Chapter Text
*** Chapter 1 ***
Today was one of those rare days when Marinette managed to wake up without snoozing her alarm clock, so she got ready for school ahead of time. The latest akuma battle was fierce and quite emotionally charged, but she managed to beat the hate that overtook even her partner, Chat Noir.
Patrolling the city late at night hadn’t been on her schedule yesterday so she finally got a good night’s sleep.
Marinette was well known for always being late and her best friend never believed she could ever actually come to school on time, because of which she has always wanted to prove her wrong and surprise her by waiting for her at the school entrance. So today was the perfect chance.
"Tikki, today might be my lucky day. You know how Alya always brags how she comes exactly 15 minutes early to school every day?"
Marinette said fully awake while packing her bag. She didn't really leave Tikki time to respond, but continued talking.
"I'm going to turn that habit against her, by coming early myself and waiting for her. I bet she will be really surprised."
"Poor girl won't be able to believe her eyes. The earliest I remember you coming to class was 5 seconds before it started."
Marinette felt displeased because she knew that what Tikki said was true, but she couldn't have motivated herself to wake up early even by thinking she would be able to observe Adrien come to class and be in the same room as him for at least a little bit longer. That was one of the cons of being a superhero and patrolling the city late at night. At least for Ladybug.
"Exactly," she knew Tikki was right, so why dwell on it if you can brush it off with a sarcastic comment "can't wait to see the look on her face. Come on, it's time to head out."
She was in no hurry so it took her a whole minute to get to school where she patiently waited by the bottom of the staircase.
A wild realization appeared 'Oh no, what do I do if Adrien comes to school early as well, I'll need to say hello, but I'll make a fool of myself again. He's gonna hate me, I won't be able to look at him ever again...'
Tikki just peeked out to see if Alya is coming as she saw Marinette getting nervous. Of course she knew what was on her mind, it could only be one thing, or rather, one person. 'I have to distract her with something smart' Tikki thought.
"Hey Marinette, don't forget to check on those messages Alya sent you yesterday, there was a ton of them." Tikki said as she flew out of Mari's purse and rested on her shoulder.
Her face muscles just relaxed at the sound of her kwami’s voice.
'It worked.'
But Marinette was fast to react to this new situation. "Stay hidden, Tikki."
"Oh, don't worry, just check your text messages" Tikki said.
The last few messages haven’t implied Alya was in any kind of trouble so she just discarded all the previously sent ones without reading them when she had first seen more than one hounded message notifications and only two missed calls.
"Fine." She took her phone and, while scrolling from the newest to the oldest texts, she couldn't really grasp what was happening, there were a lot of short ones and just some random letters. She recognized this as her way of fangirling over Ladybug.
Just when she came to some normal looking text, she heard a familiar voice speak (more like shout) from the distance. It was exactly 7:43, Alya was nearly here.
The voice become clearer, as it's owner was coming closer in a rapid speed.
There she was, running, and waving her hand for Marinette to notice her. Like she wouldn't notice her without all the racket, yelling was quite enough.
'Alya is here right on time, but why is she running, what is she saying anyway?' Marinette asked herself. 'Well I'll find out soon enough.'
She came close enough for her words to be heard clearly, and not just loudly, so Marinette finally understood what she was saying.
"Marinette, why didn't you answer any of my messages, you missed on the news of the century, you haven't even seen any of them."
Marinette gave a weak wave and a cheeky smile, and replied, "Not even a good morning to your best friend, what's the hurry?"
Alya took only a second to recover from her sudden sprint. When she raised her head, she shoot an annoyed look which said 'I don't have time for this, answer my question.'
Marinette pouted but said, "Fine. I was busy, but I saw them" with an innocent look on her face.
"Yeah, you saw them, only one minute ago. You can't fool me." Her face was all red, but it couldn't be only because of those few meters, it had to be something else.
"You can't miss this, look at this, the new update on the Ladyblog. You'll regret not reading my messages and finding out sooner." While talking, Alya took her phone out, and almost slammed it into Marinette's face.
"Ha, look at this picture of Ladybug and Chat Noir. I took it yesterday."
As Alya said that, her eyes glowed with all the pride in the world. Yes, of course it had something to do with Ladybug, it was clear, she was excited about the latest akuma fight.
Shock took over all other emotions that ware resting on Marinette's face, but was soon kicked out by disbelief. "What, when, where did you take this?"
Alya hardly noticed any change on her friend, as she was only one step away from bouncing on her head in excitement.
"This is like the biggest scoop in history of the Ladyblog, or even the world." Alya swung her phone around like crazy, like she couldn't decide if she herself wanted to admire the picture, or let Marinette get a good look at it. Her eyes were wide open, her smile as bright as the Sun; childish happiness and feeling of accomplishment were radiating off of her.
But Marinette didn't even need to take a good look, she recognized what it was at the first glance.
As soon as she saw it, a train of thought hit her: 'Well it happened in the light of day, I expected people to see, but she didn't have to take a photo for everyone to see. Good thing I haven't seen this before, I would never have finished my homework. But I could have stopped her form uploading it. Yeah, like that’s possible...'
"Marinette..." Alya tried to get through to Marinette.
'Well I should just...'
"Marinette, are you deaf?" This time she spoke a bit louder.
And the train went off track. "Oh yeah, yeah."
"Oh yeah, yeah, I see you are. Well anyway. There is an interesting backstory to this picture and I won't let you miss out on it." She was overly confident about her claim and decision, and quite a noticeable smirk appeared on her face.
"Pfffft, there is probably a good reason why she did it, but are you sure you know what that reason is?" Marinette's response left Alya a bit confused, her response wasn’t what she expected, maybe she misunderstood something.
"What are you talking about? Yeah, I have my ideas about that, but I can't be sure, that's why I'll be persistent to get an interview." Confidence sparked in her, but was soon overthrown by flames of excitement again. "But that's not the point, the super intense backstory isn't about the Ladybug or the deed itself, but about me talking the picture."
Marinette was fast to shot her a confused glance of disbelief "... well I’m sure that’s interesting." But she suddenly realized something. "Wait, wait, you were hit by an arrow? She asked. "And you were mean to me". She said under her breath. “Do you even remember anything?"
"Well that is the interesting part. I don't remember anything. But looks like the reporter side of me is so strong it can't be conquered by hate. I have it all documented on video, on my phone, and it's all on the Ladyblog for you to watch, but I'll tell you in short."
They were distracted by a loud group of students climbing the stairs and entering the school. Thank God, they reminded them that they should head inside as well, so they climbed as Alya began her story.
"So it started when I was going with you to send that love letter to..."
Marinette interrupted her with a sudden "Sshhhh!" They had only a few more steps before arriving at the main entrance, where lots of students were gathered, and they can't allow just anyone to hear that.
Alya just glanced at her with a smirk, to see Mari trying to show her with her hands to just go on with the story, so she continued quickly, "And after that there is a big blank. But the first thing I remember after that is almost cutting the picture of you and me in half.”
"You did what?"
"Yeah, can you believe it. Idk girl, I probably hated you more than Ladybug."
Marinette didn't really know how to feel about this, so she just let her continue talking.
"But you should feel flattered, the evil me decided to go cut our pic in half rather than go annoy Ladybug or try to follow her to discover her secret identity. Oh the evil me was kinda stupid."
"No, she wasn't. I don't see anything good coming out of you chasing after Ladybug." Marinette realized that what she said could imply that her chasing after LB in general is a bad thing, so she gave her an apologetic look and said quickly: "At least not at that time, you know. She might've had to fight you or hurt you, hehe" Marinette sai. 'Or just run away.' Marinette thought in conclusion.
Alya made a grumpy face and prepared to say something, but was interrupted by a sudden "Ok, ok, what happens next?" by Marinette.
Alya brushed off her previous comment, and just continued. "Well there is no next, there is only in between."
She led the way through the door and into their classroom. There were 10 more minutes before class starts. Marinette followed close behind, and just after they both settled in their seats, she spoke "Wut." She was confused at first but soon realized that the storyteller doesn't actually remember her story. "No word play, just tell me already, class is gonna start soon," she lowered her voice and continued, "Adrien is gonna arrive soon."
"Sure then. When I came to it, I realized that my confusion must have been the work of an akuma, and that I missed all the action, ugh I was so angry and sad. But soon after I checked the Ladyblog, of course."
"Yeah, yeah hurry it up a bit, what is the interesting part?"
"Ha, look who is excited now. Good storytelling needs patience. So what I saw on the blog shocked me. There were numerous complaints from my fans, and they had every right to it, because apparently I posted bunch of insulting and evil comments and posts." Alya finally started explaining.
"While deleting my evil comments and apologizing to people, I saw a new post with footage on my blog, the one I haven't' seen before. I was so proud of myself that I recorded some Ladybug action and the akuma. But when I watched it, I was highly disappointed.” Alya said and quickly continued.
"Whenever there was something interesting, intense or important happening, the evil me would just turn the camera around and film some random stuff. It was horrible. I hate my evil self."
"Hate is not the answer." Marinette just had to add to Alya’s last comment.
"But this is just pure evil."
"We shouldn't fight hate with hate."
"You think this is the best time to lecture me? However, hear this, we are just coming to the important stuff. Beneath the video, there was that true masterpiece. That picture. The most important picture ever."
The full blown excitement took over her again. Someone would think she could just fly up and break the ceiling with her head, as she was bouncing in her seat with all the excitement in the world.
Marinette was used to her friend’s strange behavior when Ladybug was concerned. 'But isn't this just too much, it's just a picture.' She wondered, and then remembered she'll have to face Chat Noir and talk to him about it as well. And the worst of all Adrien might comment on it. 'Oh no, it's not just a picture anymore, it's a problem. I'll think of something later.' Marinette thought.
"Oh Alya, you are exaggerating."
Alya suddenly raised her voice, and playfully stood in a fighting stance, saying: "You saw it yourself. You can't say I'm wrong."
"Oh sit down." Marinette said pulling her down playfully.
While Alya was bursting with excitement over the picture, two other students came into the classroom.
"Alya, calm down, I heared you all the way to the school entrance." It was Nino, and right behind him was Adrien."
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Author’s note: Thank you for reading my cringy little story. Chapter two coming in a few days. Also posted on Fanfiction under the name Zeroka
Feel free to tell me what you think ;)