Alya glanced around as she stepped off the bus. To her mild surprise, Marinette was already standing in front of the school and looking far perkier than she normally managed this early in the morning.
"Hey, girl!" said Alya as she angled for her bestie.
"Hi, Alya," said Marinette. "You know, I haven't seen you all weekend. What happened?"
"Oh God, don't remind me," Alya said. "You heard about the akuma that popped up Saturday, right? Foxfire?"
"Yeah," said Marinette.
"Let's just say that a teleporting akuma is really annoying to try and livestream. I must have spent half the afternoon chasing her all over Paris, and I barely got anything worth calling footage out of it."
"Hey, look on the bright side," said Marinette. "At least Ladybug and Cat Noir finally managed to capture her akuma. Just imagine if she was still running wild."
"Ok, fair point," admitted Alya. "But it still cost me more time than I could afford, so I had to stay up way late to get my homework done. Then yesterday, not only did I have nursery duty at church but Mom and Dad both had work after that, so I got stuck handling the urchlings all freaking day!" She stopped and took a deep breath. "So yeah, not the best weekend. You?"
"Nothing as bad as yours," said Marinette with an odd smile. "Went to church, helped out my parents in the bakery, did homework, tried out a dress idea. Didn't get quite as much sleep as I wanted."
"You look very perky for not having gotten much sleep," Alya noted.
Marinette shrugged. "I know, surprised me too. I suppose it'll be catching up to me later."
They were interrupted by a shriek of "Adrikins!" from Chloe. The two turned to see Chloe draping herself over Adrien, who had just climbed out of his dad's limousine. Chloe grabbed Adrien's left hand. "Oh my, what a gorgeous ring!" she squealed. "Is it to match my eyes? Tell me it's to match my eyes."
"Sorry, Chloe, but it's not," said Adrien. He did something twisty with his hand and was suddenly free of Chloe's grasp. "Hi, Marinette," he said, trotting over to join Marinette and Alya with a smile on his face that made Alya feel a sudden desire to go out and buy Gabriel products.
"Good morning, Adrien," said Marinette. She leaned up and gave Adrien a quick peck on the cheek.
Wait, what?
"Babe," came Nino's voice, sounding as stunned as Alya felt, "am I seeing things, or did Marinette just kiss Adrien?"
Alya was suddenly aware that her mouth had fallen open. "No, I saw it too," she said.
"You!" shrieked Chloe. "Hands. Off. My. Adrikins!" She lunged at Marinette, but the later simply twisted out of the way, and Chloe ended up sprawled on the ground with Sabrina standing over her making supportive noises. Marinette and Adrien ignored her and instead headed up towards the school, hand in hand.
Alya stared in bafflement for another moment, then set off after Marinette at a trot.
That girl has some serious explaining to do.
As she entered the classroom, Alya glanced at the clock. Still a few minutes before classes were due to start.
"Girl, what was that?" she hissed as she slid into her seat next to Marinette.
"What was what?" asked Marinette disingenuously, with a twinkle in her eye.
"Oh no you don't try and pull that butter-won't-melt-in-my-mouth routine on me, sister," said Alya. "You do not go from being so nervous about someone that you can't speak French in their presence to kissing them in a single weekend! It doesn't happen!"
"Oh really?" retorted Marinette. "And what about you, Miss I-went-from-seeing-Nino-as-a-brother-to-being-girlfriends-with-him-in-a-single-afternoon? Do you really think you have any right to say how other people's romances can or cannot progress?"
Alya struggled for words. "That… that was different! Ladybug locked the two of us in a cage! What's your excuse?"
"Well," said Marinette, "if you must know, he showed up on my balcony last night, serenaded me with Disney tunes, carried me off to the Eiffel Tower for a romantic midnight dinner, plied me with champagne, and declared his eternal love for me. That good enough for you?"
Alya rolled her eyes. "Fine, keep it your secret for now…Wait, what is that on your hand?" She grabbed Marinette's hand and held it up to get a better look. Sure enough, on the ring finger of Marinette's left hand was a very expensive-looking golden ring, set with an emerald.
Marinette smiled. "Oh, it's a present from Adrien."
"Right," said Alya. "Girl, you do know what wearing a ring on that particular finger traditionally means, don't you?"
They were interrupted by a shout from the seat in front of them. "Dude, no way! You and Marinette…"
Alya had tuned out Nino's discussion with Adrien to focus on her own interrogation. After all, she and Nino could compare notes later if need be. This, however, sounded important. She glanced up to see Nino gesturing back and forth from Marinette's upheld hand to Adrien's. Sure enough, there was a ring on the ring finger of Adrien's left hand, identical to Marinette's save that it bore a sapphire instead of an emerald.
That's got to be the ring Chloe was talking about earlier, thought Alya. The one she thought was picked to match her eyes. But it wasn't, was it? It was picked to match Marinette's eyes. The fact that she and Chloe happened to have the same color eyes was just a coincidence.
And Marinette has a ring with an emerald, which just happens to match Adrien's eyes. A ring she said was a present from Adrien. A ring that she's wearing on the same finger Adrien's wearing his ring on. Which also happens to be the same finger where you traditionally wear a wedding ring. Oh. My. God.
There was an explosion of murmurs throughout the classroom, as other minds made the same connections Alya just had. And then a shriek cut through the background noise.
All eyes turned to see Chloe standing in the doorway, with Sabrina just visible behind her. For a moment, Alya saw on Chloe's face an expression of sheer terror like nothing she had ever seen before. Then the terror was eclipsed by blazing fury.
Crap, thought Alya. This is not going to end well.
"You!" Chloe hissed, stalking towards Marinette. "How dare you come in and take my Adrikins!"
She lunged across the table at Marinette. One of her hands grabbed ahold of Marinette's left hand, while the other reached for her ring. Marinette's free hand came up to grab Chloe's wrist, holding her back. In the background, Sabrina dashed past and slid into her seat.
"Enough, Chloe!"
Alya blinked. She didn't think she'd ever seen Adrien actually angry before, but he certainly looked it now. His eyes were as hard as the emerald on Marinette's ring, his mouth had flattened into a straight line, and both his hands were clenched into fists.
"I entirely agree, Miss Bourgeois." Miss Bustier's voice was as icy as Adrien's as she strode into the classroom. "Either sit down right this moment, or march straight to the Principal's office."
Chloe straightened to her full height, letting Marinette's hand go in the process. Both Marinette's hands quickly disappeared into her lap. "How dare you!" she shrieked. "When my father hears about this…"
"About what?" snapped Adrien. "About how you attacked my girlfriend because… what, you couldn't bear to have me date anyone other than you? Chloe, I'd hoped we could still be friends. I remember what we were to each other before I came here, and I don't want to lose that. But if you make me choose between Marinette and you, I'll choose Marinette. Am I going to have to make that choice?"
"Girl, what the fuck happened over the weekend?" whispered Alya.
"Sssh!" hissed Marinette.
Chloe stared at Adrien for a long moment, eyes wide and mouth open. Then she turned and walked mechanically over to her seat next to Sabrina. Once there, she collapsed onto the desk and buried her head in her arms. Faint sounds of sobbing began to emanate from where her mouth was presumably hidden by arms and head and hair.
Ok, thought Alya, what the hell happened over the weekend? I know Marinette and Adrien weren't dating when I last saw them on Friday… Or do I? Could they possibly have been dating in secret for a while, and they just now worked up the nerve to come out and be public about it?
No, that doesn't make any sense. I'm not with Marinette every minute of every day, but I'm with her enough to have a pretty clear idea of her schedule. There just isn't enough time unaccounted for for her to have been dating Adrien without my noticing something. And in any case, why would Marinette pretend to still be a babbling wreck in Adrien's presence if she'd actually worked up the nerve to ask him out on dates?
No, those two were still where they'd always been relation-wise on Friday, I'd bet my smartphone on it. So how the hell did they manage to get from that to this in a single weekend? Did Ladybug kidnap them and lock them in a closet until they talked to each other, like she did for me and Nino? Why would she do that? But then again, what else could possibly explain it?
At the front of the classroom, Miss Bustier took a deep breath. "All right, class," she said. "Now, everyone should have finished their book reports over the weekend. Pass them down to the front, please."
Alya dug in her bag for her book report, tamping down on her curiosity for the moment.
Marinette clearly doesn't want to talk right now, and I can't very well interrogate her during class. But when the next class break comes, I am getting to the bottom of this!
Miss Bustier came forward and collected the book reports, then headed back behind her desk.
"All right. Now, today we will be beginning our discussion on-"
"AKUMA!"
The scream cut through the classroom like a chainsaw through butter. Everyone leapt to their feet. Most bolted for the exits. For a moment, Alya scanned the room frantically, looking for the new villain even as she whipped her smartphone from her pocket with practiced ease. And then, just as the ear-splitting shriek of the fire alarm rang out, she saw it.
Chloe Bourgeois was still in her chair, back now ramrod straight and a glowing pink butterfly mask in front of her face.