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The idea was simple. Invite Alya over for a sleepover, have some fun, and most importantly, relax. There’d been nonstop akuma’s this entire week, and with the final day being Friday, she was done with being Ladybug for a while. Alya had said yes, happily agreeing. She seemed eager to get away from her siblings and chaotic, yet loving, household. She’d come rushed to Marinette’s house, looking like she’d just ran over. Which, knowing her, was entirely possible.
Marinette pulled her in and quickly called to her parents, “Mama! Papa! Alya’s staying the night!” before rushing her friend upstairs and closing the door. Her parents knew Alya well, and they knew that Marinette was generally a good kid. So there wasn’t any complaints and no angry mother or father coming up to say that, no, she couldn’t stay the night. Instead, Alya had already set up her place and they’d had a generally a good time. Marinette kicked her butt at video games, but Alya won at the board games that Marinette had. The night wore on in Marinette’s room and while her parents had gone to bed, she and Alya had stayed up, talking and gossiping, when Alya decided it was a good time to go outside and go stargazing.
So Marinette had brought up the blankets and pillows, since she and Alya both loved them, and then quickly made sure Tikki was happy with her plate of cookies, (A day old, but Tikki was happily nibbling on a sugar cookie) before joining her outside. It was cool, but a warm night regardless, and clear except for the occasional cloud here and there. Marinette always preferred the nighttimes of Paris to the daytime. It wasn’t that it was prettier, but it was at the same time. The sounds of the streets, the lights, the way that the whole city seems to slow down and rest.
But as Alya stays propped up on her elbows looking at Marinette with a confused and concerned expression on her face, she can only think about how she messed up her one night of relaxation.
They’d been talking about Ladybug, and Marinette was well versed enough to know how to answer a question vaguely enough that Alya would accept it, and move along. But the topic had strayed away from Ladybug and onto the villains that she faced.
That Marinette faces.
“It’s so weird, you know? Me as Lady Wifi…” She laughs lightly, “Sounds like a bad original character name, sorry. Me as Lady Wifi…trying to find out who Ladybug is. I haven’t given up, but man…I’m almost glad I was akumatized! I got to meet Ladybug up close and personal…” Alya rambled on about Ladybug and being an Akuma, and it got Marinette thinking. So many of her classmates and innocent people have been akumatized. They don’t remember it, but that’s something she can’t guarantee since no one literally ever talks about it. So whether they truly don’t remember or if they just don’t want to talk about it, it caused Marinette to ask this one question to her best friend:
“What’s it like being an Akuma?”
So now, Alya stays propped up on her elbows looking at her. “You want to know what it’s like?” She nodded mutely and Alya went back to lying down on her back, sighing.
“It’s like…It’s like a burning sensation. It starts from wherever you’re akumatized, for me it was my hand. And then you hear his voice…” Alya trailed off. Marinette worried if she’d overstepped with asking before she continued. “It consumes you. He gives you an offer but you already accepted…and then it just…burns like crazy. Almost like a fire. I needed to know who Ladybug was, and I needed to know now,” she stopped and looked at Marinette’s confused face before sighing.
“Imagine…Imagine wanting Adrien so badly but he ends up with Chloe-don’t look at me like that, this analogy is working-but he ends up with Chloe and you want them separated so badly that you’ll do anything, even if it means hurting a lot of people to get it.”
“Oh.” She got it now. (The stupid analogy worked) “…It must be horrible.”
Alya laughs, although it’s restricted and Marinette feels a pang in her heart when her friend sniffs. “You think? And sometimes, you know, I’m going to sound crazy for this, but…my hand still burns sometimes when I get really angry. Then I have to go, Whoa girl, need to step it back and I always feel ten percent calmer.”
“Only ten percent?” Marinette joked, laughing louder when Alya playfully hits her stomach.
“You know what I mean, Marinette.” She sneaks a peak at her friend and sees her not staring up at the sky, but at her hand, as if she’s waiting for the symbol to appear. “Hey, Mari?”
“Yeah?” Marinette wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t what she thought she’d hear out of Alya.
“Promise me you’ll never get akumatized.”
She stays silent, before answering softly, “Promise,” Although she didn't know how she would keep her promise, she'd try to not to be akumatized
Alya closes her hands and takes Marinette, murmuring, “Good,” Before falling asleep next to her on the rooftop.
Overheard, a shooting star flashed across the sky for a split second, and Marinette fell asleep.