The Other Other Me (A Miraculous Fanfiction)

Chapter 2: Something Wrong

Marinette

Ever since they had stepped into the supernatural exhibit, Marinette noticed that Adrien had been acting unusual. She knew because she and Alya had been watching Nino and Adrien from a safe distance. Which was totally not stalking, right? More like. . . admiring from afar?

"I don't know, girl," Alya told her after looking over the blonde haired model, "Adrien looks okay to me."

"There's something off about him, Alya. I just know it." Marinette persisted. Adrien's demeanor had changed as soon as they walked into the room. He seemed engaged, yet distracted and unfocused at the same time. It was almost as if he was putting up an "I'm okay" act.

"Well, why don't you go ask him?" Alya lightly nudged Marinette in the direction of her love interest, I'm pretty sure he would appreciate your concern."

Marinette did not budge. "Now is not the time for you to play match maker, Alya. This is serious," she told her friend.

Alya rolled her eyes and put her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "Okay, then if you're 'seriously' concerned, shouldn't you be asking him what's wrong?"

Marinette brushed off Alya's hands. "Oh, yeah? And how would that go?" She countered. "Something along the lines of 'Hey- okay- Adrien- are - you'?" she pretended to spazz.

"Okay, you got me."

"Why don't we go look at that over there?" Marinette said, changing the subject as she grabbed her friend's hand and swiftly tugged her over to the centerpiece display: a silver amulet adorned with a blood red gem in the middle. "Monsieur Bellerouge said he was going to talk about this in a bit, so I want to get a closer look before the rest of the class crowds in."

"Uh huh," Alya said, not completely convinced on Marinette's excuse. "You just don't want Adrien and Nino to notice that we've been following then the entire time."

Marinette froze as a crimson blush crept upon her cheeks. "Yeah. . . That too. . ." She paused for a moment before saying, "But I seriously do want to look at it. It's beautiful, but super weird at the same time? What does the name card say?"

Alya zoomed in close and read the words aloud: "Amulet of the Vampire King? Weird. . . "

"Yeah. . ." Marinette agreed feeling both confused and amazed. "I wonder what makes it so special though, did it just belong to him or something?"

"Or maybe it has magical properties like Ladybug and Chat Noir," said Alya excitedly.

Marinette sighed. Leave it to Alya to bring up Ladybug in every possible situation. Even though Marinette felt a little weird about her best friend's obsession with her alter ego, she felt it was right to let Alya be the hard core fan girl she was. One, it was compensation for not telling Alya the truth. Two, Alya always listened with Marinette blabbered about Adrien, which happened to be almost all the time.

"Maybe. . ." Marinette responded, though she doubted Alya's suspicion. If it were similar to miraculouses, then wouldn't Hawk Moth be after it? There was no way to know really until Monsieur Bellerouge gave his spiel on it.

"By the way, speaking of Ladybug, " Alya began, "Can I come over tonight? I want to show you some footage I got of yesterday's battle. Plus, I might need help on that reflective essay."

Oh, yesterday's battle. It was quite the adventure. The 'Youth Sucker,' as the akumatized victim had called himself, was a old man who had been made fun of by some rude teenage boys and used his cane to zap the youth of the people around him into himself. Neither she nor Chat Noir had gotten zapped, thankfully, or the rest of the battle would have been quite complicated.