MariChat: Soul Link (SoulMates AU)

A Big Question

"So, how's your throwing arm?"

"Better than most peoples."

Adrien had to smirk at the confidence Marinette was displaying right now, but what was far more amusing to him was the fact that he knew she was right. There was no way in hell she was going to mess this up.

The two of them had found themselves at the funfair, and within moments, they had been called over to a knockdown game. It was basically a set of three pyramids of cans, and you were given three baseballs to throw. If you knocked down every can in the set, you won a prize. The classic carnival game, and the ones that were almost certainly rigged against the player. But never impossible. They had to give the player some semblance of a chance.

The person who owned the stall they were at looked like he had come out of Texas, with a cowboy hat and an empty holster, probably part of his uniform for the carnival. He had probably called the two of them over after making the conclusion they were on a date - Easy targets.

Adrien would not consider Marinette to be an easy target. She had accepted instantly.

"You realize this is probably rigged, right?" Adrien whispered to her as she handed over the money needed to participate.

"I know. I just love besting liars."

"That explains Lila, then." Adrien muttered, before stepping back, remembering Ladybug's intervention between him and Lila when she first showed up in school. "Alright then, Mari, good luck."

Not that she even needed it. And Adrien knew that just as well.

She barely even needed time to aim. All of her practice with her yo-yo as Ladybug, the skillfuland delicate hands needed to create the beautiful dress she was currently wearing, the strength and basically everything else about her physical capabilities was practically designed to utterly obliterate this sort of challenge.

One solid throw was all Marinette needed. Throwing the ball like a perfectly served pitch, she hit the center can on the bottom row, and watched the rest of the cans fall around it while gravity finished off the rest for her. Every can fell down around it, knocking the entire stack down in a single strike. The stall owner was obviously shocked.

"Nice." Adrien complimented with a one-sided grin on the right side of his lips. "Looks can be deceiving."

"I told you, my pitch is better than most." Marinette told the stall owner. She was unusually smug right now, but Adrien figured after a serve like that, and after being considered an easy target by the stall owner, she deserved to be.

"Y-Yeah... It seems so." The owner straightened himself up, mentally making a note to pick his targets better. He reached up into the shelves of prizes, filled with stuffed toys, primarily, none of which Marinette particularly wanted. She had just done this for the challenge of it. "Well, you did the test, so here's your prize!"

Adrien had a hard time not bursting out into laughter. "That's cool." He commented, after seeing the strained look on Marinette's face.

It was a Chat Noir doll.

Getting away from the stall owner, Adrien basically fell apart with his fits of laughter. That had been far too perfect a prize. He couldn't have come up with a better irony if he tried. And the look on her face, of both otter disgust and contempt for both the stall owner, and the boy who was holding back laughter, was beyond perfect.

"That was perfect!" He howled with laughter, clapping his hands together in applause. "I should have tried winning one of those for you."

"You're enjoying the irony in this way too much." Marinette sighed, but she was happy that Adrien was enjoying himself. She didn't remember ever seeing him in just pure, unconcerned joyous laughter at something stupid like winning an ironic prize.