Author's Note: This story is dedicated to my friend, WyomingParmesan. Happy birthday!
It was late one evening at the Chamack house. Nadja was out covering an evening candidate forum, and had hired Marinette to babysit her little Manon. Although Manon could be a handful most of the time, Marinette had to admit that she had grown to enjoy their little get-togethers.
After dinner, the two of them spent a comfortable amount of time watching TV, while Manon lay her head in Marinette's lap. They held that position until 8:55 - at which point Marinette got up, turned off the set, and told her charge, with a heavy heart, that it was just about time for bed.
"Awwwww!" whined Manon. "Can't we just stay up to watch one more program?"
"I'm sorry, but your mommy said that I have to get you in bed by 9. Now, come on. If you go upstairs right now, I'll read you a story."
And just like that, Manon's eyes lit up and her frown flipped upside down. "Ooh! Ooh! Read the one I just wrote!"
"You wrote a story?"
"Yep! I wrote it yesterday, and it has lots of pictures and mommy said it was very sweet! So can you read it, pleeeeeease?"
There was no way that Marinette would even consider saying no. A story conjured up by that rambunctious little pistol would make for a far more interesting read than some stuffy old fairy tale she's heard dozens of times before. That said, she still took a moment or two to pretend to think it over, just to keep the little one in suspense.
"...okay!" she said.
"Yaaayyyy!" Manon cheered, as she barreled past her babysitter and sprinted up the stairs.
After giving her a few minutes to go through her bedtime routine, Marinette walked up the stairs to Manon's bedroom. She opened the door to find that she had already changed herself into pajamas and tucked herself into bed. She looked at Marinette and held a bundle of papers aloft, beaming.
"Did you brush your teeth?" Marinette asked as she pulled up a chair next to her bed.
"Yep! Cross my heart!"
Typically, this would be Marinette's cue to go into the bathroom to check if her toothbrush was wet, but she decided to let her off the hook just this once. After taking her seat, she gave Manon a pat on the head and lay the story in her lap.
"The Pretty Pretty Princess and the Very Handsome Prince," she read. "By Manon Chamack."
She turned to the first page, and saw a drawing of a blue-eyed girl with pigtailed black hair, in a long, flowing red gown.
"Once upon a time, there was a princess named Madeline," Marinette read. "Madeline was one of the prettiest girls in the whole wide world, and she was great at making dolls for good little kids to play with. She also made macarons sometimes."
She looked up from the pages and smirked. "Great at making dolls and macarons? Gosh, who does that remind me of?"
Manon placed a hand over her mouth, muffling a chuckle. "Keep reading!"
Marinette rolled her eyes and looked back down at the paper. "But Princess Madeline had a problem," she continued. "She knew a prince named Anton who she was super duper in love with. He was very handsome, and he could play the piano and fight with a sword. But every time Anton said hi, Madeline's tummy would start feeling all funny and she would run away."
A light blush began to graze her cheeks as she saw the illustration of Anton - a fair-skinned, green-eyed boy in a tuxedo, with a thick, healthy head of golden blond hair.
She wouldn't... she couldn't mean... how would she even know?
Despite her suspicions, she forced herself to put her feelings aside and keep reading.
"And there was another problem too," she read. "There was an evil witch named Charlotte who hated Madeline and wanted to keep Anton all to herself."
She had to choke back a laugh once she saw the accompanying illustration: a pouty-faced blonde girl in a witch's outfit with a ponytail and sunglasses resting atop her forehead.
"Manon, did you really write this all by yourself?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah!" said Manon. "Well, mostly. Alya helped."
Oh, did she now? Marinette thought, making a mental note that she might have to kick someone's butt at school tomorrow.
"One day, Madeline and Charlotte each picked a flower for Anton and gave them to him on the same day at the same time," she read. "Anton thought Madeline's was much prettier, but he said he liked them both, because he's nice. And Madeline was so nervous that she... peed all over herself?!"
Manon rolled around on the bed, snickering.
"Hey, I don't-!" she began to object, only to stop once she caught sight of Manon's face. As soon as she saw that bucktoothed little smile, her heart melted and all of her indignation washed away. She had to admit that, while Manon could be a real pain when she was upset, she was an absolute joy when she was happy and playful. She was more than willing to endure a little ribbing if it meant keeping her smiling.
"...anyway," she said as she looked back down at the pages, "Madeline had to run off to the bathroom to change her undies. And while she was gone, Charlotte cast a spell on Anton to make him love her and only her! Then she whisked him away to the tippy top of a tower, which was a million jillion feet tall!
"'Ha ha ha!' said Charlotte. 'Now Anton is mine, and we're gonna hug each other and kiss each other and tickle each other forever and ever and ever!'"
She turned the page to find an illustration of a cackling Charlotte zooming up the tower on her broomstick, with a dazed-looking Anton tied to the back.
"When Madeline got back, she saw that Anton was gone, and in his place was a note. The note said, 'You're a dumb-face pee-pee head, and Anton said that he loves me and not you, and you'll never ever ever see him again! So there!"
Marinette felt a twinge of sorrow at the sight of the next illustration - a picture of poor Madeline kneeling on the ground, crying out a waterfall of tears. The drawing, as crude as it was, made Madeline look so pathetic, so utterly miserable that it was hard not to feel for her.
"But then," read Marinette, "the good fairy Amelia came down from the sky! Amelia was her fairy god-BFF, and she would always help whenever Madeline was in trouble!"
She turned the page and couldn't help but chuckle at what she saw - a copper-skinned girl with glasses in a bright pink dress, wielding a magic wand.
"'Don't cry, Madeline!' said Amelia. 'I'm gonna cast a magic spell that will make you fly so you can zoom up the tower, even faster than Charlotte did!' So she waved her wand and said the magic words, and Madeline flew up and up and up, through the clouds and up to the top of the tower!"
The accompanying illustration had Madeline soaring through the sky and waving at the passing clouds - some of which waved back.
"When she got to the top, she saw that Charlotte was kissing Anton all over his face, and that made Madeline really, really mad!" she read. "She said, 'Give me back Anton, you big mean witch!' But Charlotte said, 'Too bad! Anton loves me and not you, so you can go kick rocks!'
"But Madeline had an idea," she continued. "She took out one of her macarons and threw it at Anton. When Anton smelled it, he remembered how cool and pretty Madeline was, and he didn't love Charlotte anymore. So he ran up and gave Madeline a big, big hug!"
She turned the page to see a picture of Madeline and Anton embracing - next to a scowling Charlotte, who had steam coming out of her ears.
"And then Madeline picked up the evil witch and threw her all the way to Antarctica!"
Cue a guffaw-worthy picture of Charlotte landing headfirst in a pile of snow, while penguins and polar bears stared at her in confusion.
"And so, Madeline and Anton fell in love and they kissed and they got married and had four hundred babies! And everyone lived happily ever after, except for Charlotte."
The last page had the two lovers with big, ear-to-ear smiles, holding hands while dozens of hearts fluttered around their heads. Marinette had to blink back tears; whether Manon had intended to or not, she had just made a crude drawing of the exact future Marinette wanted with Adrien. All that was missing was the pet hamster.
"Manon, this is..." Marinette began, only to find that by now she was fast asleep.
"...awww..."
She put the story down on Manon's nightstand, leaned in and gave her a goodnight peck on the cheek. Before she left the room, she took one last glance at the final illustration. A quivering smile formed on her face, as she felt a single tear roll down her cheek. She sniffled, wiped the tear away and walked downstairs to the living room... where she promptly dialed Alya's number.
"Oh, hey, Marinette. What's up?"
"I am so gonna kick your butt tomorrow at school."
"What? What for?"
"Oh, I don't know. Why don't you tell me, Amelia?"