Marinette often thought about fate. Usually her own. Usually not coherently.

In her childhood, she thought her fate was to become the knitting fairy and marry a prince. But she also thought her fate was to turn into a hamster and eat cotton candy, and that she would travel to the future and meet the Robinsons but first get to the orphanage to hug Goob.

These days, she was more convinced that her fate was to marry Adrien, and to bear him three children and design clothes for him to wear that were better than the nonsense his dad tried to put him in. She also had other things she thought was her fate, like to never have peace from superhero stuff, but that was a sideshow to the fate to do with Adrien. She was reasonably convinced this time.

Right now, though, fate was giving her a really hard time.

"Kagami," she sighed, face down on her chaise longue.

"What's the problem this time?" asked Alya, in the same voice she always used in situations like this. Placatory, but with a hint of amusement. Marinette hadn't yet figured out if the amusement was to defuse the tension, or because she was so ridiculous it was impossible not to laugh at her, but honestly she could believe both.

"She keeps flirting with him!" she said, although it probably sounded more like 'sh geebs flerdn wigim', on account of her face eating chaise longue cloth.

"So she's interested in him." Alya sighed. "Girl… you can't just give up because you have a competitor. It just means you have to confess to him quicker, okay?"

Marinette let her head fall to the side so she could see Alya. "But I suck at confessing. And she's really good at it."

"That's true." Said like it wasn't even a concession, more like the next letter of the alphabet when chanting it in class. "But I know you can do it, okay? You're a fighter."

Just for a moment, Marinette's mind took the gallop from 'what does she mean by that?' through 'oh no, she knows I'm Ladybug' and all the way into ordering a plane ticket to Brazil so she could start a new life there. However, she eventually realised that Alya might just be giving her a completely normal compliment. "I, er, maybe?"

"Yeah! You're class president and everything. You're super good at whatever you put your mind to. If you just lock in you'll have him charmed in a heartbeat!" Alya ended with a fist pump, which almost felt theatrical. Marinette was watching a play, and Alya was the actress.

"If you say so," muttered Marinette.

It was so galling. Kagami, who was a self-important jerk, had somehow caught Adrien's attention rather than repulsed it. Sure, they weren't dating, and hopefully Adrien would lock the door on her before she got anywhere, but she was still monopolising Adrien and probably making him feel uncomfortable, even though he didn't show it.

"… Adrien is way too good for her," she finished, just as muttery.

"Darn straight," said Alya. "He deserves you. And you deserve him. So go out there and get him!"

"Yeah," said Marinette. Hearing it from Alya's lips invigorated her, somehow. She pushed herself upright, and then launched herself to her feet. "Yeah! You're right. Adrien deserves better than Kagami Tsurugi, that's for —"

She was interrupted by a crash. A crash that sounded suspiciously like someone stumbling off a couch. Alya gasped loudly, eyes wide; Marinette turned around and saw… two feet wearing red-and-white Converse shoes, attached to as many legs wearing thick black tights, presumably attached to a person who had fallen behind the chaise. Too stunned to say anything, she let Alya ask the obvious question:

"Er… what?"

The legs pulled away. Whoever owned them groaned, and Marinette got a horrible premonition that about five seconds later turned out to be correct, when Kagami's head and upper body peered up behind the furnishing. Also, Kagami's hand was rubbing the head, and Marinette was starting to feel queasy from imagining all the body parts as separate entities so she decided to stop.

Even though it was hard. Because that was Kagami Tsurugi. In her room. On her floor. During her complaining time.

"… What did you just do?" said Kagami.

"What?" said Marinette.

"Why are you in Marinette's room?" said Alya.

"Why did you take me into her room?" said Kagami, frowning.

"What?" said Marinette.

"Don't be silly!" said Alya. "We didn't do anything! You just… appeared!"

Kagami shook her head with the certainty of someone who was incredibly certain. "I was talking to Mother, and then I was whisked away by some invisible force. Did you do this? Do you possess magic?"

"Uh, no?" said Alya. "Why would we have magic? Is this a prank or something? Are you a fake?" Alya said all that, and then she gasped loudly. "Wait… are you an akuma? A sentimonster? Do you have teleportation powers?"

"Of course not. That would be ridiculous." Kagami heaved herself upright, and then she brushed herself off, and then she straightened her skirt, like she wasn't the most ridiculous thing present in the room right now. As she did those things she continued, "I would like to be put back home now. Please replace me where you took me from."

Marinette suddenly woke from her stupour. "But — we didn't take you at all!" she wailed.

"Then why am I here?" said Kagami, with frustrating calm.

"Well, you showed up after… hm…" Alya started right in the middle of trailing away, and had fallen all the way off the trail and into a bramble patch by the end. Marinette, who was still largely unable to look away from her extremely uninvited guest, felt a tug on her sleeve and managed to pull her eyes away to Alya for a moment.

"Say her name again," she said.

"What?" said Marinette.

"I'm testing something. Just say her name, okay?"

Dumbfounded, Marinette turned back towards Kagami — who looked simultaneously unimpressed and anxious.

"Actually, I should move —" said Alya.

"Kagami Tsurugi," said Marinette.

"Ow! Jeez!" said Alya, and then "Sorry," and Marinette realised that Kagami had disappeared again.

Almost, at least. Because when she turned back to Alya she saw Alya with her hands over her nose, Kagami with her arms wrapped tight around the stair railing and apparently about to fall over, and her chair rolling away. Somehow, she hadn't heard any of that except Alya's voice. She was barely sure she was seeing what she was seeing. It wasn't like she had seen anything that made sense for the past minute.

"What dark magic is this?" said Kagami. Her eyes were wide, but other than that she seemed undecided on whether she should be horrified or intrigued, given the twist to her mouth. "Are you a wizard?"

Marinette, who didn't have a beard or a pointy hat or even a staff, simply replied "No."

"Kagami Tsurugi," said Alya, somewhat muffled by the hands over her nose. She rubbed a bit and then let go. "Kagami Tsurugi. Aw, it didn't work…"

"I'm so confused," said Marinette.

"If you say Kagami's name, she appears about two feet behind you," said Alya. "Isn't it obvious?"

"N-no?"

"If that is the case, can you please stop saying my name?" said Kagami. Marinette turned to her and saw her upright again, arms folded. "It's very inconvenient."

Inconvenient for both of them. It wasn't like it was on purpose, anyhow. If Marinette could never see Kagami again, it would all be for the better. "I will," she said. "I mean I won't. I'll never say your name again."

"Good," said Kagami. She bowed, for some reason. "I need to get back home to Mother. She must be getting angry with me."

Alya's eyebrows went up as though pulled by magnets. "Don't you mean worried?"

"No. How do I get out of here?"

"Down the trap door," said Marinette, speaking as fast and as firm as she could. "The door out is on the right once you get down. Go down the staircase until you find the double door on the ground floor. Twist the lock to the right and make sure to shut it properly once you leave."

"Thank you," said Kagami. "I will get going."

Without another word, either from her or anybody else, she walked over to the trapdoor and exited, letting it fall behind her with a soft-and-airy but still definite thump.

Alya turned to Marinette. She didn't seem bothered at all, which was worrying.

"Do you know what this means, girl?"

"What?"

"It means she's your soulmate."

Marinette stuck her little finger into her ear and wiggled it around a little bit. "I'm sorry," she said. "I must have heard wrong. I thought you said she's my soulmate?"

"I did!"

"Since when did soulmates start popping up right behind each other?" said Marinette. She failed to keep her question deadpan, firstly because it was a question, and secondly because she had never heard anything less sensible in her life.

But Alya's face was a giant grin. "Since today, of course."

"Have you ever heard of this happening before?"

"Nope!"

"Alya. Soulmates don't exist. This isn't one of those stupid fanfics where people have soul marks on their bodies, or whatever."

The grin was not disappearing. "You think you're Adrien's soulmate, right? Or at least you want him to be."

"No!" Marinette hesitated. "Yes! Maybe!" And then an idea struck her and she added, "Adrien Agreste!" and when nothing appeared behind her, she groaned. "Adrien Émile Gabriel Donatién Athanase Agreste?"

"What are you doing?"

"Trying your stupid idea, and it doesn't work!"

"Because Kagami's your soulmate, duh."

Marinette folded her arms so tight that it almost hurt. "Soulmates aren't real! And my soulmate is not Kagami Tsurugi!"

She didn't realise her mistake until Kagami's voice sounded from behind her: "Why am I back here again?"

"Because Marinette's not very good at not doing things," said Alya, rolling her eyes as she walked towards the trapdoor. "Here, follow me. I'll take you downstairs."

Alya was wrong, though. Kagami wasn't a soulmate. She was a curse.

🏓🏓

Reprimands were never a small thing in the Tsurugi household. It was an understatement to say that Kagami wasn't looking forward to the next half hour, or possibly the next entire twenty-four hour package depending on how cross Mother had gotten; it would almost be an understatement to say she was scared. She could only hope her excuse would work.

She spent a few moments outside the front door, steeling herself ahead of the upcoming shouting session. Mother's primary demand was always time and location; if Kagami wasn't at the place where she should be, at the time she should be there, then no excuse was good enough and no explanation sufficient. The only thing that could possibly save her, would be if Mother was in a good mood, and… well, that wasn't going to be the case.

Was she upset with Marinette? Maybe. It would be absurd to assume that girl had planned to cause trouble, though. She barely seemed aware that something was happening. It must have been some kind of accident, possibly related to an akuma that nobody had seen yet.

Still, it would have been nice if Marinette's behaviour could have been a little less aggravating.

With a heavy breath, Kagami pushed the door open. The alarm blared; Kagami ignored it. It was only there to alert Mother, and would turn off in — there. Switching to her inside shoes, she stepped into the sitting room and waited there for five, four, three, two, one…

"Kagami! What is the meaning of this?" snapped Mother's voice from the doorway. The woman walked quieter than death, and was almost as scary.

"Mother." Kagami turned around and bowed. It was the safest start; Mother could see the outline of gestures like that, despite her bad eyesight. "I failed to listen to your earlier demands, and to maintain my location in physical space. Something unexpected happened, though I fully accept the blame for the otherworldly magic that removed me from the house. I place myself at your mercy. Please take pity on me."

Somehow, Mother hesitated rather than shout more. "Maintain your location?" she asked, almost like she was curious. "Otherworldly magic? Explain yourself."

'Explain.' That was going to be the hard part. Perhaps it was unwise to start out with the impossible claims. Admittedly, the whole thing was impossible regardless, but Mother didn't need to know everything. Now she was going to think everything was a lie.

"I think… there might be an akuma afoot," she attempted.

"There is not," said Mother.

"Well… I don't know what else it could be," said Kagami, staring at the floor. "I'm sorry. But it turns out this girl — a friend of Adrien Agreste's — can summon me to her side by saying her name."

"Girl?" said Tomoe, like she was annoyed. "What girl? Who is she?"

"Her name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and she —"

"Jeez! Wow! Agh!" said — no. No, it couldn't be. Kagami turned around and saw her, the girl whose name she'd just said aloud. She was standing unevenly on the carpet, like she'd almost fallen over and only barely caught her balance, and her eyes were wandering until they caught Kagami. "No! Alya! Help!"

The severe thump of a cane behind Kagami told her that nothing good whatsoever was about to happen. "Kagami! Have you brought a stranger into the house? An interloper?"

"Er… no, Mother." She had, technically, going by Marinette's friend's — Alya's? — theory. But it wasn't on purpose. "She must have snuck in without me noticing."

"What?" said Marinette, who also sounded angry now. "You called me in here! Did you say my name? Why did you do that?"

"I was answering Mother's question!"

"Why is there a girl here, Kagami? I have told you, you are not to have any friends!"

"What?" said Marinette.

"She is not my friend! She is Adrien Agreste's friend! I have nothing to do with her, and," Kagami swallowed, "I don't know why she is in the house."

"Who is this Alya person?"

"She is not here, Mother."

"I can clearly hear her speaking," snapped Mother.

"I'm not Alya! I'm Marinette! And I'm not supposed to be here!"

"So why are you here?"

"Because Kagami called me over!"

"I did not!"

"You so did! Stop calling me over!"

"I only said your name one time! By mistake!"

"Stop making mistakes, then!"

"That's rich, coming from you —"

"Kagami Tsurugi!"

Kagami found herself suddenly standing behind Marinette. She almost — but only almost — launched herself forward to tackle the girl, but she had enough restraint in her not to. Barely. The girl was here where she wasn't allowed to be, she was pretending like it was Kagami's fault, she was talking back to Mother, and Mother's explosion of anger would be big and severe if she couldn't find some way to fix this.

"Marinette. We are not friends and we are not supposed to visit each other's houses. We are strangers."

"You started it!"

"You were the one who was talking about me! You are the reason I'm in trouble right now!"

Marinette frowned, her arms folded. "Well, you shouldn't be in trouble! And I'm going to leave right now!"

"Good!"

It took about three seconds, give or take a couple tenths, for Marinette to stop gawking at distant doors like an idiot. "… Which way is out?"

"To your right. Go out into the hallway. My guards will escort you outside," said Mother. She said it calmly, so Marinette didn't seem to hear the actual words being said. "Please never return to my house."

"Good. I won't."

Marinette swayed her way outside, past the various decorations that littered the floor, and once she walked through the door she said, "Bye forever!" in a huffy voice.

Maybe Kagami would have made a retort under other circumstances. However, Mother was a very difficult circumstance to be under.

Now Mother stamped her cane into the floor. "Kagami. I am most displeased. You are not allowed to sneak anyone into the house."

"I did not sneak her inside! She let herself in without my knowledge."

But Mother simply held up a hand. "Lying will not stay your punishment," she said.

Kagami breathed in, about to protest — but she knew the person she wanted to shout at was Marinette. Mother was impervious to protest, and contradicting her would only make the punishment worse. "… Yes. I know. I apologise."

"You are grounded until the end of the week. Furthermore, I will confiscate your phone for another week after."

"Yes, Mother," said Kagami and bowed. "I understand." It was not a fair punishment, but it was milder than she had feared.

"Go to your room, then. But first, hand me your phone."

Kagami did as she had been commanded. But the whole rest of that day, while she kept seething about Marinette, she also had a vague but nasty hope that someone else might speak her name and rescue her from her grounding.

🏓🏓

Marinette paced her little circle in the schoolyard like she was chased by a single, slow-moving mosquito. Which seemed to be very amusing to Alya.

"Don't ruin your shoes like that," said Alya, sitting on a nearby bench with her legs folded and her teeth showing just a little.

"I'm not." Her shoes were already pretty patchy from walking all the way home, and also accidentally a lot of places that weren't home, two days ago. "I'm just… thinking."

"Well, tell me when you figure it out," said Alya.

That was the usual arrangement; Marinette knew she could be frustratingly bad — frustrating even to herself — at reaching conclusions and speaking up. Not always, but enough that having Alya hanging over her shoulder to coax her wouldn't do much good for either of them.

Still, she wasn't that far away this time. She stopped and folded her arms, and took a deep breath. "Alya? What do I do if I hate someone but they maybe don't deserve it?"

"What?"

Marinette swallowed. This was so stupid. Why was she doubting herself? Kagami was still duplicitous and stuck-up, even if her mother sounded pretty bad.

"I mean… if you hate someone for a good reason, but they also maybe are struggling with something… do you stop hating them?"

Alya's eyebrows went cloudwards. "Is this about Chloé or something?"

"No! It's just —" Marinette sighed. She didn’t want to lay out Kagami’s problems in the school courtyard. Even if it was only Alya, Alya wasn’t the right person to tell. She’d just be too do-goody about it. Too ‘maybe don't hate her’ or something.

It wasn't even that Marinette hated Kagami. It wasn’t that type of emotion. It was a negative emotion but it was more like a ‘please stop existing’, which sounded bad but it wasn’t like that. It was just… hard to make sense of. It was a kind of, ‘I don’t like you but only because I have to deal with you,’ or right now it was maybe a bit closer to ‘I don’t like you but I want you to be happy, as long as you're somewhere else where I don’t have to see you’. Or — no. Not that either.

Ugh.

"— it's just in general," said Marinette. "I'm thinking hypothetically. Just in case I ever meet someone I hate but they maybe have a bad mother or something."

Alya smiled. Not cruelly. "Ah —" her voice was soft. "This is about Kagami."

"No!"

"I know you, girl. You’re so frickin’ obvious." Again, Alya wasn’t unkind; she sounded soft, even kind of gentle. "Just say it. It's Kagami, right?"

Well, there was no way around it now. "... Yeah," said Marinette. But because she also knew Alya she added, "It is. But it’s not about the soulmate thing. We're not soulmates."

"Aw, come on. You say her name and it teleports her into your arms? That’s so soulmate coded."

"We're not soulmates!" said Marinette, loud enough that several heads turned towards them across the courtyard. Blushing fiercely, she pulled her head down. "We're not. This is some weird other thing. Evil magic or something. And she doesn't teleport into my arms, she teleports behind me!"

"That’s still pretty soulmate-like, don’t you think?"

"No!" Marinette tightened her fists for a moment — then she relaxed, and cast her eyes over the courtyard. She needed some kind of help if she were to convince Alya. She found it in Miss Bustier, who was just exiting the locker rooms with a folder stuck under her arm. "Miss Bustier! Miss Bustier! I have a question!"

Miss Bustier stopped, saw them, smiled, and stepped over. "Hello, Marinette, Alya. How can I help?"

"Say your wife’s name," said Marinette, perhaps a bit too rapidly.

"... Gisèle?" said Miss Bustier.

More certainly also too rapidly, Marinette said "No! Her whole name! First, middle, and last. Please."

"Um. What is this about?"

"Soulmates! I'm proving a point to Alya about soulmates! Just say her name, please."

Alya's hand landed on Marinette’s shoulder. Alya also sighed very close to Marinette's ear. "We're just trying to figure out if something is a soulmate tell," she said.

"Oh. Well, I don't believe in soulmates, but if they do exist… isn't that more about what you can see in the person?" said Miss Bustier. She got a somewhat faraway look in her eyes. "I really love Gisèle. She's so brave and full of life, and she loves me back. She loves picking mushrooms, too, she's so good at finding them. And then we get home and just sit on the couch with our books and a quiet salsa playlist, and — what was the question again?"

"Aww," said Alya.

But Marinette was too focused on the task at hand to feel any positive emotions right now. "Please say her full name."

Miss Bustier nodded. "Gisèle Andromède Roche-Guerin. Why did you need me to say that again?"

"Hah! I was right!" said Marinette, pointing at the absolutely nothing and nobody behind Miss Bustier. "See? Soulmates aren't real!"

Alya pinched the bridge of her nose. "Thank you, Miss Bustier. We're very happy for you and Gisèle —"

"Yes, we are!"

"— and I don't think we proved anything, but it was nice of you to help us out."

"I'm only happy to support my students' learning," said Miss Bustier. "Ask again if you have anything else on your mind!"

She gave them a small bow, for whatever reason, and then she spun around on her toes and made for the stairs, murmuring something that sounded like a singsong, "Gisèle, you are getting so many kisses today…"

Once Miss Bustier was out of immediate earshot, though, Marinette nudged Alya in the shoulder with her fist. "I told you!" she said. "Soulmates aren't real!"

Alya just shrugged, pulled back a little. "Look, that doesn't prove anything. Just because Miss Bustier and Gisèle aren't soulmates, doesn't mean soulmates aren't real."

"What? If soulmates are real then Bustier and Gisèle have to be soulmates! They've been together since middle school, they're married, Miss Bustier is even having a baby! It's a donor baby but it's still theirs! They love each other more than anyone."

"Well… maybe there's someone better for them out there?"

Marinette knitted her arms more tightly than they had ever been knitted before. "No one is. And Dad doesn't get that with Mum."

"I still think you and Kagami are soulmates. So there," said Alya, turning her nose up.

"Then — then what about you and Nino? I bet you Nino won't suddenly pop up if you say his name."

Alya's nose came down. Her eyes were wide wells of uncertainty. "… Nino Lahiffe."

Nothing happened.

"Nino Auguste Lahiffe."

Still nothing. Alya clapped her hand over her mouth.

"Nino Auguste Rachid-Lahiffe," she whispered through her fingers.

"See? It’s not a soulmate thing —"

"What if… what if me and Nino just aren't meant to be together?"

Marinette felt a little bit like she’d just run into a wall. "Er. No? That’s not what this is about. I'm saying it doesn't matter if you're soulmates, because soulmates aren't real."

"No." Alya stared at the ground, put her index fingers to her temples and shook her head. "I — I think I need to think about some things… a lot of things… sorry, girl…"

"… Alya?"

There was no response. Alya just turned and walked away, even as Marinette called her name several times more. She looked more distraught now than Marinette could ever remember.

"Well, beans," said Marinette. And then she added, "Adrien Agreste," because even she was stupid about soulmates. No Adrien appeared.

And then, because she was stupid in general, she said "Kagami Tsurugi."

She spun around right after saying it, too. She knew what was going to happen. And sure enough, Kagami was there, at first looking confused and then, of course, angry.

"What did you do that for?" said Kagami.

"Because Alya's being an idiot," said Marinette.

The answer wasn't good enough, clearly. Kagami’s palm came swift and hard, striking Marinette across the cheek.

"You got me grounded! I can’t use my phone because of you! And now you're just calling me to you for fun? Or — what? Now I will be grounded for even longer!"

Kagami breathed heavily after speaking, like her anger was exhausting to carry. Marinette pushed her eyebrows together. "Well, it's not my fault you're getting grounded, is it? It’s your mum doing it! I'm not responsible for that!"

"You're the one who created the circumstances that got me grounded! I'm supposed to be in Russian class! I was in Russian class!" said Kagami, as close to a yell as Marinette had ever heard her. "How dare you!"

"I just —" said Marinette.

But whatever reasoning she had been about to give, died before it could even leave her brain. She realised there was no reason, except to make sure things still worked the same. That it wasn't just a one-day fluke. Or maybe it wasn't even that, and she hadn't even thought about it, just said the name because the topic was generally speaking on her mind.

Not that she was going to let Kagami know any of that.

"— how dare you be my soulmate?" she said, and it was stupid, so stupid.

"What? Soulmate? What are you talking about?"

It was so stupid, in fact, that she lost all drive to fight. "I — Alya thinks we're soulmates. Because of the name thing," she said, looking down. "We're not soulmates. But she still thinks we are."

"Soulmates don't show up behind you if you say their name," said Kagami, like it was patently obvious, and it was patently obvious and it was what Marinette had been trying to say all day.

"I know! That's what I told her!"

"You're thinking of Beetlejuice."

"I am not! Alya is."

"We are not soulmates!"

"I agree!" snapped Marinette, and then — realised she'd just snapped. "Look… sorry. I don't believe in soulmates. I think this is an akuma thing, maybe. Or something else."

Kagami nodded firmly. But she was still frowning severely. "Now put me back in Russian class! I am losing valuable education, and a lot of freedom!"

"… How am I going to put you back?" said Marinette, frustration rising back up again.

"Say my name backwards, or something!"

"… Igurust Imagak?" Marinette blinked. "Tsurugi Kagami?"

"That's the right way around."

"Girutsu Migaka?"

Kagami buried her face in a single palm. "That is either absolute nonsense, or really weird. Please never say it again."

"Well, how am I supposed to get you back, then? Where even is your Russian class?"

Kagami stared for a couple of moments. Then she sighed. "Right. Of course you can't do that. Of course this is just a stupid one-way thing. And I have to get all the way to Montreuil and convince the teacher not to tell Mother, but I will not make it in time, and I will be grounded until Christmas —"

"You have classes in Montreuil?" said Marinette, who knew that even getting there with public transport would take close to an hour, and that was with luck on their side.

"Yes. I do."

Marinette wanted to bite off her nails. "Oh, no — I'm sorry, I didn't mean to —"

But an idea struck her suddenly. It was a bad idea. But it might be good enough.

"… Kagami? Come with me. I'll drive you."

Kagami did not look like she trusted the suggestion. "You can drive?"

"No. But my dad has a car. And I've played so much Wreckfest and Need for Speed, I can probably get you there pretty fast."

"Nothing you just said makes me want to sit in a car with you. You are fourteen, Marinette."

"Too bad," said Marinette. She grabbed Kagami by the wrist and pulled. "I am getting you back to Russian class if it kills me."

Kagami tried to resist at first. But Marinette held on so tight that the wrist felt clamped in a vice.

"I'd rather it didn't," she said.

🏓🏓

Marinette turned out to be a surprisingly good driver. And quick, too. To the point where Kagami was worried that this wasn't the first time Marinette had taken the wheel in a real car.

"There's a Paris level in Twisted Metal 2," said Marinette, barely making it past a light before it turned red. "I've played it so many times."

"That does not comfort me," sighed Kagami.

But she was a beggar right now. She did not have the luxury of being choosy. Either she made it back to Russian class, or Mother would ground her for a ridiculously long time. With Marinette's help, she at least stood a minuscule chance of not getting another set of reprimands.

Which was bizarre. Because Kagami did not have an impression of Marinette being either helpful or reliable. Adrien had called her a good friend, but in Kagami's later encounters with her, that impression had not held up to scrutiny. Particularly not the ones since it turned out they could summon each other by speaking each other's names.

"So, Kagami," said Marinette, turning a corner a little too fast for Kagami's liking.

"Yes?"

"Your mother."

Kagami sighed. "Yes. What about her?"

"Does she beat you? Is she evil?"

… Well. This was another turn that Kagami didn't like. "No. She does not, and she isn't."

"Okay," said Marinette. She sounded unhappy with the answer, but she still kept driving — and, Kagami assumed, being extremely lucky with her driving choices.

Anyway, Mother had never beat her. That was never the issue. The issue was that she wasn't allowed to leave the house, or meet people, or have freedom, or friends, or privacy, or…

Yeah. It wasn't about spankings or anything like that.

"Did she really mean it when she said you're not allowed to have friends?"

"Yes."

"I think that's pretty evil."

Kagami blinked, looked aside. Something had changed about Marinette's expression; it was sharper, maybe some kind of angry. The lips were solidly down.

"She's just protective."

"No. My parents are protective," said Marinette, apparently unaware that she was fourteen years old and driving her dad's unattended car without even a learner's permit. "Your mum's controlling."

"She… controls me to protect me," said Kagami. She felt like she was standing on a wobbly piece of ice on the water. "You wouldn't understand."

Marinette braked for a red light then, as if on cue. Her eyes shot sideways and bored into Kagami. "No. I don't understand. But I know that you're supposed to have friends and that it's stupid to be grounded for something you didn't even do."

"Then… stop getting me grounded?" said Kagami. The ice wobbled some more. She felt like she should have said that angrily, but she was too confused to.

"I will," said Marinette. "I will get you ungrounded."

The light turned green, and she put her foot down hard on the pedal. The rest of the ride passed in silence, but also in less than a minute, and then Marinette managed to somehow parallel park outside the school building.

"I'm following you inside," she said. "I'll get the teacher to not tell your mother."

There was no reason to ask 'How?', so Kagami didn't. She assumed Marinette would do what she had set out to do, no matter what. And the worst part was, she was reasonably certain Marinette would succeed.

The tutor was still going through his lesson on particle words when Kagami stepped into the classroom. He looked very confused when he saw her in the doorway. "… Miss Tsurugi? Did you leave class without raising your hand?"

"I —"

"She saw me having a medical emergency outside," interrupted Marinette from right behind. "You don't need to punish her or tell her mother."

His eyes, predictably, went wide. "I see. Well done, Miss Tsurugi. Take your seat again and we'll continue."

Kagami glanced across the classroom. She had no idea how he missed losing one out of eight students in a classroom where the other students should also have noticed, but she supposed she did have a seat at the back.

"Thanks for your help," said Marinette. She patted Kagami on the back with a wink and turned to walk outside, and that was somehow that. Kagami returned to her seat and picked up her touchpad pen, feeling all kinds of everything.

Particularly when she looked outside to see that there were police officers on the curb, towering over Marinette and then putting her in the back of their own vehicle.

🏓🏓

Marinette was about a third of her cop-escorted shame ride home when she found herself standing on the pavement again. Looking straight at Kagami’s back.

"What'd you do that for?" she said, vaguely award at the back of her head that she had no leg to stand on. But she was still annoyed.

Kagami took a couple seconds to turn around. When she did, it took her a couple more seconds to complete the movement, and then she didn’t even look Marinette in the eye.

"I thought I'd help you out with the police," she said.

"By… kidnapping me?"

"Yes! This way you won't be put in prison."

Marinette sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose. "Kagami. The cops weren't putting me in prison. I'm fourteen. They were just taking me back home and also, telling me not to drive without a licence ever again. And they know who I am, where I live, and who my parents are, so they're going to find me again, and I think you might have just gotten me on a list of juvenile delinquents."

"But…you're getting grounded, right?" said Kagami and finally looked up — their eyes met. Hers looked like they were pleading.

Right. So Kagami had gotten entirely the wrong idea earlier. "My parents aren't like your mother at all. They're very nice and — honestly, I might be grounded for stealing Dad's car. And driving it. I think that's past their limit but they won't ban me from having friends."

Kagami looked like she’d been slapped. "You're telling me I just made everything worse?"

Obviously, the answer was yes. But when looking into Kagami's eyes, that answer was a lot less obvious than it should be. "Well… kind of, but… it’s not that big of a deal…"

"It's not a big deal to be a juvenile delinquent?"

"It is a big deal! But I might not actually be. Look… come, let's get in the car. I'll drive you to your next stop, and we can figure out what to do from there."

It sounded stupid to her only after she'd said it. But once she'd said it, she needed to keep her word.

"You… are in trouble for driving, and you want to drive even more?" said Kagami.

"Well, if I'm already this deep, it can't get much worse," said Marinette, somewhat defiantly. It was maybe silly to be defiant when they were both in agreement, but she was bad at standing down. Sometimes entirely incapable of standing down, even. "Come on. I said I'll drive you. I'll just get grounded until lycée once I'm back."

Kagami shook her head. "Fine. I'll ride with you."

"Ride or die," said Marinette, thoughtlessly.

"I didn't know death was a possibility."

"Er. The dying is metaphorical. Ride or die means you're not giving up on someone."

They got in the car, and Marinette started it up, and they rolled out onto the streets again. It was a quiet ride at first, and also more relaxed; Marinette didn't see the need to rush this time. They only needed to get to the 12th arrondissement, after all.

"You know," she said, when the car's engine got a little too monotonous, "I like Adrien."

"I do know that, yes," said Kagami. She didn't seem bothered.

"You also like Adrien."

"Correct."

"So… are you sure you want to date him?"

There was a pause. Then: "No."

Marineette's heart skipped a beat. "So… you'd be fine if I date him instead?"

"I suppose I would have to be."

"I want a house with him. And three babies. And to be a housewife. And to make him clothes and breakfast in bed."

Kagami sighed. "Marinette. You are fourteen."

"So?"

"You are too young to plan out your whole life like that."

"It's my fate to be with him, I think," said Marinette. She was aware she was ignoring what Kagami was saying. She just needed to get it off her chest.

Another pause. Then: "So you do believe in soulmates."

"No! I don't!" said Marinette. Her foot pressed very slightly harder on the gas, not by choice, but it was her choice to not undo it. "I just… think it would be nice."

"So what do you think about the teleportation?" said Kagami, pulling the words out a little bit longer than they needed to be.

"Nothing. I mean, it's weird, but…"

"I don't believe in soulmates," said Kagami. Her confidence returned in blunt force. "I don't believe in destiny, either. I don't think you are fated to be with Adrien, and I don't believe I am, either. I think we have to take what we want and hold on to it. Don't you agree?"

Marinette glanced aside at her, pulling her foot back off the gas again. She looked so fiery all of a sudden. So… bright.

"I think… you have a point." Maybe. Marinette was still a little too baffled to think clearly.

"And I think we teleport to each other for some other, unexplained reason."

"Yeah. Yeah, that's true."

"And I think —"

Suddenly, Marinette's phone started ringing. The ringtone was a completely normal Clara Nightingale song, but it suddenly felt very embarrassing to have blare out in such a small car. Marinette almost screamed, and luckily saw a red light straight ahead. She braked and fished the phone out, and saw Alya's name and smiling face on the caller ID screen.

Thank God it wasn't Dad.

She handed the phone to Kagami and said, "Can you take that? Put her on speaker, please."

"Okay," said Kagami. The light turned green. Marinette went back to driving, but before she had even gotten the car past the crosswalk, Alya's voice blurted out: "Marinette? I broke up with Nino."

Marinette almost slammed the brakes. "What?"

"I broke up with Nino!"

Hearing it a second time, Alya's voice was shaky and cracked. "Alya… why did you do that?"

"Because… because we're not soulmates like I thought."

"That is nonsense," shot in Kagami, still with the same conviction from earlier.

"… What?"

"Sorry, Alya. Kagami's here. But she's right. Where are you? I'm picking you up right this moment."

"I'm… outside school? What do you mean, picking me up?"

"I'm coming. Stay there. Don't move a muscle until you see the car."

"What?"

"Kagami, hang up. We're coming, Alya."

She turned down a side road — and floored it.

🏓🏓

Kagami was, if anything, more impressed by Marinette's fast driving than her slow driving. When Marinette went fast, it was like she was possessed by some ghost of a race car driver, but a race car driver who never crashed and died of natural causes. She must have some kind of training, and presumably training that didn't involve video games where crashing was the main purpose. Her turns were precise and her braking seemed exactly tuned to maximise speed on the straights, and all of this was somehow not at odds with there being other traffic on the streets.

"Are you sure you don't know how to drive?" said Kagami.

"Yeah. I'm only this good because Alya needs me," said Marinette.

Which was, technically, an answer.

They were very soon in front of Collège Françoise Dupont, and Marinette didn’t even put the handbrake on before she threw herself out of the car and grabbed Alya by the wrist, and Alya seemed completely stunned until Marinette latched her into the backseat and slammed the door shut.

"… Marinette can drive?" said Alya weakly. She looked like she was sad more than confused.

"She claims she can't," said Kagami, as Marinette plopped down again into the driver's seat.

"Oh," said Alya.

"Alya. What the hell?" said Marinette. She was clipped in too now, hands on the steering wheel, staring straight ahead.

"What?"

"You broke up with Nino?"

"Yeah… we're not soulmates, so…"

"Soulmates aren't real! You're just — oh, no. Sorry. Hold fast, we're going for a ride."

Marinette said that, and then she immediately put the pedal to the metal and whined out onto the road. Kagami screamed a little; Alya screamed a lot.

"Girl! What the hell? Why did you do that?"

"Roger saw me! And I can’t go to prison when you're heartbroken and also an idiot!"

Kagami dared to look aside, and not at the blurring road ahead. Marinette looked… fierce. Determined. Brilliant, even. A beam of light struck her through the windscreen and made her freckled cheeks shine like gold. She was frowning but it was a frown that had somewhere to be. The kind of expression, the kind of determination, that Kagami had always wanted to see in…

… she stopped herself before that thought could get anywhere.

"You can’t go to prison anyway!" said Alya. "You're fourteen!"

"Zip it! I'm driving you around until I've comforted you! Did you seriously break up with Nino just because he doesn't show up when you say his name?"

"Well… yeah. So I'm not meant to have him, right?" There was a break as they turned a corner — Marinette had slowed down from her initial burst of speed, and was now taking them down along the Seine at a somewhat-comfortable velocity. It felt… relaxed, almost, other than the tense air between Alya and Marinette. "Someone else will come along and say his name and he'll be teleported right to her, and they'll be happy instead."

"That's just nonsense," said Marinette. "Nobody does the name thingy except me and Kagami, and we're not soulmates."

"But you and Kagami look so good together! Maybe you just don't know yet that you're soulmates?"

"Maybe we do look good together," said Marinette, and Kagami choked briefly on her own spit. Did Marinette misspeak or something? "But that's entirely unrelated to anything. Even if we — wait. This is about you! Not me!"

Alya sighed. "I'll just have to go find someone else. It's fine. Don't worry about me." Glancing back, Kagami saw that Alya had leant her head against the car window, and was staring out at the river. "I'll just —"

"No! Alya, you love Nino, right? You want to be with him?"

"Yeah… I do, I guess…" said Alya, no less despondent. "But…"

"Did he say he didn't love you anymore?"

Another sigh. "No… he didn't…"

"If you didn't start thinking about the soulmate stuff, would you have even considered breaking up with him?"

"I don't understand the question…"

"Agh! Kagami!" said Marinette, clenching the wheel so hard her knuckles turned white. "You talk to her! You're good at talking! I'm gonna focus on driving, or I'll end up sending us into a hedge!"

Kagami didn't say 'What?' — she wanted to, she almost said it, but didn't. Instead she just took a few moments to balk internally at the suggestion that she was good at talking, and especially that she might be good at talking to a lovesick near-stranger.

And also, to bask in the glow of receiving a compliment from Marinette. But only a little bit.

"Ahem," she said eventually, in lieu of actually clearing her throat. Her eyes fixed on Alya in the rearview mirror. "Alya. Tell me what you love about this Nino person. Whom I have never met."

"Well, he's…" started Alya, a little fast before she slowed down and pulled her head away from the windowpane. "He's nice. He's very nice. He makes me laugh a lot, even when he's being an idiot. He smiles like a lighthouse every time he sees me…" Suddenly, Alya snorted. "I really like him. He's a real dork about everything. And I get annoyed with him sometimes, and he can be pretty dense, but it's like… I don't mind all that when he holds my hand. And he says nice things to me even when he stumbles over his words. You know? So even when he says something that sounds weird, I know he means well. He always means well. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. And he's so creative… ah, sorry," said Alya, sniffling and wiping her nose. "I love everything about him, I think. I wish we could be together."

Kagami frowned. "Then why aren't you together?"

"… What?"

"You say you love everything about him. Why aren't you dating him?" said Kagami. She felt a little frustrated, for reasons she could explain, but that she knew had something to do with Alya. The illogic of breaking up with someone for no reason, maybe. Or maybe the fact Alya could say all those things so clearly and yet she still chose against her own better judgement.

"Well… we're not soulmates," Alya replied. "We don't go together if we're not soulmates."

Kagami thumped the centre console with her fist. "Nonsense! You sound like you go perfectly together! Who cares what the universe decides? You are not the universe. You are you, and you must make choices for yourself. If you love him, then love him!"

Their eyes met in the rearview mirror. Alya looked stunned.

"Furthermore, soulmates do not exist! There is no mechanism that shows you who you're meant to be with, save for the feeling deep in your hearts! You want to be with Nino, so go be with him!"

— deep breaths. Deep, deep breaths. Kagami reshaped her face — which had somehow gone quite red and pointy, from what she could see in the mirror — into something that hopefully looked a little calmer. And she also reshaped her hair to hide her cheeks as much as possible.

"Marinette," she said, trying to be firm rather than upset. "Please take us to wherever we can find Nino. We are going to pick him up."

Marinette's eyes were wide as they stared ahead at the road. Also, Marinette's cheeks were pink. "Um… er…"

"Alya. Call Nino. We are going to fix this."

"Er… um…" said Alya.

Kagami groaned, took Marinette's phone out of the console, and swiped the screen open. She found the list of contacts and scrolled down until she found 'Nino 🎧🧢', and pushed to call him right as they stopped at an intersection by a bridge.

He picked up fast. "He-hello? Marinette?"

"No," said Kagami.

"… What?"

"I am Kagami. I am Marinette's… friend. We are coming to pick you up in a blue Honda. Please come to the parking area outside Collège Françoise Dupont as soon as possible."

"Uh. Okay, dude?"

"Please do as she says," said Marinette. "I think we won't have time to stop for very long. There might be cops on our tail."

"What —"

"There you go. Do not dawdle. We will be there in five minutes, tops."

Kagami hung up. Then she replaced the phone in the centre console and looked at Alya in the mirror again. "You will tell him everything you told us, and then you will be dating again. Understood?"

Alya's response was a series of befuddled blinks. "I think… shouldn't you park the car and stop driving? If there are cops?"

"No," said Kagami. The clock on the dashboard showed that she was about half an hour late for her next class, and she found herself not caring. "Love is more important than avoiding vehicular crime."

Marinette groaned too, then, and slammed her head into the wheel. The horn blared for a few moments, and then she lifted her head back up again.

"Love is more important," she said. "Come on, Alya. Man up. We'll make sure you get back together again."

And then she cut out into the road, turned so hard the tires screeched, and spun them back down along the Seine.

🏓🏓

Marinette had just a few too many things on her mind now. Kagami, Alya, Nino, cops, Kagami, Dad, traffic rules, red lights, Kagami, green lights, stop signs, cars, soulmates, the way the car was just a little too heavy compared to what she was used to from Gran Turismo, and she kept forgetting to switch gears until the noise was just a little too loud, and also Kagami again.

She hoped Dad wouldn't get in too much trouble, at least. It was fine if she got juvie for a bit, or maybe community service. But Kagami was right: love mattered more than staying on the right side of the law.

It was only a little bit annoying to her to realise that she would absolutely have been Bonnie if the right person were Clyde.

It was a little bit more annoying to realise that the right Clyde wouldn't be Adrien.

She did see a couple of blue lights in the rearview mirror. They seemed to be going down a different road right now. Hopefully, there weren't actually any cops tailing them right now, but Roger did see her earlier. The two cops who put her in their car would be looking for her, too, given that she disappeared on them and also the car they were told was her dad's was also missing.

And would Kagami's mother call the cops and report this as a kidnapping? God only knew. Marinette wouldn't trust the woman not to be weird and manipulative about Kagami, but at the very least it might take some time for her to notice, given that Kagami hadn't been heading home but instead to class.

A class she was definitely late for.

"I'll drive you to class after this," said Marinette, as school came back into view.

"No need to bother," sighed Kagami. "I am already in trouble."

"Well, you shouldn't be," said Marinette. "You deserve better."

"That's so sweet," said Alya. Kagami immediately turned to look out the window.

Marinette sighed and started gently braking, pulling in for a stop in front of school. "We're technically outlaws right now," she said. "That's not sweet at all."

Nino was there, but he wasn't looking their way; he was looking towards the bakery instead. Maybe he was confused about the instructions. Maybe their instructions were actually insane.

"I disagree," said Alya.

"I'll go get Nino," said Kagami. She unfastened her seatbelt and opened the door in one single movement, whirling her legs out and stepping straight towards Nino.

It was a brief and aggressive meeting. In that Kagami simply grabbed him by the wrist and started pulling him bodily towards the car, and he kind of yelled and kind of flailed until he saw Marinette in the driver's seat. Then he went completely silent and just stared blankly as Kagami manoeuvred him into the back seat opposite Alya.

"Alya has something she wants to say to you, Monsieur Nino," said Kagami, holding the door open. "Please fasten your seatbelt and hold on tight."

"Y-yeah," said Marinette, who could see Kagami's hand grasping the door very firmly, and was suddenly hoping it might hold on tight to something rather different.

What was going on with her? She and Kagami were not soulmates. She knew that, Kagami knew that. They were technically not even friends, despite what Kagami said to Nino on the phone earlier. And yet, since the ride to Russian class, Marinette had barely been able to stop thinking about her. Or… them, maybe. Or no, primarily Kagami, because a lot of the thinking was about the freckles and the cheeks and the skirt and the hands and the eyes and there was kind of a break somewhere after that before any of those things could come into contact with Marinette, but on a conceptual level she was aware that she also figured somewhere in those thoughts.

It was Kagami's determination. Her attitude. The conviction with which she spoke. The way all of those were things Marinette had dreamt about a romantic partner having at some point in her life. Someone who would take her hand and just… hold on tight. And also —

She cut herself off. This was not the time. Rather than look over her shoulder, or at the mirror, she focused ahead instead. At the fancy, expensive red car that was parked there. It looked vaguely familiar.

"Uh, dudes," said Nino. "We broke up today. Why are you doing this?"

Actually, the car was more than vaguely familiar. It had a definite sense of déjà vu to it, now she looked at it further.

"Because Alya has something she wants to say to you," repeated Kagami. "Alya. Tell him what you told us."

Why was the car so familiar? She didn't hang out with rich people, except Adrien, and Adrien's car was black. And Chloé had white limos. This one looked high tech, and maybe even more expensive than Adrien and Chloé's limos.

"I… I can't just…" started Alya. "I didn't prepare…"

Oh, right. The car was Tomoe Tsurugi's. That was where Marinette had seen it before, in the driveway outside Kagami's house.

"You don't need time to prepare," said Kagami. "Don't hesitate. You should never hesitate."

But why was Tomoe's car here —

Suddenly, Kagami yelped. Marinette wrenched her head back and saw that Kagami was struggling against a hand on her shoulder, and that hand was — Tomoe Tsurugi's. Of course.

"Kagami! You have disobeyed me again! You are grounded until next year!"

"I didn't disobey you!" growled Kagami, trying to break free — but the grip seemed like a vice. "I'm on my way to my next class!"

"The police called and said you were cavorting with an illegal driver! And now you try to lie your way out of punishment again?"

"Miss Tsurugi!" said Marinette, voice breaking slightly. "Don't punish her! This is my fault!"

"Is this Alya again? You were trying to make friends? Kagami, you are coming home with me right this instant."

The door slammed shut. Nino winced out of the way; Alya instinctively reached for his arm and grabbed hold of the wrist.

For a moment, Marinette wanted to run back out there and grab Kagami from her mother's hands. But she knew she wouldn't be strong enough to do that, at least not for long enough to get them both back in the car.

But then she remembered she had another option.

She floored it again. The car spun briefly on its wheels, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that they were moving, not too fast, but enough that a person on foot wouldn't be able to catch up to them.

And then she said, "Kagami Tsurugi!"

There was a brief moment of chaos in the back seat. At least two curse words happened. Then Kagami stabilised herself, sitting up straight in the middle seat, with Alya and Nino squeezed slightly against their respective doors on either side.

"What the hell?" said Nino.

"They — they do that," said Alya. "If they say each other's names, they just do that."

"But… how?"

"We don't know," said Kagami.

Marinette started to accelerate. She could see, just barely, a red car behind her turn onto the road. And she was not going to let Kagami end up inside that car.

"It doesn't matter," she said, pushing the pedal even deeper. There was a light ahead and she needed to not be stopped by it. "Kagami. Do your thing. Like you did earlier."

"Okay," said Kagami.

The glimpses Marinette caught in the mirror suggested Kagami had just grabbed Alya's and Nino's hands and pulled them together in her lap. She bit her lower lip and focused on looking anywhere except the small reflective rectangle.

"Alya. You broke up with Nino because you think you're not soulmates. Correct?"

"Don't — don't say that in front of him!"

"What? Are you serious?" said Nino. "Dude. Soulmates?"

"Yeah! Marinette and Kagami get to teleport to each other when they say each other's names. That's so romantic! It's real soulmate stuff! But when I say your name, nothing happens. And that means you're meant for someone else."

Marinette dared a glance at Nino. He didn't seem the same kind of upset that she had felt earlier. He just looked like he'd seen a sad scene in a film.

"I… thought I'd upset you or something," he said. "You really think I'd dump you for someone else?"

"… Yeah?" Alya's voice was incredibly small.

"Well, I wouldn't. I would never. Alya, you're really cool, dude. I could spend hours with you and never get bored."

"… Me too," said Alya, less weakly this time. "Me too."

"I love how you always surprise me."

"I love how you always act surprised!"

"I love how you're so passionate about everything you do!"

"And I love how you're into all kinds of nerd stuff!"

"Your door is Doctor Who!"

"I know! Your bed is the Millennium Falcon!"

"I know! Why did we break up?"

"Because I'm an idiot and I forgot how much I love you! Nino, I love you!"

Marinette chanced another look into the mirror. She saw Alya and Nino holding hands over Kagami's lap, and Kagami looking somewhat uncomfortable, presumably because there were kissy faces on both sides of her.

"I think this was a success," said Kagami, pushing herself into the backrest. "Er, we should probably park somewhere to let these two out…"

Parking might be an issue, though. Because the Tsurugi car was gaining on them, and this time Marinette was certain the blue lights were actually coming for her. Or Kagami. Depending on whether they were called in by Roger or Tomoe.

"Nino? Is there still construction by the intersection outside your place?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay, good," said Marinette, and threw the car sideways into a back street. She was not going to let Kagami get aw— get into Tomoe Tsurugi's hands.

Nino screamed. Alya inhaled very loudly through her teeth. Kagami sat between them, looking almost expectant.

"Where'd you learn to drive, dude?" said Nino, once they were out of the turn.

"She can't drive," said Kagami.

"Forza Horizon," said Marinette. She was so happy, reflecting on it now, that Dad was a sufficient level of nerd to have gotten the special controller that had a wheel and pedals on it.

"You can't learn to drive in Forza Horizon!"

"I think she definitely did learn to drive in Forza Horizon," said Alya.

Marinette kept on swerving. Nino's house was close nearby, and unless she was mistaken, there would be a barrier that she could just barely inch past if she cheated her way onto the sidewalk for a couple metres. Sure enough, there was space to get through, and she didn't even hit the orange cones. She rolled up to Nino's building and hit the brakes, but she didn't kill the engine.

"Nino. Alya. You'd best get out fast. I'm going to be in so much trouble and you don't need to be part of that."

"Uh, okay," said Nino, unhooking himself and pushing the door open. "I guess… thanks?"

"Yeah, thanks," said Alya, doing the same on her side. "Thank you so much for opening my eyes!"

Marinette nodded. "Thank Kagami."

"And, uh, take care!" Alya continued. "Remember, you're just fourteen! They legally can't treat you as a criminal!"

"Actually, fourteen-year-olds can be considered criminally liable," said Kagami.

"Kagami," said Marinette, as Alya gasped in horror. "Get into the front seat."

"Okay," said Kagami. She got out next to Alya, closed the door, and got in on the shotgun side.

"And you two, hide inside."

"Okay," said Nino, and took Alya's hand. He pulled her inside, though both of them stopped just through the glass door to stare out at the car.

Marinette sighed and looked aside at Kagami. It was difficult to do so, because currently, Kagami was the most gorgeous thing in the entire galaxy. But with some effort, it did turn out to be possible.

"Kagami," she said. "I'm going to be put in jail for a thousand years."

"You will not."

"Almost."

"Yes."

"So basically, whatever I do from here on out, it can't get much worse unless I run over the pope."

Kagami nodded. "That sounds about correct."

"But I don't want to let your mother get her hands on you again. But I also don't want you to get in crime trouble with me. So… I guess… if you want to go back home, I will let you, but I could find you a safe house. I know a man. Does massages and absolutely nothing else."

This time, Kagami raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like you have a lot of experience doing crime."

"I don't. Except petty theft. But I could put you outside his house if you want a place to lie low —"

"No. I don't want that. And I also don't want you to be in trouble alone. Marinette, I want to escape with you. Maybe we can find a way out."

Their eyes were perfectly aligned. Marinette had been wrong: Kagami hadn't been the most gorgeous thing in the entire galaxy earlier, because right now she was even more gorgeous.

"… Ride or die?" said Marinette.

"Yes," said Kagami. "Ride or die."

"I think I like that," said Marinette.

And she turned the car back onto the road, just as the blue lights appeared on the far side of the barrier.

🏓🏓

Kagami was certain now. She admired Marinette more than anyone in the world. It was one thing to be stupid, but Marinette was stupid with a conviction and an intensity that made it impossible to dislike her for it.

"Mother's car drives itself," said Kagami, as she caught sight of it in the side mirror.

"The cop cars don't," said Marinette.

They were back out on a more open street now. And Marinette's previously aggressive driving had gone absolutely feral. She swerved between cars as she passed them and cut corners so tightly it was almost unbelievable that they hadn't left their headlamps behind on various signposts.

Both of them were incredibly stupid. If they'd just stopped outside Russian class, there would have been almost no consequences. Kagami had identified at least eight different police vehicles in pursuit, as well as Mother.

But to be frank, Kagami preferred stupidity to anything that involved Mother.

"Is that a helicopter?" said Marinette.

Kagami looked around. "I think that's two helicopters," she said.

"Oh. One of them's probably just the news, then."

"No, there's a third helicopter that's the news. I didn't think they were worth bringing up."

Marinette took another corner. They went onto Pont du Bir-Hakeim now, and Marinette sped up considerably as they crossed it. "Dang it, Kagami," she said. "I think we're stupid."

"Yes," said Kagami. She didn't mind.

"Do you think they have guns?"

"The police? Almost certainly."

"Dang it."

"I think if they shoot at two fourteen-year-olds in a car, they are not just stupid but entirely devoid of brains."

There were more blue lights on the other side of the bridge. At least four. Marinette didn't slow down for them, though; she just careened through the nearest opening, until… she came to a pinch point. A large metal fence, a car that had stopped right in the opening to the only way past, and the way back. Once they realised where they were, a row of police vehicles had already ringed them in from behind.

"Dang it!" said Marinette. Her eyes followed something that passed over the bridge. "We're cooked."

Kagami looked ahead instead. All that was there was just a concrete-and-paving-stones edge some twenty feet ahead, and then a fall into the Seine.

"Do you think they'll let us go on good behaviour in about twenty years?"

"It's not that kind of crime," said Kagami. "We won't get twenty years. We'll probably get community service."

"Well… in that case, I'm glad we'll have community service together."

Or it could be a massive fine. But community service together with Marinette was a much nicer thing to imagine. "Yes."

"I think maybe Dad and Mum will be really upset with me now," said Marinette. "I'll be mega grounded."

Kagami looked back at the row of police cars. A tall, red-headed man exited with a megaphone, and was about to take his place behind a standard-issue police vehicle. "Grounded," she repeated.

"Please stop the engine, put your hands up, and come out of the vehicle," the man said. "Or we will use force to extract you."

"Dang it," said Marinette.

She was so passionate. So into it. And the only reason she was here, now, was that she had tried to help. It was a fervour indicative of a romantic lead or, perhaps, of the romantic lead's love interest.

Love. Interest.

"I have something important to say," said Kagami.

Marinette's eyes went wide. "Really? What about?"

"I repeat: please stop the engine and put your hands…"

"First off: I don't care about soulmates. I don't care about fate, or destiny. I don't believe any of those things exist."

"Er, yeah, you've made that pretty clear today…"

"I believe it's better to love someone for who they are. To make a choice about what to cherish. Even when it doesn't feel like a choice."

"… come out of…"

"What… do you mean?" said Marinette. She suddenly sounded hesitant again, looking down at the gear knob. "Not a choice?"

"There's always a choice," said Kagami. "I believe there's a choice to act on what we feel. Fate doesn't decide who we belong to. We do."

"Well… how we feel isn't always that simple…"

"… your hands…"

"I know," said Kagami. "But I have chosen to be in love with you. You are so much more interesting, brave, and kind than I gave you credit for. You are intensely fascinating and I would like to study you, consensually and with romantic undertones, for the foreseeable future. Would you be amenable to that?"

Marinette's response was to become a tomato. "… W-wh…"

"I would love to date you."

"… come…"

"Even though… even though I got you grounded?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

Marinette stared for a few moments more. The redness stayed as sharp and glowing as before.

But then she said, "Dang it!" and grabbed Kagami by the cheeks, pulling her in for a kiss on the mouth.

It was everything Kagami could ever have asked for. As sharp and intense as Marinette taking a corner at high speed, as exhilarating and thirsty as Marinette peeling down a boulevard at full throttle. It was the kind of kiss that made one feel really desired, like the kisser needed the kiss or they would go mad.

Marinette pulled back and was somehow even redder than before.

"Dang it," she repeated. "And all this just before we get caught…"

Kagami turned to look over her shoulder again. The man with the megaphone was still there, but even more officers had come out beside him. Some were holding batons.

More than that, though, there was another element. Mother, striding forward with her cane, but coming to a stop right next to the police man. She looked thunderous, like an explosion waiting to happen. An explosion that Kagami really didn't want to be hit by.

She turned to Marinette again, and grabbed her wrist. "Let's not get caught," she said.

"What are you talking about?" said Marinette.

"Let's keep going."

They both looked ahead at the turgid-brown Seine. Marinette looked aside at her. "You don't want to get caught?"

"No."

"Then let's keep going," said Marinette.

She put the pedal hard to the floor. Her hand fumbled for a moment, then found Kagami's and gripped it like it was the only thing in the world.

Kagami smiled. Marinette also smiled. And then they sailed off the edge of the bank, and clashed into the water two feet below.