Dramatic Irony: A Miraculous AU

ʚϊɞ ep. 14: freshly fallen rain

I don't know who did this fan art, so if you do, tag them! Thank you 

¸.• ʚϊɞ • song of the chapter • ʚϊɞ • .¸

"this is what autumn feels like" by JVKE

"Alya, stop—"

She doesn't listen, pacing. "It's a genuine concern, Mari." Alya shakes the pamphlet in emphasis.

She guides her best friend back to the chaise in Marinette's room. "You take great care in your future, I can see that but," she lowers her voice to a gentle tone, "you cannot take on the entire future at once like this. It will only overwhelm you."

Alya sighs and unfolds the crinkly paper. It displays the journalist program she dreams to go to after high school. The entire semesters are all laid out, the classes that will be available to her, the internship that comes with it, and when she'll be graduating.

"It's terrifying. What if I don't like journalism once I graduate?" she whispers. "What if by the time I'm in the industry, I'm bored and I hate it?"

Marinette removes the paper from Alya's hands and places it aside. "You have so much fire to tell stories that I doubt you'll tire of it that quickly, if at all. If you forget why you're doing it along the way, we'll remind you." Alya puts her head on Marinette's shoulder and she continues talking, rubbing her best friend's upper arm in reassurance, "And worst case scenario, if you do hate it by the time you graduate. Then you'll find a new dream. I know you, you are a passionate person. You'll adapt, you'll be okay."

"Thank you Mari."

Marinette inhales. "But that is not right now. We don't even have to apply to those programs yet. Let's look at right now. Right now we are going to grab some snacks and drinks, we are going to out on a movie we love, we are going to enjoy this beautiful spring night. You are here, not in the future. The future does not exist yet. It's just you and me right now, girlie."

"I love you," Alya says and tackles her. Marinette laughs and falls back onto the chaise, holding her best friend. "We'll be okay," her best friend repeats Marinette's words to herself. She relaxes a bit in Marinette's arms much to her relief. Sometimes Alya can get too much into her own head and experience the same anxiety that Marinette struggles with.

"Dibs on the all dressed chips," Marinette claims, pushing Alya off of her and running to the trap door.

ʚϊɞ

Marinette pushes the movie theatre door open, in a trance like she always is after movies. There's just the otherworldly feeling, when she's walking down the dark hallway with the end credits song engulfing the room behind her. When the two best friends step out, a breeze of cool air hits her, the overpowering smell of popcorn, and tittering voices.

They went to see The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Years before it, they read the book and Marinette sighs, happy to have been back in the dystopian era of media again for almost three hours.

"That was amazing, I would rate it a 1000/10," she answers Alya's question. They walk around the crowds, couples pulling one another by the hand, jittery kids beside focused parents, shy and rambunctious groups of teenagers, and young adults in their 20s talking rapidly to one another.

Marinette continues her thought, "The original movies will always be iconic, but I think this one might be equal to them in my mind. If not equal, then a notch down, but only one notch."

"Agreed," Alya says. "I was also just happy to finally know what the actual hell was happening at the end of that book."

She laughs and exclaims, "I know right?! I had to read that scene so many times. I had my suspicions on what Lucy Gray was trying to pull but the movie made it a bit clearer."

Alya nods her head as they exit the building. "You can't take my paaaaast," she sings.

"You can't take my history," Marinette adds, her voice wavering from not talking much for hours. That movie was so long but so worth it.

"You can take my pa, but his name's a mysteryyyyy."

"Nothing you can take from me, was ever worth keeping." Marinette pauses. The city of Paris is quiet. It smelled of summer, the nearing season. It had rained while they were in the movie, so the streets glow from the reflection of the lampposts. Marinette inhales deeply. She loves rain, especially the smell of freshly fallen rain. In a whispered tone, she thinks of Monarch, she thinks of Alya pacing in her room mere hours ago, she thinks of Chat's hurt face during the last big battle, "Nothing you can take from me...was ever worth keeping."

She is far from perfect, but Marinette does know that she will do her damn hardest to not lose sight of what's worthwhile in her life.

"It's supposed to rain again," Alya says, her face lit up by her phone. She grabs Marinette's hand and pulls her into a sprint down the sidewalk. She laughs in surprise.

"Slow down!" she manages out, her feet catching. Alya gives her a side eye, questioning why Marinette of all people can't keep up. It begins to spit and Alya sighs at their declining pace, glancing up at the sky in accusation.

They slow to a jog and then to a walk. Alya giggles. "Too fast for Ladybug?"

"Okay one," Marinette says, holding up a finger, "I am not Ladybug right now. This is Marinette, who, if you don't know, trips on air sometimes."

"Does Ladybug, like Marinette, also talk about herself in third person?" Alya teases. Heavier rain drops land on their shoulders and the tops of their foreheads.

Marinette ignores her. "And two, look." She gestures to the glistening streets of Paris. Sure, the city isn't perfect, it can be very dirty at times and smell a lot. But it's their city, their home. "Earlier today you were so worried about the future, but look. Look at what's around us right now, look at this moment. You can't get this anywhere else."

It begins to really rain, the hard and unforgiving kind. Marinette smiles so widely. Her favourite kind. In the loud clatter, she says, "As if this doesn't prove my point. Come here."

They go over to a lamppost. Alya watches her, questioning. With a giddy laugh, Marinette places a hand on the lamppost and swings around it.

"That's so dangerous, your hand could easily slip––" Alya starts. Marinette falls, hand slipping from the rain. "I definitely want to say: I told you so."

"Join me, just once," Marinette pleads.

Alya sighs and places her hand on the lamppost. They face one another, rain pouring down upon them. Together, they run and swing around the lamppost, shrieking and already soaking. Marinette pushes her hair out of her face when they halt to breathe. Its moments like these that she feels like life will be alright, that she'll be alright. There is a lot of uncertainty in the future and she fears the changing of seasons, the changing of people and places. Change itself. She feels weak for fearing it, for never being ready for it. But truth is, she's not. With every new episode she has entered in her life, she has been so scared and unsure. By the end credits, she doesn't usually want it to end––the good, the bad, the days or seconds that don't fall into either category––and it's that alone that reassures her.

They aren't departing from this episode yet, they're still here, rain cascading across their skin and making the world around them look like an oil painting. Through the blurring mess of droplets, the warm lamps shining in the windows of the surrounding buildings look like faerie lights. When they spin around the lamppost again, they tangle into falling stars. 

Have a great day/night wherever you are!

– The Fangirl