Alya liked to consider herself the top journalist at Collège Françoise Dupont, which meant she had trained herself to notice the small things.

She had been the first to notice when Max had shown up with a new pair of glasses, as well as the first to notice when Juleka showed up with another piercing, along with being the first to notice when Ivan showed up to school with pins from a new band he liked. She prided herself on being the most observant person in school, and she wore the title proudly.

The first time she saw Marinette, she thought the girl was cute, dark hair pulled back into cute pigtails and bright blue eyes. When she saw Chloe harassing her and heard how defeated the girl sounded, she had stood up without a second thought to step in. Chloe seemed obnoxious, like any school bully, but the way Marinette seemed so resigned to it left her more than a little uncomfortable, especially as the girl tripped, spilling macarons all over the floor and apologising all the way.

Comforting the girl was easy, although she's sure a large part of that is built upon years of experience comforting her younger siblings. She doesn't bother to think too deeply on it as she pulls the smaller girl in close and tries her best to encourage her to be more confident. She had seen her earlier attempt against Chloe taking her seat and Alya was sure that if she could just find it in herself to stand up more, she'd have far fewer problems than she currently did.

When Marinette simply smiled, broke her macaron in half, and handed half over to Alya while introducing herself, Alya knew she was screwed. Marinette had been cute in a kind of 'kicked puppy' way before, but the way her smile lit up her whole face was so beautiful Alya was sure nothing else would ever compare.

Falling for Nino is unexpected, and so fast it feels like whiplash. One moment she's trying to coach Marinette through the most awkward conversation with Nino she's ever seen, and the next thing she knows, Ladybug is throwing them both into a gorilla cage and dashing off to defeat the akuma.

She's upset at first, partly at the fact that she's locked in a gorilla cage, partly because she's now missing her chance to record the battle for the Ladyblog, and slightly because she's locked in the cage with Nino.

It's not that she has anything against the DJ, but if she's really going to be locked in a cage with someone, she would rather it be someone she's friends with, like Marinette. She finds herself so focused on trying to find a way out that she ropes Nino into helping her by letting her sit on his shoulders, oblivious to the way he fidgets with his headphones as she looks around.

When she finally gives up and settles back against the log with Nino, her eyes are immediately drawn to his fingers tapping against his thigh. She can hear the beat coming from his headphones and finds herself trying to be as quiet as possible so she can listen along. A few moments later when the song changes, she watches as Nino's fingers quickly change rhythm to follow the song's beat and before she even realizes, she's reached out to stop him. She's watched Adrien fidget like Nino is and every time, Nino reaches out and holds the model's hand until he calms down.

Nino's head immediately snaps to her, and when she smiles at him, he pulls his headphones off his ears and settles them around his neck, pressing pause on the song as he does. Without a word, she moves so she's settled against his side, pulling his headphones off his neck so she can settle one end against her ear as her free hand reaches for his phone to press play and fiddle with the volume.

When the music begins to play and he's still sitting there staring at her, she raises an eyebrow and he fumbles for the other end of the headphone, pressing it against his ear as well. Two songs later, he's stopped fidgeting, so she presses pause and starts talking. She opens with complimenting his music and the conversation quickly moves forward from there. When the swarm of ladybugs sweeps by and deposits them on the bench outside of the cage, she finds herself a little disappointed at them going their separate ways.

She doesn't even think on it before inviting him to check on Marinette, and when he smiles and agrees, she doesn't even stop to think on the way her heart sighs in her chest as they start walking. The conversation has jumped to how much they both dislike Gabriel Agreste when he makes some corny joke, one so ridiculous she can't remember it now, that causes her to completely lose it.

She's laughing so hard that she can feel the stitch in her side growing, but she can't bring herself to stop. When she's on the brink of taming the giggles, she turns to shoot Nino a playful glare and instead finds herself frozen. He's smiling at her, and it's obvious he hasn't realized that she's looking back at him with how gentle it is. She can't describe it beyond the fact that he seems 'softer' with that smile painted across his lips and the sun highlighting the gold in his eyes. When she's gotten rid of the pain in her side and stood up fully, he turns forward and keeps walking, and though he's not wearing the smile anymore, her heart tells her she won't be forgetting it anytime soon.

Falling for Adrien is almost so ridiculous, she wants to smack herself. He's literally the class pretty boy, and while she's sure most of the girls at their school have a crush on him, she'd mentally vowed the day she'd first met him, to not be one of them.

Of course, those vows meant nothing when he consistently proved how much deeper and more wonderful he was than anyone else had first assumed. The boy, aside from being the prettiest person she had ever met, was also as close to a genius as she had ever seen. He seemed to understand the work they were given quicker than the teachers did half the time, and he was always kind in trying to help other students with understanding.

He also had a habit of checking in on those who had been akumatized the next day, bringing each of them a small gift basket tailored to their interests and making sure they were okay. Nino's had been full of cds, band t-shirts, and tickets to his favorite band's concert. Alix's included new wheels for her skates, in a myriad of different colors, as well as a year's pass to the local rink. Alya's had come with a new phone charm, a lens clip for her phone camera, and an account for an online cloud service so her photos and videos were automatically uploaded and she didn't have to worry about them accidentally getting deleted. He had even gone so far as to give gift baskets to everyone who had been akumatized, including Mr. Ramier, Mr. Haprele, and Mr. Grimault.

She hadn't realized exactly how hard she'd fallen until the Gamer incident.

She had seen how excited Adrien was to have won against Max, and knowing how controlling his father was, she wasn't at all surprised at how excited he seemed to be now that he was going to be in the competition.

Then, Marinette's giving up her controller to Max, and while Alya finds part of her hoping the girl will stay in the competition so she can play with Adrien, the larger part of her knows that giving it up is the better choice.

Of course, then Adrien's showing up and handing his controller off to Marinette. He's assuring her that honestly, she's much better than him at the game and actually deserves the spot, and while Alya can tell he's happy to let Marinette play in his place, she can also see the quick flash of disappointment that crosses his face once everyone is focused on Max and Marinette.

She watches as he cheers the two on with the rest of the class, and though he's lost his opportunity for some fun not controlled by his dad, he seems as excited and happy as the rest of them to simply stand back and wish the two players luck. It's when she's watching him cheer, smile wide and cheeks lightly flushed that it hits her like a freight train.

The biggest realization doesn't come until she's invited the three of them over for a study date and she wanders into the living room after having checked on the cookies in the oven.

Marinette had pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail as she stood in the corner of the room, laughing and holding Nino's hat hostage, hair that wasn't in the ponytail framing her face messily. Without his hat, Nino's hair fell around his face, forcing him to move one arm to push it out of the way as the other pinned Adrien to the couch, tickling him every time the blond reached up to pull Nino's hand away. Adrien was laughing in a way that left Alya wondering if he was even able to breathe as he flailed about, both hands trying to push Nino aside so he could grab the hat from Marinette first as his legs pushed against the arm of the couch.

The room was filled with laughter from Marinette's small giggles to Nino's deeper chuckles, with Adrien's gasps and squeals of laughter thrown in. The sunlight from the large window highlighted the golden speckles of Nino's eyes, as well as the sheer quantity of Marinette's freckles dotted across her cheekbones and nose, as well as the array of golds and yellows that made up Adrien's shaggy hair. As Alya took in the sight, her brain froze at the sudden realization her heart had thrust upon her.

"Oh no," she thought, continuing to watch the group in front of her. "I'm completely in love with them all."