When you turn 16 you get a notebook that lets you talk to your soulmate. It gives you a chance to decide if your going to find each other or just be friends and be a support for each other. Mari's parents handed her notebook, shortly after school and she went up to her room. Her book was empty. Was her soulmate 16 yet? Did she know them? She simply wrote Hello?  And waited. 

Ondine? Came the reply. 

Oh K no I'm so sorry. 

Oh... You know me then? 

Very well K. Wanna hint or want me to just tell you?

You know I love a challenge. So give me 5 guesses. 

3, I'll give you three. Hint one: I'm a single girl in your class. 

So you can't be  Sabrina, Alya Juls or Rose, or Mylene, so that leaves Chloe, Alix Lila and M

So what's your guess K? 

Please tell me you're not Chloe? 

Correct. 

Thank goodness! Okay, next hint. 

I'm shorter than you. By a long shot..... 

Alix? 

Kim, who class you K more than anyone else? 

Oh M... I'm sorry I know you would have wanted Adrien... 

K we've been friends for years! I'm happy we can keep this friendship, look you have Ondine so I'll keep dreaming about Adrien. Maybe even work up some courage to tell him. And hey at least we know we always have each other. :) 

Ya, we do! I'm glad it's you M. 
But can we not tell the class? I just don't need that drama in my life right now. They'd blame me for wrecking Adriennte :P 

I think I like that idea. Just say no one has written back yet?

Agreed. 

Mari stared at her book. Kim was her soulmate eh? She could live with that. Sure he was a total goof but their families had always been close. So she could live with this. Also if Kim was her soulmate maybe he would defend her against Lila. I'm gonna do some homework now K, write me whenever you want. 
Oh! Feel free to tell Ondine if you want. It's only fair after all.

I might just do that. Bye M :) 

She wasn't quite sure two which he meant, but she smile and closed her book. 

They didn't write for a few days, they just shared small smiles in class. Mari pondered how much she should really tell him, about Lila, Ladybug, Chat Noir, and being the guardian? How much was fair to put on him. Tiki was really no help, this was the first time Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't soulmates so she only shrugged. Their art teacher gave them a free period to work on projects, Mari was ahead in art so she put her headphones in and sat in the back corner. She enjoyed the mix of Jagged Stone, Lukas solo projects and Kitty Section Music that played in her ears thanks to Nino mixing them for her. She opened her sketchbook and got lost in her drawing. When the bell finally chimed and awoke her from the drawing daze she saw hadn't drawn design but rather a lovely ocean view. She giggled to herself maybe Kim was rubbing off on her. 

That's beautiful Mare, I didn't realize you were so skilled in things other than clothes! 

Oh, Shoot I didn't mean to draw in our book! I must have grabbed it by mistake!

That's okay I did the same thing this morning. Luckily I sat by myself today. So I could watch you work. I've never seen you get in the zone like that before. I know it happens when Odie and I swim, but I didn't know artists could do it too. You're real talented M. 

Thanks, K. I'll have to come to watch you compete sometime if Ondine doesn't mind, that is. Also, mind if I tell Adrien I found my soulmate and that we've chosen friendship while confessing my feelings? 

Heck ya, Mare! You tell your man and go get him! 

Thanks, K, I'll let you know how it goes. 

Marinette waited for Adrien to finish fencing. She had gone home and gotten her real sketchbook and sat down to try and design something. "Hey, Marinette!" 

"Eepk! Sorry, Adrien guess I was in the zone a bit, didn't hear you." She smiled. 

"All good, I knew it was a risk approaching you like this. Why did you come back to school to draw? Surely your balcony has a better inspirational view." He leaned down to see what she was drawing.

"I was actually was hoping to talk to you!" Her voice jumped an active and she cursed to herself. 

"Oh well, I have a few minutes before my bodyguard shows up. What did you want to talk about?" 

"Well..." She closed her book and played with her hands. "I got my soulmate book last week." 

"Oh, right! I had forgotten about your sixteenth birthday." 

"Ya, well anyway, he's in our class, but in a happy relationship. So we have chosen to be each other's support role. But I know you haven't said anything about your soulmate book, but I wanted to tell you that I have liked you for a long time. And if you're also your soulmate's support role, I was wondering if you would like to go to the movies with me sometimes?" She looked down fiddling with her book. 

"Oh, Mare that's so incredibly sweet of you. But you see, my soulmate has been waiting for me to turn sixteen and dude to both our public images, we've been keeping everything low key. So I'll have to decline. I'm flattered though." He gave her a sweet smile and walked off to his ride. 

Marinette sat there for a moment and looked at Tikik, "If he is happy with his soulmate I will be happy for him. And see what life has for me." She smiles and walks home. She should tell Kim he'll want to know. But right now she wants to pretend it hasn't happened yet. She wants to live in denial a little bit longer. So instead she curls up in bed and watches nothingness on her phone. Hawkmoth had already been a bother today so she wasn't likely to hear from him again today. She hears pencil scratches on her notebook, Kim must be done practice and wanting answer from her.  She looked at it, How'd it go? You said you'd tell me what happened? She gave him no answer, he seemed to wait a moment, then she heard more noise, so she looked and he'd drawn her a monkey saying please smile. She had giggled but still was in denial land.  

She didn't come down for supper, texting her mom [headache, not hungry.] Her mom probably knew she was lying but didn't fight her on it. It was about eight-thirty when her trap door opened. "Mom honestly I'm fine, I just need some rest." 

"I've been called a lot of names over the years, mom is not one of them." Kim's voice met her ears. 

"Kim! You're here! Why?" 

"You won't answer me. I got worried." He shrugged and climbed up her ladder. "He turned you down right?" He sat on the foot of her bed. 

She pulled her cat pillow close to her chest. She only nodded. Kim opens his arms. She let herself fall into a hug. "He is happy with his soulmate. I'll be happy with what my life looks like." Her smile was forced and she knew it. Kim pulled them down to be laying down on her bed. "Kim what are you doing? What about Ondi.... " 

Kim stopped her, "Look Ondine is my girlfriend and I love her. But are your soulmate and one of my oldest friends. I will always protect you and care for you. Ondine understands that. And she can handle it." He wrapped her in the blanket and he held her while he lay above the bedding. "Just let me let you feel cared for okay? And for what it's worth if I had known you were my soulmate I never would have wasted time on Chloe." She giggled and sighed feeling her body warm-up. But she couldn't help but wonder how would their bond change once she did find someone to love her, or once he found out everything. 

"Kim? Odine and my birthdays aren't that far apart has she written to her soulmate yet?" She let her body relax against his. 

"Not yet no. She's scared but she is going too soon. Hey, maybe I could set you two up! Could be like the best supportive friendship ever!" His smile was so big. He is such a goof. 

"Ya, maybe." She fidgeted with her hands. She really wasn't ready to think about that yet. 

"Sorry, too soon I know." He hugged her. 

"Do you find it odd that we're soulmates?" Her voice was bearly above a whisper. 

"Maybe a bit, like you and Adrien that would have made sense. I and Ondine make sense but you and me? I can't quite pinpoint why the universe wants us together."

"Or to be in each other's lives forever." 

"Mar what do you do when you get like this? You know have emotions too big to deal with?" 

"I draw, or design. Helps to express the feelings I guess." She shrugged.

"Okay, well we don't need our book to talk to each other we have each other's cellphones numbers soo here's my suggestion. Instead of writing to each other whenever you feel like an emotion is too much, you draw a design or a picture and I will colour it! Mom use to make me colour when I would get upset and it would help me focus and calm down."

"I can see auntie doing that for you. I had no idea you liked colouring, though. But I think that's a good idea. and maybe I could write a description of what happened if I feel like talking after drawing. You can also ask me to draw for you if you want to colour a picture." She smiled at him. 

"I like that idea, I also like adding a description. It can help us support each other." Kim laid with her a while, he never went over the covers but he didn't leave her alone either.

When she woke up the next morning alone, and maybe a little sad but ready to tell Alya what happened. She was just about to get dressed in her normal clothes when she stopped, why keep the same style all the time? She was 16, time for a change, she pulled out a red and white leathermen jacket she put on a black tank top with some teal jeans, she had to admit she kinda loved it. She put her hair up in a bun and she had to admit she felt good. 

He parents praised her new look, as she grabbed a croissant on her way out the door. Nino told her she looked cute with a jab from Alya and the girls squealed at her new look. Eventually, they made it to class and Alya and she sat on their shared bench. "So come on girl tell me the truth, this is an attempt to get Adrien's attention right?" Alya elbowed her in the side playfully. 

"Nope, I told him how I felt last night and he was flattered but he and his soulmate are working things out, So I'll leave him be. All I want is for him to be happy." She smiled and opened her notebook to get ready for class. 

"Oh come on, he finds his soulmate and you give up? Your not gonna fight for him?" Marinette could believe her ears. 

"Alya, do you hear yourself? That would be like someone breaking up you and Nino because they thought they were better for you them him, even though he is your soulmate! That is so wrong! No!" 

"Oh come on Mari don't be so hard on Alya, she's just trying to help you. After all, you wanted Adrien for so long, and in a way that was so well creepy, it hard to believe you'd ever give him up." Lila spoke softly and sweetly that it made Marinette feel sick. 

"Alys is that what you think of me? That I would wreck someone's soulmate's relationship? Really?" Mari pinched her nose, "You know what if that's what you think of me, I'll just go sit in the back. And Lila can sit with you. Besides, with all of Lilas hearing and seeing problems, it would be better for her wouldn't it?" She picked up her bag and her books and went to the back.

"What Mari I didn't mean to make you move! I just was trying to help..." 

Mari said nothing and simply sat down. The class soon went up in an uproar. Complaining that Mari was being harsh, or mean or worst a bully. "Guys come on, let's not be mean to Mari, after all, she can't help it, she's just jealous that all of us have found our soulmates, " Lila smirked. 

Before Mari could even answer, Kim stood up and throw his book down getting everyone. "Look, all of you need to shut up! First of all, are we all gonna ignore the fact that Lila set up Mari to look bad in that whole conversation? Mari was defending Adrien's when chooses! She didn't want to hurt him! So just don't and Lila, Mari isn't the only one who has found their soulmate, I haven't either. Sure I have Ondine, but she isn't my real soulmate, I've chosen her, but she could still choose someone new." Kim picked up his stuff and went to sit with Mari, "If you wanna mess with her, you mess with me." He sat with her and shared a smile. 

"Thanks, Kim" She spoke softly.

"It's about time someone stood up for you. How long have we been taking her side over yours?" he whispered, as Adrien and their teacher Mr. H came into the classroom.  Who said nothing about the two students who moved seats. 

"A long time. Probably a year and a half." 

"That's messed up, you've been with us from the start. How could we all so easily mess up?" 

"It's not important now, I'm just glad you're here now."  She smiled at him and went to work. 

The class went by quickly and she headed to the bathroom between classes. Lila followed her in, "So how did you get Kim on your side? I told you I would take everything away from you Marinette and I still will." Lila towered over her short stature. "Be careful or else I'll take Kim down with you." She smirked and shoved her hard against the walls.

Mari didn't move. She was shocked. Lila was still on this kick? Sure the girl was mean, but Mari had made a point of staying out of her way, and not causing any more drama. Hadn't Adrien said that would work? Nope, she was over this. She needed to tell Kim everything. 

She went to the nurse to get her back checked out, and she had a bruise, she told the nurse that Lila had pushed her, and the nurse assured her, it must have been an accident. But let Mari go home to rest. 

Mari drew a picture in their book and left a description telling Kim everything. Kim did colour that picture in red, a colour representing fury. He come to her house and helped her tell her parents everything. They quickly helped her pull together evidence and got the school to keep the two girls separate. Mari had new classes and new teachers but Kim insisted they let him move with her. She tried to tell him not to but he didn't want to sit with that class anymore. She worried Ondine wouldn't take kindly to all the changes. 

About a month later, Draw for me? 

Always

Kim started to write about bad practice and how he and Ondine weren't sinking up as late, and how Ondine blamed how much time he was spending with Mari, and she understood that he felt like he needed to help her, but she wanted him to stop, to burn his book, and cut off the connection and go back to his old class. 

I told her I just couldn't M, you need support too. I couldn't just abandon you. I told her I wouldn't and she told me that maybe we should both go see our soulmates then. Apparently, hers told her, he would wait for her. So she left me. She stopped drawing and threw her notebook in a bag with a few drawing pencils and ran to his place. Sure it would have been faster as Ladybug, but she couldn't risk that yet. 

Once she got there she hugged him until he wanted to let go. Then she pulled her book out and finished her drawing. They didn't talk about how this changed their dynamic, they still told no one they were soulmates and avoided their old classmates as much as possible. As Ladybug she no longer gave Alya interviews and found new replacements for the miraculous holders. When Chat asked about it she said she'd see them do more harm than good. He didn't really fight her on it, as if he knew. 

After one battle where Chat had been killed by the Akuma because he dove in front of the Akumas target, Ladybug knew she needed another full-time teammate. But one who stayed in the shadows who hid from everyone. 

So after the battle was won and Ladybug got the okay from Chat, she went home and looked through the miraculous. The only one that suited Kim was the monkey, so with the box in her pocket, she headed over to Kim's. 

She handed him the box and simply said, "LadyBug needs a hero too." 

"Just when I thought you couldn't get any more amazing." He smiled and pulled her close. They could talk about rules and roles tomorrow. Tonight, she would be safe in the arms of her soulmate.