A/N based off of 'Itokoishi' by 倉橋一平, animation was suggested to me by 4everwriter. Not a superhero one.
So without further ado, Let the chaos ensue.
The Red Thread
Marinette has grown up on superstitions mainly found in both China and France. But another culture has her thinking about the red string that connects two people together.
Marinette's side
Growing up with family in China and France was confusing at a young age. Marinette had to learn two different customs, traditions, and for her chinese relatives, superstitions. When ever she forgets one, Marinette will go online to look it up hoping that she doesn't forget it as soon as last time, which is not likely. While she was looking up the customs surrounding the color red she misclicks on a sight talking about a superstition mentioning the red strings of fate that connects two people. Looking further into it she finds out that it is a metaphorical red string attached to the pinky finger on the left hand of two people connecting them, and hopefully leading them together.
Marinette thinks about the new information on her way to school that morning. At the crosswalk in front of the bakery an older woman stands beside her when her grocery bag breaks and the contents spill out onto the sidewalk. Knowing that it will just be another tardy on her already lengthy attendance record Marinette stays to help, running back to her room to give the woman a ladybug themed tote bag she made days prior.
"Thank you Sweetie, now run off before your punishment gets worse." The woman says and as confused as she is at first by this statement, Marinette realizes what she means too late when the bell rings for the first class. Quickly bidding the woman good day Marinette crosses the street, and does her best to sneak into the classroom. Only to trip over nothing in front of Adrien's seat. After getting scolded by the teacher Marinette sits in her designated spot, constantly feeling as though something is tugging on her hand.
She looks down and notices a red piece of thread tied around her pinky. Jumping up in shock, she only gets flustered when all eyes turn towards her. Sitting back down quickly, Marinette tears the thread and begins to wind it up, wanting to see if she can figure out the source, only to see that a never ending stream seems to be coming from around the seat Adrien occupies.
During their lunch period, Marinette follows behind Adrien and Nino with Alya, only for the tugging sensation to come again and cause her to fall down the last few steps. Adrien manages to catch her at the last second, just before her head makes contact with the ground. Their other classmates pass them by with no problem, but once Chloe sees Adrien with his arms around her, she all but wretches him away, causing Marinette to finish the fall he saved her from.
Chloe overly happy with her work drags Adrien away from his friends, as the three friends watch, Sabrina who is only doing this on Chloe's orders, drops the rest of Chloe's Latte on Marinette. All of their classmates watch as the light brown liquid drips down her form as Chloe and Sabrina laugh. Marinette stands still as Alya and Nino try to dry her off, but once Adrien separates himself from Chloe and approaches, Marinette finally can't take it anymore and leaves the school building, tripping on thin air with the laughs of Chloe and her "friend" still ringing in her ear.
Thinking about running home first, she decides against it seeing it as admitting defeat to Chloe's cruel ways. So instead she runs to the part of the Seine River nearest the Eiffel Tower and sits on one of the wooden benches there. As she looks at the frayed string that has yet to leave her finger, she fails to notice the two shadows approaching her until she feels something pressed on top of her hand. Looking to the left she sees the same woman from this morning sitting next to her a male of contrasting styles holding the woman's other hand..
Taking a better look at the woman she is dressed in a ladybug like sweater with a long flowing black skirt. Her shoes are just plain loafers meant for comfort. Her hair which was a natural red is cropped with the back dyed black. Black barrettes hold her bangs to the side revealing dark blue eyes. The male meanwhile has a bright green t-shirt that matches his eyes underneath a leather jacket. His bottoms are a navy blue with combat boots covering the bottom hems. His hair is pitch black and in a style that makes it look like he just got out of bed, with two parts sticking up like ears.
"Are you alright Sweetie? Did something happen?" The woman asks concerned. Before Marinette can answer however the man with her interrupts. "Don't you think you should introduce yourself first before you go asking those things Tikki?"
"Oh dear, sorry about that. I'm Tikki and this is my boyfriend Plagg. Now are you ok?" Marinette giggles as Tikki shifts from one expression to another, but nods. "Yes, I'm fine. I just had another day of being clumsy to go along with the rest." Plagg give a smirk at that, "Sort of like Tikki here. She's not so much as clumsy as she is scattered brained. Trust me when I say I have my hands full just keeping her in line, but all turns out ok in the end, and that's all we could even hope for." The two wish Marinette good-day, and walk away hand in hand, it is in that moment when Marinette sees a red thread tied to their left pinkies with so many notes in between and frayed edges, it's a surprise how it's still holding together. But looking back on the last Plagg said she can only suspect that they did make it work out in the end, and the red string she has been seeing all day is the string of fate she has read about by mistake.
Looking around the streets on her way back to school she begins to notice many more strings connecting humans and animals alike, one being a calico and black cat that reminds her of Tikki and Plagg in the fact that they seem like complete opposites.
By the time she gets near the school it's too late to change her clothes so she heads to class with a big brown stain on shoulders and chest, while her pigtails are stiff. Finally ok with how the tugging only seems to pull her towards the blonde who sits in front of her, that she can barely say a word around. entering the classroom she ignores the stares from her classmates, and snickers from Chloe. She takes a moment to study the strings flying around the room, but only notices a few connecting some of them. Taking notice that hers runs straight towards Adrien, happy with this turnout she takes a seat, and prepares for the next class.
Adrien's Side
He didn't like what happened, he didn't like what Chloe had Sabrina do that at all. As Chloe clung to his arm and prattled on about how much 'fun' they were going to have at the mall after her little laugh, all Adrien could do was watch as the Latte stains set in and were likely to ruin her clothes. When Alya and Nino went to help Marinette clean up, he finally came to his senses, and pushed Chloe off before making his way over to his friends. The look on Marinette's face though was one of humiliation, stress, and shame. The class could do nothing more than watch as she ran out the doors and down the sidewalk opposite to her families bakery.
Adrien goes to follow her, but just as he makes it to the sidewalk he crashes into a figure clothed in black, and falls back. Looking up he finds a hand outfitted with black finger-less gloves, and a green paw-pad on the palm being held out to him. Looking up at the dark clothed man, he spots an eye smarting green peaking out from under his jacket. "Hey you alright there kid?"
Adrien scoffs at the name, "Who are you calling kid, I'm already 16." The man laughs at that, "Well once you get to be 18 or make do something worthwhile than I'll consider otherwise, until than, you're a kid." Adrien all but glares at the man and takes his hand. When one would first see the man, they would think he seemed weak, but after crashing into him, Adrien can tell that this man is more like a well built tank. All but hauling Adrien on to his feet, his about to say something when a feminine cry of "Plagg!" sounds from the distance. Looking over the two males see a youthful like woman making her way over, all but plowing into the man and knocking the two on the ground.
Adrien stares in shock at the sight. How could a slight, childlike woman knock over the well built, equally thin man. Adrien just watches as the two interact, their personalities clashing yet somehow coming together perfectly. As the two get up Adrien moves to try and find Marinette when a firm hand grips his shoulder. Expecting the man, he turns to find the woman. "My boyfriend told me what happened, care to explain."
Adrien looks at the two, not seeing why they need to know, but thinking they may be able to help him he explains. "A girl had her friend drain her Latte on this other girl. At first the girl remained frozen in shock, but when I went to go help her, she ran off." All while giving this simple explanation, a slight tugging sensation appeared on his left hand, but he ignores it. "You stay, and we'll find her. What does she look like?"
After describing his friend, be heads back into class, not sure what else he can do but wait. Alya tries to call Marinette, but her forgot her phone on the table. Nino tries to cheer him up, but he is worried about Marinette as well so the effect is nonexistent. The three friends continue to worry about the fourth, when the rest of the class starts arriving for the next class. At first it seems like Marinette is going to skip the last few classes of the day, when just before the bell rings she walks through the door. Her hair is stiff and her clothes are still stained from the Latte, but from the way she holds herself as she walks through that door makes it seem like nothing happened.
He watches as he eyes wander around the classroom before they linger on him. A smile tugs at her lips and the tugging comes back a bit more. As she moves towards her seat she continues to hold her head high, and Adrien can't help but feel that his heart skipped a beat or two when they made eye contact.
Unknown to the two of them, the red threads find each other and connect the way they were meant to be.
A/N I had so much trouble with this one trying to make it work for the Miraculous fandom, but hopefully it turned out alright. Hope you enjoyed it. At the end though it came a bit easier.
