"Just a Friend?" Book 1 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy (MLB FanFic) |COMPLETED|

Chpt 41: Wax statues and Plagg, the love doctor.

Marinette sat at her desk, tapping her fingers on the desktop and staring off into space. "A distraction, a distraction," she kept muttering to herself.

Tikki flew over to her. "Marinette, are you still having trouble figuring out how to convince Gabriel to leave the house?"

"Yes, Tikki. What would it take to get him to actually leave the house for the day? I mean, he's been out of town for fashion shows, but that's not going to be possible for us to arrange. He's never come to school in person or even to his own Paris fashion show, right? He's basically a hermit, so how can we get him to leave?!"

Tikki and Marinette both sat quietly trying to think. "What do we know about Gabriel? Maybe that will help you," said Tikki.

Marinette tried to think how she would describe him. "Let's see. Reclusive . . . seems to want to maintain a certain public persona and standing. . . wants people to defer to him. . . he likes to be in charge. . . has no problem telling people exactly what he thinks of them, which is that they are usually not up to his standards." She looked over at Tikki. "Any of that helpful?"

"So, maybe if you can come up with something that makes Gabriel think that he will lose public face or that by doing that particular something he will increase his standing in society that it would be enough to persuade him to leave the house for it?"

Marinette looked at Tikki, who seemed to be looking at her as if what she said should magically make Marinette solve the problem. "Okay, Tikki, but I still can't think of anything!" she complained.

"And it needs to be something that Gabriel wouldn't expect Adrien to attend with him, but that Nathalie would!" added Tikki.

"We could make Gabriel appointments for an all-day medical check-up?" Marinette joked awkwardly.

Tikki frowned at her. "Marinette, focus!"

"Sorry, Tikki, but I'm frustrated and not magically thinking up any ideas! I need a break!"

Marinette logged into her computer and brought up Alya's blog as a distraction. She browsed through all of the photos, stopping on the statues of Ladybug and Cat Noir at the Musée Grévin. It was still the weirdest thing to see herself in a museum! Marinette wondered whether Adrien was the only person to ever have two different statues in the museum at the same time, though very few people knew that he was both of the statues!

She brought up the museum's website and browsed through the other sections of famous people. She stopped suddenly at the section listed as "Icons of Fashion" and clicked to see who was listed. She saw a photo of Adrien as a model in that section, but did she see. . . ?

Marinette grabbed her phone to call Adrien. She might finally have a plan!

- - -

"I don't know, Marinette," Adrien said dubiously when he heard her plan. "It's not that it isn't a good idea, it's just, why would the museum listen to me and get that arranged to happen soon?"

"I'm not expecting them to listen to you!" She was exasperated with him for not immediately understanding her plan. "I'm expecting your father to come to realize that the museum already should have his statue, since he is an important fashion figure. And he will use his influence to demand that he is added to the collection right away!"

"I suppose that might be possible. But, how do we get him to decide this now?" he asked her. He did remember overhearing a part of a discussion his father was having with Nathalie when they were first talking about the museum's offer for Adrien to be included in the collection. It did seem that his father was a little put out not to be asked. Adrien related what he remembered to Marinette.