#so interesting to see alya was starting to trust him despite everything

[nastasyafilippovnas]

Why didn't you give my mom up to the police? To marry you. You know perfectly well the reason. I'd have lost my son, what could I do? You tell me. You mom said that if you married me, she would surrender herself. She or me, she said. What were you going to answer? What would you've told your mom, Cihan? Could you've said you would marry anyway? Of course not. You couldn't say it. Because you wouldn't have married. If I had gone to the police, nothing would've changed. You're a witness. Would you be capable to testify? Would you've said your mom shot me? You'd never. You'd do your best to justify her. And she would come at me and start threatening me again. Nothing would change. Nothing would happen to your mom. And I'd have lost my son.

UZAK ŞEHIR (2024- ) 6. Bölüm

[temporalbystander]

Okay... So this isn't a list of ever thought I'd make but it got into my head before I went to bed last night and I needed to post it. Please, do NOT hit read more if you are just a sweet summer child when it comes to the depths of the internet because what I'm about to say? Gets dark.

Okay. Now I mentioned in a previous post why characters like Alya or Lila get me angry. And, as I was scrolling through YouTube, I started to put a little list together of traits that normally give me such angry reactions and it occurred to me that, more often than not, these traits only really come out in anime characters.

So let's start this with the only universe where I have an OC, one of the originals, Naruto.

Now people hate on Sakura and the leaf village and I was not any different at the beginning of Naruto. Now my hatred of the leaf was for a very obvious reason, their treatment of Naruto. You see I always had two issues with this, they were so certain that Naruto was Kurama and blamed him for everything the fox did. So this means that A) they didnt trust the fourth hokage's sealing ability to keep them safe and B) should all the crap they be doing to Naruto make him snap? They expected the ninjas to take care of it.

Then there's the other option in that they knew the kyuubi couldn't hurt them and so they took their anger out on an innocent kid who has no clue why people hate him. Not really sure which paints the villagers in a worse light.

Say what you want about Hiruzen's shitty secret keeping skills, if Naruto had found out about Kurama BEFORE Iruka took a shine to him? The leaf would have been destroyed. And I would have laughed.

But anyway, let's move onto Sakura. Oh Sakura... Now I warmed up to her when Shippuden came around but before then? She was the focal point of why I disliked the other characters. It's not because she was in love with Sasuke, Ive seen plenty of stories where love interests don't make sense, and it wasn't how useless she was either. She may have been outclassed for the entirety of the pre timeskip era but the girl tried, I'll give her points for that. No I hated her for the same reason I hate the village, the other genin rookies, and everyone who called Naruto an idiot while praising Sasuke. Sasuke is one of the first to recognise that Naruto is strong. Naruto is the reason that Sasuke pushed himself as hard as he did in the wave arc and beyond. You're going to sit there and tell me that the one ninja pushing your "prodigy" to do better is a dead weight who won't ever compare to said prodigy? Yeah right. Bite me.

With that out of the way Sakura is the perfect representation of the characteristics that I just can't stand, albeit to a much more mundane nature than the next person I will rant about. She's useless, an idiot, a simp and a whiner. Now then, with that all said, can you guess which character triggered my hatred last night and made this the first thing I needed to write today?

.... No?

It's Zenitsu. As much as I like demon Slayer I could not watch passed the first season because the thought I'd have to deal with that whiny waste of space some more? Oh it turned me right off. Now sure the little trait of him having mastered a single form so well that he can do it in his sleep? Yeah it's cool. The fact that he gets so scared he faints and is then able to use that technique? Is interesting. Every other moment he is on screen? Makes me want to stop living.

Now with his first introduction it was kind of neat. A character who understands how insane their career is? Who wants absolutely nothing to do with slaying demons but is, unbeknownst to them, able to survive an encounter because he's mastered a technique to such an extent? Was not something I could remember seeing before.

Hell his willingness to die for Nezuko because Tanjiro asked him to protect the box? Despite knowing there is a demon inside? For the sole reason being that Tanjiro actually puts up with him? It was incredibly sweet. The entire scene where you find out that he knew from the beginning that there was a demon in the box, yet trusted Tanjiro enough to protect it anyway? Was incredibly touching and made me think I had underestimated him.

.... And then he saw Nezuko and all my respect for him went out the window.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't mind a simp. Sanji is one of the most well known anime simps and Brock from Pokemon is probably the earliest simp people would be exposed too. The difference is the confidence. When Sanji and Brock start simping? It's funny. When you need to drag a blubbering Zenitsu away from a girl he only met once before? That's creepy. And pathetic. And a waste of precious screen time that could be spent on badass demon slaying or cute Nezuko moments. Or badass Nezuko moments.

But that's it. Demon Slayer isn't for me and I could live with that... Until I saw what the fandom thought of them. The fact that people shipped Zenitsu and Nezuko? Sickened me. But hey, I don't have to agree with everyone's opinion. There are those that think Ron and Hermione are good together just because that's what JK Rowling said. Clearly those people are wrong but they are entitled to their opinion.

And then... I found the porn. Now let me say this. I'm a man of the internet. I've seen many a childhood character ruined by the 34th rule. I've managed to sit through all of them. But the moment the Zenitsu and Nezuko video started. I was overcome by the urge to put Zenitsu in a blender.

I don't mean a giant one and turn him into a smoothie. No I mean I wanted to hold the lightning crybaby down and shove his extremities into a regular blender and listen to him scream. If there has ever been a character in anime that has been least deserving of another? It's Zenitsu. He doesn't deserve the love of a girl. He deserves repeated kicks in the crotch until he learns to stop blubbering.

[ilikekidsshows]

People said that there's a foreshadow that Nino will be a temporary black cat in s5 but it make me curious about how origin Nino do from being a black cat because pre-carapce Nino seems to be a bit of scaredy cat. 🤔

I’m combining these two asks for a more general overview of Nino’s compatibility with the Miraculous.

While Nino becoming the Black Cat ended up debunked before I could reply to this, I do think that Nino with the Black Cat could be interesting. It’s true that Nino isn’t the first one to try to jump an Akuma (that would be Kagami), but is that really fear or approaching a situation carefully? He stood by Alya and faced certain doom in what was basically a Zombie Apocalypse, and he kept fighting against Anansi to buy Ladybug more time even though he knew he was outmatched. Just because Nino doesn't forget that a situation is dangerous doesn’t mean he isn’t brave.

What I do think pre-Carapace Nino lacks is confidence, and it’s something that pops up even after getting a Miraculous. What really gets Nino off his usually unflappable cool is feeling inadequate or powerless. This is why he despises Gabriel so much, Gabriel has made him feel powerless to help Adrien repeatedly. We can also see this in how Nora really gets under his skin about not being strong enough to keep Alya safe. As Nino says, he would do anything for Alya, but can he do everything he wants to? This is where his hesitation when he’s first granted the Miraculous comes from.

Nino is someone I see liking the idea of being a hero. A Miraculous gives you real, tangible power to affect things and change them for the better as well as protect your loved ones. As such, Nino makes for an enthusiastic and determined hero. The one thing I could see as a weakness in any Miraculous combo for him is that he can’t compartmentalize at all. He can’t detach himself in his hero persona, which is why Alya recognized him immediately despite literal magic helping his disguise. But that's merely a complication in him being a hero, not in compatibility with any set Miraculous.

The most interesting thing about the enthusiastic, caring and determined Nino is that he became this way through knowing Adrien. The Nino we get introduced to in ‘Origins’ is apathetic, like he’s given up. This Nino probably had come to terms with his own powerlessness as a mere normal teenager. Then he meets Adrien and that’s no longer enough. Nino starts bucking against the injustice he sees, starts championing for Adrien to have it better.

As such, even if Nino was the one to get the Miraculous originally, before the character development of getting to know Adrien, Nino would be motivated by such a turn of events to be more outwardly against injustice. Add to that how Plagg gets revealed to have been mistreated by authority in the past, and Nino would also bond with his partner as more of that came into the light. Nino would consider the Guardians with even more irreverence than Plagg does or Adrien in canon. All that posturing the Bubbler does about unworthy adults has to come from somewhere, after all. Nino definitely has a bit of anarchism to him in his mistrust of authority.

Looking at Chris also gives us a bit of insight into what Nino is like as a role model. While we can’t attribute everything about Chris to his brother alone, Chris does exhibit a sense of fairness. Despite being really young and therefore prone to outbursts, Chris listens really attentively to all of Marinette’s explanations, and gives them consideration. He’s willing to follow Marinette’s “Christmas Rules”, even as he clearly wants to break them, hence looking for loopholes. Given Nino’s clear care towards his brother, the two do interact a lot so Nino might have been the one to teach his brother about fair play and honesty. At any rate, I don’t see the brothers having completely different views on fairness.

Nino’s big brother chops, in addition to his treatment of Alya and Adrien, also showcase why he could be trusted with the power of Destruction. I’ve repeatedly stated on this blog that Destruction is a power that lives up to its fullest potential as a hero power in the hands of someone who is kind and nurturing. Nino is very unlikely to use the Cataclysm carelessly, but, as I established earlier, he is also willing to take action despite any misgivings when he has the power to do so (and sometimes when he doesn’t). As such, Nino would be careful with the Cataclysm, but would still use it if the need arose.

Now, if Nino were to act as a temporary Cat Noir like Scarabella specifically, I think it would work best if Nino knew Adrien’s identity, or discovered it while being given the job. Because Nino, with his strong ideas about what is fair, would not want to use someone else’s Miraculous unless he was sure the other party was fine with it or there was a very pressing and very immediate catastrophe at hand. So Adrien giving his blessing for Nino to use his Miraculous would be for the best. And it would allow for Nino and Plagg to bond over their Chaotic Adrien morality alignment, which is the entire point of making this teamup happen post-Origins.

“Gabriel sucks.” “No disagreements here, dude.” “Wanna use the Cataclysm to total his car?” “...we can slash his tires.” “And maybe we can key his door while we’re at it?” “Well, he’s a rich jerk, so anything that’ll make him spend more money is okay in my books.” “Yes! Vandalism for justice!”

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

Maybe I should yell in a comment on the fic itself but I’m yelling here instead: this entire chapter was sooooo GOOD. Nino being hurt about Alya keeping Senti!Adrien a secret? Zoé not trusting her sister to take the snake despite how Chloé is the one who took it from Monarch and gave it to Luka in the first place (which btw does Zoé know/guess this since she’s blaming Chloé for getting Luka wrapped up)?? Poor Luka just bleeding out on the carpet???

Interesting as well to learn that Marinette didn’t fill Alya in on Adrien being Chat Noir, but she’s clearly started pulling away since around that time. Was it that specifically that sent her into lockdown mode or something else? Will it be Vesperia from now on or Queen B? Who will be the one to decide, Ladybug? Also wth is going on with Félix and Kagami, are they on their way too or are they currently duking it out with Lila as well?

Ahhhhhh I’ve got so many questions and I know they’ll be answered but I’m so invested! This chapter really was a great downbeat while still keeping the tension/stakes high. Also a bit nervous to see how Mari reacts to Alya having revealed her identity to Nino but in Alya’s defense she needs a support system too. Heavy secrets are hard to bear on *all* parties who know, and it is extremely beneficial to have someone to confide in. Especially when your BFF is totally stonewalling you while trying to enact her one-woman-rampage lmao.

Anyways fantastic chapter fr and also kudos to LB’s clever idea in the one before to try and cast her charm on Chatdrien to keep his amok from controlling him. Also very clever to have it fail do to his loss on control of his own powers. Nice job outdoing what could’ve been seen as a Deus Ex Machina. 👏🏾

thank you nikki i enjoy your enjoyment lol. nino was indeed butthurt about being kept out of the loop, but mostly about not being trusted enough to keep alya's secrets. and i absolutely loved giving zoe her pissed!vesperia scene because honestly she's earned that. and yeah she does know chloe gave it to luka - they're all pretty much up to speed on everything everyone else has done.

it's not exactly that marinette went into lockdown mode; she's not intentionally keeping it a secret that adrien was cn/is cw. rather, she's got tunnel vision on him and hasn't thought about anything else besides getting him back. but yeah, it was the reveal that sent her spiraling lol. he's literally the only thing she's thinking about rn!

you'll get the answers to the rest soon enough ;)) thank you so much for the compliments on my narrative strategies lol. i was worried it would be too much of a downbeat so i emphasized the conflict between the half re-formed hero team. they're getting their power back, but it's not quite the triumphant return it should be!

also, fun fact you might like to know - the charm lb tries to cast on cn in this chapter is an idea ripped from my other fic, what makes a monster! odnlb is kind of an au of that one lol, so you'll see a lot of the same themes/plot devices i recycled into this one >:3

[whenimgoodandready]

Ever notice how no matter how many times the opening theme song sequence changes for “Miraculous Ladybug”, out of everyone, Lila Rossi is never in them! We see Hawk/Shadow Moth, Mayura, the Kwamis and even a passing by black cat in ’em, but Lila! (Brooklyn accent) Forget about it! I mean look at these:

Season 1

We see our heroes, their classmates and several Parisians that have gotten akumatized, but no Lila even though this was her debut season.

Season 2-3

We again see our heroes and their classmates, but no Lila again even though she was locking herself away from Season 2, but then returned in Season 3, where she appeared on occasion and yet, she’s still not shown!

Season 4

First we see Kagami (, Alya and Marinette for a brief second). Who was introduced in Season 2, as one of her rivals for Adrien’s affections, but not anymore (“Lies”). She’s an Adrienette shipper now (“Mr.Pigeon 72”). So she’s a friend.

Next we have Adrien and Nino. Her love interest and her best friends love interest, respectively and there at the top, her new friend, Zoe, introduced this season and Marinettes other love interest, Luka, introduced in Season 2. Adrien only sees Marinette as “just a friend”, but she excepts it any way (kinda) and Nino formally had a crush on her, but moved on to Alya (“Animan”), Zoe is the “Nice Chloe”, so that’s a fast friendship (“Sole Crusher”) and Lukanette is sunk (“Truth”), but they’re still amicable as friends (“Crocoduel”).

Then we have the girl squad and their foreshadowing miraculous edits. The ultimate friendship group.

Finally, we have Chloe and Sabrina followed by Ivan, Kim and Max and last, but certainly not least, Nathaniel and Marc. So here’s the thing, Marinette can’t stand Chloe, even after all the akumatizations she’s caused and all the troublemaking she’s done and even gone to the dark side, but she’s here any way cuz Marinette isn’t gonna quit on her to get on the right path. Being Ladybug as a role model may not have worked (“Miraculer”), giving her the bee miraculous may not have worked either (“Malediktator”), but she’s hoping her (Chloe’s) half-sister, Zoe, will do the trick even if Chloe doesn’t accept her (“Queen Banana”) and Adrien still has high hopes for her since they’re childhood friends. Marinette considers Sabrina a friend cuz she’s actually a nice person just badly influenced by Chloe. Marinette also has guy friends she trusts. She tried to help Ivan get together with Mylene (“Origins Part 2:Stoneheart”), she encouraged Kim on professing his love to his crush with a gift (unknown that it was Chloe at the time “Dark Cupid”) and with Max she partnered up with him to win a video game competition for their school (“Gamer”). On Nathaniel, he originally had a crush on her, but “moved on” to Ladybug (“Evillustrator”) and Marc (who is included despite not being a part of her class, like Zoe) is cool since she made him and Nathaniel get together (“Reverser”).

Once again No Lila!

These have evolved since Season 2, with the editions of Kagami, Luka, Marc and Zoe, but Lila was introduced in the first season and she hasn’t been shown once in ANY of the openings! Come to think of it, why haven’t we seen Felix in the openings (in Season 4) since he’s starting to be important after what happened (“Gabriel Agreste”). Why you ask? Is it cuz (from Season 2 onwards) the people are miraculous holders? Yes! Yes they are!

Those classmates/non classmates made up Team Miraculous and that’s why they were shown! Marinette/Ladybug would never give a miraculous to Lila after everything she’s done to her and Felix is barely around, so yeah, that’s why they’re never in the theme song openings! However, now that Season 4 is over and we had a dramatic finale involving those two, who’s to say maybe they won’t get a chance to finally become part of the show with them in the theme song now! After all, they’ve done such a great job at being bad😈.

Here’s hoping!

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Part 30 (12K Follower Special)

(Master Post)

I want to thank you guys for being so patient with this fic. Its hard to believe its been a year since I first wrote part 1. I have been agonizing over this part for so long, I hope you all enjoy it. PS, I would love to hear what you guys think. And please share it around.)

_______________________________________________________________________

Lila used her key to unlock the front door. She quietly entered only to see her mother smiling at her.

“I was wondering where you were. How is everything honey?” Her mother greeted.

Lila put on a smile for her and greeted her with a cheek kiss. She was not expecting to see her mother up. She would have sworn she would be asleep. The work at the embassy often left her mother drained, it was rare when she was up an about at night when she was home.

“I had to slip by the school. Make sure that I had everything I needed for tomorrow.” She answered.

“Studious as always. I am so proud of you.”

“Of course! If I want to be as amazing as you I have to keep up with my school work.”

Lila knew her mother would eat up the flattery. Her mother was a gullible woman that loved to be complimented. She was not stupid, but she was far too trusting. The brunette knew all too well that her mother had often had her kindness taken advantage of by others.

“I was listening to the answering machine messages, and I noticed your principal called. He says that he is glad to have you back from your leave of absence?”

Lila didn’t bother sweating the comment.

“It's an error with the school computer. Remember how my old school had similar issues? I will clear it up this week.”

“Of course. School systems don’t really change much wherever you go, we really need to discuss that at the next meeting.”

“Don’t worry Mamma, I am making the most of it.”

“Mia stellina I know you will. That is why I got you a gift.”

“Oh?”

Lila watched as her mother pulled out a small box that was gift wrapped. Handing it to her daughter.

“I am sorry I had been gone most of last week. Things have been hectic. What with the… oh you don’t need to worry about all that. I saw this on my way back and I was saving it for your birthday, but I figured now would be a good time.”

Lila opened the present to reveal a lovely silver bracelet, with a small charm in the shape of an eye mask. Her mother knew Lila had a love of masks and would make sure that if there was some place she went that was interesting, she would get her a mask from that place.

“Thank you, Mamma, it is lovely.” Lila hugged her mother. Managing to hide how little she actually cared about the gift.

“I knew you would love it. It will look so lovely on you when we go out to dinner with your boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?”

“The handsome blond model you told me about. Adrien?”

“Oh! Right. Yes of course. My boyfriend. Though I am not sure he will be able to have dinner with us anytime soon. His father has him on such a strict schedule.”

Mrs. Rossi frowned.

“We can work something out another time. I’d really like to meet him.”

“I’m sure he feels the same way.”

Lila began making her way to her room.

“I think I’m going to get ready for school tomorrow.”

“Alright dear, I will be here all day tomorrow, maybe I can swing by your school and we can have lunch together.”

“Sounds great. Looking forward to it.”

Lila closed the door to her room.

She let her fake smile leave her face as she looked at the bracelet.

Tacky

Lila didn’t hate the gift, no, she did like that her mother did take the time to get her something. She just wished her mother could have gotten her something better. But really, Lila couldn’t really expect much despite how hard her mother works.

Lila looked over the bracelet more, her mind wandering as she stared at the little mask charm. It looked reminiscent of the masks worn in Mascaraed balls. Lila had to admit it was very fitting.

Everyone wears masks. People sculpt a persona, a personality in which they deal with people. They wear it as best as they can. People often change their masks as they grow or go to new environments. Lila was well aware of that. She was practically a master of it at this point.

Even her sweet naïve momma wears a mask. The mask that she is happy and doing fulfilling work. Lila knows better than anyone that her mother was practically forced to take this position.

Being a diplomat to Paris was considered the worst option when given a choice. Considering how there are depressed supervillains that pop up and nearly destroy the city several times a week because of a Super Terrorist’s quest for jewelry. Lila remembered how her momma tried so hard to spin this into a positive light. How this was her first role as an ambassador and that if she proved herself, she could choose her next assignment. Lila would have rather had gone to any country other than France, even America was preferable and they have their own craziness to deal with. Nevertheless, her mother did her best to be cheerful as she was thrown into this.

Lila refused to be like that, one’s mask should be the person they want to be, not the person they have to be. She would try out a different persona with each place she went, and sure enough, she would leave with a fun experience just before everything went crumbling down.  She would then start from scratch and no one was the wiser.

Paris turned out to be the best place for this, since everything here is so bizarre here, no one would think twice about looking into a lie that seems outlandish. So, Lila allowed herself to be a bit more reckless with her actions. She had to admit, that her carelessness now needed to be corrected, she had allowed herself to get too lax with how good things have been and it nearly blew her cover 3 times. She needed to fix things.

She snapped back to reality, staring at the bracelet. She still wasn’t a fan of the look, but it was still a gift from her mother.

She would wear it tomorrow for her lunch with her mother. But afterwards she can slip it into her bag or something and forget about it. Her mother would be back to being worked like crazy and forget about it after two weeks.

Her phone began vibrating, pulling her out of her thoughts.

She looked at the number and her eyes went wide. It was Alya.

Did that nosy reporter see her at the school?! No, that can’t be possible. She was likely calling about something else. The Italian exchange student took a calming breath and answered her phone.

“Evening Alya? Whats up”

“Hey girl.” Alya greeted with her usual cheery tone. Alya was doing her best not to be in a fiery rage right now, she needed to be calm. A good reporter keeps calm under pressure. “I am just working on an article for the Ladyblog. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

“Of course. So, if it’s for the Ladyblog it must be ladybug related. What do you want to ask about? I am an open book.” Lila matched the cheery tone Alya had given her, she was hiding her absolute disgust over the subject. Ladybug was one of the last people Lila wanted to talk about right now, especially with how that heroine left her locked in a closet during the last akuma attack.

“Oh, it’s about akumatization. You know, that thing with the butterflies that maniacal monster Hawkmoth does to people. I am writing an article of how it impacts people and with how close you are with Ladybug, I figured she might have leaked a detail or two that I wasn’t aware of. Do you mind answering some questions about it?”

This wasn’t a complete lie, Alya was writing about Akumatization, but it was about Lila’s times as an akuma specifically.

“Well I might have a detail or two that could be shared. Ask away!”

Lila knew she had already had a close call with Alya earlier this week, she didn’t want to give the reporter a single reason to think she was a bad person. She could lie about a thing or two if needed to ensure that this line was secure, until she left the girl dangling from a cliff.

“Great! Thanks for doing this. You are a life saver.”

“Glad I can help, so bring on the questions.”

“Right. First question, how many times have you been akumatized?”

Lila was about to answer three, once during her first time in Paris, once during Heroes’ day, and once during her day back, that of course wouldn’t be good. She had said during Heroes’ day she was on a leave of absence outside of Paris. So that won’t do.

“Two. Once on my first day at Dupont, and the second time on my first day back.”

She is Lying

Alya had noticed the lie, Lila had been akumatized at least three times. Once was during her first day, the second time was at Heroes’ day because there were reports of Volpina among the akuma army. If Lila was out of France at that time, Volpina couldn’t have possibly been there. The day she got back had to have been her third time akumatized.

“I see, and during both of those times you felt intense emotional distress. Correct?”

“My memory is a bit fuzzy on them, but yes. I can say that I felt emotionally vulnerable.”

“As expected. And you have no memory of the activities you did while you were an akuma?”

“That is correct. If I was in complete control, there is no way I would have done such awful things.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t. Now this question is a bit more of a confirmation, something of a rumor among the Ladyblog. There is some speculation that if you accept the akuma willingly, you will maintain your memory of what happened while as an akuma. Is that something you can confirm?”

“Yes, Ladybug mentioned it once during a conversation. She was worried that Hawkmoth had some ‘Supporters’ that willingly did his bidding. I also believe if the person gives up the akuma willingly back to Hawkmoth they retain their memories during their time as an akuma. But I am not certain of that.” Lila added a touch of some truth to make it appear more legit that she and Ladybug are close. That is some personal information she discovered for herself. Lila was certain that this would ensure Alya trusted her.

Alya was certain Lila was willingly working with Hawkmoth and that she would never trust this liar ever again.

“Oh wow, that is very interesting. So just to assure the readers that you aren’t one of those followers. Have you ever accepted the akuma for yourself willingly?” Alya made sure the question had a lighthearted tone to come off as a joke.

Lila laughed.

“Willingly work with that butterfly creep? You would have to be someone with no empathy to even consider it.”

“One last thing, is it alright if I quote you in my article? If not, I will keep your name out of the…”

“By all means go ahead. I would love to be a part of your work if you want me to be.”

“Alright, I’ve got everything I need. Thanks again Lila. I should have this article out by tomorrow.”

“Anytime. I’m looking forward to reading it.”

“Have a good night.”

“You too.”

Lila hung up the phone with a content smile.

She is none the wiser. I even did a little bit of good letting her in on that bit of information on Hawkmoth. That should send some good karma my way

Lila smiled as yawned suddenly. She decided now would be a good time for bed.

_______________________________________________________________________

Alya smiled as she made sure she was off the call.

“Thanks Lila, you have no idea how much help that was.”

She had transcribed the interview into her article as she was talking with the liar.

She read through it to make sure there were no errors

“Alright, and this will be up tomorrow morning after first period.”

She scrolled up to the top page of the article which read:

Friend of Ladybug or Akuma Collaborator? The Truth on Lila Rossi

“Now to add the last few edits before going to bed.”

_______________________________________________________________________

The ride back to the Dupain Bakery was quiet for most of it. It seemed to fly by as the two teens held hands while the large mountain of a man drove them back.

Everything felt so surreal. A wonderful breakfast, a pleasant time of checking out the latest exhibits of the Louvre, a peaceful stroll through the park, an intense session of ice skating, and the dramatic confession on the top of the Eiffel tower which did not go as expected, but still went over very well.

“Marinette.”

“Yes Adrien?”

The blond model felt his face heat up a bit as he tried to speak up.

“So… I guess we can cancel that idea of talking things over in a week.” Adrien said with a nervous laugh.

“Yea… I suppose so.” She giggled.

The two were both happy with how things turned out, but both were still sort of shocked on what to do now.

“How are we going to tell the others? Should we text them so they aren’t stunned?”

“I think this is something that would be better told in person.”

“You mean bragged about?” Adrien teased.

“Maybe.”

The two blushed at this before laughing more. They felt like toddlers that were let loose in a candy store. Excited and bubbly.

“So, we tell them tomorrow then?”

“Yes,”

“Alright, sounds like a plan.”

The limo stops, causing the two to move slightly forward but their seatbelts kept them from moving off the seat.

“I guess this is my stop.”

“Let me get the door for you.”

“Oh, you don’t have to.”

“And what gentleman would I be if I didn’t help a Lady out of the car?”

Marinette’s eyes went wide for a moment. The way he said that rang familiar. But she shook that out of her head. She was going to stop comparing him to chat noir.

Adrien didn’t notice the brief blank out as he got out of the car to open her side.

Marinette got out of the vehicle and gave him a smile.

“Why thank you, kind sir.”

“Shall I walk with you to the door?”

Marinette gave the polite gentleman teen a kiss on the cheek.

“Here is good enough. If you walked with me to the door, My Parents would likely invite you in, and your father would be upset if you were gone any later than necessary”

“Very true.”

Adrien mentally cursed at the fact that his father had a stick up his ass the size of the Eiffel Tower.

“Good night Marinette.”

“Good night Adrien.”

Marinette walked to her door and used her key to enter the bakery.

Once the door was closed, Adrien went back into the limo, he closed the door and sighed happily.

“It’s a beautiful night.”

The driver said nothing as he began driving the boy home, but he did have a small ghost of a smile on his face. 

______________________________________________________________________

Marinette closed the door behind her before sliding down with a loving sigh. Her legs were jelly.

Her kwami flew out of her bag.

“Seems everything went well.” The ladybug kwami commented with a sly smile.

“I’m dating Adrien Agreste.” Marinette stated blissfully. Her eyes were sparkling as if she had found the 8thwonder of the world.

“I am so happy for you Marinette. I knew you could do it.”

“This must be a dream. All of this is some dream, I’m still in bed and I slept through my alarm. Adrien is actually downstairs waiting and probably regretting every… OW!”

Marinette noticed her kwami had pinched her hand.

“Tikki! Why did you do that?!”

“To prove you were awake.”

Marinette paused before going back to her joyous expression.

“Its real!”

The kwami loved seeing her chosen so happy.

“We should probably head upstairs, you have to tell your parents all about it. I believe your dad was keen on finding out details.”

“Right! I have to tell them everything.”

Marinette had so many people she wanted to tell. Her parents, Alya, the girls, Chat noir…

She felt herself stop.

“Marinette?”

“I’ll have to tell Chat noir.” Her feelings felt a bit jumbled now that this thought was given life. And something told her this would not be as much fun as telling the others, whether it was because of how he would feel or how she feels about it.

“That can wait another time, you can’t just lay on the bakery floor.” Tikki commented, trying to change the mood.

“Good point, I should probably get up.”

Marinette knew she would have to tell the cat sometime, but there would be a right time and place. Right now, was a time to be happy and enjoy the fact that she was dating her crush.

_______________________________________________________________________

Adrien arrived home to see Nathalie waiting at the door.

“And how was your day with Miss Dupain Cheng?” Nathalie inquired, her usual monotone hid her genuine interest.

The blond smiled a bit.

“You will be seeing her around me a lot more, I will need to work with you to rearrange my schedules if I want to be able to have time with her.”

“I see. I will see what I can do.”

“Is father…”

“He is occupied with work, you’ll be able to tell him about your day during your scheduled dinner this upcoming Friday.”

Adrien’s smile faltered slightly, he thought things were going to be different with how his father had shown sudden interest in his life the other day. But this was likely for the best.

“Thank you, Nathalie. I will be heading to my room. Have a good night.”

“You too Adrien.”

Adrien headed to his room. Despite his father’s absence on the matter, he was still in a good mood and he would not let the distance get to him.

His smile blossomed once his door was closed and his kwami companion bursted out of his pocket

“Well done Romeo, you got the girl.” The cat kwami congratulated his wielder as he moved to his stash to help himself to some cheese.

“It’s kind of hard to believe it’s real. It feels like a dream. I didn’t think I could be this happy, Plagg.”

“Well good, you deserve to be happy considering all the crap you go through.” Plagg stated as he found a nice chunk of Camembert with extra stink.

Adrien laid back on his bed, he could just revel in the warmth of this day for a while.

“I wonder how everyone will react to finding out. I kind of want to text Nino and let him know.”

“I don’t really understand the big deal with this reveal stuff. You are acting like this is an unmasking ceremony or something.”

Plagg realized his words may not have been wisely picked.

“That’s right, I will need to let Ladybug know.”

Adrien was silent, his expression hard to read as his words hung in the air.

“You are okay with all of this right?” Plagg asked.

“I did say that no matter who was under that mask, I would love that girl. I meant it, but there are many different types of love. It doesn’t need to be romantic. I think it took me some time to realize that.”

Plagg chomps on to his cheese.

“Well, as long as you are sure.”

Adrien stretched.

“I should get ready for bed”

“Why? It’s still early.”

“I don’t want to be tired when I see Marinette tomorrow.”

Plagg rolled his eyes at the soft smile on the blond’s face.

“I don’t know how you did it, but you are actually cheesier then cheese.”

_______________________________________________________________________

“Okay Kim, I get it. The guy in the show modified himself to look like a cucumber.”

“Max, you aren’t even listening! It was a pickle! A pickle, Max! I swear it is the funniest…”

Max was distracted. By his phone vibrating.

“Hold on Kim, I got a text from Alya, it might be urgent. I will have to call you back.”

“That’s cool, but I am showing you that clip. It is hilarious. “

Max secretly thankful that he had an excuse to hang up. He loved his friend, but he had weird taste.

Max looked at the text.

Everything is set up, make sure that the mass email goes up after first period starts. We need to have everyone is in class.

Max understood. he would adjust the time that everything got sent out.

Affirmative, Any other last-minute requests?

Max waited for a snarky reply from Alya.

Nah, we’re good. Thanks Again.

Max sent a thumbs up emoji and put the phone to the side.

“Markov. Adjust the timing of the mass email to 15 minutes after first period.”

The robot turned his mechanical screen to his creator.

“Consider it done”

“Thanks Markov.”

Max took a deep breath and called Kim back.

“So, you were saying about the pickle.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Lila assumed she would be the first to arrive at school. She had made sure to get up earlier than usual so she could slip into the school and make sure everything was set up. To her surprise, she had found the classroom had two students sitting at their desks.

“Alya, Nino. You’re both here early.” Lila did her best not to sound mad about it.

Nino yawned as he drank from the coffee that he had bought with Alya before coming.

“Alya was so hyped about today she couldn’t sleep. So, She called me this morning and asked for a coffee date to help keep her awake.”

Alya was snoozing on her desk face first.

“Maybe get a double shot for her, she seems really exhausted. Wait was this about that paper for the ladyblog she was writing?”

“Wait you know about that?” Nino’s eyes wide, how did Lila know about the article? Was this plan going to backfire? Nino wasn’t sure if he said too much.

“Yea, she called me last night to answer a few questions. She was pretty excited about it. I suppose an article about akumatization would be popular.”

Nino eased himself, it’s clear Lila did not know what was in the article.

“Ah, well she was working on it all weekend.”

“Knowing Alya, that article will be exactly what she needs to get buzz on the blog.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Lila strolled up to her seat, it was clear the exhausted Alya and Drowzy Nino didn’t notice the evidence she had planted under Marinette’s chair. Lila smiled as she thought about how well today would go.

Lila pulled out her stuff and began to survey the classroom. Everything was set up exactly as she had done yesterday. All she needed to do was wait for everyone to show up, and then let the plan go into motion.

Nino sat at his desk, he was pretending to not be paying attention, but he was keeping watch of the devious liar. Lila was sneaky, and his girlfriend was in the middle of a power nap to be observant. Of course, he knew he wasn’t the most convincing fibber, so he would need to be subtle in keeping a close eye on the liar.

Lila had gotten up from her desk and left the classroom for a brief moment. She felt herself shudder.

What is this chill I’m getting, something doesn’t seem right with those two… are they suspicious?

Lila shook the thought out of her head. It was clear that they were just tired, likely on edge from lack of sleep. Getting paranoid would lead to her getting sloppy again. She needed to play this right. Today was the day everything started going her way again.

_______________________________________________________________________

Marinette was bubbly on her way to school. She couldn’t wait to tell Alya and the girls all about what happened yesterday. She knew that Alya would probably be over the moon, and something like this could only be said in person, texting would ruin the moment.

“Marinette, you might want to slow down.” Tikki pipped up from her bag. “I think someone is nearby.”

The designer slowed her pace a bit.

Marinette closed her bag and turned around to see a blond teen running up to her.

“Adrien?”

Marinette stopped to let the boy catch up.

“I… I wanted to surprise you at the bakery.” He said between breaths. “I wanted to walk with you to school.”

Marinette felt her cheeks warm at the statement.

“But I … miscalculated how far you were from my house and to make up for time… I sprinted.”

“You usually have your bodyguard drive you to class. Is your father okay with you walking to school?”

Adrien finished catching his breath.

“He doesn’t know and it’s probably better that he doesn’t, but I let my bodyguard know in advance. He seemed fine with it… Just as long as I message him when I am at school.”

“Sneaking out of the house to meet with a girl, I didn’t know I was dating a badboy.”

Adrien looked at Marinette with surprise until he realized she was joking. He found himself chuckling.

“Now you know the truth, I also have a leather jacket in my closet.” Adrien said while doing his best to look tough to play up the ‘Bad boy’ look he was trying and failing to portray.

Marinette giggled at that lame attempt. Adrien loved that sound.

“I don’t think I can imagine that. Besides, I like good boys.”

Marinette started walking to school.

Adrien sighed happily before matching her pace to join her.

He reached out his hand to hold hers, still nervous about how to go about this dating thing. Sure enough, Marinette was more than happy to hold his hand.

______________________________________________________________________

“I’m up!” Alya exclaimed as she shot up.

“Aw man! Now the moment is gone. I was going to draw on her face.” A pink haired teen frowned, as she held an open marker in her hand but Nino was standing in between her and the formerly sleeping teen.

The reporter quickly gathered her bearings and looked at the smaller teen.

“Like hell you are going to mark up my face.”

“Well now that you’re awake it’s no fun.” Alix commented with dissatisfaction. “Maybe later.”

Alya rolled her eyes. She is too tired to deal with whatever Alix is up to.

“I’m glad you got up, I wasn’t sure I could hold her off any longer.” Nino sighed in relief.

Alya stretched in order to wake herself up from her lethargic state.

“Did school start yet?”

“Not yet, but most of the class is here”

“Anything suspicious with you-know-who?”

“She was the first one to arrive in class after us. She went outside for about 5 minutes then came back into her seat. After that, nothing weird.”

“Okay, and I guess you didn’t notice anything else.”

“Nothing”

“Okay, and why does Alix want to draw on my face so bad? Did she make a bet with Kim?”

“Kim bet her 10 Euros that she wouldn’t be able to do it.”

“She will be out some cash.”

Chloé walked into the classroom with Sabrina following shortly behind. It was apparent that the mayor’s daughter was in a mood.

She looked up to Max’s seat and moved her way up. The robot enthusiast didn’t realize she was there until she slammed her hand on his desk. The sudden action startled him and made him look up at the clearly driven teen.

“I did some digging about your little app.” Chloé spat with disgust.

It took Max a moment to figure out what she was referring to.

“Oh, you mean ‘Soulmate Searcher.”

“I know all about that Soulmate Survey bull crap.”

Max had lost interest in that whole thing after he had some more startling information revealed to him. He had even forgot about the argument he had with Chloé.

“Wait, you’re still hung up on that?”

“You were the one talking about how smart and junk it was. I had Sabrina do some digging.”

Max looked to Sabrina, the poor ginger haired girl had a rough night. Likely researching for Chloé.

“Look, I kind of moved past looking into it. So, let’s just agree to disagree and move on.”

Chloé glared at the glasses wearing teen and snapped her fingers.

On cue, Sabrina dumped at least a couple dozen pages on the desk.

Max really didn’t care about this right now, he had a much more important objective to focus on, this was an annoying distraction.

Astonishingly it was Nathanael that picked up a few of the articles.

“These are all written by the same guy.” The artist commented as he kept changing articles to see if there was a second opinion by someone else.

Curious, some of the other classmates moved to the pile of papers.

“Some of these are also old articles, like back when the app wasn’t even a thing here.” Myléne chimed in.

“One of the articles even has an author’s note on the bottom that says that this article holds inaccuracies that no longer apply.” Rose Quipped.

Chloé turned a fiery gaze at Sabrina.

“I told you to research thoroughly!”

“You told me to find anything that was written dismissing the app as fake. This was what I was able to find…”

Chloé grumbled.

“Whatever! I know that app is crap.”

Chloé stormed down to her desk and threw herself on her seat, only to hear a creaking noise and then fall with a painful slam to the floor. The loud noise blocking out the sound of the morning bell.

Chloé’s scream was loud enough to draw the attention of Miss Bustier who ran into the room.

“Is everyone alright? I heard a scream?” The young teacher clearly frantic with worry.

The class was silent as the teacher noticed Chloé on the floor clearly in pain from her bench seat that had fallen apart.

Lila was the first to speak up.

“Chloé’s seat fell apart.”

Lila dashed down to Chloé.

“Are you alright Chloé, that looked like it hurt.” Lila offered her hand to the fallen student.

Chloé took Lila’s hand up and grumbled as she covered her bruised tailbone.

“I want whoever made the seat fired and jailed!”

“It probably broke from the weight of your ego.” Juleka commented dryly.

Chloé turned to the long-haired teen with a grimace.

“I bet you did this you, emo freak!”

“Chloé! We do not insult our classmates.” Miss Bustier scolded. “I understand you are hurt from the fall, but it isn’t right to lash out at your classmates. Apologize to Juleka.”

Chloé moved turned away from the class with a huff.

“I am not saying anything until the jerk that destroyed my seat pays.”

Alya took notice that Lila was digging through the seat. What could she be…”

“Umm, I found something…” Lila’s words caught the classes attention.

Lila pulled out a hair tie that looked familiar.

“Isn’t that Marinette’s Hair tie?” Sabrina piped up.

‘That manipulative bitch! Lila did this!” Alya felt her thoughts scream at her.

“I knew that she was in on this! She made sure she wasn’t here to catch me off guard!”

“It could just be a coincidence.” Lila spoke out. “Marinette isn’t even here yet. It might have gotten lost under here by accident.”

Alya felt her mind screech, this wasn’t adding up, why would Lila bother with the hair tie? What was Lila planning?

Most of the class had gotten out of their seats to look to see the situation.

Max took a closer look at the collapsed seat.

“There are no breaks in the boards, and no screws or bolts to be found. I calculate a 98.7% chance that someone must have removed them from the chair. Someone did sabotage Chloé’s seat.”

The class gasped in surprise.

“I knew it! And I bet it was Marinette that did it!”

“Marinette would never do such a thing!” Alya jumped up. “I know my girl would not stoop to something like this, even if it is Chloé.”

“Perhaps we can check her locker. If there is nothing involving the seat we can clear her.”

“Wait! You can’t just invade Marinette’s privacy.”

Miss Bustier pondered for a moment.

“If we are going to search Marinette’s locker, she will need to be present. She should give her consent before we invade her space.”

“But if she is responsible she would obviously not want us to check!” Chloé shouted. “I will call my daddy and he will have the cops on the case!”

“T-That won’t be necessary!” Miss Bustier eased. She hated how much influence Chloé had thanks to her father’s position. She couldn’t just punish Chloé or simply tell her not to act out. Principal Damocles made sure to explain the delicate balance they had to maintain thanks to Chloé’s presence. She can’t teach her students if Chloé starts getting the police involved.

“I will discuss the concern with the Principal. I am sure he will make the right call and we will decide how to go about this. In the meantime, everyone please sit in your seats. Chloé, if you are still hurt, please have someone escort you to the nurse’s office.”

“I will not be leaving until I get whoever did this expelled.” Chloé hissed.

“In that case, sit in one of the open seats until we can get the seat fixed. Sabrina, you as well.”

The red head teacher made her way out of the classroom.

Chloé turned her attention to the class.

“Alright, I don’t care what Bustier says, Marinette clearly was responsible for destroying my chair and I want some justice!”

“Chloé, just because Marinette’s hair tie was under the desk doesn’t mean that she did it. Besides, when could she have done it?” Ivan pointed out.

“Well then who else could have done it?”

“To be fair, all of us pretty much hate your guts, it could be anyone.” Alix commented as she leaned back.

“So, you admit you did it!”

“I wish! But nah, this wasn’t my handy work. I would have signed it. Because that, would be art.”

The tomato haired artist chuckled at his friend’s comment. Alix gave him a quick fistbump.

Chloé growled.

“You have just as much of an idea who did this as we all do.” Myléne stated firmly.

“Sabrina!”

“Yes Chloé?”

“Who have I wronged in this classroom?”

“Um… everyone.”

“I meant recently.”

“Right… lets see…”

Sabrina went into her phone.

“You had that argument with Max about the app, insulted Myléne’s favorite charity and called the cause stupid, Told Rosé that the reason Prince Ali hasn’t written back to her in the last few weeks was because he was sick of her, told kim his swim cap makes him look like a bowling pin, mocked Nathanael and Alix’s art project collaboration, and… Oh! You also made fun of Marinette’s design sketches. I think that was it for last week. It was a light week.”

“So, there are the obvious suspects.” Chloé exclaimed with a smirk.

“Now if Marinette would get here we would have a perfect line up.”

Lila smirked at the little show, this was all going perfectly. Naturally Marinette would show up just as Miss Bustier got the principal involved. That would lead to the search of the designer’s locker, where Lila had expertly planted the screws and tools that she used to dismantle Chloé’s seat, along with items that she took from other lockers, including her own stuff to make sure Marinette got punished. Based on what she knew, that would be enough to get Marinette suspended, possibly expelled. Either one would work out wonderfully, and with that she could start destroying each person she cared about one by one.

“What about a line up?” a teen boy voice called out.

Chloé turned to see Adrien and Marinette entering the classroom.

The room was silent as the two teens walked in. The whole class watching the duo intently, as if seeing something quite shocking.

“Is something wrong?” Marinette inquired, looking around the room.

She noticed the dismantled bench seat.

“Chloé what happened to your seat?”

Chloé’s jaw opened as she approached.

“Forget the seat! What is this!” She gestured to the two with clear shock and disgust.

Adrien and Marinette look at the mayor’s daughter with confusion before looking at what she was gesturing to. The two realized they had been holding hands the entire time.

“Oh, I think we all know what it is.” Alya’s comment burst through the silence, a smug smile on her face.

“But it would be best to hear it from them.” Nino chimed in, assisting his girlfriend in the playful ribbing of their best friends.

Marinette and Adrien felt their faces turn red and they let go of the other’s hand.

“Well actually its uh, my hand was… I mean his hand was… I …” Marinette tried to get the words out but felt her mouth failing her.

Adrien put his hand on her shoulder.

“Is it wrong for a guy to hold hands with a girl he is dating?”

Marinette felt her heart in her ears as he said that.

Adrien then looks to Nino.

“It is right? Im still new to this and the shows I watched kind of made it a big deal so Im not sure.”  He whispers.

Nino nods.

Adrien looks back at Chloé now more assured.

“This is ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous!”

Chloé stomped away from the two, just unable to handle the truth.

The mayor’s daughter walked out the door complaining about how she was going to be sick at this.

The class quickly swarmed the around the new couple and Alya slipped back to allow the class to ask them questions. She would get the details later.

Lila felt herself seething despite the smile she had on her face. This was not how things were supposed to be going. Even with her plan, Marinette won’t be miserable.

“Not going in?” Alya asked,

“Huh? Oh, I am sure I can ask questions later. Everyone has been waiting on this longer then I have.” The brunette commented as she kept up her façade.

She would have a word with Gabriel about this… actually she might not have to. If her plan goes well, Gabriel would never let Adrien be with someone that could besmirch the Gabriel brand. If word got out that Adrien’s new girl was kicked out of school, the tabloids would rip the girl apart for her. That thought soothed her.

“Besides, we should be concerned about what happened with Chloé’s seat. Max did say it was sabotage. We should focus on getting to the bottom of that.”

Alya looked at the clock. She noticed with everything going on, it was well into first period.

“I think something more important will come up.”

Alya went back to her desk with a sly smile on her face.

Lila felt a chill go down her spine. What did she mean by that?

As if on cue, everyone noticed their phones going off.

The class stop asking the couple questions as they look at their phones, wondering what was with the sudden message

Lila quickly pulled out her phone. Her face went pale as she looked at the attachment titled.

‘The True face of Lila Rossi’

______________________________________________________________________

Mr. Damocles was staring at his computer with shock as Miss Bustier stood in the room.

“It’s unbelievable… the records that we were waiting on for Miss Rossi are all here.”  The principle spoke in bewilderment.

The young teacher watched as Mr.Damocles looked through each file.

“So many reprimands… dozens of student and teacher complaints…. False doctor’s notes…”

“This can’t be real, right? Lila has been a good student. Sure, she had a leave of absence but that was because she was abroad with her mother.”

“These documents are all legitimate. They are all from the previous school Miss Rossi attended, she had failed to notify us of any of the following when she was enrolled here! We could never have accepted a student with such a notorious record.” The principal sternly noted.

“Mr.Damocles please, it could be possible that Miss Rossi was scared about the whole situation. Perhaps this was her chance to start things right.”

“Caline, your kindness and compassion for your students is quite admirable, however, these records still show that there was a lot Miss Rossi has been hiding from us. I will be requesting that she and her mother have a discussion with me. After that, we will decide on whether she can stay Dupont.”

“But what about the issue with Chloé’s chair?”

“You mentioned that Chloé is not injured? Then it can wait until after we sort things out with Miss Rossi.”

“Understood.”

The young teacher left the office, she began to start questioning her actions as a teacher. Was Lila really a bad egg? Was she an awful teacher for not realizing that Lila had been lying to her? She stopped at the door to her classroom when she heard the sound of her students talking.

______________________________________________________________________________

Lila could feel everything falling apart around her as she watched her classmates look at their phones with interest.

She needed to find a way out of this. She needed to think of something fast.

“Lila, is this true?” Nathanael asked in surprise.

The rest of the class looking up from their phones, their expressions a mix of anger, hurt and shock. Marinette and Adrien seemed to be the only ones that seemed unsurprised by the message.

Lila racked her brain for several seconds, until the perfect lie crafted itself in her brain.

Lila fell to her knees and started to cry.

“I thought I was free of that cyber bully from my old school…” Her words hitting the right notes.

“Cyber bully?” Rose spoke up.

Lila knew she had landed one person that was willing to believe. And much like a composer, she crafted her symphony of deceit.

“Yes, you see. Back at my old school, there was this guy I was friends with. He was a smart guy with computers, almost as smart as Max.”

“Wait, if you were friends, why is he bullying you?” Kim inquired.

Most of the class was being pulled in by Lila’s thread.

“He had a huge crush on me, while I did think he was nice, I just couldn’t see him as anything more than a friend. I told him that after he confessed to me. After that however, things started to turn bad. It started out with some minor things, a couple of spam emails, a text with a pop up scare. I could tell he was hurt so I didn’t call him out on it, I was sure he would heal and things could go back to normal… but then he started getting worse.”

“He started hacking into my phone, sending out messages to my other friends, making it seem like I hated them.” Lila made her voice more frantic, as if living through a trauma.

She could tell the class that had been looking at the phones with rage were now back under her thumb, she had them.

“I lost all of my friends, no matter what I tried to say, they shut me off. That guy destroyed my friend group. I went up to him and demanded he come clean. He refused, laughing as he insulted me. He had decided he was going to ruin my life.”

Kim went to the teacher’s desk to get Lila the tissue box.

Lila looked up at the swimmer.

“Thank you.”

She took a tissue to dab her eyes.

“The jerk then hacked into the school’s records, changing my grades, my attendence, he even messed with my medical records at the school! It was hell!”

“Lila…” Myléne moved to her side.

“So, when my Mom got the job to work at the French embassy here, I was so excited. I could finally get away from that cruel monster’s clutches… but so much for that! Now you all hate me and think I am this awful person!” Lila cried into her arms.

“We don’t think that!”

“Of course, we wouldn’t believe that!”

Lila hid her sinister grin as she heard the comments of her classmates. She had easily pulled the wool over their eyes. Much like before she had escaped the jaws of defeat with her deception.

Until the sound of her voice was coming from another source.

Lila looked up and felt the world shake as the horror she assumed she avoided was being undone by what she had gone so far to get rid of. The recording.

“Of course, it was all lies. Knowing Spielberg? Being friends with a prince? All of those outlandish lies and yet everyone ate it up so easily. I don’t know whether it’s something in la seine but everyone here is super gullible. Everyone in that class is stupid enough to believe anything! I didn’t even try to come up with clever lies. Have none of them even heard of Google? I was able to have them eating out of the palm of my hand like the sheep they are. So when I say I could ruin your life Marinette, I can ruin your life without even lifting a finger.”

Alya paused the recording.

“That… that isn’t me! That was clearly an edited audio file!”

But at this point, everyone in the class had stopped buying into Lila’s words.

“There’s an additional 44 minutes on here that say otherwise.” Alya’s statement was like a dagger in the leg. “

The class backed away from Lila, their expressions were all the same now. They were not happy with her. They were hurt.

“Lila… how could you?” Rose spoke softly, as if holding back tears.

Juleka hugged her close.

“We gave you our friendship?”

“You threatened our friend!” Kim shouted angrily.

“We trusted you!”

“Did you even care about us?”

A sea of comments from each student that was hurt by the revelation started to fill the room.

Adrien and Marinette’s expressions read more as surprise than anything else. The two had no idea Lila would be exposed like this. The class was hurt by Lila’s actions, and now she was paying the price.

Marinette moved to where alya was.

“So, this was why you were so busy.”

“Yea, and I see I wasn’t the only one whose been busy.”

Marinette had a soft smile with her friend’s comment.

“You’re the best. You know that, right?”

“No, If I was I would’ve had your back sooner. I’m sorry it took so long to come around.”

“You are still the best.”

Alya hugged the designer.

“I’m serious, after this. I want details on you and Mr. Model.”

“Deal.”

Lila did her best to try and contest the comments, trying to find some way to dispute them, but her words were falling on deaf ears. She could tell that no matter what she said, no matter what she did, it was over. She had lost.

Lila turned her attention to Marinette, her eyes seeing red.

“You, this was all your doing!”

Adrien went in front of Marinette, as if to protect her in case Lila tries to attack her.

“No Lila, you did this to yourself.” The words coming from the blond were colder then ice.

“Adrien, you don’t seriously believe all this…”

“I tried to be your friend, we all did. But you lied to our faces, you hurt our friends, you threatened Marinette. Those are things I can’t forgive.”

Lila glared at Marinette.

“Are you going to hide behind him! Have you nothing to say!?”

Marinette expected to have a whole speech ready the moment the truth was revealed, but she never expected everything to fall into place like this. Marinette felt pity for the exposed liar.

She walked past Adrien and looked into Lila’s eyes.

“I’m sorry that you didn’t think the real you was good enough for us to get to  know.”

Lila acted as if she had been struck in the face. She lost the last of what remained of her tact. She was being pitied!

“You will pay for this! You don’t get to ruin my life without consequences!”

“Is it because you’re getting an akuma from your buddy, Hawkmoth?”

Everyone turned to the ladyblogger, who pointed to her phone.

“You might want to check the Ladyblog.”

Lila suddenly felt a pit of unfathomable despair hit her. What had that blogger done?

Lila forced herself to go to the ladyblog, and on the front page on the site.

Friend of Ladybug or Akuma Collaborator? The Truth on Lila Rossi

Right underneath was security footage of her grabbing an akuma for herself.

This was the absolute worst-case scenario.

Lila ran to the door. She needed to leave. She needed to escape. She needed some way to clean all of this up, but she was stopped. A clearly distraught teacher at the door. Tears rolling down her face and expression that no student has ever seen on the young teacher’s face. Sorrow.

“Lila, I need you to come to the Principal’s office.”

Everyone stood by and watched silently as Miss Bustier took the lying student away.

____________________________________________________________________

“Miss Bustier it isn’t what you think!”

The young teacher didn’t say a word as Lila tried to talk her way out. She was hurt by her students lies, the anguish she put her other students through, and never once looked into it. She felt like a failure of a teacher, she had defended her and this was what she came to find? It was unforgivable.”

She had brought the girl to Mr.Damocles’ office.

“Sit down Miss Rossi.” The owl-like man in the chair stated firmly.

Lila obeyed as Miss Bustier wiped her tears and looked at the Principal.

“Sir, I have some rather disturbing news I found out about Lila.”

“No need Caline. I had found the recording at the end of the documents.”

Lila couldn’t feel more mortified by this. This was some kind of twisted nightmare.

Lila of course wasn’t expecting the next person to walk through the door.

“Mamma?”

______________________________________________________________________________

A masked villain smiled as the window opened to let light into the empty room.

“This is it! This was the anguish I was waiting for! Lila Rossi, you will be my greatest akuma yet.”

He took a butterfly into his hand and turned into an akuma.

“Fly away my little akuma! And evilize her!”

The black buttefly left the lair and began to fly out and find the source of the negative energy.

“Mayura, it is your turn.”

The blue clad villainess step forward, plucking a feather from her fan and turning it a sinister blue.

She blows the feather away into the wind, following the butterfly.

“Fly away my beautiful amok, enhance and hone that despair into a mighty power.”

The two villains watch the sky light as they await to make contact.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. This will be the end of Ladybug and Chat noir.”

Lila ran out of the school, it was bad enough that people found out the truth about her, But her momma?! She couldn’t watch her mother’s heart break as she learned the truth. She ran out of the office before they said anything to her.

‘I need to find a way out of this. Marinette and Alya ruined everything! Now I am the class outcast and what’s worse, my momma is going to find out everything! I need to stop this! I need to get everyone back under my control.

Lila made her way to an alley way and hid behind a dumpster. She wasn’t sure if she was being followed, but she could not risk it. Perhaps she could talk with Mr. Agreste, he could pull enough strings that could… no, he would likely dismiss her. Her usefulness was done. With everyone against her, there was no way she could do anything.

She sat and let her despair run over her. There was nothing she could do, she felt so powerless. Everything she had been building up to. Everything she had wanted was all in reach… and yet it was ripped away from her! She would do anything to have things back to how they were, back when she was in charge!

She heard something approaching. She looked up, clearly not ready to face her punishment. But what she didn’t expect to see was a butterfly coming her way.

The butterfly made its way to the silver charm bracelet on her wrist and a feather made its way into her earing. A butterfly outline appeared over her face.

“The despair of having everything you have built come crashing down.” A familiar deep voice spoke

“All of that effort dashed in one catastrophic moment.” A feminine voice continued the line, a new yet equally sinister tone.

“You were the queen of deception until they shattered your crown”

“The pain you have suffered by that horrible event.”

“What you wouldn’t give to fix everything and gain that power over others you once had.”

“Hawkmoth, so you show yourself. I was thinking you forgot all about me. And it seems you made a new friend.” Lila interrupted their eerie rhyme.

“Oh, as if I couldn’t forget about my most competent akuma.” Hawkmoth Praised.

“I am Mayura, partner of Hawkmoth, I have been watching you closely Miss Rossi.” Mayura introduced herself. “It appears you have yourself in a much more devastating predicament then before.”

“It’s all your akuma’s fault, it’s all Marinette’s fault… Its all of their faults!’

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. I am going to give you the power to get those classmates of yours back under your power, no, all of Paris under your control. You will topple Paris with an army of unquestionably loyal akuma.”

“And I will give you an ally that will obey any order from you without question.”

The Italian Exchange student loved the sound of that.

“Let me guess, all I need to do is to get Ladybug and Chat noir’s miraculous.”

“Good girl. Do we have a deal?”

“Crushing Ladybug will be therapeutic right about now. I’ll have that entire school under my foot, along with those miserable brats that ruined my life.”

“Very well! I grant you the power to reveal the akuma lying underneath each person with your masks! Show the world who you truly are, Masquerade.”

_____________________________________________________________________

(And that was Part 30! Thank you guys so much for reading up to this point. This was a long time coming. I hope it reached your expectations. Now remember to say what you think of the chapter, good, bad. I want to hear your thoughts. Is it worth seeing Part 31?

Now, I did mention that I will be announcing a new contest. Which After this reaches 1k notes I will be officially announcing.)

(If you want to support me directly, check out my ko-fi. Or if you want to support indirectly, take a look at the webcomic I am writing with @knightsweeties)

Special Honorary Tags: @martasaur @dootintootincowboy @inno-chan @tenten-hinamori @bevvydraws @worteltje7

[peskygirl13]

Pics or It Didn’t Happen

Mild salt and slight hints of Maribat, but mostly crack. 

I did get some ideas from @unmaskedagain‘s blog. 

Their ml salt and/or crack fics sustain me. 

~~~

Marinette learned pretty quickly that even if you had proof, not everyone will listen. It’s always better to have pictures than words, because more people will believe you that way. 

It was a slow burn, but Lila Rossi had successfully turned Miss Bustier’s class against the girl. It hurt when her once friends called her jealous and a bully. 

Her! Marinette! 

Did they forget that she had been bullied by Chloe for years? Why would she become a bully after being bullied herself?

And jealous? Jealous of what? Marinette’s crush on Adrien had long simmered out into nothing but cinders. The boy was a spineless coward who would rather pretend everything was ok rather than stand up and face the truth.

It hurt that this had happened, but, oddly enough, Marinette got some of her greatest allies through this. 

It started with Chloe. 

One particularly gloomy day, Marinette saw the blonde sitting alone while eating her lunch. Sabrina had long abandoned the blonde for Lila’s fool’s gold and, not for the first time in her life, Chloe felt alone.

Now, despite their long hated history, Marinette wasn’t heartless. The Ladybug in her compelled her to sit next to the blonde and eat. Chloe stared at her, surprised, but said nothing as she continued to eat herself.

That lunch started a truce and led to a friendship. 

Next was Moriah. 

Moriah was an exchange student from America. Marinette was surprised the day she walked into the bakery and saw her parents talking with a shy looking brunette girl with glasses. 

Her parents told her that Moriah was a transfer student from America  that they would be hosting for the next few years if all went well. 

Moriah was very shy around new people, so when they arrived at school the next day, she stayed close to Marinette. Lila saw this and tried to tempt her into her web of lies. 

Moriah was interested in Lila’s tales, but cautious. She looked up any proof of Lila’s stories and found no evidence. She looked up Lila’s name. Nothing. 

When she tried pointing this out to the class, she was shunned. Chloe and Marinette welcomed her with open arms. 

After a month or so, Moriah became much more comfortable. She was witty and funny, and she had no qualms about defending her friends and she always tried to remain to the side of justice. 

This was one of the reasons Marinette decided to give her a miraculous. 

After a week of living together, Moriah found out Marinette was Ladybug. The girls had to share a room and Marinette came back late in the night, still dressed as Ladybug, assuming Moriah was asleep and detransformed in her room. 

Moriah dropped the book she was reading and squeaked behind the Asian girl.

The next few days included Moriah beating herself up about not noticing that her roommate was a superhero.

About a month or two later, was when Marinette began debating whether or not she should give Chloe and Moriah a miraculous. 

Chloe, Marinette knew she wanted to give a miraculous too. The blonde had long ago proved that she was trustworthy and ready to re-wield a miraculous, but she didn’t want to risk anyone knowing that it was Chloe like with Queen Bee.

Moriah was a different story. Marinette was scared about risking something and making a mistake like she did trusting Alya. And the risk was much higher with Moriah since the brunette girl knew Marinette was Ladybug and the Guardian. 

It wasn’t until when Ondine was akumatized again that Marinette made her choice. 

Lila had manipulated Kim and convinced him to dump Ondine, to which she was akumatized into Syren again. 

Ladybug had to fight this one almost alone because recently, Chat Noir had been showing less and less. He blamed it on his other life, but Ladybug couldn’t help but get the feeling that it was because she kept rejecting him. 

It was a long hard battle and by the time it was through, Ladybug knew she needed help. If Chat Noir was going to be a little bitch, fine. But this wasn’t going to happen again. 

That day, Marinette decided to give Chloe the Fox Miraculous and Moriah the Bee Miraculous. They became the heroes; Vixen and Yellow Jacket.

(“This is why I’m a dog person.” Yellow Jacket commented, pointing at Chat Noir as he arrived late to their first fight with disdain.)

Miss Bustier’s class were both excited and confused about the new heroes. What happened to Rena Rouge? 

Alya threw her phone when she saw Ladybug announce that Vixen and Yellow Jacket would be the new, permanent holders of the miraculouses. 

Many mocked Chloe for being replaced, assuming that the girl would throw a tantrum, but she ignored them. 

What Moriah couldn’t understand is how nobody noticed how similar Vixen and Queen Bee looked. 

The next ally was Luka, who turned out to be the most helpful. 

He never knew about the tall-tales that the class had been told until one day when the girls came by to his house boat and was met with a disgruntled Moriah whose hair was cut.

Moriah had pretty magenta peek-a-boo highlights that were hardly noticeable, but Lila decided to complain that Moriah’s colored hair was distracting her. Mr Damocles ordered her to get rid of the colors from her hair or she’d be expelled. 

Moriah, while normally always respectful, especially to adults, looked stunned. She pointed to Alix and Juleka, yelling; “What about Alix and Juleka?! Their hair is more obvious than mine! Why shouldn’t they change their hair?”

She was not allowed back on campus until the color had been removed from her hair. Moriah was furious and called her parents, telling them what had happened, and told Tom and Sabine the same thing with Chloe and Marinette.

Both parties were furious, but there was nothing Moriah’s parents could do since they were in America and Tom and Sabine tried talking to Mr Damocles about the issue, stating that there was nothing in the school rules against dyed hair and why it shouldn’t be more important than the education, but the man refused to budge. 

Eventually, after three days of failing to get Mr Damocles to see reason and missed school, Tom and Sabine emailed the school board about the issue and, with no choice until they responded, Moriah was forced to get rid of her highlights.

She flat out refused to dye her hair because to get all the highlights out, they’d have to dye her whole head, so Moriah was forced to cut her locks short to remove the color. 

Needless to say, she was pissed. 

As was Luka.

The boy had grown to be good friends with the girl and liked her highlights. Seeing the rockin’ pink cut out sucked. When he asked what had happened, the girls told him everything, including Lila’s tabloid tales.

Luka was quick to pull Juleka aside and open her eyes to reason. When the girl found out the truth, the first thing she did was tell Rose. 

The blonde girl’s eyes were opened too, and were quick to fill with tears. Everything was a lie. How could they have been so stupid? Then they remembered that Marinette had tried to warn them and were overcome with guilt. How could they make it up to her?

Marinette, Chloe, and Moriah were watching Heathers (Moriah’s suggestion) in Marinette’s room with their kwamis when Rose and Juleka entered. (Tikki, Pollen, and Trixx hid before the girls could see them)

The movie was paused and the girls stared at each other, waiting for something to happen. There was a beat of silence before Rose burst into tears.

“Marinette, we’re so sorry! We should’ve listened to you!” 

Rose and Juleka told them that Luka had opened their eyes and that they never should have believed Lila’s stories and how they had tried to prove it to Ivan and Mylene too, but they wouldn’t listen. 

They ended their apology by saying; “We know we don’t deserve your forgiveness, but we are sorry and we want to make it up to you. Starting with this.”

Both girls handed Marinette two hundred dollars each. Marinette looked between the girls and the money in shock. 

“It’s payment for everything you’ve done for us. Every dress, outfit, accessory, baked good, everything. We know it isn’t enough, but it’s all we can afford right now. We promise to give you more once we have it.”

There were a few minutes of silence after that. Marinette blinked at the girls before tearing up and smiling.

“No. You don’t have to give me anymore. This will do.” She reassured. 

Rose and Juleka awkwardly nodded, but Marinette could tell they were somewhat relieved. There was an awkward silence before Moriah spoke up. 

“I know you’re lesbians, but do you want to drool over JD with us?”

Rose and Juleka blushed, but nodded their heads happily, rushing over to join the group.

It wasn’t just the girls though. Nathaniel never believed the stories, but was scared about what would happen if he spoke up. Seeing Rose and Juleka of all people step up made him join too. Marinette also had allies in students in other classes too, like Marc, Calude, and Aurore as well as in other schools, like Kagami and Felix. For the first time in a long time, Marinette felt much better. 

She should have known it wouldn’t last. 

That night she and Moriah returned to their room after patrol, she should have noticed that her sketchbook wasn’t where she left it on her desk. 

She should have noticed when she and Moriah got up in the morning, but they were so exhausted from the night before to think of anything more than food and getting ready. 

The girls met up with Chloe at the school gates and they had just walked into the classroom when they saw Alya talking with Miss Bustier, Lila and her sheep herded on one side of the room and the rest on the other side, looking murderous. Marinette almost instantly got a gut feeling that something was wrong.

Boy was she right.

When the girls were noticed, Lila’s sheep gave them smug looks while the girl herself gave them a faux innocent look. 

She did something.

Miss Bustier cleared her throat before turning to face the girls. 

“Girls, because of your behavioral issues, the class decided that it would be best if you three didn’t go on the class trip.”

Oh yeah, the class trip. 

During the third and final year, the seniors of the school were allowed a class trip. It was to be organized by the class, mostly the president, and the entire class had to do fundraisers to pay for it. 

To be completely honest, the last thing the three girls wanted to do was go on a trip with their class. Nathaniel and Marc had gotten an internship at DC Comics (courtesy of MDC) and that was taking place exactly during the class trip and Luka and Juleka’s mom decided that they were going to sail around the world this summer and Rose got permission to tag along. 

It would only be the three girls together with a class who hated them, but Marinette was the class president and had to organize it, and if she had to organize the whole thing then she was going to enjoy the fruits of her labor. And Chole and Moriah weren’t going to let her suffer alone. 

The bluenette had already begun planning the trip. Places to go and fundraising to do. She even decided to go ahead and book reservations. It was unfair!

Marinette opened her mouth to argue when her eye caught something in the trash that made her heart stop. 

Praying she was wrong, she slowly walked to the trash can and pulled out it’s contents. 

There was her sketchbook, tattered and torn.

She couldn’t believe it. Marinette started hyperventilating, looking at the scraps of her work.

Marinette had several sketchbooks, she filled them out rather fast, but that specific sketchbook was one filled with the design ideas she had for Jagged Stone’s tour that was happening this summer. 

Marinette felt the world around her spiralling. She felt dizzy. Distantly she could hear people calling her name, but couldn’t comprehend it. 

She felt sick. 

She was going to be sick! 

That was the last thing she remembered before running home, people calling her name as she left the school.

~~~

Always make friends with people who are loyal. 

A good friend will make you feel better after someone hurt you. 

But a best friend will skip beside you with an old, rusty bat singing “Someone’s gonna get it~”

After Marinette ran out, Chloe, Moriah, Juleka, Rose, and Nathaniel all screamed at their classmates and teacher, telling them how incompetent they were. Moriah, too angry to remember how to speak french, called them scum sucking creeps of the earth that Satan wouldn’t even want in hell. 

It probably would’ve gone farther, but the three competent classmates gave Chloe and Moriah a look and told them to go after Marinette. 

The girls listened with no hesitation. 

They ran all the way to the Dupan-Cheng bakery. They walked in and Tom and Sabine looked at them before glancing upstairs with sad looks. Both girls knew immediately what they meant. They went upstairs to see Marinette doing breathing exercises, trying to keep from crying or even being sad at all. Tikki was patting her wielder's leg. 

Moriah instantly ran over to Marinette while Chloe was quick to close any windows, doors, and cover any cracks and creases that an akuma could get through before joining them

Fuck Hawkmoth! There was no way the girls were going to let Marinette try and keep this bottled up so that she wouldn’t get akumatized. 

Chloe decided that the best thing for them to do was go to her father’s hotel and have a girls night, which is precisely what they did. What Marinette didn’t know was that there was a double meaning behind it.

The girls and their kwamis spent the night eating junk food and watching chick-flicks like Legally Blonde and Mean Girls. Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel told the others what had happened, and Chloe and Moriah were met with numerous texts, asking if they needed to come over, but the girls reassured everyone that they had it covered.

Finally, Marinette had passed out. It was after midnight and Chloe and Moriah exchanged looks before getting to work. 

Tip-toeing out of the room, closing the door behind them, Moriah unlocked Marinette’s phone and opened her contacts. 

Scrolling down the list, taking note of a few names she wanted to ask the bluenette about later, she found the contact they were looking for. 

Jagged Stone. 

Hitting the face-time button, the girls waited for Jagged to answer. The rock star was currently in America, and should only be mid afternoon over there. Even if it wasn’t, he’d stop in the middle of a live concert if Marinette was calling him.

Sure enough, after two beeps, the screen changed to Jagged’s face.

“Marinette, love! So good to hear from you-” He stopped short when he saw the two girls, neither of which being his honorary niece.

“Moriah? Chloe? What’re you doing calling me on Marinette’s phone?”

That was all it took before the girls told him everything. Lila’s stories, all worthy of a lawsuit, what happened to Marinette’s sketchbook, they even emailed him pictures of the texts that the class had sent to Marinette, most of which encuriged the girl to comitte suicide, and a link to the LadyBlog to prove that everything was true.

About midway during their confession, Penny had appeared on the screen, reading the emails that the girls had sent her. By the time Chloe and Moriah were finished, the pair looked like they wanted to commit murder.

Jagged yelled in fury, wanted to take legal action immediately, but Moriah cut in before he could.

“I agree with you Jagged, but what Marinette needs is a break. She needs a vacation from her class and Paris in general.” 

Chloe nodded in agreement.

Jagged brought a hand to his chin in thought. The girls had a point, but what to do? 

~~~

It was Penny’s idea. 

The first thing the girls did in the morning was burn all the plans that Marinette had made for the trip. They cancelled the reservations and when they got to school, Marinette walked up to Miss Buster’s desk and said; “I’m resigning as class president. If the class doesn’t want Chloe, Moriah, and I to join them on the class trip, then I won’t plan it.”

And that was it. 

Lila had been chosen as the new class president.

To her credit, she did do a decent job. She had decent fundraising ideas, but she started late in the school year, so the class only raised enough money to go to Disneyland Paris.

Chloe snorted.

The class attended the trip in June. Their social media and camera rolls filled with pictures. Most of the captions read that they were glad to get away from the bullies at school.

It wasn’t till after the trip that they found out what happened with the girls. 

It was Alix who found out first. In the class group chat, save the three ‘bullies,’ Alix texted: “OMG, look at this!”

Underneath was a picture of the three girls at the airport with Jagged Stone, Penny, and Fang. The three were posing like Charlie’s Angels, wearing huge grins, with the caption: “Touring with Jagged Stone All Summer!!”

Penny was a genius. 

Lila looked at her phone in horror. This couldn’t be happening.

Oh, my dear liar, but it is!

The first stop was Gotham. Jagged was performing at a Gala hosted by Bruce Wayne, which the girls would be attending. But first, they got a tour of Wayne industries. 

The first picture in Gotham was taken by Moriah at Wayne industries. She was looking at the phone camera like she was on the Office while very clearly behind her you could see Marinette talking with Damian Wayne, the youngest Wayne son, and Chloe talking with a boy named Jonathan ‘Jon’ Kent, son of famous reporters Lois Lane-Kent and Clark Kent. Alya nearly snapped her phone in half when she recognized the boy. The pairs were obviously flirting. The picture’s captain read: ”First Day in Gotham and I’m already a fifth wheel.”

The next two pictures taken were a surprise to everyone. 

They were taken by Chloe in the late night streets of Gotham. The first one was a picture of Marinette sitting on the driver's seat of the batmobile looking like all her dreams had come true while Batman stood beside her, arms crossed, looking rather stern.

The second picture was Moriah holding two pistols with starry eyes with Red Hood standing beside her, explaining to her how to shoot them, with an alarmed Marinette and Nightwing running towards them in the background. 

The girls did take a selfie with the entire Batfam, but they decided not to post that one.

The next few days were mainly pictures of the girls sightseeing (with the occasional sneaky picture Moriah took of her friends with Damian and Jon). However, at one point the girls were adopted (kidnapped) by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Chloe and Marinette both agree that the weirdest thing that happened in Gotham was Moriah bonding with a talking plant named Frank.

Eventually, it was the night of the Wayne Gala. None of the girls took pictures of the gala, but the entrance was on tv, which Miss Bustier’s class made a movie night out of. 

Sure enough, walking down the red carpet were the girls. Marinette had made new outfits for all of them, just for the gala, and they were stunning.

Marinette wore a long scarlet dress. It was fashioned like a traditional chinese dress, but more Marinette-y. There were intricate designs stitched in black around the bottom of the dress with a silk sash tied around her waist. Her hair was pulled up into a bun with a fancy stain glass rose pin in it. 

Chloe wore a glamorous gold mermaid dress. It shimmered with every step she took with glittering blue details on the top that matched her makeup. And if you looked down, you could see her wearing gold, literal gold, heels. Her hair was down in beach wave curls with blue strands woven into it.

Lila and Alya screamed when they saw both girls being escorted in by Damian Wayne and Jon Kent respectively. 

Jagged and Penny were linked together. Penny wore a v-neck, sleeveless shimmering silver dress, also made by Marinette, while Jagged wore a dark purple suit. It looked pretty monotone for the man at first, but when lights hit the suit, you could see that there had been music notes embroidered into the suit that turned it into a rainbow of color.

Moriah’s dress came as a bit of a surprise. Marinette knew Moriah was more comfortable in pants than a dress, but she still wanted the girl to wear a dress, so they compromised. Moriah wore a dress that was also crossed with a suit. Kind of like Garnet’s wedding dress from Steven Universe.

She wore a tuxedo jacket over a white, sleeveless dress that draped down longer in the back, shorter in the front. She had a red sash wrapped around her waist and black tights with red shoes to match. Around her neck was a shirt collar and bow-tie that she wore like a choker. Her hair was half up and half down in curls. Moriah wasn’t one to wear make up, but since it was a special occasion, she wore some mascara and a little lipstick.

The biggest surprise was her escort. 

Walking beside her was Fang, dressed in his own original Marinette tux that matched Jagged’s.

For the rest of the night, nobody knew what happened to the girls at the gala. It wasn't until the next morning that they found out.

Chloe and Marinette spent most of the night hanging out with Jon and Damian, but whenever they weren’t doing that, they talked with the other guests, most of whom asked for the designer of their outfits, which really boosted traffic on Marinette’s website. 

Moriah hung out around the dessert table most of the night, snacking on a bit of everything, while talking with the other Wayne sons. At some point, totally unclear on the how and why, Moriah and the oldest Wayne son, Dick Grayson, got into a dance fight. The gala ended before the fight did, so they had to call a draw.

Their next destination was New York, but they made a slight detour to Metropolis per Jon and Chloe’s request. They got a VIP tour of the Daily Planet and met Jon’s parents: Lois Lane-Kent and Clark Kent. 

Moriah recorded Lois tearing into the LadyBlog with a grin on her face, having no remorse in posting it online.

Alya couldn’t understand it as she watched her idol tearing into her life’s work.

Then the girls’ mentioned BugOut, the blog Aurore ran, and Lois was a lot more pleasant. 

Alya threw her phone when she got a text from Nino that Marinette got Aurore an internship at the Daily Planet for winter and spring break, and possibly summer if she did well.

The next picture posted was the first one Marinette took. It was of her two friends hanging off Superman’s massive muscles as he flexed. Chloe denies ever drooling.

After that, they left for New York. Specifically, the Avengers’ Tower. It was the anniversary of when the Avengers first became a team, and Tony Stark, an old friend of Jagged’s, highered the man to play at the party. 

Before then, they toured the Avengers tower. At one point, they walked in to see Captain America, Bucky Barns, and Thor working out. Shirtless. Moriah let out a quiet but passionate “Hell yes” when they saw them. 

After the three men, regretfully, put on their shirts, they showed off their equipment. Chloe couldn’t help but squeal when Captain America handed her his shield. Marinette grinned as she hung off Bucky’s metal arm as he flexed it. Moriah was once again handed guns, this time by Black Widow, which were once again promptly taken from her.

After all that excitement came the big guns. Per the girls’ request, Penny recorded them trying to lift Thor’s hammer. It was all fun and games until Marinette easily picked it up. It was dead quiet before Thor’s voice thundered across the room.

“She is worthy! I must take her to Asgard with me!” 

Tony took a step forward. “Thor, you can’t take a child.” He stressed.

Thor tilted his head at the millionaire like a puppy. Moriah winced, grabbing her heart. That face was too cute for a grown-ass space god.

“Then what is the spider-kid?”

Tony faceplamed. “He’s my intern and protege. I’m his mentor!”

“Then I shall be this child’s mentor!”

“No!”

“Miss Potts can be Chloe’s mentor, for they are both fit to rule!” Chloe preened at this. 

“Thor, no!”

Moriah raised her hand. “Can the kick-ass, Russian spy be my mentor?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at the girl before smirking.

“Yes! Black Widow will become Moriah’s mentor! It all works out! Now, I must take my new protege to Asgard to meet the All-Father.”

“Thor, no!” 

“Don’t you take my niece!” Jagged ran into the phone’s picture, looking ready to fuck-up a god. 

The video ended with Penny dropping the phone and running towards Jagged who was now riding on Thor’s back, pulling his hair.

The video went viral in an hour. 

Lila’s hands trembled as she watched the video, feeling herself paleing. She had become enemies with someone who could lift Thor’s hammer.

This wasn’t posted, but shortly after Penny got Jagged off Thor, Loki appeared. He tried explaining that he felt powerful magic coming from the tower, but was cut short when Moriah tackled him to the ground in an aggressive hug.

While we’re on the subject of proteges, at some point, Peter came over. He heard that Jagged Stone was at the tower and wanted to meet him. He, Ned, and MJ were huge fans and he really needed an autograph. 

Friday told him that Jagged was with the other Avengers in the training room. Promptly saying thanks to the A.I, the spider boy practically ran to the room. What he didn’t expect was to open the door to see a short, brunette girl German suplex the Winter Soldier while wearing heels. (A trick Natasha had taught her. The Black Widow took being a mentor very seriously.)

Tony turned to see who was at the door and was met with a red faced, dazed Peter Parker who was clutching the area over his heart like it was about to beat out of his chest.

“Natasha, your kid broke my minion!”

(Now Marinette and Chloe got their fill of taking sneaky pictures of Moriah and Peter.)

The girls did normal sightseeing stuff around New York. They went to a town called Riverdale and Moriah met a guy named Jughead. They bonded over having friends with love issues that attracted endless people while they just wanted to eat burgers.

At some point they were in another dangerous situation, but this time they met some guy named Deadpool who would make this One-Shot Rated-R if I actually put anything he said in it.

While in New York, they went to two Broadway Musicals. The first one was Phantom of the Opera. (Jagged didn’t really want to see this one, but he was outnumbered one to four. (Five including Fang. The crocodile had a weird love for Opera music.)) They also had a backstage pass where pictures of Marinette conversing with the person in charge of costumes, Chloe complementing the actress who played Christine, and Moriah hugging the actor who played the Phantom were taken.

After that, Jagged took them to see Hamilton. What the girls’ didn’t know, however, was that this was a special show with the original cast. Moriah screamed when she saw Lin Manuel-Miranda on the stage as Alexander Hamilton and when they went backstage, Moriah started crying when the cast greeted her.

Mylene, who admired the man herself, felt her heart break when she saw the picture of a joy-crying Moriah hugging Lin.

After that, they went to Florida for Jagged’s next concert at Universal Studios. They didn’t meet anyone famous there, but the class were still envious of the pictures. 

Moriah was a huge Potter Head, so this was a dream come true. She hissed at Marinette and Chloe when they playfully mocked her Hufflepuff shirt while they sported matching Slytherin shirts. 

They also went to Disney World, which was also a dream come true. The funniest thing that happened there was while Jagged and Moriah were off trying to waste hundreds of dollars on ice cream and other junk food with Penny trying to stop them, one of the park’s managers thought that Chloe and Marinette were supposed to fill-in for two of the disney princesses. Jagged, Penny, and Moriah came back to find Chloe dressed like Elsa and Marinette dressed like Mulan. Moriah laughed hysterically at the two girls until the same park manager pulled her away and she came out dressed like Belle.

Originally, Florida was supposed to be the final place, but there was a last minute change. Turns out that Jagged Stone has a sister who lives in Japan with a daughter named Kyoko Jirou.

While they were on tour, Jirou and her classmates had done a performance for their school’s festival.

Jagged, of course, was inspired and requested Penny to schedule one last performance in Japan where he’d have Jirou and her band open for him. It would be a nonprofit concert since Jagged wanted it within the next two weeks, but that didn’t bother him. 

The girls had to check in with their parents, but they were allowed to go with Jagged to Japan. 

Since it would take every waking moment to plan the concert and write a new song for it, Jagged had the girls join Jirou’s class for the time being despite being a little older.

The first picture taken was Moriah performing the German suplex Natasha taught her on a hot, ash-blonde guy named Katsuki Bakugou who said that the girls looked weak. 

The next thing that was posted was a selfie of the three girls wearing the UA gym uniforms with the caption: “Training at the USJ.” With them in the picture were Momo and Hagakure, both of which were adorning new hero costumes.

Marinette took one look at their old costumes and went on a rampage. In the time span of two days, she managed to make both girls new suits (with the help of the support course). 

Momo kept her red and white color scheme, but it became a two piece outfit that was pretty similar to a female wrestler’s costume, but with knee and elbow pads. To avoid showing too much skin, they used strands of Momos hair as a way to let her creations move past the more intimate areas of her body. Momo kept her heeled boots because if Black Widow and Wonder Woman can kick ass in heels then so could she, but Moriah gave the suggestion of being able to snap the heels off and use them like throwing darts.

Hagakure’s suit was made out of reflective lenses that could turn her completely invisible without having to be naked, but also amplify any light she admitted. She got a chest plate tank top and pants with built in kneepads. Her boots were sound absorbent for stealth and she also got a pair of rocking goggles to keep her from blinding herself.

Needless to say, both girls were satisfied with their new looks.

For the next couple of days, they took pictures of Class 1-A. Marinette was the only one who could get a picture with the Class 1-A homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa. Probably because she made him a new sleeping bag as an apology for their intrusion.

Funny story: When he saw Jagged Stone, he paled, before muttering “Oh dear god, there’s two of them” under his breath repeatedly. The girls didn’t understand this until they met Present Mic.

Moriah and Katsuki somewhat got along after the german suplex incident and she hung out with the Baku-Squad. Chloe took a bit of an interest in a duel-haired boy named Todoroki who hung out with a boy named Izuku Midoryia and the Deku-Squad. Izuku and Marinette got along swimmingly, just don’t look directly at them. It’s harmful to look at the sun, let alone two.

At one point, they met Endeavor. All three girls called him out and chastised him for being a horrible father and human being. Chloe took the lead on this. (Todoroki started looking at her in a new light.)

The next big news that Miss Buister’s class got wasn’t from stalking the girls’ social media. It was the Japanese news. The class couldn’t believe it when they saw that Ladybug, Vixen, and Yellow Jacket were in Japan. 

Originally the girls were only planning on going shopping, but when they saw the villain attack, their hero instincts took over and they transformed and apprehended the perp. To avoid suspicion, Vixen cast an illusion to make it look like Marinette, Chloe, and Moriah were in the background in the crowd.

The girls were interviewed by the press. Well… Ladybug and Vixen conversed with the press while Yellow Jacket was giddily talking in the background with the pro hero Hawks, who the girls had aided, with a vibrant blush on her face.

Non Surprisingly, Izuku was there. Ladybug gave him the most attention out of all the interviewer's. (Block your eyes from the sunshine rays!)

The next day, things got even crazier. All three girls were kidnapped by the League of Villains. U.A, Jagged, and Penny were in a panic until Moriah posted a selfie, looking so done with the world, with a black haired, scared man with piercings beside her staring at the phone camera like he was on the Office. 

\In the background, Marinette was chastising the villains about how rude it was to kidnap people while Chloe insulted their base’s decor. The caption read: “These idiots didn’t even take our phones.”

They were found two days later by a group of pro-heroes, led by current No. 1 hero, Endeavor, but when the heroes burst in, they stopped short at the sight in front of them.

The heroes found a very smug Marinette demolishing a very pissed Shigaraki at a video game while Chloe, Toga, Magne, and Twice were doing each other’s nails in the corner while gossiping. In another corner of the room, Dabi had decided to give Moriah new, vibrant blue highlights that matched his eyes. 

The entire base was refurbished.

The heroes were stunned long enough for the LoV to escape.

The girls had to use the horse miraculous to return to Paris several times to deal with akumas, but it was worth it. 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Jagged’s trip was soon over and the girls returned to Paris. 

The moment they walked into the classroom they were met with glares ranging from weak to pure shade. 

While they were on the trip, Jagged had told every important person they came across every tabloid lie Lila had spun and she was met with a tsunami of lawsuits. As was the LadyBlog. Alya’s eyes were red and puffy, but she still gave a heated glare towards Marinette. 

The rest of the class wasn’t off the hook, either. With all the evidence Moriah and Chloe had shown Jagged, the entire class were sued for harassment. 

After finally getting to the email Tom and Sabine sent, the school board had found out about everything. Mr Damocles and Miss Bustier had been told to hit the road, and were promptly replaced with new, competent teachers. 

The girls gave a bright smile before sitting in the back of the class, high-fiving Nathaniel, Rose, and Juleka on the way.

Best. Vacation. Ever.

[miraculouscontent]

Didn’t Need Burrow (July 20th-August 2nd)

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Tikki's stance on the prospect of The Reveal is abruptly reversed and/or retconned so that she's completely in favor of Marinette telling Chat Noir her secret identity.  Bonus if she doesn't tell her this until AFTER some Drama Bomb has dropped, with Mari getting lectured for not reading her damned mind/'taking initiative'/figuring out before now that everything is always her fault, always and forever, because she's not P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

omg

I’m reminded of “Lady Wifi” with Tikki asking Marinette if she’s sure about not telling Chat her identity, and also “Sentibubbler” where Tikki was perfectly fine with Alya knowing.

Like?????

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Something that comes as a devastating blow for Marinette mildly inconveniences Adrien.  Naturally, HIS reaction to whatever it is gets played in all seriousness while HERS is glossed over/mined for humor/she's shamed for the grievous sin of having an EMOTIONAL REACTION instead of being Tikki's perfect little flawless automation.

Well, obviously his issues are worse! Look how sad he is!!

Look how SAD!!

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Tikki lectures Marinette for putting Too Much Responsibility on Chat Noir's shoulders.  This is possibly passed off as how she should KNOW that PLAGG is Unreliable, as opposed to *Chat Noir* being Unreliable.  Bonus: this is coupled with how she should TRUST Chat Noir more... just not, you know, with actual RESPONSIBILITIES or anything.

I’m like, laughing but also seething, because just the double standard of “YOU SHOULD TRUST HIM... but don’t put more on his shoulders, he’s going through so much!!”

“Bonus” if it’s a “Marinette, it’s all your fault!! You don’t know what Chat goes through!!!” despite how she literally can’t.

emikogale asked:

I don't need a burrow to know that the season 4 finale is probably going to have some forced drama and cheap shock value.

is it time to pull Reverse Love Square

is it

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: It's explicitly stated that Plagg is meant to be 'teaching Adrien' how to be more selfish (or 'independent'), because cats are stereotypically selfish/independent creatures, and Adrien obviously NEEDS to know that it's okay for HIM to be selfish.

Deep breaths, Clarity.

Deep breaths.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette's trauma from Chat Blanc will be treated as a *good thing*, as she is told that she SHOULD feel guilty and that this should motivate her to be more honest with her partner, despite all evidence to the contrary.  If she took 'the wrong lesson' from this, then it's her own fault, clearly!

What’s the phrase? “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”?

Naturally though, Adrien will be exempt from this and will be told that he deserves better and shouldn’t take this.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to burrow: Luka/Kagami will never get a magical charm or have a scene where they break their akumazations. If we do get that scene, for Luka he will most likely break it off for his family or to another love interest like Zoé. (I can see the show frame it as a lesson to Marinette like "You see Marinette, Luka can break it off if you told him the truth in the first place. But no, he prefers Zoé since she's more honest than you". For Kagami, it'll be mostly be off screen and ignored.

Zoeka: *exists*

all of us: oh god

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Once Alya inevitably screws up in a way that Tikki can't gloss over, Tikki will berate Marinette for going against THE RULES and make everything out to be All Her Fault, while acting as though she NEVER supported the idea of Alya knowing.

It’s times like these where I wish we could double up on Didn’t Need Burrows, but then we’d have like, a card’s worth of doubling up, lol.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien/Chat Noir actively sabotages one of Ladybug/Rena/the other heroes' plans in order to prove that 'they still need him'.  Marinette/Ladybug takes all the blame for the fallout.

Of course she does.

Marinette, you need to TAKE CHARGE!!

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Chat Blanc Sentimonster

It won’t happen, but I just got an awful thought of Chat Blanc and Sentibug returning at the same time.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: We will have even more Akumatized Villain/Sentimonster pairs which are rehash of Reflekta/Reflekdoll situation.

“Bonus” if the sentimonster barely matches the akuma’s original role. Like Reflekdoll VS Guiltrip.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien/Chat Noir will start secretly destroying the Anti-Akuma Charms so that people can keep getting victimized, providing more chances for him to see Ladybug.  Marinette will blame herself, thinking she made them improperly/incorrectly somehow.

And even once it comes out, Marinette will forgive him and insists that it’s her fault for not “considering his feelings” and how she “should’ve made the charms stronger.”

Anonymous asked:

Theory that could be DNB I guess: The REAL Adrien is in a coma/dead and OUR Adrien is a senti that his mother created to be the “perfect” replacement goldfish son. Real Adrien is in some treatment facility in Tibet (if alive) and Gabriel and Emilie found their miraculous shortly thereafter.

FDKJGKFDGf

Okay, this ask wins for “Didn’t Need Burrow that made me laugh most.”

“Perfect replacement goldfish son,” oh my gosh, it’s beautiful.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: When Maribug gets akumatised, Renalya and Adrichat have the "knights in shining armor" to save the "damsel in distress". Maribug is eventually blamed for getting akumatised in the first place while Renalya and Adrichat get off scot-free :)

:)

Real talk, one of the only akuma I can think of who were “blamed” for the akumatizations was Markov (since Max debated turning him back on even though he himself has gotten akumatized before). Does that put Marinette on the same level as a robot, expected to follow orders to a tee?

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Marinette gets Yet More Lessons about how she shouldn't be selfish and must always put others ahead of herself, no matter how much she suffers as a result.  Adrien, meanwhile, is 'taught' to put himself first.  Bonus: one episode combines the lessons, AND we're shown how Adrien already KNOWS how to be selfish and is OPENLY SO as Chat Noir, yet his misbehavior is presented as Good while Maribug is punished for being imperfect, as always.

Thanks, I hate it, take it away.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: In a Shocking Twist on the Senti!Adrien theory, Gabriel MAKES a Senti!Adrien to replace his own son.  The REAL Adrien winds up locked up and/or running away, and much Angstrese is had.  Bonus if this leads to Reversed LSBS: Senti!Adrien shows polite interest in Marinette because Gabriel still wants to akumatize her, damnit, while Ladybug notices that Chat Noir seems stressed and reaches out to him, only to be rebuked because he's still a selfish little creep who hates her having secrets.

The fact that Gabriel has never taken advantage of Marinette’s crush despite knowing that she’s crushing on Adrien (”Chat Blanc” doesn’t count) is weird to me. If he was after her in “Ladybug” then why not take advantage of it?

...Wait, is SentiAdrien going to cause reverse love square because “Adrien would never make Marinette fall out of love for him because he’s perfect so it has to be a misunderstanding”?

oh no

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Shadowmoth makes a Senti!Adrien for some stupid reason or another.  Like Sentibug before him, Marinette tries to save him upon realizing the truth, and is hit hard by the inevitable loss.  Fandumb naturally SLAUGHTERS her for it, insisting that she would have gladly replaced the REAL Adrien with the fake, much like how Adrien/Chat Noir preferred Sentibug to Ladybug.  Bonus if Alya/Tikki/others reinforce that mentality by accusing Marinette of the same thing themselves.

I don’t know which of these two SentiAdriens DNBs are worse.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: The difficulty of using multiple Miraculi at once is retconned so that the REAL issue is how well the kwami get along.  Marinette learns this the hard way when Tikki gets into a jealous snit-fit with one of the other kwami, and they refuse to work with each other in a joint transformation.  Naturally, it falls upon Marinette to help them reconcile, as she's blamed for whatever sparked off the argument in the first place.  Because of course she is.

*sigh*

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Marinette has a full-fledged breakdown over all her responsibilities piling up on top of the guilt complex she's naturally developed from being blamed for everything that goes wrong.  At best, she gets a pithy line or two about others 'completely supporting' and 'believing' in her before she's forced to get back up, still staggering under the weight; at worst, she's guilt-tripped for having the breakdown, because HOW DARE she be HUMAN, am I right?!

Just the idea of it being said already that teens aren’t meant to be guardian/hold miraculouses and then Marinette being chided for “not doing a good job” is just--

ugh.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Adrien outright admits that he hates Ladybug having other allies, complaining that things were so much better when it was just him and 'his lady' against the world, without even the Guardian's support.  His whining is treated as sympathetic, even if he outright states that he wishes she was completely dependent upon him and didn't have anyone else to turn to.

tbh this is the only reason we don’t have permanent heroes; because Chat wouldn’t have his private time with Ladybug to flirt.

I can’t be convinced otherwise.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Chat Noir's jealousy of Rena spurs an outburst from him that forcibly reminds Ladybug of Chat Blanc.  The trauma response this triggers is naturally used *against* her, played as Marinette's Latest Mistake.  Since her trauma is CLEARLY her own fault, and she's GOT to learn how to cOnTrOl HeR eMoTiOnS while Adrien can throw Cataclysmic hissy fits to his heart's content.

Honestly, even if they didn’t do this specifically, I could also see Marinette being blamed for “being afraid of Chat Noir/Blanc” when she “doesn’t even know what happened.”

Basically, her “““blaming”““ Chat or “““reacting to him”““ for something he “““didn’t even do.”““

Anonymous asked:

DNB: 'Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought them back.'  Much like the old nursery rhyme, Adrien's insistence that he DESERVES to know everything he wants to stick his nose into 'kills' any pretense of Chat Noir being heroic as he turns on/abandons Team Miraculous.  Marinette/Ladybug is forced to cater to his whims in order to 'satisfy' him enough that he comes back.

Seems fair. :|

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Adrien/Chat Noir inflicts physical damage on somebody/something that is NOT magically wiped away/restored by his partner's Cure.  This inconsistency exists purely to blame Ladybug for the consequences of HIS actions.  Possibly with a side of Angstrien (provided they have him actually act like he *gives a damn* about what he's done).

I think that’s a pretty common trope in fics too; Ladybug being worried that Miraculous Ladybug won’t bring something back.

So yet another thing taken from the fandom.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: When Marinette finds out about Alya betraying her faith in her yet again, Alya bleats that she didn't explicitly SAY that she couldn't tell Nino, only that she trusted her, which she took to mean that she 'trusts her judgment'.  In other words, Alya blames her *deliberately ignoring Marinette's wishes* on her 'bestie'.  Bonus if Marinette subsequently TRIES spelling things out more only for Alya to complain about her being too 'pushy'/'controlling'/not leaving her that wiggle room.

“Girl, I told you to trust me, because I know that there won’t be any consequences to this!”

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Alya discovers Adrien's secret identity.  Rather than telling/warning Marinette, however, she either spills the beans to him or schemes to get them together/force a reveal, believing that this will 'magically solve everything'.  The show acts as though she's entirely justified in jerking Marinette around, pretending it's *hilarious* for her to add to her BFF's misery with her plotting behind her back.

Obviously this is all for Marinette’s sake so it’s fine.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien will FINALLY learn/figure out that Marinette made his scarf... and be heartbroken that SHE lied to him about it.

Marinette, how could you possibly let Adrien believe that his father did something nice for him to make him happy! You let him live a lie!!

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Mister Rat Sentimonster

I will only accept this if Xavier Ramier saves the day somehow.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Chat Noir will confront Ladybug directly about 'replacing him with Rena', whining about how HE'S her partner, not HER.  No matter how much she tries reassuring him/strokes his ego to calm him down, Adrien remains pissy about it.  Bonus if this blow-up happens during an akuma attack/other crisis, and Marinette is presented as unreasonable for wanting to focus on the bigger problem at hand.  Screw the civilians, what about Chat's pOoR fEeLiNgS~?

What about THE DYNAMIC, Marinette?????

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Gabriel's grousing about how Ladybug 'never makes mistakes' foreshadows an inevitable moment where, after gaining a major advantage thanks to somebody else's screw-up, he gloats that Ladybug has finally made a major tactical error.

...They would.

They absolutely would.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Gabriel will exploit his son's gross sense of entitlement towards 'his lady' by convincing Adrien that Ladybug has neglected him more than HE has, what with the whole 'wanting to have a say in her own love life/rejected his unwanted advances/begging him to take things seriously rather than treating superheroics as a game'.  Adrien laps this tripe up like cream to soothe his ever so precious ego.

Which makes Shadow Moth out to be a decent manipulator but continues to make the love square look bad.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien will be responsible for exposing the fact that Alya still has the Fox Miraculous to Gabriel.  This could be by telling him directly during a face-heel turn, or simply because he's careless with that information (such as confronting Ladybug about Rena during an akuma attack/while Hawk/Shadowmoth is in a position to overhear).

I presume Ladybug is to blame for this for ever giving Alya and Nino a miraculous at the same time (when her hand was forced) in the first place.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Chat Noir straight-up *assaults* Alya out of jealousy over Ladybug trusting her more/'replacing him' with Rena.  This may involve Cataclysm, and she may or *may not* be transformed at the time.  Bonus if this happens *BEFORE* or *WITHOUT* him switching sides to join Hawk/Shadowmoth, and is purely about him *getting her out of the way*, possibly with the paper-thin excuse of wanting to 'prove himself' without her being around to 'screw him up' or 'steal his glory'.

I’d like to say that this isn’t likely, but he’s already been driven to property destruction soooooo--

Anonymous asked:

DNB: After investing so much time and effort into building Alya up as this incredible individual who absolutely deserves Marinette's trust despite doing nothing to earn it or her preternatural skill with Guardian-related tasks, she will abruptly lose all competence in order to 'prove' that Adrien is naturally better than her and that HE is Ladybug's 'only TRUE partner'.

Or Alya telling Nino comes out and in comes Chat with “I would never keep things from you, m’lady!!!”

Meanwhile, fandom having “Chat Blanc” flashbacks.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: The series ends with Adrien selling the in-universe version of Astruc the rights to tell their story, with the clear implication that everything we just watched is the end result.  Meaning that Marinette gets to be humiliated by her adventures being 'recreated' in precisely the form we've seen, every episode cheerfully depicting her as a constant screw-up who got blamed for EVERYTHING that went wrong.  Because why should she get to have any kind of positive self-image, right?  GIRL POWER!

Oh my gosh, they would.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need burrow: In Crocodues, Luka will fully be over Marinette and act like a friend while Marinette might still have feelings and is super awkward around him, highlighting how Marinette (or girls in general) has poor control over her emotions unlike Luka (er boys in gerenal).

Still waiting for reverse love square where Marinette is over Adrien but Luka is no longer an option so guess she has to go for Chat.

...Does that make Chat a rebound?

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: One or more of the kwami outright admit that yeah, no, they simply don't respect Marinette at all.  Due to her youth, inexperience, lack of training, or maybe just because they can get away with treating her like shit and acting like a spoiled brat.  Naturally, this is treated as entirely HER fault.  Bonus if she TRIES to lay down the law with them and is promptly villainized for it.  Maybe even compared to Hawk/Shadowmoth.

Completely understandable, of course. They’re just so used to people who are older and wiser and professional--

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Mass of episodes fleshing out Luka, since Lukanette is out of picture now. (Bonus points if Anti Lukanette people will make posts saying that fleshing out Luka would be impossible without breaking Lukanette first)

“Wishmaker” will probably do this. I can’t see them giving Luka anymore screentime than the three episodes he should be “grateful” for. (”Truth,” “Crocoduel,” and “Wishmaker”)

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need to Burrow (Wishmaker)

The episode will be a mixture of Hearthunter and Frozer. There will be a Luka/Mari/Adri moments throughout the episode. And as the episode ends, Marinette will look at Adrien and Luka will be sad and say you should go to him to which she does. Thus making...the Lukanette ship...sighs...dead.

I’m blown away by this idea of the person who is arguably most “deserving” of a warm and loving relationship not getting one (or getting a “second choice” with Zoe for example) while characters who clearly aren’t ready to be in a relationship get all the attention.

Anyone wanna take a guess on which “nice guy” writer lost a girlfriend to an actually nice guy and is still salty about it to this day?

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow Wishmaker

Luka will play a song on his violin that represents the love square, it will be be so beautiful that Mari and Adrien will be in awe together when in reality its just the Spongebob sad violin music.

I can also see violin scratching for it as well.

I choked on my drink.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow (Wishmaker)

This episode will either be the Lukanette vs Adrienette feud or it will show us all these crazy shipping scenarios from LS to Lukanette to LukaAdri. It will give the fans what they wanted but ended the ships in a nightmare.

Psst....you can tell by the icecream symbolism

Ugh, I’m dreading the idea of it being an episode about these repeated scenarios and then having to go back or whatever. Viperion’s there so maybe him witnessing them and then having to go back.

tc-leo asked:

Don't need to Burrow

Luka will basically lead Adrien and Marinette down the Love Square endgame path through his violin playing.

This would be the second time they forced Luka to play for the love square.

I swear to several lords--

tc-leo asked:

Don't Need to Burrow to know that in Wishmaker, the scene of Adrien in the middle while a closeup of Luka and Mari holding hands represents the end of Lukanette.

“““plot twist,”““ the writers say, while we sip our tea going, “you really think you can still bait us?”

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need burrow: Wishmaker will be the Heart Hunter of Lukanette. As in Luka and Marinette have Adrien third wheel them and it's actually cute and stuff. Optimistic I know but that's what it looked like in the trailer.

Your optimism is adorable and I appreciate it even if I’ve been burned too many times to be lured in by it.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Juleka reveals a deep-rooted resentment towards Marinette for 'breaking her brother's heart'. This bottled-up anger fuels a call out where she rants about how she never deserved Luka, tossing out accusations that Mari can only weakly deny, since Everything Is Always Her Fault and She Deserves To Suffer.  Juleka going off is presented as a positive thing since she's sharing her true feelings; meanwhile, Marinette has to bottle HERS up even more and absorb the abuse, apologizing to her/Luka.

show: *continuously pressures and pushes Marinette towards Adrien*

also show: *blames Marinette for being into Adrien*

Anonymous asked:

DNB: That teaser picture Gloob released that had Marinette looking at Luka wasn’t actually a Lukanette scene! It was actually taken right after Luka told Marinette about how he’s dating Zoe and is happy now. Marinette is smiling to show her support and totally not because the writers took away her ability to feel love for any character other than Adrien! 🙃 (Also Luka had the obligatory “You two are made for each other” line, because the show is going to forget how much he loved her and force him to move on with a character who was only in three other episodes 🤦)

Even if Zoeka doesn’t happen in 4 and 5, it probably will in 6 and 7 considering that it’s “post-series” or whatever and they wouldn’t know what else to do with him.

Anonymous asked:

Dnb: In Crocoduel, Luka figures out Marinette's secret identity but doesn't tell her (so the writers can justify he is a crappy bf). In Wishmaker, he finds out about Adrien's secret identity, has tge realization that they are into each other and goes "Marinette I live you but you and Adrien are meant to be so bye"

The lack of self-awareness in ignoring that Adrien also didn’t tell Marinette.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow

We will find out that Wishmaker will show Adrien's wish which is to confess his identity/love to LB which results in Luka/Viperion finding out and keep using Second Chance/self sacrifice himself. If it was Marinette's case, Luka (whether or not he knows her secret identity) will find out her wish is to confess her identity/love to Adrien and he would use Second Chance/sacrifice to prevent that. He'll also find out that part of Mari's wish is she might not want to have a future with him and consider him as a second option. Realizing both of their identities as LB/CN and how dangerous their wishes are, Luka will do everything in his power to prevent that from happening.

Once the day is saved, Luka will pretty much tell Mari its best not to continue and stay friends. He'll either be sad that Mari don't like him that way anymore or scared of Mari finding out that he knows both of their identities.

Oh and the morality of the episode for Marinette is it's okay if you don't know what to do if life. It's best to not know and just live with it.

wow thanks i hate all of it

Anonymous asked:

Dnb: lukanette angst in crocoduel doesn’t make sense to happen now so it only shows up now to provide trouble for Marinette, akuma, or extra drama juleka for no reason

So the usual.

May I just point out that Juleka has now run away anxiously two episodes in a row now since “Guiltrip” is the episode before this in procode?

[purrincess-chat]

Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s Spite Playlist: Remix CH14

Things are changing ;) The next 10 chapters look a lot different than the original, and most of them are brand new.

Previous      First      Next     AO3

---------------------------

Chapter 14: Death by a Thousand Cuts

The crowd waiting for Ladybug and Chat Noir outside the Louvre grew thicker as another van pulled up, and a crew of reporters hopped out. Alya drummed her fingers on her phone, shifting when the new additions forced their way into the throng. She just wanted answers. Being selected to be Rena Rouge meant she had some sort of bond with Ladybug, right? So why did Ladybug replace her without warning? Was it out of necessity? Or did the fox Miraculous have a permanent new owner?

Camera bulbs flashed as the heroes exited the museum, and several microphones competed for their attention, swallowing Alya in a sea of limbs. Lila promised a private interview, and if her stories were to be believed, she’d better come through. This was the moment that would define their friendship, and more importantly, Alya would finally learn if Marinette and Adrien were telling the truth.

“Ladybug!”

“What’s the story on this akuma?”

“Can you confirm that you and Chat Noir are dating?”

“Do you have any leads on tracking down Hawkmoth?”

“A student got punished for wandering off on a field trip. No, we’re not dating—stop asking! And as of right now, we have no leads, but Chat Noir and I are doing everything in our power to keep you all safe,” she said smoothly. She never once looked at Alya in the crowd.

“Ladybug,” Alya spoke up.

Ladybug shifted to face her, though her face bore no sense of recognition or familiarity. Her expression was blank, cold, business-like, distant—a steely mask hiding her emotions.

Alya bit her lip and continued. “Um, I was hoping to get an answer to a question many of my followers have. Do you have time for an interview?”

Ladybug’s earrings beeped frantically—a reminder that the heroes were on literal timers.

“I’ve only got a couple minutes,” she replied. “Make it quick.”

Strike one.

“My viewers want to know what happened to Rena Rouge. Will Malin be a permanent replacement, or was he a temporary stand-in?” she asked.

Several reporters rolled their eyes. As far as they were concerned, these questions were yesterday’s news. No one else seemed to care that Rena Rouge was replaced. They clung to whoever wore the suit in the moment, but it was the most important question in the world to Alya.

Something flashed in Ladybug’s eyes, an uneasy expression Alya saw in the mirror a lot as of late. Those big blue eyes were filled with pain, hurt, and regret, but Alya couldn’t figure out why. What had she done to receive such tortured expressions from someone who once trusted her?

“Malin will wield the Fox Miraculous in all battles moving forward.” She grabbed her yoyo. “No more questions. Bug out.”

Reporters glared daggers at Alya for wasting their opportunity to get the latest scoop. Alya could see it in their eyes. As far as they were concerned, Rena Rouge was old news. Her heart dropped to her feet, shattering like glass on concrete.

Strike two.

“I’ll be happy to take a few more questions.” Chat Noir stepped to the center of the crowd. His eyes skipped over Alya too, lengthening the chasm growing between them.

Strike three.

All the microphones pointed at him, pushing Alya aside just as Ladybug had done to Rena Rouge. Her heart hammered in her chest, a painful lump blocking her throat as tears welled in her eyes. Did Ladybug not trust her anymore? What did it all mean? Lila was supposed to talk to her and set up a private interview, but Ladybug treated her so coldly. Why?

Because she’s a liar.

The thought flashed in her mind, Marinette’s familiar voice ringing in her ears. Alya had to wonder if knowing the truth was any better than living in ignorance. One thing was certain: if Lila really was a liar, then Alya had a lot of apologizing to do.

♪♫♪ Sanctuary ♪♫♪

“Hey, you made it!” Macy took Marinette’s hands and planted kisses on her cheeks. “Is Adrien coming?”

“He said he was.” Marinette retrieved her phone from her purse to check her messages.

“You two should sit together.” Macy insisted, and when Marinette’s eyebrows raised, she added, “I’m a huge fan of his, but you two seem really close, and I’d never want to start anything over a boy. It’s not worth ruining our friendship.”

“Macy…” Marinette pulled her in for a hug. “You’re the best.”

“No, you are, and if Adrien can’t see that then he has poor taste,” Macy said. “If you ever need a wingwoman, I’ve got your back, and I’m sure Eliott can teach you all kinds of ways to flirt.”

“I might take him up on that. I’m hopeless.” Marinette admitted. “Sometimes when I talk to him my words come out wrong.”

“Why don’t I set up the perfect scene for you two tonight?” Macy offered. “Afterall, the play is packed with romance. He won’t know what hit him.”

“Who won’t know what?” Adrien asked as he and Martin approached.

“Oh, nothing,” Macy said with a coy lilt. “Just girl stuff, you wouldn’t be interested.”

“I get it. Keep your secrets.” Adrien smirked.

“Come on, Eliott reserved us box seats!” Macy took Marinette’s wrist and led the way.

As promised, Macy sat Marinette next to Adrien and toted Martin off with her to “get a drink.” Adrien seemed oblivious to her plans but unbothered by the extra alone time with Marinette.

“So, your dad let you come, huh?” Marinette said conversationally.

“He’s more amicable toward other rich people, and he thinks theatre is a more…enriching activity.” He rolled his eyes. “I guess he figures I’ll behave.”

“Either way, I’m glad. It means we can spend more time together.” Marinette offered him a shy smile.

“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a downer. I’m really glad he’s letting me out. Ever since you changed schools, I don’t get to see you as often, so I always look forward to spending time together,” he said.

Marinette’s heart skipped three beats. “Yeah, it’s great! N-Not that he doesn’t trust you, but that we can hang out, I mean. It stinks that he doesn’t trust all of your friends and keeps you at home, and I’m sure it must be hard for you, and… I’m gonna stop talking.”

She turned to face forward, slapping her palm to her forehead. Maybe she should have hit up Eliott for flirting advice before she let Macy push them together.  

“No, no! It’s fine. It is hard, but I’ve got really great friends like you who understand, so that makes it better,” he said.

“You know I’m always here for you if you want to talk about it. Any time.” She reached out, hesitantly at first, to place her hand over his. “You’re…really important to me, Adrien.”

Adrien searched her soft expression before a smile curled on his lips. “Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me.” He gave her hand a squeeze as Macy and Martin returned.

Macy nudged Marinette with a giggle, and she bit back a smile. Maybe she wasn’t as hopeless as she thought. Adrien kept hold of her hand until the lights dimmed, and the theatre hall broke into applause. It was a small gesture, but Marinette would take it.

Eliott played an amazing Chat Noir, and even Margot didn’t do too bad as Ladybug, despite being a total brat behind the scenes. The play was fun, and a reminder of how much Paris trusted Ladybug and Chat Noir to defend them. Though, she did find fault with their kiss at the end seeing as she and Chat were so not like that, but Paris wanted what it wanted even if it couldn’t be further from the truth.

“You. Were. Awesome!” Macy tackled Eliott the moment they met up afterward.

“Thanks,” Eliott chuckled. “I think that was my best performance.”

“You play Chat Noir so well, Eliott. Are you sure you’re not really him?” Marinette teased.

“I’d believe it,” Adrien said. “I’m impressed by the quality of your playwright’s puns.”

“They’re almost as cheesy as the real Chat Noir’s,” Marinette added with a grunt.

“Not feline the cat puns, Marinette?” Adrien folded his arms over his chest and cocked a brow.

“Purrhaps she just doesn’t find them funny,” Eliott said with a wink.

“Then she has a very purr sense of humor.” Adrien smirked.

Marinette rolled her eyes, shooting him a playful grin of her own. “I just think his comedic timing needs work. They’re saving Paris; shouldn’t he take his job a little more seriously?”

“Meowch. No appreciation for good comedy with this one,” Adrien said.

“I may have to reconsider purrmitting you to attend the after party on my yacht,” Eliott said. “You have to make one cat pun to be admitted.”

“Do I have to?” Marinette groaned.

“We can chat about it on the way.” Macy giggled as Adrien and Eliott praised her contribution.

“Yeah, we’ve gato go.” Martin pointed to the door, only adding fuel to the fire.

Marinette sighed. “Betrayed by all of my friends at once. That’s cold.” When they all gave her expectant looks, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Please leave meowt of this.”

She rolled her eyes as they all applauded, curtsying and blowing sarcastic kisses. If anyone knew more cat puns than they ever wanted to, it was her. Chat Noir certainly kept them coming.

“Alright, I guess you can come.” Eliott draped an arm over her shoulder as they walked.

“You guys are insufferable,” Marinette said.

“You love us though.” Adrien wrapped an arm around her waist on the other side, and her cheeks warmed.

Across the lobby, Lisette was chatting with other stagehands, and Eliott stiffened. He might be good at flirting, but when it came to Lisette, he always clammed up. It didn’t help that she was shier than Marinette either.

“Go invite her.” Marinette urged, elbowing his side.

“What? Who? I wasn’t- you’re…”

“Hey, Lisette!” Marinette called, breaking out of his grip and beelining for her.

“Marinette!” Eliott chased after her.

Lisette tilted her head to one side. “Hey, you’re…”

“Marinette.” She held out a hand. “Eliott’s friend.”

“Yeah, you were at our dress rehearsal last night.” Lisette nodded, cheeks flushing when Eliott latched onto Marinette. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. Nothing’s up.” Eliott clamped a hand over Marinette’s mouth, and she gave him a prompting look. “Um, just I’m having a party on my yacht if you wanna come. Just a few friends and family, super casual. Margot won’t be there.”

Lisette clutched the hem of her shirt and bit her lip. “Sounds fun.” She rocked back on her heels. “Let me go home and change, then I’ll come over.”

“Okay, great!” Eliott said a little too loudly. “I’ll- We’ll see you there.”

“Great.”

“Cool.” He turned abruptly, dragging Marinette away by the wrist. “Okay, I deserved that revenge.”

“She likes you!” Marinette said.

Eliott couldn’t hide his smile. “Shut up.”

“She’s coming to your party.”

“Yeah, I got that. Thanks.” He let a breath pass his lips. “I’m just nervous. I’ve never liked someone before, and I’m scared that everything could go wrong.”

“Talk to her tonight. Let her get to know you, and I’m sure she’ll like you no matter what,” Marinette urged. “Have confidence.”

Eliott searched her expression, pursing his lips. “Okay.”

The rest of the group was waiting in the limo, and Marinette crawled in beside Adrien. Macy was prattling on about the play, particularly the big kiss at the end, teasing Eliott for having to kiss Margot.

“Do you think her snobbishness can infect you like getting bit by a zombie?” She poked his cheek.

“Shut up, we’ve rehearsed that kiss a 100 times over the past few weeks, and I’m fine.” He swatted her hand away.

“You really are a good actor if you can pretend to be in love with Margot for an hour and a half,” Macy said. She fanned her cheeks. “Even still, that kiss was so romantic! I would love to have seen the real thing on heroes day.”

“Oh, come on. That kiss so didn’t happen in real life. The playwright just added it in for dramatic effect,” Marinette said.

“How do you know?” Adrien quirked a brow.

“I- just Ladybug is always saying in interviews that they’re not a couple, so of course they didn’t kiss.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Oh, that’s just a cover story. They are totally in love. Chat Noir is head-over-heels for Ladybug, and she just hides her feelings so Hawkmoth can’t use it against them,” Macy said, not bothering to mask the ‘duh’ in her voice.

Marinette rolled her eyes. If only they knew.

When they arrived at Eliott’s yacht, her friends continued their chatter, and a small smile curled on Marinette’s lips. She really was lucky to have them, even if they all believed Ladybug was in love with Chat Noir—she’d convince them eventually. After everything that happened with Lila, Marinette was spiraling, feeling unappreciated, abandoned, and angry. Martin and Eliott said she helped them, but truthfully, their friendship saved her first. They showed her that real friends did exist, and that they don’t abandon one another.

Finally, her gaze rested on Adrien, the one thing she still had left from her old school. He’d grown quiet after their conversation. He flashed smiles and laughed when appropriate, but something hid behind those green eyes, an intensity Marinette had never seen from him before. After a while, he disappeared from the party, and Marinette wondered if he’d gone home until she found him on the upper deck looking out over the Seine.

“I’ve always thought the Seine was prettier at night,” he remarked as she approached. “The reflection of the lights on the water calms me down.”

“Are you okay? You’ve been quiet ever since the limo ride,” Marinette said. She leaned against the railing next to him. His eyes were fixed ahead, barring her from the emotions brewing inside. Another gray wall with a locked door between them.

Finally, he flicked his gaze over to her, searching her face as if she were a puzzle that needed solving. He looked at her like that a lot nowadays. Several times when they spent time together, she’d catch him staring. A month ago, she would have done anything to get Adrien to look at her, but now as they stood only centimeters apart, eyes locked, she didn’t know what to say. Her heart fluttered.

The last time they hung out, Adrien almost kissed her—a fact that haunted her every day since. What did it mean? Was Adrien in love with her? Was he going to kiss her now? Oh god, she shouldn’t have eaten the Camembert from that cheese platter.

His eyes bore into her so intensely, she thought she was going to pass out, but instead of kissing her, he bit his lip and asked, “How are you holding up with everything?”

Blinking in surprise, she breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m doing better now,” she said. “Some days are still rough, but I’m grateful for my friends. They’ve really helped me overcome everything.”

“I know you’ve been through a lot lately. I’m just glad you and I are still friends,” Adrien said softly. “You’re someone I don’t ever want to lose.”

Her cheeks warmed as he tucked a loose strand of hair into place. Taking a leap, she took a step toward him, curling her arms around his waist. He held her close, resting his head against hers.

“I’m really glad I still have you,” she whispered.

“You’ll always have me. I’ll always be watching out for you,” he said in her ear. “Always. I promise.”

♪♫♪ Careful ♪♫♪

“Hey, bestie.” Lila smiled as Alya approached their usual table at their favorite café. Her face fell when Alya flashed her a pensive frown. “Why the long face?”

“I talked to Ladybug yesterday,” she said. “She totally blew me off. I thought you said you were going to get me a private interview.”

“Oh no, I am so sorry, Alya!” Lila’s face fell into her hands. “I should have warned you, but I just don’t know what happened. I tried texting the private number Ladybug gave me, but she totally ghosted me. I don’t know what’s going on with her lately. She hasn’t been replying to me at all.”

How convenient.

Alya crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m having trouble believing you.”

“I’m not lying to you, Alya! Ladybug has been pulling away from me lately, and I don’t know why.” Lila’s lips curled into the perfect pout. “I find it really hurtful that you don’t trust me. I thought we were friends, but you’re starting to sound like Marinette.”

“We are, I just… I don’t know what to think anymore. I-” Alya averted her gaze with a sigh. “I need some time to clear my head, okay?”

“Of course. I know you have trust issues after what Marinette did to you, so I completely understand,” Lila said. “But please, don’t call me a liar like she used to. If you leave me, then everyone else will too.”

Alya chewed her cheek, searching Lila’s expression. Her eyes seemed so genuine that Alya almost apologized on the spot, but she knew that not everything in life was as it seemed. Be a journalist. Investigate.

“I gotta go,” she said. “My sisters want to see a movie this afternoon, and my parents are at work.”

“I’ll go with you,” Lila offered, but Alya held up a hand to stop her.

“That’s alright. I can handle it,” she said. “Thanks, though.”

Lila sank back into her chair with a pout. As Alya turned to leave, Lila’s face shriveled into a glare that sent a chill down her spine, but she kept walking. Maybe she imagined it. Her mind played all kinds of tricks on her lately. She only hoped the truth would reveal itself soon and free her from all of this doubt.  

♪♫♪ happiness ♪♫♪

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Ladybug sat on the edge of a roof, staring out over the city. She heard Chat Noir touch down behind her, but she didn’t turn around as he approached. Her head was drained, empty, lifeless as she stared ahead.

He didn’t question as he sat beside her. They knew each other well enough by now that she didn’t need to explain when she was upset. He just knew. The silence stretched on, but Chat Noir waited patiently while she gathered her thoughts.

“I knew it would happen,” she said finally. “I knew she would wonder.”

“Alya?”

Ladybug nodded. “I never told you, but she was Rena Rouge.”

Chat Noir’s mask raised, and Ladybug lowered her gaze to her lap.

“She must hate me now,” she murmured, lip quivering.

“You did replace her without an explanation,” he said pointedly.

“I had my reasons.” She swung her legs over the edge. “I need people that I trust by my side.”

“I wasn’t questioning your decision,” he said. “You know I trust you 100% no matter what.”

“I guess it’s not that I don’t trust her.” Ladybug sighed, chewing her lip. “I mean, I don’t doubt that she would still work with us, but she’s hanging out with Lila, and after everything…I can’t work with her.”

“I understand.” When Ladybug gave him a disbelieving look, he brushed her cheek with the back of his knuckle. “Really. I do, Bug.”

“I know it sounds selfish, but I can’t put my feelings aside,” she said. “I know we have a duty to protect the city, but if I can do that with someone else, then why go through the trouble?”

“No one’s asking you to.” When her face fell, Chat Noir reached out to cup her cheek. “Bug, you did the right thing. No one is doubting you. We need people we can work with and count on, and if Rena Rouge isn’t it, then it’s time for Malin to step in.”

She leaned against his shoulder, watching cars crawl up and down the street with sad eyes—a city full of people counting on her. They seemed so small from up here.

“It’s hard sometimes,” she said. “Having the whole city looking at you to fix all of their problems… The weight of the world gets so heavy.”

“Don’t worry about stepping on toes. We have to do what we can to save everyone, and we can’t do that if we’re working with people we can’t trust,” Chat Noir said. “It’s not selfish. It’s our job.”

Ladybug smiled, Chat Noir’s familiar warmth flooding her chest. Chat Noir could be sweet when he wanted. He could give Adrien a run for his money if he acted like this all the time. Nah, that was a stretch, but she’d always love Chat in her own way.

Ladybug stretched up to kiss his cheek. “Thanks, kitty.”

“You’re welcome.” He smirked, then added, “I just hope you’re not thinking of replacing me.”

“Of course not,” she giggled. “I know I can always count on you.”

“Good. Then we’re on the same page.” He leaned his head against hers, and they sat for several minutes, watching the city lights twinkle on the skyline.

She spent a lot of time leaning on blond boys lately, but in her defense, she had two of the best. Chat Noir trusted her even when she didn’t trust herself. Sure, he was goofy, full-of-himself, and his puns were terrible, but… Somedays she needed someone like that. Someone to make her laugh and roll her eyes. He was her best friend, and she hoped that even after they defeated Hawkmoth that they would always stay this close.

“Until next time, m’lady.” He bowed theatrically when they stood to leave. “I’m always here for you if you need me.”

“I know.” She pulled him in for a tight hug. “Thank you for being someone I can lean on. It means the world to me.”

“Of course, m’lady.”

Ladybug swooped down to the street, ducking behind an ad stand and letting her transformation drop. Clara’s presentation was in a week, and she was going to pull an all-nighter. Coffee was a must. She was getting close to finalizing a few of her designs, and now that she’d gotten everything off her chest about Alya, her mind was a lot clearer.

Rounding the corner, she crossed the street to a quaint little café before a waterfall of silky, red hair wiping a table in a dingy green apron caught her eye. Was that…

“Gabrielle?”

[adrinoir]

Who will be the next Hawk Moth?

Alright, well there’s a lot of different theories on who will be “the next Hawk Moth”. So I wanted to do a break down on some possibilities (warning: this analysis is REALLY long lol)

Lila

I feel like Lila is very likely to be the next one. She already has a leg up in working with Gabriel (despite not knowing he’s Hawk Moth).

Even though Hawk Moth hasn’t reached his goal of getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses, he’s made good progress. With Lila’s help, he’s gotten PRETTY damn close to getting them since she has that deep hatred of Ladybug. Without her, he wouldn’t have had his invasion of scarlet moths possessing Paris.

Additionally, Lila is pretty full of herself and does just about everything for her own benefit. She could easily grow a bigger hatred towards Ladybug and find out about the benefits of their miraculouses to have her own wish granted.

It’s really difficult to see her as a redeemable character since she has yet to show any redeemable qualities. But, hey, maybe there will be a plot twist where she’ll change her ways.

Chloe

As much as I’d LOVE to see Chloe develop into a better person since we see she is the way she is, I don’t have too much faith in Thomas Astruc’s writing.

Thomas initially started Chloe off as the annoying and conceited bully, then she started seeing the error of her ways, and finally...she was pulled back to square one.

It’s obvious that Chloe is pretty strong. She knows Hawk Moth is evil and has fought off an akuma even when she was super angry with Ladybug. However, Hawk Moth IS a rather powerful man and was able to akumatize Chloe on many occasions. She became his most successful akumatized victim as Miracle Queen. I feel like the fandom doesn’t talk enough about how Chloe managed to get almost ALL the miraculous holders to reveal their identities. (Don’t come for Hawk Moth in saying he hasn’t made a lot of progress - he HAS.)

The main issue with Chloe is that she can easily be manipulated into doing things for Hawk Moth because she has that disliking for Ladybug, deep down. She doesn’t want to hate Ladybug but obviously it’s been tough since she won’t let Chloe have her bee miraculous, and being Queen Bee is very important to her. Chloe wants to be powerful and heroic to feel good about herself since her mom doesn’t see her as something special (which is awful, I feel so bad for Chloe, honestly.)

Even though the likelihood is there, I really don’t want Chloe to become the next Hawk Moth. In season 4, it’d be nice to see some of her character development come back, and hopefully her and her mom build a stronger relationship now that Audrey has decided to stay in Paris with the family. Thomas Astruc needs to make Chloe better but KEEP it that way. She’s shown redeemable qualities and we know why she acts the way that she does. There’s a ridiculous amount of potential for her to be a wonderful, well-rounded character instead of just the evil bully Thomas makes her out to be.

Felix

So far, we’ve only seen Felix in one episode, but we already have a good idea of what he’s like. He’s very manipulative as a form of coping with his father’s death.

Felix already has a bit of a vendetta against Gabriel for keeping Emilie’s family heirlooms, and managed to steal them from Gabriel. He also wasn’t very nice to Adrien in pretending to be him and attempting to hurt his friendships. All of those things Felix did just prove he’d make a *good* villain.

My theory is that he’ll come back for at least one more episode, since he took the wedding rings that were very precious to Gabriel. However, it’s kind of strange to me that Felix hasn’t even been mentioned since his debut episode. So, we will see if this devilish boy makes a comeback.

Adrien

People have had this theory a while back, but it’s just incredibly unlikely at this point.

Adrien cares deeply about his mom and wants her back, of course. However, we see in Cat Blanc that he tried to cataclysm his own father for what he’s done. He was so hurt by his father’s motives, he triggered the end of the world.

There could potentially be an episode where Adrien hears his father out and tries the butterfly miraculous out for himself, but Bunnyx would come out of her burrow and shut that shit down.

OR, we know Gabriel is an awful father and he could somehow manipulate his own son to take his spot as Hawk Moth. (But again, Bunnyx could easily shut this down, too.)

Adrien loves being Cat Noir; he’s shown to be the Cat Noir in the future. He has an extremely good heart. So they’ve pretty much denied Adrien becoming the new Hawk Moth, at this point.

Luka

I think this is the most interesting idea I’ve seen on who the next Hawk Moth will be. (I recommend watching Cat Blanc x Princess Justice’s YouTube video analysis on this. It’s really good! I mention some of her points in here.)

Luka is almost too nice of a character. He cares a lot about other people and just sort of lets Marinette take advantage of his kindness, which is really sad, BUT there could easily be a motive we don’t know behind that, or he’s secretly bothered by it deep down.

There’s that theory that Luka knows Marinette is Ladybug. He could be trying to get closer to her to take the miraculous from her since he might know the power the ladybug and black cat miraculous hold.

Or, like I mentioned before, if Luka is bothered deep down by Marinette’s romantic feelings for Adrien, there could be something that happens that pushes him over the edge. We’ve even seen that Luka makes a terrifying villain as Silencer. He was super manipulative and had a lot of good tactics. Ladybug and Cat Noir DID in fact have a really hard time fighting him. Luka is also not the type of person to get angry like that, but Hawk Moth needs STRONG emotion to feed off of. So, considering how powerful of a villain Luka was, there’s clearly some anger boiling within him.

We also don’t have that much of a backstory to work off of. We’re slowly learning more, but think about it, for instance, we don’t know who his father is. Some people have theorized it’s Jagged Stone but we’re REALLY not sure. So, maybe it’s a motive of his to find his father.

Thomas Astruc made Luka a very likable character, enough so to get most of the fandom to actually like the Lukanette ship. Luka could have been made purposely likable so that the fandom won’t believe that he will be the next villain.

Another good point Cat Blanc x Princess Justice had made was that Miraculous World made a tweet that Miraculous will be introducing a new villain in season 4 - but it’s a character we already know. Lila and Felix are already known BUT they’re also already well-established villains....

Kagami

If Luka is a possibility, so is Kagami. Half the fandom thinks Kagami is great, the other half thinks she’s awful.

Kagami is shown to have a very strong personality (that sometimes comes off as a bit threatening). She’s very blunt about everything, very uptight, doesn’t beat around the bush. Those three characteristics are similar to Gabriel, HOWEVER Kagami has a caring soul and she really wants to be good to Adrien and Marinette.

So, it’s possible, but unlikely and definitely hard to pinpoint what intentions she could possibly have of becoming a villain. Maybe her mother pinches a certain nerve, or she can’t understand why Adrien doesn’t love her.

Additionally, Thomas Astruc doesn’t cut Adrien a lot of slack, let’s be real here. Adrien’s father is already Hawk Moth, he could switch it to his “girlfriend” being Hawk Moth.

Alya

So, I have a bit of an interesting theory on this since I haven’t really seen anyone else mention anything about Alya potentially becoming bad.

Despite Alya/Rena Rouge having a strong bond and trust with Ladybug, there’s that possibility she still wants to unveil who Ladybug really is - she still runs The Ladyblog, after all. And of course, unveiling Ladybug’s identity is extremely dangerous. She even posted the museum exhibit to her blog in Feast, which she didn’t realize was dangerous. It shows that she might slip and reveal something that she shouldn’t have.

Or, maybe Alya manages to lose Ladybug’s trust. Something monumental could happen. There’s already that bit of danger surrounding Ladybug and Rena Rouge since they’re such close friends in real life and know nearly everything about each other.

Hawk Moth also now knows that Alya is Rena, and could do something to push her to reveal something on The Ladyblog, therefore turning her into a villain.

Also, Alya already knows SO much of the Ladybug lore. She’s dedicated so much time to researching the lore behind the miraculouses. Also pretty dangerous and suspicious.

Nino

Like Alya, there’s a chance Nino also loses Ladybug and/or Cat Noir’s trust. When Nino first got his miraculous, he wasn’t very good at acting like a different person in his superhero persona. He could easily slip and reveal an something he isn’t supposed to.

He is the least likely possibility, but not completely impossible.

Tom or Sabine

I put these two in the same excerpt because they have about the same amount of likeliness to be the next Hawk Moth (or maybe one is Hawk Moth and the other is Mayura 👀)

Tom and Sabine are both super sweet, but also, we don’t know a whole lot about them. Since Gabriel - father of sweet cinnamon roll hero Cat Noir - is Hawk Moth, who’s to say superhero Ladybug’s own parents couldn’t become evil? It’d create a super interesting dynamic in the plot because it’s like how would Marinette react if one of her parents was Hawk Moth?

I have a stronger theory that Tom and Sabine used to be the old Ladybug and Cat Noir, but still. Don’t put it past Thomas Astruc to trick us somehow.

How would Gabriel fail (or lose his miraculous)?

One last thing I’d also like to analyze relating to this is this question.

Does Gabriel NOT end up ever getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses? Let’s look over some possibilities:

1) One of the villains he creates or senti-monsters Nathalie creates becomes too powerful and doesn’t give him the miraculouses once they’re captured.

2) He gives up and realizes all he needs is his dearest son Adrien.

3) He gets sickly and can’t fight anymore and passes on his miraculous for someone else to do the job.

4) Simplest answer: His miraculous is stolen.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Nothing Left to Say Now

Tag: @thesunanditsangel @magicalfirebird @anastasian-dreamer 

Marinette wondered why she even bothered to smile at her class anymore. None of them were worth it. She should have known better than to trust them.

 Hadn’t they left her to the mercy of Chloe for years? Hadn’t they shown that they were no true friends with their refusal to side with her?

 It’s easier to have a scapegoat, someone to take the hits. When you’re not in danger.

 Marinette stared at the class as Alya sneered out they weren’t friends anymore.

 For a second she wanted to beg for them to take it back. She felt like her soul was an engine, collapsing under the pain that came from losing them.

 But even so she didn’t. She looked them in the eye and gave up.

 “I suppose there’s nothing left to say then.” She told them, before she turned away from them, heading to the back of the class. She sat down and refused to speak for the rest of the class despite the confused looks she got and the annoyed ones. Even a few hurt ones.

 Like they had any fucking right to be hurt.

 After class Marinette stopped by Bustier’s desk and said loudly,

 “As apparently no one wishes for me to be their friend or to interact with me I resign as class president.” She kept walking after that, ignoring the shocked looks from Bustier and the class all talking behind her. 

 She ignored Tikki’s nudges from her purse. She didn’t care if it was wrong. She was just going to push on. 

 She did stop to tell her parents that the class had declared they were no longer friends. They had been confused until her mother asked,

 “Is it because of that liar girl?” Marinette gave a short nod and her parents frowned. 

 “... I would say we should speak to the school but that does nothing.” Tim said in an angry voice. 

 “Agreed.” Sabine huffed. “Marinette honey, we’ll excuse you for this afternoon. You take some time to meditate and think okay?”

 “Thanks,” Marinette said to her parents. She went up to her room where Tikki left her bag.

 “... I’m sorry Marinette.” Was all the Kwami could say. “I’m so sorry.”

 “There’s nothing left to say about it Tikki.” Marinette breathes out. “I’m done. I’m done… drowning. I’m done with them. Guess it’s time to move on…” she turned to the various photos on her walls. “For good.”

-0-

 Marinette kept to herself after that. At least in class. She still talked with Luka and Kagami. Still went to art club. She just didn’t interact with her classmates. 

 Luka made it clear to Juleka while he respected her choices he wasn’t going to give up his friendship with Marinette and it wasn’t fair to him to ask. He did make sure they didn’t have to see each other.

 Kagami said the same to Adrien who protested it hadn’t been his idea.

 “But you did nothing to stop it.” She told him. “And you haven’t tried to be her friend still. You’re a selfish person Adrien. I’m glad we never started actually dating.” 

 Marinette made friends with people from other classes- Marc, Aurora among them.

 She was happy again with them.

 She felt like the engine had restarted, and it was amazing.

 She got way more designing done, she had way more fun just sitting around and laughing with her new friends then she had been dragged around by Alya, forced to confess or being told all about her friends hobbies while they barely paid attention to hers.

 She’d said for years she liked video games. 

 Why had Max been shocked she liked them? Why was he so hurt over her winning when she had been the one to suggest the game to him? Why had everyone ever been shocked she showed interest in anything but design?

 Marinette was happier and smiled more. Moving on… had been the best choice.

 And from the looks Kagami and Luka shot her, there might be something more then friendship- something she would welcome with both arms.

-0-

  While Marinette was happy with the new status quo, her class on the other hand…

 They’d never seen how much Marinette did for them. It was small stuff at first-

  Like how she would ask to keep the art room open longer when Nathanael was on a creative roll. That stopped soon enough and he found himself often kicked out from the room when he stayed to long.

 Like when she would bring in treats from the bakery- day old stuff usually- for tests. She stopped that after they all told her she wasn’t their friend. Some of them couldn’t concentrate on the tests.

 Like when she would argue that skating in the halls wasn’t as bad as some of the stuff Chloe did in her bullying attempts. Alix was given detention six times before she stopped. 

 Like when she would argue to get more time allowed for assignments because everyone was pretty busy. Suddenly they were scrambling for said assignments.

 It was the small stuff.

 But it meant a lot.

 No one really reacted to her after they figured it out. They weren’t her friend anymore after all. It shouldn’t matter. She was a bully who had hurt Lila. Why would they want her back? Nevermind she had known how to talk to people and make her requests known. 

 And besides, other than then that what else did she do for them?

 When the big stuff started happening that was when they started really realizing it. 

 The class bake sale set up by Alya as the new class president hadn’t been as full of goodies as before. They sold out but it wasn’t as much…

 And then they realized Marinette had only brought three dozen cupcakes rather than the mounds of food she usually did. She hadn’t asked her parents to donate the food. 

 The raffle they held? She gave a gift card to the bakery but not the amazing custom design she had offered before- disappointing many people who were there only for that.

  The various gifts and free designs? Not dresses or actual clothes but just the designing process? Gone. She had refused to do any of it for free any more.

 The willing shoulder to cry on? She had taken one look at Ivan who had wanted a willing ear and told him to find a friend.

 They actually thought back to everything and saw how much she had done for them. How much she had given up for them, what she’d done for them all.

 Bit by bit the class slowly began wondering why they had believed Lila over Marinette when the proof was in their memories- she would have never done any of it.

 Alya held out though. The girl was stubborn and angry and didn’t want to back down. She wouldn’t.

 If there was no hard facts she hadn’t been wrong. She hadn’t abandoned her friend for a liar. She hadn’t fucked royally up. 

 But well, she forgot something she only remembered when an interview with Jagged came on one night.

Marinette knew him. 

 It was a scramble for information. Every lie, every inconsistency, all uncovered. The kingdom was gone. They could reach out to Marinette, make amends, be friends again-

 Only for her to look them in the face when they did.

 “There’s nothing left to say now.” she told them before walking away.

 And really, after everything…

 They really couldn’t argue.

[shewhorises-tjyj]

Felinette day 2 call out

Felix’s POV

His mother had forced him to go live with his cousin, ugh, so here he was, the entrance of his cousin’s house. Uncle was standing at the top of the stairs……again, seriously why does he always stand there. it’s like he just has a statue of himself at the top of the stairs that can talk.

“Felix, I trust you had a great flight I’m sure you would like to sleep of the jetlag but before that we have to set some ground rules.”

“first of all, I have enrolled you to Adrien’s school and I have made special arrangements for you to be in his class.”

Ugh, of course how could he ever forget, no running we have a reputation to uphold, photoshoots, fencing, Chinese- wait what?

“other than that, the other rules are the same: no running around we have a reputation to uphold……………”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???! I have to go to his school and his class and look at his face? AND I’m miles ahead of all of them in everything!”

Obviously, he would never shout out loud like that so he stuck to his thoughts instead.

Tuning back into reality, Gabriel was done repeating the rules he had remembered by heart and dismissed him.

-The next day-

Adrien was already ready  and pointing at the door, “hey Fe, ready to go?” with a noise of confirmation they left the house.

-------------------------cue long drive to school with a hyperactive cousin-----------------------------

 “Good morning students” shouted (well not really shouted but he was standing next to her okay?) The teacher with red hair to which Felix winced at. “Today we have a new student joining us! And I’m sure you’ve all heard by now Lila’s home from her trip to Achu and she is back in school with us again.” he noticed something or rather someone who wasn’t here before, an Italian looking girl with chestnut hair that was tied up into what looked like three sausages and huge bangs at the front, with an olive skin tone and emerald green eyes that looked at him then at Adrien and had a look of confusion on her face. BUT! She then proceeded to IGNORE HIM. HIM! HE WAS A FREAKING INTERNATIONAL MODEL AND ACTOR AND THAT CAGNA IGNORED HIM! But whatever from the way she looked at his cousin she was probably a gold digging harpy. And his suspicions were correct when she greeted everyone.

“hi everyone,” she said in a fake sounding voice.

“Hi Lila!” the class sounded back. Lila? That’s her name?

“Oh~ a seat in the front row! You all remembered my hearing issues! You’re such sweethearts all of you~” “Mwuah!”

He inwardly cringed

“You have a hearing problem, Lila?”

‘hmm?’

“yes, I suffer from tinnitus. A constant ringing in my left ear. I’ve had it ever since the sound of an airplane engine burst my ear drums on the runway when I was saving Jagged Stone’s lost kitten.”

He had to admit her voice sounded genuine like it actually happened and he might have never found out she was lying if one, he was not an actor and could see the difference between genuine and fake faces and two, if her lies weren’t a load of bull. LIKE, COME ON! Which airline would let an UNDERAGE GIRL WHO’S UNAUTHORISED, ON THE RUNWAY? That airline would have closed down long ago if they couldn’t keep people from running on to the runway for reasons unknown.

The worst part is, yes there’s a worse part, his classmates seemed to believe the story she just pulled out of her ass. Well at least there was one student who doubted her.

“isn’t Jagged Stone’s pet a crocodile?”

“Now it is, yes. He had a kitten until he found out he was allergic to it.”

Deciding that everyone here was way too dumb and he didn’t want to lose any brain cells so he decided stop whatever quarrel was definitely going to go on.

Faking a cough, everyone seemed like they just remembered he was there. Even the teacher. If he were living in a comic or a cartoon there probably would’ve been one of those red crosses on his head.

“Right. Class, this is our new classmate, Felix Graham De Vanily.”

Hi’s, welcomes and clapping were heard around the room.

‘Could I just not have come?’

“Now Felix you and Marinette can sit in the back together. Also, as class president, Marinette can you show Felix around the school?”

“sigh, yes miss Bustier.”

When both of them sat down she started to introduce herself, “Hi, I’m Marinette. We can start the tour at lunch today and if you have any questions about the curriculum just ask me or anyone in the class.”

She said with a sad and tired smile.

…It looked… sincere…

Going with a simple nod they both turned their attention to the front.

After the tour he stayed back at the locker room near one of the corners. It was easy to blend into the shadows now that the people in Paris didn’t know him. despite being an international model (and sometimes actor) his face wasn’t well known as Adrien in France.

To that, he was thankful for.

Sticking to the shadows to read his book not five minutes in the girl- Marinette was it? Came back, and into the bathroom next to the locker room along with the sausage haired girl right on her heel.

“Marinette? Are you crying?”

“No, I’m not.”

“I can sense that you don’t like me but I don’t understand why, we barely know each other.

Don’t tell me it’s because of this new seating arrangement in class. It is! Of course, you were jealous because I’m sitting next to Adrien because you would have given anything to sit there yourself. You know what? It’s really not worth fighting a for a boy, you and I could be friends and who knows? I might even be able to help you with Adrien.”

Oh? Crush on my cousin? But it seemed like she was just cast into the back without her input despite all the others getting to sit at the place they wanted to.

“ugh. You and I will only be friends the day you stopped lying, Lila.”

So she knows she’s lying?

“I can’t prove it but I know for a fact you don’t have tinnitus, that your wrist is just fine, but you don’t know prince Ali cause’ you’ve never even set foot in Achu, and despite what you got Alya to write on her Ladyblog Ladybug has never saved your life.”

The first one definitely correct and so is the second one possibly, the third one might be a bt of a stretch and the fourth one, who the heck is Ladybug?

“I only tell people what they want to hear.”

“it’s called lying!”

“There’s nothing you can do about it anyway. People can’t resist when they hear what they like to hear. If you don’t want to be my friend, fine. But soon you won’t have any friends left at all and trust me, I’ll make sure you never get close to Adrien in class or anywhere. You’ve been a little less dumb than the others so I’ll give you one last chance: you are either with me or against me. You don’t have to answear right away I’ll give you the end of class today.”

Ok, first of all, were people supposed to hear that cause’ they were loud and secondly, what the heck school was he enrolled in??

The sausage haired girl walked smugly out of the bathroom.

“Hey Lila.”

“Adrien! We’ll have to figure out when you’re gonna help me catch up on all the schoolwork I missed. I also heard you play piano, my uncle’s a great pianist ‘Stroke Burrow Check’ she wanted to teach me when I was little but I had to stop playing because of arthritis. But when my wrist gets better, I’d love for you to give me some lessons.”

Didn’t sausage hair say uncle? why’d it change to ‘she’?

“Lila, I’m perfectly fine being friends with you and I’ll gladly help you catch up on your schoolwork but…please don’t lie to me like you did last time with Ladybug.”

Ah, his cousin knew she was lying. Wonder why he won’t step up for his classmate… unless it he never changed…

“Ladybugs the liar!”

“I’m not judging you, Lila but instead of making friends, you’re gonna turn everyone against you. You can tell me if there’s something bothering you. I can help. But you need to bee honest with me.”

“Are you trying to be some superhero lecturing me just like Ladybug did. Well, thanks but no thanks. Ugh.”

And with that the door slammed shut.

“I’m still here if you need catching up with your schoolwork.”

…is that a black glowing butterfly?...

…and did someone run out of the bathroom wearing a ladybug onesie?

“Hey!”

Snapping his head to the front he saw sausage girl pushing Adrien back a little.

“Adrien, I wanted to apologize for what just happened I’ve thought about it and you’re right I want us to be friends so I’ll never tell another lie again will you make peace with me?”

Then, she kissed Adrien on the cheek and… morphed into him?! what hellish nightmare place did his mother send him to?!

*insert falling to the floor sound* “Whoops! I lied.” *SLAM* huh. Sucks to be him it must be uncomfortable in there

“If this is an enchanted sleep what could possibly wake him up? Oh no, not an enchanted kiss. Please. Mmm nobody will ever know.”

Raspy low voice…can’t be a student

“Plagg? What happened? And what are you doing?”

“o-oh me? Nothing! I-I uh- Your friend Lila put you to sleep with an evil kiss. You should be more careful picking your friends!”

…it’s coming from the locker Adrien was in… should I go see what’s happening?... Nah not my problem

“Lila must have been re-akumatized! Quick! Plagg! Claws out!”

…The locker just glowed green...and someone in a cat costume just ran out… what the hell does Adrien do in his spare time? I have so many questions… you know what? I’ve seen weirder.

“Of course Ladybug saved my life. She never misses an opportunity to rescue her best friend.”

“Did your tinnitus give you vertigo when you went up the Eiffel Tower?”

“Oh no! Ladybug knows me so well that she brought me an ear plug to stick in my right ear!”

Again with someone named Ladybug…

“Grr.”

Hmm?

“Right ear? did she say right ear? This morning she said the ringing was in her left ear!

She’s not wrong… sausage hair did say the tinnitus was in her left ear this morning…

I��ve got her this time.”

Nice, things are finally getting interesting (oh Felix, if only you knew)

“Are you going to tell everyone?”

“Of course I am. Lila is-

“-A liar. Yes, I know. But do you really think exposing her will make things better?”

Did he just ruin the most interesting part of his day? Bitch. Try again.

“And who’s to say not exposing her will make things better?”

“But if you humiliate her, she’ll just be hurt more making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy-

“And has letting a so called bad guy do whatever they wanted ever make them a good guy?”

(“Ladybug and I are like two peas in a pod.”)

“Take for example, Bourgeois. Heard she’s the resident school bully. Has she ever changed?”

“She’s better-

“Wasn’t talking to you, Adrien. Has she treated anyone in your class out of the supposed kindness in her heart?”

“Well no but-

“There is no but. It just proves that even if you let the ‘bad guy’ do whatever they want they won’t become a ‘good guy’ also if you keep letting Bourgeois do whatever she wants your going to lose all your friends. I may not have friends but even I know that much. Think about it, how many times has Adrien stood up for you or any of your classmates when Bourgeois were bullying you and your classmates vs the times Adrien has stood up for Bourgeois for bullying you.”

“I-he uh, he stood up for the whole school when Chloe pulled the fire alarm and- uh”

“That’s just one time. Face it, Adrien stands up for bullies far more times than when he stood up for his friends.”

“That’s not true! I apologised-

“You apologised but did you stand up or defend your friends?”

Okay, so half of it might be about my grudge on him but it was true! Surprisingly, Adrien didn’t approach him for the rest of the day.

-The next day-

His seatmate, Marinette, sat down next to him, “Thank you. I never noticed I had always put Adrien up on a pedestal like he could not do any wrong. I never noticed that Adrien had some very questionable flaws.”

“Mm.”

And then she smiled at him.

His heart skipped a beat, the smile was sweet and sincere… and he found that she was rather likable.

@felinettenovember

[iamdunn]

 Miraculous Flash Forward part 9: A New Dynamic

A Miraculous Fan-Fic

Written by

AJ Dunn

Adrien couldn’t wait to get back home and start making preparations. The trip to Paris hadn’t gone as badly as he was afraid it would. In fact, maybe he and Marinette could put their past behind them finally and start a life together. He had agreed to stay for the wedding since Marinette had gone through the trouble of making his Tux for him, and Nino wouldn’t have let him leave, he would have released Alya on him and that was frightening enough considering she had Trixx to back her up. Plus, Luka had Sass and he really didn’t need that kind of drama in his life. Honestly, he was happy he went. Even Nino saved a place for him after 5 years, in this case, the place of best man. 

“I will.” She had said. The memory of her words played in his mind as they swayed around the dance floor. She had agreed to be his roommate in Shanghai. She swore she didn’t want him to leave her and that she truly did love him. Plus, losing her roommate meant she was looking for a new one. He was certain though that his studio condo wasn’t going to be sufficient for them. She would need her own room and considering how flustered he made her, he would need a private room so she didn’t lose herself whenever he walked around without a shirt on. 

“Yeah, no more hanging out in the seating area in nothing but a towel,” Plagg said to him as they prepared to leave for the airport. 

“Who knows, I might occasionally forget and well…”

“You’ll be quickly reminded when she walks through the walls to get away from you.” Plagg laughed. Adrien laughed too imagining her overdramatic reactions. Adrien’s phone rang. 

“Are you sure about this Adrien?” Felix said. He had told his cousin he would need to upgrade his suite and asked for him to get him in touch with the management company. 

“Absolutely,” Adrien smiled. “I wouldn’t want her getting a cheap apartment, that neighborhood is bad news, besides, she still doesn’t speak Mandarin and I can’t have her getting lost here again can I? OH, and I am going to tell her about us.” His words came out so quickly he hoped his cousin would agree and not snap at him. 

“Do you trust her that much?” Felix sounded shocked. “Having her move in with you is one thing, but this affects us both.” 

“Yes, I do. Besides, if this is going to work, her and I can’t have secrets between us.” 

“It’s a shame she didn’t have a twin sister.” Felix scoffed. 

“What?” Adrien teased. 

“Nothing, never mind… shut up.” Felix snorted. “I’ll send them a message to call you.” He hung up. 

The flight back was a sleepless one as Adrien reeled over the idea that Marinette was coming to live with him. This will change everything. He tried to sleep but, listening to music, even tried doing some reading. Sleep didn’t come until he was back home in his own bed. He wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep when his phone rang.

“Mr. Graham De Vanily?” the voice came over. “Ah, Mr. Graham De Vanily called and said you wanted to renegotiate your lease.” Adrien refrained from laughing. 

“Adrien please.” he laughed, “And my cousin, he’s just Felix.” It is still funny when people see them together, and they have the same last name, but then call each other cousins. A thing that had always been fun. “Yes, I want a larger unit.” 

“I’m afraid the only unit we have available larger than the one you are in, is our 3 bedroom two bath unit at the opposite end of your floor.” 

“That’s perfect.” He refrained from using his cattish terminology with such a business call. Although the excitement in him wanted to so badly. 

“Fine, I shall send the paperwork over immediately, I assume you want to make the transition before the end of the month? As that is when your lease is due to renew.” 

“Yes of course.” 

“Please get the paperwork back to us promptly.” A ding came through his phone the second he hung up. It was an email from the property management containing the digital documents that he needed to Esign and return. He made haste to finish the paperwork before heading out to see Cheng Sifu and check on the temple. The sky was clear as Adrien made his way home from Cheng Sifu’s restaurant with a sack of leftovers and a few grocery items he had bought on the way. By grocery items that meant cheese for Plagg. While Camembert wasn’t available here, Manchego had become his replacement. 

They leaped from rooftop to rooftop not worried about remaining unseen as he had before the reunion. It felt freeing to just be himself and not hide anymore. His students already called him Laoshi Mao, though they didn’t know why it wasn’t Laushi Adrien. Well, Mao sounded a lot better. He slipped through the balcony door and wondered what their new apartment would look like. He was sure all of the units on this floor had a balcony. His phone ran just as he entered the apartment and before he transformed. It was a video call. 

“Hello M’Lady,” he answered in his most cattish tone. She giggled then began swatting away at some unseen thing, most likely the Kwami’s. 

“They’re all excited to be moving and they have been trying to pack for me.” She giggled again. 

“Well, I am Pawsitively feeling clawssome about it too, M'Lady.” 

“You dork.” She laughed. “Detransform and feed Plagg.” She said playfully. 

“As you wish.” he let his transformation go as Plagg darted into the bag and began tearing at the plastic wrapper. “Hold on, this guy… “ he set the phone down and tried to wrestle the package from the nearly rabid creature. “Hold on, let me open the package at least, you’re going to kill yourself.” Marinette laughed at the ordeal. It was certainly going to be interesting having so many Kwami’s around. 

Adrien reached over, picking up the phone again as Plagg stole away the now open package. “You’d think I starve him.”

“So, how was your day?” she said in a melodic tune. 

“It would have been better if you were already here.” He said holding up a clear plastic container containing remnants of the Crab stew which had become one of his favorite dishes. The container had Cheng’s restaurant label on it.

“Did you tell him?” Her face went into a look of concern. 

“I’ll have you know I am a cat of my word,” he said nonchalantly. 

“Adrien?”

“Of course not.” A look of relief as she wanted to surprise him. She even insisted that her mother and father keep their tongue too. Threatening not to write or call for a week if they did. They were so happy for her to be moving to Shanghai, not to mention in with Adrien. Their faces lit up as they began discussing nicknames for grandkids. Adrien found the whole conversation unnerving at first but when he saw the looks on their faces, the pure joy, he felt grateful they were such wonderful people. 

He still hadn’t talked to Emelie despite her condition improving. Amalie maintained the radio silence as well after Felix had threatened to cut her out of his life completely if she didn’t give Adrien space. Though, Adrien hadn’t told Marinette about all of that mess yet. He was afraid it would scare her off and he wanted her to enjoy her time here before bombing her with it. 

Weeks had gone by as Adrien packed up his studio and shuffled all of his stuff into the new apartment. The Apartment opened up into the foyers, with a partial wall separating it from the living room. The kitchen to the right just like his old apartment had a counter divider with two bar stools on the living room side. The marble decor was the same as his old unit, taking into mind the carpeting in the living room stopped before the bar stools. The coat closet next to the front door was slightly deeper like a mini walk-in.  There was a small dining table situated by the windowed wall in the kitchen. It was twice the size of his last kitchen. 

He found the stairs to the loft in the same place however instead of an open bedroom area there were four doors. One was a bathroom and the other three bedrooms. The master bedroom, being nearly the size of his last unit, had its own bathroom with a walk-in shower and jet stream tub. The second and third bathrooms were on either side of the bathroom. Adrien decided to move his stuff into the smaller of the two rooms closest to the stairs so that Marinette could have the main room with her own bathroom. 

It only took him a week to clean out the old unit and clean it even though professional cleaners would be in to clean it properly. The unit was unfurnished but the furniture from the old unit was bought by Amelie so he had a few bell boys help him move it into the new unit. He had only to buy a bed for Marinette before she got there. He had Sabine pick out some furniture online and he ordered it. 

The two weeks flew by faster as he spent more time at the temple tutoring the youth. As well as his daily chores there.

A video call with Marinette came in very early in the morning, though it wasn’t that early where she was at. She had just arrived at the airport with her parents who were seeing her off. Her bags were checked and she was standing in front of the windows overlooking the runway. 

“I can’t wait to see you, Princess.” He said enthusiastically as he lay in his bed. He tried to not let her see he was in bed or that he didn’t have a shirt on, she’d be a mess and end up missing her flight. 

“Did I wake you?” She looked guilty 

“I wouldn’t have missed this call for anything Princess, you better get on that plane you let me down now.” he winked at her. 

“Don’t worry, that was her boarding call. We are putting her on the plane right now,” Tom said. Adrien chuckled as they hung up the phone. 

“I’m just surprised you love birds are going to be in separate rooms.” Plagg teased. “How long is that going to last?”

“Hey, you have your own room now, what are you harassing me for?” Adrien teased him.

“Actually that is going to be Marinette’s sewing room, right?” Plagg had a point. 

“I mean, when she gets here, you can start staying in the miracle box with the others.” 

“Too cramped. I need to stretch my legs and be free.” Plagg folded his arms behind his head as he hovered over the bed. Adrien copied him as he lay in his bed. His phone ran again, this time it was Felix.

“I’ll be coming to Shanghai today, I am at the airport now.” He sounded rushed.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Adrien asked. It meant he would be on the same plane with Marinette. His stomach balled up. 

“A last minute showing of some new designs and they can’t seem to be able to agree on one.” Felix said something to the boarding clerk. “I need you to attend with me.” 

“I have classes, I can’t cancel them, plus I am now tutoring some of my students.” Adrien complained. It made things worse that he wouldn’t be able to spend time with Marinette. 

“I’m sure we can arrange the viewing for after your classes or before. What time is your fist class and last class….” He paused. “You know what, we can discuss that when I get there.” his voice had changed from rushed to pleasant and happy. Damn, did he see Marinette, is he sitting with her? Adrien’s anxiety tightened on his chest as he laid back against his pillow. 

After a long and nerve wracking day, Adrien stood at the airport waiting for both his cousin and his...friend? He hadn’t bothered to change his clothes after he finished at the temple, so he was still dressed in his yi-fu. He decided to wait near the baggage claim so he could help grab her luggage. Felix would likely have one bag and it was probably a carry on. Adrien saw her bags first and grabbed up. She had a lot as he had expected, they were pink with darker pink polka dots, no surprise there. As he finished loading them on a luggage cart he heard Felix’s voice. 

“Are you serious Marinette, that would be great.” Felix sounded excited, a tone he didn’t use very often. Adrien could feel the heat in his face as he tried to compose himself before turning around to greet them. 

“Adrien.” Marinette exclaimed as he turned around to catch her as she leaped into his arms. He spun her around holding her tightly and making a big show of it. “Look who found me on the plane, he wants me to come with you two to the fashion showing this afternoon.” Adrien feigned a smile. While Marinette was the fashion expert between the three of them, he wasn’t sure if his cousin’s intentions were pure, or if he was competition. 

“So, I hope you got that sare bedroom made up for me…” Felix leaned in to whisper. “Brother.” Adrien’s face burned even more now, said spare bedroom was right next to her room and well, was empty. 

“Sure, if you don’t mind sleeping on the floor.” Adrien laughed as they loaded up in the car. Felix pulled out his phone and made a call. 

“I need a spare bed set up in the Graham De Vanily room, you’ll know which room.” Adrien was amazed at how resourceful his cousin was. This is why he is the primary controlling party for the company.  The ride back to the apartment in the Taxi was cramped with Marinette wedged between Adrien and Felix. Adrien, being clearly larger than his twin, though not too much. Marinette let out a loud yawn so Adrien threw his arm over her shoulder and pulled her head into his chest casting a possessive glance to Felix, who simply smirked back to him. 

The Bus boys carried her bags to the suite. 

“I don’t know about you two, but I am famished.’ Felix said, “Shall we step out for dinner?”

“That sounds great, we should go to Thousand Delights?” Adrien smiled at her excitement. 

“Are you okay to go, Marinette,” Adrien asked “You were nearly falling asleep in the plane, you might need a nap.”

“Nonsense. She’s fine.” Felix swooped a hand over her shoulder and led her back to the curb. “Shall I call a driver to come get us, less cramped than a taxi.” Competition is then. Adrien scowled. 

“If my accommodations aren’t sufficient for you, COUSIN,” Adrien slid his arm around her waist tugging her to his side and out of Felix’s hands. “You are welcome to make your own. Felix’s smile was one of mischief as he let his arm fall from her shoulders. Her face froze in a ‘what just happened’ expression. A few minutes later a mini black limo arrived and the driver moved quickly to open the door.

“Lady’s first.” Felix insisted then slid in after her. Adrien ran to the other side to let himself in next to her. Once again, Marinette was trapped between the two, though Adrien focuses on the fact, she would be staying with him when Felix returned to Paris. 

“Where’s your ring?” Adrien finally asked, having noticed his hand free of it when his arm was around Marinette.

“I uh, Amalie,” he choked. “They want yours as well to get them refinished or something.” Adrien slipped the ring off his finger and handed it to Felix.

“I don’t know what Amalie and Emelie want with them, but they have no meaning to me.” Adrien turned to the window.

“Ooookay.” Marinette’s voice broke through the awkwardness. “Amalie? Emelie? Not mother?” 

“It’s a long story.” Felix said, patting her knee. 

“Well, tell me tonight, when we get back?” Marinette’s voice was so sweet. Adrien was glad didn’t didn’t stumble over her words like she did when they were younger, now he could have a real conversation with her and actually know the true intentions of her words. 

“We will have plenty of time to talk about that Marinette,’ Adrien smiled at her as he put his arm around her shoulders again, “But let’s just have some fun first,” He kissed her forehead, casting a glance to Felix. The thought of telling her made his stomach clench and he could tell it was difficult for Felix too. Not exactly something that comes up in casual conversation.

Cheng Sifu was excited to see him, but his confusion over the “Cousin” kept him constantly glancing back and forth between them. Felix and Adrien smiled at him, then they both laughed.

“Cheng Sifu, we get that all of the time, our mothers are identical twins as well.” Adrien didn’t mean to add that, but it was too late. 

“What he means is, we share the Graham De Vanily twin genes.” Felix to the rescue, casting a scowl at Adrien. “Which means.” smiling at Marinette, “When we have children, our wives will bear us twins.” Adrien caught the wink in his eye. 

“Well, I don’t think we need to worry about you having any children any time soon Felix,” Adrien leaned back in his seat as his empty bowl sat in front of him. He wrapped an arm around Marinette, “You have to have a girlfriend first.” He gave Marinette a gentle squeeze and a smile.

“Oh.” Felix said, putting his napkin down on the table. “And you do? I thought she was just a friend?”

“Yeah, she is.” Adrien smiled at her. “A girlfriend.” He placed a quick kiss on her startled lips. Making a show of it before Felix could question if he even had a chance. Adrien knew Marinette had loved him since day one, even though she only knew the facade his father created, but he loved her for her. 

“I see.” Felix’s tone seemed to have a playful melody to it. “I’m happy to hear that.” Cheng Sifu began to play his happiest of songs on his accordion. 

“I always knew the two of you would be together someday.” A joyful tear fell down his cheek. 

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reactions to Truth!

Just going to go straight into it because this episode is huge! I really like how at the end of a season and the beginning of another, we see the same scene that leads us out of one and into another. Gabriel fixes the Miraculous and ohhh poor Dusuu thought it was all a dream, being in evil hands. So in a way, the Miraculous being damaged may have been a blessing for her. Dx Too bad it couldn't have been fixed after Marinette got it back :/ But at least Nooroo isn't alone right? Legit only positive I can get from this. ;-; Tikki and her little hats omg it's so cuuuute! I wonder if she makes her little clothes, too awww But the other Kwami's are almost like siblings to Tikki if you think about it. Now Tikki has to share things with them all as they cause chaos all around when she's so used to her quiet life alone with Marinette. Even for a Kwami, that must be hard to adjust to.

Okay so it's almost Prince Ali's birthday that Paris is going to celebrate. Interesting! I'd really like to see him back and a storyline with that. :O Marinette holding something, clearly, that the girls can't see over video chat. Talking to what appears to be herself, reacting to what someone's saying from different sides of her room. Camera flashes going off. And then her phone getting yeeted at her all on a video call with her friends when she's supposed to be alone...considering they're all going to have Kwami's and learn some things later as they become heroes, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they think back to this scene someday! OH WAIT spoiler for the upcoming episode Gang of Secrets!!! Fair warning. What if this episode with the plushies she said she's going to make, is one of if not the reason they go over and are looking around her room? Because she's been acting sus and they want to know what's going on. Especially after what happens later in the episode with Luka. Okay, back to the episode itself. Her friends observation: You're acting way weirder than normal.... IS ADRIEN AT YOUR PLACE?! I mean, fair point. xD But the thing is, whenever Marinette tends to act weirder or say/do things that Alya and the girls don't understand, it's almost always connected to her being Ladybug/Guardian. Even Lila. If she wasn't Ladybug and dealt with her so much as her, she wouldn't know a lot of things that made her not trust Lila to begin with. So Marinette has to overcompensate to try to hide everything or can't explain her thoughts or feelings about certain situations, so Alya always just assumes her behavior has something to do with Adrien. It really sucks but at the same time, what else is she going to think?

These Kwami are a lot of trouble. xD Now she's even more frazzled, so she calls Luka Adrien. More than once. I've done this where I call my siblings the wrong name more of than I'd like so I can't fault her for it. Her mind's probably a mess, poor girl. Dx "I'm sorry it's just that I cheated on you!" BIG OOF. But this gives me Kim Possible vibes when Ron assumed Kim didn't want him anymore and told her he was cheating on her when he meant to say he was cheating to be on the football team so he could be more worthy of her when he thought she wanted to "trade up" her boyfriend. Our poor Marinette! So frazzled she can't remember when her dates are, when they've been rescheduled. She can't remember her patrols with Chat Noir which are really important. She's getting to the point where it's going to be a wonder she can even function. Dx "But Marinette and I are such a big fan of his" wow this sure hits different. The way they kept quizzing each other to finish the sentence with Jagged Stone trivia was pretty cute. Luka having her finish the line with "Kiss me" that she screamed to the entire theater made me choke on my cake. "Well, if that's what you want." Smooth. "I think, yes. I want to." But you know, it gets interrupted by an akuma attack of course because that's just the way things work! :D And wouldn't you know it, it's Mr. Pigeon. AGAIN. Totally worth interrupting the moment lol Ladybug can't pick and choose, however, so here comes the sequence where she's constantly running off and he starts doubting her. Notice the parallel when Marinette started to like Luka after Adrien could never show up to things? Now Marinette's having trouble showing up and Luka's having issues with it. The second Chat Noir started to sneak up on Ladybug, we all knew he was going to get flipped. But it's so adorable and funny at the same time I love it x333 And that whole scene there of Ladynoir. Obviously it's a Lukanette-centered episode but the Ladynoir in this episode! So good! And you know, it's interesting. First time we see Adrien this episode is for FIVE whole seconds! And the way it abruptly cut off as he opened the car door... yeah you know what, Lies is going to be Adrien's POV or something of this same day. It has to be. He has 2 total scenes one of them is 5 seconds and the other one is 2 seconds. Crazy. We got about 7 seconds of Adrien's face today woo! But ugh here's where we get hurt Luka ;-; "A girl, who as always, isn't here." Ouch. The fact that if Marinette said she loved Adrien still, he'd understand and he'd get it is so sweet, and so sad that it's not even because of that, it's because she's Ladybug and the Guardian and she can't say a thing about it to him at all, that he can't accept. It's the one thing he couldn't deal with that's the issue and that really sucks. AND THIS MOMENT RIGHT HERE HAD ME GASPING AND HURTING FOR LUKA. IT'S THE MOMENT HIS HEART BROKE

But also really guys, did you notice his eyes are different now? Almost like a blue diamond look or something.

Luka trying to fight it, trying to tell Hawk Moth that the truth needs to be willingly told, not forced. But stupid Hawk Moth's able to get him to hold on anyway and gets akumatized. But not before he told Marinette to run. Which was such an awwww moment. x33 I mean, this is definitely getting a bit close to Chat Blanc territory if you ask me. New transformation music is pretty good! I like it. Also can we just appreciate that instead of trying to track down Marinette to get the truth from her, he's instead asking all her friends and family, pretty much any source besides her? AND ROSE'S RESPONSE "Marinette has no secrets because she's the most honest girl in the world!" She thinks so highly of her and it's just so beautiful. Nobody would blame her for these secrets if they only knew either. But awwwwww I love this scene!! And here's the big reveal! (no not that one) Jagged Stone is Luka and Juleka's father. 😮

Thomas today tweeted that Luka and Juleka are twins. Which would have to be fairly obvious after this reveal. There's no way that Jagged, who says he'd be a lame dad and left because he wasn't cut out for it, would have Luka with Anarka, then stay long enough to also have Juleka. I also totally forgot that in the French version, Jagged has an American accent when he speaks. XDD Just the fact that even WITH his truth powers, he asked his mother TWICE who his father was. Both times she said Jagged Stone. He still didn't believe it until he went to Jagged himself omg. This poor poor boy. Luka: 😱*gasp* Marinette: 😲 *gasp* Adrien: 😮 WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY OMG. LIKE I'M WATCHING A TELENOVELA OR SOMETHING. THEY EVEN ZOOMED IN ON THEIR REACTIONS I CAN'T And then Luka just yeets his dad because he wasn't ever there for him. I honestly did not expect Luka having dad issues to ever be a thing in this show, even though I knew he wasn't around. So like... when everything's worked out with Marinette and Adrien in the end, will Luka and Adrien end up becoming friends and bonding over things, like the whole daddy issues thing...? Are we really supposed to believe she has no feelings for Chat Noir? I mean really, look at this.

"I can't imagine what your daily life must look like" ... is she really actually being the one to bring up something about his secret identity? With that face? 😲

Their flirty banter that at this point I don't even think they realize it is, and those soft looks I just... My top ship is Ladynoir and I was not expecting any significant moments of theirs but I got it anyway. Just watching their scenes, I kept going "See, this is why they're meant for each other." My heart is happy despite all the Luka pain! It's helping me cope with it, okay? "When you're ready, I'll be here for you, Marinette." Awww so they're telling us Lukanette is on hold here. Not a guarantee, but at least on hold. He's an option for her later. So now the Adrienette vs. Lukanette for S4 we heard about awhile back makes sense now. Later on this season, probably when things calm down and she gets the hang of things, she'll be in a better position to be with someone. And by then, Adrien will probably realize and understand his feelings for Marinette. So then she'll be in a position to choose between them. Now we know where Luka gets his ability to turn emotions into great songs. That's adorable! Father-son bonding! Gabriel needs to take notes when a man who was never in his son's life as more than his idol has the ability to try to be there, but Gabriel can't. Ugh our poor Marinette, probably thinking she's going to be alone for a very long time just because of a supervillain. That's so wrong she has to feel like this. If you notice, Hawk Moth's akumatizations help people patch up relationships so much of the time as a weird unexpected result of an akuma attack. And yet, he does nothing but hurt Marinette and at times Adrien, the most when he akumatizes people. He makes me so angry! But I'm too tired for a rant about that. At least the Kwami hugs at the end helped a teeny bit anyway! c:

[nobodyfamousposts]

Missing 3.4 Final

Good news: No more Lila!

Bad news: Cliffhanger.

Fair warning: This is a good 40+ pages.

Adrien arrived at school early that morning with a plan and a hope. He would have also had a speech already typed out if Plagg hadn’t forced him to go to bed. And it wasn’t like the akuma fight had left him with much time to really plot anything out, either.

That was the other thing taking up his focus. Ladybug had been acting strange recently, but it really showed last night. She didn’t cast her Lucky Charm. She had done nothing for Alya as the akuma victim despite having plenty of time to at least talk to her. She had also been particularly stand-offish with him during and after the fight, even disregarding their standard fist bump.

It was worrying. And Plagg’s strange silence on the matter wasn’t helping.

It threatened to eat away at his mind, and admittedly had to some extent. But if there was one thing Plagg had been useful for, it was keeping him grounded.

“You can only focus on one thing at a time. Focus on the here and now.“

In the here and now, Ladybug was not here and there was nothing he could do about her current state. Nor was there much he could do for her today, especially once he reached the school. However, Alya still needed him, and he would be going to school where he would be in a prime position to at least try to help her.

There was no way of knowing how much he could do or what he could accomplish. But he was bound and determined to try. For Alya. For Nino. Even for Marinette, despite her no longer being there.

“Mr. Agreste? The Principal will see you now.”

Adrien took a breath.

It was time to step up.

Damocles blinked in surprise when he entered.

“Mister Agreste, is something the matter?”

“Yes.“ He said, mentally preparing himself for the conversation. “I have something to tell you about yesterday‘s incident.“

To his credit, Damocles had listened to him this time. And he did seem rightfully angered when Adrien told him what he had heard. But his expression at the end of Adrien’s tale was apologetic and did not in any way suggest any sort of action would result.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Agreste. While that does shed new light on things, that does not in any way justify the assault of a student.“

“Sir, I don’t believe that Lila was assaulted in the first place. Or at least if she was, it was by her own hand.“

He appeared skeptical. “But why would she do such a thing?“

“Because Lila is a liar.”

The man’s eyes widened in shock. “What?!”

Adrien took a breath. Don’t back out now, he told himself. You’ve already started and gotten this far. Alya is counting on you.

“Lila is a chronic liar and has shown a tendency to target people who call her out on her lying. She first became an akuma after Ladybug confronted her in the park about her claiming to be her best friend. She became an akuma again and pretended to be me after I told her I would be happy to be her friend but asked her to stop lying the first day she came back to school. She had been making comments and spreading rumors about Marinette after she started pointing out issues with her stories. And now she’s claiming Alya attacked her during an incident when Alya was calling her out on her lies.”

“But you weren’t there for the actual assault.” Damocles countered, skeptical of what he was being told. “So how can you prove that she didn’t hit her?“

Adrien’s eyes narrowed. “With all due respect, sir, where is your proof that she did?“

The man appeared affronted at that. “Well, Miss Rossi did say—

“Lila Rossi is a pathological liar. Her word can’t be trusted.” Adrien insisted firmly. “And Alya just spent all of yesterday telling you she didn’t do it.”

“But Miss Rossi’s cheek was marked.”

“Which was at best circumstantial evidence, and something she could easily have done to herself.”

Now it seemed that Damocles had enough. “Young man, that is quite the accusation!”

“So was her claim that Alya struck her.” Not that they bothered to appropriately investigate it in the first place. “And that wasn’t the first wild claim she’s made.”

“Be that as it may, some minor stories don’t disprove this incident occurred.”

“But they do imply a trend.” Adrien argued. And really, it was more than just a simple trend by this point. If he had plotted it all out, he was sure this was probably her norm. And it made him all the more regretful that he hadn’t spoken up about it sooner.

He had failed to stand up for his friends before. First with Nino and his father. Then with his other friends and Chloe. Then with Marinette and Chloe. And then again with Marinette and Lila.

He wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time.

“Sir, she’s lied about Marinette before. You know this. Three lies in one day: Accusing her of stealing the test answers for a mock exam, of pushing her down the stairs, and then of stealing a family heirloom. All of which were lies used to wrongfully hurt and humiliate Marinette. And nobody listened to Marinette back then either, just like you didn’t listen to Alya yesterday.”

“She has a condition—”

“The condition is just her lying.” Adrien emphasized. “If you know this—if she told you about this supposed condition of hers, then couldn’t it have been a part of the situation yesterday?”

Damocles frowned at that, clearly having forgotten that matter. “But there was the mark!”

“And with Marinette, there was the test answers and the necklace. Lila still admitted to those claims being false. Why couldn’t this be false, too?”

He hesitated. Because yes, these were all things that didn’t add up. They were issues that the Principal and the school should have looked in to more, and really should have handled better. At least better than just disciplining each girl based solely on the word of one person. Especially when it’s the same person both times.

Damocles appeared uncertain, but still seemed unwilling to budge on his position. Emboldened, Adrien cut him off before he could try to make further excuses.

“Sir, with all due respect,” Disregarding that the man before him was far from deserving of any such respect at this point. “I understand that you want to be a hero. And as the Owl, you have supported people. But your actions as a Principal have been lacking at best and at worst, have been clearly biased and unfair. If you really want to help at making things better, wouldn’t it matter more to do so in the role you already have?

It was probably the meanest that Adrien had ever allowed himself to act towards an an adult—especially an authoritative figure. But it was also the most honest, and he for once didn’t regret it.

Damocles looked shocked. Possibly that he was being spoken back to. Possibly the fact that the one doing it was Adrien. He opened his mouth to respond.

Only to be cut off by the door to his office opening.

“Excuse me, is this where the meeting is supposed to be?”

Both Principal and student turned to the doorway to see a middle aged woman. She in turn seemed confused upon seeing them, glancing between the two uncertainly. “Is this a good time?”

“Oh, is the best time!”

Before either male could speak, Chloe Bourgeois appeared at the door, politely (and wasn’t THAT well out of the ordinary for her?) encouraging the woman further into the room and all the way to the Principal’s desk. To the further confusion of everyone besides Chloe, two police officers as well as a man in a semi-formal if not somewhat cheap looking jacket entered the room after. One of the officers quietly shut the door behind them.

Damocles frowned in a mix of bewilderment and annoyance from that bewilderment. “Miss Bourgeois, what is the meaning of this?”

Chloe merely sauntered to the desk, smirking.

“Principal Damocles, may I introduce Mrs. Rossi. Lila’s mother. She has a rather...interesting perception of what’s been going on at the school for the past few months...”

_______________________

“I was so scared! I had never been attacked by an akuma like that before. I’m just lucky that Ladybug got to me in time.”

Not even a day after causing the akuma in question (who had never even gone after her) and already she was back at it as bad as ever. Watching the ease with which she fluttered her eyelashes and quivered her lip was enough to make anyone want to break something.

Alix was finally getting a sense for how frustrated Marinette had to have been for all those weeks when she was the only one to have known the truth. Seeing the way Lila teased and manipulated her classmates with falsehoods and promises she clearly had no intention of keeping was infuriating and it took everything Alix had not to scream at times.

Nathaniel at least had been a comfort—a stable source of sanity and reason during this time. Someone to assure her that no, she hadn’t gone crazy (yet), everyone else was just being that stupid.

But Marinette...for all that time, Marinette hadn’t even had that much.

Given all this, part of her was wondering if what Lila had said was right and Marinette hadn’t decided to run away due to everything.

Part of her wouldn’t blame her.

As much as she wanted to call Lila out on her bull, she knew even without Nathaniel’s grip on her arm, that doing so at this point would be a bad idea. Lila would simply cry and act as the injured party, then Alix would no doubt find herself next on the list of people to suddenly be removed from the school thanks to Lila’s unsubstantiated claims.

It didn’t help that both Rose and Juleka were fully entrenched in Lila’s stories. Kim was there as well and seemed sympathetic to Lila’s fake tears. Ivan and Mylene were also present, though they appeared a bit withdrawn as they stood further away from the small group and were giving each other wary glances rather than respond to anything Lila was saying. Even Sabrina was there, though she was standing off to the side and was doing something on her phone.

Alix had to wonder what that was about, but was in no position to ask. At least, not without the risk of drawing everyone else’s attention. Especially Lila’s, whom was the one person Alix needed to not be noticed by at this time.

Because if Lila did notice her and try to speak to her directly regardless of the reason, Alix couldn’t promise she wouldn’t start verbally tearing her a new one.

Alix and Nathaniel agreed to try and discuss the matter with their other classmates. But with Lila present, that was no easy task. Especially since she would comandeer their attention. Trying to tell everyone the truth up front was pointless with Lila present and in a prime position to retaliate. And trying to get each of them alone would only get Lila suspicious.

Honestly, Alix just wanted to forego the subterfuge and out Lila anyway. And her stupid story and dramatics weren’t helping with that!

“She’s truly a great friend!” Lila continued, dabbing at her completely dry eyes. “Once she heard about the akuma, she came to check on me first.”

Alix rolled her eyes. It took a less than gentle nudge from Nathaniel to keep her from scoffing outright.

Fed up, Alix turned away and headed for the front hallway. She could wait for any of the others outside and away from all that drama. In particular, she had been hoping to talk to Adrien or Nino. Nino at least should be able to give an update on Alya. And Adrien could give Alix some peace of mind by confirming Alya’s version of events. Then maybe they could go to Damocles or work together to convince the rest of the class.

At the very least, they could make things easier for Alya’s return by ensuring their friends knew what really happened.

“Alix, you need to calm down.” Nathaniel’s voice cut into her thoughts as he caught up to her in the hallway.

“I am calm.” She retorted as she spun around on him. She wasn’t blisteringly angry like she was yesterday, at least. That was calmed down, right?

His deadpan expression made it clear he wasn’t impressed and certainly didn’t believe her. He was right and she knew it. She sighed and took a few seconds to clear her mind.

“You’re right.” She admitted. “But listening to that? Now that we know for sure, it’s just…”

Why had they ever believed her? How had they ever fallen for it? It felt like such a waste and hearing Lila keep it going made Alix want to start yelling.

“I know.” Nathaniel agreed, fists clenched tightly around his tablet. “I’m upset, too. But the only thing getting angry will do is attract an akuma.”

“And that would be bad because…?”

“It would give her more ammo.”

Oh.

Yeah. There was that.

Confronting Lila won’t work. They both knew that. Marinette had surely tried, and it hadn’t made a difference when none of them believed her. Granted, that wasn’t truly their fault for not knowing, but it did mean that repeated attempts even by other parties were not exactly guaranteed success.

Still, they had to try.

And it was fortunate perhaps that a certain genius arrived at that moment, offering the first one they could try to convince.

“Max! We need to talk to you about Lila!” Alix called out as he approached.

Max glanced to his bag, appearing uncertain. “Can it wait? I have something else that is rather pressing to attend to.”

“No, it can’t. It’s about what happened yesterday.”

He frowned, his gaze falling back to Alix. “You mean the akuma attack.”

“Are you okay? We heard Lady Wifi made a comeback and that she targeted you.” Nathaniel cut in. Alix would have been annoyed, but her friend had been kidnapped and she had been just as worried about him as well.

Max hesitated. Possibly due to the shock? Or trauma perhaps?

“It was...harrowing, yes.” He finally stated. “Fortunately, Ladybug and Chat Noir were able to restore her to normal and then Chat Noir escorted me home.”

“But do you know what caused the akumatization in the first place?” Alix asked him.

“I assumed it had to do with Marinette’s disappearance.”

Both of the other students blinked in surprise at that. It wasn’t quite what they expected, though it did make sense for Alya to focus on helping her friend.

Still, they needed to focus. “Yesterday, Lila got Alya suspended by making a false claim of being attacked.”

Max tilted his head. “You are certain the claim is false?”

She nodded. “Yes. I spoke with Alya after the fact and she not only insisted she didn’t do it, but that she wished she had.”

That seemed to get his attention. “But why would she regret that she hadn’t harmed Lila?”

“Alya found out that Lila has been making up everything.” Nathaniel told him.

“It was a bunch of lies. All of it!” Alix exclaimed. “From her charity work to her celebrity friends and even that whole napkin thing—”

“You mean her joke?” Max asked.

THAT made her freeze. “What?”

“She claimed to have saved me from a napkin.” He pointed out. “What was that supposed to be if not a joke?“

Of course. Of freaking course the class genius knew and completely mistook the entire situation.

Alix groaned. “It was a lie, Max.“

“Oh.“

A pause followed.

“It wasn’t a very good one, was it?“

Looking back, it hadn’t been. Which only made it all the more vexing that they had believed it.

Nathaniel seemed torn, looking like he wanted to laugh while also trying to hold himself back from slapping his forehead in exasperation.

Max glanced between the two, taking in their expressions and seemed to catch on.

“I apologize. I misread the situation.” He had thought it was a joke that everyone else was already aware of, and only played into that. He hadn’t realized that it was an actual manipulation tactic on Lila’s part and that everyone had been fooled, or that he had helped her to fool them. In a way, he blamed himself for this discovery coming too late.

“It wasn’t your fault, Max.” Nathaniel told him.

“Yeah,” Alix agreed. “We all misread things. Just...in different ways.”

“I guess the question now is what will we do about it?” Nathaniel asked.

That, they weren’t sure. The obvious thing to do seemed to be that they needed to inform the rest of their classmates about Lila. But would they be believed? And if they were, how would they react?

Lila had manipulated them all, yes. But other than getting special treatment for a time, there wasn’t much that any of them had truly suffered at her hands.

No. The ones who had suffered had been Marinette and now Alya, both of whom had found themselves targets of Lila’s more malicious tactics once they had called her out on her lies.

Looking back, the circumstances of Marinette’s expulsion from the school, however temporary, had been not only unfair but also clearly orchestrated. There was no way Lila could have known about the test answers and her necklace being with Marinette unless she had seen it or seen to it personally. Marinette had never been the type to willfully steal another person’s possessions as far as they knew. And she CERTAINLY had never cheated. Nor would there be any benefit to stealing test answers for a mock exam that had no real weight.

Marinette was smarter than that.

She was also smart enough to not just have the test answers plainly visible at the top of her bag the day after the exam. That was just sloppy work, and Marinette was often paranoid when she thought she was doing anything wrong. If she had done it, she wouldn’t have been so clearly surprised.

Lila had been the one responsible. She set Marinette up for no other reason than to hurt her. She had told lies and attempted to frame her.

Alix could have forgiven the girl for trying to play herself up. She was a new girl at a new school and surrounded by strangers who had been involved in amazing things. Alix could understand her trying to lie if she thought it would help her fit in. But Lila’s antics went well beyond simple self-praise, and she could not forgive her for trying to drag other people down. And especially not for trying to frame Marinette for things she hadn’t done and get her expelled just for not buying her bullshit.

And now that she had attempted the same with Alya, it was more than clear that Lila’s actions were dangerous and not simply a one-time affair. She’d attacked Marinette. Then Alya. And thinking back, that one creepy akuma Adrien-look-alike had probably been tied to her as well, meaning she’d had some issue with the blond despite whatever interest she appeared to have in him.

“We need to let the others know.” Alix stated. “And from there, we can work out what to do with Lila.” They would have to. Because her tactics would get notably worse once she was aware they knew the truth about her. And given the response from Damocles and Ms. Bustier…

Yeah, they wouldn’t be able to count on the school officials to actually help them.

To her surprise, Max backed up a step.

“I’m sorry.” He stated. “I want to help, but there is something very important that I have to take care of first.”

Nathaniel frowned. “Can’t it wait? It would really help us out with convincing the others if you were there with us to confirm the truth.”

Max shook his head. Whatever was going on, he was insistent. “I will join you as soon as I can, but this is something I must see to immediately.”

He looked back to the window, noting the approach of Alya and her parents to the school.

“It’s important.”

_______________________

Alya hadn’t known what was going on. Her parents had gotten a phone call requesting they come to the school for a meeting in regards to her suspension. Her hope was that Nino or one of the others had spoken to Principal Damocles on her behalf and perhaps he would be showing leniency regarding her suspension. Or that she would at least be given the opportunity she had been denied previously to actually be able to tell her side and reveal Lila for the lying faker she was.

To her irritation, only her parents were invited inside the Principal’s office while Alya herself was asked to wait. Whatever was going on inside, it looked like a full house. She noticed a number of people sitting and standing around the office, including a couple of police officers (which was concerning). She had maybe all of a couple seconds to notice Adrien was in there and see him give her a shaky smile before the door was closed in her face.

She sighed and took a seat. There wasn’t much else she could do. Whatever the door was made of was pretty good material, because at best she could only pick up some sounds of murmuring on the other side.

She just hoped that whatever was going on would work out. And that maybe if she could get a chance to actually talk, that would be real swell.

“Alya. You’re back.”

The whispers that had followed her and her parents through the halls indicated that news of her presence would no doubt reach the class soon enough. She was even expecting that one of them would approach her, hopefully to check on her or get her take on what was happening.

But it wasn’t Nino who was there to greet her. Or Alix. Or even Adrien.

It was Max.

Alya didn’t remember much from her time as an akuma, but it didn’t take long for her to hear how Max of all people had been her target.

“Alya. It’s good to see you back to normal.”

She winced. “Max, I am so sorry for kidnapping you. I don’t even remember what I did, but I’m really sorry—”

Except his words cut her off.

“I’m not.”

Startled, she drew back and frowned in confusion. “You...what?”

He pushed up his glasses. “Last night, you kidnapped myself and Markov and took us to the the TVi station. You then had us hack the cellphone tower located there.”

She jerked back in shock.

“I did...why?”

He looked up at her, his gaze a strange mix of sympathy and pride.

“You were trying to find Marinette.”

Everything. Everything just stopped.

She had...

Even as an akuma, she had done all that? Gone that far? Not to get revenge on Lila or the school like she’d thought...

...but to search for her best friend?

As if sensing her confusion, Max explained. “You had us hack into the cellphone tower to try and locate her cellphone signal. It was...weak. And strangely disrupted. But we found it. And once you had it, you vanished.”

“I see.” That was some of the night accounted for, at least.

“From what I gathered, there was something strange going on with Marinette’s phone. It wasn’t ‘on’ and wouldn’t let you teleport directly to where it was, so you couldn’t find it. However!” He raised a finger. “While her phone didn’t give off a physical location, the signal was still there. That was what you had us track and that what what you were trying to locate last night.”

On the one hand, Alya was impressed with herself for managing this as an akuma, as well as Max and Markov for their efforts. On the other hand, she had still been an akuma and kidnapped her friends—regardless of the reason.

“At least now I know what I did.” She admitted. “Still, I should never have put you in that position.”

“But if not for you, I never would have been in that position.”

She frowned, confused. He made it sound like her kidnapping him wasn’t actually a bad thing.

“Under your orders, Markov and I had hacked a cellphone tower.”

She nodded, still confused. He had already explained that. What was he trying to say?

Max gave her a rather odd look.

“I’m sure you understand, legally speaking, that such an act is a crime and not something I would do were I not coerced.”

“Of course—”

“So you understand, legally speaking, that anything I happened to find was only because an akuma ordered me to.”

“Well, sure—”

“And certainly not because I took advantage of an opportunity to look up some additional information the akuma did not necessarily ask for but would have wanted had she known.”

It took a moment for the full meaning of his words to register.

She gaped.

He coughed. “Legally speaking, of course.”

“Of course.” She echoed numbly.

Because Max was telling her something. It wasn’t something she was sure she wanted to hear or not.

“Now IF by some bizarre luck I had gotten access to some extra data, I could hypothetically have gained some intel that might be of interest to select persons who knew Marinette rather well.”

That certainly got her attention.

“And IF such data existed in my hands, those select persons would be better able to make use of it.”

Her eyes widened. He wasn’t really...was he?

“Especially if one such person was an investigative sort who would have the skills and inclination to use the data appropriately.”

Oh god, he was!

“Though if that person should get caught, they certainly didn’t get any data from me. And it would do well to remember that lest a number of computer viruses be needed to completely erase their blog and entire online identity to remind them.”

Alya nodded. She barely even took notice of the threat. Not that she had any intentions of ratting our Max. Or even letting anyone know she had it in the first place.

“Of course, that’s just hypothetical.” Max reminded her.

“Of course.”

Max gave a resolute nod. He glanced around for any possible witnesses, and upon ensuring they were alone, he gave her a keychain.

It was cute. A little cartoonish kitty that smiled up at her with such innocence. She recognized the type of keychain it was though. Beneath that adorable exterior lied a usb device.

“Good luck.” Max whispered.

‘Bring her home.’ He left unsaid.

_______________________

Nino sighed once he’d reached the school. He’d been hoping to meet up with Adrien first thing, just to have a buffer and friendly support if nothing else. But the blond was nowhere to be seen and his attempts to call him went straight to voicemail.

He hoped he was okay. While they had talked things out the day before, he knew Adrien was still pretty sensitive.

There was nothing for it, though. He would just have to wait and see his bro when he got there.

...and try to survive in the meantime.

Nino was admittedly less than happy when he arrived to the school knowing Alya wouldn’t be there.

But seeing Lila sitting on the bench surrounded by his friends and lamenting over the ‘horrible akuma that tried to attack her the night before’?

He could see why Alya had lost her cool yesterday.

“Oh, Nino!” She exclaimed when she saw him, sending the rest of the class looking his way. She seemed to actually draw back from him as if uncertain, something he could now tell was method acting and a play for sympathy. “I’m so sorry for what happened yesterday. I never wanted Alya to get in trouble.”

Of course she didn’t, he thought sarcastically. She only lied about Alya attacking her to make herself look like a victim when Alya called Lila out on her crap.

He couldn’t quite bring himself to speak out. It was like he couldn’t form the words. Both Rose and Juleka were staring at him warily. Kim was frowning, though his focus seemed to be on Lila. Ivan and Mylene were giving him sympathetic looks. Sabrina was there as well, close enough to be “with” of the group but far away enough to not actually be part of the conversation.

He clenched his fists around his bag straps.

“Lila, dude...er...ette.” He started, trying to be as polite as he could bring himself to be. “It’s early and I’m just really not up for talking about it if it’s all the same to you.”

Lila gasped. “You don’t think she was right to hurt me, do you?”

It felt like all the air was being sucked out of his chest as everyone around them gasped at that and stared at him in shock.

“What?! No! No one deserves to be hurt!” Rose insisted, coming up to Lila’s side. “Right, Nino?” She added, looking up at him expectantly.

“Whatever happened yesterday wasn’t cool.” He replied, neutrally. Hoping that she would simply leave it at that.

But that wasn’t good enough. She covered her eyes and gave a wail.

“You do blame me!”

“I didn’t say that.” He insisted.

“But you didn’t not.” She shot back with a small sob that drew the classmates close to her. Rose put a hand on Lila’s shoulder in comfort while Juleka sent him a clear frown.

Oh god. It was like nothing he said could be the right answer or even just left alone. Anything he tried to say would be twisted and turned against him.

Was this what had happened with Alya?

Was this how it was for Marinette?

Or hell, Adrien? It was little wonder he was so scared to speak up then! How could he when it was like this? When Lila made it this hard to even dare to speak.

That was why...

He took a breath and straightened his cap, readying himself for what he was about to do.

“I shouldn’t be expected to apologize for what other people do.” Nino stated flatly. “But even if that were the case, I would still stand by Alya before I ever bow to you.”

Lila reared back in (fake) hurt. The others all stared at Nino in shock or outrage.

“Nino!” Kim gaped.

“How could you!” Rose exclaimed, tearfully.

Juleka’s frown grew into an outright glare.

Ivan and Mylene though…

They were gazing at each other, hands clasped. On the cusp of a decision. One he hoped was in his favor.

“You’re just as bad as Alya!” Lila cried out, hiding her eyes behind her palms. “You and Alya both!”

“Say that to me without covering your eyes and I may actually believe you.”

“You may want to check her hands first.” Came a voice from behind him. Nino looked over his shoulder to see Alix and Nathaniel arrive, the girl giving Lila a particularly dirty glare. “I wouldn’t put it past her not to be using some sort of eyedrops to complete the look.”

“Please.” Nathaniel said with a roll of his eyes. “With her level of acting, she’s probably taught herself how to cry on command.”

Nino hadn’t been expecting either of them to speak up on his behalf, but he was certainly grateful as they both seemed to be in his corner.

The air wasn’t nearly as oppressive now. He could speak and let his voice carry. He turned back to the others, resolute.

“Lila’s a liar.” Nino announced to the group present. “She’s lied since the first day she came to our class. She’s not Ladybug’s friend and she never spoke to her about looking for Marinette—both Alya and I can confirm this when we spoke to Ladybug during the search we did two days ago.” Around him, he saw eyes widen in shock and Lila’s in fear.

Seeing the response, Nino felt emboldened. “Alya didn’t do a damn thing to her and I would bet my hat that Marinette never did either.”

“Just because she’s your girlfriend doesn’t mean she’ll tell you the truth!” Lila insisted.

“I trust her more than I’ll ever trust you.” Nino shot back. “Especially after what you’ve put her and Adrien both through yesterday.”

Lila’s head shot up in surprise. Sure enough, her eyes were glistening and Nino had half a mind to follow through with Alix’s suggestion to check her hands for eyedrops. “What...what are you talking about?” She demanded.

Alix actually let out a huff. “So she really did say it, then? That Marinette ran away because of us?”

Lila paled as the other students nearby gasped. Nino wanted to sag in relief. It seemed that Alix had spoken with Alya and was at least willing to consider her report on the events.

Nino nodded to her. “Yeah. Adrien himself confirmed it to me yesterday when he ran away after Lila told him that.”

“How cruel!”

“Why would you say that?!”

Lila coughed. “That’s not true! You’ve got it wrong! That is not what happened at all!”

Nino crossed his arms, glaring at Lila. “That’s not what Adrien says.”

“He misunderstood!”

“And his report matches Alya’s.”

“She’s twisting things!”

That seemed to get the others thinking. Ivan and Mylene both had heard Adrien’s account first-hand. They knew the truth of what Lila had said to instigate the situation even if they weren’t sure whether the attack itself had actually happened. As such, they both looked ready to speak up.

Except…

Kim stepped forward first.

“So, I wasn’t going to say anything,” He said, directing his words at Lila. “But there are a lot of things that haven’t been adding up here for a while.” He rubbed the back of his head, uncertainly. “Your injuries have been all over the place, and I’m talking literally. Your tinnitus would switch ears. You claimed a wrist injury but never wore a brace for it. And when you fell down the stairs, you didn’t have any scratches or bruising afterwards. There were too many and they were never consistent. There just never seemed to be a good time to ask and I didn’t want to make assumptions.”

He shrugged to the others, apologetically. “But if we’re getting everything in the open, I couldn’t help but notice how Lila’s injuries were suddenly not a problem during our search party for Marinette.”

Lila froze. “What?”

Kim frowned. “You went out of your way to join us, Adrien’s group specifically. And you had no issue keeping up with us until he left and you were suddenly too weak to continue. But up to that point, you didn’t seem all that inclined to help with the search. If it was your injuries, that’d be one thing, but instead of bowing out yourself, you kept trying to get the rest of us to drop it.”

“What? That’s not true!” Lila insisted.

“Looking back, she had seemed pretty intent on trying to stop us from helping in the search.” Nathaniel noted.

“Hey yeah! Weren’t you saying you had Ladybug helping in the search?” Alix questioned. “Was that even true?”

“It wasn’t.” Nino insisted. “Ladybug herself said she had only just heard about the case from Chat Noir.”

“That was before I talked her into it.”

“It was after you said you spoke to her.” Nino cut her off. “And what’s more, we outright asked and she said she doesn’t even know you!”

“She was lying!”

“Just like Alya was, right?” Alix mocked. “And Marinette. Tell me, Lila. How many people are suddenly going to become liars if they point out holes in your stories?”

“She was just trying to protect me!”

“If you needed to be protected, why announce your friendship and make yourself a target in the first place?” Nino questioned, glaring at Lila. “Wouldn’t a real friend of Ladybug’s not put her in that position?”

Lila glared at him with such hatred that Rose found herself backing away in fear. Even Juleka seemed surprised and uncertain.

“It sounds a lot like you didn’t want Marinette to be found.” Came a quiet voice, drawing eyes to Ivan. “If you lied about Ladybug looking for her, then telling people she ran away…”

“That’s not it at all!” Lila exclaimed, losing the hateful glare and trying to make herself look innocent. “You can’t take Nino or Alya’s word for it!”

“We’re not. We’re taking Adrien’s.” Mylene cut in, glaring at Lila in distaste. “He told us what you said. How you started the argument yesterday. Honestly, if Alya HAD slapped you, I wouldn’t have blamed her after hearing some of your comments.”

“And it says something,” Alix mused, “that NOT hitting you is the one thing Alya regrets.”

“So you’re taking her word for it then?” Lila demanded angrily. “She has no proof!”

“To be quite frank,” Nathaniel pointed out blasely. “Neither do you.”

Lila’s ire only grew at that. “What?!”

Ignoring the way everyone stared at him in bewilderment, he merely shrugged. “I mean, there’s no proof other than your word that Alya was the one who assaulted you.”

Lila gestured to herself, angrily. “I’M the one with the injury!”

“Yes.” The artist noted. “On your right cheek, from your report.”

She frowned in uncertainty, able to tell that he seemed to be leading up to something but not sure what. Many of the others appeared confused as well.

Nathaniel pointed to Lila’s face. “Alya is right handed. If she slapped you, her reach should have gotten your left cheek.”

Eyes widened and immediately sought out Lila’s face. Lila jerked back and covered her cheek, but the damage was already done. And if anything, her instinctual reaction only drew more attention to the placement of her right hand over the remaining mark on her face.

“Wait—you mean Lila did that to herself?!” Kim demanded, outraged.

“Of course not!” Lila cried out, but no one really listened.

“It’s circumstantial at best.” Nathaniel admitted. “But from an artist’s eye, the mark and scratch on her face fits more in lines with the awkward placement of her own hand rather than that of someone else.”

It was true. His attention to detail wasn’t definitive proof of anything. But it was enough to make the students doubt.

And sometimes, a little doubt went a long way.

Lila knew that full well.

“Y-you’re just making things up!” She hissed.

“It’s merely an observation.” Nathaniel stated. “I can’t prove it, of course. But your response is rather telling…”

Lila grit her teeth. She had to get things back under control. “Why wouldn’t I be upset? How am I supposed to respond when all of you are ganging up on me and accusing me of awful things!”

“We’re not accusing you.” Ivan stated flatly, uncomfortable but steadfast.

“I am.” Alix cut in.

An emotional appeal often worked in her favor. When someone would confront her with the truth, crying and acted as the wounded party would often draw the attention of others and gain her people willing to defend her.

She gave out a sob. “I thought...I thought you were my friends!”

“Funny.” Came a voice. “I thought you were mine.”

Everyone spun to see Alya arrive. Max trailing along behind her.

“Alya? What are you doing here?” Nathaniel asked, more confused than anything.

The other girl shrugged. “My parents and I were called in to talk to Principal Damocles. I don’t know why.”

Lila drew back in apparent fear. Though whether it was of the growing force against her or any genuine concern that Alya might supposedly hurt her was anyone’s guess. “You’re not supposed to be here!”

Alya simply stared down the Italian, undeterred. “I’m where I need to be.”

Max shifted his glasses. “We overheard the commotion from the Principal’s office and came over to investigate.”

That it sounded like the potential for an akuma in the making didn’t need to be said.

“Here to attack me again?” Lila asked, making her voice quiver. It was enough to elicit some sympathy and make a few want to move to her side to protect her.

They had to hold themselves back.

“Marinette was right. You lie as easily as you breathe.” Alya said with a roll of her eyes. “I never attacked you in the first place. Heaven knows I should have. At least then the suspension would have been worth it.”

Murmurs broke out around them.

“How could you?!” Lila cried out with a sob.

“No. How could YOU?!” Alya retorted angrily. “I trusted you! I believed in you! I stood up for you and defended you, even when you didn’t deserve it and I had no basis! I…” She choked, gritting her teeth. “I admired you! I wanted to believe you. And you made me want to do better. BE better.”

Nino reached out a hand to comfort her, but it was Alix who held him back, shaking her head slowly.

Let her speak.

She needs this.

“Every time you came to me, I listened to you and took you at your word. All the things you said. About yourself. About Ladybug. About Marinette and how she had been acting. I kept trying for both of you, even when I felt like I was being torn apart.” She clenched her fists, her muscles tightening.

“Do you have any idea what that’s like? Being stuck in the middle between two people I care about. Both of whom I care about. Both telling me bad things about the other? I didn’t want to believe either of you because I wanted to believe in you both. But I kept getting pulled in two different directions until I couldn’t take it anymore. in the end, I was forced to pick a side, and I chose you.”

She glared at Lila with disgust.

“I chose wrong.”

Alya shook her head, chuckling bitterly.

“All this time, I’d thought Marinette was the one being unreasonable, but she had you pegged all along, hadn’t she?”

She took a breath. “I wish I’d listened to her sooner. But the sick thing? The truly disgusting thing that I hate myself for is that even now, even more than that, I wish that she hadn’t been right about you.”

“Alya!” Lila cried out, scandalized.

“Don’t.” She shut her down. “You’re a horrible person and a worse friend. You’re not capable of even being a friend at all. Not to me. Not to anyone.”

And how sad was it that Alya wanted that to not be true?

Alya would have done anything for a friend. She would have moved mountains and scoured an ocean. When Alya put her mind to something, she put her ALL into it to see it through. It was part of the reason she had been so forceful with Marinette in her pursuit of Adrien. And in turn why she had been so adamant on Marinette having undeniable proof about Lila.

“Lila lied to us all. But I’m just as complacent in her getting away with it.” Alya admitted to the others. “I told Marinette to check her sources when she tried to warn me, but if I had checked mine, we would’ve known about this from the beginning.”

“To what? Bully Lila?” Rose asked, clearly uncomfortable.

She shook her head. “No. To know not to simply believe whatever she says without checking first.”

They never had to believe Marinette without question. Their “Everyday Ladybug” never wanted that from any of them. But at the very least, they should have listened and considered her point, if only enough to investigate matters themselves and try to discern the truth.

Marinette deserved that much, at least. Hell, THEY deserved that much. They all deserved better than to be fooled like this. They should have at least looked. That way, if Marinette had been wrong, they could have explained their discovery to her and worked things out. And if she had been right, they could have confirmed it. Either way, there had been other means they could have resolved things.

No one had to be hurt and this whole divide and drama never needed to happen in the first place.

Lila realized she was losing her influence. Individually, none of her classmates had enough to truly counter her. But now that they were all here and collaborating, it was becoming increasingly clear to them that her stories weren’t adding up. She could lose her standing. All the relationships and benefits she had put such effort into.

“I can’t believe it. You’re really letting Marinette corrupt you!” Lila wailed. “And I thought her bullying couldn’t get any worse once she was gone! Now she has you bullying me for her!”

Alix scoffed. “You’re really trying to say Marinette was the one bullying you?”

Ivan nodded. “Yeah, Marinette has been bullied by Chloe for years! She wouldn’t do it herself.“

“Actually, statistics say—”

“Max.” Alix cut him off, exasperated. “I’m sure your statistical information is very interesting, but it’s not the point right now. Especially if you know Marinette is telling the truth.”

He coughed. “Duly noted.“

With that, the pinkette turned back on Lila. “We’re not all completely blind. Even if I didn’t necessarily believe Marinette that you were lying, I could read situations. Marinette never liked you and never bothered to hide it, but the thing was, you clearly never liked her either. Only you tried to be sneaky about it.”

Lila gasped and held her hand to her chest, as if asking whether Alix could possibly be referring to herself.

“Don’t act shocked.” Alix snapped. “If you don’t like someone, you should be glad not to deal with them. Marinette was certainly less tense when you weren’t around, and she simply focused on having a good time with us. But you? You never stopped poking or trying to start something.”

“That’s true.” Mylene agreed. “If you weren’t bragging about yourself, you were complaining about her. In some way, anything that happened had to be about you.” And wasn’t she just kicking herself for being one of the ones to get onto Marinette for her attitude against Lila, now that she knew the truth?

“I was only trying to be part of conversations.” Lila countered. “I never meant to come off as self-absorbed. I just wanted to fit in—”

“That is by no means the point here!” Alya hissed out. “You’ve been lying this whole time!”

“No.” Ivan stated flatly, to Alya’s surprise. “The problem isn’t that Lila has been lying. The problem is that it is clear she has been doing so maliciously.“

“That’s right!“ Kim added in agreement. “Lila hasn’t only been lying about herself and her accomplishments to make herself look better. That at least would be understandable, even if still not OK. The problem is that she’s also been lying about other people to make them look worse. She did it to Marinette. And now she’s done it again to Alya.”

That got the other students thinking. About Lila. About her claims. About their interactions with her. And now Lila could see she was truly losing her hold on them.

Lila hunched over, looking wounded. “Guys, this is ridiculous! Doesn’t it seem strange that this is happening now? Alya is Marinette’s best friend! Of course she would have reason to be antagonistic towards me! Marinette’s loss has been pretty hard on her.” She said, sounding overly sympathetic. “But that’s not justification for her to attack me and accuse me like this! Are you all really just going to take her word for it and do the same? After everything we’ve been through?”

It seemed they were. Looking around to her classmates, she saw guarded expressions and wary looks. She noticed Max standing somewhat in the back and away from the rest, and her expression brightened at the realization.

If she could get the genius of the class to openly confirm her, surely the others would believe it. He was the smartest kid in class, after all.

“Max! Come on! You remember how I protected you, right?”

But the boy only narrowed his eyes at her.

“The throw of the paper napkin had neither the trajectory nor the force to touch me. Even if it had, it was a napkin. The probability of damage was minimal.”

Lila gaped, more shocked that he was against her than the logic he was pointing out.

“But...but your eyes!”

“I had incorrectly assumed your antics at that time to be a joke of some sort, albeit a poorly humored one I did not understand. It was a napkin. I was wearing glasses. It wouldn’t have scratched my lenses, much less touched either of my eyes. At most, it might have left a smudge—hardly life threatening to warrant praise for catching it.”

“I was only trying to protect you!” She insisted.

“Interesting, given that the napkin ball had clearly been targeted at you.” Nino commented.

“Which Marinette threw to intentionally agitate my injuries!” Lila accused, trying to shift the focus to Marinette’s wrongdoings in an attempt to deflect.

Kim frowned. “Yeah, injuries or not, that wasn’t cool of her. But it was a napkin and she was trying to prove a point. It was only once she announced what she was doing that you suddenly acted like you were in pain.”

“Also, I think we need to reiterate that it was a NAPKIN.” Alix gestured with her hands to emphasize the sheer silliness of the entire thing. “It wouldn’t have injured you if you hadn’t caught it. And if it was bad enough to cause you pain by holding a napkin, it should have been in a brace. So why wasn’t it?”

Lila huffed. “I hadn’t wanted to cause a disruption.”

“Like requesting the seating chart rearrange was? Or having us carry things for you?” Nathaniel asked, annoyed.

Kim shook his head, honestly disappointed. “You know, we’re a good group. If you had just asked for help, we would have given it. You didn’t need to lie.”

“I’m not a liar!” Lila shouted angrily.

Everyone took a step back at that, automatically wary.

Rose looked around at each of her classmates. All of them, every one of them seemed to be angry with Lila. Each of them seemed so sure of her being the one in the wrong.

“Rose, you don’t believe them, do you?” Lila asked, near begging with tears in her eyes.

The poor blonde floundered. She wanted to believe Lila. But they were her friends and they were all so very angry and insistent that Lila was lying. She didn’t know. She just didn’t...

A arm wrapped around her shoulder and gently pulled her away from Lila. Rose looked up to Juleka in surprise. The goth girl merely kept a heated glare on Lila.

“You don’t touch her.”

This was it. It was official. Lila had actually lost her hold on all of them in the span of a day, and the worst part was that she had no idea how it all fell apart.

“I can’t believe it.” Lila gasped out. “After everything I’ve done for you—”

“You really haven’t done anything for us.” Nino pointed out. “I mean, sure, you’ve made promises and offers...and they sounded great and all. But this ‘friendship’, if you could even call it that, was generally more about what we could do for you rather than the other way around.”

“Oh, I should be the one saying that!” Lila bit out angrily. “All you did was take Marinette’s seat to get to sit next to your girlfriend and carry things for me. That was hardly any real effort on your part. And in return, you were the ones only being nice to me to use me and my connections.”

“But we never asked you to, Lila!” Rose cried out, getting everyone’s attention. The blonde was still crying, and sounded angry for once. “You’re the one who brought up the people you knew and how you could introduce us! None of us even cared about your connections and famous friends until you started offering to introduce us to them!”

Juleka hugged Rose tighter.

“I just...I just don’t understand why you had to do this. We were happy to be your friends! You only ever needed to be yourself! You didn’t have to lie!”

There was silence.

And then a hiccup.

Lila dabbed at her eyes. “I’m sorry everyone. I was new and scared. You were all so amazing and I was trying to fit in. I only wanted to make friends.”

“Can the crap.” Alya snarled. “There’s trying to make yourself look good to be liked and then there’s the way you’ve been manipulating everyone and actively targeting anyone you don’t like.” She shook her head. “You wasted no time turning on me when I called you out.”

Nino’s eyes widened in horror as he remembered something else Adrien had told him. “That creepy Adrien-akuma was you! You attacked him and turned into him to make him look bad as payback because he knew you were lying and asked you to stop!”

Lila froze, panicked. “I would never—!”

“Don’t.” Nino snapped. “Adrien already told me how you lied your way into his home and got to his dad.” He was still kicking himself for his part in that and helping Lila to emotionally manipulate Adrien.

“You probably faked the accusations against Marinette, too!”

“You got her expelled!”

There were too many accusations coming from too many people all at once. Lila appeared overwhelmed and was clearly struggling to juggle them all.

“It was an illness.” She explained, trying to appear calm. “The Principal knows I couldn’t help what I said. I explained everything and helped her come back. Doesn’t that prove my intentions?”

“Not when you’re the one responsible for it all in the first place.” Alya snapped.

Max looked through his phone, frowning. “That only explains what you said. But that doesn’t explain how or why you got the test answers in Marinette’s bag. Or your necklace in her locker.”

Alix rolled her eyes. “And I’m pretty sure there is no illness that makes you walk down a flight of stairs and conveniently fall to the ground with no injuries before crying and accusing someone of pushing you.”

“Sounds like a whole bunch of lies. All targeted at one person.” Alya stated flatly.

“The one person who wouldn’t go along with you.” Kim added.

“How convenient.” Nathaniel sniped, feeling just a little petty after everything.

Lila crossed her arms over her chest as though she were trying to protect herself from physical blows instead of words. “I was only protecting myself.”

Everyone bristled at the sheer audacity.

It was Nino who broke. “No! You don’t get to make yourself the victim here! No one told you to lie! No one made you slap yourself and accuse Alya. And no one forced you to do those things to frame Marinette! That was all you!”

“You can’t even say they were threats to you.” Ivan pointed out. “We all believed you, remember? You knew that.”

“They’re the liars!” Lila shouted. “They’re the ones making things up just to hurt me!”

Nino stares at her incredulously. “Do you really believe your own lies that much?”

Finally…

Finally, a break in the mask.

“And now you sound like Marinette.” Lila scoffed. “Always with the goody two-shoes act. ‘We can only be friends if you stop lying, Lila!’” She sneered at the memory. “Are you all really that pathetic?”

“So Marinette was right!” Kim exclaimed.

“Yeah, we kind of already knew that.” Nathaniel reminded him in annoyance.

He simpered. “Well, it seemed right to confirm it.”

“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

“Make it official, you know?”

Alix groaned. “Guys, not the time!”

“It just goes to show that your friendship really is conditional.” Lila said, crossing her arms and looking away, appearing hurt.

“Honesty isn’t too much to ask for, Lila!” Alya shouted.

“Yeah, it’s kind of the basis for any sort of relationship.” Kim added.

“Don’t kid yourselves.” She scoffed. “If that was true, you would have believed Marinette, who had been nothing but honest with you.”

The class as a whole glared at her.

“We’re not going to forget who was the one instigating everything here.” Juleka told her, sounding cross.

“It’s not like it matters now anyway.” Lila stated, snidely. “Everything’s been said and done.”

“Au contraire!” Came a new exuberant voice.

Everyone turned in pure confusion to see Chloe approaching the scene with all the grace of a queen—or at least someone who seemed to think of herself as one.

Needless to say, the assembled students were mostly less than impressed. The one exception being Sabrina for obvious reasons, who brightened upon Chloe’s arrival.

Nobody was happy about this.

Except for Chloe, who approached the group with a smirk and stopped a few strides from Lila.

“Chloe Bourgeois, protector of the weak and Savior of Paris!” She announced pompously with a flourish. “You may bow at your leisure.”

Lila stared, more annoyed than anything. “Are you serious?”

“Chloe, this really isn’t a good time.” Kim started, only for the blonde to cut him off with a fierce grin.

“Oh, but it’s the BEST time!” Chloe said, downright gleefully. “I couldn’t help but overhear your mention of Lila’s antics and it made me wonder about one thing that stuck out to me in particular…”

The rest of the class frowned, glancing at each other in confusion before turning back to Chloe.

“You all said Lila had been lying about getting Ladybug involved in the search for Marinette. Which Ladybug, of course, denied. Then later, she said that Marinette had run away. She said this to Alya and to Adrien.”

Lila raised an eyebrow. “So? She probably did. It’s not my fault if they can’t handle the truth.”

Alya looked furious and even Nino seemed half inclined to start shouting.

Chloe, however, merely tapped her cheek, the picture of obliviousness.

“The truth? You seem so sure of this.”

Lila shrugged, uncaring. “What’s your point?”

“I just have to wonder if perhaps this little ‘Runaway Marinette’ story wasn’t something you told anyone else? Like say...the police?”

THAT got everyone’s attention.

“After all, everyone in the class had to have been called in for questioning by the detectives investigating her case. Since you’re all ‘oh so close’. And if that’s the case, Lila...was that the story you told them?”

“I never told them she ran away. I merely mentioned catching her with an older man and implied a couple of reasons she may want to leave together. Is that a crime?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure it is.” Max retorted, angrily.

Lila looked away, flipping her hair without any concern. “I only told them what they needed to hear. Isn’t that what I’ve done for everyone? It’s not my fault if they act on it.”

Alya stared in growing horror. “Wait...you lied to police about Marinette running away?!”

“What the hell, Lila!” Nino shouted, downright furious. The rest of the class wasn’t too far behind him on that, and it almost looked like a brawl was about to break out.

Lila, however, simply shrugged. “Well, why wouldn’t she leave? I mean, after the way you all treated her, who would want to stick around?”

The classmates winced at that. Several lowered their heads. A few others only glared more hatefully at Lila.

But Alya wasn’t taking it. At all.

“No. No, no, no. You are not turning this one around on us because there is nothing we’ve done that compares to you lying to police about our friend running away!”

“Wait, so not only did Lila lie about Marinette being a slut, she lied to police about it?!” Kim questioned, getting him many dark looks from the other classmates. But he took no notice of this, instead glaring at Lila and looking angrier than they’d ever seen him.

Which rather said something. Kim was often foolish, and at times hurtful. But he was never angry the way he seemed to be now.

Alya frowned at him. “Are you trying to imply something, Kim?” Because it sure sounded like he was minimizing the issue of spreading false claims about a girl in that fashion. Reputation and relationships can easily be destroyed by things like that, and Lila was certainly manipulative enough to try it. Whether police were involved shouldn’t discount that.

Kim shook his head. “Marinette is 15. If Lila had convinced the police Marinette was the type, they could peg her as a runaway and write her off as eloping.”

That certainly got everyone’s attention.

“That would result in her disappearance being deemed intentional and reduce the resources spent trying to look for her!”

“Lila, what the hell?!” Mylene demanded, shocking everyone. The girl never cursed. She never even raised her voice before!

“Mylene...”

“Who does that? What kind of sick freak even does something like that?!”

Ivan grabbed Mylene and pulled her into a hug as she started to heave. It hurt. It was sick.

This was...this was beyond what they had been expecting.

“And what can you do about it?” She smirked. “Nothing.”

Silence.

“Sabrina? Did you get all that?”

The red-head smiled and nodded, holding up her phone. “We got it all, Chloe!”

Lila froze, paling at the implications. “What?”

Chloe only smirked. “I should really thank you, Lila. Who knew you were one to brag so much? I think this should be more than enough evidence.”

Lila gaped at them in horror. “You...you can’t record me! It’s illegal to record someone without their consent! You—you could have edited that!”

But Chloe’s smirk turned downright devious. “It’s a good thing that this isn’t a recording then.”

“MISS ROSSI!”

Lila jumped and spun towards the direction of the Principal’s office, where Damocles and several other adults stood, all of whom were looking rather furious. Adrien was there as well, though he had separated from the group to make his way to his classmates, appearing relieved and disbelieving all at once.

“TO MY OFFICE NOW!”

The class glanced around in confusion, uncertain what had just happened. Looking to Sabrina, Alya noticed the other girl’s phone in hand, with the screen still on. Not recording, but rather in the middle of a call.

On speakerphone.

“Lila.” A woman said, approaching the girl and looking rather cross. She must be Lila’s mother. Their appearances were similar enough. “Young lady, you have some serious explaining to do.”

Alya’s eyes widened as it hit her. Sabrina had been on the phone this entire time. She had been on the line with Damocles’s office. Where everyone including Damocles, her parents, and all those people were.

Everyone in that office had heard them. Who knows for how long? But at least enough for sure for Lila to implicate herself.

Lila shook her head. This wasn’t it. This couldn’t be it. She could still find some way out of this. It wasn’t over for her yet!

“Excuse me.”

Everyone looked to the entrance to see a mostly professional-looking woman entering the room. What did not appear professional, however, was her purple hair. As well as her clicking of a pen, which may have been a habit or nervousness.

Juleka gasped upon seeing her, recognizing who she was. The other members of Kitty Section weren’t far behind, getting some looks of confusion from others in the class.

The woman took no notice of this, merely glancing around at the class.

“I am looking for a Miss Lila Rossi?”

Lila’s expression immediately shifted to something pleasant and seemingly innocent—at least to anyone who didn’t know better. She stepped forward with a polite smile. “I’m Lila Rossi. Can I help you?”

“Yes.” The woman replied. Her glance slid over to Mrs. Rossi standing next to her daughter. “Actually, am I correct in assuming you are her mother?”

Mrs. Rossi frowned. “I am.”

“All the better then.” The woman stated as she handed over a folder. “Your daughter is being sued for defamation of character.”

Everyone gasped at that, but none were more shocked than the poor mother herself. “I’m sorry?”

“Your daughter’s report to police implicated Jagged Stone in a crime. One he did not commit and one that was, quite frankly, disgusting to him.”

Whispers broke out around them. Jagged Stone? Lila had lied to police about Jagged?

Mrs. Rossi opened the file and read through the documents before her face paled and her mouth opened in horror.

“We will be seeing you in court.” Penny stated before turning around. Seeing the familiar teens nearby, she gave them a small smile before going on her way.

“Lila. Rossi.” The woman hissed, glaring at her daughter. Lila actually seemed frightened for perhaps the first time. “Come here. NOW.”

That was it. The final nail in the coffin.

And just like that…

It was done just like that…

Lila was clearly enraged, but forced herself to calmly walk by everyone and head to the Principal’s office where the group of adults and police were waiting.

Everyone moved aside to let her through, willing to watch her walk of shame and bear witness to her upcoming judgement. Lila refused to look at any of them, keeping her head straight and her eyes forward.

She passed Chloe last.

“I’ll find a way out of this, mark my words.” Lila hissed to her as she passed.

Chloe smiled back.

“After everything I’ve done, there’s no shovel that will unbury you.”

She leaned in close to Lila’s ear.

“This was for Adrien, you bitch.”

Because how dare she—HOW DARE SHE make Adrien cry like that!

Lila meanwhile marched to the Principal’s office, seething internally. She was guarded on all sides with no way to slip through or make an escape. And nowhere to go if she tried.

She was trapped. Finished.

Though there was one thing she could do...

Lila allowed her rage and indignation to build.

No doubt Hawk Moth would sense the emotion and send an akuma for her.

She still had avenues to change things in her favor.

_________________________

“It seems Miss Rossi has gotten into a bit of trouble.” Hawk Moth mused from his lair.

“Still...we might as well make some use of this.” He said, summoning a butterfly to his hand and about to infuse his power into it when—

“Sir,” Nathalie interrupted, appearing at his side. “Audrey Bourgeois is calling. The Style Queen magazine can’t seem to finish publication for the expose on the latest runway show. She says they’re missing key pieces.”

If he were a lesser man, he would have rolled his eyes.

“Can’t it wait?”

“No, sir. She is very adamant to speak with you directly on the matter.”

“What is the issue? Everything she needs should be available.”

“That’s just it, sir. It isn’t.”

That got his attention.

“What?”

The butterfly was released from his grip.

_________________________

The group watched as Lila trudged to the office where the Principal was waiting. She entered, but not before sending one final glare back at Chloe and the class. Damocles ushered her in fully and shut the door behind him.

Alya sighed, releasing not only a breath but all of the anxiety and turmoil she had been holding in.

Catharsis.

With Lila’s exit, there was an absence or at least a lessening of the tension none of the class had known they were being suffocated by.

“Does anyone else feel like a lobster that just escaped a boiling pot back into cold water?” Kim asked.

Several chuckled.

“That...is quite possibly the most apt metaphor for the situation.” Max said with a small smile.

His choice of words was silly, but he certainly wasn’t wrong in his description. Lila’s manipulations and poisoning of the class had been going on for so long and slowly getting worse over time. None of them had even noticed just how much more stressful and tense things had been getting with her there. Not until they were faced with the prospect of her leaving and found themselves feeling relieved. It wasn’t quite the sort they were hoping for, though.

They weren’t glad it was over. The relief was less a feeling of freedom and more a sense of uncertainty. Just because a poison is gone doesn’t mean a wound isn’t left behind.

It was sad, as she still had been someone they considered a friend. And there was also a sense of hollowness. They had been lied to, manipulated, and turned against a friend. Lila being revealed didn’t undo any of that.

All it meant was that they had lost a friend. A bad friend who clearly hadn’t returned the sentiment, sure. But knowing that didn’t erase the feelings they’d had. Because they had all cared about Lila. And it hurt to lose that, as one-sided as it may have been.

Now that the source of the toxicity was outed, all that was left was to clean up the pieces and try to work out which pieces were hers or theirs.

“You know this doesn’t fix things.” Nino said to her, tentatively. “That her being gone doesn’t make things better.”

“Yeah.” Alya admitted. “But at least she can’t make things worse.”

Because Lila had been actively sabotaging any efforts. Trying to limit their attempts to search and lying to police to put them on the wrong trail. Enough time had been wasted because of her. How far would it have gone if they hadn’t learned the truth when they did?

_________________________

Ultimately, Lila left the school not with a bang, but with a whimper. Granted, the whimper happened to come with a police escort, but the point remains.

When Lila first arrived at the school, she was surrounded with rumors and speculation. And now that she’s left the school, it was much the same.

Only the rumors and speculation were not nearly as in her favor this time around.

“I heard she assaulted another student.“

“It was sexual harassment, I think.”

“No, she had something to do with that girl who disappeared.”

“I heard she was involved in human trafficking!”

In the end, no one outside of the class and the administration knew for sure what had happened. Lila remained shrouded in mystery, but it was a much less appealing one than when she first came to their school.

Honestly, it was less than Lila deserved after everything. Alya wasn’t sure she was satisfied with that.

But with the ensuing investigation and charges against Lila that no amount of lies could pull her out of, she would have to be.

_________________________

“I’m sorry.” Adrien said, speaking just above a whisper and barely enough to be heard.

“What for, man?” Kim asked, concerned.

“I knew.” He admitted. “I knew all along that Lila was lying and I never said anything to anyone. If I had, maybe things wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

Nino immediately moved to stand next to his bro, placing an arm around his shoulders in support.

Several among the class glanced at each other, unsure. Yes, it would have helped to know, and they were admittedly put out that he hadn’t told them.

Alya shook her head. “Honestly, I’m not sure it would have changed much.”

Nino looked up at her in surprise. “Alya?”

“I mean…” She shrugged. “Lila was good at lying. Like...really good at it. Maybe it was our fault for not investigating more thoroughly, but if we had all known the truth, that would have just caused her to up her game.”

Adrien hung his head, remembering how Lila had been akumatized into Chameleon and abused his friends.

“If you think about it,” Mylene noted with a frown, “she went pretty far to implicate Marinette and get her expelled just because she knew the truth. If she’d do that to her, there probably isn’t much she wouldn’t have done.”

Max nodded in agreement. “Her methods were precise and well thought out. She performed a three-pronged attack to discredit Marinette. It was no wonder her lies were easily believable.”

Rose shuddered. “That’s scary to think about.”

“But Adrien, I’m trying not to be upset...but why didn’t you say anything?” Alix asked.

Kim frowned. “Yeah. I mean...I think a few of us suspected something was up, but we didn’t know for sure like you did. Why not tell us?”

Adrien winced. He opened his mouth but couldn’t speak. He just couldn’t find the words to explain.

It was all the more reason why he was so grateful for Nino, whose gentle presence kept him stable and who knew perfectly well when to speak up and what to say.

“It wasn’t that he didn’t think we’d listen to him, it was that he honestly believed he wasn’t supposed to say anything in the first place. That he wasn’t allowed to.”

The others stared.

“That’s messed up, man.”

Adrien winced again and looked away. “I’m sorry.”

“Look, Adrien.” Kim said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Chloe—and now Lila aside, we’re a pretty chill group. If something’s going on, we WANT you to tell us.”

“Yeah.” Nathaniel agreed with a gentle smile. “We don’t want you or anyone else to force yourselves to be okay with something when you’re not.”

Rose sniffled. She wanted to be supportive, but it was clear she was still hurt by the whole thing. “It kind of hurts to think that you don’t trust us.”

Mylene frowned at that. She understood Rose’s feelings, but at the same time, she understood Adrien’s as well.

“To be fair though…he wasn’t wrong to think that way.” She drew back when the others turned to her in surprise. “Well, if you think about it, we haven’t really been the best at listening to each other either.”

“Maybe if we had, everything would still be okay.” Juleka mumbled as she turned away, echoing what everyone else was thinking.

“No!” Came an unexpected voice.

She spun in surprise, and quite frankly everyone there was surprised as well to see Adrien glaring at her and looking angrier than they’d ever seen him.

“Their only fault was trusting and trying to help someone who never deserved it.” He forced a smile. It was hurt and frustrated, but it was still real. “You guys...you’ve been nothing but awesome this whole time. To me and to everyone you’ve met. You were kind to Lila because that’s how you are with everyone. Lila was the one in the wrong for taking advantage of that. But all of you…”

He raised his head. “Look, we fell for some lies and trusted the wrong person. We all did, even if we realized it sooner or later. That doesn’t make anyone here bad, it just makes you kids.”

They stared.

Nino gave him a side-look. “Speak for yourself. You’re more of a kid than any of us.”

Adrien blushed as the others laughed.

It was dumb.

It was silly and childish.

And yet for the first time, Adrien wondered if maybe things would be okay.

_________________________

Adrien sighed as he fell onto his bed.

After all was said and done, it had been a long...long day.

But at least the truth was known. Alya’s suspension was lifted. Lila was gone. Chloe...he probably owed her a new wardrobe. And Marinette was finally vindicated.

…

...Marinette…

“Kid? You okay?

“I wish Marinette had been there.” He whispered.

Plagg said nothing.

As his own eyes closed, Adrien never noticed how the kwami’s eyes glowed fiercely as he looked out to the city.

It was only once Adrien was asleep that Plagg phased through the window.

_________________________

Plagg was patient. But there was only so long he was willing to wait.

Seeing Adrien like that...trying for her when she wasn’t there? All while unaware how close she was? Uttering his wish like a shameful secret he wasn’t allowed to have?

Something had to give.

And his own curiosity burned for an answer.

He found her lazing on a rooftop. Not even her own balcony, but a random roof of no significance.

“What are you doing?” Plagg asked her.

It meant so many things.

Why didn’t she return home?

Why was she staying out as Ladybug?

Why was she letting everyone think she was missing?

But Ladybug seemed altogether unconcerned.

“I’m patrolling.” She stated.

Which was...not the answer he wanted. Or really any answer to any of the questions he wanted.

“What?”

“Since I have nothing else to do, I’ve been keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Being out like this now, I can try and locate any akumas before they affect someone. Perhaps I can even determine where they may have originated from.”

That was…

Well, it was smart, actually. At least in the sense that she could gather intel and was trying to track down Hawk Moth. He’d give her credit for that, at least.

But it was a simplistic plan littered with holes. Paris was a big city and it would be a matter of luck if she happened to be in an area close enough to catch the butterfly before it reaches its target—assuming she even sees it at all since akumas ARE butterflies and let’s face it, they aren’t the easiest things to pick out and keep track of in the first place.

Then there was the matter that if she was staying transformed, that was taking up a lot of time and energy on a plan mostly counting on chance. Tikki may be a being of energy and power, but she needed fuel to keep it up. And even transformed, Marinette was still human, and thus susceptible to normal human needs like hunger, thirst, and sleep.

And that wasn’t even getting started on the wave of upset that her disappearance had caused, which would just give Hawk Moth more potential targets to choose from like her friend. Alya had come close to track Marinette down that day. There was every chance that more of her loved ones could be akumatized into Champions with any array of powers that might allow them to locate Marinette.

Then if they find Ladybug in the process? He’d said people were blind, but it wouldn’t take that big a leap for someone to put the clues together. And the last thing they needed was for that someone to be Hawk Moth.

“Nice plan.” He deadpanned. “Very clever. Just one little problem: what about Marinette?”

He felt something. A tickle in his throat as he said it. But he shrugged it off and continued to focus on the girl in front of him.

Ladybug scoffed at that. “What about her?”

His frown only grew. “Don’t you think she should be making a reappearance at some point? You know...got a lot of people rather worried about her.”

His kid included.

But Ladybug…

She just shrugged it off.

“She’s just some girl who got lost and is causing people to worry. It’s not like it matters.”

Not like it matters? What foolishness! What outrage!

“Of course it matters! YOU’RE—”

He felt it in that moment. Like a collar around his throat. Unseen but clearly felt as it started to tighten in warning.

Plagg froze, his eyes wide in shock at the sudden sensation as he realized it for what it was. Familiar...but never in this way. Never like this.

But there was only one thing it could be.

“What is it?” Ladybug asked, frowning at him in confusion at his sudden silence.

No.

He opened his mouth, feeling the sensation again. Stronger this time.

Marinette.

No.

Marinette.

It shouldn’t be possible.

Marinette!

She was right there!

You are Marinette!

It was her! She was RIGHT THERE! She was the only one there with him!

“You are—”

He cut off, choking as that damned magical binding tightened and transformed his words while still in his throat. He knew this feeling. He knew this magic. He hated the feeling of it every time.

He didn’t want to believe it. There was no way it could be right.

But logic and possibility didn’t matter as he was forced to gag out the physical remnants of what only seconds ago had been her name. The true name of Ladybug. The name of a Miraculous user.

A name he could not speak to someone who did not already know it.

He gaped at the green bubbles.

This...this made no sense!

It was her. He could feel Tikki’s magic. He KNEW this was Ladybug. And Ladybug was Marinette.

So why…

Why would that binding activate now?

“Plagg?”

“I...I have to go!” He shouted quickly before taking off.

He had to get to Adrien.

He had to see Fu.

Whatever was going on…

It was worse than he’d thought!

[angelofthequeers]

hi! So I have being thinking (or observing) lately, how people prefer lu//ka over ni//no (I mean lu//ka is shoved everywhere but thats not the point). Like lu//ka is praised for being chill, akumatized for someone else, being 'musical', protective, etc (honestly ni//no has more qualities unlike... Yeah). And it just bothers me so much idk. I mean pocs are always side eyed in favour of white characters that's not new but I guess the is-ni//no-actually-lu//ka (though a v fun crack idea) (1/n)

Not at all! I’ve also noticed how Nino is increasingly shoved to the side to make room for Luka, aka a generic “rebellious” white boy who looks like he never showers and his mum dresses him and whose interest in a younger girl is so creepy that he had to be retconned to be her age. And I don’t get it, because Nino has an actual fleshed-out personality considering his lack of screentime:

he’s impulsive and super protective of those he loves, to the point where he jumps into battle repeatedly against a literal supervillain who could crush him into a paper ball without effort if she really wanted to

but he can also be stubborn and drag his heels in, like in ‘Horrificator’ over the kiss scene that Alya didn’t include

he also got akumatised over his impulsiveness because he was so angry for his best friend

and yes, that’s different to Luka getting angry for Marinette in ‘Silencer’ because

he didn’t give a flying damn about the rest of the band, just the girl whose pants he wanted in

he didn’t actually??? Confront XY and Roth directly??? He just stood there trying to get Marinette to leave and then when she was threatened, he just stood there and stewed. Compare that to Nino, who actively went on the attack at Gabriel to try and fight for Adrien and damn the consequences

he’s got varied interests and personality outside of his DJing. He loves filmmaking, he’s goofy (think ‘Puppeteer 2’), he gets flustered easily, he parkours with Alya in their free time, he loves Just Dance...there’s so much more to him than just ‘plays an instrument and makes fun of a pretty girl for stuttering’

his self-worth issues! He didn’t think he was worthy of being a superhero, that he could defend Alya in an arm wrestle... I don’t know what Luka thinks of himself. I don’t even know if he thinks

he’s so selfless and loyal! Remember ‘Zombizou’, where he stayed behind so Alya wouldn’t be a zombie alone even though she wouldn’t have a clue once everything was fixed? Where he went in to bat for Adrien in ‘Bubbler’ even knowing he could be making an enemy out of a powerful and influential man? Where he stuck by Adrien in ‘Jackady’ and made sure he was safe? What has Luka done in comparison? And before people insist that he’s barely had any screentime, they also insist that Nino has no personality because he’s hardly ever on screen too and yet I can pick all of this about Nino, so they can’t have it both ways

And you’re bang-on with characters of colour being shoved aside for white ones. You see it in how Chloé replaces Alya as Marinette’s best friend despite being a literal horrific bully while Alya has been there for Marinette through thick and thin and is the literal reason why Marinette became Ladybug not just once but twice. You see it in the colourism (preferring lighter skin shades and features over darker ones) where Kagami has all but replaced Alya as a love interest for Marinette and sometimes even as her best friend because Alya is Lila’s new bestie. And that’s not to say that Kagaminette ship and friendship are bad! I love love LOVE them to bits and Kagami is one of my favourite characters of all time. But I hardly ever see Alyanette anymore in favour of Kagaminette, and even just Alya and Marinette best friend stuff because Kagami has essentially replaced Alya. And that’s also a common salt thing too; if it’s not Chloé replacing Alya, it’s Kagami.

Don’t get me wrong, Kagami is very much a POC. She’s faced a hell of a lot of undeserved backlash and awful treatment for being the “bitchy ice queen” and even fetishisation (don’t get me started please or I won’t shut up but some of the stuff I’ve seen has made me physically nauseous at the Asian fetishisation). But at the end of the day, I’ve personally seen her treated “better” than Alya...if by “better” you mean fetishised, which is a large part of why I don’t trust 90% of other Adrigaminette and Kagaminette fans. The way she’s treated compared to Alya looks more positive but it’s still fetishism and racism. She’s just not outright bashed as much as Alya because colourism and specifically anti-Black racism, as subconscious as it might sometimes be.

And that racism and colourism (which I most definitely had a point with I swear) is something that ties into the Luka and Nino thing, where people with lighter features are preferred over people with darker features. Luka has 1/100 the personality that Nino does and get he gets 100 times the love that Nino does. He also has people gushing over his appearance and how he’s a “hot bad boy” but I never see people loving Nino for his dark skin, for his brown eyes, for his prominent nose...for anything, really.

(Not to get personal but as a fellow Arab who also has brown eyes and a nose that’s not thin and dainty and is very obviously non-white and something I hated for years, that shit hurts)

Like, if someone doesn’t like Kagami, most of the time she’s just ignored as a character and the author/artist doesn’t touch on her. But if someone doesn’t like Alya? Instead of just having her be friends with other girls instead or just naturally drift apart from Marinette (which uh is still not cool), they go wild on her, turning her into an aggressive bitch who’s obsessed with her scoops and getting Adrien and Marinette together even at the cost of Marinette’s happiness. They take her flaws and wildly exaggerate them to justify hating her (don’t ask about the sheer vitriol I saw in the aftermath of ‘Feast’ over a mistake that Luka would just be coddled for). And while it’s not as prominent, because Alya is at the intersection of being a girl and a POC - especially a Black girl - and cops double the crap, I’ve also seen Nino demonised into a spineless idiot who just stands by and lets things happen instead of...you know, the boy who literally rushed a spider supervillain to save his girlfriend, knowing he could die very easily.

I just want some wholesome Adrino 😔 There’s all this “Luka would show Adrien how to rebel and just gets how he feels” and blah but like...Adrien already knows how to rebel. He just does it in little safe ways because he’s an abused kid, rather than doing what the salters think he should do and turning into a generic copy of Luka without a thought for the consequences that Gabriel can inflict on him because he’s still a kid under his parent’s “care”. And Nino already gets how Adrien feels! He’s Adrien’s best friend! He knows what to say to Adrien and how to be there for him without having to resort to strumming a guitar and telling Adrien how he feels like Luka does to Marinette.

Nino was Adrien’s first friend. Nino’s been there for Adrien through thick and thin, through having an arse of a parent who forces him to be flaky and unreliable with hangouts. Nino is physically affectionate with Adrien without throwing himself all over him like Chloé and Lila do. Nino’s actions as an akuma were to make his best friend happy. And yet people still seem to think that Luka both loves Adrien more and is a better choice for him. Why??? All Luka would do is sit there and play his guitar. Luka is his music and nothing else but Nino...Nino has so much more to him than just his DJing.

I feel like part of it is not wanting to break up DJWiFi, which...okay, valid. That’s one of my favourite ships of all time because they’re so darn happy and cute together and it makes me melt to see two POC happy together. I personally would turn to polyamory because I want massive cuddle piles. But if you don’t want that and you’re deadset on Lukadrien (😬) then just...don’t shove Nino to the side. Continue to include Nino as Adrien’s best friend and give him appropriate screentime and character growth outside of being a cardboard cutout friend. It’s not an either-or thing like so many people seem to think, and platonic friendships are just as important as romantic relationships.