Chapter Text
To most Parisians, it was a normal, pleasant early April day. The not too warm weather had lured those not working that day out into the sun, and most citizens silently agreed that today would be a good day, except for one Emelie Dupain-Cheng. Why? One could assume because a moment ago, she was running late for class, and now she was on her back blinking painfully at the sun with no memory of having passed out.
“Are you okay Mademoiselle?” Croaked the voice of an old man who was one of the few people hovering over her. The small crowd stepped back as she sat up. She didn’t have time to know if she was okay.
“I’m going to be late!” She exclaimed, clambering to her feet and breaking into a sprint towards the school. When she made it to the steps leading to the entrance, her awkwardly long legs allowed her to skip several steps at a time. As she flew up the stairs and through the doors, she received many odd stares for her behaviour from the many students milling about. At this point, she was used to it. Not many other girls in her grade were as tall as she was, so she stuck out a lot more than she liked. After a moment of automatically dismissing the stares, she realised something.
I’m super late for class; everyone else should already be in the classrooms…why are there so many people around?
“Don’t worry, lunch isn’t over yet. You still have time.” Lunch? She was a lot later than she originally thought. She whipped around to find the source of the voice. A tall, athletically built Asian boy stood on the stairs leading to the classrooms with a small, charismatic dark skinned boy. The fond look on their faces shifted into surprise as they looked at her.
“Oh, sorry. Thought you were someone else.” The taller boy mumbled. Emelie shrugged.
“Still useful information. Thanks, uh…”
“Kim. So what’s the deal, you a transfer student or something? I haven’t seen you around but you look our age.” Kim probed in a friendly tone. The boy beside him chuckled.
“With your memory span, she could have been in our grade all year and you wouldn’t remember.” He teased, elbowing the taller boy, who scoffed in response.
“Do you remember her, Max?” Kim asked, his tone shifting to irritation.
“No, you’re probably right about her being a transfer student. You’re just too easy to tease.” Max replied in a matter of fact way, hiding a smirk.
“…And people say I’m the bully.” Kim quipped back. Emelie would usually be quite amused with watching people banter, but what she had learnt from the conversation brought up too many concerns. These boys looked her age, but not only did she have no clue who they were, but they didn’t recognise her either. In her experience, even if she didn’t know someone at school, they knew who she was either because of how much she stood out, or because of her parents. Something was definitely wrong. Not bothering to excuse herself from the conversation, she walked away from the boys and walked around the courtyard, looking for at least one of her friends. The longer it took to find one face she recognised, the more the anxiety built up in her chest. She backed into a corner, eyes darting manically over unfamiliar faces. Unable to take the stress, she slid down the wall and covered her face with her arms as she began cry.
“Dude! Are you listening to anything I’m saying?” Nino whined, shoving his blond friend on the shoulder to get his attention. Adrien shook his head as his focus returned.
“Sorry, Nino. I was distracted by the crying.” He apologised, adjusting his pace up the stairs into the school to stay level with his friend.
“What crying?” Nino asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“Can you not hear it? It sounds really close.” Adrien commented, looking around for the source.
“’Dude, you’re losing it. I can’t hear a thing and we both know I have very skilled ears.” Nino said with a dismissive chuckle. Adrien smiled back, but inside he was worried. He could definitely hear sobbing of some kind, but if Nino didn’t hear it, did that mean he was having auditory hallucinations? Before he could think about it any further, they entered the doorway leading into the school courtyard. The two boys glanced around, hoping to spot their friends Marinette and Alya before heading back to class together. The midnight hair caught in Adrien’s peripheral vision drew his attention to the corner of the room. Huddled on the floor with arms and knees covering her face, was a girl who was sobbing gently.
“Uh, Nino…” Adrien spoke softly, as to only get the attention of his friend, and nobody around them. Nino turned to look at him expectantly, before shifting his gaze to where his friend was staring.
“Wow, dude. Looks like you’re not crazy. Is that Marinette?” Nino whispered. Adrien shook his head.
“No. Marinette was wearing a blazer and capris, not overalls, and had her hair in low pigtails, not high buns.” Adrien explained. Nino laughed.
“Do you usually catalogue what Marinette is wearing?” Nino teased. Adrien rolled his eyes.
“How do you not remember what someone is wearing after looking directly at them?” Adrien questioned, the sass he usually pushed down to maintain image bubbling up.
“Mme Bustier says I’m ‘not a visual learner’.” Nino replied, matching Adrien’s tone and winning a small laugh from the young model. Adrien glanced from his friend back to the crying girl.
“I’m going to go talk to her. Make sure she’s alright.” Adrien stated. After a nod of acknowledgment from his friend, he made his way to the corner where the girl was currently sobbing. Getting a closer look at the girl, he really wasn’t surprised that Nino mistook her for Marinette. Her midnight hair had the same notes of blue rippling through it as the light bounced off of it, and she dressed in the same cute style that Marinette would choose. The pink, loose, off the shoulder crop paired sweetly with the blue denim overalls, but now was not the time for Adrien to be assessing her choice of clothes.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Adrien asked gently, getting close enough for her to hear him at a soft volume, but not too close as to crowd her.
“It’s horrible, dad! I can’t recognise anyone! What happened to my friends? I’m so confused.” The girl exclaimed what would have been loudly if it weren’t for the fact that she was talking into her arms and legs, effectively muffling the sound.
Dad? Why would she think I’m her dad? Where does she think she is?
“What’s your name? Maybe I can help you.” Adrien offered, deciding not to draw attention to what she had said in case it would embarrass her. This caused the girl to look up at him finally, and Adrien was suddenly thrown by her vivid green eyes that looked so much like his mother’s. Her expression shifted rapidly from recognition to surprise, then to confusion, then to realisation.
“Da – I mean, Dadrien –I mean, Adrien?” She stuttered awkwardly. The more this girl talked, the more she reminded Adrien of Marinette. Maybe they were related?
“Yeah, I’m Adrien. Have we met before? You seem very familiar…” He asked, taking a cautious step towards her.
“Nonononononono…this can’t be happening.” The girl muttered to herself, pushing herself up off the ground. Adrien reached for her, but she dodged away from him before walking briskly away from him.
What was that about?
Marinette gave a victorious stretch as she exited the library. Her and Alya had spent their lunch break finishing a modern history assignment that neither of them were going to have time to do within the next couple of days before it was due. Not being very good at the subject made it all the more satisfying to have done it with such efficiency.
“Alya and Marinette one, the past zero!” Alya cheered as she strode alongside her best friend. Marinette giggled, enjoying her rambunctious friend. Patrol was going to be so much easier now she didn’t have to worry about running out of time for her homework. She had a tendency to slip when she was distracted, which was something to be avoided when traversing the rooftops of Paris.
“I can’t wait to rub it in Nino’s face that I’ve already finished it. He’s going to beg me to help him, I know it.” Alya commented with a devious grin. Marinette offered a knowing smile in return. She knew that Alya often used teasing to cover up how fond she was of her boyfriend. No amount of jealously could stop Marinette from loving their adorable relationship.
“Maybe you could offer to help Adrien with his assignment. It’s perfect opportunity to show off how smart you are!” Alya suggested, elbowing Marinette playfully as they made it to the bottom of the stairs.
“But Adrien is also really smart, there’s no way he’d need help.” Marinette argued. This didn’t wipe the grin off of Alya’s face.
“Which is why it will be really obvious that he wants to spend time with you when he accepts your offer!” Alya replied enthusiastically. Marinette rolled her eyes fondly. Alya's latest tactic for Marinette to win over Adrien was a "fake it 'til you make it" attitude, suggesting that if they pretend he already likes her it'll give her confidence. It was not working so far.
“Come on, I see the boys. Let’s go humble brag.” Alya said, looping their arms together and pulling Marinette towards the school entrance. She looked forward to see Adrien walking away from Nino. In a few moments they arrived at their destination, Alya removing her arm from Marinette to grab Nino by the shoulders and pull him down for a kiss. No matter how many times they kissed, Nino always flushed brightly when it happened and grinned goofily once it was over.
“Hey Dork 1, where’s Dork 2?” Alya quipped. Not losing his grin after the nickname, Nino tilted his head to the side in a gesturing way.
“Over there checking on some girl.” He answered, not taking his eyes off of Alya.
“Checking out a girl?!” Marinette cried out, a bit too loudly. This snapped Nino out of his daze.
“What? No, he’s checking to see if she’s okay. She’s crying in the corner.” He clarified. Marinette visibly relaxed, now that she knew Adrien wasn’t checking out some other girl. Knowing that he was being kind and checking on the welfare of others made her sigh dreamily as she glanced in the direction Nino had indicated. The girl was getting up of the ground, her eyes wide as she stared at Adrien. She saw Adrien reach for her, but the girl flinched away from the contact with amazingly quick reflexes. It was quite jarring to watch someone have a negative reaction to Adrien, to the point where Marinette didn’t notice the girl was striding right towards her, facing downwards with no idea she was about to walk into anyone. The collision made both girls snap out of their inattentive hazes.
“Sorry!” The girl yelped, stepping back and looking up. Now that she was completely paying attention, it was hard for Marinette to not notice the panic that spread across this girl’s face.
“Maman? I mean –Mamanette? I mean –ugh! Again? Really?” The girl growled as she berated herself. Before Marinette could reassure her that it was fine, the girl was out the front door.
“Wait!” Marinette whipped her head to the side to see Adrien running after the girl. Just as Marinette found herself tempted to do the same thing, the chatter of the school courtyard was overtaken by the screams coming from outside the school. Marinette glanced back at her friends to see a wild grin on Alya’s face.
“Akuma attack.” The young reporter stated, her excitement barely contained. Whatever was going on with that girl was going to have to wait.