With the popularity of Paris's two famed superheroes, it was no surprise that people would make couple merchandise with it. Lila was both amused and annoyed by it, because she was the one dating Ladybug and because, well, she was the one dating Ladybug. Everyone thought that Ladybug and Chat Noir were together, and it was kind of funny that they didn't know. But sometimes she thought about them actually being together and then she just felt jealous. Lila removed that set from her options, and continued to look.

"Lila, look!" Marinette said from the other side of the rack, and Lila hurried over, wondering what her girlfriend had seen. But when she looked at Marinette and the pendants in her hand, she faltered a little bit. Marinette was standing by a large mix-and-match section of animal charm couple necklaces, and Marinette had picked out a ladybug and a fox, each adorned with a red jewel heart.

Obviously the fox was meant for Lila. Which, you know, could be cute if Lila hadn't begun associating foxes with darkness and anger. Which could be cute if foxes weren't symbols for sneaky, backstabbing traitors. Lila's first thought, which she knew was irrational, was that Marinette thought that Lila was a lying and deceptive animal. She didn't like being associated with foxes, especially after the Volpina incident.

Lila hadn't realized a frown had made its way to her face until she saw Marinette's face fall, and she hurried to rectify that.

"It's cute." She forced out, but as always, her lying wasn't up to par when it came to Marinette.

"It's okay if you don't like them! I just thought they were cute." Marinette said, eyes wide as she moved to put the necklaces back on the rack. Lila bit her lip; she wanted to support Marinette's choices as her girlfriend. It was good to have harmony in a relationship, right?

"I like them." Lila insisted, and then Marinette was the one frowning.

"Let's look for other ones." Marinette suggested, and then pulled Lila around to a different side of the rotating rack. Lila appreciated that, but she felt like she was being too sensitive over the Volpina thing. It wasn't so big of a deal that she had to disagree with Marinette, right? But it was already done, and the necklaces were returned to their previous places. They continued looking in silence, Lila mulling over her decisions. She wanted to act in such a way that made Marinette happy and give her positive attention, but obviously she was going about this in the entirely wrong way.

"You don't have to lie about that kind of stuff." Marinette suddenly said from a different side, and then Lila felt defensive. The implication that she was just a liar, even if her lies were harmless. Even if she was lying only to make Marinette happy. The memory of Ladybug accusing her in front of Adrien. The shame that had burned her cheeks back then and was beginning to do the same now.

"Okay." She barely said, tamping down on her emotions. It hurt to hear Marinette say that. But she could deal with it. Marinette probably didn't mean it like that; Lila was just overreacting.

Probably.

But she didn't know how to reconcile these conflicting sides. Lila wanted so bad to please Marinette, and she acted cool because she didn't think her actual self was good enough for Marinette. But if Marinette didn't want any of these lies, how would she ever like the real Lila? How would she like the insecure Lila who played a character for the world because she didn't think anyone would give a second thought to her actual personality? Marinette had only seen such a Lila a few times before. If she saw it any longer, she might begin to dislike Lila. Why did it always have to be so bittersweet around Marinette?

Lila could feel a heaviness in the air surrounding them, and she hurried to think of something to talk about. But it was no use, she'd already talked about all of the things relevant to Marinette's interests that she knew of, and she didn't want to repeat anything in fear of sounding boring, and she didn't want to talk about herself. She wasn't sure Marinette would like that. Marinette seemed uninterested in her celebrity talk, too, so she stayed away from that.

She turned her attention back to the necklaces. Surely she could pick out something pretty that Marinette would like, and then she and her girlfriend could forget about this bad scene.

Lila's eyes fell upon a fairly simple pair of necklaces which didn't have halves of a heart ; rather, they were both full hearts but each had a border of small colored gems. Each pack featured a different pair of colors, but the one in front had a pink one and a clear one. She immediately thought that they were perfect, but then she thought twice because they seemed a little childish and uncool.

Fortunately she didn't have to say anything because Marinette came over to see what she was looking at. She immediately pulled the pack off of the rack to bring it closer to her face.

"These are really pretty!" Marinette said, clearly enamored with them before holding them out to Lila. "What do you think?" She asked, a smile on her face that made Lila's heart thud. A good recovery from the last couple of minutes.

"They're cute." Lila said, and then racked her mind for something cool to add on. "But I think they would look much better on you."

Marinette blinked twice as her cheeks colored a little bit. Score, Lila thought, pleased with her reaction even if she was also spinning circles on the inside.

Despite the brief moment of awkward earlier, Marinette was feeling vaguely happy (upon reflection, she realized that it hadn't really been a good idea to reference Volpina like that and felt suitably apologetic, although she still disapproved of Lila lying about liking it). They ended up buying the necklace set, and Marinette had immediately thought of helping Lila put the necklace on. Thinking of touching Lila's neck and her hair like that made her blush again, even if it was honestly nothing that intimate. She'd touched Alya's neck before when she was playing around with her hair at one point, but it seemed completely different with Lila.

Just ask, you can do it, Marinette said to herself, and then with determination she pulled the necklaces out of the fancy paper bag.

"Can I put it on you?" Marinette asked nervously as she opened the thin plastic packaging. They were standing near one of the benches spread around the mall, and it was a good location to put their bags down temporarily (she failed to notice a familiar girl standing next to a familiar boy in a shop close by). She avoided looking at Lila in temporary embarrassment, but a quick glance told her that her girlfriend was blushing.

"Only if I can put yours on for you." Lila said, and the two of them sat down.

Marinette smiled again as Lila turned away so that she could put on the necklace. She assumed that the one with the pink gems was for her, so she carefully unhooked the other one from the cardboard square and then scooted closer to Lila. She bit her lip as she lifted up the necklace so she could loop it around Lila's neck, and then carefully lowered both ends of the clasp.

"Um," Marinette began, beginning to blush again as her fingers brushed against Lila's impossibly soft hair. "Could you move your hair?" She asked, trying hard to keep her voice steady.

Lila wordlessly reached back and pulled her massive mane of hair over her shoulder, and the red in Marinette's cheeks went up several levels when she felt Lila's hands touch hers briefly. Then came the hard part, which was actually hooking the ends together. She was extra nervous and jittery, so the difficulty went up from hard to expert. Marinette pulled down the tiny lever to open the hook and moved the circle on the other end of the chain over. But just as she was about to slide the ring into the hook, her thumb slipped and the hook closed.

This process was repeated about three times before she successfully clasped the necklace, and she let out a big breath as if she had just performed some extreme endurance test.

She looked up from the silver chain up to Lila's neck, where she could see her skin because the hair was swept all the way to the side. Marinette was momentarily seized with the urge to just lightly kiss the back of Lila's neck. But no, that was far too bold for her and she was temporarily frozen in place as she considered her options.

"Done?" Lila asked and began to turn around, and Marinette did a one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn so that she was facing away to hide her cheeks.

"Yea." Marinette replied softly, and she held the other necklace behind her, and squeezed her eyes shut when she felt Lila's hand take it. It was such a simple gesture but knowing that the two of them liked each other romantically made it all the more heart racing. Marinette looked down at her hands, which she had pressed down on her knees. She watched the chain come down in front of her face as Lila looped it around her neck, and then she felt the cold metal touch her collarbone. Her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to control her heart, and then it was with a single attempt that Lila clasped her necklace. It didn't surprise her, that someone as fashionable as Lila would be skilled with jewelry.

"I'm done." Lila said, a slight shake in her voice. It helped Marinette to know that both of them were having trouble staying steady, and she turned around to look at Lila.

But the moment she had, she saw something was wrong. Lila's eyes had widened and she suddenly looked ashamed, but Marinette realized she wasn't look at her. She was looking a little below her eyes.

"Turn back around." Lila said embarrassedly, and Marinette glanced down to see that the necklace charm was facing the wrong way, and only the silver backside was in view. Lila had put it on her wrong. Her own eyes widened and then she looked back up at Lila and let out a small laugh. Lila looked mortified, but Marinette wasn't laughing maliciously. She wasn't sure how to explain that to Lila, so instead, with another laugh bubbling out of her, she reached over to wrap her arms around Lila. With the atmosphere defused a bit, she felt less nervous and was able to be in such contact with Lila without freaking out.

"Oh, my god." Alya said as she looked at the events unfolding. She and Nino were hanging around clothing racks near the front of a shop while Adrien went and got some normal clothes.

"Uh, maybe we should do the same thing." Nino suggested awkwardly and Alya gave him a pointed look. He shrugged and smiled sheepishly. Alya rolled her eyes and patted his arm.

"Later." She told him. "We need ideas to help them get closer." Alya said, and then pursed her lips as she perused the area.

"You know, I think they're doing pretty good on their own." Nino commented as he looked over at the two girls, who were in the middle of an affectionate hug.

"Yea," Alya agreed, and then frowned. "But I'm trying help out my best friend. That's what I do."

"True, but you already have by setting up this date." Nino looked away from their friends to Alya, who sighed.

Just then Adrien walked over, thankfully wearing a normal outfit. His stealthy ninja clothes were safely tucked away in his messenger bag.

"Is this alright?" He asked to Alya, but then his attention was snagged by the site of Marinette and Lila together, and he was suddenly very excited. "They're hugging!" He exclaimed a bit too loudly, at which Alya hit him lightly. Luckily, the girls didn't hear.

"You seem really happy about that." Alya said, looking at her best friend again.

"I've never been able to support my friends like this." Adrien smiled. "They look so great together."

Alya looked at Adrien, and she, too, smiled. It didn't seem as if Adrien would ever have started liking Marinette romantically, so she was happy that her best friend found someone who would.