As Marinette and Adrien run towards Francoise-Dupont, they can see a large crowd of people standing outside the theater entrance while the firefighters are battling the flames. Marinette looks around frantically for Alya before finding her standing by Profeseur Seydoux near the entrance, filming everything as the Professeur looks on in dismay.
"What happened?!" she yells over the melee. "Is it an akuma attack?"
"No," says Alya. "From what we heard, something went wrong with the wiring on the lights in the theater and it sparked and spontaneously lit up."
"Is anyone hurt?" asks Adrien, tensed and ready to run inside and help.
Alya shakes her head. "No—luckily nobody was inside. But even if it's not an akuma attack, I wish Ladybug was here! She could fix all of this and make everything go back to normal."
Adrien and Marinette exchange glances and nod.
"Alya, I'll be right back, I just need to call my parents and tell them that everyone is fine," says Marinette.
"What? Oh, okay, that's a good idea. Tell them to tell Maman that I'm fine too!"
"I will!"
Marinette grabs Adrien's hand and pulls him behind the side of the building.
He looks at her, worried. "Are you okay to transform again?" he asks. "Does Tikki have enough energy left?"
"I think so," she replies, opening her purse and looking inside. "How are you feeling, Tikki?"
"I'm fine, Marinette!" peeps Tikki, though Marinette can tell how exhausted she is, and feels guilty. Still, there's no time to feed the kwami anything—she's out of cookies.
She turns back to Adrien. "Let's go," she says, and they transform and run back to the scene.
"Ladybug! You're here!" calls Alya with relief, running up to her with her camera.
"Yes, Chat Noir and I are here to help the firefighters settle everything down. Stay calm, and everything will be fine soon."
"Oh, thank god, you can make everything return to normal," responds Professeur Seydoux. "Thank you for coming here so quickly."
Chat and Ladybug run inside and start helping the fire fighters put out the flames. Between the two of them and their super strength, the flames are soon put out, but the theater is a disaster, completely gutted.
Ladybug looks at the damage and shakes her head. "Only Lucky Charm can fix this."
Chat nods. "You're right."
"Okay, let's do this—Lucky Charm!"
Nothing happens.
"What's going on?" asks Chat, confused.
Ladybug frowns. "I'm not sure—let me try again. Lucky Charm!"
Once again, nothing appears, and then she remembers Tikki's warning about using Lucky Charm when she didn't need to, and the risk that she wouldn't be able to use it again for at least 24 hours.
And now her school is in trouble, and she can't do anything about it.
She's furious at herself, and she runs back out of the theater, followed closely by Chat Noir.
She stops by the side of the building and sinks to the ground, hands balled into fists and her face tucked into her knees, holding in an angry scream. How could she have been so stupid?
Chat kneels beside her and touches her arm.
"Hey, what's wrong? Why isn't Lucky Charm working?"
She looks up at him, eyes filled with angry tears. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have used it before! I used it to make a dress, and now I can't use it at all. Tikki warned me that if I used Lucky Charm when I didn't actually need to, it could take an entire day to reset. And she was right."
Chat rubs her shoulder. "Don't worry, the firefighters have it all under control. Everything's going to be fine."
"But if I was able to use Lucky Charm, I would have been able to restore the theater back to the way it was!"
"It's not your fault, there was no way that either of us could have ever predicted that something like that was going to happen tonight. You've got the power of good luck, not the power to tell the future. You just wanted our date to be perfect."
"But now the theater's ruined. And I can't use Lucky Charm to set it back to normal. What's going to happen to the play now? Professeur Seydoux is going to be so disappointed!"
Chat pauses, considering their options. And then it strikes him.
"Hey, wait—can't you still do that? I mean, not tonight, but once your power resets. You can come back here tomorrow night and use Lucky Charm after the reset time passes. And voila—the theater will be back to normal!"
Ladybug's mind stops spinning and her panicked thoughts comes to a dead stop as she focuses in on what he's saying. He's right. He's absolutely, one hundred percent right, and she can't believe that she didn't think of that before. Of course she can still fix things. She's Ladybug! She just has to be a little bit more patient.
And to make sure that she never does anything like this ever again—because next time, the answer might not turn out to be so simple.
Ladybug looks at her clever kitty with a grateful smile. "Chaton, you're a life saver! I never would have thought of that, but it's the perfect solution. What would I do without you?"
Chat Noir beams at her and extends a hand to help her stand up. "Well, we're a team, right? I'll always have your back, no matter what happens."
Ladybug looks up at him ardently and caresses his cheek. "I love you, you know that?"
"Yeah?" says Chat, trying to grin casually at the fact that his lady has just told him she loves him. But he can't hide his excitement, and immediately loses his cool.
"I—I love you too!" he says breathlessly, his cheeks flushing bright red under the mask, visible even in the darkness.
"Oh, come here, you silly cat," says Ladybug with an impatient sigh, grabbing his collar with both hands and pulling his face towards hers, pressing her lips against his as she leans into his chest.
When Alya notices that neither Marinette nor Adrien have returned yet, she starts to worry. At the back of her mind, she also has a nagging feeling about what it could possibly mean, but she pushes it away. She has to find her friends first.
Now that the fire has been put out, she walks around the perimeter of the building, when she notices Ladybug and Chat Noir talking to each other, and sees that Ladybug looks distressed. Immediately, her investigative instincts kick in, and she hides herself behind a large bush, her eagerness to get footage of them momentarily overriding her worry for her friends.
Though she can't hear them, she can clearly see Chat Noir comforting Ladybug and whispers, "I knew it!" under her breath. "Marinette, you were wrong—Chat Noir and Ladybug are together! And now, I'm going to get the pictures to prove it."
Alya captures several photos of them embracing, cheering internally with glee that she finally has visual evidence to prove to Marinette without a shadow of a doubt that the masked superheroes of Paris really are dating. And then she remembers that the very reason she's out here is because she can't find her, and starts to worry again.
She watches and waits for Ladybug and Chat Noir to break apart, wondering what the right moment would be to go up to them and ask them if they can help find her friends. She doesn't want to interrupt their private moment, but she could really use their assistance.
She moves closer so that she can hear their conversation.
"We need to go back, Chat Noir. Alya's going to start wondering what happened to us."
"What should we tell the others about the theater still being damaged?"
"We should tell them that Ladybug and Chat Noir told us that they're going to come back tomorrow afternoon, that Ladybug didn't think it was a good idea to use Lucky Charm in the dark."
"Will they buy that? We've fought akumas at night before."
"It's the best explanation I can think of."
"That's fair. But tomorrow afternoon still isn't 24 hours. Will you be able to use Lucky Charm again by then?"
"I think so. If I give her enough cookies, Tikki will definitely recover in time."
"Ah, so cookies are your camembert."
"What?"
"I'll explain later."
Alya's confused. Why are Ladybug and Chat Noir talking about themselves in the third person? It also sounds like Ladybug wasn't able to use Lucky Charm, which doesn't make sense. But those details are unimportant to her main goal, which is to find her friends. It's possible that she's missed some details of the conversation, but she can figure it out later.
Alya starts to step out of the bush to walk up to them but stops dead short as she sees what's happening. She watches in astonishment as her heroes de-transform into Marinette and Adrien, and everything she thought she knew about her best friend collapses all around her.
Ladybug—is Marinette. Marinette—is Ladybug. It doesn't make any sense, but at the same time, it makes more sense than everything that's been happening in Paris for the past year.
The history book. Ladybug's unusual familiarity with and attention to her, a middle school blogger. The fact that Marinette is never there when there's an akuma attack. The fact that Marinette always asks to go to the bathroom whenever something goes wrong in class. Alya had always chalked it up to bladder problems induced by nerves (and hey, she wasn't about to judge, akumas are terrifying), but it occurs to her now that it has nothing to do with anxiety, but the fact that Marinette goes there so that she can transform.
And now that she thinks about it, Adrien's exhibited the same behavior since day one, but she can't help but focus on Marinette.
She feels like a fool as she thinks about how she's spent the past school year fangirling about her best friend to her best friend, who knew all along but never said anything. And she feels guilty, for pushing and pushing to learn as many details about Ladybug, when it was clear that Ladybug wanted to keep her identity hidden for the safety of Paris.
But would Paris have really been in that much more danger if Marinette had shared her secret with her best friend? Does Marinette truly lack that much trust in her?
Alya is consumed by a combination of shock and confusion and anger as she watches Marinette laugh and mess up Adrien's hair as he wipes soot on her face and shirt to make it seem like they ran into the building to talk to Chat Noir and Ladybug, while a tiny black creature disappears into Adrien's bag and a red one dives into Marinette's purse.
She silently follows them as they walk up to the group of people outside and tell their story, and continues to hide behind a pillar until Marinette cries, "Wait, where's Alya? She was standing right here! She didn't go inside, did she? It's not safe in there!"
It's only then that Alya emerges, trying to look calm. "I'm here—I'm fine. Are you—are you okay?"
Marinette quickly observes Alya's ashen face and purses her lips. "I'm fine. But are you sure you're okay, Alya? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Alya watches her best friend exchange a meaningful glance with Adrien—and Alya wonders how long they've been doing that, how she could have ever missed it—and flinches as Marinette puts her hand on her shoulder.
"Come back with me to the bakery and eat something before you go home. I have some great stuff for you to put on the Ladyblog, since I actually talked to Ladybug herself!"
Alya slowly nods. "Okay."
Marinette gets two plates of cookies and a glass of milk for Alya and carries it to the table where she's sitting. Alya looks down at the food listlessly. She's not hungry—she wants answers.
Marinette notices her friend's strange mood, and just as she is about to say something, Alya speaks up.
"Actually, do you mind if we go up to your room? I want to talk to you about something."
"Of course. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'd just rather talk to you upstairs," says Alya, getting up from the chair.
Marinette shrugs. "Okay, if that's what you want."
They slowly ascend the stairs and shut the door.
Alya turns to face her friend as they sit down on her bed.
Marinette smiles casually, as though she's got nothing to hide. Alya marvels at her skills as an actress. Mylene has nothing on her friend.
"So, what's up? Do you want to hear what Ladybug told me at school?"
Alya shakes her head and looks intently at Marinette's bag, where she is sure that the little red creature from earlier is hiding.
Marinette follows her gaze and turns back to look back at her, confused.
Alya gets up and walks over to pick up the bag. "I want to talk about this."
She makes a motion as though she is going to open it up, and Marinette turns white, immediately dropping her casual façade.
"You don't want me to open this bag, do you?"
Marinette opens and closes her mouth several times, gulping nervously.
"I—no. Please don't."
"Why not?"
"I—I can't tell you. But please don't open it," she breathes, the syllables barely escaping from her mouth.
"I know, Marinette," says Alya, her voice low but steady.
"Know what?"
"I know that you're Ladybug. And Adrien, he's Chat Noir, isn't he?"
Marinette feels her heart drop into her stomach as it clenches with dread. She's afraid that her best friend is never going to forgive her for this, even though she had to do it to protect her.
"Oh, Alya, I never wanted to hurt you—I—"
"Don't tell me you were going to tell me, because I know you weren't ever planning to," says Alya, waggling her finger.
Marinette shakes her head. "I'm so sorry. It was for your safety—nobody else knows except Adrien."
"But I'm your best friend!"
"Do you understand the kind of danger knowing my identity puts you in? Even my parents have no idea!"
Alya places her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "If it means being able to help you when you're in danger? If it means helping you save Paris? Marinette, it's worth it!"
Marinette sighs. "It's much more dangerous than you think. Papillon, he has eyes and ears everywhere. He's probably listening to our conversation right now."
"I don't care." Alya looks around fiercely and shakes her fist at the ceiling. "Bite me, Moth Man! I'm not afraid of you, do you hear me? You've already akumatized me once, you can't do it again!"
As she stubbornly tightens her jaw and harrumphs, Marinette realizes that there's no point in arguing with her. It's too late to go back now.
Not that it matters—her intrepid best friend has already discovered all of her secrets at this point. There's nothing left to hide from her.
But then, she realizes that she suddenly feels like a huge weight has been lifted from her shoulders. Her heart feels lighter than it has in months, and she realizes how hard it's been to keep all of this information close to her chest.
She's been so busy trying to be the heroine Paris both needs and deserves that she hasn't stopped to think about how much of a burden it's been, hiding her double identity from everyone in her life—especially her best friend.
She's been dying to tell someone about all of her romantic dates with Adrien, but hasn't been able to because of her secret—but now that Alya knows, all those concerns are out the window.
She retrieves the purse and puts her hand on the clasp.
"Well then, I guess it's finally time for you to meet Tikki."
She pushes it open and the small red and black kwami floats out of Marinette's purse, looking cheerfully and waving at Alya.
"Bonsoir, Alya! It's nice to finally meet you! I'm Tikki."
Alya stares curiously at the little creature. "Salut, Tikki! You look just like a little ladybug."
Tikki giggles. "That's because I'm the one who gives Marinette the power to transform into Ladybug!"
"How?"
"Through her Miraculous—her earrings!"
Alya absorbs this information and turns to look at Marinette. "I knew your powers were connected to your earrings! No wonder you never wear the earrings I gave you for your birthday. You can't take them off, can you?"
Marinette shakes her head as she takes a cookie off her plate and hands it to a ravenous Tikki, who immediately starts eating it.
"No, I can't. It's too risky, since an akuma could show up at any point in time. That's one of the more annoying parts of all of this—I've got a box full of earrings that I'll never be able to wear again!"
"But I mean, you're the beloved superhero of Paris. Small price to pay, don't you think?"
Marinette laughs and paces around the room. "That's the least of it. The whole earring thing is nothing compared to juggling two identities. Especially when my best friend is determined to find out Ladybug's identity. Not to mention that I haven't gotten more than five hours of sleep in the past six months!"
She briefly gazes at the picture of Adrien that's still sitting on her desk before turning back to look at her best friend.
"But anyway, enough about that. Now that you know, I can finally tell you about how Adrien and I got together. And, um, explain the Chat Noir costume thing."
If she's honest with herself, Alya would rather keep talking about the responsibilities and challenges that come along with being Ladybug, but she knows that would be selfish—and she can ask about it later.
Not to mention, she is actually a little curious about how all of that went down, and how Marinette and Adrien went from barely being able to speak to each other to joking about doing 'physics experiments' in class in front of Nino.
So she grins and asks, "How long has that been, exactly?"
"It's actually only been a few days. And we discovered each other's secret identities a few days ago as well," says Marinette, eyes lighting up as she starts in on her favorite topic of conversation.
"Wait, you're telling me you didn't know already?"
"Alya, you said yourself that I couldn't keep my feelings about him secret if I tried. Do you really think that I would have been able to hide something like that from you if I'd known earlier?"
Alya raises an eyebrow. "Honestly, I wouldn't know. I feel like I barely know you anymore."
"Stooop!" whines Marinette. "That's not fair! You know why I had to do it."
"So then, tell me. How did you and Adrien get together? How long has it been?"
Marinette tells her best friend all the details she's been keeping bottled up. It all comes out like a flood, and she gushes on and on about the reveal and how Adrien had figured it all out before her and how angry she had been when she realized that Chat and Adrien were the same person and how wonderful it had all been when they were finally on the same page. And she finally explains why Adrien was wearing his play costume, earning an exasperated sigh from her friend, who would still rather forget about the whole thing.
Alya listens appreciatively, oohing and aahing at all the right places while privately marveling at how Marinette had managed to keep it all together the way she had. She's clearly underestimated her friend all this time.
After Marinette finishes telling her about the whirlwind of the past week, she sighs in exhausted relief, when Alya suddenly remembers something from earlier.
"So, why couldn't you use Lucky Charm at the theater tonight?"
"Wait, how do you know that?"
"I….might have been eavesdropping while you and Chat Noir were talking."
"What? When?"
"Right before the two of you came back to the group. To be fair, I didn't mean to—I just wanted to ask the heroes of Paris to help me find my missing best friend and her boyfriend, who had suddenly disappeared into thin air. And then you did your little de-transforming trick and I found out why."
"Exactly how much of our conversation did you overhear?"
"A fair amount. Um, I might have pictures of you and Chat Noir kissing, too."
"What?! Alya! When did you become such a voyeur?"
"I just wanted to prove to you that Ladybug and Chat Noir were dating, since you were so dead-set against that idea! And now I know that you were lying."
"Well, I wasn't lying then. Adrien and I started dating after that conversation. And no, it wasn't after the kiss at the first rehearsal, like he told you it was."
"You can't tell me something like that and not share details with me! And you still haven't told me what the deal is with not being able to use Lucky Charm."
Marinette flushes bright red. "I, um, I used it to conjure up a ball gown. Because Adrien was wearing a suit, and I was in my red spandex, since I was visiting him as Ladybug."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Marinette looks away, embarrassed, and Tikki pipes up. "I can explain that! Even though Ladybug is only supposed to use Lucky Charm in battle, she can use it in non-emergency situations as well. But if she does, she can't use it again for a whole day."
Alya turns her gaze to Marinette and shakes her head. "Are you serious? Girl, the things you do for that boy! I thought it would get better once you finally started dating, but it just seems like you got worse."
"I know, I know. But my powers will be back tomorrow, and I'm going to go to the theater tomorrow and restore it back to normal. But hey—do you want to come with me and film it? If you're still planning to run the Ladyblog, that is."
"That's the dumbest question anyone's ever asked me. Of course!"
Author's Note: I wanted to wait until the end for the notes on this one, since I didn't want anyone to know about the reveal that would be in this chapter beforehand, and the theater fire was a way to set that up, plus teach Marinette a little lesson about wielding great power responsibly. Sorry for scaring you! :'D But as you know, I like positivity, and I was never going to ruin the overall light tone of this fic!
But yeah- so now Alya knows! I really wanted to try doing something like this because I feel like a lot of attention is given to the reveal between Marinette and Adrien, but what about their friends? When you've got a close friend like that, I feel like the reveal could have just as much, if not more, impact, and it wouldn't necessarily be an easy conversation. And because personally, I think that friendship is a very important part of the narrative and deserves just as much attention! So this was my take on the whole thing. Also, Alya is a joy to write, and I love giving her the last word :)
I'll be taking a short break from this fic for a week or two, since there are a couple writing contests I'm going to be entering, but I might post a couple chapters on my other new fic, The Night Patrol- so stay posted! Thanks for reading :D