Ladybug's fake identity

Chapter 8: Allies

Marinette arrived surprisingly early that day. Alya stared at her friend with wide eyes. She left Lyssa's side to run towards her.

"Marinette! What happened?"

The bluenette freezed. She had done her best to hide her puffy eyes and dark circles under layers of makeup but Alya had always been observant. Or maybe not. Otherwise, she would have known that Lyssa wasn't who she pretended to be. Still, the true heroine's civilian self didn't want to explain why she was in such a state. She wasn't supposed to have a reason to cry. But luckily for her, this wasn't what surprised Alya.

"It's a miracle! Not only did you not arrive late, but you're early."

The pigtailed girl almost let out a sigh of relief, ignoring her disappointment towards her best friend.

"I woke up early today, I don't know how." she lied.

The only reason why she had been awake this early was that she couldn't sleep. Every time she had closed her eyes, she had seen Adrien's sweet smile as he held Lyssa's hand. It was something that she would have to get used to. Since she found out that it was hopeless, she had been trying to forget how much she loved him, starting with the photographs and magazine covers on her walls. She had ripped them all down. It had been painful but, after doing so, she felt better. The giant calendar where she had written down his schedule for the next three years laid in pieces in her bin.

She had opened the gifts she had prepared for his birthdays up to his 50th year. She had thrown them all away, too. Even the hamster cage. She could have given it to someone else, but she didn't want to hear someone thank her for a gift that wasn't meant to be hers and only reminded her of that love she wanted to forget, of these moments when she imagined a life with him, these bittersweet memories of hopeless daydreaming.

Only one gift had survived. She had discovered it again, in the middle of the other ones. It wasn't even wrapped. Because it wasn't meant for Adrien. It was a black cat keychain. Its eyes were originally blue, so she had sewn them out to add green ones and a little ladybug next to it. It looked bad and had made her emotional for nothing. She didn't like it, but it had made her feel better. Tikki had even sent her a knowing look and had told her that she could give her heart to Chat Noir once she'd be over Adrien for good after having seen the little cat puppet. Her holder had found that ridiculous, she would never love the hero. The kwami didn't answer that, which had annoyed the girl, but at least it had distracted her from her aching, broken heart. And now that stupid keychain was in her purse. She didn't know where else to put it. At least that's what she had told Tikki.

The bell rang and the students made their way to class. She meticulously avoided Adrien and Lyssa's field view during the whole day and reciprocally tried not to stare in their direction. It was hard and she couldn't just disappear during class, unless she skipped it, but that wasn't in her plans. Alya, not knowing why Marinette was trying to hide, let her do as she wanted and joined Lyssa, Lila, Adrien and Nino with a sad expression. Nino tried to talk to the girl, too, but he couldn't get anything out of her.

From time to time, she laid her hand on her purse, where she had put the reminder of someone who would understand her. And she waited for the end of this day, when she could finally go home and, hopefully, tell Chat everything, on the condition of him coming to visit her. But she had faith in him. He had promised.

*

"Where have you been?"

Ladybug did her best not to sound too aggressive when she saw her partner land next to her, but she had had a sleepless, painful night, an awful, lonely day and the world didn't seem to allow her and her aching heart any rest.