Chapter One

Alya was rocketing through the snow in a second, her snowball clutched to her chest as she barrelled towards the boys and she loosed it and swerved at the last second, passing them by with a gleeful cry before they'd even seen her coming. She raced over to where Marinette was crouched behind the bandstand and dropped to her knees with a screech of laughter that made Marinette laugh even harder.

"Oh-mygod- oh-mygod- Alya- you- queen- see- their- faces!?"

She was clutching her sides, laughter pouring from her quicker than air could reach her lungs.

"Hear their screams!" Alya howled in triumph, her laughter pairing with Marinette's and filling the air of the park around them.

LBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLB

"You just want Alya because she has the best arm!" Marinette hollered back, dodging a badly-thrown snowball.

"That's not true!" Nino cried. "I just think we should level out the teams a bit! I mean Adrien, man, I love you bro but you suck!"

Adrien's laugh could be heard despite the muffling of the snow and Marinette's heart fluttered and skipped. He had the most wonderful laugh. Alya nudged her with her elbow, and flashed her a wicked grin. Marinette didn't have time to ask what she was up to before her friend had poked her head back out of their hiding spot.

"I'll swap you for Marinette!" she shouted, laughing when Marinette threw her a mock-betrayed look.

They waited for Nino to call back.

"Compromise!" he shouted eventually. "You and me, yeah!?"

"That sounds like a date, Nino!" Marinette called out before her friend could reply, desperate to level out Alya's betrayal. She flashed Alya a wicked grin of her own, catching her by surprise with her boldness. "She'll need a better proposal than that!"

Alya gaped, her cheeks flaming in a rare blush. Marinette had surprised herself with that. It just went to show how much two hours of screaming and running around in the snow in fight mode made her feel like LadyBug. She was full of energy despite how awfully cold it was, and she felt invincible.

Even though really she sucked.

"Be my partner, Alya?"

Nino's voice rang out, sounding very much like he was embarrassed. As Alya shot Marinette a skeptical look he added something else.

"Be the LadyBug to my Cat Noir?"

Marinette's mouth dropped open as she locked eyes with Alya. Now that was a line. Alya turned scarlet as she stared back at Marinette. Her lips were moving but she wasn't making any noise.

OhMyGod-OhMyGod-OhMyGod

Marinette grinned, nodding hurriedly as she pointed out across the no-man's land between the four of them. The battle had begun with most of their class and had been intense and brutal but now it had dwindled, people leaving to attend after school clubs and heading home. Marinette had reminded Adrien in an embarrassing squeak that he had Fencing practice but he'd shrugged and thrown a snowball at her, saying he'd much rather be where he was.

Alya had had to drag her back to safety because her legs wouldn't work.

He'd rather be here.

"She totally accepts!" Marinette squealed, pushing Alya in the direction of the boys as her friend looked on, starry-eyed.

"Go for it, Alya! I mean he knows you so well!"

Alya looked back at her, grinning as she seemed to come back to earth.

"He- what a line!"

"I know!" Marinette laughed, shoving her. "Go be his LadyBug!"

Alya stepped out, hands up. "Truce! I'm coming out!"

Marinette sat with her back against the bandstand foundation, closing her eyes as she settled her breathing. All of this exertion and her excitement for Alya was making her heart race. The cold was setting in properly, chilled fingers clutching her skin. But she was okay for now. She'd keep an eye on it though.

She had bundled Tikki in her rucksack instead of her clutch that day, stuffing it full of scarves and fleecy material and a thermos of hot water she'd refilled before leaving school. She was going to make the Kwami mittens that night, had the pattern made already, along with a design for a snowsuit. It'd be tricky working on something so small but the ladybug Kwami didn't deal well with the cold.

She opened her eyes in surprise as a body dropped down next to her. She looked up to tell Alya she shouldn't back down but it wasn't Alya who was sitting in the snow next to her.

Oh.

That's right.

With Alya as Nino's partner Marinette now had Nino's previous partner for her own.

Adrien.

She blushed as she mumbled a hello, and he grinned at her. He looked at her with vivid green eyes that glinted with his joy from the snow. His cheeks were red from the cold and his lips were chapped and his hair was wind-ruffled in a familiar way she couldn't place. She didn't think she'd ever seen him look less than picture perfect, and it was just as well because the wind-swept look did something crazy to her insides.

"Hey, Mari." he said breathlessly, and her heart scrabbled in her chest.

After months of friendship Adrien had taken to calling her Mari for short, to match up with Nino's nickname of Nett. Alya called her Girl so often she never really used her real name unless she was shouting for her. It made her feel warm and fuzzy to be given nicknames, even the annoying ones that Cat gave her. They had grown close as a crime-fighting duo and her walls were less imposing than they used to be. They had many pet names for each other, some to show affection and some to simply bug each other.

Hearing Adrien call her Mari made her gooey inside.

"Hi." she peeped, making him smile.

He'd grown to accept her stumbles and stutters and how embarrassed and shy she got all the time. He worked on it by being patient and waiting for her to get out what she wanted to say. Although the sweetness of such an attitude made her heart flutter more, the patience he had for her was working. Slowly but surely.

Some days she even made it through the whole school day without feeling like she wanted to run and hide her burning face.

Success, right?

"I'm pretty rubbish at this." he added with an apologetic grin.

She watched him peek around the corner.

"And I can practically hear them scheming. We're going to be massacred."

He looked at her with a smile. She blushed and thanked the weather that it would just look like she was cold. Which she was. Sitting still in the snow was not the same as diving around in it. She hoped Tikki was okay. She'd packed extra cookies today just to be sure the Kwami could fight off the cold with lots of energy.

"I am every year." she told him, her voice only pitching a little. "The o-only reason I was doing okay this year was b-because of Alya."

Adrien laughed, and the sound made Marinette ridiculously happy. She grinned to herself as he turned to look around the corner again to keep a look-out for sneak attacks. Marinette couldn't help but compare him to Noir right then, as silly as that was. She had seen the feline do the exact same thing on multiple occasions, peering around the corner of a chimney followed by him turning around to shoot her his favourite smirk and make some sort of joke. When Adrien turned back he just smiled at her.

"I'm sure that's not true."

She nodded vigorously, shivering as she felt the cold flush down her turtleneck when she did so.

"O-oh definitely. You've seen me- c-clumsy Marinette. Imagine last year, poor Nino got stuck with me the wh-whole day."

She wasn't sure how much of her stammering was down to her nerves at having him so close and how much was the cold. Either way it wasn't out of place. Adrien's eyes were patient and as he listened to her, and her chest felt warm.

He's so kind.

"Well, you can't be much worse than me. I'm so rubbish."

Marinette chuckled. The air chilled her throat but she was sitting in the snow next to Adrien and it was so nice that it made up for the cold.

"At least y-you have an excuse. I've been rubbish at s-snowball fights my whole l-life and I take part every year."

He grinned again, the expression teasing and playful. His eyes were glittering, so very very green against the white world. He looked like some form of angel with his vivid eyes and golden hair, covered in falling snow. She smiled. She did that a lot around him.

"Well, lets be rubbish together then. And we can hope that the superhero duo over there are too busy bickering to beat us."

She giggled, spluttering as she laughed at the thought. It was true. Alya and Nino bickered all the time. Pleasantly, of course, only rarely with any heat. They were incredibly well matched and Marinette couldn't wait for the day Alya would tell her it'd finally happened. They wouldn't admit it to Marinette but she'd seen the way Alya looked at Nino, and she'd seen the way his amber eyes watched her when she was in a passionate LadyBug spiel.

They were so oblivious.

"It was a line and a half, non?" she chuckled when she caught her breath and Adrien laughed, his eyes flashing.

"Indeed. Worthy of the Cat himself, I think."

Marinette rolled her eyes.

"Please. It was much better than his lines. He's the feline king of bad puns."

Adrien raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?"

Marinette forgot quite often that she didn't actually know Cat that well as Marinette. She grinned sheepishly.

"Well, uhm, yeah. I've spent some time with him. And LadyBug tells me some of them sometimes."

Phew. Nice save.

As always, mentioning LadyBug made people think how awesome it was that she knew a superhero and the subject would change.

"I think it's so cool that you know her." Adrien said.

She smiled and looked away. She crossed her arms, and then changed her mind and got back up into a crouch, rolling snow into balls and piling them by her side.

"Good idea."

She grinned at Adrien's praise. It was a good idea that they have ammunition ready against two of the best snowballers in their class. But she also need to start moving around. Her toes were starting to go really numb and her fingers were heavy inside her gloves.

She was turning to speak when there was a thump and something landed behind her. By the time she'd turned around Alya was sprinting away and cackling, leaving Marinette covered in snow and gasping in surprise.

Caught out by her own idea.

"You oka- Hey!"

Adrien had been hit too and it was officially on.

With just the four of them playing they soon abandoned their trenches for the freedom of running around the whole park, diving through the closed carousel and ducking behind the horses, sliding down the small slope at the other end and using the fountain as cover.

Another hour had elapsed before it was finally called to an end and the last of their snow was thrown. Marinette had loved every minute but couldn't deny she was looking forward to heading home. Tikki would be freezing by now, and she didn't want her little friend getting sick again.

She headed over to her rucksack, feeling guilty to see the small inch of snow layered on the top. She unzipped it under the pretence of looking for something and checked on Tikki.

"C-Cold!" Tikki wailed, but she was still healthy.

Marinette rubbed her head with her hand and promised they were heading home now. She jumped when Adrien tapped her shoulder and hurriedly zipped the rucksack back up.

"You need a ride? You look really cold and my driver's here anyway."

She stammered before agreeing, trying to ignore the wolf whistle from Nino and Alya's suggestive expression. Adrien seemed not to hear them as he led her over to the limo. They waved goodbye to the others before scooting inside and closing the doors against the snow.

"It's falling heavier now." Adrien murmured, looking out of the window with a thoughtful expression.

"M-mmhm-mm." she chattered, the warmth of the car making her aware of how cold she really was and her proximity to Adrien making it hard to think.

She'd never been too great with the cold, but she hadn't been quite this cold before in previous years. Not when she wrapped up like she was now and had only been out a few hours. The winter must be colder than usual, but nobody seemed to have noticed. Weird.

"Are you okay, Mari? You're shaking quite a lot."

She nodded, giving him an apologetic look.

"Yeah. S-sorry. I dunno why I'm s-so cold."

He was concerned for her and it made her heart melt. There was no way she was getting over Adrien any time soon. He was a darling. He smiled back but his eyes were still a little worried. She widened her smile more to convince him.

"I'll have a hot shower wh-when I get in. I'll b-be right as r-rain."