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When you turn 18 you get a tattoo somewhere on your body that represents your soulmate. It could be anything in the world to their name or a picture. Mom had a cake on her back and dad had her name in Chinese on his thumb. I always dreamed about what I would get and where it would be. I always imagined that I would have it on my side where I could his it easily but also show it off. And I always hoped it would have something to do with Adrien, my little blessing.
But I got a curse.
The night before I turned 18 Alya stayed the night. She wanted to be the first one to see my new tattoo. Alya had turned 18 a few months before I did when she woke up she found a small pair of green headphones on her wrist. She was ecstatic, we all knew who that belong to, and it was confirmed when the next month her got a pencil on his knee.
We could not sleep all night but we did end up passing out. When we awoke we looked everywhere for it.
Right there on my ankle was a small black cat.
We both were in shock. Alya instantly joked around saying Chat Noir was my soulmate how I am so lucky… but I just could not speak.. Because Chat Noir was my soulmate, not Adrien.
Alya saw my distress and told me that maybe Adrien likes black cats I do not need to worry about it. But I knew.
This wasn't a blessing, it was a curse.
It took me months to wrap my head around what was really going on. I just really could not believe my partner would be my soulmate, but I guess it's not a bad thing. I do love him just.. never in that way, he's my funny pun loving partner and that was it right? Days and nights I sat on my bed looking at this small black cat and tracing the outline with my finger, why was so torn about this? I should be happy!
It just… it wasn't Adrien..
But I decided, I'm 18 now some little tattoo should not get in my way. I will learn to love Chat and by the time it hit his 18th birthday I would tell him. I will tell him that I Marinette is his soulmate
But waiting took much longer then I thought. Because slowly at first I did start falling in love with this silly cat. I didn't notice at first, but every time I would see him smile, or laugh I would smile too. If he was in danger or hurt I would react much stronger than I use too. I just could not stand to see him hurt, more times then once I had to hide my tears.
I loved my partner.
Do not get me wrong I still love Adrien, but I just did not really know Adrien, silly as it sounds this hero clad in black who I had no idea was, I still knew him better then the guy I was pinning for, for 4 years.
I knew Chat loved to sing when he was bored, that when he he's nerves he puts his hand on his neck, that when he is truly happy about it he has such a huge smile.
The only thing I knew about Adrien was his name and schedule.
But I waited, I wanted to be sure that he was truly my soulmate, he would ask every so often about my tattoo and I would just smile and say he will know someday and yoyo away.
Finally it was the week of his 18th birthday, he would not tell me the day but he told me the week. After four years though I figured out the day, I baked him some chocolate chip croissants packed them up and grabbed the silly little sweater I made him and hopped out my window.
He was waiting for me, he knew I figured out the day it was always a joke between us, but today… he looked scared. He wasn't himself.
It took me a moment to walk over to him, all I could do was watch him. He had grown from when we first started, he was no longer this little boy. He had grew his hair out a bit more and he had stubble growing. He was much taller then me now and he somehow always was able to make jokes about that. But my poor kitty was sad.
I walked up to him and gave him his gifts and he smiled up happily at me the frown on his face gone and we talked, we talked about what he did that day. He told me about the party his classmates threw him during lunch and about how his dad gave him another pen this year and, he started to trail off.
He looked at me and told me he had gotten his tattoo. It was behind his ear, but when he said this he looked sad.
I looked at him and asked him if I could see it. He joked and said I never showed him mine so why should he, and I joked back that I would have to detransform to show you. But he still looked sad.
I asked him one more time if I could see it and he just looked at me and said I would be disappointed that he was overjoyed when he saw the tattoo this morning but he knew it would never happen.
He turned around and let me lift the hair up behind his left ear and there clear as day sat a tiny little red ladybug.
I guess I took longer than I knew because he turned around and started rambling about how we can still remain friends and it might not be me someone else could love ladybugs, and I just started crying.
I was so happy.
This beautiful, funny, cunning, brave, young man was truly my soulmate.
All I could do was smile.
He seemed confused about that he rushed to me and asked me if I was okay and I just, smiled and nodded and asked him to back away so I could show him something.
And I detransformed. Yeah it was a spur of the moment thing but I never regretted it, there I stood as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, not ladybug but me. The girl who would trip over her own two feet, the girl who even after all these years still had her two pigtails, the girl who was helplessly in love with her partner.
And I showed him my tattoo, my little black cat.
He just stood there, speechless. And I got scared, maybe he knew me outside the mask and was disgusted.
And then he detransformed
And I fell in love all over again.
Because there stood the man I had been pining for, for four years. He was my partner the man I trusted with my life, the man I truly loved. I should of known, Adrien did have the same birthday as Chat.
We just smiled at each other because there on a random roof top was Marinette and Adrien, Ladybug and Chat Noir. And we both were totally and truly in love with each other.
And we kissed. It wasn not what I was expecting because I always thought It would be fireworks everywhere and all that, it was just nice. And that's all I wanted.
When I first looked at my little cat tattoo I told myself it was a curse, that they gotten it all wrong, Chat Noir could not be my soulmate! It was Adrien.
Well I guess I was both wrong and right.
This little tiny black cat was not a curse it was a blessing, and yeah Chat Noir was my soulmate. But so was Adrien.
The next day at school we gave both Ayla and Chloe heart attacks when we walked into the class room hand in hand and he kissed my cheek. The teacher had to calm Chloe down while Nino just high fived Adrien, apparently he had a small.crush on me as Marinette as well, funny how things work like that.
Alya turned to me and immediately asked me thousands of questions, how did this happen things like that. I just smiled and told her.
“I found my soulmate.”
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A few years have past, Hawkmoth has been defeated and everything has been quiet. I'm still Ladybug and he is still Chat Noir, but we are all happy. We told Alya and Nino about a year ago that we were Ladybug and Chat Noir and we also told them I was expecting.
Emma always asks about the little black cat on my ankle. She asks why I got a tattoo of out cat mittens and I just laugh and tell her the story about soul mates. One day she will find her soulmate, like I did mine.