Please, Forgive Me || ADRIENETTE

4. Flashback 1

5 YEARS AGO

I dragged my feet from school back home, completely exhausted and surprised that I had stayed awake for 6 hours. "Jeez, I need to stop sleeping late. Stupid Marinette, stupid!" she often scolded herself for her bad habits, it was like a daily thing. While she always paid the price for staying awake throughout the night in the morning, she never did learn.

She entered the bakery, seeing as it was, as usual, busy with customers and her parents running around with their delicious confectionary items and packaging them to send it off with a smile. She heard her parents yell out a greeting to their daughter, and she just waved them off and headed straight for her room. She couldn't be bothered by helping out the bakery right now, she needed sleep.

Climbing up the ladder that led to her room, she threw her bag onto her lounge chair and plopped straight to bed. But before she could have the chance to shut her eyes and drift to sleep, she felt her back pocket buzz and a ring of her phone's notification go off.

She received a text.

The exhausted bluenette reached for her phone and brought it to her face to see if it had been Alya or maybe Nino texting her, but instead, it was neither. The contact name read; 'KITTY'.

Marinette smiled. This was one of the reasons why she had always overslept.

She turned her body upright and unlocked her phone to read the text from him. "How was school, milady?"  it read, and not a second went by, another notification appeared. "Hey, did you hear that a new book of Ladybug and Chat Noir is coming out this Friday?"

Of course, she knew, she was a die-hard fan of the book series Ladybug and Chat Noir. Barely a lot of people had ever come to know about them as it was more of a kid's book than for young adults, but she was glad that someone else had appreciated the story as much as she did.

He was named Kitty.

Not his real name, of course, more like an alias that he copied to stay anonymous. Marinette was also the same, she wanted him to call her Ladybug, but instead, he used all types of nicknames that Chat Noir would call the fictional character in the book.

Marinette loved it. It made her feel like the real Ladybug. She always had a deep connection with her, as if seeing her within the fake character, and made it feel real every time her 'Kitty' would call her Milady or Bugaboo.

"Hey, LB, when will I ever see you."

This question struck Marinette. He was always eager to meet, yet Marinette would always be reluctant. Maybe it's because she was already breaking her parent's #1 rule of; not talking to strangers. But after how many months of texting him, he barely seemed like a stranger or even strange.

Marinette knew a lot about this man, or at least the boy.

He goes to school, is about 17 years old turning 18 in a few months, and has a strict father who observes his actions almost 24/7. She knew that that was the reason why he had connected with the character, Chat Noir. Even the bluenette could see it. The strict father, the 'being someone he doesn't like being', wanting his father's love and affection, and just trying to break free.

Marinette never pushed for details about their physical appearances, where he lived, and what school he went to. She wanted their private life to be kept secret, and she drew a fine line during their friendship. For all she knew, he could be thousands of miles away.

Paris was big, but it wasn't big enough for fate to have the two of them in one city while the rest of the world was still an option.

'His French is pretty good though, and he knew I finished school...' She shook her head from those thoughts and turned her brain back to his question.

"Oh kitty," she texted, "just like the two superheroes, let's keep our identities a secret, okay?"

A few seconds later, a 'Seen' icon popped under her message and she waited for a reply. "On Friday, I'll be at the bookstore where they'll be selling the sequel. If you ever wanna see me... I'll be there."

Marinette smiled shyly. Friday huh? Maybe I'll give it a shot...She thought that it would be harmless to finally see her secret Chaton, but she never expected him to be there. Like she said, he could've been anywhere.

Who knew her 'Kitty' would be right under her nose? She could have never thought a small meeting would be the cause of her miserable life. Truly her worst decision yet.