"Wait, Marinette! Please, let me explain!" Alya begged as Marientte stormed out through the front door of their now shared apartment. The brunette followed behind the frustrated ravenette, a look for that pleaded for forgiveness in her eyes.

"Your boyfriend?" Marinette finally turned around to look her in the eyes that night, a look of disgust in her own eyes. "Your boyfriend, Alya?! Seriously?! What is wrong with you?!"

"Let me explain!" Alya cried, but the ravenette quickly shook her head.

"How can you be in a romantic relationship with a criminal?" Marinette asked, disbelief written throughout all of her features. "You work for the law, Alya. How could you do that, let alone you keep it a secret?!"

"Of course I had to keep it a secret!" Alya defended herself. "Imagine if everyone knew! I'd be fired!"

"Well, maybe you should be fired!" Marinette blurted out before it was too late to consider her words. "An untruthful cop shouldn't even be on the field!"

Alya gasped in disbelief, as if she couldn't believe what had just heard out of Marinette's mouth. "You know what?" The brunette frowned heavily. "Fine. I honestly don't care what you think. You don't even know Nino. Just because he's got a criminal record doesn't mean he's still a bad man."

"Nino?" Was the first thing Marinette scoffed about. "You're giving him nicknames now? Please Alya! Nicolas was just bailed out of jail.... a month ago!"

"So?" Alya didn't seem to mind. "He has changed since then! He's a different man!"

"Let me tell you something," Marinette's voice was hard and cold as she took a dangerous step closer to Alya. "If you honestly think that risking your job to be with a criminal is the right thing to do, then don't let me stop you. But I won't be there when your superior removes your badge."

"Fine," Alya scoffed back. "Like I care. I actually thought you were my friend, but it turns out, you don't care. All you care about is yourself."

Marinette couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I don't care? Really? If I didn't care, why would I be trying to save you from such a disaster?!"

"What would you know?!" Alya snapped, crossing her arms as she stared daggers into her co-worker's eyes. "You've probably never even had a boyfriend in your life. With that accent, it'd make all these Parisian boys run for the hills."

That hit Marinette harder than she would've liked to admit, and a painful feeling of regret and betrayal shivered up her spine. Those words were so nasty. If only Alya understood how painful those words were to hear.

What a nasty way to have your past be brought back up to your thoughts.

Alya immediately noticed her slip up, and her eyes widened in her complete horror. But the words she regretted had already been said, and there was no way to take them back. "Oh... uh-no... I didn't mean—"

"Don't try and sugar coat your words," Marinette said it in the calmest way she could possibly muster, because it was the only way to mask what she was really feeling. She arched a single brow and shrugged. "It's true. Trust me, I get it."

"No Mari, it's not true," Alya tried to reason. "I was just angry. I truly do love your accent."

"Well, I don't." Marinette practically snapped, feeling slightly bad that she had even been so harsh. Having an accent in our social world made everyone look at you so much differently, and it brought back so many horrific memories; so many things that she wanted to forget. "I need to go."

It wasn't fair that she couldn't escape them.

"Where?" Alya asked, tears brimming in her bottom lids.

"I just..." Marinette eyed the clock. 9:15 pm it read. The sun had set hours ago. "...need a walk."

Alya seemed mostly relieved that Marinette hadn't advised leaving the apartment for good. It was probably the best if both women gave each other some space anyways.

Marinette say another word as she headed towards the front door of the apartment. Grabbing her coat from the hook, the ravenette was out the door faster than the blink of an eye.

〃＾▽＾〃

Marinette kicked a small pebble across the concrete sidewalk. Hands stuffed into her coat pockets, all she could do was let out the breath she'd been holding in as she stared up into the night shy to admire the stars.

Marinette didn't have much experience in Paris, and almost everything looked unfamiliar to her here. Sometimes, she craved her homeland, only because that's where she was raised— where she knew people.

But that was also the reason why she needed to leave. To get away from the people she knew and the comfort of it. Her comfort zone was long expanded since she had arrived here. And she had hoped leaving would erase the horrid memories that still haunted her mind.

But, it hadn't given her the result she was looking for.

Marinette sighed as she felt the coolness ease the tenseness in her body. She had only tried to warn Alya of what she had already experienced; the kind of pain she wished someone would have warned her about.

If only she would've had someone to stop herself.

A crack of a twig immediately caught Marinette's attention, and she was swirling around as quick as she could on her toes to look behind herself. The streets were as dark as can be, with every other lamppost barely lighting it's past. It probably wasn't the best place to be at night, and especially alone.

Immediately, upon hearing the new noise, she knew someone was following her. Marinette wasn't trained to be a police officer for nothing. She knew that someone was watching her; most likely also following her.

And wasn't that the best thing to add to all of her troubles?

_______________________________

Question #1:
                  Who do you think is following Marinette? Do you think it's someone specific or a thief looking for money?

Question #2:
What horrid memories do you think Marinette was talking about?

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