“Ahhh, I’m so nervous, Alya! This is going to be my second competition after the derby hat one! There’s going to be so many people! And talented designers! Oh god, what if-”

Suddenly a cold ball of snow hit her face.

“Calm down, girl. You got this! Don’t worry so much. Right now just relax and throw some snowballs. Think of this as your second competition,” the mocha skinned girl smirks slightly, “Beating me is a struggle after all, so that’ll be your third competition, making you used to it!”

Sighing, Marinette crouched down to the snow, “You’re right. I shouldn’t worry so much, but don’t count me as the loser of this game just yet!”

On the last word, she threw a snowball at Alya, grinning at the satisfying “Thwack!” it made.

“Hey!”

“You started it!”

“Come back here!” Alya ran after Marinette, a ball of snow clutched in her gloved hand.

“No way.” Marinette ducked at the telltale whoosh of the snowball, sticking her tongue out at Alya in victory after it lands just behind her causing a flurry of frozen powder to shower over her. This continues, snowballs flying between the skilled two covered in laughter, but they’re snapped out of this joy at a cry.

“Hey!”

Marinette froze. That voice was definitely not female, and decidedly not Alya. In fact, it sounded exactly like the very attractive boy she’s been crushing on for roughly a year.

Alya was grinning at her, a mischievous look on her face.

Oh no.

Slowly she turned to the source of the voice. Adrien.

He narrowed his eyes at her, “Did you throw that?”

Words failing her, Marinette simply pointed at Alya while trying to shake the snow from her hair.

"Hey!" Alya yelped, "how could you sell me out like that?"

A low whistle interrupted them and they turned to see Nino shaking his head in mock horror as he leaned his arm on Adrien’s shoulder, “You shouldn’t have done that! This guy may be skinnier than a twig but he’s also as athletic and more ferocious than a cat.”

“Oh, really?” Alya scoffed, leaning her arm on Marinette’s shoulder to mimic Nino. “Well, this girl here may look as harmless and sweet as an angel but she beat everyone, guys and girls, in arm wrestling and has the best mile time in the school.”

“Hmm,” Nino looked at Alya, an eyebrow raised in a look of obvious skepticism. There was a beat of silence as they looked at each other.

“Come on, Marinette!” Alya threw the slowly melting snowball clutched in her hand at Nino before grabbing the surprised bluenette and taking cover behind a tree. Behind her, Nino ducked because of pure instinct, seized Adrien’s hand, and sprinted in the opposite direction.

“I’ll make the fort, you make the snowballs,” commanded Alya. “Well?” she questioned snappily, looking at the still Marinette who was processing what just happened, “get to it!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Marinette saluted and began creating the frozen missiles, her competitive spirit fired up.

~20 minutes later~

“This is taking too long,” Marinette sighed. She and Alya had been waiting, on guard, for the last 10 minutes to no avail. “Permission to launch a sneak attack on the enemy camp, commander?”

“Permission granted. Go, go, go!”

Marinette’s blue head popped up from the snowy white wall. Coast clear. From her calculations, Adrien and Nino should be on the opposite side...so they’ll go to either and use the trees there as a cover to bombard them with snowballs. She grinned. This will be fun.

“Let’s go,” she whispered. The partners in crime gathered up the snowballs in their discarded jackets, nodded at each other, and went their separate ways.

She crept behind the trees, eyes and ears searching for any trace or whisper of unnatural sounds. A wry smile appeared on her face. Thank god Chat wasn’t here. Sure, she made the plans but Chat was better at the physical aspects: fighting and sneaking. Though she was never going to tell him that to his face.

“Hah!”

Her body, acting on instinct through months of training and darting away from spontaneous attacks, immediately fell and rolled over, bouncing up to a crouch and narrowly dodging the snowball.

“What the-,” her eyes caught on a shock of yellow among white. Adrien. Her eyes narrowed. Game. On.

She grabbed three snowballs, glaring murderously at the seemingly innocent model. From the place where she crouched, she threw one snowball and instantly starting sprinting towards him. Once she was roughly 2 meters away, she jumped and shot the other snowballs at him in rapid succession. They hit him before he finished recovering from his earlier evasion of the snowball. She stood over him, beaming, “One down, one to go.”

For a second she looked away, wondering how Alya was faring, and that was her mistake. In that one instant, Adrien jumped up, his arms full of snow, and shoved the pile on her. He may have won then and there… if he hadn’t tripped.

Immediately, he pushed himself up into a push-up position so his weight wasn’t on her.

“S-sorry! I didn’t mean to-” his words caught in his throat as his eyes stopped darting around nervously and settled on Marinette, Snow was mixed in throughout the strands of her hair- the pigtails had somehow gotten loose during the fight. The sun sparkled on the snow, surrounding her in a mesmerizing halo of white that emphasized her dark, midnight blue hair and shimmering crystal blue eyes. A light blush crept up his face as he realized something that he always knew but never really thought about: Marinette was beautiful.

“A-adrien?”

“Y-y-yes?!” he started, instantly becoming alert as he registered the fact that he’s been staring at her for who knows how long.

“Are you okay?”

“Uh? Yes! Of course I am. I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?!” A nervous grin broke out as he stumbled his way through a simple affirmation.

“Then..,” Marinette looked at him curiously, “can you g-get off me?”

“What?” he remembered that he was still on her. “Oh, of course! Just give me a second.”

“I found the lovebirds, Nino!”

They both looked up and were greeted by the sight of Alya, her phone in hand and a victorious grin on her face.

“Oh.” Nino appeared next to her, a crestfallen expression on his face. “I guess that means you won the bet?”

“Yep! Give me my 5 dollars, mister.”

“Wait!” Marinette and Adrien cried out in unison, their faces a crimson red. “What are-what the- what exactly are you misunderstanding here?!”

They were ignored, as Nino paused before asking, “Wait, since we won, doesn’t it mean that we get a prize?”

“Hold on a sec,” Alya replied, her hand held up. “Why exactly do you think you’ve won?”

“Uhhh,” Nino looked at Alya with a “duh” expression on his face, “we had a tie and Adrien is on top of Marinette so…”

“Good point. Keep your 5 dollars.”

The redhead turned back to the fallen pair with an expectant expression, “So, are you guys going to get up or am I allowed to take more pictures?”

The fallen duo blushed even harder as Adrien scrambled to get off Marinette. Stuttering, he offered a hand and an apology. What he got in return was a faceful of snow.

"Hey!"

The freckled girl smiled like the angel she wasn't and pelted Adrien with more snowballs. Alya, recovering from her surprise first, instantly crouched down and pitched a snowball at Nino.

"W-what the-snow," the DJ spluttered, trying in vain to wipe the snow off his face. When he finally accomplished the feat, he was rewarded with yet another ball of snow.

The two girls evilly grinned at each other as they continued to shower their love interests in snowballs. Partly laughing and partly gasping, the two boys walked backward with their hands held up in mock surrender. Before they had gained enough distance to turn tail and flee, Nino's heel caught on a tree root. Desperately trying to save himself from falling, he grabbed Adrien's arm only to have both of them fall. Abruptly, they both stopped laughing and gulped as they stared at the girls towering over them with a decisive glint in their eyes.

Another onslaught of cold, white torture overwhelmed the boys. When it finally stopped, the devils decided to not waste time making more snowballs and, instead, started tickling the fallen pair.

"S-st-stop!!!" Nino gasped out in between peals of laughter. Adrien, meanwhile, was too tired to fight against the automatic laughter from being tickled and simply laid there giggling and laughing helplessly.

Alya paused long enough to pose a single question, "Do you surrender?"

"Y-yes! W-we s-surrender!!" Adrien and Nino finally laughed out. The girls shared a look and ceased their tickling.

"Now," Alya held out her hand towards Nino, "give me my five dollars."

"And treat us to hot chocolate since we won," Marinette piped up, grinning victoriously.

The two boys sighed simultaneously.

"Fine."