Day 1 – Soul Mate AU – In Black and White

Summary: At thirteen years of age, Marinette has never seen colors, but her parents' love inspires her to dream of it. Adrien's life is devoid of the colors that he has heard so many people praise, and he isnt sure anyone in his home will ever see them again. Then one fateful day, two small jewelry boxes change both their lives in ways they never expected.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had only ever seen in black and white. Living in a world where you only saw colors once you found your soulmate. And even then, you could only see colors if you were touching them in some way.

She knew of colors, of course. It had still been taught to her as a child. And what shades of gray tended to correspond to the colors her parents and other people spoke of.

She was inspired by her parents love, and hoped that one day she'd be able to live like them. The couple constantly allowed their hands to brush while working in the family bakery. Sometimes she would walk in and see her mom resting a hand against her dad's back while he carefully decorated a wedding cake. Because of course at a wedding there would be a need for a colorful cake. More than half the people there would be able to appreciate it.

Marinette only hoped that one day, she would have something just as special in her life. After all, designing would be so much more fun with colors. Although, she supposed it could be successful without them too.

Gabriel Agreste had managed as much. Marinette's favorite designer had lost his wife in recent years and all the news reports had said this would be the end of his company, his brand. Instead, he had found inspiration in the monochrome. His designs had become bigger and better even without the color they used to have. The designs sold especially well with the younger generation. It was rare to find your soulmate before sixteen and so the preteen and teen clothing lines were quite popular.

And while Marinette frequently wished to find her soulmate so she could see colors too. Or if she couldn't have her soulmate yet, for something exciting to happen in her life. This wasn't exactly what she meant.

She hadn't wished for one of her classmates to transform into a strange rock monster. And she hadn't wished for that monster to attack their city. And she most definitely hadn't wished for a strange bug-mouse creature to appear in her room.

She stared at the strange creature that had appeared out of the jewelry box. It was a… kwami she had said? But what the heck was that even?

"I'm your friend, Marinette. You must trust me," Tikki told her, "You're the only one who can stop Stoneheart."

Marinette shook her head. "This has to be some mistake. The only super power I could possible have is super-awkwardness." She thought for a moment. If we need a superhero…

"I know! Alya would know. At least, I think she would. She loves superheroes." Marinette nodded, "She'd totally be up for the job. You should go see her."

Tikki flew closer, "Marinette, you're the chosen one."

Marinette had given in, she had put on the earrings and transformed (albeit by accident) into a superhero. And now she was using a yoyo of all things to swing across Paris.

She yelled as she flew through the air. I knew this was a mistake! I'm gonna crash and die now and-

CRASH!

Marinette's eyes stayed closed as she felt her body smack into something that surprisingly wasn't the cement. She opened her eyes to find she and whoever she had crashed into were tangled in her yoyo and hanging upside down.

She looked at the person and found herself staring into the most vivid eyes ever. Except, she could see colors. She wasn't exactly sure what color his eyes were, shed have to check a color chart later, but that wasn't what mattered now. What did matter was that she was sure his eyes were the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The color made her feel like bolt of electricity had struck her. She took in his hair, the sheer brightness of it made her feel warm inside.

She glanced down and saw that her suit was red. That's what Tikki said it would be. She looked back up to find that the boy she was currently tangled up with was staring at her, his eyes wide. Well, that was fair, she had just crashed into him.

Adrien had known how awesome life would be as soon as a little cat creature had appeared in his room. Being a superhero was a dream come true. But now something even more amazing had happened. He had found his soulmate and she was beautiful. The way her eyes sparkled in the sunlight. The shock of her costume's boldness. Beautiful.

He helped them both down from the tangled yoyo and was disappointed when his vision turned back to black and white.

"So, you must be the partner my kwami told me about. I'm…" he thought for a second. "Chat Noir. Yeah, Chat Noir. What's your name?"

He fought the urge to touch her again. Obviously, she was still adjusting to everything, he didn't want to freak her out.

"I'm M-" she tugged on the string of her yoyo, until it came loose suddenly, swinging through the air and promptly smacked him on the head. She pulled it to her. "Madly clumsy. I'm so clumsy. Sorry."

He laughed, "No worries, Clumsy girl. I'm still learning the ropes myself." He paused for a moment, unsure how to bring up the color that had flooded his vision moments before.

"Did you-" they both started at the same time.

"Sorry." Both of them again. He could only smile as he gestured for her to talk.

"Did you see what happened just a minute ago?" She asked.

Adrien's smile grew. "So it wasn't just me?" he held out a hand to her and waited for her to accept it.

Marinette stared down at the black clad hand. She knew now that his costume was actually black. But the thought of taking hold of it scared her. If she did, and if her world filled with color, wouldn't that mean she'd just found her soulmate?

Her eyes darted up to look at his face and she saw that his smile was fading into an uncertain frown. He pulled his hand back.

"It's all right," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Everything's kind of happening fast."

Marinette nodded sheepishly. Did I really just refuse to hold my soulmate's hand?

She didn't get another moment to dwell on it though as the next moment there was a crash as a nearby building toppled.

Chat extended his baton, bounding off in the direction of the crash.

"Where are you going?" she yelled after him.

He glanced back. "To save Paris, of course!"

She stared after him before looking down at her hand again. "Trust yourself. Trust yourself."

Then she flung her yoyo toward the nearest building and screamed as it pulled her along.

"Pound it!"

The moment their hands touched the stadium lit up in color. And even though she expected it to, Chat Noir's hand didn't linger against hers.

She opened her mouth to apologize for before but Chat's ring beeped again as another pad disappeared.

"You need to go before you transform back," she told him.

He nodded, "See you later Super Bug!" he called out as he leapt away from the stadium.

Marinette stared down at her hand. "See you, Chat Noir."

The next day at school, Marinette was fuming after her interaction with the new kid in her class. She was already having a rough day after finding out that she hadn't purified the akuma properly and had therefore put Paris in more danger. But to then come to school and find she would have another bully to worry about was too much. Adrien Agreste seemed every bit as stuck up as Chloe. No wonder they're friends, she thought to herself as she sat in class.

It was too bad too. With her love of fashion, she was sure they could've been good friends. They would've had tons to talk about.

Marinette glanced at watched as his eyes flicked in her direction and she quickly averted her gaze with a frown. It really was too bad.

The following day, as Adrien watched Ladybug give her speech atop the Eiffel Tower, he found he couldn't be any happier that she was his soulmate. She was… miraculous. He smirked at his mental pun.

"All right, Chaton, time for us to go." She waved before spinning her yoyo to swing away.

He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Wait! Shouldn't we talk or something? We just found out we're soulmates."

Ladybug fidgeted, uncomfortable with how green (she'd since remembered that that's what the color was) his eyes were. "I- we can't right now. We have to go before we detransform and I don't know that I'm ready for us to reveal our identities just yet."

Adrien nodded, trying to hide his disappointment. "Right. That's fine. No rush, My Lady. We can talk next time."

And with that, Ladybug took off into the Paris skyline, leaving Chat to wonder when they'd see each other next.

Adrien walked into class feeling great. They had successfully defeated their first akuma, his dad had decided to allow him to attend public school, and he had found his soulmate. Even if she did seem a bit… reluctant. She'll warm up to me eventually.

He stepped into the classroom and waved to Nino. Then with his hand still raised, he greeted the girls sitting behind them. He watched with dismay as Marinette turned away with a huff.

And she's still mad at me, he thought, dropping into his seat with a sigh.

"Dude, you wanna make friends, right?" Nino asked. "Then talk to Marinette about the chewing gum."

"But what should I say to her?"

Nino smiled, "Just be yourself."

Adrien tried all day to find a moment to talk to Marinette, but she did a good job of avoiding him. He groaned as he threw his books into his bag. "Plagg, how am I ever going to fix things with Marinette if she won't give me the chance?"

Plagg floated just inside of the locker. "So what? Who cares about pigtails girl anyway? Let's go get some camembert."

Adrien rolled his eyes as Plagg zoomed inside of his bag. He stepped out of the locker room realizing he was one of the last people at school for the day. "I guess I'll just have to try again tomorrow."

So, the last thing he expected, was to walk out the school door and find Marinette standing just under the awning.

Now is my chance.

"Hey," he greeted, giving a small wave.

Marinette turned away and Adrien looked down. Guess not.

Adrien pulled out his umbrella. "I just wanted you to know, I was only trying to take the gum off your seat, I swear." He watched as her eyes were trained on him. "I've never been to school before. I've never had friends. It's all sort of new to me." He shrugged, then turned and held out the umbrella toward her. One last chance to get her to see I'm not a bad guy.

He watched her eyes widen at his gesture. Then her hand reached out slowly to take the umbrella. And when their fingers brushed, the first thing Adrien saw was blue.

"Chaton?" she asked.

Adrien couldn't help his grin as he answered. "My Lady?"

A/N: Thank you so much for reading the first day of AU Yeah August! I'm using the prompts from LNC2 on Tumblr, so day 2 is college au. Super excited! I will be posting each story as its own because some of them I plan to extend after August. So if you want to see more of one in particular just let me know.

~marauderluverz