He Can't Forget | ✓

4 | intuition

Five years had gone by since Marinette had last seen Chat Noir, the one she believed had been the love of her life. But five years can also change a person, along with their beliefs or faiths, and Marinette had long ago given up on ever seeing him again. Instead, she tried her best to focus on raising their daughter, Emma, who was just as ambitious as her father. With sparkling green eyes and a head full of blonde, the free-spirited, four-year-old had become Marinette's purpose in life. Her reason to continue moving forward.

Of course, a lot of people questioned Emma's existence. With a father not in the picture, her parents were mostly worried about how the little girl had came to be. But Marinette never told them the truth about her relationship with Chat Noir, and she never told Chat Noir that he was a father. Instead, she claimed that Emma had been the result of an one-night stand. And although she had convinced her parents and friends that her story was true, it didn't mean that they were any less disappointed in her.

But despite their disappointment in her careless actions, everyone loved and adored Emma. Marinette's parents had a habit of spoiling their granddaughter rotten, although that didn't ruin her daughter's naturally kind and generous heart. Alya, thrilled at the idea of becoming an aunt, was ecstatic when Emma was born, and from that day forward, loved the little girl as if she were her own. Nino, now Alya's husband of two years, was wrapped around Emma's finger as well.

But despite the happiness that surrounded her life, Marinette still sometimes found herself feeling unhappy.

She figured it had to do with not having Emma's father to help her, to be a part of their family. Marinette had always dreamed of Chat Noir being a part of her life. She had once hoped for him to one day reveal himself to her, so that they could be a couple out in public too, without having to hide under her duvet.

But then Chat Noir just... left. He dropped everything. And although she was proud of him nonetheless for chasing after his dreams, somewhere deep down, she had always thought that she was a part of his dream.

But apparently she'd been wrong.

And after five years, Chat Noir still had no idea that he was a father. That he had a little girl who needed him. And there was no way for her to tell him now either.

So now, she tried her best to fill in that void of an absent father.

But that was hard to do considering she was a woman, and had no idea how to be even remotely close to a father, so Nino helped the best he could.

"And what exactly did you draw?" Nino held up a sheet of paper which had scribble upon scribbles of different colored crayon, and Marinette watched from her spot on the couch as Emma began to explain how her drawing was clearly a unicorn-griffin-fairy mutant who could travel in time to grant wishes to every kid that ever existed. Obviously Nino struggled to see it; anyone who understood that unicorn-griffin-fairy mutants weren't real would. But Nino praised her nonetheless for her exquisite art skills, and Marinette found herself smiling fondly as she watched her daughter interact with her uncle.

Sometimes, she wondered what it would had been like had Chat Noir been here in Nino's place.

But dwelling over those thoughts would get her no where. Chat Noir had a chance to keep her in his life and he chose... a different path. For now, an uncle like Nino was the best thing for her daughter.

"I'm homeeee~" Alya singsonged as she opened and closed the door behind her, holding a bag of groceries on her arm. Almost instantly, Emma jumped up from Nino's lap and rushed to greet her aunt in a bone-crushing hug around her leg. 

"Hey Alya." Marinette stood up from the couch to greet her best friend, and to help her with the groceries. "You know, I could've gone shopping today."

Alya waved her off with a genuine smile. "Oh, it was no big deal. It was on my way home from the office anyway. And speaking of offices.." the brunette reached into her purse, which was also slung on her arm, pulling out a rolled tube. "...they've finally approved your blueprints!"