At the age of seven Adrien Agreste met Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the saddest girl he had ever laid eyes on. She sat between his mother and father at the family dining room table, and once his parents noticed him they bid him closer to sit down so that they may talk to him about the girl between them.

Marinette was a tiny girl; her skin was so pale and thin it looked delicate, her black hair was pulled back into two pigtails, and her eyes were the prettiest things he had ever seen. They reminded him of the delicate, blue flowers that his mother once showed him but even at a young age he realized that there was something about them that made him feel both uncomfortable and sad.

Adrien absently heard his parents explaining to him that Marinette's parents couldn't take care of her anymore because they had gone somewhere that she couldn't follow, and that they would be taking Marinette in due to the friendship shared between her mother and his mother. They warned him to be kind to Marinette and to help her around the house if she ever got lost.

During the entire time that his parents were talking Adrien continued to stare at Marinette and noticed that she never looked up at him; in fact, it didn't even look like she was aware that he had even entered the room. Not wanting her to not notice him, Adrien quickly stood on the chair he sat on and leaned towards the girl to get her attention before greeting her with one of his biggest smiles, "Hi Marinette! My name is Adrien!"

Adrien's sudden introduction halted whatever his parents were telling him, and Mrs. Agreste couldn't help but smile at her son's antics. Adrien was a happy child who wanted to make friends with everyone that came his way, even if they were strangers, so it didn't surprise her when her son took to Sabine's daughter immediately. What did surprise the Agreste however was Marinette recoiling away from Adrien and shutting her eyes tightly before hugging herself into a ball shape.

The suddenness of Marinette's negative reaction to Adrien caused him to fall back on his chair before he stood up once again and tried to reach out to the other child as a means of comfort. At this point, Marinette gave halting breaths and trembled in her seat; her arms were wrapped around herself and her bluebell eyes were shut tightly.

"Adrien! Sit down!" Gabriel Agreste urgently commanded before turning to the little girl at his side, confused and unaccustomed on what to do. Tara Agreste took control and cooed softly to the distraught girl while rubbing her back soothingly; coaxing her to calm down and relax.

It took 30 agonizing minutes before Marinette calmed down, but halfway through her panic attack she seemed to have gotten worse before slowly calming down. With one last shuddering breath Marinette's whimpers subsided but she refused to look at the blonde boy, instead focusing her attention to her hands.

A tense silence followed shortly after her recovery before Mrs. Agreste finally got up and walked over to Adrien's side, "Adrien, Sweetheart, do you want to come with mommy to make sure Marinette's room is set up?"

Adrien could only nod dumbly before he got up from his chair and followed his mother out of the dining room, leaving behind his father and the little girl that had nearly cried when he got too close to her. Halfway down the hall and Adrien stopped in his tracks before asking his mother in an upset voice, "Mommy, does Marinette hate me?"

"No, Sweetheart! Marinette is just – She's just confused and hurting a lot right now. She can't see her mama and papa anymore and she's really sad about that. You just surprised her is all, Sweetheart. I'm sure you and Marinette will become best friends like you and Chloe once she feels better." Tara assured after she stopped walking and kneeled down in front of her son.

"Do you really think so, mommy?" Adrien asked hopefully, his wheat colored eyes shining at his mother's words.

"Of course, Sweetheart."

A sweet smile lit Adrien's face before he suddenly grabbed his mother hand and tried to drag her further down the hall. "Come on, mommy! We have to make sure Marinette's room is perfect!"

One week after Marinette Dupain-Cheng moved into the Agreste household she disappeared. Everyone was in a panic, searching for the young girl and after looking everywhere for her on the house grounds and coming up with nothing, the search expanded to throughout Paris. Of course, the first place they looked for her was at her parent's former bakery, but when they couldn't find her there or around the area they became more desperate.

Using his connections with the Mayor, Mr. Agreste managed to pull the police into the search party without any delays and still, no one was able to find the small child until near dusk. Strangely enough, the person that found Marinette was Mr. Agreste himself whom had returned to the bakery to double check that Marinette wasn't there, only to have found her sitting on the front steps of the permanently closed bakery, staring at nothing.

His first instinct was to scold her for her sudden departure, but as he got closer to her he noticed the wetness of her eyes and the paleness of her complexation.

It was the autumn season and the temperatures were getting colder as the days went by, and Gabriel Agreste noticed that Marinette gave the barest of shivers while sitting in front of her parent's bakery. She looked like a lost child who had nowhere to go; an orphan child who didn't understand that her parents weren't with her anymore.

Taking off his coat, Mr. Agreste stopped right in front of Marinette before sitting down beside her and placing the coat around her. The sudden action brought Marinette out of her thoughts and she turned slightly to the older man beside her, when she finally registered who was beside her she looked down guiltily.

"You shouldn't have left the house."

"I'm sorry."

"If you wanted to come here, you should have simply told me, Mrs. Agreste, or even Nathalie."

"I'm really sorry…"

"Sorry isn't enough Marinette, you scared everyone with your sudden disappearance. You need to take responsibility for what happened, you can't just leave on your own without telling somebody and you can't just walk out of the house without someone to accompany you. Accompany means that someone is going somewhere with you." Gabriel scolded while explaining a word that he figured would be too complicated for a child of seven to understand.

"I know… I just really wanted to come home." Marinette whispered, holding the coat closer to her body to fend against the cold air.

Gabriel was silent for a moment before he got up from his seat on the steps of the closed bakery; he dusted dirt from himself before turning to the heartbroken girl who wouldn't look up at him. In fact, she looked far too embarrassed and ashamed to look at anything except for the ground in front of her, and just for the barest of moments Gabriel felt pity for the little girl.

He released a quiet sigh before kneeling down to the girl and gently opened one of his hands palm side-up towards her. "It's time to go home, Marinette." Gabriel's deliberate use of the word "home" was meant to act as an invitation to the young girl to think of the Agreste Castle as her new home should she wish to; an invitation that probably went over the seven-year-old's head.

Marinette, however, surprised him by slowly looking up at him and giving him one of the shyest smiles he had ever seen. She gently placed her right hand into his awaiting hand, and slowly got up from her seat. Using the hand that wasn't currently be held, Marinette dusted herself off as well before looking up at the older Agreste male and whispered, "Thank you." It appeared that the invitation hadn't gone over her head, and instead of ignoring it she acknowledged it.

Together, they walked back to the Agreste Castle and once they passed the front gates Mrs. Agreste rushed out the front doors and nearly tackled the small child wrapped in her husband's coat.

"Marinette! Oh, please don't scare us like that again, Ma Cherie."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Agreste." Marinette mumbled, feeling guilty for causing the panic in the older woman.

"Just promise me you won't do that again, okay? Honey, where did you find her?" Tara assured before turning to her husband.

While the adults talked amongst themselves for a little bit, a young boy peered at the edge of the front doorway at the little girl that was currently standing in front of his parents. She didn't look that much better from when he first saw her a week ago, but she had the barest of smiles on her face even though her eyes were being strange again.

Adrien was relieved that Marinette was found, but he couldn't help but think that her running away might have had something to do with him. After all, Marinette did everything she could to avoid him and he began worrying that maybe she really didn't like him at all and just when he finally had the courage to confront her and actually get to know her, she had disappeared.

He had worried for the whole day that Marinette had run away because she hated him and didn't want to be anywhere near him, and when she was found and appeared to be okay around his parents but not him really concerned him. Adrien really wanted to befriend this sad girl because he hoped that maybe she would start smiling again instead of always looking so gloomy all the time.

Deciding to stay where he was, right behind the large doors, Adrien observed the way his parents interacted with Marinette and the way she responded to them. Marinette's response to his parents weren't overly obvious, and where mainly shy and polite. She answered their questions with simple responses and she kept a respectful distance from them – or at least as much distance as she could place between them and her with one of her hands still being held by his father. She didn't look particularly comfortable around them, but she didn't look uncomfortable or afraid of them either; which was supposed to be a good thing, but Adrien couldn't help but feel a little left out because of Marinette's obvious discomfort around him.

With a small frown, Adrien walked away from the doors and headed back to his room and away from the little girl that he thought disliked him. He didn't notice the bluebell eyes that followed him.

So, I hope you guys liked the first chapter of my story and in the next chapter I'll go more into depth on what happened to the Dupain-Chengs as well as write on Marinette's perspective. Thanks for reading and please give me some feedback, it's been years since I last wrote a fanfic and I'm kinda nervous.