Miraculous Ships

Key to My Heart

No one questions the tattoos, or where they come from. Everyone gets told that the person with the matching tattoo is your soulmate, the person you'll love the most in the world. The stories are all similar, with stories of parents and grandparents' meeting because of their tattoos.

Everyone has a tattoo, either a lock or a key, decorated in a way unique to you and your soulmate. Only one lock and one key match, no others.

When you are born, the tattoo is plain, just a key or a lock, because you are too young to worry about soulmates. When you turn ten, your tattoo comes to life, patterns blooming across your skin. Then you can find your soulmate.

Your tattoo warms, buzzing electricity fills your veins and you know the matching tattoo is close. You feel drawn to them, then you look up and lock eyes with them.

Marinette looked down at the key tattooed onto her wrist, its familiar red and black spots dotting her skin. It was where she got the nickname 'Ladybug' from. Above the red and black lay a needle and thread, outlined in green, and small cat paw prints trailing towards her palm.

"Still nothing," Alya asked from beside her, noticing the look in Marinette's eyes. Alya had met Nino as soon as she had turned ten, and they had recently started dating, while Marinette hadn't even met her soulmate. Alya felt slightly sorry for her, but she knew Marinette was trying to stay positive.

"Hello everyone, today we have a new student! He is the son of fashion designer Gabriel Agreste. Would you like to say anything, Adrien?" Mr Damocles stepped aside, allowing the blond boy standing to his right to step forward.

"Hi, I'm Adrien, I guess there isn't too much to say about me, other than I'm Gabriel Agreste's son," Adrien said, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck.

Marinette felt her tattoo start to warm, and her eyes widened. For the first time ever, her tattoo was reacting to someone!

"Adri-kins," a loud, annoying, familiar vice squealed. Chloe Bourgeois. She launched herself at Adrien, wrapping her arms around his neck. Marinette felt a stab of jealousy, what was Chloe doing?

"Chloe... it's nice to see you?"

"Of course, it is, everyone loves me," Chloe seemed oblivious to the question in Adrien's tone, continuing with her attempts to kiss the boy.

"Chloe, leave him alone. Back to your desks. Adrien, you sit next to Nino in the front row," Ms Bustier entered the classroom, instantly noticing what was happening at the front of the room.

Chloe scowled, not happy with being sent back to her desk, "Ms Bustier, can Adrien sit with me?"

"No, Chloe, you sit with Sabrina and Adrien will sit with Nino. Please return to your seat."

Chloe huffed, stomping back over to her seat and slumping down, sticking her bottom lip out as she stared at Adrien, who was walking to his new seat.

"So, you're friends with Chloe, huh?" Nino turned to look at Adrien, who was offering a friendly smile and a wave. His wrist was facing Marinette, allowing her to catch a glimpse of his tattoo, which looked similar to her own, maybe even the exact same, but a lock rather than a key.

"Alya, I think Adrien has the matching tattoo to mine!" Marinette excitedly danced in her seat, happy to have finally found her soulmate. Even though it had only been a glimpse, she was nearly certain Adrien was her soulmate.

Chloe turned, having overhead Marinette and Alya's conversation, disgust clear on her face, "As if, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, fate would never pair you with MY Adri-kins. You're just not good enough for him."

Marinette felt her face turn a bright red as people turned to look between Marinette and Chloe, one of the girls still having a sinister grin on her face.

"Can I see your tattoo, Marinette?" Adrien turned in his seat, looking at Marinette. Chloe gaped at him, wondering why on earth he would pick Marinette over her, his best friend!

Marinette nodded nervously, not moving otherwise until Alya grabbed her arm and showed the tattoo on her wrist to Adrien. Adrien lifted his am up to rest it next to Marinette's, comparing their tattoos. Marinette was right, they matched perfectly, one key and one lock.

Chloe screeched from her chair, throwing herself out of it and in Adrien's direction, wrapping her hands around his upper arm and dragging him towards the door. For someone who only ordered people to do everything for her, she was ridiculously strong. Adrien struggled, but Chloe was dragging him too fast and had pulled him off his feet. He couldn't find his footing. He tried to struggle, but to everyone else it looked like he wasn't even trying, like he didn't even care that he was being dragged away from his soulmate.

Chloe snapped her fingers in Sabrina's direction. Sabrina instantly leapt out of her chair and grabbed her bag and Chloe's, as well as Adrien's as she walked past, ignoring Nino, who tried to grab the bag back from her. She scurried out the door, following Chloe out.

Adrien threw one final glance at Marinette, regretting that he didn't even have a way to contact her. Before he could call out to her, he was in the hallway and Sabrina was slamming the door shut.

Chloe looked at her friend and said, "My chauffeur is outside. Your father will be able to talk some sense into you."

Inside the classroom, Marinette's eyes filled with tears and she folded her arms in front of her on the table, letting her head fall onto them as she sobbed, her shoulders shaking. Alya hugged her, but she knew there was really nothing she could say to make this any better. As far as she knew, there were no words that would make this any better.

Fate was cruel, but Chloe Bourgeois was crueller.

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Adrien had locked himself in his room, falling into his bed face first and not moving. After he had been dragged home he had immediately disappeared from everyone's sight, wanting to be left alone and away from any questions. He just wanted to go back to school and talk to Marinette.

"Your father would like to speak to you in his office, Adrien." Nathalie turned away and walked down the hallway, hating to be the bringer of bad news, especially after the morning Adrien had suffered through. She already knew that he had met his soulmate and that Chloe Bourgeois had ripped them apart from the way Chloe had been complaining when she dragged Adrien through the door earlier this morning.

"Okay," Adrien mumbled, not wanting to leave his bed, or even his room. He was more than content staying exactly where he was and moping for the rest of his life. No interaction with anyone ever again. Unless, of course, Marinette found a way to talk to him, but that was unlikely. His father would probably put him on house arrest and stop him talking to Marinette.

Pulling himself together long enough to climb out of his bed, Adrien shuffled out of his room and towards his father's office. He knocked twice, waiting for his father's cold voice to tell him to enter.

He didn't have to wait long. "Come in."

Adrien pushed open the door and stepped inside. His father barely looked up from his paperwork as Adrien spoke, "You wanted to speak to me, Father?"

"Yes. Miss Bourgeois informed me that you had found your soulmate. As this may be a detrimental event to the company image, I have decided to pull you from public school-," Gabriel spoke as if he wasn't ruining a huge part of his son's life.

"You can't do that!"

"I am your father, I decide what is best for you! You are grounded for one month, and after that you are to cover your tattoo whenever you are in public. Do I make myself clear?

"Yes, Father."

"Good. You are dismissed." Gabriel hadn't looked up from his papers once in the entire time Adrien had been in the room. When the door slammed, he looked up, making sure he was truly gone before he called Andre.

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