Work Text:
Alya sat at her desk, typing away at her computer as the clock struck 2 o'clock in the morning. Despite her usual late nights- out of habit and for her job- she had finally gotten into a semi-regular sleeping schedule and was starting to grow tired, but she wouldn’t sleep until she knew Marinette had made it back safely from her run. Since they’d started dating in their first year of college, and Marinette had decided it was finally time to tell her the truth about her double life, Alya made it even more of a point to track Ladybug’s whereabouts- even more closely than before, though now she did it out of worry more than journalistic instinct. It had been much easier since they had moved in together a month prior, and Alya had made it a habit to stay up every time she left late at night, whether it was for regular patrol or an unusually timed villain attack. Paris had seen the end of Hawkmoth’s reign of terror years ago, but as is the nature of things, another super villain rose to take his place and thus Ladybug and Chat Noir were still needed by the people of Paris.
It was difficult dating a superhero sometimes, but Alya wouldn't have it any other way. Superhero work had always been especially alluring to Alya and she found the whole thing unendingly exciting. It was especially fun when Marinette would call on her help using the fox miraculous and she'd get to join her girlfriend and her best friend in the fray. It certainly didn't hurt that she got to see the cutest girl in Paris regularly trance around in form fitting spandex and kick bad guys in the face, but that was a secondary perk.
Alya was eased out of her slight dozing on her laptop when she heard their bedroom window open followed by the quiet thump of light feet on the hardwood floor. She stood up to meet her girlfriend, walking into the bedroom and being greeted by a dazzling wash of pink sparkles that fell away to leave her clad in pink sweatpants and a hoodie. Alya went and embraced her, giving her a chaste kiss on her nose for good measure, glad her favorite girl was home safely again.
“Ready for bed sugar cookie?” Alya said drowsily, ready to finally be able to climb into bed after sitting at her stiff desk chair for a couple hours. Marinette let a soft trill of giggles escape her as if she were whispering.
“You get into bed, I'll be right there, I just want to change and brush my teeth first,” she spoke softly.
Alya let out a hum in acknowledgement before plopping herself onto their pink plush sheets and wiggling under the covers. She was nearly asleep again when Marinette returned a few minutes later. She lifted the covers and settled in close, Alya’s arms coming around her waist to pull her in closer still. She pressed a light kiss to her neck and with murmured “good night”s the two quickly dropped off to sleep.
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Alya awoke before Marinette the next morning, as usual. Marinette was always so tired out from balancing two lives that Alya always tried to let her get every last minute of sleep that she could, and with Alya as an alarm clock, she didn't oversleep nearly as often as she used to. So, Alya set out to start breakfast and left Marinette to softly snore away on their pillows. Alya had always been an early riser type of person, as long as she hadn't had too late of a night before, so their system worked out pretty well for them. She was just finishing breakfast and was about to go into their bedroom to wake Marinette when she heard her slippered feet padding into the living area.
“Morning, gorgeous!” Alya sang, turning around and waving her spatula at her sleep ruffled girlfriend, receiving a grumble in reply. She turned back to the stove to flip the egg currently sizzling in the pan when she noticed something was off. Out of the corner of her eye, Marinette seemed to be slowly shuffling to the table, her foot falls uneven and disjointed as if she were favoring one leg. She bit her lip for a moment, wondering if she should investigate, but ultimately decided to disregard it, thinking that maybe she was hearing something that wasn't there. She finished cooking the egg and turned around to dump it on the plate that she’d set out for Marinette beforehand when she noticed the second thing off about her. She was wearing a large hoodie, zipped up all the way to the collar. Marinette normally liked to wear short sleeves when inside, and even when she did wear hoodies, she usually left them unzipped- especially when she barely had the energy to pull one on after just waking up. At this point, Alya knew something was up, but she waited until after they had both sat down to eat breakfast to confirm her suspicions. Marinette slowly munched through her eggs before standing just as slowly, and started making her way to the bedroom again, the thumps of her steps uneven and slightly out of rhythm. Alya watched closely and saw she was walking with a slight limp that she was clearly trying to hide.
“Hey, babe,” Alya called in her sweetest voice.
“Nnnmmgh?” Marinette turned and grumbled in reply.
“Wanna enlighten me as to why you're hobbling around like an old lady?”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “I was kinda hoping you wouldn't notice that,” she said to the floor.
“C’mere.” Alya stood from the table and went over to her, taking Marinette’s hands in her own. “What happened to you last night? Why didn't you tell me you got hurt?”
“It was fine! We were fine, Alya! I didn't want you to worry too much, I know how you get.”
“Oh?” Alya said, a challenge in her voice and a smirk on her face, her eyebrow raising in emphasis. “Please elaborate on that, how do I get?”
“I know you Alya, you like to pretend it doesn't bother you, but I know you can't relax whenever I'm out as Ladybug. You get all overprotective and smothery.”
Alya scoffed, “I do not! Someone has to worry about you and that dumb cat! You both have a bit of a penchant for leaping into situations you can't handle without asking for help, and don't even try to refute me on this one, you know it's true!”
Marinette pouted. “I just didn't want you to worry…”
“I know, cupcake,” Alya said softly, bringing her hand up to gently touch her cheek, “and I love you for it, but if we're going to be together, you're going to have to learn that you can't stop me worrying about you. You're worth worrying about and sometimes it's okay to rely on others and ask them for help. I want to do everything I can to help you and I can't do that when you don't tell me things. It only makes me worry more. Come on now, take off the hoodie.”
Marinette unzipped the hoodie and gingerly slipped it off her toned shoulders, and Alya very quickly realized why she’d been wearing it. Bruises ranging from the lightest lavender all the way up to a developing dark purple dotted her collarbone, went over her shoulder blade, and trailed just down her arm. It looked like a pretty nasty impact, and Alya imagined Marinette was probably having a hard time moving her arm without a decent amount of pain. Based on these bruises, it wasn’t a long shot to guess the state of the hip Marinette had been favoring earlier when walking from the breakfast table.
“Oh, Marinette,” Alya sighed sadly. Marinette winced and looked down at her feet.
“I hate making you look at me like that,” she mumbled.
“I know… But it’s my job to worry, and it makes me feel better now that you’ve told me."
Marinette looked up into Alya’s warm eyes with a soft smile. “I guess I should've known I can't hide anything from the best investigative journalist in Paris.”
“Damn right you can't! And don't you forget it either!” Marinette laughed, pulling Alya down to share a deep kiss.
“You're also the sexiest investigative journalist in Paris,” she whispered as their lips parted, leaving Alya speechless for once as a bright flush traveled over her dark skin. Marinette pulled away smirking like the cat that caught the canary, and Alya cleared her throat in an attempt to try maintaining some of her dignity.
“So how did Adrien make out?” she asked, hoping to change the subject. She was surprised, however, when Marinette cringed.
“Oh shit, I should really call him.”
“That's alright, we can just give him a call right now, I kinda wanna talk to him too,” she said, whipping out her phone from the pocket of her sweatpants. She pretty much always had it on her, almost never being without it. She pulled up Adrien’s contact and hit call.
He answered quickly and seemed fairly cheery despite the early hour, which seemed like a fairly good sign. “Hey Alya, what's up?”
“Hey, sunshine, rising with your namesake I see! I just wanted to give you a little call because some little bug came home a bit squashed last night, and I was hoping you would enlighten me as to just what exactly went on. She's not being fairly forthcoming with the details.” Marinette could be heard behind her with an indignant “Alya” at her unexpected question.
“Oh, it's just like her not to tell you. Go easy on your maiden, my lady, she has a fragile heart.” The last part was spoken loudly in hopes of reaching Marinette.
“Thanks for the concern, sparkles, but I dare say you aren't much better about it now, are you? ‘Your lady’ here was worried about you.”
“Hey, I'm-”
”No, he's not better at all.” A different male voice interrupted his protest. “He didn't tell me anything until we were lying down in bed and he winced when I tried to put my arms around his middle. I had to force him to let me see the bruise.”
Alya sucked in a breath. “Oof, that's rough. You go easier on your man, you stupid alley cat! You've got a good boy over there- and I should know!”
“I appreciate the kind words.” Nino’s tone sounded sarcastic, but there was a smile in his voice.
“As you should! Now, you cat, you still haven't told me what happened to you two last night.”
She heard Adrien let out a sigh against the receiver. “Honestly, Alya, it’s kind of a long story and you’re not going to like it, I haven’t even told Nino the full version yet. But basically Le Poing Ultime caught us off guard and we were really unprepared for the fight. Mari ended up getting flung directly into a super hard wall, and I took a hit right to the ribs. I’m not sure how the blows made it through our suits, but all I know is that if we hadn't been wearing them, we’d likely be dead. I feel pretty darn lucky to have made it out with only a few bruises. I think it has something to do with this new villain’s superpowers, and if that’s the case, then we’ll probably be seeing a lot more injuries in the future until we figure out how to best him,” he finished, the severity of the situation finally coming out, a heaviness weighing down on the four. This new villain was dangerous and different than any they had fought before, and it looked like they were going to have quite a few rough months ahead of them.
“I see… That’s pretty serious.” Alya looked over at Marinette, who looked back at her with worried eyes before nervously turning away again.
“Yeah…” Another sigh. “I’m a bit too tired to tell the whole story right now and I think Mari should weigh in herself some too. And I know she’s too tired to properly discuss it right now. So how about we meet up later, grab some lunch, and we can have a formal heroes of Paris meeting.”
“Sounds good to me, when do you get out of work today Agreste?” Alya asked, but it was Nino who answered.
“I’m making him stay home with me today, so no work for him. He can’t even take a deep breath without wincing. I’m making him get an x-ray just to be safe, and then we’re taking the rest of the day easy.”
“Nino, I’m fine-” Adrien’s voice came drifting out from the background again as if Nino had stolen the phone from his hands. But he wasn’t able to continue his protests before Alya cut him off again.
“Sounds like a good idea, I knew you had some good insight still left in you, Shells.”
“Hey-”
“I think I’ll take a page out of your book though and call it in today, you guys free for a late lunch?”
“Sounds good to me.” Similar echos of agreement were heard from Marinette and Adrien in the background.
“Great, see you then, talk to y'all later!”
“Bye!” Nino and Adrien called in unison before Alya disconnected the call.
“You know you don’t have to call in sick today Alya, I’m fine to go to work. You don’t need to take care of me, I’ll be just fine.”
“Oh no, honey, don’t think that’ll work on me, I know you too well and I can tell when you’re hiding something painful. You’re limping all over the place and we haven't had a day to ourselves in forever, since we’ve both been so busy. Come oooon Mari, I’m lacking in cuddles.” With that Alya deployed her 99.99% success rate puppy dog face and aimed it directly at Marinette. The attack was super effective, Marinette giving up her argument without any more of a fight.
“Fine, you win, we’ll stay home,” she conceded with a smile.
“YES! Now instead of hobbling off to get dressed, how about I get you an ice pack and we cuddle on the couch and watch movies until our date with the boys?”
“Yeah… I think that sounds really nice.” And with that, after a quick call into work, the two settled down on the couch, finally getting a moment to just relax together.