Chapter Text
Marinette beamed at her green-eyed son - his eyes were just like his father’s - as he took his first steps.
“Damian,” she called out into the apartment. “Hurry up, Elijah’s taking his first steps!”
Within seconds, her husband of five years was by her side, grinning at their son.
Elijah turned his big forest-green eyes at the two of them, as he held out his hands, trying to catch them.
Marinette smiled giddily at him, cooing as he took shaky steps towards her.
“Come on, mon cheri , you can do it!”
Elijah grinned at her toothily, attempting to walk faster now.
All of a sudden, he tripped over a stray toy and was about to fall flat on his face when strong arms caught him.
“Nice try, Eli,” Damian cradled Elijah in his arms. “Amazing for the first time.”
Marinette beamed at the almost-identical pair, snapping a picture of them both.
Elijah gurgled happily and laughed as Damian tickled him.
Awwing, Marinette huffed slightly when her phone rang.
“Hello?” she asked, still snapping pictures of Damian and Elijah.
Chloe Bourgeois’s haughty voice was heard over the phone. Damn, Marinette hadn’t spoken to her in years. “Wayne. Turn on the news channel right now.”
Shooting an odd look at the phone, Marinette groped for the remote, switching on the TV.
Alya Cesaire yelled loudly as the police escorted her from the mental hospital.
“You can’t do this-” She was yelling furiously, struggling. “I am a reporter and have every right to-”
The captain crossed his arms and glared at the so-called reporter. “Actually, Mdm. Cesaire, we have every right to, especially after the four warnings we have issued. As of now, Alya Cesaire you are under arrest.”
Alya gaped at the man in front of her, protests momentarily stopped. “ What? But you can’t arrest me-”
She blinked owlishly as the flash of a camera was used on her. A mildly but still qualified reporter held the microphone out to her and asked questions in rapid succession. “Mdm. Cesaire, how does it feel to be-”
“That’s enough.” The captain said sternly, ordering his men to take the prisoner to the van.
Alya was still blinking as she was shoved into the van, handcuffs tightened on her wrists.
How-how did it even come to this?
In high-school, she was famous for her blog, not in famous. Millions of people followed her blog daily, Alya was on her way to become a famous reporter.
Then Lila came. And she had so many amazing stories to share, and Alya shared it for her. She didn’t understand why no one would believe her.
Lila would never lie to her… wouldn’t she ?
Nino Lahiffe sighed as Alya was dragged off by the police. To be honest, he never really understood how Alya could still believe Lila after Marinette blew up at them like that.
After that, he looked up everything she had told him - and only god knows why he hadn’t done it before. Every single thing she had told him was a lie and Nino knew he had completely and utterly destroyed his relationship with the single-most kind person in his class.
Obviously, seeing as Marinette was going to take time to forgive him - they would never be friends after this - Nino just sent her a sincere apology through a voice message. She sent him a reply after a few months and Nino left it at that.
She was a famous designer now and Nino was making his way up the music industry, his previous progress restored.
He still kept in touch with his previous classmates, checking in every now and then with them, but he had a new group of friends now, people who had the same interests as him.
Sighing as he switched the TV off, Nino put his headphones back on and started to work again.
Mylene nudged Ivan as they sorted the books out on their table quietly.
“Look who’s on the national news.”
Ivan looked up from labelling the books and rolled his eyes at the familiar woman on the screen. “Honestly, when will she come to her senses? For god’s sake, Rossi’s checked into a mental hospital.”
Mylene shrugged, not really caring about it anymore. Although she hadn’t achieved her dreams at the scale she wanted to, it was enough and she was happy.
At least Lila didn’t take that away from them. She had torn their class to pieces - all of them were too guilty of what they did to look each other in the eyes.
The memories were too overwhelming.
Juleka scoffed as she took a sip of water, muttering under her breath, “What an idiot.”
Rose looked up, her eyes also hardening when she saw Alya on the screen. She was thrashing around, her eyes wild and unfocused. “She should get chucked in the mental hospital with Lila.”
Nodding her agreement, Juleka slipped on the outfit she was going to model into - thankfully, Lila didn’t have much of an effect on her and Rose - and kissed her wife on the cheek. “I’ll see you later?”
Rose smiled at her, the thrashing girl on the screen completely forgotten.
Marc furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the computer screen. “Hey, Nath, love, isn’t that Alya?”
Nathaniel looked up from the sketch he was shading. “Who now?”
“Alya,” Marc repeated, “Alya Cesaire?”
Paying attention to what Marc was talking about now, Nathaniel shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t really remember her, to be honest.”
Marc rolled his eyes fondly, kissing his boyfriend on the forehead. “You have the worst memory.”
Nathaniel smiled teasingly at him. “But you still love me.”
“That I do, but sometimes, I wonder why.” Marc said fondly.
Alix paused in her usual exercises when she saw the TV screen in front of her.
“Hey guys,” she said, uncertainly - her memory was terrible. “Isn’t that Alya?”
Max turned his head and pushed his glasses up his nose, holding his laptop carefully. “Yes, I believe that is her.”
Kim scoffed, chugging down a bottle of water. “What a maniac. She still hasn’t seen that Lila was lying.”
Alix rolled her eyes and nodded her agreement. How she was blinded by Lila’s lies she would never know.
Although Lila had made a dent in her skating progress, Alix still managed to fix it and push ahead and now, she was making a name for herself in the skating world.
Max was repairing his reputation as a computer programmer, the trust of his clients slowly being restored.
Kim was the one who was affected the worst out of the three of them, but he was also moving forward now. He had won some championships in swimming, and was slowly making his way to the top.
Lila had left her scars on all of them, and Alix didn’t care for Alya if she still believed her.
Adrien Agreste shook his head in amazement as Alya was dragged away by the police.
He turned to the Gorilla, his only companion from his teenage years, and asked him, “Do you think I should help her?”
The Gorilla sighed and shook his head firmly.
Leaning back, so the makeup artist could wipe his face, Adrien wondered when Alya would realize she was in the wrong.
He certainly did over the years. First he lost all of his friends. Then his miraculous - and later, Adrien would realize how much he obsessed over Ladybug. And finally, two of the three parental figures in his life.
Adrien did some serious thinking and looked for a therapist. He certainly wasn’t perfect - he never would be - but he was getting better.
Caline Bustier sighed as she mopped the floors of the school.
The teacher in the class next to hers was speaking to the students, teaching them, much like she did years ago.
After the whole Lila Rossi debacle, she was fired and spent 6 months in jail.
Her teaching career was practically incinerated after that, and in order to have a small piece of her dream, Caline worked as a cleaner in a school.
She had no other credits to her name other than her teaching diploma and after that was gone, there was no choice anyway.
Her phone rang with an alert, and Caline sighed as she saw her former student being dragged away by the police.
Lila Rossi grit her teeth in anger as the nurse came back and checked her vitals.
Screaming to be set free, her eyes glowed with hate and loathing. The nurse sighed again, mumbling something like, “Not again.”
Incensed even more, Lila banged her hands on the window separating them after she attacked the last one. “Let me out! Let me out - my friend, Alya, Alya Cesaire is there to check me out-”
“Mdm. Cesaire,” the nurse said, backing away from the insane woman. “Has been arrested for trespassing.”
Disbelievingly, Lila banged her fists again, shaking her head in refusal. “Impossible, impossible -”
The nurse turned on the TV and as Alya was dragged away, Lila Rossi howled in anger, stuck in the room she deserved to be in.
Chloe Bourgeois smirked as Cesaire was dragged off into the vehicle. She’d have to thank the nurse for letting her know what was going to happen.