Not Beta Read.

Thankfully, no Akuma attacked that day. Marinette counted her lucky stars, because said luck failed her in just about everything else. First, she ended up with a detention because of her tardiness, despite the note. Then she noticed Adrien wasn't in class and remembered he had a photo shoot. Then she realized that Alya wasn't there either and had to ask Nino why. Just before the teacher caught them and they got another reprimand, she found out Alya had come down with a cold that morning. It only served to reminded her how much she'd dreaded school before Alya had moved in.

Tikki remained curled up at the bottom of the bag basically unresponsive throughout school, only adding to her worry. All in all, it made for a pretty miserable day, and Marinette couldn't wait to just head home and bury herself under some blankets.

Of course, that wasn't to be.

Her parents weren't happy with the detentions she'd been getting lately and Marinette had to endure the 'we thought this was fixed' speech before she was put on a probationary grounding. If she couldn't do better for the foreseeable future, she would be grounded indefinitely. Phone, television and friends. At least they'd let her have her phone that night.

Then, to top it all off, she received a response to a design contest she'd entered and had been politely but soundly rejected. Alya hadn't picked up when she'd called and really, the only highlight of the day happened to be when Tikki, whom Marinette had placed on the pillow on her bed, woke up for a short time just as Marinette was sitting at her desk and staring at the rejection letter.

"M-marinette?"

"Tikki!" the black-haired girl said with relief as she rushed over to her friend's side. "How are you feeling?"

The little, red figure shivered. "Not so well," she admitted.

Marinette nodded sadly. "I took you to Master Fu. He said there's nothing he can do and this has to pass on its own."

Tikki sighed. "I was afraid of that."

"But I thought you said you felt fine yesterday," Marinette said with a frown.

"I thought I would, but every few centuries something like this happens. I just wish it hadn't been now."

Marinette glanced down at the letter still in her hand. "You and me both," she muttered.

Tikki, the sweetheart that she was, noted Marinette's tone despite her sickness. "What's that?" she asked, trying not to sound weak and failing miserably.

The teenager shook her head. "It's nothing."

Tikki frowned. "Marinette, you can tell me."

Marinette watched the Kwami for a few moments before sighing. She didn't want to worry Tikki anymore than she already had, but she also knew the fairy wouldn't just let it go. "It's a response to the contest I entered a few weeks ago," she said.

Tikki perked up. "Oh! You've been waiting for that one, haven't you?" Marinette nodded slowly and Tikki's smile fell. "They didn't accept you?"

The dark-haired girl shook her head.

"Oh, Marinette, I'm so sorry."

"It's alright," Marinette said, trying to sound up-beat but fearing that she failed just about as miserably as Tikki had. "I didn't really put my all into it."

It was Tikki's turn to frown. "But you stayed up all night to finish the project."

"Right after an Akuma attack," Marinette pointed out. "And there had been one the day before too, and then school before that. I just didn't have time. The Akuma attack wore me out. I was lucky I finished it at all." But that wasn't how the fashion world worked. It wasn't like a school project where she could do a semi-good job and pass it off for a B grade and still slide by. Fashion required focus and dedication and...so much she couldn't give right now.

"Don't feel bad, Marinette," Tikki said, not unkindly. "I know being Ladybug gets in the way of life sometimes, but there will be other contests."

It wasn't up to Tikki's usual caliber of pep talks, but Marinette appreciated the thought. "Yeah, I know. Besides, even if it's difficult sometimes, I wouldn't give up being Ladybug for anything."

The fairy smiled tiredly and laid her head back down. "That's good to hear."

"Here, eat up," Marinette insisted, heading over with a plate of cookies she'd brought up for just this occasion. "If an Akuma attacks we may need to transform long enough to purify it, but Master Fu made me promise I wouldn't if you didn't feel you could handle it. You need food and rest."

"Right," Tikki said as she reached for the plate. Marinette bit her lip when she noticed how shaky her hand was. Still, she didn't say anything as Tikki downed her first cookie and seemed to regain some color that Marinette hadn't even realized she'd lost.

She settled down to do her homework while Tikki ate. A half-an-hour or so later, she realized the Kwami had drifted back to sleep and moved the plate from the bed.

After a short dinner later that night, Marinette joined her, burying herself under the covers and praying for a better day when she woke.

xXx

Being sick gave people a new view on the world. Not necessarily better, but definitely new.

Despite the fact that Alya could barely breathe (blast this cold she'd come down with just yesterday), that didn't mean she wasn't doing something. After all, the Journalism world was nothing if not brutal and she knew she'd have to get used to no sick days. She'd tried to convince her mom to let her go to school, but the woman had insisted Alya stay home until she got well. She wasn't sure how that was supposed to happen with some of her younger sisters still at home and making all sorts of racket, but she knew when to fight a battle.

So, instead, she'd decided to try a new angle on discovering who Ladybug and Chat Noir were. She'd begun with compiling a list of all known Akuma victims, herself included (and thank goodness she couldn't actually remember that) and then she'd printed off (page by page, which had been a nightmare, but it got the job done) a map of Paris and plastered it on her wall, thinking that maybe that would give her a clue.

She'd known the majority had gone to her school, but originally chalked it up to teenage angst. It wasn't that unreasonable to think that teenagers would have problems with anger, depression and other negative emotions that (apparently) tended to trigger Akuma attacks.

It was a little unusual, she realized, that more than half the Akuma attacks so far had been from her school. She hadn't realized it, but no other school had really been hit at all, let alone multiple times. She frowned as she pinned the last pin into her wall (Mme. Durrand) and stepped back with a frown, she wasn't sure what that meant, but it had to mean something.

Did Hawkmoth have some connection there? Was he a teacher? Did he have a son or daughter who went there? Was he a donor who supported the school? One of the staff that worked there? Or was it something else attracting them?

Her mind wandered back to when she'd found 'Ladybug's' text book again and stepped back from the wall, studying the map intently. Then she coughed. Hard. Ugh. She hated getting sick. Her medicine seemed to be wearing off. She'd have to get more soon.

Shaking her head, she focused back on the map and reexamined her former thought. She'd done a lot of conclusion jumping recently and really, she needed to stop that. If she really wanted to figure out who Ladybug was, she needed to be objective, not leaning towards one theory or another...

And yet.

Did Ladybug go to their school? Was she somehow (inadvertently, no doubt) drawing the Akuma to them? It was a theory...

She wrote it down on her notebook and then went back to studying the map. The TV station had a few pins, so she thought about that. Mannon had been there when she'd changed, right? And Stormy Weather, and the Jaquesdee... but they'd been all over television, so that could mean anything. She shook her head and tried to look at the whole picture again. Unfortunately, her eyes kept getting drawn to the concentration of multi-colored pins that she'd swiped from her mother's sewing kit.

The school.

Her mind wouldn't let it go. There were just too many there for her to ignore it.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then forced herself to focus on the other pins, each one separate and not seemingly related in the slightest. One had been on the north side, one on the south, three at various places in the west, two in the east...

Her gaze focused on the school again and she slumped into her desk chair, coughing and internally cursing.

Fine, she'd work the school angle...again. Ladybug had told her that she was older than anyone who went to their school...or, well, she'd implied it. Or she'd lied. Alya frowned at that. Ladybug was her hero, but that didn't mean she was perfect. She could have lied to keep her identity secret. So she needed to examine everyone there again. But she could sit here for hours—days even—and never come closer to figuring out who Ladybug was simply by going through the different people she knew in the school.

She frowned at the little concentration of pins again and decided to go with the facts she knew about.

Alright, so who had been akumized there again? She sighed and decided to go through the list, writing it down as best she could remember. Ivan, Nino, Alex, Alya (she suppressed a shudder), Nethaniel, Kim, Mylene, Sabrina, Chloe, Julika, Rose, Mme. Durrand...She wasn't a hundred percent sure on the order as this was off the top of her head, but she was pretty sure she had everyone in her school...

In her class...

Why was her class being targeted? That...that was too specific. Everyone had been akumized.

Everyone except...well, Marinette and Adrien...

Her frown deepened.

That could just be coincidence...right?

But Marinette could get awfully dramatic at times. So why hadn't she been targeted? And she knew that Adrien's life wasn't as perfect as Marinette seemed to think, but was it that good? So good that he hadn't attracted an Akuma at all?

Her stomach started to churn uncomfortably, and she coughed again, but it didn't distract her. She refused to let it because she was so close! She could feel it.

She glanced at her phone and the selfie she'd taken of her and Marinette. She was pretty sure that Ladybug had dark hair (something about everyone's memories and even pictures of her made it seem...vague, Alya assumed it was whatever powers the girl possessed at work). But still...Marinette? Marinette her best friend? She'd tell her something like that...wouldn't she? Besides, she was so clumsy and awkward at times. Very unlike Ladybug...

But then Alya remembered her standing up to Chloe those few times she did. And there were other times when Marinette just got this determined look on her face that presented nothing but an immovable wall. At those times, she either seriously impressed Alya, or scared her silly. Because someone with that look could do...

Anything...

But it couldn't be. Marinette wouldn't...

Would she?

And what about Adrien?

She'd never really noticed before (mainly because she usually went running in the direction of the screams) but Marinette was almost never around during the Akuma attacks she could remember. Neither was Adrien...were they? During the stories afterwords she almost never heard their names mentioned. Was that just coincidence too?

She pulled up the old, doctored photo on her phone, ignoring the coughing fit that her sudden movements spurred on. A picture of Adrien with cat ears and a mask...

She got her stylus out and pulled up a picture of Marinette. 5 minutes of paint later, Alya held the pictures, now side by side, at arms length and her stomach turned to ice.

It wasn't perfect, but it definitely looked like Ladybug and Chat Noir.

She dropped the phone as if it had burned her. "Oh...my..." she faded off as another series of coughs took her over. When the coughs stopped, she fixed her eyes on the picture (now on the floor) again as she tried to get her breath under control.

Marinette and Adrien. Part of her wanted to throw her hands up in the air because if this was right (and she was getting more and more sure that it was) then Marinette liked Adrien and Chat Noir (Adrien) liked Ladybug (Marinette) and just how could they have a love square with just two people?!

But most of her just felt numb. She knew this would hurt soon because how could Marinette...how could she? Did she really not trust Alya that much? Just because she ran the Ladyblog? Or was it because of Lady Wifi?

She could feel a headache coming on, and really, she did not want to deal with all of this right now (and here she thought she could handle anything, talk about a wake up call), so Alya pushed herself towards her bed and collapsed onto it, groaning as she pulled the covers over her head and trying to ignore the nausea in her stomach that had nothing to do with her illness.

One way or another, she'd find out tomorrow. Even if she had to sneak out to do it.

xXx

Marinette managed to wake up early enough to wrap Tiki up in some warm scraps of cloth and gently tuck her inside her purse the next morning. Honestly, at this point, she'd count that as a win and a much better start to the day. She even left early and easily got to school before class started, much to her parent's pleasure.

She was just starting to relax at that realization (and hoping her luck was changing) when she saw who had just come up to the gates of the school and stopped short. Perfect blond hair over green eyes that somehow made any casual clothing that he wore look like a tuxedo in comparison to everyone else's attire. Marinette felt a familiar, dopy smile come over her face and happily watched as her crush ascended the steps. Every movement flowed like water and his poise and his smile just made everything around him brighter and—

And then Chloe had to ruin everything by rushing onto the scene and throwing her arms around Adrien.

"Adrikins!" she yelled, somehow managing a simpering squee. Marinette instantly felt the dreamy smile fall to a frown.

"Um, hello, Chloe," Adrien said and Marinette couldn't help but take heart in the discomfort she heard in his voice (even as she completely ignored the familiarity she heard too).

"So," the blond girl said as she latched onto Adrien's arm and began leading him away. Marinette, still frowning, couldn't help it as her feet began to follow them, seemingly of their own accord. "Daddy is throwing a party this weekend. Normally I would be able to go, but it's only for couples. So I told him that my boyfriend would bring me. What do you say?"

Marinette's mouth dropped open. This had to be her worst nightmare come true! How could this happen? How could Chloe, of all people, manage to get to Adrien first?! Well, probably because she didn't suddenly become a stuttering mess around him and she had known him for years. Marinette felt her heart sink.

Then Adrien spoke, looking at the girl hanging off of his arm in surprise. "What do you mean, 'what do I say?' I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

Chloe giggled shrilly. "You're my boyfriend, silly. I just wanted to make sure—"

"Wait, what?!" Adrien actually took a step away from her, eyes wide and mouth open.

The blond girl rolled her eyes. "Come on. We've been practically dating for years now. Don't you think it's time to make it official?" She leaned forward to kiss him and Marinette saw red. It took every ounce of control she had to not burst out right then and there and give Chloe what for. This wasn't her battle, after all. It had nothing to do with her, no matter how much she wanted it to be otherwise.

Adrien slipped his arm away from her and backed away before their lips could touch though. "Chloe, I hate to tell you this, but...I like someone else."

The expression on the other girl's face would have been priceless at any other time, but Marinette anger abandoned her at those words, leaving her to feel much the same. No, her mind thought desperately as she stared at Adrien, let me not have heard that right. Please!

"What?" Chloe shrieked. "Who? Who is she? I'll kill her!"

Adrien frowned. "Then of course I'm not going to tell you who she is," he said, sounding more exasperated with his childhood friend than Marinette had ever heard him before.

"At least tell me if she goes to this school," Chloe insisted, trailing after Adrien as he turned and walked away.

He put a hand up to his nose in exasperation before he gave in. "No," he finally replied. "She's someone I work with...kind of."

"A model?" Chloe asked, her own anger suddenly melting away only to be replaced by something that she almost never showed openly. Fear. She couldn't compete with a model. Models had looks and money and prestiege. They could easily prove to be a threat even Chloe knew she couldn't overcome. And if Chloe, with all her money and power couldn't compete, then how could Marinette? All she had was, well, herself.

She put a hand up to her chest, trying to will away the painful constriction that had started there. A model. Of course he would fall for one of the gorgeous girls he worked with. Really, it only made sense.

"Something like that," Adrien muttered to Chloe. They stood there awkwardly for a few moments before he turned to go to class.

Chloe followed him silently into the school and disappeared from view. It took Marinette several minutes more before she managed to move her own feet forward, leaving the remains of her shattered heart somewhere behind her.

xXx

Chloe was in a foul mood the rest of the day. Naturally, she took it out on anyone and everyone, epically Marinette. To make it all worse, Alya was still out sick, leaving Marinette alone to wallow in her misery.

The only bright point of the day came at lunch when Marinette checked on Tikki and found the little Kwami awake. Marinette tried to hide her sadness from the tiny figure, but Tikki knew her too well.

"Marinette, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly, ignoring her own tiredness.

So Marinette told her everything and then sat against the wall, elbows resting on her arms and head buried in them. She just wanted the world to go away.

"Marinette, you need to cheer up," Tikki said softly.

"How?" she asked, somehow unable to lift her head. "My dreams have just been shattered."

"There will be other boys," the Kwami pointed out.

Marinette scoffed. "Not like Adrien."

Tikki stayed quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. "Maybe not, but you can't give up now. There is someone out there for you, and you're only 14. You'll find him, I promise."

"I don't want anyone but Adrien," she replied stubbornly.

She heard Tikki sigh and immediately felt bad. The last thing Tikki needed when she was sick like this was all of Marinette's drama. Great, now she felt terrible for inadvertently hurting one of her best friends. Could this day get any worse?

She had to think the thought. "Marinette, if you don't cheer up, you could attract an Akuma."

That caused her head to shoot up and she looked over at her open purse. "What?! I thought Akuma couldn't...I mean, I thought we were protected. Chat Noir and I."

Tikki tipped her head to one side. "Why do you say that?"

"Because," Marinette frowned, "everyone else in my class except for Adrien has been Akumized. He hasn't because he probably has the perfect life. I've had problems, though. I've been depressed and upset and I haven't been Akumized."

Tikki nodded thoughtfully. "That's because I've been shielding you. The Akuma are more attracted to you and Chat Noir, which is why people in your class have been Akumized, but I can protect you from Nooroo for the most part."

"What do you mean, 'for the most part?'" the dark-haired girl asked, eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

Tikki looked away. "My power lies in creation. Nooroo's power lies in bestowing abilities onto a chosen. They are inherently different. There's only so much I can do to keep you from Hawkmoth's attention. Nooroo's power can enhance another miraculous wielder, it's happened before, so there's no guarantee that you're safe. So you have to cheer up." The kwami pleaded fervently, eyes practically begging Marinette to listen.

For several seconds, she just stared in horror at her Kwami. Then she blinked and nodded. Her heart hurt and a nasty depression had seeped into her soul, but that didn't mean she had to give into them, right?

"Alright, Tikki," she said with a forced smile, "I'll try."

The fairy brightened at that. "Good for you, Marinette."

"Yeah," the girl replied softly. She would try for Tikki. She would do her best and throw herself into her Ladybug duties when Tikki got better. Maybe then she could forget this for a while. That would help a lot.

"Marinette, I'e been thinking," Tikki said after a few minutes of contemplative silence.

"About what?" Marinette asked.

"Well, about you making yourself a Ladybug mask or something that you can change into."

Marinette blinked in surprise. Where had that come from? "What? Why?"

The Kwami drooped a bit. "If we have to transform, I don't know how long I can keep it up. If you want to keep your identity safe, then having a mask on might help. And if you're having bad luck, then the transformation back might be at the worst possible moment."

The dark-haired girl contemplated that for a moment. "I...see," she finally said. "But what about my clothes? If I detransform, don't you think someone would recognize them?" Marinette did tend to have a rather unique sense of style. Not an unusual trait when one focused on fashion design.

Tikki shrugged and her eyelids seemed to fall a little lower with every passing second. "Don't wear recognizable clothing? Or make a suit for underneath? I'm...not sure, and it's getting hard to think."

"Right," Marinette agreed and patted Tikki on the head. "Go to sleep. Here," she handed her a snack she'd been carrying around. "Eat this and then rest."

Tikki took the pastry with a relieved smile. "Thanks, Marinette."

"You're welcome."

xXx

The afternoon didn't go much better than her morning had. Lila had to do a presentation in biology about the animal she'd picked and it happened to be an Assassin Bug. She'd looked a little too gleeful when she'd pronounced that these insects prayed on Ladybugs (one of their main, natural predators, to be precise).

Chloe had venomously defended her favorite super heroine after correctly assuming that Lila was trying to put Ladybug down. It had degraded into a very loud, very high-pitched cat fight that had drawn the entire class in, landing everyone else with a detention too.

She could only feel relief when she'd finally gotten out of there and made for home.

Then she met Alya.

At first she couldn't help but be wary of the figure bundled up in winter coats and scarves walking towards her, but then she recognized them and couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh.

"Alya?" she asked, double checking (because really, it still could be someone else and she'd just mistaken them for her friend).

The slightly taller figure stopped in front of her and didn't say anything. Although Marinette could now tell that it was indeed her friend, her smile faded to concern. Even behind the large scarf wrapped around the other girl's neck and the lower half of her face she could see the signs of fever. The flushed cheeks and clammy skin. Her brown eyes seemed just a little too bright too. The hood pulled low over her hair and eyebrows didn't help the look either.

"You're still sick, right? What are you doing out? You should get back inside. Come on, I'll walk you home."

"Marinette," Alya interrupted, looking down nervously and then glancing around. It was just the two of them. Marinette frowned. Why did Alya seem worried about who might be listening in? Then again, it was Alya. Probably something about the latest scoop. Thankfully, no one else who'd gotten out late lived near Marinette, at least not this close to her home. Sometimes kids came to her bakery for some after-school snacks or on errands for their parents, but she hadn't seen anyone besides Alya after turning down the street a few seconds ago.

"Do you trust me?"

The black-haired girl blinked. Whatever she'd been expecting, it wasn't that.

"O-of course I do," she managed to get out. If anything, that seemed to make Alya more worried, though. Marinette felt ice begin to form in her stomach. Something wasn't right. "Alya, what's this about?"

"I was Lady Wifi...would that stop you from trusting me?"

Marinette tried not to let her own frustration at the circular questioning show. "Why would that make a difference?"

Alya closed her eyes for a second and breathed in. Then she let out a grating cough. Marinette's worry spiked. She really shouldn't be out right now. It was early spring, but the air around Paris still held a chill.

When Alya did speak again, her voice sounded rough from the cough, but firm nonetheless. "Because...you're Ladybug."

xXx

Alya watched Marinette closely for several seconds while the other girl digested what she'd said. Her eyes widened and her face paled and she looked like she'd even stopped breathing for a few moments. Then she shook her head and played it off with a semi-realistic laugh. It was the same laugh she used whenever something with Adrien came up and Alya could see past it in a heartbeat.

"What? No. There's no way I'm Ladybug! Why would you think that?"

Alya's heart sank. She didn't trust her. Her best friend...

"Is it because I run the Ladyblog? Do you really think I'd tell on you?"

Marinette must have realized that she couldn't play this off because her smile melted to one of worry.

"No, of course not. If I were Ladybug I would—"

"STOP IT!" Alya yelled, then doubled over in another coughing fit. Gah! She hated this cold. Why now, of all times?!

"Alya!" The budding reporter knocked Marienette's hand away when it came to rest on her shoulder. She managed to get the coughing under control and looked up with a glare.

"I told you, I know! The way you run off whenever there's an Akuma attack," alright she was more or less jumping to conclusions with that one and going off of hearsay, but she hoped the bluff would work because if Marinette had been lying to her the whole time...she was already tired of it. So tired. "And I've seen you when you want to take care of something, you can lead and you can do just about anything you put your mind to. You're flexible enough, strong enough (with some added magic powers, I'm sure), plus you've never been Akumized...like the rest of the class. And then there's this."

With that, she pulled out the doctored photo on her phone and then a printed picture of Ladybug (not Chat Noir because that was too much right now and kind of besides the point in Alya's opinion...and besides, she wasn't a hundred percent sure they knew about each other and figured that some caution when doing this would probably be prudent) to hold up for comparison. She couldn't remember what Ladybug looked like when she wasn't looking at a picture or the real thing, but when she'd compared her doctored picture with Marinette, she did remember noticing that they looked almost exactly alike.

Marinette's face had gone blank as she studied the pictures in front of her. Then, the mask she'd been wearing fell.

Funny, Alya hadn't ever realized that 'Marinette' was the mask.

"You can't tell anyone, Alya," she said softly.

The heat that rose to Alya's face had nothing to do with the cold. "Well apparently we don't know each other as well as we thought if you think for a moment I would tell the world or even another person any of this!" Marinette's troubled expression deepened and she couldn't seem to meet Alya's eyes.

"It is Lady Wifi," she said, taking a step back because that realization hurt. Marinette really did hold her accountable for that, after everything she'd said and...

Maybe confronting Marinette while she was sick hadn't been the best idea because now she felt faint. She ignored the hot tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

"No! I promise, that's not it!" Marinette protested.

Alya just shook her head. It was getting hard to think around all of this with her headache and the cold and...yeah, this really hadn't been the best idea. "I need time," was all she managed to say before she turned around and stalked back down the street, leaving someone she'd always thought she could trust (ha!) staring numbly after her.

xXx

Note: If anyone would like to beta read for me, please let me know. :) I prefer beta readers that do the following:
1. Look for Continuity
2. Can help me figure out the flow of paragraphs and ideas

3. Look for places where characters are out of character.

4. Alright with me bouncing ideas off of them

I'd love to hear from you! Thanx!