Alya had every intention of being an amazing journalist. It was a job that took listening carefully, observing closely, and following a gut instinct with extreme prejudice. It was a job she'd spent nearly every spare waking moment improving her skills in her search for details for her blog.
When it came to Paris's resident heroes, she had her finger on the pulse of the clues. She was far more adept on social media than much of the news media. She followed trends. She made heat maps of the attack locations. She did her homework and had more than a little bit of luck in living in the same part of the city where many of the attacks seemed to occur. She made it her business to be in the right place at the right time.
And she had been justifiably rewarded with better scoops and better footage than even the major outlets who had money and people to burn scrambling for coverage.
She wasn't truly sure what journalistic avenue she'd actually enjoy as a career later on in life, but she intended to be prepared. Maybe she couldn't unmask the heroes, but she could consistently prove her mettle and build up a resume online to prove her journalistic endeavors.
What she hadn't expected was for those same instincts to stay just as sharp in her day to day life.
Her seat in class was excellent. She was perfectly positioned to catch all those still shy, secret little glances that Nino shot back at her. She could easily monitor and throttle back her best friend's often borderline obsessive habit of drooling and daydreaming over her crush.
And she got it. Adrien was cute. He was a genuinely nice guy.
But he was also just spectacularly dense, especially when it came to girls. From time to time, Alya had wondered if that was just selective, or if it was just the socialization failure of his parent's decision to homeschool him for quite so long.
Alya loved Marinette, really she did. She understood what it was like to be kind of swept off her feet. But lovely as that whirlwind was, it wasn't sustainable. Not for very long.
Her Mother had set her down at a very young age and discussed-at length-the highs and lows, the risks and rewards. She hea learned the cautionary tales of friends and family members.
Most importantly, her mother had explained that the coming tide of hormones were just the beginning. You could either fight the waves or ride on top of them. It was much easier to enjoy the ride if you went with the flow.
At the time, she had scoffed, until her own hormones started to hit. Mom was at least partially right, but she wasn't about to tell her that. She could do her own research. She could approach with her own level of caution.
Poor Marinette seemed dead set on fighting the current, even when everyone (Nino included) kept offering to pull her up onto the raft. No one else but Adrien was quite that dense. Even Kim could put two and two together here.
Marinette mind wind up hurt if she couldn't do better about keeping her head around the model boy. It was crazy. Alya knew that Marinette's Mom was cool. Surely, she had sat her down and had a similar conversation. Alya couldn't stand the thought of seeing Marinette get hurt.
If Marinette could just talk to Adrien like she did with everyone else in the class, he would have the opportunity to find out just how much they had in common. Alya had had enough conversations with Nino to be reasonably sure they would both be fast and fiercely protective friends.
If nothing else.
She sighed. Nino was a friend, certainly. A sweetheart, mostly when he didn't try to re-write her work without input (and no, she wasn't going to let that one go, thank you very much). But at least he did understand now when a kiss was or was not necessary to drive the plot forward. At least they could talk on a level playing field most of the time. At least she could enjoy that flutter of butterflies in her stomach whenever she felt nervous and be brave enough to tell him-and delight in the dark blush that would settle into his own cheeks.
Was it too much to hope for that Marinette could have that same sort of thing for herself?
Alya had worried for months without much sign of Marinette slowing down. Marinette still continued to occasionally trip over her own words around him, but at least now she could manage full sentences that were mostly coherent.
It was only then that the most unexpected-and most interesting-perk of sitting where she did came into play. She also got the best view of Adrien, whenever he glanced back to their bench. He would steal a glance back, particularly whenever Marinette was being praised or was otherwise busy with notes (or naps, depending on the day). Or whenever he chatted with Nino. It was something that was occurring with increasing and encouraging frequency. Enough so, to give her a lot of hope for Marinette and her seemingly hopeless crush.
Clearly, he thought he was being subtle. Alya was pretty sure that he really didn't understand the meaning of the word. The boy was just lucky that his grades were good enough that the teachers tended not to call him out on it.
Alya grinned. She had pushed and pushed, but aside from the one spectacularly failed attempt on the same day the Ladybug and Chat Noir statue had been unveiled, Marinette never really took initiative in trying to ask Adrien out, even just as friends. But maybe, just maybe Adrien might beat her to the punch.
She templed her fingers. Her instincts were screaming that the time would come. She just had to wait and watch.
Of course, Alya forgot that she totally hated waiting. By the time she was tempted to start smacking her head onto the desk, Adrien started to do something really interesting: He started to catch things.
It was like these crazy reflexes had just appeared out of nowhere. Like he had nothing better to do with all his time spent sequestered in his father's mansion than to sit and practice throwing things just out of reach and catching them. Maybe it was some sort of crazy training with all the equipment Nino swore that the guy had in his room. Alya had her doubts. Who actually had a rock wall in their room? Besides, she saw that crazy calendar Marinette had pulled together. When on Earth would he have had the spare time?
Beside, surely his father -or the ruthlessly efficient secretary-would have put a stop to anything that might "damage the merchandise". Photography wasn't really her area of expertise, but she didn't think that bruises would mask particularly well in photoshoots.
When she tried to ask Adrien about it, he immediately clammed up. He had tried to brush it off as some sort of special fencing exercise to help improve his reach.
She might have bought it, except for the fact that he pointedly avoided her eyes when answering. Sunshine had a very obvious tell.
It was cute that he actually thought he was hiding it well.
It had been fascinating to watch Adrien watch as Marinette actually trip in air. She had caught herself by gripping onto the railing for dear life before she fell too far - really she was surprisingly adept at doing so.
But Adrien had definitely reached out to catch her.
He looked shocked, although the why of the matter was a little less clear. That she had fallen? Well, really that couldn't have been a surprise unless he had been sleeping with his eyes open all year. That she caught herself? That he hadn't gotten there fast enough?
The funny thing that all of those possible questions had in common was that he was clearly watching Marinette.
Marinette had done her usual, tripping over her words and holding tight to the stairs to ensure she didn't fall again.
Alya had followed his eyes to Marinette's tight grip on the stair rail.
Her brows arched skyward. One thing was certain at least: he was watching enough to worried about her.
It didn't hurt that she shipped it quite a lot. It wasn't just convenient as she was dating Adrien's best friend. But Marinette would be over the moon, and there was little more than Alya wanted than to see her best friend be so happy.
After a few more days of limited progress from Marinette, more watching from Adrien, and at least one more missed catch on Adrien's part (to be fair, he was several desks away), Alya was about ready to pull her hair out.
Nino won all the good boyfriend points for the day. He knew exactly what was bugging her. It was amazing how effective communication made these simple things go more smoothly.
Honestly, it had been bugging Nino, too. He was way more subtle and chill about it. The model was totally tight lipped about it.
Her instinct was telling her to make this happen Her frustration was telling her to make this happen now. It was just the little, subtle push that they both might need to actually get them talking. Like normal people did.
It hadn't taken much effort on her part to coerce Nino into walking along behind them with Adrien at his side. Nino would keep him about two steps back as they walked down the hall, so there was actually a chance to catch Marinette if she did fall. Even Nino agreed that he could pull that off without any real risk for Marinette falling and getting really hurt.
She caught Nino's eyes and he nodded subtly.
Alya leaned over to her friend to whisper. "He has been watching you, you know?"
Marinette turned pale. "Who?"
Alya grinned. "Who do you think?"
Marinette's brows winged up for only a moment, before her feet tangled together, pulling her down with the gravity of the implication.
Just as she and Nino had suspected, her friend hadn't hit the floor but rather against the model's surprisingly solid chest.
Alya winced. She wasn't used to catching anyone larger than her younger siblings, but with a little momentum, that actually hurt.
Adrien didn't even look fazed by the thud against his chest, although it was clear he was a bit worried. "Are you alright?"
Outside of the brilliant blush on her face, Marinette looked like she would survive no worse for the wear. "F-fine. I'm okay."
He had smiled softly at that.
At least he did until Marinette sputtered. "I'm just madly clumsy."
Then, he blinked. His lips parted to draw in a hasty breath, his eyes growing wide.
Those words shouldn't have been anything more than a call to ruffle Marinette's hair and earn one of her adorable pouts before they all continued on to class. Alya moved quickly, tugging Marinette along towards the classroom.
At a safe enough distance, she leaned over again. "I told you he was watching."
There was clever little grin that literally brightened Marinette's face. She was barely containing a squeal at the thought. "He was, wasn't he?"
Alya looked back in amusement. If the growing blush on Adrien's cheeks was any indication, he seemed pleasantly surprised.
She sighed. She'd get the whole of the story out of Nino later.
For now, she'd focus on getting Marinette back to Earth to listen to the lesson.
And then she would watch them both and wait.
For now.
Author's Notes:
You all are amazing. Thank you so much for all the lovely feedback. There has been such a huge, positive response that my muse insisted on another late night.
Alya's chapter definitely got quite a bit longer than I expected.
Still not beta-ed, so there may be tiny errors. I'll re-read and edit again later when my brain is not fried from editing.
I may have actually plotted out like 6 total drabble chapters-maybe a 7th to tie everything up in the end. I think I have problems.
The speed will definitely slow down here for me as real life is about to get very, very real.
