Chapter Text
Three years had passed since the moment he’d known Marinette was his soul mate. Before that day, he’d never really interacted with her much. Nathanael and Marinette had been in the same classes ever since he’d entered school at the age of nine, which meant that there was always some interaction between them, but never much.
At least, not until he’d realized she was his soul mate.
All his life he’d been staring at pictures of the tattoo on the back of his left shoulder, desperately trying to figure out what it could mean.
“Your tattoo depicts a significant moment in the relationship between you and your soul mate,” his parents had told him. “It can be metaphorical or literal, extremely clear or extremely vague, but one way or another it will bring the two of you together.” But all it was was a simple line of leaves dotted with pink flowers! It was elegant and beautiful and he had no qualms with it being a permanent part of his skin, but how was a line of flowers supposed to lead him to his soul mate? Every time Nathanael was near a cherry blossom tree in bloom he would be incredibly anxious, wondering if he would meet them if he stood near it long enough or something. Obviously that never worked.
But the meaning of the tattoo became unmistakable the day Marinette showed up to school with her art project in hand.
Of course he’d always noticed Marinette’s artistic ability. She was one of the only other people in their class who seemed to thoroughly enjoy art projects like he did, and her designs always showed great ability. But the day she’d shown up to school with a shirt of her own design in hand, Nathanael felt that he had never seen anything so beautiful.
He could have recognized it anywhere. In fact, he’d seen it long before the designer herself had even thought of it. The simple line of leaves dotted with pink flowers that decorated the shirt was the exact same design that had decorated his shoulder since the day he was born.
That meant that without a doubt, Marinette was his soul mate.
Every day after that was spent admiring her, speaking to her, getting to know her. He’d become good friends with her over the years, he’d even come to love her. And dare he say it, as of late he was pretty sure she was feeling the same way.
All that was left was telling her they were soul mates. Which was what brought them here.
It was a normal day like any other, perhaps aside from the pouring rain. The school day had gone by without anything particularly noteworthy happening, and now Nathanael was walking Marinette home like he did every day. He had gotten into the habit long ago when they had realized they lived in the same direction. Of course, it wasn’t that long of a walk since her family’s bakery was directly across the street from the school, but it did mean a little extra time with her (and maybe a croissant) every day.
So what made this the day that he would finally tell her about his tattoo? Well…
“Did you read Alya’s article covering that recent hunter attack?” Marinette asked with downcast eyes as they huddled under an umbrella and made their way down the front steps of the school.
Hunters. The main reason that living in Paris was dangerous for Nathanael and people like him. “The one on the Agreste household?”
“Yeah…”
The Agreste family was the most recent victim in the long string of brutal hunter attacks stretching back long before Nathanael could remember. Having been a supernatural in Paris since the day he was born, Nathanael had learned to live with the constant fear of being revealed and becoming prey to a hunter attack. But even being as accustomed to it as he was, hearing about attacks such as this one was always hard.
“I know hunter attacks happen often, but this one is just…” Marinette trailed off, seemingly unable to find the proper words to cover the outright violence of this particular attack. He thought the silence was suitable.
“Yeah,” he said. “It really is.”
According to Alya’s article, the Agreste mansion had housed fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, his wife, and his son. When an unfortunate discovery had led to the outing of the family as werecats, hunters had acted immediately to destroy them. As was customary among hunter attacks, the mansion had been set aflame, trapping residents inside unless they were lucky enough to escape. What made this one even worse, however, was that the hunters had stuck around long enough to catch Madame Agreste in flight and had mercilessly slaughtered her, even going so far as to leave her body on display for all the newscasters to see. As for the other two residents, their bodies were never found. They were presumed dead.
The attack was a clear message to other supernaturals: get out or we’ll take you out.
Several members of Nathanael’s family had listened to the message and retreated to the ocean. Being mercreatures living on land was already hard enough without the constant threat of being slaughtered after all. He couldn’t really blame them.
He and Marinette walked the rest of the way in a mournful silence until they reached the bakery. “Do you want to come in for a little while?” Marinette offered with her hand on the door. “You can hang out until the rain stops if you want.”
He smiled at her. “Yeah, I’d love-,” Nathanael was cut off by the sensation of something rubbing against his leg. He looked down to see the one piece of he and Marinette’s puzzle that had been missing: a black cat.
Nathanael immediately bent down and picked up the damp creature. “Hey there little one. What are you doing out here in the rain?” Marinette giggled as she scratched the cat’s head. He purred and rubbed against her hand affectionately.
“What a sweetie,” she said. “Come on, let’s take him inside until the rain clears.” Nathanael nodded and followed her into the shop.
“Welcome home Marinette! Hello Nathanael! Whatcha got there?” The 195 cm tall pure muscle man that was Marinette’s father struck quite the intimidating figure. But in the time that Nathanael had come to know her family, he had found it was surprisingly easy not to be afraid of him. The man was practically a big teddy bear.
“Afternoon Monsieur Dupain,” Nathanael greeted. “This cat was outside in the rain.”
Marinette placed a kiss upon her father’s cheek before grabbing two croissants. “We’re going to shelter him until the rain stops, is that okay?”
Based on the knowing smile that Tom sent Nathanael’s way, he was almost certain her father was thinking the same thing he was. Nathanael tried to hide his blushing face behind the cat. “Of course,” the man said. “And if the rain keeps up for a while, you’re welcome to stay for dinner Nathanael.”
“Thank you sir,” he said as he followed Marinette through the door to the back. Upon reaching the upper landing they were greeted by Marinette’s mother with a warm smile. Though she was the complete opposite of her husband in terms of physique, the small woman was every bit as warm and gentle—if not more so.
“Hello Madame Cheng,” Nathanael greeted.
“Nathanael, how many times have I told you to call me Sabine?” she responded with a smile. Her eyes caught sight of the cat in his arms and a knowing look came to her eyes that matched her husband’s.
“Too many times Madame,” he said, hoping he wasn’t still blushing furiously.
“This poor cat was out in the rain Maman. We’re going to take care of him until it clears up outside,” Marinette said as she grabbed a bowl and some cream from the fridge.
“Oh how sweet of you,” she said. “Are you planning on staying for dinner Nathanael? We’d love to have you.”
“Oh, um…” he looked to Marinette, who was grabbing a towel and some blankets from a nearby cupboard. She merely shrugged. “Maybe. Depends on how long it rains I guess.” Sabine smiled.
“Of course sweetie, stay as long as you like.”
“Thanks Maman!” Marinette said as she pecked her mother on the cheek. Then the two of them (plus the cat) made their way upstairs to her room.
“So I know it isn’t due for another week, but I was thinking we could start working on the history project.” Marinette plopped herself down on the floor of her bedroom and spread out the towel as she spoke. Nathanael knelt down and placed the cat onto it for her to start drying him off. He took advantage of the moment to steal a glance at Marinette’s ankle, just for confirmation.
Unlike many people, Marinette had never been interested in hiding her soul mate tattoo. She’d explained that she just didn’t see a point in it.
“Hiding it from others won’t change what it is or how it works,” she’d said. “So what if people know what my soul mate tattoo is? It’s not like it’s bad. Everyone has one.”
And with that logic, Marinette had never allowed her tattoo to influence her fashion choices like many others had. Nathanael had met people who only wore long sleeves because their tattoo was on their arm, or people who would never be seen swimming because their tattoo was on their back. But Marinette didn’t spare a second thought on the matter, choosing to wear capris pants that didn’t cover the tattoo on her ankle.
And so even though he didn’t need to look to know what it was, Nathanael decided to check one last time before he spoke. But sure enough, it hadn’t changed since the last time he’d seen it. Clear as day, the image that sat upon Marinette’s ankle was that of a black cat.