Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marinette had always looked forward to meeting her soulmate, the person that she was destined to love and who would love her in return. Some people found the idea of soulmates to be an unfair system that took away their free will, but Marinette had always found it comforting that no matter what happened, there was someone out there waiting to meet her.

"It's not what it looks like." - a strange set of words to be sure, a set of words that probably meant Marinette and her soulmate would end up in some kind of misunderstanding upon their first meeting, but Marinette was confident that they would be able to work passed it.

And when she finally heard those words Marinette was filled with a thousand different feelings at once. Her anger at the presumed bully spreading gum on her seat morphing briefly into surprise and joy at finally having the meeting she had long looked forward to, only for that joy to be swiftly crushed by the realization that her soulmate was a bully. Or at least she thought he was. Her stunned silence gave the boy, a one Adrien Agreste, the opportunity to explain himself, that he was in fact trying to remove the gum from her seat and not placing it there as a cruel joke.

Marinette's heart soared again, and she smiled shyly before thanking him. She ducked passed him to place her backpack down and smoothed her bangs as she turned back to her soulmate only to find him already turned away settling in a seat across the row. He struck up a conversation with Nino, not even glancing back at Marinette.

And once again, Marinette's emotions changed. Her heart sunk low in her stomach, and even to this day, almost a year and a half later, her heart was still weighed down by the truth she learned that day.

Marinette loved Adrien Agreste dearly. He was her soulmate, but she was not his.

**********

Adrien had a soulmate. He just didn't know who they were or have any way of finding out. Sure, he was born with the soul mark just like anybody else. The black ink scrawled across his chest just below his right clavicle was evidence enough that he had a soulmate, but beyond that fact he had no clue.

Adrien wiped a section of his bathroom mirror clean of the condensation that had accumulated during his shower. He studied his tattoo for well past the millionth time, trying to decipher the chicken scratch and scribbles that somehow spelled out the first words his soulmate would say to him or possibly had already said to him. Heck, he didn't even know if it was French. The words that were etched into his skin since birth were completely illegible.

His parents had consulted numerous linguistic and typography experts to decode the dreadful handwriting that his soulmate possessed. But all efforts came to nonsensical translations. (Adrien remembers one particular chirography professor at some prestigious university who was adamant that it read, “Jeans will take your cake.”)

As a kid Adrien hadn't fully understood the problem his soulmate’s messy handwriting posed him. He was certain that he would be able to recognize them when they first met even without knowing their first words which is why when he met Ladybug he was convinced he had found his soulmate.

He couldn't be certain that her first words to him matched up with those engraved across his chest, but he also couldn’t deny the instant connection and sense of rightness he felt when he was near her. She was witty and brave and strong and fierce and good and just perfect.

In fact, she was too perfect. Two weeks into their heroing they got their first request for autographs, and Adrien discovered that even her handwriting was perfect and thus not a match to the scribbles of his soulmark.

Adrien sighed and finished toweling off before tugging a shirt over his head, hiding the mark from sight.

**********

Marinette was furious. She had once again saved all of Paris, maybe even the entire world, and all the thanks she gets is detention. She had been five minutes late, five minutes late to Madame Mendeliev's class, and now this afternoon instead of working on commissions or playing video games, she would be staying after school to sit in a room for an hour, staring at a wall. And she couldn't even be mad, not really. She knew what she did was wrong but it really wasn't her fault she was late. And it's not like she could explain herself either. Yeah, she wonders how that conversation would go.

"Oh, Madame, surely you can make an exception. You see I was just on the opposite side of the city saving people's lives from a man dressed like a butterfly that has an unhealthy obsession with a pair of earrings that I have. So you see it's really Mothman's fault, not mine."

Yeah, if anything that would only make things worse for Marinette. So, she was taking her lunch break to release some stress and flesh out some ideas that she came up with during class. She was sketching and writing notes frantically. Trying to get the information on the page before the idea flew away from her, never to be found again. Inspiration was a tricky thing, and Marinette had long since learned the loss that occurs when you ignore the creative flow. So engrossed in her thoughts and sketchbook, that she didn't see one Adrien Agreste walk up to say 'hi' only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight of her sketchbook, or more precisely, at the sight of her handwriting.

Chapter Text

Adrien had not been expecting today to be a day of revelations. Another akuma this morning before school. He had miraculously made it back to class just as the bell rang. Unfortunately, Marinette had not been as fortunate as him. She had pleaded with Madame Mendeliev, saying how the akuma had gotten in the way of an early delivery she had to make that morning. But, Mendeliev was stubborn as ever and refused to help his poor friend. He watched her sulk back to her seat, her face red from frustration.

Adrien’s friendship with Marinette had always been an unsteady one, he was never quite sure that she liked him as much as Alya and Nino, but she was never anything but absolutely polite. Marinette was perhaps his first friend, and Adrien wanted to make sure she felt better, so he sought her out during lunch to try to make her feel better. When he saw her furiously scribbling in her fashion journal, he realized he had his work cut out for him, but he never could have imagined just how much of a u-turn the interaction would take. When he was within three feet of her he could see what she was writing, and it made his feet completely shut down and his heart kick into overdrive.

Adrien could not have, for the life of him, decipher what it was that Marinette had written, but upon seeing it, he could tell you with the utmost certainty that the scribbles were an absolute match to what had plagued his life with mystery. The handwriting matched his soul mark, and Marinette was his soul mate.

Adrien stared at the handwriting for a solid minute, a million thoughts coursing through his head in that time. He glanced up at Marinette once again who had still yet to notice his presence. Her eyebrows were pulled together in a tight frown, and Adrien realized now probably wasn’t the best time to be getting answers to his questions. Instead, he slowly backed away, keeping his gaze on his classmate, his friend, his soulmate. Then when he was certain she wouldn’t be looking up any time soon, he turned and walked home.

As he entered the mansion Nathalie calmly asked him why he had come home without notifying them, especially after he had said he would be eating his lunch at school. When he continued walking up the stairs without answering her, Nathalie quickly stood and hurried to the bottom of the stairs, calling after him. Adrien ignored her and continued to his room without answer.

***********

As soon as the door to Adrien’s room closed, Plagg flew out from Adrien’s shirt pocket and floated in front of his charge’s face. Adrien was leaning back against the door with his head tilted up and eyes closed.

“Kid,” Plagg started slowly. After a few seconds with no response the kwami continued. “Adrien. What happened? I felt your heartbeat speed up rapidly, and now it’s slow.”
After a few more seconds, Adrien’s eyes slowly slid open. He looked at his kwami for a few seconds before pulling the collar of his shirt aside revealing the soul mark that lay etched into his skin.

“This is Marinette’s handwriting,” he said simply. He didn’t need to say more, Plagg knew how much of a plight those words had been for Adrien throughout his life.
“Pigtails? But, she has really nice handwriting. It’s big and loopy.”

Adrien sighed and walked over to sit on the edge of his bed, leaving his backpack on the floor by the door. “That’s what I thought too. Her handwriting is normally very pretty, but it’s completely different when she’s writing fast or when she’s pissed off. Or both I guess.” Adrien flopped back on the bed with his legs still dangling off the side.

“So,” Plagg started. “You found your soulmate. Mystery solved. What’s got you freaked out?”

“Marinette should have known when we first met that I was her soulmate. She- she should’ve known, but she never said anything.”

“So, you think you’re unmatched?” Plagg asked gently, knowing from one of his previous kittens how difficult of an ordeal that is.

“I-I don’t know. I’ve never heard her talk about her soulmark before, but it is a personal topic for some people. I’m scared to ask her because then–then if I am unmatched, our friendship would be all screwed up.”

“But do you think it’s fair to keep it from her? Fair to her or to you?”

“No, but the other option doesn’t feel truthful either.”
“Which is?”
“I go see her as Chat Noir. Maybe see if I can get her to open up, or just ask for advice for myself. Then I would know exactly what she would think is best since it affects her. Then if I find out she wouldn’t want to know, I just wouldn’t say anything as Adrien and our friendship would remain intact.”

“And what’s the problem with that plan?” the kwami asked as he dove to the mini fridge to grab a snack.
“It just feels like taking advantage of her. Using a mask to get information out of her.

“Mmm,” Plagg hummed around a chunk of cheese. “That’s a hard one, kid. I was always more of a ‘do what you need to do and face the consequences later’ kind of cat.”

Adrien sighed and threw an arm over his eyes in a pathetic attempt to fend off the growing headache. Plagg sighed too, and set his cheese aside for a second. “Look, kid. Ultimately, this is your decision. But no matter what you choose, you have your friends and Ladybug. And you have me, okay?”

Adrien moved his arm back to his side and smiled. “You think you’ll be ready for a run in a few minutes?”
“Why do you think I got this cheese?”
“Because you’re a glutton,” Adrien smirked.
“Slander! I just helped didn’t I? You should be nice to me.”

Adrien rolled to his side and smiled fondly at his friend. “Yeah. Yeah, you did help.

“But that doesn’t mean you’re not a glutton.”

Chapter Text

Chat took his time hopping along the rooftops, letting his blood pump and his muscles relax. He was already starting to feel much better when he caught sight of red in the distance. Chat corrected his course and landed with a flourish on the roof his partner was currently atop.

“Good evening, my lady,” he bowed. “Lucky meeting you here.”
Ladybug laughed. “I’m not sure how much luck has to do with it when it is my night to patrol the city, Chaton.”
“Insightful as ever, Bugaboo,” he grinned before letting his tone turn to more serious before saying, “I could actually use some of that insight if you’ve got some time.”
His partner, as in sync with him as ever, also sobered her tone a little bit. “Of course, Chat.” She gestured behind her, “ I’ve only got ten more blocks. Wanna meet on the Palais Garnier?”
“Purrfect. I’ll do the last leg with you.”

A few minutes later, the two got settled on one end of the building, tucked at the base of one of the domes so that they could lean back as they gazed over the city. They just sat for a few minutes, Ladybug waiting patiently for him to start which Chat was thankfully for as he wasn’t quite sure how to bridge the topic.

Well, some context would probably be a good place to start. “I-I want to talk a little bit about my soulmate,” he started.
That seemed to surprise the girl. A small “oh” leaving her mouth as her eyes turned to him.
“I know they are normally a pretty private topic, but I could really use some advice, Ladybug.”
Said girl sat up a little straighter, giving him her full attention. “Of course, Chat. I will always be here for you, in whatever way I can.”

God, he was lucky to have her in his life. Ladybug was just one of those people that made you feel like you were the most important person in the world.
“Thanks, LB. Um, so my soulmark is a little… unusual. It's practically illegible. Well, not practically. It is illegible.”

“Because it’s so small? Or the handwriting is just bad?”
“Bug, the handwriting is horrendous! Not just bad, it’s complete chicken scratch. No one who has seen it has been able to read it. Not my mom, not my dad. My parents got so desperate at one point that we reached out to a few handwriting experts that couldn’t even read it!” He exclaimed, the absurdity of the situation finally boiling over for him.

“Wow,” Ladybug interjected while Chat resettled, “not even handwriting experts?”
“Pretty unlucky, I know.”
“Huh, now I kinda wanna see this mark.”
Chat grinned “Trying to undress me already, my lady?” He got a light shove on the shoulder for that.

“No, you alley cat. I’m wondering if it’s a different language or something?”
Chat tilted his head, gaze back on the horizon. “That was a theory for a little while actually, but that kind of got blown out of the water with what happened today.”
“Did you meet them today?” Ladybug asked surprised, clearly expecting the conversation to be about figuring out a way to track down his soulmate.

“Well, that’s the thing that I need help with. The one saving grace I’ve had with the soulmark is that I knew at least my soulmate would have my words. So, I’ve been banking on them recognizing me since I would have no way of knowing who it is.”

He paused for Ladybug to comment, but she just nodded her head encouragingly.
“So, I did see the handwriting today. Kinda hard to get it confused with someone else’s, you know? But, well, the person writing it was someone that I have already met. Someone I’ve known for years, in fact. And, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do from here.” He finished on a sigh.

There were a few quiet moments before Ladybug broke in again. “What was the rest of the interaction like? What did they say, what did you say?”
“Nothing. I didn’t say anything and she never saw me, so I turned tail and practically ran away.”

For the first time since the beginning of the conversation Ladybug turned her face away from Chat and resettled her back against the metal dome. “Huh. So, what are your thoughts at the moment,” she asked.

“Well, first, is she my soulmate? If she is, why didn’t she say anything? And, I couldn’t process this earlier, but now I’m wondering, if she does know that I’m her soulmate, why would she keep it to herself? She’s one of the kindest people I know. I think even if she decided that she didn’t like me, she would at least want to have a conversation about it. I don’t think she would just avoid the conversation all together. She’s too brave for that.”

“But, wait. You know this person pretty well, but you’re not sure yet if they're your soulmate? Do you not remember what your first words to them were so that you can compare?”

“Well, that’s the problem,” Chat sighed. “I’ve never seen her mark, never heard her talk about it. So I don’t know if it is a match. If the words are the same, then why didn’t she say anything? And what if I’m unmatched?”

Ladybug glanced back over at Chat’s profile briefly to assess his emotions before returning her eyesight to the horizon once more, eyes tracking the colorful sunset. “I see. So what are your current solutions?”

“Nothing good,” Chat said. “ Plagg tried to help, but he doesn’t have your skill of foresight. I feel like we need to have a conversation but I don’t know how to go about that without making her feel guilty or pushing too hard.”

After a long moment of silence, Chat turned toward his partner. “Well, what do you think, LB? How should I go about figuring out if she really is my soulmate or not?

“I agree that you should tell her, Chat” She turned to face him fully again, her eyes intent. “Be clear, communicate your hopes but also your understanding if it does turn out her mark doesn’t match to you.
"And if all else fails we can eat a ton of junk food."

Chat huffed out a laugh and turned to finish watching the ends of the setting sun with his best friend.

**********

The next day in morning class, Adrien was handling the anxiety the best he could. His palms were sweaty, his knee was shaking throughout the entire period, and his notes weren’t nearly as complete as they normally would be. As the bell for the end of class ended and everyone began packing their bags, Adrien had to remind himself to breathe as he mentally ran through the script to ask Marinette for a private word.

He opened his satchel to put his notebook away and Plagg shot him a wink. One more breath and he turned to find Marinette already in front of him, staring at him worriedly.

“Adrien? Did you hear me?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed.
He gulped. “Uh, n-no sorry, Marinette. I was thinking about something else.” Already off script, great. “What did you say?”
“I was just asking if you were alright. You seem pretty tense this morning.” She tilted her head, and Adrien had to pull on his collar a little bit to get some of the choking feeling off his neck.

“Um, yeah. I am a little tense this morning actually. Thanks for checking in on me, Mari.”
Her mouth formed a straight line for a second before she smiled weakly and nodded. “Okay then. See you after lun-” Adrien grabbed her wrist as she started to walk past him, cutting her off.
He took his hand back as soon as her blue eyes turned to him again, questioning.

The hand previously holding her wrist tingled, and he rubbed the back of his neck as he apologized. “Ah, sorry. Actually Marinette, could I talk to you for a few minutes before break period is over?”
“Of course, Adrien. Lead the way.”

Chapter Text

The pair made a quick stop at the locker rooms to grab their respective lunches before deciding to go to one of the small parks down the road.

Marinette began nibbling at the lunch her mom had prepared, but Adrien couldn’t even pretend to eat, nerves roiling in his stomach.

“So, Marinette,” he began.
“Hmm.” She hummed around a mouthful of sandwich.
“I, um, was wondering if you would be willing to look at my soulmark.” Adrien cringed at the lack of nonchalance in his voice.

With his gaze turned to the side, he missed the shock of the girl next to him. Marinette quickly schooled her features and gently set her lunch down on the picnic table they were currently sitting on.

“You want me to look at your mark?” she clarified slowly.
“Um, yeah. Marinette,” he gathered enough courage to face her fully this time, “I think they’re your words.”

Marinette’s mouth popped open, unable to control her expressions after a statement like that.
Seeing the look on her face, Adrien nearly lost all of his courage again, but he did his best to maintain eye contact with her. Marinette at least deserved him to be honest.

“I-I know we’ve never talked about our soulmarks before, but I happened to see your handwriting yesterday, and I just can’t help but think that it’s a match. And I’ve never really been able to read the words clearly, so I had no way of knowing if it was you or not.”

He glanced up to see her still staring at him with wide eyes, but at least her mouth had closed. Taking this as a good sign he hedged a little further, remembering Ladybug’s advice.

“I don’t know if I match your mark, and if not then I just want you to know that your friendship means so much to me, and I would never try to push anything on you.”

“But, if-if we do match,” He gently reached out to take one of her hands, going slow enough for her to pull back if she wanted. “I want you to know that I would be so honored if you decide that you want to pursue a relationship with me. I have admired you for so long. If I were lucky enough to be matched with someone as amazing as you, I would spend the rest of our lives making sure that you know just how precious you are.”

Adrien gave her hand a small squeeze trying to express the sincerity of his statement.

“Adrien, I,” she took a second to breathe, grasping for words that could express the mix of emotions she was experiencing. “I thought that I was unmatched for more than a year. When we met, I was going to talk to you about what it all meant, but then you turned and there was just no recognition. I-I thought.... but to think that all this time you were actually…”

“So-so you mean... your mark…” Adrien could hardly finish the question, hope nearly bursting in his chest.
“Yes, Adrien.” She let go of his hand and pulled up the sleeve of her blazer enough to reveal the words, his words written in the skin right above the crease of her elbow.
“It’s not what it looks like.” he whispered reverently. He shook his head a little at how unideal their first meeting was. A far cry from his childish fantasies of meeting his soulmate, but a strange pride forming from knowing how far their relationship had come.

“Can I see?” Marinette asked, still not sure if she could truly believe this wasn’t a dream without this proof.
Adrien grinned and pulled his shirt down enough for her to read the scrawls below his collarbone.

“Marinette reached out tracing the words with her finger. She saw Adrien’s breath hitched and sheepishly pulled her hand away.
“Sorry,” she murmured.
“No that’s alright, I just wasn’t expecting it, is all,” he reassured. “Could you read it to me? I remember our first meeting, but not the exact words, and it’s been bothering me my whole life.” He said, his tone almost teasing.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Marinette cringed as she read it.

“Ah, so nothing to do with cake after all,” he chuckled. Catching Marinette’s confused expression he said, “One of the guesses of what the words say. Like I said, I really couldn’t read it.”

“I’ve worked really hard to make my handwriting cute,” she pouted. “Why is it in this writing anyway?”
“Heh, even experts couldn’t read it” Adrien said, letting his collar go back in place, hiding the words once more.

“Wh-what?”

Adrien’s gaze shot back to her. “Oh! I hope that wasn’t overstepping any boundaries, I know the marks can be pretty private for most people. But I was young, and my parents were trying to give me the best chance to find my soulmate.” He wrung his hands nervously while eyeing her from under his lashes.

Marinette at least had the presence of mind to momentarily push aside her shock at the accidental reveal of her superheroed partner to reassure the wilting boy.

“No! No, Adrien. Don’t worry about that. I know it couldn’t have been easy, not being able to read my words. And-and I think there would be very few experts that could even decipher half of the letters. I use a modified shorthand for my design notes.”
“Shorthand? Like doctors use?”
“Um, yeah kinda. Ever since my design was stolen, I’ve been more careful about guarding my design notes. So I learned shorthand and just developed my own style from there. But I had no idea that my soulmate’s mark would be written in that! Oh, Adrien, no wonder you didn’t recognize me.”

She felt a gentle pressure on her cheek, and her eyes turned fully to meet Adrien’s gaze. Marinette’s breath hitched at the look in his eyes.

“Hey,” he said, voice full of an adoration that chased away Marinette’s last fragments of nervousness. “It’s okay. You couldn’t have known. And we’ve found each other now.”
“Adrien,” she replied, a little breathier than she was expecting. “I do want to have a relationship with you. I’ve liked you for nearly as long as I've known you.” Marinette brought her hand up to rest on his own that was still cupping her face.

“We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well,” she continued. “And I used to try to get over my feelings for you. Trying to be satisfied with just being your friend. But each day you would do something kind for someone else, or say something that sent my heart fluttering, or-or just smile.”

Marinette’s relief and joy mixed into her next words, bright blue eyes gleaming with elation. “But, now that you’re mine, I’m never gonna leave you. For as long as you want me by your side, I’ll be here.”

Adrien could hardly believe the words he was hearing. The anxiety and uncertainty of the last twenty-four hours completely untangling and sending his whole being into a lightness of heart that he had never felt before.

Through his emotion he managed to ask, “Marinette, my Marinette, can I kiss you?”

Marinette bit her lip to contain her smile before nodding and leaning in. Adrien met her halfway and his eyes closed just before their lips connected. For as much of a hopeless romantic as Adrien was, he had never really considered what a kiss might feel like. He didn’t think the fireworks feeling was realistic, and he wasn’t sure that the descriptions of kissing in books were accurate either, but when he kissed Marinette he knew he didn’t need all of those descriptions. He just knew that being this close to her and getting to press his forehead against hers after they separated was right.

“Adrien,” Marinette said softly, causing him to finally open his eyes again to look at her. “I have one more thing I need to tell you.”

He pulled back just slightly, attentive. “Or well,” she corrected, a brilliant smile blooming on her freshly-kissed lips. “Ladybug has one more thing to tell Chat Noir.”

The boy leaned back further this time frantically searching her face for the joke, but all he saw was the blue-black hair, the bluebell eyes, the freckles. God, how he used to stare at those freckles as often as he could. And now he could stare at them for the rest of his life, no mask to obscure the mass of dots decorating the bridge of her nose.

“Looks like I got to see that mark after all, kitty.”
Adrien laughed with joy before leaning in for another kiss.