'October 24th. Starting today Adrien will be absent for one week. Now that I think about it it's the 49th day since his mom died. It will be okay though the future has already been changing. I want to save them both Adrien and my future self.'
A month passed and one day it was raining and Adrien came in the classroom with a smile and soaked wet. "Good morning."
"Adrien?" Marinette asked surprised even though she was expecting this based on what the letter said.
"Where's your umbrella?!" Alya exclaimed.
"I didn't bring one, it was only drizzling when I left my house." Adrien replied.
"Not very smart." Nino stated.
Luka laughed. "You're one to talk Nino." Nino almost always forgets his umbrella at home just like that exact day he forgot too.
November 21st, it rained really hard in the morning but it cleared up in the afternoon. Adrien is soaked because he forgot his umbrella at home so I lend him a handkerchief. I wish I'd brought a bath towel with me.
"Here you can use this." Marinette told Adrien as she handed him a bath towel.
"No way thank you." Adrien said as he took it and dried himself.
"But Marinette where's mine?" Nino asked her playfully as he was wet too.
"Sorry I only brought one." Marinette replied.
"Wouldn't that have to be Alya's job, Nino?" Luka asked playfully.
"I have done it multiple times. If I do it everytime it rains, Nino will never learn his lesson to bring his umbrella." Alya replied.
"I doubt he'll ever learn." Luka stated chuckling.
"So if the rain clears up do you want to go to the park after school?" Adrien asked Marinette. "I won't have practice until the testing period is over."
Marinette nodded. "Cool okay.. Are you guys coming?"
"Nope sorry I can't today I have something else to do." Alya stated.
"I want to go home fast to play my guitar." Luka answered.
"I have to work on my mixes." Nino stated.
"It's just you two." Juleka finished.
'Wait this isn't like the letter. Why is it only us?'
The soccer team is on hiatus before finals. The six of us will finally be able to hang out at the park again.
"Is that okay with you Marinette?" Adrien asked her and she nodded with a slight blush.
After school instead of going to the park Marinette took Adrien to see the Elfie Tower since he hasn't seen it before. Once on top Adrien couldn't believe the view. "I can't believe that I can actually see the whole city of Paris from up here."
"Yea I know it's beautiful isn't it?" Marinette asked with a smile.
"Yes it's incredible." Adrien said amazed. "So beautiful."
"This is the best view you can find in Paris and of Paris." Marinette replied.
"Marinette close your eyes." Adrien suddenly said.
Marinette looked at him confused. "Why?"
"Just close your eyes." Adrien repeated. "And don't open them until I tell you too." Marinette closed her eyes even though she was still confused.
'What is this.'
She feels Adrien put something on her hair. "Can I open them now?"
"Yes." Adrien said taking a picture of her just as she opened her eyes.
"You took a picture of me?!" Marinette exclaimed embarrassed. "Why?"
"So you can see this." Adrien said showing her the picture and Marinette saw that she was wearing a ladybug hairpin. "Looks good on you. I got you a thank you gift. You make me lunch everyday and you wake me up too so thank you."
"But I haven't done anything special." Marinette replied. "You don't have to give me a gift, I don't deserve it."
"To me those things are special." Adrien stated. "Yea you haven't done those things when I was dating Kagami but that's understandable and you immediately started doing them again when I broke up with her so thank you again."
"You already got me a juice box as a thank you." Marinette stated.
"That doesn't count because you deserve way more than a juice box." Adrien replied with a smile.
Marinette blushed. "Thank you."
Adrien smiled at her. "You know the first day you made lunch for me my aunt Amelie felt bad about it so she offered to make lunch for me but I told her no. I wanted to keep eating the ones you made me. Sorry I know that it's selfish." Marinette shook her head no. "So… um are you free this weekend?" Adrien asked with a slight blush.
'Saturday Adrien invited me to study with him at the library. I thought it would be everyone so when I found out that it was just us I got nervous.'
That Saturday Marinette met up with Adrien at the library. Without them knowing someone saw them and they weren't happy about it.
'I made sure to make notes for Adrien while he was absent. I was afraid it might have been too much but when I gave them to him he was very appreciative and sweet as always. When Adrien died in future me past I can only imagine how awful it must have been. I don't ever want to experience that.'
December 4th. We got our tests back and Adrien got a perfect score on all of them.
"Adrien got top score on everything." Luka said amazed.
"How you weren't here half of the time." Alya added looking at Adrien tests.
"I was always good in school." Adrien replied while shrugging.
"Where did you go for tutoring?" Nino asked.
"The library with Marinette." Adrien replied. "Thanks for helping me study Marinette I really appreciate it."
Nino saw that Juleka and Alya were smiling. "What are you two smiling about? You guys got average scores on the tests."
"Don't worry about it." Alya replied with a giggle.
Since there was extra time the idea of time travel came up in class and that got Marinette thinking.
'Tikki says she's my guardian in following the letter but how did she get the letter? How did she find me? Is she from the future? Does she know the future me?'
"Do you really think there are parallel words?" Alya asked the group as they left the class when the bell rang.
"No way there are only one past and future." Nino replied.
"What if there were a bunch of different worlds though." Alya stated. "Even if you create a time machine it's not like you can fix the mistakes you made right?" Nino nodded. "Than why go back at all?"
'Now that I think about it, the context of the letter is matching up less and less to my current world. That's because the writer's past is changing but if the past has changed by sending that letter the future will change too so the context of the letter should change too. The context of the letter isn't changing though. Which means an entirely different past must exist!'
At that moment Marinette saw Tikki standing underneath a staircase so she snuck away from the group and walked to Tikki. "What are you doing here?"
"Today in your class the topic of time travel came up so your future self asked me on this day to come see you and explain everything." Tikki replied.
"Are you keeping her aware of what is going on so far?" Marinette asked her.
"No, I can't go to that future again until my mission here ends." Tikki replied. "That will be after the day Adrien dies or hopefully survives."
"That future?" Marinette asked.
"Yes, once you started changing the past you started creating a new future. The future self that gave you this letter is now from a different future." Tikki replied.
"So she has no idea of the changes of the past? All the regrets I did fix she still has them? Even if Adrien survives she won't see him again in her future?" Marinette asked.
"Yes her past is still the same, her regrets are still there and Adrien will still be dead in her current life." Tikki replied. "And she knows all of this."
"Than why did she sent me the letter if It wouldn't change my future?" Marinette asked.
Tikki sighs. "Look time traveling is complicated but here is the simple answer to that. Her past can't be changed because she already lived though it so the future she's from can't be altered but by sending the letter and you changing the past a new future was created meaning a new timeline so right now you can change the future that letter is from and your future as well as Adrien's future can change if you do what your previous self didn't do."
"But why write a letter that won't affect her?" Marinette asked still confused because Tikki's explanation didn't explain that doubt she had.
"You should know the answer to that and if you don't know that now than you will soon." With that Tikki left.
Marinette stood there as confused as ever… but she did have an idea of why she was sent that letter by her future self even though it wasn't going to affect her.
Luka walked over to her. "There you are Marinette… are you okay?"
Marinette didn't hear him she was too busy in her thoughts.
'No matter how much I change the past future me's world won't change. I will never be able to erase her regrets. And Adrien will… I can't save her Adrien either… I'm so sorry.'
'Just before Adrien passed away he sent me a text. It would end up as the last text he ever sent.'
Marinette I'm so sorry. I did something that angered you and I can't get it out of my mind. I know that it was wrong and that I hurt you. This is out of the blue but who did you give Valentine's day chocolate to? I guess I really don't expect an answer to that. Anyway I just wanted to apologize that's all. Thank you Marinette.
'I can't stop going over and over all the things that I regret… I replied to his text I wish I could know if he saw it.'
"Marinette are you okay?" Adrien asked Marinette. At that point the whole group was by her trying to get her attention.
Marinette blinked before looking at him then at the whole group. "Yea I'm okay sorry guys I was just thinking of something."
"Well are you ready to have lunch?" Adrien asked and she nodded.
The others had clubs they had to go to so it was just Adrien and Marinette for lunch that day. "I swear you make the best lunch ever." Adrien said as he was eating the lunch Marinette made for him. Marinette smiled and giggles.
After lunch we all talked about the cultural festival that was coming up as we walked back to the class. I told Adrien about last year cultural festival. Every year at the end of the cultural festival there are fireworks. Adrien whispers to me that we need to watch them just us two.
'Things are different between the letter and my present and now that promise about the cultural festival is gone.'
"Hey Marinette." Marinette looked at him. "If you could time travel would you choose to go to the past or future?"
"I don't know the future?" Marinette replied. "If there's nothing you can do to change the psst I would rather know the future than change the present. What about you?"
Adrien frowned. "The past… too many regrets. Even if I couldn't change the past it might make the burden essier. Seems better than carrying that pain for the rest of my life."
"You have regrets? I didn't realize…" Marinette mumbled.
Adrien smiled. "Thanks for lunch amazing as usual."
By changing the past you may have changed some good memories too if so I apologize. But there are parts of the past I don't want to change. For example my memory of the fireworks at the cultural festival. Don't erase that memory.
As they walked back to class Marinette looked at Adrien with a small blush. "So Adrien the cultural festival has fireworks at the end. Would you um… like to watch them with me."
Adrien smiled. "Good idea we can all go together."
Marinette blushed even more. "No I meant just us."
'I can't believe I just did that. There's a first time for everything right? Now all he needs to do is say yes.'
"I'll think about it." Adrien replied and Marinette nodded.
During the day of the cultural festival Adrien and Luka were walking to school together. "Do you mind if Marinette and I watch the fireworks?" Adrien asked Luka.
"Why ask me?" Luka asked back.
"Because you like her." Adrien replied. "We all noticed it except her obviously."
"I thought so Marinette is clueless sometimes but don't worry about me go watch the fireworks with her." Luka stated with a smile.
The group was in charge of making a postor for the events so they started talking about random things as they worked.
Once they were done Luka Juleka and Alya took the poster outside as Adrien Nino and Marinette started helping with the other decorations.
"You know that we're on Marinette's side so we can't exactly help you with her." Alya suddenly told Luka. "Sorry."
Luka smiled. "It's okay I'll be alright."
"Than you won't mind if Adrien and Marinette started dating?" Alya asked him with a stern look.
"Not at all, in fact I would be happy." Luka replied.
"That's good because we'll encourage them with everything we got." Alya stated.
Juleka felt bad for her brother she really did want to see him happy but she also wanted to see Marinette happy and right now it was obvious that she would be happier with Adrien than with Luka. Maybe if Adrien never moved to Paris things would be different. "You know if you say you'll help out we'll actually believe you mean that."
"Look I know that I don't have a chance with her and you forgot I'm also on Adrien and Marinette's side too." Luka replied.
Juleka nodded. "If you say so."
December 13, the cultural festival. Alya Juleka and I wore our matching mini skirts with leggings underneath. Even with leggings I felt embarrassed wearing them especially in front of Adrien.
"You know boys you haven't mention how we look with our matching skirts." Alya told the boys.
"You girls look pretty. You look just like sisters." Adrien stated as Nino and Luka nodded.
At that moment some girls walked over to Luka and dragged him away.
"There he goes being dragged away by his fans again. That's what you get when you're the best guitarist at school, a great soccer player and the son of Jagged Stone the famous rock star." Alya said with a giggle.
"I think the fact of who our dad is, is the main reason." Juleka replied with a soft smile.
With Luka taken away I was left replacing him for the stand he and Adrien were in charge of. I want you to notice all the times Luka was thoughtful to you.
'I already noticed them. Luka has looked out for me since the first day we met. He's always so kind to everyone in his own way but somewhere down the line I have taken that for granted.'
"By the way Marinette. Do you use that hairpin?" Adrien asked her.
"I'm afraid to accidentally break it especially since you gave it to me." Marinette replied.
Adrien nodded. "Okay."
'The truth is I brought it today. I wonder what Adrien will think? Well there's no better time to wear it than now. I got to take the first step. I'm tired of being too scared to do anything then regret it later.'
Marinette went to the bathroom and put the hairpin on before walking out. As she did Kagami stopped her. "Hey can I talk to you?" Marinette nodded. "I know you went to the library with Adrien the other day. What did you do?"
"Just studied." Marinette replied.
"Are you two dating now?" Kagami asked.
"No we're just good friends." Marinette replied.
"Really? Let me see that hairpin. I like it let me see." Kagami starts to reach out for it.
In a panic Marinette slapped her hand away. "No!" that left a small buise on her hand from the hard impact.
Luka was walking past when he saw what happened so he walked over to the two girls. "What's going on here?" Luka gives a stern look at Kagami before grabbing Marinette's hand and led her away.
"Sorry." Marinette mumbled.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." Luka replied. "Is your hand okay?" Marinette nodded.
Back than Luka seemed to really care about me. If you notice his kindness yourself. Please tell him thank you. I'm sure he'll be pleased.
Back with the group Luka dragged Adrien aside. "I'm sorry."
Adrien looked at him confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Take these." Luka simply said as he handed Adrien a box of bandages.
Marinette was with the girls when Adrien walked over to her. "Marinette do you have a second?"
Marinette nodded and before she knew it Adrien was putting bandages on her injury. "How did you know?"
"Luka told me than gave me these." Adrien replied.
"Don't tell her." Luka mumbled.
Marinette smiled and looked at Luka. "Thank you Luka for everything." Luka smiled back at her.
'The me of the future sent the letter knowing that her past could never be changed. Maybe nothing can be done to save my future self from her sadness and regret but I'm pretty sure she's finding a way to move forward anyway.'
Luka is the dear person who saved my heart