Archive of Our Own

Kagami put her hands against her sides as she surveyed the living room one last time. She'd checked the couch and the tables and the bookshelf. It was a paranoid thing to do, maybe, but it was worth it.

Being twenty-five and a babysitter should have felt like a personal failure to a Tsurugi. But Kagami relished in the possibility of today. She saw it as a middle finger to her mother's parenting: she could do something low-stakes and unremarkable and without much pay, a pay that was even split in two, and she would not be dishonoured for it. Even more, though, she could provide comfort and attention to a child. Things she never got in her own childhood, the time in her life when she did feel like a failure.

Today she was sitting Malia. Nora Césaire's daughter — Alya's niece — not a complete stranger; she hadn't sat Malia before, or any kid for that matter, but the two of them had met a few times. For all that you could really 'meet' a six-year-old. It had generally taken the form of brief greetings before Malia went off to play in her own little world. Hopefully they'd get to know each other better today.

She smiled slightly at the thought, then spun around and went back into the hallway.

"All clear," she said. "No monsters. Come in."

"Okay… hup!"

Another reason to be excited for her first session babysitting, though, was that she got to sit with possibly the best babysitter in the world. That was a biased assessment, but she didn't care. Marinette was better than anyone. And Malia clearly agreed, laughing as Marinette carried her over to the couch and bounced her the whole time, before dropping her into the soft plush cushions with a "Bwaah!"

Malia sat up and grabbed one of the cushions with both hands. She might be past toddlerhood, but the cushion was still the size of her entire torso, so her fists were working very hard to hold on. "Ow!" she said, and flailed the cushion so that it tapped against Marinette's hip. Marinette obliged by crumpling and saying, "Oof!"

"Villain!" blustered Malia, but with pride to her voice. "What if there were mon— monsters?"

"Kagami checked for them, you know," said Marinette, and then "Oof!" again when Malia ineffectually swatted at her stomach.

"I don't trust her," said Malia. "She's with the monsters."

"Really?"

"Yuuup. She's a vampire. A big scary vampire."

Kagami paused. She wasn't sure if she should feel insulted, but she still did a little.

Marinette also paused, but only for a moment, soon covering for Kagami's uncertainty by saying, "Really? What makes you think she's a vampire?"

"She's big and scary," said Malia, which didn't exactly help.

"I see," said Marinette. Her eyes glanced towards Kagami, then back to Malia again, and she pointed an accusatory finger at Malia. "Well, do you know how you can tell for sure if someone is a vampire?"

"They eat blood!"

"Yes, but also, they have very sharp teeth. Kagami? Would you show Malia?"

It wasn't hard to catch on to Marinette's plan. Even so, Kagami hesitated about it. She didn't want to scare the little girl, and besides, she didn't really have Marinette's capacity for theatrics. Eventually, though, she opened her mouth and pointed at her incisors — Marinette probably knew what she was doing.

"See?" said Marinette. "Vampire teeth."

Malia's mouth fell open. Her earthy-brown eyes shone with excitement — "Wow! You're a real vampire!" — Kagami realised then. Marinette had seen an opportunity for play and grabbed it, and Malia's mild disdain from earlier had turned into utter awe.

"… Yes," said Kagami. "I am." She closed her mouth and let Malia's imagination do the work, because her incisors really weren't that big. They were bigger than Marinette's, but to be quite honest, Marinette's were just small.

"Can you bite me?" asked Malia, eyes glittering. "I wanna be a vampire too!"

"I'm afraid not," said Marinette, poking her finger against Malia's nose. "You have to be at least ten years old to become a vampire."

"That's so unfair," said Malia. "Can you bite Marinette?"

Kagami flushed. "I — well, I… I think…"

"She could," said Marinette. Her cheeks were very slightly pink, but her voice didn't carry even a hint of embarrassment. She was clearly too far into sitting land to notice how outlandish she was being. "But I'm immune to becoming a vampire. It won't work on me."

Malia seemed even more enthused this time. "Really?"

"Yeah." Marinette pulled up her sleeve a bit and lifted her arm towards Kagami. "So she can bite me if she wants, but nothing will happen."

"Then you're a werewolf!" said Malia triumphantly. "I have two monster babysitters!"

"I… guess so," said Kagami. She was a bit too mesmerised that Marinette had genuinely offered her arm up for a taste to formulate a proper response. Being a vampire was fine if Malia was having fun, but that felt like a step too far. Or at least, the images that arose in her mind were definitely too far and she had no idea if biting in the real world would set a bad example for a six-year-old.

"Bite her!" said Malia. "I wanna see!"

"Er," said Kagami.

"Are you sure?" said Marinette. "It could get pretty bloody. We might ruin your parents' couch."

"Marinette!"

"Yeah! I wanna see!"

Marinette wagged her finger. "But if we do, you have to clean up after us. Since it was your idea."

Malia didn't even speak now, she just nodded and grinned. Kagami saw Marinette smile affirmingly and then pull her sleeve up further. And she decided that maybe it was time to speak up properly, before this went too far.

"Malia," she said, gaining confidence as she spoke, "you know vampires and werewolves aren't real, right? We're just normal people. Like you."

The way Malia dug her eyebrows into a ditch underneath her forehead made Kagami feel like that was a very stupid thing to say. "Duh," she said. "Vampires don't have freckles."

"They… don't?"

"Yuh." Malia knitted her arms together. "Are you stupid?"

Luckily, Marinette came to Kagami’s rescue immediately. Kind of. "Kagami isn't stupid," she said softly. "She just doesn't like to bite people. She thinks I taste funny." And while that last part almost made Kagami splutter, because Marinette probably tasted amazing, it seemed to convince Malia — whose mouth gaped open in a prolonged 'Ohhh.'

"That makes sense," she said. "I also taste funny. But if you cooked me I'd probably taste great. Me stew. Hey," the change in her voice was so abrupt that Kagami almost jolted, "do you wanna see my dinosaur book? Dinosaurs could eat people and they'd love me."

"Sure," said Marinette, smiling. "Kagami loves hearing about dinosaurs!"

Again, Malia lit up. She turned to look at Kagami with glowing eyes, and then she breathed, "Okay," and she pushed herself out of the sofa and down on the floor and she ran like she was being chased.

"… I don't love dinosaurs," said Kagami, watching the open doorway Malia had just vanished through.

"You don't mind them, though."

"What if she asks me questions?"

Marinette smiled at her, stepped forward. She put her hand on Kagami's arm and said, "You're worrying too much. She doesn't want to hear what you have to say about dinosaurs, she wants to tell you eveything she knows."

"Oh."

Kagami felt lost. Malia was a big ball of energy, which she was fine with, because Marinette was also that a lot of the time. And Rose, and Alya, depending on their moods. But so far she had just been dragged along behind a metaphorical truck, in a conversation she had no way to navigate.

"I'm confused," she said aloud.

"Oh?"

"Why did she say we were vampires and werewolves then call me stupid?"

Marinette snorted. Then she flushed and added, "Sorry! I'm not laughing at you. You know, she's very imaginative. Kids always are at her age. She said you were a vampire because she wanted to start a game, and she played along with the teeth and all that but she knows it's all pretend. I don’t know if she believes there are real vampires out there, but right now she just wants to have fun with the cool mysterious adults."

"Mysterious adults," echoed Kagami.

"Yep. Anyway, just try and roll with it. It's a bit exhausting at first but you get used to it, I promise."

"I see." That was a lie. Kagami didn't see, except that she saw Marinette, and she knew Marinette must have a good idea of what she was doing. "I should agree to whatever she says?"

"No, no — there's always a limit." Marinette sighed and shrugged. "It's not about agreeing. It's about, when she says something, you go 'yes, and'. If she says you should bite me then you bite me, but you pretend I taste of sweaty socks. Something like that. But if she asks if she can jump out of the window, you tell her that it's dangerous and you don't let her."

That was… sensible, at least. And it fit well with what Marinette had told her earlier, before they even entered the flat. She'd told the story of how one time, while sitting down in the sofa with a little boy, she'd felt something poke into her leg and proceeded to dig out a fork from between two cushions. No one got injured, but even seven years later she still checked every living room she sat kids in. Or rather, today it had been Kagami who did the checking. The children's safety should always come first.

"I'm still not going to bite you, though," said Kagami.

"That's fair," said Marinette, chuckling awkwardly. As soon as she'd said it, though, they could hear Malia coming closer. She was moving fast on tiny feet, thumping them into the floor as she ran from her bedroom towards the living room, and she didn't slow down once she got through the doorway.

"Look! Dinosaurs!" she said, brandishing the book like a trophy. She ran to Marinette, of course, and tugged at Marinette's sleeve. "Do you wanna see, Marinette?"

"Of course," said Marinette. "But I think Kagami wants to see them even more."

Malia turned to Kagami. She was pouting slightly, her eyes narrow.

"Why don't we sit down in the couch all together and you can show both of us?" suggested Marinette.

"'kay," said Malia.

Kagami couldn't remember being interested in dinosaurs when she was little. She had things she did a lot, like fencing and archery, but while she did like martial arts — she enjoyed doing them once she started feeling like she was good at them — that hadn't really been a thing she started on because of her own desires. Really, she couldn't remember any desires like this. She had never had a book about a topic that she had brandished proudly at guests. She had never chosen a topic like that for herself. Maybe, if she had had the choice, she might have picked dinosaurs. Or more likely, because she could remember being specifically fascinated by the way her swords felt and moved and sounded, she might have picked metals or — physics, maybe.

Seeing Malia's eyes glow as she flipped through the pages now… it made a smile tug at Kagami’s lips. Malia's parents seemed to be doing right by her.

"This is Velociraptor," Malia said, pronouncing the name somewhat staccato but still with a kind of practised assurance. She had clearly said those exact syllables many times. "It has a claw foot. It could tear your guts out if it wanted, just jump on you and claw you in the navel."

"I see," said Marinette.

"That sounds painful," said Kagami.

"Yeah," said Malia, nodding sagely. "I saw it in a movie. The movie was very wrong about dinosaurs but they killed lots of people. It was pretty cool."

Kagami felt her eyes go wide throughout that explanation. Marinette asked, "What movie was that?"

"Jurassic Park. Dad said I would be scared. It wasn't scary at all. I wasn't scared. Mum could punch all the dinosaurs dead, except the Tyrannosaurus, but I don't think she'd be stupid enough to fight a Tyrannosaurus anyway."

Knowing Nora, that was probably true, but also not fully certain. Famously, Nora had been attempted mugged at gunpoint and ended up walking away with the mugger's gun, which she now displayed proudly on the kitchen wall. With the bullets and even the trigger removed, of course.

"I think a vampire could beat a Tyrannosaurus," continued Malia. She glanced at Kagami as she said it. "Vampires could beat anything except werewolves."

That was a cue, wasn't it? The look wasn't exactly subtle. Kagami swallowed and said, "Don't you think the vampire is a little too small for that?"

"Nah. Vampires can fly."

"What if there was a vampire Tyrannosaurus?" suggested Marinette.

"Nuh-uh. Nope. Vampires didn't exist back then."

Marinette's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Duh. Vampires are made of bats and bats didn’t exist until like fifty million years ago. Tyrannosaurus died long before that."

"I see." For a moment, Marinette still looked baffled, but then her expression melted into a knowing smile. "That's very smart, actually. I hadn't thought about that before."

"You need to study more," replied Malia, point blank. Kagami almost snorted: she was reasonably certain that Marinette’s textile history degree wouldn't teach her anything about bat evolution.

"I do, yes. You never stop learning, you know."

"I dunno. Dad stopped learning after university. He works in an office now and he says he gets stupider every day."

Marinette evidently did not stop herself from snorting. "I'm sure he's just joking," she said.

"Uh-huh," said Malia, and flipped a few pages forward. "Anyway, this is Stegosaurus. It's not as cool as Hesperosaurus because Hesperosaurus has big fanny plates on its back and they're bigger than Stegosaurus. I guess Stegosaurus is cool too, though. Also there's a dinosaur with spiky thumbs and its name is Iguanodon. Marinette?"

"Yes?"

"Would you eat a dinosaur?"

"Hmm," said Marinette, like she was giving it actual thought. "No. The fossils are all sandy and hard."

Malia nudged her in the side. "Dummy. I meant if you found an alive one and you killed it."

"I think… I'd rather keep it as a pet," said Marinette.

"How about you, Kagami?"

"I," said Kagami. Malia's stare was incredibly intense. "I wouldn't eat a dinosaur because I didn't exist when dinosaurs were alive?"

"Huh," said Malia. "You're smart, Kagami."

Kagami smiled at the book, not directly at Malia. "Thank you."

"You can quit school."

"I already finished my education," said Kagami. "I've got a big degree and everything."

"Yeah, Kagami's amazing," said Marinette. "She knows everything about Russian and Russia."

"Name a dinosaur from Russia," said Malia. Point blank again, without a moment of hesitation. It was honestly an admirable quality, even though it was difficult to keep up with.

"I'm afraid I only know things about Russia from after people started living there," Kagami replied. "I apologise."

Malia fixed her with a sharp, scrutinising look, mouth rounding into a pout. Then she said, "Okay. I can teach you about the dinosaurs, then, since university failed you."

"University didn't teach me about dinosaurs either," said Marinette, who was obviously struggling not to giggle. "Except birds. I learned that birds are dinosaurs."

"Yeah," said Malia. "Birds are dinosaurs. They're not as cool as real dinosaurs, though."

"Lyrebird," said Kagami, without thinking. It wasn't even her favourite bird, it was just an immediate thought that failed to filter out on the brief journey between brain and mouth.

But Malia just shrugged and said something like, 'Eh.' She went back to flipping pages, but with less obvious direction than before. Either she had lost some enthusiasm, or her attention had moved on — that much, at least, was something Kagami had observed in other children.

"Kagami?" said Malia eventually, over a page that said 'Oviraptor'.

"Yes?"

"You already quit school."

Technically incorrect. However, "I suppose so."

"Do you have a boyfriend yet?"

Marinette started coughing, which Kagami thought was quite unfair, because she wanted to do the same thing. However, she maintained her composure. "I don't."

"So you're like Marinette."

"… In what way?" said Kagami, because it was better than saying, 'A lesbian?' Especially when Marinette wasn't — it was only an impulse that had struck, because she was one, because not having a boyfriend came with the territory. Malia was a little child, however, and she had a mother and a father, so she probably wasn't thinking about sexuality.

"She doesn't have a boyfriend either," said Malia. "She's too ugly."

"Marinette isn't ugly! She is very pretty," protested Kagami. After those words fell out, and after she slipped a horrified glance at Marinette, she hastened to add, "You shouldn't call people ugly, you know. That's not very nice of you."

"Oh. I guess," said Malia. "She's the one who says it, though."

Kagami frowned at Marinette. Clearly Marinette had some shortcomings. "You shouldn't say things like that about yourself."

There was a brief moment where Marinette looked like she had just spotted a gun aimed straight at her face. "I," she started. "Um. Yeah. I was just joking, Malia. I'm just not looking for a boyfriend right now, okay? I had a boyfriend before, but it didn't work out."

"You're gonna die alone, Marinette," said Malia.

"That also isn't a nice thing to say," said Kagami.

For her part, her ex-boyfriend had really just taught her she didn't care for boys. It was a rite of passage more than a formative experience; now she was sure where her attraction lay. With women. With Marinette. Who hadn't been on the dating market for almost a year at this point, but one day she might become available again.

"I'm just saying she needs to get a boyfriend soon or she'll die, and then she'll have to go dating as a ghost," said Malia. She turned the book on its face in her lap, and templed her fingers over the spine. "No one likes ghosts. Everyone's scared of them and they wear chains and they're probably cold. So you gotta find a partner before it's too late."

Kagami opened her mouth to respond some more, but she was cut off when Marinette patted Malia's shoulder and said, "Would you be scared of me if I was a ghost?"

"Nah. You're cool," said Malia. She kicked her heel into the sofa with a soft thud. "I'm not scared of ghosts anyway. But we could be friends if you were a ghost."

"And I'd be friends with you even if you were a nasty little goblin," said Marinette, and her patting hand started tickling Malia on the back. "Oh wait, you already are, you little stinker."

Malia's laughter bubbled around the room. "No I'm not!" she protested, but there wasn't a trace of upset about her. "You're a goblin!"

"Then we're both goblins," said Marinette, laughing along with her, albeit more controlled.

"Yeah!" said Malia, pulling away from Marinette's gentle roughhousing and shaking her head. "Goblins. Two goblins and a vampire."

After saying that, she turned towards Kagami again, but their eyes didn't fully meet. Kagami caught the hint now that Marinette had coaxed her on it, though. She bared her teeth and gingerly lifted her hands, and Malia laughed even more.

"Since you're a vampire you won't die," giggled Malia, with an inflection that suggested it was a compliment. "So you don't need to date anyone yet. Okay?"

"… Okay," said Kagami. "I'll keep that in mind, but if I find someone I like I'll still try." Just for a moment her eyes drifted to Marinette, but she pulled them back again immediately.

"Maybe a vampire and a ghost could date?" said Marinette. "Vampires don't mind cold and they're never scared."

Kagami froze. That sounded like a reference to earlier, but… Marinette wasn't smiling like she did whenever she felt she was being clever. She also didn't have the faint pink colour to her cheeks she got whenever she talked about romance. Rather, she sounded thoughtful, or perhaps thoughtless, like the idea had just struck her brain and she didn't give it another check-in before letting it free.

"Yeah. A vampire and a ghost could date," said Malia. "But you shouldn't wait too long anyhow. I bet it's boring to try and find a vampire as a ghost when you can't move out of the graveyard to look."

"That's true," said Marinette. "Or maybe I'll find another ghost in the same graveyard. Our ghosts could kiss while our chains are rattling. That'd be cool, wouldn't it?"

"Ugh," said Malia, shaking her head vigorously. "No. Nasty and noisy."

Marinette nudged her in the side. Kagami briefly considered that part of the reason Marinette was so good with children was that at heart, she still was a child. She felt emotions the same way they did, she could lower herself to their level without a second thought. And Kagami… could not. "Are you saying you don't want me to be happy after I'm dead?"

"Not if it's like that! Get a vampire instead!" said Malia, falling back into the sofa with a beleaguered sigh. "Or just get a boyfriend already, ugh."

"Does it have to be a boyfriend?" said Marinette. Unbidden, Kagami's eyebrows rose to dramatic heights.

"Yeah. You need to have a baby that I can babysit so I can get money for chocolates."

"You don't need a boyfriend to have a baby," replied Marinette.

"Bernard says you do, and his dad's a doctor so he definitely knows what he's talking about."

Kagami sighed inwardly. There were lots of things she could say, but she'd rather not argue with a child. Her own experiences in arguing with Mother had never been happy and nothing good had ever come of that, either.

But then Marinette glanced cautiously at her. Like she was worried. Kagami held her breath.

"I think Bernard's wrong," said Marinette, looking back at Malia. "I have two good friends who had a baby together and they're both girls."

"Oh."

"I don't think I want any babies, anyway. I wouldn't have the time. But," she paused a little as Malia let out a gentle little 'Aw,' "maybe we can find some other way to get you chocolates. Okay? We can watch something and Kagami can bring out her special little snack bag?"

Malia breathed in very loudly. She turned to look at Kagami and she was glowing like a lamp, and she kept looking for a moment that felt incredibly long, and then she pulled the dinosaur book up by its spine and said, "Yeah! I wanna watch Prehistoric Planet! With chocolates!"

"I also have caramels," supplied Kagami, dutifully.

"I like chocolates better," replied Malia.

"I like caramels," said Marinette, and smiled.

They sat down in front of the television. Malia couldn't name every dinosaur without help, but she did call out a number of names between mouthfuls of bonbons. They watched one episode all the way through, and they started on a second, and Malia was obviously asleep before the end. She slept on Marinette's lap until the episode ended, and then Marinette rustled her awake to brush her teeth and go to the bathroom, while Kagami cleaned up.

It had been a more stressful night than Kagami had anticipated, so once she had tidied everything she lay back in the sofa and tried to relax. She might have fallen asleep; she might not. Either way, she eventually became aware of approaching feet and took a deep breath, opening her eyes. Moments later, Marinette entered.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," replied Kagami, without sitting back up.

"How was your first session babysitting?" There was a small pause, just long enough that Kagami was about to reply, and then Marinette added, "I'm guessing you're a little tired. You look tired."

Kagami sighed. "Yes. I am tired."

"Any… specific reasons?"

Was there any reason to be dishonest? "I don't think I did very well," she replied. "I misunderstood her requests to play, and when she started going on about boyfriends and babies, I got upset."

Marinette's gentle smile turned sorrowful as she leaned over the back of the sofa, face not directly over Kagami's but also not too far away. "I'm sorry. Kids can be like that sometimes. They're unpredictable, and they also aren't very smart. I mean they're clever and can know all kinds of stuff, Malia knows facts about dinosaurs I've never even heard of, but they don't know how the world works and they repeat whatever they hear."

"I know that intellectually. But I couldn't have had a conversation with her about that. I would have gotten angry. I almost did get angry."

"I'm sorry," repeated Marinette.

"It's not your fault. You defused the whole situation, and you didn't even chastise her."

"But I invited you to come along."

Which was immaterial, because Kagami would have been happy about that — she would have tagged along — no matter what. Rather than protest, though, Kagami tried to deflect. "I'm impressed by how well you handled her. I would have been helpless on my own."

"Aw, thank you," said Marinette. "Anyway, Nora doesn't have a homophobic bone in her body. I think Bernard's just one of those kids who talks like he knows things and Malia just listened to him, but she doesn't have anything against you."

"I'm aware. I just didn't expect that kind of thing… tonight."

"Yeah," said Marinette. "But you know, you did pretty well in general."

Kagami looked at her. At her smile, which must be genuine because Marinette had obvious tells when she lied. At her arms, which stooped lazily over the backrest.

"You asked if it had to be a boyfriend," said Kagami.

"Hm?"

"When she told you to get a boyfriend. You asked if it had to be a boyfriend."

"Oh, yeah, I…" Marinette also had obvious tells when she felt awkward or embarrassed, and they all started manifesting now. "I'm open to anything, really. I kinda figured I don't need to limit myself, in terms of… of who. But I don't think I want to start dating again just yet. I'd like to get a bit more settled first."

"… How unusual for you," said Kagami, whose hopes had been raised then dashed again, who knew that Marinette had been like this for a long time now.

"Yeah." Marinette was slightly pink. "I guess I grew up."

"In some ways, yes."

That got a different kind of smile onto Marinette's lips. The playful kind. The one that sent quiet shivers of joy down Kagami's spine. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," said Kagami. "Only that you are suspiciously good at playing like a child."

"Should I noogie you, or something?"

"Please."

Marinette shut her mouth. Her eyes spoke apologies, for reasons Kagami knew but didn't agree with.

"I didn't mean to insult you," Kagami said.

"You didn't. You're fine," said Marinette, a little too quickly. "You, um… I'm guessing you didn't have much fun today, then."

Kagami shook her head, rasping her hair against the cushions. "No, it was fun watching you," she admitted, a little too openly. "I was caught off guard. Because —"

"Your mother," Marinette interrupted. "I get it."

"I didn't have a bad time. I just stressed myself out."

"So…" Marinette didn't look directly at her. "Would you be fine if I asked you to sit with me again? With someone else?"

"Yes."

Relief bloomed over Marinette's face. "Okay, that's good. I was worried I'd scared you away."

It would have had to be absolutely horrible to discourage Kagami anyway. She wanted to prove her mother wrong, in every way possible. She wanted to spend time with Marinette. Small drawbacks like these were immaterial — or rather, less important.

"I'll come with you however many times you need me," said Kagami. Which didn't feel as open an admission, because she was answering a request, not volunteering her own feelings.

"That's good," Marinette repeated.

If there were a clock on the wall, the ticks would have been loud in the following silence. But it didn't really feel like time was passing. The sun had gone down long ago anyway, so they were just there in a frozen space, and Kagami relished in that, too.

"On the topic of girls, though," said Marinette eventually. "You said if you find someone you like… you'll go for them."

Kagami's heartbeats felt loud. "Yes."

"I'm guessing that means you don't have anyone you're into right now?"

"I… do have someone," said Kagami. "She's amazing. I haven't told her yet, though."

"How unusual for you," echoed Marinette.

It was true. Kagami hadn't imagined she would ever be anxious about telling someone about her feelings — not to this degree, not for this long. But Marinette had been off limits all this time, and telling her just… didn't feel right. It would be pressuring her when she was still working through things, so Kagami had stayed silent. Bitten her tongue, bided her time. She didn't want to ruin her chances by confessing too early.

"I'm sure you'll make her very happy, though," said Marinette. She looked away, and she looked… no, she didn't look sad. That was just Kagami's imagination. She was probably just a little tired herself.

"I hope I will," said Kagami.

One day. When the time was right.

"I know you will," said Marinette.

Promises. Wishes. Kagami clutched them to her heart.

One day.

She would, one day.