Marinette was very happy that she and Chat Noir had managed to defeat the Screamer fairly quickly, and she had left before even pleasing the press. She had soared to her house as fast as she possibly could and detransformed right on the roof. Tikki had fallen out of the transformation into her purse.

"We'll talk soon." Marinette promised the Kwami, and then hurried back downstairs. "Sorry about taking so long!" She apologized as she reached the bottom, and then promptly tripped and fell flat on her face. Figures, she thought as footsteps rushed beside her.

"Marinette!" She heard her mom say as she got to her feet, hands pressed to the side of her face that hurt. Marinette blinked a couple of times, expecting her mom to be standing right next to her. But to her surprise, the person who had rushed to her immediately was neither of her parents, but Lila.

"Are you okay?" Lila asked, concern all over her face. Marinette was kind of surprised to see it.

"Eheh, I think so." Marinette replied, letting her hands fall from her face. There was no blood or throbbing, just a faint ache that remained all along the left side of her face. "I'm really clumsy, don't worry." She added, waving Lila off. But Lila moved closer and touched the tender side of Marinette's face with her hand.

"Are you sure?" She asked. Marinette froze and suddenly her heart sped up; Lila's hand was really warm and she was staring at Marinette really intently. Lila suddenly blinked, looked at her hand, realized what she had done and backed up, a flush on her face. "Sorry, it's just that, uh, the fall looked pretty bad." She said.

"No worries." Marinette smiled. But underneath her amiable expression, her heart was only speeding up and she was thinking about how easy it would have been to just lean forward. But she stopped herself; those thoughts were reserved for Adrien. She couldn't be unfaithful towards him.

Behind Lila, Marinette saw her mother suddenly look thrilled and share a whisper with her father. Oh boy.

"Thanks for letting me stay here." Lila said. "The um, the attack is over." She explained, gesturing to the TV.

"No problem!" Marinette said. "Anytime." She smiled again, and prayed that she was not blushing.

Lila was horrified, as she normally was whenever Marinette was in vicinity. She had stroked the girl's face. She both regretted and didn't regret it, because Marinette was so pretty and nice but also because she didn't think Marinette was into her like that. She hadn't even thought she was into Marinette like that. Was she? Or were they just gal pals? Just gals being pals? Gals palling it up?

"My parents are probably wondering where I am. I should go." Lila said, desperate to escape the situation. She felt a pang, because her parents probably weren't wondering at all, and were probably working (and would be working until late at night) as per usual.

"See you tomorrow!" Marinette waved at her, seemingly unfazed by what happened.

"Bye." Lila thanked the Dupain-Chengs once again, and then fled, the moment she exited the house she felt her embarrassment return full force. I cannot believe I just did that. And to Ladybug! Of all people!

At least, she assumed that was Ladybug. Maybe. Lila walked and tried to compose herself. Now that she was back in public she needed to be cool and collected. But it was hard, her mind was racing. Not only had she touched Marinette's face, she had heard several stories of the girl's childhood. She was getting to know Marinette more than she had intended; all she'd needed to do was find out if she was Ladybug or not. Now she wasn't sure she could even face Marinette again. It was like she'd gone back to the first stages of meeting Marinette, when she'd decided to stay as far away as possible.

But she wasn't sure she could even do that now. Because she wanted to see Marinette and she wanted to talk with her. Because Marinette was the only one who wanted to be Lila's friend for Lila.

Or so she thought.

After Lila had left, Marinette returned to her room to talk with Tikki.

"Do you only want to be friends with Lila because of what you said as Ladybug?" The small red creature asked.

"What? I mean, I guess? I was really mean to her, Tikki. I need to make up for that." Marinette answered, lying down on her bed. "Isn't it the right thing to do?" She asked. Because Marinette definitely thought so.

"It is important that you make up for your mistakes, yes. But it seems like you don't even like Lila. You're just being her friend because you feel obliged to." Tikki said, floating near Marinette's face. Marinette mulled this over thoughtfully. Did she actually like Lila? After all of the lies and the trouble she had caused when akumatized, after hurling Ladybug's apology into the trash, after all of that… how could she like Lila?

"I…" Marinette began, and then thought back to their talk earlier. Because then Lila's facade had fallen away and she had been honest. She had expressed a want for Marinette's friendships. And she had been nice after that, even if it had held Ladybug back for a little bit. She had apologized for lying during lunch. But it still hurt to know she'd gone with Chloe of all people.

"Do you like Lila?" Tikki asked quietly. Then she remembered when Lila had brushed her cheek with careful fingers, her eyes full of concern. Marinette thought she'd liked her, at least a bit. She'd thought they could definitely be friends.

"I don't know. I think so." Marinette said truthfully. "Am I making a mistake, Tikki?" She asked, suddenly worried. She sat up and let the kwami settle down on her hands. In all of her time with Tikki, the kwami had always offered good advice.

"I think you need to make sure you aren't just befriending Lila out of pity." Tikki said

"Marinette!" Mrs. Cheng suddenly called from downstairs. "Lila left her phone here, could you bring it to her tomorrow?"

It seemed the forces of life were drawing Marinette and Lila together. Tikki giggled as Marinette got up.

"Yes! I'll put it in my bag." Marinette sent a smile to Tikki as she replied to her mom and then went down.

Lila was only a couple minutes away from Marinette's house when she dug through her bag for her phone only to realize it wasn't there. She was not happy with that development. But she wasn't sure she was up to going back to Marinette's. Hopefully she could just get it tomorrow and Marinette could return it to her.

Then she thought about how much nicer it would be at Marinette's then to go back to her empty house and have a microwave dinner. The French always made eating a big deal, and always had like forty-six courses to a single meal. But Lila's parents never had enough time to prepare meals like that. Very occasionally her parents would make a quick breakfast for her in the morning before she woke up. Other than that she was capable of feeding herself simple things.

Before coming to Paris, she had moved to at least four other countries. But before that, Lila had gone to boarding school in Italy, because her parents hadn't the time to take care of her, nor was Lila old enough for all of the travel. Back then, she had wanted nothing more than to go with her parents and spend more time with them. And she had convinced them to let her go along with them.

While she had enjoyed the travel and the ability to meet new people and even celebrities, she kind of yearned for the sort of stability she'd had back when she was in boarding school. And while she did see her parents more often, the times she spent with them were close to nothing. It hadn't been worth it. She was never in any one place long enough to develop close friends. Even the people back from her boarding school moved on, rarely keeping up with Lila. Everyone was only impressed with her voyages and her connections, and no one wanted to know her personality.

Until, it seemed, until Marinette.

Maybe it had been worth it…

Lila kept walking. Because she realized it might not have been worth it if Marinette was Ladybug. She didn't know if she could handle Marinette if that was the truth.

Lila kept hoping.