So I originally only planned twelve chapters for this fic, but it might have a few more… the chapters are already longer than I first thought but I s'pose that's not a bad thing right? Been pretty ill this past week and I've taken another turn after feeling better yesterday, so I'm going on a little hiatus until everything's cleared up.

I hope you guys understand.

Enjoy the chapter!

"…so I'm afraid, with how the economy is at the moment, you will have to pay upfront costs to have the comic published and distributed," Lila explained to a disappointed Nathaniel. She waited a beat before continuing, "but if you want, I can always put some money in to help you out… how much do you have?"

Nathaniel had been feeling the dread in his stomach grow bigger and bigger with what Lila had told him about how the publishing game had changed in recent years. Nathaniel felt hopeless, but her generosity gave him hope.

If she was willing to put money in too, that obviously meant that she had faith in him right? However, the redhead knew he should talk any decisions like this through with his partner. "I-I need to speak with Marc first Lila, but thank you."

"Not a problem," she chirped happily, "but if you give me what you have, I can put it in an account with mine before you make a-"

"Hey guys!"

Lila was cut off from speaking by a brightly smiling Marinette, who was annoyingly too close to Adrien for the Italian's liking. Narrowing her eyes briefly, the brunette made sure to school her face into a welcoming smile: something that Nathaniel missed but Adrien did not. The blonde squeezed Marinette's hand that bit tighter before releasing her so she could sit, a gesture that had Lila glaring automatically which the blonde smirked at.

Adrien knew she had a problem with Marinette, and getting the liar away from him and the future mother of his children was next on his list. He would make sure that Lila never worked with him again: something he could definitely persuade his father to agree to. She had caused way too many problems for Marinette, and Adrien was just thankful he had been able to get Lila to retract her false accusations and get the beauty back into school. It made the blonde shudder to think how different things could have turned out if Lila had gotten away with that stunt.

"Whatcha doing?" The dark haired teen innocently perched herself on the back of the seat on Nathaniel's side and twisted her body so she was looking at them both. Adrien stood behind her, making sure Lila was fully aware that he was keeping as much distance between them as possible.

"Aren't you with Kagami?'

Three sets of eyes stared at an almost growling Lila, the Italian obviously forgot herself for a moment before plastering on her best apologetic smile. If it had been anyone else, Adrien would have thought that they were actually concerned for his Japanese friend's feelings: but this was Lila.

"I-I mean," she falsely portrayed being mortified and sincerely apologetic with how she spoke, "does Kagami not mind you holding Marinette's hand?"

Without missing a beat, Adrien passed the almost finished ice cream cone to Marinette who took it as if it was the most natural thing in the world while successfully suppressing a blush. Yes it may have seemed insensitive to an outsider, but Kagami had practically told him that if he did not snatch Marinette up that she would be extremely disappointed in him: it had caused him a bit of a headache before knowing that his princess and lady were one in the same.

"Me and Marinette are friends-" Marinette let out an involuntary snort, "-and I want to hold her hand. I'm sure Kagami is fine with-"

"I most certainly would not be fine with you holding another girl's hand."

"Well," Adrien shrugged nonchalantly but connected his defiant green with Lila's challenging olive, "you're not Kagami."

Nathaniel looked at Marinette awkwardly while silence descended over the small group, she simply rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly in a 'don't ask' manner: the redhead did not.

Marinette cleared her throat which seemed to release some of the tension and concentrated on Nathaniel, "so what brings you guys to the park then?"

Lila strained a smile while suppressing the urge to glare at the blonde and ravenette. "Oh y'know," she waved a blasé hand in the air, "this and that."

"Lila has spoken to a publishing house 'bout getting mine and Marc's comics published." Nathaniel half smiled but the disappointment was apparent on his face, "but we need to-"

Lila silenced him by putting her hand on his knee which Marinette glanced at through the corner of her eye. "Don't worry Nath, we can try another one and see what they say."

"Why?" Adrien asked with a furrowed brow, "what did the first one say?" The blonde had an inclination that no conversation had happened or was likely to happen either, especially when Lila was involved.

The artistic teen sighed and gripped his sketchbook tighter, "they said they need upfront costs to publish-"

"But like I said," Lila interjected once more and noticeably gripped his leg a bit harder. It was beginning to bug the heroine how the liar kept silencing Marinette's longtime friend, "we can try another one."

"Can you just let Nathaniel finish what he's saying please Lila?"

Blue met olive in a silent exchange before Lila's demeanour changed instantly to that of a chirpy teen. "Of course! I was just-"

"I'm sure Nathaniel can speak for himself." Adrien added dryly and the teen in the middle of the confrontation was beginning to feel uneasy.

'They've got a point… why isn't she letting me finish?'

He looked dubiously at Lila who was smiling encouragingly at him, but missed the annoyance which flashed across her expression as he turned his attention back to Marinette and Adrien. "Lila has spoken with one of her contacts, but because of the way the industry has taken a hit in recent years, they require me and Marc to pay to have it published and distributed upfront."

Both Marinette and Adrien jolted a little, completely taken aback with how plausible that actually sounded. Lila relaxed a touch which made Marinette think that was not the complete story, but then Nathaniel added:

"Lila has said that she will also put money up, and pool our funds until me and Marc make a decision."

'There it is…' both Marinette and Adrien shifted as they had an idea of what Lila had actually been planning. Marinette hummed in a way she hoped sounded thoughtful, but it really came out with a sceptical lilt. Adrien had an idea.

"Y'know Nath," he began while reaching out to the dejected teen, leaning past Marinette and placing a hand on his classmate's shoulder causing the bright haired young man to look up at him. "I don't personally know anyone in the publishing business, but my dad does." Nathaniel's orbs widened in surprise at the blonde, and Adrien found his lips curling into a gentle smile. "He has a lot of grovelling to do at the moment… I could always pull in a favour… comics aren't that different to magazines, right?"

Nathaniel nodded eagerly in agreement and Marinette turned to beam up at the blonde behind her. "I think that's a wonderful idea."

Adrien pumped his brow and smirked his Chat smirk briefly at his wonderful partner before turning his attention back to his widely smiling classmate. "Anything for you and Marc!"

The momentary pleasant confusion on the male's face gave Adrien the impression that it might have seemed weird to have said that as he was not apparently close to either of them. However, Marc was Hugo, and Hugo was his son; his son who had made it possible for his mother to come back and rid Paris of Hawkmoth… of course he was going to do anything for them!

Marinette smiled with amusement as Lila looked dumbfounded at Adrien, and then to Nathaniel. "We-well I guess, I guess you don't need me then!" The Italian was obviously trying to play the hurt friend who had only wanted to help in any way she could, but Marinette knew she was just annoyed and hiding it well. If that money had ever been given to Lila, the ravenette would guarantee that it would never be seen by Nathaniel again… The teen hero began to wonder what would have happened if Marc had not come back for her classmate, but then decided that she really did not want to know.

Lila stood up and her face looked almost unnatural with how wide she was forcing her mouth into a smile. "Well, I had best be off!" Without waiting for a reply from any of them, Lila was quickly making her way out of the park with three sets of eyes focused on the back of her head.

Nathaniel was the first to speak. "Do you think she's okay?"

Adrien shrugged, "personally I think she's pissed that you're not blindly handing over your money." Marinette stared over her shoulder at him, positively mortified with how blunt he was on the matter. Nathaniel just chewed on his lip while looking at the sketchbook in his lap.

"Why do I get the feeling you're right?"

After sitting on the bench for a little while, Adrien had thoroughly brought Nathaniel out of his shell. The blonde sat and looked through his classmate's drawings while Marinette let her gaze wander over their surroundings.

'Never again will an akuma cause destruction to this city…' she smiled to herself while the two males shared a joke. It was only when Adrien asked a particularly interesting question that Marinette turned around to have a look at what they were talking about.

"Well," Nathaniel shrugged nervously, "I have drawn myself as a hero in my akumatised form, Marc actually said that with Hawkmoth using a Miraculous, like Ladybug and Chat Noir, that the jewel itself could be used for good, so I drew a hero Hawkmoth…" The teen trailed off while glancing at Adrien to gage his reaction, but Marinette could see that the blonde seemed impressed. They both obviously knew that Hugo had used his inside knowledge when speaking about this with the redhead, but that was not something they could admit out loud. As Nathaniel had not received a negative reaction to the idea, he continued with his explanation. "I made the hero Hawkmoth to appear more of the same age as the current heroes, and we've been bouncing around ideas for a different name y'know, so the character can be distanced from the villain."

Marinette watched Adrien as he thought about his reply, the small smirk playing on his face as he discreetly pointed to another doodle caused Marinette to blush. She would have to ask about that when they had finished talking about a hero Hawkmoth.

Before the conversation could go any further however, Adrien's phone rang and he answered it with a beaming smile. "Hello, father? Oh uh, Marc, hi!" The blonde quickly put his hand over the mouthpiece of his phone and spoke to Nathaniel, "just a sec, I have to take this." Adrien went back to his conversation on the phone, "how did it…"

As the blonde walked a few paces away, Marinette was grateful he had not mentioned the name Hugo, and she moved around the bench to sit next to Nathaniel. The ravenette wanted to ask a question about the doodle Adrien had pointed out, but the furrowed brow on her classmate's face caused her to forget about that for a moment. "Is everything alright Nath?"

He spoke quietly, keeping his eyes trained on the pages open before him. "I think Marc lied to me."

Marinette's eyebrows shot up with slight panic and surprise. The teen tentatively placed a hand on Nathaniel's wrist causing him to look at her with troubled orbs. "Why would you say that?"

"Marc told me he was with his parents today, that's why I met up with Lila… So why would he be ringing Adrien? And why would Adrien think it was his father calling?"

I hope you're enjoying the story so far! I know they probably should have explained that Adrien and Kagami were no linger an item, but it isn't Lila's business, is it? I also hope that exchange between Adrien and Lila did not seem too off, I actually had a few different ways that went, and I think this was the best one.

Seriously, this was one of his retorts that I wrote…

"Am I not allowed to hold my friends' hands?" He made a show of thinking to himself while Marinette smiled and looked away to hide her amusement, "I had better tell Nino that you think I shouldn't be holding his hand too!"

…but I think it would have been too OC to actually use…

Thank you for the reviews, follows and faves =^.^=

Take it easy!

Lady Rhi X