In All But Name (A Soulmate AU)

VI

The summer in Rome was a lot less exciting than anticipated. Marinette did learn a lot, mostly that models were very difficult to work with and everyone was deeply pretentious, and that Tante Annette's midlife crisis was becoming less sad and more concerning.

"Still haven't found your boy?" Annette asked her the weekend she was leaving, passing the bottle of dessert wine to Marinette. One of the many things that fell under the Just-Between-Us bar Annette had set up the second Marinette set foot in her apartment.

"I'm giving up on finding him," Marinette admitted. "He can come find me."

"That's what I said, until he did and I was already thirty while he had a wife and two kids."

Marinette took a large gulp of the wine, feeling her face and fingers heat up fast. "What am I supposed to do about it then? I searched as best as I could for Félix. He's not showing up. And I give up."

"You don't want to end up like me, do you? I prioritized my career, said he could come find me, then your mom found your dad at eighteen, had you at twenty-three and opened that bakery at twenty-five. Meanwhile, I'm forty-five, no longer able to have my own kids, won't be given one to adopt and can't find a man that isn't a divorced father who'll never make me his priority."

She thought of Adrien and Chloé and their doubts about soulmates leading to loving and accepting relationships thanks to their own parents, thought of the statistics, of those whose matches died before they could meet and the ones with Mistaken Matches, marrying the wrong Jean or Marie. None of this was fair to any of them, people should be allowed to choose their own partners, not have some ancient letter magic dictate their perfect mate for them.

Right?

"This isn't he seventies anymore, tante," said Marinette. "I don't have to choose between a man and a career, I can have both, I just have to be smart about it."

"Your job will keep you from meeting him."

She thought of Chat. She had been thinking a lot about him her entire stay here, about what he really wanted to say to her, why he left so early, and about whether or not she should ask him whose name he had or what his own name was. "Then I'll meet someone else and make it work."

"It can't work like that."

"Have you tried? Really tried working it out with a man without keeping his ex and the match you missed out on as the third person in your relationship?"

"Of course I haven't, he'll never be Mr. Right."

"Then let him try being Mr. Right Now."

Annette regarded her skeptically then smiled, taking the bottle back. "When did you get so level-headed and mature?"

"I've had an eye-opener of a year."

She was definitely going to seriously consider Chat, even as her Mr. Right Now.