Stopwatch | Miraculous Ladybug | Soulmates AU

T - 0 Days

Marinette's eyes flashed open and the first thing she did was look at her wrist.

0 𝓭𝓪𝔂𝓼

The girl felt her stomach churn with anxiety. "Oh my god, I can't do this," she muttered to herself as she got out of bed and pulled on her planned outfit for the first day of school. She had been planning to wear the dress she had spent years finishing, but it didn't feel like the right day to wear it anymore. Not with her knowledge of when she'd meet her soulmate.

Marinette paused for a second in front of the mirror before nodding and pulling her hair into some quick pigtails. She hadn't worn her hair that way for years, but she decided that for an occasion like meeting her soulmate, a little change could be nice. 

"Good morning, sweetheart," As she made her way downstairs, she heard a voice behind her. Marinette jumped, nearly dropping her toothbrush in the process. Spinning around, she turned to see her mother sitting on the couch.

"Mamon!" Marinette cried and raced to the woman. "I missed you so much! But, I thought you were supposed to be in America until tomorrow?" Marinette questioned.

Sabine smiled at her daughter. "We were but I insisted on coming home early to surprise you," she explained.

Marinette nodded and hugged her mother again for a moment before her dad came into the room carrying some luggage. The teen rushed to greet her father and the three of them caught up. Marinette telling about how the bakery was and her parents talking about America and all the new contacts they made there.

After a few minutes of chatting and laughing, Marinette remembered the time. "Sorry mama, papa, but I need to eat some breakfast and go to school!" 

She quickly poured herself some breakfast, grabbed the macaroons she was bringing to her class, and ran towards the door. However, something inside her made her hesitate. Glancing down at her wrist again, she sighed. "I can't do this..." She said to no one in particular. "I can't do this... This is all too much. I can't do this. I can't-" Marinette's phone rang, interrupting her worried mutterings. She looked down at the screen and smiled, a wave of calm washing over her again. 

"Hey, Nath," She smiled into the phone.

"Hey, Mari. Are you almost here? School is starting in ten minutes."

"Shoot! Yeah, I'm ah... I'm on my way." Marinette spoke in a way that it was mostly meant for herself, not that her best friend would know that over the phone. With that, she hung up the phone and raced out the door.

However, her sonic-like speed couldn't save her from being stuck at a crosswalk. Marinette tapped her foot anxiously as she waited for the 'walk' sign to turn. That's when she saw an elderly man in a Hawaiian shirt holding a cane crossing the walk despite the sign being red. She looked at everyone else but everyone else waiting there was looking at their phones, completely unaware of the man whose life was in danger as a car quickly approached. Without a second thought, Marinette went flying into the crosswalk. She grabbed the old man's hand and pulled him to the safety of the sidewalk, falling down herself in the process.

"Thank you, miss," The man said. He glanced down at Marinette and the crumbled macaroons and sighed. "Oh, what a disaster."

Marinette gasped as people walked right over the cookies on the ground but sighed and put on a smile as she picked herself, and the box of remaining macaroons, up. "Don't worry, I'm no stranger to disasters," she laughed. "Besides, there's still a few left." The man smiled and grabbed a macaroon for himself. 

"Mm, delicious." 

Marinette smiled and opened her mouth to speak when she heard the school bell ring from across the street. "Oh no! I'm gonna be late! Have a nice day sir!" She yelled, racing towards the school. Somehow, she managed to make it into the classroom just in time and the teacher was still assigning seats. Because Chloe, the school bully, decided to change the seating arrangement for the first time in five years, Marinette ended up sitting next to the new girl at school, Alya Cesear. She split the only surviving macaroon with the girl and they smiled. However, a new friend wasn't able to distract her too much from her biggest anxiety. She searched the room, but she couldn't find anyone else in the room that she hadn't met before. Despite Alya's timer also being at zero, the girl had told Marinette that she had found her soulmate earlier that morning: Nino Lahiffe. 

Marinette sighed and gave up her search for a bit. Maybe they were searching for her and things would rely on them. As the final bell rang, she heard a voice yelling at another boy in the class. Not wanting to get involved, Marinette made her way to the library with Alya. They sat and talked, getting to know one another, Nino in Alya's arm of course.

Suddenly, the whole building shook. Marinette fell down to the ground and hit her head, but Alya grabbed her arm and pulled her over to the security cameras where they could see a huge stone monster in the parking lot. "KIM!!" The monster yelled, his voice booming into the room from outside. Marinette's eyes widened with fear.

"What's going on? He had... Ivan's voice..." She said, trying to make sense of what she was witnessing.

"It's as if he's been transformed into a real, live supervillain!" Alya exclaimed with way more excitement than she should've had about the situation. Marinette recalled that Alya was really into superheroes and comic books. Alya pulled out her phone and swiped through it. "GPS, check. Battery, check. I am so out of here!" Alya raced towards the door, leaving Marinette all alone.

"Wait, where are you going?" Marinette called after her.

"Where there's a supervillain, there's always a superhero! No way I'm missing this!" With that, Alya raced out the door. It didn't take long for Principal Damocles to shut down the school for the day and send all the students home where they would be safe. Marinette sat on her desk chair and watched the news as the stone monster, named Stoneheart, rampaged through the city.

"I hate first days back at school," she groaned. That's when she saw it. A red and black box sitting on her desk. "What's this doing here?"