The reveal was Alya's fault, really. They all agreed with it. And maybe Hawkmoth also deserved some part of the blame. Okay, so most of it.

There are many kinds of sleepiness.

Even though Marinette hadn't lived that long, she would bet she knew them all. There was the I-forgot-to-sleep-because-I-was-busy-designing drowsiness, the yesterday's-akuma-was-hard fatigue, the I-couldn't-sleep-because-of-all-the-blond-guys-haunting-my-dreams sleepiness and also the I-overslept-again-and-ran-all-the-way-to-school one. Up to this date, she could swear she knew every kind there is.

But what she was feeling right now was on a whole different level of sleep deprivation. Maybe it even wasn't sleepiness. Now that she thought about it it could be considered moonwalking too. How she was able to think about it was beyond her. Her brain was functioning only thanks to all that coffee she poured into herself, and it wasn't doing a very good job either.

"...girl?" Next to her, Alya was saying something. Marinette watched her open her mouth, but for the love of cookies couldn't decipher what she was trying to say. Her brain just… shut down. Keeping her head straight was next to impossible so how did Alya expect her to be able to know what was happening around her? Or hear? Or even think at all?

Well, now that wasn't entirely true. Her brain was for some weird reason thinking a lot. Just… not about the things she wanted. Right now it was contemplating the awful akuma designs and how she would be able to make them better. Earlier it was how would a world without shrimp look like. And before that why does Tikki not have elytra.

Her mind was here and there and was thinking about so many things and she just wanted to sleep! Her head moved slightly towards the desk as if nodding at it and her eyes found the beautiful yellow sphere in front of her. Wait. It was not a sphere it was a head. A head with the most beautiful blonde hair she has ever seen and she had to close her eyes because it was too bright, too shiny.

Whose head was it anyway? She wondered. For a second she felt like she saw two black cat ears resting in those golden locks but mere seconds later they were gone. Who is wearing cat ears? Come on, brain, think! Cats! Yes, but someone else? Chat Noir! Yes. Although… It didn't seem like her partner, he hadn't uttered any puns after all. So, who was it?

Alya was poking her side as in to get her attention, but Marinette knew it was useless and after a minute Alya realized that too. She sighed, muttered something which Marinette obviously didn't understand and started taking notes from the class. Marinette should too.

Bad Marinette! Said her conscience as she completely ignored the teacher. She knew she should pay attention and if she was conscious right now surely she would, however, she wasn't. In the last few weeks, Hawkmoth started being impatient. He wanted the miraculouses and he wanted them now, Mayura also started helping much more often and all that led to almost thrice as much akumas and sentimonsters than before. Also, for some reason, they started working at night. Suddenly she was expected to be awake as Marinette at day and Ladybug at night and that just wasn't humanly possible. She hadn't slept more than three hours in the last five days and she could almost feel her brain cells dying slowly from sleep deprivation.

Her brain was still pondering about the identity of the blonde sphere head in front of her. If not Chat then who? Someone well-known. Someone… come on, Marinette, you've written his name down on a paper so many times. What was it you were scribbling in your notebook a week ago? Marinette Agreste. Yeah, right, his name is Agreste… what? Aiden? Adam? Adrien? Something like that she was sure.

She looked at him and those ears were there again. Did he have reappearing ears? Her tired brain wondered. They must have cost a fortune. No, that wasn't it.

When she was little, she watched A Nightmare on Elm Street and had nightmares about it for a month, but someone in the movie said that after a few days without sleep you'll start having hallucinations. Was that what this was? Hallucinations? Since there were little hummingbirds, floating around madame Bustier's head, she guessed it was a yes.

Aiden (probably, she still couldn't quite remember) in front of her was sleeping soundly, his shoulders rising with every breath he took. He must had been just as tired as she was. Well, probably not as much as her but still. His father was keeping him on a tight leash and impossible expectations, but he must had had at least a few hours of sleep. It's not like he was fighting akumas from dusk till dawn like she was.

Her head fell on the desk. "...Dupain-Cheng!" Someone yelled. Probably the teacher. Her mind offered.

What did that mean? Madame Bustier sounded cross. Was she supposed to answer? Maybe, but she was too sleepy…

"Y...Yes?" She finally managed to mutter an answer. There was a clown, standing next to the board. Was it another hallucination? Most likely. Or maybe it was another akuma. Or a circus was in the neighborhood. Or it was a serial killer ready to murder their whole class. Honestly, Marinette didn't care. Her head was hurting! Who knew paying attention in class was this hard? She desperately wished for a bed. And a broken alarm.

"I asked you who was Erich Maria Remarque." The teacher specified. Her eyebrows raised slightly as she took in the sight of pigtailed zombie in front of her.

Marinette tried to answer. She really did. Remarque… She heard that name somewhere. Pillows. Her mind moaned religiously. Concentrate! But it was hopeless. "A… a… person?" She finally managed to utter before she fell against her desk once more.

The teacher sighed. "Marinette, next time, please, try to get some sleep. There's no point in going to school if you spend all that time dozing off." She lectured as the tired superheroine was giving everything she had to simply keep her eyes open. "That extends to all of you, Adrien!" Madame Bustier not so inconspicuously pointed out the not-so-hidden-rebuke towards the blonde boy snoring in the first row. He stirred ever so slightly in his sleep and then continued as if she never spoke.

Adrien, yeah, that was the name I forgot. Bluenette's eyes glowed with satisfaction and the clown gave her a thumbs up.

"Why am I trying?" Caline muttered under her breath. It only took one look at the blue-haired girl to know she was in the dreamland too.

It was frustrating, but since she loved her students dearly and watching them so tired and restless broke her heart, she continued the class and let them sleep.

When Marinette woke up, Alya was poking her in the side. "Wake up, sleeping beauty," she sang in an ever so sweet voice and waited as her best friend awakened.

"What time is it?" She wondered. She was still tired as hell but she could think clearly now. Definitely an improvement.

"It's half-past twelve. It's time for lunch." Alya informed her softly. Marinette's eyebrows shot up. She slept… Ouch. Her brain still wasn't rested enough to do maths.

Alya probably saw her struggle because she smiled kindly and answered the unasked question. "An hour and a half." Suddenly a mischievous smile found its way onto her lips. "So, mind telling me, what you've been doing with mister Sunshine over there, that you're both falling asleep in class?"

If Marinette was lucid right now her blush would be able to rival red roses. However, it has already been mentioned that she wasn't lucid. Her brain was busy counting rose petals which were falling from the ceiling and which, she was sure, were another hallucination. She was getting a lot of those since this morning. Such exertion and so little sleep were pushing her limit, she knew that.

"Mari, are you listening to me?"

She nodded. She was listening, it was just… too hard to react in any way.

"Hey, dude!" Nino approached them. "What's wrong with Marinette? She looks like a walking zombie! Maybe even worse than my bro here." He gestured towards the unmoving model, who would look like dead if not for the occasional snoring. "What did they do last night to exert themselves like this?"

Alya gave him a slight peck on the cheek. "Nino, you know how rude it is to comment on girl's appearance." A little smile tugged the brunette's lips. "Even though I do agree with you on that statement. I just asked her the same thing!" A small moan escaped the sleeping girl's lips but otherwise, she stayed asleep on the desk. Alya and Nino shared a giggle.

"I feel bad waking them up and I'm definitely not strong enough to drag them anywhere, so, what do you say, we go for a snack ourselves and bring them something back?" Nino offered Alya his arm and she happily took it as they followed the rest of their classmates out of the classroom.

That was the last thing Marinette remembered before she was taken over by sleep once more.

When she woke up again there was a box with pasta and some vegetables on the desk in front of her. The smell of it reached her nostrils. She turned her head to the other side to avoid the revolting aftertaste in her mouth and scrunched her brow. The spaghetti was moving as if it was a nest of snakes and food was definitely the last thing she craved for right now.

What did she crave for? She wondered sleepily. There was a bitter taste on her tongue. Water! She realized. She needed water!

Fortunately, her friends thought of everything. She thanked them silently as she found a bottle with a cool liquid next to the box of snakes. She downed it in four big gulps and once again rested her head on the desk. However, before she could doze off into the sweet dreamland she heard her best friend's voice loudly asking her something. She had no idea what.

"W-What did… were you say… saying?" she stumbled over her words, giving all she had in herself to force her eyes open. She draped her hands over her face and rubbed her eyelids before she was able to focus on what was her journalist-y best friend saying.

The brunette on her left repeated the question: "I asked if you're feeling better now." She cast a sympathetic glance at the blue-eyed girl and watched Marinette yawning over and over again. "Although I guess it's pointless to ask with you looking like that." There was a short pause as she contemplated whether it was a good idea to continue. "But, girl! You should seriously stop designing all night long, it's not healthy, you know! Unless…" She paused once again. "You were with Adrien last night because in that case, I could understand it. It would even make sense… Oh my God…!" Alya suddenly gasped and started muttering something about how it all makes sense but Marinette didn't hear her anymore. She was falling back into the dreamless sleep, her consciousness determined she will not wake up unless it is two days later, or someone brings her a pillow, in which case she would wake up to move onto the said pillow and fall asleep there.

However, fate is not a pleasant person. She is actually a rather rude and selfish woman who likes to put other people in the worst of situations.

Baaaang! Something sounded on her left from behind the windows and the whole building shook with its force. Marinette stirred, annoyed at the interruption. Can't I indulge in at least two hours of sleep without someone bothering me? Apparently, she couldn't. A "Ladybug and Chat Noir I'm coming for your Miraculouses. Hahahaaa!" could be heard but she threw her notebook - it was the one with doodles of Adrien - at the window, which surprisingly survived the assault, and stubbornly buried her nose even more into the desk.

Alya squealed as she barely avoided the hit and when she noticed the pink notebook on the floor she bent down to retrieve it for her best friend. She mumbled something along the lines of: "You must be really out of it to not care if someone sees it." Her hand stretched to grab her sleeping friends' bag and let the pink notebook slip into it. Only then she realized that the screaming outside meant there was an akuma loose. Alya got a thoughtful look on her face.

Nino shook his terror-stricken one. Yet he knew his girlfriend too well to know how hopeless it was. She was obsessed with all things Ladyblog.

Marinette was slowly diving into the deep slumber and stopped paying attention to the conversation happening around her when two small hands grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at her friend. (Well, ex-friend. Friends don't wake each other up.)

"Mari, wake up!" The blogger yelled right to her face. Superheroine blinked a few times to make herself be more able to respond adequately… or at all.

"Y… Ye… yes?" She finally managed to say. Her mouth was dry even though she just drank a bottle of water.

"I want you miraculouses!" sounded from the outside.

Alya excitedly pointed in that direction. "There's an akuma." She said with a big, wide smile.

Marinette blinked some more.

The big, wide smile even widened. "Which means Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to turn up any minute now. You have to come with me! Come on, we have never faced off an akuma together. You always declare your need to pee or run off claiming how your grandma's cat's doctor had an accident and is in a hospital or something. We need to get in danger together! They say it tightens your friendship. Moreover, I really need a scoop, with all these akumas lately I missed out on lots of battles."

The pigtailed girl stared. The truth was that even if she had a few more minutes of sleep to help maintain her mental stability it was not nearly enough and her brain was struggling with making sense of what her friend was telling her. Behind her, Nino was categorically moving his head from left to right a rolling his eyes over his girlfriend's suicidal urges. Marinette got that, she just didn't get Alya. What was her BFF saying? She understood some words. She was also pretty sure she heard a word akuma.

Why was it so familiar? Akumas were the ones she was fighting against while dressed in tight red latex. They were after miraculouses… Wait! Did that mean that the voice shouting outside was an akuma, too? Did she have to fight him, too?

The yellow sphere guy in front of her snored.

She started to stand up but actually only succeeded in falling over and landing on her butt between the school desks.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alya almost ran to her to help her stand up. She grabbed her arm as if that would stop her from falling down again. "I didn't mean that you should kill yourself."

"But Ladybug will have to be there…" Marinette whined and yawned once again. Where is coffee when you need it?

"Yes, Ladybug will be there and I would love it for us to watch her together but I was just joking. If you're really this much out of it, then you stay here and we'll watch her some other time." Alya's voice was so calming. The bluenette almost started to doze off just because of it.

However, somehow she managed to find the strength to argue some more. "But..." yawn. "But Ladybug will have to be there…"

The journalist muttered something silently and Marinette thought she heard the phrase: Holy mother cow… but she couldn't be sure. After that, the brunette continued aloud. "I was just kidding. No, you will stay here and later we can watch what I will have filmed. After you sleep."

"But Ladybug…"

"Ladybug will defeat the villain, don't worry. And she can do it without you. You stay here." The journalist sighed and added under her breath: "but later you are so telling be what got you this tired."

In Marinette's mind, Alya's arguments didn't make sense. Ladybug can defeat villains even without Marinette? That was not right. Mari knew. But did Alya?

She tried to stand up again but stumbled and fell on the guy sleeping on the desk two stairs lower. Somehow she ended up on his lap, looking up into two beautiful, green, and sleepy eyes of his. Apparently, she woke him up by falling on him. He took in his surroundings and when another scream from outside resonated through the room he tried to scramble on his feet which resulted in her falling once again. The dark-haired boy sitting next to her was hitting his head against the sturdy wood of the school desks and muttering something about suicidal girlfriends of his looking for danger.

Alya was watching them amused. "I really wonder what you two were doing last night to make you so tired."

The blond sphere guy ignored her but she argued nonetheless. "I was not with Aiden last night!"

"Adrien." Nino corrected, still facing the desk.

"Adrien." She repeated.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir I want your miraculouses!" The akuma yelled again.

She and the blonde guy (Adrien! Maybe this time she'll remember it.) set forth the door and into the hallway. Marinette would have probably turned and walked into another classroom and sleep it off if it wasn't for the occasional poking in her side. Her purse kept poking her… No, not her purse, but something that was in it. Something, something… Macaroons? Why would they poke her? Then what else? T...Ti… Tikki! Yes, Tikki kept poking her but she couldn't let her out and ask her why. Although she probably knew. This morning right before school they had a little spat about overworking oneself. Marinette insisted she was doing fine. Tikki for some reason disagreed.

She heard the steps of someone running after them. It was Alya and Nino. "Stop! Where you are." The girl ordered Marinette and Adrien and they both listened. She marched right in front of them and looked at both of them frowning. "Where do you think you're going."

Adrien pointed at the door.

"Nu-uh, mister! I don't think so." Alya stated clearly annoyed with the fact that nobody understood her joke earlier. For some reason, everyone thought she was serious when she joked that she would take her barely conscious friend, who was so scared of akumas she ran everytime one was close by, to the battle outside. To be fair, she couldn't know that the girl was actually Ladybug and that she would want to save people, but still.

"You two are going home and you will sleep. Because right now I feel like I'm inside The Walking Dead." Her hands were on her hips and her voice stern.

"I would listen to her, dude. She's scary when she wants to." Nino advised. She turned to him and he mouthed a love you to save himself.

Marinette had trouble keeping her head straight. Everything was so bright and she was sure the floor was moving. Or maybe she was just too out of it. So, this is how people on drugs feel. She thought before speaking. "That akuma is dangerous. We need to get out there." When did this become a matter of we? If I remember correctly the sphere guy doesn't help me during the battles, Chat does. "We can't stay here. You, out of everyone, should get it. People expect me to be out there. And… And… Oh, for the goodness sake, Tikki, stop poking me!" She yelled the last part and people who were in the hallway with them looked at her funnily.

Alya and Nino jumped a bit at the force of her voice, Adrien, who started dozing off again, had a startled look in his eyes, and Tikki surprisingly stopped.

"So, you think I'm overworking myself? Okay, so, you're right. I don't care anymore." Marinette started to take off her purse while muttering. She handed the purse to her journalist-y friend.

Alya furrowed her brow.

"Take it," the bluenette said.

"W-Why?" She managed to ask.

"Just take it." A sigh escaped her lips. "This way at least Tikki will stop nagging me about taking a break." Alya still didn't have any idea what was going on, but it seemed that the blond sphere did. His eyes gleamed as if he got a wonderful idea.

Alya's hands gripped the purse tightly, confused as to what was going on. Suddenly she noticed Marinette started taking off her earrings and handing them to her, too. What was next? Her shirt? Alya held them in her hand.

"Good, now, I don't want to see these earrings until I've had at least ten uninterrupted hours of sleep." Marinette declared.

The brunette blogger nodded her head and asked: "But… But what should I do with it?"

"Tikki'll explain."

"Who's Tikki?" Alya asked and her voice scarily jumped an octave higher.

"I'm going to sleep," Mari stated decisively and marched back to the classroom.

"You know, that is such a great idea," Adrien muttered thoughtfully. He took off his ring and handed it to his best friend. "I'll pay for what he eats," he added before running off after the sleepy superheroine - "Hey, wait for me!" - Leaving their bewildered friends in the school hallway with miraculous jewels and two chuckling kwamis.

Well, Plagg was chuckling.

Hi!

So, I found this when I was going through files on my notebook and decided it deserved to be shared. Hope you liked it ;)