In which you guys understand why I've been bugging you with weekdays since the wedding...

Alya Césaire was many things. She was fierce, stubborn and passionate about the things she cared about. She was definitely a little nosy, accordingly a great asset when it came to her reporter job, and could be pinned as pretty obnoxious sometimes. But above everything else, she was as loyal as someone could get and was truly devoted heart and soul to the people lucky enough to be loved by her. And Marinette Dupain-Cheng was one of the persons she loved the most.

So, to say Alya was going mad with worry would've been the understatement of the year.

Every single day since she had become Mrs. Nino Lahiffe, she had regretted deeply the moment of madness that had prompted her to invite Nathanael to the ceremony. Nino had warned her, many times even, that this was a really bad idea. That no matter how Marinette claimed to be over that story, seeing him could bring back bad memories not worth the sacred goal of having the whole old class back together for a day. But had Alya listened to her now-husband? Of course not. Instead, she stubbornly went her way, convinced that reuniting the old class without any exception on her big day was the right thing to do.

And it had been all for nothing: of course, Nino had been right, again. Would she learn to listen to him someday?

Chloe hadn't bothered to show up at all, and Marinette hadn't taken too well the encounter with her ex-lover. Just like Nino, and any person with a functioning brain had predicted. Witnessing first hand the disaster she just had created, Alya had wanted nothing more than to dash to Marinette's flat and comfort her, right her wrongs, honeymoon be damned. But Adrien's unexpected offer to check up on her on her behalf had weakened her resolve, and in the end, she had caved into the boys' practical solution.

Only to regret it deeply not so much later.

"It's been an hour and a half, and all he has to say is that "She's okay"? What could have taken him an hour and a half to check up on her?"
Nino had shrugged, burying himself into the reading of their itinerary for the hundredth time:
"Honestly Alya, what did you want him to say? If you wanted a blood cell count, you should have specified it babe."
Clenching her teeth, Alya had retorted:
"Stop messing around with me. She's alive and well, thank you very much Adrien for that oh so valuable information. But is she upset? How much did she drink? Does she hate me?"
Her husband had shut her up with a kiss by that point:
"Stop worrying about it, babe. If my dude says she's okay, she's okay. Besides, he'll take care of her while we're gone and you know it. You'll ask all the questions you want when we get back okay? Let's just enjoy our honeymoon now, can we?"

Alya had truly tried to grant her new husband's wish.

She truly tried her best to avert her thoughts from her black haired friend and trust Adrien short and concise text to be as true as it could.

By Tuesday though she was desperately itching for news of her best friend.

By Wednesday, she couldn't hold herself back anymore and caved in, texting Marinette behind Nino's back.
[Alya] Hey girl! Are you okay?

The answer never came.

By Sunday, Nino had sighed in defeat.
"Okay, call her babe, if you're that much worried about her. I swear she's fine, though. She's working with Adrien every day, he won't let anything bad happen to her on his watch."
And Alya had grabbed the opportunity without being asked twice, dialing the young woman number eagerly only to be met with an electronic answering machine.

So much for reassuring her.

So, naturally, when they had set foot off the train the second Sunday after their wedding, Alya had made a beeline to Marinette's apartment, Nino's spare key in hand.
"Babe, it's barely even seven o'clock. Mari's totally gonna kill you if you wake her up that early on a Sunday." her husband had warned her lovingly.
"Don't care!"
Seeing his wife disappearing at the corner of the street, Nino had sighed with a smile, pulling out his car keys.
"Might as well wake up Adrien and make this a four-way reunion then." he had thought before driving to his best friend's place.

Like she had done countless times before, Alya had turned the key into the keyhole and let herself into her bestie's familiar apartment. She knew it by heart, so well that she could have navigated through it with eyes closed. Her footsteps had led her to Marinette's bedroom without any second thoughts, and she had pushed the door open fully ready to crawl into her best friend's bed to cuddle with her a few minutes before getting up for Nino's fresh croissants still warm from Tom and Sabine's bakery. After all, this was the tradition they had set up throughout the years. Every time she and Nino would come back from a trip, no matter how long the journey was, Alya would head straight to Mari's while Nino would grab a bite to eat at her parent's bakery for the three of them.

That day was different, though.

For that day, on her way back from a two-week way too long honeymoon, Alya couldn't crawl into her best friend's bed.

Because someone was already laying beside her in that bed.

Alya's shriek had truly had been involuntary. Seeing as both Marinette and Adrien had jumped upright hearing it, the former clutching the sheet to her bare breast desperately to keep a semblance of decency as the latter protested loudly seeing the sudden movement bared his glorious butt for the whole world to see, it made no doubt in Alya's mind that she had intruded on a rather intimate moment.

The three of them were still trying to process the aftermaths of the shock when Alya's Facetime ringtone pierced the silence:
"Sorry, babe, this is kind of not a good time to-"
"Can you meet me at the police station?"
Alya stuttered, staring blankly at his husband panicked face on her screen:
"What? Why?"
"Something bad happened to Adrien! Dude's door was left ajar, there's a half eaten pizza in the living room and his dumb ass is nowhere in sight. His phone was left on his bedroom floor, his keys and car are still here and-"
"Don't worry babe, your stupid friend is safe… for now."
The newlywed smirked widely before adding, rotating her phone halfway so Nino could see both their best friends in bed in all their naked glory:
"Meet me at Marinette's?"
"ALYA!" Marinette shrieked, flushing bright red while Adrien groaned loudly, falling back on the bed and covering his face with a pillow.

It took Marinette a good ten minutes to emerge from her bedroom, clad in a random band t-shirt and pink yoga pants. She was avoiding her best friend's questioning gaze, effectively delaying the interrogatory that was sure to come sooner or later. Alya watched warily, as the young lady seemingly absorbed herself into the task of fixing coffee for everyone. If she was to be perfectly honest, the brunette had to admit that Marinette was practically glowing. A faint smile kept dancing on her rosy lips, and there was definitely a spark in her bluebell eyes that wasn't there two weeks prior.

It took Adrien another ten good minutes to strut in the living room, wearing the freshly dried pants and t-shirt he had been wearing the day before. Alya was truly taken aback when she noticed the blond's face light up brightly at the mere sight of her friend, his emerald eyes instantly filling with sheer adoration when he spotted the blackette busy in the small kitchen. The way he looked at her with an infinite tenderness, the way his affections toward Marinette was almost palpable in the room felt even more intimate than the scene she had interrupted earlier.

Nino blissfully took that as his cue to arrive, snapping Adrien's attention back to his surroundings, dissolving the lingering tension in the small apartment.
"Man, that cat of yours is insane. Almost mauled me to get some food."
The blond laughed, fully agreeing with her husband statement. The green irises suddenly locked themselves with Alya's amber gaze, and the young man offered her a small, slightly sheepish smile. Nino put the paper bag he had been holding on the small table and all four of them happily dug into the bag of fresh pastries that Marinette's parents had, once again, insisted were on the house. The young designer distributed steaming cups of coffee before perching herself on the armrest of her couch, only a few inches away from Adrien.

Nino was the first to break the silence, asking the question that was burning his wife's lips:
"So, does that mean you two are dating or what?"
Adrien cast a sideways glance at the blackette besides him:
"Seeing as she already knows my opinion on that matter, that depends on my lady's wishes."
"To be honest, Marinette chuckled softly, there has been an awful lot of dates in the last two weeks, so-"
"What? Alya cut her, dumbfounded, how many dates are we talking about?"
Their friends looked at each other briefly before Adrien smirked:
"Well, if we count the pizza disaster of yesterday as one, that brings the total to eleven official dates."
"What the hell happened while we were gone?"

Yet again, Alya saw her best friend locking eyes with the blond man sitting beside her, a fond smile spreading on both their faces:
"I hurt his feelings assuming he was a womanizer."
Adrien put his mug on the coffee table and rested his left hand on the blackette knee:
"So she took me out on seven dates-"
"Eight."
"Right, sorry princess, Adrien laughed. Eight dates on the same day to make amends."
"The next day I had my phone smashed under a car."
"Which prompted me to snap rather badly at her out of nowhere."
Marinette laughed, planting her loving gaze into Adrien's:
"So naturally, I quit on the spot."
"Since she wasn't coming back, I bribed her with an endless supply of caffeine and two other dates."
"Which were dates number nine and ten, by the way."
"Her way of apologizing for refusing to kiss me at the end of the tenth date was offering date number eleven."
The blackette playfully nudged him on the arm:
"Hey! We had previously agreed on that!"
"Yeah, sure. So anyway, since I forgot to give her my address, I had to go and pick her up.
"With two different shoes and looking like a big mess."
"We had pizza and played video games all afternoon."
"I left after kicking his ass yet again."
"She forgot her phone, so I ran after her to give it back."
"And here we are."
Nino and Alya stared at them, genuinely dumbfounded:
"Would you care to explain to us just how the trainwreck you just described ended up with you two in the same bed?"

Alya eyed the two young people sitting in front of her, very obviously head over heels for each other, unable to shake the feeling that something was amiss.
"I thought you were over him?"
Marinette looked at her this time, sustaining her amber gaze without faltering:
"I am."
"But-"
"I'm over Perfect-Adrien, the blackette cut in, the kind and cute boy I put on a pedestal when I was fifteen. However, I'm nowhere near over the sweet dork that managed to make me fall for him lately."
Alya once again was taken aback by the tenderness oozing from every single word her best friend said.
"But-"
Her husband hastily cut her in, eyes wide with realization:
"Babe, I think they figured it out."
"What? No way."

Sure enough, though, Marinette frowned as Adrien uttered, dumbfounded:
"Wait, you guys knew all along?"
Nino scoffed:
"Please, give us a little credit. Both our best friends had a secret texting best buddy. It wasn't that hard to connect the dots."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
Alya shrugged:
"We figured you two would come around eventually. And Mari wasn't too receptive about breaking the secrecy so…"
The blackette had a sheepish smile, before she let herself slide from the armrest into Adrien's lap. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling his nose in her hair. They looked natural together, like two missing pieces of a puzzle, and Alya had to admit that Adrien seemed to soothe the young woman in a way nobody else ever achieved to. Smiling widely, Alya nodded before taking a sip of her coffee:
"Alright then. Mama Alya approves."