MiraculElse #11: Two Hearts That Wax And Wane

- Or - The Redemption of Adrien and Utter Collapse of the Love Square in Four Easy Pieces

(Timeline: Immediately after the end of Puppeteer 2. So SPOILERS for that, obviously!)

Chapter 1: Adrienette Anxiety

I... just screwed up.

I'm not entirely sure _how_ I screwed up so badly...

But I _know_ I just screwed up.

In the back of his family car, Adrien Agreste sat uneasily, feeling like his stomach was shrinking to the size of a golf ball. This had been one of the weirdest days of his life so far, and it didn't show any signs of improving after what had just happened.

He played it back in his head:

We just had the most awkward moment... ever. I thought Marinette was angry at me while we were at the wax museum; Nino seemed to think so, anyway, and told me that. So when I saw her coming into the room with me, I pretended to be a statue of myself, because I was hoping that would make her laugh and break the tension.

She came in... she started admiring the "statue," saying all kinds of silly and romantic things about it... she even plucked one of my hairs off my head, and I have no idea how I sat still through that!

And then she nearly kissed me... and then she DID! She KISSED me on the lips!

And I freaked out, and I broke my pose and showed her that it was really me... and she MAJORLY FREAKED OUT.

How did that even... HAPPEN? How did either of us let it get to that point of craziness?

But... that's not even the part where things really got bad. It really wasn't!

Marinette and I were here in the car just now... talking about the jokes that we'd pulled on each other. She said that she shouldn't have kissed my statue, the one that was really me, because she didn't know it was really me... and I had to stop her right there. I was the one that let it happen, trying to mess with her, and I let her keep going until things got weird; that was all my fault!

So I stopped her and apologized to her right away. I told her that I shouldn't have joked with her by pretending to be a statue. If I hadn't done that, none of that would have happened! I didn't want her feeling bad over something that I did.

Okay...

I apologized for that. I know I did. I even told her that Ladybug - well, I couldn't _say_ it was Ladybug, of course, because it's Chat Noir that she says it to, and of course Marinette can't know that I'm Chat! - so I said 'the girl that I love' to protect who that is. Anyway, I said that the girl's always telling me that I make too many jokes...

And the whole atmosphere in the car changed _just like that_. Marinette looked like I'd kicked her in the stomach, all of a sudden. I asked if she was all right, she said yes, and then she left... but she sure wasn't! She was hurting bad, and she didn't want to admit it.

He looked up for a moment... and caught the Gorilla glaring at him in the rear-view mirror. The light changed, and his driver's focus returned to the road.

Wow, even HE'S mad at me! Adrien thought.

I just don't... get it. I messed up, and I said that I was sorry for what happened, and I admitted that I know I do that kind of thing too often... I'm not sure what else I could have said about the statue incident. So why is she that upset about it, _after_ I apologized? Why did it escalate like it did at the end?

DO I tell too many jokes as Adrien? I don't think I do...

I should call her or text her later, or something... and make sure that she's all right. I really don't like the vibe between us now. I can't lose her as a friend over something silly like this!

The rest of Adrien's ride home continued in silence.

Dinner seemed uneventful for Adrien; bland, as usual, but at least filling.

He went upstairs to his room and shut the door, only to see a small black blur go flying out of his pocket.

"Oh, ho ho hooooo... you did it now," Plagg cackled.

"You too?" asked Adrien, looking exasperated. "Did I get Akumatized and not realize it? All of a sudden, I feel like a villain and I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong today. When Marinette left the car, she looked like I'd just shot her family dog."

Plagg scoffed, "C'mon, now. Really."

Silence followed, until Plagg asked, "Really, Adrien. You don't get it?"

"No! I don't!" Adrien whined. "I've been trying to figure it out ever since it happened... What did I say that got Marinette so upset? I thought I was apologizing for what I did wrong back there, the statue prank I pulled. I just wanted her to laugh. I didn't mean for it to get out of control like that."

Plagg just stared back, dumbfounded. He STILL doesn't understand that Marinette absolutely adores him? The girl told him that she wanted to embrace him forever today, kissed him on the lips and took a hair sample. Does she have to strip naked and paint herself purple and dance the Charleston, too?

"Adrien... for one thing, part of what I can tell you is that Nino's not your best source of information sometimes. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he told you what he did about Marinette. Of course she likes you, she could never hate you, and she'll always be your friend," he began. "Doesn't that seem obvious?"

"I kind of hoped so... she's one of the best friends I have. Definitely the nicest," Adrien agreed. "And I really did want her to laugh at me... and then she started acting so strangely. Do you know what that was all about, Plagg?"

"I... can't say."

I really _can't_ say, grumbled Plagg to himself. I can't say that she's in love with you because then you'll just go on and on about how Ladybug is your true love, and I can't tell you that _she's Ladybug_ and things will get weird from there. And by this time I shouldn't freakin' HAVE TO!

"Well, what else _can_ you say? You said that was part of what you could tell me," prodded Adrien.

"What I will tell you is simple. Think about everything that happened today. The statue thing, what she said to you, the kiss she gave you, how you both reacted to it, what you said in the car. I'm sure it'll come to you."

Plagg buzzed away, out of reach, content to leave it at that. Adrien, you're my buddy and everything... but you're too smart to be this dumb, he thought. And you need to figure that out on your own.

As bedtime approached, Adrien paced the floor in his room, still feeling unnerved. Plagg made it sound like this was so obvious. Then why can't he just spell it out? he grumbled to himself.

He picked up his phone. I can at least talk to her from here, he reasoned. Clear the air a bit.

Quickly, he unlocked it, and checked his instant messenger app...

... only to see that while Marinette had been online, her status changed to "Offline" almost instantly after he logged on.

That's odd, he thought. Maybe I should just call her?

He selected her number and pressed Dial...

...only to hear his call go straight to voice mail.

Also unlike her, he pondered. She must've turned her phone off. She doesn't usually go to bed this early, I think... I see her on Messenger later than this all the time.

At the beep, he left a short message:

"Hi, this is Adrien. I was just checking on you, hoping everything was all right... I'll see you tomorrow at school. Bye!"

It was a long and restless night for Adrien.

He closed his eyes... and he saw a beautiful girl dancing around him, pretending not to know that he was real. She admired his appearance, she savored his natural scent, she recited sweet poetry about wanting to be a statue just like him, next to him, holding him...

He knew that she knew the truth. That when she took him in her arms, leaned in close, and whispered about eternity together... she was not at all serious about it. It was a riposte to his own joke, a turning of the tables, her way of making him sweat and wonder what might happen next. Marinette has excellent reflexes, after all... she saw his move from the start, she parried it cleanly, and she definitely won that point.

She'd told him so, right after he'd scared five years off her life by breaking his pose. She told him directly that it was all a game, that her play-feelings for the statue were different from hers for him. Of course they were! Anything else would be...

And Marinette hates lies and hates liars. She wouldn't possibly lie to him about something that could change the way they look at each other... right?

Just like that day that he'd asked her about all of those pictures in her room... and she told him, point-blank, it wasn't a crush, she was just into fashion. She hadn't lied that day, either.

It was hard for him to imagine that Marinette was even capable of lies.

Misunderstandings, perhaps... and when they talked it out in the car, she'd made it clear again. It was all just one... big... misunderstanding.

His mind reset and replayed her words, her dance, her embrace, her...

He saw her startled reaction over and over, how badly he'd scared her when he stopped her from kissing him.

He imagined a slightly different scene... one where he held perfectly still, as before... but where her nervousness wasn't because he'd stopped her joke, but because it wasn't one. Because she really didn't know that he was real. Or because... because... well... odd things happen in dreams, do they not?

And he saw... another reality, another variation, a strange fantasy world... where he hadn't stopped her. Where, for whatever reason... he'd joined her.

And it was debatable which of those wisps of fantasy did the most to keep him awake.

The next day, Adrien walked up the stairs to his school with a feeling of determination. I need to get to the bottom of this, he thought. Marinette is way too special a person for me to not make up for... whatever I did wrong. All the things I did wrong.

He stepped into his classroom, hoping to see the usual sea of friendly faces... but the section surrounding his seat looked less than promising. Nino waved to him, but looked a little... uneasy? Alya was talking to Marinette, turned to give him a perturbed look... What did I do to _her_? he wondered... and then went back to tending to her friend.

"Hey, everybody," he said, pleasantly. "Hi, Marinette," he then ventured, looking up at her...

She'd been staring down at her notebook. At hearing his voice, she lifted her head up, looking rather melancholy... said a quiet, "Hello, Adrien," and ducked her head down again.

Ohhhh...kay, he thought. THAT isn't good.

Class is starting, so I can't really talk to her now, and I'd kind of rather talk with her when we're alone, anyway... if she's feeling hurt or embarrassed, I don't want to broadcast it in front of all her friends here. If Chloe smells blood in the water, Marinette will never hear the end of it, and that's _all_ she needs right now.

But she is _not_ happy. I haven't seen her this down in a long time.

And I need to fix this.

As class dismissed, Adrien looked up eagerly, hoping to catch Marinette on her way out the door... but he would've needed a skateboard to keep up with her. Her arms wrapped tightly around her possessions, her head down, Marinette hustled out the door and down the hallway as fast as she could without getting yelled at for running. He called her name, half-heartedly once it became obvious that she wanted nothing to do with him right now, and got no response.

Lunchtime arrived, and as Adrien expected, that was also no time to get Marinette alone. She sat with her girlfriends, as usual, and they were a tight ball around her. From what he could detect through their defensive shielding, she wasn't talking about the indignities she'd suffered in any kind of animated manner; she wasn't cursing his name or telling wicked versions of what happened. Quite the opposite... it was more as if they were trying to pry details out of her, and she just didn't want to talk about anything.

Nino watched him, glumly, from his position across their lunch table. "She's still out of it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Adrien agreed. "Whatever it was that I did... I did it good."

"Whatever you..." began Nino, then trailed off.

Adrien looked agitated. "I mean, I didn't think what happened in that room was that bad! We were both just messing around. I shouldn't have pretended to be a statue, but she was the one who kept going with her play-acting," he lamented. "I'm not that great an actor. Anyone who heard my voicework on that Ladybug movie knows that! I was absolutely sure that she knew it was the real me, and I stopped her once it got... before she did anything else that she wouldn't want to do for real."

Wouldn't want to do for REAL? Nino thought, shaking his head slightly. Adrien, my man... Marinette's not always the easiest to read, but when it comes to you, you think that she's an open book but you haven't gotten past her title page.

He looked over at his friend, who said, "Nino, I need to fix this... but I can't even get near her. Do you think you could take her a message... what?"

Nino shook his head from side to side vehemently. "Adrien... I think I might've done enough damage already. Alya would gut me. This is between you and Marinette now, I'm sorry."

"Great," grumbled Adrien. "I mean, I'm not mad at you, don't get me wrong, I understand what you're saying. But I can't even get near her today."

As he said that, an errant thought wandered through his head.

But I bet that I know who can...