"Faceless Future" Book 2 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy |COMPLETED|

Chpt 11: Alya, Alya, Alya!

Ladybug and Cat quickly broke off their hug after seeing the flash, turned around and saw Alya, phone raised and snapping photos.

"Hey you two!  How is your relationship going?  My readers are so interested!  Anything you want to tell them?" Alya quickly changed over to video mode in case she could get some good sound bites.

Ladybug tried not to let her annoyance with Alya's prodding into her personal life show on her face. She walked calmly over to Alya.  "Just so your followers know, Cat Noir and I are not in a romantic relationship.  We're just good friends who had gotten carried away in the excitement of defeating Hawk Moth.  I'm sorry to disappoint everyone."  Alya did look disappointed, but she was obviously undeterred by Ladybug's statement.

"So, that hug just now was just a hug between friends then?" Alya said with a smirk.  Cat Noir let out a small snort of amusement at Alya's question, still wondering why Ladybug was so desperate to keep their real relationship a secret. Ladybug gave him a sharp look, which he tried to return with a benign smile.

Alya noticed the silent exchange between the superheroes and decided that Cat Noir might be more willing to answer her questions.  "Cat Noir, do you have anything to add?  Was that just a hug between friends?" asked Alya, turning her phone toward him.

Ladybug gave Cat Noir a warning glance that he was smart enough to pay attention to.  Cat smiled at Alya.  "It's just as Ladybug said.  We're good friends.  That's it."  He decided he should try to help Ladybug out by changing the subject to something that Alya should be equally intrigued with.  "And aren't you really more interested in the supervillain anyway?  How he came to be and who he was?  He definitely wasn't an akumatized victim.  This is something new."  Ladybug gave him a sidelong glance, not sure they should really be talking about this until they knew more.

Alya perked up at that information.  "Okay, Cat Noir, you have my attention.  Tell me more about this new supervillain!  If there is no akuma, should we be concerned about how much power he has?  How could he possibly make those bubbles?"

Cat Noir opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Ladybug.

"When we know more, we will update everyone," Ladybug said sternly, frowning at Cat.  "But, now we need to go.  Bug out!"  Ladybug effectively ended the conversation.  She launched her yoyo and took off over the rail of the Eiffel Tower. 

Cat Noir shrugged, figuring it wasn't worth annoying Ladybug any further.  "M'Lady has spoken!"  He grinned for the camera, giving a slight salute with his stick, before following Ladybug.

Alya turned off her video, disappointed that she didn't get more details.  She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Nino, out of breath and looking worried.

"You just missed them and they would hardly tell me anything!" said Alya complaining.  She put her phone back in her pocket.

Nino ignored what she said as he was still feeling upset with her for hanging up on him to race toward danger.  "I'm glad you're safe," Nino said gruffly.  "But, Alya, you drive me completely crazy when you run toward the supervillains when you don't have your powers!  You could have been hurt!"

Alya looked over at him, surprised.  "Ladybug and Cat Noir have always watched out for me.  You know that.  Someone needs to cover the story!"

"Yeah, I get that, but you also know how hard it can be as the superhero concentrating on the supervillain and trying to protect other people.  Ladybug and Cat Noir aren't perfect!  I don't want anything to happen to you, you know," he said, frowning and lowering his head to keep her from seeing just how scared he had been.

"I'm not going to stop!  This is important to me!" she said belligerently, staring at him, annoyed that he wasn't meeting her eyes.

"I know.  Please, just watch out for yourself a little more.  For me?" he asked quietly, looking back up at her from under the brim of his baseball cap.

She looked closely at his face.  He did really seem upset.  "Okay.  For you," she finally conceded.

They looked at each other in silence for a few moments before Nino became uncomfortable and changed the subject.

"So, did you see this new supervillain that was a fake Bubbler?" Nino asked her.

"No, I was too late and missed him.  Cat Noir said that he was a new type of supervillain but didn't elaborate.  I hope they want to meet with us soon so we can hear all about it.  Ladybug didn't seem to want to say anything about it at all.  And can you believe that she said that she and Cat Noir weren't in a romantic relationship?  Ha!  Right!"  She rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Well, maybe they have a reason why they don't want anyone to know.  And maybe you should respect that?" said Nino, being strangely sensitive.

"Huh.  Well, I'll think about it.  But, they haven't really met with us much since Hawk Moth was defeated, so I haven't been able to poke at her about it.  She had said they were in a relationship then.  I wonder if something happened between them?" Alya tried to think back to what the superheroes had said then.

"You're really going to poke at Ladybug about her relationship with Cat Noir?" said Nino incredulously. "Shouldn't they be able to keep it to themselves if they want?  I mean, we work with them but I guess I can't really say that we're good friends.  We don't even know who they really are.  They don't have to confide in us.  It's not like they're Adrien and Marinette."

Alya guessed he did have a point, but she always felt like she knew Ladybug pretty well, especially now that they'd done so much training and fighting together.  Their relationship felt pretty comfortable, though Ladybug was a little like the boss, too.  Maybe she shouldn't cross that line.  Something to think about.

"So, can we go?" asked Nino, not really comfortable with being at the top of the Eiffel Tower. "Oh- I wonder what happened to Adrien!  I totally ditched him to run here."

"He and Marinette probably went home.  We can call them to make sure.  Ready, then?" Alya asked him.

Nino nodded.  Alya strode eagerly down the stairs, excited to finally have an update for her Ladyblog and Nino quickly caught up to her, equally as eager to just be back down on the ground!