Archive of Our Own ^beta

Alya paused in front of the flight of stone steps that led up to her new school. Students her age walked around and past her. She had started at a new school too many times to feel anything other than exhaustion. Because every six months or so, her maman would drag her off to a different corner of the world for some other archeological dig. 

But this time was different. This time her maman hadn’t taken Alya with her. She had decided this new job was too remote - somewhere in Tibet where hardly anyone would speak French as if Alya hadn’t mastered the basics of three other languages by this time. No, this time she had sent Alya to live with her dad and her baby half sisters. And she loved her dad and her sisters! They drove her absolutely crazy, but in a good way.

She had just always clicked better with her maman.

And this was for three years. 

“But maybe by then you’ll want to finish lycee there too, once you’ve made some friends.” 

She would make friends - she always did. It was hard not to when she was loud and had opinions about everything. 

None of her friendships ever had time to become all that deep though. She almost couldn’t imagine having a friend that was worth staying for.

And then she met Marinette. 

The girl was a disaster. The first time Alya laid eyes on her, she had been babbling nonsense to an absolute blond bitch trying to push her out of her seat. Alya had wanted to help then. 

She hooked her arm through Marinette’s elbow and swept her down to the row below, but Marinette tripped on the way down the aisle’s stairs, sending a box of cookies sprawling to the floor. 

“I’m sorry!” Marinette exclaimed as if the accident had been her own fault and not Alya’s or Chloé’s.

Marinette had smiled so brightly when they split the one remaining pistachio flavored macaron.

And Alya found herself beaming back. 

This girl needed someone. And Alya maybe wanted to be needed. 

It was a new feeling for her, but she liked it.

And Marinette was unlike anyone Alya had ever met before. 

Her thoughts were all over the place - jumping from topic to topic like a small child collecting shiny shells on a beach. It didn’t matter if most of them were broken, Marinette would turn them into something amazing - something beautiful or useful, or both!

She was also as flighty as a pigeon and she needed Alya to yank her back to the ground on occasion.

But more than anything, Marinette cared so much about what was right and what was good , she just cared so much about everything. 

The same way Alya did. 

The way that no one else ever had. 

Alya had found a kindred spirit, and she had known two weeks into their friendship that she had a bit more than a crush on her best friend.

Was it rough that the girl she was crushing on was super lost on some stereotypically cute boy? 

Most definitely.

At least Adrien was sweet if also a bit bland for Alya’s taste. As Marinette’s best friend, she was determined to be supportive.

“Girl! You just need to talk to him!”

Marinette’s blushing red face was hidden by her long fingers as she rapidly shook her head. 

“I can’t! He’s like the sun! So bright! So warm! And I’m a tiny meteorite!”

“You are not tiny!”

“How would he ever notice me?”

Alya sighed. He had already noticed her. Did Marinette not realize that meteorites burned so hot and bright that they could be seen from the ground? 

“You just need to talk to him!” Alya repeated firmly.

Marinette’s face crashed onto her desk. “Augh! You make it sound so easy!” 

Alya urged her back up and peeled Marinette’s hands from her face.

“It doesn’t have to be that hard.” 

“Easy for you to say,” Marinette pouted. 

Alya laughed. Marinette was way too cute.

“C’mon! You just have to practice!”

But before they could, their phones both went off with an akuma alert.

Marinette tensed at the familiar alarm, but Alya felt a thrill of excitement rush through her. 

“Don’t think this gets you out of anything!” she warned, even as she ran for the door. 

Marinette didn’t laugh. “You’ll be careful?” she asked instead. 

“I’ll be careful!” 

Marinette snorted. 

“I will!” 

Alya had learned if she got hit by the akuma she usually wouldn’t be able to get any footage, so it was important not to get hit.

But Marinette’s brows still pinched together in worry. 

Alya flashed her a smile. “Girl! Don’t worry! If anything happens Ladybug will put it right!”

And then she flew out the door chasing after her favorite superhero.

She had barely made it a block when the familiar flash of red swung past with Alya on her bike in hot pursuit.

Alya had been obsessed with superheroes since she was eight. She could tell you all the publicly available information on pretty much every single one of them - their powers, their battles, their strategic approaches, and moral philosophies. Sometimes, she felt like she knew them - like they were her friends.

Friends she got to keep through every move. Because no matter where she lived, the exploits of Majestia and Knight Owl would be news. 

In a single encounter, Ladybug had become the most important to her. Ladybug’s powers weren’t the most impressive, she could be irritable and petty with akumas and civilians alike, and she definitely wasn’t always the best during interviews.

And yet, Alya thought she was the best of all of them. 

Maybe the difference was just because Alya was privileged enough to witness Ladybug’s debut and to see how she worked up close in almost every encounter since. Ladybug’s powers weren’t flashy during combat. Her powers weren’t often directly used against an opponent at all. 

No, Ladybug was impressive because her superpower wasn’t the lucky charm; it was her ability to use her brain, to take a random object and see straight to the most bizarre solution. 

Not unlike Marinette.

And no matter how bad the situation looked, Ladybug always rose to the moment with confidence and determination.

Alya definitely had a bit of a celebrity crush on her favorite heroine.

And having first hand experience on what it felt like to be cradled in Ladybug’s arms as they swung from rooftop to rooftop only fueled such fantasies. 

But Alya had no illusions that anything would ever happen between her and Ladybug. 

Ladybug almost wasn’t real. Even when she was always kind enough to grant Alya a quote or a full interview. Even when Ladybug had offered her a miraculous of her own and a chance to run beside her, Alya knew that Ladybug wasn’t someone who could truly ever be in her personal life.

Not in the way that Alya craved.

Ladybug was amazing and brilliant, but like the stars in the sky, Alya couldn’t touch her. Not really. 

No, Ladybug was a fantasy. One, Alya enjoyed immensely running through her head, but still a fantasy nonetheless.

Then Nino happened. Alya hadn’t planned for it. She had thought Marinette was crazy for pushing it! Didn’t Marinette realize that Alya liked her?

But Nino was an awkward goofball and chaotic in the way his mind worked. 

Not unlike Marinette.

And Marinette wasn’t interested. And she didn’t need to be. Alya loved being her friend.

Her best friend. 

Alya had never before been anyone else’s best friend. Never the person someone else turned to when they needed an ear or a shoulder, or just someone to laugh with. 

Alya had never felt so special or so trusted. 

She’d do anything for Marinette. 

Then Marinette started falling apart at the seams, and not in the normal Marinette overthinking until her line of thought circled back around enough times to tie a bow. She came to school with bags under her eyes, skittish and irritable around everyone - not just Adrien. If anything, she seemed to have calmed down around him, but it was more like she was too tired to notice he was there than because she had gotten over her nerves around the boy. 

“Girl, are you sure you’re okay? You look beat.”

Marinette offered her a smile, or she tried to anyway, but it seemed to fall off her face before it had finished forming.

“I’m fine. Just tired.”

But Alya had seen Marinette tired before. Alya loved it when Marinette was tired because Marinette would get all wilty and let her head fall to Alya's shoulder. She would be grumpy and whiny, but still smiley at the same time, and extra extra cuddly. 

“You know,” Marinette continued, not even glancing over at her, “working late on a design idea that struck a bit too late.” 

But if that had been true, Marinette would have been buzzing with excitement to show off the sketch or the prototype. 

“Is it Luka?” Alya asked softly. That’s what Juleka had assumed. 

Marinette laughed as if it was the most ridiculous thought on the planet. Alya was almost offended on Luka’s behalf. Almost. He had been the one to break up with Marinette afterall, which was a choice that Alya could not ever agree with or understand. 

She coveted every moment in Marinette’s company. 

She froze. When was the last time they had even hung out?

Getting ice cream three weeks ago? Or was it four?

She needed to fix this.

Her chin pressed into her hand with a huge grin. “Why don’t we have a sleepover tonight? And you can give me all the deets on what is actually going on.”

But if anything, Marinette winced. “I don’t know. Like, you said, I’m dead on my feet. I would probably fall asleep on you so early.” 

“This weekend then?” 

“Umm… I’ll have to check with my maman.” 

All the alarms were blaring in Alya’s head now. Marinette was avoiding her. 

She took the revelation like a blow to the chest.

When had Marinette stopped trusting her? Stopped turning to her with anything and everything?

She shoved the thought aside. It didn’t matter! Not at the moment anyway. Something was wrong. And Alya didn’t know what it was, didn’t understand why. 

She needed to figure out what was going on and find a way to fix it, or at the very least , remind Marinette that she was there for her.

Because she’d do anything for Marinette. 

But talking Marinette into the slumber party was hard. She had to get the whole gang involved and on board before Marinette was even reluctantly willing to consider it. And Alya guessed that if Marinette was truly avoiding them all, she would just flake anyway. But if they all came to her– 

“Please Marinette! You have the best set up and the best snacks! The Couffaine boat barely fits us all, Alix’s brother is beyond annoying, and so are the twins. Rose isn’t out with her parents yet, and Mylene’s dad isn’t home tonight!”

That wasn’t actually entirely true. He was just working late, but Marinette didn’t need to know that.

“Fine!” she grumbled. “We can do the party at my house, but I’m in the middle of a sensitive project. A whole corner of my room is off limits.” 

“Sure, girl! Whatever you want! I can head over early, and help you cordone the whole area off.” 

“No!”

Alya frowned at the panicked objection. “You don’t want me to come early and help you set up?”

“It’s just… I’m sure you have other… more important things to do than helping me clean up my disaster of a room.” 

Alya put a hand on her shoulder and waited until she had Marinette’s gaze. “Girl, don’t you know? I’d do anything for you.” 

Marinette glanced away. “Yeah… and I appreciate it, but this is… it’s personal.” 

So personal that Marinette didn’t want to tell her. 

And it wasn’t like Alya was entitled to knowing everything. Marinette was obviously allowed to keep whatever she wanted to herself, to have her own privacy. 

And yet, it hurt.

Alya tried to swallow it down. She even succeeded for a few moments at a time, but the lump would inevitably rise back up into her throat again anyway. But at least the party was happening, and hopefully with the help of the girls, they could all figure out exactly what was going on.

If Alya had any doubt that something was up, which she didn’t, it would have been blasted out of the sky the second they filed into Marinette’s room. The room was dark. The windows were covered with shutters and boards that absolutely didn’t used to be there. 

Marinette had always let the light pour in. Apparently picking matching and contrasting colors out tended to work out better in natural lighting. 

“What’s with the whole blocking out the sun thing?” Leave it to Alix to be blunt. 

“I kinda like it,” Juleka mumbled. “Creepy ambiance and what not.” 

“Exactly!” Marinette agreed way too quickly. “Telling creepy stories in a creepy room is like, the theme of our sleepover! Did I forget to tell you?” 

Alya snorted. More like Marinette forgot to tell herself. 

“Oh my god! Marinette!” Rose gushed, running over to a miniature Victorian style house sitting on Marinette’s desk. “Is that a dollhouse?! It’s so cute!”

Mylene was only a split second behind, her hand lifting the roof to peek inside, clearly in awe.

“No!” Marinette screamed like they had stabbed her. “Don’t touch that!” 

Mylene dropped the roof piece, and it broke upon landing on the table. 

“You ruined it! I said that whole corner was off limits!” Except she hadn’t actually said that yet. 

“Marinette! It’s okay,” Alya interjected. “Mylene didn’t mean any harm. We both know you can fix it.” 

“You don’t understand!”

“Then explain it to us!” Alya was begging, shaking. She needed to understand. 

But Marinette was rapidly shaking her head.

Alya closed the space between them, cradling Marinette’s hands in her own. “Please Marinette. What’s wrong?! We’re your friends. You can talk to us. You can talk to me.” 

Please, just talk to me. 

But Marinette ripped her hands away and took a step back. “I can’t! I think you all should leave.” 

And her gaze conveyed clearly that Alya was included in the dismissal. 

Now, Alya felt like the one who had been stabbed.

“We’re only trying to help! I’m only—“ Alya didn’t get to finish. 

The world turned distant and fuzzy. Alya — no, Lady WiFi knew only hurt, rage, and an obsessive compulsion to find out what was wrong. 

If Marinette wouldn’t tell her, Lady WiFi would figure it out and then Marinette would never have to be alone.

Lady WiFi would do anything for Marinette, even corner and force her to talk for her own well being. But the girl was slippery! Even when being chased by five akumas she managed to get away and disappear! 

And Ladybug would not get out of the way! 

“Alya, please!”

“My name is not Alya!” she screamed, swiping half a dozen pause icons at her adversary who dodged and flipped away frustratingly easily. This was taking too long. Where was Marinette? Lady WiFi needed to find her. 

“I can take you to her,” Ladybug offered.

Lady WiFi scoffed. “I know better than to trust you.” 

Ladybug lowered her yoyo. “But I trust you. I know you want what’s best for Marinette and for Paris. I know you, Alya. And you trust me, too.”

LadyWiFi’s fingers hovered over her phone. She should be taking advantage of the opening. 

But there was something in her voice. 

Don’t listen to her!

“I can’t trust you,” Lady WiFi echoed. “I don’t know anything about you.” 

It made sense. It did. But it didn’t feel right. 

Ladybug smiled, and stepped closer. Close enough that Lady WiFi could take her earrings. 

Or her hand. 

“Just because we can’t tell each other everything, doesn’t mean we can’t trust each other.”

Don’t listen! She’s trying to trick you! To keep you from Marinette. 

“Alya, please! I need you!”

That voice. She recognized that voice.

She’d do anything for that voice. 

Especially when that voice needed Alya. 

She couldn’t be Lady WiFi and be Alya, and Alya was what was needed. 

The mental chains ensnaring her mind shattered. She blinked against the sudden glare of the sun. 

“W-what happened?” she asked, feeling like she had taken more than a few missteps. 

Ladybug reached out to steady her. “Alya! You broke through the akumatization!” 

Alya blinked again. It was Ladybug standing in front of her with a beaming smile, and not… who else had she been expecting? She couldn’t remember now.

“You’re amazing! I’m so proud of you! And right now, I need your help!” 

And Alya was never going to ignore the call to action.

But the second the akuma was defeated, Alya barely took the time to throw the fox miraculous back at Ladybug before she raced back with the others to Marinette’s.

They found her sobbing into her pillow. 

“I’m sorry!” she cried, as they all enveloped her in a group hug. 

“No! We’re sorry!” Rose said. “We shouldn’t have pushed.” 

“But you’re right!” Marinette wiped her cheeks. “I shouldn’t keep everything bottled up either.” 

And then she started babbling about Luka and how she was awful and had hurt him, and didn’t feel like she deserved any support from her friends.

Alya pulled back with a frown. Breaking up with Luka hadn’t been why she had pushed them all away. Marinette was lying. 

Again. 

Even after they had all been akumatized over it.

What wasn’t she telling them? Why didn’t she trust them? Trust her? 

“Just because we can’t tell each other everything, doesn’t mean we can’t trust each other.”

Alya forced herself to take a breath. Whatever Marinette wasn’t telling her didn’t matter. It was Marinette. So whatever she held back, Alya trusted her.

She always would. 

But just because Marinette couldn’t share that didn’t mean Alya couldn’t be there for her just the same. 

“There’s something else,”’Alya said softly as she closed the trap door and turned back around to Marinette. “A best friend can tell.” 

Marinette opened her mouth to object. 

“You don’t have to tell me,” Alya interjected first, sitting down next to Marinette on her chaise lounge. “I just want you to know that I’m here. That I love you, that I trust you even if you can’t tell me everything.” 

Marinette burst into tears. 

Alya’s arms were around her in a second, and Marinette melted into her hold. 

Alya kissed the top of her head. “Shhh. You’re okay.” 

Marinette shook her head violently. “I’m not okay. You’re right. There’s something else. But I can’t tell anyone. I have to lie all the time. To everyone! To my parents, to Luka, to you!” 

Alya squeezed her harder. “Marinette, if you break, what will it have mattered?” 

“But if I tell anyone they’ll be in danger, too! I don’t want you or anyone I care about to be tangled in this the way I am.”

Alya shook her head. “Don’t worry about me right now–” 

She’d face anything for Marinette.

“–tell me if you think it would help you.” 

Marinette sat up, but she remained silent for so long Alya didn’t think she was going to. 

And that was okay. 

“I’m Ladybug.”

It should have been shocking, like her world had been knocked out of orbit. But it wasn’t. It made too much sense. 

She yanked Marinette back into her arms. 

God, it made so much sense. 

“Please, say something,” Marinette mumbled into Alya’s shoulder. 

And Alya’s heart rose up into her throat and her eyes burned. Marinette was struggling because she literally had the weight of the world on her shoulders. She was lying all the time because she had so much to keep secret. 

And she had been handling all of it alone the entire time Alya had known her. 

“Girl, what am I even supposed to say? God, you’re Ladybug! I feel like an idiot.” 

Marinette’s head went limp on her shoulder. “I never wanted to be Ladybug,” she whispered. 

“What? Why not?” 

“I’m just a normal girl–”

Alya snorted. 

“And now I’m responsible for fourteen miraculouses!” she gestured vaguely towards the forbidden corner of her room. “Alya! It’s so stressful. I don’t ever know what I’m doing. If he ever wins, it could literally end the world. And I’m supposed to be the one to stop him? Me? I am just a normal girl! I never asked for any of this!”

“Then why did you do it?”

Marinette sat up, looked straight up at her. “Because you needed me.” 

Alya sucked in a breath. “Me? ”

“You were headed right towards Stoneheart! You had just stood up for me! I couldn’t let you get hurt! I wanted to stand up for you too!” 

Alya swallowed the rock in her throat. But a new one formed a second later. “Marinette!” Alya sobbed, pulling her best friend back into her arms. 

“You believed in me before I had won any battles.”

Alya squeezed her harder than she ever had before. “I love you so much, girl! You have no idea!”

Alya needed to go home and reread every blog post she had ever written, carefully inspect every picture, every video. 

Ladybug had been Marinette the entire time. 

Ladybug had been inspired by Alya herself. 

“Do you… do you want to see?” 

“See what?” 

“All of it! The kwamis! My transformation?” 

Suddenly, Alya was being trusted with everything! Ladybug was Marinette and she trusted Alya with everything .

And god, it was a heady feeling. To be that central in Marinette’s life. 

“Yes! I want to see!” 

Marinette’s dollhouse exploded in a burst of color and chattering kwamis flying around them both. Trixx being the first to sit on her shoulder and nuzzle her face. 

But then Marinette called for her transformation. 

And it was amazing to watch her often anxious best friend evaporate away in waves of sparkling pink light, leaving the determined and confident superhero Alya had come to look up to standing before her. 

No one else had ever seen this. 

No one. 

It felt intimate somehow. 

There had never been any difference or line between Marinette and Ladybug. 

And at the end of it, Marinette winked. 

“Wow!” 

Alya had already known she was in love with her best friend. But now she knew burden Marinette held on her shoulders. Alya was determined to lighten the load.

She really would do anything for this girl. 

Anything. 

She was so screwed.