Summary: 12 times Lila was revealed to be a liar + 1 time she was exposed
1: Mylène Haprèle
It was during a routine Akuma attack that Mylène Haprèle found herself hiding in a storage closet with the new student, Lila Rossi. Mylène is genuinely terrified─Chloé makes a scary Akuma. Since Ivan isn't here to help calm her down, there's only one thing for Mylène to do.
Bringing her hands up to her ears, Mylène curls up in the corner of the closet and starts singing softly, voice shaking. "Smelly wolf, smelly wolf trapped in the stinky hut. Smelly wolf, smelly wolf, I'm gonna kick your─"
Lila perks up, smiling charmingly at Mylène. "Oh, I love that song!"
"Really?" Mylène asks. "W-where did you hear it?" Mylène is pretty sure that she hasn't sung it since the last Akuma attack, and back then she'd gotten turned into a mindless zombie.
"I actually helped write it," Lila simpers. Mylène blinks. "Yeah, it's crazy, I know. I wrote the chorus, and then this amazing singer-songwriter, Tailor Sloth heard it and she just had to help get it produced!"
"No─"
"And then Bob Roth heard it, so he introduced us to the person who sings it, and here we are!"
Mylène isn't one for confrontations, but Marinette said she has to start speaking up if she wants people to listen.
"Lila, Smelly Wolf is my happy song. I came up with it. You shouldn't lie just because you want to fit in with our class."
Because that's it, isn't it? Lila Rossi, the new kid, decided to tell lies about herself in order to fit in. Honestly, Mylène would've found it cute if not for the fact that Smelly Wolf is her song.
Lila's cheeks colour. "Uhh─"
But just as she was about to speak, the closet door was forced open. "Aha! I've found you Ladybug!" An Akumatized Chloé Bourgeois stares down at them. She snarls. "You're not Ladybug!"
Mylène doesn't have the chance to sing another verse of her song before she's hit with a blast.
2: Max Kanté
Max chases after his friend, panting harshly as he runs into the locker room. "Markov, get back here!"
"Oh my God!" Lila looks up from her phone, staring at Markov with wide eyes. "Is that─"
"A robot? Yes." Max is used to stupid questions like that.
Lila reaches out, grabbing a struggling Markov. She holds him in a harsh grip that has Max tensing. "Yeah, it is what I thought. You see, my friend helped design these little guys. Never thought I'd see one here, though."
Max pauses. "What do you mean?"
Lila blinks dumbly at him. "My friend created the model," she says slowly, as if he were an idiot.
"No they didn't."
"Yes, they─"
"They didn't, Lila, because I engineered Markov. Now, let go of him before you break him!"
"Wha─" Lila's grip slackens, so Max takes the opportunity to take his friend from her grasp and dash into the bathroom.
"Are you okay?" Max asks.
He can't believe that Lila just lied to him. He'll have to take everything she's said into consideration. Who knows what else she's lied about.
3: Lê Chiến Kim
"Woah, dude, that is sick," Kim says, grinning at the medal hanging off of Lila's bag. "What'd you get it for?"
"Oh, I used to be an Olympic swimmer. I won it back in 2009."
Kim looks at Lila for three seconds. "Bitch, I'm not stupid." He walks away without another word.
4: Rose Lavillant
"Ali! I can't believe you'd say that!" Rose giggles, blushing as she ducks into the nearly empty classroom. "Does that mean you'll be able to visit next week?"
"Maybe," he smiles. "I'd like to meet your girlfriend, if I have the opportunity."
"Oh, she'd love you," Rose tells him. "So, where are─oh, Lila!" Since Lila and Prince Ali are friends, they should say hi to each other. "Lila, look! It's Prince Ali! Say hi!"
"Oh." Lila pales. "Hi?"
"Lila? Is that one of your classmates, Rose?"
"Huh? But aren't you─" he mustn't realise who she is yet. "This is Lila Rossi, Ali."
"A pleasure to meet─er, call you, Lila," Prince Ali says. Rose stares at Lila, something akin to horror on her face.
"I have to go, Ali. School and all that."
"Of course, Rose. I also have prior engagements to get to. I'll call you later?"
"I can't wait." Rose slips her phone into her pocket. "You shouldn't lie about knowing people, Lila. That can really hurt their image."
"I─" the bell rings, just as Marinette scampers into the classroom.
"I MADE IT!"
Honestly, that might be the earliest she's ever been.
5: Ivan Bruel
"My friend was Stoneheart, you know," Lila says out of the blue. Ivan blinks. "You know, the first Akuma? Yeah, that's him. It was pretty devastating to hear, actually. You see, he'd just fallen off of a boulder, so he got Akumatized. He works for Nadja Chamack now."
"I…" Ivan's never heard such blatant lies before. It seems that Mylène was right. Lila really is a liar. Also, 'fallen off a boulder'? Really? Ivan wonders if she knows she'd just told him, the original Stoneheart, that. Honestly, what bad luck. He doesn't pity her.
Still, Ivan thinks he'll probably get into trouble if he shouts at her (he's always getting in trouble for no reason), so Ivan decides to be straight with her.
"You're lying. Please stop."
Ivan turns and sprints away at a speed that could rival Kim's before Mlle. Bustier can arrive and blame him for something he didn't do again.
6: Juleka Couffaine
For the record, Juleka knew Lila was a liar even before she'd said anything to her. Not only had she lied to Rose about knowing Prince Ali, she'd also ran into Luka, who'd known something was off about her from her song.
So is it any surprise that when Lila tried to tell Juleka about her 'super awesome boat on the Seine that looks just like a pirate ship' that Juleka had only mumbled out a "you suck" and walked away?
7: Alix Kubdel
"Hey, Mini-Me," a familiar voice called out. Alix looks up with a grin to see herself, only taller and wearing a Miraculous.
"Bunnix!" she exclaimed, hopping out of her seat and bounding towards herself. "What are you doing here?"
She smiled. "Well, I was in the timeline and thought I'd stop by." She sits atop of a desk, leaning her hands behind her and admiring the empty classroom. "Ah, this brings back memories. I haven't been in this classroom in years. I miss it."
"We could always trade places, you know." Alix would really like to see her friends in the future. And she has one very pressing question about said future. "Hey, do Adrien and Marinette end up together or does Lila end up stealing him from Marinette?"
"Lila?" Bunnix's brow contorts, as if she'd forgotten that name. "Oh, that Lila. Ugh. I'd almost forgotten about her too. She was such a liar. I remember this one time, she'd tried to convince us that she was in the movie Solitude─which, by the way, is one of the movies Emilie Agreste was in before she─oh, that's a spoiler. Anyways, yeah, Lila's a bitch and I don't like her."
"Should…" Alix blinks. "Should you be telling me all of this?"
Bunnix shrugs. "It's how I found out." She stands and holds her Miraculous. "See you later, Mini-Me. I'm gonna go to my burrow and get a front-row seat for the takedown."
"O─kay…?" Alix stares as she disappears to a place out of time. Alix groans, rubbing her eyes. "I'm too tired for this."
"Hey Alix─"
"Fuck off, Rossi."
8: Chloé Bourgeois
Chloé knows that Lila's a liar because Lila has literally said, to her face, that she's best friends with Audrey Bourgeois. Her mother. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! Honestly, if Chloé wasn't trying to be a good person, she'd run Lila into the ground and make her wish she'd never been born!
Chloé wants a manicure.
Ugh, where's Sabrina when she needs her?!
9: Sabrina Raincomprix
Meanwhile, Sabrina was helping Lila with her homework. Well, helping isn't the right word─more like doing the whole thing. Not that Sabrina realises the difference. Chloé does this to her all the time, so clearly this is something people only ask their friends to do!
But then Lila started talking about celebrities like Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale and Audrey Bourgeois and Sabrina realises Lila really is that cool. Like, she knows so many celebrities but she's not conceited or rude. Unlike Chloé. Chloé, who makes Sabrina do all of her work and Chloé who's Audrey Bourgeois' child…
The same Audrey Bourgeois who had neglected Chloé her entire life.
Hey, why would Audrey Bourgeois take Lila under her wing when she barely makes time for her own family? Also, wasn't Jagged staying in Le Grand Paris when he and Lila had supposedly been on tour? And Marinette had most definitely been the one to convince Clara Nightingale to let so many people be in her music video.
Standing up, Sabrina 'accidentally' spills water all over the homework she'd just done for Lila and throws it out of the window.
Sabrina wants to go see Chloé.
Maybe she'll give her a manicure.
10: Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Nathaniel's known Lila was a liar for a while now─to be specific, he's been suspicious of her for even longer because of Marinette, but the fact that she's a liar wasn't confirmed until she told him she knew the famous writer, Marc Anciel and that she even helped him come up with the plotline for his comics! Heck, she's even the person who hooked Marc up with his awesome artist.
Wordlessly, he points to the second name on the comic, just under Marc's in the same font size and all. Lila pales drastically when she catches sight of his name.
Nathaniel wonders if it's possible to be that stupid.
11: Alya Césaire
Alya wants to believe Marinette, her best friend, but she can also tell that her friend's judgment is clouded whenever it comes to Adrien. And Lila is heavily involved with Adrien, being his girlfriend and all.
Alya needs to come up with a scheme to convince her friends to get along, which is why she's hanging out with Lila right now. If she gets to know her likes and dislikes, then she'll be able to figure out something she has in common with Marinette, and then maybe they'll finally bond! Petty jealousy is hardly enough reason to throw away what could be an amazing friendship! After all, Lila and Marinette are quite similar.
They're both involved with a bunch of charities and they always try to help their friends! Of course, Marinette's the only one who actually comes through with her promises (even if she almost always misses their hangouts because she's so swamped), but Lila probably can't because she makes promises on behalf of other people. Obviously, she's only doing it out of the goodness of her heart, but Alya thinks Lila should start asking her celebrity friends before she makes a promise, just so she doesn't disappoint their friend group.
Speaking of their friends, Alya's noticed that her class has been avoiding Lila lately. It's pretty rude─whenever Lila even opens her mouth, Alix would turn around, Kim would pointedly walk away and Chloé would loudly complain to Sabrina, although any word other than 'ridiculous' was uncommon. Even Rose avoids her like the plague!
Alya doesn't know why they've started avoiding Lila, but she's sure that this'll all blow over eventually. After all, whenever they face hardship, her class always comes together in the end!
Lila sits beside her, fidgeting and avoiding her gaze. Alya can instantly tell that something's wrong. "What's up, girl?"
"Umm…" Lila looks away, cheeks flaring, as if embarrassed at being caught in a bad mood. "It's just… you see, I…"
Alya tilts her head. "Girl, you're gonna have to speak up. You're starting to sound like Marinette."
Lila's head swivels around, eyes shining with an intensity Alya can't name. "Actually, that's who I wanted to talk to you about."
Oh, what has she done now? Alya gestures for Lila to continue.
"You see, ever since a few weeks ago, nearly everybody in the class has been avoiding me. I tried to talk to them, but whenever I did, they'd talk about me hurting Marinette! But I haven't done anything to Marinette, so I don't know why they think I'd ever hurt her!"
Alya can confirm that nothing bad has happened to Marinette, so that is pretty suspicious.
Lila clenches her fists. "Honestly, Alya, I'm scared. I'm scared that Marinette's gonna hurt me and nobody will believe me because she's Marinette! Even you wouldn't, because she's your best friend!"
That… is true. Alya could never see Marinette deliberately hurting someone, even Lila. Sure, she's called Lila a liar and hates her closeness with Adrien, but that doesn't mean she'd go out of her way to hurt Lila! Marinette's kind and good and she'd never do these things! All of this must be a misunderstanding!
…
But Alya can't help the nagging thought in the back of her head, saying that there has to be a reason Lila is saying these things! A reason why she is accusing Marinette of being so despicable that she'd willingly hurt another person, even if she hates Lila.
So… so either Lila is right… or Marinette is.
Alya needs to put her journalism skills to work.
"Let's switch to a brighter topic," she says, her smile colder than usual. "Who's your favourite superhero─but you can't say Ladybug or Chat Noir!"
She needs to ask Lila an inconspicuous and random question, so that when she works up to the questions that actually mean something, Lila won't suspect anything.
"Oh, um, I'd have to say Rena Rouge, definitely. She's always helping others and I'm really glad I convinced Ladybug to choose her." Alya's chest swells with pride at the acknowledgement of her hard work. Honestly, not enough people ack─wait.
"I'm really glad I convinced Ladybug to choose her."
"O-oh." Alya purses her lips. "So you know Rena Rouge's identity?"
"Uh-huh," Lila confirms. "And Carapace's, too." Lila leans in conspiratorially, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Don't tell anyone this, but Carapace is actually in love with Ladybug! It's a huge secret─that's why they have Chat Noir pretend to be in love with Ladybug, even though he's really dating Rena."
Alya would probably know if she was dating Chat Noir.
Wait.
Huh?!
Fuck, Alya didn't even need to dig that much for Lila to practically declare herself a liar to the entire fucking world!
Alya needs to get away.
She grabs her phone in a harsh, shaking grip. "I-I just remembered, I promised to help Nino bury his turtle! So sorry, need to go! Bye!"
What the fuck?
12: Nino Lahiffe
Nino was having a good time, jamming to Jagged Stone in his room and ignoring his little brother pounding on the door and begging to play with him when Alya burst through his window. He doesn't even get the chance to ask how she climbed that far when Alya is speaking, words slurring as she does her best impression of Marinette interacting with Adrien.
"Woah, woah, woah," he grabs her arms, holding Alya still. "Slow down."
Alya looks at him with wet, angry eyes. "Lila's a liar."
Oh. Yeah, that.
Nino's known for a while─he figured it out back when Lila told him she knew the famous director Stephen Bespielburg, even though she's a teenage girl with literally no confirmed, credible connections. Of course, he didn't say anything to Alya─Alya would only have believed it once she realised it for herself. If she wouldn't believe her best friend, Nino figured it'd be best to let her figure it out without his interference.
He stares back at her.
"So what are you gonna do?"
+1
Marinette's not having a good day. She's been up all night because somebody can't keep regular working hours! Honestly, Marinette should be paid for this shit. She's overworked and underpaid. If Marinette spends every spare hour of every single day fighting him and his minions, she thinks she should at least get something added to her pension fund.
Ah, but Marinette's just in a bad mood and is rambling.
You see, she's facing something even worse than sleep deprivation.
She's late─again.
Marinette needs to start keeping a schedule for somebody other than Adrien (i.e., herself).
She sprints towards the schools, just managing to slip in behind the janitor. "Sorry," she calls unapologetically, bounding up the stairs and towards her classroom. She just manages to grasp the door handle when she touches another person's hand.
Marinette looks up with wide eyes to see Adrien. He… honestly, he looks like hell. There are bags under his eyes and his shirt is wrinkled. She suspects he got about as much sleep as she did last night.
"A-A-Adrien!"
He winces. "Hey, Marinette."
"Are you alright? You look─"
"Horrible?" He ruffles his hair.
"Well, I wouldn't say that, but─"
"No, it's okay. I feel horrible too." He yawns. "Sorry, sorry. I haven't gotten much sleep in forever and I didn't get the chance to apply any make-up this morning. I'm… really tired."
"I know how you feel."
An idea strikes her, one that surely she shouldn't go through with, considering that she really can't afford to keep missing classes, but Marinette's tired. She has so much responsibility and not enough time on her hands. She wants to let loose and be a teenager for once. And she thinks Adrien needs that too.
"Do you wanna get out of here?" she asks, tilting her head up at Adrien. "Alya introduced me to this great coffee place a few weeks ago."
"What? But what about─"
"School can wait." Marinette reaches out, tugging on his hand, possessing a confidence that she wouldn't have if she were even a bit more awake. "Come on, Adrien. Live a little."
Marinette doesn't even notice that she's parroting Chat Noir's words, because the small grin Adrien gives her is enough to send her to Cloud Nine.
"...Okay," he says quietly. Back straightening, his hands tighten in her hold. "Okay," he reaffirms in a surer tone, as if speaking to himself. "Let's get out of here."
Marinette goes to a café with Adrien and has a great time, forgetting about her life as Ladybug and her obligations for her friends and family. Here, she can just be normal. Be Marinette.
Of course, that normal ends the moment they decide that they've wasted enough time and arrive back at the school near the end of lunch. Why, you ask?
Well, they arrive to find Marinette's entire classroom has been rearranged into what vaguely resembles a courtroom. Alya sits in one of the front desks, the other empty except for Lila. Luka sits at the front of the class, a supposedly impartial judge. The rest of their class sits in the audience and Nino is clearly streaming for the Ladyblog.
Marinette has only one thing to say.
"What the fu─"
"Well, if it isn't both of my star witnesses!" Alya exclaims, accusingly glaring Marinette down whilst also holding her thumbs up in a 'you-get-it-girl' fashion. "Come on, Lila's on trial. Testify."
Marinette looks at Adrien. Adrien looks back at Marinette. In those moments, Marinette knows only one thing.
She needs to transform, like, yesterday.
With that in mind, she walks out of the classroom without a word, aware that Adrien has followed her but not really minding it.
Adrien quirks a grin. "Don't you want to watch it?"
She shrugs. "Nino's recording. I'm definitely watching it tonight. You could come─we'll make a thing of it. But we should definitely hide─it's only a matter of time before Hawkmoth sends out an akuma and Lila comes after you and me."
Adrien nods. "Right, so… we should hide separately. You know, just in case."
Good─Marinette didn't want to be the one to suggest that. "I agree─at least if she gets one of us the other will be safe." And with that said, she pushes Adrien into a locker.
Adrien stares back at her, flushed with wide eyes.
'He looks so dreamy… wait, Marinette! Focus! You need to run and transform!'
In the end, Lila is akumatized and it's a rather difficult akuma to beat, but she and Chat succeed─as always.
Marinette settles onto her chaise that night when she hears a knock on her trapdoor. She opens it to find Adrien grinning back at her.
"Your parents let me in," he explains.
Marinette opens the Ladyblog and lets the stream from earlier play. Marinette giggles at the sight. Luka holds a drink bottle instead of a gavel and it's a rather nice beat that he makes when he bangs the bottle against the desk.
They watch as Alya accuses Lila of lying about everything, calling on members of their class to reveal how they realised Lila was a liar. Even Chloé cooperates. Lila tries to defend herself, bringing up her 'lying disease', but Max is quick to refute her baseless claims. Alix doesn't testify, something about a secret, and Rose and Mylène try to be as nice as possible as they ruthlessly expose her. Kim straight out insults Lila and Chloé's testimony is illegible, filled with far too many 'ridiculouses' to count. Sabrina translates for her, while proudly sharing how she figured it out─until Chloé interrupts her and demands she paints her nails.
Alya kidnaps Marc from another class to say that he's never dated Lila and she uses his comic as evidence, also shamelessly promoting the Ladybug comics, too. Juleka mumbles when she speaks, but Luka seems to understand her and Rose translates for the rest of the class. Lila seems to see an opening now, protesting that Luka is in no way neutral because Juleka is his sister. Alix tells Lila to shut up and says that Luka is only there to stop any of them from murdering her. Nino plays music instead of testifying, but by now the trial has long since dropped the pretense of professionalism.
Adrien laughs beside her when they dumbfoundedly appear on camera and Marinette realises that she hasn't heard Adrien laugh this much in weeks. She leans her head on his shoulder and he doesn't say a word, only wrapping an arm around her waist and murmuring that it's a good thing they left─if Alya found out what Lila had done to the both of them, Luka wouldn't be able to do anything to save Lila.
What finally pushes Lila over the edge is when she and Adrien walk away without a word, refusing to even acknowledge Lila, after everything. Marinette's proud that she walked away, only because Lila's purple face is enough to make up for the akuma fight they had to put up with this evening.
When the stream ends, Marinette is leaning against Adrien's chest and she doesn't want to get up to turn off her monitor, so she allows the next video to automatically play. She barely hears what's being said, because her eyes feel wet and Adrien's arms are tightening around her.
She hadn't expected this─not at all. She'd never thought that everybody would believe her, but they hadn't even needed to believe her because they realised on their own. All this time Marinette's spent agonising over Lila, and now she didn't ever need to feel like that again because Lila's been exposed and there's no coming back from this for her.
Marinette turns her head against Adrien's neck, sobbing uncontrollably. She allows her emotions from all this time to flow out, not even caring for the possibility of Hawkmoth picking up on her emotions.
By the time Marinette's tears dry and she and Adrien fall asleep on her chaise to the sound of an enthusiastic Alya following an old akuma fight, she feels better than she has in weeks.
To be fair, Hawkmoth sends out the akuma when he feels the heightened emotions. But when the akuma arrives and he sees his son holding his crying classmate, he can only stare.
This was unexpected. How did Adrien even get out? And what was he even doing in the girl's room?
But he doesn't have the heart to akumatise the girl, not when he sees the way Adrien's arms also shake around her waist. He'll just have to have Nathalie heighten the security in Adrien's room. And get rid of the stash of stinky cheese they all know he has.