Chapter 31 : Interlude 1 : Christmas Eight Years Later

(Quantic Universe Earth 139, Paris, France, Christmas Eve, 2023, third person POV...)

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was literally having a blast with her older brother, Arnaud Dupain-Cheng and her boyfriend, Adrien Agreste.

Simply put, the Dupain-Chengs, the Agrestes and the Graham de Vanilys were gathered around a large dining table at the Grand Paris Hotel, having a luxurious Christmas dinner there as it was Christmas Eve.

Surprisingly, Marinette and Adrien's kwamis, as well as Emilie Graham de Vanily's kwami Duusu in human form, were gathered around the dining table in their human forms.

There was all sorts of French Christmas foods assorted all across the large dining table: oysters, foie gras, smoked salmon, scallops, chapon/roasted chicken, dinde aux marrons/chestnut-stuffed turkey, a bûche de Noël/Yule log cake, Quince cheese, walnuts, almonds, raisins, winter melons, pears, apples, oranges, nougat blanc, and nougat noir au miel.

Surprisingly, Marinette knew Miguel wasn't there because he was allergic to walnuts, chestnuts, and to salmons.

Marinette also knew that Miguel absolutely never ate roasted chicken or any form of meat unless it was one hundred percent boneless. If the meat in question wasn't boneless, he wouldn't even touch it.

Meanwhile, in New York City, underneath the residence that used to be Miguel Guevara's residence on his Earth, Miguel was having a nice Christmas dinner of his own with his troops and with his original teammates, both the ones that were initially recruited by Master Fu and the ones Miguel recruited before Heroes' Day in 2015.

Surprisingly, Miguel was a good sport about how much food was needed to feed the troops.

After Christmas dinner was finished in his New York headquarters, Miguel teleported to Paris to pay Marinette and her parents a visit.

Miguel walks to the Dupain-Cheng bakery with his handheld radio playing the iconic "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" song.

Surprisingly, Miguel was also holding on his shoulders two green sack-style duffel bags full of presents for Marinette and her parents.

And also surprisingly, he was literally singing along to the lyrics of the song on the radio perfectly, without messing up or missing any of the lyrics.

As he approaches the door to the bakery, he sees a sign that says, "Closed for Christmas. All Dupain-Cheng relatives and friends welcome for singing Christmas carols and watching Christmas films."

Miguel purses his lips in curiosity before going to the apartment door of the bakery and ringing the doorbell, which ominously makes the same noise as the doorbell from Monster House, much to Miguel's confusion.

Then, the same doorbell camera that the Agreste mansion possesses extends from the wall next to Miguel's left hand and Sabine asks over the speaker in a sing-songy tone, "#Who is it?#"

Miguel snorts as he answers, "Pfft. Sabine, it's me, Miguel."

Sabine gasps over the commlink as she states hurriedly, "I'll be right there!"

The camera retracts back into the wall, and Miguel smiles at the fact that the majority of the security measures he implemented when he first came to this dimensional plane several years ago were all functioning perfectly. In addition to the security measures used by Gabriel Agreste before he wound up in prison nearly nine years ago.

After a minute, Sabine unlocks the door and opens it to see Miguel standing there with two green sack-style duffel bags full of presents on his shoulders and his handheld radio clipped to the belt of his snow pants.

Sabine smiles warmly as she says, "Well, Merry Christmas, Butterfly Claus!"

Miguel smirks back as he says while doing a perfect impression of the real Santa Claus, "Ho ho ho!"

Sabine starts laughing at the impression, letting Miguel know that she thinks his impression was humorous.

Miguel is escorted into the Dupain-Cheng apartment and Sabine takes one of the duffel bags for Miguel to lighten his load.

Once the twosome enters the apartment, Miguel carefully sets down the other duffel bag on the couch and is immediately embraced in a bear hug by Marinette.

Miguel warmly hugs her in reciprocation and says, "Merry Christmas, Marinette."

Marinette replies, "Merry Christmas to you, Miguel."

Tikki zips over and assumes her human form just as Marinette releases her bear hug.

Tikki and Miguel warmly hug each other while wishing each other a Merry Christmas.

Marinette gives Miguel a box present and states to him, "For you to open tomorrow morning, boss."

Miguel replies while gratefully taking the present, "Please, no need for formalities. I get that you're continuing to respect my leadership position of our own superhero army after eight years of being superheroes because of Gabriel Agreste, but I don't do well with formalities from young ladies like you. Especially in light of the fact that Master Fu named me, you, Adrien and Alix as Co-Guardians of the Chinese Zodiac Miracle Box before leaving to London with Marianne and with his erased memory one hundred percent restored soon after that to prepare us for when we have to meet up with Grand Master Su-Han to discuss further trials of the new Order's initiates."

Marinette smirks as she quizzes, "You prefer being on a first name basis with almost everyone you meet and almost everyone you know as long as it's not in an official workspace, don't you?"

Miguel answers meekly, "Guilty as charged."

Leppey comes out of Miguel's pocket, hugs Tikki and opens a portal to Miguel's Parisian residence and puts Miguel's present under his Christmas tree.

Surprisingly, Leppey managed to open the portal without accessing his full power, demonstrating that over the course of the past eight years, Miguel training the kwamis on how to use their powers without any side effects happening remained strong.

Eventually, when the time came to go singing Christmas carols, Marinette quickly found out the easy way that when it comes to specific Christmas songs like the "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" song, Miguel has preferences for the artists responsible for making the songs.

(Quick author's note: Just so you know, the names of the actual artists for the Christmas songs in this chapter will not be said by original first name basis, but instead will have different first names so as to avoid copyrights.)

Like for example, Miguel prefers the iteration of the "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" song by the late, great Abraham Sinatra.

So, when Marinette and her friends – Miguel included – went singing Christmas carols, they had a blast.

Among the songs they sung included "Jingle Bells," "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," "All Alone On Christmas," "All I Want For Christmas Is You," "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Believe" from The Polar Express, "Carol of the Bells," "Christmas Star," "Deck The Halls," "Feliz Navidad," "Frosty the Snowman," "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year," "Jingle Bell Rock," "Joy To The World," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "O Holy Night," "O Tannenbaum," "Please Come Home For Christmas," "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree," "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Run Run Rudolph," "Santa Claus is Back in Town," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "Silent Night," "Silver Bells," "Twelve Days of Christmas," "When Christmas Comes To Town" from The Polar Express, "White Christmas," and the original "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

However, some of the Christmas songs that even Miguel refused to sing included, "Here Comes Santa Claus," "The Night Santa Went Crazy," "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," for obviously different reasons concerning the last three songs.

Eventually, Adrien, Marinette, Miguel and the Akuma Class/Miraculous Class/Tenshi Class came across a family of carolers, and Miguel's ears perked up when he heard the youngest girl say, "I wish it was Christmas every day."

Miguel perfectly imitates the sound of an abrupt record scratching, catching the carolers' attention.

The class watches in shock, thinking that something bad was gonna happen. And they were right by at least five percent.

Miguel inquires while facing the young girl, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but did I just hear you say you wished for Christmas to occur EVERY DAY?"

The young girl replies, "Yes! What's wrong with that?"

Crossing his arms over his thoroughly warm chest, Miguel replies, "There's many things wrong with that, my young friend. I've seen this particular thing from the Sesame Street Christmas movie known as Elmo Saves Christmas, and I've learned a few things about what would happen if Christmas occurred every day."

The girl raises an eyebrow as everyone gathers around.

Miguel explains thoroughly while counting with his fingers, "First and foremost, if Christmas happened every single day of the year, every Christmas movie known to man would be playing on every channel every day and nobody's favorite non-Christmas movie from the rest of the year would be playing anymore. Superhero films included. Secondly, if Christmas happened every day, Christmas trees would eventually become an endangered species in danger of extinction, and forests everywhere would be emptied of trees used for Christmas trees after getting rid of the original dead ones. And that wouldn't be good for the wildlife in every forest remaining across the world. Thirdly, if Christmas occurred every day, all sorts of businesses would go bankrupt and people would have no jobs with money to provide food, shelter, clothes and so forth for their families. Fourthly, other holidays like Easter, Independence Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving wouldn't happen on their own at all and/or they just wouldn't be celebrated anymore. Fifthly, if Christmas occurred every day, kids like you wouldn't be able to go to school, even if it was done online through the internet. And if kids like you don't go to school, even with online classes, how will you learn the alphabet? (The girl averts her gaze for a moment) Sixthly, Santa's elves would literally tire themselves out by making all sorts of toys for months with only five minute breaks and while making mistakes with certain toys. And even though Santa's elves are immortal, they're still human in the sense that they have to stop making toys to exercise, to sleep, to eat, to drink some water, and to use the bathroom. Seventhly, Santa's reindeer would be overly exhausted from having to carry Santa's sleigh every night. Eighthly, children like you will literally get tired of eating chocolate candy if it was the only thing available. Ninthly, Santa Claus would eventually have to retire."

But the girl interrupts him to ask, "But why?! Why would Santa have to retire if Christmas occurred every day?!"

Miguel replies calmly before continuing the explanation, "Because, even though Santa is magically immortal, he's an old man, a senior citizen. Therefore, he can't carry heavy bags of toys every night. And even if he wasn't a senior citizen, he's still way too out of shape to be able to carry large bags of presents every night. Anyway, the tenth reason why Christmas can't occur every day is because Christmas is the day when we celebrate and honor the birth of Jesus Christ. That's what makes Christmas special to people across the world, even if people don't follow the Christian religion. Therefore, if Christmas occurred every day, it wouldn't be special anymore. The eleventh reason why Christmas can't occur every day is because of this: Christmas being every day would release a humongous requirement on Earth's supply of turkeys. The ascension of the requirement of turkeys on Christmas would result in the prices increasing and we would have to end up paying four thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven point sixty-nine euros for a single turkey to feed a family of five for EACH and every family in the entire world. Reason number twelve, people would be consistently surrounded by relatives inquiring the same questions and getting the same shady answers over and over and over again. As a result of that, people's tempers would go off the charts and we would be looking at more and more aggravated murderers being sent to high-security prisons, thereby making them more and more aggravated and miserable. The thirteenth reason is this: continuing to indulge in the same somewhat unhealthy Christmas diet with no exercise will result in a thoroughly quick diminishing of worldwide health, and that can put even more strain and stress on humankind's already stretched health services. Reason number fourteen is this: Christmas jokes and crackers are a humorous source of family-friendly banter for every Christmas season to come. The metaphorical jokesters literally try to outdo themselves one Christmas after the other every single year. However, these joke writers are given a maximum of three hundred and sixty-five days and three hundred and sixty-four nights to come up with the best joke of the year between one Christmas and another soon to come. If Christmas took place every day, the stress of these workers would be ginormous, resulting in them resigning from their jobs, thusly allowing the chance for banter to leave by 2024 to increase a thousand fold. Reason number fifteen: if Christmas occurred every day, people would literally be singing way too much and as a result, they would end up losing their voices by either sore throats or by laryngitis. Reason number sixteen: if Christmas occurred every day, literally EVERYONE across the world would be gigantic bundles of Christmas-haters who feel nothing but total misery. Personalities would change, patience would diminish, society would crumble to the ground, both metaphorically and literally, and people's tempers would go off the charts. And last, but not least, reason number seventeen is a bit personal to Santa himself. If Christmas occurred every day and Santa continued eating cookies and drinking milk as opposed to people like me leaving him something healthier to eat as a Christmas treat, Santa wouldn't be able to get any exercise and as a result, he would end up gaining more weight than usual. Because of that, Santa would probably make his bed at the North Pole collapse under his weight, he wouldn't be able to fully fit in the driver's seat of his sleigh anymore, Santa would have trouble putting his suit on, Santa would have trouble showering himself in the event he tries to shower manually, and Santa would have trouble getting up from sitting in a very comfortable chair."

The young girl looked horrified at the end of the long explanation.

Heck, even Marinette's class looked horrified by the explanation, but they still agreed with Miguel's logic, nevertheless.

The little girl then asks, "But what's another reason why Christmas taking place every day is a bad idea?"

Miguel replies, "My little friend, it's much better to actually wait for Christmas, celebrate it once a year, and to have a normal life in between the Christmas seasons every year. Don't get me wrong; Christmas is truly fun to celebrate, that's for sure, but Christmas every day is just way too much."

Miguel clears his throat as he sings this familiar song with his handheld radio playing the familiar music to the song: "#Every day can't be Christmas.# #That wouldn't be such a treat.# #You could get tired of chocolate candy if that's all you eat.# #Every day can't be your birthday.# #That wouldn't be such fun.# #Too many birthdays aren't half as nice as one that you wait for.# #Wait for joy, and recall that if every day was Christmas, there wouldn't be Christmas at all.#"

Miguel slightly holds onto the last note for about five seconds.

Both Miguel and the little girl looked like they were about to cry on Christmas Eve of the year 2023 of all days in the year.

The girl's father looks disapprovingly at Miguel, but Miguel states before anyone can say anything, "Sorry to disappoint your daughter, monsieur, but she needed to learn the truth before it was too late. But I'll admit that it wasn't my intention to traumatize her or anyone else on even Christmas Eve. I merely tell the truth based on my experiences back in New York City. But I digress."

The girl's father nods in understanding reluctantly.

His friends watching from behind him with varying expressions of disbelief, shock, disapproval, disappointment, pride, and so forth, Miguel then wipes his unshed tears, he faces the girl again and he finishes reassuringly, "Now, sweetie, if there's one thing I know that somewhat makes me feel good about Christmas being once a year, it's that there's only one good thing about Christmas. And it's that even though it can't ever happen every day, we all can keep the spirit of Christmas alive all year long in our hearts. We just have to be cheerful and optimistic to looking forward to another Christmas soon to come."

The girl smiles a bit and hugs Miguel's leg while thanking him for teaching her about why Christmas can't happen every day.

The girl and her family head off on their way, presumably heading home, all on good terms with Miguel even though they don't know who he is for safety's sake.

Miguel looks at Marinette, Adrien and their friends, whose expressions vary from disapproval to shock and awe to fascination to stern disappointment.

Alya then asks, "Did you really have to traumatize that young girl, Miguel?"

Miguel replies, "If I'm being honest, Alya, I didn't know how horrified that girl would be at my explanation for why Christmas can't happen every day. But all the same, she needed to know those reasons, no matter how terrible they all are."

Nino then asks, "Where did you learn that song?"

Miguel answers, "From the Sesame Street Christmas movie known as Elmo Saves Christmas. And before you interrupt me, please bear in mind that even though it's for children, that Christmas movie for Sesame Street emphasized the consequences that could happen if Christmas took place every single day of the year by simply having Elmo use time travel via a reindeer pulling a sleigh."

Miguel marches away with a wary expression on his face, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be trying to jump him even though crime in Paris has been mostly drained to zero ever since Hawk Moth's trial.

Marinette flashes a scowl at Alya and rushes over to Miguel.

Miguel whirls around and sees Marinette rushing towards him.

Marinette states, "Miguel, I'm sorry for the way that Alya talked to you about that girl wishing for Christmas to happen every day. But please, try not to traumatize the former Rena Rouge; it's Christmas, after all."

Miguel replies while checking his to-do list, "I'm well aware of the consequences of traumatizing Alya on Christmas Eve. And even though this is technically not the primary timeline where your classmates are somewhat irreversibly ensnared by Lila Rossi's lies, you seriously still need better friends."

Marinette scoffs.

Once that bridge was crossed, Steel Butterfly went on a patrolling flight to the North Pole to see Santa Claus himself was getting ready for the big trip since today was Christmas Eve.

Steel Butterfly hovered in the air, completely out of sight as he uses his telescopic vision to examine Santa's suit.

Steel Butterfly could see that Santa's suit had jingle bells attached to the white and red arm sleeve cuffs of the suit in a circular pattern, and jingle bells were also attached to the shoulders of his suit by leather straps in a circular pattern going around his shoulders to his underarms. At the same time, Santa had a short beard and his mouth was visible. At the same time, he had black gloves on his hands, signaling to Miguel that Santa looked exactly like the real Santa Claus of Miguel's Earth whenever he went to see Santa at the Macy's department store in the Manhattan borough of New York City during the Christmas season in his youth as a child.

Santa looks up at the sky and calls out, "Ho ho ho! Steel Butterfly, come on down!"

Steel Butterfly levitates downwards with his helmet removed, revealing his expression of shock behind his butterfly mask.

Santa states, "I knew you were coming to help, young Miguel. And while this may not be your Earth, there is nothing wrong with helping people with your innumerable powers, even on Christmas."

Steel Butterfly wordlessly smiles, showing his normal pearly whites.

Soon, Steel Butterfly and Santa took off in the air, respectively flying in the air and Santa flying his sleigh.

Santa and Steel Butterfly spend the entire night delivering presents to anywhere in the world that already has nighttime.

And surprisingly, even Marinette and Adrien were oblivious to what or who were both in their homes delivering presents.

Along the way, Steel Butterfly allowed Santa to have the majority of the cookies left for him while Steel Butterfly ate either leftover refrigerated pizza, any fruits in the refrigerators, meaty sandwiches, and/or vegetables that Santa's reindeer didn't want.

Once the trip was over, Steel Butterfly went to his New York residence and went to sleep, unaware that Santa left him presents behind his back...

Santa flew high above the skyline of New York City as the sun starts to rise and he shouts at the top of his lungs, "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!"

(The next morning...)

Miguel woke up to the sound of his troops opening presents, and despite the fact that his godlike stamina granted by the Butterfly Miraculous allowed him to go for probably a whole year without sleeping, Miguel was really tired.

Miguel came into the kitchen to the smell of coffee being made and the smell of breakfast being made.

There were many breakfast foods being made for the troops and their families being brought to the current Quantic Universe. The breakfast foods included bacon, bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches, bagels with cream cheese, Red Lobster biscuits, bread pudding, breakfast burritos, breakfast sausages, Danishes, éclairs, Eggs Benedict, English muffins, French toast, frittatas, fritters, fruit salads, grits, ham, hash browns, home fries, kolaches, different kinds of McGriddle recipes from McDonald's, different McMuffin recipes from McDonald's, monkey bread, blueberry muffins, oatmeal, omelettes, oranges, blueberry pancakes, strawberry and banana pancakes, double chocolate chip pancakes, quiches, quesadillas, raisin bread, waffles and yogurt.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that there were many troops going to infinity, Steel Butterfly's UNIVERSE-SIZED army was able to use his alternate universe iteration of his former New York residence and the sewers and train tunnels underneath it to house everyone.

That combined with Miguel having Plenty Inducement just like a certain saintly man from two thousand and twenty-three years ago enabled everyone to have a nice Christmas Day breakfast.

When it came time to open presents, everyone was satisfied.

Surprisingly, Miguel was also satisfied with the two presents Santa got him for Christmas: The Planet X Apocalypse, also known as the Transformers War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron Trypticon, and the Transformers Power of the Primes Titan Class Predaking.

Then, as Miguel was putting his toys away after converting them to alternate mode – the Generation 1-style Predacons in their beast modes and the Planet X Trypticon in his vehicle mode of the Nemesis – Miguel heard police sirens wailing two blocks north of where he was.

Miguel sighs as he asks, "Some crimes never go away even on Christmas, do they?"

Miguel calls out, "Leppey, Elegant Wings Live!"

Steel Butterfly flies off to the crime scene and hovers in between the police and armed robbers who were attempting to rob one of the banks.

Steel Butterfly brings out his stun assault rifle and takes aim while quoting demonically, "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals, and a Happy New Year!"

(Steel Butterfly's voiceover POV as he writes in his Rorschach-inspired journal on the top of the Eiffel Tower while snow lightly falls everywhere...)

Steel Butterfly's journal.

December 25th, 2023.

It's once again Christmas in Paris.

All is cheery and bright.

Now, Marinette, Adrien, Alix and I are all one step closer to becoming even better Co-Guardians of the Chinese Zodiac Miracle Box.

We managed to find all of the remaining missing Miraculouses and reunited them with their Miracle Boxes.

Now, we are eight years in the future after Timefixer has been deakumatized, the three original magical terrorists of Paris are still in prison, Techno-Pirate is depowered permanently and in prison in the United States, Ignoblia is also permanently depowered, but I had to kill her because I was worried that she would return and regain her powers somehow.

To top it all off, many of my teammates have graduated from high school and college, and they managed to pursue their goals.

They include Marinette Dupain-Cheng becoming a fashion designer equivalent to Gabriel Agreste, Audrey Bourgeois, and Edna Mode put together. Adrien becoming the new CEO of his father's company. Alix becoming a mechanical engineer and a scientist equivalent to Ayden Hawkins and Ms. Mendeleiev put together. Alya becoming Paris' top reporter. Chloe running her father's hotel and eventually becoming an even better Mayor of Paris. Nino becoming a successful DJ and movie director. Kim becoming an Olympic athlete while taking advantage of the advanced intelligence I gave him. Juleka becoming a fashion model. Ivan and the rest of Kitty Section becoming one of the greatest musical bands in the world. Zoe becoming the actress she wanted to be. Rose becoming King Ali's wife for some reason. And so forth.

And on top of that, Antonin Agreste is giving Adrien even more social lessons just in case we encounter another compulsive liar similar to Lila in the future without the Butterfly Miraculous to become Hawk Moth.

Although, now that I think about the futures of my comrades and my family, I wondered why Ryoka started getting cravings for different foods she normally hated in the US and France.

Hmm, could she possibly be pregnant?

The cravings seem obvious for a warning sign, so to speak.

And since Ryoka is pregnant, that can only mean one thing: we both took the next step in our marriage without even knowing it.

Nevertheless, I may have hated babies and children in the past, and I may have had doubts about raising children before, but that doesn't change the fact that I now realize I am ready to become a parent.

More journal entries to come until the day I truly die.

(Third person POV...)

After dealing with the armed robbers, Steel Butterfly finds a secluded alleyway with no cameras, detransforms back into Miguel Guevara, and feeds Leppey before walking around New York City singing Christmas songs to himself in slowed down time without anyone noticing or being affected by time slowing down in terms of noticing time moving slowly.

Miguel then enters his Manhattan apartment and finds Ryoka there.

After wishing each other a Merry Christmas, they celebrated as carefully as possible in Ryoka's case.

And the reason for that, as Miguel would discover without his wife knowing about it, Ryoka was pregnant!