CHAPTER 8: Leaving It Up to Fate

Plagg words continued to haunt Adrien, weeks after their initial conversation about soulmates. It was highly possible that Marinette was the one, but he had to touch her as Chat Noir to know for sure. Just how was he supposed to do that? He once again asked Plagg for advice.

"Kid, you got to leave it up to fate. You can't force it."

So with a kwami pat on the cheek and a sigh, Adrien had resigned himself to simply not knowing, at least not anytime soon. The days slowly went by as he busied himself with his extracurriculars, hanging out with Nino, and his duties as Chat Noir. But despite the daily distractions, it was hard not to try and seek her out- even as Adrien. Marinette intrigued him, as he saw glimpses of her growing confidence and leadership interspersed throughout her stuttering interactions with him. He couldn't help but want to touch her again, if only to feel that powerful warmth flow through him.

But over time, a small grain of guilt had slowly made its way into his heart; he was still infatuated with Ladybug, but a part of him was pursuing Marinette because they could be soulmates. In fact, Plagg had said they were probably soulmates. He couldn't help but try to think of ways to touch Marinette as Chat Noir without it seeming weird, if only to know for sure. He hated being suddenly torn between the two girls, especially as he continued to get closer to Ladybug. While he and Ladybug didn't see each other too much outside of akuma attacks, he trusted her enough to reveal his identity to her- a subject he had brought up only just last week after they fought Lady Wifi. There was a deep-seated desire within him to truly know the girl behind the mask, no matter the danger- supposed or real. But for now, he knew he needed to respect his partner's boundaries.

Currently, he was in the school library- totally distracted by his thoughts, but trying to be productive nonetheless. His physics class had a new project and the teacher had allowed the students to go to the library to work and research for the period. Alya and Nino were his partners for the project; as a group they had decided to each find a few potential topics to do their project on before regrouping and deciding what to do together. At the moment, he was trying to search for a particular book he had found on the web-catalogue that described some of the more famous physics experiments.

"Ahh! My hair!" Startled by Chloe's shriek, he looked around the bookcase- only to see her being chased by a giant hair dryer! Akuma, Adrien concluded, his eyes narrowing in had certainly been due to strike; he hadn't seen his lady for at least five days!

Transforming, he and Ladybug- wait, how did she get here so fast?- quickly defeated the hairdryer, only for the akumatized person to get away. Seeing as the Evillustrator's creations had been targeting Chloe in the library, they agreed to focus their attention on protecting her. The akuma was bound to show up again.

But shortly after they arrived at Le Grand Paris, Chat could tell that something was off with Ladybug; she hadn't been her usual cheerful self in her interactions with Chloe. When she left him to protect Chloe on his own, he didn't know what to think. Was his lady annoyed with him? What was wrong with her?

Twenty minutes after she left, as he was pretending to work on Chloe's project for her, his baton rang. "You can't just fly out of here and then decide to make cat calls, Ladybug," he teased as he answered the call on the balcony.

"I'm sorry, that wasn't cool. But you can leave Chloe; I need you to protect this girl instead." A photo popped up on Chat's baton, and he gasped in recognition. "Her name is Marinette. Really cute, isn't she?" He couldn't help but agree with her, only to feel a surge of guilt run through him as Ladybug continued. "The Evillustrator is in love with her and promised not to harm Chloe as long as Marinette comes to his birthday party." Chat pushed Chloe away from him as she motioned to her physics project, trying to focus on the phone call. "While he's distracted, I want you to take him down."

"What about you?" Chat asked, ready to take her lead but still weary of her weird attitude from earlier.

"I'm going on a- a very important secret mission. I'll catch up with you later. Can you handle this alone?"

"Heh, please, it'll be a cinch!" Chat wasn't quite sure what Ladybug meant by "secret mission," but he was glad that she trusted him enough to protect Marinette on his own. He quickly hung up, informed an indignant Chloe that she was out of danger, and took off towards the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

On his way over, a sudden thought made him pause on the rooftops. Maybe this is my chance to touch Marinette as Chat and see if she's my soulmate… He leapt towards the next building with newfound vigor, a sense of giddy anticipation building up in his chest.

When he arrived, he saw that Marinette was talking with Sabrina outside the door to the upstairs apartment.

"I bet you expect me to do all the work like she did! Right?" Sabrina yelled.

Marinette was taken aback. "No- I don't really! It's just that-"

Sabrina swiped a folder from Marinette, her angry expression dropping as she turned away. "I can't believe I did your geography homework for you," she voiced, saddened.

Marinette outstretched her hand as Sabrina walked away, not knowing what to say. Chat deemed this the perfect- ahem, purrfect- time to drop in.

"Woah! I thought I was going to have to save you from that girl's claws!" He smirked. "Get it? Claws?" He waggled his claw-shaped hands in front of her.

"Hey, I haven't even introduced myself." He kneeled down and took her hand. On the inside his heart started beating a bit faster, but he fought to keep his suave exterior. "I'm Chat Noir."

He kissed the back of her hand with zeal, and subsequently felt a strong flash go through his body before she quickly pulled her hand away.

"Uh, yeah I know!" she exclaimed, looking both nervous and excited. "You kind of save the day all the time and stuff? I'm Marinette!" She waved a hand in the air with the introduction. "Um, what are you doing here?"

Chat pivoted and flexed his biceps. "Well, that birthday boy date of yours is bad news. But don't worry, you'll be safe with me." The part of Chat that was more reserved cringed at how he was showing off, but he decided to indulge the model in him. He felt the need to impress her, especially since she might be his soulmate.

"That puts my mind at ease," she said, sounding reassured.

He turned around and leaned a hand against the doorframe, getting a bit closer to her. "But I am going to need a bit of help. Care to assist a superhero?" He tilted his head on that last word, curious for her reaction.

"What about Ladybug? Aren't you a duo?" He saw the edges of a smirk appear on Marinette's face before she turned completely around. Were they… bantering?

"She's busy with something tonight," he informed her, briefly hoping that his lady was doing okay with whatever "secret mission" she was on. He promptly refocused on Marinette, a large part of him desiring to touch her again. "So, you get to be my Ladybug."

When Marinette turned around, she looked surprised, eyes and smile wide. "Me and Chat Noir- fighting crime together? Amazing!" Her hands briefly came up to her beaming cheeks. "What do I do?"

"Just get that drawing pencil away from him, little lady. I'll take care of the rest." And with that, he saluted her and bounded off again, deciding that another hand kiss would've been too much, no matter how much he wanted to do it.

After picking up the things he had left at the school when the akuma first arrived, he aimed for home, knowing that he had a few hours before he needed to suit up again. Landing in his bedroom and detransforming, he collapsed onto his bed.

"Cheese!" Plagg complained.

"We didn't even use cataclysm," Adrien scolded. At Plagg's look, he rolled his eyes and gestured over to his recently acquired mini fridge. "You know where it is. Get it yourself." Plagg scoffed, but phased into the fridge, only to come out with a whole wheel of camembert.

Adrien stared up at the ceiling and sighed as he replayed the last 30 minutes in his head, particularly his interaction with Marinette. He wasn't dreaming, right? He had actually touched her as Chat! And he had still felt that spark when touching her!

"Plagg." Adrien's words came out numbly, even though his mind was going a mile a minute.

"Wha?" The kwami's word was muffled by the giant piece of cheese currently residing in his mouth. A loud gulping sound could be heard as he swallowed.

"I touched Marinette as Chat Noir." A little bit of awe had crept into his voice, almost if he didn't believe it.

"Oh great, this again," Plagg muttered, before taking another bite of his camembert. "And?" he asked Adrien, chewing audibly.

"I- I felt that spark again. Marinette- she has to be my soulmate… right?" Adrien sounded a bit unsure and looked to Plagg for confirmation.

"Probably, kid. You'll know for sure when you become a black cat." Hope dared to bubble up in Adrien as a slow smile broke over his face. Plagg sighed; all this lovey-dovey stuff was making him lose his appetite! "Let's just hope you don't transform before fighting the akuma tonight," he grumbled.

Adrien, having heard Plagg, paled. What if he transformed before fighting Evillustrator? What if they changed into their soul animals during the fight? He had promised Ladybug he would protect Marinette, and now he had all the more reason to protect her if she was his soulmate! He had just put her in even more danger!

Seeing Adrien's expression, Plagg quickly intervened. "Jeez, kid, chill out. Miraculous holders tend to take longer to turn into their soul animals, so there's no need to worry. And you can't even transform into your soul animal if you're Chat Noir; the miraculous magic is too strong when I'm in the ring. So, c'mon. Sit back and relax. Enjoy some cheese." He held up his smelly triangle block, before gleefully stuffing his face with it.

Adrien scowled. "Plagg, you know I have a ton of stuff to do. I can't just sit around and relax! And I can't risk changing into my soul animal before the fight either. Plagg-"

Said kwami gasped in horror, only now realizing the consequence of his words. "No! My precious cheeeesee!"

"Claws out!"

A/N: Congrats to those of you who guessed that Dr. Marieur is indeed Dr. Matchmaker! When I was coming up with the name, I first looked up random French last names to see if any stuck, but then I wanted to see if I could make a pun out of it! And Marieur seemed like a cool last name to me, lol.

So, is Adrien going to change into his soul animal now, after the events of this chapter? Hmm... XD

*Edited 11/25/19*