Shadows Chapter 8: "Volpina's New Task?"

Toshiro of the Eternal Dream: Ohhhh, that makes sense! Then I guess they're just referred to with he/him she/her pronouns. Also this isn't a crack fic, nor is it truly realistic. I'm trying to make the characters seem least OOC as possible, but there might be a few parts where they are a bit OOC.

LunaWolf44: Lol, cover Lila in black tar and feathers! Ehehehe...though that would actually be pretty cruel and burn really bad. OwO

Enjoy! :3

Adrien nervously walked to where the school buses were parked, Lila, of course, was not far behind.

"Wait here." He told her, running off without another word. He spotted Ms. Bustier chatting with a few other teachers. Adrien politely stood by them and let them finish their conversation.

"Ah yes Ms. Mendeleiev, I will be sure to make that change." Ms. Bustier said, then turned to Adrien, "What's wrong?"

Adrien stared at her for a second then, not being able to resist, asked, "Did Marinette fail?"

"Adrien, you know we respect each and every one of our students, Francois Dupont High is a place for every student to feel safe." She continued, "And we value the privacy of our students very much. We can't just go around revealing random information about everyone, and for that reason, we keep test scores secret."

"It's not random information! i'M a GoOd FrIeNd Of HeRs."

"Yes, but only Marinette can tell you her score, and that's if she wants to. We don't know if she'd want me to reveal her score, so-"

"She failed, didn't she?" Adrien blurted out, anger rising inside of him. He added, "And I don't think she was supposed to miss school today, either. Marinette has my number, and she texts me when she's sick or out of town."

I know exactly who's responsible of this!

Ms. Bustier gave her a warning look. Seeing that there was no point in arguing, Adrien walked away to find Lila again. She was sitting on a small bench, her school bag propped up beside her.

"Oh Adrien," She gushed, making Adrien resist the urge to groan. For a second, he wondered why, given that Lila never really made any rude or witty remarks like Chloe, and was usually a very well-tempered and nice person. Of course, unless that was all a disguise. Unless they were all being tricked.

Adrien wouldn't hold a grudge against her for one thing. She had a beef with Marinette, but the whole thing got solved after Adrien had intervened. But again?

Adrien shook his head, I can't be too sure. But what I do know is, Lila was the one who brought Marinette's papers to Ms. Bustier.

Even though that was suspicious, there was no evidence to support his claim, even if he had seen Marinette studying in the library, and even if she scored high on tests.

Why would she flunk this one? Maybe she just git sick, so she didn't come to school. Wait, I'd know if that happened... Nothing makes sense. I don't want to jump to conclusions...but I have a feeling that-

"Adriieeeeen." Lila interrupted his thoughts.

"Yes, Lila?" Adrien turned towards her.

"Could you help me with my bag? I sprained my wrist." She said innocently.

"Wow, again?" Adrien deadpanned, obviously not buying it for a second. Still, he picked up her bag. It was fairly light and was a light orange color, which reminded him of Volpina. Even though he knew Volpina was gone, he couldn't help but notice how similar she was to her akumatized self. Volpina fooled you with pictures, but Lila did with words. Adrien didn't know which one was worse. Both were painful for all he cared:

'...The real Ladybug's heart still belongs to someone else...'

Lila shook him, "Hello? Adrien?" She asked in a somewhat annoyed sort of tone.

"Yeah yeah, we're going." Adrien grumbled, keeping an eye out for Kagami, or literally anyone with a camera. It was bad enough he had to do a photoshoot with Lila before. The less attention drawn to him, the better. He would have tried to avoid Chloe too, but it was already too late for that. Chloe was patrolling around them like a hawk with Sabrina. However, the more he seemed to remain discreet, the more he seemed to...well, uh, not remain discreet.

He bumped straight into another boy.

"HEY WATCH IT!"

Adrien winced, "Sorry." He sat down in his seat.

"Come," Lila instructed, grabbing his arm again, "I get motion sickness, so we're sitting in the front. Ms. Bustier made special arrangements for us."

Oh, you don't say? Then how come you were perfectly fine when we drove to my house?!

Adrien took the window seat, staring blankly at the school. He knew not making eye contact with Lila was rude, but it just made him feel...uncomfortable. He wanted to blame her for what happened, he wanted to expose her to the entire school, but he didn't.

Instead, Adrien took his phone out, trying to ignore Lila as much as he could.

"Hey, what's that?" Lila asked, "Is your homescreen picture a picture of Ladybug?!"

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" Literally the whole class (except Marinette, of course) said.

Great. Just add fuel to the fire. Yup, yeah. Way to go.

Adrien shoved his phone back in his backpack, bristling with anger.

Keep your cool. Adrien took a deep breath. Little did he know, there was an akuma right next to him Hawk Moth was watching from. It flew away when it saw that he relaxed.

Meanwhile, Lila's own phone rang.

"Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom." Lila told him, walking into the bathroom inside the bus. (it was a large bus)

Lila locked the door behind her, answering the call, "Oh hi, Hawk Moth!" Lila chirped.

Hawk Moth glowered, "What are you doing? I told you to accompany Adrien, not annoy him!"

Lila frowned, "Why? Don't you want to akumatize him?"

"No. Just...be his friend for now. Keep him safe." Hawk Moth told her, trying to keep his identity a secret.

Lila nodded as Hawk Moth's eyes narrowed, "But you'll need to sneak away at some point from him at some point...Volpina. I have a new task for you."

Lila grinned, "I'm all ears, Hawk Moth!"

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