Work Text:
The phone on her bedside table lit up with a buzz.
Alya jolted awake at the cue, scrambling to reach for her glasses. There was exactly one person whom she had enabled all notifications for, no matter the time or setting she had her phone on. She was seriously beginning to wonder whether her parents would appreciate the heads up to check on their daughter's sleep schedule.
Knowing Marinette, if she was still up that late, it meant one of three things, and only one was not heart-attack worthy. If Marinette had decided to pull yet another all-nighter to finish whatever project she had set her mind to and decided to text any updates or random thoughts she got, then Alya could simply groan and get back to the comfortable warmth of her bed, ready to put to good use whatever amount of time she had left before her alarm rang and sleep.
However, if it was any of the other two...
With the trouble her friend was prone to getting into just as Marinette, let alone as Ladybug, Alya didn't waste a moment more than the one it took for her brain to remember her password and check the message.
Mari <3: meetup tomorrow at my house
Mari <3: just had a revelation
Als: do I have to worry?
Mari <3: not saying urgent before you have a heart attack
Mari <3: just a little, it can wait
Mari <3: but come over tomorrow lol
Okay, that was enough for her to stop trying to remember how to open the window without making any noise. Alya wondered what it could be, though. If Marinette deemed it not as urgent, it could mean a lot of things. She just really, really hoped it wasn't one of those times the girls tended to severely underestimate the situation. As long as she wasn't calling Monarch breaking into her house again "not urgent"...
Most likely, she had come up with yet another plan for something. The thing was, Marinette plan or Ladybug plan? Alya supposed she would have to live with the nagging question in her brain until she arrived at Marinette's. If she didn't want to say it by text, it would sure be something... elaborate to say the least, no matter what it was about. Especially if it had been cooked at any time past two in the morning, which judging by the fact Marinette's text had been sent in at almost four, it surely was.
Alya resorted to checking her alarm was set, taking off her glasses, and returning to the sweet embrace of sleep, trying to make the most of the three hours she had left. At least the weekend would come soon enough so that she would be able to sleep to make up for the headache she would surely have the next morning. Marinette was going to owe her so much headache medication.
~(X)~
Just as she had predicted, morning greeted her with a pounding headache she had become much too used to right after missing her first alarm. She raced off in what was a true Marinette impression, quickly telling her parents about her plans for the afternoon.
On her way to school, she made a quick stop at the Dupain-Cheng bakery to grab some coffee, along with bread, as her breakfast. By some odd miracle of the universe which was making her wonder whether she was still asleep, Marinette had already left by the time she dropped by. Alya intended to stop by a pharmacy, but as she checked her phone for the time, she simply ran off to school. The nurse's office should have some painkillers, after all.
Madame Bustier was usually very lenient when it came to her students' health, so Alya had no trouble arriving a couple of minutes late to class itself once she was at school and visited the nurse. She quietly entered the room after explaining herself and took her usual seat next to Marinette.
As soon as she sat down, she noticed Marinette was even more jittery than usual, as if it had been her who had about half a litre worth of coffee for breakfast and not Alya. She shrugged it off. After the madness that had been the past couple of days, Alya supposed she couldn't really blame her friend for being so skittish. After all, if she had just realized something that was important enough to call for a meeting at her place, it would surely be enough to make her practically fall off her seat every time Alya reached out to borrow something from her pencil case.
If she was just as tired as Alya was, it made sense how much her leg was bouncing, probably in an attempt to keep herself awake before recess came and she could sneak off to her house and have a quick nap.
If Marinette's nerves were as wracked as Alya's were, then it made sense how much more than usual she was stuttering.
It was so bad even Nino had noticed, sending a quick note to Alya after Marinette fell off her seat for the third time that class. It wasn't hard, given how close his and Adrien's seats were to theirs. But for Adrien of all people to ask, the guy Marinette used to stumble the most around to the point the threshold he had for her acting weird was abnormally high?
Marinette had displayed bout twice the usual amount of stuttering, four times considering it had faded ever since she decided she was no longer going to pursue Adrien.
Alya was starting to have many questions about what could Marinette have going on in that racing mind of hers.
After school, Marinette left the place so quickly it made Alya wonder whether she had missed an akuma alert.
On the way to the girl's house, the question about what type of revelation she could have possibly had at three in the morning reappeared in her thoughts, urging her to walk faster.
Sabine Cheng greeted her as usual as soon as she arrived at the bakery, offering her a croissant.
"Come in! Everyone's waiting upstairs already."
It was another complicated love plan, then. Alya was suddenly grateful for the croissant she had to munch on. It was probably going to be at least three hours until she could have proper lunch unless Tom or Sabine took pity on them and brought them some soup or something. Alya quickly thanked Sabine and made her way upstairs.
As soon as she opened the trapdoor to Marinette's room, she was greeted by the pleading looks of three faces who knew perfectly well what they were in for. At least Alix had gotten out of it this time. Marinette never started their meetings until everyone was there.
Alya sat down on her favorite spot on the lounge chair.
"You may be wondering why I gathered you all here," Marinette announced.
Not a single one of the presents was wondering that.
"Last night I had a... revelation. I was working on a special project when I realized something that could potentially change the course of our lives as we know them."
Alya was mentally pleading Marinette hadn't mixed up her invite lists for Marinette and Ladybug-related issues. As long as she hadn't lied and decided to come up with some crazy plan to defeat Monarch that included the girls-
Suddenly, a circle of light appeared right besides the chair Mylene sat on, almost knocking her off, and Alix's head popped out.
"Sorry for being late, I was listening from the Burrow. You were saying?"
After a good five seconds to recover, Marinette continued.
"S-so. I began working on a new plan. I mean, I have three backup versions, but to be honest this is the one I liked the most -and the least likely to land one of us in jail- so I think this might be a good option. I don't know what to think really, because I could just be biased since I made the plan, but taking into consideration how many times I rewrote it, it might actually need some revising. Now that I'm thinking, maybe another day would be perfect to work it out, right? Because right now I'm really tired and-" She yawned for emphasis. It was, in fact, one of the worst impressions of a yawn any of the girls had seen her do, and yet it made Alya feel a little more comfortable with friendly yawning along. "-and maybe that can affect the execution, you know how these things are, and-"
"Marinette," Mylene called out, stopping the girl on her tracks.
"Oh, right, the plan!" With how quickly blush returned to her cheeks, it could ave easily never left. She pulled down a brand-new scheme from her ceiling. This one had way more arrows than her usual plans, and a little more glitter. Along, she dragged a whiteboard, and wrote down "PLAN: CONFESSING" in big bold letters.
"So, I figured the best way to do it would be to just drop the bomb, you know? Not too much overthinking from Marinette the Overthinker, ha," she chuckled awkwardly. "Since I see her everyday, then it can be at any given moment! I don't have to wait! I can just walk up to her and grab her hand and tell her. And then she'll smile and grab my hand and we can leave for an ice cream."
She turned around so fast Alya was almost on her feet to catch her when the whiteboard inevitably fell on her, but miraculously Marinette managed to regain her balance.
"See how I'm planning an ice cream and not the wedding? I mean, I could but then I would have to begin planning the names for our chinchillas and I don't even know how to name a hamster, let alone a chinchilla."
Alya was getting more and more confused by the second, a feeling she was pretty sure everyone else shared. Except for Alix, who wore a smug grin for some reason. Chinchillas?
"I have decided to give up on Adrien. Permanently."
Juleka mumbled something.
"Wait, she's right! Hadn't you decided that already?" Rose interrupted.
Marinette's face grew bright red and her gestures turned twice as erratical. "Well- I had, just not permanently, you know. And then, well, she- and I realized- well no, technically I thought- but I didn't actually think about it enought because he was there and i thought-"
She sighed in frustration at the incomplete chunks that seemed to be all she could produce.
Instead, she walked up to where the other girls were, and sunk to one knee.
Facing Alya.
Only then, she realized what was going on. No other words needed. With the awkward glance lingering in her friend's -Marinette's- eyes that rendered her unable to look at Alya in the face, and the blush that threatened to creep over every single inch of her skin, she knew.
Every single moment they had spent together since they met, every hug and every whisper and every word itself they had shared stormed rapidly her thoughts. Every burden they had relied on each other to carry echoed though her brain. The way they had found solace in the trust of a hug after what she could certainly call the longest night of her life.
In that moment, there was not a single trace of anyone or anything else other than Marinette, awaiting longingly before her.
"Yes!"