Marinette had only realized last night that she wasn't actually in love. She was in love with the idea of being in love. Now she had to figure our some way to apologize to Adrien, Alya, and her friend group for all of this trouble. (maybe she should apologize to those automated doors too.) Although, she usually did have good reasons for being so flustered around Adrien. She knew that right when she walked into the classroom, she would come out and apologize to everyone. Maybe even Lila if she wasn't lying about being on vacation somewhere with someone famous.
"Marinette, are you awake yet? You have to be at school soon! Come down for a quick breakfast when you're ready!" Sabine yelled, waiting for Marinette to answer her. Marinette was still in bed, sitting there contemplating existence while time moved on without her. That was deep. Maybe she should write a book.
"Marinette, you heard what your mother said!" Tikki said while holding up a clock that said the time was 8:59. (class starting at 9:00) "Oh no!" Marinette rushed down the stairs as fast as she could, only slowing down to grab a bagel and the mini backpack and lunch bag her mother was holding. She proceeded to run towards her class as fast as possible, only tripping twice and only doing one impressive gymnastic thing to save herself. When she got in, however, Ms. Bustier's sub wasn't taking attendance. In fact, he wasn't there at all. Instead, Lila was sitting on the teacher's desk, ranting about how in love Ladybug and Chat Noir were, and how tedious of a role it was to play matchmaker for two oblivious superheroes. Then she talked about witnessing them make out. Marinette felt like she was going to throw up. Alix looked like she was going to throw up. The two locked eyes, then left the room.
"That was REVOLTING!" Alix practically yelled, jumping up and accidentally activating her skates, knocking into Marinette and almost sending her down the flight of stairs. Marinette did a backflip thing, landing on the railing perfectly. Once she noticed Alix staring at her, she slipped and fell onto the landing where they had been standing moments before. (oof)
"Are you ok? That was amazing! Do it again! I should make a bet with Kim!" Alix said excitedly while flipping her wheels back into the shoes.
"I'm fine, happens all the time. I- don't tell anyone I can do that, ok?"
"Ok. But I'm still making a bet with Kim. Also, why were you out here? Don't you want to hear about Paris' darling OTP?"
"No, not really. I'm not really into that kind of thing."
"You're Aro too?"
"Yeah, and I was thinking probably asexual too."
"You can call that AroAce. There's a lot of people out there like us."
"Ok then. I wanted to say sorry for the whole Team Adrienette thing. I was in love with the idea of being in love and I didn't really stop to think about what you guy felt about it. I was going to announce it to the class today, but then that happened. Anyway, I'm sorry."
"Jeez, it's ok. I got lots of stuff from it!" Alix said quite proudly while holding up Princess Twinklepeach. Lila chose that moment to walk out into the hall with the LadyNoir brigade.
"See! I told you Alix was no good! First, she and Marinette walk out, like, the moment they hear about my best friend's relationship *people agree a bit, saying they should be more supportive* they just run out of there. And then we hear such a loud crash that we, the supportive, helpful friends we are go to check, only to see that the reason they ran out was because they took advantage of us and stole poor Rose's plushie. *Lila drags Rose over to see what's happening* I don't think we should trust them anymore." Lila stated while started to grow some water in her eye.
"She won that in a bet. I know because she bragged about it to me almost all day." Kim objected.
"Yeah, she did it fair and square!" Rose yelled (read: squeaked) excitedly.
"Did she?" Alya asked while looking towards Marinette with narrowed eyes.
"From what I hear, the only people there were you, Rose, Myléne, and Alix. I don't mean to accuse anyone of anything, but was it possible that Alix could have taken advantage of sweet little Rose here?" Lila patted Rose on the head as she, Myléne, Marinette, and Juleka gasped.
"Clearly you don't know what happened there if you can't get the details right. One, Juleka was there as well." Marinette rebutted.
"Well, I didn't mean to forget her, it's just my memory acting up."
"Two, I don't know much about the bet except for it being made before I showed up, Alix winning the plushie, and her keeping it all the way in the future."
*some gasps*
"Well, even if it was made before you showed up, she still could have told you about it beforehand so you could sabotage Rose for Alix to win. Also, how could you know about the future. Do you mean now? Cuz that was only a few months ago." Marinette was offended. They didn't believe her! Well, she had to formulate a plan to save her reputation. She couldn't let them find out she was Ladybug. Maybe...
"I found out through Ladybug."
"What makes you think my best friend would ever talk to you? Remember, she told me she thought you were irritating." (the classmates are just staring at this now.)
"Because I know her!" Marinette cried out before leaving. There was only one way to fix this. (*author sighs*)
A few seconds later, Ladybug landed in the midst of their group. "Who made my girlfriend cry?"
"You- your girlfriend?" Alya stated. She looked rather shocked.
"Y-yeah. I knew about this. Marinette said that she wanted to break up with you." Lila bluffed.
"I am fully aware that she would never say such a thing." Marinette looked at her phone. "In fact, she just texted me to say that you lied about me making out with my partner. You are aware that Chat Noir is my brother, correct?" She asked the question to everyone, but she specifically looked at Alya.
Alya stammered. "Yes, y-you said so in your interviews. I thought you were lying to cover it up."
"Cover what up?"
"That you're dating him."
"I am not dating my brother. I am dating my girlfriend, Marinette. I don't have time for this. I will check on her, then leave."
"But wait! Aren't you going to talk to your best friend first?" Alya asked rather hopelessly.
"Chat Noir is my best friend. Oh, do you mean someone here?"
"Yes, Lila! Your civilian!best friend!" Alya shoved Lila forwards while not really hurting her.
"If I was to pick my civilian best friend from this crowd, I would at least pick someone I've spoken to more than once. Adrien can confirm what happened last time we spoke."
"Wait, where is Adrien anyways?" Rose asked carefully. Everyone looked around, hoping to see him somewhere. (The author is making excuses for forgetting about sunshine child.) Then, they heard a car door slam. Adrien had arrived, but not in the car. It was like a replay of the first day of school, he had run here and the car followed him. Everyone sneaked over towards them, hoping to overhear the conversation taking place.
"Look, Adrien, we're only trying to do what's best for you! Listen.....teacher....classmates...you can't go there!
"But I want to see my friends and be normal! Like everyone else!"
"You heard what your father said! Now get in the car!" At this moment, Marinette fell over. Sure, she was in Ladybug mode, but she had been standing for a long time and everyone was kind of shoving her out of the way to eavesdrop. Everyone turned to look at her, including Adrien and Ms. Sanceour. Oops. Well, now she couldn't really get out of this, so she ran to the bathroom where she was supposedly crying. She hoped they would dismiss it as her "checking on her girlfriend". Wait! Alix! Alix knew she was AroAce, so what if... Marinette stopped catastrophizing and started trying to focus on her breathing. Deep breath in, deep breath out, deep breath in, deep breath out.
"Marinette?" Marinette as Ladybug jumped on top of the sink as Alix walked in the door. "Well, I suppose I had to know it someday." Alix noted, referring to the fact that she had just figured out her identity using logic and this scenario. "I- yeah." Marinette said while dropping her transformation. (at this point, the author has forgotten what is going on.) "I didn't really want anyone to know until Chat and I did the reveal, but I guess it's fine. You already figured it out before anyway."
"Before?"
"Well, I suppose I found out that you knew later when future!you told me you knew everyone's identities. So from my POV, you already figured it out. But you only figured it out now. Maybe that's how you knew befo-after."
"Well, that's not confusing. Wanna bet on how long it takes for the other to figure it out?" The future pink-haired rabbit said while activating her skates to go do...something. Marinette didn't really know what to do, so she just followed Alix out of there to go apologize. It was about time for it anyway.