Archive of Our Own

Marinette's room was nearly unrecognisable.

It wasn't redecorated or anything, it still had the same wallpaper and the same type of layout and the same smell of glue and of incense wafting from the corner. No, the change was that it was tidy: there were no projects hanging over chairs or draped over the chaise longue, there was no homework flung out across the desk and no bags carelessly dropped on the floor. The clothes that would usually have been literally anywhere except stuck to the ceiling, were now collected on a hanger rack and even sorted by colour and type. Pens and pencils stood upright in two white netting cups meticulously aligned with the wall. The sewing machine was covered by a cloth bag that didn't have a single crease. Everything was immaculate.

"Wow," said Alix, and stepped all the way off the ladder. She could scarcely believe the transformation, and she wasn't sure she liked it. "You've been… busy."

"Hm?" said Marinette, poking her head up through the trapdoor. "Did you say something? Hngh!" The last noise came as she hoisted Rose and Juleka's bag over the edge and onto the floor; it landed with a soft thump. There was also some rattling, and because Juleka had probably packed that bag, Alix was half hoping there were bones in there. She knew that was just wishful thinking, though.

"I'm saying you've done something with the place."

Marinette had disappeared again, down to fetch the next piece of luggage. "I haven't," she replied, voice transmogrified into a semi-echo by the half floor between them. "I haven't done a thing."

"Well, unless you have a house nisse…" Alix spun slowly on her heel, taking in the whole space. The sink looked pristine, with multiple bottles of soap and perfume sorted into two rows by height. The room divider looked like it had been moved to perform a purpose; the last time Alix was here, it had functioned as an underwear dumbwaiter. Now it was completely devoid of any such decoration, and instead it actually hid a small portion of the floor and walls beyond.

There was one change that stood out, though. The chaise longue had been moved up against the wall, and a blanket had been draped over it. There was also a large pillow on it, and a folded-up thicker blanket on top. Probably a sleeping blanket. The one change in the entire place that went beyond tidiness and into redecoration.

Actually — there were more changes like that too, now Alix looked more closely. A large bag filled the space under the chaise, zipped up but clearly full, and not at all Marinette's style. It was red and black and looked athletic. There was a dragon statuette on the right windowsill, and it looked like it was made from jade, held together with copper inlays. Several of the clothes on the hanger rack were definitely not Marinette's, because Marinette didn't wear skirts. Or plaid.

And the biggest change…

"Woah," said Alix, and started climbing the stairs to the bed. The bed wasn't the problem, although it was remarkably orderly for a Marinette bed. No, the problem was the wall of pictures above it.

Well, maybe calling it a 'problem' was a little strong. But it was still really weird to have a corkboard full of polaroids and photobooth shots where every single picture was set in a separate, ornate wooden frame. A strip of Marinette and Alya being silly together in a photobooth, framed in gold; a polaroid of Mylène sitting on Ivan's shoulders, silver framed. Adrien and Nino sleeping on each other's shoulders during a camping trip, also silver. Inbetween everything hung cutouts of flower and heart drawings that Marinette had done in crayon; these were also, for whatever reason, framed. On top of everything else, the pictures and drawings were lined up carefully and with a beam level's attention to alignment. An impeccably perfect grid.

"Marinette? Do you actually have a nisse?" said Alix, her eyes landing on a picture of Kagami. Kagami was smiling directly at the camera in a kind of disarming way. Like she could see you looking at her. She'd probably been looking at Marinette there, as was her wont.

"A nisse?" said Marinette. She sounded just a little out of breath. "What's a nisse?"

"It's a house spirit who tidies for you." Next to the Kagami picture was another Kagami picture, this time of Marinette and Kagami in a side hug by a café table, with Marinette holding the camera. Thus, the picture was a little off kilter, with there being a noticeable amount of extra space to Kagami's left. Even so, both Marinette and Kagami seemed happy. "Folklore thingy. They also steal things sometimes."

"Oh. No, I don't have one of those. Why?"

"Because everything here looks perfect, and you're the messiest person I know apart from Kim," said Alix. She pulled her eyes away from the picture wall and shuddered as she saw the perfectly made bed just beside her. The covers might have been ironed on, at least until she climbed up there to unsettle things. The skylight above was shut and locked, and Marinette usually just kept the latch dangling. "Actually, you're worse than him. By a million."

Marinette sighed. "Yeah. I guess so." No other reaction.

"What I'm saying is you've made some pretty big changes up here, and I'm pretty sure I don't like it much," said Alix. She grabbed the sides of the ladder, put her feet also on the sides, and slid down to the floor again. There she came face to face with Marinette.

"Changes? It's exactly like normal, isn't it?"

"You didn't do a thorough clean before inviting us for a sleepover?"

It was entirely possible that Marinette looked more confused right now than Alix had ever seen her. "… What are you talking about? I'm terrible at cleaning."

That was a hard point to argue, given what her room had looked like for the past eight years that Alix had known her. It was also hard to argue on account of everything being so neat and tidy so why are you pretending. While Alix stood there searching for words to even start her next sentence with, Mylène's head popped up from the trapdoor. "Hey! Should we bring the large — oh my! Marinette, your room looks great!"

"It does?"

"Ugh," said Alix, a little exasperated. Actually, a lot exasperated.

"Yes. I think so," concurred Mylène. "But… should we have lemonade in decanters, or do you prefer bottles? Actually," the last word was added suddenly after a little stop, "bottles is best. I'd hate to spill something on… on all this…"

She disappeared again, the sound of her feet fading slightly as she went back to the kitchen. "Okay," said Marinette, clearly a little befuddled. Then Marinette started picking the bags up off the floor and carrying them further inside, dropping them off at the base of the ladder. Alix couldn't help but notice that the bags didn't get stacked carefully but instead just heaped like trash, in a manner that felt far more — well — Marinette.

"… Does your mum do the tidying, then?" said Alix, sticking her hands in her pockets. More details popped out to her as she let her eyes wander: the desk had several sheets of Japanese calligraphy, placed in a green desk tray that she hadn't seen in the room before. A laptop computer lying shut on the shorter end of the desk, in front of the sewing machine, the same orange as the protector Marinette always placed on the desk while she sewed. A second chair — Marinette had always only had the one, which she moved between the computer and the sewing machine, but now there were two chairs and the other one was really more of a stool on wheels, but upholstered with pristinely polished black leather. That one was rolled under the desk, half hidden.

"My mum never comes up here," said Marinette, piling Alya's bag on top of Mylène's. "We have an agreement."

"Well, jeez, I don't know why you're being so obtuse, then? Your place looks clean! Orderly! Ruly! Are you, like, ashamed of that or something?"

Alix only noticed how gruff she'd sounded after every word had already come out. But it was too late to back down now, so she dug her hands even deeper into her pockets and frowned piteously at Marinette, whose eyebrows had flown almost up to her hairline.

"Er… I'm happy you like it?" said Marinette, every word coming out tentatively like a baby deer stepping onto ice. "But… um…"

"Snacks!" bubbled Rose's voice out of nowhere. Well, technically it bubbled from the stairs up, because that was where Rose was climbing, holding a bowl of crisps and another of plastic-wrapped hard candy. Juleka was right behind her with a wide plate of chouquettes and doughnuts. "Who's ready for snacks? Oh wow! Marinette! I love what you've done here!"

"Mrm," said Juleka, probably in agreement. She seemed absolutely mesmerised, wide-eyed as her gaze drifted over the furniture.

"It's like a museum exhibition!"

Alix wrinkled her nose at that. If this was a museum, it must be one for neat freaks and class orderlies in the fourth grade. Not a museum dedicated to Marinette.

"Are we really allowed to sleep here?" Rose continued while walking over to the desk; she placed the bowls down just after she added, "Wow!"

"Well, um, yes?" said Marinette. "That's… why I invited you for a sleepover?"

"Could take snacks downstairs," mumbled Juleka. "Like, couch." She was still holding her plate; Alix saw her chance and inched up to snatch a chouquette, which she popped into her mouth immediately. It practically melted in there.

"But that's not a sleepover room," said Marinette. It was the first time since they climbed up here that Marinette had sounded like she was actually sure what the conversation was about — she said it almost like she was chiding Juleka. "The bedroom is the sleepover room. Mum and Dad need the living room for when they're off work."

Which would be at least an hour from now, if not two, if Alix's experience was any indication. She swallowed, re-pocketed her hands.

"Just put that down, Juleka," said Rose, putting her hand on the small of Juleka's back. The yelp that escaped Juleka was somewhat louder than her speaking voice. "Let's go down and help Alya and Mylène with the rest!"

"Mrm."

"Should I unpack anything for you in the meantime?" said Marinette.

"No, we'll be fine," said Rose, while she led Juleka downstairs again. Alix let them walk, cast glances sideways at Marinette — and Marinette was fumbling around with her fingers, so obviously back in one of her usual I-have-to-do-something-or-I'll-explode moods. So Alix decided to have pity on her, in spite of her transgressions, and smacked her lips.

"How about we set up for the movie?" she suggested.

Marinette replied with a glance of her own. "Yeah, erm, good…"

"Good for sure." Alix turned on her heel, towards the chaise. As she did so, though, there was a sudden gust of something, and it made her hair flutter and her cap fly up a little bit. And there were no windows open, so why — "What the hell was that?"

"What was what?" said Marinette.

"That blast of wind," said Alix. Something crinkled. "And that noise —" She spun around and saw a candy wrapper on Marinette's desk. Indignantly she pointed at it, flared her nose as she turned to look at Marinette again. "And that! Do you have a fricking poltergeist? Is that who's been neat-freaking about in here?"

But Marinette just — smiled. Shook her head. "No, nothing of the sort. That just means we have another guest for the sleepover." Cupping her hands to her mouth, she bellowed, "Mylène! Alya! Bring up another glass and another cup of cocoa, okay?"

"Sure!" sounded Alya's voice from downstairs.

"Another… guest?" said Alix.

"Yeah," said Marinette.

At which point a moderate-to-strong breeze spun around her and quickly materialised into… Ryuuko. The superhero. Who, for whatever reason, was clutching Marinette's hand.

"Hey," said Marinette, looking at Ryuuko.

"Hello," replied Ryuuko. Both of them so casually that it hurt literally every inch of Alix's curiosity.

"You have a superhero visiting your room? Regularly?"

Marinette glanced down at their hands. "Well, she's got some issues at home. So she comes over here when she needs a break, and stuff."

"And when Marinette needs a break," supplied Ryuuko. She put her other hand on top of their joined hands.

"She's here five nights a week," said Marinette. "Most weeks."

Alix furrowed her eyebrows. "And your parents don't miss you?"

"They do," said Ryuuko. "However, I do not care."

Ah. One of those families. "So you're a friend of Marinette's in real life, then?"

Ryuuko blinked, then looked at Marinette. Marinette put a finger to her own chin. "Hm… Alya knows who you are, but none of the others do, so —"

"I don't know her in real life," said Ryuuko. "Or any other way. She is a complete stranger to me."

"… Right," said Alix, and was met with a completely stone-faced Ryuuko. Marinette, next to her, at least had the decency to look embarrassed. "You regularly spend the night in a room with a girl you don't know."

"Yes, I do."

"Erm, Ryuuko?" said Marinette, tugging on Ryuuko's arm. "How — how long are you here for? Are you staying the night?"

If Ryuuko had seemed stone-faced in her lie, then Marinette's grip melted her somewhat. "Yes. I will stay until… until tomorrow."

"Oh, wow," said Marinette. There was something in how she said it — a kind of woodenness that suggested she wasn't surprised, suggested even that the question had been fake somehow. It passed into an honest-looking smile before she continued, though. "That's good. Well, I've got guests until tomorrow around noon, so are you fine with being in costume until then?"

"Of course. After all, I don't know you."

"Right. Good." Marinette glanced aside at Alix at that point, and her eyes were obviously begging, 'Please don't say anything?' So Alix sighed and didn't. Even without the unspoken request, she knew that pushing on them would only net her evasive answers. And she wasn't supposed to dig out hero identities, she knew that. Even though she'd be Bunnyx some time in the future, she wasn't a stalker.

Still. That explained the tidiness, at least to a point. Ryuuko had to be a real neat freak to keep Marinette's room as spot-free as this, because Marinette could clutter up a space with the same speed that anyone else would fart in it. One time Alix visited downstairs for a warm supper, they didn't have enough bowls for their minestrone, and it turned out that Marinette had eaten dinner at her desk for fifteen days while working on projects and homework, and she'd forgotten to bring down the dishes each time. The resulting pile had grown mould on its mould.

"Ah," said Ryuuko. She stepped past Alix and up to the desk, where she plucked the wrapper up between two fingers and held it like it might burn her eyes if she looked at it directly. "Marinette? Where is the garbage receptacle?"

"Oh! I emptied it downstairs this morning, but I forgot to bring it back up again."

"This is why you can never live on your own." Ryuuko said that, with no specific tone to her voice, like she was commenting on the dryness of paint on the wall. Then she turned into wind again and spun downstairs, and pretty soon there were yelps from the others. Something, probably a metallic implement from how it sounded, clattered into something that was probably the sink.

"She's feisty," said Alix, because she had more accurate words to use but that one was the most complimentary.

Marinette giggled. "Don't be mean. I really like having her around."

"She just insulted you, didn't she?" said Alix, scraping her foot along the floor. But Marinette didn't seem bothered.

"I don't like being on my own," she said. Just that.

"Well… okay, I guess."

Apparently taking that as an okay-to-go, Marinette smiled and started climbing the ladder to her bed. While she climbed, she mumble-sang something that sounded like "Pillows, pillows, cushions, cushions". Alix let her do as she wished, looked around the room some more instead.

From this angle, it was clearer to see that the room divider was kind of hiding the chaise — not hiding it well, but the placement seemed intentional. A statement that said, this part of the room is for the chaise. There was a photograph hanging on the back of it, away from the entrance, large and also framed. For some reason, that photo was of Marinette. Smiling prettily like she didn't even know the photographer was there.

Before Alix could inspect any more details, though, feet started ascending the stairs from the kitchen. They walked like there was no rush in the world, but soon Alya's head started to emerge from the opening, and the first thing she said was, "Marinette? Do you have ghosts or something?"

"No, that's just Ryuuko," replied Marinette.

"Oh, good. Do you think I can get an interview with her later?" Alya ascended the stairs fully now, and she had a clinking tray with seven steaming mugs on it as well as two bowls of whipped cream.

"You'll have to ask her about that."

Alix frowned at Alya. "Wait, you knew about this whole arrangement?"

"What?"

"You aren't bothered at all that Marinette has a freaking superhero living in her room half the week?"

Alya paused, still holding the tray, her mouth shaping words that her voice didn't speak. A moment or two later, she broke into a wide grin. "Marinette! I can interview you! Is Ryuuko seriously living here?"

"No!" A cushion hit the floor, then a pillow. "She only stays over a few days a week. It's practical."

"They hold hands," said Alix. A cushion soon hit her in the head, and Alya, seeing sense, quickly rushed to get the tray onto the desk, away from falling beddings.

"We only hold hands sometimes," said Marinette. It sounded like she wanted it to be a correction, but it really wasn't. A blanket rolled down the ladder like the world's weirdest waterfall, and yet another cushion followed.

Alix shrugged. She knew better than to argue with Marinette. Well, she didn't, but she sometimes pretended she did in order to feel better about herself. Rather than risk another pillow beaning, she turned away from the ridiculous pile that Marinette was constructing and towards the chaise. The blankets there would be good to have, too. As soon as she got there, though, Marinette made a noise that sounded like, "Yeaworghunolixnonono!"

"What?" said Alix, retracting her hand from the blanket. She turned around just in time to see Marinette fall off the bed; luckily, though, there were enough cushions and blankets on the floor that Marinette got a soft landing, or at least soft-ish. Alya immediately rushed over to check on her.

"Marinette! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I — wow!" Marinette sat up, and while her hair was scuffed, she didn't have any bruises. "That was scary. Alix! Don't touch those! That part of the room belongs to Ryuuko!"

'Belongs'. Alix was starting to feel jealous now. Eight years together and she barely even had pictures on the corkboard — well, she had a couple, but almost all were group shots, and that wasn't a whole separate portion of the floor and everything on it. "Don't you own all this stuff?" she said. "The furniture, the blankets?"

"Not — not everything," said Marinette.

Turning around, Alix wondered if that photograph of Marinette was among those things. Because upon consideration, it definitely wasn't Marinette's. The girl hated looking at pictures of herself unless she had someone else in the frame with her, and that photograph was just… a completely normal photograph. One that might have been taken by anyone. Just who the hell was Ryuuko? And why would she have a photograph of Marinette hanging on the wall like that? Or had Marinette just gotten weird?

Weird-er?

"I'm guessing the bag is Ryuuko's, then," said Alix. "And the laptop."

"And a couple of… other things, yes," said Marinette, which all but confirmed Alix's suspicions about the picture. "Please don't make a mess, she hates it when her part is untidy."

"Looks like she hates it when any part of this room is untidy," said Alya.

Alix glanced at the incredible pile of pillows, cushions, and blankets on the floor. "… Yeah. Anyway, how are we watching a film without anyone touching the floor there? There's seven of us."

"I can sit with her in that part." Marinette seemed completely unbothered. She shook her arms, then skipped out of the beddings pile and over to the projector screen and pulled the string. What came down wasn't a blank white screen, though, but a detailed… battle plan? Maybe? And Marinette screamed and dived for an eraser.

There were x'es and arrows and circles and very tiny writing and unlike every plan Marinette had ever drawn up for a crush before, this one obviously wasn't meant to present to a group. If anything, it seemed like something she'd draw up for herself in the dead of night, or — possibly — in close collaboration with someone. Like Ryuuko.

"Sorry," Marinette murmured, bending back in front of the screen and wiping the whole thing with large and exaggerated motions that, if anything, seemed intended to block the remaining text from prying eyes as much as possible.

"Don't you need that? It looked important," said Alix, scratching her head.

"Need what? I don't know what you're talking about. Anyway it has nothing to do with me, or you, or anyone who may or may not stay over in this room sometimes."

Alya responded with a brief laugh. "If you say so, princess," she said, and bent down to pick up the bedding. "Anyway, I'm putting all this in order now, so I'm banning you from going up that ladder again. Unless you can somehow —" a wind started sounding from the stairs up again — "decide where you land on a whim."

"Sure. Fine," said Marinette. A trash can and trash bag flew past her, ruffling her hair and clothes a little bit, but she was unmoved by it. "I can't, by the way."

The wind materialised again, into a Ryuuko who immediately grabbed the bag and can and busied herself with putting the former into the latter. "What can't you?" she asked.

"Well, er, I fell off the bed but I landed on the cushions, but now we have to —"

Marinette didn't get any farther than that. Ryuuko dropped the can and grabbed her, forcefully too by the looks of it. It was impossible to see Ryuuko's expression from Alix's angle, but Marinette's expression suggested that Ryuuko's was pretty bloody intense.

"You fell off the bed?"

"Y-yes! But I'm fine, nothing happened."

"I'll be the judge of that."

And then Ryuuko just… inspected Marinette. Thoroughly, too, inspecting for bruises on the arms and the neck and peeking into Marinette's nose and even lifting up Marinette's clothes to check for marks or scrapes there. It was the kind of inspection that gave Alix second-hand embarrassment, and that embarrassment was upgraded into Embarrassment™ when Mylène and Juleka and Rose came upstairs and watched quietly, or with quiet groans of sympathy, from right next to the trapdoor.

Somehow, though, Marinette didn't even voice a single complaint, which was baffling. The girl hated being on display even at the best of times, so how on Earth did she trust Ryuuko enough that she didn't even blush at this? Was Ryuuko a doctor or something? Was this mind control?

When Ryuuko made to pull down Marinette's pajama bottoms, though, Alya stepped forward and put her hand gently on Ryuuko's shoulder. "There's an audience," she said. "Maybe trust her that she's fine for now?"

Obviously, Marinette chose that point to notice the three over by the stairs. And presumably, from how wild her eyes looked when they scanned past Alix, to remember that Alix and Alya were even there. "Gnnh!" she said, through teeth gritted so tight that they probably couldn't be parted even with industrial machinery.

"… I'll finish my inspection later," sighed Ryuuko. "Marinette, you have to be more careful."

"I am careful!" said Marinette, pulling away and burying her face in her hands. Her back went up against the screen, at which point she stopped like someone had put a gun between her shoulder blades.

"You look like good friends," said Mylène, smiling just for a flash.

Ryuuko shook her head. "I don't know her. She is completely foreign to me."

"Yeah," strangled out Marinette.

"Oh," said Mylène.

She and Rose and Juleka came forward, hesitantly at first, with the rest of everything: two bottles of lemonade, a large bowl of popcorn, and seven glasses to drink the lemonade from. Alya went over to pat Marinette on the back and whisper reassurances of some sort to her. Ryuuko finished putting the trash bucket together and put it under the desk, and then promptly made to build a fortified and incredibly orderly film-viewing setup with the blankets and cushions. Alix just stepped aside and watched her, trying to figure out what her whole deal was.

It wasn't that she thought Ryuuko was a bad person. Well — not flat out evil. But Marinette's behaviour had been strange all day, ever since they entered this room, and it only got stranger when Ryuuko arrived. Secret plans — acting stupid — letting Ryuuko walk all over her — Marinette was up to something, and Ryuuko was either in on it, or forcing her to do it.

And Alix, as nosy as she wasn't, had to get to the bottom of it.

For all intents and purposes, though, Ryuuko built a perfect seating area for the film. She had even taken consideration to who should sit where: there were two thick blankets folded up like poufs, with a heart cushion laid between them, obviously intended for Juleka and Rose. There was a carefully arranged hill of quilts and throws rolled over pillows and bolsters to create a low semi-sofa, with enough space for both Alya and Mylène to sit comfortably. There was even a futon-like arrangement in front of that sofa-thingy, made from sheets and comforters that aimed at a twenty-degree angle from being pointed straight at the screen, which was Alix's favourite way to lie down on sleepovers. And which only made Alix even more suspicious. Ryuuko definitely knew all of them, or — maybe, maybe — she had spied on them instead.

And Marinette… ended up sitting between Ryuuko's legs, wrapped in Ryuuko's arms, with Ryuuko leaning back over two folded-together duvets that meant Marinette was basically lying more than sitting.

"Is Marinette mind controlled or something?" murmured Alix to Alya, hoping that the action film's swelling music would stop anyone else from hearing.

"What?" said Alya — unfortunately.

"Is Marinette okay?"

Alya blinked, looking away from the screen — first with a glance at Marinette, and then to Alix. "Uh… yeah? I think so. Why?"

"Ssh," said Rose. "This is the best part!"

And that was that. The film continued, the bad guys were killed, the hero got the girl, and the credits rolled. It was ten in the evening. Mylène breathlessly announced her intention to stay up past midnight and wondered who else was with her and Alix, who couldn't remember the last time she went to sleep before one in the morning, cautiously raised her hand.

They played truth or dare, would you rather, and go fish. Ryuuko participated like a normal person, other than being in superhero costume, and even though she acted noticeably stiff and kept pretending that Marinette was a complete stranger, she wasn't obviously suspicious beyond that. And Marinette…

… Marinette was always weird. That was, like, her whole charm. She could outweird a menagerie of clowns without even trying, and that meant it was really hard to guess whether she was under some kind of influence. Alix had a sneaking suspicion that a drunk Marinette would actually be more coherent than normal, sober Marinette. Psilocybin shrooms might actually fix her. Right now it almost felt more pressing that Marinette wasn't acting weirder, though, what with how terribly Ryuuko treated her.

But Alya behaved like everything was perfectly okay. She spoke freely with both Ryuuko and Marinette, cracked jokes that no one laughed at except her. There was nothing wrong anywhere, at least nothing obvious. Except that Marinette sometimes looked like a doll in Ryuuko's arms. Except that Marinette laughed more at Ryuuko's humour than anybody else's, even though Ryuuko didn't have any. Except that Marinette followed Ryuuko's commands to do orderly things like her life depended on it.

Except that Marinette seemed more smitten than Alix had ever seen her.

"Is Ryuuko secretly a witch?" asked Alix, while brushing her teeth alongside Alya downstairs.

"Whih?" said Alya, pulling her toothbrush out. She spat into the sink. "Why do you ask?"

"Marinette."

Alya snorted. "Well, Marinette can act like that all by herself, you know."

"So she's dating Ryuuko, then."

"Maybe?" said Alya — she pulled the M until it looked like roadbumps. "I don't know. Marinette definitely wants to, though. And before you ask," she shot in when Alix opened her mouth, "I won't tell you who she is."

Alix frowned, furrowed her brows. "I wasn't gonna ask about that. I just wanted to know when this all started."

She could have guessed the in-love thing, anyway. It wasn't exactly hidden. It was just… confusing, and unexpected. And weird. And all kinds of similar words on top of that. Marinette hadn't been this cowed by anyone before, she had thrown herself into gifts and worried herself into knots over crushes, but she had never allowed them to change her fundamental character. The messy, chaotic, wild, unpredictable; the frankly bonkers, but also frankly amazing, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

At least she had managed to fall off the bed while screaming, though. She was still in there somewhere. She just wasn't right.

"I don't know when," replied Alya. "But the room started looking tidier like a month ago, I think. Give or take." Half the words went kind of aagaa-y because she was flossing.

"Yeah. Okay," said Alix. She put her brush under the spout and rinsed it off. "And I'm not curious about who Ryuuko is."

"Hah," said Alya, though it sounded more like 'Haaghn'. "As if."

It was true, though, thought Alix as she walked back upstairs, past Mylène and Rose and Juleka who were waiting in line outside the bathroom. She was a little bit curious, but really, she was more curious about what Ryuuko was doing to Marinette. And she wasn't nosy, so she wouldn't nose in.

That was what she thought, anyway, until she reached upstairs and saw Marinette, sitting on the futon with Ryuuko's head in her lap, carefully brushing the so-called hero's hair. She plopped down in front of them.

"You've gone soft." Alix didn't know why she said exactly that.

"Soft?" asked Marinette. Her hands still moved. Slowly, gently, pulling the strands of hair away from the red-and-gold horns of the costume, carefully laying them out in her hand. Ryuuko lay completely still, her mouth an emotionless line, relaxed and yet concentrating.

"Yeah," said Alix. She eyed the pile of bags, which was now no longer a pile but instead a carefully-arranged strip over by the wall. They were, of course, arranged by size. "You used to have everything just piled around everywhere."

It wasn't nosiness. It was just normal caring for a friend-iness. For that weird, baffled concern that even now glowed out of Marinette's eyes, like she was worried she'd hurt someone by her room being less chaotic. And sure, she kind of had, but not like — that wasn't the point. It was just weird. And not Marinette weird, but weird for being Marinette.

"I… yeah," she murmured. Quiet like she worried an avalanche might happen if she were any louder than that.

"You didn't struggle to find anything, either."

Marinette smiled then, looked down at Ryuuko's closed eyes. She paused her brushing, just letting the hair lie over her palm. "Yeah… my room was basically the same kind of mess as my head."

"So what changed?"

"Ryuuko," sighed Marinette. "Honestly… this room is still a mess to me. I put something down and when I look for it it's somewhere else. And not like usual where I just forget I moved it, or — or I just thought I put it down but I didn't, but because she's here and she moves things around. And I sit around and suddenly she's here for two nights, and I have to reorganise everything and adapt to a whole different person being here, and also keep her secret from Mum and Dad. So it feels chaotic to me even if it doesn't look it."

"You can't expect me to believe you think this place is messy," said Alix, pointing — not too indignantly, but even so — at the colour-sorting that had happened to Marinette's paper flag chain.

"I don't. I just feel that way myself, I guess?" Marinette placed the brush against Ryuuko's hair again, and Ryuuko shivered visibly at the motion as the ritual started back up. "I know it's not really."

Alix just stared for a moment. The two of them looked so… peaceful. In a mountainous terrain of quilts and cushions, they just sat like plushy forest gods and existed, like nothing at all was wrong.

"Why'd you pretend you didn't understand me earlier, then?" she grumbled.

"I didn't? You just asked the wrong questions."

"Marinette requires specificity," commented Ryuuko, whose eyes were still closed. "She is very particular about things being just right."

"What — like hell she is!" said Alix, unable to help the tone of annoyance that crept under her voice. "She's pandemonium in human form!" Then it struck her that maybe that sounded meaner than she wanted it to. "And, uh, that's a good thing!"

Ryuuko sighed. "She is a bit of a disaster in certain ways, I can't deny that. But most people are disasters in their own way. Marinette happens to be very good at following clear instructions, because she keeps making and following those instructions in her own head. If she gets unclear or unhelpful instructions, she gets lost in trying to navigate a chaos she doesn't have any control over."

"So…" Alix tried to parse all of that at the same time as automatically rejecting it. "You think because she gets confused sometimes, you have to keep her room tidy?"

"No," shot in Marinette. Her smile was, from a certain perspective that wasn't Alix's current one, sympathetic. Placing her hand up to the base of Ryuuko's neck, she continued, "She tidies the room for herself. It helps her feel better. And I deal with it because… I mean, I'm fine with it. It took a while to catch on but I can find anything I need after some looking. Except my pinking shears."

"I threw them away," said Ryuuko. "They were rusty."

"Oh."

Again, there was no resistance in Marinette. Not an ounce of her usual fierceness. She really had gone soft. "So you're just letting her walk all over you, then," commented Alix, but resignedly so. It felt pointless to argue.

Marinette popped her lips. Lifted her palm up so her hand stood like a five-legged spider on Ryuuko's front. "Actually, I feel like I'm the one walking all over her right now…"

After saying that, she used her index and middle fingers to walk slow, silly steps across Ryuuko's ribs, whistling quietly to herself as she did so. This went on for a few moments, while Ryuuko stared wide-eyed at the ceiling and Alix… also stared. Then, suddenly, Marinette stopped whistling. Her face went a deep, painful red, and she pulled her hand back like she'd been burnt.

"I — sorry — I didn't mean to…"

"I forgive you," said Ryuuko. "You are forgiven." Somehow, it helped, at least insofar as Marinette stopped looking like she would scream. But she was still blushing hard, and within a few moments she lifted Ryuuko away, placing her head down on a pillow; she then rose into a half-stand half-crawl.

"I should… go brush my pee," she muttered.

"Marinette?" said Alix. Marinette didn't stop; if anything, she hobbled even faster, and didn't look at either of them before exiting through the trapdoor.

Alix turned back to Ryuuko, who now at least deigned to shift upright into a lotus position. She, too, had clearly been watching Marinette, but when Alix turned towards her she reached down and picked the hairbrush off the floor. Pretending not to look guilty or shady.

"I don't trust you," said Alix. She might as well just come out and say it. "You're planning something with her."

Ryuuko met her gaze with something calm and uncomprehending. There wasn't even a curve to her lips. "I am," she said.

"You're going to really hurt her."

"I would never." Still calm. Even as she went on, "I'm hurt by your lack of trust."

"Why are you here? Pushing your weight around all over Marinette's stuff?" said Alix. The kaleidoscope of clothes now sorted or buried, not splashing their colours all over the furniture. The books ordered by absolute objective values, not by personality and charm. The dust swept away just like the character of the room itself. Alix struggled to keep her voice under control. "You're changing her."

"She asked me to come."

"I don't care!" barked Alix. "That doesn't give you the right to turn her into someone she's not!"

Ryuuko answered her with a quiet stare, intensely yellow. The sharp pupils felt predatory, enough to completely lock Alix in place, but — they didn't seem actually aggressive. There was protest, but not anger.

"If you really think Marinette is capable of ever being anyone other than herself…" said Ryuuko. For a moment, it almost sounded like she would end her message there, but then she inhaled. "If you think I'm capable of making her be someone she isn't, you should give her a second look. She's more resilient than you give her credit for."

"… You mean she forgets to fix the trash can?" muttered Alix.

"No. That's not resilience, that's forgetfulness." Ryuuko sighed. "I mean she is still herself in every way. Ask her, and you'll know."

In a sense, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Alix opened her mouth, then slowly shut it again, because she had nothing else to say. She wanted to keep fighting Ryuuko, of course she did, but she also just felt a kind of lethargic sensation creep over her. The sense that if she did keep fighting, she would unquestionably ruin everyone else's sleepover. Especially Marinette's. So she balled up her fists and went to unpack her sleeping bag instead, ignoring the pretend hero in the corner.

And she didn't ask Marinette. She knew she wouldn't be able to. She was scared of putting pressure on Marinette. Or maybe she was scared that if Marinette turned out to be completely like herself, 'in every way', then Alix would be guilty of not listening to her. Or of not knowing her. Maybe that was too horrible a thing to imagine for one of her oldest friends. Maybe she should examine why she was feeling so strongly about this.

Maybe she should bury those feelings as deep as they could get and never tell them to anyone.

She and Mylène were stretching out their sleeping bags over the soft field of beddings when Marinette finally came back upstairs, right behind Alya. Marinette immediately got a look over her like she was currently observing an actual ghost.

"Um! Everyone," she said. "Tonight, I'll, um, I'll be sleeping with — with Ryuuko. On the chaise. So the bed is free so you can all just… it's pretty big, so… and there are so many pillows. Sleep in the bed." The impression that she was seeing a ghost faded slowly into the impression that she was seeing a couple having sex and trying to address them as though they weren't.

Alya laughed, though. "There's not enough room for everyone up there. Three, four people max."

"Then —"

"I'll sleep on the floor," she continued, patting Marinette on the back. "It's probably clean enough to eat off of." Having said that, she walked past Marinette and went to grab her own bag.

Mylène raised her hand. "I can also sleep on the floor. Rose and Juleka and Alix can take the bed." She beamed with satisfaction, too.

With all of that settled, without Alix's input, everyone went through the motions of going to bed. It was 00:34 at night, and Alix felt like she was staring at the inside of the room through the window, even as Juleka accidentally elbowed her in the neck and apologised both profusely and in absolute silence. Even as Marinette patted her on the head, ruffling the hair in a way that Alix hesitated to undo. And especially as Ryuuko lifted up the blanket on the chaise and invited Marinette to slip underneath with only a look. Not even an inviting look — just a look, not energised, not dull.

Alix was lying in the bed then. All the relevant sheets and blankets had been moved back up there, and Alix lay wrapped in a cocoon of them at the foot end, mostly just to block things out. It didn't help, though, because she couldn't help but lie there and glare at the photo wall. The endlessly organised wall of faces, whose every hint of personality had been sanded off and measured out into little frames.

There was a picture of her on it. Only one picture that was just her, and she was smiling because it was her first time trying a skateboard and because she hadn't yet internalised the idea of wheels flying away from under her feet. She had grinned like that for about five minutes and then she had eaten asphalt and needed a trip to the doctor's office. They'd stitched her up okay. The photo right next to it was five hours later and she was wrapped in bandages and surrounded by Mylène and Max, and Marinette's finger was just barely visible in the upper left corner.

There wasn't a single picture of Ryuuko. There were only lots of friend pictures. About half of them featured Marinette, about half of them had her behind the camera — or otherwise wishing she'd been behind the camera. Because Marinette wanted to be involved and she hated the idea of missing out on anything. Maybe that was why she had that picture of Alya at her old school, with three of her old friends, because it made her feel like she had been there.

Beside that Alya picture, though… was one Alix hadn't noticed was there until now. Marinette with Kagami again — Kagami was in so many pictures on that wall — in this one, they were sitting up against a tree in the park, on a picnic blanket. It was sunny. Kagami was nestled between Marinette's legs, in the same way Marinette had sat between Ryuuko's just a couple hours ago, and Marinette's arms hugged around Kagami's shoulders and neck. Just a moment before, Kagami had seen Alix and been briefly agitated, but for the picture she had relaxed again.

It was Alix who took that picture. The twelfth, two months ago, in Jardin des Tuileries. She could see the scene in her mind's eye, smell the chocolate buns that Zoé had brought, hear the birds that fluttered and squawked in the tree that Marinette and Kagami sat under. At the time, she hadn't really thought of it as intimate, just as a close and friendly gesture between the two of them — in hindsight, she was an idiot not to notice that the way they spoke to each other went beyond normal friendship. Or her mind had just been running interference so she wouldn't get upset over a goddamn picnic.

But that only made this whole thing with Ryuuko even more inexplicable. If Marinette and Kagami had had such a close bond for months now, if they sat in each other's laps and whispered to each other, if they had gotten to that point… why was Marinette in love with Ryuuko now? She could be flighty with romances, sure, but there wasn't a single hint that Marinette ever wanted Ryuuko before today. Or any heroes, at all. Marinette seemed almost immune to the allure of a costume, somehow —

— hang on a minute.

Alix studied the picture more closely. Kagami's hair, freckles, nose… they did look kind of like Ryuuko's. Could it be…

That was as far as she got in that speculation, though. Because she suddenly heard voices from the floor. Quiet, murmuring voices, voices that obviously didn't want to alert anyone. She reached for her phone on the sideboard — it showed 01:48. Inching closer to the edge of the bed, she sharpened her ears and tried to listen.

"… don't think anyone saw what it was," said the one voice. It was clearly Marinette's.

"Good. They don't need to be involved." That was Ryuuko.

"I know. Not… now, anyway. I don't want them to get in trouble."

There was a pause. Then Ryuuko answered, "You shouldn't get in trouble, either. My only provision for this is that no one gets in trouble."

"I know. But if anyone does get in trouble it should be just me —"

"No. No trouble. Don't say things like that."

Alix inched further out. She could see down to the floor now, just barely underneath the bed rail. There was a soft light on, barely touching Alya and Mylène's sleeping forms, but starkly illuminating Marinette and Ryuuko — because it was between their stomachs, throwing shadows over the top of Ryuuko's face. Marinette faced away, though, so she was still mostly in the dark, but Ryuuko looked downright sinister. Marinette's back lay close to the edge, almost but not quite precarious.

"Sorry," said Marinette. "But I really want you out of there."

"I want out too. But I can survive living with my mother. You can't survive prison."

"I wouldn't get prison."

"You don't know my mother's influence. She could do many terrible things."

"That's exactly why you have to get out!"

"I mean things she wouldn't do to me. I'm her only daughter, after all."

The primary thought that raced through Alix's mind was, Ryuuko is leading Marinette into danger. It was, more accurately, Marinette is in danger and it's Ryuuko's fault. But she also couldn't help but think, Ryuuko doesn't sound happy. If she truly was Kagami, then… that wasn't too far away from her usual worried voice.

If she truly was Kagami, then her mother was also pretty reasonable to be worried about.

"I know I told you a lot of things about her," Ryuuko continued. "I think you got the wrong impression."

"But you didn't lie about them," was Marinette's mumbled protest. "Did you?"

"No. Everything I said was true. But I think you feel differently about those things than I do. I've spent my whole life living with them. Also, I have your room as a second home. I can handle it. When you think about the things I've told you, you imagine your parents suddenly becoming terrible and that you won't know how to handle it. You feel helpless. But I'm not helpless. Don't risk your safety for my comfort."

Marinette sighed, bowed her head, and nestled closer to Ryuuko's chest. Unspeakable feelings spiked in Alix's chest. "You're wrong. When I think about the things you've told me, I'm imagining you. I don't want you to keep feeling like that. Lonesome and afraid she'll lock you up even more."

"Marinette —"

"The whole reason we're making this plan is to make sure no one gets caught," Marinette continued, still rolled up as though she didn't want to look at Ryuuko's face, but speaking with more conviction this time. "Not even me."

Alix just lay there, rolled up as an anxious worm. She barely felt she could breathe. Part of her wanted to rise up, race down the steps, confront the two of them, tell them that whatever they were planning they should stop it now. But that part was so much smaller than she could ever have imagined any part of her to be, buried inside the blanket and in a mess of other emotions. Confusion. Curiosity. Fear — fear that she really didn't know Marinette, that Marinette could really be like this of her own choice.

"No plan is perfect," whispered Ryuuko.

"Mine are. Sometimes." With a shuddering breath, Marinette put her hand on Ryuuko's lower arm. "I had to wipe the plan from the projector screen, but I took a photo of it before school. We can revise it when I've drawn it up again."

Ryuuko sighed through pursed lips. "Your focus exhausts me sometimes."

"If you didn't want me like this, you shouldn't have told me why you had to come here today."

"You asked," replied Ryuuko. "I answered."

Marinette didn't say anything back. But her thumb stroked against Ryuuko's wrist, which made Ryuuko soften.

"If you were even a little bit less inventive, or smart, I would have barred you from helping me with anything."

"And I would have ignored you," said Marinette.

It was obviously a retort. But Ryuuko didn't seem to take it as one. The shadows on her face morphed into a smile. "I am happy to have you," she said. "Even when I don't show it."

All of Alix froze, from the blood in her veins to the breath in her lungs, as Ryuuko took hold of Marinette's cheeks and pulled her in for a kiss. Even the sparse light that been there to cast shadows, now got swallowed by darkness. The only thing that still shone was Ryuuko's yellow eyes, which only fluttered shut for a moment as their lips met, but then opened again.

And when they opened, they found Alix. The eyes widened in — shock, fear, whatever — something made them open like that, but Ryuuko still stayed calm. No jolts, no panicked noises, no anything. She slowly turned them to look at Marinette again instead.

Alix thought back to that day in the park, under the tree, on the picnic blanket. No one had asked her to take the picture, she just thought Marinette looked happy like that, staring off into the distance like she was at peace with her mind. Only Kagami had noticed her taking the picture, and Kagami's eyes had opened in the same way. A moment of — agitation, yes — before she allowed herself to relax into it. Even though the eyes were different colours, the pupils were different shapes — the way they moved were so similar. There and then, Alix was convinced: Ryuuko was Kagami. It made everything else make sense: the mother, the Japanese calligraphy, how close she was with Marinette.

Then the kiss ended. As their lips parted, Marinette curled up even further. Which sent her back and butt out over the edge of the chaise, and therefore all of her went tumbling to the floor with a shocked squeal.

"Marinette!" said Ryuuko, or Kagami, throwing herself forward, toppling the flashlight that had rested by her thigh and rolling it down on the floor. Marinette, who this time hadn't landed in a soft pile of bedclothes but instead on hardwood floor, moaned softly.

Somehow, in the middle of all that, Alix still couldn't move. Because she'd seen all the connections now. Of course this was still Marinette, not a puppet, because only Marinette could involve herself this intensely in a friend's life. Only Marinette would offer herself up as a sacrifice in a plan so complex that it had covered her whole whiteboard yet still had been written so small it was hard to read. Only Marinette would manage to fall off two separate beds during one sleepover.

"This is why you can never live on your own," whispered Kagami, Ryuuko, stroking Marinette's cheek with the tips of her fingers. Marinette snorted quietly, and then the two of them were both laughing. Alya stirred, and then Mylène, maybe finally roused by the noise.

But as Alya went up on her elbows and said, "Mhhwhat's going on?", Alix rolled back away from the edge. Into the furrow her body had lay in as she stared at the pictures. She looked at the picture of herself on the skateboard, the risktaker who didn't know she'd taken a risk, and then at the picture where she had Max and Mylène and a hint of Marinette's finger with her. She didn't look at the picture of Marinette and Kagami under the tree. And she didn't climb down to shout at Marinette for taking risks of her own, or at Ryuuko for not considering that if she told Marinette about a problem then Marinette would move heaven and earth to try and fix it.

They had kissed. In the night, when they thought no one would see them. Really, that was the part that had stopped Alix from moving. Because in all honesty, she was happy that Marinette had someone to be so close with.

And yet, if she were to be even more honest… she did mind that it wasn't her.

The quiet whispers from below quickly died away. Soon enough, Alix rolled herself into uneasy sleep. She dreamt that night of dragons, and of cliffs, and of things you could never ever come back from.