Work Text:
Marinette was about to put down her sketchbook for the umpteenth time that night, fighting against the urge to draw just one more idea, to make just one more note before she calls it a night. The t-shirts Alya commissioned were done, but working on them just gave her more ideas. She was sketching out a jacket when her phone chimed with a new message. She quickly grabbed the device to silence it before glancing up to Tikki’s hiding place. The little deity nestled herself up there to rest, not wanting to disrupt her chosen’s creative flow. Making sure Tikki was not woken by the noise, Marinette muted her phone before opening up the message.
Sun 00:00
Little Kitty🐈🖤
Marinette raised an eyebrow before she clicked on the link. What could Chat want from her this late?
She made sure her headset was correctly plugged in before she put them in her ear. Her phone was loading for a while before the video started in a blurry, low resolution version. The music was fun, but she saw only as colours jumped around the screen, and couldn’t make out what the shapes were actually. She considered going down for her tablet to open the link there instead of her poor old phone that couldn’t handle even a measly little video, when a higher resolution just kicked in, and she saw what was really happening in the video.
“Oh,” she whispered with an amused smile on her face. “This is so cool.”
After the video ended she navigated back to the messaging app.
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐 
My phone couldn’t load the good quality first and I did not realize it’s actually a house 😂
But oh, this looks really good 😍
….aaand now the song nestled itself in my head. I think I will fall asleep humming it xd
Little Kitty🐈🖤
They do these shows every year for Halloween (and Christmas) 😻
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Ahh, that’s cool! 😍👌🏻
Little Kitty🐈🖤
Look up the other videos on the channel 😸
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
For sure 😍
Little Kitty🐈🖤 changed the theme to Spooky vibes 👻
Little Kitty🐈🖤
Also
HAPPY SPOOKTOBER
Marinette furrowed her brows for a second and pulled down the notification bar on her phone. Her mouth formed a little o when she saw that it was indeed the first day of October already.
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Ahhh, you’re riiiight, it’s October now!
Little Kitty🐈🖤
You did not even notice that I sent the video exactly at midnight, huh? 😿
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
I did!!
Just did not realize why 😂🙈 it’s my bad, I don’t know the date xD
Little Kitty🐈🖤
How can you NOT know the date?! It’s the start of the spooky season, the best month of the year! 🦇👻🎃
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Hate to break it to you Chat, but you are wrong. The best season of the year is Christmas!
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐 changed the theme to Christmas 🎄
Little Kitty🐈🖤
LE GASP!
DON’T BE A HEATHEN
ALL HAIL SPOOKY SEASON 🎃🦇🕸️🕷️🕯️👻
Little Kitty🐈🖤 changed the theme to Spooky vibes 👻
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Okay fine we can have halloween first😂😂
Little Kitty🐈🖤
Not CAN
We WILL
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Okay! 😂😂❤️
Marinette chuckled to herself. Her partner could be really cute sometimes, when he’s excited about something.
Little Kitty🐈🖤
Think about the costumes! The masks, all the details! THE CANDIES!!
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Okay, they are great, but there are cute decorations and delicious desserts at Christmas too!
Little Kitty🐈🖤
But Princess, think about me, about our friendship too! How can we be friends if you want Christmas already 🥺
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Ahh, yeah, you are totally a halloween person!
Damn… So hard to choose 😂
Okay then how about I’ll be a Halloween person til Nov 1 and then I’ll turn into a Christmas person?
Little Kitty🐈🖤
That’s somehow even worse, discarding Halloween so quickly 🥺
AND
Just to drive my point home
Marinette opened the new video. This time her phone graced her with better quality and loaded correctly. She burst out laughing at the lyrics and the exaggeratedly drawn portrayal of Chat. She remembered that day, how moody her partner was, and how the photos and short videos taken from the distance flooded the Ladyblog in the next few days. Most of them were about the fight with Santa Claws, but a few were about Chat, as he ran around Paris way before the akuma attack with a frown in his face. She scrolled down to the video description where the creator speculated him to not be a fan of Christmas, and disclaimed it to be just a fan video. Marinette chuckled to herself thinking how mindblown the creator would be if they'd learn that they were right, and how much this song actually fit him.
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Omg I frickin love this video!! 😂😂😂
But now I’m even more excited for Christmas lol 😂😂😂
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐 changed the theme to Christmas 🎄
Little Kitty🐈🖤
The betrayal 😤😾
Little Kitty🐈🖤 changed the theme to Spooky vibes 👻
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Awww, don’t be pouty!
Okay, okay, what if I stan both of them?
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐 changed the theme to Christmas 🎄
Little Kitty🐈🖤 changed the theme to Spooky vibes 👻
Little Kitty🐈🖤
You can stan Christmas in December U_U
November is the spooky after-season of the spooky U_U
When the Ghost of Halloween is here to haunt us U_U
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
Whaaaaat noooooooo that’s so late! 😭
I’ll be deep in my Christmas mood by then 😌
Okay okay so I’m starting to think that….. You’re not a Christmas person 🤔
Little Kitty🐈🖤
The song literally said it - SANG IT - out loud 🤨🙄
Halloween IS the most PAWsome U_U
Sewing Princesse 🌸🥐
That it did. I’m still saying, Halloween is okay-ish, but I say Christmas is better ❤️🎄😍
Marinette went back to the second video Chat sent her. She watched it one more time, humming the song with a fond smile on her face. Chat didn’t answer by the time she switched back to their messages. She assumed he got distracted with something else, so she put down her phone and picked up her sketchbook once more to scribble down some ideas.
Not even half an hour later, the sound of insistent knocking came from above her head. Marinette looked up surprised before untangling herself from her blanket. She opened her skylight and moved back as Chat practically fell through it, pulling in a black backpack with him.
“Chat, what are you…”
“Princess!” he said urgently, getting up from where he almost face planted on her comforter. ”I have to make sure you truly appreciate the Spooky!”
He zippered open the backpack and emptied its contents between them on the bed. A few sheets of paper were trying to flutter away, but Chat slammed them down quickly. In the pile she spotted some strings, fabric, and some cylinder shaped stuff, before he started shifting through it and tugged on the slightly tangled wires.
“Halloween offers a lot of cool stuff! I had these hanging above my bed and my desk, and they give such a nice atmosphere to my room!”
He pulled apart the wires, which turned out to be two fairy lights, one of them had spiders and the other hanging bats. “Here, let me plug them in, so you can see for yourself that they are cute AND spooky!”
Chat reached for the power distributor next to her bed, pulled out her bedside lamp and phone charger, and plugged in the fairy lights. They instantly lit up, one of them purple the other blue, giving sufficient light to see comfortably. Chat arranged the wires on the railing of the bed around them.
“Look how cool they are! And they have enough light so you can actually see. And you can also choose the colour you want!” He turned back to the pile to grab the little remote and changed their lights from colour to colour.
Marinette watched him amused as he rambled on about the lights and how he saw them by chance in a shop window during patrol one night, and had to order them for himself. He went through the pile of goodies, showing her all the items one by one. He pulled out two headbands, one had fluffy black kitty ears with bells and pink ribbons, the other had tiny bats on springs that wiggled around. He put the kitty ears on Marinette’s head, and the bats on his before flashing her an excited megawatt smile.
“I got that for you actually! I knew you would rock the ears, and the pink ribbons are just so you!”
He had ghost candles, Halloween themed movies, a Spooky Season t-shirt and a skeleton printed pajama set, bags of halloween candies, a skull shaped ice cube maker — which he lamented on to not being able to use it for some reason — a bath bomb in the shape of a vampire head (“It glows in the dark, Marinette! How terrific it is!”), and several pairs of socks.
“And look at these awesome costume ideas, and the pumpkin cravings!” He grabbed the papers and spread them around the bed. “I had to do a quick search to throw them together and print them out for you, but I wanted to show you my favourites! There are a lot of cutesy dress ideas, but I think the classic scary costumes are better, and there are so many possibilities! And the pumpkin cravings! I always wanted to do it, but I’m not allowed at home. It’d be more fun with friends though.” He looked down wistfully on the sheets with the carving stencils. “I wonder if we could do it at school, at art class, or as a class project.” He looked up at Marinette from under his lashes, a shy smile on his face. “That would be fun, wouldn’t it?”
Marinette giggled at his antics. “I’m sure you can convince your class to do it.”
“I’m not sure. I’m not the class president or anyone important who could hype my classmates or convince the teachers. But what about your class, Marinette? Will you do something like that?”
“Hmm, I don’t know, Chaton. No one mentioned it so far.”
Chat pouted at her and she giggled at his silliness.
“Also, you shouldn't have to come over with all of this!” she added with an amused smile.
“But I had to! I feared that you don’t have any Halloween decorations, and I was right! You won’t be able to get into the right spooky mood without them. It just can’t cut it!”
Chat scrambled off the bed, gently pulling Marinette with him down the ladder. He set the fairy lights to smoothly changing colours, then took out his baton. A few clicks later, he put the weapon on her desk. Music started playing quietly in the room, and he bowed before her, causing the little bats to wildly dance around his head.
“Can I have this dance, Princess?” he asked, and without waiting for an answer, grabbed the girl and waltzed her around the room, the bells under her kitty ears jingling merrily in time with her giggles. After a few rounds of dancing, he slowed them down in fear that her increasing laughter would wake up her parents.
“Did you know that contrary to popular belief, Halloween is not an American holiday, but it originates from Ireland? Its roots can be traced back some two thousand years to an ancient Celtic end-of-harvest festival of Samhain. That’s the reason behind the colour orange, not the pumpkins. And also, the jack-o-lanterns were carved from turnips and not pumpkins. The other colour is black, because Halloween once was a festival that marked the boundaries between life and death. There were bonfires to ward off ghosts, and they also wore costumes to trick and ward off evil spirits, so wearing Halloween themed clothing is really important.”
“Okay, okay, fine! I can see that Halloween is really important.” Marinette chuckled with a fond smile.
“Yes, it is indeed really important.”
“To you.”
Chat opened his mouth to retort, then closed it back, squinting his eyes in suspicion.
“And because we are friends,” she continued. “Your happiness is important to me. Halloween makes you happy, so how about this: I’ll make something for us to wear, in the spirit of the spooky season. Alya asked me to make her and Nino an autumn themed couples shirts, and I already have an idea for a cute skirt, and I can maybe make you a matching shirt for that? No, a hoodie! So you can be cozy in the chilly autumn evenings.”
Chat's eyes widened in awe, a smile slowly formed on his lips. “You would do that?”
Marinette smiled sweetly at him. “Of course I would. I will even listen to Halloween songs while making them.”
“I’m sure they’ll be really cool.” Chat hugged her, then pulled back with a sad expression. “It’s a shame we can’t wear them outside of your room.”
“Why not? You can take it with you and wear it?”
Chat shook his head. “It would risk my secret identity. What if someone likes your creation and takes a photo, then posts it online, and it spreads like wildfire? And I’m pretty sure it will happen because your creations are always awesome! You can come across the photo and recognize it on civilian me.”
Marinette bit her lip. “Is this how I sound sometimes?”
“When you catastrophize without any reason? Nah, you’re worse than this.”
“Hey!”
“My point is,” said Chat, “that I can’t risk my identity, but your works deserve to be admired by everyone. Tell you what. In the spirit of the spooky season…”
“I’ve already used that pun,” Marinette chimed in with a smirk.
“Hush, you! So, in the spirit of the spooky season, if you make something for me, give it to one of your friends you are close with and they can wear it. I’ll also get something spooky to give to a friend in my civilian life, and in spirit, it will be like…”
“In spirit.”
“In spirit, yes, it will be like giving it to each other.”
“But then you won’t be able to wear the hoodie.”
“I will still feel its warmth every time I think about it.”
Marinette looked at him speechlessly for a few seconds before a warm smile bloomed on her face. “Aww, Chaton, you are too cute.”
“I know, I’m the cutest cat in the city.”
“....and it’s gone,” she deadpanned.
They couldn’t hold back their laughter for long, almost falling over in their merriment. Soon after that Chat collected his belongings, except the fairy lights and the kitty headband, and went home for the night.
Marinette, however, did not want to sleep just then. She quickly wrote down her idea and a small shopping list for the next day. Finally, putting away her sketchbook, she made herself comfortable under the covers, pulling them up to her chin. Exhaustion taking over, she slowly fell asleep under the little bats’ and spiders’ soothing, dim light.
~~~
Adrien entered their classroom next Monday and was instantly greeted by Alya and Nino.
“Hey, dude!”
“Morning, Sunshine!”
“Good morning, Alya, Nino.” He took his seat in the front row, putting down his phone from his hand on the desk and turned towards his friends. “I got you something because Halloween is approaching, and I thought we can all have something in common to wear for the season.”
It was pretty close to the truth, he reasoned. He was awake half the night after he went home from Marinette. He tossed and turned for the longest time, thinking about her laughter, and how the fairy lights reflected in her eyes. He wanted to get her something just as he promised. But he promised it as Chat Noir, not Adrien. Adrien would not have a reason to give Marinette a Halloween themed gift, but he could think about giving gifts to all of his closest friends.
He spent Sunday looking around online for ideas and then rushed to the stores to get everything he needed.
Adrien pulled out two little jewelry pouches, and after feeling out the contents, gave them to Alya and Nino to open.
“I found this little store and thought these will be great for you, I hope you like them.”
Alya was faster to open her pouch, pulling out a witch’s hat shaped hairpin with glittering golden stars. “Oh, wicked! You really know me, aren’t you?”
Nino, still struggling with his string, looked up at her. “What did you get, Babe?”
Alya traded her accessory with his pouch to let him look at it while she untied the strings for him.
“Hey, didn’t you say you wanted to be a witch this Halloween or something?” Nino asked when they traded again.
“Aww, you do listen to me!” Alya winked at him with a teasing smile.
“Of course I do,” Nino said and opened his pouch. “Most of the time,” he added, muttering.
Adrien and Alya laughed at that as Nino pulled out his gift.
“What’s that?”
“Yo, this is sick! It’s Michael Myers! I love those movies!”
“From the Halloween movies, right?” Alya leaned closer to Nino. “Aww, and he’s holding a carved pumpkin too!”
Adrien watched with an excited smile as his friends gushed about their gifts, pinning them in their respective places in Alya’s hair and on Nino’s hat.
“You said this is a group thing for us, right, Adrien?” Alya fluffed up her hair before she turned back to Adrien. “What do you have for yourself? And Marinette too, right?”
Adrien pulled out a silver necklace from under his shirt, holding the charm in his palm so his friends could see it better. “I have this bat charm on a chain. Father is not fond of this holiday, so I thought of getting something that does not stand out too much. At least I can have a few things around in my room. I had a fairy light with little bats like this hanging on the leds, and this charm reminded me of that.”
“‘Had’? You don’t have them anymore?”
“Uhm, no. I have to get new ones.”
The sound of the classroom door closing interrupted them. All three of them looked up in time to see Marinette standing at the entrance, looking at them with a perplexed expression on her face.
Adrien’s jaw almost dropped to the floor as he took in her outfit choice for the day. His eyes zeroed in on her knee-length, high-low skirt first, its burnt orange colour being the most outstanding on her, adorned with little black silhouettes of bats, cobwebs and spiders everywhere. The lack of meticulous pattern made it obvious that she most likely painted them herself by hand, which made his heart beating fast in awe of her. His eyes wandered down her pale legs to the black knee-high, lace-up boots before jumping back up to take in her black lacy shirt and finally take a rest on her dark wine red painted lips.
“Wow, girl, you dolled up nicely today!”
Adrien couldn’t help but wholeheartedly agree with Alya.
Marinette slightly shook her head and flashed a smile at them. “Morning everyone, and thank you, Alya! It got to my attention that it’s already October, which means the so-called spooky season, and it should be appreciated appropriately.” Marinette walked over to her desk and put her shoulder bag on it. She took out a gift bag and handed it over to her seatmate. “Before I forget, I finished the shirts you asked for.”
Alya took it from her and peeked inside. “Thank you, girl. You are the best!” She looked up to her friend again with a conspiring smirk on her face. “You know who else is the best? Sunshine boy over here also got us something matching.” She turned to Adrien, her smile growing into a wicked grin. “You got something for Marinette too, right, Adrien?”
Adrien felt his cheeks getting warm He tore his eyes away from Marinette’s lips and looked up into her eyes. Quickly, he turned to his bag to pretend rummaging around for a while as he tried to will away the redness from his face. He cleared his throat before he dared to turn back to his friend once again.
“Yes, I got something for you too.”
Adrien looked back up to her eyes, lifting his hand and showing a rectangular box to her. He opened it and felt his cheeks inflaming once again at her little gasp when she saw what was inside.
“I hope you like it?”
Marinette slowly reached out to touch the charm bracelet.
When he saw online the chain made out of little silver stars, Adrien knew immediately that he had to visit this store and get it for her. He spent a long time in the store going back and forth between the little Halloween-themed charms and picking out the perfect selection for her. The little cat was a given thing for sure; it was the first one he chose. He got two of the bat charm, one for the bracelet, and one for his necklace. It filled his chest with a pleasing warmth just thinking about how they would wear the very same charms, making his promise as close to completion as he could. He felt a little bit guilty about not having Nino and Alya match as close as he made sure for Marinette to do, but he also felt it to be perfectly right.
Marinette gently lifted the bracelet out from the box, her lips forming a little o, eyes sparkling with wonderment.
“Adrien, this is beautiful!”
“Do you like it?” he asked tentatively.
“Yes, it’s really beautiful, but are you sure you want to give this to me? It looks pretty expensive, I don’t want to accidentally lose it.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. It has a chain and a clasp too.” Adrien put down the box and took the bracelet from her hand to show her the clasp. “It’s extra secure while making it easy to put on and take off.” He hoped that she wouldn't raise any more objection to the price, because while he did not find it expensive to buy, he learned that his friends have a very different opinion on that word’s definition. “Accept it please? So we can all have something in common?”
Marinette bit her lip, clearly torn. Alya and Nino encouraged her to accept the gift. Adrien showed her his best pleading kitten eyes he could muster. Her gaze went back and forth between the bracelet and his face. Finally, with a faint blush taking over her cheeks, she nodded.
Adrien cautiously put the bracelet on Marinette’s wrist and clasped it for her, as Alya cheered beside them, throwing in a teasing remark or two for good measure.
Adrien watched fondly as Marinette turned her wrist back and forth and admired the charms. His chest swelled with pride, utterly pleased with her acceptance of his gift and the light dusting of blush that seemingly took a permanent residence on her cheeks.
While Alya pulled her hand closer so she and Nino could take a closer look at the bracelet, Marinette turned back to Adrien.
“Thank you for this. It’s really lovely. I actually have something for you too.” Making sure to stay as still as possible, she reached into her bag. “Alya asked me to make her couple’s shirts, and it inspired me to create my skirt, and then this too. I hope you’ll accept this from me.” She pulled out something black and orange from her bag, and shook it out for him to see.
His eyes widened in realization.
It was the hoodie she talked about that night. It was black with little orange bats, spiders and cobwebs all around it. His eyes snapped to her skirt for a second to confirm that yes, indeed, they were in the same chaotic non-pattern, just the colours were reversed, making them perfectly match with each other.
“I…,” he started, but the words stuck in his throat.
She chose him.
All of the people she’s friends with, she chose him to have the matching hoodie she promised for Chat Noir.
“I… you.. me?”
Marinette tilted her head slightly with a sweet smile.
“Yes...?”
“You really chose me as the friend? To give the matching hoodie. The friend you want to give it to?”
Marinette’s smile froze on her lips, her eyes narrowing calculatingly.
“What do you mean by choosing you?”
Adrien froze when he realized his mistake.
“Nothing.”
She pursed her lips, eyes narrowing even further.
He felt beads of sweat forming on his temples.
Without breaking eye contact she pulled out her phone from her skirt pocket, and used it with one hand. The second she stopped her ministrations, Adrien heard his phone chime behind him with a new message.
Marinette slowly raised her eyebrows.
Adrien sighed and closed his eyes.
Yepp, he was doomed. Ladybug will skin him alive for this slip up.
At least he’ll be an authentic skeleton for the Spooky Season.