She lands quietly on the terrace, the time was a little past midnight, her feet only lifting the smallest amount of dust. Her transformation wears off and she was back to being a regular Parisian citizen. A ladybug kwami twirls in the air several times before floating over to the girl's shoulder.

"Another job well done, Marinette!" Tikki says as she nuzzles into the girl's cheek.

Marinette chuckles lightly, holding the kwami in her hand."Thanks, Tikki. There's cookies on the desk so you can snack on." Tikki nodded quickly, rushing inside as Marinette opened the trapdoor to her room. She went down the ladder and padded across her room, turning the lamp on to witness Tikki enjoying a chocolate chip cookie. Marinette giggled quietly and grabs a pink marker that was sitting on her desk before going to bed.

Marinette flops down on her bed with a tired sigh, rolling up the sleeve of her long sleeve pajama shirt. And as if on cue, green ink slowly appeared on the inside of her forearm.

"It's truly bittersweet to leave you on such a beautiful night like tonight."

The handwriting was neat and seemed to almost glow as she read it. She hums softly, bringing her marker to her mouth, popping the cap off with her teeth. She passes two fingers across her arm until the green ink disappeared, leaving her space to write.

"Unfortunately, I don't have as much spare time as you do."

Marinette's handwriting was usually large, but when it came to communication through skin, she learned to minimize the size of her writing to fit a longer message. She watches as the pink started to fade off her skin, allowing a few seconds before the green ink started to appear again.

"Surely you could spare some time for Caturday?"

Marinette couldn't help the snort that slipped past her lips and quickly scribbled back.

"Caturday?"

"It's the day of the week where I get your full attention."

"And what day is that?"

"It's every day that ends with the suffix -end, and I must say, you've been pro-cat-stinating a lot."

Marinette laughs and she brings a hand to her lips to silence herself when Tikki looked up at her sleepily from her desk. She mouths an apology before wiping at the ink.

"Good night Chat Noir."

Marinette writes this slowly, with strokes gentle as if she was doing calligraphy. She stared at the pink ink for what seemed like forever, long enough that she decides to get up to turn off the light. Even after pulling Tikki's blanket over her tiny, sleeping figure and tucking herself into her blankets, Marinette notices the pink ink was still on her arm.

"He must have fallen asleep." She murmurs, blinking slowly. She settles into her pillows, humming softly in comfort. It had been a long night, after all.

Marinette was drifting to sleep when she feels the ghost a touch on her skin. She attempts to blink the sleep away, raising it to see his final words in the moonlight.

"Good night, my lovely Ladybug."

Marinette hums contently and she closes her eyes, allowing sleep to take her gently and quickly.

The next morning, Marinette woke up with a new message.

"Good morning my lovely lady! Hope you wonderful day today and hopefully we can partake in Caturday today."

Marinette could practically see the smirk that possessed her partner when he wrote that message. It had a little cat face and everything. She had the urge to reply, but her kwami forbade her to do so.

He looked down at his arm, noticing the ink had disappeared from his forearm. He was hoping, praying, that maybe he would get a response before his kwami were to notice. Not that he was a big stickler for the rules anyway.

"Adrien, you wouldn't happen to  be expecting a reply, now would you?" This made the blond's shoulders jump and he quickly pulled down his sleeve, shaking his head.

"Not at all! I was just making sure that they're not breaking code either!" Adrien Agreste chuckles nervously. The cat kwami narrowed his eyes at the boy, humming suspiciously before shrugging and returning to his piece of camembert. 

The heroes Ladybug and Chat Noir were destined to meet, both in hero form and out. It was predetermined for them to be partners to fight attacks on the city of Paris by people whose feelings were taken advantage of by the one named Papillon and his akuma. Fate, however, had other plans for these two with regards to their special bond. To protect their civilian identities, as well as family and friends, a long-standing rule had been sent in motions between the holders of these Miraculous.

"You should know better; you can't send any messages once the new day starts," Plagg mumbles with a mouth full of cheese as Adrien gets ready for school.

"There's a patrol tonight, and once it's done, you can reply to him," Tikki says before dipping into Marinette's purse as she heads downstairs.

Marinette remembers talking to her parents the day of her fifteenth birthday. A form of communication with your soulmate As an example, her mother showed her by picking up a pen and writing a small love note on her forearm. Eager to learn more at the revelation she looks to her father, and lo and behold, the same message appeared on his arm as well.

"Who knows, you could be lucky. Your soulmate could be close to you, or the two of you could be far apart. Whatever the case may be, the two of you will be destined to meet, no matter the circumstances."

Marinette was thrilled - she was planning on running upstairs that night, draw all over her arm to determine who and where her soulmate was, but as soon as arrived to her bedroom, Tikki stopped her.

"Tikki? What's the matter?" Tikki remained silent as she floated in front of Marinette.

The two of them had just joined forces a couple months ago. It was a crazy experience, finding herself being thrust into the position of the heroine of Paris. But luckily, she had the pleasure of meeting Chat Noir, who was a handful in and of his own. Regardless, Marinette came to her terms with her role, promising herself to live a normal life outside of being Ladybug.

But there was more to this role than she anticipated.

Her parents told her what all parents tell their children when they come to age.

"You have a special connection to someone. It's been destined for you to meet and fall in love. That's your red string, your other half."

There was that. And being a Miraculous holder came with extra details. 

Marinette could only watch her kwami float silently before her as realization kicked in. "No... Tikki... Please, don't tell me... Please don't tell me that Chat Noir is my red strings!"

Tikki hesitated to respond before she nodding, and Marinette gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm sorry Marinette." Tikki quickly started. "But, but there is more than just one string of fate! I was destined to be paired up with you! So we have a string between us too! Chat Noir has a string with his kwami too! Red strings don't necessarily mean that you will fall in love, it's just that you two were destined to meet!"

As much as Tikki tried to reassure her, everyone knew that that wasn't true. Everyone knew that the red string was for love. Marinette tried to imagine herself falling in love with Chat Noir - the handsome, but annoyingly flirty, pun-loving cat - she quickly shook her head, willing the thoughts away.

"No," Marinette says, shaking herself out of the memory. "The only person I would dream to have my red strings tied to would be -"

"Adrien!" Her friend, Nino Lahiffe, called their friend who was coming out of a car. There he was, the angel, the model, her friend, and classmate, Adrien Agreste. The years were kind to him, and Marinette was so glad to have been able to experience his transition from young teen to adult. She grew out of her phase of having Adrien's pictures all over her room, but she wouldn't admit that she still has a couple of his newer photographs pinned to her board. He was the only person she wanted to have her string attached to.

"Marinette." A voice pulled her from her train of thought.

"Oh, Alya, good morning."

"Did you see the update on the Ladyblog last night? There was an appearance of the two yesterday!" Alya Césaire was the one who ran the popular blog that followed the most popular superheroes of Paris, the Ladyblog. Over the years, the Ladyblog had grown in popularity, that it became a valuable resource. What started as trying to figure out identities became a first response source to an akuma attack.

Still, Alya was a big fan of Ladybug and Chat Noir, and she would stop at nothing to find out their true identities. It killed Marinette that Alya kept throwing herself in danger to find out, but she would have to keep her secret if it was for the sake of her protection as well.

Marinette and Alya headed to the classroom as Nino and Adrien lagged behind.

"It's interesting really. I sure do wonder who my soulmate is, but whoever they are, they do share a big passion with Ladybug." Nino chuckled as he explained to Adrien what he would find written on his arms or his legs. It obvious as to who it was, and no many how many times Adrien tried to tell Nino to go and confess, he was still afraid of rejection.

So instead: "I wonder how many people would want their red strings tied to Ladybug?" Adrien wonders aloud.

Nino scoffs."Who wouldn't want their red string tied to Ladybug?" The two of them laughed it off and headed inside. A small joke that the two of them would always venture to, but only Adrien knew the reality of the situation.

The first class of the day was literature, and Adrien always let his mind wander off about Ladybug. He was glad to get the explanation from Plagg when he turned fifteen. Naturally, his father wouldn't give him this talk, so Plagg had to take it into his own paws. Not that his father didn't care, but with his history... Adrien wasn't surprised.

His red string was tied to Ladybug, the most amazing, powerful girl he ever knew. Adrien was desperate to draw on his arms seconds after he heard the news and was nearly devastated when Plagg told him that he wasn't allowed during daylight.

"You'll have your time to meet. It's not now, so don't rush it." Plagg had said.

Adrien sighed, his eyes wandering down to his arm, hoping that words would come through if he wished hard enough. He craved to hear from his lady. He wanted to write a love note to her, ask her how she was doing, what she was doing, but he knew he was going to get scolded by Plagg if he did. Not only that, but it would expose Ladybug's true identity and could potentially put her in grave danger, and that was the last thing that Adrien wanted to do.

The morning passed in a blur, leading to lunchtime.  Marinette and Alya sat around the cafeteria, Marinette listening to Alya rant on about the previous night's akuma attack. Marinette knew all the details – she had been the one to solve it. Still, she didn't mind listening until an obnoxious laugh interrupted them.

"Just look, I assure you, Adrien's red string of fate is tied to me." Chloé Bourgeois, the daughter of the mayor of Paris, the second "most popular student of the school", was boasting about something... Again.

"Where is Adrien anyway?" Alya asks, looking around the cafeteria trying to locate him, or at least Nino since the two of them were always seen together.

"Look, just watch." Chloé popped off the top of a marker and scribbled on her arm. Whatever it said, it didn't matter to Marinette- it was probably something dumb and demanding of attention. When a response came, there were gasps and sounds of astonishment.

"Hello my dear."

Scratchy writing on her arm that didn't look like it could have been Adrien's handwriting. Still, Marinette was gullible.

"You really think that Adrien is her soulmate?" Marinette questioned softly, her forkful of food dangling in front of her mouth.

Alya let her palm fall flat on the lunch table, making Marinette jump and effectively attract her attention. "Are you really believing that one's story?" Alya whispered to her under her breath. Marinette's eyes widened as she realized that, she too, had fallen for it Chloé's dramatizations. "The guy is probably some rich snob who just humors her. Not only that, but Adrien is conveniently never around when Chloé pulls stunts like those."

"Is someone sad because they don't have a soulmate?" Chloé's voice went through the crowd, bringing everyone's attention to the object of Chloé's words.

Alya rolls her eyes. "Oh, shut it Chloé," Alya replies, turning her back to the blonde.

Chloé laughs, her follower, but supposed best friend, Sabrina Raincomprix giggling behind her. "Aw, poor Marinette. She has no red string to tie her to anyone. She's just going to end up a little, old lady, all by herself with a bunch of cats, probably. Pathetic." Chloé says in a condescending way. Three years wasn't enough to change this girl, unfortunately.

Marinette rolled her eyes. "I feel pity for your poor soulmate because all his red string talks about is another man," Marinette replies, shrugging and bringing her fork into her mouth.

"Besides, while you have some poor snob, Marinette's red string is tied to the one and only, Chat Noir." Alya retorts, sticking her tongue out as Marinette began to choke. "Marinette!"

Chloé scoffed while Sabrina laughed. "She wishes." They countered. "Chat Noir. It's not like he's Adrien, so it's not like he's better."

Before Marinette could defend him, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Marinette was working on settling her cough with a bottle of water as Chloé stalked off. Once she was able to breathe, Marinette turns to Alya. "Chat... Chat Noir?"

Alya giggled. "What? He's like the hottest superhero of our time, aside from Ladybug. Wouldn't you want your string tied to that heartthrob? I know I did at one point."

Marinette chuckled nervously, opting to continue drinking more water, rather than reply. Alya always hit the nail on the head about her soulmate, but she couldn't necessarily tell her that. 

During history class, Marinette's mind began to wander - Tikki said that there was more than just one string. Could mean that her ties to Chat could be strictly professional? Could have an actual red string attached to... Marinette's eyes wandered the boy who was sitting in the seat just in front of her.

Without thinking, she brought the pen she was taking notes with to her hand and began doodling on her fingertips. And unbeknownst to her, the boy in front of her felt the ghost of a touch to his fingers. He watched as small vines sprouted and bloomed from his fingertips towards the palm of his hand.

The two of them managed to find a little loophole through their kwami's rules - they said that they couldn't send messages to each other, but they didn't say they couldn't draw or doodle. Sure, neither of them doodled something that would be obvious or get them in trouble, but they often found each other doodling during the daytime.

Adrien smiled softly as he found his hand covered in flowers. He noticed that his lady was very artistic. There were times where he wished he could sit down for hours on end and just watch himself be her canvas. 

Adrien couldn't say how lucky he felt to find out his string was tied to Ladybug. Marinette, on the other hand, didn't necessarily feel the same way she realized her tie was with Chat Noir.

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