A/N: This takes place chronologically before Glittery Green and features Adrien and a tiny bit of Plagg. Oh, and the glitter pens that started the whole mess. Wrote it quickly, didn't edit very much. –wwot

Word count: 368

Adrien tried to wash off the note on his arm: "Remember the history homework!" with a little heart filled with ladybug spots. At least, he hoped they were ladybug spots.

"Plagg, this won't come out. What's wrong with me?"

Plagg rolled over and went back to sleep, so Adrien turned to Google instead. After five minutes of searching and twenty minutes of denial, he came to terms with his fate: he had a soulmate. Even scarier was the realization that he could just as easily reveal himself to whomever it was, but he didn't feel ready to do that. At all.

It was a few weeks and most of his long-sleeved shirts before a name finally showed up: "Ask Alya for help with the French homework." Again, it was accompanied by a tiny ladybug heart.

Adrien started writing down everything he could think of to help him narrow it down, and eventually the list narrowed down who it could be to just a few people, but it wasn't until a "Partners with Adrien!" arrived that he finally figured it out.

Marinette.

The lovable, painfully awkward Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

It made him ache for a month knowing that it wasn't Ladybug, but it took far longer to even think about getting over her. Adrien was so careful about not writing on himself because he didn't want to hurt her, didn't want her to know that Ladybug was his first choice.

Marinette seemed more receptive in the years that followed, even inviting him out for coffee. But she still seemed wary of Chat Noir, and Adrien wasn't sure if he could handle that…

Until she drew a tiny black cat with green eyes on her knee. He traced over it so many times that he could do it with his eyes closed—and he did when it went away. He missed it being there, so he took out his favorite set of pens (the one he'd been saving for such an occasion) and drew over where it had been, planning to wash it off before Marinette could find it.

It was only when he saw a "Hey soulmate" with a heart that he realized he'd left it on for too long.