Adrien couldn't believe this was happening again. Literally the same thing had happened two days ago, except this time, the situation was flipped. Adrien had been caught kissing Ladybug, while Marinette had been caught kissing Chat Noir. Instead of Alya finding out, this time it was Nino.
He wanted to scream at the irony of it all.
"Um...I guess I'll be going now," Ladybug finally said. She gave Adrien an apologetic look, and he simply watched her run away from the exhibit room, probably looking for a place to transform unnoticed. Adrien felt abandoned and trapped, and waited for his impending doom.
"What just happened here? Nino, explain," Alya demanded, looking back and forth between the two boys.
"I…" Nino began, not knowing whether he should be the one to tell Alya.
"It's okay, you can tell her," Adrien said defeatedly. Alya was sure to figure out sooner or later. He might as well let her get it out of her system now.
"Adrien...was making out with Ladybug," Nino said, seemingly astonished at his own words.
"WHAT?" Alya said, turning around to face Adrien.
I'm dead. I'm going to die...Adrien thought helplessly.
"What the fuck, Adrien? Is this some kind of sick revenge on Marinette for kissing Chat Noir?"
If Adrien hadn't been controlling himself, he might have squeaked in terror. Alya continued her lecture, ignoring Nino's questions of "Marinette kissed Chat Noir?" and "What's going on?"
"This is really, really low. Mari apologized and explained everything, then you act all cool and calm and then you do this?" Alya asked him, but while practically shouting. A few of Adrien's classmates began entering the room, watching the scene unfold.
"Alya, please keep your voice down," Adrien pleaded, worried that his classmates would hear. Especially Chloe...she wouldn't let him or Marinette ever hear the end of it.
"No, I will NOT keep my voice down!" Alya responded. "You did this to hurt Marinette for what she did, even though she apologized and you made her think that you were fine with everything! Come on, Adrien! I expected so much better from you and then you let me and Marinette down like this! I can't believe I felt sorry for you yesterday!"
"Alya please, it's nothing like that I swear—" Adrien started, but she cut him off.
"I don't want to hear it." Alya said coldly. "Come on, Nino." With that, Alya and Nino left Adrien standing there alone. Nino looked back at Adrien, a mix of shock and disappointment evident on his face.
Adrien felt awful.
Adrien saw that five classmates had formed a group at the other end of the room. He realized with a sinking feeling that they had probably witnessed at least some of what had just happened, and were probably able to piece together that he and Marinette were having relationship problems. Allegedly. As if to answer his fears, he heard Chloe cackling with glee.
"Oh my god, this amazing! Didn't I tell you, everyone? I knew Adrien and Marinette would never really be a thing! Marinette was such a lousy girlfriend that Adrien had no choice to cheat on her!" Chloe looked as if she was having the best day of her life.
Adrien walked up towards the small group of his classmates, facing Chloe first and firmly countering her claims. "First of all, I did not cheat on Marinette. We're both doing perfectly fine. Second of all," he said, turning to face the rest of them, "Don't make assumptions based on whatever little piece of drama you just witnessed here. None of you know the whole story. And frankly, it is none of your business what is happening between me and Marinette."
"So there is something happening between you and Marinette?" Alix said slyly, catching on to Adrien's choice of words.
"No, there's not! What I mean is that other people think there's something bad going on when there's not," Adrien explained. "You know what, forget it. There's no point trying to explain anything to anyone."
Adrien didn't give them a second glance as he left the exhibit room. He needed to find Marinette. He would have enjoyed the beautiful works of arts on display as he walked past, but right now, he couldn't. Not when his two best friends thought he was an awful person.
"Adrien!" Marinette said, finding him in the Picasso exhibit area.
"Marinette, I am so happy to see you," he said in relief, hugging her. "It was awful."
"I'm sure it was, kitty. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there to protect you from angry Alya," Marinette said, hugging him back.
"What are we going to do?" Adrien asked her. "This has gotten out of hand."
"I know," Marinette sighed. "I'll figure something out, don't worry."
The field trip to the Louvre had been a disappointment, to say the least. Marinette hadn't seen Nino or Alya for the rest of the field trip, but had gotten a glimpse of the two before getting on the bus. They must think Adrien and I are having some serious issues, Marinette thought.
The Akuma attack and friend drama aside, Marinette had not enjoyed the field trip itself. She had been catcalled by one of the tourists at the museum, (Adrien practically hissed at the man, scaring him away,) spilled soda onto her shirt, and forgot to select a painting for her assignment. She figured that Google could help her out with that, but it still made it more of a hassle than it already was. She was in no mood to deal with assignments today.
Their class arrived back at school at the same time that the final bell rang. Adrien still had fencing after school, leaving Marinette to walk home alone.
She barely noticed the ten-minute walk go by, and was glad to be home. The familiar, welcoming smell of freshly-baked bread, cookies, and cake put her at ease after this wretched day.
"Mari, how was your field trip?" her mother asked, happy to see her home. Marinette merely groaned in response.
"Oh, that doesn't sound very good," Sabine said with concern. "You should rest or eat something."
Marinette got up tiredly, grabbing a handful of cookies for Tikki and heading upstairs to her room. Tikki flew out of her pocket as she closed the door behind her.
"It'll all get better, Marinette. Don't worry." Tikki chirped reassuringly. "Things have a way of working themselves out."
Marinette groaned again, not really having adequate responses to anything after today. She just wanted to sleep and have all her problems disappear when she woke up.
After Adrien got home, one of the first things he did was check the Ladyblog. Adrien had realized long ago that this blog was almost a window to Alya's soul if you knew her well enough. The newest post was still from this morning, showing a video of Chat Noir and Ladybug's battle against the Sculptor. Apart from that, there were no other posts bashing on Ladybug or portraying her as a horrible person.
Adrien felt a twinge of annoyance. Not that he wanted Alya to have posted something horrible about Ladybug, he just thought it was unfair that she was so much more biased against Chat despite the exact same circumstances for Ladybug.
Adrien sighed, leaning back against his chair in front of the computer. What a mess, was all he could think. He held his phone in his hand, debating on whether or not he should text Nino. Before all of this, he and Nino had planned to hang out after school tomorrow. They might have gone to the movies or checked out that new hipster restaurant down the street from Nino's house.
The hipster restaurant was reportedly ridiculous—rumor had it that food was served on wooden flat boards and the chairs were actually barber's chairs pulled from the junkyard. Adrien had been looking forward to making fun of the place and experience the surreal reality of hipster culture with Nino. Unfortunately, due to current events the idea seemed unlikely.
He checked the thread titled Marinette (which was followed by a ladybug emoji and hearts) and was dismayed to see that she still hadn't responded to his text. Knowing her, Adrien assumed that she had probably crashed into bed the moment she got home and was probably asleep.
"Hard having friends when you're a superhero," Plagg commented unhelpfully as he munched on his camembert. He was perched atop Adrien's computer table, watching him worry over his messages and Alya's blog.
"I noticed," Adrien said, his voice slightly bitter. He paused, then spoke again. "Plagg, why can't I just tell them? They're my friends, I should let them know my secret. I feel like I'm lying to them every time they even mention Chat Noir and I just have to play along."
Plagg just laughed as if Adrien had told him the funniest joke he'd ever heard. "Are you talking about the girl who runs a blog dedicated to you and Ladybug? Fat chance! And your other friend, Nano—"
"Nino," Adrien corrected.
"Whatever—he'll never be able to keep such a huge secret inside! Telling him is the same thing as telling her. Just keep your two lives separate, it's easier that way."
Adrien crossed his arms and frowned at the despicable ancient cat fairy, but he had to admit, Plagg had a point. It was too risky. He and Marinette had been fine the way they were. Adrien hoped that all this drama would just naturally subside.
Alya was Ladynoir trash. No, scratch that, she was the Ladynoir trash queen. In fact, she was the one who coined the term in the first place. She was the one who fueled the Ladybug and Chat Noir fans on her blog, providing them with a place to discuss their theories regarding their two favorite superheroes. Paris adored the two, and Alya helped keep that adoration alive.
Right now, however, she was conflicted. She had witnessed first-hand, the two superheroes that she admired and loved, kissing her two best best friends. Hadn't Ladybug and Chat Noir admitted that their relationship was official just two months ago? Hadn't Marinette and Adrien done the same? Then why, why in the hell, were these four people getting tangled up in each other?
Alya firstly felt betrayed by Marinette, who apparently had been getting far too cozy with Chat Noir for what seemed like a long time. Alya had chosen to blame it on Chat, mainly because boys were garbage and although this was a respected hero she was talking about, she couldn't just assume that he was somehow different from all other boys. It wasn't hard to perceive Chat Noir as an arrogant prick who was jealous about the media's slight preference of Ladybug over him.
But Ladybug...and Adrien? This one had left Alya scratching her head. Maybe Ladybug's civilian self knew about Adrien from his modeling. Maybe she didn't know that he was already taken. Adrien, on the other hand, should have known better than to respond to her advances.
What was wrong with her two best friends? What was wrong with the two superheroes that she looked up to? Why couldn't they just stay faithful to each other?
Alya knew, at the same time, that she had no business judging the relationship of two superheroes. Alya didn't know who they were, she didn't know what kind of lifestyles those two lived. For all she knew, they could've been in some sort of weird, polygamous or open relationship.
But Adrien and Marinette, that was a completely different story. Alya had never seen a couple that was so in love. Alya hated shaming them both for their actions, but someone had to snap some sense into them. If they had been any other couple, she would have accepted the end of their relationship as something that just wasn't meant to be.
It wasn't just the fact that she spent so long trying to get Adrien to notice Marinette, (there was a specific day in which Adrien suddenly noticed Marinette as if she was his whole world, and Alya couldn't figure out what had changed so drastically), it was the fact that they made each other so damn happy.
Alya simply couldn't fathom what drove those two to cheat on each other like that. Granted, everyone had celebrity crushes, but they had both stepped too far. Hell, how did Marinette and Adrien even know Chat Noir and Ladybug on personal terms? Why hadn't Marinette told Alya about Chat Noir's visits? Alya couldn't help but think his showing up at a random civilian's home was kind of creepy.
Alya was getting a headache, feeling as if she was overthinking everything too much. She couldn't help it. She cared too deeply about other people, more so than she ever let on. Alya felt like a hypocrite for judging her friends' relationship when she constantly felt like she wasn't good enough for Nino. Alya didn't know how to be romantic and neither did Nino. She was sure that unless she told someone, they would assume that her and Nino were just best friends. In a way, she kind of envied Adrien and Marinette for being the way that they were in that regard.
Not that she wasn't happy with Nino. She liked him a lot, more than she would ever show. Alya felt like she had an obligation to be more...girlfriend-y?—no, that wasn't an adjective—than she was capable of being.
Alya sighed, picking up her cell phone and wondering what would happen to the four of them. They were her squad, and the squad was in trouble. Deep, deep, trouble. How could they ever hang out together as a group if Marinette and Adrien were seemingly on such bitter terms? Alya was still shocked at how utterly fake Adrien had acted all of yesterday, pretending like Marinette cheating on him had been no big deal at all, and then proceeding to purposefully cheat back on her just to hurt her emotionally. Alya was no idiot. She didn't need their explanations or 'details' to put two and two together.
What she did know was that she couldn't just sit here and let her friends act like this. She needed to figure out what had caused this rift between them so she could help them. The truth was...Alya just wanted things to go back to normal.
Alya had a plan. With her phone in her hand, she texted Nino, scrolling past all the memes that clogged up their texting thread.
Alya: we need to do something.
Nino: (a minute later): what do you mean?
Alya: Marinette and Adrien can't do this to each other. We need to help them.
Nino: how?
Alya: Are you still spending the afternoon with Adrien tomorrow?
Nino: I wasn't really planning on it after what happened today...Adrien needs to sort out his issues first…
Alya: Exactly. That's why I'm starting an intervention. You will bring Adrien to wherever you were planning to hang out, and I'll bring Mari. Neither of them will know that the other one is going to be there.
Nino: Are you sure about this? We might just make things worse.
Alya: We'll have to be careful, but I think we can do it.
Nino: Ok. 4:00 at Waistcoat & Dunes. The intervention is on!
Alya: Wait, isn't that the new hipster restaurant?
Nino: ;)
