Chapter Text
Hawkmoth had sent out an akuma, Lila, confident that he would finally win since Ladybug always needed Chat Noir to help her whenever fighting her. What he didn’t expect was for her to have another black cat out already.
The new one, which looked like a girl, looked more serious than Chat Noir did in his whole life. She had Lila pinned down and still within minutes, grabbing her akuma without Ladybug’s help. The fight was over within minutes, leading anyone to believe that the new cat miraculous holder, whatever their name was, was a much better one than the one they had. But some people didn’t want to believe that, since they were set on the idea of Ladynoir.
When purified, Ladybug looked down at Lila. There were reporters up there within seconds, but she didn’t pay them any mind at all. “What caused you to get akumatized this time?” She asked in the voice she would say to any Parisian.
Lila called upon her crocodile tears. “Marinette threatened me again, so I got akumatized in fear.” She said, fake sobbing. Ladybug rolled her eyes and responded to her.
“I saw Mlle. Dupain-Cheng with Mlle. Tsurgi in my civilian form before I was called upon your akuma form. Do you want to tell the truth this time?” Ladybug asked, already knowing the truth. Lila glared at her from under her covered hands, but it wasn’t caught upon any of the cameras around them.
“Ladybug, who’s your new partner?” Nadia asked, pointing the microphone towards her.
Ladybug smiled and pointed towards her partner/best friend. “This is my partner,” She started off, wanting her to finish for herself.
“Hageshī Jagā.” She answered, coldly. Some of the reporters backed away from her, but Nadia and her cameraman stayed.
“We don’t want to keep you here long, but I just want to say that with your new partner, you’ll capture Hawkmoth in no time. May I get your pronouns so I don’t call you something you’re not comfortable with?” Nadia asked, finishing up with what she was filming.
Ladybug gave her a small smile, while Hageshī Jagā broke from the frown on her face onto something that softened. Marinette still kept contact with Nadia and Manon, wanting to see how the girl she babysitted was doing, and they were still as nice as ever. Kagami knew of them and knew that she would trust Marinette with them alone instead of letting her go there with someone she trusted.
“She/they.” The two superheroes responded at the same time before leaving. Nadia ended her livestream, and the heroes left towards Marinette balcony, happy about the trial of events in the day.
“Mlle. Rossi, how much is your grasp in this class of yours?” Gabriel asked Lila in one of their weekly meetings.
“It only has three friends that I know of. Brat Bourgeois, that fencer girl, and the shy kid’s brother.” She didn’t even bother to remember their names since they weren’t important in her mind. “Even if Adrien broke up with her, she somehow managed to somehow date the youngest Wayne, or whatever.” She had caught Gabriel’s interest with her words. “Which should be me, but it will be once I figure out how to get him to stop looking at me like I killed his mother.” Lila ranted.
Gabriel thought of something. “Mlle. Rossi, I need you to get evidence, or whatever you need, of Mlle. Dupain-Cheng doing of what you young people would call cheating.” Gabriel told her. Lila lit up and thought of a million and one ways to destroy her relationship with the Wayne. “She will be my most powerful akuma yet, if she would crack. After all, she can’t be alright after holding in her emotions for years.” Gabriel thought aloud.
“First, rude.” Lila told him standing up from her seat. She was right there. “Second off, if you ever do ever get to akumatize her, what makes you think she won’t cross you?” Gabriel looked at her confused. “She’s been holding in her emotions for years, which would make her a powerful akuma. She wouldn’t go after everyone, she would go after you for making her be like that. Even if you can control them, what makes you think that you could control her? Her emotions would make her much more powerful than you, making you nothing in what she has planned for.” Lila said, leaving the room. Gabriel thought about what she said, but thought that she would be too into letting out her emotions that she wouldn’t dare disobey him.
It was Friday, and Marinette was wanting the day to be over as soon as possible. Yesterday, Lila was sending her secret smirks the whole day, like she had something planned. Marinette thought about everything, but she couldn’t think of anything that Lila would do that she hadn’t done yet.
Marinette was talking to Damian, since she was with him that morning because she wouldn’t be seeing him until tomorrow because of her sleepover, when Lila started talking loudly.
Lila, who was close to their group intentionally, started talking loudly to Alya. “Oh it’s awful Alya.” Lila started. “I caught Marinette out with another boy yesterday.” She practically yelled, hoping to catch Damian’s attention.
Damian ignored her because he knew she wasn’t worth a grain of salt. He continued to talk to Marinette, who obviously ignored her as well. “I’ll see you tomorrow Malaki.” Damian told her, after kissing her forehead.
Lila saw that she wasn’t getting the attention she wanted from the couple and continued speaking. “She was kissing them and it looked like she was going much farther than that with a random person off the street!” Lila claimed. The duo didn’t even bother sparing her a glance.
“Where do you get these nicknames from? And what do they mean?” Marinette asked Damian, staring into his eyes.
“They’re in my native tongue Habibiti.” Damian responded. “Malaki means my angel,” He started. Marinette just stared at him, flushed, not knowing of the passersby around them, looking at the four weirdly. “Jamila means beautiful.” He told her, never taking his eyes off of hers. “And you’ll learn what Habibiti means in due time.” He told her. Marinette gave him a pout which he shouldn’t have found cute..
Around them, Lila was talking abnormally loud and noticed she wasn’t getting anywhere. She stopped talking and let Alya say what she did. They were walking to class, not wanting to be late.
Adrien came to school early, like always. He saw that Lila was talking loud and Marinette was with this guy he didn’t know. Well, he knew of him, but he didn’t know him personally. He didn’t understand. She was just so happy without him, and it all happened so fast. Sure, he moved on to Lila, but he didn’t love her. Marinette knew!
He saw the way Marinette was staring at him. It brought pain within his heart. He never stared at Lila that way. It just wasn’t fair! He wasn’t jealous, after he broke up with her. He thinks? He was never sure.
He could talk to her after school! Everyone would be gone, granting them privacy, and heh could ask if she was really in another relationship so fast, and if she was happy. But she clearly wasn’t! She was moving on too fast for his liking, but it never hurt to ask.
Everyone in Mrs. Bustier’s class was doing what they did best, being rambunctious. Everyone was talking, only two about something they were supposed to be talking about, and yet, they never got a complaint from another teacher.
“Marinette!” The girl in question turned her head towards the familiar voice, rolling her eyes at them. “Why can’t you stay a loyal partner to the people you’re supposedly with. First it’s Adrien, then you cheat on him with the youngest Wayne, and now you’re cheating on him? You’re probably with someone who has more money, seeing as there is a trend.” Marinette looked at the girl, Alya, blinking slowly in disbelief at what she was saying. “That’s right. Lila told me all about it. You probably don’t care about them and only their money.” Alya called out.
“You’re with Damian, huh?” Chloe said, elbowing her. Marinette put her head in her hands from the embarrassment, while Chloe started laughing. “I’m kidding. No one could ever love that demon.”
Marinette, after she gained her composure, looked at Alya. “I couldn’t care less about what Lila saw, and if she saw that, she definitely needs glasses because that never happened.” Marinette told her.
“Wait, that’s a bad idea. Alya has them and is still blind to the things in front of her.” Chloe pointed out..
“Point taken.” Marinette told her. “Are you ever going to stop taking things at face value? You’ll never be a good reporter if you keep doing that.” Marinette commented.
“That’s enough Marinette!” Caline called out, interrupting the argument.
Marinette rolled her eyes at her teacher’s attempt to actually be a teacher, but stopped nonetheless. She turned towards Chloe, and whispered something in her ear that made them both laugh and forget the idiots in their class.
“Marinette?” Adrien asked her after class. There was no one around. “Are you really with that guy? Damian?”
Marinette answered him, knowing that he would continue to annoy her with questions. “Yes I am. You shouldn’t have a problem with that, after all, you’re with Lila now, aren’t you?” Marinette asked him, raising an eyebrow. Adrien sputtered a response, but it wasn’t denial to her statement.
“Goodbye Adrien. I have to go somewhere where people actually need me.” Marinette told him before leaving class.