Adrien walked into the classroom, and almost immediately Alya was leaping down from her seat next to Marinette and standing directly in front of Adrien.
"Sweet earrings Sunshine." Alya said, sparing Marinette a grin who she knew was incapacitated at the sight of Adrien.
Adrien smiled warmly, and reached up with his hand to feel the earrings as if reassuring himself that they were still there. "Yeah… someone very important to me entrusted me with them."
Alya gained a journalistic gleam in her eye. "Oh? Someone special?" Alya teased. She expected Adrien to vehemently deny the underlying accusation. Instead he blushed, which only served to fan the flames of Alya's curiosity.
"Yes, she is very special…" He trailed off, still blushing lightly and smiling to himself. The gleam in Alya's eyes became even brighter, and Nino, who had been watching the interrogation with his own grin, just sighed knowing Adrien had sealed his own fate by seemingly intentionally inviting Alya's curiosity. Nino knew he had to intervene before the classroom turned into a court trial.
"C'mon babe, let my dude sport some new bling if he wants to. Sounds like its out of his hands anyway." Nino offered, attempting to some extent to lessen the brute force of Alya's impending barrage of questions on his best friend.
To his mild surprise Alya seemed to relent somewhat, until the teen model added more fuel to the fire by saying; "Yeah, she would definitely kill me if anything happened to them." He chuckled, his laugh full of warm mirth.
At that point Miss Bustier walked into the room, and Alya was forced to back down and return to her seat. But the look she sent towards Adrien's ears indicated to everyone that this topic of interrogation was far from exhausted.
As Alya sat back down next to Marinette and Adrien slid into his seat in front of them adjacent from Nino, she couldn't help but sneak inquisitive glaces at the back of Adrien's ear lobes whenever Miss Bustier had her back to the class. A light bulb seemingly went off in her head as her gaze shifted from the plain black on Adrien's earlobes, to Marinette's unusually earring-free earlobes. Her journalistic instinct had paid off! She connected the dots.
'Those earrings are Marinette's!' Alya couldn't help the triumphant smirk that marched its way onto her face. She turned to Marinette with a shameless grin and steeled herself for the inevitably fervid denial.
Alya nudged Marinette with her shoulder, breaking the enamoured girl's clearly pleasant daydream if the rosy cheeks and light drool coming from the corner of her mouth were anything to go by. Marinette shook her head in an ill conceived attempt to regain her composure, and turned to Alya. Alya playfully admonished Marinette for staring at Adrien before she returned to her original intention.
"Girl! Why is your sunshine child wearing your earrings?!" Alya whispered gleefully. Marinette's mind spun. If Adrien was wearing her earrings, that meant Adrien had her miraculous! Did he have Tikki hidden away somewhere too? That couldn't be right, if Adrien had somehow gotten ahold of her miraculous and discovered Tikki, surely she would've come back to her to warn her that an innocent civilian like Adrien now knew way more than he should and to retrieve her miraculous immediately and prepare Adrien, as his newfound knowledge would make him a tempting target for Shadow Moth and his akumas.
Marinette shook her head again, making Alya blink as she impatiently waited for Marinette to blush and descend in a mess of goo muttering about hamsters the entire way. There's no way Adrien has her earrings, Marinette rationalised, because she had Tikki deliver them to Chat! That had to be it, Adrien had started wearing a new pair of black earrings just the day after she had told Chat that they should swap their miraculous so they had proper knowledge of and experience with each other's powers should a circumstance like the one during the Reflekdoll incident happen again, they would be prepared.
'That's it.' Marinette thought, 'just a coincidence.' She turned to Alya, who was clearly annoyed at the lack of answers, and motioned towards the classroom door. Offering a silent promise that she'd get the answers she craved after class. Alya was visibly disappointed but accepted and turned back to face Miss Bustier at the front of the class, but not before giving Marinette a look which she knew meant that Alya would be collecting on the promise offered.
Marinette could not concentrate for the entire lesson. She was too busy mulling over the nice, albeit wishful thought that Adrien could be Chat. She absentmindedly toyed with the Black Cat miraculous ring in camouflage mode that was on her right hand's ring finger, something that wasn't missed by Alya. Snapping out of her thoughts, she slightly opened her purse that never left her to see Plagg asleep on top of an empty wheel tin that used to house camembert that she had swiped from the dairy fridge in her parents bakery to appease Plagg, the camembert that was now being housed by Plagg's bottomless stomach.
She rolled her eyes and smiled fondly at the Black Cat kwami, reaching down and softly scratching behind his ears, inwardly cooing as she felt the unmistakable vibration that signified Plagg was purring in his sleep. Still smiling warmly, Marinette knew Plagg would never admit to purring if she asked. She loved Tikki with everything she had and would never trade the Kwami of Creation for anything, but sometimes the Kwami of Destruction was just too damn adorable.
The sudden commotion within the classroom tore her from admiring the tiny being capable of levelling the Eiffel Tower with just a tap, looking around she noticed everyone was packing up and realised that class was over. She'd spent the entire lesson thinking about Adrien and Chat Noir and fussing over a sleeping Plagg! She needed to pay more attention sometimes, although she thought that she could be let off this once, given that her miraculous and Tikki could be in Adrien's possession right now, even disregarding what that could mean for her, Chat and the future of Paris' two superhero idols.
She closed her purse to protect, if nothing else, Plagg's dignity. 'I've got a reputation to uphold here, Bug!' She was sure he'd say. She picked up her bag and allowed Alya to drag her out the classroom, and brace herself for hurricane Alya to sweep through.
As soon as they were out of the classroom and alone, they sat on a bench in the school's open courtyard.
"So come on girl, spill! I wanna know the hows and whys of the events that led to you and Adrien swapping your precious jewellery!" Alya said, giddy at the prospect of Marinette advancing her relationship with Adrien by any means. Marinette just sighed.
"That's not what happened Alya. The earrings Adrien has aren't mine, and this ring isn't Adrien's." She heard a very quiet laugh from her purse, signalling Plagg was awake, and enjoying his temporary holder's problems. Marinette silently growled at her temporary kwami's unhelpfulness, resolving to give him less camembert when she got home. Alya wasn't finished.
"But on the same day, Adrien isn't wearing the ring he never lets out of his sight, and you've got a new ring. And you're not wearing the earrings you never take off, and Adrien's got a new pair of earrings?" Alya continued digging. Marinette refused to jump to conclusions that may or may not be true.
"It's just a coincidence, Alya." Marinette said. Alya deflated at the lack of an awesome new scoop, when a high pitched whistle tore past them overhead causing both girls to break their conversation and look up.
"Pigeons belong in Paris!" Marinette grumbled, Mr Pigeon again. She wished there was something she could do to protect people from being re-akumatized, this was Mr Ramier's seventy first time being akumatized. Marinette turned to offer a flimsy excuse to Alya, only to find the ladyblogger's seat empty. She looked towards the school entrance to see Alya running outside ready to capture Ladybug and Chat Noir's latest victory on film. She also spotted Nino hastily abandoning his seat next to Adrien on the opposite side of the courtyard to sprint in order to catch up to Alya.
Marinette stood and made a beeline for the girl's toilets, not noticing Adrien running towards the boys locker room. She made it to a cubicle and closed the door, then Plagg phased out of her purse and flew up to her.
"That was pretty funny Bug, listening to you try and give a reason for your new ring to your ladyblogger friend." Plagg said, chuckling. Marinette rolled her eyes.
"I just wonder how Alya is going to react to Lady Noir and Mister Bug." Marinette said thoughtfully, as Alya wasn't there the last time they swapped miraculous, she was another Reflekta clone and was hiding from Reflekdoll. Anyway, she had a job to do.
"Plagg! Claws out!" Plagg flew into her ring and she was bathed in an electric green light which revealed Lady Noir. She stepped out the cubicle and into the courtyard, using her baton to get onto the roof and observe Mr Pigeon's latest plan to turn the Eiffel Tower into a pigeon statue and await Mister Bug.
Mister Bug soon arrived. "Well M'Lady Noir, how're you finding your second time in a clown costume?" He said, grinning widely. Lady Noir just rolled her eyes and smiled.
"Shall we find out if your sense of humour is still intact even while wielding my miraculous, kitten?" She purred, leaning towards him. His jaw went slack.
Lady Noir stood back up straight putting her hands on her hips, still smirking at his stunned expression. "What's wrong Bugaboy?" She said, slyly wetting her lips.
Mister Bug's cheeks caught ablaze, turning nearly the same scarlet as his suit. He shook his head, trying to fight off his burning blush. "N-nothings wrong Bugaboo, let's take care of this quickly." He said as he leapt off the roof they were on, swinging on his yoyo towards the Eiffel Tower where Mr Pigeon would be waiting. She sighed fondly and extended her baton to follow him.
Mr Pigeon was dispatched within minutes, Mister Bug hadn't used his Lucky Charm, and Lady Noir didn't need to use her Cataclysm. They stood at the base of the Eiffel Tower, reassuring Mr Ramier before turning towards each other.
"Pound it!" They chorused, smiling to each other at another job well done. They held eye contact for longer than usual, only breaking away when they heard Alya squeal. They each sighed and steeled themselves for questions.
"Oh my gosh you guys! Do your powers allow you to appear as the opposite gender? Is that a tactic to throw off Shadow Moth?" Alya threw them. They both chuckled.
"No Alya." Answered Lady Noir. "I am Ladybug and he is Chat Noir, we've just swapped powers for the time being. But right now we are Lady Noir and Mister Bug." Alya was practically shaking at this new information.
"Wow! So you're Ladybug?" She pointed at Lady Noir. Lady Noir nodded. "And you're Chat Noir?" She pointed at Mister Bug. He nodded. "I'm just speechless you guys, I love your swapped looks! They're awesome! Do you have time for an impromptu interview?" She offered hopefully.
"Sorry Alya." Lady Noir began, "we need to get back." Alya looked crestfallen at the refusal. Lady Noir felt a bit guilty and made sure to tack on; "maybe next time?" Alya brightened considerably at the almost promise.
"Definitely! I've been live streaming this akuma battle and this conversation, and from the live comments it looks like your adoring fans are loving your new looks!" Alya said, beaming. Lady Noir smiled warmly at her best friend.
"Well Alya, we'd love to stay and chat, but we must depart." Lady Noir grinned to herself at her pun, inwardly blaming Plagg's nature bleeding into her while she wielded the Black Cat miraculous.
Mister Bug stood gaping even after Lady Noir extended her baton and disappeared behind the Parisian rooftops. "Did… she just make a pun?" He whispered to himself in disbelief.
Alya caught the light blush underneath his spotted mask. She was still live streaming, with the comments pouring in.