A/N: So, some backstory on this AU! (there are spoilers vaguely mentioned, aka the new villain being introduced) Hawkmoth and Mayura have been defeated. Because Mayura ended up being a bigger problem, Hawkmoth turned on her and helped bring around her defeat before being defeated himself and because of that, Mr. Agreste only really got a fine and community service time instead of being sent to prison.

(this was 100% not just a quick timeline fix just because I needed Mr. Agreste around. Nope, nuh-uh, no way.)

There will be 12 chapters to this AU (how did it get so long. How. Why.) and it will be posted between HTFAM updates.

Enjoy!

Once upon a time, Adrien would have been thrilled for any sign of his soulmate, inconvenient or no. In a world full of people getting their soulmate marks starting as young as ten and usually developing during the mid-teen years, he had remained woefully unmarked all the way through collège, then lycée and into university even as his friends almost all received their marks.

It wasn't unheard of, of course. There were at over a dozen different types of soulmate bonds, ranging from the standard matching soulmate marks that could show up whenever to marks that showed up the first time two soulmates touched to less visible and incredibly rare bonds to no bond at all. Some people remained unmarked right until they died, but most got their marks well before they turned twenty.

Adrien hated it. He had wanted to have a soulmate, someone who he would just click with and have by his side forever. It became a bit of a sore point for him as time went on and his skin remained clear and unmarked.

His father, on the other hand, loved Adrien's complete lack of marks. It was a pain to have to put concealer over soulmate marks on models that were in exposed areas like the legs or arms, especially since the concealer often showed up a little funny on camera and had to be photoshopped in order to look normal. The fact that Adrien was naturally unmarked also helped as a selling point with fangirls who wanted to imagine that they might have a chance with him simply because he didn't have a claiming mark on him.

He hated that, too. He was a person, not a commodity to be claimed by people who didn't even know him.

Back when he was in collège, Adrien had had a theory that he and Ladybug were soulmates with a color-touch bond. Those soulmates didn't have a marking until they touched skin-to-skin and with the suits in the way, there was almost no way for him and Ladybug to touch unless they met outside the suits. He kept that thought with him for two whole years, clutching it close to him when he was having a particularly bad day and wanted the reassurance that there was someone out there for him and that that person was his Lady.

And then one day, that hope was shattered to pieces. He had narrowly escaped being killed by an akuma during an attack and Ladybug had pounced on him in a hug as soon as the fight was over and they could breathe. Their cheeks brushed past each other, pressed together for several seconds as she clung to him, and parted.

He knew as soon as she pulled back that no mark had appeared. Ladybug had simply smiled at him before vanishing over the rooftops as her timer's beeping increased. He had checked the moment he got home, just to be sure.

He'd stayed in a funk for a solid three weeks after that, even with Plagg's assurances that cheese was better than girls anyway.

It wasn't as though he could hug cheese, or as if cheese could hug him back.

He knew other people who were unmarked at the time, of course. While most people who got spontaneous marks got them on average between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, there were always the late bloomers and the color-touch soulmates. There had been two others in his lycée graduating class without any marks, Marinette and a boy in the other homeroom. Neither of them seemed particularly bothered, though maybe it was just because they had never really talked about it. He hadn't seen the other boy since, which made sense as they had never been friends, and he had only seen Marinette a few times in passing. Her university courses were keeping her busy, Alya had explained when Adrien had asked about Marinette's continued absences at their get-togethers. If it wasn't class then it was her job or an internship that threw her schedule off just enough to make meet-ups with the rest of them nearly impossible. He was glad that she was being kept busy though, because that meant that she was faring well in an incredibly competitive field.

Still, it would have been nice to have someone he could talk to about his ongoing lack of a soulmate mark. Was it normal to feel this incredibly discouraged about its continued absence? He could ask Ladybug, of course, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to know if she already had her soulmate mark- of course she would, there was no doubt about it in his mind but it would hurt to have it confirmed- or, heaven forbid, if she had already met them. It was better to just keep his thoughts and questions to himself. He never brought up the subject and neither did she, despite the numerous soulmate-related akumas that they had had to fight over the years prior to Hawkmoth's defeat.

Then, two months into university, he burst out into song during a photoshoot. He couldn't stop it, couldn't control it, could only barely manage to get it down to a level where passersby wouldn't stare. Within minutes, Nathalie was informing him about the Musicals Soulmate bond, an incredibly rare bond that made itself known when one person sang and the other person was forced into accompanying, words coming to them even when they weren't familiar with the song. Not much else was known about the bond, which wasn't great.

Adrien didn't care. He was thrilled beyond belief, practically bouncing on his way home because he had a soulmate out there. There was someone who was his perfect match, who he could spend the rest of his life with once he found them.

It didn't take long for the implications of his bond to sink in after that first initial thrill.

Because of the fairly sporadic nature of the singing, Adrien was forced to abandon his normal university classes. He finished up the semester with the Gorilla videotaping the lectures for him, and then he had to switch to online coursework. It reminded him a little too much of being homeschooled again, though at least he could go out whenever and meet up with Nino (and Alya, and every once in a blue moon, Marinette). They couldn't really study together in the library because of Adrien's unpredictable bond, and places like cafes soon became a bit uncomfortable thanks to people staring. He could still get together with Ladybug- and thus far he hadn't broken out in song when he was with her, which he was endlessly grateful for- but he was nervous that that lucky streak might end soon. As photoshoots got interrupted more often and other models started staring, Adrien started dreading the singing more than he used to. By the time his soulmate bond had been active for three months, the novelty had worn off.

And now, a year later, Adrien was getting tired of it.

The tickling at the back of Adrien's throat only gave him seconds of warning before he was forced to break out in song. Despite the fact that the forced singing told him that his soulmate was healthy and happy (or at the very least alive), Adrien couldn't help but be a bit exasperated. The photoshoot he was in the middle of doing would have to wait until his soulmate was done singing or would have to be done in between verses, and that would make everyone on set grouchy and his father would be upset for the scheduling delay and the extra money the overtime would cost.

Sometimes he couldn't help but wish that he didn't have such a disruptive soulmate bond.

"Aaagh, not again!" Pierre exclaimed, stamping his foot in frustration as Adrien tried and failed to repress the singing. "She has no schedule, your soulmate! Every day, she is singing! You must find her soon, Adrien!"

Adrien's brow creased. As soon as the bond's grasp on his voice faded, he blurted, "How would finding her even help?"

Pierre tsked. "How would it help, he asks! How would it not help? It would stop the singing!" The photographer stepped behind the camera and snapped a couple shots before Adrien's part of the song started again.

"I don't want her to have to stop singing if that's what makes her happy," Adrien argued. He slid effortlessly into another pose and paused, letting Pierre snap a couple more photos. The photographer looked pleased for a second, but decidedly less so as song bubbled out of Adrien's throat again and they were forced to pause again.

"She does not have to stop singing!" Pierre spoke over the sound of Adrien's voice. "I had a model a few years ago with the same problem as you, and she went and tracked down her soulmate. They kissed, and the problem stopped. Her soulmate could sing and all she would feel is a little fizzy and happy inside. You need to do the same!"

Adrien perked up. He hadn't even known that was an option. "How did she track down her soulmate?"

"I don't know. It's not my problem. Okay, next pose, chop chop! Let's try to finish up in fifteen minutes!"

Adrien sat in front of his computer, staring blankly at the screen as he thought about what Pierre had said. Even though he had asked and begged (and bribed), the photographer couldn't remember the name of the other model with a musical soulmate bond and he wasn't willing to spend any of his precious time to try to look up who it might have been.

"This is impossible," Adrien groaned, banging his head against the keyboard. He had tried to google ways of finding your soulmate, only to find cheesy sites saying that the time will come and it will be magical or don't rush fate; it will take its time.

Not particularly helpful.

Plagg hadn't been even remotely helpful either. Despite being an immortal god who had doubtless had Chosens with almost every type of soulmate bond, he apparently hadn't paid enough attention to be of any help. Despite bribing his kwami with cheese, it hadn't helped stir Plagg's memory at all. Apparently the only thing Plagg had ever paid attention to over the centuries was cheese.

After another thirty minutes of useless searches, Adrien reached for his phone and called Nino. His best friend might be able to think of something.

"He said that the singing stops after you kiss?" Nino asked as soon as Adrien explained what Pierre had said. "That's super cool if that's actually true."

"I know. And even if it's not true, it's not the singing that I mind as much as constantly having to worry about bursting out into song." Adrien worried his lip. "I just don't have any idea on where to start with looking. One of the models suggested that I go out in public and just start singing and see if anyone joined me, but there's, like, a two percent chance that my soulmate would actually be there-"

"And a ninety-nine-point-nine percent chance that everyone else in the area will think that you're crazy- wait!" Nino exclaimed. "All this percentages talk- you know who would be able to come up with a plan? Max!"

Adrien perked up at the suggestion. "Our old classmate Max from collège and lycée? Are you still in touch with him? Yeah, he'd definitely be able to come up with a plan!"

"He was in one of my general classes last semester and we'll be in the same class again next semester, and then he's been doing a project this semester that I'm doing a music mix for- oh!" Nino said, suddenly cutting off whatever he was going to say. "He's supposed to come today, actually, and I think that was him just now knocking on the door. Hold on a second, I need to go answer that."

Adrien opened his mouth to say something before he was cut off by a clatter as Nino tossed his phone on his desk. He waited a bit impatiently, fingers tapping against his computer desk for a few seconds before he tapped in another search query. Nathalie had once told him that getting the right results relied on using the right keywords. It was possible that he hadn't found the right combination yet.

He still hadn't found anything useful by the time Nino came back on the line with Max.

"Max is here and I've already told him everything," Nino said, his voice a bit muffled as though he wasn't talking directly into the phone. "Hopefully we can figure something out."

"Yes, well, we should." Max's familiar voice was a bit clearer, making Adrien guess that he had probably taken control of Nino's phone. "Congratulations on the soulmate thing, by the way. If I recall correctly, that was a bit of a sore point for you in school."

Adrien only winced. Had he really been that obvious about it? He had thought that he had hidden that pretty well, but apparently not.

"I have some question to ask, of course." There was a pause, during which Adrien pictured Max adjusting his glasses on his nose so that they balanced just so. "Are you certain that the kiss reducing the need to sing actually works for all musical soulmates? It might just be some. Soulmate bonds are often unique and don't always abide by the same rules, even those within the same category."

Adrien had thought about that as well. "I don't know. It's a really rare soulmate bond, according to the sources I found online. That's pretty much all the information I could find about it."

"I also cannot find any data on the subject. There is a distinct lack of research concerning the rarer bond types. I suspect that it has something to do with the government ban on soulmate bond research. It's quite a pain." The sound of Max's fingers clicking against Nino's keyboard floated through the phone as he spoke. "At the very least, finding your soulmate would allow you to ask her to keep her practices at times that don't fall during your photoshoots and your father's runways."

Adrien made a face at that. He didn't really want to do runways- the stress and insanity he had seen backstage was not particularly encouraging and it wasn't like he wanted to continue modelling professionally forever- but his dad wanted him to and was always frustrated when the face of the Agreste brand couldn't walk the runway for fear of him breaking out in song partway down the walk.

At least it wasn't song and dance. That would be awkward.

"Let's just focus on the whole finding her part, then," Adrien suggested. "Do you have any suggestions on how I could do that?" Max was definitely the best person to ask about this, he realized. The other boy was very methodical about his approaches to, well, everything. If anyone could come up with a procedure that was 99.8% likely to produce results, it was Max.

"Of course. I just have a few questions for you before I come up with a plan. Have you tried singing back?"

Adrien shook his head, then remembered that Max couldn't see him. "No. I just didn't think of it at first, honestly. I don't usually sing much to begin with, either. And then once I did think of singing back, one of the other models I work with mentioned that considering how often and how regularly she sings, she might be in some sort of performance major. And then I didn't want to deter her from that path by making her worry about me interrupting her at random."

"That is a very good point." There was the sound of a pen scratching across paper as Max wrote that down. "Nino said that she tends to sing a lot of songs from musicals. Is there ever a pattern to the songs? Like, does she ever sing the same song at the same times every night or several times a week?"

Adrien tried to wrack his brain. "Uh, maybe? I usually don't pay much attention to what we're singing. Sometimes she sings along to Jagged Stone's songs." Actually, it was more like quite often that she sang along to Jagged's songs. At least his soulmate had a good taste in music, though he wasn't big on musicals. Still, it was possible that it had more to do with having never seen one in person and that the extent of his experience with them was being forced to sing the songs when he didn't really want to.

...yeah, that made him sound like a sourpuss. He was spending too much time with Plagg. He didn't mind the singing when he was alone- in fact, he quite enjoyed it, and sang as enthusiastically as he could, relishing in the bond- but not being able to go to university in person and having the rest of his life interrupted periodically really was a pain. He had had enough with the being confined in his house when he was young.

Max tsked at him. "I would suggest figuring out what song you are singing and keeping a log of when you sing. If there is a pattern, she is likely performing somewhere and then we try to figure out where that might be."

Adrien cringed. Ah, he should have thought of that himself. It was a very logical first step. "Ah, right. Of course. Sorry I wasn't doing that already."

"That's perfectly fine. It will just delay our timeline a little bit. I can still come up with a plan." Max sounded as professional as always. It was slightly disconcerting knowing that that tone of voice was coming from someone no older than he was. "You will keep a log, and contact me as soon as you see any emerging patterns. Nino will send you my contact information within a few minutes."

Adrien nodded along. "Sounds easy enough."

"If you notice one song or a set of songs popping up frequently, she could be auditioning for something. If not, we will have to try some other approach. You could always sing a few songs while several other people spread out and look for anyone singing in public, though that would be our last approach. I believe looking for performances first is our best bet."

Adrien nodded again, even though Max couldn't see him. "That sounds good. Thank you, Max. That sounds like a great plan."

"I'm glad to help. I hope you find your soulmate soon."

Next time: Adrien starts collecting data.

And as always, reviews make my day! :)