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“Marinette! Marinette! Hi!”
Marinette Dupain-Cheng turned around just in time to catch Manon, a ball of energy in human form, as she cleared the bakery’s front door and launched herself at the teen. “Hi Manon! You seem extremely excited today!”
The six year old nodded excitedly. “I am! I woke up this morning and look at what I found!” The child rolled up the right sleeve of her shirt to reveal a deeply intricate, amazingly detailed tattoo that seemed to imitate the stripes of a zebra.
Eyes wide, Marinette looked at the little girl. “Oh! You-”
The bell above the door chimed and Nadja Chamack breezed in to quickly grab her daughter’s hand. “Manon! You know better than to run off like that!”
“I know, Maman, but I really wanted to show Marinette my marks!”
Nadja’s eyes went to the mentioned marks and her smile softened. “I understand, but you still have to be careful.” The little girl nodded and Nadja turned to Marinette. “But she’s right. She wouldn’t stop talking about wanting to show you her SoulMark and her - “
“Look at this, Marinette!”
Manon clapped… and then there were two Manons.
She blinked and then turned to the child’s mother. “Duplication?”
Nadja shook her head and, for the first time, she saw the bags under the woman’s eyes. “Manon, show her what you woke me up with.”
Sensing a cue for chaos she nodded, clapped again, and - in a poof of feathers - a lion appeared in front of them. Nadja didn’t react but Marinette was startled off her feet. She would have run but the animal just sat there staring at them with blank eyes.
With her heart in her throat, she wasn’t able to speak but the reporter answered the unasked question anyway. “According to the SoulMark Powers guide, this power is a version of a mix of the creation power and manifest power but we don’t know exactly so after the party we’re going to take her to the Bond Specialist to see just what we should expect.”
Marinette’s eyes widened impossibly - because that was a lot of power for a six year old to have - before she reminded herself.
Only people who meet their soulmates and unite with their kwami are able to access their full powers.
Nadja must have read her mind as she smiled. “She’s not able to make them move outside of the ones that look like her and they only last for about ten minutes - so far at least - so she is still limited at the moment.”
“Yeah! Look at us, Marinette!” The two Manons were petting the lion in sync. Then the one on the left clapped and everything disappeared before running to grasp her hand in her tiny one. “Isn’t that so cool?”
Marinette smiled. “It’s amazing, Manon!”
“Mhm! Mhm!” Then the little girl was pouting. “I just wish you could see my kwami! Treble is just the cutest little pig -” She paused as it seemed that someone - Treble probably - said something. “Ox! I mean Ox! Sorry. I didn’t know what that was until this morning! But I wish you could see her!”
“I wish I could see her too.” Nadja cut in a little sadly, voicing Marinette’s own thoughts. But kwamis were invisible to everyone else until their holder met their soulmate. “Now I need to get the cakes for Papa’s birthday so can you sit quietly until we’re finished?”
“Yes, Maman! I’ll just go play with my other me!” The little girl clapped again and Manon 2 reappeared.
As the little girls ran to a booth, their mother sighed. “I’m so happy her mark had awakened, but it is a bit startling to know that my little baby girl is going to have such a powerful gift someday. Especially when me and her father weren’t blessed with a kwami.”
That was true.
It was rare for anyone to not receive a SoulMark, but it was far more common to not receive a kwami. It was about fifty- fifty and none of the scientists, health experts, researchers, biologist, or anyone else could figure out why half the population went without.
It was an unexplained phenomenon, but one that people took in stride.
Smiling, she waved the reporter over to the register. “Today’s going to be quite the day so let’s get you checked out. How about a discount to celebrate?”
Later that day, Marinette was still thinking about Manon and the road she and her parents would be facing. It wasn’t hard to imagine as it was the same one she and her parents had faced as well.
She’d been twelve when her tattoo had appeared. It had been a shock to everyone for multiple reasons.
The first was that she’d gotten it super late. Most kids received their SoulMarks between the ages of three and eight. There had been rare cases of ten year olds receiving theirs, but never later than that.
Her parents had worried and panicked that she would never get one.
Nevertheless, she’d woken up one random day in April with snake tattoos curled around both of her arms and joining around her torso like two snakes wrapped around one another. Their tails wound together and stopped just above her belly button and their heads formed a heart right at her collarbones. According to all the specialists Marinette would see, it was one of the biggest SoulMarks ever.
Cool.
But then, right along the heels of that first shock came the second… which was currently curled around himself on the knitted beanbag she’d made for him years ago.
She had received a kwami: Sass, a teal, black and yellow serpentine creature.
Her parents hadn’t initially believed her because no one else in either familial line had ever had a kwami.
Ever.
But when it sunk in, Tom and Sabine had been over the moon to find out that their child had been given one! They wanted to know everything and Marinette had spent many hours drawing the kwami so that her parents could see what he looked like. She’d also spent many hours being the go between - though she was always a part of the conversations so it never bothered her - as it turned out that Sass loved the business aspect of the bakery, which Tom could talk about for hours, and Sass also loved ancient Chinese art and literature, which Sabine absolutely adored.
Marinette just absolutely adored Sass.
But with Sass came the biggest shock of them all: her power.
The power of creation.
Not a version of it, not a mix of it and something else, but the literal power of creation.
One of the five pillars and foundation of all powers.
And it was strong; very strong.
Without meeting her soulmate, she was able to conjure something out of nothing, big or small. They found this out when, a week after her awakening, Marinette had missed the bus to her new school - as any child who received a kwami was sent to special schools on the outside of town to teach them how to control their powers - and had wished for a way to school.
And a car appeared.
A whole car from nowhere appeared on the street in front of her, keys in the ignition, and the horn honking by itself, presumably, ready to drive her to school itself.
Tom and Sabine had been shocked and, after accompanying her to school in said car, which did drive her all the way to school, immediately took Marinette to the headmaster’s office to discuss this startling news.
“Well, it seems that, despite being the latest bloomer we’ve had at this school, Ms. Dupain- Cheng’s power is a pure manifestation of creation.” Principal Damocles sat forward in his seat with his fingers steepled in front of his face for a long minute before turning to Tom and Sabine. “I don’t believe we are the best facility for your child. She will require special training to master and contain her power as it continues to grow with her.”
So her parents had found her a special school where Marinette was one of only four students, who would become her best friends, to attend:
Adrien with the power of destruction, which happened to be the opposite pillar of Marinette’s. Outside of training, he wore elbow length gloves because the touch of his bare hands could level entire buildings.
His twin brother, Felix with the power of manipulation. Using people’s strong emotions, he could persuade a person to unleash their deepest feelings.
Alix with the power of evolution. It was a time power that seemed to pull them from reality, into a room outside of time and space that Alix had lovingly named “The Burrow”, and they would randomly disappear from minutes to hours.
And her, with the power of creation in its purest form.
They were known as the Troublesome Four by their teachers - despite Marinette claiming that all the ‘trouble’ came from Alix and Felix, she and Adrien just so happened to always be pulled along - and each of them had their own personal teacher alongside their main curriculum teachers. They also had purer forms of the basic pillars so it was easier to learn control from them.
But she was still an unknown as even her teacher, Mr. Fu, struggled to understand the magnitude of her gift. There were still limits to her powers - things she created seemed to last for only a couple of hours - but Marinette could still create any non-living object and manipulate it.
It was amazing… and a difficult situation because she had to police her thoughts, her actions, and her wishes. Any wayward thought could lead to an accidental creation and, as Fu had taught her, these creations could lead to unforeseen consequences. It was a lot for a child of only twelve to know - that she could cause something terrible to happen with one thought - but it was her burden to bear.
So she trained and trained and practiced self-discipline. She learned to keep a level head and to truly think of each word before she said them. It was hard, but she comforted herself with the thought of her soulmate.
Her meant to be.
Not only would meeting him or her give Marinette a life long partner - literally crafted for her and her for them by the universe itself - but it would also lift some of the burden from her shoulders as she would finally gain full use and control of her powers.
And they their own, whatever they might be.
Because she had been taught that, as in all things, soulmates were equal. If one had a kwami, the other one had a kwami. If one got their marks at eight, the other received their marks at eight. If one was gifted a power of normal strength, the other was gifted a power of similar strength.
So if her power was so strong within the first week of her awakening, then her soulmate must have had an equally interesting time.
And just like her burden would be lifted when they finally came together, so would her soulmate's, and she couldn't wait to carry their load together.
Now, eight years later, Marinette had yet to meet her soulmate. With each passing day, she hoped that they would walk through the doors of the bakery, maybe touch as she handed them a baked good, and the rest of the world would melt away as they bonded.
But it had yet to happen.
Mr. Fu had once suggested to her parents that they should find and visit other speciality schools. If Marinette had to attend one, then there was no doubt that her other half would have to attend one too! He honestly insisted they do so, as it would make wrangling her power so much easier so much faster. But Tom and Sabine had been against it.
“She’ll meet her soulmate when it’s time and not a second before. Rushing fate always makes things worse.”
Somedays, when her power proved to be more than she could handle or when her emotions were at the top of the hormonal roller coaster about to drop, she really hated that way of thinking. She wanted to be free of always being so freaking careful with every little thing she did! She wanted to be carefree, happy, and able to vent and curse as much as she could without worrying that the coffee shop with the mean barista that got her order wrong on purpose would suddenly burn down or that seeing her two friends Alya and Nino, whom she met through Adrien, kiss and be all cute wouldn’t literally bring about a green eyed monster.
However, most days she was grateful to her parents.
Their time would come when it was ready and when she and her soulmate was ready too.
Not a second sooner or a second later.
Marinette just hadn’t expected that it was time.
Through Alya and Nino, the Troublesome Four had been able to befriend a whole friend group of others. Each of them had their own powers that varied in strength from relatively weak to slightly above average, and they had all been amazed at the four’s capabilities.
But treated them as equals, as friends.
Today happened to be one of those friend’s, Juleka’s, birthday.
So after getting a thumbs up picture from Nadja, and a long winded explanation the specialist had given about Manon’s awakening, she had grabbed the birthday cakes her parents had been paid to make, and gone to the boat where the Couffaines resided.
Everyone was there and it was so nice to be surrounded by the friends she loved so much… and a couple of new people.
“This is Nooroo, my kwami.” Felix said, waving towards the floating purple butterfly, before turning towards a regal woman with cool, intelligent eyes. “And this is Kagami, my soulmate, and her kwami Longg.”
The woman gave them a tight smile. “Hello everyone. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The dragon kwami bowed in lieu of speaking.
Eyeing the pairs matching tattoos where Felix's usual dragon eyes were surrounded by multicolored butterfly wings, Marinette couldn’t help herself. Squealing, she threw her arms first around Felix, then Kagami. “Oh my gosh! I’m so happy for you!”
“Thank you, Marinette.” Despite his passive face, she could see the happiness in her childhood friend’s eyes. “We are quite happy to have found another.”
And while unable to really read her expression, Marinette was certain Kagami was just as happy as Felix.
Before she could say anything else, Anarka Couffaine - Juleka’s mother and captain of the vessel - whizzed by in a whirlwind, hugging her and grabbing the cakes from her in one smooth motion. In a blink, she was already at the front of the ship lining the tables there with the desserts. “Marinette! Be a sweet lass 'n go get me son from his cabin below deck! Tell 'im t' bring his guitar 'n the shantey Jagged wrote fer Jules.”
“Okay!”
She paused to hug Adrien and Alix before making her way below deck excitedly. This wasn’t her first time on the boat, but it was her first time getting to meet Juleka’s older brother whose name was escaping her at the moment. Juleka had told them for years about how her brother was like the Troublesome Four, having a super powerful awakening, and how he’d had to go to school abroad because there was no one in their country who could help him with his power.
“His power has something to do with time manipulation. According to him, he would get stuck in time loops constantly and have no way out of them until he found a specific solution. He would have the same conversations with us ten, twenty, a hundred times and we would never notice.”
This mysterious brother was now in college, but was still training under the same teacher he’d been with for ten years. He was only home to celebrate their birthdays as they were born on the same day but two years apart.
Marinette was excited to meet him because Juleka had been bragging and singing his praises - in her own quiet way - for years and anyone who had the timid goth happy enough to talk about them at a normal speaking level was someone she couldn’t wait to meet and befriend… as long as she didn’t make a fool of herself when introducing herself.
Which she did almost immediately.
So excited, she hadn’t seen the roll of gift wrap in front of the door. Naturally, she stepped on it, tripped, and landed face first on the carpet.
There was a creak of bed springs and then a soft voice. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She huffed as she pushed up to all fours and looked herself over to make sure she was completely intact. When she found that nothing seemed bruised or broken, she sighed. “I’m just clumsy as heck.”
There was a soft chuckle and then a hand appeared in front of her face. “Happens to the best of us. Let me help you up.”
“Thanks. I’m usually -” The words were cut off as she reached for the hand and looked up. Their eyes met the same moment their hands did and the world melted around them and they were surrounded by silence.
Soulmates.
The word echoed in Marinette’s head seconds before warmth filled her body starting from the point of their contact. The warmth grew and grew until she found herself falling into him… or, better, them falling into each other. His hands slid to her waist as hers smoothed up and around his neck. Without a single thought, their lips touched.
And the world exploded around them.
Colors burst behind her eyelids and the sounds of their heartbeats - pounding the same rhythm in their chests - were so loud that Marinette could feel her body vibrating from it. Her skin felt like it was on fire, but not in a painful way, and she could taste him: blueberries and cinnamon and vanilla.
Soulmates.
Soon, everything lessened - but not back to how they were - but, instead of letting go, their arms tightened around each other and they fell even deeper into their kiss.
Honestly, she never wanted to let go, but at a gasp of ‘oh my’ had them pulling away. However, neither turned towards the new person. Instead, the two stared into each other’s eyes completely in awe and absorbed in one another.
Until a tiny, childlike voice whispered in her ear. “His name is Luka.”
Marinette’s heart felt as if it would explode. “Luka.”
Seemingly close by and far away at the same time, Sass was whispering something but the words were lost on her as Luka - her Luka - smiled. “Marinette.”
They stood there for another few moments before the childlike voice spoke again. “Marinette!”
Shaking her head, Marinette turned and was greeted by the cutest little bug kwami. Red with black spots and big blue eyes, the kwami smiled at her. “I’m so excited to finally meet you!”
Understanding dawned on Marinette. “You’re my kwami!”
“I am! And I’m so happy that you and Luka have finally found each other! He’s amazing!”
In front of her, Luka chuckled softly. “Don’t hype me up too much, Tikki. We should learn about each other naturally.”
Tikki rolled her eyes but smiled widely and Marinette felt her chest bubbling with happiness.
And then she got a glimpse of her arms in the mirror behind him.
“Oh my god.”
Lifting her arms in front of her face, Marinette shoved her sleeves as fair back as she could and was amazed at what her revealed skin showed her.
Ladybugs.
There were ladybugs dotting her arms - and her stomach she would discover during her shower that night - appearing to be crawling along the body of the snakes.
Looking past her arms, she could see the heads of snakes peeking from just below the collar of Luka’s shirt. Snakes that were identical to hers.
Their SoulMarks had merged together, his ladybugs on her and her snakes on him, into one intricate tattoo across their bodies.
It was beautiful.
For some reason, it took that realization for it to truly hit Marinette.
Tears in her eyes, she looked up at Luka’s beautiful face. “You’re my soulmate. You’re really my soulmate.”
Cupping her cheeks, Luka pressed his forehead to hers and smiled a gentle smile. “And you’re my soulmate.”
The two kissed and so many emotions swelled inside of Marinette that she wasn’t surprised when it manifested around them. The smell of flowers filled their noses and, upon pulling away, Luka chuckled at the sight of red roses in bloom surrounding them.
“I forgot that Tikki said she was the goddess of creation.”
Marinette blushed but laughed with him. “Yeah. It can get a little crazy around me sometimes.”
“I understand that: time seems to stop around me.”
Marinette giggled even louder at the joke before settling. Staring into his eyes, she sighed happily. “Well I hope you don’t mind spending all that time with me.”
Luka’s thumbs brushed over the apples of her cheeks. “There’s no one else I’d rather pause the world with.”
The two leaned in to kiss again when a squeal, louder than anything they’d heard before, filled the room. Turning, they saw all of their friends and Luka’s mom standing at the door. However, it was Juleka who drew most of the attention as her eyes were wide and she was pointing excitedly at them.
“I knew it! I knew it!” She shouted, bouncing on her feet in a very uncharacteristic way. “The moment Luka told me about Tikki and I met Marinette I knew it!”
Everyone laughed.
“O' course ye knew: ye 'ave the power o' foresight!” Anarka shook her head before grinning. “Well now we 'ave even more t' celebrate! Everyone get upstairs so we can party!”
The lower deck cleared out until it was just Luka and Marinette again.
Marinette, a little nervous now that everything had had a moment to settle, pulled her lip between her teeth and gazed shyly at her soulmate who she hardly knew. “What now?”
Luka’s smile was already so comforting to her that with just a glimpse of it, her heart slowed and her worries seemed to fade away. “Now we go upstairs to celebrate our birthday.”
That’s right! In all the excitement she had forgotten that it was his birthday too.
“Then,” He continued as he weaved his fingers through hers. “We can go out on a proper date… if you want?”
Heart bursting in her chest, she couldn’t help but smile. “I want.”
Love quickly blossomed between the two and even though the full weight of her power lay heavily on her shoulders, Marinette found it much easier to carry because she was no longer doing it alone.
She had her soulmate, she had Luka to help her now, and he had her. They would carry the burden of their gift together, hand and hand.
As it was always meant to be.