Alya groaned as she stared ahead of herself and wondered really why she had to be pacing among a bunch of apple stands and pretending that she truly believed that Marinette really had to be here.
She glared at a row of green apples and debated how long it would take until her best friend realized that she didn't quite believe her excuses anymore.
Alya waited, counting silently in her head, before her best friend rushed right over to her, "I-I'm sorry, I got lost."
"You told me earlier that you were heading here an hour and a half ago, right when the Akuma attacked." Alya shrugged, waiting to see if Marinette would finally noticed that she knew by the hints that she dropped and the slight dropping of her voice in exasperation.
"I-I got lost for a while, sorry, and then I had to hide, because that Akuma was blowing up buildings around me, and I got to watch Cat Noir and Ladybug save the day from where I was." Marinette shrugged helplessly.
"You don't even like the superheroes or at least don't admire them like the rest of us, and I don't remember him blowing up buildings." Alya grumbled, deciding to ignore Marinette's anxious mumbles, because she'd already realized that subtleties didn't work on her best friend.
"So, Nino, has he noticed that you know yet?" Alya leaned against her boyfriend's side again and wondered if there was anyway that Adrien may be less clueless than Marinette.
"No," He sighed, "Do you think we should mention something about their identities?"
"May be," Alya gasped, "We should talk about ships. You know instead of the usual Adrinette and LadyNoir discussions, we should mention something about the other cute, rarer pairs."
"You know that I don't know ship names like you do." Nino shrugged.
"Okay, you talk to Adrien about Adrinette and LadyNoir since you know those ones." Alya sighed though she was looking forward to talking over some ships in particular with Marinette.
"So, Marinette, do you know what's even cuter than LadyNoir?" Alya teased with a mischievous glint to her eyes.
"You're finally moving on away from them?" Marinette looked relieved, "You and Nino?"
"No, MariChat!" Alya squealed, "You and Cat Noir. You said that he flirted with you once, and can you just imagine how stubborn you'd be? May be you'd turn our favorite stray cat into something similar to a kitty model."
Alya hoped that she dropped a few, good, solid hints to her best friend.
Marinette's face turned bright red, "I-I'm not dating that alley cat." She looked so embarrassed and flustered that Alya realized despite her denial, she was actually considering it; it must have not crossed her mind before.
"O-Okay." Alya smiled, "If you get together with Cat Noir, imagine the wonderful experience, and then this other really cute ship can happen."
"What ship?" Marinette mumbled, looking both curious and a little overwhelmed.
"Ladrien!" Alya chanted for a moment, "Ladybug and Adrien. He already really admires her, and can you just imagine how cute it would be to get a reverse of the regular superhero paired up with civilian trope?"
"Th-That's not possible." Marinette flushed, and Alya briefly hoped that she didn't give her any dastardly ideas.
"Why is it not possible?" Alya paused for a moment, "Ladybug would be single then."
"I-I don't know, sorry." Marinette shrugged, and Alya nearly groaned out loud again; how does she miss this again?
"You know, I think that Alya was right before, Ladybug and Cat Noir would make a cute couple." Nino shrugged, and Alya smiled at him, catching Adrien squirming and blushing in his chair.
"Why?" Marinette muttered dejectedly, "Alya's been gushing over other ships now."
"Well, they fight crime together, right?" Nino prodded, "So they have to have pretty good chemistry to always work so well together, and you know, what superhero doesn't want a super awesome, hot superhero girlfriend?"
Alya laughed though bit her tongue to contain the sound especially when she noticed how red her best friend went and the way that Adrien stilled with a darker flush to his cheeks.
She wondered how they never noticed how the other one reacted to these conversations as Marinette and Adrien both still seemed oblivious.
"Plan C then?" Alya grumbled, already beyond done with all of this.
"Talk to Marinette over how much a cat reminds you of her superhero partner or how much it reminds of my bro? I don't know." Nino suggested; it seemed that their best friends were no closer to realizing that they'd failed to keep their identities secret from them.
"That might work! At least, may be, she'll admit to her feelings for Cat Noir which is sort of what you were building towards the other day, and then she'll be more interested in revealing herself to him and working towards a real relationship." Alya theorized with a radiant grin to which she received a gentle smile from her boyfriend.
Ultimately due to a conversation that got out of hand a while ago, she and Nino had discovered the opposite's best friend's secret identity.
'Please come help me pick out a new pet for my sisters and I. Mom and Dad okayed it.' Alya typed with quick and eager fingers.
'Okay, I'll meet you soon.' Was Marinette's quick response.
"Yes!"
"So this black cat has green eyes." Alya began, staring at the absolutely adorable kitten, half tempted to buy it even though her parents really hadn't approved of a new pet for the family.
"Yeah, he does, doesn't he?" Marinette mutters, reaching a hand out for the kitten to sniff before she petted the adorable, little fella.
"So, don't you think he looks kind of like Cat Noir?" Alya began.
"Cat Noir isn't a real cat, you know?" Marinette responded, half sounding concerned.
"He actually has green the color of Adrien's eyes, don't you think?" Alya tried again.
"The kitten or Cat Noir?" Marinette asked, "Either way, their cat eyes are a little more green and aren't shaped like his."
Alya groaned, "Do you think Adrien's more of a dog or cat person?" May be, she'll just jump over to plan D.
"Dog," Marinette answered, "Particularly one that doesn't shed so much, so that he won't get fur all over his clothes that he'll model. Plus, he'd love to shower a little pup in affection, don't you think?"
"I think cat." Alya smiled, "Cats are starved for affection and sometimes can be quite stubborn. I think he'd like to have a small cat that falls asleep in his arms when they're laying in bed or on a couch. Plus, he'll get the chance to baby it better since they grow less big than dogs do on average. I don't think that he'll wear his model clothes all the time at home either, and he won't need to walk a cat the way he would a dog, works a bit better for a busy man."
"You put a lot of thought into this." Marinette muttered.
"Well, he's my boyfriend's best friend, and my best friend's crush. Plus, you'll never know when you need to be getting a surprise gift, and he's always sending Nino and I cat memes." Alya smiled mischievously.
"I didn't know that. May be he just likes the memes?" Marinette suggested.
"You have no argument, girl." Alya laughed, smiling at her victory, though a little bummed that Marinette didn't figure anything out from the conversation.
"So, Mari, how do you think that Cat Noir's home life is?" Alya tried, hoping that this plan turned out at least a little better than her last one.
"I hope that it's good, but I've never asked." She sighed as her mind wandered to that interesting idea, "I doubt he'd tell a civilian anyway."
Alya couldn't help but smile a little over Marinette's quick cover up that may have been more than a little bit pointless anyway.
"I think that it might be a little like Adrien's." Alya paused before adding more, "A little restrictive, so that he feels a lot freer when he's Cat Noir."
"I never thought of that." Marinette murmured, "Do you think Adrien would be like that if he ever became a superhero?"
"Yes!" Alya chirped, "Have you not met our model friend with his love of memes and puns and anime?"
"I've met him." Marinette assured her, "I know that."
Alya shook her head with a bright smile on her face though felt like grumbling when Marinette still didn't realize that Alya wasn't talking about some hypothetical theory here.
"So Plan F?" Alya sighed, waiting for an answer that she didn't really need to hear.
"Plan F." Nino confirmed for her as he looked up from his game that he'd been playing from where he laid on his bed.
"How can they be so oblivious and miss something as good as this?" Alya grumbled as she twisted around to lean forward and kiss her boyfriend on the lips, "I'd rather them be this happy too as they clearly like each other a heck of a lot."
Nino chuckled, "It's probably why they haven't guessed each other's identities by this point."
Alya shook her head before she leaned entirely back to her old spot, "They may need medical help."
"Probably not, Adrien's old man hasn't guessed his son's identity by this point." Nino pointed out.
"He doesn't really spend much time with his son." Alya sighed, "He needs Parenting 101 classes, and a chance to be a better dad. Either way, I guess Marinette isn't as close to Adrien as we are, but you'd think she'd see the signs with how attentive she is over him."
"He does." Nino agreed, "And may be she'll figure it out soon."
"I hope so." Alya sighed as she stared at the yellow wall just across from her, "Do you think that if this keeps going for long, I should just hang up a poster of Cat Noir beside one of her Adrien picture cut outs that she swears she'll take down as soon as they get closer, and only keep the ones for design inspiration?"
"Nah, let me know if it gets to be too much though." Nino shrugs, but his eyes revert to his girlfriend instead of his game, "Hopefully it doesn't come close to that."
"Hopefully." Alya sighed, glancing over to her boyfriend before her thoughts dove down in frustration against her best friend's obliviousness.
"So," Alya began as she moved around the party, already having traded info and tips with other reporters before then, "Do you think he feels like he doesn't belong in this sophisticated mess like we do?"
"He knows all about these kinds of parties." Marinette sighed as she moved past to catch another designers attention and ask questions and naturally show off her gorgeous pink dress before she turned her attention back to her best friend.
"Still," Alya sighed, "Do you think our meme toting best bud is all that enthused about another one of his father's fancy parties?"
"He has us this time." Marinette spoke up softly, sounding a little sad.
"He's been super busy with his father's business associates all night." Alya pointed out rather dryly, "Hopefully, his father will let him loose from the business talk sometime soon."
"Yeah," Marinette murmured, glancing over to Nino who'd spent all this time talking to the band and listening to them perform; he seemed to be pretty well acquainted with them by this point.
"I'd figure Adrien would rather be more free, you know? I think he'd rather be Cat Noir than Adrien Agreste right now." Alya suggested, frowning when even the hint of that suggestion didn't spark sudden realization in her friend's eyes at all.
"You know I've never seen you anywhere near Ladybug at all before." Alya began, "Do you think you could be her? You look kind of similar, you both wear your hair the same, you act a bit alike just like that whole Volpina thing, and you seem pretty close to her."
"Do you really think that I could be a superhero?" Marinette sighed, "I can assure you that I'm the clumsiest person that you know, and I doubt that I could manage all the things that Ladybug can do."
"Marinette," Alya sighed, "You don't give yourself enough credit."
"You know, I was researching Ladybug and Cat Noir again, and I'd realized that neither you or Adrien have gotten pictures with the two of them. I'm pretty sure that's a sign in it's own right." Alya attempted for what felt like the millionth time.
"Not everyone in Paris has gotten pictures with them." Marinette attempted to explain, "And you know that Cat Noir and I fought against the Evillustrator together."
"Ladybug wasn't there until after you left from what I heard from Cat Noir after that, and besides, you seemed to know quite well what you were doing and how his powers worked." Alya stated, confidently.
"Don't even suggest that I'm Cat Noir, that definitely isn't possible." Marinette smiled, and Alya felt like banging her head against the wall; how was her best friend so oblivious?
"Ladybug and Cat Noir remind me of the two of you if my bro was more open with you, and if you didn't stutter so much." Nino slyly remarked, "It's kind of indescribable how much you too would definitely make a great Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting team."
"Th-That's insane!" Marinette stammered, waving it off with the simple shake of her hands.
"Y-Yeah, I don't act at all like Cat Noir." Adrien tried, and Alya tried not to grumble under her breath as Nino beside her facepalmed.
"Just imagine, Mari, if Adrien was your Cat Noir." Alya tried, hoping that it sort of revealed the fact that she knew who they, both, were.
"That's ridiculous." Marinette claimed as she pushed her office chair a bit closer to her computer, "They may look alike, but they act nothing alike."
"Haven't you seen Adrien's cat memes? He puns a lot too, and you see how he is when he's allowed to be open to who he is." Alya exclaimed, hoping that it just would sink in.
"Cat memes don't tell you whether someone's Cat Noir or not. The puns don't either in fact." Marinette loaded two pictures on the computer, "Can you imagine Adrien with cat eyes and messy hair?"
"Yeah," Alya didn't point out how much much the two pictures of him looked really alike, "But can you imagine Ladybug falling all over herself?"
Marinette laughed nervously but shook her head anyway; Alya had a lot to work with here since her friend was more prone to denying her own identity than letting Alya hear the truth that she knew was there.
"Did you see Adrien in gym today? He was pretty fast and pretty athletic. I was impressed that he could take that course quite like that." Alya claimed as she lounged on Marinette's chaise.
"Yeah, he fences though and plays basketball." Marinette answered, distractedly.
"You were pretty impressive as well." Alya tacked on, hoping that Marinette would simply confess to just being Ladybug regardless.
She didn't, not that Alya was surprised by that fact at all.
"Don't you think that Cat Noir and Adrien are a little bit similar?" Alya considered them pretty darn similar since they were the same person after all, but she'd have to start a little bit weaker than that with Marinette this time who didn't seem to believe her strong convictions on this very topic.
"Not really." Marinette answered, focusing on the tough Physics problem that both she and Adrien had missed the explanation to in class the other day.
"What about you and Ladybug?" Alya sighed as she watched her best friend's reaction carefully from the slight paling of her skin to her nervous eyes.
"Not at all. Can you imagine me being Ladybug?" Marinette questioned with a certain level of ease.
"Yes, very clearly." Before Alya could make even more obvious claims, Marinette had to rush off when there was an explosion and another Akuma.
"Doesn't Hawkmoth have anything better to do?" Alya grumbled as she dashed off to get the best possible recording of the fight and briefly wondered if it was legal to strap a camera to her best friend's head to get the best possible, in motion footage of the Akuma.
She figured Marinette probably wouldn't let her do that at all.
"Isn't it odd how much Adrien actually disappears during Akuma attacks?" Alya tried for what felt like an eternity; she was this close to stapling a picture of Cat Noir to Marinette's wall.
"Everyone runs off to hide or in your case get the latest scoop. It's pretty natural to want to do that. Besides he's often targeted by Akuma for no real reason." She shrugged, thinking about the time when he claimed to have been turned into a knight, himself.
"Still," Alya sighed in brief frustration.
"He has reasons for running off, very good ones." Marinette reasoned with a smile.
'Not better than the real reasons.' Alya sighed as the thought popped into her head and yet she couldn't say it, not now, and probably not ever if Marinette kept being so oblivious.
"Really, there was basically no excuse for him vanishing from that Akuma." Alya grumbled, "She was all flowers and sunshine."
Marinette rolled her eyes, "No Akuma's a good Akuma."
"Why'd you hide anyway?" Alya demanded, nearly face palming when her best friend simply shrugged.
"Do you think they'll eventually see reason?" Alya grumbled in dismay.
"What plan are we on now anyway?" Nino wondered, "Plan O?"
"Yeah," Alya sighed, "It's getting pretty ridiculous that they haven't even noticed who the other one is or the fact that we know who they both are."
"Just mention something else. May be they'll connect the dots somewhere along the way." Nino suggested, already probably either worn out with this whole situation or at the very least a lot more patient than Alya felt.
"Thanks." Her slightly sarcastic comment went mostly overlooked by her boyfriend after all of that.
"It's become too much to handle you too always running off when we make plans to study. It's a wonder that you haven't failed a class at all this year, either of you. Do you guys even have spare time anymore?" Alya practically growled at them in her frustration.
Marinette frowned, looking at least a bit apologetic, "I'm sorry, Alya. Things just came up."
"I couldn't help it either, sorry, Alya." Adrien chimed in, and Alya wanted to strangle their necks for still refusing to admit who they were, especially to each other.
"Fine, I forgive you," Alya sighed with gritted teeth; hopefully the truth smacks them in the face sometime soon.
Finally, Alya pretty much had enough as she pinned the best quality picture of Cat Noir that she'd taken with a close up of his face on Marinette's wall.
"They're probably both doppelgangers." Marinette murmured, "Haven't you heard that there is at least one person in the world that looks just like each and everybody?"
Alya made some sort of frustrated noise underneath her breath, but ultimately gave up for today.
"I don't think that I can keep quiet about this anymore." Alya grumbled, "You seem an awful lot like her."
"Alya, I'm not Ladybug." Marinette grumbled, letting the moment pass by.
Alya muttered a disbelieving phrase underneath her breath that Marinette simply ignored.
"This is getting really ridiculous!" Alya grumbled at another meeting with her three best friends, one of which doubled as her boyfriend.
"What do you mean?" Adrien asked, looking every bit like a oblivious lamb.
"Just you two!" Alya threw her arms up in the air, "Doesn't Marinette remind you of Ladybug?"
"Yeah, she has the same eyes as the superheroine, but that doesn't mean they're one and the same." Adrien clarified.
"But you spend a decent amount of time with Marinette, and you clearly admire Ladybug, don't you notice any similarities other than eye color?"
"Ladybug's secretive, and Marinette doesn't talk to me the same way that you do." Adrien shrugged, looking embarrassed and uncomfortable.
Alya just grumbled some choice words underneath her breath, not quite a response, let alone a proper one to the conversation.
"Doesn't Cat Noir staring you in the face from your wall remind you of Adrien at all?" Alya grumbled, "They have the same exact expression in those two pictures."
"Not really, they don't act that similar." Alya will take it as a step in the right direction hearing that much from her best friend though she still wished that her best friend would just listen and understand.
"Describe Adrien to me. What's he like to you?" Alya asked finally, feeling beyond tired with all of this.
"He's kindhearted, selfless, loyal, and he's a gentleman." Marinette spoke softly.
"Doesn't that remind you of anyone?" Alya tried again.
"A lot of people may be somewhat similar, not quite like Adrien though." Marinette spoke up again.
"Describe Cat Noir to me." Alya asked Marinette.
"He's flamboyant, a gentleman, kindhearted, selfless, loyal, determined, and dorky." Marinette finished with a smile.
"Isn't that a little similar to how you described Adrien?" Alya interrogated her friend.
"Not quite the same, I think." Marinette spoke up rather easily, and Alya sighed in muted frustration.
"It's practically undeniable that the two of you tend to leave classes at the same time during Akuma fights and show back up around the same time. If you're not Cat Noir and Ladybug, are the two of you sneaking into closets as safe, makeout spaces to wait for Akumas to pass?" Alya looked downright agitated, only getting a tired sigh from Marinette.
"I can barely say a whole sentence to him without messing it up, and you think I have the ability to makeout with him?" Marinette scolded her best friend with a bright red face and a tired expression on her face.
"If you treated him the way you treated Cat Noir, you wouldn't quite have the same excuse." Alya told her back with a sterner tone of voice.
"I can't treat him that way." Her face was still a bright, bright shade of red.
"Why not?" Alya muttered, "He'd sure love it and you. Men tend to find confidence irresistible."
"So do women." Marinette retorted, "And I'd never reject Adrien if he went to ask me out."
"You'd be surprised." Alya grumbled easily as she watched her best friend closely, still more than a little bummed that nothing seemed to be working.
"You have no problem at all with Lila suddenly taking an interest in Cat Noir? She says he's a lot like Adrien, just better." Alya shrugged, watching Marinette.
"I'm not dating Cat Noir, why would I be upset?" Marinette asked her best friend as she casually flipped through a fashion magazine, looking for neat designs to strike a bit of sudden inspiration in her.
"She's a terrible vixen, and besides that fact, wasn't Cat Noir quite into you when you met?" Alya tried for what had to be the millionth time since she began.
"It's good that he might finally move on from Ladybug since she's clearly not interested in him that way." Alya didn't point out the small amount of tears forming in her best friend's eyes; they were tiny, and she definitely didn't want to push too hard and really upset her.
"But she's a liar and not at all good for him!" Alya demanded, "You'd be way better for him than she'll ever be."
"Alya," Marinette sighed, "I'm sure Ladybug lies to him sometimes to keep her identity a secret, and why would I be good for him when he likes Ladybug and when I don't pursue him?"
"Don't look down on yourself so much!" Alya chirped, trying to encourage her friend, "And you only lie if you have to. I'm sure Ladybug's that way too."
"You shouldn't look up to Ladybug so much." Grumbled Marinette, "She's just an ordinary person behind that mask."
"That's why I look up to her so much." Alya added, "She's incredible and definitely something to aspire towards. Besides, she didn't always want to be a superhero, but she keeps trying anyway."
Marinette shook her head though a light came back to her eyes after Alya's little speech.
"Where do you go during Akuma fights anyway?" Alya interrogated her best friend, "We've already established that you don't go to broom closets with Adrien."
Marinette's face flushed at the reminder of their old conversation, but she still retorted to her best friend's question, "I go to hide and sometimes I end up getting targeted by the Akuma."
"Isn't it easier to just tell me that you're Ladybug?" Alya grumbled, "Isn't it better to be honest with your best friend?"
"I don't like lying to you." Marinette spoke up.
"Sometimes a girl has to wonder." Alya grumbled, shaking her head in frustration.
"Does this count as Plan X?" Alya asked her boyfriend from where they stood on top of a huge Xylophone; it certainly seemed to fit with the plan that they were on with both the letter and the one that they just so happened to land on.
"Probably," Nino shrugged, "Do you think we'll get to 'Z,' and what will happen if we do?"
"I hope not." Alya grumbled.
She watched Ladybug doing her impressive acrobatic styled moves and wondered why she could do stuff like that in a supersuit and yet could barely walk in a straight line without it; she hoped to one day have powers like that.
When Ladybug ended up near them, Alya took her chance, making sure that they wouldn't get to 'Z' before Ladybug realized, "Go get them, Marinette."
Ladybug looked shocked and stumbled before she moved back to the fight.
Alya felt relieved to finally get that off of her chest, and she cursed her own stupidity as she remembered to turn on her phone's camera to record the fight, feeling a little thankful to not have not recorded her admittance.
She nudged her boyfriend to let him know that he should do the same to Cat Noir, so that Adrien doesn't make it to 'Plan Z' whatever that will be.
When Cat Noir came to the Xylophone to pull them to safety and Cataclysm it, Nino finally let the words out of his throat from Cat Noir's arms, "You can do it, my dude, Adrien."
Cat Noir sent Alya a worried glance, realizing that she could hear the words that Nino had spoken from his hold as well while he stumbled along after the shock of Nino's confession.
"Don't worry, I already knew." Alya sent a wink to him for good measure, glad that she'd had the decency to turn her phone off when Cat Noir drew near.
She barely kept any noise from leaking out of her throat when he stumbled again.
After the Akuma fight, Ladybug and Cat Noir came towards them where the Xylophone once stood to get their answers.
"How did you figure out my identity, Alya?" Ladybug demanded despite the fact that her timer and Cat Noir's were going down quite rapidly by this point.
"You're my best friend and my role model; I'm going to notice." Alya shrugged with a small smile, just relieved to finally get this out of the way.
"How did you and Nino figure out mine then?" Cat Noir asked, surprising Ladybug, and looking quite nervous despite himself.
"Well, Nino's my boyfriend and your best friend. We were bound to notice sometime, and besides that both of you were running off every time an Akuma fight happened no matter where we were." Alya shrugged, admitting the truth rather easily.
Ladybug looked surprised, and Alya began to silently count down the time left before they detransformed in her head.
"You know Cat Noir's identity too?" Ladybug asked with wide, shocked eyes; her mind probably abuzz with the flashbacks from the past few weeks or so.
"And Nino knows yours as well." Alya shrugged, pleasantly surprised by the look of realization on Cat Noir's face; either he was quicker than Marinette or Alya was far more subtle than Nino was.
"Does that mean-" Cat Noir began right as Alya's mental count hit zero and as Ladybug detransformed with an embarrassed flush to her face.
"Marinette!" Cat Noir practically cheered as Alya desperately tried to figure out how far his timer was from ending as well before it naturally came to a close within the next half a second to a second.
"Adrien?" Marinette muttered in surprise as she suddenly had an arm full of a model as he squeezed her tight in a new hug.
Alya giggled when Marinette first froze up before slowly relaxing into the embrace.
"Before you make good use of those broom closets I mentioned before, I'll go and take my leave. Bye, you two." She smiled as she tugged Nino away who shot her a half scandalous look.
"What all did you tell Marinette?" He squawked, and Alya only gave him a smug, content smile.
"Just what I needed to." She beamed; Plan X, Plan Xis, Plan whatever you wanted to call it at the very least worked.
Just please don't call it Plan Xylophone; they had no idea that the Akuma was going to be a musician before that was revealed.