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Marinette's little kitten had kept her company throughout her entire life. It was there when all of her friends found their soulmates at a young age, it was there when she first got rejected by a fashion house at the ripe age of thirteen, and it was there when she had her first heartbreak over a guy who she could see now wasn't even worth it.
Life was intricate and messy, is what her parents always told her.
When she first asked about why there was a cat on her skin, her parents smiled at each other and told her that the little kitten was an indication that her soulmate existed and was out there and one day, she would find them.
Since then, she found comfort in the little black cat that liked to hang around her shoulders or drape itself unceremoniously on her right shoulder. It even made her giggle when it curled up on her stomach to sleep just like a real cat would.
She couldn't feel it moving yet. That was reserved for when you met them and had known them for a while. It was a gradual process, or so her parents said. The stronger your bond, the more you could feel it.
Her father said that when her mother was particularly annoyed, the koi fish on his skin would migrate down to his left ankle and swim in circles around it. He said it felt like needles were poking his skin, but he was grateful because that meant he knew all he had to do was buy her a few of her favorite flowers and she would feel better.
Her mother said that when her father got in a playful mood, her panda would do somersaults across her stomach. It happened often enough that her mother could often be seen giggling to herself from the ticklish action.
Seeing her best friend realize who her soulmate was had been incredibly funny. At least to Marinette.
For years, Nino had half resented his soulmark. He said the jumpy, flashy fox that liked to crawl up and down his arm was distracting and annoying, and if this was how his soulmate was going to be, he wanted nothing to do with her.
Secretly, the rest of the class just thought he was terrified to have someone who was feistier than Chloe.
But when Alya transferred into their class halfway through their first year of lycee, oddly enough, the usually active fox stopped moving and just sat still on his forearm. Whenever Alya was around him, the fox refuses to move.
Nino said he wanted her to move in with him as soon as possible because jumping was driving him crazy when she wasn't near.
Alya's mark, a bright green turtle, was fascinating to watch. It was the most expressive animal Marinette had seen. It got broody when Nino did, and when he was excited, it spun around on its shell. Marinette found it particularly hilarious that when the turtle slept, the snore marks were tiny music notes instead of Z's.
Nathaniel said he knew right away that Chloe was his soulmate. It was kind of hard not to when she wore yellow and black every day and called herself a queen bee.
And just like soulmarks aged as their human counterparts did, they also changed and morphed as personalities and traits changed.
When Chloe was younger, the bee that lounged primarily on the back of Nathaniel's hand had a dainty tiara on its head. When their class got to lycee, it grew into a proud crown whose gem colors changed depending on what mood Chloe was in.
Chloe had also known right away who her soulmate was. It wasn't hard to match the bright red of the cardinal to the bright red of his hair. The little bird flew around her body when he got in a creative spiral. Occasionally, it would happen for hours at a time, and Chloe would have to hunt him down and pull him out, just so she could get some sleep.
Chloe also loved to bring up the fact that since Nathaniel was younger than her, for the first few months of her life, her soulmark was just an egg. And she had the embarrassing baby pictures to prove it.
It came as no surprise to anyone that Rose and Juleka were soulmates. They'd known each other since they were babies, so for as long as they could remember, they'd been able to feel their marks.
Juleka's white rabbit often hung around Juleka's neck, twitching its unnaturally pink nose at an insane pace. Marinette didn't know how Juleka never had the urge to itch it.
Rose's purple butterfly was much more subdued. Marinette had never seen it move from above Rose's heart. The only indication that it could move was the gentle flapping of its wings, which changed its speed depending on how Juleka was feeling.
Ivan and Mylene was a bit of a surprise, but they were so sweet together, that no one had the heart to say anything.
Ivan's tiny mouse liked to sit in the palm of his left hand, and had constant changing eye colors. He never understood it when they were younger, but looking back, he knew now that it was because of how often Mylene dyed her hair. He talked about how he checked his mark's eyes every day to see if anything changed from the day before. Marinette thought it was tooth rotting-ly adorable.
Mylene's whale shark was a constant that never seemed to change. It wasn't like most people's emotion-driven marks, but seemed to just follow the same steady path of swimming slowly from one leg to the other. When the mark got strong enough, Mylene said it grounded her during bad panic attacks. Ivan confided in Marinette later that he was relieved that his mark helped, because before it grew strong enough, he was constantly afraid that one day Mylene could panic without him knowing and something horrible would happen to her. After her declaration that her mark always brought her back, he was less hesitant to leave her alone.
Adrien loved his tiny ladybug.
Even without having met her yet, he could tell all of what his soulmate was feeling.
When she was angry, the little bug would stand in place and stomp it's little legs. It was amusing to watch and he couldn't wait until he was able to feel it.
When she was happy, it would fly around in such a fast circle on his wrist that all he could really see was a little red blur.
When she was sad, the ladybug would wander in slow, random patterns across his back. He liked to think that it was just his soulmate wandering Paris clearing her head.
It was a Tuesday afternoon in her final year of lycee when she felt a strong bapbapbap on her shoulder. Marinette jumped and slapped a hand to her shoulder.
For almost two years now, she'd been able to feel the faintest movement from her cat: whispers of its whiskers tickling her stomach, the tail barely brushing her back, faint purring at night. But nothing as strong as this.
Her soulmate was upset, that much she could tell. Then, a noise in front of her caught her attention. Adrien was tapping a pencil angrily against the paper in front of him. It had been a pop quiz and she guessed that he didn't really know any of the answers. She hadn't either, but she hadn't really cared. Ms. Bustier was a bit lax with her pop quiz grades.
But the timing of the pencil tapping and the cat hitting her shoulder was what really made her focus. She had known Adrien for years; if he was her soulmate, why was she just feeling the effects now?
True, she had known him for years, but had she really known him?
It was only last night at a party when they had really truly talked. Since everyone else in their class had soulmates, she and Adrien had found each other and bonded over their shared soulmate-less lives. They'd chatted about everything from their favorite reality shows to what they wanted their bedrooms walls to be painted in ten years' time.
It had to have been that. They'd finally bonded and their marks knew it too.
She watched fascinated as her own wonder and excitement presented themselves on Adrien's skin. The tiny ladybug she'd seen so many times fluttered around his fingers, the ones tapping the pencil. Adrien jerked, looked down at his hand, and stopped tapping. He felt it too.
Marinette's cat stopped hitting her shoulder.
The ladybug flew up his arm, towards Marinette. Adrien's eyes followed it. When nothing happened, it crawled back down his arm and flew up it again. This time, Adrien kept going and locked eyes with Marinette.
There was a moment when nothing happened. Then her cat started purring and his ladybug started stomping excitedly.