"Oh," Chat breathed, as Marinette turned her phone to show him the newest article on the Ladyblog. Her gut twisted as she saw the absolute grief that played across his expression.

"I…I need to go. Sorry, M, I just…" he trailed off helplessly.

"It's alright," Marinette assured him.

Besides, it looked like she had a pressing appointment with her ex best friend.

For the second time that week, Marinette watched him bolt away over the rooftops. Barely supressed rage rose the moment he was out of sight. How dare Alya? How dare she publicise any arguments between her and Chat? There was a thing called privacy! The piece didn't even have a whole lot of evidence or fact behind it – it mainly consisted of speculation and Marinette wanted to cry. No, she and Chat weren't arguing over an issue of identity. No, she hadn't finally rejected Chat Noir once and for all. No, she wasn't mad at her precious kitty who had tried to rescue her even if it meant giving up his miraculous.

It was titled "Ladybug and Chat Noir – the Final Rejection?" and it made Marinette want to scream until the world could feel her fury.

Collapsing onto the floor, Marinette thumbed through her contacts list in a daze.

"Hey, it's Marinette. I think I'm cleared for visitors now, and I really need to talk to you."

She hung up. Alya would come when she heard the voicemail. Until then, she would sleep the bitter, angry thoughts away.

Line Break

"Marinette! Alya's here to see you!"

Marinette woke with a start. Her head was muffled and confused, but the minute Alya pushed her way through the trap door, bubbling with excitement, she remembered.

"Mari, gurl, I have not been having fun at school without you. Two days and it already feels like forever! Are you ok? I know you texted and told me you had the flu, but I didn't think you'd be over it this quickly. Anyway! I just got the best exclusive, I was this close to finding out Ladybug's secret identity!"

"Alya," Marinette croaked, because that was just too much for her brain to process. Maybe she hadn't gotten through the worst of the flu yet.

"Oh. I guess you aren't really over the flu. I'm sorry. But it's alright, I had my flu shot."

To Marinette's great appreciation, Alya was speaking lower, and slower now, which helped with the slow ache accumulating behind her eyes.

"I'm …alright," Marinette tried, glad to see her friend (even if she wanted to shake her till she saw sense).

"Right, so did you see my piece on the Ladyblog?"

"Uh about…"

"Because, and I didn't put this on there, but I definitely heard Ladybug yelling at Chat Noir, something about him never being a hero again. What if Paris will only have one hero from now on?"

Marinette appreciated her friend's worry, she really did, but that was not the sort of thing you even considered posting online.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, it was probably nothing," Marinette tried.

"You weren't there, Mari," Alya said seriously. "They've never fought before, and the way they were looking at each other… Besides, I was filming some of their fight against Mother Time, and Chat Noir called her Ladybug the whole time, he didn't flirt with her once. I mean…" Alya stuttered as she picked up on the fact that Marinette was glaring at her. "Oh, come on, I know it's all fake between you two – the whole point is that he ends up with Ladybug."

"He still needs Ladybug to think that he's faithful though," Marinette pointed out. How did Alya keep throwing her off course? She needed to get her to take the article down.

"Yeah. Anyway, I don't think that was it. Their dynamic was weird for the entire fight, like, gurl, I'm not sure Ladybug knew what to do with a Chat not constantly cracking puns and one-liners. I'm sure there was something going on. Otherwise," Alya lowered her voice to a whisper, "why would Ladybug have been injured?"

"What?" Marinette exclaimed in pure surprise. How did Alya know? That hadn't been in the article!

"I know right? I didn't write about it in case Hawk Moth tries to make the most of it." Nice to know that Alya still had some boundaries with what she wrote. "But she was definitely injured, I watched her drag herself behind a chimneypot and when she came out the other side she looked miserable, girl, miserable."

Well maybe that was because she'd been hit with the flu. Not that Alya knew that, to be fair. Marinette wanted to scream. Again. For the third time in as many of Alya's sentences.

"What's the difference between the injury and the fight? Why post about one and not the other? The heroes deserve their privacy, Alya," Marinette finally managed to get out.

"Blah blah blah the heroes deserve their privacy. I know Marinette, this is only the hundredth time you've brought it up. But I think the people of Paris have a right to know if they might be losing one of their heroes, and they deserve to know why. I'm a journalist – finding out these things and sharing them is my job."

It was a point of contention between the two of them, always had been. Alya had little to no sense of boundaries, and she just didn't understand that sometimes, there were things that you just shouldn't report.

"What if Hawk Moth sends out more akumas because he thinks they're fighting each other? Especially while Ladybug is injured!"

"I'm telling you Mari, they are fighting. You know I don't post theories without proof."

Alya sounded hurt now, but she could get over it, because that was an utter lie, and Alya knew it.

"So what were the multiple theories on why they were fighting then, huh Alya?"

"I thought you'd be happy for me, girl. This is one of my most popular articles. But you wouldn't know that because you didn't ask me about my read stats did you? Just jumped straight in on your moral high horse!" Alya said, completely skating over the fact that she had, in fact, posted multiple theories without proof.

"I'm sorry Alya. I wasn't aware that believing in privacy put me on a moral high horse. I think you should take the article down," hissed Marinette.

"You're kidding me!" Alya exclaimed incredulously. "You can't just let me have this one thing? Don't you care that Chat might not be able to visit you anymore, if he doesn't have a miraculous?... Of course you don't, secret identities are more important than everything, including friendships," Alya added bitterly.

"If Chat was no longer a superhero, he could tell me his identity without fear," Marinette argued.

"Well maybe that wasn't the only friendship I was referring to!" Alya yelled.

Marinette recoiled like she'd been hit in the chest with Mother Time's scythe.

"I…you know I value our friendship…"

But it came across weak and Marinette knew it. After all, what would she pick? Alya's friendship or her secret identity? She was already risking their friendship to protect her identity by not telling Alya. Who did she value more? Tikki or Alya? How was she meant to choose?

"Nice to know that. It's not even your secret identity. Why do you care if someone else's secrets get exposed?"

There were tears building in Alya's eyes as she screamed.

"Everyone has a right to their secrets Alya!" Marinette shouted, feeling a wave of anger swamp her yet again.

"Even when they put the people of Paris' lives at stake? I can't believe you Marinette."

"You're putting their lives at stake by revealing that the superheroes have a weakness!"

"So? Ladybug can deal with any threat that comes her way!"

"Not just Ladybug! She's not invincible Alya!"

"We don't know that," Alya seethed.

"You just said you saw her get injured!"

"Yeah, and? That was obviously Chat Noir's fault."

Marinette exploded.

"Ladybug needs Chat Noir, why can't you get that through your thick skull?"

"It's true! You're just in denial because you hate Ladybug." A malicious smirk curved across Alya's face. "I bet you're glad they're fighting. It clears the way for you to be with Chat. No competition if she won't even speak to him, huh? If you're lucky, you might even be his rebound and then you can make your fake relationship real just like you're wishing for. Well here's the hard truth, girl. They're soulmates. Ladybug and Chat Noir are meant for each other and you're nothing but a footnote in the story of how they got together."

Alya didn't know what she was talking about. She never did. Always too caught up in the excitement of new information, she neglected to see the evidence right in front of her. Marinette still loved Adrien. She did!

"Ladybug would fail without Chat Noir. She'd fail hard and fast and Paris would be left at the mercy of supervillains. Is that what you want? A Paris with only one superhero?"

"Of course not! Haven't you been listening to a single thing I've said?" Alya hissed.

"Have you even considered how Ladybug and Chat Noir feel? They argued and now you're writing about how Ladybug might be stopping Chat Noir from being a superhero soon! How do you think he's supposed to feel when he hears that?"

"Unless they're fighting, it wouldn't be a problem, and I thought you didn't think they were fighting," Alya smirked.

"But that's what you thought when you posted so you still posted it knowing it could harm their relationship!"

"Oh I'm sure you care so much about any harm that might befall their relationship. Gurl, I have news for you. You can't fool me."

"I'm not trying to fool you! You're just delusional! You're ignoring the evidence that's right in front of you in favour of what you want to see! It's what you always do! Your evidence is circumstantial at best, and pure imagination at worst!"

"You don't know what you're talking about! When was the last time you accompanied me to an akuma fight? Oh, that's right, the only times you've ever done it, it was because we were trapped together. You're the best friend a girl could ask for," Alya yelled sarcastically, her face a red to match her hair.

"Maybe I don't have an insane desire to run up to the latest supervillain! Wanting to survive doesn't make me a bad friend! Resenting me for not putting myself into dangerous situations for your sake makes you the bad friend!"

"You wouldn't know what a good friend was if it jumped up and bit you in the bum!"

"I suppose that would be because I don't have any to compare it to!"

Alya growled wordlessly.

And slammed the door behind her.

Marinette collapsed back onto her bed.

What had she done?

A/N:

Heh Heh. Enjoy.

Sorry I missed last weeks update, I just completely lacked any sort of motivation whatsoever.

Side note: I actually love Alya as a character, this isn't Alya salt, but I do think she has several problems with respecting boundaries (as does Marinette) and ignoring evidence that doesn't fit her ideas, especially when she's excited (cough Lila cough)(cough orthatdebaclewithChloe cough). Alya isn't the bad guy here. She said lots of horrible things, but she'll regret them later. Probably.

So yeah, enjoy the next few angsty chapters :)