I'm going to be late for my evening classes but I couldn't wait to post this one, enjoy!

Sunday arrived and Mauro couldn't have been more relaxed at that moment, enjoying his attempt of relaxation while he waited on the school stairs. It was bound to be another day full of ups and downs, so the least he could do was be calm and prepared, his old notebook on the side while he played with his fountain pen in between his fingers.

The building was closed of course but it was the closest to Marinette's home and the location alone gave Mauro enough space to enjoy the solitude.

So far he had managed to help out Marinette and Adrien with their personal issues, which were quite more than he had taken account of, but now the next stage was more difficult since it involved other people. Mauro knew about them of course, he had to before jumping into this story, but now he had no idea of how to proceed. His original plan was just meddling a tiny bit to put the story back in order but now more things had spilt out and he had gotten more involved than necessary.

No wonder he was always told not to get too invested in a story.

Marinette was right that action had to be done before things went sour, disastrous even. On the other side, Adrien was right that calling Lila out in front of everyone would lead to, again, disastrous results. Both parties had good arguments and Mauro knew one important thing was to make sure the rest of the involved were aware of all the lying.

Yet no matter how many times he looked at it, a confrontation was bound to occur and for that, it would require more than just a few words to be solved.

"Mauro!" he heard Marinette calling him and his stomach grumbled when he saw her carrying a bag with pastries inside.

"Morning," he waved, looking at the bag swinging in front of him "is that…?"

"I got you something, I didn't know what you would like and since this will be a busy day, might as well."

Mauro reached for the bag and pulled out a heart shaped dough pastry with sugar coated on its surface. Mauro's eyes lit up at the familiar sight of it.

"An oreja! Oh, I forgot those really from here" he took a bite and hummed at how amazing it tasted "this is so good!"

"What did you call it?" Mauro pointed to his ear as he ate it all "an ear? Funny, we call them palmiers"

"That's what they call it in Mexico, well," he shrugged "in some states, don't get me started on the name debate we have over pastries, it will take me all day."

"I will keep that in mind" Marinette sat next to him and pulled out another pastry to eat herself "we could add that in our project if you want since we really haven't discussed what we are going to do."

"Talk exclusively about pastries?" Mauro laughed "sure, I'm not against it, but if we start with pastries we will have to jump to other dishes and my stomach wouldn't handle it."

"I see you have your equipment ready just in case" Marinette pointed at his pen "is it magical too?"

"No," Mauro smiled as he gave it to Marinette to inspect it "it belonged to my great grandfather and I just find it more suitable and dramatic to write with it."

"That explains your ink covered hands," Marinette smiled as Mauro shrugged, stealing another pastry from the bag.

Yes, it was nice, for a moment, to just talk about a school assignment instead of worrying about other things that were more emotional and tense. If anything it helped ease a sense of normalcy. But strings had to be moved and Mauro knew he would have to ask about yesterday.

"Assuming from lack of evil butterflies last night I guess you and Adrien left on good terms?"

To his surprise, Marinette's face was calm, very serene, as she sneaked a macaroon to her purse where Tikki took it with joy. She looked at the sky, the bright blue and clear of clouds of a Sunday, and then towards Mauro.

"We agreed to be just friends for now," she said, her hands on her knees "let's say we are doing a do over of our feelings for each other, get to be friends first."

"A do over?"

"Yeah, I mean" she smiled "what I feel for Adrien is not going to leave in a cloud of smoke just like that" she sighed "but I just, well we want to re-evaluate some aspects of them, get to understand the feelings and if they have changed before well, jumping to a relationship."

"That's good, very wise" Mauro felt the relief on his body after that answer "I'm sure it will turn out alright."

They stayed in silence for a few moments, just the sound of cars filling the space, until Marinette chuckled, earning Mauro's attention again.

"It's strange, I thought I would be, devastated, depressed even from the idea of being rejected by Adrien but I felt none of that?" she looked back at the sky "if anything I feel I can have a proper chance this time, about romance and all."

"Good luck with that I guess?" Mauro shrugged, earning a squint from Marinette.

"You don't like romance, do you?"

"Can't relate, file not found" Mauro snickered, earning a small shove from Marinette who laughed as he stumbled on the side, just as Adrien waved at them from the sidewalk.

"What's going on?" he asked, eyeing the pair while Mauro rescued another pastry to eat.

"I am being a victim for my lack of knowledge in the romance department" Mauro shrugged, ignoring the inquisitive stare from Adrien.

"You've never had a girlfriend?"

"First of all," Mauro wiped his fingers on the back of his jeans "bold of you to assume I'm straight."

"Oh sorry I-"

"You could say I am on a stand-by situation," Mauro added, snickering when Marinette groaned next to him, Adrien's eyes blinking in realization.

"Was that a pun?"

"Yep,"

Adrien smiled at that, which earned more eye rolling on Marinette's side. She offered the bag to Adrien who took a croissant with a bigger smile, enjoying the pastry as he sat on Marinette's right side.

"Is here where we are going to discuss what to do about…?"

"Unless you want another rooftop meeting, I'm fine here" Mauro shrugged "besides, I have an idea for you two to think about."

"What is it?"

"Well," Mauro turned to them "one way to deal with liars is having a grasp of the truth right?" they nodded "and in this case, we have one, two and me three who know it fully."

"Aha?"

"Marinette, maybe now that Adrien is willing to speak up you can clear things up with Alya." Mauro said "she's into journalism is she not? Maybe she should follow her own advice of fact checking and all."

"He's right," Adrien turned to look at Marinette "Alya has to know Lila's stories can't be true."

"I know," Marinette sighed "and I don't know why she didn't? But that video on her blog… once she finds out the interview is a bunch of lies- "

"Knowing the internet? I think she will find out soon enough."

"And that can't be good," Adrien added "because of-"

"Akumas, yes" Marinette frowned as she pulled out her phone "so it is an agreement we have to talk with her, together."

"And Nino," Adrien added, "I haven't heard anything from him regarding Lila but if he's here he can get to know about the situation before it escalates."

Marinette hummed in agreement as she sent the text, now to wait for a response. She sighed, unsure of what to even tell her friend. Would she take the same stand as before? Assuming her reactions out of jealously only? She was still hurt by that and if there was something she had learned in the past 3 days was that she had all her right to be upset about things happening to her.

Alya was stubborn, yes, but she was also a good friend. If all this created an even bigger gap between them… she didn't know what she would do about it.

They kept talking about how to deal with the situation at hand. In the end, they had to agree that even with the evidence they had and the testimonies they could get, exposing Lila would only cause backlash and chaos.

At the very least there was the letting authorities know, that being the teachers and even Lila's mother since she had been saying she was away when it seemed that wasn't true either.

It took around half an hour to spot Alya and Nino crossing the street, both waving with a confused expression when they spotted Marinette sitting with Adrien and Mauro.

"Hey girl, you've been avoiding me," Alya said once they were within hearing distance. Marinette knew that wasn't a lie, even shrinking a little when Alya's eyes scanned her company. Oh, the situations she would have to have later on.

"I was not, just working on the project," she looked at Mauro.

"Oh yep" Mauro nodded "connecting the world with bread, we are going to knead a lot of research."

"Oh, I'm sure you could do butter than that" Adrien quipped, both boys laughing as Nino and Alya looked confused at them turning to Marinette who just covered her face with her hands. Now there were two of them.

"Please stop" she groaned, smiling a little at the faces the other two made "this is a pun nightmare."

"Puns?" Nino looked at Adrien who shrugged with a small smile in return "really bro?"

"They are not so bad," Adrien said, looking at Marinette who just rolled her eyes again and stood up towards Alya.

"Anyway," she looked at the girl "I, well, we but mostly me, wanted to clear out some things Alya, about…"

"This is about Lila, isn't it?"

Marinette's eyes widened in surprise, had she figured it out?

"Ye-yes? Oh, so that means you-"

"Girl, it's alright, I know about it" Alya placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at Marinette, "I can help you out apologize to her!"

"What!?"

Marinette took a step back, almost colliding with the bottom step, looking at Alya in shock. Apologize? Apologize for what exactly? She felt a wave of hot frustration and embarrassment washing over her, but she tried to keep it together.

"Why should I apologize to her? For calling her out on her lies?"

"Marinette," Alya tried to calm her down, but her tone made Marinette even more annoyed, "I told you that if you don't have pr-"

"But she's right" Adrien stood up to stand next to Marinette "Lila has been lying to us, all of us."

"What?" Nino turned to look at him, "but why?"

Mauro looked at the situation unfold before his eyes. He could tell Alya was trying to grasp at something to think she hadn't been deceived, at Nino's confused expression as he also tried to comprehend what was going on. And even when he couldn't see Marinetter or Adrien's faces, he could tell there was that resolve in her eyes there was no way she would back down from this confrontation.

"Oh yes, because you told us how you eavesdropped her and-" Alya glanced at Adrien, who didn't look away from her, just for Marinette to snap back in.

"And while it wasn't a good thing to do, spy on a friend" Marinette cut in "haven't you done your share of eavesdropping as well Alya?"

"T-that" Alya actually stuttered, looking at Marinette in surprise "w-well it… you haven't shown me proof of it" Alya crossed her arms "you told me she lied about knowing Ladybug, where is the proof?"

"I was there Alya, and I saw Ladybug calling Lila out of it" Adrien intervened "isn't that proof enough?"

"It-"

Alya was at loss of words, her hands fumbling with her phone as she went back to the video of Lila talking about Ladybug. She had already planned a new interview with Lila after she was saved by Ladybug just a few days ago. But now she wasn't sure anymore, everything too confusing and contradictory for her to follow up.

"I have, I just,"

Nino went to her side to hug her by the shoulders, but even he didn't know what to say about the whole situation as well. He knew Marinette, had known her for years, and while he had found the eavesdropping uncool, he knew Marinette was not one to throw false accusations.

And now that Adrien was also backing up what she said, it was something to really think about.

"Alya-"

"How could I be so stupid?!" Alya stomped her foot, anger in her tone "my blog, my work as a journalist!"

"Alya, please" Nino held her tight "we all make mistakes."

"But-"

"He has a point there" Mauro finally spoke, having had enough of the smack down he had just seen "mistakes happen, you screw up, now you gotta fix it."

"Oh, when I get my hands on her-"

"No!" Adrien and Marinette called out at the same time, earning the surprise of the other two.

"Isn't that what you wanted?" Alya glared at her, arms crossed "to call her out?"

"I want you to not fall for lies that will make everything worse," Marinette called back "what would have happened if you had let it continue? If you or Nino or anyone realized they had been played for fools?"

"But-"

"We have to take action yes," Marinette said, "but we have to be smart about it too."

"Oh, no wonder they call you every day Ladybug," Mauro said with a smile.

Marinette turned to look at him and smiled, but the smile didn't last for long when the five heard that saccharine voice calling nearby.

"Adrien! Oh, I thought I wasn't going to be able to see you until tomorrow" Lila sing sang as she sneaked her way into Adrien's arm "good to know Alya told me we would gather together to study."