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I call this AU “The Liar’s New BFF AU”
So in this AU, things go a little differently. Lila still gets called out by Ladybug, though.
But how Lila lies in this when she comes back is different because Alya uses her brain and immediately goes ‘there is no way Ladybug, who is extremely uptight about secret identities, would let her best friend know her identity, much less blab about it.’ And as such, Alya is set on the path of figuring out her lies, and OH BOY SHE’S PISSED. And she starts calling Lila out hard, with her good friend google. Lila doesn’t stand a chance, and now no one believes a word coming out of her mouth. Especially with how overboard Alya is going, because we know how she can get.
She’s the class pariah, and Lila now has a huge grudge not only against Adrien and Ladybug, but the whole class, and especially Alya. To her, they are the worst of the worst. That’s gonna be important later.
Marinette of course is best girl and tries to offer Lila a chance to be good, by confronting her after class and offering her friendship again, this time as Marinette. She sits with her, breaks her bread from lunch in half, and offers her the bigger half, telling her that it wasn’t fair that they treated her like that. Cause it really wasn’t. But Marinette is fine with being her friend, even though she lied, if Lila will have her.
And Lila is gobsmacked, having never been offered what she sees as genuine kindness before. With Ladybug, she saw it as Ladybug trying to make herself look better. To offer the poor akuma victim friendship, and make everyone love the heroine more.
But Marinette has nothing to gain from this. In fact, she has everything to lose. Being friends with Lila won’t make her look better. In fact, it puts her at risk of looking bad. Something like that, someone risking their reputation for her, is something that Lila, who has lived her entire life around people who only care about reputation, has never experienced.
And Lila falls hard. Umbrella scene parallels, except the sun is shining behind Marinette’s head, making her look like an angel, while Lila is in her shadow, blushing and looking on in awe. I like to call it the ‘Bread half scene’ It’s very symbolic, because from then on, Lila begins to idolize Marinette, and almost worship her. She sees herself as a lowly girl in the presence of someone so much better than her.
This one act of kindness is enough for Lila to get very attached. And at that moment, being friends with Marinette is enough for her. So she smiles, a genuine smile, and agrees.
I imagine for at least a week, everything is kind of calm. Sure, everyone else in class sans Adrien and Marinette is kinda a jerk to Lila and passive aggressively challenges everything she does, (“Are you *sure* that’s what happened, Lie-la?”) but everything else is normal. Lila’s even started meeting up at the bakery for breakfast so she can walk with Marinette to school, which is nice. The two are getting closer, despite Alya questioning their friendship a lot. Lila’s happy with Marinette.
Except Lila is starting to notice just how much the class relies on Marinette. They’re ALWAYS asking her for stuff. They always want favors. They never pay.
And remember how I said that Lila thinks everyone in class sans Marinette is the scum of the earth? Lila is not happy that they’re taking advantage of her new best friend. In fact, she’s furious. Her big gay crush on Marinette is already well on its way to hero worship, and to be fair, the class doing this to Marinette is kinda a bad thing, as some of the fandom agrees. So Lila schemes. She decides to get back at the class, and especially Alya, for outting her by taking away their precious everyday Ladybug. After all, they CLEARLY don’t appreciate her like Lila does!
Her plan is simple. Poke holes in their friendship, point out that they’re taking advantage of Marinette. Not only is she going to make Marinette realize that they do nothing for her in return, but she’s gonna make the whole class look like jerks while doing it.