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Black eye. A FRIGGIN'. Black. Eye. Can't WAIT to hear her excuse for this one.
She showed up to school with a bruise, AGAIN. This was becoming all too regular for everyone's favorite blue-eyed, pink-loving, butter-fingered girl. Nobody should be physically capable of hurting themselves that much. Yet, Marinette managed. A scratch here, a scab there, a bump on the forehead, then BAM. Black eye. No way that'll fly with Ms. Cesaire. Detective Alya has now entered the classroom. Well, almost. The naturally brunette best-friend of Marinette Dupain-Cheng was on her way to her homeroom, barreling through the courtyard in pursuit of the unsuspecting bluenette.
Climbing the stairs in speed rivaling a fox (she was Rena Rouge, after all), she began pulling up the text that she got from Nino again. Marinette was always scolding Alya for ‘looking before she leaped’ and ‘making conclusions without checking her facts’, and she was going to make sure she was right about her inference (not that she could nessicarly trust Marinette or her advice right now). Nino sent her a text, just a few minutes ago, stating, “Hey, babe, I hate to be the one to tell you this but…” *insert image*. Alya had eyed the picture he sent in horror. Marinette was going to get scolded this time, not Alya.
Scanning the image once again, she let herself be overtaken with doubt. Alya always puts on a confident face, but those close to her could tell, every overconfident word she said was always laced with doubt, she just hid it. Whenever her "crazy" theories were proven wrong, she always blamed herself. It didn’t help that Marinette would always scold her. She knew Marinette meant the best, but being reminded not to be a total idiot by the girl who gets so little sleep (probably because she’s on her phone or sowing) that she’ll think Nino is a cat (that story is coming later) made Alya feel the lowest of low. She sighed and halted. She knew that if she stared at her phone while climbing up the stairs she’d regret it later. Can’t have her pulling a Marinette! Her phone darkened. She proceeded to tap the device so it wouldn’t shut off. She was a second too late.
“Dammit,” she muttered. Alya hated putting her passcode in. It was annoyingly long so nobody could see her personal stuff. With a swipe of her screen, she could easily access her camera. She was set for akuma attacks (which was most of what she used her phone for). When she created her passcode, that, and keeping Marinette out of her phone were priority. She thought she had no need for a short password that could easily be guessed by a nosy best-friend. If Marinette could get into Adrien's phone, she could sure as hell get into Alya's. She wasn't going to risk it.
Turning on her phone, she began to enter a series of letters and numbers from memory. The image of Marinette that Nino sent her only a few minutes ago appeared on her screen. She observed the skin on her friend’s face. Her right eye looked a little dark, but she couldn’t be sure that it was a black eye. Zooming in, she confirmed that the skin around Marinette’s eye wasn’t its usual peach color; it had turned into an onyx black. She was pretty sure that Marinette had a black eye. To add to her theory, Nino wouldn’t have sent her a picture unless something was up.
But yet, she was still doubtful. Marinette hurt herself a lot, but a black eye was pretty serious. There are plenty of others things that could cause the appearance of a dark patch on the skin around Mari’s eye. It could just be makeup, or the lighting could have made her skin appear black. Alya could be hallucinating due to lack of sleep. She could be dreaming; or, having a (day?)nightmare.
She pondered the idea of texting Nino to ease her nerves. But that idea was ruled off quickly. When class started, phones had to be put away. It now being 8:33 AM, Alya knew that if she sent Nino a text and his phone went off in the middle of class he’d get in heaps of trouble. Second of all, when she received The Text© at 8:29 AM, she was a three-minute walk from the school. There was no need to bother her boyfriend and risk getting him in trouble.
She finished her trek up the flight of stairs and made her way over to the classroom, making sure to put her phone in her bag before bursting in late (which she was going to get in soooo much trouble for). Tiptoeing into the classroom, in hopes that she would go unnoticed, she let a sigh of relief escape her lips, until she noticed a lack of Ms. Bustier. The expression of relief was still eminent on her features; until it was quickly replaced with confusion.
Puzzled at her teacher’s absence, she walked over to Nino and Adrien’s desk, faced Nino, and asked, “Where is Ms. Bustier?” She doubted he had a clue, but it couldn’t hurt to ask, right?
He looked around the room, seemingly just noticing that she was gone. Facing Alya, he replied, “Dunno.”
How useful, she thought. What a helpful boyfriend she had! (In case it wasn’t obvious, that was complete sarcasm). True, her boyfriend wasn’t the handiest guy in the world, but she did love him if that counted for anything. Sure, he could be kinda awkward, impolite, thoughtless, careless, and brash; but, he could be kind, considerate, warmhearted, tender, compassionate, and loyal. She told herself she’d tell him how amazing he is sometime soon, but kept chickening out or forgetting.
It was completely unlike her. More of Marinette’s thing. *cough* Not telling Adrien she had a crush on him for over a year *cough*. Alya probably couldn’t tell him because it was really corny. She was internally (and possibly externally) blushing even considering the idea of just going up to him and saying, “Nino, you can be very annoying and jackassish, but you're also brave, loyal, compassionate, kind, amazing, and handsome. I love you.” Alya wasn’t like that. (Besides, she hadn't told him she loved him yet.) It would be totally out of character. Unless she needed to motivate Marinette. Then heck, any amount of cheesiness would do. She had attempted to get Marinette to confess to Adrien for over a year now. Although upping Marinette’s confidence, none of her attempts had been a success. Marinette was the only one who knew how cheesy and weird Alya could be. Yet Marinette loved her anyways. That’s why Alya loved Marinette and they were best friends!
“I think Ms. Bustier is late.” Adrien piped in, obliterating Alya’s thought process (also eradicating all pink that was definitely not on her cheeks).
Alya pulled out her phone (cautiously; in case Ms. Bustier decided to waltz in) and checked the time.
8:34. Ms. Bustier was four minutes late. At least Alya wouldn’t get in trouble for being late. Unless...
“Hey guys, did you see if Chloe noticed that I was late?” Alya asked nervously. She knew that if Chloe noticed Alya was late, she’d tell Ms. Bustier in that evilly satisfied voice of hers, ‘Ms. Bustier! Alya was late to class! You should punish her!' She also knew, chances were that Nino and Adrien were probably too busy talking about... whatever it is guys talk about to pay attention to whatever Chloe was doing. She was glad for this fact. She didn't really want Nino to pay attention to any other girls, and the more attention Adrien paid to Chloe, the brattier she was. And who wanted a bratty Chloe? Better yet, when wasn't Chloe a brat?
“Sorry, babe. I was talking to Adrien about… stuff” her boyfriend replied. He was avoiding the subject. So he was hiding something. She was now in reporter mode, analyzing his every feature, even leaning in to examine him more carefully, and Nino started to sweat. Out of the corner of her left eye, Alya saw Adrien nervously glancing at her. Alya could practically read the letters coming out of eyes, all told to her in a look. 'SOS'
Alya heard her voice, interrupting her thoughts. “Good morning Alya!” her voice called out. She seemed to have listened to Adrien's call for help. Turning to face the person that the voice came from, Alya relaxed her features, and replied,
“Hey, girl! I wanna ask ya a few questions! Mind talking to your favorite reporter for a bit?” She flashed her trademark smile that had an 100% success rate of making her clients *cough* victims *cough* feel at ease. She had to get answers out of this girl. For her own good!
“I’m not really in the mood for questions” the girl answered hesitantly. Alya let out a huff as she began to trudge up the steps; never letting her eyes wander astray from the female. She slid into the seat on the left-hand side of her. The blue-eyed girl was well aware that Alya was not going to leave her alone until she got the answers she wanted. But hey, a girl can try!
“You’re not slipping outta this one so easily, Dupain-Cheng,” said Alya in the huskiest voice she could manage (to be honest, it sounded more like a boy in middle school; not husky at all).
She gave ‘Detective Cesaire’ a questioning look, before bursting out laughing. “Alya, what was that voice!?” Marinette giggled.
With a cold glare, Alya replied. “That was my detective's voice.” She was trying to act serious, for Marinette’s sake (and her own), but she really felt forgetting all about the black eye (that was glaringly obvious when looking at Marinette face-to-face) and Marinette’s boyfriend. Unfortunately for both of them, Alya cared too much about her best friend’s wellbeing to give the topic up.
Marinette continued to snicker until Alya gave a hardened glare. She was going to help Marinette, even if she hated her for it. She really hoped it didn’t come to that. Marinette’s wellbeing was more important then Alya’s friendship with Marinette, but she would really hate losing her best friend to her best friend’s boyfriend. It happened all the time in stories, and in real life too. Her mother had told her that a husband is more important than friends and that women will bad mouth their friends’ husbands because they’re jealous. Alya assumed the same thing applied to boyfriends. Of course, she had a boyfriend of her own and was not at all jealous of Marinette’s boyfriend. More like, concerned.
“What happened to your eye?” Alya deadpanned, continuing to glare. She really hated herself for being so cold to her best friend. She felt like punching herself. She kinda hoped Marinette would punch her. Alya knew she wouldn’t. Marinette was simply too kind to punch someone without a very good reason. Marinette has had people be MUCH colder to her and hasn’t laid a finger on them. Alya couldn’t imagine Marinette hurting anyone on purpose.
“Nothing!” Marinette squeaked quickly. A little too quickly for Alya’s liking. She continued to press,
“Girl, if nothing happened to your eye, it wouldn’t be black right now,” said Alya faltering her glare a bit; transforming it into a half glare half smirk. Alya loved giving witty comebacks at any chance possible, and Marinette had just given her the perfect opportunity.
She had also caused Marinette to flounder her poker face a little, earning Alya even more satisfaction. As Ladybug once said, “Curiosity killed the cat.” To which Chat Noir replied, “But satisfaction brought it back.” And she felt very alive at that moment.
“Did you get into a fight or something?” Alya asked with a skeptic look. This look being caused by Marinette’s ‘dislike of violence’. Alya would never dream of Marinette getting into a fight. Someone would probably have to grope her before she punched them. Or, maybe, she still wouldn’t. Alya would have to talk to Marinette about that later…
When Marinette didn’t move a muscle, Alya panicked, “You actually got into a fight?! Who the hell managed to piss you off that much?! You haven’t even punched CHLOE yet and she threatened to read your diary to the whole freaking class!” Alya yelled out in a fit of worry.
If someone’s eyes weren’t on the ‘best friends’ a minute ago, they definitely were now. Marinette stared at Alya like a deer in the headlights and Alya stared back like a mother who caught her daughter out late drinking with strangers. Alya’s look was a mix of many different emotions; shock, anger, bewilderment, outrage, and what Marinette found worst of all, betrayal. They continued to stare at each other until Rose interrupted.
“How did Marinette get into a fight…? She’s so nice!” Marinette was just sitting still, gawking, trying to come up with legitimate words. Marinette could be amazingly confident at times, but usually, Alya had to step up and lend a hand, or Marinette would end up in a terrible situation. She knew she had to do something. She couldn’t just sit there while her best friend was being scrutinized by the entire class (especially since it was her own fault)! But she couldn’t think of anything. Shoot. She had just put her best friend in a really tight spot. And she highly doubted that Marinette actually got into a fight. She just… panicked a bit when Marinette didn’t say anything! They continued to stare at each other; knowing any sudden movements could make the tense atmosphere even worse.
Finally, after staring at each other for what seemed like hours, Marinette spoke up, not by using words, but by laughing. Everyone just gawked at her as she continued to giggle. The atmosphere had been so tense a second ago, and it still was, but Marinette started... laughing...?