Archive of Our Own ^beta

v

When Marinette said goodbye to Alya the night of Prime Queen’s attack, she collapsed in her bed and stared at the ceiling. Her heart still hammered in her chest from the events of the day, from the fear of almost losing her best friend.

But she was Ladybug, and she would never let something so awful happen to someone she cared for deeply.

So she hadn’t. 

She’s saved the day, Chat by her side, and when she had returned home, she saw Alya safe and sound, not a hair out of place. It wasn’t quite real until they hugged, but then it was, and Marinette had felt a heavy weight lift from her shoulders as she sighed into Alya.

Her thoughts were still on her best friend when exhaustion mixed with relief finally pulled her into a deep sleep, and if she dreamed of hazel eyes, well...

That would be her little secret.

iv

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Alya!” Marinette called out, waving goodbye as Alya left through the bakery.

Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much, but that was often a side-effect of hanging out with Alya, and it only worsened when they babysat Manon together. It was the best kind of hurt, though, so Marinette didn’t mind.

Giving a quick kiss to both of her parents, she bounded back upstairs to her room to allow herself a moment to catch her breath. Looking around, she saw a few toys and pillows still scattered about from when Manon was there earlier. Easy enough to pick up, but Marinette’s gaze caught on the picture laying on her desk. Walking over to it, her fingers traced Alya’s signature and her expression softened.

“I’m gonna need a frame for this one,” she said to nobody in particular. In it, herself, Alya, and Manon played together, each of them laughing. It warmed her heart, and another thought came to her. “Or, maybe...”

Marinette glanced up to her bed, and clutched the picture to her chest. Maybe she could make a copy- so she had one to frame, and the other to keep close. For now, she walked up and set it gently beneath her pillow.

For later, she thought to herself, jumping slightly when Tikki appeared at her shoulder.

“Did you have fun today?” she asked, smiling sweetly.

“I did! We watched that video of Alya on Mme. Chamack’s show so many times it’s like, engraved in my brain.” Flopping onto her back, she sighed and rested her head on her arms. “It was also really tiring, though. Manon has so much energy, it’s crazy! My heart’s still racing from it,” she said with a laugh.

“I don’t think that’s why your heart’s racing,” Tikki whispered, and Marinette did a double take. Surely, she didn’t say what Marinette thought she did.

“What was what?”

“I said, maybe you should take a nap, rest up a bit before patrol!”

“Uh huh, sure you did,” Marinette muttered, suspicious but unable to refute it. “What’d you really say?”

“Nothing, nothing. Just get some rest.”

Marinette grumbled but conceded. She closed her eyes and settled against her pillows, ready to fall asleep for a little while.

Five minutes passed, and soon it was ten, thirty, an hour. 

She hadn’t slept a blink. Groaning, Marinette rolled onto her side, careful not to roll onto Tikki, and pulled the picture out from under her pillows.

Studying it once more, her heartbeat quickened and she groaned even louder into her arm.

“Tikki, I think I know why.”

iii

Sometimes, Marinette caught herself staring. There was always something about Alya that drew her eyes in, and that kept them there. Whether it was brushing her hair behind an ear, or the subtle bite of her lip when she was focusing on schoolwork, Marinette couldn’t help but look.

And everytime Marinette caught herself, Alya caught her too. She never laughed, or said anything about the fact, but she always smiled so sweetly, so kindly that Marinette’s cheeks reddened, and she couldn’t move or look away until Alya turned her attention back to her work.

When she was set free from Alya’s gaze, she would look forward and pretend to pay attention to class, all the while thinking about how positively alluring Alya was when she smiled at her like that. 

Marinette would do anything to keep Alya happy, her eyes and nose crinkled from smiling so widely.

Sighing contentedly into her hand, she looked down and started to mindlessly scribble in her notes.

(Later, she tore the pages free of her book, blushing furiously at the little hearts surrounding hers and Alya’s initials doodled across the margins.

They hovered over her trashcan for only an instant before she stashed them away in a drawer instead. She didn’t have the heart to throw out... well, her heart.

Even if there was a huge chance Alya had seen her.)

ii 

Alya’s head laid on her lap, and Marinette’s fingers ran through her curls with a kind of gentleness she didn’t bless many with. There was something calming about it all- sitting in the park, laying on the grass with flowers springing up all around them, being together without a worry in the world.

Days could’ve passed, and she wouldn’t have noticed so long as Alya was there, with her, in their bubble that let the rest of the world pass by without so much as a glance.

But, as it were, their comfortable silence only lasted until Alya checked her phone and how late it was getting. She sat up, and Marinette missed her instantly, her subconscious making her shift closer to her best friend.

“You’ve gotta go so soon?” Marinette asked, pouting just a bit.

“Yeah, Maman wants me to watch the twins tonight.” Alya stretched and stood up before offering Marinette her hand.

Grabbing it, Alya hoisted Marinette to her feet a little too roughly, causing Marinette to fall forward into her. Alya’s arms immediately rapped around her to make sure she was stable, but instead of letting go, she held closer.

Ignoring the dust of pink on her cheeks, Marinette hugged back, hiding her smile in Alya’s flannel.

“See you tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” Alya promised, the warmth of her breath on the back of Marinette’s neck making her shudder.

They stayed like that for a short minute before Marinette pulled away, a bittersweet look on her face.

“You should go. Don’t want you to get in trouble or anything- we’ve got a sleepover planned this weekend, after all!” she exclaimed. Her arms were half crossed, with one one hand brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She rocked back and forth on her feet the tiniest bit and looked up at Alya through her lashes.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. Lord knows I don’t want to get grounded. See you tomorrow, Sweets,” Alya said with a wink. Side-stepping Marinette, she paused half-way through and quickly planted a kiss on her cheek before hurrying off.

It took ten minutes of Tikki trying to get Marinette’s attention for her to fully process what had happened, and when she did, her face blossomed into a brilliant red that Tikki could’be camouflaged against.

It took another ten minutes for her to drag herself back home, at which point she promptly faceplanted into her pillows and screamed, although it still wasn’t louder than the thunderous beat of her heart.

i 

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Alya asked as she spun in Marinette’s computer chair. She leaned back as far as it would let her, and her head hung off the back in a way that Marinette knew would give her a crick in the neck.

“Always,” Marinette responded, refusing to look up and break her concentration when her toenails were almost perfectly painted.

“You have a lot less pictures of Adrien on your wall than you used to.”

Faltering with her nail polish hovering just above her next nail, Marinette sighed. So much for not losing her concentration.

“That’s not a question,” she said dryly.

“Oh, stop being so smart. The ‘why’s that?’ was implied, you left boob.”

Marinette scoffed and rolled her eyes, but silently cursed the way her stomach did a flip at the topic of conversation.

“First, I’m at least both boobs. Second, I dunno.” She shrugged and went back to carefully painting. “I guess I just... realized that I like someone else,” she said, soft and low.

It felt weird, saying it out loud. But it also felt nice.

Alya stopped spinning, sat up straight, and looked at her. “Oh, yeah?”

“Mhm.”

“When’d you realize...?”

“When I- um, that is, when Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated Prime Queen, I started to suspect. But I realized it the week after.” Marinette absolutely refused to look up now, and instead watched her nails like they’d suddenly started talking.

“That was a couple months ago now,” Alya stated, rolling somewhere else in the room. “Thirsty?”

“Uh, yep, yeah it was.” Pleased with her nail art, Marinette closed her polish and began to blow on them to help the drying process along. “I could drink. Water, please?”

Alya hummed in response and grabbed two bottles of water before scooting the chair over to the chaise where Marinette was. Handing one over, she commented, “Hey, those came out really nice.”

“Thanks and thanks.” Taking the bottle, she opened it and took a quick sip. “Want me to do yours next?”

“Uh, hell yes. Maybe we should do it up in your bed though, I don’t think we have enough room here,” she said, tapping the chaise.

“Mm, yeah, I think you’re right. Meet me up there, I’m gonna just let mine dry a couple more minutes.”

“Okie doke.” Alya rolled the chair back over to Marinette’s desk and headed up to her bed. “So, about your new crush... I know them?”

“Uh huh, you could say that.”

“Not gonna tell me who?”

“I have a sneaking suspicion that you already know who it is,” Marinette said, a nervous laugh escaping her. 

“And how do you know that?” Alya asked, peaking over the edge of the bed. 

Marinette looked over her shoulder at her and rolled her eyes, a small smile on her face.

“Well, for one thing, you were there when she kissed me on the cheek a few days ago...” she trailed off, taking another drink.

“Oh, yeah. I liked her, she seemed pretty cool.”

Marinette choked on her water at that, a laugh trying to come up at the same time the water tried to go down. “Oh my god,” she said between coughs, “you’re so ridiculous.”

“Maybe so, but it hasn’t driven you away from me yet, now has it?” Alya grinned down at her.

“No, I suppose it hasn’t.” Looking at the polishes she had out, she called up, “What colors do you want? I’ve only got pinks and whites out right now.”

“I’m kind of feeling yellow today.”

“Yellow I can do. Get comfy, cause you’re not gonna be moving around and getting polish on my sheets like last time,” Marinette warned.

“Well if you didn’t instigate a tickling war, it wouldn’t have happened!” she called back.

Despite her words, Marinette could hear Alya moving and shook her head. “My room, my rules, Peaches. What I say goes.”

“That’s unfair and you know it, Dupain-Cheng.”

“All is fair in love and war,” she laughed, getting up to put her shades of pink away and to grab her yellows. “Did you want any other colors?”

“Don’t use famous quotes on me,” Alya scolded. “But I’d love some of those cute flowers you did on yours, so white too, please!”

“Sure thing!” Grabbing what she needed, she headed up to her bed and immediately dropped everything on her sheets.

Before her, Alya was looking at the picture she kept hidden beneath her pillows. With humor in her eyes, she looked up to meet Marinette’s embarrassed gaze.

“I didn’t know you liked it that much,” she said, her eyes and nose crinkled in that special way that made everything in the world okay by simply existing in proximity to Marinette.

“It... It’s one of my favorites,” Marinette admitted, bending over to pick up all the nail polish bottles up. “And you signed it, so it’s special.”

“Aw, girl. I’m glad it’s so important to you.” Setting it down beside her, Alya looked thoughtful. “You know, I only have Ladybug’s autograph. You’ve never given me Marinette’s.”

Marinette had to work very hard not to drop the vials of paint again as she stared at Alya in shock. That was short-lived, however, and soon the shock shifted into a playful smirk.

“I’m sure I could pull some strings to get you one, if you really wanted it.”

“Oh, I do,” Alya laughed, laying back when Marinette tapped her foot to signify she was going to start. “I really, really do.”

“Then consider it done,” Marinette told her with a smile. Opening one of her paints, she set to work.

nulla 

That night, after nail painting and the introduction of Tikki, Marinette and Alya had settled in to bed. Marinette was already well on her way to falling asleep, the excitement of the day taking a toll on her.

Alya, on the other hand, laid wide awake next to her.

“Mari, you still awake?” she asked, quiet but needing.

“Mhm,” Marinette hummed out, cracking her eyes open enough to see Alya watching her back.

“Can I ask you another question?”

“You jus’ did-” she yawned- “but yeah.”

“Are we...” she hesitated before finishing,”Are we dating now?”

That woke her up. “Um. Do you want us to be?”

“Yes? Maybe? I don’t know!” Alya groaned. “All I know is that I want to be more than friends.”

Marinette didn’t answer for a few seconds, but did find Alya’s hand to hold.

“Then we are,” Marinette told her, emphasizing her statement with a squeeze of her hand. 

Alya squeezed back and sighed, finally closing her eyes. “Good night, Mari.”

“Night, Als.” Marinette yawned and followed suit, scooting closer to the warmth Alya exuded.

As soon as she fell asleep, Marinette found herself seeing Alya again, and her smile made its way through to her sleeping form.

Everything felt just right.