Venom: A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction

Adrien-Chapter 22

Getting discharged from the hospital felt like one of the best Christmas presents Adrien could receive. He had begun to feel bored out of his mind besides when he had visitors. All he really wanted to do was escape into the cold, fresh air as Chat Noir and let his troubles melt away. Even Plagg had grown tired of the lack of cheese the hospital offered.

Plagg sighed and rolled his eyes. "Will you just pick something to wear already? I'm sure Marinette doesn't care whether you wear a plaid shirt or plain shirt. You've been standing there for an hour, I swear."

Adrien frowned as he stared back at himself in the mirror. What Marinette thought about him really didn't matter... But he didn't know what to expect from her family. Was he supposed to dress up? Was he supposed to dress down?

In the end, he called Nino. He answered on one ring. "Hey, dude. What's up?"

"What are you wearing to the party?" Adrien asked, cutting straight to the chase. "If I wear a suit, will that be overdoing it? But then maybe I should just wear jeans?" He sighed. "I've never been to one of these things before."

Nino laughed on the other end. "You're overthinking it, man. If I'm not mistaken, you're trying to impress a certain pretty lady. Admit it. You like her."

"Shut up," Adrien growled as he pulled out a plaid shirt and shrugged a jacket on over it. A plaid shirt and jeans it was.

"Besides, Alya and I are just wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. You can never go wrong with that."

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows as he frantically dug in his closet, but he found nothing that resembled an "ugly Christmas sweater". Actually, he didn't even know what that was. Did everyone wear these sweaters to holiday parties?

"What are you talking about? Am I supposed to wear one?"

"Totally, dude. Didn't you get the memo?"

His face drained of color and he had to pick up his phone and scroll through his texts from Marinette. Nothing she said mentioned sweaters. Did she tell him at the hospital but he just hadn't been listening?

"Kidding, Adrien!" Nino laughed. "And talk about fashionably late. What are Marinette's parents going to think when their future son-in-law shows up late to their special party?"

Adrien growled and hung up the phone—if Nino was actually in the room, he'd throw a book at him. Or two. Or maybe even the entire library.

"Come on, Plagg," Adrien said as he wrapped the blue scarf that his dad had given him a few years ago around his neck. "Claws out!"

His entire body melted into black as he transformed into Chat Noir, and admittedly, the transformation felt like a wave of relief. It had been too long since he had been Chat.

Without further delay, Adrien launched himself out the window, knowing he'd get there faster as Chat than if he drove through the holiday traffic. Buildings and trees and lights flew past in a blur, until finally he landed softly in front of Marinette's uncle's house as Adrien. Snow started to drift down from the sky, creating a perfect backdrop to a holiday that Adrien felt overly excited to be spending with Marinette. And Alya and Nino, of course...

"I'm warning you," Adrien said to Plagg. "No funny business. I'll give you a whole package of Camembert when we get home if you behave tonight."

The kwami groaned. "You're never any fun, Adrien," he grumbled, but still crawled into Adrien's jacket. Hopefully, he'd stay there.

When Adrien took another step toward the door, the scarf around his neck caught on a nearby branch and came loose, falling to ground. He bent to pick it up but something small on the inside of the scarf caught his attention and his eyes widened as he ran his thumb over the unmistakable embroidered inscription of Marinette's name. She even dotted her "i" with a heart. All this time, it had been Marinette who had given him this scarf as a gift, not his father. And she let him believe it.