Summary: What if Wayzz wouldn't realise that Hawkmoth had risen? What if Marinette never received her Miraculous on time? Let us all go back a year and Hawkmoth has taken over Paris. Only one hero, Chat Noir, can stand up against him, but while Chat has the power to stand in his way, he does not have the power to cleanse the akumas.

A year after the first akuma was sighted, Marinette Dupain-Cheng hides under the floor of the bakery with her parents. She hasn't been to school for an entire year. She has not been to the movies or met up for ice cream for a year. She doesn't know what has happened with her friends, save for Alya, but as each day passes under lockdown they talk less and less.

One day she is forced to leave the safety of home, to make one of the few deliveries that can be made in order for her parents to pay the bill. Of course, that day she also runs into Hawkmoth's followers and some of his akumas. Enter Chat Noir, the Parisian hero.

As her life turns upside down Marinette is faced with several new struggles, but one of them makes her ask. Do soulmates truly exist, and how do you know when you have found them?

Soulmate AU, Identity reveal (eventually) and most importantly, a lot of angst

Trigger warning: This story features heavily on lockdowns. Stay safe all you people in the world, let's stay strong together.

Disclaimer: I am in no way part of the production of the Miraculous franchise, hence I have no claims on the characters or worlds. However, I will hunt you down if you copy this off me and use it word by word.

To believe in love

Chapter 1

When she was little, she had asked her mother how she and papa met?

The story made Sabine smile in the most radiant smile she possessed. Tom had been the apprentice of his father, a well-known baker and she, Sabine, had just moved to Paris to pursue her a university course in French. One morning on her way to class she had bought a croissant at the bakery where her father worked and by pure coincidence her grandfather had asked her father to man the cashier for the morning. As there had been no other costumers in the bakery they had talked and they talked for so long that Sabine was late for class, but it was that moment that made all the difference. He had given her the number to the bakery, and that very evening they had gone for ice cream at André, the local ice cream cart. Already by then she knew she had found her soulmate and they had been together since.

Since she was a child Marinette had always dreamed of finding hers. It wasn't too hard to find one of your soulmates, in fact it was most unusual for a person not to have one. A soulmate could be anyone, your family, your close friend and of course your partner. Soulmates could be lifelong or even temporary. Soldiers were well known to meet soulmates in the trenches and became inseparable until it was time to part and return home. Soulmates could also cease to be and when that happens the two souls would have nothing to do with each other. Usually this happened with friends who left and never saw each other again or between partners whose bond wasn't as strong as they believed.

Marinette knew she had soulmates. Her parents were her first soulmates. She knew they loved her dearly and as their only child she was their world. She was pretty sure another one of her soulmates would be Alya. She was her best friend and despite the hardships that they had gone through and would go through, they were inseparable and always have each other's backs.

There was one soulmate she had yet to find, her partner. She had always dreamed of finding a soulmate like her father and mother found each other. She had dreamt for years that she would bump into a boy, who would look at her and she would know at once that their hearts belonged to each other. All her childhood she created fantasies around her partner and their lives, from how many children they would have, to the names of their pets.

But by now, she knew that would probably never happen.

Their lives changed drastically that one evening a year ago. Paris had been stunned when black butterflies had appeared overnight and everyone it touched had been transformed into horrible monsters, which were named Akuma by a Japanese ambassador, as it fittingly translates to demon. The attack had been swift and the consequences dire. Buildings had been torn down, large craters formed by the Champs Elysée. Schools and workplaces had quickly shut all activity and the mayor, Mayor Bourgeoise, had advised all Parisians to remain indoors, safe and away from all the butterflies and possible threats. Daily an old siren would warn them of waves of butterflies and many houses now had safe cells or cellars were people would run to when the siren wailed. The usually crowded streets of Paris were all empty and deserted. People were only allowed to leave their homes to somehow gather food or other necessities, but with most shops closed it was harder by each day. Each time you left your home, you didn't know if you would return.

Marinette lived with her parents at the top floor of their Bakery and Patisserie. The interior of the bakery was classic, with a wide display case for their famous bread, cakes and pastries. There were cute little white tables and chairs and velvet draperies to form a small café. But as the akumas scared so many Parisians away, fewer and fewer customers returned to buy their bread and by now the displays were empty and the tables and chairs stacked in a corner. What used to be a lovely bakery now survived on what little they could send to the stores, hotels or other larger establishments. Her father struggled to get anyone to send ingredients to keep his dream afloat and sometimes had to take the car to drive for miles to get a bag of flour or pounds of butter. Every time he did Sabine would kiss him before he took the baker's car along the deserted streets. They had to survive somehow.

For a year this was their lives, with struggles, the fear and the grey hopelessness that nothing would ever change. It wasn't until one day in autumn when things would finally change, and the day started as following:

The first alarm went off in the morning and had startled them all as it had been very dark outside. Tom had woken his family to lead them down into the cellar, but thankfully the alarm was short and they had been able to return to their beds only after a few minutes. The second alarm went off before lunch. It resulted into that one of the windows cracked, thankfully none of the akumas had been inside the bakery but her father took precautions and brought some floorboards to mend it with, from when he used to do special stacked cakes.

Her mother stood beside him, giving him nails. Marinette armed the phone in case someone would actually call and make an order. It didn't happen often, but she had come to love the telephone since she realised how much they depended on it.

She looked at her own phone as her parents worked, mainly to see if there had been any news updates since she last checked on it. There wasn't much to read, except that the power company had ordered their employees to stay for another month, in exchange for triple their salaries. The electricity company had managed to keep the power going. Many who had important jobs such as electricity, water, medicine or Wi-Fi had stepped in to keep the city going. They were daily heroes as it meant that people still could keep a daily life inside their homes.

She stared at her phone and didn't bother with the rest of the news, that seemed the same as yesterday. Life had taken a turn for the worst since the lockdown began. She loved them, but she was fed up with having nothing to do. She missed school and her friends. Many of them had remained in Paris, some due to fear of moving and some brave enough to stand up against the threat.

There were a few families and Parisians who had managed to flee the city, but her family was not one of them. They had been forced to stay to help support her grandfather, who had refused to move seeing as his own father never left Paris during the war, despite being part of the Resistance movement. She remembered the day when the news came that people were evacuating. Her grandfather had utterly refused to budge from his home. Her father had even tried to carry the smaller man to the car, but he had made such a fuss they had to dive inside the house to avoid the wave of dark butterflies that had gathered due to his loud noises.

There was a sudden ping that caught her attention. She clicked on her phone and a news update. A familiar face appeared as front news, a young teenager with blond hair, green eyes that looked like that of a feline and a black mask and leather suit. It seemed once more Chat Noir, their local hero, had saved a young girl from being akumatised when she tried to run away from home. The akumas had chased her into a large building, thankfully Chat had seen her and taken the akumas out.

While Chat had confessed that he would not be able to deal with all of their problems, he was still their greatest hero. His Cataclysm had the ability to destroy the wings of the butterflies, making them into harmless wingless insect which were far easier to dodge than flying butterflies. In the year that had passed he was their greatest hope, being the only one who had some means to fight them. She clicked a video of his latest interview.

"I am grateful to the courage of all of Paris, but you still need to be careful and stick together. The akuma are drawn to fear, anger and powerful emotions, so be careful with what you wish for. For all of Paris, I will always be there for you all, but equally I need your help. There is one hero who could help us, but no one knows, not even me, knows who she is. If you see a hero called Ladybug, please alert me so we can end Hawkmoth's reign of terror."

She clicked the video once more to pause it. Hawkmoth was the villain who could create the purple butterflies and the villain who had destroyed the safety of all their lives. Whoever this Ladybug was, she had to be amazing. Chat Noir was already amazing and her best friend Alya, had started a chatroom for all of Paris, so people could talk about it and also share their observations and warnings for people in their vicinity. Alya was moderator and extremely proud of her chatroom, as Chat Noir himself had commented saying he read the chats from time to time, usually to know how Paris was doing.

"There all done." Her father suddenly said and stepped away from his handywork. Marinette sighed. She hated having to shut one of their large windows, but it was for the best. There were no glass repair shops open and this would have to do until they either had to leg it, or someone finally did save them.

As the family gave a sigh of relief to have the window close the siren or as it was better known, the RNA sounded. The RNA (Rèsau National D'Alerte) was an old remnant from the war that was used once to warn for bombings, but as the akuma had become a daily thing, the RNA would call whenever large number of akuma were sighted. Marinette put her phone in her pocket and quickly followed her father and mother as they ran to the back of the desk. There was a trapdoor that had been installed by the previous owner, which led to a saferoom. There was a sole lightbulb on the ceiling that they lit and then it was all about waiting until the siren would call a second time, signalling danger over.

Waiting she took out her phone while her parents huddled close. She had stopped cuddling with them months ago as she was tired of worrying. The trapdoor was thick and there were no cracks for the akuma to get through. She stared at her screen. It was low battery and no Wi-Fi underneath the ground, but she decided to look at some old pictures to have something more to do than count the minutes until danger passed.

It was hard to think that somewhat over a year ago she had been happy. She even had a boyfriend briefly, Luka, the older brother of one of her friends Juleka. For a while she had considered that maybe they could be more than a couple, possibly her soulmate, but Luka was also married to music. He, Juleka and their mother had gone away to tour some weeks before the first akuma were sighted. She was happy they weren't there. Juleka was a sweetheart and the fewer people who had to deal with all this, the better.

Soulmates, once more her mind brought her back to the topic of eternal love. In school her teacher, Madame Bustier, had described it as having one person you could love and trust so much that this person would be gifted to hold one half of your heart, while you'd be gifted back by one half of theirs. It wasn't a figurative thing, more like a metaphor. The topic had been brought up after Mylene, another of her friends, had found her soulmate in Ivan.

She pressed the side of her phone and blackened the screen. Thinking about what she used to have hurt. There really was no point in dwelling on it, but she couldn't find herself to erase all of the pictures of them together. The pictures weren't even that special, just a few shots of her backstage when Luka rehearsed or them sitting in his bedroom while he taught her to play on his guitar. Their relationship had been almost innocent.

She sighed and listened to the silence. It was much more quiet than usual, but she could swear she heard the faint second signal to say danger over, but it was hard to hear from the basement. Her father had the same reaction, but he was careful. They had a routine at this house. He would check first. If he deemed that the streets were empty and normal, it would be safe to go up again.

While they waited her mother grabbed her hand. "It will be alright." She said, but Marinette wasn't sure anymore if her mother tried to calm her or herself.

The trapdoor opened above them. Her father smiled down and said, "The coast is clear. You can come up."

Her parents hugged each other once the door had shut behind Marinette. She felt bad for her parents, they were all worried for their safety as well as her grandfather, who lived on his own a few streets away. The old man hated company and refused to see them, but he would call once a day to ensure his son he was doing okay. Speaking of phones, as she stood there pondering about their ongoing prison, the phone called.

Marinette dove to it. Maybe it was an order.

It was. Marinette handed the phone over to her father once she recognised the tone on the other hand. She didn't mind the phone duty save for one person.

Chloé Bourgeoise was probably the most spoiled girl in all of Paris. Chloé was the daughter of Mayor Bourgeoise, and she took every opportunity to flex her fortunes and compare herself to the lowly baker's daughter Marinette. Unfortunately, they both went to the same school, so Marinette used to see her every day. It was the only good thing about missing school, she didn't have to put up with Chloé every day. Or so she thought. As the only neighbouring bakery that still had an open sign on their door Chloé had made calls over the last months ordering for pastries and sweets to be brought to her. As a compensation for the dangers outside, Mayor Bourgeoise had agreed to pay extra for home deliveries. They desperately needed the money. The bakery was not going well and bills still had to be paid.

Until last week her mother had made the deliveries in the family's van, but in a more recent sudden akuma she mother had been injured. Not gravely, but her foot had been hit by a flying dustbin. The doctors didn't think it was broken, she could still walk on it, she still had problems leaning on it or pushing the hard pedals in their van. Of course, their small delivery van was a manual and not automatic.

"We will send it over right away. Six dozen éclairs and a box of our best macarons, just like you ordered last week." Her father said to Chloé, but his eyes were worried. While her father was a good baker, he was not a good driver. Before the akumas they had hired a part timer, George, to make all the deliveries, but George had gone missing. Marinette hoped he had escaped, because she liked him, he was fun and would often bring her candy from all over the world as he travelled a lot.

Sabine's expression was equally worried. They couldn't lose Chloé as a client, even Marinette knew. The Bourgeoise family was among the wealthier and had agreed to pay extra for deliveries to be made to their hotel. Their last delivery had saved them huge troubles paying the electricity bill and part of the mortgage.

Her eyes wandered from one parent to the other and she had a thought. She was too young to drive, but on her fourteenth birthday she had received a pink moped from her parents. She knew how to drive it and with the decrease of traffic she would have no problems making it to the hotel and back, faster than any of them could run or walk.

"I can deliver them." She said suddenly. She was desperate to do something more than stare at the walls and read the same magazines she had read for a year now.

"No, Marinette. You don't need to, we can manage somehow," Sabine said, but she looked worried. Marinette knew her parents didn't want her to go outside the door, but what other option did they have.

"Mama, please. I can go on my moped. It should only take me half an hour at the most and you know you cannot drive, dad will drive into a pole and there aren't any cars out there anyway. I will be back quickly, and I promise I will keep my eyes out for anything. I will even head straight home if anything happens."

Neither her parents looked very happy, but then her mother sighed.

"You are probably right," she said biting her lip.

Her father went to grab the macarons and éclairs and put them into carton boxes. Marinette headed to fetch the keys to her moped and her helmet. Her mother sat staring out the window to check if the coast was clear. She did obviously not like sending Marinette out there, but she also knew her daughter was a force when she wanted to do something. Marinette returned, keys in hand, a black jacket in the other. She put her keys in her pocket, threw on her jacket as her father gave her the boxes.

"Be very careful out there" he said. Marinette smiled. Her mother walked over and hugged her close.

"Do not do anything rash. You are the most precious thing I have. We love you." She said.

Marinette smiled, the first genuine smile she could muster for ages.

She was scared, yes, but she didn't want her mother out there once more. Marinette was younger and more fit. She could perhaps outrun the akuma if she was lucky.

And surprisingly, she was quite the lucky girl.

The moped was parked and chained at the back of the bakery. She swiftly loaded it, she had an extra holder for when she did deliveries, and was happy to find the moped started without problem. Quickly she got on and drove off. The tour to the Grand Hotel wasn't far, but she still felt wary and every movement, be it a flying piece of paper of a stray cat, made her jump.

It was an exhilarating feeling to have the wind around her. The streets were empty, the city felt deserted, but she thrived in the fresh air and the rays of sun. The hotel stood close to the Seine and she turned once she passed the bridge. So far so good.

She didn't encounter any akuma on her way and parked right outside the Grand Hotel. The front of the hotel was empty and the turning had been turned off, but one of the staff members saw her and opened a side door with his keys. She thanked him profusely.

"Thank you, Mademoiselle. Miss Chloé will be most pleased, she is hosting an afternoon tea in her parlour with some of the guests. I will ensure that Mademoiselle transfers the sum to the bakery this evening."

Marinette raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Chloé had been entertaining herself with guests ever since the akuma had first appeared. Marinette only knew because her mother had spoken to some of the staff members during her deliveries and had heard several interesting stories on how the upper class entertained themselves. She could not comment, not when Chloé saved her parents from bankruptcy.

"Tell Chloé my parents are grateful for her generosity." She murmured. The words felt slightly like sandpaper in her throat, but she had to set her dislike for the blond aside. Instead she waved and walked out the door. She could hear the man lock the door once more as she got on her moped and drove straight home.

She hoped that the journey home would be just as quiet, but two turns and two corners later she had to stop and hide behind a large sign. A group of people, all dressed in black jackets with purple butterfly prints on their back, stood some distance away from her and they seemed to circle something or possibly someone. She recognised them by the symbol on their backs. The purple butterfly was Hawkmoth's symbol.

Most Parisians feared the akuma and Hawkmoth, but there was a select group of people who idolized him. Rumours said they would force people out on the streets, just to become akumatised. She had never seen them up close before, but she guessed it was one of their members that had smashed the window of her parent's bakery.

The followers of hawkmoth were even worse than the akumas, at least the akumas had not chosen to do what they did. She stayed hidden. From the distance it was impossible to hear what they were saying, but she saw it. They had dragged yet another poor soul from his hiding. An elderly man lay on the ground and his hands seemed to reach out toward her, though he probably had no idea that he had a witness for this whole ordeal. She couldn't watch. That old man could easily have been her own grandfather.

What could she do? It hit her. She revved the engine of her moped and drove forward. "Hey you cowards!" she shouted. It worked. The group turned and forgot about the old man at their feet. One of the followers spoke to another, then pointed at someone in the back that she had not seen.

Her eyes widened when she saw that two of the figures were not human. One had horns and the other looked like a mix between a horse and a man. Both were probably akumatised people who without better knowledge had been dragged to go with Hawkmoth's followers as they struck chaos. She drove off, cursing her mouth and her sudden spur of courage. She may have saved someone, but now she was the one who was chased.

The hoofed man thundered after her. She tried to dodge him into smaller streets and by making sudden turns, but he was fast and practically breathing down her neck. She sped toward Trocadero Park, hoping to find someplace to hide, raced down Avenue du New York and prayed there would be someplace she could lose him. Suddenly he jumped and blocked her path. Marinette had to turn her moped quickly and with her speed the moped lurched and she fell over. Her elbow hit the ground hard. The akumatised horseman hovered over her. With the Eiffel tower in the back he looked like a Greek centaur, guarding a large tower in the distance. Marinette had two options, either to try to get to the river and swim away or get captured. She tried her first option, but only got halfway before the monster caught her. She squirmed. He squeezed her hard.

"Help!" she screamed, but no one but Hawkmoth's followers heard her, who had just caught up to the scene and were laughing. One of them held out a black butterfly and she screamed even louder. She did not want to turn into a monster.

A sudden movement came from her left and the monster howled in pain and dropped her suddenly. Marinette fell and clutched her injured arm close.

The monster groaned as it was thrown away from her and a dark figure jumped between her and her attacker. She turned slowly, to see the back of a young man in a dark suit. He had blond hair that looked unkept and on the top of his head were two black ears.

She gasped. Out of nowhere Chat Noir had appeared to save her. He had used a metal baton, which seemed to be able to extend on his command, to knock the monster away from her. He turned to her, pointed her to hide behind some bushes, before running in to face Hawkmoth's followers.

Her heart beat fast and hard, but she obeyed and hid behind a tree. She witnessed as Chat Noir swung his baton, like a Chinese martial arts master from one of those movies her father liked to watch from time to time. He knocked over two of the followers in one swing. A third ran at him, but he easily dodged it and punched the akuma with horns. He grabbed onto his horns, used them to gain some leverage and kicked the person behind him. By now the centaur monster was back on his hooves and tried to ram him, but he used his baton once more to fly himself to the air.

"Cataclysm!" he shouted and when he landed and hit the ground with his clawed hand. The bank of the road collapsed into the river. Marinette shrieked in surprise and clasped her hand over her mouth. Luckily, Hawkmoth's followers were too busy keeping themselves afloat to care. Chat watched them, before he hurried over to her side.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "It is too dangerous to be out here in the open. Where do you live?"

12 Rue Gotlib, 21st arrondissement," she said softly, slightly starstruck to see Chat Noir this close. He smiled at her.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Marinette, Marinette Dupain Cheng."

"Very well, Miss Dupain Cheng. I am sure you will be okay. Did the akuma hurt you in any way?"

Marinette grimaced. "I hit my arm when I fell. It kind of hurts."

"Say no more." Chat Noir said with a smile and took out a bandage from where he had fastened his baton. "I always carry bandages with me nowadays for situations like this. That monster, he doesn't really care if people get hurt. Hold out your arm, I will wrap it for you."

He did, both swiftly and without hesitation. He left to ends of the bandage, which he used to tie her arm around her back to a sling. Despite his confident movements his hands were careful, and he moved with care. Maybe it was the lack of having people around her, but she felt very comfortable in his presence.

"Chat, I cannot drive home like this. My moped, I can't steer with one arm."

To her surprise, he chuckled.

"I don't think this is a good time for romantic strolls, but if it means so much to you then I can retrieve it for you later. Right now we need to return you home." He said and gently lifted her bridal style. She shrieked, which made him laugh harder. With one graceful jump they left the half-destroyed road and soared above the greeneries of the park. Marinette groaned. She wasn't a fan of flying. She kept her eyes on him, noticing details no camera seemed to have caught yet. She couldn't help but to gaze into his eyes and how they seemed to shine. It wasn't emeralds, which many girls liked to comment on forums of his videos, it was more like serpentine. Her mother used stones sometimes when she meditated. Serpentines stood for healing and helped the mind clear to allow itself to heal. In many ways she felt his eyes did that for her, now that the danger was behind them, she felt herself relax in his arms. She felt safe and she could feel the muscles of his arms as he minutes later set her down right outside the bakery. His hold on her had been gentle and as she found herself back on the ground, she couldn't help but to keep staring in his eyes.

"Well, I guess this is where I'll leave you. Stay out of trouble, my lady." He said with a smile, before he jumped once more and disappeared behind the rooftops.

The door to the bakery opened with a slam and her parents ran out to hug her, both were crying as they had seen her arrive with Chat Noir, with her arm in a sling. But despite their fuss and her father blaming himself for her getting injured she hadn't felt this good in forever.

A fresh wind blew from the south and caught her hair. She smiled. She hoped that she would see him again.

Welcome all you wonderful people, this is a new instalment on my journey of writing Miraculous stories. I hope you enjoyed, please take a few minutes to write a comment or perhaps even a suggestion. Thank you for you time and stay safe!