13 August 2019

Prompt: Feelings (Word)

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Character/Pairing: Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng (unrequited/Alya's Pushing It)

Rating: T / PG-13 / Teen (eh mild swearing)

Notes: S3, post-Puppeteer 2. I've recently started watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (egad it's a train wreck with show tunes I love it), and I keep thinking Alya is Paula. (Alya is Captain, First Mate, and Navigator of the Good Ship Adrinette. She is not letting her ship sink without a fight. Also I typed "Lila is a good friend" and my skeleton tried to crawl out of my skin.)

Something was rotten in Françoise Dupont.

Alya's eyes narrowed as Adrien talked to Marinette. As Marinette laughed at the stupid joke he'd just made and came back with one of her own – without stuttering. Without blushing. They smiled at each other, but the not-so-subtle glances of barely-hidden (ok not-really-hidden-at-all) longing were missing from Marinette every time Adrien turned to include Nino in the conversation.

In fact, the only time Marinette acted weird – her normal – was when she glanced down at her phone after it buzzed with a text. She typed her reply before Alya could see who it was to, and when she looked back up to the conversation her cheeks were dusted with pink.

"Oh!" Adrien said, suddenly turning back to Marinette. He hit her with his hundred-watt, sure-to-turn-her-to-jelly smile, and she smiled back. "I have a photoshoot after school today, and Father said I could bring a friend. Well…Nathalie said, but I'm still allowed to bring someone. We never really talked about it again after the last time, but did you want to come?"

Alya was practically squinting at Marinette by this point. Marinette glanced back at her phone and bit her lip. Adrien – oblivious as ever – waited patiently for her answer. When she finally looked up from her phone, her cheeks were still pink but she looked…apologetic. None of the spazzy excitement Alya would have expected was present on her face.

"I'm so sorry, Adrien," she said. "I would love to come to one of your shoots some time, but I have a prior engagement today."

"Girl!" Alya hissed, but Marinette didn't seem phased. She gave her a confused look as Adrien chuckled.

"That's ok," he said. "I probably should have given you more notice. Mind if I ask what you're engagement is?"

Her cheeks darkened.

"I'm meeting with Jagged Stone to discuss some designs for his next music video," she said. Alya choked.

"Wow, that's amazing, Marinette!" Adrien laughed. "I'm kind of jealous."

"I'd reschedule, but he's only got a few hours in town before he has to get back on the road," Marinette said. Adrien waved her off.

"No, I get it," he said. Alya certainly didn't. Well, ok, she did, but this was Adrien! "I'd miss the photoshoot, too, if it meant seeing Jagged Stone. You're so lucky, Marinette."

Marinette rolled her eyes as Mme. Bustier entered the room and called for attention.

"Tell that to the four hundred and fifty-kilogram crocodile my parents are gonna have to clean up after," Marinette whispered to him as they pulled out their books. Adrien actually snorted, and while Marinette smiled as Mme. Bustier shot them a look she showed no outward signs of visibly imploding as she leaned back in her seat.

Yes, something was rotten in Françoise Dupont, and Alya was determined to get to the bottom of it.

– V –

"She's acting weird, Nino," Alya huffed at lunch. They sat on the steps outside of the school, and Alya had for the most part kept her gaze trained on the bakery across the street. Marinette had made her apologies to their group, claiming that she still had some things to get ready for her meeting, and had gone home for their lunch period. Adrien had missed the last period and would miss lunch as well for another engagement his father had scheduled for him.

"It's Marinette, babe," Nino said before taking a bite of his sandwich. He shrugged and continued talking around his food. "She always acts a little weird." He swallowed and gave her a pointed look. "Especially around Adrien."

"But this isn't her usual weird!" Alya huffed. "She's actually talking to him! Without stuttering!"

"Well, isn't that good? Like, it's progress," he said. He snatched a carrot stick from her lunch and crunched on it. "Don't we want progress?"

"Of course we want progress, but…it's just weird," Alya sighed. "I think something happened at the wax museum, Nino. She hasn't said anything, but…she was kinda down for a few days after. Didn't you notice?"

"I dunno," Nino said with a shrug. "I just figured it was her…y'know."

"Oh my God I can't believe you," Alya groaned, burying her face in her hands. Her own sandwich was half-eaten and forgotten on the step between them. Nino had not forgotten this.

"You gonna eat that?" he asked, and she groaned again. He looked up, and a flash of blue across the street caught his eye. "Hey, isn't that Luka? Dude. Haven't really seen him since that mess with XY."

Alya did look up at that, and she sucked in a breath when she saw Luka standing with Marinette outside the bakery. Marinette, who was supposed to be so busy preparing for Jagged Stone that she couldn't each lunch with her friends. Alya's eyes narrowed as Marinette handed Luka a stack of boxes – a decent-sized cardboard box and a pink bakery box on top of it. They spoke a bit more, and Marinette scribbled something on a sticky note and attached it to the bigger box. Luka said something that made Marinette blush, but it didn't seem to be a Code Red blush. Marinette still spoke to him easily, and then she was waving goodbye as he left.

"…Nino, I am concerned," Alya said. He frowned as they watched Marinette watch Luka walk away. She did look a little…funny. Dreamy. That dopey grin she usually reserved for Adrien was on her face, only it was…softer. It reminded Nino of the look Adrien claimed he gave Alya when no one was looking (and sometimes even when they were).

"About Luka?" he asked. He grabbed her sandwich anyway.

"Yes, about Luka!" she cried. Marinette had finally gone back into the bakery. "What was up with that?! The dopey grin? The goo-goo eyes?"

"Sounds like Marinette has a new crush," Nino said with a shrug. "I dunno. Maybe it's good for her. I mean…don't get me wrong, babe. I'd love our bros to be happy together. But…I mean, Adrien doesn't really seem that interested, y'know?"

"No, I don't know! He's totally in love with her – he just doesn't know it yet!" Alya huffed. She snatched her sandwich back and took an angry bite. She wasn't really hungry anymore, and she didn't really care if he finished it, except now she was angry at him, too, so fat chance she was letting him enjoy her mother's cooking.

Nino sighed and grabbed another carrot.

"I'm just not so sure anymore, babe. Besides, if she does like Luka, does that really surprise you?" he asked. She swallowed and glared at him.

"What?" she asked. He waved his hand about, gesturing vaguely at the bakery.

"You are the one who called Marinette out on her feelings for Luka months ago," he said. She sputtered angrily, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "The music festival? The compass thing? Or did I totally misunderstand that metaphor?"

Sometimes Nino really did surprise her.

"I was joking!" she cried. When he continued to level her with that look, she groaned. "Ok, maybe I wasn't, but I didn't think it was serious! Luka's a cool, older musician – of course she was gonna have a crush on him! Hell, I had a crush on him! But that doesn't mean she's in love with him!"

"But she has been spending a lot of time with the band. Helping with costumes and staging and stuff," he said. He grabbed the last carrot. He didn't think Alya noticed. "Like, babe, she's spent more time with Kitty Section over the past two weeks than she's spent with my boy in two years. Maybe it's not a crush anymore."

"She's in love with Adrien!" she cried – probably a little louder than she should have, as the strangled cry did draw the attention of a few students also enjoying the nice spring day. Nino shrugged.

"I don't think so, babe," he said. "Not anymore."

Alya threw the remains of her sandwich down a bit more aggressively than she probably should have and stormed back into the school. Nino sighed as a pigeon swooped in and started pecking at the bread. Well, at least someone got to enjoy Chef Césaire's cooking…

– V –

Alya kept a close eye on her girl over the following week.

She didn't really like what she saw.

Marinette didn't blush around Adrien anymore – or, to be more accurate, she didn't spontaneously combust around him. There were still the little blushes, the coloring of embarrassment she'd get around anyone when she did something classically Marinette, but it wasn't the full-on meltdown of oh my God I just did that in front of ADRIEN that Alya was used to. She wanted to agree with Nino – that this was progress, that this was good – but something just felt off.

And Alya just didn't know when it had happened. She wanted to say it was because of the wax museum, but if she was honest with herself it had started before that. Marinette had been weird around Adrien for a while now, and the failed trip to the museum just seemed like the final nail in the coffin. She blamed herself. Marinette was her best friend, but she had been distracted lately. Spending more time with Nino. Chasing down Ladybug. Hanging out with Lila. Maybe she could have spent more time with Marinette, but it wasn't like Marinette hadn't been busy herself. She still had her babysitting, and she was helping out at the bakery more, and her business was picking up (clearly – Jagged Stone was commissioning her!). She'd spent nearly all of her free time for two weeks helping Kitty Section with their video for XY's contest, and even after that…Nino was right. She'd been spending a lot of time at the Liberty lately.

Which was maybe why she didn't think too much of it when Juleka's brother would show up after school and Marinette would head off with the band. It was a little weirder when – the day Marinette was supposed to meet Jagged Stone after school – Luka showed up again and she took him home. After a week of watching Marinette not freak around Adrien, Alya knew it was still weird when Luka showed up again and they went off alone. Marinette tripped as she ran to meet him, stumbling down the last few steps, and Luka caught her easily. He was familiar with her, Alya noticed, and Marinette laughed as she lingered in his arms maybe a bit longer than was appropriate. Her face turned red, and Alya could see her stuttering around whatever she was saying.

Marinette had found a new statue, it seemed.

Alya didn't think she liked that.

– V –

Lila was a good friend.

She was always ready to lend an ear or a shoulder, especially over the past few weeks when Marinette was too busy to. She also didn't mind spending time with the Kids, which helped when Marinette couldn't and Alya and Nino still really wanted to go out. That was what Lila was doing there now, though she had come early to help Alya get ready. She was laying on Alya's bed, flipping through a magazine, as Alya paced before her.

"And she won't even talk to me about it!" she cried, throwing her arms up in frustration. "I get that we've both been busy, but I'm her best friend! Don't I deserve to know if she's going to start randomly liking someone else?!"

"I'm sure she doesn't actually mean anything by it," Lila said sympathetically. Alya sat in her computer chair and spun in an angry circle.

"But that's just it! Like…I'd be cool with it if she wasn't wrong!" she huffed. "Her and Adrien are meant to be – I know it! She knows it! Juleka knows it – so what the hell is Jules doing, introducing her to her brother like that?!"

"Well, they met at the music festival, right? I'd heard the Kitty Section concert was an open invitation to everyone in the class," Lila pointed out. "It's not like Juleka intentionally invited just Marinette just to introduce them."

"But she hasn't done anything to deter the crush, either!" Alya snapped. "All that time wasted on harebrained plots to set them up! All that effort wasted! Juleka should be as mad as I am!"

"She might be," Lila said, and Alya snorted. If Juleka was, she certainly hadn't been showing it.

"I just…ugh! She's been in love with him forever, and now she gets the barest hint of attention from some other guy and she gives up? I don't get it, Lila!" Alya moaned. She flopped back in her chair and spun another circle, this one less angry and more despondent. Lila frowned and sat up, putting her magazine aside.

"Well…I do," she said simply. Alya raised her head and lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Excuse me?" she asked. Lila shrugged, glancing at where she'd left her magazine open on the latest Gabriel ad.

"Well…I don't want to speak out of turn – Marinette's a really sweet girl, and I'd hate to assume the worst of her, but…well, she wants to be a designer, doesn't she?" Lila asked. Alya's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with –?" she started to ask, but Lila sighed heavily to cut her off. Dramatically.

"Well, obviously Marinette never actually liked Adrien," she tutted. "She was probably hoping that getting close to Adrien would give her an in with his father."

…what.

Alya's train of thought didn't just come to a screeching halt. It hit its brakes so hard the caboose flipped and crashed into the cab, sparking an explosion that left it a smoldering heap in her mind. Her jaw dropped as she stared at Lila, her eyes blinking like a fish. She had never doubted Lila's judgment before, but that…the gall…who the hell did she think she was? She didn't even know Marinette! Yes, that wasn't entirely her fault (Marinette had been weird around Lila from the beginning and never really gave the new girl a chance to get to know her), but that didn't mean she could go around saying such asinine bull about her best friend! Marinette would never do something like that – especially when Gabriel Agreste had noticed her all on his own quite a few times on her merit alone!

"I'm just saying," Lila continued as if Alya wasn't throwing an aneurysm right in front of her. "It does seem weird that she would so easily quit on someone she's supposedly loved for so long. Maybe she never actually loved him in the first place."

"Adrienette is destiny, and you are full-on crazy," Alya spat. She grabbed her phone to text Nino. "I'm sorry, Lila, but I don't think I'm going to meet Nino, anyway. You can go home now."

"But –" Lila protested, but Alya just glared at her.

"Marinette is my best friend, Lila," she said. "I think I know her a little bit better than that."

Lila scoffed and tossed the magazine to the floor as she stood.

"Fine," she said primly. Alya wasn't really sorry to see her go.

– V –

It worked out in the end, anyway. Nora came back from practice early, and she was able to watch Ella and Etta. Nino and Alya were halfway to the theater, and Alya had spent their entire walk ranting.

Nino felt like she had been ranting a lot lately.

"I mean can you believe her?" she asked, stuffing her hands deeper into the pouch of her hoodie. Nino suspected they were balled into fists. "Saying that shit like she actually knows Marinette! Yeah, Marinette doesn't like her and doesn't want to be her friend, but she's never been hostile towards her!"

Nino gave her a look, and Alya rolled her eyes.

"Well not openly hostile!" she huffed. Yes, Marinette had tried to tell them Lila was untrustworthy. Yes, she'd warned them to be careful around her. But Marinette was always polite in her dealings with Lila, even if it was obvious she didn't like her.

They walked a few minutes in silence, during which Alya seemed to visibly deflate. Nino sighed and nudged her arm, pulling a hand from her pocket so he could hold it.

"What's up, babe?" he asked. "What's really got you going?"

"Am I a bad friend, Nino?" she asked. Compared to the volume her voice had been during her rant, the quiet tone was jarring.

"What? No! Of course not! Babe, you're the best!" he quickly defended her. She rolled her eyes, a fond smile on her face.

"Well, yeah, you think that," she said, "but really. I just…I don't want Mari to give up on her dreams."

"Maybe she's not," Nino said, shrugging. "Maybe she just found a new dream. Y'know, like when I found you?"

Alya smiled, remembering Nino and Marinette's disastrous first (only) date that had resulted in her and Nino getting together.

"You're such a dork, babe," she said. He kissed her cheek.

"And you love it."

– V –

Alya had never been one to quit, though. Especially when she was passionate about something.

Which is what found her gawking at Marinette the next week. Her mouth worked soundlessly as she tried to come up with something – anything – to convince her friend to join them, but ultimately what came out was: "Girl! Come on!"

Adrien had been tied up with work for almost three weeks now, and after countless cancelled plans he finally had a free night. His friends were used to it – the perks of being friends of a famous teen with a controlling parent – but he still felt bad, so he had invited them out for ice cream. His treat. Marinette had left school with Luka again before Adrien could invite her, so before heading to fencing practice he had asked Alya to pass the invitation along. When Alya had finally tracked her down (at the Liberty, again), she had told her no.

"I'm sorry, Alya," Marinette sighed, but Alya just shook her head.

"I can't…you…girl, Adrien asked for you specifically! You can't blow this!" she cried. Marinette frowned at her, glancing back to where Luka stood behind her. There was something in his hand – tickets? Alya couldn't really read the look on his face. He seemed...reserved. On the brink of disappointment, but resigned. The phrase 'brave face' came to mind.

"Alya, that's really sweet, but I told you I already made plans," Marinette sighed. Alya groaned and reached out, grabbing her arms and shaking slightly. Luka's face seemed to tighten at the gesture, but Alya ignored him.

"He! Asked! For! You! Specifically!" she said, enunciating each word with a little shake. She looked up at her, frowning. "This is your chance, girl! You've been waiting for this for years!"

"You said that the last ten times, Alya," Marinette sighed. She grasped Alya's wrists and removed her hands from her arms. "It's really sweet of him to think of me, but I can't. Please tell him I'm sorry."

"Mari, it's fine," Luka said, reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder. Alya glared at him, but his gaze was focused on Marinette. He was smiling, but Alya could tell it wasn't entirely genuine. "There'll be other shows. If you want to go with Adrien –"

"But I don't, though!" Marinette insisted, cutting him off. Alya nearly choked on her tongue at that, but Marinette was no longer paying her any mind. She turned to face him and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly. "…I don't want to go with Adrien, Luka. I want to go with you."

"Marinette…" he breathed. There was a look in his eyes that Alya would call hope if it hadn't meant the sinking of her favorite ship. "Are you sure?"

"I want to go with you," she said again, firmer. Alya couldn't believe what she was hearing. Marinette turned back to her, an apologetic smile on her face. "Alya, I'm sorry, but…Luka got these tickets weeks ago, and…I want to spend time with him. You understand, don't you?"

No, she didn't.

"I wouldn't ask you to cancel on Nino," Marinette added. Alya wondered how her friend could look so calm about this when she felt like her own heart was breaking.

"…you really are over him, aren't you?" she sighed. Marinette squeezed Luka's hand again.

"It was just a crush," she said, and the way she said it let Alya know she really believed it. "He loves someone else, Alya, and…I think I do, too."

She smiled at Luka when she said it, and he smiled back. Alya had to admit: Adrien never looked at Marinette the way Luka was looking at her now, and Marinette had never been as at ease around Adrien as she was around Luka. They seemed more natural. More right. And she wanted to be happy for her girl, she did, but…she hated it. Marinette belonged with Adrien, not Luka. She…

"Ok, girl," she sighed, hanging her head. She forced her best smile on her face before looking up again. "If you're sure."

"I am," Marinette said quickly.

"If you're happy," Alya continued. Marinette glanced up at Luka, her cheeks staining pink. Her other hand came up to rest on his arm, and this time he squeezed her hand.

"I am," she said again, and Alya sighed, resigned.

"Ok. I'll let him know you can't make it," she said. She walked away, and by the time she reached the spot where she had left Nino waiting her stomach was twisted and her eyes stung. He frowned as he reached out for her.

"Babe?" he asked, softly, and she shook her head.

"She's not coming," she said. She looked up at Nino, her face crumpling. "She…she found a new dream."

She wanted her best friend to be happy. She wanted Nino's best friend to be happy. Was it too much to ask that they be happy together?

Something was rotten in Françoise Dupont.

Alya was pretty sure it was her heart.