Well now, I did like how the last chapter ended, but I am worried I'm extending the story a bit more from what was originally planned, or am I shortening it? Hmm…. Anyways, now that Alya knows of Marinette's secret, what do you think she'll do? You'd have to just keep on reading to find out.

Also, what about Nino? He's included in the story's description. I'll be sure to include him more in these last chapters, maybe he'll see something he shouldn't see, or be told a secret by someone? Wait, I think I'm telling you guys too much…

Just read the chapter and you'll find out what happens next, enjoy!

Miraculous Ladybug © Thomas Astruc/ Zagtoon

Chapter 11 – Sworn Secrecy

The next day at school just felt like a drag for both of them, Marinette knew this evening was going to be difficult to tackle; she was debating whether she should show up as Ladybug or Marinette after what she had told Adrien online the previous day. Adrien on the other hand, was excited and beaming with happiness, and it was difficult to hide from Nino.

During their second period, Nino could see Adrien drawing on his pages, the first thing he noticed was that Adrien did not possess drawing skills as compared to Marinette's for example, and then he saw red heart and black spots. He eyed his friend with mild suspicion, he seemed to be in a trance because even as Nino moved closer to him to get his attention, Adrien's focus never changed, and that was until he spoke up.

"Adrien, are you okay dude?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Adrien saw how exposed his drawing was an immediately covered it up with some papers in a mild state of panic, his cheeks flushed red for a second as Adrien flipped the pages of his book to focus on his class work. "What? Yeah, I'm fine Nino, don't worry." He assured his best friend, his green eyes darting to his work.

Eager to ask more questions to his best friend, he opened his mouth but was stopped immediately by Alya poking his shoulder from behind. He saw the serious expression on her face, and then she made some gestures implying that they both needed to talk after class about what was going on. Therefore, Nino stayed quiet for the remainder of class, still glancing over at Adrien every now and then, to see a dreamy look on his face. He knew something was going on, he assumed it had something to do with Ladybug as was evident with the red and black hearts he drew.

Marinette on the other hand, was mentally at a fork in the road, she knew she could not use her secret identity to get to be with Adrien without him knowing who she truly was, but she knew revealing her secret identity could be harmful to him, and Hawkmoth could use that against her to get what he wants. She wanted to ask Tikki about it, but the only thing her kwami told her was that she had to be the one to make that decision.

She knew Adrien would be very confused as to why Ladybug did not show up at a meet up place again, and she had to get him from his place as Ladybug. There was no way she would be allowed to take Adrien somewhere as Marinette, she did not want to have a negative impact on Adrien's father by taking him outside when he was not allowed. It had to be Ladybug that he would see, but how would she rope her true identity into this? It almost seemed impossible without revealing who she really was to him.

It was a difficult decision, but Tikki knew that Marinette would make the right choice in the end.

Soon it was lunch break; Marinette began to pack up her things into her bag, and noticed that Alya was not packing up just yet. Adrien saw the same with Nino but did not think too much of it as he prepared to leave the room. Both Alya and Nino informed their friends that they would not be too far behind, and stayed behind, waiting for everyone to leave.

As soon as the teacher and the rest of the students left, Alya sat down in Adrien's seat next to Nino with her books mostly packed away except for her small notebook. All Nino wanted to do in that moment was ask questions, but before he could even breathe a sound of his own voice, Alya's finger was gently placed on his lips as she frantically looked through her notes.

"Listen we need to talk about Adrien and Marinette, I feel like they might be hiding something."

Shocked and lost for words at what Alya just said, he questioned why she would seem so suspicious of Adrien and Marinette all of a sudden. "But Alya, why the sudden suspicion? I will admit Adrien seemed all dreamy earlier but I guess that's because he really likes Ladybug?" He assumed with an unsure shrug.

Alya sighed, before writing down some notes. "Listen, I just have some theories behind this."

"Behind what? Are you okay, I don't think I've seen you this eager to finding out stuff about your own friends before." He informed, never recalling Alya being this eager to find something out, unless it was the secret identity of Ladybug. "This does remind me of when you thought Chloe was Ladybug"

In that moment, she was caught off guard, her pen accidently drawing a straight line down the page of her notebook in response, remembering that she now knew who Ladybug was, and she knew she couldn't hide her shocked expression in that moment. Nino shuffled closer to her with raised suspicion.

"Um, are you alright Alya?" He asked. "You seemed shocked about me bringing up Ladybug."

She found herself in conflict of whether to actually tell Nino about Ladybug being Marinette or not telling him at all. Alya wanted to tell Marinette first since she did discover on accident that she was Ladybug, so it only seemed fair to tell her first. Fiddling with her thoughts, it seemed more logical to her that she should tell Nino, she knew she could trust him with this secret, and as much as she wanted to tell Marinette first, maybe telling Nino right now was the best option.

Going with her gut, she spat out the truth."Marinette is Ladybug."

"What!?" Nino yelled, his body in a state of shock, he felt frozen in place from the sudden words from Alya, he had no idea what to say, but could tell in Alya's eyes that she was not lying.

For a solid minute, Alya did not once glance at Nino as he tried to process the entire situation, he rested his head in his hands, eyes closed as he let the realisation and memories flood his mind of Marinette and Ladybug, making that connection that they are one and the same. It started to make sense to him, but then he came to the realisation that since Adrien was in love with Ladybug, he was actually in love with Marinette too, and that Marinette had not been getting any luck to be with Adrien since he was in love with her behind a mask.

It felt like a rush to his head, feeling the ache of this new sudden information flooding his mind. Eventually he managed to break his silence by expressing his thoughts to Alya about this.

"So this means Adrien actually does like Marinette?" He asked in confirmation.

Alya nodded, her eyebrows lowered in seriousness before turning back to her notes. "It even makes more sense as to why she would use Ladybug's identity to be with Adrien, since she was actually Ladybug herself." She explained, writing down a few more notes.

Nino leaned over and saw what Alya was writing, it was a list of all the reasons why Marinette would pretend to be Ladybug and a list of the obvious signs she didn't realise actually confirmed Marinette being Ladybug. However, he also saw a single sentence including Adrien's name, he grew wide-eyed at the thought.

"So that's why you think Adrien actually likes Ladybug?" He asked, seeming confused as to why Alya would jump to that conclusion. "But, there's not much to go on if Adrien is Cat Noir, and if you think about it they don't act or look much alike besides the hair and green eyes." He pointed out, gesturing to his eyes and hair while explaining. "Adrien doesn't seem that open to be him in my opinion."

Sighing in thought, Alya leaned back slightly against the back of the seat. "I know, it is a wild guess if you ask me, but his feelings just seem so genuine that he must see her often. Another thing is that he does tend to disappear almost the same amount of times as Marinette does, but this could just be another coincidence. It could be that his bodyguard called him to protect him or something like that."

He couldn't help but scratch his head in worry. "You're not counting on it though right? I mean, I have met his father; this could just be a coincidence. Half the time he's unable to come to parties and other events because of his tight schedule and his strict father." Nino explained, a look of seriousness on his face.

Alya closed her book. "You're probably right." She replied, before turning to Nino. "But you need to promise to not tell anyone, especially Adrien that I told you all this. I only mildly suspect Adrien to be Cat Noir, but I know Marinette is Ladybug, and that you cannot tell anyone." Alya said, her eyes glaring at Nino, ensuring that she was dead serious about swearing to secrecy.

"Okay I promise, I won't tell him." He assured, his hands gesturing in assurance. "But, what about Marinette? You're going to tell her soon aren't you?"

"I will, just not right now."

Moments later, they both left the classroom and towards the locker room. They had sat behind a good ten minutes and break was nearly over. Marinette had been with Juleka and Rose the entire time while Adrien was off talking to Max about an online game. Alya and Nino glanced at each other and nodded in agreement to the secret before they parted ways to their best friends.

After school, Marinette seemed to be happier than she usually was; she was packing her bag while Alya stared at her long enough to catch Marinette's eyes as her gleaming smile turned to worry. "Are you okay Alya? Is something wrong?" She asked in concern and worry.

Alya was caught out of her stare; she shook her head then exposed a sheepish grin. "Don't worry Marinette, I just thought I saw little ladybug on you." She said with a smirk, holding her hands at her waist.

Marinette opened her mouth slightly, her eyes widened at the thought, she recalled ladybugs being a sign of good luck. Was she going to have good luck at the dinner date tonight? She smiled with hope and pride. "Ladybugs are a sign of good luck, and I'll need that tonight." She said as she zipped up his bag.

"So, meeting up with Adrien again hmm?" She winked, folding her arms.

She nodded in reply. "I arranged for Ladybug to meet with him on top of a rooftop at sunset, but what Adrien doesn't realise is that he'll be meeting with me. Then, I'm going to try and convince him that I can be his Ladybug, since I think you've noticed I do tend to act like her sometimes…well… minus me being a clumsy one every few minutes around Adrien…" She admitted, giggling in thought.

"Well, good luck with that girl. Just remember not to keep using Ladybug as a way to see him, he might figure out sooner or later that you're using someone else just to see him more often, that's not a Ladybug thing to do." She lectured, poking a finger into Marinette's shoulders as she winked.

Marinette chuckled in reply. "Don't worry, I'm hoping tonight that things can finally start between me and him, and I might be taking a bold risk too, so if you did happen to see a little ladybug flying around on me, I'd rather that be true, since I'll need that luck tonight."

Not long later, they had waved goodbye to each other, and shortly after Marinette left for home, Alya spotted Nino waving goodbye to Adrien as he left with his bodyguard in the car on his way home. She grabbed him by the arm and sat down at a nearby bench.

"What is it now?" He asked.

She whipped out her notepad, writing down what Marinette had just told her about a special dinner between her and Adrien on a rooftop. Nino examined the words on the notepad carefully as Alya continued to write at a fast pace before suddenly stopping and looking up at him.

"So, looks like Adrien is going to be a little occupied tonight by Marinette pretending to be Ladybug again. Even though she's pretending to be herself as Ladybug, I still find it wrong to abuse her secret identity like that." She informed, an expression of annoyance evident on her face.

Nino looked away for a moment in thought, was beginning to think Alya was losing her mind with all of this. "Okay, what do you want me to do about it?"

Alya looked up with a small smile. "I want you to help me find this rooftop at around sunset; I don't know how she's going to set it up but just expect to see a dinner setup on a rooftop somewhere."

"But that could be anywhere!" He cried, his arms open wide in exaggeration. "Do you expect me to scout the entirety of Paris's rooftops just to find a dinner setup? Even if I was Carapace I wouldn't be able to find it in time." He explained, as he showed off a concerned look.

He saw the confident smile on her face, as she did not respond to him for a moment, before Alya turned the pages of her notebook. "Wrong." She said, before holding up her book and pointing to an image she drew. "It's near the key bridge."

Hmm, do you think I'm making Alya a little too mad on finding out if her suspicions about Cat Noir are true? I am trying to wrap this up so I don't end up making this story a lengthy 20+ chapters or so, I'd rather have this story done by or at the very most Chapter 15.

Do let me know if I am making Alya a bit out of character, and if so I'll try to give reasoning behind her out of character nature in these last few chapters. Anyway, I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter, so I'll see you all again soon. :)