Marinette and the Magic Lamp

Where Was Alya?

During Marinette's whole date with Prince Adrien:

Alya was strolling through the palace, admiring the many shiny things that were in it. She was wondering whether or not to take some of these precious treasures, but she remembered that they had Tikki who had magic that made them super rich. She also remembered that Tikki mentioned that they had their own magic that she trusted them with. While pondering what exactly this magic was, hoping that it's not just getting a fancy new outfit, her thoughts were interrupted by someone.

"Well, hello," Nino greeted with a friendly tone.

Alya jumped then quickly composed herself, trying to act natural, "Oh! Uh, hi there!"

"What are you doing?"

"Uh, me? I'm uh, I'm…" she looked behind her and noticed the shiny trinkets decorating the room. "I'm admiring the palace! I happen to be an expert in admiring palaces. This is a very beautiful palace."

"Well, this palace must be nothing compared to Princess Ladybug's, judging to all the things you guys brought."

"Huh? Oh yeah! That is true, there's no palace like Ladybug's. This palace is still very cool, even with the very high standards of beauty I'm surrounded by back home."

"Must be beautiful back home, wherever that is," Nino remembered something, "Say, where exactly is home?"

Alya started panicking internally, "Home? Uh, well it's…" she got an idea to evade the question, "Hey, wait! I never got your name."

Nino widened is eyes in shock, and exclaimed, "Shoot!" he put his hand behind his head in embarrassment and then composed himself, "Where are my manners? Sorry, I'm Nino."

Alya giggled, not at his name but at how cute he was. She replied, "Nice to meet you, Nino, I'm Rena."

"Yeah, I know," Alya looked at him curiously, "I mean, I heard you being introduced to the sultan and Ladybug saying your name and the whole…" he looked at her hopelessly, "This is getting ridiculous, isn't it?"

Alya chuckled and replied, "Kind of," Nino frowned and looked down, but Alya put her hand on his face and made him look at her, as she continued, "But I like it."

She released him and smiled at him. He smiled back sheepishly and asked after a few seconds of silence, "Sooo, would you like me to give you a tour of the palace?"

"Like as in a date?" Alya asked with a playful smile on her face.

"What? No! I mean, if you don't mind, I mean, why would you think that?! But maybe, I mean…!"

Alya laughed again as she hooked her arm in his and said, "I would love to."

Nino smiled in victory as he lead her to places in the palace. He made a pretty good tour guide, showing her some of the things in the palace, giving her the history, or what he remembered of the history, and told her a few stories about him and Prince Adrien getting themselves into trouble and things. The two also shared some information about themselves and was surprised with how much they had in common.

~~~

Nino led Alya to the palace gardens, the other part of the garden not where she, Marinette, Tikki and Wayzz were earlier, and the tour turned into more of an actual date. They were very comfortable around each other now, telling each other more about themselves. Alya really started to like Nino, like as in really like him, and she started feeling bad with lying to him. They took a seat in the garden on a marble bench.

Nino noticed that Alya wasn't herself at that moment, so he asked her, "Hey, is there something bothering you?"

Breaking out of her trance, Alya shook her head, put on a smile and replied, "No, I'm okay."