Day 7
One week. One week in and Marinette wasn’t seeing any changes.
Actually, she had. Adrien was beginning to side-eye her as though she was committing some horrible sin behind his back. He had grown even more shut off, if that was possible, and it made yesterday’s “Love is not irritable” dare incredibly hard.
Today found her sitting in front of her journal again, pen in hand.
“Love believes the best,” Tikki had said. “Today, take two sheets of paper and write out a list of positive things about Adrien on one sheet and negative things on the next. Then pick one of the positive things and give Adrien a compliment today based on that thing you chose.”
So here she was, wanting to rip her hair out as she spewed a very long list of negatives and had only half as many positives despite working on it twice as long.
A knock on her door startled her. The next thing she knew, a chocolate hand with two bags of food appeared.
Marinette quickly hid her notebook and called for Alya to come inside.
“Food,” Alya said with a grin as she shut the door behind her, “has arrived.”
“Thank you. You are amazing.”
“Mm-hmm.” Alya dropped a bag in front of Marinette, who immediately began digging in.
“So, how’s Adrien?”
And that’s when Marinette’s nerves stood up on end. “You know…” she said with a shrug. “Adrien’s Adrien.”
“Which has been your answer for the past six months.”
“What am I supposed to say, Alya?” Marinette challenged, tossing her hands in the air. “He’s stubborn as ever and I’m getting no where and all he wants to do is be mad at me.”
“Are you actually going to go through with divorcing him?”
“If that’s what he wants, so be it. I don’t have a choice.”
“She does have a choice,” Tikki said, popping up into view.
“Hi, Alya.”
“Hey, Tikki,” she greeted with a smile. “What’s Marinette’s choice.”
“I’m proud of her for even attempting it,” Tikki said before opening the drawer Marinette had shoved the notebook in.
“Tikki!” You little traitor!
“Marinette, you need support and encouragement,” Tikki quickly argued. “I can only do so much, but your friend who you trust is here and wants to be here for you while you go through with this. Only you and Adrien have the ability fix your marriage, but getting support from your friends can make a world of difference.”
“Yeah, girl,” Alya assured, reaching over the table to grab Marinette’s hands. “We’re here for you.”
Marinette gave Alya a flat look. “The only reason you’re holding my hands right now is to prevent me from stopping Tikki.”
Alya’s grin was as fox-like as could be. “You know it.”
With that, Tikki tugged the book from the drawer and dropped it in front of Alya.
“We kwamis call it ‘The Love Dare.’ Trixx knows about it.”
“Yup,” The little fox kwami confirmed, appearing out of Alya’s purse. “And it works most of the time, too. Being married to a wielder can be really hard, so if we can help the marriage when it’s rocky, we do.”
“Marriage in general is hard,” Tikki said. “Being a wielder only adds an extra difficulty.”
Trixx nodded sagely in agreement.
Alya took a moment to read the journal while Marinette sat resigned in her chair.
“This is good stuff,” Alya commented, handing the journal back.
“I guess,” Marinette relented, snatching the journal back and dumping it in the drawer. “But Adrien’s not responding to it.”
“Give it time,” Tikki said. “You and Adrien are going through a really rough patch right now. He needs time to respond. A week isn’t going to cut it.”
“Tikki’s right,” Alya agreed. “I never thought I would see the day you and Adrien were so separated from each other. You two… you were my ship. You two were relationship goals. I thought that if anyone would make it, it would be you two. You were perfect for each other.”
“Are,” Tikki corrected. “They still are, no matter what you or Adrien think, Marinette.”
With a sigh and a pout, Marinette crossed her arms and sank into her chair.
“And I know you know it,” Tikki said, coming to rest on Marinette’s knee. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be doing this.”
Marinette swallowed her emotions. As usual, Tikki was spot on, no pun intended.
Pun…
Her heart softened suddenly at the thought. She bit her lip recalling Adrien’s love of puns. She hadn’t heard him say one in months. Twelve of them, to be precise. Not since before Hawkmoth was revealed.
She missed it.
“Oh, girl.” In a heartbeat, Alya was by Marinette’s side.
And that’s when a tear slipped out. “I just want things to go back to normal.”
“They can,” Tikki assured, patting her charges knee. “They can, but you have to put your all into this. No more being angry at me thinking that you have to prove me wrong at the end of this dare.”
Marinette sniffed, a tear rolling down her cheek. She was quick to wipe it away. “Okay.”
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...
