"I'm not good enough Tikki. I'll never be good enough as Marinette. Only Ladybug is ever good enough," vented the frustrated girl to her kwami.
"Oh, no Marinette, don't say things like that," tried to comfort the ladybug god. "Of course, you're good enough. If you weren't, you wouldn't have been chosen, I wouldn't have gotten a new friend and Chat wouldn't have the perfect partner."
"No, I'm not. Adrien doesn't give me a second glance and when he even gives me the time of day, I screw up. I can't even get a full sentence out without stuttering. He probably thinks I'm crazy or worse, that I hate him," whined the bluenette, letting herself fall face first on the pillows on her chaise.
"Then he's not good enough for you," stated the floating entity very seriously.
"But he's perfect," groaned the hero to her pillows.
"No he isn't. You are out of his league my chosen. It's his loss if he doesn't realise what's in front of him. Now-"
"Technically behind him," interrupted the miraculous holder, moving to lay on her back.
"You can either keep pining after him or you move on and find someone else. Someone who appreciates you for you, not Ladybug and a fantasy. If he makes you this upset then I don't approve of him," finished Tikki, pretending that Marinette hadn't spoken.
"give it a few more days?" asked the young designer.
"Fine," sighed the little goddess, floating to rub her head against Marinette's cheek in her version of a hug. "But you have to speak to him and he has until next Friday to smarten up and see you or else I'll have to give him Chat Noir's luck."
"And how do I speak to him without making a fool of myself?' questioned the teen.
"You pretend he's any other guy and not your crush," smiled the kwami, happy that her charge was happy and no longer a possible victim for Hawkmoth.
"And just how do I go about pretending that Adrien is not Adrien?" demanded the designer.
"You pretend he's Chat," replied the ladybug entity with a smirk.
"Alright, I'll try," sighed the girl before getting up, putting some Jagged Stone on and sitting in front of her sewing machine to start a new outfit.
Marinette didn't hear the crash from her roof balcony because she was in the fashion zone, as Alya called it. Tikki on the other hand, just smirked more broadly. It almost looked predatory.
'Plagg is going to love this situation,' thought the red and black kwami, slowly floating towards the plate of cookies that Marinette always keeps on her desk.
