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#lila is exposed
mcheang · 8 months
Text
Reality
As Nino lays out his plan for targeting Gabriel, Alya points out one thing. “Sure I know Ladybug can fix the mess an akuma causes. But Gabriel will still be mad. He already doesn’t like you, Nino. Don’t push it. For all we know, Gabriel might threaten to transfer Adrien to a different school. Remember, he totally lost it when Adrien lost his book?”
Nino: oh…right. I didn’t think of that. Then, who do we target?
Marinette grins sneakily. “I know someone who can get upset very easily.”
Adrien: really, who?
Marinette: i don’t want to spoil the surprise.
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Later, as the parent-teacher meeting commenced, Marinette bursts in, “Oh, I’m so sorry to barge in like this. But I forgot I needed Mrs Rossi’s signature for Lila’s trip to Achu.”
Caline: Marinette, can’t this wait?
Mrs Rossi: what trip to Achu?
Caline and Marinette look at her. “You know, the trip she’s taking to join Prince Ali in teaching children for free. It’s such a shame that she won’t be able to attend the school’s weeklong camping trip but it’s for a good cause.
Mrs Rossi stands up. “My daughter is doing what?”
Caline: why are you so surprised, Mrs Rossi? Lila went to Achu for months less than a week after she joined Dupont.
Mrs Rossi: she told me the school was shut down from akuma attacks!
Marinette pretended to look faint. “Oh no, was it because of her special lying disease?”
Mr Cesaire looked skeptical. “A lying disease…? Do you mean compulsive lying?”
Gabriel almost regretted not being able to akumatize Mrs Rossi, if only to make up for losing Lila Rossi as a spy since clearly Alliance can no longer use her. Oh well, there’s always the fallout when her sheep find out.
Alya and Nino were recording this with open mouths. Adrien wasn’t so bothered by this after seeing more of Lila’s hateful personality.
Needless to say, the parent-teacher conference was delayed as Sabine then angrily wanted justice for her daughter if she was indeed framed by a liar. Gabriel had to admit the teaching faculty here was lousy to fall for Lila’s reception, but that’s what makes this place so prime for his akumas! Why did he send Adrien here again? Oh right, it’s the most prestigious school and he’ll never hear the end of it from Andre because Chloe would never accept his perfect son being in another school away from her.
Later, after Marinette received an apology from Mrs Rossi, she agreed to bring Lila up. Alya and Nino looked apologetic. “We’re so sorry we didn’t believe you.”
Marinette looked behind her. “It’s ok. Keep recording. If Mrs Rossi isn’t angry enough to attract an akuma, her daughter will be. Nothing akumatizes Lila like being caught.”
Lila was immediately suspicious when Marinette of all people came to get her, however it was subdued by Marinette’s poorly hidden dislike and the fact that it was Gabriel who asked her to come.
Certain that Mr Agreste wanted her help against a stupid boy’s resistance team, she agreed.
Boy was Lila surprised to see Sabine and her mother standing in front of the classroom instead of Mr Agreste, who looked disappointed in her.
Uh oh. Now Lila could see Marinette’s triumphant face and could see what had happened. Her one consolation was that the team’s plan to anger a parent into akumatization had failed. Though she was also irked she couldn’t get akumatized and make that loser suffer for exposing her like this. This is worse than Ladybug’s exposing her in front of Adrien!
As Lila was dragged by her mother to the principal’s office, Caline tried to resume the parent-teacher conference though it was clear all now felt disheartened by her incompetence.
The resistance was confused. Angry Rossis and disappointed parents were around. Where was the akuma?
Eventually they had to give up. What a waste of free period.
Not entirely a waste though since Lila was now exposed. Alya sent the recording to the whole class as the parents left.
Outraged gasps were heard everywhere.
Nino: why didn’t you wait till class was about to start? Then we could prepare to record the akumatization.
Adrien: if Monarch didn’t come out for Mrs Rossi and Lila, I doubt he’ll come for-
Reverser promptly swooped by, ready to turn Lila nice and honest.
Adrien: never mind.
Marc was deakumatized and the class apologized to Marinette for not believing her.
Lila returned to class, sulky in her forced apology, not really bothered by their angry reactions now that she was expelled. Only Marinette’s smug attitude infuriated her. Having been forced honest by Reverser, she had confessed to having duped two other women into being her mothers and had initially planned on running away to join one of them. Her mother now has their numbers. It was a nightmare.
Alya: who else can we akumatize for the greater good? Mayor Bourgeois?
Marinette: I don’t think our plan works if we our expected target isn’t even akumatized. We’ll have to think of something else.
Monarch is disappointed he won’t get to akumatize the akuma class again for a while. Ah well, it can be a favor to Adrien.
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mochinek0 · 4 months
Text
Time to Go
Marinette had known since she was born that she was the only daughter of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. She was also Damian's little sister, by three years.
When the strike on Ra's Al Ghul was taken, Talia quickly hid her away. Marinette knew her family's lives were on the line. She knew Damian would be on the front lines and prayed for his safe return. Although she knew she wasn't her grandfather's favorite, she still mourned his death. Damian seemed to take it especially hard.
Talia had told Marinette and Damian that they would be seperated for the time being. She needed Damian to go with his father to continue his training, while she picked up the pieces of the League.
"What about me, Mother?" Mari questioned.
"You will be on a mission, all of your own." Talia explained, "You're mission is to go undercover. You will act as a daughter of other people. This will keep you safe. Not many know of your existence, but I need to make sure all that wish to harm us, are gone."
"I do not approve of this." Damian snarled.
"I understand." Talia whispered, "I have folders for each of you with detailed instructions. Until you are in your new lodgings, you are not to open them."
Marinette nodded sadly and cried herself to sleep in her big brother's arms. She knew it would be a while before she saw him again. Talia gave them their moment. It hurt her dearly to tear her children apart, but Slade had to pay for his crimes. The League had to be rebuilt and become stronger than ever to give them both their inheritance. With Ra's gone, she would train Marinette to become as deadly as her, when she came of age.
Marinette smiled at the envelope in her hand.
'Another letter from mother. I wonder what my orders are this time.'
Marinette,
The time has come for your father to pick you up. He and Damian will pick you up in three days time. Prepare for his arrival.
Marinette smiled, happily. Lila had been a pain in the ass, as of late. Sabine and Tom took everything her so-called friends said at face value. They would laugh at the implications over dinner. Marinette would tell them all of the lies and how brainless the class truly was. They both knew that if Marinette was really bullying Lila, she could have done far worse. Tom and Sabine had disagreed with Adrien's decleration, but told Mairnette to keep the piece while they reached out to Talia. Only her mother's orders were absolute. If her mother said she could kill her, they wouldn't stand in her way.
"Maman. Papa." Marinette called out.
"So, what did the letter say this time?" Sabine asked.
"Father and Brother will be here in three days time to retrieve me." she answered.
"Well, let's start pulling you out of that horrible school and get ou all packed up." Tom laughed, "I'm sure they will be happy to see you."
'Damian, perhaps. Father; I don't know if he even knows of my existence. Surprise, Father.'
Bruce sighed, "What do you mean you have a sister?"
"It's just as I stated." Damian declared, "Mother has insisted it is safe to retrieve her."
"You've been talking to Talia?" Dick questioned.
"No." the young Wayne heir answered, "She gave us both instructions before we left."
Damian held up the letter.
"There are certain dates for me to open these letters." he explained, "Most of them coincide with our birthdays. Today is Marinette's; she turns fifteen."
"So where is she?" Jason asked.
"Paris, France." Damian stated, "She has been under watchful eyes and was assigned to live as a normal child. No assassin work. Grandfather wasn't too happy that he didn't have two grandsons. Mother taught her self-defense, but she helped out around, mostly as a servant. I was to ignore her if I saw her unless we were alone."
Bruce rubbed his head.
"I have already prepared another room, Sir." Alfred smiled.
"Please, don't let there be two of him." Tim pleaded as Bruce stood up and walked out of the cave to pack.
Marinette handed over her ledger of Lila Rossi to Bruce.
"The school needs to choose their staff more carefully." she spoke, "Tom and Sabine have tried stepping in with the Principal, but I bellieve the Board needs to know what is going on under their noses.
Bruce looked at it and quickly read through it.
"I agree." he snarled, "I'll be taking it with me to the board. I need to legally sign you out of that school, anyways."
Marinette turned to her brother and hugged him.
"I missed you." she whispered.
Damian said nothing, but held her close.
Tom and Sabine stood by as they watch the girl they help raise, reunite with her family. Marinette let go and realized they were holding something.
"We have a copy of all of the recipes we've made over the years." Sabine declared, "Both in the bakery and just for the house."
"Family eyes only." Tom smiled.
"Thank you." Marinette replied, taking it and holding it close to her chest.
"I will make sure it is handed over to our grandfather and he will keep it locked up and safe." Damian declared.
Tom and Sabine smiled.
"I need to take my stuff back to the school." Mari spoke up.
"Go." Damian replied, "Father should return soon. I will tell him where you are and we will meet you there. I will put your belongings in the car so we can leave immediately."
Marinette walked into class and handed her class books over to Ms. Bustier.
"Marinette, why-" Caline began to question.
"I resign as class president." Mari announced.
"What?" Caline whispered in shock.
"Marinette?" Adrien called out, "Are you okay?"
"Is this why you haven't been in school?" Alya asked.
Caline laughed awkwardly, "Marinette, I'm sure-"
"I will be leaving this school, as of today." she announced, leaving the class stunned.
"Oh, Marinette!" Lila called out, standing up, "Did I do something? I only wanted to be friends!"
"Yeah!" shouted Kim, "What the hell?"
"I'll be moving in with my birth father and older brother." Marinette stated, "Mother says it is time for me to go with them."
"Sabine kicked you out?" Adrien questioned, confused.
"Sabine and Tom are my guardians, not my parents." Mari declared, "My birth father listened to me. I have always had a keen eye for detail, as many of you know from asking me to design for them."
"Are you till going on about 'Lila stealing from you'?" Alya asked, "We know it was you who stole!"
Lila paled and sat back down in her seat.
'What?'
Marinette looked at Lila and smiled, "Why do you think Ms. Bustier doesn't want me to stop being class president? It's because I make detailed plans for all the school trips, fundraisers, plan the fire drills, and escape routes. I even know where everything in this school is, including the security cameras. I have kept a record of every lie you said sice you got here, where and when. My father turned the evidence over to the Board of Governers."
Lila's jaw dropped.
"If the cameras aren't working, then they'll just go after that gullible man. Pretty sure embezzlement won't keep him in position." Mari shrugged.
"Huh?" asked Nino.
"How many times do you think the mayor pays him to look the other way when Chloe's being a bitch?" Marinette declared.
"Excuse me!" Chloe shouted.
"Maybe Lila can lend you her hearing aids." Marinette retorted.
"This is why you're a bully." Alix glared at her.
Marinette simply smiled.
Bruce and Damian walked in. Chloe smoothed her clothes and fluffed her hair, quickly. She stood up and smiled.
"I'm-" She spoke.
"Your voice is like nails on a chalk board." Damian commanded, "Be silent."
Chloe closed her mouth and sat down in embarassment, leaving everyone speechless.
Marinette giggled, "You always did know how to make an entrance, Big Brother."
Chloe's jaw dropped.
'She's a Wayne!'
Marinette turned and smiled at Chloe, "Goodbye, Daddy's Little Princess." before turning back to her family, "Father, I am ready to return home."
"Very well." Bruce spoke.
All three of them left the class without another word. There was a lot they had to discuss. As far as Bruce knew, Marinette had no idea about him being Batman and Damian being Robin. She had grown up with some semblance of a normal life and he wanted to keep it that way.
The class looked at the door confused.
"Chloe?" whispered Sabrina.
"Shit!" Chloe screamed, slamming her fists onto the desk.
"Chloe, are you okay?" asked Kim.
"No!" she yelled back, "Do I look okay? So you know-You don't know who they are? Of course you Pea Brains, don't! That was Bruce and Damian Wayne. Which makes.....Baker Girl is one of the richest people in the world."
Lila sat in her seat, enraged.
'What?'
"What?" questioned Alya.
"They have more money than mine and Adrikins' family combined." she scoffed, "Her father could buy Daddy's hotel like it was nothing!"
"But-" whispered Mylene.
"Marinette is a Wayne." Chloe stated, "The Waynes own an international business and have their hands in everything. They are old money. Bruce Wayne practically owns a whole city and just doesn't wanna be mayor."
"What about her brother?" asked Alix.
"He's known for being violent and lashing out. He hates the press." she remarked, "One thing about him on social media and he hunts you down and sues you."
"That's illegal." Alya claimed.
"Sorry. Would you prefer to be thrown in jail or settle for a million dollars to delete what you have?" the heiress questioned, "The Wayne family is known for the high IQ and attention to detail, which means....we're all screwed."
The class learned that everything Marinette had said was true. Lila's lies were all exposed. She was expelled and taken to a juvenile detention center, ontop of being sued by various people. Principal Damocles had been fired, as he had zero authority to expell anyone. Their teacher, Caline Bustier, was fired for not doing her job. She never informed the nurse about Lila's illnesses or disabilities, so there was never any confirmation that any of those were true. She also never sent Lila any homework during her 'travels' and so she was far behind the class in her studies.
Chloe believed she was suffering the most. Adrien was no longer in school with her. The people that let her do what she wanted was removed from the school and she was being forced to sell clothes out of her closet because her mother was upset by how much she 'embarassed them' in front of the Waynes.
'Stupid Marinette! This is all her fault! If she had just acted rich, like me, everything would be the same as it always was.'
The class was in disarray. Not only had Ms. Bustier let Lila slide on so many things, she was behind on their lessons as well. They now had mandatory after school tutoring and study sessions. Adrien Agreste had been pulled out of the class due to his high marks. He was also at the level they all should have been at.
"Dude, how did you pass?" Nino asked, "We all listened to Miss Bustier! You're higher than anyone, including Max!"
"Well, I was homeschooled and Natalie was a tough teacher compared to Miss Bustier. Also, I wanted to be at the same grade level as Chloe. I sorta knew mostly everything, already." Adrien admitted, "I actually could have skipped a few grades if I wanted to."
Nino was surprised, "Would you be willing to tutor us?"
"I wish I could but the board made me take a test and Father demanded I answer every question I knew correctly." Adrien sighed, "I'll be going to high school and if I continue the way I am now, I'm set to graduate in two years."
They realized it would never be the same. Everyone else still had four or five years until they graduated. 
Bruce thought that another child would tip the balance of the manor, but he was wrong. It felt like all they had been missing, was her. She adjusted perfectly to the chaos. His sons insisted that Marinette learn self-defense, at the very least. She refused to walk in their footsteps and become Robin or any other sort of vigilante. It hadn't taken long for Marinette to be announced as Bruce Wayne's daughter and Damian's long lost biological sister. Marinette had taken Gotham by storm as Gotham's Angel and was designing under a new alias: Serpentine. She was taking the fashion world by storm.
Everyone loved having Marinette around, but Damian Al-Ghul Wayne knew better. Marinette was as deceiving as their mother. She looked innocent in everything she did, but her mind was a war zone. Their grandfather never appreciated her mind, but he had gotten some of his best stealth mission ideas after talking with her. He could see her slithering into every crack in their new home. She was flexible like Grayson, loved motorcycles like Todd, talked business with Father and Drake. She even won over Alfred, Brown and Cain with her cooking and baking skills.
Damian watched as Marinette smiled at her computer. The look at the screen, the smile; it was his mother's smile. He could see Gabriel stocks were plummeting after their reunion in Paris. Style Queen was barely hovering above water. For Marinette, it was never about becoming Robin. It was about ruling the world and she was going do it through fashion.
Damian would never tell anyone, but he was scared of his little sister and he would take it to his grave. The smile that would lead anyone to death: The Arabian Helen of Troy.
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aliensunflower-fics · 5 months
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Man, Adrien's just wants everyone to be happy, and because he goes on the wrong way, he gets a raw deal.
Will he ever get a break in your fics?
... Okay I have gotten 1 to many asks like this even though if you check my pinned post you would see all my fics with tags a fair few of which include Adrienette or even just cool friends Adrien and Mari but to make your life even easier HERE I will link every single fic I have written (to this date) in which there is 0 Adrien salt ENJOY:
Alya Salt Prompt: Views (Alya Salt / Prompt / Mild Lila Salt )
Ladybug Is Addicted to Pastries ( Fluff / Comedy Short )
Corruption: A Prompt ( Light Adrinette / Lila Salt / Prompt)
Marinette Changes Schools: Funny Prompt ( Adrienette / Kagaminette / Felinette / Fluff / Comedy / Lila Salt)
A Sinister Sneaky Lila Prompt (Marinette Harem / Lila Salt / Prompt )
The Liar Trap: Lila Salt Prompt (Comedy / Lila Salt / Hints of Kagaminette )
Marinette The Perfect Daughter In-Law (Marinette Harem / Fluff / Comedy)
‘Akumatized’ Marinette: Funny Prompt (Marinette Harem / Fluff / Comedy / Lila Salt )
The Interview (Comedy /Gabriel Salt / Nathalie Salt / Lila Salt / BAMF Marinette)
The Interview Part 2: Live Broadcast ( Comedy / Gabriel Salt / Nathalie Salt / Lila Salt / BAMF Marinette / Hints of Daminette / Gay Adrien / AdriJon )
Jealousy & Honesty: Sugary Prompt (Innocent Lila AU / Marinette Is Insecure but Sweet / Marinette Talks to Her Mom / Prompt)
Who Framed Marinette Dupain Cheng (Comedy / Marinette Harem / Fluff / Class Sugar)
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sturchling · 1 year
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I have a request. How about Lila’s mom comes to school because Lila forgot something. And she comes to class only to see them screaming at marinette to stop being “jealous” and stop “bullying” because of another lie Lila told. Lila’s mom also sees mrs. Bustier not doing anything to stop it. So she steps in and Lila pales at the sight of her mom. Then she sets things straight and goes off on Lila for lying again. In the end Lila and the class get punished. And lila gets held back a year.
Mrs. Rossi was already in an annoyed mood. She had already been running late this morning, and needed to get to work. But right as she went to leave, she saw that Lila had left her homework binder on the counter.
She was irritated with her daughter for being so irresponsible. Part of her considered just leaving it there and letting Lila face the consequences. She left it, she can take the bad grade. But then Mrs Rossi remembered that this assignment was worth a lot and if Lila got a bad grade, it would really affect her overall grade.
Mrs Rossi decided to just take it to the school, and she would deal with her daughter later. Little did Mrs Rossi know, Lila would wish her mother had left it alone. She had left the binder on purpose. Lila had planned to blame Marinette for the missing assignment, saying that the girl had wanted Lila to fail so she stole the assignment from her on the way to school.
Mrs Rossi strode into the school and up the stairs to her daughters class, texting on her phone to try and explain to her boss why she is late. Her focus was glued to her phone, that is until she heard the yelling. When she looked up, Mrs Rossi saw the entirety of her daughter’s class, standing and yelling at one girl in the back of the class. They were yelling at her for “bullying Lila” and “stealing her homework” so this girl would have a better than Lila.
But none of this made sense. Lila’s homework wasn’t stolen, Mrs Rossi had it in her hand. Why did the class think this girl stole it? And why wasn’t her daughter correcting them? Surely she knew about her homework, so this girl couldn’t have stolen it. Mrs Rossi felt her stomach twist. She had seen her daughter finally, and she was smiling maliciously.
Then Mrs Rossi understood. Her daughter was lying again. She had done this at every school in Italy. She always lied to everyone, about everything. Fake conditions, fake achievements, anything she could think of. And she had also previously used those lies to target specific students and make them miserable. She had been expelled from several schools for this behavior, but Lila had seemed better since moving to Paris. Reticently, Mrs Rossi realized that Lila had seemed better, because Mrs Rossi had been willfully ignoring it. Now the lack of the communication from the school, and several “school closures” seemed way more troubling.
She glanced at the teacher, Bustier, but Bustier wasn’t doing anything. She was just watching the chaos, like it was some twisted show. Mrs Rossi couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Well, if she wasn’t going to stop this, Mrs Rossi absolutely would. Her daughter wasn’t going to ruin another girl’s life.
Mrs Rossi stormed into the classroom, yelling, “LILA ROSSI”. The entire class whipped around at the sudden intrusion and stared at her. Most looked confused, but Lila didn’t. She looked terrified, and paled almost instantly upon seeing her mother.
“Mom… what are you doing here?” Lila glanced around the room, completely panicked. Especially when she spotted a certain binder in her mother’s arms.
“It doesn’t matter why I’m here. What matters is you are lying again! You told your class that this girl stole your homework? You know good and well that you left it at the house. It’s right here! I thought you had gotten over this lying phase of yours, but clearly not!” Mrs Rossi threw down the binder on the sad excuse of a teacher’s desk, angry beyond measure.
Lila was stuttering, trying to think of someway out of this, as she felt the stares of her class on her. This was very bad, Lila had intended for this lie to fully turn the class against Marinette. She hadn’t expected her mother to see the binder and bring it to the school. “Mom it’s not what you think, Marinette, she… she threatened me. Told me not to bring my homework or I’d be sorr-”
Lila couldn’t even finish her lie, her mother’s anger growing with every word until she exploded. “ENOUGH! You did this in every school you went to in Italy, and I thought I got the lesson through your head this time! Clearly not! I didn’t warn this school because you seemed to understand it this time, I guess that was my own naivety. Get up, you are coming with me to the principals office! I’m willing to bet he has some interesting stories to tell me of what you’ve been up to! I wonder if you have that lying disease again, or the one about saving some random celebrity pet. It’s the same nonsense every time and I’m sick of it!”
Lila tried to stammer out protests, she really did not want her mom to talk to Damocles. But deep down, she knew it was pointless, her mom was furious and wouldn’t take no for an answer. She felt the betrayed looks from the class on her back, as they realized Marinette had been telling the truth. Lila was a habitual liar, and her own mother was confirming it right in front of them, even referencing specific stories Lila had told them.
Lila reluctantly left the classroom with her mother, dreading this conversation and the after effects to come.
And man the after effects were more brutal than Lila expected. She wasn’t expelled exactly, but she almost wishes she was. But her mother had advocated against expulsion, but not for the sake of her daughter. She did it so her daughter couldn’t pull this again at another school.
Instead, Lila was suspended for the rest of the year and as a result would be held back a year and need to repeat it. When she was allowed back, she would be closely monitored by teachers, to make sure she couldn’t get away with anything or trying to bully any students. And a note was placed in her permanent record, so that if she ever did have to transfer for some reason, her next school would be warned.
As for the rest of the class and Bustier, they didn’t escape unscathed either. Most of the class was suspended as well, just for shorter periods of time. The school was a bit more lenient with them, since their actions were based on manipulation and lies, so they wouldn’t be suspended long enough that they would need to repeat the year, but they would be suspended for a few weeks and when they got back, they would have detention for the remainder of the year.
Finally, Bustier was also given an unpaid suspension. To come back to work, she had to complete several hours of retraining on class management, anti bullying tactics, and a wide range of other subjects. Her class got a long term sub in the meantime.
Mrs Rossi may have been annoyed about bringing that binder, but she is glad she did. It opened her eyes to her daughters continuing lies. She was able to put a stop to it this time, and she would make sure her daughter would never be able to pull this nonsense again. 
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charlietheepicwriter7 · 7 months
Text
Hey, Little Songbird
Final Chapter - AO3
Three days after the defeat of Gabriel Agreste and the arrest of Lila Rossi, Felix was invited out for ice cream by his classmates.
A little flustered, he’d agreed without thinking. Rationally, there was little reason to why Lê Chiếninvited him to join, and even less of a reason why Felix accepted. There was still too much to do in the wake of Hawkmoth’s arrest; lawyers to speak to, statements given to police and press alike, entertaining his mother who’d overtaken his home to take custody of Adrien… Frivolities like ice cream socials couldn’t be entertained.
Despite that idea, Felix found himself smiling under the sun, surrounded by classmates as they all took turns at the food cart.
Couffaine and her girlfriend—a few days of diligent study only unearthed a few of his classmates names, not all—stepped out of his way, a sundae to share between the two. He approached the ice cream stall and—“Where is your menu?”
The man, Andre or something similar, smiled merrily. “Ah, so this is your first time at Sweethearts Ice Cream? Allow me to explain.” Picking up his scoop, Andre started to fulfill his order despite Felix having never ordered anything. “Sweethearts Ice Cream has a special ablility; to connect the hearts of two people in love. The harmony of two hearts in love influences the flavors of the ice cream. And there!” With a flourish, Andre offered him his waffle cone ice cream. “Blackberry for her hair, blue bubblegum for her eyes, and black cherry for her secret you keep in your heart.”
“…This is a terrible business model.” Despite his words, Felix paid the man and took his cone. “I don’t even know who this could refer to.”
“Really? You have no idea?”
Nearly dropping his ice cream, Felix whirled around. “M-Marinette!? When did you get here?”
“Just now,” she said, squeezing up beside him at the counter. “Hey, Andre.”
“Marinette! You’re ready to give Sweethearts Ice Cream another chance then?” Andre grinned at them both. “Or… would you two like to try my Couples Sundae? It’s free for new lovers.”
Felix flushed, a protest frozen in his throat. Fortunately, Marinette could still speak. “No, thank you,” she said, voice pitched higher than usual. “Just a regular ice cream, please.”
“Of course, of course.” Changing his scoop for a fresh one, Andre started on a new waffle cone: a base of yellow with dark chocolate, with a scoop of bright blue on top. “Banana for his hair, cotton candy for his eyes, and…” He flipped the cone over and dipped it in chocolate, “…a dark chocolate shell, since you broke through his.”
Blushing, Marinette accepted her ice cream. Felix offered her his arm and escorted Marinette towards a bench separate from the class, who were watching them. Lê Chiến even offered Felix a grin and a thumbs-up, to which he awkwardly returned with a nod.
“How…” She paused to take a bite of her ice cream, dark chocolate snapping between her teeth. “How has everything been? I’m sorry for not being in class the past few days, but it’s been so busy…”
“I can only imagine.” Marinette—or rather, Ladybug—has been in and out of the police station as often as Adrien was, giving her statement. Between that and the press conference Mme. Bustier stopped class to let them watch yesterday, if she’d spent more time as Marinette than Ladybug these last few days, Felix would French-kiss Rossi. “It’s been quiet, especially once Ladybug announced that Gabriel was Hawkmoth. Ms. Bustier tried to make us talk about our feelings, but everyone’s still a bit too shocked to discuss it.” After all, it wasn’t every day when you discovered your classmate’s father was the terrorist who turned you into a supervillain. Reporters had hounded their class from the moment the news dropped.
They were even worse towards his family.
“The school’s talking about shipping in a therapist for us,” Felix explained. “Not only that whole Akuma Class nonsense, but also because we were in direct contact with a terrorist for months on end. So, you have that to look forward to when you get back.” Rossi was allowed unrestricted access to vulnerable minds for over half a year. There was no doubt his class needed therapy… including Marinette.
“At least she’s been expelled from the country,” Marinette said, sighing. “Honestly, that was harder than giving my statement ten times over. The Prime Minister wanted her trial on French soil. I had to argue with the Prime Minister! All for Lila.”
“Why?” Felix would never do anything to help Rossi.
“News of her involvement is going to drop any day now. People are already trying to attack Gabriel in his cell; when the mob of public opinion finds out about her, they’ll start trying to get her too. At least this way she’ll be tried back in her home country, by people who were never directly affected by her actions.”
Felix didn’t like it, but “It’s understandable. People are also trying to get to Adrien, despite his innocence.”
Marinette nodded, half-expected that. “How is Adrien? I haven’t heard from him at all.”
“One of his photographers leaked his phone number, so Mom took his phone away so he wouldn’t have to read all the vile filth people send him. He’s getting a new one soon.”
It wasn’t that Felix didn’t understand why people were so upset. Gabriel turned Paris into a battleground and friends into foes, but… the police had already released a statement denying Adrien’s cooperation regarding Hawkmoth, yet there are still hateful phone calls and texts coming in at every hour from people who wanted someone to blame. At least Mother was keeping a record of who sent the more illegal messages: the threats, the doxing, the… suicide baiting.
Their family lawyer would be well fed in the coming months.
It was hard with Adrien in his house. Awkward. Despite Adrien’s frame-job, he was still family, and Felix was someone who supported his family. But that didn’t mean Adrien was forgiven. Felix didn’t forgive, and he’d never forget.
Surprisingly, the tabloids were kind towards Felix. He made no effort in hiding his involvement in the case, both as the whistle blower for Hawkmoth and as a hero involved in the final take down. Mother had cut out some particularly flattering articles out to hang in their manor parlor, but fortunately the threat of arrest and restraining orders kept most of the rats away.
“How’d Adrien take it?” she asked.
Felix bit his ice cream, so he’d have time to answer. Damn that ice cream man. It was delicious. “He didn’t believe it at first… didn’t want to believe it. He’s seeing a therapist on Friday.”
Marinette wrapped her hands around her ice cream cone. “Poor Adrien…”
“He’ll recover; he’s stronger than you think. He’s already made plans to hang out for the weekend.” He gestured at Alya and DJ Boy, leaning against each other and sharing a sundae. Alya caught his eye and waved. “Everyone’s going to be okay now.”
“Yeah.” Marinette drank in the sight. Not just Alya and her paramour—though they earned a smile for finally making up—but their other classmates as well. Felix had never been invited to a class outing before, but even though they’d broken up into subgroups of couples and friends, everyone looked happy. “We’ll recover.”
The sun shined down on them all, warming skin like a heated blanket. Felix studied the melting treat at hand. “So. Ladybug?”
She flinched.
“I haven’t told anyone,” he reassured. “I understand why it’s a secret. I understand why you didn’t tell me. But…” He sighed. “I’ve been keeping this to myself for days. Can you please just… confirm?”
She took a deep breath. “Yes.” She peeked at him from the corners of her eyes. “This is me, confirming. Yes.”
Okay. A shiver ran through him. Marinette was Ladybug. His best friend was a superhero and trusted him enough to be a superhero too.
He was in love with Ladybug.
As was Chat Noir. And half of Paris. Shit.
“So, what gave me away?” she asked.
“Little things. Nothing anyone else could put together.” Little things that added up into the big picture. The way Ladybug knew he’d worn a hoodie earlier that day, the inherent trust she had in a man she previously punched in the face, the way she looked at him. But most importantly, Felix felt that she’d wanted to get caught, that Marinette had wanted him to know she was Ladybug, and that was what removed the block in his mind preventing him from realizing.
“Small mercies,” she muttered. “Did you really think I was Rena Rogue?”
Felix hid his face in his ice cream. “…It made sense at the time?”
She laughed at him. “Alya’s never going to let you live that down.”
Alya? Why would Alya care—? Oh. He felt his face growing red and it had nothing to do with the weather. “She really won’t, will she?” He asked, sounding faint.
“Yeah, you really dropped the ball on that conclusion. You should have heard her complain! “Your boy is so stupid, how do you even stand him?””
And now Felix was blushing for a different reason. Her boy?
“—I tried to keep her from talking about it in front of the other temporary heroes, but I think Viperion knows. Carapace definitely does.”
“Did she complain in front of Hawkmoth too?” he grumbled, wishing he was wearing a hoodie to better hide his face. “Throw Rossi into the loop while she’s at it? Maybe my mother would like to know all my follies?”
“Oh! Speaking of your mom—” Marinette pulled a chain out from under her shirt. His breath caught in his throat. She’d kept it on her person? “You can finally return this to her.” Threading the wedding ring off her necklace, she placed it his hand, its matching pair resting on his finger.
He squeezed it, the smooth ridges cutting into his palm… and returned it to her. “Keep it. It’s exactly where it needs to be.”
“What? But this is the entire reason you were here!” She tried to give it back again. “It’s your family ring!”
“It’s my family’s wedding ring,” he corrected. “And while most would consider this too forward of an approach, the realization that you’re the most eligible bachelorette in Paris is making me react… strongly. So, I was thinking about a spring wedding? After we graduate Lycée, of course, so it would be a long engagement—”
Marinette covered his mouth, face blush red from the tips of her ears to the neckline of her shirt. “What!?” She asked, voice cracking. “M-M-Marriage!? Felix, we can’t…”
“Well, yes, not right now. That’s why I said after Lycee.” Obviously. “I don’t see what the issue is? My family has had arranged marriages for centuries, and we like each other. Right?” Had he misidentified her feelings? She always acted sweet with him and blushed when he flirted, but what if he was wrong? What if he humiliated himself and ruined their friendship in one swift move—
“Of course I like you, but you haven’t even asked me out on a date yet!” She burst out, causing the rest of the class to glance over. She buried her face in her hands and continued, voice muffled, “Dating comes before marriage; I can’t believe I have to explain this to you!”
Oh. That was the issue. Gently pulling her hands away, he dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief. “I’m sorry, Marinette. I got ahead of myself.” Alya glared at him from over Marinette’s shoulder. Nosy overprotective reporters, getting in everyone else’s business… “I didn’t mean to pressure you. What I mean with the ring is… a promise. I would love to be in a relationship with you, if you’d have me.”
She looked up at him from underneath her lashes. “A promise?”
“To stay by your side and support you in your endeavors.” His family’s marriage vows echoed in his mind, passed down from his grandparents, from his grandfather who was so in love with his grandmother that he couldn’t think of a world where she wasn’t his equal. “As long as you stay by my side and support me in return. To lift you up through the hard times and rejoice with your success. To be equals in all things. That’s what I want to promise you.”
Tears budded in her eyes. “To stay by your side… to be equals… that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“Then, would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend? And going out on a date with me?”
Her tears ran down her face, but her smile lit up the entirety of Paris with her joy. “Yes. I’d love to, Felix.”
Taglist: @graduatedmelon @novicevoice@dur55@kris-pines04@18-fandoms-unite-08@moonlightstar64@bee-a-garbage-shipper@sol-o-shade@kittyotakunoir666@tinyterror333@allieoftheenemy@marichat00@xgxmxtx@two-faced-biatch@feliciakainzofspades@evil-cricket@emilytopaz@spicybelladonna@chocolateherringtacofan@user00000003@wannajointhecrabcult@happymonster-pants @duquesapincarrasca  @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen  @sxltinette @kittydemon9000 @thetrashypanda423 @unoriginalmessess @toodaloo-kangaroo @troycattribunny@nikipuppeteer
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seeyabythemarina · 8 months
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Nooroo's Champion
Nooroo couldn't take it anymore. He knew using his power without a holder was dangerous, but he couldn't live like this anymore.
While Gabriel wasn't looking he looked for an emotion that correlated with what he wanted. Finding an emotion from a prisoner jailed unfairly he makes an (I don't think butterflies made for good would be called akumas and don't know what to call them), which looks like an akuma but lavender purple and more fairy like and turns them in to (akuma name) who frees the innocent and jails the guilty and can show proof. I'm going to headcannon nooroo can do it telepathic so he won't talk and tip Gabriel off.
For consequences I'm gonna say that that akuma is extremely overpowered. It want to punish anyone who guilt and biggest stop is guilty hawkmoth to punish him and save nooroo. I'm going to say that Gabriel can't take them away sense it wasn't an akuma and cant order nooroo to do it because of of the consquence is that needs needs the akuma concent for the powers to go away. Gab tries making some akumas and sentimonster to defend him but their weak compare to one made without a holder.
Eventually he defeat hm, saves nooroo, exposes Lila, mayor corruptions, mme bustier, ext. I'll say that that prisons was feeling left of magical influence for months.
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trashyangelic · 8 months
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𝟬𝟵𝟬𝟮𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 : ᴍʟʙ ᴛᴜᴍʙʟʀ ᴘʀᴏᴍᴘᴛ ʀᴇᴏ̨ᴜᴇsᴛ
ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢs : Felinette, Lukloe, Adrigami sᴀʟᴛs : Alya Salt, Bustier Salt, Lila Salt ʀᴇᴅᴇᴍᴘᴛɪᴏɴs : Adrien Redemption, Chloe Redemption
𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔢𝔱𝔰!
Marinette and Chloe had transffered out of Francois Dupont into a school where Kagami and Luka went. Marinette is friends with the Quantic Kids who had help her grow confident and clearly has a crush on Felix Fathom who is Adrien's cousin. Chloe has a crush on Luka while Kagami is working on Adrien though his advice which ticked her off and gave him other options why his advice doesn't work for the school with a help by Chloe.
Adrien redeem himself thanks to Kagami for the help but has feelings for Kagami for quite a while but doesn't like when Alya forced him to like Marinette since he considered her as a sister figure instead.
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Meanwhile at the Francois Dupont, Mylene's dad decided to take a break from his teaching but didn't like how Damocles abuse his power as a principal he has been filing a complaint towards the School Board about him and Caline as he had seen both of them ignoring the school laws that was in the pamplet for students who is entering their school.
So he remembered his job was to check the secruity cameras. Clearly the secruity cameras weren't even broken but its still ongoing so he decided to investigate it himself why Damocles didn't bother to look at the cameras when it comes to bullying.
Until one of the clips with Lila Rossi caught him in action. He made copies for the Authories and the Police included. One of them was Lila grabbing the Akuma and willing to aid terrorism with Hawkmoth and the second one was to accus cheating and theft to Ms. Dupain-Cheng that really pissed him off. That would explain why Ms. Dupain-Cheng transferred out of this toxic school. Her parents weren't very happy with Lila, Caline, and Damocles for this mess.
There were the other two of Adrien being Chat Noir and Marinette being Ladybug which surprised him alot but since Adrien is no longer Chat Noir which caught him very suspicious about this but had seen videos from Aurore's blog that Adrien sexually harassed Ladybug & Marinette. He is still not happy with Adrien's father.
While Marinette's Parents along with Jagged Stone work in the shadow in order to get lawsuit towards Alya Cesaire and Lila Rossi for most of it.
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Hope you can make this happen. If any of you are available to make a miraculous ladybug prompt in your profiles!
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jayphoenic · 2 years
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Tumblr MLB Lila (Salt) Bashing Prompts/Fics Recommendations 3
The Other Diplomat Kid by @musicfeedsmysoul12
Sam Williams goes to Paris when their dad temporarily takes over the title of diplomat to get away from their grandfather. They end up meeting a girl everyone in the diplomat circle knows is a liar.
Fake Lila Rossi AU by @ladyanput
So it was that night that Lila approached this girl, befriended her, and later offered her a deal;
Lila would pay her handsomely for her services. To act as her double. Lila promises to pay for the plastic surgery, anything she needs to look exactly like Lila. Besides, who wouldn’t want to be one of the biggest influencers in Paris? The girl does the charity work, get down and dirty, get Lila a good image, while Lila enjoys the high life. But they plan in carefully so that the two are never seem at the same time, even if they were in different places.
Fortune Reversal by @cornholio4
They put their paws together and in unison used the incantation that activated the magic of the Fortune Reversal. Plagg let Tikki take the reigns as she turned Marinette’s fortune positive and jsut because she decided to be a petty Kwami she also decided to reverse the fortune of Lila.
Rate this (Trust is Hard to Come By) by @unmaskedagain
Lila looked honestly confused. She had missed something, and it was big. “What’s going on?”
Nino glared at the girl; his eyes red, tear streaks his face. “Those numbers tell the world how much Ladybug trusts you. Or how much she doesn’t,” He said darkly, thinking about his own number and his actions against the girl he once called his best friend. “And why.”
“The lower the number,” Adrien added. “The less she trust you.”
Remember some chapters are longer than others
(ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*.✧
Taglist:
@lazyeasyaddict @aludhazie @lonestarfangirl2014 @gingerdaile @virgil-is-a-cutie @ive-tumbled-down-a-rabbit-hole @erb23 @miraculous-ladybug-stufff @thefullmetalfairy @im-tired-101 @rubybee5 @mewwitch @fantasyfandommaiden @mariloki4 @novicevoice @graduatedmelon @cheyj05 @sparklyaxolotlstudent @tails-of-a-dragon-rider @caycay-lee @crazylittlemunchkin @smartlanceisreal @lostinday @dagnysdawn @i-cant-think-of-one-meh @sassakitty @alicesangelofmusic @the-navistar-carol @wrecker-radioactive @toftbmh @whimsicalsandmusings @lugluh @ml-miraculouslady @unabashedbookworm @akittycat24stuff @sillyandquest @madd-kwami @naturegreenr @irontimetravelflower @starstruckstarlightpenguin @255940g @dreamer2 @staren3rgy101 @spottedbug @weirdness2020 @chaoticmistake
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howhow326 · 1 year
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RING THE ALARM
Miraculous Ladybug: season 4 Alya sugar fic (based on the Alya exposes Lila's secrets prompt that I made)
Alya pov
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"... Anansi has been rigging her wrestling matches! It's the only reason why she's made it as far as she has." was the only thing Alya needed to hear to send off alarm bells throughout her whole body. Why would Lila say something that wasn't true? Alya tried to correct her friend, thinking it had to be some type of mistake. At first, Lila was surpised her latest gossip target had a sister, but held fast to the truthfulness of her 'sources'. Alya tried to correct her again, and Lila got defensive over her friend 'attacking' her. Alya tried to fact check Lila one last time, then the green eyed monster finnally retaliated. All she had to claim was Alya harassing her and Kim, Nino, and Ms. Bustier swiftly came to her defence.
Within the blink of an eye, Alya landed in detention. Alone in her punishment, but togather with Marinette who had been a recent victim of the lying new girl. As her real friend comforted her, Alya finnaly realized her real mistake... how could Lila be friends with Maribug if she met her the same time as me? Alya finnaly gleaned the truth that Marinette had been warnning her for so long, and despite Marinette's affirmations of her being guiltless, Alya couldn't help but feel that this whole mess was her fault. What kind of journalist am I to be fooled by a school girl...
That's when a Light bulb appeared above her head. Alya is exactly the kind of journalist to solve this mess, and she will if it's the last thing she does. As soon as she got home, Alya began scowering the internet for every and any truth of Lila's claims. As she took more and more notes, she began to learn Lila's real specialty: half truths. All the photos she wowed the class of her meeting with Jagged Stone and traveling the world were real, but the "special connections" she claimed to have were all as fake as her hair. That was the real reason why Lila asked everyone to keep some of the things she said between classmates, it stopped anyone from reaching the truth. As Alya started getting ready for bed, Trixx whispered a devious plan into her ear. Normally, Alya would never agree to using the miraculous to spread a falsehood, but this mirage might be just what she needs to reveal the truth...
The next day at school was much the same; Ms. Bustier was forcing the class to write an eassy analyzing the theme of love in the popular children's book series, Hubert Porter, written by JC Bowling. Because of some of the research Alya did last night, she knew that Bustier and Bowling were the same person. She gussed that it isn't a crime to teach a class based on a book you wrote, but it was starting to get suspicious when Bustier did it three times in a row and ended each class by giving extra credit to the students who donated to the charity of her choice, a conservative group located in Florida of U.S.A.
"... and just the other day, Jagged Stone asked me to come with him on his latest tour! He got so sad when I had to tell him no!" Lila lied. Alya was almost impressed with how good the Italian was at doing it; Jagged went on tour just three days ago, but Alya was sure that he never asked Lila to come with him. Now's the time, Alya thought to herself. She go out of her seat and confronted Lila.
"Do you have any proof that Jagged Stone asked you to come with him on his tour" Alya flatly asked. Marinette got up to reel her back, but Alya gave her a look that said she has everything under control. Of course, Lila pulled her usual: she claimed that Alya was bullying her and that she just wanted to be friends. Kim jumped to her defence, as Lila filled the void that Chloe left when she went on extended vacation with her grandmother. That void being "evil chick that he can make googoo eyes at". Nino, who had started to hang out with Lila more then he was around Alya by the day, also jumped to the Italian's defense. He lectured Alya on all the ways he was "disappointed in her" and the like. Just as Ms. Bustier was about to send Alya to detention, she pulled out her trump card. "Lila's lying, and she admitted to it here!" Alta pulled out a voice recorder and pressed play. "If course I'm lying, and you can't do anything about it!" Lila's voice vindictively said.
And just like that, the class erupted into chaos. Nino got re-akumatized into Rocketear and targeted Lila for "breaking my heart". When it was over, the class all sang their swan songs to Marinette and Alya for believing some new girl over them. Except Nino, who seemed to think he was entitled to his girlfriend's forgiveness. Yeah no, their relationship is on hold and Alya is going to be too busy to come to the phone rifht now, but Nino was welcomed to leave a message. And he did. Like a lot. Alya regretted even making that suggestion. As usual, Ms. Bustier was the last person to get the hint and tried to punish Alya for (???) but this time Marinette came prepared. She discovered their lovesick teacher had fled Britain from a little too many taxes, and that was all that was needed to get her fired. After Alya learned that her choice of charity was a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist organization, she considered it good riddance.
And as for Lila, she quitely disappeared like she usually did with no sign of coming back. Good, Alya thought to herself, no one messes with my friends and gets away with it. To make sure no one forgot, Alya posted her experience onto the Ladyblog, where the truth would be known for years to come.
I challenged myself to use less dialogue in this fic and I hope you enjoy it!
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pearl-star · 2 years
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A Nudge in the Right Direction
Summary: What if Adrien's high road advice wasn't the only way he helped Marinette? Sure he could wait for Lila to expose herself, but that didn't mean that he couldn't help speed up the process.
(Cross Posted on Ao3)
“Just take the high road and ignore her, Marinette. Lila will lie herself into a corner soon enough.”
Marinette looked at him, like she wanted to speak out but held herself back. Instead curling in slightly before nodding. Adrien worked to keep his perfect model smile on his lips even as he wanted to frown.
“And if she does anything else to you, like with trying to frame you or anything at all, let me know okay?”
She nodded again, biting her lip this time. He nearly narrowed his eyes at her action but refrained. She waved goodbye before walking away. Once she was out of sight, Adrien dropped his smile and frowned.
“Something happened.”
“Really? I never would have guessed.”
Plagg’s sarcasm was not needed, so Adrien grabbed some cheese and held it out for the kwami to take. He held it in his nubs, but didn’t eat it. Instead Plagg looked at him expectantly. 
“You’re not really gonna keep quiet about this, right? Lila only confronts people when no one else is around. She could easily save herself given how stupid the class has been so far.”
Adrien let out a dark chuckle, something the kwami only just started to get used to hearing as of late.
“Oh, she’ll expose herself eventually. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help along the way.”
Plagg gave him a look over, shrugged, swallowed the Camebert whole, before responding.
“Sometimes I worry that you and your cousin switched.”
Adrien sighed at the reminder of his family member. He and Felix had a strange relationship. With Felix’s dad dead, and Adrien’s own father not helping the already tense situation, he really couldn’t blame his cousin for acting out. Did he think what his cousin did was wrong? Yes. And Adrien will be keeping an eye out to ensure that his cousin had no chance of doing anything like that again in the future.
“Don’t compare me to him. At least I’m not taking my frustrations out on others.”
“The sculptor.” Plagg sing sung.
“I was being a hypocrite.”
“And you flirting with Ladybug?”
“To be fair I was both way too over excited and also didn’t know how normal crushes should be expressed. Plus I’ve toned it down. I can’t stop completely though or else she’ll think something is up. Remember when I actually listened to her and stopped calling her bugaboo? She brought baked goods and hot chocolate to patrol every day and continuously apologized to me. I tried to tell her that I was just listening to her but she still thought that I was mad at her.”
“Ladybugs,” Plagg sighed, “they’ll take on the weight of the world and refuse to let anyone else share the load if my black cats don’t stop them.” 
Adrien heard his phone dinged, letting him know that his bodyguard was waiting to pick him up, so he began to leave the school.
“I’m trying to do it slowly with her. But I think dealing with Lila will help both her and Marinette. I would ask Alya to see what actually happened, but since she fully believes Lila I don’t want her blaming and attacking Marinette.”
Whenever Marinette first called out Lila, Alya had been switching between giving Marinette the cold shoulder or insisting that she needed to get over her jealousy. He didn’t understand why Alya would think that Marinette was jealous of Lila of all people, but he couldn’t exactly ask her when he was expected to be nice to Lila. And nice he would be.
He smiled as he thought about his plan. It could backfire, but he was smart enough to know when to be careful. And the only person who could ruin it for him was Lila, and she would have to expose herself first. And if she tries to drag him down with her? Well, she would already be established as a liar by then anyways. 
He opened the limo door and sat down, looking out the window as his bodyguard began to drive off to his next photoshoot. Adrien smiled to himself. Yes. Who would think that he, sweet sunshine boy of Paris, could be capable of ruining someone’s life? 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First step of his plan: figure out how to use Lila’s newest modeling gig to his advantage. Adrien honestly had no idea why his father decided to take on Lila as a model, but it was clear that she wasn’t the best at it. Okay she was straight up awful at it. She was too focused on hanging on him to actually listen to Vincent, and his photographer was getting frustrated. 
As easy as it would be to just continue down this path until he would eventually get akumatized, Adrien didn’t want that for the man. He was the one of the few photographers that Adrien enjoyed working with. And even if Vincent wasn’t his favorite, he shouldn’t just sit back and let someone get akumatized. 
So Adrien did what most people would expect him to do: he mediated .
“I just think that if Lila got more training then shoots would be quicker. If father is planning on keeping Lila on as a model, it would be best to improve her modeling now rather than later. I’m sure Lila will be fine going to a couple lessons a week to help gain those skills.”
He kept a small smile on his face as he looked at Nathalie. He knew that she probably didn’t like Lila all that much, considering the stunt that the girl pulled that caused both her and his bodyguard to get in trouble, so if Nathalie decided to increase Lila’s workload a bit extra then so be it. 
“I’ll bring the suggestion up to your father. I believe that there was already some consideration to prepare her for doing interviews for when the photos from her sessions get released.” 
Adrien mentally made a note to check when the photos would get released. Lila gaining more public attention, especially in the beauty world, would only aid him. 
“Thank you, Nathalie. I should go practice piano before my fencing practice. The last shoot ran into my usual practice time.”
Nathalie nodded as she tapped something into her tablet, and Adrien made his way to his room. Usually, unless he had a performance coming up, he just put on piano music on his phone and did something else, but he needed to stay in Nathalie's and his father’s good graces. No one could get suspicious of him, otherwise he would get locked down again. 
So he played. Starting with warm ups, then transitioning into some classical pieces while occasionally shifting into music from Kitty Section. He never got to go to performances, but Luka had given him all of the piano sheet music just in case. Luckily he was working on more traditional music when Nathalie knocked on the door.
“I spoke to your father.” She said as she walked into the room. “And he agreed with your idea to give Lila extra lessons. And since some of the recent photo sessions have been running into your other activities, you will not be helping Miss Rossi in these lessons. Your current activities are taking top priority. I will be sending her the plans later today once they are made.”
“Thank you Nathalie. And I can always give Lila quick tips while on set when needed.”
Nathalie nodded before making her way out of the room. Once the door was shut, Adrien smirked. Depending on how much trouble Lila is during those lessons, and how much Nathalie wants to be spiteful, this could keep her plenty distracted. It would also give her something to brag about at school, which will hopefully keep her attention away from Marinette. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks after the lessons got implemented, Adrien could tell that they were happening. To the untrained eye Lila looked perfectly normal. But on closer inspection, you could see the smudges where her concealer and setting powder were not applied properly to her eye bags. And the only lessons being done were on how to model, they haven’t even gotten to all the interview stuff yet.
Sure she had something to brag about, but it didn’t give her time to hang out after school. He didn’t know if Nathalie knew his friends’ schedules, but Lila’s lessons were all placed during the times when they would meet up. And the more Lila tried to get out of them or reschedule, the longer and more lessons there were. 
She was improving slightly. Oh, not in skills. She was still mediocre at best, but she didn’t hang on him as much or try to prolong shoots. She still hung on him, but Adrien guessed that Lila got told that the longer shoots ran on for, the more lessons she would have to do. Either way it saved him more time. Having to catch up on his lessons and homework as Chat Noir was hard enough. He really didn’t need prolonged photoshoots too.
The only downside was that Lila was getting frustrated. Despite her fake smiles and cheerful persona she put on during school, Adrien could see the cracks in her facade. He wouldn’t really care, Lila getting frustrated and snapping out would be a good thing, except that with Adrien paying more attention to her he noticed exactly how Lila was deciding to channel her frustrations. 
All it took was Marinette having a slight limp and claiming that she tripped, after Lila had left the classroom beforehand, and her reaction to Adrien asking if Lila did something to clue him in.
He frowned at the bluenette, not bothering to try and coax the truth out of her and instead being direct.
“Marinette, I can tell that she did something to you. I already know that she pushed you, but I would also like to know what she said to you.” Seeing how she seized up, he quickly added, “If you’re comfortable with telling me.” 
The pigtailed girl looked out from under her lashes and gave a small shrug. 
“I-I’m fine Adrien. Really, it’s… nothing.”
She lasted another ten seconds under the lie, as well as the stare he was giving her, before rubbing her arm and sighing. 
“I’m not comfortable with saying it.”
Adrien wanted to push more but refrained. Instead he chose to gently touch her shoulder and try to massage out her tension.
“I’m sorry that she hurt you. I’ll keep a closer eye on her and make sure she doesn’t do anything else. But please do let me know if something else happens, okay?” 
The look that Marinette gave him, like she was finally getting a breath of fresh air, made his stomach drop. The fact that a small promise like that made her look like he was gifting her the stars told him that whatever Lila said was bad. And Adrien, despite being a hero, was fully considering the petty way of handling things. 
“Thank you, Adrien. I really appreciate it. I promised my parents that I would help out at the bakery, but I’ll see you tomorrow.” 
The blonde waved cheerfully as the girl departed. Once out of sight, he put on a devilish look and glanced down at his kwami who had popped out of his bag.
“So, Plagg, you were talking about ways to mess with Lila. Can you run those by me again?”
The crackle the miniature god gave was heard throughout the school, and no one knew that it was the sound of a death sentence. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day, Adrien walked into school all smiles. To the untrained eye, he looked perfectly like his normal self. Except, if someone really paid attention, you could see the slight glint in his eyes, as well as how his smile held an edge to it that he was fighting back behind his perfect demeanor. 
Marinette was already in the classroom as well, and she walked in with Alya which would be good for later. And later seemed to come sooner than expected. About five minutes after Marinette walked in, Lila walked in. It took all of Adrien’s acting gained over the years to keep a straight face.
Plagg’s little pranks, which he had green lit the day before, were already taking full effect. Lila looked like she went through a storm and just survived. Her hair was a frizzy mess, her makeup was barely hanging on, and her shoulders were tense with obvious stress. If Adrien had any sympathy left for her, he would wish her luck getting put together before someone posts a photo. However any cares he had left to give flew right out the window the moment she decided to go after Marinette. 
Adrien had half a mind to take the photo himself. And if it wasn’t for Chloe who snorted a laugh and whispered at Sabrina to post a pic, then he might have too. Instead Adrien played the oblivious boy who was raised to be a gentleman.
“Lila, what happened?”
“It was…” 
She drifted off, looking at Marinette and then him. He didn’t give her any glares or anything, merely blinking back. She would have to show her hand first. He wasn’t about to defend Marinette if Lila wasn’t accusing her, she could find an excuse for that. But it seemed like she had second thoughts.
“Nothing. Just a bad hair day.” 
Adrien was shocked that she didn’t try to blame Marinette somehow, but didn’t put his guard down. After all, she had taken her frustrations out on the bluenette just the day before. He’d need to keep both girls in his sights, and preferably have Nino or someone else with him. That way Lila can’t twist any narrative. 
Through the day, he kept his eye out, and he noticed a lot. He’d been only focused on keeping Lila away from Marinette, and thus usually kept his focus only on the liar. Looking at Marinette showed him things that he didn’t notice before. Like how Marinette no longer had lunch at school, or how she’d leave the group once Lila pops in and brings the attention onto her, or how she was always double checking her bag and where she was walking.
It was all tiny things that he never paid attention to before, but now with context painted a bigger picture. And that made him smile all the more when he checked his phone and noticed the photo that Chloe posted of Lila trending. The caption wasn’t too shabby either, and Adrien had to refrain from liking the post. He took that energy instead and used it to distract the class and make sure that none of them, especially Lila, checked their phones. 
So it was only at the end of the day, and when Lila shirked, that the photo was discovered by the rest of the class.
“How dare you post that photo! I demand that you take it down immediately!”
Lila’s outburst surprised the rest of the class, but when Alya glanced at Lila’s phone she immediately defended her.
“Lila’s right Chloe. You can’t just post things like that.”
“Oh, like I haven’t done worse. Maybe don’t have such an awful appearance when showing up to a public place. Besides, me taking it down would do nothing. It’s the internet. Nothing ever goes away. Have fun with that.”
Before anyone else could try to protest, the blond and Sabrina left. It was after they left that the rest of the class started to see the actual post. Adrien, having to act like he cared, moved to “comfort” Lila before pausing at his phone going off. He checked it and felt relieved. 
“Hey dude. What’s up?”
He tilted his phone so that Nino could see the message.
“Oh, that seems bad. Are you gonna be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He waved goodbye, happy to see that Marinette had already slipped away from the classroom. Hopefully she was heading straight home. That didn’t mean that Lila couldn’t blame her for something even if she didn’t see Marinette, but at least it stopped her from being able to do something to Marinette directly. 
He walked straight outside and to the car. Nathalie was waiting for him inside, a tablet with his dad’s face already cued up.
“Good afternoon father. Is everything alright?”
“Your friend, Chloe, seems to have posted a photo of Lila.”
“People were talking about it at the end of class, but you texted me before I could see it for myself. Is there something wrong with it?”
“Yes, but don’t worry. Don’t comment on the photo, both in person and online. I’ll have things taken care of by tomorrow. For today she won’t be attending the photoshoot. We have another female model coming instead. Do not disappoint me.”
“Of course, father.”
And thank you for the free out. Adrien highly doubted that everything would be taken care of by tomorrow, Chloe would definitely make sure that there’s talk about it for at least a week. But the biggest plus was that he wouldn’t have to deal with her for this shoot, meaning that maybe he could actually work on homework and get to bed on time. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As predicted, talk of the photo didn’t die down by the next day. In fact, more fuel was added to the fire, courtesy of the one and only Lila Rossi. At the same time that his father had been saying that things were under control, Lila had decided to take matters into her own hands by responding to Chloe’s post. 
One thing that’s important to remember is that Lila had only been receiving lessons on how to model, not how to conduct oneself online. As such, she didn’t know when to recognize bad press, and how to respond to it. 
Gossip sites, fan girls, and everyone else on the internet loved to tear famous people apart. They criticize them no matter what. As such, people would ignore many of the rumors and insults posted online. Responding would not only show people that you cared, but they could take what the original post said as being true. 
Lila responded to Chloe’s post like that of a teenage girl, and as such her attempt to deal with the situation fueled more fires than it put out. It also didn’t help that Lila had used her official model account to respond, which only shared it with more people. The social media team caught what she did and deleted the comment within five minutes of her posting, but the damage was done the second she hit post.
Lila didn’t show up to school the next day, not that much of a surprise. What was a surprise was that Adrien himself still went to school. He had assumed that his father would have put him on lockdown while he figured out what to do with the fires that were burning, after all there were photos of him with Lila at multiple places. But perhaps he thought that if things continued as normal that it would go away. Either way it saved Adrien the trouble of trying to sneak out of the mansion and to school.
All the rest of his classmates, sans Marinette, were already in the classroom with the majority looking at Chloe. The blonde didn’t seem to mind, smugly smiling at her phone. Alya, by far, looked the most put out. She had her tablet out and was furious typing on both that and her phone. Nino was sitting by her, trying to comfort her.
“Alya, what’s wrong?”
“Lila’s lied about everything.” Nino answered. “Some people started sending hate to the Ladyblog for the interviews Lila did.”
“I should have fact checked. Now I’m trying to do damage control.”
Adrien did feel sorry for Alya. When he was planning to take down Lila, he didn’t think that anyone else would be negatively affected. Of course, he didn’t have regrets on Lila getting dragged socially but he should have thought about how that would have affected his classmates. So Adrien decided to try and help out.
“Apologizing and taking down the interviews would be good. And while I don’t know exactly what the comments are saying, I’m guessing they’re saying to fact check right? Next post you do, make sure to include sources. That would probably help fend off those comments, but from my experience some people still like to troll.”
Alya did smile a little at that. Hopefully she’ll be able to learn from this and prevent something worse in the future. Just as the bell rang, Marinette ran into the classroom. 
“Sorry I’m late, Miss Bustier. I had to help my parents fill out-”
The excuse immediately got interrupted by the rest of the class springing up and practically tackling the girl in apologies. Marinette seemed confused before realization slowly crossed her face as she picked out her classmates' words as they overlapped one another. Bluebell eyes locked on to green ones, but Adrien didn’t try to approach her. He wanted to speak to her, but the things he wanted to say couldn’t get back to his father. 
So it was only four classes later, when Adrien broke off from Nino to exchange books and Marinette managed to sneak away from Alya that he got to talk to her.
“I told you. Her lies would come out eventually.”
Marinette gave him a look that he wasn’t used to. Usually there would be a blush covering her face, her eyes wouldn’t be able to look at him for longer than a moment, and she would be jumpy. While there was a light blush on her cheeks, her posture was perfect and her expression was a bit playful.
“And this all happened on its own? No one did anything to speed this up?”
“No, I don’t think so. I mean, I guess Chloe did the work. After all, she did post that picture which caused things to roll down hill for the better.”
“Adrien, I know that you did more than you let on.” Her expression shifted a little more into what he was used to seeing. “I just wanted to say thank you. You trusted me the whole time, and you kept your promise. Let me know if there’s any way to thank you.”
Seeing as she already knew the truth, he decided to jump on her offer.
“Actually there is one thing. Do you think you could… keep me out of this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Please don’t tell anyone that I was involved in this, both about knowing about Lila’s lies beforehand and me helping to get her exposed. I don’t want to even imagine how mad my father would be if he found out about the latter.”
Marinette opened her mouth, concern clear in her eyes, but she held herself back. It was for the best, honestly. His homelife was no one’s concern.
“Of course. And if you ever need anything, let me know.”
He nodded, although he suspected that he wouldn’t take her up on the offer. Marinette was busy enough already, and her keeping this all a secret was the best thing she could do for him. She looked back one last time before dipping out of the locker room. Plagg emerged moments later. 
“Well, looks like you did it kid. The liar’s gone and your princess will be fine.”
“Not yet.”
The kwmai’s smug smile was wiped off, surprised at the statement. 
“What do you mean?”
Adrien exchanged his books before walking back to the classroom.
“Just because Lila got exposed doesn’t mean that she won’t hurt Marinette again. I need to make sure that she isn’t in Paris.” A notification on his phone had him pausing in place. Once he looked down at it, he smiled. “And I have a feeling I know exactly how to do that. Plagg, claws out.”
One fast Lila-akuma take down, and a sneaky little live stream from his staff, caused Lila to be outed in a much worse way. He watched as she got dragged off in handcuffs, screaming nonsense about diplomatic immunity. Ladybug stood by him, and although she looked put together on the outside he could tell she was shaken up.
It did make sense though. He didn’t expect Lila to just admit that she’s been working with Hawkmoth willingly to them. 
“Don’t worry, Ladybug, the police can handle this.”
“I knew that she hated us… but working with Hawkmoth?”
“She admitted it herself. Besides, she’ll get escorted out of Paris and can’t work with him anymore.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. What if Hawkmoth has other allies that we don’t even know about?”
Is that seriously what she was worrying over?
“He does. We know about Mayura, and there might be another person or two that’s helping him in the background. However it doesn’t really matter to us yet. We don’t tell people about magic or the miraculous since it could get back to Hawkmoth anyways, so we don’t have to change anything.”
“But what if people try to say that others are working for Hawkmoth?”
“There would have already been rumors about that. I think the real thing we should be worried about is if Lila’s mom really is an Italian diplomat. If so, then there’s gonna be political trouble.”
Not that it was really an issue, since Adrien did do his research. No one in Lila’s family was a part of the government. Her mother was just someone who worked in a company that opened up a branch in Paris, which was why they traveled. He would have approached things much differently otherwise.
“I didn’t think about that.” Ladybug muttered, flipping open her yoyo and typing something on it. After a minute she flipped it shut. “I don’t see anything on the official Italian embassy site but…”
“Then it should be fine. Lila probably made up what her mom’s job was to make her stories seem legit and get away with more things. The police will clear up any rumors about that later. For now we should get going.”
They had taken turns to recharged earlier, so that Lila wouldn’t be let out of their sight, but they did have to get back to their civilian lives. Not like it mattered much for him. School was over the moment the alert went out, and his father and Nathalie will be too busy with the mess Lila caused to worry about him. 
“Yeah. I’ll see you at patrol tomorrow unless another akuma pops up.”
“Sounds good.”
Chat made his way over the rooftops before dropping down and hiding in the alleyway near the school. He detransformed and had a piece of camembert ready.
“Now Marinette’s safe.”
“Is that really the first thing you’re gonna say? There’s nothing else that you think you should be concerned about?”
“You mean with Lila being a willing accomplice of Hawkmoth? Yeah, I mean it’s messed up but it didn’t surprise me. I guess I feel a bit bad for her mom.”
“I’m talking about yourself, kid. Your father decided to take Lila on as a model. You don’t think Lila being outed as an accomplice of a supervillain will come back to bite you in the butt?”
Why was everyone worrying about the wrong things? Adrien’s seen the posts and comments. He’s seen as not just a hot model, but also a victim. Yes, he knew what Lila was doing to him was sexual harrashment and yes, some of his fans knew that as well. If any backlash falls onto the brand because of Lila, then it would fall directly onto his dad. 
“I’ll be fine. I can handle anything that happens.”
He’s been doing it all his life, going through the motions and trying to make due while not letting others know what he’s actually thinking. It’s what gets him through the days spent in the mansion, it will get him through the final couple years that he’s trapped there until he turns eighteen. 
But Plagg didn’t know all that. Adrien hadn’t found a time or a need to tell his kwami that, so Plagg didn’t know how capable he could truly be. 
“You should try accepting help sometimes. I’m sure pigtails wasn’t just talking nonsense when she offered to help you earlier.”
But for as much as Plagg didn’t know about him, he did know a lot of other things. Things that Adrien didn’t like to focus on.
“If anything goes bad, then I’ll reach out to her.”
It was enough to appease the kwami, and Adrien walked out of the alley way and back through the school via the side entrance so that his bodyguard wouldn’t realize that he’d been anywhere else. Once he looped around and got inside the car, he checked his phone. 
So far the rumors about Lila being a daughter of a diplomat got squashed, and his father had released a public statement about not knowing all of Lila’s dealings and taking extra precaution for all his employees. There’d probably be more issues to deal with in the future, but for now all was well. All Lila needed was a little helping hand to push her off the cliff that she climbed up herself. 
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iwasbored777 · 1 year
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Is there anything funnier than canon Chloé's reaction to Lila bullying Marinette compared to fanon Chloé's reaction?
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mcheang · 7 months
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The stone among diamonds
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Yeah, Lila has an overinflated ego if she thinks she’s going to be invited to an upper class party because she’s a model. Only those born in prominent families are invited and Mrs Rossi clearly wasn’t. She overestimated herself and got too pushy.
When Kagami told Lila about the diamond dance and the latter expressed surprise at not being invited, Kagami’s answer was blunt.
“Of course not. You may be a model for Gabriel, Lila, but this dance is for those with connections, not for every model. Adrien is coming because he’s Gabriel’s heir. My family is ancient Japanese nobility. Chloe’s father is the mayor. If you do want to come, you should ask your mother. She’s the ambassador right? She should be invited. I know a few political diplomats who were.”
Lila feigned a smile, knowing full well her mother’s job was nowhere near prestigious enough for an invitation. “She did receive it but she rejected it. She’s never been one for parties. And it was just one invite.”
Kagami: oh, then I’m not sure what you can do. You can ask Gabriel if you may attend in your mother’s place.
Lila: I’ll be sure to do that. Besides, as the face of the Gabriel brand, I’m sure I’ll merit my own invitation
Kagami: don’t hold your breath on that count. You also have to have a rich background.
Lila: are you saying I look poor?
Kagami: no, but my mother trained me to watch for those who have money
Lila is annoyed. She calls Gabriel to get her invitation but he ignores her. Ugh! One way or another she is getting to that party.
But wait, wasn’t Zoe going to the movies with Marinette? As the daughter of style queen, she is sure to have an invitation.
Sure enough, Zoe doesn’t mind giving her invitation to Lila, who says she lost her own and Gabriel is too busy to bother.
At the party, Lila is all for schmoozing with the guests. She would have preferred the adults but the party was clearly divided between adults and kids.
To Lila’s dismay, her own introduction as the face of Gabriel and the daughter of an ambassador wasn’t impressive enough for these people. It wasn’t until she spun her usual lies of knowing Jagged Stone and Prince Ali that she actually got anywhere. (And even then the snobs were not impressed with her charity work, just her connections)
Another guest overheard and walked over. “Excuse me, is it true you worked with Prince Ali? I’m a fan of his work. Might I know your name, please?”
Lila smirked. “Lila Rossi. I worked with Ali on multiple projects and parties.”
The stranger unmasked himself. “I am Prince Ali of Achu, and I have never met you before in my life.” He paged his chaperone.
Soraya walked over. “What is going on here?”
Ali gestured to Lila. “I believe we do have a party crasher.”
Another guest called for security in a loud voice, drawing attention from the rest of the room.
The security drones analysed Lila’s mask and announced it belonged to Zoe Lee.
Chloe pushed her way over and gaped. “Lilo, what are you doing here?” (This is not a typo. Chloe actually called Lila Lilo during Confrontation)
Lila gritted her teeth. “Your sister lent me her invitation when I lost mine. As for this lying accusation, I wasn’t referring to Prince Ali, but another one from Egypt.”
Except the guests she had been trying to impress called her out on her lies.
Guest: isn’t she the alliance Lila?
Lila exhaled in relief. Perhaps her fame could still save her.
Soraya scowled at Gabriel. “You have made a disappointing choice, Gabriel.”
Guest: what a wannabe. I am so changing my alliance avatar.
Seeing the crowd murmuring in front and the adults whispering behind, Gabriel addressed the situation at hand. “I am aware of Lila’s behavior, that was why I had planned to announce at my diamond dance that Kagami would be taking her place.” Tomoe subtly activated the screens showing the new changes, simultaneously having all alliance rings updated.
Lila’s jaw dropped. Her fame gone, just like that. She was tempted to expose Gabriel for hiring her to spy on his son but she doubt it would change much in the face of all these snobs.
Soraya glared at Lila. “Whatever other claims you have made about Prince Ali, we will find out. Prepare yourself for a lawsuit.”
Surrounded by hostile faces, Lila looked for friendly faces.
Chloe wasn’t going to stand up for her.
Kagami was shocked at Lila’s appearance and the revelation that she was a liar.
Felix already knew Lila was a spy and was fine with her current predicament.
Gabriel just fired her. “Escort the Miss wearing Zoe Lee’s mask out of my party.”
Lila was practically boxed in by 4 drones. Chloe snapped a photo because it was kind of funny
Meanwhile as Kagami protested having their avatars be in a romantic relationship, Felix revealed himself.
Cue Canon ending
Now, Rose received word from Ali asking what she knew about Lila. She was shocked that her friend was a liar and that Marinette was telling the truth. Did this mean that Marinette was indeed framed?
Rose calls Marinette to apologize and suggest that they tell Miss Bustier. However Marinette tells Rose that both teacher and principal know the truth. However Lila used the same reason Rose kept her illness a secret to keep them from telling the class.
Rose: this can’t be how it ends. Ali will expose Lila in public, it will be on the news, she can’t hide it then.
Indeed, Lila knew she couldn’t. So it was time to become Cerise once again and abandon Lila.
But Monarch has not seen the last of her. Neither has Prince Ali.
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mochinek0 · 10 months
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Reunion
No one from Françoise Dupont High School expected Marinette Dupain-Cheng to walk into the ten year reunion. As far as they knew, she hadn't been invited. Marinette strode in, with her head held high, and walked right up to Lila Rossi.
"I want to thank you for being such a bitch to me, Lila." Mari smiled, "You changed my life for the better."
"E-Excuse me?" Lila questioned.
'There' no way that forcing her out of school and isolating her gave her an amazing life!'
"That whole shit about telling people what they wanted to hear." Marinette began to explain, "I got really tired of defending myself and being told that I had to 'love you' to make you a better person by the staff. I got tired of being stacked with doing shit for free: all that babysitting I never said I would do, the banners, uniforms, clothes, fundraisers! It was exhausting for a fifteen year old."
Mari smiled, "Once you turned everyone against me, I realized how much free time I had! I signed up for homeschooling and worked extremely hard to graduate early. I even skipped a couple grades. It turned out that my husband's family were huge fans of my designs, so they offered to pay for my schooling if I moved."
"Husband?" Lila asked, concerned, "I didn't realize you had gotten married."
"Yeah." Marinette stated, "We met when I was seventeen and got married when I was nineteen; we have two kids."
Lila looked up and down at her arch-rival. Aside from a growth spurt and a larger chest, Marinette didn't look like she had changed at all. She looked like she was in her early twenties!
"So, thank you for bullying me." Marinette continued with a smile, "It was the best thing that could have happened to me."
Lila stayed silent. She didn't know what to say to that. None of her other victims had ever thanked her. She could feel eyes on them. She knew people were listneing in on their conversation. If she started to make a scene, it wouldn't end well.
"We'll, I'm married too!" Announced Lila.
"Oh, congrats." Marinette smiled, "Where is the lucky person?"
Lila spotted a tall, dark, and handsome man walk into the venue.
"There he is." Lila smiled.
Lila watched as her prey came towards them.
'Just a few more feet and I'll be able grab him. I'm sure he wouldn't mind playing along for a few minutes.'
Lila reached out a hand to grab him, when he put his arm around Marinette's waist and kissed her.
"Hello, Habibiti." he spoke.
"Everything okay without us at the company?" Mari asked.
He sighed, "Yes. It was just Grayson being himself."
Marinette giggled, "I'm sorry, Lila. This is my husband, Damian Wayne. Where were you saying your spouse is?"
Lila plastered a smile on her face, "They just stepped out. They had their cellphone out. It must be an important client. We're both models."
'There's no way she is married to this guy! The sooner she leaves, the sooner I can tell everyone I recognize him as an actor.'
Lila couldn't believe her luck. Adrien had just walked though the doors.
'Marinette was obsessed with him for years! Her fake marriage will be exposed and I can get the guy to stay with me. It doesn’t matter how much she paid him. I'm sure I could pay him more.'
"Marinette!" Adrien shouted.
He was quick to run over and hug her, pulling her away from her husband.
"Agreste, put my wife down." Damian growled.
Adrien turned his attention to Damian and froze.
"Hey, Wayne." He smiled, before looking around, "Where are the kids? Where's my neice and nephew?"
'Kids? They're really married and have kids?'
"They're with my parents, Adrien." Mari answered, "I'm sure they're being fed sugar and will pass out soon."
"So, is that an invite?" the model asked.
"To my parent's place for sweets?" Mrs. Wayne questioned, "You live here! They call me like once a week saying you were at the bakery!"
Adrien chuckled, "No. What about my time with the kids?"
Marinette looked to Damian, who shrugged. She turned to Adrien and shot him a look.
"Tell you what, you can see them in two days." she replied, "A whole day with Uncle Adrien."
'Uncle Adrien?'
"Really?" Adrien cried out, happily.
"But, you got to plan it." she answered.
"Disneyland Paris?" the Agreste heir suggested.
"Fine." Marinette growled, "But if you lose one of my kids, again, I will hurt you."
Adrien glanced towards Damian.
"Adrien, if you think my husband is scarier, just because you have seen his sword collection, you're wrong." Marinette Wayne declared, "You lose one of my children, I will hurt you worse than my husband could ever imagine."
"Got it." Adrien smiled, "Plan awesome VIP experience for the kids!"
"Great!" Mari smiled back.
"Man, you moving really toughened you up." the model winced.
"I punched my brother-in-law the first day there because I thought he grabbed my ass." Mrs. Wayne spoke.
"That is still one of my best days ever. No one has underestimated you since." Damian stated, before kissing her head.
"So, what are you doing here?" Adrien questioned, "Didn't you graduate like two years before us?"
"Oh, I just wanted to thank Lila for bullying me and getting me homeschooled." Marinette smiled, "It sucked that she bullied me, at the time, but if she hadn't done that, I wouldn't be with Damian and we wouldn't have our kids."
Adrien quickly turned to Lila, "Thank you for being a bitch to my best friend. I love my niece and nephew. Marinette, do you think we should get her like a fruit basket or something?"
Mari laughed, "We have dinner plans so we're gonna head out. Enjoy the reunion, Adrien."
Adrien took a step back and eyed Marinette's dress. It was a short black bodycon dress with puffy transparent sleeves. He eyed the black heels, warily.
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"Dressed like that?" he questioned.
"Eyes on my wife's face, Agreste." Damian growled.
Adrien rolled his eyes, "She's all yours. I don't think I've ever seen you dressed like this, is all. You think you'll be able to take care of the kids dressed like that?"
Marinette answered, "They are staying with my parents tonight." before walking away.
Adrien watched as Damian placed his hand at Marinette's waist, likely making sure she didn't fall in those heels.
Adrien smiled, evilly, "Hey, Marinette!"
The designer turned to look back at her friend.
"I want another neice or nephew!" he shouted.
Marinette's face morphed from shock to embarassment, before she quickly glared at her best friend. She squeaked as she was quickly lifted into her husband's arms.
"Damian, you put me down!" she snapped at him.
"No." her husband responded.
"Why not?" she growled.
"Adrien won't get his wish if you're in jail for harming him." Damian smirked.
Marinette buried her face in her husband's chest and remained silent.
Adrien laughed as Marinette was carried out of the reunion. Nino walked up to him, confused.
"You….You kept in touch with Mari?" he questioned.
"Of course!" Adrien smiled, brightly, "I helped her with her math sometimes and she talks with Father about designing. She's my best friend."
"Designs?" Rose asked.
"Marinette is a fashion designer in the states." he answered, "Her husband's family runs an international company. She occasionally designs for their clothing line, but they do other stuff, too. Marinette has an office in their building, but she mostly does custom work. I think last year someone asked for a wedding dress. It was around $25,000."
"Seriously?" Alya asked, full of surprise.
"Oh yeah!" Adrien smiled, "She's an amazing deisgner. A lot of her dresses and suits have been coming out on runways and red carpet events."
"You're forgetting that she bullied Lila!" cried Sabrina, "She was mean to her! How can you be friends with her?"
"Actually, it was the other way around." Adrien stated, "Lila once claimed that Mari pushed her, after school, so hard that she injured her knee and was forced to walk home with a limp. I tried to tell you that Marinette couldn't have done it; Marinette had been with me the day before. You told me I was just confused. You never let me speak. You just decided Lila was right."
The class just stared at him.
'Had they really done that? Had they ignored Adrien when he tried to defend Marinette?'
"You never listened to me or Marinette when we told you about Lila being a lying bitch." he shrugged.
"But you're married!" Kim shouted, "How can you choose Marinette over a model?"
"I didn't. I'm bi and dating a male model from my father's company." Adrien announced, "Lila was fired when she was sixteen. Wasn't Lila held back a grade? Why is she even here? You didn't graduate with us or even from this school."
"It was a computer error!" Max spoke up, "Lila said that-
Adrien rolled his eyes, "Her mother called Natalie and declared she was owed a meeting with my father. She said we ruined Lila's future by forcing her to model. She threatened to sue the Gabriel brand until we showed her the 'signatures' on the forms. Turns out, Lila forged those so her mother's hands were tied. Her mother started shouting how she should send her to boot camp, back in Italy, as the left the house."
One by one they turned to look at Lila.
"i-I wanted to see everyone." she whispered, weakly, "I missed my friends."
"Thank for stopping by." Adrien stated, "You can leave now."
"Adrikins!" Chloe shouted.
"Chloe!" Adrien called back, "I missed you. We loved that spa treatment. You're the best!"
Chloe smiled and pulled Adrien away from the rest of the group to socialize with the other students.
"You still talk to that trash?" they heard Chloe ask.
"Rossi?" Adrien questioned, "Nah. You missed Marinette by a couple minutes. She came here and thanked Lila for being a raging bitch. The rest of them were still trying to kiss ass."
"The queen, herself, and I missed it." the Bourgeois heiress teased.
"Date night." Adrien quipped, "She brought Damian and the demon brigade."
"I missed the little ones?" she screeched.
Adrien laughed, "They're with her parents. Better book your time with them before they leave again. Oh, and Mari is already threatening bodily harm if anything happens to them."
"You lost one last time!" Chloe cried.
"I said I was sorry!" Adrien rebutted.
Chloe scoffed, "You're lucky you didn't die that day."
"I know." Adrien sighed, "Would it be weird if I put them on one of those kid leashes? I feel like they would fuck with me and purposely try to get lost to see me sweat, again. Honestly, I don't know if it's a mini Damian or mini Marinette. Don't get me wrong, Damian is frightening and he could probably work in the CIA torture room, but seeing Marinette pissed off, scares the living crap out of me. She's creative and could probably make something specifically to hurt me."
Chloe looked up from her phone, "I bought you the leashes. They'll be here tomorrow. You're welcome."
"Chloe." Adrien replied, "You didn't answer me."
"I was frenemies with her for years, Adrikins." Chloe answered, "Mari will find some way to hurt you and she wouldn't need her godly husband to do it. You have every right to fear for your life for pissing her off. Look at what happened to the idiot brigade: they believed a liar and bullied her. None of their dreams came true. The Waynes own half the companies those idiots wanted to work for. I wouldn't put it past Damian to rat those losers out to his family and have them blacklisted. You have seen how overprotective he is of their kids; he's the same way with her."
"True." Adrine sighed, "He still yells at me when I hug her."
"Idiot." Chloe declared, rolling her eyes.
The class looked at each other before pulling out their phones. They looked up Marinette and the Wayne family. The class shifted nervously as they realized what Chloe had said was true. The Waynes and Marinette owned their jobs. They were all comfortable with their jobs, but they weren't anything to brag about. They had all wanted bigger and better things at thirteen.
None of them were the doctors, rock stars, DJs, journalists, environmentalists, or the Olympians they thought they would be. They worked desk jobs or became something close to what they wanted. Lila knew she would never model again when Gabriel told her that he was going to blacklist her. The Waynes owned everything from food to biolabs to steel to shipbuilding and aerospace. Lila silently left the reunion as everyone came to terms that their dreams ended long ago.
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Dating ‘Prince Charming’ Part 2/3
[ Lila is finally starting to learn what its really like to be Adrien Agreste's girlfriend and finding out its not everything she hoped it would be. But while the liar struggles Marinette works toward her goals and meets someone new. ]
[ Prefer AO3? Link HERE! | Part 1 HERE! | Part 3 Coming Soon | Masterlist Link HERE! ]
Chloe made her grand return 3 weeks after Lila and Adrien’s big dating announcement. The bossy blonde had been away in New York with her mother and it was only in retrospect that Marinette briefly wondered if the entire timing of her and Adriens break up and Lila and Adriens announcement had been planned. After all Chloe had not taken well to Marinette dating Adrien and the class president was positive she would not take the news that Lila had swooped in right after their big breakup any better.
As it turns out Marinette had been right at least about Chloe not taking the news well. She’d walked into class early (for her) only to be met with chaos as Chloe and Lila stood opposed and yelling filled the classroom. Despite the fact that Marinette KNEW Chloe would hate whoever dated Adrien the sight was still enough to leave her mildly stunned after all Lila and Chloe had been tag team harassing Marinette since the second she and Adrien had started dating so to see the once allies now locked in a vicious match each using their unique brand of awful against each other… Well it was something. 
Luckily Marinette knew she would not have to lift a finger to fix things. Because this? This was Adrien’s problem. And Marinette had no intention of helping or playing mediator. After all Adrien had let Lila and Chloe stomp all over their relationship when they’d still been dating, heck he’d even asked Marinette to simply deal with it so now he could deal with it and Marinette severely doubted that Lila would be even half as accepting or accommodating as she had been. 
 So while the two wannabe queens duked it out Lila with fake tears and Chloe with vicious mockery Marinette simply glided past the drama and up to her seat where she pulled out her sketchbook and started adding the finishing touches to a sketch of a brand new rock and roll suit for Uncle Jagged. Now that she wasn’t chasing after Adrien 24/7 and making him gifts and worrying about him or Lila or Chloe not to mention trying to keep up with her school work and grades all while also being Ladybug well Marinette had time on her hands and she’d been using it to study, track down Hawkmoth with Alya’s help, spend time with friends but most of all she’d been using that time on her career. 
 As she wrote in what materials she would need to get a certain sheen effect on the outfit, Marinette noticed the green eyes looking up at her desperately from the front of the class. Marinette glanced up noting how Adrien seemed to be trying to plead with her to help as he tried to reign in his dramatic new girlfriend and attack dog childhood friend; she only cocked her head to the side, smiled and offered him a little wave before continuing with her work. Yeah no way was she willingly throwing herself into THAT.
 Sure enough before class could start Adrien managed to drag Lila out of the room and into the hallway no doubt to give her the same speech he had given Marinette when THEY were dating Lila bursting back into the classroom a few minutes later looking like she’d just swallowed a whole lemon only confirmed Marinette’s suspicions. 
 What Marinette had not expected was Lila openly complaining about ADRIEN at lunch, hours after the incidents of that morning. Marinette ate her steamed bun as she watched with mild surprise as the Italian wailed and threw a veritable tantrum as she told the girls all about how Adrien had put Chloe first and had asked Lila to simply deal with it. It was so painfully ironic that Marinette struggled not to roll her eyes. Honestly after the breakup Marinette had for a brief time contemplated revenge because truthfully. She was hurt and mad but Tikki had talked her out of it claiming that karma would have its way Marinette hadn’t believed the little god at the time too lost in her grief and her ice cream but now? Well now Marinette was starting to understand what Tikki meant. Because Lila wanted to be Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend no matter what it took, and she was only now starting to see what that really meant.
 Sure enough in the weeks that followed Lila and Chloe kept each other busy allowing Marinette to for the first time in years relax at school. Of course Lila tried to redirect Chloe’s hatred back at Marinette by telling the blonde about how it had been Marinette who initiated the break up. But Marinette had easily overcome Chloe’s rage with honesty after all she had only broken up with Adrien because she knew they were incompatible and that Adrien would be happier with someone else, something Chloe agreed with though the way in which the blonde agreed made Marinette’s eye twitch just a little.
 And then of course there was Adrien who was still trying to get Marinette to step in and help him handle his childhood friend and girlfriend but Marinette had been able to dodge him for weeks until they were having a class meetup at the park. Chloe was not attending due to wanting to avoid the ‘peasants’ as she so called them and Lila claimed she would be late due to an important meeting with some famous person. Honestly Marinette had not even bothered to pay attention. Adrien had noted the lack of ‘problem people’ and had decided to make a bold move calling Marinette out as they all hung out together to ‘talk to her in private’ yeah like THAT was going to happen. 
 Marinette knew Adrien’s modus operandi very well. He’d call you out, ask to talk to you privately and then lay on the guilt trip. No way was she doing that anymore she’d endured enough of them while they were dating to last a lifetime.
 “Actually I would prefer not to talk to you alone, Adrien. You're publicly dating someone and we never know when your fans or the paparazzi might be around. Besides anything you can say to me in private you can say in front of OUR friends.” 
 Adrien looked like a kicked puppy at her words. But as their classmates quickly took her side and insisted he tell Marinette whatever he needed with them around the blonde was backed into a corner.
 “Well the thing is… I was wondering if you could help? With the whole Lila, Chloe situation?”
 Marinette wasn’t even given a chance to respond. The second the words left Adrien’s mouth the entire class bristled, many giving Adrien looks of confusion and shock as if he’d just spoken pure nonsense and honestly in a way he had. Nathaniel however was the one who said it best.
 “Wait I’m sorry are you seriously asking Marinette to mediate between her long time bully and the girl you started dating not even an hour after your break up with her? Are you serious?!” 
 “W-Well I just thought-”
 “Thought what Agreste? That Marinette should put herself in the worlds worst situation completely ignoring her own feelings just to make your life easier?” 
 Oof Kim going straight for the throat.
 “B-But shes the class president!”
 “So?! That doesn’t make her a genie! She can't just clap her hands and fix everything nor should she have to!”
 Marinette had never heard Rose sound so upset in her life, which is when the young fashion designer knew it was her turn to say her piece and get things back under control.
 “Adrien.” She ignored the hopeful look he shot her. “Not only do I not want to get involved but I don’t think it would help. Chloe doesn’t like me and Lila’s ‘disease’-” she said the word with barely concealed sarcasm “acts up when I’m around. So I’m sorry but no I will not help you with this.”
 “But I’m sure if you just-”
 The look the class shot him was enough to end the conversation and Marinette let out a relieved sigh as her heart filled with warmth she really loved her friends.
 A month after the conversation in the park Lila Rossi got her second harsh wake up call to the ‘true joys’ of being Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend and it was a two for one deal. 
 Lila had seemingly been under the assumption that once she was dating Adrien her own popularity would rise to meet his but she was starting to learn that wasn’t the case. Adrien still got plenty more photo-shoots then she did and most were still solo and since they were fast approaching the spring fashion season Adrien was plenty busy with more and more shoots while Lila was left waiting for her turn in the spotlight.
 Perhaps it was the frustration at not immediately sky rocketing her way up in fame or maybe it was the snide comments from Adrien Fangirls talking about the lack of couples shoots but Lila seemingly came up with the brilliant plan to force the spotlight onto herself by demanding, manipulating and forcing Adrien to take her on big flashy fancy dates where the paparazzi always conveniently found them Marinette had no doubt Lila was the one tipping them off but she kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t her problem.
 However while Lila was enjoying her tabloid paparazzi fueled fame the class and more surprisingly Gabriel Agreste himself were beginning to notice the way it was wearing Adrien down. Between his photo-shoots and busy schedule all of Adrien’s precious free time was being filled up by Lila and her many needy antics and it was starting to show in the way Adrien carried himself and how exhausted he seemed.
 Nino was the one who led the charge just as he had when Lila manipulated the class into thinking her ‘clingy’ but where Marinette had gotten some hurtful but well meaning lectures about her Adrien obsession which in retrospect DID help her realize her love was unhealthy. Lila was not given such a kind well meaning speech instead Nino got mad, something he rarely let himself become.
 As it turns out Lila had worn Adrien down to the point where the blonde was too exhausted to function and he’d nearly passed out while standing and talking to Nino and that mixed with the fact that it had previously been Lila who painted the faux picture of Marinette as the clingy evil girlfriend isolating the boy from his friends was enough for Nino to harshly call her out. The liar did do her best to wriggle out of the situation trying to claim she only wanted ‘some’ private time with her oh so busy boyfriend but Nino was not having it and the class was too happy to back him up.
 The more Lila tried to defend and excuse her actions the angrier Nino got and much to the liars annoyance the young musician had proof and plenty of it. Between his text correspondence with Adrien that revealed the model was constantly being forced to cancel relaxing friend days to take Lila out on flashy dates that always ended with paparazzi and fans swarming the location and forcing Adrien into high stress situations, and an extremely detailed schedule planner that Nino had made to keep track of his best buds work life balance (potential evidence to blackmail Gabriel Agreste if he ever threatened to pull Adrien out of school again apparently). The facts didn’t lie and they were showing that Lila was the real ‘clingy’ girlfriend.
 Things eventually got so heated between Nino and Lila arguing that an akuma appeared to try and take advantage of the situation. Luckily for everyone Ladybug had been patrolling and stopped the naughty little butterfly from making things worse. In the end Lila was forced to grit her teeth and apologize to her darling boyfriend. Though perhaps what upset her more was the way the class proceeded to apologize to Marinette after the fact for ever accusing her of being clingy and taking up too much of Adrien’s free time.
 However Lila still thought she had one last ace up her sleeve, and so after the class luncheon ended the liar proceeded to contact Gabriel hoping to get her new boyfriends dad to reign him in and do her bidding. Unluckily for Lila however Gabriel had been paying attention to the situation and that fact that it had ALMOST led to an akuma made him look even closer into things.
 And he was not happy with what he found. The paparazzi pictures and articles that resulted from Lila and Adrien’s flashy dates had started positively enough with headlines and puff pieces about how cute the couple looked together, how it was nice to see the young Agreste in more casual settings with his girlfriend. But as the dates became more and more frequent and Lila’s constant demands and needs grew the articles slowly began to change soon they were discussing the concerning amount of money Adrien must be spending on his girlfriend, how exhausted and stressed the young Agreste heir looked under his strained smiles and was he eating and sleeping enough?
 The akuma he’d sent had only further confirmed Gabriel’s negative feelings toward Lila though it did make him re-evaluate the young Lahiffe boy. Gabriel had originally thought the wannabe musician might just be interested in Adrien for money but seeing the lengths he went to defend his friend had the designer impressed and even a little grateful. So when Lila phoned to try and throw the boy under the bus and get Gabriel to side with her, well she had another thing coming.
 Marinette heard later from Alya and the rest of the girls that Lila was ‘devastated’ how she’d wailed sobbed and thrown the tantrum of the century as she ranted and raved about Gabriel putting a 1 date a month maximum limit on Adrien and Lila. The two lovebirds could still hang out of course but it would be in the company of the rest of the class or other friends, or if they really wanted some privacy it would be strictly at the Agreste mansion for studying. Lila had told the girls that it was unfair and unjust that Gabriel was trying to get in the way of their love! Alya had relayed to Marinette that while the girls agreed that 1 date a month was a bit rough they all thought Lila’s tantrum was a bit childish especially when they all remembered how Marinette had rarely if ever got to enjoy 1 private date a month with Adrien and never in public.
 Of course just because Lila had been told ‘no’ didn’t mean the liar was going to listen. And so she began trying to find ways to manipulate Adrien into ‘accidental’ dates, bugging the blonde to take her out instead of settling for lunch at school or trying to conveniently separate the two of them from the rest of the group during weekend and after school hang outs. But each time Lila tried Nino thwarted her eventually the Italian had gotten so angry at his meddling that she phoned Gabriel again this time to try and get the musician removed or banned or ANYTHING so that he’d back off, so when she instead learned that Nino had been asked by Gabriel to keep an eye out on for his son and that Adrien knew about it well the liar was furious. 
 Marinette learned later this time from Rose and Juleka that the Italian had tried to go on another tantrum tirade only to be stopped by Alya who would not tolerate anyone badmouthing her lovely boyfriend. Needless to say, Marinette was quick to notice the following Monday how Lila pouted and avoided the Ladyblogger like the plague. Luckily Marinette made sure Alya didn’t dwell on it too much by inviting the girl over to help her brainstorm some new ideas.
 Because while Lila was focusing on leeching the fame and fortune off her boyfriend and being met with endless failures and a very hostile guard dog called Chloe. Marinette had been THRIVING. The suit she’d designed for Jagged had gone viral online and soon Jagged was passing on her contact information to a small selection of celebrities Marinette felt comfortable designing for. The fact that her identity was a secret and she had a very exclusive client list had only caused MDC to soar even higher in popularity with the public making it clear that they too wanted access to MDC fashion. And so Marinette had done her research and with the help of Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny she’d set up an online store where she would sell ready made clothes. 
 Of course just because Marinette was seeing success didn’t mean she had forgotten about her friends. In fact the entire class minus Lila, Adrien and Chloe knew very well the true identity of the elusive MDC and that was because while Marinette was taking big steps toward her dreams she was helping her friends do just the same. 
 After all it didn’t take long for the internet to learn that the mysterious MDC designed Kitty Sections outfits causing the band to have a surge of free publicity that led to many people discovering their music and falling in love with the band. 
 Then there was Nathanial, Marc and Alya who Marinette or should she say MDC collaborated with while designing her ‘hero hoodie’ fashion collection all of them saw a boost in views with Marc and Nathanial’s comic picking up new readers though it was there brand new all original idea that had really flown off the shelves earning them an online cult following. Alya meanwhile got her blog spotted by Lois Lane herself who was impressed with the young future journalist and contacted Alya for a summer internship the scream Alya had made almost gave Marinette a heart attack.
 And it didn’t end there. When Nino made a short film with Mylene and Kim of all people as his lead actors and uploaded it for free to YouTube MDC who was well known for supporting smaller creatives and signal boosting them on her social media was more than happy to make a tweet linking to the short film. Nino’s short film had been impactful and powerful despite being a comedy satire on Hawkmoth and it had quickly blown up earning Nino a summer internship at a film studio and Mylene and Kim several job offers. Kim had never been particularly interested in acting but after seeing the outpouring of love and support not to mention with the encouragement he got from his lovely girlfriend Ondine he decided to accept a few offers surprising everyone as he developed a new passion that he and Mylene bonded over.
 Max, and Alix were also boosted in a similar way to Nino, Kim and Mylene when MDC retweeted some of their creative endeavors. Alix a video where she had used spray paint to recreate a few classical paintings though that had only acted as a signal boost that allowed the skater to be noticed for her real passion Extreme Sports! When a very exclusive extreme sports training summer camp contacted Alix about her attending she’d squealed almost as loud as Alya had. Max meanwhile had his demo for his work in progress video games retweeted by MDC and saw a huge surge in interest and a few interested investors and publishers even arrived with offers, though before he could agree to anything his popularity ballooned even further when a video of him showing off Markov surfaced. He had later joked to Marinette that while he appreciated the support he wasn’t sure how he felt about suddenly gaining a ‘nerd cult’ as Kim called it. 
 Of course all of Marinette’s friends knew she was largely responsible for their sudden surge of fame and good fortune and many of them tried to dismiss their own talents and give all the credit to Marinette. But the young designer simply threw it back at them. Yes she had signal boosted them and given them a helping hand but at the end of the day the only reason they had gotten so popular and stayed so popular after the brief burst from her influence passed and the internet moved on to the next big thing was because they were talented and amazing without Marinette.
 The only problem with the classes' new found fame. Was that sooner or later Lila was bound to take notice. And take notice she did when Mylene appeared as an extra in one of Lila’s favorite daytime soaps. The liar had been so focused on Adrien and trying to leech her fame off him while beating Chloe back with a stick that she had somehow missed all the major developments. And she was livid. 
 She was supposed to be the most popular girl in school! She was meant to be the star, the one people admired and aspired to be like! The one they envied but loved too much to truly hate! And when she’d finally gotten Marinette and Adrien to break up she thought for sure that all her dreams would come true. But somehow while she’d been busy trying to reign in the pesky little blonde her classmates had all gone and gotten famous without her. Most of them wouldn’t even BE in Paris in the fast approaching summer since many of them either had internships, specialized camps, acting gigs, or in Kitty Sections case a whole music tour with Jagged Stone that for some reason Marinette was also a part of?!? 
 None of it made any sense and when Lila had gone looking for how exactly everything had happened she kept finding herself looking at MDC’s social media. The elusive and private designer was apparently a super sucker or something as every week they would highlight some small time random creator. Honestly it disgusted Lila who just handed out fame like that? Fame and popularity was meant to be exclusive! Earned! Something for only the most beautiful and talented of society. Not for chubby little idiots like Mylene or nerdy freaks like Max. 
 Of course Lila was nothing if not an opportunist. Sure in her opinion none of her talentless, average, classmates actually deserved their new found fame and popularity but the good thing was they were also a bunch of gullible idiots. And if she played her cards right they would surely carry her to the top. She already had the perfect lie, she would simply claim to be best friends with MDC and tell the class that she had been the one to recommend that the designer boost her classmates. 
 It was perfect. Genius really.
 So then why did it fail immediately?
 Lila stood in front of the class, her face frozen in shock as she was stared down by 10 pairs of angry glares. She had expected overwhelming thank you’s and the class bowing at her feet but the second the lie slipped out of her mouth the class instead turned on the liar like a close knit pack of wolves smelling a sheep. Honestly Lila could not understand where she’d gone wrong, and even if she had said something that was an obvious lie wouldn’t the class just normally brush it off as her disease? So why is it that they were acting this way?
 It was Alya who broke the silence first.
 “You want to run that by us again? Lila.” 
 The Italian girl swallowed the lump in her throat and ignored the obvious warning sign that was Alya’s sharp tone. Forcing a charming smile Lila brought out her sweetest voice determined that she could salvage whatever THIS was.
 “I was just saying that I’m so happy for all of you! I didn’t want to say anything at the time BUT me and MDC are such good friends! So when he-”
 “He?” Alix snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah that about confirms it.”
 The entire class seemed to agree with Alix as they all shook their heads and shot Lila disappointed and annoyed looks before returning to their own conversations and or hobbies freezing her out. Ignoring her.
 Oh that? That pissed Lila off like nothing else. Her cheeks grew hot as she stomped her foot angrily, regaining their attention. 
 “You guys think I’m telling lies again! You all promised that you wouldn’t judge me for my disease but you are!” For added effect she started to sniffle and sob expecting the class to do what they always did and feel guilty about their treatment of her and rush to comfort her.
 Instead she was met with even harsher glares.
 “Uhh yeah no duh we think you're lying because you ARE. We” Alix gestured to the people currently in class. “Have all met MDC and SHE not ‘he’ is a wonderful person who helped boost our careers because she thinks we're all super cool and talented not because you asked her too.” 
 Lila felt her face screw up like she’d just sucked a lemon but she quickly worked it to her advantage as she began to loudly sob.
 “T-That’s not fair! You know I can't help my disease!” 
 “Uhh yeah no. I’m stopping you there.” Alya stood up looking down from her perch at Lila with her hands on her hips commanding the room, Lois had been training her well. “We can accept that MAYBE your lying disease makes you claim things when your nervous or scared like how you always accuse Marinette of stuff, and we can MAYBE believe that your disease makes you mix up names and words so you end up giving the wrong information out about charities and celebrities and yes MAYBE we can believe that you sometimes make false claims about yourself when your stressed out like that time with Clara Nightingale stealing your dance moves. Whatever! But Lila that right there? You were not having an ‘oops I lied’ moment you were actively trying to deceive us to make the false claim that YOU are the reason MDC noticed us when we know the truth. And when I gave you a chance to correct yourself you tried to double down. That was intentional. That was malicious.”
 Lila felt her mouth fall open, her eyes blinking in shock. Too late she tried to recover. Tried to explain away the situation and make herself out to be innocent. But the class was done with her and they made it clear in how they iced her out. Eventually she had no choice but to suck it up and sit down at her seat. Not long later Marinette rushed into class followed by Chloe who was latched onto Adrien with Sabrina in tow.
 Soon enough the school year came to an end and Lila watched bitterly through the all seeing eyes of the internet as her classmates left for their internships, job opportunities, highly specialized summer camps, and more. Meanwhile she was stuck at home. Oh sure she got to go on a few out of country photo-shoots with Adrien but her fame was still nothing compared to her boyfriends, and it was quickly becoming less than nothing as her classmates rose in influence and popularity. Come the new school year Lila would need to find some way to force the class back under her heel.
 Marinette was having the best summer of her life! Jagged had taken Kitty Section on tour with him and insisted on Marinette coming with them as their designer. Marinette hadn’t been sure at first worried about the Hawkmoth situation and her own career. But in the end Tikki and her parents had convinced her. Her parents loved the idea of Marinette leaving Paris and going to see the world with her friends for a bit, and Tikki had reminded Marinette that she had the Horse Miraculous and could come home anytime, besides Hawkmoth had been getting lazier and lazier with both his akumas and the amount of them. So in the end Marinette agreed and it had been the BEST decision of her life.
 They visited England before eventually traveling overseas to America. The sights and sounds and new foods were filling Marinette with inspiration and she’d never been so busy sketching. Then of course there was the great company. Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny were wonderful and quickly ‘adopted’ all of Kitty Section + Marinette. They'd act like doting parents one second and then the next they’d be ordering way too much pizza for the teens to share. 
 Of course everyone missed their friends and family but video call existed and it was only for the summer anyway. Ivan was the one who was probably the worst off pouting over his beloved Mylene but the group was able to cheer him up encouraging him to write a song for his girlfriend, the piece he wrote became a new hit single the second they performed it on stage and Mylene had loved it. 
 The group stopped by Florida first where Jagged took them all to Disney World and then Universal Park, pictures of the rocker wearing mickey mouse ears and a hufflepuff scarf of all things while being followed by a gaggle of teenagers had soon gone viral, after that it was off to New York, and then Metropolis where they spent a bit of time so Alya could see them and hang out. Her internship with Lois Lane was going well but she’d still been relieved to see her friends and get some down time to just chill. After that they went to Gotham, which was Jagged’s home town. Now most parents might veto a place as dangerous as Gotham but seeing as how Paris was under siege by an emotional butterfly themed terrorist and they were from a class particularly used to dealing with deadly akumas on a regular basis well they were able to convince their parents to let it happen. And to Marinette’s surprise Gotham turned out to be her favorite place of the whole trip.
 Sure the city was gloomy but the gothic architecture somehow inspired Marinette, and while the people were not outwardly all smiles and sunshine they were kind in their own way. But the thing Marinette ended up loving most about Gotham was its beautiful parks and famous greenhouses. Thanks to the influence of Poison Ivy and Bruce Wayne the city of Gotham had become the greenest city in all of America and it was a never ending source of inspiration for the young designer. Not to mention it was thanks to all the inspiring greenery that Marinette had met HIM.
 She’d been walking through one of Gotham’s older parks admiring the beautiful blooming wisterias that had been shaped into a long hallway arch when she got bowled over by a massive terrifying but very friendly dog. Marinette had been terrified at first until she noticed the fast wagging tail and happy smile on the dog's face. Tikki had warned her that one side effect of holding the Ladybug miraculous would be extra friendly animals a rather ‘tame’ side effect compared to the super strength, increased speed, and occasional urge to hibernate when cold but still the designer had never expected to be attacked with friendly happy dog kisses, not like THIS anyway. As she squirmed and laughed she tried to gently push the dog off. That was when the dogs owner had come to her rescue. Yanking his dog off of her while admonishing it Marinette was finally able to sit up and begin wiping the dog drool off her cheek with a laugh.
 “Don’t scold the cutie too much I’m okay I swear he didn’t hurt me.”
 “Even if he didn’t hurt you he’s been trained better than that. I’m very sorry, please allow me to help you.”
 The boy’s voice was cool, firmly polite and matter of fact leaving no room for argument. To an untrained ear he might even sound annoyed or angry but Marinette could tell that wasn’t the case. As Marinette accepted the hand the boy offered and let herself be pulled up she suddenly came face to face with the most beautiful pair of green eyes she’d ever seen. 
 Where Adrien’s eyes were bright like a blinding peridot green, these eyes were soft and warm like the green of a pine tree and Marinette could feel herself melt into them. It didn’t help that the rest of the boy's face was also incredibly handsome. The designer quickly shook herself out of her thoughts and glanced away not wanting to stare. Instead she directed her attention to her assailant, the dog was sitting now staring up at her with its tail still wagging wildly. Marinette smiled and reached her hand down letting the dog sniff her before she gave him some soft pets.
 “Such a softy for a big guy. What's his name?” 
 “Titus. And I apologize again. He really is trained better than that. I don’t know what came over him.” 
 Marinette felt a little bad but she couldn’t exactly say that she was the chosen champion of a god and a side effect of that was very friendly animals so instead she shot the boy a smile.
 “Don’t worry I just seem to have that effect on animals. Back home the pigeons and crows have started fighting for dominance of my roof and balcony because they both want my attention.” 
 The boy gave her a stunned look before he made a sound that Marinette believed might be a covered up laugh. She smiled even brighter and offered the boy her hand to shake.
 “By the way my name is Marinette. And it's a pleasure to meet you.”
 The boy looked at her hand for a moment before he eventually grabbed it and shook it awkwardly.
 “Damian… It's nice to meet you too. Though I can tell by that introduction that you're not from here.”
 Marinette snorted at that.
 “Really the introduction was what gave it away but not my accent?” 
 The boy seemed to blush a little at that before he coughed awkwardly. Marinette took pity on him and giggled.
 “You are correct in your deduction mr.detective. I’m visiting from Paris, France with some friends and my uncle.” 
 If Marinette hadn’t been too embarrassed to look him in the eyes she may have noticed the spark of curiosity when she mentioned Paris. And had she known who Damian truly was at the time she would have known that his curiosity came from the fact that Batman and the other supers had recently learned about the situation in Paris thanks to Lois Lane taking on a new intern who ran the Ladyblog. Mayor Bourgeois had been doing a good job hiding the situation but he’d overlooked the civilian journalist. 
 “Hm. We don’t get many tourists. What brought you all the way out here. If I may ask.” 
 Naturally without much thought the pair began to walk through the park together as their conversation flowed. Marinette avoided using Jagged's name not wanting her new very handsome friend to take an interest in her solely for her connections. Instead she told him that Gotham was her uncles hometown and that this was the last stop on what had already been a pretty busy summer vacation. That turned into her telling him a bit about her family in general which got him talking about his family, he complained about his adopted siblings of which there seemed to be many but Marinette could tell he loved them. 
 Talking about family made him admit he’d come to the park to get away from them for a little while which got Marinette talking about the park and all the beautiful nature in Gotham which got the two of them talking about the best parks in Gotham and then Marinette brought up her sketches and suddenly they were talking about art and other hobbies. Before they had even realized it they were sitting at a bench together hidden away in the trees and wisterias chatting away. Marinette didn’t know why but something about Damian made her feel comfortable. Maybe it was the way he gave her his full undivided attention, maybe it was the way he made sure not to invade her space without consent or how he didn’t interrupt her when she spoke. Either way she felt safe, felt warm, almost like she was home. And judging by the way he seemed to relax the longer they spoke, his stiff body unwinding and his gaze softening, she thought maybe he felt just as comfortable with her as she was with him.
 Honestly Marinette could have sat there chatting with Damian all day in fact it had already been several hours when the pair were finally interrupted. Both of their phones began to ring, Marinette’s with the tell-tale alarm of an akuma attack in Paris and Damian’s with an emergency as the Riddler had broken out of Arkham. The teenagers regretfully had to go both citing emergencies before they departed. It wasn’t until later that they realized they had forgotten to exchange phone numbers.
 The akuma back in Paris had turned out to be Lila Rossi, it seems that Adrien’s fangirls had never truly warmed up to the liar and they had been trying to dig up dirt on the girl for months before finally finding there evidence. Alya may have privated the videos of Lila’s lies after finding out about the ‘lying disease’ but apparently someone had copied and saved them beforehand. And those videos had finally made their way out into the public. Luckily no one criticized Alya seeing as how she’d already had the common sense to remove the videos from her blog it helped that Alya also made a post explaining the situation in more detail which led to the general public agreeing that it had not been Alya’s fault when she had a teacher and a principle telling her to believe in a fake ‘lying disease’ clearly it was the adults at fault here not the young girl who had believed in them. 
 Needless to say the public ripped Lila to shreds for being a serial liar with more of her lies coming to light each day now that she had been exposed. And obviously the Italian had not taken it well and gotten akumatized.
 Marinette knew that she should be happy that Lila had been exposed. Her classmates certainly were, but instead Marinette could not help but mope. Damian had been SO kind she really had wanted to get to know him better. The fact she’d completely missed out on getting his number gnawed at her. Little did she know that Damian was across the city thinking the same thing as he sat on a Gargoyle statue. 
 But fate likes to play funny games. A few days later Jagged got a call from Bruce Wayne, a few of his sons namely Tim, Jason and Dick had heard about Jagged being in town and tjat the rocker had brought MDC the famous designer with him. Apparently they were huge fans and had bugged, pleaded, whined, and eventually threatened a hunger strike until Bruce would ask Jagged to pretty please introduce them. So Jagged got the go ahead from Marinette and the gaggle of teenagers plus Jagged and Penny piled into a big van and drove over to the Wayne mansion.
 Seeing it from the outside, Marinette felt only intimidation and dread. It was so huge and they were so rich. What if they were unimpressed when they found out MDC was just some teenage girl? Letting Jagged guide her and her friends push her forward Marinette nervously knocked on the door and let herself be led inside by the kind old man who introduced himself as Alfred.
 Walking through the halls in wonder Marinette slowly felt her fingers twitch with the urge to design. But she suppressed it and focused not wanting to be rude. As the group turned a corner into a large sitting room Marinette’s blue eyes somehow found a pair of familiar green. She gasped, he blinked wide eyed.
 “Marinette?” - “Damian?” 
 They blinked again, shocked. Marinette eventually snorted and laughed. Damian found himself smiling as he approached the small girl. And everyone else? Well they were just confused. Except for Damian’s family they were confused and freaked out. 
 “Is the demon spawn, smiling Dicky bird? Or am I hallucinating?”
 “No I see it too Jason. He looks genuinely happy.”
 “So it's official.” Tim added “we're all hallucinating.”
 After some introductions and explanations things settled down with Marinette happy to take the Wayne’s on as clients. And the Wayne’s in turn being suitably impressed and amazed by the young girls accomplishments though the part they found most amazing was how she interacted with not only them but Damian. She was genuine and kind, no fake smiles or hidden double meanings, nor did she let their money and fame impress or blind her in any way. Jason soon declared her a little sister and Jagged preened and puffed as he gloated about not only Marinette but Kitty Section as well. 
 The rest of the summer spent in Gotham was tons of fun with Jason teaching Juleka and Marinette how to shoot guns and ride motorcycles, Rose and Marinette learning some of Dick’s gymnastics moves, Ivan meanwhile got along well with the quiet Cass and level headed Duke. Eventually Stephanie and Bab’s returned home as well and they also took to the french teens with ease they organized girl nights where they taught the girls how to break and enter something Marinette had a natural affinity for go figure. The most surprising development however was Luka. The slightly older boy had seemingly set his sights on the awkward coffee addicted Tim and had spent the remainder of the summer wooing him. 
 But while Luka was wooing Tim there was one other couple slowly forming. Everyone had seen the spark between Damian and Marinette and soon enough everyone was shipping it. The pair were often ‘conveniently’ left alone or were sent on errands that somehow conveniently became accidental dates. Marinette had been guarding her heart after Adrien had shattered it but Damian made her want to take the risk and fall in love. He was charming, polite, kind, sarcastic, and as she’d learned after telling him about the entire Paris situation akuma’s and all he was protective but without going so far as to undermine Marinette’s strength. He trusted her to be fast and smart and strong enough to defend herself (especially after they did a bit of fight training for fun and she laid him flat on the ground) but he did worry and care about her.
 But still there was something holding back both teens. Something that shattered near the end of the vacation. Marinette had been caught by a villain. Poison Ivy to be exact. The plant villainess had taken note of the new frequent visitor to her greenhouse but what had really gotten her attention was how the plant life reacted to her. And furthermore how the plant life SPOKE about her. Ivy’s curiosity eventually grew too large and so she snatched up the young designer and brought her home. Luckily Marinette wasn’t particularly scared of Ivy or Harley, sure she didn’t like being knocked out but she felt no real fear, in the end Ivy, Harley and Marinette ended up having an unprompted girls day complete with junk food, ranting, bad American tv and more. Ivy eventually figured that Marinette was some kind of Meta one who had a strong influence over plant and animal life and that was enough for her to adopt the small half Asian girl and inject her with her special blend the same one she’d given to Harley to keep her safe in a town full of crazies.
 But while Marinette was perfectly fine hanging out with 2 of the 3 sirens Damian had not taken it so well. He had scoured the city trying to find the sirens newest abode all while he gnawed his lip until it bled. Maybe it was the stress that made him slip up or maybe it was just Marinette being too smart for her own good. But when the young Robin came bursting in through a window yelling Marinette’s name something had immediately clicked and she knew who he was. After she’d calmed the situation down and made sure no one fought anyone else, Marinette thanked Ivy and Harley for the nice day and let Robin carry her away. After talking with Tikki and deciding to be reckless and selfish for once in her life Marinette confronted Damian the next day, revealing her own identity in the process. There was some freaking out and a LOT of talking with Tikki and the rest of the bat clan but in the end it seemed to work out for the best. Ladybug was certainly happy to accept the help anyway even if Chat Noir wasn’t going to be.
 A week later Damian finally asked Marinette out. Two days after that they shared their first kiss on the ferris wheel. And come the end of summer Marinette, Kitty Section and surprise guests Damian and Tim Wayne were all boarding a flight back to Paris.
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vintage-retro-queen · 3 months
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Paris Reacts to Watch Us Work
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Akuma Class
Another weekend, another week without any way to watch a new episode of Total Drama.
They all were at the park, sitting there, bored out of their minds. That was until they heard a crash far away behind them. They turned to see an akuma attack from Copycat happening.
Even though Alya was excited and wanted to get great material for her blog and get Ladybug's trust to have her endorse the blog again. But when she realized and remembered that her phone was still confiscated by her parents, her excitement and happiness both went down the drain.
That was until a lava red portal appeared, and there came out Ladybug, and now seeing her new look, it looked like she combined two miraculous, one which was obviously the Ladybug earrings and the black cat ring. And along with Ladybug, was an unfamiliar girl that is dressed in a very odd outfit. They then hear the unfamiliar girl talk aloud in a deep-strong British accent. "Oy! Are you talking about us?" "And who are you?" "Your worst bloody nightmare."
The girl then throws something at Copycat that wraps around the Copycat's waist and holds him tightly. "GET OVER HERE!" the girl yelled, pulling Copycat over to her. She then aimed her hands at Copycat, which froze him into ice. The class looked shocked, surprised, and amazed at the scene they were watching.
However, the whole class was not as shocked as Adrien was when he saw Ladybug using both hers and his miraculous at the same time. And if that wasn't shocking enough, she has a new, different heroine fighting along with her and not having him have his miraculous back and save the day with her and not with some stranger.
After returning everything to normal and Theo returns to a normal Parisian citizen, Ladybug, and the unfamiliar girl does a fist pound, saying something that the class couldn't hear. They tried to head over to Ladybug, but a lot of people beat them to the punch.
"Ladybug! Who is this with you?" "All you mates, can call me Anarchia." The unknown girl, Anarchia, said, introducing herself. "How did you meet Anarchia?" "She was there for me when I was on patrol." "An armed picket-pocketer was spotted, and I quickly caught 'im 'round the same time she showed up." "She was very useful for a lot of other things aside from akuma attacks." Adrien couldn't believe that Ladybug trusted a heroine who might not be from Paris without even telling him and ever getting his consent first. "Is it true that you stopped endorsing the Ladyblog?" "Sadly, yes. Only because of various reasons. One of them is one person claiming that she is my 'best friend', which is not true because I never have any time hanging out with civilians." Alya's eyes widened after hearing that. After hearing those words come out of Ladybug's mouth, it felt like her whole world started to fall apart. However, Alya was not as shocked as Adrien was when Ladybug exposed Lila's lies. 'I thought she was going to let that go. Why can't people see that it doesn't hurt anyone?" He thought. That was until they heard Anarchia talk, "Some cottonheads never understand what the real world works and never fact checks like they are supposed to." hearing that felt like a stab to the gut to both Adrien and Alya. "Not to mention, some bloody cottonheads always lose their minds over what wanker tells them what they want to hear. That, and they never got to wake up and smell the real scent of tea to face reality." A couple of eyes widened in shock hearing that. However, before they can say anything, Anarchia continued, "However, speaking of facing reality, I do recommend this brilliant site and app I have endorsed back in London. It is called Face Reality. Because I have heard they are having some of their best reporters start here in about the next week." Alya's eyes widened upon hearing that. Face Reality was one of the world-known news blog-media industries for children, teens, and young adults. Not to mention her competition for the title of Best Blog-Media in the news world. "Are you kidding me?!" she gawked in disbelief. They all tried to get to Ladybug to see what she was doing with a different heroine. But as soon as they got to the two, the sun was already setting, and Ladybug's earrings started beeping. "Well, I say it is time for us to leave. Good day." Anarchia said, grabbing some keys, pressing one button that summons a black motorcycle, automatically driving to her, and stopping and staying by her side. As Anarchia gets on, she drives off along with Ladybug, as she uses her yo-yo, saying a quick 'Bug out', and the two leave. "Ladybug, wait!"
Unfortunately, it was too late, and the two were gone.
When Monday came around once again, they all heard the rest of the students chattering about the new episode of Total Drama.
"I'm so happy for Marinette!"
"I know, she's now one of them. That's amazing!"
"Her mom and dad must be very proud of her right now."
"Yeah, and her diary box was such a blessing in disguise."
"Yeah, and thank goodness too. Who knows what would've happened if it didn't trap Heather's hand."
"And Harold's music playing was awesome. Sure beats you know who's."
"And the MetaBetas performing there? They were amazing."
"Yeah, especially their hoodies. They look so cool!"
"More like epic if you ask me."
"You should've seen Duncan's face when he saw Marinette onstage."
"Yeah, the guy looked like one of those guys who has his eyes on the girl of his dreams."
"Not to mention the drooling he was doing."
"Honestly, I think Trent would be a perfect match for her."
"Yeah, he snagged an extra muffin for her."
"And he sang a song all about her. And it was actually for her too! So romantic!"
The class groaned and whined about how it was unfair that they got to watch the new episode and they couldn't. Even Adrien thinks it is unfair. Not to mention that Ladybug has his miraculous and has a new partner siding with her. And if that wasn't bad enough, Ladybug exposed Lila in the worst possible way. He knows that when the time comes, he will have his miraculous back and try to make Ladybug see the light and ditch that wannabe partner, Anarchia.
Celebrities + Friends and Family
It was another special weekend for all of the celebrities, friends, and families in Paris, France.
They're all getting together at the hotel, getting ready to watch the new episode of Total Drama. As they were all getting together, they were not even unaware of a familiar blonde ponytail girl getting ready to watch the new episode herself.
Two weeks ago, she noticed a lot of people coming to the hotel very often. At first, both she and her father thought that the people needed a place to stay, but when Chloe started to hear that Marinette was sent to a camp in Muskoka against her will by their classmates, that was where she drew the line. She even gives Adrien a friendship suspension until he learns to grow up and face the real world after demanding the whole truth from him, which causes him to fess up everything to her and Sabrina. Sabrina couldn't even believe it herself after hearing the whole truth from Adrien. And since Chloe was still mad at Adrien for letting Lila get off scot-free without any consequences, she decided to give Sabrina a break from everything and deal with things her way. Sabrina was surprised since this was the first time she saw this new side of Chloe, but Sabrina knew that it was only because of Lila's tactics she took it. However, Sabrina was still surprised about this new side of Chloe. Chloe told her father everything, and he couldn't believe it himself. As a result, he sent out the board of governors and education to investigate College Francois Dupont and sent the students of the school to another school that has the highest security and staff members that will have students full-on under surveillance until then. The mayor and Chloe herself were surprised to know that they were not the only ones who had called the board since a bunch of other concerned students and families were aware of it all as well. And since Sabrina once told the mayor about most of their classmates talking down about some people and some things both in person and online via social media, he not only sent temporary transfer notices to the families, he also sent another notice to all the families about checking on their kids and their electronic devices to see if they're doing anything bad without any of them knowing. 'I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Dupain-Cheng definitely deserves better than all of this. Besides, nobody messes with Dupain-Cheng's life but me! What those losers did was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous!' she thought to herself with a huff while changing channels to the one that shows Total Drama.
Meanwhile, with everyone else, as they are getting ready to watch the new episode, Luka is talking to Zoe, Mirelle, Aurore, Kagami, Marc, Soqueline, Jessica, Aeon, and Fei about their call with Marinette and her friends in Muskoka. They all talked about how amazing Marinette was doing there and how the campers there were really good friends for her. All except Heather since they now know her true colors. However, they were glad that Lucy was officially the one to put Heather in her place, even if it was with her anger getting the best of her. After their talk, the show finally starts.
"Last time on Total Drama Island, the Killer Bass finally dodged their pathetic losing streak against the Screaming Gophers. There were bruises, tears, risky moves, and dangerous alliances. And in the end, it was Noah, the Know-it-All, who didn't see it coming." "Well, I can understand that he's not a sports person, but he could've shown some spirit or something at least." one of the fame-rising football (soccer) players said, shrugging their shoulders. "Well, everyone has their own opinion and choice of things." another one said. "This week, another challenge will send one more camper on a cruise to Loserville, population...four. Who will sink and who will stay afloat? Find out right now on Total Drama Island."
After watching its usual theme, they watched as they now see Lucy and Marinette on the steps of the Killer Bass cabin, reading, scribbling away on a sketchpad, and listening to music. "There she is! There's my favorite little lady!" Jagged cheered. They then hear someone speak on the radio. "Alright! That was Start Again by Alayah. This next one was from 1995. A love song for the late lucky girl and New Rustale's beloved sweetheart, Luci Grassette. This is Our Perfect Love by Perfection Division in 198.5 EPIC!" "Oh! I love that song!" "I hear it's good." "I haven't heard that in a long time." "Man, I miss hearing Perfection Division." a lot of the celebrities, parents, grandparents, and other adults explained, remembering the song and band. Hearing all of that from the adults got all of the children and teenagers now intrigued about the song and band. They then quiet down as the song starts on the show.
This one's for you, Miss Grassette!
Our love for you is like the most perfect,
Your face reminds us of your gorgeous self,
Together, we are like Vicki and J.D.
Oh darling Luci,
Our beautiful,
Our glamorous,
Our perfect companion to our longing-yearning souls.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
We love our perfect times,
But not as much as we love being with you!
Oh darling Luci,
Your eyes are like our favorite candy that will never fail, You're like the most beautiful princess to ever walk New Rustvale
Your loving pretty face,
Your breathtaking soul,
Your gorgeous eyes,
Your glamorous princess being...
How can we look at another when our perfect love is so strong?
We love you Miss Grassette!
"Man, it feels good to hear Perfection Division, their singing, and Our Perfect Love again." "I know, right? It's been years since I heard their songs." "Years? For me, it feels like centuries." "Luci was so lucky to have a song about her." "She was." "That was pretty catchy." "It was, wasn't it?" "I can see why our families love it." "Yeah." Socqueline smiles as they all complimented about the song and band she and her family listened to back at the family store.
"Alright! That was Perfection Division! Can you feel the love? Because I certainly can."
"Yeah, that was a great song," Marinette commented. "Yeah. That Luci girl must've been so lucky to be featured in a song like that." "Yeah...she was." all of the teenagers and children in the room then turn to notice their families and other adults' faces looking down and sad. Some with sad smiles and some with a single tear or two falling from their face and onto the floor. Before any of them ask what happened to Luci Grassette, they hear the guy on the radio talking still. However, the guy talked in a heartbroken, melancholy, and grieving tone. "You know, it's hard to believe that it's been twenty-something years since we lost all the five members of Perfection Division in a horrific hit and run." The teenagers and the children were shocked to hear that. "That's awful." one of the girls said, putting her hand to her heart in a heartbreaking way. "It was," Nadja said mournfully, holding her daughter Manon tightly. Manon felt sorry for the people losing a great boy band and a girl who was a respected member of the community and loved by all, even people from all over the world, along with her (Luci Grassette) older brother. After a moment of silence for the late girl and the late boy band, they all hear Chris McLean talking on the loudspeakers. "All right, campers, enough beauty sleep. Time to show us what you're made of." "Welp, time to get going, Nettie," Lucy said, getting up and closing her book with a 50s diner-themed bookmark in the pages she was in. Marinette nods and gets up from her spot as well. They all then watch as the scene changes from the girls getting up from the steps of the Killer Bass cabin to a stage. "Are we gonna see a musical? I love musicals. Especially, the ones with singing and dancing." Lindsay said, feeling excited. "Um, that's exactly what musicals are, Lindsay." "Marinette, saved you a seat." Trent said, making Marinette and Lucy walk to him and Gwen. "Oh, thank you, Trent," Marinette said happily. Marinette sat down next to him while Lucy sat down next to Gwen, and the two girls started having a conversation about their favorite horror films. The four of them were not even aware of Cody trying to impress the girls but ended up falling on his seat, yet still trying to look cool.
Chris then got everyone's attention and talked to them: "Welcome to our brand-new, deluxe, state-of-the-art outdoor amphitheater. Okay, this week's challenge is a summer camp favorite: a talent contest." "Yes! Awesome," said Owen. They all then see Lucy's eyes widen in surprise. They all looked confused about why she looked surprised until they then watched her confessional. "Well, that was unexpected. I haven't performed in a while since the last tour incident when the MetaBetas and I were performing in a small town. We were finished with our performance and when my friends and I were ready to head into the bus, some people were talking while we were walking. They were talking about, I don't know what, but frankly, I don't even want to know. At least, and as long as it doesn't involve me in any more dramatic situations than it did back in freshman year. But anyway, it sure has been a while performing. I honestly can't remember the last time I performed, really." "Huh, that is weird." "Yeah, I wonder what those people were talking about." "I guess we'll never know." "Yeah, but I do know that it's true that it sure is a while since Lucy and the other MetaBetas performed." "That's right. I think the last concert the girls did was last summer, I believe." Penny said, trying to remember when the last time the MetaBetas performed. After that, they continued watching the show.
"Each team has eight hours to pick their three most talented campers. These three will represent them in the show tonight. Sing, dance, juggle. Anything goes as long as it's legal." Chris explain, signing a 'Got my eyes on you' to Duncan, causing him to snap his fingers with a frown. "I wonder what Duncan was thinking about doing?" "I don't know. I just hope it's nothing bad." "Hope not." Chris continued, "You will be judged by our resident talent scout, former D.J., V.J., and rap legend, grand...Master Chef who will show his approval via the Chef-o-Meter. The team that loses will send one camper home tonight. Good luck." with that, Chris headed off the stage.
After that, they watched as Heather blew a whistle. "Okay, I'm the team captain, so here's how it's going to work," she said until Gwen cut her off. "Wait, who said you were team captain?" "She did. Just now," said Lindsay. "Lindsay, Beth, and I took a vote, and I won." "Threatening them to vote for you isn't exactly democratic." "I'm with the bambina on that," Lucy said, agreeing with Gwen. "You said it, girls." one of the celebrity girls said, crossing her arms. That was until they saw Trent walk over to Marinette, holding a muffin in his hand. "Hey, snagged you an extra muffin." "Oh, thank you," Marinette said. They all smile at that scene until Beth then walks over to them, talking to Marinette and Lucy. "Hey, Lucy, Marinette. Chris was hoping to talk to you about something. He's saying that there's an urgent call from someone." "Oh, jeez. It better not be about Slick and Brutus trying to get all the action figures in stores to find another legendary collectible again. I swear those two just won't knock it off." Lucy said, unamused, as she and Marinette headed over to the location Beth gave them. After they leave, Heather starts talking to Trent. "Trent, you're cool with me leading this project, aren't you?" "Right on. Go for it." Trent said with sarcasm. "Good. Beth, Lindsay, and I will be the judges."
After watching some of them do their special talents, the celebrities, families, and Marinette's friends suddenly heard a crash coming from outside; they all looked to see that it was another Akuma attack happening from none other than Copycat. Again. As they all watch as the akumatized person attacks the city, demanding Ladybug and Chat Noir's arrival and surrender, they notice a lava-red portal appearing. There, they see Ladybug come out of it. They looked surprised to see her come out of a portal that they had never seen before. Not to mention that she has a different look because, from the looks of it, they see that she is using both her miraculous and the black cat miraculous.
They understand that she's using both of them only because she announced once that Chat Noir is permanently retired due to various personal reasons. Of course, a lot of people respect that since someone shared video proof of Chat Noir being incompetent and not saving others in the past akuma attacks, such as the Syren debacle, the second Gigantitan incident where Gigantitan threw Ladybug's Lucky Charm at a room in the Dupain-Cheng bakery, which turned out to be Marinette's bedroom, and the last one where the akumatized person shot some bullets that stopped people and make them freeze like statues, unlike him, Ladybug saved some from getting shot and getting them into safety while he just did nothing but pout and sulk about Ladybug not accepting his love. Looking back, some felt disgusted about themselves for thinking that the two were a cute couple and they were an item. After all of that, Ladybug got the cat miraculous back from Chat Noir and has used it along with her miraculous ever since.
However, the only thing they don't understand is how the portal appeared and why Ladybug was using it. That was until they saw an unfamiliar girl walking out of the portal after Ladybug.
"Who is that?"
"I have never seen this one before?"
"Is she a new partner of Ladybug's?"
"I don't think she has a miraculous on her."
They then quiet down their chatter when they hear the new girl calling out aloud in a deep-toned, strong-British accent. "Oy! Are you talking about us?" "And who are you?" "Your worst bloody nightmare."
The girl then throws something at Copycat that wraps around Copycat's waist and holds him tightly. "GET OVER HERE!" the girl yelled, pulling the Copycat over to her. She then aims her hands at Copycat, which froze him into ice.
Everyone looked shocked, surprised, and amazed at what they were seeing with their very eyes. "Whoa! Did you see that?!" "She stopped the akumatized villain easily and faster than ever!" "That's a new record right there!"
After Ladybug turned everything back to normal, all of the celebrity newscasts, media, and press quickly ran out of the hotel for a quick interview of Ladybug and her new partner. When they got to her, they asked the two a lot of questions. "Ladybug! Who is this with you?" "All you mates, can call me Anarchia." The unknown girl, Anarchia, said, introducing herself to them all. "How did you meet Anarchia?" "She was there for me when I was on patrol." "An armed picket-pocketer was spotted, and I quickly caught 'im 'round the same time she showed up."
"She was very useful for a lot of other things aside from Akuma attacks." they were all very impressed with this new heroine, even when she seemed to be from another country, and whether it was an Akuma attack or not, Anarchia was very useful to stop it. "Is it true that you stopped endorsing the Ladyblog?" "Sadly, yes. Only because of various reasons. One of them is one person claiming that she is my 'best friend', which is not true because I never have any time hanging out with civilians." hearing that was very understandable. Knowing that Ladybug would never have time for anything else. Mr. Ramier and others who were having their troubles, maybe, but a civilian saying that they are best friends, which is not even true, and possibly putting a target on themselves without even knowing, that was another story that was a whole other bad level. Anarchia then tsks, saying, "Some cottonheads never understand what the real world works and never fact checks like they are supposed to." 'Ain't that the truth.' one of the news interns thought. "Not to mention, some bloody cottonheads always lose their minds over what wanker tells them what they want to hear. That, and they never got to wake up and smell the real scent of tea to face reality." 'You said it, Anarchia.' another one thought to himself. 'Tell it, girl.' the third one thought to herself. "However, speaking of facing reality, I do recommend this brilliant site and app I have endorsed back in London. It is called Face Reality. Because I have heard they are having some of their best reporters start here in about the next week." they were all intrigued with the recommendation Anarchia told them. They continued with the questioning with Ladybug and Anarchia until sunset, and Ladybug's earrings started beeping. "Well, I say it is time for us to leave. Good day." Anarchia said, grabbing some keys, pressing one button that summons a black motorcycle, automatically driving to her, and stopping and staying by her side. As Anarchia gets on, she drives off along with Ladybug, as she uses her yo-yo, saying a quick 'Bug out', and the two leave. The newscasts, media, and press also left, happy that they had an interview with Ladybug and her new partner Anarchia, not even aware of some people running and stopping behind them.
As they all head back into the room, satisfied with their interview with the two heroines, the show was still on. However, they missed almost half of the show. "What did we miss?" one of the intern reporters asked. "Not much, really. Although I think the Killer Bass are going to lose this one for sure." one of the wunderkind rappers said, crossing their arms. They then see that Trent is next. "This one goes out to someone special here at camp. Last name initials, D and C." everyone's eyes widened in surprise hearing that. Even though they can tell that most of the campers on the show are more focused on winning the challenge, the celebrities, families, and Marinette's friends know who Trent is talking about. Luka and Kagami could tell that Gwen knew about it as well after seeing her smile proudly at him while crossing her arms. After hearing the song, they were all amazed. They were so amazed that they even applauded Trent along with the other campers. They all then decided to take a quick snack break and continue watching the show later. As they snack down, they talk about Trent's song for Marinette.
"That song was amazing."
"Yeah, Trent did wonderful there."
"That was so sweet of him singing a song for Marinette."
"Marinette must be really lucky by now."
"Yeah, and I wonder what's taking her and Lucy so long though."
"I don't know. They're sure taking a while with that phone call."
"Maybe it is about those two Slick and Brutus guys and the action figures."
"Oh boy. I can't imagine what that phone call is like right about now."
"It's probably for the best we don't wanna know."
"Agreed."
After their opinion and the snack break, they continued watching the show.
"Welcome back! Okay, so in a strange turn of events, Bridgette's chunk-blowing test registered two thumbs up by Grandmaster Chef." "Bridgette's what blowing?" "I think it's best to leave that unquestionable." "But it's not enough to pull ahead of the Screaming Gophers who hold the lead with Trent's love song. So without further delay, here she is for the leaders...Heather." when Heather appears, she explains that she's going to read something. And then, reveals a box that is holding a book. Tom and Sabine's eyes widened when they realized what that book really was... "THAT'S MARINETTE'S DIARY!" they all gasped in shock and fear, worried that Heather might read something humiliating from Marinette's diary. However, as Heather places her hand on the diary, the box quickly closed in a milisecond, trapping her hand inside along with the said diary. And when it did, Heather started screaming. Even though they should wince from Heather's hand getting stuck, Gwen, the celebrities, families, and Marinette's friends all sigh in relief, knowing that Marinette's secrets are safe from Heather's scheming grasp. They all then watch Marinette's and Lucy's confessionals.
"Probably should've warned the girls that I have a box for my diary. But in this case, I'm glad I brought the box with me." "Glad you did, Marinette," Socqueline said, with Luka, Fei, Zoe, Kagami, and Tomoe nodding in agreement. "I guess one of them must've told her what happened while she and Lucy were having that phone call." one of the gaming celebrities guessed. "See, that's exactly why I don't bring a diary around me anymore. What Heather did, that's the reason." "I can't imagine what happened."
"Alright, it's down to the final act of the night," Chris announced. "Can Geoff and his rad stunts turn it around?...I seriously doubt it. Let's find out." "Why would he think that?" Just then, they see Geoff jump and break his skateboard. "Oh, that's why." "Now what? We have to send someone out there, or we're going to lose this." Bridgette said. They then watch as Marinette walks in. "There she is!" "Boy, that must've been a really long phone call." "Hey, guys." "Marinette! Thank goodness you're here. You and Lucy got to help us!" Bridgette said. "Katie and Sadie are covered in barf." "That only leaves Tyler, Duncan, or Harold. We already know Tyler stinks. What can Duncan do again?" "Carve a picture of his own skull into a tree?" "Oh, that's what Chris was talking about." a famous nature activist said, now understanding. "How the heck is going to do so in a stage when the trees are planted to the ground?" one of the wunderkinder questioned, looking not surprised. "What are we going to do?" Courtney asked, panicking. Geoff then noticed. "Wait, where's Marinette?" Bridgette and Courtney now noticed that he was right that Marinette wasn't there anymore. "Where did she go?" Just then, they all hear music playing. They watched Bridgette and Courtney look to see Harold start playing some music with his keyboard. The spotlights then shine on four girls, which turn out to be Marinette, Lucy, and the two girls of the MetaBetas, Angie and Malviña. Who are otherwise known as Miss Maleficent and Queen Red Hood. Everyone looked shocked and surprised to see them onstage. That was when the girls started singing.
Lucy: Never gets old no matter how much I'm told I'm amazing
Angie: You're amazing
Lucy: It's hard to get tired when I'm always on fire I'm blazing
Angie: Ooh, you're blazing
Malviña: All my greatness. It doesn't come for free. All my talent. It doesn't grow on trees. Take a breather. They'll take it all away.
Marinette: If the top is where you wanna stay
All Four: You gotta work hard. To make it look easy. You gotta live fast. To keep making that money. If you want to be as famous as me. You gotta work, gotta work, gotta work. Watch me work.
Everyone looked surprised and amazed, seeing Marinette perform with the MetaBetas, while the campers, too, looked surprised. Their singing and dancing were all in sync. They were even surprised with their outfits. They were wearing hoodies in their colors. Angie in purple, Malviña in black, Lucy in navy blue, and Marinette in pink. On the back of their hoodies have their logos in silver, and their stage names in rhinestones.
Angie: Haters want to be me or be with me yeah, they're fr-fr-fr-freaking
Lucy: Yeah, they're freaking
Angie: I just keep on working, lurking, smirking when they think that I'm peaking
Lucy: Never peaking, yeah
Malviña: All my greatness. It doesn't come for free. All my talent. It doesn't grow on trees. Take a breather. They'll take it all away.
Marinette: If the top is where you wanna stay
All four: You gotta work hard. To make it look easy. You gotta live fast. To keep making that money. If you want to be as famous as me. You gotta work, gotta work, gotta work. Watch me work.
After they ended their performance with a pose of their choice, there was a quick pause in the audience in front of them until the campers all started to cheer for their performance. Everyone else also cheered and applauded the five for their outstanding performance.
Chris then walks up to them, clapping. "Wicked music playing, dude. And MetaBetas, a very outstanding performance." "Hey, it's what we do." Malviña said, "And a perfect way to help endorse Total Drama." Angie added. "Especially with our newest member of the MetaBetas. Our very own Knitting Fairy." Lucy happily announced, wrapping an arm around Marinette. Marinette giggles as she waves to the others, causing them to cheer more about Marinette now being a new member of the idol group. Everyone cheered as well. "Alright, Marinette!" "Our little girl, a new member of an idol group!" "That's my Marinetta!" Marinette's friends cheered, feeling very happy for her. "And we would like to thank Harold for taking part in aiding our performance." Harold smiled and nodded to the girls as thanks and a way of saying 'happy to help.' "Congratulations, Marinette, for now being in their group. And check it out. Grandmaster Chef has declared his winner. Even though they held the lead, the Screaming Gophers have been trampled by the Killer Bass."
After a while of cheering, they all headed home for the night, still feeling happy for the girl for both winning the challenge for the team and being a new member of the MetaBetas. Meanwhile, in her bedroom, Chloe still watches the show, not surprised to know that Heather got some of the campers to vote off Justin. But she then watches Gwen's confessional. "If that evil little cow thinks she's getting away with this scot-free, she has another thing coming." Chloe then watches as Gwen knocks on the guys' side of the Killer Bass door. Harold answers, and Gwen asks him, "Did you say you brought a red ant farm with you?" "Yes." After that, while everyone was asleep, Heather ran out of the Screaming Gophers cabin, covered in red ants, screaming and trying to get them off of her. Chloe then laughs at Heather while she trips and falls. "Serves you right, Heather! Nobody messes with Dupain-Cheng but me!" she said.
??? & ???
The two of them watch as Lucy squints her eyes, trying to sleep while Heather is still screaming. "Man, I thought I was done with this when I was at that sleepover with Kit, Mills, Jade-Jade, and Sonya." she whisper-mumbled while putting her pillow over her head in order to drown the noise. "I can never forget the time she ranted on about what they did." one of them said, remembering the times she ranted. The second one nodded as they looked at the tablet that showed the account of Lucy and the rest of the MetaBetas. "At least we now know how to get in touch with her. Call the number. With this, we will finally get to her." "Of course."
Desc Prologue Get to Know My OC Chpt 1 Reactions Pt 1 Chpt 2 Reactions Pt 2 Chpt 3 Reactions Pt 3 Chpt 4 Chpt 5 Reactions Pt 5
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Hey, Little Songbird
Chapter 33 - AO3
Ten minutes.
Ten minutes of keeping Rossi pinned to the ground while she hissed and spat at him, struggling against the superior strength of the Peacock Miraculous. Ten minutes of kneeling on her torso, unable but not incapable of fighting while King Monkey and Chat Noir picked off the rest of their akumatized classmates. Ten minutes of waiting, Rossi’s connection to Hawkmoth flashing for a few moments before extinguishing.
It was the longest ten minutes of Argus’ life.
The doors of the gym slammed open. Argus couldn’t spare a glance, but multiple people ran into the room, one coming up right behind him. He braced himself. “Oh thank god.”
“Ma—” Argus turned his head to look, but instead of who he was expecting, it was Ladybug behind him. Several police officers had arrived with her. “Ladybug. Did everything go well?”
She nodded, smiling. “Both Hawkmoth and Mayura were arrested and no one was hurt. And now—” She walked around him, so Rossi could see here. “It’s your turn, Lila Rossi. Are you going to surrender the akuma?”
“Never!” She snapped, spit foaming in her mouth. Argus wrinkled his nose.
“Hard way it is, then.” She glanced at Argus. “Do you know where her akumatized object is?”
“No idea. Everything about her is so ugly, it could be anything.”
Rossi hissed at him, trying to bit his arm. He slammed her head back into the floor, cracks radiating out on the wood under her.
Ladybug appraised the akuma. “There really is room for taste. But when Rossi was akumatized previously, the object was…” Reaching down, Ladybug plucked a necklace off Rossi’s neck. He hadn’t noticed it before due to the ugly prom queen aesthetic, but a dainty, tasteful necklace had been there the whole time, hidden in the ruffles of the bust. Ladybug snapped the necklace in half, and a black butterfly flew out. “This.”
Quickly catching the akuma, a loveliness of ladybugs washed over the gym and into the world outside. Damage from the battle healed, cracks fading and shrinking. His classmates transformed back into their normal selves, dazed and confused. Rossi, too, transformed back to normal, with none of the confusion previous akuma victims had. Instead, she continued to glare up at Argus and Ladybug, hands balled into fists (thumbs tucked under her fingers like she’d never learned to punch before, and the sadistic part of Felix really wanted her to try).
Ladybug helped Felix to his feet. His knees cracked from kneeling for so long. “Your costume looks good on you,” Ladybug said suddenly. He blinked at her and she flushed. “It’s… You kept the hoodie look. It suits you.”
What?
What??
Before Felix could truly question whatever that was, Rossi crawled to her feet. Her face had smoothed into false gratitude, a simpering smile trying to placate her audience. “Oh, Ladybug! Thank you so much for saving me—”
Ladybug stepped aside for the two policemen, who hauled her to her feet. She complained about the rough, only to scream when handcuffs clicked around her wrists. “Lila Rossi, you are under arrest for terrorism against the citizens of Paris. Everything you say can and will—”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Rossi sputtered, trying to pull her other wrist free before it was locked behind her back. “I was an akuma, I can’t be held responsible for helping Hawkmoth! If I need to be arrested, so do they!” Unable to gesture with her hand, she kicked in the direction of dreadlock girl, goth girl, and boy with a skull on his shirt. They looked horrified at the prospect.
He really, really needed to learn his classmates’ names.
The police officers didn’t look inclined to answer, but Argus was ecstatic to inform Rossi of what was going on. He was a hero, at least for the day; he couldn’t let someone walk away ignorant after all! “So, that wasn’t you in the video I took? The video where you can clearly see someone who looks exactly like you snatches an akuma out of the air and negotiates with Hawkmoth for better powers?” He looks back at Ladybug, who was giving him a look. “Oh dear, we ought to go out and search for this mysterious doppelganger then. But… the doppelganger theory doesn’t explain the mountain of other evidence for more crimes we found on you. Whoops.”
“You—” She lunged for Argus, but the officers hold her back. “You ruined my life!” She spat.
Chat Noir approached, crossing his arms, and glaring at the girl. “Ironic, coming from End Days herself.”
Argus snorted. “I know, right?”
Rossi was dragged away by the bobbies, screaming at the top of her lungs about diplomatic immunity and that she’d been framed. Argus rolled his eyes. Turning back to the heroes, he flinched, finding Chat Noir staring at him with an unidentifiable expression. After a few seconds, the hero spoke. “I don’t like you.”
“Chat—”
Argus cocked an eyebrow. “And why should I care?”
Chat Noir glared. “But, you did good in your first fight against an akuma. And hopefully, your last.”
“That was hardly my first fight against an akuma, remember?”
He stepped into Argus’ personal space, staring him down. Argus stopped breathing. “I won’t forget.” He stepped away. “But I guess you were lucky enough to find some people willing to tolerate you. That’s probably the reason why you’re not a loser anymore.”
“Chat Noir!” Ladybug stood in between the two, glaring at her partner. “There was no reason to say that to Argus! He’s the only reason we were able to defeat Hawkmoth!”
Chat Noir’s face darkened, and he looked away. “Yeah.” Like it was planned, Chat Noir’s Miraculous beeped, though the Ladybug and Peacock stayed silent. Ladybug must have recharged on her way over, and Argus never used his ability in battle—Duusu hadn’t even explained how, claiming that it was dangerous—so he was the only one who had to leave or risk his identity. Ladybug offered him a fist bump before he left, and Chat looked like he was about to cry. “Meet me in the usual place? Tonight, at ten?”
“Of course, Chaton. Take all the time you need.”
The black cat hero raced away to parts unknown after whatever that was (although, the dark part of Felix’s mind already had a suspicion he really didn’t like). That left Ladybug alone with the three temporary heroes, along with the three victims. She cleared her throat. “Thank you, everyone. With your help, we managed to finally arrest Hawkmoth—”
“So, who was it?” Chloe asked.
“You find that out tomorrow, with the rest of Paris. I believe a press conference is already in the works for the morning” Ladybug didn’t seem to care about the interruption, used to how Chloe acted. “I need to collect your Miraculous now, but Queen Bee, Argus, since you both have public identities…”
“You want ours back first before collecting the others,” Argus finished, snatching the Bee Miraculous out of Chloe’s hair. She yelped as she detransformed, and Argus tossed the hair comb to Ladybug. There was no sign of a kwami; did that happen when the Miraculous was removed without the transformation phrase? If so…
“Why you do that!?” Chloe screeched at him.
“Don’t act like you were going to return it willingly,” Argus spat back.
King Monkey agreed. “Yeah, you were probably planning to crash another train to impress mommy dearest.” He held out a fist to Argus, and the Peacock hero reluctantly tapped it.
Ripping the brooch off his chest, Argus turned back into Felix and he tossed it at Ladybug. She fumbled, bouncing the jewelry off her arms and chest before clutching it in a move so familiar it was burned into his retinas. “You don’t want to say goodbye to your kwami?” she asked.
Felix snorted. “If I never had to see that hyperactive monster ever again, it would be too soon. Keep the horrible thing.”
Ladybug nodded, gesturing for King Monkey to leave with her. She looked back at him over her shoulder. “I’ll see you soon.”
Felix nodded. And it would be soon.
As in, the next day of class, soon. They sat next to each other, after all.
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