AN: So I struggled with this and the next chapter a bit, had to fight my desire to write for one of my other plot bunnies. It is surprisingly hard to write a long-haul Lila takedown fic, especially when she could have been taken out back in Chameleon with a request for a doctor's note. Oh well.
Sunflowers Bend to the Wind
Marinette stumbled through the rest of the day in a daze. Thankfully, Lila seemed to be smug enough with the results of the lunchtime confrontation to leave Marinette alone. Mostly.
Marinette's phone buzzed in her pocket and she wrestled with the urge to throw it into the street. Somehow Lila had gotten a hold of her number and had spent the entire afternoon, even during class time, texting Marinette countless messages of false concern, urging her to make up with her friends, that she was hurting the class by being so stubborn. Marinette had to force herself not to reply and fall into yet another trap.
It hurt to go back to being ignored, back to how it was before this year. Marinette wasn't sure she'd be able to push through again, having tasted friendship, only for it to be stripped away again so cruelly.
As Marinette left the school, she bit her tongue to stop herself from raging at the sight before her. Unlike most days, the students of Ms Bustier's class didn't immediately scatter to their own after school activities. Opting to, instead, crowd Lila who was still, so upset about ruining Alya and Marinette's friendship. The crowd took up nearly half the footpath, forcing other students to duck around. Thankfully, they weren't in Marinette's path and she didn't have to antagonise the situation further.
"Marinette!" Marinette paused at the sound of her name. Adrien skidded to a stop beside her, loose stones under his feet screeched in protest and grated on Marinette's already frayed nerves. "I need to talk to you." He glanced over his shoulder at Lila's gaggle of fans. "I heard about what happened at lunch."
Marinette sighed. She did not have the energy for this right now. She'd already missed lunch, and she'd left her water bottle at home that day, a headache was already throbbing behind her eyes. She didn't need to embarrass herself in front of Adrien, miss lunch, and ruin all of her friendships in one day.
"Wonderful," Marinette muttered. She scuffed the toe of her shoe against the ground before finally meeting Adrien's face. The shear disappointment she was met with made her take a step back.
"You should apologise, Marinette." Adrien's voice was dull, lacking any of the excitement or trained politeness that usually coloured his tone.
"Apologise?" Marinette parroted, dumbstruck. "I'm not apologising for trying to open their eyes."
"I meant apologise to Lila," Adrien clarified quietly, "I know she's being a pain but you have to keep up appearances-"
"I have to keep up appearances?" Marinette repeated incredulously. "Me? Not the one making impossible promises and feeding lies to my friends. I have to be the better person?"
"None of this would have happened if you'd have just been the bigger person and let Lila lie herself into a corner." Adrien folded his arms, glowering down at Marinette.
"I can't be the bigger person, I'm five feet tall," Marinette grit out through clenched teeth.
"They're our friends, Marinette," Adrien scolded. "You're not acting like yourself around Lila and it's hurting all of our friends. Their feelings are important to me." Marinette gaped, unable to force a single sound past the knot in her throat. A car horn honked, it was Adrien's bodyguard, reminding them of Adrien's schedule. "I have to go." Adrien cast sad eyes back at Marinette. "Apologising isn't so bad."
Marinette glowered after Adrien's car, only turning away once it was out of sight. "So my feelings don't matter, huh?" Marinette asked, mostly to herself. Tikki pressed against her thigh through her purse, the pressure was a small comfort to her aching heart.
Marinette made her way home in silence, eyes flitting across the scenery nearby. Children playing with a dog. A happy elderly couple. A young woman smiled dopily at her phone. Marinette breathed a sigh of relief, hopefully there was enough happiness and positivity nearby to mask her sadness and frustration.
Marinette ducked into the bakery through the rear entrance and slipped upstairs without her parents noticing. Once inside the safety of her room, Marinette flicked her shoes off and flopped face down onto her chaise with a groan. Tikki zipped out of Marinette's purse to rest by Marinette's head.
"That was the worst day of my life," Marinette wailed into the mattress, voice suitably muffled to any outside listeners.
"If that was the worst day of your life, tomorrow can only be better," Tikki chirped, ever the optimist. "How about we do something to get your mind off things?"
"I can't believe they'd pick her over me!" Marinette rolled over violently, nearly squashing Tikki. Tikki sighed and tugged a strand of hair loose from one of Marinette's pigtails, wrapping and unwrapping the end round her paw. "I mean, they hardly even know her."
"Alya is an impulsive girl, Marinette, and you're all young and inexperienced." Tikki began braiding a small section of hair. "Would any of your classmates be used to a bully as sneaky as Lila?"
Marinette frowned in thought, her anger slowly dissipating. She considered all the bullies that had tormented her and her friends over the years; Chloe, her second grade bully Byron, the sketchbook thief Mia. All had been direct and openly nasty. Their cruelty blatant and easy to see.
"No," Marinette admitted. "I've never seen anything like Lila." The two were quiet for some time after that revelation. "But that still doesn't explain why they're trusting Lila's word over mine."
Tikki moved on to braiding another section of hair. "They do know, when it comes to Adrien, you can be quite irrational, and act rashly." Tikki spoke tentatively.
"But they know how I was with Kagami!" Marinette protested. Frustrated tears prickled her eyes and she scrubbed them away with the back of her arm. "And Adrien really likes Kagami, he doesn't just tolerate her."
Tikki shrugged even though Marinette couldn't see it. "You're young and school is stressful enough without the threat of Hawkmoth on your neck. I'm sure that soon your friends will realise how much they miss you, and nothing Lila can offer will come close to what they gained from having a genuinely wholesome friendship with you."
Marinette sat up and offered Tikki a watery smile. "I hope you're right, Tikki." Marinette sniffled and Tikki flew up to snuggle her Chosen's cheek. "I know it hasn't been all that long but…I miss my friends, Tikki."
"I know Marinette," Tikki soothed. "You still have Luka, and Chloe's on your side too, temporarily."
"I never thought I'd see the day where I willingly went to Chloe over my friends." Marinette laughed quietly to herself at the absurdity of the thought. Allying herself with her most consistent bully, instead of the friends that were supposed to be on her side.
Marinette's phone buzzed in her pocket and she wiggled awkwardly to fish it out from beneath her weight. A text message from Chloe glowed on screen.
C: 'Adrikins told me not to do anything silly about Rossi'. Marinette opened the message to reply.
M: 'He told me to apologise to her'. Marinette waited as Chloe typed, Tikki perched on her shoulder so she could read too.
C: 'Are yu going to?' Marinette didn't even think about her reply.
M: 'No'
C: 'Got a plan yet Dupain-Cheng?'
M: 'Not really' Marinette flopped back and sighed. Chloe's typing dots seemed especially aggressive.
"What should I do, Tikki?" Marinette asked, a hand rose to tangle with her half-braided pigtail.
"You've already got so much on your plate, Marinette," Tikki said. "Maybe this is something you should leave with the adults."
Chloe's reply interrupted Marinette's response.
C: 'Ridiculous utterly ridiculous'
C: 'Of course you'd fail to think of soemthing'
C: 'That's why I had Sabrina make a list'
A picture came through next, a piece of paper with a list written on it in Sabrina's neat hand. Scrawled at the top in shiny green ink were the words: Ways to get revenge on Rossi. Some were quite plausible, like convincing the celebrities she claimed to know to line up in school to publicly humiliate her (anything could be done when you put together Chloe Bourgeois and one of the top young designers in Paris) and since when was chatting up celebrities plausible? Some were less plausible: giving Lila a disease that made her yodel so horrendously no one could bear to be near her. Some were outright violent (as much as Marinette disliked the girl she couldn't bring herself to let Chloe push her off a roof). And others were just plain mean, although the idea of slipping a laxative into Lila's food was very tempting.
M: 'We cant do anything too obvious, as much as I like the idea of dropping a piano on her…'
C: 'How about the squirrel in her bag then?' Marinette let out a surprised giggle at the thought of a squirrel being unleashed from Lila's bag into the classroom.
M: 'Lila hasn't got any other enemies though, we're too strongly implicated'
C: 'Ridiculous utterly ridiculous'
M: 'We can't do anything yet, everyone knows we don't like her itd be too obvious'
C: 'So what? Revenge is revenge who cares if everyone knows it was us'
M: 'I care. I'll think about it over the weekend'
Marinette put her phone away in one of her desk drawers and turned away from it with a heavy sigh. She was sighing a lot lately. Tikki snuggled into the crook of Marinette's neck, her warmth pooling against Marinette's skin and keeping Marinette grounded in reality.
"What do I do, Tikki?" Marinette asked, breaking the silence that had settled upon the room like a fine layer of dust.
Tikki hummed thoughtfully. "You already have so much to handle, Marinette, as Ladybug and with your studies. You shouldn't have to deal with Lila too." Marinette grunted in agreement. "You should tell your parents and let the adults handle it."
"She's too good, Tikki. Everyone at school believes everything she says, there's no way Mom and Dad can do anything about her without proof." Marinette let out a groan and dropped her head back to stare at the ceiling. "Especially after today."
Tikki made a sound of displeasure. "You still have to try, Marinette. You can't do everything by yourself."
"But they can't do anything!" Marinette snapped, tugging at her pigtails in a fit of frustration. Tikki drew back, eyes wide in hurt. Marinette's mouth went dry. "I'm so sorry Tikki I didn't mean to yell." Tikki flew over to nuzzle Marinette's cheek.
"It's okay, Marinette," Tikki soothed quietly. "You're stressed and hurt. I understand, but I am trying to help."
"I know," Marinette mumbled. Tikki hummed a familiar melody against Marinette's cheek. It was soft with a boldness to it that Marinette knew was achingly familiar but just couldn't place.
"You've still got friends outside school too," Tikki reminded Marinette. Marinette nodded absently in agreement. Kagami's mother had, slowly but surely, given Kagami slightly more freedom, allowing the girls to go out to the movies or for juice together on weekends. She'd even been able to come to some of Kitty Section's rehearsals (mostly just to see Marinette, but also to form tentative bonds with the others). Marinette pinked slightly, thinking of Kitty Section, and a certain guitar player.
"Oh!" Marinette jumped forward and turned on the spot so fast that she ended up on her side on the floor.
"Marinette!" Tikki exclaimed. "Are you okay?" Marinette nodded in reply and wobbled to her knees.
"I just remembered that I was supposed to go hang out with Kitty Section today!" Marinette reached into her desk drawer and pulled out her phone. There weren't any messages on it but that could change very quickly if she didn't hurry up.
"Marinette!" Tikki exclaimed. An unkind thought had occurred to her as her Chosen flung herself about the room. "Marinette, what about what happened at-"
"We'll talk more later Tikki." Marinette interrupted. "I'm already late enough as is, but hopefully they've come up with a few ideas already." Tikki hummed worriedly. This really wasn't the kind of thing to be put off.
"Marinette…" Tikki began again. Marinette zipped her bag shut with more force than strictly necessary.
"Tikki, please. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I just want to go and design rock costumes. That's it." Marinette sighed. At the despondent look on the girl's face Tikki relented. "Later, okay?"
With that, Tikki phased into Marinette's purse, but not without tossing her girl a worried glance first. With her things gathered, sketchbook in hand and Tikki in purse, Marinette ran. Down the stairs, out the bakery's side door and onto the street.
The Couffaines had moored close to the school today, as that was where most of Kitty Section came from, so it was a fairly short run for Marinette to reach the boat and then trip onto the deck.
Music burbled up from below deck and Marinette followed the sound, managing to make her way downstairs without tripping on anything. Marinette skipped the last few steps, celebrating her sudden luck in the coordination department.
The band finished the end of a melody for one of their newer songs just as Marinette stepped into the room.
"Wow, that was great you guys." The band looked up at Marinette's arrival, Luka offered a smile as usual, but the others…Juleka shifted her gaze from Marinette to the wall, Ivan and Rose however, met Marinette's shrinking smile with frowns.
"What are you doing here, Marinette?" Rose asked, none too kindly. The acid in her voice was enough to make Marinette step back.
"I thought we were going to talk about new costume designs today." Marinette's voice was small in a way it hadn't been since before she became Ladybug.
"We are." Ivan nodded along with Rose's statement.
"Then why-"
"Lila's designing them." Juleka spat out. She gestured her head towards the corner of the room. Sure enough, seated next to Mylene was Lila, a few sheets of paper in her lap and eyes too wide to even remotely resemble innocent.
Marinette scowled. Something vicious and ugly reared in her belly, making her ball her fists so hard that her sketchbook began to crumple. Luka was openly frowning at his sister now. Marinette grit her teeth and ground her next words out from between her teeth.
"Why is Lila designing them?"
"Lila works with designers for Snucci and she designed Clara Nightingale's new wardrobe." Marinette didn't acknowledge Rose's explanation. Didn't acknowledge the obvious lies. "We wanted a real designer."
Marinette saw Luka jerk where he was sitting, nearly toppling off his stool. He stared aghast at Juleka. "I thought we agreed they could work together."
"That was before Marinette started bullying Alya!" Mylene shrank at the volume of Rose's yell, hands clamped over her ears.
"Marinette wouldn't bully anyone!" Luka snapped, rising from his seat to glare at Rose. Juleka stepped between the pair and pushed a growling Rose backwards.
"Marinette's been bullying Lila since she got here." Juleka spoke firmly, uncharacteristically so, fuelled by the raging emotions on the boat. "She's been nothing but cruel and bitter and jealous for weeks! You're just too love-"
Luka shrugged off the hand Juleka had laid on his shoulder, interrupting her building speech and frowning poisonously at his friends. He opened his mouth to snap back when a loud sob interrupted them. Lila rubbed at her eyes, mouth open wide to accommodate her bawling.
"Don't fight over me!" Lila sniffled, seeming to regain some control over herself. "If Marinette wants to design for the band she should be able to, I just wanted to do something nice for my friends…"
Marinette was met with wounded glares from across the room. Behind her friends' backs, Lila smirked at Marinette. She snarled and stomped forward.
"You lying conniving little bi-" Marinette was shoved back to land on the floor. It didn't much hurt but the surprise knocked the wind from her chest, and she stared up at Juleka from the floor.
"You're not welcome here anymore." Marinette gaped dumbly. Those words hurt more than she cared to admit.
"You can't be serious," Marinette replied, sitting up.
"I am," Juleka growled. Marinette shook her head. Something was wrong here, something was so, so wrong.
"You can't do that!" Luka exclaimed from somewhere to Marinette's left. The edges of her vision were greying and her ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. "She's our friend, Juleka."
Marinette's tongue was lead in her mouth. Her legs tingled with pins and needles.
"She's not our friend anymore!" Rose chimed in. At least Marinette thought it was Rose. She couldn't tell. Everything she saw was black and white and grey and her head spun. She was hot and cold. People's words came to her like she was underwater. Something gripped her around the shoulders and there was sound…or was it colour? Marinette didn't know. She couldn't stand, couldn't lie back. Couldn't speak, couldn't hear. So she did the only thing she could.
Marinette fainted.