Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a strong and confident young woman. But even strong and confident young women could get tongue tied and nervous around their crush, especially after the conversation that she just happened to stumble upon. There were too many compliments in such a duration that she wouldn't have believed it happened if it weren't for Tikki going "Way to go, Mari!"

Okay, so maybe he really did say that. Maybe Adrien Agreste, her friend and longtime crush really did say that she was smart and kind and that her laugh was pretty. Maybe he really did say things that she would've pegged as lovesick. That is, if she didn't know any better. But she did. There was no way that Adrien Agreste was in love with smart and kind Marinette Dupain-Cheng.. because he was in love with Ladybug.

She curled up into a ball next to a nearby desk as the realization came crashing down on her. The boy that she was starstruck over and later genuinely fell in love with, was in love with her strong superhero counterpart, the counterpart that the shy Marinette could definitely not compete with.

Ladybug. Of all people, he had to be in love with Ladybug. Although she supposed she could just be thankful that he didn't fall in love with Chloe or something. He was in love with her. No, not really. Marinette and Ladybug, while they were both the same person, weren't the same person. They just weren't. Marinette might do things similar to Ladybug and Ladybug might do things that were similar to Marinette but there were still too many differences to call them the same person. He was in love with the impossible her, the one that she wondered would even exist if Tikki never came into her life, if Hawkmoth didn't exist.

Marinette buried her face into her knees, sighing deeply, "I thought you said Ladybugs were lucky, Tikki." The kwami stayed silent but flew out of Marinette's purse, landing on her hands, patting it gently. They stayed in place, with Marinette making soft sniffles every so often.

"Marinette.." Tikki's high pitched voice echoed through the empty classroom, filled with worry. Marinette lifted her head, slowly so Tikki would have a bit of warning to fly out of the way, before she looked at the kwami, her eyes bloodshot.

"I guess.. I guess it's a good thing that we're friends now at least, right? If he can't look at me that way then he'll at least look at Marinette as a close friend, right?" Tikki nodded though it was hesitant and brief. Marinette chose to ignore it and stood up, dusting off her pants.

She looked at the clock near the door before sighing. Somehow she had managed to miss two entire- almost three classes. Hopefully Alya wasn't too worried. She quickly gestured for Tikki to fly back into her purse before bounding out the door and heading to class. She slid the door open slowly, glancing over her curious class. She handed the note to her teacher, thankful that she was smart enough to grab it from the nurse before heading to class, before heading to her seat, ignoring Adrien's worried gaze. Chloe laughed as Marinette passed her, "Oh, did someone make little Marinette cry?" She scooted closer to Marinette, adopting a look filled with false pity, "Someone finally told you that you weren't talented, didn't they?"

Marinette's eyes narrowed, her lips forming a scowl before she finally headed to her seat. She sent a weak smile over to Alya, whispering "I'll tell you later" in reply to her worried glance before directing her gaze over to the teacher.

When it came to their lunch break, Marinette quickly pulled Alya out of the classroom, smiling apologetically to Nino while ignoring Adrien's calls.

"Marinette! Slow down! What happened?"

They stopped in the classroom she was crying in over an hour ago. Alya looked at her worried while Marinette looked at the ground, swallowing harshly, "I found out who Adrien likes."

Alya smiled, stepping towards her best friend, ready to hug her, "He finally told you how he feels?"

Marinette gasped, a sob escaping her once again, "He's in love with Ladybug."

"Yeah, well we all knew he had a fanboy obsession with her but I wouldn't go as far as to call him in love with her, Mari."

Marinette shook her head furiously, the last of her tears fell as an uncontrollable amount of hysteria rose and broke through her composure, "No, he's going to confess, Alya. The reason why he never looked at me was because he was in love with a masked superhero." She looked at her friend in the eyes, "They're perfect together, aren't they? The superhero and the model. Just perfect." Too bad it would never happen.

A hand touched her shoulder as she continued to blabber on, "You wouldn't even believe it, Alya! I walked in on the two talking and he was talking about me.. Like he was in love! And i just fell for it! But he's in love with her."

It was amazing how so much hate could be filled in one word, about herself. It was amazing how much hate could come through about her alter ego when it gave her so much freedom, when it let her be her a stronger version of herself, when it gave her Chat.

A glance at Alya's worried face was what it took for her to snap out of it.

"I'm… Overreacting, aren't I? I'm lucky enough that we're friends. I shouldn't have ever expected for more.."

"Girl, you know that's not true. You are an amazing girl and if pretty boy can't see that then it's his lost. He's lucky that you're friends."

Marinette laughed before throwing herself at Alya, hugging her tightly, "Thanks for being my friend. I don't know what I would do without you."

Alya hugged her back with a gentle smile, "Anything for my best girl.." As Marinette let go, Alya waved at the door with a grand flourish, "Now how about we go eat some of the best of Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie's for lunch?"

They left the school as they giggled quietly together, a gentle smile gracing Marinette's lips.

Hi guys! Sorry that it took me so long to upload this. I was really busy with school (I got into homecoming court!) and I got sick for a long while. The chapter is a bit short (compared to the other ones anyway at least from what I can tell) but I'm actually really proud of how it was written. I couldn't think of a way to continue from the end so I will resume at another point in the next chapter. Sorry for the wait and keep up the reviews~
Athanasia xx