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ravennm84 · 2 years ago

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Making Your Own Luck

Quick story I wrote while thinking of Plagg’s love of cheese, Tikki’s love of cookies, and the different ways we associate with good and bad luck. Sprinkle in a little Lila salt and you’ve got some wonderful brain candy to tide you over until the next story. Warm-Fuzzies and enjoy!!

There were more than a few abilities that kwamiis had that normally weren't used. Kaalki could improve her holder's horseback riding ability. Pollen could help flowers grow when she spent enough time in an area.

Tikki's power over luck and good fortune was very well known. But it wasn't only her lucky charm, but her ability to take away luck. Now, this wouldn't give someone bad luck, that's Plagg's thing and had started the whole black cat crossing your path superstition. It would just set a person's luck to zero, and their actions afterwards would determine if it turned good or bad. This is where the concept of karma and the saying 'making your own luck' came from.

Normally, these were abilities that kwamiis kept to themselves or would become a side effect of being active for an extended period of time. Tikki was able to control that ability easily… until her holder came across that Italian rat, Lila Rossi. Oh, how she wished for the chance to reset that girl's luck and let karma determine her punishment. It would be so easy, just a second of physical contact and all her luck would disappear. Then everything she did would continue to build and grow, not that the little Goddess had to guess which way it would go.

Then, one glorious Tuesday morning, Lila accused Marinette of stealing her orange pen. Tikki had been eating her blueberry and lemon curd macaron while reclining on a silk scarf when the girl snatched the purse she was in. Marinette tried to get it back, horrified when Lila opened the latch and shoved her hand inside.

The purse jostled roughly to one side, causing Tikki's cookie to fall to the floor as the stolen pen slid out of the girl's sleeve and into the purse. What happened next occurred so quickly, that she would always claim, while ignoring Plagg's jokes and side eyes, that it was a complete accident. Tikki grabbed the pen, touching Lila’s fingers as she pushed away and fazed through the bottom of the purse. With all the chaos of Lila keeping the purse out of Marinette’s reach and Mme. Bustier, demanding that everyone calm down, no one noticed the kwamii fly under the desks, drop the pen under Lila’s chair, and return to Marinette to hide in her backpack.

"...but she took my pen, I saw her put it in-"

"If that is the case, you tell me and I will handle it," Bustier said sternly, displeased that her lesson had been interrupted and her pregnancy hormones giving her a shorter fuse. "Give Marinette her purse back, now." She did, barely hiding her smirk. "Marinette, may I please take a look inside your purse?"

Hands shaking from the adrenaline, having a flashback of the last time her bag had been searched, and worried about Tikki being found, Marinette wanted to say no. It was only when she spotted Tikki out of the corner of her eye, head poking out of her backpack and giving a reassuring nod, that she handed over her purse.

A few seconds later, Bustier handed the purse back and cast a disappointing scowl at Lila. "I believe you owe Marinette an apology."

Shock broke through Lila’s façade as she sputtered. "But… but she took my favorite orange pen. I swear I saw-"

"Isn't this it?" Nathaniel asked, causing everyone to turn and see him pick the pen up from under their shared desk.

Sputtering a bit more, Lila clenched her jaw before giving Marinette a terse "sorry" before stomping back to her seat.

Plagg knew exactly what his Sugarcube had done, he'd felt the slight spike of power after the cookie had shattered on the floor and that brat had shoved her hand into Pigtail's purse. The embarrassment of apologizing in front of the class was just the start. He knew the girl wouldn't accept defeat so easily, and the consequences would keep growing.

And he was not disappointed.

Lila tried to trip Marinette in the cafeteria, and ended up stubbing her toe on a table leg hard enough to cry real tears. When she attempted to switch their homework assignments in Mendeleiev's class, the teacher not only spotted the switch but proved it in front of everyone by comparing handwriting. That got Lila a week of detention.

Then, at the end of the day, Lila accidentally dumped her water bottle all over Marinette’s head and backpack. Despite acting oh-so apologetic and reminding everyone about her weak wrist, she wasn't getting the support or assurances of "it's not your fault" that she expected. Many glared at her while others ran off to get towels to help Marinette. Realizing that she miscalculated and did too much on a single day, Lila made a hasty retreat outside. Only to get absolutely soaked when a car sped through a puddle on the street.

Plagg laughed his little whiskers off from that one. But he knew it was just starting. He couldn't wait to hear about what happened away from school.

~oOo~

The following morning, Lila looked like she'd been dropped into Dante's Inferno and spat back out just in time for school. What happened didn't even have anything to do with Marinette, so she couldn't blame it on her. That just annoyed her all the more.

While storming home wet from the puddle, she kicked a pebble that hit a bird, then a flock of birds swarmed her while she ran for two blocks. She shoved a neighbor out of the way when she got to her apartment building, and the door flew back and cracked her in the nose. It bled for over ten minutes.

She went to the mall for some retail therapy, coupled with a five finger discount, and was caught immediately. Her mother was called and she was banned from the mall for life. Greta was not happy with her daughter and gave her extra chores as punishment. While Lila was muttering mean and disrespectful things about her parents while cleaning the bathroom, she didn't account for the volume of her voice or the bathroom tiles echoing what she said. Her grounding was extended.

All this made Lila’s mood particularly volatile when she arrived at school that morning. Not bothering to pay attention to what was around her, she gave Mireille a shove out of the way, making the girl stumble down the stairs. A couple seconds later, Lila slipped on the wet steps and fell all the way to the bottom. Her classmates saw the whole thing, and although they were miffed that she pushed someone, they still helped Lila to the nurse to get checked out. Nothing broken, but there were multiple new bruises to match her black and purple nose.

In class, Marinette had to resist the urge to stare at the hot mess her bully had become in a single day. The rest of the class had noticed too. Nathaniel decided to move up a row to sit with Ivan. Rose and Juleka cast wary glances in her direction whenever Lila started muttering to herself. Even Mme. Bustier had to tell Lila multiple times to stop talking with the threat of detention.

By the time lunch came around, Marinette made sure to be with one other person at all times. With how unhinged Lila was getting, she didn't want to risk being caught alone with her. Luckily, Ivan, Rose, and Juleka wanted to talk with her about the new designs for Kitty Section, so she was covered.

Lila noticed how the class was starting to avoid her. Fighting off the urge to curse and scream at them, she took a few deep breaths to clear her mind. She'd been rushing too much for the last two days, she knew that. Trying to compensate for her failure was only bringing more attention to herself and the sheep were noticing that something wasn't right. She had to slow down and make them come to her.

For the next few days, Lila backed down. She smiled at her followers, paid attention in class, and would occasionally look at her phone in distress and act like she was fighting off tears. By Monday morning, things were going better for her. She'd avoided getting in any more trouble with her mom and teachers, she'd texted a fake apology to her classmates, and admitted that she was going through something that was causing a lot of stress. When some of them asked what it was, Lila timidly said that she was too nervous to say anything else. She knew they would bug her and assure her that she could tell them anything.

Monday morning, just as she planned, everyone was encouraging her to trust them and tell them what was bothering her. Seeing that Bustier and Marinette weren't in class yet, she knew now was the time to strike.

Squeezing her eyes shut as she harshly pinched the inside of her elbow to bring tears, she started weaving her story. "It's just, someone's been bullying over text. It's so bad. She keeps telling me that I'll lose all my friends and that I should just kill myself," she said between forced sobs as she dropped her head into her hands. "And it never stops. Sh- she texts all day and into the night. And when I tried to show my mom, the messages were gone. I don't know how, but it's like my phone got hacked and the messages disappear after I've read them."

Max mentioned that there are self deleting message apps, but he wasn’t familiar with them. Then he looked at her searchingly. "You keep saying 'she', that would indicate that you are aware of who is behind this?"

Doing her best surprised face, Lila shook her head. "I can't say, none of you would believe that Marinette would-" she gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh no, I really shouldn't have said anything."

Lila watched as the sheep exchanged surprised looks while Adrien glared at her, but he wouldn't say anything. His father would have made sure of that.

"You're saying that Marinette, our class rep, has been bullying you over text?" Alix asked, unease evident in her tone.

She shook her head while turning up the water works. "I knew I shouldn't have said an-anything. She's your friend, too."

"You said she's been doing this constantly?" Mylene asked, eyeing her carefully as Lila nodded. "When did she last send you one of those texts?"

Sniffling, Lila rubbed her eyes to give herself a second to think. It felt like these were leading questions, like they knew something she didn't. Meaning they'd probably spent time with her over the weekend and would have noticed her messaging Lila constantly. But since everyone was here and Marinette wasn't…

"Right before class. It- it asked if I was dead yet." Another sniffle and she was sure the class was wrapped around her fing-

"Marinette was right! You are a liar!"

Lila was so surprised by Kim's outburst, she forgot to keep crying and stared at everyone as they glared at her in disgust and moved away from her.

"I can't believe we almost bought that crap you were selling!" Alix turned away, face turning red in anger.

"But- but it's the truth! I-"

"There is a .03% chance of what you said being true." Max interrupted, staring down his nose at her. "At this point it is better that you admit it."

Casting a desperate look around the classroom, she was surprised that no one looked supportive. Even Adrien looked absolutely done with her. Realizing the jig was up, she let her expression morph to anger and annoyance as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Wow, I'm surprised you idiots figured it out. Usually you do exactly what I say after faking a few tears. I'm curious, what gave me away?"

The sudden change in the Italian girl gave them a bit of whiplash, but Nino answered her. "You ruined Marinette’s phone when you dumped your water on her. She isn't getting a new one until this Friday. No way she could have been messaging you at all."

"Huh, I guess it was worth dumping that on her, even if you idiots started to notice." Then she shrugged and stood from her seat. "Oh well, good to know for my next school, this place was getting stagnant anyway."

Kim blocked her way. "You're not going to get away with-"

"Shut it, you stupid jock. I've already got Bitch-stier and Dumb-ocles eating out of my hand. When I tell them you're ganging up on me, all of you will get detention while I walk free." Sidestepping her soon-to-be former classmates, she gave them a sarcastic wave and smile as she bid them "ciao" and opened the door…

To come face to face with a furious teacher, principal, and her mother!? What's she doing here? Did they just hear what I said?

The thought barely finished when her mother reached out, literally grabbed her by the ear, and dragged her out the door. The class watched in shock as Mme Rossi screamed and lectured her daughter all the way to Damocles' office.

They would be informed days later that Lila had been sent to military school in Italy. In lycee, they heard rumors that she had been arrested for stalking a local celebrity in Venice. During university, Alya found an article about Lila Rossi being sentenced to 30+ years in prison for attempting a ponzi scheme. It had failed terribly and her victims got all their money back, but Lila would have to serve 5 years for each of her victims.

Not that it mattered to them anymore. The class was too busy with their own lives and futures to put much thought into some lying brat that they went to school with for a little while.

Bonus:

Tikki fought her grin as she watched Lila being dragged away by her ear as she and Marinette came up the stairs. Sighing with relief, she was about to enjoy a well deserved treat when she heard a familiar snicker behind her.

"Nice going, Sugarcube. Couldn't have done it better, myself." Plagg cackled as he passed her a cookie before indulging in a wedge of cheese he'd brought with him.

She grudgingly took the cookie before looking away from him. "It was an accident, I touched her hand when she tried planting that pen in my holder’s purse. What happened was her own doing and not my fault."

"Su~re. And the fact that she interrupted your cookie time and dumped your macaron onto the floor had nothing to do with it?"

The look she gave him had Plagg laughing on the inside. Only on the inside.

"That was a perfectly baked, blueberry macaron with a tart, lemon curd filling. I only got one bite before it got dumped to the floor. A price had to be paid."

Plagg watched with great affection as his Sugarcube took a bite of her sweet treat. Oh yes, he'd learned millennia ago not to interrupt cookie time. Just like Henry the VIII, that Lenin guy in Russia, and a few others. They had experienced the wrath of the goddess of creation when interrupting cookie time, though Plagg was the only one to know why things went so bad. It made him smart enough never to do it again.

Taglist:

@2confused-2doanything @7-sage-7 @aadnrsstar @abrx2002 @awkwardromances @bayball @babylovebug18 @botanicalfoxx @back-cats-and-broken-mirrors @caffeinetheory @cheshire5210 @chocolateherringtacofan @city-of-all-tunas @classycollectorreviewworld @corabeth11 @chocolatechipcookiesandcamembert @darkened-flame @delightfulcookiesrecipespizza @fandom-trapped-03 @ghostmaster83@iamblinkmarvelarmy @interobanginyourmom @izang @jesussavedevenme @kazedancer @kitten12113 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @lilypotter2018 @lunataravler @ladylupuscrow @maskedpainter @ miraculouslydumb @nerd-nowandforever @naruwitch @ola-is-dead @pandacatxd @plushbookworm @plz-excuse-my-inner-ravenclaw @pheonix-biach @pandora-fucking-box @raiderofthelostbooks @ramos123 @rowanrouge @rowanyx @ren121 @seesea22 @seraphichana @sashakoi @shypeacekitten @smartlanceisreal @tazer6787 @that-girl-sakea @thecrazyfantrollshasmoved @the-smallest-kittenz @tishwinchesterannabethjackson @t1dwarrior-of-earth @ulmban @with-forward-motion @wonderbat91939 @zoiechance

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous justice #lila lies #lila salt #lila bashing #class redemption #badass tikki #tikki and plagg

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ravennm84 · 2 years ago

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Daminette December 2022: 25-Demon/Angel

Damian sighed as he walked into the community center. He had been assigned community service for punching someone at school. The school had thought it was best for the youngest Wayne to see the consequences of his actions and what his actions could lead to. They volunteered him to work in a reformitory.

Damian looked around the room of people. It reminded him of Arkham, just less yelling and screaming. One person caught his eye; a girl staring out the window. She sat perfectly still on the windowsill.

‘Who is she? Why is she alone?’

Damian quickly grabbed the clipboard out of the attendant’s hand.

“Hey!” they cried.

He flipped through the pages quickly and found her: Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He shoved the clipboard back and started walking towards her. They grabbed his arm.

“I wouldn’t go near her.” they whispered, “We go told very bad things about her. She’s very violent.”

'These people are idiots.’

Damian walked up to the sill.

“Hello.” he spoke.

Marinette didn’t speak or turn at the sound of his voice.

“Not one for words?” Damian questioned.

“Words are filled with lies.” she stated.

'Progress.’

“I am told you are violent.” he continued.

She sighed and continued looking out the window.

“I do not believe them.” he concluded.

Marinette turned and looked at him, shocked. Damian noticed tears build up befre she quickly shut down her emotions.

“So what?” Mari questioned.

“I am sentenced for one month to work here for two hours, three times a week.” Damian informed her.

“Lucky you.” she declared.

“I would rather spend time with you than with idiots.” he stated, “I can tell you are not like the others.”

As he turned to leave, he said his name was Damian and left.

It took until the very last day for him to get her to open up once more.

“I was never violent.” Marinette whispered, still looking out the window, “Not until the end.”

“The end?” Damian asked.

“I snapped.” she sniffled, “My parents sent me here because the couldn’t 'control’ me anymore. That’s a lie.”

“Why don’t you tell me when everything went wrong.” He spoke.

She shrugged, “Why not? I get out of here in a week. I’ll be eighteen by then and I’m suppose to get my stuff from them. I’m never going home. I grew up in Paris, France and my parents were bakers. Everything started with a new transfer student; she was a liar. I could see through her façade, but no one else could. She lied to people like we breathed oxygen.”

“I confronted her. She said she was only 'telling people what they wanted to hear’.” Mari sighed, “Nice to know people wanted to think so badly of you, huh. Anyways, she faked disabilities, told lies about going places, made up connections to celebrities. I tried to tell my friends, my classmates, but they wouldn’t listen. One of them knew she was a liar and said it was better to let her lie; that everyone would find out eventually. Later, she started to spread rumors about me, saying that I was bullying her, sending her threatening texts, calling her at all hours so she couldn’t sleep. It was all over a boy she wanted me to stay away from who was my friend. There even came a point where I got expelled because of her.”

“And you proved your innocence.” he smirked.

“If only.” Marinette answered, “I never got a chance to defend myself. There had been a tip to the teacher that the answer sheet for a test was in my bag. My idiot teacher had already graded the tests with it, but I somehow needed it. When I accused her, we were sent to the office, together. She walked down a whole flight of stairs and then started screaming that I pushed her.”

“Did they not check the footage?” Damian growled.

“Nope. The principal listened to people with money and powerful parents more. I was just a baker’s daughter. Why would the daughter of an Italian diplomat lie?” Mari waved off, “She wasn’t sent to the nurse or a hospital. She then accused me of stealing a necklace that was an heirloom. It was really a Gabriel necklace that had come out five months prior, but the 'evidence’ was there. So, I was expelled.”

“How were you reinstated?” he questioned.

Marinette laughed, “The bitch claimed to have a lying disease that made her fabricate evidence under stress.”

Damian gripped his jeans as tight as he could to stop himself from running off.

“Not sure when it started, but eveyone started telling my parents how 'awful’ I was to her.” Marinette stated, turning back to the window.

“And they believed them?” he asked.

Marinette nodded, “Soon, it wasn’t just her bullying me, threatening me. She got the whole class to do it. They started tripping me, destroying my homework, my designs, spilled coffee on me and played it off on my own clumsiness. One day, she said I chased her until she twisted her ankle.”

“What happened?” Damian pushed.

“That was the day I snapped.” Mari replied, “I don’t remember what happened. I was sitting in the back of the class and the next thing I know, I was being pulled off of her. She had a broken , fractured jaw, and was bleeding a lot. I’m told I just kept callign her a liar over and over, but I don’t know. Then, I was sent here. I’ve been here for….two years, I think?”

'I was right. This isn’t a violent girl. This girl is an angel and she plummeted.’

“May I hug you?” Damian asked, suddenly.

Marinette turned quickly. He could see her face had turned bright red and she was shocked by his gesture. Damian leaned in and held her close.

“I do not believe you are bad.” he whispered, “I think you are a better person than most.”

Marinette shakily brought her hands around him and began to sob.

“What was that girl’s name?” Damian probed.

Mari sniffled and pulled away. She wiped her tears, like nothing had ever happened, and turned bac to look out the window.

“Layla Rossi. She went by Lila.” she answered, “I don’t know if it’s still with my things, but I kept a journal about everything. You can read it if you want. I decided to keep it as a reminder to never let it happen again; that I never needed friends, again.”

Damian stood up and placed a hand on her head. He smirked as he walked away and explained he had permission to look though her belongings. He found the journal and smiled. Marinette had no idea she had just made a deal with a demon.

Keep reading

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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Idea for you class salt after the class is out of school and in the real world.

Marinette's phone gets broken so badly she needs a new number. She only tells a few her new number no one from her old class has it.

Some of her old class goes to bakery to ask why she hasn't called them back when they called her. They get told her phone got broken and all that.

The class member goes okay tell her to call me when it gets fixed or replaced it is important.

Only her parents forget and when said class member comes back later is told that but is also told Marinette has a new phone now. But not a new number.

Classmate rushes out to call her so she can fix their problems like always only it goes to voicemail as the person whom has her old number is like I don't know this person calling me. It goes on and on till it gets bad and the person with the new number goes to the police with worry over the threats they are getting.

Should I be worried for myself or the person they are trying to reach

It comes to a head when alya talks max into hacking the location of the phone and they go to have a talk with Marinette only it's not her

Thank you so much for the request! It's my first one so I went a bit overboard and wrote a lot! So sorry it took me so long to get to this! I'm taking organic chemistry over the winter so that has been kicking my ass. The first draft was deleted, so hopefully, this is a better version! Thank you for your patience with me!

TW: swearing, minor threats of violence

~~~~~~

"Well shit," Marinette's day was already bad, but this was just throwing salt into the wound. She had started her day with her phone blowing up with requests from her (former) classmates and friends. Ever since she returned from College they had gotten right back to their usual B.S. "Mari I need a new dress for a meeting with Prince Ali," "Marinette! I told my team you'd design some sick jackets for us and you'd have them done by our next swim meet!" "Girl! I need three new outfits! Adrien and Lila are taking me with them to a fashion show and this is my chance to interview some top designers! Oh sorry, you're not invited." She was up to her neck in demands and requests, to the point she was seriously considering closing her commissions, not like her former friends paid her anyways. THEN Hawkmoth decided that she hadn't suffered enough, she had to deal with Volpina, Frozer, AND Prime Queen and it was not even lunchtime. Volpina was easy enough to take down, why Lila was akumatized is anyone's guess. Frozer was a bit trickier, and since Chat had no plans of showing up she had to bring in Ryuko and Viperion. The trio ended up fighting Prime Queen, who was convinced that LadyNoir would still happen and the Cat Hero's absence was due to a lover's quarrel. Marinette was finally able to return to the alleyway she had transformed in... only to find her shattered phone. It must've fallen out of her suit's pocket (she had redesigned her costume since returning to Paris, she wanted a more mature, fashionable look) when she was rushing to get to the battle.

"Great! Just Perfect! This is just what I need now!" She sighed picking up the shattered phone. There was no way this was salvageable, the impact of hitting the ground had practically broken the thing in half. Tikki knew her chosen was stressed, between being Ladybug, being the Guardian of the Miraculous, building a blossoming fashion empire from scratch, and having to deal with her former friends' constant demands it was only a matter of time before she lost Marinette to Hawkmoth's akumatization. The goddess recognized that this was just the opportunity she needed to help her chosen, and she would start by helping Marinette cut off the people hurting her most. "Marinette! I have an idea! Why don't you get two phones? One can be your work phone, and the other can be your personal one. That way you won't have to worry about your work stuff getting lost in your personal stuff. You can get new numbers for both too!" Marinette looked at the Kwamii with some confusion, "Why would I need to change my number?" Tikki sighed, "Marinette, they haven't been very good friends to you, they haven't even been your friends for a while now. Think about it, your former classmates don't talk to you unless they want something, they expect you to use your connections to benefit them but won't return the favor, and they promise you and your time to other people without your consent. That isn't right babybug, friends don't treat friends like that. They don't even pay you for your time, effort, and the cost of materials!" Marinette knew that Tikki was right, but she was still hesitant, "But..." "Would Kagami text you expecting you to make her something and refuse to pay? Would Luka text you telling you that he promised another musician you'd make their wardrobe by their next concert? Would Kagami and Luka use your work to get ahead, and then refuse to extend the favor? No, they wouldn't! Those are healthy friends babybug, you can give them your new number, I know they'll understand!" Marinette thought about it for a moment and decided that Tikki was right. With a renewed conviction she made her way to the nearest tech store to begin to take control of her life again.

Adrien was frustrated, he had been texting and calling Marinette all afternoon but she wasn't answering! That wasn't like his princess, so something had to be going on, but there wasn't an Akuma on the news, Ladybug, Viperion, and Ryuko defeated the three earlier today. He did feel a little guilty that he didn't go to help, but he was busy! He had modeling shoots all morning and then joined Lila and Alya for lunch discussing their upcoming trip. The topic eventually turned to the Wayne Gala that was approaching as well, with both models confirming they had been invited. Well, Lila had only been invited because she was an official Gabriel representative, but she didn't need to know that. The brunette was currently making a big show of bringing Alya as her plus one, which brings Adrien back to his current predicament. When he arrived home, his father told him that he had to invite Marinette Dupain-cheng as his plus one no matter what. Both Agrestes had been shocked when she had rejected Gabriel's offer to join his company, but her answer had been reassuring, "I greatly appreciate your offer but cannot accept it in good conscious. Adrien has been my friend for years and I would hate to potentially harm his, the company's, and my reputation by accepting. I am worried it could be misconstrued as me gaining the position, not by my own talent, skill, or merit but because I had a connection to someone with considerable sway." His father didn't seem to pick up that the last bit was about Lila, but seemed content. In fact, Gabriel had complimented Marinette's business savvy and remarked how good it would be if she followed in his footsteps by building a fashion house from scratch. He had mused that it would be even better to have the two great fashion houses merging together instead of just taking Marinette in as a designer. Now that Miracle Design Clothing (MDC) has risen to compete with the likes of Gabriel and Style Queen, his father had decided now was the time to begin winning Marinette over.

Adrien would never admit it to his father, but he had his own motivations for being so on board with the plan to invite Marinette to the Wayne Gala. They were now in their mid-20s, and everyone in Paris wanted to know everything about the Agreste Heir's love life. Lila had hinted multiple times that Adrien was dating her, so much so that the media was beginning to spin her narrative. However, Adrien wasn't entirely out of the running yet. He knew that the Wayne Galas were always a media frenzy so if he, a fashion empire heir, showed up to the Gala with Marinette, a rising star in the fashion world, on his arm the media would quickly assume they were dating. It was a brilliant plan, Marinette was charming, beautiful, intelligent, and incredibly talented. His father held her in high regard, and he knew that if Gabriel approved of him dating anyone, it would be Marinette. Besides Adrien had a trick up his sleeve, he knew Marinette was in love with him, or at least that was what Alya had told him. She told him about Marinette's crush right before the ravenette left for college, hoping to embarrass her former best friend. Their old class still believed what Lila had said about Marinette being a bully. In their get-togethers they would often mock the designer's success, reassuring Lila that the only reason they talked to her was to get stuff from Marinette. While it upset him a little to know Marinette was being taken advantage of, a larger part of him felt like she deserved it since she didn't listen to his advice about Lila. Oh well, it was her own fault. Adrien was brought out of his thoughts by Alya's shriek.

"OH MY GOSH! The Waynes just announced the Designer they got their Gala outfits from, and it's Marinette!" Adrien choked down a laugh at the sour expression Lila wore, as Alya continued to read, "The article says that Marinette and Timothy Drake Wayne met while they were in college, and he thought her designs were so incredible that he referred her to Bruce Wayne himself! She's considered a family friend and received their order along with an invitation to the Gala! Why didn't she tell me any of this??" 'Maybe because you only talk to her when you want something' Adrien thought as their former classmates began to text. Alya was trying to call Marinette, most likely to scream at her for not letting Alya in on such a big story, but she couldn't get through. "Ugh! Marinette is ignoring me! Who does that stupid bitch think she is?" Lila's eyes sparkled as she saw a chance to jump in and control the narrative, "I know right? You'd think she'd be more grateful after I introduced her to Timmy- oh I've said too much," She batted her eyelashes and made a show of covering her mouth. "YOU introduced Marinette to the Waynes? Girl you've gotta give me the details!" "Well, Marinette was going to college in Milan, and I happened to be there for a modeling shoot," That part was actually true, Adrien was sick and couldn't make that shoot, "We happened to bump into each other at a cafè, and Marinette apologized to me for how awful she was to me in our youth. She told me that the only reason she did what she did was that she was jealous and felt threatened by me, you were right Alya." That was how Lila worked, she mixed a little bit of the truth with what someone wanted to hear, which caused the lies she told to pass by noticed. "Anyways we had lunch and caught up, she was showing me some of her amazing designs," as much as it pained Lila to admit it, Marinette was truly talented. In fact one thing she regretted was not working harder to deceive Marinette back when they were still in school, if she had known Marinette would be so successful she would've fought like hell to take the spot of Marinette's Best Friend away from Alya. She would've been MDC's top model, instead of having a stagnating career as just another practically nameless model for Gabriel. "I remembered my dear friend Timmy, we met when my mother was stationed in Gotham, he had told me that the Wayne family needed suits and dresses for their upcoming Gala and that Gabriel was too busy." Another partial truth, Lila didn't know any Wayne, but she knew Gabriel was too busy being Hawkmoth to make their outfits. "I gave him Marinette's number as an olive branch because I had thought she changed, but I guess she was lying. Oh and Alya? Adrien? Please don't mention my friendship with the Waynes, I don't want people thinking they can get to them through me." Lila smirked as both Adrien and Alya promised her they wouldn't say anything.

When Marinette told them she was cutting off her former friends for good, Tom and Sabine were over the moon. They knew about the Lila situation and all its complexities after the faux fox tried to infiltrate the bakery and convince them their daughter had stolen her necklace. They almost fell for it, until Tom remembered that Marinette had been helping him in the bakery during the time Lila said their daughter took the necklace. He had sternly told Lila that there was no way Marinette could have done it, and even offered to show her security footage that proved Marinette was not the thief. Instead, the brunette stormed out of the bakery, and Tom and Sabine knew they had to talk to their daughter. After a bit of gentle prodding, Marinette broke down and told them everything. She told them about Lila, her classmates, and Adrien, and she told them about everything they were putting her through. They were horrified, and that feeling was solidified after Lila got Marinette expelled. After their daughter's name was cleared, that useless principal was trying to dodge removing it from her record, until Sabine threatened to contact the school board about how their daughter was expelled without an investigation. They did everything they could, but it seemed Lila had everyone else in her pocket, and it seemed to stay that way once Marinette returned from college. She had swung by the bakery and explained that her phone had been shattered while she avoided the akumas, and she was taking this opportunity to change her number and cut those leeches off. Sabine and Tom promised that they would say nothing because it was only a matter of time before her former friends wound up at the bakery because of the radio silence from Marinette.

The chiming of the doorbell confirmed their fears. In stormed Marinette's old class, with her former friend Alya leading the pack. They could see Lila hiding in the back, and decided it would be better to say nothing. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng! We have a problem and thought you could help us. We've been trying to get in contact with Marinette all day, but we can't reach her and we wanted to make sure she was okay." Sabine smiled as she tried to hold in her rage. They weren't here because they were concerned, those brats wanted something. It would appear that Alya and co didn't know that Marinette's parents knew Lila was lying or what they did, so Tom decided to answer in a way Lila couldn't twist. "Oh, she came by earlier today and let us know that her phone was broken. She dropped it during one of the Akuma attacks, and it was pretty smashed up. She told us to let you know if you came by since she would be off the grid until it was fixed. It might be a while though, it was almost as bad as the time it got caught in the bread mixer!" His answer seemed to calm the group down, typical clumsy Marinette strikes again. "Ok, well can you please let her know to reach out to us once her phone's fixed?" The two nodded and promised they would, and watched as the group of adults left. Sabine turned to the freezer, "They're gone! You can come out now!" The two chuckled as their daughter slowly poked her head out of the walk-in freezer, ready to dash back in at a moment's notice. Yeah, they're glad Marinette was finally cutting those people off and the bright glow in their girl's eyes confirmed it.

The Gala was in a few weeks, and Marinette was STILL radio silent. Adrien was pacing back and forth in his room, trying to figure out what to do. Her social media was most likely controlled by an assistant like his was so he couldn't message her there, he couldn't get into her studio without an invitation or employee badge, and he realized he had no idea where she lived so he couldn't even pay her a visit or send a letter! "I don't know what to do! No one has heard from Marinette and her parents promised they'd talk to her about it!" "Maybe she finally got tired of your bullshit and decided to cut you and the rest of those users off," Plagg snapped from somewhere in his room. After The Paint Incident, Plagg's attitude towards him seemed to change. He snapped at Adrien more, called Adrien out on his behavior, and started giving Adrien harsh (and desperately needed) advice. Other than that, Plagg was getting on his case about slacking off on his duties as Chat Noir, claiming that his behavior was a disgrace to the legacy of the Cat Miraculous. Adrien was getting fed up with him, hadn't the stupid cat heard the saying 'if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all?' "Marinette wouldn't do that! We're her friends!" "Some friends. And some friend YOU are. You knew Lila was lying and let her wreck Marinette's school life, get her expelled, and continue to lie to everyone. You told Marinette to shut up and take it, news flash kid, the high road does not mean stay quite and let people hurt you! YOU currently know that YOUR friends only care about what they can get from her and that Lila is planning to pull some bullshit at the Gala, but all you're concerned about is making sure karma doesn't bite you in the ass!" Plagg roared. It was hard to argue with the little god without sounding like a hypocrite, but Adrien was going to try. "Well... When Marinette agrees to go to the Gala with me I can fix everything! She likes me, so we can get together, and I can get Lila to apologize! Once everyone knows they're on good terms things will go back to how they should be!" Plagg was paying more attention to the cheese he was juggling, but he did glance back at Adrien, "One, IF she decides to go with you. Two, she may not even feel that way it's been years. Three, How are you going to get a narcissist to admit to wrongdoing? Four, How does Lila apologizing change how your ex-class treat Mari when that's how they treated her before Lila showed up?" Adrien chose to ignore Plagg and tried calling Marinette again.

Alya was STRESSED. The Gala was coming up and she needed a new dress that would wow everyone and make her stand out from other reporters. She had already secured her Press Pass, and because she was Lila's plus one she could actually get into the Gala. The only other reporters with that privilege were Clark Kent and Lois Lane, close friends of the Wayne Family. Lila offered to get her a Gabriel Original but she turned it down, both girls shared a sentiment that Gabriel's designs had really been declining. "I think it was the loss of his wife. She was his greatest inspiration, and especially with Hawkmoth on the loose, I can understand not wanting to leave your house. Maybe he's just out of touch," Lila had told her, and Alya agreed. What she needed was a Marinette Original, something to show she was in with both designers. She was thinking of something fox-inspired, to pay homage to her time as Rena Rouge. She'd talked to the other girls about why Marinette had never told her she would be designing for the Waynes, and they reassured her, "Well, maybe she thought you wouldn't be interested or were too busy?" Rose offered. "You didn't really report on fashion until Adrien and Lila took you to that fashion show. Maybe she thought you wouldn't be interested." Juleka suggested. "Als, you're overthinking it! Mari didn't tell you because she couldn't! A family like the Waynes has wicked good lawyers, they probably made her sign an NDA." Alix concluded. They were probably right, Marinette would have told her if she could have, and Alya needed that dress. So there she was at Tom and Sabine's bakery again, asking about Marinette. "Oh, she just called this morning! The damage was too severe, so she had to get a new phone." Sabine told the young reporter, who thanked her lucky stars. As she left the bakery, she sent a text 'Mari's back!'

Adrien nearly dropped his phone when he got the text from Alya, before excusing himself to run upstairs and call Marinette. The phone rang, and rang, and rang, before the call was answered, "Hello? Who is this?" A woman's voice answered, but certainly was not Marinette. Adrien was floored, he was sure he dialed the correct number. "Um hi. I'm looking for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I'm a friend of hers and was calling to speak to her." "Oh really? Well if you're her friend maybe you can explain to me why the second I had this number activated my phone was bombarded with calls and texts demanding things from dresses, to invitations to some Gala, and all kinds of other demands." Wait, had Marinette changed her number? No, she wouldn't have. "Listen, lady, I don't know if you find this funny but I KNOW Marinette wouldn't change her number. If you're her assistant you better give the phone to Marinette NOW or I'll see to it personally that you're fired!" Marinette should really have taken care to not hire such incompetent people. It was unfitting of an eventually-to-be Agreste. "I don't know who you think you are but I will make one thing clear: I DO NOT KNOW A MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG!" The line went dead. Adrien pressed the redial button, and felt his stomach drop as the call didn't go through, he had been blocked. From the way the group chat was blowing up, he could guess the others were getting the same response. Lila was going on and on about how Marinette was abandoning them in their time of need, and adding fuel to the fire. Adrien decided he was going to do damage control. He had thought a bit about what Plagg had said and realized that he needed to show Marinette that he was still on her side, besides it would be tougher to get everyone to make up if they were mad at her for something her crappy assistant did. He sent the chat a message, 'Guys relax. The woman on the phone wasn't Marinette but has her number, so she's probably a new assistant! Miracle Design Clothing has really exploded since the Waynes announced she made their outfits for the Gala so Marinette probably hired some help and the lady didn't know who we were. We can try again later.'

Lea Dubois was having the roughest week in all of her fourty-three years. She had gotten a new phone, since she her old one was stolen, and decided to get a new number with it. Not even a couple of minutes after activating her phone it began blowing up with calls and demands for a Marinette Dupain-Cheng. After a particularly snobby boy threatened to get her fired from a job she didn't even have, Lea decided to do some snooping and figure out who this Marinette Dupain-Cheng was. Googling the girl's name directed her to a Miracle Design Clothing website, and after scrolling through she found a tab labeled, "Founder." Clicking on it, she saw a picture of a smiling young woman with shiny black (almost blue) hair and sapphires for her eyes. She was a truly gorgeous woman, and from what Lea read very talented. That explained the demand for clothing. She decided to check social media next, and quickly found articles about how the rising star had been personally invited to the Wayne Charity Gala! That explained all the calls from people claiming to be Marinette's friends and demanding to be taken to the Gala, to that one girl who demanded an interview and a dress for the Gala. Lea went through the messages that quickly went from demanding to insulting and toxic, and thought to herself, 'I see why that girl changed her number, I hope she knows these people aren't her friends.' She decided to look up the people who had called her, and see what she could find out about them. A girl named Alix and a boy named Kim were both athletes, although both played for the minor leagues of their respective sports, but it did explain the requests for jersey designs. A boy named Ivan and two girls named Juleka and Rose had been calling about outfits for their next concert, apparently they were in a band called Kitty Section. Lea vaguely remembered that it was a popular group, before their lead guitarist was kicked out and went solo. Two girls named Sabrina and Mylene had asked her to create costumes for a production in the Théâtre du Châtelet, a boy named Max called asking for a suit for his new tech reveal, and another boy named Nino asked her to design a couple of album covers!

A few other people called, but they seemed to be genuine friends. One standout was a boy named Nathaniel who had called twice, once to congratulate Marinette on her work with the Waynes and invite her to an event for his comic. The second time was to apologize to Lea when he found out Marinette had changed her number. He had also apologized for the harassment his (and apparently Marinette's) former friends had been throwing at her. He explained that when they were younger, Marinette didn't know how to stand up for herself, and was pressured by her teacher to constantly put her needs on the back burner to help her classmates. Nathaniel told her it had gotten better when Marinette left for college, but now that she was back in Paris, things had gone back to the way they were. Instead of their teacher, the role of pressuring her had fallen to three people, Lila Rossi, Alya Césaire, and Adrien Agreste. That last name caught her attention, could that have been the bratty boy who threatened to fire her? "Sweetie I hate to do this to you, but if you have time could you meet me in person? We have a lot to discuss, and I'm beginning to worry for Marinette." Nathaniel had agreed and had said he was bringing a couple of Marinette's friends, her real friends. "They've been harassing us too, maybe we can look into getting a restraining order or something." And that was how she ended up in a cafe sitting at a table with some of the most impressive people she'd ever met. There were Nathaniel Kurtzberg and Marc Anciel, the power couple of comics. She hadn't read comics since she was a little girl, but her nephews talked nonstop about the Ladybug comic the two had started in collège. Olympian fencer Kagami Tsurugi, and hit rock artist Luka Couffaine. There was academy award winner Zoé Lee and fortune 500 company founder Chloé Bourgeois.

The group exchanged pleasantries and got right to business, "So we heard from Nathaniel that you got Marinette's old number and that your phone has been blowing up with all the shit she used to get," Luka said. Lea nodded, "Yes. They refused to believe that she'd changed her number and one man even threatened to get me fired! I don't know what job he thinks I have that he can influence, but I digress. " "Ugh. That sounds like Adrien alright. I swear it was like a switch flipped in his head during Collége, he's acting like I used to," Chloé had come to terms with the kind of person she was, and had taken the steps to apologize and change for the better. A part of that was she swore never to touch a Miraculous again, she had become aware enough to realize that when given that much power she would be tempted to fall back into her old ways. "It's telling that their first reaction to being cut off is to harass an innocent person instead of reflecting on their actions and what lead them to that point," Kagami said, "I think we owe you an explanation since you have unfortunately been dragged into this." Lea nodded, that sounded good. "They weren't always this bad, well they weren't always this blatant about it. For a long time, Marinette was happy and popular, hell even when I bullied her she didn't seem bothered. Then Lila Rossi transferred. That girl is the type to convince people that two plus two equals five, you know what I mean," Lea nodded, her ex had been like that. "Well anyways, Marinette saw through her bullshit and called her out for it, so Lila declared war. Before anyone could process what happened, Lila had convinced the class that Marinette was the Devil's spawn. She even managed to get Marinette falsely expelled, and while that was reversed, it was the moment Marinette realized she couldn't rely on her classmates. Alya was an up-and-coming journalist and her best friend, but if she couldn't bring herself to fact-check this girl's stories..." Chloé paused to take a sip of her drink, and Lea thought of something, "Maybe Alya did fact-check and knew Lila was lying. I did some research before I came here, and I know that Alya ran the Ladyblog. I also know that her videos featuring Lila are her most viewed videos, but when I looked at the comments I noticed that a ton had been deleted. Maybe she knew but saw how much attention her blog was getting, and chose to ignore Lila's lies, or maybe she believes them, I don't know." The group continued to chat about their situation and were snapped out of it when the door to the cafe was flung open.

Alya was gonna kill Marinette when she found her. How dare she hire someone and not tell them who she was?! How dare she do that to her friends?! Doesn't she realize they need her? It didn't take much to convince the others, specifically Max, to ping the location off of Marinette's number and track it down. If she was going to be bitchy and ignore their calls and messages and hire some dumb assistant to annoy them, they were gonna make her pay! They had tracked her location to a cafe in the fashion district and were waiting for the last of the group to arrive. "I don't understand why she's being so petty," Lila whimpered, fighting back tears, "You all have been nothing but kind to her even when she's been such a nasty person!" "I don't understand it either," Sabrina said, "It's like a switch flipped in collège or something." Well whatever it was, they weren't gonna let her get out of this! Once Kitty Section had arrived, the group stormed into the cafe ready to give Marinette a piece of their minds! To their surprise, Marinette wasn't there. Their old friends turned enemies were there and sitting with them was a middle-aged woman, was she the one who had been answering from Marinette's number. "Where's Marinette?" Alya demanded. Chloé and Kagami lept to their feet. "She isn't here, and unless someone is dying you are not getting in contact with her!" Chloé was a lot less polite about it, "Wow, I'm surprised none of you got the memo. You've been cut off!" The older woman turned to face them, and Adrien snapped at her, "You! Are you Marinette's assistant or something? Get her here now!" Oh, that was it, Lea walked right up to him, ready for war. "I will do no such thing because I am not her assistant! I did not even know who Marinette was until you people began blowing up my phone with demands! I have never met more selfish people! And you," she pointed at Lila, "I've heard all about you and what you've done to that poor girl!" Lila began to sob, wailing about how she didn't do anything, and that she had been trying to mend bridges with Marinette by introducing her to the Waynes.

"Woah, Woah, hold on! You did NOT introduce her to the Wayne Family," Luka stood up and walked over, Lea noticed how Kitty Section seemed to shrink under his gaze. "Marinette met the Waynes at a fashion show in Gotham that Jagged Stone took us to. She met Selina and the two hit it off like a house on fire," Luka pulled out his phone and showed off pictures of a much younger Marinette with a woman who could have passed for her mother. "Notice the date? She was in high school when she met them. Here she is at Selina and Bruce's wedding. Know why she's there? She designed Selina's dress." The dress was a stunning white with elegant black lace. The top resembled the head of a cat, and if you looked close enough you could see little cats and bats hidden within the lace. "Marinette's been the Wayne Family's go-to designer for YEARS. Hell, the Waynes were at her graduation party, and the opening of Miracle Design Clothes Studio, and have been to every major life event she's had since she met them." Luka showed them More photos of Marinette and the Wayne family. "I don't know how you could introduce her to people she's known for years," Luka said, "Not to mention Stephanie tells me they're desperate to either adopt her into the family or have her marry into it," Marc added. All eyes were on Lila now, she had told them all that she'd introduced Marinette to Timothy Drake Wayne and that was how Marinette got the job, but with all this evidence it was clear her lie was dead in the water. Lea turned back to the group, watching as the realization crossed their faces that Lila had lied, and had most likely lied about various other things. Turning back to the people she had met she said, "It was very nice meeting you all. Please pass on my concerns to Marinette, and let her know if she ever needs friendly advice, she knows what number to call,"

The Wayne Gala was very... Awkward for Adrien. After their failed attempt to confront Marinette, Lila got exposed, and in the excitement, it came out that he knew about what she had been doing. Simply put he was excommunicated from the group. They figured that if they cut him, Lila, and Alya (who had doubled down on Marinette being the problem until it came out she knew Lila lied and had said nothing to protect her views) out that they could apologize to Marinette and she'd take them back. Their pleas on social media brought attention to the situation, and Marinette's friends and parents were more than happy to tell the world what happened to their favorite designer. When he, Lila, and Alya walked into the Wayne Gala, they turned heads but not for the reasons any of them had hoped for. People were polite to their faces and when speaking to them, but Adrien could hear them whispering behind his back. He needed to talk to Marinette, if he could smooth things over with her then maybe, just maybe this could be salvaged. However, the Wayne Family seemed to personally take offense to his plan, because whenever he saw Marinette (and she stood out in an absolutely jaw-dropping sparkling red mermaid cut dress) she was whisked away before he could say anything. First, it was Selina, who lead her over to some of his father's former clients and proudly told them the story of how she met the young designer. Then it was Bruce Wayne himself who came to introduce her to the Kents, who much to Alya's dismay didn't even glance her way. Finally, it was the Wayne Kids who were determined to dance with Marinette all night, Adrien swears Jason was smirking at him. Eventually, she broke off from the main party with Tim and the two were chatting on the balcony. This was as close of a chance as he would get.

Marinette was having an amazing night! She met so many amazing people and made so many new contacts! She even set up an interview with Lois Lane! She could feel Alya fuming on the other side of the room, and tried her best not to think about it. She knew Adrien, Lila, and Alya were at the Gala, and she knew what had happened a few weeks before. While she was happy Lila was finally exposed, she had moved on. She got to dance with each of the Wayne siblings, but her favorite dance had to be with Tim. When Selina had introduced her to him, their reaction to each other was to freak out. Tim was over the moon to meet the designer he'd followed for years, and Marinette was ecstatic to meet the young Wayne CEO (whom she may have had a bit of a crush on). The two had exchanged numbers and talked constantly, building up a close friendship. As time went on her crush on him grew as well, but she was too nervous to risk their friendship and say anything. Eventually, when she thought her feet were going to fall off, Tim led her over to the balcony. There they talked quietly about anything and everything when a cough interrupted them. There was Adrien, with a charming smile, but Marinette had learned not to be fooled. "Hello, Adrien. Enjoying the Gala?" Marinette asked, she knew he was up to something, and from the way Tim looked at him, he could sense it too. Marinette decided to take control of the conversation, "I heard what happened. With Lea Dubois and the phone number and everything. To put it lightly that certainly wasn't your best moment." "Well, I... I never thought you would change your number, so it kinda threw me for a loop. Anyways, I wanted to apologize for the part I played in all of this. I really dropped the ball and it lead to you getting hurt I never intended for that to happen," "Yet you continued to let Marinette's former friends use her for free things?" Tim butted in, holding up his phone and showing various text messages between Adrien and his friends. Adrien's face darkened, "How the hell did you get those?!" Tim just threw his head back and laughed. "I'm a tech prodigy. Finding texts is a piece of cake. I started looking after Nathaniel told me about what happened in the cafe. I also found the texts between you and your father, and no I won't let you use my girlfriend as a publicity stunt. We were gonna announce our relationship tonight-" Adrien turned around and stomped off before Tim could finish his sentence. Marinette sighed, he really hadn't changed. Turning back to Tim she asked, "Since when are we in a relationship?" The raven-haired boy blushed a little, "Well Unofficially since your graduation party, but neither of us knew it at the time. Officially now... If you want. If not that's cool and we can just pretend this never happened. Damn Adrien! I had a plan for this but he had to show up and ruin it!" Marinette chuckled and brought Tim's hand up to her cheek, smiling up at him fondly, "Officially now is fine with me."

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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Lila’s Karen Moment

This is a story that I’ve been kicking around for a while, thinking of Lila having a moment where she’s in a bad mood and takes her anger out on someone, not knowing that the person is closely connected to her classmates. And... I just love writing “Lila gets exposed” stories. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!!

Most of the class knew about Max’s cousin, Nick. They had been raised in the same apartment building and absolutely adored each other. Although Nick was a couple years older, he had been diagnosed with autism when he was four years old. Which wasn’t to say he was slow, just a little different. Mostly, Nick was shy and wouldn’t talk to people he wasn’t familiar with. He had a hard time looking people in the eye and didn’t understand social cues.

Still, the class, at least those who had grown up around him, knew just how sweet and caring he was; and how open he could be with people he knew. Kim and Alix would include him in their races, knowing how much fun he had running with them. Nathaniel would do drawings of Nick as a superhero, saving the day and protecting Max, which always put a smile on his face. Nino had a playlist with a bunch of show tunes, Nick was a big fan of Phantom of the Opera and Fiddler on the Roof. Marinette taught him how to do paper folding when they were younger, and he soon became better at it than she was. Even Chloe had a soft spot for Nick after he had bashfully given her a rose made of gold paper and said she was a ‘pretty princess’.

But none of the class cared as much as Max. He would go over to his cousin’s apartment every day in the morning to make sure he got up. Tell him stories about the class and show Nick pictures. Heck, one of the reasons he had invented Markov was to create someone to be a companion for Nick, so he would never be alone. Nick had a tendency to wander off when he was bored or saw something interesting. The few times Max, his mom, or Nick’s parents had lost sight of him; they had gone into total panic attacks. Only for Nick to find his way back to them a few hours later. If Nick had a little companion robot like Markov, it would be a lot safer for him.

So, when Max's aunt asked him if he could have an activity day with Nick, he was all for it. When he told the class, they decided to have a picnic for Nick. They had all been busy lately, it had been a while since they last saw him.

It was a beautiful day at the park. Nino had a full playlist ready to go, along with new songs from Hamilton and Six, he had a feeling Nick would like Haus of Holbein. Marinette had brought all his favorite pastries and a couple new ones he might like, making sure they were organized by size. Even Chloe had come, having Sabrina bring a ream of multicolored paper, perfect for folding.

As soon as Max, Nick, and Markov arrived, there were good vibes all around. Kim and Alix raced laps with him around the fountain until Kim tripped and fell into the water; big smile from Nick. When No Way played, Nick had Nino put it on repeat over and over until everyone was singing it. When Rose and Juleka got there, they had been running late; Nick came behind the goth and started braiding her hair. He loved touching her hair and had done this many times before. Rose would always watch carefully and would gently tell him if he pulled too much.

Nick was in the middle of creating an entire boutique of paper flowers when the akuma alert went off. Alarms were always too much for Nick and before anyone could stop him, he had covered his ears and ran down the sidewalk. Markov followed as best as his little propeller would let him, but fell behind.

Even as the swarm of magical ladybugs swept across the sky a few minutes later, signaling the end of the attack, Nick didn't slow down. He only stopped after he ran head first into a familiar girl wearing twin ponytails and an orange blazer. Both teenagers fell to the ground with Nick cowering and quietly apologizing, while Lila glared at the boy. Markov, to his credit, recognized her expression as hostile and began recording in case something happened. And boy, did it.

"You stupid, clumsy retard! What the hell are you doing?" Lila screamed as she stood over the cowering boy.

"I… I-"

*smack*

Nick curled into a ball on the ground, scared and in pain from the unexpected strike.

"Shut up, you don't get to talk. Retards like you aren't allowed to talk. How did you even get out of your ward? Things like you should be locked up since your parents weren't smart enough to drop you off a cliff."

*smack*

Another cry and Lila kicked him out of the way with her boot, grumbling as she walked off that her outfit got dirty and scuffed. Not once did she bother to look up and see Markov hovering above them. The little robot stopped recording and floated down to comfort Nick while sending their coordinates to Max.

Ten minutes later, the class and Max were gently leading his cousin back to the park. He was shocked and angry to see the bruises and nail marks on Nick's cheek. The marks meant that they weren't the result of the akuma attack. Those would have been healed by the miraculous cure. This would have been done by someone else after the initial attack. Marinette had rushed home to grab a medical kit while the others did their best to cheer Nick up. It wasn’t until Marinette got back that Markov was able to get everyone's attention.

"Max, I was able to record the interaction that resulted in your cousin’s injuries. Including the identity of his attacker. Would you like to see it?"

After Nick was properly distracted by Marinette and Nathaniel showing him a new paper folding technique, and moving a small distance so he wouldn't hear, Markov played it. The class looked on in absolute shock and disgust as they watched their "friend" verbally and physically attack one of the kindest, sweetest people they knew.

After watching it a second time, to convince themselves that it really was Lila, they went ballistic! Nino was on the phone with Alya, telling her what he'd just seen. Max was angry-dialing his aunt and mother to tell them what happened, Markov had already forwarded the video to his email to send to the adults. Rose and Juleka displayed a surprising amount of strength as they kept Kim and Alix from hunting Lila down themselves. Sabrina had called her father to report the assault. Chloe was also on the phone with her father, demanding that he have the Rossi family kicked out of Paris immediately.

~oOo~

Lila was beyond annoyed by the time she stomped into her family's apartment. First, her akumatization failed and she was turned back to normal after just a few minutes. That mangy cat even had the audacity to compare her to the fanatic bird guy. Then she got knocked down by some pathetic boy who couldn't even apologize right. She was so angry that she ended up slapping him a couple times before kicking him out of the way. And, just her luck, her phone got damaged from the fall.

When she got home, she barely made the effort to wave at her mom in the kitchen before going to her room. After changing into a new outfit, Lila took a few minutes to think up a good story as to how her phone was damaged and reasons why she needed the newest model to replace it. When she heard her mom talking to someone, she figured she was talking to her father over Zoom. He was back at his school in Italy. Maybe she could convince him to side with her for a new phone.

However, she was met by two police officers that greeted her by name. Lila didn't get the chance to say anything before the men were arresting her for assault. Her cries went to deaf ears as she was taken away with her mother following them to the station. Even there, she had no chance to spin her lies as her mother and lawyer kept telling her to shut up. The only times they demanded she speak were to questions she didn't want to answer.

Why did you hit a stranger who accidentally knocked you down?

Silence.

You were akumatized? How could you not tell me?

Silence.

How are you already back to normal? You told me how those useless, fake heroes take weeks to defeat a single akuma.

Not so silent.

It was the police that indignantly corrected Greta Rossi that time. For a few minutes they were going back and forth while Lila stewed between the four angry adults. She really wished that an akuma would come to her, but none came. Unknown to her; Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Pegasus were all camped out on the surrounding buildings to keep that from happening. They'd already spotted and caught three butterflies.

Eventually, Lila was released into the custody of her mother, but was warned that they should expect to be contacted with a court date very soon. The entire way home, Greta was yelling and berating her daughter for not only physically and verbally attacking someone who accidentally bumped into her, but lying about the akuma situation. She already planned on personally escorting Lila to school on Monday to have an in depth discussion with her teacher and principal. Lila pleaded with her mother to just listen to her, but Greta wasn't about to fall for any more of her daughter's lies.

~oOo~

Monday turned out to be even worse for Lila with all her diseases and attendance issues coming out during the meeting at school. As well as the incident with Marinette. She tried to cry and tell her side of the story; but her mother, the principal, or Marinette would contradict her with facts. This left more lies exposed, giving her another six months of being grounded without an allowance, and the possibility of an expulsion from school.

Marinette was soon excused back to class. Lila was formally suspended for three weeks, would have to finish the school year with her class, and then repeat the academic year. If she wasn't expelled, that is. Lila was in tears as she pleaded with the two adults, begging them to just give her detention and summer school instead of holding her back a year. It didn't work.

Eventually, Lila was sent out of the room and left sulking in the hallway. It was just her luck that Max, Nathaniel, and Kim were going to the library to work on a research paper. The three boys scowled at her, she didn't bother to hide her glare today. When they stopped close to her, she sneered harder.

"What do you freaks want?" She snapped.

*SMACK*

Lila cradled her reddening cheek in shock. The other two boys were just as surprised as they stared at Max as he casually adjusted his glasses. "I would like to state that under normal circumstances, I would never strike another person. I prefer to fight my battles with intelligence and wit rather than my fists." Then his lens glinted, giving him a menacing look. "But then you attacked my cousin. You hit him, called him disgusting names, and then kicked him out of the way like garbage."

Lila sputtered in shock for a moment before snarling at the boy. "Like that even matters. I'll get you expelled for hitting-"

"I can guarantee you that I will never face any consequences for what I just did." Max said, walking forward as he spoke and forcing Lila to back into the wall. "You have already been exposed as a liar, so no one will believe you. The cameras for this hallway are currently malfunctioning. I have no record of violence, ever. And I have witnesses that will support that I never laid a finger on you. If you tried to tell anyone, there's a 99.874% chance that they would say you're lying."

Kim shrugged as he looked at the two of them. "I didn't see anything."

Nathaniel looked surprisingly smug as he said, "I bet she made it up as a way to get back at the family that's suing her. Even the mark on her face, I bet she did it to herself. And it's not the first time she faked an injury to get someone in trouble."

Leaning even closer, and despite being several centimeters shorter than her, Lila felt very belittled by the boy. Since when was Max this intimidating?

"Consider this your first, last, and only warning. If you ever try to hurt my family or friends again, I will ruin you. You don't need to answer me now, I'll be watching."

Then, the three of them walked away, like they hadn't just threatened her! Like she was nothing to them! Just like… like she'd done to Marinette. Gritting her teeth, Lila wanted nothing more than to go after those boys and destroy them!

In the span of a single weekend, Max had been able to record her without her knowledge. Got her arrested for assault. Fired from Gabriel since the brand couldn’t be associated with someone who beat an autistic boy. Suspended from school, likely expelled. And most of her lies were exposed to her mother. Still, she wasn't about to let some nerd with no fashion sense get the best of her!

Lila was trying to decide the best way to get her revenge when her mother came stomping out of the principal's office. Cursing at her in rapid Italian the entire time, Greta dragged Lila out of the school. All the way home she tried to tell her mother about Max slapping her just outside the office and how they tormented her, saying that no one would believe her.

"Will you stop, already?" Greta screamed at her daughter, catching Lila by surprise. "What makes you think, after everything you've done, that I would believe anything you say?"

"But-"

"No, I am done listening to your lies. Even if some stranger came up to me and said you stole their soul from them, I would believe that person over you."

"I'm not lying! Look! Max left a mark where he slapped me!" She screamed back, pointing at the slightly red cheek.

"After what Marinette told me, it wouldn't surprise me if you did it to yourself as a way to try and get out of trouble."

"But, Mom!"

"I don't want to hear it!"

Lila couldn't believe it, the one time she was telling the truth and her own mother didn't believe her… just like Max said. After arriving back at their apartment, Lila was put on house arrest. She would be forced to study under a very strict tutor until the suspension and trial were finished. After that, she would be sent back to Italy where she would be attending the naval military school where her father, Ciro Rossi, was the vice principal. And no amount of begging, pleading, or tears would change Greta's mind.

Bonus:

Once Max, Kim, and Nathaniel were out of sight, the smallest boy nearly collapsed to his knees in shock. He couldn't believe he just did that. He actually hit and threatened someone! Kim was patting his shoulder, assuring him that he'd been very intimidating. Nathaniel looked just as surprised by what he'd done, but far more accepting.

"Do you think she bought it?" Max asked, a slight tremor in his voice.

"I would have, you were really believable," nodded the red head.

"Yeah, you were scary, man. I'm so proud of you." Kim noogied his head.

Pushing the larger boy off of him, he gave Kim a smile before they went back to their project. He didn't like how he acted, even towards a terrible human being like Lila Rossi. But for Nick, he'd do it again.

Taglist:

@2confused-2doanything @7-sage-7 @aadnrsstar @abrx2002 @awkwardromances @bayball @babylovebug18 @botanicalfoxx @back-cats-and-broken-mirrors @caffeinetheory @cheshire5210 @chocolateherringtacofan @city-of-all-tunas @classycollectorreviewworld @corabeth11 @chocolatechipcookiesandcamembert @darkened-flame @delightfulcookiesrecipespizza @fandom-trapped-03 @ghostmaster @iamblinkmarvelarmy @interobanginyourmom @izang @jesussavedevenme @kazedancer @kitten12113 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @lilypotter2018 @lunataravler @ladylupuscrow @maskedpainter @miraculouslydumb @nerd-nowandforever @naruwitch @ola-is-dead @pandacatxd @plushbookworm @plz-excuse-my-inner-ravenclaw @pheonix-biach @pandora-fucking-box @raiderofthelostbooks @ramos123 @rowanrouge @rowanyx @ren121 @seesea22 @seraphichana @sashakoi @shypeacekitten @smartlanceisreal @tazer6787 @that-girl-sakea @thecrazyfantrollshasmoved @the-smallest-kittenz @tishwinchesterannabethjackson @t1dwarrior-of-earth @ulmban @with-forward-motion @wonderbat91939 @zoiechance

#lila lies #lila salt #lila bashing #class redemption #max kante #max is the man #miraculous ladybug

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

Text

Demonic Justice

So, I was on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer binge and thought to myself, What would happen if someone made a wish to a justice demon to go after Lila? More specifically, her past victims? And this is what I ended up with!! A little dark, but still filled with salty goodness. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!!

As a justice demon, Remios considered himself to be more than fair, preferring to hear and see many different perspectives before passing judgment. Most of the other justice demons considered him to be too soft or slow in his work, but he didn’t care. What he cared about was the right people receiving justice and the rest getting the punishment they deserve. More than a few of his fellow demons would end up doling out justice willy-nilly and some jackass with a vendetta against an ex-girlfriend, who broke up with him for cheating, would end up getting the poor girl fileted from the inside out. Remios, however, never had to worry about the wrong person being punished. He always got the right ones.

There were also times when he felt souls cry so strongly, they were impossible to ignore. Today, for example, he was sensing the anguished cries of multiple souls, seemingly in the same area. Remios had put on his human face before teleporting to the area without being seen, and approached the group of teenagers that were huddled together and crying by the street. There were three of them, two girls and a boy, and their souls in such pain that it made him flinch to be so close to them.

It took some time and an offered bag of cookies, but they began venting to Remios, who had introduced himself as Remy, what was bothering them. Apparently, it was a photo in a magazine that had set them off.

“We just can’t believe such a horrible person got to be a model after ruining our lives,” Maria, a girl in her late teens, said as she gripped the magazine so hard that the pages tore.

“Do you mind if I ask what she did?” Remios asked, using a slight amount of his power to make them more willing to spill everything.

“What hasn’t that bitch done,” Terance growled in disgust. “She sexually harassed me, tried to get me to date her because my family has money. When I told her I wasn’t interested, she told everyone that I was harassing her! She got me expelled and taken to the police for questioning, it ruined me at school even though we had proof that it was the other way around. My family had to move to keep people from beating me up every day.”

Beatrix clutched at the two crutches that were laid across the bench beside her. “She tried to ruin my reputation at school, too. It almost worked, but our teacher believed me instead of her and kept giving her detention. When the teacher told Lila that if she did one more thing against me, she would get suspended, I got pushed down the stairs. I was in a coma for over a week, broke a lot of bones, and I still can’t walk without crutches. My parents and the school tried to get ahold of her parents, but the phone number and email they had were defunct. The school never found where she transferred to.”

Maria’s eyes were full of hate and tears as she continued to glare at the magazine in her hands. “She bullied my sister for months; at school, on the internet, she convinced our parents that she was the bully. People were throwing stones through our windows. Jennifer came home covered in bruises at least a dozen times. But the worst…” Her breath shuttered as she threw the magazine onto the street. “Someone had posted online that Jennifer was a prostitute and wanted to have ‘fun’. A group of boys from her school cornered her in the locker room and…” Maria broke down in sobs as Beatrix rubbed the older girl’s back in soothing circles. It was a few minutes before she was able to gather herself enough to continue.

“It wasn’t until then that my parents actually tried to do something… but it was too late. My poor little baby sister couldn’t take anymore and killed herself. That… that thing masquerading as a teenage girl ruined our lives and who knows how many others.”

“At least twelve, if we go by the group chat.” Terance muttered, before looking at Remios. “That’s how we met. Maria set up the group chat as a sort of support group/warning system for others. Lila’s done everything from stealing from people, getting people expelled because they tried outing her for lying. One girl, Katy, almost committed suicide before she found our chat and we were barely able to talk her down.”

“And now that thing is a model for a famous fashion designer,” Beatrix groused. “All her dreams are coming true and all the people she hurt have to deal with the fact that all we can do is try and fail to make her pay for what she’s done.”

Remios just looked on in shock. If these three were telling him the truth about this girl, then she would be the youngest person he’d even punished. He had gone after sociopaths before, that was nothing new, but those were normally in their mid-thirties or older. Just to make sure, he asked them to show him the chat so he could see the stories for himself. Sure enough, there were dozens of different members of the chat. Some were Lila’s victims, others were friends/related to former victims, and there were still others that had tried to tell people at Lila’s schools the type of person she was, only to be ridiculed and bullied for their efforts.

No one had known where she disappeared to after her last school in Florence, where she had brought her classmates a batch of cookies, knowing full-well that one of her classmates was allergic to coconut and served them to her. The girl had recently discovered that Lila was a liar and decided to give her a chance to confess on her own. If Amelia hadn’t had an epi-pen with her, she would have died. By the time her mother had found out what had happened and tried to contact Lila’s parents, the family had moved on and the contact numbers and emails on file were defunct, just like all of her previous schools.

With so many different stories from people all over, and the fact the souls of the three people he was speaking with were in so much pain that he wasn’t sure how much longer he could be around them, he knew what he had to do. It was time for him to wield the power of the wish. He just had to know what they wished for.

“This girl, Lila, really does sound like a rotten person. I bet you all wish something or someone would do something to take her down a peg or 30.” Remios prompted.

Terance nodded. “More than anything, I wish all of her lies were exposed so everyone will see exactly what a disgusting, vile, and corrupt psychopath she really is.”

Beatrix’s hand absently ran over her crutches again as she spoke. “I wish she understood the pain that she’d caused the people she targeted, both emotionally and physically.”

Maria was wiping away the remaining tears from her eyes before looking up longingly at the sky. “I want her to pay for what she did to my sister and everyone else. But I don’t want it so bad that she dies, I want her to live with the consequences of what she’s done. And I wish I could see her face when it all happens. That way I know that what she did to Jennifer, she won’t be able to do to anyone else.”

The three of them were all looking to the street or the sky at that moment. No one saw his human mask melt away to reveal his true demonic face. All they heard was the word “Done,” whispered in their ears before the man that the three of them swore they had been speaking to, vanished as if he was never there.

~oOo~

It started with emails to a few celebrities from lawyers that they didn’t remember retaining.

Jagged Stone and his manager Penny received a call from their lawyer that the lawsuit against the girl that accused him of reckless endangerment, copyright, slander, and accusations of pedophilia was ready for his signiture. The rock star had been confused at first, not remembering having anything like that in the works, but a look through the paperwork and he was glad that it was being resolved. When he recognized the name as the girl that was also harassing his honorary niece, he had the lawyer draw up a restraining order and lawsuit on her behalf, to be implemented as soon as he had her parents permission.

Clara Nightingale received a similar call from her lawyer, pertaining to copyright, slander, and theft of art that she was being accused of from a girl she’d never met, but the name was familiar. Once she realized that it was the girl that Marinette had been venting about after the girl had accused her of stealing her design ideas, Clara had the lawyer add theft on Marinette’s behalf. There was no way she was going to let the girl that inspired such good will and a few new songs suffer from some no talent wannabe.

There were over a dozen other celebrities that suddenly found themselves signing lawsuits to be delivered to the teenager and her parents later that afternoon. Most didn’t even remember wanting or filing the lawsuits, but agreed wholeheartedly after reading the charges that were being brought against the girl. There was everything from slander, copyright infringement, and liability; to theft, harassment, and impersonation for pretending to be dating/related to a celebrity and making them foot the bill for whatever restaurant or store she went to.

Another lawyer, M. Fontaine had a completed class-action lawsuit on his desk that morning; full of testimonies, video, digital, and physical evidence against Lila Rossi for what she had done to her former classmates. This included the wrongful death of Jennifer Cartia, the attempted murders of Amelia Rostiere and Beatrix Devoux, the sexual harassment of Terence Armounte, as well as bullying, harassment, slander, destruction of property, and theft of 17 other former classmates. There were also notes about Miss Rossi’s current school, that there was a student that was accused of being a bully to Rossi and had nearly been expelled. This girl was likely another victim and he had interviews set up with her and other students that day. He wasn’t sure how he had almost forgotten about the interviews, he could have sworn that he was looking forward to nailing this girl’s lying tongue to the wall. Gathering up his paperwork, he began making his way to the Francoise Dupont School.

~oOo~

Greta Rossi had just barely sat down at her desk at 7:15am sharp. She had always taken pride in her punctuality. It surprised her when her phone rang, normally the office didn't receive phone calls for another hour, but answered all the same. “Hello, this is Greta Rossi.”

“Oh, Mme. Rossi, it’s wonderful to speak with you. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Her brow creased for a moment. “What do you mean? You called me. Who is this?”

“I apologize, but my phone rang and you answered, I could have sworn that you called me. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. This is M. Damocles, Principal of Francoise Dupont.”

“Is everything okay with Lila? Has there been another akuma attack?”

“Lila is fine and there are currently no akuma. But while I have you on the line. I would like to discuss a few things with you. I am in need of the note for her absence from school for those months you and she were away in Achu for diplomatic work. I’ll also need the doctor’s notes pertaining to Lila’s medical needs and instructions on dealing with her accommodations. Specifically her lying disease, as I would hate to have another misunderstanding like we had a few months ago.”

There was a pause on both ends while Greta processed what M. Damocles just told her. “Exactly what ‘misunderstanding’ are you referring to? I didn’t receive any call or email about anything happening. Did my email get deleted or something after you were akumatized for all those months and the school was damaged? And what diplomatic work in Achu? We haven’t left Paris since we moved here.”

Another pause… The two confused, and soon angry, adults agreed that Mme. and M. Rossi needed to come in right away to discuss what her daughter had been saying and hash out the truth of the matter.

It was 8am as she was grabbing her purse, there was a knock on her office door and she was met with numerous men and women in power suits and carrying briefcases. After introducing themselves as lawyers representing multiple different parties, Greta was handed lawsuit after lawsuit that she, her husband, and Lila were going to have to answer for in the coming weeks. They then informed her that they would also be delivering the lawsuits to Lila herself, but wanted to make sure that Greta was informed first, as she was the adult and Lila had proven a tendency to lie.

The more Greta read, the angrier she got. It was only through sheer will that she kept calm so that she wouldn’t attract an akuma while she called her husband and informed him what their daughter had been up to and that they had a standing appointment at the school for that day. He told her that he would meet her there within the hour. By 10am, she was sure that any freedom Lila had would be stripped away.

~oOo~

Lila had a feeling that today would be different. She wasn’t sure how, but she had a few ideas in mind to do with Adrien, Maribrat, and possibly getting her classmates to do her work for the rest of the term. She'd bought a box of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies from a bakery near her apartment the day before and put them in a tin from home, ready to tell everyone that she made them herself.

She had just stepped on campus, already half way through the school day. Not that it mattered since her "mother" had already emailed the school to let them know that she had a doctor's appointment and would be coming in after lunch. If that meant she would have to miss a test she hadn't studied for, oh well. She was a little surprised to see Mme. Bustier waiting for her at the door with a somber look on her face. "Lila, you're needed in the principal's office. Something has come up with your parents."

A little surprised by the grave tone in the teacher's voice, Lila rushed up the stairs to the office. She took the time to knock, attempting to keep the image of an obedient, but worried girl. But in reality, she was annoyed that whatever happened was interrupting her plans for the day. Still, she plastered her best scared/concerned expression on her face when she heard Damocles call for her to enter.

Her eyes hardly found him sitting tall behind his desk before she noticed her parents standing to one side, looking absolutely furious. Lila was contemplating just turning around and sprinting away, knowing full-well that it would be hard to work things to her advantage if they'd had any time to talk before she arrived.

Before she could decide, her father marched forward to move her away from the door and stand in front of it, firmly blocking her exit. Ciro Rossi, a naval commander turned diplomat, was a force to be reckoned with when he was angry. Lila was fortunate, and skilled enough, to never have that anger directed at her. But now, it felt like every experience she had avoided had accumulated and was now directed at her all at once.

Her mother… she had never seen that expression on her mother's face before. She was the type that was open and loving, always with a smile on her face. Going on and on about how much she loves Lila, whatever that really meant. But now, her face seemed completely devoid of any readable thought or emotion besides anger. Which was very bad for Lila, if she couldn't read the emotions of her parents, it was harder to manipulate them.

Still she had to try. "Mama, Papa, is everything alri-"

"Sit down," her father said sternly behind her. She looked back at him, doing her best to appear small, vulnerable, and scared. "Now."

She did as she was told. "What’s going-"

"Shut up," her mother harshly interrupted her, surprising Lila into silence. "You will not speak unless asked a direct question. Every interruption or attempt to lie will see you more harshly punished. Are we clear?"

Unable to help herself, she visibly winced before nodding. They knew that she had lied, but which ones did they know about? Probably the ones having to do with school and attendance. Worst case scenario, she'll be expelled and have to start over at a new school. Not the worst thing, since her classmates were a bunch of idiot sheep and didn't have much to offer anymore.

"First thing's first, the school never closed. You lied to us and the school about your attendance," her mother said matter-of-factly. "That's called truancy. The Board of Governors has already been notified, it will go on your permanent record, and your father and I will be forced to pay a fine for believing your lies. That fine will be paid for from your allowance."

She automatically jumped up to protest, but her father firmly grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down into the chair again. One hard glare from him had Lila biting her tongue as she glowered in her seat.

"Secondly, we have been informed of your 'diseases and disabilities' that you have told the school about and the fake doctors' notes you gave them. Do you realize that each one of those is a possible fraud and forgery charge? Because either you knew and didn't care, or you're an idiot and didn't realize the trouble you could get in."

Lila scowled at her mother for the insult. She hadn't meant to and averted her eyes back down to the floor, but it was too late.

"Ah, so you did know and didn't care. After everything we've been told, I'm not surprised."

"We could also add that she didn't think she would be caught." Ciro stated behind her, his voice making her quake slightly. "After all, she has forged our signatures, faked our contact information, and assaulted other classmates at her past schools. Why wouldn't she think she'd be able to do it again?"

"But I haven't, I swear!" Jumping from her seat in a panic, she looked from one adult to another while trying to figure out what to do. There was no way they could know about her past schools and classmates. None of those places had their numbers or forwarding address. She'd made sure that none of them were able to contact her parents. They had to be bluffing!

As if the gods heard her thoughts and wanted to torment her, there was a knock at the office door followed by a tidal wave of lawyers. They greeted Greta with a nod before each of them served Lila with lawsuits. A lawsuit and restraining order from Jagged Stone. Another lawsuit and a cease and desist from Clara Nightingale. Bruce Wayne had sent a lawsuit for slander and theft, how could he have known about the times she had sent tabs to him, claiming she was dating his son?

Lawsuit after lawsuit were being dropped into her lap as the lawyers filed in and back out of the office. She hadn't even realized that she had sat back down, likely from the shock. This can't be happening! How did all these people find out about me?

Lila hadn't even realized that she had zoned out for a couple minutes until a stern voice cleared his throat. She looked up from the towering pile of envelopes to face yet another intimidating man in a power suit… and was backed up by a couple of police officers.

"Are you Lila Rossi?" She dumbly nodded before the man looked towards her mother and father. "M. and Mme. Rossi, thank you for allowing me to finish my other interviews before speaking with you formally."

"Of course, M. Fontaine. Now, if you would please tell us about the charges you plan to file? You said it was in relation to Lila’s past schools and classmates?" Ciro asked in a resigned voice. Their daughter already had 14 lawsuits handed over to them in one afternoon. What was one more?

The man nodded to the two officers before approaching Ciro and Greta. "Yes, I'll be leading the class action lawsuit against your daughter." As he said this, the officers had stood Lila up and proceeded to arrest her while giving her miranda rights. This seemed to wake Lila from her shock as she began thrashing and screaming. Fontaine ignored this as he spoke to her parents. "I represent Lila’s past and current victims of bullying, harassment, sexual harrasment, and slander; as well as two charges of attempted murder and the wrongful death of one of her classmates."

Hearing that, Greta nearly collapsed but was kept standing by her husband. Ciro's expression turned hard as he glared. Luckily for M. Fontaine, he was pretty sure that look was for daughter rather than him.

Speaking of, the three of them were startled when there was a sudden *tang* of metal striking flesh. They turned towards Lila and the officers just in time to see the teenager strike the second officer in the face with the tin of cookies that burst open from the force. The handcuffs were hanging from her right wrist and her expression reminded Fontaine of a rabid badger, something that would attack anyone and anything that got too close.

The class bell rang a moment later and the girl sprinted out the door in the hopes of blending in with her classmates so she could escape the school, find an akuma, and use its power to make everyone forget about today. She didn't count on the police officers recovering as quickly as they did to follow her out, along with her parents, the principal, or that last lawyer. But it wasn't over yet, the dark purple wings of the approaching akuma proved it. A good jump in the air and the butterfly was trapped in her fist.

"Just you wait, once I've got my powers I'll make every one of you suffer for even thinking of challenging-"

*BUZZZZZZ*

Lila’s entire body went ramrod stiff as the two prongs of an officer's stun gun made contact. The akuma got crushed in the girl's grip in addition to the 1,200 volts coursing through the insect and her. Unable to control her body, nothing could stop her from tipping sideways and tumbling down the stairs.

The officer that had shot her was nearly in a panic as the girl fell. All he'd been able to think about was that this girl they were arresting for multiple counts of attempted murder was about to willingly akumatize herself, risking the lives of everyone in the school. Who knew what kind of powers she would have gotten. He had done what was necessary to protect the students, his partner, and himself in a situation that he hadn’t thought possible. Still, she should have fallen forward and away from the stairs, not towards them. Now they had to worry about being accused of using excessive force on the arrest.

~oOo~

It had become one of the biggest trials in Europe since the Nuremberg Trials. Lila Rossi had been found guilty of aiding known terrorist Hawkmoth, the wrongful death of Jennifer Cartia, the attempted murders of Amelia Rostiere and Beatrix Devoux, the sexual harassment of Terence Armounte and Adrien Agreste, and numerous other charges.

She'd lost every charge and lawsuit brought against her. Lila didn't know how they had found all the evidence or how they traced it back to her, but they did. It made whatever defense her lawyer attempted seem pathetic.

Lila claimed that Terance harassed her? They had audio and video of her harassing and threatening him. She says that she had nothing to do with Beatrix’s accident? The seven eye witnesses and DNA evidence from the fingernail that broke off in Beatrix’s hair says otherwise. Lila is currently being bullied and was injured by her classmate, Marinette? CCTV footage of Lila faking her injury and planting evidence in Marinette's locker proves it's the other way around. Claims that she and Jennifer were friends and would never hurt or bully her? There were literally stacks of printed texts, emails, and social media posts that were time stamped and traced back to Lila’s accounts. Including the post that had resulted in Jennifer being assaulted, which had Lila being charged for the crime, just like the boys that hurt Jennifer.

Her lawyer refused to let her take the stand in her defense. Both because of her tendency to lie and the fact that she was on a constant supply of pain killers that made her loopy. The fall had left her unable to walk due to shattered vertebrae, but the nerves were still able to transmit pain and had been doing so to an impressive degree. Lila had hoped for a bit of sympathy from the jury. She was just a teenager, who was now paralyzed from the waist down as a result of her fall down the stairs when she was tazed. They ignored her pain and focused on the pattern of behavior, saying that if she hadn’t been discovered, she'd have continued to escalate.

At the very least, she hoped that the stupid police officer that paralyzed her would have been fired and forced to apologize to her. But NO, the officer had gotten a freaking award for stopping her willing akumatization. Stating that he had made a difficult decision in an unpredictable situation, likely saving hundreds of lives, most of them school students.

When the judge had finally come to a decision, she cried real tears for the first time since the doctors said she'd never walk again. He sentenced her to the maximum penalty as permitted by law. Lila Rossi was to serve 182 years in prison for all her crimes. The possibility of parole had been completely revoked once it had been proven, via video evidence, that the day of her arrest wasn't the first time she had been willing to be akumatized.

When the verdict had been read, she had wanted to launch herself at her past victims, the people that had testified against her. Not that it would have worked. Between her injury and the four officers that surrounded her at all times, she never had the chance. Worst she could do was throw her cup of water at the crowd when they cheered at her verdict.

Lila just couldn't believe everything that happened. All of her lies had been exposed on international television and all over the internet. She was in constant pain from her injuries and would never walk again. But worse of all, the humiliation from being exposed would never leave her. She was constantly monitored to make sure she would serve her sentence…and not end it abruptly due to selfish actions. No, this was Lila Rossi's life until she died of old age in a cramped, disgusting prison cell.

She never once noticed the nondescript man that had attended every day of her trial, despite the proceedings being closed to the public for her safety. The man had seriously given Marinette and Adrien the willys, and their kwamis had warned them to steer clear of him, but there were no incidents. He wasn’t a witness or one of her past victims. He never took the stand. All he did was sit to watch the trial. When the verdict was read, he watched three of the people up front: Terance, Maria, and Beatrix. As they cried tears of relief and joy, the man gave a smile and nod. Then it was like he was never there.

**Bonus**

Gabriel Agreste slowly came around as he propped himself up on the floor. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of thousands of bees buzzing under his skin after Rossi grabbed his akuma. Very unpleasant.

After transforming and returning to his office, he was greeted by Natalie, who held out her tablet with a video cued up. It showed a news clip about an "unnamed student" being arrested for willingly accepting an akuma while in the process of being arrested for other heinous crimes. Although force had been used and the student had been taken to the hospital for her injuries, witnesses state that the actions of the police officer saved their lives.

Gabriel handed the tablet back to his assistant. "Be ready to prepare a statement to the press about canceling Lila Rossi's contract. Including that we were unaware that she forged her parents signatures and, due to her obsession with Adrien, we will be filling a restraining order as well. We don't know what kind of diplomatic pull her parents have, the little weasel may get out on bail."

A little while later, Adrien came rushing through the mansion doors. He demanded to see his father, saying that there was a big incident at school that he had to tell him about.

Gabriel hummed. "That will work."

Tag List:

@2confused-2doanything @7-sage-7 @aadnrsstar @abrx2002 @awkwardromances @bayball @babylovebug18 @botanicalfoxx @back-cats-and-broken-mirrors @caffeinetheory @cheshire5210 @chocolateherringtacofan @city-of-all-tunas @classycollectorreviewworld @corabeth11 @chocolatechipcookiesandcamembert @darkened-flame @delightfulcookiesrecipespizza @fandom-trapped-03 @ghostmaster @iamblinkmarvelarmy @interobanginyourmom @izang @jesussavedevenme @kazedancer @kitten12113 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @lilypotter2018 @lunataravler @ladylupuscrow @maskedpainter @miraculouslydumb @nerd-nowandforever @naruwitch @ola-is-dead @pandacatxd @plushbookworm @plz-excuse-my-inner-ravenclaw @pheonix-biach @pandora-fucking-box @raiderofthelostbooks @ramos123 @rowanrouge @rowanyx @ren121 @seesea22 @seraphichana @sashakoi @shypeacekitten @smartlanceisreal @tazer6787 @that-girl-sakea @thecrazyfantrollshasmoved @the-smallest-kittenz @tishwinchesterannabethjackson @t1dwarrior-of-earth @ulmban @with-forward-motion @wonderbat91939 @zoiechance

#lila salt #lila bashing #lila lies #mlbjustice #lila karma #lila rossi #miraculous ladybug #miraculous justice

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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The Fox and The Fae

Ok so this is my take on a modern day fairytale kind of story. Would you guys like some more chapters? I’ve currently marked it as a one shot but I’m thinking about adding some other chapters focusing on Alya, Chloe (or Zoe possibly) and maybe some other characters and the deals (or curses) they make with or from Luka.

=====================================================

Lila looked around with an expression of disgust on her face as she walked down the steps towards the Seine. It was the last place she wanted to be, especially with how unsightly it was but she was desperate. In her mind, she believed that she should be worshiped by all who saw her. She was a goddess and deserved to be treated as such. However, her life was not what she envisioned at all. She was almost 21 and she still wasn’t famous or adored. She still wasn’t filthy rich or had a hot and rich guy on her arm. The media had no idea who she was and she was working as a lowly advert actress and a small time model when she deserved to be up there with a A listers. Well, that life wasn’t good enough for her but she didn’t want to have to work for it. Oh no, Lila believed that what she wanted should be handed to her on a silver platter. She was destined to be one of the elite and she knew it. However, her usual methods of cheating and leeching off others didn’t working in the way she wanted so she had to come up with something, which is what lead her to The Seine or as she called it the slum area. Paris itself was home to many supernatural creatures and she had tried every trick in the book but they weren’t good enough. Nothing was. She had been to several of the supernaturals in the city but they could only offer her charms to briefly improve her luck or a hex that will curse her enemies. Some had offered her spells to bring in some positivity or some had done rituals for her but none of them lasted and she wanted something more effective and permanent. She wanted her name to be remembered forever and for anyone who had tried to cross her to get exactly what they deserve and suffer. Naturally there had been some in her life but one stuck out. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. A half breed witch who tried to expose her in their school and was currently living a good life. Well, that wasn’t fair which is what lead her to here. Of course, she wouldn’t be seen dead here normally but she had tried everything else so now she was going to the place where she knew someone would be able to help her. However, she went in disguise. She couldn’t risk been seen here plus the Seine was rough. It was home to the low class humans, witches and worst of all the fae, an extremely attractive race with a reputation worst then werewolves. The fae were treated poorly, forced to live in awful conditions and were labeled as scum, tricksters and other degrading names. Despite this, they were one of the most powerful race when it came to using magic and the only creatures that could give her what she wanted. Due to been very unpopular in Paris, they were hard to find but she had managed to track one down with the help of her sheep, Alya. The fae supposedly lived in a houseboat in the Seine river and was her last hope. However, he had a rep of been a bad guy and been extremely dangerous but Lila didn’t care. She wanted her promised life and would do anything to get it. She came to a stop as she saw the boat she was looking for, frowning to herself before she took out a fox tail pendent and put it on. One of the reasons why people didn’t like the fae was because of their ability to detect when people were truthful or not. No one quite understood how it worked but faes were said to be able to look into the very soul of people and that made them uncomfortable, which was why Lila had the pendent. It had a powerful charm on that would protect from the fae’s truth seeking eyes. Satisfied with it, she stepped over to the boat and climbed onto the gangplank before heading onto the boat. She grimaced at the scattered boxes and papers that littered the deck but shook it off. She walked over to the entrance to the cabin and began to descend down the stairs into darkness.

“Hello?” She called, looking around but she couldn’t really see anything. “Is anyone home?”

Keep reading

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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Cut Throat Fashion

This was a post from @smartlanceisreal Salt Fic Ideas, I saw one I really liked and just expanded on it. I was just in the mood to post something a little different than I normally post, but there is still salt galore for all my faithful followers. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!!

It had been a bad day for the, now former, employees of Gabriel fashion company. Vincent the photographer, Elisa the makeup artist, Alizabetta the model, and Andrew the staff assistant had all been fired or rage quit because of Mr. Agreste’s new favorite; an Italian brat named Lila Rossi. The girl thought she was untouchable. Unfortunately; she was right, so she got away with so much more bull than anyone else would be able to at any company in the entire fashion world.

She refused to take Vincent’s directions while modeling, which had the photos looking sub-par and was hurting his reputation. She was borderline abusive towards Elisa, literally throwing things at her and using racist slurs that had the artist crying off set at times. Alizabetta had been outright bullied and tormented by the Italian until she was akumatized that day, which resulted in Mr. Agreste firing her, believing that she was tormenting Lila. When Andrew stood up for her, saying that it was the other way around, he was fired as well for talking back. Seeing the situation, Vincent and Elisa quit as well and left with the others.

Which brings them to now, drowning their sorrows in pastries at the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. Alizabetta was upset because this was her first real modeling job. The others were worried about Mr. Agreste being spiteful and blacklisting them, that was something that he seemed to enjoy doing since his wife disappeared.

The table was quiet when a new plate of macaroons were gently set on the table in front of them. Looking up, they saw a young woman, a little older than Alizabetta. Vincent recognized her from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place her.

“You all looked like you could use some more comfort food,” she said, smiling kindly.

“Oh, thank you so much, Angel. We could definitely use this.” Elisa smiled back, before taking a bite out of one of the pastries and humming from the wonderful flavor.

“If there’s anything else I can do to help, please let me know. My name’s Marinette and this is my parents’ boulangerie.”

Vincent snapped his fingers. “Ah, si! That is how I recognize you. You were the girl that won Singor Agreste’s contest a few years ago and your designs were praised by the Style Queen.”

Marinette blushed at that. “That was a while ago. I’ve stuck with private commissions for a while, since I wanted to at least finish lycee before trying to join the big leagues.”

“Piece of advice, avoid Gabriel. That company treats their people like crap and let others get away with anything but murder.” Andrew groused as he helped himself to his plate pan du chocolat.

The table didn’t miss her scoff of disgust as she crossed her arms. “Nothing new there. He treats his own son like a billboard, ignores him in every aspect of his life unless it has to do with business, and lets that lying bitch climb all over him like a cat in heat. It’s disgusting.”

Alizabetta’s head snapped up at her. “You know about her?”

Marinette shrugged. “Italian liar that makes fashion and anyone with Italian blood feel dirty? Yeah, I’m familiar with Lila Rossi. She got me expelled once, convinced all my friends that I was practically the antichrist, almost got me akumatized 12 times, and tried to ruin my career choice. If I hadn’t switched schools and gotten a restraining order against her, I don’t want to even think about what might have happened.”

The four of them stared at her for a long moment before Vincent grabbed a chair from another table and pulled it up so she could join them, having found a kindred spirit and someone they could vent to about the ammature model. It was hours later, and a lot of pastries that Marinette mentioned that she was actually looking to start her own fashion house. She had clients that wanted her clothes, a fanbase of people on her waitlist that she hadn’t been able to get to because she was only one person, capital to pay employees, and a facility that she had just leased. What she was missing was people. It was hard to find competent people in the fashion industry that weren’t already employed in one of the bigger fashion houses and willing to work for an eighteen year old girl.

Alizabetta was the first to speak up about that. “Do you need models? If you do, I’d be more than willing to work with you. I mean, if you’d be willing to hire me.”

Vincent completely agreed. “Si, I have seen Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale wearing your designs and have always thought they were molto bella. When you are in need of a photographer, I would be willing to work with you.”

Elisa and Andrew were partially joking and semi serious when she said "You seem nice enough, and Vincent here knows your work. We'd be willing to give you a try."

"For the right price," he finished with a smile.

Marinette was practically vibrating with excitement as she stared at the four of them. “You mean it? You’d be willing to work with me even though I’m practically a kid?”

Andrew shrugged at that. “It’s not like we have any other jobs right now. And accepting a job from you will help us make sure we can pay our bills.”

Nodding in understanding, Marinette stood from the table with a smile. “Okay, if we’re going to do this, let’s do this right. Alizabetta, I’m going to need your resume, comp cards, and any spreads you’ve done in the last three months. Andrew and Elisa, your resumes and references for my records. Vincent, your resume and I’d like to take a look at your portfolio. And if at any time, any of you are offered a ‘real’ fashion job, just give me proper notice and there won’t be any hard feelings. I’ll schedule some meetings with you this week to get the details ironed out and you can start work as soon as next Monday. Does that work for all of you?”

They all stood from their chairs and shook Marinette’s hand. Although they were admittedly worried about working for someone so young and new to the business, they had a good feeling about the girl.

~oOo~

It had been three years since that afternoon at her parents’ bakery and Marinette's business had been skyrocketing ever since. Much to the surprise and delight of the five people that had been there.

Alizabetta had become the face of her brand and was the least high-maintenance model around. The girl was just so happy to be treated with respect and without being asked to be beanpole thin, that her happiness easily showed through in her work. Although that might have something to do with her amazing photographer, Vincent. The man’s reputation had been saved when he had joined MDC, proving that his work with Gabriel had been sub-par due to the model rather than his talent as a photographer. For that, he was eternally grateful to Marinette, going so far as refusing to leave for another company, even when he was offered more money.

Elisa became the head of the makeup department with six artists working under her. She worked very closely with Marinette and was glad to say that the girl-turned-woman was as sweet and wonderful as the first day she met her. All the stress she had dealt with working for Gabriel was now a distant nightmare that she only bothered mentioning when other artists asked her to compare the two companies.

Andrew ended up becoming Marinette’s personal assistant and was very good at his job. His biggest responsibilities were making sure Marinette took time to herself for things like eating and sleeping, and protecting her from the people from her past. Namely, her former college friends that came asking for jobs, favors, and interviews after her business had picked up. Hardly any of them had references or any experience, expecting their former connection with her to get them what they wanted. The first time was a girl named Alya Cesaire, she’d applied for a PR position and had demanded to meet with Marinette, saying that “she owes me this job, after everything I’ve done for her”.

He had gone to see his boss, and at the mention of the woman's name, Marinette had gone deathly pale. The four of them knew of all the things that her former classmates had put her through and swore that they would protect the woman that saved their careers. So Andrew had told Ms. Cesaire that his boss did not remember any friend by that name. That her references and experience were not up to par for the company; as the Ladyblog was little more than a gossip blog and Lila Rossi had recently been fired from Gabriel.

Speaking of, not long after the four of them had quit/been fired, Gabriel had seen a high turnover rate of employees. Many of those employees found their way to MDC thanks to her popularity, good pay and benefits, and just the fact that she treated her employees so well. When Mr. Agreste had looked into the reason for the high turnover rate; he discovered a few other problems with his company along the way. The number of applications from qualified applicants was dwindling, his sales dropping to a low that he hadn’t seen in over a decade, and there were multiple scandals that were connected to his company’s name. Most disturbing of all, it could all be traced back to a single person: Lila Rossi.

Anyone and everyone who was forced to work with the talentless diva soon found themselves fired due to her tantrums or they quit because they couldn’t bear working with her. Word quickly spread around the industry that Gabriel was a company to avoid, so they weren’t getting any new, qualified candidates. Then there were the lawsuits. Lila had two lawsuits against her for sexual harrasment in the workplace filed by other models. Another for assault when she threw a prop at a set hand that required him to need stitches on his head. And another for theft and disturbing the peace when she refused to pay her bill at a restaurant and caused a scene which saw her being arrested.

Mr. Agreste had tried to do damage control by firing and blacklisting the girl from the fashion industry, but it was too late. His company and its sales were in the toilet and nothing he did could bring its reputation back up.

Lila had tried to save her career, turning on Gabriel and telling anyone who’d listen about how unprofessional and disorganized the company was. That the quality of clothes was terrible, and Mr. Agreste himself had been pressuring her to cause those public scenes so that it would bring some attention back to the brand. She wasn’t a bad person, she’d just had to deal with a terrible boss so she could keep her dream job. This was followed up by her applying to be a model with MDC.

Andrew made sure that all five of them were present for that interview. He would admit, the girl was smart enough to realize that she was screwed the second she saw the people behind the half-circle desk. Alizabetta was glaring at her with disdain at the far left. Vincent sat next to her, looking through the photos on Lila’s comp card, while verbally ripping it apart. On the far right, Elisa only asked her how she was able to get any modeling work with her highly questionable choice of hairstyle? Andrew made a show of calling each of Lila’s fake references in front of her, unsurprised when they all came up as unavailable. At the center of the table, presenting herself with all the poise of a queen looking at a subject that she’s about to sentence to death, Marinette sat quietly as she listened to her friends.

Lila made an admittedly pathetic attempt to kiss up to Marinette. With crocodile tears in her eyes, she pleaded with her former school mate. “Please, Marinette. I am so sorry for how I was back in college. But we were just kids back then and mistakes were made by everyone. I never meant for you to get hurt or anything like that, I just wanted to make friends and you scared me since you realized right away that I didn’t always tell the truth. But I swear, that’s not who I am anymore. If you would just give me a chance, you’ll see that I can be a valuable employee and model for your brand.”

Marinette said nothing for a moment, simply stared at her former tormentor before pressing a button on the desk. A man walked in, a man that had been sitting next to Lila in the waiting room. He pulled a pocket sized recorder from his jacket and pressed play, Lila’s sneering voice filled the room.

“I can’t believe I have to stoop so low as to try working for Maritrash. You know, I used to go to school with her?”

“Really? What was she like? I've only been here for a few days, so I haven't had a chance to meet her yet.” The man asked her, playing along with Lila.

“Ugh, she was a total nosy-good for nothing that would have been better off slitting her wrists and stop taking up air. But she’s also a bleeding heart, so she’ll probably give me a job anyway. If I can fool her for long enough, I can fix my reputation, ruin hers again, and maybe claim that she’s actually a madame or something and her models are call girls.”

“If you’re willing to cut me in on the deal, I’ll back you up. I could probably print out some evidence on the letterheads to support your claims.”

Lila’s chuckle, which had been genuine at the time but made her feel sick as she listened to it now, echoed off the walls of the room. “I get this job, and you’ve got a deal.”

The man pressed the button again to stop the recording before handing it to Marinette. She calmly set the recording on the desk in front of her, never looking away from Lila’s pale face. "You were saying?"

Doing her best to hide her fear, Lila shot to her feet in a rage. "You had no right to record me without my consent! I could sue you-"

"If you had bothered to read the notices when you entered the building," the man interrupted her, "you would know that by entering the premises you are consenting to being recorded. This includes video and audio."

"Thank you, Philip." Marinette smiled at him. "Oh, I forgot to introduce you. Lila, this is Philip, my head of security, and he takes his job very seriously."

"I've already called the police. We'll be filing charges against Mlle. Rossi for attempted corporate espionage."

The girl let out a guttural shriek before diving for the recorder while taking a swing at Marinette. Her fist didn't get close before her arm was twisted behind her back and her face was slammed into the table. No matter how much she struggled, she couldn't get away before the police arrived and slapped cuffs on her. Since the news crews were minutes behind, their head of PR had “no choice” but to share the security footage along with a statement that they were pressing charges for attempted assault and corporate espionage.

The story blew up. Any miniscule amount of sympathy that Lila may have earned was now in ruins, along with her reputation. Especially when Marinette gave Nadja an exclusive interview.

~oOo~

It was two months after the Lila incident that they received their next surprise guests. Gabriel Agreste, Adrien Agreste, and their assistant Natalie had made an appointment to talk business. Marinette had a feeling that this meeting would be coming. The others were worried and had wanted to sit in on the meeting, but she assured them that she could handle it.

Her guests, on the other hand, seemed very out of place. Natalie seemed frazzled, her hair not as neat as she remembered, and hands gripping last year's tablet a little too tight. Gabriel was attempting to exude an air of calm that he was known for, but the incessant tapping of one foot gave away what was really going on in his head.

Adrien, who had always seemed perfect in her eyes, was the most obvious. Or maybe she was just more aware now that her rose colored glasses had been removed and crushed beneath her designer shoes. His clothes, hair, and posture were not quite the perfect model look she remembered. His expression was open; she could see that he was uncomfortable with his family's situation, as well seeing her again.

The last time they had spoken was their last week of college. Lila had destroyed Marinette’s final project for class, claiming that she had done it herself. Adrien had publicly sided with Lila before pulling Marinette to the side and chiding her for trying to expose her. At that point, she was done. She called her parents, had them bring a lawyer, and forced the principal to look at the security footage. Once they had the rock solid proof that Lila had destroyed Marinette’s property, it was easy to get a restraining order. It was harder to get her in trouble, since Lila fell back on her "lying disease" excuse and only got a week of detention, which she never served.

However; that was the past, now was time for business.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Agreste?"

To her relief, he and Natalie didn't waste her time. Proposing that they were interested in merging Gabriel with MDC. They went on about how with her skill and his experience, their companies would flourish and grow to new heights. They even hinted that with Adrien as her model, it would add more legitimacy to her company. Especially if the two of them were seen out together in romantic settings.

"I think I've heard enough." Marinette said as soon as she saw a break. "I'm sorry, Mr. Agreste, but I don't see any value in joining our companies. As it stands; Gabriel lacks stock value, you are unable to keep any decent staff, your business practices are questionable at best, and you have not created a single noteworthy design in years." She watched as spoke, apparently they hadn’t expected her to turn them down and were surprised that she had.

What surprised her was when Gabriel Agreste lost his ever present cool and started yelling at her. "Who do you think you are speaking to me like that?! You have no experience in this world and you think-"

"Despite what you think of my experience, Mr. Agreste, the numbers don't lie." Marinette cut him off easily. "Your stock price is lower than it has been in over 20 years. People are not buying your clothes, some have even boycotted you due to your lax policies on sexual harrasment and your choice of models. Everything about you has become toxic. In fact, when my board members heard that I was meeting with you, some threatened to leave if our companies joined. I will not jeopardize my company for another that can't even claim to be on its last leg, more like its last toe."

"Please, Marinette," Adrien pleaded as he stood from his seat to move closer to her. "We really need your help, and friends-"

"I'm going to stop you right there, Agreste." She interrupted again, refusing to let Adrien take her on a guilt trip. "You made the choice to ignore my warnings about Lila years ago. You took her side and told me over and over that her lies didn't hurt anyone. Your employees told you what she was doing, and you fired them instead of punishing her. At this point, the consequences are catching up to you and I want no part of it. This meeting is over, I'll have someone show you out."

Gabriel and Natalie were smart enough to realize that Marinette wouldn't budge on her decision and were willing to leave without a scene. Adrien made the mistake of grabbing her to make her "listen to reason" just as Philip entered her office. His hand was forcibly removed and there was nothing Gabriel could do to keep the man from forcing his son from the building. He could only hope that there weren't any paparazzi waiting for them.

Taglist:

@2confused-2doanything @7-sage-7 @aadnrsstar @abrx2002 @awkwardromances @bayball @babylovebug18 @botanicalfoxx @back-cats-and-broken-mirrors @caffeinetheory @cheshire5210 @chocolateherringtacofan @city-of-all-tunas @classycollectorreviewworld @corabeth11 @chocolatechipcookiesandcamembert @darkened-flame @delightfulcookiesrecipespizza @fandom-trapped-03 @ghostmaster @iamblinkmarvelarmy @interobanginyourmom @izang @jesussavedevenme @kazedancer @kitten12113 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @lilypotter2018 @lunataravler @ladylupuscrow @maskedpainter @miraculouslydumb @nerd-nowandforever @naruwitch @ola-is-dead @pandacatxd @plushbookworm @plz-excuse-my-inner-ravenclaw @pheonix-biach @pandora-fucking-box @raiderofthelostbooks @ramos123 @rowanrouge @rowanyx @ren121 @seesea22 @seraphichana @sashakoi @shypeacekitten @smartlanceisreal @tazer6787 @that-girl-sakea @thecrazyfantrollshasmoved @the-smallest-kittenz @tishwinchesterannabethjackson @t1dwarrior-of-earth @ulmban @with-forward-motion @wonderbat91939 @zoiechance

#lila salt #lila bashing #marinette dupain cheng #Marinette deserves better #adrien salt #class salt #alya salt #gabriel agreste #lila lies #lila karma

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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The Interview Part 2: Live Broadcast

[ I had SO many requests for a part 2 so here you go. This time Gabriel didn’t just get roasted he got destroyed. ]

[ After his interview with Marinette, Gabriel has learned nothing and continues down his path of bad decisions. Well these next interviews are about to ruin his life for good, and this time its on live broadcast. ]

[ Part 1 is HERE! ]

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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Who Framed Marinette Dupain-Cheng

[ Alya can’t seem to figure out why Lila and Marinette hate each other until one day Lila comes into class sobbing about the horrible texts Marinette sent her the night before. There’s just one problem with that, Alya knows for a fact that Marinette’s phone is broken! But she’s also sure that Lila can’t be telling lies! Finally Alya understands whats REALLY going on, someone is trying to frame Marinette Dupain-Cheng and she and the class will not rest until they figure out who’s doing it!

This is a class sugar / comedy fic with just a dash of gratuitous Marinette multi-shipping as everyone has a crush on the girl. Enjoy some laughs and some light fun, and don’t worry Lila gets her just desserts in the end. ]

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ravennm84 · 3 years ago

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Let Her Eat Cake

After scouring the miraculous side of tumblr for writing prompts I could use for a one shot, I came across a post about Madame Bustier from @heyitsbugette. Basically a what-if with Bustier being incriminated as Mayura. As with all my other one shots, I’ll write it because canon has failed me one too many times. I’m also eating cake as I write this, bon appetite! (I might edit this later as this is an outline)

The entirety of Paris went wild when Lila’s alliance with Hawkmoth was unearthed.

Lila’s exposure was a complete accident. The Italian had tried to stir up drama while Marinette was absent for a week. She claimed that the asian girl had been skipping school and just using a ’sickness‘ as an excuse.

Despite Alya and Nino trying to refute the girl’s claims with literal photo evidence of Marinette’s clearly sick form lying in bed, Lila insisted that it was fake and the bluenette was just trying to cover her tracks by using fabricated evidence and accused the reporter and DJ of being biased since Marinette is their friend.

The two had tried to get Adrien to help, so that Marinette wouldn’t be expelled, but he refused stating that he didn’t want to get involved.

Nino had given him a disappointed look while Alya accused him of being an awful, unreliable, cowardly idiot. She huffed and let herself be dragged away by Nino.

To no one’s surprise, the class rallied around Lila and supported the idea of Marinette playing truant. They eventually got the teacher involved who immediately believed them due to the designer not meeting her personal standard of setting a good example for the rest of the class.

”I will go to Principal Damocles and discuss this matter with him. Marinette will not get away with this,” Bustier marched out of the room with conviction, deeply unaware that she had just dug her own grave.

When the principal heard the (false) news of the French-Chinese girl skipping school, he immediately contacted the super attendant from the school board.

This turned out to be a fatal mistake.

The super attendant, Ms. DeClaude, made principal Damocles rummage through his phone calls to see if the Dupain-Chengs had contacted him.

Lo and behold, a recorded voice mail of Sabine’s voice was heard notifying the man of her daughter’s absence.

Needless to say, both teacher and principal were embarrassed while Ms. DeClaude was incensed at this monumental waste of the school board’s time and resources. Not to mention this could’ve been avoided if they had contacted the Dupain-Chengs first.

”If they managed to over look this, what else could they have done?” Ms. DeClaude said to herself as she dug through student files and records. Most of them had come out clean, but there was one in particular that caught the redhead’s attention; Lila Rossi.

Specifically, her so-called disabilities, injuries, and her….lying disease!? While investigating further, the super attendant discovered that this revelation of this ‘lying disease’ had Lila admitting to framing another student for assault, theft, and bullying. Accusations that led to another student getting expelled!

Determined to not let any stone go unturned, she flipped through all of Lila’s files from her previous schools. What she ascertained left her wondering if the school was being run by morons.

Because in those files were in depth descriptions of the Italian’s lying and bullying habits. Why they didn’t warn the students of her behavior was beyond the redhead. It was enough for Ms. DeClaude to resolve and call Mrs. Rossi.

As she struggled to get in contact with the woman, she looked over the security camera feeds to get a clearer picture of the situation.

Flipping through the few options, the super attendant found an interesting piece of footage. The screen displayed Lila Rossi and Marinette Dupain-Cheng walking together to the principal’s office.

Hitting the audio button, Ms. DeClaude’s suspicions were confirmed, “I told you I’d make your life unbearable Marinette. Let’s see how you get out this one…” came Lila’s smug voice.

”I not falling for you trap, Lila,” Marinette bit back, clearly unamused.

”Too late. You already have,” the Italian said a lot quieter that the super attendant had to strain her ears to hear it. The the sausage hair girl proceeded to walk down the stairs, sat on the floor, and began wailing about the bluenette pushing her down the stairs.

Ms. DeClaude switched to the feed in which Lila placed her ’grandmother’s pendant’ in Marinette’s locker, actively framing her for theft.

The super attendant was well within her rights to assume that Marinette was innocent of stealing test answers as well. Not only was it stolen after the test was finished. There’s also the fact that many students from other classes had vouched for Marinette and that she studied rigorously.

But there something else Ms. DeClaude stumbled upon that made her go pale. One particular piece of footage with Lila talking to Adrien about something or other. The Italian obviously hadn’t liked what he said to her as the super attendant watched Lila huff and storm off. In another set of cameras, the redhead recognized the iconic purple butterfly that had taken Paris by storm.

And Lila reaching for said butterfly and placing it in her earrings, voluntarily allowing herself to become the villain Chameleon.

Rushing to call the authorities, Ms. DeClaude sent all the footage she had found to the school board and near by police station.

When Mrs. Rossi was finally hear on contact with the police, everything spiraled from there.

Lila, who was blissfully unaware of her fall from grace, was immediately intercepted at school. The students were on their lunch period and were chattering around Lila as usual. The sausage haired girl was prattling on about an expensive vacation she had when an entire police team, seven members of the school board, the mayor, and a tears eyed, furious Luisa Rossi burst into the cafeteria.

Roger stepped forward and clasped handcuffs around her wrists, much to the shock of everyone in the cafeteria. Teachers present stopped whatever they were doing to watch the catastrophe in front of them.

Lila begged her mother for help as she was dragged out of the school but said woman only glared at her daughter and told her that she was being arrested for aiding terrorism. Someone in the crowd had been live streaming the whole mess on their social media. Once it was seen, it went viral.

People were rightfully outraged. Lila’s entire life had fallen apart right from under her nose and she didn’t even realize it. When she was told just how her alliance with Hawkmoth was uncovered, she immediately regretted her attempt at getting Marinette in trouble. How was she supposed to know all of this would eventually blow up in her face? She had hoped Hawkmoth would send an akuma for her, but the butterfly villain left her high and dry! And with all of her lies she told since arriving in Paris were swiftly debunked and exposed for the whole of France to see, all she could do was stew and wait for her official trial to begin.

There were many who refused to believe that a single teenaged girl would stoop to Hawkmoth’s level. This was vetoed and proven wrong by leaked videos of the surveillance cameras not only showing Lila grabbing an akuma for herself but also declaring that she wanted Ladybug gone as well. That was when Paris went crazy.

People we’re actually akumatized over it. Lila had to be locked away in a secured facility to ensure her safety. When the news reached the French court of law, new legislations had to be created for aiding in terrorism. The backlash was so severe that people called Francois DuPont into question.

Her lies were insultingly obvious and easy to clear up so why didn’t they? How has her alliance with Hawkmoth stayed hidden for so long if all it took to discover it was just scrolling through the camera feeds?

Social media was at a stand still when these questions were made public until people brought up the akuma class. Or more specifically one person.

Madame Bustier.

Theories began floating around that she was Mayura. The fact that she looked eerily similar to the peacock themed villain.

It was then that a dam burst. Students and teachers alike who had witnessed Bustier’s teaching methods revealed her tendency to gaslight or outright punish victims of bullying while letting the aggressors off scot free.

It didn’t help matters that she was one primary cause of Stone Hearts rampage: the first ever akuma.

The school board called Marinette in to clear up her expulsion. They were curious as to what else had been happening.

The bluenette knew saying anything else would only make Bustier look worse, but the members of the school board reminded her that her word could potentially protect her classmates from harm. Marinette finally gave in and told them how Bustier and Damocles were quick to turn on her when the accusations of bullying began circulating around her.

She also mentioned how she just let Chloe do whatever she wanted without facing any consequences. Though she stressed that Chloe had been getting better.

This unleashed another tidal wave of public outcries. Because to the general public, it seemed that Bustier was intentionally favoring students that wreak havoc all the while not having them face consequences and grooming the children of the akuma class to be taken by Hawkmoth.

And when Bustier’s ‘be a better example‘ was exposed (by Alya) citizens were outraged. But at the same time it made sense for the teacher suspected of being Hawkmoth’s partner to leave the one of the only students that hadn’t been akumatized to deal with bullying while dumping all of her responsibilities on said student.

Marinette’s parents were furious and planned to sue the school, Damocles, and (especially) Bustier for endangering their daughter as were many other parents. On their insistence, the principal was fired.

Bustier sat in her now empty classroom with her phone in hand as she read through social media and news outlets which defamed her and smeared her name across headlines.

The school board was on her case and investigating the rest of her conduct, though they might as well fire and arrest her. With how everyone and their mother was demanding it, it was sure to happen soon.

Her students looked at her with contempt and disgust as well as her colleagues and people on the streets.

She closed her phone and placed her head in her head and cried, wondering just how she had let things get so out of hand.

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