is blocked by Alya and Nino who are now… staring each other down. Marinette looks away. She recognises that intense staredown as one of the things that has a tendency to lead to the two of them making out against lockers. And walls. And on one memorable occasion, a rooftop.

Behind her, the plaster between the bricks has partially eroded away. She looks up. A few meters up, there’s a wrought iron balconette. And then further over, a ledge that trails around the corner of the building. Maybe, if she used the wooden crates stacked nearby to give her a boost…

…

“ Wait, where’d Marinette go?”

//////////////

Ladybug grins as she fistbumps Chat Noir. The akuma they just dealt with was an easy one, and they’re wrapping up almost as soon as they’d really gotten underway. The only complication in the fight had been also having to avoid Alya and Chloé stalking her and Chat with armfuls of tinsel. Luckily they’d been talking about it in the group chat, otherwise she’d have been caught out like Chat was.

He’s still got bits of tinsel in his hair.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spots Alya sneaking closer, a truly terrifying grin on her face. At the same time, a sharp beeping starts up from her earrings.

“Aw hell. Chat?”

“Mrrp?”

“I gotta bug out. You good to go?” Alya’s getting closer, and Ladybug shifts her weight, ready to swing out.

He draws out his baton. “Yeah! See you next akuma.”

“Bye Chat!” She calls as she swings out, and giggles at the cry of frustration she can hear from Alya in her wake.

...

On the bright side, Alya does show her the photos she got of Chat being tinsel-bombed. Her favourite is the selfie Alya managed to get of Chat, Chloé, and her all draped in sparkly tinsel.

“Send me that one?”

“Sure girl. But no sharing. I want to wait until I have one of Ladybug too, so I can post them together, and i don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

“No spoilers, I promise.”

////////////////

Once again, Marinette finds herself trying desperately to dissuade her friends not to tinsel-bomb the superheroes of Paris, in what appears to be a losing battle for her dignity.

“All I’m saying is, you’re running out of time and she seems to have evaded you pretty easily so far.”

Alya goes from lying on the floor to bolt upright so fast that Marinette can hear her spine make an audible crack . “But Mari! We can’t just give up !”

Adrien looks up from the tangle of limbs he has wound himself into. “What if we asked her nicely?”

Nino twists to look at the tangle of boy behind him. “Adrien, buddy, she’ll never go for it”

“Okay so what if we asked Chat Noir to ask her nicely. I know - I mean, I reckon he would totally go for it.”

“But Adrien! The surprise! The mystery! She cant be ready for it! It has to be a surprise!”

Chloé chuckles from where she’s dangling upside down off the side of Marinette’s bed. “Chill, Cesaire. We got Chat, we can so get Ladybug too.”

Alya hops up to go get the whiteboard that Marinette has leaning against the wall by her desk so that she can drag it over to where everyone can see it.

“Okay so what we gotta do is this…

It is two days before Christmas, and Marinette is busier than a whole beehive trying to get everything done. Thankfully she’s finally started the school holidays, and has a bit more time in the day, but still. Between making and wrapping presents and helping her parents finish all the Christmas orders, she barely has time to keep up with Alya’s tinsel-bombing plans and shenanigans.

Ladybug’s had some pretty close calls, although thankfully no tinsel-themed akuma, much to Alya’s profuse disappointment. On one memorable occasion, she had to hide behind a parked car, detransform, and pop out on the other side ready to help Nino and Chloé look for the suddenly and mysteriously missing Ladybug.

///////////////

As of right now, she’s had a phone that’s been going off all day, indubitably Alya fretting about it being so close to Christmas without the photos that she wants, and trying to corral everyone into another strategy meeting. Marinette isn’t sure though, since she quite frankly doesn’t have the time to check her phone.

The sun is lying low on the horizon when she hears the akuma alert go off on her phone, a jaunty little jingle Alya programmed into all their phones one day while bored. Minutes later, Ladybug makes an appearance on the scene of the akuma, only to find Chat Noir grinning as he plays keep away with an akuma that looks like a really small and misshapen Christmas tree. He waves at her as soon as she lands.

“Hawkmoth is really running out of ideas if this is the best he can do,” Chat says cheerily to her as she takes in the scene.

“Yeah, at least we’re not gonna get killed by a Christmas tree,” she returns. “ You’re doing great Chat, but let’s get this wrapped up, I have like three places I’m supposed to be right now.

Her partner laughs, but then has to duck out of the way of the akuma intent on getting whatever the token Chat has back. She thinks it might be some kind of bauble, but she can't quite see.

The next few minutes mostly have Chat trying to get clear enough of the akuma that he can break the token.

“Just one more minute, my lady, I’m almost clear,” he shouts, incredibly loudly, before immediately throwing the token full force at the ground. It shatters, and she springs into action, yoyo snapping out at the little butterfly that escapes. Moments later she turns, expecting to see her partner ready for their usual fistbump, but instead her vision is filled with a mess of sparkly, colourful -

oh no

Her friends laughter fills her ears as she vanishes under armfuls of tinsel. Marinette takes a moment to mourn the last shreds of her dignity before letting a small smile escape onto her lips.

Merry Christmas indeed.

THE END

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EPILOGUE

On Christmas morning, the Ladyblog posts a photoset that goes viral within the hour. It shows two side by side photos, one of Chat Noir and the other of Ladybug, both sporting nearly identical expressions of shock and both covered in tinsel. The third is a selfie, showing both heroes, still draped in tinsel, posing with three teenagers in santa hats. The internet identifies the girl who runs the Ladyblog and the daughter of the mayor of Paris, but they have trouble working out who the boy with the headphones is.

The caption reads: “MERRY CHRISTMAS LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR FANS!!!!

BONUS VIDEO COMING TO THE LADYVLOG IN THE NEW YEAR!!!!”

Suffice to say, the comment section goes nuts, and the site crashes several times that day, to Alya’s deep satisfaction. A very merry Christmas is had by her.

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