The Missing Purrincess

Chapter 8: Guilty Feelings

Guilt started eating away at her stomach during the explanation. It was shortened and simplified, but it reminded her all the same.

---Alya's POV---

I was expecting Ladybug to show up eventually from what Adrien told me, but I was still starstruck when she came through my window. It was silly, I had met her dozens of times by now, but she was still my idol. 

"Ladybug!"

"How long has it been since you found it?"

I was taken aback. She was more stern then she had ever been with me before. 

"I don't know, a while ago?"

She nodded and opened the jar. It had given me a huge shock when I first noticed that there were two butterflies in the jar. More of one later when I looked again. By the time that Ladybug got here, the jar was so filled with akumas that you couldn't tell just how many were in there.

You could tell now. at least 20 to 30 akumas flew out all at once and Ladybug immediately began to capture them. There was one or two that started to head towards me, but Ladybug caught them before they reached me. 

"Bye bye little butterflies."

She opened her magical yoyo and released the smarm of purified akumas. As beautiful as it was to watch dozens of white butterflies fly around my room, it still scared me. Slowly the butterflies flew out and left.

"Where did you find it? there may be more." Ladybug sat down on the floor as she asked. She wouldn't meet my eyes. Something was wrong, but I couldn't place what.

"In my friend Marinette's bedroom."

Ladybug's head shot straight up and looked toward Cat Noir for confirmation. He shrugged in response, but something about the way he looked at her told be there was more to the story. 

"What," Ladybug turned to look at me, still not meeting my eyes, "Why were you in her room so early? Don't you have school?"

Right. She didn't know that Marinette was missing. Cat might, dependent on what Adrien told him, but there wouldn't have been time to explain the whole thing.

"Marinette got into a fight with the class and ran off. I was looking for her."

It wasn't a total lie, but it also wasn't the total truth. 

"Just a normal fight?" Cat asked. He seemed to be prying for details he either couldn't give Ladybug, or was reluctant to.

"No. Not exactly. It was a pretty big one." I started explaining, "This girl, Lila, showed us a text conversation between her and Marinette."

Ladybug visibly cringed. It was small, and she tried to hide it, but I was a detective. Something about this was making her uncomfortable.

I continued with my explanation. "We didn't find out that it was a fake conversation until after she ran off.  We haven't seen her since then." 

Guilt started eating away at my stomach during the explanation. It was shortened and simplified, but it reminded me all the same about how I treated my "BFF". I just hoped that Ladybug and Cat Noir could find her.

"Me and a few friends looked around in her room for clues about where she would have went..."

"So let me get this straight. She was missing for what, an hour or two, and you start digging through her personal stuff?"

---Marinette's POV---

I was furious. I knew exactly what happened. Every detail, but I couldn't let Alya know that. It was one of the main reasons I left. Because it hurt too much NOT telling my friends about what was bothering me. Now I was stuck in the same problem, except right now, Alya is not my friend. 

"So let me get this straight. She was missing for what, an hour or two, and you start digging through her personal stuff?" I asked. I tried, but I couldn't hide how mad I was.

Alya took a step back at what I said. I knew she was confused, but I had started something and I couldn't stop. 

"If you were fighting with her already, I can't imagine this would have helped." I felt like I had been repeatedly stabbed in the stomach, but I kept going. "Did you look through her diary?" I know she hadn't, because I brought it with me, but Alya kept going.

"It.. It wasn't in there."

THAT LITTLE!

"So you get into a fight with your friend and your first instinct is to look for her diary?!"

--- Adrien's POV---

I had never seen Ladybug so riled up before. And that was saying a lot considering the types of stuff we faced on a daily basis.

"What was I supposed to do?! SHE WAS MISSING!"

"You know that people have to be missing for 48 hours before a report can be filed right?"

"I didn't file a report, I looked for my best friend!"

Alya was good at defending herself, but things would get out of hand soon. I could tell. Ladybug was not one to back down easily, and the fact that she was already upset when we got here certainly didn't help. 

Every word that came out of Ladybug's mouth made sense. They were aimed at Alya, but I still felt guilty from what she was saying. 

Sure, I never believed Lila, but I still didn't say anything until after Marinette left. I still dug around in her room, and didn't think anything of it. I encouraged Alya and Nino to theorize about Marinette's personal life and that wasn't okay. 

"You have no right to criticize me Ladybug, Lila is your best friend and you didn't notice anything either!"

"I DON"T LIKE LILA!"

It got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I had completely forgot about that lie. It was actually what made me realize what Lila was really like, because Ladybug had confronted her in front of me. 

"But she said that..." Alya looked so confused. I couldn't blame her, Lila was very convincing.

"Lila also said that Marinette sent her those messages. Get it through your head Alya. Lila is a liar."