write to me

It starts when she's six years old and she's playing dolls up in her room. The word hello scribes itself on her arm, the letters are messy and childish just as if she's written them herself. But Marinette knows she doesn't have a marker in her hand for she is literally holding her doll. The green letters impishly tease her as her heart beats. For a moment, she closes her eyes, screws them so tight she can see little spots dance on the backs of her eyelids.

With a careful breath, she slowly pops one blue eye open and more words are added hello. hello? can you read me?

At the addition, she screams so loud and runs down the stairs with tears falling down, her footsteps thudding as she tries to runaway. She shouts and wails and hiccups until she finds her mother in front of the stove making dinner and tugs forcibly on her white shirt.

"Mama! There's a ghost writing on my arm!"

Ever worried, Sabine looks down and to Marientte's surprise she grins a knowing smile, the one where her dimple appears at the corner of her mouth.

Kneeling down, Sabine traces the ghostly letters on her daughter's arm before she kisses her forehead. "That's no ghost, dear," she begins. "Just your soulmate."

And that is when Marinette learns about soulmates, learns about the messages and drawings they can leave on your skin. Because in her world, soulmates are threaded through ink, marked with love and affection in an instant.

Looking down at her arm again, more green words appear and a drawling of a frowny face. i'm sorrr if i scareded you :(

To that she, giggles and wipes her snot and tears away with the back of her hand. When she dashes up stairs, she replies.

it ok. i'm a big girl!

When she's nine she realizes that you can't exchange names with your soulmate. No matter how many times she's tried to tell him, it always end up as hello my name is _! To say that it's annoying is an understatement, because all Marinette wants to do is just tell her soulmate her name and learn his in return.

Instead, she tries her best to describe what she looks like, mentioning she has black hair and blue eyes. Apparently, he has green eyes and blond hair and looks just like his mother.

Sometimes, late at night, she will feel the writing on her arm and wake up to see that he left a note. Mom is really sick again and Dad is so angry. On nights like those, she she tells him of her dreams to become a great fashion designer and tries to redraw all the outfits she wants to make for him.

It doesn't really work well on her thin arm, but she can tell that it makes him feel better.

When she is eleven, Marinette doesn't hear from him. She writes to him every day.

soulmate are you okay?

But he never responses, never tells her if he is okay or if he's not.

Some days when she's scared, she wonders if he died and sometimes she asks him to tell her he's alive.

But that reply doesn't come either…so she stops writing him all together.

On her thirteenth birthday, right when she's about to blow the candle, she feels the all but forgotten itching sear her arm. In haste, she shoves up her sleeve and in a room filled with family, she breaks down and cries.

happy birthday…I miss you is the best present she got that year.

When she's fourteen, strange things start to happen because now she's a superhero. She can't tell anyone, not even him. Though she wants to, but she can't.

She will keep him safe.

And besides, when you're fourteen, there are more important things to worry about then when you're going to save Paris next. For example, the newest sentence that appears on her arm when she's trying to do redo the homework she keeps failing.

have you been in love?

He must be doing homework too for his words are inky and black, but it doesn't make it hurt any less. A part of her wells up in rage because it's like he doesn't care about the ink that connects him: hers and his.

She bites her lips and tries to swallow the lump in throat, swallow the betrayal that is oozing from her heart.

Her arm itches again as she remains silent, gripping her pencil she can almost feel it snap.

because i think i found you and i think if it's you, that i'm falling in love with you.

Breath hitches in her lungs, stopping her anger right in it's tracks.

so i'm going to do something and hopefully it will be you, okay?

It's their weekly patrol, hers and Chat Noir, when she finally pulls herself up to the Eiffel Tower.

Annoyed, she keeps playing with her bangs when she hears him. "Don't think you look purr-ty this evening, My Lady?"

To that, blue eyes meet green and the hero in red can only laugh as she pauses her preening. "Okay, don't make fun of me," she starts, "but my soulmate is an idiot."

He steps closer, a little smile wanting to form at his lips, but it doesn't. "Oh?"

Huffing, Ladybug crosses her arms. "Yeah! Last night he's like…oh, I think I found you blah blah blah–let me draw this huge big symbol on our foreheads to find each other!"

Chat laughs, his eyes crinkling. "What?"

At this point, Ladybug is already caught up in a fit, "I know! It's so stupid and he just…wrote..THIS," she punctuates as she pushes her bangs up for him to see.

And what is hidden behind her hair is the world's worst pick up line: did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

Chat Noir doesn't laugh, his jaw falling slack as he openly stares. From where she stands, Ladybug shuffles her feet, unsure what the problem is.

Seconds tick between them, a silence stretched longer than it needs to be for two friends. "Chat?"

But Chat Noir blinks and a smirk starts to bury itself into his cheeks. "Well?" he prompts. "Did it?"

Ladybug furrows her eyes. "Did what?"

And as he pushes up his bangs for her to see his forehead, he only mimics what's written on his skin. "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"

A/N: I decided to finally crosspost my soulmate au over here. It's a small series and is complete!