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“...and I know he’s been talking about it for ages but Mari, it’s actually happening. What if he freaks out? What if he bolts for the door? What if -”
“Aren’t I supposed to be the catastrophising drama queen?” Marinette interrupts Alya’s mad babbling. She carefully removes the lid from the container in front of her, tongue poking out as she does so. “Got a plate?”
Alya immediately bends to rummage in the dishware cupboard for a plate. One of her dark curls falls in her face in the process, so she tucks it behind her ear while simultaneously pushing the cupboard door shut with her hip and handing Marinette the plate.
“It’s terrifying,” Marinette continues as though there hadn’t been any interruption. “Adrien fainted when Kagami and I -”
“He fainted?” Alya splutters, and her heart skips a beat and leaps into her throat. “You’re supposed to be reassuring me, girl!”
“He was fine once he woke up!” Marinette says while positioning the plate on top of the rounded pudding container just right. “And then he started crying. Like, full-on tears and everything. But happy tears! Help me on three?”
Alya reaches out with trembling hands to grab the pudding basin. Once Marinette hits three, Alya lifts the basin and inverts it as Marinette moves the plate, in a move so smoothly synchronised like that time last week where Ladybug and Rena Rouge had covered each other’s backs from a rose thorn akuma without even looking behind them. Alya’s still buzzing from the sheer beauty of that move.
“Look, after all the times you calmed me down when I was having a freak-out or a meltdown in school, it’s about time I return the favour,” Marinette says.
“As if you don’t still call me at three in the morning sobbing because one stitch is wrong and it throws off the whole piece,” Alya teases. Marinette sticks her tongue out and elbows Alya in response.
“The point,” Marinette huffs, gently squeezing the pudding basin to loosen the rich Christmas pudding inside, “is that Nino’s going to freak out. Maybe he’ll even cry. It’s normal, Als. I mean, this is massive!”
“Yeah,” Alya murmurs, her eyes fixed on the swell of Marinette’s belly under her Ladybug ugly Christmas sweater. Alya’s abdomen is flat under her own Rena Rouge ugly sweater, but it might as well be bulging out in front of her with the amount of raw panic she’s been going through ever since this damn dinner started. “God, I’m such a mess. I don’t know how you and Adrien and Kagami are doing it as a threesome.”
“We’re not a threesome.” Marinette rolls her eyes. “We’re a polycule. Stop deflecting.”
Now it’s Alya’s turn to poke her tongue out. But as soon as it disappears back into her mouth, it’s flooded by a wave of saliva as Marinette lifts the pudding basin and sets it aside, revealing the rich Christmas pudding that’s been hiding in Alya and Nino’s kitchen for a week now. If Adrien could be trusted to not get his paws into anything deemed off-limits then this hiding place wouldn’t have been necessary, and it’s taken all of Alya’s willpower to not cave in and sample the delectable Dupain-Cheng dessert early.
Nino hadn’t even seemed to notice it in the pantry, to be honest. But then, Alya’s wonderful husband has never been the most observant guy around, or maybe the whole Nino/Marinette date at the zoo wouldn’t have happened. Not that Alya’s complaining, when this is how things have turned out. Okay, maybe she’s complaining a little now that she has to square up and go do this thing...but apart from that.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if not for the memory of her old neighbours back in Martinique; the guy panicking and taking off for an entire day after a major announcement is something that tends to stick with someone vividly, even a young child like she’d been at the time. And sure, they’d pulled themselves together, but then they’d divorced a few years later, and Alya knows that Nino wouldn’t turn out anything near that but...it’s still a fear. An irrational fear that whispers in the dark depths of her brain, sure, but as well as Alya knows her husband, humans have never been a hundred percent predictable. Some of the stranger akumas she’s battled over the years are a shining testament to that, otherwise they might have found Hawkmoth by now.
“Okay!” Marinette claps her hands, jolting Alya out of her anxious daze. “Got the bowls and the ice cream?”
“Damn right I do, partner.” Alya dives back into the dishware cupboard for five bowls, then grabs the necessary cutlery and finally the ice cream from the freezer. Marinette smiles at her and carefully picks up the pudding, as though there’s not a forty percent chance of her tripping over her own feet and splattering the pudding all over Alya’s immaculate white kitchen tile.
“Ready?”
Alya’s insides suddenly melt and flutter. “No,” she gulps. “You’re the brave one, not me. Why don’t you do it? You’re the one who runs around the city in red spandex getting beaten up by supervillains!”
“Right, like you haven’t been there with me for half those battles,” Marinette says dryly. Alya’s shoulders slump.
“I can’t get out of it, can I?”
“I mean, you could. But then it’d be a bit hard to explain why you’re suddenly six sizes bigger and hangry for pickles and tuna.”
Alya gags at the thought. “God, you’re so weird, girl.”
“But you love me for it,” Marinette grins. “Come on. It’ll be amazing once Nino stops crying, I promise. Are you gonna do it before or after the pudding?”
The thought of just going out there and blurting it out is almost as painful as squirming throughout the entirety of dessert and making Nino fuss and fret over her for no good reason. It’s that tiny gap between the discomfort of the two thoughts that makes Alya decide to just get it over with and announce the news to Nino before they tuck in, then hope that she gets to taste Marinette’s delicious dessert before Nino freaks out too much.
“Before,” Alya says, praying that her voice doesn’t crack. If it does, well, Marinette’s just the bestest friend in the entire world and doesn’t comment on it. “I’m a horrible actor. He’ll know if I try to pretend that I’m not about to pee myself.”
“Trust me, enjoy your bladder control while you can,” Marinette drawls. “Now, come on. We need to get this out there before Kagami comes looking for us with her sword.”
Alya giggles and follows Marinette out of the kitchen, trying not to laugh out loud at her best friend’s awkward waddling because that’s going to be her soon enough and then Marinette will get the last laugh. In the cosy dining room, Nino and Kagami are in fits of laughter while Adrien grins smugly - no doubt having made one of his godawful puns - and all three of them light up at the sight of Marinette and Alya with the Holy Grail.
“Dude! Finally!” Nino says, while Adrien immediately leaps to his feet to help Marinette set the pudding down on the table and Tikki and Plagg zip over to hover around Marinette’s head. Even though she doesn’t actually need the help, Marinette still looks somewhat pleased at Adrien’s attention. Kagami, meanwhile, is glowering at them, but Alya knows her friend well enough to know that Kagami’s not actually angry and is just annoyed that Adrien got in to help Marinette before she could. There’s a reason they’ve taken Marinette’s last name and become Adrien Dupain-Cheng and Kagami Dupain-Cheng, after all.
“Nino thought you’d gone into early labour,” Kagami says as Marinette and Alya take their seats (or rather, Alya takes her seat and scritches Trixx on the top of their head, and Adrien helps Marinette into hers with a kiss to the top of her short hair). “Then Adrien started panicking and crying that he wasn’t ready to be a father yet.”
“The bun isn’t ready!” Adrien says, sitting back down in his seat on Marinette’s other side. Nino scoops Wayzz and Longg up when they try to dive into the pudding, ignoring their pleading looks and disappointed whines just like a father might try and ignore his child’s puppy dog eyes. “We don’t want an underbaked bun, Gami!”
“My child isn’t food,” Marinette huffs. Adrien gulps, while Plagg cackles until Tikki shoots him a dirty look.
“Of course not, milady,” Adrien says hastily, even though Alya’s certain he’s still going to nickname their child his little bun out of earshot. Marinette smiles sweetly at him, then picks up the knife that Alya had brought and cuts six neat slices of pudding. Alya, who’s on ice cream duty, scoops out some vanilla ice cream and drops a dollop on each plate to go with the pudding.
“Happy Christmas, everyone,” Adrien says with a wide, toothy smile once everyone has their desserts, with the kwamis in the centre of the table sharing the sixth plate. His sunshine is infectious, and everyone else at the table beams back at him. How can they not? After so many years of lonely birthdays and dismal Christmases, of course Adrien’s going to thrive in any situation where his family and friends are together with him.
“I’m so grateful to have you all,” Kagami blurts out, then sniffles. Okay, she must have had one eggnog too many, if the normally stoic woman is breaking down like this. Either that or it’s just an abused child thing. Alya wouldn’t have the faintest idea.
“We’re grateful for you too, Gami,” Marinette says and awkwardly leans over to give her a quick kiss.
“Indeed!” Longg says. “Kagami-san has been one of my dearest holders.”
Kagami sniffles again and reaches out to stroke Longg’s head with a finger. While everyone’s distracted by a tipsy Kagami, Marinette shoots Alya a sideways look, and Alya gulps and slumps, because this is as good a time as any to get it out in the open.
“I have one more thing we can be grateful for,” she announces slowly. Everyone falls silent and turns to face her, and with nine pairs of eyes on her, Alya almost chickens out and says something about, say, keeping their Miraculouses permanently. But no, she’s Alya Lahiffe, resident furry superhero, and if she can run around Paris in a bright orange fox suit and bash supervillains with a flute, she can make this announcement to her husband and best friends.
“Yeah?” Adrien prompts when Alya’s silent for too long. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Alya heads to the living room to grab the tiny green present under the small Christmas tree, then returns to the dining room and holds it out to Nino with shaking hands.
“Happy Christmas, babe,” she says in a surprisingly steady voice. With a furrowed brow, Nino runs a fingernail under the tape to preserve the Carapace wrapping paper, then peels it off and pushes the wrapping paper away to reveal a small brown cardboard box. But it’s what’s inside the box that makes Nino freeze in his seat and stare down with bulging eyes and an open mouth.
“Hey, what is it?” Adrien complains, trying to lean across the table to catch a glimpse. Wayzz zips up to Nino’s shoulder to look, and he lets out a loud whoop and dances in the air upon catching sight of the contents.
“Surprise?” Alya says with a weak smile, fidgeting with her fingers. Nino still remains unmoving, and now Kagami’s also trying to see what’s inside, and the other kwamis are gasping and cheering and laughing, and Marinette’s grinning widely, and -
“ Oh my god!” Nino’s out of his seat in the blink of an eye and grabbing Alya around the waist so that he can lift and twirl her. “Oh my - I can’t - Alya, dude, babe, are you serious - oh my god, oh my god, oh my god -”
With the box now on the table, Adrien and Kagami can also gasp at its contents: a sprig of holly and a positive pregnancy test, with a note reading Joyeux Noël, mon cœur xx. But Alya’s too preoccupied with how Nino’s setting her carefully on her feet and then throwing his arms around her to crush her to his chest. The overwhelming spicy musk of Nino invades Alya’s nostrils, and she lets out a content hum and buries her face further in his Carapace ugly Christmas sweater.
“I love you, I love you, I love you so much, I’m gonna be a dad -” Nino’s babbling. Then he freezes and gasps. “I’m gonna be a dad! A dad! A papa, a daddy -”
“Nino?” Alya pulls away to check on her husband, only to find him openly sobbing as he lists every possible word for father that seems to exist. Thank god that Marinette had warned her about the tears, because otherwise Alya would be freaking out and trying urgently to comfort Nino. Instead, she just snuggles back into his embrace, smiles, and wonders why she was even freaking out in the first place, because it’s Nino.
“I guess you guys have a Christmas pudding instead of a bun,” Adrien says with what Alya knows is a cheeky grin. His audible gulp makes it clear that Marinette and Kagami are Not Amused, unless Kagami’s too drunk to care; but honestly, Alya doesn’t mind that nickname as much as she probably should. Their little Christmas pudding. Her hands slide to clasp over her flat belly, and one of Nino’s large hands rests over hers a moment later, while the other keeps her in his embrace.
“I’m gonna be a papa pudding,” Nino whispers thickly. Alya snorts at her husband’s dorkiness. Seriously, why had she been panicking over telling him the big news? The only other times he’s been this happy have been learning that his best friend is Chat Noir, Adrien moving out of the gloomy Agreste mansion, Nino proposing to Alya and getting a yes, and their wedding day. Actually, this moment probably outshines all of them, judging by the way Nino’s crying into her hair and dampening her curls.
“That’s right,” Alya murmurs back, and her heart’s already swelling with love for the small clump of cells currently growing inside her, because this baby’s going to have the most loving parents in the world. “You’re gonna be the best papa pudding around, babe.”