For LCN4life's Christmas contest! This fic is Reverse Love Square, btw!

Secret Santa was a terrible idea! Usually, Marinette indulged in gift-giving, she really did. But secret Santa was just something else…it always went horribly for her! She'd gotten Chloe twice in a row already and honestly…Chloe hated anything she made and would plunge it right back at her face!

That's why she was relieved when she found out her school was not hosting Secret Santa this year…thank god! However, her lovely best friend had an excellent idea this year, she went:

"Hey guys, why don't we don't we do Secret Santa amongst ourselves?"

Evidently, everyone agreed (none of them had gotten Chloe twice in a row, of course) saying that it was a brilliant idea and they didn't have do it only amongst their classmates but all their other friends too.

She should stay optimistic, she really should! But how could she stay optimistic knowing that she might get Lila? Knowing that she might get Chloe again (she was only in it as Adrien was there)? After all, her luck wasn't the greatest outside her Ladybug suit.

Eventually, however, the day of the name picking came. It was a week before Christmas. All her friends stood assembled at the Couffaine houseboat as Alya prepped the red Santa hat with pieces of paper in it, one of them having her name in it and probably another one having Lila's, ugh!

"Okay, everyone, remember the rules! Make sure you don't find out who your Secret Santa is before Christmas and if you get yourself, please put the name back in and choose again! You don't want to be gifting yourself!" Alya announced particularly glaring at Chloe whilst the last few words slipped out of her mouth.

Firstly, Alya stepped up to Rose to pick, she reached her hand in the hat and took a piece of paper from it, unfolding it.

"Oh, I got myself!" Rose chuckled sheepishly and put the name back in to choose again, she took another piece and this time, she seemed satisfied with the result putting the name back in.

Alya then streaked across to Kagami, Luka, Lila, Ivan, Ondine, Sabrina, Alix, Adrien, Max and Marc who seemed satisfied enough with the person they got. She didn't really know whether that was a good or bad thing, them being satisfied with their result could mean her woe.

Next, Alya stepped up to her reaching out the hat. Oh great! Was it her turn already?

"Girl, it's your turn!" Alya says as she reaches out inside the hat, her hands fumbling around the multiple folded pieces of paper. Oh please…she really needed some of my Ladybug luck right now!

Finally, she grabbed a piece of paper, removing her arm from the hat. She looked at it fascinatingly as if she'd never seen paper before and debated to open it as if there was a bomb ready to explode as soon as she began unfolding it.

"Oh, c'mon, girl!" Alya whispered to her encouragingly, "Chloe isn't the only one name in the hat!" She knew perfectly well of her best friend's pet peeve built up around Secret Santa.

Marinette sighed and began unfolding the paper, she's right, getting Chloe twice doesn't mean she'd get her or Lila this time…

Kagami

The name stared back at her lifting a huge weight from her chest. Phew! A smile of relief stretched across her features, not a bad option.

"See, told ya." Alya said judging the expression on Marinette's face as she went towards the next person.

Nino, Mylene, Kim, Juleka and Nathaniel seemed rather cheerful about the person they got. She wondered if Nino got Alya and Mylene got Ivan…but she had no idea about who the rest got.

Alya stepped up to Chloe, who was blowing bubble gum. She nonchalantly took a piece of paper in her hands and unfolded it, her eyes grew as big as saucers and almost spat her gum out, she looked like she was about to protest but Alya didn't give her the chance as she walked away.

She reached out for the hat herself, taking the paper and unfolding it in her hands. Her expression froze as she stared into it, she then frustratedly sighed and dug it into her pocket and looked up. Marinette might've figure out who she had gotten judging by the look on her face.

The chatter then started as everyone tried to guess each other's Secret Santa and some sharing the names amongst their friends.

Alya trotted up to her, she wasn't amused.

"Let me guess, Chloe?" Marinette asks not even doubting her words.

Alya stares back to Chloe in annoyance and groans…

"Look who got unlucky!"

Marinette pats her on the back.

"I get you; I so get you! Been there for 2 years."

The night before Christmas, Marinette sat in her room wrapping Kagami's present. She had designed a red leather jacket for Kagami with the same Japanese symbol she wore on her ring embroidered at the back of it.

Once done…she glanced at the time on her clock: 8.58pm, it was time for patrol with Cat Noir.

Smitten, she sighed at the thought of him, engulfing his gift into her arms. She was going to give it to him today! As they didn't have patrol on Christmas Day.

Would he like it? What if he didn't? What if he didn't like it and only pretended to? No, hold on! Get a grip, Marinette! She wasn't going to let her hesitation get the better of her this time!

"Tikki, Spots On!" She yelped feeling the familiar swirl of magic surround her transforming her into Paris's superheroine, Ladybug!

She swung away on her yoyo to the Eiffel Tower. Patrol started there today. She had to admit though, it was a rather romantic spot especially at night!

Landing on the edge, she sat there, her legs swinging off the edge. Looking down at Paris, it was beautiful at night, especially with the Christmas lights. An array of Christmas colours and sweet scents of the holiday overwhelmed her senses. The atmosphere was magnificent! Romantic indeed.

She heard the tinkle of his bell, gasped and looked to her side. There he stood; his golden locks of hair glistened in the moonlight uniquely out of place; the green of his eyes bore down on her making her heart tingle in multiple unspoken ways. He smiled his charming smile, the one that lit her soul on fire, and came to sit down beside her, a wrapped present in his hands, she gulped, her heart had caught her throat.

"So, milady, I see you have a gift for me this Christmas!" he said playfully, her face flushing at the nickname.

"And I see you have one for me too!" She responds confidently nudging towards the gift in his hands.

"Well, yes, I purrhaps do." He says, she rolls her eyes at the pun with a slight grin tugging her lips, "now, let's see whose gift is better, shall we?"

"Oh, you're on, kitty." She replies as they exchange gifts, butterflies overwhelmed her stomach.

Despite the light banter she shared with him, she hoped that her gift was enough, she really did.

He unwrapped the present her eyes on him as she unwrapped her own blindly, she didn't care what he got her. After all, she would treasure anything he gave her even if it was ridiculous.

A gasp escaped her mouth as she saw her present. It was a pretty charm bracelet, a ladybug and cat themed one, she knew this was a limited edition and she truly wondered how he had gotten his hands on them!

"Oh god! Cat, this is amazing! You didn't have to!" she yelps in elation at him.

However, Cat doesn't answer, he sat frozen staring at her gift.

"C-Cat is everything okay?" she says, her expression morphed to concern. Oh no! What if he didn't like her gift?

He snaps out of his trance, and wraps her into a hug, her face goes red and her breath becomes heavy in sync with her heartbeat.

"You're the one who didn't have to! You gave me 2 gifts, milady, c'mon! How could I compete with that?" Cat exclaimed into their embrace.

"Haha…it was nothing really! Besides, yours' is way cooler! All I gave you was a jar of cookies and black scarf that I made for you, too simple!" Ladybug says bashfully.

"No, what? Yours' is better! You know I live for food, so the cookies could've been enough but then you decided to give me a black scarf, covered with cat puns in green! And you made this yourself! Seriously, that is too good of a gift, unbeatable."

"Let's just say that we both had the best gifts, 'kay, kitty."

"Mhm." He responds rubbing his cheek against her own.

With a blush, she doesn't know where this courage comes from, but she snuggles with him and both saviours of Paris watch the starry skies of this wonderful night on Christmas Eve.

They were back at the Couffaine houseboat the next day wishing each other 'Merry Christmas' with their Secret Santa gifts on them.

Adrien gulps staring at the gift in his hand, he hopes that she liked his gift, he made it by himself and his crafting skills were rather flimsy, but he wanted it to be special for her, of course.

"Dude, everything'll be fine, no pressure, she will like it!"

"But, what if she doesn't, Nino?" he says nervously fiddling with the black punny scarf around his neck, Ladybug's gift to him.

"Well, she better, considering the fact you spent an entire day searching for who originally got her name to swap just so you could be her Secret Santa, finally you discovered that Rose had it!"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, N-Nino." He chuckled nervously.

Nino raised his brows unconvinced.

Well, it was true that he had originally gotten Juleka's name. He just wanted to boost his luck and figure out who had Marinette's. Rose apparently had gotten her name and she apparently was ecstatic in swapping.

"Alya never said anything about swapping being against the rules, right?"

"Don't worry, dude, your secret is safe with me!" Nino assured reaching out for a fist-bump, "now, I'll have to go surprise Alya with her gift, looks like she's done giving Chloe her present."

Adrien looked to Chloe who was flaunting her Queen Bee action figure around…oh, that was clever of Alya indeed.

"Looks like it's time for your gift, Adrien." A calm male voice came from behind him.

Adrien spun around to see Luka standing with a gift in his hands. He was surprised, a good kind of surprised though…Luka was his Secret Santa. It was true that maybe in the start, he had a rough relationship with him, but that was because he was just jealous as they were both crushing on the same girl. But now, he had seen that Luka was genuinely a good person, Luka moved on from Marinette, but even before that he put his feelings and jealousy aside for the sake of their friendship.

"Oh wow…I'm happy you're not Chloe!" Adrien said teasingly.

"I'm glad I'm not too." Luka chuckled playing along.

Adrien took his gift in his hands, he started unwrapping it and grinned joyfully at its contents.

Luka had brought him a Jagged Stone shirt which was cool of him considering both of their adoration towards the rockstar but hey…who didn't like Jagged?! His father would've never allowed him to have any merch though as he thought that Jagged's style was immature.

"Any time, you decide to rebel against your father, wear this!" Luka says light-heartedly.

"Ha…thanks, Luka! This shirt is rock n'roll!" Adrien says reaching out for a fist-bump.

"Well…I better leave you to give your gift away." Luka says his eyes on Marinette's present.

"Ah…thanks, I hope she likes it!"

"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it's not as bad as what Chloe gave Nathaniel. She got him a broken pencil!"

"Well…at least she bothered to get him something, usually she wouldn't. Good thing Marc's art set cheered him up." Adrien says grinning at Marc and Nathaniel who were chatting excitedly in the corner.

"I guess I'll have to go know, wish me luck!" Adrien says.

"Good luck! Swapping to get Marinette's name better pay-off!" Luka chuckles.

"How many people know?" Adrien groans.

"A good amount, but don't worry, nobody cares, and she doesn't know yet, so you better get that gift in her hands." Luka says winking and pushes him forward.

"He- "he bumps into something warm and goes to the ground bringing that 'something' down with him.

He rubs his forehead and looks ahead, seeing Marinette sprawled on her knees in front of him, her eyes facing her knees as she rubbed them in pain.

"Oh!" he says, taking her hand, standing up and pulling her up with him, he quickly picks up the gift he dropped as well, "I'm so sorry, Marinette, I didn't m-mean to be a mess, y-you know and bump into you like that."

"It's quite alright, Adrien." She says smiling as her pretty ocean eyes investigate his green ones, his spine shivers and he begins to bite his lip anxiously.

Her eyes then travel down to his neck and her expression freezes, smile vanishes, and her eyes fixated at the same region. He stares at her befuddled, what was wrong?

"So, I-I was going to-h-hey!" she takes his hand and drags him across the houseboat. Into the front, the little room, where the steering wheel resided.

She stopped and looked around frantically, her eyes travelling all places avoiding him. With their proximity, she could hear her heavy breathing and pounding heartbeat. Now, he really was worried.

"I-is everything alright, Marinette?" Adrien asks, his eyes widened in concern.

"You're…you're-ugh!" she pulled her pigtails in frustration and put her hands on his shoulders, "damn it, kitty, did you really have to wear it?"

"Wha-What did you call me?" Adrien asks in bewilderment, his eyes widening at the familiar nickname.

"Just look at my left arm closely, kitty, look at what I'm wearing on it and all will make sense."

Adrien glanced towards his right shoulder where her left arm resided, his eyes lingered on the bracelet she was wearing, the charm bracelet that-oh! The very bracelet Cat Noir had given Ladybug last night.

He turned to face her, her bluebell eyes stood as pools of apprehension on him, his heart trembled with emotions, inexplicable emotions, good emotions.

"Milady." He finally says, the moment the words escape his mouth, he knew they were true, nothing could even change it.

"Kitty." She says her arms slid to his cheeks gently, they were shivering, "what do we do? We can't know our identities."

He encircles his hands around her waist pulling her towards him.

"As long as we're more careful and responsible good heroes, milady, I'm sure everything will be fine." He says, a magnetic force in his head yearned to put his lips on hers, and he had this feeling that she wanted the same.

He looked up; a smile etched his features. Turns out, they were standing under mistletoe this whole time.

He looks back at her grinning, his eyes traveling down to his lips. She smiles back and slides one hand into his and the other around his neck. The magnetic force in his head has now affected his body, as he feels himself leaning towards her, she was doing the same thing until he finally feels the softness of her lips collide with his.

His heart was on fire, the gentle brushes of her lips against his were in perfect sync with his own pace. The kiss was sweet, soft and gentle just like her, squeezing his hand in hers', he pulled away going in for a eskimo kiss.

"Merry Christmas, milady." Adrien whispered.

"Merry Christmas, my prince." She said before diving in for another kiss.

Bonus (Can't forget Adrien's gift, can we?)

"We're not tied anymore, Adrien! How could I compete with 2 wonderful gifts?"

"Hey! We're even more tied then before, you gave 2 gifts to me, I gave 2 gifts to you, see."

"But you gave me too spectacular gifts! You gave me the limited-edition ladybug and cat themed bracelet first and now, you're giving me a beaded charm necklace, the beads shaped of all my favourite things, that you made yourself? How?"

"Hey, as much as I love your praises, I think your gifts were amazing too! I said, unbeatable, remember? Not taking it back!"

"Fine, if my presents were unbeatable than yours are too!"

"So, what does that make us, the unbeatable duo?!" Adrien responds wiggling his brows.

"Yup, unstoppable!" Marinette chuckles leaning her forehead to his. Secret Santa was an amazing idea!