…..
"Lady?" I saw a hunched figure sitting on an edge of a slanted building in complete secrecy. If it wasn't Tikki sending hints of her location, I would've never thought to of looked there. "Jesus, I haven't seen you in a week." It was true, she avoided me like the plague along with Mirielle and during those few spare moments where she was faced to chat with us she acted like an apathetic zombie. As if trying to distance herself from me in attempt to hide something. Always short in our text messages, we had those annoying basic conversations one would have with a friend's mom or dad. She lifted her head from her hands to face me.
"Oh hey." She smiled sadly.
"Okay, I'm sick of these surfaced feelings, jesus it's like talking to a robot or Natalie."
"Sorry." She wasn't.
"Spill it." I sat next to her, my thigh brushing the side of her hip as she brought her knees closed to her chest.
"Life sucks, y'know?"
"Preach it, Shorty." I mirrored her pose, resting my arms on my knees and then rested my chin on them to face her. "Alya?"
"She's not even half of it." She turned to face me, locking her gaze with mine. "Am I really… Such a bad person?"
"What? No! Why?" I took her fingers into mine and brushed them absent mindedly.
"Everyone's leaving me…" I saw reflection from excess water in her eyes threatening to expel. Her voice cracked, wrenching my heart. "I don't know what I do, but they always do.."
"Mar, please, we once hated eachother, and now… I'm so grateful, so happy that we don't anymore," She laughed a little bit, smiling at our touching hands. "I know you, and-"
"You do know me, 'narcissistic, big-headed, compulsive, belligerent, obstinate' right? Spot on, by the way." Her face was still as relaxed but I could feel her tense, I tensed at the words that still haunt me. I didn't think they'd still haunt her. Of course they did.
"Marinette, I was wrong, you know I was. I was stupid, I still am but you could never- Hey look at me. You're such an amazing person. I was wrong, us being friends now proves it. You're courageous, funny, you're too smart for your own good, you're kindness is endless, beautiful, loving, and just, god, you're just so amazing.." Our blushing faces were a pair, I shut my mouth to stop me from pouring out the other 1000 compliments I thought of. "What I'm saying is, I was wrong. And that if people are leaving and you're gaining new friends.. It's meant to be right? I don't know how to word things... Sorry I suck at the whole feeling things."
A tear streaked her cheek falling into the lines that her smile created. "I get it. I lost Alya and got you, right? It's probably for the best but I thought.. I wanted to think...." She broke. Her bottom lip quivered as she shoved her face into my shoulder. I didn't wince when her knees swerved sideways and into my lap and stomach. Nor did she when I brought my arms around her and pulled her closer to me, wrapping her in my now crossed legs and arms. I winced at her mute sobs. She was never the one to let people know her struggles, her pains. The confident and heroic LadyBug was cradled in my arms, her nails digging into my shoulders with her damp face under my chin. I hugged her tighter, until her shaking was subdued from the limited space I provided. She finally pried her away from me, after wiping her tears from her face and my suit did she repositioned herself in my lap. She leaned her back against me. "Do you know why she hates me now?"
"No, I don't." It was true, I've been so preoccupied with Marinette and Mirielle that I haven't even seen or responded to even Nino's text messages let alone give Alya the time of day now that I was Marinette's friend. That and with my efforts in raising my grades and career, I stopped fooling around. Normally I'd be going to football games or parties, flirting with girls to try to distract myself. But I was distracted. By this small figure sat in my lap, who needed me, who needed me to be her back support. Literally I thought when I wrapped my hands around her waist. "I could ask Nino?" She tensed and unknowingly dug her nails into my hand.
"No. It's fine." She said harshly.
"I know you don't like him for what he did to Alya but he probably knows." And if he knew he would help Mari, and Mari would be happy and I would be happy. "I mean, unless you really hated him I can just-"
"Adrien, no that's not it… He, Nino tried to hit on me during Mireille's party."
"He what?" I practically picked her right up from sitting to stand, the only thing that kept me from flying from the roof to his bedroom to kick his ass was Marinette's hands that gripped on to me for dear life. "I'm going to make him pay. More importantly, why didn't you tell me sooner? Even more important, I thought you didn't go to her party." It was important that I didn't get to see the lazy Marinette Dupain-Cheng dress up with some sort of gorgeous creation she made. And judging from the other girl's outfits I prayed it wasn't revealing. Some of my anger heated from malice to embarrassment trying to imagine her in the tube top dress like Mirielle's.
"Yes because I'm going to go up to you, who I hated at the time, and ask you to defend me over your best friend, and I saw you there. I know you were drunk and all but...Wait, you don't remember?" At that she showed a mischievous grin, her hands that gripped me tightly from running away with rage were now on her hips.
"Oh god what did I do?" My hands were raking my hair, stopping at my cat ears. I didn't need Marinette's laughter to know I was bleach white underneath all the black leather.
"Oh nothing, you just talked to me, AKA..." She coughed before finding a dramatically low voice, apparently my voice. "'The most beautiful person I've ever seen. I bet the same goes for you too.' God even when you're drunk you still have that amazing narcissism."
"It's a curse and blessing." I deemed dramatically, walking around with my hands behind my back before whipping my head back to Marinette who sat on popping a hip with her arms crossed. "So, um, you wore that-" I put my arms by my hips and tried shape out a flowy dress but it could pass as a tutu. Marinette's eyes widened with amusement. "You wore um that,"
"Dress?" She laughed.
"Yeah, and you were, taller, way taller."
"Heels?"
"And your face!"
"Chat Noir, are you insulting a young damsel's face?"
"No! No! No, it was, just different."
"Different?" She hopped from the roof onto a lower one, the one where I was pacing trying to remember the fuzzy details.
"Prettier? No, you're always pretty, um, that was you?"
She shrugged, "I clean up well."
"That you do, Bugaboo...Are you feeling better?" She looked shock that her behavior took a complete 180, that our conversation did as well much to my relief. "I'd take that as a yes?"
"Yeah, I need to let it go.. Right?" She eagerly looked for my approval.
I nodded, "You don't need them to bring you down. Come on, I don't think anythings going to happen to Paris tonight." I extended my hand, and started explaining myself at her confused hesitation. "Let's walk you home."
"Walk?"
"Hmm.. Do you prefer we race?" I grabbed my tail and started swinging it towards the ledge, looking to see she was doing the same with her yo-yo.
"Your on, Cat." She stood by my side on the ledge, stretching her arms across her chest.
"On 3?" I started to lung, she mirrored. "1...2..-"
"3!" She hopped off, not even using her yo-yo to dart roof to roof.
"That's unfair! You got a head start." I was practically on all fours using the momentum to catch up to her. I was soon running side by side with her on a particular long and flat roof.
"Yeah by like .2 seconds." She laughed whiling pumping her arms, giving me a wink before branching off to jump on a building on her left, instead of the one right in front of us. I cursed and followed her lead. The cold air cut through me like daggers, my nose and cheeks bright red. But the pain from my face wasn't from the freezing temperature, but the aching smile that took about half of my whole face. And it didn't disappear, even when she won because it feels like I'd been winning all day.
…..
"You're… Getting too.. Old…" I said between breaths, we were on the roof of my house and Chat had been right on my heels the whole time, I was lucky to of won by less than a second, maybe it was best that I did "cheat."
"I don't… Want.. To hear that… From you.." He panted putting his hands on his knees to keep him from tumbling over.
"Alright... I'll see you at school?" I said once several minutes passed of panting. Chat was leaning on the railing, grinning with watery eyes from the cold and exercise.
"You know it. I can pick you up, you know, for reassurance…" He tried.
"I'm fine, it feels like I'm getting a fresh new start. And I'm not sure your girlfriend would like that, too." I laughed lightly, finally realizing how handsy Adrien and I have became. Whenever Mirielle wasn't staring daggers into me, she was a decent friend who accepted me into her circle, gave me new friends and importance.
"She can't control who my friends are, especially with you. I mean, you're practically my best friend." His grip on the metal bar got stronger.
I couldn't help but giggle. "I'm already your best friend? That was fast."
"Well, hating each other or not, you know me better than anyone else. Better than Nino, really. If you haven't noticed Mar we know a lot about each other then we choose to let on." Was he actually being bashful?! A memory from Adrien's young and awkward days flashed infront of me before rethinking of what he just said. I was confused, was it just pure secrecy of how much we knew each other as people? Or perhaps, it was because we knew each other's Superhero identities that we're already so close, that we know so much more than relating only to one part of ourselves. That now we're familiar with both personas, it's farther than anyone else would come to related to us.
"I guess you're right." I said after awhile.
"Mi will just have to get used to it, because I'm not letting your out of my life again. Okay?"
"What? Are you swearing on that?" I tilted my head at his declaration.
"A promise, really. Maybe even a threat?" He grinned, extending his pinky finger towards me.
"Alright." I took his finger with mine and tightened it as best as I could, matching his strength. "Good night, Chat."
"Good night, Lady." He bent backwards until he practically did a backflip over the fencing. I snorted at his flashy ways, but that was the Cat I knew and loved.
Slipping through the opening hatch, whatever exhaustion, tiredness, sadness, and hopelessness went away in a flash. I took the liberty to sneak downstairs and help give Tikki cookies my mom had freshly baked before bed. I also took the time to go back in the drawer where the note I saw before was, or before my mom had destroyed it right after Nate left. Nate. He avoided me like the plague, his awkwardness exchanged with hostility. I whimpered at the thought, in one month I lost such deep connections, such meaningful friendships like they were nothing. A fresh start huh?
….
"I'm not going to like this." I popped a hip, leaning into it with my arms crossed. Stood before me was two decent sized pale blue gift bags I had laying around full of Alya's stuff that had accumulated over the past years. I hoped when I saw her today, she'd give me my stuff in return. If we weren't going to be friends, the last thing I'd want was to have connections with her. Something that'll appear in the future, or be another cause of another fight.
"What's the worse she can do?" Tikki floated above the bags in curiousity.
"Seeing that I've somehow pissed her off for reasons I do not know, disastrous. And knowing Alya, it could be homicidal." She giggled but my grim expression turned dark with it's reality.
"It's just like a bandaid, rip it off nice and fast, okay?"
"Yeah, well, I'll be ripping off eleven years worth of bandaids." I grabbed their handles and made my way to the door. "Coming?"
"Of course!" She snuggled herself into my coat's pocket. I kicked the door open and situated myself into my car, mentally preparing myself to meet Alya. Adrien had offered to help me, but I managed to convince him, though it took a lot of reassuring, that I'd be okay. That I somehow "owed" it to her to come on my own without a third party.
Her house was just as bright and friendly as ever, making me so unbelievable sad and drained. I rang the doorbell, Alix who comfortably took my place by Alya's side opened the door. She was... Surprised and... Frightened? "Hey Alix, where's Alya?"
"Um…" She glanced over her shoulder, expecting Alya to be there but to both our relief she wasn't. "In the kitchen.. Um, you shouldn't be here, Marinette.." I always respected Alix, I've known her as long as Alya. But at this, I rolled my eyes at her sudden way of 'helping' me.
"I don't care. I'm dropping off her things." I lifted the two bags.
"I'll take them just go before-" She started.
"Alix? Who.. What do you want?" She snarled when she saw me, her hair damp dripping on her plaid shirt and dark jeans.
"You forgot some stuff when you walked out of my life." I inwardly grinned at my steady voice the betrayed my beating heart. But the way she perked an eyebrow and crossed her arms made my heart drop.
"Oh? You mean after you betrayed me? Lied to me?"
"Oh, please. Why don't you tell me what I did? How did I lie, Alya? How could I've possibly betray you? By ignoring you, shutting you off my life, treating you like shit?"
"You know what you did!"
"I don't!" I laughed, finding it funny how hopeless I've felt.
"You liar, you aren't fooling me anymore. And now you're already moving onto his best friend? You're fucking despicable."
"What-Who?"
"Don't play dumb. First Nino and now Adrien? A backstabbing slut is what you are."
At that, whatever strong front I managed to pull off infront of her crumbed, tears streamed down my cheeks. "What? You think that Nino and me, that we did something? That I did something?"
"Don't fucking act coy. I saw the picture. The day after we broke up you decided to go for him? How fucking low is that."
"Alya, we didn't do anything. I would never do that to you, or anything with Nino-."
"I saw the picture, Marinette. Drop the act, get out of my house."
"Wha-Wa, What picture?"
"The one where you were sucking the face off of my ex boyfriend at Mireille's party. Just couldn't wait to make your move, right?"
"Huh-Wait? You mean when Nino tried to hit on me? We never kissed!" I was practically pleading to Alya who had cut herself off from everything I was saying long ago.
"Get out. Now."
"Alya, please."
"Get out!" She screamed finally, Alix had extended her hand to my shoulder but I was already bolting out of the house. My hand covering my mouth in fear of puking or sobbing, or both.
My hands fumbled with the keys and I made a sharp turn away from house. I thought I would of been stronger, that I could let go of her. But I was wrong, the tears that stung my eyes convinced me. The next day I chose to not tell Adrien what happened at Alya's, I had to get answers before that. And right when school was finished the next day I wasted no time pinning Nino against the lockers. "You told her I kissed you?" My petite body holding up a much bigger man was an odd thing to observe, but not even Nino could escape my strength that had brought me where I was today as LadyBug.
"Marinette, you're like scary strong.. Please put me down?" His hands gripped my wrists that scrunched his shirt. I pressed even harder and received a satisfying squeak from him.
"What the fuck did you tell Alya?" I said through clenched teeth. Whatever perfect image I managed at school was falling apart, and I didn't care. It was after school anyways, so onlookers were scarce.
"I-I didn't tell her anything! I didn't even remember hitting on you until I saw the picture!"
"What picture?" I loosened my grip enough for him to fumble with his phone, revealing a picture of when he was leaning to kiss me right before I pushed him away. His body a barrier tHat hid my disgust and made it look like a drunken makeout session. "Whoo.. Where'd you get this from?"
"I don't know! Someone just randomly texted it to Alya and she confronted me when I tried to get her back!"
"You tried to get her back?" I finally released his collar. I furrowed my eyebrows while maintaining a threatening glare in my eyes.
He sighed. "I was stupid, so stupid. I thought you liked me and I used to have a crush on you and- I was always jealous of how Adrien had every girl swooning over him and me just being… Me." He scratched his head awkwardly before gaining enough confidence to look me in the eyes again. "I betrayed her and this whole picture thing ruined your friendship and I…" He tore his eyes away. "So you really didn't know about the picture?" I shook my head. He continued, "So… To you, Alya seemed to hate you, despise you, out of the blue?" He seemed genuinely hurt for me. I bit my lip before answering.
"Yeah…"
"Oh Mar, I'm so sorry…"
I stepped away from him, he had his hands clasped together in some praying position, asking for forgiveness. I laughed lightly, majority of my anger and resentment gone. "You thought I had a crush on you?"
"Yeah... I mean...Wait, didn't you tell Mirielle?" He furrowed his eyebrows once regaining his posture.
"Tell Mirielle what?" My heart started racing. My memories somehow went back to the night Nate stormed out of my life. 'You seem pretty close to the person who put you through that hell.'
"She said that you liked me, during the party… She encouraged me to talk to you and even brought me into her clique of friends once you and Alya left me."
I took a deep breath in fear of losing my composure. It was like ripping off a bandaid, just like Tikki had said. It's best if it's quick and fast. "First of all... I don't have anyone I like and I've never said one thing about to her… Second, I'm pretty sure you left us once you thought you were too good for us, too good for Alya." A million thoughts went through my head. I tried to relive the night step by step, how Nino said I looked different, how he thought I liked him, how red his eyes were from crying, maybe, and how he leaned for a kiss before I shoved him. After moving in fear of him puking on me.. I ran into Mirielle whose phone was in her hand… Directly behind Nino and me. "Oh god…"
Nino's arms wrapped his body, as if sensing my confusion and rage that were looking for something, anything, to pummel. And the guy who basically ruined my most treasured friendship seemed like the perfect punching bag. "Wh-what?"
I simply stared at his wrinkled collar, not even caring enough to maintain eye contact. "I think, Mirielle took the picture…"
His hands slowly went back down to his sides and then to my forearms. "Wait, so you think she… Planned this? Sabotaged us?" His eyes told me he was remembering all the times he spent with Alya and because of some stupid mistake, some lies fed by a girl to a drunken heartbroken boy, they would always just be a bittersweet memory.
"I don't know…" His grip became tighter on my arms, searching for answers or at least a plan on my face. I simply shrugged at his disappointment.
"We have to go talk to Mirielle, straighten this up and then to Alya- We have to fix this," I winced as his nails dug into my skin through my dark red cardigan and white laced tank top's straps. I gasped at the pain that seemed to get me out of my trance."We-"
"Get your hands off of her." Adrien beckoned by slamming an open locker shut, storming from the opposite side of the deserted hall. He glared beneath his furrowed eyebrows, I could almost see the fire, feel the heat from his eyes. Before I could react, Adrien's fist collided with his friend's face. Nino hit the floor with a wincing 'smack.' "Hitting on her again?"
"Adrien!" I grabbed his arm that yanked Nino back up. "I'm fine, there's been a misunderstanding!"
Nino groaned, before talking. "Dude.. You guys are inhumanely strong… But I guess I do deserve it." He gave me an apologetic look through his swelling black eye.
"Adrien, that's enough.." Adrien slid his eyes towards me before reluctantly placing Nino back down. He took a step back, by my side, before releasing a dramatic sigh.
"Neen, buddy, what have you gotten yourself in now?"
Nino simply shrugged muttering to himself. He extended his hand for Adrien to help him up from where he collapsed down as he was no longer supported by Adrien's grip. Adrien took it and roughly dragged him to his feet again. "Girls, dude. Girls."
…..
"So Alya thought you stole him from her?" I blew on my hot chocolate, Marinette sipped her iced coffee and Nino stabbed at a Starbucks croissant. Mar nodded, glancing at Nino ones every 10 seconds. It was cute how she thought she was so secretive. "Why?"
"Someone took a picture of us," Nino slid the phone over to me revealing a picture of them kissing. Or what looked like kissing. I resisted the urge of sinking my other fist in Nino's good eye. Another part of the urge to do so is because he blocked her outfit, the very look of a girl who managed to capture my eye despite being so disoriented. I blew on my cup, leaning back into my chair, absently rubbing the scruff on my chin. After making a mental note about needing to shave, I puffed my cheeks out trying to figure out what was happening.
"Do you know who did it?" Nino and Marinette shared a grave look before responding.
"No, and there were too many people there to narrow it down." Marinette said, squeezing her straw between her thumb and pointer. Nino nodded at that.
"Okay… So how are we going to handle the situation?"
"Well, people already think I slept with my best friend's ex, and that incident in the hall didn't help us." I grimaced, apparently people thought the kiss was a hoax to begin with... Until people started talking about how Marinette forced Nino into a locker for a passionate forceful kiss, one that lead me, another secret lover of Marinette apparently, beating the shit out of Nino. Jealous girls who always aimed for me had been sending her threatening letters trying to stick up for Alya, but we all knew their real intentions. Mireille, thankfully, understood what happened and had left us right after Marinette explained and Nino and I matched her testimony. "I don't care, by the way." She added, probably remembering my anger earlier in the day when she crumpled up the letters along with an old gym shirt of hers soiled by very… Colorful words from classmates. "No more pretending."
"No more happy go lucky Marinette? Does that mean more badass crime fighting Dupain-Cheng?" Nino played with his bracelets trying to imagine her not holding back anymore. I grinned knowing I've already seen it, befriended, the kickass side of her. A shot of pride warmed me with my hot drink.
"You betcha'." She winked. "And as for Alya…" Shrugging she played with her straw more. "I don't know if she'll believe us."
Nino stared absently at his napkins full of scraps, blinking away emotions to a hidden place. He obviously still loved her, and now he was forced to let her go again. I interjected before the both had given up hope, remembering the description of the emerald Marinette had told me about before. "So, what? You're just going to let people think the wrong thing? Leave Alya in the dark? No, we'll find whoever did this and force them to come clean themselves okay?" I crossed my arms to let it be final, suddenly full of pride and determination that'd I'd be helping my two closest friends. "What? It's not the worse idea ever."
They shared another look, they've been doing it a lot. I felt out of the loop. "But how will we find who did it?" Marinette eagerly darted her eyes to look at something other mine. It wasn't like her at all.
"I know, it sounds impossible but it's worth it.. For Alya, right? It's not fair that she's being played." I could see the gears in their heads trying to wrap their mind around possibilities and outcomes. When they both released a sigh. I grinned taking the last sips of my drink knowing I won.
"Alright, captain… Um.. On an unrelated note, when did you guys become friends?" Nino said after some uncomfortable silence. Mar snorted her coffee, grinning ear-to-ear.
"Oh, you're going to love this…" She started from the beginning, obviously leaving out details like our secret identities, making sure to mention the whole baquette situation I still cringe at. But god was it so nice hearing her so enthusiastic about something again. About me. I sat there and marveled at her exaggerated expressions fondly, reliving each memory when she spoke. Nothing felt better than being surrounded by these two, it's right where I was suppose to be. Where I'll always be.