Lila wasn't sure what had come over her. When she had pursued Adrien, she hadn't felt abashed or nervous. She had felt like she was on a mission with a goal to accomplish, and she had liked the idea of being in a relationship. All she had to do was look good in front of the boy and be attractive and then there would be mutual appreciation. She had picked Adrien simply because she seemed to the best choice.
When Lila had placed her hand on Adrien's, she hadn't felt anything more than triumph and pride.
But when Marinette had curled her fingers around Lila's palm, a rush of joy swept through her. When Marinette showed kindness to her, Lila hadn't even needed to be extra flirty or to throw in any other lies to be liked, like when she told Adrien about being a descendant of Volpina and like when she told the more embellished versions of her (true, but less amazing than what she made them out to be) stories with celebrities. Oh no. The more time she spent with Marinette the more she realized that she really liked her, because it seemed Marinette also liked her just for being her (at least, she thought so). But if underneath it all she was Ladybug...
Lila really hoped that this wasn't Ladybug. But she knew she could definitely find out that out today. Lila looked up at the back of Marinette's head, watching the short pigtails bob up and down. Then she looked out to the street. A Ladybug poster was up on a superheroine wore the same exact pigtails as the girl who held her hand, pulling her along.
Lila hoped it was coincidence. She needed it to be.
Marinette glanced behind at Lila, and she smiled.
"This is it." The girl said, and opened the door of a bakery. A bulky white man stood behind a display case of pastries. He wore an apron and had a bushy brown mustache on his face.
"You live in a bakery?" Lila asked, and then felt Marinette's hand leave hers. Awe.
"Marinette!" The man cried out and lumbered over, dragging the girl into a big hug.
"Dad!" Marinette threw her arms around her father. "There's a supervillain somewhere outside." She said as she stepped out of the hug. Lila observed the area, looking away from the affectionate hug. It made her a bit uncomfortable; her dad had never been one for embraces.
"You'll be safe here. You even have me to protect you!" The giant said with confidence, and struck a dorky pose.
"You should probably leave that to Ladybug and Chat Noir." Marinette said, giggling. Lila was suddenly shocked, never having seen something so pure as a cute girl such as Marinette laughing happily.
"Hah! They're no match for Super-Boulanger!" The dad continued, giving a booming laugh, at which Marinette cringed a bit. (boulanger = baker)
"We should probably try to keep quiet. The supervillain is attracted to loud noises, I think." She said, at which the Dad went "oops." Lila looked between the two, and felt a faint ache in her chest. Not jealous, not jealous.
Then a much smaller Chinese woman came down the stairs, holding an empty laundry hamper. She had short hair that curled under her ears. Lila assumed that this was Mrs. Cheng, and the large man was Mr. Dupain.
"Oh, Marinette! I just took your clothes out of the dryer because a certain someone forgot that it was his turn to do laundry." She said, shooting a scolding look at the man as she put the hamper down.
"I had a whole tray of croissants in the oven! I had to watch them." The man said, aghast. The woman tutted playfully until she noticed Lila.
"Oh! This is my friend, Lila. We were at the school together when the supervillain attacked." Marinette explained, gesturing to the student. Lila stepped forward a little shyly. She was suddenly feeling giddy. I'm already meeting her parents.
"I'm Lila." She said, unsure of what else to say. "Thanks for having me over." Lila added, even though she wasn't exactly invited for dinner or anything. Mr. Dupain laughed heartily.
"Of course, anytime. I'm Mr. Dupain, proud father of this little girl." He said. "Would you like a croissant? Fresh out of the oven." He offered, walking back behind the counter. Marinette rolled her eyes; clearly this was a normal occurrence. Lila chuckled and watched as Mr. Dupain pulled out a steaming tray, full of golden croissants. Lila may have had a ridiculously elegant and filling meal not too long again, but the idea of eating the food made by Marinette's parents was extremely alluring. Not only that, the smell was mouthwatering.
Then Mrs. Cheng jumped on the bandwagon.
"Would you like any other snacks? We can make anything." She said with a big smile. Lila was slightly surprised, taken aback by the sudden warmth directed towards her. It was weird and foreign. There was a sudden break in harmony in her thoughts. Lila had used to do anything to gain the approval and attention of her parents. But the two were busy; so busy, in fact, that they spent more time working than they did with their only child. Lila had grown used to empty houses, and she had all but given up on spending much time with her parents.
So when Marinette's parents reached out to her with nothing but goodwill, Lila wanted nothing more to accept that into her heart. But it felt wrong; she wasn't used to it; she'd never had that for herself before.
"They're not going to stop." Marinette said quietly from behind, sheepish, not understanding Lila's silence. But Lila's desire for comfort won out over the strangeness of it all.
"Come look over what we have, you can have whatever you want." Mrs. Cheng added, and gestured for Lila to walk over.
Marinette knew she could tell her parents to stop, but she realized this was an excellent opportunity to sneak away.
"I'll be right back! I need to use the bathroom." She said, and slipped away, knowing her parents would at least distract Lila for some time. She climbed up the stairs to her room and then up to the roof, reveling in both her victory and the afternoon wind.
"Ok, come on Tikki. Let's go!" Marinette called out, and a familiar red blur flew out of her purse.
"Marinette, why are you trying to be Lila's friend?" The kwami asked, halting Marinette in her words.
"What do you mean? I'm making up for what I said earlier." She replied, confused.
"Because you feel guilty?" Tikki said. "Is that all?"
"Of course I felt guilty! And I don't understand what you're trying to say." Marinette confessed, when a familiar laugh started echoing all around them.
"We'll talk about it after, then." Tikki said. "It's time to do something about this akuma." Marinette nodded.
"Transform me!"
And it was with a swirl of sparkles that Marinette vanished, and in her place stood Paris's favorite hero.
Ladybug grabbed her yoyo and flew off, soaring through the sky and searching for the Screamer. But the akuma's voice was coming from all over, and she couldn't pinpoint the original source. Ladybug landed on a building not too far from the Eiffel Tower, and opened the communicator on her yoyo to call Chat Noir. The hero appeared on the screen.
"Chat Noir! Where is the akuma?" She asked, glancing around the area before peering back down at her yoyo.
"You're late, my lady." The blonde said. Chat appeared to be running. "It's at the Louvre, but something tells me it's not here to admire the art." He said, and then narrowly dodged a circular blue necklace.
"Sorry. I'm on my way, don't worry." Ladybug replied, and slid the yoyo cover back down. If Lila hadn't tried to stay with Marinette, she probably could have freed the akuma by now. She wasn't mad at her, exactly, but she was worried. Because it felt like Lila was definitely suspicious of her despite Tikki's claim from before. But it was also true that no one had seen her transform or anything, so she had no idea why Lila would know. There was nothing that could have tipped Lila off.
Ladybug saw the Screamer standing the top of the Louvre. It was then that they spoke into their headset, and all of a sudden the earth rocked with the volume of the voice.
"Ladybug, Chat Noir, give me your Miraculouses!" The loud voice said. "Or else everyone in Paris will be hearing my voice for a long time!" The Screamer laughed again, their words amplified by hundreds of victims.
"There you are, Princess." Chat Noir landed next to her as the words ended. "I was a little worried for a second there."
Suddenly the Screamer raised a bell-shaped arm towards the sky.
"Get them!" They yelled, and the two heros winced as their ears were assaulted. Ladybug saw a torrent of blue circles heading towards them and she grabbed Chat Noir's wrist and ducked out of the way.
As they flew across the tops of the buildings, Ladybug with her yoyo and Chat Noir with his staff, they could see a worrying hoard of people following their location. Everyone marked with a blue necklace not only echoed the Screamer, but followed their will as well.
"Chat Noir, the akuma is in the headset. Do you think you can get it?" Ladybug shouted over the wind, dodging the attacks.
"Let's see!" The cat replied, and changed course to head towards the Screamer. Ladybug paused on a roof to think about a plan. She was rudely interrupted by the roof access door bursting open, revealing none other than Chloé Bourgeois, who seemed both terrified of the akuma and excited to see Ladybug.
"Chloé?!" Ladybug exclaimed, in both horror and surprise.
But because of the Screamer, there a glowing blue band around her neck and nothing came out when she moved her mouth.
The Ladybug thanked the heavens that at least she wouldn't have to hear Chloé's voice. But that thought was fairly short, because the Screamer forced the girl to launch herself towards Ladybug. Chloé's arms wrapped around the superheroine's waist and bore her down to the ground. Her lips appeared to be giving apologies, but no one could tell in the end.
As Ladybug wrestled with her most favorite person in the entire world, The Screamer let out another cackle and leaped off of the Louvre, heading towards her. The cackle made its way out of Chloé's mouth, ringing in her ears.
"Chat Noir!" Ladybug shouted as she dodged Chloé's grab for her earrings. She prayed that her partner would at least hold off the Screamer while she tried to get Chloé off. Ladybug managed to get her foot underneath Chloé's stomach and push the girl off. She stumbled back, and despite being controlled by the Screamer, was disgusted enough by the footprint on her shirt that she managed to take a couple of seconds to furiously dust it off.
Ladybug leaped off the building to another roof, and threw her yoyo up into the air to summon a lucky charm.
"Marinette sure is taking her time." Mr. Dupain commented. He, Mrs. Cheng and Lila were seated on a couch as they watched the current akuma attack on the television. Lila blanched; she had let Marinette get away! It couldn't be coincidence, could it? To be fair, she had been distracted by a pair of extremely loving parents who were armed with more than a decade's worth of stories about their daughter to tell and a display case full of too many pastries to count. Lila had learned more about Marinette in the last twenty minutes than she had the entire day (and she had probably tasted more desserts and breads than she had her entire life).
"Oh, it's that time of the month for her." Mrs. Cheng said, waving it off. "She's probably having cramps." Upon hearing this, Lila felt relief. Hopefully Marinette wasn't off fighting the Screamer, and was only fighting off the pain of Mother Nature (a pain that Lila was unfamiliar with, because her blood came without cramps; she was very lucky). But she felt like she needed to check, to make sure that Marinette was indeed not Ladybug. She wasn't sure she could live with liking the girl who had humiliated her in the first place.
"I can go check on her, if you want." Lila suggested.
"That would be wonderful." Mrs. Cheng said. "But she will probably come down in a couple minutes."
Dangit.