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The first time, it's pure luck she's there.
The four of them are getting brunch at a quaint café and Marinette has just left to get herself a second coffee. A little treat.
Adrien’s phone dings and he opens it without taking it off the table. It allows Alya to see Marinette’s chat bubble and the single heart at the bottom of their texts.
He turns around in his seat at the same time Alya lifts her eyes, and she sees Marinette wave at him with a smile. But then it’s her turn to order, and Marinette doesn’t get to see Adrien wave back.
He shakes his head fondly, and turns back towards her and Nino.
“So,” he says, and Alya could swear he’s vibrating. He can’t quite sit still, so he rubs his palms on his jeans. “Tonight,” he then adds, more to Nino than to her. "I prepared the picnic basket and all."
"What's tonight?" she asks, intrigued. She has a feeling she knows what this is about, though.
Adrien shares a conspiratory grin with Nino, and looks over his shoulder to make sure Marinette's not on her way back yet. Then he turns back in his seat and beams at Alya.
"I'm proposing tonight," he whispers, but he's so excited, she barely understands. "Baked the cake with the ring inside myself. I took care of everything yesterday, while Mari was in class."
Alya is only slightly panicked.
Fortunately, she doesn't have to think too long for an excuse that’d make him stop. "Please don't hide the ring in the cake! It's Marinette, she'll swallow it."
She did not go ring shopping with Marinette five days in a row to have Adrien steal her girl's big moment.
But he deflates, and she can feel the disappointment radiating off of him as he admits she's right.
He masks it well, though — all throughout their stay at the café. But she still feels it; and judging by the way Marinette clasps his hand when they leave, she probably does, too.
It becomes sort of a game from then on.
She tells Nino too, but he's adamant Adrien's his boy and he's on Adrien's side this time.
She can't fault him too much, but she doesn't kiss him for five whole hours.
The second time Adrien mentions it, she’s dead tired after a particularly long patrol spent going over all landmarks in Paris — touristy or not— with Marinette . Mostly random rooftops, in fact, which weren’t random at all to Marinette.
"No, you can't propose to her on top of the Eiffel Tower. That's the most cliché thing," she tells him, thinking how quick Marinette was to reject the idea.
She can see the gears turning in his head. It takes him seconds to have the same thought Marinette had the night before.
She hurries to shut that down as well.
"No, don't propose to her on your rooftop either! Marinette sees that rooftop every time you go on patrol together."
He pouts, but lets it go, and Alya is ecstatic thinking Marinette would propose to him exactly where he wanted to propose himself.
Then Marinette changes her mind. She decides Adrien needs a more classy setting and makes a reservation for a fancy restaurant.
It gives Adrien enough time to come up with another brilliant idea.
It's genius.
Alya can't have it.
“Please, don't propose to her on a trip,” she starts, hoping he doesn’t see through her. “Yes, I know you can make it the most romantic trip to have ever happened, but you just can't." Because she can't stop him from proposing to Marinette if she's not with them.
She tries to convince him to wait at least until after their date at the fancy restaurant, but he’s insistent. He’s already thinking about booking a place.
Alya is nothing if not resourceful, so she changes tactics.
"But Marinette would want to go tell her parents right away." Well. Maybe not right away. Alya helped her pick three different sets of lingerie to choose from on the big day when she finally decides to actually propose.
But that gives her an idea.
"Oh, actually, have you talked to her parents yet? You need their blessing." And she needs to give Tom a quick call.
His answer is so innocent and wholesome she fights the urge to facepalm.
"Oh. You’ve had it for... for months?” With all the planning both of them seem to have been doing, they should be married by now, and instead she’s stuck preventing them from getting engaged at all, apparently. She continues, “You need to ask again, make sure they're still in on it!"
He insists. Somehow, it turns even more pure and wholesome.
"Yes, I understand Tom has been giving you thumbs ups every time Marinette turns her back to him, but that was yesterday. Today is today, you need to ask again."
Oh. Oh, he makes that face.
His voice is so defeated as he responds, that she feels like she just kicked a puppy. A sick one. In the rain.
"Please don't make that face, I was kidding, of course they won't be disappointed in you, they would love to have you as their son-in-law tomorrow if possible."
He doesn't seem convinced. She needs to change the topic.
"You know. I have an idea. But you need to let me talk to Nino first." She needs to come up with an idea. "Give me two days."
Just enough for their big date to happen and for Marinette to hopefully propose.
But Marinette doesn’t propose. Marinette forgets the ring at home, instead.
The next day, Alya glances at Adrien’s text with dread. After all, he’s expecting her to have an idea she didn’t even think about.
She refuses to even look at the preview of the actual? message.
She only thinks about it.
Then, she calls Marinette.
It’s a particularly long call which features Marinette skipping a class and Alya being more insistent than she’d ever thought she could be. But it’s convincing enough for Marinette to realize that enough is enough without even knowing the full story of why enough is enough.
Alya doesn’t complain as Marinette leaves her University altogether, determined to propose as soon as possible. Like the good friend she is, Alya stays on the line, building up her confidence all the way until Marinette gets home.
As far as they both know, she has enough time to prepare before Adrien finishes his classes and comes home too, and Mairntte is ecstatic — enough to let the door slam behind her as she arrives.
Then, there’s silence.
Marinette — Marinette who had been talking a hundred words a minute a second before — is silent as a fish now, but through the phone, Alya can hear the cling-clang of something most likely made of metal rolling on a hardwood floor.
Adrien’s voice carries through two painful seconds later. "I swear that's not how I planned it," she hears him say, and the entire movie plays in her head in 3D.
Adrien had been home early.
Adrien had been fiddling with the ring.
Adrien had been startled by Marinette's entering the house with a literal bang and the ring went rolling on the floor, close enough to Marinette that even Alya could hear it.
She whispers a faint "Oh my God!", because really, she can't help it, but she has the vague impression that Marinette is in her own little bubble already—with Adrien. There's a giggle, from their side, so full of joy and surprise, it carries through even though it seems to come from a little distance.
"Bye, Al–" Marinette starts, so ecstatic she ends the call before she even finishes.
Two hours later Alya receives a picture of Adrien's and Marinette's left hands, clasped together to show off the rings on their fingers.
Talk to you in the morning, the accompanying text reads. Heart, heart, heart, heart, heart... heart. Heart.
Before she responds, she opens the text from Adrien as well — out of pure curiosity.
It’s just a line —No time like the present.
Alya smiles to herself and sends a heart in response to both of them.