Chapter Text
You were you,
and I was I;
we were two
before our time.
I was yours
before I knew,
and you have always
been mine too.
-Lang Leav
This story begins, as many do, with a girl and a boy.
There once was a girl who lived above a bakery with a view of Notre Dame. The girl was lonely. She knew she had things better than most, what with a pair of loving parents and a warm and happy home, but she always hoped for more. That is not to say she was isolated; her classmates recognized her generous spirit and vivid imagination. Even so, she lingered on the sidelines, surrounded by friendly faces but no true friends.
Instead, the girl sought comfort in the small pleasures of life. The delicate crunch of a perfectly baked macaron shell. The sound of her scissors cutting into a new bolt of fabric. The triumph of a well-executed trick with her yoyo. The girl knew she couldn’t cling to the shelter of her parents’ love forever...if she did, how would she ever find a great love of her own? She needed to be brave. And so she waited, hoping she would be ready for the moment when she’d have to let go and fly free.
Two métro stops away, there was a boy who lived in a mansion with a view of four high walls. The boy was lonely. As a child, his rich and famous parents had determined that an ordinary life would not do for their extraordinary son. Forbidden from attending school, a parade of tutors were entrusted with his education, while his social life was limited to pre-arranged playdates with the Mayor’s daughter. Though his days were scheduled almost to the second, he was not unhappy...until tragedy took away both his mother and his tether to the outside world.
After that, the boy’s schedule felt more like a cage. Fencing competitions, piano recitals, and photo shoots felt less about exploring his talents and more about feeding his persona as the golden child of Paris. Even then, he hewed more closely to his responsibilities than ever, hoping his efforts would bring back the one parent he still had. But in the quiet of the evening, the boy couldn’t help but look out the window and wish for the moment to arrive when he could truly be free.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste make for a sweet, but sad, pair of souls. They don't know each other. But they will.
Days, months, years go by. Some things change, while others remain very much the same.
Marinette, now 23, waits tables at the café next door to her parents’ bakery. She could have found a job closer to her apartment, but she finds it is more convenient to split her time between the two locations as her schedule permits. Indeed, Marinette all but insists on helping at the bakery on her days off, doing everything from marketing campaigns to deliveries. Concerned that her parents are working themselves ragged, she holds tight to the conviction that they need her more than ever.
This...is not quite true. Tom and Sabine enjoy having their daughter around, but they also frequently remind her that they can easily hire someone else if she were to land a job that puts her design degree to good use - a not so subtle encouragement to follow her dreams instead of supporting theirs. Unspoken is the concern that Marinette is in a rut, but her parents don’t push her too much. It had been a big enough step to convince her to move out and experience some real independence.
Marinette’s small flat is a beautiful disaster, bursting with scraps of fabric and pages from sketchbooks. Living on her own is an adjustment, but the solitude doesn’t bother her nearly as much as it did in her youth. In fact, she enjoys having a space where she can retreat to tinker with her designs. Here, Marinette can be herself and let her brilliant imagination run wild, free from the well-intentioned but irksome questions about what she plans to do with her ever-expanding portfolio. And in any case, it’s not like she’s a total introvert. She has friends...she’s even dated (though she’d be the first to tell you the results were a letdown). Marinette loves her interactions with her neighbors and the regulars at the café. Still, there is a small space in her heart that waits for a bit more, even if she tells herself that she has enough.
Life for Adrien, also 23, has not changed nearly as much as he would like. While he has successfully fought to scale back his modeling commitments, his ties to the family business remain difficult to sever. It seems that years of having his picture plastered on billboards across Paris have led people to conclude that he isn’t good for anything other than his pretty face (which, while more angular and often covered in stubble, is still incredibly pretty). Without a university degree, his being an accomplished pianist and fencer who speaks fluent Chinese makes him infinitely more interesting, but not more employable. His only consolation is that he’s saved enough money to buy his own place.
Although his reduced modeling workload still earns him more than enough to cover his living expenses, it can’t provide Adrien what he really craves: independence. Eager to prove to himself that he can be self-sufficient, Adrien decides to supplement his income by...less conventional means. Working odd jobs for cash under the table builds up a nest egg no one can touch, but it also serves as a form of quiet rebellion against his father. It tickles him to no end that Gabriel Agreste is disappointed™ because he believes that his only son is eschewing his family obligations in favor of a “bohemian” (translation: lazy) lifestyle, presumably by frittering away his substantial trust fund. If only he knew that his golden child actually spends his free days alternating between a funfair train ride and a sex shop in Pigalle.
The arrangement actually suits Adrien nicely, giving him a window into the world from which he has been sheltered for so long. He doesn’t worry about his identity being discovered in either location; he wears a mask for one job, and for the other…well, let’s just say that the people there don’t ask questions because they know better. He enjoys the anonymity, and the breath of freedom that comes with it. The downside is that he doesn’t have many friends - it’s difficult to get close to people who don’t even know his real name - but it’s a small price to pay when he can actually be a little bit more like his real self.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste are older, smarter, and not as lonely as they used to be. They are also both still utterly unaware of just how closely their fates are tied.
That is about to change.