Chapter Text
Adrien was at the Grévin wax museum to make a mold of his hand to replace the one that an over-eager fan had broken off from his wax figure. Later on there would be a publicity photo-shoot where he would pose with his repaired duplicate.
Adrien has his hand in the mold now, waiting for a timer to go off to tell him when it was set.
Véronique, his liaison from the museum staff, and Théo Barbot the sculptor had been called off on an errand somewhere. The only ones left in the room were his friends.
Nino and Alya had been invited along to keep him company, and Alya invited Marinette. This entailed Marinette bringing along the energetic child she was babysitting, Manon Chamack.
Due to a confusing conversation with Nino, Adrien wasn't sure if Marinette still liked him. He hoped to talk with her about it while he waited for the mold to set.
Nino played a trick on Manon, posing at end of a row of wax heads. This excited the little girl into wanting to play too.
"Come on, Marinette!" said Manon. "Let's go downstairs and play hide-and-seek. We can pretend to be statues!"
"We can't, Manon," said Marinette. "We have to stay with Adrien."
"Aw!" said Manon.
Alya bent down to Manon. "We'll play with you."
Taking the little girl by the hand, Alya left with her and Nino.
"Keep Adrien company for us," said Alya. "Don't let him get bored for a second!"
"What? No!" said Marinette, charging the door too late. "Don't leave me alone with him!"
Adrien looked at Marinette with a sad expression. So it was true...
"That's not what I meant to say," said Marinette. "I'm sorry..."
"You're upset with me?" asked Adrien.
Marinette knocked over a bucket of glass eyeballs, which rolled on the floor.
"No, of course not. What makes you say that?" asked Marinette as she picked up the eyeballs.
"Well, Nino told me..."
Marinette stopped picking up eyeballs and came closer.
"Whatever Nino told you, it's nonsense! Don't believe him."
"Whew! So that means you like me? I was afraid you didn't."
"Of course I love... I mean, I quite like you! I mean, you're not just a 'good buddy', you see?"
"Oh all right... but if I'm not a good buddy, what am I to you?"
"You are... the bathroom! I really need to go! Sorry!"
Marinette dashed out the door.
"See you later," said Adrien sadly.
Plagg phased into one of the wax heads and rolled around its eyes from the inside.
"Ooh, Adrien. Girls are so complicated. You'd be better off sticking with Camembert!"
"Silly Plagg! Put that head down before you Cataclysm it."
Plagg set it down on the table and came back to Adrien, hooting with laughter.
"Plagg, do you think I said something wrong? I'm not really good at this," said Adrien.
The timer went off, telling Adrien the mold was ready. He pulled out his hand and headed for the door.
"I'm going to prove to her that I'm her friend!"
Meanwhile, Manon was playing hide-and-seek with Alya and Nino. She came to a room with figures of akuma villains around the edges, with Ladybug and Chat Noir in the middle in fighting stances.
Manon giggled and posed on the platform with the two heroes, waiting for the two to find her. She planned to jump and scare them.
Alya stopped in front of the statue of herself as the villain Lady WiFi. Next to that was the statue of Nino as The Bubbler.
"Excuse me, Lady WiFi," said Nino. "What's your superpower again? Making me fall deeply in love with you?"
"I don't need superpowers for that," said Alya.
Manon turned her head to look at them. When would they stop the mushy stuff and get back to the game?
Alya stared at her villain figure.
"I know we're not really ourselves when we're akumatized... but it's still strange to see us like that, as super villains."
"That's because you're not looking at it the right way," said Nino. "These aren't super villains – they're people that Ladybug and Chat Noir saved!"
"You're right," said Alya, leaning against Nino.
Nino started to tickle her. "I have been akumatized. I am... the Tickler!"
"Not tickling!" said Alya in mock horror. "Help me, Ladybug and Chat Noir!"
Caught up in their own fun, they ran laughing from the room.
"They forgot about me!" cried Manon. "Why doesn't anybody want to play with me today?"
Manon got off the platform and walked around looking at the villain figures. She stopped in front of The Puppeteer, her akumatized form. She couldn't remember being her, but she had heard stories of how powerful she was.. and how she nearly defeated the heroes.
She took the figure's wand, imagining what it would be like to be that powerful. Nobody would ignore her then!
Hawk Moth opened the window in his lair, sensing a strong emotion.
"A child who feels abandoned. Kids need so much attention. Lucky for her, she can count on me to give it to her!"
He charged a butterfly with his magic.
"Fly away my little akuma, and give her power to for our benefit!"
As the butterfly sought its prey, Hawk Moth considered her power. It was easy to give someone the same power as before. There would be some variation because of the use of wax figures, but not much.
Should he give her a reduced power? There was danger in letting her control people through figures. Somewhere in the museum was the new figure of Adrien. Perhaps he should limit The Puppeteer to simply bringing wax figures to life. But she came so close to winning the last time! It was worth the risk.
Alya came back into the villain gallery. "That's it, I'm tired of hiding. Nino, where are you?"
She saw him standing with his back to her in a stiff pose. Giggling to herself, she sneaked forward to tickle him.
Ayla gasped when she felt the coldness of the wax figure dressed in Nino's clothes. It had an expression of shock and horror.
Alya turned to run, but The Bubbler was there with his giant bubble wand out.
"Time to party, dude-ette!" said The Bubbler.
The Puppetter came out of hiding and floated over to the figure of Lady WiFi.
"You didn't play with me like you said you would. Now I'm going to play with you. Lady WiFi, come to life!"
Instantly, Alya became Lady WiFi, taking her place on the platform. Where Alya had been was now a wax figure of her civilian form.
"I'd love to play, Puppeteer," said Lady WiFi.
The Bubbler caught the figures of Nino and Alya in his bubbles and floated them up and out of the way. Lady WiFi added pause symbols to keep the bubbles in place.
"Next will be Chat Noir, and then Ladybug," said The Puppeteer.
Marinette walked into the gallery of contemporary celebrities, past the statue of Clara Nightingale.
Tiki had persuaded her to try to act like she was in a stage play, to be a super-cool person who could do anything without fear.
"Super-cool! I'm super-cool!" she muttered to herself.
Marinette gasped and jumped back when she saw Adrien. She sighed with relief when he didn't move.
"It's just his statue. Strange, I didn't see it when I came through here before."
Marinette came close and stared longingly. "Wow, it looks so real."
She touched his cheek with one finger. "The wax is as warm as his skin."
She sniffed. "It even has his scent!"
Marinette launched into a flirtatious speech: "Oh, handsome statue of Adrien, your wax is so soft, your yak hair so silky, your glass eyes so... green!"
She plucked one hair and put it in her purse as a keepsake.
"Why am I not a statue? Everything would be so simple for us! Why were we not molded in the same plaster of destiny?"
She put her arms around him.
"Glass eye to glass eye, wax lips on wax lips, embraced for eternity!"
As she kissed him, his lips suddenly became colder and smelled like wax.
Before she could pull away, she too became a wax statue. They were glass eye to glass eye, wax lips on wax lips, embraced for eternity...