The Cat And The Snake

Chapter 75 - Don't Let Me Down (Alya/Rena Rouge)

I was furious when that girl had the nerve to begin speaking that sentence to Adrien. The last word she was about to say before Juleka slapped her would have made me lose it and possibly beat her up. She so would've deserved it too, I can't believe she had the nerve to even attempt calling Adrien that name. "Can you believe she almost said that to Adrien?! It took all my sanity to hold myself back from strangling that little-" I used my hand to cover Nino's mouth. "I feel the exact same way. Just be glad Juleka gave her that slap in the face we all wanted to give her." I told him. He nodded.

I removed my hand from his mouth and we joined our friends. Luka's absence was noted by Adrien and Viperion had to say he had a 'Super secret misstion' in order to come back as Luka. "What'd I miss?" He asked innocently when I know his anger is on fire at the random girl who was about to call his boyfriend a horrible name. "Nothing." Adrien said, pretty much ignoring him. I could see the hurt on Luka's face, even though he already knew what happened he feels hurt because Adrien was hiding what happened from Luka.

Before any of could say anything, Adrien parted ways from us. "We know what that means." Marinette sighed. "It means if I'm not here and something happens he won't tell me." Luka snapped. Then he too stormed away. "You guys go after Luka, I'll-" I cut her off, "No. I'll go after Adrien. You guys talk to Luka. I think I can get through to Adrien. Just trust me." I said. Marinette nodded. "Okay, let's go get Luka guys." Chloe, Nino and Juleka followed her.

I went in the direction Adrien stormed off in. I found him leaning against a wall with his arms crossed and a hard scowl on his face. I walked up to him and we made eye contact, his green eyes hard. "Adrien.. why did you lie to Luka? You should have told him, you're friends, you need to trust him when it comes to something like this." I should've known trying to reason with him would never work. "I don't need to trust him with anything," Adrien hissed.

I frowned. "If Viperion wasn't there, would you have told him what happened?" I brought in the boyfriend card. Adrien stopped, his arms dropped to his sides and his face lost the scowl. "I-I uhm..." Hah, got him. "That's different. He's my..." He trailed off. "Boyfriend?" I finished for him. "Yes. And Luka is-" I cut him off, "Just your Ex?" More than once, I wanted to add.

He looked like he was too stunned to speak. "What if one of us was missing? Like Marinette, say she was sick today, would you tell her tomorrow?" He needed to hear this. "Or Nino, he's your best friend." He looked away from me, I hated pressuring him like this, but he needed to know that he can trust all of enough to tell us things. "And Chloe?" I continued. His head shot up at last. "Okay I get it Alya! I just didn't want him to worry about me. I don't need him to worry about me. If he worries about me, then we'll just end up growing close again, and if that happens, then I'm putting his life in danger and I would never forgive myself if anything happened to Luka. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he got hurt-or worse-because of me." His eyes had begun to fill with tears.

"Adrien, listen to me," My hands on his face, I used my thumb to wipe away his tears. "I know you're scared and fear for Luka's life because of who Hawk Moth is, and I need you to know I am too. I'm scared for Nino's life, for yours, for the rest of our friends and for my own. I'm sure they are too. We're all scared Adrien. We fight the innocent people he uses in his schemes to get his hands on our Miraculous because he's too much of a coward to fight us himself. You are not alone, you have me, Marinette, Chloe, Juleka, Nino and you have Luka. You have Viperion and all our classmates even. Heck, you even have Chloe's sister and Sabrina so don't you dare think you're alone in this fight because you are not. So say it, 'I am not alone,' just like that." He bit his lip.

"I am not alone," I repeated. "I am not alone." He finally said. "Good. Because it's true. Now come, we need Luka to know you trust him enough to tell him when something happens or if there's anything bothering you." I held out my hand and he took it, hesitantly but better than nothing. I led him to where Marinette texted she and the others were with Luka.