Chapter Text
The two-week trial period had ended, and Alya was proud to say that she had been able to handle her new superheroing duties quite well. She had a few hiccups of course – like the few times where she had just been unable to get to class at a reasonable time after an akuma attack – but Ladybug reassured her that she and Chat Noir made plenty of mistakes when they first began, and still made them now. It was all about managing her schedule, and making sure to put in extra allowances for akuma attacks.
It helped that she had a super-awesome best friend. Marinette was chronically late herself, and while she could start to get suspicious, or upset with Alya’s sudden less put-togetherness, she joked that her lateness must have started rubbing off on her, and gave her super helpful tips on excuses that usually worked for her. Honestly, between her and Ladybug’s advice, she was already starting to get the hang of things.
That wasn’t to say that Chat Noir didn’t put in his fair share of guidance; he was helping her make sure that she also put in some time to relax – something Ladybug openly told her that she needed to work on as well.
She had also learned that in about a month, one of the other part-time superheroes, Carapace, would also be getting offered the opportunity to go full-time. She had only worked with him once on Hero’s Day, but he had been easy to work with, and if Alya thought about it, he seemed familiar. However, Ladybug had a point on keeping identities secret, and she didn’t want to press into it because of that.
She had to routinely remind herself of that with Marinette, her best friend and confidant. She had told her that she would reveal her identity to her, but when in the actual situation, she had to admit it was much safer this way. She had no idea what she would do if Marinette’s knowledge was used against her, and the line between civilian and superhero had to be quite thick.
(This was what she would tell herself on patrols past Marinette’s balcony, thinking about how nice the time after she had crashed into her had been.)
The hardest thing to manage, aside from that, was her blog. While having gone off from identity speculation nearly a year ago, she was still looked to for footage. Ladybug had told her that there would be some battles that she would be able to skip out on (particularly repeat akumas that did not seem to have gained any other extra strengths in their re-akumatization) and that she could use that time to record those battles. Another tactic to keep her identity safe had been to use Rena Rouge to disguise herself, and have a version of Rena Rouge help in a way that did not involve touch, to add extra deniability.
The work was exhausting, but it was absolutely mind-blowing to be a part of the team. She couldn’t imagine how she could hate being a superhero. She was stressed for sure, but she was getting to help people, in a way that she had only ever dreamed of before.