Chapter Text
Prologue
The night had fallen over The City that Never Sleeps, the lights dominated the downtown streets and its inhabitants still wandered in search of some fun... or some dispersion.
It was the case of the young Marinette Dupain who, after several days of insomnia, had opted for a night of relaxation in her favorite cafeteria overlooking downtown Manhattan, very close to her apartment. She walked under a black umbrella, wide enough to cover more than one person, she had left shortly after the sky was covered with clouds and rainy streets after all.
For several days she had been going around the matter after Alya's visit that, through so many years had been insisting her to cease being so stubborn, what happened was not her fault and neither was his...
And perhaps deep down she was aware of it, but she could not simply forget that despite the fact that the truth had revealed, the things that were said, the problems they had had and the injuries that had been made still fluttered like butterflies around them.
It did hurt. It hurt almost as much as the fact that she still loved him, loved him so much that she had not been able to forget a single moment that passed by his side.
It was an irremediable fact. She had already tried to find a way to get him out of her life, heart and mind, but it was impossible. She closed her heart towards love, because, even if she denied it incessantly, she already knew that no one, ever, could ever replace him.
But all was not well, there was something that disturbed her. Every night that she felt unstable and resorted to her current favorite drink, she felt strangely observed from afar, as at that time, so that a chill stopped her walk abruptly, forcing her to stay alert to her surroundings, as if looking for the source of that fear that she began to believe that it was not only due to fatigue.
"Marinette ... are you feeling bad? We should go home".
But she couldn't just fall apart, not when she still had her faithful friend, that little reddish creature that was the reason why everything in her life changed for the better.
She entered the premises after placing her umbrella on a hook near the door that the owner had allocated for cases like that. She stood in line and waited for her turn.
"It's okay, Tikki, we'll just go for that Capuccino and we'll go back, do you want something?" She whispered, putting on the headset as if on a phone call to camouflage her talk with the little reddish one that was hidden between the folds of her favorite scarf, which, despite keeping hundreds of memories, she had not dared to throw away.
"Cookies or chocolates or cake, or those little colorful cupcakes, like the ones your father makes," he said with emotion, unable to decide among the piles of sweets typical of the area that despite being appetizing were a cluster of sugar and buttercream, especially cream, that had nothing to do with the delight that her father prepared for her every weekend when she returned to Paris to visit them.
Marinette waited for her request to be ready, while wandering between thoughts, still remembering that past that every night tormented her between dreams, especially the current era in which she inevitably ended up remembering both the first kiss and the last, as well as a bad feeling that had unleashed more than a month ago, when she felt overwhelmed by the sensation of being observed from somewhere in the city. It was not the first time, but she knew it was not normal at all, there was something else, something that had to do with her teenage memories. What other reason would there be for her to always wander in the memories of that entire year they were together?
"Miss Dupain ... everything in order?" —The cashier, several years younger than her and whom she had already known for a long time, brought her back to reality, worried about the strange expression of anguish that was reflected on her face.
Since childhood she never change a single bit, it was an open book as far as feelings were concerned. She nodded as she smiled.
"Everything in order, Clair. Thank you." She took the paper case in which her purchase was stored, next to the cappuccino cup with cream that she held carefully not to burn. "Go home carefully, yes?"
But the girl did not return the answer, bewitched by the figure that had just come through the door.
A strange sensation caused her to turn around and let curiosity dominate her for an instant, an instant that was enough for her world to crumble and to recompose itself in an infinite loop that she was unable to stop.
His blond hair, his emerald gaze fixed on her and all of it soaked by the external rain. He was taller than she remembered, with his sculptural body of a man who had left that teenager as nothing more than a memory. The air escaped from her lungs, she would recognize him wherever she were...
"Marinette... wait... please..." He breathed agitatedly as he ran to the premises when he saw her passing by as he headed to the hotel where he was staying across the street. He would recognize her wherever he went, and he would not lose the opportunity destiny was giving him, he would not lose it once again. "Wait..."
She remained speechless, forgetting time, space, circumstances, only attentive to whom for so many years stole her heart. Her eyes filled with tears that mixed happiness and pain at the same time... All she was able to pronounce was the name she refused to say for so long.
"Adrien..."