"MARINETTE!"
Marientte shuddered a little bit as she quickly set down the carrot she was peeling and walked into the wood-panelled dining room. The small round table seated three women, two only a few years removed from her, and the eldest dressing in a way to give that impression despite her age. The elder woman looked at Marinette through her bangs with that sickening smile she almost always wore as she lifted up her teacup daintily.
"Marinette, dear, this tea is almost cold! I know you didn't mean to be so heartless, but don't you remember that I need my tea to be hot? I mean, I can barely move my wrist as it is, but at least with hot tea the arthritis isn't too terribly painful. Do you think you could take care of it?"
Marinette ignored the snickers of the other two women at the table, instead walking toward the woman who had spoken to her as she said
"Of course, Stepmother."
Lila gave the tiniest of smirks before dropping the china teacup with a cry of pain and clutching at her arm.
"AH! My wrist!"
Marinette lunged for the cup, but it dropped to the floor and broke neatly into three pieces. Lila looked down, still cradling her wrist, at Marinette's face of shock and sadness.
"Oh, Marinette! I'm so terribly sorry, I broke your mother's teacup… I do hope you can forgive me?"
Marinette didn't say a word, just bending down to pick up the pieces from the pool of spilled, highly sweetened tea on the carpet. She held the three pieces gently in one hand as she picked up the teapot from the table - and resisted the urge to remove the other two matching teacups along with it. She kept up her air of submissiveness until she reached the hallway toward the kitchen - then she allowed her anger and grief to show on her face as she looked at the remains of her mother's favorite teacup. When she reached the kitchen she set the teapot down on the counter and gently placed the pieces of china in the window box over the sink, hoping against hope that they would be safe there until she managed to finish her chores and could find the time to piece them together again.
"Why do I let her get away with this?" she breathed, so softly that she could barely hear her own voice.
It was too painful to remember why, so she searched through her mind for any outlet from her life with her stepfamily. And as she did so often, she allowed herself to fantasize about her past. Her mother, beautiful and calm, and her father, stoic and protective.
But as always, she came back to one of her earliest and favorite memories - a sunny day, playing in the garden of a country house two hundred miles away, and meeting someone new.
A small thing, a ladybug, for the instigator of a meeting so formative to her life. The day Marinette chased one away from her home, she had never known what would come of it.
She had always loved the little creatures, with their red spots and beautiful patterns, and she would sit and watch them for hours. Occasionally one would sit in a single spot for her to observe, but more often than not it would fly away and the little sprite of a girl would follow after. So it was on that beautiful spring day. Marinette was running through the fields and around the trees, keeping her eyes on the little red sight, trying desperately not to lose this one, when she suddenly heard a noise.
It was a sniff, as if someone was trying to conceal tears. Marinette looked around and suddenly realized how far from her home she really was. She turned back, her eye catching on the ladybug, but then the sound came again. She listened harder until she could identify the direction through the woods, and she began to make her way over curiously.
She was still listening for any sound when she saw that the forest opened up on a line of hedges. From the other side, she heard the sound of someone breathing shakily, the way her father did sometimes when he didn't want anyone to know he was crying. Marinette felt her own tears coming in sympathy and she looked for a way to the other side.
She walked a few steps forward and knew instinctively that this was where the unknown sufferer was. She decided to make her presence known.
"Excuse me?"
The soft sniffing suddenly stopped and a sudden movement made the hedge rustle. Then all was quiet. Marinette tried again.
"Hello?"
A soft voice said, so quietly she could barely hear it,
"... hello."
It was a voice like a child - perhaps it was someone her age.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, then waited excitedly for the answer. She loved to care for people when they needed it, and it really did sound like this mysterious stranger needed it.
"No. Go away."
Not the encouraging answer she was looking for. She tried again.
"Can I come in?"
She expected to be told off again, but to her surprise the hedge rustled again after a very slight pause, and she heard the voice from the other side.
"There's a hole. Down by the big tree."
Marinette looked around and saw what could only be the big tree - a massive pine tree - a few yards away. She quickly ran toward it and began to root around. A very slight investigation revealed the hole, a space once occupied by a nest of some kind, and Marinette dropped to her knees and climbed through.
Inside, she found herself in what seemed to be another world. The sun shone down on the hedges, what seemed to be miles of them. While the forest was filled with birdsong and the sounds of animals, here there seemed to be only silence. Marinette was a little afraid of the silence, but she was distracted by her mission. She walked back the direction she knew the voice must have come from and came out on a small circle, where several hedge paths met.
He was sitting at the base of a bush growing in the center of a small circle. He was looking away, as if he didn't want to see her - or didn't want her to see him.
Marinette smiled and walked forward.
"Excuse me?"
He jumped and scrambled to his feet, wiping his eyes with grubby hands. Marientte, being a kindly girl, immediately fished in her pocket for a handkerchief and held it out to the little boy in front of her. He refused to take it, instead looking at her bare feet. Marinette wondered what was so strange about her bare feet until she noticed his own highly polished shoes. She also took in his blond hair, clearly styled once upon a time but now moved into a mess of golden locks, and his green eyes staring at her, tears still in them.
"Who are you?" Marinette asked in wonder. The boy shook his head.
"I don't want to tell you. You won't really like me. Nobody does anymore. You'll only like me because you have to."
Even at five years old, Marinette's sense of justice was alive and well, and she knew this could never be true. She placed her hands on her hips in imitation of her nurse as she said hotly
"What?! I like people for who they are, not who they say they should be. I mean, Kim says that I shouldn't like Tikki because she's my nanny and nannies are mean, but I love Tikki almost as much as I love my Mama and Papa."
The boy looked up in surprise at her outbreak, green eyes wide with wonder, then began to giggle under his breath.
"I didn't know that."
Marinette smiled kindly at him.
"It doesn't matter who you are. Do you want to play something and stop crying?"
He looked almost shy at this suggestion, but nodded.
"If you give me a name, can we be friends? That way you'll like me for real."
Marinette grinned at him and nodded, slightly confused by the new game, but quite willing to participate in it.
"Okay! How about I call you Lily?"
"That's a girl's name."
"Oh. Right. Umm… how about Blaze?"
He looked at her in a bit of reproach.
"A nickname isn't supposed to be a real name. It's a fake name that wouldn't be a real name at all."
She frowned and looked at him, hoping for inspiration to strike. He seemed to be deep in thought, too, and suddenly he looked at her and said quickly
"I like flowers, and rain, and I love cats!"
Marinette gave a little grin.
"Chaton! I'll call you Chaton!"
Her new friend looked almost excited about the new name, and he walked toward her, holding out his hand. She ignored this and threw her arms around him. He stiffened a little, but then hugged her back.
"I like it! But what about you?"
Marinette giggled as she unwrapped her arms from around him.
"I can just tell you my name, silly!"
"But I can give you a nickname so you won't feel left out!"
Marinette was about to say something when a flash of red caught her eye on a leaf a few feet away. She gestured for Chaton to stay perfectly still, took a step forward, and quickly reached out grabbing it in both hands.
"Gotcha! I caught it, Chaton!"
She opened up her hands just enough to let him see the tiny red and black insect inside, then quickly closed them up again. He looked like he was about to cry again, and Marinette quickly said
"What's the matter?"
He muttered something and sat down on the ground again, tears filling his eyes. Marinette sat down next to him, setting the ladybug on her frilled pink skirt.
"I couldn't hear you. What did you say?"
He suddenly buried his face in his hands, crying
"My Mama's really sick, and I can't go see her and show her the pretty ladybug anymore, and I don't think she's going to get better and she's going to die!"
Marinette felt a pain at the pit of her stomach at his grief. She quickly released the little insect on her hand and wrapped her arms around Chaton as she rocked too and fro, trying to help her friend but feeling tears running down her face as well. Soon, the two were crying together, the ladybug forgotten to wander back to the leaves of the bush. Chaton was the first to compose himself, wiping his eyes with the back of his hands this time. Marinette once again offered him the handkerchief, and this time he took it. He looked in wonder at the design on the white fabric: a small ladybug and a cluster of brightly colored flowers. Then he looked back up at Marinette and said thickly.
"This is pretty. It is your mama's?"
Marinette shook her head, blinking tears from her eyes.
"No, it's mine. I made it and she sewed the pictures, but I picked out the colors for the flowers."
He turned it over in his hands.
"You're really pretty."
He looked up quickly and amended his statement.
"I mean, you make pretty things. But you're pretty, too. A little like Mama."
Marinette plucked a blade of grass from the ground.
"What's your mama like? Is she nice?"
Chaton gulped and nodded, smiling a little bit.
"She is. We used to read books together, and she would play hide-and-seek with me. We have the best house for playing hide and seek! She'd go walking with me in the garden and we'd decide which flowers we like the best, and sometimes dad would come with us. Not often, though. He's really busy… That's why I'm out here."
Marinette's heart was wrung. She was about to say something when a voice was heard calling.
"-Where are you?! AD-!"
Chaton gasped and quickly raised his voice
"I'm here, Nathalie!"
He quickly pushed Marinette behind the bush as a woman walked around the corner of the path. She was tall and straight, with black hair pulled back severely and a black gown that was completely plain except for a single layer of red ribbon around the neckline. Marinette wondered briefly if this was his mother until she remembered that he had called her Nathalie, not Mama. Not to mention, the woman's demeanor was uptight and sharp - nothing like the nice Mama Chaton had described. She watched through the leaves as the woman walked over to her friend and said in a clipped voice
"Here you are. Hurry up, please. Your father wants to see you. Right now."
Chaton nodded and started to walk after her, then turned and ran back to the bush. Marinette wondered why, until he pressed down a leaf to show the small red insect on it. Then he looked through the bush until his eyes met hers.
"Bye, Ladybug! Will I see you tomorrow?" he said with a smile. Marinette nodded silently, and he smiled at her again before walking toward the waiting woman.
Marinette waited until the sounds of their footsteps were gone, then she started back toward the hole Before long, she was running back toward her home. As she approached it, she heard her name being called, and she just crested the hill when she found Tikki walking aimlessly and shouting out
"Marinette! Where are you?!"
"I'm here, Tikki!" she called, running a little bit faster. The ginger-haired woman turned to her and scooped her up in her arms, carrying her toward the kitchen of their home.
"Where were you? I've been calling for you for five minutes! I thought I said you could play in the garden?"
Marinette decided to play it safe, not knowing whether she would get in trouble with her parents if they found out, and so all she said was
"I'm sorry, Tikki. What's for lunch?"
Tikki smiled at her - that smile that warmed her heart.
"I think we can arrange for something special today, don't you?"
Marinette grinned back at her and squirmed out of her hold - when Tikki said things like this, it usually meant that she was allowed to help in the kitchen There might even be cookies! But before she could say anything more, her mother walked out of the door and held out her arms. Marinette was suddenly reminded of Chaton's mother, who was dying and couldn't see him anymore, and her eyes filled with tears once more as she ran frantically to her mother and gave her the biggest hug she could, afraid that if she let go once more, her mother too might disappear.
"Mama, are you going to die?" she said in a voice choked with tears. Her mother froze for a moment, then knelt down, picked up the little girl and held her close.
"Well, I hope not for a very long time, but someday we all will. But don't worry. No matter what, someone will always be here to take care of you, mon coeur."
Marinette looked up and kissed her mother's cheek before cuddling farther into her embrace. Tikki smiled at them from a distance and held out her arms, but Marinette just held on all the tighter and felt her mother's shaking head as she walked inside, still carrying her little daughter in her arms.
"Marinette, did something happen today while you were playing? Why are you so scared all of a sudden?"
Marinette nodded, rubbing the tears from her eyes with a sniff, then shook her head quickly.
"No, Mamon. Nothing happened."
And the thought of Chaton and their appointment to play the next day made her smile and breathe a little easier.
Apparently sensing that Marinette's mood had brightened once more, her mother gestured to the door and Tikki appeared.
"If you want those cookies, you'd better come along. If you're not careful, I might just eat them all up myself! They look so good…" she said with a smile, holding out her hand to the little girl. Marinette jumped up and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the kitchen.
That night, Marinette went to bed with a hoarded pair of cookies under her pillow, a smile on her face, and a hope for the next day's adventure with her new friend.