Marinette stopped walking and Adrien phased through her. She looked at him and crossed her arms. "Would you quit walking so close to me?" She whispered at him and he softly chuckled at her.
"I find you interesting." He smiled at her and watched her fumble her keys and drop them. Adrien began to full blown laugh and he covered his mouth with his hand. Marinette rolled her eyes and bent down to pick them up, but Adrien beat her to it. "Gotta be quicker than that."
She sighed and held her hand out. He stepped in front of her and slid the key into the lock and stepped away from her, gesturing to the door. "Ladies first." He gave her a welcoming smile and she blushed.
"Well now you're just showing off." She turned the key, keeping her eyes on him and pushed the door open with her shoulder. "So, this is my-" He brushed past her and into the open concept apartment.
"Wow… it's perfect." He smiled and took in the homey feel of the place. The walls were a soft cool grey and the furniture was white. The couch was a soft peachy pink. He took in the little trinkets along a shelf and she walked over and unhooked the necklace from her neck.
She held it in between her fingers and smiled warmly at it. She cleared her throat and with a bounce in her step, she turned around to face him. "So, where would you like to live?"
Adrien looked at her with parted lips. He had never been asked such a question. He had never been offered to choose anything in his lifetime. Everything had been chosen for him. For once he truly felt free. "Live?"
"Like where would you like your ring to be?" Marinette smiled at him and waited for him to respond. She wanted to respect him and asking him where he wanted his belongings seemed like a good place to start.
"Oh, right. Um… where would you like for it to go? You did purchase it." Adrien smiled and offered to let her decide. He watched her search around the room with a thoughtful expression. He worried his bottom lip and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well… hm. When you were alive…. Where was your favorite place to be?" Marinette sat down on her couch and took her shoes off. She patted the couch for him to sit down with her. He worried his finger like he would have in the past when he was wearing the ring.
"I- I wasn't really allowed to go out of the house. Everything I needed was brought to me in house. I didn't go outside much." Adrien sighed and didn't meet her eyes. "So, when you ask me where my favorite place to be was… I wouldn't really know." He shrugged his shoulders with a sad expression. "Too dangerous, my father said."
"How old are you?" Marinette watched him sit up straight and pretend like he was okay, but she knew better.
"Let's see I died in 1918 and I was... twenty-four?" Adrien tried to remember his age. He knew how he died in the most vivid way, but his age was a different story. It was fuzzy, while everything else was so clear.
Marinette played with his ring between her fingers again. "I'd say you look about twenty-four, but I'm not the best at guessing ages." She smiled over at him and he smirked at her. "Have you decided where you would like to live for the time being?"
Adrien sat back and thought about it for a moment. He looked around the warm apartment. At how everything was decorated in such a welcoming manner. It was a complete contrast from what he remembered his house to look like. "May I look around some more, please?"
"Of course." Marinette stood up and walked into her kitchen to make tea. "Feel free. I'm just going to make some tea."
Adrien smiled and got up from the couch. He put his hands in his pockets and started to take in her place. Adrien slowly walked along the shelves that held books and old items from years ago. She really did collect the most random things. He smiled, as he stopped by a photo of her family. They looked so happy to be together and she appeared delighted to be with them. He wished that he had had a family portrait as graceful and full of love. All of his portraits had been serious and posed to appear like they were a family. Posed by a photographer that his father had hired to make them look like the picture perfect versions of themselves. Marinette heard his footsteps as he walked into the kitchen, taking in her white cabinets and how they popped against the pastel pink back wall. Her counters were a dark grey granite and a small island sat in the middle. He looked around and she hummed a song while she set a tea pot on a burner.
Her voice was a beautiful melody and he closed his eyes and focused on each key and note. It was beautiful and he wished she was around when he would play piano. He slowly opened his eyes and phased away; before, he appeared back in her bedroom. It had bright pink walls and black furniture. He looked around at all of her sewing stuff and her stacks of fabric on the desk beside an old sewing machine. Adrien took in her storage containers of random little trinkets to craft different projects and he smiled. It reminded him of his mother. She would always be making something for herself, him, or others. His father would admire each piece that she would make. Would admire her. Adrien sighed and kept exploring her room. He turned around and his eye caught the sight of a keyboard. It was like a piano, but more compact and had a million switches to change the tempo and the sound of the keys. His eyes lit up and he phased over to it with ease. He pushed energy into his fingertips and slid the bar, turning it on. He breathed out slow and began to play with his slender fingers.
Marinette was busy pouring the hot water over an english breakfast tea bag when she heard the beautiful melody wafting through her apartment. It was enchanting and perfectly played. Shivers ran through her body and she blushed. The familiar tune of Chopin's No. 1 in E minor, Op. II - Romanza filled her ears and she got lost in it. It was beautiful and she found her feet following the sounds that were emanating from her bedroom. "You play?" Her voice scared him and he jumped, causing the keys to miss and the song to stop.
"Uh, yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck, shyly. She saw his cheeks flush for a second and she giggled behind her hand.
"You play beautifully. Can I hear it? All of it?" Marinette covered her mouth and felt her cheeks warm. "I mean, that is if you would like to."
Adrien sighed and smiled warmly for her. "I would love to." Adrien watched the girl walk over to grab her black office chair and wheel it over to him. "Thank you." He sat down on it and focused his energy back to his fingertips.
Marinette sat down on the bed and put her hands in her lap. She watched his fingers glide over the keys with ease and pause at the perfect moments. He got lost in the song with his eyes closed and she couldn't keep her eyes off of him. She forgot about her tea and everything around her disappeared and she was transported back in time.
It was January 30th, 1918 and she found herself laying in bed, staring at the ceiling. A collection of Shakespeare sat beside her on the oak nightstand. It was quiet and peaceful inside the room. All of Paris was asleep and the only thing that could be head were the soft sounds of late night people in the streets below.
The feel of silk sheets against her skin made goosebumps appear and she felt hot yet luxurious. The quality of the fabric was nicer than any she had seen before. Let alone felt before. A baby grand piano sat within the room and the moonlight carried across it's liquid black surface. It was beautiful as was the art that graced the walls. Art of beautifully dressed women with men bowed to kiss their dainty hands. It was at this moment that she knew that she wasn't in her own body, but in someone else's.
She raised her hands to see familiar slender hands that she had been watching along the soft keys of her keyboard. She wanted to go play the instrument, but she was stuck in the frame of time, unable to control what was happening to herself.
A high pitched whine rang out before a sonic boom. A bright white light flashed and she sat up in the bed and her hands flew to her ears. Her breathing raised faster and she froze up. The sounds of buildings crumbling and breaking filled her ears, as the sound faded to ringing. More flashes of light and complete silence. It was as if everything was moving in slow motion.
"Come!" A voice ran out when the ringing faded. She peered over to see a woman with blonde hair reaching out to her. "Come on! Father wants you out of here and into the room with all of us, mon minou."
Her voice was soft and sweet, filling her heart with love. She threw the blankets off and grabbed her hand. Something about this woman's demeanor and the way she felt calmed by her, made her realize it was his mother.
They ran down the stairs and into the room where his father was. She was instantly confused by what was happening. This hadn't happened before and her heart raced more with each sharp whine and blast. "What is happening?" She heard Adrien's voice ring out over the loud crashing sounds of crackling concrete and wood.
"Germany has decided to bomb us, son." His father was a tall lanky man with angular features and very astute glasses on his face. She took in his serious demeanor as she was pushed beneath a well made desk.
That was when another flash blew brighter than ever before and she peered out with her knees to her chest to see his frantic mother. She touched his cheek with a warm smile. "You be good, mon minou. Promise me. Promise me that you will go on and have a beautiful family. That you will travel the world and chase the stars."
She reached out and within moments another flash blinded her vision and when her vision came back… she found his mother on the ground, peering at her beneathe a piece of the roof. It had collapsed and fallen on her. Blood spilled from the corner of her lips and she spoke her last words. "Share your dreams with the world, mon amour." She watched her soul leave her eyes and heard Adrien's voice cry out in anguish.
The keys faltered bringing her back to reality. To the spirit sitting at her keyboard with his head pressed to the keys. He had stopped playing and now he just sat there, hiding in his blonde hair, letting the dark baritones slowly build up through the thick air. Hiding his sadness of losing his mother. His sadness of not being alive.
"She seemed like a beautiful woman." Marinette finally spoke and he wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands. "Truly an angelic soul, Adrien. I'm so sorry."
Adrien didn't say anything. He just sat there in silence. She worried her bottom lip and watched him fade away in silence. She suddenly reached out towards where he had sat and yelled out, "WAIT!". But by then it was too late. He was gone.
Tears fell down her cheeks and she held his ring to her chest and tried to push all of her love into it. She knew he was hurting and all she wanted to do was love him. To show him compassion. To show him that she understood what it was like to lose someone you loved, but he didn't come back.
She sniffed and walked over to her crafting area and began to build his ring a special home. One that he could claim as his own. She took a heart shaped wooden box and some acrylic paints. She began to paint the whole box in a deep rich red. Marinette stuck her tongue out as she worked on it, adding intricate art nouveau designs on the top, in white paint. She then took black soft velvet and began to sew a cushion to put inside of the box. She stuffed it with a bit of polyester stuffing and hot glued it into the bottom. She then painted one last thing on the inside of the lid, Emilie, in an intricate font. Marinette then walked over to her bed and set the little box on her nightstand, placing his ring inside, hoping that he would come back.
Song I Wrote to:
Frédéric Chopin - Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 - II. Romance - Larghetto