The sound of the front door clicking open at around twelve am that early morning, startled them both from their dozing states. Chat leaped up from his spot on the bed, immediately fleeing to the widow of her bedroom and crawling up to the roof. Marinette stood up from her bed as well, watching the crack under her door as a light soon shown from underneath; indicating Alya had just arrived home.

Marinette creaked her door open slightly just in time to see Alya enter her own bedroom. The bluenette hesitated for a moment, wondering if actually confronting Alya was such a great idea. But when she turned back to look at her window, she couldn't help but let a small smile form on her lips when Chat's head dangled from above upside down, shooting her a thumbs up of encouragement.

She inhaled a deep breath and released it; then opening her door all the way, she approached Alya's doorframe and knocked on it.

Alya was seated on her bed removing her shoes when she turned to see her friend standing at the doorframe, "Oh Marientte," the brunette seemed slightly surprised that her partner was awake, "I thought you were asleep."

"Actually, I was waiting for you to show home." Mairnette crossed her arms over her chest casually, "It's pretty late."

Alya hummed, "Yes, I suppose it is."

Marinette didn't like that response. She had been hoping for some explanation on her whereabouts, "Where have you been, Alya?" The bluenette jumped straight to the point now.

Alya sighed and laid back on her bed once removing her shoes completely, "Honestly, Marinette, it's really none of your business on where I was."

That slight snap smocked Marinette. Her eyes widened slightly on Alya's figure, "I beg your pardon?" Marinette asked as if she hadn't heard her clearly, "It is my business if you're constantly disappearing and coming home really late. I was worried about you."

"There is nothing for you to be worried about," Alya insisted, looking up to lock on Mairnette's face with a blank expression, "I was taking care is things....and that's all you need to know."

Although Mairnette wished Alya would've given her more information, she sighed instead and added, "Okay fine, I won't ask anymore. But I've been waiting for you, ya know. You're supposed to be helping me with the case?"

"I'm pretty busy, Mairnette. Im pretty sure you have noticed," the brunette gestures to the shoes she had just removed, "I'll get to the case when I can."

"But, we don't have all the time in the world," the bluenette tried to understand why Alya was acting so strange, "We're running on limited time."

Alya scoffed and shook her head, "Since when?"

"Since I got a call from our superior saying we had three weeks left to crack this case," Marinette pulled out her phone from her pocket, shaking it slightly for Alya to see, "But, you wouldn't have known that, because you've been too busy sneaking off."

"I am not sneaking off," Alya defended, clearly offended at the assumption the bluenette had made.

However, Marientte was not sorry for saying it, "Don't play dumb and lie to me, Alya. You disappear almost every night. If that's not sneaking off, I don't know what is."

"I tell you I'm leaving," Alya still tried to defend her side.

"And?" Marientte scoffs at that, "You can tell your mom all you want that you're going out. But if you can't tell her where you're off to, it's just as bad as sneaking away."

Alya decided not to reply to that, and it made Marinette slightly aggravated, "Fine. You know what? Don't even bother helping me with this case anymore. I have someone else to help me anyway."

That quickly caught Alya's attention, "Wait what?" Her head snapped up to eye the bluenette in disbelief, "Our superior assigned you another partner?"

"Who said anything about that?" Mairnette quizzed playfully, "All I said was that I got someone else to help me with this case."

Alya was still shocked at this new statement, "Wha.....who?"

"It's really none of your business," Mairnette smartly replies; sending the brunette her famous smirk, Marinette takes her exit from the doorframe and head back to her own room for the night.

__________________________

This chapter is a bit shorter than what I usually type and I'm sorry about that.

I cracked my phone, and I got so angry at myself for doing so. Plus my mom gets mad at me for it even though she didn't even pay for it.

And then, a comment chain that I was in got deleted and I was so upset. My god I was pissed.

So I guess you could say the title of this chapter is similar to the events in my life rn.

{ votes, comments, and shares are highly appreciated }

Thanks!
-Dippy