The two Miraculous holders stayed up for hours talking about everything and anything. What started as a simple discussion about love soon moved into a whole debate about Christmas movies, whether Jagged Stone should be allowed to keep Fang in his home and which akuma was dressed the best (both coming to agreeance it was 'Qilin', from what they'd seen on The Ladyblog ... of course.)

Adrien was fascinated that Marinette's best friend was the owner of the blog and he'd questioned if she'd ever contributed herself, after lying her way through the question like a pro, she asked if he'd come face to face with an akuma at all.

Adrien's retell of Gorzilla was followed by Marinette's tale of Evillustrator, where luckily Adrien's shrieked 'that was you' had fallen on deaf ears. Both heroes had stayed and talked until the last glowing embers of the log fire had died and they had no choice but to move somewhere warm. It was past midnight and both needed to be up and at the shoot by mid morning.

"Goodnight, Adrien, I had a lovely day today, I can't remember the last time I'd had so much fun." She kissed him delicately on the cheek before making her way into her bedroom. Without looking away from each other, Marinette shut the door, finally signalling Adrien to move himself. That was right. He needed to get some sleep too.

With both their holders journeying into dreamland it was time for Tikki and Plagg to rendezvous in the kitchen, filling up on fuel and gathering intel.

"They're both idiots!" Plagg stated matter of factly. He was still reeling from what he'd heard before they went to bed, that plus his conversation with Adrien pre-shower, almost tipped the God of Destruction off the edge.

"I told you she was stubborn." Tikki answered, finding her way to the cookie jar and choosing a desired treat.

"Come on then Sugarcube, what do we do next?"

"Lock them in a room together and make them stay in there until they agree to marry each other? Locking Alya and Nino together worked."

Plagg looked over at Tikki and winced. "You do realise with their team work they'd managed to break out in the matter of minutes. There's no way you could lock these two up."

"Then what's your plan, oh smart God!"

Plagg smiled at Tikki's 'insult'. How did she think calling him a 'smart God' would offend him? He thrived off the attention from the red kwami and a name like that only added fuel to the fire rather than knock him down a peg or two.

"They have a photoshoot tomorrow, correct?" Plagg said.

"Correct,"

"And then the Winter Solstice Ball?"

"Correct," Tikki responded again.

"And she looks ... ?"

"Oh don't worry, she's going to blow his mind."

And blew his mind she will.

The trip to the Gabriel store had been incredibly successful, with Gabriel himself having already selected a number of dresses suitable for Marinette's body type. Each dress was more impressive than the next, and her final decision was phenomenal. It was as though the dress was made solely for her. The fitting, the style, the colour ... beautiful.

Each dress chosen was a different shade of red, the final choice not too dissimilar to that of her Ladybug costume and suited her to a tee. To be fair all the colours did, and Gabriel must have had a Christmas theme in mind, as the reds chosen were perfect for the occasion. Plagg couldn't help but hope Adrien's dinner jacket was created to compliment Marinette's dress. It was an unusual colour, but suited his hair and eye colour perfectly. No one could deny how Adrien looked in red, even if it pained Plagg to think of his chosen as Mr Bug.

"Can you give me a clue? Do I need to make sure Adrien stocks up on deodorant, if she's going to make him sweat."

Tikki burst out laughing, only to be tackled by Plagg and her mouth swiftly covered.

"Shh ... You're going to wake them up!"

"Sorry," Tikki whispered back, letting out a couple more stray giggles. "What's the plan for tomorrow then?"

"I think poor old Vanessa should have listened more closely to Ranger Rick when he was directing her skiing tuition earlier." Plagg's smile was demonic, to the point where it even sent a shiver down Tikki's back. Sometimes she forgot that Plagg was the kwami of destruction.

"You're not going to hurt her badly are you?" For the first time since they started their mission Tikki was feeling guilty. Another casualty. Couldn't they just turn her alarm off and make her late. Everyone knew Gabriel wanted punctuality so perhaps they could hold back Vanessa and make sure Marinette was there on time instead. The photographer would see her and 'bam' Marinette would be used instead.

What's better for a winter shoot than a pair which both complemented and contrasted each other in the looks department?

"No, not this time Plagg. It was bad enough with what you did with Kim! What if she needs to enlist King Monkey? The poor guy can't walk!"

"You know the Miraculous would protect him for the fight, don't be so dramatic!"

"Dramatic!" Tikki yelled, causing Plagg to shh her for the second time that evening. He couldn't believe that suddenly Tikki was getting a conscience.. "Dramatic!" She repeated. "You tripped him up and he ended up going from top to almost the bottom of the steps at the Sacre-Coeur. That's almost three hundred steps Plagg. You could have killed him.. I was all for making sure Adrien and Marinette spent time together but that was a little extreme."

"Yeah, well, tell that to Xuppu when you next see him! He shouldn't have pissed me off!"

"Plagg, that was fifty eight years ago!"

"He threw out my cheese!"

The two kwami's stood head to head in a battle of wits. How they ever accomplished anything was actually incredible considering they spent most of their time butting heads and squabbling.

"You called his power stupid!"

"Well it is!"

"It ended World War II."

"I could have done that," Plagg huffed, crossing his fins over his chest.

"You wanted to cataclysm Hitler!"

"He deserved it!"

"We're not hurting Vanessa." Tikki put an end to the conversation, and began to move her way towards the window. "I'm going to go create some mischief with her alarm, you know Gabriel wont put up with tardiness."

"You do realise you'll need to make sure Marinette's awake on time then?" Plagg said, following his friend. Everyone knew Marinette's punctuality was always questionable. She meant well, but something always got in the way. "How about I deal with the phone and you stay with Marinette, making sure she sleeps well."

As if on cue a scream sounded around the cabin resonating from Marinette's room. "I've got to go, I'm trusting you to do the right thing Plagg. No more injuries." Plagg saluted before flying out of the window, Tikki headed in the direction of Marinette's room, only to come to a halt as someone had beaten her to the door. Tikki watched as a wild haired Adrien swung himself out of his room, a tight grasp on the doorframe to help the momentum, and bolted towards Marinette's room, ever the cat-like hero he was.

"Marinette? Marinette, are you awake?" He knocked gently on the door, his voice gruff from the deep sleep he was just enjoying. Tikki could see the fear evident in his face, he was worried, very very worried.

A scream sounded again, and without a second thought he broke through the door and into her room, Tikki flying in behind him, keeping herself hidden from his eyeline. The kwami flew around the room and settled on Marinette's bedside table, behind the alarm clock lighting up the room.

Marinette was whimpering, and it was something Tikki was used to hearing from her holder. Marinette was brave, but sometimes that braveness was broken. Broken by the many things she had seen and what she'd done in the past. Many nights Marinette would sit up with Tikki after a nightmare had woken her, and they wouldn't talk, they'd just sit in the comfortable silence of each other knowing no words needed to be spoken. It would usually take Marinette a while to come around, she was a deep sleeper so the nightmare would prolong itself until she woke up.

"Oh, Marinette?" Adrien's voice quivered and from what Tikki could see, the blonde's face was being coated by his own tears.

He slowly made his way to the bed and sat on the edge next to her, tentatively reaching out to strike her midnight hair as she thrashed around in the bedsheets.

"Marinette?"

His final plea to wake her up was matched with the sudden movement of a girl throwing herself into his arms. Tikki marvelled at how Adrien just accepted it, wrapping her up tightly and stroking the back of her head as she buried it into his shoulder. Adrien didn't ask any questions just calmed her the only way he could, rocking her and humming to her.

Within minutes Marinette was back asleep and Tikki knew she wouldn't remember this. He'd calmed her quickly and efficiently, and there was a chance that she hadn't been awake enough to be conscious of the exchange.

Placing her back on the pillow and pulling the covers over her, Adrien stroked her hair before leaning down and placing a chaste kiss on her forehead.

"Goodnight beautiful," stepping out of the room, Adrien closed the door quietly and Tikki could hear the telltale signs of him moving away, back to his own room.

She flew over to Marinette and placed herself within arms reach in case her holder needed her, but Tikki failed to sleep. Her mind, spinning on ways to get the two of them together. This was a life she wanted Marinette to live, this was the life Marinette deserved. Comfort, hope and passion.