The two had been attacking each other for five minutes now, Adrien blatantly overpowering her. Her reflexes were the only thing keeping her alive, but she couldn't hold out forever. With a sharp, calculated twist, she kicked his sword out of his hand and placed her blade gently against his throat.

"There. I win."

He was still in shock that this puny little man had stolen his sword.

"Teach me. I want to be able to do that!"

…

"Sorry kid. I mean, what's the point in having a bodyguard if you're stronger than him? You'll easily surpass me with your physical size and strength (yeah right, like that's ever gonna happen) I don't wanna be a meatshield. Maybe after you fire me though."

"I see… Well, you cheated! That was a sword fight, not a kick fight! You're not allowed to kick!"

"Pfff, try telling that to your assasin, I'm sure he'll be very understanding." She mentioned, sarcastically. "But seriously, don't be naive. It's lame."

"What? Why do you keep calling me 'kiddo' I'm a whole head taller than you! Wait how old even are you?"

Looked at her face intensely, trying to figure out for himself.

She blushed a little and turned away, covering her face in an embarrassed way.

"I-I'm 21, idiot…"

"Oh, so I AM older than you. I'm 22. So now, I'll call you kiddo."

"What!? You can't call your bodyguard KIDDO that's dumb!"

"Oh, and has anyone ever told you, Marin, that you look like a girl. Like, you really look like a girl. But your hair is too scruffy to belong to a girl, so I'll let it slide…"

"R-Right… Oh, anyway-"

"Oh, Lord D'Argencourt is here! What took so long?"

The tall and slim man that approached began to speak in an authoritative voice.

"Oh, your highness, forgive my tardy, but I am aware that you like to test your new bodyguards, so I stayed out of sight to observe you and this young man. Mr Cheng, was it? I am quite impressed that you managed to hold your own against my star pupil, especially with that small and frail body of yours. I believe, that finishing blow was a masterfully used martial arts technique. Where did you learn that?"

"Well, that's classified information, my Lord. I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

"I see. Well, now that Adrien is in my hands, you are dismissed. Feel free to go back to your room or wander the grounds, but make sure to be back in two hours. Thank you."

The two men watch Mari as she walks back in the direction they came and towards her room. Exchanging glances, they both realise that Marin was the first bodyguard to ever hold a candle to the prince on their first day, let alone defeat him.

"I ambushed him, when he entered my room this morning," Adrien stated, "I put my hands and legs against the walls and waited above my door and jumped down when he came in. In no more than a second I had been kicked in the stomach and pinned on the floor. Something about him…"

"Scares you?" D'Argentcourt asked, deadly serious. "He's mysterious. The sort of guy you think you know, but when you study the facts, they're virtually a stranger… I see that in him."

Adrien looked back on the conversation he had with Marin this very morning. They had laughed like old friends, but in revision, he realised, he only knew his (her) name. Nothing more, nothing less. (Except it was something less because Marin was a fake name).

Marinette was sat on her overly expensive bed, rustling through her bags to find a bag of cookies from the nearest store owned by her family. The Dupain family were famed for their many high class patisseries and bakeries across the country. The Dupain branches were the go to for all baked goods for the rich, even the likes of the royal family consumed their creations.

Marinette smiled. She'd been able to use her father's notorious family name to get herself considered for the position of Adrien's bodyguard. The rest of the candidates had been from families of knights and soldiers. She was surprised they even considered a scrawny boy from the bakery. And that's where her mother came in.

(A/N this world is a fantasy world and it has no legitimate historical actual happenings it's just completely made up so if I say something that isn't correct, bear with. It's also an exaggeration and is set in a historical style world, basically an AU)

Sabine had taught her everything she knows about fighting. She was a Chinese princess, the youngest of many sisters, brought to the country for considered marriage to the prince at the time, Gabriel. However, while in France, she fell in love with one of the prince's friends, a young man amongst Parisian nobility, Thomas Dupain. She was permitted to marry him, and gave birth to their beautiful little daughter, Marinette.

Mari was trained from birth to be a fighter by her mother, who, in her youth, was a skilled warrior. She had always been small, but her father was very strong and solid, giving her that extra edge her mother didn't have. Either way, she strong.

She loved defeating men. Most men she'd run into were cocky and arrogant, snobby nobles. The French nobility were obsessed with money, marriage and succession, but her parents were kind. They'd let her reach at least 23 years without being married. Due to her beautiful face and her foreign, royal blood, she'd received many a proposal from insufferable men that she just loved to hate. The only man she'd ever cared about was her father. Mari hated how she was forced to fill the role of a 'lady' and eventually a 'wife'. That's why she got the utmost satisfaction from hiding amongst their ranks and crushing their stupid egos.

Or so she thought.

She was expecting to hate the prince, and just grin and bear it until the time had come. However, Marinette doubted that that would be the case.

After eating her cookies, Mari took a walk around the courtyard, remaining stealthy and unnoticed by Adrien and D'Argentcourt. They were sparring to conclude the session, swords dancing like ribbons in the wind. It was beautiful to watch, and she couldn't take her eyes off them.

Well, him, but she wouldn't admit that to herself. No! She was here for a purpose, get your head out of the clouds Mari!

"Marin? Is that you?"

Oh shoot. She felt a strange pain in her leg as she noticed that she'd fallen out of the tree that she was hiding in. Blood. She hadn't seen her own blood for years. She had been too engrossed in the fight to realise herself slipping, slipping, falling. Her face was hot and sticky with blood, and there was a deep gash in her leg from where she'd scraped the branches.

"Marin? Are you okay?"

Adrien dropped his sword and ran over. But why?! Why did he even care? He'd had a million dumb servants who'd hurt themselves, and never ran in to save them!

No. That wasn't true. He'd always tried to help. But they were mortified, and fearing for their jobs, treated him like a superior beings, saying it was fine, they were fine, his highness shouldn't worry about someone like them.

Adrien was a kind man, he really was, caring and gentle by nature. But his position had forced him to form a shell, acting the part of a stuck up prince. That's why he was surprised when he heard a thud across the courtyard, and saw Marin crumpled on the ground beneath a tree, bloody and shaking. That's why he was surprised by his own actions when he bolted over light a strike of lightning.

"I'm fine, your highness. Get back your lesson," she groaned, sitting up slowly, clutching her leg.

Just like he thought. This one's no different.

"I was sat in the tree, and was so enamoured by your sword fighting that I lost my balance and now I'm here!" Mari joked.

Even thought in all honesty it wasn't that far from the truth.

Adrien's eye's widened. No way… Finally… Someone who treated him like human, an equal, instead of a god. He wasn't going to fire this one. He was going to keep Marin as his bodyguard until the day he died.

A/N Should I continue the story? I have plans, and I thought I'd give it three chapters, so leave a review if you think it's worth continuing the story, because I don't want to write if nobody wants it. Thanks for reading! ;)