Work Text:
Marinette felt frustrated as she stomped into the wax hall after leaving Adrien in the crafters room. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she just speak to Adrien like a normal person? She didn’t want to hurt his feelings; she just wanted to get hers across. Groaning, she kicked a pillar and hissed as she stubbed her toe instead, spinning around away from the thing, but jumping as she saw what she found.
She was surprised to find Adrien in front of her when she could’ve sworn, he was still in the crafter’s room a minute ago. She sighed when she saw it was just his statue however, and rolled her eyes at her jumpiness.
Marinette eyed up and down the statue of Adrien in front of her and giggled. What a funny pose he was in. She leaned closer and squinted into his eyes, the statue seemed to get more tense the closer she got. Pulling back, she grabbed the statue’s chin in a hand.
“Hm, nice wax, definitely done well, almost like the real thing.” She circled the statue, ruffling its hair, and pausing in shock.
“Good lord it’s so soft!” -she snorted- “Adrien would probably be jealous of the statue’s hair, heck I’m jealous of the statue’s hair. Leaning closer she looked at the eyelashes and sighed.
“Of course it’s always the guys, even the statues of guys have to have better eyelashes than me, who decided to give them all the good genes?” His lips looked incredibly detailed and textured, and she was surprised that when she tapped it, it felt real.
“How did they make this? This isn’t wax, what material is it?” Poking his cheek her eyebrows raised even higher, a comical look of disbelief on her face. “No way that’s real,” she muttered to herself. She decided to ask the wax lady how they made it.
Marinette sighed.
“If only I could confess my love to the real Adrien. Hmmm, what if I practice on this thing?” She snorted “what a ridiculous idea, I might as well have gone insane.” -a shrug- “worth a try I guess.”
She tried to look dreamily into his eyes, but then burst out laughing at herself. This felt so weird, confessing her love to a fake Adrien. She wondered why Tikki hadn’t responded so far, but decided to leave it, she was a woman on a mission. Suppressing giggles, she stared back at the thing.
Dramatically hanging off the statue with a palm over her head, she started her monologue that she knew her and Tikki would be laughing at together for over a week straight.
“Oh, wax Adrien, your lips are so soft, your hair is so smooth” -she plucked a strand of hair off his head, not seeing the way he winced and she threw it behind her- “Let us be moulded together in the plaster of destiny, wax lips to wax lips, intertwined forever.” She blew him a kiss, and then doubled over into laughter.
Sometimes Marinette genuinely wondered what she was doing, but then again, she was always happy to just be silly and enjoy life with Tikki, enjoying providing entertainment for her kwami, who found almost everything Marinette did hilarious.
Obviously, she wouldn’t be that Shakespearean when actually confessing her love for the boy, but this was a fun way to get her out of her head and stop stressing.
Grinning at the statue, she spoke to it once again, “thanks wax Adrien, I’ll definitely be taking your advice on how not to confess to my crush.” She laughed and turned around to go find Adrien, intending on showing him how realistic they had made his statue, before leaping out of her skin when she heard-
“Well… I mean, technically you just did.” Her head whipped around and she froze like a dear in headlights to find that the statue of Adrien- was actually Adrien. Oh no. Oh no no no no no no. What had she done? She didn’t think her love for him would come out like this, she didn’t think she’d get rejected like this, in the worst most humiliating way possible! She fought the urge to leave a Marinette shaped hole in the wall while running away screaming like a banshee and gave him a strained smile.
“What?” Her voice came out squeakier than she would’ve liked. Out of all the godforsaken ways she had planned to confess to him! Did the universe hate her or something? What crime had she committed in her past life to be subject to this torture? Perhaps the miraculous of bad luck would suit her better, because clearly Tikki wasn’t sharing any of her luck.
Adrien blushed. “I meant- um, technically, you confessed my love for you- I mean! Your love for me- I think, I guess, I d-don’t know.” He mumbled and kicked the ground, dragging a hand over his face to hide the red creeping up his neck. Marinette was lost. She had made Adrien Agreste blush and stutter. That was her job! His job was to make her flustered, but it seemed the roles had been reversed. Well then, she supposed she had nothing left to lose.
Breathing in a breath for what Marinette was about to do, she steeled herself and sauntered up to him with the lazy smirk that Chat wore. Throwing her hands over his shoulders, she leaned in right up close to his face, tilting forwards with a grin. “Hmm, is that so Agreste? I could’ve sworn I heard you stuttering.”
Adrien thought he might’ve stopped working the moment Marinette leaned in. Her face that close and the smell of croissants fogging his head, he didn’t know what to think when his stomach started fluttering and his heart started beating faster. What had started as a funny prank had ended up with his face growing hot when he revealed himself and him tripping over his words. It was such a strange sensation. Was this what people described love as? Was that why Marinette was always flustered around him? Wait- she was flustered around him! For some reason that felt like a huge accomplishment. He had been thinking less and less about Ladybug recently, and focusing more on Marinette, smiling at her clumsiness and the charm she had about her. He hadn’t realised why, but it seemed he had slowly been falling for her.
It turned out, this whole time she had been falling for him too.
And now here he was, with a gorgeous girl in his face, close enough for him to lean in and close the gap. He could feel her breath on his lips, and gulped. What was wrong with him? Were butterflies always this nerve wracking? He had to fight the urge to pull her face towards his and kiss her but at the thought he grew even more red.
“Um- I uh I wasn’t stuttering! I’m just- words tripping over my- I mean, tripping over my words, my tongue is uh, feeling funny, and- um your lips look nice- I MEAN, sorry I didn’t mean that, I mean I did! You look amazing, not in that way- o-of course, I meant-” She shut him up by pressing her forehead against his, causing his breath to stop.
“What did you mean then? I’m all ears, tell me.” She grinned, enjoying him getting a taste of his own medicine, watching his ears burn in nervousness.
“I mean- um, I kinda want to kiss you- wait not like that! I mean- if you want- sorry, I- uh, don’t know where that came from, I mean you do look very kissable right now but- that’s beside the point I-”
“Do you really want to kiss me?”
Adrien stared into her eyes, and then his gaze drifted to her lips, soft and pink
“Yes.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” He might have jumped in joy if it weren’t for the fact she was holding him in place with her gaze. All clear, she’d given him the all clear. He leaned in closer, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side, his eyes drifting closed. He paused, a centimetre away, wondering if she really wanted this. In response, she grabbed his face and at long last, after an eternity and three seasons, Marinette Dupain-Cheng finally kissed Adrien Agreste.
_________
Well, Alya and Nino were certainly shocked when they found them kissing in the middle of an empty hall, Nino having to restrain Alya from jumping upwards and disturbing the new couple, allowing her to only take a few pictures before dragging her away to give their best friends some privacy.
Safe to say, there was certainly a lot of teasing that was going to follow tomorrow.