"Soulmates are so romantic," Rose cooed, fluttering her eyelashes while releasing a deep sigh and pressing her hands to her heart. Marinette tried to refrain from rolling her eyes, but could hear the quiet groans from the rest of the girls in the group. Her room was crowded with all her friends, blankets thrown all over the floor with their pillows for a "girls only" sleepover.

"Soulmates are just fairytales, Rose. Who has time to wait around for something as silly as a soulmate?" Alya. Ever practical and down to earth Alya.

"You don't think you and Nino are soulmates?" Rose pressed, leaning in closer with the widest babydoll eyes that Marinette had seen. Alya's scoff was loud.

"Oh hell no. That soulmates thing is far too much work. Could you imagine? What if you thought the other person was your soulmate and it didn't work out? What if that person was a monster? What if you spent your whole life waiting for "the one" only to discover you are old and it's too late?"

Rose's shoulders dropped a little as her romantic bubble burst.

"I wouldn't want a soulmate," Alix muttered. "Way happier knowing that I don't have to spend my life waiting for the other half of me or whatever. I'd rather just be alone. What about you, Mylene?"

Their dreadlocked quiet friend just smiled.

"I don't really believe in soulmates," she said quietly. "But if Ivan was mine, I'd be fine with that."

Marinette shifted slightly as Alya narrowed her eyes in her direction.

"What about you, Marinette?"

All the eyes in the room snapped to her face with varying degrees of curiosity. Unable to stop the rush of embarrassment that flooded her cheeks, she stared down at her suddenly fascinating fingers. Did she believe in soulmates? Not exactly. But ….

"Sort of?" she admitted finally. Rose squealed and clapped.

"I knew it!"

There was a buzz of conversation from her friends then.

"Why?" blurted out Alya over them all.

"Well, see… There's this old Chinese story Maman used to tell me when I was growing up about a red string of fate. Basically, the story says that there's this invisible red string attaching you to your one true love. I guess - I guess I always hoped that it was true."

Rose sighed dreamily, sinking back against Juleka. Juleka just looked down at the blond haired pixie against her with a soft smile.

"My favourite soulmate stories are the ones where you only see in black and white until you meet your soulmate and then see colours," admitted Mylene.

"I like the idea of a tattoo that symbolizes your relationship," mumbled Juleka. Rose squealed, scrambling to her feet to grab a pen from Marinette's disastrous desk.

"Draw the tattoo we'd have." The pen was thrust into Juleka's hand before Rose flopped back onto the ground in front of her, arm held out for a design to be doodled on it. Juleka stared blankly at Rose for a moment, blushing slightly before pressing the pentip to the pale skin of Rose's arm. Everyone squeezed in close around them as Juleka sketched, the image of rose wrapped in a dark, swirling ribbon coming to life.

Before long, Marinette's sketching markers were strewn all over the place as each of the girls took turns having a design doodled on the inside of their wrists to represent their significant others. Alix just doodled on her own arm - oversized pink flowers taking shape on her skin.

Marinette drew on Alya's wrist, trying to make sure her lines were straight as Alya laughed.

"It tickles!" she yelped, trying not to pull away.

"Stay still," Marinette ordered, pinning her friend's arm between her knees in order to continue the marker tattoo. With careful lines, she doodled away, an image of a cell phone tangled with the wire of an orange headphone set that lay on the ground around it. For a moment, Marinette debated adding some tiny nods to their secret hero identities, but pushed it aside.

Alya stared at the imaginary tattoo with admiration before snapping a picture to send it off to Nino with a mischievous grin. Slapping the phone down on her pillow, Alya asked to see the design that Juleka had drawn on Mylene - a beautiful set of musical notes on a rainbow coloured staff.

Marinette copied Rose's design onto Juleka;s wrist so they would match. Rose made a high pitched noise as they placed their arms side by side, beaming at each other before pressing their foreheads together in happy silence.

"Your turn," offered Juleka suddenly, snatching the black marker out of Marinette's hand before pulling the arm close to draw.

"But…. I don't have anyone-"

Marinette's arguments were futile as the pen hit her skin in a smooth line. She held her breath, watching as the shapes that Juleka drew formed into a full picture. It was simple.

A small open umbrella coloured in with a brilliant emerald green.

Reaching out with her other hand, she silently ran her fingers over the drawing on her skin. A shiver ran through her at her touch,making her gasp as her vision blurred to surround her with the image of green eyes smiling at her in the rain. The scene swirled suddenly, the eyes locked with hers morphing into a solid green, wrapped in a familiar black mask before the sound of thunder jolted her back to the room with her friends.

Four sets of eyes looked at her with wide eyes.

"Are you ok?" asked Alya slowly, reaching out to touch Marinette's hand. "What just happened?"

Marinette blinked, trying to figure out what, exactly, she had seen and why. Her mouth opened and closed kind of like a fish, unable to voice anything coherent.

A loud ding saved her, making Alya dive for her phone. Flicking open the screen with a grin, she burst out laughing.

"Nino's freaking out about the idea of soulmates. Look." The phone screen swung in their direction, showing a poorly sketched copy of the image on Alya's wrist on the arm of her boyfriend. Everyone chuckled except Marinette who stared at the umbrella on her arm with a disconnected kind of feeling.

Alya's phone dinged again. And again. And again, in rapid concession. She turned the phone back to see why Nino was in high text mode. Marinette looked up at her friend when she said nothing, only making a slight gasp at her phone screen before going somewhat pale.

"Uh, Mari…."

The phone appeared right in front of her face, too close to focus. Taking the phone from Alya, she stared at the picture on the screen without fully understanding what she was looking at. With a frown, realization sank in. A pale white wrist filled the screen, a small red umbrella etched on the skin.

The phone vibrated as it dinged over and over, making her drop the phone onto her lap while she stared at Alya with a silent question.

"Adrien."

Of course Nino was with Adrien. They were best friends.

Suddenly the room was too small, the air too thick. She scrambled to her feet, trying to untangle herself from the blankets as she struggled to breathe. Her friends called out to her as she stumbled down the stairs and out of the apartment to the street.

"Tikki," she squeaked, unable to process it all and desperately needing her friend. The little red kwami pressed into her cheek, reminding her to breathe.

"It's going to be ok, Marinette. Just breathe."

"Are soulmates real?"

Tikki looked at her with soft eyes. Marinette knew. Just then, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that soulmates were true. At least, for them. Ladybug and Chat Noir. Destiny called them together.

"Transform me," she whispered, savouring the rush of energy on her skin before swinging up to the rooftops. She could feel him. Somewhere out there on a Parisian rooftop in the encroaching darkness of night. Her feet pulled her from eave to eave, leading her towards the Eiffel Tower. A final swing pulled her up the metal frame, high up the tower to the platform they frequently sat to observe the city.

He waited, cat ears twitching slightly as her feet landed, eyes instantly finding her across the gap between them. She took a hesitant step forward, unsure exactly what to say.

"Marinette," he said, the waver in his voice making it hard to keep from wrapping her arms around him and hold him tight. Never had she heard her name said with such… reverence? Another soft set of words encased him in a flash of green, melding the black of his suit to the usual blue jeans and button-up white shirt she recognized from his civilian self. Blonde hair and green eyes held her gaze, the mask fading away to nothing, leaving in its place one Adrien Agreste.

Taking a step closer, his hand snaked out and gently brushed a renegade tendril of hair behind her ear.

"Look." He held out his wrist, revealing the outline of the red umbrella on his skin. Her gloves ran over the design in awe. It was real. "I was sitting there with Nino, playing games and chatting when his phone dinged with a message from Alya. She said you guys were goofing around drawing soulmate tattoos on each other and sent him a picture of the one you made for her. He thought it would be fun to draw it back. We are terrible at drawing, may I add? Especially on skin. ANYWAY, he was messaging her back with that picture when all of a sudden the whole room vanished and all I could see was you. Your blue eyes, and then the mask. When the room stopped spinning, it felt like I'd burnt my arm. When I looked down, I saw this umbrella. And I knew, milady. I knew it was you. It's always been you."

"Spots off," she breathed, unable to tear her eyes away from him. He winced slightly at the assault of pink on his eyes before settling back on her face with some rapid blinks.

"Hi." She didn't know if she could trust her voice anymore, whispering a broken hello in return. The heat from how close he stood made it hard to think at all. He gently pulled her arm up to look at her matching, and yet opposite, umbrella design, running his thumb slowly over it. A tingle ran down her spine as he pressed his lips against it. His fingers threaded through hers.

His other hand landed gently on her shoulder.

"May I kiss you?"

She didn't know if she said yes out loud, but must have- the hand on her shoulder pulling her closer, the one between her fingers squeezing tightly as their lips pressed together. The current that jumped between them left them breathless.

Rose was right. Soulmates are romantic.

Based on the tumblr mlweeklyprompts prompt for the week: "Pen Tattoo."