Well, here's a new Lilanette Week… And another series of connected chapters to form a full love story. As always, I use the French names and have Lila from Rome for my personal amusement, plus one of my OCs. Hope you'll enjoy it.

06/20: Trapped Together

"DUPAIN-CHENG! ROSSI! YOU SHALL PAY!"

Marinette pinched her nose as she heard the voice of the one Akuma she had faced more often than Mr. Pigeon. It had been a while since Rose Bride had appeared, enough that she thought Papillon had grown bored with her, but right after her brief expulsion and the consequent readmission the single most annoying Akuma had reappeared.

"Seriously, what's her problem?"

Oh, and she couldn't take her down because Lila, hearing the Akuma calling for Marinette, had an attack of common decency and dragged the heroine in disguise in a closet, earning Rose Bride's anger in the process when she used a flashbang grenade (bought from an airsoft website) to stun it.

"Chevalot is convinced her and Adrien are fated to be together and gets Akumatized every time she thinks someone is putting the moves on him." Marinette explained.

"So, every five minutes?"

"Not really. Though she's still the most frequent Akuma even with Papillon ignoring her since a few days after the term started. We thought he had given up on her…"

"Not surprised, I've seen how incompetent she is that one time. At least Mr. Pigeon is funny, this idiot's like a fork in the soup."

Marinette had to suppress a snort at the ridiculous comparison.

"I suppose we'll have to stay here for a while. Anything funny to share while we wait?" Lila asked.

"She thinks Adrien is Chat Noir, because only he deserves to be a hero." Marinette deadpanned, getting Lila to put her head between her (surprisingly large) hands and shake it.

"Goddammit, Adrien's so naive I underestimated his brains until the other day, Chat Noir's a genius that can make sense of Ladybug's weird plans. And that's without the thing he just knew I had after Volpina…"

"What do you mean?"

"That's between him and me. But how is she still here? Between the serial Akumatizations and how I overheard her treating her classmates, you'd think she'd have been expelled by now."

"She's the daughter of the prefect. He may be under enough investigations that the mayor's office took over the police, but he's still powerful enough to cover for her."

"I'll put her in a pocket and deal with her later, then."

That one Marinette recognized as a (paraphrased) Roman insult. Still, now she had to ask something: "Why did you get me expelled and then readmitted? If you hate me so much, it doesn't make sense."

"For hopefully the last time, I don't hate you." came the answer. "You've just made yourself a threat by not letting my house card stand in peace, and when I was paid to get you expelled, I didn't have reason to refuse. But I like you well enough that when I was asked to get you back in, I did it."

Marinette didn't say anything for a while, the silence interrupted only by the Akuma's shouts. Then, filing away for later the fact someone had paid Lila to get her expelled, she asked another thing: "If you know the situation with your lies is so bad, why don't you come clean?"

"Because I can't, obviously. My mom's a diplomat, everything we're seen or caught doing or saying reflects on Italy. I'm just a teenager so I have a bit more leeway, but I still did a stupid thing and I can't just come clean."

"Oh."

"Oh indeed. Will you leave me alone until I move away? I doubt it'll take much longer."

"Er… You said something about friendship some time ago. Just… Just don't lie unless necessary, OK?"

It took a moment before Lila accepted Marinette's extended hand. "Very well. So, how do you punch? You'll have to know that, I mean, with the crazier guys…"

Before Marinette could answer they heard Rose Bride's shrill shout of excitement, and then the Ladyblog announced Chat Noir had soloed the Akuma with a picture and a rope.

"Well, time for me to deal with our lady friend." Lila said as she opened the door and went out with the same grin she had given Marinette before faking she had been thrown from the stairs.

A few moments later Marinette transformed into Ladybug and went to finish off the villain – and find Chat Noir had a realistic picture of himself and Adrien "entertaining" each other.

"WHERE DID YOU FIND IT?!" she screamed after Chat showed it off.

"Volpina made a few and sent them to her PC, and Lila gave me copies when I asked." Chat replied, completely at peace with it. "Oh, and Adrien said he's OK with it."

Making a point of getting her own copies from Lila, Ladybug broke the Akumatized object, purified the Akuma… And was surprised when Lila popped up and asked if they wanted to have fun with her and Marinette. And also when Chevalot pulled a box cutter and attacked Lila – only at the box cutter, though. Lila reflexively grabbing the offending arm, on the other hand, was expected.

"A'nfame, sei uscita dall'ovo de Pasqua?!" Lila exclaimed, expressing her "surprise" at Chevalot's action. Had she not known the Italian had been planning to get rid of her, Ladybug would have bought it.

By the time Ladybug visited Lila's home to get the pictures, Chevalot had been expelled and forcefully committed to psychiatric treatment – attacking a diplomat's daughter with a blade and no Akuma had been too much for her protections. Lila was now the school's hero. And managed to surprise the visiting heroine.

"Get your own entertaining, you pervert." Lila replied to her request. "Before you ask, I gave it to Chat Noir because he was in it, and that's it. Though I can give you another thing I did to kill time while Akumatized." and she showed a picture of Volpina using a whip and other things on Ladybug. One on glossy paper, not on her phone or PC, saving her devices when a thoroughly blushing Ladybug grabbed the picture and ripped it.

"ANYWAY!" the heroine shouted as she forced herself to calm down and stop blushing. "I saw you helped Marinette, I thought you hated her."

"We had disagreements, and resolved them. Something I fear the two of us can only do with my revenge."

"What?"

"I'm not an idiot. I know you were only apologizing to make yourself look good with your friend. Or maybe because I put you through hell, I saw the Ladyblog about your battle with Volpina, you would have lost your Miraculous early had it not been for that pigeon."

"It's not like that! I know I went too far at the park, just that!"

"You know, I'm a diplomat's daughter. I'm an expert of this kind of lies. And your mascot character, or whoever gave you the earrings, trained you well – I'd have bought it if I hadn't known better."

"But…"

"You said it yourself, we'll never be friends. Now, get the pictures you're entitled to and get out of my house."

With a sigh and no pictures, Ladybug left, wondering how she could deal with this problem.