Shadow of Noir

Chapter 3- Ladyblog

Bright beams of sunlight seeped through the cracks in Marinette's curtains and bathed her face, gently waking her up. Though, just as Marinette began to gather her thoughts, her alarm blasted its sleep crushing tune. Marinette tumbled out of the bed in surprise while tangled in her duvet. She whacked her head against the floor, thus sending a tremor through the house. 

"Marinette honey!" Marinette's mum called from down stairs "Are you ok?" 

"y-yer I'm fine mum just a bit of a tumble that's all" Marinette answered, slightly embarrassed and with a possible concussion. 

"Ok, well get ready for school or you'll be late!" replied Marinette's mum.

Gradually, Marinette pulled herself up of the floor and saved herself from the shackles of her duvet. Tikki helped her gather her homework, school supplies and- most importantly- Alya's phone charm. 

"You don't think Alya actually has anything to do with Chat Noir or Adrien's disappearance do you Marinette?" Tikki hesitantly asked- slightly nervous for marinette's reply.

Honestly, Marinette did have her suspicions. Alya ran an online website/blog known as the Ladyblog. As the name suggests, the website was dedicated to Ladybug- although it did feature Chat Noir every now and then. Despite putting herself in danger, Alya lives for the story and getting coverage of every event and battle the super hero duo fought. Alya was a great friend to Marinette and Adrien and would never do anything to harm them, but she had no idea who Chat Noir and Ladybug were. If she learnt something about either of them for a scoop on the Ladyblog she might have endangered one of them without thinking about it. Of course Marinette didn't want to tell Tikki that so she just replied with a simple, "No!" and left for school. 

Outside the school, Alya and Nino were chilling on the steps before heading to the locker room. Marinette sprinted over and leapt into Alya's arms, almost crushing her insides as she held on tighter. This took Alya by surprise so she proceeded to make sure Marinette was ok. The last time she'd hugged her without an introduction was a day after Adrien had been confirmed missing.  Nino and Alya flashed a look at each other which said "Go ahead, I'll meet you inside." Marinette's plan had worked. With Alya alone, Marinette pulled away from Alya's grasp and proceeded to retrieve the phone charm from her bag. 

"Oh... HA..HA... you found my charm... where did you...?" Alya stuttered while simultaneously becoming red in the face. Her glasses were practically steamed as a result in the difference of temperature between the fresh Parisian air and the heat radiating from the blushing blogger's face. It was clearly obvious she was hiding something now. 

"HERE OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL!" Marinette growled. She was trying not to accuse Alya without sufficient evidence; it was too much to bare. "You know something and you're going to tell me NOW!" 

"Why would you lie to me about this?"

Alya knew Marinette was serious. Marinette could get furious, but she'd never got furious with her before. Then again Alya had never betrayed her trust before. Now was the time to tell Marinette everything she wanted to know. 

"Last week, after the Akuma attack," Alya began "I had been recording the attack on my phone when Chat Noir saved me... which is when I lost my phone charm." "It got caught on something and snapped, but that wasn't really the last time I saw it." 

Alya took a deep breath. "later that night I returned to the school to get something from my locker." "That's when Chat Noir attempted to return my charm." 

Marrinette took a moment to process this. Chat Noir had been with her the whole night until... well... , meaning Alya must have seen Chat after he left Ladybug on the roof. If Alya saw where he went she may be able to track down at least one missing person. 

"Did he have any scratches or... markings?" Marrinette asked, trying to beat around the bush. 

"Well that's the thing, he had a bright red mark on his cheek and clearly he'd been crying!" Alya whispered. "I got some footage of the encounter, it's part of the reason I forgot the charm" 

The video she took remained off the ladyblog but she'd kept it as a little memento of the encounter. Alya proceeded to explain that as much as she wanted to post the video, she felt it would have been an invasion of privacy. She couldn't post such a personal video on the blog. It seemed wrong to even share with close friends, which is why she never said anything before. Marinette felt guilty, Alya wasn't hiding the truth for her own personal gain, she was hiding it to protect Chat Noir's personal feelings. Overwhelmed, Marinette wrapped her loving arms around her best friend. Likewise, Alya held Marinette in a friendly embrace until the two had made up.