A Game of ... Bug and Chat?

Joining the Dots

"Wow, what was that, girl!" Alya exclaimed right after Adrien left and gave her a slap on the shoulder. "I've never heard you talking to Adrien like that! I mean... no stutter? No tongue tie? No mixing words up? Who are you? Where did you put my Marinette? Seriously, I was going to comment earlier, but I was afraid to... I didn't want to break the magic! " Her joking tone of voice was matched by a beaming smile on her lips.

Nino nodded in approval. "Yeah, dudette, same for me. I couldn't believe my ears! And beforehand on the road. I could swear that my man was the one stuttering for once!"

Alya laughed. "Yeah... 'My aunt Li Jing is very good at this fine art'!" She mimicked her voice. "That was ace, girl, absolute ace!" She wiggled her eyebrows. "Just an excuse to hold Sunshine's hand, right?"

"Actually..." Marinette felt blood rushing to her face. A lot of things had happened in the last few hours and she still couldn't believe all the information she had just gathered. She hadn't expected her little experiment to go that well. She had the cat literally in the bag now. "I... decided to be a bit more... confident with him and see what happens."

"That's my girl," approved Alya with a firm nod. "I'm pretty sure you nearly broke him." She giggled madly. "Who knows, maybe one of my ships will finally sail!" She sighed. "Or maybe both... you should have seen Ladybug today, or should I say Lady Noire? That's what Chat... I mean, Chien Marron, called her..."

"Chien Marron?" asked Nino, his mouth slightly open, a hint of surprise in his voice.

Alya nodded. "Yes, he was wearing some sort of collar, and he also wore Ladybug's earrings today. Apparently Ladybug is doing a little experiment, as he put it. I have so much information to write on the blog! I'll get started now at lunch time. The fight with the Akuma was amazing! That Dog Miraculous must have the coolest power!"

"So... what did Lady... Noire do today?" inquired Marinette. She couldn't help but get worried around Alya.

"Well..." Alya picked up her phone and messed with it, before turning it to show some pictures to Marinette. "You know how Chat Noir always flirts with her, puns and jokes?" Marinette nodded, so Alya continued, "Well... today Lady Noire was the one flirting the most. She was punning and joking worse than Chat Noir. Even he was surprised, and that's saying something."

"Maybe she was... putting up an act?" Marinette smiled a cringe-smile. "Or maybe, what did you call him... Chien Marron?" Alya nodded as Marinette continued, "Maybe she prefers keeping her partner as a dog. Much easier to put him on a leash, or muzzle up his punny mouth..."

Alya smirked. "The thing is... she wasn't muzzling up his punny mouth, as you say. In fact, she was punning almost more than him!" Suddenly, Alya's eyes grew wide as she continued, "Uh... what if... she decided to step down a little bit?"

"What do you mean?" Marinette frowned.

Alya slapped her fist against the palm of her other hand. "Sure! She may have decided to give more responsibilities to Chat Noir... or maybe let him lead for a while? That may be the reason why she gave him the earrings? Maybe she's tired of being the boss and wants to share the burden for a while."

Wouldn't that be nice, thought Marinette and sighed. But then she looked at Alya and said, "Don't know Alya... maybe you're looking too much into it. It doesn't sound a Ladybug-ish behaviour to be honest."

"Maybe..." Alya looked at her watch and widened her eyes. "By the way, I had better get going. Need to jot down an article about today's fight for the blog. See you after lunch!" That said, she stood and started walking down the steps, and then waited for her and Nino to follow before going out of the classroom.