Chapter Text
Many centuries ago, powerful jewels bestowing extraordinary powers were created. The Divine Sorceress, a strong woman renowned for her prowess in channeling spirits, personified these jewels. These were the Miraculous. Throughout history, heroes used these jewels for the good of the human race. Two of these miraculous were inhabited by particularly strong spirits: The earrings of the Ladybug, which provided the power of creation, and the ring of the Black Cat, which granted the power of destruction.
Rarely, however, these Miraculous fell into the wrong hands.
With Paris under the control of a Miraculous holder willing to do anything for his own selfish pursuits, the ring of the Black Cat was granted to Adrien Agreste—a young model and unwilling recluse who, with his newfound freedom, fell quickly and deeply in love with fellow classmate Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
And the earrings of the Ladybug? Given to none other than Marinette herself—a teenage girl with a somewhat embarrassing and mostly secret crush on her fellow superhero partner and wielder of the ring of the Black Cat, Chat Noir.
This is their story.
“Marinette, honey, you’re going to be late for school!”
Marinette sighs into her pillow and reaches for her buzzing phone. She checks the time, and, yep, her alarm is on the third snooze. She rolls onto her back and stares up at the ceiling.
Please let today be a good day, please?
She tosses her blankets aside, climbs over her bed, and stumbles to her closet.
Late last night she had debated between the items she’s staring at now, and without any time to second guess her decision, she dresses in her favorite pair of jeans and a nice t-shirt. She sprints over to her bathroom and grabs her hairbrush.
And then it slips through her fingers and she drops it into the toilet.
She groans, slams her forehead against the doorframe, and succumbs to her inevitably bad first day.
Adrien sits at the edge of his bed—hair prim and proper, teeth freshly brushed, clad in perfectly ironed clothes—and peers down at shiny new smartphone in his hand, barely blinking as he swipes up and down with his index finger.
Though he has no new messages, he keeps opening up old ones. He scrolls to the top of yesterday’s chat history.
Adrien: Hey. You know how I was saying it would be really cool if I could actually go to school?
Chlo: And I said you totally should, and we could hang out like, all the time?
Adrien: Well, I might have convinced Nathalie to forward the necessary documents for l’inscription into the public school system, just in case my dad changed his mind.
Adrien: And I’ve done everything right this summer. I haven’t missed or been late to a single appointment anywhere. So, I finally told him I wanted to go to school.
Chlo: Soooo? That means you’re coming tomorrow, right?
Adrien: Yeah.
He tries, over and over, to type out a more truthful message instead. It’s hours late and heavily edited, but his thumb hovers above the ‘send’ button.
“No. My dad said it was too dangerous.”
But then he shakes his head and slams his finger on the delete button. He closes the message entirely and tosses his phone towards the opposite corner of his bed.
Adrien sighs and looks out the window. His lips purse.
A bird is perched on a nearby branch. It stares at him with beady eyes, and then it chirps, flaps its wings, and flies.
He stares at the tree. And then, suddenly, he’s pushing to his feet and darting around the room, grabbing every possible supply for school within reach—notebooks and pens and random history books—and shoving them into his bag. He clings to his bag with one hand, and with the other hand he’s shoving open doors and storming across the lawn and the gate and everything and everyone trapping him inside.
Adrien sits in the nearest empty seat, breathless.
“I’m Adrien,” he says to the boy closest to him.
“...Nino,” the boy replies, but his eyes are narrow and his eyebrows furrowed. “So, you’re a friend of Chloe’s, huh.”
“Um...yeah? So?”
“So,” Nino says, and gestures towards Chloe, who is in the process of sticking several wads of gum onto a nearby seat.
Adrien frowns. “Hey, Chlo, what are you doing?”
“I’m demanding a little bit of respect,” she says with a laugh.
“Is that really the way to do it?”
“Oh Adrien, you’ll see. You have a lot to learn.”
Adrien sighs and shakes his head. He looks at the clock, and then he slides out of his seat and crouches in front of the one covered in gum. As he pokes at it, the classroom door slams open and a girl with dark circles under her eyes and wild hair comes rushing in.
“Oh, I see, very funny. You must be the new kid, Chloe’s friend.”
His nose scrunches as he looks up at her, and then his eyes widen.
“Wait, I’m not—” He stands, straightens his shoulders, and waves his hands in front of him. “I was trying to get it off, I swear.”
“Whatever.” She swerves around to the opposite side of the desk, and sits a full yard away from the gum monstrosity. She crosses her arms and looks away, and he stands there, arms hanging in midair, until the bell rings. He shuffles into his own seat and looks down at his own hands.
Marinette, clad in her new Miraculous gear, meets Chat Noir on that first day of school, hanging from her yo-yo and completely, accidentally, tangling around him. The tight feeling of anxiety and excitement burrowed in her chest slackens a bit despite the awkwardness. She has a partner. She isn’t alone in this superhero business. She’ll have a sidekick. Most of the morning had been a disaster, but this? Maybe this could work.
The second day of school, her heart is buried under the weight of her mistakes from the day before. “I messed up,” she admits, and buries her head in her hands, ashamed. But then he shakes his head, and he points at the people she saved. “No you didn’t,” he insists.
They are like clockwork. The dark butterflies strike, and Hawkmoth akumatizes an innocent victim. With the power of creation, Ladybug summons whatever is needed to turn the battle in their favor. With the power of destruction, Chat Noir destroys whatever stands in her way.
And there are little moments, too. Precious seconds of laughter—when there’s time to spare for it. And in one of those particularly mundane moments, she knows.
Adrien knows this girl with her stubborn eyes and unruly hair will never like him. When he stands in front of the school building, and rain is pouring from the sky, and the winds are rustling through the trees, and there are so many classmates talking and laughing underneath their umbrellas—he looks for Chloe, instead, or maybe Nino. Not her.
“You’re getting all wet,” she says. He turns around, and there she is, umbrella in hand. She giggles.
“Oh, uh. Sorry.” His gaze drops to the ground.
“No, no I—” She steps forward and extends her umbrella, and now it covers the both of them. “I’m not mad. I mean, I was, earlier, but I...I overreacted.”
She leans a little closer to him, until their shoulders nearly touch. Adrien gasps and turns to her. She smiles, and he looks down at his feet.
“I’ve never been to school before,” he admits. “And I don’t really know how to make friends. I wanted to say something to make it better, but then the bell rang and I just...didn’t know what to do.”
He wipes his damp hair out of his face and leans into her closeness.
“Well, I’m really clumsy, and a little awkward, and sometimes I don’t really say what I mean or mean what I say. But, if that’s okay, then...can I be your friend?”
Her eyes, her hands, her smile, her voice—everything about her is soft and sweet and honest, and in her is only a hint of the fiery person he met in the morning.
“Yeah. As long as you’ll be mine?”
“I’d really like that.”
He smiles at her, and for the first time in a long while, the smile is effortless, instantaneous. He smiles as she walks him to the car that’s waiting for him. He smiles as he introduces her to The Gorilla. He smiles in the backseat as the car drives away.
And then the smile melts away, replaced with a frustrated groan and a slap to the face, when he realizes he never asked for her name.