Legends say that there was always a Balance in every aspect of life. Where there was life, there was death. Where there was Joy there was Sorrow. And where there was a Happy ending… there was also a sad one.

But this Legend isn't one of them.

No, this one may have similar tropes and clichés but it is one that teaches the value of love and companionship, friendship and compromise, and is one where it teaches its listeners that true Happiness can't be achieved by simply wishing for it nor waiting for it to come. It truly can happen if you work hard for it.

Unfortunately not everyone is strong enough to do that.

So what is this Legend, you ask?

It's about a young girl who was blessed with the luck of the Ladybug that couldn't find out what true fulfilment was and a young boy with a curse of the Black Cat who knew what that true fulfillment was, but couldn't obtain it.

A booming clap of thunder echoed through the whole of Paris although some Parisians swear that it felt like it did so in their own homes.

Dark clouds sat firmly above the city as it had for a number of weeks giving off an equal amount of thunder and lightning as there was rain, which was plenty. It seemed like this was the new plague was becoming too much for the city.

It was so bad in fact that the Parisian local residents who travelled to work were too afraid of catching deadly flus by being in the rain too much. Eventually the King's knights stopped their daily patrols because of being too fearful of what the lightning could do to them in their suits during high voltage storms

People with outside markets have not been able to sell much and their supplier's fields were too waterlogged to harvest anything.

This plague was the worst they have had yet in Paris.

First it was the drought following with insect infestations and then half the livestock dropped dead… and so on and so forth.

Paris hadn't always been like this, no it was prosperous and sunny and cheerful. It was an amazing city until 5 years ago.

With this plague to the town many people who were prosperous enough could leave but due to many of the unfortunate events lots of those who were prosperous are now barely getting by.

So eighty five percent of the citizens couldn't leave but tried to get by.

One of those out of the eighty five percent who were floating by comfortably, where the local Bakers, the Dupain's.

On one stormy day that seemed to be like any other day that month the bakery's door chimed before Tom and Sabine were about to close.

The big burly owner was going to tell the new comer that they were closing but saw that it wasn't a customer.

"Oh what a pleasure to see you. Sabine we have a visitor!" he called his wife.

The small Oriental woman entered the room and warmly welcomed the visitor "Alya! So good to see you!"

The young maiden who entered smiled affectionately and took her coat off to dry on the hanger nearby.

"Mr and Mrs Dupain it's so good to see you" the younger woman said smiling as much as she could.

"Likewise, we don't get to see much of Marinette's friends after she left home." Tom said with a slight sadness in his tone.

Alya smiled sadly at her best friends parents "I do apologise for not visiting enough, planning a wedding in such troublesome times has taken a strain on Sir Lahiffe and I."

"Don't apologise, we have been lucky enough to have your previous visits along with some of Marinette's other friends."

"You are too kind. It has felt longer than it has been since she had left. Now that I think about it, it has been a little over 5 years." Alya noted.

It had been that long. As soon as the plagues began in France, Marinette at the ripe age of fourteen had been recommended to go to study in Italy for sowing and clothing making, which her parents where enthralled by, until something quite peculiar happened when she was traveling there. In the midst of her journey, Marinette had caught the attention of a former protégé knight that wasn't well known at the time, Jeanne d'Arc… later known to be Joan of Arc.

How that came to be was a miraculous event to recall. Marinette, as most people knew her, was notoriously clumsy but something clicked inside the girl when she was passing through a small village in France during her travels. As the raven-haired girl was about to cross the road she noticed an old man had collapsed in the middle of the road and without hesitation Marinette ran to help him disregarding what was transpiring around her. Once she helped the man to his feet a carriage was racing towards them and Marinette in a desperate last resort shielded the man. Joan of Arc standing close by recalls how the carriage, with no explanation, was lifted 5 feet above the ground and missed the two completely.

Joan had asked Marinette to consider a cause she had been fabricating for the future of France over Marinette's future in clothing making. Marinette was not expecting to accept it but since that event Marinette felt like she could do more for the people of France by joining Joan and being offered training by said woman was the sign that the young girl needed to make her mind up.

Naturally the letter Marinette sent to her parents did surprise them and make them a little fearful until they went to visit their daughter a few months after Marinette started being trained. Once her parents saw how much their daughter had changed their minds were put at ease at how their daughter was at a cause to help the people of France and they felt prouder than ever. Now and then they tried to visit her whenever they were in a safe area during the oppression of England or during their campaign but on the other hand they didn't let her come to Paris to visit with the horrible things that were happening. When Marinette had a sizable income after their successful victory in Orleans a year ago, she offered her parents a home in Gartempe Valley but they declined the offer since they knew Paris was where they belonged despite all that was happening.

Now and then Marinette's friends wanted to visit her but it was too dangerous so they would instead go visit Tom and Sabine and ask how their friend is doing, like what Alya was currently doing.

"Why don't we fix you something warm to drink Alya" Sabine offered.

Before Sabine and Alya could make it to the stairs a man burst through the doors in a flurry.

"Quick come look! Something unnatural is occurring outside the city!"

The three left the store and saw whilst in the rain that in the distance there was a patch of clear blue sky and it was spreading or rather the clouds were evaporating! The plague had been lifted! There must be someone who had done it.

There was a sizable amount of people outside not sure whether to be complexed or joyous until one resident suggested: "Let us go to where the storm started disappearing!"

A small crowd including Tom, Sabine and Alya made their way towards the edge of Paris and were taken back on the brightness without the clouds but kept marching along and trying to open their eyes in the process.

They kept going until those in the front stopped suddenly and murmurs sprouted and the three pushed their way to the front.

A knight in a full suit of armour looked like it had just come out of battle but the peculiar thing about this knight is that he was smaller looking than the average sized knight and also what really stuck out about this knight was the colour of his armour which was a metallic red.

Fear grew among the crowd unsure if the knight was British; to say the least that the curse on Paris was a blessing in disguise since no man on the outside dared to come to the plague ridden town and that included any British invaders.

The knight lifted his head to look to the crowd and upon the people and spotted familiar faces.

"Mama? Papa?" a small female voice asked weakly.

Tom and Sabine both stood forward "Marinette is that you?" Sabine asked.

The knight took off her helmet revealing a half oriental girl with raven hair and blue eyes which teared up with no hesitation.

"Mama! Papa!" The girl wailed running into her parents arms.

The couple enfolded their daughter tightly while she cried silently, thankful she's okay and in their arms again.

After the commotion and Alya's influence to disperse the crowd, the four returned to the bakery where Marinette could calm down, wash up and clean her wounds. Once she had a bath and dressed her wounds she then dressed in her mother's older clothes. Alya was waiting in her old bedroom and once she saw her best friend she didn't say a thing but her hug spoke more than any words could say.

"I really missed you Marinette" Alya sniffed ready to cry.

"Same here" Marinette said already crying "I'm so sorry it's been this long."

Alya pulled away and shook her hair "Don't be, your parents wouldn't had wanted you back with all that is going on here."

That being said Alya did wonder why the current plague has dissipated once Marinette had return but it didn't matter at this moment.

A knock came from outside the door and Alya opened it to let Marinette's parents in and they all seated around the raven haired girl.

"Sweet heart, I know you must be under a lot of pain and stress but can you tell us what happened?"

Marinette looked pained but she breathed in deeply and spoke "We were ambushed… and Joan she… made sure I and some others got out before they could capture us."

The room felt tense, it felt like there was more to be said and the rest of Marinette's explanation made them wish that there wasn't.

"We did manage to escape but I… I wasn't sure what I was thinking… I followed the group back to London but I was too late to save the rest and Joan…"

She breathed in tremblingly

"…Was burned at the stake"

The room felt heavy to say the least and the doubtful searing despair came from the young girl. Alya put her comforting hand on her friends shoulder for support although Marinette didn't really seem to register it.

"Sweetheart… you can't blame yourself for that." Tom spoke up.

Marinette shook her head violently "It shouldn't have been her Papa! She protected me because she thought I was special but I'm just some girl who shouldn't have been there to begin with! If she hadn't focused on saving me she wouldn't have been captured!"

"Marinette, we are talking about a legendary girl here. If she said you were special and saved you, then Darling you have to see why she did what she did. Joan of Arc wouldn't want you to blame yourself." Sabine tried to reason.

Fresh tears kept coming from Marinette's blue bell eyes and her denial poured out just as much.

"You don't understand, the reason why we were captured was because of this forsaken curse!" she slammed her fist against the side table next to her bed.

Alya looking puzzled tried to calm the Raven haired girl "Marinette, calm down! What curse?"

Marinette felt her strength leave slowly and decided to try calm herself down as her best friend suggested.

"Joan kept saying it was fate she met me that day were the carriage missed the elderly man and I. After I started training with her in her village, unusual spouts of luck hit the town and undue attention was turned on me by outsiders. Joan concluded that I've been blessed by God with the Luck of the Ladybug." Marinette explained sounding calmer.

"I thought it was nonsense but no matter where I went good luck followed and it was what we needed to start Joan's campaign and start the resistance. Although this so called Luck of mine was a double edge sword…" she continued

"How so?" Alya asked.

"People wanted this luck too or they thought it was witchcraft… And Joan did everything she and her men could so I was safe. In fact she made sure people were to think it was her that was blessed with Lady Luck. And that was why we were attacked by Bishop Pierre Cauchon's soldiers and that is why she was put to death… because I was cursed with this unseemly so-called Luck."

Trying to process all this information was no fleeting matter but all that Tom, Sabine and Alya could do was comfort Marinette at this time.

"It just feels so unfair though…" Marinette said quietly.

"And what is that Darling?" Tom asked.

"She and I are…were the same age and yet it didn't matter to them who killed her with no restraint, or conscience..."

"Marinette it was the life she chose don't forget that, it was her cause and decisions that the British found infuriating. But I have a feeling or rather I know that her decision was for the greater good." Tom reasoned.

Marinette couldn't disagree; in fact if she could've spoken to her late contemporary she would say something really similar.

"I think you should rest now Marinette, you've had a hard journey and you need to get your strength back." Sabine suggested as her and Tom got up and started leaving the room.

Alya though wanted to stay for a little bit longer "I'm happy to see you're okay Marinette and despite all that has happened I am truly grateful to Mme d'Arc for keeping you safe until her last breath."

Marinette smiled sadly "I guess you could say she found out her true purpose in this world. I wish I could say the same."

It was true; Marinette didn't feel like she had achieved true fulfilment in her life so far despite having a gift such as hers. The motivation for leaving her clothing dream was to see if fighting on behalf of France was her true purpose. She couldn't have felt more wrong the more she carried on in life.

'Perhaps being home will help me see what my true calling is after all' Marinette thought to herself.

"Think positive Marinette! Because of your good luck the town was rid of its new plague! Remember you have and always will be special to all of us." Alya said enthusiastically.

With a small smile on her face Marinette waved off her friend good bye and tucked herself in early for a good night's rest.

Although…

She couldn't shake off the weird aura she felt when she arrived in Paris.

Perhaps she was overthinking it.

Perhaps he was overthinking it…

In the midst of the darkness a figure stood up grabbing his chest, not out pain but of some sensation he couldn't explain.

He hadn't felt this exhilarated since over 5 years ago before his life crumbled into pieces.

And possibly this feeling sparked hope in him that he had lost many moons ago…

AN: So this was supposed to be a One-shot… and once I started writing, I began researching and the further I went into the story… there was no chance I can make this short. I get that I can just make this a jumbo one chapter story but that kind of defeats the purpose of a light and airy read known as a one-shot. Idk.

Hope you liked this so far and please let me know what you guys think.