Chapter Text
Marinette and Lila spent that entire day sitting together. More than a few of their classmates came over to try and apologize, but Marinette ignored them all. She was done wasting her time on sociopaths. Adrien, in particular, had been trying to catch her eye the entire day, leading Lila to whisper- very loudly- “Hey, Mari, I think Adrien’s hitting on you!” Marinette burst out laughing, and Adrien slunk away, bright red. The only other person she spoke to that day was Chloe, during lunch.
“Dupain-Cheng. Rossi.” Marinette glanced up, seeing Chloe standing there. Lila’s eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth to tell her to get lost, but Marinette put a hand on her arm to stop her.
“She believed me,” Marinette said quietly. Lila’s eyebrows shot up.
“Her? Out of everyone?”
“Well, obviously. Anyone could see that your stories were utterly ridiculous.” Chloe dropped into the seat next to them without asking. “Daddy didn’t want me to switch in mid-year, but I just sent him the video of you and Cesaire, and he finally agreed that this school is awful, so I’m finishing collège privately and going somewhere else for lycée.”
Marinette blinked. “Wait. You filmed us?”
“And other things. All of them enough to permanently shut the school down and ruin Cesaire’s life. I can publish them, if you want.”
Marinette and Lila exchanged looks. “Actually… I think I have a better idea.” Lila held out her hand. “Can I borrow your phone?”
“Why?”
Lila smirked. “Cause we’re going to sue this school, and that entire class, into the ground. Karma’s sweet.”
A slow grin spread over Chloe’s face. “I think I can help you with that. You don’t have a lawyer yet, do you?”
They spent the rest of lunch plotting gleefully. By the time they were done, they had a solid course of action. Class was almost beginning by then, so Marinette excused herself and ducked into the bathroom to talk to Tikki.
“I never thought it would be Chloe who helped you,” the kwami admitted. “But I guess if she’s willing to put the past behind her, that’s something.”
“Yeah. Thing is, if we do this, that video of me calling out Lila- as Ladybug- is sure to surface. So why not preempt them?”
Tikki frowned. “I don’t know… you want to publicly censure them as Ladybug? That’s a bit risky- what if someone makes the connection to Marinette?”
“They shouldn’t. Nobody would dream that sweet, heroic Ladybug is the same person as Marinette, whichever version of her they think of me as.”
“Well, if you really want to then I won’t stop you. Just be careful.”