Imperfect Future [ON HOLD]

chapter nine | girl, what's wrong?

"It was like she knew about my feelings."

Plagg grabbed another cheese off the plate and was quick to throw it inside his mouth, swallowing it whole. He tried not to pay attention to what Adrien was saying, but he was beginning to get annoyed now. Turning around to face him, he rolled his eyes. "Adrien, are you still on about that? Marinette was just giving you advice, like you had asked her to. Don't think too much into it, kid. Thinking makes your brain hurts."

"You don't know how much I needed that advice, though." Standing up from his bed, Adrien sighed. "It just surprised me when she told me those words, like she could read me, like she already knew what my next move was going to be." He walked over to his closet and opened it up, heading inside. His closet was like a whole other room, except smaller and filled with different types of clothes. He walked over to the back, coming to the shelf he had put back there. On the shelf were multiple dolls and magazines of Ladybug. He had even bought the newest edition of Ladybug dolls, which were much bigger, had better quality, and could actually talk back to you if you pushed the button on her back. He went on ahead and pressed his index finger against the button.

"I love you."

Adrien let out a bitter chuckle as he placed the toy down. No, you don't. He walked out of the closet, closing the door behind him. You never give me a chance. I thought maybe confessing to you as Chat Noir would seal the deal, but you only see me as a partner. The blonde looked down at his kwami, who had finished off all his six cheeses and had rested his body down on Adrien's pillow. But maybe it's time I change things up a bit. Adrien ginned as an idea entered his mind, and he sat down at his desk, grabbing a paper, envelope and a pen on the way.

I'm so glad Marinette gave me that advice.

~

Marinette rushed out of the school and looked around, but to her dismay, Alya was nowhere to be found. Last class, Alya had asked to use the bathroom, but never came back to class. It worried Marinette to the core, and no matter how much she asked around, no one knew where she was. Her eyes then caught Nino and Adrien standing together and talking, while Adrien was probably waiting for his ride home. She started walking towards them, fingers crossed that at least, they knew where Alya had gone off to. Had she went home? And if she did, why?

"Hey guys," she tapped Nino on the shoulder to get both of their attention. Once the boys looked over at her, she let out the question from her mind. "Have you guys seen Alya, or at least know where she went off to? You both heard when she asked to use the bathroom last period, right? She never came back, nor did she text me of where she was going to go. I called her parents, but neither of them are picking up, so I take it that they're busy at work. I have no idea what her sister's phone number is either. Did she go home? Did she at least tell you where she was going?"

"To be honest, we were just asking ourselves that as well," Nino replied while shaking his head, getting Marinette to sigh. He then reached inside his pocket and pulled out his phone. "She did text me though, telling me she was leaving because she wasn't feeling too well, although she didn't tell me where she was going. I took it that she was going home and just brushed it off, but Nora called me a few minutes ago, asking me where she was. She exclaimed that Alya never got home." He pushed back his phone inside of his pocket. "We were just waiting for you to come out so we could use Adrien's limo to look for her. You coming?"

"Uh. . ." Marinette backed away, even more worried than she had been a few minutes ago. "I actually. . .have to go. It's very important, but please update me if you have anything on Alya, okay? Bye!" She whirled around and took off away from them, knowing for a fact that they were staring at her with frowns. Marinette ran all the way home without stopping at all for rest, although her bakery was quite close to her school anyway, so it wasn't that bad. She tried to calm herself down, convincing herself that Alya was perfectly okay. But when she got to her room, brushing past her parents who didn't get a chance to ask her how her day was, she shut the trapdoor, locking it, and transforming. It was then that she could really feel her heart pounding with worry. Alya hadn't been okay at all, no matter how much she had tried to tell herself otherwise.

Something was wrong with her.

She then remembered her older self telling her that if she ever tried to change what happened from what was supposed to happen, a few things were going to change up. Before she went to the future, before she knew about everything that was going to happen, Alya not feeling well was most likely not going to happen at all, but because she knew, she was changing the present. Alya being sick was basically her fault. Marinette as Ladybug jumped out of her window, swinging from one pole to another with the help of her yo-yo. She couldn't care less about all the eyes that went up on her as she ran, eyes scanning everywhere in search of her best friend.

Alya, where are you?

She then got an idea and rushed over to her school. Then, from there, she slowly made her way towards Alya's house, making sure to look every direction of where she was going. It was then that she stopped, frozen for a second, before a loud shriek of her best friend's name escaped out of her mouth. "ALYA!" Ladybug rushed towards where she had seen the girl, laying on the cold hard ground. She could see red liquid laying next to Alya, and although Ladybug wished with all her heart that it wasn't what she thought it was, and it didn't belong to Alya, she greatly knew it was going to be the opposite of that. She reached Alya and held the girl in her arms. Alya's lips quivered, showing a sign of life.

Ladybug didn't bother with the tears leaving her eyes.

"Alya, it's okay. You're going to be okay!" She lifted the ombre girl up and was about to take off to the hospital, when she heard a vehicle parking. She turned around to see Adrien's limo stop, and when the doors flung opened, Adrien and Nino rushed out, looking just as worried as Marinette.

"W-What happened to her?"

"I don't know. I just found her here!" Ladybug sniffed, trying to stay strong, but eventually losing it. An idea then sparked up in her mind as she handed Alya over to Nino to carry. "Get her to the hospital. I need to deal with something important." The boys nodded and immediately carried Alya over to the limo. First, she had to watch the limo drive off, before she started heading her own way. What the heck was even going on? This wasn't how things were supposed to go. How was it that she managed to change the present this much just because she made a trip to the future? It wasn't fair. Alya was supposed to be okay, instead, she turned out the exact opposite of that. Even worse, Ladybug, as her best friend, absolutely had no idea what was going on with her. "Tikki, I'm going to have to try this again."

She landed right in front of the garage; this place was where it all started. Looking around and making sure that no one was around, she de-transformed. "Tikki, I need you to open it from the inside." The kwami immediately nodded, before phasing through the garage door. In a few seconds, Marinette managed to lift the door up and walk inside, closing it right back down. She headed straight to where she knew the switch would be and flipped the lights on, and her eyes landed on the huge machine laying there in the middle. Good. The machine was still here. She had been a little afraid that the person who built it would take it away, or even worse, take it apart. "I'm going again."

Gritting her teeth in frustration, she pushed the button and the glass surrounding the machine went down. She then climbed onto the seat, and Tikki did her thing, handing her the wrist-watch that was supposed to bring her back, and pressing the button to send her off.