Puppet

Birthday

Enjoy this because I go back to school soon and I probably won't update for a while

-

The painless pinch of the hoop clicking onto her earlobe was almost enough to send tears streaming down her face.

It had been ten months - almost a whole year - since Marinette had worn anything other than the plain black studs, even for fancy occasions. But now, the new hoops that hung heavy on her ears were a painful reminder that she was no longer Ladybug. She no longer had Tikki or Chat Noir by her side and she was defenceless against her once partner and whoever had stolen the butterfly miraculous.

"Marinette? Alyas here!" Sabine called cheerfully up the stairs, still unaware of her daughter's recent losses.

Marinette hurriedly grabbed her purse and opened her trap door, "Coming!"

It was a struggle descending the ladder in her heels and dress, almost sending her falling to the ground countless times before she reached the safety of the stable, flat surface. Partial safety anyway, Marinette still stumbled dramatically in the three-inch heels she'd managed to scrounge from the back of her closet, which were maybe not the best idea.

"O-M-G girl you look so good!" Alya squealed when she came into view, bouncing in a strapless silver dress that accentuated her curves and was definitely out of place in the bakery.

"Happy birthday Aly- agh!" Marinette tried to say before tripping gracelessly down the final step and just barely managing to stay on her feet by grabbing her laughing friend.

Alya steadied her without a word, bracelets jangling noisily on her wrists and still bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet.

A honk sounded loudly outside, causing Alya to roll her eyes in exasperation and tug Marinette none too gently out to the waiting car outside the bakery.

"Bye Mum! Bye, papa!" Marinette called hastily to her busy parents, who waved with stretched smiles and told her to "have fun" and "stay safe".

"Okay so the other girls are meeting us there and we were all thinking of getting ice cream after and maybe visiting like the Love Lock Bridge or something and-"

"Breathe, Alya," Marinette giggled as she pulled herself into the backseat of Alya's mum's car, trying to ignore the heaviness in her smile that came with the burden of losing a miraculous.

"Right, okay," Alya made a great show of inhaling and exhaling heavily, before finishing at a much slower pace, "and...if you want to stay the night you can borrow some of my clothes,"

Marinette's grin was beginning to feel lighter, not by a lot but enough to notice, "I can't believe you're already sixteen, that's so...old" The fake shudder she put on at the end rustled her hair, midnight strands falling into her eyes.

"Right? I feel like I just started middle school yesterday!" Alya's eyes widened comically behind her glasses. She tucked her feet onto the car seat beneath her, abandoning her heels, "It'll be you too soon you know."

Marinette squealed melodramatically into her hands, which immediately moved to cover her ears, "No, nope, no way I am not gonna be sixteen anytime soon," she said adamantly, as though she could slow time by simply thinking it hard enough.

Alya's mother was heard chuckling in the front seat, watching the two banter through the rearview mirror in the short drive to the restaurant.

"-sixteen just feels so old," Marinette was insisting.

"Are you calling me old, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

"Maybe I am, Alya Cesaire," she teased, tucking her hair behind her ear. Alya, seemingly on the verge of retorting another mocking joke, followed the movement with a fading grin. Her eyes trained on the hand that still lingered by her ear, twisting a strand of hair, with a kind of slackjawed expression one would adopt after seeing a ghost.