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Beau and the Beetle	By : Cat_Eyes Category: +M through R > Miraculous LadyBug Views: 3721 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug. Miraculous Ladybug is the intellectual property of Thomas Astruc and released by Zag studios. No profit was made writing this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Prologue: Alya
- 2-Adrien
- 3-Felix
- 4-Bridgette
- 5-Adrien
- 6-Sabine
- 7-Bridgette
- 8-Alya
- 9-Adrien
- 10-Felix
- 11-Sabine
- 12-Bridgette
- 13-Alya
- 14-Felix
- 15-Adrien
- 16-Alya
- 17-Felix
- 18-Bridgette
- 19-Adrien
- 20-Sabine
- 21-Felix
- 22-Alya
- 23-Bridgette
- 24-Adrien
- 25-Sabine
- 26-Adrien
- 27-Felix
- 28-Alya
- 29-Bridgette
- 30-Adrien
- 31-Sabine
- 32-Bridgette
- 33-Felix
- 34-Alya
- 35-Adrien
- 36-Felix
- 37-Sabine
- 38-Bridgette
- 39-Adrien
- 40-Felix
- 41-Adrien
- 42-Felix
- 43-Adrien
- 44-Adrien
- 45-Adrien
- 46-Epilogue
- 7
- 8
- 9
Alya didn’t like the new girl. Not because of who she was, but on principle. Bridgette was living Marinette’s life, and regardless of whether it was by accident or design, it was an abhorrent thing to do.
Adding to the insult of Marinette’s memory, Bridgette looked so like Marinette, but also so very different. They had the same skin, hair, and eye colour, but Bridgette was shorter, her features more pointed and angular, and she wore her hair longer.
‘Quit scowling,’ Nino told her the following Monday, as he dug his elbow into her ribs.
She hissed in pain, and shoved him back. ‘I don’t like it. It’s not right,’ she snapped.
‘You don’t have to like it. Just stop looking like you want to snap her neck.’
Adrien approached, and sat down on Alya’s other side. ‘What’re we talking about?’
‘Nothing,’ Alya shot.
‘The new girl,’ Nino replied, at the same time.
Adrien’s eyes darted between them. ‘Ok,’ he drawled.
Nino sat up and looked at him. ‘Hey, you’re an objective party. What do you think of the new girl?’
Adrien shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘I don’t think I have a right to say anything. I never knew Marinette.’
‘Exactly my point,’ exclaimed Nino.
Alya tuned them out. She didn’t want to hear Nino justify why they should blindly accept Bridgette in their midst. She was no replacement for Marinette, no matter her lineage or appearance.
Her respect for Tom and Sabine sank. She would never admit it aloud, but she thought it was sick how they could slot Bridgette into Marinette’s old life, and expect everything to be the same. It was like they thought their own daughter was expendable, and therefore, replaceable.
Alya’s lip curled as she watched Bridgette enter the courtyard. She was curled in on herself, her eyes darting about as if she expected an imminent attack.
‘Weak,’ she muttered, venomously.
Nino elbowed her savagely in the side once more. ‘Stop it. You’re being unfair. Imagine how Mar would feel if she could see you now.’
Incensed, Alya surged to her feet. ‘How dare you use Marinette’s memory to guilt me? That’s low, Nino.’
The susurrus of their peers’ chatter ceased, as they all turned to stare. Alya felt her face heat up, then sank back into her seat. Slowly, the other students returned to their own conversations.
Alya dug a vindictive elbow into Nino’s side, earning a pained grunt in response.
‘Stop it, both of you,’ Adrien told them, firmly.
Alya pouted and crossed her arms, staring mutinously at her feet.
‘She started it,’ Nino replied, defensively.
Adrien levelled them both a reproving glare. ‘I don’t care who started it, I’m finishing it. You’re behaving like children, and you’ll only hurt yourselves if you keep it up.’
Alya rolled her eyes. ‘You sound like my mum.’
Scowling, Adrien replied, ‘good. Someone has to be the adult here.’
They sank into silence after that. Finally, the bell for afternoon classes rang, and Alya was the first one to her feet. She marched up the stairs ahead of everyone, pointedly ignoring them all.
I suppose I shouldn’t expect boys to understand. They’ll never know what Marinette meant to me, the relationship we had. It’s not fair.
She threw herself into her seat and retrieved her books from her bag, pretending not to see Nino’s accusing look, or the curious glances of the others.
It amazed, and appalled her, how much it hurt to no longer have Marinette around, even after more than six months. The pain was still as fresh as it was on the day she first heard the new. Some part of her refused to believe Marinette was gone for good, even though she knew the odds of survival diminished rapidly after the first forty-eight hours. The chances of Marinette being found alive was miniscule, and even if she were, there was no knowing what kind of condition she would be in.
Perhaps it would be a kindness if she had died.
However, the Schrödinger’s Marinette was an exquisite form of torture on its own. Alya, Madame and Monsieur Dupain-Cheng, everyone who knew her had no closure. There was no body to bury, no culprit to blame, nor even a single clue to indicate her fate. It was cruel.

After school, Alya retreated to the library. She pulled a large map of the city from the map drawer, and spread it over one of the desks. Staring at it hard, she didn’t see anywhere along Marinette’s walking route where she could have fallen. There were no shafts or sewer lines where she could have gotten stuck or hurt, no place for a kidnapper to lie in wait for an unsuspecting victim. The route was straightforward, too, eliminating the possibility she had gotten lost. Marinette was clumsy, but she had a good sense of direction.
‘Alya, what’re you doing?’
She spun around at the unexpected interruption. Mylène, Rose, Juleka, and Alix had come up behind her, unheard.
‘Are you ok?’ Rose continued, laying a hand over Alya’s forehead.
‘I’m fine,’ Alya replied, brushing Rose’s hand away with an impatient swipe.
None of them looked convinced.
Suddenly, an idea struck. ‘Hey, Juleka. You’re studying to be a witch, right?’
Juleka’s eyes widened at the sudden acknowledgement, everyone turning to face her. ‘Yeah.’
‘Fantastic,’ Alya cried, dragging her by the elbow to stand in front of the map. ‘Can you scry?’
‘Yeah.’
Alya looked impatiently from her to the map, and back again. ‘Well? Get to it.’
‘She needs to know what she's looking for,’ Rose informed her.
‘Well, duh. You’re scrying for Marinette, obviously.’
Alix tilted her head. ‘Wouldn’t she need something of Marinette's for that?’
‘Yeah,’ Juleka agreed, with a nod.
Alya began rummaging through her bag. ‘Are you a witch, or a tracking hound?’ she muttered.
At the bottom of her bag, she found an old phone charm. It was a small metal and enamel ladybeetle on a pink string that had been laying on Sabine’s loungeroom floor when Alya found it. She had snatched it up while Sabine’s back was turned, on the day she finally managed to speak to the older woman after Marinette’s disappearance and shoved it in her bag. There it had remained, too painful to look at, but to throw it out was unthinkable. She remembered the day Marinette bought the thing, claiming she needed all the luck she could get. It hurt to remember.
Juleka took the charm, and looped it around a long chain she extracted from her pocket. At the end of the chain was a small piece of amethyst, the pointed end facing down. She held the talisman over the map, and set it swinging with a deft roll of her hand. She concentrated hard, her brow furrowed, as she murmured an incantation under her breath.
The pendulum’s swinging localised around a single area, then snapped to a point on the map, sticking like a magnet.
The girls gasped. Alya leaned in, then frowned.
‘This is Marinette’s house. You did it wrong,’ she accused.
Juleka’s eyebrows came down in a sharp V. ‘I did it perfectly.’
‘Obviously, you didn’t.’
‘Unless Marinette’s parents buried her in the basement,’ Alix put in.
‘They don’t have a basement,’ Alya snapped, impatiently.
Rose hooked Juleka by the crook of her elbow and took a judicious step back. ‘Ok, we’re sorry we couldn’t help. See you tomorrow, Alya.’
They all scurried away without a single backwards glance. Alya snorted derisively, then turned back to the map.
It had been a long shot, asking Juleka to find someone after all the professionals had failed. She carefully lifted the fragile paper, and placed it back in the map drawer, gently replacing the layers of tissue paper. The maps weren’t old, but measures were taken to preserve them for as long as possible.
The drawer shut with a loud shriek of metal, proving that the furniture was not as well tended to as the items it housed. Alya leaned against the cold metal with a sigh.
‘What do I do now?’
Like Tom and Sabine, she was out of ideas as well as resources. The map only proved what she already knew, and Juleka was a dead end.
Sinking slowly to the floor, Alya placed her head in her hands and sobbed. She didn’t want to give up, but every day that passed made it less likely that Marinette would ever be found alive. She was losing hope, and even her indomitable will couldn’t keep going.
She sniffled and wiped her eyes, knocking her glasses askew. She straightened them and got to her feet. As she packed her things, Alya promised herself one more day of mourning. After that, she would leave Marinette to rest in peace. Marinette wouldn’t want her torturing herself like this; she’d want her to go on, and continue to live the best life she could.
Exiting the school, Alya’s gaze fell on the bakery. Customers filed in and out in a steady stream, just as they’d done before, almost as if Marinette were still there.
Alya inhaled deeply, and let the bitter feelings go with her exhalation. Nino was right; Marinette wouldn’t want her to think badly of her family, and it wasn’t Bridgette’s fault. It was unfair of Alya to take her grief and resentment out on her.
Groaning aloud, Alya promised herself she would attempt to be nicer to Bridgette. They would never be best friends, but it was a disservice to Marinette's memory to actively loathe her. Her mind made up, Alya took another breath, and began to walk home.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Beau and the Beetle