In All But Name (A Soulmate AU)

IV

From summer to winter, Marinette had met six boys near her age, some college-aged, called Félix, and on their arms respectively were Etienne, Sandrine, Hugh, Mai Ling, Anaïs and Marie-Jeanette. Two of them still offered to date her to pass the time until they bumped into their soulmates and Marinette considered it, out of loneliness and the desperation that came with wanting to feel desirable and together with someone, in the end, she decided she couldn't handle it emotionally.

What didn't help was that Chat still pursued her and Adrien still considered her just a friend and Alya and Nino were getting nauseating. Marinette found herself third-wheeling them more often than not outside of school.

Sabrina found her Ariel or Ari, a boy who went to a boarding school across town, and Max was somewhat sure that he met his online on, Soulsearch, the number one site for finding ones match. His was a West Indian girl called Karina who had MAXIMILIEN and decided to seek out all Maxes in France and Québec and they were now in a long-distance relationship, already arranging for them both to go to college in Canada as they both had family there.

Everyone expected Chloé to be next with all of her huffing and puffing about her father's men searching for the prince charming with her beautiful name gracing his wrist, but it was Nathanaël. While on a field trip to the Louvre, the whole class witnessed him stop under the same painting with a short girl with straight blonde hair and a mouth full of braces. They talked about the painting, opened their bags to show each other their sketches and lo and behold, on her arm was NATHANAËL and on his was WILHELMINA.

They excitedly made plans on how to keep in touch, swapped art Tumblrs and Instagram accounts and discussed him visiting her in Switzerland over Christmas break and Marinette felt like she was watching her life rush by and the ticking clock nagged louder in her head, like she was forty-six rather than sixteen.

She was happy for him, she really was, but that didn't make her urge to scream and burst into tears any less insistent.

The world was moving on and falling in love without her.

She tried Soulsearch, using her name, country and the name of her soulmate. Marinette - France - Félix brought no results, neither did Marie-Annette -France - Félix. Marie - France - Félix brought about twelve results, ten of them were declared matched, and the other two Félixes had died since entering the database.

That was when she started to consider that maybe, just maybe, her Félix had died young, and became so upset her hands shook and she couldn't sew the zipper onto her dress.

"You're worrying too much," Alya told her during a free period. Mrs. Mendeleiev was absent, leaving them to hang around the chemistry lab. Alya has been anxiously refreshing her blog for the past fifteen minutes, watching the hit counter grow higher and higher with yesterday's Ladybug scoop. "People get married in their thirties these days, so there's no rush."

"But they start dating at fourteen," Marinette said dully, setting her chin in her palm, back in her usual position of watching Adrien from across the room. "You know, I considered giving Nathanaël another chance, just to see what it's like, and he's so sweet and artistic, we could have sketched together and shared tips for our art, but I missed my chance."

"He wasn't yours to miss," Alya pointed out. "Besides, there's plenty of fish in the sea, I mean, wait till we get to university and go to parties and join clubs, you'll meet so many guys and have your pick."

Alya must have thought that she was cheering her up, but she was failing miserably.

"I don't want my pick, I want my match," Marinette sighed wistfully.