Too Young For Love (On Hold) ~ A Miraculous Love Story

Prologue: Everything has Changed

Marinette could still taste him on her lips. They salty flavor of his soft skin and the way his warm hands felt as they ran down her sides. She'd never thought of him as anything more than a friend before that night –her goofy, flirtatious kitty –but now things had completely changed for the both of them.

Her phone buzzed on her desk and Marinette briefly glanced down to see a picture of Alya flashing across her screen. The picture was taken a couple days prior, with both girls smiling brightly into the screen, her thick-rimmed glasses reflecting the light of the flash.

"Hey, Alya, what's up?" Marinette chewed on her nails as she stared at the familiar wallpaper in front of her. Adrien's face was plastered everywhere with pink, drawn hearts encircling every portrait of his face.

She used to love staring at it –at him, but now the guilt of what she and Chat had done left her with guilt building at the pit of her stomach, wondering whether she had any right to have his pictures at all.

"Girl, where are you? Didn't you hear the news about Adrien's dad?" asked Alya, her voice high.

Marinette's eyes widened and suddenly her mind went blank. Hands shaking, she quickly laid the phone on her lap and tried to keep her eyes from wandering. "N –No, what happened," her voice softened, "Is Adrien okay?"

"I don't know. He won't speak reply to any of our messages. You need to get yourself over here right now," she replied.

From behind Alya's curvy silhouette she could see Nino walking towards the phone, peering over Alya's shoulder. His face was grim, lips pulled back into a taunt line and the sparkle absent from his eyes. Immediately all her guilt was replaced with fear. She didn't need to be told twice.

"I'm on my way." She ended the call and grabbed her bag off the back of her chair, racing toward the trapdoor above her bed. Tikki flew up from her desk, blue eyes wide. "Marinette, what is it?"

"I don't know, Tikki, but I'm worried about Adrien." She opened the hatch and pulled herself up onto her balcony, giving Tikki just enough time to slip through before I fell back shut. "We need to leave now."

"Do you think they know?" she asked. Marinette hesitated, her hands instinctively moving away from the balcony railing toward her chest. No. They couldn't know. No one could.

"Tikki, spots on!" she cried and in a flash of pink light she was Ladybug, soaring through the streets of Paris to comfort the boy she loved and desperately hoping he was okay.

Last night, before running into Hawk Moth, something had shifted between her and Chat Noir. She wasn't sure what it was, but she'd loved every second of it. Then it'd all gone to hell when they discover Hawk Moth was Gabriel Agreste.

Ladybug landed in an alleyway not too far from his mansion and transformed back into her civilian self, opening her purse enough for Tikki to slip inside. She ran across the street, barely dodging the passing cars as she made it to the sidewalk and sidestepped all the pedestrians with only Adrien in mind.

A large truck was parked just in front of the manor gates with people dressed in untidy uniforms moving between the two. The back was open, revealing a cluster of old, dusty furniture and Marinette's breath caught in her throat when she saw two men in overalls loading a piano into the vehicle.

Adrien's piano.

"Marinette!"

She snapped her head from the truck to see Alya rushing towards her. She could barely register Alya's hands on her shoulder, holding her firmly as though she could keep Marinette anchored in the present instead of the unbearable future.