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Marinette looks up from her homework and glares daggers at Adrien. He’s sitting on the floor against her chaise and being more irritating than she actually thought possible. And she’s heard him try to outpun himself.
Adrien might not be four and a half years behind in physics and struggling, but Marinette is and she needs him to be quiet for two minutes .
She stares him down for a few more seconds before she clears her throat loudly.
Nino looks up from his phone. “Yeah?”
“It’s Adrien,” she says. “I need him to stop singing under his breath for like…ten minutes max. That’s all.”
“Yo, bro.”
Adrien’s gaze doesn’t move from the papers he’s looking at.
“Adrien,” Marinette says. “ Adrien .”
“He’s in the zone.” Alya reaches over from where she’s sprawled across Nino’s legs with her laptop to pat Marinette’s knee. “You might need to be louder.”
Marinette rolls her eyes. “Adrien!”
Chloé yanks her headphones out. “Weren’t we supposed to be studying or something like that? I am trying to become a better and more responsible person here!”
Alya yawns. “Adrien’s singing and we can’t get him to stop.”
Chloé listen to him murmur a few lines before she leans over from where she’s sitting on Marinette’s chaise. “He always gets like this when he’s looking at music,” she grumbls. She flicks the side of Adrien’s head.
He looks up in surprise.
Chloé looks pointedly at the paper he’s holding.
Adrien frowns before understanding flashes across his face. “Oh! Right.” He ruffles through his papers for a moment. “Piano’s a thing. Thanks.” Then he ducks back down over them and goes right back to humming. It’s not singing, but it’s almost as bad.
“Genius,” Alya murmurs.
Chloé sighs. “I hate you,” she says before reaching down and plucking the papers from his hands.
“Hey!” Adrien protests.
“You’re being annoying ,” she snaps. “We’ve been trying to get your attention.”
He blinks up at her in confusion. “I was?”
“Yeah, dude,” Nino confirms. “You were singing.”
Adrien rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Whoops.”
“And not even in French,” Alya notes. “What was that, anyway?”
“Oh, that was Latin,” he says offhandedly. “Can I have those back if I promise not to sing?” he asks Chloé.
She sticks her tongue out at him and holds them above her head.
“You know Latin?” Marinette asks.
Nino shakes his head. “Overachiever.”
Adrien laughs. “ No I know like maybe three phrases in Latin. The most I can do is google translations.”
Chloé squints at Adrien’s music. “Gross,” she mutters to herself.
“It’s a Christmas song,” he explains, still reaching for the music as Chloé scoots further and further away on the chaise. “It just happens to be in Latin. Learning Latin would be kind of cool, though. Then you have a really solid base for all the romance languages and know a lot more word origins and—”
“Fascinating,” Alya interrupts. “But I didn’t know you could sing?”
Chloé scoffs. “Of course he can sing.”
Adrien dives forward onto the chaise and snatches the papers out her hand. Then he whacks her arm with them.
“Hey!”
“What do you mean ‘of course’?” Nino asks with raised eyebrows.
Chloé tosses her hair over her shoulder, glaring at Adrien. “We both took lessons when we were little.”
Adrien makes a face and sinks back into the chaise. “They were fine and singing is fine but I don’t know… I didn’t love it like I loved some other things. I didn’t love it like piano or anything. Singing while playing piano is preferable to just singing.”
“I didn’t know you sang either, Chloé.” Marinette says. She turns away from her physics homework. It’s not getting done. “Thought you would’ve said something before now.”
She shrugs. “I don’t need to flaunt my talents to prove I have them. I have plenty of other things to flaunt. I’m a classically trained singer, piano player, and violist. So what?”
Nino whistles lowly. “I can plink out a rhythm out on a keyboard but bro .”
“Sure I’m no child prodigy,” Chloé admits, elbowing Adrien, “but I know what I’m doing.”
“You say child prodigy,” Adrien says. “I say ‘practice’.”
“Whatever.”
Alya wiggles her eyebrows. “So you both sing? Want to give a demonstration?”
Chloé gives her an unamused look as she stands up. “It’s singing not gymnastics . If you want to see me do a flip, you’re going to have to wait for patrol. I don’t need to prove I can sing to anyone.” She steps over Nino and Alya and
Adrien meets Marinette’s eyes and shakes his head, exasperated.
“I bet you’re an alto,” Nino murmurs.
Chloé whips around to glare at him. “Excuse me, I am a soprano one, thank you very much!”
Alya raises an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with being an alto?” she asks flatly.
“Nothing,” Chloé snips. “ I’m just not one.”
“Typical,” Adrien says softly. She glares at him and he holds up his hands in defense. “I said nothing.”
Alya inhales sharply. She hits Nino on the shoulder repeatedly. “Idea idea idea idea!”
Nino grabs her hand. “ Babe , chillax.”
She shakes him. “ Miraculous Caroling .”
Marinette squeaks. She covers her mouth with her hands as everyone turns to look at her. “I don’t sing,” she whispers.
“I only do in the shower,” Nino admits.
Adrien rolls his eyes. “You say that like we’ve never dramatically sung ‘Gotta Go My Own Way’ together.”
Chloé rubs her temples. “Why am I not surprised,” she mutters under her breath.
“First of all, I want in,” Alya says, pointing at Adrien and Nino. “Second of all, yes . You’ve got this Mari, they’re just carols. Besides , no one will care if Ladybug is out of tune.”
“ I’ll care!” Marinette protests.
“So will I.” Chloé ducks out of the way to avoid getting hit with the sheet music Adrien’s crumpled up into a ball. “Hey! So will you, you music snob.”
Adrien crosses his arms. “ I’m not the music snob.”
Alya gasps and grabs Nino’s face, squishing his cheeks. “Ugly Christmas sweaters!”
“No,” Marinette says immediately.
Nino’s eyes light up. “Yes!”
Adrien nod furiously. “ Definitely .”
“Oh god, please no,” Marinette whines.
“I don’t wear ugly Christmas sweaters,” Chloé sniffs. She smirks at Alya, Nino, and Adrien’s crestfallen faces. “Hey, I never said Queen Bee doesn’t.”
Alya throws her hands up in the air. “Caroling superheroes in ugly Christmas sweaters!”
“ Nooooooo .” Marinette sinks down into her chair, sliding to the floor. “No ugly sweaters!”
“It’ll be iconic ,” Alya says dramatically.
“I don’t want to be iconic!” Marinette protests. “I’m already iconic!” She looks to Nino helplessly. “You don’t even celebrate Christmas!”
“There are plenty of ugly holiday sweaters,” he says. “Plus, ugly Christmas sweaters is something I can get behind without actually celebrating the holiday. I mean, honestly. It’ll be great.”
“But they’re ugly —”
Adrien cuts Marinette off. “We can totally make our own, actually.”
Alya sits up straight. “Continue?”
“If we buy just plain sweaters, between Marinette and I, we have more than enough materials on hand to design our own.” He shrugs. “I may or may not want a custom pun sweater.”
Chloé scrunches her nose. “Ew. But if we did that I would be able to make something that doesn’t clash too much. Seeing that I’m one of the two of us who isn’t already Christmas colored.”
Alya shrugs. “I’ll color clash all the way to New Year’s.”
Marinette shudders.
Adrien frowns. “How is black—”
“You’ve got green highlights,” Chloé says. “Plus, black goes with everything .” She points to Marinette, who just nods in agreement.
Alya untangles herself from Nino and scoots over to Marinette, wrapping her in her arms. “Your sweater doesn’t have to be the ugliest but can you at least wear one to match the aesthetic?”
“Who doesn’t want to see Paris’ fearless superhero wearing an ugly Christmas sweater?” Adrien asks with a crooked smile.
“Yo can we take pictures with kids?” Nino asks. “It’s been like years since we did that.”
Chloé tries to hide a smile, but Marinette knows her too well at this point for her to be successful. “Make it a whole event?”
“Not really, but someone’s going to ask, you know?”
“The idea of superheroes just doing something super normal and traditional like this…” Alya trails off, hugging Marinette a little tighter. “Please? For us?”
Marinette closes her eyes. “Do I have to sing?”
“ Please ?”
She sighs. “ Fine .”
Her room erupts into cheers and Alya squeezes Marinette so tightly she can’t breathe.
“ Only if you all promise to shut up and let me do my physics.” She glares at Adrien.
He smiles and pantomimes zipping his lips shut before drawing an ‘x’ over his heart.
Marinette sighs and pats Alya’s arm. She’s going to need to sing so much in the shower.