Alya stared at her best friend. She had asked the petite bluenette with bluebell eyes to meet her on the stairs in front of the school on the steps. Here they were. Alya was facing Marinette who had one leg behind her, almost like it was to brace her, and the other leg tucked close to it, but in front. Marinette's hands were fiddling with the hem of her shirt, and she was looking very very nervous. Alya wanted to assure her that nothing was wrong, and she wasn't in trouble..... but, that's just not true. Marinette hadn't been showing up to any of their planned get togethers anymore! Alya was worried for her friend, but also mad. Why wasn't Marinette coming anymore? Was something serious going on? If not, why was she flaking?

"Alya? Are you ok?" the French-Chinese blunette asked Alya, and Alya flinched. She hadn't realized how long they'd been standing there in silence.

"What's going on Marinette?" Alya asked, worried for her friend. Marinette shrank back a bit.

"N-nothing is Alya!" She tried desperately to quell the nervousness, and fear in her voice. Fear? Alya wondered why Marinette was afraid. Or what she was afraid of. 

"Are you sure Mari?" she asked her voice laced with concern, and Marinette looked at her shoes.

"Yeah. I'm sure Alya. I'm ok."

Then, Alya made a mistake. "Then why have you been flaking out of all our activities! If nothings going on you wouldn't do that! You won't even tell me what's going on! I think I'd have a right to know!" She practically screamed at Marinette, her voice laced with anger, venom, and a hint of concern.

Marinette's bluebell eyes filled with such an intensity of anger, Alya literally flinched away from the angered girl.

"You wouldn't understand! You think it's all grand, do you?! Well let me tell you something, IT'S NOT! The girl you praise as an everyday Ladybug has HER OWN battles! I can't be perfect! I don't always have TIME for you! You of all people should understand! More often than not, YOU are ditching ME to go chase after some Akuma!" The Alya's eyes widened as she realized her best friend was right, their friendship had been weakening for quite some time, and she hadn't noticed, because she was obsessed with the heroes, and her blog. The Ladyblog was taking up a lot of her time.

"Marinette-" Alya's voice broke with sadness, and Marinette realized what she'd said, slamming a hand over her mouth, she backed away, turning at last, and running off. Alya was left there, wondering what had prompted her beloved friend to say that now, after so many times when Alya would ditch her to go film something for her blog. It made her wonder, just what had been going on in that girl's life.

Meanwhile, Marinette fled. In her haste to escape, she didn't notice the Akuma flying towards her friend.

Marinette found herself seated at the top of the Eiffel tower, looking out over Paris. She briefly wondered why she'd fled, as she could have resolved things with Alya. Reassuring herself that she had needed to go, or risk saying something about being Ladybug in her reckless anger, Marinette sighed.

"What's wrong purrrr-incess?" a voice asked from behind her, and Marinette groaned turning to face the 'Ultra-charming Chat Noir' as he called himself. "It's nothing Chat." Marinette reassured the blonde boy in a skin-tight leather suit, with a mask and ears. His ears flattened against his head, and he scowled at her, his vibrant green eyes filled with worry.

"It can't be nothing. Nothing would not have you in such a claw-ful mood." Marinette groaned, but her mouth was twisting up in a hint of a smile. "No! Cat! Stahp! No more puns!" Chat Noir smiled,

"I'm sorry Purrr-incess, can you furr-give me?" Marinette smacked her head against the rail repeatedly. "No. No. Nope. Shut up. No more!"

Suddenly Marinette's phone pinged, an Akuma alert. Chat looked at Marinette apologetically, before taking off in the direction the Akuma was last spotted.

After he was gone, Marinette transformed into Ladybug.

Yo-yoing to the scene of the Akuma, she arrived fashionably late. "Kitty! What's going on?" She yelled over, well, it wasn't civilians screaming, that was for sure. Chat turned to her, and said,

"M'lady! It's Alya again! Apparently, her and Marinette got in a fight, and Alya got Akumatized because-" a loud BOOM cut off the cat-themed hero, knocking him off the roof he and Ladybug had been standing on. The re-Akumatized Lady Wifi shouted

"I AM LADY WIFI! DO NOT FEAR, FOR I AM HERE ONLY TO SAVE MY BEST FRIEND FORM THE PAINS OF HER HEART! CAUSE BY THOSE INFERNAL SUPERHEROS!" Chat came clambering back onto the roof, and nodded to the Akumatized girl,

"Yeah, she's more powerful than last time." and with that Chat and Ladybug came up with a plan -and a lucky charm- to defeat Lady Wifi. Unsurprisingly, they succeeded in taking her down.

"MIRACULOS LADYBUG!" Ladybug shouted throwing her luck charm into the sky, and a swarm of ladybugs swept passed fixing up all the damage done by the battle.

"Pound it!" Chat called holding out his fist for a fist bump, but Ladybug was distracted. Ladybug approached the fallen girl and held her hand out to help Alya up.

"What happened?" she asked the obviously upset reporter, and Alya sighed.

"Marinette.... something is happening in her life.... and I can't help her.... because I don't know what's wrong!" Alya looked at her feet, then mumbled, "I just want to help her.... is that so bad?" Ladybug frowned. She could see where Alya was coming from, but there was no way Alya could actually help her.

"I think," she began "it might be better if you give her some space." Alya looked up at the heroine, clearly shocked.

"W-what?" she asked, her voice breaking with worry, fear, and who knows what else. Just then Ladybug's earing beeped, and she smiled sadly, before yo-yoing off.

Tikki, who had seen the whole thing, realized that maybe, just maybe, Marinette's bottled emotions needed to be ... athleticized. And that even if it meant losing her holder, she needed Marinette to be able to, at the very least, release her emotions. So Tikki made herself a promise. Even if it meant she would get a new holder, she was going to save Marinette from herself.

Tikki blessed –or cursed, depending on how you look at it- her sleeping holder, making it so her emotions would be felt by those she trusted.

The next day, Marinette headed out to meet her friends at the park. Well, it was just going to be Alya and Nino, so she was most likely going to end up as a third wheel, but Marinette was ok with that, she needed to talk to Alya anyways.

Marinette got to the park, and caught sight of her friends. Walking over to them, she put her perfected smile in place.

"Hi guys! What's up?" she called to them as soon as she was within hearing distance. They looked up at her and smiled at her.

Alya's smile faltered as she suddenly felt over-whelmingly stressed, and worried. She looked around, to try and see the Akuma that had caused this, but she couldn't see one. Alya noticed Nino doing the same.

Marinette looked at them confused. "What's going on guys?" Nino looked at her, and asked,

"Don't you feel the over-whelming stress? And worry? And sadness?" Marinette's eyes widened in pure shock.

"W-what?" she stuttered, pretty sure they were feeling her emotions. Alya looked at Marinette confused.

"Yeah, are you feeling it girl?" Marinette flinched.

"Um... those are my emotions..." she whispered, before spinning around and fleeing. 

Alya blinked. "Did ... I hear that right?" she asked Nino, who nodded, because he was at a loss for words.

Marinette ran all the way back to the bakery, ignoring her parents greeting, and dashing up to her bedroom and locking the door.

"Oh Tikki!" Marinette cried out, and the little red and black spotted Kwami flew up to her face. "Marinette. This is for your own good." Marinette whirled on the Kwami.

"WHAT?! THIS IS YOUR FAULT?!" she yelled at the poor Kwami. Thank gods she was a few floors above the Bakery, so her parents didn't hear. 

Tikki nodded, and said, "Yes, Marinette, I'm the one who caused this, but.. It's for your own good. If you bottle up your emotions like this.... you're going to be more likely to be akumatized." Marinette sighed. She knew Tikki was right. But that didn't mean she couldn't be mad.

Hours later, Marinette had nearly fallen asleep, she was laying across her designing/sewing desk, when she heard a knock, on her bedroom door. Groaning, Marinette got up, and let the person inside her room.

Alya smiled at her clearly distraught best friend. "Alright. It's just you and me. Girl, nobody is coming in, or leaving until we talk through this. You're gonna tell me everything alright? And it'll stay in this room, between the two of us."

Marinette sighed and sat down next to her best friend.

"I- I've just been stressed. It's nothing much." Alya shook her head. "Nope. I felt your stress, and I'm willing to bet that was only a portion of it. You are going to tell me exactly what is going on."

Marinette sighed, and looked at her lap. "I'm Ladybug...." she whispered, almost hoping that Alya wouldn't hear her. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Alya did hear her.

Alya gasped. "What?!" she cried at her best friend.

Marinette nodded, and then told Alya the whole story. How she became Ladybug, how the old Guardian had gone out, and made her guardian. About how that was so much more challenging, and how she was barely managing to keep on top of her superhero life, being a Guardian, a student, AND a rising fashion star. 

Alya and Marinette made a plan for how to help Marinette deal with it all in the future. A very healthy and non-self-deprecating plan.