start notes—
Marinette falls for Adrien the moment he walks into her shop. Whether or not it's because of the curse of love placed upon him, however, is unclear.
my tellonym: milkisande
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cursed
love at first sight's for suckers,
at least it used to be.
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THE first time Adrien walks into Marinette's shop, she falls in love. And it's in that split moment she realizes something is wrong.
His smile makes her heart soar, the blush coming up to dust her face completely unprompted. She feels herself become giddy with emotion at seeing him face-to-face, but all Marinette can really think about is one thing:
'Wow, that's an extremely potent spell'.
"Someone put a curse on you for love, then?"
The look of relief on his face makes her pause. She's surprised by how strongly her heart's beating at his change in expression, not having reacted so strongly to a curse before.
(Which is saying a lot, considering that Marinette regularly deals with cursed magical items and people on a daily basis. Love spells are nothing new, but it's definitely the first time she's encountered something that's affected her so intensely.)
"Yes," he breathes. "Some young maiden had ambushed me a few days ago and cast a spell upon me, saying something about an unrequited love…"
Marinette laughs softly, before walking over to her shelves to retrieve the necessary items to undo the curse. "As they say, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; especially in matters of the heart." She carefully picks out a few vials and herbs, before setting them down on the table.
"I never meant to scorn her…," he says, looking down, visibly bothered by the reality that he had hurt someone. Marinette finds it adorable.
Because of the love spell, of course.
"I simply didn't want to lead her on with false hopes of romance." He pauses. "I want to pursue a relationship with someone I truly love."
"Maybe I could be that person."
They both look up. Marinette; the more surprised between the two of them.
"Sorry, the curse is rather powerful. Forgive my boldness."
He looks caught off-guard, and she'd daresay claim that his cheeks were turning somewhat red as well. Adorable.
"I, uh," he nervously adjusts his collar, then coughs into his hand. "Of course. This curse is quite a handful to deal with. Do you have customers, uh, like me, that often?"
Marinette hums. "Mhm. Love spells are quite common these days," she muses, before beginning to put the ingredients into a large pot. "Especially with the Festival of Saint Valentine coming soon. Many novice witches and sorcerers chanting spells they have absolutely no business handling, and for such selfish reasons... ," she pauses thoughtfully. "It's no wonder their spells go awry."
"Is that what happened to me?"
She nods. "The young maiden who cursed you likely wanted you to fall in love with her— though it did backfire to have everyone fall for you instead. Had she done the spell correctly, fixing this wouldn't be so easy." Marinette notices her customer shudder, then laughs lightly. "Not to worry, even the most experienced mages have difficulty conjuring such a curse." She stares at him directly, a hint of a smile teasing the edge of her lips as a heart-shaped puff of smoke escapes her concoction.
"Love is the most powerful magic in the world, after all."
He looks absolutely flustered.
Putting the potion into a small container, Marinette hands it over to him. "Drink this before you go to bed, and the spell should wear off by the time you wake up the next day.
"... thank you." He starts, handing her a few gold coins before turning back to the exit.
Something in Marinette's veins— the effects of the spell, maybe (but it feels much deeper than that), tells her to call after him.
"Not to be so forward, but I would appreciate knowing the name of the man I've fallen in love with."
She can see him almost drop the vial.
He turns back, a graceful flush of red taking over his features.
"I, uhm, I'm—!" He looks absolutely mortified, but manages to stutter the words out. "Adrien. I'm Adrien. I'm a visitor from the neighboring kingdom, because I've been told of your mastery with curse-breaking…"
"So you went all the way to our kingdom for me? I'm flattered."
"Well…!"
Marinette's laughing, face bright.
"It's great to meet you, Adrien. I do hope that you visit again, though hopefully without a curse this time around." She doesn't know what makes her do it, because in any other circumstances she absolutely wouldn't, but Marinette winks. "I would like to fall for you properly, the next time around."
He's entirely speechless by the time she's done talking, only nervously muttering incoherently as he makes over-the-top gestures with his hands.
Cute.
Adrien bumps into the door on his way out.
"I, uh, ah, uhm… thanks a lot, then, bye!"
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When Marinette wakes up in the morning, her first realization is that she's experiencing a pretty severe bout of complete and absolute embarrassment.
Memories of her so openly flirting with a man, much less one that she had only just met, begins haunts every crevice of her mind. She's not that bold? She's not the forward type, especially when it comes to romance? How strong was that damned love spell, to drastically change her character like that?!
And to experience a complete three-sixty in personality because of a man? (No matter how adorable and borderline-perfect that man may be…)
Marinette's second, and admittedly belated, realization is that her head remains to be full of thoughts of Adrien Agreste.
Specifically, thoughts of meeting him again as they both run away into the sunset together.
Even the mere thought of him makes her face explode into a shade of crimson she never thought possible to bloom on a human.
So he forgot to take the potion, then.
If she's still in love with him, after all, then it must mean the curse is still active.
It's the only logical reason, after all.
Why else would she continue to think about him?
Oh well, maybe he'll remember again tomorrow.
(And maybe the panic over his thoughts of her will disappear, too.)
But when another day passes, then a week, then two, without any change in her feelings…
Marinette makes another, albeit much more panicked, realization that maybe he had taken the vial after all.
And if the spell is broken, while she's still thinking of him (in increasingly more and more romantic scenarios)…
Oh.
Well, that's not good.
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end notes—
omg this is the first fic i actually finished early for this month! without staying up and posting at 11pm like the procrastinator i truly am! i love this energy! this was also super fun to write and being able to actually expound on my ideas the way i want to bc i still have time,, i love that. hopefully gonna keep that energy the rest of august!3
anw this was fun to write! blushy adrien and flirty marinette are always a nice change of pace to write (i hope the explanation was clear that mari was only like that coz of the potion asksk she is still A Mess on a normal day). also... a week left until this challenge is done ? dang im kinda gonna miss posting here ,, but i do hope you'll continue to support me with other fics in the future! *ahem* aladdin au *ahem* ,, AS ALWAYS:
thank you for reading! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～