60. Exhaustion

Alya patted her friend on the back of her head, cooing soft words at her. She had never seen Marinette like this before. Bags under her eyes so dark they almost matched her hair, her dazed expression, the lack of a biting comment to Chloé... The poor thing.

Several times their teachers went to wake her up, but Alya shook her head. She told them Marinette had gotten caught up in an attack. It wasn't far from the truth, so she technically wasn't lying. She was just… bending it. After all, everyone knew she ran the Ladyblog.

God, the Ladyblog!

How she hated when she found out Marinette's secret, that she was Ladybug. That was the first thing they ever kept from one another, and when the truth came out Alya had been furious at her for keeping it secret for so long. And then she was quite impressed — Marinette wasn't known for being able to keep a secret for long. Finally, she felt horrible. The Ladyblog.

She'd offered to delete it, on more than one occasion since the "big reveal", but Marinette protested.

"Too many people subscribe to it," she'd said. "It would be awfully suspicious if you just up and deleted it."

"You don't mind?" Alya had said, gaping at her.

"Not really. It's nice to know that at least one person out there likes me."

They smiled and everything was forgiven. Of course, it took a month's long supply of buttery croissants to make up for it, but that was just Marinette being, well, Marinette.

Alya bit back a chuckle at the memory, her eyes returning to her dozing friend. Last night's akuma attack had been bad. Honestly, she wasn't sure how Marinette was even walking. It might have had something to do with the little kwami stowed away in Marinette's purse. (She'd be sure to ask later how the two had managed so long without her knowing.)

For now, she settled for taking the best notes of their existence and recording every single lecture. Somehow, she convinced Mme. Mendeleiev to let Marinette sleep through the day's lab. She worked with Adrien and Nino, who each shared pitied glances to their mutual friend.

"Was she actually caught up in the akuma attack?" Adrien said, sneaking another glance at the sleeping girl. "I didn't see her in the area."

"You were there?" Alya said, eyebrows rising to her hairline.

"Uh, yeah. I had a photoshoot that lasted longer than what was planned."

"How did you manage to get your homework done?"

"I was doing them in the other classes. Thank goodness the paper for French Lit. isn't due until tomorrow. I might actually have time to write it tonight."

A soft grumble and content sigh made them quiet down. Marinette's eyelids fluttered while she slept. They waited a few moments to see if she'd waken, but, no, she settled in the folds of her arms again.

"She's so cute," Alya said.

"Has she ever not been?" Nino said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," Adrien said, "she really is cute."

Alya smirked at the little smile tugging at Adrien's lips. Oh, Marinette was going to regret not seeing him serenely smile at her. If that didn't fend off the exhaustion for the rest of the week, she wasn't sure what else would.

"Ah well," she said, "let's get back to work. I want to see what happens when we set this thing on fire."