Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Finally!” Chloé threw open her door and yanked Sabrina inside. “If everyone insists on these ridiculous Easter Egg things then mine have to be the very best!  So you’ve better get cracking, Sabrina!

“Of course, Chloé!” Sabrina smiled.  “Isn’t this going to be so much fun, sir?”

“Ugh!” Chloé scoffed.  “How could a bunch of eggs be fun?  It’s not even caviar!  And don’t call me sir!”

“Sorry, si—I mean, sorry Chloé!” Sabrina hurried to the rarely used kitchenette and began removing eggs from the small refrigerator.

“I mean, honestly!” Chloé ranted, pacing.  “If Zoé hadn’t gotten everyone riled up about this-this Easter Bunny nonsense!  Then I could be enjoying my pedicure like I SHOULD be and not toiling over a bunch of chicken eggs like a FARMER!”

“Oh, but bunnies are adorable!” Sabrina said with a smile as she confusedly examined the kitchen appliances and took out a waffle iron.

“You know what’s adorable?” Chloé scoffed.  “Dark chocolate truffle eggs wrapped in edible gold leaf!”

Chloé flopped on the couch and plucked a truffle from a crystal bowl as if to illustrate her point.

“It’s just pathetic, really, how Zoé has to ingrate herself with all of MY friends in MY class!” Chloé sighed.  “They were my friends first and they’ll always prefer me over her!”

“Why wouldn’t we, Chloé?” Sabrina asked as she plugged in the waffle iron and placed the eggs—shell and all—on the surface.  “You’re so cool and generous!”

“Obviously!” Chloé checked her nails and ate another truffle.  “But ZOÉ just HAD to get everyone worked up about the party and now I’m stuck making eggs for some whiney brats!”

“But I’m sure your Easter Eggs will be the prettiest at the party in the park!” Sabrina said.  “And all the kids from the center will want to find your eggs over anyone else’s!  What are they supposed to look like anyway?”

Chloé froze when she heard a loud CRaCK!

Slowly, she got up and walked to the kitchenette.  There, in all its gory glory, was a waffle iron overflowing with egg goop and shells and a very pleased with herself Sabrina presiding over it all.

“You’ve never made an Easter Egg.” Chloé said, flatly.

“No, Papa buys them at the store!” Sabrina said.

“But you’ve seen one?” Chloé said in disbelief.

“Yes, why?” Sabrina asked.

Chloé stared at her before she rolled her eyes, yanked out the power cord, grabbed Sabrina by the arm, and marched to the door.

“Jean Herman!” Chloé shouted.

🐣🐣🐣

“Alright, everyone!” Marinette clapped her hands together.  “Everyone knows their stations for tomorrow!  The park will open to guests at one and everyone on set up crew needs to arrive no later than half past noon.  Alya, are the permits in place?”

“Check, girl!” Alya said.

Marinette marked it off her list.  “Signs for the park entrances?”

“Got them,” Nathaniel held up the signs.

“Table for the donation booth?”

“I’ll clean the display table off and put it in the hall with the rest of the supplies after the rush is done, Cupcake!” Tom called from the back of the bakery.  “The brioche de Pâques are flying off the shelves like the cathedral bells!”

“Games committee?” Marinette looked to Alix and Kim.

“We have the supplies in the storage boxes over there,” Alix nodded.

“This is gonna be awesome!” Kim high-fived Alix and then tried to chest-bump Max…only managing to knock him over and alarm Markov, who had an exclamation point appear on his face.

Marinette quickly went over the rest of the details, including who had volunteered to make real and prize-filled eggs for the Easter egg hunt.

“And Zoé promised to bring the books for the story corner…I’ve got the blankets to set that up…” Marinette made a few notations.  “And then the volunteer playing the bunny will arrive at two pm!  This is great everyone, thank you for your hard work!”

The group cheered and with a few last words began to clear the hallway and stairs of the patisserie, many making their way through the front of the shop to indulge in some sweet purchases.

An arm landed over Marinette’s shoulder and she yelped a little with a smile.

“Eggcellent leadership skills in action, my little Marizipan!” Adrien kissed her temple.

Marinette giggled.  “Thank you, my…Adri…croissant?  You know what, I’ll just stick with chéri.”

Adrien chuckled, “I can life with that.”

“Are you looking forward to tonight?” Marinette asked with a smile.

“Very much, but a little nervous.” Adrien admitted.

“Understandable, but you’ve got nothing to worry about, you’ll see.” Marinette hesitated and then asked.  “And…your father?  Is he coming?”

Adrien sighed and removed his arm so he could lean against the wall instead.  “Last I spoke to him—or should I say Nathalie—they were still in Milan organizing a merger with a textile company.  But…he’s just been avoiding me more, lately.  He’s either locked in his office or away on trips.”

“Maybe…he really couldn’t avoid it?” Marinette said half heartedly.

Adrien smiled sadly at the attempt.  “Normally, he makes excuses not to leave the mansion.  No, I know the board asked him to take a more active role in the company, but I’m sure the only reason he’s taken on so much travel is because I’ve been seeking him out more.  The business trips only ‘suddenly’ come up when I ask him to spend time with me and I’ve already confirmed his schedule is free.  When it’s clear he can’t make an excuse to avoid me in town, he claims he had a last minute trip that couldn’t be avoided.”

“I’m sorry, Adrien.” Marinette said.

Adrien shrugged.  “Gorilla will be there, though, and you and your family.  Plus Nino.”

Marinette nodded and put on a smile as she squeezed him in a hug.  “Awesome night, guaranteed!”

Adrien hugged her back and then lifted his head to the door when he heard a car honk.

“That’s Gorilla, I’d better go,” Adrien kissed her cheek.  “See you tonight.”

“See you that’s right—I mean, tonight!” Marinette waved until Adrien was out the door and then facepalmed.

Alya snickered as she came through the bakery door with a bag of fritures de pâques.  “Girl, you two are adorable, don’t ever change.”

Marinette pouted and stole one of the marzipan fishes.  “Don’t start, the twins told me all the mushy, embarrassing secrets they have over you and Nino.”

“Which I’ll never forget and it will come back to bite them when they’re teenagers.” Alya shrugged with a grin.

Marinette rolled her eyes.  “Say, do I need to send any instructions to the bunny volunteer?  I never got a name for that.”

Alya blinked back at her.  "Oh, I thought you knew…”

🐣🐣🐣

“Eww!  Sabrina!” Chloé complained as she flung the dye packets away from her.  “Get over here and fix these egg dying thingies!  If my hands get all stained you’ll have to redo my manicure, and the diamonds are so hard to glue on and off!”

“Be right there, Chloé!” Sabrina said cheerfully.

“Honestly, why do people go to all this trouble for a bunch of stinky eggs…” Chloé tsked and admired her nails.  “It’s SO much work for something that’s just going to rot in the grass when some kid ends up not finding it…now, the Romanovs!  They had the right idea…”

“How long should I set the microwave for, do you think?” Sabrina asked.  “I thought five minutes should be long enough, but—“

“You’re microwaving an egg?!" Chloé stared at her.

“No, I told you I was hurrying!” Sabrina assured.  “I’m microwaving the whole dozen!”

“Sabrina!” Chloé shrieked.  “That’s absolutely—“

BANG!

The girls shrieked and ducked as the eggs began to explode and the microwave door burst open, flinging egg shrapnel across the room.

“Jean Christophe!”

🐣🐣🐣

“In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost…”

Adrien smiled and closed his eyes to enjoy the sense of peace he felt poring out from his heart.  His dad may not have cared enough to watch him be baptized, but His Heavenly Father was with him.  Not because he’d been the perfect son, or posed on enough magazine covers, or got the highest grades…God didn’t demand of him like Gabriel did.  God loved him, period.  God was love, and everyday Adrien was learning more of what Love, real love, was.

He’d started thinking more about it when he’d saw a picture frame in a store.  It had 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 written on it and some other customer had been scoffing at it and calling it sappy to his friends.  But Adrien couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Love was…everything to Adrien.  And sometimes, it felt like it was what most lacked in his life.  He knew his friends loved him, but what about his father?  He constantly tried to be everything he could be for his father, yet Gabriel rarely showed any appreciation when he did something well and often was quick to judge his failures.  With talking to Nino and the Gorilla, Adrien was coming to recognize more of the toxic behaviors his dad practiced, but still.

Having the definition of love laid before him was startling and made something click.  Love was patient, kind, and it bears, believes, hopes, and endures.  It be didn’t rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoiced with the truth.

That started him on another journey of relearning what truth was.  Not a ‘narrative’ that the press department fabricated, not what people wanted to hear, not what would get him—or, more often, his father—his own way.  He’d asked Nino about his thoughts (Nino did date Alya and the girl was OBSESSED with exposing truth) and what his church taught about it, but Nino told him something that again rocked his world.

“Dude, I could tell you, but why don’t you just ask God?” Nino shrugged.  “He doesn’t need me to talk for Him, just listen to what He tells you.”

And that began some of the best conversations of Adrien’s life.  He wasn’t sure, at first, what he was supposed to listen for.  A big voice booming from the sky?  Some people said a still, quiet voice? What exactly did that mean, anyway?

Adrien kept talking to God.  It was nice to know that even if Adrien wasn’t sure what he was hearing, God always heard him.  Then one day, Adrien felt a little nudge.  Something just…popped in his heart like an answer.

And Adrien did a double take and asked God, “Wait, was that You or me?!”

So he went to the Bible and double checked the answer to what the Bible said about it.

And checked the answer again and kept talking to God and kept listening.

Which all led him here, to being baptized the night before Easter.  He’d been baptized in a very regal ceremony when he was a baby, but this time it was his choice.  He was one of over ten thousand baptisms taking place across France this Easter, but what he soaked in wasn’t about any of the others, or about his friends and their families, or even Gorilla who had named himself Godfather.

At that moment’s it was just Adrien and his Father.  All around him, all loving him, and all present, forever.

Adrien sat back down in the church pew, receiving a few hugs and pats on the back from his family.  The service continued and they sang praise songs and lit candles to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, the freedom from sin and death.

And then the service was over and Adrien felt charged with electricity and yet slightly nervous and unsure about what to do with it all.  Nino was chasing his little brother around and trying to take back the goodie box the Dupain-Chengs had brought before Nino had to deal with sharing his room with a sugar monster.  Tom and Sabine were talking with Gorilla and some other adults they knew.  And Marinette…

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Adrien asked.

“Huh?” Marinette snapped to attention and tried to bite back the worried look she’d had as she typed rapidly on her phone.  “Nothings wrong!  Everything’s perfect!  Wasn’t this a great night!  You look great with wet hair!  Is that a weird thing to say after a baptism?  Hahahahaha….!”

“Marinette.” Adrien raised an eyebrow at her.

And she cracked like an Easter Egg.

“I’ve been tying not to think about it because I didn’t want to ruin tonight, but I’m running out of time!”  Marinette clutched her hair and nearly knocked off the fascintor hat she’d made.

“Okay, deep breath.” Adrien heaved a breath—a far less dramatic one than his girlfriend—and then another with her.  “You didn’t ruin anything, but what’s wrong?”

“You remember when Alya said she’d handle posting the request for a volunteer to play the Easter Bunny tomorrow?” Marinette said, already grimacing.

“Yeah…?”

“Apparently Lila offered to take it off her hands since Alya was already working on the permits.” Marinette started jumping from one foot to another in restless energy.  “Alya thought she had it handled, but when she called to confirm, she couldn’t get Lila to answer her phone.  Her message said she’d be out of cell phone reach this weekend while she celebrated with some royal family in some blah-blah-blah location that didn’t have cell reception.”

“How subtle.” Adrien rolled his eyes.  “Continue.”

“So Alya started calling around to see if anyone knew who Lila had hired and it seems everyone had heard either from Lila, herself, or the grapevine that I had generously offered to take over that job!” Marinette groaned.

Adrien facepalmed and may have growled a little but no one could hear—probably—so it was—hopefully—not weird.

“I’ve been looking everywhere but I don’t know of anyone that is available for free on Easter Sunday at this late of notice!” Marinette said.  “Rose connected me to a few hospital volunteers she knows, but they’re all already committed to plans for tomorrow!  A couple of the people from our class offered to jump into the suit, but the problem is we don’t HAVE a suit!  That was supposed to be arranged along with the volunteer!”

“Okay…yeah…” Adrien nodded his head as though he knew what he was doing.  “So…I know we told the kids about this and Zoe was excited, but the Easter Bunny is more American, anyway…right?  They probably wouldn’t be too disappointed…?”

“If I stay up all night I might be able to pull something together…” Marinette thought to herself.

“Marinette, no…”

“No, really!” Marinette nodded.  “The white shag rug in the bathroom is probably not big enough, but with a little careful measuring—“

“Marinette, I mean, no you’re not staying up all night to make a costume because Lila sabotaged you.” Adrien said.  “I’m sure Alya’s already on it, but I’ll talk to our friends and no one’s going to think this was your responsibility.”

“But I don’t want the kids to be disappointed.” Marinette deflated.

Adrien hugged her.  “I know, but it’s still going to be massively fun for the kids, the bunny was just one part of the fun, not the whole thing.”

Huh.  There went that still, small voice.

Adrien grinned, “No promises…but I think I might just have an idea….”

🐣🐣🐣

“Maybe I should have just cracked open Fluff…” Marinette whispered as she chewed at her nails.

“I don’t think this qualifies as something the Last Chance Miraculous really needs to be brought out for,” Tikki whispered to her from her hiding place in her hat—a different hat from yesterday, thank you, she’d made a new hat for each day of Easter from Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday.  “Besides, look how much fun the kids are having!”

Marinette smiled, the kids were laughing, chasing each other around as they collected eggs.  Sabine was leading a craft while Tom handed out pastries as prizes for the various games.  Adrien had just left to get more pastel macrons from the bakery and Mr. Haprèle was preforming mime in the crowd and encouraging the kids to join in.

“Heeheeheeheehee!”

“Claudette, that’s way too much chocolate!”

“I found an egg!”

“It’s so shiny!”

“Here comes Peter Cotton Tail…”

“When’s the bunny coming?”

“I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

“Isn’t he coming?”

“Did we do something wrong?”

“No no!  The Easter Bunny will be here soon!”

Marinette felt like a teakettle about to explode from trapped steam.

“Hey, look!  Is that the Easter Bunny?”

“No, you blockhead!  The Easter Bunny’s not black with a long tail!”

Wait, what?

“It’s—“

A blur of black flipped into the midst of children gathered around Zoé for the story reading and struck a pose.

“The Easter Cat, at your service!” Cat Noir struck a heroic stance, complete with a rabbit headband wedged in front of his cat ears.  “The Easter Bunny called me and said he had an eggcelent night making deliveries, but he was feeling a little scrambled today—so I’m filling in!”

Cat Noir hopped and danced between the cheering children and placed a small, plastic egg into each of their hands.

“Joyeuses Pâques, everyone!” Cat Noir shouted above the cheers.  “He is Risen!”

Several of the children and adults called back, “He is Risen indeed!”

“I can’t believe it!” Alya exclaimed at Marinette’s side, phone out and recording.  “Did you know he was coming?!”

“No, I didn’t!” Marinette grinned.  “But I should have.  The kids are loving this!”

“Almost as much as that kitty loves being a rascally old rabbit!” Alya chuckled.

Zoé started reading again and Cat Noir began acting out the scenes next to her, only pausing to hand more eggs out to new kids.

Marinette sighed in relief.  “Okay, so maybe this isn’t such a disaster…”

“Of course not!” Alya nudged her with her hip.  “If anything, this is—hey, Kim!  What’s the rush?  You’re going to mow down the minis!”

Kim paused by them for a moment but kept jogging in place.

“Can’t talk, hunting eggs!” Kim told them.

“Kim, the hunt is supposed to be for the kids!” Alya caught his sleeve before he could bolt again.

“Chloé and Sabrina’s eggs blew chunks but Chloé still wanted to be the one to bring the best eggs so she bought them!” Kim explained.

“So?” Marinette asked.  “That’s fine, there’s some great prepackaged eggs out there and—“

“And Chloé went all extra and bought ones studded with real jewels!” Kim blurted.  “I’m gonna buy Ondine her own pool!”

Kim was gone before they could say cotton tail and all Marinette and Alya could do was stare after him with their jaws dropped.

“Is she insane?” Marinette wondered.  “This could cause a riot!”

“I mean…” Alya shrugged.  “Most of the participants are still just kids and they’re having fun.  Word doesn’t seem to be spreading and I’m not seeing a frenzy?”

Marinette blew her bangs off her face and shook her head.  “Oh well, let’s pray no one else notices until they get home.  Joyeuses Pâques!”

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16-17

English Standard Version

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:20-22

English Standard Version

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

English Standard Version

End note:

So, this is another fic inspired by Snoopy!  A little more loosely than my previous Christmas fic, but I had to recreate that egg scene between Peppermint Patty and Marcie, and Chloé and Sabrina seemed the perfect victims!

I looked it up, among a lot of cool traditions, markets, and celebrations in France, France’s Roman Catholic Church is scheduled for more than 10,000 adult and adolescent baptisms this Easter which is a record.  Congrats!

I don’t know what a French baptism ceremony would be like, I was baptized in a lake while wearing my sister’s hand-me-down tie-dye t-shirt.  Adrien’s experience listening to God is similar to what I experience, a lot of nudges, big obvious moments of peace, moments where I don’t feel like I’m doing enough even though I know He thinks different, a lot of joy, and a lot of moments where I ask Him, “Hey, was that You or me?!”

Happy Easter and I hope you have a wonderful holiday, knowing how immeasurably loved you are by a God beyond compare.

He is Risen!

Because I love sharing songs, here’s one I didn’t mention in the fic but is one of my favorites by Jordan Feliz:

Jordan Feliz - “Gallows (Oh What A Savior)”