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Everin held onto two different stacks of tissue paper. He shook one, testing its strength, glanced at the price tag for the other, and groaned. Pouting, he placed the cheaper one into his bag, leaving the other one on the shelf. He turned back, glancing around the store.
He was wearing a grey winter coat with his jeans and usual black boots. His blonde hair was still done up in a ponytail, but now fed through the hole at the top of a beanie.
“How’s it going?”
A short girl with a ginger bob cut wearing glasses, a brown jacket, and black leggings had approached. Sabrina. She had a friendly look on her face.
“Good,” Everin said. He opened up his bag to show her his haul, “Check it out.”
There were streamers, tissue paper, and a multitude of other red, green, and white decorations. Sabrina chose to ignore the numerous sale stickers on many of the items.
“That’s great! Do you think we have enough?”
“Almost, there’s one more shop I want to check out here.”
Sabrina nodded and looked like she was about to say something else. That was until another voice approached,
“There you two are!” A blonde haired girl called out as she approached. Her hair was parted right through the middle, leading into a flowy ponytail. She was wearing a yellow peacoat with white pants and shoes. “Look at what I found! Aren’t they just the prettiest!”
The girl, Chloe, held out a small collection of decorations. All of them were shiny, golden, and just a little bit gaudy. And worst of all, Everin leaned in to look them over, they were expensive.
“Y’know, Chloe, you don’t-”
“Nonsense!” she interrupted, “There’s no way I’m letting this party look drab. Now come one, where’s the check out or whatever?”
Chloe walked off, Sabrina trailing behind. Everin rubbed his temple, sighing before going to catch up. All things considered, there wasn’t much to complain about. Chloe’s personality was just ‘nuisance’, but she had been okay today. She hadn’t listened to anything Everin said, ignored what he had already bought, but she had been paying for what she picked up.
Plus Sabrina was good company. Even if she didn’t need to be there.
Speaking of which, it was surprising any of this was happening at all. Fact of the matter is; only Everin had to be here. He’d just told Chloe she did too.
The three of them made it up to the register. They paid for their things just fine. Again, Chloe for some reason volunteering to take care of her share. Everin shrugged it off. They thanked the cashier as they headed out to the main area of the mall.
Everin had been placed in charge of buying these decorations. They were for a class christmas party. Ms. Bustier and Marinette had been the ones to introduce the idea, having already done most of the behind the scenes work to make it possible. They’d split the responsibilities for setting up amongst the class fairly evenly. Of course, Everin was the ONLY one put on decorations duty, but he’d decided to assume he was just the best suited for the job.
Though, even in spite of that, he’d still told Chloe she was responsible for coming too.
“There’s one more shop I wanna run by,” Everin said, passing by the two.
Chloe nodded, rolling her eyes before following him. Sabrina took a moment. She was distracted by something on her phone, a puzzled look on her face. But she caught back up quickly.
“They have this nice glitter glue that I want to get for the class,” Everin explained.
Chloe seemed almost disgusted at that, “Ugh, glitter glue - that’s so tacky, though!”
“True,” he couldn’t deny it, “But Rose and Nathaniel like using it.”
She scoffed. Which, for Chloe, was a surprisingly pleasant reaction to simple compassion.
“U-uhm,” Sabrina did her best to speak up, “Everin, are sure we were supposed to come with you?”
Well he was sure they weren’t. He knew that for a fact.
“Nah, it was just supposed to be me and Chloe.” Yeah, him and Chloe. At the mall. Alone.
Why did he want this again?
“Well, but…” Sabrina was trying to be polite about this. She pointed to her phone. It was open to a messaging app, the current open conversation reading ‘Marinette D-C’ at the top. “It’s just that Marinette said…”
Well shit.
“Excuse me?” Chloe huffed over to Sabrina, grabbing her phone right out of her hands. Chloe took a minute to read the conversation, scanning each text like a hawk. Or a bee. Her attention flicked back to Everin, “Is this true ?”
“Well..”
“You sneaky liar! ” her voice cracked.
Everin sighed, throwing up his arms in mock defeat, “Okay so I lied. People lie all the time. My parents lied to me about Santa Claus.” He said it louder than he should. A few workers gave him the stink eye and the mall Santa might’ve actually flinched.
“I-I think that’s a little different, though” Sabrina meekly interjected.
“It’s ENTIRELY different,” Chloe said, “You just had me ME here so you could save a couple euros, didn’t you?!” She huffed stomping off and pushing Everin aside,
“Come on, Sabrina, we’re out of here!”
Everin watched them go. Didn’t even try to stop them. Frankly he was still surprised he got them to stay this long at all.
As they walk away, he could hear Chloe start to quietly ask, “What did he mean by ‘lie about Santa’?”
Once they disappeared into the crowd, Everin looked down at what they’d managed to get. It was enough, he’d decided. There was a rustling in his coat’s breast pocket and he knew he’d be getting a talk later.
Everin sighed. He went to get the glue before heading home.
The bell above the door to the Inaba Imporium of Oddities rang. From behind the counter a slim asian man with neat brown hair and a grey blazer over a magenta shirt stood tall.
Excited, he began to round the counter, trying to see who’d just arrived, “Welcome to my fi-” he deflates, switching from ‘friendly business owner’- “Oh, it’s just you. Welcome back home.” to Everin’s aloof uncle, Sakugen Inaba.
“Hi, uncle.”
“So what’ve you been up to?” Sakugen leaned back against the counter and folded his arms, “You’ve got quite the load there.”
“My class is doing a christmas party,” Everin showed off the bag, “I’m in charge of the decorations.”
Sakugen whistled, impressed by what Everin had gotten.
“Looks like you learned a little thing about saving money,” he said, noting the surplus of clearance stickers. “Good job, kid.”
Everin beamed slightly, “Thanks. I’m gonna head up now, okay?”
“Sure thing.”
As Everin made his way up to his room, his uncle called out, “I might be out later - business - so tell me if you need anything!”
“I’ll be fine, but thanks!” Everin replied before dipping into the home above the shop.
Everin took off his shoes after entering, replacing them with slippers. He headed off to his bedroom. After closing the door to his room he took off his coat, tossing it onto his bed. A purple shimmering started to come from the coat. The shimmer flew up, passing through the fabric and revealing a small purple creature with large, cute eyes and a shimmering, wavy body. That was Vivv, a kwami.
A frustrated kwami, actually, “You should have let me out before throwing it aside like that!”
Everin hesitated, "Ah… sorry, I was just a bit distracted I guess."
Vivv looked him up, “Is this about what happened with the Bourgeois girl?”
“It’s adjacent...”
His kwami gave Everin a questioning look.
He elaborated, “What she said before leaving.”
“About Santa Claus?”
“Wh- no. About saving money.”
“Do you think that she meant it?” Vivv asked, flying up and placing herself gently onto Everins shoulder.
Everin walked over, seating himself at the desk in his room, “Do I think Chloe Bourgeois believes I took her with me to be my living coupon? I mean," he hesitated,"probably not?”
“And yet you’re doubtful.”
“I’m... confused,” he stops a moment to ponder, “Confused as to why she’d consider that a possibility.”
“From what I understand, the powerful tend to, as you would put it, just Be Like That” Vivv said.
Everin sat on that one, mumbling “Yeah, I guess…”
A silent moment passed between the two.
Vivv glanced at the clock in his room. Patting her lower half, as though it were the skirt of a dress, she said, “It’s almost time for your group to make the rounds tonight.”
Everin stood up, stretching “Looks I’ll have to put a pin on this one then.”
“ Kind of, at least, ” he thought, remembering who else would be out at patrol tonight.
“Ready?”
“Ready enough,” Everin said. He untied the cloth wrapped around his wrist.
One after another, three figures landed on a rooftop.
The first was small, petite. She had short black hair tied into pigtails and wore a mask and spandex-like costume, both were colored red with black dots. Right now, that was Ladybug. But by day, she was Marinette.
Behind her was another girl with a similar, though stockier, build. Her costume was a similar material, but was yellow and stylized with stripes and points. Her hair was tied into a ponytail with a black streak in it that twisted to point. That was Chloe, but most people knew that from when she almost revealed her identity as Queenbee.
The third and last of the three was the tallest. He was built thicker and wore a purple costume. The top was styled like a suit vest and had no sleeves, he had cuffed gloves and gauntlet around one wrist. He wore a pointed ballroom mask and had his hair pulled back into a wild blonde ponytail, one curled tuft hung over the right of his face. That was Everin, or, as he was now, The Phantom.
“That should be all for tonight,” Ladybug said, stretching, “Thank goodness it was peaceful tonight.”
“Says you,” Queenbee said with a pout, “I was hoping for something to hit…”
Everin winced behind his mask. The statement felt.. pointed at him.
“Did something happen?” Ladybug asked with the care and sincerity of an angel.
Queenbee waved it off, “No, no, just some.. jerk today,” she sat down, leaning her back against a chimney.
Everin felt a pang of guilt at that. He sat down across from her, “Do you wanna talk about?”
He was reaching.
“Don’t feel pressured if it could give away who you are,” Ladybug reassured, “But we’re here for you either way! Right, Phantom?”
The Phantom smiled, bowing his head slightly, “Always and forever.” He took a moment to wonder how Chat Noir stayed so fanciful all the time.
“Yeah, sure,” Queenbee scoffed at his act. Turning to Ladybug, she said, “But you don’t have to worry about it. I already know he’s getting what’s coming to him.”
She said it with a surprising amount of warmth and mirth.
“Well that’s good then,” Ladybug laughed.
“Very,” The Phantom agreed. He silently hoped she wasn’t actually talking about him.
“What about you then, Phantom?” Ladybug said.
“Eh? Pardon?”
“You’ve been, I dunno,” she looked for the words, settling on, “jittery tonight.”
“It could be his lack of sleeves” Queenbee said, pointing at his costume.
“Except, he was jittery , not shivery. I’ve seen him shivery.”
“We don’t need to bring up Stormy Weather,” The Phantom interjected.
“I guess so, LB… But really, do you have tea or not?” Queenbee asked, turning to him.
“W-well, m’ladies…”
The Phantom sighed. He deflated slightly.
“Okay, so you two are girls, right?” Everin continued, dropping the fancy act.
Queenbee snickered at the question and his sudden change in demeanor.
“What” Ladybug monotoned, astounded by his shift.
He already knew the answer, of course, yet still asked such a dumb question, “Of course I know your both - I just… need that kind of view for what I’m dealing with.”
“O-okay…?” Ladybug hesitated.
Everin sighed “I think I offended a…”
A what? A Friend? Classmate? Acquaintance? What better way was there to refer to Chloe with than,
“This girl that I know.”
Queenbee raised an eyebrow. It was unclear if she just wanted to hear drama or was curious about The Phantom’s civilian escapades.
Ladybug had an empathetic and concerned look, “How so?”
“Well…” Everin paused for a moment to choose his words. “I… took them shopping.”
Ladybug gave him a look.
Queenbee seemed disappointed by that opener, “Is that it?”
Everin shook his head, “There’s a little more.”
Ladybug motioned for him to continue
Everin noded, “So. I may or may not have invited her under some... false pretenses.”
“Did you lie just to get a date!?” Queenbee responded, laughing.
“NO. It was completely platonic! I swear! I could never date this girl.”
“So what? You just took her out of pity?”
“Also no.” Probably.
“There’s no way it was out of the ‘kindness of your heart’.”
“You know, the gentleman thing is genuine sometimes.”
Ladybug wasn’t about to have an argument on her hands, “Slow down, you two. We’re all on the same side here, right ?”
The two gave each other the stink eye, but nodded separately.
“Good. And the Phantom trusted us enough to help him with a personal problem,” Ladybug gave The Phantom a serious look, “ without revealing his identity.”
The Phantom nodded in return, “You have my word.”
“So can we at least hear him out?”
Queenbee let out an exasperated sigh, nodding and saying, “Fine, I guess I can.”
Everin explained the situation. He smudged a few details, calling the party a class project and explaining how he lied to that ‘girl he knows.’ The other two heroes nod along, listening. Everin concluded the story by asking for advice from them. Ladybug was the first to respond, attempting to comfort him by saying,
“I’m sure she wasn’t that upset. And you still got what you needed for that project! Try apologizing to her tomorrow and see how it goes.”
Everin nodded. This was Ladybug, so it couldn’t be bad advice. But still, he silently doubted how well that’d go across. He glanced towards Queenbee to gauge her reaction. She didn’t move, her face seemingly lost in thought.
“Do you think that’ll work?” Everin asked.
“I’m sure.” Ladybug replied. She stretched before standing up, “Besides, it’s late, we should all be heading home now.”
“Always the responsible one,” Queenbee huffed.
“Oh hush.” Ladybug said, holding her hand out. Queenbee accepted it, using the help to pull herself up.
The Phantom hopped to his feet, “Well, ladies, shall we?” He bows slightly, leaning back into his usual persona..
Ladybug chuckled, “It’s weird seeing you switch around.”
“Then would you two mind keeping this between us?”
Queenbee strutted up to him, “Sure,” she flicked his forehead, “Can’t let the rest of the team know you’re actually normal.”
“A knight must remain shining,” he rebutted.
“Alright, well I for one actually am tired. Goodnight you two,” Ladybug waved as she headed off, using her yo-yo to swing into the night.
“Night, LB!”
“Later.”
The two stood there together. They were silent for a moment. The Phantom was the first to try to move, say something, or just break the forming tension.
“So-”
“Try getting her a gift.”
“Hu- Excuse me?”
“Something personal. To show her it wasn’t a fluke.”
Everin eyes her. Chloe looks back.
“It’ll work and,” she quietly cursed herself for what she said next, “And that’s an order. From your queen.”
She blushed slightly, cringing behind the mask. It was rare for her to play into that part of their dynamic. Usually she’d brush off his chivalry act, disowning any connection to it out of second-hand embarrassment. Everin nodded.
“I will,” he responded, without any theatrics in his tone.
She nodded and paused for a moment. Her lips curled like she was about to speak. After a silent second, she unhooked her top and began to walk away.
“You’d better get on that then.” she said as she was whisked away by the string of her spinning top.
Everin stood still for a brief moment. There was the feeling as if one weight, that had been lifted off his shoulders, was just replaced with another. He considered the words of his friends.
Ms. Bustiers’ classroom was done up in shining lights and reflective streamers hung across the walls. There were snacks and drinks set up on a few of the desks and the students were talking and laughing all throughout the room. As well, on top of the teacher’s desk sat a small christmas tree that was decorated with it’s own brilliant lights and shining ornaments.
Everin stood with Sabrina who had been pouring two glasses of punch.
“I wanted to say sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean for Chloe to drag you along,” he said, trying to raise his voice above the chatter.
Sabrina shook her head, “No, don’t worry about it! I’m used to it.”
Everin winced at that.
“But, I think you should really be saying this to Chloe…”
Everin sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, “Yeah. I’m just… waiting for the right moment.”
“Well,” she gave him an awkward tap on the arm, “Good luck to you, then.”
He laughed, hoping he wouldn’t need luck for this. “Thanks,” he decided to say instead.
“Speaking of,” Everin said, glancing at his watch, “I need to be right back.”
The two said quick goodbyes. Everin made his way towards the door. As he exited the room, he stopped when he saw Marinette leaning against the railing outside and looking up to the afternoon sky.
“What are you up to?” She asked, not looking away.
“Not freezing to death- how long have you been out here?”
“Just a little bit. I expected you to walk out sooner.”
Everin walked up beside her, “You were waiting for me?”
“You should be flattered,” she joked.
“You should be wearing a coat.”
She shrugged. “Sabrina talked to me.”
“... I thought so.”
“Do you know what she told me?”
He hesitated to ask.
A few minutes later both Marinette and Everin re-entered the classroom. Marinette, now sporting a Santa hat, held the door open for Everin. He was wearing a red hoodie with white trims, the hood was up and resembled Santa’s cap. He was also holding a large red bag.
“Ho, ho, hoes!” he called out, triumphantly.
Marinette kicked the back of his leg. No one else commented on his phrasing. However, some students begin to cheer for ‘Everin-Claus.’ Everin-Claus gave little bows to his adoring audience.
“Hello! Hellooo!” Everin calls out in an old man voice, “Come! Come good children and receive these gifts!”
The class crowded around him. They were excited at the prospect of free stuff. Everin began handing out small, wrapped up boxes. Each box was labelled with who it was for and that it was from Santa himself.
Each gift varied from one another. Some received scarves, gloves, and other practical items. A few received some old, yet still stunning jewelry. One student was gifted the address to a hole in the wall cheese shop. Each gift, while simple and cheap, was tailored to who was receiving it.
Chloe approached, stopping defiantly in front of the bag with a huff. Everin paused, took a breath, then handed her two things. First was a small box similar to the rest. It was addressed to Chloe, from Santa.
She scoffed, “I thought you were lied to about Santa.”
“No,” he shook his head, “I’m the liar, remember?”
“Hmph.” Chloe turned around, starting to walk off until -
“Hey, hold on!” Everin held out a small slip of paper to her. Chloe looked at it questioningly. “Just take it.”
After a moment she snatched it out of his hand. She unfolded it, revealing “I.O.U.” written out in bold letters on the paper.
“What is this?”
“It’s your excuse to call in my help. This party wouldn’t get to look half as cool if it weren’t for you. So, I owe you .” He may later come to regret this decision. But right now, in this moment, Everin got to see THE Chloe Bourgeois stunned to silence. It took her a moment to form a reaction.
She huffed out, “Took you long enough to realize that,” before walking away.
As Everin watched his friends enjoy the gifts he’d delivered, he thought to his talk with Marinette.
Several minutes ago Marinette had said, “She hadn’t seen Chloe that happy to be out before.”
That… wasn’t what Everin had expected to hear.
“What?”
“Yeah.”
He considered that. Was she happy to be seeing him? Just to be at the mall?
“But… why?”
Marinette shrugged, “Sabrina wasn’t so sure, but… how often does Chloe get invited anywhere?”
Everin sat on that. Chloe was, for lack of a better way to put it, always wherever the rest of the class was. She was a part of the group whether they liked it or not.
Whether they liked it or not. And so Everin realized.
“Oh…”
“So I can’t just let you leave yet, Everin.”
“Well,” he said, “It’s a good thing I’m not then.”
Marinette gave him a puzzled look. He motioned, inviting her to follow him. He led them a few classrooms down, opening the door to one that was out of the way of their homeroom. Everin waved Marinette to enter as she hesitated at the door.
“I got Ms. Bustier to leave this room open so I could do this,” he said, pulling a large red sack, a hat, and hoodie out from behind a desk.
“Is this all just for Chloe?” Marinette asked, genuine disbelief in her voice.
“Ha. Nah, there’s something for everyone here. I just had to swap out what I was originally going to give her. Speaking of…” Everin thrust his hand into the sack, rummaging around it for a moment. After an “Aha!” he pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Marinette.
She unfolded it, revealing the text “Get out of class free card”. Marinette looked at it confused.
In all honesty it was so she could go and be Ladybug on a moment’s notice, but Everin explained it as, “You do a lot for everyone. And after noticing how often you have to go and do more, the class agreed to back you up if you ever need to get out for an… emergency. Just flash that to any of us and we’ll have you covered.”
Marinette paused. She was touched by the sentiment, but also had to ask, “Does Ms. Bustier know?”
Everin smiled, but said nothing. Marinette sighed,
“What about Chloe then?”
“Well for her…” he trailed off.
Chloe unwrapped the gift in her room. She’d thrown it in her purse without a care, assuming it'd just be another meaningless card.
Inside the box were two earrings shaped like flowers. They were yellow in the center, transitioning to white by the end of the petals. Each was a little different from its partner. Though their mold was the same, their paint had small, splotchy differences, as if an untrained hand had applied it. A small note next to them read,
“They’re daffodils. They’re signs of forgiveness. I’m grateful you came as long as you did. - E I”
Chloe removed them from the box. She held them up, inspecting them in the light. She looked back to the note. Chloe studied it. A drop of water fell onto the paper.