Merman (Miraculous Ladybug AU)

Chapter 3

Alya left her cabin, hoping that Marinette would listen to her and stay put. The crew meeting could go for a few minutes or a few hours, but Alya reminded herself to take some food back for Marinette when the meeting was over.

When she arrived, she noticed she was one of the first ones to arrive. The only other people in the room were Kim and Chloe. The two of them were close to each other, Chloe whispering in Kim's ear.

Alya cleared her throat and Chloe leapt away from Kim, dusting her clothes, and playing with her hair. Alya flicked her eyes between them. Something was happening, but she was already on Chloe's bad side and didn't want to be abandoned at the next stop.

"What are you doing here?" Chloe walked over to Alya and got in her face, pointing and everything.

"Kim said there was a crew meeting last night, so here I am. It is the morning, after all." Alya couldn't help the little bit of sass that slipped out. She always had a hard time playing nice whenever the captain was involved. Today seemed to be worse, especially with the lack of sleep.

"It's just past the crack of dawn, I don't know where in your tiny brain you would think now is a good time for a crew meeting."

"Kim seems like he's pretty awake."

Chloe huffed and walked away. "Sit down or get out."

As soon as Alya sat down, everyone else filed into the room and took a seat. Chloe seemed to be getting angrier the more people that walked in, and Alya couldn't help the smirk that flitted across her face when Chloe realised she was having the crew meeting now because Kim had said it was in the morning.

Chloe cleared her throat. "It has come to my attention that a few of my policies are being ignored. These policies are in place to keep an ordered ship and one that runs smoothly. I will not tolerate people breaking any rules, and I will not allow ANYONE to disrespect me. As of now, the rules are changing."

Alya rolled her eyes. Of course, the rules would change at the drop of the hat. She had been outside of her cabin after midnight, yes, but that didn't mean Chloe had to change the rules completely and go on a power trip. If Alya hadn't been onboard for so long, she would assume the rules would only be changed a little here and there, but it was Chloe.

The rules would make her some kind of ultimate power.

"The new rules are as followed. I will be checking everyone's cabins at lights out. Anyone not in their room will be assigned to desk scrubbing for the next week. The only exceptions will be the ones I give out, and I will record them in my log book. Does anyone have any issues with that?"

Alya wanted to say she had a lot of issues with Chloe's rules. She wanted to point out how corrupt the people in charge were on this ship, wanted to point out how obviously unfair everything was. But she didn't. She didn't want to be thrown overboard.

"The next rule is that there will be patrols assigned to monitor everything at night. The patrols will be made of my trusted crew members, no one else, and will have a very important job to do. If they catch anyone outside their cabins at night, they can throw them into the holding cell for the entire day, unless the person outside their cabins has permission or is assigned to checking the food or cargo and has signed themselves in."

Chloe placed the piece of paper on the table and looked directly at Alya. Alya knew Chloe was directing all of the new rules at her, she just didn't think it would be so obvious. Chloe continued with her new rules.

"Finally, anyone checking the food store or cargo hold will do so with my permission and will sign in and out every single time. I want to be able to see a list in front of me with names, dates, and times. Anyone who fails to do this will be polishing every single piece of metal in the cargo. You may leave."

At last, Chloe was finished and Alya could get food for herself and Marinette, hopefully without getting caught. Everyone started to file out one by one until Alya was the last person left.

"Alya, may I speak to you?" Chloe's voice held a very detectable threat. Ignore me and deal with the consequences.

Turning around, Alya plastered a smile on her face. "Of course, Chloe."

"Listen here. I know you weren't checking the food store last night, and I know that you probably hid something in there. Everything was moved around, so I've sent Kim and Ivan to check if anything is there, or even missing. If they find something, you will be thrown overboard, and I just hope for your sake that you can swim," Chloe threatened menacingly.

"I got it, but everything is there. I was just moving food around so it would fit under the net because of the storm. Exactly like you told me to do. Don't you remember?"

Chloe glared at Alya. "Get out."

Alya turned and left. She headed straight to the kitchen and grabbed a plate, loading it up with everything she could grab. Nathaniel gave her a weird look, but Alya ignored it and continued grabbing food. She didn't know how much Marinette would eat in one sitting but took extra food in case she couldn't get to lunch for a while.

Once her plate was stacked up with all sorts of pastries, bread, eggs, and meat, Alya headed back to her room. She didn't get far when she ran into Max.

"Chloe isn't going to be happy with you taking that much food from breakfast." Max pushed his glasses back up his nose while he examined her plate.

"No one else was there, and I left plenty of food behind." Alya tried to keep the plate balanced, but it was starting to get a little bit heavier with every passing minute. "I should really get going, I think I should, stay out of Chloe's way since she's already annoyed at me."

Max thought for a moment. "Are you the reason all the new rules are put in place? I won't be able to go star watching now."

"I'm sure Chloe will give you the exception. She needs you to tell her where we're going and if there are any storms around."

"We'll see."

Max walked away and Alya continued to her room but stopped. People were shouting. A lot of people were shouting. All of them shouting about getting nets and capturing something. Alya heard someone say 'he' and the first thing she thought of was the merman Marinette said she saw last night.

Alya had to make a choice. Act like everything was fine and help out with the capture or make sure Marinette had food and stayed put. But if she was near the merman she could sabotage the capture...

Alya put the plate on one of the benches nearby and ran towards the rest of the crew. She would just have to mess up with the nets, even if it would make Chloe mad. A living creature was worth more than a week of chores.

When she got to the edge of the boat, Alya saw nets being thrown into the water and hauled back up, empty. This continued until one was pulled back up with the merman in it. He had a shining green tail and bright blonde hair, as well as the most vibrant eyes Alya had ever seen.

He also had sharp fins that were apparently very good at cutting through nets.

Chloe shrieked, "Get the harpoons!"

Alya turned around quickly and caught sight of Marinette peeking through the window. Alya cursed under her breath and turned back around. She had to stop that harpoon, or Marinette would probably do something stupid.

A harpoon was fired into the water but didn't hit anything. The merman looked towards Marinette and another harpoon was aimed at her.

Marinette opened the door and sprinted out. She was heading straight for the harpoon and looked like she was going to try and knock it off balance. "No! You can't do that to him!"

"Marinette, no!" Alya tried to jump in the way but she couldn't move fast enough. Marinette smashed straight into the huge machine and knocked it on its side.

The merman disappeared below the waves.

"Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?" Chloe pushed Marinette against the side of the ship. Marinette groaned as she hit the hardwood railing.

"My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I snuck onto your boat in Paris without anyone helping me. You need better security."

What was she doing? Annoying Chloe wouldn't get her anywhere.

"Then how does little Miss Cesaire know who you are? Throw her overboard and empty out Alya's cabin." Chloe threw Marinette over to Kim, who lifted her off the deck and dangled her over the edge.

Marinette began to scream and Alya leapt over to try and grab her but was held back by Ivan. Max and Sabrina left the deck, only to return with everything from Alya's cabin, including her spare hammock and Marinette's bags. Everything but the hammock was thrown into the water.

Chloe took the hammock and examined it. "Well, what do we have here? I might keep this, now that you'll be swimming with the fish."

Marinette was thrown overboard, hitting her head against the side of the ship as she fell. She disappeared under the water and Alya lost sight of her.

"How could you," Alya screamed at Chloe, "She just wanted to get away from Paris and now she's going to die!"

"She should have thought twice before crossing Chloe Bourgeois, then. My ship, my rules."

Alya barely screamed as she fell, all the air escaping her lungs when she hit the cold water. This was it. She was going to die, and so was Marinette.