Chapter Text
Marinette wasn‘t sure what had just happened. She was dimly aware that the temperature had suddenly dropped, despite the Liberty being usually pretty warm in the winter. What made this whole thing a little concerning was that she sure as hell wasn't laying on the couch anymore, but on… grass?
She slowly opened her eyes. God, why was it so bright? Didn't the sun go down like ten minutes ago?
Marinette looked around in utter confusion and pinched herself to check whether she was dreaming. She had to dream, right? There was no way she wasn’t, why else wouldn‘t she be on the Liberty right now but in what seemed to be… a goddamn jungle?
Though jungles usually didn‘t have Christmas ornaments hanging from its palm trees. Or enormous flowers with candy canes as pistils that smelled like gingerbread. And there certainly weren‘t ice blue humming birds making little jingle noises and leaving a trail of snowflakes as they flew by either.
By far the most concerning part of this: the pinch did hurt. This wasn't a dream.
“Where am I?“ Marinette mumbled to herself as she got on her feet. “Somebody there? Hello?“
No answer.
Great. Not only was she stuck in this weird… christmas-themed jungle, it appeared she was also by herself. This couldn‘t possibly get any worse.
Suddenly there was a rustling coming from a nearby bush. Marinette jumped, grabbed a nearby stick and pointed it to the potential threat. "Wh-whatever you are, I have a weapon!“
The rustling became louder and soon enough, a small, elderly woman stepped through the bushes, smiling at Marinette as she lifted her hand to lower the stick pointed at her. "Fear not, child.“
Marinette blinked. "I-it‘s you?“
-a few days ago-
The little store was tucked away in a rather inconspicuous alleyway. Marinette almost didn‘t notice it had she not tripped, let the bag of groceries drop and followed an orange rolling towards the alley.
How long has this store been here? It must’ve opened recently, as she knew this street fairly well. Her favorite fabric store was just around the corner, after all.
In any case, there was something about this store that pulled Marinette in. After all, she still was looking for something to bring to the small Christmas get-together at the Liberty this upcoming weekend.
A small belle chimed above her head as she entered the small shop. In between messy shelves, filled with all different kinds of card games, vinyls, jewelry, plushies and even Ladybug action figures, she made her way through the shop, looking around.
“I was expecting you.“
Marinette jumped at the voice. She turned around and spotted an elderly woman sitting behind a desk, watching her from behind thick glasses.
“You were?“
The woman smiled and got up. „Indeed… congratulations on finding me, young lady…“
She got up from her chair and walked around the table, then suddenly pulled confetti from one of her pockets.
“… for you are my first customer!“ She threw the confetti in the air, covering the floor. “Say dear, can I offer you some tea?“
“Thank you, but no,“ Marinette politely declined. “I just wanted to take a look around here real quick. Get my Christmas shopping done and all that.“
“Well, my dear,“ the woman smiled, gesturing around the room. „Then you came to the right place. What is it you desire? I have all kinds of things here!“
“Uh… well, I don’t know? I’m not really looking for something specific, just…“
“Undecisive, are we? That’s okay, I’ll show you everything!“ She roamed through the shelf next to her handpicked up a boy of cards. „These tarot cards, for example. They can give you extremely precise weather forecasts.” She moved on to another shelf, and then another. For her age, she moved impressively fast. “Or how about this snow globe? You tell the little ice bear here about all your fears and worries and he eats them. Oh wait, maybe I can interest you in this phone. You can use it to talk to your previous reincarnations!“
Marinette could barely keep up with all the strange objects she was showing her, let alone think too deep about the strange abilities these items allegedly had. It felt more like this lady was just trying to sell her old junk she didn’t have any use for anymore.
“These look all really great, but I don‘t think—“
“Nothing seems to feel right, huh?“ The woman nodded and stepped closer, seemingly examining her customer. Her intense gaze sent a shiver down Marinette‘s spine. It was almost like she was staring right into her soul, learning all about her. For a second, she was worried this odd little woman might figure out her superhero identity by just staring at her.
“I see how it is.“ The woman eventually said. „No wonder you‘re confused about what you want, with all that chaos in your heart. You poor thing.“
Marinette waved her off. “What? What confusion in my heart do you mean? Everything in my life is perfectly clear. I just need something for this little Christmas party I‘m having with some friends, that‘s it.“
“And you are worried about one specific friend.“ The woman continued. “If ‚friend‘ is even the right word. You don‘t seem so sure, at least.“
That had Marinette tense up. “How… how did you…?“
The woman chuckled. “It‘s what witches like me do! I know more than you think. Now, what is it with you and that ‚friend‘ of yours?“
“Did… you just say you’re a witch?“
“Don‘t change the subject!“
Marinette bit her lip. As much as she didn’t trust this strange granny about her products, talking a little about her worries wouldn’t hurt, right?
“Well, this friend—Luka is his name—he is… was… one of my best friends. My boyfriend even, at some point.“
The witch raised her eyebrows. „Oho, lots of history there!“
“Yeah… we‘ve known each other for a long time, and he‘s always been there for me during hard times and all. But…“ She wrapped her arms around herself. „Things happened. He found out about one of my biggest secrets because I was careless and… he had to move away to Sao Paolo. And…“
She lowered her gaze to her feet. “Since then, things… changed between us. We‘ve spoken less, been drifting apart and… now I‘m going to see him again for the first time in months.“
The woman hummed quietly. “Shouldn‘t you be happy he‘s back?“
“I…“
Considering everything, she really should. She hadn‘t wanted him to leave in the first place and told him she'd do anything in order to protect him… but he had been unusually stubborn. Claiming it‘s for the best.
She couldn‘t shake the feeling off that there was some sort of… distance between them. A distance that keeps growing every day, so much so that it might become insurmountable at some point. Like he‘s pulling away, and she‘s too scared to reach out, to tell him to come back.
Why would he come back to her in the first place? It wasn‘t like he had ever gotten anything good out of being friends with her in the first place. Maybe his new life in Brazil had opened his eyes to that and now he was trying to… soft-break-up with her. As a friend. A soft friend break-up. They couldn‘t break up in the actual sense, as they weren‘t an item anymore…
Her stomach twisted on itself. That was the other thing. Her feelings for Luka, through everything, had never really changed. Even after their break-up, which neither of them truly wanted, Luka had been nothing but a constant source of support. No matter how scared or anxious of self-loathing Marinette could get at times, just hearing his voice and hearing his pretty songs he‘d improvise just for her would give her back her confidence.
He felt safe. He had always felt safe to her.
Now, he just felt… unreachable.
The shopkeeper hummed, interrupting Marinette‘s thoughts. “Now now, my dear. Don‘t lose that pretty head of yours. I think I might just have the thing you need! The perfect gift for your friend!“ She started rummaging through another one of the shelves, which was labeled ‚games‘. “I know I had it here somewhere…. Let‘s see. Ah!“
She pulled out a box and handed it to her customer. „This is just the thing you need!“
Marinette carefully took the box and examined it. It looked like an old board game titled ‚Jungle adventure‘. Quite the… generic name. She looked up from the box. “I‘m not following. How is a board game, uh… ‚the thing I need?‘“
The woman grinned. “Play this game with your friend the next time you see him. Trust me, you two won‘t even remember past grievances you might‘ve had!“
Marinette looked at the box again, still very much unconvinced. “Uhm… I actually had something more… Christmas-themed in mind, if I‘m being honest.“
“Oh, I‘m sorry! Here, let me fix that!“
The witch pulled a red permanent marker out of her pocket, leaned forward and took the box in one hand and wrote „Christmas Edition!“ (which she actually misspelled as „Chritsmas Edition!) in the top corner before handing it back to Marinette, looking proud of herself. „There you go!“
Marinette blinked at the woman. „What?“
“You‘re right, honey. A little Christmas spirit is always a good thing, not to mention the romantic potential!“
Was this granny messing with her? Was she really suggesting that this Jungle game turned into a Christmas game by just… writing it on the box? And misspelling it on top of that?
“I don‘t—“
“You just have to believe in the magic a little.“The witch winked. “I’ll even give you a hefty discount!“
In the end, that was enough to convince Marinette to take the game with her. She wasn‘t entirely sure how ‚Jungle adventure: Chritsmas edition!‘ was supposed to help her with her problem. In retrospect, this had felt more like some weird business trick to just get rid of the game. Who knows how long that lady had it lying around, waiting to get some cash out of it, though with that discount, the game was practically a gift.
Then again, what could it really hurt? Marinette would just present the game to the gang and see if they were interested in a round. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
-present day-
“You know, a heads-up about the game swallowing me would‘ve been nice,“ Marinette deadpanned at the shopkeeper.
The old witch snickered. “And you would‘ve believed me, kid?“
“It‘s not like you made a lot of sense to begin with,“ she mumbled more to herself. “How are you even here?“
“I‘m not really here!“ The witch put on her signature grin. “I‘m merely a fragment of the spell I cast on this game. My job is to explain your quest, young adventurer, as it’s your job to find the lost amulet and return it to its temple and restore order in this Jolly Jungle!“ Once again, she pulled confetti out of her pocket and threw it in the air.
“Uh… okay,“ Marinette muttered, perplexed. “And where do I find this amulet?“
“Oh, it‘s a necklace with a big ruby. Shines in the sun like crazy, you can‘t miss it.“
“And where‘s the temple?“
“Here’s a map!“
The witch handed Marinette a piece of paper. An empty piece of paper.
“There isn’t a map on this.”
“You can’t see it yet, the map will reveal itself to you after you found the amulet!”
“Okay, cool. So I have to find one necklace in this jungle without any clues where it might be?”
“Well…“ The witch paid a finger on her chin as she looked around. „Before you do all that, you will have to find your companion. Odd that he didn‘t get teleported to the same spot…“
Marinette gave the witch a bewildered look. “Companion? You put my friends in the game as well!?“
“Only the onefrom Brazil. What‘s his name again?“
“YOU PUT LUKA IN HERE!?“
"Ah, yes, Luka!", the elderly woman slapped her hand against her forehead, entirely ignoring Marinette‘s panicked reaction. “You‘ll have to find him first, then go on this quest to patch things up with him! Good luck my dear!“
Before Marinette could further complain, the witch—or the „fragment of her spell“ or whatever—disappeared into thin air, and she was once again left alone in this weird Christmas jungle. Or rather Chritsmas, she supposed.
Well, not entirely alone, as Luka apparently was also here somewhere. She had to find him and get him out of this craziness. That was the least she could do for him right now.
“Luka?“ She yelled, but didn‘t get a response.
Marinette sighed frustrated and took off, walking deeper into the jungle.
-the real world-
“So,“ Brielle was the first one to break the very long silence. “Did I hallucinate Luka and Marinette being sucked into that weird game or…?“
Mylene slowly shook her head. “I saw it, too.“
Considering the general living experience in a for month akuma-infested Paris, this shouldn‘t have really surprised anyone. But the lack of purple butterflies and also lack of Butterfly villain—as Gabriel Agreste aka Monarch had been defeated and imprisoned—was concerning.
“Maybe this game is cursed?“ Ivan suggested.
“That‘s sick.“ Jueka mumbled to herself, letting out a frustrated sign. „Man, I‘d love to be stuck in a cursed game. Why does cool shit like this only ever happen to Luka and Marinette?“
“This is so… so romantic!“ Rose‘s eyes sparkled.
Everybody at the table looked at her with confusion. She looked around. “What? Two people, who have been pining for each other for an eternity, trapped in a game alone? That‘s practically a date!“
“Uh, pizza is supposed to arrive in five minutes, should we postpone dinner until after they get out?“ Dingo asked, munching on the head of a gingerbread man.
“My god!“ Brielle groaned frustrated. „Are you people not capable of having a fucking normal reaction to… whatever just happened?“
Dingo lifted his hands in defense. “Oi, why are you looking at me? Asking about our food isn‘t nearly as weird as Juleka over there being jealous of her bro‘s situation. Though I am with Rose on the romance thing though, that shit‘s hella romantic!“ He held out a hand to her so they could high five.
“At least someone understands me!“ Rose chimed.
“Besides.“ Dingo turned back to Brielle. “I can think better about a solution to this crisis with a full stomach.“
Brielle rolled her eyes. "As if."
“Is there even anything we can do?“ Ivan asked.
“We don‘t know if we can‘t… influence the game by playing it ourselves, right?“ Juleka suggested. “We could try to finish the game with Marinette‘s and Luka‘s figures and see what happens?“
The group looked at each other, then all nodded. “Yeah, let‘s do that.“
Brielle reached for the rule book and started reading.
“In this exciting adventure, your goal is to find the amulet and bring it back to the temple in order to save the jungle. By rolling the dice, the player moves forward. On every square the player draws an event card from the stack, which describes an occurring event. The player has to counter the event by playing action cards. Each player starts the game with four action cards. The action cards describe an action and each have a number on them raging from one to four. The player puts down as many action cards as he feels are necessary to win the round and adds up the numbers on them. The goal is to roll the dice and have the sum of the dice be smaller than the sum of the numbers on the action cards. The amount of dice that have to be used for each event is written on the event card. If the player succeeds, he pulls additional action cards, depending on the amount of dice he had to use for that round. If the player loses, he has to discard an additional action card. Once a player is out of action cards, he‘s out of the game.
Alright, that doesn‘t sound too hard. Any questions?“
Dingo slowly put up his hand. “We didn't finish discussing the pizza problem.”
“I’ll smash it into your face, dumbass.”
-the game world-
Marinette wasn‘t sure for how long she had walked, and the fact that there still wasn‘t any sign of Luka started to worry her. What if something happened to him? What if he somehow got injured? She didn‘t have a first aid kit with her!
Or maybe, hopefully, the spell hadn‘t actually worked on him and he didn‘t get sucked in here. As much as Marinette would‘ve preferred company over a solo adventure, it didn't beat the thought of Luka being at home and safe, having a nice, relaxing Christmas time, wrapped in a blanket with hot chocolate and Christmas music playing in the background, not… whatever this was.
Ugh, and all of this because she couldn‘t say no to the sketchy old lady! She just had to take that stupid game to the party! Couldn‘t she just have left it at home somewhere, let it collect dust? Why did she think this game would actually fix any of the awkwardness she had felt between her and Luka almost the entire night?
Maybe he‘s right to distance himself from her. He clearly was so much better off without her. No moving across the world, no relationship-ending half-truths, no broken hearts.
It might’ve been for the best if she just didn't come to their party in the first place. Even though Rose had insisted, talking about „reigniting past flames“ and stuff like that. Now that Marinette thought about it, the old witch could easily be related to Rose purely based on their attitudes towards her love life. Imagine, if Rose a long lost great grand-aunt or—
„WAH!“
Marinette slipped and fell to the ground. With her face contorted with pain, she slowly got up in a sitting position and noticed that she had stepped onto a solid frozen lake.
How odd, it didn‘t feel cold enough for the water to be frozen.
Then again, this was a cursed board game, real world physics most likely didn‘t apply here.
Marinette carefully got back up on her feet when she caught something in her peripheral view. Something red… and shiny. She turned her head to look at the middle of the lake, where she spotted a small island. On that island was a lonely tree, decorated with what looked like ornaments. One of those ornaments was shimmering in the sun.
Could that be the amulet?
Marinette did a few careful steps towards the island. The ice was very slippery, she could only make baby steps in order not to fall again. But at least the ice seemed solid, as she didn’t see or hear a single crack.
She reached the island after a while. Luckily, her hunch was right, the shiny ornament indeed looked exactly how the witch had described the amulet.
“Great!“ Marinette chimed. „Now I just have to find Luka and get this to the temple!“
She took the amulet off the branch and put it around her neck. Now she just had to make her way back to the shore. Once more she crossed the frozen lake with baby steps, but she couldn‘t shake the feeling that this time, something was… off.
Then she heard a crack. Marinette quickly turned, scanning the ice, but she couldn’t see anything. The ice was still intact.
Except after a few steps she heard another crack, and once again the ice looked fine.
She must‘ve imagined things. At least that‘s what Marinette hoped as she continued her journey. She had almost reached the shore when suddenly…
A text plopped up next to her?
“What?” Marinette turned to the text, not bothering to think too deeply about what this new gimmick was, then read the text.
‘Warm temperatures! It looks like this ice might break any second! Quick, you need to get off!‘
Her confusion over the letters floating mid air quickly turned into panic when there was another sound of a crack, directly followed by another one. And another one.
Then she saw the ice cracking rapidly.
Without thinking she started to run, which unfortunately wasn't exactly an effective tactic on slippery ice. She barely moved forward while she heard more cracking getting closer.
Come on, you’re almost there! Get to the shore, get to the shore get to the—
The ground beneath her feet gave in and within seconds, she was plunged in the black, ice cold water. She couldn‘t breathe, she couldn‘t see.
Oh god, where is the surface? Need a hole to get through the ice… why is the ice solid? Didn‘t it just break? I have to get out! Why can‘t I find a way out? I'm trapped under the ice…
I‘m trapped…
Help…
She heard a strange noise that sounded like someone banging against the ice. Then, something that felt like a hand grabbed her at her wrist and pulled at it. A second hand grabbed her by the collar and soon enough, her head broke through the surface and Marinette took a huge breath before she started coughing violently.
Between the chaos of nearly drowning, she heard a voice tell her “I got you, Marinette. Just hold on.“
She was never happier to hear his voice than in this moment.
Her savior pulled her to the shore and before Marinette fully got her breathing back under control again, she practically crashed into him.
“Luka! Oh thank god, that… that was great timing!“
She heard Luka let out a relieved chuckle and wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair. “You‘re safe now.“
Marinette let herself sink into him, too occupied with processing the shock to think too much about it and just… enjoy how close they were. How nice his embrace felt as he gently pressed her closer against him.
She realized in this moment just how much she had missed this. Missed him.
When was the last time she had actually hugged him like that?
The shock slowly wore off and the cozy Marinette turned into a flustered one, quickly letting go of her friend.
“Uh, sorry about that, I… huh?“
The words died on her tongue as she looked him up and down. He still had the same face as the Luka she knew, except with a green touch to it. Actually his entire skin was covered in scales of varying green and blue tones. His legs were missing, in their place a long snake tail, its end wrapped around one of the nearby trees.
Luka scratched the back of his head. “That was my reaction too when I ssssaw how I looked.“ A split tongue appeared between his lips at the ‚s‘ sound.
“That’s… why are you a snake?“
“Naga, actually,“ he clarified. “You know, those creaturessss with a human torssssso and a ssssnake‘s tail?“
Marinette looked him up and down. Sure, he looked unusual, but part of her couldn‘t help but notice that he was… well, practically naked, and how defined his shoulders and chest area looked. God, had his muscles always been this toned? Had he picked up a sport in Sao Paolo?
Also, since when did she have a thing for split tongues of all things?
If Luka noticed her staring, he chose to not comment on it.
“I‘m not really sssssure what happened,“ he explained. “I just remember waking up with thissss… body. I ssssspent way too much time trying to figure out how to properly move forward.“
“Huh. Fascinating.“
Fascinating? That‘s the best thing she could‘ve come up with? Wow, this adventure was off to a great start. There was no way Luka’s take-away wouldn’t be how dumb and pathetic Marinette was. Maybe she could jump back into the lake.
Judging by Luka‘s chuckle though, he didn‘t seem to mind. “Ssssure, let‘ssss call it that. Anyway, I kind of just ssssstarted walking—or whatever is issss sssnakes do—and winded up here, jusssssst in time to sssssee you fall into the water. And then, out of nowhere, a pickaxe just… appeared next to me! So I used that to break the ice and get you out.“
“The ice seemed fine just a minute ago!“ She whined and hid her face in her hands. “I‘m sorry for giving you so much trouble.“
“Hey, don‘t apologize for nearly drowning!“ He patted her on her shoulder. “I‘m jusssssst glad you‘re okay.“
Marinette looked up to him and gave him a shy smile. Even if their relationship had been a little weird for a while now, it was nice knowing that she could still rely on him like that. Maybe this ‘Jungle Adventure: Christmas Edition!’ wouldn’t be too bad.
Luka smiled back at her. “Sssssso… what do we do now? Which way ssshould we go? I didn’t have a chance to read the rulesssss to the game, so I’ll just follow your lead.”
Marinette pulled out the piece of paper from earlier and unfolded it. Just like the witch told her, a map of the jungle had indeed appeared.
“Our objective is to get this amulet”—she lifted the necklace up—”to the temple. And that temple is located north from here. Apparently not too far!”
Luka smiled. “Alright, then let’s get that amulet back.”
Marinette started walking, Luka closely following behind her.