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lilanette · 10 months ago

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LILANETTE WEEK DAY 7 - FREE SPACE

AKA bonus uncertain sincerity chapter in the same year? no way!

Marinette isn’t imagining it, because even Alya takes notice of Adrien’s newfound frostiness towards her. But he doesn’t take any steps to talk to her or explain anything at all, only pointedly avoids her.

Frustration and anxiety roil inside her like a stormy ocean as she follows Lila’s lead throughout the day, wearing something akin to her Ladybug persona to keep up cheerful appearances. She doesn’t even pull away the next time Lila takes her hand or brushes her shoulder, feeling so twisted inside over the lies, the whole Chat Noir and Noire thing, and Adrien’s strange new hatred, that she just goes along with it all.

It’s the path of least resistance, in a world that seems to be turning upside down all around her for no reason at all. She hopes it’s mild enough to avoid catching Hawkmoth’s attention.

“Hey girls,” Alya says after the final bell rings, “hang out at my place?”

“That sounds fun,” Lila says with a smile, “but I think Marinette is feeling a little down after the akumatization and… well…”

“Adrien, yea,” Alya sighs with sympathy. ��I don’t know what’s up with him.”

“I have to help my parents out at the bakery,” Marinette says quickly. “Can’t hang out. Sorry. Maybe tomorrow.” She wants nothing more than to get in bed and then be unconscious for the next twenty years.

“I’ll walk her home,” Lila offers, “I see Nino’s waiting for you, Alya.”

“Oh, shoot, I forgot we had a date! Sorry y’all, and thanks, Lila. Cheer up, Marinette, I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of this and make everything right.” Alya wraps her arms around Marinette in a quick hug, but it doesn’t feel like much in the wake of Alya’s disbelief in Marinette’s words over the last few days.

“See you tomorrow!” Lila calls out brightly. Marinette keeps her eyes to the ground. “Lift your damn chin, girl. If Adrien’s going to treat you like that, then you should act as if it doesn’t bother you.”

“But it does bother me,” Marinette says mulishly, feeling so pathetic. Without even a goodbye, Chat Noir surrendered his miraculous like it was nothing and is now gone forever. And Adrien, too, wordlessly seems intent to never speak with her again. Unrequited feelings aside, she really did view them both as trusted friends, more than most of her classmates.

Hell, the next time she has the opportunity, she needs to talk to Fu. If Chat Noir is retired for good, Fu at least should know his civilian identity and can maybe clear everything up.

“Christ,” Lila swears, grabbing her hand to pull her along. “You should never waste emotions on stupid boys who won’t give you the time of day.”

“He’s not stupid…”

“Just come on.” With vigor, strength, and a potent eye roll, Lila pulls her down the street. They’re halfway to the bakery by the time Marinette remembers Lila’s holding her hand, and it feels… warm .

No one else is around them now. Their classmates are far away. What does Lila have to gain from this ? Besides pretending friends for appearances, what does she stand to gain?

She might know you’re Ladybug .

How would she even know that?

Marinette should pull her hand away, but she can’t find it in herself to actually do it. She agreed to be Lila’s friend, didn't she?

“Here you are,” Lila says, her hand falling away. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Adrien hates her, Alya’s with her boyfriend. Marinette should speak with Tikki but at the moment she doesn’t want to be alone otherwise.

“You can come in if you want, since I guess we’re friends now,” Marinette sighs, pushing the door open. Lila binks in surprise but follows after.

“While you help in the bakery?” Lila asks pointedly.

Marinette doesn’t reply. They both know it was an excuse to dodge hanging out with Alya. As expected, Tom and Sabine are all over her with overbearing concern, and then perfectly charmed by a smiling Lila. Sabine somehow convinces Lila to hang out for a bit and promises to bring snacks up to Marinette’s room with perfect hospitality, so the two girls find themselves together there.

“Very cute decor,” Lila observes as Marinette lies on the floor face down. “I swear to god, Marinette. Don’t cry .”

“I’m not,” she mutters, “wouldn’t want to attract another akuma.” Marinette is activating the emotional repression technique, an ancient technique used by girls worldwide.

“Come on, girl. Your pores are going to get full of floor gunk. I need you to look your best.”

For some reason that works and Marinette drags herself up to a sitting position. Transactional or not, the “friendship” with Lila seems to be keeping her steady in the wake of her closest friends seemingly ditching her.

“I can’t believe you actually got akumatized because of me,” she mutters as Lila walks about the room, picking up random things to look at.

“I’m on my period,” Lila returns without missing a beat, “my emotions are volatile, so it was hard when the girl I admired so much seemed to dislike me.” Marinette’s eyes follow Lila’s steps. She flips through a loose sketchbook on the table, which, in normal circumstances, would prompt Marinette to leap over and tear it away. But these are not normal circumstances, and she feels strangely defeated and resigned to just letting Lila do whatever.

Her thoughts are still occupied with trying to figure out why Adrien hates her all of a sudden.

“How can I believe anything you say?” Marinette shakes her head though the explanation seems sound. “I can never tell when you’re acting.”

“You think I’d fake a period?”

“Uh, yea.”

“Fair. Well, let me put it this way. I like attention. I want to be the girl everyone loves. This much has to be obvious.”

“Yea, very obvious.”

“You are a girl with many talents and beloved by many, right?”

“Ehh…” Marinette is unconvinced. Lila rolls her eyes.

“You are, Marinette. I can list off all your titles and accomplishments, but I’ve already done that before. So, like I’ve said, you are perfect for what I need. Two beautiful and confident girls like us, we’ll be the star of the show everywhere we go.” Lila holds up the open sketchbook, on a page of two dress designs side by side. “Let me spin my stories and have a little fun.”

“Um.” Marinette is still uncertain, and can hardly take the praise as genuine. “Chloe isn’t going to like that.”

“You still care what she thinks? Please . She’s nothing. If you’re with me, I’ll always have your back, as long as you have mine.” Lila extends a hand down confidently, determination radiating off of her. “I’ll keep my stories within reason, and you won’t have to worry about anyone getting hurt. Unless of course, it’s Chloe. You know how it is.”

Strangely, it’s reminiscent of that new black cat holder she met with just the other day, the one who claimed to have freed Lila from akumatization. Despite it all, Lila is no longer pursuing Adrien, and Marinette won’t say no to some capable female friends. She looks up at the hand, Lila’s fingers and wrists adorned tastefully in rings and bracelets, and up at her face, to see a cool smile.

Adrien would never agree to telling Chloe off, even when Chloe so blatantly hurt Marinette and so many others, so to hear Lila so easily diss the girl is refreshing. Maybe she really will have a good ally with Lila. She reaches out and takes the hand. Lila’s grin deepens, and she pulls Marinette up to standing. Maybe this is for the best.

***

Just above Marinette’s room, on the rooftop balcony, Tikki and Plagg stare at each other.

“ Lila got the miraculous?” Tikki exclaims. “ How ?”

“What a pickle,” Plagg says with a shrug. “Gosh. Let me try to remember. It’s a little blurry. That crazy girl was the akuma, of course. Except we thought it was Marinette? She fooled Adrien real good, that naive guy. She gave him a peck on the cheek and he dropped out cold! It hit me too, I was blacked out for some time. Good nap, though.”

“Plagg!”

“Right, so when I woke up, I was really confused, because then she was Chat Noir? Adrien was nowhere to be seen. Uh, let’s see. Then the new Chat Noir put the ring on. He was acting confused and said his memories were fuzzy after getting hit by the akuma, so I reminded him how to transform and stuff since he seemed to have forgotten, even though he was already transformed? Yea, weird, right?”

Good gods , Tikki thinks. What the hell . Plagg, you idiot .

“The craziest thing is that then he just used the Cataclysm on a different ring he was wearing and I realized it was her the whole time! She de-akumatized herself! That’s practically unheard of!”

Tikki’s jaw drops.

“Lila de-akumatized herself?” She repeats.

“I don’t know, she said that after recognizing Adrien or something, she came to her senses. But yea. She used me, freed herself, and then kept tabs on the akuma while waiting for Ladybug to show up and purify it. I can’t really explain it.”

Tikki and Plagg phase through the roof to look into Marinette’s room. Strangely, Lila seems to be giving Marinette a pep talk that seems to be working . She seems to be being good , and even performed Chat Noir’s job when she was literally the akuma.

“That’s not what Lila said at all,” Tikki says pensively. “She told Ladybug that Adrien gave up the miraculous voluntarily.”

“She did?”

“Plagg, you were there .”

“Right. Well, she does have a penchant for telling her little lies.”

Tikki lifts her arm to her chin as she thinks.

“The only benefits to saying Adrien gave up his miraculous voluntarily, is that Ladybug will be less likely to try and return the miraculous to him,” she says. “I’m guessing she wanted to reduce the chance of Ladybug trying to take the ring back.” Does she have any other motive to keeping the ring?

“Plus, maybe she was trying to spare Chat Noir the embarrassment of being defeated so easily? I’m sure Adrien wouldn’t want Ladybug to ever know how the akuma managed to get him so quickly. It was kind of uh… well, it was embarrassing, to be honest.”

“Maybe. Either way, we should get you back to Adrien,” Tikki says after they pop back on the roof. “Lila’s not supposed to be the holder. She wasn’t chosen; Adrien was .”

“Well, yea, but your holder agreed to let Lila go for a test run, and both Hawkmoth and Lila know his identity now! That’s no good.”

“Shit,” Tikki swears, “you’re right.”

“I’m just hoping Master Fu will have answers,” Plagg says with a shrug. “If I can convince her to actually go there. She seemed interested. Plus Hawkmoth must know it’s her.”

“Something doesn’t feel right about her,” Tikki says, frowning, “we can’t let her just steal a miraculous and use it. I mean, you’ve seen it. She’s been super weird with Marinette.”

“Well, she was akumatized at first,” Plagg reasons. “Maybe after she got ahold of herself, she felt she needed to take responsibility, especially after revealing Adrien to Hawkmoth. As for sucking up to Marinette, well, who really knows what’s going on in a teenage girl’s mind? Maybe she’s in love , ew. Not two lovesick buffoons, gods help me.”

“Hmm,” Tikki says, but she’s still worried. At the same time, when Adrien is leaving her behind and Alya dedicating most of her time to her newfound relationship with Nino, Lila is providing support that Marinette desperately needs. “Wait. You said you and Adrien thought the akuma was Marinette. Oh no .”

“Ack!” Plagg squeaks. “He must think she stole the ring.”

Tikki slaps her forehead. That’s why Adrien was giving Marinette the cold shoulder. How has Hawkmoth not sniffed out his desperation yet?

“And we can’t let him know that it’s Lila, because then he’d know the identity of the new hero, and that’s no good because he’s so prone to akumatization, and, oh gods . Plagg, this is a disaster!”

“You’re telling me, sister!”

***

“You know how you can show Adrien that you’re thriving without him?” Lila says, carefully applying a coat of nail polish to Marinette’s ring finger. Marinette can hardly understand how this scenario came to be, after the whole Volpina thing, but somehow Lila is raising her mood, what with the commitment to an anti-Chloe concord and to having Marinette’s back.

“Yea?” Marinette says with a raised eyebrow. She’s not sure she wants to do anything before just talking to the boy first and figuring out what's up.

“Here’s my idea: you should move on . Everyone in the entire world knows about your crush, him included, I’m sure. So, find yourself someone else, steal their heart, and show it off the world. Post about it on your social media, walk hand-in-hand at school, look like you’re having the time of your life. That’s what I’d do, at least.” Lila starts on some simple nail art, dotting on some small white spots to the pink base color.

“I’m sure not everyone knows,” Marinette says, bright red, and Lila sends her an unamused look. “OK, fine. But… I don’t know if I want to move on.”

“We’ll see if his behavior improves,” Lila offers, “you can just think about it. But now that we’re going to be friends, I don’t let creeps get away with disrespecting my people. If he keeps this up then I might have to even the playing field.”

Marinette never expected such a strong pledge of support from Lila of all people, but following the logical benefits that she is seeking from their friendship, she guesses it only makes sense that Lila would want to make their alliance strong enough to last. And even if her heart still throbs at the thought of Adrien, having Lila come to her defense feels… nice .

“That’s pretty harsh,” Marinette comments, “but I guess I appreciate it. I’ll try to resolve this first, though. I don’t know what’s got him so upset. I must have done something really bad.”

As Lila’s fingers continue to work on Marinette’s hand, light glints off one particularly large ring amongst the several she wears. Smooth dark silver with a single large orange gem, it looks very beautiful and matches with Lila’s general color palette.

“A girl as goody-two-shoes as you, I can’t imagine you doing anything that bad,” Lila says with a shrug. She briefly looks away.

“Haha. Anyway, it’s not like I can just pick someone new. I’d never want to date them under false pretenses. I don’t like playing with people’s feelings.” And after the Kim fiasco, too, Marinette isn’t sure she wants to entertain the possibilities of something similar happening again.

Her eyes drift up from the warm hands on hers. The cuff of a stylish jacket, the bow of a cute romper, the chains of fashionable necklaces and the face of probably the most fearless girl she’s ever known, despite her penchant for lies. Framed by those two iconic locks on either side, Lila’s green eyes are focused on the task at hand.

They’re pretty when she’s not spinning her web of lies, Marinette thinks. She blinks in surprise when those very eyes flick up to match her gaze.

“What about me?” Lila asks, and Marinette stares.

“What?”

“Well, I perhaps forcefully threatened you into my friendship,” Lila muses, “since I always get what I want. But, if you want, we can pretend to date so you can show you’ve moved on from Adrien. It’d only be fair. Though… I’d date you for real regardless.”

“No way,” Marinette says quickly with a laugh, “that’s crazy!” But Lila’s expression is serious, with maybe a hint of red, and her breath catches in her throat. She’s not ready to move on, and she might never move on. And that over-the-top flirting, it can hardly be genuine. Lila said that kind of stuff to Adrien and plenty others, she’s sure.

“It’s just an option,” Lila says in a flatter tone, dropping her gaze to continue her work. “I’m sure it would benefit our mutual popularity quite a lot. In my experience, couples always get more attention than individuals. And you’d do quite well, since you’re so cute.” Right, Marinette remembers. It’s just a strategy for Lila’s goals, not an extension of feelings, not that Marinette could ever trust everything Lila actually says. She’s sure all the compliments are just to fortify the alliance and nothing else.

“Marinette!” Her mom’s voice calls from below. “A classmate’s here to see you!”

“I wasn’t expecting anyone,” Marinette says after a pause, and glad for the distraction from the topic at hand. Discussing strategies to manipulate her social standing as if it's a battlefield is very weird for her, though it seems to be Lila’s default activity. “I’ll be down in a minute, Mom!”

“Well, I’ve finished your nails. Give them time to dry and it’ll be all good. I’ll head out for now so I don’t impose on whoever’s visiting.” Lila stands and puts away the supplies. “But seriously, think about it. We’d make quite the impression, I bet, and Chloe would be so hilariously mad.”

Marinette lets out a large breath as she gets up as well, shaking her head in amusement at the thought of the Bourgeois. But jeez, never has a normal girl with a normal life had so much crazy stuff to think about before. She needs a conspiracy board just to map it all out at this point.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” she says, “but I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I’m asking for.” Lila pulls up the trapdoor and gestures for Marinette to go first, reminding her to watch out for the wet nails. Down the stairs, and some more stairs.

“Sorry for the wait,” Marinette’s saying as she steps through the door, “I was just-”

Her voice cuts short as Lila almost stumbles into her back, her feet freezing on the spot. Because before her is none other than Adrien Agreste, a tight expression on his face.

“Speak of the devil,” Lila says contemptuously, a hand supportively on Marinette’s elbow. Somehow that breaks Marinette out of her stupor.

“Marinette,” Adrien says quietly, “we need to talk.”

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