Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marinette blinked as the world around her, Nino, Adrien, and Alya blurred. Some new akuma had barged into the schoolyard, yelling about how he'd show everyone the turning points in their lives, when things changed forever. How that was supposed to help Hawkmoth get the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, she didn't know, but she'd LONG since stopped trying to figure Hawkmoth OR his akumas out. Besides, however the akuma was showing people these turning points, it involved being shot with a weird portal gun thing and a giant metallic-looking bubble appearing around the person and anyone who'd been unfortunate enough to be near the victim, so she didn't want to take any chances.

Marinette was just about to mumble some excuse to Nino, Adrien, and Alya so she could run off and transform when she was shot, the bubble engulfing herself and her friends.

When it cleared, the four of them were standing in Ms. Bustier's classroom. Which wouldn't have been unusual at all if not for versions of all of them (except for Adrien) ALREADY existing in the classroom.

"Nino! Why don't you have a seat in the front row this year?"

Marinette blinked. Nino sit in the front row? But he'd been sitting in the front row ever since-

Oooooh.

"I think this is the first day of school," she stated.

Alya looked around, making note of everyone's positions. "I think you're right."

Chloe slammed her hand on past!Marinette's desk. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

Past!Marinette looked dejected. "Ugh. Here we go again."

"That's my seat," Chloe declared imperiously.

"But Chloe, this has always been my seat," Marinette tried to explain.

"Not anymore!" Sabrina interjected. "New school, new year, new seats!"

"So why don't you just go and sit beside that new girl over there?" Chloe said, pointing at past!Alya.

The current Alya laughed a little. "If Chloe knew how much THAT suggestion would screw her over, do you think she'd still have made it?" she asked Marinette.

Marinette laughed.

Alya would still have become friends with her, she was sure, but it might've taken a few more days before they'd speak to each other. By Chloe being... Chloe, she'd unintentionally helped spark her friendship with Alya.

"Listen. Adrien's arriving today, and since that's going to be his seat, this is going to be my seat. Get it?" Chloe ordained.

Adrien frowned. "But our seats weren't assigned at that point."

Marinette sighed. "Like that would stop Chloe. She probably expected to just declare the seating arrangement and have everyone go along with it."

Past!Marinette quietly asked, "Who's Adrien?"

Not knowing who Adrien was was such a foreign idea to Marinette now. She hadn't even known him for a year, yet she couldn't imagine life without him. So much had changed with the start of the school year.

Chloe and Sabrina laughed. "Can you believe she doesn't know who Adrien is? What rock have you been living under?"

Sabrina explained excitedly, "He's only a famous model."

Chloe finished, "And I am his best friend. He adores me. Go on, move!"

Adrien winced. "No wonder you thought I was helping Chloe that first time we met. I'm sorry, Marinette."

Marinette shook her head. "It's Chloe's fault, Adrien, not yours. I still shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. But thanks."

Adrien smiled back at her. Marinette was a great friend.

Past!Alya stalked up to Chloe, "Who elected you Queen of Seats?!"

Chloe fired back, "Oh, Look Sabrina! We've got a little do-gooder in our class this year. What are you gonna do, super noobie? Shoot beams at me with your glasses?"

Present Alya snorted. "Really? THAT'S the best she could come up with? Calling me a good person and making fun of my glasses? For someone with so much experience at insulting people, she sure isn't good at it. I'd forgotten her first attempts at bullying me were THIS lame."

"Wouldn't you like to know," past!Alya growled. She took Marinette by the arm and tugged her over to the front, accidentally causing Marinette's macaroons to spill onto the floor.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Marinette mumbled as she rushed to pick up all the cookies.

"Sorry Marinette," the present Alya apologized. "I shouldn't have been so rough with you."

"It's fine, you were just trying to get me away from Chloe, it was an accident."

"Has everyone found a seat?" Mrs. Bustier asked. No one answered her.

"Chillax, girl. No biggie," past Alya reassured her.

"I so wish I can handle Chloé the way you do," past Marinette said sadly.

"You mean the way Majestia does it," past Alya said, showing past Marinette a picture of Majestia on her phone. "She says all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing."Past Alya pointed at Chloe. "Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can't let her get away with it."

Alya smiled. "Majestia was great, but Ladybug's WAY cooler."

"I'm sure Ladybug thinks you're cool too," Marinette replied, suppressing a grin.

Alya laughed. "I'm pretty cool, but compared to Ladybug? Nah. I'm just a reporter. Why would she think I was cool?"

Marinette let her grin loose. "Oh I don't know, I think you're pretty great."

"Thanks, girl."

Past Marinette wasn't as confident. "Well, that's easier said than done. She likes to make my life miserable."

Adrien frowned. He knew Chloe could be mean to her other classmates, but seeing the sadness and hopelessness in Marinette's eyes... he REALLY didn't like it. Marinette had had to deal with Chloe's bullying many times over the past year, but she'd never looked this hopeless before. Had Alya made that big a difference over the course of a day, so that Marinette felt confident enough to stand up to him the very next day when she had thought he was bullying her?

Past Alya certainly seemed to be trying. "That's cause you let her, girl! You just need more confidence!"

Past Marinette took the last remaining macaroon and broke it in half, holding one out to past Alya. "Marinette."

Past Alya took it. "Alya." 

The current Alya blinked, realizing something. "Wait. The akuma said that he was showing us turning points in people's lives, and he took you back to this moment... oh, girl..."

Marinette looked her in the eye. "I meant what I said. You ARE great. You were the first person I'd seen really stand up to Chloe, and for my sake! You inspired me. And... well... you were the first really close friend I'd had in a long time. This moment meant a lot to me."

Alya blushed slightly, embarrassed. "Thanks. I couldn't just leave you to that bully. And it meant a lot to me too."

The world blurred again, colors zipping around, melting into one another, until they coalesced into a new scene.

Oh crap, I forgot, Marinette thought. I got so caught up in the past, I got distracted from figuring a way out of here!

Then she noticed where - and more importantly, when - they were.

Double crap.

Marinette jumped in front of Alya, Nino, and Adrien, trying to obscure her past self from their gaze.

"We shouldn't be watching this! It's made by an akuma, it's definitely gonna be bad for you guys to see - because... uh... maybe we'll freeze when it's done! Or explode!"

Marinette could tell Alya didn't buy it. "We watched the last bit just fine, and it's not like we can really STOP watching it, unless we all closed our eyes and stuck our fingers in our ears until it stopped. And then we really WOULD be sitting ducks for an akuma."

She looked at Marinette suspiciously. "What is this REALLY about?" she gestured to past Marinette, who was watching news footage about Stoneheart while cowering in her chair in her bedroom.

Adrien spoke softly. "It's okay to have been scared, Marinette. None us knew what was going on, we're not going to judge you for that. We're your friends."

"No, that's not... ugh," Marinette glanced back at her past self.

"I hate first days back at school..." her past self said, then glanced down.

There was no time. This was going to happen, whether Marinette liked it or not. She chose 'not'.

She looked at her friends, trying to project her Ladybug seriousness. "You can't tell ANYONE about what you're about to see."

The three of them looked confused.

Then Marinette's past self picked up a small, ornate black box.

"What's this doing here?"

Nino's, Alya's, and Adrien's eyes widened in recognition. Which Marinette thought was weird in Adrien's case since he wouldn't have ever seen a box like that, but she didn't have time to dwell on it.

Past Marinette opened the box.

A bright red light shot out, fading to reveal...

"A kwami?"

Marinette's three friends looked at each other, realizing they'd all spoken at once.

"Wait, how do you know what a kwami is?" Alya and Nino asked Adrien, and Adrien asked them simultaneously.

As the three of them scrambled to come up with explanations, past Marinette provided a helpful distraction.

She jumped up and yelled, attempting to cower against her desk, "Ahh! Help! It's a giant bug! A... a mouse! A... a bug-mouse!"

Alya couldn't help chuckling a little.

But... wait... a bug kwami... who was red with a black spot...

Her eyes widened, Nino and Adrien coming to the same conclusion.

Adrien’s reaction was much more noticeable. He gaped at Marinette, slack-jawed, eyes bugging out of his skull.

"Everything's okay!" the kwami said soothingly. "Don't be scared!""

This did NOT have the desired effect.

"Ahh! Bug-mouse talks!" past Marinette yelled, throwing anything she could get her hands on at the small creature.

The present Marinette winced. "Sorry, Tikki."

Adrien got ahold of his mouth, miraculously enough.

"Ladybug?" he asked, sounding strangled, like his mouth still couldn't quite form the words.

She winced. "Yeah. Sorry for keeping it from all of you. It was too dangerous to tell anyone. Even Chat doesn't know."

She groaned. "Oh man, CHAT. He's gonna be so upset when he finds out that other people found out first."

"Oh I don't know," Adrien said in a high-pitched voice, sounding like he was on the verge of hysterics. "I think he'd understand."

She frowned at him, a little puzzled at his weird behavior, when Alya came to her senses.

"OH MY GOD! YOU'RE LADYBUG! MY BEST FRIEND IS MY IDOL! MY BLOG IS DEDICATED TO MY BEST FRIEND! LADYBUG IS MY BEST FRIEND!"

Marinette laughed nervously. "Yep."

Alya calmed down slightly. Slightly. "Wait, so all those times you made up lame excuses to ditch me, all those times you got separated from me while an akuma was around..."

"I needed to get out of sight so I could transform and defeat the akuma."

"And that interview- OH MY GOD no WONDER you paid me special attention! No wonder you were able to set up that first interview!"

Marinette laughed a little. "Yeah, you've got it. I felt bad about deleting that footage you took of me earlier, so I decided to give you something even better."

Alya teared up a little. "Girl..."

Marinette glanced down at her purse. "Hey Tikki, since they already know, do you want to meet my friends?"

Tikki flew out of her purse. "Hi Nino, Adrien, Alya, nice to meet you officially."

"Nice to meet you too."

"Hiya, dude!"

Adrien just made some more strangled sounds. Marinette looked at him worriedly, then glanced back over at the past version of herself and TIkki.

"This has to be some mistake," past Marinette told TIkki anxiously. "The only superpower I could possibly have is super-awkwardness."

Marinette's friends gave her concerned looks. She smiled back reassuringly.

Past Marinette continued, "I know! Alya would know! That's my friend. Well, at least I think she would... She loves superheroes! She'd totally be up for the job! You should totally go see her!"

"Marinette, you're the Chosen One!" Past Tikki insisted.

Present Alya was stunned once again. "Girl, you... you didn't think you could be Ladybug? But you're awesome! You ALWAYS win, no matter the odds! And... you wanted ME to be Ladybug?"

"Before this past year, I've never been very confident. I was always kinda a screw-up. But you gave me HOPE, Alya. I meant it when I said that Ladybug thinks you're cool. You INSPIRED me, Alya."

Alya hugged her.

Nino spoke. "You were never a screw-up, Marinette. No more than anyone else was. You've always been really nice and talented. You just needed a confidence boost, like Alya said."

"Marinette, you've ALWAYS been amazing. Never doubt that," Adrien spoke, adoration in his eyes.

No, I HAVE to have that wrong, Marinette thought. He only thinks of me as a friend. I can't get my hopes up.

Past Marinette put on the earrings, "Okay, so all I have to do is break the object where the whatchama-call-it is hiding?"

Past Tikki replied, "It's called an akuma. Which you must then capture."

"Got it! Capture it! And what's that charm thing again?"

"Your Lucky Charm. It's your secret superpower!"

"Aww... this is all going too fast, Tikki... I... won't be able to pull this off!"

"Trust yourself, Marinette. Just say 'Spots on.'"

Adrien smiled. "Tikki's right. You did fine. Plus you remembered to ask about your powers, which I bet Chat didn't do."

Marinette laughed and blushed, not trusting herself to speak.

"Spots on?"

Past Marinette transformed, thoroughly freaked out."Whoa! What is happening?"

"Whoa... So cool!" Alya squealed. "I just witnessed Ladybug's first transformation!"

"Ladybug... Marinette is Ladybug..." Adrien mumbled dazedly.

Marinette was REALLY worried now. "You already knew that, Adrien. Are you okay?"

"It's one thing to hear about it, it's another to see it,"

Past Ladybug looked at herself in the mirror nervously, "Aww... how does this thing come off?"

She wandered away from the mirror, calling out to her kwami, "Tikki, if you can hear me, I want my normal clothes back. I'm not going anywhere!-"

Until she noticed the news.

Notably, news footage of Alya riding her bike behind Stoneheart, following him.

Past Ladybug gasped, looking worried. "Alya...?"

She rushed off to the roof, the current versions of herself, Alya, Nino, and Adrien following her.

"Girl, you first left to save Paris... because of me?" Alya asked.

Marinette nodded. "I couldn't let my new friend get hurt, not when I could help."

Alya smiled at her. Marinette was an even better friend than she could've imagined.

"Ok, I have special powers, and apparently this amazing super yo-yo thingy?"

Past Ladybug threw the yo-yo outwards.

Current Marinette whimpered. "Oh no..."

Alya grinned widely. She was gonna get to see Ladybug swing through the city for the first time!

The line went taut.

Past Ladybug was sent flying off into the distance. "WAAAAaaaaaa..."

Marinette covered her eyes, wishing she could disappear. "Please let this be a bad dream."

The scene changed slightly. The four of them found themselves on some street in Paris.

"Where'd Ladybug go?" Nino asked.

Marinette pointed upwards as a familiar scream got louder and louder. Then she covered her face again. "...aaaaAAAAAAH"

Nino, Adrien, and Alya watched as past Ladybug collided with the past Chat Noir, wrapping both of them up in her yo-yo and leaving them dangling a few feet from the ground.

"This is so embarrassing," Marinette muttered.

"THAT'S how you two first met?" Alya asked incredulously.

Marinette nodded, hoping she'd spontaneously melt into the floor. Bad enough Alya and Nino saw this, but Adrien too? He'd think she was a total spaz, worse than he'd already thought!"

"Nice of you to drop in," past Chat said teasingly.

"I'd forgotten the first thing he said to me was a joke," Marinette muttered, very much NOT in the mood.

"I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose," past Ladybug replied.

" I bet you're the partner my kwami told me about," past Chat replied, dropping down to the ground. "I'm... Chat Noir. Yeah, Chat Noir. And you?"

"So that's when he came up with his name," Alya muttered.

" I'm Ma... err... Mar... uhh..." Ladybug said as she tugged at her yo-yo. She finally succeeded at getting it loose, accidentally bonking Chat on the head with it.

"Madly Clumsy. I am so clumsy," she said, embarrassed.

"You almost introduced yourself as Marinette? That's what that was about?" Adrien asked, eyes wide as saucers. They'd been that way for most of the past few minutes.

"Yeah, I did... wait, what do you mean 'that's what that was about?'"

"Errrmmm..." Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. Luckily for him, the past provided a distraction.

The street rumbled with the sound of Stoneheart's footsteps, a tower falling over in the distance.

Past Chat extended his baton, pole-vaulting onto the nearest building. Past Ladybug called out after him, "Hey wait, where are you going?"

"To save Paris, right?" he called back cockily, before turning to chase after Stoneheart.

"Trust yourself, trust yourself..." past Ladybug muttered to herself before throwing her yo-yo again, sending her flying, screaming, to where Chat and Stoneheart would be waiting.

"Kitty's always been so eager to be a superhero, right from the very beginning," Marinette said softly, looking at where Chat had been with a fond smile on her face.

Adrien blushed, which Marinette thought was a little strange, but Adrien had been acting strange since he found out she was Ladybug.

Their surroundings changed again, this time taking them to on top of the wall of a stadium.

"Oh! Your first fight!" Alya practically vibrated with excitement. "I remember this! I always wondered why you waited a little bit before joining in. I figured you were watching Stoneheart, planning your strategy, waiting for just the right moment to swoop in and save the day."

Marinette winced. "Not exactly..."

As Chat attempted to battle Stoneheart, past Ladybug stood nervously on the wall.

"Where are you, partner?" past Chat asked.

"Oh, I can't, I'm not going to be able to do it," past Ladybug muttered to herself, covering her face.

"You were scared?" Adrien asked Marinette, as if it was a foreign idea.

"Yeah," Marinette told him, ashamed. "Chat was all ready to battle supervillains right from the start, but I wasn't. I was convinced that I was the wrong person for the job. I almost let him down."

Stoneheart hurled the soccer net at Alya, forcing Chat to sacrifice her baton to save her.

"What are you waiting for, super red bug? The world is watching you!" past Alya shouted up at past Ladybug.

Past Ladybug shut her eyes, screwed up her face, and made a decision. She put on a determined face and jumped into the fray.

The current Alya gaped. "Wait. I was the reason you joined the battle here?"

"Well, partly because of Chat, but yeah. You gave me the last push I needed to get past my fear."

Alya hugged Marinette. "You're AWESOME, girl, you know that?" she whispered in her ear.

Marinette hugged back. "Thanks, Alya. You're pretty awesome yourself."

"So after this you got past your anxiety and just kicked butt, right?" Alya asked.

Marinette winced. "Not quite. I failed the first time, remember? I took it hard. REALLY hard."

The four of them flashed forwards, landing in Marinette's room right as Tikki finished explaining what would happen now that the akuma was free.

"So that means... this is all my fault?" past Marinette asked miserably. "I knew it! See, Tikki? I'm not cut out to be a superhero! I'm only gonna keep messing up."

"Marinette..." Adrien said softly, wanting to give her a hug. No. Bad Adrien. She's in love with Luka, she might take it the wrong way.

Tikki attempted to reassure her, comfort her, " Keep calm. It was your first time. You're going to go back and capture Stoneheart's akuma, and do it successfully!"

"I can't! I told you, I'm clumsy! I create disaster all the time! I'll only make things worse for me, for you and for everyone. Chat Noir will be better off without me. I'm quitting."

"NO!" Adrien yelled.

Marinette jumped.

Adrien made a strangled sound. "Mi- Marinette, you thought Chat would be better off without you? Because you're WRONG. He needs you. He can't DO this without you. You're partners! You don't make things worse, you never make things worse. Everyone's lives are better because you're in them! My life is better because you're in it..."

Adrien's outburst petered out as he finally seemed to realize what he was saying. He blushed crimson red.

The other three stared at him, Marinette gaping, Nino giving him a thumbs up, and Alya grinning like a loon.

Past Marinette couldn't hear Adrien's words of encouragement, unfortunately. " If Chat Noir can't capture the akumas, then... just find another Ladybug. I told you, I'm not cut out to be Ladybug!"

Past Marinette took off the earrings. "I'm sorry Tikki."

Tikki tried to warn her, " No, don't do tha-"

And then she was gone.

Past Marinette looked around her. "...Tikki?"

Sadly, past Marinette replaced the earrings in their box and put them in her drawer. She fell to her knees, "I'm really sorry, Tikki..."

Adrien made a high-pitched whining noise.

Alya took over since Adrien's capacity for coherent speech appeared to have been exhausted. "Ladybug is awesome because she's YOU. And you ARE cut out to be Ladybug! Everyone makes mistakes, especially their first time doing things! Just try again!"

Alya blinked. "Actually... come to think of it, what DID happen after this? It sure didn't seem like you'd quit, you showed up again the next day."

Unfortunately Marinette couldn't answer since her brainspace was currently dedicated to screaming Adrien just said that his life is better because I'm in it this is the best day of my life he loves me! Wait but what will we tell our kids about how we got together we won't be able to tell them we're superheroes and what will we name our hamster?!

Alya waved her hand in front of Marinette's face, snapping her out of her stupor. Alya smiled at her, amused. "Breathe girl, breathe."

Marinette took a deep breath and let it out again.

"So, now that you're back on Earth," Alya asked, "How DID you go from quitting on this day, to declaring you were gonna save Paris the next day?"

Marinette gave a nervous little giggle. "Well it's a funny story..."

The world blurred again.

Chapter Text

The four of them were transported to the entryway of College Francois-Dupont. Past Marinette and past Alya walking to class together.

Alya grinned. “Oh! I gushed to you about Ladybug! That convinced you of how AWESOME you are and that you should give it another shot, right?”

Marinette chuckled wryly. “Not exactly. You gave it your best shot, though.”

Past Alya handed Past Marinette her phone, showing her the webpage she’d just pulled up. “Ladyblog, bringing you all the latest news about the coolest superhero, Ladybug! How awesome is that?! Check out the number of views since I posted a video!“

Past Marinette looked down. “But why do you trust Ladybug so much? All these stone beings...”

“She's gonna handle them,” Past Alya stated confidently, not an ounce of doubt in her voice.

Alya smiled. “I was right. Even back then I could see it. I KNEW you’d come through.”

Marinette smiled.

Past Marinette wasn’t reassured. “But what if she's not really cut out to be a superhero even though everyone thinks she is?”

Adrien opened his mouth, looking like he was going to launch into another defense of Ladybug, when past Alya did the job for him.

“What are you talking about, girl? Oh, wait.” Past Alya looked at Marinette appraisingly. “I know what this is about. You're scared, but don't be! I've seen it with my own two eyes, girl! Ladybug is a true superheroine! She's going to protect us all! I believe in her.”

Alya chuckled. “Honestly I’d have said something similar even if I’d known you were Ladybug. You may have been scared, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes that you ARE a true superheroine. Seeing you fighting against Stoneheart, assembling a plan on the fly and defeating him with the most random objects, you couldn’t HELP but to believe.”

Nino joined in, “I wasn’t there for that first fight, but seeing the footage... well it was hard to be too scared of the akumas, because I KNEW that you and Chat Noir would come through.”

“Never doubt yourself, Marinette,” Adrien joined in. “You’re the most incredibly crazy awesome person I know. If you’re not cut out for this, then NO ONE is.”

Marinette felt tears spark in her eyes at the praise, but she HAD to counter Adrien’s last point. “Chat Noir would be. He leapt into superheroing without a second thought. Being so impulsive might’ve gotten him into some trouble, but if he HADN’T been so quick, if he’d hesitated, Alya could’ve been hurt. He never stopped trying to fight Stoneheart, he never fled, he just continued fighting. Because he couldn’t let anyone else get hurt. I may’ve thought that I shouldn’t be Ladybug, that I wasn’t GOOD enough to be Ladybug, but I NEVER, not ONCE, doubted that Chat Noir - whoever’s behind the mask - should be - well, CHAT NOIR.”

Adrien stared at her, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. He made a faint... mewling noise? Marinette didn’t even know humans COULD make that sound. She looked away from him, trying NOT to melt into a puddle at the looks he’d been giving her. She didn’t know how many more memories were left, and she’d need her wits about her when they ended.

“Alya, wouldn't you like to be a superhero and go out and fight monsters and villains?”

Marinette jumped. She’d been so lost in her Adrien-coma, she hadn’t noticed the scenery shift. Not that they’d gone far, past Marinette and past Alya were still walking to class, they’d just skipped forwards a little in time and space.

Alya looked at her. “Waaiit... you were asking me whether I’d want to be Ladybug, right?”

Marinette nodded.

“Totally! I'm not scared of anyone! Why?”

“Oh, no reason...”

The four of them watched as past Marinette surreptitiously slipped the Ladybug Miraculous into Alya’s bag.

“Girl that was SMOOTH. So that’s how you’re able to steal phones so easily! You’re an expert at moving stuff around without being caught,” Alya spoke admiringly.

Marinette chuckled, chagrinned.

Adrien just seemed confused. “Marinette steals phones?”

“Oh- ah- Well - look, we’re entering the classroom now!” Marinette called out, desperately trying to distract the love of her life (and the one-time victim of her phone thievery) from that train of thought.

Then the four of them walked into the classroom, and Marinette almost wished that she’d kept up the phone thievery conversation.

Past Marinette stalked over to Adrien as he knelt over the gum, “Hey! What are you doing?”

Past Adrien panicked, unable to form a coherent sentence at the accusation. Chloe and Sabrina broke into laughter and past Marinette filled in the gaps on her own. “Okay. I get it. Good job, you three. Very funny.”

Past Adrien managed to form whole words finally. “No, no, I was just trying to take this off! “

But it was too late. Chloe’s and Sabrina’s laughter had convinced her. “Oh, really?”

Their continued laughter did NOT help.

Disgusted, past Marinette asked, “You're friends with Chloé, right?”

“Why do people keep saying that?” past Adrien muttered, then took his seat.

Marinette covered her face, ashamed. “I shouldn’t have judged you. I jumped to conclusions and I BARELY listened to what you had to say.”

She looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry, Adrien.”

Adrien blushed, but held himself together long enough to answer. “I don’t blame you. I NEVER blamed you. And after seeing how Chloe treats people, and what happened the day before, I understand why you assumed the worst.”

He winked at her. “Besides, we got there in the end, didn’t we?”

She blushed, melting into a puddle at his gaze. This boy was going to be the death of her.

The world jumped forwards slightly. Marinette almost didn’t notice, since the location didn’t change this time.

Well, except for the classroom suddenly having huge gaping holes in it. That was a bit of a giveaway.

“Come on! Let's follow him!” past Alya called out to past Marinette as she looked at where Stoneheart had gone.

“You have NO sense of self-preservation,” Marinette told the present Alya.

She grinned cheekily. “None!”

“Uh... Oh, no. You go. I'm finding myself a safe place to hide.”

“Girl, you're gonna miss Ladybug in action!”

Marinette rolled her eyes.  Honestly she kind of WISHED Alya had become Ladybug, if only because then she would’ve been able to protect herself full time, and not only when she had the Fox Miraculous.

Past Marinette picked up past Alya’s bag, presenting it to her. “You and Ladybug will both be better off without me.”

Alya’s eyes widened. “Oh. OOOOH. So THAT’S what happened. If I’d taken my bag that day...”

“...Then you would’ve been Ladybug instead of me.”

Alya shook her head. “You were always meant to be Ladybug. I couldn’t improvise the way you do. I couldn’t have done things the way you do.”

Marinette looked at her, conviction in her eyes and her voice. “You couldn’t have done things the way I do. But you would’ve done things the way YOU do. You’d find a way.”

Alya smiled back at her. Ladybug believed in her. Marinette believed in her. But... “Okay, maybe I could’ve been Ladybug. But you’d still be a superhero, one way or another. You can’t honestly believe that you’d just sit by while akumas were running loose? You’d manage to save the day somehow.”

Marinette opened her mouth to try to counter Alya’s point... but couldn’t. She WOULD help out against akumas any way she could.

As Past Marinette ran off, still attempting to give past Alya her bag, the world shifted, this time to the street.

Past Alya was running, trying to catch up with Stoneheart. She dove behind cover and started filming.

Meanwhile, Chat attempted to fend off an army of Stonehearts. He was managing to dodge their attacks, but it didn’t look like something he could keep up. “If you can hear me, Ladybug, I could use a little help!“ he called out anxiously

Marinette winced. “Sorry Chat.”

“It’s okay,” Adrien replied. Marinette stared at him, confused. He quickly realized his mistake and attempted to cover for himself. Which he did. Poorly. “I- I mean, I’m sure he would’ve understood. He doesn’t seem like the type who would’ve held it against you - from the few times I’ve talked to him anyways, it’s not like I know him that well or anything,” he said hastily, giving a nervous laugh.

Marinette looked at him suspiciously for a moment, but seemed to accept his answer. “I still feel bad. He was out here, risking his life without a second thought while I’d just tried to ditch my Miraculous at the first sign of trouble.”

She looked down. “He must’ve thought I’d abandoned him...”

Adrien put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a comforting smile. She gave him a small one back.

Internally Adrien wasn’t NEARLY so calm. She cares about me she cares about me a LOT she’s worried about what I would’ve thought if she’d disappeared OHMIGOD she could’ve succeeded and I never would’ve had her as a partner again and I’d never have known what’d happened to her what would I have-

Marinette pulled him into a hug. All thought ceased at that point.

She abruptly let go of him as a car hurtled at past Alya. “NO!”

She let out a sigh of relief as past Chat threw his baton, saving past Alya once again, but at the cost of leaving himself defenseless.

The nearest Stoneheart picked him up while he was defenseless, leaving him to uselessly flail his legs.

Past Marinette dropped Alya’s bag. She stood, stunned, trying to figure out what to do. Alya was trapped, Chat was being carried away, yelling insults all the while, and there she was, stuck with the Ladybug Miraculous and no one to give it to.

Then past Alya cried out-

“Heeeeeelp!”

-and her decision was made.

She took the earrings out of the bag and put them on.

Tikki appeared in a ball of red light.

“I think I need Ladybug!”

“I knew you'd come around!”

Past Marinette nervously told her,  “Well, I'm still not sure I'm up for this, but Alya's in danger. I can't sit back and do nothing!”

She transformed.

Alya came to a realization. “Waaait... you transformed... in the MIDDLE of the STREET... while I was RIGHT THERE?!”

Marinette chuckled. “Yep. Good thing you didn’t look a little to your right.”

Alya face-palmed, groaning.

Adrien focused on a different aspect. “You transformed because you had to help. Because you couldn’t leave others in danger, even though you were scared. Even though you were uncertain. You still stepped up.”

He smiled at her, much like he had a few weeks ago, at the Heroes’ Day picnic. “You’ve always had what it takes to be a true hero. This just gave you the chance to really show it.”

Marinette squeaked.

The scene changing saved her from having to come up with actual words. Which was good, because she’d probably have just stood there and made animal sounds for a bit while she attempted to regain control of her brain.

They stood in the area near the Eiffel Tower, Stoneheart standing on one of its beams. Down on the ground where Marinette, Alya, Nino, and Adrien had materialized, past Ladybug and past Chat Noir were trying to reason with Officer Roger.

Still injured from the LAST time he’d tried to fight off Stoneheart, Roger nonetheless attempted to take charge. “We're clear to attack!“

Ladybug attempted to stop him. “Wait! No, don't attack them! You know it'll only make it worse!“

“I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once! “

Alya growled. “Why you-!”

Marinette put a hand on her shoulder, smiling and shaking her head. She pointed towards Chat and Ladybug.

Ladybug turned towards Chat, nervous and unsure. “...He's right, you know. If I had captured Stoneheart's akuma the first time around, none of this would have happened! I knew I wasn't the right one for this job...”

Marinette looked at past Chat, a fond, trusting smile on her face as he told her past self what she needed to hear. “No. He's wrong, because without you, she'd no longer be here. And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay?”

“Okay!”

Marinette turned to Alya. “Chat can be a little goofy at times, but he’s ALWAYS had my back when I needed it. Right then, hearing that I’d already done well? That we’d both work together to prove Roger, and everyone else who doubted us wrong? That’s what I needed. But most of all, he asked me to TRUST him. And I did. I couldn’t let him down.”

Adrien teared up again. Marinette gave him another concerned look, but became distracted. “Does anyone else hear a faint rumbling noise?”

It cut off as quickly as it had started, Adrien looking embarrassed for some reason.

Marinette frowned. That had sounded weirdly familiar for some reason, she just needed to place it...

Their surroundings blurred, derailing Marinette’s train of thought. Something was different this time though. The colors around them blurred and bled around them, swirling together and then turning grey. A soft light glowed around Marinette before jumping to Adrien.

“Wha-” Marinette started shouting. 

The surroundings twisted and resolved, this time coalescing into a location Marinette had been in only a handful of times, but wished she’d been able to visit more often.

“Why are we in Adrien’s room?” she asked, perplexed. She’d already started forming a theory, however.

Past Adrien hurtled into the room, throwing himself over the back of the couch and turning on the news.

As the current Adrien came up with the same theory, a smile slowly spread across his face. “I think once the akuma finished showing your turning points, it must’ve transferred to me.”

Marinette nodded. “That’s my theory too.”

She looked at past Adrien, still engrossed by the TV. “Why was this one of your turning points though? Just because this was a supervillain’s first appearance?”

Adrien chuckled, that wide grin still plastered on his face. It changed to a smirk as he watched his past self, seeming to wait for something.

He looked back at Marinette a few seconds later, his smile turning into a smirk. He shook his head.

“No. It’s because you weren’t the only one who became a superhero that day-”

“What’s this doing here?”

“- My Lady.”

Past Adrien popped open the top of the box, unleashing a green, glowing light. It faded to reveal a sleepy, cat-like kwami.

Marinette’s mind broke.

Chapter Text

That’s Plagg.

Plagg is Chat Noir’s kwami.

Adrien was given Plagg.

Therefore, Chat Noir is...

ERROR. ERROR. DOES NOT COMPUTE. DO YOU WISH TO REFRESH THE PAGE?

Marinette’s mind screeched to a halt again, the last conclusion not taking. She tried again.

This moment is a turning point in Adrien’s life.

The most significant thing that happened was Adrien meeting Plagg.

Plagg is the Black Cat kwami.

Meeting the Black Cat kwami would be a major turning point for the boy who would become Chat Noir.

Therefore, the boy who would become Chat Noir must...

...be...

...Adrien.

ABORT! ABORT! SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT!

It was too late. Once Marinette had reached that conclusion, there was no going back.

Adrien (Adrichat? Chatrien? Adrinoir? Noirien? That last one didn’t work at all...) continued to stare at her, his smirk slowly fading into a look of concern.

“Marinette? Are you okay?”

His look of concern morphed into anxiety. “Are- are you disappointed?”

OVERRIDE ENTERED: ADRIEN/CHAT IS SAD AND I MUST CHEER HIM UP. OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. SYSTEM REBOOT IN PROGRESS.

Marinette shook herself. 

“I could NEVER be disappointed in you being... well, YOU, Chat. Adrien. Chatrien. NEVER think that. EVER. You’re... you’re my best friend. My teammate. I’m not disappointed. Shocked, and confused, and overjoyed, and elated, and a million other things I can’t even BEGIN to process, but disappointed? No.”

He gave her a small, hopeful smile in return. She melted. Bad enough when he was just her sweet, kind, cute classmate, but knowing he was her brave, dorky, cute kitty as well? She was doomed.

Blushing scarlet (which Chat MUST be noticing, he’ll definitely tease me about this, except that he’s Adrien, who’s never noticed and would never tease anyone because he’s perfect, except he’s Chat who’s wonderful but NOT perfect...) she attempted to look somewhere that WASN’T in those familiar emerald eyes. Luckily, her surroundings provided the perfect distraction.

“Is... is Plagg attempting to EAT everything?” Marinette asked faintly, still attempting to recover from her new knowledge.

“Yeeeep,” Adrien said, sounding thoroughly exasperated.

“He’s not going to sit down and explain everything?!” she asked, incredulous. 

“Not until I catch him,” Adrien said, resigned.

“Catch him?”

Adrien pointed to his past self, who’d just started climbing up his rock wall.

Marinette’s jaw dropped. “You’re not gonna...”

Adrien made a diving leap from roughly fifteen feet up in the air, landing safely on the couch and catching Plagg in the process.

“...Of course you did.”

So maybe Chat had ALWAYS been this reckless. Being Chat Noir had only made it more obvious.

Marinette resolved to try to think of him as Chat as much as she could for now. She knew how to function around Chat. Adrien? Not so much.

Past Adri- Chat asked his captive, “I still don't know what you're doing here.”

Plagg wasn’t perturbed in the slightest at being held, stating plainly, “Look, I'm a Kwami. I grant powers. Yours is the power of destruction, got it?“

Chat shook his head, a befuddled look on his face. “Uh-uh.”

“Good. Now, you got anything to eat? I'm starving...“

Alya snorted. “Is that all he ever thinks about?”

Chat rolled his eyes. “Pretty much.”

Past Chat stood up, still holding Plagg. “My dad's pranking me, right? Wait, he couldn't be. He has no sense of humor.”

Nino snorted. “You have THAT right dude. Seriously, he wouldn’t even allow you to have a birthday party. Not cool.”

Plagg freed himself from past Chat’s grip. “Your father must never know that I exist! Or anyone for that matter.“

Chat snorted. “Can you imagine what father would’ve said if he’d found out? He’s scared of me getting hurt just leaving the house. If he found out I was a superhero, he’d try to take my ring to stop me from fighting akumas. Not that it would WORK, but it’d make things more difficult.”

Marinette’s head snapped towards him. “CHAT. You are NOT fighting akumas out of your magical catsuit. I have enough heart attacks when you get hurt fighting NORMALLY, if you start taking blows for me WITHOUT a magical suit to protect you, I’m going to keel over and die from the anxiety.”

“You’d be able to heal me with the Miraculous Cure...”

“NOT THE POINT, KITTY.”

Marinette was distracted from their conversation (which she WOULD need to continue later, she did NOT like her kitty’s - the love-of-her-life’s - self-sacrificial instinct) by some shouting from past Chat.

“But I'm stuck here! I'm not even allowed to go to school! What good is a superhero who's imprisoned in his own house!”

She watched as Plagg rolled past on a toilet paper roll, spreading toilet paper all over Adri- Chat’s room.

“Did- did Plagg go into your bathroom, steal a toilet paper roll, and start running on it JUST to make a mess?” she asked incredulously. Tikki would NEVER have done anything like this.

“I... guess?” Chat replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “Honestly I wasn’t paying much attention to what he was doing, I was too busy processing what he’d told me.”

Fair enough.

“No good. That's why it's all going to change soon. If you're willing to change, that is.“ 

Chat grinned. “I’d been... pretty miserable before this, honestly. Mom was the main person I hung out with, but when she went missing... father seemed to break too, so I didn’t have him to keep me company either. I- I was really pretty lonely, and being kept trapped in the house did NOT help. Being able to go out and DO things I chose to do? Having a magical friend with me all the time? It was a dream come true.”

Her kitty flashed her a smile. “Then I met the most incredible girl that ever existed, and it got even better.”

She blushed. Oh OH, her kitty was going to kill her. She was going to keel over from her heart exploding. Or maybe she’d just spontaneously combust.

Plagg popped out of the empty toilet paper roll. “Claws out! That's how you transform.”

“Got it. Plagg, claws out!”

Plagg was sucked into the ring, shouting, “No, wait! I haven't finished explaining!”

As Chat went through his transformation sequence, Marinette watched in bemusement. “You were really, REALLY eager to transform, huh kitty? You even had a whole transformation sequence worked out.”

Chat shrugged, a playful smile on his face. “What can I say? Superheroes are AWESOME!”

Marinette gave a small laugh. Her kitty was SUCH a dork.

“Too cool!” past Chat exclaimed, admiring himself.

They all laughed a little at that, even Chat.

Alya looked towards Marinette, a smirk on her face. “Adrien’s ‘tons more legit than Chat Noir’, eeeeeehhh?”

Marinette blushed scarlet. “Shut up.”

Nino focused on a different aspect. “So all those times you had to cancel WEREN’T because of photo shoots?”

Adrien - (CHAT, Chat, think of him as Chat) CHAT rubbed the back of his neck. “Well some of them were. But yeah, a lot of the time it was due to me superheroing.”

He suddenly looked nervous. “Are- are you mad that I lied?”

Nino laughed. “Dude, I wasn’t mad at Marinette, I’m DEFINITELY not gonna be mad at my best bud for keeping his secret identity - well, a SECRET. Comes with being a superhero.”

Adrien smiled. “Thanks. I’m glad you understand.”

Chat glanced over at Marinette, a devious smile spreading across his face. “You know, I just remembered something...”

OH NO

“Remember during Lady Wifi?”

OH CRAP. HE REMEMBERED.

“How I said we might know each other in normal life?”

She groaned. “Congrats kitty, you were right.”

“Makes me wonder how many times we’ve danced around each other?”

Danced around each other - like when -

“Glaciator...” Marinette breathed quietly.

“Glaciator?” Chat asked, cocking his head.

Marinette GROANED, wishing she could go back home and scream into her pillow. Very, VERY loudly.

“Glaciator. You set up a rooftop with candles and roses for a romantic dinner.”

Alya looked at her, dumbfounded. “HE DID WHAT-”

Marinette glared at her friend, willing Alya to be silent.

“I couldn’t come, because I was out with my friends getting ice cream. I was hoping to have a romantic ice cream date with Adrien - with YOU. While you were waiting on a rooftop hoping to have a romantic dinner date with ME. Then both of us complained to each other about feeling heartbroken and alone because we didn’t get to spend time with the person we loved, all while that person was RIGHT THERE WITH US.”

She facepalmed. That was SO screwed up.

She peeked through her eyes a minute later, trying to gauge Chat’s reaction.

He stared at her, frozen, eyes bugging out, mouth open.

“Girl, I think you broke him. Again.” Alya observed.

“Gfjeisofosfl,” he... said? Can a random collection of sounds be considered as “speaking?”

“...Chat?” Marinette asked carefully, hoping that would snap him out of it.

“Asdjosef,” he replied. 

He swallowed, got ahold of his tongue, and tried again.

“You- you tried to have a romantic ice cream date with me? I’m the person you loved? I’M the boy you liked?”

Marinette blushed. (Keep it together, keep it together, don’t screw up, don’t trip over your words, THIS IS CHAT, YOU CAN TALK TO CHAT- ) “Y-yeah. The main reason I never considered going out with you, was because I was too enamored with... you.”

A delirious smile spread over Chat’s face. “You’re in love with me. Ladybug’s in love with me. Marinette’s in love with me.”

He just kept on mumbling to himself, over and over.

“Well, we’ve lost him for a bit,” Alya observed.

Alya turned back to her. “So... you liked Adrien, and everyone knows Chat likes Ladybug, but Chat Noir IS Adrien and you ARE Ladybug. Adrien wasn’t going to date Marinette because he was too in love with Ladybug to consider dating someone else, and you were too in love with Adrien to consider dating Chat... the two of you managed to get yourselves into a Love Square WHERE YOU’RE THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE IN THE LOVE SQUARE!”

Alya burst out laughing.

The rest of them slowly started chuckling as well, Chat snapping out of his daze finally. They graduated to full-on laughter, eventually falling to the floor, unable to stand upright due to lack of oxygen from laughing so hard.

After a few minutes they calmed down enough to stop laughing and transition to gasping for air instead.

“We’re- we’re really a mess, huh kitty?” Marinette gasped, a smile still spread across her face. Her cheeks hurt but SHE DIDN’T CARE.

“Yeah, but it’s OUR mess,” he replied, grinning back at her.

She started wheezing. “Ki-kitty, don’t speak, you’re gonna send me into hysterics again.”

“Oh so you DO think I’m funny? That my jokes are meow-velous-”

She yelped and covered his mouth. “NO. No puns!”

He attempted to talk for a moment, but gave up, settling for gazing into her eyes. She felt her cheeks heat up again and looked away.

Finally, FINALLY, (what took you so long? Stupid akuma.) the world blurred again, taking them away from Chat’s bedroom and to the Eiffel Tower.

The four of them got up.

Chat frowned. “It’s not going to show my first meeting with you? Or my arrival at school?”

Marinette shrugged. “Maybe the akuma doesn’t see the point of repeating scene we’ve already watched?”

Chat considered, then nodded. “You’re probably right.”

A loud choking noise rang out from the tower. Everyone looked towards it to see Stoneheart hacking up a mass of black butterflies.

Alya grinned.

Marinette looked at her, puzzled. “What’re you so happy about?”

“I missed this the first time around! I mean, I saw it on the news, but it’s not the SAME, you know?”

Marinette shook her head. Alya would be Alya...

“People of Paris, listen carefully. I am Hawk Moth.”

“Hawk Moth?”

“ Ladybug, Cat Noir, give me the ladybug earrings and the cat ring now. You've done enough damage to these innocent people!”

Alya squealed in anticipation. Nino and Chat locked eyes on past Ladybug, grinning in anticipation.

Marinette glanced at them, slightly concerned. “...Guys?”

Chat snapped out of it for a moment. “Milady, what you do here is the coolest, most AMAZING thing I’ve ever seen in my LIFE.”

“It wasn’t THAT cool-”

Past Ladybug strode forwards, clapping. “Nice try, Hawk Moth, but we know who the bad guy is. Let's not reverse the roles here. Without you, none of these innocent victims would be transformed into villains. Hawk Moth, no matter how long it takes, we will find you, and YOU will hand us YOUR Miraculous!”

Past Ladybug ran forwards, swinging her yo-yo and leaping upwards to confront the Hawkmoth butterfly cloud.

“Time to de-evilize!”

She swung her yo-yo repeatedly, capturing all the akumas that made up Hawk Moth’s projection, scatters of red light shining through the cloud.

She triumphantly landed on a beam and turned to face the crowd.

“Let me make this promise to you. No matter who wants to harm you, Ladybug and Cat Noir will do everything in our power to keep you safe!”

She released all of the captured butterflies, releasing a brilliant white pulse of white butterfly wings.

The crowd cheered.

Alya, Nino, and Chat looked on, awestruck.

Marinette gaped. “... Okay, maybe I WAS that cool.”

She’d seen this scene on the news a few times, but had never paid much attention. It always felt awkward watching herself from an outside perspective, especially in costume.

Seeing herself now? Actually BEING here, watching her own declaration? She began to understand why Paris had latched onto her so quickly. Why Parisians believed she could do ANYTHING, could always win. If she’d seen this as an outsider, if she hadn’t BEEN Ladybug, she’d have been just as confident in Ladybug’s capabilities, would have placed her on just as high a pedestal.

“Wow-”

Marinette turned around, looking at past Chat’s amazed expression.

“whoever she is beneath that mask, I love that girl.”

Chat looked at Marinette, a dopey, lovestruck grin on his face. “I was right. I love you, Marinette. I love ALL of you. I’m sorry it took so long to see what was staring me right in the face.”

Marinette blushed, gazing into his eyes. They may not be cat eye’s right at the moment, but the love from her kitty’s eyes was unmistakable.

Adrien was Chat.

Chat was Adrien. 

They were one and the same.

If she could talk to Chat, then she could talk to Adrien.

Because he WAS Adrien. 

And Adrien was him.

“I’ll forgive you for not realizing, mon minou, if you can forgive ME for the same. For seeing both sides of you, and not realizing they belonged to the same person.”

She took a deep breath. “I think I’ve been falling for you - for Chat - for awhile now. But I was so in love with Adrien I just... pushed those feelings aside. To find out that the two boys I love are the SAME boy... it’s been hard to reconcile. But the more that I do, the more I fall in love with you. With ALL of you.”

He smiled at her - Adrien smiled at her - affection filling his eyes as he took her hands, tears leaking out of his eyes. 

It wasn’t until Marinette felt something drip off her chin, that she realized she was crying as well.

The leaned forwards.

Then the world swirled and turned gray again, the light transferring from Adrien to Alya.

“Seriously!” Alya yelled. “You couldn’t have waited TEN MORE SECONDS to transfer?”

“Maybe this is the akuma’s secret evil plan,” Alya muttered. “Get people together and then ruin the moment JUST before they’re about to finally kiss.”

“Well we HAVE already kissed before,” Marinette said before she could stop herself.

Adrien whined. “But I don’t REMEMBER that kiss!”

“Don’t worry,” Marinette breathed into his ear. “I’ll give you many, many kisses later to make up for it. And I’ll make SURE you remember these.”

Adrien mewled.

The world resolved.

When it cleared, they were standing near a carousel at night. Past Alya was trying - unsuccessfully - to reason with some small red imp-like creatures wearing propeller hats.

Adrien blinked. “Oh yeah, Sapotis were your little sisters, right Alya?”

She nodded.

Past Ladybug in front of past Alya, quickly dispatching the Sapotis.

Past Alya called to Past Ladybug, “Ladybug! My sisters have been akumatized! I need to find them and bring them back home! “

“There's a way for you to find your sisters. But we're gonna need your help! You interested?“

Adrien turned to Alya, realization dawning. “Oh no WAY...”

“Me? Help you superheroes? You bet I am! Just wait till I tell Marinette about this!“

“Hold on now. This has to be a secret. Not a word to your friends or on the Ladyblog.”

“Oh right. Understood.”

She grinned back. “Yes way.”

“Alya Césaire, here is the Miraculous of the Fox, which grants the power of illusion. You will use it for the greater good. Once the job is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?” 

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Marinette rushed to school, bread in her mouth.

It’d been only a week since she, Adrien, Alya, and Nino had all had their identities revealed to each other. Since then they’d been feeling out their new dynamics.

Nino’s relationship with everyone hadn’t changed much. He’d already known about Alya, and Marinette and Adrien being Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t affect his opinion of them much. They were still just his friends, they were just a little more awesome than he’d known.

Alya, meanwhile, had grilled Adrien and Marinette on all the details for as many different akuma attacks as she could remember. She hadn’t put any of it on her blog, of course - it might be difficult to explain how she suddenly had such unrestricted access to the Heroes of Paris, plus some of the info could compromise them - but she was working on a series of interview questions that would allow Chat Noir and Ladybug to tell her (and the public) any info she’d gleaned during their stories that they thought would be useful or interesting for the public to know, without letting on just how MUCH she’d actually talked with the heroes. Within a week, the Ladyblog would have the biggest scoop yet.

As for hers and Adrien’s relationship... well they’d kissed a time or two. Or ten. But they weren’t ready to declare it publicly - not yet. Though the citizens of Paris HAD noticed a more... flirty change to their dynamic. When they were ready, they’d tell Alya and she’d get to break the news of Ladynoir’s canonicity to the world.

Sadly Adrien couldn’t spend much extra time with her, with how regimented his schedule was. Chat Noir on the other hand... well. He was an alley cat, he went where he pleased. And ‘where he pleased’ was usually running on the rooftops with Ladybug, or lounging around in Marinette’s room as she finished up her designs, occasionally scratching him behind the ears.

They’d even worked on homework together, though Chat had to be careful about transporting it. Wouldn’t want to lose it and have the same debacle as Marinette did with her history textbook.

She ran into class and was immediately confused. Nino was sitting with Alya, in her usual spot, Adrien was sitting way in the back by himself, and no one was in the front row.

Marinette walked up to Alya, confused. “What’s going on Alya? Why did Nino and Adrien change seats? And where do I sit?”

Alya took out her phone. “...You forgot to check your text messages this morning, didn’t you?”

Marinette blushed. “I slept past my alarm this morning. By the time Tikki woke me up, I only had 15 minutes to get dressed, eat, and run over here. I was lucky to remember to grab my phone, much less read the messages!”

Alya shook her head, grinning. “I figured it was something like that. Anyway, Lila texted me early this morning about how she was returning to school, and hinted about how her hearing issue would make things difficult and lamented at being ‘forced’ to sit in the front row. She hinted about how nice it would be if I could sit with my boyfriend, and if everyone else could sit with their best friends and partners as well. She proposed this huge rearrangement of everyone, which SOUNDED nice, until I realized that it would leave you by yourself and Lila - rather conveniently - with Adrien. I told her I’d talk to Ms. Bustier about rearranging the class to accommodate her hearing issue. She took that as me agreeing to her plan.”

“I’m not sure whether she really has a hearing issue - I’m NOT taking her at her word at anything - but since she told Ms. Bustier about this hearing issue, she’s not gonna have much choice BUT to sit her in the front row. And since Ms. Bustier wouldn’t dare ask Sabrina or Chloe to move for fear of upsetting the Mayor, that only leaves two options: move Nino or move Adrien. Now Lila would prefer for Nino to move so she can sit with Adrien. But I asked Adrien and Nino, and they naturally didn’t like that idea. Nino would have to sit alone in the back, and Adrien would have to sit with a liar. So I came up with the idea of moving Nino back a row to sit with me, and moving Adrien to the back instead. That way no one has to sit with Lila, and you have an excuse to sit next to Adrien!”

“I wanted to get your OK for the rearrangement since it involves moving your seat, but you weren’t answering your messages, sooo... I just went ahead and proposed it to Ms. Bustier privately, before she left to meet up with Lila and sort out some administrative stuff. I told her that I hadn’t managed to get ahold of you yet, but I was pretty sure you’d be fine with it, and that this seemed like the best arrangement to accommodate Lila’s disability and to let people sit with their friends. She agreed that she liked this arrangement better than just sending Adrien to the back like she’d originally planned.”

Alya winced slightly, giving a slightly wary expression. “I... hope you like what I did? I’m sorry I wasn’t able to ask your permission first-”

Marinette threw her arms around her best most AWESOME and wonderful friend in the world. “THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!” she shouted, squealing.

Then she raced up the steps to her new seat beside Adrien.

Alya chuckled. “Guess I didn’t need to worry.”

Nino joined in with her. “Told ya. Marinette’s very understanding. So long as you had good intentions and at least tried to ask her, I figured she’d be fine with it. Besides, this way she gets to spend more time with my bro!”

Marinette slid into her seat beside Adrien just as the classroom door opened. Lila and Ms. Bustier walked in.

Lila looked at the arrangements, seeming a little confused. “Ms. Bustier? What’s going on? I thought I’d be sitting in the front row with Adrien. Why’s he back there with Marinette?”

Ms. Bustier smiled. “Adrien volunteered to move to the back instead. I didn’t want Nino in the back, so I moved him back a row to sit with Alya. That leaves Marinette to sit in the back row with Adrien. And you get the whole front row to yourself!”

Lila shot Alya a withering look, before schooling her expression. “But Ms. Bustier...” Lila looked up at the teacher, clasping her hands together, attempting to give the saddest puppy dog eyes she could, “I’m SO behind on schoolwork, I could use some help from another student, and I heard that Adrien’s one of the best students in the class!”

“Well, class?” Ms. Bustier asked. “Would anyone like to volunteer to help Lila catch up?”

Marinette stood up.

“Would you like to help Lila, Marinette?”

Marinette spoke, “Yes, but not the way you’re talking about. I’e been thinking of setting up group study sessions for awhile. This seems like a good opportunity for it! As class rep I can help coordinate them, even if I can’t make it to every session.”

“Wonderful idea Marinette!” Ms. Bustier congratulated. “Well Lila, seems like you’ll get that help and more!”

Lila’s face looked slightly pinched, but she quickly relaxed and gave a friendly smile instead. “Thanks Marinette. That seems great.”

Lila took her seat in the front, and the lesson began.

During lulls in the lesson, when the teacher wasn’t looking, Adrien wrote Marinette a note.

Brilliant idea with the study sessions! Maybe if Lila sees that she doesn’t need to lie in order to make friends, she’ll stop doing it.

Marinette read his note and made a face. She quickly scribbled a note back.

That would be great kitty, but I’m not that optimistic. If she’s really just lonely and this helps get her to stop lying then great, but I’m not counting on it. I was thinking we could use it to keep an eye on her and who she’s with. I don’t trust her. I want to spend more time with her to find out what she’s like, and if she’s as bad as I think... well. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Adrien frowned after reading Marinette’s note, but didn’t reply. He wanted to believe the best in Lila. He wanted to believe the best in pretty much everyone. Chloe, his father... it was how he stayed sane. If he let himself believe that people were as bad as they seemed on the surface... well. Maybe it was best not to think about that. Getting akumatized would be insanely dangerous for both himself and his friends.

If His Lady was opting for caution, he’d follow her lead. He always did.

Lunchtime soon arrived. Adrien had to leave unfortunately. His father expected him to spend lunch at home rather than in the school cafeteria. Something about not trusting the school to give him high-quality healthy food. He’d told Marinette that would prefer to eat at school or at one of their houses, but pushing his father could be dangerous. It wasn’t worth risking being pulled out of school for.

Nino, Alya, and Marinette all sat together at a table, steeling wary glances at Lila’s table. Half the class was crowded around her, fetching her food and hanging on her every word.

“I think you were right about Lila,” Alya whispered to Marinette. “Sprained wrist or not, no one needs THAT much help fetching food. I did a quick search on manipulation tactics while texting Lila this morning, and one technique to get people to get people on your side was to ask for help with small things. It’s kinda like the ‘smiling to feel happy’ thing; your mind thinks that since you’re helping this person, you must be friends. It can be a useful effect, but I think Lila’s really taking advantage of it right now.”

“Do you think we should warn them?” Marinette whispered to Alya. “That she’s a liar, I mean.”

Nino cut in. “I don’t think that would work. Even with Marinette pointing out the problems in her lies during her videochats with the class, she didn’t manage to convince any of us that Lila was lying. It’s kinda weird. It seems so obvious that Lila was making it all up now, but back then... any excuse she made, any revision, it sounded so reasonable. I don’t think us just saying what Marinette said, but louder, is gonna work.”

“What can we DO then?!” Alya said through gritted teeth. “She’s lying through her teeth to our friends and we can’t do anything about it?”

Lila glanced over. Alya began to realize that she may have turned up her volume too high.

“Is someone lying, Alya? Who? It would simply be AWFUL if someone lied to your friends.” she asked innocently. She gasped. “OH! And I’m one of your friends, so they must be lying to me too! How horrible!”

“Wait, someone’s lying to us?” Kim exclaimed. “Who?”

Alya stood up, nearly growling. Marinette tried to pull her back down to her seat unsuccessfully. “SHE IS! Can’t you see how ludicrous her stories are? Rescuing Jagged Stone’s kitten from a runway, really? I checked Jagged’s bio. He’s NEVER had a kitten. He didn’t give it away to someone else, it never existed in the first place!”

Lila gasped. “You- you think I’m a liar! I-I-I thought we were friends? You’ve been stringing me along this whole time, letting me think we were friends, while you’ve secretly hated me? And he DID have that kitten, he just couldn’t BEAR any reminders of her, so he made sure to scrub all references to her from the internet. It causes him such pain to be reminded of the sweet little cat he couldn’t keep, he didn’t want to risk some fan of his seeing a news article about his little kitten and asking what happened to her. Technically I shouldn’t even be telling you guys any of this, but I know you guys wouldn’t bring it up with him, right? I can trust you all with this secret.”

“Of course Lila!”

“We’re honored that you’d trust us so much.”

“We’d NEVER bring up such a traumatic memory! Jagged must miss her sooo much.”

Then Kim, Sabrina, Max, Rose, Juleka, and Mylene turned to Alya.

Kim spoke first. “You pretended to be Lila’s friend, only to do THIS?! Not cool Alya, not cool.”

Rose seemed more sad than anything. “You- you really thought one of our friends would do that?”

Juleka glared at Alya. “Maybe YOU’RE the one who’s lying to her friends, Alya.”

Alya looked ready to blow a gasket. She stalked off, muttering about needing to use the bathroom. Marinette ran after her.

Nino stayed put, glaring at Lila. He wanted to leap in to protect Alya, but clearly this would need a more delicate touch to be effective.

Lila got up a moment later, excusing herself. He hoped she wasn’t going where he THOUGHT she was heading. But there wasn’t much he could do about it. He couldn’t exactly stop a girl from using the restroom, nor go in there with Alya. At least she was with Marinette. If anyone could help Alya, she could.

In the meantime, maybe he should talk with his classmates a bit more while Lila’s gone...

Alya paced around the women’s bathroom, ranting. “Has- has she got them HYPNOTIZED or something?! How are they falling for this? Is she secretly an akuma?”

Alya gasped, racing over to Marinette and clutching her arms. “That’s it! She’s an akuma!”

“Alya,” Marinette spoke. “I don’t think she’s an akuma. I think this is just her.”

“But then - why - how -”

The door opened. Marinette and Alya startled, faces quickly twisting to disgust when they saw who it was.

“Lila,” Alya spat. 

“Alya,” Lila replied innocently. “I thought we were friends. How- how could you lie to me about the seating, and then say such horrible things about me? Did SHE-” Lila glared daggers at Marinette “-turn you against me? Because-”

“Can it Lila,” Alya snapped. “Marinette didn’t need to ‘turn me against you’ or whatever you’ve told yourself. Your lies did that by themselves.”

“Oh, but I never lie,” Lila replied, dropping her faux innocent act. “At least, not as far as anyone else is concerned. I just tell people what they want to hear. Don’t act like you’re all high-and-mighty, miss star reporter. You weren’t so eager to fact check while I was giving you an exclusive scoop about Ladybug.”

Alya wanted to counter... but faltered. For once, Lila was speaking the truth. She HADN’T checked. She hadn’t even tried. She wanted it to be true so badly, she just... didn’t want to try to check.

Lila leaned in close. “You shouldn’t have crossed me. I was going to offer both of you a choice, but after the stunt you pulled in class and that little blow-up at lunch? Forget it. Making everyone want to be friends with me, want to help me in every way they can, believe everything I tell them, no matter how ludicrous? That’s my talent. I hope you two are good friends, because soon, you won’t have any others left. Not even your boyfriends. Oh, and Adrien’s MINE.”

“You’re wrong.” 

“Excuse me?” Lila snapped. “Do you really think YOU can stop me, Marinette? You’ve been trying for the past several months, and where has that gotten you? Face it. You two are screwed.”

Marinette glared at Lila with a steely look in her eyes. A very familiar steely look.

Alya smiled. Marinette was Ladybug, with or without the mask.

“I feel sorry for you, Lila. Have you ever HAD any real friends? Ever? Or was everyone just a pawn to you? You don’t seem to get it. Make us lose all our friends? Well. You can try. But even if you somehow succeeded, we’d still be better off than you. Because we’d both still have one true friend. And you? You don’t have any.”

“But you wouldn’t succeed. Not everyone is your pawn, Lila. Not everyone will fall for your tricks. And we’ll be there to help the people who ARE tricked to realize the truth. Lies can’t last forever, Lila. They catch up to you sooner or later. And if the reason for your lies is to boost your status at others expense? If it’s to alienate people from their friends? The fallout will be BAD. Maybe you can fool some of them for awhile. But not forever. The truth will crash down on you and set us free.”

Lila blinked for a moment, seeming taken aback. Evidently she hadn’t expected her marks to actually RESIST her. She gritted her teeth. Then she smiled. “Well... maybe. If you’re still around at that point.”

She walked towards the door, leaving one last comment before exiting. “You’re going to regret making an enemy of me, Marinette, Alya.”

Both of them glared at her as she walked out the door. They breathed twin sighs of relief.

“Thanks girl,” Alya told Marinette, a relieved smile on her face. “I don’t know if I could’ve handled her on my own. She can really get in your head.”

“You’re one of the bravest, most headstrong people I know, Alya. I think you would’ve managed. But you shouldn’t have to. We’re in this together.”

“We’d better head back to the cafeteria in a few minutes, then,” Alya said. “Nino’s gotta be getting worried.”

Marinette was puzzled. “Why in a few minutes?”

Alya chuckled. “Did you forget why I needed to come here in the first place?”

Marinette blinked. “I- I thought that was just an excuse to get away from Lila.”

Alya shrugged. “Well, that too. Not that it worked. Anyway, I’ll try to be quick. I doubt anything major will happen in the next three minutes.”

“You’ve jinxed it,” Marinette muttered.

Lila stormed out, frustrated. Who did those- those two little NOBODIES think they were?! Oh they’d pay for their insolence. That Marinette especially talked a big game, but when push came to shove, she’d crumble.

As she was walking back towards the lunchroom she spotted a familiar mop of blond hair. She grinned. Perfect.

She ran over to him, attaching herself to his arm. “Oh Adrien! I heard you were a GREAT pianist. My uncle was the renowned pianist Chuch Boroughchuck. He tried to teach me but I got arthritis and couldn’t play anymore. But once my wrist gets better maybe you can teach me!”

Adrien frowned. “You should really go to a piano teacher if you want to learn, I don’t know much about tutoring and I’m still learning myself.”

“Oh, but I’m sure you’d make a wonderful teacher Adrien. Anything you’d be able to teach me would be great.”

Adrien sighed. “That’s not all, Lila. I’d be happy to be friends with you, but please don’t lie to me or my friends? You don’t need to lie to get people to like you, we’ll like you perfectly fine if you just tell the truth.”

Lila stared at him for a moment. “Ladybug’s the liar! Alya and Marinette put you up to this, didn’t they?!”

Adrien stalled. “Uhh...”

That was enough for Lila. She smiled sweetly. “It’s okay, a lot of people have been fooled by them. They act sweet, but they’re secretly looking for a chance to backstab at any moment. They just see people like us as tools to use to increase their social standing and get what they want.”

Adrien’s face darkened. “Lila. I think you should leave.”

She tossed her hair. “Just think about it.”

He gave her a withering look. “Lying to get help or to look good is one thing, but trying to get me to turn on my friends? That’s something else entirely.”

“Hmph.” She strutted out the door, pausing for a moment at the threshold. “You’ll soon see that I’m right.”

“Don’t bet on it,” he bit back.

She seethed internally as she walked back towards the cafeteria. What was WITH these people today?! She’d expected all of them to fold easily except MAYBE Marinette, but by herself she’d be easy to deal with. Instead she had two enemies reinforcing each other and one resistant mark who wasn’t bending like she expected him to! Today was NOT going as planned.

She looked up in time to spot a black-and-purple butterfly headed towards her. She smiled. Maybe today not going as she’d planned could be a good thing after all.

Alya and Marinette had just begun walking back to the lunchroom when they ran into Adrien. Or so they thought for about two seconds, until he opened his mouth.

“Hey girls! I need to tell you something,” he called out in a nasty tone of voice. “You both are the most wretched excuses for human beings I’ve ever met! I’ve finally figured out who my REAL friends are.”

Alya and Marinette exchanged a look. This akuma was NOT subtle. Either they’d mind-controlled Adrien in some way, or the person in front of them was a fake. 

Not-Adrien continued, seemingly oblivious to their realization. “And don’t think I don’t know about your little shared lie with Ladybug! Tell her to come to the Eiffel Tower. I’m gonna put on quite a show. If not... well. You’ll see exactly how awful a person she really is.”

He turned and jumped off the railing, easily jumping 50 feet in a single bound.

The girls sweat-dropped. How on EARTH did the akuma think that would fool them? Regular humans couldn’t leap over tall buildings in a single bound!

“I’ll... see if I can get in contact with the real Adrien.” Alya mentally translated that to I’ll go transform into Ladybug and try to call Chat Noir. “In the meantime, can you look for him? Just be careful of the akuma, we don’t know exactly what its powers are!”

“Come on girl, me? Not be careful of akumas?”

Marinette gave her a flat look. Alya laughed. “Okay, okay, fair enough. I really WILL try to be careful. Honest!”

Marinette gave her a suspicious look, but ran off.

Alya hurried to the lunchroom. Nino would want to know about this.

Nino frowned as he exited from the lunchroom. His talks with his classmates had been pretty concerning. They seemed convinced that the reason for his refusal to believe Lila, for sticking up for Alya, was just because Alya was his girlfriend. Which, okay, wasn’t exactly IRRELEVANT, but it wasn’t the whole reason either! He couldn’t prove Lila was lying about her claims. He’d brought up how unlikely some of them seemed to be, but that hardly seemed to faze them. They just pointed to how unlikely their lives had been these past few months. He had to admit, Lila being best friends with Prince Ali DID sound more likely than cat and insect themes superheroes fighting against a butterfly villain, and that wasn’t even going into some of the ridiculousness the akumas were responsible for. 

He had at least managed to caution them about relying on Lila’s promises too much, telling them that even if Lila was telling the truth about everything, famous people tended to be very busy and they may not be able to do what Lila asked. Hopefully that would stop Lila from disappointing them too greatly. Nino might be annoyed at his classmates for taking Lila’s side so unthinkingly, for falling for her lies so easily, but he wasn’t about to forget that he did the same. He might still have believed her if one of her lies hadn’t been so prominently and obviously exposed. They didn’t deserve to be hurt by Lila.

He spotted Alya running towards him. Alarm bells started ringing in his head. 

“Alya? What’s going on?”

She stopped in front of him, huffing slightly from exertion. “Some sort of not-Adrien is running around pretending to be Adrien. Very, very poorly. Ladybug’s gonna try to get ahold of the real Adrien and take care of the akuma. She asked me to look around for the real Adrien. Any ideas where he might be.?”

Nino paused for a second. It was highly unlikely, but... “Well this would be about the time he comes back from lunch, so since he didn’t head back here, maybe the locker room?”

Alya shrugged. “Worth a shot. Unlikely we’ll find him, but we might as well do SOMETHING.”

They raced off towards the locker room.

The locker room appeared empty when they arrived. They were about to leave when they heard “Plagg! Claws out!” coming from one of the lockers and saw a green flash. Chat Noir burst out the locker.

He skidded to a halt. “Alya! Nino! Lila’s been akumatized again. She knocked me out. Have you seen her?”

Alya nodded. “She shapeshifted or made an illusion or something to look like you. She did a very bad job of it though, she acted totally different. She’s heading towards the Eiffel Tower now. Ladybug was going to follow her.”

“Got it! Thanks!” Chat raced off.

“Well that’s one problem taken care of,” Nino noted. He turned to his girlfriend. “While we wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir to take care of Lila, let me tell you what I’ve been up to.”

Alya nodded. “I have a story for you too.”

Marinette and Adrien got back to school in good time. Lila was one of the more quickly defeated akumas, fortunately. UNfortunately, that also meant that Lila managed to get back to school in plenty of time as well, so she still had the opportunity to regale her avid fans with fantastic tales.

Marinette, Adrien, Alya, and Nino watched her, looks of distaste on their faces.

“They really are buying this,” Alya muttered disbelievingly as Lila talked about what great friends she and Ladybug were. “How did I ever fall for it? It seems so obvious now that she’s lying.”

“I don’t know,” Nino sighed. 

“-Ladybug brought me an earplug to stick in my right ear to help with my tinnitus-”

“Right ear?!” Alya perked up. “She just said she has Tinnitus in her right ear! but when we were texting earlier, she said it was in her left ear! I have her now!”

“Wait!” Adrien called out as she was standing up. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Alya looked back at him. “Why not?!”

Adrien sighed. “What do you think will happen afterwards?”

Alya blinked. “What do you mean?”

Adrien looked over at Lila. “After you expose her lie, what do you think Lila will do? What will happen to her? Even if this is enough to bring her lies down - and judging by what you guys told me of what happened in the cafeteria, I don’t think it would be - what would happen then? She’d still be at our school. She’d still be in our class. Hawkmoth would still be around, easily able to akumatize her if she’s upset. It wouldn’t solve the problem. It would just make Lila more upset and likely to lash out.”

Alya gritted her teeth. She hated it, but she had to admit that Adrien had a point. Unless Lila did something bad enough to get her thrown out of school or for her mother to withdraw her, they were stuck with the liar. But still... “What do you suggest we do then? Stand back and let her lie to everyone?”

He gestured at Lila. “As long as her lies aren’t hurting anyone, does it really matter? At least we know the truth. She can’t turn us against each other. I think - so long as we stay out of her way, she won’t go after us as much. That might stop her from telling as many malicious lies.”

Alya, Nino, and Marinette stared at him. 

Nino broke the silence. “Dude. No. Her lies ARE hurting them. Like when she talked to me last time she was in school, she told me about how she could introduce me to all these famous directors. But since I’m betting she was lying, she wouldn’t have been able to do that. If I’d been more invested in what she’d told me - if she’d had longer to spin her lies - it would’ve hurt a lot more to figure out that she’d been lying the whole time, that she was making me promises she never had any intention of fulfilling, that she was playing me for a fool. Those kinds of lies might not be as bad as the ones meant to deliberately harm others, but they ain’t harmless. How would you feel if someone promised you they’d arrange something you were really looking forward to and then canceled at the last moment?”

Adrien looked down, shuffling his feet. 

Marinette let out a small breath as she realized why. “He canceled the lunch meeting again, didn’t he?”

He looked away. “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

“Dude, it’s not okay,” Nino told him. “If your old man says he can eat with you, then he should eat with you. How many times has he scheduled to have a meal with you and then canceled it?”

“Four times,” Adrien said quietly.

Nino frowned. “Only four? I thought it had happened a lot more often than that.”

Adrien winced. “Four times since we last ACTUALLY ate together. Which was three months ago.” 

Marinette made a small noise. It very much sounded like she was trying to hold in a yell. “That’s not right Kitty. That’s- that’s really not right.”

Adrien gave a sad smile. “Like I said, I’m used to it. I just assume he won’t come. That way I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he DOES come through.”

Nino grimaced. “That doesn’t make it any better dude. Now I kinda see where you’re coming from. But it ISN’T right. Your dad telling you he wants to eat with you and then constantly canceling hurts. Don’t tell me it doesn’t. And so would Lila lying, saying she can get someone something when she really can’t. It’s not that Lila setting people up for disappointment is okay because your father does it to you, so it MUST be okay. It’s NOT okay in either case. Lila’s wrong. And so is your father.”

Adrien gulped, but nodded. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. He’d never liked his father canceling meals with him. He tried to tell himself that his father really was just busy. That he wasn’t just- just the least important thing in his life. The thing least worthy of his time. To hear someone telling him that his father was wrong? That his father shouldn’t do that? He didn’t quite know WHAT to feel. He liked that he had some other people who’d affirmed that he was right to feel this way. But it was making it harder to keep his composure if he couldn’t pretend that everything was fine.

“Your father is also the reason you said to stay out of Lila’s way and not provoke her, right?” Marinette asked softly.

Adrien nodded reluctantly. “After mother disappeared, father would go into these wild rages. Not like that,” he said hastily, seeing the looks on his friends faces. “He’d destroy property, stuff around the manor. He never hurt me. But sometimes... sometimes I was afraid that he might. I tried asking him questions once about why she disappeared, why she hadn’t returned. He yelled at me to go to my room. I heard strange sounds of things being thrown around and broken. I took a peek in the room.”

“I saw my father surrounded by broken statues and pottery. Worse than that, though, were the broken and torn pictures. Pictures of me. Pictures of mom. Pictures of all three of us together. A lot of them were still intact in picture frames, but some of them had been smashed. After that I quietly snuck back to my room and didn’t make a sound. He seemed to be back to his normal self the next day. I stayed on my best behavior, making sure to do everything he asked of me, trying not to speak out of turn, and never asking questions about mom.”

“That was the last time in a while that he’d thrown a fit... until I lost his book. He grounded me, telling me he couldn’t trust me, taking me out of school. I stayed in my room until I heard stuff breaking. I ran out, thinking an akuma had attacked. Nathalie stopped me, informing me that father was busy. But I knew the truth. I’d messed up. I’d lost his book. And now he was breaking things, destroying things, because of what I’d done.”

Adrien took a deep, shuddering breath. “And then he became akumatized because of what I’d done. It was my fault. If I hadn’t taken the book - if I hadn’t lost it - that wouldn’t have happened. I was to blame. If I hadn’t set him off, none of that would’ve happened. If I’d just done what I was told, stayed away from that safe, wasn’t curious about the contents, that wouldn’t have happened. If I was a better SON, that wouldn’t have happened.”

Adrien turned to Nino. “Fighting back directly doesn’t work. You saw that when you advocated for throwing me a birthday party. It just got you banned from the house. If you provoke the person it just makes things worse, at least if you have to live with them afterwards.”

Nino blinked at him. “This explains so much.”

Adrien tilted his head, confused. “It does?”

Nino nodded, putting a hand on Adrien’s shoulder and staring him in the eyes. “I always wondered why you didn’t try to rebel more, or more obviously anyway. If this is how you feel, it makes sense. But dude, that doesn’t make it okay. I see why you keep your head down with your old man - I’ve EXPERIENCED why you keep your head down with your old man - but it’s NOT your fault. It’s his. Don’t you EVER blame yourself for what HE does.”

Adrien nodded mutely. He wasn’t entirely sure he believed it, but... if Nino was saying it... maybe it was right?

Nino continued. “But, dude, the Lila situation isn’t quite the same. Lila’s likely to stick around whether she’s exposed or not, but she doesn’t have the same sort of power that your father has over you. At the end of the day, she is JUST another student. She’s a problem now because she’s been able to manipulate other people to go along with her. But if she’s exposed, she loses that. She’d still be a threat - desperate people are some of the most dangerous - but she wouldn’t have as many resources to use to harm us or others. There would be a lot of danger of her getting akumatized, but if we just let her do what she wants, there’s a large danger of her VICTIMS being akumatized, including us. Until Hawkmoth’s defeated, we just gotta deal with that.”

Adrien was quiet for a moment, then sighed. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought about it like that. So... what do YOU think we should do?”

Nino thought for a moment. “I don’t think you were far off. Just going after her head on the second you spot a hole in one of her lies doesn’t work. She can just twist things around to make you look like the bad guy. Alya’s confrontation with her in the cafeteria proved that.” 

Alya made a face.

Nino continued, “But I WAS able to talk with some of our classmates, and hopefully make them think a little. Caution them a bit. I don’t know how well it worked, but it’s better than nothing, and a lot better than being thought of as the bad guy and having the whole class hate us. So for now, we mostly keep our heads down. We monitor what sort of lies she’s telling so we know what we’re dealing with. We keep track of contradictions, compile concrete evidence. If we have enough of it, hopefully she’ll have a hard time wiggling out of it. And if she gets REALLY bad, Ladybug could always appear and expose some of her prominent lies.”

Marinette shuffled uncomfortably. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. That didn’t go well last time.”

Nino smiled at her. “Depends what you mean. Yeah Lila got angry and became akumatized, but Adrien never fell for her tricks after that. And because Alya and I knew she was lying about that, neither did we. It does increase the likelihood of her sneaking around and trying to harm Ladybug, but she ALREADY hates Ladybug. I dunno how much difference it would really make. And like I said, that’s only for if Lila gets too bad. It would definitely be better not to bring a superhero into this if we can help it.”

“So for now, we watch. We wait. And when the time is right, we strike.”

The four of them went back to class soon after, taking their new seats. Alya glanced over at the two lovebirds in the back row, smiling at each other, laughing, just enjoying each other’s company. She smiled, then turned back to face the front, eyes landing on the back of Lila’s head. Her smile turned into something more vicious. Let Adrien and Marinette just relax. They had enough on their plate without dealing with the Lila situation. 

She exchanged a meaningful look with Nino. She was glad she’d changed the seat arrangement so that both of them were behind Lila. This way they’d have a front row seat to Lila’s lies and the best ability to keep track of her machinations. 

Lila thought she’d be able to tear Alya and Marinette from her friends? She’d better be ready to bring it. Alya was never one to back down from a fight.