Deep down, she knew. But she wanted so hard for it not to be. She refused for it to be true. It just couldn't be. Marinette couldn't be Ladybug. She just couldn't.
Then how do you explain how they look almost exactly alike? Her mind taunted.
It was just a coincidence. Plenty of people looked alike, didn't they? That didn't mean her best friend was secretly a superhero.
How about the absences, then? And how she always conveniently gets turned into an akuma minion or isn't at the scene when Ladybug is? Her mind counters.
But she saw Marinette with Ladybug once!
Yeah, and that was a time based akuma.
Shut up! Alya mentally shouted to her brain.
Surely her friend would of told her if she was Ladybug, right? Yet all the signs pointed to it. But she denied it over and over.
So she went after Chloe in, well, maybe not exactly hopes, that she was Ladybug instead of Marinette. And she tried unmasking Ladybug as Lady Wifi to prove to herself that Marinette wasn't Ladybug. That an entirely different face was underneath that mask.
What do you think you'd find under that pathetically small mask, anyway? All it does is hide the area around her eyes. Every other facial feature is still visible, and looks exactly like Marinette's. Even the voice is the same! And her brain was back at it again.
But Marinette was too clumsy to be Ladybug. Too shy. Too nervous. There was no way.
You know full-well that the Miraculous enhances their abilities and how confident Marinette is when she isn't around Adrien.
Alya screamed in frustration. "No! She isn't Ladybug, but I'm going to find out who is!"
Marinette probably wouldn't appreciate that, you know.
She screams yet again, refusing to acknowledge the reality. And so, day after day, despite the lame excuses, the coincidences, how easily Marinette can get exclusive interviews from Ladybug and how much they look and sound alike, she continues to deny the truth, determined to find someone else, not her friend, not sweet Marinette, masquerading as Ladybug.
It just couldn't be true. She refused for it to be.
Marinette wasn't Ladybug, even if every other part of her brain screamed that she was.
I don't entirely know if this is fully canon (I might have forgotten/missed a few details), but I tried my best. I do find it pretty hard to believe it never once slipped Alya's mind that Marinette could be Ladybug. Then again, Marinette and Adrien still haven't figured each other out yet, either.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
