AU note: Marinette is at GA on a scholarship, and has been since middle school. She lives in a dorm and returns to Paris in the summer to help out at the bakery. She and her parents are not very close. Marinette runs Coccinelle Designs and sends some of the commission money back to them to help run the bakery. No heroing in this- it's already messed up enough. Jason and Marinette are sophomores, Dick's in Bludhaven as an officer, and Tim's a freshman even though he's eleven, little genius that he is.
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On Monday, Marinette walks through the hallways of Gotham Academy, weaving through the crowds of students and heading briskly to her locker to put her textbooks away before lunch. She puts in her code and opens the door-
Wait.
There's a single red rose sitting on top of her Literature textbook. Huh. How did someone get into her locker to leave it there? She gently picks up the rose and admires the smooth, velvety petals. Marinette carefully puts the rose on the empty top shelf of her locker before putting her books away and heading to the cafeteria with a smile.
At lunch, she doodles a black suit with a tie the same shade as the rose petals, and imagines how amazing Jason Todd-Wayne would look in it, not that she'd ever get commissioned by someone of his caliber. He probably wouldn't even glance her way.
On Tuesday, there's another fresh rose waiting in her locker, which brings a happy smile to her lips. This time, it's accompanied with a small white card, written in graceful script.
Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service.
Shakespeare. They're a literature person, then. Marinette closes her eyes and sees Jason, in her third period English class, reciting passages from Jane Austen's works off the top of his head.
She shakes her head and puts the rose in the same place as the one yesterday, to preserve it until she can take it back to her dorm.
During lunch, she starts the design of an evening dress, the color of roses, and imagines how well it'd look with yesterday's suit.
On Wednesday, there's another rose in her locker, accompanied by a new card and a box of pink macarons. How did they know strawberry was her favorite? The only time Marinette's ever mentioned it was during the group project she had to do in the beginning of the year with a couple other kids (including Jason) in English.
She doesn't really have friends at GA. They know of her, but the kids here grew up in a higher class. Marinette's parents are bakers. They're in Paris, happy that their daughter won a scholarship and is getting the best education that she can get. Tom and Sabine are her parents, but they were never the closest. Marinette doesn't exactly have parental figures either. She doesn't mind all that much.
