Another quiet night had passed by the city of Paris. Totally devoid of any and all disturbance, time passed the city peacefully. It was late, reaching roughly 11PM. Streetlamps and the late-hour shops lit up the city, and gave the night time travelers enough light to see where they were going. Even late at night, Paris was a fairly active city, with tourists and teenagers going out and enjoying themselves. A few cars drove on despite the late time, many of them taxi's, with people so eager to get places that they didn't care for the ridiculously expensive cost of the service. Small groups of people cluttered the busier parts of the city, like nightclubs, bars, takeout stores, and various other food and entertainment places.
It wasn't a sight Adrien Agreste was unused to.
The young blond teenager walked along the streets, his hands firmly in his jackets pocket, keeping to the side, so he didn't get in anyone's way. When it looked like he was going to walk into someone, he quickly moved to the other side of the pavement, allowing the other person clear passage. He didn't normally find himself in these sorts of places at night. Doing so was a rarity for him.
He had been unfortunate enough to run out of time before his transformation had worn off, after having pushed his luck with how much longer he had had left. Frantically, he had ducked into an alleyway hidden from sight quickly before anyone noticed him transforming from the famous Chat Noir, superhero, defender of Paris and partner of Ladybug, to the equally famous, yet less impressive all around, Adrien Agreste, handsome model for his father's fashion company. In the darker night time, he was less recognizable, otherwise he would have certainly been approached by someone who knew him.
"Adrien." The teenager heard a voice come from inside his jacket. Poking out from the neck hole in his jacket, was a small, cat like creature. A Kwami, called Plagg, Adrien's partner in becoming Chat Noir. He had met the tiny creature one day after finding his ring, his miraculous, placed on his table randomly, for no reason. The two of them merged, and Adrien became Chat Noir, and begun fighting alongside Ladybug as an applauded hero.
"What is it, Plagg?" Adrien asked, quickly checking around him to make sure nobody was around. They were in the clear, so he could talk to his tiny companion.
"I'm hungry. I need Camembert." While the tiny creature did need the substance to replenish his energy, Plagg often ate merely for pleasure. due to a lack of any sort of activity, Plagg didn't need to regain any energy. He was just a bit hungry. Like he always was.
"Do you ever think about anything other than Camembert?" Adrien sighed in somewhat amused, but mostly annoyed, exasperation.
"I think about Cheddar, and Brie sometimes." The gluttonous, charcoal black Kwami responded, dreamily licking his lips after making himself hungry and wanting a cheese buffet. "Occasionally Mozzarella."
"Of course." Adrien muttered to himself. His Kwami never thought about anything but food. In some ways, Adrien was jealous of his magical partner's one-track-simple-minded personality. "It must be nice to be so carefree, huh Plagg?"
After a quick look at Adrien in confusion, the Kwami caught on. "Oh, I see." The cat Kwami said with a smug smile on his face, levitating out of his masters jacket and just in front of his face. "You're thinking about your rejection by Ladybug again, aren't you? What's that make this, the forty-seventh time in a row?"
"Forty-ninth, actually." The model admitted with a depressed sigh.
It wasn't something he was particularly secretive about, but he did sometimes wonder, did Ladybug actually know, or did she choose to ignore it?
He had a not-so-secret crush on Ladybug. The partner he helped fight crime with alongside. He had been infatuated with her not long after he had met her, completely captivated by her strength, her determination, the confidence she displayed, her cool, calm, collected demeanor, her total dedication too helping protect the innocent people in Paris from an Akuma attacks caused by the villain Hawkmoth. Her stubbornness to do the right thing, and her defiance, and refusal to ever give up, no matter the circumstances, or no matter the odds against her. Underlying all of that, however, was a sweet, kind girl, gentle as any other person on the planet, with a soft side to her. She wasn't just a fighting machine, she was a person underneath all of that. A person who chose to go out of her way to help defend the people of Paris from danger, with no reward to herself. A truly selfless, courageous person.
Not to mention, she was damn cute on top of all that.
She was, in a sense, everything Adrien wanted to be himself. Everything he failed at, she was, so easily, and effortlessly. He had become totally infatuated with her in no time. He had begun to look forward to seeing her every day, and it quickly became the highlight of his day in no time at all. He loved becoming Chat Noir, not only for the freedom it gave him from his home, but for the chance it gave him to see Ladybug, his lady, the girl he had completely devoted himself to. He had dropped as many hints towards his feelings for her every time he saw her roughly equivalent to how many rain drops fell in a thunderstorm.
And she seemed to shoot down Chat every time, never outright rejecting him, but always seeming to make it rather clear she wasn't interested in him. Time and time again he had tried to make his feelings for her as clear as day. He had tried to bluntly confess to her once, but an Akuma attack had prevented him from being able to say what he had wanted to say. Despite that setback, he had made no secret about his feelings for the girl who ran around Paris with him in a red and black polka-dotted jumpsuit, helping to fight Akuma and defend their city, but not once had they seemed to stick with her.
The one downside to loving Ladybug.
She didn't seem to like him back.
Adrien loved Ladybug.
Of that he was absolutely certain. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that he loved her. How he longed to know who she was behind that mask. It didn't matter who she was, what she looked like, or what the relationship between them was in the real world. He loved that girl underneath that mask. He was willing to let her know who he was. He trusted her without question or condition. He had once offered to show her, simply to prove this fact to her. But she wanted their identities to remain a secret, even from one another. She said it would keep them more secure, and while Adrien hated that, he respected her wishes, and to this day, had kept his identity a secret, even from her, and did not pry as to hers. She would tell him when she was ready.
If she was ever ready.
"I'll get you something to eat when we get back home, Plagg. You'll just have to hold on until then." Adrien informed his partner, following the empty streets towards his home. He lived very close to the Eiffel Tower, so it wasn't exactly difficult to remember his way home, despite having never gone this way back to his family mansion before, at last not at the street level. He'd probably made his way home via this route a few times across the rooftops as Chat Noir, but he didn't recognize this specific specific neighborhood. He was thankful that he lived so close to the biggest landmark in all of Paris. It meant he always knew which way home was.
"But that could take hours!" The magical creature dramatically cried.
"It'll take us twenty minutes."
"This is your fault." Plagg muttered. "You spend way too much of your time flirting with Ladybug, and not enough time focused on how much time you have left as Chat Noir."
"I'm in love. What do you want from me?"
"I want Camembert!"
"Oh shut it, Plagg. You're like a broken record sometimes." Adrien joked, flicking his magical partner lightly in the forehead. The two of them bickered, but it was never outright hostile. It was just the way the two of them worked. They did care for one another in reality.
"'Oh, Ladybug, my beautiful lady!'" Plagg mimicked, overly dramatically reenacting Chat Noir's previous movements, even down to the finest detail, including his rapidly blinking three times. He added on with a snicker, "'Oh how purr-fect you look tonight, m'lady'. Sound familiar, kid?"
The two kept on going like this, back and forth, until they reached the Agreste manor. Adrien never used the front door this late at night, as it would be absolute hell on Earth if his father managed to spot him sneaking back into the house this late at night. There would be hell to pay if that happened. Oh, how he would be grounded... Instead, he always, while remaining stuck to the shadows to avoid being seen, he made his way towards his room, and sneaked in through one of the many windows, which he always kept wide open for his return. After clambering inside, he quietly shut the large entry-point, and let out a sigh of relief. Another day, and another transformation which his father didn't notice he had ever left.
"Hahhh... Another night time patrol... Another peaceful night..." Weird. Usually Hawkmoth would have sent out an Akuma by now. It had been maybe three or four days since the last one. Perhaps Hawkmoth was attempting a different strategy. Maybe he was planning something big. Maybe he was just waiting for the right moment. Who knew?
"Adrien. Camembert. Now. I haven't eaten in the last three hours, I'm dying here!" Plagg complained, as Adrien knew he would. Plagg liked to act over dramatically, especially when he was hungry.
"You know where we keep it... Just go grab it. Just make sure nobody sees you." In truth, Adrien was too tired to even go and grab it himself. He just wanted to lay down in bed and lull into a deep, comfortable sleep. Today was Saturday, meaning tomorrow was his one day off throughout the week. He could afford to lay in for one day.
"You got it!"Plagg agreed, and like a bullet, he was gone, shooting through the wall with his power of intangibility, and Adrien suddenly found himself alone in his room once again. Adrien couldn't help but chuckle at the enthusiasm his Kwami showed for eating various kinds of cheese. If only he showed the same sort of enthusiasm for other things, such as actually being Chat Noir, and helping his partner fight against criminal activities. The blond haired, green eyed hero was certain that Plagg would spend all day eating cheese should the option be presented to him.
He lazily and quickly changed into his sleepwear, which were basically a more comfortable, thin white sleeping vest and shorts. He casually tossed his previously worn clothes aside, letting them fall on the floor with total disregard for where they landed. He was too sleepy to take a shower. He'd do that in the morning, he decided. The model in him could wait until the sunrise. Tossing himself onto his king sized bed, he sighed to himself. He often found himself thinking when he was about to fall asleep.
Was there a reason Ladybug didn't like Chat? Was it because of the way he acted? He was the first to admit, in his Chat Noir persona, he was a lot more energetic, and far more wild than his more tamed, shy and reserved Adrien Agreste persona. He was confident as chat, full of confidence, that bordered on arrogance, but never reached that point, as he always knew when he was in over his head and when he needed to fall back to plan a different strategy with his lady.
Was it his constant flirting with her? He hoped it wasn't. It was one of the few, verbal ways in which he could show any affection towards the girl.
Was it his puns? God forbid it was his puns. He absolutely loved his puns.
Maybe... He just wasn't her type.
Maybe... She already liked someone else.
"I guess that's always possible..." Adrien thought sadly to himself. He often forgot that she had her own life outside of being Ladybug. It was easy to forget that. He only ever saw her as Ladybug, as a cute girl behind a mask. Ladybug herself had also confessed she forgot that Chat Noir had a life outside of Chat Noir. When you only see half of someone, it's hard to remind yourself that's only half of who they are.
Adrien didn't like to think about that, but it was always a possibility that Ladybug already loved someone else as her civilian form. Maybe she already had a boyfriend.
Despite that, he refused to simply just give up on Ladybug like that. He really cared about Ladybug. He loved her.
He was certain they were...
Soulmates.
No sooner had that word crossed Adrien's mind, than his miraculous, his silver ring, began to glow. This caught Adrien's attention instantly, and he sat upright quickly, staring at the glowing object. The ring emitted a pale green color, becoming brighter, and then dimmer, and then lighter, and then dimmer again. even when held at arms length, the light was very bright for the young teenage wielder, whom had to shield his eyes with his other hand.
"What the?..."
This had never happened before.
"What the hell is happening with this thing?!"
He had no idea what was going on.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of white light, which temporarily blinded Adrien with it's intensity and sudden occurrence. Adrien hadn't expected it in the slightest, despite the color brightening and dimming. He blinked hard several times, trying to regain his sight. Despite being blinded by the white light, he knew it was only temporary, like turning on a phone on maximum brightness after waking up in the middle of the night, but it had certainly stung his exhausted eyes.
Once he had regained his vision, he found that his miraculous was emitting a straight beam of light, which had hit his wall, like a holographic image, being sent to his ring via some sort of magical messaging system. The symbol in front of him was alchemist in nature, a transmutation circle, which he only recognized due to them being prevalent in a show he watched. The circle, and the symbols inside it, were a bright green color, the same as his eyes were. The circle did not remain stationary, and began to move, with various symbols moving and rearranging themselves. It took the bewildered young man a short time to realize that these were not randomly generated symbols, but rather, they were forming a message, written in basic modern day English.
"What the hell?..." Adrien asked, bewildered for a moment, before reading aloud the message.
It was a poem. He read it aloud.
"A soul linked, near and afar,
She loves you simply for who you are.
Behind a mask her truth may lie,
But other times, she is clear as the sky.
You know not her face, only as half,
She knows you, via photograph."
He raised an eyebrow at this poem in front of him, emitted by his own miraculous. He glanced at the ring, then back at the wall, and then back at the ring again, this time, he tapped it with a finger from his free hand, like he was testing to see if the battery still worked inside a flashlight. Nothing changed, just like he had expected. The poem remained on his wall, clear as the daylight. Quietly, Adrien repeated the message to himself again. "What even is this?..."
"This... Is something I didn't expect to see so soon with you, kid."
Adrien turned his head to his right, and saw his Kwami, with his cheeks stuffed with the expensive cheese substance. His eyes were also focused on the image on the wall, but was far more serious than the creature's normal personality would normally entail. He had arrived so quietly, Adrien hadn't noticed him until he had shown up. "Plagg? You know what this is?"
"It's your miraculous' Soul Link." The creature said, hovering in front of the hologram, seeming to be reading it closer. "This is weird. Normally this doesn't activate until it's been with the wielder for a few years."
"Soul Link?" Adrien repeated with a curious tone to his voice. "Plagg, what are you talking about?"
"Might wanna sit down for this one, kid." Plagg informed his master. "This might come as a bit of a surprise to you."
"Plagg?"
"You know that human concept of a Soul Mate?"
"Yeah?"
"Well... It's accurate."
That had come as a surprise to Adrien, like Plagg had predicted. He looked back at the message on the wall, being emitted from his ring, reading it again and again. "You mean I have a Soul Mate?"
"Everyone does." Plagg said. "It's... Sort of complicated to explain. Basically, for every person you know, you have a connection. Like, let's say Nino." Nino. Adrien's closest friend at school, and probably his closest friend, full stop. "You and him share a friendship link. Now let's use Nathaniel. You know him, but you're not exactly friends with him, but you're not enemies either. You have more of a neutral link with him."
"Okay... So, the Soul Link?..."
"That's... Tricky." Plagg knew the exact circumstances he had found himself in. He had witnessed them thousands of times before throughout the course of history. He knew about the connection the wielders of the cat and ladybug miraculouses held. They were always Soul Mates. That was how it had to be.
Whenever they weren't, it always ended in clashes between the two, bordering into outright hostility.
Plagg wasn't allowed to reveal who Adrien's Soul Mate was. Even if he knew. All he knew was that it was Ladybug, whoever that was. It was against the rules for Plagg, or any Kwami, to tell their master who their Soul Mate was. They had to allow things to happen as they were meant to.
"It's basically a connection that's made from birth." Plagg explained. "Each person has one Soul Link, and that's joined to one other person. It's not really a literal thing. More a connection between souls." That was as basic an explanation as Plagg could give. "For miraculous holders... Your ring will give you hints and glimpses as to who your soul mate is if enough time passes. I haven't seen it activated in a long time, kid."
That wasn't even the tip of the iceberg, and Plagg knew it. But rules were rules. He wouldn't break them.
Adrien didn't sleep well that night. He had far too many things on his mind. The poem he had seen, that his ring had shown him, had faded not long after Plagg's explanation. the boy had written the poem down, and had studied it, over and over again, remembering it off by heart before the hour has passed. He now laid in bed alone, thinking about each and every line in the poem in detail.
"A soul linked, near and afar,
She loves you simply for who you are.
Behind a mask her truth may lie,
But other times, she is clear as the sky.
You know not her face, only as half,
She knows you, via photograph." He repeated the poem to himself again and again, quietly, just saying it to remind himself of each of the words used in the short message.
There were a lot of questions he wanted the answer to, that Plagg had said he was unable to give.
Why did the miraculous give him hints as to who his Soul Mate was?
Did a Soul Link mean that both halves would always become whole?
The more he thought, the more questions he needed answering, but he knew he wouldn't get them from the Kwami sleeping on his bedside table.
She knows you, via photograph. That didn't do much for Adrien. He was a model. A very famous one at that. Was there any Parisian who didn't know him from his photographs? That had to be one of the most useless parts of the poem.
A soul linked, near and afar, She loves you simply for who you are. That part sounded nice. It really did. It sounded absolutely brilliant to him. It brought a smile to his face and made his heart flutter. It implied that someone out there cared for him beyond his fame and appearance. Someone cared for him past the vanity and the shallowness of the average person.
Behind a mask her truth may lie, But other times, she is clear as the sky. You know not her face, only as half...
There wasn't a doubt in Adrien's mind at this point. It was Ladybug. He was certain of it. It had to be. who else did he know that wore a mask, who he only knew half of? There wasn't a doubt in his mind.
But at other times, she is clear as the sky...
"Do I know her outside of Chat Noir?..." He had always suspected as much, or rather, had prayed for as much. A smile suddenly formed from his lips. His lady was someone he knew? Someone he interacted with on a regular basis?...
His heart sunk again when he remembered. He had promised... He had promised her he wouldn't look for her.
But this was the miraculous talking. Surly he could explain?
Or was it even her? Was his soul linked to someone else? It couldn't be, right? He loved Ladybug. This only confirmed it...
"Urrrgh... Why does this have to be so complicated?..." He groaned, covering his eyes with his arms.
Would it be wrong to break his promise to Ladybug?
Would she forgive him if he did?
Would she forgive him if she knew it was him?
Did Soul Links always connect to one another?
Did they always work out?...
Adrien sighed. He knew that These questions may be answered in time... But he wasn't sure if he could wait that long. He rolled over and tried to fall asleep. "Good night, wherever you are, my lady, my soulmate..." He murmured, before allowing himself to fall into the void of darkness and unconsciousness, also known as sleep.
The first two or three chapters are gonna be helping to set the scene a bit more, but I hope you found this enjoyable guys! This is the start of our brand new story, so I hope you're as excited as I am ^_^
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I hope you enjoyed again, and as always, I'll see you in whatever it is, I do indeed, decide to write next. See ya!
