Chapter One

"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night," -William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Perhaps fate was looking down on them on that particular Monday in July. The sky was bright blue and sunny, with just a few, white, fluffy clouds dotting the horizon. Being the middle of the day, only tourists were out and about, and the two of them both knew how to avoid those. It was a day in the low thirties, bordering between pleasantly warm and hot. Perfect summer weather. This day, this innocent Monday, would change both of their lives forever.

Marinette moved out of her parent's home when she started attending college. She loved her parents, and was forever thankful to have their support, but she wanted to stretch her wings. She wanted to see what it was like to strike out on her own. She wanted to make a mess and know that she was the only now who could be depended on to clean it it. She wanted to have friends over and not be concerned with being too loud and keeping her father awake when he had an early morning the next day. She wanted to make mistakes. She wanted to forget to pay an electricity bill and have her power go out for an evening and rely on candle light to design and do homework… Maybe she didn't want the last one, but just the idea of independence sounded great. She knew she had her parent's love and support and she could always go back to them if she got too lonely. They didn't live far. She could stop by their bakery everyday if she chose.

When she found herself becoming increasingly lonely, as her's and Alya's class schedules did not mesh well, she went out and found herself, as cliché as it was, a brown poodle that she named Tikki. By found, it was literally just finding the puppy. Two years ago she was walking with Alya on one of the rare days their schedules worked and Marinette saw a flyer for poodle puppies. She had told Alya that if she had the money to get a puppy, she would. Alya's new internship happened to pay surprisingly well, so a week later Alya showed up at Marinette's door with two puppies in hand, red and brown females, and told Marinette to have her pick. Marinette cried and took the brown one, Tikki, and Alya kept the sister, naming her Trixx.

One of Marinette's favorite parts of the day was taking Tikki out. For an hour or so they would stroll around Paris and Marinette would dream about her ideas, often bringing a sketchbook and sitting on a bench, jotting ideas while Tikki sniffed around, lapped water out of her collapsable bowl, or just sat at Marinette's feet. Other times, on days she wasn't feeling particularly creative, or days she just didn't feel like thinking, she would just get her phone and play Pokemon Go around Paris. Today just happened to be one of those lay, carefree days.

In all honesty she should have been paying more attention, or had a better grip on Tikki's leash, because, one moment, she was sitting calmly at Marinette's feet while the girl dug out her water bottle while sitting on one of the benches. The next moment Tikki was running away, something quite uncharacteristic of the dog, and therefore, extremely surprising. Marinette slung her bag over her shoulder and chased after the dog, who was now in the process of tackling a random stranger and licking him all over the face.

By all definitions it was a perfect day in Paris. Joy was radiating off of the streets as the smiling faces of people made their way by. Adrien watched, looking out the window with a sigh, absently stroking his black cat, Plagg. Adrien wanted nothing more than to leave this place. A prison made of money was still a prison. He was allowed to attend university two days a week, but the rest of his classes were online, as per his father's condition. There was only so far he could get with online classes. He wanted to go out and see the campus everyday. He wanted to be among his peers.

On the days he didn't have class he was required to be somewhere his father could find him at a moment's notice. The days of solely modeling for the Agreste brand were behind him. Now he was being groomed to take over his father's role in the company, or, at least the business side of it. If his father had something come up with a client, or a business partner, or some rich guy from Dubai, then Adrien needed to be accessible. Everything was a learning experience. It didn't matter to his father that he didn't want to take over the business. All that mattered was that mattered was that he was the heir and that he was going to take over one day whether he liked it or not. "Plagg, if I snuck out, would you tell anyone?"

The grumpy cat turned his attention towards Adrien and blinked slowly, before getting up, batting Adrien's hand away with his paw, arching his back and stretching out his front legs before walking off into Adrien's bathroom where he would proceed to jump into the dirty laundry and take a nap. "So my secret is safe with you then?" Adrien called out, knowing full well that there wouldn't be a response. He wouldn't be gone long. Perhaps his absence wouldn't be noticed. Sometimes he went days without hearing from his father. He would just have to pray that today was one of those days.

He had no chance of escaping through the window. The drop was too high and the security system would probably think he was a crazed fan or something with the motion detectors. The only way out would be through the front door, and hope that no one saw him. It would be so much easier if he were a superhero, or something.

He opened the door to his room and saw the The Gorilla wasn't standing vigil there, for once. Awesome. He walked out and closed the door behind him, as softly as he could manage, as the door was comedically heavy. Why was expensive wood always so heavy? Once leaving his room he crept down the stairs and made his way towards the front door, doing his best to stay in the shadows, and by shadows he meant pressing himself against a wall like the hero in a bad spy movie. He managed to make his way to the doors, where he encountered the same problem as earlier. The weight. Just amplified a hundred times. Adrien looked over his shoulder and prayed no one would come just as he was finishing his escapade. Luck seemed to be on his side, for once, as he ran from the house.

"Finally, freedom! For once." He only made it a block and a half before his luck ran out, as he found himself knocked back onto the concrete, his face being assaulted by a slobbery tongue.

"Tikki! Tikki, come back!" After a moment he felt the weight being pulled off of him. He sat up, rubbing the back of his head, more confused than anything. He wasn't going to tell the person off, but he was going to let them know that he wasn't exactly happy with being tackled and assaulted by a fluffy, adorable, teddy bear like monster. That was the plan, at least, but that went out the window in a moment when he looked at the beautiful girl in front of him, wrestling with a pink leash attached to a poodle. "I- I am so sorry. I don't know what has gotten into her. She has never done anything like that before." The girl finally got the dog to calm down before petting the fluffy head.

He had never believed in love at first sight, but at that moment she took his heart. Black pigtails in disarray, her voice breathy, panting after chasing the dog, the tiniest glimmer of sweat forming on her forehead, a few freckles dusting her cheeks, and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen… she was his, and he didn't even know her name.

"No, it's alright. I should have been looking where I was going."

"Let me make it up to you," she said, reaching into her purse to pull out some bills. "Please, go buy a smoothie, or ice cream, or dessert. Whatever you want. My treat." She held out her hand, the money held outstretched to him. He had an opportunity here.

"Okay, that sounds great. I have one condition though."

The girl seemed desperate to please, almost like the dog that was at her side. "Sure, anything!"

"I want you to accompany me."

She tilted her head and looked at him like he had lost his mind. In all likelihood, he probably had. He was asking a complete stranger out on, what any outsider would see, a date. "I'm sorry, what was that?" She asked.

"Come with me. It's no fun to have dessert by yourself. Some company would be nice," he glanced at Tikki, chuckling, "even if said company decided to play American Football with me." He held out his arm in invitation. "Come with me, M'Lady?"

Reluctantly, she accepted his arm, a faint blush creeping it's way up. "Marinette."

"Well, Marinette. My name is Adrien. It's nice to meet you."

Perhaps fate was looking down on them on that particular Monday in July. Adrien escaped his house and Tikki escaped her lead, allowing the two of them to meet one another. Their paths never would have crossed, otherwise. Fate, and a little bit of luck.

So when I sat down to write this a couple hours ago I was thinking "I'm going to write a Pokemon Go one-shot because, why not?" Yeah, um, that didn't happen, and now here's a new multi-chap fic in the works. I have an idea where this is going, and a few ideas of the journey to get there, but besides that we'll just have to wait and see.

If y'all want to read a story I recommend Heart Decisions: Mon Cœur S'ouvre a ta Voix by BrightRaven -chris210racer. He has been working on this project for months and the amount of love he has for the story and the fandom really shows. I am really fortunate to be his Beta on the project since November, I believe, and he has done a ton with it! Go show him your support, please! It's an interesting read that puts an incredibly unique spin on MLB fics.

I'll get back to Broken soon, and I'm in the process of plotting a back to school one a day fic, as well as my next Halloween one. This year, if I stick with my current plan, will be way scarier than last fall. Question: When do all of y'all start up school again? I'm sure my college starts up at a different time than a lot of y'all so when is a good time to get that rolling?

With that, let me know what y'all think. I think this will be a fun adventure for all of us.