MiracuCrack #PS1A: The Direct Approach
by DFC
(Timeline: Season 4.)
Sitting in her best friend's bedroom, studying her every move, Alya's mind focused intently on the question of the day:
Marinette is stressed beyond belief. She is MISERABLE. So miserable that she told me her deepest secret, just reaching out desperately for someone to share her burden with!
This can't continue.
"Marinette, honey," she declared, "there's only one thing that's going to lighten your mood and get you out of this funk you're in. And I think that you know what it is."
"Honestly," Marinette replied, "I haven't a clue."
"It's the mouth of a certain boy that you're still in love with," Alya proclaimed. "And it has to touch yours, over and over, for it to work."
Marinette stared at her. "I don't mean to be rude," she replied, "but knock it off, already."
"I'm serious," Alya countered. "You're single again. He's single again. He's got to be feeling sad and lonely... and he brightens up every time you're near him. One thing I've learned from watching football games with Nino is that sometimes, being on the rebound is your best scoring chance. His defenses are all out of whack."
"Maybe you hadn't noticed," said Marinette, a bit acidly, "but I've tried going after Adrien. I haven't done much else this year. It wasn't very productive, and I'm not very good at it, and the last thing he needs right now is me going blah-bla-blah-bla-blah in his ear."
"Look," argued Alya. "You know I've talked with Nino about this. Not about... the big thing, of course... but almost everything else. Nino talks to Adrien quite a bit; he's our best source of inside information. And he's convinced that Adrien is crazy about you, that he really, really likes you, that he could definitely want more... but he thinks that you don't want that from him. Because that's what you've told him."
"I know."
Marinette slumped down in her chair, helplessly. "I panic around him, okay? It's in my DNA. The last time that I tried being direct with him was a disaster of disasters."
Alya sat by her side. "Girl, I do know one thing. That you're not always like that. What would Ladybug do, for instance? She'd never say die. She'd stick to it to the end. She'd find a way to break through Adrien's shell, once and for all, and let him know how you feel in a way that even he can't misread."
That got a small smile out of Marinette. "I could argue, 'Well, I'm not Ladybug,' but I guess that wouldn't go very far with you any more, would it?" she admitted.
"What I'm suggesting..." Alya grinned, "is that we work together and form a plan of action. We're going to doll you up, make every little detail perfect and blow his mind out his ears."
"What, another Operation: Secret Garden?"
"Nothing that complicated," said Alya. "That had too many people involved and too many moving parts. I'm thinking, we'll make you up into the girl of Adrien's dreams... and then you'll wake him up, for good. You'll tell him how much you're yearning for him, you'll walk right up to him, you'll kiss him before either of you can stand around and think too much about it."
"I don't know about this," mumbled Marinette. "But let's see what I've got here that might help..."
"Good," Alya laughed, clapping her hands. "I can never resist a challenge."
The next hour-and-a-half flew by as two young women began the Mother of All Makeovers.
Marinette emerged from her closet with a slinky black dress on a hanger. "This is the closest thing I own to the kind of dress you're talking about," she showed Alya.
"Not bad. Not bad!" Alya admired. "You've been holding out on me."
"I've never had anywhere to wear it!" argued Marinette. "I got this about a year and a half ago; we were going to a New Year's Eve party as a family, and Mama bought this for me to wear. I've grown a little bit since then, but it should still fit."
"Try it on for me, then."
Marinette accomplished the feat, with Alya's assistance in zipping up the back. "Nnngh," winced Marinette. "It still fits... but it's definitely tighter than it used to be. A little higher on the leg, too."
"Yes... but within reasonable limits," said Alya, surveying the sight from all angles. "We don't want to throw your curves right in Adrien's face... but we definitely want to remind him that you have some. I think this will work just fine."
With that encouragement, Marinette felt confident enough to allow Alya to continue tinkering. No detail was too small for them to tweak. Everything from Marinette's choice of brassiere ("He's not going to get that far today," Alya reasoned, "but just a touch of push-up support goes a long way!") to her hairstyle, her makeup, her shoes, and her fragrance went through a careful selection process.
"His favorite macarons are passionfruit. This body spray has a touch of that scent in it," Marinette noted as she applied a little of it to her arms and neck. "It seemed like a good investment."
"I can't argue with that," Alya grinned back.
And before long...
"Good lord," Alya marveled, as Marinette examined herself in a full-length mirror. "You've been hiding this from everyone all along? You look amazing."
"...Maybe. I feel like a little girl dressing up in Mama's heels and makeup, pretending to be grown-up and glamorous," countered Marinette. "This... it just isn't me."
"This isn't the everyday Marinette, no," Alya agreed. "But you haven't won him over yet with the everyday you... no matter how much I swear to you that he's into her, right? This is a one-time thing, to shock him out of his image of you. To make him realize that there are many sides of you, and he hasn't seen some of them yet, and you're opening that door for him to look inside."
Marinette stared at her reflection, not feeling sure.
"Ladybug's confidence. Ladybug's willpower," Alya prodded her. "Ladybug can do anything that she wants badly enough."
"...Yeah," said Marinette, after a moment. "Yeah. She can."
Her nervous smile turned back to Alya. "Make the phone call," she declared, "before I change my mind."
Two young women, one in everyday clothes and the other dressed to the nines, waved as they walked out the front door of Tom & Sabine's Boulangerie Patisserie. As he waved back to them, Tom was pretty sure that he recognized at least one of them.
"...Did I miss something?" he asked Sabine. "Or is our daughter on her way to a formal cotillion?"
Sabine shrugged. "As best as I could get from what Marinette told me," she replied, "her little blonde dreamboat broke up with that girl he was seeing, the Japanese girl. You know who I mean, right?"
"Kagami, isn't it?" Tom agreed. "Yes, I met her. She seemed nice."
"Apparently, Alya talked Marinette into letting Adrien know, once and for all, that she's also available and she's applying for that vacancy."
Tom whistled. "Done up like that?" he wondered. "Couldn't she just, you know, tell him that she likes him that way?"
"You know Marinette," Sabine reminded him. "When it comes to her Adrien, nothing is ever that simple. I do hope that she knows what she's doing."
"This ought to bring things to a head, if nothing else. And probably stop traffic, too," smiled Tom. "If she doesn't turn his head looking like that, get him a cane, because he's blind."
"If she doesn't turn his head looking like that, dig a hole, because he's dead," chuckled Sabine.
On a park bench on the street where Marinette lived, Adrien Agreste sat, checking his phone and his watch and looking anxious.
I wonder what this is all about? he pondered. Alya called me out of the blue and said, "Get your butt down here. Something really important is going down." She gave me an exact time and place to be, I got a ride from the Gorilla, I'm going to hear all about this from Nathalie when I get home... but I don't care.
Is something wrong with Marinette? That would explain why Alya's so concerned.
She really hasn't looked like herself lately. Definitely not since she broke up with Luka. Maybe Alya's gathering all of Marinette's good friends together to cheer her up?
He looked around for a moment. If that's the case, where is everybody? he wondered.
And that music... what's that about? I hear soft, romantic music playing, but I don't know where it's coming from.
Standing up, he listened carefully. It's hard to make out with all the traffic going by. But... I think it's coming from those bushes over there?
Adrien approached them slowly, not sure what to expect, and saw something rustle within them. He thought that he caught a glimpse of a dark-haired figure in a plaid shirt for a moment, but it backed away rapidly.
"Alya? Is that you?" he called out.
"...Adrien?" said a familiar voice from somewhere behind him.
He turned...
From Adrien's perspective, it was as if someone absolutely beautiful had stepped out of a movie screen, come to life and found him standing there.
Long, stockinged legs perched on high heels strode towards him confidently, even as their owner prayed to everything that she held holy that she wouldn't trip over them and fall flat on her face. A sleek black dress hugged her young frame as if she'd been poured into it. As his eyes reached her face, he recognized her instantly... but this was no version of his friend that he'd ever seen before.
"M-M-M-M..." Adrien stammered. "...Marinette?"
Pigtails, nervous tremors and giggly smiles had been replaced by shoulder-length tresses, a confident look and soft, but hungry eyes.
"Hello, Adrien," Marinette welcomed him. "I'm so glad that you could meet me here today."
It was all Adrien could do to remain standing; he came very close to falling on his rear as he took the sight in.
"You look... Marinette... you look... wow!" he boggled. "I've... I never imagined..."
"Oh, this old thing?" she grinned, trying to sound nonchalant. "Just something I threw on."
Her poise served nicely to remove any of Adrien's that was remaining. This was no carefree classmate; this was a woman. A woman with definite intent.
"...Marinette?" he gasped. "What's going on?"
She took a deep breath. Ladybug's courage, she told herself.
"Adrien Agreste," she began, "I love you. I love you so much that I can barely contain it sometimes. I have been in love with you from almost the first day that we met. You handed me that umbrella in the rain... and you took my heart back with you, though you didn't know it then."
Her eyes studied him carefully as she continued, praying to see joy and love in his reactions. "I need you, Adrien. I need to be yours. And I'm not going to let anything or anyone stop me from being yours... if you'll have me."
Speechless, he watched as she stepped closer... closer still... close enough to touch.
She closed her eyes, parted her lips gently, and leaned forward...
Tom stepped out of the bakery's kitchen, wiping his hands with a towel. "Do I even want to know what all of that commotion is out there?" he asked Sabine, who was staring out the store's front window.
Sabine was silent, but motioned to him to look for himself.
The first thing he saw was a young man in a state of sheer panic. He was running backwards as well as he could manage, not daring to take his eyes off of his pursuer but also not slowing down.
Chasing him was his daughter, running as quickly as she could in precariously high heels... followed by Alya, with a small boom-box cradled in her arms, a short distance behind.
"Help!" Adrien cried out. "Ladybug! Somebody! I think my friend's been Akumatized!"
"No, I haven't!" shrieked Marinette. "It's just me!"
"That's just what someone who'd been Akumatized would say!" countered Adrien. "You're-"
Whump!
Sabine winced as Marinette went flying, catching herself in the grass with her hands so that she didn't break her head open. With a frustrated growl, she kicked her heels off and began running down the pavement in stockinged feet; Alya collected the shoes when she got there, then continued in her pursuit.
"She's... trying to confess to you... you dope!" Alya shouted.
"You, too?" Adrien shouted back. "Is this a group Akuma?"
"Adrien, I'm sorry!" wailed Marinette. "I didn't mean... but I do mean... but I... can we talk about this?"
"Not until Ladybug purifies you!" Adrien replied, keeping his distance.
Tom stared at the scene for a moment in disbelief... then turned back to his wife.
"Oh, you know," Sabine shrugged. "The usual."