When Alya arrived at the Grand Hotel, a small crowd of onlookers had formed in front ofthe main gate. The tension floating in the air could be clearly felt and excited whispers from around only added to the heavy atmosphere. Everyone was waiting for something to happen.

From bits of hushed conversations, Alya concluded that Ladybug and Cat Noir were currently fighting an akuma inside the hotel, while its guests were being evacuated. A quick glance at the entrance guarded by a police officer and she knew she couldn't sneak in unnoticed. The policeman didn't look like he would let her in if she told him she needed to get footage for her blog. She was not discouraged by this and immediately started scanning her surrounding, looking for another way in.

Before she could form a plan, the silence was pierced by the sound of a shattering glass. The akuma jumped through the window breaking the pane in the process. The crowd gasped, immobilized by the sight while Alya quickly turned on her camera, moving closer to get a clearer shot. It was a splendid decision as just a second later, both Paris's heroes flew after their opponent, landing right beside the blogger. What happened next resembled a scene from a movie, where foes exchanged series of kicks and punches, not backing down for even a moment.

Alya gripped her phone tightly, trying to keep up with the fight that took place right in front of her eyes. She could feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins, her heart beating faster and faster in excitement. This was good. She focused on filming, not providing any of her usual commentary. She reckoned as Ladybug dodged a very nasty blow to her face, that such a spectacle didn't need any comments to be appreciated. The silent crowd around her seemed to be in agreement, as people kept staring at the combat, completely speechless.

"Cat, keep him busy while I try to immobilize him!" Ladybug shouted to her companion who saluted and charged at their enemy at full speed.

The akuma twirled out of the hero's way, kicking his leg to the side and hoping to catch Cat Noir off balance. Superhero, however, jumped over his opponent and proceeded to deliver quick blows to his chest. The akumatized citizen had no choice but to retreat under the constant attacks sent his way. Backing slowly, careful not to let Cat Noir hit him, he completely missed a yo-yo flying towards him, noticing it only after it was wrapped tightly around his wrists, effectively clasping them. When it seemed like Ladybug got an upper hand and a few cheers from the onlookers could be heard, the akuma used heroine's yo-yo to throw her over his head. The momentum gained from the movement helped him to set his wrists free quickly enough to parry Cat's attack with a heavy punch to hero's head.

The sound of akuma's fist colliding with superhero's skull made Alya wince. That one must have hurt like hell. She didn't have time to appraise the damage that Cat Noir took as the villain threw a few small balls towards the crowd of civilians. The next thing she heard was an explosion, which impact knocked the blogger down. She half expected the hotel to collapse and rubble to fall down on her head. Feeling a little dizzy and overwhelmed, she opened her eyes only to find that the explosion didn't cause any harm, neither to people nor to buildings around. So it's aim was more to create a distraction than to seriously hurt anybody, the teenager thought, trying to stand up. Her legs were shaking like a jelly and refused to hold Alya in a standing position. Before she landed on her butt, strong arms caught her and she found herself staring into the blue sky that were the eyes of Ladybug.

"It's you again." The heroine sighed tightening her grip around the blogger to steady her shaking body. "I told you to not to follow us, didn't I?"

Before the fight moved to the Grand Hotel, Paris's favorite duo had been taking the akuma on near Louvre. Even then their battle had been heated and got more intense with every second. As always, Alya had appeared, out of breath but ready to obtain an action- packed footage for Ladyblog. She had stubbornly chased after them and unintentionally had been hindering their job of defeating the new henchman of Hawkmoth. When she had almost got hit by the door pulled out from the car, Ladybug had decided that she had had enough fun. She had wrapped her yo-yo around Alya's ankle and had taken her out of harm's way, carrying the blogger a few streets away and had left her there with a short 'Don't you dare follow me'. Even so, Alya wouldn't be herself if she had obediently stayed away from the fight.

"I'm just really persistent." The teenager shrugged grinning brightly at her personal hero.

"That you are." Ladybug agreed, shaking her head in disbelief at Alya's annoying tendency to put herself in danger in the name of getting new videos.

"So what's up with today's villain? Not very talkative, is he?" The blogger reeled up to superheroine, quick to avert the subject from herself.

"He seems to be some sort of agent, like the ones in the movies. Noticed how he keeps throwing different gizmos at us?"

The exploding spheres were not the only gadgets the akuma had been using during the fight. He had a staff similar to Cat's and particularly annoying mini boomerangs, that you couldn't get rid off.

"Now that you mention it, he even looks like some super spy... Or the really bad imitation of Batman." Alya smirked remembering villain's clothes that were a weird combination of dark blue spandex and black formal suit.

"James Bond he is not. Not even if you squint." Ladybug sighed dramatically, making blogger giggle. "It would be so much cooler if he looked the part, then I could brag I defeated a legendary 007!"

Once again Alya was impressed by heroine's unwavering confidence, by the strength inside her that could be felt through the way she talked, the way she held herself: proud and unyielding. The whole Paris had put its trust in Ladybug but it was not only because of her power to fight the evil forces. Her strong presence was like a promise that everything would turn out just fine. Lady Luck possessed the ability to calm the hearts of citizens, to banish the fear creeping inside them whenever Hawkmoth attacked.

Alya was aware of the fact that she was gawking at Ladybug and she desperately wanted to say something: something witty with her usual dose of humor. She wanted to assure the heroine that defeating any secret agent was not necessary for her to be, well, the coolest. Sadly, nothing but the unintelligible murmur came out of blogger's mouth.

"Hey, sorry to intrude, you ladies, on this fascinating akuma gossip, but our Mr. Smith is getting away."

Girls turned to see Cat Noir with a slightly annoyed expression, rubbing his forehead, which probably still hurt from the previous blow. He looked like he would take a great pleasure in scratching the akuma's face.

Ladybug let go of Alya slowly, making sure the blogger could support herself on the nearest bench. She titled her head, smirking at Cat's unusual demeanor.

"Well then Kitty, why are you still here when our target is at large?"

"My Lady, I am not the one who was chattering happily about trends in akuma fashion."

Torn between the feeling of happiness and a slight guilt of enjoying the bickering between the two heroes, Alya wondered whether it counted as a marital fight. She certainly hoped it did.

If it wasn't for the thirst for a new footage, Alya's inner fan girl would let the situation unfold freely, gladly observing a show provided by Paris's defendants. So instead of adding more fuel to the fire, she copied Cat's words from before:

"Sorry to intrude, you lovebirds, on this couple's argument, but weren't you kind of chasing our villain of the name unknown?"

That worked like a bucket of cold water. Both heroes fell silent and looked at Alya as if she was the strangest creature in the whole wide world. The small difference in the looks they were giving her was that Ladybug appeared to be flabbergasted at the insinuation while Cat Noir seemed almost embarrassed.

Grinning cheekily, Alya exclaimed, "Why don't you provide me with more kick-ass footage and we can come back to flirting later?"

Sobering from the shock, Ladybug made a face and said with some sort of satisfaction, "I don't think your legs will be taking you anywhere anytime soon."

At that comment, Alya tried to protest but now that the adrenaline was leaving her body, her legs seemed to be even more unstable. She tried to take a step forward but the movement was unsteady and she had to grab Ladybug's arm to prevent herself from falling down.

"We'll be going ahead." The heroine winked at Alya, freeing herself from blogger's grasp. "Don't follow us!"

With that the superhero duo renewed their chase after akuma, quickly disappearing among numerous buildings. Alya was left with the rest of the onlookers, feeling like she lost her chance at getting a big scoop. Yet again.

xxx

Her fingers ran furiously over a keyboard as she typed the rest of a post for the Ladyblog. In the end, she didn't get anymore footage from the fight. Still, what she had managed to obtain beforehand was enough to publish on her blog.

Of course, after being left behind by Ladybug and Cat Noir, she hadn't just given up on the chase of her own. She had needed some time to catch her breath and force her brain to work again.

She had been caught by surprise, when a taxi driver had approached her, offering to give a free ride. Seeing Alya's open astonishment, he presented her with a small smile. "You're an author of the Ladyblog, right? My daughters love watching your videos."

That statement, although a major ego boost, had made the teenager feel confused and tense. Deciding to think about it later, she had taken the taxi driver up on the offer as her body still had refused to move properly.

Although they had been stuck in the traffic for at least fifteen minutes and ultimately, missed the rest of the fight against akuma, Alya had acquired a new, valuable acquaintance. The man had turned out to be a very devoted father, who had had let himself be dragged into superheroes obsession by his two daughters. A loving parent and a fellow Ladybug fan: for Alya, the man couldn't get any cooler.

The blogger made sure to mention her new friend in the post, relating their epic car pursuit and leaving him and his daughters a shout out. If she had such great fans she had to make them feel appreciated.

"Aaaand... Done!" She exclaimed happily raising her hands in the air.

Another post uploaded to the Ladyblog, another job well done.

"Knock knock." Her mother said to make her presence known while opening the door to her room. "How was your day, Honey?"

Alya looked up from her laptop. Marlena was smiling at her, but the fatigue on her face was evident. Another busy day. Despite her constant tiredness she still devoted her free time to her imperfect family, no matter how hard work had been on her, no matter how much she wanted to lay down and rest. Every single day she would talk with her daughters, hear their troubles and worries out. Always putting them before herself. They were the reason she worked so hard in the first place.

Since Otis had started living with them, it gradually got easier. Even when the twins appeared, their situation had already been stable enough. Some habits, however, died hard and Marlena still felt the obligation to work just as much as she had during the time it had only been the two of them.

Alya wished her mother would devote more time to her own needs. Seeing her with bags under her eyes caused blogger's insides to squeeze painfully.

"I prevented every coup d'état my little underlings planned, so today counts as a successful day."

Alya grinned hearing her mother laugh.

"Are you still playing this weird game? I'm surprised your sisters haven't given up yet!"

To introduce order in the house, Alya had thought of a game she could play with her younger sisters. She had declared herself the Empress and them a special unit of the Resistance, which goal was to overthrow her. As a rule of the game, for however long was she the sovereign they had to do whatever they were told.

What seemed like a brilliant idea had turned into an uncontrolled chaos. Little demons with enormous imagination had taken the word 'overthrow' a little too literally. A bruised knee Alya had acquired was not the only war casualty: since that time their house had lacked vases and the table almost had been burned. This occurrence called for tightening the rules, which meant: no breaking tools, utensils and other things, no playing with matches, no violence and most importantly no pushing your sister down from a chair.

To overthrow the Empress, girls now had to grab the flag that Alya put in her room. It minimized the risk of burning the house down. At least for the time being.

"I'm keeping them busy with tasks so they don't get bored" she shrugged.

"More like you turned them into your personal servants" Marlena teased, her smile getting bigger.

"Hey! Not my fault I get thirsty when I write! They should be grateful to have an honor of bringing me my afternoon tea." Alya said pretending to be deeply offended.

Her mom laughed again and patted her head lightly.

"You should take acting classes. You'd put all the actors to shame."

"Not interested. I'm already too amazing for this world to handle."

Marlene smiled slightly but then rubbed her eyes "I'm going to check on the Resistance, I hope they didn't set anything on fire."

Alya laughed nervously as she watched her mother leave. If only she knew how right she was...

Well, it was better for her health not to be aware of the twins' pyromaniac impulses.

xxx

Etta and Ella were singing a theme song of a cartoon called 'Madeline', which Alya grew up on. She had introduced her sisters to the world of a cheerful redhead some time ago and ever since the three of them had been bursting into its opening song at most random times: during a dinner at the restaurant or when they were brushing their teeth (this usually ended with toothpaste all over the mirror and pajamas).

As Alya had promised, they were walking to the cinema to watch the newest animated movie. The twins were not the only ones exited to see the cartoon, their older sister was just as keen as ever.

"She's Madeline, she's Madeline, dum dee dum dee" the blogger expressed her happiness by trying to sing bass, which she clearly failed, much to twins' delight.

"You sound like a coughing orca."

The comment, which sent Etta and Ella into a series of giggles, was uttered by no one else but Mylene Haprele. She was grinning from ear to ear, her eyes shining with mirth, her posture opened, free of the usual tension and shyness. Even her outfit was nothing like the ones she wore to school: she went with denim short dungarees, pastel pink top, and white sneakers. Her normal bandanna was replaced with the white one, but the pin she had got from Ivan was still there.

Mylene had been waiting for Cesaire sisters near the entrance to the cinema. She and Alya became quite close, probably close enough to count each other as friends. They had bonded over mutual taste in movies and had been going to the cinema together since then. Later on, Mylene started to take her classmate to the theater whenever her father gave her free tickets to see a play.

"We thought she sounds more like a goose!" Etta exclaimed, rushing to hug Mylene, followed closely by her twin.

"A very, very ill goose!" Ella added, making the three girls laugh wholeheartedly.

Alya faked being hurt, wiping an imaginary tear from her cheek. "I'm feeling very attacked!" She regarded her friend carefully, taking notice of her unusual outfit. "Looking good, by the way! Those dungarees are right on point, girl!"

Smiling a tad timidly, Mylene thanked for the compliment. "Actually, it's one of Marinette's suggestions. She called a fashion emergency and we went shopping to get some new clothes for her." She admitted, suddenly self-conscious.

Alya felt an enormous pride growing in her chest. Her best friend definitely had a great fashion sense and knew just what kind of outfit would emphasize the beauty of a person. Without a doubt, Marinette was going to become a successful designer one day.

"Let me guess, she talked you into trying bazillion of different things and didn't stop nagging until you bought something? Classic Marinette." The blogger smiled fondly, knowing very well how shopping trips with her friend looked like.

"Yeah. And that bandanna is her work." Mylene glanced at her phone to check the time. "We should go inside, the movie is starting soon."

The twins positioned themselves so Mylene was standing between them, they grabbed her hands and started walking eagerly towards the cinema. Alya tagged after them, ready to get a place in the queue for a pack of popcorn.

xxx

The movie turned out to be great. The Cesaire-Haprele squad had gotten a little too much into watching it and had annoyed the rest of the audience with their loud, animated reactions. It was difficult to settle who had enjoyed the cartoon more, the younger or the older half of their group.

"I declare the replay of today's excursion! This movie was amazing!" Mylene's exclamation was met with twin's eager cheers. "What do you think, Alya?"

The blogger, who had been just as excited as other girls, was suddenly distracted by the post about the current fight against akuma. Another attack, so soon after the last one. Hawkmoth had been getting desperate lately as his plans never seemed to play out according to his scenario.

Alya knew she shouldn't be as euphoric as she was about it, but a new footage couldn't be obtained without a constant appearance of villains. So in her heart of hearts, she was highly supportive of Hawkmoth's actions. Unless they were related to Ancient Egypt.

The fight was taking place near Eiffel Tower, not that far from the cinema. If she took a bus, then ran through the shortcut, she should be able to get enough material for a new video.

Being so focused on the plan forming in her head, Alya didn't watch where she was going until she collided with someone. She managed to keep her balance but some of the popcorn the person had been holding, had been scattered to the floor.

Before she managed to apologize, the victim of her absent-mindedness spoke flatly. "You're a danger to the public. Do society a favor by investing in new glasses."

Had that sentence been delivered in a different tone, it could have been seen as an attempt of humor in the awkward situation. However, it was said in such a dull, unamused voice that no one could have mistaken it with an effort to ease the growing tension.

Blinking at the boy she had bumped into, Alya felt anger rising inside her, hot and forceful like fire. She was so ready to mop the floor with him and his mess of curly hair.

"My sight is just fine, thank you very much. Why don't you look where you're -" her retort was cut by the boy's annoyed sigh.

"You're wasting my time." He turned and walked away, murmuring something under his breath.

In. Out. Breathe slowly, don't shout after him, Alya instructed herself, not wanting to cause another scene. Despite the way she held herself, she was never the one to marvel at unnecessary attention.

But To think that such a rude person would have had the exact same t-shirt like Nino. She was going to force him to get rid of that thing later!

"You know it was your fault, right?" Mylene, the voice of reason, had to break what was left of blogger's composure.

"He had been given a pair of eyes. He could have used them to bypass me!"

"He had been standing in the corner until you walked into him." the blonde summarized what had happened, but her intention was not to aggravate her friend. She raised her hands in a conciliatory manner. "He didn't have to be rude, though."

Knowing their sister enough to see that her irritation was not going away, the twins steered the conversation to different areas, ironically, showing the most maturity.

The combo of puppy eyes directed at Alya, combined with an annoyingly high, pleading voice and they were ready. "Let's go for ice creams! You promised us ice creams!"

When it seemed like the blogger's fury would shift towards her younger sisters, it disappeared like it was never there, chased away by the sudden realization of the fact that she was squandering another chance of getting amazing footage.

Unknowingly to herself, she mimicked the twin's imploring expression. "Mylene... Can you three go to the ice cream parlor without me? I need -"

The shorter girl raised her hand, to interrupt her friend's explanation. "Yes, yes. You have to go, catch the scoop, let your journalistic soul fly and all that jazz. We get it. Just remember you're paying for ice creams."

"Deal!" Alya agreed, knowing that she would have to spend all of her allowances, she waved a goodbye and dashed out, her thoughts already with Paris's superheroes.

She ran as fast as she could, yet she maneuvered carefully around people, not keen to repeat the situation from just a moment before. All caution, however, was cast aside when she almost let herself been hit by the car, just to catch the bus in time.

The bus ride seemed to be dragging on ruthlessly, causing blogger's temper to rise over an over again. Cursed would be cars and traffic jams, that kept her away from Ladybug's accomplishments.

Alya stared at her phone to check the status of the fight when the notification of the successfully defeated akuma came. "Just perfect!" She murmured to herself sarcastically.

Disappointment filled her and she succumbed herself to a moment of discouragement, so atypical for the blogger. The more she cared about something the more it hurt to fail.

She got off the bus, grasping the last ray of hope of catching one of the fleeing superheroes. As if to answer her prayers, Cat Noir could be seen, jumping from one rooftop to another, in impossibly long leaps.

Bitter feelings long-forgotten, Alya gather herself and sprinted after the hero in black, trying hard not to loose him from sight. She saw him disappear into one of the less crowded alleys, her focused had increased and so she didn't miss his sudden change of directions.

Reaching her destination, she noticed a faint, green light but otherwise no one could be seen. No one but Adrien Agreste, standing in the middle of the alley, were Cat Noir should have been.

While Alya's brain was busy processing the situation and placing information together, the blonde boy turned around and his face assumed the expression of sheer horror. He stared at his classmate, wondering what she had witnessed, how much she knew. Her silence only made him more uneasy and terrified.

Gulping, he approached her, his lips contorted into the clumsy imitation of his usual smile. "Alya! What a surprise! What are you doing here?" Adrien said, trying to play it cool, but it came out awkward.

Noticing the way she was gaping at him, with eyes wide open, confused yet curious, he was no longer under the illusion that she saw nothing. He could almost hear cogs inside her brain turning, calculating, assessing him.

And so he panicked.

He ran not looking back, not sparing a glance even when he heard his classmate shout something after him. He dashed, trying to outrun the reality, the fear that seemed to consume his whole body.

Left alone in the empty alley, Alya overcame the first dose of astonishment, all puzzles finally settling in adequate places. She felt excitement bubbling inside her, rising like a wave, making her restless. Her mind was replaying one sentence over and over:

Adrien Agreste is Cat Noir.

Author's Note:

Please note that I am not the native English speaker, and so this story may contain mistakes.

I am aware that the main idea for this story is far from original, still I hope that you are going to find the rest of the plot much more interesting.

Thank you for reading and have a good day!