Miraculous Ladybug One-Shots

"What If... 4" - Adrienette

What if the statue scene from Puppeteer 2 had gone differently? What if it didn't make Marinette a total creep?

###

"I'm super cool! I'm super cool! I'm super... Ugh! This is never going to work- AHH!"

Marinette almost jumped out of her own skin the moment she saw Adrien. Or rather, his statue.

"Oh, it's only his statue. How come I didn't see it earlier?" she asked herself, walking closer to it with a more relaxed expression on herself. "Wow... It looks so real..." she whispered as she gently ran a hand down the statue's cheek. "The wax is nearly as hot as skin."

Her hand trailed down to the shoulder, and she kept it there while she contemplated the work of art in front of her. Soon, she could feel her small smile faltering and her shoulders slacking. Marinette sighed, and Adrien used the opportunity to blink.

"I'm such a mess around him," she began, dropping her hand and crossing her arms instead. "Why am I such a stuttering mess around him? Oh, that's obvious. He's amazing and handsome and amazing and perfect and..." trailing off, Marinette turned to look at the statue of her beloved once more.

"And he feels bad because of me... Gosh, I want to tell him so badly! That I appreciate him more than he thinks. That he's not a terrible friend... That I have a... a..." She cut herself off, being unable to utter the words out despite it only being a statue of him.

Marinette groaned into her hands and found herself caressing the statue's cheek again. There were seconds of silence of her questioning her crush.

Declaration of love aside, she really wanted to be able to talk to him normally. "Okay, Marinette. Today is the day you change." Adrien was so absolutely perfect and amazing, she just got so nervous around him because she didn't want to mess up. In consequence, now he thought she didn't like him as her friend. He... He wasn't wrong, the problem was that it came out the worst way possible.

If she wanted to tell him, she needed to stop her stammering. Marinette could easily remember instances when she was able to actually talk to him, but of course, it always had to be about something serious; her inner Ladybug coming out. When her priority became something else other than impressing him.

Maybe that was her problem: that Adrien was a priority in the first place!

Whenever she was around her friends or her parents, she didn't worry about making impressions. She just allowed herself to be... well, herself, no matter how clumsy she was. Yes! That had to be it!

"Of course!" she exclaimed out loud. "Why didn't I realize this sooner? I'm such an idiot."

She'd put Adrien on a pedestal, thinking he was more than what a human could be, but he wasn't! If Marinette saw him as a person instead of some sort of god, surely she'd be able to act normal around him!

"I'm such a genius," she told herself jokingly, clearly more relaxed and happy with herself. She sighed once more, though this time out of relief. Her eyes went to this dear statue. Instead of looking at her pictures of Adrien and his schedule—everything which was the pinnacle of her putting him on a pedestal—this near copy of the true Adrien helped her come to terms with what her crush meant to her.

"Thank you, wax Adrien," she smiled, eyes drifting to the lips of the statue. Marinette hummed, leaned in a little and then shook her head, deciding against it. Kissing a statue? On the lips? No way. We're going to make progress here, Marinette. She gave the statue a peck on the cheek, squealed like a literal child on Christmas and was about to make her way to the elevator before a noise caught her attention. Marinette turned to the right and gasped.

"Hawkmoth?!" Except her voice wasn't the only one. Next to her, she saw the statue moving. Talking. And that scared her even more.

"A-A-Adrien?!" she stammered, unable to realize that Hawkmoth charged against her. Adrien reacted quickly and blocked the attack off with a wax umbrella. "I'm sorry! I'll explain later, go get some help!"

"Uh, yeah, uh... Be careful!"

###

After dropping off Manon and on their way back to Marinette's house in Adrien's limousine, there was a terrible awkward silence.

"S-So... Um..." Marinette cleared her throat. She had time to actually think about it, now was the time to put her conclusions to the test. "About what happened... back at the museum..."

"Oh! Uh, yeah... I, uh. I thought you were mad at me, and I wanted to cheer you up by playing a prank on you... But, um..." Adrien trailed off. Marinette managed to giggle.

"I wasn't mad at you! I promise, and the whole 'you're not exactly a good friend thing'... Erm... It came out very wrong. So this means you... heard... everything...?" Marinette asked, looking away and fidgeting with her fingers.

"Uh, yeah. Including the compliments. Thanks by the way," Adrien tried to tease her a little, not crossing the line. He smiled brightly when Marinette giggled shyly—or nervously?—and blushed, for some odd reason. Probably out of embarrassment.

"I heard everything, but... Uh. The things you say don't always make sense, Marinette. But now I know for sure you don't mean anything bad about any of them. Friends?" He offered her his hand, which Marinette took a gentle hold of and shook, blushing just a little bit more.

She could work on her stammering, but her blush was a whole other story. Moreover, not addressing the kiss was for the best anyway.

"Friends."

###

"AHHH TIKKI I'M SO HAPPY!"

Marinette twirled around in her chair, hugging her knees.

"I'm happy for you, too, Marinette! I'm glad you've figured it out, especially all by yourself. It shows you've grown and matured!"

"I'm getting rid of the schedule I made. Now that I actually think about it... I think I went overboard," the girl chuckled nervously, to which her Kwami laughed.

"And what about the pictures of Adrien?"

"Baby steps, Tikki, baby steps."

###

I absolutely despise that episode. Especially the statue scene, and I think it's safe for me to assume I'm not the only one.

Season 3 Marinette is a mess; a creepy, totally jerk-y, mess.

In this re-imagined version of that dreadful scene, I wanted to put into play the fact that Marinette is smart. With some actual time to reflect on her actions and herself, she should realize her behavior towards Adrien is plain creepy.

I also wanted to keep the monologuing side of things, without her actually turning it into a cheesy Shakespearean monologue. Why not have her confess her love for him? Please, if Adrien finds out, it shouldn't have to be this way (see Glaciator's What If heh).

She knows Adrien isn't perfect, but in this season, she seems to forget all about that fact. She sees him like a god and I hate that.

Why not have Tikki knock some sense into her? Because Tikki is always used as a plot device. LESSON LESSON LESSON. Marinette is a teenager, yes, but she's proven to be smart.

In the series, she's a Mary Sue. The whole creepy behavior is—in my opinion—the writers' way to make her have "flaws". But. They never address those flaws or make her face the consequences. 

In my version of the scene, she realizes that what she's doing is VERY wrong, and she decides to improve herself. But it's not immediate and she still stammers a little around Adrien, not to mention she's not about to throw away everything she has of him.

Making her an asshole doesn't help to make her less of a Mary Sue, but making her have struggles, face consequences and learn from those is what Marinette's character needs.

Rant over, I'm sorry for this 😅

Bai-bai 👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼