Note: : Hello everyone! Thank you a so much for reading! I tried to get chapter 4 out to you guys as fast as I could type. Please review, and let me know what you think. I would like to think everyone who has reviewed, Favorited, and is following. I feel very blessed to have so many people interested and supporting me. Please enjoy!

Chapter 4

Alya followed her best friend behind the curtain to a small back room. There was a floor length mirror, three chairs, and circular stool in the center of the room. To the left side of the room there was a bathroom door.

Marinette hugged Alya as soon as they entered the room. "I'm so excited you are here."

The reporter wrapped her arms around her best friend. "Me too girl. It's nice to see all the different dresses you have on display. No wonder you were always busy!"

"Yeah, well it doesn't help when you live with your work partner as well."

"You two focus on your work a lot. You need to rest and take some time off."

"I can do that later. Besides I believe you have brought work for me."

Alya smiled sheepishly. "You are literally the only seamstress I know."

"It's fine! What are friends for?" Marinette grabbed the clothes from Alya's hands. She unfolded it, revealing a very short black strapless dress. "Besides, I have a feeling what you want done with is… personal," she winked.

Alya blushed. "About that, I sort of have to attend a party for my client. This is the only dress I thought to bring, and I don't know if I really want my client to see me in that."

The two laughed. "Why don't you put it on and I will see if I can make this more "work" appropriate." She pointed to the bathroom.

Alya obliged and entered the bathroom. She sighed. For the first time she will be able to talk to her best friend about her very important and pressing matter. Marinette had been one of the few of her classmates who had had encounters with both Ladybug and Chat Noir. She had worked with Chat Noir when Nathaniel had been akumatized, and the seamstress had somehow had the opportunity to personally ask Ladybug to meet up for an interview with her reporter friend. The reporter knew that she was going to have to ease her way into the topic of the two heros in order to get any information. Marinette was sensitive right now. She had to use everything she had learned in school to restrain herself from spilling everything she wanted to know in order to get the right information out of her best friend.

The brunette pulled the black dress on and opened the door. The dress had been much shorter and much more for fitting than expected. Marinette's blue eyes looked like they were screaming. "Why do you own that? Where you an undercover prostitute?"

"When a girl wants to go to a club and have fun, why can't she dress to have fun?"

"We need to redefine your definition of fun."

"Alright miss smarty-seamstress, can you help me make this more appropriate?"

"I don't think I can fix that. The only thing I can think to do is hem it and make it into a nice blouse."

Alya rolled her eyes. "Ok, well this dress is out the window. Want to go shopping with me? I have to have this dress by Friday."

Marinette thought for a moment. "I think I may have a dress for you. Give me a moment." She walked through the purple curtain.

Alya heard a door open and then close. Moments passed. Alya tapped her foot. Should she tell Marinette that she was going to Chat Noir's party? Should she invite Marinette to come along? Chat knew who Marinette was. He could probably trust her, but still bringing someone as sensitive as Marinette was to a party involving superheroes may not be the best plan. The reporter was surprised though. Her friend had heard the conversation with She had with Chloe. Marinette knew she had learned about the trial, and that she had not learned any of it from her best friend. This could not be ignored. She would bring this up.

The sound of a door opening and closing echoed in the studio room. The seamstress walked back in carrying a magenta and plum over the shoulder dress. "We have no room in here to store anything, so I rented a small portable unit that sits beside the emergency exit. I like to place my… um rejected dresses in there in case they are more fitting for another theme Nathaniel comes up with."

"Don't you come up with the themes together?" Alya arched an eyebrow. Perhaps the reporter side of her could not restrain the strong personality she naturally had around her best friend.

"Sometimes we do." Marinette tried to sound hopeful. "It's just that he has more time to think of ideas while I am doing fittings for people. He just kind goes and paints when he isn't able to spend the time with Lila or Chloe."

"That sounds like a crappy plan." Alya let leak the annoyance in her voice. "Why isn't he at least discussing themes with you? Or helping you schedule out your fittings so you two have time to discuss and maybe even start what you do next. You work with Nathaniel, not for Nathaniel."

Marinette waved her hands in front of herself. "It's really no big deal, Alya."

"How are you so passive about this?" Alya's voice began to rise with rage. You are being so passive about all of this… and… and you didn't even tell me anything bad was going on!" It was finally out. Alya had tried to hold herself back and be professional, but she could be a reporter when she was with Marinette. The past two times Alya had seen Marinette, and she had turned into a push over. The seamstress was once so bold, and loud. She was excited to share any news.

"There was so much happening, and I had to wait to hear from Nino 3 years later. I talked to you every other week, and you said nothing! You are going through all this stress, and instead of sharing you let me blabber on to you about London, university, and whatever else happened. Did you change because of the way I was acting? Did I not ask you enough about how you were doing? What happened to Marinette? The girl who used to stand up to everyone, who would put people in their place? What happened to leader that i knew so well? What happened to my best friend?"

"You were the only positive thing in my life!" Marinette's eyes were bubbling. "Everyone was so angry and stressed out her. The trial was the only thing anyone wanted to talk about. I didn't even want to get dragged into it until I was called to be a witness. When I started to speak, everything became a tangled mess. When the lawyers started talking, I tried to sit there and do what I believed was the right thing. Do what would hopefully make everyone friends again, but then arguments started and I realized that there was no way anyone was going to be ok after this. Then I would get to come home and you would tell me about all the exciting new things, and how wonderful your experience was. I wasn't going to ruin your life too! You were happy. And if at least one person could be happy then it may all have been worth it."

The emotion that erupted from Marinette stunned her best friend. She had not considered how fortunate she had been. Nor had she considered how she may be the only one with any relation to the entire akumatized events of the past who was successfully living out her future with no negative consequences.

Alya's anger shifted into guilt. "I feel like such an idiot."

"I just wanted to fool you, and I guess hope you would be a fool. That you would be too fooled to see what was happening."

"Well I was blind for three years, so I think you did your job." The reporter smirked and opened up her arms. The seamstress sniffled and collapsed into the embrace.

"I'm sorry I didn't keep you updated." The pigtailed girl cried into the brunette's hair. "I just wanted some happiness."

"Girl, it's completely understandable. Things seemed to have become quite hectic around here. But not everyone had their futures ruined by akumas. Nino is becoming a pretty famous DJ."

Marinette nodded and lifted her head to wipe the tears from her eyes. "That's true. He gets to be what he has always wanted."

"And don't forget Adrien. He's managed to get the Gabriel brand back on the rebound. Not bad for a Model, huh?" She elbowed her friend in the ribs.

"I haven't talked to Adrien since the whole… Unmasking. I wouldn't know what to say to him."

"Only one way to find out. Maybe since I back in town I can get Nino to organize a reunion of sorts. Just the four of us."

"I'm sure he's so busy. He doesn't need to be bothered with petty high school drama bound to resurface."

"At least let me try. If he says he can't I won't ask again. If does answer though, we are going to have a reunion." Marinette gulped, but Alya didn't let her voice her concerns. "Now that that is settled, let's get back to my dress issue so my client doesn't think I get all my news in return for favors." She winked.

"Alya! Gross!" She tossed the fabric to the reporter. Go slip this on, and come back out so I can make adjustments.

Alya agreed and quickly got changed. The two friends spent the rest of the afternoon reminiscing about high school crushes, embarrassing moments, family meals, and the joys of reconnecting. Marinette never asked where Alya would wear this dress to, so Alya never told Marinette that she was going to Chat Noir's party or even that Chat Noir was her client. She would have to ask her friend eventually about Ladybug, and how well she knew the heroine. This afternoon however, was more about just making her best friend smile again, after seeing how depressed she had secretly been over the past few years.

_oOo_

When Alya had returned from her afternoon with old friends, she quickly set work in her apartment to begin looking for Ladybug. The first thing she would have to do was to revamp the ladyblog. She updated the website and sent out a post asking for any hints or clues anyone thought they had encountered that was related to Ladybug and her whereabouts.

As she waited for someone to respond, she began to review and revisit every video and every article her fifteen year old self had written or uploaded. Realizing she had at least three years of evidence to review, she called for a pizza to be delivered to her apartment. Eating could not be an excuse from reviewing every piece of evidence she had.

She was looking for consistencies, patterns, character traits her inexperienced teenage self would not have recognized or fully understood. Little things like averted eye contact, or constantly leaving and arriving at a certain time. Alya even began listing and tracking different traits of her alums tired friends.

The entire next day was devoted to tracking previous classmates' characteristics, and how Ladybug reacted to them in each circumstance. The reporter was looking for moments of weakness. What makes Ladybug fumble? What shocked her and made her concerned.

Hours of revisiting footage flew by. Alya had not realized that she had been looping the same video for the past four hours. She kept staring at video that a subscriber had been posted when Knight Blade had attacked the school. Chat had been surrounded, he had been fighting knights off left and right but ten of them had him pinned against the wall. At the top of the school Ladybug appeared. She took only a few minutes to see that Chat Noir was in trouble. She tossed her yoyo down for him to grab and successfully pulled him to safety. What Alya was continuously watching was the quick face of concern and doubt Ladybug had shown before throwing her yoyo to save her partner. It was moments like this where Alya could see more than just the care for a partner, this concern was deeper. She had been momentarily panic stricken. Ladybug clearly had strong feelings for Chat Noir, so why would she have left him?

Alya looked at her computer screen. It was five in the morning on Friday. She needed to go to sleep. She had a party to go to that evening, and being sleep deprived was not going to make her any use to Chat Noir. She closed her laptop and set her alarm for three in the afternoon. That should be plenty of time for her to get the sleep she needed and to get ready for the party that night.

_oOo_

Alya marbled at Marinette's craftsmanship. The magenta and purple silk dress was form fitting, yet loose enough to be comfortable. She had simple pair of black pumps matched with black stud earrings and a small black clutch.

Standing at the door the penthouse suite, Alya knew the party was going to be over the top. It was the only door on the entire floor, and Alya knew that was not the door to the roof entrance. When she touched the doorknob she felt how heavy the intricately detailed door truly was. The beautiful oak door was had to be heavy. It had to hide the grandiose living that only few ever got to see.

Upon opening the door Alya was awestruck. White walls with gold crowning balanced out the speckled white marble floor. A marble staircase let up to the next for. To the right with the living area with a balcony to the outside. She could see a projection of Nino DJing on a in the center of the living space. It looked as though almost one hundred people were dancing around him.

The place was crowded. Park entrance into the penthouse suite had only shown her a minor amount of what the wealthy could afford and Paris. Chat Noir certainly knew how to throw a party. Champagne flutes filled with the bubbly liquid were scattered all around the main floor. Beautiful models walked around carrying sample plates of food. One walked by Alya and handed her a tooth pick. She ate the morsel and her eyes filled with delight. This was by far the largest and the most decadent party the reporter had ever seen or been to.

Alya looked all around to see if she could recognize anyone more than just the DJ. She made her way of the marble staircase into a third floor staircase which led to the roof. On top of the roof was an Olympic sized swimming pool, butler's carrying more champagne, wine, and a variety of other foods. The dance floor that Nino was now residing over, was on the other side of the pool. Lights hung around the speakers in the upper area, glowing bright, but not bright enough to hide the stars. This was immaculate. The roof was where most of the party was happening.

The reported did her best to try to swim through the ground to try and see the DJ. She had only arrived thirty minutes after the party had begun. Alya didn't think arrive a tad late would mean that her accomplice would be swarmed by all the party goers. She knew the DJ was good. His band's music helped her write most of her thesis while at University. For twenty minutes she tried to reach her friend to find out if he had seen anyone Ladybug like, but the mop of party goers was too intense. She would need a different approach.

Alya looked all around to see if she could recognize anyone more than just the DJ. She made her way of the marble staircase into a third floor staircase which led to the roof. On top of the roof was an Olympic sized swimming pool, butler's carrying more champagne, wine, and a variety of other foods. The roof was where most of the party was happening. She saw the band manager Bob Roth, sitting on the couch watching Nino spin and create music everyone enjoyed. She watched him put down a glass of wine to pull out his cellphone. Was he interested in Nino? Alya made a mental note to let Nino know Bob Roth was watching him.

The reporter continued to scan the room. Over on the Balcony XY, the musician was trying rather hardtop swoon one of the models holding some bacon wrapped scallions. The model was polite. She giggled and flirted back. That would certainly boost the less than great musician, who had not released an album in four years. Alya chuckled to herself; lost in thought thinking about how pathetic XY looked when Jagged Stone had been Akumatized.

Alya winced at a touch to her shoulder. "Alya? Is that you?"

She turned her head to see a tall, blonde, muscular, green eyed Adrien Agreste standing next to her.

"Adrien!" She wrapped her arms around him. "It's great to see you!"

The model smiled. "It's great to see you too! When did you get back?"

"I arrived earlier this week. OMG! I am so glad to actually find someone to talk to!"

"Oh, did you come alone?"

"Yeah, it' kind of work related. How are you? I haven't really talked to you since you took over the Gabriel brand." Her pupils dilated with fear. This was not the right kind of small talk the reporter should have started.

Adrien saw begin to recoil. He placed his hand back on her shoulder to calm her. "I'm doing alright. It was really hard at first." He sighed. "It was hard to separate my emotions from the business, but its fine now. It's actually really nice to be in charge of my own schedule for the first time."

"I'm sorry about your dad. I'm really grateful you were so understanding of me posting the reveal."

"It was a good scoop," he nodded. "Besides, it was really nice of you to call me to inform me before you posted it."

"I could only image how hard that would have been to deal with."

"I'm used to disappointment, to be honest." Adrien flashed a model smile at her. "Enough about me and sad stuff. Tell me about you, and London, and you said you are here for work?"

The reporter laughed. "I will answer in order. I'm doing fine. London was great. It is nice to be back in Paris. I actually caught up with Nino, Nathaniel, and Marinette when I first arrived. I actually saw Marinette about this dress." She points down.

"She always made such amazing clothes." Adrien reached a hand out. "May I touch the fabric?"

"Such a gentleman, Agreste." The brunette winked. "Sure. Do your weird design, clothes thing. Marinette would do the same thing."

The blonde rubbed the silk fabric with his finger. "She is so talented. Does she want a job?"

"You should ask her," Alya insisted. "I was actually planning on getting a hold of you. I would love if you, me, Nino, and Marinette could spend some time together while I am out her."

"Would she want to? I haven't heard from her since high school, and I know a lot of class is broken apart as well." He turned his head to the group of milling party guests. "I heard Marinette didn't really handle the trial too well, either. I don't want to bring her more trouble with that since my father was, well, you know… the true cause of everyone's problems."

"Adrien, she would love to see you. Honestly, spending time with you was all Mari wanted to do in school any way."

"Really?" A soft smile filled his lips. "Then, yeah let's plan something."

"Awesome! Let me get your phone number so I can call you and give you all the deets." The two exchanged phones, quickly typing in numbers and adding contacts to their phones.

Adrien finished first. He handed Alya back her phone when he saw she had saved herself. "How was Marinette after the trial?"

"I honestly don't know," Alya said placing her phone back into her clutch. "I didn't even hear about it until a few days ago. However it seems everyone else knew about it, and no one bothered to keep me in the loop."

"You can probably blame that one me." Adrien frowned. "When my dad was arrested I had to do some serious reputation repair to keep the Gabriel fashion line afloat. When i heard about the trial, I had to take action. I paid a few media specialists to do whatever it took to keep any word of the trial from slipping out. Unless you knew someone personally involved, it would be pretty difficult to track down record of that trial even happening."

"That still didn't keep anyone involved from calling me," she huffed.

Tension began to fill between them. Adrien began to sway. "So tell me Alya, what kind of work has you attend such a fancy shindig like this?"

The reporter crossed her arms and leaned against the banister. "It's actually kind of personal."

"Personal?"

"Yeah. I have a friend I have known for a long time. We didn't stay too in touch in college, but when I graduated he contacted me. He wants me to look for someone here. I'm actually looking for that person. That's my whole role. Find the girl and bring her back home to the knight in shining armor."

"If this is personal, do you know who this person is too?"

"He thinks I might. I don't know for sure. What I do know is that I need to find her. He's done a lot for me. This is the very least I can do. I care about him, and I worry that without his lady with him, he may go down a dark path. I don't want to see him fall. I'm willing to do whatever it takes for him"

Alya eyes met with Adrien's. She noticed a small bubble forming in the crease of his eyes. His green eyes glossed over. "Adrien, are you alright?"

The girl felt sudden jolt before being able to process that the model had wrapped her in an embrace. "Thank you Alya. I didn't know you cared that much."

"Adrien? It's okay. I care about all my friends."

"I didn't know you cared that much about me."

The realization hit Alya like a ton of bricks. "Adrien, are you Chat Noir?"