Thorns of Roses

Chapter 34 - Blind Emotions

"She's so insufferable sometimes!" Alya let out a frustrated sigh after she closed the door to Mari's room.

She had met with the Princess as she was about to leave the library in the morning and Mari immediately caught her and made her take a long - very long to say the least - walk before she would heading back to her old room.

Tikki had already informed Alya about what happened the night before, how Marinette was broken after the "second" breakup with Chat Noir. Knowing how much that idiot cat meant to the Princess and how much she loved him, Alya had already prepared herself for comforting her friend for hours - if needed. She knew Marinette would be depressed for the next couple of days and it would be Alya's responsibility to shake her up, to be there for her, to get her out of her pessimistic thoughts of a labyrinth, and to remind her about her duties that had to come first - no matter what was she going through right now.

But she had never expected to meet - instead of a broken, depressed Princess - a furious Marinette stepping out of the library.

She immediately grabbed Alya's hand the moment she spotted her walking across the corridor and - without any further explanation - she lead her out to the courtyard...

..where they had a quite extensive conversation about no other man than..

.. Félix.

Don't get her wrong, Alya - alongside Nino - loved seeing these two getting on each other nerves again and again. It was really entertaining to watch and hear about constantly - especially with having the belief that they were made for each other - which the pair was certain about.

But there were times when seeing their never-ending fights was just too tiring.

"At least, by the looks of it, she's doing better than how Tikki had told me." Alya thought.

Although she had already could imagine what was the Princess's problem with him again, she had never thought that this time something entirely different was going on.

The reason Marinette was about to have an outburst was because of the event that happened between her and the Prince in the library this morning. Apparently, Félix "wasn't himself" as the Princess implied. He was helpful and almost kind to her that she just couldn't comprehend as he had never acted like this with her before.

But the most unbelievable thing from the morning was that Félix did pay attention to her - noticing such irrelevant details as that silly habit of her when she tended to wear different colors of ribbons in her hair - depending on her current mood.

"Can you believe this, Alya??!" she had been asking this for the millionth time even after they headed back to the building and made their way to her old bedroom. "How...or rather, WHY does he know this about me?!" the Princess collapsed on her bed and buried her reddening face into her pillow.

"Mari, do you realize that your problem with him is that he was nice to you and, by the looks of it, even concerned about your wellbeing, right?!" Alya sighed, regretting her idea in the morning to search for the Princess. "Shouldn't you be happy knowing this? It means, he cares about you! Or at least," she added after seeing Mari's sarcastic gaze, "he doesn't want to kill you anymore!" she chuckled.

"Hahaha, hilarious.." Marinette imitated a laugh and sat up on her bed. "But Alya, this is indeed bad news! This means I have to be extra careful from now on! He can't find out that I'm Ladybug!" she declared - unintentionally touching her scarf after recalling their conversation back there.

"I see."Alya watched her suspiciously - immediately seeing through her friend." So your blushing face has nothing to do with this at all, I guess?" she added mischievously.