Alya sat in class, watching the door that her boyfriend had just exited. She was struggling with herself, but kept up the stance she had took. Marinette had been jealous of Lila with Adrien, and now Lila's relationship with Chat, right? Could Alya really say that Marinette would go as far as to do this to Lila though? Was she really, that hell bent on revenge to steal Lila's boyfriend? Chloé's words echoed in her head as she chewed on the inside of her bottom lip.

'Your colour isn't pink.'

Alya had to admit, pink, was in fact not Lila's colour. She cursed Marinette's classic move of being late to class, as this had not needed to escalate the way it did. However, once Lila had stated about Marinette constantly being jealous of her, the avid blogger saw red. However now, Alya was still pissed, mostly with herself though, as she contemplated all the evidence that had been presented to herself and the rest of the class.

As soon as Lila had come to school that morning, she had been in tears. She was inconsolable. Flinging herself at the reporter, Lila had focused on how bad Marinette had been, stealing her boyfriend, but Chat had not been bad mouthed at all. Why had it been Marinette's fault? It's not like she would have been able to intercept the hero on his way to school, or job. It's not like Marinette would be able to foresee when and where an Akuma would hit next to try and steal him away...

As Alya came to think about it, Marinette had been involved in a few Akumas, but apart from those, the girl was never anywhere to be seen. The bluenette had not even been Akumatised, so it's not like they would have exchanged numbers while the cat had been consoling her.

'Oh God! Why did I jump to conclusions?' Alya cursed herself internally.

Alya was tapping the end of her pen rather aggressively, as she pondered further. Not paying attention to what was happening in class. Not noticing the looks she was getting from her fellow peers. Not noticing the pen slowly moving further out of her fingers until it flung across the room, hitting Juleka in the process.

"OW!"

"Juleka are you ok?" Alya rushed over to console the beauty as she cradled the side of her head. Rose fussing next to her.

"My eye," Juleka winced slightly as she spoke quietly, "I think I need to go to the nurse."

The teacher came over and assessed Juleka's injury. Gesturing first the teenager to remove her hand, the teacher grimaced at the bright red mark next to her eye, that was quickly starting to tear. "You should go to the nurse now Juleka," the teacher turned to an apologetic Alya, "go with her please Alya."

Rose looked pleadingly at the teacher who simply shot her a look of warning.

"Of course Miss Bell." Alya replied, "I'll take good care of her." She winked at Rose, who accepted that she was not able to join them.

Alya grabbed her bag from her desk, and then Juleka's, and escorted the raven haired young lady out down the hall.

"I'm sorry Juleka." Alya apologised for the seventh time as they hurried down the corridor to the nurse's office.

"Don't worry about it," Juleka replied as she continued to cradle her face, "thank you for coming with me."

"Of course, I just hope the nurse can do something with it so it doesn't hurt so much-ooo" Alya caught sight of her handy work as Juleka removed her hand and blinked several times.

"How does it look?"

"Not too bad, it's still red but you've stopped tearing so much."

The girls reached the nurse's office and knocked. The kind portly woman ushered them in and sat Juleka in the chair next to her desk to examine the mark. After wiping the area over, the nurse gave Juleka a cold compress for any swelling and she sent the girls on their way back to class, after Juleka's mother said it was Juleka's choice if she wished to stay in school. They had not been in the room long, but it was long enough for Alya to continue to quietly think things over from an outsiders point of view.

The girls were making their way back to class when Juleka turned to Alya, an uncertain look on her face. "Alya, did you know Jagged Stone has never had a kitten?"

Alya's lips pursed as she looked solemnly at her tall friend, contemplating the cryptic comment. "You're right Juleka, and I don't think Lila ever did either."


Marinette felt Chat tense within her embrace, as the her boyfriend's mask metaphorically disappeared before her. The bluenette discreetly calmed herself to hide her panic. How could she have not put the pieces together sooner?

"Uh-"

Marinette could feel the minuscule moments pass by as if they were hours, while Chat was also panicking. She could not let her Kitty down when he needed her most! Marinette pulled away slightly, only to feel Chat tense further, she knew she needed to let him know it would be alright, and decided to lean back into his chest.

"He left not too long ago Nino," Marinette smiled, while she wrapped her arms further around Chat's torso. "You must have just missed him." She sighed in unison with Chat, who nuzzled the top of her head in appreciation.

"You've seen him then?" He looked up perplexed, and then turned his attention to their surroundings. "Why are you in the boy's bathroom?"

Marinette froze, "I-uh," she blushed with embarrassment, "I hid in here when I left earlier." Marinette admitted.

Nino's eyes went wide, "oh," he drew out before sighing. Marinette looked at him apologetically. "You heard it all then huh?"

Marinette averted her gaze, finding the sink Nino was standing next to very interesting.

"Just," he looked down sadly, "just be careful around my dude for a bit please." Nino shrugged his shoulders as Marinette nodded.

Chat gave Marinette a squeeze, he was using all his model composure not to go over and hug Nino tightly, for the thought he had for his alter ego. Chat knew he had a great friend in Nino, and was grateful to know Nino was looking out for him.


Alya and Juleka were walking back to class when Alya spotted Nino just about to enter. She had made a huge mistake and needed to right her wrongs before it was too late.

"Nino."

He looked up to see his girlfriend jogging towards him. Making eye contact, he could see in her sorry eyes that she had realised the truth.

"Where is Marinette?" Alya looked shyly to the floor, wringing her fingers as Juleka caught her up. "I need to apologise to her."

Nino debated his answer for a moment, but could see the trepidation she held in her stature. "She's in the boys bathroom with Chat, do you want me to come with you?"

Alya nodded before turning to Juleka, "can you let Miss Bell know I've just gone to the bathroom please."

"Of course," Juleka smiled, taking her bag from Alya. "Tell Mari I know Lila's talking crap please." The tall teenager chuckled quietly with a small smile on her face before entering the class. Wordlessly, Nino and Alya headed back to the toilets, hand in hand.


"So," Chat started reluctantly, putting down a giddy Marinette. "I guess we had better get to class."

"I guess so," Marinette sighed as she leant into him once more, her hands resting casually on his chest as she gazed up to him. "Talk about this later?" They both had a lot to think about with Chat's identity being revealed.

"I could get hold of Mullo for later," he wiggled his eye brows at her, "fancy a game of Chat and Multimouse on the rooftops?"

The lady in his arms giggled into her hands on his chest before smiling up brightly at him. "And how are you going to convince Ladybug hmm?" She flicked his bell teasingly, knowing full well they would be doing that in the near future.

"I have my ways," Chat answered with feigned aloofness, earning another giggle.

"Ok," Marinette composed herself slightly while adjusting her top once Chat had let her go. "I'll exit first and I'll text you when the coast is clear."

"Sounds like a plan Purrincess!" He gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek, admiring the blush now dusted across her cheeks. Watching her walk out, he was over come with happiness after her accepting his both sides.

"Claws in."

Plagg said nothing, but held a smug smirk in place as Adrien held out his cheese to chow down on. The blonde resting against the sink, he ran his hand through his hair, making it look slightly more Chat-esque. He was cautious not to be obvious, but was wanting to have a little fun with the situation.

A few moments passed by when his phone started ringing. Fishing it out of his pocket, he saw Nino trying to call him. "I should answer, shouldn't I?"

Plagg looked lazily at him, "he's probably wondering where you've disappeared to kid."

Plagg zipped quickly into his chosen's pocket, when the door to the bathroom opened, just as Adrien answered, "hey Nino!"


"Alya?"

Marinette exited the bathroom to come face to face with a worried looking Alya, and apprehensive Nino.

"I believe you."

Alya blurted out desperately, watching Marinette's expression intently. "I'm sorry for jumping on the Lila train-"

"At which stop?" Marinette countered wryly with a raised eyebrow.

Alya grimaced, "I deserve that," she stated quietly, "I do." Alya glanced around, looking at Marinette's locker and remembered when Lila's necklace fell out. "She planted it, didn't she."

"I guess so," Marinette shrugged following Alya's gaze, "I don't know how else it would have got there."

"Can you forgive me?" Alya pleaded with her whole being, taking a few steps gingerly towards Marinette.

"Can you believe me when I tell you something that contradicts what Lila has already said?" Marinette skeptically looked at Alya.

"Always Mari."

Marinette closed the distance between her and Alya. "Come here," the bluenette opened her arms to embrace the budding reporter. She had been let down by her best friend, but she had seen the error of blindly believing the words without proof and would hopefully learn from this experience.

Alya hugged her back. She was feeling very blessed that Marinette was being her characteristically forgiving self after this stunt that Alya had stupidly partook in. She vowed to do anything to support Marinette from now on, and to always check the information given to her instead of taking it as word with no proof.

"I'm just gonna go and ring Adrien while you guys talk." Nino excused himself, while bringing his phone to his ear. Nino knew they needed their space, and he could see it was going well.

Leaving the girls not waiting for a reply, as he was sure he heard a sniffle, Nino listened to the phone ring and opened the door to find Adrien answering the phone to him.


"Dude, where you been?"

Not thinking his answer through, Adrien replied, "in class." Casually, he slipped his phone into his trouser pocket and looked up to Nino.

"No you haven't." Nino stated simply.

Adrien, did not know how to answer. His brain short circuited while he watched the cogs turn in Nino's brain.

"I tried to ring you earlier," Nino looked thoughtfully at Adrien, "couldn't get through to my man's phone-"

"I was speaking to Nathalie-" Adrien replied reflexively.

"See dude, I could believe that," Nino continued, "but what I can't believe is how my dude got to class and back out again without crossing my path, because that's, there's only one way to go direct from here to there."

Adrien gulped, NIno, despite his casual and easygoing nature, was quite clued up. He was not stupid, and Adrien knew Nino had worked it out. He trusted his friend implicitly, but Ladybug was going to be pissed when she found out not one, not two, but three people knew his secret identity.

"The girls are outside," Nino informed him, as he turned once again to face the door to leave. "Y'know, it makes sense that you would take Chloé to help you pick out that ring...needing a dudette's opinion and all." Nino shot Adrien a knowing smirk over his shoulder. "Shall we go and brainstorm how to make Lila eat her words before someone else figures out who you are?"


Hey everyone!

Hope you're enjoying this fic so far. I have to be honest, I don't know what happens to their mobiles if they have them when they are transformed, so please allow that mistake if I have made it! Thanks =)

How do you think they'll bring Lie-la down? Oooo, I'm grinning like a Cheshire Chat just thinking about it!

Only one more chapter to go until its finished, unless the next chapter surprises me and then who knows?

Thank you for the reviews, follows and faves =)

Take it easy

Lady Rhi X