Scene 18 - *Marinette at Françoise Dupont

Marinette was shaken out of her thoughts as Alya forcibly pulled her away from the crowd of their classmates as they exited the school.

"Hey!" Marinette exclaimed.

"Hey yourself, missy," Alya hissed. "What was that?!"

Marinette looked back innocently. Had they been that obvious?

"What was what?" Marinette asked, avoiding eye contact.

"Why are you and Adrien passing love notes in class? You told me just last week you weren't interested in him anymore!"

"We were not passing love-notes…" Marinette started to defend herself, but was cut short by Alya waving a folded piece of paper with a heart drawn on it.

"How did you get that?" Marinette demanded, trying to snatch the note away, but Alya pulled her hand back at the last second.

"I'm sly like a fox," she teased, opening the note to read its contents.

"Alya, that's private!" Marinette complained, finally managing to grab the note, but not before Alya had read most of its contents.

Alya looked at Marinette with wide eyes.

"Marinette, that boy is totally in love with you!" She squealed, trying to keep her voice down. "What did you do, give him a love potion?"

Marinette brushed it off, trying to seem nonchalant. She hadn't been ready to tell Alya about their relationship yet, although she should have known the keen-eyed reporter would pick up on something.

"I was finally able to express my feelings," Marinette admitted. It wasn't a lie after all. "And it turns out he felt the same."

"Oh. My. God." Alya said, practically shaking from excitement. "It's finally happening. Adrienette is happening!"

Marinette rolled her eyes. Of course Alya had a ship name for them. She had heard Alya talk about ladynoir, but she hadn't heard this one. If she only knew that not one but two of her ships had sailed…

"You can't tell anyone!" Marinette insisted. "We are trying to keep a low profile, Adrien's dad doesn't know yet, and we don't want it in the press…"

"Girl I promise I won't be the one to spill the beans," Alya assured her. "But as a journalist myself, I have to warn you: this is going to end up in the news. Adrien is like, mega-famous in Paris."

"Exactly," Marinette explained. "He has tons of fans… tons of people who might be very emotional and upset that he's no longer single."

Alya gave her a concerned look.

"Marinette, you are not responsible for people's emotions. You can't blame yourself for someone getting akumatized!"

"I know, I know," she said. "But I would feel terrible if our relationship hurt someone and caused them to fall victim to Papillombre."

"You loving Adrien is not going to hurt anyone."

It was our love that did this to the world, m'lady…

The voice of Chat Blanc echoed in Marinette's mind. Paris in ruins. Her body turned to dust. She shook the thought away. That wasn't going to happen, she wasn't going to let it happen.

Alya interrupted her train of thought with a question she whispered so that it stayed between them.

"How do you think Chat will take it?"

Chat? What did she mean by that? She didn't know that he and Adrien were one in the same, so why would she involve him at all?

"Marinette is dating Adrien, not Ladybug," Marinette stated.

Alya raised her eyebrows in mock surprise.

"ohh, so Ladybug is still available?" she teased.

Marinette realized her mistake.

"No of course not," she dismissed. "But there's no reason to tell Chat Noir about my relationship at all," she lied, hoping Alya would drop it.

"Marinette!" Alya scolded. "You're not going to tell him you're taken for-real now? He's your partner, he deserves better than that."

Marinette appreciated that Alya was sticking up for Chat, but she had to struggle not to laugh at the dramatic irony of it all.

"I'm happy for you and Adrien," Alya continued, "but Chat Noir deserves to know that Ladybug is dating someone else. He'll be heartbroken, but maybe it will help him move on."

Now you're breaking more than my heart, Marinette!

Marinette struggled to stay in the moment, trying not to fall back into her nightmare.

Don't be ridiculous, she told herself. You won't break his heart because you're already together! There's no rejection to break it!

"You're right, Alya," she conceded. "I'll talk to him."