A Christmas Wish

Chapter 7

"Alright girl, how are you managing to get Adrien's full attention like this. Are you bribing him with croissants or something." Marinette knew Alya was teasing but shook her head anyway. "Well you better start hanging some mistletoe around and get puckering up." Marinette gasped.

"I- I can't do that." She spluttered. She may have finally reconciled in her brain that Chat and Adrien were the same person, still kissing Chat Noir during an akuma was one thing, kissing Adrien under mistletoe was something completely different.

"Why not girl. Sunshine is clearly into you and you've held off telling him your feelings for way too long." Don't I know it, Marinette thought. "Oh before I forget, I ran into someone down here." Marinette almost fell off her desk chair when Luka's face appeared in the camera. Had he been listening to their conversation the whole time? She's going to kill Alya!

"Ah, Hi Luka. I didn't know you were holidaying on the Riverina." She wanted to slap her hand over her face. Of course she knew, Juleka told her they sailed the house boat down there over winter break every year.

"Um, yeah." He said quietly. "It's been really lovely down here. I've gotten a lot of songs written and I'm really happy with them."

"Luka has been signed up for a recording contract." Alya butted in. "He's going to be famous, but we get to say we knew him when right." She gave Luka a poke but he just shyly smiled.

"That's wonderful news Luka, I'm so happy for you." She really meant it too. Even though she turned him down, Marinette still cared about the musician and wanted only good things for him. Down stairs she heard the bakery doorbell chime and her mother's voice calling her.

"I have to go, Adrien's here. We're taking some cookies to kids in the hospital. It was great to catch up with you Luka and Alya, I'll text you later."

"You better girlfriend." Alya called back with a wink.

"Bye Marinette. Hope you have fun with Adrien." He smiled, but she could see a touch of sadness there too. She waved as the screen went blank.

Running downstairs she found Adrien and her father had already put the boxes of cookies into Adrien's car. Her father had already started with the bakery puns and Adrien's laugh rang all through the bakery. It made her heart flutter to hear it. The blonde immediately came bounding over and gave her a hug. "Sorry I was held up, Alya was on the phone."

"No worries, we're almost done here." He beamed excitedly before turning back to the task at hand. Marinette had to laugh at the Christmas hat that Gorilla had on as he placed the boxes in the back.

"I thought he might look a little less scary." Adrien whispered leaning into her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. Why was he always able to do that to her?

"One of yours?" She gestured to the hat, but he just shook his head.

"Nope," he grinned. "One of his."

Sliding into the back of the car, they headed off to the hospital, the boxes secured to the seats next to them as they sat opposite each other. "So how's Alya enjoying the Riverina? It's usually pretty nice down there."

"Good, good." She replied, not really wanting to talk about the phone conversation but seeing her evasiveness just got him curious. Stupid cat. "She ran into Luka, he said hi too." She added, keeping her tone light.

"Oh." Was his only response. Was he feeling jealous?

"Yeah." She continued on "He got a recording contract and has been writing songs. Alya thinks he'd going to be famous." Adrien kept his eyes out the window. Luka was certainly talented, Adrien couldn't deny that and he would have earned his fame, unlike himself. Maybe Marinette was wishing she had changed her mind and stayed with Luka? Marinette could see a shift in his mood. Maybe trying to make him jealous was just making him sad instead. She needed to fix this quickly.