Night Shift

Chapter 1

Marinette stood outside the mansion doors, with Alya at her right, her mother at her left, and countless friends and family around her. The cold was bitter, the snow showed no sign of stopping, and the time was well past midnight, but everybody stood calmly and silently in anticipation. Marinette could hear the breathing of the people around her, and could see her own breath rising above her in the cold.

The door swung open, held by a woman with dark hair, and Adrien and his father stood behind.

"Please, Father," Adrien pled, "show some Christmas spirit!"

"Very well," Adrien's father replied, and turned to address the assembled crowd outside. "Come in."

Nino was the quickest, running forward to embrace his friend. Marinette followed, with Alya at her side, both filled with warmth and cheer as they saw their friend safe at home.

And before long, all were seated around a long table, laughing together and exchanging good wishes as they ate a magnificent feast. Everything was good, and love was all around.

Lila set down her book and walked across her small apartment to remove a box from the freezer. Fumbling with the packaging, she pulled out a plastic dish and placed it in the microwave, peeling off the clear plastic cover before closing the door. She fished the cardboard box out of the trash to confirm the cooking time, and punched in four minutes and thirty seconds.

Absentmindedly, Lila drummed her fingers on the counter as she watched the dish slowly spin around and around in the small lit chamber. As the timer hit zero, the microwave beeped, and the display switched to show the time. Lila was surprised to see that it was already after midnight as she reached to pull out the dish.

Lila sat back down in the only chair in her apartment, and set the plastic dish on her lap while she picked up a book from the small table at her right. She read chapter after chapter as she ate her food, and at one point grumbled as a drop of red sauce spilled onto the pages. Eventually, she sighed, closed the book, turned out the lamp, and climbed into bed.

"Hey Alya," Nino called across the table, "did Marinette ever tell you about that one time at the Louvre?"

"Aww, come on, don't tell her about that!" Marinette complained.

Alya laughed. "Knowing you, Marinette, I'm sure it won't be unprecedented."

"It was totally nuts, dude!" Nino began. "It was a couple years ago, and we were all on a class trip. Anyway, there's this Rembrandt exhibit that Nathaniel really wants to see, and he convinces Ms. Bustier to take us there. But it's just past that room with the Mona Lisa. You know how crowded it always gets there, right? All those tourists who don't know any better, packed in like a box of crayons."

"I think I see where this is going," Alya commented, as Marinette blushed and hid her face in her hands.

"Anyway, it doesn't look like we'll be able to make it past the crowd. So then Marinette gets the idea that if we hold hands and make an arrow formation, we'll be able to part the crowd ahead of us. Chloé and Sabrina go on by themselves, but the rest of us decide to follow Marinette's idea, and we all hold hands and make a Vee formation, and Marinette's in front, trying to part the crowd in front of her. So anyway, we're going through the crowd, right? And then Marinette trips over somebody's foot and falls backwards on Nathaniel and me, and we all fall over like a row of dominoes."

Alya snorted with laughter and Adrien let out a small chuckle. Marinette slowly sank lower and lower in her chair.

"And it gets better! As we fall, this person with a shoulder bag trips on Marinette's leg and an entire sandwich spills out of the bag, with mayonnaise and everything, and it lands on Marinette's face! You shoulda seen it, dude, it was sick!"