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“How can I pay you back for this?” Alya asks.
“You don’t need to,” Marinette says. “But you can.”
“I can offer a few methods of payment. Now, will that be cash, credit, or memories?” Alya says, holding her wallet between her fingers.
“What do you mean by memories?” Marinette says.
“Something I know that you don’t. From before I moved here, maybe, or something else.”
“I can do that,” Marinette says. “Tell me a secret, Alya.”
“The first crush I had was when I was twelve,” Alya says. “He was like...eighteen or nineteen, I think. He was hired by a carpenter when my parents needed to build an enclosure for an animal we were rehabilitating. It’s kind of embarrassing, in hindsight. But he was nice to me whenever he spoke to me, which wasn’t very much, and he was pretty strong. Actually, I think he was around Nora's age, really. But I don’t think they ever really spoke.”
“Huh,” Marinette says.
It becomes a new tradition in their friendship, telling secrets as repayment for favors.
Marinette in return details her first crush — Aurore when she was also twelve, it was what helped her realize she was bisexual in the first place.
“Your type is just blondes, then?” Alya quips.
Marinette pauses to consider that. “Nooooo, you can’t just say that…”
“So that’s why things never worked out with Luka,” Alya teases.
“It’s not like that, Alya,” Marinette says. “I don’t actually have a blonde type. It's not—that’s not it.”
“I believe you,” Alya says. “Just a weird coincidence that both of your crushes in the past were famous people with blond hair.”
“I know,” Marinette says. “But Aurore wasn’t famous back then, so it's not the same, even if it is similar.”
“Right,” Alya says. “I forget about that sometimes. That whole competition happened not long after I came here.”
“Besides, I’m pretty sure Aurore and Mireille are dating now,” Marinette says. “Not that I know for sure, of course.”
“Oh, yeah, I got that vibe too,” Alya responds. “Though neither of us are really in the place to speculate about it, of course.”
“Yeah. I feel like it’d be weird to say it,” Marinette says.
“I once got bitten by a snake,” Alya offers. “And then I cried for a while. I can take being around snakes, but I can’t be around any long-term unless they’re non-venomous. That hurt.”
Marinette frowns with sympathy. “I can imagine it would. We don’t have many snakes in Paris, but I have gotten a lot of burns by virtue of being in kitchens a lot.”
“Yeah, that’s something I like about living here,” Alya says. “I know my father hates it and misses the tropics, but…I don’t. I like winter. It’s nice to actually see snow.”
“I used to dream about becoming a fairy,” Marinette confesses. “I wanted to work in fashion for the rest of my life, and I was really into knitting because my parents trusted a five year old me with knitting needles more than sewing needles. But I also had wings. I still want to be able to fly.” She thinks about Ladybug, and the space power ups, and what it’s like to be in the sky. “I think it’d be nice.”
Alya looks up. “I don’t know about all that. It might be nice to fly, but I wouldn’t want to be in the air forever.”
“I can’t garden,” Alya confesses. “I’ve tried. But I’m too scatterbrained to remember to water it most of the time. They just kind of fade into the background.”
“I have reminders set on my phone,” Marinette says. “I also keep the plants I have outside, so they get natural rain. But I have a balcony, so that’s not feasible for everyone.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Alya says. “I should check if my apartment complex has a community garden. Maybe that could help me.”
“I think I’ve found someone new,” Marinette says. “It kind of snuck up on me. It wasn’t because I was trying to move on, but just because I was trying to…get closer to this person, and then somewhere along the line it became something else.”
“Oh,” Alya says. “I’m going to break up with Nino.”
That’s probably the bigger bombshell.
“You already know my biggest secret,” Marinette says, “so I’m going to tell you my second biggest.”
“You know you don’t have to, right?” Alya says. “There’s nothing you have to pay me back for.”
“I know, but I want to tell you,” Marinette says. “It’s not quite a memory, but…remember when I was telling you about how I fell out of love with Adrien because I was getting close to someone else?”
“I thought you were talking about Kagami,” Alya says. “I know the two of you have become friends recently.”
“It’s not Kagami,” Marinette responds, “but it is another girl. It’s you. And when you said that you broke up with Nino…it got my hopes up.”
“I…” Alya looks away from Marinette. “You’re saying that it’s me, right?”
“It is,” Marinette confirms. “You’re the person I got closer to and then fell in love with by accident.”
“I…don’t know what to say, Marinette.” Alya looks from side to side, but there’s no escape from the truth.
“You can start with whether you feel the same way or not,” Marinette says. “It would be nice to know.”
“Not quite as passionately,” Alya says. “You fall in love so easily. I’m not like that. It takes me longer. Nino and I agreed to try things out because we thought we would fall in love, and we did later on. But you’re my best friend. I don’t want to date you because I could fall in love with you, I want to date you because I’m in love with you. And I’m not. I’m not going to…push aside our friendship because of a possibility.”
“You don’t stop being friends when you start dating. The words are similar for a reason,” Marinette says. “It builds on top.”
“I get what you’re saying and I agree it isn’t mutually exclusive.” Alya crosses her arms.
“It’s okay if you aren’t ready," Marinette says. She grabs Alya's hand gently. “I’ll wait.”