Chapter Text
There will always be a moment when a person has to choose a path. It’s an inevitable time, and everyone will eventually go their way.
And that was the case for a young Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
The daughter of a baker. The girl with a passion for becoming a Fashion Designer.
She was a bright, charming little girl who could make anyone smile. Creative yet clumsy, she charmed the people around her.
Yet, the little girl never realised that those precious moments with the people you love don’t always last.
Whilst she was a young child, her mother and her father’s first wife, Sabine Cheng, became sick and passed away.
Devasted and heartbroken, the two remaining family members became each other’s rocks as they became the two for a while.
That is until Tom met another woman, Audrey Bourgeois, and he proposed to her before long.
Everything changed. Marnette had gained a new stepfamily when Audrey’s daughters, Chloé and Zoé, joined the household.
Simply put, her relationship with her new family wasn’t great. Chloé and Marinette hated each other; Audrey tolerated her, Zoé was the nicest of the bunch, and they got along well. Although, Marinette felt that Chloé pressured Zoé to be mean.
In the end, Marinette felt she could only put up with them for her father’s sake.
Despite that, Marinette and her father did spend a lot of their time together. They were each other’s best friends and confidantes. It was obvious that Tom loved his daughter more than his current wife and stepchildren put together, but Marinette never shoved this fact in their faces. She tried to include them in all activities and be nice to them. She didn’t want them to be left out.
Another thing to note is that her father owned a bakery called Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. He and his first wife opened this shop.
He decorated the place with inspirational quotes that made guests feel warm and welcome as they entered. The staff in the diner were better than any staff a manager could ask for; they all made up a little family to Marinette.
First, Marinette’s mother figure was Tikki, as the girl would never refer to her stepmother the same. The sweet woman gladly took the girl under her wing when she first saw her and comforted her after Sabine died.
Robert, shortened to Bob, was one of the bakers that helped. He was like the crazy but funny uncle that would tease the girl and play games with her. He reminded her sometimes of her real Great-Uncle from her mother’s side, although he rarely came to Paris.
Renée was sweet, and Marinette viewed her like a grandmother. Just not old. Everyone was so close at the diner that Marinette almost felt her life was perfect.
Occasionally, the two would lie on the roof of the house and stare at the stars, they would either sit in comfortable silence, or they wouldn’t speak a subject to the world.
He often advised the girl to stop fantasising about the past and focus on the future to make what she wanted to come true. Marinette needed to hear those wise words from her father; she was often distracted by wasting her energy thinking of the past, friends and relationships.
Tom sometimes would tell her about his dreams, the ones that were usually about his child getting into college, doing what she wanted and being happy. That was all he wanted for her.
“Listen to me, Marinette. Fairy Tales aren’t about handsome princes and living Happily Ever After. They’re about fulfilling your dreams and standing for what you believe in,” were the wise words he always told his daughter.
Marinette believed that it wasn’t something she necessarily needed to be said. She felt strong, standing up when needed but helpful all the same. She told her father this, but he stated that events could and will change people.
The girl didn’t take that warning to heart and dismissed it entirely. Oh, how she wished she realised that when the good times finally ended.
On that day, Tom gave Marinette a storybook of a fairy tale. The young girl looked at the title and asked, “Cinderella?”
Tom chuckled. “It’s a story that contains important information later on.”
Marinette blinked. “How?” she asked, confused.
Tom smiled at her, but he didn’t answer her question.
Rumble.
Tom shot his head up when he felt the room move, shaking. An Earthquake? In Paris?
At first, the movement wasn’t that much, but the tremors became more extreme over the next few seconds. His alarmed gaze had met Marinette’s, and he grabbed onto her, carrying her outside to stand by a lamp post.
“Stay here, Marinette,” he commanded before he ran back into the house.
“No, papa!” she called after him, stretching her hand to reach for him. “DON’T GO! DON’T LEAVE ME!”
It was useless. He had already gone back into the house towards the terrified screams of his wife and stepdaughters. It was an act of bravery; however, he did not realise that his selfless act cost him his life.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng lost her best friend that day, and from then on, the only fairy tales were the ones she read in books.
Her father never left a will, so her stepmother had inherited everything; the house, the bakery, the money and worst of all, Marinette.
Shortly after, Marinette attended Collège Françoise Dupont. She spent years stuck with Chloé and Zoé at the school but never realised what was coming this year.