OMGGG ;-; my updates have slowed to a crawl due to school and lack of ideas. AGH IM so sorry. And Snow White with the Blue Eyes will be taking even longer since the chapter is just so hecking hard to write! Im still formulating the ideas! Please forgive me ;-;

But… anyways… I thought this would be nice, especially after a pretty long time. Something nice and long to compensate. Enjoy!

~Adrien has been noticing lots of things lately.~

The first thing he noticed was their scent.

And no, it wasn't creepy, it wasn't creepy at all no matter what stupid old Plagg said! So what if he'd…sniffed Ladybug and Marinette somehow on different occasions by chance?

…it sounded a lot worse than it was.

Even though he'd only really smelt Ladybug's scent once, during Animan's attack while they were hiding in the bakery, it was as if that moment turned on a switch for him. Every time they were near, he could explicitly smell her scent. It was probably just the cat senses speaking to him, enhancing his sense of smell. It could very well be out of memory- after all, she always smelled like baked goods and he knew that had to be because when he had first smelled her they were inside of a bakery. It wasn't like she spent every day inside of one.

But Marinette, Marinette was a different case. He never smelled her, not intentionally at least, but the weird old switch in his brain was on, causing him to catch whiffs of- of jasmine and vanilla and bakery whenever he was near her. He didn't know why his brain did this to him, and only in Marinette's case.And this time the bakery scent wholly made sense, because everyone knew Marinette lived inside of one, but he couldn't help noticing just how closely Ladybug's and Marinette's scents matched up, how sometimes he'd catch that sweet scent and turn around expecting Ladybug only to see Marinette, or vice versa.

Although, he could never be sure. For some reason Ladybug and Marinette were never in the same place at the same time, so he couldn't compare and contrast...

Once, as Chat Noir, when he was sitting on her balcony all casual with his tail swinging out behind him, he'd asked her what he smelt like to her. Marinette had looked at him like he was crazy- he could see her expression perfectly in the dark- before her face melted into a cheeky grin.

"Jagged Stone."

His head jerked so his eyes could meet hers, wide and unbelieving at the response she just gave. "Did you just say Jagged Stone?"

"Yeah," Marinette shrugged, leaning forward on the metal railing, "I designed his album with a scent sticker." She paused for emphasis. "It smelled like sweat and leather."

She burst into full-blown laughter when he pouted, something she miraculously managed to see in the dark. Or maybe she just knew what expression he was making by heart.

"I'll take it as a compliment that you think I smell like a rockstar..."

…

The second thing he noticed was their hair.

After all, how many teens walked around Paris in pigtails?

But it wasn't like he was making fun of Ladybug's and Marinette's hairstyles- no, of course not. He respected their fashion decisions, if that was what they wanted to wear, then so be it (not to mention they both pulled it off amazingly). He'd pondered, at one point, that Marinette may have been wearing pigtails because she was a Ladybug fan. Lots of people did that, right? But then he remembered that he'd met Marinette before Ladybug, and her hair was pulled into those very same pigtails back then, and then Adrien was back to square one.

It wasn't just the style. It was also the color. Somehow, both of the girls had naturally dark hair with a sort of metallic blue shine… it was something like he'd never seen before. Adrien had seen Marinette's mother before- she'd insisted he call her Sabine- and her hair was also a very unique shade of navy blue. So he knew how Marinette got her special shade. But Ladybug?

Everything about her was a mystery. And now another thing to add onto that mysterious list: all the coincidences she seemed to have with Marinette unknowingly. Maybe they were friends…

With the level of comfort that Chat Noir and Marinette had with each other he headed over one afternoon for no reason other than to just ask about them being friends, at the same time the sun was setting. It took lots of persuading , but Plagg eventually agreed- once he was promised a belly full of Camembert in the near future, that is.

Chat Noir raced across the rooftops, grinning at passerby and sometimes even doing a flip or two just to humor them with some parkour. People were out late, seeing as it was summer and the summer sunsets were always late. His shadow stretched out beneath his feet into the street as the sun dipped lower, looking like a long and sleek cat ready to curl itself around the moon.

Finally he reached his destination and only a few moments after his boots tapped down on the ground, the trapdoor opened, revealing Marinette with a pencil in her hand.

"Chat," she said, looking more surprised than she sounded. "What are you doing here?"

"Just paw-sing in the middle of a run," he said with a Cheshire grin, lips stretching wider when she groaned.

"Stray cat," she muttered, and Chat gasped.

"You know I can hear you, right?"

"Yes," Marinette said, her twitching lips betraying her humor. She climbed out of the trap door and joined him on the balcony, leaning on the railing to watch the sun go to sleep as it painted the sky red.

"So, Princess, I've been wondering," Chat said after a few long minutes of her watching the sun. It'd been quiet, but not uncomfortably so, and he felt sort of weird breaking the silence. "Are you friends with Ladybug?"

From behind her he could see her form suddenly tense, and then she turned around like a creaky robot, all mechanical movements.

"U-Uh…" she drew out. "What made you… how did you even reach that conclusion?"

"I don't know," Chat said, a little embarrassed now that he said it out loud. "Well, she did seem to know you personally when she called to tell me that you'd be helping me with Evillustrator. And you guys wear, like, the same hairstyle," he pointed out and Marinette's hand flew to one of her pigtails. "And also, you seem like you'd be good friends. Just based on your personalities."

"Based on our personalities, huh?" Marinette mused, twirling the pencil between her fingers. "Because we're so different?"

"No, because you're really alike," Chat said, and Marinette looked really surprised at that. He didn't know why. They were both creative, and brave, and admirable-…

He left feeling more confused than before.

…

The third thing he noticed was their creativity. Well, more like love for fashion.

Marinette, of course, she was obvious from day one. He knew about fashion, that sort of came with the trade given the situation he was in, and so he knew that her backpack and shirt and purse had to have been designed by her because those weren't on the market. Then, later on, he saw her sketchbook, and her designs, and her creations- even her room at a couple of points in time- and by then it just became a fact. The sky is blue. Marinette is great at designing.

Ladybug, well, he couldn't have known because of her mysterious nature, couldn't have known unless they had sat and talked for hours after patrol perched on the Eiffel Tower in the night. Which they did.

Somehow, one thing led to another, and Ladybug was lamenting about her own suit.

"Like, come on!" Ladybug groused. "I'm a ladybug, I could have gotten- I don't know- antennae, or an overcoat thing like the real bugs have, or heck even wings! Okay, that would be for more than just looks, but still," she said. "But- my suit is literally just all red! With black spots, and my yoyo is just wrapped around my waist. And then there's you," she grumbled, and Chat couldn't help it- he burst out laughing as she continued with her ramble. "You get cool cat ears, cool cat eyes, a bell- a bell! A zipper, you even have pockets, and you get gloves and claws and a belt and a belt tail, and you get to keep your baton in your belt and your boots have cuffs on them too!" She paused for a split second before exploding, "THEY EVEN HAVE METAL TIPS AND PAW PRINTS ON THE BOTTOM! THE BOTTOM!"

By now Chat was laughing so hard he was clutching his ribs. He felt like if he wasn't careful he'd fall off the tower and turn into a cat pancake, but he really couldn't care, it was far too funny. He didn't know that Ladybug had been so jealous! It was too amusing.

"I didn't know you checked me out so much My Lady, you captured every detail," he snickered, grinning wider when Ladybug rolled her eyes.

"It's just that your suit is so cool and mines is so lame," she grumbled. "I'm thinking I should just design something to wear during our fights and patrols. Functional too, of course, but also just so that my suit won't look as bland…"

He forsook his comment of "you'd look good in anything", instead asking with wide eyes as he sat up, "You design?!"

Ladybug blinked, looking sort of at war with herself based on the expressions on her face. She was probably frustrated that she let such a detail slip. "Well, yeah," she finally said. "I… yes. I do."

Chat subconsciously tacked that onto the list of things suspiciously similar between Marinette and Ladybug with a grin.

….

Number four: their jumping to conclusions.

At this point he was used to all of their similarities popping up here and there, like fate trying to dangle some yarn in front of his nose as if he were a cat. Marinette and Ladybug had to be doppelgangers at this point.

However, this similarity between them really had him reeling. But for a sort of… different reason.

Ladybug's tendency to jump to conclusions definitely sprouted from her distrust and distaste for liars. He could tell that much from the Antibug and Volpina incidents. But he hadn't even entertained the idea that Marinette could be just as imaginative, until that sunset.

It was October, so there were Halloween decorations everywhere; and, since Paris was extra with everything they did, there were glowing little ghosts along the streets and on the lights, and there was not a single house seen for blocks which didn't have Halloween décor on it to some decree.

(And, since Paris' heroes were also extra with lots of things they did, there were big glowing pumpkins placed in varying locations on the Eiffel Tower…)

When Chat Noir jumped onto Marinette's balcony, she was already there waiting, wrapped up in a blanket with a mug of something steaming in her hands. Chat would have laughed at how weirdly cliché it was if not for the look of intense concentration on her face.

After a few moments, he said, "Expecting your knight?"

Marinette took a few seconds to reply, "I knew you'd come. And also I was thinking."

Chat blinked at the vague response, feeling like a person awaiting their fortune by a magic ball. When her silence continued, he decided to tread water. "Uh… do tell?"

As a cat, something that should never be done is treading water.

"Do you know Adrien Agreste?" Marinette suddenly blurted out, leaving her vague-like aura behind. Chat jumped, not at her outburst, but at the sound of his name. It was just an instinct when he was in suit, that whenever he heard his name his hairs on the back of his neck stood.

"Uhh, well, how could someone not know who he is?" Chat said, trying his very best to seem like a normal guy who knew who Adrien Agreste was. "He's, like, all over the city… heh…"

Chat cringed. He felt so narcissistic saying that, even though it was just the truth and an honest answer to Marinette's question.

Marinette eyed him for a few moments before sighing into her mug and standing up, leaving the blanket behind. She was in pajamas. A long-sleeved, pink fleece top and pink fleece bottoms with white polka dots. It caught him off guard. But what she said next caught him way more off guard.

"I think Adrien has a crush on you."

Chat actually choked, he choked on his own spit and was very well going to die if Marinette hadn't offered him her mug. He took a sip and blinked as the taste of smooth, sweet chocolate erupted on his tongue. It was warm.

After he'd calmed down, he croaked out, "What?"

Marinette hummed and put her fingers to her chin, thinking hard. He felt sort of afraid for her answer- how long had she been contemplating this? And no, he was not so narcissistic that he'd… ugh… Plagg would never shut up about this one.

"Okay, well, let me break this down. After the time I helped you with Evillustrator, Adrien showed up at my locker. He asked me how it was like working with you… and then he spoke about how cool and awesome you were. That's number one."

Chat sweated. He hadn't seen that coming, but now that Marinette had said it out loud, he realized that any normal person could come to a conclusion like the one she had. Crap! Why had he even done that? He still couldn't understand his own actions from that day.

"Well, most of the times after that are smaller and similar, but then there's also the fact that he always shies away from Chloe, who is a girl…"

"That could just be because she's Chloe," Chat blurted out without meaning to. Marinette stared into his eyes and he felt like she was taking him apart piece by piece. But then Marinette suddenly nodded with an understanding look on her face.

"Yes, that could be. But still, I think he does have a crush on you." Marinette breathed out a little laugh before laughing all out. "No wonder he's such a nice and amazing guy!"

Chat ignored the warmth that erupted when she described him as nice and amazing and instead floundered to patch things up. Well, as best he could as Chat Noir.

"U-Uh, no, wait, I think you have it all wrong," Chat managed to laugh out. "He- no, he's just-uh- friends…" Chat's eyes slowly widened as he nodded along with his claim. "Friends with me. Yeah! You'll never see him or me, talking bad behind the other's back. That's just how we are."

For some reason Marinette's eyes were widening and- was that hope shining in them? He was no author, but he was pretty sure her eyes were sparkling.

"Are you sure?" She asked excitedly, and suddenly she was right in front of him with her hands clasped under her chin and- wow she looks cute in pajamas, wait, what? "You're really positive."

"If he liked me, I would know. I'm absolutely paw-sitive," Chat beamed, and Marinette's expression fell into a deadpan one as she backed away, although she still had that hope glimmering in her eyes. Some part of him felt relieved when she wasn't in such close proximity- some other annoying part felt disappointed. He outwardly burst into laughter.

Talk about a pre-Halloween scare.

…

It was around the middle of December and the school was setting up for the school play a week before break began. The following week would be filled with merry people, merry times, merry food, classes not really following the curriculum and instead throwing parties and hosting Secret Santas, rainbow lights blending into the snow glittering like a blanket all over Paris…

It was Christmas month.

Marinette, Kim, Alix and Adrien were put in charge of bringing in the props for the play from the truck outside. There were lots of props, and most of them were heavy. Ivan had also been asked to help, but he wouldn't go without Mylene (being the romantic sap he was, Adrien didn't even mind). Kim and Alix were exhausting themselves by making it a race, seeing who could lug out the most things and fastest. So Adrien and Marinette took their time, bringing things out and onto the school stage at a steady pace together.

Marinette was bundled up in her winter clothes, things she must have designed herself. It was all consistent with her backpack, purse, and other clothing. In order to get some conversation going, and also because he was genuinely interested, he asked, "Did you make your clothes yourself?"

Marinette suddenly jolted when he spoke, and she looked down at her clothes as they walked to the truck, boots leaving behind imprints in the snow.

"Um… yeah," she said, smiling shyly. Her nose and cheeks were red with the cold. "I made them last summer."

"Wow," Adrien breathed, a little cloud forming in the frigid air, and then he laughed. "I wish I could be talented enough to do that! I'd have made myself a… beanie. Yeah," he said with a small smile on his face, remembering the scarf from his father. "A blue beanie." He glanced over to Marinette again and his smile widened. "Your designs are super amazing, though, so even if I did make it it'd probably be put to shame."

Marinette laughed a little, her cheeks redder- and not just from the cold. "T-Thanks…"

They finished unloading the truck half an hour later. Alix won the race against Kim.

Four days later, it was Friday, the day before break. Mme. Bustier was one of the many teachers to host a Secret Santa, announced at the end of the day on Monday after everyone was done setting up the stage. For the next three days, it was all anyone could talk about other than the play, people gushing to their friends about things they bought but keeping their lips sealed about who they'd be gifting it to.

Adrien had gotten very lucky (for once); his person was Nino. He knew Nino well enough to easily buy the perfect gift for him within three days, and he'd never feel nervous around Nino when giving the gift to him as he would if he'd gotten someone like Mar-

-...never mind.

It was early morning, and the schedule for the day was definitely not one that anyone was complaining about. They were going to exchange gifts first, watch one of those amazingly sappy Christmas movies next with treats, and then just enjoy their time for the next half hour before going to the school auditorium to watch the play that the drama class would put on. A special Christmas themed one.

It was times like these that made Adrien wonder how the heck he survived Christmas before school.

"Alright everyone," Mme. Bustier smiled and clapped her hands together. Fairy lights were the only thing illuminating her classroom; they were flashing red, green, and gold, and casting shadows in the crevices. A mini Christmas Tree was on the teacher's desk, very bright and shimmering with a golden star on top. The faces of the students and the walls and desks were all softly lit up in the colors of the lights. Lots of people had come decked out in their ugly Christmas sweaters, excited for the day.

"Let's do this differently. Everyone will close their eyes, and if I tap your shoulder, you will quietly- quietly- get up and place your gift in front of your person. Then you will go back to your seat and close your eyes again. You will only open your gift once I tell the whole class that all the exchanges have been done. Sound good?"

Everyone cheered in response and the teacher smiled. "Alright, class. Close your eyes and try not to go to sleep!"

There were chuckles scattered throughout the room as people closed their eyes and even put their heads down for better measure. Adrien grinned at Nino before placing his head down in his arms, trying not to think too hard. Who would gift him? Well, no matter who it was, he'd appreciate it since they put thought into it. He knew that he could've gotten Nino some gift card to a music store and called it a day, but he cared too much about his best bro for that. Bromance always came through.

A couple of minutes of scuffling shoes, muted footsteps, excited whispers and shushing later, a finger tapped him twice on the shoulder and his head immediately shot up. Mme. Bustier amusedly put a finger over her lips. Adrien glanced over to Nino with his head in his arms, cap put on backward to avoid bending the bill, and carefully put his bag in front of him instead of sliding it to avoid the crinkling noise. Adrien then put his head down once again, ready to wait some more.

It felt like eons later when Mme. Bustier's soft voice rang out.

"All right, everyone… open your eyes and your gifts."

Immediately there was the sound of crinkling cellophane and ripping paper. Adrien slowly lifted his head, grinning in excitement. That excitement spiked up when he spotted a gift bag in front of him, swirling with the colors of the fairy lights but also visibly light pink. All around the classroom happy gasps and exclamations were being made, and as Adrien pulled something soft and warm out of the bag, he couldn't help letting one of his own slip out.

A note was attached to it. It said, 'I remembered you saying how you would want one, so I decided to make it for you! I hope you like it even though it was a little rushed, heh. Merry Christmas Adrien! :)'

The beanie was nothing short of perfect.

"DUDE! This- this is sick!" Nino said, almost teary-eyed, as he looped his new headphones around his neck and stared wide-eyed at the mixtape. "Thanks, man- WHOA!"

Nino was suddenly leaning closer to take a better look at his beanie. "DUDE! Did you get that?! Is that handmade?" He looked at the note and immediately recognized it by the handwriting. "Marinette made that for you?! It's awesome!"

Adrien could just nod with a dopey grin as he stared at the beanie, feeling the soft cloth warm his hands. "Yeah, she is."

"Well, what else is in your bag?" Nino asked. Adrien blinked.

"Wait- there's more?"

Nino burst out into laughter, shaking his head. "Dude! If Marinette ever gets a gift for you, there won't just be one thing."

"That's my girl," Alya's voice proudly rang out from behind them and the boys whipped around to see the two girls. Marinette was looking so joyful she could burst, even as she ducked into her scarf with red cheeks. In front of her there was a new sketchbook and several pieces of cloth stacked and folded neatly.

Adrien pulled out a small box of chocolates with a gasp and looked over at Marinette- she was sinking further into her seat- before reaching into the bag once more and jolting when his fingers brushed paper. Gingerly, he pulled out a stack of papers bonded together with red ribbon. His jaw dropped.

"Are these-" his voice came out in a whisper and he tried again, louder, "-are these some of your designs?"

He looked back to Marinette with admiration written on his face and the girl gulped before nodding, twisting the end of her pigtails nervously between her fingers.

"Yeah, I- I didn't want there to be, like, not enough things, so I added some of my designs because… uhm…" she suddenly seemed embarrassed. "You said you liked them, so… I hope it's fine…"

"Marinette this is more than fine, this is amazing!" Adrien exclaimed, carefully opening the first page. He gasped and just stared at it openmouthed, ignoring the way Alya and Nino burst into laughter.

There was a figure drawn on the page in a very stylish coat. The figure was Chat Noir.

"Oh, about the first page!" Marinette said, phasing into her designer mode and seemingly forgetting her shyness. She slid out of her bench and kneeled next to Adrien to point at the page. "Well, Chat Noir told me you guys were friends," she said, and his eyes widened even more if possible. She remembers that? "So… I've been thinking to make him a coat, since it does get cold sometimes and the suit doesn't-" She suddenly paused and sheepishly laughed. "Er, I mean, the suit doesn't look like it's very warm. That's what I think. And I already have a copy of this sketch so I can start making the coat, so I just added this copy for you." She smiled at him. "Keep it a secret from Chat, okay?"

It was all Adrien could do to not burst into happy tears. But he did hug her. Suddenly.

She gasped as he suddenly leaned down and wrapped the arm with the hand holding the papers around her.

"Thanks so much Marinette," he said once he pulled back, grinning. "This has to be the best gift I've ever gotten."

Marinette was staring at him with her eyes blown wide, and he started to wonder if he'd gone too far when she suddenly broke out into a smile and said "No problem" before standing up and sliding back into her seat.

He was too occupied in the rest of the book to notice how Alya, Nino and Marinette were screeching.

The rest of the two hours in the class flew by as the Muppet Christmas Carol played on the projector screen. People snacked on their chocolate and roasted chestnuts that were passed around, and walked around to talk to everybody and see what they got as gifts. Adrien proudly showed off his beanie with no small amount of praise towards Marinette, and he heard her embarrassed squeak every time. Everyone was awed, and he couldn't help thinking how lucky he had gotten again.

Between himself, Nino, Alya, and Marinette, the gifts were exchanged. Adrien had gifted Nino, who gifted Alya, who gifted Marinette, who gifted him. Again, an unreal amount of luck.

The movie was amazing. The students had an inkling that Mme. Bustier had chosen the Muppets movie since it was in English and they had a test one week after break ended, but it didn't matter much in the moment. The songs were hilarious and memorable, especially as students (horribly) sang along. Kim and Alix somehow made it into a competition of who could sing louder, and Max ended up stuffing his friend's mouth with chestnuts just to shut him up. Everyone laughed hard and long, even Chloe smiled at one point, and all in all it was a very merry time.

After that everyone got up and stretched their limbs before making their way towards the auditorium, also lit up with thousands upon thousands of tiny fairy lights strung across the roof and walls and bleachers. The rest of the school was piled in to watch the play, restless and chattering. It seemed unreal, how amazing the time being spent was. Adrien was seated in the bleachers right in between Nino and Marinette, and they all enjoyed the play that they'd worked hard to produce. Adrien laughed at the bad puns, and laughed even harder when Nino and Marinette- Marinette!- groaned. He never could have guessed, although maybe he should've considering how exasperated she got when Chat Noir did it.

After the play, school was out. Adrien didn't even have time to consider the notion of going home and get disappointed like he usually did. Instead, a hand tapped his shoulder as he was packing his things up at his desk and bidding goodbye to all his classmates who were exiting out the door and whooping about Christmas break.

He turned and saw Marinette. Immediately a smile graced his face. "Hey, Marinette!"

"H-hey Adrien, I was just wondering… uh…" she looked back at Alya, who vigorously nodded and gave double thumbs up. She inhaled before asking , "Do you want to come with Nino and Alya and I to my house for dinner?"

Adrien's eyes widened before asking, "Wait, really?"

Marinette suddenly backpedaled. "U-Uh! I mean, if you'd wanted, it's fine if you don't I was just asking it was just a-"

"No no!" He interrupted, shaking his hands in front of him to clear any confusion. "I was just surprised is all. Of course I want to!" He smiled at her in hopes of easing her nerves and thankfully it worked. Her form relaxed. "My schedule is free for the rest of break. But… should I bring something?" He suddenly remembered Marinette's parents and their incredible hospitality and felt guilty. "I can't just walk in for dinner without-"

"No!" Marinette interrupted this time. "They'd be happy just with your being there."

Adrien was staring at her and he realized he hadn't felt so welcomed before.

The four of them went straight to Marinette's house after Adrien called Nathalie. His caretaker had even said 'Merry Christmas' to him before hanging up and he supposed that Christmas spirit reached everybody.

The second he entered the bakery, the warmth and the scent of baked goods and pastries hit him like a gust of wind. There were warm lights and colorful pastries stacked up in the windows, lots of children standing with their parents in line, excitedly jumping up and down as they relayed off what they wanted. The scent of the bakery enveloped him and reminded him of Ladybug.

Adrien followed Marinette with Alya and Nino further into the bakery, into the back where the kitchens were. Her mother and father were inside, the petite woman expertly frosting something intricate as her husband kneaded the dough. Many workers with aprons tied around their waists were working with them, and occasionally one of the two would answer a question or shout out to the workers before resuming their work. Adrien was awed.

It was like a big cycle, a big and confusing cycle but not one that was tangled up. It was orderly, and warm and loving. All the workers looked so happy.

"Hello Maman, Papa," Marinette smiled as she walked up and kissed their cheeks.

"Ah, Marinette!" Her huge father enveloped her in an equally huge hug, laughing when she wriggled out covered in flour. He looked over and saw Adrien standing with Nino and Alya. His smile grew. "You brought friends!"

Marinette's mother looked up and gasped when she met Adrien's eyes. "Oh! You're Marinette's friend Adrien, aren't you? You've been here once before!" Adrien nodded, surprised and humbled that she remembered him. The woman smiled warmly at him. "Make yourself at home, and if you need anything, call us by Sabine or Tom."

Adrien almost couldn't find it in himself to reply, he almost just stood there gawking like an idiot, but thankfully Plagg was there and he thumped against him from inside his coat. Adrien jolted before stammering, "Yes Ma'a- uh, Sabine." Sabine just laughed before resuming her work with the piping bag.

He walked behind his friends as they exited the kitchen and opened up his coat a little. Plagg was expectantly staring up at him with those luminous green eyes.

"I expect some good cheese pastries," was all he said before ducking pack in. Adrien rolled his eyes and patted the cloth of his coat back down. He adjusted the beanie on his head with a smile, not taking it off even though they were indoors.

The four of them sat in Marinette's living room and just talked and played Monopoly. He'd rarely ever seen Alya and Marinette fight, but if there was anything to go to war over, it was Park Lane.

Nino somehow won- he took much offense when Alya emphasized that 'somehow' in the video she was making- a good three hours later. In essence, it was quite the short game.

"I'm so good it only took me three hours to beat you all," Nino said pridefully as he leaned back against the sofa. They were sitting in a circle on the floor of Marinette's living room, the Monopoly board between them.

"American games are weird," was all Adrien said, causing his best friend to break out in outrage and betrayal, saying things like "We had a thing Adrien, bromance. Not anymore." Adrien went along with the breakup joke, pretending to be miserable, and he wasn't very sure about the other three but he laughed so hard his ribs hurt. He was also pretty sure that the vibrating in his pocket was Plagg stifling his laughter, too.

They hooked up Ultimate Mecha Strike to the TV to play. Alya promptly forbade Marinette from playing until someone was stupid enough to challenge her, and Marinette pouted saying that she'd never get to play. In the end, Marinette played all three of them- that is to say, Adrien was at the control while Nino and Alya shouted random things at him in attempts to help. It just made Adrien's loss worse than it would have been without their "help", and Marinette won with a fifty-thousand point gap.

"…you guys," Adrien groaned, flopping back as Alya and Nino laughed loudly. "I could've beat her without you two confusing me!"

"Nah," Alya smirked, "she would've beaten you anyways."

"Let a guy dream."

It was time for dinner, then, and Adrien swore he'd never seen so many varieties of food on one table before despite having a professional chef at home. There were things he couldn't name, colorful and steaming hot, there were dumplings, stews, quiches- Adrien vaguely wondered if they were feeding an army. Not that he was complaining.

The food itself tasted heavenly, but Adrien felt like it tasted all the better because of everyone there at the table with him. While the food his chef prepared tasted good and was immaculate in the way professional meals were, he was always alone at the table meant for dozens. Here, it was the opposite: everyone was tightly packed around the medium sized table, passing dishes back and forth, talking loudly and sharing stories, having the time of their lives. Tom and Sabine made it a point to exploit every embarrassing tale about Marinette, and he laughed hard, at the stories and at Marinette's embarrassment towards her parents. He'd always thought how a warm aura was radiated out of Marinette, and how he always felt welcome on her balcony as Chat Noir, but he hadn't even thought about the inside of her home- how she was raised, what her roots were like.

He felt like he was at home.

Despite their insisting, Adrien helped clear the table anyways with Marinette, and so did Nino and Alya because everyone else was too. Adrien decided his new role model was Tom. The man made jokes- bad jokes. Literally, he and Tom were the only ones cracking up while Sabine, Marinette, Nino and Alya just groaned and begged them to stop. They didn't. The six of them spent the better part of 8'o clock cleaning up as they laughed and exchanged riddles and played little verbal games.

It was time for Alya to leave. She had the earliest curfew out of all of them, at 8:30. She hugged Sabine and Tom goodbye before waving to her three friends as she left.

"She has little siblings," Marinette said as Alya's figure got smaller and smaller down the street. "So she needs to be home pretty early."

"I wonder what having a little sibling would be like," Adrien mused, and Sabine laughed.

"Oh, believe me, Marinette used to wonder that too. She used to beg day and night for a little sibling-"

"Until," Tom continued with mischief, ignoring his protesting daughter. "She saw a movie where the baby got more attention and decided that she didn't want that-"

"Papa!" Marinette loudly interrupted, her cheeks red. "That's not true!"

"Sure," he chuckled, then turned around to Adrien and loudly whispered, "It is!"

"PAPA!"

The other four people in the household laughed merrily. Half an hour later, Nino was pulling his gloves and wrapping his scarf around his neck.

"See you again soon, Tom and Sabine!" Nino grinned. Marinette's parents smiled back.

"So you'll be in town this year?" Sabine asked. Nino nodded.

"Yup! Alya as well. We both visited our families last year and we go every other year, so there's that." With that and a final goodbye, Nino was out the door.

"Oh it's the same for us too, isn't it?" Tom asked Sabine, who nodded. "We visited Sabine's family in China last year. We're going again next year."

"That sounds nice," Adrien said, pleasantly smiling. He'd never really travelled much before, outside of European countries and America at one point. Seeing Asia and it's different cultures one day would be really cool.

Tom regarded Adrien for a few moments before putting a big warm hand on Adrien's head, catching the teen by surprise. The man grinned and ruffled Adrien's hair.

"You're welcome here anytime, son."

Adrien's eyes widened. Son.

Why was it that this man acted like more of a father to him than his real one ever did?

There Tom was again, looking at Adrien in that same way for a few moments before taking his hand off of his head.

"Head home safely, alright?"

Adrien blinked, realizing that it was already 9:15, somehow, and that he had to be home by 9:30. Trying to fend off the feelings of disappointment and chastising himself for being selfish, Adrien wrapped his scarf around his neck and wore his overcoat and gloves, preparing to leave.

As he stepped down the steps of the bakery, frigid air immediately turning his nose and cheeks reddish, and began to head off towards home, a voice called out to him. "Wait!"

Adrien blinked and turned around quickly to see Marinette. "Marinette?"

"Uhm, I just…" Marinette rubbed the back of her neck and blinked. Her eyes were reflecting all of the Christmas lights strung around the city. "Papa wasn't kidding, you know. You can come over again if you wanted, spend a day like this one again." Something in her face shifted and suddenly she looked sad. "Because your home… it might not...keep you smiling."

Adrien could feel his eyebrows drawing together the slightest bit, his eyes widening the slightest bit, and even though he'd been trained to show the emotion he was told to, it wasn't working right now. There were tears in his eyes. Luckily the cool air dried them so fast that he could barely tell they were there himself, but he was still shocked. How had a couple of words from Marinette managed to do that?

Like before in class, he hugged her, but this time she hugged back. When they pulled away she smiled at him and said, "Have a good break."

He was looking into her eyes back and forth for a few seconds before stepping back and bidding her a goodnight.

As he walked home that night, his boots leaving crunching footsteps in the snow glittering with red and pink lights, he realized there was another similarity.

Similarity number five: his feelings for them both.

He was in love with Marinette.

Posting separately, one more chapter there as a two-shot