Chapter Text
"Alya Cesaire," Chloé's shrill voice broke the peaceful atmosphere of the almost empty classroom, "What the hell is this?"
Marinette looked at her best friend and rolled her eyes.
Alya shook her head, "What, Chloé?"
Chloé waved her phone in Alya's face, "This article on the Ladyblog! It's boring. I don't care what your top ten favorite akuma are."
"And I don't care about your opinion," Alya countered.
Chloé just rolled her eyes, "Look, you have some good stuff on here. You're just losing focus." She scrolled through the Ladyblog's archive, while Alya and Marinette stared dumbfounded that Chloé just complimented something that had to do with Alya.
"Here," Chloé shoved the phone back in Alya's face once she found what she was looking for, "this is what you should be looking into." It was the article from when Chloé found Ladybug's history textbook. Marinette thought she already solved that case.
"That's old news Chloé," Marinette said, "Ladybug has been around since the Ancient Egyptians remember?"
"I'm sorry. Did I ask you, Marinette?" Chloé growled before bringing her attention back to her phone, "Anyway, I don't buy that Ladybug's 5000 years old or whatever. She could be in our school! Why isn't anyone looking for her?"
Marinette watched as Alya's face turned from realization to shock to disgust.
"Holy fuck, I actually agree with something you're saying right now," Alya said.
Oh no! This is bad. Alya teaming up with Chloé? That's a disastrous combination. They might actually be able to figure it out with their fierce personalities and complete dedication to Ladybug. Marinette knew she had to stop this, but how?
"Alya, can I speak to you for a moment?" She pulled her outside into the hallway as the rest of the class was filing in, "Did you just hear yourself? You just agreed with Chloé!"
"I know, girl. I know," she said still looking slightly disgusted with herself, "but she has a point. I should've looked farther into that."
"But knowing Ladybug's identity could put you in serious danger!" Marinette pleaded, "What if Hawk Moth finds out and tortures you into giving him their identities!"
"Girl, that's not gonna happen," Alya said with an annoying amount of confidence. Sometimes she made Marinette want to pull her hair out from the amount of danger she was willing to put herself in to find a good story. It was bad enough when she was simply reporting akuma, but now Alya was putting herself in even more danger. What did Marinette do to deserve this?
"Alya, it could happen, and you know it."
Alya smirked, "Come on Marinette aren't you at least a little bit curious as to who she could be?"
Marinette just stared at her, deadpan.
"Come on," Alya nudged her, "if I add Chat Noir to the search would you be more inclined? I know how much you love him. Almost as much as Adrien." Alya had this ridiculous idea that Marinette had a crush on Chat Noir because of how much she defended him whenever someone called him a "sidekick," which just wasn't true at all not even a little bit...
"How many times do I have to tell you? I do not have a crush on Chat Noir!" She squeaked, her face aflame.
Ok, maybe it was a teensy bit true, but she would never admit that out loud. As far as anyone needed to know, she was completely devoted to Adrien. She was still super embarrassed that the silly kitty managed to weasel his way into her heart anyway.
"Uh huh," Alya said, unconvinced, "So are you in?"
"No!" She folded her arms across her chest, "They don't want us to know who they are, and I'm not going to go against our heroes' wishes!" That's right, she really showed her! What are you going to say to that, Alya?
"Huh," Alya thought for a moment.
"Oh no, what are you thinking?"
Then, a light bulb went off, "Fine! If you're not gonna help me, I guess I'm gonna have to ask someone else." She barged back into the classroom.
Marinette quickly followed, "No! Wait! What are you doing?"
"Attention class!" Alya called, "Introducing the first annual Ladyblog hosted event: The Guessing Game!"
Everyone just looked at her confused.
"We're gonna try to find out Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities."
The class looked slightly more interested now.
"Winner gets to meet Ladybug and Chat Noir?"
Marinette wondered how she was gonna manage that given that Ladybug was really mad at her right now, but the whole class buzzed with excitement. Marinette suddenly regretted her decision to decline. It would've been much easier to control if it were just she and Alya. Now the whole class is involved, and it could get out of hand really quickly. How was she going to stop it now?
“But aren’t Ladybug and Chat Noir’s identities supposed to be secret?” Adrien asked. Marinette knew there was a reason she liked him. Chat Noir who?
Chloé put a hand on his shoulder, “Oh, sweet, sweet Adrien. What’s the fun in that?”
“What’s the fun in putting yourself in danger for no reason?” he polite brushed her hand off of his shoulder.
“Geez, you sound just like Marinette,” Alya said, “like okay, Mom and Dad, we’ll be careful.”
Marinette blushed at being coupled together with Adrien, “Really, all of you are gonna be careful? Kim? Alix?”
Alix gasped dramatically, “How dare you? Kim and I are always careful,” she broke into laughter, “Okay, she has a point.”
“See?” Marinette said to Alya.
Chloé shook her head, “Whatever. It’s just a game. We’ll just keep it between us.”
Marinette didn’t believe for a second that Chloé Bourgeois would be able to stop herself from bragging to everyone that she found out Ladybug’s identity.
“I don’t think you all realize how much danger you’re putting yourselves in by doing this,” Adrien said.
“Don’t worry, blondie,” Alix said, “We’ll be fine!”
“Guys, you really can’t do this!” Marinette was getting desperate.
Kim groaned, “Come on, Marinette! What’s your problem?”
“Yeah,” Max chimed in, “Why are you so against this? It almost seems as though you’re Ladybug.”
Marinette sputtered, “What? Me--Ladybug? I’m much too clumsy to be a superhero and you know it!”
Ivan observed her carefully. “I don’t know...You have the pigtails and the blue eyes…”
No way was this happening. Almost a year of being Ladybug and it took them this long to make a connection?
“I only wear the pigtails because I’m such a huge fan of Ladybug!” she said.
“But I thought you liked Chat Noir better?” Rose said, innocently.
Adrien looked at her with an unreadable expression, “You like Chat Noir better?”
There’s that traitorous blush again, “Yeah, but it’s not like I can imitate him everyday!”
“Come on, guys! This is ridiculous!” Chloé interrupted, “Marinette could never be Ladybug. She’s a loser not a superhero.”
Marinette never thought she’d be grateful for Chloé’s insults, but she had to defend her honor regardless.
“Hey, I could be Ladybug!” Marinette defended.
“Is that you admitting you are Ladybug?” Max said.
“No!” Marinette said, “I’m just saying that I’m no less likely than anyone else to be a masked superhero in my spare time.”
Most of the class seem satisfied enough at this, though Max still looked skeptical.
“Anyway, doesn’t anybody care who Chat Noir could be?” Marinette changed the subject.
Alya waggled her eyebrows. “Well, you surely seem to. Does this mean you’ll play?”
Marinette considered her options: either she didn’t play and have her classmates be suspicious of her identity or she play along and secretly sabotage her classmates efforts from the inside. The latter sounded way more fun and had a way smaller chance of her classmates actually finding out she’s Ladybug.
Then, it’s decided she would play along.
Marinette sighed, “Fine, I’ll play.” “I knew you’d come around!” Alya smiled, “Now, we just need to get Mr. Model Citizen over here to play.” She gestured toward Adrien, who looked like he was going through a personal crisis. Wow, he really didn’t want to go against their heroes’ wishes.
“Oh, of course Adrikins is gonna play,” Chloé said, “tell ‘em you’ll play, Adrikins.”
The whole class was looking at him expectantly now. Marinette felt sort of bad for him. She had this attention on her only minutes ago and it didn’t feel good.
“Fine,” Adrien obliged, though the look on his face looked as if he was going against everything he believed in.
The whole class cheered.
“Alright! Let the Game begin!” Alya announced.