Alya POV:

Alya stretched her sore legs as it was finally safe to come out from her hiding spot. She had quickly found a shadowed corner of a dark corridor and secretly hid in there during the unexpected attack.

But freaking Count Shongula had found her and before she knew it, everything went black.

She hadn’t had the time to rush out the school with the rest of her class and she could only imagine how worried Nino must be. Plus, she wanted to get some killer in person action photos of the fight.

The brunette had been disappointed to find that instead of getting any footage for the Ladyblog, she had been turned into a vampire.

It wasn't the first time Alya hadn't been able to get much footage for her blog, but most times there had been other people around to film, meaning she could rely on fans submitting clips that she could post.

Unfortunately, today nobody had been around, leading to an overwhelming absence of content.

As she was trying to figure out the blog post for today, she realized that she had gone the wrong way, lost in her thoughts. She turned around, slightly annoyed with herself for getting distracted.

But Alya didn't have time to be annoyed with herself, as she saw Ladybug herself standing in the middle of the hallway, facing away from her.

The young reporter didn't have time to run up to the heroine to ask for an interview before she was blinded by a bright pink light.

She squinted, trying to adjust her eyes to the sudden bright flash.

Perhaps she should have left, but the searing curiosity consuming Alya’s mind prevented her from turning away.

Then the light disappeared, and where Ladybug had been stood her best friend. Alya blinked, and watched in shock as Marinette fed a cookie to a small floating red thing... her kwami?

And then it hit her. Marinette was Ladybug. Her best friend was her idol. Marinette had given her a Miraculous. Ladybug sat beside her. Marinette and Ladybug were the same person.

Alya turned and ran the other way, she didn't care if she was late to class, she needed to think.

She couldn’t believe it. Waves upon waves of shock and astonishment washed over her as she sat in a plastic chair, shocked silence enveloping her.

Then a burning spark of revelation ignited inside her and it all  made perfect sense. Of course her wonderful, sweet, caring and selfless Marinette would also be the heroic, kind, brave and confident Ladybug.

But… why hadn’t she trusted her enough to tell her? She forced her mind to push the negative thought away as Alya realized she needed to focus on the world around her.

She didn't have much more time to think as a bell went off, signalling that she was very much late for class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0-0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marinette POV:

If you had asked Marinette 2 months ago if fighting one of Hawkmoth's minions would make her happy, she would have thought you were crazy.

But now, everything was different, because of him. She had always valued his undying friendship and support. He was never just a partner to her, he never could be. He was her friend. Someone Marinette knew she could always count on her. Someone who she could always be her true self around.

And one day, his unconditional friendship blossomed into something more. Into something miraculous.

In her eyes Chat Noir was no longer her playful partner or her faithful friend, he was the love of her life. The boy of her dreams.

A  deep passionate burning inside of Marinette told her he never just was.

She had always loved being with Chat Noir, he was her friend, but she had viewed akumas as more of a job, something she had to do.

If it took fighting a war to meet him, it would be worth it.

She would do anything for him.

She meant every word that she had written in her journal entry dedicated to him a week back. Each holding  a special place in her heart. While writing the entry, her true emotions freely flowed out of her onto the page. She  poured her soul out in that letter.

Maybe one of the reasons she had been so thankful to see him again had to do with her
nightmares.

They had begun to grow worse again, and the fact she was constantly paranoid about someone stealing the Miracle Box hidden away in her room did nothing to help.

Tikki tried her best to help, but she couldn't stop the vivid dreams that haunted her sleep.

Marinette shuddered, blocking her nightmares out of her head. She already had to deal with those at night, she didn't want to deal with them in the day either.

She focused on the lecture, diligently taking down notes. When the lecture was over she tried to strike up a conversation with Alya, who was sitting nearby.

After a couple failed jokes, and many remarks about the latest Akuma, Marinette gave up trying to maintain the conversation.

What was up with that girl? Alya had barely glanced her way since the beginning of class and responded to her with short mumbled replies.

She was probably bummed she didn't get much footage, Marinette reasoned. She would have to find time to organize an interview between Ladybug and Alya.

The shrill sound of the bell signaling the end of class, echoed throughout the class. The teacher raised her voice, trying to reprimand the students  over the noisy chatter, for not listening to the rest of her lecture.

Marinette grabbed her bag and walked out the classroom with the rest of the students, thanking the teacher as she left.

She looked over to ask Alya if she wanted to come over to study for the big science test they had at the end of the week, but her friend had already rushed out of the class.

She looked around, puzzled. Where had she gone? And how and she left so fast.

A seed of worry was planted in Marinette’s mind, was Alya...upset with her? She desperately racked her brain contemplating what she possibly could have done...

No, she quickly shook her head dismissing the foolish thought. Alya always speaks her mind, she definitely would have said something if she was upset with her.

Maybe she had just gone ahead to meet up with the others in the foyer, that was probably it.

Marinette quickly headed to the foyer, finding Nino, Adrien and Luka, but no Alya.

"Have you seen Alya?" She asked the three boys, hoping that at least one of them might have seen her.

"Nope" Luka and Adrien said, at the same time that Nino said "Yeah".

“Is everything alright?” Adrien questioned, slight apprehension laced in his voice.

"Fine! She just was a little out of it in class" She replied.

"I dunno dudette, she said that she wasn't feeling well and needed some rest" Nino responded.

“Oh...okay, yeah that makes sense,” Marinette spoke, trying to assure herself more of this then the boys. But the seed of concern had already been planted in her mind and she found her doubt growing, she couldn’t help mumbling out, “It's just a little weird  that she didn’t tell me anything."

"Yeah, that is a little strange. She probably just forgot to say something, I'm sure she'll be fine by tomorrow." Adrien said, easing Marinette's worried thoughts.

"You're probably right. Anyway, I was going to ask Alya, but since she's sick, do you want to study for the science test together?"

"That sounds great, but I'll have to ask Nathalie," Adrien said, pulling out his phone.

Nino said that he was down, and Luka said that he could help them study, since he had already learned everything the previous year.

Somehow, Adrien got permission to go as well, after repeatedly confirming he was just studying, so the four of them set off to the bakery for pastries and schoolwork.

They arrived at the bakery, Marinette grabbing a variety of baked goods and leading the boys up to her room.

Once they were inside her room, Marinette set up for their "super science study session" as Nino had named it on the walk home.

She placed the plate of cookies and pastries in the middle of the floor, and flopped onto the floor, gesturing for her friends to follow.

Marinette turned around to grasp her science notes from her school bag, as the boys sat down quickly grabbing for the plate of delicious baked goods.

By the time Marinette had looked back, there were only two cookies left on the plate.

Her eyes averted from the once full plate of baked goods to the three boys. None of them could meet her eyes, as they all pretended to be intently  focusing on their science notes; still chewing the pastries they had quickly gulfed down.

She laughed at them all, their mouths stuffed full of food and their hands holding even more bakery items.

"Really, you'd think you don't get fed by the way you eat" Marinette chuckled.

"Anyway" she continued, playfully rolling her eyes as Adrien snatched the last two cookies, stuffing them into his mouth. "We should get started on studying, since that's what we're supposed to be doing"

“Definitely dudette,” Nino spoke after swallowing the pastries stuffed in his mouth, “let's get this super science study sesh started!” Nino whooped, opening his books.

The three other teenagers couldn’t help bursting out into laughter at Nino’s over exaggerated excitement for their study session.

As Adrien, Marinette and Nino pulled out various worksheets and notes, Luka moved to sit between Marinette and Adrien, putting an arm around Marinette’s shoulder.

The students all shoved everything in the center, then started to sort everything.

Once they had sorted the papers, they started on the review worksheet they had been assigned for extra practice.

Marinette peered over her homework, her face scrunched in concentration as she attempted to memorise the stages of mitosis, beginning with drawing diagrams displaying the process inside the cell and changes of the cell structure during prophase and metaphase.

"No babe, you're drawing it wrong, that's Anaphase" Luka said, leaning over to look at Marinette's work.

"O-oh thanks Luka" she said, her face getting slightly hot by how close he was.

Marinette reached up to grasp  her pink, polka dot eraser, to see Adrien glancing over at them, she thought for a second she saw something, something resembling hurt, flash in his eyes. But before she could identify what it was,  the longing look in his emerald green eyes  vanished as he masked his emotions with a dismissive smile.

A few minutes later Nino asked what they had put for question 9, to which Adrien said that he had chosen option a, Marinette said b, and Nino said that he had put c. Under closer inspection, they realized that option d was all of the above.

Their boisterous laugh echoed through Marinette’s bedroom as they realized, they all had circled the wrong answer. Luka shaking his hand, trying to disguise his amused smile.

“I guess we all have a lot of studying to do” Marinette giggled, not being able to hold in her laughter.

"Yep, by the end of today, fear not for similar spellings, we will know the difference between meiosis and mitosis!" Adrien proclaimed dramatically.

Cheekily adding, “I think what would really help us focus though is more cookies…”

“Adrien Agreeste!” Marinette exclaimed, playfully chucking an eraser at him as he dodged it, laughing.

“Do all you think about is your stomach?” She teased 

He guffawed, goofily grasping the material of his shirt near his heart.  “You wound me Marinettte, I’m a complete gentleman.” he dramatically declared. 

Marinette couldn’t help the fresh coat of blush that rose to her cheeks, why did his words remind her of something or someone... she quickly disregarded that thought, giving him a quizzical stare.

“Maybe…” he admitted, playfully winking at her.

"I think what would help us focus is actually studying" Marinette chuckled.

"It's not that hard to learn the difference between meiosis and mitosis, I'll explain it to you" Luka said, before pointing out where the textbook described the two processes.

Once they had studied that, they moved on to the next topic.

Eventually, they all agreed that they had studied all that they could, and they switched from studying to watching funny videos on youtube.

After they had watched several videos, with Marinette laughing so hard she snorted, they decided that it was probably time for everyone to head home.

Luka and Nino needed to be home for dinner, and Adrien needed to get to an evening photoshoot.

Marinette waved goodbye to Nino, and gave both Adrien and Luka a hug before they left, although she could have sworn that she had seen Adrien's eyes narrow when she had given Luka a peck on his cheek.

It was probably just her hyperactive imagination, Marinette thought to herself. There was no way that Adrien liked her, especially since he had broken up with Kagami so recently.

No, there was no way that Adrien Agreste would fancy Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Important A/N
I've been getting a lot of requests for more updates and for me to update faster. The answer to all of these requests is, and will always be no. I created an update schedule so I can write a chapter while still managing to complete my daily obligations. I really appreciate the fact that you're enjoying this story, and it's perfectly normal to want more of something you like. I am simply requesting that you refrain from asking for an update earlier than every Friday, because I simply cannot do that. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit ranty, I don't mean any offense to those who have left these comments in the past, it's honestly a huge compliment and shows me that you like what I write. In the future though, please show that by telling me you're looking forward to the next chapter, rather than asking for it. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

On a different note, is there anything you would like to see in future chapters? I can't promise anything, but who knows, anything's possible :)