THE CHRISTMAS PLAN HAD THREE components: the Gift, the Party, and the Guest.

Marinette was in charge of the Gift. 

She sent all her ideas to and fielded their homeroom class' questions in a brand-new group chat sans Adrien (sad but necessary). She was the one to emphasise that their group present for Adrien should be finished and packaged by the twenty-second, and the go-to-girl for design help and gift-making advice.

From this evening, everyone had two weeks to deliver their individual contributions to Marinette to be stitch together. (Some people were more anxious than others, namely Nino and Kim, who did not consider themselves artistically gifted in the slightest. Alya herself was out of her depth but up for a challenge.)

"You realise Adrien wouldn't care if it was a scrap of cotton with From Nino written on it, right?" Alya had pointed out, stifling a smirk on account of her boyfriend's rather surprising distress. "It's the gesture, babe. The gesture."

Nino was in charge of the Party.

He was the resident DJ and location co-ordinator. It would be hard for some people to get permission to spend the night away from their families, but stealing away on Christmas Eve or Day would be even harder. Thus, Nino set the date for the twenty-third of December. Holding the party any earlier would bite into the time Marinette had to assemble the group gift, and after the holiday passed, a significant fraction class would be travelling for the winter.

They needed a private location, ideally with parents that were relaxed enough to overlook the possibly illegal breaking of Adrien's house arrest, or at least were able to be removed from said location on the night of the party.

Nino told Alya that he figured the Couffaine twins' houseboat was the obvious choice: once all the guests were on board, it could be sailed to any shadowy corner of the Seine they pleased. Besides, Anarka Couffaine had always been a little anarchic, vehemently opposing Adrien's detention before a trial had been held.

("It's unjust, that is," Juleka imitated her mother, "he hasn't been proven anything but innocent. Do you think that cherub could hurt anyone with those manicured hands? Do ya?!"

"Um," Nino and Alya said, having approached her in the cafeteria the day after, to ask about renting the boat.

"That is to say, yes," Juleka explained, her perpetual deadpan making it extremely difficult to read her emotions. "Yes, she'll totally go for it.")

Now, Alya watched as Nino strode right up to Sabrina in homeroom class and planted a palm on her desk. Thank God Chloé wasn't here yet, or he may have lost that hand. By the time she slid out of her seat and headed over, she only could hear the tail end of their exchange.

Sabrina's eyes had boggled, affronted, behind her wide-framed glasses. "—how to keep a secret from my dad, Lahiffe!"

Miss Bustier looked up from her laptop at the front of the room.

"Babe?" Alya smiled, clamping her hand around his forearm and guiding him to his usual seat.

"Look, I know everyone said they were one hundred-percent in on," Nino explained in a rapid, urgent tone, "the plan. but Sabrina's father is a man of the law. Chloé, too. If they let something slip and their daddies get wind that we're planning to break Adrien out—"

Alya interrupted with a chuckle. "Okay, honey, the girls can handle this. Besides, I wouldn't call you marching in here and interrogating Sabrina discreet either." Her eyes darted over to the teacher's desk and back.

Nino flushed. Cleared his throat. "Alright. Point taken."

"What's going on?" Marinette asked, leaning over from her seat to peer curiously at Nino.

"Nino so badly doesn't want the plan to derail that he nearly derailed it himself," Alya said, gesturing to Miss Bustier now shuffling papers, quite close to Sabrina and Chloé's seats, at the front of the room.

"Hey, I miss my man," he defended, "and I am not gonna apologise for it. Are you sure Ladybug is going to come through?" This he directed to Alya, who was in charge of the third part of the plan.

Delivering the Guest.

How would Adrien get from Le Grand to the Couffaines' boat, escaping the police or the paparazzi? Why, Ladybug would take him in disguise. How would they ever get Ladybug to agree to help them (from the perspective of everyone but Marinette and Alya)? Why, the Ladyblog, ergo, Alya.

This was Day One of a very public Ladyblog campaign for Ladybug's attention. Alya's social media mission would continue for a week or so, for believability, at which point it would be announced to the Adrienless group chat that they had 'finally' secured transportation for their guest of honour.

Obviously, behind the scenes, Marinette already knew the route she would take from the hotel to the boarding point.

"Do you think it's better if it's not a surprise?" Marinette asked Alya. "Adrien has experienced so much upheaval already, having Ladybug show up a couple days before Christmas, wanting to whisk him to an unknown location... it might be less disorienting to have him be in on the plan."

Nino leaned over. "The Plan."

"That's what I said."

"You need to whisper."

So, in their usual four-person group call later that week, they told Adrien the plan and his goody-two-shoes tendencies leapt right out.

"I don't know about this. It sounds like a lot of moving parts. What's the disguise?"

"We'll figure it out," Alya said.

"How will you get it to me?"

"Maybe Chloé can sneak it to your suite somehow. She knows the hotel staff."

Adrien's brow furrowed, his lips parting on screen and his lagging voice following a half-second behind. "Except I have two police officers outside the room at all times. They will screen everything, even food trolleys and cleaning equipment. Anything that goes in and out."

"Maybe Ladybug will see the campaign in time for your next interview and bring the disguise then. Or even the night-of. Things will work out, Adrien."

"But, if Ladybug is busy, then what? And if I'm caught breaking my house arrest, it won't look good for me in court—"

Goodness, he was sceptical.

"Those are good reasons to be concerned," Alya acquiesced, slicing his rant in half before he really got on a roll. Poor boy. All his life spent under his father's thumb and here he was, still so averse to breaking the rules. "But you have to trust us to handle them. We're smart cookies, Adrien."

"Trust you."

"Trust me," she repeated, grinning with the confidence only she and Ladybug could have: the confidence that this would happen, and nothing would implode. For Adrien, it had to. "When you put Nino's enthusiasm, my over-analysing and Marinette's talent together, nothing can stop us. All we need is Adrien's yes."

The boy was silent for a long time. Long enough for Marinette to chime in, "If Ladybug sees Alya's call-outs, hears us out, and agrees to help, doesn't that mean, even with all her involvement in the investigation, she thinks you deserve this?"

"Yeah," Nino piled on, "If Ladybug herself endorses a little Yuletide festivity, who are you to say no?"

"Adrien?" Alya asked hopefully.

Adrien scratched the back of his head, his nervous tic. The lines in his brow smoothed themselves out. "Okay. Yes. Only if Ladybug agrees."

"You should see the disguise," Nino lied (because they hadn't found a disguise yet), "the stilettos are to die for."

Adrien blinked. "I changed my mind. No. Nope."

"Nino!" Marinette seethed in the top right corner of Alya's phone screen, upset as anything that mere banter between bros might jeopardise her perfect night.

Honestly, to Alya, it was evident that this party was for her as much as it was for Adrien. In fact, it was for all of their class, who had trudged on with their usual routines all these months with this boy-shaped void in their lives.

"He's joking, Adrien," Marinette reassured.

"I'm joking, man."

"There are no heels. Please still come."

Adrien propped a hand on his cheek, sighed mournfully, then broke out into a technicolour grin. "Alright. Yes."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Adrien was confused when Lila walked in.

He was alone in the private ward where Emelie Agreste lay in her coma, until, one snowy afternoon, he wasn't anymore. The door clicked open, and he stiffened at the sight of his visitor.

"Lila," Adrien stammered, surprised once more. "Hi."

He didn't know how she, of all people, convinced highly trained law enforcement to make an exception to his house arrest conditions, but it wasn't hard to picture. With a beautiful face, melodic voice and a cunning wit, Lila Rossi could wrap most people around her finger. 

Most people.

"Adrien," she squealed, running to throw her arms around his neck. "I've missed you so much."

Over Lila's shoulder, where a swathe of her auburn hair slid against his cheek, Adrien glanced back towards the thin rectangular window in the ward door, checking that they were out of sight of the police escorts.

"Thanks, Lila. Me, too," he said, patting her shoulder until she released him. "How are you here?"

"I'm here to visit my grandmother. She's having hip surgery. After hearing how close we are and how much we've missed each other, the officers outside were so kind to let me in for a short visit."

She was eager and touchy and very, very perfumed. She scooted a chair right up to Adrien's, her thigh nearly pressing along his. Her smile softened into pensiveness staring at Emelie. "She really is beautiful."

"She is," Adrien agreed quietly.

"Here," Lila said, pulling a dense, small parcel from inside her shoulder bag.

"What is this?"

"Wig," she whispered, "and rain jacket. Your disguise for the Christmas party. The girls have agreed that you should wear anything black or dark. It goes directly against your brand image, so it's less likely you'll be recognised."

"Okay," Adrien said gratefully, taking the package and tucking it into the waistband of his jeans. Hopefully his baggy grey hoodie would hide the conspicuous lump.

The plan to get him to the class Christmas party was so convoluted. His classmates were insane for attempting something as detailed and illegal as this. Insane. Plus, he'd seen the inside job from the beginning. 

Adrien: You or Alya wouldn't have anything to do with Ladybug's participation would you ??

Nino: I don't know what ur talking about 

Nino: ;DD

These two were working behind the curtain to pull this off. All he had to do wait for was Ladybug's answer to Alya's callout—Rena Rouge's callout. Nino, too, Carapace, would have to help convince Ladybug to bust out her prime witness just so he wouldn't be lonely on Christmas. Would they call in such a favour just for him? Would Ladybug grant it? Was she that fond of his best friends?

Who was she?

Adrien guiltily zoned back into Lila when she touched his knee. He cleared his throat, shook his head. "Thank you. For the disguise."

Lila alternated between asking him rapid-fire questions, and upon receiving any pitiable answer, launching into a long passage of sympathy. "I couldn't imagine being where you are now. You are so strong for going through all of this. Oh, and alone. I wish I could keep you company in that hotel room—" she walked her fingers lightly down his forearm "—but I guess patience is the test of us all."

When one of the police officers rapped their knuckles on the door to signal time's up, Adrien sighed with relief. At Lila's sharp look, he morphed it into a sigh of deep woe at being made to part. Too soon, too soon.

"I'll speak to you soon, Adrien," Lila said, rocking onto her tiptoes to place a glossy kiss on his cheek.

Out of consideration to Lila's curated image (which he knew was important to her), Adrien waited until he and his police escorts took the elevator to the ground floor, crowded into the police fleet SUV and pulled into the mid-afternoon traffic before discreetly scrubbing the lip gloss residue from his face.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

a / n:

breaking adrien out! to go to a party! 

*cue heist music*