Merman (Miraculous Ladybug AU)

Chapter 2

Alya had ventured out to get a bag of ice for her face, after Marinette had stopped bugging her about it. Once they had both calmed down, Alya started to talk about what happened. "Chloe asked me what I was doing in the middle of the night, especially since I was coming out of the food store. I told her that she had told me to check on it through the night, and she got angry that I was telling her she had forgotten something.

"She told me to come back to my cabin and stay there, don't bother coming back out until tomorrow, and I started to walk away. But then she called me back over, yelled at me for walking away and slapped me, saying I was lucky to be on this boat and I should listen and respect her. Then I came back here. I'm lucky to have even gotten to the kitchen to get the ice pack."

"I'm sorry. This is my fault." Marinette could feel the guilt rising up in the back of her mind. If she hadn't asked Alya to help her, she wouldn't have gotten slapped by Chloe. She could have just continued on with her life, no disturbances.

Alya lay on her hammock and pressed the ice to her face again. "I said I would help you, and I'm going to stick to my word. I haven't gone back on a promise yet and I don't intend to start."

"Where should I sleep tonight? If you have a spare pillow or anything, I can sleep on the floor." Marinette tried to change the conversation or distract herself from the guilt, she couldn't really tell.

"There's a spare hammock in the cupboard. You probably would have seen it when you put your bag in there." Alya walked over to the cupboard.

"I didn't notice it."

Just as Alya was about to open the cupboard, there was a knock on the door. Marinette pushed herself into the small gap between the wall and the cupboard and Alya threw the ice pack out the window. The handprint on her face had almost completely disappeared, despite the little amount of time she had been holding the ice pack to it.

Kim opened the door and walked in. "Chloe wants a crew meeting tomorrow. Something about stowaways and food store checks. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Alya shook her head. "Nothing. Have a good night, Kim."

Kim left and Alya called out to Marinette. "It's safe to come back out now, he's gone."

"What can I do to help you?"

"Pull the hammock out of the cupboard and bring it over here. I have a spare set of hooks from the people in this room before. It's the only room with them." Alya pointed at the hammock hooks near the cupboard, identical to the ones her own hammock was hung from.

Marinette swung the cupboard doors open and pulled the net out. The hammock unfolded and fell to the floor at her feet. It was absolutely massive, Marinette could have easily fit three of herself into it. "Why do you have such a large hammock in your cupboard? Why not use this one instead?"

"It would have been too suspicious. The one I'm using is the one that Chloe issues to everyone. The one you're holding is much larger and I got it from one of the ports we stopped at."

"Stole it?"

"Used money to come into ownership of it. I wanted a spare, but Chloe wouldn't give me a second one without my first one being absolutely destroyed or stolen. Even then, I doubt she would let me have another hammock."

Marinette frowned. "Surely, she isn't that bad of a person."

Alya rolled her eyes, Marinette's naivety starting to annoy her. "She's horrible. All the hammocks are stored in her room, in the chest under her bed so no one can get to them. You can't even more the bed, she bolted it to the floor so she could say it was safe. No one else is allowed to."