COMPLETED
From the moment you're born, there's a timer on your wrist counting down the days until you meet your soulmate.
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Marinette DuPain-Cheng was never all that enthralled by her soulmate timer like most of her friends were. She mainly preferr...
One week had passed since Marinette saw her timer. One week had passed since Marinette's life changed forever.
𝟤𝟦 𝒹𝒶𝓎𝓈
24 days until Marinette would meet her soulmate. She was both nervous and ecstatic. Mostly though, her nose itched.
Achoo!
Marinette sneezed from all the flour in her nose. She was downstairs in the bakery working on a cake that Nadjia Chamack had ordered for the celebration of her promotion to a newscaster. It was shaped like the Eiffel Tower and would take days to complete. On top of that, she had three batches of croissants in the oven that needed to be put in the glass display in the front and she still had to put the macaroons in the chiller. Needless to say, her timer was almost the last thing on her mind. Almost.
Ding!
The oven went off, startling Marinette so bad she fell over with a yelp and a crash. Luckily all she ran into was the counter, but it still hurt. She picked herself up carefully and rushed over to the oven to take out the croissants, setting them on the cooling racks and replacing them with the next few batches. She then rushed over to the pans of hot macaroons and carried those into the chiller, nearly dropping them on the way there. She finally made her way back at the cake, peacefully stirring the batter for the center layer while the bottom layer cooled on a rack nearby. She started humming a tune to herself when her phone began to ring.
Marinette let out a yelp but managed not to fall over or throw anything. She carefully put the batter in the oven before taking out her phone, her hands still in oven mitts. She smiled when she checked the caller ID as she swiped the green answer button with her nose.
"Hey, Nath," she smiled as she set the phone down on the counter in a way that her best friend could still see her through the video call.
"Hey, Mari, what's up?" The red-haired boy greeted. On the screen, Marinette could see that he was walking down the streets of Paris.
Marinette and Nathaniel had known each other for years. They were in the same art class in 5th grade when Nathaniel walked up to Marinette and gave her one of his drawings and said he was in love with her. Of course, that relationship didn't last long before they forgot about it. However, they had been inseparable ever since. Marinette still kept the drawing, hanging on the corkboard in her room.
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That drawing inspired Marinette's first-ever hand-stitched design when she was 12: a black sundress with small birds sitting on the hem of the skirt and red spots along the sleeves and collar. To this day, it sat on a mannequin by her sewing desk and she kept tweaking it, making it perfect.
"Not much, just working. Where are you headed?" She asked as she took off her oven mitts and poured the flour into the next batch of cake batter.
"Well, I was hoping your place if you're cool with it,"
"You know I'm always cool with it, tomato. I can put you to work, too, since I'm running the place myself."
The front door opened with a ding of the bell to the bakery. Before Marinette could walk out in front, Nathaniel walked into the back room where Marinette was, still holding his phone with a smile. "When are your parents getting back, again?" He asked, hugging her and grabbing the old apron he had claimed years ago.
"They're getting back in a few more weeks. They were supposed to come back in a week, but I guess things are going really well in America and I had the bakery under control so- ... what?" Marinette paused when she noticed Nathaniel staring at her.
"Don't 'what' me! Mari, where's your bracelet and, more importantly, HOW COME YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THAT YOU'RE MEETING YOUR SOULMATE IN 24 DAYS!"
