OMG SORRY FOR BEING SO LATE. I had exams the past weeks and I had to study, I'm so sorry! I wanted to update earlier, but I wrote like 3 one-shots halfway and gave up on them because of writer's block. I finally managed to write this. It's not very good, but hopefully you'll like it! Also, sorry that it's rather short!

AU: Childhood Meeting

Pairing: Adrinette (again, I know)

Summary: All is the same… Well, not really. It doesn't start with a gum on a chair. Instead, it starts with a little boy who met a friend in the park.

Note: Let's pretend that Adrien's mother died when he was nine or something for the sake of this story. He's nine at first.


Adrien pulled up his legs to the bench he was sitting on, wrapping his arms around his legs to pull them to his chest. For a long while, he sat there, burying his face into his knees as he recalled how his father had snapped, how he had yelled at Adrien in a way he had not done in a long, long time, saying bad words that he was not supposed to say. He'd run from his father then, evading the Gorilla's attempts at trying to catch him, and had run until he was out of breath (which was very quickly).

He'd ended up at an unfamiliar park, nowhere he had been before, but in that moment, he hadn't cared. He'd pulled himself up onto one of the benches and had sat there for a long time, watching adults and children alike walking and laughing in the park. Even now, he sat there as the sun set, turning the sky was a pretty orange.

In front of him, a man, a woman and a small boy like him walked past. He watched, his heart and stomach twisting strangely as the older man picked up the boy, who shrieked with laughter when he got spun him around. The man was laughing, too, and the woman was also smiling, gazing at the two happily.

Jealous. He was jealous. He remembered the times when his father had done that (or something similar to that, anyway – his father rarely showed affection), and when his mother had stood by, looking at them with love.

He remembered when his family was whole, not perfect, but whole. The family in front of him walked away, still laughing, and he felt something wet in his eyes.

He scrubbed at his eyes furiously. He would not cry.

But he did anyway, as tears flooded from his eyes like a waterfall. He buried his face in his knees he couldn't let others see him cry, he was strong and father said that boys shouldn't cry and let out a sob.

"Um… are you alright?" Adrien jolted at the voice, realizing that while he'd been crying, a pretty girl his age had sat next to him. Her big blue eyes looked at him with concern.

He noted that her eyes looked like the sky when the sun was up.

"Yes." He said, trying to sound as tough as possible (and failing). He turned his head away to hide any evidence of him crying.

The, a hand was on his shoulder, and he peeked back to see that the blue-eyed girl had hesitantly reached out.

"You can tell me," she said shyly, looking down, "My parents told me to always help a person who is sad."

"My mother died," he admitted, hating how weak he felt, "several days ago. And my father… he just yelled at me. He's never done that before."

Suddenly, the girl had wrapped her arms around him, and he gasped slightly. A moment later, she stepped back, smiling softly.

"My mom says that hugs make people feel better," she told him in that soft voice. Her voice was pretty, like her eyes. "Did it make you feel better?"

"It did," he told her, "Really. Thank you."

She beamed, and the smile lit up her face, "You're welcome!"

"Thank you a lot," he told her again, giving her a smile, "I feel happier. What's your name?"

"Marinette." Her eyes sparkled happily, "What about you?"

"Your name is pretty, like you. My name is Adrien."

She squeaked cutely, but responded, "Your name is pretty, too!"

"Adrien!" a deep voice called out, and he flinched. The Gorilla rarely ever spoke, and when he did, it was always when something important had happened. This time, he was probably the important thing

"I have to go." He told Marinette, standing up. She followed, glancing to where the Gorilla was walking towards them.

"Will you ever… Will I see you again?" she asked shyly, tugging at her pigtails.

"I-," the Gorilla was coming closer, "I'll come here next week," he decided, "At the same time. Let's meet then!"

She grinned, stepping forward and giving him another hug, "Okay, I'll see you then!"

As the Gorilla pulled him away, all he could see was the pretty blue-eyes girl with the cute pigtails, and though he knew his father would be very angry at him, somehow, this girl made him relax.


The following week, Marinette brought him cookies.

The week after, he took chocolate from his kitchen and gave them to her.

The week after that, he nicknamed her 'Princess', because she was pretty just like one, and she had giggled and called him her knight.

In the weeks after, they met again and again in the same place, at the same time, and Adrien was so glad that he had made a friend. Her delicious cookies were a bonus.

A friend.

He liked the sound of that.


She stopped coming after 6 months. He waited, but she never showed up.

Had he done something wrong?


Adrien Agreste stood under the steps, looking up at the huge building in front of him. It truly dawned on him that, finally, he could go to school. He could have some social interaction outside of modeling and he could finally make friends.

At the thought of friends, a slightly distant memory drifted to the front of Adrien's mind. He pushed it down. Now was not the time be nostalgic. It was time for school.

Schooling his nerves (ha! He made a pun!), he adjusted the strap of his bag, headed up the steps and entered the doors.


Chloe laughed and spat out a piece of gum which she had been chewing, and stuck it onto the seat from across the aisle.

"Chloe, what the hell?" he demanded, glaring at her.

She scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "Don't mind it, Adrien. That girl deserves it."

"Chloe, that's wrong," he told her firmly, and stood up to face her, "Remove the gum."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Don't be like that, Adrien." With that, she walked past him and sat behind him. Huffing, Adrien walked over to the seat and bent down, trying to remove the gum. He cringed when he felt the disgusting stickiness on his finger, but ignored it and continued removing it, bit by bit.

"What do you think you're doing?" someone demanded and Adrien sprang up, looking towards the speaker. Angry blue eyes met his, and a petite girl stood before him, her hands on her hips and her expression furious. She stepped forward and jabbed a furious finger to his chest. "Why the hell are you putting gum on my seat?"

He tried to respond, but he found himself captivated by her eyes, unable to form a word. Those sapphire eyes… Where had he seen them before? Why did they seem so familiar?

A flash of realization came over him. Of course. Blue eyes and pigtails and fair skin – who else could it be?

At the same time he came to this revelation, her eyes widened as well, and she took a step back. Her eyes searched his, and in them he saw the same flash of recognition he'd gotten just a moment earlier.

Her hands flew to cover the squeal that came out of her mouth, "Adrien?"

He just blinked at her, too shocked to say anything. Marinette?

"I -" she shook her head, "Why did you put gum on my seat?" There was no real anger behind that question, unlike before –it was just a simple, stunned question.

Snap out of it, Adrien. "I–I didn't put gum on your seat," he told her, pushing down his shock. He glared at Chloe, who had a smug expression on her face. "Chloe did. I was only trying to remove it."

"I –oh," She mumbled, glancing down at her seat, "Th –thanks, I guess."

"Anytime," he replied, slightly shakily, as he backed away slightly to let her pass to her seat. Marinette took out a piece of tissue to cover the gum, and sat down, her auburn-headed friend next to her.

She didn'tt look at him once.

Trying to smother his disappointment, he returned to his own seat just as the teacher came in.

She probably doesn't want to talk to me. Probably why she stopped coming to the park all those years ago. Who would even want to be friends with a spoiled rich kid?


Marinette ignored him the next day. When he came into the classroom, he was surprised to find Marinette sitting behind him, in Chloe's original seat, and Chloe sat where she had stuck gum onto the day before.

He smiled inwardly, knowing that the fierce, stubborn Marinette had probably gotten Chloe back at what she had done the previous day.

As he walked to his seat, he tried to make eye contact with Marinette, but she studiously avoided his gaze, looking down to doodle in her notebook.

His heart plummeted.

So it's going to be like that from now on, huh? You'll ignore me for some reason I don't know of, even though we'd been great friends several years ago.

The day passed in a blur. Public school was much more interesting than home-schooling. At the end of the day, as he got ready to leave, he was surprised to find that he was rather sad to leave school. Sure, some teachers were boring, but the atmosphere there was much better than that of the mansion's. He looked out the window and grimaced. Great. It was raining.

Grabbing his umbrella, he headed to the entrance of the school, and stopped in slight surprise.

Marinette stood at the doors, her back facing him. She didn't have an umbrella with her, and Adrien watched for a moment before walking forward.

He stepped up next to her. "Hey," he greeted. She jumped slightly, turning her head to glance at him.

"H-hey, Adrien," She uttered softly before returning her gaze to the ground. He was silent for a moment.

"Did I –did I do something wrong?" he asked, speaking a bit louder to be heard over the rain. She glanced up, surprise filling her blue gaze, and he continued, "I'm really sorry for the gum, you know. Really, Chloe did it."

"I know," she returned. "I'm really sorry for making you feel that way. I know you wouldn't do something like that."

"Why did you stop coming all those years ago?" he dared to ask. She looked down, and he swallowed, his voice apologetic, "You don't have to tell me. I was just asking."

"I moved away." She told him, eyes still fixed on the ground, "Too far from the park to go there myself to meet you. I'm really sorry I didn't tell you."

"Oh." So that was why. "I understand."

"I –I really shouldn't have left you like that," she rambled, "Did I make you feel like a bad friend? I'm so, so sorry, you were –are a really good friend and I'm sorry if I made you feel like I hate you, because I don't and -" she broke off. "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

He chuckled, and she flushed, "Yeah. It's cute, though." He added without thinking. It was only when her face flushed bright red when he realised what he had said, and he flushed as well, "S –sorry!"

"I -," she stuttered, her cheeks still dusted a faint pink, "I really am sorry for what happened all those years ago. Can we – can we be friends again?"

And when she looked at him like that, with those huge sapphire eyes and that sweet smile, he melted. "Of course!" He hoped he didn't sound over-enthusiastic. "I'd love to be your friend again, Marinette."

The smile she gave him could've lit up the whole world and he had to remind himself that there was something else in this world other than her smile and blueblueblueblueblue –

A car honked, and he glanced down, startled, to see that his silver limo had already pulled up. He looked back to Marinette. "I have to go," he told her, then added, "Princess."

"You remember," She murmured, smiling, "Well, see you tomorrow!"

He opened his umbrella, and then it struck him that Marinette had no way to leave the school without getting soaked. Turning back, he made a split second decision and extended his umbrella to her, leaving himself out in the rain.

She blinked at him in shock, and he smiled back at her, his arm still extended. For a moment, it felt like they were suspended in time, their eyes locked, green onto blue. Then, the trance was broken as she slowly reached out and curled her fingers around the umbrella, taking it from him.

Just then, the umbrella snapped shut, closing on her face. Unable to help himself, a jolt of laughter burst from Adrien, and he found himself laughing, a genuine laugh, something he had not done in years.

Marinette peeked out from under the umbrella, blue eyes wide, and let out a soft laugh. It was then that he decided that he would do anything to hear her laugh again.

"See you tomorrow, Marinette," The rain poured onto him and he could feel himself getting gradually soaked, but he decided that hearing Marinette's laugh was totally worth it. Leaning forward, he gave her a kiss on the cheek, and before she could see his blush, he turned around and darted to the car, soaked to the bone.

Pausing at the bottom steps, he turned back, seeing Marinette frozen, still staring at him with her blue eyes wide.

"See you tomorrow," she called out, but Adrien could hear a slight squeak in her voice. He smiled at her one last time before sliding into the limo, closing the door behind him.

He watched her as the car pulled away, staring until he couldn't see her.

He slid down his seat, ignoring Nathalie's berating about giving his umbrella to someone and getting himself wet, and allowed his thoughts to drift to Marinette, her eyes, her laugh, her smile…

Oh god. He was in deep.


Hey readers! Again, I'm really sorry for the late update! I don't have any homework or tests the next few weeks, so expect more frequent updates! How was this? I hope you enjoyed it! It's a bit short, but oh well. What AU do you want next time? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

See you next time, my lovelies!

~stephanie