Continuing Tales

Wingless

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by spectaclesandbooks

Part 5 of 38

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Fuming.

That was the word to describe Alya as she paced around the classroom, Nino watching on warily.

But she wasn't fuming at Marinette, as one might have expected. Despite the horrible things her friend had said to her half an hour ago, she didn't believe them for a second. Marinette was Chloe's least favourite person, and vice versa. No way was Marinette willingly Chloe's personal servant, and no way was Alya going to let this go.

The bell had rung at the end of the class, and immediately a roar of chatter had consumed the students, as they discussed the events of the lesson. Alya and Nino (neither of whom had managed to get very much work done) stayed in their seats as everyone else left to go to lunch, and the teacher had left them there as she shuffled out, muttering irritably.

The second the door had shut behind their tired and overworked teacher, Alya had exploded, and it had taken Nino about ten minutes to get her to stop shouting profanities about Chloe for long enough for them to hold a discussion.

"No way do I believe that Chloe did Marinette a favour. I mean, really? Chloe? When has Chloe Bourgeois ever done anything for someone other than herself?" Alya repeated now for the sixth time, arms crossed as she strode across the room, filled with raging energy.

"I know, Alya. You have mentioned that particular viewpoint before, you know." Sighed Nino. He was concerned about his friend, too. It had distressed him to see both Marinette and Alya so upset, distressed him more than he'd let on. "Ugh. What's taking Adrien so long? Do you reckon he found her?"

Alya stopped and threw her hands up in the air.

"I don't know. I don't know!" She cried. "It's just so unbelievable! Marinette never lies to me, and she hates Chloe. I… I just have no clue what's going through that girl's head."

Exhausted, she slumped down into the nearest seat, covering her eyes with a tired hand.

"Well, I do." Sighed a tired voice from the doorway. The other two looked up to see Adrien shutting the door behind him, having hidden in the boy's restroom for the remainder of the lesson to keep up his photoshoot façade.

"Adrien! Did you catch her?" Cried Alya, leaping forwards to look at the blond boy. "What happened? Did she tell you what was going on?"

"Easy, Alya, give the boy some space." Said Nino, yanking the excited girl away from Adrien and pulling her down into a seat, before turning to Adrien himself. "Well?"

Adrien slumped into the seat opposite them.

"I found her." Seeing the hopeful looks on his friends' faces as he spoke, he rushed to finish. "But you're not going to like what she said."

"Just tell us what happened, already, dude!" Shouted Alya in frustration. Her best friend was hurting, and she had no idea why, or where she now was. She was going to kill Chloe.

"Well, I saw her in one of the maths classrooms, crying. I tried to get her to talk to me, and for a moment it looked like she was going to tell me what was going on, but then she stopped and ran away. It was weird… like she wanted to talk to me but… wasn't allowed. Then… she ran out of school and I caught up to her on the steps and tried again to get her to talk, but she sort of closed herself off. Like she didn't want to think about what she was about to say."

"Well, what did she say?" Pressed Nino, impatiently. Adrien sighed.

"All this stuff… about me not really being her friend. Apparently I'm a spoiled little rich boy who toys with girls' emotions." Alya gasped, and he hurriedly continued: "I could tell she didn't mean any of it, though. The whole time she was looking really upset, and when I felt a bit hurt by what she'd said, she saw and looked really guilty. I guess Marinette just said those things so I'd get out of her way, but I didn't. I told her I was her friend whether she wanted me to be, or not. Then she sort of looked away, and said that if I was really her friend… I'd let her go. And then… then I did."

There was silence for a moment.

"What the hell, man." Nino said weakly. "This is some messed-up crap right here." Adrien nodded in silent agreement.

"Poor Marinette." Sighed Alya miserably. Again, there was a short silence, nobody knowing what next to say.

"Do you agree, then?" Adrien asked, wanting someone to agree, to calm him. The other two looked at him, confused. "Do you also think that she didn't mean those things she said? Does she actually hate me that much or was it just an act to get me to leave her alone?" he felt petty for worrying about that, of all things, but it had been bothering him. Was that why Marinette always avoided him? Did she hate him?

Instead of an immediate answer, he saw Alya and Nino share a dark look. His stomach fell.

"Oh god, she really does hate me. Why? What did I do? I've ne-" he was cut off from his panic by Alya.

"No, no, no! Adrien, calm down." The blond stopped yelling and looked at her.

"Well, if she doesn't hate me, then what was that look you two just shared all about, huh?"

Alya gave Nino a rueful smile and he decided it was time.

"She loves you, bro."

"She- I… what?" Adrien was at a loss for words.

"She's been totally in love with you for years, Adrien." Alya repeated, watching the confusion play across his face. "I was just thinking that Marinette must really be upset for her to say those horrible things to you. She must really have needed for you to get out of her way for her to say stuff like that to you."

Nino nodded his agreement as they watched Adrien process.

His initial reaction was confusion, obviously. Marinette? In love… with him? So that was why she always seemed to fall over when he smiled at her, that was why she never managed to hold a conversation with him without stammering. Then, confusion turned to relief. She doesn't hate me, she doesn't hate me… And finally, relief turned to worry. He agreed with Alya and Nino. For Marinette to have said those awful things to someone she loved, she must really have been in a dilemma.

"Um… wow." He managed to choke out. "That… okay, well… that's new." He smiled weakly.

"Do you like her back?" Asked Alya, eagerly, only to receive an elbow to the ribs from Nino. She glared at him for a second, before shaking her head. "Right, no, not important."

Adrien begged to differ, but he had too much else going on in his head to really get into that right now.

"Adrien, when you came in, you said you thought you knew what was going on in Marinette's head. What do you mean?" Nino asked, bringing everyone back to the problem at hand.

Adrien nodded and sat up. He'd mulled it over during his hide in the bathroom, and had managed to come to a conclusion.

"Blackmail." He announced, and saw his friends' faces darken at the word.

"What- you mean from Chloe?" Asked Alya. Adrien nodded.

"She must have something over Mari. She must know something, one of her secrets. She must be making Mari do all this stuff for her, and if she doesn't, then she'll have threatened to tell everyone. It's the only thing I could come up with."

"Makes sense," murmured Nino, "Marinette really didn't look like she wanted to be doing all that stuff for Chloe. I guess she said all those things to you and Alya because she was afraid she'd let the cat out of the bag herself if she didn't … sorta distance herself from the problem, y'know?"

The others nodded.

"What could it be, though?" Alya wondered aloud.

"Well, I was thinking it could have been that Chloe knew about one of Marinette's crushes, but…" Adrien trailed off.

Alya shook her head. "Mari's far too sensible to let Chloe hold that over her head. I mean, sure, she never exactly wanted everybody to know about her and how she felt about you, but she wasn't embarrassed enough to do… this." The others agreed. "Plus, why would she have said that stuff to me if it was about Adrien? I've known since the start, she wouldn't have to worry about keeping it a secret from me. No, it must be something else."

Again, the others nodded.

Then, Adrien voiced what they were all thinking.

"Well, what are we going to do about it? Clearly, she really doesn't want anyone to know, so how are we going to show her our support if she's too scared to talk to us? And I also have a feeling that Chloe's going to be watching Mari pretty closely. She's probably got a rule that Mari's not allowed to talk to any of us, too. Unless she's saying how pretty she is, of course."

Alya and Nino looked at him, worriedly, privately agreeing.

This was going to be a difficult one.

Wingless

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by spectaclesandbooks

Part 5 of 38

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