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“Did she say right ear? This morning she said the ringing was in her left ear! I’ve got her this time!” Marinette exclaimed as she made her way over to the bench where that good-for-nothing liar was sitting, only to be stopped by Adrien.
“Are you going to tell everyone?” Adrien asked, seeming worried as if something bad would happen if she did. Of course she had to tell them, she couldn’t just sit idly by and let her friends get coerced by that tale-teller.
“Of course I am, Lila is-”
“A liar. Yes I know,” Adrien sighed and then turned to Marinette, “but do you really think exposing her will make things better?” he asked, “if you humiliate her, she’ll just be hurt more! Making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy.”
Marinette considered his advice for a second. Doing nothing didn’t sit right with her. She didn’t care about humiliating Lila, that wasn’t her goal. Her goal was to stop her before her lies got worse, before she tricked all her friends, before she made good on her threat.
“So we just stand by and let her lie?” Marinette asked, her eyebrows crinkled together. She wondered what would make Adrien think like this. Sure, maybe he’s grown up being taught to just ‘walk away’ and not to get involved with conflict, but this was real life, it involved their real friends.
He smiled at her, “As long as you and I know the truth, does it really matter?” For a second, just a second Marinette was convinced. The way he softly smiled at her, using you and I in the same sentence… But no, he was wrong and she had to do something.
She walked in front of Adrien, “Adrien, look, you know the quote ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing?”
“Marinette,” Adrien sighed, “I wouldn’t exactly consider Lila evil.”
You doesn’t even know the half of it.
“Adrien, our classmates are getting coerced into doing stuff for Lila, her homework, carrying her bags around. Lila made Alya put on her blog that she’s best friends with Ladybug when I know that she’s most definitely not.”
She misses the way this causes Adrien to raise his eyebrows in question.
Obliviously, she continues her ramble, “Do you get how dangerous that is? She could be targeted by Hawk Moth or worse! And not only that, it’s damaging Alya’s future career as a journalist. Her lies may be petty but they’re doing more damage than you think.”
Adrien seems to take in the information and think about it, but he doesn’t seem entirely convinced. Marinette is so unsure what he is thinking, he’s just staring at her somewhat dumbfounded. She tried to read his eyes but it’s almost as if they’re so far away.
She takes a deep breath.
“Adrien, earlier today I confronted Lila in the bathroom about her lies and she said she only tells people what she wants to hear, and that if I don’t shut up she’ll take away all my friends and make sure I wind up all alone.”
Adrien’s eyebrows crinkled and he passed a glance at Lila, “She threatened you?”
“Yeah, she did, and it almost got me akumatized.”
“Ok, we’re taking her down,” Adrien grabbed Marinette’s hand which shocked her for a second, and dragged her over to the bench where Lila was sitting with all her classmates.
“Of course I can get you an interview Alya, Ladybug and I are the best of friends!” Lila exclaims.
“Thank you, thank you, that would be awesome!” The reporter squeals happily, jumping on the spot.
“You know, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep,” Adrien says flatly, causing everyone to go silent and look at him. “Lila, Ladybug doesn’t appreciate you spreading lies about her,” Adrien continues, his grip on Marinette’s hand tightening.
“What’re you talking about dude?” Nino asks.
“When Lila first came here, she tricked me into thinking she was a superheroine and that she was best friends with Ladybug. But Ladybug overheard everything and confronted Lila and set her straight. She’s neither, which is why she got akumatised into Volpina.”
Everyone’s glares go straight to Lila. “Wh-what? That’s not true!” She says, eying the blond curiously. “Adrien, why would you say that?” She asks, crocodile tears beginning to pool in Lila’s eyes as she so utterly crumbles under the blond’s gaze (read: death stare)
Nobody says anything, unsure of who is lying and who is not, their gaze flickers between Adrien and Lila, both staring at each other intently.
“Lila, you don’t have to lie, people will like you for who you are, but if you threaten Marinette again, we will have a problem.”
“What?” Alya gasps, “You threatened Marinette?”
Everyone looks to Lila. “What, no I would never threaten her! I don’t know what’s gotten into you Adrien,” her gaze travels down to Marinette and Adrien’s intertwined hands and Lila sighs. “Oh, I get it, you all saw before how Marinette was being mean to me, now she’s playing with Adrien’s feelings and making him lie for her. I didn’t want to say this before but Marinette threatened me in the bathroom, she said that if I don’t back away from Adrien and all of you she would make sure that I’m all alone,” Lila started to fake cry, “She got me akumatized over it!”
Rose and Mylène immediately went to Lila’s side trying to comfort her. “That’s not true at all!” Marinette hisses. “I tried to warn all of you about Lila’s lies, when I threw that napkin earlier she caught it perfectly in her supposed ‘sprained’ wrist! Then she said it could have gauged out Max’s eye, Max you wear glasses! The least a napkin could do to your eye is scrape it! And when no one believed me I went to the bathroom and you said…” she points to Lila, “'I only tell people what I want to hear,' she called all of you dumb and then said I can either join her or she’ll take all of you away from me!”
By now, everyone was yelling and shouting over one another, some people were taking Adrien and Marinette’s side, some were taking Lila’s.
“I’m starting to think this was a bad idea,” Marinette whispered to Adrien. Alya was fully going off on Lila with Nino by her side and Mylene, Rose and Kim were defending her.
“Come here, I have an idea,” Adrien said, dragging Marinette away from the group of classmates and into the locker room. He looks left to right to make sure that no one else is in the locker room and then he whispers, “Plagg claws out!”
“AHHHHH-” Marinette gasps but Adrien—no, Chat—quickly puts his hand over her mouth, pushing her back against the locker. Marinette’s cheeks go completely red as she tries to comprehend what just happened.
Adrien is Chat Noir
CHAT NOIR IS ADRIEN!
Chat slowly slips his hand away, and chuckles, “Surprise?”
“You stupid cat! You’re not supposed to tell me your identity! What is-”
“M’lady, shh,” Chat cuts her off.
“M’Lady? But… but how did you?” She blinks, completely baffled.
“Well, you were pretty adamant about the fact that Ladybug and Lila weren’t friends, and the only way for you to know that is if you were Ladybug… unless you were stalking me,” he smirks.
“Pffft, stalk you, never!” Marinette laughs nervously and Adrien raises an eyebrow.
“We’re coming back to this later, right now you need to transform,” Chat demands.
“I don’t understand,” Marinette raises an eyebrow.
“C’mon, trust me,” Chat smiles.
Marinette smiles back at him, “Tikki! Spots on!”
Adrien watches in awe as Marinette transforms into Ladybug right in front of his eyes.
“You are so dead for this,” Ladybug says.
“You know I love it when you get all pouty princess,” he says, towering over her with that cheshire smirk.
Ladybug rolls her eyes, “so what’s your plan?”
“Diffuse the situation, and then lookout for akumas,” he grabs her hand and drags the both of them out the door. On instinct Ladybug reefs her hand from his.
“What, you didn’t mind earlier?” Chat smirks, making Ladybug roll her eyes. He may be Adrien, but he still knew exactly how to tick her off.
“C’mon.” This time she dragged him over to the group of arguing kids. Honestly, she was surprised that no teachers hadn’t come to stop the commotion earlier.
Ladybug and Chat Noir both clear their throats and the yelling dies down as everyone’s attention lands on them.
“Ladybug!” Alya and Chloe both squeal simultaneously.
Alya begins to ask for an interview while the blond flicks her hair muttering ‘utterly ridiculous!’
“Chat and I were patrolling and heard a commotion, is everything okay?” Ladybug finally speaks up. Everyone now silent.
“Ladybug!” Mylène exclaims, “this is great, you know Lila don’t you?”
Ladybug took in a deep breath, “Well, yes, from the times she’s been akumatized,” She states matter of factly.
“So, y-you’re not best friends with her?” Rose asks.
“No, as superheroes, we can’t befriend civilians, simply because it would put them in harm's way.” Ladybug explains. Chat noticed the utter despair on Lila’s face as she realised that her lies were being exposed. As soon as he found out that Lila threatened Marinette, his lady, his friend, the love of his life, he didn’t care one bit if she was humiliated, she deserved it.
“You lied to us! Marinette was right!” Mylène exclaimed.
“You’re dirty Lila,” Alya hissed.
“Ugh you were all utterly ridiculous for ever believing she could be Ladybugs best friend. Everyone knows it’s Queen Bee!”
“I never Marinette and Adrien were telling the truth!”
Lila red and utterly embarrassed in front of the heroes clenched her fists. “Ugh! I hate you Ladybug! I hate you!” She yelled and then stormed off. Chat and Ladybug looked at each other and smirked, Lila got what she deserved and they both knew it.
“Was anything she said true?” Rose asked, looking at the ground.
“Pft, no you were all just too idiotic to see it,” Chloe said, looking at her nails.
“We should apologise to Marinette,” Max said, everyone looked around but couldn’t seem to find her. “Hey where’d Marinette and Adrien go?” he asked.
“Oh, I think I saw them sneaking into that supply closet over there,” Chat winked.
Snickers and ‘ooo’s were heard amongst the teens. Ladybug stares at him with a blank expression.
“Ok, Chat and I have to go,” She pulls him away, leaving the rest of the classmates alone and they both swing onto the roof.
Ladybug looks over to see Lila sitting on a bench with her head in her hands and she sits on the edge of the roof. Chat Noir comes over and sits by her. “We should wait here to look out for akumas,” She says, not making eye contact with him.
Chat stays silent for a while and then he finally speaks up, “I’m sorry,” he says. Ladybug’s eyes flicker over to him for a second and then he continues. “I know you didn’t want to reveal your identity, I should’ve thought it through before I did that.”
“N-no Chat- Adrien, it’s… fine, if you figured it out, I would rather you tell me anyway,” Ladybug said.
“I’m also sorry, for what I said before,” Chat sighs, grabbing Ladybug’s attention. She looks up at him. “You know that I love you M’lady, and I always have, but now that I know who you are I promise to tone it down.”
Ladybug smiles at him, he still loved her after finding out who she was. “What if I don’t want you to tone it down?” She smirked at him, though an evident blush spread over cheeks.
“Wh-what, does that mean-” His eyes widened.
“Adrien, the reason I turned Chat Noir down so many times was for Adrien,” she chuckled. “This whole time I’ve been crazy about you while rejecting you… I’ve loved you ever since you gave me your umbrella,” she places her hand over his.
He was completely starstruck. He didn’t understand how it was possible that he was so damn lucky. “I’ve loved you ever since you stood up to Hawk Moth that first day we got our miraculous, you’re amazing Marinette, not just as Ladybug but in everyday life as well,” He said, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear.
Their faces were so close together, and their eyes kept flicking down to their lips. Chat was the first to initiate the contact and press their lips together. He cupped the side of her face as their lips moved together. And they kissed, again, and again, and again until they parted for breath.
“We should probably go back to class,” Ladybug breathed, their faces still centimetres from each other.
“Or,” Chat smirked, drawing her back in and kissing her again. Ladybug melted against him like putty and then suddenly pushed him away.
“Come on!” Chat groaned.
Ladybug looked over to where Lila was sitting to see that she had gone. She didn’t see any akumas though so maybe she just went home. “Come on kitty, let’s go back to class,” Ladybug dragged him by the arm.
They both transformed back in the locker room and made their way to the classroom, their hands intertwined with smiles on their faces.
As soon as they entered the room all eyes were on them. “Adrien, Marinette, nice of you to finally show up,” Miss Bustier said with a knowing smile on her face.
“Hey I guess Chat Noir wasn’t lying,” Kim shouted and everyone started snickering. Adrien and Marinette both turned beet red, forgetting that they were just making out minutes ago and the evidence is probably on their swollen lips.
They both made their way to their seats, blushing furiously. “Congrats dude,” Nino nudged Adrien.
“Girl, you are giving me all the deets later, but also I’m sorry about Lila,” Alya said as Marinette sat down.
Marinette shrugged, “it’s whatever.”
By the end of the day, everyone had come up to Marinette apologising and also congratulating her and Adrien, and Lila was never seen again!