Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marinette grew up with intricate black swirls on her chest. Ever since she was a child she would trace her fingers over the wild loops and swirls till she learned them by heart. The first clothes she ever designed were her attempts to utilize the never-ending beauty and grace she saw in each curve. She had other soulmate marks too of course. Wrapped around her left wrist was a thick black line and the top of her right thigh featured a small group of irregular spots, but the mark across her chest was her favorite. Her intuition told her strongly that whoever it was that matched that mark would be someone very special. She told herself that was silly, of course they would be special they were one of her soulmates, but it felt different. Sometimes at night she wondered what color it would be and dreamed of the person who would activate it.

Adrien was glad that the marks on his shoulder and back were small. The intricate pattern across his chest was large but usually covered by a shirt in his photoshoots, so he only had to sit through the time it took to cover the others with makeup. He knew that prospective models often could be completely shut out of the industry based on how large or obviously placed their soulmarks were, on if it was decided it would take to much time and money in covering them. He knew that his chest mark was the reason he didn’t often have to do any swimsuit or shirtless shots. If that mark hadn’t already been his favorite, that alone would have done it.

Truly though, Adrien didn’t like hiding his marks, he loved them and wanted everyone to see them. Whenever he felt alone he would look in the mirror and feel comfortable in the fact that somewhere someone looked in the mirror and saw the same black tattoo, waiting to be colored in. He would wonder, if he let the press get images of his marks and his soulmates came forward, who would they be? What color would their touch paint his skin? What color would he make theirs? But then he’d remember the time a paparazzi had just managed to capture the top tip of the mark on his upper back, the one that peaked onto his neck, and how hundreds of fans had harassed him claiming to be his one true love.

He could wait for his soulmates, he knew he’d find them in time.

For Alya, soulmate marks were an endless puzzle. Every night she’d slowly look over her still-dark marks for any hint of color telling her that she’d touched one of her soulmates that day. If she was in public, no matter what she was doing, she’d be almost unconsciously looking for a thick snake-like coil of black tapered on each end on every stranger's left wrist. On hot days she’d watch for the strange three bladed fan shape that decorated her left calf or even the strange sunburst like shape on her torso. By the time she was thirteen Alya had become frustrated. Her mom and Nora would remind her that it was extremely common for people not to have met any of their soulmates at her age, but that just made her more frustrated. She wanted answers, she wanted to know.

When she was getting ready to move to her new school she made a promise to herself. She started learning about web design and journalism, she read every tip she could find about how to build blogs and how to market herself. Alya had a mission: no matter what she’d have met her soulmates by the end of the year.

“Less three percent of people have soulmate marks with as much symmetry as you do baby,” Nino’s mother would say with pride. “You know what that means right? It means your balanced, in your soul. I knew from the minute I had you that you’d be a sweet boy, and when I saw those marks I knew you’d be a happy boy. Two perfect black circles on each shoulder and then that sun riiiight over your belly button. That’s when I knew my son would be a wise boy in his time, a reasonable and happy boy.”

She’d say this so frequently that Nino felt he could say every word by heart. He never complained though, because he was pretty sure that those marks and the superstitious nonsense about him having a ‘balanced soul’ were part of the reason she let him be so adventurous in his hobbies. She trusted in him to understand what he was getting himself into (like when he tried skateboarding), when to keep pushing (like when he didn’t immediately perform on ollie), and when to move on (like when he tried to grind down the rail of some stairs and ended up swan diving into the Seine). When he told her, at twelve that he wanted to do go into music professionally he thought that would be too much, that she’d tell him that his soulmarks lied and not a chance. Then the next day she came into his room with six double-sided pages of notes about the music industry to review with him. His mom says that Nino doesn’t worry about his soulmates because he knows that they will come eventually, and he is too balanced to worry about it until then.

Nonononono! Marinette was already running late and it was only the first day of school, but it wasn’t like she could just leave that old man to get hit. She held the box of macaroons carefully as she stumbled into class. The only seat left was in the second row, right next to and behind two kids that she didn’t recognize at all. Slowly she approached the seat, surprised that Chloe seemed too distracted by the boy in the front row to try to trip her. She didn’t even send a glare her way! Marinette felt a surge of hope for the coming year and approached the new girl with a big smile.

“Hi, I’m Marinette. Do you mind if I sit here?”

The girl looked up from her phone at her with a friendly smile, “Not at all. I’m Alya, I’m new this year.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. Would you like a-”

Before Marinette could finish she was cut off mid-sit by Alya suddenly shooting forward and grabbing her wrist, causing her to drop the box and fall into the in shock. She suddenly felt the eyes of the class turn to look and tried to fight through the battling embarrassment, surprise, and confusion.

“Look! We have matching soulmarks! Oh my god, I was so determined to find my soulmates this year, but I didn’t think it would happen this soon! This is so amazing. I need to text my sister about this. Wait, what color is it now?”

Mari looked down at her wrist in shock, and sure enough, the black lines were fading into colors. As she watched the solid black became alternating orange and purple, almost like two colored ropes twisted together coiled around her wrist.

A glance up revealed that Alya’s arm matched her, except instead of purple and orange hers was pink and white. Alya was looking at Marinette’s wrist too, practically bouncing in her seat in excitement. Slowly Mari felt the shock leave her body as if Alya’s excitement was contagious, and with a matching smile on her face Mari turned to all her watching classmates and thanked them for their congratulations. Her face felt like it was on fire and she knew she must be blushing like wild, but she didn’t think she’d ever felt happier.

Adrien clapped along with the rest of the class as the girls behind them (Marinette and Alya, Marinette and Alya, Marinette and Alya, he can do this) celebrated activating their soulmate marks. He noticed Chloe and her friend (Sabrina, he’s three for three) didn’t clap, but he ignored it. Chloe could be difficult sometimes, but she was his oldest friend, even if she was always saying that his soulmate marks must be broken because they didn’t match hers.

When everything died down a little he turned around to introduce himself, and his breath caught. The girl on his left had the sweetest smile, and her eyes sparkled, and suddenly his words were stuck in his throat.

“Oh hey, you’re new too, right? I’m Marinette, but you can call me Mari. Would you like a macaroon?”

She was so nice too! Dumbstruck, he nodded and reached for the open box she held out to him. Holding one, his need for manners knocked some sense back into him, “Thank you, this is really… it’s really nice of you. My name’s Adrien, and yeah this is actually my first day in school ever. Congratulations again, by the way.”

“You’ve never been to school before? I mean! Sorry… I didn’t mean to make fun of you or embarrass you… I just meant… Unggggg I’m making a mess of this...” Mari hid her face in her hands.

Adrien thought he heard Chloe laughing to his side but before he could see why, his seatmate (Nino. He is killing this) spun around and piped up, taking a macaroon from the box Marinette wordlessly held towards him.

“Chill out Mari it’s OK.” He turned towards Adrien to continue, “Don’t mind her she gets embarrassed kinda easily but she’s the sweetest girl you’ll ever meet. I’m serious, I’m pretty she’s actually a young angel who has to earn her wings by living out a mortal life with no memory of heaven and by being the nicest possible person.”

Alya, who had been listening closely while texting on her phone, looked up at that, “You’ve really thought that one through.”

Nino shrugged, unconcerned, “I’ve known her a while. You’ll come to see don’t worry. Besides, have you tried her families baked goods? Pure heaven.” Mari blushed and giggled a bit but Nino continued. “Adrien, Alya, as you meet the many students in this class some of them will tell you to talk to them if you need anything, but I’m going to tell you right now, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is the one to go too. A word from the wise.”

When Adrien looked back at Marinette her face was covered by a cute red blush, but she rolled her eyes good-naturedly at Nino and smiled slightly. “Ignore him, he’s just trying to sweet talk me into giving him some free food, he does this all the time. He was right though that if you need anything, talk to me and I’ll help out however I can.”

Before anyone could respond the teacher at the front of the room called the class to attention and Adrien spun around. He was so excited to learn, he almost was able to distract himself from the memory of the kind beautiful girl behind him.

Chapter Text

Adrien sat through his first class ever with one ear on his teacher and one on the rest of the class. As interested as he was in hearing how his first ever real classroom would be run, because no actual teaching happened on the first day it seemed, he was equally interested in hearing how the class behaved. He saw how people looked at him and talked about him when he walked into the building, and he needed to act as normal as possible if he wanted people to accept him.

Although… Marinette, Nino, and Alya didn’t seem to react like that. They were so nice and friendly to him immediately. The ear he had turned towards the class heard Marinette and Alya whispering to each other intermittently throughout the class. Soulmates. Adrien thought it must be nice to have someone you could always rely on like that, someone you could confide anything in. The only friend he’d ever really had was Chloe, but she could be weird sometimes and she didn’t really like to listen to him. He loved her to be sure, she was his first and oldest friend, but he knew that there was a reason that they didn’t share a soulmark. And Adrien knew she knew it too, that that was why the older they got the more drew away from him, even as she bragged their friendship on every social media she could.

As Miss Bustier began dismissing the class, he turned to Nino. “Hey, what do you have after this? Do you mind showing me around?”

“Of course man! Let me see what you -”

“KIM!” Nino’s words were cut off by a loud yell from the back of the room. Adrien spun to see the whole class staring at a large boy he hadn’t met yet in the back of the room. Large Boy was picking up another, smaller but very fit, boy by his hoodie with one arm, and had the other fist pulled back to hit him.

“Ivan! What is going on?” Miss Bustier snapped from the front of the room.

“It’s Kim, he-”

“Ivan, go to the principal's office!”

The class was still as everyone watched the large boy walk dejectedly out of the classroom. As he passed by Adrien noticed him crumpling a paper into his right hand.

“What was that all about?” He asked before he could help himself.

“Yeah, who gets into a fight on the first day?” Alya leaned in and all four of them unconsciously mirrored her to give them a private circle.

Marinette had a slight pout on her face and the most adorable sad eyes Adrien had ever seen. “Well it’s probably nothing new, they almost got into a fight last year too. The huge boy that almost the first punch was Ivan. He’s really a sweetheart he’s just… Kim, the boy with pointy hair, was probably teasing him again. I don’t think Kim really realizes how much it hurts Ivan’s feelings. And when Ivan hurts... he hurts back.”

“Did you see that girl with the multi-colored dreadlocks?” Nino jumped in, sitting on top of his desk. At Adrien and Alya’s hesitant nods he continued, “Her name is Mylène and the two of them are soulmates. They activated their marks about… a year and a half ago, but neither of them has done much since. They both obviously like each other, I mean everyone knows it, but they’re too scared to make the first step. So they don’t. So Kim teases Ivan, and Ivan lashes out, and nothing ever happens.”

Marinette jumped in with a slightly distant voice. “They’re marks are really pretty too. Call it an artist’s eye, but I think they’re just lovely. It’s a ball shape on the side of their necks that's dripping slightly like it’s melting. Ivan’s is rainbow colored with a thick black outline, and Mylène’s is the inverse of that.”

Alya looked like she was about to speak, but before she could Adrien felt someone collide with him from the side and a high pitched shout filled his ears. “Adrikinssss! I can’t believe your father finally agreed to let you come to class! We are going to have so much fun, we can hang out during lunch, leave together, and we’ll have study dates. I mean I won’t study it’s not like I actually care about this crap, but we can call it a study date to our parents. This is going to be so great Adri Baby.”

Adrien blushed a bit at the display in front of his new friends. “Hey Chloe, yeah I’m pretty excited about it too. But you know that my father only barely allowed this, so I need to do really well in all my classes.”

“Wait… Adrien your friends with Chloe?” Adrien looked up at Mari, surprised at the shocked disgust in her voice. Before he could respond though Chloe cut in.

“Yes, because unlike you Adrien has class and taste. Don’t listen to her Adrikins, she’s just jealous of me. You shouldn’t bother talking to her anyways, she only wants to be friends with you to use you to get to your dad.”

“Excuse me?” Marinette’s face turned red in anger.

“Oh don’t listen to her Mari,” Nino chimed in with a falsely placating voice, holding out a calming hand. “She’s just jealous of you because you have more friends. More than her one friend. And because people are only nice to her because of her dad.”

“Oh, you losers don’t know anything anyways. Whatever, I’m not sticking around here, I might catch bad fashion.” Chloe shuddered and walked away with a dramatic hair flip.  “I’ll wait for you at lunch Adrien.”

“What the hell is her deal?” Alya spat.

“Chloe Bourgeois, class bully and a spoiled brat. Her dad is Mayor Bourgeois. It’s only a matter of time before her eyes of evil judgment turn to you. You’re actually friends with her Adrien?”

“She’s not usually like that. I mean, sometimes she can be kinda self-centered yeah, but never like that. We’ve been friend our whole lives. Her mom and my dad would work together sometimes, and they would just leave us alone with her attendant for the day while they worked. She was the only friend I had growing up.  I’m sure there's more to it then what it seems, I’ll… I’ll talk to her and get this straightened out.”

Marinette’s face had relaxed, but the look her and Nino shared said that neither of them believed it. Before anyone could say anymore though, Miss Bustier said from the board to hurry along to their next class and they split off in groups of two and left.

Alya was in the library with Marinette when the ground shook. The two had quietly talked all through Miss Bustier’s class and continued talking now, trying to learn everything they could about each other. They were both had very different likes, but they got along so well that it was no surprise that they were soulmates.

Marinette hadn’t called her weird or nerdy for her two obsessions, superheroes and soulmates, instead, she had listened closely and asked questions. In return, Alya couldn’t believe how talented and cool Marinette’s designs were. Marinette was showing her pictures on her phone when they suddenly they were knocked to the ground.

Alya quickly pulled her over to the security camera monitors on the walls. Standing in front of the school was a giant stone humanoid yelling with Ivan’s voice.

“He turned into an actual supervillain.” It was spoken at barely more than a breath, but Marinette heard it.

“Please tell me you're going to run away from him, and not closer.”

“Wow, look how well you know me already! Wherever there’s a supervillain, a superhero follows. Next time I see you, I’m going to have the coolest story ever. Bye!” 

“Wait no-” Marinette yelled, but Alya didn’t hear because she was already gone.

When all the rumbling and destruction started, Adrien was in his next class PE, thankfully one Nino was still in. With all the sirens blaring, people screaming, and things crashing, class was quickly canceled. Mr. D'Argencourt encouraged students to stay in the stadium where things so far seemed safe, but a few kids made breaks for it.

“Woah man, where are you going?” Nino stopped Adrien with a hand to the shoulder. “I don’t know what's going on out there, but it’s super not safe.”

Adrien gently pulled free of his new friend's grasp. “I only just managed to convince my dad that I’d be safe if he let me leave the house today. I need to get home so he knows I’m okay, otherwise, he might freak out and never let me leave again.”

“But it’s crazy out there man!” 

“Sorry! GottaGoStaySafeByeeee!” Adrien yelled with a backward wave as he ran towards his house.

Making it to the front door was easier than he expected. Though the streets were littered with destruction, it was pretty easy to know where the giant monster-thing was and how to not be there. Once inside, he looked around but found no one.

“Nathalie? Gorilla? Anyone?” Receiving no answer, Adrien moved towards his room, wishing he’d gotten Nino’s number so that he could tell him he made it and see how the rest of the class was faring. He wondered where Marinette was (only because he was worried about his new friend, obviously) and wished he’d gotten her phone number too (because he was worried about her, that's the only reason).

Crashing down on his couch, he moved to turn on the TV and watch the news, only to see an unfamiliar hexagonal box on the coffee table. Maybe it was a first day of school gift from Father? It didn’t really seem likely, but who else would have gotten into his room to leave him something?

Slowly Adrien opened the box, quickly dropping it when a blinding green light shined out of it.

“Hey kid, I’m Plagg nice to meet you. Woah this place is so swanky, can I eat this?”

The little black creature quickly zipped off and attempted to bite Adrien’s foosball table. After a disappointed noise, it moved towards the next shiny things it saw and tried again. All too quickly it became frustrated and returned to the blond boy watching it with shock, confusion, and rapidly growing excitement.

“Ugh, this place is all shine, no flavor. Do you have anything to eat here? I’m starving.” Plagg groaned as he dramatically dropped onto a throw pillow.

“Are you… magic?”

“Do you ever see normal talking flying cats the size of your hand? That come out of magical boxes with magical jewelry inside? And make you a superhero with the power of destruction? No, kid. I’m not magic.” Plagg rolled onto his stomach and stretched out lazily.

“Wait, magic jewelry and destruction powers?” Adrian ignored the cat things sass and looked back towards the box he dropped onto the table. Sitting inside was a plain silver ring.

“Well, put it on. We’ve already got a villain to fight, and if your partner beats him without you even showing up Tikki will never let me live it down.”

“Partner? Hold on, hold on. This is so freaking awesome, tell me literally.” Adrien said, deftly slipping the ring onto his finger.

Marinette's meeting wasn’t going nearly as well. After releasing the red bug monster, Marinette had tried desperately to kill it with every hard surface she could reach for about three minutes until it talked her down.

“How am I supposed to stop Stoneheart? I can’t stop eggs from rolling off the counter! Who even are you?” Marinette cried. 

The red thing gently flew to be eye level with Marinette and calmly began, “Firstly, my name is Tikki and it’s nice to meet you. I’m a kwami, and we kwamis use special jewelry to give people powers and let them be heroes. Mine, and now yours, is the power of creation. All you have to do is wear these earrings, say ‘Transform me’ or ‘Spots on,’ and you’ll become Ladybug. Am I going too fast?” 

Marinette just stared with wide almost black eyes. She slowly began nodding and relaxed. “Oh okay. This makes sense.” Tikki didn’t seem to catch how flat her voice had gotten and perked up, but Marinette went on. “You got the wrong gal. You’re looking for my friend Alya, this is exactly her style. She’s super brave and confident and loves superheroes. We are soulmates though, that’s probably what caused the mix-up.”

“No, Marinette, you're the chosen one! Trust me, you are perfect to be Ladybug.”

Adrien raced across the rooftops with barely contained glee. This was the best. The freedom, the ability to save people, the powers, being a superhero was going to be so freaking cool. Also to black leather wasn’t bad. He liked the little bell. As he approached the edge of the next rooftop he readied himself and leaped.

It took him a moment to blink away the pain and confusion to realize he was on the ground. He gently reached up to touch the back of his head, shocked to find it wasn’t bleeding out after falling two stories onto a stone path. Must be a superhero thing. He tried to remember how he fell, but all he remembered was sailing into the air and then something hitting his torso and then he was on the ground.

“Oh my god, are you okay? I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there and I don’t really know how to use this and maybe don’t move so much I should really call an ambulance-”

As somewhat adorable as it was Adrien cut off the girls flustered apologetic ramblings. “Hey relax I’m fine, see?” Adrien bent to show her that back of his head then leaped to his feet with his new and improved agility. “Nothing worse than a bad headache and a bump. I'm… Chat Noir and you must be my partner. It’s nice to meet you.” 

The red-spotted girl just stared at Chat’s hand for a moment, long enough for Chat to begin to wonder if she realized just how socially inept he was, and then she quickly took it and shook it. “I’m Ladybug, and I’m so sorry about that whole thing, again.”

“It’s no big deal, were both new to this. Was that your weapon by the way, that yo-yo thing? Mine’s this staff. It can grow just about indefinitely it seems and retract back to this size. I also have the power to touch anything I destroy. What about you?”

“Oh,” Ladybug seemed to hesitate before answering, her cheeks as red as her suit the whole time. “Yeah, this yo-yo seems to be my weapon and I can swing around on it. My power is a can summon anything to help us defeat the villain, but I can’t control what it is so after I use it we have to figure it out. It’s not the best, I know…”

“No way, it’s great! That yo-yo will be much better for range attacks then mine, and your power is super useful. Plus, my kawami said something about how we need you to win the battle anyway. We’re going to be a great team!”

Ladybug blushed and told herself it was just the embarrassment of accidentally clotheslining Chat Noir and not feeling like she belonged in this suit yet (Because it definitely didn’t have anything to do with the really nice and kinda hot guy in front of her ready to confidently go be a hero). The loud crash, followed by a constant beeping, of a car being thrown two streets over though snapped her back to attention.

With a deep breath and a determined clench of her jaw, she nodded toward her new partner. “Right. Let’s do this then.”

Rather than respond, Chat grinned and vaulted off towards the sound.

“Oh! Wait for me!” Taking a steadying breath, Ladybug swung her yo-yo and followed after him.