Chapter Text
Marinette was tired.
No, tired wasn't the right word. It was a convenient word, as she discovered anytime someone asked her how she was doing.
Not that many people asked.
There were several words now that she thought about it.
Angry. Hurt. Upset. Betrayed. Lonely. Exhausted. And oh, so disappointed.
When Lila had come to her school, she hadn't understood the gravity of the situation, and as much as it killed her to admit, she had been jealous. Until she wasn't. The way Lila had been using her classmates had bothered her, so she had tried to warn her friends.
They had brushed her off because of her, now frankly embarrassing old crush on the resident "Sunshine Boy" of College Francois Dupont, claiming jealousy. When Lila disappeared after the whole Volpina incident, (something that still made Marinette cringe. Definitely not one of her best moments.) She had been temporarily relieved. She had her friends back and that was all she cared about. But the fateful day when Lila came back was the beginning of the sick, twisted game she found herself in.
She didn't know trying to protect her friends from inevitable pain when Lila was revealed to be the manipulative witch she was would end up like... this.
Marinette didn't blame Adrien for what happened, of course she didn't! He didn't know Lila threatened her. He didn't to know Lila had slowly turned her friends against her. He didn't know about the constant glares from her classmates, or about the snide comments and insults, or the hateful texts that filled her inbox. He didn't know it escalated into shoving her in the halls and stealing her belongings. He didn't know they tore up her sketch book and left it discarded on the floor outside her locker.
Surely he didn't know. He couldn't see how it hurt her. That had to be the reason why he refused to look at her in class anymore. It had to be the reason he wouldn't talk to her. It had to be the reason these things were happening to her. He wouldn't let any of this happen if he knew. Because if he did-
She couldn't bear to think about it. It would almost be as bad as Alya.
Her heart twinged at the thought of her once best friend, but she shoved it down. She couldn't afford to feel any negative emotions. There was too much at stake.
If Hawkmoth ever succeeded in akumatizing her...
Today. She decided as she put on the over-sized hoodie she pulled from the back of her closet. I'll tell him today. He wouldn't just stand by and let them hurt me like this.
She chanted that over and over again in her head, like a mantra as she made sure the kwami's knew to stay inside.
Another bit of stress to add to the ever growing pile of things to be stressed about.
She was the freaking Guardian!
It had been about a year since the Miracle Queen fiasco, and she still had no idea what she was doing. Sure, she had a little training, and a translated version of the Miraculous Grimoire, but that didn't mean she knew what the damn thing meant!
Now she could say with confidence that she understood why Master Fu hadn't considered a real tear of joy as an option for the ingredients to their enhanced powers.
"Marinette!" A tiny voice shouted in her ear, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. She turned to her Kwami, eyes wide.
"I'm going to be late, aren't I?"
Tikki nodded, and Marinette shrieked, snatching her bag and purse, not even waiting for Tikki to hide as she ran down the stairs, shouting a quick goodbye to her parents, who only smiled fondly at her antics as she rushed out of the bakery to hopefully get to school in time to talk to Adrien before class.
Focus Marinette, focus!
"You really spaced out there for a while Marinette, are you alright?" Tikki asked from her place in her purse as Marinette stopped at the pedestrian crossing, waiting for enough time in-between vehicles to run.
She nodded an assurance at her tiny friend, "I'm fine, just a little tired is all."
Tikki didn't look too convinced.
She managed to make it to the locker room about five minutes before the bell rang. She couldn't see Adrien anywhere, so she headed to class because that had to be where he was.
She didn't know his every move anymore, she had thrown out his schedule a few weeks ago when she had taken down all the pictures of him.
Well, at least the incriminating ones, she still had the ones with the rest of their classmates on there. She hadn't had the heart to throw out so many memories.
A tiny thump from her purse brought her back to reality. She had spaced out in the the doorway of her classroom. Her face flushed in embarrassment as she muttered a quick excuse to Mme. Bustier, walking towards Adrien in the front row. She was relieved to see him.
So why wouldn't he look at her?
"Meet me in the locker room after lunch, it's important." She whispered. The only response she got was the tiniest of nods from him.
She ignored the whispers of her classmates as she made it to her seat in the back, narrowly avoiding Kim's ankle as he tried to trip her.
She carefully molded her face into a blank expression, focusing hard on the lesson. Maybe if she focused hard enough she wouldn't hear what they were saying.
"What a bitch."
"She's such a freak, just standing in the doorway like that."
She wrote down the notes for this lesson, her fingers tightening on her pencil.
"I never knew she was such a bully."
"I can't believe we were ever friends with such a jealous loser."
She lowered her head, eyes firmly on the paper in front of her.
"Me neither, I'm so glad Lila opened our eyes to her true nature."
"Me too. Poor Lila though. She doesn't deserve all the shit Marinette put her through."
She tried to tune them out.
"We need to get justice for Lila. Marinette can't just get away with this."
"We need to make that bitch pay"
Why wasn't Mme. Bustier telling them to be quiet? They were making it hard to focus on the lesson.
A wad of paper hit her in the head, startling her, and distracting her from the note taking.
She didn't want to know what it said but... what was it Chat Noir always said? Curiosity killed the cat?
She hesitantly glanced up to see Alya glaring at her, some how chilling her to the bone while managing to look extremely satisfied with herself.
She took the paper and opened it.
And read. And read. And read, and read.
Threats. Insults. Horrible ones. Detailed ones. Hurtful ones. She read them all, the words etching themselves into her brain, just as their voices were becoming ingrained in her ears.
She shoved the paper into the farthest corner of the desk and stood abruptly, shouting something about the bathroom, not even waiting for permission before she fled the scene.
She locked herself in a stall and bit down on her knuckles to suppress a scream, and slid to her knees, fighting against the tears that were in her eyes.
She wouldn't cry. She couldn't.
"Oh, Marinette." Tikki said mournfully, flying to nuzzle herself against Marinette's cheek. She cupped a hand around her tiny companion, trying to take what little comfort she could.
"Marinette?" a hesitant voice echoed from outside the bathroom.
Adrien.
She motioned for Tikki to hide, and opened her stall, stumbling to the door and opened it.
His face was a bit distorted from the tears in her eyes, but it was definitely Adrien.
"Hey." her voice came out rough, and scratchy as a result of fighting her emotions. She had to keep calm, and she quickly wiped her eyes so she could see better.
"What was all that about? Are you okay?"
"Yeah I just.." her voice trailed off at it became thick with tears again, her vision blurring once more, "No. I'm not. I'm not okay Adrien." her voice broke and the tears fell. She folded her arms around herself, like if she squeezed tight enough, it would keep her from falling apart.
He placed his hands on her shoulders, "Hey, what's wrong? What's going on?"
"It's Lila." She spat the name out with hatred filling her up inside at the thought of the despicable girl. This was all her doing.
Adrien just sighed, "Marinette, I know it's hard to watch her lie to everyone, but eventually her lies will crumble and everyone will know. It'll be okay."
"That's not the point! She hurt me, Adrien, she threatened me in the bathroom when she came back and said she would turn everyone against me, and she has! They're saying horrible things, and tripping me, and shoving me, and destroying my things!" She confessed to him, her nails digging into her arms, hoping it would keep her distracted enough from her emotions that it would keep her under the akuma-radar.
"I know."
Her world came screeching to a halt.
What?
"I know." he repeated, and it dawned on her a little too late that she had spoken aloud.
The tears ceased in their descent on her face, her grip on her arms slackened as shock settled in.
No. No, it couldn't be.
"You," she tried, her voice barely coming out as more than a whisper as she tilted her head up to meet his heart-breakingly beautiful green eyes, "You know?"
Adrien nodded.
She felt as if she was in a daze, a slight ringing in her ears as she processed this information. There was no denying it anymore. He knew, "This whole time, you knew?"
"Well, I didn't know about the threat, but the rest sort of became obvious after a while." He admitted, removing his hand from her shoulder to rub the back of his neck, a habit she had once found endearing.
Her voice fell flat, dangerously monotonous as she stared at him, "Months. I've been dealing with this for months while you sat by doing nothing and yet you knew?"
"I wanted to help Marinette, but I didn't want to get pulled out of school. You know my father, he wouldn't understand." He said gently, "It's nothing personal, but my hands are tied." He shrugged, before pulling her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her shaking frame, and holding her tight, "I know it's hard, but be brave Marinette. If anyone can get through this, it's you. Our Everyday Ladybug. Everyone will comes to their senses eventually, you'll see. It'll be alright. Just let it go."
Once upon a time, Marinette would have melted at his words. She would have been overjoyed at the fact that Adrien Agreste was hugging her.
But right now? She felt betrayed. Alone. Disgusted.
She was hurt that absolutely no one she talked to would listen, or help her. But she couldn't bring herself to push him away, because if she did, she would break.
So she stood there, frozen in a numb sort of shock as he held her, unaware that they had an audience.
Lila Rossi had gone to rub her victory in that pest Marinette's face, and quite possibly record her crying for future listening purposes under the guise of "wanting to check on her". Her idiot pawns ate it up, saying that she "shouldn't put herself through that" and that she was "truly to kind for this world" when Lila made up some sappy bullshit about how she wanted to make sure Marinette was okay, and that everyone deserved a second chance. It made her want to throw up in her mouth but they bought it. The truth was that Lila loved these games. Watching the despair on her victims faces when they realized that she had successfully turned everyone against them. She loved the havoc she wreaked whenever they were left utterly alone, and worthless. She loved the heartbreak and betrayal. It was thrilling to know she could take away everything they held dear with a few pretty words and well-timed tears. And this time around was no different, save for the super rich, super naïve, super model that she was determined to have. She had everything planned down to the last move and was excited at the prospective results.
But all carefully laid out plans came to a screeching halt when she saw aforementioned supermodel with Marinette. She clenched her fists, and peered from behind the door. They were talking, and the expressions on Marinette's face were so delightfully betrayed, she wished she could take a picture without it blowing her cover. All traces of satisfaction were wiped clean when she saw the model hug the disgustingly goody-goody girl. Lila saw red, but she turned and walked away. Normally she wouldn't have but she couldn't risk being seen by the dark haired designer.
She needed to change her plan.