So, this is actually getting continued, and so soon.

Bugs for Jewels

Chapter Two

"See you on Monday!"

"Yeah, see you there!"

"Bye!"

The next morning she waved her friends off, a smile on her face. The smile dropped though as soon as Alya was out of sight. She sighed and quickly returned to her room. She had spent the night while her friends slept soundly thinking her promise over, the mistake she had made.

"Why do I do things?" Marinette asked herself ash she slumped at her desk, head in her arms.

Tikki landed in front of her, a look of concern on her tiny face.

"Oh Marinette, what are you trying to do?" she asked sadly.

Marinette sat up with a small groan.

"I… I don't know."

She needed more time to think, time to figure out what she was actually trying to do there, time to think without the constant distractions of friends.

"I…" she began before pausing again. She had already spent hours thinking it over as Juleka slept soundly nearby. "I wanted to stop Alya from talking about her Ladybug and Chat shipping fantasies, so when Juleka said she liked me I thought it was the perfect opportunity to do that…" She sighed again as the guilt returned. "Then I – uh – I felt really guilty about using Juleka like that so I thought I'd make it up to her by making it really special for her and…"

Yeah, this was not going to work.

"I thought I'd be able to explain after that it was too dangerous to date me."

Tikki didn't say anything. She just looked at her, frowning in concern. It was uncharacteristic of Tikki in a way, a sign she had done something terrible.

"It's still going to hurt her though," she continued sadly. "Probably."

Marinette could feel her eyes beginning to water in shame.

"I promised her. I shouldn't have made that promise. And I made it just to stop Alya from mentioning something a couple times a week."

She wasn't sure there was anything she could do to stop Juleka from getting hurt, and she wasn't even sure she could apologise properly to her for her actions as it would give away her identity.

Tikki sighed.

"I don't think I need to tell you off; you already know what you did was wrong."

Marinette just nodded.

"Now you have to decide how you're going to fix with this."

She took the moment to try and rub the wetness out of her eyes.

"Yeah," she replied in a small voice, feeling like a small child, talking without thinking about who she might hurt.

Now…

"Now I have to do my best to minimise how much I will hurt Juleka," she continued, breaking for a sniffle. "I'll treat her well, a… a silent apology to her."

Tikki gave her a sad nod. There wasn't much she could do to dig herself out of this.

"She likes me because I'm a hero… I don't feel much like one right now."

o0o0o

The feeling of guilt was still there on Monday morning, haven given her a poor night's sleep. She would hold off on telling Juleka that Ladybug had said yes until later in the week. For now, she had to figure out what to do to make the date special.

A date with Juleka… her first date was a date with Juleka, not Adrien. It was a strange thought.

Part of her considered calling it a pretend date, but the guilt returned and that wasn't fair on Juleka. She would give Juleka everything she could in the short moment she had before she had to let her down.

Entering her homeroom, she took a moment to watch Juleka and Rose chatting away. Juleka seemed happier than usual, a smile on her face. Juleka noticed her after a few moments and gave her a smile, but not trusting herself to pull off a convincing smile herself at the moment she tried to give a cheery wave back before taking her seat.

"Morning," said Alya as she took her seat next to her.

"Morning."

Alya seemed eager to go, and it was only a few seconds alter that her question spilled out.

"How did it go?"

"Alya, it's only been a day," she replied. "There hasn't even been an Akuma attack. How would I even find her?"

Alya stared at her, drumming her fingers on the table before forming a question.

"I thought you must know her pretty well given how quick you were to promise on Saturday. I thought you might have been holding out on me, holding out on all the juicy superhero gossip."

Marinette's mouth thinned.

"I've only ever chatted to her after attacks," she said, trying to keep Alya from digging to much. "I'm just confident I… judged her correctly."

"You mean, you think she likes girls."

She opened her mouth to reply, but paused when she realised she didn't have a good response.

"Who likes girls?"

They both looked at Nino as he took his seat in front of them. Alya was about to say something when Marinette shook her head firmly. Alya took a moment before speaking.

"Mari thinks Ladybug likes girls."

Marinette glared at Alya and Alya just shrugged before she mouthed back Juleka. She frowned at Alya in response. She had meant for Alya to not discuss the topic at all, not just Juleka's date.

"Wait, really?" he asked, looking back and forth between them.

She sighed.

"Why do you think that?"

Another web of lies.

"Just the… way she looked at me," she said lamely. It didn't feel very convincing.

That didn't seem to dissuade Nino though.

"Really?" he asked with surprise. "Huh."

After a few moments his brain finished processing.

"What happened to Ladybug and Chat Noir?" he asked Alya.

"Just because she likes girls doesn't mean she doesn't like boys," replied Alya with conviction. Marinette could hear a waver in her voice at her second statement though. "Ladynoir is still going to happen."

Alya stared at her for a few moments.

Adrien entered the classroom at this point and she gave him a small smile and a wave. She couldn't work up the energy to freak out about him this morning, not with everything that was going on and her lack of sleep.

A glance over her shoulder at Juleka, she knew she had to figure out what to do for her, what to do for her date. As she began to consider ideas, the gnawing guilt of not being able to make this completely right quickly followed.

o0o0o

"You're… I'm not sure how to describe you today."

He really didn't, Alya seemed happy in some ways, sad or… lost in others? He did worry though that what he had said was rude.

"Yeah," she replied, looking up at the sky and the clouds.

He still wasn't sure what they were. Were they dating? A strange sort of friendship? Was this a date, hanging out at the park after school… just the two of them?

"Yeah," repeated Alya. She was clearly quite distracted.

"So, what's up?"

Alya broke her cloud gazing and blinked at him a few times.

"I guess just surprise… a breaking of my reality."

Comprehensive.

"I think I fell for Ladybug."

Nino made a very intelligent noise of confusion.

"I think I fell for her," Alya repeated.

Nino's brain froze; was this a…?

"You… don't want to date?"

He found himself agonising over the words after he said them. What did Ayla see them as?

"No, I – uh," Alya face palmed. "I do want to date you Nino. I just… I guess I had a realisation."

His emotions did a wild rollercoaster; from down to up to… confusion, which wasn't a direction.

"But you… like Ladybug?"

Alya turned back to her clouds.

"Yeah."

Alya's lips moved, saying something inaudible.

"I think I like the words: I like Ladybug."

The rollercoaster took a dive again.

"But you want to date," he said uncertainly.

"Yeah," she said again, turning back to him.

The roller-coaster went up again, but the confusion managed to increase somehow.

"I guess it's a… celebrity crush," she continued with an uncertain shrug. "I bet even you have one on her."

He couldn't really deny finding her attractive. Attractive… and she should snap him like a twig. He wasn't sure crush was the word though, crush was more like what he had felt with Marinette.

"She's definitely attractive," he replied. "What brought this on?"

Was it what Marinette had said that morning?

"It's was Marinette," replied Alya, clearly deep in thought. "I guess I didn't want to entertain the possibility. Like – uh – she probably didn't like girls, so it wasn't worth thinking about – admitting to myself."

Alya got more animated as she finished, returning to the lost she had been in a couple times today.

"I don't really know."

A thought occurred to him.

"Is this like a confession?"

Alya pondered again.

"Yeah, I guess… but more to myself."

Somehow the silence after was comfortable.

"How about we get some hot chocolate or something?"

Alya having a crush on LB is basically my head canon. I don't think it will ever be acted on, but her fangirling is on another level.