Chapter Text
Marinette slid further into her seat as she let out an exasperated groan. She could feel her face heating up and tried to cover the redness with her hands.
Nino let out a soft chuckle from beside her. "It could be worse, you could have landed in Adrien's lap." Marinette grew redder at the thought, causing Nino's smug grin to grow.
"You're not helping!" Marinette mumbled from behind her hands, earning another snicker from Nino. She moved her fingers to glare at him.
Alya turned around to face the pair. She gave them a strange look before shaking her head. "Have you two seen the newest Beetle Blog post?"
Nino rolled his eyes. "Who hasn't is the real question."
Marinette sat up, nodding. Her face starting to return to its normal colour. "You'd have to be living under a rock not to have seen it."
Alya smirked, proud that they were right. "Yeah, okay, but my latest post. What did you think?"
"That was the one about the Bubbler, right?" Adrien turned to face the conversation, shooting a quick concerned glance at Nino before turning to Alya, just as she nodded.
Yeah, since Scarabée Rouge and Chat Noire both took a while to show up I think that they were probably both at the party!" Alya was beaming, looking between the three of them.
Nino raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?" He turned, Marinette sliding back to hade slightly under her desk, catching his attention.
Adrien nodded. "Couldn't they have been dealing with siblings once the adults disappeared?"
Alya thought about it. "I guess so, but they are definitely in their teens, they weren't taken by the bubbles," she pointed out.
Marinette sat up enough to see Alya and Adrien from her seat. "That's true, but A-Adrien's right." Said boy turned towards her, causing her face to heat up again. "T-They could have been dealing w-with younger siblings, or with p-pets."
Alya considered this, her head moving to tilt slightly. "Okay, but that would have known something was wrong and would have gotten there decently fast."
"Well, I don't really remember any of it so I have no opinion, but you have a point. They should have been there pretty quickly." Nino rested his head on his hands.
Marinette sighed in defeat, she couldn't argue with that. If Nino hadn't ushered her into the party to give her the opportunity to give Adrien his present Chat Noire would have shown up at the scene earlier. Although Scarabée should have been their right from the start. It was still puzzling her why he didn't show up until after she was able to hide away and transform. Could Alya be right? Could Scarabée be -
"Marinette?" Nino waved a hand in front of her face. "Hellooooo, earth to Mari!"
Marinette jerked her head up to notice that the majority of the class had already left the room, the others finishing packing up their stuff. "Sorry Nino, I must have zoned out."
"No kidding." Nino stood up and grabbed his stuff from on top of his desk. "We're eating lunch at your place right? Cause I didn't bring a lunch."
Marinette rolled her eyes. "Yeah, maman said she'd make some grilled cheese or something." She looked down quickly as she felt her small purse shift at her side, Plagg awakening at the mention of cheese.
"Awesome! Your maman is the best." Nino held out his arm to her and motioned to the door. "Shall we?"
"We shall." Marinette linked arms with her best friend and followed as he led the way to the Dupan-Chang bakery.