BOX
Marinette hung up the phone for the last time that day. Hopefully, anyway. She was hungry and ready to go home.
Well, at least ready to crash in a bed and hope that she didn’t see Adrien.
“Marinette,” Tikki spoke up. “Before we go home, I want to have a little talk with you.”
“Oh,” Marinette said, somewhat surprised. She took a seat at her desk with Tikki floating in front of her. “Sure, what is it, Tikki?”
“I’m worried for you,” the kwami said. “This… Nothing your going through is healthy.”
“If this is about Adrien, I agree with that,” Marinette mumbled.
“Partly,” she said.
“See! Thank you for validating me.”
“I never said that, Marinette,” Tikki quickly corrected. “What I meant was that you are in a relationship where neither person gives anything.”
“It’d be easier if he wasn’t so full of himself,” Marinette grumbled. “Honestly, it’s like working with Gabriel. I’m not surprised he was Hawkmoth. Funny how his son’s the keeper of destruction.”
Tikki’s eyes narrowed, and despite being a tiny thing, Marinette felt like she could shrink under Tikki’s gaze. “I’m sorry if you don’t want to hear this, but how dare you, Marinette! Do you even hear yourself?”
That got Marinette to pause.
“This is Adrien you’re talking about. The boy whom you loved as a teenager because of his kind heart. The boy who became your superhero partner, whom you always assured was your equal, not below you.”
“Well, he’s changed, Tikki. I can’t fix that.”
“You’ve changed, too, and if you’re looking to change him to suit your needs, you’re going to be sorely disappointed, Marinette.”
As Tikki’s words sank in, Marinette’s gaze fell to her desk.
Tikki sighed, the majority of her anger leaving her tiny body. “Marinette,” she began again, her voice gentler now. “You have to understand that relationship is a box. It starts out empty and you have to fill it. You only get out of it what you put into it. A marriage is a very healthy union that gives solidity to a relationship, but it’s still a box. An empty box.”
“Well, my box with Adrien is very empty.”
“The scary thing is that it’s actually not,” Tikki said. “It’s filled with animosity and hurt. That last battle took a lot out of both of you, and instead of talking it out, you two each decided to dump your baggage—and I know there’s been a lot of it lately—into the box. So the box is full—in fact, it’s bursting at the seams—but it’s full of all the wrong things.”
“Then you’re proving that it’s better for Adrien and I to not have a box in the first place.”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all,” Tikki gently corrected. “I’m saying that the box needs to be emptied, then repaired. Then you can refill it again. Properly. With love and care and selflessness.”
YOU ARE READING
The love dare
Random⚓After Hawkmoth was defeated, Adrien and Marinette are both hurt, leaving their marriage strained. Worried, Tikki and Plagg decided to take matters into their own hands by issuing a series of dares in an attempt to help their charges fix their marri...
