When Marinette was little, her favourite game was hide and seek. She had always been good at hiding in the shadows, so good that no one could ever find her.
No one except for her lifelong friend, Adrien.
If she was the shadow, then he was the light that saw through it. He was a bright and happy child, accepting and kind. Even as a child, he was confident and sure of himself, always looking for the bright side of things. Marinette on the other hand, was shy and reclusive, tending to prefer close company to a playground, but when it came down to it, she was just as happy and positive.
Neither of them could remember when they had met, only that they had always been… connected somehow, and that they were everything the other wasn't. They were complete opposites, yet they were exactly the same. Which was why when one day, when the two found out that one of them was different, it came as no surprise the other was as well.
It all happened in the park one day when they were five.
Marinette was hiding in the shadow of a tree as she usually would, and Adrien was trying to find her. He spotted her crouching in the shadow of the oak behind the equipment. He ran over to her, before jumping on her back, surprising her. They both started giggling, when there came a loud banging from the other side of the equipment, then screaming. They looked over to where the sound was coming from, both of them peeking from behind the tree. At the time, neither of them understood what they saw. It was a scary looking man carrying a large black device, shouting something strange at the top of his voice, before shaking the device around, making people fall asleep.
Then something strange happened, the scary man had started walking over to them both, and Marinette wrapped her arms around Adrien, wishing for nothing but to protect him, and for the man to leave them alone and die. The whites of her eyes darkened, leaving only the bluebell of her irises visible, and she began to cry black tears of fear. The man stopped and stared at the two children, tilting his head as if to say, "Where did the two of them go," before turning away and shaking the black device once more.
"The scary man's not looking anymore, this is our chance to move," Adrien said, urging his best friend towards the road.
They bolted, dodging all the sleeping people, making it to the other side of the park.
Don't they know the scary man is there? Adrien thought, why are they sleeping in the middle of the day? Wake up everyone!
His pupils, previously black, began to clear and turn the pure white of his sclera, and he shed a cloudy white tear. The people who had been sleeping began to open their eyes and crawl away from the park, then get up and run.
They made it to the other side of the road when the scary man noticed them again, and ran towards them. There was the sound of screeching, before the man fell over and stopped moving. In this moment, the two friends though opposite thoughts, that were once more the same.
Adrien being the kind-hearted and forgiving soul, thought aww, the poor man must be so tired. I should let him sleep
Marinette thought with more than a little certainty, he isn't sleeping, and neither were those people. sleeping people aren't covered in blood. They were dead, but now they're not. But the scary man is, and he will stay dead
The two of them ran as fast as they could, flying abnormally fast down the streets to the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
"Adrien! Marinette! Oh god, we were so worried about you two. We heard gunfire down the street, and people screaming. When we heard the emergency warning on the radio saying someone was attacking the people in the park, we feared the worst," Sabine, Marinettes mother cried.
"Oh thank god you two are alright! Adrien, your father will be here in an hour. He's on his flight back from New York right now. I'll call him to tell him you're alright," Tom added.
Marinettes parents continued checking them both over, before sending them both upstairs with a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
As they played together in the pale violet painted room, they both became aware of a whispering from downstairs.
"Yes, yes, no, there's no need to worry, no he's fine," the voice was saying. It was Tom, Marinettes father, "No, I can't tell. There seems to be nothing different about them. No, Adrien is fine Gabe, there were no casualties, only a few minor injuries. I heard the shooter was hit by a car and killed instantly. Strange I know. Do you think they… hang on, I'll put you onto my wife. She knows more about these things than I do,"
The friends looked at each other.
"Hey Adrien? What do you think they're talking about—Adrien!" she rushed forward, the voice of her mother dimming, to examine her face, "Your eyes! The black bit in the middle turned white! Hey, what's the black mark on your shirt?"
She touched it. It felt slightly damp. Getting an idea, she licked the finger that touched it, and as she expected, it was salty.
Her tears.
"Quick, Adrien, what colour are my eyes?" she asked, staring at him.
"Blue of course—wait! The whites, they turned…" he stuttered, before rushing her to her mirror, "They turned black. How…?"
"I think," Marinette started, then paused, trying to think of a way of putting it that would leave Adriens' innocence vaguely intact. Marinette always had a darker way of thinking, but it seemed to be just how she thought.
"When everyone was asleep earlier, and the scary man was looking for us, I tried to cover you to hide you," she said, omitting the part about wishing the man would die, "And even though he stared right at us, he couldn't see us. I think… I must be a superhero!" she laughed excitedly, running to her closet and pulling out her toy cape and swishing it around.
"Woah! So cool," Adrien said, watching his friend play, then thinking, "But, then why have my eyes changed?"
"Oh," she replied overjoyed, "You must be a superhero too! Quick, what did you think when we were running away?"
"I was just thinking about how silly everyone was, falling asleep in the middle of the day, and I told them to wake up!" he answered in realisation, "Maybe that's my super power! I can make people do things with my mind,"
"Test it out! Try and make me do something!" Marinette ordered.
"Okay, I'm trying," he said, envisioning her jumping up and down.
She remained motionless.
"Aww, that would have been so cool," he said, realising that it wasn't working, "Well, it must be something else,"
"Don't worry Adri," Marinette consoled her friend, "We're only five. Our powers will probably grow as we do, like superman! Wait, won't mama and papa have noticed?"
"They didn't seem to. Maybe only we can see it! So cool, like, super-vision!"
"Yeah! Maybe one day we'll be able to see through walls or into the future or something! One day we're going to be the coolest superheroes ever! But maybe…" Marinette trailed off.
"What is it Mari? I can tell when you've thought of something, but you're reluctant to tell me," Adrien said, crossing his arms.
"Well~" she started, "You know how in those movies where someone finds out they have a super power, then they have to save the world, but they struggle to because they're unprepared and need to be trained?"
"Yes… oh. I see what you're getting at," Adrien said excitedly, beginning to bounce up and down.
"We should as our parents to enrol us in Karate or fencing or something. I want to try Archery and… boxing or Taekwondo! The people on the television look so cool and strong, I want to try that!" Marinette squealed.
"Hmm," Adrien thought, trying to come up with something fun he could learn, that would still count as training, "I think fencing could be fun! Then I could be like a pirate and cut things in half! I think we should both do Taekwondo, but I also want to try boxing, it sounds so fun!" he whined.
"I know, we could go to all the classes together! Whenever you go fencing, I'll be playing archery, and we can do Taekwondo and Boxing together!" she pondered, fingers tapping her lower lip, "But we need secret identities. Any suggestions?"
"Hmm, my father wants me to model for his company, so in the day time, I can be Adrien Agreste, famous super model!" he fell over in giggles, accompanied by Marinette.
"I can be a designer and make all your clothes! And our superhero costumes! Hmm, I want a pink one with flowers on it! You can have an orange one with trucks!" she teased, chasing her friend around the room.
"No fair! You know I don't like orange, or trucks! I want a blue one with a big A on the chest, for Adrien," he decided, crossing his arms indignantly, before grinning, "And you can have a bright yellow M, for Marinette,"
"Ew, gross, yellow does not go with pale pink," she retorted in fake disgust, pinching her nose and looking away, "Maybe instead I'd have something that blends into the background, I mean, it's pretty easy to spot people running around in pink and blue fighting bad guys, we should stay normal,"
"You're right, but I still want a mask!"
"Just a sec," Marinette began rummaging through her drawers once more, "Aha, found it! Close your eyes,"
He did as he was told, feeling her fumbling and trying to tie something around his face.
"Now look!" she said, holding up a mirror.
She had tied a strip of black fabric about his eyes in an imitation of the ninja turtles, but to his five year old mind, it was awesome.
"Wow Mari! I feel like a real superhero!"
They laughed and played around, until there came a gentle knocking at the trapdoor.
"Come in!" Marinette called, unlocking the trapdoor.
In a second, Adrien was being half suffocated by his father.
"Are you alright, are you hurt, are you bruised, are you traumatised, do you want remedial chocolate," Gabriel Agreste fretted over his son as he dragged him down the stairs, "Don't be afraid to ask for anything, do you need anything to drink, cookies, oh god what's that!"
"What's what?"
"That black stain on your shoulder, oh god you were hurt weren't you, quick take us to the hospital!" Gabriel shouted at his gorilla like driver.
"No, it's just a stain dad! I must have spilt ink on it or something," Adrien argued, "I wasn't hurt, only weirded out by your worrying! I don't get what you're worried about, a crazy guy came along and made lots of people fall asleep before falling asleep himself! It's not like anything bad happened. Everyone woke up anyway,"
Gabriel paused and looked up towards Marinettes parents, raising an eyebrow to which they shrugged.
"Very well then, so long as you're okay," Gabriels' face softened, before he gave his son a sly grin, "Are you sure you don't need any remedial chocolate?"
Adriens eyes widened and he nodded furiously, "Oh yes, I definitely need some remedial chocolate! My foot hurts and so does my finger, and my knee, and my… my tongue needs the most chocolate,"
"Oh dear," Gabriel pretended to step back in shock and worry, "We definitely need some chocolate then. Say goodbye to Marinette and we can have some,"
"Okay," Adrien giggled, running and hugging his friend.
"Bye Adrien," she whispered.
"By Mari!" he whisper shouted back, before running to the car.
They waved until they were out of sight from each other.
"Okay mama, I'm going to play in my room," Marinette decided, before running off.
Once she was out of earshot, Sabine turned to her husband and asked, "Do you think they're…?"
"They couldn't possibly be. We'd know if they were," Tom replied, shaking his head, "I don't think either of them could keep it a secret,"
"You're probably right," she agreed, "But I worry, for the both of them. What if they aren't ready when the time comes?"
"Gabriel and I already agreed to broach the subject of self defence classes, or something along the lines of that, I only hope that they go along with it," Tom sighed.
"I think they will. Our families have always been fighters, as you well know," Sabine nudged her husband.
"I think I still have bruises from our first meeting," he replied, nudging her back.
"Oh well," Sabine smiled, "Even if our days of—"
She was cut off by the sound of light footsteps.
"I almost forgot," said and excited Marinette, "I wanted to ask, can I go to boxing and taekwondo classes? And archery? I've decided that I want to learn how to prevent events like today from repeating,"
"What do you mean honey?" Sabine asked, glancing worriedly at Tom.
"Adrien said they were sleeping," Marinette almost whispered, before looking up at her parents, "But people don't roll in red paint before going to sleep,"