Cops and Robbers: The Game

Just a Game

14 years ago...

The blue-eyed little girl runs with a mixture of determination and merriment through the soft grass, dodging trees and jumping over benches. Despite her short stature, her feet are remarkably quick, so she's covering ground fast enough to keep up with the blonde-haired 'robber' ahead.

Since she's a 'cop', she's technically supposed to be protecting the tree they marked as home base, but little Marinette Dupain-Cheng needs to catch this robber. If she didn't, she'd never hear the end of it. So even though the green-eyed boy is taller and has longer legs, Marinette continues to speed after him, hot on his tail.

The boy cuts through the playground with Marinette following closely behind. He can sense she's about to tag him, so he needs to change his tactics. Give her a path that she won't follow. He jumps onto the playground set's platform and makes his way to the tube slide. Instead of going down the slide, like most children, the blonde boy jumps on top of the slide and springs off it to catch the fireman's pole on the opposite side of the playground set.

He looks back to see the dark-haired girl shocked by his reckless move. He just cheekily smiles at her and runs, giving him an extra couple seconds to gain ground between them. He immediately hightails it back to home base.

Victory is so close, the boy can taste it. The tree is in sight, but the girl isn't. He's only a few meters away from home. He's going to win!

Then out of nowhere, an unseen force tackles him from the side. Their combined weight tumbles to the ground several feet before ending with him on his back and the girl sitting on his chest. Her confident, smug grin glows on her face when she screams "I win, Agreste!"

Adrien Agreste groans for losing but can't stop himself from smiling after seeing Marinette so happy. He'll gladly lose a hundred games of cops and robbers if it means seeing that infectiously dazzling smile.

Well maybe not a hundred games. A boy still has his pride, y'know?

"Can you get off me now?" Adrien complains from Marinette's weight on his chest, "I can't breathe."

"Oh really? I thought you said I was 'tiny', remember?"

Adrien struggles to push her off as she fights back against his attempts, "Mari..."

Marinette rolls her eyes and jumps off, "Wuss."

"Where's sweet Marinette? I miss her," Adrien says as they look up at the sky together, "I'm starting to think all this power of authority is going to your head."

"Says the criminal trying to escape justice," Mari teases back.

"Well hard bitten, rough and tumble officer Marinette isn't as awesome as sweet, nice baker Marinette."

"Then tomorrow, we'll just make cookies," Mari suggests, "Our moms will love it."

"That sounds great!" Adrien smiles, looking forward to spending another day with his best friend in the whole world.

He looks over at Marinette, admiring her silky blue hair tied into pigtails and adorable little freckles. Thinking about how happy she makes him, along with other things he is yet old enough to understand, "Can you promise me something?"

Her bluebell eyes sweep over to Adrien's warm smile. His blonde hair is extra messy after their run, perfectly accenting his emerald green eyes and giving her slight churns in her stomach that she doesn't quite understand yet, "What?"

"That we'll always get to do this? Spend every day together, chasing each other, and always catching each other?"

Marinette's smile grows wider at the thought of them being adults and still spending every day together, "I promise, Adrien. We will always be together. I will never leave you."

Adrien reaches out and grabs Mari's hand. She squeezes back as he promises back, "I'll never leave you either."

If only promises couldn't be broken.

If only life was simpler for these two.

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Just testing out a new story. Wanting to see what you all think. If you like it and want to read more, let me know and I'll start posting the chapters regularly.