this does not follow the script (even vaguely) of any episode in akagami no shirayukihime~

ALSO, what are in Marinette's BOXES?! What did Tikki give to her?! I've been keeping you all in the dark the past few chapters and…

…I will for this one too. LOL sorry (not sorry whoops)

Anyways this one is sort of a filler chapter, "sort of" as in its good contribution to the plot but there's … no real thing going on? It's your typical flashback, there, that's what it is. I didn't wanna do it but its gotta be done. This one will be shorter.

Hopefully it won't bore you though. I'll do my best!

When it came to the royal Agreste family and their company, there wasn't much that one could do if they weren't a rich duke or duchess. That was, unless they were Tom Dupain or Sabine Cheng.

Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng were by no means royals. They weren't extravagantly wealthy in coins, albeit being well-off. They were almost your typical village bakers- the key word being almost. Tom and Sabine led a hearty tribe of men and women who were just like them: kind-hearted but harboring a strong sense of justice. It'd started mainly when a person attempting to rob their bakery had suddenly seen Tom running in and fled out of fear; ever since then, villagers made jokes about how Sabine and Tom could stop crime. And so the couple responded, "Why not?"

They called themselves "Bears of the Mountains", something that Tom would always laugh at (he was the infamous "half-bear half-man of the village), and as their numbers grew steadily until they had a sizeable tribe, they all built a village for themselves in the mountains. The Bears of the Mountains stopped countless numbers of crimes that weaved through the mountains; kidnappings, robberies, harmful substances being smuggled in, the list went on and on. The royal queen back at the castle took notice of all the crimes being reported and stopped by the mysterious "Bears of the Mountains" and, in her curiosity, she extended an invitation for them to have dinner at the castle as a thank you.

Tom and Sabine both agreed to pay a visit, and the two of them went to the castle together for dinner with Queen Agreste. It seemed like fate had this in place for the adults, as the three of them clicked- Sabine and the Queen especially so- and the dinner outings became weekly. At times Tom couldn't go, but Sabine made sure to never miss a meeting with her good friend. Lords and dukes looked down critically upon the visiting bakers and clansmen, but the Dupain-Chengs and the Bears of the Mountains paid them no mind.

It was four years later that the Queen had a son, a boy with her golden hair and spring-green eyes. He was her pride and joy, and she named him Adrien. Two months later Sabine gave birth to Marinette Dupain-Cheng; a girl with midnight blue hair and bluebell eyes and a smattering of freckles across her nose. Marinette and Adrien inevitably grew up together; Sabine began caring for her child and, upon Tom's insistencies as well as her own preferences, didn't go out on mountain hunts and patrols. She visited the castle nearly every day with Marinette. Marinette and Adrien clicked much like their mothers had, if not faster. As time went on, little Marinette and Adrien stayed fast friends, nearly inseparable. Marinette, at the age of five, had her first sleepover at the Agreste castle with her best friend Adrien. The network of nobles didn't like that too much. Two weeks later Adrien went to the Bears of the Mountains' village for his first sleepover. The network of nobles didn't like that much either. The Queen, Sabine and Tom didn't care, and Marinette and Adrien definitely didn't care if their joy was anything to go by.

The next two years, Marinette and Adrien formulated and played their best masterpiece of a game ever: "The Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir". It was quite the long name, but no name could ever be long enough to describe the epic spectacle. Marinette, as Ladybug due to her fascination for the lucky bugs, and Adrien, as Chat Noir due to his family's crest being a black cat, would venture out onto castle and village grounds alike to put an end to evil. Servants at the castle and tribespeople from the mountains chuckled and went along with their game, playing the bad guys and letting the two children "serve justice". The Queen herself found it highly amusing and often played along. Adrien's most trusted attendant, Plagg, was the main player in this game of theirs. Plagg and Marinette became partners-in-crime, often pranking Adrien and laughing equally as loudly afterwards.

Their game time being cut short only frequented overtime. Adrien, being eight years old, was seen to be a suitable enough age to start his swordplay lessons with Plagg. More often than not these lessons cut into the time that Marinette and Adrien spent together, and so Marinette decided to ask her fellow villagers for training as well. Her parents had well taught her how to bake and sew- she especially took to sewing- but in order to keep up with her counterpart "Chat Noir" she wanted to learn how to fight, too.

As with the sewing, Marinette turned out to be a natural at the kusarigama. After the sword lesson had ended unfortunately, and the bow-and-arrow lesson ended dangerously, the tribesmen were hesitant about letting Marinette lay hand on a kusarigama- being a much more fluid and difficult weapon to control- but at last they decided that it'd do less harm (or they hoped). Once they handed it to her, it was like a switch was flipped: Marinette easily parried attacks and used the chain of her kusarigama to wind around swords and yank them out of hand. Soon enough, as it was, Marinette forgot the whole reason she started learning. "The Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir" slipped from the mind of Adrien, caught up the fencing lessons and royal studies suddenly thrusted upon him.

One year later, Queen Agreste disappeared. From then on it was like Marinette's and Adrien's few visits with each other went down the drain. The king refused to let Adrien outside of the Agreste lands. With the Queen's disappearance, the crime upsurged to an all-time high because more knights were guarding the castle than patrolling the grounds themselves. This ultimately led to the Bears of the Mountains having to be out and about more and more, and Tom and Sabine- in their deep worry for Marinette- did the one thing that they could think of doing, and that was giving her up to Master Fu, a wise and trusted old man from the village who could no longer battle. He took Marinette to a safe town in the Barbot lands. Marinette never got to say goodbye to Adrien, and after a while of wondering where she'd gone, Adrien forgot about her as well, too caught up in the grief of his mother and his packed schedule which kept him busy always. Plagg, who felt for Adrien, offered to tone down the swordplay lessons but to his surprise Adrien refused. The young prince surged forward with a strong desire to protect those he loved. This desire sometimes clouded his judgement, and unfortunately it only served to fog over old, feeble memories as well.

Life seemed to be a dark and clashing storm for a couple of years. However, things started to look up for both of them, slowly but surely. A beacon of light in the form of Tikki arrived to the home in which Marinette lived with Master Fu. Marinette didn't know how, but she seemed to know Master Fu very well. She offered to teach and train Marinette, and the girl readily accepted. For some reason, Tikki's ladybug-esque appearance- with her red and black hair and deep blue eyes- struck a chord within Marinette but she didn't know why. Marinette and Tikki quickly grew accustomed to and loved each other dearly.

When Adrien was fifteen, two people his very age came to the castle as his personal attendants. Usually, people so young weren't allowed to have such high-ranking jobs, but Alya Cesaire and Nino Lahiffe were different. Alya was in the castle due to her mother being the head chef. Nino was in the castle due to his parents working for the music and entertainments of the place. Because they were already in the castle, their talents quickly shone through, and when they met with Prince Adrien, it was as if the three of them were meant to go places together. Alya and Nino were appointed as his personal attendants and Adrien couldn't be happier. With the next two years, more and more people came to the castle who Adrien became fast friends with, none of which were high ranking like the critical nobles would have wanted. Adrien couldn't have cared less.

Four years passed this way, until Marinette and Adrien were both nineteen. She, in her home far away from where her childhood resided and he, in the castle, ever unaware of what had been there before. Marinette sewed herself a red hood with the spots of a ladybug on it- she'd always been fascinated by the bugs, and for some reason it simply felt right-and it became something she always wore. Adrien finished with his main fencing courses with Plagg and was given a real sword, proudly bearing the black cat crest. With that he was allowed out of the castle grounds as well and he took it in stride, using nearly every free second of the day to explore.

With those two items, bearing lost memories, they met once again. Marinette could have easily woken up three minutes earlier, and set off moments before Adrien (rashly) decided to leap off from the house's rooftop, and Adrien could have avoided a minor arm injury and been on his way. But destiny had other plans.

When Marinette returned with Adrien to the castle after overcoming Theo Barbot, Plagg and Tikki hid matching smiles and both separately, coincidentally, wrote to Master Fu one simple sentence:

Those two really are meant to be together.

Ooh, so we got some background? Don't worry, I won't just throw this out here just to explain that tidbit from last chapter. I will build on it.

WAIT! DON'T GO! I really need help! For the next chapter- and this is a pretty influential decision- who should I use as Adrien's "older" figure—Gabriel, or Felix?! I know I mentioned Gabriel indirectly this chapter, but the bit with Felix can still be done. If Gabriel was chosen of course I'd change his interactions with Marinette from the ones in the show.

Please leave reviews with what you think! THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SO PATIENT AND AWESOME! LOVE YA BUNCHES!